Just Keep Showing Your Buyer Homes

As most of my friends in the business know is that I handle most of our listings and our marketing. But anyone in this business will tell you that "you can't just live off of listings"...you also need to work with buyers." There are buyers out there.....You just need to know where to find them.

My partner Steve Kohn is my buyer specialists and everything else we pick and choose who handles what depending on the time and situation we are in. One thing I will tell you about Steve is he is quite busy handling his sons hockey career. Steve is from Canada and when you come from Canada most people are Hockey fans. Steve turned 51 recently and still plays twice a week himself. His dream was to become a professional hockey player just as my dream was to become a professional baseball player. Unfortunately age and injuries have taken over that dream but his son has a great chance to make and he is very busy right now traveling around so he makes sure his son gets in all the practice he need in order to be ready when he reaches his goal to make it to the NHL.

So now let's get back to business. Steve does work hard when he has to and also when I make him...LOL! But the one thing I can depend on him to do is to make sure that any buyer that we get that he takes full advantage of making sure he shows the client anything and everything they want to see. Most of the buyers he brings in are excellent because they are usually referrals. But many times as a buyers agent he has to go through the frustration of showing the buyer many homes before they make a decision. And sometimes he can end up showing so many but they still take time to make the offer we are looking for.

He has vented that to me many times and because I have more years in the business and had worked strictly with buyers when I was selling Real Estate in Florida and in New York ....I can relate. so when he comes to me and is frustrated I give a great piece of advice that I learned from the first broker I worked for. What she told me was you might only have one chance so when you screen your buyers and find out what they are looking for then "just keep showing them homes". Well after the times we went over this he came to me and said I was right. You know why?

I'll tell you why. He just had a client that was referral from a Canadian friend he knows from of all places ...his sons hockey league. He took this couple out to show them 30-40 homes in a 1 week span. they were looking somewhere in the range of $500,000 to $600,000. we placed an offer on a property and we negotiated it together. Well that deal didn't make it after we found out the seller could not come down to our buyers final offer and it was because the seller was going to be up side down in the deal.

He then set up another 10 homes to show them 2 days later and wouldn't you know it...we have an executed contract for a beautiful home in Heron Bay of Coral Springs Florida to close next month... with a purchase price of $617,500 possibly an all cash deal or a very small mortgage and the compensation to us was nice as well. Now that is a good Realtor® doing their job! He gave me the contract so I could do all the additional paperwork and so I could get the rest of the process started. "Hows that for a nice deal towards the end of the year?" Steve came to me and said we were right again..."just keep on showing homes" No one ever said this job was going to be easy. If you want to deal with buyers then you have to work hard and show them as many as you need to to get it done. I bet if you can make the deal happen that you will feel pretty good and forget about how much of a hassle it was for you. Same goes for listings..if you prepare and follow through the task you might be surprised at your results.

Need we say more? Only congratulations to Steve for finding us buyers that most certainly will be very happy in their new home!

If you are interested in Real Estate for sale in Florida ......then we strongly urge you to look at the opportunities available here.

A comment on this blog is greatly appreciated!

For more information please contact Steve Kohn or Neal The Real Deal Bloom -REMAX Hometown


The Real Deal tells it Like it is in Real Estate-copyright © 2007

South Florida Market Price or Wish Price?

Please note that I originally wrote this post on another blogging network back in October 2006. I thought it was good subject to revive here.

Unfortunately for sellers in South Florida ,they are still in that mode of selling and getting that big 25% return we were all getting the last 3-4 years, I ...as well buy property and sell, rent or flip, so I can relate to their disappointment.
But because of rising property taxes and ridiculous reasons insurance companies just drop HO's like a hot potato, the prices are starting to level off, not necessarily dropping, they were just used to the crazy returns, now in a regular market I believe 5-8% return is going to be more realistic for the moment.
I cannot tell you how many price reductions I see in the MLS , wasting time is the new meaning for most price reductions, I tell my clients , we will keep reducing until the market reacts, or if they continue to insist to price too high, then reductions will continue.
If the law for property taxes does not change soon ,and these insurance companies trying to strong arm people by dropping you and then being subject to only Citizens does not soon change, HO's will slowly take their houses off the market and wait if they are not in a rush to sell.
If that happens, the inventory will decrease and maybe change back to a sellers market, I do not believe we are in a buyers market because there are not even alot of buyers out there.
I think someone in the government really needs to hear from both the realtor's and sellers and buyers, because it will effect everyone in the long run

