The Real Estate Industry’s Clammer for Web 2.0 instead of Competence 101

To complete an assignment for a Graduate, Real Estate Institute class, we were asked to blog about our potential use of ‘Web 2.0″ in our business.  After significant research I have come to the conclusion that one of the best methods of using “Web 2.0″ in our business is to create a method of measuring competence.  Because the consumer doesn’t know what to ask, and the industry is doing it’s best to hide the most appropriate criteria for measuring an agent’s success…I”ll explain:

The Real Estate Industry (Agents) advertises: I’m number one! I’m the “Top Producer”. I’m a Multi-Million-Dollar Producer! Which has NOTHING to do with their quality of service or benefit to the consumer. Instead, Agents should advertise their List Price/Sales Price Ratio, Average Days on Market, Percent of Income Reinvested in Marketing, etc.

The Public, should be more critical in their process of choosing agents. Look in any market, and “Beautiful”, yet dumb agents make a lot of money…while less attractive, brilliant agents do OK, but struggle against the more attractive agents. The public should ask lots of questions during agent presentations with a “what’s in it for me?” basis to all.

To make matters worse, most MLS’s have rules prohibiting use of company/agent statistics in their marketing as a way of leveling the playing field…when it’s really a way of elimainating the public’s ability to choose an agent using comparable data instead of how sweet, pretty, nice, etc the agent is… Why do MLS’s end up with rules like that? Because the people that aren’t selling much real estate are the ones that have time to serve in positions of authority on the MLS’s….A Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone!

I dream of a rating system similar to the sanitation ratings in restaurants… To achieve a 100 percent rating, you have to have the highest list price/sales price ratio, the lowest days on market, and the highest reinvestment ratio…weighted in that same order of course!

When that day comes, I’m quite confident that agents will stop advertising how much money they make for themselves and start bragging about how much money they make/save their clients, and how fast they get it done, and how they stack up in customer service….  Web 2.0 will be instrumental in achieving the customer service measurement, if and when we’re required to collect and post our ratings…

Oh, well… guess I’ll stop dreaming and get back to selling people’s real estate for them!

HUD Foreclosures a Lucrative, Yet Often Forgotten, Income Source for Brokers!

My name is Dennis Bailey and I’m a REALTOR in the Charlotte NC Region.  I am constantly looking for ways to enhance my portfolio of homes to offer the public.  Although I have completed several HUD sales in the past, I often forget about them, likely because there is no “action” required by me…so I forget about them.

 Brokers can advertise HUD homes!  Brokers must first become HUD Qualified…which takes about 30 days, but it’s not that tough…then there are very specific rules about advertising, like having the EO Housing Logo prominently displayed, and NEVER referring to the homes as “foreclosure”…instead using “Government Owned” or “HUD Owned”…and never implying that you are the exclusive broker for the property…but that’s about it!

 Imagine a listing that you can advertise and sell with no entry in the MLS, no need to call the owner, no calls from the owner wondering why their house hasn’t sold, no listing paperwork to maintain… Just the ability to sell the house and collect up to 5%!  SWEET!

 Just this week my knowledge of HUD homes (combined with my ability to explain short-sales) likely earned me over $6,000 on a deal that was dead, dead, dead!  A short-sale gone bad because of a bank’s frustration with my seller’s multiple unfulfilled mortgage modifications ended up costing the buyer (another agent’s former client) four months and $350 in lost inspection fees… When everything fell through (foreclosure after short-sale failure), the buyer contacted me and asked if he could hire me as his buyer’s agent.  After I verified that he was no longer represented, I agreed…  Knowing that he REALLY loved the house I had listed, I created a weekly reminder to check for the foreclosed home to be relisted after the foreclosure… I checked the MLS every week…nothing!  Then a friend needed help with a HUD offer…which reminded me that some homes never end up in MLS!   BAM!  It was listed as a HUD home at $47,000 less than the buyer had originally agreed to pay!  Obviously, when I called my client, he jumped at the chance to purchase the house and made a more-than-full-price offer to ensure he wouldn’t miss the house again.  Moral of the story:  Helping a friend is good…Helping a friend is REALLY GOOD when it garners big rewards!

 If you are focusing on buyer’s representation, HUD homes are a great source of listings to advertise, because no further permission to advertise them is required!  We all really know that buyer’s don’t care anything about us…they just want the information about the houses!  So, increase your business by offering properties to buyers that are often WAY under market value and pay you well for your small investment in selling them.  It’s Win, Win, Win!

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