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Why Open Houses are Important

Picture this……You’re going for a Sunday drive on a sunny day (remember the sun? Haha!), the warmth on your face and the wind in your hair. As you cruise through the neighborhood you see signs in the front yard of listed homes advertising “Open House”. You pull up to the curb and brightly colored balloons wave playfully in the breeze, the smell of freshly baked cookies caresses your nostrils, tantalizing you, inviting you to come inside.

To some, popping in and out of Open Houses on a Sunday afternoon was a recreational activity. Whatever the reason, whether it be neighbors coming over to feed their curiosity, buyers earnestly seeking their next dream home or dreamers just getting ideas, it was the thing to do. So why don’t we see this slice of the “American Dream” pie anymore?

We now live in a microwave society. We live by the motto of “faster is better”, and the more we can do at home on the couch with our laptops warming our pajama bottoms, the better. But is it really better? In a world where online shopping is killing our local economies, and we have that lovely vampire complexion because technology has sucked us from the light of day, I want to talk about why this blast from the past idea of an open house is still so important.

Customer Service: Real Estate is a customer service based business. Sure there is a lot we can do online now, even 90% of our paperwork. But it’s a lot easier to provide a positive, memorable experience to the customer if we actually interact with them out from behind our computer screens. This benefits both the buyer and the seller. In my experience so far when I approach one of my sellers about doing an open house, they are usually thrilled. What used to be so commonplace has now become a rarity, and I find that sellers still really appreciate agents going the extra mile to provide this service. There is a lot of work and time involved if you do it right, and it makes the seller feel the sense of importance that they should feel being our beloved client. When serving a client, our goal should be to always do what is best for them. Having an open house, especially in an occupied home, makes the best use of the seller’s time. This way, they get multiple showings withing a 2-3 hour span and only have to leave the house once. It can sometimes be a hassle for a seller to have to leave for showings several times throughout a week, so hosting an open house can help relieve some of the burden. Buyers also benefit from Open Houses. Many buyers who are just beginning their search and maybe haven’t worked with an agent before could be a little nervous about making the call to scheduile a showing. An open house provides buyers a pressure free way to see homes they’ve been curious about. It’s also a good way for them to be able to just “window shop” and learn more about their own likes and dislikes before they really get serious about looking. As the agent, putting on a friendly face and making buyers feel comfortable and at ease is a great way to gain future clients. I recently did an open house just this past Sunday. Many of the buyers that perused the property were excited to see an open house at all, and commented that “this just doesn’t happen much anymore but we’re glad you’re doing it”. I view it as truly a service to the community.

What is a picture worth? In this business it didn’t take long for me to realize that (just like your facebook or dating profile photo) pictures can be deceiving. You may see photos of a home that looks like the Taj Mahal, but when you arrive you find the Leaning Tower of Pisa. On the flip side, I’ve seen photos that make you think you’re looking at the hunting cabin of a back woods mountain man, but when you get there you let out a sigh of relief so big it would make Dorothy scream “Aunty Em it’s a twister!” Listen, I know most of us have smart phones with their fancy shmancy cameras, but unless you’re a professional photographer, it’s still hard to take good photos of the inside of a house when your practically standing on your head in the corner, trying to get all of the room in the shot. And we wont even talk about lighting issues. I promise, we do the best we can, but an Open House can give buyers again, a pressure free opportunity, to see what a house really looks like.

Education. As an agent hosting an open house, we should be prepared to answer a whole host of questions. Many times people will come to an open house, not to see that particular house, but with hopes of talking with an agent face to face to gain knowledge about how to start the home buying or selling process. In fact, I had a couple come to my most recent open house for exactly that reason. They want to sell their home in the spring and wanted to take that opportunity to speak with an agent in person about where they needed to begin. I also had what will be a first time home buyer who was unsure the best way to go about things. We must consider Open Houses to be the community classroom where we are given the opportunity to share our vast wealth of knowledge and resources to help make people’s dreams come true.

Exposure. Last but certainly not least on my list of importance for today is Exposure. And no I’m not talking about the indecent kind that gets you picked up by the local authorities. I’m talking about the words every seller loves to hear FREE ADVERTISING. I cannot speak for other companies, but with my particular company, when we host an open house we submit an ad to our local newspaper that will run a few days before. And yes, people do in fact still read the paper. This of course is at no cost to the seller. So their home gets featured in print for thousands of eyes to see, attracting attention like a box of donuts in a flock of seagulls. Even if people viewing the ad or even coming to the Open House aren’t in the market to buy, I guarantee they don’t live on a deserted island. It’s human nature to share way too much of our lives with people we barely know, so you better believe they’ll spread the word.

