After the first ever DECLINE since the 50’s in Florida’s population in 2008-2009, we’re showing an increase again!!! (Except in MY county… That means more people will need to buy or rent houses! To see the full story, Click Here.

American’s Economic Confidence is Up… we’re still low, but it went up a few ticks when analysts expected a decline… Incresed consumer confidence = people spend money = people buy houses! Read the full story HERE

Florida’s economic confidence is up 1 point but has stayed fairly stable. Here’s the Story!

Pending Homesales rose 5.2% in July! For the story, Click Here

These are all stories and facts that you might want to share with your clients… please understand I am NOT saying our troubles are over… but at least you can show a little bright side of the market to your clients!

Enjoy!
Andy

One of the things she shared right at the end was her “DREAM Principle” which is an easy to follow 5-step process for business success… and even though she was talking about authors, my mind kept applying them to my real estate business, so I figured I’d share them with you today.

DREAM is an acronym which stands for:

Define your business. Develop your core business because it’s the foundation of your success. What can you help your clients with. If you try to be everything to everyone you’ll end up with nothing.

Recognize your strengths - establish a competitive advantage based on your unique skill (why should they pick you instead of agent B?)

Evaluate your opportunities - don’t take every gig you get offered, make sure it lines up with your goals (this is a lesson I’ve RE-learned lately… if you don’t get a great feeling from a potential client… don’t work with them! We have choices and don’t have to work with everyone that walks through the door!)

Assess your feedback. And remember that feedback does NOT EQUAL criticism… it’s a business building tool. If a client has complained about something… don’t get defensive immediately… slow down and look and see if there is some truth in what they’re saying and see if you need to remodel your office policies & practices to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Manage your reputation/brand - it strengthens your brand and unlocks your full business potential (her example was an author who researched an organization thoroughly before agreeing to take them on as a sponsor)

I hope this hits you like it did me… I’ve been so busy working IN my business that I’ve not taken the time I should to work ON it… time to refocus!

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The way I found out about it was when I received a call from the Orlando CBS affiliate, Channel 6 News asking if they could interview me about the new site… www.KnowYourOptions.com
So while he was asking me questions about the ramifications of a foreclosure on your life (credit, jugdments, etc.) I pulled the site up quickly to take a peek! It’s actually a pretty good site!

A lot of the information they are sharing is similar to the info I put on MY info site, www.BeforeYouShortSale.com which is for Orlando Short Sale Homeowners info.

They cover the options for when you want to keep your home, including something they call “Deed-for-Lease” which is where you deed your home to the lender (called a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or dil) and then they will rent it back to you for a specific period of time for current market rent value. The other options when you want to stay in your home are: refinance, repayment plan, forebearance, and modification and on the site they explain what each of these are and the benefits. But remember… if you want to stay in the home you will need to be able to qualify for the payment, so if you are without income you will most likely not qualify to keep your home.

They also cover the options for when you can’t or don’t want to keep your home. These include Deed-in-Lieu and Short Sale and cover the what’s, how’s, and benefits of these options for your family.

Within an hour of my “phone interview”, the reporter from Channel 6 was here in my office with his camera guy to do an interview and find out more about what options a homeowner has in Orlando if they are facing a challenge with their mortgage or facing short sale or pre-foreclosure. The spot will run tonight on Channel 6 between 6-7pm and I’m figuring will be re-run on their website www.clickorlando.com

If you are a homeowner facing trouble with your mortgage, check out the site: www.KnowYourOptions.com it has some really good information that might make your decision easier. And if you are in Seminole County or the Orlando area… give me a call!

If you are an agent, check out the site and consider using it as a tool to share with your clients. It will answer most of their questions and the info is coming from a 3rd party credible site.

See you next week!

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1. Look at your closed transactions so far this year: How many? Average transaction size? Average gross commission? How many buyers vs. sellers vs. both? How many short sales vs. REO’s vs. “regular”? This will give you an idea of what “niche” you’ve been working whether you realize it or not!

2. Look at your marketing: How often did you send out a mail piece? What were the results? Did you send a newsletter? Where did most of your closed transactions come from? Did you Blog? If you see a trend for where your business is coming from, step it up! Do More! It obviously worked!

