By: Genevieve F. Bonquin, REB, REA, REC
PRC Real Estate Broker Lic No. 2309
PRC Real Estate Appraiser Lic No. 5754
PRC Real Estate Consultant Lic No. 92
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.com.ph
Quite missed blogging for a while. Been busy working on my advocacy sites, improving and upgrading them. Then I thought of giving free lectures about Online Marketing which I observed very few licensed brokers are using or maximizing these new technologies available to make our practice easier and more effective. Here is a continuation of the series For Brokers.
To
succeed in this industry, you need to have/learn/acquire certain qualities,
traits or characters so you stay long in this industry. The six figure income
doesn’t always come in silver platter. They do sometimes but you have to
prepare for it for long then one day it will come regularly.
First,
let’s differentiate between the Broker and the Agents or Salespersons. Strictly
speaking, before one becomes a broker, he/she should have done agent’s or the
salesperson’s job. An agents finds a client, make presentation or showing,
negotiating or closing. The Broker supervises agents so the Broker should know
the ins and outs of a transaction so he/she can better manage or assist the
agent.
While
there are licensed Brokers who took the REBLEX without selling experience, and
there are many salespersons who have more experience, there should be no
delineation of roles should they work together. The Broker should endeavor to
learn and develop his/her skills and the salesperson must learn to submit to
the broker as his/her superior to avoid conflicts. In this set up, unless the
salesperson will have a chance to take up BS REM and passed brokers exam later,
this will be the set up for broker-agent relationship. RA 9646 Sec 31 have differentiated this more lengthily
If
you are a new broker without selling experience, I recommend not to hire agents
yet until you are able to sell a real estate by yourself or with other fellow
brokers and had enough experience to manage a group. You need to train
yourself, get skilled in selling, marketing, documentation, all aspects of real
estate transaction, because it will be hard to manage someone who haven’t done
any selling or completing a real estate transaction.
I
started as an agent myself way back when I started in real estate. As agents,
we were trained and taught how to find clients or do prospecting. Our superiors
trained us how to present the projects to our clients, how to close a sale, how
to handle objections and documentation. After four years, when I thought I have
learned the ropes, that’s when I took Brokers exams. The experience helped me
passed the Brokers exam without attending the seminar. It was different back
then. Now, having been under PRC, we are all supposed to be professional or
have graduated in BS REM.
And
to earn big time you need to sell big time too. You are lucky if you happen to
be at the right place at the right time when a big time deal comes in. But we
cannot be depending on luck all the time! We should all learn to find the
buyers and meet them with the sellers so we can make money. Then we also need
to be familiar with the legalities and technicalities of the transactions. Many
of these are not taught in the seminar.
Without
selling or closing any sale your purpose of making it big time is just a dream-
then you get confronted in the real world that there are hundreds and hundreds
of colorums to compete who can sell better than you do.
Then
you try to find out where you can learn how to sell, but no one can guide you
because in this industry, when you say you are already a broker, you are
expected that you already know the system, the selling process- the qualified
buyer, the closing, the paper works, etc. It’s so unfortunate that you call
yourself a broker when you have not closed any sale!
There
is indeed something wrong in the system and until it is corrected, since you have
now a broker’s license, you just need to learn the ropes so you SURVIVE in the
business.
What are the qualities you need to
develop so that you survive in this business?
I
believe many of us who came into this profession is for the opportunity to make
money. This is one profession that you can get rich in one transaction. That we
can get rich using just our ‘saliva’. For those who thinks ‘laway lang puhunan’ do not know what we, the legitimate professionals,
went through to pass that Brokers exams, the rejections that we have to bear
before we can get that client who finally brought us the big luck! And how many
brokers and agents ventured, tried and failed and left the profession?
I
have read a number of books about selling, but while they all speak about the
qualities and characteristics to become a successful Broker/Agent, they have
not touched on the most important product that we carry. Most of the time, it
is not how good our sales talk or presentation that gives us the sale. It is
not how good looking you are or how nice you dressed up.
1. Knowledge of what you are selling.
While
there are other types of real estate properties to sell, most of us starts with
selling houses and lots, condominium units among other types of residence. We
usually deal with future homeowners, first time home buyers who need to be
guided well with their first home purchases.
Remember
that we are selling homes, which are sometimes the only purchase our buyers
will buy in their lifetimes. The home/house they will buy from us represents
their dreams, their lifelong dreams and their lifetime savings if not the
amortization can take a lifetime to finish. As Brokers and Agents, we need to
know all about the properties we are selling. Does it have clear title? Title
holder/s is/are living? Is the seller who approached you, the title holder, if
not, does he/she has SPA? We will discuss this more in next blogs.
