Watch the video above by Jay Papasan of Keller Williams Realty Int’l for a quick explanation of short sales and the time line for getting a short sale approved.

What is a Short Sale?

Basically, a short sale is when a seller has a hardship and must sell a property, but the home is not worth as much as the seller owes to a mortgage company. Unless the seller is willing and able to bring extra money to the closing table to pay off the mortgage at closing, the seller must get the lender (and other lien holders) to agree to take less than is owed to them as payment in full.

Normally, short sales are only approved when the owner is in danger of foreclosure and there is an approved hardship. The owner is not able to continue paying the mortgage and may have received a foreclosure auction date. Hardships may include unemployment, medical bills, divorce or a new job that requires the owner to move out of town (Disclosure: every person’s situation is different and there is no guarantee every owner with one of the hardships I listed above would be approved for a short sale…and there may be other hardships that would be approved).

What Do You Need to Know Before Buying a Short Sale?

The most important thing you need to understand is that short sales usually take a very long time to get approved. The time frame really depends on how far along the seller is in the process. If there was another offer that got the ball rolling but ended up falling through, it may be possible to get it closed quickly. Please note that quickly in a short sale is not the same as quickly in a traditional home sale. In the best case scenario, plan on at least 60 days.

However, if the short sale package has not been submitted by the owner to the bank yet, it could take several months before a buyer gets a response on if the bank will accept or counter their offer.

Buyers who are not prepared to wait 3-6 months before finding out if they will be able to buy the house AND are completely flexible on when they will close on the purchase should not be making offers on short sales unless the listing agent can assure you that the short sale process is well underway.

In addition, short sales are AS-IS purchases. Typically short sales are in better condition than foreclosures, but the condition varies dramatically from house to house.

In the St. Louis region, the contract normally submitted on a short sale will allow you to get inspections and terminate the contract if you are not satisfied with the condition of the house. But just about every house needs some repairs when it is purchased, and even the short sales in the best condition may need significant work.

Buyers who do not have cash set aside to make both obvious and unexpected repairs should not be purchasing a short sale.

What Do You Need to Know Before Trying to Sell via Short Sale?

If you owe more money on your home than you could sell if for and you are behind on your payments, you may be able to get your lender to agree to a short sale.

But, selling via short sale is not an easy or short process. You will be expected to jump through a bunch of hoops, submitting a ton of documents including tax returns, bank account balances and you will even have to write a personal hardship letter to the bank explaining why you can’t pay the mortgage anymore.

It is a lot of work for both the owner and the real estate agent to get a home approved for a short sale. After submitting all the paperwork (but still not knowing if the bank will agree to a short sale), the agent then needs to find a buyer who is willing to be patient enough to wait months without knowing if the offer will be accepted.

If you aren’t responsive to your agent’s requests for paperwork, your agent will probably walk away from the deal.

You need to be extremely committed and cooperative, or a short sale simply won’t work.

One other thing. Shorts sales are tricky. More don’t go through than get approved.

It’s really important that you list your home with an agent who has a track record of successfully selling short sales.

I sold 1 short sale. We finally got it approved and sold, but it took 9 months. As someone who does not do a lot of short sales, I simply am not the best agent to list one.

However, one of the services I provide at no charge is to screen agents for clients so that they hire the right agent for the job.

If you are in danger of foreclosure, I can connect you with an agent who can help you anyplace in the U.S.

In exchange for finding you an agent, I will get a small referral fee from the agent IF you hire the agent and IF the sale successfully closes. You have nothing to lose by contacting me for a referral…but you have a lot to gain.

Hire the wrong agent to handle your short sale and you may end up with a foreclosure instead.

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2. 6 Tips for a Smooth Home Purchase
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4. Smart Buyers know that Selecting a Home to Purchase Involves more than Simply Deciding which you Like Better

The video above gives a good overview of the profit share program and how it can impact your life. The videos at the bottom of this article go into more details about how profit share is calculated and how you actually build a profit share income.

The profit share program at Keller Williams Realty was one of the major factors for me in deciding to come to KW over the other brokerages I was considering.

Of course, the opportunity to build income through profit share wasn’t the only reason I went to Keller Williams, but it was one of the things that clinched the deal.

After doing all my research, I was so sure that there was no other brokerage that could help me grow my business better while letting me keep more of my commission dollars.

I like helping people. It’s why I went into real estate. Even without the profit sharing plan I would have wanted to share this wonderful discovery with agents I had worked with in the past who I respected. To be rewarded for something I would have done anyway was very appealing to me.

