Did You Notice? You Have a New Image!

Dang, I love this company.  We’ve just had a complete overhaul of our image, it was painless and powerful . . . and it happened so smoothly you might not have noticed!

I say ‘just’ had an overhaul but what I mean is:  it’s been going on for over a  year and we’re finally at the point where I can look around and see there is a whole new look for Help-U-Sell.

It started with a redesign of the Website last year.  We saw red fading to black and something new:  a ‘swoosh’ at the bottom.  We liked the look enough that we started to emulate it in other places as well.  Now we’re cranking up for NAR, CAR, and Tri-State Conventions and a round of Franchise Seminars and are ordering booths and banners that reflect this new look.  Today, Robbie passed on the final version of a couple of large banners we’ll be using at some of the trade shows and I had to sit back and marvel at how sharp the look is.  It is light years ahead of where we were just a couple of years ago.  Check it out:

This kind of change is a big deal.  I was at Century 21 when that brand began monkeying with the Gold Coat.  It was a multi-year debate full of wrangling and strong opinions.  Finally, the company opted for a more camel colored jacket . . . and that was the death of one of the best bits of branding they ever did.  Within months, the jacket was declared a ‘ceremonial garment,’ suitable for wear at conventions and other company meetings but never out in public!  What’s up with that??

Here, we have a whole new look, one that communicates a strong and current message about who we are, and it happened easily and comfortably.  Oh, to be lean and mean and able to move quickly is a wonderful thing!

Hey, as long as we’re emulating, how about we all emulate Robin Rowland and wear a little Help-U-Sell red every day?

(And, gulp, I realize it’s probably time for a redesign of the Set Fee Blog, too . . . )

A Little Good News

Fiserv, the company that operates and distributes results from the Case-Schiller Index is out with some welcome predictions.  The Index tracks trends in the sale of existing single family homes and uses historical data and a variety of other factors to predict everything from prices to volume.  The good news is:

They expect nationwide prices to stabilize in 2012 and rise 2.7% by the first quarter of 2013. Gains are expected in 365 out of 384 metro markets by 2013.

Now there’s a breath of fresh air.

Four markets they expect to see the greatest increase in value over that period are:

Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL: Prices to rise 18.3% by the 1st Q of 2013.

Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.: Prices to rise 10.2%.

Tucson, Ariz.: Prices to rise 10.2%.

Memphis, Tenn.: Prices to rise 10%.

I can’t help but focus in on Tucson, which is arguably the ‘epicenter’ of the housing crisis (the argument would probably come from Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southwest Florida).  Our Help-U-Sell Brokers in the Tucson area have done a very good job of weathering the storm.  Jimmie and Beverly Sonnier have continued to list, sell and maintain a good level of production and a wonderfully Cajun positive attitude.  John and Maria Powells’ business, which they opened in the middle of this mess (2008), has absolutely exploded.  Every time I talk to them they are trying to find another assistant or another buyer agent.  So I’m very proud of our folks in Tucson and am excited to see good opportunity there. (And, oh, by the way:  our other ‘epicenter’ brokers in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southwest Florida have also done a stellar job.  I am a little in awe of what they’ve accomplished).

That’s the thing about this tough real estate market:  it’s full of opportunity.  I understand you can buy a duplex in Tucson for less than $100,000.  Think about that!  Getting financing might be a challenge – that’s why so many investor sales are all cash today – but if you did secure a mortgage you’d have a positive cash flow right from day one PLUS the good possibility of an excellent increase in value.

Fortunately, it seems the public has started to recognize the opportunity.  With interest rates ratcheting down once again, to levels below 4%, there seems to be an uptick in activity in many markets.  A lot of ‘on-the-fence’ buyers have hopped off and are ready to make a move.  So, you survivors out there:  take a breath, give yourself a hug, a little pat on the back, get that smile adjusted and get busy.  And I’d say, focus on Listings.  They will attract that good emerging opportunity and those good emerging opportunists to you!

Did you feel that? It was a Paradigm Shift!

One thing that ordinary real estate brokers doubt about Help-U-Sell is our claim that we Charge Less but Make More. Their disbelief is understandable. Usually they are charging thousands more for the same service we offer and having a very difficult time turning the smallest profit. So they think, “If I’m not making it charging 5% or 6% or even 7%, how are they making it on a much lower Set Fee?”

