Prospecting – Door Knocking
With the completion of this module, the participant should be able to / or have done:
Guidelines on what to do and say when door knocking.
How to visit someone to look for a specific listing.
How to visit someone to promote a listing, open day or auction.
The strategy for visiting everyone on your farm to introduce yourself and find out about their property and circumstances.
How to visit someone to introduce yourself and find out about them.
How to write thank-you notes to the people you visit.
Prospecting – Door Knocking
Knowledge and skills taught in this session:
- Guidelines on what to do and say when door knocking.
Remember to get your workbook out and follow through in it, as you complete the lessons online. Do the work, complete your daily planner and do the exam questions.
Guidelines
This session discusses three types of visit you can make:
To look for a specific listing.
To tell people about a listing, open day or auction.
To introduce yourself and find out a little about the person’s circumstances.
Below are some guidelines for approaching home owners on their territory:
Always be enthusiastic.
Stand back from the door as you hear the person answering. It is best to be looking away, at the street or some part of the house. In any case, show a side profile as the person opens the door.
If possible, wait for the owner to say something first before turning to address them.
Be careful of your body language. It should be natural – not too aggressive and not too soft. Keep your hands out of your pockets and stand up straight.
It is always good to have something to give the owner. This could be some information on the marketplace, a list of important phone numbers or the like.
Keep your introduction to 60 seconds or less.
Try to keep it quick and fun. Tom Hopkins used to say that knocking on 20 doors would give you only one lead, so every time someone said “no, thank you” he thanked them for getting him closer to his goal!
Send a thank you note.
A vital part of a visit is the thank you afterwards.
Prospecting – Door Knocking 2
Knowledge and skills taught in this session:
- How to visit a person to look for a specific listing.
Remember to get your workbook out and follow through in it, as you complete the lessons online. Do the work, complete your daily planner and do the exam questions.
Scenario 1: looking for a listing
How to visit a person to look for a specific listing.
The strategy is to visit the homes in a particular section of your farm in order to look for a specific house for a specific buyer in a specific street.
The script could go something like this:
“Good evening. My name’s Peter Gilchrist. I’m with loop Realty and I promise I won’t take up much of your time! I’m here because I have a cash buyer who has specifically pointed out this street as a place they’d like to live. I was wondering if you folks had any plans to make a move.”
This is a good way to get straight to the point.
You will probably get an answer along the lines of “not in the near future”, “not for a couple of years”, or “not for a good ten years”.
This is also a great chance to ask about specific houses in the area; for example:
“I noticed number 10 is empty at the moment. Do you know what is happening with that house?”
You finish with:
“Well, thank you for your time. I am doing a lot of work in this area. Can I leave my card? There’s a bit of information there on what’s happening with values in the area and the average time it’s taking to sell a home. It may be of interest to you. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
An alternative opening might be:
“Good evening. My name’s Peter Gilchrist and I’m with loop Realty. I won’t take more than a minute of your time. It is Mrs Smith, isn’t it? [You have already looked up and found the homeowner’s name.] Mrs Smith, I have to tell you that you live in a very popular part of this city at the moment. So popular, in fact, that my company has several buyers from here and out of town that have specifically said they’d love to live in this area and, in fact, in this street. So the good news is, you live in a high-demand area! At the same time, my mission tonight – this is a business call – is to see whether you folks have any plans to move.”
After you have visited, send each person a personal note to say thank you. If possible, do this on the same day as the visit or, failing that, on the following day. You could include a scratchy or some further information about the market. See the example of a personal note below.
Thank-you note
XYZ Realty
Melbourne
Phone 863 3645
Wednesday 3pm
Dear Mrs Smith
Thank you so much for your time at the door last night. I did get several leads in your area for my potential buyers and would like to keep you informed about what happens there. Meanwhile, if things change or there is anything I can do for you either in buying or selling, do not hesitate to call me.
Kind regards
Peter
Role play:Role play scenario 1
Exercise:
Run through both openings. Practice the scripts several times until you are familiar with them.
Prospecting – Door Knocking 3
Knowledge and skills taught in this session:
- How to visit a person to promote a listing, open day or auction.
Remember to get your workbook out and follow through in it, as you complete the lessons online. Do the work, complete your daily planner and do the exam questions.
Scenario 2: promoting a listing
One of the best ways of telling your neighborhood that a property has come up for sale, or when an open day is on or an auction is due, is to actually visit people and tell them about it. You do this instead of putting leaflets in letterboxes.
