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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!
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.
When I was a senior in High School, I had the opportunity to see Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins and a few other great motivational speakers. I was so inspired from what I heard that day and knew that I wanted to be a speaker & coach like those amazing people I saw on stage. They shared many great stories that day, but one story stood out in my mind. Even years later, the story Zig Ziglar told has always resonated with me.
Zig tells the story of two guys driving through the south Alabama foothills and they got thirsty. They pulled behind an old farm house and found an old fashioned water pump. One of the men started pumping, but nothing came out. He told his friend to go down to the river to get some water to prime the pump and then the water flowed easily. The principle is that you have to put something in to get something out.
It is such a simple principle, but so many of us never master that concept. We want results without putting much, if anything, at all in. We show up every day and hope for success, but we don’t do the work, or prime the pump, that will soon produce the much needed water.
An example of priming the pump is prospecting. The effort we put into prospecting every day seems like priming a pump without getting any water for a while. But as we stick with it consistently over time the results will flow at a steady rate. What are you doing every day to prime your pump? What are the activities that are producing the reward?
Here are a few things you can do every day to keep the water (money) flowing:
Each of these activities are “prime the pump” activities. As you get into the habit of doing this each day, your business will thrive and you will find yourself a lot more productive and profitable.
You know the drill. You open your email and find your inbox your jammed-to-the-gills with forwarded jokes and funny cartoons. Or maybe it’s an email saying that Microsoft and AOL are tracking how often you send emails and you’ll be paid for each email you send—and there is a credible source listed in the signature line of someone who has personally received $10,000 for participating. Hey, who doesn’t want instant wealth? Of course you’re going to send this email to everyone you know—not only will you get rich, but all your friends will too, right?
OK, you probably know what to do with those (delete them, please!), but what about emails with a call to action? What if it is a desperate plea from a mother whose daughter is missing and wants everyone to forward the email to all their contacts in the hope that someone has seen her? You know the kind I am talking about. As Realtors, we are action-oriented people who are compassionate and helpful by nature—so of course, you’ll be happy to forward that email to all 500 people in your contact list, right?
So, what do you do? Do you…
1) Promptly forward the email as requested to everyone you know?
2) Hit delete (while secretly wondering if you’ve done the right thing)?
3) Do some research on the validity of the email before forwarding it on?
The correct answer is 3 (sometimes 2, but hardly ever 1!) Spam emails are everywhere and one way to control their wildfire-like spread is to check the accuracy of the tale of woe being circulated. In fact, as a trusted professional with other legitimate messages to send, it’s critical. And, thanks to a couple of scam-busting websites it is even easier than you may think!
The above examples are just a couple of the emails we have all received at one time or another. They are “Urban Legends” with no basis in the truth. Emails of this nature have been circulating on the Internet for years (poor little Ashley is probably a little old lady by now –and was never missing in the first place!) There are many variations of these emails, and many, many more Urban Legends floating out there in cyber space.
Some examples of current Urban Legends are about politics and the slant of the media, a new state of the art prison facility in Illinois (it’s actually in Austria), the pitfalls of calling the 809 area code, cell phone numbers to be given to telemarketers, how #77 on your cell phone will connect you to the highway patrol, big oil scams, drilling in the arctic wilderness, and many more. You’ve probably seen each and every one of these emails multiple times this year alone—and maybe you continue to forward the ones you feel strongly about.
So, what’s the solution?
The first thing to ask yourself is whether they are fear-based, creates urgency or just sounds too fantastic to be true. If so, the email is probably not true and possibly a scam. The smartest thing to do, before clicking “forward” on every email, is go to my favorite scam busting website at www.snopes.com and type in the subject line of the email or the main content (such as Ashley Flores, missing girl) and in a blink of an eye, you’ll be able to confirm whether it is “True” or “False.” Obviously, if it’s false—hit delete and forget it. As a courtesy to whomever sent it to you—you might want to mention that you verified it on Snopes and it is false so they don’t continue to forward it. And just because you get an email that says “Verified on Snopes.com to be true!” doesn’t mean you should believe it–we receive many emails with that header–and all of them that we’ve checked have been false.
With email becoming one of the most prominent forms of communication we all suffer from email overload. Do yourself a favor (and all your contacts, too) and either: 1) delete all forwarded emails (seriously, are the jokes so funny that you need to spend two hours a day reading all of them?) or 2) verify the authenticity of emails that have a “call to action” by checking out www.snopes.com. You (and your contact list) will be glad you did!
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Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach and consultant. Despite his busy speaking schedule, and role as co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results. He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions, and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, seminars and private consultations. To contact Verl visit www.verlworkman.com or www.PQPipeline.com or email him at AskVerl@verlworkman.com.
