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How do you Keep Your Real Estate License Active? Start with Honesty

Aug 12, 2020

To get a real estate license in most states all you need do is attend a certain number of hours at real estate school and then pay for and take a licensing exam and, possibly, have your background checked via your fingerprints.

Voila! You’re a real estate agent, able to counsel consumers on how to buy and sell what may be their biggest asset.

If you think it’s fairly easy to become an agent, you’re right. Compare the process to what a taxicab driver goes through to get his or her permit:

Secure a referral.
Take the required classes.
Complete the Driver’s Awareness Program.
Submit the referral to the State Taxicab Authority (NTA) and take their exam.
Submit to the NTA’s fingerprint process to check for any criminal history.
Submit to a physical examination, vision exam, mental health evaluation, and drug test to ensure you meet the health requirements.

It’s true, you do have someone else’s life in your hands as a cab driver, so maybe some of these hoops are necessary. Whereas there’s rarely a life-or-death situation involved in helping real estate consumers.

The fact is, as easy as it is to get a real estate sales license, it’s almost just as easy to lose it. And, surprisingly, you don’t have to be a hardened criminal for it to happen.

Something as simple as unintentionally leaving out a material fact about a listing could land you in a lot of trouble with your state licensing board.

That board, by the way, sets the rules under which they will pull an agent’s license. Although each state sets its own regulations for agents, they are all quite similar.

1. Always be honest

While we all know that life is unfair at times, the fact that politicians, journalists, and others can lie with impunity and real estate agents can’t is a bit unfair.

Not that you would lie to a client even if other agents were (and getting away with it), but if you do, and you are caught, you may lose your license.

The state boards don’t call it lying, though. They have other words for it:

Omission
Exaggeration
Misrepresentation
Ambiguity

They’re all types of lies and Beakley says that if you are caught doing any of them … often enough, or big enough … you will lose your license.”

2. Stay law-abiding

If you have an active real estate license, you likely don’t have any prior felonies because it’s not possible to get a real estate license in any of the 50 states if you do, according to Paul Beakley at RealtorMag.com.

So, what if you are convicted of a crime after your licensed? If you live in the right state and are convicted of a crime you won’t lose your license.

In most states, however, you will. In Texas, for instance, moral turpitude is enough to get your license pulled.

In Minnesota, your license can be suspended or even revoked for “outstanding tax or child support obligations.”

3. Keep your client’s money separate

We’ve all heard the stories about the hapless agent who “borrows” a client’s funds, fully intending to pay it back.

Then, there’s guys like this:

[Name has been omitted}, “… a real estate agent and broker from Washington, D.C., was sentenced to prison on a theft charge stemming from the embezzlement of over $100,000 of his clients’ money …” (Justice.gov)

This particular agent was asking buyers for huge earnest money deposits and then depositing them in his operating account instead of escrow.

Although he assured the clients the money was safely tucked away in an escrow account, “… he spent their money on himself and his expenses within a few weeks or months of receiving the funds.”

Yes, he lost his license, and served one year and one day in prison.

Commingling your client’s money with your own, even temporarily, is a recipe for disaster.

Stay out of trouble with the state board, be honest, take your time when completing contracts, and get your clients’ money out of your hands quickly. This should ensure you have a long and healthy life as a real estate agent.

Send the Photo Introduction Series postcard to an area where you want to introduce yourself as the neighborhood expert.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1.Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

3. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

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The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

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Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

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Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

Start Planning for Your Fall Buying & Selling Season Now

Aug 10, 2020

Traditionally, the market wakes up in September, after a summer lull while folks are vacationing and enjoying the kids’ time off from school.

But once September and October roll around, agents get busy and stay busy until the winter slowdown.

So, if the past is any indication of what we can expect in the future, you’re about to get busy again (or even busier depending on where you are in the country).

Here’s how to plan for your fall buying and selling season, starting now.

Offer a pre-fall photo promotion

Plan a pre-fall photography blitz. Let your potential autumn selling clients know the best way to stand out from other listings in fall. Which is to show how their homes looked when the trees were still green and the flowers were blooming.

Use a Community Newsletter or a Football Schedule postcard to conduct a postcard blitz and offer a “free, no-obligation exterior photo session” before everything turns brown. State the following message,

“For the next few weeks, our professional photographer will be roaming the area. He will be taking exterior photos of our listings that will be hitting the market in fall.”

“Just think how your home, with its sun-lit green landscape, will stand out as a buyer scrolls through listings online this fall!”

By the way, you’ll know who is serious about selling by the responses you get from your postcard photography blitz.

Be focused, move quickly

“Time is of the essence” is never truer than it is during the fall real estate market. The time between putting a home on the market and that big old brick wall known as the holidays is short. Everything you do to sell the home will be condensed.

Remind your clients that this means coming up with the appropriate price right out of the gate. An informative and helpful Direct Response Report you can provide your clients with is, “The 6 Pitfalls of Overpricing”. It will help them understand just what they have to lose by not pricing their home right the first time.

If they refuse, let them know that if the need for a price reduction becomes evident, they’ll need to act immediately – not wait a month.

