Residential Real Estate
In testimony before Congress recently, groups representing the nation’s apartment owners and managers suggested that the problem with mold is something landlords and tenants should work on together.
If it seems that home values represent more and more of your personal wealth, it"s likely that you"re right. A new study shows that for most of us real estate is plainly our largest financial asset, an asset which has grown by $1.5 trillion in value during just the past two years.
In a highly unusual step, the Department of Energy has quietly rescinded a final rule on minimum energy efficiency standards for residential central air conditioners and heat pumps that was published in the final days of the Clinton Administration, replacing it with one calling for a slightly lower seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER).
For many Americans, the home office has become a necessity.
Q. We plan to hire a home improvement contractor to do major renovations to our house. The contractor has given us for review a standard form contract published by the American Institute of Architect"s (AIA), and we see that it contains an arbitration clause. In your opinion, is arbitration a better way to resolve disputes rather than litigation?
Your offer has been accepted and, like 77 percent of American homebuyers, you"ve heeded your agent"s advice to hire a professional home inspector to examine the home you hope to purchase. But once the inspector has done the job and issued a report, what"s your job?
When a client calls to report that his underground oil tank has leaked, I tell him to promptly make two phone calls. First, call the State or local Environmental Spill Hot Line. And second, call his homeowners insurance policy claim office. Often, homeowners policies will pay for leaking tank and other home related environmental claims. Other policies, including commercial policies, sometimes pay these claims as well.
HUD has a blunt message for home buyers, lenders, Realtors and anyone else involved in real estate. Despite what you may have heard to the contrary, on January first the federal government expects everyone to be using the new consumer-friendly Good Faith Estimate mortgage disclosures and the new HUD-1 settlement statements.
Who ever heard of a home not selling because of mold? Or of a "mold contingency?" Five years ago, no one ever heard of such a thing. But mold is getting more attention and home inspectors need to look for mold on a regular basis, if they are not doing so already.
As spring lurks just weeks away, you"re likely anxious to enjoy the
NeighborWorks, a confederation of 230 community-based non-profit organizations from throughout the country, generated more than $1.4 billion in affordable housing and community development activity during fiscal year 2001, which ended Sept. 30.
I"ve just bought a house, and I"ll need to bring a homeowner"s insurance policy to the settlement table.
If your dog bites your neighbor"s kid, sending him to the hospital, do you have appropriate homeowners" coverage to pay for the medical bills?
Most people become homeowners the old fashioned way -- they buy one. But many homeowners received their houses through inheritance, a process that brings with it good news (you were in the will) as well as issues purchasers don"t face.
Moving into a new home can be great motivation for turning trash into cash. Whether you call it a garage sale, yard sale, or moving sale, the idea is to finally clean out the garage, basement, closet or attic that"s been harboring all that junk you haven"t used, and maybe haven"t even seen, for years.
A landmark court ruling in Texas awarded a family $32 million after finding that the family"s insurance company mishandled the homeowner"s claim for "stachybotrys" (black mold) damage. Similar cases are popping up all over the country, and the issue is being fueled by popular media such as Time magazine, MSNBC, and the Wall Street Journal.
Batten the hatches.
A significant portion of contractors" business comes from repairs that could have been prevented. Financially speaking, the earlier a homeowner spots a problem, the better. Early detection often results in less-expensive repairs.
Your insurance broker has undoubtedly advised you to create a thorough inventory of your household possessions. You can certainly keep written records and save those records in a safety deposit box, but it"s best to back-up documents with a photographic inventory.
Almost half the $6.5 million in disaster aid for residents affected by
How long do you have to keep your tax records, and what records do you have to keep? Do you have to hold on to years of gas and telephone bills? What about food purchases from your local supermarket?
A major remodeling project -- something that can involve a lot of time, money, and inconvenience -- is a big deal. Little wonder that homeowners are often scared, sometimes emotional, and in a few cases even irrational.
Across much of the nation it"s the time of year when temperatures plunge, water freezes, and pipes are at risk.
People wandering through model homes come in several varieties. Some are dreamers, forming fuzzy mental images of what their future home may include.
Record high heating oil costs likely will force many home owners to turn to the hearth to supplement their heating needs with hopes of paying less to keep warm this winter.
I"ll admit it: I"ve been suffering buyer"s remorse of late. The previous owners of my home-to-be had finally moved out, and the place was officially mine. I don"t know what I expected as I turned the key in the lock of the now-empty house. After all, how attractive can a vacant house look? As I stood in the middle of the living room, staring at the walls, I suddenly realized that this place was in dire need of a fresh coat of paint. Without furniture to distract me, the walls suddenly appeared yellowish, tired and well, depressing. The small holes in the walls left from small nails needed caulking. Ugh. I needed to bring new life to this place, and do it on a first-time buyer"s limited budget.
