The Residential Specialist, July/August 2011

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The

residential Specia li s t

18 departments 5 6

PRESIDEN T ’S MESSAGE

Q UICK TAKES Mortgage market update; renovation spending report; smartphone usage snapshot; and more

11 12

GREAT F INDS

14

TRENDS

16

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By Frank Serio, CRS

Office-in-your-car goods

TECHNOLO GY

inside CRS 38

NAR Conference & Expo 2011 CRS Webinars Update CRS Mobile App Your Home newsletter

By Gwen Moran QR codes 101

By Chloe Thompson Travel budgeting tips

P IP ELINE

By Michael Fenner UCI: CRS international outreach

18

UP CLOSE

36

GO OD READ

NEWS FROM THE COUNCIL

46 48

REF ERRA L M A R KE T P LACE ASK A CRS Advice from the country’s top agents

Sandy Soli, CRS, and Bruce Soli, CRS Intero Real Estate Services Lake Tahoe, Nev.

Reviewed by Allan Fallow UnMarketing: Stop Marketing.

Start Engaging.

By Scott Stratten

6 2 | July/August 2011

Ja nua r y/

Feb r ua r y

2011

nts Working With Clieaster Affected by Dis ships Managing Relation With Vendors s Small Brokerage Thrive

President’s Message | News from Frank Serio, CRS

Gary Landsman

Surviving Growing Pains

CRS is not just a local organization; it’s truly a global phenomenon.

I recently returned from Spain where more than 350 real estate professionals attended the UCI conference. Many attendees approached me during the event and asked how they can better serve their clients and improve their professional services. A lot of them want to become more involved in their chosen real estate profession and don’t know where to begin.

As UCI continues to grow in Europe, its members look to CRS as an example of what they want to become. They value our education, our approach to working with clients and our dedication to growing our businesses and sharing our hard-earned knowledge. While UCI has made great strides in helping its members better understand basic real estate principles that are commonplace in the United States, they still have far to go and will continue to look to CRS for education and support. (For more information about the Council’s relationship with UCI in Spain and Portugal, see the article on page 16.)

The broad thirst for knowledge that I saw from those professionals is similar to what many of our own members experienced during the birth of CRS in 1977. It made me realize how far our organization has come in 34 years. CRS is not just a local organization or even just a national one. The Council of Residential Specialists is truly a global phenomenon, sharing real estate education and networking around the world.

While CRS continues to evolve to provide the best quality education to its members, we must also remember our own humble beginnings. By looking back at our roots, we may find solutions to improve and expand our services in the future — both as CRS Designees and as an organization.

www.crs.com | 5

TM

tools for success Q U A L I T Y

Take your business to the next level with the most powerful tools in the real estate business. Visit www.crsstore.com to access leading-edge software, books, DVDs and marketing tools developed with your business goals in mind.

Whether you want to close a transaction, build your referral business, learn more about the needs of buyers and sellers, hire an assistant, protect

your commission or master listing presentations, the CRS Store can provide the tools you need for success.

You can be confident in our products’ effectiveness because they have passed a rigorous review conducted by the Council’s Product Review Panel, which consists of a group of seasoned Certified Residential Specialists.

T E S T E D

P R O D U C T S

Once the Panel determines that the product and vendor meet our strict criteria for: • relevance to REALTORS®; • user-friendliness; • use of the most current technology; and • exemplary customer service, the product is then awarded the Council’s Quality Tested Seal.

All merchandise has been developed with your business goals in mind, has been market-tested and received the CRS Quality Tested Seal.

RealtySites PLUS

Playing With the Big Boys & Girls in Real Estate

RealtySites PLUS is a comprehensive suite of Web-based tools that uses cutting-edge technology so you can create fully integrated websites for your business and your listings. Leadgeneration and SEO technology is built into every feature. This item can only be purchased online through the CRS store.

In this DVD set, 12 top real estate superstars share their most successful marketing and professional negotiating strategies. Learn how they stay on top of their profession regardless of the market.

Sale price: $99.99 set-up fee plus $24.99 per month Sale price expires Aug. 31, 2011. As long as you subscribe to RealtySites PLUS, the price will never go up!

Sale price (July 1 – Aug. 31): $149 (Original price: $249)

(Original price: $199 set-up fee plus $49.95 per month) Promotional code: RSPA4226

Certified New Home Specialist Presentation Builder Certified New Home Specialist Presentation Builder presents the easiest and most effective approach to selling real estate sales services to home builders and new-home buyers. The set includes customizable presentation slides and sample dialogues to prepare for these important client presentations.

Sale price (July 1 – Aug. 31): $149 (Original price: $199)

AgencyLogic PowerSites Create maximum exposure for listings and your personal brand.

AgencyLogic PowerSites is a fully integrated social marketing solution that promotes listings on the Web and on social media sites like Facebook. Item must be purchased online through the CRS store.

Sale price (July 1 – Aug. 31): $35 per PowerSite (Original price: $50 per PowerSite) Promotional code: CRS2011

Lead Mastery

10 Magic Marketing Miracles

Lead Mastery is a complete system for capturing, qualifying and following up on leads. The four-CD set and CD-ROM workbook contains all the tools you need to become a lead master, including scripts, prospect letter templates, interview worksheets, prospect inventory system and much more. Item must be purchased online through the CRS store.

In this 60-minute CD, 10 Magic Marketing Miracles explains how to stop wasting money on advertising and start marketing to earn better profits. Topics include market research, buyer/seller trends, knowing where your business comes from, guaranteed results marketing, advertising with a purpose and websites that tell your story.

Sale price (July 1 – Aug. 31): $77 (Original price: $147)

Price: $25

Promotional code: CRSJ-LM

Go to www.crsstore.com or call 800.462.8841 to place your order.

10 | July/August 2011

Code Words In practice, QR codes make it easy to send smartphone users directly to a website (a property listing, for example) simply by scanning the code. More specifically, QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that can be scanned with any QR code-readerapp-equipped smartphone. The codes can be generated and read by several tools available online (see sidebar).

According to ComScore, 72.5 million people in the United States used smartphones in March 2011, and that number is expected to grow. Many REALTORS® have jumped on the QR code bandwagon in an effort to target this growing segment of the population, says Carrie Gable, president of RealSupport, Inc., a real estate virtual assistant company based in Palatine, Ill. “These users are highly technical and they want information immediately. With QR codes, when you bring them the information they want, you may get a lead from that,” she says.

The codes have helped some REALTORS® connect their online and offline marketing efforts. For example, previously, business cards were static in nature, consisting of an agent’s contact information and maybe their photo, explains Gable. Now a QR code on the card can link directly to the agent’s home page on the Web. “QR codes bring more life to print materials.

It’s making print marketing relevant again,” Gable says.

Joe Spake, CRS, with Revid Realty in Memphis, Tenn., says “the thing to keep in mind is that QR codes are an extension of mobile (technology). It’s something that’s handy for someone who has their phone in their hand already.” The technology can work in print advertising, Spake says, but he believes they are most effective “in the field” on signs or billboards that advertise a specific property. “People can get much more information from the site (linked to the QR code) than they ever could from a paper flier, and it’s totally green,” Spake says. The expense is minimal as well: he simply puts his QR codes on inexpensive 4''x4'' waterproof stickers that he can affix to yard signs or elsewhere.

Another advantage of QR codes is the ability to track leads, which can be done a couple of ways, Gable says. If an agent’s website already has tracking capability, they

can set up a unique Web page that can be tracked through their Web hosting company. If tracking isn’t available, agents can create a shortened URL using a service such as Bitly (http://bit.ly), which tracks visits to a given site.

QR Caveats Unfortunately, Gable says, many agents aren’t using the technology properly. “The goal of QR codes is to give the user what they want. So it’s important that QR codes direct interested parties to the specific page they are looking for,” she says. For example, when promoting a first-time homebuyer seminar, the QR code on the postcard or flier should link to a sign-up page on the website, not the agent’s homepage. “You need to have a clear idea what the QR code should do. Sending them to your homepage [when they want to go somewhere else on the site] does a disservice to users,” Gable says.

Putting QR codes on websites, blogs and email signatures is another no-no.

“Why would I pick up my phone to take a picture of a QR code that will take me to

Cracking the

CODE You can find many free QR code generators on the Web. Carrie Gable, president of RealSupport, Inc., a real estate virtual assistant company based in Palatine, Ill., says agents shouldn’t pay for a code generator unless the service also provides tracking capability.

Mobile-Barcodes.com www.mobile-barcodes.com BeeTagg www.beetagg.com RealSupport Inc. www.RealSupportInc.com/ Resources/QRCode.cfm Kaywa qrcode.kaywa.com Qreate and Track www.qreateandtrack.com Insqribe www.insqribe.com/barcodes Zebra Crossing www.zxing.appspot.com/generator

a website that I’m already looking at? That doesn’t make sense,” Gable says. It’s also important for REALTORS® to remember that the websites their QR codes link to should be mobile-friendly, allowing users to access and navigate them easily.

But QR codes are not for everybody, and consumer adoption presents a major hurdle, says Brian Copeland, CRS. “The consumer simply isn’t scanning QR codes,” says Copeland, who is with Village Real Estate Services in Nashville, Tenn. He points out that few frequent business travelers, who tend to be the most tech-savvy people, are using the QR code systems that many major airlines have developed to enable virtual boarding passes.

And if that demographic hasn’t caught on to the technology, chances are the vast majority of the general population is far behind the curve, Copeland argues.