2. Knowledge of the selling process.
Apart from our knowledge
of the property we are selling, we need to know the documentation process. How
the buyer will pay? It will be easier if the buyer pays in cash and the title
is clean title, no encumbrance, no mortgage, the title holder is living or all
alive and will be present during the closing or has valid and verified Special
Power of Attorney if the seller or buyer are abroad. But if the buyer need to
take out a loan or apply for bank loan, then you should know the requirements
of the bank and if your buyer will be able to get a loan. These things are
crucial in closing a sale. These are the things that we will discuss further in next blogs so you are equipped and will be able to close the sale and get paid of
your commission.
Invests
time and resources in Personal development.
To survive and succeed in this business, you need to
continually develop and improve yourself. While we are required to submit 45 units
of CPE/CPD units whenever we renew our license, for some, they just “buy” certificates
just to comply and be able to renew. Whether it is a requirement or not, we should
invest time and resources to our personal development, to know more ways of getting
clients or getting referrals or prospecting. To improve closing skills, learn about
documentation, about online marketing, how we can reach more prospects through internet.
Learn about new technologies to automate some of our routine activities.
For brokers who want to be found and seen online inclusing their listings, may visit our MLS site : http://realestatedirectory.com.ph
8th of Series : Equipping
ourselves as Real Estate Service Professionals
Why Do We Need to Have Our Own Real Estate
Website
By: Genevieve
Flores Bonquin
Real Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
In the US according to latest
survey by NAR, 90% of home buyers use
the internet to search for homes to buy or rent. Even in the Philippines and Filipinos living or working abroad use the
internet extensively to shop for homes here for investments, for their retirement
home or for their families here. And if we check the ads online, a great
majority of real estate ads are from the non-licensed practitioners or better
known as 'colorums'. Too few are legitimate brokers or agents. So, where do you
think most business goes? Are they aware we are legitimate brokers? Are they
aware they need to deal only with legitimate brokers? How will people know when
they can't find us online? Then
developers who have in-house marketers hire too many unlicensed agents and give
them all the privileges to be able to make a sale making the legitimate brokers
a second rate citizens in their companies?
We, legitimate brokers have a lot of
things to catch up as unlicensed agents are overtaking us despite the RESA law.
So, we all must not just vigilant and encourage them all to be licensed to
level the playing field, recruit these agents and make them licensed under our
wings if they are not qualified to take brokers exams. When they are stubborn
enough to take a license then we can make their websites, online ads, business
cards as evidence of their violation of Sec 39 of RA 9646.
DOMAIN NAME : staking a
claim in the internet map.
Aside from introducing our real estate
services to the online community, our
domain is the title or the TCT/CCT we give to our space in the internet. This
is our business card online. How our clients- buyers, sellers, colleagues will
view our business can be seen in our website. If we don't have a domain, and our
listings are just part of another free classified ads, no matter how famous
that site is, we are squatters there, we do not have our own identity. We can
use those site to lead them to our own domain so that we can establish our
credibility. Next time, the client will remember our domain and go back there
if they like what they find in our domain/website.
Our Website is our STORE
Online:
Imagine yourself in a mall where there
are many small boutiques. If you are a boutique owner and you only have few
display there, will you expect customers to come in? Or you want to be just one
of the brands inside a big department store with a few display racks? Though
that depends on the quality of your display.
One good thing about the website is that it is open 24 hours a day and
you can be found all over the world by clients looking for homes or your
services.
A Very Inexpensive Way
of Marketing Your Listings!
For so many years, many of us have
become dependent in advertising in major newspapers which costs easily at P100/line
where you can only put about 10 letters per line so you need at least three or
more lines so you have a decent ads, else your ads will be drowned by bigger
and longer ads. And it appears only one day. Aside from the fact that you can
only make very few description such that you have to meet the client to show
your listings, so you have to make appointments with them to show the house or
your listings. Nowadays with the internet, buyers shop on the internet for
homes they like in pictures before they call for appointment to view the house.
More likely, they are already half-sold on the house that they saw on your
website and only are making a short list for final decision. With the
information and the photos of our listings in our website, it also shortens the
selling process, less homes to show, as most of the time, buyers negotiate before
they even view the actual unit.
(For duly licensed Real Estate Brokers who do not have a website yet, we have a promo for May-June P5,000 only including domain registration and hosting for 1 year). For more information, email to rebgigib@gmail.com )
7th
of Series Equipping Ourselves as Real
Estate Professionals
By: Genevieve Flores Bonquin|
Real Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
Revisiting our Roles as a Real Estate Broker
For
many of us who had been in the business for a long time, it is good to revisit
or refresh our minds with the basics of our profession. And to colleagues in
the industry who entered this profession directly after taking Real Estate
Brokers exam without going through the ropes of being an agent first, it is
very important that we know our roles, not just the theoretical or the academic
side of the business but in what exactly our roles are: we are in the service industry in
the first place.
