Another One of My Rants: Why a Local Realtor®
By John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR®
Hemet CA Real Estate
As a Hemet California Realtor I work with both buyers and sellers when it comes to buying and selling of a home in the Hemet Real Estate market.
I choose to not go outside of my market area of the "Hemet San Jacinto Valley", which covers the cities of both Hemet and San Jacinto as well as a large area of unincorporated Riverside County land known as both East Hemet and Valle Vista.
Now, I may not be the sharpest pencil in the box - I am no Einstein, believe me. However, I am anything but dumb. My marketing may never make it to Madison Avenue, but I do think of myself as pretty creative and unique in a lot of ways. Perhaps one of my best talents is to embellish on what others have done before me.
I am both goal and task oriented. I over analysis and I am often accused of over doing the most simple of tasks. This I feel is what gives me the edge. This is where I gather the knowledge that most people dismiss as trivial. OK, I have been guilty of "paralysis by analysis" but heck, we all have our flaws, don't we?
I have two pet peeves in real estate. I wrote about one of them last month where I discuss my thoughts and opinions on Realtors who want to do the loan also. I discuss in great depth, my opinions on the situation and how I feel they are not only doing their chosen profession (either lender or agent) a disservice by wearing too many hats, but how they do their clients a major disservice.
Today, not only do I admit I have my flaws, but I feel qualified to point out the flaws in others - sometimes they don't even know they are not doing the best for their careers or their clients.
I am talking about an agent that I have knick-named the "Absentee Realtor". The Absentee Realtor is one who is working outside of his base area. He is a hunter by nature. I have this vision in my hear of a Realtor on top of the tallest building in the are with his nose in the air - sniffing out the next deal - no matter where the four winds take him, he is on his way.
Alright, that might be a little over dramatic, but heck, it's in my head - so what can I do?
So, the Absentee Realtor pursues business away from his home area. I will use my local market as an example, so let me lay out the demographics for you, before I go on.
The Hemet-San Jacinto Valley is a medium sized community with a little over 100,000 residents in the entire valley. Most are either retired or commute. We are tucked in the far corner of the area known as the Inland Empire. From the closes points, we are 10 miles from the 215 Freeway to the West and 10 Miles to the 10 Freeway to the North. Since the valley extends about 10 or 12 miles, many of us are 20 plus miles to a freeway.
To the south, beyond a large reservoir known as Diamond Valley Lake is the French Valley, which is unincorporated area of nothing but new homes for about 5 or 6 miles before you reach the border of Temecula & Murrieta. These are much larger, newer and more expensive communities than Hemet. Therefore, our housing is much more affordable. Where our average price home is still around $350,000 the homes in Temecula and Murrieta hover around $500,000.
Further south is San Diego County, where million dollar homes are more an more common San Diego buyers who can't afford that market are shuffled off to Temecula and then the Temecula shoppers who can't afford that market are shuffled off to Hemet.
I understand the principal of economics that says you can only buy what you barely can't afford - so it is natural for buyers to continue to travel to the limits of known civilization until they find a place they can handle.
Well remember, every community has its ‘move-up' sellers. Remember, there are those who bought their first home in Hemet for all the right reasons and now want to be a move up buyer and settle in Temecula. I get those calls just like the Temecula agents get the smaller homes calls.
I'll tell you what I don't do. I don't jump on the MLS and find what they are looking for and then pack them in my car for the 30 minute drive to Temecula and get lost in their windy roads and pretend that I know all about the area - even though I worked that market for nearly 2 years.
That's right, I worked that market because it has a higher medium price and I figured the commission was better for the same work, so why not. That was my though process. I did not do my clients justice and I know that now. Remember I said earlier that many of the offenders do not even realize what they are doing!
What I will do today, given the opportunity to work with a local Hemet seller who wants to move to Temecula, is very simple. I will fist have a meeting with them about the buying process. It helps educate them as sellers, just as well. I will provide my ‘going out of town' buyers with as much information as I can muster on both the process and the area.
Now, if they are moving much further away, this next step obviously does not apply. However, if they are just moving south a half hour, I will schedule a second meeting where I introduce them to a Realtor that I am comfortable with. Prior to the meeting, I will have given my buyer access to the agents website and blog - so they can get to know him. Then, I will formally introduce the Realtor with the client and participate (or at least observe) the agents presentation. When he shows up, he will be prepared because his new buyer has already been pre-qualified and a survey completed about their ideal home.
For this service, there is not a REALTOR in the world who would mind paying me a 35% referral fee and many times I'll take 50%. After all, I too can travel down Highway 79 and sell there just as easy as he can.
Until then, Have a Blessed Day,
John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®
http://www.johnocchi.com/
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