Commission Battles, Real Estate Arrests, & Firing your Clients?
Police arrest couple found squatting in Opendoor home with kids
An Arizona couple accused of squatting in an Opendoor house with two children have been arrested by the police.
Gary Lynn, 29, and Adriana Gamboa, 26, were spotted in a Chandler, Arizona, Opendoor-listed house with Gamboa’s two children when a prospective buyer came in to view the house.. he was charging his phone and she was bathing one of their kids. The other kid was running around the house wet.
With Opendoors app, you get a code for access to the house for an hour.
Redfin believes that real estate consumers don’t really understand the way commissions work, and so they are doing something about it:
From Now on, all Redfin-listed homes will publicly display the commission that sellers are offering to buyers’ agents.
The new commission information will be included on Redfin’s website, and according to a company statement, it should “help consumers better understand the costs and incentives in the real estate transaction.”
The company conducted a survey of nearly 1,000 people in June, for example, and found that “more than half of recent homebuyers don’t fully understand how their agent was paid.”
Redfin argues in its statement that adding transparency regarding commissions should “stimulate conversations between consumers and their agents about what is fair and ultimately lead to more competition and lower fees for consumers
Five Guys Whose Brooklyn Real Estate Scheme Was Featured On “Million Dollar Listing New York” Just Got Arrested
Five real estate investors whose business was the subject of a major BuzzFeed News investigation were arrested this week for allegedly defrauding lenders and taxpayers out of millions of dollars in a scheme that targeted New Yorkers at risk of foreclosure.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged the men with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.
Two years ago, BuzzFeed News revealed how this group of investors turned properties on the brink of foreclosure into million-dollar listings sold on the reality TV show Million Dollar Listing New York.
With 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, the new home dwarfs the tiny homes Amazon began selling earlier this year.
Months after a $7,000, do-it-yourself tiny home sold out within hours, Amazon is now hawking a 774-square-foot home on its website with a $105,000 price tag.
The latest offering is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home. Titled “The Cliff” and manufactured by Estonian wooden structure distributor Q-haus, the property, which boasts an open kitchen, dining room and sauna, dwarfs the guest houses and backyard pool cabanas that previously sold on Amazon.
The home weighs 44,000 pounds and arrives in two modules that can be assembled by “two skilled workers,” according to the listing.
Furniture and appliances are also included.
Keller Williams Beverly Hills agent Jason Yaselli is accused of conspiring with the thief who posed as an agent.
Yaselli, and Benjamin Ackerman were charged with using open houses to burglarize the homes of stars, including musicians Usher, Jason Derulo and Adam Lambert, former football player Shaun Phillips, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘ Dorit Kemsley. Although Ackerman was arrested on suspicion of theft in 2018, investigators now believe Yaselli, who is listed on realtor.com as an agent for Keller Williams Beverly Hills, served as Ackerman’s accomplice in the crime spree between 2016 to 2018. More than 2000 stolen items have been recovered.
Increased posting frequency
Post at these times: 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m
author and sales expert Grant Cardone once said: “People give in to the person they see the most.”
Solicited shoutouts
Ask bigger pages to send you a shoutout.. but follow these rules:
Do some due diligence on the page before you pay them for a shoutout. You want to make sure it has real followers (not a bunch of bots), and that it has good engagement. I look for two things:
- I check its followers to make sure they don’t have a lot of fake accounts following them. Look through about 20 of its followers to get a good sample of what they have. I don’t want to find a lot of profiles with only a few posts, profiles with a lot of followers for no apparent reason and profiles that don’t have recent activity. If you’re seeing a lot of these things, don’t buy a shoutout from them.
- I want to make sure the page’s posts are getting good engagement. If the page has 100,000 followers but it’s only getting 150 likes per post, it’s probably a page with fake followers.
Focus more on stories
Paid attention to insights
No rocket science here. I simply started paying attention to my post insights to learn what people liked and didn’t like. Based off these insights, I’m trying to put out content I have seen work well before.
