Mistake #1:
Not knowing how much they can afford before they make an offer. The easiest way to avoid this mistake is to get pre-approved for a mortgage by a lender so you know in advance exactly how much you can afford.
Mistake #2:
Not realizing in advance who the real estate agent represents. Most people think that the agent they are working with is working for them. But unless they are working as your buyer representative, they represent the seller.
Mistake #3:
Not realizing that the wrong mortgage can cost thousands of dollars in needless
interest and taxes. Check with your accountant before you make your final decision on which mortgage you are going to choose. Your CPA will be able to tell you what the long-term effects will be on your income.
Mistake #4:
Not discovering hidden defects before they buy a home. One of the most expensive mistakes is also one of the easiest to avoid, by having a professional pre-purchase home inspection.
Mistake #5:
Not knowing how much credit can affect their ability to buy or refinance a home.
Before you buy a home, many of the clouds on your credit history can be cleared up
or even eliminated. Your mortgage professional can help you review and prepare
your credit file in advance.
Mistake #6:
Basing their asking price on needs or emotion rather than market value.
Many times, people make their pricing decisions based on how much they paid or
invested into their home. This can be an expensive mistake. Overpriced homes take
longer to sell and eventually net the seller less money. Consult with a professional
real estate agent. They can assist you in pricing your home correctly from the
beginning.
Mistake #7:
Failing to "showcase" their home. First impressions are the most important. Experience shows that for every $100 in repairs that your home needs, a buyer will deduct $300-$500 from their offer. Thoroughly clean and prepare your home before you put it on the market if you want top dollar.
Mistake #8:
Signing a listing contract with no way out. Most traditional real estate agents want you to sign a listing contract with no way out. When you list you home with Best Local Agent Team, you can cancel your listing agreement at any time, no questions asked.
Mistake #9:
Choosing the wrong agent or choosing them for the wrong reasons. Many homeowners list their home with the agent who works for the biggest company. You need to choose the agent with the best marketing plan and track record to sell your home.
Mistake #10:
Not knowing all of their legal rights and obligations. Real estate law is complex. The contract that you will sign when selling your home is legally binding. Small items that are neglected in a contract can wind up costing you thousands of dollars. You need to consult a knowledgeable, professional who understands the ins and outs of a real estate transaction.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Internet inquiries are very different from traditional offline leads.
Success depends on understanding this difference.
* Internet buyers spend an average of 5.9 weeks considering the purchase of a home before contacting a REALTOR®, compared to 2.1 weeks for traditional buyers.
* Internet buyers spend an average of 4.8 weeks investigating homes and neighborhoods prior to contacting a REALTOR®
* Having done significantly more research than their traditional buyer counterparts, Internet buyers spend less time looking for a home once they began working with a REALTOR®, spending just 1.9 weeks on average, compared to 7.1 weeks for a traditional buyer
* The typical Internet buyer also visited fewer homes with their REALTOR® than the typical traditional buyer. Internet buyers visited an average of 6.1 homes with their REALTOR®, whereas a typical traditional buyer visited 15.4 homes with their REALTOR®.
* Internet buyers tended to be younger than traditional buyers with a mean age of 38.5 years, compared to 43.5 years for traditional buyers.
What does all this mean to you?
What this means is that the Internet home buyer is not the same homebuyer you thought you knew. They take longer to choose a REALTOR®, but that’s because they are beginning their process much earlier in the game. (It doesn’t require much effort to decide one day you want to browse around online and start looking for some homes. It’s a bit more of a commitment to set aside an afternoon to go driving around looking for open houses). What’s most important is that these people WILL BUY. In fact, once they choose you as their REALTOR®, they’re actually BETTER buyers. They don’t shop your services as much, they usually have more money, and they’re better educated (both about buying a home and in general).
Where most REALTORS® have difficulty is seeing past the extended initial phase that Internet buyers are so well known for. Instead, they usually are seen literally throwing this business away and writing it off as “bad leads.”
Your ability to effectively manage and maintain the Internet buyer during their initial phase of home buying is what will set you apart from your competition and ensure your success with some type of traffic program.
Your initial follow up with an inquiry is a critical stage in the process.
Poor follow up stops everything in its tracks. When it comes to following up with inquiries, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
1. Immediacy is crucial: A unique attribute of the Internet is that information is accessible immediately. Because of this, Internet users have developed into a very impatient, “now” culture. If you do not respond to an inquiry within 12 hours (at the most) of receiving it, your chance of losing their interest increases dramatically. Best practice is closer to a 0-15 minute response time. Because of this, the auto-responder built right into your landing page can be your most powerful tool. Be sure to customize this auto-responder to your specific needs.
2. Ask leading questions: Many Realtors make the mistake of putting a sentence like “If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask.” Then they wonder why no one replies to their emails. Be sure to ask questions which provoke an immediate response. Initiate the conversation, rather than waiting for them to decide they’re ready to talk to you.
For Example:
• Are you looking for a place with a pool?
• Are you looking for a 1 or 2 story house?
• Do you have children? If so, are you looking to move within a particular school district
• I know the commute traffic here is pretty bad sometimes. Where will you be working?
