I read and interesting article (below) sent to a reporter by a home owner. His (homeowner) take on the market is that real estate brokers should share in the losses created by a declining market.  What he doesn't understand is that real estate brokers already are.

What I think is more important about this article is recognizing an opportunity. One of the many great things about the Assist-2-Sell concept is saving people money and charging a fair commission in any market. Make no mistake about it, home sellers need us now more than ever. Home equity in America is at historic lows and every dollar counts.  Not only is Assist-2-Sell the best option, In many cases we may be the only option.

As a real estate broker/agent you are a problem solver. Someone has a need to buy or sell a home; you can solve that problem for them. What is one of the biggest problems home owners are facing right now? They need to sell and most have very little equity.  Assist-2-Sell can solve that problem better than anyone else.

DEAR BENNY: I had my home priced under the market price and recently took it away from the brokers so I could lower the price even more. Why? Well, I have a beautiful, wonderfully priced home and did not get any offers.

In this period of downturn in the real estate market, each week we are told, "Price your house under the market value or pull it off the market."

My question is this: Why is it entirely on the homeowners to take a hit when this whole mess was not their fault -- except some got greedy on the price? Homeowners would be less resistant to lowering the price if the real estate brokers would also lower their commission rates. Is it a state law that they cannot lower their fees? We are in this together and we need some incentives from the real estate brokers. --Bob

Full Story 

We have all heard the saying, "real estate is all about location, location, location." But I have a nice home in a great location why doesn't it sell?

What does it really take to sell a home in today's real estate market? Is it location, new carpet, fresh landscaping, offering a free trip to Hawaii, paying closing cost, or offering more commission to buyers agents? No. The saying sellers and agents should get to know and love is, "real estate is about price, price, price."

The right price will overcome anything. Think about it, if a home is in a bad location but the price is right, it will sell. If the home is in bad condition but priced well, it will sell. If a home stinks and has no landscaping, with the right price tag it will sell.

Auctions, bank owned properties, and short sales seem to get all the attention, why is that? Is it because buyers and agents love the excitement of an auction and want to fight over the house with countless other buyers? Or maybe buyers love the idea of buying a home that was foreclosed on, has a dead lawn, hasn't been lived in for over a year, and needs a lot of maintenance? Or maybe agents and buyers like the challenge of trying to get a short sale approved and closed? I am being sarcastic but I think I made the point.

Get your home/listing priced right, make it a "deal" and it will sell. Think about adding value with creative financing options. Lease options and owner carries. If the home has a loan with a great interest rate, find out if it is assumable. Many loans are assumable with qualifying. If the loan has a 5% fixed rate assumable loan this can be a great "deal" for a buyer.

We have posted another audio recording about A2STalk.com our exclusive blogging platform for franchisees.    

 "I set up my A2STalk.com account/blog, now what?"    

Dave Crumby, Erin Campbell, and Ryan Elliott discuss taking the next steps in setting up your blog. Topics include, what to write about, what not to write about, places to get good ideas for posts, and much more.  You can also get more information on my blog at  The recording is posted on the franchisee resource center under the "A2S Talk Blog Series"  section about halfway down the homepage on the resource center. The link is called "A2S Talk.com next steps audio."  The audio is in MP3 format and can be downloaded by right clicking on the the link and selecting "save  target as," and chose a location to save the file on your computer.   

 As always, if you need any assistance let me know.

Happy Blogging!  

Ok many have asked me what blogs I follow. So here is a list of my top real estate and business blogs in no particular order.

Future of Real Estate Marketing. http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/

This blog is about technology and its application to the real estate industry. The writer, Joel Burslem, is great and the blog is a great read.

1000 Watt Consulting Blog http://www.1000wattblog.com/

This blog is about web 2.0 and marketing. The focus is on the real estate industry.

Real Estate Tomato Blog. http://www.retomato.typepad.com/

Great blog about a number of topic but mostly about blogging for real estate.

Up 2 Date Real Estate http://www.up2daterealestate.com/

This is written by one of our franchisee Doug Willis in Pasadena, CA. He has done a great job with this blog. This is good example of how to blog effectively.