Who would have thought? Give them more of what they want, and they’ll do the promoting for you.
Used more hashtags
I’m not shy with my hashtags. Instagram allows 30 hashtags per post, and I use them all. I look at it as 30 different entry points onto my page that I get for free. On every post.
I started using an app called Hashtag Expert to help me discover new relevant hashtags with strong engagement. All you do is put in a single hashtag you like and consider to be relevant to your page, and the app will generate 29 more for you to copy and past into your post.
Too much noise on social media? 5 simple steps for cleaning it up
1. Ask yourself, does this post help someone trust me more?
If your post doesn’t help increase people’s trust in you, why are you posting it?
To ensure an increase in trust happens, here’s what we should avoid:
Complaining
Being argumentative
Talking politics or religion
Bragging about yourself
Asking for business
2. Go on a deleting spree
Take a look back at your social media channels for the past six months or so and based on the above, delete anything you may no longer be proud of.
3. Re-evaluate your ideal client
In all my years of working with Realtors and training them on social media, they almost all fall into the same trap.
We post what we like instead of what our ideal clients want.
When we know what our ideal client likes and wants on social media, it’s almost impossible to mess up.
4. Delete ‘salesy’ posts after 24 hours
When new followers or friends show up to our pages, we don’t want them to be drawn away by the amount of sales-driven posts they see.
How do we fix this? Delete the post 24 hours later.
On Facebook and Instagram specifically, the post might have brought you business opportunities, but after that, it will only turn people off.
5. Stop trying to attract everyone
I’ve met Realtors who say that they work with buyers and sellers all across the spectrum — from luxury buyers all the way down to first-time homebuyers.
When you look at their social media, it feels so random. It almost feels like they don’t know what they are doing or who they are.
Remember this: Lack of clarity doesn’t encourage someone to buy from you. They need to know they are your people.
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO REAL ESTATE TEAMS
According to NAR’s survey, which elicited responses from more than 3,400 agents last year, 26 percent of NAR members are part of a team. Those teams had a median establishment year of 2014, meaning many are relatively young.
Of those agents not on teams, a total of 39 percent had considered to some degree or another joining one, NAR also found.
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A TEAM ANYWAY?
most teams are actually larger than two people. The majority of the agents who spoke with Inman for this story lead teams ranging from between half a dozen to a few dozen people. Additionally, a recent survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed that the median size for a real estate team is four people.
Size aside, another vital trait of agent teams is that they operate within an existing brokerage. In other words, though teams are groups of agents and thus sometimes resemble a brokerage, they are fundamentally a type of smaller subcategory.
WHERE DID TEAMS COME FROM?
Tracing the origins of teams in the real estate industry is a little bit like trying to determine the origins of life on earth. Which is to say, they didn’t burst onto the scene so much as they gradually evolved into what we see today.
Teams have since continued to evolve. Cofano said the next key period for the concept came after the Great Recession and corresponding housing bubble. As the economy clawed its way out of the red and into the black, agents began taking more risks.
Why Realtors need a legit apprentice training program
We are told that we have to get a brokerage to sponsor us, and that brokerage usually promises “the best training” in the industry. We sign up, excited to start our new career.
The problem
When we show up on Day 1, it feels like we’re been thrown to the wolves. Most of the time the training is O.K. to terrible. It never quite seems like it’s tailored enough. There is little sales training, little training on how to run a business.
The Solution
Realtor apprentice training program once new entrants have completed the classes and passed the state and federal tests.
In many professions there is an initial period where you train under a professional; someone that has had success in the industry and can show you the ropes. This apprenticeship should be 24 months in length.
All transactions would be supervised, and the trainee would work for the trainer. At this point the trainee has gone to school but has a “permit” to practice; it’s much like a driver’s permit, but that person is not a licensed “master Realtor.”
How to keep your commission off the negotiating table
Dispel reality TV myths
The real estate buying process is glorified in today’s world with all the HGTV and Million Dollar Listing shows making it seem very glamorous or overly simple.
