Mike's Blog

Do You Have a Referral Network? - Part 1

2008-05-03T18:06:50Z

One of the best (and least expensive) ways to increase your sales and your business is to have a stream of leads coming in through referrals. There are various types of referrals out there. The most common being from friends and family as well as past clients. But if you want to get serious about referrals, get a constant stream of referrals, you should create a referral network.

I'm not talking about referrals from other agents across the country. I'm talking about people who will actively help sell your service and be happy to do so. But where do you start? First you must think of the type of people or businesses you want sending you referrals. As a real estate agent, you might think this is obvious. Mortgage brokers, insurance agents, home repair businesses and anyone else who is associated with home ownership.

But let's think a little differently.

Ask yourself. What is the best type of customer you like to work with? Before you answer, let's look at a different profession to more easily explain where I'm going with this.

Let's say you're a fitness trainer and you're looking to set up a referral network with other businesses. You might think about talking to owners of:

Fitness clubs
Physicians
Massage therapists
Health food stores
Hospitals

The reason you might think this is because they are in a similar industry as you. But when you're asked "What's the type of customer you prefer to work with?" you may answer, male CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Now look at the characteristics of these customers:

They usually travel a lot.
They usually own pets and pay a lot for pet products.
They usually are willing to pay for services.
They like luxury type items.

In order to get referrals of these types of customers, you need to network with people in businesses that male CEOs use. Here are some referral network partners you might now consider.

Travel agents
custom clothing shops
Luxury car dealerships
Financial advisers
Pet stores
Jewelers
Hotel staff

This list is quite different than the one mentioned above.

We can do the same thing as a real estate agent. Instead of trying to network with businesses in the same industry as you, network with businesses that your customers use. Once you make contact with these businesses (or the people within these businesses), you can start a dialog of how you can help refer customers to them the same way they will help refer customers to you. Soon you'll be getting a stream of leads of customers that you prefer to work with.

Mike

http://www.creativeagentclub.com/
Creative Promotional and Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

Home Buyer Seminar Results

2008-01-31T15:08:06Z

After two months of planning, the home buyer seminar we hosted is over. The start time was 7:00 pm and we opened the doors at 6:30. At 6:40 the only things in the room were the six guest speakers and a table full of food and drinks. Needless to say, I was very nervous, but I tried not to show it.

At 6:45 three people walked in. A few minutes later...two more. We then started to get a pretty good crowd and the lump in my throat was gone. Our final total ended at eighteen which was three better than I thought would show up. We had twenty-eight people who registered and four emailed me saying that they couldn't attend. And based on what I've been told, about half of the people who register actually show up.

I was the moderator of the night introducing the other speakers and I did the first ten minutes of speaking. For the speeches, we had my teammate and I as the real estate agents, a mortgage rep, a home inspector, a home warranty rep, an insurance agent, and a closing attorney. We introduced the speakers in the order of actually purchasing a home... starting at how to find a home (my speech) all the way to what happens at a closing.

There was one thing that happened that I didn't anticipate. All of the speakers, in some way or another, promoted how we all are a team and we all work together for our customers. That idea worked so well that two people came up to me afterwards and said they wanted to use me as their agent instead of the one they were going to use. They specifically loved, and mentioned, the "team" concept.

One other thing that showed the seminar was a success is that all but two people stayed afterwards and asked the speakers specific questions. At a lot of seminars I've been to, most of the people can't wait to get out of there. We were also able to get a couple signed up for a mortgage pre-approval which I should be getting sometime today.

Thankfully there was a pretty good crowd since the event was being videotaped. The room was full which will play very well on the completed DVD. I'll be promoting the DVD all year on the web as well as giving them away to new buyers I meet. I'll also be sending emails to people who couldn't attend the seminar offering it to them.

Because of it's success, we should have no problems getting the speakers to financially back any other event we decide to host. In fact, we're looking at getting our mortgage rep to cover the costs of a local bridal show booth that we may attend. More on that later.

This was our first event and there are some things that I would change, but all in all, it was very successful and I'm glad I didn't listen to all of the naysayers who always told me that only three to four people show up and they aren't worth the time and effort.

