All Forum Posts by: Irene Nash

@Drew Sygit Just wanted to say thanks for the very helpful and practical post about rentals in the Detroit area.

Hi D'Andre,

How many people do you know who are family members, friends, former colleagues, people you went to school with, people on community organizations you've been involved with, etc.? Make a list of people who know you and have a reasonably good opinion of you, or if they don't know you that well, at least don't have any reason to have a bad opinion of you.

That is your Sphere of Influence. This is the number one place to start (IMO) when working to generate business as a beginner agent. NOT to get them to try to buy and sell, because you have no control over that, but because each of them knows several hundred people and SOME of those combined thousands of people who could hear about you through your network will buy or sell this year.

The goal is to become the person they see as the friendly go-to real estate expert, the person they recommend when their friends say they're going to buy or sell, and ultimately that means you'll become the person they use someday as well.

The way to become that person is not by first off asking for business, but by demonstrating your expertise by sending them helpful, interesting information about real estate. It doesn't have to be sales related, but can be sometimes.

i.e.

Local monthly market update
Best budget remodel options
Seasonal home maintenance tips
New home design trends for this year
Mortgage mistakes to avoid (also helps homeowner who refinance)

Include a disclaimer ('not financial, tax or legal advice') for appropriate topics.

Monthly market updates are easy and can be done with a postcard. Postcards are old school but good because we have very limited organic reach with Facebook these days and all social media reach is dependent on algorithm. Plus people are overwhelmed.

You can also post the same info on your site, and if you have a corresponding page on your website you can urge people to go there. So you can combine a monthly postcard with updates on social media or by email, as long as it's not spammy and they're OK with hearing from you via email.

Always include a call to action - a non-salesy way to do this is to sign off saying that referrals from people like them are the heart of your business and you're never to busy to help them or the people they know with real estate.

It's a long game but doesn't have to be a loooong game. It works like compound interest - you'll see exponentially greater results over time. Consistency over 6 months will help people start to see you as someone who's dedicated and knowledgeable, and continue from there.

One tip I would have would be to dress professionally for videos that you post to social media for real estate. I realize we're coming up on Web 3.0 and I personally love that things can be more casual now, but that works best for B2B in real estate. For business to consumer and especially in real estate, we need to look like someone who's capable of handling an investment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Even if people tell you they don't care, I think on some subconscious level most of them do. And certainly others will.)

Twenty years ago I got a tip from a Brian Buffini seminar that I never forgot. He said "Don't dress down for your friends, those are the people you should be especially careful to dress well for because they'll be some of your best clients and they need to know they're being treated with the same standard of care as your other clients." (Or something like that - it was 20 years ago. ;)

When you send out marketing you may want to include an "If you are working with another agent this is not an attempt to solicit that business" in small print somewhere, unless your MLS doesn't require that.

Hope this was helpful. Best of luck.

We switched to being treated as an S-Corp for tax purposes around 5 years ago (later than we should have) and it was a really good choice, self-employment tax was trouncing us before that. Our current accountant says she thinks the bridge point income-wise is around $50K, which sounds low but I trust her more than our previous accountant who gave us a MUCH higher number as the threshold, we should have made the switch long before we did and waiting cost us tens of thousands of dollars. If you figure out how to do payroll for yourself you'll save accounting fees, I've never done it but I don't think it's hard. And I believe it only needs to be done once a year, you just need to pay estimated taxes in quarterly. (I *think*, please verify, accounting is not my strong point.)

Agreed with @Wayne Brooks, while commission arrangements are negotiable, from a strategic standpoint I believe it's better to include the amount of the buyer agent's fee in the price of the home. You stand to lose more net revenue by eliminating buyers who don't have the cash to pay it themselves, and forcing the agent and the clients to have a big conversation about it is not appealing to either party. Most homes include the price of the buyer's fee in the list price, so it means you're comparing like to like when you evaluate your home's pricing.

Hi @Sharon McKey, without seeing the actual listing agreement language it's impossible to answer that question for sure. A few thoughts though - in my area the seller can terminate the listing agreement, with some conditions. A main question in this kind of situation is who brought the buyer.

For example, if it could be shown that the buyer came to the seller because of the marketing efforts of the listing agent, that would likely have an effect on whether or not the listing agent was due all or part of a commission.

In this case the buyer is the tenant and therefore wasn't brought to the transaction via the listing agent (unless the listing agent procured them as a tenant in the first place, in which case I don't know if that would count), and the listing agent apparently hasn't spent any money on the listing yet. So at least in my area it would look pretty good for the seller.

There's probably language in the agreement that speaks specifically about termination. Without seeing the listing agreement no one can give you a 'for sure' answer, so look for that language and hopefully it's in there. 

