Recently while teaching a class, I mentioned that agents should be giving their clients Resume’s prior to the first meeting.  One agent asked what I thought it should look like, so here’s mine, as an example.

It’s my belief that agents are essentially asking for a job when the encounter a potential client, so why wouldn't you send this to them?  It will allow you to concentrate on THEM during the meeting, trusting that they will have a good idea of who you are before hand.

Resumes should be under two pages and very easy to read.  One element that you may wish to add, that isn’t in mine, is an “Objective” paragraph talking about your goals when handling a client’s needs.

Back in January I wrote an article for www.AgentGenius.com, called The Setup, The Pitch and the (Agent’s) Stolen Identity.  This outlined a new threat to agents who have active listing, wherein people took your listing information and fraudulently relisted the house as a rental on Craigslist.  The post showed the email exchange between the victim, as well as a passport and rental agreement.  At the time, the FBI was contacted and they advised that there was little they could do.

In June Sarah Stelmok journaled her interaction with an internet scammer, matching the same profile.  You can read more at www.Sarahiouslyspeaking.com, in her article entitle “Internet Real Estate Scam Update”. 

Needless to say, both of these articles are “must reads” so that you can better protect yourself and your clients. It’s important for agents to be far more vigilant than they currently are. Below is a Press Release from the FBI released in July that gives more information on this current trend.

Online Press Release

For Immediate Release
July 22, 2009
FBI Columbia
Contact: Public Affairs Specialist Denise Taiste
(803) 551-4200

New Nigerian Scheme Utilizing Craigslist
Scam Being Perpetrated in South Carolina

David A. Thomas, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in South Carolina, advises homeowners and/or prospective renters in South Carolina to be cautious of a new scheme being perpetrated by Nigerians utilizing Craigslist.

Homeowners list their homes for sale with real estate agents, who will list the homes for sale in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and also with public search websites, which allow individuals to query homes for sale via the Internet. Nigerian scammers find homes listed for sale on these public search sites, copy the pictures and listings verbatim, and then post the information onto Craigslist under available housing rentals, without the consent or knowledge of Craigslist, who has been notified.

After the posting is listed, unsuspecting individuals contact the poster, who is Nigerian, for more information on the “rental." The Nigerian scammer will state that they had to leave the country very quickly to do missionary or contract work in Africa and were unable to rent their house before leaving, therefore they have to take care of this remotely. The “homeowner” sends the prospective renter an application and tells them to send them first and last month’s rent to the Nigerian scammer via Western Union. The prospective renter is further told If they “qualify,” they will send them the keys for their house. Once the money is wired to the scammer, they show up at the house, see the home is actually for sale, are unable to access the property, and their money is gone.

This type of Nigerian scam is becoming more prevalent nationwide and recent reports indicate this scam being perpetrated locally in Charleston, Columbia, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. The South Carolina Association of REALTORS®, a non-profit trade association, provided information to the FBI on this scam.

David A. Thomas, Special Agent in Charge of the Columbia office of the FBI, is requesting that individuals who have complaints similar to this file an Internet crime complaint on www.ic3.gov with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure the extent of this scheme can be accurately evaluated.

This is not a sign, as some have suggested, that agents should not aggressively market the listings on line.  The benefits of good online presence far out weighs the potentially bad outcomes.  However, like so many other aspects of real estate it does present a risk.  Agents should be well aware of where their properties are being advertised.  I give a few hints in the AgentGenius.com post.

An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a great way to get summary information about a topic.  HUD has setup a website designed to answer some of our questions.  RESPA’s changes have been chartered to start January 10, 2010 and some folks have concerns.  Here is some information from the website:

The "New RESPA Rule FAQs" were comprised from industry questions and are posted to facilitate implementation of these new requirements.

New RESPA Rule FAQs

RESPA Final Rule

Withdrawal of Revised Definition of “Required Use”

 Good Faith Estimate

HUD-1

HUD1-A

Regulatory Impact Analysis

Lesley Lambert asked a question on www.AgentGenius.com about BPO’s.  I’m not a big fan of the potential liability that exists with doing them.  Lesley asked for the commenter’s thoughts and here was my answer:

Lesley,

This is a great question. I suppose there are a few questions that I would ask myself if faced with doing them again

1. Will doing a BPO take away from my marketing time needed to keep the funnel full of serious consumers, that may have a far higher return than this BPO?

2. Does my E and O Insurance cover me for doing them?

3. If I were to take my projected income for the year, divided by 2050 (number of work hours in a year based on 40 hour weeks) would the number of hours it takes to do a BPO be profitable? Example: Let’s say that I get paid $75 to do a BPO and it takes 2 hours (travel time and PC time to submit). If I wish to make $100,000 a year, that means my time is worth roughly $49 an hour. Already I’m in the hole and I haven’t include the cost of technology to handle submissions, gas, vehicle use etc…

4. Am I adequately trained to perform the requirements of the BPO? Typically they ask for what repairs are necessary and if repaired what would be the return of value. I’ve taught lots of GRI, Pre-Licensing and about 40 other topics. I don’t remember one of those curriculum ever teaching that information – save Appraisal training.

