Here at RE/MAX Action, we’re known as technology pioneers, but sometimes, the use of technology in real estate is misunderstood.
There are a lot of tools out there that can help agents tremendously, but they don’t always help you be as effective as you can be. By that, I mean if you don’t have the right strategy behind the technology you use, you won’t be closing more deals in less time—you’ll be closing fewer deals and take a longer time doing it.
For example, working with buyers is all about helping them comparison-shop. In other words, we have to help buyers “self-discover” the right home for them based on their comparison shopping. That’s the strategy I use when I have a buyer who’s ready to select a home.
If I have, say, six homes for them to look at in a single home-showing run, I place the home I think they’re going to buy—based on their preferences—in the second-to-last position of the itinerary. From there, I use the order of the homes we see to build up their emotional involvement.
“If you’ve been in the business for a long time, you know that human nature doesn’t change.”
By the time they look at the last home on the schedule (which, by design, isn’t as nice as the previous one), all they can talk about is the home they just saw. That’s when I offer to take one more look at that home before wrapping things up. At that point, they’re emotionally attached to it.
The point I’m trying to make, then, is that there are plenty of technologies that can put together the shortest, fastest driving route connecting each of those six houses, but if we truly understand comparison shopping and we know what our buyers want, we’re not going to rely on some software just so we can save time. Instead, we’re going to rely on our strategic order of home showings.
If you’ve been in the business for a long time, you know that human nature doesn’t change. It’s the strategic route that allows us to be as effective and efficient as we can be—not the driving route.
If you’d like to talk more about this topic or you have any other questions for me, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I’d love to speak with you.
