So today we’re going to carry on with the conversations about speaking with owners and engaging owners. So we’re going to jump straight into it because we’ve got a lot to cover. And I hope yesterday you found the first session valuable.
So in front of me today I have an overview of my seven step process with working with owners. So my goal is to simplify this process as much as possible so that every agent on this call can have more efficient, structured and impactful conversations when they’re engaging owners. So we call owners multiple sorry, we call multiple owners a day, every day.
And you can use this framework for every type of conversation you have with every type of owner. So yesterday we spoke about the importance of engaging owners and the types of seller profiles to target and work with. So we can see that.
Step one yesterday at the top of my document here is all just about getting started. And it was really simple and understanding that step one of the process is actually engaging owners. Today we’re going to go into the needs analysis section, which is needs analysis qualifying owners, which is essentially the process of getting the information you need from owners to help better service them.
And this is very similar to the previous calls that we’ve done on qualifying buyers in the fact that there is a consumer profile and a property profile that we need to understand in order to work with these clients more efficiently. And the process is exactly the same and true when it comes to qualifying owners. So you can see in my workflow here, what I’m trying to demonstrate is what you’ll accomplish by following this process.
So today we’re going to hit on this middle part here in that by doing a needs analysis, you’ll be able to answer the questions that we have in front of us. So you can see, does the owner need my help? If you do a proper needs analysis, you’ll be able to identify that are they motivated to sell? Which is very important to understand. If they are, great move towards doing a comparative market analysis, right? What is their motivation? What is their timeline? If they’re not motivated to sell, then it’s about understanding the factors that will impact whether this property is sellable or not.
Because at the end of the day, every property is sellable. It just comes down to a matter of price. And that’s what the CMA, the comparative market analysis and the sessions that we’ll run probably tomorrow, will help us understand.
So the seven step process is here. We’ll come back and revisit that at another time. But really, as I said yesterday, step one is understanding that we need to just get started and we need to speak to owners consistently.
And we’ll dive into the needs analysis aspect of that now. So let me just zoom in a little bit more to make it a bit more visible. So we need to make qualifying part of our daily approach when speaking to owners in order to collect more information.
So as I said, we’re calling multiple owners on a daily basis. So that we need to go into every single call with every single owner with the mindset of qualifying them. And that’s going to allow you to collect more information about the profile type.
So it’s going to be able to allow you to identify a qualification call, will allow you to identify what profile this property owner is which we spoke about yesterday. It’s going to help you understand the motivation and the timeline that that particular owner has to transact. It’s going to help you gauge the level of current interest they have in their property if it’s listed.
So in other words, if somebody has a property that’s listed and they’re getting lots of viewings and lots of offers, then where is the value? What can you actually come in and help this owner with if they’re already having good success? And last but not least, it’s going to allow you to collect and assess specific details about the property. So going in and understanding that it’s our role as agents and that every call we have with owners that a qualification call will allow us to get this information is the first step. The second step is understanding how that’s going to benefit you as an agent and how it’s going to benefit you in terms of servicing your clients.
So I’ve been able to break that down into four simple categories. Number one is time management. So it’s just helping us understand the qualification process, helps us understand where we spend time on when it comes to the right profiles, right? If we identify a profile that we can add value to, then it helps us focus on those profiles where we’ll have better results.
Number two, it helps us personalize our approach. Qualifying owners helps us understand that every owner’s circumstances and situations are different. The property might not be listed yet.
The property might have been listed for five years and hasn’t sold. They might be working with 100 agents, they might be working with one agent. They might be trying to sell the property to their self.
So qualifying the seller allows us to create a personalized approach to understand what is working for them and what is not working for them, which we’ll be able to use in our pitch and pricing. It helps us build trust and rapport and stand out from the competition. So again, in a market like Thailand, where it’s a non exclusive market and agents are listing generally with a lot of different agents, a lot of agents don’t take the time to do this properly.
