Be a Realtor with Curb Appeal

Are you a realtor with curb appeal or are you more of a fixer-upper needful of updating?

How you present yourself to colleagues, buyers and sellers, from the very first moment, will influence your sales records as well as the confidence and satisfaction your new clients feel. Even if you're a Realtor in demand, with more listings than hours in a week, you may well find areas that you can polish. Read on to make doubly sure you are a realtor with curb appeal and then watch your business grow!

Image is Everything

Like it or not your competence on the job will be judged by the first impression you give your new or prospective customers. Make sure they leave every meeting with you feeling confident, informed and satisfied with your ability to give them the service they want.

In order to leave a polished, professional impression you must excel in several key areas. Let's take a closer look at these.

Courtesy Lives

Ask anyone what trait they most appreciate in a sales person and they will tell you it's courtesy. Winning sales people understand that impeccable manners and unfaltering courtesy will lead to loyal clients who will not only speak well of their experiences but will recommend you to all their friends, relatives, acquaintances and even the check out clerk at the supermarket.

The positive publicity that comes from word of mouth is priceless, long lasting and your best sales tool. It can't be purchased but once earned, it will repay you in promotional dividends for years.

Humour is Everything

Have you ever met a person with no sense of humor? Did you find their company enjoyable or did you spend your time looking for the exit sign? Life is difficult on its best days and we all get tired, frustrated and angry but your clients should never sense these things in you. Never – ever – offer complaints to your clients. If a difficult situation arises, solve it as quickly as possible. If you keep your patience and sense of humor you will keep your clients too.

Dress for Success

Successful people dress for success. It is easy to have confidence in a salesperson who looks confident and professional. Each property showing is a new job interview so dress for it, right down to your shoes.

If you're inclined to wear a personal scent, be it perfume or men's cologne, remember the three-foot rule. No one outside of three feet from your person should be able to tell you're wearing fragrance. I'm sure you want to be remembered for your client-centered professionalism and not your unbridled use of the cologne bottle.

Perfectly Polished Space

From your office space to your car's floor mats you want to project yourself as a sales person with an eye for detail and quality.

Scent is one of those things that people hold in memory the longest. Your car shouldn't reek of cigarette smoke and your office trash shouldn't hold the remnants of the raw onion sandwich you had for lunch. Don't rely on an air freshener. Empty your trash can and ashtray. Make sure everything has a sparkling clean look, smell and feel.

By offering your clients a clean, relaxing atmosphere, they will feel encouraged to stay longer, look harder and ask the questions they need answered to feel most comfortable with buying or listing their property with you.

Winning Copy – Wins!

Do you make up your business cards, sales flyers, brochures and announcements on your office computer? You shouldn't – unless they are professional grade.

Unless you are a superb desk top publisher, have a great eye for design and are an excellent writer, you should never attempt to produce your professional copy yourself. Handmade and home-made have no place in the advertisement arsenal of a realtor with curb appeal.

Hiring a professional copy writer is one of the smartest investments you can make. Perfectly polished ads with crisp informative copy, well done business cards and sizzling brochures make for inexpensive advertising. Poorly done items give the impression of a low budget business and the feel of a business that's here today but may not be tomorrow.

Organizational Style

“We love it –we'll take it,” the client says.

“I'll write that up for you now,” the realtor responds and a few minutes later emerges from the back seat of his car with a crumpled offer form stained with ketchup and a dirty shoe print.

Lack of organizational skills shows the unpolished view of a realtor more than any other issue. Do what ever it takes to get organized and constantly be on the prowl for additional tricks to improve your “system.”

Last, Never Least

The last tip here is an important one. Remember the client after the sale – and they will remember you to their friends, relatives and neighbours for years to come. Have your copywriter prepare informational postcards, thank-you cards and 1st cards. Small, after the sale, house-warming baskets with fruit or condiments is a memorable gift as are coupons to local restaurants and family attractions. Few businesses have the keen competition that is ever present in the real estate market. It really doesn't matter if sales are booming or depressed, a realtor must be on top of his or her game at all times. The first, and last, impression you leave will be lasting -make sure you are spit shined, polished and ready to sell. If growing your business is important to you - make sure you are a realtor with curb appeal.

A Real Estate Formula

It was a simple real estate formula. The ads ran in our small-town newspaper for years before I realized exactly what was going on. They were always the same: A house for sale with 5% down and payments of 1% of the purchase price. Maybe a three bedroom home for $90,000, for example, with $4,500 down and $900 per month payments.

When a friend started doing the same thing he explained the process to me. It was a way to get a great return on capital, and it was the opposite of buying with no money down. There is no down payment at all when you buy, because you buy for cash.

The Simple Real Estate Formula

You probably know that when you buy for cash, you can often get a much better price. With no financing contingencies in the offer, and the promise of a faster closing, sellers are willing to sell for less. You can offer $95,000, for example, on a house that might be worth $108,000. If you can't get it for less than, say, $99,000, you walk away - there are always other opportunities.

Once you buy the house, you put few thousand into high-return repairs and improvements. These might include paint, carpet, and maybe asphalt for a dirt driveway. For our example, we'll say you spend $5,000. Let's suppose the house is worth $116,000 now. You're ready for the next important step in this real estate formula.

You put it up for sale, targeting buyers who can't get financing easily. You provide the financing. Because you are making it easy for the buyer, you can get more than the $116,000 value for the home - and do it without paying a realtor's commission. Let's say you sell it for 123,000. The buyer needs a down payment of just 5%, or $6,150, and makes monthly payments of $1230 per month. You charge higher interest than the going rates at the banks, of course.

This is a win-win situation. Your buyer is able to buy a home instead of renting, and you get a capital gain of perhaps $16,000 after expenses, plus good interest. Your total rate of return will often be over 20%!

In our town, the first to do this consistently were a father and son team of lawyers. They saved money by doing their own foreclosures when necessary. Once they foreclosed, they raised the price and sold the home all over again.

They made millions. Did you know that if you can get an average return of 18% on your money, you'll turn $75,000 into more than one million dollars in about fifteen years? That's the power of a good real estate formula.