All posts by Bettina Settles

My clients appreciate my compassion, empathetic nature when dealing with them and their transaction but more than willing to educate in a simple way to make a complex transaction understood. Being accessible and cooperative when it comes to dealing with clients and cooperative agents has earned me high praises from both. They have learned that I am dedicated, honest, and knowledgeable and can become very persuasive when it comes when working a transaction for my clients.
Communication, education, Inspiration, Team work, tips

ā€œDo you have workers or believers?ā€

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Stood out to me as I read an article in the IBJ under the Small Business Matters blog titled Preaching to the choir could be good strategy.

 

Is our internal and external staff truly satisfied? It is not the leadership it is a satisfied staff that will be the crucial part of a business success. No matter how many money rain dances the leadership does when the Indians are not happy noting will be accomplished.

 

Is the business as healthy from the inside as you make it appear on the outside or does it have bald spot under all the hair? Is everybody in the same board rowing into the same direction or do you have some who do not understand the your goal and vision and do you have an internal tug-of war going on.

 

Did you clearly communicate your vision your culture to your organization? Did you include others but the normal decision maker to create your goal and vision or did you just use the ā€œnormalā€ handful to help with the decision making.

 

When we donā€™t market our vision to our internal and external staffs who can you expect them to sell it for you?

commitment, Communication, education, Team work, tips

I am an EXPERT in ā€¦.

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I see this line on so many things from blogs, business cards, emails signatures and I am wondering if the person who added the line truly is an EXPERT.

 

An EXPERT is having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience and EXPERT’S have a prolonged or intense experience through practice and education in a particular field.

 

Reading this I wonder how many of the EXPERTS out there have the prolonged or intense experience through practice and education in the field they are claiming to be an EXPERT in.

 

I will use myself as an example.

 

I have been selling real state now for over 15 years including short sales. I am by no means an EXPERT in short sales or real estate. I have experience in selling real estate of any kind, but by no means do I consider myself an EXPERT.

 

Every day I am learning more and more about my field and I still have a lot to learn.

 

I am daily doing research in this area to attempt to understand the relation between cognitive structures and processes of real estate in any form. I have gotten better but still not considering myself as an EXPERT.

 

When I hear anyone call themselves an EXPERT this quote comes in mind:

 

Experts always know everything but the fine points. When I took my citizenship exams, no one there knew how the White House came to be called the White House. ā€œ Hedy Lamarr ā€œ

commitment, Communication, Team work, tips

Your past performance might come to haunt you in the future.

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How many time have we heard from parents, teachers, friends and others never to burn your bridges.

I am sure you had you fair share like we all do. I know I did.

 

Have you ever thought about your past work performance?

 

This becomes important when you decide to part ways but maybe later you decided to return due to a change of your personal situation or the company is now offering more of what you are looking for.

 

It is very interesting to see how surprised some individuals are when they are not asked to return due to their past performance when they inquiring and asking to return. Some of them did not think that a record is kept of their performance especially when they where hired as independent contractors.

 

They did not think that when no one was able to get in touch with them via phone or email for a longer period of time or when work was not completed with in the allotted time and no communication was received from them about the holdup of delay of work was important.

 

Your bad performance now and in the past, might burn you some bridges you might need to use in the future.

 

buying, Team work, tips

I only work Real Estate Monday through Friday 9 to 4

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I am looking for a Real Estate professional to work with in certain areas because I am looking to buy more investment properties.

 

Before I make my calls to meet with them in person I do a little due diligence on each of them I am planning on contacting and low and behold I ran across several personal websites ( not the company) where the agent posted their personal work hours on their website.

 

Monday ā€“ Friday 9 AM to 4 PM (no nights)

Saturday and Sunday: Closed.

 

Niceā€¦.

 

I know for certain that this agent and their office will not be on my list to represent me in the purchase of my investment properties.

 

Not sure if this agent understands the most of the buyers and sellers are only available during the week in the evening or on weekendsā€¦.that is when I drive by and look at potential investment properties I would like to buy.

buying, education, planning, tips

Are your investments paying you or do you pay for them?

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I have many investment properties coming over my desk where the investor has gotten themselves into trouble. Many times when I speak with the investor I find out that they blame their property troubles on tenants who donā€™t pay the rent or the constant upkeep of the buildings.

When looking at their financing situation I can see that 100% of their investments have been bought, while times where good, and secured with some type of 100% financing. Ā Nothing out of pocketā€¦.

They truly donā€™t own their investment 100%, they still own the right to make the payment to an investor who gave them the money to invest into their investment!

So who is the true investor?

The one who signed the paperwork to buy the investment or the one who gave the money that is secured by a property and who might not lose much when foreclosing on the other guyā€™s investment?

buying, education, planning, tips

Are you ready for the next waive?

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The real estate market has so slightly is showing signs of a turn around and it might be a good time to think again of investing in real estate. Actually there is no bad time when it comes to investing in real estate. It just might in a different area or different product.

With any type of investing you yourself need to be ready for the opportunity and you need to be able to jump on the opportunity when it knocks and presents it selfā€™s.

Many investors are not ready for the opportunity and counting on loans and other forms of secondary financing to be able to close and finalize the deal.

