Welcome and good morning to Mike Ferry TV. It is the week of March 10th, as I have told some of you. It’s one of the longer months of the year. There’re 21 workdays in the month of March and not counting Saturdays, which would bring it up to about 25. So, there’s more opportunities to list and sell real estate this month than there was, for example, in January and February. So, let’s take advantage of that. I’ve been asked to question many times, and I’ve tried to answer it in seminars repetitively. Um, how did I differentiate myself from another agent when it came to listing a property? Because, you know, there’s the certain questions the sellers always have on their minds. They don’t always bring them up, but those questions are sitting inside their wonderful minds. And those questions are, of course, how much is my house worth? You know. What are you going to do to get it sold? What’s it going to cost and how long is it going to take? And the one that seems to make most agents stumble is when the seller directly says, what are you going to do to get the home sold? And I was lucky. I worked for a broker that was very, very, very seller oriented, meaning he wanted to do the best job possible for every seller that they listed their home for. However, the challenge was he didn’t have a real specific plan, so he would talk to us about the importance of energy and enthusiasm, asking questions, you know, being very defined as to what we say.

And that was all very good advice. But I wanted to go a step further. So, I put together for myself what I called the listing plan of action, and I created it back. I think it was 1971 and it allowed me to make more presentations because as the word on the street got out that Mike Ferry could list a home and get it sold, and I would do a lot of Just Listed Just Sold phone calls in neighborhoods. The word got out that I would be the guy that had an actual plan to get the home sold now. In 1971. Here we are in 2025. So obviously, a lot of the things on my plan of action today or trying to use them today, they’d be very outdated. But what I have today is I have a copy of my plan of action. Then I’ve got a copy of another person that does the same type of work. I do a copy of their plan of action, and I think what really made my plan of action work, and it’s hard for some of our competitors to make theirs work, is that my plan of action was designed with actual steps that you could take to get a property exposed and sold. So, it wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t really the cool stuff. Obviously, there was nothing about technology or any of the great apps that are available today because it was 1971.

But what made the plan of Action work was I looked at each of the steps and said, each of these 18 steps is a potential close that you can use on that potential seller. And if the more times that you close, and the more times that they nod their head in agreement, the better chance you have in almost every case. So, I’m going to give you an example on this particular plan of action, which again was 1971. I talked about things that are not as relevant today, but they were very relevant in the market I was working in. And as you’ll see, I would design each point so I could close the seller on the importance of that point to them. And then of course, relating that back to why they would want me to list their property for sale. So, when the conversation would change and I didn’t use this every time, I used to, probably 20% of the time, because 80% of the time in the pre-qualifying process, finding out their motivation and walking into the house and making and starting your conversation by saying, I know there are certain questions that need to be answered. Can I answer them now? And they would say yes. And I said, the first question, of course, is price. So, let’s discuss that. And we would discuss that. And then the second question is how long will it take to sell. And we would talk about the fact that it depends upon the price.

And then the third question, of course is what are you going to do to get it sold. So, I would say, I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m going to do to get your home sold correct. And they would smile and look at each other and say, yes, well, here I have a copy of the 18 different steps I take, and it’s pretty rare that we ever have to do all 18. And they would often say, well, why? Because if we price it properly, which it appears we’re going to do, and if we can get enough exposure on the property through other good, qualified agents in town that represent buyers, and with the market being what it is today, it should sell a little bit faster than having to take 18 steps. But I’m going to give you a copy of this so you can then watch me do the work I do. So, number one on our plan of action says submit a copy of this listing to our entire MLS service here in Huntington Beach, California. We have a little over 2000 agents that represent real estate companies. We never know which ones have buyers at their disposal or not, but what? By submitting a copy of the listing, MLS, all 2000 agents will get a copy of your listings within a couple of days, and one of those agents might have a potential buyer. Let me ask you a question. Would you like me to submit your listing to MLS for this maximum exposure? Well, yeah, we would want that.

