Stacey Harmon

If you are looking to gain traction and increase your engagement on your Facebook business page, one of the foundational tips to keep in mind is to respond to every person who posts on your page.  If a fan of your page takes the time to comment on one of your posts, or create a unique post on your page wall, be sure to respond. Let your audience know that their interaction with you hasn’t gone unnoticed. Sometimes the nature of the post won’t warrant a full comment response. At the minimum, give the comment a “like”.

This is not only a great way to make that individual feel appreciated, but it also helps give you overall “interaction points” in the Facebook proprietary algorithm which determines how often your content displays in the news feed of fans. Depending on the nature of the post or comment by a page fan, consider asking a follow up question to their post to entice further engagement. It is a simple, yet important tip for increasing the visibility and interaction on your page.

Today many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Broker Agent Speakers Bureau would like to take a moment to thank our supporters, associations, event coordinators, speakers and everyone that works endlessly to make this the best platform for speakers.

We hope you have a safe and enjoyable day and we will see you at your next event!

Facilitating short sales when there are multiple mortgages is creating some real challenges in today’s market.  As the “quarterback” of the transaction, it is imperative that the listing agent have a strategic approach.

To illustrate, let’s discuss two common scenarios and start with a few assumptions.  We have two mortgages: the amount owed on the 1^st mortgage = $80,000 and the amount owed on the 2^nd mortgage = $20,000.  Broker commissions = 6% and other seller closing costs = 2% (including title policy, etc).  There are no other liens or encumbrances.  The homeowner is in default on both mortgages.  In any short sale with multiple mortgages, there is an important series of questions that the listing agent must ask in order to determine how to move forward:
1) What is the market value of the property?
2) What is owed to the 1^st?
3) What is owed to the 2^nd?
4) With a market value offer, could the 1^st be paid off in full?

5) How do I proceed with each lender?

Scenario #1: Market Value = $90,000.  A market value offer of $90,000 and closing costs and commissions totaling $7,200 ($90,000 x 8%) would net the lenders $82,800.  Is the 1^st going to agree to a short sale?  Not likely, because there will be sufficient sales proceeds to pay the 1^st off in full, so the short sale process must be initiated with the 2^nd.  However, even though the 1^st is not likely to consider a short sale, the listing agent still must establish communication with the 1^st, to inform the 1^st that a short sale is being negotiated with the 2^nd and that the 1^st should be paid off in full, and then request postponement of any foreclosure proceedings by the 1^st.

Scenario #2: Market Value = $70,000. A market value offer of $70,000 and closing costs and commissions totaling $5,600 ($70,000 x 8%) would net the lender $64,400.  Is the 1^st going to agree to a short sale?  Most likely, because the sales proceeds would not be sufficient to pay the 1^st off in full.  Since the 1^st is the senior lien-holder, the listing agent must start the short sale process with the 1^st.  Assuming the 1^st agrees to a short sale, the 1^st will determine the amount they will offer to the 2^nd for a “release of lien”.  Once the short sale process has been initiated with the 1^st, communication must begin with the 2^nd, informing the 2^nd that given the market value of the property, the 1^st is considering a short sale.  Once the 1^st determines how much they are willing to offer the 2^nd, the 1^st may communicate directly with the 2^nd or, more often in the current market, the listing agent must facilitate this communication.

Facilitating short sales with multiple lenders can be challenging, but having the right training and a good strategy in place will significantly increase the likelihood of a smooth and successful closing.

Stacy Spickes is the co-founder of America’s Home Rescue and the CDRS, CDRCS and CSSBR Short Sale Certification Programs.  To learn more, visit www.AmericasHomeRescue.com.

