All Forum Posts by: Ciera Hutson

I know this is your thread, but I have a sort of similar question, would it be alright to post it here?

Did that work out for you? I can give you a reference for a company that provides VA services and they are based here in Austin Tx and extremely reasonable on pricing. I highly recommend them.

Circle Prospecting works.  I have an ISA that makes cold calls full time circle prospecting around our greater metropolitan area.  Just off of the appointments she has set for me since January, I have been able to take 11 listings totaling over $9.3 million in real estate.  Check out my post on Cold Calling for a detailed outline of what works for us on the phone.

I'm an ISA that makes cold calls full time circle prospecting around my market.  My appointments alone have generated listings worth over $9,000,000 in residential real estate just since January.  Hire a good ISA, subscribe to Cole, and start dialing.

Read my post on Cold Calling and see how I have been able to generate over $9,000,000 in listings just since January 2017 by "circle prospecting" as an ISA.  

First of all cold calling works! I am an ISA for a real estate team and I make cold calls 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I dial expireds and FSBO's for about an hour each day and the rest is circle prospecting. In the past 4 months my agent has taken 11 listings directly from listing consultation appointments I set by circle prospecting for a total of $9,362,000 worth of real estate (plus 3 referrals). None of these listings came off of an Expired/Withdrawn or FSBO list.   See my post in Cold Calling where I outline how it works for me.

Motivation.  Motivation behind the motivation.  Time frame.  Expectations.  Ask for a contract.

With FSBO's specifically, it's a long term game. What works for me is that I ask them a series of questions that leads them to start thinking that a professional might be better suited for the job. First ask them

"Why are you selling" followed by "Is there any reason you are wanting to sell this home by yourself?" and they will probably say to save money. Just ignore that at first and ask them some questions about the home itself and then ask them what they are asking for the home and (or if they've already told you) ask them if they came up with the number by comparing other homes in the area, having an appraisal, or if that's just the number they need in order to make their next move.

This is where you want to be as nice as possible and very chatty but start asking them the following questions:

"Have you ever sold a home on your own before?"

"How long has it been on the market?"

"Have you had anyone view the home or have you had any offers?"

if so ask them what the feedback has been from anyone who has come to see the home.

"What are you doing or what do you plan to do to market the home?"

At this point I also like to include a little analogy. I explain to them that buyers that purchase FSBO's are often times looking for a discounted price. It's kind of like if you were in the market to purchase a bicycle and you find a nice shiny bike that's never been used at a garage sale you will expect to pay a lot less than the same bike at a bicycle sports shop or the Academy, right? It's the same with a home. Buyer's expect to pay retail price for a home that is represented by an Agent. What if we were able to show you a way that you could end up making the same amount of money in the end but we would do all of the work and probably get it sold quicker since we would be able to use all of our many marketing sources to your advantage, would that be worth an hour of your time to at least hear us out?

A lot of times they will be stubborn and want to give it a try on their own especially if it's only been on the market for a few weeks/days. Ask them how long they plan on trying to get it sold on their own before they start looking at other options and then just tell them you totally understand and that you will keep them in mind for your buyer's. Then ask them if they wouldn't mind if you gave them a call to check in and see how things are going and as always offer value by providing them with contact information and let them know that they can call you if they have any questions, need anything, just want to chat about the market in their neighborhood, and that you are available any time.

Follow up once a week. Ask how things are going, if they've had any offers, what their plans are going forward, and if they would like to take an hour to meet with your agent. Very important. At some point they will probably become frustrated and if you have been keeping up then if they choose to list they will probably choose you.  

Before I was an Agent, I was an ISA for a year meaning that I was on the phone making cold calls full-time, 8 hours a day looking for motivated sellers. On average I was making about 400-1000 calls a day, circle prospecting in zip codes within 20 miles of our office. We pulled all of our data from Cole Realty. I didn't really use a script but I had one as a guide.

The phone call goes as follows: "Hi, my name is Ciera and I was just reaching out today to see if you have any plans to sell your home anytime soon?" (Note, I didn't mention the address because even if the information is wrong, they could still be a homeowner that might be selling.)

Usually you will get a no at this point. Trust me, even some of my best leads said no at this point, it's a knee jerk reaction to a cold call. Keep going.

Acknowledge the no, by saying something like "oh OK, not a problem" or my favorite "No? OK, well in that case would you happen to know anyone that might be selling?"

The only reason I ask is we just have some families interested in your area...." (I like to use "families" because it attaches an emotion to the question. Also, hopefully by saying "families" instead of "buyer" they won't be confused and think we have someone wanting to make an offer)

This is where you might be surprised that they might say that they have in fact been thinking about selling at some point in the future. Either that or they will actually try to think of someone they know that might be selling.

If they do say yes, ask them to "tell you more" and let them speak.

You should ask them "What is causing you to want to sell your home in....." or "Why are you selling this property" and then chat a bit about why that's important. It's important to determine a time frame for actually selling the home and a time frame for when they want to start the selling process. It is also important to ask them if they are going to be considering any other agents.

Another awesome question is "on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, where would you rate your motivation?" I also like to ask where they are going next and if they would need the proceeds from the sale of the home in order to buy their next one, whether or not they owe any money on the home, and who all is on the title other than the person on the line.

If they said No to both of the first questions 1. Are you selling & 2. Do you know anyone selling? I always, always ask "Just out of curiosity, have you thought about investing in any additional real estate for your self?" Sort of a hail-Mary-pass. I'd rather generate a buyer lead than nothing at all.

Just have fun with it, laugh at yourself, commit to providing the best service possible and make sure and go above and beyond to get the your clients homes sold for the most money in the least amount of time, then you can go into the cold calls with the mindset that you are just trying to save them from finding a bad agent-they are out there!

Hi. Can anyone help me figure out how to measure the success of my outbound sales agent? I have one full time outbound sales agent making primarily cold calls circle prospecting in zip codes with 5% turnover rate or greater. She is generating plenty of contacts and building great relationships but I am wondering if anyone knows about how many listing appointments per month/week I should be expecting. I was told recently that a good ISA will set 4 listing appointments per week but they are only circle prospecting a small percent of the day. They call FSBO's, Expireds, Withdrawn, and they also get a fair amount of inbound leads. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.