Austin's Blog

Alphabet soup - what the #@$% do all those real estate acronymns mean?!?!

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:27:21 -0800

Ever wonder what all those abbreviations mean behind a real estate professional’s signature? We did too, which is why for the past year we have collected all designations and their definitions/criteria that have come across our radar. We call this list “Alphabet Soup”.

The list below may be useful to you; if you find any designations we’re missing, please add a comment to this post with as much info as you can and we’ll keep on top of updating the content. If you are re-posting this list, please give credit where credit is due and link back to Goomzee's Mobile Marketing Blog.

To view the list in its entirety, either click the following link or cut and paste it into your browser's address bar:

- http://blog.goomzee.com/2010/01/28/alphabet-soup/

Montana’s Goomzee Mobile Technology Solution Selected By North Carolina Multiple Listing Services To Help Connect Buyers and Sellers

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:51:15 -0800

Home buyers in North Carolina will soon be able to receive for-sale home pricing information, and photos, sent directly to their phone using text messaging (SMS) thanks to Goomzee. The Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® recently joined the growing number of REALTOR® associations, multiple listing services (MLS), brokerages and real estate agents choosing Montana’s Goomzee http://www.goomzee.com as their text message marketing solution provider.

Goomzee’s real estate text message marketing solution, Realty Connect®, combines integration with MLS data systems and innovative features to help connect buyers and sellers. Real estate professionals place signs or ads prompting home buyers to send a text message with a unique property code, or Gcode, to receive for-sale property information. Potential buyers send a text message, including the property code, and within seconds they receive for-sale information, and optionally photos, on their cell phone. The real estate agent is alerted, and enabled to connect with buyers in real time, providing timely follow up.

“We continually seek out the best technology tools and providers for our members and are pleased to offer Goomzee’s industry-leading SMS marketing platform. More home buyers are relying on technology for information when buying a home, and the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® recognizes the need to empower the real estate sales professional with useful technology to reach today’s buyer, especially on their mobile phones,” explains Brian Bell, CTO of the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS®.

An increasing number of Americans look to their cellular phones for instant access to information. According to the International Association of Wireless Telecommunications, also known as CTIA®, there are 276.6 million US mobile phone subscribers, representing 89% of Americans.

“Our research has indicated that over 74.4% of Americans are using text messaging (SMS), and over 72% of SMS users are ages 25-49. Potential buyers real estate professionals seek to reach with online promotions, are the same people who would rather text than talk. Goomzee’s mobile technology helps satisfy today’s buyer and increases responsiveness from real estate sales professionals. We look forward to providing our technology throughout more of North Carolina and are excited to be working with the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS®,” states Mike Sparr, Goomzee’s CEO.

Text messaging has rapidly become one of the most commonly-used features on mobile phones. Wireless carriers have reported that over a trillion SMS messages were delivered in the U.S. this year alone. Once a technology primarily for chatting amongst friends, text (SMS) messaging continues to grow as a valuable source for instant information. With Goomzee’s text message marketing service, Realty Connect®, real estate professionals have yet another arrow in their quiver to reach America’s home buyers.

About Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® The Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS® (WRAR) was created on June 2, 1924. It has grown tremendously in the past 80+ years. Presently WRAR serves more than 2,000 REALTORS® in Southeastern North Carolina. Perhaps the best-known feature is the operation of our Multiple Listing Service, which can be found at http://TheWilmingtonMLS.com online. Our diverse membership is comprised of REALTORS® with the professional expertise to meet consumer’s real estate needs, whether it's their first home, a residential or commercial rental, or a commercial property for sale. Our REALTOR® Members adhere to a strict Code of Ethics, which maintains that a high standard of conduct will be met in all activities. To learn more, visit us online at http://www.wrar.com.

About Goomzee

Goomzee Corporation provides a mobile marketing technology platform that connects buyers and sellers at the point-of-interest. Goomzee's flagship product, Realty Connect®, and Mobile Virtual Tours, specifically assists real estate professionals to win more listings, acquire more leads and close more sales. The Company was established in 2003 offering hosted online storefronts to small businesses as well as consulting for some of the world's largest companies and brands. Goomzee is an industry leader in text message marketing and continues to innovate from a client first perspective. We connect buyers and sellers at the point-of-interest. To learn more, visit us online at http://www.goomzee.com or contact us at (866) 472 – 6062

With Our Powers Combined: R.E. Investing & the "Four-oh Wunk"

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:14:27 -0800

A little bird fluttering about the office last week told me of a tantalizing opportunity for my 401(k). For those of you in the dark, a 401(k) is a retirement savings portfolio and can be used to facilitate investments. You may hear experts refer to it as a “four-oh wunk”; don’t be alarmed, this pronunciation also points to the same section of IRS Tax Code that serves as both an IRS Tax Code and the name of a retirement portfolio that can be used to facilitate investments.

Among other things, the bird mentioned that I should be primarily looking into real estate investments. Although I had heard of the NMTC (New Market Tax Credit), the RTC (Rehabilitation Tax Credit), and the benefits of using these in conjunction with a 401(k), I asked why real estate is so important, especially in light of our R.E. market woes. The answer was two-fold:

“Buy Low, Sell High, and take advantage of the Tax Credits!”

Truer words have never been spoken. With the options available today, real estate investment done right is so lucrative it should be illegal. But what type of portfolio to use? I’m no investment specialist, but the real experts say that self-directed IRAs or 401(k)s, both preferably with the Roth option, are the best for real estate investments. The Roth umbrella shields your portfolio from income tax in certain scenarios, and is the best way to get the most out of your investment money. You can work your way into a Roth IRA or “four-oh wunk” from a traditional account via rollovers and Trustee changes. Roth IRAs/401(k)s are great because you deposit money after taxes, meaning you won’t have to pay tax upon withdrawal. This allows you to save more in the long term than a traditional IRA or 401(k). If you decide to stick with the traditional “four-oh wunk”, you are allowed to invest directly in real estate depending on the rules of your portfolio. Also, you are allowed to borrow against your 401(k), but be warned: by doing so you are not eligible for the mortgage-interest tax deduction.

Another option would be to use a real estate investment trust. To my knowledge, this means that you would be placing investments through a trust of real estate specialists, thus alleviating some of the inherent risk from the shoulders of your portfolio. This is a great option for inexperienced investors that want to turn a profit but are scared of getting burned. If you already know your way around the real estate arena, most advise to skip the investment trust and the fees that come with them.

More important than the means of investment are the tax credits available to real estate investors. The New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) offers a 39% return on initial amount paid via tax credits spread through seven year installments. A private investor would receive these credits when he invests in a designated Community Development Entity (CDE). The CDE in turn invests “substantially all” of your monies in a low-income census tract. For more info on low-income tracts including lists per region and qualification criterion, click here. The best part about the NMTC isn’t the credit itself, but its ability to “twin” with the Rehabilitation Tax Credit (RTC), a credit reserved for the renovation of historic properties. The combination of these two credits “has a net effect of adding 30-35 percent more equity to the transaction”, offsetting the financial risks involved in renovating a historic property rooted in a low-income neighborhood.

A word of warning: consult both an investment and tax specialist before attempting to navigate this minefield. There are a number of pitfalls throughout the real estate investment process so it is best to move forward per the advice of a professional. If you can overcome the inherent risk of an investment coupled with the possible tax woes, a real estate investment holds the promise to be your biggest earner yet. The silver lining to 2009’s R.E. market cloud is falling home prices. True, this thought is heartbreaking in the sense that the net worth of many Americans is plummeting, but it is an “investor’s market”, and those with the cash should be chomping at the bit to get in while prices are low. Real estate is long term, secure, and has great potential for varying sources of ROI, from new renters to property appreciation and more.

So to review, a self-directed IRA or 401(k), with the Roth option, is reportedly the best way to go when investing in real estate. Alternatively, a real estate trust or loans are viable options. If you do decide to put your hard-earned money into property, be sure to take advantage of both the NMTC and the RTC. These credits “twinned” together, paired with low housing prices and an influx of inventory, means that NOW is truly the time to invest in real estate.

Know the Truth, No Matter How Hard It Hurts

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:49:51 -0800

“A 2% reduction in negative word of mouth boosts sales growth by 1%”

London School of Economics and Political Science, “Advocacy Drives Growth” Study

If you are an active participant in today’s social media circles, you NEED to be monitoring and managing your reputation. I’m not talking about your street rep (the kind that keeps you from getting mugged by a rival gang), but your online rep (the kind that keeps your company and your name shielded from mudslingers). As shown in the London School of E&PL’s Word - of - Mouth study, mismanagement of your online reputation has the potential to devastate not only your image, but also your sales rate and company growth. Thankfully, there is a bevy of web-based tools, both free and paid, that can assist you in your rep tracking.

“Reputation Management” may strike fear in your heart and conjure dollar signs in your eyes, but rest assured that you can effectively track and manage your web rep without paying for anything. How, you may ask? Well, as David Salvato comments, “Free tools are the best tools when powered by Google.”

1. Google Alerts/Google Reader, and Google Blog Search

If it was deemed socially acceptable in a business setting, I would have ‘Google’ tattooed on my forehead in full color. Unfortunately I would probably lose my job so I’ll have to be content with directing readers to use Google’s array of rep management tools. Firstly, be sure to set up Google Alerts for yourself. These keyword searches are completely free and are delivered to you as they are indexed by, you guessed it, Google. The easiest way to organize and view your Alerts is to send them directly to your Google Reader, as opposed to routing them into an email inbox. Here is a list of keywords to get you started:

Company & Product name
- Also track variations thereof, for example “Company X has terrible service”, “Company X is fantastic”, and so on
Employee names
Website Keywords
- Check your website analytics to see which keywords are generating the most traffic
Competitor names

Setting up your Reader to the best of its potential can be a pill; check out this preso from Ian Lurie for an easy-to-follow walkthrough. Another great tool to familiarize yourself with is Google’s Blog Search. As opposed to the basic Google Search, Blog Search scours blogs, forums, and comments to deliver results per the keywords you request.

