Some of Arizona’s most Successful Agents call John Hall & Associates home.
Monthly Archives: November 2008
AAR's Staying Competitve Program with Swanepoel and Gonzales
Today, more than ever, we are all wondering what 2009 will bring us and how we can best position ourselves to be successful AND stay in business.
AAR is bringing in Stefan Swanepoel and Oscar Gonzales to Phoenix for our Staying Competitive program on December 3 (9:00 – Noon) at the Black Canyon Conference Center, Phoenix.
Pinpointing external change and detecting customer patterns allows you to make sound judgments about where the world is going and puts your business on the offensive to capitalize on theses changes.
Stefan will highlight tomorrow’s trends and help you understand how to get in front of the competition. Stefan is a true visionary whose enthusiasm for what he does is only matched by his vision and his amazing grasp of our industry! His annual Swanepoel Trends Report provides you with unequaled insight into what is happening in the industry, a comprehensive overview of new business developments, important business strategies you can benefit from now and tomorrow.
During Oscar’s presentation, he will examine:
♦ The changing demographics and buying power of the new America.
♦ How successful organizations create and utilize business development tools to accommodate changing market conditions to grow their market share even in today’s market.
♦ Developing specific products and services through customer segmentation to meet the needs of the new consumer.
♦ How to formulate and execute key strategic objectives that accommodates a Multicultural initiative, while growing market share and profitability.
If you are wondering what 2009 will bring or how to tap into new markets, this is the class for you! Don’t go into 2009 uninformed!!
BONUS: Everyone who registers by 6:00 p.m. on November 26 will be entered into a drawing for a complimentary copy of the 2008 Swanepoel Trends Report.
To register: www.regonline.com/stayingcompetitive (please put in the discount code “AAR” when registering)
ARMLS updated Lender/Corp Aprvl Field
Did you get the ARMLS email? Thursday morning they sent an email out all members notifying us that they changed the field title Lender/Corp Aprvl to Relo/Corp Aprvl. Many agents were using the Lender/Corp Approval field for all potential short sales – when that wasn’t its purpose. That’s what the Short Sale field is for. Hopefully this move helps differentiate the two – I think it will.
As you can read in the email linked above, ARMLS did it’s best to correct listings that appeared to be incorrect. If you have any Relocation or Short Sale listings, you may want to double check everything is set the way you want it. Also while you are in there, if you are the listing agent on any of the 125 listings that are categorized as both short sales and lender owned you might want to correct them as well!
Support NAR's Four-Point Housing Stimulus Plan
NAR is asking for REALTORS® help. They’re not looking for financial help, the just need your voice. I received this in an email yesterday. Their campaign ends November 30th, 2008.
Congress may soon consider a new economic stimulus bill. Housing has always lifted our economy out of past economic downturns so it is imperative that Congress focus on housing in the next stimulus package.
We need ALL members to support NAR’s efforts to have the NAR Four-Point Housing Stimulus Plan included in any future stimulus bill.
Take action and contact Congress today and ask them to include NAR’s Four-Points in the next stimulus package.
The Four-Points are:
1. Make the $7500 tax credit available to all purchasers and eliminate the repayment requirement. The credit’s limited availability and required repayment terms have severely limited the credit’s appeal to potential homebuyers. As a result, the credit has not been widely used or proven effective at stimulating sales.
2. Make the 2008 FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits permanent. New rules for 2009 would significantly reduce the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limit from their 2008 levels. Now is not the time to limit the availability of affordable mortgages.
3. Get the Emergency Treasury bank relief program back on track by targeting more funds to mortgage relief efforts and increasing efforts to mitigate foreclosures. Don’t just give the banks unrestricted cash. Make the program work to improve mortgage and housing markets as it was originally intended.
4. Permanently bar banks and banking conglomerates from engaging in real estate brokerage and management. The banks have proven they have enough to do to simply properly manage their current lines of business. Do we really want them to manage on the home buying process? Imagine what could have been the situation now if they already had the added ability to engage in real estate sales.