For many agents, Copeland says, QR codes seem to be part of a seller strategy: in other words, the appearance of a QR code on a property sign says to the client that the listing agent can offer something that other agents cannot. But ultimately, Copeland says, REALTORS® often can accomplish the exact same result by employing a shortened URL. So what is the main thing for REALTORS® to keep in mind when they are deciding whether or not to use QR codes?

“Do they have the infrastructure behind it to make it measurable?” Copeland says.

Unfortunately, many agents do not. In addition, target market and location matters. “If you’re in an urban area where QR codes may likely be used, then perhaps it may be a better strategy for you,” he advises. “But if you never see them in your area, then how can you expect that your consumer even knows what they are, much less how to use them?”

Still, those CRSs who are using them believe that, as QR code usage becomes more widespread, agents who have experience using them will have an advantage since they will have systems in place to generate and apply them effectively. In addition, being on the cutting edge of technology never seems to be a bad thing.

Gwen Moran is a writer based in Wall Township, N.J., and is a frequent contributor to The Residential Specialist. With additional reporting by Regina Ludes, associate editor of The Residential Specialist.

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Trends | Today and tomorrow

pack it in CRSs dig into their bag of tricks to share their top tips for traveling on a budget.

Average ticket prices for travel within North America rose by an average of 13 percent in the first quarter of 2011 compared with a year earlier.

Source: OAG, ARC and Expedia data analyzed by Egencia

14 | July/August 2011

RS instructor Pat Zaby, CRS, based in Dallas, fondly recalls the days when a smile and a good outfit would bump him from coach to first class. “My friend and I would make a game out of who could get the upgrade,” he says, laughing. But nowadays, a smile and politeness won’t get you so much as an additional beverage on a flight.

With airlines seemingly trying to nickel-and-dime customers at every turn, travel has become more frustrating and expensive. Add to that the troubled economy, and travelers are getting creative about cutting back on spending. But for REALTORS® who travel — whether it’s to attend educational, networking or company conferences or simply to vacation or visit family and friends — reining in their travel budget has become a necessity, not an option.

Instead of traveling less, many agents are simply traveling smarter. With better

C

budgeting and advance planning, savvy CRSs can manage to keep their trips affordable.

Blueprint Budget For many travelers, the easiest way to save is to plan ahead — way ahead. Toni Napolitano, CRS, GRI, of Keller Williams Realty Professionals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has cut back on attending some conferences, but says that when she finds one she doesn’t want to miss, she starts her research several months ahead of time.

“Call the hotel way in advance,” she says. “Try to use other discounts, like AAA, and ask them, ‘What is your absolute lowest rate?’ and ‘What discounts do you offer?’ ” Napolitano also never tells the hotel that she’s attending the conference, in case a regular room can provide a lower rate. Napolitano points out that although conferences offer a block of rooms at a “discounted” rate for the event, it often doesn’t

Martin Poole/Getty Images

By Chloe Thompson

end up being much of a discount at all; the cost of the meeting rooms and special services at the conference add to the final cost of the discounted room. “You need to do a bit of work upfront, but it pays off in your wallet,” she says.

Once she’s at the conference, Napolitano makes sure the savings keep coming.

She keeps her breakfast simple: a packet of oatmeal. Napolitano swears she has it every day, whether or not she’s traveling.

For other meals, she shops around online for the best deals in the area and compares prices on menus before making her dining decisions.

“The computer age is amazing,” she says. “If you have a [smartphone], you can download an app for restaurants all over the world and every city to search for the best deals.” Another tip? Napolitano suggests signing up for coupon sites, such as Groupon or LivingSocial, for the city you’re visiting — the companies offer discounts at select locations that you purchase that day and use at a later date. Napolitano has a file folder filled with these offers to use on future vacations or business trips.

CRS certified instructor Pat Zaby spends much of his life away from home; he travels up to 20 days a month to teach and speak at events. One of his walletfriendly tricks for taming restaurant tabs is to head to local happy hours. “Those hors d’oeuvres that you can get end up being a meal, and they’ll either be greatly reduced or even free,” he says.

Repeat Customers When it comes to loyalty, CRSs know it best: A steady client base and referrals are the foundation of a successful business. The same holds true when it comes to travel, says Zan Monroe, a CRS certified instructor based in North Carolina.

“If you’re going to take a flight, join [the airline’s rewards] club. They treat you better if you have status. Most people I know fly on one airline constantly, and they get preferential treatment because of it.”

As a more-than-frequent flyer — Monroe travels about 200 days per year — he holds the VIP card to just about every major hotel chain and airline.

A quick scan of his wallet reveals an impressive tally of member-rewards cards: 10 hotels, four rental car agencies and five airlines. “If you give the majority of your business to one carrier instead of going for the low-cost provider every single time, you stand a better chance of getting what you want,” Monroe says.

Although a crop of discount websites, such as Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity, have popped up in recent years, offering lower prices and package deals, savvy agents know better. Napolitano signs up for www.airfarewatchdog.com, which keeps tabs on low airfares throughout the world, and goes directly to the airline’s site when it’s time to book.

Zaby uses the airline’s direct site because “those [discount] companies are not set up to deal with people in live, stressful situations.” It’s much easier to deal with a gate agent at the airport than it is to call an 800 number, he says.

To avoid this hassle entirely, Monroe hires a travel agent to do his bookings.

While there is an added expense, he says the amount is trivial — about $30 per booking.

Site Seeing The Internet can be your best friend when searching for a travel bargain. Here are some sites CRSs swear by: Hotelscombined.com: Allows you to search hotels in the area with criteria such as number of stars, amenities and price as sorting points.

Kayak.com: Compares hundreds of travel sites for inexpensive hotels and flights.

Jwire.com: Lists of free Wi-Fi hotspots.

Groupon.com: Daily deals in various cities; buy on the spot and use the voucher at a later date.

Monroe says it’s best to do it this way in the event that rerouting or switching airlines is necessary. “When you are stuck in Wichita, Kan., in a snowstorm, nobody online cares. If you have a travel agent who booked your flight, you can pick up the phone and say, ‘I’m stuck, get me home,’ and they’ll figure it out.”

Double Duty Ruth Ann Manison Prince, CRS, ABR, owner of Prince Properties, in Friendswood, Texas, has a simple solution for getting the biggest bang for her buck.

She combines her business conferences with family vacations, choosing to attend conferences in desirable locations so she can mix business and pleasure.

The idea started when she and her husband, who helps her with her business, had a baby and had to take him along on trips. “Basically, we needed a refrigerator to keep it full of his food and milk,” Prince explains. This led her to check out vacation rentals that had a kitchen to prepare his meals and formula.

“We get something that’s a bit more family-friendly, and we can [usually] stay for a week for the price of two or three days in a hotel. It doubles our trip,” she says, noting recent trips to San Diego and Chicago. Prince, like many other agents, also books her flights and hotels on a credit card that earns points for every dollar she spends, so some stays are heavily discounted or even free when she redeems those points toward airline fares or hotel stays.

Prince applies the same philosophy to taking her continuing real estate education classes. She tends to make a trip of it, using the time at the classes to network and learn how other parts of the country are faring in the business.

“It’s great to get referrals,” she says. “If you go somewhere new, you’ve got your eyes open to see how people are marketing things and their advertising and promotion strategies. You have to get exposed to different ideas, and travel lets you do it.”

Chloe Thompson is a writer based in Washington, D.C.

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Pipeline | Strategies to grow your business

a lasting relationship The CRS partnership with UCI has strengthened real estate education outside the United States and created a strong foundation for the future.

By Michael Fenner

The Council is committed to becoming a truly global real estate educational organization.

16 | July/August 2011

hen the Council of Residential Specialists first entered into an alliance with Spain-based UCI (Unión de Créditos Inmobiliarios) in 2006, one of the goals was to help the Council expand its role and influence as a force for real estate education beyond U.S. borders.

CRS believed that by partnering with the successful mortgage banking institution that boasts more than 50 branches in Spain, Portugal and Greece, an alliance would be the first step toward attaining

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that goal. UCI and CRS also shared the common goal of raising the bar of real estate education worldwide, while giving U.S.-based CRS members access to UCI’s contacts and influences in Europe and vice-versa.

Those hopes have blossomed into a partnership that has helped spread CRS real estate education and top-notch professionalism far beyond the Council’s U.S. origins. It has also expanded the international referral potential for all CRS members, and it serves as notice

that the Council is committed to becoming a truly global real estate educational organization.

In June, the Council’s 2011 president, Frank Serio, CRS, CEO Nina Cottrell, and director of business relations, Toni Sherman, CRS, traveled to Madrid to attend the second annual UCI Inmocionate educational event held in Spain. The response from real estate professionals was overwhelming: More than 350 brokers and agents attended.

Serio says he was impressed by attendees’ desire to improve their education and professionalism. “Many attendees approached me during the event and asked how they can better serve their clients and improve their professional services,” he says. “As UCI continues to grow in Europe, its members look to CRS as an example of what they want to become. They value our education, our approach to working with clients and our dedication to growing our businesses and sharing our hard-earned knowledge.”

Council CEO Nina Cottrell agrees.

“It was very obvious that the agents who attended Inmocionate 2011 were focused on learning and embracing new ways to better serve their clients and increase their earning potential,” she says. “I’m extremely proud that UCI and CRS are working together to provide a proven path to success for their members.”

History in the Making UCI has been sponsoring the CRS REAP (Real Estate Advanced Practices) modules in its home territories for several years. The content of those courses has convinced many UCI professionals of the Council’s educational excellence, and the sessions continue to attract top brokers. For example, more than 350 real estate brokers and agents attended a twoday educational session in Madrid last year, and a large contingent of UCI members even make the annual trip to attend Sell-a-bration® in the United States (see sidebar).

