We now have 1,300+ members of www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com  who are ready to help you master Short Sales. And if that’s not enough…….

Need Training?

If you need short sale training to feel comfortable pulling off the deal, you’re not alone. The number of foreclosures happening across the United States is unprecedented, and it’s not often that short sales are mentioned outside of this kind of economic environment.

It’s time for you to get the expertise you need, because short sales are becoming extremely common. You don’t want to be caught feeling unsure when a client asks for one.

That’s why we offer you three different training solutions, each of them custom-made for agents just like you. These training sessions take you from complete confusion to calm confidence in no time flat – and you’ll be able to turn that new knowledge into perfect closures immediately. 

This five-part Short Sale Agent Training webinar with short sale professionals Bryant and Wendy takes you through 8 full hours of short sale training, walking you through each step of a short sale so you know exactly what to expect and how to deal with problems that may arise. Click the button above to order $97

Bryant and Wendy interview a short sale negotiator from one of the major lenders to get you the insider secrets that make your short sale a huge success. If you want to come out ahead in a negotiation, ask the negotiator – and we did just that, so we could give you that insider info. $27

First short sale? Use this handy Short Sale Listing Package, and you won’t leave anything out next time. Everything from the short sale submission letter to a listing checklist, as well as anything else you‘ll need, all in one tidy package so you don’t have to stress. Just check it off, and close the deal. $27

Wendy Rulnick and Bryant Tutas
www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com

Copyright © 2010 REGrow, LLC | All Rights Reserved

Bought a new stove today. Unfortunately it won't be coming to my house but will be delivered to the house I closed on last week. The Sellers, my customers, were supposed to put a new stove in the house but decided to cut corners and put in a refurbished stove instead. Looks great. Works great. But it's not new. The Buyers nor their Realtor did a walk through prior to closing and I didn't notice it when I was in the house. The Sellers are going through a nasty divorce and had already moved and went their separate ways.

So what are you going to do? The Buyers are expecting a new stove when they arrive next week. I figure my Sellers have enough on their plate and I know that calling them on this is just going to create more tension between them. So I bought a new stove. Haven't seen it but hear it is really nice. Real shiny. Think I'll place a few business card magnets on the front and write the Buyers a little letter letting them know how I solved this problem for them. Maybe I'll get some business from it in the future. Maybe they will invite me over to dinner since my lovely wife doesn't cook. Have you gone beyond the call of duty lately?

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.

Time. Mine is valuable. Is yours? One thing that agents struggle with is being in control of their time. How often have you popped out to show property at the last minute? Or had to cancel a personal event because one of your customer/clients needed to see you? What about the Buyer who can only look at properties every other Saturday from 4-7 pm? Do you work with them?  I don’t.

Here’s a fact. There are NO real estate emergencies.

Here’s another fact. You will NEVER be caught up. There will always be another call to make. Another website to update.

If  you want to have lasting success in this business and avoid burn out you MUST get control of your time. Work by appointment only.

Don’t let others dictate your schedule. Don’t do same day appointments. Just let them go. It will save you a lot of aggravation in the long run. If people don’t respect your time they will never respect the relationship. That’s a fact.

Let folks know at first contact how you work and when you work. People will appreciate knowing these things up front. If your schedule doesn’t fit with theirs then just let them go. We can’t work with everybody.

Once you set boundaries with your time a funny thing will happen…..you’ll start attracting people that will work within your time frames. And because of this you will be less stressed and you will become better at what you do.

Do you believe that? Well even if you don’t it’s still true. You just need to trust me on this one. Can you do that?

Do you need a new Broker?

Want to find out more? www.TTRealtyNet.com

Copyright © 2010 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Here’s a secret about expired listings. Expired listings are  almost ALWAYS over priced. That’s why they are expired.

E$pired listings are without a doubt my favorite type of lead. These Sellers have already decided to sell and they’ve already decided to use a broker. 

The only hurdle left is to get the price right. That being the case it’s important to establish quickly if this is possible or not.

A CMA (Comparable Market Analysis) for a property that has expired should be short, sweet and to the point. No need to go overboard. A good technique is to arrive at a “range” of where you know the property will sell.

