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Playing old games in a new market

June 3, 2011 By

Recently a neighbor wanted help deciding whether to sell or rent her home. I showed her recently sold comparables and currently listed rentals. The reality of her situation dictated that she should sell, and the list I gave her contained over 20 good comps from four surrounding neighborhoods. Even though her home was in good condition and backed up to a golf course, the comps clearly showed that the market could probably bring $265,000.

Not long after our meeting, I received a polite email from her saying that “my daughter knows another agent, and I don’t think I could live by your rules.” Although ‘rules’ were never mentioned, I did advise her about the importance of maintaining a clean and clutter-free environment during the selling process. Chances are that the real issue was price.

Sure enough the house was listed by another agent at $300,000! That’s $35,000 over what the comps revealed as a generous market spot. So the other agent played the tired old game of “buying” the listing and it will be interesting to watch how that goes.

Anyone who has ever attended my workshops, knows how important is is to price a home correctly from the beginning. In a recent Active Rain blog article “Every Seller Needs To Know, What Sells a House,” Carra Riley, an AZ REALTOR® laid the argument out beautifully. She says there are four variables that sell a home: Price, Terms, Condition, and Location. Ms. Riley further states that: “Price fixes everything! When a buyer perceives there is a value because of the price, they will buy the home. The other three variables can always affect the price.”

Great terms might fetch a little higher price over similar homes. Certainly a home’s good condition puts it on a buyer’s short list. You can’t change the location of a home, so only price and terms will help that situation.

It’s hard to imagine the real estate market turning around when sellers who are not distressed continue to overprice their homes, sometimes at the urging of a real estate agent.

How can an agent honestly look at the same comparables and add $35,000 to the price just to get the listing? These old games have never been good business, and in this market it amounts to malpractice.

I’ll leave you with this great quote from Ms. Riley: “Sellers should take all the emotion out of the business of selling a home and treat the transaction as an investment decision. If the goal is to get the home sold then listen to the professionals and let them do their job. As Donald Trump would say, It’s only business."

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.
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Is Your Web Site Lead Working With Another Agent?

June 3, 2011 By

Like most agents, I get very excited when I get a lead from my agent Web site. But what do you do when you try to contact the lead and get no response? In my case, I use an IDX product that requires registration once the visitor decides to mark listings as favorites. Since a password is sent to the visitor via the email address entered, I have a high degree of certainty that the email address is valid. Once the visitor is registered on my site, I can monitor the searching activity of the prospect.

So, here I am watching this particular prospect log into my Web site several times a day. I can see all of the properties marked as favorite, want to see, etc. I started to make contact using a friendly, easy going approach. I simply sent a message saying “Welcome to my site." or "Hope you are enjoying searching for properties here.” After a day or two with no response, I called the phone number provided by the prospect, but again, no response!

Now I start getting suspicious. The phone number seemed to be valid, but after several tries, there was still no response. Then it occurred to me that this person may be already working with another agent. If the prospect was working with another agent, then I had to decide how to approach this. My IDX technology gave me several options: 1. Delete the contact; 2. Change the contacts password, preventing them from seeing their saved searches. 3. Change the property information view so the contact can only see the street name.

However, before doing anything drastic, I made one more attempt to make contact with a direct e-mail explaining that I had left messages but had yet to get a response. I asked point blank if she was working with another agent and framed the question this way: “I need to know if you are working with another agent. If you are, I do not want to violate the Code of Ethics by providing you information from my Web site. If I don’t hear from you within 24 hours, I will assume you are working with another agent.”

This straightforward approach worked! I received an email from the contact with an apology for not responding, and an explanation that she didn’t know what to do because she was working with another agent, but was not happy. She already had a contract on a short sale but it was going nowhere. She said she wanted to work with me but had to wait another week or so to see about the short sale. I e-mailed her saying that when she is no longer working with the other agent, then we can talk. It’s wise to not be offended just because a person doesn’t respond. Who knows if this person will reconnect, but at least I made a good impression by being understanding and communicating directly.

NOTE: RMLS offers several options for IDX web sites. Please contact either the help desk or data exports for more information.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

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Is Counter-Offering Counter Productive?

May 27, 2011 By

Many real estate agents believe that counter offering is not only expected, but it’s actually their strategy when counseling buyers and sellers on offers. Often when pressed to reveal the truth, the story does not turn out well for either side when counter-offering gets out of control. So why do so many agents do this? Partly because it’s the way real estate has been conducted for decades; like haggling over a Persian rug in some middle-eastern marketplace . . . It’s expected!

