- Crush your competition by using Saturdays to pitch vendors, get the perfect property shots, or hold leisurely 60-minute opens instead of rushing from auction to auction
- Stop taking part in the ‘race to the bottom’ on fees and commissions – offer something different and better than other agents and reap the rewards.
Unless you work in a very remote area, chances are you’re competing for listings with one or more other real estate agencies that also cover ‘your’ territory. You may have a few fewer competitors after 2019, however – the market went through the largest price correction in more than 100 years, and winter 2019 saw a 20 year low in overall property sales volumes. The result? Many agents that were already struggling to maintain a foothold in their area went out of business.
How Do You Survive When the Going Gets Tough?
Differentiate.
Offer your vendors something your competitors don’t have. If you’re the small, independent ‘David’ in your neighborhood competing with a ‘Goliath’ agency who has better regional, statewide or even national name recognition, can run marketing campaigns for less because they have a head office that negotiates cheap printing and advertising for them, and has been on your turf for longer than you have, you will never win by trying to copy them. You will only win listings if you can convince the vendors you have a point of difference that sets you apart from the neighborhood Goliath and allows you to offer vendors something the big agencies can’t.
Offering online auctions through SoldOnline as an option is an obvious way to show a point of difference. Be the first on your block to get great results from online auctions, and word will spread that you’re the experts, even after the other local agencies see your success and decide to follow you. It will be obvious that you’re a leader, not a follower –
But that’s not the only way.
Using SoldOnline for online auctions can help you differentiate.
For example, what does your Saturday look like currently? If you’re like many agents, you’re probably rushing from auction site to auction site. But what could you do with your Saturdays if you no longer had to manage auctions?
You could meet prospective vendors for a relaxed chat about how you’d market their property on a day that’s convenient to them, without having to rush. Get to know them, answer all their questions, show them personalised attention, and make sure they feel that you care about them and their property sale and are not just desperate to secure their listing.
That’s a major point of difference.
You could spend more time with either your camera or a photographer you contract getting the best possible shots of the property for your online marketing; after all, with most property searches happening online, great images can make all the difference in how much interest a property attracts.
That’s a major point of difference.
You could hold 60-minute open inspections (and on Saturdays, when more people are free!) to let prospective buyers really get a feel for a home and start imagining themselves living there. Forget about 15-minute weekday opens that rush people through properties and, in city/suburban areas where traffic is a factor, often mean prospective buyers miss your open altogether.
That’s a major point of difference.
As you can see, it’s not just offering online auctions through SoldOnline that provides you with a valuable point of difference. It’s the extra service you can provide to vendors thanks to the time-saving, efficient online auction process – and all the free time it will give you on Saturdays when meetings and opens are more convenient for both vendors and buyers.
Stop competing over listings with a race to the bottom on fees and commissions alone – offer something different, and see the rewards pile up.
