Listing Creation Blueprint
Many agents approach the listing process differently, but I thought it would be good to share how I create listings and have done so for years.
So, this is a listing strategy process that works for me. See how you can use these ideas. You can then shape those ideas into your location and preferred property types.
I can say that the volume of listings that you want or can create will not evolve from ‘luck’ or waiting for things to happen. Commercial real estate ‘luck’ may be excellent when it happens, but it doesn’t produce the best outcomes or any sustained pipeline of real estate business.
The rule is this. Real estate results are personally created. The best agents know that, and they do something about it. They refine their actions every day and get better at doing things.
Your Real Estate Success System
Success in your listing system and pipeline process will come down to you. Your actions and thoughts are part of your real estate day. You should build a system or work plan to find people to work for and properties to work on. Your connections will create real estate opportunities, so your connections with people should be the core element of your real estate day.
Commercial real estate is primarily a ‘time-based’ event that people must work with regarding investments or business operations. Those people are your clients, and your connections with them will help you convert the new business. Ultimately, you want those people to remember you at the right time and in the right way when they have a property need or challenge.
Your Listing Pipeline
So, you are the agent and want new business in sales, leasing, and property management. These nine factors below will help you build your real estate system and get plenty of results. Check out the ideas here that have worked for me.
- Past Contacts – Over time, you will get to know many people in your location and across property types. Every person is a contact to be nurtured. What is your system for that? On a professional basis, you can talk to people and ask questions about how property changes and challenges can work for them. Every property conversation is something to be tracked, and you can use a simple note-taking system or database for that. Those support tools should be ‘cloud based’, and on your mobile phone, so you can make the notes after every conversation or meeting that you can use later.
- New Contacts – From the previous point, consider how you can connect with new people in chosen categories. The best people to communicate with are those who will have a potential property need now or in the future. They will be property investors, property owners, and business owners. All those groups are special, and you can approach them uniquely. It is called direct marketing in real estate. It primarily focuses on two contact strategies: cold calling and door-knocking local businesses. Both systems allow you to have conversations with new people which you want. Meetings are created with those people as you move through your daily prospecting activities.
- Street Coverage and Building Coverage – Have a logical and local contact process. You can now create some territory coverage and penetration. Move your focus of property research into the streets and buildings. Find out who owns those buildings and talk to them. As a special note here, some agents have difficulty finding property owners’ names, given that some facilities are held in company ownership structures or LLCs. The only way to work with that is to ask questions and remain on task in your investigations. Over time you find the people behind the company ownership structures.
- Records Organization – Stay organized in what you do each day and who you talk to. Do not overlook any local people or property ownership records in your territory. Ask questions as you go through the information and your connections; each street and building can be reviewed for an opportunity.
- Property Skills and Relevance – You know your real estate business skills and preferences, so you work with them and with them. Your new business focus is on making choices and controlling your coverage activities as you talk to people. Put your property choices and skills into those connections. Show the people why they should stay in contact. Provide information about the local area and property changes. Make every relationship a conversation.
- Tracking Conversations – Every conversation today is an opportunity in the future, providing you take your notes and keep connecting. Today’s simple conversation is something you can expand into at the next connection. It takes about three links to get to a meeting with some people. Sustain your professional approach and make it relevant.
- Media Articles – The local online and offline media will contain information that is quite useful whilst’ public’. Information from articles in the press will allow you to talk in more depth. You will also get more leads from that process. Review the local newspapers every day to check for the articles that will have relevance to the property market, your precinct, and or your chosen property types and specialties. The Internet can also give you leads and opportunities. Each day you can devote some time to reviewing the media and any online information. To help with that, get some subscriptions to the local newspapers and check them online at the start of each day before you start calling for processes. Make your notes and copy the articles of note.
- Referrals are Valuable– A successful transaction will be an opportunity for a referral question at the right time and in the right way. All the people you know today will likely know others with a property interest. Likewise, every local property investor or business owner will quite likely know others in the location, and those relationships will be beneficial to you in the future. That is why the real estate referral question is something for you to consider using.
- Ongoing Contact is Easy – How can you sustain your contact processes into the future? How can you keep the relationships going in relevant and authentic ways? As mentioned earlier, it can take several approaches to the same person before a meeting can be agreed to and created. That is why your ongoing contact activity will allow you to grow your business over time. In addition, your database can be a tracking tool to enable you to effectively build the foundations of your real estate business over time.
- You are Better than the Competition Agents – You are Better than the Competition – There are many other agents in most towns and cities. They are trying to secure new business while you may be doing so. As a result, many of your clients and prospects will receive approaches from other parties. How can you be different? It would help if you determined the ideas and the approaches which will allow you to stand out as the agent of choice. Strive to be the better agent for any sale, leasing, or property management situation. How can you be better than the other agents, your competing agents in the location? You will have the foundation of real estate growth when you know the answers.
So, these are the ideas that I use to create listings. They have worked for me for years and will continue to do so. So, try them out and see how you can shape your real estate business for growth.