Consider supporting House of Refuge East
The Holidays are just around the corner. Which means our Holiday Charity, House of Refuge East (HRE), is underway. This is the 10th year John Hall and Associates has adopted HRE as our Holiday charity. Our company goal is to raise $5000, which will be used to buy Holiday Meals as well as provide some gifts to be delivered to the kids at a Holiday Party.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with HRE, let me share how they help the community. HRE has been around since 1996, providing transitional housing for homeless families. They have 82, two bedroom homes located at the former Williams Air Force Base. Participants not only have to meet the definition of homelessness, but also must be willing to work or go to school a minimum of 30 hours a week, be stabilized from dependence on alcohol or drugs, and follow a program to transition them to permanent housing and independent living.
Please look for the display in any John Hall & Associates office, or call Colleen Kolb at the Arrowhead office 623-878-8500. Let’s brighten our own Holiday by helping someone else.
New this year, Richard Bergemann and Mary Permoda are donating all proceeds from the holiday Arbonne orders they receive in the month of November – so please hurry if you are interested. Anyone can get a look at their product line on their website. Please window shop there but DO NOT place orders on the site. They will not get added to the House of Refuge donation. Call Richard or Mary at the number below to place an order. Plus, for anyone purchasing $150 worth of product, you will receive a special bonus. You will receive $50 worth of additional product for only $10. You can ask any questions and place orders by calling:
Mary Permoda 602-284-6009
Richard Bergemann 602-300-6516
Please consider supporting the House of Refuge East. This is a wonderful charity that needs our help. No amount is too small. Thank you in advance.
How should real estate agents start marketing with social media?
Your business is based on generating and converting leads. The best of the best of the best (Sir!) will tell you without leads is without business. The intended result with all prospecting online or off is to be in mind when anyone you ‘touch’ thinks of buying or selling real estate. If using the internet and social media (smart) is part of the plan, keep reading. If not, keep reading anyway – chances are you’ll have a change of heart soon. So here it is, my picks of the best recommendations from the 2008 NAR Conference in Orlando. Remember, these sites are intended to socialize with others. Lose the fear. It’s just like going to a new social event, you may not know the people but if you engage chances are you’ll develop new meaningful relationships.
Join meetup.com, search for local groups, and request to join the ones of interest. Tread lightly. Don’t go stomping around any new site saying how you REALTOR® this and you REALTOR® that. They won’t welcome you. OBSERVE how people communicate and remember it’s more important to be interested than interesting¹.
Participate in yelp.com. Get into your local neighborhood’s section and write reviews. You need to get a login, add all the information they allow and start reviewing local “stuff”. You can connect with others that are writing local reviews. When participating in social sites like this, compare it to offline social gatherings² and act accordingly. When you show up at an in-person social event do you stand on a chair and shout the fact that you are a REALTOR® and if any one needs to buy or sell they can call you? No. Treat all these online sites the same as you would treat an offline gathering.
Use search.twitter.com to find people talking about things that interest you – whether it’s your hobbies, neighborhoods, or local events. Join the discussions. If you find a void, fill it. You need a twitter account for this. Sign-up, follow some local people, make sure you say hello, and observe how the conversation happens. Don’t be scared to tell people you’re learning – chances are they’ll offer to help. Twitter is an excellent website to develop your internet voice². You can only write short comments, so you learn to make your point quickly. Again, tread lightly.
Flickr.com (a photo sharing website) is an excellent tool to showoff your community. Take pictures at the fair, of local landmarks, or beautiful scenery. Post the pictures, title them, add them to local groups. Ines Hegedus-Garcia from Miami has created a local group and she encourages people from her community to add pictures of Miami. She then highlights the best picture of the week in a blog post. Of course the photographer whose picture is selected is thrilled and tells all their friends to check it out. Brilliant. Photography may be your passion and something you really enjoy. Teresa Boardman from St. Paul MN uses flickr to post pictures from around her town. If you look at enough of her pictures you’ll want to move there too. But it’s not soley for relocation, the locals regularly check out her photos, and some of them ask permission to reprint them on their own marketing materials. These are both great ways to use the tool. Whatever you do, DO NOT just upload your listing photos – no one will return – ever.