How else can you explain a program that highlights taking buyers to three homes and then finding their dream home through a silky smooth buying process. All this in one episode with a few short commercial breaks
Make sure your social media is showing the right picture
The more that you can pull back the curtain and show what really happens behind the scene, the more value you will highlight. There is plenty of value there to be shown, but typically we only show the end result: the closing table photos and the touchdowns being scored. There is beauty in highlighting the work behind the scenes and all the effort to get the end result.
Communicate your value well beyond finding homes
When our main role in the buyer’s process is seen as “finding the house,” it actually devalues our position. There is a lot of outside money being pumped into the housing market to highlight that our main role as agents is to “find houses.”
Adjust your attitude about money
It’s always fascinating to me to watch agents who are so focused on paying the absolute lowest fees possible, cutting every possible expense and then acting surprised when their potential clients want them to do the same on their home deal. If an agent doesn’t value tools, experience, resources, support and time over money, why should their clients think any different?
Remember, it’s probably not about you, so just be the best version of you
Do you think you are overpaid? Now if you said “No” and are a little offended by this thought, ask yourself this: “In your market, are there some agents who are overpaid?” Most likely you will say that there are.
When buyers look at the overall market, they see that as well.
Perhaps consumers have had experiences with agents they felt were overpaid, so now they make a generalized statement reflecting everyone in the industry.
9 telltale signs it’s time to fire your client
If you find yourself in a 'no-win' position with a prospect or client and there is little to no hope of getting a deal done, then it is time to fire them.
1. Lying
Trust is broken when the client lies to you. So, why do they lie?
2. Abusing mentally or physically
It is rare, but sometimes a client will become abusive. As a principal broker, I’ve walked several agents through situations where the client was verbally abusing them or others on their team.
3. Making unreasonable demands
Some clients can be demanding. However, some clients can cross the line and become downright unreasonable with their demands.
4. Financing issues
If a client or prospect is unwilling to meet with a lender to get pre-approved for a loan, don’t move forward with helping them find a home. This is a major red flag!
The client is more than likely hiding something that can impact their ability to obtain financing for a home.
5. Constantly being in a state of indecision
Nothing is more frustrating than a client changing his or her mind either before the offer is submitted or after the seller has accepted the offer.
6. Ignoring advice and laying blame
One of the reasons a buyer or seller utilizes the services of an agent is because we have the experience and expertise clients need to navigate through the complexities of a real estate transaction. Clients seek our advice so that they can make wise and informed decisions.
7. Nickel-and-diming
What are you worth? If you counted all the hours per week you spend in and on your real estate business, would you know your hourly rate? I think you would be surprised at how low your rate is, based on the amount of time and effort you spend taking care of your clients.
8. Backing you into a corner
Have you ever been at a listing presentation where the seller brings up your competition and how much less they charge to list?
9. Asking for something illegal or unethical
Some clients will cross the line of illegality when they feel it will benefit them both personally and financially. These kinds of people might look respectable and charming on the outside, but their behavior and actions in a transaction can have a negative impact on you and your brokerage if they are not playing by the rules.
5 Killer Real Estate Lessons We Learned From 'Friday the 13th'
Lesson No. 1: Always talk to the neighbors
They can tell you a lot about a property, and the people you should avoid.
Lesson No. 2: Read the seller’s disclosure
It would have been good to know Jason died when he was younger and is out for revenge.
Lesson No. 3: Decide how much isolation you can handle
If something happens, do you really want to be out in the middle of nowhere without cell phone service, or anyone to hear your screams.
Lesson No. 4: Home inspections save lives
If the power goes out during every rain storm, there is probably a problem with the electrical. Maybe get an electrician do come look at it.
Lesson No. 5: Beef up your security before you settle in
Maybe change the locks... and if you do buy out by Crystal Lake, maybe get more secure/heavier doors so Jason doesn't smash right through.