Who Should Be Blogging?

One of Boston.com’s lead real estate bloggers is an ex-professional poker player.

Does this seem like the person to take real estate advice from? Someone whose livelihood used to come from risk-taking and gambles (no pun intended)?

Sure, during the 2007 World Series of Poker, Justin Rollo won almost $250k. Clearly the man knows what he’s doing when it comes to risks.

His Yelp reviews are stellar, with clients raving about his communication skills, and ability to look beyond his commission. He seems like a people-pleaser.

But why is Rollo writing for a renowned real estate blog?

Why is he allowed to publish blatantly sponsored articles, like his “Tips from a South Boston Mover” and “Choosing the right Boston Moving Company”?

Why are Rollo’s posts rife with shameless self-promotion, with nudges towards his agency’s valuation tools, and plugs for the agency’s offers to “sell your home for free”?

This is not the type of personality that needs to be informing Boston.com’s readership of the complexities of the market.

Unbiased opinions are crucial when it comes to true market assessments. How can buyers and sellers be informed, when the information presented to them is skewed by the interests of one specific agent?

Moral of the story: do some research, and take any advice with a grain of salt.

Who would you want to read? Whose perspective would you value most? We’d love to hear from you!

Reality TV versus Reality

This post by Jason Crouch, broker-owner at Austin Texas Homes LLC, was originally published on ActiveRain.

I realized today that I owe at least a small debt of gratitude to cable channels like HGTV and TLC, which are full of real estate TV shows. They have done a marvelous job of setting expectations with buyers and sellers, and they’ve motivated prospective agents, as well. On the flip side, I recognize that they might make things seem a bit too easy. Nonetheless, I have frequently benefited from the lessons my clients have learned therein.

A few thoughts on this:

For buyers: I’ve noticed that I’ve had a good number of clients who really enjoy watching shows like “House Hunters,” “My First House,” and others. Consequently, it seems that some of them expect that they’ll look at only a few homes and we’ll get a contract in place quickly. I know that “House Hunters” features three homes, and they’re able to wrap things up neatly in 30 minutes. Needless to say, I appreciate the idea that we don’t have to visit a virtually endless number of homes to make a solid decision. I recently had a buyer who seemed to expect that we wouldn’t look at more than a handful of properties.

For sellers: Many times I can credit television programs for some of my seller clients who already have a strong understanding of the basics of home staging and decluttering, which makes my job a good deal easier. They also seem to respect that proper pricing is a critically important part of marketing the home.

For agents: I have been in expansion mode as we move closer to 2014, having recruited a bunch of new and experienced agents in the second half of this year. More than likely, we will have twice as many agents next spring as we had this past spring (roughly 30). One interesting thing I’ve noted, particularly with younger, newer agents, is that they frequently mention how much they love watching real estate shows. It would seem that these shows have inspired a whole generation of budding agents.

You Lost the Listing. Why?

Why did you just lose that listing to a competitor? Here are five reasons.

1. You lost contact with your client base.

Are you paying for Facebook ads, SEO, or featured listings on realtor.com, Trulia or Zillow? Are you sending out “Just Listed” or “Just Sold” cards? Do you call on owners of expired and for-sale-by-owner listings? Each of these activities can be important ways to market your business, yet the most important strategy is usually the most ignored: staying in regular personal contact with past clients.

The typical person knows 12 people who hold real estate licenses. Research shows that most people list with the agent with whom they have had the most recent contact. To make sure you’re that agent, identify the top 150 people with whom you have done business or who are the most likely to refer you business.

The second step is to make face-to-face contact at least quarterly, as well as monthly personal contact through a text, Facebook message or email. The simplest way to do this is to monitor each of your top 150’s Facebook pages and to respond to any posts they make. The response can be one or two sentences. This strengthens your connection because you’re having conversations about topics that matter to them.

2. Your attrition is too high.

The typical agent loses 20 percent of their past clients each year due to attrition. As noted above, the most common reason for attrition is that agents fail to stay in touch. Other reasons include that people move out of the area, they were foreclosed upon, or their credit was ruined in the downturn and they were forced out of the market.

To cut your attrition rate in half (which would be the equivalent of generating 50 new leads if you have a database of 500 names), get back in contact with these past clients. Friend them on Facebook or link up on LinkedIn. Be in regular conversation with them, even if they live outside the area. You never know when someone will be moving back.

