Category: Attitude

Humptulips or Bust

Things are very different today than they were even five years ago.

We used to think the one year and five year plan were essential . . . and I still think they are important.

But, it’s also clear that ability to respond to opportunity in the moment is far more important than a tight and detailed plan . . . and responding to opportunity usually means trashing or at least revising the plan.

I think the best plan is to have a picture in mind of where you want to end up and of what the next big milestone in that journey will probably be.  Then have a short term plan that will move you closer to that milestone.

It’s like the road trip across country I took when I was 21.  My pal, Geary Cagle and I left Atlanta with a big picture in mind: our destination – Humptulips, Washington.  But the first big milestone was Estes Park, CO and the Rockies.  Each day we planned a route, a stopping point, side trips and breaks but we only planned a day at a time.  Each day took us closer to that first milestone and so, closer to Humptulips.  In Jackson Hole, WY, the rear end fell out of the Fiat.  Getting parts and doing the repair took 5 days:  an opportunity we responded to by getting deeply into the Tetons and the Snake River.  It was one of the best parts of the trip.

Where are you headed?  What’s the next big milestone for you?  And what are you going to do today, this week and this month to get you closer to that milestone?  And oh, by the way:  what are you going to do when you finally reach Humptulips?

The Internet Revolution

It’s going on right now, today, in Egypt.

Egypt is right at the top among Arab Nations in Internet use.  Facebook has huge penetration there compared to neighboring Arab States.  Twitter, too.  The Internet and Social Networking are driving the uprising that’s going on right there, right now.

I realize that the revolt is being led by the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that believes Islam is more than a religion and who may turn Egypt into an Islamic State if they prevail.  Notwithstanding the difficulties we’ve had with Islamic States, the Egyptian version of this group seems more moderate.  Regardless of their ideology, it’s clear that the Internet has played a key role in this little bit of history.

It’s no wonder the Egyptian government shut down virtually all Internet access last night.  It’s their last ghasp attempt to control the situation.

Reminds me of the old days of Radio Free Europe:  we were trying to create a revolution with information.  I’m not sure how successful that was, but clearly, when people have access to information on a global scale, when they can see what they have and what they might become, they grow very impatient with their own oppression.

I’m not surprised at China’s attempt to filter the Internet and I’m delighted that Google made the decision to pull out of that market rather than buckle to their demands.   I mean:  it’s kinda hard to keep people under your thumb when they can see alternatives at the click of a mouse.  Can you imagine what will happen when the citizens of China, Iran, North Korea, and any number of other repressive nations gain free access to the information we all take for granted?

To quote Shirley Bassey, it could ‘all be just a little bit of history repeating . . . ‘  Like the fall of the Berlin Wall.

(ok, get ready:  here comes the tie-in)

It’s not unlike the struggle of home buyers and sellers over the past 30 years.   They were at the mercy of Realtors who held information hostage – information about houses for sale, prices, trends.  The only way consumers got the information they needed to make intelligent choices was through a Realtor.

Though the Realtor community fought tooth and nail to keep all that delicious information under lock and key, the courts and the consumers won out in the end.  Today consumers can get almost all of the information real estate people once hoarded and held from them.  Suddenly, the value of the Realtor had to shift.  Value could no longer simply be access to information.  Now the Agent or Broker had to actually bring some skill to the table.

To all this, we at Help-U-Sell say Bravo!  Information without obligation has always been one of our core values.  We’ve always believed in giving the consumer all the information they might need to make intelligent decisions.  Our value is in marketing, advising, coordinating, selling, negotiating.

So, Viva Internet!  Viva Egypt!  Viva free access to information!  and Viva Help-U-Sell!

News from the Short Sale Rumor Mill

Short Sales continue to be a huge part of our business, and while I hear little of the ‘I wouldn’t touch one with a ten foot pole’ attitude common a couple of years ago, they remain a challenge.  I consulted a team of experts about the current condition of this part of the business yesterday . . . ok:  I talked with Ken Kopcho and Maurine Grisso . . . and here’s what I learned:

Banks are getting easier to work with.  It’s as if they finally realized that, as remedies go, a foreclosure can cost them upward of $50,000 more to accomplish than a short sale.  It’s taken a long time, but they seem to be getting their processes organized so they can move more quickly in legitimate short sale situations.

Wachovia was the first to become more reasonable.  They have been easier to work with for months.  Recently Bank of America and Welles Fargo have followed suit.  Chase seems to remain ‘difficult,’ sometimes becoming non-communicative.

Bank of America’s Equator system – which was a bear when initially introduced – seems easier to navigate.  It is unclear whether this is the result of a system adjustment or the growing familiarity of broker-users.  (!)

While many short sale attempts don’t work out, there are things a broker can do to increase his or her conversion rates.

Spend time on legitimate short sale candidates only.  Remember:  being upside down by itself does not qualify a homeowner for a short sale; there has to be a real, legitimate hardship: loss of a job, medical expenses, lost income . . . something.

Don’t take short sale listings unless you think you can get it done.  Seems simple, I know, but Maurine – whose conversion rate on short sale listings is remarkable – says she walks away from almost as many as she takes.

