KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Unlocking Buyer Interest Strategies for Generating Demand When Listings Aren't Selling!

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.Summary:When a listing goes stale, it's a signal that the current strategy is missing the mark. This episode provides real estate agents with a tactical blueprint to generate massive buyer demand and revive interest in properties that are slow to sell. We break down the four critical steps—from aggressive pricing and presentation pivots to creative marketing and targeted reintroduction—that top agents use to reset the clock and turn a languishing listing into a successful closing. Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

Built to close your week strong and start the next one smarter. Here's what you're based from this week's Friday Focus on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Thank you all for joining me today. And really what I'm going to be talking about is something that's been on the back from so many, many agents. Whether they're in the actual company or outside the actual company, so many agents have been reaching out to me in the past week and saying, Stuart, I'm sitting with listings. and I'm not getting any buyers. What can I do? And this is something that definitely,

as we start coming closer to any kind of major economic event within any country, so whether it's a rates increase or decrease, having their discussion, elections, etc., buyers tend to get a little bit of cold feet, and they do hold back because they want to see what the outcome is of that particular whatever that session is going to be. But that doesn't mean that our business needs to come to an absolute grinding standstill. We need to be able to carry on with our business. And in carrying on with our business, it means that one, we're getting those listings, which is great, two thumbs up on that. However, it's now to get these buyers. We need to find out about these particular

buyers to come through. Now, here's something that I have actually picked up. When we start looking at surveys, and I do a lot of research on surveys to get numbers. Any kind of major economical events. In fact, it only affects about 30% of our clients. All right. So there's 70% of them that go, actually, I want to buy now. It really does not phase me at all. I want to buy now and I carry on. However, that 30%, their voices are so loud that what actually happens is it creates a negative effect in any particular market. And that negative effect can then start to roll over. Now, you as an agent, when you hear one person with, oh, no, the elections or oh, no, the interest rates, you kind of get to that point where you can assume that all buyers

are thinking the same. Now, I want you to remove that particular myth. It's only 30% of them that do think that. The rest, actually, whether the interest rates go up or down, they still want to buy. Whether there's going to be an election, they still need to buy. So these things do happen. What it does impact is what they're going to offer. Now, that's what does impact. So it doesn't actually impact as far as whether they're wanting to go and view a property, but it's the price that they want to pay.

So that's the only part of it that any kind of major economic situation actually has, is how much they want to pay. And the simple example is, a property is, let's say, at 2 million, and no buys are interested because of market conditions, the economic market conditions, well, if you listed it for half that at a million, would it sell? Absolutely. So that would actually indicate that it doesn't actually matter about the market, then it's price, it's a good deal, and someone will jump out.

So how? We're sitting in a situation where a number of agents, they do have stock, but they're not getting those inquiries. And what can we do to kind of speed that process up or give greater exposure? Well, that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about today. I want to dig into when you've got listings, how do you actually spark the buyer's interest? How do you actually take them to that next point where they're going to go, yeah, I'd like to actually come through and view that particular property? You see, sparking a buyer's interest is probably one of the most challenging things. that we have in real estate.

Why? Well, there are so many real estate agents out there. There are so many properties that are listed. And in essence, the listing that you have is actually in that same arena. And it almost becomes a blur. So the buyer, when they're actually looking at properties, they're not looking at just one property that's on a platform. What they're doing is they're looking at maybe two or three hundred.

and it almost becomes like a social media where they swiping through properties looking for that one that gathers their interest and jumps out at them. So what you need to do is you need to remove the mindset that while I have the listing, the buyers, they will just come to me.

