Delegates and board members of CREW will meet in Memphis this Thursday and Friday to take part in leadership training and a series of workshops. It is a national event that is now in its 24th year, with this being the first meeting of 2013. CREW Network has 76 chapters across the US and Canada, and each chapter nominates two delegates to attend the summit; it’s their job to bring back communications to their local chapter, enabling them to know what’s happening at the network level. The 8,000 members include lawyers, insurance agents, brokers, engineers, appraisers, and other professionals who are involved in commercial real estate.

The CREW Memphis chapter was founded in 2007, and at the moment it’s the only one in Tennessee that’s affiliated with national CREW. Apparently Memphis was chosen as the host city this year due to its central location, and it’s expected around 200 members and guests will attend the event. Other factors influencing the choice were the history associated with Memphis, its cultural value and tourism. The local chapter in Memphis currently has 20 members. As the host city, it should help the local chapter build their brand within the local market, and CREW Memphis is also focused on increasing its membership this year.

In addition to attending Council meetings, leadership exercises and delegate training, the summit’s guests will be able to take advantage of some of the unique events planned by CREW Memphis. On the first day attendees will be able to choose between 10 restaurant locations that are within trolley or walking distance of The Peabody. On the Friday morning attendees will be able to choose between a 2 mile run or a 1 mile walk around Downtown Memphis that is led by local members. Apparently this is something of a tradition, and is a favorite event as it gets attendees outside and into the city before spending the day in meetings.

Via articles and our own social media, every month we will present lists of real estate agents and other professionals who engage in real conversations on social networks such as Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook. The first article presents “100 must follow realtors on Twitter” and has already received great feedback. Added to this, we’ll feature fun and interesting facts about professionals in and around the industry as well.

Realty Biz News, wants to be THE impartial source for information about not only industry news, but the people who make it happen. Our pages already provide useful features such as Market Watch and Industry Profiles, and we’ll continue to meet the field’s needs there, while launching this series aimed at  helping all interested people connect with real estate and other industry professionals active on social media, and across the digital channels.

“Finding real estate and other business professionals who share our interesting content shouldn’t be hard and shouldn’t require days. Agents, or anyone interested, should really only be a click away from finding such lists with active social network users in their field,” said Phil Butler, Realty Biz News Co-Founder, Managing Editor, and tech industry expert. “We’re happy that the first article featuring Twitter Realtors accounts to follow got a huge number of shares and positive feedback. The responses received showed us that this series is indeed beneficial to the industry and encouraged us to continue and expand the series.”

We want to make these lists of recommendations as relevant as possible for the industry so we invite you to send us at violeta@realtybiznews.com all your suggestions of real estate professionals active on Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook who you think are worthy to be brought into the spotlight and included in these lists. We are really looking forward to seeing your nominations!

The purchaser had an FHA loan, but the sale was nearly in jeopardy due to problems with the roof. The roof needed replacing, and the lender refused to fund the loan until this happened. The Sarasota Suncoast Team was able to renegotiate the contract and broker a deal that was satisfactory to all parties’ just days before closing.

The Sarasota Suncoast Team specializes in helping sellers and buyers looking for homes in Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch and Venice, Florida, and uses the latest technology such as Market Leader, Market Insider and MFRMLS multiple listing service market condition reports to keep clients informed. The team calls customers after taking on new listings, but also uses a variety of search engines to send out alerts to clients. In addition they provide home buyers and sellers with customized market reports on the latest market trends. They’ll even make video tours of homes for customers who are unable to view the property personally.

Anyone retaining the services of The  Sarasota Suncoast Team will find they have access to a complete network of real estate professionals including attorneys, mortgage bankers, home inspectors and other individuals who are committed to helping customers achieve their aim, whether that’s buying or investing, or selling a home in Sarasota, Venice, Bradenton, or Lakewood Ranch.

John and Anja Buetergerds of The Sarasota Coast Team can be reached on the 941-894-4063, or you can visit their website.

Image via Freedigitalphotos.net

Then I had one of those V8 moments. (Where you slap your head and say, “Now I get it.”)

