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fsbo hound dog

FSBO Hounddog

“LooK Mr. Chin, 9 out of 10 fsbo’s eventually list. So sooner or later it will happen.”

Mr. chin was not having it. I’m pretty sure I had lost him, this is the part of the process I call practice, where I just repeat the lines I had memorized or tried new ones that I had not quite honed in and just repeated them verbatim in hopes of

A. converting him at the last moment, or

B. just practicing for the next one.

That was the life of a Fsbo hounddog. Sent on a mission by God, or Broker, to try to convert FSBO’s and break their sprit

FSBO’s were these renegade homeowners who due to their stupidity and spirit of independence wanted to save the commission and try on their own. I was an expert at breaking that sprit.

“ We want to saaaaaave the commission” that’s how they said it,. Or how we heard it. Saaaaave pronounced saaaaeeeeevvvv. I wanted to saaaaeevvv their souls. And make money.

Like any good pastor, my intention was twofold, help these poor bastards and also make a profit.

For me fsbo meant, Fastest Source of Business Opportunity. And I was good. I could walk out one morning and come back with 3 listings a day. Saving was easy and fun.

It starts with rapport and liking. That’s all good selling. They must like you for some reason. So I smiled , I laughed, I sympathized, soon they looked me like a son. You trust your own son right?

Unlike a son I didn’t care. I was the evil son waiting for them to die so I could get my inheritance, in this case their equity. 6% or whatever I could get.

“So. Mr. Chine, actually can I call you Steve, or can I call you dad”

Laughter also important. Helps relieve tension. We’d both laugh, slap each other on the knee and as he laughed I pulled out paper from my briefcase. Without missing beat I said take a look at this.

I now had their eyes on the contract. The contract they violently opposed signing a few minutes ago. But hey we’re family now. Maybe I should staple a photo of me as a child.

I quickly went thru the details. The trick is to assume the sale. I don’t hear the objections. Just keep ramming it home . yes, yes , yes, sign , sign , sign.

No I never said sign. That was the first rule. It was better to say nothing, just leave the pen their or better yet give it to them. When I figured that trick “ hold my pen for a moment” Boom your chances just shot up 80%.

It’s a small window, you fight to get it open and once it’s there, you know you got them. Like a boxer you’re jabbing and jabbing away at their reality of saving the commission.

Jab. Buyers are time wasters

Jab, you need a help your tired.

Jab, do you really want strangers coming to your house.

They give that dazed look at the contract. On the ropes. But the last jab is silence. The void, and just succumb under their own weight. And collapse. Signed

Another one bites the dust.

It’s not over, you need to keep the charm as you put all the paper work away. Deal with buyer’s remorse.

Another soul saved today. Another listing in the bank.

I did this for 5 years. Making big bucks. Saving, stealing, cajoling. Then the market started crashing. And equity stated disappearing

Now it wasn’t a matter of saving commission. It’s a matter of not being able to sell. With little or no Equity, these homeowners needed something new. A new model of selling that would allow them to do it themselves and be able to get out of a bad mortgage.

And that was the beginning of Freeltor

Revolutionize Real Estate

So I was at the Microsoft Bizspark incubation week in DC for freeltor. it was a great experience. Met some great people. Real interesting education and speakers.

So during one of our sessions with David Drake and Larry Gregory, they were grilling me about the company, what is it we actually do. So I talked about the concept and how I came up with it. How it helps homeowners and Real Estate Agents. But it seems like my answers weren't clear enough for them. So finally in exasperation I said it

" we want to revolutionize real estate"

thats it. Dave liked it.

But is it true?

Its something that people have tried and have failed. Its a very complicated industry. It has changed a lot and will continue to.

So I could stand on a soap box and say I want to revolutionize real estate and have crowds swarm and get on CNN etc... maybe I will do that.

but if I had to be honest about it. really i want to EVOlutionize Real Estate.

by bring in the next new service that is freemium real estate service.

thats all.

Allow information to be free, because it wants to be free.

consumers are smarter. they know how to read data. so lets get out of their way instead of constantly being in the middle.

Why Free MLS?

www.bizzia.com/.../2009/07/free-workers.jpg

In the information age we are seeing that information is important

information can often mean the difference between life and death. what you know and when you know it is critical. And nobody knows this more than Google.

However Google as you know doesn't charge for its informaiton. They offer all their services for free. They make money on the backend through advertisers

This has strarted a trend that eveything should be free on the interent. Now I'm sure a lot of people don't like that. Stock Brokers, Flight Agencies, and anyone else who used to sell information.

Now for real estate agents the Free trend has been used by zillow and trulia to put their listings on their sites for free for buyer to look at.

Are agents losing control? not necesarily. The best agents know how to use these tools to their benefit.

which brings me to why not offer the MLS for free?

Blasfemy? Think about it. The reason why information on the internet is free because the cost to disperse and produce it almost zero. see Chris Anderson's Free.

By offering the MLS for free real estate agents are now in the position to get more buyer leads. more referals and more happy customers. At the very least ifyou are a brand new agent with no clients, you need to offer the MLS for free.

