Ok, it’s pet peeve time. Feel free to chime in with your own. 1st Amendment baby!
So tell me… how many times has the following situation has played out for you.
My Own Real Estate Pet Peeve
You are looking for something on the Internet. You’ve hit the search engines, browsed Web site after Web site, finally locating just what you need then go to click on the Add to Cart/Checkout/Contact Us link or button only to be thwarted. Argh!
I constantly find this in real estate. Far too many agents are either fearful of email spam or are too lazy to deal with them appropriately that a very large number of them refuse to post their email address on their Web site.
Stop and think about this for a second.
The first and foremost action that a Realtor wants from someone visiting their Web site is for that person to contact them. Yet, they either hide that very piece of information on some far-away page or don’t publish it at all! Insanity!
Most Realtors will post their phone numbers because spam of that sort hasn’t grown to gargantuan proportions just yet, but with email, many agents simply won’t post it. But what if this visitor doesn’t like calling people on the phone and simply had a quick question that they were happy to send via email?
Listen, no one likes email spam but the alternative, especially in this real estate market, is far, FAR worse.
Make It Easy to Real Estate Leads to Contact You
So to that real estate agent who wonders why your Web site isn’t generating those leads you had been hoping for, here’s a tip.
Contacting you, whether by phone, email, text or post office should be the easiest thing anyone does on your Web site.
It’s not New Years yet, but that might make a great resolution. What do you think?
Every industry has its share of insider knowledge, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. Louisville real estate is no different. As society grows ever more complex, expertise becomes more and more valuable.
Why go it alone with you can have professional help with no cost?
For people selling their home, there are times when selling without a Realtor® may make sense. The seller pays both sides of the commission and that’s no small amount of money. So, a solid argument may be made for a homeowner selling their property without an agent.
(Please note, offering a cooperating commission, one side, is almost always a smart choice. Offering no commission to a buyer’s agent is a recipe for frustration, in my opinion.)
Now all of that refers to selling a home. Buying a home is a separate deal. People buying a home should always use a Realtor. On to the point of this post.
Who Is Your Realtor? How Do You Know?
One of the quirky things about real estate is that customers don’t always understand how the buying process works. They often think of Realtors as mere salespeople—like a clerk you might find at Macy’s or Best Buy.
Unless the reasoning behind the process is thoroughly explained to them, a buyer might call a Realtor friend from college on Monday with a question about financing. Then on Sunday, they might call the listing agent for a home they saw online.
Given enough time and the buyer might call a 3rd and 4th agent, not understanding how that affects their relationship which each of them who want to be their only agent.
What Makes You My Realtor?
Here’s the danger. If a Realtor is not secure in their relationship with the client, there’s a level of apprehension that doesn’t serve either party well. Realtors put in a great amount of time searching properties online, sending emails or texts, arranging showings, following up with feedback and a myriad of other tasks all with the goal of helping a client purchase a home.
Here’s the point, a Realtor only gets paid if a home is purchased.
Most good agents don’t mind helping a client over the course of several months, even years, as long as they know they will be the Realtor who gets to sell the property in the end.
Finding the Best Louisville Realtor for You
Buyers have the freedom to choose whomever they like to represent them. They can start with one agent and decide that person isn’t a good match or isn’t putting in the time needed to help the buyer find exactly what they want, and then move to another agent.
On the selling side, there is a Listing Agreement, which outlines the terms of that business transaction. But what do buyers have? It’s called a Buyer Agency Agreement. These are simple contracts that outline the responsibilities of both parties, the terms of the agreement and has space for both parties to sign.
The Benefits of a Buyer’s Agent Agreement
The plus for buyers is that they know what to expect from their Realtor. It’s right there in black and white. If the agent doesn’t produce, ending that arrangement is spelled out in the agreement.
For the Realtor, they can feel better knowing the buyer has committed to using their services so all the long nights, weekend showings and abundance of paperwork will produce positive results in the end, in the form of a paycheck.
It’s my opinion that the entire Louisville real estate market would run more smoothly if Buyer Agency Agreements were required. All parties would know better where they stood and misunderstandings would be far fewer.
If you have any questions about what type of information lives in a Buyer’s Agency Agreement, please comment below or feel free to contact us.
I’m going to use this page to keep track of all the real estate scam contact info that I receive. This, in the hope that other agents can find it and not waste the time of these people.