I realized I was leaving money on the table by not looking creatively at how to leverage relationships in my real estate business.

So I came up with an idea…a 3-way win-win-win. Maybe you’re already doing it or know someone who is, but if it’s a new idea to you, then give it some thought.

Spice Up your Strategic Alliances Using “Special Offers”

First of all, you have to understand the power of strategic alliances. A strategic alliance is a partnership with a business person who has clients who could be your clients, and visa versa. Many agents think of their lender as a strategic alliance partner.

But in my experience, most lender-REALTOR relationships only go one way… the agent giving leads to the lender, but seldom getting anything back from the lender. That’s because lenders get most of their leads from other agents and they’re not free to refer those leads to you.

But what about your plumber? She knows home owners, and I need to meet home owners. Perfect match. And she needs to meet new home owners who might need plumbing help. I know home owners, especially new home owners. Perfect match.

Now if we can figure out how to introduce one another to each other’s database in a way that benefits both of our databases, we’ll have a strategic alliance.

For example, I could provide an exclusive rebate (if legal in my state) to her plumbing clients. Or I could provide a free book or other “bait” to entice them to contact me to create more leads for my real estate business. In turn, she can provide a sharp discount on her plumbing service for my database. I win. My plumber wins. And both of our clients win.

Once you’ve set up one of these alliances, you can do it multiple times with multiple business partners, including your carpet cleaner, electrician, dietician, painter, auto mechanic, and so on. It takes a little creativity, and you may need to try it a few times to work out the kinks in the system, but if it can work for a multimillionaire like Jay Abraham, I’m pretty sure it can work for you.

Be consistent. Be bold. Be smart. Linda Schneider is a real estate business coach for smart real estate agents who want to be more powerful in their business. Drop by RealEstateBusinessCoaching.com for more about selling skills and real estate marketing ideas to take your business to the next level.

Brett Furman

Re/Max real estate professionals Joe Dono and Brett Furman have received Five Star Awards, for their quality services to local clients.
This award is given to real estate agents in more than forty five markets in the United States and Canada. In addition both agents were featured in a special advertising section in the Philadelphia Magazine.

Realtors receiving this award are evaluated by consumers on their customer service, integrity, market knowledge, their negation skills and their skill in being able to help customers find their perfect home. They are also evaluated on overall customer satisfaction.
Joe Dono commented on this award saying “I am humbled and excited to receive recognition of this award.  Both agents can be reached on 610-687-2900.

Re/Max Classic has been a family owned and operated business for the last 22 years and has outstanding support staff that is able to assist their agents, enabling them to focus upon the business of providing excellent customer service to clients.

Re/Max was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Linger, who still lead the Denver-based global franchiser today. The company is recognized as being one of the leading real estate franchises in the industry. In addition the company has raised more than $100 million for Children’s Miracle network Hospitals, Susan G. Komen and for the Cure®.

Doug Howe, Broker/Owner, Prudential Howe & Doherty commented on the appointment, saying “Ryan shares Prudential Howe & Doherty’s commitment to quality and customer service. We are excited to have him join our expanding team as we continue to grow the company, and increase our presence in the local community.” Howe went on to say “Prudential Howe & Doherty focus on the customer and its goal to provide the best products and services for its sales professionals are what make affiliating with Prudential Howe& Doherty the best choice possible.”

In 1995 a merger between Howe Real Estate (established in 1955), and J.B. Doherty Associates (established in 1981), resulted in the formation of Prudential Howe & Doherty, an independently owned and operated, award-winning Prudential Real Estate Affiliate. The company employs experienced and qualified real estate agents who are e-certified and able to use the latest technological tools available in this competitive industry. Prudential Howe & Doherty is headquartered in Massachusetts.

Prudential Real Estate is a company of Brookfield Residential Property Services, and its franchises are independently owned and operated. Franchisees are selected according to their outstanding performance records and reputation for high levels of customer services. Prudential Real Estate provides its franchises with numerous benefits, and is one of the largest real estate brokerage franchise networks in North America, with more than 1,500 franchise offices and 50,000 sales professionals as of the end of 2011.

