First Things First in Real Estate Practice
November 2nd, 2009 categories: Military Installations, Real Estate News
Most of us that have served time in the military have been the beneficiary of training that develops skills that serve us well for the remainder of our lives. One of those skills is punctuality.
Recently, I attended a local Real Estate Expo. Arriving early provided me the opportunity to spend a few minutes discussing the state of real estate practice with the event’s featured speaker, who is recognized as one of the nation’s premier coaches in real estate. During our short exchange, I mentioned the need for better training, and much more demanding pre-licensing requirements for Realtors. The speaker agreed, but indicated that real estate leadership, national and local, would never let that happen for one simple reason – MONEY. Extending the time, and the difficulty of obtaining a license means more money required to get into the profession by applicants, and a longer training time. In simple terms, that means fewer Realtors. Why? Some just won’t have the dollars, and others, the time and proficiency.
But, the speaker’s words spoke volumes. And, while he willingly voiced them, doubtless there are many others who share his feelings.
Fundamentally altering how real estate is practiced must begin with a change in what’s valued in the business. And, as any organizational change expert will tell you, that change has got to begin at the top. Without “buy in” from those in leadership positions, changing the standards in an organization or profession is virtually impossible.
But, one may ask, what’s in it for them? Why should those in leadership positions in the real estate business change anything? Do leaders have an ethical and professional responsibility to improve the way their business operates?
Have your ever wondered what the difference between leaders and managers is? The short answer is, managers manage things, and leaders lead people. Another simple distinction is that leaders point out the right things to do while managers ensure things are done correctly. In simple terms, the responsibility and charge of leadership is not simply to make sure things get done, it is to make sure you and those you are “leading” are doing the right thing. As Stephen Covey emphasizes in his book, The Speed of Trust, this develops trust among a profession’s members, but just as importantly, the clients that use it as well.
For Realtors, the importance of trust, and faith in their practices, is the basis for their referral business. For many, it’s the lifeblood of their practice. For real estate leadership, trust is the bedrock of the business. Without faith in the profession and professionals they’re using, why should buyers and sellers of real estate rely on Realtors and their profession to do business? Simply put, they shouldn’t. Instead, they’d be better off depending on an alternate source to place their faith in. So, what might leadership do to fundamentally and radically transform real estate practices and procedures to enhance the public’s trust?
It must begin by realizing that the overhaul must be “transformational”, not piecemeal. That means a new level of change featuring innovation and daring by leadership and practitioners alike. The characterization or term, “Transformational Leadership”, was coined by Presidential historian James MacGregor Burns in 1978, to describe a model relationship between the leader and their followers. Burns focused on a more moral and virtuous example featuring new attitudes and perspectives – in other words, a new way of thinking, and new approaches to old problems. In many cases, this new approach requires a new “breed” of leadership. Because, as we all know, it is certainly hard (but not necessarily impossible) to teach an old dog new tricks.
This new level of might begin by including a tougher standard for owners and brokers, the key players in our profession. The old standard of “what they knew or should have known” is just the beginning of what this group of leaders should be held accountable for. How about greater responsibility for the practices of their agents that are a party to a transaction? For example, how many mistakes are made today by agents (how many of these errors result in a failure of the agent to act in the best interest of their client?) involved in short sale or foreclosure transactions due to the agent’s ignorance because they’ve had little or no training in the specifics of either type of those special circumstances? More than a few. In each of those transactions, specialized training is one of the keys to success. Yet, there is no requirement for the necessary specialized training by leadership at the local, state or national level. You have to wonder why?
Secondly, better communication standards or practices would greatly enhance the way business is carried out. The time wasted by trying to track down agents and information due to unanswered and unreturned inquiries is enormous. Now, are those missed or unreturned calls the fault of the managing broker or owner? Well, not directly. But, if their firm’s culture (not to mention, this profession’s) is one that tolerates unprofessional practices, then the blame is certainly partly theirs. As many Realtors would admit, many firms willingly look the other way rather than confront those that are routinely guilty of these faults.
Most owners would rather not upset the money cart. One too many admonishments might scare off the money maker. But, what if managing brokers demanded the same higher standard of practice from all the agents they oversee, and none was “above the law”? How easy would it be for an agent to find another enabler to practice under?
Do better practices mean a better product? By all measures, yes. So, why aren’t they required? When will leadership begin to set higher standards for those practicing real estate? Perhaps these are questions, we who practice real estate, need to be asking more and more of those who sit in the seats of real estate leadership.
As mentioned recently by Lem Marshall, the Special Counsel to the Virginia Association of Realtors(VAR), in discussing what’s needed to dramatically improve the Short Sale process, he said that improved competence by agents would go along way in making a dysfunctional process much better. His audience was a group of brokers and owners. Lem was making it clear to those who hold the reins of power that they are responsible for having their agents prepared to practice properly. Demanding competency is simply good leadership. And, after all, accountability is a strong motivator. Let’s hope those in the audience were listening.
While Lem’s Road Show was sorely needed, in an attempt to improve a Short Sale process badly in need of repair, let’s hope it is just the beginning of a larger effort to move this profession’s leadership in the right direction.
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Are We Being Led, Or Led On? (Part II)
October 11th, 2009 categories: Real Estate News, Relocating
Many real estate agents have a tendency to voice their complaints. What do they complain about? Mostly, other agents.
It isn’t the lack of training, or the contract documents, or the difficulties with foreclosures or short sales (don’t get me wrong, everyone is frustrated with the lack of standardization and regulation of short sales), but by a wide margin the complaints are centered on the lack of professionalism in the business. I know, the phrase “lack of professionalism” can mean any number of things. But, for our purposes, let’s break it down into four areas, 1) Honesty; 2) Answering inquiries; 3) Lack of knowledge; 4) Poor customer service.
While each of these areas can examined a bit more closely, for the purposes of this short article, assuming these are true, why is this tolerated? What is it about the real estate profession or culture that encourages these? A good place to start might be with the barebones and inexpensive prerequisites required to get a license as an agent.
According to the Virginia Code, 60 hours of classroom (distance learning works as well) in the principles of real estate, and passing the state and national portions of the salesperson examination is what’s required for licensing as an agent. Do those 60 hours include any training in Ethics? Are prospective agents required to memorize the national Association of Realtors Code of Ethics? What about their Standards of Practice that practicing Realtors are bound by? Do aspiring Realtors have to be familiar with the Standards they are obligated to follow as practitioners? Or, are the Standards simply picked up piecemeal along the way? Apparently that’s the status quo. And, if that’s the case, what’s needed to change the way we do business?
Transformational Leader
The real estate profession needs leadership that will change the culture and the marginal “accepted” practices of its members. Changing the culture or accepted norms of any organization requires leadership that has vision, demands excellence, and is willing to make tough decisions. These hard choices demand more than the usual “care taker” type leaders we’ve come to accept. What’s necessary, is a new breed of leadership that models the professional disciplines of competence, quality performance, and moral courage. The new leadership needs to be nothing short of transformational, establishing a vision for a higher standard of performance, and demanding accountability.
Real estate has witnessed a number of changes over the past few years, many of those due to technological innovation, and the new business models that benefitted from them. And, in many ways, we’ve enhanced the product we provide our clients. But we’ve only touched the surface of what’s needed to improve our profession. It’s now time to work on skill sets and the character of the practitioners. And, to make that a reality, we need leadership that is more concerned with the quality of our business than the quantity.
Are our leaders ready to meet that challenge?
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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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