The idea is to make sure the seller is willing and able to make the proper price adjustment BEFORE you spend a ton of time arriving at a more precise price.

Why? Well…. the property was overpriced. This means either the seller was unrealistic about price or they were given bad advice by an inexperienced agent. The first seller will be more difficult than the second.

An example would be an expired listing that was priced at $500,000 that’s worth $325,000. All you really need to know is that the property should sell in the $300,000 to $350,000 range.

If you give the seller this price range you will know almost immediately, by their reaction, if you have a chance of getting the property priced right or if you just need to walk. If  you feel the seller is receptive to pricing right then get serious and do a full blown analysis.

Good listers can establish this stuff during a phone call. No need to set an appointment unless we know for a fact we can get the price right. I know my time is valuable. Is yours?

Do you need a new Broker?

Want to find out more? www.TTRealtyNet.com

Copyright © 2010 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

OK, this is an actual CMA and E-mail sent to an absentee owner. What do you think? I use a pretty basic CMA format from our MLS. Nothing fancy but it seems to work. The information is current as of this afternoon so it will also give you an idea of market conditions in Poinciana Fl. I'll trust you not to contact my Seller. If you do tell him I said Hi. 🙂 By the way, if you are newer to the business, please feel free to copy the format if it will help.

Following is the Market Analysis I have prepared for your house at XXX XXXX Ct. A few comments: The analysis includes 3 bedroom homes due to the fact there are only 2 other 2 bedroom pool homes on the market in Polk County Poinciana. One priced at $173,900 and one priced at $179,000. There are eleven 2 bedroom homes on the market with or without pools from a low of $159,900 to a high of $179,900. There have been eleven 2 bedroom homes that have sold this year with or without pools from a low of $125,000 to  a high of $179,000. The suggested pricing is based on price per sq ft living area and is basd on the highest sold price per sq ft. In my opinion the suggested price is maxed out. But we can discuss that when we talk.

Your home is in pretty good condion. I would recommend, painting the front door, replacing or removing the verticle blinds in both bedrooms, replacing the light fixture in living room, replacing the socket covers that were removed and clean, clean clean. Next to pricing, cleanliness is the most important. The pool surface is bad but no action required on your part.

Overall it is a very sellable house. Nice open floor plan. Great front yard. The back yard is kind of small but nothing you can do about that. Same with the 1 car garage. It is what it is.

All of these things have been taken into consideration in my pricing. I highly recommend the "Range Pricing". This will enable me to place the home into the MLS at the lower price, but still having the ability to negotiate to the middle of the suggested range.  My whole goal is to get them in the door. If they don't see it they can't buy it. Also, I think it is imperative that we offer the selling agent a x% co-broke. Obviously, if I find the buyer I will not charge you the co-broke. To be honest, that doesn't happen much, but it may.

The previous pricing of $209,000 was a waste of your time. There are 1,400 properties for sell in Poinciana, not counting FSBOs, as of this morning. You have a lot of competition. There are 235 homes under $200,000. So needless to say pricing is extremely important. Ok, that's all for me rambling. Please review all the info and let me know when I can get started. I did a complete photo shoot and measured while I was there today. So if you are agreeable I can have you up and running within 1 hour.  Call me with any questions or suggestions.

Please visit a personal page I've set up for you that contains a link to a Comparative Market Analysis report.

http://bryanttutas.mfr.mlxchange.com/?r=111496147&c=2&id=32373632313339.366

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!!

Hi folks. As most of us in this business I seem to have a lot more frustrating days than I used to. Real Estate is hard. My personal business is about 80% short sales and REOs (foreclosures). Frustrating.

I work in a very low end market and have to do lot’s of transactions every month in order to make a good living and pay the business bills. But that’s ok. So many folks have it much worse than I.

Yet, they have more strength than I could ever imagine. A perfect example is…..

.……Artist Leon Botha, one of the world’s longest surviving Progeria sufferers, and photographer Gordon Clark embark on a collaborative and artistic adventure, exploring the questions of destiny and immortality to bring us this powerful photo series Who Am I? Transgressions.

