Archive for the 'Relocating' Category
Are We Being Led, or Led On?
September 23rd, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
Leadership has been examined, discussed, practiced, criticized, admired, and mischaracterized for almost as long as humans have been around.
But, for real estate professionals, where does ”leadership” come into practice? Do we lead anything? Are we led by anyone? The obvious answer is, of course leadership is practiced. And, yes, there are indivduals leading us in our profession. But, if that’s the case, what kinds of leadership do we see? Are they leading us in the right direction? And, who is leading who, to do what?
What Does Leadership Look Like In the Practice of Real Estate?
As real estate agents, our job is advise, counsel, and, among other things, educate our clients. At the end of the day, we are paid to influence or persuade. Is that leading? Of course it is. As most of us would agree, leadership is the practice or art of persuasion. The ability to lead is based upon the faith or thrust that those being led have in their leader. Aren’t our clients trusting us when we advise them on market conditions or price? How about when we make recommendations to sellers on staging their home or preparation needed before placing it on the market?
What is their faith in our capabilities based upon? A positive history with us as a previous client? In the case of a new client, what leads them to place their trust in you as an agent? Was it your amazing marketing presentation? And, what about buyers with their new agent, what is the basis for the selection of agent? A recommendation from a friend? The agent’s track record? Good interpersonal skills? Does it really matter? When all is said and done, isn’t it the result that’s most important? While the result is certainly very important to the buyer or seller, how the agent leads is sometimes more important than what the result is.
Agents are considered to be ”independent contractors“. One of the benefits that comes with that capacity is freedom. Since independent contractors aren’t “employed” per se, but instead, work for themsleves, they are free to operate under their own set of rules. Within limits, of course. They are bound by the professional code or operating guidelines of their profession. For Realtors, these guidelines are the Realtor Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. And while Realtors are well aware of what they should or shouldn’t do, most of their clients aren’t. In other words, in most cases, they wouldn’t be aware of misconduct by their agents unless it hit them in the face. And to be honest, while Realtors take pride in what the Code stands for, sometimes their practice of it leaves something to be desired.
How are Realtors held accountable for the practice of their profession? Do owner/brokers hold their agents accountable for their lack of professionalism or malpractice? If so, how? Do these brokers consider it more important for those new agents to get out and sell houses as quickly as they can, or to be well grounded in their Code of Ethics?
More importantly, if the Code is the cornerstone or building block of the practice real estate, how familiar does an agent have to be with their Code of Ethics before they are given a license to practice? In other words, what are those in leadership positions in the real estate profession requiring of their community of agents? What example are they setting and what standard are they accepting from those they are leading?
In real estate, like other professions, there are those sitting in leadership roles that are simply placeholders. Normally they’re in the position for affirmation and little else. Certainly not to seek change, and God forbid, to make waves! I’m reminded of a former classmate of mine from a recent leadership program, who, when asked why he was there, responded, “To check the block”!
There are those who believe that our leadership challenges aren’t much different than those of other professions. But, instead of minimizing the difficulties we face, perhaps we need to be asking instead, how we can transform our profession to one that is second to none when it comes to the public’s trust, instead of one that’s on par with Used Car Salesmen, according to Donald Trump.
But, let’s not get the cart before the horse. Before we take a look at some sugggested avenues of improvement, let’s take a look at some anecdotal evidence on where the real estate ethical compass rests today. We’ll begin that examination in our next blog entry.
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The Details of Home Marketing
September 13th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
What’s the best way to market a home? While making sure your visuals (pictures, virtual tours/videos) are exhaustive and don’t leave anything to the imagination, the details of the listing are just as important in attracting prospective buyers.
PROPERTY DETAILS
Properly listing a home requires much more than good visuals. While they are important, providing the specifics of the home is a valuable aspect of marketing as well. How many times has a client wondered about room sizes, while sorting through the homes they actually want to drop by to see, only to find that data is missing from the listing? Is it in the best interest of the seller to include those room sizes in the listing? Yes, it is. What about a description that highlights the home’s best features?
