Market Mondays: Listing Update Email
REALTOR Listing Update and Price Reductions
As a real estate agent, you need a system for listing maintenance and following up with sellers during your listing agreement. Market Monday is an email you can send your sellers on a weekly basis. This email keeps them updated on the market conditions and primes them for a price reduction. It is a simple email that includes feedback, market updates, marketing, and a REALTOR recommendation.
Information:
Market Monday is the weekly email that I send to sellers. Of anything I do, this email is one of the most important aspects of my sales process. It has four sections, each with a particular purpose.
Sections:
Feedback: Use this to provide detailed feedback on showings and/or inquiries
Purpose: Ensure you are including a section detailing “what this mean for us.” We need to contextualize feedback into actionable items.
Language Tip: Use language that highlights we are on the same team. As in, use “we” and not “what does this mean for you us.”
Market Update: Use this section to position the listing.
Purpose: Frame the listing in terms of where it stands in the marketplace. We want to position our listing as the next one to sell. For example, if there is an active comparable listing that is more desirable than ours and it’s listed for a lower price, we will not be the next comparable to sell.
Additionally, use hard figures and stats combined with links to other listings. The reason for this is some sellers will be facts and figures focused while others will be more drawn to photos. We want to ensure both types of clients are being served appropriately.
If the listing is live at the start of the month, I will also provide a monthly report on the state of the market in their direct area.
Language Tip: Write in terms of what the market is suggesting. Don’t say, “this means we are priced too high.” Instead, say, “this suggests that we are in the higher ranges when comparing to other active listings/sales.”
Marketing: Show any marketing stats, copy, and design that are available through MLS and Non-MLS.
Purpose: This is where you can shine! Let the seller know what you’re doing to drive traffic to the listing.
Be precise with figures.
Add any visuals as well, such as your social media posts/graphics.
Recommendation: Provide a suggestion (if any) to the seller.
Purpose: You can use this to prepare a seller for an upcoming price reduction suggestion or outright recommend a reduction directly.
For example purposes, the recommendation in the template is a price adjustment suggestion.
Conclusion: Ask to discuss by phone.
Purpose: We need to turn this email into a brief phone call to hear from them. The email provides them with information, but we also need to determine how they would like to proceed.
During the phone call, speak less than you’d like. Use this as an opportunity to ask questions.
Market Monday Template (with price reduction ask)
Hi [first_name],
I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Here is your weekly update!
Feedback:
Showing 1:
Showing 2:
Showing 3:
Showing X:
We also had __ inquiries. [Provide additional information]
What this means for us __________
Market Update:
Over the last week, there were
___ New Comparable Listings
___ Comparable Sales
___ Comparable Price Reductions
Here is a link to these properties: Link
What this suggests is we are in the upper end of the market when compared to these listings. To increase our competitiveness, the market is pointing to a likely range of [$X - $X].
Marketing:
MLS:
On MLS, we are sitting at __ views and __ favorites.
Non-MLS
[Add what you’ve done over the last week. Typically this is social media views/clicks, website visitors, etc. This could also be open house marketing, flyers, postcards, etc]
[Add your social media posts/graphics - make it visual]
Recommendation: (This includes a price reduction template)
In analyzing the data over the last week, the market is suggesting that we are on the upper end/outside of the likely valuation range. In order to best position us to sell, my suggestion is to adjust the price to [$X - $X]
Three things I watch closely before recommending a reduction: properties selling in the market, action/inquiries/feedback around the listing, the property's market value and the market direction.
As odd as it sounds, reducing the price rarely leads to a lower accepted price. Instead, it is a proactive approach to be one step ahead of the market and lines us up to be the ideal choice for buyers.
Reducing price can feel like money leaving your pocket when instead, it is just putting us in a better position to sell. The market ultimately pays the price for a property at the value that it deems to be "market value." This is independent of the list price, but the closer we get to that market value number, the higher the likelihood of a strong offer coming forth.