Unfortunately, our distaste for being “sold to” makes us paint all salespeople with the same brush, including ourselves.

Image courtesy of HikingArtist.com via flickr

But here’s the truth about selling skills: If you’re in a real estate business for yourself, having sales skills works better than having no sales skills. Whatever you might think about salespeople, as a real estate agent you will do more real estate business and make more money if you learn how to sell.

Not having selling skills means you’re just winging it, hoping you say the right things at the right time and in the right way.

Having good selling skills means shortening the decision cycle, helping people get off the fence, helping them process the issues that are holding them in place.

The act of selling boils down to language skills. By understanding how questions work, how people process information and their own thoughts, and how tone and word choice can impact the DIRECTION of a person’s thoughts, you can sell. When you get really good at those things, you will hold a lot of power in your hands — power that can be used to manipulate or to serve.

I’m sure you’ve met with both kinds of salespeople. There are those who make you feel like you need to wash your hands, and there are those who make you feel grateful you found them. Both are using the same language skills, but one uses them consultatively and the other uses them coercively.

As a real estate agent, you need to learn the right pattern of sales conversation for your typical sales situations, including open houses, sign calls, referrals, cold calls, door canvasing, for sale by owners, expireds, and more.

Different sales situations require different approaches to the sales conversation. A one-call-close telemarketing cold call, for example, requires an instant attention-getting phrase, plus a tone that implies authority. It requires a steady building of yesses. Too much back and forth communication significantly lengthens the decision cycle and gives the customer too much time to access their fears about the decision. If you’re doing telemarketing, it’s important to have high integrity and a truly effective product, otherwise you will end up being the kind of salesperson no one likes.

On the other hand, a real estate conversation with a prospect during, say, an open house or a for sale by owner visit, requires a different approach. As with telemarketing, an open house conversation also needs an instant attention-getting phrase. But from there, it’s less about convincing people to keep listening and more about drawing them out and getting them to talk.

The way to get people to open up to you is to ask questions in a specific sequence to help them move through the decision cycle…a cycle of diving deeper into their needs and concerns. Your questions should draw people out. The more you can get people to talk about their needs, fears, and concerns, the more they’ll trust you. It’s a curious paradox that when you ask great questions and get someone else to do most of the talking, the more intelligent you sound.

There are many sales training courses, each with a slightly different approach for working through the decision cycle with a prospect. In the residential real estate sales context, I prefer openhanded selling or high-integrity selling approaches, as opposed to more “old school” approaches that rely on presentation and objection-handling. Openhanded consultative selling isn’t for everyone, but it works well for real estate agents who are confident about listening and asking questions.

Be consistent. Be bold. Be smart. Linda Schneider is a real estate business coach for smart real estate agents who want to be more powerful in their business. Drop by RealEstateBusinessCoaching.com for more about selling skills and real estate marketing ideas to take your business to the next level.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The poll saw those in the real estate industry achieve their highest ever score, with 20% of respondents rating realtors ‘very high to high’ in terms of honesty and ethical standards.

In addition, 57% of respondents gave real estate professionals an ‘average’ rating in the honesty and ethics stakes, with just 22% of the public believing them to be dishonest. This represents the best score real estate professionals have ever achieved in the history of the poll, which has been conducted annually since 1976.

In all, 21 different professions were rated in the Gallup poll, which saw members of Congress achieve the lowest score in terms of integrity, with just 7% of respondents giving them a ‘very high to high’ rating, which is the lowest ever score for any profession yet.

As for the most honest? Predictably, medical professionals, teachers, members of the clergy and police officers all ranked highest, with all of them being ranked ‘very high to high’ in terms of honesty and ethics by over 50% of respondents.

© Gallup

Clearly, real estate professionals still have some way to go before they can say that the majority of people see them as honest, but the news that more people are coming round to the belief can only be a good thing for the industry.

Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Find the sweet spot that will get the lender to agree to your offer

Hertzog says lenders don’t just pick a figure out of thin air – they do their homework. So you’ll have to do yours. Lenders will either order an appraisal or request a BPO (Broker Price Opinion) to estimate value, so Hertzog recommends offer amounts within about 5%-8% of fair market value.

