Monday, September 24, 2007

Successful real estate agent - Networking for sales

SUCCESSFUL REAL ESTATE AGENT -

DAZZLING SKILL.........GOOD NETWORKING CREATES EXTENSIVE SALES

To me, the essence of art of negotiation is to bring compromise to a real estate’s transaction. Thereafter, the deal shall be closed as both parties have accomplished what they wanted. Networking shall be seen as connectivity to extensive channels that lead you to more prospects. Once the connections are made up, real estate agent will be expecting, not just potential leads but reliable one that keeps good business relationship and even delivering best referrals. Here are some of the guidelines for great networking:-

i) Create credibility

- It begins by building up a credible reputation. Real estate agents have to show professionalism in the eye of home buyers or sellers. They will say what can be done, do what have promised and follow up whatever is necessary. If the agents approach the conversation with the intention of getting profit out of it, home buyers or seller are reluctant to do business with them. Concern for finding best deal must be shown by agents in order to gain trustworthy, and belief that they work towards the interest of home buyers or sellers.

ii) Listening

Do listen carefully on what home buyers or sellers have to say , i.e: what their likes and dislike , where is the preferable location, what is the purpose of having the real estate property and etc. These information will be very useful when comes to the selection of property that suits their requirement. During the conversation, agents must have in mind that they joined for sharing information, and not to persuade listeners what properties that best for them.

iii) Follow up

Once good rapport is established and both parties have exchanged contacts, this is the time where real estate agent will follow up closely and gradually. With the information that was picked up from the last meeting, real estate agent easily can open up a topic during the first follow-up call. Potential home buyers or sellers would be stunned if every single queries were able to recall, and provided with remedies.

Having said the general approach to establish good networking, i will lead you through the different networking methods where you can gather more quality prospects and they are as follow:-

a) Lunch or Dinner meeting

-A very good example where real estate agents can gather prospects in one specific place and share their ideas about the needs of real estate. This also further enhances the relationship as home buyers or sellers squeeze themselves into agents’ circle. Hence, thinking of agents when they get involve into real estate’s transaction.

b) Forum or Seminar for real estate’s discussion

-I think this shall be effective from normal gatherings where home buyers or sellers feel educated and gain something valuable out of the meeting. At the same time, real estate agent may have opportunity to meet fresh prospects who come for the seminar.

c) An Award night

-Make it to be enjoyable ,and contacts who have contributed much during the past year shall be rewarded with recognizable awards. Real estate agent might have include some potential home buyers in the guess list.

d) Publicity

- Use the opportunity of the seminar mentioned above, speak up and introduce yourself to the crowd. Write some knowledgeable articles to be published on the newsletter, so, your name are exposed to readers every weeks. In addition, agents can create some interesting flyers and distribute to public.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Successful real estate agent - Negotiating to profits

REAL ESTATE AGENT - DAZZLING SKILL .........
NEGOTIATING TO FULLEST FOR COMPROMISE

If real estate agent really think that the business are just about selling and marketing your properties. Then, agents better think twice. If we go deeper to the art of selling, the main key to close a deal is when both parties are compromised. To achieve this , it will all depend on the negotiation's skill. The tactic that induces potential buyer to accept your "preferential" offer and yet, he feels that the transaction is completed in his favour.

Before we go into details on the art of negotiation, i want to bring up the importance of " first impression" when real estate agent meets up with the buyers. It is also going to decide whether there will be the next one. Bear in mind, agents only have one chance to do that, and make it as your best. Things like wearing a formal suite, addressing peoples correctly, on-time, listening carefully and etc should not be forgotten on the first meeting.

It not just ends there. Bad follow-up and not delivering on what have been promised will ruin the first impression. Home buyers may walk away from the real estate's deal , just like that. If everything is done perfectly, it will become the best advertising where customers spread good words on you, hence, it generates a lot of referrals to your business.

Back to the original issue, a negotiation's key function is to compromise, in your favour. One of the most common ways is to take an extreme position and bargain down from that position, but it shall not be too extreme until scaring off the potential home buyers. Real estate agent must keep in mind, the selling price that are going to offer will get both parties to the negotiating table and the extent of bargaining shall not beyond what agent can live with.