2. StepRep

In the same vein as Google Blog Search, StepRep delivers search results per the keywords you dictate, and files them according to your response. This means that every search result you receive will be filed in your “Reputation Monitor” within either the “Positive”, “Negative”, or “Not Relevant” folders. StepRep will oftentimes deliver pages that Google Alerts miss. They also provide a website widget you can embed in your blog or site that features an easily-updated list of the StepRep results you want to promote.

Between these two tools you will have eyes on almost every mention of your brand and your competitors indexed across the world wide web. Keep in mind though, that beyond simply tracking your online reach it is imperative that you constantly produce good content. Reputation management ties directly into social networking best practices. If you are posting regularly on your blog and syndicating your content to as many sources as possible, you will increase your reputation, be it positive or negative. If you are active on Twitter and like-minded ‘live interaction’ platforms, you will affect your rep. If you are responding positively to comments and linking out to sources and working on your SEO and…the list goes on and on. Basically, if you are following the guidelines and suggestions set out by successful social media marketers you will be effectively managing your web rep. By producing as much positive content as you can muster, you will eventually smother the negative content nipping at your heels. One of the best ways to do this is syndicate your content to a multitude of sources; of course, this means that you need to set up a multitude of profiles/blogs in as many places as you can. This sort of ‘spider-web’ network increases SEO as well, since you now have 20 blog posts linking back to “Yourwebsite.com”, as opposed to just 3 or 4.

So now you know how easy (and FREE!) it really is to manage your online reputation. The tools I have listed above are free or charge, easy to use, and extremely effective for both corporations and individuals. If you would rather not use the tools mentioned above, check here, here, and here for more ideas. Remember that it is best to approach negative feedback with a customer-centric mindset; don’t fall into the trap of hoping it will just go away on its own. Take the proactive approach: deal with the problem and then bury it under a mountain of positive web content. And always remember that cultivating a good reputation is tied directly to your social networking efforts. If you are truly transparent in your networking efforts, your good reputation will make itself.

Goomzee Heats Up The Summer By Signing Four More Multiple Listing Services

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:33:25 -0700

Missoula MT Sept 8, 2009 - Agreements with Intermountain MLS of Boise and Northwest Montana Association of REALTORs in Kalispell, plus two others, continue to grow Goomzee’s nationwide footprint. Goomzee®, a leading text message marketing and lead generation provider that connects buyers and sellers in real time, announces agreements with four more multiple listings services.

Intermountain MLS of Boise Idaho spans southern Idaho and eastern Oregon and is the largest multiple listing service provider in Idaho. Northwest Montana Association of REALTORs spans Montana’s beautiful Flathead Lake communities and is the largest multiple listing service provider in Montana. Goomzee also has signed agreements with Missoula Organization of REALTORs and Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORs with respective deployments pending.

“It is the Intermountain MLS’s practice to provide our members with the best available information resources and tools, increasing their value to their customers and making them more productive,” said Greg Manship, CEO of the Intermountain MLS of Boise. “Goomzee will be a great asset in helping agents connect with buyers using today’s mobile and web technology.”

Mike Sparr, CEO of Goomzee, celebrated the signings.

“The nation’s leading MLS groups are recognizing Goomzee’s unique value proposition and continue to move forward with implementations. Recently in California, for instance, we’ve been selected as the provider of choice for three additional MLS groups totaling over 51,000 members. The nation’s leaders continue to acknowledge that Goomzee’s service, agility, and dedication to helping their members is unrivaled and for that, I’m thrilled.”

With the addition of Intermountain MLS, Northwest Montana Association of REALTORs (NMAR), Missoula Organization of REALTORs (MOR) and longtime client, Billings Association of REALTORs, Goomzee has further secured its leadership position throughout the Inland Northwest. Additional rollouts in Pennsylvania, and pending rollouts in North Carolina, California and other key markets continue to secure Goomzee’s leadership position nationwide.

Goomzee’s existing partners continue to rave about the power Goomzee’s technology delivers to their agents, and their organization.

“Goomzee has provided a cutting edge product to the membership with very little effort by MLS Staff while having developed many opportunities for rev share or site license to its partner,” states Rosemary Scardina, CEO of The Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORs. “The Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS MLS couldn't be more pleased to be working with Goomzee. ALL MLS' SHOULD CHECK THEM OUT.”

Goomzee’s text message marketing solution, Realty Connect, compliments any MLS system and not only simplifies text message campaign publishing with their MLS Publishing Wizard, but also delivers valuable real-time market intelligence to the MLS organization on what buyers are looking at, when and where. Before Goomzee, there was no efficient way to gather this information for a 360-degree picture of the market.

About Goomzee
Goomzee® Corporation, based in Missoula, MT, is a mobile and online service that connects buyers and sellers using text messaging technology. Its industry-leading text message marketing platform, Realty Connect, delivers unmatched value and innovation to pacify sellers, buyers and sales professionals by facilitating live interaction while delivering property information and photos to buyer’s cell phones. Goomzee was founded in 2003 and services clients worldwide, including the world’s leading mobile technology and telecommunications firms, real estate brokerages and franchises, multiple listing services and REALTOR associations. Learn more about Goomzee online at http://www.goomzee.com.

GOOMZEE SIMPLIFIES PHOTO MANAGEMENT FOR REALTORS; INTRODUCES DRAG & DROP

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:26:37 -0700

Missoula, MT - August 25, 2009 – Goomzee, a leading provider of text-message marketing solutions for real estate professionals, announced today one of its latest innovations for marketing professionals, drag and drop photo organizing. This functionality is available within its web-based campaign management software that its customers use to publish and manage text message marketing campaigns. The new functionality will allow any user to reorganize photos and captions in seconds right from their web browser with a simple drag and drop interface.

Sales professionals realize that photos are essential when marketing any product or service today, and real estate marketing is no exception. Recognizing this need several years ago, Goomzee introduced its patent-pending technology, Mobile Virtual Tours. According to the company, users can upload photos from their computer or from any website, and the system generates a multi-photo slideshow that can be delivered to mobile devices as a single message, saving consumers from expensive messages or annoying ‘blasts’ of multiple messages. When photos are automatically retrieved from MLS data feeds, the need for users to reorder photos, and their captions, was recognized so the company introduced the ability to reorder photos with a simple drag and drop interface.

“We continue to push the envelope when it comes to innovation that improves our customers’ businesses. In the past year we have led the industry with innovations such as our exclusive Auto Responder, interACT lead follow up system, Dashboard with printable reporting and interactive charting, and now with our Drag & Drop photo reordering technology,” claims Mike Sparr, Goomzee’s founder and CEO. “REALTOR associations, MLS’s, and enterprise clients continue to choose Goomzee over others, noting that our products and company offer more depth in technology, responsiveness and industry expertise than any they evaluate. We always strive to be the best at what we do and the industry has certainly noticed. I’m grateful for our wonderful clients nationwide who’ve helped us make this possible; rest assured, our commitment to innovation and quality continues.”

Drag and drop interfaces are common with desktop software but they are now becoming more popular within web applications. As web browser technology advances, the line between desktop applications and web-based applications blurs, exposing users to a richer online user experience. Goomzee’s adoption of these emerging web standards is yet another example of what users come to expect from leading web-based technology solutions.

About Goomzee
Founded in 2003, Goomzee Corporation is a leading national real estate marketing and technology solutions provider. The company’s core technology is specifically designed to connect buyers and sellers. Clients look to Goomzee for global expertise in mobile and web-based technology solutions. For more information about Goomzee, visit http://www.goomzee.com .

Contact:

Goomzee Corporation
Mike Sparr, CEO
406-542-9955
mike@goomzee.com
http://www.goomzee.com

Will The Real Fidelity Please Stand Up?

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:46:36 -0700

As you may know, the holdings of Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions have recently been re-branded as LPS Real Estate Group. Some individuals in the industry instantly labeled the move as a “Fire Sale”, but in reality the situation is really nothing more than a simple name change. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have spoken so quickly. “Simple” is misleading, as the advent of LPS has caused a bit of confusion among Real Estate agents and RE tech vendors alike, many of which work with FNRES-now-LPS on a daily basis.

With this confusion in mind, I set out to decipher the Rubix cube that is LPS’ corporate history. Thankfully, several timelines made my job quite easy; here are my findings:

It all started when Fidelity National Financial (FNF) acquired Chicago Title and Trust Co. in 2000. Finalized on March 20^th, the acquisition set FNF up to host a “leading market share in excess of 30%”. A worthy feat, no doubt, but Fidelity neglected to rest on its laurels. In 2001, a merger with VISTAinfo spawned Fidelity’s Mortgage Information Services (MIS) branch. MIS promptly announced joint ownership of a leading national real estate database with LexisNexis (a global business information provider), and followed up with what FNF deemed the “best in industry” MLS system and IDX framing solution. MIS rounded off the year with an acquisition of HomeSeekers’ XMLSweb™ division, a move which carried over into 2002 with MIS’s follow-up acquisition of ISDI and FNF’s acquisition of Eastern Software’s Empower.

Unbeknownst to many, Fidelity National Financial had big, big plans for 2003. While all of the action listed above was going on, ALLTEL Information Systems had been quietly chugging along, processing roughly 20 million loans in the late ‘90s and slowly but surely acquiring underwriters, data systems, and mortgage software. 2003 broke the seal on a new era for the loan community as FNF acquired ALLTEL’s financial services division and renamed it Fidelity Information Services. With their loan processing powerhouse in place, FIS was now in a position to make a series of corporate acquisitions that stretched for the next three years. The list includes such software companies as Hamilton & Sullivan Ltd., Kordoba GmbH & Co., Aurum Technology, Certegy, and Sanchez Computer Associates.

