Real Estate Investing Blog

You’re experienced. You’re good at what you do. You know real estate. You’re an expert.

But you’re starving for business. You know that there’s more out there for you, but it’s elusive and you can’t seem to grab hold of it.

What is wrong?

You’re probably making the same mistakes other experienced agents make. Just because you’ve been in the business for a while doesn’t mean you’re immune to mistakes. Put your ego aside for a second and let’s talk about some of them.

Here are five huge (but very common) mistakes that experienced agents make day-in and day-out:

1. Inconsistent Follow-Up.

Agents always ask me, “Denise, why is real estate such a feast-or-famine business?”

They’re always surprised by my answer: Real estate is NOT a feast-or-famine business. In fact, it’s a very consistent, if not the MOST consistent, business on Earth. There always has been, and there always will be a need for housing.

The reason it seems to be feast-or-famine is that when agents are out working with buyers and sellers, they feel busy. When they’re not out there, they don’t. This creates a roller coaster rhythm that creates this false feast-or-famine mindset.

This is the wrong way to look at the “busy-ness” of your business. The real core of your business is your automated follow-up program. If you’ve done all your automated follow-up tasks today, then you’ve been busy today-regardless of how many buyers and sellers you’ve physically been with.

We all know that in real estate, there are days when your phone rings off the hook and other days where it doesn’t ring at all. This is unimportant. I repeat-this is unimportant! What IS important is that you take steps EVERY DAY to create and maintain your automated follow-up systems.

When you have a system in place, you master the art of consistency. Consistency is everything in real estate.

2. Complacency.

This is an easy trap for experienced agents to fall into. Experienced agents fall into patterns of doing the same things over and over again. When I ask about it, the response is usually, “Well, that’s the way I’ve always done it.”

This phrase is the way of mediocrity. If you want to stay at the same level and never reach the next one, then that’s the attitude that will keep you stuck there.

But there’s always another level. And it’s easier to get there than you would think. All it takes is looking at what you do now, cutting out what doesn’t work, and adding what does work.

The best way to avoid complacency is to have goals. Most agents are not goal-driven. They have been conditioned to never “Think big”. Rather, they have the undefined goal of “being successful”. Well, what does that mean? What is “successful”? Proper goals should have an exact dollar amount, a deadline, and an action plan.

3. Solo Syndrome.

This is the disease experienced agents suffer from when they believe that they are better off doing everything on their own. Printing their own materials. Doing their own transaction management. Creating their own marketing materials. Buying and selling their own office equipment.

This is a dangerous mindset. The more an agent tries to do, the less effective he or she can be. The more an agent can delegate to others, the more effective he or she is.

I’m convinced that most of the agents who suffer from “Solo Syndrome” were the kids who would never share their marbles with you on the playground. This is an ego-driven problem that creates workaholics who become slaves to their business-instead of having their business work for them.

A better way is to hire the right people, delegate your tasks, and outsource almost everything. When you do this in conjunction with follow-up systems, you truly find success without sacrificing your life.

4. Lack of education.

Experienced agents are so “busy” playing in their disorganized businesses that they do not carve out enough time for education. A huge percentage of the real estate community only thinks of clock-hour classes when it’s time for license renewal or when they want a designation next to their name. Very few agents actually seek out education to better their careers and get to the next level.

We all know that work piles up, but we can never let it get in the way of growing our knowledge. Knowledge will set us free from all the piled up work. Knowledge teaches us new ways to streamline and simplify our work.

Agents that truly “get it” take classes to find out how to improve their businesses, increase their income, and simplify their lives. Most agents don’t realize how much one class per quarter would increase their business. Even such a small investment can make a huge difference.

5. Lack of marketing.

If there is one industry that is notorious for putting out poor-quality marketing, it’s real estate. It’s understandable because most agents haven’t created Madison Avenue marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.

But marketing is essential. You must get “outside the box” when it comes to your marketing. It needs to be exceptional. If it’s not, you’re going to get lost in the shuffle. It’s a plain fact of life in the business world.

And unfortunately, exceptional marketing costs money. That’s a fact. Sorry to burst your bubble. To do things right, you’re going to have to substantially invest in your marketing up front.

