Category: Management

What’s Great About the Help-U-Sell Web Solution

I just got off a Tech Demo with Ron McCoy, Robbie Stevens and a prospective franchisee. The purpose of this kind of call is to show the prospect what we’re doing with technology and to distinguish our platform from that of every other national brand. I believe, as usual, we were successful, but there’s always a side benefit to these kinds of meetings:

I get so excited about what we have I want to shout it from the rooftops! Let me crow a bit.

First, consider: why are real estate Brokers interested in the Internet? It might seem like a stupid question, but it’s not and it deserves careful consideration.
Brokers are interested because that’s where buyers (and, increasingly, sellers) are. We know this. We’ve watched the statistics rise year after year. It makes sense that, where we used to spend major marketing dollars in largely print media, we would now shift those funds toward the Internet. To the savvy Broker, the Internet is, first and foremost, a Lead Generator.

Although nobody would argue with that, it is remarkable how many Brokers have sites that are seemingly designed to generate . . . nothing.  You see them all the time:  they are basically static sites, where nothing changes day after day except the possible feed from the MLS.  They are largely vanity sites or online business cards, and just as your paper business card does no good sitting in  your pocket, so a typical, static Broker site does no good sitting in the darkness of an un-optimized web.

Some Brokers realize that having a web presence is more than having pretty pictures and nice text online.  They realize that a web site, a web presence, requires management.   Someone’s got to take responsibility for constant over-site, content refreshment and troubleshooting.  But we are real estate brokers!  We don’t have time for that!  So what do most Brokers do?  Either give up, or hire an outsider to manage the website.  Some may see an increase in leads but for most, even a managed website is just a big black hole in cyber-space into which money disappears every month.

What we have at Help-U-Sell is a Broker website that is completely proprietary (we created, own and control the technology and are not dependent on any outside vendor), that is also easily managed not by high priced outsiders, but by our Brokers.

The back-end of the website includes a content management system that is as easy to use as, say, Microsoft Word.  A broker, knowing nothing about HTML, scripting, Flash, or anything internet-tech, can log in, go to the individual pages of the website, and edit the content.  He/she can add pages, load videos, create links, etc.  And if that sounds too technical, we have paid hand-holders at headquarters in Sarasota who will help you do it.

As a result, a Help-U-Sell Broker website is not just an endless boilerplate litany of how wonderful Help-U-Sell (the national brand) is.  It’s also loaded with the references to the local community, inserted by the Broker, that will make the site attractive to search engines.  And, by the way, if your idea of having a website is to generate leads (and it should be), it all starts with being attractive to search engines.  The people have to be able to find you and they will find you when the search engines like your content.  What do search engines like?  Local, local, hyper-local content.  Custom content that doesn’t exist anywhere else.  Content that is dynamic and changes regularly.  Content that includes a mix of media:  text, photos, video, hyperlinks and so on.  The Help-U-Sell Broker websites put all of that at the fingertips of the broker.

I also get excited by the valuable foresight of the development team (and Robbie, in particular).  Early on, they built a ‘MOBI’ site to accompany Helpusell.com.  The mobi site is automatically activated anytime a consumer comes to the website via mobile phone.  On the mobi site, all of the content is optimized for the smaller format of a smart phone screen.  This is so important, and here’s why:

The average age of a Realtor today is something like 54.  The average homebuyer is much younger, about 34.  That’s a 20 year generation gap that can easily be measured in technology.  The young buyer today – the buyer that will shape our future – is using the smart phone constantly and they are using it the way we (older folks) use computers.  The smart phone IS the computer of choice for the most important segment of homebuyers in the market today.  So, you have to be smart phone optimized to interact with these buyers.  The helpusell.mobi site makes that possible.  So do other forward thinking innovations, like the automatic generation of a QR code for every listing, so that an interested homebuyer can access information on the listing without having to type a long URL into their phone.

It’s very important.  But does it work?  Robbie mentioned today that about 50% of the traffic on helpusell.com is coming from smart phones.  I think that says a lot.

Finally, the thing I’m most excited about is the responsiveness of the tech team to input from the field.  Since we created, own and manage our own technology, it’s a lot easier for us to make a change or add a feature than it would be for someone who has to go through a vendor for that.  Our brokers said they wanted customized, localized searches built around local areas or neighborhoods.  We have them.  Some brokers wanted to require registration at some point on the website.  We now have that option.  Some wanted a less costly (ok . . . free) alternative to paying outside vendors for virtual tours.  We now have that.  The whole platform is open for discussion and improvement, not by a group of disconnected egg-heads, but by real estate brokers and those who understand what goes on in a real estate office.

If you set out to recreate the technology you have at Help-U-Sell as an independent broker, you’d spend thousands, not just once, but every month.  For our brokers, it’s just part of the package:  no additional charge.