If one of the following “persons” contacts you, do not reply. Simply delete the email. If you have additional scams to add, please contact me.
Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste, the hours in an off-hand way
-“Time” by Pink Floyd
We live in an always-on society. It seems most believe there couldn’t be enough hours in a day. As Realtors, we’re pretty much on-call, day or night, especially in this market, where clients are hunkering down to wait out what appears to be the long, cold winter of the housing recession.
Now, the purpose of this blog post is to share a recent experience in the hopes that it might help even one of you avoid what happened to us.
Just a quick synopsis, my client needed 30-60 days to close. My client, by nature, is very optimistic. Even though he was pre-approved (with two lenders) he thought he had time to shop around, find the best deal and stroll to closing with time to spare. So, he didn’t click the start button for 27 days.
Turns out, with the recent foreclosure freeze and the massive numbers of refi’s due to low-interest rates, many lenders are quite busy and ultra leery about anything out of the ordinary.
My client’s situation was out of the ordinary.
Looking back, I was in contact with the lender with 33 days left in our window. Then again with 26, 19, 12, 7 and then every day up until our deadline. We couldn’t close.
With the deal blown up, we now have frustrated buyers, sellers, listing agent, buyers agent, loan officer and title examiner (and possibly some more I haven’t named). No winners, all losers.
The Sellers could have given us an extension—we were less than 1 week away, but regardless, the lesson learned here is push, PUSH, PUSH at the beginning to move things through the pipeline. You never know when you might run out of time…
And then the one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
At this very second, what is at the forefront of every Realtor’s thinking? That’s right, “I need to make a sale!”
But you might say, “Yeah, but the market is down.” Or moan that, “People aren’t buying.” Well, you could sit back and feel sorry for yourself. (Which does more harm than good.) You could send out another round of direct mail pieces that may, or may not, bring in any new leads.
Or, you could call every single investor client that you’ve ever had and show them this.
“If you don’t own a home, buy one. If you own one home, buy another one. And if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy one.” – John Paulson 9/27/2010
Before you make any calls, read up on John Paulson. I’ve made it easy for you:
Investors who don’t take advantage of our current market will regret it later. Period.
Don’t have any investor clients? Then call any of your clients who might want to be real estate investors. If I had a few more dollars stored away, I’d buy some additional real estate myself. Heck, I still might!
Bottom line: Make the best move based on current market conditions. Right now, it’s a buyers market and rental properties are performing pretty well in most markets. With the uncertain economic future here in the United States, that’s likely to remain true for some time.
I’m not sure that could make it any plainer than this:
The Best Realtors Help People
Some call it karma, others say the idea is related to the Golden Rule. Whatever the case, I’m finding it increasingly more evident that when I put my own needs/wants on the back burner, listen as hard as I possibly can to my clients and then try to help them get what they want… that is really when life is good.
Being successful in business is just a by-product of this mindset.
I’m a Realtor but try it for yourself in your line of work. Whether you are here in Louisville, Kentucky or across the globe in Nepal. (Hello!) Take the next week and put others first. At the end of the week look back and see how it turned out for you.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” Today’s non-agrarian youth might be unaware, but this basically means anything can happen. Let’s see how this famous quote relates to the stages of a real estate deal.
This is probably more the standard operating procedure (SoP) in the world of real estate than most other fields. For one reason, purchasing a new home is such a major decision people run on high alert. Add to that, humans are primarily emotional beings. Someone not normally prone to stress can find the whole process unusual and can easily lose their cool. Because of this real estate deals can quickly go from being a Done Deal to becoming an Atomic Explosion.
3 Stages of a Real Estate Deal
Stage 1. Once a home seller gets a contract signed by both parties, that deal should make it to closing 65-75% of the time. This percentage used to be higher but all the changes in financing have made things trickier when/if we get to Stage 3.
Stage 2 contains home inspections and other related issues. In today’s Buyers Market, home buyers call all the shots; after all, there are currently 9,610 Louisville homes for sale. Any home seller who wants to move forward with the deal needs to look long and hard at the Repair Request given them and see if agreeing to all the items is worth the cost compared to potentially losing this Buyer.
A buyer’s power is also enhanced by carte blanche that lives in the inspection clause of our standard Louisville real estate contract.