We're already thinking of having the same seminar this summer.

Mike

http://www.creativeagentclub.com/
Creative Promotional and Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

Homebuyer Seminar Strategy and Progress So Far

2008-01-06T16:57:18Z

A few months ago I had the idea of putting on a homebuyer seminar. I never did one before so I figured I'd do some research.

I was speaking to some other agents in our office as well as posting messages on forums to get some ideas and suggestions. Most of the comments went something like "I did one a few years ago and nobody showed up". Or, "I had 3 people show up and never got a lead from it". Or my favorite "I advertised one, nobody replied, but I had to sit there and wait to see if someone would show up anyway".

At first this was discouraging, but I knew a homebuyer seminar could work if it had a lot to offer and was advertised to the right people. I also knew that if I was going to put a lot of effort into it, I didn't want my leads to be only the people who showed up.

So I put together a game plan that I think will attract quite a few attendees and also allow me to continue getting leads well after the seminar is over. It isn't until the end of January so I won't know the results for another month.

Here are the steps I've taken so far addressing the issues mentioned above.

1. It could work if it had a lot to offer - I contacted professionals I use which included a mortgage broker, a home inspector, an insurance agent, a home warranty company, and a title company. I will also be putting on the seminar with a team member. All of the "guest" speakers loved the idea and immediately jump on the bandwagon. So now rather than just a real estate agent (me) speaking, I now have 6 other speakers making this look like a huge event.

2. Was advertised to the right people - The first thing I needed to do was create some sort of website or lead capture page that gave the seminar information and also allowed people to register. For my own real estate website, I use a service called Busy Agent Pro which gives me all the tools I need to create the webpage, register the attendee, and automatically send them an email once registered (as well as put them in my database for future mailings). With the help of other Busy Agent Pro users (through their forums), we came up with the idea of making a two step website. The first webpage gives some simple information about the seminar and asks them to enter their name and email address for the seminar time and location as well as offering them a free homebuyer survival guide. Once they enter their email, they are sent to a second webpage with more details, time and location, and a second form to fill out to actually register.

You may be asking, "Why not just give them all the info on the first page and let them register there?". Well, the reason is simple. I want this homebuyer seminar to help me generate leads....even leads that don't register. If someone gives me their name and email in the first webpage, I know they were interested enough to want more information. When they get to the second page, they may discover that the time and location doesn't work for them, so they never register. But at least I have their information (they are now a lead) and I can continue marketing to them in the future. If I had all the information on a single page, then they would immediately know they couldn't attend and I would never know they were even interested.

Makes sense?

Here's the webpage that I created for the seminar Pittsburgh Home Buyer Seminar.

Ok, now how do I get people to visit the webpage?

Last year I made a decision to advertise in a local wedding planner book. This book is written for brides/grooms getting married and it also contains a lot of local wedding vendor ads. By advertising in it, I also was able to get leads from brides who ordered the planner. Currently I have 600 email and snail mail addresses of brides/grooms that said they were interested in buying a home (a question asked when ordering the planner). This gives me a great advertising venue for the homebuyer seminar.

Once the seminar webpage was finished, I sent an email to all of the brides on the list. Within 1 hour, I had 6 people sign up. I then had a few more after that and currently have 16 registered attendees just from the one email. Each week I'll send an email doing some sort of count down "Only 14 days left to register" type of thing. But to have 16 sign up right out of the gate is pretty good, I think.

I also have a post card that I designed that I'll be sending to the entire list just in case they don't read their emails. The post card will also be sent to a mailing list of renters, my SOI, and others. Lastly, I created a full page flyer that I have in a local pizza shop (hey, people that buy pizza buy houses too). I'll also give them out to any new buyer I speak with this month.

3. I didn't want my leads to be only the people who showed up - Now this is the icing on the cake. How can I keep this seminar from being a one day - one shot event. How can I give all the information from all the speakers a long shelf life?

Simple.

