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#6: Thou Shalt Be a Shining Beacon For Our Industry
The general public is a little leary about the real estate market right now, and it is up to us to reassure them that it is STILL a great time to buy a house. One of the ways we can do that is by staying on top of REAL market statistics, trends, and variances. Today I went to a women's networking group here in Orlando. It is not a real estate group, just a general topic group. One of the ladies saw that I was in real estate and she commented "I heard that sales in Orlando were up last month...that's great!" I quickly replied to her that yes, sales were up last month, and that they've steadily been increasing each month since January! Amazing that the media is just now mentioning that we're on the rebound in closings when WE'VE known it all year!
The more you go out and spread the word, the sooner the buyers will get off the fence and once again be buyers. This is the ONLY way for our market to get back to normal...people need to buy. It's your job to tell them that. GET TO WORK!
#5: Thou Shalt Be A Master At Your Trade
Things go wrong in closings. Period.
Everyone knows it's true, and if you don't warn your clients up front of that fact, you will be left with egg on your face later when it actually happens.
So part one is...prepare your clients for realistic expectations (especially with short sales!)
How you will become THE go to person for your client and all of their referrals for the rest of their lives will be in how you handle those things that come up. This is where mastering your craft comes in. A real estate transaction really is a house of cards. Each card is a separate party to the transaction: Buyer, Seller, Home Inspector, Mortgage Broker, Underwriter, Title Company, Insurance Agent, Termite Inspector, the buyer's parents, the list goes on... a bad "feeling" or report from ANY one of them can send your deal tumbling to the ground.
The more knowledge and experience you have in EVERY part of the transaction, the easier (and more likely) it will be that you will be able to fix the problem and save the deal. I've invested HOURS and HOURS to learn as much as I could about the OTHER parts of the transaction and how they all play together and it has DEFINATELY saved many a deal both for me and for the real estate agents I was doing the funding for.
So the next time you see a course at the board office on appraisals, or understanding title insurance, just take a few hours out of your day and go...it will make you thousands of dollars in the long run. Your clients will appreciate this level of expertise, and because of it, they will send you referral after referral, and we all know that referrals are easier to close because it's already been done for you! See you next week with the next installment!
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