Center for REALTOR® Development

One of the most important things that can help your inspections go smoother is to have a good relationship with your home inspectors. This not only benefits you as the REALTOR® but also benefits your client. An excellent REALTOR® and an excellent inspector is a fabulous combination to help create a better experience for buyers. Today’s guest, Scott Frederick, joins Monica on the show to talk about how we can foster better relationships between REALTORS® and inspectors, including what to look for in an inspector and communication skills.

The U.S. is about 50-50 between states that require home inspectors to have a license and those that don’t. Inspectors should be a member of ASHI or NACHI, especially in states that do not require a license. ASHI is the American Society of Home Inspectors, and InterNACHI is the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. ASHI tends to be more credible, simply because of the guidelines and requirements it takes to become certified. When looking for a home inspector, you should look for at least one of those certifications.

Training for home inspectors involves a technical instruction background, but almost as importantly, good communication skills, good grammar, punctuality, and time management are key to becoming a good home inspector. There is usually a mentor/shadow period, where you train with an experienced inspector. As an agent, it’s important to do your due diligence to find an inspector to help with the real estate transaction.

The most important part of Scott’s job is to build the relationship between the client, the buyer, and the REALTOR®. He talks about some of the customer service standards they use on their team, starting from the first call to the systematic inspection of the house. During the inspection, they set up shop, go over what the client ordered in terms of the inspection, and get the expectations of the buyer upfront. Get an unbiased opinion from the beginning so the inspection can be thorough and honest.

The way you present yourself from the beginning of the inspection and instill confidence in yourself and your ability will put the client at ease. The inspection is also an opportunity for the client to do their own walk-through and identify anything they are concerned about.

Communication is key between inspectors and REALTORS®. Agents need to learn how to be facilitators of information between inspectors and buyers. To be a good communicator, you have to be able to give and receive. As a REALTOR® or an inspector, try to create a good dynamic between you and the other people, so collaborating is productive and easy. As REALTORS® and home inspectors work together over the course of their careers, it creates a camaraderie that leads to good questions and open communication.

If there is an issue with the house that comes up during the inspection, it’s important to engage the conversation so that the buyer can hear all the information from the inspector themselves. It is all about how you phrase the problem verbally as well as in your report. Scott’s team addresses issues in three tiers: 1. Safety 2. Structural Defects 3. Cosmetic Defects. When presenting issues, make sure to offer solutions as well.

Whether the agent is at the inspection or not, they are the ones who will be negotiating with the broker. It is important that the inspector leaves thorough comments about any necessary repairs so that the agent can effectively negotiate these. One of the worst habits an inspector can get into is deferring everything to another expert. Agents can help with this by providing feedback to inspectors on what they would like to see. A REALTOR® is just as important in creating a good inspector as an inspector’s time in the field.

Sometimes it may be a good idea for the inspector to come back after any repairs are made to ensure that they were actually done as the receipt says. Scott does this as a courtesy, but if the relationship is there between the REALTOR® and the inspector, hopefully, something can be arranged at a fair price to provide a level of comfort.

When it comes to older homes and inspections, you want to make sure you find an inspector who is knowledgeable about old homes. As a REALTOR®, you can ask questions to make sure you are going to hire a qualified inspector for the home in question. Cosmetic issues are going to differ between old and new homes, and that’s something to keep in mind during inspections.

When it comes to cosmetics, it comes down to dollars and cents. Depending on cost, cosmetic issues could become larger or more important issues. Scott brings awareness to cosmetic issues but differentiates based on the cost of repair. From there, it is up to the REALTOR® to negotiate price.

The final thing Scott reiterates for REALTORS® is the importance of building relationships with inspectors. The more that you know each other and what you want f...

For clients who are in some phase of the divorce process, the house is often the largest asset in the case. As REALTORS® in these cases, you can help your client navigate through the real estate aspects of doing what’s best for the family and the property. Laurel discusses her work as a court-appointed real estate expert and shares helpful tips for divorce cases that are also great tips for regular listings.

