All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

@Christopher Hunter - chances are he was going to pocket that money, which is illegal. Why would he be compensated for doing his job before you close? He gets compensated by finding good properties (not just surfing the internet) and then helping you get to closing. Call the broker.

@Llewelyn A. - this type of thinking below from you means you should not get your license

"If the listing expires without going into Contract AND if the deal falls out of Contract, such as when a Buyer fails to attain a Mortgage, then I can offer to buy the Property since there is no Agency relationship as the Contract with the Buyer had expired."

If that happened and then records show that the listing agent bought the property, agents and buyers who showed the property and did not offer would find things that you said to them to be disingenuous, whether they were or not, because it would look like you were putting off buyers to get it yourself when it expired. Once that is raised, then the seller would also have an issue with you.

@Llewelyn A. if you have to keep asking the question and you aren't taking in all the answers, getting your license is only going to cause you problems. Just from a strict ethical point-of-view how would it be ok to look at all of the offers and then just bid higher? There are so many problems with this before even looking at the rules and it seems like you are looking for a way to make it ok and there will never be.

If you are the listing agent you are NEVER bidding on the property, not through someone else, NEVER. If you have a client who is interested in your listing, dual agency, you can write up an offer for them but if you do ALL of the offers must go to another agent or your broker for review so you have no access to them until a decision is made between your substitute agent and the seller. If you would rather stick with your seller then you can farm out your buyer to another agent and take a referral fee, but that is still pushing the line. The other way is better - write the offer and give up control of the intake of offers to your office manager or broker.

@Christopher Hunter why would you pay a buyer's agent a retainer to look on the MLS. You should check with his broker as to whether he was planning on running these fees through the brokerage or not. A buyer's agency agreement does not require a fee and really shouldn't. The agent will get paid when he closes deals for you and if he needs money to solidify the deal, he probably isn't going to work that hard. Both sides need to prove themselves to each other that they are in it for the same goals. Contact his broker and see if this was sanctioned by the office.

@Andrew Taylor - your first question is "How can I help you?" Every seller who calls back at least has a faint interest in selling and if you are mailing the right lists, they have a reason for calling you back. This reason will be different for each seller - out of state landlord doesn't want to manage anymore, empty nester ready to move, the absentee owner doesn't take care of the property. Before moving into cash offer mode, ask them questions about them and why they are calling back. When you know their why and when you invest in learning about them, even for 3-5 minutes, you will be far ahead of all the investors trying for a quick sale, cash deal that is the "best deal you are going to get." Of course, your goal is an appointment and a buy, but who do you think these people are more likely to have over - the guy who asked them questions about WHY they need to move or the guy who told them they would give them 100k right now?

@Antonio Lulli we just launched a similar model as a side business termed Investor Services. One LLC searches for and finds deals for investors off-market and through various other sources and the other LLC is our real estate team which takes over all the flip listings, etc. We expect to scale this quickly but are not near 100+ investor deals/year yet. Happy to connect.

@Alexander Pierre-Louis - deals can be tracked back to productivity and availability of leads. It takes a seasoned agent about 50 conversations to close a deal so for a new agent you can ramp that up to 100. So you need to be having 100 conversations a month to close one deal so 200 per month to close 2. The question for you is where are you going to have these conversations and who are you calling or meeting? If you cut your 200 conversations into 6 days a week (avg. 24 a month), your goal should be about 8 conversations a day on the days you are working. Not so bad, right?

All of your other questions are answered in the first one. If you want 5 deals a month, have 500 conversations a month and the better you get the more your conversion will scale down to 50 conversations/deal or less. Where do you get your leads? How much do you work your sphere? Are you building relationships with service providers in the industry?

@Andrew McManamon - as a new real estate agent you need to be focused on your sphere first. Read The 7 Levels of Communication by Michael Maher and that will give you great strategies at no cost to work your sphere. Be wary to spend money before you are ready to handle the lead flow and intake and more importantly, all of the bad leads that come with lead capture. Facebook is a great place to get leads through boosted posts giving value, but you need to spend a lot of time building your business page and website so that they show you as a professional agent who knows what they are doing.

One final note on Facebook advertising - unless you are directing a Facebook ad to a dedicated lead capture page and CRM, you are wasting your money.

@Stefano Gasperini - since you are close to Delray, start by using these tips to find an investor-friendly agent - https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10015/64777-5-...

Most agents are happy to put you on a MLS drip every day, but you will need to follow up with questions. To show your value to them you will want to give them a pre-approval or proof of funds or hard money letter so they can confirm that you have the resources to buy when you find the right deal.

@Thomas Weidner - bring in a few agents and don't worry as much about their presentation, but focus on how much they pay attention to you and connect with you. Do they ask you questions about what you want out of the deal? Do they ask you questions to build a relationship? Anyone can show you statistics (and they are important - see second set of questions) and use a canned listing presentation, but the agent that will sell your home and get you the best price and work the hardest for you is one who pays attention to you and focuses on you when they are in the house and also points out negatives of the home, not just positives. You DO NOT want a listing agent who will list it at any price, you want one who knows the market enough to tell you that you are too high or too low and why.

Important questions to ask:

1. What is your sale price to list price ratio? You want this to be close to 100% or more.

2. How many listings do you have right now?

3. How many listings did you have in the last year?

4. What are your top three marketing avenues? Everyone gets it on the MLS and Zillow, what are you going to do that is outside the box?

Start there. I hope this helps.