Great News to Start The Year!

Once again, The Franchise Business Review  has included Help-U-Sell Real Estate in its annual list of Franchisee Satisfaction Award winners.  It is our third straight year to make the list.  The list is created after surveys and interviews with current franchisees  and looks at franchisors in a variety of industries.  Making it onto the list means, basically, that our member franchisees are happy with their decision to affiliate, with the guidance and support they get and with the results they achieve.

We aren’t the only real estate franchise to make the list, but there were a few conspicuous absences.  Century 21 didn’t make it.  Neither did ERA or Re/Max.  Keller Williams didn’t make it, nor did Real Estate One.  A dozen of lesser known franchises also missed the mark.

I worked for the other guys in the distant past, always in franchise support, training and business consulting.  The pressure to sell franchises was so great that at times it seemed the only bulls-eye that mattered.  The emphasis on franchise sales (and the absence of anything truly different in the operating system) pushed salespeople into selling fluff, not stuff.  Franchisee dissatisfaction began shortly after Orientation as new franchisees realized that they’d bought very little.

We don’t have that problem at Help-U-Sell.  First, while franchise sales is important, it’s just one bulls-eye and in fact, is not even the most important one.  Secondly, we don’t have a big Franchise Sales department with an unlimited budget.  Most of our franchise sales originate with our existing franchisee base; our members bring in most of our prospects.*  And finally, what we have to sell is stuff:  real, tangible, results producing stuff.  It is different from what they other guys have, works differently, and works better.

A couple of posts ago, I invited curious outside brokers to pick up the phone and call a Help-U-Sell broker – any Help-U-Sell broker – to find out about us.  I made the invitation honestly because I know every broker in our system would wax poetic about the power of the brand, the operating system and the support.  It’s nice to have that belief validated by The Franchise Business Review.

*By the way, Help-U-Sell brokers:  you do know that you are rewarded when the franchise sales prospect you bring in becomes a franchisee, don’t you?  Ask Ron McCoy for details . . . maybe on next week’s Power Hour.

The Real Estate Tech Report You Need To Read

You know Stefan Swanepoel?  He is a real estate visionary and tech guru who for years has written extensively about real estate, trends and the impact of technology on the industry.   He was also a fan of Help-U-Sell during our last growth spurt and though he’s been rather silent about us since, I have no reason to believe his opinion has changed.

Among his various ventures is T3 Experts, which delivers powerful information about real estate tech via webinars and consulting.  T3 had just published a great guide to tech for real estate agents and brokers.  It goes into everything from what kind of phone you should buy, whcih laptop and tablet, contact management and lead follow-up  programs as well as strategies for maximizing your web presence.  It’s great information!

And here’s (non) catch:  it’s FREE.

Just trot on over to THIS LINK, provide your email address and download your copy.  I’m not kidding:  this is great stuff, and knowing Swanepoel, I am sure the other offerings from T3 Experts are also just as good.

Contract Free At Last!

I took off the handcuffs this year.  You know:  the ones Verizon, ATT and others supply to us consumers. Most of us have had them on so long we hardly know they are there at all.  In fact, these handcuffs seem more like cuff links to most of us.  Here’s how they work:

First, the wireless carrier markets the heck out of the latest feature rich smart phone, offering it to consumers at a bargain price.  To get the bargain price, however, the consumer must sign a two year agreement for service, otherwise the phone bears a retail price 3 to 4 times as much as the contract price.  We all figure, what the heck, we need service anyway, so let’s do it!

Four to six months before your two year contract is up, your carrier surprises you with update eligibility!  You can trade your now stale smart phone for a shiny new one that is even more feature rich!  And you can get a bargain priced deal on it too . . . if you re-up your agreement for another two years.  Because we love NEW and because our own self-esteem is somehow intrinsically tied to the firepower of the phone in our pocket, we gladly take the deal . . . and willingly keep the handcuffs on.

Let’s be logical:  let’s look at the numbers.  Right now, Verizon is offering the IPhone 5s for $199 with a two year agreement OR you can buy the phone without the agreement for $649.  So, in theory, they are subsidizing your phone purchase to the tune of $450.  However, you can bet Verizon doesn’t pay $649 for an IPhone.  My guess is their cost is somewhere near $400.  So in reality, your subsidy is probably closer to $200, spread out over a two year contract – less than $9 a month.  An unlimited talk-text plan with an ample data allotment with Verizon will come in at about $120 a month.  So for a $200 subsidy, Verizon gets a contract worth almost $3,000!  A pretty good deal (for Verizon).

My wrists were starting to chafe on the handcuffs I’d had on for, oh, a dozen years, when my upgrade date came up last year.  I had a really good smartphone (the HTC Rezound), and didn’t feel I was missing anything by not upgrading, so I didn’t.

Instead, I let my Verizon contract run its course and expire. Then I went to the Google Play Store and bought a Google Nexus 4 phone – which was on sale at the time – for about $250.  This is not a subsidized phone:  I own it outright.  And it is a great phone – far superior to the one I was using.

