Gary V - SF

Jab Jab Jab, RIGHT HOOK!!

How lucky am I? Miguel knew I was a Gary Vaynerchuk fan and when he does some of these trade shows and he happens to mention them to me (which now he is careful to do before I get wild ideas) I will say, WOW?? HOW COOL! So this time, he asked one of the show managers if he could get me access into PCBC where Gary V would be a keynote speaker, and it turns out, he was able to!

Miguel dropped me off at the Moscone Center around 7:30am. I met his contact for my pass and went to the conference hall. Nobody was around and I walked right in. 

As it turns out, I wasn't supposed to be in there that early but I casually sat on the cool lounge chairs and nobody told me otherwise. Then in walks GARY! I kept calm so I wouldn't get questioned and in this picture I covertly took, is Gary is getting interviewed.




It started promptly at 8:30 with the VP of Social Media for the San Francisco Giants. He introduced Gary and off the show went....

My big take aways:

We marketers need to communicate and advertise to our audience like it is 2014. The year of social media and smart phones.

The internet is only 20 years young and it is evolving fast. What works today, may not work in two years.

We are living in the destruction of communication.

Innovation is moving fast!






I thought I would hop on CalTrain and head back to SJ but I decided to take advantage of the super clear day in the City and lingered a bit.

Tuesday, 17June2014

I am glad I remembered to jot this down... I am not sure how it came about but I was watching the season finale (finally) of Criminal Minds and it got a little sentimental.

Yesterday, I went with Pauline to the Brian Buffini event, it was very very good. I just so appreciate the fact that he was a former REALTOR and Joe Niego as well. Inspired... Yes.

The guest speaker was amazingly great. The Happiness Advantage. Very much enjoyed it.

This morning I went to the Evergreen Real Estate marketing breakfast, so good to be part of this community.

Then I went to the last session of the Buffini event. 

Leverage

As I realize all the details and tasks I have to do as a "solo-entrepreneur," my time is divided in what I really MUST do in order to have a productive and income flowing business.

What I know to be true about a service providing business, specifically real estate, it is a contact sport - phone contact, face to face contact, and passive contact (postcard, email, and letter).

I must also be offering quality information and content and interpretation of the information as needed, especially to real estate market statistics. What might be true in one part of a county, may not pertain to another.

If I have no current escrows, there will be no paycheck. Therefore to get escrows, I must lead generate, follow up, make presentations, and negotiate contracts/offers.

Some lead generating activities I should be doing includes calling expired listings and for sale by owners, door knocking around current listings, and previewing property and doorknocking around them. There are passive things I can do but I need a system to set them up, such as automated mail outs and blogging for SEO value and setting up online ads.

So for the last few weeks, I have been looking to find someone to help me...... someone that I can hire so I can leverage my time so that the details and tasks of the admin part of my business gets completed, so I can focus on getting more leads to convert into deals.

BTW, I do not just get leads to get paid, all leads must be qualified and have a desire and motivation to transact with real estate. Many qualifying questions must be asked before they are even deemed a lead. I would never ever go into a deal without knowing 100% there was a need and motivation. (I learned this by having worked for free with  unmotivated or improperly qualified clients.)

While at the large brokerages, they had their handbooks and manuals. This is my chance to design and produce how my business will operate.

Thursday was a good day

Ahhh, the ups and downs of being a solo-preneur.

I finally got the idx plug-in installed onto my website! Yes! It is all starting to come together nicely.

Because I take breaks with playing and building the blog, I tend to forget how and where I am supposed to make changes.

Ok, idx is installed, I need add my widgets on the home page and create a separate page of buyers and sellers to go. 