In October 2008, the Council awarded the CRS Designation to 58 of Spain’s most influential and successful brokers in recognition of their longstanding commitment to professionalism, integrity and high ethical standards when serving their clients, values that the Council and

its members have promoted as cornerstones of the CRS Designation.

Education Is the Key Fernando García Erviti, CRS, a certified REAP trainer for UCI, says that despite significant differences in the real estate practices in the United States compared to Spain or Portugal, “We always share other key factors, such as centering on the clients, and the service, accountability, strategies, and so many other practices that can be quickly put into place.”

That desire to improve as real estate professionals is one big reason why CRS education has been so valuable to UCI agents. “The CRS courses are improving the business of the majority of the attendees … [and] this may end up not just improving the business of a few students, but also bringing about positive changes for our industry as a whole,” García Erviti says.

He notes that CRS has an impressive history of offering top-quality courses taught by the world’s best real estate instructors. Now that same educational excellence is available to real estate professionals who live and work outside the United States. “I have been teaching CRS courses in Spain and Portugal, two different countries with different professional standards, and I keep receiving feedback from past students who have applied the ideas they learned and gotten great results,” García Erviti says. “CRS already is a proven path to success in Spain and Portugal, and it should continue to grow in many other countries as well.”

Michael Fenner is the editor of The Residential Specialist.

Sell-a-bration® Testimonials Fernando García Erviti, CRS, a certified REAP (Real Estate Advanced Practices) trainer for UCI, says Sell-a-bration® offers a great opportunity for agents to gain access to a world of new ideas, tips and marketing materials. “It is a window to a free toy store, and they come back with their hands full of great tools that they can apply back home.

But it is also a great opportunity to establish relationships with other agents that will lead to future referrals. They stay in touch over the years, and they pass along the CRS message, bringing new students to the courses,” he says.

Juan Carlos Gallego Berjas, CRS, who is with Visual Home Grupo Inmobiliario, in Bendorm, Alicante, Spain, has attended the past five Sell-a-brations®. “Every year I keep bringing back the latest trends and strategies, and a good number of pearls that have clearly improved my business,” he says.

“They have resulted in better service for my clients, and money to my bank account.

These principles have worked for me, and they have worked for other colleagues all over Spain, in very different places, in good and bad markets. I am sure that other agents from other countries will also benefit from this great event in the coming years.”

Henrik Kock, CRS, with LCI Asociados in Arrecife, Spain (Canary Islands), agrees.

“Sell-a-bration® is a must for every single broker and agent in the world at least once in your lifetime, but once you have been there you will absolutely return,” he says. “The presence of the top agents in the American market, sharing their experience, giving attendees so much good material to use and adapt to your home market anywhere in the world, gives you an incredible advantage over your competitors. CRS is always one or two steps in front of the rest: That’s why Sell-a-bration® will help you to obtain success no matter which country you live and work in.”

Sell-a-bration® 2012 will be held Jan. 19–21, 2012, at the Arizona Grand in Phoenix.

www.crs.com | 1 7

Up Close | Profiles of people to watch

sandy soli,

CRS, and

bruce soli,

CRS

Intero Real Estate Services, Lake Tahoe, Nev.

Designees since: 2007 Contact: info@solireal estate.com; 775.771.5801 or 775.848.4618

You’re in a vacation market. What’s been happening there?

BS: Lake Tahoe is an extremely seasonal area, but homes sell all year long up here. The average price of a single family home is currently $1,700,000, yet that segment of the market, which was our bread and butter, has pretty much dried up in the last couple of years.

Most of the home sales currently are within $500,000 to $1 million or over $2–$5 million.

We were quick to embrace the distressed market segment given what we were seeing with home prices.

We’d had double-digit appreciation year after year, and we knew that wouldn’t last. Sales just kind of stopped in 2007. Activity was really low, and buyers were not getting off the fence, wondering what the market would do next.

Many sellers were not aware of how quickly the downturn was happening and how it was really affecting our market.

18 | July/August 2011

SS: Seeing the writing on the wall, Bruce and I decided to get our short sale certification and become Certified Distressed Property Experts two years ago.

Many of our fellow area agents were scared and still are. But we both looked at each other and said, “This is real, and we’d better figure out how to do it correctly so we can help sellers, buyers and our market recover.

BS: We looked at it as an opportunity. We have close to 300 agents in our small town and there are about 350 transactions a year. We decided if we wanted to stay on top, we had to tackle the existing market. Today, the buyers we are working with are what I call the “firsttime second-home buyer.” These are people who are doing well financially. They’re smart and careful and watching [the market] fluctuate. They’ve always wanted to have a home in Lake Tahoe but thought it was out of their reach because prices were so high in 2004 to 2006. Now, they’re realizing that they can afford to get a vacation home up here. They’re saying, “I want to come with my family and ski in the winter and hike in the summer.” It’s not necessarily about the home itself; it’s about the lifestyle that they’re taking advantage of by getting a second home in a beautiful place like this.

Given the nature of working in a resort market — and now a slow resort market — how do you build and maintain relationships with potential clients?

SS: Technology! Our Web business pretty much exploded in September 2009. We put ourselves out there through our blog, social media and our website, and people started calling and saying, “I’ve been reading your blog over the past few months, and I really appreciate this information.” In general, buyers know our company before they really know us as people, and they feel comfortable with us. So before we get in the car and start talking about properties, we’ve built up that trust. It’s been one of the key factors for our business.

BS: You need to let people know the good, the bad and the ugly before they buy a property, and they’ll trust you.

Most people don’t buy a home and relocate here; there’s not really a job market to move here for. The people who do live here are telecommuting or they’re in real estate or they work at the resorts and casinos. Being a second-home market, our gestation period is extremely long, so we work for the long haul, and our clients appreciate that.

Joy Strotz

REALTORS® since: 2004

How did you two wind up as a real estate team?

SS: Having grown up in real estate, it was always an interest of mine and something I wanted to pursue. [My husband] Bruce and I both went to school for hotel/ resort management, and after working several years in the hospitality industry and several years in marketing and advertising, we decided that real estate was a natural progression for what we wanted to do and how we wanted to live our lives. We have two young children and had to juggle our schedules — so he went to [real estate] school at night, and I went during the day. Then we were off and running and have never looked back.

BS: We’d both had corporate jobs, and we wanted to be in charge of our lives and our own schedules. We wanted to be ultra-involved parents in both our children’s lives and in our community. Sandy is currently the PTA president, and I just recently became involved with the Incline-Tahoe Foundation and am the new AVP for the NorCal Chapter of CRS. SS: The best real estate advice I ever received was from my mother, who’s been a broker in the Bay area and a CRS for 40 years, and this may sound cliché, but it’s true. She told us from the moment we got our licenses that we needed to get our CRS Designation.

We jumped in feet first and went after it. We were the first all-CRS team in our region to get the Designation.

Bruce earned his within eight months, and I got mine about six months later.

“ It’s not necessarily about the home itself; it’s about the lifestyle that they’re taking advantage of by getting a second home in a beautiful place like this.”

Sandy and Bruce Soli, CRS

www.crs.com | 1 9

in today’s shaky economy, and CRSs have had to be creative and work extra hard to woo this hugely influential group of clients to move on up.

Picture This Hannon says one of the biggest challenges she faces is trying to convince potential move-up buyers that now is actually a good time to buy a larger home because prices have come down so much across the board.

But that is exactly what is preventing many of them from acting, she says. They simply don’t want to sell their house for so much less than they had thought they could have just five years ago at the height of the market.

This was the case with a couple Hannon worked with earlier this year. In 2003, they had moved into a 1,700-square-foot townhome with three bedrooms and two baths.

But seven years later, they had two children, ages 3 and 6, and needed more space.

OUTREACH EFFORT In the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, Don Cook, CRS, of Ebby Halliday REALTORS®, Inc., teaches a class for his local county REALTORS® association about how to find and market to move-up buyers.

He shares his system for finding buyers who might be ready to move up: “Most metro area MLS systems have a tax database that will allow you to search for certain fields. I go into this database and look for two things: homes that were bought between five and 10 years ago and that are about 1,300 to 1,700 square feet. Then I check to see what the liens against these properties were, and I amortize them to make sure the owners still have enough money to move forward. If they do, I mail them a postcard with a picture from the nursery rhyme, “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe,” and ask if they’ve considered moving to a larger home. If I don’t hear from them within four days, I give them a call. This has been an effective approach for me, and it is a lot better than picking names out of the phone book.”

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They called Hannon out of the blue to say they were thinking of moving to a larger house and wanted to know what their house might sell for. Hannon helped them find a 3,000-square-foot home with four bedrooms and three baths in a nicer part of town that was listed at $370,000, but the couple balked because they would probably only be able to sell their townhome for around $221,000, less than the $245,000 they had been hoping for.

Hannon explained that even though they would be selling their home for 11 percent less than they had expected, the list price of the new home they were considering, $370,000, was 25 percent less than it would have been at the market peak.

She also told them the long-term price appreciation of the larger home would far exceed that of their current home. To help make this point, Hannon created a chart on her computer showing the difference in price appreciation between the two houses over five, 10 and 15 years. She explained the printout to the couple, and it helped them see the light. “A lot of people have a hard time understanding this concept,” she says, “and it really helps if they can actually see concrete numbers on paper.”

The couple closed on their larger home in May, and Hannon says they couldn’t be happier. “Making this move now was the right thing for them to do to accommodate their family as well as being a very smart investment opportunity,” she says.

Going Beyond In Andover, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Jim Hughes, CRS, of Greenwell Realty, is facing the same challenge.