That mindset needs to now be changed. What you need to do is I have the listing. What can I do proactively to get an increasingly. increased buyer's interest. That is where the difference is between stock that sits and stock that sells. It's the proactive nature of a particular agent. So one of the key areas when we're actually looking at listings. And this is something that you can do with all your listings. In fact, when I sit out a plan for my coaching clients, I've always said, take a Thursday, two hours

on a Thursday morning to reevaluate every one of your listings. Now, If you do have administrative supports, they would actually then also do that, maybe even twice a week. But generally, on a Thursday is when I do all of those market updates and re-evaluate those listings. Why? Well, historically it's shown that from Friday through Saturday, Sunday is when the highest interest, when people are sitting in the comfort of their house and they start looking for properties. And you want to make sure that it stands out. So Thursday is typically the day that I've always done to actually re-eavis.

evaluate the listings. Now, what do we actually do when we reevaluating those particular listings? Well, we're looking at things like the price. Is that price competitive enough? Now, how do we do that? Well, search that particular listing of yours on the portals. Where does it fits amongst the price? Is there another 30, 40 listings with the exact same price? Because remember, price is always where the buyers are looking and where they're starting. So if you've got 30, 40 listings, all at the exact same price, it's just going to be mixed in there. So what I've generally done is if there is something where I see multiple listings with the same price, I'll speak to my seller and I'll say to them, we need to change the price because

we can see we're in this bracket of the common area. We need to step outside of that. And in some cases, I will drop that price by a very small margin just so that it stands out. Sometimes it even means increasing the price by very, very small margin. It's just to create that awareness on that particular property itself. So having a look at the actual price and making sure that it's all in place. Looking at the listing and how it presents itself, remember, it's that very first image on the portals or on the actual platform that catches the eye. Now, if it's a bad quality photo, so a photo that's maybe a little bit blurry,

what doesn't have anything appealing, someone's going to swap straight past it. So have a look at that opening image. And what I've always done is every single week, I change that opening image, which means that when I'm actually going out and working with my photographer to take opening image pictures, I need to have about four or five of them. These are outside of the properties, overlooking the pool, something that's got an appealing side of it. And every week, I change that opening image. Now, why do you do that?

Well, if a buyer saw me on Saturday, they're going to go, oh, I saw that property and they'll swap straight past. But if they swaps it, oh, wait a minute, there's a new image and they click on it. What you're doing is you're actually engaging in them to click on that particular property and that particular listing. So engaging photo, change it every single week. The actual price, make sure that you're not falling into that actual category where you've got 10, 12, 30 properties with the exact same price. So make sure that you're having a look at. Now, all of this falls into this little category called positioning yourself in these particular platforms.

You need to position with a standout image, which will get you engagement. You need to stand out with the prices that don't match into it. Now, talking about the price, if you suddenly notice that, wait a minute, our price is way above everybody else and it's almost 30, 40 percent higher than everybody else, this would be a flag for you to then start having those conversations with your particular seller and saying, hey, wait a minute, there's another 10, 12 properties that are cheaper than us. and there is no ways that we can get this engagement because the buyers are just brushing past our particular listing and they're going straight to the cheaper properties. So having a strategic price is absolutely important. Now, there's a number of things.

One, overpriced. Well, that's not strategic. We need to bring it down. Two, it's also looking at the search criteria on any of the platforms. So, for instance, if one of the search criteria, is 1 million and you've got a property listed at a million and 20. Well, it's not just above that search criteria of 1 million.

Your buyers might be looking for everything under the 1 million mark. So what do you need to do? You need to have that conversation with your seller and say, well, let's see if we can have a strategic price of 99,995, just below. So when they put in their search criteria, that listing appears. is in that particular search criteria. That's a strategic approach that we go through. Now, every Thursday, when you're going on and you're having a look at those particular listings, that's what you're looking for.

You want to see where does it fit in all of these search criterias and try and play around with those search criteria. Put in those particular brackets, see where your listing comes up. Whether it's down to the bedrooms, the bathrooms, garages, all of those things. Put those criteria in place and see where your search. This becomes a very strategic approach on your particular properties. Now, this is the basics to actually make sure that your listing stands up above everybody else. And it's so important because this is that call to action for somebody to actually click and actually go into it.

The next is you need to make sure that once they click, it's enhanced. The experience has been enhanced. it's not just well here's some pictures here's a description if you like it contact me if you don't like it move on to the next property that's not the approach that we want to take what we want is we want something that has an experience so how do we do that well one pictures we say pictures tells a thousand words so we need to make sure that the pictures of the property actually tells a story and gives some form of experience now research and again, I go back to research, research has shown that buyers are looking at properties

with good kitchens, space, entertainment area. They want something that's neat and clean. Now, what they don't want is 15 pictures of the kitchen as the first array of photos. Once they've seen a kitchen, they've seen a kitchen. So when we start looking at that enhanced marketing experience, make sure that you're telling the story with as little images as possible so they can get onto the next image. So my suggestion is when we're starting to upload, we have one picture of the outside. We have one picture of a kitchen, one picture of the dining room, the lounge, the entertainment, the dens.

