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Dear Walter, It was a pleasure meeting you during your recent event in Laguna Hills, CA. I appreciate the material your covered during the event and wanted to thank you for your generosity on gifting me the "Beating the Competition" sales system. Jose U. Jaramillo, Keller Williams

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Working the Walter Sanford Plan Week Two, Day Two May 17th, 2017 | Posted in General Real Estate, Other Interests, Real Estate

We’re halfway through this week’s blog series, taken directly from the pages of my book If I Could Start Over Again. This is part of the lesson from the first month, second week, and second day. As you can see, we jump in with both feet into organization and lead generation. Both items are essential to any top producer’s success.

Let’s start the lesson –

 

This day is going to be a little bit different. Not only is it time for you to reflect on where you have gone, but it is also time for you to make concrete goals. Today, you start putting together a business plan, which includes items that you can do every day to make sure you are on the road to success. Pull out your personal planner, and start filling in some days. This will be an ongoing exercise, but let us get started.

Exercise One:

Open your calendar to a sample week – this is going to be a week that the rest of the year is based upon. I believe that every week should look basically the same in your real estate career. You do certain things on certain days, and you make sure they get done. This way, nothing falls through the cracks, and you begin to form strong, consistent working habits.

Take this calendar, and mark out the times that are non-negotiable. For instance, mark out the times for office meetings, date night with your significant other, dinners with the family, your favorite day off during the week, office real estate tours, regular weekly board functions, and any other things that will prevent prospecting for leads. Also, you need to reserve a couple hours, preferably on Sundays, for organization of the next week’s plan.

You will soon discover how limited your time is for being productive, for finding clients, and making differences in clients’ lives is limited. Don’t let it panic or disturb you. I do not want you going back and erasing things because you figure you can live without them. It is very crucial that you keep these non-negotiable times as just that. Otherwise, your family, your friends, your health . . . every vital part of your life will begin to deteriorate. Ask any top producing agents who have been in this business for more than a year, and they will simply nod their weary heads. Don’t compromise on your life.

The purpose of this book is to allow you to build strong, workable systems that do not infringe on your non-negotiable times. While their initial implementation may be a bit time consuming, they are designed to allow you a life of your own while still creating a profitable business.

The next time-block to enter into the schedule is your time to prospect expireds. This is the time you are going to spend every day to prepare the letters, do the telephone research, address research, typing, and visiting of the expireds. We are going to get more extensively involved with the expireds. I have talked to dozens of mega producers in North America, and they agree with me: expireds are the least expensive method of lead generation with the highest potential return – in good and bad markets. They are most productive in tough markets, though!

Now that you have all the non-negotiable times and your expired times marked off on your calendar, you still have some blank space. Have no fear – we’ll soon fill that also!

Exercise Two: 

Now it is time to increase the expired effort. I have been having you go out and visit the expireds, and I want you to continue to do this. However, since they are the most profitable group of prospects at one of the least costs, I want you to spend more time and money to pursue this avenue.

Begin a telemarketing and direct mail effort. I want you to now increase the number of your expireds to 20, if that is possible (in some areas there are not 20 expireds a day, so disregard and do the maximum amount possible). These new 20 expireds should be approached first with a telephone call and then followed up with a letter and a visit – all within a 48 hour period. Here is exactly how I want you to do it:

1. Research the expireds (if allowable, cancelleds and withdrawns, too) in the morning or late in the evening, depending on when your MLS allows you to gain access to the daily “E, C, and Ws.”

2. From this research, you can either locate the addresses and the phone numbers yourself or through your title company. To make the best of your resource of time, ask your title company to initially research the addresses and phone numbers for you. Remember that these properties are not always owner occupied. To ensure that you can contact the property owners of expired listings, their addresses and phone numbers must be researched.

As I stated briefly in week one, the easier it is to find the seller, the more competition you will have. In my experience, when the people lived at the house and the phone number was advertised on the printout from the expired, I might have as many as 20 competitors; however, if it was difficult to find current mailing addresses and phone numbers of the owners – there was less competition. The following are the sources I want you to use to find the mailing address of the seller.

1. The actual printout of the expireds
2. Reverse directories
3. Tax records
4. Neighbors (use reverse directories)

These are the sources I want you to use in trying to find the phone number. This had better look familiar to you. I printed the same list a few days back:

1. Google their names and locations
2. The MLS print outs
3. Phone book/411/other online sources
4. Old MLS database records
5. Title companies
6. Tax records
7. Crisscross directories – a phone book that is categorized by street name and/or phone number. There are also online sources available.
8. Old office files.
9. Use the crisscross directory to call the neighbors next door and across the street from the “E, C, and Ws,” last resort, which is usually very profitable.

These are also prime candidates for telemarketing. When you call these people, the script is this:

Mr. Johnson, my name is Walter Sanford. I work with Sanford Systems. Recently, there was a property next door (or across the street from you – pick one). It was listed for sale, and it is no longer on the market. I might have a buyer for this property, and I just cannot find the owner’s phone number or address. Do you know where the owner can be contacted?

This dialogue allows you to get that client who has left a phone number or address in case of an emergency. None of your competition will go to this extra step. In addition to prospecting the people on the street, you are also getting a potential lead where there might be only one competitor – the previous listing agent. Since that agent has already allowed the listing to expire, there is a good chance you have an excellent opportunity to get that listing. This is one of the most profitable aspects of expireds. Make sure you continue the dialogue, if the client is willing. Please be forewarned that many people are on the “Do Not Call” lists. The previous dialogue of looking for someone else, if done on an infrequent basis, may be okay; however, general solicitation without a previous business relationship is not okay. If the conversation with the former neighbor is continuing in a positive tone, continue your script with something similar to the following sample:

Since I have a buyer for the neighborhood, do you know of anyone else who needs to sell?

 

You don’t have to wait for this series to wrap up this week. You can get a FULL and complete copy for yourself. Invest in your career or the career of a friend or loved one) with If I Could Start Over Again. In this manual, you’ll be guided for the first 90-days of your new career or career reboot.

New or seasoned agents will get the foundation that generated my immediate cash flow. This product is includes every letter, system, call and move that I would make should I start over again in your town. This includes the data CD, which is a digital copy for easier implementation.

Check out the details: http://www.waltersanford.com/shop/if-i-could-start-over-again/. Call 800.792.5837 and ask for the $50 blog special on If I Could Start Over Again!

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