Times Community
Views on alternatives to buying/providing real estate services.

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:

Each morning your bank will deposit $86,400.00 in your private account
for your use. However, this prize comes with rules just like any game has certain rules.

I just wanted write to say I am proud to be a an ACRE and I feel like there is light at the end of a dark tuneel! I've already got my frst real estate consulting job next week and I am so happy to not only sell real estate but I can add this to my business to generate a steadier income and provide a viable service. Great to be here! 

The price is pretty steep, but the sessions look pretty good. I may consider going if other ACREs will be there. We should plan a meetup!

I think you all will find this post very interesting and I hope our voices will be heard loud and clear in support of the retainer. Please comment.

With the death of Steve Jobs, much has been written about the incredible contributions he made to the computer industry. Much less noted was the fact that he also revolutionized five other industries: animated movies, music, phones, table computing, and digital publishing.

There are so many lessons to be learned from the genius of Mr. Jobs but for now, let’s focus on just ONE of the industries he transformed by climbing into the old time machine to remember the music industry prior to iTunes.

Bruce Springsteen's' Rosalita  was just playing on the radio, the line, "Some Day We'll Look Back on This and It Will All Seem Funny" resonated to me as a question for real estate professionals. What about real estate today would you think will seem funny 5, 10 or maybe 20 years from now?

I'm so excited to share with our readers the cover article in this month's Virginia Association of Realtors® magazine "What Does It Take? - The Skills Brokers Want, The Training Realtors Need" featuring ACRE® Industry Partner Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn and me!

It's an insightful article and a must-read for forward looking professionals. Let us know your thoughts!

VARArticleWhatDoesItTake10-2011.pdf

As a general  principle, Jewish holidays are divided between days on which you must starve and days on which you must overeat.  Many Jews observe no fewer than 16 fasts  throughout the Jewish year, based on the time-honored principle that even if you are sure that you are ritually purified, you definitely aren't.
 

 

Though there are many feasts and fasts, there are no holidays requiring light snacking.   Note: Unlike Christians, who simply attend church on special days (e.g. Ash Wednesday), on Jewish holidays most Jews  take the whole day off.  This is because Jews, for historical and personal reasons, are more stressed out.

 

 

Each month we will answer a frequently asked question about real estate consulting.

This Month's FAQ:

If you're paid a fee for the services you provide or paid by the hour, don't you make less money than by commission?

Our continuing feature about what attracted some of our newer ACRE®s to consulting...

Nicole Beauchamp - New York, NY

I actually read about the program in Inman News a few weeks ago, and decided I would take it all in.  Before starting in real estate in the early 2000s I actually had a consulting background (software architecture, business planning), so the ideas aren't new to me, but trying to determine how to apply them in a real estate practice and this fit perfectly. I look forward to connecting and participating on the forums here and learning more that I can apply to continue to enhance my business.

 

Is it any wonder that market-leading organizations fear the "A-Typical"?  The defining idea of the twentieth century, more than any other was mass.

Mass gave us efficiency and productivity, making us (some people) rich.  Mass gave us huge nations, giving us (some people) power.  Mass allowed powerful people to influence millions, giving us (some people) control.

And now Mass is dying!

THEY may seem like they chasing the best deal for home buyers and sellers but many real estate agents play property like Monopoly and love to cheat.

From preying on your grief to using cunning scare tactics to close a deal, real estate agents can be as cunning as the meanest in any commission-based business.   

While most agents act professionally, there are many ways agents charge an "idiots tax" on those who don't know what they are doing.

Potential buyers are usually canny enough to recognize that "cozy" is shorthand for "tiny", that "close to public transport" actually means beside the train line and that "bathroom with views" may mean the toilet is outside the back door.

WIth the passing of Steve Jobs, there will be many tributes but in my humble opinion, there will be none as encompassing, nor one as important to the challenges we face in our industry as the simple recitation of his 1998 ad "Think Different":

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo.

Please check out my post on ActiveRain titled:  Who Says Buyers Won't Pay For Their Services?

 

When a home buyer pays their realtor directly, as an agreed upon suite of services are completed, they have eliminated all the risk in real estate. The buyers agent is guaranteed an income regardless of the outcome. The buyers agent is paid "Outside of closing". It's the classic risk/reward business model. Please take less than 3 minutes and watch my video.