Blog for Author Seth Godin http://www.sethgodin.typepad.com/

Seth Godin is a great writer with many best selling books on business, marketing and customer service. The blog is great and thought provoking

4 Hour Work Week Blog. www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog

This is the blog for the best selling book The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. This blog always has great ideas on time savings and cost cutting as well as great studies.

In addition to the above I follow a news feed/ blog for our local news paper in Reno.

Final thoughts on the street corner agent. 

The last part of my conversation with Paul was about some interesting ideas he had for making contact with potential customers. For example, he buys lottery tickets every week and staples them to his business cards. He passes out the cards to people he runs into at the grocery store, bank, gas station, and yard sales, etc. He tells people "this card could be worth 25 million." If someone wins, all they have to do is buy a house from him.  As he puts it, "I figure the card has at least a week of shelf life because people need to hang on to it to see if they win!" He says it is a great conversation starter.

Speaking of yard sales,  Paul says he tries to visit yard sales whenever he has a chance.  He plasters his car with signs and graphics and even has a trailer with graphics.  He goes not only to find good deals, but to make contact with people looking to buy or sale a property.  He says many people have yard sales when they are getting ready to move. He also tries to go to as many estate sales as he can.  Great deals and many of the properties need to be sold.

Assist-2-Sell gives you a great edge when it comes to marketing. You have a great conversation piece built in with your system. "I will sell your home and save you thousands." Try the above ideas and incorporate the Assist-2-Sell advantage, I bet you have great success.

Making human contact is the key to success with both prospecting for new business and taking care of the business you have!

You have to check out http://www.docstoc.com/  What is DocStoc.com, I took this from their web site.

"docstoc is a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. Find free legal documents and free business documents."

There are PowerPoint presentations, legal documents, flyer templates, how to write a mission statement, employment applications, business plans, educational documents, and just about anything else you can think of.

The site also has a number of very good ebooks on a variety of topics.

Before you make anything from scratch, check out DocStoc.com it will save you time and money!

So I decided to take action and find out what the video below was all about and see if this guy got any business out of it.

I called him and got voice mail, his name is Paul and he works in Jacksonville.  I Figured I might not get a call back.  To my surprise he called me back with 3-4 minutes. Nice!  Ok, so I had to ask him if this was a set up. He said yes it was. He told some friends and coworkers he was going to do this and they set up the video.  He decided to post the video on youtube and it got picked up on the local evening news, the newspaper, and web sites.

He picked out a place he knew panhandlers normally would be and went out there. Apparently the panhandlers weren't happy, he was on their turf! He wound up paying them to let him use their corner.  

So the next question is why? Paul tells me the market in his area is slow as it is in many areas and he felt he had to do something different. He was tired of the same ol' marketing that did nothing for him. He wanted to get out there and make contact with potential customers. As he put it "get face to face."  This was one way to do it.

I asked what the reaction has been; he said it has been across the board. Some think he is nuts and is giving real estate a bad name. Others thought it was a great idea. He says everywhere he goes people know him as the street corner realtor, or the sign guy.  He doesn't care it got his name out there.

So did he get any business from the exercise?  He said he has made a number of contacts which turned into business. So in an indirectly he may have. As he says "most people I make contact with are not ready to buy or sell right now but they will be at some point. I want them to remember me." So who knows what kind of business he is going to get but as Paul puts it, "it is already paying off."

I have to hand it to Paul for taking a risk and trying something different. Like it or hate it, it worked for him. He shared a number of his other ideas which I will share later.

Below is a video of an agent on a street corner in Jacksonville, Fl.  Most people's first reaction is to make fun of the guy.  I have to hand it to him, he is taking action and trying to make contact with potential home buyers and sellers.  Am I recommending you do this, no.  If you are at least get a better sign!

I think he could take his energies and focus on a neighborhood that he works, talk to fsbos and expired listings, do some open houses and talk to buyers, etc. Go talk to local banks and get a relationship going with loss mitigation dept and try to pick up some REO, etc..

