Open Mandates - Continue
Our focus is to ensure that agents find it easier to win the homeowner’s TRUST.
We work on business plans to ensure that agents interact with homeowners who are roughly in the same age category and furthermore have the same language preference.
The Stock Controllers will help agents find properties to list. They will arrange listing meetings for the agents.
It is impossible to succeed if the agency only has access to a small number of open mandates. Agents need overpriced properties which they position around the property they want to sell. (Buyers must be motivated to put in an Offer to Purchase and they will only do this if they are certain that the specific property is well priced against the other properties.)
There are numerous training modules which we will provide to Stock Controllers. They need to help agents list certain properties before the others. We cannot afford that the agents spend time on listings that might not sell.
Well informed agents
It is astonishing to know how many agents and principals are not clued up with exactly how many mandates the agency has on a specific date…
It is true that agents in a team do not communicate on a regular basis… The reality however is that when you offer a service to a homeowner, you should be a well-informed person.
It is just easier for the homeowner to trust an agent if he/she believes that the Agent is clued up about his/her work.
The agent should be able to convey the following when the agent asks the homeowner when they talk about the client’s asking price:
For discussion purposes, the agent (Dawie Smith) is busy to talk with the homeowner of 191 Starkey Avenue, Waverley when he is busy with the listing. The owner suggested an asking price of R1,175 million (commission is included).
Dawie should immediately be able to inform the owner that the agency has 201 properties on book now. The team is busy to negotiate with 10 homeowners to find out if the agency could help to market their properties. (This is the reason why we prefer to open the Outstanding Listing Report when the agent opens the reports). It is important that the homeowner’s address should also be included in the outstanding list.
Dawie will then open the Summary of Available Stock report. Dawie will show the homeowner that if Dawie list the property for the R1,175 million, that the agency will then have 3 properties in Waverley to sell in the same price bracket. Dawie will also point out that there are 2 properties in the same price range in Moregloed. There will therefore be 5 properties in the same geographical area. Dawie will then point out that in the agency’s entire marketing area, buyers in the price range will have access to 13 properties including the new listing.
Dawie will then inform the homeowner that he will arrange with Matilda Meintjies (Stock Controller) to mail the owner additional information about all the properties in Waverley and Moregloed. It might even include the physical addresses, depending on the seller’s motive to sell. (The person might be relocating to another town for work etc)
There are numerous services which we later discuss via the Stock Controllers, but one service is to help the owner understand exactly against which properties he/she will compete to sell. We will also publish a report on the average days that a property is in the market per price category in each suburb. It is relevant information that the homeowner must receive so that he/she can understand how long they should expect their property to be in the market before it should sell. There might even be a scenario where the agent will take the owner to the other properties so that he/she can view for themselves what options are available… (It all depends on Sole Mandate Negotiations etc)
Most agents do not have a clue on exactly how many properties the agency has on book. Agents will realize just how easy it is to win the homeowner’s trust when you use reports.
Properties not in Media Report
This is also an important report. The training modules will explain this in more detail. In short, homeowners often use the internet to determine how much they want for their properties.
We help agents to arrange with Open Mandates that homeowners should allow them up to 7 days before photos of the property will be on the internet. (In future, it will be supported by a phone app). For now, agents should ask at least 3 days to allow the existing buyers to view the property while the team prepares the photos for the internet)
There are even other reasons why we ask homeowners the 3 days courtesy. Explained in training modules.
Agents should explain to homeowners that a large number of properties that were conveyed by the Deeds Office never reached the internet. Explain that experienced agents all do their best to keep well-priced properties out of media, to allow them time before opposition agents get access to these properties… This is one of the reasons why homeowners cannot rely on the internet photos of properties as an instrument to determine price…
Training Modules
There will be modules that agents will receive to help them convince homeowners not to invite other agents.
Support from Homecare Stock Controllers
To get access to Open Mandates is important. You need Open Mandates to determine which Sole Mandates should be negotiated…
The Homecare Board is serious about securing business for our Ambassador Partners…. We will now in short explain how the 4 Homecare Stock Controllers will interact with the 97 Stock Controllers situated in the branches to help agents reach as many homeowners as possible.