If you are a Help-U-Sell broker and you have not been as involved in your web life as you probably should have been, but want to get started NOW, call me or anyone at corporate and get the ’11 Days to a Great Website’ document.  It will give you 11 brief, focused tasks you can do in 30 minutes to an hour a day over a couple of weeks, that will take you light years ahead of your competition in terms of website effectiveness.  And if you’re like most great ‘people’ persons and you’re completely lost when it comes to this stuff, call the Tech Team in Sarasota and they will help you do it.

If you are a Help-U-Sell outsider and you’d like to know more about what we’re doing to stay on top of technology, get in touch.  We’ll be happy to give you a demo.

The Benefits of Being a Help-U-Sell Broker

Here’s a little vid we did for the Franchise Opportunity Center. It’s the first time we used the Green-Screen studio we created in Sarasota. Next time we have to work on lighting (or get me a body double!). (Oh, and contact lenses, too . . . . Mary, can I expense that?)

For Agents Only

The agent-broker relationship, like so many others, is a value-for-value proposition.  The agent brings value to the broker and the broker returns value to the agent.  Ideally there is an equilibrium in this exchange of value and both parties benefit.  The agent brings something to the broker and the broker brings something to the agent and everyone involved is able to do more and be more.

The ordinary real estate broker wants to constantly add agents because that’s how his business grows.  What he wants from them (what they bring to the table) is their own personal sphere of influence – however big or small – which may become buyers and sellers with the company, thus expanding the broker’s reach.

The broker hopes and prays that each agent he adds will also become a successful prospector for new business.  He hopes that each agent will become successful calling on FSBOS, cold calling, farming and so on, ultimately bringing in far more business than is generated by the existing sphere of influence.  Though few agents ever really excel at this, those who do are Stars.

Since most ordinary brokers have the same tools and the same basic offer to agents, the agent’s decision about which broker to work for usually comes down to two factors:  personality of the office and commission split.  Since personality is hard to change and mostly reflects the leader,  the ordinary broker relies heavily on high commission splits to agents to get and keep salespeople.

So the value-for-value exchange between a broker and agent in an ordinary real estate office is this:

The agent agrees to expand the brokers business at least to the agent’s sphere of influence and hopefully beyond,

and

The broker agrees to give the lions share of the commission to the agent on closed transactions.

At Help-U-Sell it’s a whole different proposition.

A Help-U-Sell broker expands his or her business through marketing, careful leads management, constant exploitation of the opportunities that exist in the marketplace and through consistent follow-up with past customers and clients.  The Help-U-Sell broker doesn’t add agents unless or until the business has expanded to the point that he or she needs help.  Agents are brought in to help the broker handle the business the broker has created.

The Help-U-Sell broker says to the prospective agent, ‘I’ve built this business and have all of these buyer leads I can’t get to.  I want you to take the leads I’ve created and convert them to sales.  Period.  I don’t want you to prospect for new business, I don’t want you to call FSBOS or Farm.  I just want you to convert the leads I’m already generating.  And I’ll pay you a reasonable commission split to do so.’

The value-for-value proposition between a broker and agent in a Help-U-Sell office is this:

The agent agrees to become expert at converting buyer leads into sales

and

The broker agrees to maintain a steady flow of leads into the office and to the agent.

See, it’s a completely different proposition.

So how do the two propositions stack up?  Well average per person productivity in ordinary real estate is abyssmal.  Most agents muck along doing 3 – 6 transactions a year.  In may places if they do a dozen they get an award!  At Help-U-Sell we’ve set the bar at 2 a month, 24 a year.  In many offices that’s a minimum standard: what an agent must do to continue to tap into the flow of leads.

Unfortunately, ordinary agents get very hung up on commission split.  It doesn’t matter that they may be doing only three deals a year, if they’re commanding an 80% split that means they are a great agent!  Once they fall into this line of thinking, it’s very hard for them to recognize the value of leads over split.  That’s why Help-U-Sell brokers usually build their teams with new licensees, ones who haven’t been tainted by the tired old agent-oriented business model common in ordinary real estate.

Another ADDENDUM:

So I’ve already had calls.  Agent X with ABC Realty asked:  ‘What’s the long term payoff for an agent at Help-U-Sell?  I’m not sure I want to spend the rest of my life doing two deals a month.’

Well, then, do 5 or 7 or whatever!  But I don’t think that’s what you were asking.  You’re asking how Help-U-Sell agents grow.  The answer is:  they grow in two ways:

1.  They become ever more effective in converting leads and build their production to the point that they realize their goals.

2.  They expand their repertoire, learn how to work with sellers in the Help-U-Sell system, how to market and generate leads.  In other words:  they become brokers and open their own Help-U-Sell offices.  It’s a big step with big rewards and a very different focus.  Where the agent is focused on converting leads, the broker is focused on generating them.  The broker generates leads through marketing, through listings and by carefully managing the lead intake process in the office.  It’s a very big job with very big rewards.