The bottom line is he is taking action and trying to get out there and do some business. He could bury his head in the sand and hope things get better or he could take action.

I would be interested to see if he got any business from doing this. You know what I am going to call and find out! I will let you know what I find out.

I found the quote below that's timley in todays market.  

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions
as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."

                                                                       Denis Waitley

It seems everyone one in the real estate business is busy trying to figure out who to blame for the changing markets. I could go on and on about the banks reckless lending practices, greedy investors, home owners making poor choices, government turning a blind eye, etc. 

 At this point what good does pointing the finger do?  While it may make you feel better to blame someone, it does nothing to change the current situation.  

 The time is now for all of us to accept responsabilty to change the conditions. The Real Estate business is about people always has been and always will be. People need help, direction, advice, and an expert to take control. We can change this market one short sale, foreclosure, REO, buyer, and seller at a time.  What we don't need is more people telling us who to blame. 

What can you do today to change the current condition for the better?   

I've heard over the years, history repeats itself. Humans are creatures of habit and cycles will always repeat. I was talking to my dad the other night and he shared a story about a conversation he had with my great grandfather. When my dad was in college and looking to start his own business, he asked his grandfather for his "nugget" of advice. He said "history repeats itself, every 20 years cycles will change, be ready to take advantage" My dad was young and didn't think the advise was all that great, he was more concerned with the future. Looking back it was probably some of best advise he ever received.

I always get a kick out of all the "experts" that, at the top of a cycle say, this time is different, the rules have changed, there are new laws to keep this from happening, etc.. To prove my point take a look at some the following stories from the past.

[6.17] Hence followed a scarcity of money, a great shock being given to all credit, the current coin too, in consequence of the conviction of so many persons and the sale of their property, being locked up in the imperial treasury or the public exchequer. To meet this, the Senate had directed that every creditor should have two-thirds his capital secured on estates in Italy. Creditors however were suing for payment in full, and it was not respectable for persons when sued to break faith. So, at first, there were clamorous meetings and importunate entreaties; then noisy applications to the praetor's court. And the very device intended as a remedy, the sale and purchase of estates, proved the contrary, as the usurers had hoarded up all their money for buying land. The facilities for selling were followed by a fall of prices, and the deeper a man was in debt, the more reluctantly did he part with his property, and many were utterly ruined. The destruction of private wealth precipitated the fall of rank and reputation, till at last the emperor interposed his aid by distributing throughout the banks a hundred million sesterces, and allowing freedom to borrow without interest for three years, provided the borrower gave security to the State in land to double the amount. Credit was thus restored, and gradually private lenders were found. The purchase too of estates was not carried out according to the letter of the Senate's decree, rigour at the outset, as usual with such matters, becoming negligence in the end.

A.D. 32-37 The Annals By Tacitus

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/tacitus/TacitusAnnals06.html

March 16, 1946
New York Times

President demands housing crisis ends

July 18, 1969
New York Times

Builders and financial institutions urge overhaul of Federal home mortgage programs to ease financial crisis in housing.

July 28, 1974
New York Times

Current housing slump worst since Depression days

November 29, 1986
Boston Globe

Serious housing crisis that is getting worse

July 20, 1990
Washington Post

Median Home Price Falls; First Drop in 10 Years

February 17, 1991
Dallas Morning News

HOME-LOAN DEFAULTS SOARING

October 27, 1992
Denver Post

At the peak of the foreclosure crisis
 

August 22, 1993
Los Angles

Home Sellers Pay the Price as Home Values Decline and There's No End in Sight

Do any of these headlines look familiar? Back when these articles were written and the sky was falling everyone said the market will never be the same, it is going to take decades to recover, there is a long road ahead, etc.. Through numerous natural disasters, wars, economic crisis, rising energy prices, and high interest rates, real estate has managed an impressive 3.9%-7.6% average yearly appreciation (depending on the region).

Going thru a down cycle is never easy, frankly it sucks. It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The light is coming and the market will start to stabilize. New home sales at a 13 year low, is great news. Existing home sales up for the first time in 9 months.

This too shall pass.