FAQ’s
12 Safety Tips for Real Estate Agents
12 Safety Tips for Real Estate Agents
1. Keep your personal and business social media pages separate. Consider changing the security settings on your personal pages on social media and making them private, if you have a lot of personal information displayed. You don’t want to give complete strangers full access to details about your personal life.
2. Never meet new clients, aka strangers, at your home office.
3. Meet new clients, that you’ve never met before, in your company’s office or a public place like a restaurant or coffee shop.
4. All of your showings should be entered into an app with the client’s name, address and cell number. Office staff should have access to all of your showing details.
5. Never meet new buyers for the first time showing them property. Have them come into your office, get their contact information, make a copy of their driver’s license and introduce them to office staff. Before showing property, determine the criteria for the property they want and also have them get pre-approved by a mortgage broker or mortgage loan officer.
6. All agents should refrain from including their headshot photos on real estate signage. Your photo may prompt a potential perpetrator to pursue you and not for real estate reasons.
7. Keep pepper spray in your purse or on your key ring. Whether it’s an aggressive human or canine, be prepared.
8. If you’re hosting an open house, be aware of your surroundings and who is at the property. Have an open house sign-in log. Always have your purse and valuables stored out-of-sight.
9. Listen to your gut instinct. If a situation or person feels wrong, leave immediately. No excuse required.
10. If you ever find yourself in a position where you’re being strong-armed or physically threatened — scream, bite, kick them hard in the groin. Do whatever it takes to get away! Fight for your life! Never let someone take you to a second location. Never!!
11. Take a Self Defense class yearly. There’s also CPR/AED and First Aid Training classes available. Contact your local police and fire departments for information on public education classes. Be prepared for all emergencies!
12. Your broker has a list of safety rules for agents to follow. Make sure you’re aware of what they are.
#RealEstate #AgentSafety #AgentTips #OrganizeMeForms
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in blogs on this website are solely those of Marcy Sanders. The information provided on this site is for general informational and educational purposes only.
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Mortgage - Pre-Qualified vs. Pre-Approval
Your Buyer Must be Pre-Approved Before you show them Property!
A friend of mine told me that he was extremely frustrated with the home buying process and was turned down for a mortgage. He said he had a “Pre-Qualified” letter from his mortgage broker that he requested. He didn’t understand the issues that caused a roadblock in getting the loan he needed to purchase his dream home. I explained that his agent should have insisted that the mortgage broker provide a “Pre-Approval” (Loan Commitment) letter, from the beginning, verifying that they did a credit check, knew the income/debt ratio and then determined the maximum loan amount for him. If your buyer doesn’t have a “Pre-Approval” letter then you run the risk of your buyer not qualifying for the loan needed for the home they have a contract on. You’ve wasted the buyer’s time. You’ve wasted the listing agent’s time. If the buyer (as in my friend’s case) had a home inspection done, there’s more time and money wasted. His buyer’s agent had a number of contractors/vendors lined up to start doing home repairs, yet there were still contract contingencies. As a side-note: For whatever home updating issues the buyer is requesting a referral, the agent should provide the buyer with no less than (2) vendor referrals for each issue i.e. painting, carpeting, tile work, kitchen remodeling etc. I’ve always referred to the Pre-Approval letter as the “LOAN COMMITMENT” letter. It’s no wonder my friend, the buyer, was confused. He thought the Pre-Qualified letter guaranteed him the loan amount. Based on this fiasco, he won’t be recommending the buyer’s agent to any family or friends.
Moral of this story is — Agent’s need to INSIST that the lender provide their buyer with a loan commitment letter prior to showing them property.
#RealEstate #lender #mortgagebroker #prequalified #preapproval #LoanCommitment #BuyersAgent #OrganizeMeForms
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5 Tips to get New Agents on the Fast Track
Tips for Real Estate Rookies
1. Mentor
Find an experienced real estate agent, partner or team that can teach and mentor you. Also, talk to top producers in your office and let them share with you what they’ve learned on their road to success.
2. Farm Area
Determine what specific areas and neighborhoods you’re going to focus your marketing efforts on. Learn all you can about real estate in those areas and become the real estate expert. Prospective buyers and sellers want to work with agents who are knowledgeable about real estate and specific neighborhoods they’re selling or buying in.
3. Networking
Network and create your “Sphere of Influence.” This is a group of people who you will be actively marketing your business to. Start with your family, friends and acquaintances. Be a social butterfly and meet new people through hobbies, activities, volunteering. Build long lasting relationships that will in turn provide referrals and repeat business for years to come.