The agent who helped me purchase my first home would say “the best offer to make is the lowest offer that a seller will take without countering.” Over the years I have repeatedly witnessed the wisdom of that philosophy. Consider the logic here: First, you counsel your buyers not to low-ball, but to make a good offer. Second, the very dynamic of the offer/counter offer tends to pull people apart rather than bring them together.

A friend recently experienced this scenario. At first he was excited about buying the home and made what he thought was a fair market offer. The sellers countered with a price that was no where near the buyer’s price. So the buyer countered again, and came up $10,000. The sellers responded with yet another counter offer, reducing only $2,000, leaving a gap of over $20,000 between the two parties. The buyer countered a third time and reluctantly came up another $10,000, and this time the sellers took it after a weekend of no competing offers.

After all of the haggling, the buyer was exhausted and ultimately canceled the contract when termites and other problems were found during the contingency period. Why didn’t he ask the seller for repairs and try to keep the deal alive? The buyer didn’t want to buy that house anymore. The whole transaction had soured.

It’s important to make good offers and back them up with an “Offer Rationale Addendum” to support the facts and explain the offer. Sellers can use the same strategy with equal effectiveness. Make only one counter offer and back it up with some facts. Many agents never explain how they arrived at their price. Most believe in the haggling process, and whoever lasts longest wins. Yet, in a large number of cases, the counter offer process is counter productive and both sides lose.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

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Remarkable Listing Tips!

May 25, 2011 By

Many agents are aware of the power of the Internet, however, you wouldn’t know it by reading the Remarks section of most listings. Why are Remarks important? Because when the listing is blasted all over the Internet, what part of the listing is being read by Google, Yahoo, and other search engines? The Remarks of course!

The “typical” Remarks are written in ways that haven’t changed in 30 years, but now you have to think differently. Do you want your listing to come up higher in the search engine when a buyer is looking? Of course you do, so remember that your Remarks are being read by search engines before a buyer has a chance. Here’s an example of actual Remarks from my market:

“FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE IN AN EXCELLENT GILBERT COMMUNITY. CLOSE TO EVERYTHING, SHOPPING, MAJOR ROADS, HOSPITALS, GREAT SCHOOLS…”

Now what’s wrong with that? The answer is that it is not search engine friendly, and it certainly is not what buyers are searching for. Lets take it a section at a time and show how Remarks in today’s world should be written for better exposure. Bold green reflect the enhancements.

Fantastic opportunity to live in an excellent Gilbert Community.

Fantastic opportunity to live in the excellent Gilbert community of Whitewing.

The first statement is too vague; buyers searching for Whitewing properties would never find it.

Close to everything, shopping, major roads.

Close to the Superstition Springs Mall and easy access to the 60 Freeway.

What shopping, what major roads? Spell them out for search engines to see!

Hospitals, great schools.

Minutes from the brand new Banner Regional Hospital, and located within the highly ranked Gilbert Public School District featuring Highland High School!

Again, what hospitals, and what schools? You need to be specific as that is what buyers are keying into the search engines as they look online for homes to buy.

With a little thought about who is actually reading your listings, you can see that describing your Remarks more clearly is to your benefit. Whatever you write will be read by the search engines, so think like a buyer searching the Internet. You’ll get much more exposure for your listings.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

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Punch Less Counter Offers

May 25, 2011 By

A recent client shared their efforts to sell their other home. They received a low offer and chose to counter. The counter offer was a standard two-page form with all of the legal verbiage, but the language filled in by the listing agent was terse at best: ‘The purchase price is to be $_____’. That short sentence sounded more like a declaration than an offer, with nothing persuasive or compelling in it. It’s no wonder why so many counter offers turn into power plays that end up in the deal collapsing.

When working with buyers, it’s always recommended to attach an addendum to the Purchase Agreement called the Offer Rationale. In it, an agent can explain how they arrived at the offer using real data. If a seller needs to counter a low offer, why not use the same approach? Add empirical data to your offer when countering on price. If the buyer is sincere, then you need to show them why accepting your counter offer makes sense (assuming the house is priced based on recently sold comparables).

Here’s a fast and easy way to add a one page addendum to your counter offer—use the eNeighborhoods CMA program!

