Recently I have heard several Realtors commenting on the influx of newbie and part time Realtors and why Brokers should not hire them as they are cutting into the seasoned professional‘s business. The general consensus seems to be to concentrate on our own business and let the market sort itself out. I agree with this. However I think we are missing the real issue. In my opinion the real issue is not how these inexperienced Realtors are affecting our business but how they are jeopardizing the Sellers and Buyers that are hiring them. A Seller or Buyer hiring a Realtor to help them, with what may be the single largest financial transaction of their lives, should be able to assume that a licensed Realtor is qualified to handle their transaction. This as we all know is not the case. Being licensed and being a Realtor does not necessarily mean you have a clue to what you are doing. To me this is very scary. I agree that everyone was new to the business at one time and must start somewhere. I do not agree that learning the basics of Real Estate should be a trial and error affair.

Brokers are obligated by law to train and supervise their Realtors. This is not a choice, this is law. At a minimum, new and old Realtors should be able to properly complete a legible and binding purchase contract and listing agreement. They should be able to prepare an accurate Market Analysis and be able to justify market value to their Sellers and Buyers. They should know to who and when to provide the proper Agency Disclosure. They should be able to intelligently discuss financing, appraisals, inspections, repairs and the closing process. These things need to be taught and learned prior to conducting the services of Real Estate. It is the Broker’s responsibility to make sure all Realtors are receiving this very minimum amount of training prior to holding themselves out to the public as being a professional capable of handling their Real Estate transaction. To be any less qualified than this is probably illegal and definitely unethical.

To be an experienced Realtor comes later. This IS learned by trial and error. Learning how to handle closing issues, negotiating techniques, people skills, preparing marketing plans, having a feel for a deal, being able to confidently counsel your customer/clients and many other skills that can only come from being involved in transactions. Hopefully, the more deals you do the more experienced you will become. One thing for sure about this business is you will never know it all.

My advice to new Realtors is to take as many training classes as you can. Learn the basic skills required to conduct your business. Read everything you can related to Real Estate. Find a Mentor. Hook up with a great mortgage Broker. Take the GRI classes. Take a seasoned Realtor with you on your first listing or buyer appointment. Have your Broker review all your contracts prior to presenting them. Read and understand the purchase contact including the standards. Practice preparing a Market Analysis before your first listing. And most important find a Brokerage that offers training. You can always switch to a higher commission split office later once you know what you are doing. Treat this business as a profession and dedicate your time to learning and you will find this a very rewarding business to be in.

Any thoughts on this?

By the way the message title of this post is to get your attention and is in no way an attack on new Realtors. My comments apply to all Realtors who do not conduct their business in a professional manner

Have you ever had such a bad experience working with another Realtor that you swore you would never work with them again? I know it’s hard sometimes but we must remember that we are in business to assist Buyers and Sellers achieve their objectives. It’s tempting to not show a Realtor’s listings or suggest to your Seller not to accept a deal from a particular Realtor who we have had a bad experience with in the past. As difficult as it is, always try not to hold the Realtor’s incompetence against his customer/client.

The reality is, the Seller just wants to sale and the Buyer just wants to buy. Work towards helping them achieve these goals to the best of your ability. This may require dealing with unprofessional and rude Realtors on occasion. Bite your tongue, put on a smile and muddle through it. Take charge of the transaction. Be the one person in this stressful and difficult deal to hold it together and get the job done. Not only will your customer/client be impressed but the other Realtor’s customer/client will also become your biggest fan. This is how you build a long term successful business.

Anybody can handle a smooth transaction it is getting through the difficult situations that set you apart and make people remember you. Maybe your professionalism will rub off on the other Realtor. One thing is guaranteed the problems and issues we have with unprofessional Realtors will always be a part of our business. It’s our job to rise above it and keep moving forward with a good attitude. That is something we can control. That’s why they pay us the big bucks!!!!!!!!!

Received an offer for one of my listings earlier this week. Came complete with a copy of an escrow check, a two week closing, more than full price, request for 6% closing costs contribution and the notorious unsigned “pre-approval” letter from Eddie. Well being the professional Realtor that I am the first thing I do is pick up the phone and give good ole’ Eddie a call. I figured I had best ask him about this 6% seller contribution on a conventional loan. Also, thought it might be nice to find out who Eddie is and who he works for. Well Eddie it turns out IS a Mortgage Broker and is ready and excited about getting a loan closed for these Buyers. Seems they were under contract before but the deal didn’t close. Something about the Seller. Anyway, Eddie being full of knowledge and very helpful told me that doing 6% in closing costs with this Lender is no problem and in fact the Buyers are fully approved from the prior purchase and all they need is a contract and an appraisal and he will close in 7 days! Wow! I am really getting excited now. So I let Eddie know the offer is for $205,000 and I want to make sure they are qualified for this amount. “No problem. This is less than the house they had under contract” Eddie says. “Get me a contract and I will order the appraisal today” This Eddie is on the ball!