PAINTING A PICTURE
Providing a brief “highlight reel” of what the property has to offer is what the “REMARKS” narrative section of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is all about. But, how well is it being used? Is the agent painting a picture of the property’s best features? Given the limited amount of available characters the MLS allows to describe the property, is the narrative accurate as well as compelling in describing the home? Or, is the listing agent’s property description more fiction than fact? When searching for prospective properties, since buyer’s agents do their best to match what their clients are looking for in a home with what’s indicated on the MLS, providing an accurate and complete depiction of the property, benefits the seller as well as the buyer.
Yard Signs & Lockboxes
Yard signs and lock boxes are tools of the trade that have long been staples of listing hardware. While yard signs “mark the spot” of the home for sale, they also provide a visual alert to those who drive or walk by that the property is on the market. Traditional signage emphasizes the name and number of the listing agency, and, oftentimes, the listing agent.
But, some have taken advantage of the sign to provide more information of what the house has to offer through pictures. This simple yet effective method of providing a glimpse inside the home may be the beginning of a more effective use of an old marketing method. Jim Duncan, an agent from Charlottsville’s Nest Realty, uses signs to provide the property’s address, price, a website address for more property information, as well as the listing company’s contact information. Oh, and there are property pictures as well. A more effective way of making the most of the yard sign, don’t you agree?
A lock box is a lockbox is a lock box, right? Well, not in Northern Virginia, right now. Our ongoing controversy over which lock box is the best one is to use is currently very heated, often with more misinformation involved in the discussion, than accuracy. The bottom line for a property listing is this; make sure, whatever lock box is being used on a property, that fact is accurately included in the listing. There are few things as frustrating for a Realtor, or a prospective buyer, than arriving at a property only to find it secured by a different lock box than that indicated on the MLS.
Getting the most out of the marketing avenues available when listing a home depends on knowing what tools are available, but more importantly, using those resources properly. Every seller wants the widest exposure for their product. As the Realtor’s Code of Ethics instructs them, it is a listing agent’s duty to act in the best interests of a client in fulfilling their marketing responsibilities. Is your agent using the marketing tools available to properly showcase your home? Let’s hope so.
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Marketing Your Home
September 2nd, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
How much is “enough” when marketing a home? What does it take to adequately showcase a property that’s listed?
Simply put, that’s a question best left up to the homeowner. Or, is it? Do homeowners know the market? Do they know what it takes to get their home “under contract”? Well, as many Realtors can attest, there are plenty of homeowners who think they know what’s required to get their home sold. But, what’s to be done, how it’s to be done, and the importance of integrating the different marketing methods to successfully showcase a listing, is best left in the hands of the professional, the Realtor.
As the Listing Agent, Realtors are bound, according to Article 1 of their Code of Ethics, “to protect and promote the interests of the client.” In other words, the agent is ethically obligated to use their best efforts to accomplish the client’s objective. For most home sellers, this means a sale of the property in the least amount of time, for the best price and terms. And, believe it or not, marketing a home consists of more than simply putting a sign in the yard and waiting by the phone for calls from prospective buyers. There are a number of steps to take when marketing a home, some more important than others. Let’s begin by looking at the essential steps first.
What’s Necessary
1. Multiple Listing Service (MLS) – Job Number 1
Most home buyers use a Realtor to find and purchase a home. Realtors use the MLS to find homes. While there continue to be more and more “open source” alternatives to the MLS for locating homes for sale, the MLS, unlike the other platforms, is required to keep the accurate status of homes listed. According to Article XII of the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS) Rules and Regulations guidelines which govern the MLS, a property’s status must be updated within forty-eight hours of a change. Frequently, other home listing sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia and others, will list a home as being actively “For Sale”, yet, in reality, the property is already sold, and the status of the property not updated for days, or, in many cases, weeks. Yes, weeks!
Inputting listings into the MLS isn’t as seamless as one might imagine. Well, it is a simple process, but how accurate, how extensive, and how many pictures are posted are entirely up to the agent. If listing agents aren’t making the most of the MLS platform in advertising their listing, then they should be. Agents should take the time to get complete home details from their sellers. Buyer’s agents are depending upon the MLS for accurate information. And, yes, more information and pictures ARE better.
