Category: Marketing

2011 NAR Expo: Day 1

Good Morning!  The 2011 National Association of REALTORS Annual Convention and Expo kicked off yesterday afternoon and I am happy to report that the first day was a success for Help-U-Sell.  Our booth is HUGE and, thanks to Ron McCoy, very well located.  We have a big corner, just one set of exhibitors back from the main entrance, right next to the Wells Fargo booth (which always draws a big crowd with games and give-aways).

It was a success for several reasons:

  • First and foremost – the quantity and quality of people who stopped by to chat.  Really, we’ve done this show before and others, and this time people were bright, energized, and sincerely interested in who we are and what we’re doing.  It was a fairly constant stream of significant conversations.
  • We looked GOOOOOD!  Mary, Robbie, Kendra, Ron and I were joined in the booth by Dan Desmond, Kim Zelena, Leigh Ann Losh and Elias Klaeb, so we didn’t look lonely and forelorn! (nothing worse than a great big booth with one or two people in it).  Plus, Ron had gotten each of us a high quality white button down collar shirt with big embroidered logo over the pocket.  We looked sharp and cohesive.
  • A couple of former franchisees, people who dropped by the wayside in the turmoil of 2006, stopped by and were more than a little interested in . . . well, in doing what Help-U-Sell people who leave often do:  coming back.  One said something I’ve heard many times before: ‘The happiest days of my real estate career were the ones I spent as a Help-U-Sell Broker.’
  • We had conversations with people from Canada, the Philippines, and India (yes, India) about the possibility of our brand making it into their parts of the world.  That’s probably down the road a month or two (or ten), but it’s great to know there is interest and anticipation there.

We are building momentum to carry us into a growth phase.  Growing is not something we’ve put much energy into over the past few years.  Instead, our laser-focus has been on helping our people survive and thrive in the most difficult market any of us has ever seen.  So we’re starting from a full stop.  But the momentum is building.  Our Informational Webinars are pulling in a steady stream of interested attendees, our presence here and at the recent CAR Expo and upcoming Tripple-Play meeting are putting us on the mental map of REALTORS everywhere, and our full-page ad in the latest REALTOR Magazine is propelling us forward.  I expect 2012 to be a year a significant growth for Help-U-Sell.

We expect many more Help-U-Sell family members to be in attendance over the weekend, all wearing those cool white shirts and helping us spread the word about our excellent industry and consumer offerings.  If you are in Anaheim, please stop by and say ‘Hello.’

Kendra in the booth

 

‘Got It Goin’ On!’

The Set Fee Blog has been a little inactive lately. There are a couple of reasons: I disappeared for a couple of days and then our own Help-U-Sell Success Summit is less than a week away. There is so much to do to get ready for the meeting! I want it to be powerful, meaningful, energizing and absolutely worth the investment of days (and dollars) our guys will be making to attend.

The agenda has been driven by input we got through a couple of surveys, one formal one less formal. Brokers told us they wanted to know more about creative financing. With toughening of the credit markets — yes, I know: rates are wonderfully low, but underwriting standards are very high — we need to think about financing in less conventional ways. That might mean seller financing or private money financing or obscure, little known programs. To enlighten us, I’ve arranged for Patricia Boyd to spend the last part of the first day with us. She is an amazing resource and has been focused on educating REALTORS on matters of finance for 25+ years. A strong consumer advocate, Patricia is a perfect match for our group and I know her information will mean more closed transactions for everyone.

Tuesday’s guest is Nick Taylor from Zillow. While all of the aggregator real estate sites were jockying for position, Zillow quietly rose to the top of the pile and has become the home search platform of choice for consumers. Really: when America wants to look for a new home, she often starts at Zillow.com. I ask myself why? and how? Why did consumers come to choose Zillow and how did they go about engineering that amazing feat? Strangely, I think the answer is in that silly feature all of us REALTOR-types hate, the Z-estimate of value. All of the aggregators offer feature rich home search capabilities that are fairly similar. But early on, Zillow went out on a limb and started estimating the value of properties via algorithm, not pencil-and-paper market analysis. There were distinct limitations to the accuracy of those estimates, and we have had to do lots of clean-up with consumers who relied on that estimate to make decisions, but it did distinguish Zillow from the rest of the pack. Nick is going to talk with us about how we can use this third-party tool to generate leads and more. His career is based on online marketing and prior to Zillow he managed marketing for a large independent brokerage in the mid-west.

Wednesday morning, David Bartels of Home Loan Advocates will share ’12 Things Every Agent Should Know About Short Sales.’ David’s company has a remarkable track record in negotiating and closing short sale transactions and he attributes much of that success to their creative approach to deal structure. The session is designed to give anyone working short sales (ok: that means anyone seriously in real estate) new ideas about how to get these sometimes complicated transactions through.

