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7 steps to visualize, realize real estate success Premium Content

By Bernice Ross, Thursday, April 14, 2011.

If you were to ask most agents if they would like to double or even triple their income this year, the answer would be a resounding, "Yes!"

What most agents don't realize is that unless they are brand new, they already have virtually all the tools they need to achieve this goal.

The first segment in this series delineated the difference between training, mentoring and coaching. The following case study illustrates how coaching works to create top production (and for the sake of disclosure I am the CEO of a real estate coaching site and work as a real estate trainer).

"Up or Out" coaching program

Several years ago, I worked with 12 experienced agents who were about to be fired if they didn't improve their production. The "Up or Out" program met once per week for three months. The first two sessions were primarily coaching-based.  more...

Who's to blame when renter falls on stairway?

By Janet Portman, Wednesday, April 13, 2011.

Q: A tenant's guest is suing us for injuries she says she suffered when she fell on a staircase at our building. The staircase had been recently repaired; our resident manager had replaced three loose steps just a few days earlier. He didn't know about the loose one she claims she tripped on.

He is very conscientious at his job and can't be expected to keep his eyes glued to every inch of the property 24 hours a day, can he? Isn't there a limit to what a property owner can be held liable for? --Betsy B.

A: A judge answering your question would pose another question, in turn: "Was this accident foreseeable, and did management take reasonable steps (pardon the pun) to avoid it?" Although it's impossible to know how a judge would rule based on the few facts you've provided, here's a few things to think about.

First, could you (or your manager; for these purposes, you are one and the same) foresee such an accident? Your manager was on notice that more than one step needed attention, and he repaired those three. But I can imagine the injured guest arguing that knowledge of three loose steps should have triggered a thorough inspection of the entire staircase.  more...

Weighing rent-vs.-buy in a new city

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Wednesday, April 13, 2011.

Q: Overall, do you think it is a good idea to rent rather than buy in a new city you have just moved to? I am not sure which area in Seattle I want to live in, and of course it will matter where I land a job. I hate to throw money to the landlord, but I hate to buy in an area I may regret later. Other than living fairly close to my job, what else should I be considering about the rent-vs.-buy issue? --Connie

A: You are just one of the millions of Americans tussling with the decision whether to rent or buy your home right now. This is a frequently asked question, and your situation highlights what's really important in deciding when and whether to buy a home: your life, your vision and your commitment to the area, rather than the market.

Fact is, if you're going to buy, this is a great time to buy -- but it's not looking like either home prices or interest rates are going to skyrocket anytime in the next couple of years. Seattle is actually one of the real estate markets that trended as relatively recession-proof early in the nationwide housing crisis, but has had a recent decline in home values that gave rise to talks of a double dip.

For homeowners and sellers, that sounds like crisis, but to a would-be homebuyer like yourself, a double dip in home values like the one toward which some believe Seattle may be heading actually signals a longer duration of affordability and opportunity to get a strong value for your housing dollar.  more...

New version of Google Analytics: custom dashboards, better goal-tracking Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Wednesday, April 13, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3542294246/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Search Engine People Blog</a>.

Those of us who play with Web analytics have gotten used to the way Google tweaks its Google Analytics product all the time. Sometimes you log in and a button is shifted or moved or colored differently. Always be testing, right?

Google is in the midst of an upgrade to Google Analytics that is more than a few minor UI tweaks. Google Analytics Version 5 is a pretty hefty revision. While the smooth gradient interface design is an incremental upgrade, there are enough improvements in organization and reporting features that make this update more than skin deep.

Organization

One of the hard parts about getting started with Web analytics has been that all of the reports have had names that are confusing or organized in a way that only a Web analyst would love.  more...

Track mildew problem to the source

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, April 13, 2011.

Q: When we returned from vacation, after the house had been closed up for a week, there was a musty, mildewed smell. Each day, I noticed a musty smell in the bedrooms on the northwest side of the house. We replaced carpets in the last year and saw no indication of moisture.

Could there be mold inside the drywall? How can I figure out where the smell is coming from? By the way, my husband went under the house and says the pipes aren't leaking.

A: There is a good chance fungus is growing in the walls. Fungus needs moisture and stagnant air to flourish. So find and fix the source of the moisture and it's likely your problem will be solved. Be warned: You may be in for some drywall replacement.

On your husband's journey under the house did he notice whether the dirt was damp? Damp earth in the crawlspace indicates either poor ventilation or a drainage problem. The cure for this is installing a sump pump.

