Picture this.  Your house is for sale.  At the hardware store last week, you bought one of those clear plastic mail-box looking containers you secure to the “For Sale” sign out at the street.  You have spent $49.00 for some software that can make an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous flyer that installs itself like a cheap virus in the brain of any prospective buyer who unwittingly pulls one out and takes it with him.  It will eat at him until he breaks down and buys your house for his family.

Except it doesn’t work like that. I know the temptation is to vomit out everything you know about your house just hoping you will mention that one magic fact that will cause the viewer to be a buyer.  Allow me to introduce you to the number one most important concept you can ever learn about the art of sales.  I spend a entire chapter on this one concept in one of my sales books.

(This article first appeared here in 2014.)

Never Sell with “Blah, blah, blah…”

“Never sell with “blah, blah, blah,” when you can sell with “blah, blah.” That is worth repeating.  If only to yourself.  A lot. The beginners temptation is to just go on and on and on.  The piece of paper you are considering producing, is called by some a “fact sheet.”    Pick a fact, any fact, the most important one.  Like the price.  Don’t put that fact on your fact sheet.  Now it’s called a “conversation piece” rather than a “fact sheet.”

 

I promise you will have some people call you and ask you how much you are asking or shout at you that you left off the price. At this point lightly slap your forehead like Peter Falk, and say, “I never even thought about that… THANKS!” and then continue your conversation.  Nothing is ever sold until there is a conversation, and now you have one.  You need to invite the prospect to see the interior, see what you have in common, build some rapport.  It doesn’t really matter what you are going to ask for your house, they will offer you something different anyway.  Tell him that you were going to price it higher, but the real estate guy said lower, after you see it tell me what you think. You could almost as easily leave off some other important piece of information.  The important thing is to talk to them.  The second most important thing is to talk to them face to face – at your house. This concept doesn’t have to end at your flyer.  Do this with any printed newspaper advertising you do.  Do it with electronic media to the extent that you can.

Make ’em mad, but make ’em call.

Make ’em mad, but make ’em call. For the facts you do decide to reveal, don’t talk or write endlessly.  Make it short and sweet.  Nothing says For-Sale-By-Owner like a flowery text section trying to describe a house.  You will not sell your house right there.  You will only give someone a chance to discover something they don’t like about your house.  Say a little bit and SHUT UP! Your job- your only job right here and now is to gain the interest of a possible home-buyer.

That extra little interest you earn right here you need to invest wisely to increase that interest to the level that the person wants to see your house.  Nothing happens until that person is in your house.  We all know the feeling of “the magic” that happens when someone walks in the right house.  The house will sell itself when that happens, but you can’t do it.  You can only get someone through that door and hope for the best.  We will deal in subsequent installments about how to improve your home’s chances of that magic occurring, but that is not where we are here.

Never do it halfway.

I must add at this time that you should not confuse this concept with the idea of doing anything half-way, or leaving tasks uncompleted.  That is rarely acceptable.   My practice leaves you with a well-done, fully complete media piece that is simply missing something so important that a buyer has to surface, and give you the opportunity to have a chat with them and invite them over to see your house.
Good luck for now! Get to work if you want it to happen. Call me if you want to talk. Yes, I am the Reasonable Realtor. Don Martin, MARTIN PROPERTIES (615) 973-8970. Just make your comments here, or you can reach the Dean of Graduated Realtors at www.FSBO-GUY.com or “like” him at http://www.facebook.com/MartinProps And please don’t forget our book The NEW REAL ESTATE will be out in a few days.  You need to have it on YOUR bookshelf! Don Martin Martin Properties (Flat Fee MLS to Full or Graduated Services in Nashville, TN)

Product Review – Samsung Chromebook

I do a good bit of writing.  I write some books and some articles.  I used a desktop computer forever.  Then from time to time, I used a lap top if I wanted to work at a library or somewhere else, and that was good, but it was an odd size, and a little heavy.  Then one year my wife received a Chromebook by Samsung, and she loved it.
I did some due diligence and was impressed by its light weight and compact size.  Granted, there are some things it just won’t do like its big brothers, but for doing writing and blogging like I do a lot of, it surely is great and it gets me out of the office.  So I got one.  A Samsung Chromebook just like hers.  It is great, economical, and has marvelous battery life.  Click here for more details or to buy one for yourself!