Your visual CRM helps you keep up with MLS in your areas.

As an agent, you should already be tracking MLS daily. This is a five to ten minute activity. You just need to flip through the information every morning. You want to know what’s going on in your area.

Here’s how I do that. I go on MLS for a few minutes first thing in the morning. One by one, I write down the new listings in my area. I divide a sheet of paper into columns. I fill in how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, square footage, and price. That's it. I don’t even try to read it. I just write it into the columns on autopilot every morning.

Doing this helps you get to know how much something is worth in your area. You never need to commit anything to memory. It becomes automatic. Your daily habit makes you an expert on current values. 

I teach my agents to study MLS because it gives you a game advantage. You always know exactly what is going on in your area. You’ll know how many active listings there are. You’ll know the turnover rate. It's not rocket science. Yet, few agents do the work to learn this information. When you take the time to do this, prospects will see you as even more of an expert at their door. 

Studying the MLS helps you see the bigger picture. And you can literally apply what you see on MLS to your map. After you check the MLS listings, you can look them up on your map. You can see where other listings are at play in your game. It doesn’t matter that they are not your listings. ALL listings in your area are important to know. You want to remain the expert and know all the values at play. You also want to know where they are located. The more you know about lot size and other features the better. 

If you have extra time, you can look up even more details. You can even look up photos. When Sally says she loves the house listed down the street, you can comment on it. You can say you like the size of the lot or the beautiful garden area. 

You can also start marking other people’s listings and solds in other colors on your map. This helps you easily see which streets are turning over quickest. That’s another reason you want to know this information. 

Tracking MLS on your map with a map shows you which areas have not turned over. You might spot areas that have not turned over in five to seven years! You can keep an eye on those areas to spot them once they turn. When the first listing in that area turns, it usually triggers others to start turning. 

This happened to one of my areas a few years ago. Nothing was selling. Everyone was holding onto their property. Then, one person listed for a great price. This inspired others in the area to start looking at their home’s value. Places started turning because the price had hiked so much. Owner saw their own home price nearly double too. This area suddenly went from an area that was dead for years to a very hot area with a high turnover. As soon as it started turning, every house was ripe to start turning!

When you see the first new listing in a previously dead area, you can get ready for more turnover. It’s a great time to start a door knocking campaign in the area. You have a sudden advantage when you are the first agent to get in. 

How do you do this? You can prepare a printout with the first listing and take it with you to tell people about it. You can also look up and point out how much the house’s price has gone up since it last was listed or last turned. If the house used to be 1.2 and is now 1.8, this is information neighbors appreciate knowing. They’ll start thinking, maybe now is the time to think about selling!

You might say to homeowners, “Did you know Bob and Sally just listed (or got) 1.8 for their house? Can you believe it? Would you like a free home evaluation for yours?”
ACTION STEP:  Create the habit of reviewing MLS listings daily. This is another thing to add to your habit tracker!

There were a lot of resources to print in the last couple videos. Take a moment to make sure you’ve printed everything here and are ready for your action steps!

When you’re ready, I’ll see you in the last lesson of the module! 

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