If the crawlspace is dry, most likely water has been migrating into the walls from a roof leak or from voids around window and door frames. That there was no sign of moisture when you recently replaced the carpets leads us to believe the problem is recent.  more...

On-the-job training for newbie real estate agents

By David Fletcher, Wednesday, April 13, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/71486347">Editor B</a>.

Is the market calling upon real estate broker-owners to review how they train their agents to prospect for listings and find better-qualified prospects?

Could it be that there has been too much focus on tools and not enough on targets?

I'm not talking about tools such as social media or other technologies. These are tools that become weapons of mass frustration if not aimed at the right prospect target.

Technology, if we are not careful, can become the answer to everything but sales. I can head in the wrong direction faster, more conveniently, and at less cost -- but it is still the wrong direction, if there is a better road available.

Namely, a niche. What are you doing to train your agents to prospect for buyers of new homes, for example? My guess is not much, if anything, because brokers and their trainers don't tend to know that much about the new-home industry (with apology to those who do).  more...

CAR social media program to feature Roost platform

By Andrea V. Brambila, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Social network marketing and technology company Roost has signed an agreement with California Association of Realtors' subsidiary Real Estate Business Services to feature its platform as the primary tool in CAR's first social media training program, Roost announced today.

CAR is the country's largest state Realtor association, with more than 145,000 members at the end of March. REBS' training division, CAR Education, will use Roost's social marketing platform as the primary tool of its new Social Network Master Program.

The program is fee-based and geared toward increasing business through social media campaigns. It includes courses on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogging that members have the option to take individually.

"Social networking has become a useful and necessary tool for Realtors to generate leads and serve their clients. Many of our members are in need of quality training and tools to utilize these new platforms," said Robert Bailey, chairman of REBS, in a statement.  more...

Another key player exits reverse mortgage business

By Tom Kelly, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

It's curious how companies promote the launch of a new product or program but do little to inform consumers when it is no longer available. Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation was founded in 1996 in Irvine, Calif., and grew to be of the biggest players in the national reverse mortgage industry. It also became the reverse market leader for homeowners with higher-priced homes.

As of March 31, Financial Freedom will no longer be accepting reverse mortgage applications, becoming the third major reverse mortgage company to exit the business this year. Seattle Mortgage and Bank of America recently announced they were shutting their reverse operations, while Wells Fargo said it would halt its wholesale broker program. Financial Freedom intends to continue servicing the reverse mortgages it now holds, according to a company statement.

New compensation rules for loan salespeople is the most speculated reason for the stoppage, but lenders cite a "need to return to core business" as the prime mover. The bottom line is that seniors will have fewer places to look to pull money out of their homes without having to pay it back.

"After careful consideration, we have decided to exit the wholesale reverse mortgage origination business based on the regulatory environment and the desire to focus on the bank's core businesses," read a statement from Pasadena, Calif.-based OneWest Bank, the parent company of Financial Freedom. "The wholesale reverse mortgage origination channel represents the majority of Financial Freedom's origination business and is the only wholesale origination channel within OneWest.  more...

Recession dashes false hopes for real estate riches

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Though professor Meir Statman's latest book, and my latest personal obsession, explores a set of investor values, desires and motivations so comprehensive I'm just skimming the surface by highlighting them in a series of columns, one investor craving he pinpoints is so core to what virtually all of us who live in developed nations (and don't have to worry about clean water, etc.) desire that it singlehandedly "up-levels" the subject of the book to what humans really want.

"We want hope for riches and freedom from the fear of poverty," Statman states so simply in his book, "What Investors Really Want: Know What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Smarter Financial Decisions."

And when it comes to real estate, therein lies the rub. Much has been made, in recent times, of the fact that many well-off countries don't have high rates of homeownership. In Switzerland, one of the world's most prosperous nations, the homeownership rate is only 31 percent, less than half the current American homeownership rate.

As the subprime mortgage market imploded, spawning the foreclosure crisis, real estate industry participants -- from individual consumers to media pundits to Capitol Hill economists -- began a wide-scale rethink of what's so great about homeownership, anyway.  more...

Realtors re-examine safety policies after shooting

By Mary Umberger, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squinza/2543969843/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Il conte di Luna</a>.

Safety concerns in the wake of shooting

The Des Moines Area Association of Realtors in Iowa is recommending to its members that each brokerage re-examine its safety policies in the aftermath of an agent who was shot and killed while holding an open house on Friday.