Free is the best way to get clients in the information age.

To place a listing costs nothing more than 5 minutes of your time if that. What you can get for this 5 minutes is amazing.

Why sell For Sale By Owner?

At the end of the day i don't think its about the money.

i don't think the fsbo is really that .

its about self reliance. that feeling of Independence that I can do this, I don't need an agent.

its not rocket science. there are only 5 steps i selling real estate

pricing

marketing

showings.

negotiating

in the past marketing was expensive you needed newspapers magazine, billboards.

but now with the Internet, costs have essentially gone to zero.

you can now have a Microsoft virtual tour for free. 

Google base, Trula, Zillow. its all on line and the consumer knows that, they are not stupid.

but there is one last piece. 

the MLS

or Multiple listing service.

the Department of Justice  recently passed a hearing to free up the MLS for sites such as Trula and Zillow. but the Realtors still control who gets in.

without an agent you can't advertise on MLS and therefore you cannot be there. untill now.

Jason is wrong part 1

Jason is wrong

Yes I’m talking about you Jason Preston. Lets see how far we can take this meme.

Everyone loves free. It is a Marketing term. And Yes Google is making money of advertising. They are an advertising company first and foremost. But to the public they are in the search business, and email.

Mark Cuban brings up a scary yet true point. The blackswans will come and eat away at your business. But is Twitter really doomed? What about brand equity?

If there is one company that does brand well its Apple. The perpetual underdog. The Innovative darling that delights customers despite paying 3x as much. They are not free, far from it. I actually switched back to PC after college because I couldn’t afford a Mac. Though I do have plans of switching back soon…

They built their company on being the best and most expensive. The Ferrari of the PC’s. and now its paying off. Their prices are dropping, and now they could give the iphone away for free and make more money from app sales.

A FREE Iphone? Now that would Chris Anderson smile.

Google has a great business model. Twitter doesn’t. But Black Swan Bing is hot on its tail. Just try the image search, you’ll be surprised.

More to come in part 2

Are Real Estate Agents anti Competitive or just Lazy

I was looking at the Department of Justice website.

EVEN THE GOVERNMENT HATE REAL ESTATE AGENTS

Its amazing. They have ariticle talking about how Agents are being anti competitive with other discount models.

I've pasted the article, but if you want to go to the site here is the link http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/real_estate/models.htm

Competing Models of Real Estate Brokerage

Traditionally, real estate brokers have performed virtually all services related to buying and selling a home, including:

• Marketing the home.
  
  • Marketing services include listing the property in the local multiple listing service (MLS), placing advertisements in local media and on the Internet, and hosting open houses.
    
• Reviewing contracts.
  
  • Contract review might include providing advice on pricing, home inspections or other contractual terms.
    
• Negotiating with potential home buyers and sellers.
  
• Locating potential properties for prospective buyers.
  
• Arranging for prospective buyers to inspect properties.
  
• Providing prospective buyers and sellers with pertinent information about a community such as relative property values, most recent selling prices, and property taxes.
  
• Apprising potential buyers of financing alternatives.
  
• Assisting in the formation and negotiation of offers, counter offers, and acceptances.
  
• Assisting with the closing of the transaction.
  
  • Closing services might include assistance with handling paperwork.
    

For these efforts, real estate brokers typically charge a single fee (the commission) that is 5 percent to 6 percent of the sales price of the home.
Learn more: The Seller's Agreement with the Listing Broker

Other options available to consumers

In many parts of the country, the traditional full-service real estate broker now faces competition from a variety of real estate brokerage models, many of which use the Internet to reduce costs:

Fee-for-Service Arrangements

Brokers willing to sell a subset of real estate brokerage services, often called fee-for-service brokers, have emerged throughout the country. Fee-for-service brokers "unbundle" the package of real estate services typically offered by traditional full-service real estate brokers and charge a set or hourly fee for specific services, such as listing the house in the MLS, negotiating or closing contracts, and pricing the home. These brokerage models typically enable consumers to save thousands of dollars by allowing them to purchase only those services they want.
Learn more: Fee-for-Service Brokers

Rebates and Inducements

Some real estate brokers have increasingly begun to compete for customers by offeringcash rebates or other inducements to home buyers and sellers. Rebates that go directly to buyers or sellers lower costs on both sides of the transaction. Cash rebates are usually calculated as some fraction of the broker's commission and can result in thousands of dollars being returned to the consumer.

New business models can save consumers money

Most consumers want to make as much money as possible on the sale of their home and spend no more than necessary when purchasing a home. In many cases, the standard broker's commission can offset a portion of the equity value that has been building up in a seller's home or push the price of a home beyond a buyer's purchasing power. Consumers who want to perform some of the steps involved in selling a home can reap significant financial savings by purchasing only those real estate brokerage services they actually want.

Just as the Internet has made it easier for consumers to save money by directly purchasing plane tickets and stocks, it is now making it feasible for home sellers and buyers to do more of the work themselves and pocket the savings.
Learn more: The Internet's Role in Real Estate Brokerage