“This doesn’t mean banks won’t accept an offer that’s below their target price, but it does mean you’ll have to make a compelling case for the price you bring. Guessing will only get your offer rejected, so make sure you can back up your price with cold hard facts,” Hertzog said. Hertzog says this includes providing accurate rehab estimates (if known).

Know the reasons short sale offers are rejected

Reasonable short sale offers are rejected – sometimes in record time. Hertzog says the number one reason he sees short sale offers rejected is one most real estate agents don’t consider: fuzzy math.

Because mortgage insurance guarantees so many mortgages, lenders have to decide whether to foreclose on the borrower, collecting on the insurance policy, or consider a short sale as a viable alternative. “Lenders will never tell you this, but they keep their trusty calculators handy. If they’ll profit more from a mortgage insurance-backed foreclosure than they will a short sale, that’s what they’ll do. And it doesn’t matter how much you offer.”

Constant Communication is crucial

Because short sale transactions have so many moving parts, it doesn’t take much to derail a short sale. For this reason, Hertzog recommends short sale agents rely on an effective system of keeping all parties informed of a short sale’s progress.

“I use Short Sale Genius because it was built specifically for short sales. It’s not as important that you use a specific software application as it is that you develop and implement a system that works for you. If you can’t keep everyone informed along the way, your short sales won’t go smoothly, or buyers could get jittery. If this happens, or the buyer isn’t kept in the loop, they could walk away from the deal. Then you’d have to start over from scratch, and hope you can find a new buyer before the foreclosure process plays out.”

Hertzog sees short sales dominating the real estate market for the foreseeable future. He said Phoenix is currently seeing more short sales processed monthly than REOs and foreclosures – combined. “Short sales are currently 27% of closed transactions. In Phoenix, this is huge.”

Hertzog notes that, while short sales can be a great way for real estate professionals to increase their incomes for the foreseeable future, not everyone should try. He recommends only experienced, knowledgeable real estate agents dip their toes into the short sale pool.

“You need to know what you’re doing. Short sales aren’t for brand new agents. Remember, you’re supposed to be looking out for your clients’ best interests. To be honest, until you have some experience under your belt, you should stick to doing what you know – selling houses traditionally.”

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Ken Speegle is a direct response copywriter, ghostwriter, and conversational writing specialist. He works with real estate agents, brokers and investors to expand their reach with conversational writing. By working with Ken, his clients are able to focus on their strengths instead of trying to figure out the best way to use the written word to make more money. For more about Ken Speegle, visit him on the web at www.therealestatewriter.com or by email at info@therealestatewriter.com. Ken personally responds to all inquiries.

Home page of the new Century 21 First Realty Tallahassee website

All the property professionals in the company are very experienced and have received extensive training through their premier graduate school for real estate professionals, helping them to create an environment that is professional, cheerful, positive, productive and energetic. They also have access to the kinds of resources that will enhance each buying or selling transaction. Tallahassee real estate sales have been increasing over the last 10 years or so and Century 21 First Realty helps ensure the seller receives expert help in preparing their home for sale. It’s essential to have such a team of experts in place to ensure a home doesn’t sit on the market for an extended amount of time.

Innovative marketing techniques also help match prospective buyers with their dream home, especially as Tallahassee has many different neighborhoods, and having a market specialist helps to ensure buyers are presented with the elements in the home and its neighborhood that are important to them. Good real estate agents need to know the history of the area, properties already sold, market values and relevant information regarding the neighborhood. Century 21 First Realty agents have all this information at their fingertips, including information on foreclosures and market reports. There is also a newsletter available which contains information that is relevant to both home buyers and sellers, or anyone choosing to move into one of the many neighborhoods in Tallahassee.

Anyone interested in getting started in either buying or selling a home can visit Century 21 First Realty’s website to view information, contact the realtor, search for homes in the area, subscribe to the newsletter or even download one of the many useful books the company has to offer home buyers and sellers, helping them understand the process of buying and selling.