Here in WA I would call the MLS and ask if I could have those people sign a form stating that they're already working with another agent and that your consultation does not constitute agent-client advice or create an agent-client relationship (here in WA state we would default into buyer agency by just having a conversation in which we sound like a buyer's agent), and also that you're not soliciting the other agent's business. Whatever language that ends up being should probably be in your emails and other correspondence as a disclaimer well. Then I think it would likely be OK.

BUT definitely check with your MLS and propose that situation (don't let them answer a general "can I counsel other agents' clients" question without context because the answer will of course be "no"). Each state and MLS can have different requirements.

Some brokerages have a rule against this because it could lead members of the public to think that you yourself are the brokerage. There may be areas where it's a state rule, in WA the last brokerage I worked for had a specific rule against using 'realty', so check with your brokerage first.

The word 'homes' is safe. Nothing with 'realtor' is OK even if you're a member of NAR.

@Jack Bobeck It is absolutely not the same as buying a car, although the car example is a great one. Every Toyota 4-Runner that came off the line last year was exactly the same, barring color and upgrades in some that made them exactly the same as all the other 4-Runners with upgrades. The same goes with plane tickets - once you're on the plane, a coach ticket to New Zealand feels the same regardless of whether you bought it at Fred's House 'o' Cheap Flights or from a full service travel agent.

A house is completely different. Houses that look very similar on paper (same neighborhood, style, square footage, year built, beds and baths) can have very different market values depending on things like interior light, flow, ceiling height, privacy, yard space, neighbors, curb appeal, master bedroom size, kitchen counter and cupboard space, parking options, driveway slope, proximity to noise or businesses, parks, schools, etc. - to name just a few things. I constantly point out features to my buyers that will either add or detract from functionality and market value - these are all intelligent people and many are repeat home buyers, but they still find the information very useful.  Bottom line is that people always know when they like a house, but they often need help figuring out when they shouldn't like a house.

I don't have my buyers sign rep agreements but I get most of my business from referrals and previous clients - if they were all cold leads it might be different. Contrary to what you said, a buyer who's reasonable to work with will have the attention of a good agent for far more than a day, but if the buyer is flitting around trying to work with a lot of other agents at the same time a good agent will wish them well and move on.

@Chance B. If the agent appears to be doing an amazing job, as you said, that is a huge plus. Agency agreements work fine when the agent is good, and are often necessary because some buyers just aren't up front people (although obviously read all the fine print and know what you're signing up for).

Life is much easier with a good buyer's agent, and even as a longtime agent myself I would want one if I were looking for a home out of state or in an area with logistics I'm not accustomed to (irrigation, water rights, etc.).

That being said, a lot of buyer agents are frankly not as good as they should be, in my opinion. If you have the chance to do a preliminary consultation with this person, you could ask them to give you an overview of the home buying process in that area, local issues, what the current market is doing, a skim over what the contract looks like, etc. You'll get an idea of how much they know and if they're a good match. I do this with every client regardless, it should be an informative session and not a sales spiel.

@Chance B. Speaking as an agent I'm going to voice an opinion that's unpopular (with agents), which is that if you are dealing with a competent agent who you enjoy working with this should be fine, but if you're not, the agreement ties you to someone who isn't great to work with. 

I've seen my own family members, in other states where I was not licensed and just there for informal advice, sign these agreements two different times with absolute shmoes. So after 30 minutes of blibber blabber about real estate the client commits to 3 or 6 months with just this one agent, with no idea of what they're really like and little or no way to get out of the agreement. I realize this may not be the case with you and your agent, just saying it happens.

A little explanation about the terms:

The 'refuses or fails' is so the agent doesn't shafted if they work hard for you for months and then you buy a FSBO with no buyer agent commission offered.

The 'monitored without your consent' hopefully refers to homeowner initiated stuff like Ring doorbells, but if the language doesn't make that clear it's worth asking.

The 'protection period' is so that untrustworthy buyers don't get an agent to work hard for them for months, ditch the agreement or let it expire, then go on to buy a property the agent helped them find and/or investigate without the agent getting paid for their work. Usually it refers to a property you've seen with the agent, but I've seen them include any house in a specific county during the protection period, shown or not shown.

How long is the protection period? I think if it were me as the client I'd ask for a trial date range for the agreement, i.e. one week, and just explain to the agent that you want a chance to see how you work together.

A fair compromise, IMO, would be that you'd use the agent if you bought a home you saw with them, but the option would remain for you to leave with no strings attached at the end of the week. I would not sign an agreement that included homes the agent hadn't shown me in a county. (The whole point is to make sure the agent gets paid for work done, not work that wasn't done.) And I'd probably offer to pay them something for their time that first week if I decided to not sign on for longer, seeing as they did spend the time.

Good luck!