SHIFT Your Real Estate Business Into High Gear with 12 Tactics for Tough Times (Tactics 10-12: Expand The Options, Master The Market of the Moment & Bulletproof The Transaction)

Tactic 10: Expand The Options

  • In a shifted market you will need all the legal, proven financing solutions at your disposal to get your transactions closed.

  • Look at alternative financing and expand the options.

Three Areas of Creative Financing:

  1. Creative Things Sellers Can Do to Sell Their House.

  2. Creative Things Buyers Can Do to Buy a Home.

  3. Creative Things Lenders Can Do to Finance a Transaction.

What Sellers Can Do:

  1. Seller Contributions or Concessions

  2. Seller Buy Downs

  3. Owner Financing

Creative Things Buyers Can Do to Buy a Home:

  1. Family Members.

  2. Options Lenders

  3. IRA and 401K Funds

  4. Co-borrowing

Creative Things Lenders Can Do to Finance a Transaction:

  1. Government Funded or Bonded Programs.

  2. Municipal or Regional Grants.

  3. Resubmit loan applications through automated programs until they figure out just what a buyer needs to do in order to qualify for a loan.

Your Financing Team:

  • Sales agents only need to have a firm understanding of the playing field, the players and the options.

  • Build a team of financing experts and sources.

  • Having them keep you informed and up to date.

  • Position them to serve your clients.

Tactic #11: Master the Market of the Moment

  • Short sales, foreclosures, and REO’s quickly become the market of the moment.

  • Dealing with homes in default is hard work and requires orginization and persistence.

The Three Stages of the Market of the Moment

  1. Stage One: Default

  2. Stage Two: Foreclosure

  3. Stage Three: REO

Stage One: Default:

  • An insolvent homeowner in default seeks relief from the lender.

  • Options:  1. Lender temporarily suspends or reduces payments(forbearance), 2. Lender agrees to modify the loan and 3., Lender agrees to a short sale.

 Stage Two: Foreclosure

  • Homeowner is unable to cure loan and home is foreclosed.

  • Options: 1.  Homeowner repurchases home at auction or during redemption period and 2., Investor purchases home.

Stage Three: REO

  • Home goes unsold at auction and becomes “real estate owned” on the lenders books(a liability).

  • Options: 1., Agent works with lender to market REO’s for resale and 2., Agent works with REO agent to handle their buyers.

  • The Two Opportunites of REO’s:

  • 1. REO Seller Representative – listing agents who market their services to financial instituions.

  • 2. REO Buyer Representative – buyer agents who market their services to REO seller representatives.

Tactic # 12: Bulletproof The Transaction

  • Forewarned is forearmed.

  • You must get the transaction to and through closing.

  • Do that as a fiduciary service to their clients.

  • Do that in order to get paid.

  • You will have to deal with “buyer remorse,” “seller anger,” loan processing delays, tight appraisals, tough inspections and anxiety all around you.

  • You must be the calmest person in the transaction.

Outcome Framing:

  • Remind people about the consequences of their decisions and actions.

  • In times of fear, doubt or emotional reaction, bring them back to serenity and reason.

Deal with Buyer’s Remorse:

  • Nail down the decision.

  • Make a list of all the ways in which this new home meets their needs.

  • Write down all the work they have done in finding this ‘best possible home.’

  • Have them date and sign this paper with the lists on it, and you sign it with them.

  • Congratulate them on their diligence and success.

The Three S’s of Bulletproofing:

  • Selection: Do everything possible to select the service providers and have confidence that they are reliable, stable and acting on behalf of you and your clients.

  • Supervision: Check on progress. Be ready to handle mistakes and delays before they become serious.

  • Systems: You must have systems in place to: track the closing process, alert you at critical checkpoints and communicate the progress to your clients.

  • You also want to have a say in the selection of inspectors, landscapers, repair people, insurance agents and other service providers.

  • Not only is your advice desired and expected by both buyers and sellers, but it insures that things will go as smoothly as possible.

Inspections and Appraisals:

  • You can have a direct impact on the outcome of the inspection.

  • Your impact on the appraisal is much more indirect.

Play Defense:

  • Be assertive in protecting your client’s welfare and your transactions.

  • Catch things early, before the problems happen or they put the closing at risk.

  • This will serve you in every market.

Putting It All Together

  1. Down shifts are more difficult on the front-end.

  2. Up-shifts are more difficult on the back-end.

  3. The drop off is steep in the buyer market.

  4. The build-up is slower and more sustained in the seller market.

  5. A buyers’ market requires us to be doing the things we should have been doing all the time.JRE160A54322 Blue Cross Open Access POS.

Real Estate Agent, Real EstateMonica RiveraKeller Williams, Training, Shift