Thanks Matt, that reminds me: The SSP Factor

SSP. Shameless. Self. Promotion. Hands down the most uncomfortable aspect of real estate for me. For someone as extroverted and seemingly confident as I am, who enjoys public speaking and marketing, you'd think I could self-promote without breaking a sweat. But that's definitely not the case.

As my Facebook friends can attest, I am regularly posting links to my real estate blog, pictures of my listings, status updates mentioning my team. And I feel SOO gross doing it. Seriously I prefer more of a subtle ninja marketing technique. But ninja marketing doesn't work in real estate, and I have kiddos to feed and roots to touch-up. Ain't no time to be a ninja.

When you are an agent, whether it's with Prudential, Keller Williams, Century 21, etc, no one is going to promote YOU -- the individual agent-- except YOU. And you will quickly understand why I spam the shit out of you on the interwebs at every opportunity. Who do you think is gonna send you leads? Your broker of record? Other agents? Santa?

The first obstacle you've gotta tackle is that your friends and family will not think of you as an agent when you first start. They will think of you as their child, a teacher/waiter/IT support tech/scientist....whatever you were before you got into real estate. You might laugh but I'll offer two true stories as proof. My mom's co-worker told her she wanted to sell her house, and asked if she knew a good realtor. She was half-joking...she remembered I was a realtor and was just sorta waiting for my mom to say "Why yes, my daughter is an agent". Instead my mom forgot that her only child, who talks about real estate ad nauseam, was not working for a builder anymore and said no. Her co-worker, perplexed and unsure if maybe she'd misremembered, went home and googled, and found another agent. My mom recounted this story to me still not realizing her mistake. I kept counting to 3, willing my arm to stay glued to my side so as to not, well, bitch-slap my mother. That brain fart just cost me a potential $6,000 commission. Ouch. THEN my step-grandfather decided to sell his house. He had always insisted realtors were "crooks" and he would never ever use one. So imagine my surprise as I drove past his house and saw a Re/Max sign in his front yard. I honestly almost barfed on my steering wheel. My face got hot, I broke out in a cold sweat and I started to cry. I mean really?? My own family didn't even use me to list their home? How humiliating!!! He said he "forgot". He forgot that I had my own real estate team, and I guess forgot that I had been selling houses for four years, and I guess forgot I had two babies to feed all on my own. Hmm. I had to chalk it up to his age, brush it off, and move on undeterred. But it is still awkward whenever I see him.

You can laugh, but all of these things will happen to you when you first get started. You are your own marketing department, PR rep, advertising campaign, etc. What did I have to blame these two mishaps on? I had to blame them on myself for letting my own family forget what it is I do for a living. Go ahead and be embarrassed to self-promote, go ahead and be shy, laid back and all zen about letting it 'come to you'. Perhaps you'll make enough to keep you in the business. Perhaps you won't. But you're definitely not going to have abundance until you get over it and spread the word.

Easy Money? That's news to me.

A lot of people I have met over the years have told me about their plans to enter into the real estate profession after hearing what I do for a living. "It's such easy money" they tell me. I try not to choke, or worse laugh in their face, when I hear this. It's actually sort of adorable. I'm going to turn my pockets inside out for your benefit, so if you are considering getting into the business, wrap your brain around these numbers.

Immediately after getting my license (classes $600 + licensing fee $83 + exam $56) I was hired as a licensed assistant for Re/Max Classic in St. David's. I liked the office because I would be working for someone I knew and it was in an area with high property values. The downside was that I lived about an hour from the office and with no hourly pay, gas money was not instantly reimbursed and Blue Rt traffic was killing me. So I chose to go in another direction, but of course there was lag time in figuring out what direction exactly... so back to bartending for awhile.

After a grueling FOUR interviews, I was hired by a luxury home builder as a Sales Associate. This felt like the brass ring of real estate jobs: a base salary + commission + benefits? Amazing! Prior to signing on I received an offer letter for my base salary (about $30k-ish) and was told that my commission would be "about $10k", but didn't see it in writing. So I had no idea what this meant...did it mean I'd make $10k per house?!?!? Because I would be selling $800k-$1M homes, that didn't seem impossible, but maybe unlikely. Or did they mean $10k total? Just a small difference. I was confused but so excited for the opportunity that I accepted the job. It turned out that they meant about $10k total. (I was promoted to a Sales Manager fairly quickly, about a year and a half later, and the money got a lot better.) Still, very exciting stuff and I would go on to stay there for a few great years, until the twins were about 10 months old.

