Latest / The Complete Agent - The Podcast For Premium Real Estate Agents / 137. Part 1/2: Are agents blaming the market when the real problem is how they manage their sellers?
Transcript
- JK: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Complete Agent Podcast, where each week we get together to talk all things estate agency. It's a full house this week. We're joined by the forecast of TCA, Michelle Smith, Ian Story, Dave Warburton, and myself, JK. How has your week been, guys? Let's go to you first, Michelle. Michelle Smith: I've had a marvelous week. It is lovely to be here. I've not been on the pod for a few weeks. So obviously missed your mega chat and unpacking. JK: Ratings have tanked. Michelle Smith: so my diaries for the past Ian Storey: you Michelle Smith: six weeks has been absolutely stacked with training and in-person training days. And this week has been no different. I have been in Milton Keynes with team JK, which is always great and building on all of the work that we've done together in the past. I think we'll probably come onto it in the podcast, but this is adding extra layers onto the good stuff that they already do. And it's about refinement. So we were looking a lot at language positioning, processes and standards that maybe need, you know, refreshing, relooking out for these market conditions and also how to embed. that into the everyday. So, you know, the training just doesn't become a nice thing to do where we get a nice lunch. And it's something that changes behavior the next day and the day after that and the week after that. And around that, there's just been loads of stuff, loads of stuff on, lots of planning for TCA for the December mastermind, which is always a big one. And I personally am doing an additional training. So I had a spell of training and development a few years ago and I haven't done anything practical for myself for a while. So I have just started on that and love being, love learning again. And I'm also doing kind of a specialist thing on ADHD coaching. Cause guess what? Most of JK: Ha. Michelle Smith: my clients have got ADHD as do 55 Ian Storey: you Michelle Smith: % of entrepreneurs. So really just to sharpen my skills of how to support and help them to be even better. So yeah, good stuff. How about you, Ian? Ian Storey: Yes, good. Thank you very much. We had a couple of little fallers last week, but you know, par for the course. I wasn't on the pod last week. And I've been looking back through, think we've had 11 listings since I was last on the pod. So in the last couple of weeks, and obviously that's all. I JK: In the last four months, that's not that great, mate, to be fair. Ian Storey: think that's all, obviously that's all between sort of 500 and 1.5, that kind of lovely range. So lots of good listings, mostly from the team, couple from me. think we sold 15 houses in September. So we had a good September JK: Put in. Ian Storey: and we agreed, fills on with two at the minute. So we should have done four so far in October up until today. So it's good. Our pipeline is superb. The challenge, Jesus, is getting them into the bank. My God, the pipeline's amazing, but getting the money out of the other end of the conveyancing system is the challenge. Just nightmare with delays and other things, you know. stalling. But overall, we're in a good place. We've recruited the two roles that we're looking to recruit for, which is our next senior valuer and our next client executive. So we've recruited for both those roles and they're both people who are coming over with good experience in those particular roles. So senior value is coming from a high end brand to us, which is a great cool for us and the client exec role is a lady who's got good experience in that role as well. So, and she already uses Streets. So hopefully we've got two really good fits there. So I'm really pumped for 2027 now. The rest of this year for me is about embedding things in the team so that it can free me up to focus on growth. So it's good. And the sun is shining today. I'm going out for lunch with my wife. So life's good guys. Michelle Smith: Nice! JK: sorry to hear that, mate. Ian Storey: Life's good. Thank JK: so our week, obviously we've had the wonderful Michelle in our office this week, which is always a pleasure. she had the pleasure of staying in the Woben Hotel as well, currently full of scaffold. how how was Woben for you? When you found it? Michelle Smith: Woeburn is, yeah, when I found it, Woeburn's gorgeous. What a cute high street. It does remind me of Tarpley High Street. But yeah, I couldn't find the hotel at all. There is no signal. It's a dead spot. They've got no streetlights and they've got scaffolding up the front. So it took me JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: three and a half hours to arrive and then another three and a half hours to actually find the hotel. So. Dave: So JK: Well Dave has just joined us Dave: I have. Can JK: so Dave, I was just talking about my week. Michelle had been into our office. for those of you that have joined the GoFundMe, get Dave off dial up. You'll be pleased to know we've almost hit our target. So hopefully next week, Dave will have a reliable and stable internet connection and be able to be with us for the full episode. just to cap off our week, yep, really good. went through some great figures with Michelle, see where we're doing well, see where we need to improve. and I think it's just that. constant commitment to improvement with training so that your team know that you're investing in them, but also equally what they're