The other day, Ron McCoy told me about a broker who had been beating herself up because she didn’t have any REO business. She kept reading in the newspaper and hearing on the radio what a huge part of the market foreclosures had become. Why wasn’t she getting any?
All of this gnashing of teeth led this broker to do what Help-U-Sell brokers do in situations like this: she did a Market Analysis. Guess what? Turns out REOS accounted for less than 10% of the business in her target market! Suddenly all of that energy that was going into stewing and worrying about REOs that didn’t exist could be channelled into capturing as much of her market as she could.
Here at the Set Fee Blog, we did the whole Chicken Little/Foxy Loxy thing a couple of days ago and we all know not to pay attention to the negative press that’s out there. But why not take it one step farther? Why not replace the negativity circulating around you with solid market place facts? Even if REOs are 40% of the activity in your MLS, what’s going on with the 10,000 – 15,000 households where you intend to do business?
As Help-U-Sell brokers, we rely on market data for so many decisions: where to set our fee, where to target our marketing, when to gear up and when to wind down. Confusing times, uncertain times, times when all the birds in the barnyard are squaking — these are the times to update your Market Analysis and examine your data again. You’ll find the full set of forms and instructions you need to do a Market Analysis in the Help-U-Sell Download Library.
(You know: go to www.helpusell.com, scroll down near the bottom of the page and select ‘Help-U-Sell OMS.’ Proceed to OMS Login and, if you’ve forgotten your user name and password,contact support@helpusell.com. You’ll find the Market Analysis package in the ‘Marketing and Content’ section, under ‘Operational Tools’ and ‘Office Operational Forms.’ If that’s too many clicks, just drop me a note and I’ll send you the package and even help you fill it out!)
It’s really good to know that REAL people are ready and available for all the HUS team members in every way, shape, and form.
James, I couldn’t agree more. You can spend an enormous amount of time chasing business like REO listings only to find that in your market they amount to a negligible percentage. Sometimes it’s best to stay focused on what we do best and go out and do it.