Month: January 2011

Help-U-Sell for Agents

There is a misconception among traditional real estate agents that Help-U-Sell is not a place to have a great career.  After all, we are not known for paying large commission splits!  And with our Low Set Fee structure, there can’t be much money in it for an agent, right?  Wrong!

First, consider why a traditional broker would be willing to pay a high split.  In that traditional office you are responsible for getting  listings, making sales, finding sellers, finding buyers,  producing your own leads, prospecting, prospecting, prospecting, paying your own marketing and office expenses and on and on.  You are shouldering the lion’s share of the business expenses (and running around like a chicken with your head cut off!) –  so you should be getting the lion’s share of the commission!

But maybe there’s a better way.  Maybe the Broker should take responsibility for developing an effective marketing plan, for producing a steady flow of quality leads, for providing all the tools you need to do your job.  Maybe you should be focused on just one aspect of the business:  taking buyer clients the office has handed to you and turning them into closed sales and satisfied customers.  You’d have no prospecting demands, no angry sellers, no open houses you must hold, no advertising bill to pay.  Because your job description would finally be manageable (and quality leads would be steady), you’d be able to do many more transactions.  That’s the way we do it at Help-U-Sell.

At Help-U-Sell, we expect our Buyers’ Agents to close at least two sides every month — way above the national average.  Because our offices are lead generating machines (and because we never add agents until we have the leads to support them), that’s a very attainable goal.  As a result our agents are happy, calm, excited, busy, productive . . . and they still have lives!  Now, let’s consider the dollars.

While your production may be different (and we invite you to work through these calculations with your own numbers), the average real estate agent production today is less than one closed side per month.  Consider this example:

  • Average Sale Price:  $300,000
  • Average Commission per Closed Side:  3%*:  $9,000
  • Average Agent’s Commission Split:  75%* =  $6,750 per closed side
  • Rounding average production UP to 1 closed side per month (12 per year) = $81,000 Agent’s Gross, from which from which desk fees, marketing expenses, and cost of doing business must be taken.

Now, consider the same parameters at Help-U-Sell:

  • Average Sale Price:  $300,000
  • Average Commission per Closed Side:  3%*:  $9,000
  • Average Agent’s Commission Split: 50%* =  $4,500 per closed side
  • Assuming you meet our minimum production standard for Buyers’ Agents, that’s 24 closed sides a year =$108,000 with NO marketing expenses, no desk fees, no prospecting, no calling FSBOs, no angry sellers . . .

The big difference is that the traditional agent had to develop all of his or her own business.  The Help-U-Sell agent left that job up to the office and focused on turning Buyer leads into sales.  The Help-U-Sell agent also had time for family, friends, hobbies, vacations . . . a life.  Isn’t it time you had one?

*Of course, commissions are always negotiable, as are commission splits.

Download a PDF copy of Help-U-Sell for Agents

Help-U-Sell for Buyers

Imagine . . .

  • Calling a real estate office and connecting with an agent who tells you not only about the property you’re calling on but three others that are similar and close by . . .
  • Being offered great free tools that make your home search easier . . .
  • Taking advantage of an opportunity to spend a few minutes with a knowledgeable professional to develop a real estate plan, not just for your next house but for the rest of your life . . .
  • Working in partnership with a local expert to find the perfect house at the right price with the best financing .

It happens every day at Help-U-Sell.

That’s because our Buyers’ Agents begin their careers in a comprehensive, activity-driven training program, ‘Science to Sales.’  It’s been hailed by industry experts as the finest Buyers’Aagent training program in the industry and, after a few intense weeks, produces agents who know more about the local market, financing and contracts than many agents with years in the business.

Help-U-Sell Science to Sales trained Buyers’ Agents are absolutely clear about the great value they bring to the transactions on which they work and their buyer clients perceive this value from the very first interaction.  And isn’t that what sales is all about?  It’s not about getting people to do things they don’t want to do.  We think it’s about being so valuable in the transaction that they can’t imagine proceeding without you!

Working with a Help-U-Sell Buyers’ Agent is different.  That’s because your agent is focused only on the buyers’ side of the transaction.  They are not chasing down a new listing or trying to meet an advertising deadline or holding an open house.  Those activities are handled by other people in the office.  Our Buyers’ Agents are just that:  Buyers’ Agents, focused on and dedicated to home buyers and their unique issues.  It’s the kind of help you’ve always dreamed about.

Often, in addition to the ‘normal’ financing routes many agents know, there are special programs available through local municipalities, State governments and non-profit groups.  Sometimes these programs can mean lower down payments, lower interest rates and even reduced purchase prices.  Unfortunately, because these programs are unusual and don’t flow through normal mortgage lending channels, many agents know nothing about them.   At Help-U-Sell we pride ourselves in knowing every possible avenue to purchase available in our local markets and bringing them into play whenever possible.

Not only will your Help-U-Sell Buyers’ Agent have access to all the homes on the market, regardless of which broker has the listing, they will also have access to some listings only available to Help-U-Sell agents.  Often these are listings where the seller is saving significantly on sales commissions and is therefore in a better position to negotiate.

Isn’t it time you got some benefit, some value from the agent working through your transaction?  Isn’t it time you felt comfortable and confident you are getting the best help possible in your home purchase project?  If so, it’s time you called Help-U-Sell!