Ashley Okland, 27, was shot twice in a model home and later died at an area hospital. Police said on Monday they have no suspects.

Numerous central Iowa brokerages canceled open houses on Sunday, and the area Spring Tour of Homes promotional event was canceled for the weekend, according to the Des Moines Register.

Is that a contract in your pocket?

Florida real estate agents who often find themselves alone in vacant, foreclosed homes are taking gun-training courses in order to be allowed to carry concealed weapons legally, according to a recent radio report by American Public Media.  more...

Century 21 partners with mobile game co.

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Franchise giant Century 21 Real Estate has launched an advertising campaign on We City, a mobile game in which players build and control their own cities, the company announced today.

The move is the latest in the franchiser's new "Smarter, Bolder, Faster" marketing campaign, which also includes a revamped website, mobile applications for all smartphone types and feature phones, and a TV ad to run during next year's Super Bowl.

Century 21 will be the first brand -- in any industry -- featured in the We City game, the company said. The campaign ends April 26.

"We view it as one more first. There are very few companies, period, never mind real estate companies, working with consumers in this space," said Bev Thorne, the company's chief marketing officer.

We City was created by mobile gaming company ngmoco and runs on Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Players build their own cities, adding buildings such as cafes, motels, gyms, factories, and colleges.  more...

Regulators take liberties with real estate legislation

By Ken Harney, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Maybe a federal government shutdown now and then would be a good idea -- certainly for the current crop of financial regulatory officials. Twice in the past six months they have taken congressional mandates that significantly affect real estate transactions and home mortgages, and mangled them badly.

Cases in point: The long-awaited appraisal reform regulations that took effect April 1, and the "qualified residential mortgage" (QRM) proposals that were called for in last year's Dodd-Frank financial legislation. In both instances, regulators took straightforward statutory language and arrived at rules that vastly altered clear congressional intent.

Personally, I think they are the most egregious examples of regulatory perversion -- even nullification -- that I have seen in 30-plus years of observing and writing about Congress and housing.

Take the appraisal reforms. The Dodd-Frank law said explicitly that lenders must compensate appraisers at rates that are "customary and reasonable" for their geographic markets. But what exactly is customary and reasonable? Congress wrote just two sentences of instructions to the Federal Reserve Board, which was assigned the task of writing the implementing regulations.  more...

Fannie Mae brings back REO buyer incentives

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Fannie Mae is once again offering closing-cost assistance for buyers who close on a home in the mortgage giant's real-estate owned (REO) inventory, but in most states will not bring back cash bonuses it previously paid to buyers' agents.

Buyers who put in initial offers on or after April 11, and close on the sale of a Fannie Mae HomePath property by June 30, will be eligible to receive up to 3.5 percent in closing-cost assistance.

The offer is only good for buyers who intend to occupy the home they are purchasing as their primary residence -- second homes and investor properties are not eligible.

Offers submitted before May 15 have the best chance of qualifying, Fannie Mae said, as offers submitted after that "are particularly questionable for closing" by the June 30 deadline.  more...

Homeowners board adopts hands-off stance on snow removal

By Barry Stone, Monday, April 11, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhollahan/348342171/">Mash Down Babylon</a>.

Dear Barry: The board of directors of my homeowners association has decided not to enforce snow removal on the sidewalks of homeowners' properties. The CC&Rs (covenants, conditions, and restrictions) simply state that homeowners must maintain sidewalks on their property.

The original board of directors accepted complaints about homeowners not removing snow, and routinely sent out violation notices. But the new board members say they do not have the right to enforce snow removal because the CC&Rs only use the word "maintain."  more...

Real Estate: Behind the Curtain

By Inman News, Monday, April 11, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fuzzy/118917755/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Fuzzy Gerdes</a>.

While consumers may have more information at their fingertips than ever before about for-sale homes and real estate transactions, some consumers remain misinformed or in the dark about the intricacies of real estate transactions and even how real estate agents are compensated.

In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage market collapse, which escalated into a full-blown housing market and global economic disaster, blame was cast upon many parties involved in the home-sale process. Complex financial instruments were at the core of the meltdown, though other systemic enablers may have magnified the problems.

Take the "Real Estate: Behind the Curtain" Survey

Congress and regulatory agencies have proposed widespread reforms in an attempt to safeguard the mortgage market and real estate transaction process from new catastrophes, and the future will tell whether these reforms go far enough, or whether they go too far.  more...

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