2. Listing Syndication
Ubiquity – the state of being everywhere at once. Yes, you want your home to be everywhere on the web. Today, that’s where many prospective buyers first see the home they’re considering purchasing. Of course, most home sellers want their home listed everywhere possible. Do you think sellers want their property seen more than the competition? Sure they do.
Our area MLS provider, MRIS, provides a listing syndication option available to Brokers. This option, ListHub, provides brokers the ability to distribute their listings to other real estate property sites like Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate, and many others. Another similar property listing syndication service provider is Postlets. And Postlets, unlike ListHub, is free.
3. Video and Pictures.
Let prospective buyers preview what they’re getting! If a picture is worth a thousand words, you think a video is worth…maybe, ten thousand? Well, that depends on the viewer, and more importantly, the quality of the video. What is required for quality pictures and video?
For quality pictures, you can find excellent digital cameras with plenty of megapixels for less than $250, that will meet your needs. Using software designed to blend or “stitch” the pictures together, you can produce a virtual tour that effectively showcases and highlights the home’s best features. While still photos give the home viewer a good idea of what’s inside the home, using software that provides panoramic views and tells a story of the home at the same time, completes the picture. Real Estate Shows is an inexpensive tool that accomplishes this task. Visual Tour costs a bit more, and does a little more. Using video, the production is even better.
Another program that offers a few more thrills, and also uses video for its productions, is AgentCasts. Whether using video or still pictures, they provide a menu of services and costs that’ll meet your needs, and provide a quality finished product.
Something as simple as the Flip Video or Kodak Zi6, costing less than $175, might be tempting to use for filming the home video, but don’t sell yourself, and your client, short. While it’s not necessary to spend thousands to get quality video, spend a few hundred more than a Flip and utilize the enhanced capability of a better camera to showcase your property in the best light.
For software programs, Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker, included in most Windows packages, is a simple but powerful video editing package for creating movies, or short videos.
If you’ve never used it, don’t worry. As they say, “even a 6th grader can do it”! Just go to YouTube.com and you’ll find instructional videos on how to use Movie Maker. You’ll find a number of “how to” videos with very good instructions on how to use the program.
There’s lots to do in marketing a home for sale. Using the MLS, and plenty of photos of the property, or, even better, video, are important first steps in showcasing the home for interested agents and home buyers. But, the devils in the details. Great pictures, video, and a detailed listing may draw buyers in, but the finer points of the listing that comprise the marketing strategy developed with your seller(s) are just as important to success. Its those details we’ll examine when we complete the marketing discussion.
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Twice As Much Pleasure
August 17th, 2009 categories: Entertainment, Relocating
I can’t say I enjoy food as much as many of my friends. But, I do enjoy an enjoyable night of dining.
This weekend I was treated to a couple of evenings of dining at two of the area’s finest establishments. And, while I enjoy good barbeque, or a visit to Chipolte with my sons, on Friday, I had another opportunity to spend the evening at one of Fredericksburg’s finest restaurants, Claiborne’s. It may be the best in fine dining to be had in the area.
Located in one of the orginal Old Town Fredericksburg’s train station buildings, the restaurant’s rooms allow for small parties as well as larger groups numbering more than fifty. Whether your dining pleasure is filet mignon, chicken, fish, or something a bit more exotic, the menu won’t disappoint you. Neither will the service. The wait staff is polite, punctual, and knowledgeable. While Friday night’s was a treat, Saturday night’s outing may have been better. It was certainly a different setting.
The Inn at Kelly’s Ford, is a site that should be a “mandatory formation” for visitors to the Commonwealth. It’s simply an exceptional example of what the state has to offer; a joy for the palette, and the eyes.
In Remington, Virginia, the Inn is situated on the historical site of the Kelly´s Ford Civil War Battlefield, on 150 acres, which is part of a larger 500-acre estate. As its website claims, there truly is a “casual elegance” that’s unmistakable upon arrival at the facility.