3. Include a value proposition for your website: Getting someone to come back to your website is important. You increase your brand awareness every time you are able to get yourself in front of them. Be sure to include a reason for them to go back to your website other than the reason why they went there in the first place. Just ask yourself, “What else do people buying a home in my area want to do on my site, other than search for homes?”
Inquiry Incubation
Due to the need to hit short-term sales goals, many agents will focus all of their attention on working “hot leads.” Focusing too much on this can cause several problems in your marketing strategy:
• The cost of generating a “hot lead” can easily be more than 10 times greater than the cost of generating any other lead.
• You will experience harsh lows in your sales pipeline, when all the “hot leads” sell. You end up being caught in a vicious cycle of actively searching for the next “hot lead” at a very high cost.
With Internet-based marketing, the key to driving down your cost of acquisition and maximizing the benefits reaped from your advertising dollars is to practice effective inquiry incubation methods. This means to not just focus on the hottest leads, but to also identify the warm and even cold inquiries and nurture them over time into hot inquiries. You must implement an effective inquiry incubation cycle, with regularly scheduled “marketing touches” that are aimed at building credibility and brand awareness, and also presenting strong value propositions. By doing this, you create a much more balanced approach to long-term and short-term lead generation.
Success depends on understanding this difference.
* Internet buyers spend an average of 5.9 weeks considering the purchase of a home before contacting a REALTOR®, compared to 2.1 weeks for traditional buyers.
* Internet buyers spend an average of 4.8 weeks investigating homes and neighborhoods prior to contacting a REALTOR®
* Having done significantly more research than their traditional buyer counterparts, Internet buyers spend less time looking for a home once they began working with a REALTOR®, spending just 1.9 weeks on average, compared to 7.1 weeks for a traditional buyer
* The typical Internet buyer also visited fewer homes with their REALTOR® than the typical traditional buyer. Internet buyers visited an average of 6.1 homes with their REALTOR®, whereas a typical traditional buyer visited 15.4 homes with their REALTOR®.
* Internet buyers tended to be younger than traditional buyers with a mean age of 38.5 years, compared to 43.5 years for traditional buyers.
What does all this mean to you?
What this means is that the Internet home buyer is not the same homebuyer you thought you knew. They take longer to choose a REALTOR®, but that’s because they are beginning their process much earlier in the game. (It doesn’t require much effort to decide one day you want to browse around online and start looking for some homes. It’s a bit more of a commitment to set aside an afternoon to go driving around looking for open houses). What’s most important is that these people WILL BUY. In fact, once they choose you as their REALTOR®, they’re actually BETTER buyers. They don’t shop your services as much, they usually have more money, and they’re better educated (both about buying a home and in general).
Where most REALTORS® have difficulty is seeing past the extended initial phase that Internet buyers are so well known for. Instead, they usually are seen literally throwing this business away and writing it off as “bad leads.”
Your ability to effectively manage and maintain the Internet buyer during their initial phase of home buying is what will set you apart from your competition and ensure your success with some type of traffic program.
Your initial follow up with an inquiry is a critical stage in the process.
Poor follow up stops everything in its tracks. When it comes to following up with inquiries, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
1. Immediacy is crucial: A unique attribute of the Internet is that information is accessible immediately. Because of this, Internet users have developed into a very impatient, “now” culture. If you do not respond to an inquiry within 12 hours (at the most) of receiving it, your chance of losing their interest increases dramatically. Best practice is closer to a 0-15 minute response time. Because of this, the auto-responder built right into your landing page can be your most powerful tool. Be sure to customize this auto-responder to your specific needs.
2. Ask leading questions: Many Realtors make the mistake of putting a sentence like “If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask.” Then they wonder why no one replies to their emails. Be sure to ask questions which provoke an immediate response. Initiate the conversation, rather than waiting for them to decide they’re ready to talk to you.
For Example:
• Are you looking for a place with a pool?
• Are you looking for a 1 or 2 story house?
• Do you have children? If so, are you looking to move within a particular school district
• I know the commute traffic here is pretty bad sometimes. Where will you be working?
3. Include a value proposition for your website: Getting someone to come back to your website is important. You increase your brand awareness every time you are able to get yourself in front of them. Be sure to include a reason for them to go back to your website other than the reason why they went there in the first place. Just ask yourself, “What else do people buying a home in my area want to do on my site, other than search for homes?”
Inquiry Incubation
Due to the need to hit short-term sales goals, many agents will focus all of their attention on working “hot leads.” Focusing too much on this can cause several problems in your marketing strategy:
• The cost of generating a “hot lead” can easily be more than 10 times greater than the cost of generating any other lead.
• You will experience harsh lows in your sales pipeline, when all the “hot leads” sell. You end up being caught in a vicious cycle of actively searching for the next “hot lead” at a very high cost.
With Internet-based marketing, the key to driving down your cost of acquisition and maximizing the benefits reaped from your advertising dollars is to practice effective inquiry incubation methods. This means to not just focus on the hottest leads, but to also identify the warm and even cold inquiries and nurture them over time into hot inquiries. You must implement an effective inquiry incubation cycle, with regularly scheduled “marketing touches” that are aimed at building credibility and brand awareness, and also presenting strong value propositions. By doing this, you create a much more balanced approach to long-term and short-term lead generation.
