I don't cold call alot. When I do, thats the stance I take and the advice I have recieved also, walk carefully. Only once did I get threatened by the caller, I sent them an apology card and a 10 dollar gas card for their trouble. Nothing came out of it.

Hi Agusta; when prospecting uncovering motivation is KEY. Just like with every lead. I am looking for LEADS that HAVE to sell. When vague or unsure I ask "are you going to sell your house FOR SURE this year," or will you be selling your house in the next 2-3 months? This is what I meant when I said WE FIND WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR! I am looking for those that are selling FOR SURE this year! I realised a wgile ago, if I had 2 piles of leads, one pile was 1000 that might move this year or 100 which were moving FOR SURE, I would prefer the FOR SURE's. So I ask and look for those! MOTIVATION, MOTIVATION, MOTIVATION.

[quote=REODayton][quote=Careers1920] Lizl.... Well it depends on how you look at it....MY intentions one the initial call is only to let them know I will be in the area and would like to drop off some information

But before I did any of this I did get legal advice (as well as contacting the RE Commission) and they both basically told me I am stepping on a thin line and to walk carefully....

But you are correct if everyone got 1 freebie there would be no point in the DNC... [/quote]

I don't cold call alot. When I do, thats the stance I take and the advice I have recieved also, walk carefully. Only once did I get threatened by the caller, I sent them an apology card and a 10 dollar gas card for their trouble. Nothing came out of it. [/quote]

Yeah...When I run into that one person that is angry about me calling I will most likely not do it as much....But so far it's working great since Saturday I have received 4 new clients (ready, willing, and able)

Hi Lucky: Thanks for getting back with me. That's not what I was asking, really. Looking for motivation is obvious. Out of the "for sure I'd like to sell my house today" group, you are now going to have to ask them how much they are trying to get (some can't end up with a negative net to seller). You've got to then take what they want to get, do a CMA, PHYSICALLY TAKE A LOOK AT THE HOUSE (which may be faaaaaar from showing condition) and THEN make a determination as to whether or not you'll take the listing. If the seller is motivated to sell it today but you later find out that the home is not close to being ready to show, nor does the CMA pan out, then there's a problem. There's a lot of details in between a listing lead by cold calling and actually taking the listing. This percentage differential is what I'm talking about. What is the percentage difference of cold call listing leads you have vs what you actually end up with?

In 2008 I took 1 listing for every 7.8 leads. Re: the house being ready to show, I often have to go back a second time to actually take the listing. Usually it's a matter of decluttering msometimes I post date the contract and tell them what to do. Now back to Motivation. My market is not underwater, thank God but it was in the 1990's and I remember what I did then. Because I know my market and values I would ask "how much do you owe on the property?" "Do you absolutely have to sell this home?". " Will you price your home to sell?". "When you sell this home, where will you go next?". "How soon do you have to be there?". "What happens if your home does not sell?". ..... Just a few examples. These questions only work on someone who MUST SELL. I am the professional, not their best friend. Motivated sellers want a true Professional like me! Other strategies; steer your prospecting to areas that are older where the chances are higher there is equity there. I used to get sellers to use an unsecured L.O.C. For short selling, again, prospecting puts me in aposition of abundance rather than scarcity, dealing only with sellers that fit MY mould, not me kissing their you know what (out of lack and deperation)Again, I am looking to develop a pile of leads that will do what is necessary so the house will sell and I will get paid. WE GET WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR! Yesterday, I contacted a man who was having an agent over for a second time to list his house this coming Wednesday. I convinced him he shoul also interview me even though he already had decided on this agent. I use Qualifying questions b4 I go out so I don't waste my valuable time. In qualifying, he told me he wanted to list at $629k (this is about $75k too high) and if he did not get his price he would stay there. Well I know from past experience he is about 2 years out from really needing to sell, therefore he is NOT a lead. So I told him. I could not help him at this time. I may prospect him again 1 year from now. QUALIFY for realistic MOTIVATION! quote=AugustaBroker]Hi Lucky: Thanks for getting back with me. That's not what I was asking, really. Looking for motivation is obvious. Out of the "for sure I'd like to sell my house today" group, you are now going to have to ask them how much they are trying to get (some can't end up with a negative net to seller). You've got to then take what they want to get, do a CMA, PHYSICALLY TAKE A LOOK AT THE HOUSE (which may be faaaaaar from showing condition) and THEN make a determination as to whether or not you'll take the listing. If the seller is motivated to sell it today but you later find out that the home is not close to being ready to show, nor does the CMA pan out, then there's a problem. There's a lot of details in between a listing lead by cold calling and actually taking the listing. This percentage differential is what I'm talking about. What is the percentage difference of cold call listing leads you have vs what you actually end up with?[/quote]