Know that this price adjustment comes from a place of mutual purpose in selling your home for the highest possible price, and I fully respect your decision.
Conclusion:
Do you have a few moments to discuss your listing today or tomorrow? I’d love to hear your perspectives and discuss the approach that would make the most sense for you and your family.
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In this real estate agent training podcast, you will learn about the Market Monday email.
Podcast Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Rev Real Estate School. The podcast with quick tips and actionable advice to help you sell more real estate in today's world. And now your host Michael Montgomery.
[00:00:11] Hello and welcome back to Rev Real Estate School. I'm your host Michael Montgomery. Today, we are talking about listing maintenance and specifically we're talking about what you can do on a weekly basis to keep your sellers informed to get price reductions if necessary and to maintain the relationship that you have with the seller. This is a very simple strategy that I use absolutely every single week on Mondays. And it's called the Market Monday e-mail. It goes out absolutely every single Monday. Rain or shine by sellers start to anticipate it. They look forward to it because they want to know what's happening with their listing. I do this for a number of different reasons like I said off the start I want to maintain the relationship with the seller.
[00:01:01] If you are in a market where things are slowing down slightly and you're carrying listings for longer periods of time so it's not selling in two or three days like it was previously or if you're going that direction then having some sort of listing maintenance practice put into place will be very very important. If you're still in a really hot market. Awesome. That's great. But still knowing how to do this will lead to more referrals and more repeat clients.
[00:01:31] So what is the market Monday email and why is it so effective? Basically it's just a weekly follow up but it's done so in a way that has some very effective elements to get the sellers to do certain things that I need them to do. And if you're in a slowing market sometimes that does mean asking for the price reduction which can be one of the most challenging things that real estate agents do is become comfortable with asking for a price reduction. Therefore, in this e-mail you're going to see how we go about asking for the price reduction in the email and then also how we align ourselves to have conversations with the seller basically after they've been able to review the information within the email.
[00:02:11] Why does it come as an email? The reason is is because there's pictures there's graphs there's data within the email so there's a lot of information for them to absorb. This gives them a chance to go through the data go through the information and then from there at the end of the e-mail you'll see that there is a recommendation. It gives them a chance to absorb the information and then from there we can have a conversation. If you're just picking up the phone once a week and you're just having a quick conversation with the seller that's great. It's better than nothing. But in order to show a higher level of value in a higher level of service we need to be reporting to the sellers on what's happening in the community and in the market. And then also leaving ourselves open to have conversations with them later on throughout the day.
[00:02:58] My market Monday emails are broken into four sections. You can use these sections you can add sections you can do what ever you would like but I find these four sections work very very well for me. The first section is feedback. The second is market update. The third is marketing and stats. And the fourth is recommendation so let's jump into what each of those four sections are.
[00:03:21] First off feedback. So the first section within the email is feedback and I'm providing the sellers with the feedback over the last week on their property so if I had an open house I'm giving them information on what buyers were saying in the open house. If there's been showings and I've requested feedback from the realtors that have shown the property that I'm providing them with the feedback here just in written form. Now if there haven't been any showings and there hasn't been any open houses so you don't have too much to say in the way of feedback then you can always go to what maybe some other people in your office have said about your listing. It's basically just a section where you can provide information on what people are saying about their listing and that is the purpose of the feedback. I always like to start with that.
[00:04:05] The second section is market update. So this is where I'm going to give them kind of a roundup on what's happened over the last week. Sales expiry new listings price reductions anything and everything that can impact them goes into this section I drop it in a link there and then I explain why certain properties are important. This section is extremely important and it's showing them that you are watching the market you're watching what's happening in their community and not only that it's forcing you to stay aware of what's happening in the community if something is listed on their street they should hear it from you first not from some other realtor email list that they're on or anything like that they should hear from you first. That is what I use the market update section for this. Also will prime them into potentially getting towards a price reduction if we're seeing other properties come on the market that are price lower than us and I know that those ones are likely to sell before we are then I use this section to explain that. So this is a very very powerful section if you are looking to move towards a price reduction also once a month I will put within the Market Update section. Just what's happening for the monthly stats. So they just get a quick monthly recap on what's happening. And again especially if you're in a slower market where your inventory is sitting with you for a month two months three months plus this can be very very useful.
