I wanted to take a moment to share my very negative recent experience with Richmond American Homes in Menifee California and with the local Regional President Leonard Miller.  Mainly, I want other agents in the area to learn through my experience so they can protect themselves and their clients.

I brought a client in to show a furnished model in the late February.  My clients were challenging as I had already put them in two other homes that they subsequently cancelled.  They seemed to really want turn-key so I couldn't do much better than a fully furnished model.  They loved the place but the price was high for the size and we calculated the payment a few different ways (with the builder agent) and it was a no go.

Afterword, we then found another house and they loved it.  Well shortly after getting them in the 3rd escrow - right before our inspection - they had some marriage difficulties, apologized, and said they needed to stop looking for the summer and focus working together.  Overall, very nice people but struggling a little bit.  I respected that they wanted to wait until after Summer.

I later find out that within 4 months of me registering them in the place, they closed on the model I showed them.  Not a matching model - the exact home! I called the builder and the sales agent confirmed that I had registered them and didn't understand why I wasn't contacted or paid.  I dug deeper to find that after showing the unit, the builder later increased incentives to pay down the loan rate to 3.25%, had my clients come in while cutting me out of the communication completely - even though I was clearly in their system.

The clients did a VA loan so they must of done the contract in May and I was clearly in the system as the source or the client, etc.  Not a contact from them.  Speaking to the agent, she contacts the manager who says that in order to get paid, we need to re-register our clients every 30 days!  I hadn't been told this and I have never had a builder operate under that policy.  Has anyone heard of a broker co-opt you have to register every 30 days?

After being turned down for any information about reservation date and contract date, I contact the Regional President who proceeded to put me on speaker, listen to my complaint and then consistently challenged me in a very condescending and mocking manner (my opinion - to the point I asked him directly if he was talking down).  He insisted I should of been in better contact with my client - after I told him the situation - he said I obviously couldn't close a deal and his sales staff could.  It was an amazing conversation.  He then promised he would just as hard on his sales staff "researching" the issue.

His research came back totallying all of one email from a sales staff again challenging me from "coming out of the woodwork" when this all closed with a VA loan within 4 months on the exact home I showed them!  It doesn't appear he looked too deep but he sure had some speaker fun at my expense.  Again, they have ignored my request for reservation and contract date information. So I am pursing this with their registered broker for Southern California based out of Redlands.  They wouldn't provide me the license number or contact, only confirm it after I pulled it up - DRE violation.  I am also contacting CAR, the DRE, and the parent corporation MDC Holdings.  Any people experiened in dealing with a similiar situation, please advise any other avenues.

It is clear in their own system I am the procuring cause and yet they have treated me like some person looking for scraps.  I am furious and wanted to let people know my experience to for reference in the future.  In my opinion, their registration system and sales staff obviously didn't try to protect my client relationshiop in anyway and seemed to have actively cut me out on the very unit I tried to sell.  I will update this blog as I get more information but if you walk a client in their tracts, please keep this post in mind when thinking the system is built for your protection.

I have worked with so many builders and this is the worst experience I have had by far.  While I will never put my own preferences above my clients, I will work diligently to avoid all Richmond American Homes developments and what I believe to be very unethical business practices.  I don't understand the point of a registration system when they are going to market better deals after you show and cut the agent out at the same time.  I walk in a client, register them and in 4 months they close on the house I show but I don't deserve a advertised co-opt?

I would love to hear any similiar experience with Richmond American Homes as I put together my information for the local realtors, CAR, and DRE.

Thanks!

Stefan West

It has been a while since I have taken time to visit Active Rain and my blog.  The real estate landscape is changing in so many manners right now.  I have been taking time to work on my business, client base, and integrating my business for the year ahead. Obviously, we have the tight lending, massive foreclosures, and shortsale issues to deal with.  Add into that the banks consolidating and the federal actions to stimulate the economy and a massive drop in interest rates (yeah!).

However, the landscape is also changing as our business transforms itself in relation to both technology and the players involved.  Not long ago, everyone and their brother became a real estate agent and that really impacted our market and our service level.  Overall, I think consumers suffered because as a whole, our level of service and experience came significantly down with new agents all over the place.

