All Forum Posts by: Michelle Stein

I have to agree with Gary - as a buyer I would not want to pay a retainer, especially with so many "free" agents out there...but it IS a very interesting concept I hadn't thought of...

something i was thinking may work in some markets ( and would have to check out with broker & state laws) would be to charge a flat fee based on sales price range & # of homes seen to be paid by seller instead of the typical 2-3%...so instead of charging x% you'd say I will show you x homes & represent you through contract negotiation & closing for $xxxx....but I think that would get pretty sticky/tricky to actually follow through with.

unfortunately i think pre-qualifying is the best bet...unless for some reason a retainer would catch on and "everybody's doing it"...

Those are all good sites. There is a new one for commercial properties I just did an interview with the owner/developer of:

acrescout.com

Another interesting site is energizedseller.com but can't remember if you can post listings there or just create an agent profile.

The value of a realtor is not the MLS or newspaper advertising or any of that - it's the representation while looking for houses or negotiating a contract or contacts that can help the home sell faster. It is a shame so many agents bring a lot of grief into the industry!

Good luck!

I use wordpress for all of my sites...with so many free themes and quick indexing for regularly updated content (most of my posts are findable on google within an hour or less!) it's the easiest most customizable thing I've found so far. You can take advantage of thousands of free themes or get a "premium" one for $50-$100. It can even be used to show listings if that is your goal simply by using a few plugins. Good luck!

I would check for everything like the fees you will be responsible and what freebies they give you...also find out how much freedom you have to market yourself - some brokers won't allow you to have a personal site without too many rules to make it useful for example...also check how many agents you will be in direct competition with, what training they provide...all those things make a big difference!

I think you would be waaaay better off to have a website keyword targeted for your area and then feature the homes on subpages. That's just me though. What do you do with the domain after the home sells? If you built a keyword rich site with a domain like floridahomes.com you could probably at least sell it for a good bit after you retire :)

I've done well on associated content - google/yahoo indexes them pretty fast if you're good with your keywords/topic - AND they pay you based on pageviews. One article I wrote there sends me about 100 visitors a day :) Others though haven't done anything, so it all depends on how you write it I suppose.

Many agents hate working with investors because they are 1. embarrased to submit low ball offers and 2. it's a lot of time and most investors won't even close on a deal with them - especially if they plan on going unconventional routes like assigning leases etc.

You need to find an agent that specializes in working with investors - calling up a top producer at a random office and or even a newbie isn't going to do you any good.

Instead I would call the office managers and ask them who specializes in foreclosures/investors and they should give you some good reference points.

have you looked on different book swap sites to see if there are any real estate ones? Just type "book swap" in google - you'll have hundreds to choose from!

I think that is a great idea though!