With energy costs expected to rise, builders are turning to insulated siding as yet another way to meet the needs of the environmentally-friendly -- and cost-conscious -- consumer. While few homeowners are aware that insulated siding can reduce consumption by up to 20 percent, they do know that replacing doors and windows enhances a property"s energy savings potential and its corresponding return on investment. The trick for builders is to create homeowner awareness to the positive impact of insulated sliding.
In life, three things are certain: Death, taxes, and stress from remodeling projects.
The next time you go to your mailbox, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. This is the season of property tax assessments, and your property taxes may have been reassessed at a higher rate. First will come a polite notice of assessment, followed closely by your new tax bill. Depending on home sales in your area and how badly your tax assessor is motivated to collect higher taxes, your property taxes could be raised significantly.
Ignorance is bliss ... and danger. Children often seem hardwired with an inherent curiosity for all that is hazardous. If you"ve lived in your current home for a length of time and are convinced you"ve covered all your bases when it comes to childproofing, here"s betting you haven"t. And if you"re preparing for a move, it"s easy to overlook hazards around your new home, given all of the excitement and hustle-bustle that you unpack with your belongings.
Appliances have a way of knowing when your cash flow is at its lowest
If you"ve ever held a garage sale, you"re very familiar with the common
Chances are, as a real estate agent, some of your clients are real estate investors. If that"s the case, they may have been rocked recently, to learn about Freddie Mac"s new lending changes going into effect on August 1, 2008. This rule change could mean hundreds of thousands of real estate investments are now in the wrong business structure.
Oh, the perils of ... winter? Yes, winter. It"s a time of year when
[Note: To follow is an excerpt of an interview with JP Dahdah, Entrust Arizona and Jeremy Hanks and Michael Madsen of RealSource Retirement Services. To listen to, or download the show archive MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com.]
It"s Murphy"s Law that the majority of household emergencies occur at the
Color is one of the most personal choices consumers can make when they choose to buy a product for their homes. You may be wondering what is influencing color these days. Here are some important color notes that you will find available in consumer product palettes:
The only time most of us consider the maintenance of our air conditioning
It"s every homeowner"s worst nightmare: You arrive home to discover you"ve been burglarized. Your drawers have been ransacked, and your belongings are scattered about the floor. Your most prized possessions are missing, somewhere between your home and the nearest pawn shop. You feel violated in every sense of the term, and your family"s sense of security will never be regained. Although it"s much, much easier said than done, you do need to make sure that you go through a few necessary safety procedures should this ever happen to you and your family. If you are indeed ever burglarized, it"s likely that your sense of shock will interfere with your ability to make clear decisions. So you should make a plan now and make sure all of your fellow family members are aware of it.
You can save up to $5,000 on the cost of a new roof.
Once you"ve arrived home from your weekly grocery expedition, you can
Doing a safety assessment of your home might seem like something only parents
You"ve taken the plunge ... you"ve decided to build the home of your
I remember it so well: fire-engine red shag carpeting, covering our home
The number of self-storage facilities across the nation has grown
According to recent EPA statistics, nationally there are approximately 64
When most people think of lung cancer, they think of people smoking cigarettes. Granted, this is a common way to contract lung cancer. But, do you know what the second leading cause of lung cancer is in the United States? Radon.
If you have just insured your new home and paid a year"s premiums in advance as required by many lenders, you may think you can forget about insurance for a while. But what if you are planning to remodel your home? Your liabilities may not be covered under your current policy.
If you"re planning to embark on any energy-saving projects at home, chances are good you"re going to have to call on a contractor for installation. Before you flip a coin or select a name at random from the Yellow Pages, however, there are a few things you should consider -- and these issues reach well beyond the contractor who rolls in at 2 p.m. (if he shows up at all), or the product that"s installed improperly. A little research will help the empowered homeowner select the good apples from the bad ones. The U.S. Department of Energy offers the following suggestions for homeowners searching for contractors:
It"s cold outside, so you have all the windows shut tight. Along with other energy-efficient measures that you"ve taken, you should be all snug as a bug in a rug for the winter. But by keeping the cold air out so effectively, you could be adversely affecting the quality of your indoor air, trapping pollutants that could make you and your family potentially ill.
If you are out in the market trying to make a living in real estate, I don"t need to tell you that our industry is going through some tremendous changes right now:
"Visualize your success" is something we hear a lot of these days. However, we don"t always know how to make our visualizations powerful enough so that they become a reality. This article gives you powerful tips to do that.