Nothing wrong with this type of financing, just keep in mind that you should get paid. Now, will it be you 100% of the time or do you need to share a percentage of your potential personal income with another party?

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work

Hello REALTORS…where are you…

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ā€¦.came to mind as I was looking for REALTORS in a certain area of the US.

 

It has been interesting to say the least.

 

I am one of the people who does not give up that easy when it comes to finding someone for areas but what is with the potential client who will give up after a while or a few tries.

 

Just for giggles I did a small study of the area I am looking to hire an agent in for investment properties and found out some interesting stats.

 

  • 60% of the active practicing real estate agents in this area are part of the Local and National Association of REALOTRS
  • The local Association has no website.
  • 70% of the REALTORS Brokerage firms have a website
  • less than 3% of the local REALTORS are members of the local Chamber of Commerce or otherwise active in their community.
  • 1% of the REALTORS in this area have a web address in their own name and 99% of them have their website redirected to the company website who they work for and do not have their own website.
  • 95% of the websites do not have a clear to identify office location/address without having to click on several links to find the info
  • 80% of the REALTORS in this area do not have a company email they advertise the free email providers like AOL, GOOGLE, MSN…..
  • 1% of them will return phone calls and emails.

 

This is just a few things I found.

 

I am not a marketing person but common scene tells me when I am a Real Estate Entrepreneur I need to been one thought and through and my future clients need to find me on the web.

 

Here are some basic tips;

 

  • Have an email address with your own web address or with the company you work for. Don’t advertise google, aol or the others free services unless they pay you.
  • Have a website and a place on the web in your own name and don’t redirect it to the company you work for. Just have a link to them.
  • Return all phone calls and emails within less than 48 hours
  • Get active and involved within your community through the Chamber of Commerce and not only through your local church, find another non for profit you can volunteer for.
  • When you are not a REALTOR make sure you have a website and it can be found quickly and easily
  • Make social media and blogging part of your routine.
planning, Short sale, Team work, tips

Don’t take short cuts….it will cost you at the end…..

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came to mind as I talked to an individual who complained about their short sale transaction.

 

Asking a few probing questions I uncovered what the reason could be for not having a smooth short sale transaction.

 

Here are some quick tips and questions to ask that could help you out in a short sale:

 

What type loan is on the house? Conventional or insured

Has a loan modification been attempted? Yes/no

Was a written short sale approval given? Yes/no

Is the homeowner cooperating? Yes/No

Is the homeowner employed or self employed?

Do you have a CURRENT:

  • Tax return
  • Bank Statement (2 months contiguous)
  • Pay stubs or other proof of ALL reported income (2 months contiguous)
  • Filled out financial form, signed and dated and all income information confirmed or back up with written proof.
  • Hardship letter (not older than 30 days)
  • Filled out RMA form. Signed, dated and all information can be confirmed and is backed up in writing.

 

I am sure you noticed that I have not listed anything that has to do with a short sale contract.

 

Point is…when a short sale approval was not given at the time you list a home, why would you want to waist your time by looking at offers when you don’t even know what the mortgage servicer will agree to.

 

You will speed up the selling process by starting first with the short sale approval process prior to listing the home and NOT while the home is listed.

Communication, Team work

Are you truly being represented by your real estate agent?

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Over the last few months I quietly and without the knowledge of the listings agents had a test running and the result truly has not surprised me. I did not do this by myself.I had a lot of help

In total about 20,000 listing agents where contacted in different areas of the country and all of them had, per their MLS, had an active listing. There was no differential made between Franchise agents or non-franchise agents. When they had an active listing in their MLS they were contacted.

Contact attempt was made via email through their listing or calls to the phone number listed on their listing. Different messages and questions were asked about the house or requests for a showing appointment was made.

Phone:

Communicated back within 48 hours : 0 .5%

Communicated back within 1 week : 2%

Communicated back within 2 weeks: 3%

Never communicated: 79.5%

Phone was busy or voice mail box full or not existing: 4%

Phone was disconnected: 2%

Email:

Communicated back within 48 hours: 0.8%

Communicated back within 1 week: 5%

Communicated back within 2 week: 8%

Never communicated: 80%

Email bounced back as no longer existing or inbox full: 15%

 

This was just a small test with a small number of listings but it is still very scary when looking at them numbers in average.

Communication, education, Team work, tips

Do you know who your customers are?

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When I ask this questions I normally receive the same answer.

A lot of the business owners will tell me that their clients are the once who given them the jobs that keeps a company in money.

Who are your customers?

Now truly think about this one more time in a broader sense and spectrum.

Businesses have direct customers, consumers and the most forgotten once, Internal customers.

The consumers are the once who are using the product and services that are offered. This holds true for any type of company. Wholesaler or distributors.

The direct customer are the once who are directly buy or subscribe to your service’s and make the decision to may invest in your services or your company.

The internal consumer is the one that is mostly overlooked. They are the once who make the wheels run and make it happen for the external consumers. Sure it does take a management team to run everything on the inside but when we loose sight and don’t pay attention to all of the consumers, external and internal we might run into a ā€œHerbyā€ and might loose good external but also internal consumers.

When you have not looked at your total consumers structure, internal and external, and examined how all of them are interacting and connecting you should some time to do so. It might take you a lot longer than you thought and be honest.