I then looked around for a carrier with an affordable plan for my new phone.  I settled on T-Mobile who has a $50 a month unlimited plan for people who own their phones.  I have seen no difference in the service, coverage, speed, etc and I’m saving $70 a month – almost $1,700 over the next two years.  And, because I am not under contract with T-Mobile, I am free to jump to any other carrier who may have a better plan at any time.

Most US phones are CDMA phones.  We don’t have to go into the technology here, What’s important is that CDMA phones pretty much only function in the US.  The rest of the world has embraced a different cellular technology:  GSM.  My Google Nexus 4 is a GSM phone.  So when I went to Mexico a few months ago, I simply walked into a Mexican TelCel store and bought a GSM card for my Google phone.  The cost was about $10.  Then I charged the card up with $25 worth of talk and data time and, bingo:  I had an affordable, functioning phone in Mexico.  When I crossed back into the states at San Ysidro, I simply took out the TelCel card and put my T-Mobile card back in – and only lost a minute or so of connectivity.  You can’t do that with your CDMA phone.

Yes, I am very pleased with my new handcuff free cellular existence!  And, one of the coolest things about this new world, is its purity.  When you take a subsidized phone from almost any carrier, it comes loaded up with the carriers own proprietary junk. These are apps and tweaks to the phone’s operating system that you cannot remove or disable without wiping it out and starting from scratch.

My phone is a pure Android phone.  It has the operating system on it, un-altered, as Mother Google intended.  It has no junk from Verizon or ATT or HTC or Samsung installed over the operating system.  And you know what?  It S C R E A M S:  it is lightning fast and responsive.  The difference is noticeable and remarkable.

As you near the end of your current cellular contract, I urge you look around.  Check out unlocked smartphones direct from the manufacturer.  Check out no-contract, pay-as-you-go plans, and make a smart choice.  I know you hardly notice those handcuffs anymore, but trust me:  they’re really not attractive on you.

Your Future in Real Estate

It’s time to get serious about your career in real estate.  The market is rebounding, homes are selling and it looks like we are in for another multi-year cycle of appreciation and normalcy in the marketplace.

Now is the time when great careers and great real estate businesses are made.  It is your moment, your time to shine, your best shot at major success . . . IF you are positioned to take advantage of the opportunity.  What does that mean?

If you are an agent working for an ordinary real estate company, be it franchised or independent, you are competing against thousands of other agents just like yourself, with the same tools, same information, same offering, and same pricing.  The only edge you could possibly have in that fishbowl – the only things that might set you apart from the pack – are your personality and your work ethic.  So, let’s assume you really apply yourself next year.  You work harder and smarter and you polish up that smile . . .  and you go from doing 18 deals to doing 25.  That’s very nice, but it’s hardly the stuff of real estate greatness.

This is not the time to increase your production by 30%.  It is the time to increase it by 300%.  And you won’t do it by doing the same things you did last year and the year before, only doing them harder.  It’s time to look for a better way to do the real estate business.

If you are a broker, get ready.  You have been able to rein back outrageous commission splits a little in the past few down years.  But with the market heating up, even your most mediocre agents will be looking for more, and you know if you don’t give it to them, the office down the street will.  You can expect your turnover to move higher in the months to come which means, if you are going to maintain current levels of production, you’re going to have to kick up your recruiting game.

I gotta tell ya:  I don’t envy you at all.  The success of your business is dependent on your ability to get people to come to work for you and then, to get them to stick around; and your only real tool for accomplishing either of those objectives is split.  And what the heck does any of that have to do with helping buyers buy and sellers sell real estate?

Clearly, it is time for a new game, a new model, a new way to do this business.  A way that results in incredibly satisfied clients, busy agents with healthy bank accounts and brokers who are functioning as successful entrepreneurs, not mere support for their sales staffs.

And you know what the way is:  It is Help-U-Sell.  Here’s why:

As a Help-U-Sell broker you will go into the marketplace with a consumer offer that is not only fundamentally different than that of your competitors, but also superior to theirs from a consumer point of view.  You’ll accomplish the same results the pack of ordinary agents and brokers will but you will save people thousands over what they’d pay anyone else!  It is an offer that is so compelling that, once word is out in the marketplace, potential sellers usually want to at least talk with you before making a listing decision.  And we find we get that listing about 90% of the time.

It is a focus on marketing and marketplace intelligence that more closely resembles what Home Depot does than what ABC Realty does. And because Help-U-Sell marketing is systematic and focused, it produces a steady stream of buyer and seller leads into the office.  These are leads the office has created, leads the office owns, leads the office will assign and track.

It is agents who want to come to work for you because you have the one thing nobody else can give them:  leads.  It’s agents who have had a close brush with burn out from the gigantic job description they tried to manage at an ordinary real estate company.  They will see the streamlined, focused job you have for them as an opportunity to do more, make more and have more fun doing it.

It is a smaller, tightly knit office team that is outperforming companies with 10 or 12 times the agents.  It is an team with one goal – yours, with one direction – yours, one purpose – profitability.  It is very different from an ordinary office where the broker begs people to come to work, begs people to stay, begs people to attend sales meeting, begs people to do the prospecting they promised to do and so on.  Aren’t you getting tired of all that begging?