In addition to questions about growth, it seems that some agents doing average production in ordinary real estate are intimidated by 24 sides a year as a minimum standard.  Don’t be.  If you work at it, you should be able to double your personal production when you move to Help-U-Sell.  You will have no more prospecting demands, no more listings to manage, no more price reductions to orchestrate.  You’ll have lots more time for working buyers and you won’t even have to look for them!  We’ll give them to you!

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?

What They Think of Us and Why They Miss The Point

Matt Kellam sent me a link to a post on BrokerAgentSocial.com from a traditional broker (a CRB) about the disappearance of ‘Discount’ Brokers.  As I read the thing it was clear he was mostly talking about us.

I was struck by how off-target the piece was as well as most of the comments to it.  If you’re curious, this would be a good time to jump off and read it — but come back when you’re through.  Here’s the link:

Whatever Happened to Discount Brokers?

First off, they call us ‘Discounters.’  That’s not new.  But it’s just as false today as it was 5 and 10 years ago.  Calling us ‘Discounters’ assumes that we take their ‘Full Service’ model, strip out the more expensive aspects of it and offer the stripped down model at a lower price.  The truth is:  we strip nothing out.  We do the same things they do (and really, this is no bull: we do more), but we price our services differently so the seller saves on the deal.

Ordinary brokers who know nothing but what they’ve always done take a look at our pricing and try to imagine what their operation would be like if they priced their services that way.  They imagine it would be a disaster . . . and they would be right.  If you put our pricing on their business model, it would fail.  It has failed.  It will always fail.  And you don’t have to be Warren Buffett to figure it out:  If you’re not making any money doing things the way you’re doing them, you’re certainly not going to make more by cutting your revenue.

But, they see us continuing to survive, even thrive and there is a disconnect.  (‘How can those guys afford to stay in business?? There must be some secret!’ ) So they speculate on what that secret might be, and that’s where the spin doctoring  in the BrokerAgentSocial.com post comes from.  It’s stuff like:

  • We rely on the Internet to make our model work and rely less on brick and mortar offices.

That’s not entirely false.  We do exploit the power of the Internet as much as possible to generate leads into our offices.  We’d be foolish not to, wouldn’t we?  And, we’ve always been able to get by fine with smaller physical offices because our model allows a small number of people to do large numbers of transactions.  Don Taylor decided 35 years ago that he was in the business of selling real estate, not in the business of providing a palace for agent-princes to use for coffee time.  We have never needed 200 agents to generate a profit.  We do it with 5 or 6 people; so the 10,000 square foot, Taj Majal office is unnecessary.

  • We use loss-leader pricing on listings and use them to snare buyers to whom we sell full commission MLS listings.

Our seller offering is not a loss leader.  We set our fees based on what it will take to market a property and make a reasonable profit.  I know it was misguided, but 5 and 6 years ago, many Help-U-Sell Brokers made great piles of money just working listings with set fee pricing.  They didn’t even think about the buyer side.  Today we know very well the folly in ignoring the buyer and we aim for a 50/50 mix of buyer sides to seller sides.  What’s different is that the profitable low set fee offer to the seller makes inventory building easier; and a large inventory generates a strong flow of buyer inquiries into the office.  We teach our brokers to create buyer agent compensation on Help-U-Sell office listings that is equal to or greater than what the agent would be paid on an MLS listing so there is always an incentive for our agents to sell our listings first.

  • We use our pricing to get us face to face with a seller and then tack on fee after fee with our menu-of-services.

I guess they think we rent the for sale sign to the seller for $50 a month and flyers are $.25 apiece and helpusell.com costs an additional $2,000.   Really:  the only thing we ‘tack on’ is the other agent.  We make that outside agent an option.  And several years back, may sellers passed that option by because they believed — rightly so — that we could get the job done without it thus saving them a lot of money.  It still works today with a properly priced equity seller.  And, even when they take the option of offering the property for sale through MLS (and then being prepared to pay the outside agent and broker), they will only pay a fee based on how the property actually sells.  So the seller who takes the option at listing who then holds his own open house and thus finds his own buyer, will only pay the Help-U-Sell low set fee.  It’s like:  the breakfast buffet is $10.95, but if you just have fruit, cereal and yogurt and find you don’t need the eggs and bacon, it’s just $4.95.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?*

When they call us ‘Discounters’ they miss the point.  It’s not a discount.  It’s a completely different way to price our services to sellers.  By itself and plugged into the old, tired, agent-oriented business model that is the norm today, it is a disaster.  But that’s not what we do.  We back up the pricing model with a completely different operating system that makes it work beautifully.

When Charles Schwab revolutionized the securities business, he was chided as a discounter.  The old boys couldn’t imagine how they could operate (and pay their brokers) on $15 a trades.  Today the old boys are all pretty much gone, and compared to Schwab, ETrade looks like a discounter!

I keep wondering how long it takes a dinosaur to turn into an oil deposit.

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