Being
in the service industry, our duty is to give service first before we expect to
be paid. By service we mean that we help our clients find the right
house/property at the right budget in the least time. That means we know more
houses/properties in the vicinity they preferred; aware of the problems in the
locality such as flooding; if its earthquake prone area; security, traffic,
schools and malls or supermarkets, etc. As a responsible broker, we should
advise or inform our buyers what we know about the problems in the surrounding
neighbourhood. Some buyers or sometimes their ‘amuyong’ even asked whether
someone died there!
As a
broker, we wear many hats to our clients. We are sometimes architect or
engineer should our clients ask about the designs of the house, what materials
they are made of, whether the house can still stand some years more, etc. We
are sometimes accountants when they ask us about return of investments, the
monthly amortizations, etc. We are sometimes lawyers to them when they ask
about legalities in the title or questions about ownership. We are sometimes
interior designers when they ask or when we suggest particular decoration that
will be appropriate for the room in the house. We are sometimes table appraiser
if they ask us how much their property would sell. We don’t pretend to be Jack
of all trades to them but at least with what they ask from us, we become
experts in their eyes but make sure that what you tell your clients are
verifiable and not a mere sales talk.
As a
broker, we have a fiduciary role and we must act in the interest of our
clients. If we know that there is a problem with ownership, on the title,
overprice or misrepresentation that we may have found out in the process, it is
our duty to make it known to our buyer or seller. It may affect our sale but it
is good to protect the interest of our buyers than proceed knowing there will
be problems later. In the end, if buyers know or feel that we are protecting
their interests, they will understand and gain their trust. It will be our gain
in the end like we can be their trusted broker to handle their other properties
or give us referrals.
While
it is the seller who pays us when we bring clients to their properties, some
sellers would price their homes as if there is a gold mine under their
properties or their house are made of gold. When such properties are offered to
me to list by sellers, I recommend they have it appraised first by licensed
Appraisers. Some relent but many do not want our opinion. If I see that the
seller is not willing to listen, then I reject the listing or ask the seller
that we can try to test the market for few months that, if no inquiry or
interested buyer, he will agree to lower the price to make it competitive. But
there are just sellers who probably just want to display their house on the
internet for everyone to know that it is worth the way they think it is.
As I
am writing this, I updated a listing that we have been selling for few years as
I might have a client. My colleague mentioned that they almost got it sold but
the other broker wanted a bigger commission despite the buyers’ willingness to
buy the property. The commission is within the industry’s standard but the
broker just wanted more. Well, maybe he can control his buyer but I hope that
if in case we do that, we can give a better alternative to our buyers with
better commission and still work for the interest of our clients.
Our
profession can be a lifetime profession, even beyond retirement we can still
practice for as long as we like, for as long as we not too senile. It is one
profession which you can play while you make money. Where you can earn millions
in single transaction if you know what you’re doing with the right people and
the right property. It is a profession you can do at home or anywhere your
clients are.
A
good broker is hard to find. I hope that it will be easy for our clients to
find that we are good brokers that they can keep for lifetime.
By: Genevieve Flores Bonquin
Real Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
Member: PAREB-RBR
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
Equipping ourselves as
Real Estate Service Professionals
6th
of Series Building Your Credibility
Online
When
you see a real estate ad online that matches your requirement but with only
phone number indicated, will you call the number without second thought? Ever
experienced client whom you haven’t met personally, sent you a million peso to
pay for the house he is buying? Or a unit owner you only talked over the phone
to entrust the keys to her unit? Or simply buy that lot without them having
seen the actual site?
Traditionally,
when we were trying to establish ourselves in the business, we would join associations
like Rotary Clubs, Lions, Jaycees among other association even real estate
associations to gain network, find referrals and bring business to us in
addition to print advertisements and signages in front of our offices. That is one
way but we are limited within our community and friends. But how do buyers from
far communities or places know us?
Nowadays
when the internet has become the primary means of communication for many, all
kind of scams, using fake identity or even stealing your identity also proliferates
over the internet, it is very important for us in the real estate industry to
be credible both online and offline.
According to NAR-USA, ninety per cent of buyers now shop over the
internet. And for homes that cost millions of peso, the buyers or sellers need
to know who they can trust with their investments or for their dream homes or for
their properties they want to dispose. And if they found us on the internet,
they want to make sure we are trustworthy, credible and are knowledgeable in
what we are doing.