Now like the good little Realtor I am, I call the Seller, who happens to be a Realtor and Appraiser, to present this offer since the numbers do work out OK for him. Well first we have a good laugh at Eddie but decide to take Eddie at his word and accept the offer. We change all the time limits to reflect Eddie’s optimism about closing in 7 days. And we decide to add a little addendum stating the closing costs contribution of 6% will be made only if on the closing statement. No last minute “under the table” monies will change hands.

I get my Seller’s signature and fax this contract over to the Buyer’s Realtor. I decide to give her a quick call to let her know when she meets with the Buyers she needs to get as much information from them as possible about where they found Eddie and ask them for a “Good Faith Estimate” just to make sure the numbers are OK.

Well the next day the Realtor calls me fit to be tied. It seems good ole’ Eddie had contacted her to let her know that he Buyers actually only qualify for $185,000! And the Lender will only allow a 3% Seller contribution! I guess the bottom line is “Eddie don’t know squat!”

Moral of the story: A pre-approval letter from anyone besides the Lender is a worthless piece if paper. It is very important to place your Buyers with Mortgage Brokers that you can trust and who have a track record of successful closings. Be diligent when helping your Sellers negotiate. Don’t accept anything with out making calls to follow up and try to get as much information as you can. Listen to your gut instincts.

This story has been embelished and the name has been changed to protect the gulty.

Got a call from a homeowner a few days ago. Seems he had received one of my solicitation letters that I send out daily to all expired and withdrawn listings in my market area. He was wondering why he got a letter since he had just listed his house on the market a few weeks ago. Well I got his address and phone number and told him I would look it up in the MLS and call him right back. When I checked the MLS he was currently active but had been withdrawn for one day and re-entered by the same office by a different Realtor. I called him back and gave him this information and had a nice chat with him. Very pleasant and knowledgeable young man. Wished him luck with the selling of his house and told him to feel free to call me if he ever had any questions or needed any help.

Well lo and behold he called me two days later and asked if I could come by and see him because he was thinking about changing Realtors. Sounded good to me so I made an appointment and went to see him the next day. He had a great  house! I had a look around and sat down with him and his wife to go over market conditions and give him my opinion of what his house was worth and what it would take to get it sold. He was currently listed at $215,000 with a 4% commission. My suggestion was $195,000 with a 6% commission. While talking with them I discovered a few things 1. They had never seen a Market Analysis 2. They had never sold a house before 3. The wife had been transferred and they wanted a quick sale 4. They had never heard from their Realtor since being placed on the market. I left them with all the information I had prepared for them and told them to keep me in mind if things didn’t work out with their current Realtor.

Called me the next day to let me know they had fired their Realtor and wanted me to place their home on the market with me. They said they slept great the night I left knowing there was hope and that they now had the information they needed to make a good decision. I now have a beautiful new listing with great Sellers. “Range Priced” at “Market Value” ($189,000 to $209,000) and a 6% commission so we can offer a good Co-broke. All these Sellers ever wanted from their Realtor were the facts. I have now connected them with a Realtor found through ActiveRain to help them purchase in Arkansas, for a referral fee of course. The Sellers are confident about their relocation. I am happy with my new listing that’s priced right and had two showings as soon as it hit the market. And their previous Realtor…………….?

The facts Jack. Nothing but the facts.

Do these words make you cringe? Do you just want to leave before they go any further? The best way to tell a racist is when they say “I’m not a racist but……”.

Meeting with potential customers on a regular basis it doesn’t surprise me when I hear this but it does surprise me how often I hear it and who’s saying it. As Realtors we cannot go there! We must nip this conversation in the bud before it goes any further. There is a little law called the Fair Housing Act that we must abide by. How do we do this? How do we continue to work with this person? Do we just ignore it and move forward? Do we lay the law down?

I must admit that this always places me in an awkward position. I usually move forward at the speed of light then ignore it but I can never seem to forget it. It changes my relationship with that person. My dream is that someday we will learn to appreciate people for who they are not despise them for the color of their skin. I live in the great State of Florida and one of the best things about Florida is that it’s very multicultural. I wish all people would see it that way.

I’m not racist but…………..I do have a vision.