[00:05:30] The third section is marketing and stats. So what am I putting in marketing and stats. Basically what I'm doing here is I'm giving them any sort of reporting that I can from the MLS. So if there's a certain number of people that have favorites that are viewed it that have marked it as a possibility. Whatever sort of data that the MLS provides you I'm putting that in here. I'm also showing them a graph of how many people are looking at their property and I'm giving them Web site analytics. So I'm saying this is how many people came looked at your listing online. Now if you're running Facebook or Instagram ads or anything like that then I also report here on how many impressions or how many clicks and that sort of thing. This is a very useful section because this is showing your value beyond just putting a sign up and walking away and this is one of the biggest concerns when somebody's selling their home. They're worried their realtor is going to come in sign the paperwork and then disappear. So in marketing and stats section I'm showing a lot of the stuff that I'm doing behind the scenes to get the home sold. Sellers don't always see this. They don't always see the Facebook ads that you're doing. They don't always see potentially the doorknocking that you're doing or the flyers that you're sending out. This section you're letting them know so that they're able to truly see where your value is even when they're not getting showings or when the market is slowing. They still want to see that you're working and that is what I use this section for.
[00:06:52] Finally the fourth section is recommendation. This section is used primarily to ask for a price reduction. If I do think it's necessary or prime them for a price reduction the next week or so. And what do I mean by prime them. So typically what happens when you're looking for a price reduction you pick up the phone you call yourself and you say look there's another one left and we have to come down on price. And what do they typically say. They're typically a little bit confused a little bit upset a little bit frustrated because of course this isn't news that they want to hear it's never a sellers first option to go and take a price reduction right. So how can we go about having this conversation with sellers even before it's necessary. And this is that in the recommendation section if I do think we're moving towards that time where maybe next week we may want to think about having a price reduction or think about doing it the next couple of weeks. Then I can just kind of plant that seed into the recommendation section I can say look you know based on the activity and the feedback and the number of showings if we have another slow week then next week I would think about coming down on price. Now this is what is called priming them. So you've prime them. So the next week in the recommendation when you are saying I think it doesn't make sense for us to think about getting a little bit more aggressive on price this week and positioning ourselves better then it's not a surprise for them and they're not gonna be as frustrated and upset because they saw this coming and then given that you've been doing this for weeks on end and they've been watching the market activity this doesn't come as a surprise either and they really see the logic behind this. So the recommendation is such a great tool.
[00:08:30] Then at the end of the email I always let them know to please give me a call we can talk about this a little bit more in detail we can go through each of the sections.
[00:08:37] This is what I call the Market Monday email and it has worked wonders. It's worked wonders for maintaining my relationships with the sellers keeping the listing if it does happen to expire we're currently in quite a slow market. So listings expire all the time. Therefore, we really have to maintain those relationships and we've been able to hold onto a ton of our listings because of this and then not to mention we've gotten sellers to be in these very competitive positions as far as pricing goes because they really understand the market from this email. And then like I said at the end we always let sellers know that they can give us a shout or we can talk them a little bit later that day about the information in the email. And this seems to work very very well because again like we said right at the very start they've had a chance to digest this information. And then when it comes time to have the conversation you're having a realistic conversation potentially about where that price reduction is going to be versus just having a frustrated conversation with the seller that does not want to reduce their price. That is the market Monday email.
[00:09:42] Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Remember you can ask a top producer anything all you do is write interview the show head over our website go to the free coaching section let us know where you did that and a top producer gives you a call. Thanks so much and we'll see you in the next lesson.
[00:09:55] This episode of Rev Real Estate School has come to a close. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you back here for the next lesson.