And finally, it is a bottom line that is beyond healthy, that is growing and expanding every month.  This is the great truth ordinary real estate brokers and agents have the most difficulty understanding about Help-U-Sell:

Even though we charge consumers thousands less, we deliver more dollars to the bottom line per transaction than our ordinary competitors who charge much more!

I know you don’t believe me, but go ahead:  call a Help-U-Sell broker – any Help-U-Sell broker – and ask them to explain it to you.  I’m sure you will be surprised at what you hear.

The Help-U-Sell ship is sailing, and it’s going to do more than it did between 1998 and 2006 (the rough dates of the last up cycle in real estate).  And if you are serious about your success, it is time to fly a new flag on your own ship, to find a new and better way to do the real estate business.  For goodness sake!  Do it in a way that is different from what everyone else is doing and that is better for consumers and for you bottom line.  Do it with Help-U-Sell!

*Unlike other franchises who will give you a list of their 12 happiest franchisees to call, I have no problem telling you to talk with any Help-U-Sell franchisee.  We are a multi-year winner of the Franchise Business Review’s franchisee satisfaction survey.  Year after year, our brokers affirm their delight with the business model and the power of the team.  So go ahead:  pick a Help-U-Sell broker – any Help-U-Sell broker – and let them tell you why joining this team is a very smart move.

 

The Secret to Help-U-Sell Success

The secret to how Help-U-Sell works isn’t a secret at all.  We’ve never tried to hide it.  Though it is very simple, it is so different from the way ordinary real estate works that our competitors dismiss it and assume we’re not telling the whole truth; so we continue to hide in plain sight.  Here’s the easiest description of how Help-U-Sell works I can create – it’s just four steps:

  1. Help-U-Sell begins with a superior offer to home sellers.   We go into the market offering a service very similar to what ordinary brokers offer, but we charge a logical set fee (rather than a percentage commission), which can save the seller thousands.
  2. The superior offer enables the Help-U-Sell broker to take more than his or her share of listings in the target market.
  3. More listings means more signs and better marketing, and  ultimately, the large listing inventory generates a strong flow of Buyer (and Seller) inquiries into the office.
  4. We capture those inquiries and turn them over to Buyer Agents who are carefully groomed and trained (via Science to Sales) to convert them into sales.  As listings increase, as the flow of leads increases, as we add Buyer Agents to handle the flow, production snowballs.

That’s it.

The mechanics are easy.  What’s more difficult – especially when dealing with people who have grown up in the ordinary real estate universe – are the attitudes required to make it all work.  There are four critical areas that underpin successful implementation of the Help-U-Sell system.  These are essential areas of focus on which the whole program depends.  If these elements are faulty, Help-U-Sell will not perform to its potential.  They are:

  1. Broker Control.  The Broker is the business, and the business is the Broker’s.  The Broker is in the business of selling real estate.  This contrasts with ordinary brokers who, by and large, are in the recruiting business. The ordinary Broker recruits to expand his business; every agent added increases the Broker’s reach (well . . . in theory, anyway).  Help-U-Sell Brokers rely on their marketing and office systems to expand their business.  Agents come in to help the Broker handle the large amount of business the office is generating.
  2. Systematic Marketing.  Because the broker is in control, he or she creates and manages a marketing plan for the Help-U-Sell office and for all the office listings.  The marketing plan is constantly fine tuned and eventually becomes a relatively stable, almost fixed expense.  When we take a listing, we don’t create a whole unique marketing plan for that one listing — that’s what ordinary real estate agents do and the result is thousands of agents running around willy-nilly with almost no marketing coordination.  We take the new listing and simply plug it into our existing office marketing program which produces results for all of our listings.
  3. The Buyer Inquiry.  This is the single most important moment in a Help-U-Sell office.  It is the place where we take the power of our superior offer and our marketing and convert it into leads, prospects, clients and sales.  That’s why we work so hard to make sure our people are handling the inquiry – whether from phone or Internet – effectively.  Really:  if you want to improve your production and your bottom line, I know of no better way than to improve the way inquiries are handled in your office.
  4. Buyer Agent Job Description.  Help-U-Sell Buyer agents focus on one single but very important aspect of the business:  they convert Buyer leads generated by the office into closed transactions.  They don’t prospect for listings, don’t call FSBOS, don’t go on listing appointments or orchestrate marketing.  It’s an easily managed job description that enables the agent to do many more transactions than he or she could at an ordinary office.

As I read this I am struck by how much of it deals with Buyers and Buyer Agents and Brokers hiring Buyer Agents.  The Listing and the Seller side of the transaction are mentioned only a couple of times.  But we are Help-U-Sell. Doesn’t that indicate that this description is a little twisted?  Not at all.  At Help-U-Sell, the listing side of the business is pretty simple.  It’s easier to take listings when you have a superior offer and our systematic approach to marketing gets listings sold.  It’s the buyer side that requires the greatest shift in attitude by the largest group of people.

I am reminded of my first ever meeting with our founder,  Don Taylor.  He smiled as only Don Taylor can smile and said, ‘People forget, but Help-U-Sell was always about the buyer.’

Let’s try to remember that.

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