In closing I’d like to say this. Let’s take a step back from this fast paced, impersonal life where our followers are our “best friends” and our best friends don’t have time to follow us. Let’s step back to the days when shaking hands and rubbing elbows with other human beings really meant something. There’s something special about the human connection, and as long as I’m in this business, I’ll strive to make it as personal as possible to create that feeling of importance that my clients deserve. God Bless and have a great week!

Commission-How we get paid

Throughout my first year of real estate I got a lot of comments from family and friends about the mass quantities of money I’d be making. Comments about it being a high paying job with steady income. This all coming from people who have never been in the industry. The longer I was in the business, the more I realized that most of the general population has a misconception about how agents actually make their money.

I think I speak for all agents when I say that we wish sitting at our desk, working on the computer and answering the phone earned us a paycheck, but that’s just not reality. The reality is that we can spend long hours every single day, eyes glued to the computer researching homes for potential buyers, or determining values for sellers without earning a dime. We can spend countless days showing hundreds of homes to a buyer, for their situation to change later and end up not buying anything. This also doesn’t bring home the bacon. This career is like many in the way that we spend time with clients and customers, answer phones and do computer work. But it differs in the way that we don’t get paid by the hour. We don’t get paid by the showing, listing or any other task we may complete as part of the process. The commission we get works the same as any other commission based job you may think of, for example a car salesman. We don’t taste the cheddar until we leave the closing table.

Now that you know the when of how we get paid, lets clarify the how much. Again based on what I’ve heard from those outside of the industry,there is a general assumption that we make bank on every sale. Yes, some sales do produce a nice paycheck, but I’m sure it’s not what you think. While I can’t discuss exact percentages of our company or others due to state law, I’ll give some random numbers for the sake of example. Let’s say just for the ease of math, that a house sells for $100,000. If the commission on this imaginary house is 6%, that would make the commission $6,000. you may look at that number and say “wow that’s a huge chunk of change in your pocket!” To that I would say, Whoah there buddy, slow your roll! This equation isn’t over yet. Just like there are two sides to every pancake, coin and story, there are two sides to every real estate transaction. First you have the listing side. This is the agent/company that puts the home up for sale. The one whose sign you see in the yard. On the other side of this syrup covered breakfast pastry is the selling side. This is the agent that represents the buyer and actually gets the house sold. So when we’re looking at both sides, one would assume that both agents/companies would need to get paid right? That’s exactly right. So let’s break this down. If we take that $6,000 commission and split it between the two agents, that’s $3,000 each. That’s still a great paycheck right? Well, yes, if that’s what we actually got. There’s one more step to this equation. While agents are independent contractors, we still have to work under the umbrella of a Real Estate Broker. The Broker is responsible for all the heavy stuff in the real estate world. He/She’s the one that takes the flack if the agent screws up. There’s a lot more to it than that, but just trust me when I say it takes a special person to do that job and put their license on the line for other human beings and their collection of flaws. What I’m trying to say here is, the Broker/Company has to get paid as well.

So first we split the $6,000 commission between the two agents, the listing agent and the selling agent. That’s $3,000 each. Then that $3,000 gets split on each side. Each company has a different split ratio, but for the sake of example we are going to say that this split is a 50% share. So both the seller side and the buyer side would have to split their $3,000 50/50 with their Broker/Company. That leaves each agent with $1,500. And remember, since we are independent contractors we have to take our our own taxes, so this $1,500 is the BEFORE tax amount. So on a $100,000 home sale, each agent after all the splits and taxes (in this example only) would make roughly $1,200. Whether this is a “good paycheck” or not is going to be based on how much time and effort you had to put in on either side before the sale finally closed. So sometimes the “pay per hour” can be pretty low. A house can sell within weeks of being on the market, but it can also take 6 months to a year. Then once an offer is accepted , you still have to wait 30-45 days to get to the closing table because of inspections, appraisal etc. From the buyer side perspective, you can show a buyer many many houses over the course of several months before finding something that meets all their needs. So needless to say, getting paid is not as speedy of a process as some may think.

Let me wrap up by saying this. We don’t do this job to get rich. Don’t get me wrong, if you put in the time and work it takes to be successful, you can make a really decent living being an agent. Know that it is a LOT of work, a LOT of time, and a LOT of patience. But again I say we don’t do this to get rich. We aren’t just chasing the dollar. For me this career is a way to serve people. I have a passion for helping people and for seeing and celebrating the special moments in life. I love all my client’s as though they were family and care for them like lifelong friends. Yes it’s wonderful to do something you love and get paid for it. The money is nice and necessary for life. But even in those once in a while situations where a seller decides to take their house off the market, or I show a buyer 50+ houses and they end up deciding not to buy, leaving me with a whole lot of work and no pay to show for it………I still feel just as satisfied as if I would have walked away with a big chunk of change. Why? Because I care about you. YOU are my priority, and doing what is best for you is ALWAYS my goal. So no matter how our time together ends, sale or no sale, purchase or no purchase, if you walk away from my service to you feeling important, valued and knowing I gave my all to your unique situation…..Well, there’s no better pay than that.

