May 1st, 2012 by Bettina Settles

It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J. K. Rowling

Was the quote I thought of this morning after a email conversation with an Real Estate Agent from Alabama who truly has not fully read an email reply I had send her this morning.

How many times have we caught ourselves reading a portion of an emails, making assumptions on what the rest of the email will tell us, jumping to, possible the wrong, conclusions and after reading an email again, but this time in full, we were glad not to replied in haste and making a full out of our self’s?

I have caught myself several times. It happens especially when I have an email to read that is the length of a novel.

I had to go back several time to read it over and over again to understand the full meaning of what the author was trying to tell me. Sometimes I had to break the email down into small bit size pieces to make since of it.

Note of self;

When writing an email. Keep is short, sweet and to the point.

When reading lengthy emails, take your time and maybe ready it more than once. You might either miss something or misunderstand something.

March 22nd, 2012 by Bettina Settles

Many times this question goes thought my head when I interview Real Estate Professionals for referrals I give out thought the US.  Just because you have a license and have been in business for a long time does not make you the entrepreneur you need to be when going into Real Estate.

Sure there a limitations on what can be done due to licensing, state and federal laws.

When you are looking for a Monday to Friday 9-5 Job with a fixed income, Real Estate is NOT for you and you truly not the entrepreneur you need to be to keep on trucking when times get rough.

When I talk with Real Estate Professionals who I might consider giving referrals too my conversation is casual but with a goal. I am trying to find out if they are just looking for a job or are they entrepreneur I need for them to be.

Things I might look for are:

• self-starter
• risk taker
• out-of-the box thinker
• acting on their idea
• Sees the need, thinks of an idea to satisfy that need
• creative mind
• drive to succeed
• does not fall into the standard mold
• chart their own destiny
• optimistic
• willing to create opportunities

When you are an individuals who tend to seek security, seek safety or stability over uncertainty and risk. Looking for a study income and consistent job without major changes, you are for certain an employee and holding a real estate license is not for you and you are not for my referrals.

March 21st, 2012 by Bettina Settles

We all can find a list of questions to ask a listing agent before we make the decision who to use to represent us. All the questions are based on what they have sold, how many, how long it took, marketing time, responds time to questions and what differentiates them from other agents.

Have you ever thought asking your potential agent to give you their license number, their time in real estate and information on any complained filled against them before you even agree to work with them?

You wonder why you should do this???

You do not feel comfortable asking you say???

When listing your home should you not make certain that the person you list the home with is truly license and their license is in good standing or has no other complaint against them like fair housing violation, Professional Conduct violation or Misrepresentation?

When you are driving is a car with your buyers agent, don’t you want to make certain they have a valid drives license or have not a possible drunk driving conviction against them, before you enter their car?

Made your think?

Here is why I am telling you this. I am recruiting Real Estate Agents for referrals I give out to them on a daily bases and during my daily research of potential agents I have ran across already;

• A principal Broker that was convicted of  several drunk driving charges
• A broker that was convicted of theft.
• A sales person that made herself out to be the owner of the brokerage firm. You have to be a broker to own a firm.
• A broker that did not disclose at the time of the sale of their house that they hold a valid license
• Just recently I found a broker who ‘s license was expired but still is listing homes
• …and I ran across a general contractor who was selling a home for a friend but he was not licensed as a real estate professional at all.
• The cream del a crème for me was the principal broker who had 4 fair housing violations against her within the last 2 years

Do you still think you should not do your personal due diligence before you invite any Real Estate Professional to work with you?

March 20th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

With most of us being part of many online social networks, or having a personal blog’s it has become very easy to voice an option.

In a recent survey of the top College admission counselors it was announced that the country’s top 500 colleges were using social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, as part of the admissions process research.

Looking into other fascias of work; many HR departments, and recruiters for any type of employment are more and more looking to the internet about postings an applicant has posted before they make the first initial call for an interview. Employers do look you up & judge you based on what you & your friends discuss & post. Also now many Background Checks Now Include Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites you are subscribing to.

When I am being interviewed by potential clients I ask them to please check out all of the agents, they are interviewing, online postings and make this part of the decision making process when picking an agent to work with.

