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We all want to get more appraisals. They’re a great way to have a meaningful face-to-face conversation with your clients and give them a comprehensive run down on how the market is affecting them personally. But there is a large portion of clients that while they are eager to learn more about their property’s value, are apprehensive about letting a relative stranger into their home, or simply don’t have the time. This can look different for differing demographics:
- Shift workers who have inflexible hours are hesitant to commit to an in-person appointment
- Stay-at-home parents who have busy schedules with their children
- The elderly or people with disabilities who have chosen to reduce contact with people not in their immediate family or caring circles
- The typical “my house is a mess” – even though you’ve probably seen a lot worse
But how do we make meaningful contact with these people? How do we move the relationship forward from offering rejected appraisals?
Your desktop or kerbside appraisals are incredibly useful tools for these scenarios. They take very little time to generate and they give you talking points for your next contact with them.
We have heard from many agents that they are reluctant to send a desktop appraisal as they can be informed by skewed data and give incorrect results. But these agents are missing out on the jumping-off point that these pieces of data can provide clients. It is important to telegraph this information to the client.
“Here’s the information I can give you. It’s based on information I already have about your house and current market trends for similar properties in your area. It’s not going to be a hundred per cent accurate, nor will it accurately reflect changes that you’ve made to your house that I can’t see from available photos or from the street, but it will give you a good ballpark so you’re in the loop of how the market might react to your property.”
With this, you’ve given them a valuable tool that they can use to come back to you with when they do make time for you. You then also have a concrete talking point to refer back to when you’re discussing a recent listing and can make a comparison to the desktop appraisal. Your foot isn’t in the door, but you’re allowed to sit on the stoop for when they’re ready.
Check out the rest of our blogs to make the most out of your prospecting calls, and as always, listen for that “not yet”, as it may mean “sometime soon”.