My wife will be videotaping the event. Luckily she owns a video production company so filming the seminar and creating a DVD will be easy and won't cost me a dime. (You should be able to get a professional videographer in your area to film and edit a DVD for under $1000. This may sound expensive at first, but if you utilize it correctly, it will be priceless.)

This will be priceless for me because I'll now own something that will set me WAY above the rest of my competition. I'll instantly become the local expert simply because I'm the only one with an informational DVD that makes me look like a professional speaker. This won't be some "hire me cause I'm the best" advertisement. This DVD will truely be valuable because we'll be talking about how to buy a home from beginning to end and it will include the other 6 speakers giving tips based on their field of expertise.

But it gets even better. Once I have the video of the seminar, I can now create a DVD which I'll give out to every new buyer lead that I get for months or even years. And remember how I also have people that filled out the first webpage but never actually registered for the seminar. Well, I'll be sending all of them a quick email asking if they want a free copy of the seminar. I can also break up the seminar into different sections and post video clips on my website, Youtube, or wherever else I feel they can attract leads. Videotaping the seminar is a HUGE lead generating strategy that I feel will make the event a huge success.

So what's this all going to cost me? Well, I'll be having a meeting with all of the other speakers and I'll be trying to get them to pick up most of the costs (mailings, postage, refreshments, binders, etc). So hopefully my out of pocket expenses will be very minimal.

So there you have it. My homebuyer seminar strategy and progress so far. We'll see at the end of the month if it all works out as planned.

Mike

Creative Agent Club - Creative Promotional and Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

Homebuyer's Seminar Ideas?

2007-11-29T20:35:14Z

My team is putting together a "Home Buyer's Seminar" that will take place on January 31st.

We lined up a mortgage rep, a home insurance guy, a title company lawyer, a home inspector, and a home warranty rep. They all liked the idea and are ready to go. Of course, we'll have them pitch in some $$ to help share the costs of promoting the event as well as for snacks/beverages.

Our corporate office is right behind our regular office and they have a nice large training room equipped with whiteboards and a video projector (for powerpoint presentations). It's available for free :)

I'm currently working on the details of the actual topics and timing of each speaker. Afterwords we'll have the speakers available for one-on-one discussions with the guests.

I'm sure a bunch of you are thinking "nice idea but been there...done that. Usually few if anybody shows up at these things". Well, that's ok. Even if we have just 4 or 5 people, it will still be beneficial for us.

Why? You ask.

Because my wife will be videotaping the entire seminar (luckily she's a professional videographer) and I'll be editing together a DVD which I'll be able to use for years. My plan is to add the DVD to my buyers kits which I give away at open houses and when I meet customers for the first time. I can also use them on a lead capture webpage as a gift for filling out the form.

I'll try to keep everyone posted of the planning and progress.

If anyone has any ideas they'd like to throw at me, I'd appreciate it.

Mike

The Creative Agent Club - Creative Promotional and Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

Create A Listing Video in 5 Minutes Using This Free Software

2007-11-27T14:48:34Z

In a previous article, I talked about how and why you should create listing videos using a $109.00 software program. Well now you can save your money. Just use the free easy to use software mentioned in this article and following the steps in my short tutorial and you'll be creating exeptional real estate videos in minutes...no camcorder needed.

Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the last couple of years, you'll know that online videos are a hot item. Just take a visit at Youtube or Google Videos for proof.

And for real estate agents, virtual tours and listing videos(although not new) are an effective way to market your listings and make your self stand out during listing appointments. But in order to create them, you usually need to pay an outside company, hire a videographer, or purchase expensive software.

Well that's all changed now.

With a free program from Microsoft called Photo Story 3, you can quickly create a great looking video from still photographs, and add text, narration, and background music. Once you see how easy this program is to use, you'll be creating all sorts of videos....even ones for your family.

To show you what this free program can do, check out my video tutorial.

Here's some real estate video ideas.

1. Videos of your listings
2. Videos of various neighborhoods
3. Videos of local events
4. We've moved videos for your buyers
5. Marketing videos for yourself or your team
6. Videos for multimedia cds

The big advantage of Photo Story 3 is that it's easy to use, quickly creates great looking videos, and is compatible with YouTube.