By the end of 2006, Fidelity’s MSP mortgage platform was processing over 28 million loans, had become a publicly traded company, had been named the #1 bank technology firm in America, and had also been named to the S&P 500 index. FNRES was fast becoming the “go-to” name for loans, financial technology, and MLS software. FIS launched their Loan Portfolio Solutions division in 2007, and a year later went live with Lender Processing Services as a publicly traded company. LPS then formed the LPS Real Estate Group to monitor FNRES’ real estate related holdings. This is how the company stands today, a thriving, complex financial powerhouse.

I hope this synopsis clears up confusion for some of you. Like many in the industry, we here at Goomzee were thrown for quite a loop when we began hearing buzz about LPS. Now that we have the names straight, we look forward to working with the LPS Real Estate Group.

How Being ‘Hyperpersonal’ Helped Me Meet New Bloggers

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:54:30 -0700

Everyone knows the importance of having ‘hyperlocal’ content on your blog, but how many people, I wonder, recognize the importance of being ‘hyperpersonal’? Last week I was tasked to uncover some hyperlocal blogs in our current clients’ markets. Most ‘experts’ will say the best way to get on another blogger’s radar would be to lurk around the site until you find a post you feel comfortable commenting on. But I must say that I am not a fan of waiting, plain and simple. I found several blogs across the States worth following and here is how I went about garnishing the authors’ interest via ‘hyperpersonal’ means:

There is a real person behind every blog. This person has a unique childhood, a high school they graduated from and will remember forever. These people have first loves, firstborn children, and first houses just like the rest of us. ‘Hyperpersonal’ speaks to the idea of meeting the person behind the brand name, the history and memories behind the face. The most tactful way I found to do this when sifting through new blogs is to send a simple email to the main author. Some blogs are managed by groups of contributors, so maybe pick your favorite one or the overall admin contributor.

So what do you email them once you’ve found an author? I took the time to read through their latest page of posts, trying to find at least one positive remark I could make about their blog. Examples range from:

“That front view shot is perfectly framed with those tree branches. Nice shot! This house looks great; hopefully won’t take too long to sell.”

…to:

“You guys have some great hyperlocal links and content on your blog, such as local school district info and community events.”

After finding something I liked about their work, I also took the time to seek out their real name. One of Boise, ID’s fine REALTORs responded favorably to this email. She said her team “really appreciate[s] it when people take the time to learn our names.” She also asked for a little more information about Goomzee and Realty Connect.

As you can see, my initial, personalized message opened the door to an explanation of my company’s product. I didn’t have to include my value statement in the initial message because my ‘hyperpersonalization’ spoke for itself. I received many such replies from America’s agents, and have since come to realize that while real estate marketing needs to be ‘hyperlocal’ to be effective, online marketing needs to be ‘hyperpersonal’, or it will be dismissed as nothing more than SPAM or solicitation.

Jeff Turner of Realestateshows.com said this on the subject: “There’s always going to be need for face-to-face communication in real estate. Find a way to marry the two worlds.”

"What happens if I put a '0' here..."

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:07:15 -0700

Last week’s team meeting produced an interesting tale of ‘overpricing woe’. The parents of one of my associates listed their house in mid-2006 at $590,000. The inaccurate list price was determined by their real estate agent, and the property sat on market for nearly 2 years, suffering a price drop of almost $200K. By the time my co-worker’s family unloaded the property, they had to settle for only $400,000; this unpleasant situation could’ve been avoided if only it had initially hit the market in the correct price range.

Overpriced listings are, unfortunately, a common practice in real estate. Some agents overprice their listings thinking they have provided themselves with “wiggle room” when it comes time to negotiate. Other agents price too high because they are either in agreement with the seller’s over-inflated valuation, or they are “buying the listing”: an unethical practice I will expound on later in this post.

Overpricing a listing for the sake of “wiggle room” may seem like a good idea, but in the end it will only serve to hamper your selling efforts. High priced homes do not yield as many inquiries as listings that are priced competitively; the lack of offers usually leads to several price reductions and a lengthier term on market, two factors that serve to erode the integrity of your listing. Savvy buyers will shy away from ‘lemons’ that have sat for months on end, only moving in for the kill when the agent has reduced the price by half of its original value.

Sometimes homes are priced too high for no other reason than the agent-seller team is in agreement. The trick in this situation is being able to look at a property objectively, as a buyer would see it. The seller’s viewpoint is obviously biased, but rightfully so since he/she has large sums of money invested in the property. Oftentimes valuations of a home are inflated due to upgrades the seller has performed. Sadly, buyers tend to not see the value in these upgrades, opting instead to modify the home themselves and therefore considering any upgrades the current owner has performed nothing more than the offering that’s on the table. Overpricing your listing based on current homeowner upgrades has the potential to lead to the unpleasant situation where the homeowner realizes that they spent more money on upgrades than they will ever see at the time of closing.

Unethical agents will sometimes attempt what is called “buying the listing”. This happens when the agent enters into a listing presentation with a purposefully over-inflated CMA. Of course, since homeowners oftentimes (through no fault of their own) have inflated valuations of their property, the ‘shady’ CMA aligns with the seller’s wishes and the agent has effectively bought himself a client by knowingly catering to their unawareness. Sometimes agents enter into these situations with the intention of talking down the seller at a later date; this, also, is not a good idea since your initially over-inflated price will undermine any chance the agent has of cashing in on the “New Listing Hype”.

You will get no argument from me that this is a touchy situation. No agent has ever won a listing by strong-arming their clients and ordering them around like green recruits. But, the question becomes: at what point are you catering too much to the seller that you are, in fact, sabotaging the transaction? It is the responsibility of the agent to draw on their industry expertise to protect their clients from low-ball offers, high-priced listings, and any physical harm incurred at the negotiation table. They are not only investing in your expertise, but ultimately placing their future in your hands. It is the duty of the agent to live up to those expectations.

Wishing I Was a First-Time Homebuyer in '09

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:06:37 -0700

I am in no position to stand on a soapbox and preach a “How To” on revitalizing the real estate market. I can however let you in on today’s most un-secretive, yet still ambiguous headline that stands to be one of your greatest selling tools for 2009: The $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit.

With more than 300,000 buyers ‘coming off the fences’, one could attribute the recent industry uptick to several factors: a reduced inventory of agents which means a higher quality offering from those that remain; constant technological innovations serving to assist agents and streamline the closing process; the ‘21st Century brokerage model’, changing the game for both agents and clients; Zillow and Trulia; NAR/DOJ outcome; the list goes on and is highly debatable.

What we can all agree upon are the undeniable, long-awaited benefits of the $8,000 Tax Credit. A near-clone of the $7,500 Credit of 2008 (which was more of a low-interest loan, than anything), the $8,000 Credit is different in that it does not have to be repaid. Quick, read this article.

As you can see, I dare not exaggerate. The skinny on the $8,000 Tax Credit:

- $8,000 tax credit/refund available to first-time homebuyers (anyone who has not owned a principal residence in the last three years, and/or has/will purchase/d a home between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009.)
- Not to be repaid, unless taxpayer vacates residence within three years of purchase
- Taxpayer must make under $75,000 annually if filing alone; $150,000 annually if filing jointly with a spouse

Tax Credit cannot be used if:

- The home you purchased/received was purchased/received from a close family member
- Your gross income is above $75,000 if alone; $150,000 if filing jointly
- You have been in possession of a principal residence sometime on the previous three years
- The property you are looking to acquire will not serve as your principal residence

Those are just some high-level bullets as to the stipulations concerning the $8,000 Tax Credit. As you can see, it is fairly easy to attain, and applies to a large portion of America’s home buyers. The goal of the government in signing off on this Credit was to breathe some life back into the pocketbooks of our country’s consumers. Sale rates that have been free-falling since 2008 have since leveled off, and many buyers are now warming up their check-writing hands, looking for the next great deal.

Missy Caulk’s team had the right idea. The day that the false HUD comment was made (read this if you are unfamiliar with this event), one of Caulk’s team members decided to forward the information, along with info on the Tax Credit, to all of her home-searching contacts. Getting this Credit info in front of the eyes of home buyers is critical, and that’s where REALTORs come in.

The public needs to be aware and needs to be educated on the nuances of the 1st Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit. Implemented wisely, this credit could be the deciding factor on whether or not some of 2009’s buyers will acquire a home this year. In many cases, the Tax Credit is equal or close to the full amount of a down payment. So, while the Credit cannot actually be used for down payments, it has served in many cases as a refund to the down payment. I’m saddened, actually, by the fact that I will not be able to take part in this great opportunity. Since I will not be buying a home before December 1st, 2009, I will not be eligible to receive a cool $8,000 from Capitol Hill. So sad…

However, do not let my missed opportunity be your clients’ as well. Get out there and get this info in front of them…the time to buy is now.

'Green' Goomzee

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:07:15 -0700

A recent sign order resulted in our supplier mistakenly printing over 30 extra sign riders.

Acknowledging the mistake, our supplier offered to dispose of them at no charge, a courteous gesture...

...but in today's economic and environmental climate...

...how could we just throw away 30ish perfectly good signs? Instead, we returned the signs, and asked our provider to simply re-label them when the time comes for the next order.

Fantastic! An environmentally-friendly, all-around 'green' solution to a potentially wasteful problem! Goomzee also reduces paper waste by delivering listing information to homebuyers via text message. In fact, I even get 'THE LOOK' from co-workers when I print something onto hardcopy. It's exciting to work for a company that does its part for the environment.

In what areas are you taking steps to 'Go Green'?

Are You Networking Properly?

