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Which Brokerage is the Best Real Estate Company?

Karen Goodman — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:35:26 +0000

Or does the company even matter?

Buyers and sellers don’t seem to think so.

4 out of 5 home buyers and sellers don’t care about the name of the brokerage on their agent’s business card.

Keller Williams Realty is currently the #2 company in North America based on sales volume and has won the J.D. Powers “Highest Overall Satisfaction For Home Buyers Among National Full Service Real Estate Firms, Three Years in a Row”.

But none of that matters if you pick a well known company and don’t get a good agent.

I’m proud to be at a company that values education, sharing ideas and expects their agents to walk away from a transaction that compromises their ethics. I’m also proud that the company recognizes that the agents are the reason the company succeeds rather than trying to convince everyone that it is the brand that sells homes.

But don’t hire us just because we are with Keller Williams.

Hire us because we offer great service, marketing, communication and will help you accomplish your goals. We get homes sold and buyers into the home of their dreams. Isn’t that all that really matters?

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St. Louis Homes See Major Increase in Number of Bathrooms

Karen Goodman — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:14:08 +0000

What happened on Halloween night that caused the increase in bathrooms across St. Louis?

St. Louis buyers who are closely monitoring homes for sale may have noticed that many homes had an increase in the number of bathrooms on November 1.

No, there wasn’t a rash of construction projects in the last few weeks resulting in dozens of bathroom additions.

Mid America Regional Information Systems (MARIS) operates the St. Louis area’s MLS system. On October 31, MARIS implemented an upgrade to the MLS which affects how bedrooms and bathrooms are reported.

In the past, agents manually entered the number of bedrooms and the number of bathrooms. In another section of the listing, agents could list how many full and half baths were located on the main, upper and lower levels of the property. Listing agents could also identify the size, type of flooring and level of each room in the house.

MARIS apparently decided that agents simply weren’t filling in the information accurately enough. Rather than go after agents with fines for incomplete or inaccurate information to try to get them to provide better disclosure, they changed the system to make it happen.

The new system requires listing agents to identify the number of bedrooms and bathrooms on each level, and then the system generates a total.

So how did the system change increase the number of bathrooms?

In the past, agents would list a home that had 2 full baths and 1 half bath as having 2.5 bathrooms. The new system upgrades shows the same house as having 3 bathrooms (2 full 1 half). Though the change initially makes it appear that homes have more bathrooms, showing the total count is a much better way to fully disclosure information to the public.

And it solves a big problem for me. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to describe my new listing that has 3 full baths and 3 half baths under the old system. Saying it has 6 bathrooms was the best we could have done, but 6 bathrooms in the old system really meant 6 full bathrooms.

How Does the System Upgrade Impact Home Buyers?

In addition to giving more accurate information on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, buyers will be able to select homes based on where those rooms are located.

The system upgrade allows agents to create searches that can specify the number of bedrooms or bathrooms on specific floors.

This new feature will come in really handy in areas with older homes that were not built with master bathrooms. Bathrooms sometimes get added in the strangest places. I’ve seen homes where a full bathroom is in the middle of an unfinished basement.

Often the place where a bathroom can be easily added is nowhere near the bedrooms. Instead of simply searching for a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom home, now buyers can search for a home that actually has 2 full bathrooms on the same floor as the bedrooms. A home that has only 1 bathroom upstairs but has a 2nd bathroom in the basement wouldn’t show up on their search results.

In addition to helping buyers zero in on the best possible matches, it will also allow agents to more accurately pinpoint the appropriate listing price on homes. By searching for homes that have a similar number of main/upper floor bedrooms and bathrooms, homes that lack the main floor features won’t get mixed in with the ones that have everything a buyer would want.

I’m a big fan of any changes to the system that allows agents to create more targeted searches for their clients.

This change was a good one.

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This Month in Real Estate ~ October 2010

Karen Goodman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:49:21 +0000

Video Highlights:

Pending home sales index rising
Top markets for undervalued home bargains for buyers
242 of top 300 markets offer undervalued home prices

Check back each month for the latest video housing market report.

Prior “This Month in Real estate Video” reports…

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What Do Real Estate Agents Really Sell?

Karen Goodman — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 06:05:21 +0000

I recently came across the video above by Simon Sinek and it really got me thinking. I was so inspired that I clicked through to Simon’s blog and signed up to get updates to all of his posts in my Google RSS reader.

