Mike Henderson 303-949-5848 Genius Ventures

These are my first attempts at posting neighborhood market reports in the Denver, CO market.  I want to penetrate my the luxury home marketplace.  This is certainly a challenging market in normal times, and in this times its like I'm the Don Quixote of agents.

A seperate blog is in order to determine my plan to crack this market segment.  One important disclosure point is I'm really only interested in being a buyers agent in this marketplace.  You might actually be better served by another agent for listing your home for sale.

What is important to focus on is

Count = Number of homes for sale

Avg Total DOM =  180 or less indicates sellers market.  Higher favors the buyers

Avg list price = what the average list price is

Median = Where half the homes are more expensive and half the homes are less expensive

Volume list price = If you wanted to buy every home in that neighborhood how much it would cost.  I find this figure very amusing.

These are my first attempts at posting neighborhood market reports in the Denver, CO market.  I want to penetrate my the luxury home marketplace.  This is certainly a challenging market in normal times, and in this times its like I'm the Don Quixote of agents.

A seperate blog is in order to determine my plan to crack this market segment.  One important disclosure point is I'm really only interested in being a buyers agent in this marketplace.  You might actually be better served by another agent for listing your home for sale.

What is important to focus on is

Count = Number of homes for sale

Avg Total DOM =  180 or less indicates sellers market.  Higher favors the buyers

Avg list price = what the average list price is

Median = Where half the homes are more expensive and half the homes are less expensive

Volume list price = If you wanted to buy every home in that neighborhood how much it would cost.  I find this figure very amusing.

These are my first attempts at posting neighborhood market reports in the Denver, CO market. I want to penetrate my the luxury home marketplace. This is certainly a challenging market in normal times, and in this times its like I'm the Don Quixote of agents.

A seperate blog is in order to determine my plan to crack this market segment. One important disclosure point is I'm really only interested in being a buyers agent in this marketplace. You might actually be better served by another agent for listing your home for sale.

What is important to focus on is

Count = Number of homes for sale

Avg Total DOM = 180 or less indicates sellers market. Higher favors the buyers

Avg list price = what the average list price is

Median = Where half the homes are more expensive and half the homes are less expensive

Volume list price = If you wanted to buy every home in that neighborhood how much it would cost. I find this figure very amusing.

I actually got a call before the class that made me want to cry. This person found me through our local real estate club in Colorado. They were given my name by somebody else that is always a good sign. Referrals are great especially since I am fairly new in the business. She knows that I specialize in working with investors. The biggest thing I do is try to prequal them find out there experience, drive, goals, and funding. I agree that we should talk and maybe work together. I had this class scheduled for the same day that she called me. I really encouraged her to attend. She said she couldn't they had to pick up mother from the Denver airport.

I got a call back fifteen minutes later saying that her or her husband will be there. That was encouraging. This is also the person who was the first person to speak up in class. Afterwards I saw her networking with the person I thought was the most serious person there. I've got a good feeling about her success. I even had one other person contact me since that class about getting in touch with her. One of the biggest services I offer to my clients is the ability to network with each other. I truly believe that real estate investing is a team sport.

She asked how much it cost to attend the class - it's free. I constantly debate whether to charge people or not. I think the only way or time that I will charge people is if they don't register. I just want to know how many people are going to show up.

Typically my feedback has been people congratulating me after a class and an occassional follow up email that I student would send me. I really did step up my game. I signed up for Constant Contact, the survey platform. This was eyeopening results and the power of this tool.

Where they came from - less than 50% came from my companys newsletter. That really means that my marketing efforts are starting to stand out.

Level of Satisfaction with event - 81.7% Were extremely satisfied or somewhat satisfied. Very encouraging.

Likely to attend an event like this again - 72.7% Seems like I'm doing something right.

What was incredibly helpful was the ability to list potential future classes I am thinking about teaching.

Constant Contact is a powerful tool to find out what your customers are truly thinking.

This is one of the most challenging classes that I have taught. It is partially because there is so much to learn. I been to dozens of REI club meetings across the Denver metro area. I've read a ton on Active Rain and Bigger Pockets. This is in addition to tons of webinars, newsletter, and most importantly working with investor clients and buying property.

How do you boil all of this knowledge down to teach information in a couple of hours? One of the things I tried to do is get the class more involved in the discussion. I had nineteen people show up. I really only knew a couple of them. Most of the people I have no idea of their background, experience, ability, or committment.

I had nineteen people show up. This is also the first time I have taught this particular class so you have no idea how long the time runs. One of the first areas that I went over was about Why are you doing this? This is a basic and fundemental question. If you can't answer this, you shouldn't be investing in real estate.

I tried to facilitate discussion by asking questions of the group. It can be a disaster when nobody pipes up. There is an even greater risk when nobody speaks up. This is a class of new people so nobody wants to speak up or say something stupid. I was so happy when Donna raised her hand. She is one of the few people that I had some good background on because she called me on the phone about potentially being her agent. I found out she was a new investor. Luckily I had this class already scheduled and it was a great way to introduce people to the market. It was a start of getting the class engaged.

My speaking was nontraditional compared to past classes as well. I used to do stand up comedy, was a champion debater in high school, and highly involved in the student senate in college. I'm pretty good. I have a loud voice, pretty good gestures, and can read a room. I didn't want to overpower things so I sat down in my chair to be on there level several different times throughout the class. I also had no powerpoint or handouts. I did everything I could to make it interactive.

What did I want to teach these prospective real estate investors? I do a lot of my networking at investor clubs so I know the pitches these people are used to and what the speakers are saying. I tried to tailor my presentation to the stuff that the speakers don't tell you.

Two problems with my approach:

1) The makeup of the class. There were more/as many real estate agents as there were investors. Some of these were no and wanting to learn. Some were experienced and wanted to learn more. Were some there to try to pick up newbie clients? I'm not sure. What was even worse is there were a couple of strong personalities.

2) The material. You can read about the description of the class on this previous blog. Everyone who came should of seen it. I think it was not what a lot of people expected. I talked about mentoring, gurus and there courses, basics of business cards, and the one free marketing tip you should do right now.

Of course I talked about fix and flips, wholesaling, and buy and hold, hard money, and financing options. I think that is what they expected for a two full hours. It was probably only about 45 minutes.