Although people are contacting him about moving up because their job is going well or their family is growing, once they find out they will have to part with their home for less than they expected, they often hit the brakes. “They just can’t let go of that idea of what their home was worth at the 2006 high-water mark,” he says.

To help nudge them along, Hughes first conducts a thorough market analysis of their existing home to see if they have enough

LEFT: Orly/Veer; RIGHT: Photo by Gary Landsman; Stylist: Liz Wegrzyn, THE Artist Agency

Despite statistics from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers survey showing that people trading up to larger homes accounted for half of all buyers last year, a figure virtually unchanged from five years ago, CRSs around the country paint a different picture.

In Hannon’s Baltimore suburb and across the country, it appears many people are staying put in the face of the sputtering economy, unwilling to take the risk of buying a larger, more expensive home, and in many cases, unable to stomach the prospect of selling their own home at a price they never imagined.

Move-up buyers play a critical role in the real estate market. They make homes available for first-time buyers and, at the same time, provide demand for larger homes. But many people are clearly scared by the idea of moving into a larger home

equity to qualify for a larger home. If they do, he patiently explains that prices of bigger homes in Andover have come down more than starter homes since the market peak and that serious bargains are out there.

Even if they don’t have enough equity to move up, Hughes still explores other options for them, such as consulting with loan officers to see if they might qualify for another home without selling their existing one, or crunching the numbers to see if they might be able to rent their current home and move up.

Hughes concedes it’s tough persuading clients to move up right now. These buyers account for just 30 percent of Hughes’ current business, down more than 50 percent from the market high. “It’s been quite a change,” he says. “Now most of my buyers are investors or those going smaller to get mortgage relief.”

Jeri Hannon, CRS

Creativity Counts Ben Olsen, CRS, of Village Associates Real Estate, in the San Francisco Bay community of Orinda, Calif., says many potential move-up buyers in his area feel handcuffed by their current homes. They understand the challenge of trying to compete with non-contingent offers and the reality that their own house might take some time to sell. Even though larger move-up homes are selling for 25 percent less than they were at the 2005 market peak, people aren’t acting.

Move-up buyers today account for about a third of Olsen’s clients, down from 60 percent as recently as three years ago. “Many move-up buyers today feel like they just can’t move,” he says. “It is our job as REALTORS® to help them overcome these fears.”

One way he does this is by thinking as creatively as possible when trying to put together move-up deals and by doing the extra research and legwork necessary to reassure fearful clients. Olsen learned this valuable lesson from his mother, a CRS with nearly 40 years of real estate experience, who has been his partner for the past eight years. “She has always taught me that some deals require more creativity, thought and hard work,” he says.

That lesson recently paid off for Olsen when a couple he had been working with for more than a year finally closed on a new, larger home in May. Throughout the process, the couple had said they wanted to move up from their 2,300-square-foot, three-bedroom house — they had one child and were planning on more — but made clear to Olsen they were set in what they expected to get for their house — $898,000 — and were not willing to move without having another house to go to.

Olsen showed their house and got an offer that was 2 percent less than their asking price. Instead of dismissing the offer or getting into a protracted and potentially divisive negotiation, Olsen sat down with his clients and talked with them about all the move-up houses they had looked at together over the past year and asked them to identify which one still appealed to them most. The couple picked a 4,000-squarefoot home with five bedrooms that had never sold and was no longer on the market.

Olsen phoned around and learned that the house was just about to come back on the market. He contacted the owners’ agent and over the course of four days was able to negotiate a pre-market offer for his clients of $1.4 million on the house, contingent on the sale of the couple’s home.

Now that the couple had their new house, they were more than willing to vacate their current one and accept the lower offer of $880,000. “This really wasn’t an easy one to do, but like my mom’s always taught me, creative thinking and hard work always pay off in the end,” says Olsen.

In today’s sluggish housing market, REALTORS® need to be as creative as possible and draw on all their expertise to convince reluctant buyers that despite the gloomy economy the time is actually just right to move on up.

Daniel Rome Levine is a freelance writer based in Wilmette, Ill., and is a frequent contributor to The Residential Specialist.

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COME Together Is a business partnership right for you? Compatibility is key, but so is making sure you’re on the same page.

By Mary Ellen Collins

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ome great partnerships are born. Others are made. For Caron McGinley, CRS, SRES, and Sharon Arnett, CRS, with Keller Williams East Boca in Boca Raton, Fla., a successful partnership evolved organically.

“We had worked side by side for seven years, and we covered for each other all the time,” McGinley says. “When Sharon moved into my neighborhood, we started farming it together, covering about 500 homes in addition to our other business. We realized that we were doing the same volume of business, and we were marketing ourselves individually, so four years ago when we both got invited to go to Keller Williams, we said, ‘Let’s go as full partners.’ ” There are many good reasons to enter into a partnership: It can enable busy agents to maximize their effectiveness, share costs, deliver top-notch customer service and still have a personal life. A successful partnership doesn’t necessarily require that agents

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have similar personalities or work styles, but partners must be on the same page about goals, work ethic and responsibilities.

Agents considering a partnership arrangement should start by candidly assessing the two agents’ compatibility and hashing out how each partner will divide the workload and other responsibilities. A formal partnership agreement can help clarify what is expected of each professional — and it can keep partners from running into problems down the road.

Find Your Perfect Match One of the key elements to any kind of partnership is compatibility, which has many facets. For starters, potential partners should share a commitment to a certain level of service and production.

“Before going into a partnership, check the MLS and pull up the person’s sales and look at their production. Make sure your partner wants to work as much as you do,” says Marie Avery, CRS, with AveryAyers & Associates at RE/MAX Alliance Group in University Park, Fla. Earlier in her career, Avery formed a partnership with two agents, and they all agreed to work full time, with a one-third split. Seven months later, one person decided he wanted to work part time while retaining a one-third split. He left the partnership by mutual agreement. Not only did the experience underscore the need to make sure partners want to put in the same kind of effort, it convinced Avery that two-person partnerships were the way to go.

“I would not recommend a three-person partnership,” she says. “It can be difficult to get two people to agree, but it’s almost www.crs.com | 2 5

Maren Caruso/Getty Images

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Their workload is usually influenced by the client: Referrals from Jackson’s circle of friends become her clients; and those who come via Fuller’s contacts become his. But they both meet all of their clients in case one has to cover something for the other. “We split the work 50/50, because that’s how we split the commissions. We both know that from time to time one of us will be busier, but it all works out in the end. We don’t look over each other’s shoulders tracking time spent on work; we trust each other to get done what needs to be done and take excellent care of our clients.”

McGinley and Arnett split their workload based on the expertise each one brings to the table. McGinley handles most of the buyers in her business; Arnett works mostly with sellers. “Sharon has always been great with technology,” McGinley says, “so she mostly works from the office, directing our administrative assistant and processing our listings and marketing. She keeps up with our websites, funnels Internet leads from listing inquiries, and handles the research for listing appointments.”

“I have always enjoyed working with buyers,” McGinley says, “as I was trained doing corporate relocation back when IBM was a huge force in our town. I take care of sign calls, show most buyers, and feed additional leads to our new buyer’s agent. I attend inspections when necessary, meet appraisers, and am involved in some of the contract to closing process. …

Since we market ourselves as a group, I accompany Sharon on the initial listing appointments and assist her in pricing — I am able to add some firsthand expertise since I see more properties on the market while out showing and the seller gets to meet us both.”

McGinley also admits, “It took about a year to realize that I didn’t need to know every single detail and be responsible for every aspect of the business. I am more of a control freak than Sharon, and it was hard to let go. … We have such trust; we definitely don’t micromanage each other.

We keep each other informed constantly, and update each other every day.”

Get It In Writing Business partnerships take different forms, and no matter what kind agents enter into, it’s always a good idea to put something in writing and to consult with an attorney. An attorney can help you determine whether a corporation, an LLC or a legal partnership is right for you.

“It depends on things like citizenship, tax status and assets that one person might be contributing to the partnership (e.g., a piece of real estate),” says Samantha Chechele, attorney at law and an attorney title agent in St. Petersburg, Fla. She says having a formal operating agreement is critical because it spells out: • your expectations about how the dayto-day business is going to run; • what will happen if someone wants to leave the partnership or someone dies; • what will happen in case of a dispute.

Avery knows firsthand that a buy/sell agreement can ease an unpleasant situation. This binding agreement, which is one part of an overall operating or partnership agreement, outlines what will happen if one partner dies, is forced out, or chooses to leave the business. She and her first partner were a top-selling RE/MAX team for five years before buying a building and starting their own firm. They did very well from 2000 to 2006.

“Then the market went south and the financial burden became too much. And when we weren’t doing a lot of business and had a mortgage and staff and bills to pay, it became a very negative environment. The break-up was not good, but without the buy/sell agreement that spelled everything out, it could have been much worse.” After they dissolved their corporation, they returned to separate RE/MAX offices.

Many REALTORS® decide to write their own agreements, as Jackson and Fuller did after seeking advice from other partnership teams. Agents may also be tempted by the easy option of relying on one of numerous do-it-yourself legal websites. But even though these sites may provide accurate, basic outlines to follow, Chechele recommends having an attorney review any documents before you sign on the dotted line.

“You don’t know what you don’t know.

Laws vary from state to state, and a lot of websites aren’t state-specific, and they don’t make allowances for the specifics of individual situations. When you write something yourself, it’s legally binding, but you might have missed something. … You might leave out important things, like who pays legal fees if you get into a dispute. People assume that if one partner sues another, the prevailing partner doesn’t have to pay legal fees, and that’s not true. Or, if one partner dies, you may find yourself doing business with heirs that you don’t want to be in business with.”

