Stuart Gethner – Real Estate Agent Magazine

Three Strategies to Compete in a Changing Market

Stuart Gethner — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 22:40:42 +0000

Remember those New Year’s resolutions you made just a few weeks ago? Let me guess, eat healthier, lose weight and make 2018 your best year ever. Were there any resolutions to become an expert on Facebook marketing or working more with millennials or investors? Have you noticed we are in a changing real estate market? Not just regarding supply and demand. Rather a change on how people are buying and selling their property.

We just don’t compete with FSBOs anymore!

For example, Zillow Instant Offers is a program that allows sellers to receive offers from investors along with a CMA from a Zillow agent advertiser.

The NAR is protesting the recent agreement with Fannie Mae and Invitation Homes as it may intensify the housing shortage with rents rising as inventory shrinks. Freddie Mac wants to participate by financing midsize landlords that would also reduce inventory essentially competing against homebuyers.

How can we forget about Offer Pad, Open Door and low-ball offers from investors? Are you too old to remember when it all began with, We Buy Ugly Houses?

Many local brokers are working to establish their own database of inventory that may or may not be exclusive. The market is changing right before our very eyes from just a few years ago. How does one compete in a changing market?

Know Your Strengths

First, remember you can’t be all things to all people. However, we must become proficient at finding sellers or buyers of property.

We always start by defining your strengths and acknowledging the areas needing shoring up. For example, one person’s strengths may be technology, while another person still has an AOL email address. Take a moment to re-assess your core strengths. That is, where are you a rock star? Let’s work with something you love and are talented at instead of trying to be something you are not.

When the sixth grade parent-teacher conferences came for my daughter, Sydni, I was told she excelled at English, writing and literature. Then there was a suggestion that she might need a tutor for science. The teacher said, “We want to bring her grade up so that she is excelling at everything.” To which I thought, “Excel at everything? That’s impossible!”

Can you imagine telling Tiger Woods that he should get a coach to help his free-throw shooting? Tiger is doing just fine in golf. He doesn’t need to waste time at the free-throw line. The same is true with you. Let’s work with your strengths and acknowledge that some areas need shoring up.

In our business model we hired Don as our accountant. Although I am a fan of QuickBooks and have worked within QuickBooks, the real question is, “Should I be doing QuickBooks? Or is my time better spent doing something else?”

Three Strategies to Succeed

If you have ever been on a date, then you understand marketing. If potential clients do not know you exist, you won’t make it past the 24-month threshold of success.

We suggest a three-prong approach to marketing to your ideal client. The first step is to determine our marketing budget. Which then begs the question, “How much is a client worth to you?” Are you a relationship builder or is burn-and-churn your style?

Once we determine how much a client is worth we can determine a reasonable marketing budget to go find that client. Even if a budget is minimal there are many effective ways to promote and create action. One example is working with the local pizza restaurant to staple your call-to-action flyer to their takeout and delivery pizza boxes.

Without accountability and measurement, it is easy to forget about those New Years’ resolutions. Why re-invent the wheel? Find someone who has done it before and hire them to reduce the time to your success. Have quarterly meetings to track last quarter’s goals and set realistic goals moving forward.

Using this three-prong approach ensures your clients and potential clients will see you build credibility as well as branding you and your services. These three simple strategies will continue to keep you productive and prosperous.

Once you become proficient at these strategies, or if you already accomplished them, the remaining pieces are to tweak your marketing.

Another Realtor Revenue Stream

Stuart Gethner — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 16:43:18 +0000

Stephanie and I love living in the Kierland Commons neighborhood, especially in the summer time. That’s when all the snowbirds are gone, and we can finally enjoy the restaurants in our own neighborhood! We can’t really complain though because we have created another revenue stream for ourselves as agents. We own three vacation rentals, two in Scottsdale and one a stones-throw from the stadiums on the west side. And, boy, does $$$ from a vacation rental beat a typical rental property.

As you probably know, a vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment or house on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel.

Did you know investors getting into the vacation rental business need your services?

The biggest corporate player is Expedia, as they own Hotwire, Home Away, Vacation Rentals by Owner, Trivago, Travelocity and Hotels.com. And there are other’s, such as Airbnb, Priceline and TripAdvisor to name a few more.

However, Evercore, a banking investment firm, estimates the global vacation rental market to be $100 billion, with two-thirds of the market “for rent by owner.”

That means two-thirds of investors entering our Valley’s vacation rental business need your help.

There are too many ways to detail in this article, so let’s just go over a few.

As a real estate agent, you can help the prospective investor find a suitable property as not every house or condominium is a good fit.

Many Homeowner Associations, for example, do not allow rentals in their subdivision. This one restriction makes a property undesirable where an investor has not the slightest clue.

One of our vacation rentals is located in The Vintage off Hayden & Shea. This Homeowner Associations allows short-term rentals in one-month increments. In other words, we cannot rent to a family for the weekend or even a couple of weeks. Educating your investor as to these parameters makes you an invaluable resource to the investor’s team.

Then there’s the investor that already owns a rental property and is contemplating turning it into a vacation rental. Another area where REALTORS® can dominate is educating the investor as to neighborhood trends and undesirable locations. Just because the property is “close to” a stadium or rodeo grounds does not make it desirable.

Once the property is purchased, the real work begins. Referring your investor to trusted repairmen for updates, upgrades and addressing deferred maintenance makes you, again, an invaluable resource. And guess what happens to your business once you start referring business to others?

Because each property owner has his or her own deposit and payment requirements, cancellation policies, key-pickup procedures, etc., a guest contacts the property owner directly in order to book.

Do you know a staging company that likes referrals? This new vacation rental now needs to be furnished! Remember what happens to your business once you start referring business to others?

Once the property is “vacation ready,” finding the ideal renters is not as easy as putting the property on those aforementioned websites or Craig’s List. Showcasing the property and its unique features on the Multiple Listing Service provides tremendous exposure to local families looking for a staycation or housing for a family event, such as weddings and celebratory holidays.

Some travelers avoid vacation rentals for fear of what industry insiders call SNAD: “Significantly Not As Described”. Having a licensed REALTOR® on the team provides “street cred’ as you legitimize the property and its ownership to the potential vacationer.

At some point over time, markets and strategies change. When the investor is ready to sell their vacation rental might that be a desirable listing? After all, who knows the property, location, neighborhood and CCR’s better than you?

The vacation rental business is booming, especially in our Valley. Investors need REALTORS® to assist them in bringing their vacation rental to the market in the most cost-efficient manner. This one tributary accompanied by the ensuing referrals you provide will exponentially grow your referral base and income.

Stuart Gethner

Stuart Gethner is a full-time business consultant in Scottsdale, Arizona. He facilitates real estate agent and investor workshops and shows how to immediately gain momentum for beginner’s and established business owners. For his free e-Book, “REALTOR Strategies to Work ON and NOT IN Your Business” go to StuartGethner.com/eBook.