Many times when you find that when an agent posts derogatory information about a past client (with full name or company information) once, the change is GREAT that they will do it again……

What is your personal BLOG, a message board posting of any kind or social network posting telling them about you?

Sure…post when you have an opinion about something, but it is all in the verbiage and how you say it.

March 19th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

In today’s times we are all connected to the internet at least 80% of the time through phones of all kinds, laptop, notebooks or the desk top. 

Many of us are sending out emails, blogs, newsletters, and twitter sharing info between us left and right. I think it is great…

I am with all of you right in the middle of this great communication age. I have noticed one huge downfall many of the recipients of any message are facing and this could be a great deal buster when you are in business of making money.

Bounce backs

I love to call theses ……..emails with Tiger tails…..

How many of you will receive a call from your clients, customers, or vendors letting you know that your inbox is full?

How many of your receive a call from your clients, customers, or vendors letting you know that you are not receiving emails due to prolong inactivity of your account?

……..most likely not very many of you! The scary part is when you do receive a call, how many of the clients, vendors, or customers have moved on to another service person not knowing whether or not you are still in business.

This happens a lot when you have one of the FREE email accounts. I have addressed the FREE email accounts in one of my past blogs “Is your email address as professional as you are?”. Many these accounts have very limited storage space and will fill up very quickly when you are not deleting past messages.

Here are some quick and simple tips to make certain you are keeping your inbox clean:

• When you forward your email make certain that all of your attached email accounts are kept clean, up–to-date and active.
• Respond and act on the email within a reasonable time and then just delete it.
• When you need to keep the email, print it to file as a pdf or print out a hard copy.

March 18th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

You are one of the many Professionals in this country competing for the business of a few. You have spent days or weeks to create your logo. You have pondered many hours over your stationary. You took a long time to create your business cards layout.

Now how much total time did you spend as you picked your e-mail address?

As a Professional, we are relying on our email to keep us informed, such as in front of potential clients with the Blogs’ we are sending out, and to help us market ourselves and services.

Our email is our doorway to the world and one of our main sources of contact to our clients, customers, vendors and others we communicate with on a daily basis.

In many cases a FREE email provider is used to set-up the email account with names that really never should be used as a professional communication tool. The email address is describing something that is not even is part of the business that is being advertised in the Blog or other communications.

When you use any of the FREE email providers, who are you advertising for, since their name is also in the address?

It is just like the car/truck Dealership sticker on the cars/trucks….how much is the dealership paying the car owner to have their advertising on the car?

There are so many great, very reasonable priced web hosts out on the internet, which you can register a professional website for very little money that will offer you email services with your new websites address.

March 17th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

Be honest with yourself.

When we as Real Estate Agents work with home sellers we need to disclose, by State and Federal Law, certain information about our sellers. How many times have you gone a step above and disclosed more then you really should?

Then have you ever thought of who you give any of this information to?

I don’t mean to outside agents that are showing the home and bring offers. This ruling includes to your internal staff as well. Did you realize that when you disclose any vital information, that you are not suppose to disclose, to an internal party that is part of your office but not part of any contract, like an administrative assistant or during a office meeting, you might be in violation of the federal disclosure rulings (privacy law)?

This is especially true when you are dealing with a lot of short sale or pre-foreclosure properties. Mortgage companies are not very keen on revealing information to a third party who has not been given an authorization to discuss the homeowners’ information and there is a reason for that.

Let me ask you just one question;

When you would be in the homeowners shoes, and you entrusted your personal information to someone you thought can help you. Would you want them to discuss your information with every person in the office including personal who might be your neighbor or a friend of a friend?

Think about it…..

March 16th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

HAFA Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives is a program that offers the seller, their mortgage servicers, and their investors an incentive to complete the short sale of a home.

The HAFA option is available to

• Owners who cannot qualify for a loan Modification under the HAMP program
• Owners who did not successfully complete their trial period during the loan modification
• Missed a payment during the loan modification trial period
• The owner who is asking for a short sale rather than a loan modification

Before you can qualify for the HAFA program you still need to meet the HAMP guidelines. Your current monthly expenses to income ratio needs to be more then 31%, the maximum mortgage amount for 1 unit can not be more then $729,750, and the loan needs to have an origination date on or before January 1^st 2009.

