I'm glad to say that in the last year I'm probably one of a handful of agents in the Beaverton and Tigard area that is doing better this year than I did last year. Now I know the top producers, and thanks to Google Alerts, I now know they know me also.

You see one of my niche markets is lease options and owner financing and since I've been doing it for almost 4 years now, I know all about them and have even had to face some tough scrutiny. But, in the end, I have always been able to come out on top and prove that I was in the right.

But, as others notice my signs popping up more and more, I've noticed more and more people searching for lease options and coming to my site to read more about them. Three of the Top Producers in the areas that I specialize in have probably been noticing my signs as well and have now, all in the last week, added information to their website on lease options and owner financing.

Wait, there is a problem though. These agents have clearly never done a lease option or owner financing and only put this information on their site to draw in more clients when someone types in "lease options" or "owner financing" into Google. I still come up long before they do in Google, but the problem is all three top producers have made mistakes on their websites and are giving incorrect information to the consumer about lease options and owner financing.

You see, they are setting themselves up for a lawsuit, just because they don't know what they are talking about and are jumping in the deep end of the pool before learning to swim. They just want to try to get some of the action that I have been getting in the last two years.

Now, I know when the market was great, they could have cared less what I was doing because they had listings, buyers, and closed transactions. But now I have more listings, more closed transactions, and have people calling me everyday wanting to know more.

So, to you top producers who like what I'm doing, I wish you the best of luck. But when you call for advice, I don't plan to give it, and when you are in court, I hope I don't have to testify against you, because you will lose. Maybe you want to do some more investigation before you advertise that you are an expert in lease options and owner financing.

Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

Photo courtesy of creactionc