doing well and where we can improve as a team and all of us in in everything that we do. and we're gonna deep dive into that a little bit today in terms of you know how you need to maybe adjust the mindset of your mindset and your team's mindset around the market that we're in at the moment in terms of how to get a result. framing, positioning, etc. but yeah, we're doing okay. We're we've had fair few listings sign up. So we've got one coming off us over a mil, one at one point seven five, got another one with take on at one point two five, all really, really lovely homes in the top end. signed up another one as well. I signed up a two bed, actually I said said to you guys off air. it's like one of our first more recent two and a half percenters as well. so two two percent is the new base. and it just goes to show that people will pay for quality service and if you do the right thing, they will value what you do and they'll choose you regardless. Bearing in mind, another agent went out to value it and they would do 0.7%. So, you know, we're nearly four times the fee there. so if you you your value propositions right and you know you can convert in the living room, and speaking of converting in the living room, there's some things that we've been doing with AI, that we're obviously been gatekeeping for members of TCA that's been really helping with conversions, et cetera. which is something that we'll go into at the next mastermind. So, but overall, pretty good week. we've again got some sales happening, some negotiations happening at the moment. so Should hopefully have a better October than we did September. but yeah, that that's about our week. David, Dave off dial up. How are you, Dave? Dave: Yes. Ian Storey: you Dave: I'm all right, mate. I'm all right. Thank you. Yeah, sorry for the connection issues of late. And y ironically, I am in the car today and driving, so it it'll probably be a better connection than I get at home. So let's see. Let's see. yeah, my week's been pretty good. again, it's it's the same story really. It's it's it's ticking over, I would say, at the moment. We've had a glut of people wanting to come on the market. You know, I'm the my my problem at the moment is probably not being able to get people in. you know, we we are weeks where we can't get people in for take ons, because the diary's just manic and we've got so many coming at once. so there's definitely an appetite for people to move. And the new stuff that we've got coming on, I think that we've got them coming on at the right prices, which is something I've been banging on about a lot recently. I think the the newer stock is easier to educate because you've got the benefit now of what's happened over the last seven or eight months, after sort of that first two months of the year where it was really, really busy and looking really positive. excuse me, positive. so yeah, good in that respect. A couple of new instructions this week. both gold dust range, six and seven hundred. and yeah, valuations are strong. Sales wise, we've only agreed two this week. but I've got a really good offer on one. I've got an offer yesterday, one point seven million on a one point nine. So there's a bit of work to be done there, but that's that's a a good one. so yeah, generally speaking it's all good. The the pipeline's good and on market fees are good, there were stock levels, etcetera. So can't really complain at the moment, JK. I'll find something to complain about, obviously, but for now, everything's okay. JK: Maybe your complaint could be with your internet connection. Dave: Yes. Is it bad again from your side? JK: You've gone from Diet Coke Dave to Dial up Dave. Y your your nickname's changed. Michelle Smith: Okay. Dave: Well, I've got a diet JK: Anyway, Dave: coke as well, so JK: so we've been having a lot of conversations with agents you know, in and out of TCA really about the the current market that we're in. and I think we we talk about it sometimes in it being a sort of a transitional market. and I think the the question is are agents failing to sell properties because of the market, or is it because they're failing to manage their sellers' expectations? every o every agent has got Dave: Yeah. JK: Properties sitting on their books that aren't selling. you know, the seller thinks the price is right, the agent knows something needs to change, and it feels like a lot of the time nobody wants to have the conversation. So today we're gonna ask whether the real problem is the asking price, the seller's expectations, or is it the agent who created those expectations in the first place? Michelle, we did a section on it this week in s terms of mindset and everything in in in our training session you did for us. Michelle Smith: Hmm. JK: In our office. Do you want to do you want to take the floor and just start around the the conversation? Because you had a really good conversation with my team, because my team are quite well educated on kind of how the market is, but we just helped reframe and polish that a little bit in terms of the language around what we use when we're explaining that to buyers and sellers. and then also we'll as we go and unpack this all, we'll talk about how. All of this starts from the very beginning before you even put the house on the market, but will also give you practical tools and advice to how to manage this in the current market if you haven't already managed and set expectations from the beginning. So over to you, Michelle. Michelle Smith: Yeah, I always ask, well, I don't always, but it's a question I often like to ask to a