In other words, when buyers are looking for lower asking price , agents will appear responding in kind, by dropping selling price somewhat lower than the increase in offer price. For example, agent may foresee that average buyers want $1,000 discount on each of transactions, then he may raise the price by $1,000. Then, let the buyers bargain down to only that extent. This move will certainly ensure compromise of the deal and agents may end up netting a higher selling amounts.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Successful real estate agent-Closing is what counts

REAL ESTATE AGENT - DAZZLING SKILL......RESULTS, RESULTS AND RESULTS

You might have indifferent experience with other real estate agents when comes to the month that the sales did not hit the number. How does Cindy do it easily stay on top of the best real estate agents ? Is she smarter or good in networking or even luckier than others ? After long hours of working and communication, it didn't seem to help for closing more real estate's sales? What has gone wrong? etc ....so many questions that go around your mind. Let take a look what can be done.

Rule no. 1 to real estate agent -Results, results and results

Real estate agent must remember that bottom line comes first when they are doing their jobs. So, when they are dealing with home buyers, they shall find ways to gain greatest results. Otherwise, real estate agents may find depressing to have chat with their boss every month end.

Rule no.2 to real estate agent -Know your customers

Do communicate with your customers frequently via e-mail or normal mails. From that, real estate agent can work on the relationship with home buyers and sellers, but, it needs to be taken gradually rather than aggressively. Real esate agents are also urged to log into the website regularly to learn about the listing, hence, learning about the potential customers. At the same time, it will keep agents current on what real estate market's trend likes.

Rule no.3 to real estate agent -Know your service offerings

Study what are the main selling points of your real estate listings and learn what makes the home buyers to move into sales agreement with you. By knowing what you can offer and what they need, real estate agent would present a confident and knowledgeable image therefore will gain trust from their clients.

Rule no. 4 to real estate agent- Deliver the goods

A real estate's sale is only completed if the value of service was delivered. It comes under the education, not merely hitting the numbers. The values of delivering what has promised, completed on time and followed up whatever that necessary.

Rule no. 5 to real estate agent - Handling objections

The most common reasons will be no time to meet up, insufficient funds, no interest in the service and etc. When real estate agents confronted such situation, they shall take initiative to educate the home buyers or sellers how important is it to have services from agents who can save up their times and money.

Rule no. 6 to real estate agent - Time Management

Plan your schedule a week or at least a month ahead. So, real estate agent may have time to carry out the assignments and knew the results before time. List down every appointments that you will be done on the day and also find sometime to generate new leads(i.e distributing flyers , publishing service info on the website and etc). When come to dealing with corporate, real estate agent should look for decision makers instead of respective personnel. This is to ensure that agents will save up some precious time on communicating the message to right person. In addition, agents are advised to develop mid and long term schedule, so, it will waste no time and increase productivity as well as pressure on workloads.

Final rule to real estate agent - Closing a deal

At the end of the day, if the real estate's deal was not closed, whatever had been done will be all down to the drain. Real estate agent must know that their commissions are based on the results. Thus, closing a deal is what counts.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Real estate online listings ? Will it work for you ?

REAL ESTATE AGENT-DAZZLING SKILL..... EXPLORE INTERNET FOR HOME SELLING.......... AND INTEGRATE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO REACH MORE UNTAPPED MARKETS...........

No doubt the growth of the use of Internet has reached its new high, and continue to gain an even bigger foothold throughout worldwide. As the number of online users are increased, it has created much potentials in commercial areas. One of the benefits has been the selling of real estate online.

Many home sellers may have wrong perception that the online listing of real estate can have greater control on the marketing process, thus, replacing the need of hiring real estate agent. But, one shall not forget that real estate transaction is not merely on promoting and advertising. It involves a lot of hands on processes, ranging from screening potential buyers , inspection of real estate to handling proper documentation.

That being said, Internet is still a useful mean for sellers to get their houses listed with a potential market and most likely,it will become future's trend. Real estate agent shall take this as a positive development and acquire the necessary skills to serve the customer's better.