The problem with that kind of thinking is the Paradigm surrounding it. The ordinary broker looks around and sees office after office doing essentially the same thing, broker after broker trapped in a recruiting treadmill that is supposed to pay off someday, agents coming and going and demanding ever increasing splits . . . and concludes that’s just the way things are in the real estate business . . . for everybody (us included).

Well, it’s not. Our reality is very different. Our Paradigm is built on almost 40 years of success in the field with a business model that is remarkably and proudly different than the status quo. It’s a model that strips a lot of the fluff and nonsense out of the real estate business and gets down to the brass tacks of: what does it take to market a property? And, what should that cost?

Let’s start with the Listing. Ordinary real estate would have you believe that the fine art of selling a home requires the careful handling of a near super-hero, a professional who routinely works miracles with the wave of his or her mysterious, magic real estate wand. That may have been partly true in the 50s and 60s when most Americans were pretty naive when it came to home buying and selling and we didn’t have the wonderful marketing tools that are readily available today. But today, it’s pretty simple. Here’s the formula:

  • Price the home competitively
  • Get it up on the Internet, syndicating out to as many aggregator sites as possible (especially Zillow and Trulia)
  • Put a sign in the yard with a QR code so SmartPhone enabled buyers can get the information
  • Do a Virtual Tour and include lots of pictures in all marketing
  • Price the home competitively
  • Put the listing in the MLS if and when you believe the extra local exposure is necessary*
  • Mail or hand deliver Just Listed information to as many neighbors as possible
  • Instruct the Sellers on how to effectively hold an Open House and provide them with enough directional signs to lead guests to the property.
  • Price the home competitively
  • Distribute information about the home to your Centers of Influence and anyone in your Buyer Pool for whom the property might work
  • And so on (yes, there is more you could do . . . but really: this will do the job for most properly priced homes in any marketplace.)

Getting this job done does not require a magician, a super-human agent, or anything of the kind. It requires a well-organized person who knows the local market and has a predictable and repeatable system for processing all listings the office takes.

At Help-U-Sell, you’re not paying to have a super-star agent’s name sitting on top of your for sale sign. You’re paying for a proven marketing system and a team of professionals to do a complicated job for you. We believe that all listings belong to the office, not to an individual agent and it is the office’s marketing system that will bring a buyer, not the personality of an agent.

So the seller pays a Low Set Fee that is sufficient to cover the cost of carrying and marketing the listing until sold plus a reasonable profit for the office. When the sale closes and the Fee comes into the office, we don’t lop off the lions share to give to the ‘Listing Agent.’ The ‘Listing Agent’ was the office and the full fee goes into the company coffers. It’s one of the reasons we are able to charge less but make more. Take a look at the numbers:

Assume a $250,000 house. The ordinary agent working in an ordinary office charges, say . . . 6%. The Help-U-Sell Broker has a Set Fee of, say . . . $3,950.

Ordinary Office:

  • Commission Earned on the Listing Side: $7,500
  • Less 70% Commission Split to the Agent: $5,250
  • What’s left to run the business and make a profit: $2,250

Help-U-Sell Office:

  • Set Fee Earned on the Listing: $3,950
  • Less Agent’s Commission: $0
  • What’s left to run the business and make a profit: $3,950

The Help-U-Sell office, in addition to having a delighted Seller, has $1,700 more to apply to expenses and the bottom line. It’s one of the reasons our brokers are able to out-market their ordinary competitors: they have more funds available!

Now let’s take that delighted Seller and multiply by, say 300. Can you imagine how quickly business would fly through your door if you had 300 former clients in the local marketplace singing your praises every time they had a chance? Add to that the fact that your offer to home Sellers is far superior to anything else anyone is doing and Listings get easier and easier to take. And you know what all those listings produce, don’t you? Yes: Buyers.

And this is where Agents enter into the equation in a Help-U-Sell office. We hire agents to handle the Buyers our listings generate.

Once again, we have to make a Paradigm shift when we start talking about hiring agents. The ordinary broker believes that the only way to expand the business is to add more and more agents. The ordinary broker has been taught that Recruiting (with a capital R) is his or her single most important function. The ordinary broker’s mantra is something like: Always Be Recruiting, Recruiting is the Lifeblood of the Office, Recruit the World! Recruit! Recruit! Recruit!