Then I will start building landing pages and more pages specific to Evergreen homes. Some ideas:

Brand New Homes

Homes under $1M

Homes over $1M

Distressed homes (short sale and REO)

Homes in 95148, 95135, 95121, 95138

Condos in those zip codes

Specific neighborhoods:
   The Ranch

   Silver Creek Country Club

   Bel Aire

   Meadowlands

   The Villages

   California Oak Creek

   Basking Ridge

   Groesbeck Park

   Norwood Creek

   Murillo newer

   Murillo over 1970

   

Wednesday - off days, on days

Today felt like an off day. My monkey (the drunk one) was in my ear regarding my website that the progress was slow and too tedious for me.

I will likely look to get help on setting it up and installation. I called MLSlsitings for help for the IDX portion but I felt lukewarm assistance.

The expenses are adding up but I know that is how it is to be if I want a custom site and not a cookie cutter. Plus, I want to be able to update and revise without having to depend on someone else to do it.

One of my favorite BOLD Law is: It is not about selling real estate, it is about following a schedule.

Back to BOLD....

I must always return back to the reconditioning from BOLD.

Bold laws!

Affirmations!

Goethe!

Think and grow rich.

My drunk monkey was talking to me loudly. 

Focus.. FOCUS.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. (Goethe)

Until one is committed, 
there is hesitancy, 
the chance to draw back — 

concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), 
there is one elementary truth 
that ignorance of which kills countless ideas 
and splendid plans:

that the moment one definitely commits oneself, 
then Providence moves too. 

All sorts of things occur to help one that 
would never otherwise have occurred. 

A whole stream of events issues from the 
decision, raising in one’s favor all manner 
of unforeseen incidents 
and meetings 
and material assistance, 
which no man could have dreamed 
would have come his way.

Whatever you can do, 
or dream you can do, 
begin it. 

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.~ Goethe

Affirmation!

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,

that can circumvent, hinder or control 

the firm resolve of a determined soul!

Website Progress - Ho-hum

So I am two weeks into my website/blog build. This morning, I got up early to work on the site but I ended up surfing instead.

Getting revved up to work on the blog is a challenge.

Thoughts that entered into my head:

Should I hire someone to finish it up?
Am I not smart enough to do this task?
Am I really up to being the webmaster?
Is this activity worthwhile?

I think I am overwhelmed with the task...

Well, I figure I build one page a day, one post a day so I at least have the content.

As it turns out, it is a bit pricey for a blog. There are hosting costs, plug-in costs (idx), bells and whistles costs, etc.

I am happy of what I have accomplished so far.

What is next? Buyer questions - making an offer

After showing a first time buyer a very viable listing for his needs, as we stand in the kitchen, he asks, so what is the next step....?

The next step meaning, I like this place, I can see myself living here with all my things and make mortgage payments, where do we go from here?

Ah, my favorite part of the buying transaction, making and negotiating offers.

Depending on the client's experience with real estate, I will take preliminary steps before we draft an actual contract. Before we get to this phase, I will have had a buyer consultation and have pre-approved by a lender.

Assuming we have already consulted and the buyer is already pre-approved, I will start research data on the property. I will pull market statistics (by area or zip code or neighborhood with recent data) and market comparables (other similar properties in the area that have sold, currently active, or pending). I often go to Zillow for their zestimate and also "RPR" (Realtor tool offered by my mls). I will make my assessment of the properties value and also forward relevant data to the buyer so they can make their own assessment.

Doing this assessment clarifies for the buyer the value of a property and potentially what the property will appraise at for financing. This also ensures that I can articulate to the listing agent why we feel this offer price make sense. In a seller's market where value of homes is on the rise or a multiple offer situation, we may have to offer higher than our perceived value in order to win over higher offers.

By the way, it may not be the offer amount that makes you the best offer. It can also come down to terms such as timeframe to close (quick or long), timeframe of discovery period (inspecting property and deciding if the findings are acceptable.) , and contingencies (financing, buyer needs to sell another property, appraisal). Sometimes it may come down to the rapport or familiarity between the agents. Some agents may be more easy going to work with, some agents may be known to be agile problem solvers in making deals "work," etc.