Technology Strategist, Speaker, Trainer

79% of the Internet Retail Top 500 retailers have Facebook pages, yet only 12% offer apps or widgets that enable ecommerce transactions on the social network. More than half (53%) of Facebook users have reached a retailer’s website from its Facebook page, and 35% of online shoppers said they would be likely to make a purchase through Facebook. Additionally, a third of respondents “like” six or more retailers or consumer products companies on Facebook.
The prospect of finding out about sales and promotions is a big lure. Over 56% of those surveyed visited retailers’ Facebook pages for this purpose, while 58% in the Shop.org study, which included Twitter and a company’s blog in the figure, cited deals as a primary motivation. Learning more about a retailer and keeping up to date on products were also important.
Retailers and consumer products companies could give the group currently connecting with them on Facebook access to sales. Even if these online shoppers are not yet able to make purchases directly through Facebook, exclusive offers can engender goodwill, loyalty, sharing which will ultimately result in sales.

Statistics provided by Ability Commerce Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs

What does “priced right” mean?  It means the price that, with normal marketing, will sell the property in three weeks or less.  The only exception is the house that is truly unique. 
But wait, what if houses were selling last month for $350,000 all over the neighborhood but this month they are not selling.  Does that mean they are now overpriced?  The answer is yes.  Will they come back to the $350,000 price range next month or in the spring?  Maybe, but for this market this month, it’s not “priced right.” 
In this economy it’s possible that next month or in the spring the price could be less. 
An Agent that I coach had sold seven homes in a neighborhood for prices between $620,000 and $720,000 right up until the summer of 2010.  Between the fall of 2010 and the spring of 2011 she had five others on the market.  None were selling.  She lost one listing to a bank foreclosure.  The bank put it on the market for $549,000.  It sold in a week.  This year four others have sold in the neighborhood; all for less than $600,000. 
It hurt her to see her Clients sell for less than they bought.  For too long she was saying that the houses were worth more and that they were priced right when they weren’t selling.  Her heart is in the right place.  This is not easy for Agents or Sellers.
But let’s be honest and professional about pricing.  Let’s learn the skills, approach, and language required to help Sellers make the best decisions even when they are difficult decisions.

In part one, I described what a Signature Virtual Tour was and why it is beneficial. In this posting I will discuss how to get started.

When I discuss virtual tours with my coaching clients, I often hear them say, “Denise – that looks way too complicated. Uploading basic photos is much easier, and it’s much less time-consuming. I’m a busy agent. I don’t have enough time in the day to do this as well.”

And my answer is always this: If you want to stand apart in today’s market, with the kind of technology that today’s sellers and buyers expect, you simply must step up your online marketing.

If you’re not sure where to start, check with your office, your office staff or your company, and find out what resources are available to you.

For the highest quality virtual tour, hire a photographer to create your whole tour for you, including filming you at the beginning and end of your tour. You might even expand the idea one step further and while narrating your tour, include one additional scene where you are personally highlighting a particular feature of the home.

If that’s more than you can afford when starting out, you can use something as simple as a Flip video camera (this is not your smart phone!), take video photos of the house, take a second video of yourself, and then pull them together into one tour. If you’re going to do it this way, use a tripod to take the highest-quality video you can. Too often agents try and take a walking tour of the home, which rarely turns out to be the quality that you need.

Occasionally I’ll hear from an agent who says, “I create virtual tours for my high-end homes, but not for my ‘bread and butter’ listings.” I’m always so disappointed when I hear that because it’s not just about pleasing a current seller who expects top-notch marketing – it’s also about attracting buyers and potential sellers. In any price range! It’s about making sure that you generate all the ‘bread and butter’ business you need to keep your income stream running. Talk about a positive, impactful statement to all the low and mid-priced sellers out there who might not expect that they would get the same level of marketing as a high-priced seller! You’re saying, “You matter. Your business matters. I treat every client of mine with the same high level of client service.”Now, that’s impactful.

Here’s the beauty in all this. People are looking online to find homes. They’re also looking online to ‘virtually’ interview potential listing agents before they ever even talk to them. If someone watches your virtual tour and compares it to other agents’ marketing tools – WOW – do you have a way to impress them. I know agents who have had sellers call them and say something like this: “John – your virtual tour on 2395 Quail Drive is really beautiful. I’d like you to list my property as well.” How about that- a virtual tour that turned into a listing presentation, without needing to present in person! That’s powerful. That’s taking virtual tours to a whole new level.