In my market Poinciana, Fl I have been listing and selling homes for 12 years. When I first started out here there were 6,000 people and only one local Real Estate Company. I didn’t consider myself a company back then since I worked out of my house and was a one man show. Still am. Over the years I have been able to establish myself as the top listing agent in this community. By this I mean I have the highest number of sold listings (single family homes) in any given year. During the last 4 to 5 years Poinciana has exploded to over 65,000 people and still growing. There are now hundreds of Realtors from all over Central Florida listing and selling houses out here. As of this morning there are 1,434 houses on the market in the MLS. And still I am at the top. By the way if you check up on me in the MLS don’t look under actives look under pendings and solds. That’s where you will find me. I have found that one of the reasons for my success is a rock solid knowledge of the market in my area and a very strong listing presentation.

What makes for a strong listing presentation? Well what I have learned is the best presentation is when the Sellers are doing all the talking. Ask the right questions, sit back and listen. Sellers don’t care about Power Point Presentations, 25 Marketing Strategies for a Successful Sale, Broker Open’s, how many designations you have, how large your company is or a myriad of other things we say to potential Sellers to show how good we are. Remember it’s all about them not about us. The Sellers I meet with on a whole want to talk. They want to show you their house and tell you their reasons for selling. They want to blow off steam from the bad experiences they have had with past Realtors. They want someone that will listen to them and respond accordingly. No scripts, no ABC sales techniques and no print out of all your awards.

What they want is an honest and forthright opinion of what their house is worth and what it will take to sell it. And most importantly they must know that you genuinely care about them and their needs. And believe me this can not be faked. It must be a sincere caring. Bottom line people want to work with people they like and trust. So next time make your listing presentation a listening presentation.

Tried to find my Sellers an out of State Realtor this week to help them find a house in the town they were relocating to. Researched several Realtors’ web sites to find one experienced with what my Seller was looking for and that seemed to have a lot of experience working with relocation Buyers. Found a great one. Over 10 years in business. Husband wife team. Top Realtors in their area. Great Web site, web log and pod cast. All the new tools to get the job done. Sent them a detailed E-mail explaining my Sellers needs and time frame for purchasing. My Sellers were pre-approved and going to the State in a week to purchase. Then being the good Realtor that I am I called the “contact me direct” phone number and left a detailed phone message as well.

Well now 7 days later no return call, no return E-mail. It seems you can have all the tools and put forth the appearance of being the best in your area and still not have the most important quality a Realtor can have-Responding quickly to ALL inquiries. Timely communication is the number one way to make money in Real Estate. Answer the phone. If you can’t answer it. Return the call in 15 minutes or less even if it’s to tell the person you don’t have time to talk but will call them back in 1 hour. Then call them back in 1 hour not 1 hour and 15 minutes. My cell phone has made me 100’s of thousands of dollars. Set your E-mail on auto response if you are not able to check it every 30 minutes. Better yet have it forwarded to your cell phone or PDA. Never leave a call or E-mail to the following day. Take care of today’s business today. You will have enough to take care of tomorrow. Answer the phone!!

Took a listing a couple of weeks ago. Seller is an out of area Investor who had bought a new home to flip for a profit. Fortunately he bought right and this can be achieved. Contacted me off an expired listing mailing. He had been on the market for about 9 months with no offers. I pulled up his details in the MLS and it looked like the house was priced right at $205,000. So I told him I would go out and have a look to see why it hadn’t sold.

When I pulled up to the property I was shocked! The lawn was a good 4 feet long and full of weeds, the Real Estate sign was laying on the ground with the post still standing albeit a little crooked. I used the current Realtor's lock box and tried to place the key in the front door after several attempts I was finally able to jiggle it to get it in. Opened the door and I was overwhelmed with dead cock roaches, spiders, crickets and other critters I was not able to identify. And the smell!!! Well let's not go there but we know how Realtors treat toilets sometimes. The vinyl flooring was covered in scruff marks from all the Realtors and Buyers who had obviously been looking at the property. This was evidenced by the stack of 40 to 50 business cards displayed all over the kitchen counter. This new never before lived in home was totally disgusting. Of course the marketing remarks in the MLS said “brand new home in excellent condition ready for new owner”.

Well I gave the Owner a quick call and told him the condition and said I would list the property and that I was going to arrange a professional cleaning crew and lawn service ASAP. I will pay the bill and he can reimburse me at closing. It cost a total of $275.00 to have his property spit shined, carpets cleaned and set up on monthly lawn service. I had his house back on the market within 48 hours looking like a brand new house and “Range Priced” from $195,000 to $215,000 with a 4% Co-broke. Needless to say Realtors and Buyers are now knocking the doors down to see this house and we have already had offers. Unfortunately they were not from “truly” qualified Buyers but that will have to be another post.