Lucky, when you are cold calling, what shows up on the the caller id of the prospects?

Your company name or "unknown/private name" ?

Last 3 days I did 10/15/100. Set 2 listing appointments for Thursday.

Lucky,

If you consitently close 40-50k worth of business every month - month in and month out ... how many listings do you have going at any given time?

hi Broker; I typically average 5-6 listings but they sell in an average of 30 days or less. I don't take listings which are testing the market or say "If we get our price" I mainly take listings where they definitely need to sell by a specific date.



Set another listing appointment after my previous post for this Friday. Goal is 10 for this month.

i'm getting ready to head home from a listing appointment. i have not been posting for a while because i needed/wanted the time for other things. i have been reading this thread since its beginning. GREAT THREAD!

lucky, i do pretty much what you do (i'll explain later tonight after i get home). the only real difference is that all of the calls i make are expired listings.

so far since the beginning of the year (work year started on monday for me) i have had 1 settlement (will have my 2nd settlement on friday)....1 buyer consultation....3 listing appointments....1 offer on a listing (getting signed by my sellers right now)

this is gotten through consistent prospecting and having everything that i do broken down into an individual system.

right now i am writing a (for lack of better terms) policies and procedures manual that will break down every single thing that needs to be done from the scripts used to how to import/export information from the different sytems....also how to put the paperwork together and present...i started this on monday and will be working on it until complete....some day in the future i will be able to sell my scaleable corporation with employees and roadmap of every single job description and have people working all of them so that a non re person could step in and buy a profitable business, but for right now i am just working in and on the business.

re is good!

Finished this week with;
*530 cold contacts
*65 S.O.I./P.C. Calls
*50 lead follow-up calls
*2 Listing appts
*1 $689K listing taken-bought FIRM!
*8 new leads

Will sqeeze in another 100 tomorrow morning(saturday), lots of people home and another 10 lead follow-up contacts.

My Assistant also finished designing and ordering 4000 Real Estate Prospecting post cards, enough to mail to my database for the next 4 months. Did not order the response type cards yet as they wanted double the price...they're NUTS I think. Anyway, I am excited to get back to Database Post Card mailing since the last time I did it approximately 5 years ago it eaned me an extra $100k or so. Sometimes my cheapness gets in the way of the big picture!

After my last post, I made 2 more evening lead follow-up calls and set one more Listing appointment for Tuesday evening.

Lucky- Do you find that people are less reciptive to your cold calls on Saturday mornings? I don't mind recieving sales calls generally. I got one at 9am this morning and was not impressed with Omaha Steaks. Its a fine piece of meat but not at 9am. Just wondering.

Yes, I do not start till 9:30 or later on Saturdays. Dont' want to wake those that enjoy sleeping in. There will always be 1 or 2 out of 100 that are annoyed....then there are those that love that I called and won't let me off the call!

Just let everyone know what's possible:
Today I started at 11:30 since I am fighting a cold. I was really Rock'in and in my groove plus 60% of people were home. I made 115 contacts in 1.5 hrs....this is a new record for me...works out to 75 contacts per hour average. Took a break for lunch and return couple calls. Going to Attack lead follow up now!

happy prospecting everyone.

Lucky- Thanks for the info. At 11 or later I would have been more reciptive. You seem to have the lock on cold calling and I will be adding it to my list of techniques.