Some agents tell me, “Denise, I get all my business from referrals.” To those agents I say that referrals are great, but they can only go so far. If we’re not growing a steady stream of new clients, we will all go out of business. The only way to find this steady stream is effective marketing.

Experienced agents face different challenges from new agents. Take these five mistakes to heart and use their solutions to move your business to the next level.

Any questions? Need clarification? Got something that’s burning a hole through your brain? Let me know. I love questions. Just drop me an email at denise@thelonesgroup.com. I’m here for you.

By Denise Lones M.I.R.M., CSP

Early this year I had the good fortune to spend some time in Cambodia, and inevitably couldn’t resist taking a look at the property market there.

The Cambodian economy is still recovering from the fallout of the Khmer Rouge conflict, but it is recovering fast and my view is the place will look completely different in just a few short years. Many of Cambodia’s roads are dirt roads which turn to mud in the wet season, even between major towns. However, this is now changing and roads are being built apace.

Since being in Cambodia I have noticed that the Cambodia government is taking steps to make both easier and safer for foreigners and foreign entities to invest in the country with the aim of attracting considerable foreign investment, and not just in real estate.

It is also expected that the Cambodian government will soon make it possible for foreigners to buy real estate in their own names without the need to set up a company as it currently stands.

Without going into the economic details in this blog, we believe that all the signs are pointing to surefire growth period to come in the Cambodian property market. Many international property developers have already made their way on to the scene recently in light of the changing regulations.

Particularly recently I have started to see property developments promoted not just in the capital Phenom Pehn but on the coast, in locations such as Kep. I think there there is undoubtedly a lot of potential, but investors must be aware that the market is still very new and immature and will change a lot of the coming years – so it is not without its risks.

Given property price growth in many of SE Asia’s property markets has either slowed considerably or are in reverse gear, Cambodia may be a place to look for those interested in investing in the region and can handle a little more risk and uncertainty.

The Cambodian property market is certainly a market to keep a close eye on.

In Dubai there are now strong signs that the government is getting some sort of grip on the excesses of the Dubai property market – and about time too. We have long viewed the market as quite high risk. The market has an unusual set of drivers and is not exactly the most transparent place to buy property.

The huge amount of building there inevitably raises questions about oversupply, but seemingly so far demand has outstripped supply.

Price growth in some parts of Dubai has been reported to be an almost unbelievable 79% in 2007, that is on top of already impressive growth figures in the previous years. High growth is continuing in 2008.

Now in mid-2008 the government is stepping in to to regulate off-plan purchases, mortgages and are implementing a whole raft of measures to cool the market. These are likely to do the job they are intended to do.

Like some of the buildings in Dubai the property market has seemed to defy gravity. With high prices and more heavy government intervention I would be even more wary of investing in Dubai than I have been in the last few years. It remains to be seen where the Dubai property market will head next and whether the Dubai government can really use their oil money to turn a patch of desert into one of the world’s true commercial and financial centres.

Overall, I would avoid Dubai as an investment location, high investment returns can be made elsewhere for much lower risk.

For several years, economists have forecast a burst in the real estate market. Although many professionals have their theory as to when the market will burst, no one really can know, and no one is for sure that when the market will return to normal. Until then, the market is currently a buyers commercial area.

There are many reasons that could lead a real estate bubble to burst. The booming housing market seems to have halted in many parts of the country in late 2005 and early 2006. This halt in the market was characterized by an overabundance of inventories, falling prices, and reduced sales volume. The unpredictability in the real estate trading zone will not only affect the United States economy but also the world economy. Many have been predicting a housing crisis, as median prices of new homes drop, more new homes continue to be built, and existing home inventories are at an all time high. More people are defaulting on their mortgages, due in part to shady business practices, which is leading to massive defaults and neighborhood instability. Many professionals have worked to predict when aspects of the housing crisis will end, but it has been difficult to really predict when this crisis will end and what affects it will have on the world. In addition, if the real estate trading does burst, it is difficult for professionals to predict if the burst will be detrimental or a “soft landing”. In cities such as Los Angeles, Washington DC and Seattle, the housing market has come to a halt, as there are too many houses in the trading zone and not enough sellers.