Yards get messy in autumn, so remind your listing clients to keep up the home’s curb appeal on an ongoing basis.

Remind your clients that leaves will need to be raked more often and dying annuals yanked from the soil. Suggest they hire a gardener to do once weekly yard cleanups if they don’t have the time to do it themselves.

*Dangers of Overpricing* Direct Response Report

Finally, if the home is still on the market as Thanksgiving approaches, your listing client has some decisions to make. Primarily, does he or she want to remain on the market over the holidays or put the listing on hold until the beginning of the year?

Yes, we understand that you’re hoping to high heaven they don’t yank the listing. If you can convince them to remain on the market, let them know that closings near Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve are typically slow going. This way, they can make moving plans accordingly.

A report that makes an ideal piece to leave behind during a listing presentation is, “Moving Made Easy”. It’s available under the Resources tab on our website. Yes, this report is free for you so get a bunch of copies made and keep them on hand to give to your clients.

Help out your buyers

To avoid butting up against Thanksgiving, most homeowners who list their homes in the fall put their homes on the market in the early part of the season. Urge your buying clients to be prepared to be the early bird and get their loan pre-approval out of the way as soon as possible.

They should also narrow down their choice of neighborhoods so that when a home is listed in the area, they can be among the first to view it.

Warn your buying clients not to give in to the temptation that fall appliance sales offer. This year’s models typically go on sale in September and October to make room for next year’s. These bargains may seem irresistible additions to their soon-to-be new home.

Let them know that the lender may pull their credit once more before closing. A large purchase on credit may either slow down closing or cause loan denial.

You’re the expert that your clients rely on to help them navigate the real estate process. While buying or selling a home is primarily the same in fall as in the other three seasons, there are subtle differences they need to be aware of and you need to prepare for to make the season a success.

Send out Football Schedules to your Sphere and Farm now and they’ll arrive just in time for the first NFL game of the season (September 10th).

Even better, add a magnetic back for their frig, so the schedule (and your contact info) will stay in front of your audience all season long.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

3. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

5. The Market Dominator

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Educate Your Prospects Before They Become Your Clients

Aug 3, 2020

What if all of your clients knew exactly what to expect during the real estate transaction? Imagine how comfortable they would be, how less likely they will be to freak out over the smallest bump in the road. Taking the time to educate your clients takes this premise and makes it a reality.

Even better is to educate your prospects before they become clients.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways agents across the country are educating prospects in their efforts to create savvy clients.

Educate the masses with virtual webinars

Homebuyer seminars are hardly innovative – agents and lenders have been organizing them for decades. The only necessary change, with the current distancing guidelines, is to turn your seminar into a virtual webinar.

Agent Deb Tomaro spoke about her buyer educational events, “Sure, the events help pull in prospects, but once converted, these people turn into the best kind of clients”.

“They know what to expect, they know the process, so I’m not having to micromanage them,” Tomaro explained. “They are able to keep things in perspective, they understand the big picture, and they know what they’re doing.”

The most important step when considering holding a virtual webinar is to determine your audience. This should be easy if you practice in a real estate niche. If you are a generalist, consider some of these audiences:

*3 Critical Steps* Direct Response Report

First-time homebuyer
Vacation property buyer
Government loan programs featuring low or no down payment
Senior buyers
Immigrant buyers
Mobile home buyers
New home buyers
Veterans
Horse property buyers

The toughest part of the process is the planning, but the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council of the National Association of REALTORS (REBAC) has a handy online pamphlet that walks agents through each step.

Radio still has its place

Less than 1 percent of real estate agents use radio or television, according to Matt Wagner, founder of Radio and Television Experts.

Of the two, radio is by far the preferred medium if you plan on buying advertising or hosting your own real estate show. The main advantage of radio over television is the cost – radio is far less expensive.

For the purposes of educating prospects, you’ll need more than a 30-second spot. The back and forth of a call-in talk show is ideal for educating prospects.

How much will this cost? It depends on the size of the market, the station’s ratings and the time of day you choose. Stations in New York City and Los Angeles charge far more for advertising than those in Grand Forks, N.D., and Casper, Wyo.

Thankfully, real estate talk shows typically occur on weekends, when air time is the least expensive. If you live in a small enough market, and a station is in need of content, you may even end up with free air-time. But that would be the exception, not the rule.

Otherwise, many agents pound the pavement, or the telephone, to drum up sponsors for the shows, in exchange for mentions on the air. Good prospects are title companies, home inspectors and lenders.

Of course, there are ad agencies, radio air-time brokers and others, who will actually do all the groundwork for you, for a fee.

*Mortgage Options* Direct Response Report

Teach through print

Although the final eulogy has yet to be written, newspapers are expected to someday go the way of the Pony Express. Only the largest, according to some forecasters, will survive.

Like real estate, however, print journalism is quite local. While many real estate consumers rely on the Internet for real estate listings and information, in some towns, it’s the local newspaper that is still the go-to source.

Robin Shapiro, broker-owner of Robin Shapiro Realty in the Rockaways, finds great success with her hometown paper, The Wave. Before it was put online “people would actually cross over the bridge to buy it,” she said.