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:01:54 -0700

I am moving! True, packing, hauling, sorting, and paying 1st Month's Rent is not at all enjoyable, but a new place to live in is like taking a new lease on life. Sadly, I have to be out of my current residence by the end of this week, and I haven't even started packing...Hello Procrastination, my old friend.

No matter. What I'm missing in terms of packing/sorting joy, I'm more than making up for in terms of networking. On Wednesday I set up an appointment to take a walk-through of a condo up in the South Hills of Missoula. Slightly off the beaten path, a bit of a struggle for my little Nissan to get to, but a great place nonetheless. What surprised me when I got there was the real estate agent standing expectantly in the front lawn, clipboard hugged to her chest and her eyes scanning the entrance to the one-way cul-de-sac. You see, I had responded to a Craig's List Advertisement for this condo, and therefore wasn't expecting it to be an agent- listed property. As I opened the door and stepped into the street, I was thinking to myself that this agent must realize the marketing value inherent in a good online presence, a trait exclusive to tech-savvy agents. This was my 'in'.

We took a quick run-through of the single-floor rental and got right to business talking about fees and utilities and whether or not my 4-foot red-tailed boa Susie could claim a corner of the condo. Business was over as quickly as it began, and soon a lull in the conversation proffered me my shot at the door. Taking my opportunity, I stood up and threw my shades back on, reached for my wallet, and asked her, "How's business for ya? We've noticed a bit of an uptick in the market lately..."

This was it, the moment of truth. At this point I had let her know that I am somehow connected with real estate through some sort of official capacity. Now it was on me to make or break the connection; I slowly extended my hand, offering her a crisp, clean new business card.

"That's for you," I suavely grinned.

I could see her breath catch in her throat, a slight hand tremble, a lean against the counter as she took the card, flipped it over a few times, and ultimately tucked it safely into the clipboard. As she accepted the card and glanced at its modest black lettering, a wave of accomplishment washed over me: I had just handed out my first business card in a professional setting.

So I may have embellished a bit on her reaction, but it was still an exciting moment in my week. Until last Wednesday, I had not had any face-to-face networking on a business level. Sure, I've handed out biz cards here and there, but my mom and my roommates are not viable business contacts. The interaction I had with the agent at the condo was the first time I've met with somebody under the Goomzee banner, the first time I talked shop with an agent in the field, and the first time I unloaded a biz card to someone who will actually read it (hopefully).

So now I know what it's all about: F2F (face2face). I trudge through my daily blog rounds, sift through the Twitter noise, and take pains to keep my company's Facebook page updated, and now I know why: so I can convert my online interactions into living, breathing, face-to-face relationships.

I hope everyone had a great time networking at NAR's Midyear; don't forget to keep it up when you get back home! Happy Selling!!

Ensure Your Next Commission is Secure

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:46:06 -0700

“I question the validity of a practice that allows you to be paid when you didn’t do the job you’re getting paid for.” - Brenda Florida, Century 21 Alliance of Lansdale, PA

“Procuring Cause should simply go away. It’s an antiquated system.” - Tom Early, President of National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents

Procuring cause. It pains me just to type the phrase; like the words “Root Canal” or “Pepto-Bismol”, ‘procuring cause’ packs around negative connotations like they’re a new-born litter of possums. What most agents don’t know is that while procuring cause may be a danger, it is in fact a two-way street that has the capability to benefit both listing and selling agents.

Verily, hast thine gotten ahead of thineself? Thou hast! Forgive me; for all you readers out there that are still in the dark as to what procuring cause actually means, let me explain. Procuring cause disagreements arise when a prospective homebuyer expresses interest in a property and is, in some way, introduced to the property by a licensed real estate agent. The introduction could take place at a showing, open house, or in the agent’s office over a cup of coffee and a stack of photos. After this meeting, the buyer drops off the face of the earth, only to re-appear a few months and a few different showings later with another agent. The buyer, along with Agent #2, then expresses interest in the house introduced by the first agent, and suddenly #2’s commission is in danger. Disagreements arise because Agent #1 feels like it is his client since he struck up the relationship and showed the buyer the house he wants. Agent #2 thinks it is his sale because he has taken the buyer to several other houses and was unaware of Agent #1. Who gets the commission?

As you can see, procuring cause cases get pretty nasty, pretty quick. The beauty of procuring cause is that the outcome, most often decided by a mediator or arbitration panel, is entirely situation-specific, or ‘property-specific’. Panels will award procuring cause to he who has the following legitimate claim: the ability to define that you, as the REALTOR, started the unbroken chain of events that resulted in a transaction. ‘Breaking’ the chain of events is often defined as either ‘abandonment’ or ‘estrangement’.

NAR’s Arbitration Manual proffers the following definitions of ‘abandonment’ and ‘estrangement’: ·

Abandonment – when the broker's inactivity, or perceived inactivity, may have caused the purchaser to reasonably conclude that the broker had lost interest or disengaged from the transaction. ·

Estrangement - the broker engaged in conduct which caused the purchaser to terminate the relationship, either via words or actions.

In other words, when you put off calling a client because you’re busy playing Bejeweled, you have no case upon which you can claim procuring cause. Also, if you perhaps decide to replace a stripe of your client’s cherry-red painted Porsche with the champagne color of your Yukon on the way out of the office lot and then subsequently blame it on your shotgun-riding client, you have no case upon which you can claim procuring cause. Sad, I know, but painfully true.

We already know what Mrs. Florida and Mr. Early have to say on the subject; but what about you? Have you ever estranged a buyer and squandered a sale? Or have you taken pains to place all your ducks in a row, which in turn has awarded you with procuring cause and a cut of a nearly-lost commission? What steps have you taken in the past to avoid procuring cause disputes?

3 Tips for Brokers That 'Inspire to Hire' Pt. 2

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:19:42 -0700

Below is Part 2 of “Tips for Brokers”. Part 1 (viewable here) offered up some golden nuggets of brain food by covering Who to Recruit and How to Recruit Them. We pick up where we left off below by discussing the all-important interview process. The interview is a face-to-face interaction that can be handled several different ways to achieve successful results. Unfortunately, the process on the whole is oftentimes overlooked and/or poorly conducted. Read on to learn how to make the most out of your next series of interviews.

What to Do Once You’ve Recruited… Let’s set up a hypothetical: Broker Bill has fifteen prospects in his lobby. His end goal: narrow down his findings to three ‘possibles’. His problem: which way to go about interviewing. Should Bill conduct his interviews in the traditional manner, i.e. a mano-y-mano grilling of each prospect, ending only when they begin to break into tears? Or perhaps the Boiler Room route is best, a la Ben Affleck’s “Hitler youth rally”-like group interview that is less of an interview and more of a shock-and-awe presentation of your company’s new-hire philosophy. Whichever you choose, make sure you have multiple people sit in on the interview process. It is nigh impossible for an individual to make an objective decision; they will subliminally cater to like-minded prospects, unintentionally closing the door to the other potentials regardless of their merits. For this reason, include several people in the initial interview/questioning, or set up a tiered interview system that passes off prospects to a different ‘interrogator’ every time. This will ensure that potential hires will pass through selection based on merits, not likeability.

While in the process of assessing candidates, it’s important to remember to trust your gut. Resumes will only tell you so much, and oftentimes paint a greatly exaggerated picture of a prospect’s achievements and work habits. As interviewer it is your responsibility to break through the ‘front’ put on by most potential hires; the facade that has been cultivated and polished to depict a perfect employee, but may not necessarily mirror what is truly on the inside. The qualities that make up an ideal salesman (quick thinking, confidence, communicates well, works with others, you get the idea.) are indefinable but easily recognizable. And if not by you, then most definitely by the rest of your team. Since his potential hires will be working directly with the agents he already has in place, it may be a good idea for Broker Bill to embark on a sort of office-wide field trip. This would give his ‘Top 3’ a chance to interact with his existing team, which offers the team a chance to evaluate Bill’s prospects; a move that stealthily passes the decision-making onto the agents, since of course Bill is going to ask for their feedback…

One final note: Background Checks! (Click here to view a list of background-checking groups.) While it may seem like a formality, due diligence is of the utmost importance when it comes to background checks. A complete check includes reference checks, criminal history checks, and work history checks that produce clear job descriptions and requirements. Armed with this info, you’ll be able to lay down the hammer when potential hires begin to embellish their former positions.

I hope this post provides you with some ideas to implement when it comes time to hire some fresh meat. Hiring valuable agents will be an integral facet of the industry’s uphill struggle; if we keep populating the field with under-trained, incompetent bags of air, the market numbers will go nowhere but down. It should be a no-brainer at this point that a brokerage’s profitability is directly attributed to the style of agents they hire. For this reason, I encourage you to spend as much productive time as possible when screening new hires; your decision could put the market back on its feet.

3 Tips for Brokers That 'Inspire to Hire' Pt. 1

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:16:07 -0700

An oft-overlooked aspect of the real estate brokerage is the new agent hiring process. While not so much different from any other business’ hiring process, there are several nuances that brokers must take into account when screening the new blood. The important thing to remember is that you, the broker, are a different type of boss than what one would encounter in, say, an In-N-Out burger. True, the questions asked and best practices followed during an interview may not be too terribly different between the RE Broker and Burger Bob, but the role played by both parties couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Real estate agents by nature are independent. This trait is what attracted most of them to the biz in the first place; sort of the same inherent longing for the unknown that drove most trappers West in the 1800s. They (agents) thrive on their own, take pleasure in their Lone Ranger status, even revel in the solitude provided by their home office. For these reasons, brokers need to be less of a hand-holding, micro-managing boss and more of an always-available mentor. Micro-managing, nitpicky brokers are a turn-off to independent, self-empowering, and self-critical agents; and practicing these sorts of management techniques will only help to hurt your brokerage.