We are currently in a buyers’ trading zone, as more houses are available in the market than there are sellers available. In a true buyers’ commercial area, a large percentage of the listings have had at least one price decrease since they initially entered the market and many sellers feel pressure selling their house. With more homes on the trading zone, buyers can afford to take their time to purchase a house and negotiate with the seller. Ultimately the buyer has the upper hand, because if the seller is unwilling to work with the buyer, they can move elsewhere to someone who is a bit more flexible. In addition, there are many new construction projects being released every month directly from builders. Since many builders are feeling the pressure of the real estate bubble, many are selling brand new houses with incentives, such as free upgrades, because of the over abundance of inventory. These incentives are meant to encourage buyers to purchase new housing stalk. Buyers are free to work with their own preferred lender, when working with a builder and therefore a buyer should talk to other lenders.

If you are a seller, you can still sell your house for a reasonable price in a buyer’s real estate trading zone and make a profit. For sellers, it is especially important to price the house appropriately and also be patient. Since there is an overabundance of houses available, buyers will avoid a house that is overpriced, especially if there are reasonably priced new houses in the commercial area. In addition, sellers should take special care to prepare the house before an open house, which means cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, fixing any cracks or painting the walls. Make sure your house is as move-in ready, before it goes on the market.

In today’s fast paced real estate world many people want to purchase homes in alternative ways and flip them, i.e., fix them up and turn them around for a profit. So that you do not pay too much money for the property it is very important to become familiar with your county’s public records on home sales.

In order to do this you have to get your background information about the property in order so you must check out your local resources on public records on home sales.

Much of the information you need is now online so you can do your homework at home in your pajamas but your County Recorder’s Office is an excellent place to go and familiarize yourself with their records. They are friendly and worth their weight in gold when you need what they have.

First you can track down the recorded documents on the property through your city Assessor or your County Assessor’s office. In their information they will have the “book and page” of the recorded documents on the property: the mortgage, the Declaration of Value, a Ground Hazard Information sheet and other pertinent documents. The Assessor’s Office can also tell you information about the property they acquired during their assessment procedure in order to establish the amount of property taxes on the property.

All of this information will be interesting to you when you focus on a property that you want to buy: you have to know how much was paid for the property when it was last sold, who presently owns it, especially if it is a foreclosed property. If the property is presently owned by the present buyers you may be able to go to them directly to buy the property rather than through a real estate agent or bank or foreclosure company representing the lender.

Another source of public records on home sales you will want to check is your local Sheriff’s office to find out whether there has been a “Sheriff’s Sale” on the property, the first step in the foreclosure process, where the property is sold at a Sherriff’s Auction for the amount due to the lender or more. Typically the lender will buy back the debt at this point to ensure they maintain their ownership role in the foreclosure procedure.

When the information in question becomes recorded information, it is free and available to anyone in the public realm who wishes to obtain it. Public records on home sales are by their very nature free to access by anyone, so the public can track prices on sold properties, so anyone can know what a property sold for to compare it to other possible sold properties to determine a price for a house going onto the market.

The market is driven by this information so that appraisers can determine value on pending properties about to close.

Selling a product is a tough affair and real estate is no exception. To capture the market for selling an asset, one has to make it salable by making improvements in a number of ways. The improvements usually include renovations or adding new utility features. The ultimate purpose is to impress prospective buyers with the looks and features.

When a prospective buyer is invited to take a look at the asset that is for sale, a number of small factors need to be paid attention to. The first thing is that in the present times, when there is an abundance of impressive assets in the market, the owner of an asset needs to make his asset truly outstanding in looks and features. The owner should keep in mind that the prospective buyers are busy individuals and they form impressions within minutes. The real estate may be having a lot of plus points but if these are not presented in an attractive manner, the buyer will drift away and sadly enough the owner will not get another chance to present his asset well. Hence, first impressions contribute largely to the salability of an asset.

When it comes to creating first impressions, it is not necessary to overload the asset with a large number of features. One can start with satisfying the most basic criteria of making an asset salable. One such criterion is to first keep the asset and its premises neat and hygienic. If the real estate is a terrain without any construction on it, the job of maintaining it becomes very easy. The owner needs to keep mowing out any growth of weeds and vegetation and see to it that stray animals do not litter the place with their excreta. Building a fence around the asset is recommended to keep away vagabonds from making unauthorized makeshift shelters on it.

