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Category: Marketing (page 156 of 191)

December 5, 2006

Ask the Broker: Can buyers negotiate for the buyer’s agent’s commission to be paid to them instead . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We have been focussing on new construction and have been meeting directly with builders and their agents. We have not been represented by a buyer’s agent up to now. Our strategy has been to save on commission by dealing with a single party.

We recently looked at several resales where we sought out the listing agents, with the same commission saving strategy. We found a home we like, but the seller is being relocated by his company. The seller will be reimbursed for a full commission paid to the seller’s realtor. The normal strategy of reducing the commission has disappeared as any reduction in commission will ultimately result in less money in the seller’s pocket.

First, I’d be curious where you learned your commission reducing strategy. Is it something you read somewhere or learned at a seminar, or did you work it out on your own? I ask, because, while it is not impossible, it seems to me to be very implausible.

A new home builder pays a buyer’s agent’s commission as a gratuity to that agent for making the introduction. In Arizona, licensees are expected to actually represent their new-home buyers, but the builder certainly doesn’t want or expect this. I can drop off a party just like dumping the kiddies off at day-care and still get paid. I do not endorse this way of working — just the opposite — but the builder would have no problem with it.

But: Because the builder is paying an agent to introduce the buyer to the builder, why would the builder pay you anything. You’re already there for free. The sine qua non event the builder might be willing to pay me to effect has already been effected without any need to pay a bribe. This is why builders won’t let me represent you if you show up at a new home subdivision without me: The introduction has already taken place. What do they need me for?

In fact, right now — and uniquely right now — you just might be able to get builders to cough up some extra coin to get your name on the Read more

December 4, 2006

Monday links: I’m from Missouri . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Two of the posts in the Carnival of Real Estate really popped for me. Toby Boyce at Sadie’s Take on Delaware Ohio explores the reasons why a buyer’s market in real estate seems so bizarre. And Bryant Tutas at ActiveRain teaches sellers what they knew all along.

Have I mentioned that Kris Berg is a brilliant real estate weblogger? Steve Berg is no slouch, either, but he suffers Mercury’s misfortune. Mercury is an amazing planet. It was fascinating to Einstein. But just when you’re ready to take account of all of Mercury’s unique features, you catch a glimpse of its golden-haloed neighbor and all conversation stops. Unjustly eclipsed. It ain’t fair, it just is.

The Real Estate Bloggers wonder how the shift in power in Washington will affect real estate. Not my ideal state of affairs, but gridlock can effect the Metternichean stasis: “Govern and change nothing.” More freedom? Bring it on! Lower taxes? Even better! Likelihood? Zero. Absent those, few if any changes in the laws give people the opportunity to plan in a stable environment. We could have done better before this. The challenge now is not to do worse.

Kevin Boer at Three Oceans Real Estate is looking for shady agent stories. As rough as I can be on my fellow practitioners, in the abstract, I tend not to believe stories like these. They always seem to involve friend-of-a-friend transactions, the kind of Baconian distances that induce spontaneous telephone games. I’ve run into dumb Realtors and lazy Realtors. I’ve run into Realtors who thought I was a dumb Realtor. I’ve run into a lot of Realtors who have never discovered that it possible for Realtors to pay small sums of money to make trivial sticking points go away. And I have run into a very great many Realtors who were smart, honorable, efficient and a joy to work with. So: If you want to cry to me about abuse, show me the bruises, show me the scars, show me the hospital records, show me the police report, show me the trial transcript. Everybody has a sob story. I’m from Missouri…

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December 4, 2006

The Carnival of Real Estate…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

…is up at The Property Monger. Host Jon Ernest celebrates the Carnival’s twenty-first-iversary by awarding 21 winners, split across two days. Grand prize goes to Northern Michigan Real Estate Blog with an argument about last week’s NAR anti-trust ruling.

We entered Russell Shaw’s essay on The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if it made the second string at The Property Monger. That post was one of the selections for The Carnival of Marketing, though, hosted this week by The Real Estate Tomato.

Cathleen Collins is dictator-for-now in judging which BloodhoundBlog post to enter in The Carnivals of Real Estate, Marketing and Business. I stuck her with the job because I can trust her to judge fairly among our many very talented webloggers, without playing favorites in my direction. It’s more responsibility than I want to take on.

