Pricing recommendations hit troubled waters at two predictable times. One is when clients have unreasonable price expectations that need to be brought into line before the home can be sold. The other is when an agent gets ready to list a property that owners want to sell at an inflated, unrealistic price.
 
Both circumstances require caution. The following presents advice to follow as you troubleshoot your way through to a successful pricing decision.
 
When clients have their minds set on a price that is out of line, follow this process to bring …

As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year.
The second list to be released is the top 10 events that during 2008 had the largest impact and influence on the real estate brokerage industry. Events are defined as those occurrences that transpired during the previous calendar year (2008) that made headlines and captured the …

In a post last week on the BusinessCasualBlog about The Change Curve on Death and Dying, I referenced a diagram that showed the emotional stages people tend to go through when confronted with negatively perceived change.

The root material for all this came from a book authored by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in 1969 titled, “On Death and Dying.” The rendition you’re looking at above actually shows two more stages than the original 5 presented in Dr. Kubler-Ross’ work. The reason for the discrepancy is due to some adaptations for …

As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year.
The first list to be released is the Newsmakers. Newsmakers are defined as those people that during the year made headlines as individuals, as a result of their actions and leadership of the companies or associations they are involved with in the real estate industry.
The Top 10 …

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced that they will suspend foreclosure sales on properties that they insure over the Thanksgiving and December Holidays! Part of me wants to shout, “It’s a Christmas Miracle”, another part is truly thankful, and yet another part is angry because I wish they could extend that a bit further than November 26th through January 9th, 2009.This is great news for anyone who has a FNMA or Freddie owned loan that was going up for sale during this time frame. It doesn’t apply to all …

I know most of you real estate agents and brokers are all over this but you may want to get this information out to your contact database and geographic farm.  I was recently asked by a couple agents if the relief covers years other than 2007, so I know that some of you may not be aware that this tax relief option is available for 2008 and 2009.
There are homeowners out there who should understand this relief plan and what they need to do to implement and take advantage of …

Prospecting is one of the easiest but most misunderstood concepts in the field of sales.   Sales trainers are always trying to sell their “prospecting-free systems” on worldwide speaking circuits by saying, basically, “You will never have to prospect again if you use my system.” And, because salespeople secretly don’t want to prospect, they readily buy into the too-good-to-be-true, no-prospecting philosophy. 
Our readiness to take the easy bait makes us like the wolves that are hunted above the Arctic Circle. The wolf hunter dips a sharp knife in blood and freezes it.  …

This post is in response to a great post by Mary Supinger regarding short sales and credit ramifications.  I felt inclined to follow up with a post that may help agents and brokers reduce their risk in these types of transactions.  Many of my agents recently attended a risk management credit course on short sales, foreclosures and refinancing which has now scared them to death regarding the representation of a seller who is in a position for a possible short sale.  The issue isn

This is an updated version of a post that I sent out earlier in the year:

I have gotten the impression from many real estate agents that they are unaware of the effect of a Short Sale on their clients’ credit report. The common belief is that a Short Sale isn’t as bad as Foreclosure or Deed In Lieu of Foreclosure.

It’s been fascinating to witness developments in the home staging industry over the past few years. For my first few years as a staging instructor I had to define and explain staging. Nowadays it is a phenomenon that has changed the way real estate is sold. In 2004, I ‘Googled’ home staging, there were 16,768 entries. (I wrote it down) Today, Google home staging and you’ll see 4,770,000 entries.

For years we professed that kitchens and bathrooms were without a doubt the most important areas of a home. We termed them the ‘deal makers and deal breakers’ of Real Estate. Today with the crisis in the economy, we’re seeing a surplus of inventory like never before.