Click on the Comps tab and remove all comparables except for the SOLD’s.

Skip to the Publish page and select the Quickie Report.

Click on the EDIT button and uncheck all of the pages except for “Sold Analysis.”

SAVE the new report and name it Sold Analysis.

You now have a ready-made one page addendum to use for your Counter Offer Rationale. This single page shows each sold comparable, what it sold for, it calculates the change from List Price to Sold price, and the Sold Price per Square Foot.

Imagine your next counter offer using language like this: “Thank you for your offer on our property. Looking at recent Sold comparables it appears your offer is well below market. We are presenting a counter offer of $_____ which is less than our current List Price, but is still in line with market fundamentals. Please review the attached addendum and see if you will agree that our counter offer reflects the current market based on recently Sold properties.”

You can even use this new addendum page when dealing with banks in Short Sale or Foreclosure situations. Don’t just toss your counter offer out there; back it up with real data! By doing this, you put the burden of reasonableness on the other party while you stand on solid ground. Hopefully you’ll cut to the chase and will rarely have to make more than one counter offer.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, National Trainer, eNeighborhoods has worked in the MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. He currently conducts software workshops for approximately 5,000 real estate professionals a year. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® himself, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ with groups and helping agents and brokers actually solve their real estate problems using eNeighborhoods software products.

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Playing the Name Game with Google

May 25, 2011 By

Recently I attended an interesting event in Arizona known as “Bar Camp.” What makes Bar Camp unique from a typical real estate conference is that there are no pre-determined agendas, courses, or speakers! Everyone gathers around a big white board, and all those who want to “lead” a discussion simply writes their name and a topic in a time slot and room number. Attendees can go to any discussion they want. It sounds very chaotic but it actually works and is a lot of fun.

What fascinated me at Bar Camp was the strong level of interest, and anxiety, over “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) or getting a high ranking on Google. We’ve all heard stories about agents with high ranking, and therefore high traffic Web sites. The majority of agents I meet have a template-driven Agent Web site, often with a personal domain name like “Agent’s Name.com.” They are disappointed that their Web sites do not get any traffic. It’s true that not everyone can be ranked on page one of Google for their desired search phrase. However if you change your strategy, you don’t have to change your agent Web site. Just change the name!

You can spend a lot of time and money trying all of the various techniques to get ranked by search engines. There is one method that can be very useful in getting “organically” ranked pretty high. I call it the Search Phrase/Domain Name method.

It is very simple yet not many agents use it. The idea is to name your Web site after the search phrase you want to attract. You can get a high ranking because when someone enters the search phrase, it is almost as if they were typing in the name of your Web site. And here’s the real secret: Use Dashes!

Here’s an example: First do some research on Google Key Word Estimator (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). You can enter a search phrase like “Jupiter Homes” to see how many people a month search for that phrase. The Estimator will also show dozens of related phrases and their estimates as well. Then choose a few names and go to a domain name registration site to check for availability. TIP: —use a dash in your domain name. Google reads a dash to actually separate words in a phrase.

I just helped a new agent buy a domain name (I’m such a nice guy). The key search phrase was “Mesa Homes,” a phrase generating 200,000 searches per month. The domain name purchased by the new agent was “Mesa-Homes.com.” That was a great name for someone just starting out in real estate, and it was available.

Don’t stress out over Google and SEO; just change the domain name of your Web site. It’s fairly easy and doesn’t cost much. Good luck!

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

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How to Purchase REO Properties for FHA Buyers

May 13, 2011 By

A few months ago I received a referral from an agent in New Mexico who attended one of my past WyldFyre workshops. Having lost a job there, the family relocated to Arizona to start over. After exhausting their savings on a $1,200 month apartment, the family realized that with help from relatives and an FHA loan, they could buy a Real Estate Owned (REO) home in the Phoenix area for under $80,000, producing a more manageable payment in the range of $600 a month.

Despite having many REO homes in this price range, we discovered that this process wasn’t going to be easy because these homes were selling fast. And FHA buyers are a distant third to cash and conventional buyers in the bank’s eyes. When we finally got a bank to accept our offer on one house, they changed their mind and sent the home to auction! After six weeks we were starting to get discouraged. We needed a new strategy and this is what we did:

Stop Looking at Homes Up Front This was a new paradigm for me. We were wasting our time (and gas) looking at a these REO homes in the traditional way, only to find out they were sold while we were standing in them. Instead, we relied on MLS photos and descriptions to make offers, and we toured the home only after the bank expressed interest in our offer and countered us with their contracts.