To be an effective salesperson, you have to understand people. You have to understand that people buy and sell for a set of reasons. They also make decisions on whom they do that with based on their reasons, not ours. Being able to read people and ask the right questions is essential to success. Let me share the rules of reading people.
Question: So far in my real estate career I"ve worked exclusively in residential real estate. I"m doing very well and I really enjoy working with home buyers and sellers, but I"ve heard that specializing in a specific area, such as investment real estate or commercial properties, is the road to the really big bucks. Any suggestions?
A lot of times people will ask what they can do to generate more referral based business, since as everyone knows, referrals is the lifeblood of any successful Realtor.
The single most accurate forecast tool for housing activity is the "Pending Home Sale Index" compiled by the National Association of Realtors.
Have you ever wondered why even the very best, in any profession receive coaching? Have you ever thought about why a top-notch athlete, like Tiger Woods, would need coaching? Why is it that so many successful real estate agents have used coaching to get to the top?
The New York Times reported on January 22, 2008, that a home buyer is suing her agent because she thinks she overpaid for her home. This buyer feels her agent did not disclose that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less than what she paid for her home.
Sales objections are part of selling. For most people in sales, they present an immovable object in the road to your success. Real estate agents often freeze when presented with a sales objection. They don"t know what to do or say in the face of this perceived danger.
Question: In my first transaction as a Realtor I went from incredible exhilaration to a deep purple funk in about three days. Customers with whom I was working made an offer through me on an expensive home. The seller, a nice widow lady, decided after she got the offer not to sell her place at all and took it off the market. I"m convinced the buyers think I messed things up because I"m a rookie real estate agent. After over a month of showing them homes they are now working with someone else. Does it get any better than this?
Marketing strategies for title companies have changed dramatically over the years. From the wild and crazy 1980"s to the most recent re-fi boom, there was little regulation as to how much money title companies could spend on their marketing efforts.
Independent real estate agents are often reluctant to explore the agent team approach. They often mistakenly believe that the best way to serve their clients is to do everything themselves -- answer the phone, develop CMA"s (Comparative Market Analyses), create presentations, meet personally with clients, show homes, and perform all the other tasks required to run a successful real estate business.
One of the not-so-secret secrets to sales success is to build on past success. That is what the 10/10/20 technique is all about, and here is how it works:
"If you don"t know where you"ve been, you"ll never get where you want to go," my Grandpa Gooder always said. It"s especially true with real estate marketing in today"s market. Using the hindsight of year-end benchmarks is the best way to guarantee success in the coming year.
According to just about every source related to the housing and real estate market, times are tough. Things are slow and sales are few and far between. But, if you have to sell your property, or need to buy a new home due to transfer or other reason, you"ll want to find the best Real Estate professional you can. The question is, how do you identify them and where do you look?
Hiring a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist to boost your site traffic is expensive (if you hire a legitimate professional). Driving substantial new traffic to your site doesn"t have to be. In fact, there is an exciting and clever strategy that is proven to drive traffic, and won"t cost you a dime! Now before we look at the 10 proven ways to drive traffic to your site, we first need to explore the principles behind these steps that make them work so well.
Some of the best bargains in the foreclosure market are actually in the preforeclosure market -- weeks or even months prior to the time when the property ends up on the auction block. The earlier you can locate a distressed property or homeowners facing foreclosure, the less competition you have and the better your chances of ultimately acquiring the property at a great price.
Question: As a comparative newcomer to the Realtor ranks, I"ve got a couple of questions about GRI. First, is it really worth the effort and the expense? I would have to travel to another city to participate. Second, if I do decide to attend, when is the best time in my career to do it? My broker is really enthusiastic about it, but I"m getting some mixed signals from the some of the old timers in the office.
In today"s changing market where the predominant energy is fear, your challenge is to be extremely vigilant about what you focus on. Why is your deliberate focus more important now than ever?
I was reading an article by Blanche Evans the other day, Editor of Realty Times, that made an excellent point on how New Agents can get more business right away.
Would you like to hire a great assistant, while at the same time lower your taxes, save more for the future and make your real estate practice deliver a bigger bang for your entire household?
In a tough market, kicking your career into high gear involves implementing some obvious strategies such as realistically pricing listings, holding open houses, and deploying reliable, effective marketing campaigns. Savvy agents who are successfully dishing up consistently high production also know that the secret to success lies in some of the not-so-noticeable solutions for building a better business and a better life.
Question: I am new to real estate. I have affiliated with a Broker who has an excellent reputation in our community. My problem is that I am having trouble getting into the swing of things. I"m working long hours but I"m not generating any income. Any suggestions on what I might do to start making some money?