Please let me know what you think... Thanks in advance.

It's Time to Update Your Marketing Curriculum

Today I want to draw a line in the sand—I want one side of the line to be Old School Real Estate Marketing and the other side to be New School Real Estate Marketing.

Many Realtors are struggling to keep up with the rapid changes that are happening in the marketplace and reflecting these changes in their company's marketing programs. Technology and communication are advancing so quickly that marketing is becoming real time making Old School Marketing tactics only a fraction as effective as they used to be. Think about direct mail, for example. By the time you create a piece, mail it and have it in the hands of the prospective buyer, weeks have passed. Marketing today, however, is so much faster. With just a few strokes and the use of Google, you and your prospective clients can find anything they want.

I wanted to thank Kathy McGuriman for reaching out to me regarding the seminar series we are doing with CitiBank.  This friday, one of the branches that has adopted the Nucazza/Acre mindset is having an all mortgage day where their clients can ask mortgage, real estate and title questions.  We are their to effectaute change.  We are there as the mouth pieces. As the banking customers will be coming for mortgage advice, it will be a great opportunity to play on the buyers side of the transaction with an Acre that understands the Evolution Of Real Estate,

If you get a chance, please check out my ACRE post on ActiveRain

http://activerain.com/blogsview/2517301/for-sale-by-owners-you-ve-got-options

Hope you enjoy it.

We need you!  Nucazza is completly free for consumers and Realtors. Your comments are appreciated.

We have buyers that are going through our seminars and webinars and learning about Alternative Compensation Models.  The only real estate business model that guarantees payment for work done by realtors. The model, as co-presented by one of our marketing partners, CitiBank, gives the home buyer a credit card with the necessary monies needed to pay for the services of their Realtor up front thereby alleviating the issue of the buyers not having the cash on hand to pre-pay for their buyers agent services.

Horsham, PA (PRWEB) September 16, 2011 

Home Buying Evolution, a company that works as an intermediary to match in-market home buyers with licensed Realtors, has announced its introductory phase for creating a database of area Realtors® interested in taking part in a new referral program.

Home Buying Evolution, and sister company Nucazza, LP, are working together to create opportunities for Realtors® willing to offer home buying clients alternative compensation real estate agreements as an alternative to more traditional commission-based real estate agreements.

In this tough market, with so many sellers underwater, there is an increasing need to work with buyers and we’re seeing even seasoned listing agents working with buyers out of necessity. But with it, the frustration is increasingly oozing out amongst agents about the lack of buyer loyalty, how no one wants to sign a buyer agency agreement, that even if they sign it, you can’t enforce it, etc, etc, etc. 

I personally never worked with buyers without a signed contract (just as I never would take a listing without one) but that’s not the point of this post. There IS much less buyer loyalty than seller loyalty but I will opine that it goes far deeper than whether a not a contract is used. It goes very simply to a falsehood that we have repeated to buyers for years and is now coming back to bite us:

“Mr. & Mrs. Buyer: don’t worry about my compensation.
My services are FREE to you!”

It was a little over 3 years ago when I took Family Abstract, a title insurance company located in Horsham Pa, that, along with my partner, is entering its tenth year, and did something we never did before.  As an initiator, I decided to embark on a new business model, I thought, "I have an idea, I'm going to start working on it tomorrow, I think it's going to work!  With those 2 thoughts, we were able to remain a successful title insurance company, and we continue to grow. Family Abstract has a combined 100 years experience, I have an amazing partner and we have the all time best employees. We expanded our organization and the clients we serve. You are probably wondering what my idea was, you might even be curious to know if we are successful at it. 

Late last year a man named Mack Hanan past away. I mention this because his book Consultative Selling was instrumental in how I structured my real estate firm upon becoming a Broker in 2005. I understand when he pasted he had been working on the eight edition of the book. I have the current edition published in 2004 and kept earlier editions as references until recently.

Horsham, PA (PRWEB) August 29, 2011 Family Abstract, a Title Company in Horsham, PA, is developing a Webinar for banks, credit unions and other lending institutions that explains and explores how changing real estate markets are creating new opportunities to provide home buyers with real estate buying agreements that aren’t centrally focused on commission-based models.