Know your numbers
Five groups of market numbers to update every Monday, a key that reads them in any market, and three lines to say on the phone. Sellers and buyers trust the agent who can explain the market in one plain sentence.
Your market and this week
Pick one town or area and one kind of home. Houses on one sheet, condos and townhouses on another. Mixed together, the numbers describe a home nobody owns.
Supply: how many homes are for sale
Supply tells you how much choice a buyer has. More choice means a seller's price has to earn the showing.
Demand: how many buyers are acting
New pendings are the earliest sign of what buyers are doing. Closed sales tell last month's story.
Price: what sellers got against what they asked
Compare the sold price with the original asking price first. The gap between the original and the final asking price shows what starting too high cost.
Affordability: the rate and the payment
Buyers shop by monthly payment, not only by price. When the rate moves, the payment shows you how many buyers move with it.
Prospecting: who needs you this week
The same report shows who is ready for a conversation. These owners wanted to sell, and their reason to move often still holds.
What a lead really is, and why the money is in the follow-up
In our method, a lead is a ready, willing and able buyer or seller who wants to do business within 30 days. Strong agents look for people moving within 7 to 10 days. Anyone else is a contact: keep them, and keep calling.
Three questions sort the two:
- Ready. Do they have a reason to move now, in their own words?
- Willing. Will they meet with you and act on what they learn?
- Able. Can they do it: what they owe on the home, the financing, every owner who has to sign?
Why the money is in the follow-up:
- Ask for the appointment, not the lead. When a seller shows they are ready, your next words are a time to meet. "Call me next week" is a lead you settled for.
- Fewer leads, followed up every time. A list too long to reach is a list of names. Keep the leads you can reach this week.
- Follow up until the door is closed. Before you hang up, put the next call on your calendar, and make it.
In 10before10, you practice asking for the appointment with a seller who sounds real, at the level you choose.
Your three lines for the phone
A seller won't remember a chart. They remember one sentence that explains what the market means for their home. Fill in yours.
"In [town], [N] homes are for sale and [N] went under contract this week. Buyers have about [N] months of choice."
"Homes that sold last month closed at [N] percent of their original asking price, and [N] percent of the homes for sale have cut their price. Based on what has sold and what is still sitting, where do you feel the market says your home should be?"
"At this week's average rate of [N] percent, the payment on a typical home here is about $[N] a month. A year ago it was $[N]."
One key reads every market
The numbers change every week; the way you read them doesn't. A common rule of thumb puts a balanced market at about 6 months of supply. If your board publishes its own lines, use theirs.
To a seller: buyers have fewer homes to choose from. Price near the most recent like-kind sale and let buyers compete for it.
To a buyer: be ready before you look: approved, decided, able to move the same day.
To a seller: buyers compare. The homes that sell are priced right and show well from the first weekend.
To a buyer: you have time to compare. Homes priced right still go first.
To a seller: your home competes with every listing in its price range. Price sets which buyers see it.
To a buyer: you have choice and room to ask. Homes priced right still sell.
Numbers start the conversation. Practice is how you lead it.
Most agents can pull a market report. Fewer can explain it in one sentence on a live call, then ask the price question and stay quiet. Members practice that moment with an AI seller until the words come easily.
Free template
Yours to keep, no sign-up
- The five groups of numbers
- The months of supply key
- Three lines for the phone
- A 13-week spreadsheet with the math built in
- English and Spanish versions
- One free practice call
Everything behind it
Practice daily, see your progress
- AI sellers matched to your own market
- A seller who asks about the market, and a card that checks your answer against your numbers
- Practice the pricing question until the seller answers first
- Hear it, say it, type it: practice that sticks
- Talk tracks and handlers for every core call
More free templates
Each one gives you the structure. Each one ends in a practice call.
Questions
Know your numbers. Say them in one sentence. Then ask the price question.
Practice the market conversation with an AI seller who asks the hard questions. Free, no sign-up.