“By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.” Leo Tolstoy

Hi Folks. As we all know, nothing can derail a real estate transaction faster than a home inspection that uncovers “serious inspection issues“.

Recently I had a home inspection done on one of my pending listings. It was an older property and I was a little bit nervous and hoping there wasn’t going to be any major issues to deal with.

Anyway, shortly after the inspection was completed I get the e-mail from the selling agent to let me know we have “serious inspection issues.” She also sent me a copy of the inspection report and the WDO (wood destroying organisms) report. Darn it!!! We have termites!,  wood rot and major AC issues.

Well, being the good little Broker that I am, I pick up the phone and call my “peeps”, Wendal my HVAC guy, Dan the Termite Man and Khan my handyman and wood rot specialist. They all return my call within 5-10 minutes and stop what they are doing to go by the house and check it out. Within one hour, I have writen estimates from all three and time set aside on their schedules to get the repairs taken care of.

OK, now I’m prepared to call my Sellers. So I give them a call, explain the situation, go over the estimates and within 10 minutes I have authorization to move forward with the repairs.

Smartly, I had spent time during the listing presentation discussing inspections and repair issues and my Sellers were prepared. They understood that these were serious issues and would not just go away. So, they agreed to “let’s solve the problem and close the transaction.“

Now, a little over an hour after receiving the inspection report and e-mail from the selling agent, I give her a call. Folks, for some reason she seemed to be surprised that I called back so quickly, not to moan and groan about a problem, but to let her know the problem had been solved, repairs had been approved and scheduled and the signed repair addendum was on the way over from the Sellers. I think this REALTOR(R) will be happy to show and sell my listings in the future.

What could have been a deal breaker was not even a bump in the road. It was just a few calls to the right “peeps” and a well informed Seller. We were back on track.

Folks, it’s all about educating your customers/clients and having people that you have worked with for years who are willing to drop everything and help you out when you need them.

So, have you built and nurtured your business relationships(“peeps”)? Are you in a position to solve problems this quickly? Are your Customers/clients educated and well aware of issues that my arise during the contract period? I hope so. There’s a lot more involved with being a listing Broker…… than marketing.

Broker Bryant’s Tips

1. Educate your Sellers at time of listing
2. Get estimates for repairs so the seller can make an informed decision. It’s rarely as bad as they will imagine.
3. Have “peeps” that you can depend on. Make sure they get paid quickly. 
4. Repairs issues will not just go away. The seller will pay one way or the other. Best to just do them and close the deal.

That’s it. What say you?

Even the name sounds contradictory. Dual Agency. How can this be achieved? How can a Realtor, in all honesty, work for two Clients on opposing sides of a transaction? How can you place your Client’s interest first, when there are two of them, one trying to get the highest price possible and the other trying to get the lowest price possible? The concept of Dual Agency just doesn’t make sense to me, at all.

The State of Florida got smart in 1997 and made Dual Agency illegal. We are now presumed to be Transaction Brokers unless disclosed differently. I discussed this in a previous post, so won’t rehash it here.

An Agency relationship creates a fiduciary between the Agent and Principal. Take away the fiduciary and there is no Agency. In my opinion, when entering into Dual Agency relationship, this fiduciary must be modified, to the point of no longer existing, in order to assist both Clients equally. A fiduciary is NOT equal. Here lies the problem. Dual Agency, by it’s very nature, is not an Agency relationship. Below are some excellent links that delve into the problems with Dual Agency a little further.

http://www.realestatelawyers.com/Dual-agency.cfm

http://www.realestatejournal.com/columnists/housetalk/20031010-barta.html

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20050208_dualagency.htm

So what do we do? As Realtors we are obligated to “protect the public.” Our Code of Ethics is built upon this premise.

In my opinion, Florida has started down the right tract. Be an Agent, for one party and one party only. If you must work for both parties, then do it as a Transaction Broker. Personally, I would like to see it taken a step further and have no Agency relationship in Real Estate. Always, be a Transaction Broker. I believe this is a truer representation of what we really do. We are “facilitators.  If it walks like a duck…………..