So what, then, truly helps your brokerage? How does one go about becoming ‘all the broker they can be’? First off, it’s all about the hiring process. Knowing who, how, and when to recruit new bodies into the fold is a lengthy process that should most definitely be handled by more than one set of hands, regardless of who makes the final decision. Of course, the first step in the agent hiring process is to identify Who You Want to Recruit.

This usually means deciding whether to set your crosshairs on either wet-eared greenhorns or battle-hardened mountain men. But I say, why not both? Is there a downside to having a healthy mix (experience-wise) of agents on your team? Those that have outrun tribes of angry natives a time or two will be better equipped to teach the new breed how to hunt, and in return will be schooled in modern technology by the younger generation. Hmmm, perhaps the frontier analogy ‘galloped’ away from me there. Kinda like how a ravenous pack of bloodthirsty wolves runs off a herd of buffalo…

Anyway...try to avoid the tell-tale signs of a sub-par agent. Experienced brokers know that splits and benefits don’t attract experienced agents; your value offering takes care of that. With this in mind, beware of young bloods that step up the plate and instantly start asking about pay, commission-splits, desk fees, benefits, vacation time, etc. Sure, these things are all integral to the hiring process, but they can also be broached at a better time than the initial interview. When an agent leads with these sorts of questions, it is pretty apparent that they are money-grubbing and probably not so much interested in the well-being of your company beyond its ability to output a paycheck on a set schedule. YOU DON’T NEED THIS KIND OF AGENT! Remember, you don’t have to ‘buy’ prospects when your value offering blows their socks off.

Which brings me to step number deux: How To Recruit. Headhunters will hold firm that advertising in the existing job-search mediums will net you nothing more than run-of-the-mill, unethical, and lazy agents who are going to produce about as much value as a hole-less strainer. In case some of you have as much trouble with on-the-fly math as I do, that would be a big ZERO. They maintain that the only way to populate your brokerage with valuable bodies is to retain a personnel ‘headhunter’. This is like me telling you the only way to sell a property is to use Realty Connect. Good for me, yes, but a falsehood nonetheless. 4 ways to recruit agents: Monster.com, Word-of-mouth, advertising, and trade show presence. There are countless job-search sites on the net, and a select few have risen above the rest to provide the bestest job search information; I would advise using one of the top dogs to ensure your not wasting your time. Experts have suggested setting apart a section of your website for ‘Help Wanted’ ads. This is definitely an option, and also something that could be implemented in any sort of periodical produced by your office. As far as trade shows are concerned, it’s no mystery that the ‘who’s who’ of the industry can be spotted at the popular conferences like Inman Connect and NAR’s Mid-Year. But among the real estate bigwigs are thousands of individual agents looking to break the mold and hop on the innovation train. They are in attendance because they don’t mind making that extra effort. You know, then, that they are susceptible to recruitment because you know that they are looking for that next big ‘thing’ that will work wonders for their career. That ‘thing’ could be your brokerage.

Unfortunately, getting your name in front of the eyes of a new agent is only half the battle. Once they know of your office, they are going to seek out some sort of job description or requirement. True, the role of real estate agent does not vary too drastically, but every office has its tics, its unique requirements and its interesting rules. The job description should be transcribed in great detail and presented to a prospect as they are deemed interview-worthy. This document should contain a bullet-point rundown of ALL relevant office characteristics including fees, requirements, dues, benefits, parking procedures, coat-rack policies, and everything from the coffee maker best practices to which duties can be passed off onto the receptionist. While it may seem like a lot of unnecessary work during the hiring procedure to put together these materials, it will aid you in achieving a sort of continuity throughout the process. Continuity and standardization are key to ensuring that agents are hired on a completely objective basis.

More on the ‘Art of the Interview’ when we re-convene next week…

RETS...Can't You Get That From Mosquitos?

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:38:15 -0800

There's been a loud hullabaloo in the industry lately concerning IDX feeds. Unfortunately, the staggering amount of people who are unreasonably excited about IDX is equaled and possibly even surpassed by the amount of folks who couldn't tell IDX from their own left hand. I myself was included in the ranks of the un-knowledgeable until I received enlightenment not twenty minutes ago. Now, verily do I pass unto you:

Methinks that most of the confusion surrounding IDX has to do with the fact that IDX is an acronym. Allow me to define IDX, and while I'm at it, some of IDX's acronym'd friends: IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange, and is nothing more than the concept of displaying MLS information on a website. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is the old standard for networking MLS information. RETS stands for Real Estate Transaction Standard, and is the new standard for networking MLS information. Think of it like this: IDX is what you do, RETS and FTP is the way you do it. Let's break these down a little further:

There are several problems with the FTP standard, hence NAR's mandate concerning the obligatory RETS switch. First off, FTP feeds are only updated once in a 24-hour period. This means that there is a one day turnaround from when an agent updates his/her listings to the point at which the information is made available through the database. The extreme variation of data in FTP feeds has also led many organizations to simply 'framing' a listing search engine into their website; this results in a serious blow to their SEO, not to mention aesthetic appeal. FTP has been described as 'clunky' since information must be aggregated and verified from Point A and B, then delivered to Point C.

RETS, on the other hand, is a real-time feed that is updated in, you guessed it, real time. RETS cuts out the middle man (Point B), allowing for one-stop info exchange between MLS offices. The "common language spoken by systems that handle real estate information" also makes life easier for website developers by standardizing data input. This means that a RETS feed will deliver the same data fields in Virginia Beach as it would in San Luis Obispo.

So Why Should We All Be Happy About RETS?

Beyond the peace of mind achieved by using tried and true methods (reliable and standard in any area), RETS has several role-specific benefits. Agents will enjoy an influx of available vendors to choose from that will augment their business by integrating with the agent's standardized MLS. For vendors, a switch to RETS means saved development time and resources, as well as a larger pool of market opportunities. In other words, an entire industry operating off of the same standard is one big possibility for tech vendors. Brokers will profit as well; due to the increased competition between vendors, the productivity tools available will only get more refined and more valuable. Office websites will be populated easier, and data will be easier to compile and manage for offices who deal with more than one MLS.

While the mandated IDX switch may be an administrative burr under the saddle of most brokers, it is undeniable that such a change will do loads for the productivity of the industry. I have a hard time seeing how someone might have an issue with simplified data sharing. Short and sweet, it benefits everyone involved: from vendors to brokers down to buyers. I'm with NAR on this one; this could pan out to be the crucial change the industry needs to begin correcting itself.

How To De-Ice Your Phone Line

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:51:28 -0800

A few weeks ago, while driving down California’s sunny coastline, my sister asked me what made me different from every other telemarketer in America. You know who she was referring to: those guys that only seem to call between 6 and 7 p.m. offering you authentic, discount Cuban cigar bundles straight from the tropical beaches of New Jersey. At the time I wasn’t sure how to respond. But the crisp weather of my native Missoula Valley has since jarred my brain into production, and I am now equipped to answer my sister’s query. The only problem is, she no longer cares about my answer, so I’m forced to blog it out…

Cold calls: the bane of many a salesman’s existence. Unfortunately, even though they are feared more than spiders and public speaking, cold calls are an integral part of any sales pipeline. And even though nobody wants to be on the receiving end of a cold call, the cards are down and it’s becoming evermore apparent that cold calling is not only effective but here to stay. Herein lies the problem: how do we (salespeople dabbling in the cold call) avoid becoming a nuisance and only dial calls that will yield some traction? How do we save ourselves from rejection after bloody, painful rejection?

Well truth be told, rejection is as much a fact of life as stubbed toes, and especially more rampant among the cold calling ranks. Rejection, that is, not stubbed toes. So while you can’t save yourself from ever being rejected again, you can increase the chance of acquiring a new client by learning from where I have failed. Here ‘goes: 4 Hints to Help You Be All The Cold Caller You Can Be. Go get ‘em tiger…

“How Are You Today?”…Interestingly enough, ‘experts’ on the subject advise not to open a cold call with the phrase “how are you today?” Rubbish, I say. I ask every one of my new contacts how their day is going the second they get on the phone. It’s what I ask my friends when we connect, so why not my clients? Sure, it may put strangers on guard, but when was the last time you got a door slammed in your face for asking how somebody was doing? I can’t remember either…

It’s my belief that if you are sincerely…well, sincere…it is not at all a mistake to start out with a “how are you doing?” The positive responses I receive to this greeting, even from strangers and new contacts, greatly outnumber the negative ones, and often pave the way for a smooth, free-flowing conversation.

Which brings me to my next point: in order to maintain fluidity within your conversation, it is important to listen. Just like every zebra is two-toned, every conversation has two ends, and both must work together to keep the conversation going. Listen. React. Suggest. Listen to what they have to say after you shut your yap, react to their objections, and suggest a compromise or, better yet, a solution. The other end of the line needs to feel that what they have to say is just as important, if not more, than what you can offer. In order to achieve this level of interaction, you must know when to stop talking and start listening. Take pains to speak slowly and speak lightly. Ask questions. If you both begin to speak at the same time, give them the right-of-way. NEVER talk over your prospect.

Think: ‘Tired Sloth’…What? Tired Sloth? That’s right. You should speak at the same pace as that of a tired sloth. Remember that while you know your product inside and out, by very definition your cold call target does not. In fact, it could be their very first taste of your industry so it is best to keep the technical jargon (i.e. ACRNYMS, abbrs., and anythingthatishardtopronounce) to a minimum, while at the same time uttering your layman’s terms with the image of a slow-moving tugboat in your head. The moment you begin to cram your words together, mumbling through your pitch at a pace rivaling most auctioneers, will be the moment your potential client loses interest and drops the receiver in your ear. This is especially applicable to those of you with easy-to-mess-up names. Nothing makes you feel less effective than when one of your prospects, somebody whose name you recognize and can associate with his/her organization on the spot, brutalizes your or your company’s title. Take, for example, my associate Lon: Ron, Don, John, Fawn. Or Goomzee: Gooney, Groomzee, Goodzee, Coomzee. To avoid the uncomfortable situation of correcting your new contact, slow down and take the time to pronounce each syllable of every name throughout your conversation.