Follow Verl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/verlworkman
http://www.facebook.com/VerlWorkman
As a culture, we are busy. We have technologies that allow us to stay connected to our business even when we are supposed to be taking a vacation. We multi-task, and as a result of our increased efficiencies, we are busier than ever and have trouble finding time to “fit it all in.” One of the biggest barriers to finding enough time to fit in the most important things in life are those people and things that steal away what precious time you have available. In order to be productive we must eliminate those time wasters and focus on things that help us move closer to our goals. I call this process “Taming the Time Thieves”.
If you follow the following five suggestions, you will find you have more control over your day—and you will get more accomplished!
1. The chatting syndrome. Conversations (“chit-chatting”) with co-workers, friends, family and neighbors can happen anytime, anywhere, in person, by phone or even via the Internet. These chats can be worthwhile—sharing ideas, catching up on old times, talking about fun things you each have in common—but the reality is that frequently these chats do nothing but steal huge chunks of time from your day. Keeping in touch with friends and family is, of course, a good thing, but yapping endlessly about not-so-important things is a real time thief, especially if it saps your time for either necessary or more desirable pursuits. Give yourself reasonable limits as to the amount of time you will spend chatting. If you are stuck with a rambler, politely say, “I’ve got to go”…and do it.
2. The E-mail Black Hole. If every time you open your e-mail it is cluttered with many Fwd: blah, blah, blah e-mail messages or other junk mail and you hate working your way through them, get off the forwarding lists! Many times it is people who have less time available than you (or who don’t know how to handle their time) who will forward virtually every e-mail they get to a long list of “e-mail buddies”—and one way to control this is to either set up a non-business email account to receive those emails at (johndoe@yahoo.com)—or ask to be removed from those mailing lists all together. Seriously, are those jokes SO funny that you have to read every one of them? Also, never get trapped “surfing” the Internet. That can suck a couple of hours out of your day in a hurry! It’s ok and important to answer your business email quickly, but save the others for evenings or weekends when you can deal with the other personal things in your life.
3. Clients from Hades. Sorry, but this is real and every agent knows what I am talking about. Sure, we love our clients, but you and I both know that some clients can suck every waking moment out of you. You have to know who’s the boss. You are! (I know, sometimes it feels like every new client is the boss!) Your buyer’s agents have experienced the dread of showing a dozen homes to “Lookie Lou” only to discover they couldn’t make a buying decision if their life depended on it. Your accountant, doctor, dentist or insurance agent are not available every waking moment of every day, why should you be? Pre-qualify each buyer and make sure you have a buyer’s agreement. This first step will let them know you are serious about your business. Then set their expectations as to how you will work with them up front and what you expect from them as you show homes.
4. Dumpers. Ever heard these words? “You handle it.” It may be a spouse, a relative, a co-worker, or a child, but YOU become the dumping ground. When you hear “I don’t want to do/don’t know how to do it,” and the “dumper” is fully capable, you need to take control. Unless you bounce back those things that truly can be handled by others, the dumping will continue (or worse, if there is no objection from you, intensify). They are not going to stop if you don’t protest! Speaking of which, it might be time for you to hire a good assistant to take over some of your more menial tasks.
5. Technology. Technology is a double-edged sword. There is no doubt that you need it—as a Realtor it can do more to free up time in your day than just about anything else—but you have to have a strategy for learning it and using it. That’s one of the reasons why I emphasize learning one new thing each day with your technology, then shut off your computer and go to work. Technology is not supposed to be all-consuming; it’s just one of the many priorities that needs to be fitted into your day.
By eliminating your time thieves and time wasters you will find more time every day to focus on the more important things in your life, like family, friends, faith, fitness, and of course your finances.
© Verl Workman, Pinnacle Quest Consulting 2010
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Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach and consultant. Despite his busy speaking schedule, and role as co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results. He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions, and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, seminars and private consultations. To contact Verl visit www.verlworkman.com or www.PQPipeline.com or email him at AskVerl@verlworkman.com.
Follow Verl on Twitter: http://twitter.com/verlworkman
http://www.facebook.com/VerlWorkman
Thank you! I am sincerely grateful to you. Those of you who read this blog, who listen to my webinars, attend my workshops, and find some value or entertainment in my work, thank you.
The teacher is often the student. Throughout the year you have shared your ideas with me that have expanded the work. And you have allowed me to share them with others. Thank you! To Rebecca for her amazing commitment to the work… a special thank you. As Chava and I sit down to a delicious Thanksgiving meal and thank G-d for so many blessings in our life. You will be in our thoughts and prayers… with gratitude.
Randy Eagar, CRS
Twitter can be a very effective tool for you, but you have to do it the right way. If you make every post about real estate you may be seen as boring or a spammer, but with too few tweets about real estate your followers may not think of you when looking for a broker. Your tweets need to show who you are; your personality, interests, and blend your personal with your business life. Unknown to most, Twitter is also a great for real estate SEO purposes because you can include links to your real estate website or blog, driving more traffic there.