McGinley and Arnett have never considered formalizing their partnership, but McGinley admits their strategy might not work for everyone. “We have such good communication and trust, and because we’ve worked together for so many years, if anything happened, I know we would reach an amicable solution. … But having something in writing is more practical and probably makes sense for most teams.”

To people who opt not to work with an attorney, Chechele sounds a cautionary note. “Everyone who gets married is in love, but 50 percent of people get divorced. It’s good to write the document when you love each other. Clarify your expectations ahead of time, put the document in a drawer, and hopefully you’ll never need it.”

In its best incarnation, a partnership provides a cooperative environment in which two professionals support each other and build on their mutual success.

Once an agent has found a trusted, tested partner who has proven his or her commitment and abilities, the idea of flying solo may disappear forever. “It used to be really hard to go on vacation,” Jackson says. “Now we each take vacations, and we babysit each other’s dogs. We get along great, we both bring different things to the partnership and that’s what benefits our clients. I can’t imagine doing this on my own again.”

Mary Ellen Collins is a freelance writer based in St. Petersburg, Fla., and is a frequent contributor to The Residential Specialist.

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The principal of the Morley Real Estate Group in Huntsville, Ala., moved himself and his four colleagues to the cloud two years ago and has never looked back. “It no longer matters where I am or [where] any member of my team is,” he says. “We can always get to our business data and work on it, anywhere in the world, from any computer or mobile device.”

Now when he needs to prepare an offer on a house, he logs onto a service called Dropbox from his MacBook Pro, iPhone or iPad and opens the necessary documents. When he’s done updating the documents, they automatically sync to a Dropbox server, which then updates the files on all of his other computers, as well as the files on the machines of his team members.

If Morley wants to check the status of an inspection or an appraisal, he can search his Google Mail (Gmail) account and filter the results by the address of each property.

When he needs one of his agents to show a home, he can access their Google calendars to see who’s available and add that appointment to their schedules.

When tornadoes ravaged central Alabama in April, knocking out power in Huntsville for nearly a week, Morley hopped in his car, drove to a nearby city unaffected by the storm, logged on and got back to work. This would not have been possible if not for cloud computing.

These are just a few examples of what it means to “work in the cloud.” Many agents are probably using cloud computing without even being aware of it — and discovering its benefits and its drawbacks.

While the cloud represents a powerful shift in the way people access their business computing services, it also poses challenges that agents should be aware of before they take the plunge.

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“The one thing I needed more than anything else was synchronization, so that my laptop contained the same iteration of documents as my desktop.”

–Ron E. Armstrong, CRS, Keller Williams Professionals Outlook: Cloudy It’s become the buzzword for the new decade, but cloud computing can mean different things to different people. For most it means that computing tasks that were previously accomplished locally on a personal computer may now happen on machines sitting in “the cloud” at data centers hundreds or thousands of miles away. All the end user needs to access those services is an Internet connection and an Internet-connected device, be it a desktop or laptop PC or a smartphone. This seemingly simple shift can have a huge impact on how and where people work.

The most obvious example of this shift is webmail. Years ago, most email accounts were tied to a specific computer that downloaded messages from a server. That worked fine, but it usually meant those messages were only accessible to a person near that specific computer. These days, people who use services such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail can log into their accounts and view messages from any Internet-connected device, anywhere in the world.

Likewise, cloud computing allows users to eschew PC-based applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Instead, they can simply connect to cloud-based software suites such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google Docs to draw up a contract or edit a spreadsheet containing

property listings. Agents can edit and print those documents from virtually any Net-connected machine — and so can anyone else who needs to be involved in the transaction process and has approval to access that information.

In truth, cloud computing has been with us in one form or another for decades, notes Sean Captain, analyst for Chicago-based consumer research firm Iconoculture. “The cloud is nothing new,” says Captain. “When America Online launched in the early ’90s, that was cloud computing. The data didn’t live on your computer, and you were connected to a network where the communications were taking place. Ever since people have been online, there has been some form of cloud computing.”

But over the past five years, two big changes have brought the cloud to the forefront. One is an explosion of low-cost software services designed and built to be delivered via the Web, such as Salesforce. com, a Web-based customer relationship management program. The other is the tremendous popularity of smartphones and always-connected mobile computing devices. With minimal storage and processing power, these gizmos are designed to pass data across high-speed connections to machines in the cloud, so they can do the heavy lifting.

Mobile Mavens Ron E. Armstrong, CRS, with Keller Williams Professionals in Asheville, N.C., never goes anywhere without his Apple iPhone, iPad or MacBook — and often all three. In the past, he says he often found himself with one version of a document on his portable machine and a slightly different version on his office desktop. Keeping them in sync manually was a nightmare.

“The one thing I needed more than anything else was synchronization, so that my laptop contained the same iteration of documents as my desktop,” he says. “That was my biggest struggle until I discovered the cloud.”

Now Armstrong uses Dropbox to synchronize files between all of his machines.

He also stores Adobe Acrobat versions of marketing materials in Evernote, a cloudbased filing system that can hold documents, photos, Web pages, audio files and more. He can access Evernote files from any of his devices, and so can his part-time virtual assistant who works out of her own office in Austin, Texas.

For Katie Minkus, CRS, broker with Hawaii Life Real Estate Services on the Big Island, the cloud means she can run her business from wherever she is.

“In our first year on the island we sold more than $30 million worth of real estate without a physical office,” she says. “We just do everything in the cloud. I work out of my home office 95 percent of the time, and I don’t even have a printer. My mantra is, ‘I don’t do paper.’ ” Instead of a physical fax machine, Minkus uses MyFax.com to exchange faxes with buyers and sellers. For offer letters she uses DocuSign, a Web-based service that allows her to obtain legal signatures from clients without having to be in the

same time zone, let alone the same room.

And she uses Highrise.com to manage her contacts online. “I can take my business completely mobile because of the cloud,” she says.” It doesn’t matter whether I’m in Hawaii or New York City. I can still work and be as effective as if I were in my home office.”

Cloud Nine?

Of course, even the cloud has a dark lining — as witnessed in April when Amazon’s commercial cloud service went down for nearly 12 hours, stranding thousands of small businesses that rely on it. It also temporarily knocked out a number of popular websites, including Hootsuite, Quora, Foursquare and Reddit. Google, Intuit, Salesforce.com, PayPal and other cloud service providers also have suffered well-publicized outages over the last few years.

But the prospect of cloud service outages doesn’t faze Minkus. “Outages are a fact of life,” she says. “It’s worse when your physical computer goes down with all your data. You’d have to hire someone to figure out why and you could be down for days.”

What happens to your data if your provider goes out of business is another concern. The provider could take your data with it, which is why it’s always a good idea to have local copies of your important data, says Jay Whitehead, president of Vistance, a division of cloud-based employee rewards and recognition firm Rideau. “Any reasonably responsible cloud vendor will give you a way to get at your data, even if it goes belly up,” he says.

And though cloud service providers generally employ far more sophisticated security measures than any individual user could, the wealth of data they store makes

them a juicier target for hackers — as even mighty Google found out when Chinese cyberspies gained access to Gmail accounts in December 2009.

Data stored in the cloud may also not enjoy the same privacy protections as the data stored on your home or work PC. Law enforcement agencies could gain access to your data by issuing a legal court order directly to your service provider. (A bill under consideration in Congress would close this loophole.) Dropbox found itself the subject of Federal Trade Commission scrutiny last May after researchers discovered that files stored on the service could be accessed by any Dropbox employee with sufficient administrative rights. If you plan to store sensitive data in the cloud, you may want to encrypt it first so only you have access to it.

But for many agents, the flexibility and accessibility that cloud computing provides far outweigh any potential drawbacks. The cloud’s biggest benefit may be that it makes enterprise-level technology accessible and affordable to practically everyone, Whitehead says. “People should get down on their knees and thank the lord that cloud computing apps are around,” he says. “You can get amazingly powerful software like Salesforce.com for $10 a month and no upfront costs.”

He adds that because cloud services are so widely available to everyone, real estate pros who don’t avail themselves of these services risk falling behind.

“If you’re a sole proprietor or small firm and you’re not using the cloud, you put yourself at a significant disadvantage relative to your competition,” he says. “In the long run, you may not survive.”

Dan Tynan is a freelance writer based in Wilmington, N.C.

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Despite (or because of) their unusual characteristics, unique properties that are priced right can still attract buyers in a slow market.

32 | July/August 2011

&

ODDS ENDS

By Regina Ludes

Luba Muzichenko, CRS, with Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco, had never sold a home quite like this one. In December 2009, she took on a listing for a 114-year-old firehouse that was converted into a private work/home space in the city’s Oceanview neighborhood.

Firehouse 33 and the accompanying tour and museum business had been on the market for nearly four years under five different brokers, starting at a list price of $3.6 million and eventually dropping to $3.2 million. While she had a few doubts about taking the listing at first, Muzichenko accepted the challenge. “I knew no one else was doing the kind of marketing on the Internet I did, and the $3.2 million price tag wasn’t getting the job done,” Muzichenko recalls. Besides, she believed that if she could sell a firehouse, she could sell anything.

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REALTORS® who have sold unique properties say these listings provide a rare opportunity to step out of their comfort zone and expand their market expertise. As these agents have learned, selling unusual properties is not much different from selling a traditional residential home. While the properties may look odd or have a distinctive character that sets them apart from other residences, the one basic principle for marketing them successfully still holds true: Properties that are in excellent condition and priced right will sell in any market.

Fire Sale Constructed in 1896, Firehouse 33 was one of the last firehouses built in San Francisco that included an entrance for horse-drawn carriages. The city shut down the firehouse in 1974 and sold it at auction in 1977.