We just have one of each, which allows you every Thursday to replace those particular images every single week, which updates that particular listing and almost gets at the first. feeling of a new listing every time. That's enhancing that experience on that listing. Now, the next thing is great. Pictures are one thing. Description. We need to make sure that we have a description for those that are at the level where they want to read more about the property. They want to have that experience when they read it. They want to get that emotional connection. In fact, the description should be written for your specific buyer. not just a simple copy and paste with little points, three bedrooms, two bathrooms,

double garage, etc. It needs to tell a story and it needs to keep them engaged. So now you've got this person or buyer that's clicked on that image. They're landing into your particular listing. They've seen this array of pictures, which is giving them that emotional feeling. They're now reading that actual description that feels like it's been written for them. Now, how do we actually get it to write for them? Well, it's very straightforward and simple.

We need to identify, through research and stats, what is the average age of the buyers in this particular area? And we have all those tools that can give us that information. Once we can identify, what is in that particular area? Are there schools? Is it a business district? What is it that we need to write about? Because that is what goes into your description. It's about that emotional connection, about writing to your buyer that reads it and says this is what's actually matching my experience.

And all of this is to elevate it so they can set up an appointment. Now, we have pictures. We've got a great description. We've got an opening phrase. Now, most of the time the opening phrases, they do get overwritten by any of the portals. So we can create that headline. However, a lot of the portals actually create their own. So that is something that's a little bit of the secondary.

But the third major one is we want to give an experience of a virtual tour. Now, what do we mean by a virtual tour? What we mean is create a video tour of that property, something that will actually give them a feel and a flow. And I would strongly recommend that you include yourself in that particular video, talking about the property, doing a walkthrough on the property so that they can get that feel and the flow. of the property. This is what we're talking about enhancing that particular marketing experience. You see, once we got that particular buyer into our listing, we need to make sure that they remain engaged for as long as possible. Great photos. Great description on the property and a virtual

tour, something that keeps them active and captivated in that particular listing. So it's great. So now we've got to the point where perfect, they like, they link, they get in. But, Stuart, I'm not even getting them to that point. Now, I've started with making sure that your marketing is all correct and the pricing and all that's correct because what I'm going to share with you now is the steps to get them into that particular platform, into that particular point. But you don't want to do all the work to get them in and they go, I don't like the pictures, I don't like the description, it doesn't talk to.

me and then they bail. So that's why it's so important to make sure the listing is top class and you're working on it every single week. The next is now what we've got to do is we've got to go through a targeted marketing campaign. And targeted marketing campaigns is something where you're going to be sending out, whether it's on social media, where you will actually take your particular listing and you're going to almost force feed it. to that specific audience. And remember, you've already identified your audience because you've created your description.

So you want to create a social media campaign that focuses on that particular audience, whether it's age, whether it's in a certain area, a demographic, whatever, the interest, you're going to start to focus. So while they're on social media, and we know that social media is pretty much, if we look at the hours that are spent,

more hours are spent on social media for many people than actual business. So they are scrolling through and it keeps on popping up in their face. So you're actually looking for them. Now, that's not the only method that we need to do. So social media is one avenue that we're going to start to look at. The second avenue is working with emails. Now, the only way that you can use emails is if you have created a buyer list.

Now, what is a buyer list? Well, you've got to reflect on all of the leads that comes into your business. business. All those leads from all those buyers, they need to go into a database. You need to start to cultivate and work that database to grow it so that when you get to the point of, hey, I've got a new listing, I can push that out to that cultivated database. Now, it may start small. You may only have two or three that fits into that category. But as the saying so, it goes. It only takes one buyer to buy a property. So we need to get this campaign. So it's an email campaign that really will get them almost like, hey, this is great. I'm seeing an email from my agent.