An experienced agent can bring not only immediate production potential to your office, but also market share, renewed energy, and potentially more experienced agents.
Do you remember that feeling you got when you contacted your first lead? You get a pit in your stomach and sweaty palms; you"re nervous and stumbling just to get your name out. What should you say? How should you act. The fear of rejection is heavy on your mind, even though all the while you"re hoping the lead explodes right in front of you -- lists, buys and settles in thirty days.
The internet can be a remarkable marketing tool, especially since the majority of buyers begin their searches online. Despite this -- many agents don"t take the time to build relationships -- and powerful emails -- with potential clients!
The court system offers no shortages of material for this column. Working together with the more than 200,000 members of California"s State Bar, California appellate courts supply a steady stream of decisions related to the sale, ownership, and use of real estate. Even more accommodating than the courts, though, is the state legislature. There is no end to the ideas put forward in both houses that would have an impact on the real estate business and real estate ownership.
In this ever-changing landscape of Real Estate, marketing has become the deciding factor of success. The most common and practical way to establish oneself as the Realtor of choice is through farming.
Have you ever noticed a voice in your head that puts you down?
More and more real estate clients are turning to the Internet for house hunting. Your prospects are doing their research online, and you can capture their interest by clearly highlighting the information they"re looking for on your home page.
Popular gurus in the sales world tout mastering scripts and tightly choreographing presentations as the best way to increase your business. I beg to differ. While scripts and choreography can be useful, I believe the most valuable thing you can bring to any presentation is a totally focused and fully present you.
Recession or no recession? That"s a key question for real estate because any sort of deep or prolonged recession would choke off all hopes of a housing recovery anytime soon.
For at least the past decade the National Association of Realtors has been trying to figure out how to handle the online distribution of homes listed by member brokers. Several Internet brokerages claimed that early NAR rules placed them at a competitive disadvantage, claims NAR denied and claims now put to rest with a proposed settlement between NAR and the Justice Department.
You"re just too busy to send little notes to your clients on subjects, pictures, or attachments that might interest them, right? Big mistake! You need to make the time for this task, because it can give you better results than almost anything else you can do in the minimal time it takes.
Realtors® around the country have been warned to get their "do not call" policies in order. The warning came in the form of an alert from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). In California it was passed along by the state association, CAR, as well.
In the face of record number foreclosures, one of the residual points of concern is when condo owners dues begin to suffer. When a condominium goes into foreclosure, more than likely the dues for that unit have not been paid for months – long before the property went into foreclosure.
Imagine that your tires are bald. They are so bad that at any moment your vehicle may go careening off the road and into a ditch. It"s time. The duct tape, and bubble gum just won"t cut it anymore. You"re going to have to go the tire store today and buy some new rubber shoes for your gasoline guzzling chariot.
Once you have mastered your core presentation, many agents find it helpful to create a success portfolio. A success portfolio is a pictorial journal of your past success stories. One of the best ways to envision a success portfolio is to imagine yourself interviewing a photographer or an architect. Both of these professionals almost always have a success journal that shows off their talents, for instance a photographer may include photos of different scenes, lighting, models, and backgrounds, while an architect may include elevations, interior and exterior drawings, and most importantly completed projects.
It"s time to brush up on those ad writing skills to make your ad be the one that is chosen by the smaller pool of buyers now in the market. The basis of Adwriting 101 is tied to the acronym, AIDA. Remembering these four elements of a good ad will make you more money
One of the qualities I"ve noticed about a lot of commercial agents is a desire to do their brokerage business all by themselves without getting any input from anyone. This fits in perfectly with what I think two of the strongest reasons are why people gravitate towards being commercial brokers in the first place:
West Los Angeles market expert Kevin Nielsen reports that since tighter lending practices have helped to dampen transaction velocity, many owners have decided to retain current portfolios until economic conditions improve.
1031 exchanges involve property you hold for investment, not your personal residence. So why write an article about doing a 1031 exchange on your personal residence? Everyone knows that your personal residence does not qualify for a 1031 exchange! Or does it?
Do you recall Garrett Morris" Saturday Night Live character Chico Escuela? His famous line was, "Baseball has been very, very good to me." Let me borrow from that sentiment to say, "Blogging has been very, very good to me!" My own experiences with blogging testify to the positive effect it can have in marketing and growing a real estate business.
The unmistakable shift in the national real estate marketplace can be nicely demonstrated by two questions. Until recently, the main question so many real estate professionals were asking their customers was, "How much over the asking price are you interested in offering?"