Writing an Effective Sales Message
The 10 Ingredients of an Effective Sales Message
1. A compelling headline
2. Attention-catching sub-headlines
3. Bulleting list of features and benefits
4. A few intriguing questions to engage the prospect
5. An incentive for responding promptly
6. An assurance or guarantee of satisfaction
7. A testimonial or endorcement
8. Some background on your experience & ties to the community
9. A call to action (urge them to call, visit your website, stop by your office, email an inquiry, etc.)
10. A P.S. used as a place to put a reminder, a special offer, or added incentive
1. A compelling headline
2. Attention-catching sub-headlines
3. Bulleting list of features and benefits
4. A few intriguing questions to engage the prospect
5. An incentive for responding promptly
6. An assurance or guarantee of satisfaction
7. A testimonial or endorcement
8. Some background on your experience & ties to the community
9. A call to action (urge them to call, visit your website, stop by your office, email an inquiry, etc.)
10. A P.S. used as a place to put a reminder, a special offer, or added incentive
Friday, April 28, 2006
Real estate dinosaurs still roam the earth: Technology leaves some agents in prehistoric times
Friday, April 28, 2006
By Bernice Ross, reposted from Inman News
Do you follow up on your e-mails promptly? Are you advertising using pay-per-click? Do you conduct digital transactions? Do you use transaction-tracking platform? Are your lead generation and lead follow-up systems automated? Do you know about Oodle, Trulia and Zillow? Do you use text messaging? If not, you may be on the verge of becoming a real estate dinosaur.
In the 1960s, the mantra of the baby boomers was: "Don't trust anyone over 30." Today, of course, boomers are still trying to hang on to their youth. Sadly, unless agents who are over 40 are prepared to make a quantum shift in how they do business, there's a high probability that their style of doing business will soon become extinct.
On the other hand, the under-40s may continue to struggle with building their business because Boomers still control 54 percent of the listing inventory. No matter what generation you are in, to thrive in today's rapidly changing environment, you must balance the best of the old with today's technological innovations.
I recently spoke with a small group of agents whose manager had organized a training course around my book, "Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters." One of the young agents asked if I still recommended 800 Call Capture (IVR) systems as a strategy given all the changes in technology. She based her question on the fact that she does everything via e-mail and text messaging, and seldom uses the phone. I explained the importance of call capture in terms of tracking advertising return on investment (ROI), providing better service to consumers, and most importantly, obtaining correct contact information from people who call on our sign, print and Web advertising. When agents explain how these tools help sellers obtain the best possible price for their property, they normally will sign a listing agreement on the spot. In response to her comments, one of the more than 40 agents said that he only wanted clients who would call him. When I mentioned the importance of using new technologies such as texting or the new search-engine products, he wasn't interested. The younger agent emphasized how that every one of her friends used these tools when they were looking for property.
This event highlights an important bifurcation that is taking place in our business. The younger the agents are, the more likely they are to use technological tools in their business. Furthermore, they are less inclined to pick up the telephone and more inclined to communicate via e-mail or text messaging. The same is true for our clients in this age group. They expect e-mail and text communication, and they also expect their agent to use the latest search and technological tools. When they inquire how you will market their listing and you respond by outlining your print advertising program in the local paper, their response is, "Why would you want to do that? Aren't you going to advertise on Google, MSN, Yahoo and craigslist?" They expect you to respond to their inquiries instantaneously just as they do when they receive a text or e-mail message. This is difficult for those of us over 40 since we often have trouble just tapping out a single e-mail message on our PDAs.
In contrast, one of the most stunning things you may observe about today's teenagers is how they can carry on up to 10 online conversations simultaneously. Because our younger clients have grown up with technology, it is easy for them. More importantly, if you want their business, you must be comfortable using technology to work with them when they're ready to buy.
On the other side of the coin, older clients are often ill at ease with e-mail. Many would prefer a telephone call. In fact, many boomers will not use their PDAs to text simply because their fingers are too stiff to do so. This age group expects personal contact rather than just e-mail contact. E-mail may seem too impersonal. Furthermore, many still read the newspaper and enjoy looking at pictures in print media rather than electronic media.
Ultimately, if you want to avoid becoming a real estate dinosaur or if you want to capture the over-40 crowd's business, you must be willing to communicate with your clients in the style that they prefer. When you work with a buyer or seller, ask them how they want you to communicate with them. If the client expects text messaging, know that quick response is critical. If you are working with someone who is over 40, he/she is more likely to demand a face-to-face meeting or contact via telephone. Be flexible.
Most importantly, however, if you plan to stay in the business for more than two or three years, now is the time to start making substantial changes in how you do business. Educate yourself on how to market using the various types of search engines. Purchase a tablet PC and go paperless. Start taking the steps today to be a technology early adopter. In the race for business, the one who has the best technology and the best systems is usually the one who wins.
Bernice Ross, co-owner of Realestatecoach.com, has written a new book, "Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters," available online. She can be reached at bernice@realestatecoach.com.
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