KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Prospecting Withdrawn From Sale Properties with Terri Cooper

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Summary:This episode provides a highly tactical and actionable guide on how to approach and convert properties that have been withdrawn from the market. Guest Terri Cooper shares her specific scripts, mindset, and strategies for re-engaging with these homeowners. The hosts and guest break down the entire process, from initial contact to securing a new listing. The content is directly applicable and offers clear steps for real estate agents looking for new lead generation opportunities in a competitive market.

Hi and welcome to Let's Talk About Real Estate Podcast, the podcast for real estate agents absolutely everywhere. I'm Lisa B, and during this podcast we're going to be talking about everything real estate. What's working? What's not working? AI, automation, technology, EXP Realty, and absolutely everything to do with real estate. I'll have guest speakers as well where we'll answer your questions from the Facebook group, let's talk about real estate. So if you haven't joined the Facebook group, make sure you do that now, and we'd be happy to help answering any question. And again, welcome to the show. Welcome to this week's.

Let's talk about real estate podcast. I have my very special guest, Terry Cooper. Thank you so much for joining me today. Well, I'm excited. First podcast. We've done me. Our first podcast together. So what our theme is is golden nuggets, isn't it?

So it's golden nuggets, nuggets of information. And our topic today is going to be prospecting and withdrawn from sale prospecting. Yes. So tell everybody about your book. Can you show up, show your book? Okay, sure. We've got a couple of resources for people, so people that are on video. That's all right.

So this is a book that Terry co-authored. I'm sorry, just put it up again. Sorry, sorry. So Terry co-authored, so Success is a Real Estate agent for Dummies. And as we know, the Dummies brand is an amazing brand of book. And I'm so jealous that Terry got this thing because I've done books as well. I would have loved a dummy's book. So you are absolutely.

I'm so jealous. and it's amazing content in here as well. So today you're going to be talking about some of the things that are in your book. And then I've also got my real estate club. So I'm going to be going through some of those things as well. So when you don't have listings and you haven't got anything to sell, what do you do? Do you sit on the lounge and go, this is really awful? And I'm going to blame everybody and maybe if I just sit here and wish, you know, somebody might ring me up and say they want to sell a property or do you spend $2,000 a month on a lead generation company to try and get you leads while you sit on your backside and do nothing? Or do you actually proactively try and find

listings? Yes. That's what we do. That's why we get paid the big bucks. You know, that we get paid for, you know, creating business that didn't exist as well. If you are just an order taker, you are just sitting in your office waiting for somebody to walk in and blaming the office because the leads aren't coming in and you're not getting leads. I'm sorry, you're a real estate agent, but you're an order taker. You know, you've got to create business that didn't exist before. That is your job, right? So look for opportunities. So the first opportunity we're going to be talking about is, as I said, withdrawn from sale. So I've got a whole lot of things that I want to talk about. So what did you want to say first about that, Terry? I just think in a market where you don't

have a lot of listings and at the moment I think it's difficult. Everyone's a little bit worried about should I sell my house? What if I don't, you know, make money in the stock account? Whatever. And it is difficult. So if I could just quickly go back to when I changed agencies, I went from one particular suburb into another one, but I went to a different agency. So I had no listings. I had some referrals, but they didn't want to deal with a new company. So suddenly, I just had no pipeline, no pipeline at all. And that was a bit scary for me. So what I had to do, was think of another strategy. In my previous office, I would be getting a whole lot of appraisals, et cetera, appointments from open houses. That was my main source of appraisals and listings.

But in the new office, I didn't have any open houses, so that didn't work. So it was either find something different or get out of the industry. So I kind of thought through and I focused on what Lisa is really excited to be talking with you about today, which was. was expired listings and withdrawing listings and also for sale by owner. Now, those three different tactics. And I think today we're just going to talk about. Yeah, we're talking about what you're talking. But the main thing about that is they are motivated.

They have been on the, you know, you're just not cold door knocking and saying, do you want to sell your house or something? You know, for some reason they were motivated to sell their house. Yes. And the only reason it didn't sell, there are always three reasons why a house doesn't sell. Number one, the price does not meet what the market is saying. Number two, the marketing has been inadequate or just bad. And number three, it's the agent's fault. The agent has not committed to focusing on that sale. Maybe they've got too many listings. I actually got

listings by saying, you know, something about some of the really high profile agents. I say, look, they've got 40 listings. I've just got yours. Let me. focus on yours because I can do it. Let's work out what went wrong the first time and let's see how we can fix this. I won't work on the other 39. Let me just focus on yours. And without exception, I would get it and get the appraisal. Often I had to take it for a shorter period because I think they're usually a little bit burned off. Agents. Yeah. And I know we'd be going on, why would I give it to you for another three months? So I would say, look, just let's do one month. Let me show you how I work. I'll be in touch all the time. We'll be feeding back. We'll be talking about it.

