All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

I show every property my buyers want to see, even 1 pct homes, but my advice to them is that there is a reason that the buy side is at 2 pct or less, it's because the sellers are looking for a deal, not the best listing agent. These sellers are often difficult to work with on a transaction and in inspection and it is the first red flag that I talk about with my client.

On my listings, no matter what the total percentage I take the listing at, I never have less than 2.5 pct on the buy side for the agent. And as all have said above, if the buyer side is low, we sign a separate agreement with our buyer to make sure we get paid for the work we have done at a reasonable total pct.

@Jordan Decuir - the only way to succeed at cold calling is to do what @Taylor Martel did and just hammer away day after day, but as your career gets going you will find that the necessity to cold call is not there. One question: Have you called every person in your sphere? If you haven't, those calls are warm and will lead you to much more success. Next question: Have you taken some vendors (mortgage, title, etc.) to lunch? These are things that will bring you warmer and hotter contacts than cold calling any day. How many people are in your database?

It's not true that people aren't cold calling anymore, they are. Some brokerages have training programs built around cold calling still and they are assaulting local markets with expired calls. If you want to make headway on colder calls, cold call with a purpose like Taylor. Find a buyer (you need to really have one to be most effective) who wants to be on a specific block and call and knock that block with purpose.

Also, never wing cold calling. Use a script, maybe read The Conversion Code by Chris Smith or grab those scripts, memorize it, but don't recite it. Use the script to have a game plan, but let them guide you to their sweet spots on the phone. Hope this helps.

This is our first sponsored real estate investor meetup. Please read my personal BP bio to learn more about my investment profile.

We are a real estate team at Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty in Short Hills, but this is not a pitch event. We will have our team there (agents), a renovation lender (United Mortgage Corp. in Clifton), a HUD consultant, a 203k contractor and two experienced real estate attorneys (Lai & Ro in Mountainside) to answer questions. We will have short presentations and question and answer sessions.

We are looking to connect real estate investors in the area, provide resources and develop relationships to have better discussions about how tough it is to invest in Essex and Union County right now.

@Cale Myrick - one of the things they forget to tell everyone in real estate school is that you will not only need startup costs, at most brokerages you will have monthly fees as well. I suggest everyone has about 5k in the bank to use for their business to have any chance to get some leverage to get started. If it will take you a year to get together the flat start up costs, have you thought about how you are going to get business? You will need to get the money together if you can't find a family member to loan you the start up, but your best bet for making the business work is to find a team or a busy agent and offer yourself to them as a new agent who will do anything to learn. They often have extra leads to throw your way to get your feet wet.

@Brandon Purdeu - it will depend on the systems you have set up in terms of how effective they will be. We have in-house ISAs, but they are more expensive. If you use VAs, will you get them set up with Mojo or a dialer so they can dial more? Also to consider is what number they will call from as you will need to get them a local number to your location. If you only give them call lists, they will move much slower. Either way, if you use a VA you need to have them in your systems so you can monitor their actual calls. I know many people who have had bad experiences using VAs for calling without systems to make sure they are calling. Also, your last check up will be to have a call with them a few times to assess their voice and call flow for clients.

@Nir Levy, your question is a bit too wide. To evaluate the best location for flips for you, I would need to know what your intended budget is (pre-renovation and post-renovation), how many flips you want to do in a year, where you are living in proximity to the flips, whether you have built a team yet, how many flips you have done in the past and many others. Due to the high taxes in NJ, you have to be quick to flip in NJ and you need to evaluate the true value of the property based on block values, recent sales of true comparable sales and local knowledge. If you tighten your question more I think you will get better answers that suit what you are trying to do.

The real question @Danny N. is: do you really want to sell or are you looking for the biggest payday and can sit and hold a 3.7m property? Properties in this price range will sit as everyone has noted from the Houston stats, but to be sellable at any price range you need to buck the market by either price or amenities. It's very difficult to separate yourself in a high-rise condo when there are similar units and layout that will become available. It sounds like you have done some very nice upgrades, but always remember that your 270k spent isn't always the same 270k that your buyer would have spent. It may be worth a lot less to them. If you want to take this money and use it for several other investments, talk to your realtor and friend and come up with a price reduction and marketing strategy that you can both agree on for the rest of the listing. It is not uncommon for this price point to stay on a year, especially in a high-rise since everything is similar for the most part.

My pleasure @Shazia Chiu - get that book and you will see how to develop your sphere and mindset around networking the right way. For your sphere always see who you can connect them with, maybe they need an electrician rec or a lender for a refinance. Once you give, they give. I never push for referrals, but the best way to get someone to ask you about your job instead of you bringing it up is to ask them how their work is going first. Best of luck!

@Shazia Chiu, those are all tried and true methods over a long-term, but many of them are much more difficult to convert than most think (cold calling of any type, door knocking). Door hangers need to be about something specific, your UVP, to even have a chance at generating interest. Social media is great when done properly, but the best social media for real estate strategies come from advertising your own business. So if you are new, it's hard to get social running smooth before your actual business. Mailers can only work with consistency and a dedicated farm area. Most people give up after 2 months, but you really need 6-8 months hitting the same farm with diverse material to be successful.

You should read The 7 Levels of Communication by Michael Maher and what you will find is that your most valuable asset for your whole career, and on your list, is your Sphere of Influence. They already know, like and trust you and that is what you want from your clients. Ask each friend if they know a lender, home inspector, etc. instead of asking for buyer and seller referrals in the beginning. See what you can do for them, who you can connect them with - give to get. I hope this helps.

@Nathan Hollingshead, it is definitely doable part-time, but you have to be willing to really hustle in your work time to learn and grow quicker. It does take some cash to get going if you really want to do business so your best bet is finding a bigger brokerage with training and a mentor, but in that case you will likely have more fees and a lower split. You really need to find a mentor so they can throw you some leads and you can do the work they don't love doing.