Before I write up the offer, I will review the mls information for the property. I will read the remarks which may include offer deadlines, what is included with the sale, and if there are documents that needs to be reviewed in order to make tighter offer. Example: A termite and property inspection may have already been completed and there is only minor work needed. Should this be the case and the buyer feels comfortable with using the seller provided report, the buyer may make their offer AS-IS or offer less than list price based on this information. By making this informed decision, the buyer can not come back and re-negotiate the offer referencing back to the condition of the property based on this information.

Should the listing agent have provided additional documentation on the property, this will be downloaded and sent to the buyer to review. I will make my own assessment of this information and offer my recommendation to the buyer when making an offer.

Also, I will contact the listing agent and make inquiries to activity level, any current offers in hand, and if the seller has anything requests or needs that I can incorporate into the offer. Requests may include a rent-back, active lease agreements on the property, etc.

While putting together the market stats and any additional information, I will begin to fill out an offer summary page. This document is a worksheet to what will ultimately go onto the offer or aka purchase agreement. This page also highlights the main points in a simple fashion and is also less intimidating from the actual contract.

I will review this summary with the buyer, once this summary is agreed upon, I will transfer it to the contract.

Once the offer is drafter, I will go over the offer with the buyer and highlight the main points.

If the buyer is a first time homebuyer, I usually do this face-to-face and allow plenty of time for questions. This also puts the buyer at ease and more confidant in making their offer. After all pages of the contract is signed, I will put together the offer package to be sent to the listing agent.

On Negotiating

The first times I really attempted to understand negotiating, was in the 80s. At the time Donald Trump was the talk of the town and the media over and over would rave about his prowess of Real Estate deal making. He was to be this multi-millionaire rainmaker in real estate. Never really gave it much thought until I started getting involved in real estate in 1994.

At the time, I was not doing actual real estate sales. I was doing admin work. Pauline had me listening to Mike Ferry tapes and going to seminars. "Negotiating contracts" came up over and over again as a REALTORS primary job. When I became licensed to sell real estate in 2001, I was thrown into the wolves in negotiating.

As it turns out, years later, I instinctively knew how to negotiatie. Being the eldest in my family, my parents relied on me to come up with solutions and plans. I was often in the driver's seat in my family, and rarely questioned.

Negotiating to me has come to this:

Know the facts from all points of view
Know the parties and understand they have an interest
Know how to ask questions
Know how to build rapport
Know how to analyze the information
Make a fair deal that all parties can be happy about.

I am the ASSISTANT

Now that I am thinking about different roles in a real estate transaction and business and the support/team needed, I realized that I no longer have APR staff, I am the staff...

I am everything:

Listing Agent
Buyer Agent
Showing Agent
Listing Coordinator
Escrow Coordinator
Marketing
Admin
Webmaster
Runner


I function by completing tasks on a TO DO list which the category is: EVERYTHING.

I will bring on an admin this summer to work 20 hours a week.

I will train a showing agent to help with buyers as well.

I don't mind handling the listings - pricing, contracts and negotiating. I get too distracted when I have to do the marketing tasks for listings - photos, enter to MLS, flyers, video, post cards. Press releases, blogs.

The task I will be handing off: Managing and maintaining the file, the marketing and service reports, scheduling inspections, sign offs, etc.

Progress on Day 7 - Web build

I have been at it for a few hours.

I did my homepage slider and inserted my buttons.

My Value button - going to Market Snapshot (external web page...)
Sell House - IDX, or seller resource PAGE
Buy House - IDC, or buyer resource PAGE

IDX installation and Landing pages will be next.

I am feeling a little brain fried so I may have to put this project down for the day.

I can watch some more tutorials though.

Seven Days Into Web Build - BREAKTHROUGH!

For a few days I was stuck at figuring out how to make my menus look right.

As it turns out, for the theme I had chosen, there was a video tutorial on setting up! Dang! I should have looked for that sooner.

The positive thing is that by fumbling around wp admin, I was getting to know it better.

So my resources for my DIY yourself web building (webmaster = me):

Agent Evolution Tutorials
Wordpress.org