Agent Loyalty-Why its a good thing

Nobody tells you when you’re growing up that life is just a bunch of waking up, spending money then doing it all over again until you die. Our lives are full of purchases. Small ones, big ones and all the sizes in between, all varying in importance. We go to the grocery store, each time using a different cashier. You may visit the jewelry store or your favorite clothing or shoe store where a different sales associate may help you each time. It doesn’t matter who helps you, you still get assistance, and you still buy the stuff. These purchases that fill our daily lives don’t usually hold much significance and we don’t care who sells them to us, as long as they do. When it’s time to make what is usually the biggest purchase of our lives, we need to put a little more thought into it than we do about who is tossing our food across the scanner at Walmart.

Why use an agent at all? Buying a home is a huge deal. It’s not like going to the shoe store and asking the associate which style of sneaker is best for running. They point you in the direction of the running shoes, make a couple suggestions, then you’re ready to run the next town marathon. Home buying just doesn’t work like that. There are so many variables, laws, and things to watch out for that the average Joe just doesn’t know about. Unless you’ve bought and sold several homes in your lifetime, you most likely will need someone to guide you through the process. In most cases, your home will be your most valuable asset, so why would you want to walk into it blind and end up with something you regret? Realtors go through an extensive amount of training to stay up on all the latest laws. We know the process and the market inside and out, and offer a level of protection you’re not going to have if you go it alone.

Why stick with one agent? So you may be wondering, “Whats the big deal if I use more than one agent to look at several homes, shouldn’t I just call whoever is on the sign?” Calling the agent on the sign is a good way to start out if you don’t already have someone in mind, but once you find one, you’ll want to stay loyal to that agent throughout your entire search and purchase process. Here’s why. You need an advocate in this process. As our client, we take our relationship with you very seriously. I know I speak for other agents as well when I say that I take the time to personally get to know my clients and their wants, needs, likes and dislikes. My home searches on your behalf are specifically tailored to the criteria you’ve shared and the things I’ve picked up on in our conversations. This isn’t just about finding you a house, it’s about finding a home. A place where you can retreat to at the end of the day, your haven. This relationship goes beyond just finding some homes I think you might like and sending them over to your email. I recommend lenders, inspectors and other service personnel you may need so that you don’t have to fret over who to call. I make sure your offer contracts are filled out completely and properly so that you are fully protected in the event that a home inspection comes back bad. You wouldn’t want to be stuck buying a house that you just discovered is going to need thousands of dollars of major repairs. Speaking of offers, many times you won’t be the only party interested in a particular home. I help you negotiate price and stipulations to get you the most protection for the best price possible. This kind of guidance will keep you from making a quick emotional decision where you wind up paying more than you should have. We advocate for you, protect you and guide you. That kind of relationship can’t be built unless we have your loyalty.

Another reason we need this kind of loyalty from you is because this is our livelihood. Even though I absolutely love my job, the downside is, that I don’t get paid unless I make a sale. Each serious buyer I get means food on my table, my utility bills paid, gas in my car etc. The sad reality is, that I could be working with a buyer for months, show them several homes, then they use another agent to show them something and make the purchase. I have done work for months with that buyer and the other agent gets a pay day. Most agents will not work with a buyer that is already working with another agent. Even though we are all technically competing against each other, we all know what it feels like to not get a sale you were counting on. We know the excitement of getting an new buyer and also the let down of realizing they’re also talking with 3 other agents.

Bottom line. The bottom line is this. We as agents have an important job to do. One we take very seriously. Our job is to get you into your dream home while providing an exceptional level of commitment, guidance and most importantly protection. Your next home could be the biggest decision of your life. Your loyalty allows for the type of agent-client relationship that brings YOU the most benefit. Help us make you our priority.

The Beginning

Hi everyone! I hope this post finds you all well and off to a good start to your new year. I’m new to the world of blogging, so bear with me while I get going. This will be a fun and exciting journey and I hope that you will all join me. I am a Real Estate Agent with SWC Realty. While I will be talking a lot about home related topics here, I’ll also be throwing in some random things for fun. My goal here is to let you inside the mind of an agent when it comes to certain areas of Real Estate, home care and many others. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!