The couple who bought the property used the upper level as their living quarters and Firehouse 33 in San Francisco still features an entrance for horsedrawn carriages.

converted the lower-level communications room into a fire engine tour business and museum of fire memorabilia. At 5,000 square feet, the two-bedroom, two-bath home had an open floor plan with tons of closet space, room for a dozen cars and a 30-foot brass pole. “Because the property was so unique, we were looking for someone who wanted more than just a home … someone who saw the listing and decided that they had to live there,” Muzichenko says.

After the firehouse owners tried unsuccessfully to sell the property and the tour business together for one price, Muzichenko decided to list them separately — for $975,000 and $249,999, respectively.

Finding qualified buyers was difficult, she says, because there is a limited pool of potential buyers who might be interested in such an unusual property, and it’s difficult to determine where they will come from.

“You just don’t know who might want to live in a firehouse. It has to be someone who is eccentric, creative and has a love of history,” she says.

Muzichenko promoted the listing heavily on websites such as Yahoo Real Estate and in the online versions of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and San Francisco Examiner. She also created a unique website for the property (www.firehouse33sf. com) that included photos, a detailed history of the property, a downloadable brochure and a video. The uniqueness of the property also generated its own publicity as many newspapers and blogs, even from as far away as Australia, picked up the story.

After nearly six months on the market, Muzichenko found a buyer and the deal closed at $875,000 in December 2010. The tour business sold in the spring of 2011 to a different buyer for an undisclosed amount.

Muzichenko believes she was successful in selling the property because she priced it right for the market. “I could sell it when no one else could,” she says.

The Wright Home While some unique properties like Firehouse 33 can be challenging to sell, others are easier because the property’s history and character immediately draws potential 34 | July/August 2011

buyers. For example, Vana Kikos, CRS, with Coldwell Banker Residential in Chicago, received two offers within a month for a Pre-Prairie Rollins Furbeck home designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, located in suburban Oak Park, Ill. Built in 1897, the five-bedroom home features an octagon-shaped living room, towers, a library and staircase that were popular in many Victorian homes of that era. It also features an open floor plan, which was unusual for that time and later became one of the defining features of Wright’s Prairie style, says Kikos. The home also features stained glass in many of the windows and interior doors, and the main staircase is the original built with the home.

To promote the listing, Kikos produced a brochure that featured high-quality paper and photos. She also built a property-specific website and posted the listing on real estate websites, such as Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com, and to brokers at all the Coldwell Banker offices. Kikos adds that in the close-knit Oak Park neighborhood, word of mouth spreads quickly when a prominent home is on the market. She says she planned to post the listing on several historic property websites and host a broker’s open house, but cancelled both after receiving two offers. She attributes the quick sale to “aggressively pricing” the property at $799,900.

When showing older historic properties, Kikos says she makes a point of highlighting the key features that make the property unique, such as the built-in hutch, built-in mirrors, woodwork and fireplace.

But, she adds, it is just as important to be frank with buyers about renovations the house may need. “You can’t just show the French doors and the staircase. You have to show everything, including the areas that need work. Today’s inspectors know what costs will be involved in restoration work, so buyers know ahead of time what is required,” she says.

Unique properties can bring out curiosity-seekers, so to make sure interested visitors are truly serious about buying, Kikos requests a mortgage loan pre-approval

letter before showing the property.

Generally, there are no problems with financing as long as the buyers are properly qualified, she says.

Selling historic homes in a slow market is no more difficult than it is selling traditional homes because there is always a pool of buyers who appreciate older homes for their design quality, Kikos says. She is especially surprised at the number of younger buyers who are shopping for older historic homes. “People want the wow factor, the feel of history when they walk in the door, and they know that the home has been around since the 1890s. The quality and craftsmanship are more desirable. The banister and railings never shake. People are fascinated by that. The staircases are 130 years old and they are as sturdy as the day they were built,” Kikos says.

In 2010, 37 houseboats were sold in Portland compared with 67 that were sold in 2007.

Life on the Water “Life on the water is good for the soul.” So says Susan Colton, CRS, with RE/MAX Hall of Fame in Portland, Ore., when showing houseboats and floating homes to prospective buyers. “People move to the water for the sports, like kayaking and fishing, the peacefulness and privacy.

They become part of nature,” she says.

While some of the floating homes are used as weekend retreats or vacation homes, Colton estimates that 75 percent of owners are full-time residents. Many buyers are working professionals or retirees who have transferred from other West Coast cities to escape warmer climates.

Colton has been selling houseboats and floating homes for 14 years, so she knows firsthand how complex these transactions can be. The biggest deterrents to owning these properties, Colton says, are costs and property condition. While a starter floating home with two bedrooms and two baths can cost as little as $100,000, the costs of inspections, maintenance, and a floating home slip can quickly add up.

Once buyers have purchased a houseboat, they must keep it moored in a floating home slip, which can be purchased or leased. The fees for water space can vary depending on the location of the space, explains Colton. For example, leased

space can average $450 to $500 per month for an inside slip to $1,000 per month on the outside with unobstructed views of the river. To own a slip, homeowners can expect to pay as much as $250,000, plus association dues of $225 to $400 per month, which cover water, sewer, garbage and security gates.

In addition to a regular home inspection, lenders require a float inspection during which specially trained divers examine the houseboat’s platform to check for dry rot or other structural problems and make sure the home sits level in the water.

Repairs can cost $5,000 to $30,000 to bring the houseboat up to code, Colton says.

Fewer lenders are offering financing for floating homes because they are considered a higher risk than land-based homes, so local lenders have more stringent requirements and higher interest rates for these types of properties. For example, one lender is offering 7.5 percent on a 25-year loan with 20 percent down. For houseboat owners who don’t own their slip, the interest rates are even higher and lenders require 30 percent down, Colton says.

Sales of houseboats have declined during the recession. So far in 2011, only

10 houseboats have been sold in the Portland area, six of which sold for less than $200,000. Last year 37 houseboats were sold there, and 27 of them sold for less than $200,000, says Colton, citing local MLS statistics. At the peak of the housing market in 2007, 67 houseboats were sold, and more than half sold for more than $200,000.

Colton promotes her houseboat listings on real estate websites, the MLS and specialized sites such as www.freshwaternews. com. Showing houseboat properties can be tricky without a boat, so Colton uses her own to take buyers to view properties or take interior photos. But the key to selling these floating homes is the same as traditional homes on land, she says. “The better maintained houseboat properties that are priced right for the market will sell more quickly.”

Whether you’re selling a unique property, like a houseboat, or a traditional residential home, a smart pricing strategy is the key to getting it sold in any market.

Regina Ludes is associate editor of The Residential Specialist.

www.crs.com | 3 5

can afford only five hours a week, parcel it into daily 45-minute sessions.

• Use a friendly, recent photo for your Twitter profile. “Also, avoid the ‘hand under the chin’ pose. It’s just awkward.

Are you listening, real estate agents?”

• Dubbing Twitter “an amazing tool for local business,” the author claims that “location-based social media is … certain to be a big part of the future online.”

• Ignoring social media chatter about your firm is like showing up “with earplugs on” before a room full of potential customers “all talking about your products.”

• Naked Pizza in New Orleans used Twitter to “create a virtual but local presence.” One promotion garnered 15 percent of the day’s total sales; 90 percent were new customers.

• Want to spearhead a charity drive?

Consider a Tweetathon of the type Stratten and Strength.org used to raise $14,000 (in just 12 hours) to fight child hunger.

• Don’t settle for a website that’s a digital brochure. It should be a blog-driven site heavy on quality, a place where people can learn content about your field.

• More site advice: Shun “captcha boxes” (type a phrase to prove you’re human) and pop-up ads. Instead, provide compelling content — and an easy way to get more.

• The “experience gap” is the abyss between a positive first impression and later so-so ones. To close it, “optimiz[e] every point of contact with your customer.”

• Satisfied customers become consumer evangelists — “your word-of-mouth army.”

Yet we often neglect them in favor of new sales. Why? • Social media helps buyers learn about business owners. This connection “builds greater trust than any brochure, logo or company mission statement could.”

• Every point of contact is an opportunity to engage with your market. To find out where you stand with current customers, ask them!

• Thanks, Mom, but I’ll ask a pro: Stratten urges us to seek business feedback from “people you trust who can give encouragement but also honest opinions.”

Social media ha ve a lo w ROI (return on investment) but a high ROR (return on rela tionships) and can “be better for local-based businesses than for an yone else.”

• What constitutes TMI (too much information) when you use social media to promote a business or connect to customers? Stratten nicely differentiates authenticity and transparency.

• Do you “ghost tweet”? The site’s auto feature lets you do this, but why would you?

It erodes your transparency and says you’re online only to talk, not listen.

• Though a “best-selling” book is “the publishing industry’s version of social proof,” view the label askance: Amazon rankings are easy to manipulate.

• Unless your client base is moms who work at home, don’t market yourself as a work-at-home mom: Clients will question where you find the time to work for them.

• Core values? A company cheer, a là Walmart? If you can’t turn those policies into an authentic experience for your market, check ’em at the door.

• Top 5 Things to Look for When Buying a House: Convey useful content through a

list like that and you’re likely to be seen as an industry expert.

• Once you have your “Top 5” list, capture each list item the way that suits you best: audio, video or text. Then release the items one at a time on your blog.

• A local seminar is a primo way to position yourself as a market expert. But it’s not all about you: Your main goal is to share usable, practical info.

• Or, if you don’t want to worry about attendance, do a tele-seminar. Fill each participant’s head with quick and easy tips to put your knowledge into practice.