How
do we then establish our credibility online? How can we show to strangers looking
to buy their dream homes to trust us with their hard earned money that we will
give them the best value for their money? How will the public choose us among
thousands of agents and brokers online where the greater majority placing
advertisements are not even licensed?
Buyers
and sellers are now more educated and sophisticated such that many of them are
already doing background check before they even hire us to help them sell their
homes or inquire from our listings. It is very easy now to find information
about us in the internet. Even with the information they saw from the internet,
they will call to meet and talk to us personally before they entrust to us their
properties to sell. These kinds of buyers or sellers who take time to know us
are the best clients. It is like you are applying for a very sensitive job the way they interview you. Although, taking
the listing or finding a house for them is really what our job is all about and
every buyer and seller becomes our boss or employer. But these clients when you
have proven that you met their expectations, they usually give you exclusive
authority. If not exclusive, only a few others they approve of. I cannot forget an experience that a client
whom I have spoken only once over the phone sent to me P1M to pay for the house
he is buying for the girlfriend. Not meant to surprise but the buyer thinks I
can handle the money better than the girlfriend. Not a few times I heard my
clients over the phone I look trustworthy. (Choose a friendly profile photo to
display) Many clients have bought and
sell properties without me meeting them personally. That is because I have a
professional looking website, (www.greenhuts.net)
my pictures are there, my listings are
presented well in professional manner. They can search me online and probably
see the other side of me apart from being a Real Estate Professional. I am sure
some colleagues in the business also experienced these things and its heart-warming to know that people
trust us even if we just met them online. Since I discovered the internet, I
have been marketing online and it has revolutionized my selling. I can afford
to be a stay home mother, home school my kids and still earn well enough as a
bread winner for my family.
To be
credible online, you must have a website that looks professional. Your
important business information should be there and your profile picture should
also be professional looking. Your listings should be properly presented at
least with the basic information on the property that catches the attention of
the buyers. If you find having your own website is expensive and you do not
have the know-how to maintain it, best to join this site : http://brokers.philrealestatedirectory.com/
where you can subscribe for minimal fee, you can have your business card online,
post your listings in Directory-MLS
site where only duly licensed Real Estate Service Professionals are allowed to
post listing.
If you are marketing on Social Network sites
like Facebook, make a separate account for your personal friends and one for
your business. If you have one account, avoid posting your pictures in bikinis
or shirtless photos while you are posting your listings or requirements.
Remember that we don’t only establish our credibility to our clients but also
to our colleagues. It is fine from time to time that people can see our normal
nature, as we are, as we communicate with our friends and colleagues but be
very cautious in revealing way too much.
For
some who are afraid to make their profiles published online for fear of
identity thieves, there are some precautions you need to observe. And those
risks should not stop us, in the selling business, to reach as many clients as we
can reach through the internet. There are millions and millions using the
internet for their business, and while there are some risks, they can be easily
handled and far outweighs the benefits of building our credibility online.
5th of Series: Equipping Ourselves as Real Estate Service Professionals
By: Genevieve Flores Bonquin
Real Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
Member: PAREB-RBR
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
How to
Increase Your Sales This 2013
So, you
have your goals for 2013 written down, broken down into manageable
size and you are ready to implement what you planned. I would guess
that most of your goal, like me, is more of financial goals. Where do
you want to be financially this year? Are you already saving for your
retirement? Your kids in college? You want to bring the whole family
in an Asian or European tour? You want that sleek car? New gadget?
Signature bags to add to your collections? So, whatever our goals
are, we need the money! And that means we need to work harder and
smarter to make more money that we did last year or even more ,
double or triple if we can so that we can have the rewards later.
These goals
that we set meant we need to double or triple what we did last year.
We need to sell more, list more homes and close bigger deals this
year. So you need to make inventory of how you did last year. What
sold last year and what are your inventories left unsold. Is it time
to re-price your old inventories and get more to sell. Those in-house
brokers or concentrating with major developers, you do not have
problem in inventory. You only need to renew your quota or aim higher
or focus in one project that you like. If you are a free lance
accredited broker for several developers, choose your favorite
project and concentrate there, aim to be the top broker if they have
incentives. Big developers has incentives ranging from new cars,
trips abroad for incentives to their top brokers. If you will aim for
this, make sure all your agents are registered with PRC. So, choose
the best agents that you will register as you are only limited to 20.
After all, what is success when after winning the top broker award,
you are sending yourself and your agents to jail afterwards or lose
your license because you violated RESA law. Success is sweeter if you
got it through honest and hard work.