team when I'm doing work with them is, you know, what is the market like? What is your view of the market? And the reason why I ask that is obviously it's important to get their take on it, but it also uncovers a lot of the language and framing that they do with clients. So generally the person who is sat in the front room can verbalize the market. pretty well. However, generally they're not the first people to be asked. It's when people call up, they book a viewing, they book evaluation, they want to be registered, et cetera. That is often a question that comes up. So when we asked in Your Team JK, they really rightly said that it was price sensitive. But that isn't the language that would resonate with a seller or a buyer. And actually, what does that mean for them? So we did quite a bit of work around the framing of that and how that would come up in a conversation and how you would relay that and how you would frame that probably differently for each different type of buyer with coming back to the same meaning, you know, that it is price sensitive. So like Ian, what do you say in the front room about the condition of the market? Ian Storey: Well, we, we refer to various things, various sort of data points to talk about the condition of the market. So we're referring to our data loft graph, which talks about what the market's done typically in the last six years. Sometimes it's eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 years. If they bought it, you know, in that kind of time periods, we're looking at exactly what it's done. And then we're talking about the market conditions when it was rising. So we talk about stamp duty holidays. talk about low interest rates. talk about low availability. low availability of homes. So buyers didn't have much to choose from. We talk about energy bills, you know, it's in the public consciousness now, isn't it? About the price of diesel, £2 a litre now for diesel. Everyone knows that. We talk about that kind of thing. So people really understand how difficult, how much more difficult it is now just to live, let alone go and buy an 800 grand house on a mortgage that's going to cost you loads more than it would have done just a couple of years ago. So we talk about all of that. And then I think it's very important to then make sure you pitch the marketing price discussion in the right way as well. And I went, I went to a house yesterday where it was a lovely, lady, really desirable part of the village. House is a bit dated, but we definitely sell it 800 grand. Super nice plot in the middle of the village, tucked away. I went, she'd had another agent and the letter that another agent had sent was on the dining table. JK: wow. Ian Storey: So of course, I didn't, you know. cheeky little peak. And they had put, my valuation of this property is X. JK: Wow. Ian Storey: I they'd said 850. So that really made me think, God, that just, that is still rife. You know, my valuation of this property. So if you're, if you're setting people up in that way, having the pricing conversation further down the line is so much harder because they're going to blame you rather than. anything else. So I think how you set it up at the start and how you explain what's happened to the market is essential and that's how we go about it. JK: I I think that you're right there. I think the problem starts at the valuation. and I think th then maybe the question should be, are most price reductions actually the result of poor expectations being set at the valuation? you know, sometimes an agent and we know that it goes on, sometimes an agent has overvalued to win the instruction. sometimes it's the seller that's insisted on an ambitious ambitious figure. and sometimes I think market conditions have genuinely changed because you're in that kind of transitional period in the market. But I think as Dave, I think, you know, to give Dave credit for this, you know, it's very much the framing of the reason you're there is not to value the house, you know, and and I say it ever on every sort of meeting I go to, it might sound a strange thing to say, but I'm not here to value house because I'm not buying it. The market, you know, I don't value it, you don't value it, the market values it. My job is to help you make an informed decision. based on the data that we've got in front of us. so if a seller needs to reduce by a hundred K after eight weeks, did the agent get the valuation wrong, Dave? Dave: yes, initially, I guess. It depends. I again it goes back to how it's framed, JK, to be quite frank. If you know, if if Ian goes down the route that he's just described there, presents data, presents facts, presents current market trends, and then puts a strategy together that factors anything like that in, you know, it depends like what price point it's on at and all that sort of stuff, then you might argue no. But but but more often than not, yes. I mean I went to a valuation yesterday and I actually went to see the guy two years ago. So I saw two years ago, my valuation two years ago was the in the region of eight hundred and I actually put in the report seven fifty to eight hundred. and again, just correcting myself there, my valuation, but the the market dictation at that point was seven fifty to eight hundred. So I never heard from him. He went on the market with someone else, another agent in the local area, at eight hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds. he reduced shortly after that to eight hundred and fifty, left it there for ages and ages and ages, and I went to see him again yesterday, and he's