It’s important to note that the court has jurisdiction over most things in a divorce case. The first thing that needs to be established is whether the court has made any specific orders regarding the house and the client; the client would be whichever person is on the title. The orders can indicate anything from the list price to certain terms defined. The house often comes into play with other aspects of the case as well.

The title company usually disperses the proceeds, but as the REALTOR®, you want to make sure the title company gets a copy of an order that dictates how these should be dispersed.

Laurel has been involved in some legal work during her real estate career. In family law, the court and attorneys are accustomed to working with experts. In her work, Laurel is a real estate expert that is appointed by the court to handle the real estate aspect of the case, making recommendations and making sure the court orders are followed. Usually, an agent on the deal would be the court-appointed expert.

When you get a client who may be recently divorced, the first step is to do an intake to gather information, like who is and isn’t in the house, any court orders, who is on the mortgage, etc. After that, you would generally want to visit the property and do a walk-through; in divorce, there is often evidence of distress. There may be opportunities for improvement so they get the most money. These should always be suggested with discretion and sensitivity for the situation. Asking probing questions to get more information may be uncomfortable, but as REALTORS®, you must own your professionalism. You can’t best help your clients without all the information.

Proactive communication is especially important in these cases. When it comes to education, it’s really important to take the position of not being attached to the outcome. It’s not about trying to get them to list the house, it’s about giving all the information so the family can make the best choice for them. Communication helps establish trust and neutrality.

In Laurel’s practice, when they do the intake and the walkthrough, she never meets the clients twice. She meets with the parties separately and will alternate appointments. You want to avoid having too much communication with one client to make it look like you’re taking sides. Each situation will be different, but it’s important to gather all the information so you are considering both person’s needs. Laurel shares some best practice tips for when it comes to communicating through emails.

In these situations, it is very common to have pacing issues. One spouse may be ready to sell the house and get everything done, while the other is still grieving the loss of both their house and their marriage. You may have to slow down and get the other spouse on board before you get too far.

When getting a lawyer involved, you want to keep them reasonably updated, but don’t bombard them with too much communication. Some things to update lawyers on: when the listing agreement has been signed, the terms, once the house is on the market, when the house is in escrow, and when they are ready to close. Don’t involve the lawyers unless you absolutely need to.

There are some things to prevent early on in a divorce listing. Make sure you know who all is on the title, and make sure the title will respect a Power of Attorney in the situation that the client themselves is unavailable. This is helpful even for a regular listing. You also want to check loan payment amounts that may be affected by previous loan modifications. Laurel recommends ordering a mortgage payoff early on. Knowing how to prevent land mines is key — if you think or know something may be a problem, address it sooner rather than later.

Reverse mortgages can be used as a tool in divorce when one person wants to stay in the house or to help a buyer when they want to move into a new house. A spouse who wants to keep the house has to qualify all on their own. With all the expenses surrounding divorce, oftentimes they don’t qualify. Laurel is a proponent of not staying married to the mortgage. Reverse mortgages only apply to clients over the age of 62. In normal mortgage situations, you usually will have to refinance to get one person off the mortgage, or sell the house and take the proceeds to find a new living situation.

The rules for ownership and how things are dispersed vary from state to state. When it comes to listing agreements, some states take a listing agreement...

Today’s episode explores modern marketing: how we create and share content, who we share it with, and how it’s made available to the public. This episode is a recording of the panel Monica hosted at the 2018 REALTOR® Conference and Expo. Guests TJ Pierce, Mor Zucker, Jamie Slough, and Dave Caskey speak about how they have utilized their social media marketing in their businesses. No matter where you are in your business, there will be a takeaway for you to apply to your work.

Content can be anything that you want to share, from photos to a blog, to videos; there is something for everyone. Multi-platform marketing uses the content you created and distributes it across several social media platforms. For example, content from this podcast appears on Instagram and a blog, and a video is uploaded to YouTube. Monica talks about some ways you can create content from your listings, and on which platforms you might want to share it. Sharing across several different platforms will allow you to connect with several different audiences and demographics.

Advice from TJ:

Start with the platform you are most comfortable with, and branch out from there. At Mid-Century Homes, they build their digital library with pictures from their phones and use an app called Canva that allows you to use your own photos to create a content layout. They also use professionally made content like photos, their website, and videos.