We already explained the technology we develop to help agents… The technology will contribute to success, but that is not all we rely on…
The objective is to monitor why the Ambassador agents might be contacted 2nd or 3rd to help homeowners sell properties… The reports that the Stock Controllers will manage will help the principals and the Homecare team to determine which action plans should be implemented in which suburbs to push the agents towards being called first…
The reason why Homecare Stock Controllers need access to information at branch level will now become clearer.
Monthly Campaigns
The public will know that the Homecare team supply financial support to Social Workers employed by the Non-Governmental Child Protection branches.
We however interact with numerous management teams in the Child Protection industry… We also know about situations where some of these branches find themselves in such a financial position that the support services will soon end.
For example, Makha Thusi is the director of Child Welfare in Kempton Park. The branch is in such a bad financial position that Makha was forced to sell some of their vehicles to pay staff a portion of their salaries… They struggle with fundraising activities…
The Homecare Board will on a monthly basis identify critical cases. We will then manage a media campaign specifically designed to support the critical case on behalf of the agents nationally to source leads.
We ask agents to register all their contacts onto our platform. The Homecare team will mail these contacts on behalf of the agent and we will notify them that the Agent is an Ambassador of the Homecare Foundation.
The software will thereafter communicate with the contacts, on behalf of the agent, using his/her “Ambassador” photo in communication structures.
We will then explain that properties being listed for that month, will bring in 5% commission when they are sold and that more than 75% of these contributions will go towards that project in need… The balance goes towards funding Homecare projects in general. The Ambassador asks the community to help, and it will be appreciated if contacts can forward information, does not matter where the property is situated that they might have heard about. We include a form that the contact can fill in, which our stock controllers will be able to read.
Example:
Agent (Carel) in Bloemfontein loaded his brother (Steven) in Bela-Bela onto our platform as a “Contact Person”. The Homecare software will e-mail Steven on behalf of Carel. The brother knows about a friend (Jaco) who decided to sell his property in Richards bay.
To eliminate lots of communication between agents, stock controllers in the different offices and the Homecare stock controllers, the Homecare team decided that it will be easier if we manage the entire process.
We will mail all the contacts of all the agents with the month’s campaign. This e-mail includes a form which contacts can fill in. Steven will be able to list that his friend (Jaco) might want to sell his property in Richards bay.
The Homecare Stock Controller (Mark) assigned to support the agents in Richards bay will review all the available data on the server… The Outstanding Listing report plus the current stock managed by the agents in Richards bay.
The following will then happen:
1) Cannot rely on possible commission income from Jaco
Mark was able to verify that Richards bay agents already know about Jaco (homeowner). He viewed an entry on the “Outstanding Listing Report”
Mark will phone and mail Steven to thank him for the lead. Mark will explain that the agents already knew about Jaco and that we unfortunately cannot rely on the possible commission. We only receive donation income when we secured the property.
2) Can go forward with lead
Mark could not find any information on the data structures managed by Belinda (Stock Controller at agency in Richards bay). We therefore go on with the lead process.
Mark will email and contact Belinda about the lead received via the network. He will provide the contact details of Steven (in Bela Bela) and the contact details of Jaco. Belinda will also receive a unique campaign number that she must list on her stock reports. Belinda will identify the agent in her team that should list the property, who will also receive the campaign number.
Mark will thank Steven for the lead and will confirm with him the campaign number associated to the month’s project.
The agent will give Jaco the campaign number when he lists the property. He will explain that 5% of the commission on successful sale will be paid to the Homecare Foundation which will end up at the Child Protection branch linked to that month’s campaign.
All the homeowners of properties listed nationally during that month’s campaign will receive a newsletter from the directors of the Child Protection branch, thanking them for the opportunity to allow agents in the team help them sell their properties.
The newsletters will explain that there will be a tracking process which is managed so that when the property eventually sell, the fees applicable will reach the child protection branch in desperate need.
Results expected
This process of getting the community involved will have a HUGE impact on sourcing mandates…. It will be IMPOSSIBLE for opposition agents to get access to mandates in the way Homecare Ambassadors will be supported….
Agents might think that a donation of 5% of the commission is expensive… Our research amongst the property companies revealed that agents pay up to 20% referral commission… that is steep!
5% of the commission earned by the agency is NOTHING, if you consider that it is only applicable if we provide clients that you did not knew about. The funds go back into the community you serve… The Homeowners will not argue about the 7,5% commission they need to pay when the property is sold. (Especially if they know that they work with the best team available)