Selling Poinciana One Property at a Time.

Hi folks. Here's a little chart I made today that I want to share with you. I made this so I could see where my business is coming from. 

What this chart shows me is that 45% of my business comes from referrals and repeat customers, 35% comes from my expired letter, 15% comes from the Internet and only 5% came from a sign call. 

It also shows me that 35% of my current business is in Short Sales(SS). 85% is with Sellers and 15% is with Buyers. 

I did this little exercise so I could see what my strong points are and what areas I need to concentrate on. The results are pretty much what I expected. I'm very much a "people person" so, it is certainly no surprise, that the most productive part of my business is just talking with folks and helping them solve their problems. This is very evident by 45% of my business coming from referrals and repeat business. These are referrals from consumers not my peers. 

It was also no surprise that my expired letter is very effective. The percentage of business from this is actually very low right now due to the fact that I turn down far more listings than I take. That's also the reason my listing inventory is very low. I usually carry between 25-30 active listings but only have 11 right now. I'm not counting vacant lots of which I have 7. 

It looks like I spend waaaaay too much time blogging too, since only 15% of my business comes from the Internet. But hey....it's fun!!! 

From reviewing this chart, I can tell I need to step up my listing efforts. And I need to hire a Buyer's agent. No sense wasting all those good Buyer leads but the fact is, if they aren't interested in my listings, then most of the time, I just tell them "Good luck with that"!! 

So.........do you know where your business is coming from?

***This is a little side note. I just noticed that today's ActiveRain newsletter features me and a whole bunch of my posts on taking listings. Anyway, this has caused my email to explode with comments coming in. I want to thank AR for the mention and I want to thank all of you guys for visiting those old posts and commenting on them. Unfortunately I will not have the time to go back to all of them and respond. BUT....if you have any specific questions you are more than welcome to pop me an email and I will answer your questions as soon as possible. Thank you!!!! 

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Hi folks. This post is about finding your MoJo. As most of you know, my market, Poinciana FL has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. I heard it could be as high as 1 in 7 homes. That's about 15%. So needless to say it has been a very difficult year for selling real estate, thus far. BUT......I'm starting to get my MoJo back!!! 

About 3 months ago I decided I needed to quit my whining about the market and make changes in my business. Based on what was happening in the market I had 3 areas that I needed to concentrate on:

1. Picking up some REO listings.

2. Working short sale listings.

3. Expanding my Investor base and increasing Buyer activity. 

Unfortunately, my attempt to break into the REO business, proved to be an effort in futility. Being a one man office, as I am, this just wasn't going to work out. In my area there are a handful of Brokers that handle REOs and they pretty much have that part of the market tied up. 

So, I decided to put all of my efforts into working short sales and picking up Buyers. And you know what? My MoJo has come back. My attitude is much better and business is great. In fact, I have so much business that we are looking to expand!!! We are taking our office virtual and are looking for at least 10 REALTORS® to join Tutas Towne Realty by the end of the year. If you work the Central Florida area and are looking for a change give me a call. 

Now let's briefly talk about these short sales. First, they can be very frustrating. The Lenders are getting much better but are still too slow for my liking. BUT....short sales are so much easier to deal with when it comes to working with the Sellers and getting the properties under contract. So that balances out the frustrations in dealing with the Lenders. 

One thing I have been doing, that saves a lot of time, is that we do not negotiate the listing price on my short sale listings. What's working for me is to price the properties very close to market value and then reduce by $10,000 every 7-10 days until we hit the sweet spot and the offers start rolling in. Then we just pick the one most likely to close and go under contract. 

Another thing that helps is to make contact with the Lender at time of listing. Be nice. Remember they want the same thing you do.....a successful sale at a reasonable price. Be very straight forward with them and ask them right up front how they want you to handle the deal. If you ask....they will tell you. What I'm finding is that the Lenders are leaning more towards simple right now. I'm currently dealing with 6 different Lenders and 3 of them do not even care to see the Seller's financials. They took the information they needed over the phone. I guess they have finally decided that those 100 page short sale packages were just bogging them down. 

Anyway, this post is getting too long, so I'm going to stop. My point is to make changes in your business if you must. Get out of your comfort zone and go after the business that is out there. Your market will direct you to where you need to be focusing your efforts. We can't change the market but we can "work" the market we are in. Sometimes you just have to lose your MoJo to be able to find it again. Never give up. 