I was also excited to learn that I would be vested in the profit sharing plan after only 3 years…meaning if I left the company after 3 years I could continue to earn profit share income even if I went to another real estate company!

Contrary to all the gossip, it is not a multi-level marketing plan. It is not a scam and the profit share money does not come out of the commission of the agents you recruit. It comes from the profits of the company which in most companies is given entirely to the owners.

And since profit share is calculated & distributed monthly, not annually, it forces the company to be profitable every month rather than letting the good months cover for the bad months.

The videos below explain it much better than I can.

How is Profit Share Calculated?

How to Build Your Profit Share Tree:

Every Agent Really Can Make Money by Profit Share:

I have only been with Keller Williams for 15 months, but I have already earned over $1000 in profit share. As of July 2010, there are 116 agents in my office alone who have earned at least $500 in profit share. Eight agents have earned over $10,000 and another 12 agents have earned over $5,000. And this is in an office that has only been open for 4 years.

Big money doesn’t happen overnight, but over time it can really add up. I attended a class at the annual Family Reunion training convention in February that focused on profit share.

Two of the people on the panel had both earned over $2 million dollars of lifetime earnings. Their first few years they didn’t earn much, but over time it grew exponentially. They both now earn between $200,000-450,000 per year in profit share.

Will I ever earn that much?

Maybe not. But if I can earn over $1000 in my first year, I’m confident that the passive income from profit share will have an impact on my lifestyle and will allow me to retire someday.

In St. Louis, we’re just getting started. Today, we have offices in Kirkwood, Sunset Hills and St. Charles County. With over 8000 agents in our region and plans for new offices in Clayton, West County, St. Louis City and Metro East IL (and who knows where else), there is a great opportunity to join the company while it is in it’s massive growth phase.

If you would like more information about Keller Williams Realty and how it might help your career, please feel free to contact me via email or phone (see top right sidebar) or this contact page.

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3. The Keller Williams Story
4. Why Keller Williams Realty?

The video above gives a good overview of the business systems which are taught at Keller Williams Realty. The videos at the bottom of this article go into more detail on how to start building a team. If you are an agent in the St. Louis area and are considering changing brokerages, contact me to discuss how I can get you a free copy of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent book.

When I joined Keller Williams, I was positive that I would never want to hire an assistant or build a team. At the same time, I recognized that there have been times in the past when I was equally as positive about something, and then later changed my mind.

A perfect example is my insistence that I never wanted to represent sellers.

I was working at an exclusive buyer’s brokerage which served people who were relocating to St. Louis for a job.  I was sure that I would feel very uncomfortable trying to win the business of a seller…competing with agents and having to pitch my services. I was sure that I would have less control over the transaction since I knew how to help my clients find the best home to meet their needs and budget, but with a listing I simply would have to wait for a buyer to discover the house (how wrong I was!).

After 5 years of exhausting work and 24/7 work weeks, I finally decided that I had to make a change or I was going to have to get out of real estate. I simply couldn’t continue working myself to death.

So I took a deep breath, got some great advice from a trusted colleague, and moved my license. I left a company which only allowed me to work with buyers but provided me with all of the clients I could handle, to a full service brokerage where I had more control over my business and could start representing sellers, but I would also have to find my own clients (yes..I was going to have to pitch my services to people!).

My point is that we don’t always know where our path will lead.

A year later I realized it was time to change brokerages again. My independent brokerage was changing ownership and it simply wasn’t a good fit for me. This time, I wanted to move to a brokerage that met my current needs but also had the resources to help me if I decided I wanted to grow in an unanticipated direction.

I realized that all of my real estate training at my 1st two brokerages focused on teaching me how to work with buyers and sellers, how to price homes and negotiate deals. I was taught how to avoid getting sued and how to get a deal closed.

But no one had ever taught me anything about running a business. My brokerages didn’t talk about reigning in your expenses or how to hire an assistant. They didn’t help me develop a business plan, calculate how many leads I needed in order to hit my income goals or how to implement a solid accounting system.

I still haven’t gotten around to doing all of these things, and some of them I may never do. But I like knowing that I’m with a company that can guide me through Small Business 101 when I am ready to take those steps.

Take a look at the videos below to get a taste of how Keller Williams can help agents who want to treat their business like a business.

