Refine your business model, master new technologies, or find a strategy to capitalize on the next market boom. Inman Connect New York We’re ready to take a bold step. Our next chapter is beginning. We want you to join us. would you like to join Join thousands of real estate industry leaders from January 22-24, 2025.
Over the past two years, home sellers have faced a tough challenge, weighing the benefits of record home price increases against the risks of trading in sub-3% mortgages for higher interest rates. While easing mortgage rates has eased some of those concerns, as evidenced by the rise in new listings this summer, home sellers remain hesitant.
So what’s a real estate agent to do?
Keller Williams leaders Gary Keller, Jason Abrams and Jay Papasan tried to answer this question during a Wednesday morning Mega Agent Camp session that featured four top broker-owners who mastered Keller’s key lead generation strategy: MOFIR (Make Offer for Immediate Response). shift Books.
“It’s fine to do long-term nurturing to generate leads, absolutely,” Keller says, “but at the end of the day, making an offer for an immediate response is how the brain works, right? You shouldn’t make an offer for a response someday. Why would you do that? Right? Make an offer.”
Tim Heyl, founder of Tim Heyl Group and Homeward, says the foundation of a successful MOFIR is a streamlined business focus and value proposition. He says generalists have a hard time creating one because they try to serve everyone, rather than mastering a few skills that are highly valuable to specific consumer groups.
“If you can build a brand that solves a specific problem, you’ll dominate that market,” he said. “In real estate, it’s tempting to be a jack-of-all-trades generalist. Think about it: there are so many different types of buyers and sellers, and we’re tempted to say, ‘Well, I can help you with everything,’ but then you become part of the noise of 20,000 other agents in your market saying the same thing.”
“If you can be the person that does ‘that thing,’ you’ll corner that market. You’ll get incredible referrals. People will talk about you and click your button. [and] “People will come into your funnel,” he added, “but to win that funnel, you have to be willing to lose some of the other stuff.”
For Hale, Jose Medina, owner of Jose Medina & Associates, and Ryan Young, owner of The Young Team, their lead generation strategies focus on cash offers and pre-sale purchase programs for home sellers. The two programs, they say, address two main concerns for sellers: getting the most value out of their home and having a fast, seamless closing process so they don’t miss out on their next home.
Young, who is also CEO and co-founder of seller lead generation platform Fello, said his team will start by offering home sellers free home appraisals, which are low-intent but help build a robust seller database that can be used to elicit high-intent offers — cash offers.
“We offer upfront cash offers, backup cash offers and worry-free listing,” he said. “The reason we prefer backup cash offers is because if you choose not to accept an upfront cash offer, you have the benefit of listing your home the traditional way with the protection or safety net of a backup cash offer.”
“We’ve found that we’ve had great success by presenting a cash offer message to every homeowner in our database,” he added, referring to Ferro’s new partnership with Homeward. “In fact, we’ve partnered with Ferro to display the Homeward offer amount on every consumer dashboard. You’ll get an email from Ferro that says, ‘Check the value of your home,’ and right underneath that is the actual tentative offer number from Homeward. It’s a very compelling message.”
Medina said that in addition to cash offers and buy-before-you-sell programs, MOFIR also includes the Homeowner Enhancement Loan Program (HELP), a program that allows home sellers to take out small personal loans to make needed repairs before listing the home on the market.
“We visit homes and find they need new carpeting or new countertops,” he says. “We offer personal loans to get the house in good condition. [where] “That way, they can make more money. It differentiates us from other real estate agents and gives us the initiative to acquire properties.”
Stacey Esser, owner of Stacey Esser Group, said she is taking a different approach to MOFIR, drawing on her 17 years of experience as a fashion and merchandising professional. Esser said she is focused on shifting home sellers’ focus from “how can I sell my house for?” to “how can I sell my house for more?” That second question gives real estate agents a great opportunity to exercise their strategic skills, Esser said.
“We do something called the Value Up Method, and I’m going to tell you my strategy now,” she said. “You’re not salesmen. You’re strategists. You go to your clients, you present them with a strategy on how you can get them to sell their home for more, and then you use your database to start seizing that rare opportunity as quickly as possible.”
“We do room-by-room assessments. We identify and educate our target buyers,” she added. “You have to educate them. We are the professionals in this market. If you tell them something, they might listen to you. They might not. But… [we] To win like a seller, you have to think like a buyer today, because today’s buyers are not the same as you were before.”
Email Marian McPherson