Download a PDF copy of Help-U-Sell for Buyers

Help-U-Sell for Sellers

Home sellers love Help-U-Sell.  Not only do they save with our low set fee pricing, they also experience a freedom of choice in the process that they didn’t know possible.

For us, one size definitely does not fit all, and sellers may opt to go into the MLS (and offer a commission to a selling broker) – or not; to hold their own open houses (thus increasing the probability they will produce their own buyer and save the greatest amount of money) – or not; or to offer a selling fee to the Buyers’ Agents in our own offices – or not.  The best part is:  no matter what options they choose, in the end, they will pay a fee based on how the sale was made.  A seller choosing to go into MLS and offer a co-op commission who then finds his or her own buyer will pay only our low set fee, not the set fee plus the optional fee to the outside broker.

While commissions and Set Fees are negotiable, many traditional real estate firms charge as much as 6% of the selling price.  On a $300,000 sale, that could be $18,000!  With the Help-U-Sell System there are at least three ways a home could sell:

Note:  the ,950 Set Fee used in this example is just that: an example.  Set Fees vary from office to office and market to market. Set Fees and Commissions are always negotiable.

So, what does a seller get for the Low Set Fee?  Marketing power (listing on HelpuSell.com and dozens of syndicated sites, signage and inclusion in our ongoing local marketing) along with our negotiating and transaction management skills.  Many times this is enough to create a satisfactory sale.  Sometimes the additional involvement of the buyers’ agents in our offices and/or the MLS is required.  In any case, sellers almost always save over what they’d have to pay a traditional broker to sell their home.

With tightening markets and falling prices, Help-U-Sell makes even more sense today.  Our fee model enables sellers to price their property more competitively and retain more of their equity.  It’s a great solution!

Download a PDF of Help-U-Sell for Sellers

Dick McKenna: ‘You must massage your numbers until they throb’

Dick McKenna was my favorite real estate guru.  A degreed Industrial Psychologist who, early in life did Peace Corp type work in Latin America, he gravitated to real estate where he became intellectual conscience of Century 21.  Dick knew more about the business side of our business than anyone I’ve known before or since.  He was the first person I recall being alarmed when traditional brokers began paying higher and higher commission splits.

‘You don’t understand!’ he’d squawk, ‘It is virtually impossible to make a profit if you’re paying more than 68% on average to your agents!’  And he had the numbers to back it up.

Oh, how right he was.

Dick was really big on Marketplace Intelligence.  He wanted us to discover and dissect every morsel of information we could find about a market and then use what we learned to drive our business.  It was all very Help-U-Sell (we’ve always embraced market data as a decision making tool).  That’s where the quote in the headline comes from:  he said it once in a meeting of about 1,000 brokers.

One Help-U-Sell Broker who’s been massaging his numbers recently is Jeff Braun from Union Grove, WI.  Working with his production numbers and those of his MLS for calendar year 2010, Jeff learned the following:

In his local market, he has a 39% MARKET SHARE!

  • When he was the Listing Agent and NOT the Selling Agent, he got 102.30% of list price as sale price
  • When he was the Listing Agent AND the Selling Agent, he got 103.97%
  • When he was the Selling Agent and NOT the Listing Agent, his buyer clients bought property for 94.30% of list price.

Do you think anyone trying to decide who to work with in Union Grove, WI would be interested in these numbers?  Of course.  Obviously, working with Jeff is one sure way to ensure you do okay buying or selling a home.

My message is this:  it’s January, a great time to review stats from last year.  Get your numbers together in the following categories then compare your results with the MLS.  I promise you, you will almost always beat the MLS and sometimes you will beat the MLS by so much, it’s worth crowing about!  Check:

  • % of listings taken that sell
  • Days on market (listing to pending – from that point on time frames are largely out of your control)
  • Sale price as a % of list price for properties where you were the listing broker only, the selling broker only and both the listing and selling broker
  • Fall out rate on pending transactions
  • Anything else you can think of

Then (assuming you are better than the average bear in your area — and you are),  create a one page summary of what you find to use in your Listing Presentation.  Heck, if the results are really good, why not include them in your advertising? It’s information like this that will make your marketing throb.

Marketing Material and Vendor Update

One of our goals for 2011 is to update and upgrade our vendor program.  Robert Stevens is spec’ing out a template that will make it possible for our brokers to access approved suppliers directly on the website back-end, OMS.  We’re also working with our vendors to redesign all of our marketing materials so that everything has the same look and feel.

I’ve just created a new folder in the Download Library called ‘Vendors’, in which I placed a PDF doc listing some of the vendors we currently have on-board with contact information and product descriptions.  I’ll be working to complete that listing over the next several weeks.

Suddenly, this is all very important because . . . things are starting to move.

Have you noticed?  Somehow, in December, the economic news turned more favorable and I’m hearing from most everywhere that there is activity this month at a level we haven’t seen for some time.  Buyers seem to be out, trying to take advantage of low prices and low interest rates while they still can.  As a result, everyone’s talking about marketing.

We’ll be talking about it a lot over the next few weeks.  I know our Wednesday Rountable and Training calls will  feature segments on using Facebook pay-per-click ads, new marketing capabilities at Listingbook, and a reintroduction of 1 to 1 and Excel, their websites, tools and product offering.

So go get your marketing hat out and dust it off.  Let’s start planning for that Spring selling season!

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