Ann Arbor Undressed : January 2008

Here's your Friday chuckle: ( this is true )

My daughter was setting up showings today for tomorrow. The listing office told her to call the seller. So she called and  said,

"Hi, this is Christa from Keller Williams and I would like to show your home tomorrow between 11:00 and 12:00."

Silence

"Sir, would it be possible to show your home tomorrow?"

"Oh, hell.........I'll have to get up and clean up the house" 

In this market, in sub degree weather, is this seller motivated or what?

Seriously...this happened 5 minutes ago.

Have a great weekend... sell lots of houses. 

This is the last part of the series I have been sharing on the steps I take BEFORE I actually meet with the clients on a pre-listing appointment. These are the quotes I also send out with Listing Questionnaire, and the Marketing Reports. Each is on a separate page and take up the whole page with colors, which I can't do here because I haven't taken the time to learn html. I add these into what I email people because I want sellers to get a few little sayings in their heads.

                                                                                    Pricing YOUR House

                                           The seller sets the price of the home, but ultimately

                                                      The buyer determines the value.

                                            My job is to supply you with the facts about what has

                                                sold recently and what is now for sale to help you

                                                                make a decision.

Next separate page...............

The Common Pricing Objections

... Frequently heard comments from sellers, that don't have any relationship to the value of the house.

•·       "Another agent said it was worth more."

•·       "Our house is nicer than those houses."

•·       "People always offer less than asking price."

•·       "We can always come down on our price>"

•·       "We have to get that much out of our home."

•·       "My neighbor was able to get his price."

•·       "Let's try it at our price for a month or so."

•·       "The buyers can always make an offer."

•·       " We paid more that that for our home."

Next Page: (This is a good one.........)

                                                                                 Beware Of Devious Agents

" Beware that some devious agents will at first suggest a very handsome price. Then, after they have the listing and the house hasn't sold they'll come back a with a pitch to lower the price."

Consumer Reports, July 1990

Unconditional Listing Guarantee

If for any reason our TEAM does not provide 100% satisfactory service, just let us know and we will promise to remedy the situation within 24 hours. If you are still not satisfied, we will release you unconditionally from the listing agreement without further obligation.

We're so sure that you will not only be just satisfied, but actually be delighted!

I do this one in Publisher and sign it in front of them when I take the listing.

Ok so here are four pages, I EMAIL to them, prior to the first meeting. Make these four pages look pretty and put each one on a separate piece of paper.

Finally...I email them all the sites that my Point2Agent Site will syndicate too.

   This is what I do, before I meet with the clients, in ONE email they get the Pre-Listing Questionnaire to determine their ability to sell and motivation for selling. Second, in the same email they get the Marketing Plan for their house. Finally they get the 4 pages of quotes and the Syndication sites. When I arrive, I am able to focus on them and not me. A few of you have emailed me or commented to ask if I do this for all my appointments even if I am not competing for the listing and the answer is YES. They need to know what I do to get their home sold and I need to know what their financial situation is. Now here is my last note to you.

THE END 

Someone once asked me, “What is your passion?”

I have been married for 30 years, so I suppose I looked at them funny. They continued on, “You know what makes you want to wake up in the morning? What do you think about during the day?”

Ahhhh……

 
Your passions are what you love to do, passions are not work, and passions are what put a smile on your face.

A person is lucky indeed if their passions co-inside with their life and career. Have you ever heard the expression, “most men live lives of quiet desperation”?  (It actually originated by Henry David Thoreau in 1854)

 
When I was growing up my dad owned a Buick Dealership. He was very successful and was asked to serve on many community boards. He was a very warm, friendly, lovable man, with many friends and business associates all over town. But, deep down his family knew running the car dealership was not his passion.

My dad loved race-horses. Now by loving thoroughbreds, I don’t mean gambling or going to the races, although he loved that too.

 
No, I mean he enjoyed every aspect about them, the breeding, the blood-lines, the history, watching them train, feeding them, the whole thing. Before, my brother and I were born; my grandfather was in the car business. My grandfather ran the business and dad was able to spend more time doing what he loved to do. When my brother and I came along, he had to get serious about working with my granddad at the dealership.

 
But, his passion, all his life was the horses, not the automobile business.