You can also share other people’s content and engage with other businesses on the various social media platforms. This has been especially important for Mid-Century Homes because they’ve been able to share other content with a niche audience they know will appreciate it. They can engage with their own audience while attracting followers from the audiences of other businesses. TJ talks about how they use the different platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and their website and about how much they budget for it. Some of the live events they have are home tours, Instagram, and a first-time homebuyer class. 45% of their business has been in off-market deals because they knew how to work their marketing platforms!

Advice from Mor and Jamie:

Don’t wait for opportunity — create it! They focus on using marketing and technology to sell homes, rather than selling homes and having to use those tools to do it. They create two main ways: their blog (The Denver Ear) and by using PR and relationships with the media.

Being intentional about fostering relationships with the media and creating news in your business is huge in getting your content out there. Jamie describes some of the content they’ve created, through community events, or stories about properties. When writing these, there always needs to be value for the consumer added. Once you have a press release, you can distribute the content across several platforms, and drive traffic back to your website.

Mor talks about The Denver Ear, which is a blog that focuses on community, lifestyle, and business, rather than real estate. When you’re selling real estate, you’re really selling the community around the property. As your blog gets more exposure, local businesses may start to connect with you about their news. This is a more indirect and long-term strategy, but Mor wanted to create the blog outside of their real estate website to bring people in the back door. The conversion seems to be higher for these people because they’ve taken the time to navigate to the real estate page from the blog.

The most important thing about blogging is that it doesn’t matter how often you blog, but each post needs to have high-quality content. Find unique things to write about, and be aggressive about making connections with businesses and media. When it comes to blog content, focus on your interests; people will want you to be their agent because they resonate with who you are as a person.

Eventually, you want to start connecting your blog to your real estate business, but there are several ways to get creative about this that aren’t necessarily just putting the real estate information on your blog each time you post.

Advice from Dave:

REALTORS® are connectors; we connect with people and then we connect those people with homes. Across the different platforms, it’s important to know your audience. This is not only for what you post but also how you engage with others on these platforms. Dave covers several different platforms and offers suggestions about what is appropriate on each.

Quality over quantity — while it is important to get followers, you want to make sure they are the right followers and actual consumers of your business product. Knowing your target audience will help you decide how to prioritize. Dave talks about the distribution of their content; they will post content and then each of their agents will post the same content on their professional pages and they’ve just increased the ch...

All real estate begins with the land. Today’s episode features two guests who are experts in land sales. Jeramy Stephens (Arkansas) & Justin Osborne (Colorado) are both members of the REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI) and join Monica on the show today to talk about how land sales differ from residential sales. They discuss the different types of land and the certification that’s available for land agents, as well as some of the important things to note about land sales in the East and the West.

Jeramy Stephens has been in land and real estate for many, many years. He is currently the president of REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI). RLI is part of the NAR family and provides expertise, camaraderie, and resources for real estate professionals. It also offers the Accredited Land Consultant (ALC) designation.

There are several different types of land: agricultural land, timberland, recreational land, and transitional land. The RLI promotes education to understand different land uses and purposes for these types of lands. Just like in other facets of real estate, there are different specialties in the land business, and they each have their own rules.

There are six required courses to get the ALC designation and 104 hours. The three core classes are Land Investment Analysis, Land 101, and Transitional Land. In addition to these three core classes, there are “elective” classes, depending on where your interests lie. A portfolio of $10 million is also required.

When looking at the value of land, it’s important to consider what it’s being used for or what it’s been used for in the past. As a residential agent, if someone comes to you with a piece of land, you can ask questions to determine its highest and best use. Then you can direct your client to an expert in one of those areas, who can appraise or assess the land appropriately. Some land properties are comped regionally, so they are compared with other similar properties in neighboring states or regions. When it gets to a specific activity, it needs to be priced as close in proximity as possible.

