GLENN LEACH

I posted a blog yesterday showing off what one agent was doing with an aerial photo to help promote a unique listing, and it sparked a discussion about spending money to promote your listings. Since I'm not a real estate agent, I don't honestly know what is normal and customary.

How Much Do YOU Spend On Each Listing?

Does it depend on the listing itself? Or do you have a fixed budget for each listing? How do you decide - gut feeling? Or stick to some plan you learned? Do you ever ask the seller to pay for your marketing services up front?

Has the slower real estate market caused you to cut back on your marketing efforts? Or just the opposite as you realize that it takes extra effort to help get your home noticed amongst so many competing listings. Or do you just hang a sign and hope?

I'd love to hear answers and get a conversation started on this topic. Hear your successes and failures. Did you do something special for a past listing that really paid off? Did you spend good money promoting a listing only to have the seller turn around and burn you in the end?

What are your feelings on "buying" customer loyalty? Is this a good idea or a foolish one these days? Can successful listing agents buy up the current market because they can afford to promote more heavily than the typical part-timer who's also working working full time at a warehouse job? Or are successful listing agents cutting back too?

Where do you stand on this issue? I am very, very curious - and I'm sure others are too.

Thanks for sharing!

Check out this gorgeous listing sign. Normal listing signs have agency and agents names and something creative like "For Sale" on them. But notice what this agent did with this one - which he positioned right on the main thoroughfair in town pointing it right up the street to the house on the hill.

I wrote a blog earlier on this particular listing because the home has some historical significance in Puyallup, and the agent is using this blog to help promote his listing too. Using an aerial photo on listing signs and telling the home's unique story through internet advertising and flyers in the home? That's taking some extra steps to attract some buyers, for sure!

I was sitting with this agent at an open house a few weeks back when a lady came in asking about the photo on the sign. Turns out, she does aerial photography and we got to talking about what it would take to put something like this together for a seller (the seller of this home already had this photo hanging up in the living room, and the agent was smart enough to see the potential for it - but he had no idea how to do this for future listings).

So we asked Jane Hartman with Hartman Foto Works (she can be reached at ejkhartman@hotmail.com what it would take. An address and about $300 for a basic package and she hits the skies and gets you what you need. Do you have listings that you could use this technique with? Maybe not your everyday listings, but those distinctive properties that need that little extra touch?

Puyallup Event June 20th: Jane is also putting together a big event at Spark's Stadium on June 20th to benefit the Puyallup Fish Food Bank. Each participant receives a yellow umbrella (reminiscent of our famous Daffodils) and is assigned a spot on the football turf - spelling out "Puyallup" on the field. Jane is flying over to photograph the event and everyone gets 8x10 shots of with-umbrella's up and with-umbrella's down poses, plus other goodies. Cost to participate is $35 and a portion of the proceeds goes towards supporting this wonderful charity.

Deadline to register is soon - call Jane at 253-970-8020 or email her for more info and directions. Meet other agents and community leaders and support a great cause!

The $8,000 IRS Tax Credit has definitely created some extra activity in the marketplace - and we should all be happy about that. I see many announcements that the Tax Credit will soon be available to be used for Down Payment.

Much as I hope this to be true, remember to treat this idea just like you would a transaction closing. If you've had any time in the business, you know the old adage, "It ain't closed until it's closed". And this is no different - the upfront usage of the tax credit won't be available until it's available.