But we decided to have a second competition within the Bloodhound Pack, call it the Carnival of Bloodhound. Based on the votes of contributors, the first Carnival of Bloodhound winner is Richard Riccelli’s “Charmed, I’m sure”, a quick take on how to write listing copy that makes houses sell faster and for more money.

Finally, kudos to the brain-trust at CoRE Headquarters. Rather than get worked up about what is and is not a true real estate post, they simply added three categories: Investing, local real estate and real estate professionals.

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December 4, 2006

Ask The Broker: What if my lender won’t underwrite a land lease?

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

I am a buyer in a real estate transaction for a condo in California. I have been in escrow for the past 45 days but have been unable to obtain a loan due to the fact that the condo is on leased land which is due to expire in close to 30 years and the bank does not want to take the risk. There was a finance contingency. A 15 year loan would not be satisfactory to me and I may not even qualify for it. Can I cancel and get my earnest deposit back, thanks.

California says the condo is, I guess technically, not considered real estate because of the less than 30 year lease term. This may be a large exit door for you.

Although I’ve run into this problem in Hawaii with clients, never in California. A practical solution is to find out if it’s possible to have the lease extended past 30 years. That worked for me many years ago. If the land owner will do this you’ll probably be able to obtain your loan.

Otherwise, this gets into a legal judgment call. Does the contingency specifically say you’re to obtain a 30 year loan? Or did you leave that section blank? If the terms of the loan are not mentioned you are in a gray area, and might be better of consulting a real estate attorney.

In the end, this may be much like a trick question on a test in school. My first comment will probably be your out. A five minute consultation with an attorney should solve this for you, and put a smile on your face.

December 3, 2006

An Uncivil War

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

(A Bloodhound Blog/San Diego Home Blog simulcast).

Negotiator: one who arranges for or brings about through conference, discussion, and compromise.

Bully: a blustering browbeating person; especially : one habitually cruel to others who are weaker; a hired ruffian.

As agents, so much of our value to our clients stems from our reputation among peers. As listing agents, pre-sale, we market homes, hold open houses and generally get the word out. As agents representing the buyers, we identify and show properties; we make the introduction. When a buyer identifies a property and it is proffer-the-offer time, however, many agents on both sides of the table consider this a call to arms, time to don the pith helmet of negotiation and browbeat their “opponent” in the name of representation.

What many agents forget is that the parties are not the Blue and Gray on opposite ends of a battlefield, but are real people who have everything in common. You have a side that wants to buy and a side that wants to sell, and the agents’ roles are to bring them together through negotiation of a treaty that satisfies all involved. Ardell DellaLoggia spoke to this last summer and, while I suggested then that the negotiating table scene in her Norman Rockwell portrait was the stuff of fantasy, the underlying argument was dead on.

Steve called my attention this week to a full-page ad in San Diego Magazine taken out by a local agent. It begins well enough, “Good deals can be found, but great deals are negotiated.” But here is the first paragraph:

The real estate market has changed. As an exclusive buyer’s agent in San Diego for the past nine years, I’ve witnessed the evolution first-hand. Given the current market, I firmly believe that lowball offers and strong arm tactics with the seller should be expected from a buyer’s agent. If your present agent is uncomfortable with pressuring the seller due to the fact that someone might not like the offer, come to me.

“Strong arm tactics” and “pressuring the seller”? I bet “trash talking” is among his list of services as well. As an aside, our Read more

December 2, 2006

Thoughts on a New Years Resolution

by

Associate Broker

Author website

Each year, many of us look back on the previous year with thoughts on how to improve ourselves in the coming year. Well… not all of us – but most of us, at least.

Sometimes we look to improve our looks. We vow to eat less and exercise more.

Other times it might be a resolution of faith… or charity. The giving of ourselves in service to others.

This year, I am making a commitment to increase my value to my clients. Not my apparent value (although the recognition would be nice) but rather my true value. I am looking to provide a better return to my clients than previously possible.

In the past, I have tried to stay a step or two ahead of the pack with innovative technology… sometimes too many steps ahead. It wasn’t that long ago that while most agents didn’t have a website – I was running streaming video tours of my listings. Not the crappy ones, mind you – good ones. I spent over $15K to have the equipment to produce quality video… and that’s exactly what I did. For a while, anyway.

In my opinion, however, quality still photography is a better medium than video… and if you combine still photography with a flash presentation complete with voice-overs and background music – you’ve got the best of both worlds. A multimedia presentation that the viewer can control.

