Blog: Good Communication – Gaining Trust by Being Proactive

Proactive communication is the best way to keep your clients feeling calm and confident throughout the process of selling their property.

There are a variety of different ways to communicate these days and it seems to be continuously changing. From speaking to your client on the phone or sending emails, texts, and even social media messages, it is important to establish expectations to determine how and when you will contact them. Group texts are a great way to keep everyone involved in the sale up to date with changes as they happen and can lead to less redundancy.

Steps to successful communication in the real estate world:

1. First phone call: gain information about the property and about the client
   • Know what the client wants – ask questions so that you understand the full equation:
     • Do they also want to buy another property?
     • Are they upsizing or downsizing?
     • Are they moving out of town?
     • What is their timeline like?

2. If they want to move forward with the sale, outline what the upcoming weeks will look like and when they should expect to hear from you
   • You want your client to be fully updated with every step so that they feel confident with what is happening and do not need to ask a lot of questions
   • Let them know:
     • When photography/videography day is and tips on how best to prepare for that
     • How long it will take for photos to be ready and for listing to be created
     • When the property is listed and links for MLS listing and social media posts
   • Set realistic expectations for what will happen in terms of list price and market value, when to be aggressive and when to wait until a better time, and current amount of interest in that neighborhood
3. Once listed, message the seller throughout the week to schedule open houses, confirm showing plans and give quality feedback after showings
   • Feedbacks after a showing is a strong way to keep the seller updated and informed
     • Message the seller with feedback from potential buyers: what they liked, what they did not like, what they would prefer instead
     • Share specific details with the seller that will make a big impact for the next showing and possible sale – honesty is always important!
     • Share with the seller how many people came through to see the home to keep expectations realistic

4. Communication can help ease the stress of having a property listing that is lingering on the market
   • Discuss the possible negatives that are keeping it from being sold
   • If it has been on the market for 2-4 months, send weekly or biweekly updates on what is happening in their neighborhood
5. After an accepted offer, it is important to remember:
   • If it is conditional, ensure seller knows that it is not confirmed yet
     • Prepare the seller that it may not go through, some further steps still need to take place
       1. Keep sellers updated on dates of home inspection, appraisal, and subject removal date
       2. Roughly 30% of the time it may fall apart (depends on the type of property)
     • Try to talk about specific property issues with the buyer’s agent (20-year-old roof, old furnace, etc) with the hopes that they share this with their clients. This is a proactive way to get ahead of some negatives that may pop up during home inspection and can ease renegotiations.

6. It can take up to 8 weeks once subjects are removed until completion, which can feel like a very long time to the seller
   • Keep in contact, remind them when completion is coming up, and then how to exchange keys at completion
   • Follow up afterwards to make sure that the process went smoothly and that they had a good move

Communication Tips and tricks:

Use email templates when contacting the client. This ensures that important details are not missed and that all steps of the selling process are covered.

Try to stay away from open ended questions. The sellers are most likely not experts in this field and are looking to you for guidance on big decisions. Give them an approximate plan and then get their feedback. It is amazing how appreciative and relieved sellers are when given a detailed layout!

Know when to phone and when to text. Sometimes a phone call can lead to less confusion and bigger picture conversations that can help your client understand the full process better, leading to less questions later.

Let the seller know specifically when you will call so that they are not waiting, and/or calling you multiple times instead.

Listen to The Garbutt+Dumas Real Estate Podcast: Good Communication – Gaining Trust by Being Proactive episode to hear specific examples of how James and Denny communicate with their clients during a property sale.

Do you have questions regarding real estate or how best to sell a property? We would love to hear from you – contact us and we can help you with some of the specifics.