And those are just the guests. We also have three Star Panels on the schedule. Jack Bailey will be facilitating a discussion with four of our top five Brokers. They’ll be talking about how they’ve managed to thrive in this tough market. There will be lots of good information about organization, focus and, of course, marketing. John Powell is leading a panel of Brokers each doing something incredibly right. We’ll hear from one who started from scratch and built a largely REO business, one who has short sales down so well that he’s processing them for other brokers, and two who started new businesses in the downturn and have quickly become successful. Finally, I’m leading a panel on Marketing for Visibility. I have a small group of brokers who have done an excellent job of keeping their name, logo, face, prominent in the marketplace.

Today I got a look at Robbie’s slides for his tech session and I’m wishing we’d allowed more time. He’s got so much good stuff to share and a couple of really nice ZINGER announcements! As I look back at the last few years, we seem to be trending six months to a year ahead of the rest of the industry when it comes to tech. We quietly get the cool stuff they start talking about months before they start talking. That’s our Robbie — and his session will be very cool.

Ron McCoy will share his vision and plans for Franchise Sales and will showcase lots of the cool stuff we’re doing in that arena. Hey, by the way: did you see our full-page ad in REALTOR Magazine? If not, here’s a copy:

My session will focus on the new reality (the one that most of the industry has yet to acknowledge) and how we can own it. Our theme is ‘Taking Charge of Change’ and that’s exactly what we’re going to continue to do as we move into 2012.

It’s that kind of VISIBILITY we’re going for now, and there is no better example of it than our presence at this week’s NAR Convention, where we will be in force with the biggest booth of any real estate company, with great new print and electronic marketing tools, a big logo-encrusted shuttle bus and a dozen or so enthusiastic Help-U-Sell Brokers running through the exhibit hall scaring the be-jabbers out of the competition! It’s going to be a great time!

BPO to REO Advice

Stephen Taber was on the Help-U-Sell Broker Roundtable call yesterday.  His is a remarkable story.   Working in Phoenix – which is one of the epicenters of the housing crisis – Stephen starting doing BPOs about 3 years ago.  Because BPOs were just about the only thing happening in the market at the time, they basically became his cash flow.  He routinely did upwards of 40 BPOs a week.  Seriously.  This year he is heading towards 100 closed sides, all of it from his REO listings.  So there is truth in the notion that doing good solid BPOs and doing them quickly is one way to break into the REO market.

Stephen is really bright and seems to have boundless energy, which certainly contributes to his success.  But he also shared a couple of tips that bear repeating:

  • If you want to do BPOs, get a Blackberry.  Because Blackberry has its own proprietary email system, messages – like the request from an asset manager for a BPO – come through quicker.  Stephen tested this and found that he got a message on his Blackberry about one minute earlier than on any other device.  You know, if you’re trying to compete for BPOs, this is essential because the request goes out to lots of people and whoever responds first usually gets the deal.
  • When you do a BPO, really dig for the value.  Lenders and asset managers aren’t looking for a price you can turn in 3 days.  They’re looking for a 90 day price.  Stephen cited conversations with asset managers who told him he got the REO because his BPO was the only one that matched the value they saw in the marketplace – everyone else was much lower.  That doesn’t mean to inflate your BPO, it means work for the best value you can substantiate.  Lenders are wanting to get as close to fair market value as possible and expect to get it after a reasonable marketing period has occurred.

Great information!  AND I have to tell you that more than a couple of good Help-U-Sell brokers who also broke into the REO business have told me they intend to back away from it a bit.  REOs come with a whole set of challenges and often involve a substantial financial investment on the part of the broker.  Some in more diverse marketplaces are moving more toward short sales and equity sellers for a less complicated transaction.  BUT if yours is an REO market and you want to get that business, you can still break in.  Like so many other brokers doing REOs, Stephen is now too busy to do many BPOs so there’s a chance you can build the kind of reputation for speed and accuracy he used to get started.

Get Your Guerilla On

We are Help-U-Sell.  We don’t play by the rules.  Ordinary brokers don’t get us (thank goodness!).  They think the reason they lose business to us is because we cost less . . . which is only the tip of the iceberg.  They lose business to us because we cost less and are a better choice for consumers.  Getting more business is not a sales challenge for us. Because our program is better, it’s an educational challenge.  Time and time again we learn that if we just get the word out into the marketplace that: 1) We are Here  2) People use us  3) It works, and  4) They save thousands, our business grows.