I'll bring you all the offers in writing. And at the end of the month, if you're not happy with my service, totally good bond. You just let me go. So that's how I would work. That was my take on it, Lisa. And you know what? Maybe the other agent wasn't honest with the vendor either. They weren't honest about the price or the presentation, their expectations. And so coming in as a second or third agent. I used to love that because you could be honest and say, look, you know, I'm really sorry, but I don't think the other agent was actually maybe telling you what you need to hear. If I think, you know, if I've got a house and it smells like cat urine, I will tell the seller, it smells like cat urine. I'm sorry, but it does. If it's going to affect the price or it being

sold, I have to tell you. If there's something that is wrong with this property, I'm going to be the bad guy and I'm going to tell you, but I'm actually going to be the good guy. because if you don't know, you're not going to be able to move forward and sell your property. So I think, you know, saying right up front, if you choose me as your agent, I'm going to be deadly honest with you. And I hope you appreciate that because my goal is to get the property sold. It's not to sugar. Oh my gosh, Terry, your house is beautiful and it's worth a million dollars when it needs a couple

of things done to it. It's worth 900,000. You know what I mean? And that's the ideal opportunity to do that. And as you said, they're in real estate mode or they have been in real estate mode. So somebody that's coming new into real estate, it's an ideal opportunity because you can see what price they were on at. There's the photos of the properties. You know, so you can sort of, you've got an idea and understanding of where they were at and where they could be now.

So the property could be worth more now than when they're on the market. So, you know, it's a really good. You've got a lot of information that you wouldn't have had if it wasn't on the market. That's exactly right. And also to the most common question I would get, well, what would make sure? you different. You know, like I've already had X, Y, Z and it didn't sell. So how do you think you could sell it? So what I would say, we really need to sit down. I can't tell you that in one, you know, one little conversation, because at this stage I don't really know. However,

there are three, and I wouldn't go through that, but also there are only three reasons that your house hasn't sold. So when can we sit down together and let's go through each of these in detail? Yeah. So what's a good time for you? I would just do the assumptive, like, okay, I really want to help, but what's a good time. Yeah, that's right. And that's what a lot of agents don't do is close. That's what our job is. We have to close.

We have to, if you don't ask for the business, you're not going to get it. If you don't say, okay, Terry, so all we need to do now is get the paperwork started. And so all I do is fill in this form. It doesn't give me a patient to sell the property. It gives me permission to market the property. So, you know, I'll just get that started now. So what's your full name, Terry? And so just, and they'll go, oh, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do that or whatever.

I would assume, as you said, that they are going to list with me. If they're given every indication, then I would assume that they're going to sell. Now, some of the things with for sale, sorry, withdrawn from sale, it might be that an agent's gone down. Okay, so a reason that a property has come off the market, obviously it could be sold. It could be that the seller's circumstances have changed, so they've decided they don't want to sell anymore. they might have had a bad experience, as you said.

They've decided maybe to lease the property, or they don't want to force our sign. Maybe it's been on the market too long and they're still in a current agency agreement, the signs come down or the agent's sign blew away or whatever. So that's different things that, you know, different reasons why a sign could come down. But I would approach the sellers based on that. If there's no sign up, now you and I are a little bit different with our, and we'll talk about expired listings later.

That's the, you know, this. which I love. And Terry and I are going to have some debates about things. And Terry's going to say whatever she thinks and I'm going to say whatever I think. I think that's important, Lisa, for any agents who are listening, to realize that you're individual. The way Lisa works may not be exactly how I work.

But in the same respect, yeah, maybe Lisa, oh yeah, Sarah Cooper, she will appeal to a seller who perhaps wouldn't want me or vice versa. So, yeah, we can give you tips and strategies, but you must be yourself. Do it in the way that feels right to you. We're just giving you an outline. Exactly. And you know what?

You might have different ideas. Other agents have got different ideas and they'll go, Terry, I agree with you. And then people go, I agree with you, Lisa. Like, we're so different. And I never liked auctions, okay? I mean, obviously in the boom, I would have done auctions. Like things that I saw around here, I actually would have done auctions, I believe. But back in my market, I did.

did the opposite of what everybody was doing and didn't do auctions. So, you know, it's, it's everybody does things differently and you've got to do you and what you're comfortable with. If you hate doing it, you're not going to want to do it. And it's the same with prospecting. If you, if you hate phone prospecting, picking up the phone and ringing 100 people, you're not going to do it. If I say to you to just aimlessly door knock 100 houses and you've got no reason to doork, you're not going to do it. So you've got to pick a prospecting source that you actually like and that you're going to do. I think that's really important as well. So as I said, you've got Terry's book, that book that you can get as a resource,

which has got all of your different prospecting. And then also we've got my real estate club. If you're interested in that, let me know that's by invitation only. And I can let people know about that as well. Now, I've got a couple of letters. Or do you want to talk about the process of how you would approach a withdrawal from Sala? Let's see how, yeah, definitely.

