A new real estate brokerage, Calif Desert Realty, recently opened in La Quinta CA, serving La Quinta and surrounding areas. Calif Desert Realty, founded by broker / owner, Larry Hansen, is a small boutique brokerage dedicated to "raising the bar" in providing a higher level of ethics and professionalism to its real estate clients. Prior to opening Calif Desert Realty, Larry enjoyed a successful career as a CPA with KPMG Peat Marwick, and later on as a CFO during which he was involved extensively in mergers and acquisitions resulting in growing company revenues from $50 million to $1.4 billion. After retiring early at age 55, Larry grew restless and decided to become a real estate broker and after spending several years at various real estate firms, decided to start his own brokerage.
"My goal is to provide a higher degree of ethics, professionalism and use of technology in doing real estate" said Larry. "I am surprised at some of the things I see in real estate transactions that are so lacking in the degree of professionalism that should be required and enforced in this profession. Real estate agents are representing buyers and sellers in multi-million dollar real estate transactions with "years of experience", but very little "professional training. I suspect much of this may have to due with the widespread use of "Transaction Coordinators". Once a (contractual) purchase agreement is executed, the critical "transaction management and processing and documentation" is handed off to a "transaction coordinator" who typical charge a few hundred dollars per transaction. Many transaction coordinators are unlicensed and in many cases, critical documents are not even getting proper DRE required supervision and compliance approval. Many Realtors and clients, both, are becoming so overwhelmed with the volume of documents required to close a transaction that they are becoming desensitized to the importance of many of these documents" says Larry. What many clients (and agents) don't fully realize is that most of the documents required in a real estate transaction, have been made a requirement due to a prior lawsuit of one sort or another and are there to protect both the client and the agent. "So many real estate agents are disengaging themselves from the most critical part of the transaction process", says Larry. "Coming from an M&A background, this makes no sense in terms of risk management and providing professional client service. These are multi-million dollar contractual transactions being processed and documented with very little oversight in many cases. This can result in potentially severe undesirable and unexpected repercussions to both clients and agents if not handled professionally and diligently."
Another other area that is lacking at so many brokerages is the use of technology and INTERNET marketing. "It is amazing how many real estate agents do not maintain websites, and of those that do, how difficult it is to "find" their website (and their listings) during an INTERNET search". Buyers are increasingly making use of the INTERNET to preview homes for sale in various ares, often before contacting a real estate agent. Through use of the INTERNET, buyers often know more about the local real estate market than the agent that is representing them.
Larry is e-PRO certified in INTERNET marketing technology and a member of the Point2 NLS Advisory Council. He also serves on the board of directors of the Coachella Valley Angel Network (CVAN), an organized group of investors looking for investment opportunities in providing seed money to early-stage start up businesses.
Calif Desert Realty is a boutique brokerage specializing in luxury real estate in La Quinta, CA and surrounding areas. For more information, please visit www.CalifDesertRealty.com
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