Millionaire Real Estate Moment: The Assistant Executive

Millionaire Real Estate Moment: The Three Key Hires

These videos just give you a snapshot of the types of things that Keller Williams can help you with as you learn to treat your real estate business as a small business.

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2. Why are St. Louis Real Estate Agents Switching to Keller Williams Realty?
3. The Keller Williams Story
4. Why Keller Williams Realty?

Most St. Louis residents haven’t heard of Keller Williams Realty.

In St. Louis, we are very loyal to our brands. We are careful and slow before switching to something new.

So how did a company who opened their doors just 4 years ago and closed their first real estate transaction on 4/20/06 become the #1 office in the St. Louis region?

(Yes, Keller Williams Realty St. Louis is the #1 office in the St. Louis region based on the number of closed sales & #2 in the region based on closed sales volume between 1/1/10-8/27/10. Keller Williams Realty International is also the #3 real estate company in North America and winner of the JD Power award for 3 yrs in a row for Highest Level of Home Buyer Satisfaction.)

Keller Williams Realty offers everything a real estate agent could want. For me, it boils down to 5 basic tenets:

1. Business focus – treating each agent or team as a small business and providing the resources for that business to grow
2. Education – everyone from new agents to seasoned veterans benefits from ongoing top-notch education held daily in the Market Center along with regional and national events
3. Culture - a belief that it all boils down to always doing the right thing and an environment that really lives the mission statement of Building Careers Worth Having, Businesses Worth Owning and Lives Worth Living
4. Building Wealth - a great compensation package in which every agent is at a 70-30 split with a reasonable cap, an agent leadership council which makes the financial decisions affecting agents and the ability to gain passive income through profit sharing which could provide a retirement income
5. Opportunity for Growth – Keller Williams offers opportunities for agents to move into Market Center management, training, coaching and to even become investors in future offices

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be telling you more about Keller Williams and why an agent might want to consider Keller Williams if they are ready to take their career to the next level.

This video will give you an overview of how Keller Williams works and how it is different from other companies.

Be sure to subscribe by email or RSS so you don’t miss out on the upcoming videos giving you detailed information to see if Keller Williams is the right company for you.

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1. Keller Williams Realty ~ Building Inome through Profit Share
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3. Social Media Training for Real Estate Agents
4. Why Keller Williams Realty?

I seem to be part of a small group of real estate agents who can relate to both technical and non-technical colleagues.

The fact that I am always looking for ways that technology can improve my business puts me in the minority of real estate agents who are often described as “techie agents.”

I can barely understand the gibberish that my IT friends throw around so easily, but I am still light years ahead of the typical real estate agent.

But I also know and respect a lot of agents who would describe themselves as non-technical. I’ve seem many of them thrive and do a great job serving their clients.

What is a Techie Agent?

A techie agent is one who welcomes new innovations in technology to find new clients and better serve existing clients. A few of the tools that I use today are:

• WordPress blogs – this website & UCity Homes
• Facebook Business (Fan) page
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Animoto video
• Flickr photo sharing
• vFlyer single property websites
• Clicky and Google Analytics
• Wolfnet IDX home search
• iContact email newsletter service
• Top Producer client management system

Many of my clients appreciate my use of these new tools. They’ve met me through social media or like that I know how to market their homes online. Others couldn’t care less about the tools that I use, as long as I can get their home sold or help them find a new one.

I don’t use technology simply for the sake of using it. I’m not an early adopter of technology compared to my IT friends. I don’t have an iPad (and have no plans to get one). I can’t write html code (but I do know what it is!) and I’m afraid every time I do an upgrade to the software for this site that it might go down.

But, compared to most people…and most real estate agents…I’m using cutting edge tools in my business.

What about the rest of real estate agents?

The vast majority of real estate agents consider themselves non-techie. They cringe when they hear about some new tool that is going to revolutionize the way real estate is done.

These agents tend to use template based websites which Google will never find. They aren’t sure what an IDX is or how to get it onto their website. They know that they should be using Facebook for business, but they aren’t sure exactly what they are supposed to be doing (and what they shouldn’t be doing). They are thrilled that online home searches have made newspaper advertising obsolete, but they aren’t really sure how to connect with the people who are looking for homes online.

I spend a lot of time reading real estate industry blogs and attending training events to stay on top of the latest innovations. One of the things I hear over and over from the “techie agent” community is that the agents who don’t start blogging and using the technology tools available won’t be able to survive for long. I keep hearing that they will be obsolete and will end up without any clients.

I simply don’t agree.

