Well I am finally starting to feel better after injuring my back in Costa Rica while surfing last December! January has been mostly about resting and healing and reflecting on what I have been doing with The Burkhardt Group. It seems like the rental market is starting to buzz a bit, I have just been dipping my toe in the rental waters , but with good results and quite a bit of interest in the few listings I have. I should be closing a few deals this week. I also closed on a sale at 20 West 72nd Street and my wonderful buyers received a rebate of $3,320 dollars! They said it was the best closing gift they have ever received! This was based on me working with them as a "full Service" broker, meaning I did all the research, set up the appointments, attended all showings, helped evaluate properties they were interested in and prepared the board package. Everything went very smoothly and based on their board meeting and a well assembled board package; they were approved at the board meeting! Rebates work people!!!
I have another closing scheduled for mid February and these customers will be receiving a rebate of over $20,000 dollars!!! In their case I played a passive roll in their search, as they preferred to do the research themselves. I would tag along to have a look at properties they were considering making an offer on and we would discuss properties via email and occasional phone calls. I would also send over listings that I thought they would be interested in, sending over listings outside of the box so to speak, in neighborhoods I thought they would like if the home exceeded (or at least met) most of their criteria. They appreciated this and did look at some places that I suggested that they would otherwise had missed and certainly appreciated the different perspective. Ultimately this "team" approach helped them zero in on just what they really wanted. But in the end they really surprised me and even themselves by going WAY outside the box! They wound up buying a beautiful penthouse, loft style home in Cobble Hill (one of my favorite nabes!). Gee, sometimes you really don't know where life is going to take you? I think its a perfect fit, a seriously awesome home with over 1000F2 of private outdoor space and a wonderful place to start their family! Again: Rebates work!
I have also listed one of my first FSBO with Benefits properties and to date the sellers are very pleased with the results. Their first open house had a solid turnout and brought in two offers! The key to this hybrid listing is getting the same exposure to the brokerage community that you would receive with a conventional exclusive listing. We achieve this by offering the property for co-broke at 2.5% to a "buyers" broker. At the same time you have the potential to sell directly to an unrepresented buyer which of course is the "dream" of most FSBO sellers. This is a very effective tool for those who have the time to show their own property, I also participate via email/phone in facilitating broker appointments and keeping the listing up to date in the various listing databases, such as StreetEasy and OLR. I had to laugh when another broker at a very large firm with several exclusives in the same neighborhood told these sellers they were crazy! That listing like this would never work, yada, yada, yada...Well I took a look at her listings and all were on the market from 90 days to 293 days! Look, lets agree that it's a difficult market to sell in and no one has a magic bullet, not even me! lol. It all comes down to price, location, view: those are the big three. If you are a seller, take the time to rationally analyze the offers coming in, sold comps in your area and accept the results. On that note lets talk about "perception" and marketing.
One of the battles I have to fight running a boutique real estate company offering alternative models for buying and selling properties is getting people to think outside the box! I just had a meeting with a very successful owner of a firm that wants me to come run his office. His main selling point is their very strong marketing and branding model. I made the point that as a fellow broker he knew the "truth", all brokers work more or less the same way when it comes to listing and servicing buyers. But mostly he heard the part I said that most marketing was just fluff, this brought out a strong reaction in him. Then after a minute of back and forth he said, "oh, you mean the reality of how things actually work?" I said yes. He laughed and confirmed my belief, "of course marketing is all BS, we all do work the same way". "However marketing does work and is a powerful tool for persuading people to "buy your product". This idea makes me very uncomfortable, I'm an old "radical", lol. I don't like the idea of "big media" somehow influencing the choices I make, in fact I go out of my way to make sure this does not happen(at least I do my best to!). I like to think people are rational and will respond best to the truth, to facts. I must say that to date the clients that I actually meet "get" what I'm saying, understand how buying and selling real estate really is not that complicated. That there is a simple market place, that is quite rational in and of itself. There is a place where homes are listed and a mechanism for distributing these listings to the brokers and buyers looking for these properties.
There is no magic formula. So why does a seller list their property with a large firm charging them a 6% commission or why does a buyer use a broker from a large firm(not offering a rebate?) that offers the same fundamental service as everyone else? Perception. That is where savvy marketing and "branding" comes in and even some of the brightest people in the world fall for it, are afraid to go against it!
Ultimately real estate sales is about providing a service, that is what you pay for. You should demand transparent, competent and effective service. Good service is not guaranteed anywhere. My point is no model is absolutely better than the other, my point is that there are options and they should be explored and understood before making a choice. Again: the underlying mechanism for buying and selling is a static system. The rest is all conversation, perception and most importantly knowledgeable determination and top that off with a(competent) broker whom you enjoy working with!
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