3. You didn’t listen.

If you walked into your listing appointment and did a slideshow or presentation on your tablet, chances are you did all the talking – which can be problematic and annoying for buyers or sellers.

The secret here is to move from presenting to asking questions. For example, what have the sellers enjoyed about living in the property? What do they like about the neighborhood? What’s motivating them to move? What features will be important in their next property? When you ask questions about what matters to the seller, you strengthen your connection. This also increases the likelihood that you will get the listing.

4. You weren’t original.

To beat the competition, it’s important that you provide the same services your competitors provide, plus one or two unique services that they don’t provide. An easy way to do this is with video since most agents are still not using this important tool.

You can also set up single-property websites (i.e., that use the property address as the URL) on the Web. In the same vein, you can also use the property address to create a single-property Facebook page, as well as a single-property Pinterest page.

5. You weren’t competitive.

If you lost a listing to a low-price competitor, chances are that you failed to show the value you bring to the transaction. One of the best ways to do this is with a robust marketing plan.

For example, did you provide the seller with a checklist of all the places where their listing will be displayed both on and offline? Did you give the seller a copy of your 90-day marketing plan that outlines when their listing will appear on the MLS, when the For Sale sign will go up, when the open houses will be, as well as the dates for your other marketing activities? Integrating these two features into your listing appointments will result in a higher conversion rate.

– Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com

Dead Deals Come Back to Life?

Sometimes, in real estate transactions, the dead can come back to life.

The most common fact pattern presented to me in brokerage disputes is where the broker introduces a prospective purchaser to a property and, for whatever reason, the deal falls apart, but is then resuscitated without the knowledge or participation of the broker.

The parties may use a new broker or cut out all brokers to bridge the gap in the purchase price.

The standard established by the highest Court of the State of New York in Greene v. Hellman to determine if the broker is entitled to a commission in these cases is whether the broker was the “procuring cause” of the transaction.

Clearly, a broker would not be entitled to a commission simply because they called the attention of the purchaser to the property.

However, the Court in Greene v. Hellman has also held that the broker does not have to be the dominant force in the conduct of the ensuing negotiations or in the completion of the sale.

Since this 1980 Decision, trial courts and intermediate appellate courts have labored to apply these standards. They have not been successful in agreeing on what constitutes a broker being the procuring cause and the Court of Appeals has not provided any further guidance.

Defining what constitutes “procuring cause” has been discussed extensively by every Trial and Appellate Court in the New York State.

Unfortunately, the standards used by these Courts have varied and there has been no definitive definition of how to define “procuring cause” by the Court of Appeals or any of the Appellate Division Courts.

Some Courts have used the standard in which the broker must show he created an amicable atmosphere in which negotiations went forward, or that he generated a chain of circumstances which proximately led to the sale.

Other Courts required even less, in that they stated that the broker was only required to put “the parties together in an amicable frame of mind, with an attitude toward each other and toward the transaction in hand which permits their working out the terms of their agreement.”

In the decision of SPRE Realty, Ltd. v. Daniel Dienst decided last month, the First Department adopted a stricter standard requiring that the broker be a “direct and proximate link” to the transaction.

The adoption of this standard by the Appellate Court governing Manhattan places a burden on brokers who wish to protect their rights to a commission on resuscitated deals.

In order to establish a direct and proximate link, there should be communications, at least by e-mail, between the broker and the client on a periodic basis asking the client whether they have any further interest in the property.

It is my recommendation that brokers who believe they had a client who has a substantial interest in the property continue to make those inquiries on a scheduled monthly basis until the property is sold.

Without such communication, it will be difficult to establish a broker as the “procuring cause” of a transaction where significant time passes from when the broker showed the property and the time a future transaction is consummated.

In situations where the broker is able to get a written brokerage contract, the term direct and proximate link should be defined as well as provisions providing the forum for any dispute, the jurisdiction and law to apply and whether attorneys’ fees are recoverable to the prevailing party.

If brokers set up procedures to follow these recommendations, they will put themselves in a strong position to recover brokerage fees in this type of fact pattern which is all too common in our industry.

– By Howard M. Rubin, Partner at Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP