Jim Gainer

Well I've heard all kinds of predictions and all kinds of formulas, but the best I've ever heard was David Knox the other day in a workshop he did for our company in Lancaster. David was talking about the fact that all the forces have come together to provide buyers today the best of all situations; lots of inventory, motivated sellers, and historically low interest rates. And yet some buyers hesitate wanting to wait for the bottom of the market. I'll paraphrase:

The fact is you will only know for sure the market has reached the bottom when it goes back up and you've missed it...

Is now a good time to buy? Yes, but not if you can't afford it. You should make the decision to purchase a new home because you want or need a new home. If that time is now...then the time is now, and luck you your in a buyers market. Is this the lowest it will go? Nobody can truely answer that so I won't pretend to know that answer. Might you pay more for your home today than someone will pay in two months? Maybe, but you will have the pleasure of living in your home right now! Let's not forget that.

If home ownership is your dream, then reach out and grab hold of it. If buying a home (any old house will do as long as it is at the bottom of the market) at the absolute lowest price possible...then you missed your chance a few years ago, and if you don't time this one down to the exact minute I don't think you'll be satisfied.

So wait for the market to go a little lower if you want to, but don't be surprised when you realize the bottom was last week.

Just my two cents...

Take good care of your clients and customers and make it a great day!

Ok I'm back and well rested after a nice (but cold) holiday hiatus, and it's time to talk about protecting our clients and customers. I'm talking about Risk Management techniques and strategies.

Let's start with the buyers risk strategies. There's a lot that could go wrong along the way so I'm only going to deal with a couple here. Knowing me I'll talk about most of them eventually, but for now these will do as good examples.

Before even writing the offer we should have had a long discussion about the process, not just the basic steps but the real expectations. In market conditions where inventory is high and demand is low, what are the risks or rewards in making a low offer. Rewards we won't bore you with, the risks might be that the seller is not at the bottom of their emotional cycle yet and a rock bottom offer might alienate them for later negotiations.

I'm not saying don't try it, I'm just saying know what the downstream impact could be...you get the seller to a rock bottom price and now the home inspector identifies several issue that the buyer is concerned about and the seller now digs in their heels and says "No more."

Well you say no problem I'll play hard ball too. Ok, I'm up for that, but you (the buyer) need to tell me you are ready to walk away because that's where we are. What has the buyer lost? Home inspection dollars, time, and tied up their cash from the deposit money - yes the seller will likely be returning it but in the best case it might take up to 30 days, in the worst case they might dispute the deposit, even if the seller looses his dispute, which sounds likely, that could take a lot of time!

When was the last time you talked your buyer down a road like that? They will likely be angry, and you don't want to be standing there like a deer in the headlights wondering what happened - you want to be able to coach them and advise them at each twist and turn. We're the professional; they are counting on us to prepare them for the next couple steps.

Get in the habit of giving your clients the upside and the downstream possible downside of issues, and they will make better decisions.

Go make it a great week for yourself!

Follow up, follow up, follow up! I used to work for a guy who loved to stump us with questions about sales skills to kick off that part of his meetings. I remember this because it used to frustrate the heck out of me, but I remember one that stuck with me.

What's the most important part of any follow up system? Establishing when the next call will be.

Here's the trick. High tech or low tech, it doesn't matter what you use, as long as it works for you. I'll give you the example that worked for me. When it came to active leads and client follow ups I used simple 3 x 5 cards. On one side was the name and some information along with the phone numbers i needed. On the back is where I wrote the date for the next call and notes after the call. It looked a little like this...

10/3 - get them in office to do more paperwork, done, meet them Sat.

12/3 - confirm apt, left msg

16/3 - set up apt to see houses, done, meet them sat.

18/3 confirm apt. done, they'll meet me at office

23/3 - get them in if they didn't write,

When I got done talking to them I always decided when the next call was going to be made. Then I sorted them by that date and every day I grabbed the cards for today and that's how I kept up on all my important follow up calls.

This is a real simple system but even if you use something like Top Producer or ActiveAgent, or whatever...decide and schedule the next call as soon as you get done with the call. It's just that simple!

Don't wait, go make it a great year!

Here's another in my series of ramblings that I hope will give you some ideas to increase your business - enjoy.

I like mailing to my sphere, but it's important to first earn the right to ask for their business. Here's how, always give them something of value to use or share with their friends.

These days everyone hears so much about how bad the market is, but no one talks about how good it is relative to those of years ago. Everything is relative and things aren't as bad as they seems. Let me tell you why...

There are three things you should tell everyone you know and tell your sphere in a series of letters. This market is great, and it's great for three target markets.

First-time buyers. Interest rates are low, in some cases historically low. For young families with good credit this is a great time buy their first home. With low rates and sellers in many markets pretty eager to sell, as well as a growing inventory of short sales and foreclosures; it's a great time to get a great deal on an investment of a lifetime.

Move up buyers. Now is a great time to go after the home of your dreams. Low interest rates combined with a lot of pressure on the upper ranges of most markets, and still a pretty good demand for low and mid range priced homes, make for a perfect time to move up. Let's say you live in a modest $150,000 home. Selling that price home shouldn't be too difficult, but sellers of homes in the $300,000 price range are now getting more and more flexible. This puts move up buyers in the driver's seat.

Investors, even first time investors. A growing number of short sales and foreclosures are making this a great time for first time

This will kick off this series what I call...'Real Estate 101.' You can call it the ramblings of a real estate trainer who's convinced that where there's passion and a desire for success - we can train the rest!

Anyway here's my thoughts on how to be successful using Open Houses as one of many tools in your arsenal.

Remember these are my opinions and you don't have to agree with them, but I hope you'll find something in here that you'll be able to use to your advantage.

First of I think it's important to remember who you work for - the seller. They need to understand that these activities rarely result in a sale, but do often result in new business for you. And always be direct with visitors and ask if they are working with an agent already. As long as they are all ok with that, let's press on.

Location. It should be easy to get to with just a couple directional signs. You need to leave a trail of bread crumbs for drive by traffic to follow without too much trouble. Lets talk about balloons; use them - don't use them, but if you do use them make sure one is on each directional sign and the yard sign, and don't let them float 3 feet above the sign. I used to just blow them up myself and tie them to the sign with a very short string - bread crumbs, not zeppelins.

Your Objective needs to be to gather contact information. This needs to be a theatric event designed to get visitors to give you their information. Registration lists and cards work well enough but I also had a supply of brochures that I would offer to mail to them, or when they tell me they aren't interested in this house offer to email them some others. When they ask questions, offer to discuss it with the seller and get back to them, so you'll need a good number to reach them later. I always tried to have a clipboard to take notes of their comments, let them talk about the house so you can probe for their needs and see where they are at in the buying cycle.

Announce it to the neighbors. Walk the neighborhood with Open House announcement flyers a day or two prior and invite them all to your event. If this is a house in your farm all the better, but this event could start your relationship with this neighborhood.

So go out and make every Open House count!