Numerous surveys have shown that consumers want to be able to do "one-stop shopping" when they engage in a real estate transaction. Moreover, many real estate brokers and agents would be happy to provide this experience. Not that the respective motives are perfectly aligned. Whereas consumers are attracted by perceived convenience, brokers and agents see the potential of additional profit centers.
From time-to-time I have commercial agents I"ve never even spoken with before call me or e-mail me asking me the following question:
We all want an office in which the phone rings continually with offers of referral business. Does having this type of office sound like a dream? Though it requires diligent work with clients, it doesn"t need to be such a farfetched reality. There are a few key steps to creating a great referral business.
The term "podcasting" is a Net-born neologism that refers to broadcasting audio information (i.e. music, spoken word, etc.) over the Internet specifically to be downloaded into and played from an MP3 player ("MP3" is a popular kind of compressed digital audio file that can maintain high sound reproduction quality with relatively small file sizes). Apple"s iPod® is the most famous of these devices, hence the term "pod" casting. Because these devices tend to be highly portable, they provide a unique opportunity for anyone to listen to anything, including your audio message, anywhere at anytime.
Sellers need to think like buyers. At least they need to do so when market conditions are normal, when there are more homes for sale than there are buyers competing for them, and when inventory is counted in months of supply rather than weeks or days. Moreover, the need for sellers to think like buyers doesn"t simply apply to presentation, curb appeal, and getting rid of the clutter. It also and especially applies to pricing.
In real estate you should have both short-term goals and long-range goals to be successful in any venture, business or personal. Here"s a checklist to keep you on track throughout the year and help you achieve your long-range goals.
Your effectiveness with FSBOs can radically increase if you use the "DISC" method of determining the dominant behavioral style of the seller so you can adapt your approach accordingly.
Testimonials are one of the best ways for you to communicate your value to your prospects. A third party endorsement always carries more weight than you tooting your own horn. I find many agents pass up opportunities to build their testimonial pool.
Having exclusive listings to sell and lease commercial properties was not always the norm for commercial agents. Fortunately for me during my career, I worked in the industrial sector of Downtown Los Angeles, an area dominated by the AIR Commercial Real Estate Association (formerly known as the American Industrial Real Estate Association). This commercial real estate trade Association, which I became President of in 1994, is unlike any other commercial real estate Association in the United States, and maybe even in the world.
This article is for you if you have ever had someone have to ask you what something says that you wrote.
As a real estate agent, your success depends on the quality and durability of the relationships you build with your clients, and the one and only way to build solid, enduring relationships is to deliver excellent, unrivaled service. To be an outstanding agent you need to lavish your clients with service that exceeds their expectations -- from the get-go and throughout a long business relationship.
The nice thing about the real estate profession today is that the options for practicing within it are very diverse. While we acknowledge that the Internet is a critical component of an agent"s overall marketing initiatives, there are several niche pursuits that suit some folks just fine. Those individuals prefer to specialize within a target market and hone his/her expertise in order to provide that market with exemplary service.
Market expert Vickie Healey says the heart of Carolina is, according to some, recession proof, but is nonetheless experiencing a buyers" market.
One of the biggest challenges I see facing new agents is not having a clear idea as to who their prospects are. Ask any agent what their typical prospect looks like and most will give an answer ranging from "everyone," to a vague elevator speech that might sound good while networking, but has little in the way of specifics.
They call it the World Wide Net, so why just concentrate your firm"s search engine submissions on U.S. search engines?
Tap into the magic of 3"s to focus your action and produce better results. This is simple and you"ll find it has a big payoff.
New Year has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, looking forward to the year ahead. It is also a time we reflect on the present moment and the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes.
Let"s have a quick show of hands: How many of you think online consumers will play a major role in your future as a real estate professional?
We hear all the time about different techniques for closing people in sales situations, and other approaches that are designed for us as salespeople to gain more business with our clients and prospects, too. While some of these approaches can be helpful at times, there"s simply no substitute for what I consider to be the most sophisticated sales technique in the world: Rapport.
"I am sick and tired of having tenants fail," yelled Mulroney at his property manager. "You need to do a better job screening those tenants," he exploded as he slammed the phone down.
When you"ve been in our industry for a long time, you see some wild things happen that can completely take you by surprise. And some of these things can then become part of your repertoire of stories that you tell other people many years down the road, too.