Is there anything you want me to put on the listing to get their attention? So maybe they will react a little bit quicker? Well, I think if, if you put a real nice description of the home. Well, in a minute we’ll get a good description of the home. So, I’m going to submit it to MLS for you okay. They would say okay. Number two it says price your home competitively versus the competition. Now, you know, we’re talking about listing your home for 450,000, which is what I determined the value to be based upon the sales taking place. What price would you like to see take place on your home? Now, you already know this because the pre-qualifying. You asked about the price, but now you’re confirming what they said to you in the pre-qualifying process. So they say, well, you’re saying 450. And we’ve done a lot of work to the home. And, you know, we rebuilt the kitchen, and we put in new carpet. And Harold painted the whole outside of the house. And so, it looks like the best looking house on the block. Well great. No problem. So, let’s go back to the question. What price would you like? Well, we’re thinking 525. Well, there most of your competition is between 475 and 500. Are we really competitive if we listed at 525. Well, ours is nicer. I understand that but let me ask you this question.

Don’t you think that most people that would purchase your home would come in and make changes to the home as you’ve made changes to the home? Well, yes. And are we allowing them the privilege of buying the home and having the money to make the changes they want to make? If we go at 525. Well probably not. Well, what if we did this? What if we started at 495? So, we’re a little bit more competitive and we’re not putting ourselves too far out of the market. What are your thoughts about that? Well, we could do that. If you think that’s right. I’ve closed them twice. They’ve agreed basically with me on both points. Number three, promote your home at our company sales meeting. Our company meets every Tuesday morning at 8:00. We all share the new listings that we have taken from the week before. Let me ask you this question. What is the most important benefit to a person buying your home ASAP? What is the best thing we can say about this house? And I would look at the wife and say, tell me what you think. And then, sir, tell me what you think. Because I want to bring those benefits up to the entire sales staff. So, anybody that has a potential buyer will go, I’ve got a buyer that wants a remodeled kitchen. I’ve got a buyer that wants to have a beautiful backyard. So, tell me what your benefits are and I’ll promote them, if that’s okay with you.

Well, that’d be great. So now I’ve closed them three times. Generally speaking, after three closes on a seller of potential seller, I would say to them, can you imagine what it’s going to be like putting all 18 of these steps into play because we want to do everything we can to get it sold. Wouldn’t you agree? Well, yes, we would, but step number 18 is probably the most important, and that is to notify you during the day of the closing and to make sure that the money is delivered to you appropriately. You know what’s fun about the close of a transaction, Mr. Mrs. Smith? Well, what’s that? Mike? Well, that’s when we both get paid. You get your 94% and I get my 6%. It’s almost unfair, isn’t it? And I would always smile and nod my head, and they would say, well, we were thinking about a little lesser commission. Oh, what were you thinking about? Well, the agent that was here before said they would do it at 5%. Did the agent have an 18-point plan of action typed out step by step? Well, no. And did the agent talk to you about how to get the home sold? Well, they said there was some buyers at the office that they would talk to. Well, let me ask you this question. Do you think the work that I’m putting in is worth the commission I’m charging? But let’s even make it better. How about this? Why don’t we decide upon the final commission when we get a when we get a valid offer? So, then we know what the price is, what your expenses are going to be and what you’re going to net.

How does that sound? Okay, Mike, we’ll go with that. Well, let’s get the contract signed and let’s move forward. Okay, so my plan of action was very specific. Now, this plan of action that I’ve got from one of our competitors, their points are a little different. Number one, offer the five P’s. The letter P all aid that all agents do. Put a sign in your yard. Boy that’s boy. That’s something exciting. Put it in MLS. Well, I think my presentation in MLS was a little bit stronger. Put an ad online. We didn’t have online ads in 1970, so we would put an ad in the newspaper. Post it on social media. Well, that wasn’t even a thought in 1970, but you’ll like the fifth of the five P’s and then pray that it sells. Well, we all would like to see every listing we take sell. I think there’s more to it than what this particular plan shows. Develop a plan. Make it strong. Practice closing on it. Write out the questions you’ll use so they understand each point in your plan of action and then have some fun. It won’t require a lot of praying. It requires a lot of hard work. Talk to you again next week.