Life After The Tax Credit

The best way to find new clients is to educate the public about real estate. Potential customers are attracted to agents who educate over those that seem only interested in listing or selling a home. You can really set yourself apart by changing your job from salesman to teacher. In fact, some agents across the country have embraced this theory so much so that they have changed their business cards to say Market Educator rather than Agent or Salesperson. Consumers feel comfortable working with educators because those interested in buying or selling a home are thirsty for knowledge about the market so they can make an educated decision about whether now is a good time to buy or sell based on their circumstances.

Below is a great article to share with buyers and sellers alike. Print it out and attach your business card. Then give it out at open houses, listing presentations, buyer appointments, and leave copies for consumers at local business spots where people are looking for something to read while waiting. Good agents read this kind of material to stay on top of the market. Great agents also use it to educate those they wish to work with to grow their business.

Housing Market Holds Its Own: Life After the Tax Credit
Denver, CO (Vocus) July 16, 2010

The Tax Credit brought a lot of buyers out last fall and again this spring, which gave a real shot in the arm to real estate. While that heightened volume cannot be sustained, home sales and prices still remain higher than last year due to interest rates at historically low levels and the lowest home prices seen in years. A monthly survey of 54 metropolitan areas reveals that closed transactions in June were 5.6% higher and prices 3.5% higher than during June 2009.

"There's no question, the tax credit has had a significant impact on this market,'' said RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly. ''No one can predict the future, and we may still see a slight pull back, but for right now it appears that housing is holding its own, hopefully on the road to a sustainable recovery."

Transactions -- Year-Over-Year Change
Buyers trying to make the closing deadline for the Tax Credit may have pushed sales higher for June with a 7.2% rise from May in addition to the 5.6% gain over last year. Sales were especially strong in the Northeast. Boston and Hartford saw 23% more sales than last year, Providence was up 21% and Philadelphia was higher by 27%. An equal number of metro areas, 27, had increases and decreases in closed transactions year over year.

Median Sales Price -- Year-Over-Year Change
Responding to demand, home prices appear to be stabilizing and slowly inching higher. In the survey's 54 metro areas, the year-over-year change in Median Sales Price was 3.5%, with 27 metros headed up, 25 lower and 2 unchanged. The weighted average of all median sales prices for June was $211, 530. California experienced the most dramatic increase in prices. Median prices in San Francisco rose almost 18% higher than June 2009 levels. Los Angeles prices were 10% higher and San Diego prices were 9% above the same time last year.

Days on Market -- Average of 54 Metro Areas
Besides price, most home owners are concerned about how long it will take to sell their home. For the homes that sold in the survey's 54 metro areas, the average number of days it took from listing to signed contract was 81, slightly lower than the 83 day average in May and the 89 day average of one year ago in June 2009.

Months Supply of Inventory -- Average of 54 Metro Areas
The inventory of homes on the market in June rose slightly from May, up only 1.2%, but was down 5.8% from June 2009. In the survey's 54 cities, the average Months Supply of Inventory was 8.5 months, which remains unchanged from May. This means that at the current rate of sales the average metro would eliminate its inventory of homes for sale in eight and a half months. However, a six month supply is considered a market balanced equally between buyers and sellers.

For specific data on the 54 metropolitan areas in this report or to request an interview, please contact (303) 796-3667.

Success Does Not Come Easy

I came across this blog post recently and I immediately knew it was one I had to share with the best agents in the business. Many agents lose momentum this time of year because business slows down causing them to question the results of the hard work they have put in throughout the year. What I see happen too often is that some agents get all charged up in January by putting together a business plan with daily action steps that will result in the number of leads needed to earn their income goals. These agents are diligent in completing their action plans each day in January and February. Suddenly, the spring market arrives and they are busy with business. When summer rolls around and business slows, the agent automatically assumes that their action plans are no longer working because they are not seeing the results that they had previously, not realizing that much of that earlier success was market driven and not completely driven by their daily action plans.

The point is this....Success Does Not Come Easy. You must be diligent day in and day out in sticking to your business plan. You must continue to make the phone calls and pop-bys. You must keep writing those notes and you must do everything your plan called for even when you don't see the results immediately. The very best agents in the business, the ones that hit their goals every single year, are the ones who realize that success isn't for the faint of heart. It is for those who realize that each step taken today to gain new business is like a seed planted. It will take many months to grow but if we keep planting them every single day we will reap a harvest all year long.

The blog post below is one that goes hand in hand with this subject. I hope you find it fruitful to your business.

Success Doesn’t Come As Advertised
Posted on July 20th, 2010 by Todd Smith

Will you allow me to rant for one post? Today, I opened an email and read this headline, “12 Easy Ways to MAKE MILLIONS for Your Business THIS YEAR (and spend next to nothing to do it!)” The worst part is that this email was not a spam message. It came from a company that has been in business 50 years. Of all the people and organizations who should know success does not come over night, they should know. The fact is they do know, but they have lowered their integrity to a level where the almighty buck is more important than their corporate integrity.