5. Do I have a resource to substantiate my suggested values of the property?

6. What is my Broker’s policy?

7. What is State Law?

8. What recent case law exists in my state regarding agents doing BPO’s?

9. Will doing the BPO for the Loss Mitigation Officer potentially yield a contract to do REO listings? Will this relationship be profitable for more than just the cost of the BPO?

Lesley also posted this survey on AG.  Help her out with your answer, you may be surprised to see what others said.

NAR Member Profile 2009

While preparing for the first night of our Licensing program, I decided to give the new agents some realities about the Real Estate Industry. To me it's not healthy to introduce a new agent to the business, thinking that everyone is making a million dollars and only working 30 hours a week. While reviewing this information, I decided to use some data from the National Association of Realtors 2009 Member Profile. This book is available for free as a PDF download at www.Realtor.org, under the Right Tools, Right Now campaign area. I've decided to put together a few points in this post, based on some of the information that I found there.

Every Realtor that I've ever spoken to, regardless of years of experience, say that there has ALWAYS been a desire to "raise the bar" in the Real Estate Industry. There have always been those agents who are good and those who just don't get it. Traditionally those who don't get it, end up leaving the industry after only a few years. While reading some of these statistics from the Member Profile, I found some information that debunks some of the thoughts I had about the current state of affairs. Below is a list of conversation starts. As with all statistics it's open to interpretation and also differs from region to region.

Hypothetical Commission and Breakdown

We all know that Commissions and Brokerage splits are negotiable, so let's use a 2.5% Buyer Agent Commission, based on a $250,00 Sales price and let's see what the average agent is going to make:

2.5% of $250,000 = $6, 250

$6,250 split 50% with Broker (Splits are Negotiable) = $3,125

$3125 (Brought over from Broker Split)
-$187 6% Franchise Fee (Varies)

$2938

-$588 20% for Taxes (recommended)

$2350

-$235 10% Business Savings (recommended)

$2115

-$846 40% Back into Business Budget (recommended)

$1269 = Personal Income after above expenses

The NAR Member Profile states that the median income, after tax and expenses, was $23,200 ($36,700 before expenses) in 2008. That means that you would have to sell 18.5 homes to reach the median income. By the way... The median investment by Realtors back into their business in 2008 was only $5,810 in that year. That explains a lot of the lack of marketing from agents. Of this, the median cost of personal development was only $690 and $720 for business marketing per agent in 2008.

Work Behavior

I was very surprised that 73% of agents said they would stay in the business in the next two years. It seems in our market, that many from the very experienced to the very new, are contemplating jumping ship. The promises by many leaders seems to be more wishful thinking than based on reality. No one can promise an increase in business or even that it won't get worse. Even when there were a great many homes selling, there were still too many practitioners in the market place. The chart of most interest was the averaged hours worked... It appears that only 25% of Realtors work Full-Time hours. That means about 75% of agents do not work a full work week.

With 10 being the median years of experience per agent, it seems sad that so many are looking at getting out, after so many years invested in a career.

Agency

Here's the biggest surprise of the report. 41% of real estate agents still practice Dual Agency. How in the world can this archaic and anti-consumer practice be so pervasive in this industry?

Miscellaneous Notes of Interest for 2008

Brokerage specialists reported a median of seven transactions in 2008, compared to eight transactions in 2007.

Approximately 40 percent of REALTORS® completed at least one transaction involving a property in foreclosure.

60% of Realtors are Female and thus 40% are male (in case you couldn't do the math).

The median age of a Realtor was 54. Only 4% of Realtors are under 30 years old.

72% of Realtors are married (which is a better percentage than most churches)

Formal Education

Now, I am a huge fan of Education... It's what I do. I fully believe that agents should have frequent, RELEVANT and PRACTICAL education; but that is an effort to provide better service. There are a number of agents who wish to use formal education, such as a college degree as a tool to alienate others from a chance at this career. As the chart to the left shows, only 8% of current practitioners do not have a College Education. As hard as I've looked, I've yet to find one report that shows a collation between increased education resulting in decreased consumer complaints.

Even nefarious people go to college. A degree in English Lit had little to no impact on a real estate career. Proper pre-licensing training and Broker engagement is the answer. And no matter what else we do, if enforcement actions aren't taken, than the number of regulations are irrelevant.

What Held the Buyer Back from Buying?

Really all this tells me is that there is no confidence in the market or in the Federal Governments ability to turn the situation around quickly. No real surprises here...

One of the coolest tools I’ve been showing agents has been Picasa.  It’s a fantastic tool that’s free from Google and installs on your computer.  You can do such much with Picasa that will help your marketing efforts.