They said to me when they find the right property, that's what they're going to send to me. They're not going to blast me with spam. So your email campaigns is very specific, but you grow that database. And over time, every single person, even if they've bought, they'll go into your database. and you will start to feed it through to them because even a person that owns a property, they may know somebody that's looking at wanting to buy in this particular area. That's why we send it through and that's why we're working with a cultivated database that we are engaging with on a regular basis. So making sure that we have this and ultimately what we're going to be doing is we're going

to be starting to connect with these potential buyers. Now, we've got the social media that we push out that's hitting to a target, at audience. We've got those email campaigns from all those leads that have actually come through and we're pushing it out. But one thing that we found with emails is sometimes people don't pick up the emails. They might miss it out. So we need to take that to the next level. Where if, and I always had this, I had a selection of buyers that I knew exactly what they had, what they wanted. And I would always have it on a separate spreadsheet, something where it actually highlighted those names and those individuals, if I came across a property that matched their requirements,

immediately I'd be giving them a phone call. Hey, it's Stuart here. I've actually just taken on this particular listing and I've literally just walked out of it. And I actually remember a case. I arrived at this property at 7 p.m. at night. I took the listing at about 20 to 8. I knew that this listing was 100% perfect for one of my buyers that I'd taken around. I got into my car at 8 o'clock at night, I picked up the phone, I phoned them, and I said, by the way, I've just found your dream home. Now, these were buyers. I'd be working with them for about two months. I said, I've just found your dream home. It has, and I'd listed every single thing. Basically, they had 12 items on their checklist. I ticked off every single one of them. And guess what? On the phone, they said to me, we want the property. They hadn't seen the property. I hadn't had photos on the property. They just said, that is it. We want the property. So in essence, it took me about 20 minutes to sell that property without my buyers even seeing it because I knew exactly what they wanted. The next day at 9 o'clock, they arrived at the property. I actually, in fact, had the contract

and offer in hand. They walked through the property. We walked out to the car and they signed it. It is the quickest sale I've ever done in my life. I didn't spend money on any form of marketing. it was quick and to the point, but it was because I understood my buyer and I had those buyers on the specific list. And when I found that property, I connected and I could sell it as quick as possible. So you need to go through those buyers that you're working with. It's not just take them through the property. Did you like it? Yes or no? And then they leave it. Ask them questions and build them into your database. Understand what they want and needs are. Communicate with them via email, communicate through messages, and when you find the right property, you pick up the phone

and you give them a call. So that is what we are referred to as the targeted type of campaigns. We've been very, very specific. And this is something that grows over time. Now, if you haven't done that, you need to start doing it because you are creating a level of difficulty in your business. So go through, create that so that you can get that buyer's audience. the next and this is one that I typically do on every single one of my properties and most of the

people that I've spoken to they say oh Stuart that's just old school really why do we have to do these things show days and open hours man why do we have to do these I'm sitting there for three hours nobody pitches it's a waste of time it does not work well this is where I would say you know what you need to do the idea and the concept of a show day and an open house, you need to change that to an event. And I would always say to my sailors, you know what, I want to create an event. I want to invite about 50, 60 people through your property because I know out of that there's going to be somebody of interest. Are you on board? And many times the seller is a bit nervous to have these 50, 60 strangers coming through their

house. And I say, well, we want to get it sold. So let's create it as an event. And I always take that word show house and open house, open days. I would change. to an event. Now, what do I need to do an event? Well, it's not something on a Friday afternoon saying, hey, that's a great idea. Let's have an event this weekend. No, it takes planning. And most of my events would take anything from three to four weeks to do preparation and planning for. So take that listing and have an event at that particular listing. Inviting the neighbors, inviting your buyers, inviting the actual sellers friends to that property, invite outside agents. Invite outside agents. to that particular property, you invite as many people as possible,

created as an experience to get the traffic through the property. That is absolute key, it's getting the traffic and the feet through that property. Yep, most of them, not interested in buying, but guess what? You're going to start to build up a database of so many more potential sellers and buyers going into the future because they're going to love what you do. And you start getting a roady type of audience as well that follows you into these properties. So when you're looking at these shows, they do work. However, you've got to have the mindset that it's an event.