There are a lot of great real estate agents who have loyal clients who will continue to refer their friends to them. These agents will learn how to get their home listings advertised online and how to find homes for their buyers using internet tools.

As a new technology tool becomes widely adopted, these agents will learn how to use it. Most already use GPS and know how to send a text message.

And since the general population isn’t using the advanced tools either, these agents are probably doing enough to get by.

Will a young technology-focused buyer hire an agent that isn’t using technology?

Probably not.

Then again, I’m probably not the best agent for someone who doesn’t use email.

Real estate buyers and sellers tend to find the agents that suit them best.

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It has been 10 years since the St. Louis MLS moved their listings to the current online system.

At first, most of the listings didn’t have pictures. Before long, agents started adding a few pictures and gradually it became the norm for listings to have multiple pictures that show off the entire interior of the property along with the outside.

The quality of pictures has also gotten better as agents got more adept at using digital cameras and things like fisheye wide angle shots disappeared. The price of professional photography came down and more and more listings (like mine!) have pictures that show a home at it’s best through the use of professional equipment and expertise.

Compared to most MLS systems around the county, the St. Louis MLS is pretty advanced. We can input 1000 characters in the agent remarks (so everything doesn’t have to be abbreviated) and we can upload up to 99 pictures.

But there have always been a few agents that fail to provide a minimum level of professional service to their clients. We still find listings that don’t have even a single picture.

Just this weekend I got a call from another agent about a listing with no pictures. She has been working with a client in Arkansas for a few years. Her client is engaged to a man who is trying to sell a house in St. Louis. Even though the house has been on the market for 53 days, the marketing remarks still say “pictures coming soon” and there isn’t a single picture available. Not surprisingly, they are shopping for a new agent.

Change is Coming:

I got an email today from Mid America Regional Information Systems (MARIS), the local MLS listing service.

Finally, MARIS is going to start requiring agents to post at least a picture of the exterior of the building or lot. The exterior shot doesn’t have to be the primary picture (the one that shows up as a thumbnail in the search results). But, it does have to be included somewhere in the listing.

Here is the email I got yesterday:

New MARIS Rule Regarding Property Photos

Please note that this Rule is Coming Soon. Currently, proper­ties without photos are not in violation. MARIS will give am­ple notice as to when this rule will take effect.

The message below has been updated based on questions MARIS received after sending last week’s NewsFlash.

Many MLS’s across the country have photo requirements.

As a result of member requests MARIS will be adding the following rule to the MLS Rules and Regulations:

A minimum of one photo or rendering of the front exterior of a list­ing or vacant lot representing the current condition of the property must be included within two (2) business days of the listing being entered into MLS.

*The exterior photo does not have to be the first photo. Notice the rule above says a “minimum” of one photo.

*For Condos the exterior of the building/entrance will suffice.

Each office will receive a copy of our updated Rules and Regulations prior to the start of enforcement of this rule. A notice will also be posted to the MLS prior to MARIS begin­ning to enforce this rule. Failure to comply will subject the listing agent to fines.

I’m thrilled.

One picture certainly doesn’t qualify as acceptable customer service from a listing agent, but maybe the fines will be enough to convince a few of these offenders to find another profession.

Cleaning house would be a good thing for all of us.

What is the MLS?

Multiple Listing Services (MLS’s) operate as a way for brokerages that have listing agreements with sellers to offer compensation to other brokerages if they represent a buyer who ends up purchasing the property. MLS systems provide access to area listings to their members and not to the public, though agents have the ability to forward the listings to their clients via email or a client portal account. MLS systems also work with 3rd party software providers to offer limited information to the public (examples are sites like Listingbook, Realtor.com and Wolfnet – my IDX provider).

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Every real estate agent that isn’t living under a rock has heard that they should be using social media to build their business and promote their property listings.

But most agents and most brokerages simply don’t know how to get started or how to use the tools effectively.

Free Social Media Classes for St. Louis Real Estate Agents:

Keller Williams Realty is a big believer in education and also believes in sharing. All of our classes are open to all agents. No charge, no recruiting, no strings attached.

If you are in the St. Louis region and would like to find out how to use Social Media and blogging to build your real estate business, you should come to our classes.

I will be teaching classes every Wednesday from 11 am – 12 pm at the Keller Williams office located in Kirkwood. Well, almost every Wednesday. I will miss a couple of weeks when I go out of town for advanced training myself.

