Real estate

“I want to know you’re successful and that you work with lots of buyers and sellers, and I want to be treated like I’m your only client.”

Nearly 25 years ago, those words from a seller helped mold my professional future.

We work in a fee-for-service business. “I … I … I …” doesn’t work. Frankly, a seller doesn’t care that I was agent of the month for three months this year. They’re not listening when I tell them about my long list of awards or designations, and they certainly don’t want to hear about the wonderful, exotic trips I attended as a result. They only care about getting their house sold. And while our awards, designations, and accolades are products of our accomplishments, sellers don’t make the connection.

Whether upsizing, downsizing, decreasing debt or relocating, selling a home is a very personal means to an end. We have a responsibility to our clients to help them reach this goal so that they can move on with their lives. In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Ron Zemke says, “Seeing and treating each customer as an individual helps you meet the needs of each on their own unique level.” Read the rest of this entry »

By reflex the answer is “yes.” But the answer really is, “it depends.”

Now more than ever it is important that we are extremely selective when hiring new agents. We owe it to them, we owe it to our current agents and we owe it to ourselves.

For the potential new agent just entering the industry, you have to admire their courage. In spite of the daily barrage of media, people all across the country are still becoming licensed and choosing real estate as their career. We owe it to them to make sure they have all the info they need when making this decision and we owe it to them to provide them with the systems, training and support necessary to make their new career work. If you are not prepared to invest in their success to a higher degree than you’ve ever done before, don’t hire them. They deserve better.

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Yes we finally sold our home and are out of attorney review after: 100+ days on the market, 2 price reductions and a price 5% below ask. This was one wild ride, but we are now officially STRONG buyers with a contract in hand, pre-approved and ready to find our new home. I thought it would be interesting to share our selection process for finding our seller’s agent as it turned out to be very critical in our house selling at all in these economically challenging times.

Below are the 10 Web marketing-related questions we asked prospective listing agents when we put our house up for sale:

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As an industry, we are all suffering right now in large part because too many people over a long period of time checked their ethical compasses at the door.  Whether we like it or not, we are all caught up in this mess and few people are differentiating the players - since we are part of the system, we are perceived by many as therefore being part of the problem.

At this point in time, confidence and trust in all aspects of our business are challenged.  Simultaneously, the financial environment for many brokers and agents has never been more difficult and the temptation to compromise company and personal values has never been higher.  As brokers and agents, this is the time to stand up in defense of your ethical principles.

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In real estate 101 training I was taught that you tell everyone you know what you are doing and then remind them every time you see them that you are selling real estate. One of my first lessons was to write down the names of everyone I  knew and then contact them to let them know I was now selling real estate. For many new agents today that is done instantly via their Facebook profile.

Now that real estate 101 and Facebook 101 have met, there are amazing opportunities. I admit, it took me a while to figure this out, but recently it dawned as me as I was watching the updates of my selling agent friends on Facebook. They’ve been posting their new listings as newsfeeds and sharing status updates on their latest work-related activities. Facebook has become the Web 2.0 delivery vehicle for just listed and just sold cards. Cool!

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As the “Shoes Keep Dropping,” it is easy to become paralyzed by the media reports, the unknown challenges that lay ahead, the worries around how long these market and economic conditions will last. In fact, it is difficult right now to think of anything else.  For the most part, it is the same story everywhere — people are hunkering down for what everyone believes will be a challenging fall and winter.

As I sat in the audience on Sunday (front row, as usual) at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals convention in Phoenix, an impressive lineup of presenters performed, and I say performed because it was interesting and entertaining. Even the economists were funny and witty in their comments. That was my first clue there was a different attitude happening at this particular conference. Nobody was commenting that the “numbers were down” as far as attendees. People actually seemed upbeat. This is odd, I thought.

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Posted by Bob Albanese

In my last blog I wrote about “loss connected with a low listing absorption rate” and the clear upside in maintaining strong performance in this area. The question now revolves around how brokers can improve listing absorption rate, and the types of tools and measurement devices that are required to accomplish this.

Listing Standards

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When you have a thought it creates a physical reaction — the mind and the body are connected. If you are having negative thoughts you are likely to feel blue, lethargic, and pessimistic. With everything that is happening in the economic world how do we stay focused on the positive?

NAR data indicates that homes sold at a seasonally adjusted rate of more than 409,000 homes a month between August 2008 and August 2007. The brokers and agents who are focusing their energies on these activities have a very different frame of mind than the ones that are focusing on the various other economic challenges.

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Some of today’s environmental buzzwords are “green” and “global warming” and “healthy environment,” but what exactly do these buzzwords mean to our homes, our health and our pocketbooks?  I had the opportunity to dig into the effects of global warming during my research for our Home Efficiency Seminar.

There are volumes of information available online and in print. Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach with Hillary Rosner offers “50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying,” and Sophia Uliano tells us “8 Simple Steps to an Eco-Friendly Life” in her book, Gorgeously Green.

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