The followings are some of the useful questions to be asked by the agents when approaching by sellers on whether to do online listings :-

Are you comfortable with real estate online listings ?

For savvy sellers, the answer is certainly "YES" as they can expose their real estate to million of online users. At the same time, they are having full control on the ads, and generating online referrals where it can be done comfortably in front of computers. Nevertheless, there are still some conventional sellers who prefer newspapers advertising and other offline means. That is why it will all depend on the selection made by the sellers.

Will your real estate showcase well in the Internet ?

As physical inspection cannot be done via Internet, it is important that the listed real estate's photos are produced professionally. So, they will give a great first impression to potential buyers. In search of best photographer in towns shall be the solution to the agents.

Do you understand that the use of Internet is meant for the marketing strategy and you are expected to go extra mile without it ?

As i have commented earlier, the Internet is merely a marketing tool to attract sufficient online users to know the listing, and it is not meant for replacing the services of a real estate agent. Sitting in front of computer, it will not help in negotiating the real estate's deal. Once the online selection has been made, the potential buyers will not wait to inspect the real estate that they have interest on , and they are more likely to put a voice with home instead of web address.

Successful real estate agent -selling out-of -state homes

REAL ESTATE AGENT --DAZZLING SKILL......IS TO LOOK FOR......OUT-OF-STATE HOMES. TIP FOR SUCCESSFUL REAL ESTATE AGENT THAT CANNOT BE MISSED.

When comes to discussion on home selling and buying, real estate agents are more eager to share their experiences at cities or towns. Those real estate that located out-of-state appear to have been forgotten by the peoples. Of course, real estate agents shall put their priority on real estates that yield higher return. However, the potential of real estate beyond the state shall not be underestimated, and experts have foreseen that the market will take a bigger step in future.

The followings are some of the reasons that home buyers are looking for out-of-state real estate and how a real estate agent con provide assistance:-

1) Home's relocation

It comes with many reason such as lower living cost, change in career, selecting different environment and etc. Being newcomers to the city, the local real estate agent will more than happy to show the best place to stay in.1

2) Homes for vacation

The unique attractions, places for holidays, recreation and etc. All these are communicated by the real estate agents in advance to make known to home buyers what are available in that particular area, and whether it suits their vacation's requirement.1

3) Real estate for retirement

It would be rather simple if the plan is just looking for a real estate that you want and settle down there. As more peoples are living longer, they opt to retire earlier and prefer to live within diverse retirement lifestyles. This is where real estate agent comes into place to pinpoint the best spots that they want to have.1

4) Rental income from real estate

Real estates that out-of-state, but are located at strategic areas able to give good rental yield to home owners. With the help of real estate agent, home buyers are able access to everything from advertisement, cleaning services to management operation and landscaping pros in the area.1

5) Investment real estate

As the state's foreclosures are at a 30 years high, more real estate investors prefer to buy those real estates which offer lower of market price. After that, they will "Flip the House" and put a higher selling price. To do so, the investors need assistance from local real estate agent who can provide list of funding lenders, reliable contractors and demand for sales.1

End note:

1) "Five Good Reasons for Buying Out-of-state Homes - and Why a Real Estate Buyer's is the key for All", by Allen Voivod and published on http://www.articlebiz.com/printable.jsp?article_id=74212

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Key to a successful real estate agent - CREATING "REFERRALS"

REAL ESTATE AGENT --DAZZLING SKILL.......IS TO GET A LOT OF ....LOT OF......REFERRALS. TIP FOR SUCCESSFUL REAL ESTATE AGENT THAT CANNOT BE MISSED.

The brief description for "referral" under the general marketing knowledge can be explained as a sale which is created by reference that made by past or current clients. It is normally communicated via words of mouth from each to others. Notwithstanding how well is a real estate agent, he or she only has limited times and resources to cope with numerous demands from the market. At the same time, under the fundamental marketing's framework, part of time of a good salesperson shall be spent on generating new leads where they will use a considerable time on promoting their goods or services.That is why creating words of mouth through customers is important, so that, the channels can be widely extended, and prospects are easily sought without the presence of the agent.