Many people are skeptical about using Twitter for business. “Isn’t it just a bunch of people sending out nonsense like ‘I’m going out for a cup of coffee’ or ‘I think I’ll take a nap now?’” No! There’s plenty of that with the people who are tweeting with just their friends. However, you choose who to follow. Business people who are savvy about getting and keeping a following, post relevant stuff — interesting, leading-edge, up-to-the-minute sorts of things that people with the same interests want to know.
Here are some useful ways to use Twitter for your real estate business. There are many more, so feel free to add some of your own!
1. Converse with People About Your Real Estate Business
a. On occasion, you can tweet positive news about your company and what news is happening. Be careful about doing this too much in that people get tired of self promoting tweets and will tend to delete you.
b. You can see what people really think about you. Twitter is where people are. They are freely expressing their opinion. You can use the search feature on twitter to see what people are talking about each topic. You can write your own name and see what people are talking about you. Whether they are talking good stuff, or bad stuff. It is better than those customer evaluation sheets. So you never get the neutral view out of it. You either read reviews that are super good or super bad. This shows you the general view about yourself, or a product that you are looking for.
2. Write About Events You’d Like To Invite Others
a. Once you’ve established a good database of followers you can send out invitations to events that you’d like others to come to such as Open Houses.
b. Because Twitter sends out your “tweets” to everyone, any event you wish to hold can be broadcast to all following you.
c. With Twitter, you can also send out “Direct Messages” which go to only those that you choose. The one caveat here is that the person that you send a “Direct Message” to (like email) must be a person who is following you.
3. Share Breaking News and Keep Up With Others
a. One of the most important ways of getting your tweets read is to keep coming up with breaking news. Just as bringing to your audience
b. No matter what you are trying to keep up with, twitter has the latest info of it. From technology to breaking news, you can find it all on twitter.
c. Twitter has broken many major news stories ahead of the major networks. You can follow the web trends, news, special sites, and more by being on twitter. As a webmaster, or just as a normal person, you don’t want to fall behind. So to keep up you should join twitter.
d. Many times as a news story breaks, or as great listing come available, others will “retweet” the post using the “Retweet”, or “RT” such as RT @randyeagar has a great new listing in Camino Park.
4. Have A Quote Of The Day
a. Everyone likes to hear and read inspirational quotes.
b. Many who tweet regularly will use quotes when they can’t think of anything else to say.
c. Let’s say that you like to store your quotes so that others can see them during any given period of time. By having them on your Profile, others can see them, but only if they are following you, which you would have to have approved.
d. By the same token, if you are looking for a quote by a certain author, many times you can find it by doing a Twitter search.
5. Interact With Realtors From Other Parts Of The Country.
a. They can be a great source of referrals. As more and more agents get onto the Twitter highway, you will be developing more of a database to cull more referrals.
b. A great way to do this is to be the expert in your field and post often, giving valuable advice. You never know where you next referral will come from.
c. Referrals are the name of the game for many agents, and Twitter couldn’t be any better as a referral tool. Simply “tweet” the fact that you have a client moving to a certain location and ask for agents who service that area. Watch how fast you get deluged with replies.
d. The same thing goes for watching for referrals as well. I just did a search for “real estate referrals” and there were pages and pages of them. Now all you have to do is be more specific by adding in your location.
6. Use Twitpic To Share Photos Of Your New Listings.
a. Twitpic is a website that allows users to easily post pictures to the Twitter microblogging and social media service. Twitpic is often used by agents to upload and distribute pictures or in near real-time as an event is taking place. Twitpic could be used independently of Twitter, in a way similar to Flickr. However several characteristics make this site a companion for Twitter. Twitpic usernames and passwords are the same as the ones in Twitter. Comments to photographs are sent as a reply tweet. Twitpic URLs are already short, making it unnecessary to use URL shortening.
Randy Eagar, CRS
WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com
Today everyone seems to beam about their ability to multi-task. With the revolution of technology and communication going from simultaneous exchange (phones) to non-simultaneous exchange (texting) we continue to handle multiple activities in what appears to be one increment of time.
But is it a good thing or a bad thing? A recent study from the American Psychological Association released in August suggests that not only do we get less done by multi-tasking, but it can be hazardous to our productivity!
Even though we think we are “multi-tasking” according to reports by Vanderbilt University, we are still only able to process one activity at a time, but since we can do it fairly quickly, we have the illusion that we are in fact doing it concurrently.