Now, many of those agents are washed out of the business AND experience counts and more importantly is needed again for a much more complicated and intense real estate world.  I see the same players in the game who had the ability to weather the storm and used their skills to find business and success where others couldn't.

One aspect of finding that business led yours truly to Active Rain.  Where many people folded their tents, the long term experts found great technology outlets like Active Rain, learned short sales, got involved in REO listings and thereby created success by working harder. 

In consideration of that, it seems that perhaps the biggest change in real estate is probably technology.  The REO phenom will move on at some point.  The traditional marketing will always have merit to it because this is a people business.  But how many of us just two years ago used the internet as much more than a website or electronic business card?

I see so many agents that still do and still don't get it.  There is so much change in real estate from a technology standpoint now.  And it is imperative to learn so you can be successful.  How many people have learned SEO, utilize Craigslist or Youtube?  What about multiple websites or electronic flyers, web feedback on listings, or a myriad of other technologies to work?  How many people use pay per click or Homegain, Realtor.com, or whatever services are out there?

When you consider all these things in light of two to three years, we have fundamentally changed how real estate works and how people look for real estate across the board.  And with my first blog post in quite a while, I would urge new and old agents alike to get involved fast.  Because there is a new category of agent (look at Active Rain) that understands these technologies and will prosper significantly while you are left behind.

There is no better place to start then here at Active Rain.  This is perhaps one of the best tools to learn and apply all this new technology to increase your business.  I thought I was doing pretty well but in just 20 minutes I learned several new things that could significantly help my lead flow.  So take a look around and get started!

In the midst of a difficult time in the Temecula real estate market, there is one thing I am thrilled to report - people are finally listening to the advice and valuing experience.  Whenever a market booms, every person in the world jumps in.

When Temecula and Murrieta CA real estate starting posting US leading growth, the amount of real estate agents and loan officers exploded.  Buyers didn't think you needed to care who helped you. Good experience in the industry was shunned for a family or friend in the business.

New loan people were stealing away business from established people that actually took seriously the giving of advice and long term outlook of things.  While, I don't do loans, I saw way too much craziness in that environment and have stuck with my loan team throughout.  And my team is still here, helping my Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, and Wildomar home buyers by explaing and offering the programs and long term planning that best work for the client.

BTW, For Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar and Menifee home loans, I highly recommend Mark Woelky of PRMG (www.markwoelky.com).   I have always felt he put the client's interest first and often gives advice that often costs him business today but is in the best interest of the client.

Over the last three years, I have told all of my Murrieta and Temecula real estate clients to contact me before they look at new housing tracts, change their loan program via refinance, or have family moving here.  I did this because of the dangerous nature of the market and I take my job of protecting my clients seriously.

However, for the last three years many of my clients didn't listen and now I am getting the phone calls I have dreaded.  I have clients that:

• Altered title by adding family on.
• Co-signed loans for family on new housing tracts.
• Got into terrible loan refinancele situations.
• Bought new homes while upside down in a current one.

The sheer amount of people that refinanced into bad loans really frustrates me.  I have also been very frustrated by builders in Temecula and Murrieta who sell people into high tax rate homes and then undercut the very people they sold to! If you are even considering buying a new home in Temecula or Murrieta, please talk with an EXPERIENCED broker first or you are playing russion roulette. Believe me, the builder's sales people aren't going to stop you from poor decision making!

But I am glad to say the Temecula real estate market is finally changing. We are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  The professionals, like myself, who have experience and a passion for the people we work with are more in control.  With that control comes the responsibilty of doing the right thing over a quick deal. 

And new and old clients are truly starting to appreciate working with a Temecula real estate expert again and giving them credit while taking their advice.  I truly believe that this is the first step in a recovering market!

I have received a couple emails on this now and have to admit it is getting me curious.  Anyone enjoying the "new" AgentEvaluator program? 

In a tough market, I am all about pushing forward and have continued to do so.  My website (http://www.stefanwest.com/) is stronger and better placed then 90% of my competitors.  I continue to add to my business by go after loan traffic and referring it to lenders who in turn refer me business.

So I am definately about expanding and pushing harder in a down market.  Due to loan conditions, I just assume that we need more contacts for each future sale since less qualify, etc.