I think really, really important to use your CRM. You know, you have to have things documented. And in most agencies, you would have a territory. Some don't, like where Lisa and I are, we don't, but most do. So I would be looking every time a property in that area, it goes up because it comes up on real estate.com. Or as you drive around, I would drive around with my little notebook and I would write down, oh, that was for sale. I would actually keep a calendar of when those places went on the market, right?

And then I would also check each couple of days or once even once a week on the sold. Go to the REA and look at what's been sold. Okay. And then as you drive around, obviously, if they've been sold, agents are really proud to put a sold sign on. Yeah, that's right. And cross that off because that's gone. But you must keep a lid on it, you know?

And also, too, once it comes to the 30 days or, you know, you see that it's expired or sold, or being withdrawn from sale, you must ring them and check that, as you said, Lisa, it's just not that there's no sold sign, just so I've noticed that your house has been on the market, you know, since March. How has that been going? And they would go, oh, hopeless, hopeless, didn't sell. Or they'd go, oh, actually, we've got a few, you know, whatever,

but listen to what they say. And if they say, no, definitely, I'm not with that agent, there was a bad experience, say, look, okay, I've actually got a different strategy. I'm just wondering, are you still wanting to sell? Because I would get that straight first. I don't want to be prospecting someone who's not selling. And if they go, oh, yes, absolutely.

But, you know, what's the point? And I would go, look, actually, I work a bit differently to a lot of agents. Would you mind if I popped around to have a chat with you? There's only a couple of reasons why your house didn't sell. If you still want to sell, let me come around and let's see what we can do for it. Yeah. And who wouldn't, if you said that to me, of course I'd get, all right. You know, because you've got that way about you.

You know, you're very personal and it comes across as that you want to help me. So I think that's. And also too, sorry, I think it's really important that you say, from my experience, I know for sure, if you really want to sell, there's only three reasons that your house hasn't sold, and I would love to go over that with you. And then they're curious. Yes. Then they're curious.

You know, so don't tell them what they are then. Otherwise, it's just like, oh, I'm wondering, can I come and talk to you? And they go, oh, yes, you're just like all the others. Yeah. But we're going to give them three really good pieces of information, then they can decide if they want to go ahead or not. And dissect, absolutely. Okay.

So I've got some letters that we can. And also, too, what we spoke about yesterday, Terry, was make sure the laws in your area, whether it's a do not register, you know, if somebody's got a sign out the front that says no door knocking, be very simple because there's agents that have been sued because of that. So just be very careful of your area, know the laws in your area and all that sort of thing as well. So just a bit of a disclaimer. So I've got one here, a letter that we can either hand deliver or whatever. Dear such and such, hi, my name is such and such. I'm writing to ask you for your help. I believe

that you had your home for sale a while ago. And as far as I'm aware, I don't recall that you sold. The reason for my letter is that I was wondering if you would still consider selling. I would like to discuss a strategy with you that involves buyers in my database. This strategy could help you sell your home for a great price if you're interested. I specialize in your area and we have sold many homes around your home and should you wish to sell, I feel certain I can help you obtain a great price. Please phone me on exit. I look forward to meeting you. Okay, so you can tailor make these to fit yourself and put them in your words.

I'm just giving you an idea. Anyway, so you get the idea. So, you know, you can tailor make that to yourself and put it into your words and then, you know, you can drop that off underneath the door or whatever you want to do. So, and then I would, you know, I would probably go and door knock the house first. I'd have that letter in my hand. If they're not home, then you could put something under door. It might just be a business card.

Could you please call me when you get a chance? Put that under there. Then it might be another door knock a couple of days later and put that letter underneath. You know, and then it might be following up with a phone call if you have the number and you can get that possibly from ID for me or whatever else. So I would make it, it would be a three or four point piece of contact with that person. And then I would put them in my follow up as well. And then I do probably letterbox drops around that street the next week or whatever,

not only their house, the whole street. So I would make it that that person gets to know me. That's right. Because they have to see that you're active. Yeah. Because I think, you know, a lot of Asians, they come in with even a letter like that. But nobody ever heard of them before. So they have to go, oh, oh, that's that girl that I see.

I'll see her picture or whatever it is. And then they connect you because it's all about they want to know like and trust you, especially because today we're talking about withdrawins. They've obviously had a bad experience. Something hasn't worked. So often they're in a bad frame of mind. They're not really wrapped in agents, you know. They're worried because their house hasn't got the right price.

