By Sam DeBord The National Association of REALTORS® recently voted to approve updates to its operating agreement with realtor.com® and allow more flexibility for the Web site. There has been a wide range of reactions from REALTORS®. This blog is part one of my five-part series in which I will discuss the propriety of the agreement. Let’s start with some …
Thank You
By Anand Patel “Why do you do this for free?” “What do you get out of it?” “When do you have time to make money?” “Why do you waste your time with that?” “What’s the point?” If you volunteer some of your time and talents to National Association of REALTORS® (or any other organization) at the local, state, or national …
Evolution of the Point-of-Sale
By Dave Robison When I first started in the real estate business more than 14 years ago, I took classes where everybody touted using flyers to “capture buyers.” One of the tactics was to leave the price off the flyer so that buyers would call to get the price. Others had special offers or asked buyers to call for …
Understanding Client Psychology, Managing Expectations, and Communicating Effectively
By Sammer Mudawar Buying and selling residential real estate is one of the most emotional transactions consumers conduct. Understanding client psychology, managing expectations, and using effective communication are the three most valuable skills that a real estate professional needs to develop for a successful career with less stress. Client Psychology Understand the psyche of your client and your chances of …
3 Tips to Avoid Financing Pitfalls
By Scott Newman Many agents forget that barriers to getting deals to the closing table exist in both good and bad markets. We are seeing a lot of appraisal issues in the Chicagoland area as over-regulation and timidness on the part of appraisers to push values — despite undeniable appreciation — has resulted in many deals dying at the financing …
The Wild Ride of Interest Rates
By Jason O’Neil Sit tight. Last week mortgage interest rates jumped drastically. Some say without warning, but then again, most have been preaching for months, if not years, that rates can’t stay this low. Can they? Why did they rise? Is Wall Street fed up? Was the Federal Reserve testing the market’s tolerance with some well thought out comments? “The …
Is Your Customer Service This Good?
By Dave Robison My brokerage had one crazy month a few months ago. We had five buyers who failed to perform on a contract and lost their earnest money. Now in Utah, getting the buyer’s earnest money is supposed to be as easy as the buyer’s broker writing a check in about 24-48 hours. But in all five cases it …
How to Earn 6 Figures in 1 Month
By Jay O’Brien Now that I (maybe) caught your attention with such a money-hungry, eye-grabbing, cliché of a title, allow me to attempt to pave a thought process in your mind on how to achieve such an ambitious monetary goal without being too Robert Kiyosaki about it. First, focus on connecting the dots more than selling houses. Learn how to …
Think Outside the House
By Anand Patel We can’t help it. As real estate professionals we sometimes are trapped within an industry bubble. We attend conferences, meetings, seminars, mastermind groups all related to the real estate industry. We spend most of our time with fellow real estate professionals (our whole business is based on cooperating with our competition). The topic of many of our …
Hey Home Owners, Leave the Hard Work to Us!
By Paul Everett The first indication from many home owners that they are seriously considering selling their home is often through a free listing on Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, StreetEasy, or other regional and national For Sale By Owner sites. With the expansion of FSBO advice companies as well as online listing tools—particularly Zillow and Trulia—an increasing number of home owners …