Here's a sample video I created in under 10 minutes from photos I took at a county park in my area. I will soon be adding this to my real estate website.

The Creative Agent Club - Creative Promotional and Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

Rising interest rates may keep you off the fence.

2007-07-26T14:31:45Z

It looks like interest rates are rising again. They are now hovering over 6.5% for 30 year fixed. Most banks or mortgage companies can lock your rate in for a maximum of 60 days. Locking in a rate means that a bank will honor the interest rate they give you for 60 days. If the rates go up during that time, you'll still keep the rate you were quoted.

So if you're on the fence about whether to purchase a home or not, a quick decision may save you money.

For more information about buying a home, visit www.MikeSellsPittsburgh.com

What's the deal with home inspections?

2007-07-26T14:29:27Z

Recently I worked with an investor who was looking for a property to purchase and rent out. We spent a few months previewing homes looking for one that was just right for his needs. We ended up finding a nice single family home in Bellevue that was priced well but needed some work done. My buyer didn't mind doing some repairs but didn't want to fall into a money pit.

So we looked around and were noting various items that would need fixed or replaced. A few of them were the roof, furnace, porch gutters, two windows, and electrical panel. Since we were aware of this, we put in what we thought was a fair offer knowing that a lot of work would need to be done before renting it out.

After a few counter offers, we were able to get the agree on a price. At this time, we set up the home inspection. I knew that the home inspector would easily find the issues we found, but we were relying on him to find things we couldn't see. Sure enough, the inspection report came back and aside from a few small items, the report basically said what we thought it would. I thought, great. We can now move forward to closing.

But then it happened.

My buyer (who made an offer price with the repairs in mind) decided that he wanted the seller to fix all of the major items in the inspection report. The estimates for the repairs were in the thousands (which we figured going in) and needless to say, the deal fell through and we're currently looking for another property.

I told this story to make home buyers aware that if you find a home that has some repair issues and you make a low offer to cover the costs of them, there's a good chance a seller won't go back and repair the items if they show up on the home inspection report. However, if an inspector finds things that you didn't see or aren't aware of, then those items can be negotiated with the seller after the initial offer was made.

For more information about home buying a home, visit www.MikeSellsPittsburgh.com

Why price isn't the only detail of an attractive offer

2007-07-26T14:23:39Z

I've been working with a particular buyer for well over a year helping to find the "perfect" home for him. I currently have him signed up for my Property Search service so he immediately gets emails as soon as a property hits the market.

We would usually go out every couple of months to see a property or two. He would call or email me and we'd set up an appointment to see them a few days later. But then one day he emailed me right after a new listing was available and he wanted to see it ASAP. This home had all the things he was looking for and I thought we finally found his dream home.

I showed it to him the evening it became available and there were already 6 showings during the day before we got there. This property was hot. It was in a great location, it showed great, and it was priced just right. After the showing I told him this home will be gone within a day or two.

He talked it over with his wife that night and we were ready to put an offer on it the next day. Sure enough, there were two other offers we were competing against. I told my buyer that when you're competing, you're not longer negotiating with the seller. You're now bidding against the other buyers to try to beat them out. Because of that, I told him we not only need to go in with a strong price, but we also need to consider the other sections of a sales agreement that can make an offer strong, particularly the home inspection contingency, closing date, and hand money amount.

We didn't go in at full price, but we did have a short closing date (just over 30 days), a high hand money amount ($10,000), and a home inspection option that allows the seller to take care of any issues that come up on the inspection (Option 2). Option 1 lets the buyer get out of the agreement without giving the seller the option to correct any problems.

What finally happened was that one of the other two offers dropped out so we were now competing against one other person. They had a slightly higher priced offer but because we had the better inspection option and were able to close sooner, our offer ended up looking more attractive and we beat out the other buyer.

So when making an offer where you're competing against another buyer, be sure to have your agent explain ALL of the details of a sales agreement and how certain items other than price may make your offer the most attractive.

For more information about home buying a home, visit www.MikeSellsPittsburgh.com

When should brides and grooms start looking for a home?