Beyond simply enunciating and speaking slowly, it’s important not to push your prospect too fast. Don’t be afraid to shoot the breeze; talk about the weather in their area (however cliché it may seem), joke about a recent news story, talk about anything that helps to ease the formality of what is obviously a solicitation. Remember, the purpose of a cold call is not to make a sale, but to secure the opportunity to make a sale. This means your focus should be less on receiving a cut and dry commitment from the prospect, and turned more towards ascertaining their unique needs and wants. By doing this you will not only be better equipped to offer them the most productive proposal possible, but the overall tome of the conversation will be a lot less constricting than the usual cold call. When Joe Smith calls with his fake Cubanos, it is inevitable that you feel tied to the phone for as long as he is pitching his Jersey knock-offs. This is not the way you want potential clients to feel: trapped, under attack, and on the defensive. Instead, keep in mind that they are people, just like you, and enjoy a real, rewarding conversation, just like you. It is, then, your responsibility to come to them in a subservient matter, ready to do whatever you can to help them (and their business) out. This sort of approach will lead to valuable interaction that yields more than just a rejection-sore ear.

So what sets me and my co-workers apart from every other telemarketer interrupting your dinner hour? Well first off my office closes at five. Second: ‘consumer centricity’. When I pick up my phone in the morning, I mentally prepare myself. I remind myself who I am calling, what end result I would like to achieve, and then I put a smile on my face. I realize that my call is probably the last thing these people want to receive, thus my goal is to make the experience as painless as possible for all parties involved. I am polite, I lament their sorrows (most often the weather), and I constantly remind myself to not be too pushy and keep my prospect’s interests in mind. I can take constant rejection, but I have a hard time swallowing a bad referral because of my negligence on the telephone. I hope my lessons learned will help you to be all the cold caller you can be. Happy selling…

Caveat Emptor

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:49:19 -0800

It is common knowledge that REO and foreclosure properties are selling like hotcakes, and that new home sales are lower than they’ve been since 1995. That’s all well and good, but how are we supposed to get a cut of the action? Those of you who are interested in buying decent properties at highly discounted rates: step into my office.

So what can you do to ensure that your next REO-aimed offer yields a deal? A number of things. First off, Get Approved. That’s right, it’s finance time. It will inevitably be brought to a head at some point throughout the transaction, so you might as well sidestep the land mine before it’s an issue and get pre-approved ASAP. Being pre-approved allows you to be move quickly as far as the transaction goes, quickness being a major factor in who wins and who loses. It’s also a good idea to keep your bank’s approval letter handy at all times, as it will serve well to soak up your tears of joy at the time of closing.

Some may think their offer will have a better chance of being accepted if they seek to be approved from the same bank that owns the sought-after property. Others may think that the listing bank prefers financing only from another bank, as opposed to a mortgage broker or private lender. These points of view are simply untrue. The listing bank could care less from where in the ‘lend-o-sphere’ you received your funding, just so long as you’re funded. To a bank in this scenario, cash is cash, and a buyer with cash is as welcome as Christmas morning.

Another sure-fire way to put some muscle behind your offer is to do a bit of research. When a bank acquires a property, the executive cadre immediately hosts a picnic, complete with fire pit, skewered pig, and seed-spitting contests. After the last raffle prize is given away, they then seek out a ‘Lost Mitigation Company’. The mitigation personnel provide several services to the bank, and are a main reason for the snail’s pace most REO deals move at. Lost Mitigation personnel (hereafter referred to as L.M. personnel) will immediately enter the home in question and do what they call ‘securing the residence’. This includes winterizing the home, cleaning anything that warrants a scrub, taking out the trash, and generally all the chores the former owner neglected but still must be performed in order to make the home saleable. L.M. personnel will then hire a broker to list and, hopefully, offload the property. In order to accurately price the home, banks realize the importance of discerning the property’s current comparative value; because of this, L.M. people will normally contact a few agents in the immediate area to get independent opinions of the ‘comp value’. This is called a Broker Price Opinion, or BPO, and each BPO scenario is taken into account when the bank lists an REO.

This is the point where a lot of people fail to help themselves. It is always important to do just as much, if not more, research than the listing bank has already done, and you can start at seeking out the comp value of your target home. A good rule of thumb is to make an initial offer that is roughly 88% of the current comp value. But keep in mind, comparative values are constantly changing. When offers on an REO are received, banks re-task their L.M. personnel to once again analyze the comp value. Because of the fluid nature of comp values, it is important to stay up to date so your offer doesn’t run the risk of becoming too low, thus defunct. Know this: low-ball offers for REO properties are unproductive. Period.

While you still have your research cap on, go ahead and contact a title company so you can acquire the title record of the property in question. This will give you a good financial history of the property (liens, back taxes, final amount owed at time of foreclosure), which may or may not illuminate how much the bank has invested in the property, but either way will help you to put together the optimum offer.

Caveat Emptor…”Let the Buyer Beware”…Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that when buying REO properties, you are buying at your own risk. Dealing with the remnants of a low-income household isn’t always the best experience, but alas, ‘tis the nature of the beast. Most foreclosed-upon tenants delight in leaving their refuse behind when they vacate, so be prepared to factor some repair costs into your initial offer. The bank doesn’t care about the quality of the home, so beyond whatever cleanup they sponsor through L.M. people, don’t expect to get much in the way of restoration reimbursement. An REO buyer buys as-is, so it’s not a bad idea to dust off your nail bags when considering an REO. Another thing to remember is that most REO transactions take a loooong time. There are many people involved, but they are spread out amongst several organizations. Because of this disjointed sort of ‘assembly line’, it is imperative that you as the buyer remain patient. To stress the importance of being patient, I will restate myself. It is imperative that you as the buyer remain patient.

Step up to the net and implement the above best practices next time you serve up an REO offer. Game, set, and match; enjoy your new home.

A Windy, Wonderful Day for Windermere

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:30:20 -0800

Windermere Sales Professionals Braving the Cold in Missoula, MT.

Today closes a very profitable week for Goomzee. Among other happenings, we delivered Realty Connect to our hometown Windermere office, and had them up and running within two hours!! Happy Selling from Missoula's Goomzee!!

For more detailed information on the rollout, check out our company's blog, here. Don't worry, it's not your normal rigid, stuffy corporate blog. In fact, it looks alot like this one...

Foreclosures - Is There A Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:12:32 -0800

Happy mid-January, from Sunny San Diego! Unfortunately, the Inland Empire's falling median home price is a harsh antithesis to the joyous sunshine that is causing the glare on my computer screen. A major headline in NBC-LA's evening newscast last night, DataQuick statistics highlight a 35% drop in SoCal home prices since December of last year. The San Diego-based research company reported an MHP (Median Home Price) of $278,000 last month for the six-county region of Southern California. This figure contrasts harshly with December, 2007's MHP, a dazzling $425,000.

Thankfully, there is a somewhat positive flipside to this cruel coin. According to this morning's Press-Enterprise, San Bernardino County observed the highest number of closed escrows for ‘any December since 2005'. I say somewhat because roughly 70% of these sales were homes that were repossessed when the owners failed to keep up with their mortgage.

Also from The PE: "last month's new home sales were the fewest for a December in Riverside County since 1995..."

In review, while home sales may be up, foreclosure rates are chugging steadily along and MHPs nationwide are falling like ripe avocados. I can't decide whether this is good news or bad news. Home values are decreasing, roundhouse-kicking homeowner equity to the moon and directly affecting America's MHP. But, homes are still selling.

I'm leaning towards good news. We have all been aware since last fall that the RE market was headed for a rough stretch. Inherent in the economic downslide was a drastic plummet of the nationwide MHP, as well as an increase in the rate of foreclosure. OK. Old News. We all saw it coming. It is my belief that in order to breathe life back into the market, we as a nation need to put this sort of bad news behind us and look to what we can do in the future. This is a good place to start. Sure the majority of SoCal homes sold were foreclosures, but at least somebody bought them, right? Am I na�ve in assuming that people buying houses is good for the housing market? What's wrong with people buying foreclosures? Buyers get a good deal, the bank unloads a headache, and everybody's happy. True, foreclosures sold at a lower price serve to worsen the area's MHP. But the MHP is only an average of the price these homes were sold at, not an average projection of the value of your home. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the MHP seems to me to be more of a report of something in the past rather than what can happen in the future.

So what do you think..? Is it just another weapon the mass media wields to keep us scared? Or does the MHP have enough relevance that we should all be stocking up on canned goods and retreating to our bomb shelters?

It's Just a Matter Of Time

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:07:35 -0800

Half-empty or half-full? Ethereal vengeance or a blessing in disguise? Whatever your view of the industry’s recession, know this: Those who can, will. Those who can’t will cease to be. And simply put, those who can are the agents who are most effective at self- and time-management. Economic duress will weed out the sun-dried agents in your office that aren’t producing, leaving more on the plate for those of you who are hungry and harbor a willingness to manage your time effectively.

The average full time worker, according to Salary.com, wastes 2.09 hours on any given 8-hour day, not including sanctioned lunch or break times. This sort of lax work ethic reportedly costs employers $759 billion a year on salaries for which real, profitable work is projected but not delivered. So how do you keep yourself from becoming just another time-wasting statistic? Follow these steps to become a modern-day Chronos, the mythological figure responsible for turning the Zodiac Wheel and thus, time.