• “If you could go back and … ” is a great conversation starter. “If you could go back and buy your first house all over again, what would you do differently?”

• Emotional triggers are the key to viral marketing, so be “the bringer of emotion that your market wants to feel.” Recession or not, “emotion always sells.”

• Want people talking about your realty biz? Write up “Top 10 Ways You Know You’re from [YOUR TOWN NAME HERE].” Hand the list to everyone who walks in the door.

• Ways to close the (retail) deal: No customer is ever “just looking: People don’t randomly end up in your store and become curious as to what’s inside.”

• With so many purchases still based on trust, the old-fashioned trade show makes an excellent point of departure for forging relationships with people.

• “The ability to share customer experiences online is changing who the influencers are.” So, caveat marketor: You can’t afford to dismiss any digital personality.

• Networking events are evil: Why hand me your business card before we’ve even shaken hands? Instead, “be you [and] care about what someone is saying.”

Maybe Stratten’s on to something with his epigrammatic approach to UnMarketing: “Good actions mean good business” is just 32 characters!

Allan Fallow, a writer and book editor in Alexandria, Va., tweets occasionally @TheFallow.

www.crs.com | 3 7

company that must always grow and innovate.

Legendary R&B singer Diana Ross will perform songs of the Supremes and her solo hits during the REALTORS® Celebrity Concert on Sunday, Nov. 13. And back by popular demand, the pre-concert REALTORS® Got Talent show will showcase the entertainment abilities of five REALTORS® from around the country.

More than 400 exhibitors will showcase their products and services at the REALTORS® Expo.

The event will also include new “technology camps,” which are short, interactive, experience-level-based presentations that demonstrate how to use business technologies more effectively. Explore global opportunities at the International 2nd Home and Resort Pavilion featuring worldwide properties. And develop referrals and find business opportunities at the International Networking Center.

This year, when you register for a full conference, you’ll have complete access to more than 100 hours of audio recordings of the education sessions after the event. Be sure to register for a full conference pass to take advantage of this opportunity.

For details about the complete conference schedule, go to www.

REALTOR.org/Conference. CRS members can register at registration3. experient-inc.com/showNAR112/ Default.aspx?source=CRS.

Save the Date: Inaugural During the REALTORS® Conference & Expo, the Council’s inaugural celebration and awards dinner will be held Saturday, Nov. 12, at the Hyatt Orange County in Anaheim, Calif. Doors will open at 7 p.m.; tickets are $80 per person.

Invitations for this black-tie-optional event will be mailed to conference attendees in September. Check www. crs.com for registration forms.

CRS Strikes Gold with Webinars

S

ince CRS began offering webinars in 2008, more than 14,000 attendees have taken advantage of this convenient option for real estate education. The onehour webinars cover a broad range of topics, including short sales and foreclosures, listings, working with buyers, taxes, social media, marketing and business planning. Designed to give more people a chance to experience CRS education, these cost-effective and timely online training sessions are hosted by the industry’s leading real estate experts and instructors and deliver the most up-to-date information and training agents need to compete in today’s challenging market. Select webinars earn one unit of elective credit toward the CRS Designation for CRS candidates, and a few sessions are offered free to CRS members.

Attendees sign up for a webinar at www.crs.com and receive an email reminder one week prior to the session with details about how to access the webinar. Additional reminders are sent the day before and on the morning of the event.

Participants can submit questions prior to the session or during the live event.

As interest in CRS webinars has grown, so has their availability. Webinar recordings can be downloaded and viewed on any mobile device, iPad or tablet PC. Participants can also receive the audio file and listen to the recording on an MP3 player or burn to a CD. Linda Cottar, CRS, with Ingrid Nel Properties in League City, Texas, recently participated in the webinar FSBO and Expired Listings: Is Your Listing Model “Dances With Wolves” or “Field of Dreams?” led

by CRS certified instructor Jackie Leavenworth. “This was my first [webinar], but it won’t be my last,” she says. “It was very easy to listen to, and I took notes during the webinar.

I also like the idea of being able to listen again to the recorded version,” Cottar says.

“These webinars spur thoughts and applications even to an old-timer like me. You are never too old or too smart to learn. If I pick up one tip, the cost and time are worth it,” she adds.

For more information about CRS webinars, register for an upcoming session or purchase a recording of a previous one, visit www.crs.com/ Education/1781.

CRS Goes Mobile

D

id you know you can search for a fellow CRS agent’s contact information directly from your smartphone? A CRS mobile application gives agents access to the CRS Directory, and it allows you to search for CRS courses or contact the Council from your phones. To access the CRS mobile app, simply go to http://m. crs.com from your smartphone’s Web browser. The mobile service was designed to work on the most popular smartphone platforms, including BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and others.

www.crs.com | 3 9

inside CRS

Personalize, Reproduce and Mail This Newsletter to Your Clients

CRS Makes “30 Under 30” List

R

D

EALTORS® now have access to an errors and omissions insurance program from Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, the newest REALTOR Benefits® partner with the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

Coverage is available to members in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands through Continental Casualty. Rates vary based on the type of coverage needed, area of specialty, and previous claims history.

The program offers a wide range of deductibles and policy limits as well as several premium credits, as allowed by state law. This includes a credit for being a member of NAR, holding certain NAR designations, continuing education, use of standard contracts, use of home warranties and risk management programs. Schinnerer’s program also supports a broad range of real estate specialties, including residential and commercial, property management, appraisal and more.

Coverage was updated recently to include the use of the Internet, such as websites, social networking, video hosting and blogging. The company also offers a “toolbox” that includes a risk management newsletter, blog updates, webinars and a toll-free hotline to talk with a real estate claims specialist.

To find out more about the program and to sign up, visit http://bit. ly/maiD2J.

elRae Zimmerman, CRS, broker-owner with Brokers 12 Inc., in Minot, N.D., was named to REALTOR® magazine’s prestigious “30 Under 30” List.

Zimmerman earned both her bachelor’s degree and her real license in 2004, then worked toward the CRS Designation in 2007.

Zimmerman says this recognition is an honor and a humbling experience.

“I never dreamed that I would be one of the featured agents. I know that I have worked hard and experienced success in my career, but there are other agents from across the country doing things I could never imagine.

This award has opened my eyes even wider and shown me that the sky is the limit for a career in real estate. I am so proud to share this honor with both my local and state association, as I believe I am the first North Dakota honoree.”

Edit

Leave YOUR HOME as is, or personalize the newsletter by adding your photo, logo, address and phone number to the mailing panel.* You can also substitute any article in the newsletter with one of your own. Edit the newsletter electronically by downloading it at www.crs.com/magazine/your_home_ newsletter.shtml.

Reproduce

Do it yourself with your office copier, or take the newsletter or electronic file (in addition to your photograph and any information you want inserted) to a printer who can prepare and reproduce the newsletter for you.

Distribute Mail. If you photocopy YOUR HOME or use it “as is,” please note that it is designed to be folded in a Z fold with the words YOUR HOME facing out on one side and the mailing panel facing out on the other side. Postal regulations require that Z folds have three closures (tabs or tape) — one on top in the center and two on the bottom. For your convenience, we have placed asterisks (*) where the closures should be. Be sure to check with your local mailer or post office to make sure you have prepared your mailings properly.

Electronic File. Attach the customized newsletter file to an e-mail to your clients or create a Web link to the file on your website. Consult your webmaster or technician to make sure the file is prepared correctly for these purposes, since these basic instructions will vary by person and system.

PLEASE NOTE: The images featured in the YOUR HOME newsletter may only be used within the context of the original article. These images may not be reproduced or republished elsewhere outside of this newsletter format. CRS members are free to re-use the text of the articles contained in this newsletter, however. * This newsletter is for the exclusive use of CRS members.

DelRae Zimmerman, CRS

40 | July/August 2011

For a complete step-by-step guide to personalizing and reproducing the YOUR HOME newsletter, visit www.crs.com/ magazine/your_home_newsletter.shtml.

✁

NAR Offers E&O Insurance Benefit

On the Fence

L

ove sitting in your big backyard, but don’t like sharing your view with the neighborhood? Installing a fence can provide privacy and visual appeal.

When choosing fencing materials, be sure to consider two important factors: your region’s climate and your budget.

If your region is susceptible to rough weather, such as heavy rain, hurricanes or other inclement weather, durability is key. Materials to look for include stone or bricks, though these are more likely to be pricier, since they typically require professional installation. Less expensive options include plastic or vinyl, which are still fairly durable. For milder

climates, something simple like a wood fence might be a cost-effective, but still efficient, solution.

If you have children or pets, safety is also an important factor. Many home and garden experts suggest installing fences around swimming pools or ponds, and around vegetable or herb gardens to keep animals from ruining your hard work. In general, gates should be childproofed, no matter where they are in your backyard.

Keep visibility in mind when choosing your materials. Paneled fences are opaque, while chain link fences offer decidedly less privacy. This also dictates how high a fence should be or if you want doorways or other openings within the fence.

Say Yes to CRS

REFERR VE

S! AL

I LO

Buying or selling a home can seem like an overwhelming task. But the right REALTOR® can make the process easier — and more profitable.

A Certified Residential Specialist (CRS), with years of experience and success, will help you make smart decisions in a fast-paced, complex and competitive market. To receive the CRS Designation, REALTORS® must demonstrate outstanding professional achievements — including high-volume sales — and pursue advanced training in areas such as finance, marketing and technology. They must also maintain membership in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and abide by its Code of Ethics.

Work with a REALTOR® who belongs among the top 4 percent in the nation. Contact a CRS today.

*

Do you know someone who is thinking about buying or selling a home?