For those
who opted to become free-lancer and do brokerage, this means you need
to be a good 'lister'. This means, you need to build up your inventory
and find the best way to promote or market your listings. If working
smarter is your objective this year, I have discussed in my previous
blogs about working within your territory. If you are living in a big
city like Metro Manila where traffic is a major problem it will be
best to concentrate within your place of office or residence. At the
same time, it will save you a lot in operational costs; travel time
and lower gas expenses. You can also establish yourself as the expert
broker in the area or your neighborhood. Have a nice tarpaulin ready
with your name and contact numbers including your PRC license to
establish your credibility as a duly licensed Real Estate Service
Practitioner in your neighborhood.
Nowadays,
when everybody has tablets, laptop and androids, you cannot miss not
to have your listings online. A lot of people are now using the
internet to search for anything to buy including their dream homes.
Sad to know that there are still many real estate service
professionals, duly licensed at that who are still not using
internet, or do not even know how to attach pictures to their emails.
If you happen to be one of those who still is having a hard time,
take extra effort to learn this new skill as this will make your
selling job easier and be in step with the times. Learn how to upload
your listings in free ads sites though these sites are proliferated
by colorums and many calls you got are also from them.
If you can
afford and knows how to maintain one, the best way to build your
credibility online is to have your own website. You may have a nice
one depending on your budget and requirements built for you and have
someone regularly maintain it for you. You need to learn how to
upload or post your listings or blogs in your site just in case your
web developer went elsewhere. It is important to always have a new
content from time to time so you get a good ranking or your website
will be buried below millions of other websites. Always make the
content of your site fresh, informative and worth visiting each time
so that your clients or prospects will continue to patronize your
page. Real estate investment is a major decision. For some clients it
takes them years before they finally decide or it takes them years to
build the equity they need to buy their dream homes. In my case, I
still see clients still visiting my website or remember me when they
need to sell the house they bought from me.
For many
years, I have been promoting internet marketing ever since I
'discovered' it but until now, though you can see many thousands of
ads of real estate in the web, a great majority are advertised by
colorums. The legitimate brokers are so few. I have observed that a
greater majority are still trying to 'discover' or still in the
process of learning.
It was this
observation that gave me the idea of creating a MLS site where member
RESPs will just email their listings and we do the postings for them.
There I saw that many RESPs are not ready with their listings. Much
less that there are complete descriptions or pictures readily
available. This is probably one area why colorums are better because
they are always more than ready with their listings organized and
posted on the internet. I hope this year, more and more duly licensed
RESPs will 'discover' online marketing more with better presentation
of their listings. For the “less techie” and wants to have their
listings and business card online, you are welcome to join and
subscribe to our directory
and MLS. You need not
have your own website but your listings will be posted in a
colorum-free website. All you do is email your listings with pictures
and description to rebgigib@gmail.com
As a
reminder, whether you upload your listings online or email it to your
clients, make it a point that your listings will stand out from among
the many properties they will consider. Describe the property in a
way that your client will be attracted to it, its advantages over
other properties, why they should choose that property, etc. Let us
move away from paid line ads in newspapers where every letter counts.
In the internet, you can describe your listings as long as you can
such that when you have to meet your client for viewing, all you need
to do is show the location. With complete pictures and full
description they saw online, half of your job has been done. What
remains for your client to do is verify the location, if it is still
the same condition as he/she saw it on pictures. That happens to me
most of the time. Tripping only once and its closing time. Saves a
lot of time for you to show so many listings. If your clients wants
to see as many listings as you can show, chances are they are not
real buyer. You won't be able to close them because they got
'confused' or they are just 'window shoppers'. To increase your sale
with less effort, use online marketing. Learn as much as you can how
you can use internet to increase your sale.
More sales
to all of us this 2013!
4th of Series
: Equipping Ourselves as Real Estate Service Professionals.
By: Genevieve Flores Bonquin
Real
Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
Member:
PAREB-RBR
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
Its New
Year! Have you set your goals?
Usually at
this time of the year, some of us have a habit of making New Year
resolutions. As they say, resolutions are just promises meant to be
broken, so instead of resolutions, let us make our goals for the year
instead. Resolutions are more of the negative side which mean we do
not do some bad habits anymore or stop doing some things that are not
productive. With goals, we aspire to do or reach a certain level or
achieve something that we want.
After all
the celebrations, parties, gift -givings, the revelries, which meant
that we spent so much money these holidays, some because of tradition
and for others maybe as a reward for what we did the past year. This
can mean that our pockets are empty, our budget depleted, our
energies drained. So, let us not dwell too much on these but only
momentarily just to remind us the new set of goals we need to set at
the beginning of the year.