Tidying up houses is can be quite complicated and time taking. To start off with, one needs to remove all unwanted stuff. This is where many people take the wrong decisions. It might sound funny, but there are people who retain old and broken furniture, torn off books and other things as they develop a sort of attachment to them over time. Old is gold, but it definitely does not make any sense in accumulating rubbish in the house. For that matter, even costly things give an ugly appearance if haphazardly placed. Arranging things neatly and in a meaningful way will give the real estate a commendable appearance and makes it habitable. Modern research shows staying in cluttered up places is not only bad for physical health, but for mental health also.

While discussing neatness, one should also consider an associated factor, and that is keeping the asset and its premises hygienic. Pesticides and insecticides should be used generously to keep the asset and the premises free of disease causing organisms. Clogged drains should be cleared. Water tanks should be cleaned frequently and periodically as stagnant water tends to be the breeding grounds for a lot of pathogenic organisms like mosquitoes that cause potentially lethal diseases like malaria, dengue and brain fever. The pipeline network of the real estate should be free of leakages as this can contaminate the water flowing through these pipes. Faulty pipelines should be identified and repaired promptly.

The Destin real estate market, like many areas around the country remains weak. The good news for buyers is that if you are looking to buy, you probably could not pick a better time, assuming you are very aggressive with your offers.

What everybody knows in this market is that it will return, and will return very strong at some point. When that turning point actually occurs however is anybody’s guess.

The data below provides a good indication of the market status.

• # Sales : Down by 55% compared to last year
• $/Sqft: $182 which is down 9% from last year
• Median Price: $290,000
• Average Sales Price: $433K
• Average List Price: $888K

Notice in the table below there is a very large difference between the average list price and the average sale price. This simply means that currently, most of the sales are occurring only in lower priced properties.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A CONDO

If you have ever planned to own a Destin condo on the beach, now may be one of your best times because of the extreme market conditions. In addition, you can consider a Destin property by getting into a Foreclosed homes or condos.

Our latest report shows that there are over 180 condos for sale in the $300k to $350k range which is unbelievable for this area. We can almost promise you that you will find some owners willing to wheel and deal to make their pain go away.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A DESTIN HOME FOR SALE

Let’s face it, for almost any price bracket, there is a lot of inventory on the ground, even in the $1Million range right now. However, our sub $200K range is showing very few properties so if you could acquire on cheaply and touch up a bit, it might be a great opportunity.

When searching the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), I’m often amazed to find listings with one or no photos. I wonder how the listing agents expect to effectively market the properties. There was a time when this was not a big issue but those times have passed. We need to take a look at where we were to understand where we are now and why photos are so important.

There was a time when the MLS was simply a computerized tool to share listings with other REALTORs replacing the listing books of days past. As time went on, brokers started displaying the listings of other brokers on their web sites through the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) protocol. These IDX search portals allowed the public to access all active listings within a particular MLS. As Internet usage grew, so did the utilization of those search portals. In 1995, only two percent of consumers used the Internet during their home searches – in 2008, 84 percent start online.

Why is this important? In the early days, we placed our listings into the MLS to market them to other agents. In 2008, we market to the public. What? If 84 percent of buyers start their searches online, then the online marketing has to appeal to that 84 percent. Multiple photos are critical to the marketing of a property. According to statistics complied by the National Association of REALTORs(R), properties with multiple photos have a 200-plus percent click-through rate over those with one or no photos! Virtual and video tours are appropriate for larger or unique properties.

As consumers, you should review the online marketing completed by your agent. If you’re unhappy with any aspect of it, give your agent a call. Most of us are more than willing to modify the listing and/or explain the reasoning behind the marketing avenue chosen.