Step back, pump fake…analyze. Just like when making a monetary budget, the first step to time management is to dissect both your ‘spending’ and your ‘income’. How much time are you physically in your office? And of that time, how many hours are spent surfing the web, how many spent reading emails, and how many are spent on the phone? By visually breaking down your typical day you will be able to honestly self-analyze your productivity hour by hour. It will become glaringly obvious that you spend too much time on the Drudge Report and not enough in your MLS database. Doing this will help you to…

…set time limits and plan out your day, the right way. Take the self-dissection one step further and break down what exactly you’re doing on the internet/phone/laptop/Wii. Are you spending your internet time playing flash games and searching for dinner recipes, or are you researching SEO and keeping up to date on the industry? There’s nothing wrong with internet usage, but there is a definite difference between productivity and foolishness. For example: FullTiltPoker = Foolishness. Inman.com’s Daily Headlines = Productive and Informative. If you have one area where you seem to be throwing your time away by the bucket-load, set yourself a designated time-slot or hour-limit and restrict yourself to staying on-task within the specified parameters. For example, as task queues allow, I set aside the 8 a.m. hour and read all incoming emails and new, daily headlines. By the time 9 o’clock rolls around, I’m up to speed on my associates’ happenings as well as the latest and greatest news of the industry. Doing so provides me with a confident base to make sales calls from for the rest of the day and does loads for my mental organization.

Once you have some time slots set aside, it is easier to commence planning out your day. Set blocks of time apart for each individual task; be it how long you will spend in your inbox, what time of the day will be spent on the phone following up with messages, and how many hours will be logged working to better each listing. My father, for example, sets aside several hours at the beginning of every winter week to shovel the sidewalks in front of each of his listings. If he did not purposely allot time for this, it would never get done. But he makes a point of it, and it has worked well to improve his standing with the neighbors, homeowners, and developers around town.

Speaking of being organized…it’s always a good idea to take a minute and organize the spit right out of your computer. My ‘Bookmarks’ tab is as organized as the National Library of Congress, and the same can be said for my ‘Documents’.

Most of the agents I know don’t stop at owning one computer. They have the office desktop, the home desktop, and the portable laptop so the office can join them on vacation. So how do you maintain continuity between home and work? Some tricks: make an effort to set up your folders in a mirrored fashion. Since most of the files will be the same, the only variable is the way you categorize. Set up folders to look exactly the same on all your hard drives. Speaking of hard drives, if you have issues with transporting files, consider investing in an external hard drive. These are basically jumbo versions of the common 2GB flash drive, and are available anywhere from $50 - $200.

Another trick: don’t underestimate the power of a ‘New Folder’. When you begin compiling files and end up with two or more of like-mindedness, put ‘em in a folder. And then put that folder in a folder. And then…you get the idea. My Documents are set up to contain one master, constantly changing folder entitled ‘Ongoing Projects’ surrounded by multiple broad storage folders, ranging from ‘Blogging’ to organization-specific folders containing organization-specific documents. As soon as I finish a task or project, all pertinent documents kindly remove themselves from my ‘Ongoing’ folder and distribute to a surrounding storage container. This helps me to find documents very quickly, both old and new, and I encourage you all to take some time and organize every last file on your hard drive. If nothing else, at least you’ll look busy…

Do work. Lastly, but possibly most important, it is imperative that you leave your personal life exactly where it belongs: at home. Remember your first job, where you weren’t quite sure what was expected of you, but still had the good sense to know what not to do? For example, no one had to tell you that you weren’t to use the office computer to check your MySpace or play games, or that you weren’t to be using your cell phone in view of customers, let alone the boss. And, of course, no napping! A good rule of thumb for the office: if you wouldn’t do it when the boss is around, don’t be doing it at all.

“But Austin,” you may say, “I am my own boss! How can I be kept accountable?”

The answer is simple. If you truly want to ‘make it’ in this day and age; if you sincerely hold the desire to work hard and close listings; if you are serious about being a profitable real estate agent; then you are the type of person who will know when you aren’t helping yourself. Plan your day like you would want a hypothetical employee to plan their day. Industry experts say this: Success for tomorrow starts today. Take the 4-5 p.m. hour to plan out exactly what you want to accomplish when you come back the next morning. Doing so will not only assist your next-day productivity, but the ‘cool-down’ period will ensure that you leave the office at the office, and are better capable of picking up the reins at home when you set down your briefcase.

Tips To Make You Someone Worth Listening To

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:41:45 -0800

In 2007, Forbes Magazine published a list of the 9 most commonly aroused fears. Included on the list were spiders, snakes and bats (oh my!), confined spaces, heights, and public transportation. Surprisingly, there is something else that most people fear more than death: public speaking. Apparently, many out there are afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of large groups, especially in a business setting. Who knew?

Well, don your backpack and grab that Batman lunchbox, ‘cause we’re going to speech school!

In any public speaking setting, it is important to accurately identify your audience. Some may say ‘target’ audience, but there is a definite difference between the ‘target’ audience that you’re trying to reach and the physical audience that is actually listening to you. While this may seem like a no-brainer, improper interpretation of your audience’s viewpoint will lead to one or both of the Two B’s: Boos and Blank Stares. Especially when presenting to investors, you have to place yourself in their shoes and attempt to determine what they are looking to get out of your presentation. Let’s run with the ‘investor example’.

When evaluating a new startup or investment opportunity, investors are simply wondering if the product being offered for review is compelling enough to warrant a funds transfer. That said, the whole process should be looked at less like a shakedown for cash, and more like the presentation of a valuable idea to those who have the ability to make it a reality. If you’ve created something that truly is of value, you’re doing your audience a favor by asking them to invest. Keeping this in mind, here are some tips to help you knock your next presentation out of the park.

Q: What is my business model? A: Investor Kryptonite. Fact of life: Business models are not made of concrete. They change, and change often. For this reason alone, refrain from making the meat of your presentation the same cut as your business plan. Potential investors could care less about how you speculate you will be making money in the coming years. Instead, narrow down one problem you are actively and successfully working to solve, and base your presentation around that. The boardroom will look at you like a much smarter person when you show them the steps taken to solve important industry issues. Besides being a waste of precious presentation minutes, business plans are nothing more than assumptions; if you have a particularly shoddy one investors will walk away thinking of you as “the company with the terrible business plan” rather than “the guys who are solving important problems”.

Those kids and their PowerPoint… Another surefire way to sabotage an investor presentation is to drop the ball when it comes to slideshows. This is most likely due to an ill-founded viewpoint of the actual role held by PowerPoint presentations. To set the record straight, the slideshow is a supplement to your presentation; it is not your entire presentation. Rule Number One: DO NOT Recite your slides. Rule Number Two: 20 words per slide, no more. Since Homo sapiens speak in sentence form, the easiest way to follow Rule Number One is to craft your slides to contain bullet points of no more than, you guessed it, 20 words per slide. This way, you can maintain eye contact with the audience while the slideshow advances behind you, augmenting your sentences with hyphenated detail. A minimal amount of pictures is a safe bet as well, reducing the clutter and amount of distractions. The audience is supposed to be reading you not the wall, after all.

Vite, vite! Lui l'arrêt! “Quick, quick! Make it stop!” Experts on the subject say you should aim to finish within 20 minutes, but will be interrupted so often that most of the time a presentation will stretch to 40 minutes. Regardless, most will agree that investors will judge your performance/business within the first 30-60 seconds, and if you don’t perform in that time frame, no mas cash. It is also considered best practice to progress rapidly to a product demonstration. Demos explain better than words, which is especially helpful in solicitation situations where people who are bad at explaining are presenting to people who are bad at understanding. Incidentally, this describes most investor presentation scenarios.

Fundraising is selling, not storytelling. Truer words were never spoken. When presenting, you must effectively sell not only your idea, but yourself and your management team. At this point, real estate agents have an advantage due to their independence. Investors want to know if you have the ability within the ranks of your personnel to put their monies to good use, so in this way it is easier on the presenter if they are only selling themselves. In the case of a team, touch on each member’s experience and how this relates to your team’s collective ability to ‘execute’. While it is certainly more productive to have only one member of the team actually speak during the presentation, if somebody happens to be highly specialized in a specific area a one- to two-minute interjection might be in order.

In order to effectively sell yourself, you must project mass amounts of confidence and poise. Nobody likes to give money to an apologetic ‘sob’ who doesn’t know his product well enough to stand tall and present with confidence. In order to be confident (and in turn project confidence) one must be familiar with every intricacy of their product or idea. If you happen to be presenting an opportunity rather than a startup, perhaps a condominium development still in its pre-development stage or something of that nature, take some time to anticipate and prepare answers for any questions you think will be raised. Do a bit of research on zoning regulations and estimated development costs, as these will have an effect on the way the buildings will be constructed and will enable you to offer the most complete and custom tailored quote to potential investors. Make projections of the time it will take until the property will be placed back on the market, or on the specific amount of money they will have to invest until they realize a worthwhile return.

Beyond the actual content you present, of equal importance are the techniques you employ when speaking to a group of people. Since public speaking is an unavoidable part of life, and since most people are more afraid of speaking than they are of death, I thought I might share some tips on the art of speech itself. Every presenter, nervous or otherwise, should, upon taking the stage, locate the red-glowing ‘EXIT’ sign that will be inevitably perched somewhere near the rear of the room. When times get tough, the EXIT sign can be your greatest friend. You will maintain a sort of eye contact with the audience, but without actually looking them in the eye. The EXIT sign will also serve as a non-distracting anchor point, so when you happen to be making a particularly complex point or you are simply having trouble remembering your content, fix your peepers on the red letters and let your thoughts flow uninhibited. This little trick can help prevent that embarrassing situation where you forget what to say next and the audience’s expectant collective face is doing nothing but providing you with a healthy case of speaker’s-block. Speaking of the audience, make sure you keep some form of eye contact at all times, however painful it may be, and always aim to speak to the back row. You will unconsciously speak in a louder tone, ensuring that no one is straining to hear your words. Also, it is important to speak slowly and enunciate every word, or the people in front of you will be dropping like flies. The acting community has a saying when reciting lines: “If you feel you are speaking too slowly, you are at the correct pace.”