Jeramy’s passion is farmland, which tends to be a little bit easier to price than some other types of land property. Despite some of the struggles farmers are facing, the demand for ag land is still quite strong. Farm and ag land are also a potential investment opportunity. There is a lot of due diligence required for farmland, so it’s important to know what to do and who to ask when you need help.

Residential real estate agents and land agents can work together to meet their clients’ needs. If you’re not the one to help them, be the one to get them another agent. You want to make sure that as a Realtor®, you are operating in your area of expertise, and referring your clients to someone else when it’s not your area of expertise.

Jeramy is also interested in developmental or transitional land. This is taking raw land, usually on the outside of a growing community, and figuring out zoning, sewage, water, taxes, etc. This process can take a long time and varies from state to state. These properties can be a win-win for the agent and the community, but it’s important to make sure it’s done right so everyone benefits from it.

There are some new developments in technology in land sales, including better maps and more complete data. Having all of this technology makes things work a lot faster and smoother. The company Jeramy works for offers 360-degree land tours of properties, so clients can see properties on their computers before seeing the land.

In the Eastern United States, one of the biggest things to consider is wetlands and water rights. Mineral rights are also important, though maybe more so in the West. There are also many areas in the East that are developing and bringing more people in, and this is especially important for agents who work with transitional land.

Jeramy’s final word is to remind and encourage REALTORS® that we’re all professionals in what we do. Know what you do, what you do well, and what’s best for your client!

Justin Osborne is joining us from Durango, Colorado. He is currently president of the Colorado chapter of the REALTORS® Land Institute and an RLI instructor.

One of the biggest challenges in land real estate is figuring out how to price it. It can be on the market for a couple of years, and sometimes they have to travel over 200 miles to find comps for a similar piece of land. The potential market is pretty vast in the West, but Justin tries to remain within the same state due to changing property values.

As a buyer’s agent, it is important to do due diligence on a property, including inspections on the property and the infrastructure. Properties need to be brought up to code before closing or handled properly after closing. The permit process in Justin’s area is relatively easy, but all the different landscapes will affect how long it takes to ...

We all know that social media can be a time-wasting black hole. We also know it can be an amazing tool to connect with loved ones, friends, and potential clients. How do you balance both without feeling overwhelmed? Today’s guest, Harrison Beacher, knows how to get the most out of your social media presence without the overwhelm! In this week’s episode, he offers strategies to create a comprehensive social media plan so that you can build connections with intention.

[1:30] A little bit about Harrison and his background in real estate.

[5:00] What social media platform should you choose?

[8:20] Harrison shares some of his favorite ways to optimize social media.

[8:40] What was the last thing that made you stop scrolling? What kind of content do you like to consume?

[10:30] Consider taking a quick 101 photography class to better understand what makes a good picture.

[11:20] Should you have people in your photos or should it be a selfie?

[14:40] How do we increase the engagement we currently have on Instagram? Hashtags!

[19:10] Remember, we need to have an abundance mindset. Engage with other people using your hashtag.

[24:50] It’s okay to make mistakes or have typos. Harrison sometimes goes back to reword things in a better way. It’s just important to be intentional with the content you’re sharing.

[30:50] Public posts, whether business or otherwise, should be welcoming and open to everyone.

[35:35] Are you struggling to create a social media plan? Harrison has some tips for you!

[41:35] What topics can you/should you talk about as a REALTOR®?

[45:15] With your photos, use them as an opportunity to tell a story. People do read the descriptions!

[48:05] When you become a local expert, there’s so much opportunity available to you.

[48:40] Instead of thinking about social media as a sales tool, think of it as a community-building tool.

[50:15] Harrison talks about the importance of a good mindset and why it’s key to your success.

[54:25] Create good routines and systems, and those will carry you forward during the days you feel slow or down.

Tweetables:

“It’s okay to rip off and duplicate some of the best practices other people have. Take the idea or concept, and create something similar.” — Harrison

“The mindset we need to have to help consumers and grow our businesses is an abundance mindset. When we connect, we build community.” — Harrison

“Social media is free to tag that location, be intentional about the story you tell, and attract more people to that story. It lets the people who live there be reminded of you.” — Harrison

Guest Links:

Coalitionpg.com