But I have stayed clear of the Homegains of the world, finding that I can get leads on my own.  However, at say $29.95 a month plus 27% (ouch) of the commission, it seems more fair and possible.  Anyone have any success with this program?  Any experience and insight would be great!

I am reading through it now but I don't think the leads are exclusive.

Stefan

I joined this community and worked diligently on my website because I truly believe that the majority of Real Estate searches start on-line. 

However, now that I have built a solid website, done some fundamental SEO, gotten good placement, and leveraged ppc, I am finding that the people contacting me want to use my knowledge but work with another agent.

I have people hit my site all day and I do get some clients from it.  But the majority of people have been eager to use my knowledge, service, etc.  Then suddenly they disappear and work with another agent, whom they intended to the entire time.  Usually their agent is family or a friend.

I have literally had a recent client let me take them out several times, get excited about a Murrieta home, arrange to meet me to write it up, and never show up.  I didn't hear from them for 2 week and then he wanted my help again.  I don't think I could use people like that, knowing that their time is their living.  This guy is completely guilt free and he isn't alone.  I know some of that is just "real estate being real estate" but I definately see it much more frequently from online leads.

So, while I do get some business from my site - feel free to check it out www.stefanwest.com.  I often wonder how other agents feel about web leads, establishing an internet presence, etc.  I am still in the process but my site gets a decent amount of traffic.

Anyone out there with some opinions, advice, or similiar experiences?

To me it just seems that people window shop online, get you to help them and take that information and experience back to an agent that has done nothing for the client.  Anyone out there with a dominate website position over the last couple of years have a good method of lead management you care to share?

Thanks

Stefan

As an update to my Halloween post, I am off to my 3rd short sale appointment in Menifee in the last 3 days.  What makes this situation so tough is that not only is the ability to sell the homes severely restricted by the banks and their processing time.  But actually sharing painful information with the client is not a joy either.

For example, this home I am visiting today is in Menifee Lakes.  It is right around the standard 3 bed, 2 bath 1500 square foot home.  There are 39 competing properties in the 4 map codes of the community.  What is worse, is many of the properties are fully banked owned or still in the hands of the owner who has enough equity.  And the average price is the mid-200s! This market is in free fall.

So, no I have to convince 4 parties on what it will take to sell this house: current owner in distress, the future buyer, bank #1, bank #2.

Since a short sale is the least desirable for other agents to show (banked owned, or traditional both much better), I will need to convince the owner to make the price aggressive to say the least.  Meanwhile with this many competing properties, the floor will continue to go down.  Can you imagine people buying in Menifee Lakes, a once premier community for $190,000 -$220,000?  That is just a scary price drop!

Menifee in particular is suffering badly right now due to an incredible over-supply of homes on the market.  There are over 500+ homes on the market in the area and unfortunately I see rougher times ahead.  The same is true for Murrieta (although Murrieta is much larger than Menifee and offers more services, etc.)

So, this interview should be interesting as I will be doing this potential client a favor but using a twelve-gauge shotgun of logic and showing him the market.  But I can't imagine it will make for a fun meeting in anyway.  However, our market is changing.  Lately, I have been hearing that agents are charging people upfront 1% or flat fees just to take on a short sale.  Anyone else seeing that?

I am writing this so people can see the activity of the short sale and also realize that while you can try to avoid showing them to clients, your clients will find them anyway.  So if you don't know how to deal with short sales, get cracking!

Wow!

I didn't need any more proof that the market we are in is tough.  But this week I received three calls for short sale listings.  That seems abnormal and concerns me since we already have such a high supply of homes on the market.  

I also heard something else that surprised me. It seems that many agents are even starting to charge a flat fee to take on the listing.  I am not sure who these agents are but two people mentioned speaking with an agent, one of which wanted $2500 to take on a short sale listing.

I know a lot of agents avoid these, but I am curious about my fellow Active Rain members thoughts on the subject. I realize that short sale listings can be brutal, I am dealing with two closings right now.  But it seems wrong to me charge someone a flat fee when you can't guarantee you will close the deal prior to foreclosure.