These four sites can be used hyper-locally. Use them to control the web presence of yourself and your neighborhood. To repeat, the best way for beginners to learn is to OBSERVE. If you have questions, ask. Have fun! If you get more joy out of creating newsletters – stick with it. You have to enjoy what you do.
¹ Dustin Luther’s Mom aka “The Blog-Grandmother”
2008 NAR Conference and Expo Wrap-Up (Phil's view)
If you haven’t read Jim’s Orlando Reports – go check them out – he has a different perspective than I. Here you’ll find my highlights including the most popular tech tool, the hands-on learning center, and the incredible networking that goes on at these conferences.
The first session I attended was a ZipForm class in the “Technology Learning Center” which was a hands-on laptop computer lab sponsored by Stewart Title. I wanted to go to the class because AAR‘s forms printing operations are being ceased January 1st, 2009 (I repeat, Arizona real estate agents will no longer be able to purchase printed forms from their associations after the 1st of the year.) and I want to be able to answer anticipated questions when that occurs. I was happy to see their training structure, get some golden nuggets of information and receive a CD with all their class handouts – not just the ZipForm class. (Let me know if you would like to peek at any of these session notes.)
The next session I attended was a Dustin Luther moderated panel, Driving REAL Business with Blogs. It was one of four sessions I attended that covered the subject of blogging and social media, so you’ll have to wait until the next post to read those thoughts.
Let the Expo begin! I think Jim did a good job of talking about the theme of the vendors on the floor. I felt the most popular products on the floor were no surprise, franchise real estate brokerages, international Associations of REALTORS®, and MLS products. However, it seemed the most popular tech tool was the “text for more listing information” product. Do you know the one I’m talking about? They provide you with a sign rider that instructs passer-bys to text a word/number to a shortened phone number. Then the passer-bys receive a text message with more information about the listing. The major point of this is so the real estate agent can capture the cell phone number of those interested in the listing. I’m not sure if this type of product is really effective or really easy to develop because there were a lot of booths selling basically the same thing. Have you used a product like this? Does it work? I wouldn’t give up my cell phone number for immediate listing information – but that may just be me.
What was the best part of the trip? The people. I had an excellent lunch with Michael Wurzer of FBS Data where we discussed his broker IDX product and I got a chance to throw in a little flexmls feedback. I also got a chance to meet the engineers of iMapp and spoke with them about their tax service product. As Jim mentioned, they should be removing foreclosures from the auto-valuation tool and adding new statistical charts. I got to speak with the owner about the traffic to iMapp and he agreed to email me the google analytics (more on that if they show anything interesting). Wow. It just hit me that I’m officially the company nerd when I get excited about the google analytics of iMapp. Dang! Last but not least I finally met Kerry Melcher in person. She is the definition of keepin’ it real!
Next year the conference is in San Diego and you should consider attending. It’s an excellent way to (CLAP!) PUMP, You Up for the following year. If you can’t make it, the next best thing is listening to the mp3′s Jim buys for John Hall & Associates. They arrived Friday so stay tuned for announcements on the intranet.
Orlando Report-2008 by Jim Sexton (Final Thoughts)
It’s always nice to see friends that you haven’t seen recently. I teased Rich Rector of Realty Executives that I haven’t seen or talked to him since last year’s convention in Las Vegas. I ran into Jan Jaloma (formerly Boyanga) a former PRC employee now located in Tampa-hadn’t seen her since Orlando 5 years ago. I briefly spoke with Alice Martin currently NAR-Chicago, formerly AAR-hadn’t seen her since March in Prescott. I congratulated AAR’s CEO Tom Farley on running a successful Prop 100 campaign. Just a tip if you see Tom-don’t congratulate him on winning with a 72% Yes vote. He’ll correct you to the exact %-77.4-I think. Stick with better than 3 to 1. Hey we didn’t even see Mickey or Minnie-Go figure.