So running a thorough and detailed qualification process helps you stand out amongst the competition. And last but not least, one of the most important things, and I think what is going to be the missing link to a lot of people on this call is that it actually helps you close more deals. It helps you with your buyers because you get all of this valuable information along the way that you collect and that you’re able to use that in your property recommendations, and you’re able to use that information when it comes to negotiating to actually close more business.
And we’ll cover more of that in future webinars as well. So I think the first part of today’s session is looking at understanding what information we need to collect and the value that it delivers to us as agents and to our clients. So now I want to talk about how we actually go about doing this.
What questions do we ask, why do we ask these questions, what information do we get if we ask these questions correctly? So just a little intro to this section is that the process of selling here is difficult or renting your property is difficult, it’s challenging. You work with a bunch of different agents. Some are very professional, some aren’t, some have a big audience that can actually help you, some don’t.
So the experience is very frustrating. Agents don’t necessarily update owners and talk to them about the market or what’s going on or the level of interest that they’ve had in their property once it’s listed. So as I said yesterday and as I put down here, over the years, I’ve met far more frustrated sellers than happy sellers.
So we need to embrace the qualification and understand that the qualification process is an opportunity to engage owners and generally speaking, they’re going to be receptive to the phone call and receptive to you trying to call and understand what their goals are and helping them achieve their desired goals. So in my experience, I’ve come up with a list of probing questions to ask the owners to get them talking. And it’s no different than, again, when we’re qualifying buyers, it’s about not turning it into an interrogation.
So these are a list of kind of the top probing questions that I would use to help get the information I need to deliver the things that I’ve spoke about already. Now, one quick thing to note is that some of these questions are only applicable when the property is already listed on the market. Where other questions are applicable when somebody walks into the office that wants to list or you meet somebody else.
But for the interest of time, we’ll focus on the amount of questions that, sorry, we’ll focus on the questions that most of the time we’re going to be engaging with owners who already have their property listed on the market. So with that in mind, the first question, generally speaking, I would ask owners every time I spoke to them is, is your property currently on the market? Right? So that I’ve got tips underneath here that help you guys understand the value of asking these questions. So if somebody’s property is currently on the market, it’s a great reference point to easily collect information, sizes, pictures.
So hey, is your property currently listed? Yes, it is. It’s listed with these three agencies and I can go get that listing and collect most of the details rather than walking through and asking them one by one. My second question is always how long has your property been listed for? And this is a great question to get an indication of time.
So if a property has been listed for an extended period of time, it’s going to highlight that the channels they’re using aren’t working effectively, or the agents that they’re working with aren’t working effectively, or that the price is wrong. So this is the first warning sign. If it’s been listed for a long time, then the question is, okay, alarm bells, there’s something wrong with this property and that you need to look and understand why are you the original owner of this property? Again, the period of ownership that the person has owned the property for will help you understand the original purchase price, potentially.
And this information is useful when recommending the property to clients or in your future negotiations. Are you working with any other agents? Again, this helps you understand what type of profile the client is and it helps you understand what you’re up against. And that if the property is listed with five or six agents, but the property hasn’t sold in six months to twelve months, then you know that what they’re currently doing is not working.
And you’ve got a great opportunity to come in and pitch the value and services that you have. What interest has it had so far? So that’s my favorite follow up question. Okay, great.
You have your property listed with three agents. So can you give me an indication of what interest you guys have had? Are you getting a lot of inquiries on your property? Is it leading to a lot of viewings? Are you getting a lot of offers? If the answer to that is all no, then essentially they’re telling you that they need your help. I’ve listed it with five agents.
We’re not getting any viewings, we’re not getting any offers, or we’re only getting a couple of viewings a week or a couple of viewings a month. It’s leading to no offers or it’s listed with five agents and I hear nothing from them. All of these things are really valuable points to give you information to decide where you go with this.
Next, do you mind me asking, why are you selling? Motivation is key. Motivation helps with the second question in terms of understanding their timeline. I have to sell because I’m actually moving into another property.
I have to sell because I’m leaving the country. I want to sell because it’s not returning the investment that I wanted to generate on it. And I have to put money into something else.