If that sounds like the paper in your town, it may just be the place to offer your services as their real estate advice columnist. Call the editor and make the pitch.

Even if you don’t fancy yourself a writer, you can hire an inexpensive freelance editor to go over your copy before sending it on to the paper.

Blog topics that educate

Blogging helps you educate prospects on a range of real estate issues. It’s a great way to let them know about current market trends so they know what to expect when they decide to enter the market.

Examples of blog topics that help educate include:

Financing — this is such a confusing topic for real estate consumers. Make it easy for them to understand.
Common real estate terms and what they mean – just go through your listing or purchase agreement and you’ll find a plethora of jargon that befuddles most real estate consumers. What’s a contingency? What is “arm’s length?”
Closing – aside from financing, the closing process is probably the most mysterious they’ll encounter. Demystify it by explaining what happens, who will be there and the paperwork they’ll be confronted with.

While there are many ways to educate your clients, why not choose a method that reaches a massive amount of people and combines lead generation with education?

Even if you have to pay for the method, you can bask in the fact that you’re getting two results in one go.

Offer the 4 Home Seller Mistakes Direct Response Report in all of your marketing as an opt-in (including your emails, direct mail, and on your website).

Also, keep a stack available to add to your listing presentations and to give out at open houses.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

3. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

5. The Market Dominator

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Bring home sellers up to speed on real estate’s new normal

Jul 15, 2020

“Pivot.” I’m reading that word a lot lately. The “experts” are admonishing business owners to pivot, to adapt to the “new normal.” It’s an especially popular theme in real estate right now.

Seems to me that most real estate professionals adapted very quickly. You had to, right? It was either adapt or perish. In fact, the average agent could probably give lessons on pivoting.

The poor real estate consumer, however, has been left behind. So, just as you pick up slack for lenders when explaining the mortgage process to buyers, it’s now up to you to bring buyers and sellers up to speed on what’s changed and what they might expect from America’s “new” real estate industry.

Let’s start with your listing clients and listing prospects.

How has the selling process changed?

Aside from local market conditions, this is most likely every prospective home seller’s most burning question. After all, much of what they’ll learn online no longer applies.

Ensure that all of your listing leads are aware of and comfortable with the changes. Don’t let them delay their sale because they’re nervous or confused.

The listing presentation is the ideal time to walk them through the process. Make it sound as simple as possible.

Sure, they’re still curious how you’ll go about marketing their home, but how will they and their family be kept safe after showings? What precautions will buyers’ agents take?

Will you hold open houses? If so, how will those work without exposing both the buyers and the seller to the virus?

Stage it to sell for top dollar

While the process of preparing the home for the market remains pretty much the same, staging is not.

Hunkered down for months in their homes while they took on new hobbies and spent more time with family has caused a shift in what homebuyers are seeking in a home. Suggest to your sellers that they stage a spare room, study, finished attic or basement as a home office or gym.

Outdoor spaces are more critical aspects of home sales post-lockdown. Sales of inflatable pools, inground pools, patio furniture and décor and even trampolines have spiked.

One of the most popular backyard amenities is a large garden, or the space to create one. “Gardening supplies and egg-laying chickens are becoming hard to find as people search for both new hobbies and reliable alternatives to bare grocery shelves,” according to Hillary George-Parkin at Vox.com.

“Anything that keeps kids entertained — and offers parents a chance to take Zoom calls in peace — is, predictably, flying off the shelves,” George-Parkin adds.

Let your listing clients know this. Help them come up with ideas to stage their backyards for maximum appeal:

Kid-friendly space
Gardener’s dream space
Activity center

Create a kid-friendly space with a croquet set on the lawn, a swing set and slide, treehouse, trampoline hangout (see photo number 17 at HGTV.com), sandbox or any number of other things that will appeal to parents of young children.

There are many ways to stage a backyard to pique a gardener’s interest, including:

Building attractive raised beds
Adding trellises along the wall
Create a potting bench
Adding gardening beds in lieu of raised beds

Even if you have limited space in the backyard, or just a patio or deck, potted plants and planter boxes will create appeal for the green thumber.

Swimming pools also gained in popularity during the lockdown. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, with manufacturers in Spain claiming that sales have increased 400%. In New Zealand, searches for homes with swimming pools have increased 70% and manufacturers and retailers claim that sales have tripled since before the pandemic.

If your client’s home features a swimming pool, of course you’ll want to hit that fact hard when marketing, but encourage your client to stage the pool area to wow buyers even more.

For those leads and prospects who are dragging their feet (meaning there is no listing appointment), start an education campaign on your blog and share your posts on social media. Back them up with a direct mail piece that updates them on real estate news.

Sellers have questions and you have the answers. Walk them through all the processes and how they’ve changed, from home inspections to appraisals to closing and staging.

Send the Home Values postcard from the Post Pandemic Series to an area where you’re focusing on more listings.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

3. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

5. The Market Dominator Branding System

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a Mega AMrketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this excerpt on the Market Dominator from a recent Q&A Todd Robertson (Director of the Market Dominator) did below.

For additional questions, you can reach Todd at 866-405-3638 or Todd.Robertson@prospectsplus.com or go to Market Dominator for more information.

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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