We have all experienced a case of "the misconstrued" email. Sometimes what we mean to say just doesn"t come out right when it"s in black and white. Clients or friends occasionally need to hear empathy or urgency in our voice to understand the complete message. One solution to this is a phone call. But, what happens when you are up late at night or very early in the morning? It could be rude to call -- so follow these steps to make a quick & easy sound recording:
According to the National Association of Realtors, real estate professionals are becoming increasingly technology-savvy with each passing year. A recent NAR technology impact survey found that 97 percent of all Realtors own a personal computer; 95 percent own a mobile phone; 77 percent own a digital camera; and 40 percent own a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
We continue to consider the question: "What are the seller"s rights when the buyer does not close escrow on time?" First, we note that the failure of a buyer to close on time does not automatically trigger a seller"s right to cancel and, perhaps, keep the buyer"s "good faith deposit" money. Whether or not a seller will have those rights depends on the circumstances.
The measure of you and your institution"s character is the way you deal with a complaint. Here"s a short quiz to help you judge your corporate "character" in the way you deal with complaints:
If you"re a New Agent looking to crack into the Real Estate business, then pay special attention, because I"ll tell you the one thing you can do right now to help you stand out from the crowd.
"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones." -- John Keynes
Maybe it"s a bubble, maybe it isn"t; but, meanwhile, Realtors have plenty to deal with trying to guide their clients through the special problems that can arise in a market still characterized by competing buyers, multiple offers, and bids over the listing price.
Congressional pressure on FHA continued to mount last week, with the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee demanding hearings on the stability of the housing agency.
New agents are critical to your business plan being capable of delivering profitability, mortgage capture and finally, injecting vital energy into your environment. Right now everyone wants to get into the business. Why the need for focus on attracting new agents?
There"s been a myth floating around the real estate industry that prospecting is something need only do for a short amount of time, and then an abundance of transactions will start flowing to you easily. But it"s very rare to find an agent who experiences this unless they"re in the middle of a fairly hot market where they"re working.
Have you ever given up on a listing? Giving up is where at some point you mentally just throw in the towel. You say to yourself: To heck with this, if it sells -- it sells, if it doesn"t -- it doesn"t! You then just put the listing in your advertising rotation and walk away. Maybe the listing crosses back through your mind every couple of weeks, but other than that it"s gone.
Prospecting, the bane of agents old and new; "I should be, I need to, I"ve got to, I have to," never "I want to" are the words I hear whenever the subject matter is brought up. Prospecting conjures up visions of knocking doors and sweating hours on the phone cold calling.
It"s official!
Every troubled real estate market offers opportunities for investors who can recognize them - and who have the cash and experience to capitalize on them.
We"ve all heard it. It"s on the news, in the papers and everywhere you turn – Americans are overweight, and the situation has reached epic proportions. More and more of our children are overweight, and the cost of obesity related medical expenses is on the rise.
Consistent, active prospecting is essential to your success in real estate. In coaching Realtors, I find that many of them will do anything and everything to avoid prospecting.
With competition so tight on the Web between Website service providers, lead generations companies, and the agents they both serve, it"s good to hear a success story. Here"s a follow-up on an agent we covered back in April, 2003.
For some reason agents generally view For-sale-by-owners as a very tough market to crack. They view private sellers as big, snarling, frothing monsters ready to devour the first agent that dares enter their domain.
I was teaching a workshop on "How to Talk So Others Will Listen," when the following question came up:
The most challenging time of the year for brokers is the holiday season - not so much because the market slows down, but because agents slack off in November and December.
As interest rates creep upwards, and hot markets like Las Vegas and San Diego start to cool, pundits predict that the nation may be headed more toward a buyer"s market in housing. And that"s the worst thing that can happen to the industry because it"s still woefully unprepared to work effectively with buyers.
Don"t underestimate the importance of a powerful sales meeting. And don"t underestimate the challenges a poor sales meeting can create for you. All of us have sat through one and some of us have delivered one…a sales meeting where there is no value.
How do you handle those situations that totally embarrass you, but other people think is funny?
New agents are critical to your plan delivering profitability, mortgage capture and finally, the injection of energy into your environment. Right now everyone wants to get into the business so why the need for focus around new agents? Simple, if you don’t have a plan in place today while agents are knocking down your door to get into the business you won’t execute when the time comes to go out and find new agents. Don’t let your behavior be a product of the market. Let your results be a product of your actions.
There"s always a lot of new business out there for you to begin working on. Just look at all the agents in your area who are closing transactions with clients you"re not working with. This in itself should show you there"s constantly new business out there waiting to be discovered. But if you don"t have a system in place to locate this new business, you may have a problem.
If you’re an agent working in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts or elsewhere in New England, you don’t need to read any further…..unless you believe that what can happen in one state can happen in another…..Those of us working in New England are still working in a robust market. However, what about our peers working in places such as Dallas where currently the market has shifted and sellers are not willing to reduce prices, while buyers are not willing to pay even last year’s prices.
One secret that high achievers all share is that they follow models. No matter what area of life they’ve excelled in – sports, business, science, the humanities – this principle holds true.