Now add in the current and future complications of obtaining a loan.  Right now, one short sale deal I have is struggling with a 20%, Full Doc borrowor getting approved.  The bank is examining everything and have delayed the close twice now!

I just thought I would shoot this out and share my thoughts on what I am seeing. Plus, you have to like my rhyme..just kidding.  I love Halloween!

Stefan

It has been a while since I have updated my SEO quest.  The reason I document it is perhaps my experience and ramblings will help others.

The last time I posted I left off about setting the foundation.  My foundation has been extremely helpful to my success and I now number very well for all my keywords.  There are plenty of keywords that are 2nd and 3rd page but I believe the majority are top 10.

Last I looked I command 3 or 4 #1 spots in Google and actually several more that I don't even know about.  I just learned about another today when I check the keywords info coming into my site.  However, while being number one is nice, I am still remaining focused on my major keyword terms.  I have scratched the top 3 spots several times and each time I have seen a definate uptick in my phone ringing.

Lately, my work has been mainly to obtain links and learn how to get GOOD links over just average junk.  It isn't easy at times but as you research getting links, you will find plenty of strategies.  There are literaly thousands of link directories.  You can supply information to companies for a link.  I have even indulged in a few authority blogs for the specific communities I am involved in.

The ironic thing is, it is easy to get weak links.  But by focusing on the links that matter the most, I help myself immensly.  The other day I was contacted by a TV show, nationwide to possible be on air for a real estate update on Riverside County.  They have seen my name come up repeatidly as an authority voice in my area, so they rang me up.  I am now getting requests for a couple of places for specific information that their readers are asking for.

These links matter because they actually lead to things.  In the event that Google really starts to dissect links in the future, my links will not only hold water, they will have additional and long term value.  When I first begin getting these links I did some directories and anything I could just to get on the internet map so to speak.  However, I stopped doing that months ago as I have learned more about it.

So my advice for this blog report  - if you have your keywords mapped out, your on-site optimization complete, and a road map to expand your webpage, you need to start working on links. Make sure to use your keywords in your anchor text of course and when creating links, try to make partnerships that matter in the long haul for you.  The Menifee CA blog I have been doing has been easy, fun and eventually will win a client for me in the future, if not more than one.

Another thing I may have forgotten to mention is tracking.  I personally don't value website stats unless I have a couple months of activity to look at. So get your stat tracking up early and make sure you put the scripts on every page on the site.  I personally use Google Analytics, Statcounter, and Hit-tail.  I haven't bothered too much with hit-tail but I wanted to give it six months of information gathering.  So start the clock ticking now!

I am also migrating my site to a new version of www.superlative.com template.  Let those guys know I sent you if you decide to give them a go :).  I am pretty nervous about this because I am doing pretty well SEO-wise, but I think this will expand my success in the long term.  So, I have them working on site conversion for me now and will also be integrating a new MLS interface in an effort to increase my returning visitor percentage and to get things moving into an Auto-drip campaign.  I am sampling different programs and will be happy to share my thoughts once I have seen the results a bit.

Yahoo continues to ditch my marketing and SEO efforts for some reason.  While I number perhaps 20 or so top 10 Google spots, Yahoo has me for only a few.  MSN on the other hand is my friend and I am thrilled to have stuck at #1 and #2 spots for my major keywords. I look forward to the day that I make a come back in Yahoo, but with Google controlling 60% of the market, I am pretty happy :).

After putting a lot of time and effort into my website, I am starting to see a significant increase in traffic for Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar, and Menifee.  Of course these areas are my main markets and I study up on them every day so I tend to add information for local business on their sites, etc.  Lately, I have often been asked to help with community blogs, sites, articles, etc.  Which I love to do since it is yet another way to educate interested home buyers and sellers out there.

Until recently, I hadn't really seen much response from these, nor did I expect it. However, it seems like just taking the time to put together some information for these areas, things I do everyday but never really bothered to highlight, makes a difference in web rankings.  I think I better learn more about tying my blog to my website lol.

Just the other day I had two people contact me about buying foreclosures and short sales on homes.  I am getting known in the area for that type of deal because I think it often is the best price to quality ratio for new home buyers if they have the patience.  So it seems like making sure you put your experience down in some electronic format, which is very easy to do, can yield a lot of exposure. 