DID YOU KNOW?

A recent survey shows that nearly 8 percent of American adults have been diagnosed with hay fever (allergic rhinitis).

Please mention my name.

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be substituted for legal or financial advice.

If you are currently working with another real estate agent or broker, it is not a solicitation for business.

*

inside CRS » » » » » » »

S E A R C H C O U R S E O F F E R I N G S B Y C I T Y A N D S TAT E AT W W W. C R S . C O M

CRS Classroom Courses CRS classroom courses earn either eight credits (for 100-level, one-day courses) or 16 credits (for 200-level, two-day courses) toward the CRS Designation. CRS courses listed below are from July 15, 2011, to Oct. 26, 2011. For more up-to-date listings, visit, www.crs.com/education/173.

CRS 111 — Short Sales and Foreclosures: Protecting Your Clients’ Interests AUG. 18 PARK CITY, UTAH Utah Association of REALTORS® 801.676.5200 Instructor: Gee Dunsten, CRS

SEPT. 28 GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. Michigan CRS Chapter 248.877.2337 Instructor: Robert Morris, CRS, CRB

CRS 103 — Maximize Your Potential …

Personally and Professionally

CRS 112 — Guiding the Buyer in the Distressed Property Market

AUG. 23 ORLANDO, FLA.

SEPT. 29 DOWNERS GROVE, ILL.

Florida CRS Chapter 561.274.8153 Instructor: Jackie Leavenworth, CRS

Main Street Organization of REALTORS® 630.324.8427 Instructor: LeRoy Houser, CRS

SEPT. 20 – 21 CLARKSVILLE, TENN. Clarksville Association of REALTORS® 931.552.3567 Instructor: Robert Morris, CRS, CRB

SEPT. 26 – 27 LEMOYNE, PA. Pennsylvania REALTORS® Institute 717.561.1303 Instructor: LeRoy Houser, CRS

SEPT. 26 – 27 WALTHAM, MASS. Massachusetts CRS Chapter 800.725.6272 Instructor: Chuck Bode, CRS

OCT. 11 – 12 ANNAPOLIS, MD. Maryland/DC CRS Chapter 410.575.5053 Instructor: Robert Morris, CRS, CRB

CRS 201 — Listing Course

SEPT. 13 HONOLULU Hawaii Aloha Chapter of CRS 808.733.7060, ext. 105 Instructor: Mark Given, CRS

OCT. 18 PLEASANTON, CALIF. Northern California CRS Chapter 800.277.6003 Instructor: Jackie Leavenworth, CRS

CRS 200 — Business Planning and Marketing AUG. 15 – 16 ASHEVILLE, N.C. North Carolina Association of REALTORS® 336.808.4231 Instructor: Gee Dunsten, CRS

JULY 21 – 22 RICHMOND, CALIF. West Contra Costa Association of REALTORS® 510.233.1152 Instructor: Jackie Leavenworth, CRS

JULY 21 – 22 COEUR D’ALENE, IDAHO Idaho CRS Chapter 208.234.4357 Instructor: Michael Selvaggio, CRS, CCIM

www.crs.com | 4 3

C Claire Bisignano Chesnoff

N.Y.S. Licensed Real Estate Broker, ABR, AHWD, ASP, BCREP, CHLMS, CRS, GREEN, GRI, SRES

Board Certified Real Estate Professional DIRECT: 917-974-2239 OFFICE: 718-524-4424 FAX: 718-524-8538

EMAIL: clairechesnoff@gmail.com

Serving the Real Estate needs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York www.claireproperties.com

Your referral source for the greater

Pittsburgh

ABR, CRS, SRES, GRI, CDPE

area

Serving Northern Virginia and the Dulles Tech corridor Offices in Ashburn, Leesburg and Sterling Re/Max Select Properties, Inc.

703-999-6535 lisacromwell@remax.net www.LisaCromwell.com

SOUTH FLORIDA

I help clients make the Wright move Nancy Wright, ABR, CRS, GRI RE/MAX Realty Brokers 5608 Wilkins Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217 OFS: 412-521-1000 x170 CELL: 412-508-0040 nancywright@remax.net

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Greater Ft Lauderdale & the Palm Beaches

Your dedicated and professional Realtor serving all of South Florida.

Ray Singhal

2010 CRS Agent of the Year

(954) 770-8083 SinghalFlorida.com Ray@SinghalFlorida.com

Gary Lanham

Wieder Realty, Inc. Pompano Beach, FL

954.695.6518

Broker Associate, CRS, CIPS

www.GaryLanham.com

CRS, GRI, CDPE, ABR, SRES, SFR, CSSP, E-Pro, PhD

AUSTIN, TEXAS Kent Redding BROKER, GRI, CRS, ABR

The Kent Redding Group Prudential Texas Realty 512.306.1001 800.647.4711 kent@callkent.com www.CallKent.com “Unmatched REPRESENTATION and NEGOTIATION”

DALLAS N A T I V E

3PECIALIZING IN $ALLAS AREAS lNEST NEIGHBORHOODS SINCE

Maribel Hill Realty (IGHLAND 0ARK s &RISCO s 0LANO 2ICHARDSON s $OWNTOWN s 3OUTHLAKE

Maribel Hill c: 214.727.5754 800.358.9093 mh@maribelhill.com www.maribelhill.com 6ISIT WEBSITE FOR TESTIMONIALS

Covering Palm Springs Area of California Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Spring, Indio, Coachella, Bermuda Dunes and Thermal

Mike Duncan CRS, CRB, FSP, CDPE, GRI, CEO / Broker California License #01276361 California License #01526220 51370 Avenida Bermudas Suite 6 La Quinta, Ca 92253 760-564-5678 760-262-3740 Fax 760-831-0484 Cell mike@DuncanGroupRE.com www.DuncanGroupRE.com www.PalmSpringsReoForeclosures.com

#23

'2)

e-PRO

H AWA I I

WEST COAST

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TEMECULA – MURRIETA RIVERSIDE & ORANGE COUNTIES “Everyone Likes Sara Lee!�

SARA LEE PAULL CRS, SRES,e-PRO Broker Associate (#00547900) Cell: 951-970-5211 Direct: 951-461-4611 saralee@saraleepaull.com saraleepaull@verizon.net www.saraleepaull.com

Real Estate

H AWA I I

CANADA

Duke Kimhan

(Principal Broker) (R) CRS, ABR, CRB, GRI, SRES, CDPE

Condo.Com 808-277-4677-Cell 2IĂ€ FH 808-675-5916-Fax 1888 Kalakaua Ave, Ste. #312 Honolulu, HI 96815 M king Maki g Busin usiness i ess a Pl Pleasu easure!!

Please visit my Website @

www.dukekimhan.com

RESOURCES • July/August 2011

The

residential Specia li s t

The Up Sell Don Cook, CRS, Ebby Halliday REALTORSÂŽ, doncook@ebby.com Jeri Hannon, CRS, RE/MAX Executive, JeriHannon@me.com

Caron McGinley, CRS, SRES, Keller Williams Realty Services, caron@ caronmcginley.com Britton Jackson, CRS, Zephyr Real Estate, britton@jacksonfuller.com

Jim Hughes, CRS, Greenwell Realty, jimhughes@greenwellrealty.com

Cloud Cover

Ben Olsen, CRS, Village Associates, ben@ theolsenteam.com

Ron E. Armstrong, CRS, Keller Williams Professionals, ron@ashvilleandbeyond.com

Come Together Marie Avery, CRS, RE/MAX Alliance Group, marie@marieavery.com

Odds & Ends Susan Colton, CRS, RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc., susancolton@comcast.net Vana Kikos, CRS, Coldwell Banker Residential, vana.kikos@cbexchange.com Luba Muzichenko, CRS, Zephyr Real Estate, luba@zephyrsf.com

Katie Minkus, CRS, Hawaii Life Real Estate, Katie@hawaiilife.com John Morley, CRS, Morley Real Estate Group, john@morleygroup.com

w w w. c r s . c o m

www.crs.com | 4 7

Ask a CRS | Advice from the country’s top Certified Residential Specialists

hire power Q U ESTIO N : How did you go about recruiting and hiring an assistant? What prompted you to hire one?

IN O U R EXPERIEN C E ...

“I HIRED MY first assistant in 2005 and she stayed with me until 2010 when my needs changed.

I found both assistants by placing a classified ad in the local newspaper. My current assistant works a set 15 hours a week. She does not talk to my clients or agents, but does everything else. It frees me up to meet with clients and prospect for new business.”

Anna Lee, CRS Long & Foster REALTORS®

“ADMITtedly, hiring an assistant is a leap of faith because of the cash outlay and the varying nature of our business. It’s about two things: the ability to do more business and the quality of life. I have had fulltime assistants in the past, but with technology being where it is, that really isn’t needed anymore. Sharing an assistant can be great because they are in the office when you need them, but you don’t have to pay for all of the hours yourself.”

“MY BEST advice is to make sure you do a full background check, more than calling references. I found the best way to find an assistant is to ask your clients and friends for referrals. Also, be specific about the skills you want that person to have.

Spend time training them so they know exactly how you work and what you want done, and provide a manual or outline of their duties. This can free you up for your real job working with buyers and sellers.”

Nicole Mangina, CRS

Sheri Kamikow, CRS

Windermere Real Estate

Coldwell Banker/Lincoln Park

Bellevue, Wash.

Chicago

nicolem@windermere.com

sheri@sherikamikow.com

Fredericksburg, Va.

Anna.lee@longandfoster.com

»»»»»

Please submit real estate questions for “Ask a CRS” to Mike Fenner at mfenner@crs.com.

48 | July/August 2011

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