currently on the market now at seven hundred and seventy-five thousand. And what I'm saying to him and what I'm able to demonstrate to him is that in the time that we met. Is property prices come down even further? and it wasn't kind of like sticking the knife in. He was saying it to me, sort of I wish I'd just taken your advice two years ago, but you get two agents come in and tell us something completely different. You've got to sort of sometimes I think you've just got to test the water and go with what they're saying. They're supposed to be experts in the field, and he he'd had one valuation at 900,000, he'd have another one at 875,000. So when I'm coming in saying 750 to 800. I get it, I get why a seller would want to try that. but he he still sat there two years on. The conversation yesterday was I'm really sorry, but it it's no longer a 750 to 800,000 pound house. I think it's probably more like a seven to seven twenty-five because the market's completely different to what it was when I first met you. It's completely different to when I met people three months ago. You know, that's how price sensitive it is now. And then it got back to but what you know, what is it you're trying to achieve here? And it he wants to go to Spain. He's wanted to go to Spain for two years. And he would have been there. Like I I genuinely believe he would have been there had he done that properly and taken the advice two years ago. So I think it's probably a bit of a mix, JK. We can't we can't none of us can sit here and say we've not got overpriced stock on our books that's been sat there for a while. I have. I've got two or three houses that are JK: Yeah. Dave: overpriced. the market dictation at that time would have suggested they were worth what they were worth, Ian Storey: You may as bookmark it. Dave: but we We don't we just don't know what the market's gonna do at that point in time. JK: Yeah, fair enough. So so let so let's move on. so just on that actually. Here's a question then. So Ian and Michelle. so do you think we should ever I I'm gonna kinda I'm gonna ask the question, start to answer it myself, but I'm also gonna throw it back to you as well because I'm interested to hear what you guys say as well. Should we ever launch a property at a price we don't believe it would achieve? you know, i there there's evidence. Sorry, there's a difference between testing the upper end of Kind of a credible range and then marketing at a figure with no sort of evidential support. you know, do you think you should turn down a 20K fee because the seller wants to launch 100K too high? Now, it my view on that, just very quickly on that, is I've done this before where I've been the agent that's been 500k more than the next lowest agent, and I've got it. Because I I looked at the data, the data supported it. I mean, it was just out of the the data range at the top end by about ten percent. But it was one of the best streets in the town opposite the school. And I just knew somebody that wanted the private school opposite for their kids to walk out the front door through the gates, somebody would pay more money for it. Other agent valued it at one point two. I said one point seven five. We sold it and it completed at one point seven. I think there's always nuances and there's always a exception to the rule, but I think my view is if it's a hundred K too high and you're you're testing it, this it a lot depends on the property. If it's a gold dust like a state house when there the evidence kind of dictates that, you know, a similar house is twenty K, thirty K less than a hundred K it's just dreaming. but what do you guys think? I'll throw throw it back to to you to you two. What what would you do in that situation? Michelle Smith: It depends. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule. And I think it depends on your relationship with the seller and how, again, it's been framed. you know, you may come to some type of agreement that says, look, this is the price that I think it should be launched at to get you the very best possible price. And you come to an impasse and they may want to try the market, as they say, higher. And as long as they're fully aware of the risks and you've agreed next steps. know one agent that actually has it in their contracts that if there has been no active inquiries, no organic inquiries from all the marketing after three weeks, that there'll be a price realignment. So Ian Storey: Thank Michelle Smith: they're very upfront from the outset. So I like that because I think you set your stall out early. I would walk away from the ones where you just think. that, you know, that they are so stuck at the moment. Cause you say a 20 grand fee, it's not your fee until it's exchanged and JK: That's right. Michelle Smith: the cost of marketing and also sometimes the damage that that can do to your rep. It's just not worth it. But you know, there isn't a black and white answer to that. depends, but you have to preserve your brand. You know, you can't do something wild that will just make you look like you really don't know what you're doing. JK: integrity, isn't it? Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: What about you, Ian? Ian Storey: Well, I can't really say much more than Michelle on that. think it massively depends on your relationship with the client. We had one yesterday that needs to change the price. When it was coming on, we weren't sure if it was, it's only 50 grand, but 50 grand, know, we weren't sure if it was 750 or 800. We pre-launched it to offer the 800 and sold it in the pre-launch at like 820. The seller was over the moon. I was over the moon. We had the buyers. proceeding without selling, but they also gave us their SSL. Anyway, they pulled out and they pulled out because of survey. So we then managed to sell it again, pre-launch at like 806, something like that. Brilliant, procedural buyer, they pulled out because of survey. So JK: wow. Ian Storey: we put it on at 800, obviously. mean, we had two people, you know, that's the logical thing to do. Anyway, it hasn't sold. and we're sort of six weeks in now, he's had four viewings, people moaning about the condition. But because of the relationship that I've got with the client, we're just reducing it to 750 today. And I was able to be super frank with the client. I've got a great relationship with him. We didn't beat around the bush. I've managed to gain his trust throughout the process. From the very start, we were really frank with what he needed to do to the house. really got a good relationship with him. He's a bit of a cantankerous old git, but got on with him really, really well, dead sound. And when the price reduction came, he took it. You know, I didn't have to really push that hard because he knew, he almost knew what I was going to say before I rang him. And the conversation was straightforward and I got the price change. But I wouldn't have got it if I didn't have that relationship with him and I hadn't set it up properly from the start. And what Michelle Smith: Yeah. Ian Storey: a lot of agents would have done at the start would have said, let's take it on at 8.50, that's my valuation, and we'll see what happens. And it would have been much, much harder. He would probably have changed agents rather than change the price. JK: So here's a question then. So when when should the conversation be had? Is it a week? Is it four weeks? Is it eight weeks? I don't think there's an arbitrary universal deadline Ian Storey: No. JK: for that. I think because you've got to look at things like, you know, we discussed in in our training, didn't we, Michelle? you know, what are the inquiry levels like? you know, how many, how many viewings have we had? you know, what what sort of camp comparable properties have come into the market? what's sort of buyer feedback been? What's the you kind of like what you said just then, Ian, with the with the surveys. What's the buyer feedback been? What what offers has there been? What's the buyer behavior around the house? and you know, what's the agreed marketing plan around the house? You know, we we did a great section on things that we can do around, you know, more than just let's just change the price. And and I'd like to think, to be honest, we do a lot anyway, but it's it's those extra bits of social media that you're doing, it's those bits that you're, you know, we've got one particular house that is very close to a an F1 place, the the Red Bull place in Milton Keynes. And one of my team had commented that they'd had a conversation with a a friend that works there and they actually do a run past the house and someone had commented on the board and as a result, He'd had a Matt, this was, had a conversation with his friend and the details bro and a couple of brochures have gone over to his friend now, to give to the guys at Red Bull to see if it would generate any interest. Now it might not do, but when we actually do our client calls today, one of the calls is gonna be, by the way, this is what we've done. just so you know, the Red Bull F one team actually ran past your house and we s had had a conversation and it was suggested maybe that somebody might like to live where you where you are because it's you they've commented on the area, et cetera. so we've delivered some brochures there and it's just showing sellers that you're thinking outside the box and you're on the front foot being proactive rather than sitting there going, well, you know, it's on right move. and no no one's called yet. Michelle Smith: do you know what? Just on that, I absolutely hate the right move stats. You know, it's Ian Storey: I do. Michelle Smith: like, and we're going to do a seller review. Let's email them the right move stats. And you're just like, my God. You know, Ian Storey: Yeah. Pointless. Michelle Smith: as a seller, you just must think, what, what are you telling me here? You know, where, where Ian Storey: Yeah. Michelle Smith: is the action? Where can I, where is this agent making impact? Great. There are the results. And now what? Tell me more. Ian Storey: I've always said that. I agree. I agree. I've always said that. always said that. Yeah. How many viewings Michelle Smith: And yeah, it is, it just does my head in. Ian Storey: have you got, John? How many viewings have you got? How much feedback have you had? What offers have you had? I don't give a shit about the right move stats. How many viewings have you got? That's what I care about. JK: I think right move stats have their place as well because you need to see how you know because the thing is it's how you articulate those stats. If you just send an email over saying, here's your right move report, as you can see, it's it's performing. I know 100%, Michelle Smith: Yeah, but that does happen, JK. Like a lot of agents do do that. Ian Storey: Mm-hmm. JK: but equally, you know, what you need to be saying with those reports is here's the report, and you can see 75,000 people have looked at your details, but equally Ian Storey: but no one's viewed it. JK: No one's coming to view it. So Ian Storey: Yeah, true. There is elements you can use, aren't there, if you phrase it correctly. Yeah. JK: Well that's it. You know, right move is is, you know, the king of property websites if people are going to look. And the people that are going to the king of property websites that are going to look are looking at your details and calling about other houses, but they're not calling about yours. Now, let's look at all the things that we've gone through. You know, how many views are you getting on social media? We've done a social media preview campaign, we've done a social media sort of come in soon video. We've done the the full video on so you know we've we've done lots of social media and we're still not getting any inquiries. We've phoned it out to the database. We've mailed it out to the database. you know for example outside of the box with this one here we've given it to local businesses we've spoken to local people that have sold other houses that have a similar price range that we're selling people that have viewed that we've called them and told them about your house and sent them the details And they don't want to view because and so I think that the one of the key metrics with with that part is is if you you're calling other people and other people are getting viewing, then you're asking them, you can then give them that feedback and tell them why buyers who are viewing houses in a similar range aren't viewing theirs. And so it may well be that there's there's only four bedrooms or the garden's too small or they want an extra reception room. All of that feedback generally means the ha the price is too high. Because the buyers are seeing better properties at at that price and yours doesn't compete. Ian Storey: Yeah, you're right. It's how you, it's what Michelle Smith: Yeah. Ian Storey: you say. I think my point was agents use the right move report in a positive way. Do know what mean? So sort of say, well, you're getting lots of interest. It's getting so many views and then it doesn't get, do know what I mean? Yeah. JK: But it's the market, Ian. It's the market. That's why you're not getting viewings. It's the market. It's not the price. It's just the market. Michelle Smith: I think there's just a lack of. JK: I was being facetious, obviously. Michelle Smith: A lack of training, I think around how to use it. And also what, I know we touched on this as a general thing. What is your intention of using that data? Is it because you have been tasked by your manager to go and do a seller review and you need to put a tick in a box and put some notes on a system or is the outcome that you want to get to. you know, get this home as saleable as property and get a proper result at the end of it. I think how you approach it determines the outcome massively. But I just think there is a lack of confidence and knowledge in using the Rightmove reports. They're either just emailed out for a seller to, you know, do with as they will, or just interpreted in the wrong way. And it's the easiest way to get sellers back up. Because, you know, that you're not giving them anything. You're not giving them anything that they probably want to hear at that stage. And I know we talked about a price reduction, a price realignment should never come as a surprise. It's the process that you get to that, which determines how a seller will take it. And that Dave: Mm. Michelle Smith: goes from the valuation, the initial appointment and every bit of contact thereafter. JK: So are do you think agents are allowing properties to sit on the market too long because they're frightened of losing the instruction? Michelle Smith: Maybe, or Ian Storey: Yes. Michelle Smith: maybe they don't really have a vibe of their market and maybe they do believe sometimes that it is the market and, you know, do they think it's in the seller's best interest just to sit it out a bit? Who knows what their mindset is around it? But they're not doing the best thing for the seller. You know, this is about strategy. The strongest agents in this market have to have a very clear and communicative be able to communicate their strategy and I think that's where people struggle, that's the stumbling block of you JK: Should let's talk about that then. Let's talk about having the difficult conversation then. So how do you tell a client that their home isn't worth what they think it is without destroying the relationship? you know, I think the strongest approach is probably likely to involve revisiting their their why in the beginning, going back to that. And it all goes back to, you know, the start of the valuation, reviewing what was agreed at the the quote unquote valuation, showing them what's been delivered, explaining the response. I'm patting we'll go over to the T one thousand in a minute. For those of you that that don't know, that's Dave from Terminator with his Terminator glasses on. Ian Ian Storey: Well, I am repeating myself, but it depends how it started off at the beginning. And with us, it should always have started off that the market determined the starting price of your house, not you or your agent. So as long as they're educated in the right way, then every month we're sending them our market update, video market update. So they are educated on the market and they're educated on what's happening. And... If the feedback has been delivered in the right way and price feedback obtained where possible, whether they like it or not, you're slowly chipping away and educating them that it might be the price. And I always say to our listeners, our value is they need to get the three P's conversation in early on. That three P's conversation is in our client handbook. So