In the book, Bo’s Lasting Lessons, written by Bo Schembechler and John Bacon, Bo says,

“When people talk to me about all the sacrifices I’m suppose to have made pursuing this crazy life-in time, money, in status-I have to laugh. They weren’t sacrifices to me. I got to coach! And that is all I ever wanted to do.”

Bo Schembechler was a fortunate man; his passion was the game of football and he got to spend his life doing what he loved to do...coaching.

Today, I see many young people, graduate, take a job they don’t really like but is financially secure and start down the road of living lives of quiet desperation.

What is your “all you ever wanted to do?”  What are your passions?

Is it real estate? Do you love the housing industry?

I love helping people; my degree from college was in Social Work. The skills I learned there were very transferable to real estate. Real estate is a career that is all about helping people. We help them find their house, we help them negotiate the inspections, we help them find a loan, we help them make sure there are no title issues, and we help them get the best price for their home if they are selling. We become their counselor, their trusted adviser.

If you don’t like helping people achieve their dreams, then it is time to get out. Many Realtors and Lenders are getting out. It was easy to have this career in a sellers market, it is hard now. You have to be committed to do what needs to be done to help people accomplish their dreams.  That includes working hard and being passionate. I am passionate about real estate and helping people I meet along life's way.

Do you still have a smile on your face, when you write an offer? Take a listing? Go show houses? Originate a mortgage? Stage a house?

My "aha" moment came when I realized that at the core of my being was a passionate desire to help people, it was in Social Work and now it is Real Estate.

Hummm, turns out I loved the book. Yea, the history of Michigan football is all there and that is fun to read. But, the lessons on leadership are life-changing. Regardless of what field or career in life you have chosen this book with take you up a notch in learning how to be an effective leader.

The majority of everyone Bo coached over his years at Michigan went on to become leaders in whatever career they chose.

John Bacon hounded Bo for 10 years to get the book written, because John felt Bo had a message to get out to everyone about leadership.

Yes, he did John you were right.

Being a leader is all about being prepared. Regardless of what your career is, whether it as simple as leading a girl scout troup, managing your real estate office, or TEAM, learning how to lead is critical to our life's successes. Over the years, I have always enjoyed reading biographies of strong leaders, they inspired me to be better and they humble me to know how true leadership comes at a price.

More lessons on leadership and continue reading on Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk. You do not have to be a football fan, or a Michigan fan to not be able to put this book down.  

To be continued... being a passionate leader.

Order the book at Amazon. 

Today in my Inman News was this video,(attached below) of Brian Brady and Dustin Luther speaking at the Inman Connect Conference in N.Y.

It was on blogging, what else...

We hear a lot here on Activerain about how to blog, what to blog, finding your voice, blah, blah, blah...

But, this video is NOT on that, the video is primarily on the long tail of blogging. It starts out with a question and continues throughout the video on how to build YOUR community by blogging, BEFORE the "big boys" figure it out and jump in. Who are the 'big boys"?

The debate is really lively, it is 42.7 minutes long and well worth every minute spent watching or listening to it. I shrunk it down and listened while I did other things online. However, I still managed to take 4 pages of notes. That is something I never do, but the points were so good, I'd write down something and then something else and then something else.

Do Brian and Dustin agree on everything? No and that is what made is so much fun to listen to. All the questions are things I have asked myself as I am sure you have if you have been blogging for any length of time.

So enjoy, I sure did !

The phone rings, you get an email, a referral comes in someone wants you to list their house....now what?

After I have spoken to the potential seller on the phone to find out basic things, like email, timing of the move and the appointment is set, I tell them, I am going to email them some information to review. During the initial conversation I am also trying to "bond" with them and establish trust. Then I email them The Caulk TEAM Pre-Listing Questionnaire, and ask them to send it back to me BEFORE we meet so we can make the most of their time.

   I use to drop off a book, with marketing materials in it, the day before; but as the years went by less and less people had read it when I went to the appointment.

Over the years, my preparation for the pre-listing appointment has grown. What I want to emphasize in this post is the Pre-List Questionnaire, that I email to potential sellers and what I want to learn from them by sending it out advance. In a later post I will go over the other items I include.