Always remember that your main goal is not to educate investors on every minute aspect of your idea, but instead to simply sell yourself, convincing them that you are worth talking too again. If your product, startup, or empty lot is worth your time, then is it not also worth the time of the potential investors? That said, go into the meeting with the mindset that you are doing them a favor by presenting. You’re not looking for money, you’re looking to progress your business. Explicitly highlight how the other side of the table will benefit from a partnership. Create a sense of urgency by plotting a timeline for an increase of value, rather than plotting out all the reasons you need the money (e.g. Rent, Payroll, New Software, etc…). And remember, you are there to sell, not to story-tell.

Holiday Life Staging

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:49:55 -0800

When I began plotting out this week’s post, the topic I had in my sights was a how-to on home staging. But then I remembered, “Hey, it’s Christmas tomorrow. Nobody wants to hear about something that might resemble work.” Sadly, by the time I had this realization an hour of research had been logged and I had a full page sitting before me of transcribed brainstorming. Well, “waste not, want not,” Mom used to say. Since I can’t disregard my mother, today we will make use of all we have learned about home staging and apply it to our lives, together creating something of a New Year’s Resolution grab-bag.

The first and possibly most important thing about home/life staging is this: Clear the Clutter. These pictures, posted by Michelle Minch, illustrate just how important cleaning up your living space is. Whether you’re trying to sell a house or just get dressed in the morning, everything comes together rather painlessly if you are organized and making the most of the space around you. This could be as simple as buying a bigger hamper or a Rubbermaid that fits under your bed. Or you might make a circuit around your house and/or office with a black trash bag, tossing out anything you’re sick of or whatever happens to get in your way. The goal is to get your possessions whittled down to a point where they each have their own place and aren’t overflowing into other possessions’ air space. Doing this will eliminate the “Where’s Waldo?” method most people employ when looking for a pair of socks or a can opener. Being organized and knowing where things are will reduce daily stress exponentially, in turn affecting the way you interact with clients and even the way you look at your day.

Another important facet of staging is the way you Put Your Color Scheme to Work. In a living room, this might mean matching a throw rug with a new roll of wallpaper, or applying a fresh coat of paint to accentuate the warm breath coming off a hardwood floor. As far as life goes, this concept doesn’t mean so much that we should match our overcoat with our car’s paint job, but instead that we should strive to achieve a harmonious living environment. A wristwatch will cease to tick if a cog is misplaced, and the same holds true for our day to day. Strive to keep every facet of your life working in congruency rather than competition. This could mean seeking membership at a gym located between your office and your kid’s school, minimizing your commute. Or maybe you could begin keeping a coffee maker on your desk so you have one less thing to worry about when leaving the house in the morning. Taking small steps like these to hurdle the logistical barriers in your daily itinerary will help make things seem less overwhelming and soon the halting progress of your daily grind will become more like a purring, well-oiled machine that just won’t stop.

I recently read a story of an agent in the midst of staging a home who removed a picture from its mount, only to reveal a before unseen set of windows providing an uninhibited view of the property’s most valuable asset: a pool-touting, fully landscaped backyard paradise. You might ask, “Why would the homeowner want to cover up a set of windows?” Well don’t ask because I don’t know. I do know that windows are one of the most important parts of our lives. Why? Well, why does the caged bird sing? I’ll tell you: the caged bird sings so that he can forget for a few moments the cruel reality of not being outside. When we are ‘caged’ in our homes, windows to the outside world remind us of the people in our lives, the places we go, the things we have seen. Windows let us travel through our memories, thinking back on bygone days spent looking out windows in much the same way you are now; the only difference being what’s on the other side. Alright, alright, what does all this have to do with my life, especially after New Year’s? In truth, windows have as much to do with New Year’s as the Easter Bunny, but the point I’m trying to make here is that the memories and opportunities provided by windows are the reasons we should sing. Why does the caged bird fall asleep when you cover him in a blanket? Well, because you just took away his only inspiration for song.

True, the Christmas Spirit has been known to turn even the burliest of men into sentimental sobs whose eyes water at the sight of puppies and babies and anything wearing antlers. But is that necessarily a bad thing? After all, sentimentality is just an enzyme in the brain sparked by whatever happens to be on the other side of the window. Is it so bad to be labeled a sob for one day out of the year? No! You go girl, fawn over those puppies! This holiday season, don’t be afraid to get caught up in it all. Find joy in giving the gift that makes your friend smile; don’t stifle the urge to enjoy cheesy Christmas specials with your kids; and don’t forget to take a good, long look out your window tonight. We will never be able to get Christmas Eve, 2008 back, and some of the people that are standing with us around the window might not be here next year to enjoy the view. I don’t say that to discourage, but instead with the hope that you all will take the time to cherish the inside of your ‘cage’, step back, sing a song, and hopefully realize that the meaning of life is just that: living.

Is Your Customer Service as Old-Fashioned as Nebuchadnezzar?

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:11:02 -0800

Yesterday, just before we here at Goomzee had had enough for one day, our Business Development Manager, whom we’ll call Joe, shared an interesting story. A few years ago he and his wife hired a contractor to build their new home. Instead of hindering the process with forests worth of paper, Joe chose to operate on a one-page contract, augmented with verbal agreements whenever a change in the build came up. At about the same time, one of Joe’s lawyer friends in the area also began the process of building a new home, only he elected to subject his contractor to a forty-page arrangement. When the dust settled, Joe’s contractor was finished on time and under budget, while the lawyer’s man was found in breach of contract and ended up leaving the state of Montana after losing his contractor’s license.

While the end result of this anecdote may be unusually extreme, it serves to illustrate the importance of the client-professional relationship being on a more personal level. Contracts, because they provide a legal safety net, are an important part of business interaction but also have the potential to negatively impact your personal relationship with the other side of the table.

Contracts have been in use since the era of Mesopotamia’s Fertile Crescent, so it is safe to assume they will still be lingering long after you or I are in need of them. Luckily, that’s beside the point; I would instead like to point out the immeasurable importance of customer service. Even a forty- page contract is meaningless if the parties involved are not pleased with the service rendered. Thomas Hall over at Bloodhoundblog.com posted just yesterday about a particularly customer service-oriented agent in his area who has seen nothing but profitability. She has shunned such presently popular social media mediums as Twitter and Facebook in favor of good old fashioned face-to-face lunches and meetings.

I can already see myself being spurned for speaking against social media, but I dare to press on. Social networking is a valuable asset to the real estate industry, but it is important not to put on the blinders and only focus on one front of your business battle. Defenses should be strengthened in all theaters, your online face being of lesser importaProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 e than the live version. Sun Tzu once said “Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances”. This ties in nicely with the old adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, meaning just because your website produced your most recent quality lead you should not now neglect the people that show up at your door by spending all your time online. A balanced approach to interaction with your clients will yield the best return, and not just in commission but also in the form of rewarding relationships that will lead to open doors further down the road. That’s not to say online networking is unimportant, but to quote Mr. Hall: “I have learned that even in the absence of technology, real estate is transacted - quite successfully.”

And so I would like to challenge you, members of the real estate community, to increase your focus on cultivating the relationships you have with your clients. Hopefully, after the dust settles around your ankles, you too will have some new folks to call your friends.

In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity

Austin Smith - Goomzee.com (Goomzee) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:46:05 -0800

Albert Einstein said: “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” These words are especially comforting in the present day, what with the suffering economy, rampant lender bankruptcy, bailouts and falling sales volume. But my purpose of today’s post is not to point out everything that is going wrong; rather, I would like to take this time to point out the proverbial silver lining and hopefully encourage those who are feeling the pressures of a faltering system.

With tomorrow’s celebration of food and family come a few new beginnings. Thanksgiving heralds the dawning of a new year on the horizon, the beginning of December, and the end of fall for another ten months. Take this time to look at your business with a fresh eye. The reports on our failing industry are innumerable and I will not waste your time with statistics pointing out the bad. Instead, consider this: the median price paid for a single-family home in Southern California last month was $311,060. This is almost half of what it was in October of last year! But that’s not the only good news: 552,750 single-family homes were sold in October, an increase of nearly 117% from 2007.

It took me too long to gather these encouraging figures from among the gloom and despair that seems to pervade real estate’s online social community. An unwarranted, yet pervading sense of defeat can somehow be discerned from a network of professionals who signed on for the unknown, willing to jump off the edge and commit to a nail-biting, commission-only lifestyle. The housing market couldn’t stay red hot forever, but with any luck will surely bounce back as quickly as it crashed. In the meantime, agents and real estate professionals need not resign themselves to defeat, but instead raise their heads and commit to positively looking towards the future. The housing market of the most powerful nation in the world will rebound, but worrying about it will not expedite the process.

The holiday season is a perfect illustration of how, at a whim, we as humans can forget the negative things around us and focus completely on the positive. As Thanksgiving draws nearer by the hour, pumpkin pie and long lost relatives are surely at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Memories and reflections are replacing work woes and to-dos. Having a day like Thanksgiving to look forward to changes our normal outlook, helping us forget about task queues at the office and bad traffic at five o clock. In the same way, looking towards a time when home sales abound and loan servicers are prolific will take our focus away from the current situation and, in turn, free our minds to think of innovative strategies that further enhance our business models; making you not only a better selling agent but a happier, brighter person.

The rise of California’s sale rate is a sign of things to come, the elusive silver lining peeking around a storm cloud. But for now, leave your work at the office and go enjoy your families. There will be time enough to trim the fat; not only from your business model or sales pitch, but also from your thighs. Happy Thanksgiving.