they get it at the start of the journey and we reiterate it a few weeks into the marketing, if relevant. So if we've got a house that's got loads of viewings and offers, obviously we don't, but if it's got limited interest after maybe four weeks, depends on how it's going, but we are reminding the sellers of the three P's, you know, with stories, it's never the first two, it's always price. And we're not necessarily suggesting you need to do that now, John, because it depends on, you know, where you're at with things and the speed of sale you're looking for and other factors, but ultimately it will be the price if it isn't. selling after a certain period of time. I just wanted to let you know that we're not suggesting you have to do that now. And by educating people and shipping away in that way, you're conditioning them that it might be price. And then when you have to have that price in conversation, it's much, much easier. That's what I found yesterday with this one that I mentioned earlier on, where it went on and sold 800 and 750. He knew it was coming, but he wouldn't have changed Michelle Smith: Yeah. Ian Storey: the price four weeks ago. Michelle Smith: No, I think as well, the question, you know, I have heard a lot in kind of previous places where people say, have you thought about a price reduction? No, no, I haven't thought about price reduction. No, Ian Storey: Yeah. Yeah. Michelle Smith: you know, and it's like you can't use that language. It's this is where we are. This is what we've done. I know that you want to get to X. And my best advice at this time is to realign your price. This is the price I'm suggesting because I think this will generate enough interest to get some competitive bids. Shall we move forward and do that? That's a completely different proposition to have you thought about price reduction. Ian Storey: Yeah. Dave: I think as well, just going back to like knowledge in the market and stuff like that, stories and hard facts are essential. So if you I w I was with someone yesterday and we we're talking about potentially tr inflating the price, you know. Well, you know, when people always say you know if if it's on a offers over X, are they not just gonna offer me Y, which is underneath that? And the answer is obviously yeah, they probably will, but that doesn't mean That you're not going to get the price that you want, a negotiation is going to take place and those negotiations can go up and they can go down. It's all about trying to use the marketing price as a marketing tool to attract interest, and this is the market to do that in particular. but when you deliver hard facts and articulate them passionately as well and show your context. So, like for example, right now, you need to know your local area and you need to be able to demonstrate the land registry stats. But if you're talking about The market overview. Well, asking prices have dropped have dropped, haven't they? I know they went up a little bit in August, but overall they are down. So asking prices are down. There are fewer buyer enquiries, sales being agreed are lower than last year. Interest rates are rising. You'll not find a two-year deal now under five percent. And the country's debt level is at the highest it's been since the last recession. You tell me why house prices have got any chance of going up in the very near future when you've got all that information. And if you deliver that confidently to your homeowner, they can't not get it because it's hard facts. So the good news is there are buyers out there. Of course there are because again, according to the stories, we've just sold this one, we've just sold this one, we've just sold this one. But give the story behind it, you know, how why did that one sell? You know, was it listed at a price point underneath what was perceived to be market value and attracted a lot of interest and we actually played other people off against each other and using them as leverage to get them to a proper number that was acceptable to the client and really att attractive to the client? Was it that, you know, we we we tried it at our price point straight away rather than the homeowners? Did we do this for four weeks but agreed if it wasn't attracting any interest we'd re we'd reduce it at the four four week stage and it's sold at week six after we'd done the price realignment. Th there's loads of different ways of framing it, but it's very, very important that it's done articulately and and from a point where you know the market and you're you're demonstrating your your knowledge of the market. Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: I think this this is probably a a good place to call it because we we we could call this part one of maybe part two. and I think we could probably deep dive into this again next week. because I'm conscious that we're in a on a 40 minute pod so far. If you found this podcast interesting and you'd like to know more or you have any questions for next week, this is gonna be a two-part series. Drop us a direct message. we're on Instagram, the complete agent, we're on Facebook. you can even on our website. the complete agent.co.uk. drop us any questions that you've got or any scenarios that you'd like to talk us through or talk us to talk through rather on the podcast. and I think it's a really good episode to kind of unpack the struggles that people are having in the market at the moment because it is so relevant. it's been a great one so far, guys. looking forward to part two next week. Thanks everyone for listening and we hope you will have a great week.