When you have been turned down for the HAMP modification you have 30 days to ask to be part of the HAFA program. (You can sell your home at a later time as a short sale but you will not be part of the HAFA program).

The Servicer then will send, to the Seller, a Request of Short Sale approval  (Alternative RASS) that the seller has to fill out and sign. The Alternative RASS has to be returned to the sellers servicer with in 14 days of the date of the . The Alternative RASS will give the homeowner an initial 120 days to sell their home. In some cases the servicer might extend the time to sell up to 12 months.

When there is an offer on the house, keep in mind, you as the seller have every right to counter the offer. Not every written offer needs to be sent to your mortgage servicer but all offers need to be presented to you, the seller. You do not have to settle for a low ball offer, just counter it. There will be more buyers…..

When you, your listing agent, the buyer agent, and your buyer come to a full agreement that this offer is the best offer you can put together, be certain that all parties that need to sign the purchase agreement have done so.

Before your Listing agent sends the offer to your servicer make certain that  you have given your Agent all of the paperwork that is needed for a full short sale package and that the full short sale package is being delivered to your servicer. When something is missing, use a plain piece of paper and  write on the top what this paper represents in your package, then sign and date it. This will serve as a letter of explanation on why this specific item is missing.

Make certain on your end that all “T” are crossed and all “I” are dotted.

Do not leave anything out….or don’t go for…”well let’s just send only this offer to the servicer and see what sticks”

The servicer only can give you an answer on your offer and plead your case to their investors, when they have a complete short sale package. Keep in mind that you have 3 days from the final date of agreement to send your offer with the complete short sale package to the servicer.

In the HAFA program, and only in the HAFA program, the Servicer has 10 days after they have received the offer from you to give you an approval, counter offer, or denial on the offer. If they deny the offer they need to give you a statement explaining why there was a denial and sometimes it is something that can be turned into an approval with a simple explanation either from you or your listing agent.

March 15th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

  HAMP – Home Affordable Modification program is a loan modification program designed to reduce eligible, delinquent and at-risk borrowers’ monthly mortgage payments. Why some Real Estate Agents and Broker are not aware of this program I do not know. I have my thoughts but I will keep them for myself.

HAMP possible can lower your monthly mortgage payment up to 31 percent of your verified monthly gross (pre-tax) income, which usually provides savings of hundreds of dollars per month.

You may be eligible for HAMP if you meet all of the following criteria:

•You occupy the house as your primary residence.

• You obtained your mortgage on or before January 1, 2009.

• You have a mortgage payment that is more than 31 percent of your monthly gross (pre-tax) income.

• You owe up to $729,750 on your home.

• You have a financial hardship and are either delinquent or in danger of falling behind.

• You’re not unemployed

• You have sufficient, documented income to support the modified payment.

• You must not have been convicted within the last 10 years of felony larceny, theft, fraud or forgery, money laundering or tax evasion, in connection with a mortgage or real estate transaction.

To apply for HAMP, you need to complete and provide the following to your Mortgage Servicer

•Request for Mortgage Assistance (RMA)

•IRS Form 4506T-EZ or 4506-T

•Verification of Income

If your mortgage is owned, insured, or guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA or USDA, ask your mortgage servicer which solutions might be best suited to your situation. Each one has it’s own guidelines and rules.

When you not qualify for a HAMP you might qualify for the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) Program.

March 14th, 2012 by Bettina Settles

This is a loaded question…I know, but I just had to finally put it on paper.

When you are given a possible contact name and number of a person that is interested in what you have to offer do you truly follow up with this person?

Be honest ………..

Every time …most of the time ….or occasionally?

Experience has taught me that about:

95% of the receptions are very eager to talk to the person.

55% take time to make the first initial contact over the phone or email with in 24 hours

30% will talk to the person during a one on one meeting only once

6% will close the deal

1% will keep of following up with the referral, prospect

The rest will just fall through the crack and never will be farmed or followed up on even after the first initial contact.  Talking with one of my investor Friends who uses his FSBO approach to weed out unproductive Agents has confirmed what I already know.

By now the 80/20 rule no longer exists…it is more like 10/90 or 5/95 at best.