Phil and I did take some time on Thursday night for 18 holes of miniature golf. Quite a match. Came down to the last few clutch putts. He claimed he didn’t have the camera to take the pictures of the winner accepting the trophy for first prize. Orlando was well worth the trip for me. I think US Air is starting a new ad campaign and their slogan will be “We’re not happy until you’re not happy” and they are succeeding.
Orlando Report-2008 by Jim Sexton (Trade Show)
I like to try and get a Theme for the annual Trade shows and while technology certainly ruled the floor, it seemed like Mobile applications has received considerable attention.
I found a “build your own” floor plan mobile application. Basically a CAD type program that allowed you to build a floor plan from the inside out-room by room. Then when you’re done you can calculate square footage and email wherever you want-from a company out of the UK. I think appraisers would love it.
I visited iMapp and chatted about their product and CMA program and the ability to edit/filter out Bank owned sales. And the issue of showing a Trustee sale with the Sold price being the foreclosed mortgage amount. iMapp was encouraged to speak with the Information Market to separate REO’s from other sales. iMapp is developing some statistical reporting programs for their public records. It looked great and I expect we’ll be able to see these soon.
NAR is coming out with a TV show and a radio show. I spoke to the radio folks and they will have sponsorship opportunities.
How about Trade show busts- there had to be over a dozen of “Short sale” systems and REO networks. The short sale companies all had over 90 % success rates but some would take a little longer than others, while the REO lead generators had many leads available waiting for purchase. We passed on these folks.
Now I really should end my report but I’ll ask a few “out there” questions. All assume opt in participation only.
Should ARMLS consider offering an “efax” type service-out of the Flex dashboard?
Should ARMLS consider offering a “Build your own” Virtual tour or Video tour service?
Should ARMLS consider offering a Mobile text service?
Orlando Report-2008 by Jim Sexton (General Session)
The Realtors of the Year from all the states were introduced and appeared on stage. The NAR Officers presented different parts of the program including Arizona’s own Vicki Cox-Golder our new President-elect. I wasn’t aware that President Gaylord had recorded 19 pod casts this year. For example this is NAR’s call to Congress for additional immediate work on another Stimulus package and NAR’s 4 point plan http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1870915382/bctid1870898540
The Good Neighbor awards were announced and once again they were moving, inspirational, and humbling presentations of the work done by the 5 recipients. John Hall’s own Reita Hutson won for her work with Gabriel’s Dream.
Lance Armstrong was the featured speaker and he covered his battles with cancer and winning his 7 Tour de France’s. His inspirational message basically mirrored his book “It’s not about the bike” I highly recommend his story of survival. Also it’s incredible to see how he leveraged his fame and cancer survival to raise close to $70 million dollars in 10 years.
The # of attendees was presented all over the place from the 30,000 like Vegas last year to 20,000 to mid teens. I thought the sessions were not full and the Trade show was easy to get around and see anybody you wanted to. I think the real number was closer to 10,000. But was it worthwhile? ABSOLUTELY. In fact NAR has TOO MUCH to grasp. Lots to cover and review and basically it’s overkill for your attention. For example the new study of Home Buyers/Home Sellers was released-great information regarding who’s buying and selling.
You can’t say enough about the classes presented at NAR. Over the 3 ½ days they present over 120 sessions on everything from an Economic forecast, How to sell Resort properties, commercial topics, property management, time management, the list goes on and on. We should have the recordings ready for review starting 2 weeks from today. I think anybody in real estate could find at least a dozen classes that would be extremely informative for you. Keep it in mind and watch for further posts.
Jim Sexton talks about Tom Ruff’s email
Wow this is a report that you may need to read a couple of times to absorb. Why? October was a month with a lot of upheaval and government response. I think Tom’s info, insight and website are key pieces to understand and explain what’s happening in our market. I strongly recommend that you review his newsletter and check out his website.
Here are my October nuggets from Tom-
1) Number of Notices-8503 minus 874 duplicates = 7629 compared to September’s 7638;
2) 3516 Trustee sales canceled-Why? Intervention;
3) 4587-October Foreclosures up 200 from September.
Is the Foreclosure market “attempting to plateau?” It appears so.
Update: We’ve updated the foreclosure charts.
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