About Kissimmee's Poinciana Estate

Hi folks. Recently I had an agent request more information on.....

• "You mentioned that you educated your sellers at the listing appointment about the inspection. Being a little green still, I can't say I've heard anyone, in the company I work for, talk about doing this at a listing appointment. I guess maybe there's fear that the listing may be lost if we get into that section. So I guess I'd love it if sometime you could talk more about how you present this in your listing presentation."

First, I want to let you know that my listing presentation may be a little different than most. I've never had any training and I've never been on a listing presentation with anyone. I haven't read the book and I didn't listen to the tapes. My presentation was learned by 17 years of trial and error.

To me, the most important part of the listing presentation, is the phone interview, prior to meeting with the potential Seller. By the way, the Seller is not interviewing me, I am interviewing them. When a potential Seller calls, I always chit chat for a few minutes, get the address of their property, their phone number and tell them I will call them back in a few minutes when I can give them my full attention. What I am doing is delaying the conversation to give me time to research their property. It only takes a few minutes but I want to find out as much as I can before I call them back.

When I call them back, normally within about 15 minutes, I already know how much they paid for the property, how long they've owned it and what range the value should fall in. I've sold a lot of properties in my market, so my rough estimate of value will be within $5,000 to $10,000 with out even seeing the property.

Now what I need to know from them is:

• Why are you selling?

• How much do you owe?

• Where are you moving to?

• What do you feel your house is worth and why?

If the answers to these questions are satisfactory, I make an appointment to meet with them. This is what I say.

• "OK so let's set a time to get together so I can look at your property. Once I've seen it I will be able to give you a precise estimate of where we need to price your house to get it sold. What's your schedule like? You don't get home until 6 pm during the week? Sorry I don't do evening appointments. I'm a morning guy and I want to be 100% when we get together. Are you off on Saturday? Great, let's get together Saturday at 11. That will give me time to get all my information together, so when we meet, we can get your house on the market right away. See you then. Oh, before I forget what's your E-mail address? I want to send you some info so you can read up on me and also see how I handle my marketing andhow your property will be displayed on my website".

Now folks, as you can tell, I have already taken their listing in my mind. I will send them an e-mail as I told them I would and they can do their own research on my services. I do not need to rehash this with them when we meet. I have also already pre-qualified them and know that they have a property I will be able to price right and get sold.

When I do meet with them, it is really just to get to know them a little better and to go over pricing with them. I do not go over marketing or any of that stuff. Once I have given them my pricing strategy I immediately start talking about how showings will work, how we negotiate offers together, the possibility ofBuyers asking for closing costs, inspection and repair issues, pre-qualification letters, the closing process etc... What I am doing is keeping them focused on selling and closing NOT whether or not to list with me. My strategy, cocky or not, is that I am the one deciding whether or not I want to list their property not vice versa. I have a lot of confidence in my ability to sell their house and I want them to "feel" this from me.I do not beg for listings. I do not fear losing the listing. My job is to give themthe truth about the market and what it will take to get their house sold. If for some reason they do not want to list with me, at the price I have recommended, then there are no hard feelings. I wish them luck and I leave.

I leave them knowing that they can call me anytime, whether it's to list at a later date or if they just have questions. I am there for them when they are ready to take my advice. I never burn my bridges.

My goodness! This post is getting way too long and I'm not sure I answered the question, so below are some links, to some other posts that I have written. These will expand on my technique a little more. I hope this article helps someone take a listing next week. Go get ‘em!!!

• Make your listing presentation a listening presentation!

• Sellers are not stupid!

• Lock and load, baby! (90 minutes, sign in the ground)

• 45 day listing agreements. Weak?...I don't think so!

• My listing has already been sold!

Broker Bryant's tips:

• Always be 100% honest about pricing.

• Tell Sellers what they need to know NOT what they want to hear.

• Be genuine. Folks can tell when you are faking.

• Concentrate on what they are trying to achieve NOT how good you are.

• The listing presentation is about them NOT you.

• Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen.

Got any tips for me?

Hi folks. Bob Hertzog started a good conversation earlier this week on his article....

Attn: Short Sale Listing Agents...READ YOUR LENDER APPROVAL LETTERS BEFORE CALLING ME WITH THE "GREAT NEWS"!!

Some how the comments made it around to commissions. One of the responders stated:

• "...because it is the investor and/or pmi (mortgage insurance) who determines who gets what and how much."

And of course since this is dealing with Short Sales and how we get paid I just had to chime in.....

The above statement is not correct. Our listing agreement with the seller determines how much we get paid and how much of a co-broke we are offering selling agents. The listing agreement is between the seller and the broker. The lender/investor/sevicer/MI company (let's call them lender for simplicities sake) have ZERO say so in this agreement.

Based on contract law and and anti trust laws these entities CANNOT dictate how much I charge for my services. Commission is 100% between the seller and their broker.

This is a fact that agents need to understand.

Now having said that, the lender, can dictate how much of the commission they are willing to accept in their loss. Their loss is the portion of the commission that they will allow to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale. This however does not release the seller from paying the commission as per the term of the listing agreement. We may choose to accept this as full compensation but it is our choice NOT the lenders.

The seller can pay us additional compensation from their pocket NOT the lenders pocket. This can show up as a POC (paid outside of closing) on the HUD. The seller can also sign a note for the commission owed and pay it off over time. They can pay at time of listing***. The buyer can pay a portion of the commission on the HUD. There are many ways to get paid.

OR...we can choose to be at the mercy of the lender. Personally I choose to control my own business. I do not bend over for lenders just because they say this is how we are to do things. But of course this is just my opinion. What's yours?

***Please check your State's laws about advance fees and short sales.

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

Well my answer is easy.....practical. And here's why based on a real life example from this week.

REOs (foreclosures) in my area of Poinciana Florida make up 25% of the inventory of homes for sale but 60% of the closed transactions (last 90 days)!! What that means is that REOs are by far the best deals and are flying off the shelves. They also sell for 100% of the asking price.

The foreclosure market in Poinciana Florida is very, very competitive. Most of these foreclosures are being bought by Investors looking for good rental properties. On average they are able to buy a 3 bedroom 2 bath home with 1800 sq ft of living space and less than 10 years old.

These houses rent for $800 to $900 per month. And can be bought for an average of $64,000. If you do the math you'll see these are excellent investments.

Because these Poinciana properties are such great investments they are very hard to get under contract. It's a feeding frenzy of cash buyers looking for a deal. Taking the time to look at every property and then submitting offers on one house at a time is basically just a recipe for failure.

So......we have our Investors make offers on multiple properties at the same time. Usually sight unseen. The risk is in the timing. You have to make sure your buyer doesn't end up with more properties under contract than they want to purchase. Of course if they do they can always use the inspection contingency to get out of the deal. The real risk is that you as an agent can ruin your reputation amongst your peers. You don't want to get a reputation as the agent who cancels deals.

To avoid this you have to be able to really monitor the negotiations and time perfectly when the buyer is going to withdraw their offer(s). It can be tricky but once you get the hang of it it's just a system like anything else in our business. These REO properties normally have multiple offers anyway so the seller is not left high and dry. They just negotiate one of their other offers.

This past week I used this technique with one of my investors. We made offers on 17 properties. The Investor wanted to buy 2. My timing was slightly off and they ended up with 3 accepted offers. After discussing this with my Investor their solution was to just go ahead and purchase all 3 of them!! I forgot to mention that benefit. Sometimes you end up with more. I like that.

So what do you think? Risky? Practical?

If you liked this article then you'll want to read these:

Buyers Making Multiple Offers. What the........................?

My Buyer only wants one house. Why make 14 offers?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?