4. Open House
Ask top producers, in your office, if you can volunteer to host open houses at their listings. The reality is an open house will rarely attract a buyer for that specific property, but it’s a great opportunity for you to meet prospective buyers and sellers. Have bottled water and food available. Prospects will stay longer and talk to you if there’s food.
5. Marketing
Spend the money and have an awesome website created. Also set up a Facebook Fan Page, Instagram and Twitter. You need to market and sell YOU and your abilities as an agent. Why would I choose you, a brand new agent, to list my property? What qualities do you possess that make you stand out among all other agents? How are you going to market my property? Determine why buyers and sellers would hire you over every other agent. At this stage, you might not have any listings to market and sell, but you are selling yourself!
Listen, learn and put 200% effort into your new career. Spend time mastering the MLS system. You’re not going to become a top producer overnight. It will take time to establish yourself in this business and acquire listings. If you’re using zipForm® Plus, consider adding the OrganizeMeForms™ library of forms. It’s imperative that you’re detail oriented and highly organized. Stay the course and never ever give up!!
#RealEstate #RealEstateRookie #Rookies #Realtor #RealEstateAgent #RealEstateTips
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Top Producer - Recipe for Success
Top Producer - Recipe for Success - The 3 R’s
- Relationships
- Referrals
- Repeat Business
Agents must work diligently on all three areas in order to become a top producing agent. There’s no shortcut on your road to success. Stay the course!
#Real Estate #TopProducer #TopAgent #OrganizeMeForms
OrganizeMeForms™ (80) Exclusively Designed Real Estate Forms & Checklists – Providing Real Estate Professionals, their Customers and Teams with a unique collection of detailed forms to keep them on-track with task management. The solution agents have been waiting for! Start using OrganizeMeForms™ today and soon you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful top producer. Click on the button below to order now!
Form Spotlight - Marketing Initiatives
Marketing Initiatives
Real Estate Agents should begin using this form to track all of their marketing vehicles e.g. Flyers, Business Cards, Feature Sheets, Customer Gifts, Billboards, Post Cards, Media and so much more! You’ll be tracking each marketing initiative as well as what you’ve spent monthly on each. At the end of the year you’ll see what you budgeted vs. actual dollars spent for your monthly and yearly total for marketing. You must track your marketing efforts to clearly see what you’ve done all year to promote your business and brand. It’s critical that you stay organized and on top of your marketing budget on a monthly basis. Then at the end of each year you can evaluate what marketing tools worked and didn’t work for you so you can devise an improved comprehensive marketing plan for the following year.
#RealEstate #OrganizationalForms #AgentTool #OrganizeMeForms
OrganizeMeForms™ (80) Exclusively Designed Real Estate Forms & Checklists – Providing Real Estate Professionals, their Customers and Teams with a unique collection of detailed forms to keep them on-track with task management. The solution agents have been waiting for! Start using OrganizeMeForms™ today and soon you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful top producer. Click on the button below to order now!
Top Agent Tip
Strive to be a Teacher
Highly successful agents are: Kind, Caring and Compassionate. They patiently teach their customers about real estate. The emphasis is not on hard sales, but being an advisor to their customers on buying and selling property. As a result, agents are rewarded with lifetime loyal customers.
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OrganizeMeForms™ (80) Exclusively Designed Real Estate Forms & Checklists - Providing Real Estate Professionals, their Customers and Teams with a unique collection of detailed forms to keep them on-track with task management. The solution agents have been waiting for! Start using OrganizeMeForms™ today and soon you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful top producer. Click on the button below to order now!
FAQ’s - Agent Tips
Question: How can I become a Rock Star Realtor®?
Answer: Stop procrastinating and get your ducks in a row for 2015. You must attain those highly sought after customer referrals and repeat business. How do you make that happen? By organizing your real estate business and showing your customers you’re on top of every step of their transaction. zipForm® Plus users can now buy OrganizeMeForms™ and get their day-to-day business on track as well as keeping their customers organized with detailed forms specifically designed for them. Team forms will help propel teams to the next level.
#RealEstate #AgentTips #OrganizeMeForms
OrganizeMeForms™ (80) Exclusively Designed Real Estate Forms & Checklists - Providing Real Estate Professionals, their Customers and Teams with a unique collection of detailed forms to keep them on-track with task management. The solution agents have been waiting for! Start using OrganizeMeForms™ today and soon you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful top producer. Click on the button below to order now!
