Atlanta Real Estate Blog - Jarvis

Short Sales seem to be the buzz word right now.  Everyone and their brother has some experience with a short sale or do they?

I thought I'd do some fact finding and see what's going on.  To be sure, I am in the Short Sale business now with Atlanta Short Sale Listings you can find all the homes in Atlanta Metro area.

• You can read my conversation with another agent about prospecting (calling) for sale by owners that led to short sale revelations.
  
• I also spoke with Ann Urias and she said the key was getting the price right in the beginning.  Not too low to kill the deal, but low enough to actually attract buyers.  She also poo-pooed on the investor buying the homes to flip them at the closing table.  I didn't have enough time to figure out if that was market specific or actual.  Since I've had a lot of great transactions with Short Sale Buyers. 
• I also wanted to share with you that not everything is as it seems.  There are agents in our area touting the Short Sale Expert tag, but they don't have answers to these questions (we do).
  
  • If the investor buys the home to flip, how do you finance the other transaction, since there will be a title seasoning issue?
  • How many short sales have you CLOSED? (not worked on)
  • What do you do with PMI companies?
  • What do you do if the home owner has a small business loan?
  • What do you do if the home is a few days from foreclosure?
  • Does your team include an attorney?
  • Are you using standard Realtor Association contracts or are you using internet found forms, or something custom?

It's pretty easy to see that once you start doing short sales there are a world of questions that separate the experts from the people that can close one deal.

OH and That short sale expert in our area has closed .... 0 homes.

(As a note, it's highly unlikely that I am speaking about anyone that would read this article.)

I've been specializing in Internet Leads for 6 years now.  I've generated a lot of them myself but I've also tried every company under the sun.  From Homegain and Househunt to RECR.  Some good and some bad.

Internet leads tend to have one thing in common that just perplexes me.  No matter how much time I spend on the phone and through e-mail, the rapport or the bond was just never strong enough.

To put it in other words, the gap was sometime to wide.

I'm not really sure why.  I've closed 100's of transactions from the internet, but if I close 100, I may end up with 10 folks that I can call "Referral Partners" and the rest saw it more as a transaction.

How's that for a slap in the face?  It's the CLIENTS in a Real Estate Transaction that saw it as just a transaction and not the AGENT! 

ENTER Social Media

A funny thing happened when I joined Active Rain. That's right, I got a closing but more importantly I met one of my best, most loyal, awesome clients! We'll call him Sam.  I've been able to help Sam buy a home and sell a home. He calls me out when I'm being lazy - which means he's read my blog - and he just a fun client.

Social media seems to be bridging that gap, building that bridge so to speak.  By being involved with customers online, I am able to become the Realtor they want.

Someone they:

1. Like
2. Know
   
3. Trust

Notice, I didn't say Someone they:

1. Thinks has the most internet marketing presence
2. Believe is the best
3. Believe has the most knowledge
4. Think has the most listings
5. Think does the best marketing... 

At the end of the day it comes down to relationships.  The phone is a great tool when a client is warmed up and EXPECTING it to ring.  A cold call is turning out to be a colder endeavor for sure.

As a side note, I've also learned the value of becoming more social with Realtors.  Please visit Blitztime and sign up for the Free Active Rain Speed Networking Call!

In the most recent post by our great leader here on Active Rain, Jonathan Washburn is quick to point out that online brokerages are winning.  After you read this post you quickly see the comments which go to the service arguments. I don't think that was the intention.  What I think was missing was an analytic view on the data and whether or not it was actually worthwhile.

For instance, Keller WIlliams Realty isn't even on the radar, yet KW is one of the top brokerages in the US.  Their internet strategy is "power to the people."  Teach them how to fish. So instead of winning the national ranking game, they are kicking tail locally.

If you ever look at Broker Metric Data, you can see the top offices locally are listed out, it always looks something like this:

1. Office One: 5,000 Agents
2. Office Two 300 Agents
3. Office Three: 1200 Agents
4. Office Four: 60 Agents

Similarly the data simply shows that some companies, like ZIP, want to generate leads nationally and then sell them back to their agents.  Which in the end provides the agents business' zip if the consumers then want to connect with real experts or heaven forbid should the model change.