So understanding their motivation to sell helps understand their timeline as well, which will give you the information to say, hey, listen, your goal is to sell within this amount of time. I’m going to come up with a proposal that is going to help you to accomplish that and we’ll talk about what that means in the next section in terms of our pitch and price. So, questions to ask yourself.
So those are a lot of really good probing introduction questions, but there’s some questions to ask yourself or the owner along the way that’s more in line with the specific property. So the first aspect was more in line with motivation and the seller profile. Now it’s about questions about the specific property.
So a question that you’re asking yourself if you’re in the property or if you’re looking at pictures or speaking to the owner is what’s the condition of the property? Properties that require a lot of renovation might limit the target audience or impact your price point. So it’s really important to understand the condition. Does this require more money and more work? Or on the other side, has there been a number of upgrades? So does the property have any upgrades or standout features that would differentiate itself to others in the project? So these features can be positive or negative in that renovations or upgrades to the kitchen, or upgrades to bathrooms, or a corner unit, or a side of the building that’s not overlooked, where another side of the building is overlooked, all positive things, but then likewise the opposite side of that, they might actually be negative as well.
So you’re trying to identify positive or negative attributes in the specific property that will make it more sellable or less sellable. And again, you’ll use that information in your price and pitch to help position where you want to actually take the property. So the answers provide powerful information, as I’ve been hinting at, has the property been listed for a long time? It might indicate a problem with price or a physical flaw in the property.
Are they not getting enough interest? Again, maybe poor marketing, maybe lazy agents, maybe the channels they’re using aren’t working. Is the interest not leading to viewings? Again, if there’s no viewings? I used to say to owners, it’s very simple, we need to generate leads. Leads lead to viewings, viewings lead to offers and offers lead to deals, right? So we have to understand that funnel and how the current status of the property, what’s broken in that current funnel.
So the answers you should have, after a thorough qualification call with an owner, you should understand their motivation for selling, you should understand their timeline to sell. You should understand the stage that they’re at. Is it a new listing, is it currently listed on the market? And what success that they’re having? And also the pros and cons, as I said, because all of these things are going to impact price.
So the answers to these questions will provide you with all the information you need to first identify the type of seller. Is this the type of seller that I should be spending my time on? Is this a dreamer who has had the property listed for five years at a crazy price that’s never going to sell? Or is this somebody that is a motivated seller that has a timeline to transact in a short period of time? Right? So identifying the seller profile will help you allocate where you spend your time, energy and effort. The information from the qualification will allow you to prepare your comparative market analysis.
So it’s going to allow you to look at on market listings that are currently for sale and historical sales to help you define your price. And all the information you have will actually help you define your end proposal in terms of is this a property that you want to pitch exclusively? Is this property if we come right back up to the top and we look at this middle section, does this owner need my help? Are they motivated to sell? Is this property sellable? And if we can answer those questions then it allows us to go to the next step in terms of defining what and how we want to work with this particular owner. So I think that’s enough for today.
I know it’s a lot of information but a quick recap make qualifying clients part of your daily approach when speaking to owners. So every owner you speak to, you should run this process. Now in doing so, make sure you update the notes so that the next agent can come in and see the information that you provided.
In the agent view, doing this allows you to understand the seller’s goals and the motivation, which is key to ensuring you focus on the right opportunities and allows you to tailor a personalized approach, building trust and rapport with the client. Qualifying sellers also helps provide you with valuable information when it comes to recommending properties to buyers and the negotiating price. I promise you, if you apply this to every single owner that you speak to that the dots will start to become connected.
And that when you make recommendations to your buyers and you say, hey listen, this owner is a Thai national. They’ve recently listed this property. They’re motivated to sell because they need to do this and that they’re hoping to sell within this period of time.
Your recommendations stick more. You provide information that isn’t available from the website and again, it’s a critical process in recommending and that same information you’ll use when you negotiate as well. So we’ll cover more about that on the upcoming Power calls.
And thank you everybody for joining and enjoy your days. And I will send around a summary and a recap cap of this by email and hopefully everybody was able to take away a few points that they can apply. So I look forward to again walking around all the offices and hearing people qualifying owners on the call.