Don’t forget about the non-short sale candidates who are still in trouble.  For example, Maurine is targeting homeowners who are 30-60-90 days late but who still have a little equity.  They may not be short sale candidates, but they probably do have a problem.  Plus:  they have some ‘skin in the game,’ something to lose if they don’t get the problem solved.  The broker becomes the solution.  (By the way:  if you don’t know how to find homeowners who are late on their mortgage payments, but who haven’t yet received a Notice of Default, ask me).

It’s January 2011, and real estate market indicators continue to improve slowly.  Pending home sales are rising — they’ve been doing so since October — and even new construction is showing a little life.  Meanwhile I hear that a lot of agents, faced with a fat Board Dues statement and nothing pending, are getting out of the biz.  That’s sad.  (But for the survivors, it’s good:  less competition.)  The sad part is: they’re probably getting out just when things are turning around.

This is a time to squeeze a little more, pay your Board Dues and get busy.  Hold open houses, find 4 or 5 legitimate new buyers to work with, get your blitz signs out and start reminding people you are here to help them save some money.  2011 will be a year of More.

More

The truth about the real estate business is there are not enough transactions to go around.  If you were to take the total number of closed sides each year and divide them equally between all of the real estate agents and brokers in the business . . . well, everyone would starve.

I remember years ago, when I moved my office from one part of town to another, all the other brokers were friendly.  They acted like they were glad to see me and said things like, ‘there’s plenty of business for everybody.’  Then, of course, they went home to stick pins their voodoo dolls and hope for my demise —  because there’s NOT enough business for everyone.  I knew it;  they knew it.  If I was going to make it I was going to have to get more than my share. . . and that meant I was going to have to take it away from them.

Getting more than your share . . . more listings, more buyers, more sales . . . that’s what Help-U-Sell is all about.  It’s  a strategy for getting more and ultimately for becoming a dominant force in your local marketplace.

More.  It’s basic business.  All businesses, from the corner grocery store to the Fortune 500 multi-national live and die by their ability to get more and do more.  In business school we learn there are two measures of success in business:  Market Share and Profitability.  Market Share is about getting more.  Profitability is about being efficient.

In days gone by, doing more usually meant having more people, more feet on the street, a bigger operation.  But people are expensive, and building market share by hiring more and more people usually results in low profitability.

That’s why businesses over the past 20 years have focused on downsizing and on automation and systems.  Nobody wants a pink slip, but let’s face it:  General Motors builds a much better, safer, more fuel efficient automobile today with far fewer people than it did 20 years ago.

Sadly, the evolution of business has had little impact on the ordinary real estate world, where success is usually defined as having more salespeople than your competitors.  The broker’s job is not to sell more and more real estate but rather to recruit more and more agents (who in theory will take care of all that selling).  With per agent productivity hovering somewhere below five deals a year and commission splits still in the stratosphere, you might recruit the entire population of, say, Washington State to be your salesforce and still not make a profit!

It doesn’t have to be that way.  Just as other businesses have evolved to where doing more is a function of fewer people using systems to manage an ever increasing flow of business, the real estate business can evolve.  With the Help-U-Sell consumer offering and operating system, you can get more and do more with fewer people and lower cost.

Last year, I stopped into Chino Hills, California and saw Patrick Wood.  He’s in an attractive 750 square foot Help-U-Sell office in a strip center.  It’s a small operation:  just him, his assistant, Val and a couple of buyer agents.  But, together, they routinely out produce whole offices of ordinary real estate agents.  While the competition is closing offices and consolidating, Pat and his team are focused on getting more, doing more and building a business worth having.

Help-U-Sell is simple.  It is a handful of carefully constructed systems that work together to produce a predictable result:  a successful business – one that does more than its share of transactions.  The systems are vastly different from what’s common in the ordinary real estate world, and the two simply don’t mix.  Evaluating your Help-U-Sell business on the criteria of your agent-oriented competitors is like trying to tell how tall you are by stepping on the scale.

It’s 2011.  It’s once again time to know who we are, what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.  Simplify.  Focus on systems:  systems for generating leads, systems for capturing, incubating and managing those leads, systems for staffing, for listing and for managing transactions.  And remember:  it’s all about more.

Pending Home Sales Jump in October

Remember May, 2006?  That’s when the Pending Home Sale Index hit its last big high before the market began to tighten:  112.6.  We got close to that last October when the first Homebuyer Stimulus Program came into play:  112.4.  Not surprisingly, the index had another peak last April when Stimulus Program number 2 happened:  110.9.

The good news right now is that the Pending Home Sale Index showed a strong increase in October, without the additional help of a Stimulus package.  The index surged 10.4% over September’s level to 89.3.  My guess is that ridiculously low mortgage interest rates coupled with a little flicker of consumer confidence has led to the increase.

There seems to be a lot of good economic news right now.  Retailers are having a better time of it this Holiday Season and a number of pundits are predicting a break-out surge in the stock market in the near future.  My mental image is America, like Mohammed Ali,  leaning against the ropes with gloves held up in defensive passivity as negative economic forces pound away;  then suddenly coming to life to win the match.  I think the negative forces are growing weary and our rope-a-dope response is about to end.

Just makes me want to go out there and sell something!

To read the full article from NAR (and get a video dose of the coolest economist in the biz, Lawrence Yun) go HERE.

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