If you’re not currently doing virtual tours, I want you to consider adding virtual tours to your marketing arsenal. Virtual tours, done right, can be an integral part of your marketing package. If you’re doing virtual tours only once in a while, I want you to start doing them for every listing that’s fit to photograph. If you’re doing them now, but don’t have the engagement factor of your face – or your personal touch – on them, I want you to add that piece.

These days, every agent needs powerful, professional, impressive tools in their marketing tool bag. Signature virtual tours should be one of the most important tools you have.

When meeting a homeowner for the first time, you will need to determine if the homeowner even qualifies as a Short Sale Candidate. Generally, for them to qualify, the following must be true:

• The homeowner is in default with their mortgage lender
• The homeowner has little to no equity in the property
• The homeowner has a legitimate hardship, as defined by their bank.

In order to determine if a homeowner might qualify as a Short Sale Candidate, you will need to gather some very important and sensitive information. This is the information you will need to gather in order to better understand the situation and determine if the homeowner might qualify. You will be asking these very personal questions early in your conversation with the homeowner. Keep in mind that building a good rapport with the homeowner in the first few minutes is imperative. Most everyone they have been talking to up to this point has likely been rude, interrogating, patronizing and totally insensitive to their situation. You want to be different. Be sensitive as you ask your questions, listen carefully, show some compassion, and seek to build their trust.

You are going to find that some homeowners will call before they have actually fallen behind on payments, but they are anticipating falling behind in the near future. You should applaud them for their proactive efforts in trying to research possible solutions to their potential dilemma. If they are not yet behind on payments, we recommend that you simply try to list the property as a regular listing. If and when the homeowner does fall behind on payments, this will show the bank that the homeowner is making a good faith effort to sell the home and settle their obligation to the bank. This good faith effort will strengthen the homeowner’s case with the bank.

Now, you should also know that, given the current foreclosure situation plaguing the country, many lenders, in an effort to be proactive, will now consider a homeowner for a Short Sale even if they are not behind on payments. If the homeowner is in a negative equity situation, you might go ahead and proceed as if they were “in default” and see if the Loss Mitigation Department will proceed in considering your client for a Short Sale. Worst case scenario, the lender will say “no” or you may have wait to submit the package until the homeowner actually falls behind on their payments and the account goes into default.

Tips: One of the first questions you will ask the homeowner is if they currently have their home on the market. If they do, you will want to ask if they have it listed with a real estate agent or if they are selling it “For Sale By Owner.” If they do have it listed with an agent, we encourage the homeowner to call their agent immediately after our phone conversation, to let the agent know that they have contacted us and to have that agent contact us to discuss the services that we provide and how we might work together in selling the property through a Short Sale. We have found that most agents are unfamiliar with the nuts-and-bolts of how to work a Short Sale, and after educating them about what we do, they typically prefer to just hand-off the listing for a referral fee. Upon closing, we then pay them a referral fee for their efforts in trying to sell the property and willingness to hand-off the listing to us.

Stacey Harmon

Are you maximizing your marketing efforts by adding a call to action in your Facebook page? Since the point of having a Facebook Page is to build your business, be sure that your content and page presentation is encouraging action that is beneficial to your business.  Here are a few call-to-action suggestions:

1. Include a call to action in your profile picture:

• Like our page
• Suggest to friends
•  Ask us your real estate question
• Run a featured listing of the week in your page image and request that they “Call you for more details” (and include your phone number in the image)

2. On a custom tab:
(Note – you may need to hire a developer to design a custom tab for you.)

•  Contact Us
• View our Videos (direct them to your YouTube channel)
• View our most popular blog posts (link to your blog entries)
• Like our page

On your wall posts use calls to action that encourage engagement:

• Ask people to like your post: “Give us a thumbs up if you like this!”
• Ask people to Comment:  “What is your favorite local coffee shop? Leave us a comment and let us know!”
• Ask people to “share” the post: “Help spread the word by clicking the “Share” link below and posting this to your profile.”

