Many real estate businesses don’t realise that their competitors can provide them with a lot of opportunities.

Practically all of your competitors have expired listings. And attached to each of those listings is a frustrated vendor who still wants to sell – but sees no way to do it with their current agent.

This creates opportunity for you, if you have the right plans in place.

And as an added bonus, gaining control of these expired listings helps you alleviate your own stock concerns.

My ‘Expired Listing System’™ goes into more detail about how to do this. But in this article, I want to focus on the vendor and their emotions.

You need to keep in mind that every vendor goes through a range of emotions during the selling process that you need to understand.

The Emotional Stages

Let’s assume that an agent has a 90-day agreement with a vendor. Over the course of these 90 days, the property goes from being a fresh listing to an expired one. 

The vendor will go through an emotional rollercoaster during this time. And it generally follows this pattern:

Day 1

At this stage, the vendor is extremely excited. They’re on the cusp of making a huge change to their lives, and they’re looking forward to getting the property sold.

Day 15

It’s generally at this stage that the vendor starts receiving some negative feedback from their agent. Internally, they start to feel a little frustrated with the market. They’re not frustrated with the agent just yet. Instead, they feel like the market isn’t playing ball with them.

Day 30

In my experience, this is generally when the vendor goes through their first price alignment. They’ve spent a month trying to sell their property at the listed price.

At this stage, the vendor’s starting to feel a little more flexible. They’ve given the listing some time and they’ve accepted that the market may not be in their favour. They may not be happy about it, but they’ve accepted this alignment as part of the process.

Day 45

At this stage, the property still isn’t seeing much activity. The agents aren’t booking many inspections and the price alignment hasn’t worked.

This is the time when a lot of agents fall out of love with the vendor. The agent isn’t making much headway and they’re starting to focus on other opportunities.

As a result, the vendor starts to feel flat. They’re starting to wonder if their property will ever sell at all. There is no activity around the listing and they’re not communicating with their agent as often as they used to.

Day 60

This is when things really start to change for the vendor. At this point, they’ve had a sign in front of the house for two months. And they’re having to deal with their friends and family asking them about the sale… 

“Why hasn’t the property sold yet?”

“Have you had any offers?”

These types of questions cause the vendor to lose faith in their agent’s ability. They start to feel more frustrated, especially because they’re struggling to get answers from the agent.

Remember, the agent isn’t in love with the listing anymore. They’ve switched their focus to something else, and left the vendor just ticking along in the background.

This is the point where the seed gets planted and the idea of changing agents becomes a viable possibility.

Day 75

It’s at this stage when the agent starts to become desperate. They realise that they’re not going to be able to deliver on the promise they made to the vendor. So, they start applying pressure to the vendor in an effort to get them to drop the price.

At this point, the agent only has another two weeks to achieve the sale. They’re frustrated and desperate, which is what leads to all of the added pressure.

For the vendor, this pressure consolidates those doubts they formed on Day 60 into an idea they want to take action on. While the agent’s panicking, the vendor starts looking for other options.

The vendor becomes more open at this point. They’re checking out the market to see if they can find a better alternative.

Day 90

This is the end of the agreement.

At this stage, the agent’s given up. They’re not even trying to achieve the sale because they’re too frustrated with the listing.

The vendor, on the other hand, is at the point wherein they’re most open to change. They’re ready to try something new, which now places you in the position to make your own offer to them.

What You Can’t Allow to Happen (And Where Your Opportunity Lies)

You can see how much of a rollercoaster the vendor goes through over the course of a 90-day agreement. You need to understand how the vendor feels at every stage of this process. 

I believe that Day 45 represents the true turning point for the vendor. After all, this is the stage where they start to feel flat.

There are two considerations you need to keep in mind here as a real estate business.

First, you have vendors in your own real estate business who are at Day 45 in their agreement. 

The key thing here is that you can’t fall out of love with the vendor at this stage. You need to make sure that you’re offering them the same level of service that they received at Day 1. 

This makes them less likely to consider working with a competitor.

Second, you have the vendors who are on Day 45 with a competing real estate business. It’s at this stage that you can start engaging those vendors with the correct action plan. 

This is when you want to start getting your content in front of them so that they know who you are. This content will warm them up to you as they go through the other stages of the cycle with their current real estate business.

And by the time they hit Day 90, they’re ready to talk about making the switch to your business.

Inside my ‘Expired Listing System’™ we layer in a communication plan to coincide with these ranges of emotions throughout a campaign to elevate you into pole position every time.

You Must Understand Emotions

Every vendor runs through a gamut of emotions when they put a property up for sale. They go from feeling excited to feeling frustrated as the process drags on. Eventually, they start to feel flat. 

That’s when they become more open to working with another real estate business.

You need to confront these emotions on both sides. Make sure you don’t allow your own vendors to give up hope when you’re working with them. And take advantage of that state for your competitor’s vendors so you can grab the second chance at their listings.