GOALS
- Increase community awareness of the opportunities afforded in home ownership
- Encourage buyers and sellers that now is a great time to buy
- Educate buyers and sellers about the local market conditions and the home buying process
Managers and Gold Services Managers together plan and run the Home Buyers Seminars in the office. Consult the documents Roles and Responsibilities of the Manager and Roles and Responsibilities of the Gold Services Manager for specific information.
Related Resources
STEPS
- Customize the Home Buyers/Sellers Seminar flyer to add in your Office Name, Address and Phone Number. Several different poster styles are posted online.
- Print out color copies of the flyer you choose.
- Post the Flyer in high traffic areas of your office.
- Keep a stack of Flyers available at the reception desk for visitors.
- Plan for local advertising in papers and newsletters
- Target iMail and eMails to rental communities and Associates farm areas.
- Enlist your front line to help you in creating a Weichert Listings display in the office. Highlight Weichert listings here.
- Plan how you will involve Sales Associates in the actual seminar - guest speakers, etc.
- Conduct 2 special iCall sessions inviting past Open House Guests, potential buyers, WLN Leads, sphere, etc.
- Coordinate guests from Title (Title representative and attorneys) and Insurance.
- Review the Home Buyers Seminar FAQs
- Customize the Home Buyers/Sellers Seminar presentation
- Make sure you put in local market statistics to give your audience a good snapshot of what's happening in the markets you service.
- Ensure that an Associate is welcoming and greeting guests, asking them to sign in.
(Set up Home Buyers Seminar Registration and Sign-In Sheet)
- Prepare weekly sales meeting slides to share the results of your seminar.
- Use the Home Buyers Seminar Registration and Sign-In Sheet to roll up results from each seminar.
- Send an email to all who attended, with the invitation flyer for the next home buyers/sellers seminar attached. Ask them to forward this invitation to anyone they know that would be interested in the home buyer information offered at the seminars.
- Conduct a special iCall session to follow up with all attendees.
Consult the Countdown Checklist for the complete schedule of tasks and timeline in order to implement a great seminar.
Related Resources
STRATEGIES
- Invite the Referral Associates aligned with your office to participate in calling and inviting people to the Home Buyers/Sellers Seminars.
- Establish an equitable process for giving out unassociated leads generated form the Home Buyers/Sellers Seminar.
- Form a Home Buyers/Sellers Seminar Promotion team. Ask them to think about ways to promote the Home Buyers Seminars around the communities you service.
- Ask Associates to post the Flyer in their local communities - Town Library, Town Hall, grocery stores, etc.
- Promote to Renters. If you have rentals and rental apartment buildings in your market area, put a stack of flyers in the lobby of the apartment building.
- At the Home Buyers Seminar, distribute invitation flyers for the future Home Buyers Seminar to each guest so they can invite people they know to come.
- Give a supply of tickets to each Sales Associate to give out at Open Houses - associate dialogue "Seats are limited. May I reserve a place for you at our next seminar?"
TOOLS
Home Buyers/Sellers Seminars
The Home Buyers/Sellers Seminar Presentation is the PowerPoint presentation for you to use at your Seminar. This presentation should be customized with your office’s market information. The Gold Services Manager and Office Manager partner in customizing and presenting this seminar.
Click here to download generic tickets for your Seminar.
All the resources you need for promoting and presenting the Seminars appear below.
Click on the appropriate image and download the resource you need. All resources are customizable.
The Home Buyers/Sellers Seminar Presentation is the PowerPoint presentation for you to use at your Seminar. This presentation should be customized with your office’s market information. The Gold Services Manager and Office Manager partner in customizing and presenting this seminar.
Click here to download generic tickets for your Seminar.
All the resources you need for promoting and presenting the Seminars appear below.
Click on the appropriate image and download the resource you need. All resources are customizable.
This slide is intended to engage the audience and lead them to a positive answer to the question we know is on everyone’s mind: Is now the right time to buy a home?
There are two points to this slide: First, the only customization needed is to put your name, title, and office in the lower right hand box.
The second point concerns the delivery. This slide will briefly go on the screen to get the audience thinking before you move to the next slide.
The goal here is to get all of the negatives out on the table, so we can begin the journey to the right answer to the question "Is now the right time to buy a home?" The answer to the question of course is yes!
