Real Estate and COVID-19: How to Be the Calming Force
Good Monday morning. It’s the week of March 16th and welcome to Mike Ferry TV.
So, I wrote down one … two … three … four … five … six points for us today that I want you to focus on. Point number one of course is … let’s remember that we all have a job to do … and in Real Estate, there’s no restrictions on the fact that you have to stay home … and if you do have to stay home because you’re not feeling well, you can still pick up the phone and call somebody.
So, do your job. I think that’s the most important message that I can relay. You know, the fears that everybody is experiencing … the fears that we all have … the emotions behind it … the drama … that’s all real. It’s understandable, but the truth is … we all have a job to do. Do your job.
You know, it’s interesting that every time you and I list a home for sale that sells … or go out and take a Buyer and make a Buyer-controlled sale … depending on where you live, there’s 10 to 20 different jobs activated on the spot. You know, if you’re in the West, for example, a listing sells … Buyer-controlled sale … escrow is going to be working … usually a mortgage company is going to be working … an appraiser is going to be working … a home inspector’s going to be working … two or three different functions in the title insurance company are going to be working.
See, what we do is we create jobs when we do transactions. We are the centerpiece of the economy when you really look at what we do. What we do is vitally important to the national economy … so when you hear me say, “Do your job,” let’s make sure … if nothing else … at least this week we do our job.
You know, it’s interesting because I wrote down that a listing presentation and a sales presentation, meaning showing property to a Buyer … you’re not dealing with a big crowd … and that’s the big challenge we have today is, of course, avoid big crowds, which is certainly understandable. Usually there’s two or three people involved. You know, you’re on a listing presentation … it’s generally going to be a husband or wife. You’re showing property … it’s generally going to be the husband or the wife … or the husband and wife.
So, I guess the biggest message I can say to you then is … use common sense … and you know, we know in Real Estate common sense is certainly not very common. I’ve had a lot of our Coaching clients say, “You know … I’m a little nervous about going on a listing presentation. I’m a little nervous about putting a Buyer in the car,” and … again … that’s called normal … that’s called understandable. We’re all nervous with what’s going on in the world … specifically in U.S. and Canada … specifically in your community.
I wrote down an additional prequalifying question that I asked all of our Coaching clients to ask. So, you’re asking your prequalifying questions to your Buyer or your Seller and then you’re going to ask the obvious question … “Mrs. Smith, may I ask … is everybody in the family healthy?”
And she goes, “Yeah. They’re all healthy.”
“Great … I look forward to seeing you at 4:00.”
Or she said, “Well, my husband has got the flu … or he’s got a bad cold … or the kids have been sick for a couple days.”
“Would you prefer we delay the presentation? Or would you like to come to my office instead of me coming to your home?” Fair question to ask. They will understand why you would be asking that question.
So, Sabrina made a comment to me a couple days ago and she said … “Mike, you got to get this message across. You can’t disconnect from your lifeline just because we’re having this worldwide epidemic take place. You still have to participate … you still have to be involved … you still have to do things.”
So, I started making a list of things that we cannot disconnect from …
A company sales meeting that your company puts on.
A company training that your company puts on.
Your role-play and practice, which is generally done on the phone.
You can’t disconnect from talking to your accountability partners.
You can’t start missing mastermind calls … those are very important.
You can’t … if you’re involved in coaching with us … you can’t miss your coaching calls.
You still have to do your prospecting … mostly by phone.
You still have to do your lead follow-up.
You still have to be calling your database because that’s where your referrals are.
Most importantly, you have to be the calming force in every situation.
Our job is to be the calming force. If you need some help … I wrote down our phone number … 800-448-0647. Call us. Talk to myself … talk to our sales team … we’re the calming force for you … you need to be the calming force for your prospects and clients.
So, as I stated to my Coaching clients this past Friday … in the worst of the recession of ’06 … ’07 … ’08 … ’09 … ’10 … ’11 … and ’12 … we went from about 6.5 million sales/transactions in the U.S. all the way down to 3.9 million. The good news was … the number of agents dropped from about 1.3 million down to about 750,000. We’re going to see a lot of agents disappear in this kind of an economy … in this kind of situation … and we’re sorry to see them leave, but … guess what? The number of transactions is also going to drop … never going to be as substantial of what we experienced … but the number of transactions will drop.
Remember … whenever the stock market drops, Real Estate sales increase. So, your participation is vitally important to the economy … to the company you work for … and more importantly, to yourself and to your family.
Be the calming force. Watch this every day this week … send me a note … give me your response. See you next Monday. Thank you.
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Mike Ferry is the global leader in real estate coaching and training. Watch Mike each week as he discusses a variety of topics to help real estate agents and brokers. Grow your real estate business by improving your mindset, developing your skills and creating a plan of action to increase your production!