When we get to Stage 3, we’re looking at whether or not the Buyer is going to be able to get all his financing in order and on time for the upcoming closing.
Deals Die for Many Reasons
I write about this particular topic today because I’m working to sell my client’s home. We made it through Stage 1 but in Stage 2, our Buyer requested that my client replace the entire roof, rather than just the $380 worth of repairs that the professional roofer identified. Do it, or he’d walk. I don’t have to tell you that this was far from reasonable. My client responded with a very generous offer that the Buyer promptly rejected and now we’re scrambling to find a new Buyer for my client’s home.
So please… learn from our pain that even solid agreements can fall apart when you least expect. To quote Oscar Wilde, “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.”
Real estate is ever entertaining. Why? Because you’re always meeting new people. New people mean more exposure to new things. All kind of things. There’s never a dull moment in real estate.
Take today for instance. I met a very nice man considering a move to Louisville. We sat at Starbucks and chatted for an hour or so. During our time, I asked him how he had found me. He mentioned that he did some Google searches and found my site that way. He appreciated the writing on my site, and almost as an aside, mentioned I reminded him of Darren Gersh from Nightly Business Report on PBS. How great is that?!?
My previous celebrity comparison was Brian Boitano. I’m so glad to have moved up!
Louisville real estate is garnering all kinds of national attention these days. I’m writing a great deal overall LouisvilleHomesBlog.com. Here are a few recent highlights:
Mostly positive news, right? I’ll have a more in-depth analysis of the home sales date coming shortly.
But for now, let’s just say that as experts forecast interest rates on the rise, more and more homeowner are going to make their move. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
There are a lot of “sacred” terms in real estate. We in the business toss these words around without much thought but does the average consumer know what they mean?
Now, a good portion of my business is helping people relocate to Louisville from outside the state or even outside the country, so I have a great deal of experience in this area. But what I wanted to write about today were relocation companies.
Some, like Cartus, negotiate with the largest U.S. companies to the benefit of both. But do the home buyers benefit? The answer, as you might expect is, “sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.”
The laws are such that the consumer has the right to use whichever real estate professional they like without being forced into choosing a particular agent deemed acceptable by their employer. There are times when it’s financially in the best interest of the consumer to use that agent, but I’ve seen instances where it certainly wasn’t.
Bottom line is, “Get recommendations!” Find someone you trust, and ask them if their Realtor did a great job. I pride myself on first class customer service for all my real estate clients and as my motto goes, “Top agents put you first!”
After a couple of down years, it looks like home values in Louisville are heading back up. This information comes from First American CoreLogic.
Home Prices in Louisville-Jefferson County Increase
In Louisville-Jefferson County, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.63 percent in December 2009 compared to December 2008. This compares to November’s year-over-year HPI, which was 0.06 percent.** Excluding distressed transactions, year-over-year HPI for December is 0.11 percent, compared to November which was -0.87 percent.
First American CoreLogic is projecting that 12-month forecast for Louisville-Jefferson County home prices, including distressed sales, will be 3.30 percent.
National HPI Highlights as of December 2009>
Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to December 2009) is -28.2 percent. Excluding distressed properties, the peak-to-current change in the HPI is -21.5 percent.
When distressed sales were included, Nevada (-20.8 percent) remained the top-ranked state for annual price depreciation in December, followed by Arizona (-12.6 percent), Idaho (-11.4 percent), Florida (-11.3 percent) and Michigan (-10.8 percent). Of these five states, all but Michigan showed month-over-month decreases in their HPI between November and December 2009.
Excluding distressed sales, the worst five states for year-over-year price declines changes slightly. Nevada (-18.8 percent) still holds the top spot, followed by Arizona (-11.8 percent), Florida (-10.3 percent), Michigan (-10.0 percent) and Maine (-9.1 percent).
“The housing market, after experiencing stabilization in many, but not all, markets in the spring and summer of 2009 is going through the typical seasonal winter malaise,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic. “The big unknown for the 2010 spring selling season continues to be the future of the federal home buyer tax credit,” he said.
What’s even better is that they’re forecasting a good 2010. Here’s the 12 Month Forecast, starting December 2009 to December 2010.