The assets industry professionals are some of the busiest people of the working community. They deal with clients, prospective clients, and contacts and maintain their records on paper or electronic databases. They have a lot of deadlines to meet in short periods of time and as they have to simultaneously deal with a number of situations at a given time, they can be pretty haphazard in the way they organize things around themselves, which in turn increases the complexity of their work and reduces their efficiency. Following a few real estate office management guidelines will do them good

One of the foremost criteria for enhancing work efficiency is to work in a systematic manner. The first step in this direction is to identify the routine activities and the ones that are done under special circumstances and develop a working methodology independently for each of them. The routine activities should be organized well. The daily input, daily processed information and daily output information stores should be maintained well. The staff handling these data store should be trained on handling them in a formal procedural manner.

The real estate office management staff should design a concrete system to deal with data storing and processing, and following the system should be made mandatory for the relevant staff. This will ensure fast retrieval of data when dealing with clients. A good assets managing firm will always try to take precautions against any special situations that they might encounter. Hence, if electronic databases are being used, then it is always better to be prepared with backups as electronic systems are highly susceptible to viral attacks and technical failures.

A good way to eliminate chaos in the work environment is for the real estate office management firm to make individual job descriptions for all its employees. These job descriptions should be conveyed clearly in writing to them so that they become aware of their individual roles and work accordingly. Assigning a particular job to only one person and not to more people will eliminate confusion. If a job is too huge in quantity or is highly complicated one job can be allotted to more than one person. But in that case, the role that each and every member of the delegation has to play should be conveyed clearly by the team leader.

Real office estate management gurus opine that it is always better to make any modifications and up dates to the databases as and when required rather then take them up as a separate task later on. This error usually happens where paper databases are used as the modifications and up dates have to be done manually. But in the case of electronic data basing this problem is overcome to a large extent as the effects of a change at one point ripples across all the relevant areas of the database automatically.

Lastly, an important criterion of commendable real estate office management is to organize the physical workspace systematically. The tables should be kept neat and tidy. Storing files and paraphernalia should be done in a logical manner so that accessing them does not take a lot of effort and time. A neat, hygienic and organized workspace reflects an efficient working environment. Managing workplaces is an art and it reflects the personality and work efficiency of the people working in that place. It makes the organization efficiency wise trustworthy in the eyes of the clients.

If you have ever gotten involved with real estate and investing in real estate, you know that conducting a property title search is one of the most important processes of dealing with real estate. These services are able to help you discover issues that may come about and affect the specific investment you are interested in making. It is vital that anyone who plans to buy real estate conduct a title search.

Not everyone in the world knows about real estate and what a title is. If you don’t, you’re probably not alone. A title, simply, is an owner’s interest in a piece of real estate. A title can also be known as a document that is able to prove that you are in fact the owner of a piece of property. Along with transferring ownership of property to someone else, you also have to transfer the title along with it. Some people mix up possession and title, but they are different. A title is able to prove ownership while a possession usually cannot.

There are three basic pieces of a title: possession, the right of possession, and the right of property. All of these make up a title. The possession part is holding of the property, the right of possession is evidence by law proving you have possession of the property and the right of property is a right that means if any other claim was made to the property, you would be able to defeat them.

Today, many companies that work through a property system work with titles. Titles can be used for cars, real estate as well as other types of property. When a title property system is used, it is able to verify, as well as keep records, of who owns the property legally. Titles can be very important when it comes to a legal record of condemnation of property.

It is very important that before you invest in any sort of real property that you conduct a property title search. Doing so provides many benefits to anyone who wants to get involved with buying property.

For example, by doing a real property title search, you can be assured of who owns the property. There have been cases where the title search shows that a person really doesn’t have rights to sale piece of property, if you did pay them for it, then you’d be paying for something that you would probably never own. With a property title search, you are able to know who owns the property and avoid complications.

With this type of search, you are usually able to spot and resolve any sort of problems that may be hidden before you purchase the property. When you are using a lending institution to finance your real property purchase, they will require that the property be warranted against defects, this means that a title search is required. If you are purchasing the real property for cash then not doing one of these searches is something that you may end up regretting in the future.

When it comes to real estate, the deed is the legal instrument that is used to transfer the title. Real property title searches have become routine when real property changes hands.

Before you get to deeply involved in the purchase process of real estate, be sure to take the time to do a title search to avoid any problems in the future. You’ll be glad you did it!

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