Your script could go something like this:
“Good evening. It’s Mrs Jones, isn’t it? My name’s Peter Gilchrist from loop Realty. I’m doing a lot of work in your area at the moment. I thought you might like to know that number 3 down the road has just come onto the market. Have you seen the sign?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“I have a flyer here on the property, just in case you have any interest yourselves or you have family or friends who may be interested in moving into the area. I quite often find that’s the case. I’ll keep you posted on what happens. But can I just say, the first open day is this Saturday at 3pm. It would be great to see you come along. Would you folks have any interest in moving right now?”
“No, not really.”
“Well, sales in the area are a very good indication of the interest in your street and this area. And, of course, the price is something you can use as a guideline on how values are going on your own property. I’ll keep you posted over the next few weeks. If I can ever help you with a buying or selling decision, don’t hesitate to call me. Here’s my card and a flyer on the property. It’s been nice to meet you. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
Role play:Role play scenario 2
Exercise:
Practice the script several times until you are familiar with it.
Prospecting – Door Knocking 4
Knowledge and skills taught in this session:
- The strategy for introducing yourself to all the home owners on your farm and finding out about their properties and circumstances.
Remember to get your workbook out and follow through in it, as you complete the lessons online. Do the work, complete your daily planner and do the exam questions.
The strategy for introducing yourself
The ideal way of developing a presence on your farm is to visit everyone on it and introduce yourself. In doing so, you can also gather basic information about the residents’ properties and circumstances.
The strategy is:
You visit, in a short space of time, every house in your area.
When you visit a home, you meet the owner and note the characteristics of the property.
During the visit, you also ask “when might you folks be making a move?” You can categorise the answers from 1 to 5, where category 1 is “They’ll carry me out in a box” (and the owner looks well and healthy!) and category 5 is “Actually, we’ll be putting our home on the market by the end of the year”.
Build a profile of the 4s and 5s to a point where you know who is moving in the next one to two years.
You can use iWON to do all this. The entry for a property might look something like this:
Brick and tile
1930s
Excellent condition – has been refurbished throughout
Looks like 3 bedrooms
Double garage and large back yard
Sunny and great views of the harbour
Around $250K to $300K.
You could include a digital photo of your entire farm area in the system.
Prospecting – Door Knocking 5
Knowledge and skills taught in this session:
- How to visit a person and introduce yourself and ask about their circumstances.
Remember to get your workbook out and follow through in it, as you complete the lessons online. Do the work, complete your daily planner and do the exam questions.
The booklet Peter refers to in this clip is available for download in the exercice box at the bottom of this page
Scenario 3: Introducing Yourself
Here is a suggested script:
“Good evening. My name’s Peter Gilchrist. I’m with loop Realty and I won’t take more than a minute of your time. I’m doing a lot of work in this neighbourhood and I’m getting to be something of an expert in real estate here. I’d just like to introduce myself. Once again, my name’s Peter Gilchrist. And your name is?”
“Mrs Smith.”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs Smith [shake hands]. I have some information on sales in the area that you may be able to use as a guide to the value of your home. What I’d like to do is keep you in the loop about what’s happening in real estate here. Would that be real with you?”
“Yes, no problem.”
“real. In terms of making a move yourselves, when might you be selling your home?” Or “When would you folks be making a move next?”
“Not for many, many years.”
“Alright, you like it here?”
“Yes, we do.”
“Fantastic. Well, I’m certainly pleased to be involved in marketing real estate in this area and I look forward to meeting you again.”
An alternative script might go like this:
“Good evening. My name’s Peter Gilchrist. I’m with loop Realty and can I say what a beautiful area you’ve chosen to live in! It’s been a pleasure for me to be doing transactions with the people here. I’d like, tonight, just to introduce myself as loop Realty’s representative in this area, in case you should be looking to make any real estate decisions, whether buying or selling. As the rep here, I get to see a lot of the sales and I’d like, over the next few months, to keep you in the loop about things That may affect the value of your own home. Is that real with you?”
“Yes, sure.”
“Just so I have an understanding of your thinking, when would you folks be making a move next?”
“We’ll probably be moving in the next 12 months.”
“Alright. Well, I realise you have a choice of agency, so what I’d like to do is keep in contact with you and keep you up to date, in the hope that when the time comes for you to move, you’ll consider giving me a call. Can I give you this sheet? It gives information on the average sale time, what’s happening in this area – that sort of thing. It may be of use to you. I look forward to meeting you again and, from time to time, I’ll send you updates. Thank you for your time and enjoy the rest of your evening.”
From then on, the person will see “just listed”, “just sold”, and “come to the auction”. They will see the rubbish clean-up, your Easter and Christmas contacts, and a whole raft of other contacts from you throughout the year.
Role play:Role play scenario 3
Run through both scripts. Practice them several times until you are familiar with them.