I started to feel really restricted by having to sit in a model home day in and day out, whether there were any prospects coming in our not. I began to resent that had I sold one of our homes on the other side, as a Realtor, I would be making about $20k/house versus $2k/house....base salary or not. And so as it happens, the grass on the other side started looking pretty green and off I went. Back to being a free agent.

I started at a company I'll call XYZ Realty, just to be fair. I transferred my license ($25) after taking some continuing education ($150), bought business cards ($50 + photographer fee $75) and a for sale sign ($50). I knew I'd be working from home but this particular company required even at-home agents to pay a monthly fee ($55). We also paid for any photocopies we made. I joined Trend MLS so I could publish my listings and search for them (this isn't exactly optional, it's our lifeline...a $226-up-front- $126/year-lifeline).

For the listing I had with XYZ, I had to pay for my own For Sale sign, my own color copies for the brochures I made for prospects ($86 for 20 copies of the brochure), food for the broker's open house ($30), food for the public open house ($30). For my buyer, my biggest expense was gas. They were looking in Delaware County, about an hour from my house, so the back and forth wasn't as nominal as it might've been if I was working in my area. In the end, my listing was priced too high and didn't sell --but did cost me a couple hundred bucks. My buyer successfully purchased a home in Aston. Out of my $3800 commission I had to pay E & O insurance ($400). So from January-March I grossed $3800 and my net was about $2000 give or take. Yikes. Ultimately, the culture of XYZ as well as the monthly fees/operating expenses were not for me. Next!

I decided on Prudential Fox & Roach, where I am now, after a lot of research on Coldwell Banker, Long and Foster, and Weichert. To be fair, I will say some of my friends in the business have not liked PFR; they've felt it was too corporate and structured. For me, coming from a publicly traded builder, this was music to my ears! For every marketing piece I could need to create there are templates to help, beautiful pieces already made and free for my use, and photocopies are free, too. I have a desk at the office as does my teammate Greg and we do not pay monthly fees. We don't pay for signs. I was able to negotiate some other perks since I have been in the business and have a large Sphere of Influence. Greg is new to real estate, so he has had more out of pocket expenses: business cards, announcements, and a very in-depth training program ($200). I should mention XYZ offered free training, however none of the sessions I attended offered me anything of value. I can see though that a brand new agent probably would benefit, but it was fairly basic stuff. The PFR training is much more in-depth and technical than focused on sales. And in my opinion you can either "sell" or you can't. It's more of a natural gift, not something that can be taught.

As an agent for PFR you are expected to join the National, PA, and Suburban West Realtor Associations. This certifies you to be a certified REALTOR. A REALTOR is a Real Estate Salesperson who has received additional ethics training. To become a REALTOR isn't cheap: $150 application fee + $373 up front, $373/year.

I've been at Prudential since June. I started working with a buyer pretty immediately and their settlement did not occur until September 15th. So from March 28th (buyer at XYZ settles) to Sept 15th (buyer at PFR settles) I made $0, but I spent quite a bit. From my first commission check, I gave my teammate a cut, paid for a new E & O policy ($400...again) and was left with about $1700.

Because I am extremely well-connected and Greg is no wallflower himself, my team will be headed into November with 2 new listings, a possible sale of our Reading listing, 2 investors, a renter and a potential buyer. All of these leads were generated by our friends and my past clients. But for a typical new agent, you will also need to spend some dollars and time prospecting. Flyers, floor time, internet based lead generation, mailing lists, direct mailings...and all of those things cost money.

So. Is there money in real estate? ABSOLUTELY. Lots of it. Is it easy? Not even a little. If you're passionate about people and investments, dislike static environments and predictability, and have about $15k-30k at your disposal I fully encourage you to go for it. And although I have my own opinions about most of the companies out there I will never, ever try to recruit and will offer as unbiased an opinion as possible.