I am a firm believer in the concept of communicating the features and benefits of a particular property to buyers and their agents, alike. I believe it serves my clients well to have the best exposure I can give them. Here is a draft of a presentation I am working on now. Keep in mind that it’s not finished… and the audio will have to be re-recorded as I did this while still feeling very ill and short of breath.

www.2561WoodCreekCt.com

So set your sights on the New Year soon to be at hand.

What will YOUR resolution be?

December 1, 2006

Dave Liniger: The Power of Selling a Dream . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is an excerpt from Everybody Wins: The Story and Lessons Behind RE/MAX by Phil Harkins and Keith Hollihan. Jeff Brown and I were talking about this on the phone the other day, and I thought I’d share it. Don’t read this as an unlimited endorsement of the book. It’s a fun read, but it’s full of bogus charts that are imputed to mean something, but don’t. Even so, it’s a nice retelling of the RE/MAX legend.

The Power of Selling a Dream

If not for the price of a $20 ticket, that might have been the end of the story. But in the telling of any fairy tale or epic adventure, there are always those key moments when the naive hero stumbles across a piece of good luck. Jack, of Jack and the Beanstalk fame, for instance, came home with three magic beans for which he had traded the family’s last asset, a cow. His mother, crushed and beaten by Jack’s foolishness, tossed the three beans into the garden, and that should have been the end of it. But the beans were actually magic, and a giant beanstalk grew. Jack climbed the beanstalk, discovered a kingdom filled with riches, killed the giant who ruled the kingdom, and came home to a hero’s welcome, making his poor old mom proud of him after all.

In Dave Liniger’s case, a $20 ticket to see a real estate motivational speaker amounted to his handful of magic beans.

He went to the talk because he had already paid and, well, . . . what the hell. The magic speaker was a man by the name of Dave Stone. Hearing him talk at the Mountain Shadow Country Club in Phoenix was the turning point in Dave Liniger’s life. He sat in the first row, mesmerized. Stone was a brilliant real estate man who loved to teach, the predecessor of all great real estate instructors; and his words penetrated Liniger’s brain like none he had ever heard before. At the break, Liniger ran up to Stone and introduced himself. They talked until the speech started up again. Liniger watched Read more

December 1, 2006

Ask the Broker: Are new build prices negotiable?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

When purchasing a home or condo in a new development are the prices quoted firm or can the buyer negotiate the selling price with the broker? Are the costs of “upgrade options” negotiable.

The definitive answer: Maybe.

New home sales is a retail business. The builder has to move current inventory to finance the future inventory, just as Sears has to clear out all the Fall and Winter goods to make way — and pay — for the Spring line.

Sometimes builders have more business than they need — and in consequence nothing is negotiable.

Sometimes — like now — builders need to move inventory, and they are willing to Make Deals, as they say down at the new car lot.

Even then, the deals may be set by higher ups, with the on-site sales staff authorized to smile and say the same things over and over again.

But what is that classic car dealer’s line: “What’s it going to take to get you into a Cadillac today?”

If a salesperson says something like, “If the only thing standing between us were the carpet upgrade, would that make a difference?” — that is a closing question, but it’s also a hint about flexibility. Even then the salesperson may not be able to make concessions, but the hint is that concessions are possible.

If you’re truly interested in the home and if you can be persuaded by a better deal, now is the time to sit down and dicker. Even if you have to leave the deal on the table for referral back to the main office, you may have won.

As with cars, upgrades are where the profit margins are highest. If you can arrange for and pay for your own granite countertops, don’t buy theirs unless it’s free or deeply discounted. Seven-inch stainless steel sinks are crap, buy you can buy a top-quality sink at Lowe’s for much less than that same sink at the builder’s design center.

There can be exceptions, though. For example, right now in Arizona, a great deal of spec home inventory is being sold at huge discounts. People bought new homes contingent on the sale Read more

December 1, 2006

Ask the Broker: Giving the bum the bum’s rush . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

What do you do when the dual owner of a house refuses to leave or cooperate after signing the purchase and sale and a document to agree to sell the house? This is a nasty divorce situation. The divorce court’s finding was to sell the house and split the proceeds. He is occupying the house now and the closing is in 15 days.

