Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

The special tax exemption for first time home buyers is over and this has slowed down house sales in July as compared to the previous year (see the statistics information provided by the Florida Realtors organization). There  has been a national recovery in August, according to the National Association of Realtors, but we are still below the sales figures we had in summer 2009. The market is moving ahead slower now that the effect of the tax break is ended and the researchers at NAR estimate it is going to be a long recovery.

Nice house in Florida.

Yet the general affordability of houses and the cost of borrowing money have never been better so the market has now the opportunity to stabilize in its own right without support or intervention by the federal government. Getting loans is still somewhat difficult, but people with good credit and a solid economical situation can still do it.

Changes have also been introduced in the foreclosure negotiation process in Florida in order to slow down the flow of foreclosures, on the other hand the national government has provided additional $208,437,144 in funding to Florida communities to reverse the effect of the foreclosure crisis through neighborhoods stabilization programs (see here the full article).

Roberto Mazzoni

Recently I met a Realtor who works part time, only in the morning, because she has a regular job in the afternoon. She meets only motivated buyers that are contacting only her to show them very well targeted houses, that means one or two, that they buy in a couple of weeks paying cash.

Real estate doctors.

She spends few hours researching the properties based on very well detailed specifications of her clients and then she spends a few hours showing them to the buyer and, since it is a cash deal, she has no problem getting the seller to come to terms, and she earns her commission every single time.

No driving around tire kickers, no financing issues, no changing minds and most of all no delays. This is all real and happening in today’s market right here in Florida, where I leave, that is one of the most distressed real estate markets in the nation.

Would you like to be in her shoes? I bet you do! How can you get there? Well it’s time to thinks of of the box and get out of the typical “vertical niche” approach that Internet Marketing has tried to force on us (because it works to well for affiliate marketers) but that doesn’t really apply to real estate selling.

This lady, who has been in real estate for a long time, has developed an horizontal market niche approach. In her professional career she has also worked for some major pharmaceutical companies and has developed personal relationships with many medical doctors that were dealing with her for other types of businesses in which they were ALSO making money.

This has created very good personal and professional relationships and who do you think these medical doctors go when they need to sell or buy a house? They go to her of course. Therefore she has only a very definite set of clients, which all belong to the medical profession, and that entertain her services in real estate due to her license and knowledge in that field also.

It is a very simple and dynamic concept that will assure her a market forever. She has created her buyers’ list first and now THEY go to her asking to buy.

Could you develop something similar in your own market? I bet you can. You say you don’t have experience? What’s the matter? It is not important what you know, it is important who knows you. Once you have the relationship secured, you can get mentoring or training and get up to speed.

Roberto Mazzoni

P.S. If you have some aspect of real estate that you don’t quite understand and would like to get some help. Drop me a comment on the blog or on Twitter and I will get back to you.

I have just reviewed an interesting training package written for Realtors and home owners who want to speed up the sale of a property in this slow market. I found it quite interesting and I want to tell tyou about it in this post. First of all it is compiled by home owner who tried various ways to sell a property and then finally found a way so elicit a lot of interest in the property he had been desperately trying to sell.

A luxury bath in a house for sale in Nevada.

The story begins with this 46 years old guy who, after living a care-free life as he describes it, ended up divorced, living with his mom and verging toward a financial catastrophe. He then decided to sell a rental house that he had been owning for 20 years and found a Realtor that, after running some comps, gave him a price he was very comfortable with. The Realtor also added that with such a price the house was going to attract a lot of interest.
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This is the social network equivalent of another motto that comes from the business world: “You are just as good as the last deal you made”. But who has enough time and money to share with other people information for free? You can look at it from the other perspective as well: if you act as if you had all the resources that would allow you to share with others you will eventually get them.

Procuring the buyer a way to get a loan is probably the best selling tool in residential real estate

How this plays into the real estate market? Well, most people today don’t seem to be out looking for a house, but are looking for somebody that will help them get a loan. Addressing the financing issue and helping potential buyers qualify through maybe some financial coaching is proven to be a key factor for facilitating sales in the only area that seems to be moving well now: the first time home buyer.

I have been selling houses for a few months now using some other broker or Realtor and I have noticed that the interest in the property was more dependent on the question: “Is it going to appraise for the agreed selling price?” rather then on the merits of the house itself. Naturally the buyers need to like the house, but they depend utterly on their ability to get a loan for actually getting it.
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Today I have a true story to tell about a successful real estate investor who built his fortune leveraging something he knew how to do well and that other people hated doing: cold calling. I won’t mention any names, but the true story unfolded right here where I live in Clearwater, on the Western sunny side of central Florida. The protagonist of my story was a successful seller of copy machines. He was used in having to go past the receptionist and pitching a very difficult product. He was accustomed in getting 99 rejections out of 100 contacts and was able to leverage the single yes to keep himself motivated though the process.

Becoming rich depends on who knows you and who knows what you can offer.

One days he participated to a course on how to sell commercial real estate. He had gotten a real estate license, but he had no previous experience in selling real estate. So he sat on the seminar and listened to the information, but most of all he looked around at the other participants to the seminar looking for someone who was able and willing to give some real world advice.

He found an experienced investor who knew the area quite well and who was also a broker. He asked him which were the best three properties in the portfolio that were being offered and got the details as well as an explanation of why they were the best. He collected enough information to put together a sale package and then disappeared completely for forty five days.
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