Every year
as the year comes to end, its my habit to evaluate the goal I set the
past year then start a new goal. To motivate myself, I read new
inspirational books or re-read my old books by my favorite authors
like those of Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey and even
Napoleon Hills. I also go back to my old goals. I wrote some of them
at the loose pages of these books or sometimes in my yearly diaries
to remind me daily of my goals. I am always in the look out for
inspirational books but I still treasure the old wisdom that of
Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie and of course, the Holy Bible. I still
have the books of Tom Hopkins since 1985 and as I re-read them
lately, they are still applicable especially his book The Official
Guide to Success which was a gift from the seminar I attended. I am
not sure if its still available in bookstores but I am glad I still
keep this book.
It is good
to review the past so we learn from our mistakes, or for some of our
goals, maybe its not destined for us but that should not stop us from
making another goal and to strive some more to reach our goals in
life. What is important is we decide where we want to go, what we
want to achieve else we end up nowhere. Reviewing the past year or
even beyond will help us to revisit our goals and maybe adjust
accordingly. You may resolve this year to turn your life around say
from poverty to riches. How you plan to do that, start with the goals
that you will set for yourself.
The reason
why I can still review my goals is because I have them written. Buy
yourself a high quality notebook where you can write your life goals
or maybe buy a planner if you intend to make just yearly plan. I have
usually have yearly plan but I also base it on my 5-year, 10 year or
even 20 year goal. Sometimes, things happen beyond our control and
maybe some of these goals are not meant for us or perhaps its the
choices that we make. Having these goals help us chart our
activities, help us make better choices or do activities that will
get us closer to these goals.
Let me
share some goal -setting guidelines from the book of Tom Hopkins –
The Official Guide to Success .
He listed five.
Your
goal must be believable. At
least, for yourself, you believe you can reach your goal. Some
goals are hard to reach because it is too impossible or it will
take you to be a Superman to be able to reach it. But that doesn't
mean you set goals too easy to reach that you need not exert
effort.
Your
goal must be clearly defined.
Your goal should be specific and put a date when you want it done.
If you want a new car this year, then maybe specify what type of
car, model and make and if you want it on your birthday in August.
If you want to travel, specify where you want to go and when. Do
not plan to buy a Lamborghini when you can only afford a Toyota
Vios.
Your
goal must be ardently desired.
To motivate yourself to reach your goal, have one that you really,
really want to have right now, if you can. That will inspire you
to wake up early everyday, be early in your appointments, meet
more clients, get more listings, schedule more trippings, etc.
Your
goal must be vividly imagined .
If your goal is that brand new car that you really like, imagine
yourself driving it, the color, the dashboard, the accessories
that you want, the exact color, etc. You may even take a picture
of that car and make it your wall paper of your cellphone or
laptop or tablet. You may imagine using your car to bring clients
to the houses or projects that you sell. If you want a house and
lot (maybe this is a 5-yr goal ) then, you may have a drawing or a
picture of the house you want.
Your
goal must be in writing.
No matter how nice and exciting our goals, if we did not write it
down in a place where we can be reminded of them daily or as
often, we will easily forget then we lost in track.
Your
goal should not be centered on a material thing alone. Make your goal
to cover not only for material things but for your total well-being.
You may divide your goals for your family, like you will bring them
to HongKong Disneyland this year; for your finances, say you will
earn P3M in commission this year, or for your career take that
Appraisal or Consultancy this year or enroll in a Masteral class. Our
goals will be more meaningful if we have the inspirations to
motivate you to keep on going and working until you meet your goals.
After
writing your goals, your next step is to list down HOW YOU PLAN TO
ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS. If you want to make P3M in commissions this 2013,
so that you can buy your dream car and bring your family to HK, then
you need to sell at least P10M each month with 3% commission. So now,
your monthly goal is to close P10M sale. If you are selling condo
units, with P3M average price per unit, then you need to sell 3-4
units a month. That can also mean you need to close one unit a week.
There you can already work your everyday activities so that you will
be able to meet your weekly and monthly goals. If you stick close to
your goals, you will develop self-discipline, you will improve your
skills in prospecting, presentation, closing. You will develop the
skills that you need. The secret in meeting a goal is to chop it in
sizes that you can chew it easily and patiently do it until you reach your goals.
Sometimes,
even if we work hard for it, we don't get what we want. Maybe, for
some but that should not keep us from trying and working for our
goals. Some are maybe luckier than us but when we are ready for it,
everything will come maybe much more than we can expect. Happy Selling
and may we all reach our goals in 2013!!
Proverbs 16: 3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed. (NIV)
What is your Niche
market? -Getting Listings
The reason why I
discussed first about finding your niche or identifying your
territory or your area of concentration is because it will be easier
for you to organize your listings that you will build. With an
organized area or territory, you can easily become an expert and
later on, sellers, buyers and fellow brokers will just call you if
they need something from your area or location.
