Collin County Realtor, Collin County Real Estate

"Sell Your Home in 30 Days or I'll Buy It" - Real or Scam

Ken Oenbrink (William Davis Realty) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:15:10 -0700

The real estate industry has changed a great deal over the last decade. It use to be that newspaper and local home magazines were a good way to market a home for sale. But in today's world, with over 80% of buyers starting their search on line, things have changed.

Agents have figured out that the internet is the best place to go to find buyers and sellers. An entirely new segment of the real estate industry has been created. Self proclaimed real estate gurus are selling systems to agents that have been tried and tweaked over the last 10 years. These systems are designed to drive traffic to agent's websites with sensational offers like "Sell Your Home in 30 Days, or I'll Buy It".

Is this real or a scam? My opinion is that while these offers, especially in today's buyer's market, are real, sellers need to be forewarned of the inevitable "fine print". From what I have seen, most of these offers come with big strings attached. The agent will buy your home if she/he does not sell in in 30 days, but the buy out price is agreed to up front and usually for a lot less than fair market value, or the seller has to agree to buy one of the agent's current other listings.

Don't get fooled by sensational advertising whether it's in the paper, on a postcard, or on the internet. As the old adage goes, "There's no such thing as a FREE lunch". For great real estate information in Collin County Texas, go to http://www.collincountyrealestate.info/ .

7 Keys to Selling Your Home When Sales are Slow

Ken Oenbrink (William Davis Realty) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:12:40 -0700

7 Keys to Selling Your House When Sales are Slow

What was once a booming residential real estate market across the country has slowed to a trickle.

Rising mortgage rates are lowering the affordability of homes and an increase of sellers looking to cash in on the rapid price appreciation over the past few years has led to a dramatic reduction in buyers and a rapid increase in the number of homes for sale. These factors have led to too few buyers looking at too many houses, putting buyers back into the driver's seat.

It's a whole new world for home sellers. So, how do you make your house stand out so it will sell when sales are slow? See the entire article at http://teamoenbrink.com/times-are-slow.asp

Discount Brokers

Ken Oenbrink (William Davis Realty) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 08:25:21 -0800

I'm not sure there is an exact definition of the term "discount broker". It might be hard to describe what a discount broker does or does not do for clients and customers. I think the term has become somewhat of a gray area. I mean if I advertise that I will take less than what I usually ask for on a listing, if the clients are going to turn around and use me to purchase a new home, does that make me a discounter? If I am willing to give past clients a lower commission rate than I would normally ask for, am I a discounter?

The agents/brokers that offer "full service" (another relative term) for listings at $399, can't be making any money. They have to be using that as an advertising ploy and then doing the old "bait and switch" . Somebody please tell me how this is helping the general public, sellers buyers, agents, brokers. I mean GM could built a no frills car and sell it for $5,000 but would it meet the safety requirements, gas mileage requirements, etc.

Who is better?

Ken Oenbrink (William Davis Realty) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 07:57:20 -0800

I know that many of the people reading these blog entries are Realtors. So I thought I would throw this out and see what responses I get. In my opinion, if you want to get help, ideas, coaching etc. to do business in our industry by mostly referrals, there are two gurus in the business. Joe Stumpf "By Referral Only" and Brian Buffini "Working By Referral".

I have been to Brian's seminars twice and even used his tool box of ideas for a while. I have not been to a Joe Stumpf event but get his emails frequently. So my questions are: Has any one been to both and if so do you think one is better than the other? Or if you have been to only one of their seminars or used one of their services, did you find them to be helpful, and if so what in particular did you use to help build your business?

All thoughts and comments are welcome. Thanks.

Technology Overload

Ken Oenbrink (William Davis Realty) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:55:13 -0800

I am probably like many agents, I am on technology overload. Recently I puchased a new notebook PC and then had to get a wireless optical mouse and a 2 gig flash drive for it. Since it has built-in wireless networking, I also purchased a wireless router and USB receiver for my desktop which my wife now uses. I have also purchased in the last year a Palm Treo cellphone/camera/video recorder/MP3 player/internet browser/instant messaging/emailer/contact manager/calculator/calendar etc., a BlueTooth ear piece for the Palm Treo, an all-in-one fax/printer/scanner/copier, a new cable modem (my cable internet provider got bought out and said I needed to upgrade my modem), a laser tape measure and probably several other new pieces of technology that I can't even remember.

I am currently looking at GPS systems, new lock boxes, and some sort of apparatus that attaches to my notebook and allows me to receive broadcast TV and record it. I'm sure by the end of 2007, there will be several other items that as the marketing experts say "will make my job easier and give me more time to focus on finding new clients and work with current ones".

I switched my website provider from Point2 to Top Producer, do email campaigns with Sharper Agent, use Go Daddy to register domain names, use ExpressDocs for flyers, FlyInside for virtual tours and wonder constantly how to improve my SEO (search engine Optimization) so I can generate a few more leads. I constantly get emails and phone calls from companies that want to sell me exclusive leads, but are never willing to get paid after the transaction closes. Several Techies have told me of new items that will be forth coming an I wonder not just how much it will cost, but will it make me a better Realtor, and when will I have time to install and learn to use this stuff.

Does any one besides me wonder what it will be like to be a realtor 10 years from now?

The Baby Boomers are Coming!

Ken Oenbrink (William Davis Realty) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 08:49:00 -0800

Has any one noticed, or is just me, that the home builders in Collin County, TX (and probably in many parts of the country) seem to be some what oblivious to the fact that the baby boomers are starting to down size and/or retire. The problem is that these "boomers" are mostly looking for single story homes because as they get older, they don't want to be going up and down steps to use certain rooms in their home.

Builders keep putting up two story homes with 30 to 40% of the living space on the second floor. Now I realize that because land is expensive, builders need to build two story homes to get the square footage that buyers are looking for. In other words, the foot print of a single story home won't fit on most of these lots, and still give the optimum square footage or number of rooms that builders believe buyers want.

I know of two couples, "baby boomers", that have installed simple, open sided elevators in their current two story homes, because it was far less expensive to do this than sell their current home and first find, then purchase a single story home. These people were lucky that their homes actually had space that could be reconfigured and an elevator installed.

I believe that builders need to start designing two story homes with elevators as an option. This might be an expensive option, but I believe that buyers would definetely recover the investment when they resell the home some day. It might also be a great advertising item for builders, since baby boomers would no longer eliminate their two story floor plans from their search for a new home.