Today was a busy day. After working on a contract counteroffer, updating the website and dealing with my internet service going down, I decided to unwind for a bit by getting caught up on some of my favorite blogs.

I was not prepared for what I found.

Usually I skim through the posts, occasionally leaving a comment or smiling at the pictures posted by some of my blogging friends.

I wasn’t prepared for such a thought provoking article just before calling it a day. But, Simon’s words really hit home for me.

It got my wheels churning as he talked about how companies like Kodak went from being market leaders to insignificant players because they focused on the wrong thing. Simon explains that Kodak actually invented the digital camera in 1975. Afraid that it would eat away at their film and film processing sales, they tried to bury the discovery.

Simon’s point is that markets exist because customers have a problem that needs to be solved. They don’t care about the product. They care about solving the problem. Instead of focusing on protecting their products, Kodak should have focused on the problem their customers had – how to help people capture their memories so they can be saved for years to come.

The Real Estate Industry is Changing:

The reason Simon’s article fired me up so much is that I immediately realized how the concept fits into the changing real estate industry.

So many agents are holding onto the past. They think that when sellers hire them that they are being hired to create fancy brochures, put a lockbox on the house and a sign in the yard. They believe that they are being hired to advertise the listing and get the word out to other agents and home buyers.

But what happens when any seller can go online and publish for free everything anyone wanted to know about the house?

Guess what…they already can. Have you heard of Zillow or Trulia?

Granted, there isn’t currently a website that aggregates all of the home listings outside of Realtor.com, and a home for sale must be listed with a real estate agent to get onto Realtor.com. But it’s just a matter of time before that will change. The real estate industry is holding tight onto MLS listings. But eventually the listings will be everywhere, and a seller won’t need an agent to get the exposure that the MLS brings today.

Many real estate agents similarly think that buyers are hiring them to help them find a house. They think that buyers need them to sort through all of the listings and help them chose the best home out of the bunch.

But buyers are pretty smart, and they know what they like. They can now screen through every home listing on Realtor.com. They can look up prior sales history in the tax records and can see into the backyard using satellite maps.

So why do buyers and sellers still need agents?

What Problem do Real Estate Agents Solve for their Clients?

Real estate agents need to understand what the problem is that their clients have and how they can help their clients solve those problems.

As I see it, the primary need for both buyers and sellers is really consulting.

People need help navigating the complicated process of buying or selling a home…the largest financial transaction that most people will every make. And since most people only do it a handful of times in their lifetime with years between each transaction, they don’t have the chance to master the details involved to protect their interests.

Don’t get me wrong, my seller clients get those fancy brochures, a big yard sign, advertising all over the internet and even video tours.

But the most important thing that I offer my clients is advice. Advice on what to put away before they go on the market. Advice on new paint colors. Advice on repairs and if they should even move now vs later. And most importantly, advice on what price they need to list their house and when they need to consider a price reduction. Later, I give them advice on how to respond to a contact, what they should agree to fix after the buyers get a building inspection and how to manage getting moved out of their house and into a new house all on the same day.

My buyer clients get listings emailed to them and the door unlocked so they can look around without the sellers or listing agent looking over their shoulder.

More than sellers, buyers are already reacting to the changes that the internet has brought to the real estate industry. Buyers no longer wait for their agent to call them and tell them about a new listing. Buyers are on the internet searching through listings everyday. Today, they often are the ones telling their agent about a new listing that just hit the market rather than the other way around.

But buyers still need advice too. They need to understand how a subdivision has sold historically. They need to understand how a seller is likely to react to their offer. They need help picking a lender, deciding if they should get a stake or spot survey and what repairs to ask the seller to make after they get their inspections.

Buyers and sellers need a consultant.

Could they do the research to learn how to handle all of these details on their own?

Sure. But, reading about negotiation strategies and being able to execute them successfully are two different things. The biggest things that real estate agents bring to the table is experience.

What do you think?

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Keller Williams Training ~ Mega Camp 2010

Karen Goodman — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:33:06 +0000

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

Last week I took a few days away from my business in St. Louis to attend Keller Williams Mega Camp. This annual training convention brings together the top agents from across the country to share the best practices in real estate.

One of the major benefits I’ve found since moving my business to Keller Williams Realty last year is that this brokerage offers top notch training aimed at successful agents. So often companies only provide training for agents new to the industry. At Keller Williams, there is training for agents at every level.