3. Look at your personal self: How many hours did you work? Did you eat right? Did you excercise? Did you take a vacation (even a weekend?)? Did you partake in your favorite hobbies? It’s important to balance work and home!

I just did this exercise myself and it was kind of shocking! So far year to date I already have 1 more closing than ALL of last year!!! Yayyy!!! Except the Gross Commission Income is almost exactly HALF of last years! Booo!!! So I can honestly say I’m working twice as hard for half the pay!

Why is that? Because my average transaction size is so much smaller. Those $20,000 condos really take your average down! (but take the same amount of work!)

Based on this information, I’m going to tweak my marketing for the next 6 months. And that’s what we’re going to talk about next week… what to do with this info and make positive profitable changes for the rest of the year!

See you next week!

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This deal was kind of funny. When the buyer’s agent submitted the offer, they included a very weak pre-qualification letter. When I called the loan officer who’s name and number was at the bottom to ask for some clarification, they had disappeared! POOF! Gone. (Imagine that!)

I told the buyer’s agent and she said “Oh My!” So today I get a different preapproval letter from a different company and broker. This is what prompted our lesson for today. So first, go take a look at the letter HERE. (it is in .pdf format and you can print it or just look on the screen. I have blacked out the client’s and company name and cut off their logo header and their signature at the bottom. Nothing else has been changed)

Got it? Ok, here we go:

Right in the first paragraph is says: 1) he has been pre-approved then 2) this loan pre-qualification and 3) This is not a loan approval. So which is it? Is he approved or not? Then it goes on to say that “Loan approval is subject to completion of a mortgage application… WHAT!?!?! I read that to say he hasn’t even made loan application yet! I’m sure that’s not the case, but I’ve got to give this letter to the lender I’m trying to negotiate the short sale with…and that’s how THEY’RE going to interpret it!

Let me suggest what you SHOULD be seeing in a pre-approval letter. I look for things like:

“Mr. Smith has made loan application with our company and we have received a preliminary approval from automated underwriting. This approval is subject to verifications and full underwriter approval and is subject to change” or something loosely resembling that. It will also usually list things like: satisfactory appraisal, title, seller contribution of X%, etc.

Here’s the real scoop: A good loan officer can take a full 1003 loan application (pronounced “ten-oh-three”) in 5-10 minutes. It then takes all of about 5-10 minutes OR LESS to run it through automated underwriting system. So from first contact, a good loan officer can have a REAL approval letter to you in 10-20 minutes. There. Now you know the truth. This includes FHA and VA loans.

The other thing that I didn’t like in this letter was the 4th bullet point: “LTV 97% financing and buyer will need 3% in down payment assistance from seller”. Two things jump out at me.

1. As of 1/1/09, FHA loans are now 3.5% down, so the LTV would be 96.5%, UNLESS the case number was assigned prior to 12/31/08, which if it was already assigned, I would probably have received an APPROVAL not a pre-qual.

2. There has been no such thing as “down payment assistance from the seller” since October first of last year when programs such as Nehemiah and Ameridream were squashed by FHA guideline changes. Did they really mean to say 3% closing cost assistance? Don’t know, but again, I have to provide this letter to my negotiator, so it must be very clear that the buyers are qualified or my short sale will get de-railed.

These things SCREAM inexperience to me. I wrote a few months ago about the importance of having an experienced FHA lender doing your deals, and this is just further proof. A broker with 10 years experience costs your borrower about the same as someone with 10 hours experience, so please be careful who you’re referring your buyers to.

Hope you enjoyed today’s lesson!

Andy

P.S. I answered Tim’s mortgage line yesterday while he was out at an appointment and it was one of the agents that gets this newsletter every week calling to see if anyone would even answer the phone! It seems she had given out 3 mortgage broker names to clients over the weekend and 2 of them were out of business! Can you imagine if they went out of business mid-stream in one of your deals? Wow! So the answer is YES, Tim is still in business and (usually) answers his phone!

