What this Credit Crisis means to me…My two cents…

The news shows are full of opinions, and as the old adage goes ‘everybody's got one.'  So, here's mine.

In a market like we are facing with lenders going out of business, and Buyers finding it harder to qualify for mortgages, and FHA and conventional underwriting rules changing almost hourly (sorry, over the edge there...) I have never been stronger on a listing appointment (that one is a fact!).

I learned this strategy very early on, that I was a valuable advocate to home owners, and this value has nothing to do with advertising their property or holding their home ‘Open' on Sundays.  It has everything to do with risk management. In a nut shell, I anticipate as much as possible what can go wrong in a situation with a potential Buyer and help the Seller manage or even avoid the risks; creating a much higher probability that the sale will go to settlement and escrow will close.

If you aren't providing this level of professional service to the homeowners you work for you're going to lose the listing to someone like me every time.

Let me give just one example of this. The Seller receives an offer on their home.  If it's just faxed in or delivered to you, or even if the Buyer's Agent will be presenting it to you and the Seller makes no difference to this strategy.  This strategy starts with my listing presentation, where I explain this strategy that they insist that I have spoken to the Buyer's lender to get the answers to several questions.  I recommend they not make any decisions on offers until I have that for them.  Why would the Sellers want to take their home off the available market for two weeks while the lender gets the Buyers fully qualified?  These questions, developed during various market conditions, give the Seller lots of insight into the viability of this mortgage and the real status of the Buyer.  You've all seen the generic Buyer qualification letters.  What I want the Sellers to know is, have the Buyers actually sat down and handed over paystubs and other financial information yet, or was this done over the phone, among other things.

There's lots more to this obviously, but that should get you thinking for now. Go out and make it a great day!