Your First Call From a FSBO Prospect

First Call from Prospect

Are you working with an agent?

Yes or No. The very first question you need to ask when someone calls about your house should be, “are you working with an agent?” The best surprise is NO surprise and you need to know. I was working with a couple once who negotiated a sale with someone. Then about midway to closing, the buyer’s previous agent surfaced, introduced herself, and wanted over $30,000 in commission, which completely skewed the net to the seller and the sale consequently fell through.

They are not going to lie to you now. Not at this point.

There is nothing to gain at this point by telling you something incorrect. Your question will also usually catch them off guard enough that they have no lie planned.

If they say “no,” you say “great!”

“I can’t wait for you to see inside. What is a good time for you?”

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If yes, say “great!”

“I don’t want to step on any toes, so if it’s ok with you just coordinate this through your Realtor.” You don’t want to do the work and someone else get paid. Also some agents are very possessive of their prospects they think you are trying to steal.

Remember this, word-for-word.

It contains what I call “weasel-words” used to get a thought across without it sounding quite a edgy as it possibly could. So don’t swap the words around and don’t substitute any.

“I was working with one but I am dropping them.”

This response represents a choice that doesn’t always work out well, often with no bad intent. Someone may try to drop an agent, but the agent not accept that and buffalo their way back into the equation. Sometimes the buyers just start feeling bad, and just decide to re-include them. In any event, if the buyers have ever had an agent. Just figure they still do.

“Mr Uncle Harry just got his license but he doesn’t want any commission.”

This one almost never works out. Even if Uncle Harry doesn’t want the commission, Uncle Harry’s broker does. And that money belongs to and has to first go to the broker before Uncle Harry ever sees it.

The Viewing

When you have company, sometimes you want to show off your house. Of course you are proud of your house, but you are also trying to show off the way you live in the house. So you conduct a tour and show where the kids did this, or the family did that, or someday you had intended to do this over here.

But when you show your house to a prospect, they don’t care how you live in it. They want to picture how they will live in it.

This type of visit usually ends up as a goofy tour, like “this is the kitchen, and this the bathroom.” It can actually insult intelligence of a prospect.

Always let them look by themselves, relax, and talk. Your dialogue should be “ you folks know what you are looking, for so just make yourselves at home.” You sit on your couch and tell them you will “be right here. If you have any questions just holler up.”

Those words shouldn’t be changed, so practice them in front of a mirror, if you need to.

Sometimes there really are things that are not apparent, that should be pointed out. This seems contradictory to my theory that you should not accompany the prospect on the tour. Sometimes I recommend tent signs. Tent signs are 3×5 cards folded in half so they stand up like a pup tent. On it, you can have printed the detail of the feature you want to be known. May look goofy but they work.

If ever a seller feels odd if alone during some showing, he or she can simply sit in their car in driveway. Return calls or work on computer. Neighbors can see you, and you can see the front door, so no one can walk off with your tv. Of course you don’t want to have left your jewelry out.

Sellers have done some pretty crazy stuff in the past. Some drive around for an hour. I had one once who kept a couple of chairs out in the garage. Just today I heard about one lady who hid in her shower during the whole showing. If buyers are with an agent just leave them alone and don’t say anything. If no agent, ask something like “What do you think?” It’s a trial close, with very low pressure. If they seem pretty interested, ask what the next step is. Again, a very low pressure closing question.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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