If you plan to
concentrate on condos, both sale or lease, it is best to identify
your area. You maybe living in a condo unit already with more than a
hundred units in the building, then you may not need to go far. You
can already build your listings within your building and expand to
neighboring building and community. In the same manner if you live in
a subdivision or village. You may approach your homeowner's
association, distribute business cards or fliers. Have some tarpaulin
ready with your name, contact details and don't forget to indicate
your PRC License Number. Always have ample supply of business card at
any given time, especially if you go out on meetings. Business cards
are our ammunition or tools of trade. I have encountered many
colleagues in meetings who said they ran out of cards. It is a no-no
in our business. It says a lot about us in how we do business. It is
a sign that we are always ready to do business.
Another tool of our trade is a good
camera. Nowadays, with all technologies available, even our
cellphones has built-in camera. Make it a point that all your
listings will have as much pictures as you can get. Get familiar with
your cameras or cellphone with cameras and make sure you know how to
transfer the files to your computer, putting each listing in one
folder with corresponding label and include a word file for its
description so you will be able to email it properly to your
clients. I still encounter many brokers still having a hard time
attaching pictures of their listings to their emails or even give a
complete description of their listings to even attract a buyer. As
you secure listings, get as much information as you can about the
property and learn to describe the listing as best as you can so that prospective buyers
will get interested with your listings. Look for some highlights of
the property and try to get the best shot of its best feature to make
it your primary picture to display it in online ads. As they say,
pictures says a thousand word and it really helps a lot as we sell
our listings. In my case, the pictures and descriptions of my
listings in my website does half of my job already. The viewings or "trippings" are only a matter of confirmation that its the same as what they
saw in the photos, they just want to see if they like the location or
neighborhood. When we go and view the property, the client is already
half-sold to the property.
Another important thing
to remember when securing listing is getting the right price for the
property. Many sellers do not have the idea how much their property
will sell. As a Broker, we are not allowed to do appraisal. We may
recommend a selling price comparing to other properties in the
neigborhood but always tell the Seller that your recommended price is
not official and recommend instead that they hire a duly licensed
Appraiser so they will know the real value of their property. Always
sell the idea of having a formal appraisal of their property by a
Licensed Appraiser. From the appraisal, the Owner/Seller can make
better perspective of his/her property.
Some Owners/Sellers will
have a price for his/property that are way above market, in a bad
location, needing repairs, etc, and do not want to hire Appraiser.
How do we deal with such kind of Seller/Owner? These types of Sellers
are usually the one who approaches us and offer their house to list.
In many cases, I reject the listings though some I find it hard to
say no especially if we know them. Even if we already explained that
with the price they want, they still insist their asking price. What
I do is I tell them, maybe we can test the market for three months
then we evaluate. Many times, the Seller is not really serious
putting it in the market. They are just testing the market.
By: Genevieve Flores Bonquin
Real
Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
Member:
PAREB-RBR
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
Part II- Your Listings = Your
Inventory = Your Business
Like any business or trade, we should
have products or inventories to sell and we should see to it that we
have ample supply so that we continue to have clients and stay in the
business. In the real estate business, our inventory is our listings.
To succeed in this business, we should be good at getting good
listing and knows how to sell it fast. And the more listings we have,
the more chances to sell and the more we can sell, the more income
for us. So, how can we be good at getting listings?
What is a listing? A
listing is our inventory which means the owner has authorized us to
sell his property. It is best if we have it in writing and must
conform to public law and order. A proper listing or authority to
sell has this following important elements: that Seller will pay our
fees if we sold the property within a specified time at a specified
price and terms. We must have a ready form of this Authority to Sell
anytime.
(If you need a format you
may download a copy from
http://www.greenhuts.net/Phil_Laws_on_Real_Estate/page_1720133.html)
How do we get listings?
How can we build a listing bank or our 'farm'? There are many ways of
getting listings.
Developers – If you are
accredited or connected as in-house with a developer, their
inventories are your listings. You need not look elsewhere for
properties to sell. Just get the inventory, the price list and
familiarize yourself on their projects then you can concentrate on
finding the right buyers for the inventories. It is easier that way
because you can organize your prospecting to certain groups of
buyers, master some of the project presentations and forecast your
production. The downside or upside depending on how you want to look
at it, are the quotas that you need to meet each month if you are an
in-house broker. The pressure and the competition can be very tiring
but if you meet the quota and you have more money in your pocket can
be worth it. Other advantages of project selling is that normally,
developers handle the documentation so brokers can concentrate on
finding more buyers to meet quotas.