So the more you can give them those points of contact, the better. Yeah, absolutely. As you said, you know, work on a way that they can like you, know, you trust you. And the first thing is knowing you. So anybody that is going to do business with you these days, especially is going to Google you before they have you out. So make sure that social media presence is one that you are proud of that shows who you are. That, you know, and everybody's different. Everybody's got different interests. And I used to think that everybody had to be like me. You know, when I had my office, it'd be like, oh my gosh, they're saying this, they're saying that or whatever, but it's like they're going to attract their tribe as well,

you know, so it's, you know, be you, be real, you know, just be professional and, you know, make sure that you're representing yourself on the outside to the public, the way that you want to be known for in the industry as well. In your experience then, for an agent who's sort of going to themselves, okay, so, but on my Facebook, I've got my family and my dog and everything like that, how would you approach that? Would you not be so personal on your social media? I still do that. No, I still do that because that shows.

Like, you know, I've got friends, a guy named Steve and he's a, you know, NRL follower, whatever, you know, I know the team he follows. You know, I know such and such has got different cars, you know, different people. It's like, that makes you relatable. I wouldn't make it all to business. Like business is supposed to be fun as well. And people are so much, you know, stuff shirts. I was never, ever like that.

I would always tell a joke, have fun, make it very relaxed and very chill. And, you know, the person that I am now is the person I am when I'm presenting. You know, I'm not a different person. It's like, who I am and you take me as I am, you know, it's like I've got a bit of a warped sense of humor sometimes. And, you know, I put that on my page and I relate to people that are like that, they would relate to me. So I think, and I was never the one and you might be different.

But I always wanted people to leave photos of their feelings. family around the house. I sold so many houses and especially because I was from Wollongong so it was a very, very small. It's a city, but it's very small. So people would come in and go, oh, is that John? Oh my God, I'm good at John. John works here, here. And then all of a sudden, they trust that house because they trust John. So I was never one to take photos down, ever, ever, ever. And to me, that makes it relatable. You know, it's like, you know, you know, you know, what's the dog they've got and all that sort of thing. So no, I interming. it obviously don't go I'm not one where it's oh my gosh I've just split up with my husband

and this has happened it on me and blah blah blah blah blah plus to be positive yes yes I'm not one to tell all on social media like some people do and just know that if you do that then you know people could judge things and whatever and but it's totally up to you do you do what's what's right for you personally I wouldn't but it's really up to people how they want to represent themselves. You just got to think. Yeah. Can I just say one other thing?

You said about how when you go to, you know, a client, you're the same as what you are now. I think it's really important. Have a look at your business card. If the photo on your business card is from 20 years ago. That's typical real estate. Yeah, I know. It's terrible. Like, you know, and you sort of go, oh, hello, like, hey, I'm just pretending.

Just a sec. I'm Terry Cooper. Da, da, da, da. Okay, good, okay. I'm Terry Cooper. Hooper, you know, here's my car and there's not, I mean, I don't know. That doesn't look like you. Okay.

Now, that just immediately says you're fake. Yeah. It immediately says that you're not up front. And if you were fake with your own photo, yeah, what else are you going to be focused on? So even though you might have aged 20 years or something, you will get people who relate to that rather than a 50-year-old lady who looks like she's 20.

Yeah, exactly. I kind of think that's only a little thing, but I think, it's kind of a big thing yeah you know what i did years ago terry it was probably about 20 years ago it was i don't know no it would have been less than that it was after i had max and i needed to get new photos done for my website and i was like oh you know had a small baby like he wasn't sleeping i was tired you know i still had a bit of baby fat and well whatever and it was like i just can't get photos done i just can't i just can't i haven't got i don't have to get my hair done my makeup done and you know clothes and whatever so i got somebody a graphic

designer to put my head on somebody else's body and I put that on my website. And it was like, it was the best thing. And probably with AI now you can do it even better. But I was like, I'm just not doing it. I'm not going to do that. I just haven't got the capability to do that. So that's what I did. So I had my head, which was okay because it was only just from before I had Max.

And then I just put on somebody's the body. So I made it look like mine, you know, like it was, it didn't be able to find it and, you know, whatever. And then just put my head on that body. So, you know, there's different things you can do as well. It was fake, but I made it look real. But anyway, yeah. So no, definitely.

So we dropped themselves. So that's one of our little golden nuggets of, you know, just put all the excuses aside in life and just focus on the results. And there's lots of different ways that you can get listings. And Terry and I will be going through lots more of these. And as I said, you know, you've got the resource of the real estate club and you've got the resource of Terry's book. So reach out to.

too if you've got any questions or anything like that or write them down in the comments here. And yeah, that'll be great. So we'll see you next time, Terry. Okay. Thanks, Lisa. All right. Thanks for listening to Let's Talk About Real Estate podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show.

If you have a question about real estate, then please join the group on Facebook, also called Let's Talk About Real Estate. For those of you who are interested in EXP, please join us at 10 a.m. Brisbane time every Wednesday morning for EXP Explained. Thank you again for joining us and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and see you next week.