Still, we live in a hostile environment.  Our competitors outnumber us and sometimes we hear their internal dialogue more than we hear our own.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing what they say about us, about the industry, about how to go about being successful.  Symptoms of paying attention to the wrong voice(s) include:

  • Endless recruiting in hopes that adding agents will increase your bottom line
  • Paying high commission splits to agents
  • Advertising in print media
  • Not taking advantage of seller participation
  • Not managing incoming leads
  • Monkeying with the Set Fee
  • Spending money on marketing without tracking results

What do you think?  Does that ordinary broker bear-trap have you by the ankle?

Stop for a moment.  Remember:  You are not ordinary.  You are a Guerilla.  Let me remind you what that means:

1.  You understand that the first and probably most important rule of marketing is to be visible.  That means you will do almost anything to establish your brand in your marketplace.  You’ll do what Patrick Wood – who is one of our top producing brokers – does:  You’ll fill your pick-up truck with dozens and dozens of directional signs and you’ll put them out all over the marketplace on Friday afternoon, taking them down Sunday evening.  You’ll buy cheap, flimsey ‘Blitz’ signs that do little more than present your logo and tack/staple/tape them up all over your marketplace.  You’ll refresh them every 4 to 6 weeks.  You’ll wrap your vehicle and park it where it will be seen by the largest number of people.  You’ll sponsor a Little League team or a Fun Run, getting your logo on the shirts.  You’ll invest in billboards and bus benches.  You will wear Help-U-Sell logo apparel and/or a logo name badge everywhere you go. You will not be invisible!

2.  You will build a strong case for seller involvement when you take listings.  You will coach your sellers to show the property themselves and to hold their own open houses.  You will provide them with ample open house directional signs and help them select the best locations for them.  You will teach them how to get contact information on everyone who comes into their home and to transmit that contact information to you for followup.  You’ll do all this because a) their involvement boosts your visibility b) their involvement generates more buyer leads for you and c) their involvement gives them the best shot at saving the most money.

3.  Whatever you do for marketing will be a system.  That means you choose your marketing vehicles carefully and you track the leads each creates.  You are clear that you are not trying to sell a particular home with advertising, you are creating a flow of leads into the office that will benefit ALL of you listings.  Your marketing system does vary from time to time, but once it is established it stays pretty much the same, month in and month out.

4.  You are crazy enough to explore and exploit new media.  You do a little Facebook pay-per-click directed at homeowners in your marketplace.  You become a premium member of Zillow or Trulia.  You set aside 90 minutes a week to work on the continued refinement and optimization of your website.  You KNOW what tools your MLS has that you can use with consumers to make their home search process easier.  You use QR codes and include a virtual tour with every listing.

5.  Whenever you can, you get together with your fellow monkeys to share ideas, brainstorm, solve problems and learn.  Of course there are at least two opportunities for this every week.  On Tuesdays from 11am Pacific until noon, we have Tech Time, focused on exploiting the power of the Internet to build your brand and your business.  Wednesdays from 9am Pacific until 10am, we have the Broker Roundtable call which always features a gem or two of relevant new information and lively conversation about what’s happening, what’s working, what’s not and so on.

6.  YOU ATTEND THE UPCOMING HELP-U-SELL SUCCESS SUMMIT, Nov. 14-16 in Anaheim, CA.

One of the most powerful things about being Help-U-Sell (and if you are a broker or associate in a Help-U-Sell office, you are Help-U-Sell)  . . . one of the most powerful things is that we are different.  We don’t look, act, talk,or play the way the other barnyard animals do.  We swing from trees, we have fun, we scheme and plot, and we make things happen.  Unlike the cows, chickens and sheep scratching, chewing and pecking their way through yet another day, we are not waiting for everything to go back to normal.  We are inventing the new normal even as we speak!

(p.s. I really do know how to spell Gorilla)

 

 

 

Crazy Good Deal!

Landmark Signs has Help-U-Sell open house directional signs in their clearance area for $2.18 each in lots of 5!!!

These are 18″x24″ corrugated plastic signs without stands (stands are available).  Check it out by clicking HERE.

Pep Talk:  One of your Help-U-Sell advantages is that, through seller participation, you are able to have several open houses running at once, each signing in potential buyers whose contact information is shared with you at the end of the day.  Wow.  That’s just not done in ordinary real estate!  And the benefits don’t stop there:  if you have 5 sellers holding their own open houses this weekend and you’ve given each 5 directional signs, that’s 30* more signs in the marketplace, boosting your visibility into the stratosphere! But none of it happens if  you don’t have the stock of directionals and open house signs.  Don’t let this bargain pass you by.  Visit Landmark by clicking the link above.

*Special recognition to the one who figures out how I got to 30 signs.  Extra special recognition for the person who figures out how to get even more signs in the marketplace.

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