Our “executive control center” is our decision making center which takes significant amounts of time, and according to the report, several tenths of a second, which adds up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks. Where multi-tasking may seem more efficient, it may actually take more time at the end. In this report, Dr. David Meyer pointed out that a mere half second of time lost to task switching can result in life or death of a driver operating a car using a cell phone.
Another survey done for small businesses revealed that 56% of the responders indicated that they often handle three or more tasks at a time, and reported that one in four business owners stated that multi-tasking does, in some ways, hinder their working ability. The results from obsessive multi-tasking shows decreased quality of work, taking actually longer to complete a simple task and eventual burn out.
So what can we do? Many of us will continue to perform master multi-tasking activities, and sometimes that can be done appropriately.
But here’s an interesting fact: Did you know that by cutting back only 20% of your day on multi-tasking you have the potential to free up about 237 hours or almost 6 weeks a year of time? Chris Crouch, President of DME Training & Consulting and developer of the GO System Training course is a productivity expert and coach.
In his program, he asks his students to perform a simple exercise that takes less than 30 seconds for most people to complete, but found the multi-taskers on the first exercise took 61 seconds!
The bottom line is that multi-tasking is really an illusion. Science Daily claims we can improve our multi-tasking timing, but in reality, we still can only process one rule or command at a time…maybe faster or slower…but our brains still process one at a time.
The bottom line: Be aware that you multi-tasking is okay in moderation, but know you might not be getting as much done in less time as you thought. But by adding a few small changes can help you get more done and free up real time. Crouch suggests that we perform “deliberate” practice of focus and block out 96 minutes per day. To achieve and maintain this focused state of mind he suggests we use a behavioral ritual or an anchor to help us stay focused on completing a task. He tells us to practice blocking out 96 minutes every day for deliberate practice (20% of your workday) to stay totally focused on a high priority, high impact task and watch your productivity increase.
It’s all about mindful productive tasking versus unproductive multi-tasking driven by habitual behavior. You don’t have to give up multitasking…just give it up for 20% a day, and be aware of the fact that when you do, it may be costing you!
Practice your “right now” technique and become a master at mindful multitasking…and then figure out what you want to do with all that extra time!
There was a time that Web sites were Websites and Blogs were Blogs. With the revolution of social media, it’s harder to tell which is which!
So I asked the expert, Paul Chaney, author of the upcoming book, “DIGITAL HANDSHAKE” to explain just what the differences are. Paul points out that the blog format allows for more participation and interactivity where websites are generally more static and function as a resource destination but aren’t designed to encourage much participation.
He says that using a blog can help us AQUIRE customers, while email helps RETAIN the customer by building a relationship bridge.
If you are wondering just how to build that bridge, here’s a couple of ideas he shared with me to maximize both your email and your blog:
1) Build Lists: Incorporate a newsletter subscription form in your traditional and electronic newsletters. This invites the customer at their option to get more information from you.
2) Use your email messages to encourage response from recipients to build blog content – this provides that “bridge” we spoke of earlier –Invite guests to submit questions or suggestions and posts to your blog. This puts in place another opportunity to nurture and reinforce the relationship through conversation.
3) Re-purpose previous email reports – If you’ve been sending tips and resources for sometime thru previous e-zines, your blog will give you another opportunity to revive and repurpose those valuable tidbits of information again.
4) Use blog content for your email newsletters – This is especially effective when you are able to quote real responses from real people instead of just “pushing” information thru the medium. It’s all about conversations and blogs allow for that interaction from multiple participants. Remember it’s not about you anymore; it’s about the community!
5) Use your blog to fill the gaps between your monthly e-zines. Newsletters are usually published monthly –about 12 times a year – but what about the time in between, especially if there is a top of mind question or national development? Your blog offers a platform for your subscribers to “hear” from you –especially if they subscribe to your RSS feeds. With regular postings, customers can be touched many times with information they have requested…making you a valuable resource!
You can see how having a static website does not serve the new demands for the participation and interaction demanded by today’s consumer. But if you are wondering how to tie your blogs to your email, there are some programs to help you.
Paul says at this writing, that the only company that integrates both blogs and emails into a single platform is iContact.
If you are comfortable with exploring and implementing a blog email platform, check out applications like FeedBlitz, Zookoda, or Feedburner. These applications take your blog posts and turn them into emails which can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly.
The days of visiting your website to secure information are going away! People want real time information and interaction. As blogging continues to grow, it is critical that you develop a blog strategy that partners with your email to keep pace with how customers and clients prefer to be informed.
Terri Murphy
SEO Expert, Real Estate Speaker and Trainer
Randy Eagar is a skilled speaker, master webinar presenter, and a search engine expert. My team learns something every time he speaks! From blogging to web site and serch engine placement, he delivers every time.
If you see a webinar or speaking event where is his speaking - don’t miss it! Here is a short 2 part video clip on search engine optimization. Good stuff!