Spotlight - Obtaining Listings From For Sale By Owners

Prospecting and marketing to For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) offers and excellent opportunity to create new business.  The NAR says that over 80% of FSBOs eventually list with a full-service real estate agent, so you should make a concerted effort to target this market.

A successful FSBO marketing campaign has four key elements: 

1. Identifying FSBO opportunities 
2. Earning the FSBO’s trust
3. Establishing compelling value in your services
4. Obtaining a listing agreement from the FSBO

To obtain the free report, “For Sale By Owner or Real Estate Agent…The Right Decision Will Save You Thousands” please visit www.archtelecom.com/downloads.

While it may seem somewhat unorthodox for a real estate agent to put on a home selling seminar for FSBO’s, they are effective because typically there is very little competition and it is a great theater to establish you as the expert in the marketplace.  Often an agent will walk out with listing appointments. 

Once you’ve identified the FSBO, you must quickly earn their trust.  It’s important they understand why you are willing to assist them; after all, the FSBO is going to assume that you are simply after a commission.  What both parties should consider is that your assistance provides the FSBO with a greater possibility of them selling their property, and if that doesn’t happen, you have a greater opportunity to earn their listing.  In the interim, you will use the FSBO as leverage to generate other listings and buyers.

To earn their trust, you must position yourself as an expert on the For Sale By Owner market.  Explain to the potential seller how the marketplace perceives FSBOs; why they will receive low ball offers from bargain hunters; how to qualify buyers; how limited exposure may effect sales price; and other types of hurdles they will face when attempting to sell their own house.  Offering free valuable information such as Comparative Market Analysis to the FSBO further positions you as a qualified expert who is concerned in helping them make an informed decision.

Once you’ve earned their trust, explain how you can help.  Allow them to use your Powerline™ call-capture system.  The most common testimonial we get regarding the effectiveness of call-capture is that “a listing leads to a listing.”  What the subscriber means is that buyers are sellers too; so by offering the Powerline™ system to the FSBO, you’ll generate buyers that weren’t interested in the FSBO’s property but may have a listing or may be interested in one of your other properties.  New features of Powerline™ enable you to offer multiple direct connects or notifications to facilitate the FSBO marketing program.

Product Spotlight - Arch FSBO Service

We Search, So You Can Sell

Stop wasting your valuable time searching “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO) listings. Arch’s FSBO Listing Service identifies and delivers to you daily a list of FSBO properties that have recently been advertised. 

We use a multi-step process to uncover and add missing elements to ensure that you have accurate names, phone numbers and postal addresses. Simply enter your desired zip code, and we will send you all the advertised FSBO listings within a fifty-mile radius from the area of greatest population density of your zip code. You may narrow your radius; choose to include/exclude adjoining states; and decide in what format you want your FSBO listings delivered, enabling you to focus on the FSBOs in the area in which you wish to work.

Arch matches the phone number and reverse-matches the advertised address to determine if a home was advertised as a FSBO but is actually an investor, REALTOR® listing or assisted listing. When a FSBO listing does not contain sufficient elements to match, a live operator calls the listing to fill in the missing elements to guarantee that the listing is a true FSBO.

Ensure Quality FSBO Data

Identifying and accurately mapping true FSBO listings require a combination of sophisticated technology and quality human resources.

Arch maintains licensing agreements with various providers of consumer FSBO data and then harvests other sources using an automated network of web and server-based tools. These tools search newspaper ads, websites and other FSBO sources. These licensing agreements enable us to disclose the source from which the FSBO was harvested and display that source on your report, so that you can speak intelligently to your FSBO prospect or provide feedback on other desired sources that we may not be currently data-mining.  

Next, we enrich the data using our licensed access to a patented, multi-sourcing database technology. This database provides the most complete universe of business and residential telephone numbers linked to current names and postal address. These links are updated regularly based upon more than 400 million verifications each month.

If we map the listing using automation, we deliver it to you within 24 hours from when it was advertised. Should the listing not contain sufficient elements to map, the live operator may take an additional 24 hours to call the property prior to Arch delivering the listing. On a national scale, we map 82% of the listings using automation and an additional 8% using live operators. If the live operator cannot map the listing, we deliver the listing “as is.”

As a subscriber you receive:

• A daily email of the FSBO listings within a fifty mile radius of the zip code you request You may select the format of the email from the following: text (suitable for printing), comma-separated variable (CSV, designed for importing) or HTML (includes all elements of the ad).

• An online web report that enables you to modify settings or download reports in any format

• FSBO listings delivered to you in order of mileage proximity.

• Most missing elements that were not published are matched and reported.

• Identification and purging of duplicates, along with most REALTOR® and investor listings

• Whether or not the phone record appears on the DO NOT CALL list

What's New at Arch

Web Portal Updates

With recent updates to Arch’s web portal, you are able to quickly and easily manage your account. Just point and click.

Using your Login ID and Password, you can utilize all of the following features, and many more. 

To access your account:

1. Go to www.archtelecom.com
2. Click on the top toolbar “Customer Center”
3. Click on “Online Reports/Account”
4. Enter your Powerline™ # in the Login ID
5. Enter your Password

Adding Descriptions to Your Listings

Instant notifications alert you to your hottest leads in real time. Often it can be hard to remember which extension you have assigned to each property. In an effort to help you better organize and follow-up with your leads in a professional manner, we have added a feature that allows you to add a description to each property. The description can indicate the address of the listing or a title of any free report you may be offering through the extension. When you receive notification, you will see the name of the property or special offer, along with the contact information of the lead.

• Log on to your account thru the Arch homepage
• Click on the “Powerline” tab
• Click on the “Edit” link in the “Controls” column of the listing for which you would like to add a description
• Add a description of your choice in the field labeled “Description” and click “Save Extension” button

Online Reports

Although you receive instant notification of potential clients who have accessed your Powerline™, you also have the opportunity at any time to look at a report of your listings sorted by a date range of your choice. The report will detail which extensions were accessed, the source digit used, a link to any voice mails left, and the name, address and phone number of the caller. You can search your report for calls from the past 90 days.

• Log on to your account thru the Arch homepage
• Click on the “Reports” tab
• Click on the “Powerline” link
• Using the drop-down menu, insert your preferred date range
• Click “Get Report” tab

Billing Invoices

You can view your previous invoices online through the Portal. Search invoices from the past two years with just a click of a button.

• Log on to your account thru the Arch homepage
• Click on the “Billing” tab

Ask Arch

When I call my toll-free number, I don't get an option to listen to voicemail. How do I access my Powerline™  voicemail? Also, can I listen to my voicemails online?

You can access the voicemail system by calling your toll-free number and pressing “*” and entering your password.  The system will announce any new voice messages, and at that point, you can press the option “1” to listen. 

The voicemails are also available through the web portal at https://portal.archtelecom.com/
Portal/Login.aspx.  You will log in using your toll-free number and password. Then click on the “Voice and Fax mail” tab to listen to your messages.

When I signed up with Arch, I remember being told about some direct response reports and ads that I could use for marketing purposes. Where can I find copies of these?

You can find those direct response reports, which help you strategically market to specific types of buyers and sellers, on our website. Go to http://www.archtelecom.com/
downloads/  Here you will find downloadable copies of the direct response reports, along with samples of ads you can run to direct people to your toll-free number for the reports.

I can’t seem to remember my password for the website. Can I have it emailed to me?

Go to www.archtelecom.com and click on the “Customer Center” tab at the top of the page and select “Online Reports/Account.” When you get to the log in page, scroll down to the link that says “Forgot Password.” Enter your email address that you have associated with your set-up and we will instantly send you the password.