In my State - Washington - it is assumed that this access to funds before closing is all but a done deal, and many of us are telling our clients, "any day now". But will it really happen? What form will it take? Consider these points:

• The funds are supposed to be administered by the WSHFC (House Key) State Bond program. Buyers will be required to take the 5 hour FTHB class. Okay, fine. But will they also be required to qualify for a House Key 1st mortgage too? There are income limits on those. There are purchase price limits. The interest rates are higher than prevailing rates. Will borrowers be able to combine the IRS credit with one of the other types of Down Payment Assistance if they qualify for that too? Or will they have to choose one or the other?
• Will you be required to use a loan officer who is able to do House Key loans? If your favorite loan officer has not taken the classes and is not currently qualified to offer these House Key loans, do you know one who is? And won't your current LO be thrilled to have you take their clients away from them because of this?
• FHA announced this week that they will accept the program - and then it pulled the announcement the next day. Will they come back soon and say they will take the program after all?
• If the program does get the official blessing from FHA, HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, State Governments - with or without a note from the borrowers' mother - how soon (if ever) will lenders accept the program and set up guidelines? Many banks and lenders in Washington don't participate in House Key now because the loans end up being serviced by Bank of Am and they'd prefer to only do loans for their own portfolios. Mortgage Brokers have been excluded from being able to offer these House Key loans already - so what will this mean to them? Could lawsuits result in this effort to help FTHB's - delaying the whole process until the IRS Tax Credit program expires?

I hate to be gloom-n-doom, but be careful about over-promising right now. The Tax Credit is a great incentive to buy a home. In it's present form, I've seen quite a number of transactions result that wouldn't have happened otherwise. So the program has been a success - and you should continue to promote the benefits - AS-IS - to your clients. If this "next step" does happen - GREAT! But don't set your clients up for disappointment and look uninformed should it not happen.

Hills Street Blues (for those of you under the age of 35 - you can go "Huh?" here and it's okay) always ended their officer briefings with some very wise counsel: "Let's Be Careful Out There!"

Photo by: Pink Sherbet Photography

Back in the days when it was okay and acceptable to have dangerous, limb-breaking, skull-cracking playground equipment on school playgrounds (You know, the kind of toys that were actually fun to play on?), I remember fondly the HUGE Teeter Totters we had next to the Kindergarten Portables at Fern Hill Elementary in Tacoma, WA.

Possibly my perspective is affected by my advancing years and the fact that the memory was placed in my brain using my elementary-school-size brain, but I swear that those 3 side-by-side teeter totters had to be 45-50 feet in length. I mean, if the kid on the other side tried to yell a challenge or taunt at you, he was so far away that you'd see his lips move long before the sound ever reached you. Yup, those were some big teeter totters.

Having one person on each side - gently teetering and tottering back and forth? Nah! (Well, sometimes the "girls" would do it that way. But not us "BOYS!") It might start with one kid on each side, but the fun began when others started piling on. If a big kid had a little kid pinned to the sky, you'd see 2-3 other kids come to the rescue - rushing to add enough weight to the little kid's side to send that big kid up to the sky himself. And if they could do it fast enough, and they lifted their legs up so the end of the board smacked into the ground, they could sometimes make the big kid go flying off the end as the impact vibrated through the fulcrum and slammed full force into his unsuspecting bottom. Oh the fun of that Oh No look in his eyes and the subsequent flat on his back splat!

And then you'd move to the next stage where each side of the teeter totter was rushed by "teams" of boys. Having 10-20 kids on each side (and again, maybe it's possible the memory might have added a few kid's bodies over the years) became a contest of wills and strategy. Pretty soon, you'd have the manly boys standing towards the center of the teeter totter, trying to push each other off to reduce the weight of the opposing side in order to give their own side an advantage.

The winning strategy came down to two ideas: 1) Increase the weight on your side while 2) Reducing the weight on the other side. That's how you won - make your side heavier AND make the other side lighter. All at the same time. Both strategies going at the same time.

And that's how credit scoring works! Over the years, I've helped hundreds and hundred of folks improve their credit scores so they can qualify for a home loan or get a better interest rate. There are many tips and tricks I share with them (You can check out several over at www.CreditToTheWise.com), but ALL the strategies are filtered through the Teeter Totter Test.

If the strategy helps reduce the weight on the "Bad Side" of the credit teeter totter, it is a good strategy. If the strategy helps increase the weight on the "Good Side", it is a good strategy. But what is hardest to communicate to these clients is that they must absolutely work on BOTH sides of the teeter totter at the same time! You cannot just reduce the weight on the bad side and hope the score will go up if you have no weight on the good side. Teeter totters don't work that way and neither does credit scoring.

A potential client with lots of bad credit should start right away building good credit accounts. Don't wait until you have all the bad credit taken care of. Open active good accounts gain momentum and points the longer they have been opened. Waiting to open them until the bad stuff is gone will delay the credit score improvement.

And if you get enough good credit going - just like suddenly adding several kids to one side of a teeter totter - you can create enough momentum to "bump" some of the bad credit off the other side. It may not actually go away, but it will be so outweighed by the good stuff that its impact will be diminished to the point it doesn't really hurt all that bad anymore.

The Top 5 Objections to Buying Today

I feel like giving a sales lesson today. Down-n-Dirty, Nuts-n-Bolts sales training dealing with "Why Buyers Aren't Buying". I used to be a sales trainer for the legendary Sunny Kobe Cook - the Pacific Northwest "Mattress Queen" for many years. My job as trainer was to teach every new salesperson how to move mountains of steel coils and foam padding - and do it better than any other company out there - which we did - by a LOT!

One area I would concentrate on with the new hires was "The Top 5 Objections to Buying Today". Since roughly 90% of our mattress sales were made the very first time the customer came in, it was important that the salespeople understood that if the potential customer left the store to "think about it", the chances were very, very small that they would ever come back to purchase later. ("The Be-Back Bus doesn't have a stop out front!") So we categorized the 5 main reasons customers don't buy today and tried to make sure all 5 of these objections were overcome during that first visit.

If you're trying to sell a home, you can use this list to make sure your potential buyers' objections are being dealt with effectively. (And if you're not selling a home, I'll teach you some of the secrets salespeople use against you every time you try to purchase something.)

#1 Objection - Lack of Perceived Value: Notice the word "perceived". What you are selling could very well be worth what you are asking for it - but are you taking "extra" steps to make sure the potential buyers know that? Are you pointing out ALL the features and benefits of your home? The neighborhood? The community & schools? And using comparable sales and listings to justify the offering price?

#2 - Lack of Perceived Urgency: Is there a reason to buy TODAY? The old tried-n-true "I've got another offer coming in right away" technique is one way, but can you think of others? Can you offer some sales incentives with expiration dates? Give good reasons to act quickly. Create urgency. If they leave to "think about it", you've lost.

#3 - Competitor has a Better Deal: You absolutely MUST know what is happening around you in the market. Do you know how many sellers (and seller's agents) don't bother to check out the other homes for sale around them? Frightening. Go visit them - often. If your price is higher - have you justified the higher price to your potential buyers (see #1)? Don't make them figure it out for themselves.

#4 - Perceived Lack of Funds: Many buyers (and their agents) don't know about the current lending programs, down payment assistance, or even that it's possible for the seller to pay for the closing costs. Using creative financing offers in your listings and mentioning zero down programs or rehab programs if applicable - and then directing them to a lender who DOES know about these things "For more info, contact ___________ with your questions", and you'll create buyers out of people who don't think they can buy yet.

#5 - Personal Issues: They just don't like you, so they don't want to buy from you. Are you easy to do business with? Can they get a hold of you? Are there objectionable objects in the home that would turn people off (Bambi's head over the fireplace? Not a good idea. My wife and I looked at a perfectly nice home when we were searching and didn't buy it because the master bedroom was set up as a "Lava-Lamped, Disco-Balled, Mirrored-Ceiling, Remote-Controlled-Everything Love Shack". Euwww...Gross!).

So, selling a home is as easy as making sure the offering is worth what you're asking, giving strong reasons to act now, presenting the home as being better than the competition, solving the money issues, and giving buyers a feel-good experience. Sunny Kobe Cook paid me a lot of money to teach that to her sales staff - and you got it for free! Go sell something!