 Included in the initial email is the following:

 •1)      Marketing Plan

 •2)      Syndication Sites

 •3)      How I place on Google   (learned that from Broker Bryant)

 •4)      Market Reports for their area

                                   •5)      My Listing Guarantee

The Pre-listing Questionnaire is basically to gage how motivated they are to sell and if they can afford to sell. In the document I ask, how much they owe, if they are willing to spend money on the house getting it ready, how much they will spend, do they have a 2^nd mortgage, are they current on all their payments, do they have a friend, relative or church member they are obligated to list with, how many Realtors will they be interviewing, and do they have any idea how much their home is worth?

Some of the most important questions on the Pre-Listing Questionnaire are:

What are their expectations from me so that I can provide them with exceptional service?

What criteria are they using to determine the Realtor to market their home?

How do they like to communicate? (Phone, email or text message)

I tell them that if they decide to hire me I would like to be chosen for three reasons:

•1)      My skill and knowledge of the market

•2)      My integrity

•3)      The strength of my marketing plan

You might be thinking do potential sellers send this back?

Yes, 90% of the time they do.

Then before I go to the appointment, I have a good understanding of their needs, financial situation, how they like to communicate, what they are willing to invest to get the home ready and if they are truly motivated to sell their home. This is all critical stuff, we need to know and I like to find out at the beginning.

***Part 2 will be the Marketing Plan and Syndication Sites.

Recently I was nominated for the Realtor of Year from the Real Estate Staging Association. What an honor to get nominated for this award.

I am a firm believer in a home being in perfect condition before it comes on the market. In Ann Arbor and all of Washtenaw County when I am working with a seller, if they are moving and leaving there house vacant, I require (yes I said require) that their home be staged before they move.

A vacant house is a sad, cold, lonely house. Most buyers will fall in love with a house before they buy it. The Missy Caulk TEAM wants to give our sellers every opportunity to get their home SOLD. Staging a home before it comes on the market is critical to make it stand out among the competition.

I work primarily with Denise Sloan at Show Case My Home in Ann Arbor, MI. Denise is an Accredited Staging Professional who is fantastic on knowing what to do to make the house look and feel like a “home”.

Not sure what to think about the difference in a staged home or a vacant one, take a look at two real estate shows, one staged and one not., same house.

Which house would you make an appointment to see?

The voting ends tomorrow, so if you like what you see you can vote for me at RESA here.

* How's this for shameless self promotion?* 

Very well maintained condo located in the Georgetown Community of Ann Arbor, MI. Walk to shopping,parks, and located on a bus route. All appliances stay including washer and dryer. Rare find, THREE bedroom, on a cul-de-sac, with great view. Subject to banks approval on a short sale. Move in condition and only minutes to U of M and medical complexes.

Well, here it is the end of the year and the housing data is in.

Yes, we continued to sell homes in Ann Arbor, Michigan and throughout Washtenaw County. I know you are shocked by all the horror stories you read in the media. Oh well... people do need to move and buyers do need to buy.

Property in Washtenaw County, sold for 89% of asking price, with an average of 86 days on the market. Over one in 5 homes listed SOLD.

December ended with a 30% drop in listings in 2007, compared to December 2006. So even though our inventory was up by 17.5%, the drop in listings in December 2007 is a positive sign.

Here are a couple of graphs to compare historically the trends in Washtenaw County.

I like to say, "Buyers are very unforgiving". That means what they would accept in a home a few years ago, they don't have to now, they just keep looking and find what they really want.

The homes selling the fastest are those priced to sell.

Work with a Realtor that will "tell you the truth". The truth about your home, the condition, the market conditions and the absorption rate for the inventory on the market in your specific area, Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Manchester and Ypsilanti.

This video has been EVERYWHERE today on all the blogs I subscribe to outside of Activerain. I did a search and couldn't find it posted anywhere here, so here it is.

Some of the sites I have seen it on are:

The Future of Real Estate Technology

1000 Watt Blog

Bloodhound Blog

Inman News

I'm sure I'm forgetting somewhere else I saw this, but this is enough. Inman gave credit to 1000 Watt Blog, so I believe they are the original source. These are all good blogs to subscribe to outside activerain.

Regardless, thought I'd share it with you on Activerain, since it is the video of the day in the blogosphere. Forgive me if someone posted it, I searched and couldn't find it.

After you watch it post your comments on what you think of the message.