Besides all of the great ideas that I pick up at these events, I also get a chance to really get to know my coworkers. Though my office is one where everyone wants everyone else to succeed, getting to know people after hours takes those relationships to a new level. After spending a few nights dining and dancing, it feels like the people down the hall aren’t just colleagues, but friends that you can reach out to for help. The end benefit is that our clients get not only one agent, but an office full of agents who want to see them get the best possible service.

And as an agent, it’s just plain fun to work in an office which these people too.

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Keller Williams Realty ~ Agents Make the Money Decisions

Karen Goodman — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:11:37 +0000

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

Watch the video above and meet some of the top-producing agents who decided to join Keller Williams Realty. Listen to them talk about why they value the Agent Leadership Council (ALC).

Agent Leadership Council (ALC):

When I was trying to decide which brokerage offered the best package for me, there was a lot to consider.

Learning about the Agent Leadership Council (ALC) was one of the things that impressed me about the company. To be honest, the existence of the ALC program alone probably would not have been enough to convince me that KW was the right place for me. However, it proved to me that everything else I was being told wasn’t all hype. This company really has put together a system to act on their philosophy that Together, Everyone Achieves More.

At most real estate companies (and most non-real estate businesses) agents and owners are on the opposite sides of a table. The agents & employees want the owners to provide as many resources and benefits as possible, regardless of how it affects profitability. Owners and upper management care only about profitability, and try to give employees and agents as little as they can without having everyone revolt.

At Keller Williams, every agent has the ability to share in the profits by simply helping the company grow. With almost half of the profits divvied up among the agents, it hurts the agents as much as the owners if money is spent foolishly.

Each Keller Williams office has an ALC which is composed of agents in the top 10% of production in their office. In order to serve on the ALC, agents must not only be selling homes, but they must also commit to be leaders in the Market Center to promote the success of all of the agents and to create an atmosphere where the KW Culture thrives.

Every financial decision that affects the agents and profitability is made by the ALC.

In my Market Center, a few of the decisions that the ALC have decided recently are:

requiring all office listings to be advertised at STLToday.com in order to obtain a substantial discount per listing, but with the office paying a portion of the cost of each ad
deciding to discount the cost of cubicle work spaces for agents since there was a large vacancy rate
deciding to provide free productivity coaching to non-capping agents with the coach paid from closed commissions (split equally by the agent being coached and the office (5% from each side))
deciding which organization would be the recipient of our Red Day charity efforts

Think about it. Keller Williams has created a system in which almost half of the profits are paid out to the agents AND all of the financial decisions affecting profitability are made the by agents. Have you ever heard of company ownership giving up their control? Would you do it if you were starting a company?

The point was really driven home to me a few months ago.

The office was had just completed a major build out with walls being moved and new offices being created. The older section of the office had carpeting that was…a little less than ideal. Let’s just say there is a fair bit of unraveling at the seams.

The carpet had stirred up a bit of conversation in the halls, with a lot of agents (including me) thinking it was short sited to not replace the older carpeting at the same time as the build out. The week after the build out was completed, Dave, our majority owner, stood up in front of the office at our weekly meeting and explained how much everything had cost and that the build out had come from a capital fund and did not affect profit sharing. However, replacing the old carpet DID affect profit sharing. He explained to everyone how it was going to cost $50,000 to replace the old carpet. And while he agreed that it had seen better days, he thought it was more important that the $50,000 ended up in agents wallets through profit sharing than to spruce up the office. The room grew silent as it sunk in that asking the office to replace the carpeting wasn’t just spending THEIR money, it was spending OUR money!

The old carpet is still in place. Someday it will have to be replaced. But it’s fine for now. And no one is complaining anymore.

If you are an agent considering changing brokerages, contact me to learn more about Keller Williams.

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What is a Short Sale Home Purchase?

Karen Goodman — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:43:14 +0000

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

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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Keller Williams Realty ~ Building Inome through Profit Share

Karen Goodman — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:47:41 +0000

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

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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Keller Williams Realty ~ Teaching Real Estate Agents to be Small Business Owners

Karen Goodman — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:25:06 +0000

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

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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Why are St. Louis Real Estate Agents Switching to Keller Williams Realty?

Karen Goodman — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:48:59 +0000

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:

Business focus – treating each agent or team as a small business and providing the resources for that business to grow
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
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
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
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.

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

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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