A Checklist to Solving a Listing Backlog in Commercial Real Estate
Sometimes the property market slows, and you get a ‘backlog’ of listing stock in your town or city that doesn’t seem to be moving. It can be a seasonal problem, or worse still, an extension of the economic cycle and sentiment in your town or city; your listings can become ‘stale’ all too quickly.
When that happens, there are a few effective things that you can do to open the ‘log jam’ of listings and create more enquiry. So, you need an action plan to move that listing stock.
How to Move Stale Listings or Boost Enquiry
Here are some things that will help you resolve this problem. Ultimately you want your listings to create enquiry, so this list will ‘unlock’ some movement on enquiry and inspections:
- Split your listings up into groups of properties. Those groups will be in zones, property types, and price or rent ranges. Then prioritise those properties by quality and improvements. When you have your properties in groups, you can market them together in emails, meetings, and local area canvassing. It gives you more to talk about.
- Set up some meetings with listing clients to discuss price and rent adjustments. Tell the client about the enquiries that are coming in and the competing listings in the area. If you have some stories about what people are looking for or saying as they inspect properties, then that will be powerful in adding a level ‘third party’ feedback to your client. Tell the client what other people are saying and thinking.
- Break properties down into strengths and weaknesses. Advise your clients about the factors as they apply to their listings. Try to lessen the weakness factors by having the client provide more incentives or works to remove the problems. Buyers and tenants today do not want to take on problems with a property; there must be a solution there somewhere, and your job is to find it and provide it. As a fallback solution, seek some price or rent adjustments from the clients and market your effected listings around that.
- Boost vendor paid marketing funds so the message about the property can be widened and refreshed. Look at the current marketing message and refocus it to better words, phrases, and messages. A property advert becomes stale very quickly. Get some professional photographs to add to the refreshed marketing campaign.
- Target marketing should be the rule and not the exception so every property that remains available for sale or lease should be assessed for a target market adjustment. What variations of attraction apply to the property and the types of businesses or investors that may want to occupy or buy?
With all these things in consideration and active, you can establish more local area penetration. That says that every listing can then be taken to the local area and personally marketed to business owners and investors; that’s a wise and effective strategy to implement. When you do that local canvassing, take some brochures with you and leave those brochures on reception desks and or in meetings with all and any of the people you meet every day.
Simple systems like this will help you resolve a backlog of listings and free up your sales and leasing opportunities.