Here’s a few of the great elements:

• Batch resizing of photos
• Free website hosting
• Batch renaming of photos
• Effortlessly move photos from camera to computer
• Easily Create a Video
• Easily Create trendy photo mosaics

Watch this video for more!

I personally found that once I had joined Twitter, it was far easier for me to enjoy once I began using a desktop application.  As a Vista user I tried several and found that Tweetdeck worked best for me.  Here is a quick video tutorial on some of the tools and features that Tweetdeck has.

I am all about tools that will help you do things easier.  You’ll really enjoy this tool, if you like blogging.  You can download Windows Live Writer for free, HERE.

To see the video in full-screen mode, click the symbol to the left of “Vimeo”

Someone forwarded this article to me, from the Washington Post today. Tina Merritt also wrote about this at www.VARBuzz.com.  I found it very enlightening…

Challenging Brokers' Add-On Fees

By Kenneth R. Harney

Friday, May 8, 2009

A federal district court has handed down a ruling in a class-action lawsuit that could directly affect the fees you pay to the real estate brokerage company at closing, whether as a buyer or seller.

The decision targets one of the most common practices adopted by brokerage firms in recent years: charging consumers "admin," "processing," "ABC" and other mystery fees ranging from $150 to as much as $500 per transaction. The fees are tacked on top of regular commissions and sometimes come as last-minute surprises on settlement sheets.

Typically, the charges are imposed by the brokerage company owners and go straight to them, rather than being shared with sales agents. When pressed about why buyers or sellers should be hit with hundreds of dollars extra at closing when thousands of dollars of commissions are already being charged in the deal, some sales agents say, "It's the broker's policy -- we don't get any of this money."

Brokers say they need the add-on fees to stay in business, especially when their commission splits with top agents can exceed 90 percent, sales volume is down and overhead expenses keep rising. Laurie Janik, the general counsel of the National Association of Realtors, defends the fees, arguing that brokers "ought to be able to charge what they need to make a profit."

But are these add-on fees legal? In a decision late last month that is sending shudders through the real estate brokerage industry, U.S. District Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins in Birmingham, Ala., ruled that when a real estate firm charges clients an "admin" fee, for which no specific settlement services are performed, the fee violates federal law.

The case involved RealtySouth, one of the 20 major brokerage units of Minneapolis-based HomeServices of America, the second-largest realty firm in the country. RealtySouth was sued by home buyer Vicki V. Busby of Jefferson, Ala., when she was required to pay a $149 "ABC" fee -- an administrative brokerage commission. The court found no evidence that the brokerage company performed any services beyond those covered by the commission, thereby violating a federal real estate settlement statutory ban against "unearned" fees.

Other federal courts have interpreted the statutory language on unearned fees differently, so the RealtySouth case does not settle the issue.

Busby's lawyers estimate the class of affected consumers to number approximately 30,000 -- all RealtySouth clients who have paid ABC fees in recent years that were, based on the district court's ruling, illegal. Dana Strandmo, general counsel and senior vice president for HomeServices of America, said the company hasn't decided whether to appeal the decision. Strandmo confirmed that charging administrative fees "is a very widespread practice," not only in his firm's offices but throughout the industry.

Frank Borges Llosa, a real estate broker who runs Frankly Realty in Northern Virginia and an outspoken critic of what he calls "bogus admin fees," blames brokers and agents for their increasingly common use. In a posting on his blog, Llosa said brokers "are charging [these fees] because they can't make enough from the agents. Why? Because the agents are demanding [bigger] splits" of the commission dollar, leaving brokers with less and less.

Llosa provided this hypothetical example: Say an agent who currently gets a 60 percent split of the commissions he or she brings in -- the broker gets 40 percent -- is approached by a competing brokerage firm that will pay 70 percent, but also imposes a $300 administrative fee that either the agent or the client has to pay.

After switching to the new brokerage, Llosa said, the agent now tells clients, "Oops, sorry, this firm charges $300 more per deal, nothing I can do about it." Meanwhile on a $10,000 commission the new company gives the agent $1,000 more while charging $300 to the clients. "It's really despicable," Llosa said in an interview.

Janik of the Realtors group says brokerages need to move to a more standardized system of flat-fee-plus-commission compensation that is prominently disclosed to all clients. Listing agreements might, for example, indicate that the company's compensation includes a base fee -- say $500 -- plus a standard sales commission of X percent.

"If [brokers] do it that way and don't get fancy," she said, they should be immune from legal attacks over unearned fees, such as in the RealtySouth case.

What should consumers do? Number one, make sure you get full disclosure about all compensation and fees associated with any sale or purchase, upfront. If you don't like what you see, you can always take Janik's advice: "Walk down the street to another broker."

Kenneth R. Harney's e-mail address is KenHarney@earthlink.net.

Source: The Washington Post