I must say that it does my heart good to read so many Gen X & Y Activerain bloggers writing about real estate as a people business. We were once told that by 2010, we would have a paperless, almost touch less transaction due to technology. I'm all for the paperless part, but the touch less part? No way! Once again, what's old is new. . . .
•1. Networking, volunteering and in general "hanging out" in your neighborhood. I remember attending a seminar in 2002 at our national real estate convention about age diversity in the workplace. The demographics presented painted a picture of Gen X and Y-er's as very "all about me" - not interested in a team effort or doing any kind of networking. I have found this is not true at all. I love all their energy and enthusiasm!
•2. Cold Calling. Yes, you heard it right! I recently heard some seasoned agents (on two different occasions) ask the question "who cold calls anymore?" to which I responded "I do!" (as in knocking on doors - the no call list has made it too complicated to pick up the phone) This younger generation is a group of go-getters! They will not sit around and wait for the phone to ring. I sold a $675,000 last year house as a direct result of knocking on doors. Yep, it's an old concept, but still works.
•3. Going to loan application with your buyer. I was recently at a meeting where a local lender was updating us on the new RESPA rules regarding disclosure and how they could not lock the rate in until they had a signature from the borrower on the GFE. The loan officer was lamenting how difficult it was to actually nail the customer down due to all the online applications, unanswered voicemails, emails, etc. One of the younger agents commented that a solution to overcome this problem would be to take our buyer to loan application. Then the customer could be locked in on their rate, we'd have our pre-approval letter, and everyone would be happy. Wow! I like it!
•4. Presenting offers face to face. Instead of emailing or faxing your offers, how about actually hand delivering the offer to the listing agent and making a case for your buyer? And, if the seller allows, you could take it a step further by asking if you could present your offer to the seller yourself. We commonly did this in the past. Once the fax machine became affordable, we got lazy, and quit. I even had an agent tell me it was illegal for me to present my offer to the seller. Huh? Not in Kentucky.
I firmly believe that "high touch" adds to our personal value proposition. I once commented to my sister that I got a lot more "sucking up" at the Veterinarian's office then I got at the Gynecologist's office. (I felt like a cow being herded through a maze with all the other heifers!) I look forward to seeing what new, higher standards this younger generation is going to set for us!
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