Training Schedule:

Not a real estate agent but thinking about getting becoming one? You are welcome to join us too!

Since schedules can sometimes change, please RSVP if you are not an agent at the Kirkwood office. Leave me a comment here or contact Karen for more information.

See you in class!

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4. The Next Chapter in My Real Estate Career

If you were moving to a new city and trying to decide where you wanted to live, you would have a lot of questions before you chose a neighborhood.

The most common questions are:

1. Where are the best (or good) schools?
2. Where are homes in my price range?
3. Where can I find a newer home?
4. Where are areas that are walkable or near vibrant urban areas?

These questions are easy to answer for an experienced buyer’s agent.

But real estate agents also get a lot of questions about two areas that we aren’t allowed to discuss: crime & racial, ethnic or religious background.

Why Can’t Real Estate Agents Answer Questions about Race and Crime?

For many years, non-white buyers were not allowed to buy homes in white neighborhoods. Real estate agents would “steer” people, only showing them homes in neighborhoods where the residents matched their racial, ethnic and religious background.

The Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed to eliminate steering and discrimination. According to the American Bar Association:

The law prohibits housing discrimination by real estate firms and homeowners. This means that homeowners may not refuse to lease or sell property based on race, religion, gender, color, or national origin. In some localities, special housing discrimination ordinances or laws also cover sexual orientation.

How does the Fair Housing Act impact real estate agents and buyers?

In order to fully comply with the Fair Housing Act, rules have been put in place by the real estate licensing authorities that prohibit agents from even talking about race, religion or ethnicity. Since buyers will often ask about crime as a way to find out the demographic background of the people living in an area, real estate agents are taught to avoid answering these questions too.

The result is that real estate agents can no longer legally steer people to communities that match their racial or ethnic background.

But the flip side is also true.

I’m working with a buyer who is looking for a diverse neighborhood. My clients are a white couple who adopted two Hispanic children, and would like to raise their children in a diverse community.

The same rules that don’t allow discrimination against people due to their background, also don’t allow me to guide buyers who are looking for diversity.

Find Demographics for Every Address in the U.S:

Who decides what is a good area?

Different people are looking for different things. As buyers, you have the right to base your decision on any factor you want.

You need to decide for yourself what you are looking for in a community and what you consider a “good” or “bad” area.

Since the answer to these questions are totally subjective, real estate agents shouldn’t be answering these questions for you. Instead, they should be pointing you to factual information so you can get the information and decide for yourself which part of town you want to live in.

Though real estate agents shouldn’t (and legally can’t) discuss crime or racial demographics, we can point people to resources so they can research information for themselves.

When people ask about crime, agents are taught to refer them to the local police department. I’ve also posted crime maps for St. Louis City and St. Louis County.

How to find out the racial makeup of any community:

The U.S. census tracks a number of factors that may be important to buyers as they choose a community. Recently, I found a website that provides a snapshot of helpful information for every address.

Here are screen shots of the information for a home one of my buyers recently bought in the Shaw neighborhood near Tower Grove Park:

Map:

Demographics are based on census tracts. The site gives you a map so you can see the boundaries of the census tract.

Summary:

Overview of the income, racial background and housing for the area

Income:

Median income for the state, metro area & tract and % below the poverty line

Population:

Minority and non-Hispanic white population, total population & number of families

Housing:

Total housing units, average age of housing, owner-occupied vs rental units, vacant housing units

You can also find out the racial makeup of any Missouri public school by visiting the MO Dept of Education website and looking at the school report cards. If you would like comprehensive information for a specific address, be sure to check out the census bureau website.

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4. Tips for Buyers on Choosing a Safe Neighborhood

I recently posted information from Gary Keller’s Vision Speech covering the current housing market and economic trends and information on what buyers and sellers are looking for when they search for homes.

Today I’m sharing with you the portion of the Vision Speech comparing full service real estate brokerages to discount brokerages (often called limited service, flat fee or MLS only listings).

It’s not surprising that a portion of home sellers want to save money by hiring a discount real estate company.

In exchange for a few hundred dollars, the discount agent will put the listing in the MLS and will assist with the contract paperwork if an offer comes in. The discount agents don’t offer advice on pricing, staging or help write marketing remarks. They don’t advertise the home, and usually they don’t even provide a sign for the yard or a lockbox so that buyer agents can access the property without the seller being home.

Since the MLS only agent is paid upfront and doesn’t get paid any additional money if the house sells, they actually work harder for the same money if the home sells.