Keep the faith, if you're already in it right now. As my buddy Dave Hopkins says, good things happen to good people who work hard. Simple advice really, but it's gotten me through some very lean times and on my way to the f-a-t.

Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.

A word on finances as a homeowner

DON'T take out a home equity loan unless you plan on staying in your home for 5-10 years with no chance of relocation
DON'T use a home equity loan for anything that won't increase the value of your home (furniture, wedding, car, vacation)
DON'T gloss over the financing terms of your mortgage simply because you're excited to own a home; that home will quickly own YOU.
DON'T forget how many items you will need to make the house a home...avoid being 'house poor'

DO act now if you want to be eligible for the $8000 first time home buyers tax credit
DO remember why homeownership is made out to be such a big deal-- because it IS. If you have one month's pay in savings and credit card debt equal to or in excess of that amount, you're not ready to buy. Just because you CAN get a mortgage doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Investing in homeownership is just that: making an investment. As such it takes preparation, research, dedication, and resources to make it work. If you have specific questions about your finances with regards to purchasing a home, please let me help! All inquiries are confidential and I always have time to help a friend. sarah.alderman@prufoxroach.com

Turnin' Down the House

Buyers, this little nugget of wisdom is for you as well as your agent. Did you know that for every property you see, your agent will be expected to provide feedback to the listing agent in the areas of price, appearance, and your interest level? Although your agent uses your reaction to the home as the basis for their feedback they often input their own opinion as well. This feedback is invaluable for the sellers of the home. It can affect their willingness to reduce price, to make repairs, or simply rearrange some furniture. But let us remember the Golden Rule when giving feedback: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A.K.A. put down the Hater-ade before providing your feedback.

First, it can be very frustrating when your realtor says: "Price- Good, Home Showed- Excellent, Client Interested?- No"...and that's it. What is it you didn't like about the home? Was it the size, location, feng shui, building materials? Was it just a matter of taste?

Second, and exponentially more frustrating, is the feedback that seems to scream "the person who completed this feedback form is having the worst day ever". The buyer is not interested, because of a large element-- let's say they wanted a bigger yard. Then it would seem a bit unnecessary to go on and on about all of the perceived shortcomings of the home. "Paint colors are tacky, strange layout, floors should be refinished, unusual landscaping." Now see...them there fightin words. Don't forget what a tremendous amount of emotion the sellers have tied into their home. This is the place they scrounged every dime they could find to buy, and spent years pouring bits of themselves into. They picked that paint color together...as a matter of fact that is the first thing they ever bought for their home as a married couple. They've raised their children there and taught them about gardening. So what if the result looks a bit 'unusual'? You're just going to tear it up to build a deck anyway! When you and your buyers agent are walking through the home alone, certainly be as candid as you like. But when providing feedback, be as gracious as possible while still giving an honest explanation of your level of interest. There's no need to gloss over huge defects, but if it's clearly a matter of taste, just let it go.

The other thing you want to steer away from is letting your agent giving the seller's agent a diluted impression of your intent to purchase. Until you are pretty sure you're going to write an offer, be sure your agent isn't giving the green light to the sellers. This will ultimately get everyone's hopes up for nothing.

I had an agent schedule an appointment for one of my listings late one evening. In her appointment remarks, which went to my sellers as well as myself, she said "Buyers are anxious to purchase this home!!". Naturally we were all jumping up and down and basically staring at the fax machine all day waiting for the offer to come in. After two unreturned calls, hours later, I was able to reach the buyer's agent at home. "They didn't like it. It was really much too small. And they thought it the lights were strange. And the yard was......"(by now she's sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher, drowned out by the sound of my high hopes deflating). I was dumbstruck. How anyone could be so insistent that this was their clients' dream home only to be blowing smoke. In the words of Full House's own Stephanie Tanner, how rude!

So remember and please remind your agents that the feedback you give them in private should be filtered and passed on appropriately. That rejection stings enough and there is no need to add extra barbs. And that somebody actually really loves that "funky layout", and someone else will, too.

It only takes one!