Like many other homeowners in the country, we're trying to sell our house in a market that isn't quite as amenable to home sellers as it was a few years ago. The price range isn't moving as quickly, and the market absorption rate (how long it would theoretically take for all the current houses on the market) has almost doubled since we put our house on the market in August.
Knowing that the longer a house is on the market, the staler the listing and the more people wonder what's wrong with it, we decided to take it off and wait the required 91 days for the Days On Market statistic to reset. We'll start over.
Interestingly, the day after we took it off the market, we received calls from real estate agents wanting to know the status and if we planned on relisting. And, if we relisted, would we reconsider them?
I wasn't thrilled with the cold calls, and I told one agent so. It got so that I had my speech down pretty pat: "You've obviously done some research to find my number [my home number is unlisted, so they found my Write Well U office number], and I don't appreciate the cold call. I don't know you; I don't have a relationship with you; I won't be considering you as a real estate agent."
Yeah, I've been called direct, among other things.
However, one real estate agent's approach impressed me. He sent me a letter.
I read through it, with the same almost-disdain I had for the other real estate agents who had cold called me. His approach was different - besides sending me a letter. He actually answered my questions and responded to any objections I had.
Here's an excerpt:
Based on information obtained from the Multiple Listing Service, it has come to the attention of hundreds of real estate agents that your home is no longer available for sale, and your phone is probably ringing off the hook with calls from these agents promising to do a better job for you if you only give them a chance. And I bet you're asking yourself...
Where were all these agents 90 days ago? If they're so good - how come they didn't produce a buyer when my home was on the market?
Good question.
It's a fair question.
Unfortunately, the answer isn't all that simple.
The most common answer you'll hear is "your price is too high." And while that is sometimes the case, it is only one of many possible reasons which may be responsible for your home not selling during its original listing period.
You know, deep down, that a lot more could have been done....
And isn't it troublesome to keep on hearing all the "good" excuses about why your home didn't sell when you know that everything that could have been done to produce a buyer - probably wasn't?
All this in a letter - without ever even talking to me or having any kind of discourse with me whatsoever.
This real estate agent knew his audience. He took the time to research, talk to people, figure out what they struggled with and what questions they had. He narrowed down his market. For this letter, his market was people like me: people who took their homes off the market because it didn't sell and were annoyed by cold calls from hungry real estate agents. That's pretty narrow, and doesn't include people who took their homes off the market for different reasons or who didn't mind the cold calls.
He had to make a choice. He homed in on his market, and then wrote this letter with that market right at the forefront.
As a writer, you need to do exactly the same. Narrow down your market until you can't go any narrower.
Who is your audience? Male or female? What age range? Do they have families? Do they work or stay at home? What are their hobbies? Do they go to church? Do they attend Nascar events? Your questions will depend on what you're writing. The audience for a how to use money book for single women ages 25-49 is going to be a different from the audience of an urban fantasy novel series.
Why would this audience read your book? If it's fiction, then there's the standby reason of escape from reality. But you want to know more than that. For example, in historically bleak economic times, fantasy genre readership increases dramatically. What are people dealing with in their ordinary lives from which they might be trying to escape? If you're writing nonfiction, what's the purpose? Is your book going to help the reader improve some area of his life?
What does your audience struggle with? What are the questions they ask? What keeps them up at night? In the letter I received above, the real estate agent answered my questions. He knew what those questions were and wrote his letter in answer.
What are some possible objections? Imagine you're a reader of your book or someone who is in the situation your book is trying to improve or solve. List every possible objection someone could have to the content, to you, to your whole philosophy. Then answer them and incorporate those answers into your writing.
If you don't know how to get the answers you need, start talking to people. I'm sure the real estate agent didn't come up with that letter out of the blue. He talked to people. He heard them when they complained about getting cold calls the minute they took their homes off the market. He heard their desperate confusion around why their houses didn't sell.
He listened. He researched. And then he wrote.
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