UPDATE:

There are several reasons why as a BUYER’s agent you want a strong pre-approval:

you know that you are dealing with a qualified buyer (not wasting time)
you know that you are showing them homes in the right price range
you will structure your deals properly for the financing approved for (ex: get an FHA/VA addendum, ask for closing costs or other contributions, etc.)
you’re not taking an absolute stranger into a vacant home and risking your life (car dealers ask for a drivers license before you can test drive a car but most agents will meet a stranger at a vacant house based on a 2 minute phone call! amazing!)
your offer will be taken more seriously
you’ll be able to put offers in quicker and even nights and weekends without having to get a mortgage person on the phone

As a LISTING agent, you won’t be pulling your seller’s house off the market for someone that can’t really buy it!

Happy Selling!
Andy

I think some of the “Positive Thinking” and “law of attraction” ideas have been taken a little too far. Don’t get me wrong… I completely understand AND implement the concepts, but IT DOESN’T WORK if you’re sitting on the sofa watching TV at the time!

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” Seneca

Some people have said that I’m “just lucky”. I don’t agree with that statement. My “luck” would not exist if I didn’t spend so much time at networking groups, learning new skills, and implementing new ideas in my business. I attribute my success in this crazy market to several things: good marketing, good thinking, and yes, a dose of good luck.

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have” Thomas Jefferson

I know many agents are struggling right now and many more have left the business. But for those of you that are left, it’s your DUTY to your clients to be the best you can be and to serve them well. You can’t do that if you’re worried and stressed and full of “Stinkin Thinkin”. If you think everything’s going to go wrong in a transaction…guess what? It will!!! Then when something does pop up on a deal you are going to make it a bigger problem than it really is.

I think that’s one of the strengths in myself, my husband, Tim (the mortgage guy) and my brokerage partner, Jeff. When one of our agents comes to us with a problem on a deal-we just find a way to solve it! Every deal is closeable-it’s sometimes just a matter of looking at it 3 different ways before you see the solution-but you’ll only see it if your eyes are open and looking for it!

“PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish” John Quincy Adams

SO YES I want you to think positive. But I also want you to ACT positive! Surround yourself with people that are doing and thinking good things-and you’ll find yourself doing great!

One last thought…

“Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison

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This phenomenon can also allow a shy person to be outgoing, a scared person to face their fears or an aggressive person to tone down when talking to a client. It’s really a lot like acting. Actors have to step into their roles each time and make us believe the character - even though it might be 180 degrees different then the last role we saw them in.

W.W.B.A.D? What would “Bad Andy” do?

Any time I’m facing a challenge on a deal or with a client I take a deep breath and think about the situation and how it might be handled. I once heard a trainer say that if you’re in a situation that you don’t know what to do about, ask yourself “If I DID know what to do…what would it be?” Sometimes just asking the question a different way will show you the answer!

One way I’ve been using theses techniques lately is in my new role as partner at my brokerage firm. I’m being faced with lots of new tasks and challenges that I’ve never had before, such as now being involved in the property management side of the business and the hiring of new agents. Anytime I go into a new situation I just ask myself; “what would an experienced property manager do in this situation?” and usually the answer becomes clear.

Try this technique the next time you’re in a pickle and let me know if it helps!

P.S. “Bad Andy” will take you on at Wii anytime…but “Andy” will beat you at Trivial Pursuit!

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Here’s what I like about this: meetings suck! Everyone hates coming to meetings. But they’re also important! We all need to know which properties are gone, what’s new, rent price changes, legal updates, etc. I want our meetings to be a HELP to our business bottom line, not a distraction from what you should be doing!

I foresee that this change will do several things:

They’ll get to the meetings on time because they know they’ll be short
They’ll be prepared with the updates they need to give because they know they’ll only have a short time
They’ll advise us in advance of any major thing they need to go over in case they need more time
They’ll LOVE the meetings because they know they’ll get in and out quickly and get the info they need to go make money

How can you use that in YOUR business or day to day life? I can see a few ways…

How about that customer/friend/co-worker that tends to turn what should be a 2 minute call into a 30 minute blah-blah-blah and on and on… (go ahead, laugh, I know you’ve got one or two of those people in your life!). The next time they call you can START the conversation with “I’m glad you called, but I’ve got a (conference call, client meeting, webinar, etc.) that starts in 5 minutes so we’ll have to make it a quick conversation”. This sets the rules for the call right up front so if they DO talk on and on it won’t appear rude when you say “oh, it’s 2 minutes until my webinar and I’ve still got to log in!”

