← Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Episode 777: Why Listings Fail After the Sign Goes Up
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The listing appointment is the audition. But the real relationship, the one that gets you referrals or gets you fired, is built in the silence after the sign goes up. That's when sellers start refreshing Zillow at midnight. That's when you get a text, any news? Maybe three times in a day. That's when one piece of brutal feedback makes them question everything, including you. The agents who keep listings aren't better at selling homes. They're better at communicating and selling the process that really is the key. They prepare sellers for the emotional roller coaster before the first showing, not after the first meltdown. They don't just forward feedback, they translate it. They don't disappear when it gets quiet. They show up more. Because silence doesn't kill listings. Silence without context does. Now, I'm going to walk you through my notes on how to set expectations before problems start handling feedback and all that great stuff that allows you to keep this relationship alive and the seller grounded. While strangers and neighbors and family members are criticizing the seller and why their home hasn't sold, family members are criticizing the sellers, the seller, and why their home hasn't sold. This is your daily real estate. It's a podcast, It's a show. I'm Tristan. I've been in real estate for 22 years, created lab coat agents 12 years ago, a brilliant tribe six years ago, and now just opened up our own brokerage nationwide. It's going fun, but today, let's talk about managing seller expectations. Now, these are my notes. I took time over the last few years to, to see how we've been managing expectations because we, we've done a terrible job at it, and then we got better. And these are my notes that I put into AI I think I put them into Claude, and then I had IT outline it for me. It's saying, hey, this is what we do now. Create some notes so that I can share them with other agents so they could do a better job. Here's what I've got for you. It comes down to a lot of communication and managing seller expectations through phone calls, through texts, through calls, through data, through a lot of ways. But it really comes down to having conversations that are tough. Sometimes we're scared. We're like, am I? I'm going to call the seller and they're going to maybe be angry at me. But let me tell you, if you don't, you'll lose the relationship for me before the first showing. First one, have the conversation about listing, about what happens now. Right? Here's what I wrote down. Set Reality early. We're going to get showings. This is a reminder because you've already done this when you got the listing, but you're going to do it again now. It went live, right? First day goes live. Set reality early. We're going to get showings. Some buyers will love it. Some will leave in eight minutes without a word. And some feedback will be useless. Someone will complain about the street you live on. And my job is to filter the noise and tell you what matters. Your job is to keep it show ready and stop checking the mls. Like, listen, I'm going to do. I'm going to do my job. You hired me to do something great here. That's what I'm going to do. And you may hear things from other people saying, oh, I can't believe this. Your ML hasn't sold what's going on, right? The. They're not living what you and I are living, Right? Set the timeline. The first two weeks are our biggest window. Reiterated after the traffic naturally slows. It doesn't mean Something is wrong. Mrs. Seller, Mr. Seller. That's an important one. It means we're past the initial wave. And this is normal for all listings. No listing gets high waves. Every seller, single week. That's not how it works. Now give them a role, Sellers. Here's why. Sellers feel powerless once the sign goes up. It's like, oh, I got it. I committed. Hopefully I made a good decision with Tristan. Right? And Your only job, Mr. Seller, your only job is this is whatever you want to tell them, but I've got written down here from my notes. Fresh flowers, lights on, comfortable temperature and out the door 15 minutes early. I'll handle everything else. Just give them a job to do. That's it. Now, handling feedback. This is my second section. This is where agents build trust or destroy it. And I've done both, by the way. This is why I can talk to you about it. Don't be a messenger. Be the advisor they hired. Man, I was a messenger. And let me tell you, I was reprimanded a few times early on. I was like, I'm not gonna do that again. And then I did it again. And I'm like, I'm not gonna do that again. Let me get some coffee and then I'll tell you what I. What I did. All right? Filter before you. Forward. Don't auto forward. Please don't do that. Don't be lazy. A buyer who spent nine minutes and said, not for us isn't useful. In fact, that just makes the seller angry, sad. Hurts their feelings. Now you're playing with their emotions up and down. Your job is to regulate the seller's emotions by doing a great job in communicating the right things. A buyer who came back with their parents and then passed because of the backyard, now that's data. That's important, right? Translate, don't forward. Instead of buyer said, the kitchen feels dated. Try two of the three showings mentioned the kitchen. That tells us buyers at this price are comparing us to updated homes. If the pattern continues, we'll talk about the options. Or this could be a pattern that could show up again. So think about it. Think about some options and give them that ability to think through it. But then also, you know, a few days later, if it comes out, then make sure that you have some options as well. Shield them from the absurd. And there are a ton of absurdities. The ceilings feel low. I'm just writing down what. What I had as experience. Right. I don't like the neighbor's yard. Yeah, that was a real one. I don't like the neighbor's fence. That was another one. Now, don't pass this along. Like, who cares? Right? Just say, got feedback today. Nothing actionable, just personal preferences. I'll let you know when something matters. Now, normally, we wouldn't even send that feedback over. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. No mistake. You've got to give them some feedback. That feedback don't go quiet now when there's silence, that creates a different problem. Because now the sellers or the seller is thinking, is thinking whatever they're thinking. And that's the problem. You have to control that narrative about what's actually happening. In the absence of communication, the seller will make up stuff in their head. I've seen it happen before. I've lost relationships and I've lost clients because of it. Next, the Weekly rhythm. And we've gone over this in a previous podcast. I don't remember which one it was, but I told you how to stay on top of it and how to communicate with your sellers. Sellers don't just want updates. When something happens, they want to know you're paying attention. Yeah. This is a relationship. Set it up front. Every Friday, I'll send a quick update. Showings, feedback worth mentioning. What's happening or what's happening in the market, what we're doing next. What. What went up? Your neighbors put up their home. The market showed new properties coming up. Prices are going down, interest rates are down, Interest rates are up. I don't know. Right. But this stops. This stops the. Any news? Any news? Any news? Because if you don't set the expectations, they're going to set them for you. And that's not good because it's going to drive you crazy. And more importantly, it's going to drive them nuts. So set the expectations. This is what, this is how we communicate, Mrs. Seller. This is how we're going to do it every week. I'm going to communicate three times to you Monday because of the weekend, Wednesday and Friday and Monday I'm going to call you. If I don't hear from you, I'll just leave you a quick message or I'll just text you. Wednesday it's going to be an email and Friday, I'll shoot you a quick text. Now, whatever it is that you decide to do, I'm just giving you examples. Now, when it's slow, after the initial burst comes a quiet stretch. That's reality. And then if you drop the price significantly, you get another rush. But this is where you keep them or where you lose them. And the best agents keep them. I've seen it because I've called expireds and. And I still do. And I hear the same thing now. We're sticking with our agent. They did a great job. When. That always surprises me. Normalize it before it happens. Remember when I said traffic would slow after week two? Where. Well, we're there. We're to the normal show activity, not just waiting. Here's what I wrote down this week. I reached out to 12 agents who've shown similar homes, boosted the listing on social media and scheduled Sunday's open house. We're not waiting, Joanne. We're not waiting. We're working. Have the honest conversation early. If three weeks pass with minimal or no activity, don't wait for them to bring it up. You bring it up. I want to have a real conversation with you, Joe. I've been on the market. It's been on the market for three weeks and we've had this many showings. Here's what feedback tells us and how we compare to what's sold and to how we compare to what's on the market. We can adjust the price to keep the market to meet the market or hold firm and wait for the right buyer. Both are valid. But let's make the choice with full information, not just hope. Is it uncomfortable? Hell, yeah, it's uncomfortable, but it's less uncomfortable if you've built up to this by having communication the whole time, which I hope you have now, keeping them and keeping them emotionally grounded. Here's my ending here in my journal notes. They Raised their kids in this house. And now strangers are criticizing their countertops. Acknowledge it. Just acknowledge it. I know this is hard. People in your space waiting for the news, the uncertainty. I'm not just watching numbers. I'm paying attention to you now. This is important. And I. And I put this in quotations here in the notes, because this is the exact example that I have from experience. And I bring them back to the goal. Remember, remember why we're doing this. You're trying to get into wherever you're going, Joe. You're trying to go to Washington. You're trying to go to Seattle. I know you have a job there, right? Just keep that in mind. And I know it's hard, right? And that's still happening. This is just the middle part. In the middle part sometimes sucks. Right? But this is where we win, Joe. But you celebrate the small wins. A second showing compliment on staging. We're going in the right direction. Remember I said we were going to have all these showings at the beginning? The middle was going to be hard. But if we don't do something in the middle, we're going to end up getting to the end and nothing's going to happen. And I don't want you to get there. This is the next plan. This is what we need to do now. This is why you hired me. Now, this is an uncomfortable conversation, but remember, the agents that win, the agents that I've seen win. And the reasons we've won and lost comes down to communication. How are we treating the communication through the whole process? And do we have solutions? Anyway, if you need this, I did outline this. It's just a copy of my notes thrown into AI so it may sound like gibberish to you. This is episode 777, managing seller expectations. If you need this, let me know. And if you think this was useful, go ahead and send to somebody else you think would do amazing with this. Have an awesome day. This was useful. Go ahead and send somebody else you think would do amazing with this. Have an awesome day.