Davie Florida-The Orange Drive Real Estate market report 4/07-8/07

15056 SW 33RD ST
5
4
4691
Y
Y
204
$1,051,000
4/6/07
Riverstone

13261 SW 44TH ST
5
4
3454
Y
N
149
$1,005,319
4/5/07
Imagination Farms

14954 SW 39TH ST,
5
4
3750
Y
Y
113
$850,000
4/20/07
Riverstone

12650 S WINNERS CIRCLE
5
4.5
3811
N
Y
334
$1,050,000
4/23/07
Grove Creek

3913 SW 135th Ave
5
4
4129
N
Y
75
$1,500,000
5/25/07
Imagination Farms

15377 SW 40TH ST
5
4
5194
Y
Y
36
$1,120,000
6/1/07
Riverstone

3958 SW 140TH AV
6
5
4376
Y
Y
100
$926,000
6/22/07
Imagination Farms

14801 SW 33RD ST
5
4.5
4395
Y
Y
143
$1,154,000
6/22/07
Riverstone

15338 SW 39TH ST
5
4
3750
N
Y
86
$900,000
7/10/07
Riverstone

13335 SW 43RD ST
4
3
2664
N
Y
42
$690,000
7/20/07
Imagination Farms

4320 SW 138TH AV
4
3
2664
Y
Y
129
$725,000
8/8/07
Imagination Farms

14811 SW 39TH ST
5
4.5
4500
Y
Y
137
$1,037,000
8/10/07
Riverstone

15253 SW 40TH ST
6
4.5
5807
N
Y
114
$975,000
8/13/07
Riverstone

As of August 2007 there are 85 properties currently listed for sale through-out the 3 communities located in Davie Florida
40 homes are available in Riverstone.....30 homes are available in Imagination Farms and 15 homes are available in Grove Creek Ranches.
Currently there are 3 pending sales in the combined 3 communities and 14 closed sales 4/07-8/07
Last year at this time there were less homes on the market leading us to conclude that we are definitely in a buyers market.
This information is from the South East Florida Multiple Listing Service.
For more information about Davie Florida Real Estate please check out my blog on how The Real Deal Tells it like it is in Real Estate

I refuse to leave your home until you let me price it right!

Last week my partner Steve received a call for a listing appointment. It happen to be in Century Village of Deerfield Beach Florida. Now he usually handles all of our buyers. As a matter of fact...we just sold 4 units in there in the last 3 months and they were all cash deals and they closed within 2 weeks to 1 month. We also have closed 4 rentals in there as well. we know pretty much every model in there after having showed over 100 of them to the buyers and renters we worked with so we have a pretty good idea what they want. This particular unit is a bit different from the others. It is only a two story building versus the normal 4 story high-rise. They called us from a postcard we mailed out almost 2 years ago. Most of the postcards we mailed out were delivered but about 50 came back. We never received any calls from this mailing until now. "pretty amazing huh?"
So now we go on this appointment to meet the sellers. They are probably in their 80's to 90's..."god I hope I live that long and can still function." Anyway we go to meet the people and their daughter was present as well....she actually lives there too so she wanted to be involved to protect her parents interests which was fine with us. She was really nice but she was their voice so we had to show her what the property values are in their community. We also knew going in that the property had been listed before.
I always check the history first just in case there are any surprises. The place was in pretty good condition. It also had a water view and a nice private location. We explained to them that there were over 400 units on the market there and only about 200 that closed since the beginning of the year. The range of value was anywhere from $50,000 to $85,000. Originally it was listed at $89,000 for six months.
I wanted to find out what happened and why it did not sell. I asked them how many showings they had..they told me six and no offers. I now knew we definitely had a price issue. We really were trying to convince them to price it in the low $80's range because of the averages we came up with. The daughter said.."I want to price it at $96,000 because my parents need to clear $91,000. I told the women that there was probably no chance it would sell at that price unless there was a change in the market. I feel we have another 24-36 months before we see any change for the better...we just have to suck it up in the meantime. I kept going back and forth with the daughter. I asked her that if 6 months ago you were not making any progress at $89,000 then how in the world would pricing it at a higher price help you? I could not really understand her reasons but I said..."it has been a pleasure meeting you all and we appreciate the opportunity but we have been in your home for almost 3 hours and I refuse to leave here without pricing it right or we leave now without the listing." They finally bought the idea and so after 3 hours of jousting we priced it at $84,500 which hopefully will be a good price to draw offers. They just emailed us the other day that they were very pleased when they saw all the advertising we sent them for their property. Since Century Village is a great place for adult living....... I think we might have to do a little farming there.
It just goes to show you that even though it is not a large deal...persistence pays off and honesty still rules for respect. As Realtors(R) it is our job to guide the clients in the right direction.