The Right Phrase for Every Situation…Every Time In our current real estate climate, it's more important than ever to have the right words at your fingertips. Whether you're new to the game or a seasoned seller, Perfect Phrases for Real Estate Agents and Brokers has just the right words and phrases you'll need to track down prospective properties and clients, manage transactions, negotiate terms, facilitate communications between buyer and seller, and close the deal. This easy-to-use, quick-reference guide gives you: Hundreds of quick, ready-to-use words and phrases - Coverage of every situation you'll face, from meeting a new client to finalizing the sale - Winning approaches that persuade prospects and generate sales - Expertise from a top realtor educator and author Daniel Hamilton works for Century 21 Judge Fite Company as director of training, director of career development, and recruiter. He also serves as president and founder of InveSTAR's real estate investment group. Hamilton is the author of Real Estate Marketing and Sales Essentials and the co-authored Real Estate Agency Law . Daniel Hamilton works for Century 21 Judge Fite Company as director of training, director of career development, and recruiter. He also serves as president and founder of InveSTAR's real estate investment group. Hamilton is the author of Real Estate Marketing and Sales Essentials and the co-authored Real Estate Agency Law . Perfect Phrases for Real Estate Agents & Brokers By Dan Hamilton The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Copyright © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-07-158835-5 Contents Chapter One Telephone Dialogues People in the real estate industry have been far behind in the ability to answer the telephone and then convert those calls into money. This chapter is intended to overcome this deficit and move the industry forward in professionalism and service. Failure to use telephone dialogues effectively will greatly hinder a real estate company. This chapter presents and discusses the following: * Dialogues for answering the telephone correctly * Dialogues for answering the telephone while taking opportunity time * Generic dialogues for answering calls from buyers * Specific dialogues for answering calls from buyers This chapter is intended for practically anyone in the real estate business. It is specifically of benefit to salespeople, brokers, managers, attorneys, accountants, other real estate professionals, lending professionals, real estate investors, and title officers. All of the above will benefit from knowing about the telephone dialogues discussed in this chapter. Without this knowledge, these people in the real estate business are disadvantaged. These are the objectives of this chapter: * Understand the objective of the broker when advertising. * Understand the objective of the agent when answering the telephone. * Understand the objective of the caller when calling about a real estate advertisement. * Understand the three things that buyers feel are of value. * Understand the rules of handling calls from buyers. * Understand and use the dialogues given for handling calls from buyers. Answering the Telephone Correctly Answering the telephone correctly in the real estate office is of utmost importance. A real estate company must make every effort to remain a professional organization. A key element of that image is answering the telephone professionally. Most offices have an administrative assistant, receptionist, or call coordinator to answer the telephone. However, on certain occasions, you—the real estate professional—may need to answer that telephone. Whoever answers the telephone should say: "Thank you for calling Acme Real Estate Company. May I help you?" This allows the caller to give his or her reason for calling. If the call is for another person in the office, then the person answering should forward the call. If the other person is not currently in the office, the person answering the call should say: "Bob is not answering his page, but I would be glad to transfer you to his voice mail." Then the person answering the call should transfer the call to voice mail. If the caller does not want to be connected to voice mail, the person answering the call should take his or her name and number and place them in voice mail. The person answering the call should never say any of the following to a caller: "Bob hasn't made it into the office yet." "Bob is off on Thursday." "I haven't seen Bob in days." Answering the Telephone During Opportunity Time Opportunity time is the time when a real estate agent gets the opportunity to take incoming calls from potential buyers. Opportunity time is also misnamed "floor time" and "up time," but make no mistake—if this time is handled properly, then it's an opportunity. You should prepare for opportunity time as you would prepare for any oth