In 2011 I was an (expensive) marketing consultant for plastic surgeons. The housing market had just crashed in Midland, Michigan, and my family wanted to move to a new house. Unfortunately, only four (4) homes had sold the entire year on the lake, where I had bought a lakefront house just 12 years earlier.
We tripled our mortgage balance and put a mortgage on our paid off office building to afford the down payment on the 26-acre, 6000 sqft. Gentlemen's Ranch that I wanted to buy. I, believing that real estate agents were not magicians ... at least not more than I was - listed the home on the lake as "For Sale by Owner"...
So - what can go wrong? Right?
Boy, was I in for a ride? In Mid-Michigan.
First, we are originally from Germany, so we had "upgraded" the lake home in a way that we knew only Germans (or their descendants) would like, including German 240V power plugs in the Kitchen and Bathrooms.
Luckily – Midland, Michigan, was the headquarters of what was then Dow Chemical, an international chemical conglomerate, and its 300 top executives were living in town. In addition, they had 4,000 German (speaking) employees moving in and out of locations in the USA. So, I devised a plan to make sure all these Germans knew and were reminded that my house was for sale.
Second, Real Estate agents are stubborn. I wanted to list "For Sale by Owner," not necessarily to save the commission but to have marketing funds to advertise the house because no house had sold for months on the lake, and the listed homes were in better locations than mine. When the market is down, you HAVE to increase your marketing (time and money) budget. Take it from me. If you don't do it, you are not surviving the flood. When everyone was afraid, I marketed my home.
I knew I needed to list my home in the MLS. But Midland Michigan is conservative, and I could not find a single agent who would allow me to list in the MLS but not pay them more than a fixed listing fee. So, I bought a service from a Detroit Broker (2 hrs. south from here), who, in the fledgling internet economy, had made a dent in the Michigan for Sale By Owner Market by offering fixed fee listings (I paid $600) in any MLS he was allowed to access. And he offered to finalize the transaction for a fixed fee ($500) which he had outsourced to a transaction company.
The result up front
I sold the house in less than 90 days – with no other home selling on the lake and over 100 agents in town trying to sell them.
If you got here, you are a realtor who wants to know how I did that.
If you are interested in how I did it – you can register for my webinar here, and I'll send you an invite – but that is not the gravamen of this story.
While selling my house, I caught the attention of one agent. A young buck, someone who had just quit his accounting job because he wanted to sell real estate.
And as young bucks are – he wrote me an email saying he could do a better job than I.
As I always do, if you try to sell me something and you are a business owner (as opposed to a salesperson), I turn the shotgun around and make you the prey ;-).
So, I invited him to my office in town. Let's talk.
He came. Baseball cap and all. We were sitting in my conference room, and I had a computer projector on because minutes before, I had just finished a conference with one of my doctors.
He started his pitch. I said – let me show you what I do and why you have noticed me.
I went through my plan on my office computer/projector; 10 minutes later, his baseball cap was off, he was scratching his head, and he spoke.
"Joe, I want to hire you to do this for me. "
I said – "Bryan, I do this for plastic surgeons, and I did it for my house because I needed to sell it, and I wasn't trusting any real estate agent to be able to do this, other than I wanted you guys to show it for me."
"Yeah, that is why I want this … what do you charge?"
When I told him my customary fee, his expression dropped.
"Joe, I have not made that much in commissions this year. I just started this 7 months ago."
"Bryan, as I said, I am doing this for plastic surgeons, and my time in this is just as much for selling my house as starting a program for a plastic surgeon. I can't do it much cheaper, but, at some point, I would be willing to take a commission."
He left discouraged.
About two years later, I got a call. It was Bryan.
"I can afford this now – let's do it."
The result up front:
Bryan today – he's one of the top three agents in volume and units in town - many years running.
Again, if you want to know how I did sell my house, the link to my webinar is above.
But more importantly, you will only increase your business if you take a risk. If you devise a plan. A chance that makes you uncomfortable and a plan to address that awkward feeling
You need time for the most important thing. Getting new clients and time to devise that plan. If you don't have it now, you can still go and read the book 'Who moved my Cheese" because I guarantee someone is going to move your cheese in the next two years and you’ll have time.
I want to ask you to check out Empower Transactions. They have hired me to help them help real estate agents that are willing to increase their business by outsourcing the tedious tasks from contract to close. It will give you time.
It will give you time to do the critical mission to get more clients. They let me give you double the standard start-up discount.
For $100 off your first Contract to Close Transaction, click here.