Kentucky 3.2% [Single Family Combined] 2.5% [Single Family Combined Excluding Distressed]
National 2.7% [Single Family Combined] 3.5% [Single Family Combined Excluding Distressed]
The following was written by my friends at VIP Realty in Houston. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Blogging may not ever go mainstream in real estate, and that’s a good thing for those who practice the art. In an industry where fast results are preferred and successful people usually have more client turnover, those who take time to document the market and offer their thoughts will likely always be in the minority, and stand out as a result. But blogging’s lack of trendiness hasn’t stopped it from evolving – new strategies are constantly appearing, and real estate blogs offer some of the best ideas. This article includes a few ideas for putting together a successful real estate blog, or developing an existing one.
The first step in making your blog popular is knowing who’s likely to read it, and writing for those people. For example, will you focus on the same local buyers and sellers you do business with every day, or will you write to a national audience on a particular topic? One way to figure this out is to look at what you talk about with clients on a daily basis, and see if it’s transferable to a blog. Some of the best-read real estate blogs simply document a Realtor’s daily routine, providing insight and entertaining anecdotes along the way. Real estate blogs that focus on a city or metro area, occasionally covering topics outside the buying and selling of property, are also popular – many of these aren’t even written by agents, but good writers who understand how their audience works.
Once you’ve targeted an audience you want to assure them that you’re the best source for your subject. A good strategy here is to be the first to write about topics when they become blog-worthy, and make sure your copy is original – if you’re an expert in the field you blog about, so much the better. It’s also a good idea to get comfortable with people commenting on your blog. Whether the comments about what you’ve written are positive or negative, a healthy base of comments helps establish you as the central discussion point for your topic. It can also be a way to extend your stories, and generate ideas for future blog posts.
Aggregation is another strategy successful bloggers often use. Instead of trying to be the source for all information and resources on a particular topic, you should link elsewhere when a more in-depth explanation is required. This allows readers to choose when they want more information, or just the basic facts and witty insight provided by your blog. Outbound links also promote the idea that you’ve included everything essential, while supplementary information can be found elsewhere.
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind the advantages of continuity in your blog. Many of the best blogs have been up for years with the same look and writing style. Readers go back to these blogs looking for a particular angle and coverage niche, and they always find it.
Visit the VIP Realty website for more information on property marketing in the Houston real estate area. There you’ll find buyer and seller service details, information on local communities, and details on Downtown Houston Condos, and other home styles.
Much of this year’s real estate push can be attributed to the $8,000 first time homebuyer’s tax credit and other government incentives. The deadline to move into a home and take advantage of this offer is November 31, 2009, unless the deadline is extended, of course.
Like so many of us procrastinators, waiting until the last minute is standard operating procedure. But in this case, those who wait may miss out completely. Here why.
3 Reasons Why First Time Homebuyers Need to Act Fast
Time to Close: Many don’t understand that about the quickest you can find a home, negotiate the contract, haggle over repairs, wait through the financing process and close on a home is 30 days. And that’s super fast! Most deals take longer with some much longer. Waiting until the last minute is a bad idea for such an important decision.
Inventory Shortage: Inventory has been at high levels here for some time but as things are picking up these Louisville homes are being sold. Which are the first to go? You got it! The lower priced homes are being bought by these first-time homebuyers so that particular portion of inventory is the smallest in our market. At the end of the day, you may not find a house you like enough to buy.
Financing Dilemmas: Financing can be tricky for those with little or bad credit. Those who haven’t bought a home yet are less likely to have had time to build up their credit. These buyers need to allow for more time, not less, with the purchase of their home.
So the bottom line is… if you are a first time home buyer looking to buy a new Louisville home, you better start right now. Otherwise, there are a large number of reasons that you’ll be missing out— 8,000 reasons to be exact.
If you’d like my help, please contact me at 291-7406.
Bold title there, huh? You might be wondering the reason. Well, I’ll tell you! I attended some Continuing Education today as a part of my real estate license requirements.
I wasn’t too excited about the prospect when I woke up this morning, but Harry Borders did a great job with the 3 hours he was given and I feel wiser for having attended.
The topics are extremely complicated but important as he said experts predict 50% of all real estate transactions 18-months from now will be short sales or similar “distressed” situations. Wow. That’s a huge number!
I’m far from a Short Sale expert but Harry’s class was good for me. I feel somehow healthier and better informed to help my clients and that’s what it’s all about.