When I meet with clients they will often say “how long will it take to do the papers?” and my answer is “that depends on you and how many questions you ask and if you want to chit chat or just get down to business! I’ve got some clients that have bought lots of houses before and they don’t want me to go through every single document, those take about 15 minutes, other clients want me to read every single line to them and that can take an hour or more… how long should we allow for your appointment because I’m OK either way?” Their answer will give you a good idea of what type of client you’re dealing with.

Lastly, If YOU run a meeting… ANY kind of meeting at all, respect the start and end time. In my women’s networking group that meets once a month, everyone gets 30 seconds to stand up and do their “info-mercial” and we have a timer that beeps at 30 seconds, but many of the ladies were ignoring it and would continue talking even after it beeped. If you say something during or after the presentations, then it looks like you’re pointing a finger at someone in particular and may create hard feelings. I’ve started now telling them the “rules” of the 30 seconds BEFORE anyone takes their turn and it goes something like this: “Please keep your introduction to 30 seconds… each lady will get the same amount of time. Just to let you know up front… if you keep talking after the beeper goes off, nobody even hears what you say because they now are just wondering if you didn’t HEAR the beep or if you are just that disrespectful of their time” It’s amazing how EVERY SINGLE intro stays under the 30 seconds when we do it that way! And nobody is embarrassed because you didn’t mention it AFTER they took too long! (yes, it’s very firm, but when you RUN a meeting, you are expected to keep the meeting on track. That’s your JOB!)

Next week I’m going to implement the time clock in both my Sales Meeting AND my career night presentation! Can’t wait! It’s going to free me up so much more time to be productive! (or just some more ME time to work out, grab some sushi with friends, or maybe play some Wii!)

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Well, I agree 110%. But I practice only about 50%. I know that is the weakest part of my business and I am working on improving that part. We get busy and all of a sudden that post-it note on our desk is 2 weeks old and we wonder whether it’s too late to even bother calling…

Yesterday I saw first hand an EXCELLENT example of great follow up… and it’s probably going to result in a sale!

Yesterday my husband, Tim, forwarded me an email with 6 quotes for car insurance from AAA. One quote was from AAA company and the other 5 were from other companies they represent. They ranged anywhere from $1200 per year to over $2,000 per year. (we’re paying about $1,800 right now). I called him and said “I didn’t know you were shopping for car insurance” and he said “I thought YOU did it!”

So here we are, we have no clue why we’re looking at this price quote, but it looks GOOD!

Then when I got home last night there was a message on the machine from the agent at AAA. He said that last year about this time we had requested a quote so he knew we were coming up for renewal and he just wanted to provide us with some updated quotes and to call him if we have any questions.

HE KNEW WE HAD REQUESTED A QUOTE A YEAR AGO AND HE KNEW WE WERE COMING UP FOR RENEWAL AGAIN!!!!

That’s follow up! The only thing that would have been better would be to put that story in the email that he sent so we knew WHY we were getting the email.

What type of follow up do YOU have? If one of your potential buyers decides to rent for a year instead… are you following up with them about 9 months later to see if they’re ready? Are you following up with listings you DIDN’T get and contacting them again when they expire?

I know, it’s a lot of work, but GETTING the leads is the hardest part in most businesses. If someone has stepped forward and even HINTED that they’re interested in buying or selling, stay in touch with them until they DO! (or they call the cops on you… that’s a good time to take them out of your tickler file!)

p.s. the $1,200 a year quote is for the SAME coverage we have and it’s with a very reputable company… I think we may be switching! J

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“That’s not going to happen. You act like I can just add my name to the list. The list is very controlled and I am not authorized to be on the list. My closing officer is and that should be sufficient for the underwriter. Who honestly I don’t think know what they are doing. I’ve never had this issue persist. If the underwriter balks then the buyer will have to find another lender who underswtands REO property signing authority.”

Yes, that’s a direct quote out of “Joe Signers” email. He actually says “I am not authorized to be on the list” which would be the list that says whether you are authorized to sign contracts on behalf of the bank… which is the exact point we brought up to start with…

I am so glad that we have such competent and friendly people helping our real estate market rebound!

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