In this compensation model, there is no incentive for the discount agent to provide additional services or work to keep the deal together that hits bumps on the way to closing.

Full Service Real Estate Brokerages vs Discount Brokerages:

Click on the picture below to see the slide show covering the differences between the top 5 full service real estate brokerage companies and discount brokerages:

• percentage of listings that fail to sell
• average sale price
• how long does it take to sell
• how many listings are discounted listings

Bottom Line:

Homes listed with one of the top 5 full service brokerages are more likely to sell, sell for more money and sell faster.

I’m not suggesting that smaller or independent full service brokerages don’t do a good job of selling homes. They simply weren’t evaluated in this study.

Home sellers also appear to understand that successfully selling a home in today’s housing market isn’t a sure thing. In order to have the best chances to sell at the highest price, more and more of them understand that you get what you pay for.

Hiring a discount agent, often means selling for a discount too.

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Yesterday I showed you the portions of Gary Keller’s Vision Speech from the 2010 Keller Williams Family Reunion which focused on the U.S. housing market and economic trends.

Gary also spent time discussing the results of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2009 buyer/seller survey.

I’ve read the entire NAR report, and Gary did a great job of pulling out the most important information.

The slide show presentation (click on the picture below to see the slide show) helps you understand what motivates home buyers and sellers. The information is useful not only for real estate agents who make a living selling homes, but also for home sellers who need make sure the marketing of their home reaches as many buyers as possible.

Highlights:

Home Buyers:

• Over the last 10 years, almost half of the home buyers each year are first time buyers. The 2009 economy and incentives for first time buyers resulted in the highest percentage of 1st time buyers since 2001.
• 43% of buyers lived in their prior home for 5 years or less, but only 16% of them expected to live in their newly purchased home for 5 years or less.
• The largest group of buyers start the home search process by looking on the internet for homes and information. The next largest group of buyers contacts a real estate agent to get started.
• Home buyers are taking longer to select a home, with 2009 buyers averaging 12 weeks before they purchase.
• About 9 in 10 buyers are using the internet and a real estate agent to help them find a home.
• 3 in 4 buyer found the home they purchased through the internet or their real estate agent.
• Only 2% of buyers found their home from print advertising!
• The most important information to buyers when they look for homes on websites are pictures and detailed information about the house.
• The majority of buyers are searching for homes on sites that either offer an MLS search or all of the home listings in an area (including Realtor.com, agent and brokerage websites with home searches). My takeaway: in order to attract buyers to their website, agents MUST have an MLS search which provides a display which makes it easy to see large pictures and has detailed home information in a format that is easy to use!
• With 77% of buyers using an agent in their home sale, and another 10% buying through a foreclosure or trustee sale, there are only 1 in 10 buyers purchasing market rate homes and NOT using an agent.
• 46% of buyers say the most important thing they want from their agent is help finding the right home to purchase, and 29% primarily want help with negotiating price or terms of the sale.
• 44% of buyers found their agent from a referral. With social media becoming the new way of networking, it is going to be even more critical that agents master the skills of interacting online.
• With almost half of buyers stating reputation, honesty and trustworthiness being the most important factors in choosing an agent, the inevitable online rating systems of real estate agents will have a huge impact on the industry.
• The vast majority of home buyers would recommend or use their agent again. Agents need to keep in touch with their former clients!

Home Sellers:

• Though 88% of buyers said they would definitely or probably use their agent again, only 24% of sellers hired an agent they had used before. Let me repeat myself…agents need to keep in touch with their former clients!
• 2/3 of buyers and sellers only talk to one agent about their home purchase/sale. Agents need to keep in touch, and then be the first one to respond when a possible client expresses any interest in buying or selling!
• Only 1 in 5 sellers think the most important thing their agent can help with is pricing the home competitively. Agents need to be selective in which homes they choose to list, or they may spend a lot of time working for free.
• Just like home buyers, the most important factor to most sellers in choosing an agent is reputation, honesty and trustworthiness…online reviews are inevitable!
• The number of homes successfully selling by an owner without a listing agent (FSBO), has slightly dropped since 2001.
• While the median Sale Price to List Price ratio was 95%, about 1 in 4 sellers had to come down more than 10% in order to sell their home.
• Buyer incentives don’t sell homes. Buyers purchase the home with the best features for the location with the BEST PRICE.

Check back for Part 3 of the Vision Speech presentation – Full Service vs. MLS only Discount Brokerages.

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