The answer to this question is: I am not an attorney. You have to take this up with your divorce lawyer to see what can be done lawfully and without resort to the long arm of Colonel Colt.

It happens that I have a sale going on right now with a very similar situation. She’s gone, he remains, and he managed to kill two prior contracts with his recalcitrance. I represent the buyer on the third contract, but we got lucky: The divorce judge has ordered that the soon-to-be-ex-wife is solely authorized to negotiate and sign for both parties, with the proceeds to be split according to the judge’s orders.

I don’t know if this could work for you, but it is at least possible to resolve a conflict like this. I wish you good fortune…

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December 1, 2006

Use full appraisal to correctly assess house’s true value

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me from today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link):

Use full appraisal to correctly assess house’s true value

Who can best judge what a piece of real property will sell for?

We all know the answer to that. The best estimate of the value of real estate will come from an experienced real estate appraiser.

After that, a Broker’s Price Opinion will come second. In certain very homogenous neighborhoods, a Price Opinion may be just as accurate as a full appraisal.

Third place belongs to an experienced agent’s Comparative Market Analysis. This can be very accurate in homogenous neighborhoods, substantially less so where homes or lots differ significantly.

Last place goes to the results produced by an Automated Valuation Method, such as Zillow.com or Eppraisal.com. An AVM does not evaluate houses, but rather provides statistics and records about houses. It cannot, for an extreme example, tell you whether the house is still there at the time of the evaluation.

It is fairly common to hear people say that AVMs will get more accurate in time. In fact, there is a finite limit to how much they can be improved.

A CMA is essentially an all-paper calculation. But a CMA is produced by an agent who has a great deal of on-the-ground experience, most of which will never be encoded into an AVM’s software. Amenities such as landscaping, decor, orientation or views cannot be accounted for by an AVM.

But the other end of this question is need vs. costs. If you want to know what your supervisor’s house is worth, use Zillow.com. It costs nothing, and close enough is good enough.

If you need to know what to offer on a house you want to buy, you need a CMA at the least. The good news is, your agent will probably provide it free.

The same is probably true for a Broker’s Price Opinion, which you will want if you are planning to sell a home.

But if you need to know the value of a piece of real property to a very high degree of accuracy — for instance, to qualify for a mortgage — you’re going to pay $300 or Read more

November 30, 2006

Real estate links and how to enact a Hollywood Western . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Teresa Boardman guest blogs at The Real Estate Tomato with some excellent advice on honing our technology skills.

Free The Drones has more on the Google Sandbox.

Bonnie Erickson at Real Estate Snippets is raising a stink about smelly houses. This may be the perfect answer to the question, “Why preview?”

More counter-intuitive rising-home-value news from Hot Property at BusinessWeek. If there were as many different ways to count groceries, you’d never make it home with a dozen eggs.

Back home in San Diego, Kris Berg has an excellent cautionary tale on the peril of ignoring the preliminary title report.

Two words: Galen Ward. The man is a poet.

Geri Sonkin at All About Long Island has thoughts on discounting. My preliminary conclusion is still that buyers don’t care very much, but I’m still playing with the idea. Three of the houses I have closing in December I would not have had without the flat fee buyer’s agent’s commission, so that’s a counter-argument.

In a Hollywood Western, about a half-hour after the second-act gun-battle, a seeming rout for the bad guys, the respectable townsfolk start poking their heads out to see if it’s safe to come outdoors. Then they gather in the town square and cluck about how much they abhor violence. This is done as comic relief and to set up the expectation of peace, to be spectacularly defeated by the third-act gun-battle. (Can you imagine what fun it is to sit through a movie or a play with me while I pick it apart line by line?) Today some of the townspeople of the RE.net have decided my brief war with Keith at Housing Panic was unseemly. Oh well. Kris Berg brought home a nice post on Realtor bashing, and, of course, Jay Thompson was a combatant. Other remarks suggest that — alike unto the comments of the BubbleHeads — people still don’t understand the issue: When someone tries to extort away your right to say what you choose, that is when I will be eager to engage in a discussion of what is ugly or a waste of time. At the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp Read more

November 30, 2006

Strong coffee

by

Marketing Provocateur

Author website

Marketing is as much a way of thinking as it is doing. Thinking about your customers and their motivations. Thinking about your lawn signs and listings and your picture on your card.** Thinking about where you can find ideas and inspirations that will cause buyers to come to you instead of the other guy.