Make Multiple Offers Making an offer on one home, waiting for a bank response, then starting over wasn’t working. In the REO world it is common for the bank to collect offers and make multiple counter offers to several buyers at once. So we decided to fight fire with fire by making offers on multiple homes the minute they hit the market. To make these offers we needed a loan pre-qualification letter from the lender with the address and loan amount left blank. With this necessary letter we could fill in the home information over and over and not have to wait for a new letter each time. Our strategy was to keep at least 3 to 5 offers going at all times, including weekends.

Make Good Offers This part of our strategy really paid off! How do you compete with a cash offer? You have to out bid it. In our market, out bidding cash investors was easy; we offered at least the list price! Even though REO homes in Arizona have already been severely discounted, the typical cash investor has a garage sale mentality. The garage sale shopper sees a lamp for .25 cents and says “will you take a dime?” Cash investors are the same. Offer list price or be willing to offer a little more and you beat the low-balling investors. Now the bank is interested in your FHA buyer.

The new strategy worked. We received bank counters on 5 different homes (due to good offers) and had the luxury of picking the one we really wanted. We are currently in escrow for a lovely 3 bedroom home purchased for $75,000. In the future I’ll know what to do with an FHA buyer looking for a home in the most competitive segment of the market.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

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Going the Extra Mile for 1st Time Buyers

May 6, 2011 By

The growing significance of meeting or exceeding customer demands for quality service has special implications for Realtors® in today’s market. It can be one of the least expensive ways to stand out from the competition, especially if you utilize all the tools available to you through RMLS. In fact, past studies by the National Federation of Independent Business in Washington, D.C., reveal small businesses (that’s what you are) that put heavy emphasis on customer service are more likely to survive and succeed than competitors who emphasize advantages such as lower prices.

So how do you provide better customer service and win buyer loyalty in today’s marketplace? By using the right tools at the right time to assist your clients. Here’s a recent scenario with a first time home buyer that became a win-win for all concerned.

Like many first time home buyers, these clients were getting an FHA loan and their biggest concern was scraping together enough money for closing costs. Adding to their dilemma was the fact that, over 95% of the Active listings in their price range were either Lender Owned or Short Sales. Some banks are negotiable about paying a percent of closing costs, but some banks cannot. Even though we can try to negotiate on their behalf, buyers need to be prepared to pay the closing costs in order to get into a severely discounted property.

Using the eNeighborhoods Buyer Tour program to customize, brand, and email a really good estimate of the buyer’s costs makes it easy. Of course most agents use the default estimate: “plan on about 3% of the sales price as your closing costs.” However, that doesn’t show what all the costs are and which ones might be negotiable.

Use a recent closing statement, and go to the Buyer Cost sheet found in Step 5 in the eNeighborhoods Buyer Tour program. Costs like recording fees, appraisals, underwriting fees, and processing fees are either fixed, or a percentage of the loan or sales price. Some costs, like Title and Escrow fees, are trickier because they use rate sheets with $1,000 dollar increments.

How to set up the Title Insurance Fee First, get a rate sheet from a local title representative, then open the Edit box for Title Insurance and click on the Advanced Settings link. Choose broad ranges; in this case $50,000 to $350,000. Choose the middle rate out of each range since this is just an estimate (see illustration). To finish, go to the Publish tab, chose the Quick Buyer Tour Report, and then use the Edit button to print just the page with the Buyer Cost estimate to PDF. You can then email the estimate to your clients.

Clients appreciate the Buyer Cost estimate and the fact that your figures are more exact. They have a much better idea of what to expect, and recognize the wealth of information others don’t provide. Once again having the eNeighborhoods software, and taking the time to use it, will prove to be a secret weapon to help you go the extra mile and better serve your clients.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, National Trainer, eNeighborhoods has worked in the MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. He currently conducts software workshops for approximately 5,000 real estate professionals a year. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® himself, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ with groups and helping agents and brokers actually solve their real estate problems using eNeighborhoods software products.

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eNeighborhoods Buyer Tour Advantage

April 29, 2011 By

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of giving workshops to thousands of real estate professionals. Recently there’s been a common theme throughout the country that buyer’s often get overwhelmed by the sheer number of homes available on the market today. The eNeighborhoods software suite can make a significant difference to help buyers get to the offer quickly.

