BrokerBryant.com

Hi folks, As most of you know I run a virtual real estate office. What this means is that my associates and I all work from our homes. I do most of my business over the Internet. I rarely talk on the phone. And I rarely show properties.

I list Florida properties for sale without ever meeting the Sellers and I sell Florida properties without ever meeting the Buyers. This is my preferred way of handling business. I mostly communicate via email and text messages.

I have found that conducting business like this is very efficient. I am able to spend more time communicating with my customers because I am not wasting time driving around looking at properties and talking on the phone for an hour when an email would deliver the same information.

The other advantage of handling communications via email and text messaging is that there is far less confusion. I rarely have to deal with “he said she said”. All I have to do is pull up the conversation thread and everything we “said” is right there in writing. No confusion. No mistakes.

Here are a few tools I couldn’t live without.

• Gmail. The labeling feature in Gmail is my filing cabinet.

• GoogleDocs. Everything I need online and there when I need it. I can also invite others to edit the same document. And don’t get me started on Google forms. The best thing since sliced bread.

• Picasa and web albums. How would you like it if you asked the listing agent for additional photos and they could connect you with an album online that had dozens of them?

• Scribd.com. What if your Seller can’t receive a 100 page attachment? Just upload the document to Scribd and send the seller a link.

• Skype. Do a lot of International business? $12.95 (or so) a month and I can call anywhere in the world. I can even talk via webcam.

• PDFill.com. Can’t afford Adobe Professional? Try this one for a one time fee of $12.95 (or so). Never use your printer again.

• Google Groups. Need a FREE meeting place for your team? Go check it out

• Veoh.com or YouTube for sharing videos of properties.

OK. That’s it for now. I have many more tools that I use everyday to make my life easier and less time consuming. My goal for next year is to be able run my entire Florida Real Estate business from my iPhone. How cool would that be?

***If you are an experienced agent and want to work for a virtual real estate company then check out my company site at www.TTRealtyNet.com.

Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Hi folks. Earlier this week Fernando Herboso wrote a post titled “The Future of Real Estate….I experienced yesterday”. If you haven’t already please take a few minutes to read his post. I’ll wait…………. OK....are you done?

Fernando's post is talking about having a real estate closing where the only time he met the Seller was at closing. The transaction was done mostly via email.

I was surprised in the comments of Fernando’s post how many agents thought this was risky or that it wouldn’t work. This has had me thinking for days now.

It’s made me realize how cutting edge my business model really is. My company Tutas Towne Realty is a virtual real estate business. What this means is I do not have an “office” and about 90% of my business is handled over the Internet. Selling and buying real estate with folks we have never met or spoken to.

In the last 30 days we had 10 closings. 9 Buyer sides and 1 listing side. Of the 9 Buyer sides we had actual "face to face" contact with ONE Buyer. I did meet the Seller although I hadn’t seen him in several months.

Out of the 8 Buyers, we didn’t meet face to face, we only spoke to ONE of them. All other communications were done by email only. Including the closings.

We showed ZERO properties before the offers were accepted.  All offers were presented on properties we had not seen. They were foreclosures, short sales and some were regular listings.

The customers ALL got the properties they wanted and are extremely happy. We didn’t waste their time and they didn’t waste ours.

So you’re probably wondering how we do this. It’s simple. We market for experienced and qualified Buyers that are mostly out of the country. They are familiar with the area and they trust us to guide them in their purchase. We are brutally honest with them and we have systems in place to protect them.

We do “see” all properties before contracts are finalized. It could be me. It could be one of my agents. It could be one of our inspectors. But whoever it is we make sure to do a complete photo and video shoot that we then send to the Buyer.

We utilize Scribd.com to “send out” Short Sale Listing Packages.

We utilize Google Docs to get leads for Short Sales, for Buyers, to get offers and to pre-qualify and arrange showings.

I have numerous web sites set up to capture business. All potential customer/clients know how we work and have the option of not working with us.

So quit fighting the future and embrace it. If you think all Buyers and Sellers must see you “face to face” to do business then get over yourself. They really just want to buy and sell real estate. AND….they want it to be easy.

Want to learn more? We also use Google Docs for recruiting……

Bryant Tutas
Broker/Owner
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker
http://CentralFloridaShortSales.com

http://ShortSaleSuperStars.com

***The content of this blog is solely my opinion***

Copyright © 2009 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

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