OK that's it for me. I just reread this post and I seem to be rambling today. I must have eaten too many of those darn brownies!!!! What do ya think? 

MORE INFO FROM BROKER BRYANT... THE SOURCE FOR POINCIANA REAL ESTATE

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Hi folks, today, I'm writing to pick your collective brains a little. With the huge amounts of distressed property owners in this current real estate environment a "new" business opportunity seems to have been born, The Short Sale Negotiator. 

If you are like me, I'm sure you get numerous emails from these companies, offering to assist you with short sale negotiations. They go something like this: 

• "Why spend your time negotiating with Lenders when you could be spending your time listing and selling real estate. We are a National company helping real estate agents and homeowners deal with short sale negotiations. Our services are FREE!! We get paid by taking 1% of the purchase price at time of closing. If we do not successfully negotiate a short sale on your behalf then we do not get paid." 

Here is my question: 

• Must these companies be either licensed real estate brokers or attorneys, since they are getting paid by commission only? 

I must admit that at one time these services seemed very appealing to me. I have since changed my mind. My problem is, I feel having another party between me and my sellers is opening up the door to unnecessary liability. I also feel I am giving up too much control. I'm a control freak and the thought of having to go through another party for updates just does not do it for me. 

Short sales are time consuming enough without adding another layer of frustration. 

Now having said all that, I'm positive some of these companies are very good at what they do BUT.......how do I find out who is good or not without having to put one of my sellers at risk to, find out? 

I need some help with this. What are your thoughts? 

MORE INFO FROM BROKER BRYANT... THE SOURCE FOR POINCIANA REAL ESTATE

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HOW ABOUT A DEAL TODAY ON A POINCIANA POOL HOME?

$119,000

>

This is a SHORT SALE and will require 3rd party approval.   Beautiful pool home with ceramic tile flooring throughout, travertine in the master shower, updated fixtures, solar heated inground pool, family room, heavily landscaped lot, new roof in late 2004, new AC in 2001 and much much more. Let this be you own tropical paradise. A place to call home and to build memories. Act today!

COME ON DOWN TO TUTAS TOWNE!!!

MORE INFO FROM BROKER BRYANT... THE SOURCE FOR POINCIANA REAL ESTATE

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Hi folks. I was on the phone early today speaking with a Legal Process Server, you know, the people that serve foreclosure papers. This server, Tammy, was talking to me about her job and how busy she has been, swamped, was the word she used. According to her she has been spending most of her days delivering papers in Poinciana and Davenport FL. 

Poinciana, of course, is my market area and Davenport is an area near Disney World that is predominately short term rental vacation homes. This market has also been hit real hard. With the declining economy, folks are just not spending money on vacation and the owners of these properties, mostly from the UK, are not generating enough income to pay the mortgages. 

I would not want Tammy's job. She said she gets cussed at, screamed at and threatened by homeowners just for doing her job. She also bumps into tenants that are very surprised to hear that even though they have been paying their rent every month, their home is now being foreclosed due to the landlord pocketing the rent instead of making their mortgage payments. This is a HUGE problem in my area. 

A friend of mine is the property manager for a large real estate company in Kissimmee and was telling me how she is spending quite a bit of her time relocating tenants due to foreclosures. 

I can't even imagine how pissed I would be to find out I had to move from my home even though I had been honoring my lease. But what can they do? They have no recourse, as lenders do not have to honor leases, once the property is foreclosed. No eviction process is involved. It is my understanding, that once the property is foreclosed on, the tenant has to move. Not only will they have to move but they can kiss their deposit and any advance rents good bye. Ouch!!!!

Here's an interesting article that will shed some light on what a tenant may be able to do to postpone the inevitable. 

So, what can we as REALTORS® do, to protect tenants, if we are working with them? I think the first thing I would do is research the property. If I see the property was bought in 2005 for $250,000, was on the market for 2 years "for sale" and now is being rented for $900.00 a month, I'd be very, very concerned. This property is probably owned by a "flipper" that "flopped", who is now making a last ditch effort to recoup some money. I believe I would suggest my customer/tenant take a pass on this one. 

Maybe we could have the lease worded so the rent is being paid to an escrow company who is making the mortgage payments on the owner's behalf. It would also make sense to have the security deposit and advance rents paid into escrow as well. Do you have any ideas? 

If you're a tenant, who has just been served, I would contact an Attorney ASAP. This problem is not going to just go away. Be proactive. 

OK that's all I have for you now. Any thoughts?