Recently, I read an interview between leadership expert and best selling author Mark Sanborn and Darren Hardy, publisher of Success Magazine. Mark asked Darren why he wrote his new book The Compound Effect. Here is what Darren said:

“I wrote it because I was ticked off. Our current society has grown up with a microwave mentality expecting success and the results on effort to be immediate. Coupled with mass commercial marketing and in its competitive zeal, companies have exaggerated their claims of overnight success appealing to our weakness of wanting immediate gratification. We are constantly bombarded with increasingly sensational claims to get rich, get fit, get younger, get sexier… all overnight with little effort for only three easy payments of $39.95."

“These repetitive marketing messages have distorted our sense of what it really takes to succeed. Then those with the sincere interest in learning what it takes to be more successful continually get bamboozled, distracted, frustrated and disappointed when they don’t experience the results they are after. I was tired of watching it happen!

“I wrote this book to return people to the basics—the truth and the core fundamentals of what it really takes to succeed. I wanted to clear the clutter, demystify the truth and tell it straight—with no fat or fluff included.”

Like Darren, I am disgusted with companies and people who have lowered their integrity to a level where they lie to consumers to make money. Of course, they have figured out a way to justify their deceptive marketing tactics, so they can sleep at night. Perhaps the company I am referencing above could say, “Well sure, if Procter and Gamble implemented these lessons they could earn millions of dollars this year.” The fact is that their marketing message was sent to all their subscribers and their message was not targeting GM, Exxon, or Citibank.

The part that makes me equally sick is that companies are using these marketing tactics because they work. People buy into the fact that they can lose 30 pounds in one week by swallowing this magic pill while sitting on their sofas watching TV eating candy bars, so they buy them. Or as this headline represents you can make MILLIONS THIS YEAR with six months left, by buying their product.

I am here with Darren to stand on the rooftop and YELL as loud as I can that there are no quick fixes in life. Success doesn’t come as advertised.
*You are NOT going to buy an audio program, watch a webinar or read a book that is going to miraculously make you a millionaire in less than one year.
*You are NOT going to start some Internet business with your current market value of $20 an hour and suddenly begin making $200 an hour, unless you are extremely lucky.
*You are NOT going to lose 30 pounds in one month with ANY healthy weight-loss solution, unless you are very overweight.
Real success at anything takes time, discipline and persistence. Don’t get suckered into buying people’s marketing pitches when your common sense is telling you otherwise.
As a society we must get back to the truth about what it really takes to achieve our goals, but this won’t happen until we start being honest with ourselves about what it really takes to succeed.

Thanks for allowing me to rant. Whew. I feel better!

If something sounds too good to be true, there is a 99% chance it is.

About the Author: Todd Smith is a successful entrepreneur of 29 years and founder of Little Things Matter. To receive Todd’s daily lessons, subscribe here.

Have a great day,

Ron

Vote Kelly August 2nd-6th

RE/MAX Agents Taking Action

Good Afternoon,
This article sums up everything you need to do to beat a challenging market.... learn, adjust, and expand to remain successful. The actions you take or don't take today will predict your future. Where do you want to go and what are you going to do to get there?
Here is a link to RisMedia's current issue. RE/MAX Agents Taking Action is the feature story. http://livemag.rismedia.com/ris1

"The national advertising - especially with the new messages from Margaret-sets me apart from all of my competition," says Jay McHugh (CBR, CRS, CDPE), a top-producing sales associate with RE/MAX Unlimited in Brookline, Massachesetts. "My clients know the brand and what it stands for, so when I couple that with my own professional reputation and image, they feel they're being represented at the hightest level possible. It really helps me in my listing presentations."

Metro Message

I hope you all enjoyed the Fourth of July Holiday and found some time to relax. This past weekend reminds me of how strong our country is. We celebrated the birth of our Nation as we always do; great music, great fireworks, great cookouts, and great times with family and friends. The United States of America remains the strongest in the world due to our unique history and our ability to all come together and share our history and dreams of the future. We all know that Freedom is not Free, but it is worth the price we pay. We all should find ways that we can help continue to make The Home of The Free and The Land of The Brave the strongest, most productive, proudest Nation on the planet. Thank you for contributing to our business, community, and country.

ENCOURAGEMENT CORNER...

FREE IN THE USA

On the Fourth of July, I raised the flag,
As I spoke with love and pride:
"I'm blessed to be an American," I said,
To two friends who stood by my side.

One was my neighbor, who lives next door,
He's a citizen, like me.
The other, a visitor from a hard, oppressed land,
Far across the sea.

"My flag stays in its box this year,"
Said my neighbor, boiling mad."
The terrible shape this country's in,
The future looks nothing but bad.

"Taxes, scandal, indifference and crime,
On our land like a giant stain."
My visitor said, "We have all that, and worse,
But it's against the law to complain."

My neighbor looked startled, but not subdued;
Then he started in on the Press:
"There's nothing but bad news; the headlines are bleak."
(It gets me down, too, I confess.)

"Our news is all good," said my visitor.
"It's just how you'd like to be.
We know what our government wants us to know;
Our press is controlled, you see."

My neighbor spun 'round and marched toward his house,
And here is the end to my story:
The next time we saw him, he was out in his yard,
Proudly raising Old Glory.

By Joanna Fuchs

WORDS TO LIVE BY...

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
John Dickinson

Better to starve free than be a fat slave.
Aesop

Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.
Calvin Coolidge

A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
George William Curtis

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
Nathan Hale

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Albert Einstein

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.
William Jefferson Clinton