Recently I showed properties to a couple buying their first home. They had already decided on the specific area that they wanted to live. But notwithstanding the decision on locale, they were still faced with a tremendous amount of inventory. The best they could do before we went out was to narrow the list down to six properties.

When we met at the first property I handed them a Buyer Tour report that was prepared using the eNeighborhoods Buyer Tour software. The first thing they said was “Wow, this is a lot of information.” They were expecting a simple client listing sheet for each property like they had seen from most agents. But this report included:

  • An Attractive Cover page
  • Standard Buying Process page
  • Map of all the Identified Homes
  • Loan Analysis sheet
  • Property Page for each listing that included space for the buyer to make notes and determine a ranking scale

I told my clients that they would find something they liked in each home they saw. The trick is to consider the things that cannot be changed, like the floor plan or location, and then to rank the home overall. Once one home knocked another out of first place, simply cross it off! That way you’ll know your top pick by the end of the tour.

I watched my clients with satisfaction as the tour progressed. The former favorite home was knocked off more than once, and I saw them drawing an X with their pen several times, and writing many notes in the note section.

By the end of the tour, the winning home was easily identified – there was no confusion, no second guessing. Instead, the buyers were absolutely confident as we wrote the offer, and thrilled that we got it done in just one day. Although it was a relatively simple report to create, the Buyer Tour with a ranking scale and note page was a true advantage in this situation. Using the Buyer Tour places you as a Real Estate Professional ahead of the pack, which is bound to generate multiple referrals from those satisfied buyers.

Live Webinars are available weekly on the eneighborhoods website at http://www.eneighborhoods.com/training.html,

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, National Trainer, eNeighborhoods has worked in the MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. He currently conducts software workshops for approximately 5,000 real estate professionals a year. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® himself, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ with groups and helping agents and brokers actually solve their real estate problems using eNeighborhoods software products.

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DocuSign.com: Useful New Technology

April 22, 2011 By

For the first time since 1993, I attended this year’s NAR Expo in San Diego as a full time Realtor® rather than working a vendor booth. As I roamed the entire hall looking at all the booths, I was struck by how many products and services which didn’t appear to be helpful to my practice. In particular, I held a dim view of the dozen or so new booths hawking some solution or designation for short sales and foreclosures.

There was one booth however that caught my eye because it’s an emerging technology that I already use. The company is called Docusign® and I have found their service extraordinarily helpful in my practice.

In a nutshell Docusign® is a monthly subscription Web service that allows you to upload all of your contracts in PDF form, enter your clients’ names and email addresses, and then “tag” every place everyone has to sign, date, and initial. When ready, the user hits the send button and all parties receive an email with instructions of how to log in. After choosing a font style, the signing parties click to electronically sign and initial all of the documents. The system will not allow your clients to miss anything as it guides them through the process. The agent is notified when all parties have signed. From there you can print to PDF and then email crisp, clearly signed documents to the listing agent.

Currently, I am working with a family trying to purchase a Lender Owned home here in Phoenix. The home was listed for $70,900 and would lower their monthly housing expenses from $1,200 in rent to a $586 mortgage payment on a FHA loan. The problem is that in our market, homes in this price range usually sell to investors for cash and almost never to a FHA buyer. Luckily we found a home somewhat under the radar due to unusual paint colors. Our offer was submitted to the bank along with two others. That very day the bank sent its Counter Offer to all three buyers with numerous demands and only 2 days to respond. This was a serious challenge, as one buyer was here in Arizona and the co-buyers were in New Mexico!

That is where Docusign® came to the rescue. That evening I had the bank’s Counter Offer uploaded to Docusign® and sent to all buyers by email. By the next morning we had all docs signed and submitted to the listing agent. As of this writing we still don’t know if we are going to be awarded the contract. What we do know is that we were the first buyers to submit the signed Counter Offer to a bank who takes its deadlines very seriously.

Thanks to Docusign® I was able to at least put my buyers in the best position possible without having them run around trying to find a FAX machine. It was all done electronically through email. In an age where banks are demanding that agents and buyers jump through so many hoops in a short period of time, Docusign® offers a competitive advantage for Realtors® and a great help for customers. You can view their service at www.DocuSign.com.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

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