If you could chose between working with someone who wants to list their home for $200,000 and someone else who would like to buy it, which one would you chose? The listing opportunity or the buying opportunity?
I would really hope that you chose the listing opportunity.
Let’s see why listings provide asymmetric returns:
Seller listings maximize your hourly compensation.
It usually takes a lot less time to obtain and market a listing than it takes to convert a buyer.
More control of your time.
Buyers tend to bring a sense of urgency that sellers typically don’t.
More deals.
A highly focused, well leveraged real estate agent can typically work with 15 to 25 seller listings per month. A buyers agent would be hard-pressed working with 7 or 8 buyers per month and keep it up over a long period of time.
Brand marketing.
By advertising the listing through newspapers, magazines, the MLS, direct mail or a sign in the front yard, you get your business in front of people.
Correctly marketed seller listings bring you more business.
The interest that the listing will generate will bring buyers your way which you can convert into buyers agreements. All of these buyers will also be living somewhere, and you can get additional listings from them.
Being on the pulse of the market.
Working with sellers, you are on the frontend of pricing, which gives you an intimate knowledge of the market and makes you a true expert.
Buyers on the other hand present no marketing opportunities. In addition, indecisive buyers can demand weeks, if not months, of your attention before buying. Even worse, they might not buy at all.
This is what we mean by “asymmetric returns”. The returns, compared to the efforts, are much higher for sellers than buyers. This is why top producing agents focus their time and energy on getting more listings. They understand the incredible advantages of making, obtaining, and marketing seller listings as a driver of their entire business. They focus exclusively on this activity. Over time, they will hire buyers specialists to work on the other side of business in order to stay concentrated on the high-return, high-leverage business of listings.
Make listings your primary focus. Listings will give you back the control of your time and money, and the rewards you reap from your efforts will be the highest they could possibly be.