2007-07-26T14:15:25Z

The wedding date is picked. The locations are set. The only thing left to do is everything....including looking for the perfect home.

But when should you start?

Although your wedding day may be many months away, it's not a bad idea to start doing some casual looking as soon as you can. The first step is to contact a good real estate agent and give him/her an idea of what you're looking for. Also, let him know that you won't be purchasing a home for a while but you're just checking the market to see what kind of homes are available in your price range.

Your agent should be able to set you up in the MLS so you'll start receiving emails of properties that match your criteria. You can also do some searching on your own by visiting sites such as http://www.realtor.com/.

As you get closer to your wedding date, you should start visiting some open houses to see various floorplans, get decorating ideas, and become aware of structual items that are important to the quality of a home. If you are working with a real estate agent, make sure the agent sitting at the open house knows this.

Three or four months before your wedding date, you should start seeing homes with your real estate agent. Your agent should be able to not only show you the good parts of a home, but also point out any bad parts. If an agent tries to push you towards any specific home or doesn't mention any flaws that you can obviously see yourself, you may want to look for another agent.

You should try to find and put an offer on a home about two months before your wedding date. This will give you time for negotiations, home inspections, mortgage applications and everything else necessary for closing. Most closings take between 30 to 45 days and you don't want it to be more than 60. The reason is that banks can lock you into a specific interest rate for no more than 60 days. After that, you may be charged a fee to keep the rate.

The day of closing arrives and you'll soon be handed the keys to your first home together.

For more information about home buying a home in Pittsburgh, visit http://www.newlywedhomebuyer.com/ and http://www.mikesellspittsburgh.com/

The problem with overpriced homes....and it's getting worse

2007-07-26T14:11:56Z

This has been a rough week for me when it comes to overpriced properties. One of my buyers called me all excited about a particular property she was interested in. It was a small two bedroom home on almost 2 acres of land. It was also two doors away from her sister's home. I looked up the property and we saw it the next day.

It was a cute house in a nice area, but it was pretty small. And to make matters worse, someone purchased the vacant lot next to it where he was going to build a new home. Not a big deal, right? Well, after looking at the survey, it cut a corner of the driveway off and it made 2 of the 3 car garages inaccessible (for automobiles, that is).

The price of home was listed at $146,900 but when I was looking for comparible homes, I couldn't find many. And the ones that I did find were priced in the $120,000 - $125,000 range. I told the listing agent that my buyer was interested in this property, but I couldn't find any comps to justify the price. I nicely asked her to send me the ones she used when she priced it.

Days went by and I heard nothing. Even after asking two more times, she wouldn't reply. So we made an offer based on the comps that I found and the homeowner didn't even counter-offer. Needless to say, we're now looking at other homes for my buyer to choose from.

But you may be asking "If your buyer liked the home, why wouldn't you make an offer closer to the asking price?" In this particular case, if the comps came in close to the asking price, we probably would have. But they didn't and the listing agent COULDN'T send me any either (I found that out later on).

Here's the reason why comps are so important when pricing a house or putting an offer on a house. It's because it will have to get appraised by the bank and they are the final judge on whether the buyer can purchase the home or not. If a buyer puts an offer of $150,000 on a home that's only worth $120,000, then the bank will not fund the mortgage (unless the home buyer pays for the difference himself...$30,000).

This exact situation happened to me this week. One of my homebuyers put an offer of $123,900 on a home listed for $129,900. We got the deal together and things were moving forward. That is until the bank had the home appraised. The appraisle only came in at $90,000. We then had it appraised agan by a different appraiser and he brought it in at just over $100,000. Still not enough to get the deal done.

Apparently, banks have recently been cracking down on home values because of all the foreclosures happening throught the country. Even though this problem is worse in certain cities, other cities such as Pittsburgh are paying the price.

So now, more than ever, if you're going to put an offer on a home, have your real estate agent do some research to determine if the asking price is close to the market price in the area. Otherwise you may be headed for a disappointing surprise as you get closer to closing.

For more information about home buying a home in and around Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, visit www.MikeSellsPittsburgh.com.