At Help-U-Sell, we don’t Recruit. We Hire agents when the flow of Buyer business is so strong that we cannot handle it with our current staff. We Hire agents to help handle the business the Office has created. It’s a great job, too, because we don’t ask our agents to list, to call FSBOS, to door knock, to do any of the things agents generally hate to do. We ask them to take the Buyer leads the office has created and do a decent job of converting them into sales. And because we have taken responsibility for expanding the business off their shoulders, we are able to pay them a reasonable commission split.

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of push-back as dozens of real estate agents read that last sentence. It’s that ‘reasonable commission split’ part that gets them. But hang on just a moment. Average per agent production today is in the 6 closed sides a year range. Yet average commission splits are in the 70% range. I think everyone would agree: if you’re doing just 6 sides a year, you’re failing. So what good is that 70% split? It’s not enough to boost your income above poverty level, is it?

How many more Buyer side transactions could you produce in a year if you never had to generate a lead, take a listing, fight for a price reduction, pay for marketing, wait for the phone to ring, and so on? And how many more could you do if every time you put one under contract, you were handed another? You see, the ordinary broker has little to offer an agent other than a lofty commission split. At Help-U-Sell we offer you leads. We also offer you training, coaching and accountability.

I was an ordinary broker years ago. I was a good one too. But at times I just felt like a beggar. I spent my days begging people to come to work for me and begging the ones I already had not to leave. My program was exactly like everyone else’s so all I could do was beg and wave around a big commission split. The agents I hired went out into the field and begged people to list with us. Again, our program was exactly like everyone else’s so all they could do was beg and hope their personality would win the day.

At Help-U-Sell we don’t beg. Our Seller offer is so good that sellers reach for it, without the begging. Our systematic marketing is so effective that we have a flow of buyers coming into the office. We hire agents to help take care of that business, without the begging. It’s a real business with no smoke, no mirrors and no magicians.

*MLS is a wonderful tool, but it is expensive.  Selling through MLS usually means having to pay not one company but two.  So when you elect to go into the MLS, you have to be prepared to pay that other company, that outside agent.  Sometimes market conditions are such that MLS is essential.  But sometimes it is not, especially if the home is priced competitively.  Where most ordinary brokers insist every listing must go into MLS (and every seller must pay enough commission to cover the added expense), at Help-U-Sell MLS is an Option.  You’ll discuss this with your Broker and make a decision.

20% Off Visibility!

The hardest thing about keeping a blog is . . . keeping a blog.  I’m sorry I’ve been absent for awhile:  distractions, you know.  But I saw something today I wanted to pass on.

But, before I do . . .

On yesterday’s RoundTable call, we were talking about marketing and who’s doing what right now.  We quickly zeroed in on Richard Cricchio from Help-U-Sell Honolulu.  Richard is a great old (he’s actually chronologically young; when I say ‘old’ I mean long in the Company) Help-U-Sell Broker and former Regional Director who’s always done a great job of building and exploiting the brand in Oahu.  Right now, Richard is doing 7500 ‘In The Neighborhood’ Magazines via 1 to 1 Online every month.  The magazines are in racks in area grocery and drug stores.  He’s also doing a flight of short television spots*, a weekly half-hour call-in radio show, arounds and various other things.  It comes to about $4,000 a month in marketing – not much by 2005 standards but hefty for 2011.  What struck me is this: everything he is doing is designed to boost his Visibility.

Remember the three objectives of marketing:  Visibility, Lead Generation and Client Base Development.  There is a reason Visibility is the first item in that list.  It is the foundation, the bedrock of any marketing plan.

In this tight and difficult market, Richard has focused his Marketing on making sure people know he’s here, he’s different, people use his service, it works, and they save money.  That’s very smart.

So, imagine my delight today when I opened up my email and saw a message from Realty Sign Express saying that EVERYTHING is on sale for 20% off!  If Visibility is your goal, it all begins with signs:  For Sale signs, Open House signs, Directional signs, BLITZ signs and on and on.  Here’s a chance to beef up your supplies and save a little too.  Here’s a link to their website:

Realty Sign Express

Select Help-U-Sell from the Company Store menu.

*I’ve shared Richard’s TV commercials before but they are so good, I’ll do it again:


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.

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