Again it’s another case of a Realtor taking a listing and then just abandoning it. The Seller was completely agreeable to whatever needed to be done to get his house sold but was never advised by his Realtor or heard from him for that matter. As professional Realtors we must provide honest straight forward advice to our customers and clients. To do anything less is unethical. So be proactive. Clean it up and sell it! 

On a local Realtor forum I participate in I have recently been hearing a lot of Buyer Realtors complaining that the sales commission is not being split 50/50.

Ok let me see if I can explain this commission split thing in simple language. I am a lister of properties. It’s what I do. When I meet with potential Sellers I tell them the minimum amount of money it is going to cost them to use my services and get their home sold. This depends on how realistic they are on pricing, how much money I will spend on marketing, whether I have to pay a referral fee and whether they are repeat customers or if I will be assisting them on another purchase or sale. This could be 1% it could be 5% The figure we arrive at is my compensation and will not change and has nothing to do with the selling Realtor. Then together the Seller and I review market conditions and what their competition is and how much commission we need to offer the selling Realtor in order to be competitive. Once we arrive at a suitable percentage for the other Realtor (which may go up during the course of the listing) we add the two sides together and there you have it! The total commission the Seller will pay when the house is sold. As a listing Realtor my compensation has been decided in advance and is a part of the listing agreement. It may be more than 50% it may be less than 50% of the total commission.

Now as a Buyer’s Realtor the amount of compensation that my Seller is willing to contribute to your services is the amount that is fully disclosed in the MLS. Nothing more and nothing less. Buyers and Realtors are actually at an advantage if they are using a “Buyers Broker Agreement”. You, the Realtor has the advantage of discussing your fee with your potential Buyer prior to showing them any properties and being able to let them know that the Seller is willing to contribute a percentage of the fee the Buyer has to pay to work with you. The Buyer has the advantage of knowing his Realtor is free to show them any and all properties that may meet their needs. Be it FSBO or a listing with a lower Co-broke that you may not normally want to show. Folks you need to be selling your services to your potential customers before you go to work. And you are selling them for a fee. Buyers have no problem guaranteeing you a certain percentage if you are a professional hard working Realtor and are able to sell your services. You are in sales! Sell yourself! Quit relying on listing Realtors to negotiate your compensation. If you are not capable of negotiating your own compensation how in the world can you be expected to negotiate the best deal for your Buyer. Our services are really the only thing we have to sell. Houses sell themselves. If you are not “listing” your Buyers with a “Buyers Broker Agreement” then unfortunately you are at the mercy of what is being offered in the MLS. As a listing Realtor it is not my job to negotiate your compensation. It is my job to sell my Seller’s property. Are you being short changed! Not by me.

Each State may vary on laws realting to Buyer Broker’s Agreements and types of Agency or Non Agency relationships.

Received another call off an “Expired Letter” today. Fourth one this week. Nice Lady whose house is located in a 55 and older Active Adult Community (Solivita) located within my market area Poinciana Fl. Even though I am the top Realtor in Poinciana (listings sold) I have never marketed or taken a listing in Solivita. Sold a couple of homes to Sellers of mine moving in but that’s it.

This community has about 1,500 homes and currently has 255 on the Market. The market is dominated by another Realtor (let’s call her Mary). Well I have decided it needs to be dominated by me since prices are a little higher than my current market. Anyway while talking to this lady she mentioned she had been with 2 different Companies in the last year but no one has sold her house. Well I asked her if she had tried Mary. She said she hasn’t but heard she was very good. I agreed with her and told her Mary was the top Realtor in her community and has been for a few years. She also lives there and is very familiar with the community. I said I had actually sold two of her listings to Sellers of mine who were moving in and she was very professional and knew what she was doing. Well the potential customer was very shocked that I was talking so strongly about Mary’s abilities and asked me why. I was truthful and told her that I was number 1 outside of Solivita but wanted to be number 1 in Solivita as well. She mentioned her house model and I proceeded to tell her everything about her floor plan, the neighborhood, how close she was to the pool and golf course and how many similar homes were on the market. She was amazed!! Folks, I had done my homework way in advance of sending out any letters to this community. She appreciated my honesty and said so. I told her I could never guarantee to her that I could sale her house but I can guarantee that I will be 100% honest with her about pricing and what we can do to get it sold!

Well we are meeting tomorrow at 1:00 and she asked me to be sure and bring the listing agreement with me because she has an appointment at 2:00 and wants me to get her house on the market right away. Never talked price or commission. I guess she will trust me with that!

Moral: Never talk down your competition. Be successful on your own merits. And always be 100% honest.