You are far more likely to get action from your Facebook fans if you ask them to do something with a call to action. Think through how you can include compelling calls to action in on your page. And, if you see any effective, clever, or creative calls to action on Facebook, be sure to let us know (just leave us a comment with a link!).

Technology Strategist, Speaker, Trainer

We don’t just rely on phone calls or email communications to access information anymore. We use text, emails, websites, instant message, skype and more to interact, retrieve data and communicate. Our day to day business has changed as well. We need access to our files wherever we are, in the office at home or on the road. The ability to access files becomes easy using an online website to store your files and may become the most important pieces of software that you will need. Local applications on your computer will become passé, computers will become just gateways to the cloud where the work is done.

Benefits of Cloud Computing
Once you are storing your files on a cloud server your information is always with you. Download the software onto all of your devices including your smart phone, tablet, laptop and wherever you are you can find information and share with your clients or staff.

• The software is inexpensive. The ability to convert an entire office to cloud storage becomes easily affordable.
• No downtime for updates – the software operates via a web browser so any updated are done on the web and automatically updated on all devices.
• Allows for greater efficiency - Cloud software works cross platform, files are transferred seamlessly from PCs, to MACs, to iPads and other tablets to smartphones.
• Terrific for collaboration – Since you are managing documents from a single place, it is easy to share or edit single files or complete folders with other people. When anyone who works on a file, it is updated immediately over the internet to those who have access to it. No more confusion about who has the most updated version in their email.
• Many of the Cloud software products allow you to keep a copy of your files locally on your hard drive as well as on their server. If you need to be off line for a while you can still work on a document and when you access the internet again, the file will be updated wherever and with whomever it is shared.
• Manage projects around your content – once you share files with people, you can assign tasks and track file versions.
• Send and track large files easily - Never email a file again, you have the ability to send just a link to a file via email. If the other party can open a web browser they can receive your file.

Some ideas of where Cloud Computing is being used in the real estate industry.

• A brokerage Web presence that fosters agent individuality with a social network intranet component where agents actively engage and share knowledge.
• Lead management solution that allows remote access, agent management of their leads, and reports for their brokerage.
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) making it easier for sales, marketing, technical support to work together to ensure the best experience for your customers and client.
• Email along with calendar and contact management is at the Clouds core. Access from any device multiple calendars, contact information and email.
• Document storage, including, forms and paperwork, transaction management paperwork.
• The ability to fax from the computer – which includes creating PDF files for delivery via email.

Arnold is launching an Internet Company.  It is a terrific idea.  He has a partner.  He contacted me for advice.  He said that he called an important new Client yesterday.  It turned out that his partner spoke with the same Client earlier in the day about the same topic.  And they didn’t present the same information.  They didn’t contradict each other.  They didn’t support each other either.  It is not the impression they want to make.  And it is a sign that he and his partner are not communicating regularly.

I told him to do what Chava and I do every day.  Meet.  His partner is in Florida.  He is in New York.  No problem, speak on the phone.  Use e-mail, text messaging, GoToMeeting, Skype, and any number of other simple tools to conduct the meeting the same way as you would conduct it in person.

Schedule it for just 15 minutes so that it is not a burden.  Take longer if needed.  Schedule longer only when necessary.  Make it at the same time each weekday.  Have a simple agenda/outline of topics to cover so that there is consistent structure to it.  This structure stimulates creative thought.

If you miss it, no biggie, recommit and make it the next day.  If you miss it for a week or weeks at a time, no biggie, stay committed to it.  Eventually, it is so much the right thing that you will do it consistently and right.

WAIT!!!  No biggie if you miss it for weeks at a time, but that sucks.  That’s mediocre.  That lacks integrity.  It is also perfectly normal for a human when you are building a new habit, even a very valuable important habit before it takes hold.

My life and my work continue to teach me that when you berate or belittle yourself you will stay stuck.  But, when you stay positive and committed, you advance more quickly, correctly and creatively.