It’s not time to chill…it’s time to turn up the heat and get on the phone.
It’s the end of the year and most agents are shutting down their prospecting efforts…”waiting ‘til next year” like many of their prospects are planning on doing.
This is unfortunate for two reasons: 1) it’s going to upset the real animals that hibernate like bears, bats and groundhogs and 2) these agents are going to miss out on a ton of opportunity to get sales now and build their pipeline for early next year.
If you’re willing to fight the urge to take a long winter’s nap and put in the effort while your competition is settling in for the next 60 days, you could put yourself in position to be very busy come next January and February.
While you’re warming up your phone, consider these three reasons to take action now:
Say what? You read correctly. One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that homes don’t sell during the winter. The fact of the matter is that not only do homes sell during the winter, they fetch higher sales prices and stay on the market fewer days.
According to research done by RedFin, homes sold in the winter:
It’s hard to argue with real numbers. It’s your job as an agent to make sure you get in front of sellers and share this data with them. If you can articulate this information properly, you’ve got a legit chance at snagging some business in the winter.
Even if it wasn’t the end of the year, it’s important that you’re aware of how few of your prospects are ready to do business now. The number of people in your book of leads who are ready to do something in the next 30 days is less than 5%.
That means everyone else needs to be cultivated over time until they’re prepared to make a selling or buying decision.
To make sure you’re the one agent they call when they’re in position to pull the proverbial trigger is for you to call early, establish a relationship and then cultivate that relationship with emails, texts and most importantly…additional phone calls over time.
Something like 75% of the agents out there toss the lead in the trash before they get to this point.
And, if you want to be ahead of the crowd when agents “thaw” out and start prospecting in earnest again sometime in the first quarter, now is the time to start building those relationships.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 89% of real estate consumers are going to work with an agent…and usually they work with the first agent that contacts them.
There’s no shortage of leads…just a shortage of conversions.
During the waning months of the fall and into early winter, about 17% of the homes are going to sell. This benefits you in two ways.
The number of homes sold during the winter jumps up to about 24%, but that’s still roughly 28% fewer than will sell in the springtime.
Again, the numbers don’t lie, which makes them hard to argue with in making a case for getting on the phone and prospecting at this time of the year.
In the end, it’s nothing more than a decision to take action. The good news for you is that the opportunity is real and it’s there for the taking. Many of the agents in your marketplace are either slowing down or they have come to a complete stop at this point in the year. It’s not hard to take market share from agents who aren’t working the sales opportunities in your area.
There’s even better news. If you plan your attack properly, you don’t need to be the one doing the calling.
To find out how to have a skilled salesperson calling and uncovering sales opportunities in your marketplace for you this winter, click here and schedule a demo. [Schedule A Demo Now]