Mortgage brokers want to see a home close on time as much as the principals and the Realtors involved in the transaction, but many times, circumstances beyond their control impact closings. Here are a few tips about what you can do as a real estate agent to make things go more smoothly in one area that can make or break the sale - the loan.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 76 percent of people who decide to sell their home with the assistance of a licensed real estate agent, interview only one agent for the job. Are you that agent? If not, who is?
In real estate sales and leasing, it"s very easy to get caught-up in what"s going on in the moment. You constantly have so many demands placed upon you each and every day to follow-up on what must be done for every prospect and client you are working with. As a result, it can be very easy to focus on what"s happening now and completely lose sight of the trend and the direction your market is heading in.
When you"re going up against a top listing agent in your territory in attempting to procure a listing, you can sometimes really have your work cut out for you. It"s easy for people to want to hire and work with a winner, and when an agent shows owners all the listings they currently have and all the properties they"ve successfully moved in your territory in the past, it can build a lot of credibility in the owners" minds about this agent.
Life as a full-time real estate agent can definitely be stressful. So in order to maximize your success, you need to learn how to master your mental and emotional mood swings throughout your career.
You"ve heard the dismal statistics. Between 55-70 percent of Internet leads are never picked up by real estate agents, according to the NAR, leading to the number one complaint by Internet homebuyers against agents - that they don"t answer email.
Congratulations! As a leader in the real estate industry, whether at the branch, region or company level you are hereby crowned as the "director of human resource" Daunting task? Yes. Here are a few tips that will assist you in discerning the "Red Ant" VS. "The Unhappy Agent".
If you"re having trouble getting started in your E-mail farming, or even if you"ve begun and want to expand your scope, here are seven valuable tips to help build your E-mail database. Remember, the best E-mail databases are comprised of people from a geographical area within your farm area, and that"s why building your own database, while time-consuming, is preferable to simply buying a list.
Do you know exactly what you need to do on a daily basis to hit your goals for 2004? Do you know exactly how many sphere of influence calls you need to make, or how many appointments you need to go on each day?
Commissiatosis is a sales agent"s disease commonly known as "Commission Breath," by homebuyers and sellers. Commission breath destroys relationships before they can be nurtured and sales before they can be closed.
The listing call to set up a listing appointment is the most eagerly awaited call in our industry. It is the payoff moment that attests to our marketing, farming, and personal contacts and networking.
Pop quiz! Have you ever forgotten the name of someone you"ve already met?
See Part I of this two part series here.
There"s a cure for the dreaded disease “chaufferphobia” - the fear of becoming a taxi service. It"s knowing the difference between selling and showing real estate.
Sellers can be rough stuff. Unless you are lucky enough to get one as a referral from a satisfied former client (not the ones you pay 35 percent of your income to get) you are most likely going to be approaching a seller as a stranger and having to prove to them why you are the right agent to help them sell their home.
Solid interpersonal skills are necessary to consistently do business with the most desirable clients in your territory. Agents who are lacking in these skills can be out there pursuing business with prospects while for the most part being completely unconscious about what they are saying and doing with these people that is actually hurting their chances of doing business with them.
Do you have an assistant? How long have they been with you? Unless you’ve been lucky, and have been able to retain an assistant for a long time, you’re unfortunately familiar with losing one, and then having to train another. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, and looming in the back of your mind is that dread of having to do it all over again some day.
If you have never heard of an Environmental Psychologist it wouldn’t surprise many of us within the profession. In fact, one could count the number of stand-alone Environmental Psychology programs available through the United States higher educational system on one hand. Compounding the rarity of practicing Environmental Psychologists is that at the present one can only obtain a degree in this field by completing a doctorate program.
Real estate is a fast-paced, data-intensive business. And in today’s economic environment, Realtors are looking for ways to improve all facets of their business in order to stay competitive and gain more share of the market.
One of the reasons so few family businesses survive into the second generation is because the owners fail to adequately plan for their succession. Many owners simply wait too long to do business succession planning, so the business must be liquidated to pay estate taxes which are generally due nine months after death.
As both the population and the demand on our time increases so too will the frustration and speed on our roadways. We currently have more people then ever before attempting to get from point A to point B and they are attempting to do this faster then ever before.
Still don’t have your Federal taxes completed? Eeeeeek! The IRS loves you when you do that.
Despite all the grim news about gas prices and recession, there are more than a few encouraging signs popping up in the national economy that aren"t getting a lot of attention.
