The “Rent to Own” and “Lease Option” Alternatives for Homebuyers

Posted on 06. Jan, 2010 by Robert Albanese.

If you desire to own your own home, but are unable to secure conventional financing today, you may want to consider houses for rent with an option to buy, using a lease option contract. It can make your rent money work for you. Typically, many rent-to-own homes offer generous monthly rent credits that reduce the [...]

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How to Win the World Series of Real Estate (For Agents and Leaders)

Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

It has always struck me how analogous the behavior of high performing sports teams is to that of high performing sales teams. If you have any questions as to whether this is true or not, please consider the following.

In both situations, highly talented individuals are asked to contribute to a team effort
Both are highly rewarding [...]

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Selling Through the Cycle

Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

From years of observation, it is clear that phases in the real estate market can be tracked by changes in inventory levels, home prices and number of homes sold (sides) year-over-year. The ‘initial phase’ of a real estate recovery is indicated when three essential trends emerge.

Inventory levels begin to fall, implying an initial increase in [...]

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Next Gen Lead Generation

Posted on 12. Oct, 2009 by Wendy Forsythe.

As the business continues to change and consumers demand a different type of interaction between themselves and the real estate professional the techniques and responsibilities of lead generation will also continue to evolve.

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Future Selling Will Require Increased Knowledge of Financial Tools

Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

Four and one-half years after we entered this downturn, many real estate professionals still attempt to close transactions through the sole use of traditional forms of financing. By traditional, I am referring to ”30-year fixed”, “ARMs” and “Balloon” mortgages. Yet these financial tools can hardly be seen as applicable to some marketing methods which are becoming  more and more prevalent as each year passes.
Real estate auctions [...]

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There is More to Website Content Than Property Listings

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by Jason Steele.

Run a Google search for “Where should I live in…” and fill in any major city in the U.S. and I bet you will be hard pressed to find any national or local real estate brand on the first page of results.  All of the valuable local information that goes into advising a prospective buyer [...]

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The Executive Suites Model: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive – Seattle, Washington

Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

(From a phone interview with Keith Nelson, CEO)
As early on as 1991 with only 25 agents, Keith Nelson, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive in Seattle Washington was already experimenting with alternate business models. Over time, his concept of “executive suite” type locations has emerged as a strong operational alternative. The basic [...]

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Will the Next Generation Brokerage Scrap Agents for Employees?

Posted on 25. Aug, 2009 by Nicolai Kolding.

Nine years ago, my boss, along with four other company employees, jumped ship for a boatload of stock options from an Internet-based real estate firm that promised to dismantle “old economy” companies like ours and, quite simply, take over the real estate world as we knew it.
About a year later he and the others were [...]

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Effects of Reducing Office/Size Costs – Current vs. Future

Posted on 21. Aug, 2009 by Robert Albanese.

Building expense is a formidable, recurring fixed cost for real estate organizations and the fact that office size increased dramatically between 1990 and 2005 only added to the severity of this situation. During the same period of time, real estate agents were becoming increasingly less and less attached to the idea of working in a [...]

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Next Generation: Talent Attraction and Retention

Posted on 19. Aug, 2009 by Wendy Forsythe.

Attracting and retaining talent to a real estate office has never been more important or more challenging then it will be in the decade ahead. Not only has the housing market seen dramatic changes, but the expectations of current and future industry professionals have dramatically altered.
During the market boom of the early to mid 2000’s, [...]

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The Status Quo is Not an Option

Posted on 14. Aug, 2009 by Nicolai Kolding.

In the coming weeks, you will be reading a lot about our specific ideas on the Next Generation Brokerage.  It’s important to explain why we believe this is necessary.  In our view, this comes down to a matter of necessity.  Simply put, the status quo is not an option.  The numbers won’t fly.
Every brokerage has four [...]

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