The followings are some of the factors of producing quality and deliverable referrals:-

1) Providing high level of services1

- Delighting customers is very different from fulfilling them. Real estate agent must always remember to service beyond customers' expectation. If the service offered is exceptional, the agent will not be forgotten, and recommendation is made when they are asked by close friend and relatives. At the same time, via good communication, clients tend to see the positive side of the agent and overlook mistakes that are made.

2) Selecting the right person1

- Try to avoid dealing peoples who tend to distrust everyone and everything. Real estate agent must always bear in mind that they shall be careful on screening and selecting prospects. If this was properly done, agent will save up substantial times and energies on those unwanted problems that created from these unfriendly clients. As we have always been told that business come first, real estate agent has to weigh the costs of having such troubles with the value to be created. So, he or she can decide whether to go for the deal. In my opinion, agent might see returns in short term, but it would not last in long run.

3) Asking for services1

- This shall not be executed only through mailing, but rather real estate agent must take initiative to ring past or existing clients to ask for a favour. By doing this, it will also beneficial where real estate agent can track the effectiveness of mailings. Moreover, they will have feedback on relevancy of information that provided in mailings. Agent must also aware that existing clients have greater potential to spread good words of your services. Especially first time home buyers who are still passionate with the transaction, and tend to talk about their experiences whenever they meet up with peoples.

4) Lastly, contacting past clients consistently1

- Real estate agent will have to sit down, and come up with an excellent plan which provides consistent communication's program and attractive rewards scheme. To make the interaction more effective , agent has to make calls personally or visit the clients in person. This is essential for delivering trust and belief to the clients, hence, more business will be referred to the agent. In addition, real estate agent can track effectively who is sending the best deals, and who shall be rewarded the most. The key point of this is to make "PERSONAL CONTACT" and make it "REGULARLY".

Endnotes:

1 The factors were extracted from the article titled "Creating Referrals" by Dirk Zeller. It was published under the "Real estate Reading Room[Agents and Brokers] " in http://www.totalrealestatesolutions.com/

Thursday, July 5, 2007

"AGENTS" or "FOR SALES BY OWNERS"(FSBO) ?

Refer to my previous post - "To hire real estate agent or not?", it highlighted that real estate agents must have strong grounds to convince home owners or buyers to use their services. With these reasons, agents are able to present themselves confidently in front of owners or buyers, thus, gaining trust from them on handling their real estate matters. Statistics have shown that 25% of all the homes sold last year were sold by FSBO. However, half of them admitted that the process was frustrated , time-consuming and difficult to see satisfactory results. These FSBO have responded to take real estate agents for their next home selling. We can see the opportunity has opened, it will depend on how well the agents reach this untapped market (25 % of the total market).

The followings are some of the questions which can be cited by real estate agents to FSBO or potential owners when deciding whether to use their services:-

Do you have the time, energy, know-how, and ability to devote a full forced effort to sell your home?1

Certain amount of time shall be devoted for each day to sell your house and don't think by putting some ads in the newspapers and "FOR SALE " signage in front of the house will give you instant results.

Are you prepared to deal with an onslaught of buyers who perceive FSBO's as targets for low balling? 1

Time and efforts shall be needed to screen those unqualified prospects. It is usually required certain degree of expertise to spot them. The question is do you have such skill ?

Are you offering options to the buyers and prepare to answer those financing matters ?1

By offering these, it opens up the possibilities to turn prospects to sales. Such services would be better to be offered by real estate agents if you want to see instant and quality results. This is because of their networking ability.

Do you fully understand the legal ramification and necessary steps required in selling a home?1

If not, it is advisable to choose someone who has.

Have you contacted the necessary professionals.....title, inspector (home and pest), attorney, and escrow company?1

If you are looking for such professionals, please do get the efficient one. There are some incapable professions who can delay and even cost you the transaction.

Endnotes:

1 The questions were extracted from the article called "Attention: For sale By Owner" which was published online ,and as at to date, the original author was unknown. The web address is http://www.totalrealestatesolutions.com/articles/discp.cfm?aid =209&typeid=1&winpop=0&n....