Keller Williams Realtor Training: SHIFT Your Real Estate Business Into High Gear with 12 Tactics for Tough Times(Tactics 10-12: Expand The Options, Master The Market of the Moment & Bulletproof The Transaction)

TWELVE TACTICS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN TOUGH TIMES

TACTICS 10 – 12

Tactic 10: Expand The Options

In a shifted market you will need all the legal, proven financing solutions at your disposal to get your transactions closed.
Look at alternative financing and expand the options.

Three Areas of Creative Financing:

What Sellers Can Do:

Creative Things Buyers Can Do to Buy a Home:

Creative Things Lenders Can Do to Finance a Transaction:

Government Funded or Bonded Programs.
Municipal or Regional Grants.
Resubmit loan applications through automated programs until they figure out just what a buyer needs to do in order to qualify for a loan.

Your Financing Team:

Sales agents only need to have a firm understanding of the playing field, the players and the options.
Build a team of financing experts and sources.
Having them keep you informed and up to date.
Position them to serve your clients.

Tactic #11: Master the Market of the Moment

Short sales, foreclosures, and REO’s quickly become the market of the moment.
Dealing with homes in default is hard work and requires orginization and persistence.

The Three Stages of the Market of the Moment

Stage One: Default:

An insolvent homeowner in default seeks relief from the lender.
Options: 1. Lender temporarily suspends or reduces payments(forbearance), 2. Lender agrees to modify the loan and 3., Lender agrees to a short sale.

Stage Two: Foreclosure

Homeowner is unable to cure loan and home is foreclosed.
Options: 1. Homeowner repurchases home at auction or during redemption period and 2., Investor purchases home.

Stage Three: REO

Home goes unsold at auction and becomes “real estate owned” on the lenders books(a liability).
Options: 1., Agent works with lender to market REO’s for resale and 2., Agent works with REO agent to handle their buyers.
The Two Opportunites of REO’s:
1. REO Seller Representative – listing agents who market their services to financial instituions.
2. REO Buyer Representative – buyer agents who market their services to REO seller representatives.

Tactic # 12: Bulletproof The Transaction

Forewarned is forearmed.
You must get the transaction to and through closing.
Do that as a fiduciary service to their clients.
Do that in order to get paid.
You will have to deal with “buyer remorse,” “seller anger,” loan processing delays, tight appraisals, tough inspections and anxiety all around you.
You must be the calmest person in the transaction.

Outcome Framing:

Remind people about the consequences of their decisions and actions.
In times of fear, doubt or emotional reaction, bring them back to serenity and reason.

Deal with Buyer’s Remorse:

Nail down the decision.
Make a list of all the ways in which this new home meets their needs.
Write down all the work they have done in finding this ‘best possible home.’
Have them date and sign this paper with the lists on it, and you sign it with them.
Congratulate them on their diligence and success.

The Three S’s of Bulletproofing:

Selection: Do everything possible to select the service providers and have confidence that they are reliable, stable and acting on behalf of you and your clients.
Supervision: Check on progress. Be ready to handle mistakes and delays before they become serious.
Systems: You must have systems in place to: track the closing process, alert you at critical checkpoints and communicate the progress to your clients.
You also want to have a say in the selection of inspectors, landscapers, repair people, insurance agents and other service providers.
Not only is your advice desired and expected by both buyers and sellers, but it insures that things will go as smoothly as possible.

Inspections and Appraisals:

Play Defense:

Putting It All Together

Down shifts are more difficult on the front-end.
Up-shifts are more difficult on the back-end.
The drop off is steep in the buyer market.
The build-up is slower and more sustained in the seller market.
A buyers’ market requires us to be doing the things we should have been doing all the time.