The 2010 tax credit for selling or buying a home is set to expire at the end of April. This is a great opportunity to get into your first home or if you sell your home to possibly qualify for an $8000 tax write off on the profits! Do not delay on this, once it’s gone it’s gone! If you have any questions on these tax credits please feel free to contact me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuSBuiKKRrg&feature=player_embedded
This might be useful for you to show your sellers and/or buyers. Just a helpful tool for my fellow Realtors.
The 2010 plan to encourage energy efficiency is the government rebate for appliance buyers. The plan lets people swap their old appliances for new energy-efficient models at very low prices. Each state is different so check your state for details.
Engaging in political and economic conversations is always interesting for me. I was told recently that this housing market, our economy, and America in general is going to hell in a handbasket. Whether this is true or not I don’t know but I will say that if we are going to hell in a handbasket let’s first have some tax relief and pride in ownership before we get there. According to the U.S. Commerce Department the GDP expanded 3.5%, first time home buyers empowered themselves and helped September housing numbers increase, the tax credit was extended, and interest rates and home prices remain very low. Many other factors are still at play in our economy that need to be addressed. The unemployment rate is high and our national debt is embarrassing. Thankfully consumers are starting to realize that now is the time to buy and are taking advantage of what our government is trying to do. How this will all end up and who will ultimately pay for all this is to remain unknown for now. In the mean time, if you are a seller and have equity then sell. If you are a first time or second time buyer then buy. Why would consumers not take advantage of this time and better themselves financially for the future?
Yep, that’s right. It’s not about selling the house or finding buyers. Bold statement? We Realtors and other sales professionals usually have our mind on one thing and one thing only. MAKE THE SALE! While this is all good and true and certainly paramount to our financial life; the end result is an accumulation of what we did to get there. It’s like wine. The process of wine making takes approximately 3 years from harvest to pour and a lot of stuff in between. Correct temperatures, good soil, appropriate watering, just the right amount of sun, how and when the grapes are picked…… The list goes on and on until you’re sitting there in a restaurant drinking a nice bottle of your favorite wine. I know for me and the way it seems this real estate business works is that prospecting, blogging, door knocking, seminars, referrals, and eventually selling a home all takes time and a whole lot of patience. What’s the key ingredient in all of this? Customer Service! It’s not about the sale, it’s about the way customers are served. Did your level of customer service give your buyer or seller the “warm fuzzy” feeling or did they think you were just trying to make a buck off them? I’m learning that most of the expired listings are expired or cancelled because the home owner felt their agent wasn’t building a relationship or providing them with the level of service they wanted. Very few of the listings told me they weren’t sure why their home didn’t sell and a lot of them couldn’t even tell me what their agents name was. I’m not pointing fingers here because I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way. It’s very easy during this rough time to make a quick sale (and they do happen) but I feel the focus needs to be on the relationship and a high level of service.
I’ve heard so many agents and outside sales professionals throughout the years say that November through January are the slow times of the year. I’m sure it’s true that people are buying holiday gifts and making family plans but why would anyone slow their business down as well? I’ve been guilty of this also. It’s easy to assume that because people aren’t buying “business” is slow. I have a theory….November = January. What you plant in November harvests in January. Maybe your line of work takes longer to come full term but you get the point. Knock on one more door each day, send out one more email than you would normally, or maybe make one more phone call in addition to your normal daily calls. Think about it, if you did this throughout November and December you would have made 61 additional contacts and “touches”. Ok, we’ll cut out thanksgiving, Christmas day, Christmas Eve, New Years Eve, and New Year’s Day. I’m no mathematician but this now means you have 56 more touches than you would normally have. Take advantage of this holiday season and your competition. In January your checkbook will thank you!
Someone told me to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing and you will become successful. I never knew what this meant until recently while door knocking to stir up business for my real estate career. Most agents nowadays use social websites (I do too), send emails (I do too), and rely on referrals (I do too) to get their business. I say that I do too because these things really do work and are vital to gaining customers in real estate. However, whatever happened to the personal touch to selling goods and/or services? What ever happened to the “old school” way of selling? What ever happened to the “belly to belly” approach? People today are so used to an email or a blog that human interaction seems to be antiquated and dead! Don’t get me wrong, social websites are great and I’m a big fan but as professional real estate agents shouldn’t we focus more on the relationship through a handshake and hand written thank you letter??