While the occasion for Saturday’s visit was a wedding, I’d been there a couple of times previously. The setting and view from the dining area is truly picturesque. In the middle of the Commonwealth’s horse country, the countryside’s rolling hills, and green pastures, provide the ideal setting for a quiet evening of exquisite dining.
Similar to Claiborne’s, the menu at the Inn is full of dinner delights. The Entree list includes:
While the cost of the entree selections is a bit more than one might expect at your routine “in town” restaurant, the Inn is anything but the usual, and you won’t find anything quite like it in the city. Additionally, the menu features are some you won’t soon forget. Not only are the dishes delicious, but their presentation is very impressive as well.
The Fredericksburg and Stafford, Viriginia region has much to offer. Whether on vacation, or an area homeowner enjoying a night out, Claiborne’s and the Inn at Kelly’s Ford are two fine dining choices you’ll enjoy immensely.
Before making your reservation, make sure your night out is one during which you can relax and enjoy the atmosphere and appreciate the experience. Each of the establishments leaves you wanting to remain a bit longer, to enjoy the experience even more. In these cases, it’s an urge worth indulging.
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How Much Is Enough?
August 7th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
In an e-mail I received last week, another agent reminded me of the public’s perception of the real estate profession; not good.
Earlier this week, a local Broker relayed the story of her most recent marketing appointment. It took place in a home situated in a local neighborhood, The Glens, in Stafford, VA.
Its developer, Augustine Homes, has a reputation for outstanding craftmanship and a quality product. Homes in their subdivisions aren’t cheap. Their neighborhoods and accomodations are anything but sparse. As a matter of fact, they’re some of the most expensive homes in the area. And, their subdivisions are the kind you and I wouldn’t mind living in. Homes in the Glens hover around $1,000,000 +.
But, back to the Broker’s story. Evidently, the marketing appointment wasn’t simply to discuss the remarketing of the home, but also the failures of the agent who previously listed the property. According to the Broker, the previous agent hadn’t bothered to make brochures or any other hard copy take away items for prospective buyers. No video of the home either. Other than the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) exposure, no other internet listing presence. But, the agent did put a sign in the yard.
And we wonder why the public’s image of real estate professionals is so low? But, before we begin to smear agents with a broad brush, this poor display of real estate practice isn’t the norm, but the exception.
Here, we have a million dollar listing, and next to no marketing. One has to wonder why. If it wasn’t the desire of the homeowner, and according to the broker, it wasn’t, then why would an agent not do a better job of show casing the property? Did not they not realize the contractural agreement they entered into with the homeowner bound them ethically to use their best efforts to accomplish their client’s objective…in other words, to market and sell the home?
While there is no perfect method of marketing a home, there are some basic practices that serve as a foundation for providing a homeowner the services necessary to sell their home. “Best effort” encompasses not only the scope of the effort, but, just as importantly, the quality.
When it comes to listing or marketing a property, what methods do the job effectively? How much marketing is enough? That will be the subject of an article later this month.
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Campus Life Comes to Stafford
August 4th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
We recently witnessed a first in North Stafford; a ribbon cutting ceremony inaugurating Germanna Community College’s (GCC) fourth location. With Governor Tim Kaine doing the honors, the GCC Stafford Center in Aquia Park was unveiled. Occupying almost 5,000 square feet of building space, the “campus” is one of the featured attractions of the ongoing Aquia Park development.
The initial semester begins just over a month from now, on August 20th. To begin with, classes in algebra, accounting, management, and Spanish will be offered. In addition, they’ll be courses in art history sociology and religion. Plans are to accomodate more than 1,000 students in the first semester.
While the new campus is simply the beginning of a larger plan to establish a free-standing GCC campus in North Stafford, expansion will have to wait until land is donated or secured for the larger facility. For Stafford area residents and homeowners, the new campus is a welcome site. Not only does it help with the region’s economic development, but, for those ready to step into community college life, it provides the option of little or no commute to and from school.
Attendees can enjoy the luxury of the new location, and realize they’re in “on the ground floor”. They’ll be able to take advantage of the small classroom sizes and helpful teacher/student ratios while they last. Because, after all, this is Northern Virginia, and new people and places don’t stay hidden for too long.
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