This slide features housing numbers that reflect the market in your local area. You'll need to customize the slide for your county, but this is an easy process!
The figures for number of homes sold and median home prices can be found on your local MLS, or in the National Association of Realtors' quarterly report.
There are two ways to present this data to your audience. If the median home price is increasing, then you can use this to dispel the myth that the real estate market is collapsing, and encourage buyers to make a move before the price of their dream home is out of reach. In this instance, it is the perfect time to discuss that real estate is a local business, and that despite national trends, the market in your area is as strong as ever. If the median home price is going down, then you can use that information to encourage buyers to make a move because their dream home has never been more affordable.
There are two ways to present this data to your audience. If the median home price is increasing, then you can use this to dispel the myth that the real estate market is collapsing, and encourage buyers to make a move before the price of their dream home is out of reach. In this instance, it is the perfect time to discuss that real estate is a local business, and that despite national trends, the market in your area is as strong as ever. If the median home price is going down, then you can use that information to encourage buyers to make a move because their dream home has never been more affordable.
This slide goes a little deeper, listing current numbers reflecting the market in the towns your office services.
These figures for number of listings on the market, median sales price, and absorption rate can be found on your local MLS.
In order to really reflect the needs of your audience, consider adding slides that include these numbers for all of the major towns your office services.
When you get to this slide, be prepared with examples of a handful of listings through your office that have sold quickly.
Whether they sold in 10, 20, or 30 days, use this as further proof that what the audience is hearing in the media doesn't apply to your local market.
This will help create urgency among the members of the audience to meet for a one-on-one consultation at the end of the presentation.
This may also serve as motivation for the customers to ask you about specific listings that you mention.
Try printing from your MLS and highlighting the "Days on Market" in green as a visual example.
This slide's purpose is to demonstrate to prospective buyers that interest rates are at historical lows.
This serves as the set up for the next slide, which ties interest rates to how much house the buyer can actually afford.
Now that you have explained that interest rates are historically low, its time to relate this directly to your audience.
You’ll see that there are ten slides indicating the effect of interest rates on buying power.
You need to choose the slide that best reflects home prices in your market.
We have used five different monthly payments, $3,500, $3,000, $2,500, $2,000, and $1,500, with a buying power based on a 10% or 20% down payment.
If your office is in Greenwich, CT, or Clarksville, MD, you might choose the $3,500 slide with a 20% down payment, which shows your buyers an $800,000 purchase price.
If your office is located in Gloucester County, NJ, where the median home price is below $215,000, you’ll choose the $2,500 slide with the 10% down payment.
The goal here is to match the dream home that the buyer saw that morning on the Internet with the real ability to afford it.
Special First Time Home Buyers Programs. GSMs: Please customize this slide to include any local or regional programs available for first time home buyers
Give them reasons to meet with a Sales Associate. This is one more slide to give buyers another reason to meet with your Associates.
Hold up a sample Price Trend Analysis and explain that their Weichert Sales Associate can prepare this for them so when they find the house they want to purchase,
they will have valuable information about home prices in the neighborhood so they are more informed on an appropriate offer price.
This can also be prepared for them if they have a home to sell so that they can be well positioned in the market.
The purpose of this slide is to allow you, the presenter, the time to explain how many different elements there are when it comes to buying a house.
You may start with a question like: "How many of you know that in order to close, you’ll need insurance, title, and a mortgage?" Or, you could say something like,
"Many new buyers don’t know just how many pieces of the home-buying puzzle are needed before they move in."
This presents the opportunity to focus on the one-stop shopping, hassle-free experience that a buyer gets when dealing with the Weichert family of companies.
As individuals registered for the seminar, they may have recorded questions.
Use this slide as an opportunity to address those questions and any others the audience may have.
When you get to this slide, it's a perfect time to hold up the Weichert brochure and explain that you have top agents, and of course your Gold Services Manager, ready to meet them right now.
This means that you should be ready to conduct multiple meetings at the conclusion of these slides.
As the manager, be ready to continue answering questions while your GSM starts meeting with buyers one on one.
Seminar |
Flyer/Invitation |
eMail template Invite |
 Rates Down, Opportunity Up |
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 Buying Zone Seminar |
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 Affordability Seminar |
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 Original Seminar |
Click here and choose from different versions |
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 Take the Plunge |
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 Solving Today's Market Click here for the complete listing of this seminar's resources. |
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