Working With Expired Listings
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s been said expired listings are easy pickings or low-hanging fruit, and they are the number one source of business for most successful Agents that are willing to work them.
That may be the case, but if you ever talk to Agents who have been in the business for a while and do not work expired listings, they have a lot to say about them and it is mostly negative.
Veteran Agent: “Well you know, Sonny, those expired listings…they’re not realistic on price; they are difficult people. If they did want to sell, they would be sold already!”
It’s definitely one way to look at it, but I look at it like this: please do not take offense, but just maybe it might be the Agent’s fault. Of course the Agent wanted to sell the property and have a successful closing for his clients. This is how he/she makes his/her money and is able to feed his/her family. Everyone has to eat, right? Of course.
There’s a lot of moving parts at play. Maybe the Agent couldn’t handle the objections or the seller’s unrealistic value of their property so he/she listed the property too high. As a result, the property does not sell/expires. Perhaps the Agent didn’t have a listing presentation strong enough to convey his/her professionalism that he/she knows what needs to be done to sell the property at the highest possible price.
It could have been a weak CMA or “Competitive Market Analysis” that it did not show the proper market value of the property. Another big problem I see with Agents is that they are commission hungry. They are not presenting themselves as a Real Estate Professional. It could have been one or mixture or all of these things.
Frankly, your job as a Real Estate Professional is to demonstrate to your client that you’re the man or woman for the job. These are the comps in the neighborhood and the market is going to bare what the market is going to bare for the property. It is my job as your Real Estate Agent to get you the most money possible. In order for me to do that, we must work together so we can have a successful conclusion to the deal.
One thing I’ve learned from my wise and true broker:
“There’s nothing wrong with a house that the right price won’t fix.”
For expired listings, prices are usually the number one reason why the property did not sell. Nine times out of ten, the seller wants way too much for their property. It’s our job as professional Real Estate Agents to make sure that we demonstrate to our clients the best strategies to get their property sold without leading them into the expired wasteland.