This new blog I was invited to help on by owner, Menifee Real Estate Blog 24/7, is a lot of fun and unlike other "copy and paste" agents on there, I enjoy just sharing with the community my ideas, experiences and market outlook.  Although he has other agents contributing, he keeps pushing ideas out to me and says my writing is more fun to read and he wishes I would do more.  So I like the feedback even if it is helpful for his blog, it is still nice to hear :).

So I strongly encourage people to have fun with blogging.  I haven't really tried to integrate it into a SEO tool, I am working on completely re-doing my DRIP marketing stuff right now.  But this is on my to do list and in the mean time, I will just enjoy sharing my career and experience with others.

Just wanted to drop a note and say to watch out for those "once a week" type situations where you can get great exposure by offering a free and thoughtful service!

Stefan

I am a lazy slouch!  I keep getting involved in Real Estate stuff instead of coming back here to my blog!  There are a lot of client "time wasters" out there right now and with the market the way it is, I have to invest the time because you never know.

I will say that although I get more activity on my site and talk to more people, I also get a lot of people that really aren't serious or just want to use my expertise and probably already have an agent they plan to use.  I have often wondered about the 80%+ start looking on the internet for real estate.  I believe THAT part is true, but I wonder what percentage actually do business with an agent on the Internet.

A couple years back I got something like 7-9 deals of my website at a cost of about $200 a month in strategic PPC keywords.  The year before that, 5 deals.  Now, I am in a much more visible position on the web and while I do get good traffic, have only seen one deal so far this year.  I know the market is a big part of this but still it is disappointing.

I will say that having a good, solid, and demonstratable web identity is a wonderful selling point for listings.  It really makes the pitch much easier and other agents can't compete against that too well.

Well, last I left off was about tracking software.  For the short quick peek, I use Statcounter and I just looked today and so far I have about 170 unique visitors to my site this month and 320 page views.  I like to focus on unique visitors but I also was getting about 10 returning visitors.

As I talked about last time, getting a keyword list is paramount in my opinion.  Then, I move on to on page optimization.  I know I put a lot more work into this then was needed.  But I am optimized for many of my best keywords and I believe it has helped immensly.  I learned very quickly how to write content that encapsulates many of my keywords while having excellent flow.  This has helped me in so many ways.  There are a lot of sites that I rank underneath for a specific keyword, BUT I usually rank MUCH better than these same sites in almost all the other keywords I have selected.

I get more exposure and also, as I add links, I will eventually over take these sites I believe in their prime spots.  I believe in strongly working on my entire SEO body, not just the biceps so to speak.  I am getting hits from things I never even imagined because of good on page optimization.

Also, on page optimization has helped me learn more HTML aspects that help in articles, additional pages, clickable table design and a full fledged understanding of my website.  I strongly urge you to invest the time and create a basic model of your site that you want to work with, and then build it.

Use the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle.  I have a model that I haven't even completed yet, but work a little towards it each week.  I want to have 4 main city pages for my keywords, my main page, a referral / link directory, about me area, MLS (of course), Testimonials, and community information.

That is pretty straightfoward and with the city pages, you can work on them until they are ready and then turn them live.  I plan to do optimization for the main page first and foremost and then start working on links.  Meanwhile, as I discover things I like about a city, I just write it down and put it in my to do file.  When I work on that page, I incorporate the idea and build that page to be targeted just at THAT specific keyword. I build it to last but very simple to use.

Lately, I have been working on links and it is time I got back to my city pages and also working on links directly to these pages.  I will see how this works in the near future as the search engines start to catch up with what I am doing.  I just need to dedicate more time to it.   I have been holding off because a new template technology is available from Superlative that could be VERY helpful in SEO activity. 

That's it for today.  Basically, I am suggest that you build a fantastic keyword list and then work on your on page optimization first!  That way, your optimization will start working for you right away and teach you what you need to know so you can maximize your link strategy.  It is nice to do one thing right that can stand on its own for a bit, then the next thing.  Linking and all the other off-page stuff is hugely important but you want to have your house in order first.  Off-page stuff is a constant process and it is very tough to go back and tweak something when you are already getting good rankings.