From time to time, I’ll introduce you to people from my world who have influenced my thinking so they can work their magic for you, too, in your world. This is Denny Hatch. He’s strong coffee, but sometimes exactly what’s needed to kick start the day.

__

** Kris, a little unsolicited professional marketing advice? Keep the picture. It’s working for you.

November 30, 2006

Play nice, and NO COMMENTS!

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Forgive the absence of links, although I may have to throw in a couple of unreferenced quotes for effect, but my intent is not to fuel a ridiculous “debate”, for lack of a better word (although there are many better words). Anyone who cares about the catalyst for my comments will have to do their own research.

“Antagonize” was a word my children learned at a very young age, as in “Stop antagonizing your sister.” It really is time to stop all of the silliness, and quit antagonizing one another. Like any good mother, there comes a time when you have to ground the children. Greg – Go to your room for using the “M” word. (And like any good mother, I will laugh hysterically when you leave the room, because I really found your wordplay raucously funny). Keith and all of your Housing Panic friends, I am sending you home for behaving badly as well. The term RealtWhore, while considered by you and your friends to be quite clever, is clearly a derogatory remark and very childish. We will do it again when everyone can play nice.

Obviously, what we have here are some very divergent opinions on the real estate market trends. What bothers me the most at this moment, however, is what seems to be the underlying theme: The utter lack of respect many (most) people seem to hold for our profession. And in a perhaps unprecedented blogging moment, I insist that you DO NOT COMMENT ON THIS POST. It’s not that I know and fear that many will disagree with my remarks, but only that I am not looking to pick another playground fight. Consider it my therapy session.

I am truly tired of the sport of Realtor bashing. Here are the promised, unreferenced remarks, all unfortunately real and recent quotes:

(Realtors have a) lack of class, lack of education, lack of intelligence.

I find (the) ‘profession’ and business vile and disgusting in that it pretends to act as a fiduciary for home buyers and is nothing of the sort.

Why do you put your picture on your Blog comments/business cards/bill boards (if Read more

November 30, 2006

And now we are nine . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere. We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

We’re adding another contributor this morning, Doug Quance of Broker’s First Realty in Atlanta:

Doug Quance is an Atlanta-based Realtor and Associate Broker. Backed by his team, Doug is in the vanguard of the Realtor 2.0 movement toward hi-tech, full-service real estate.

Doug managed to get good and sick over Thanksgiving, so it’s a particularly cruel injustice to do this to him today, but he insisted we proceed as planned.

Athol Kay at The Real Estate Guide calls us The Borghound Blog, which was a lot of fun. This much is true: We’re doing our best to recruit the very best real estate webloggers. But the last thing we want is that “one cut of face and figure,” “the prison-uniform” of some uniform school of thought. To the contrary. Our diversity is our strength. (Didn’t I get a badge from the NAR that says that?)

In any case, while we are not The Borg, today we are a nonet to be contended with…

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November 30, 2006

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

– Isaac Newton

First things first – WOW, what a fantastic collection of writers and contributers this blog has! I came to Blodhoundblog to quickly see what had already been written before I started to write my post. I wound up spending over 90 minutes reading every single post, going to each of the links (thank you SO much, Richard for http://www.psychotactics.com/). I am so pleased with Greg’s decision to change the direction of Bloodhoundblog – and I was already happy before the changes. I may not post everyday but I sure will read it every day.

What follows in this post may seem to some like Earl Nightingale meets Buddha – and maybe it is – but I think you are going to like it.

Last week Matt wrote:

I might have missed something in the post, but to say that all listings for the discounter were $299 is probably not correct. “58 X 299 = $17,342.”I see a lot of “Discounters” using low selling price as a tool to get people in the door, or on phone. $299 is usually a no support price…and then they tack on a-la-carte items to raise that price up. True, it will never be full commission, but I doubt all 58 sold for only $299. How would he still be in business only making $17K per quarter?Russell, How hard was it to get to the level you are at today? Many realtors never get to this level, because it is very, very hard. I would bet that it is a lot easier to throw up a bunch of ads, that say you will sell a home for $299, and get a ton on people in your office. It can’t be that hard…

I don’t know how much selling up occurs at his site. But assume he only sells half of the listings he takes and gets paid on twice as many as he closes and manages to up sell every possible option he has – I still don’t like the numbers. I Read more

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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