The Death of The Open House

I remember in 1991 when you walked into a real estate office and it was a nice quiet place to work. When you needed to know about a listing, you walked into your office and pulled up an MLS BOOK to see if the listing you took three weeks to make it into this book. THIS is the reason Realtors did “OPEN HOUSES” on listings. If you took a listing on March 3rd, your property would not hit the MLS until the April MLS Book. This is why we took listings for 7 months or 13 months because it took 30 days to get you into MLS (depending on when you listed). We did “BROKER OPEN HOUSE” on Tuesday to let Realtors see the house (because it would not be in the MLS Book for a few weeks) and we did public open houses on weekends for the same reason, no MLS visibility yet.

As we moved to the mid 1990′s, that quiet sound was gone in Realty offices across America replaced by the constant sound of the DOT MATRIX printers and the computer age in real estate. You heard at least 3-4 of those printers going at it from sun up to sun down.

By the late 1990′s to early 2000′s, most MLS information was on a Windows based format and the use of laser printers and to a less efficient degree, those color “ink” machines took over. Virtual tours were born and to me, it seemed like a long time, the market, tech wise really remained steady, without any REAL useful marketing tools made available.

That was before now. That was before I discovered EXIT Realty and my new toolbox of marketing products. E-Listings and Exit Promo Shop. NOW, I can take a listing, take the pictures at the listing and go to my office and within 30-45 minutes I can have a menu of tools available. I can print a FULL COLOR GLOSSY, four page brochure in Promo Shop, I can pump out my “JUST LISTED” postcards for the community, I can e-mail that same flyer to top Realtors in the area and my database and I can do a few more things. My 1-800 number in E-Listings gives my recorded message to potential Buyers of my listings (under my name rider is the 1-800 recorded info line on this listing) and the buyer can hit a button and get my E-Tour right on their Smart Phone in seconds! My listings have a website dedicated to their house (www.whatever the listing address is) with downloadable flyers of the house, mapping to and from the house and other information. I can burn the E-Tour on a CD right from the program, label as well. All of this is sindicated to all major search engines with a click of a button. Social networks like Linkedin, Facebook and Myspace? Upload right to those sites as well. How about on-line tours and e-magazine? I could write for another 2 hours on those products alone!

Open House? Are you kidding? Why waste time waiting for a buyer when you can find 20 of them with the products I just mentioned? Since EXIT REALTY is the only major franchise born AFTER the tech revolution, we are MILES ahead of the competition on the marketing front.

Nobody offers less fees, more than 100% commissions, and all the marketing tools your mind can cover. Nothing compares to Exit! I am going on my 20th year in the business and I am not talking sour grapes here! In 2008 I was #1 WORLDWIDE with ERA and when I saw what EXIT had to offer me, I could not leave fast enough! I skipped the ERA Convention and did not even get my award in 2009 because I was on my way……. DANCING my way over to EXIT! Best decision I have ever made! If you would STOP looking out for your broker, who is also looking out for your broker and look at what is best for YOU and YOUR FAMILY, you will join OUR FAMILY here at Exit. The more you learn, the better decision you can make

http://www.headofrealestate.com

What Was America Thinking in Nov of 2008?

What the heck is President Obama thinking? We just sent $70,000,000 to Pakistan for the flood relief? Why don’t those Muslims building the Masque near the site of ground zero throw some money that way? Why does President Obama want to bail out EVERYONE except the people on “Main Street” that he promised to help on the campaign trail?

The banks get a big TRILLION dollar bailout (paid for by the people on Main Street) and now are reporting record profits again. What do the banks do in return? Do they ease the Short Sale crises in America by making the process easier? NO, the are dragging out the process and then when they finally do make the deal happen, the go after everyone involved in the deal to cut fees and do their best NOT TO PAY THE PEOPLE who made the deal happen. Stuffing their own pockets. How is shortchanging those workers on Main Street going to stimulate the economy? If we can’t make any money selling Short Sales, why do we bother? My commissions have been cut well over six figures on Short Sales in the last few years, money that would have been spent and used to stimulate the economy. Now times me by over 500,000 Realtors across the USA! It seems like our President forgot who he was working for.

Now he (President Obama) decided to backpedal on the Masque being built near the site of the World Trade Center disaster. What he SHOULD HAVE SAID (had his Teleprompter been hooked up) was “They do have a right to build it anywhere they want, however I think they should use better judgement in their location of the Masque…… the American people and the people of New York have suffered enough” but as usual, he was apologizing FOR America instead of leading her. Anyone who thinks this guy has done a good job is nuts!

He is spending by the trillions trying to stimulate this flat economy. All he needs to do is cut the taxes of wealthy Americans and offer tax incentives to hire workers and this broken down machine of America can start her economic engine again. But this ARROGANT man refuses to do it because HE wants to be the one to invent a NEW WAY to do it……………… bankrupting America for a shot at history. Well the only history he is making is standing next to Jimmy Carter as the worst commanders in US HISTORY! I’ll bet George Bush is smiling because as much as Obama hates him, he made Bush look TERRIFIC compared to him. He is a despicable man and a despicable President.

http://www.headofrealestate.com

Craigs List and Lazy Realtors

OK, I go to put some of my listings on Craigslist today and what do I see but MY LISTING listed with another brokerage firm! I was flabbergasted to say the least! I know it is common to share information in this new Internet wave (for website searches etc) but to have an agent actually sit down, steal your pictures from MLS, put them into Craigslist and mislead the public into thinking that they are the listing agent? That is a new one to me! Is it a violation? I called MidFlorida MLS and they told me “as long as at the very bottom of the listing it says “Listed with Exit Realty Foundations” that this was OK”. After I got up off the floor I started thinking……….

What kind of REALTOR would do this? LAZY ones. When I was a new agent, there was no Internet access. In those days, you had to work to get your business. You got off your deadbeat ass and WORKED at your business. Today, the prototypical LAZY REALTOR can sit in the A/C and post listings that not only don’t belong to them, but not even their office! A shortcut so they think, HOWEVER, if they do this, it tells me all I need to know about them. They will never make it long term in this industry. One thing that has not changed in my 20 years in this business is that “the extra mile still has no traffic jams” and that is the motto of most successful agents.

Those LAZY Realtors might think they are being smart, but when the meet the client who contacted them on the $600,000 listing only to get to the property and see MY SIGN on the lawn, I’ll let them explain to those buyers how “slick” they really are.

My question to NAR is this: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO SELL CLAUSE IN OUR LISTING CONTRACTS? Somebody better wake up on this or it could be the beginning of the end for the real estate industry as we know it today.

For more information on me, please go to http://www.headofrealestate.com