Bank's Acquired Assets –
A rich source of listings are banks' foreclosed properties. Although
selling foreclosed properties requires a little more knowledge on the
legalities especially if the property are still occupied by the
former owners, the titles are still under consolidation among other
impediments. It is usually on as-is-where-is basis so it takes a
little more expertise on how you can convince the buyers to buy that
property. There are those investors really looking for foreclosed
properties and already are familiar with complexities of these kind
of properties. If you think you can make foreclosed properties to by
your niche, then study and familiarize yourself to the legalities
that usually comes with these kind of properties. One notable
practitioner whose name became synonymous to foreclosed properties is
Jay Castillo of
Foreclosure Philippines.
Brokerage – 'Brokerage'
is a general term we use if we are doing free-lance as a Broker. As a
Free-Lance broker, we sell any property that comes our way. You can
choose your own territory to work on a specialized area or one type
of properties. If you like condominiums, then maybe you can establish
yourself in one territory say Makati or Ortigas area. You may want to
handle rentals in Makati or if you live near the CBD, then you may
also focus on office spaces. You may also focus on industrial or
commercial properties depending on your experience, expertise or
your current job. What is important here is that you determine what
areas or type of properties you want to build a niche depending on
your preference and area where you are located or prefer to do
business. If you want to stay long in the business, you need to build
your credibility or expertise. We cannot be master of anything and
everything in the real estate business. Just like lawyers or doctors,
we should have our own expertise. Evaluate yourself, your listings,
your territories, your background or work experience that may
contribute to what you want to focus.
Brokerage can still be
classified into many specialized areas. We will discuss
specialization and securing listings in our next issues.
Title: Equipping ourselves
as Real Estate Service Professionals
By: Genevieve Flores Bonquin
Real
Estate Broker PRC No. 2309
Member:
PAREB-RBR
http://philrealestatedirectory.com
http://realestatedirectory.ph
www.greenhuts.net
Part I : So you are now a licensed
Real Estate Service Professional.... what's next?
It was easy to get into real estate
business, at least for many of us who just took Brokers Exam and
passed but by 2016, only those who are graduate of Bachelor of Real
Estate Management can be Brokers or Appraisers. And for those who
completed only two-year college education, they still can get into
real estate as Salesperson under a Broker.
Easy as it is to get in, but to stay
long in this business and be successful is another thing. Even worse
because the seminars do not include salesmanship trainings. Somehow,
it is expected that all of us had some sales training and that we
only need the license to legalize our practice. Well, a good
percentage who are good at sales are still illegal and those who get
license first do not have sufficient sales training. That is where
the difference lies. That is why we heard that colorums are better at
selling than those who are holders of REB license.
It is time to change that perception
because that is discriminating all of us, the duly licensed Real
Estate Service Professionals. It is time to brush up on our selling
skills and train ourselves to be good at selling and still be
professional.
Where is the best place to get our
trainings?
For the new kids in the block, that is
for those who just jumped in without selling skills, maybe you can
start with project selling. Acredit yourself with a reputable
developer who are conducting training. Maybe start as an in-house
broker so you only concentrate on selling their inventories. You will
only concentrate on finding buyers and you get to become an expert
about the projects. You become an expert as you keep on presenting
the same projects to different buyers. You get the training you need
and earn at the same time. And when you think you have learned
enough, it is time to move to another type of project. If you are
selling house and lot packages and you want to learn about
condominium then you can move to another project, maybe same
developer or another developer. When you think you can be
independent, able to train and handle agents, then maybe its time to
be on your own. And again, like any other business, if you go
independent, you will have to know first if you have enough capital
and resources to be on your own.
For those who preferred to become an
independent broker, a free-lancer, having had some selling
experience, how do you plan to sustain your business? How do you plan
to be successful in this business? Like every profession, we should
acquire expertise first. While we did not go through four years in
college to learn real estate management- we have to acquire expertise
somewhere else- through experience, CPE seminars, readings, from
experiences of other colleagues to name a few.
We acquire expertise from day to day
experience and each property and clients are not the same, even if we
sell same inventory or same type of property. And as soon as we sold
one from our inventory we have to keep replenishing our listings, else,
we will have nothing to sell. We need to make sure we have enough
inventories to sell to keep our business going. We don't have as many
neighbors or relatives who will sell or buy properties every month.
These things are not discussed in the seminars before we take our
examinations. Sales and Marketing topics are seldom part of the
syllabus in brokers exams. Topics are more of theoritical or legal
side of real estate. It is this lack of sales training that many of
our colleagues cannot stay full time in real estate and would only
consider real estate job as part -time job. Hence, many do not
develop their expertise that is required to make it in this business.
Soon, they leave this job in favor of other business or employment.
(On Part II of this article, we will
discuss techniques how to get listings)