7 Simple Transparent Seller Tips

by Jim Gainer

Are You the Invisible Super Secret Agent? You better check…

The other day I had another conversation with a friend who has a friend who is totally fed up with their agent. They say their agent doesn’t do anything, they never show the house, they never call, they don’t do advertising, etc., etc., etc…

Ever heard that? I know you Brokers and Managers have. Can that be said about you? Are you sure?

This is a discussion about transparency (not invisibility), the way that you make sure the things you do can be seen by the public and especially your clients. Your business processes ought to be transparent so that any customer or client knows exactly what you are doing.

Here are a few small simple examples.

When you send out Just Listed postcards, do you send one to the Seller?
When you send out Open House postcards, do you send one to the Seller?
When you get the newspaper ad to proof, do you send it to the Seller?
When you get a flyer ready to print, do you send it to the seller?
When you send out emails to agents about an Open House or a price reduction, do you send one to the Seller?
Do you send the Seller a copy of the showing report, and website hit count each week?
Do you call the Seller each week?

Take a good long look at your Marketing Plan and all the activities in it. How many of them get done and the Seller never sees it and they don’t know about it. This isn’t bragging or even ‘tooting your own horn’ this is doing the work you promised to do and being transparent in the process.

The Sellers expect one simple thing from us; they want us to bring them a Buyer for their home. Are you doing that? What are you doing to get that done? And the most important question to me is: Why doesn’t the Seller know what you are doing to help them?

I actually did have a conversation with a Seller not too long ago and they told me that their agent was really working hard for them and they understood the market is getting tougher. That’s not the normal feeling of most Sellers today; they blame their agent for a lack of showings, and they blame their agent for the lack of offers. And if they don’t see their agent doing anything for them that’s exactly what they should think; they hired this person and they’re not doing anything.

The market is what ever it is wherever you are, and it will have a direct impact on how happy the Seller will be. Slow declining markets make Sellers very unhappy, fast rising markets make Sellers very happy, in between markets make Sellers anxious and jumpy; it’s you job to give them some sense of action in the face of uncertain times. You have to do more than just do what you promised you would do, you have to show your work and prove your plan. Just like your High School math teacher taught you…

Sometimes you can get credit for showing your work, even when the solution isn’t exactly what we all had hoped.