It's not just a show day. Pinterboards up, sitting there waiting, and hoping that someone decided to drive in their car and find this particular property. They don't know about it. So rather invite people through, use the pointer boards to help with direction to that particular property. And in that way, you will start to elevate it up. And that helps you to start creating that buyer's database of yours as well. So definitely having these events, it gets as many traffic feet through that property. So absolutely imperative.

Now, the last one that I want to share with you is really it's a networking. You see so many of us, we are sitting and we think that we're alone. And we have our listing. Maybe we've got 40, 50, 60 listings. And we're just not getting that particular exposure. Well, if you're a person that can get listings, I can tell you now, I'm giving you a huge congratulations because majority of the agents battle to get listings. They are really battling to get those particular listings.

Why? Because getting listings is the toughest part of our business. So what can you do to help them? Well, it's straightforward and simple. You have the listings. Start creating a network. with agents, within the agency, with agents outside the agency. When you get a listing, don't get that mindset that I want all of the commission.

Get the mindset to sell that property within 14 days. Have that mindset. So, create a network. Start out with all of the agents that are in your area. Create a messaging group with them and say, hey, how are you doing? You want to be part of this group. If I've got a new listing, I'm going to share on there. If you get a new listing, you can share buyers, sales.

Let's see how we can collaborate together within ourselves. Then start taking it one step out. Start looking at agents that are outside of the actual organization. Why? Because they've also got listings. They've also got buyers. I've always had this, that when I listed a property, I had a group of about five or six agents within the actual organization that I would be

sharing and saying, hey, I've got it listed. If you've got buyers, please don't hesitate. You can't contact me and we work on these particular deals. I also had about seven to 10 outside agents every single time and when I listed it, I shared it with everybody. Now, most people say, but Stuart, 50% share outside the organization. It's not great. Let me tell you something. If you get the reputation that you can sell properties within 10 to 14 days, and as I mentioned to you, getting listings is always the challenge. If you get the reputation that you are selling properties between 10 and 14 days, you're going to get an influx of sellers and listings coming in your direction. When you've got those stock,

you can actually leverage the people around you and having that stock, you can start to sell. It was one of the greatest things that I ever did in my business and I actually found that I was working less and making more. So use this opportunity to network and really collaborate inside the organization, outside the organization, have those communications. Hey, I've got this particular listing. Have you got a buyer? Or, hey, I've just got to buy it through my property. I don't have a listing. Do you have anything? And what you're going to start to create these collaborative deals. And ultimately, it's these collaborative deals that really will start to help you going forward. Now remember, if you are working with buyers, you need to

make sure that you follow all of the legalities around a particular buyer, to make sure that you don't have any buyers that start creating double commissions or start to have conflicts with sellers, etc. So work in a very collaborative manner to help you to grow your business beyond what it is right now. You see, having a listing is the hardest part of your business. Having buyers is actually the easiest part of your business. It's a matter of being proactive. And what you need to do in your business is you need to make sure that you follow these very basic steps that I've actually shared with you today. So just to quickly give you a recap, re-evaluate your listings. I always set a date of Thursday every week for about two hours.

Re-evaluate adjusting pictures, the pricing strategies. Have a look at those prices. See how it fits amongst all the other properties in that area. Enhance that marketing with the actual pictures, with the description, with those particular virtual tours. So when somebody lands there, it's an experience that they want to know more, they want to see it in life. Make sure that you're creating these targeted campaigns through social media, through emails, through phone calls.

Make sure that it's targeted to that specific audience like you're talking to them. Make sure that you're also converting the mindset of a show day or an open hour to an event. How do we make an event? We all love parties. So have it as an event because an event people talk about and that's what you ultimately want. And then last, leveraging that support from partners, from agents and create this collaborative nature. Because ultimately, by doing this on an ongoing basis, you're going to find that you're going to start selling. properties much quicker. The stress levels are going to start to drop. And in fact, if you're sitting

with lots of stock, you're actually sitting with lots of money. So this is one of the big things that I wanted to share with you today is to create this buyer's interest so that you can sell those properties.