Brand recognition is the name of the game when it comes to positioning yourself in your local market. Just like national companies compete to be number one in the public consciousness, you must systematically market your personal brand to earn precious mind share among potential home buyers and sellers in your chosen market. This is where a good lead generation program comes in. Unfortunately, many agents make two costly mistakes in lead generation: They underestimate the importance of building their personal brand and they are not consistent and systematic in their approach.
In real estate sales it"s easy to get wrapped up in doing a lot
When the market cools, agents’ instinctually pull back on their marketing. Don’t follow the herd. Instead, capitalize on the incredible opportunity it provides.
By the time you waste hours writing and calling a slow-pay or no-pay asset manager to pay you for the work you did six months or a year ago, you may wish you had never agreed to do the work. How can you collect what you are owed, and how can you make certain you get paid in the future?
Approximately 95 percent of Realtors use cellphones, spending about $100 monthly or more, say sources at the NAR and its REALTOR VIP partner, A T & T Wireless. But that doesn"t mean Realtors are happy about the service they get. Like other consumers who recently complained to Consumer Reports, Realtors may be experiencing higher monthly bills than they would like, due to confusion over calling plans, high penalties for ending subscriptions, dropped calls, and other reasons.
Look in almost any desk drawer and you"ll likely find them - a collection
For the last couple of decades birthrates have declined drastically
I"ve thought over the years about how real estate sales and
Sales and marketing tips can literally fall into your lap and
One of your most daunting tasks as a successful real estate agent
One of the most successful realty companies in the United States had an unusual sequence of ads back in the 80’s when it attempted to establish its unique identity in a market already saturated with competition.
The hit movie "Almost Famous," has been out on video for a while; it has a lot of amusing scenes in it, but there"s one scene that can show the real estate industry an important lesson. That"s the power of demonstrating what you can do instead of wasting time defending what you are worth.
Buyer"s agents are using several strategies to coax contract-shy buyers into agreements, but most still rely on the soft-sell. There are always agents down the street who are willing to cart buyers around to view homes without getting an agreement. That makes it harder for agents who make their livings working with buyers, but that only encourages them to work smarter.
Today"s buyer is more educated and techno-savvy then ever before. They have access to information that five years ago they could never get their hands on. They are more educated, more aware and more in touch with what they want when buying a new home. They are also very specific when asked how they want the home buying process to work. Here"s what a group of buyers from a recent focus group shared about their desires on how they wanted the home buying process to be for them while buying new construction.
In addition to being unprepared and overwhelmed by real-life situations that aren"t covered in real estate licensing classes, new agents have another reason why their failure rate is so high - they don"t go after the business.
If you have had to renew your homeowners insurance policy recently, you
Should you prequalify your wealthy buyers? In many of my finance classes with experienced, successful agents, invariably a nicely manicured hand is raised and the agent explains to me that in her market, agents would never think of asking their wealthy buyers about their finances. It just isn’t done.
Most salespeople want to free flow through the process of sales. They don’t like the canned lack of spontaneity and personality that most scripts exude. They feel that scripts don’t allow for conversational interaction between the prospect and the salesperson.
Many factors, separately and in combination with others, will build walls to block productivity. While most people intuitively and instinctively want to be productive, they may have trouble getting over the following blocks to productivity.
According to unreleased figures supplied by the National Association of Realtors, 93 to 100 percent of Realtors have cell phones, or nearly 800,000. There are over 140 million cell phone users, and a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey suggests that three out of four cell phone users talk on their cell phones while driving. The National Safety Council says that driver distraction (including talking on a cell phone) is the cause of up to one-third of car accidents, or 1.2 million annually. If national averages hold true for the Realtor demographic, 600,000 Realtors who talk on the phone while driving are at four times the risk of other drivers for having car accidents.
How does your future look? This year is 50% complete! Right now, there are some important actions you can take to make sure that your year and your future are what you want. Alan Lakein, author and time management specialist noticed, “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”
Sam Seller has been working with Suzy Agent for weeks to prepare his home for sale before putting it on the market. Internet-savvy, he finds his way to HomeGain where he is tempted by up to $1000 in discounts and a chance at a $15,000 drawing if he chooses to sell his home through a HomeGain agent. Sam registers anonymously to receive listing proposals from HomeGain agents. When he receives a proposal from Suzy Agent, he figures he"s hit the jackpot. He can continue to use Suzy and get the HomeGain goodies, too. He doesn"t tell Suzy that he was trying to better-deal her on HomeGain - anonymity has its perks. What Sam doesn"t realize is that he just cost Suzy 25 percent of her commission to sell his home.
Traditional real estate practices are alive and well in the small town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where sellers are still regarded as more important assets to brokers than buyers.
HUD just changed its condominium rules again, and there"s both good news and sobering news for investors and developers tucked away in the revisions.