July 2007
My Real Estate agent cares about me…
And they also care about their 5 to 10 other clients. In some cases, they care about 20-30 clients at one time…and let’s not forget their 200 to thousands of past clients and other potential clients they’re marketing to for their daily bread. Agents MUST look out for their own interests because too many people distrust them, find another agent who is just as excited, if not more to earn their business or in many cases think they can do the work of the agent by themselves.
One of the reasons why I got out of the business is because I felt like it was too tough balancing the interests of all clients equally. When a client was trying to buy an $80,000 condo and another one was trying to sell at $950,000 waterfront home…who do you think I would probably end up perking up a little more when the phone calls? I was one of the few out there at the time who tried to give just as much attention to the $80,000 client that I did to the Million dollar client as well. However, to be frank, (more…)
What gave me my edge…part II: the tools I used to become successful
With the realities in the marketplace, I leveraged my understanding with my website and other forms of online marketing.
My website
This was probably the most critical aspect of doing well in Real Estate. This was my online resume. This was the potential place for a client to learn everything and anything about me. It could also give them the tools to educate themself before speaking to me. It could also provide them knowledge in how to make an informed decision. It could also help them look to other markets and I would get paid from some of those referrals. It was a powerful tool.
I started by using my name as the domain. I would be creating a brand out of my name “Brandon Na” — which coincidentally had “brand” inside my name. There are a few approaches to creating the new website for the business. Agents could use their name, they could use their area they want to specialize in or they could create a niche that they hope to be good at. Well, I did all of them. Websites are cheap these days. It costs a whopping $5-10 a year to buy your domain name. The problem is that just like physical real estate, online real estate is going through the roof & names that people would use to search for their information are being bought by the thousands every day. Once gone, it’s really hard to get that domain without paying more than the annual fee.
There are domain names like diamond.com which went for $7.5 million. Seniors.com went for $1.8 million. In terms of the Real Estate business, RealEstate.net went for $300,000 in a private sale in February of this year. HotProperty.com went for $120k, (more…)
What gave me my edge…the realities of today’s marketplace
Before jumping into Real Estate, I worked at Doubleclick.net (acquired by Google), Amazon.com and Expedia.com in middle management technical positions. I was exposed to a decent amount of Large Business Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Affiliate Marketing and Online Marketing (in general) in some of the top Internet companies in the world.
During my stints at each organization, I didn’t examine or understand SEM or other online marketing tools/techniques fully since I never applied the things we were doing at those companies on a larger scale in my own business. However, after jumping into the business of Real Estate, I realized that I could use some of that experience in my own business - and I did.
The Internet has changed the world of Real Estate in many ways.
Consumers are much more educated before they start working with their agents. They also do a bit of research on their agents with online recommendations or other tools & websites that may help them become more familiar with the person who is going to take a 3% cut out of their transaction. Consumers all over the world are more prepared and knowledgable about the experience they are about to encounter.
Prospective buyers use the Internet now to learn more about their markets. They want to make sure they are not being swindled into buying into a bad market like one of the “markets NOT to buy” according to Business 2.0 or other publications. They also want to know what sort of service they should expect in someone who may make thousands of dollars and for the elite, tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars per transaction. It’s no longer easy for an agent to just help a client with their contracts and get the big check a few days after closing.
Sellers are wanting to make sure they are represented by agents that are NOT fresh out of Real Estate school. Sellers of homes and condominiums are wanting to make sure they get the most out of their homes and will look online for recent sales around their property. In general, most consumers are more ready before making the plunge into buying or selling their largest purchase in life.
Where to buy now, where not to buy & top foreclosure markets
Business 2.0 writes more about the real estate markets in the u.s. They tell us the top cities to buy, the places not to buy and places where foreclosures are happening right and left.
I thought I would summarize them a little for your sake.
WHERE TO BUY NOW [Projected 5 year gain in home prices are in brackets ().]
1. Panama City, FL (72%), 2. Vero Beach, FL (64%), 3. Bridgeport, CT (63%), 4. Lakeland, FL (59%), 5. McAllen, TX (57%), 6. San Luis Obispo, CA (40%), 7. Wilmington, NC (37%), 8. Manchester, NH (35%), 9. Fort Collins, CO (28%), 10. Atlanta, GA (24%).
For more details on why, visit their slide show clicking on here.
WHERE NOT TO BUY (according to Business 2.0, they say ‘at least for the next year or so’)
1. California’s Central Valley, 2) Southwest Florida, 3) The Jersey Shore, 4) Phoenix, 5) California’s Inland Empire, 6) and a bunch of other cities they list: Stockton - CA (-9.7%), Merced - CA (-8.9%), Reno/Sparks - NV (-8.9%), Fresno - NV (-7.9%), Vallejo/Fairfield - CA (-7.8%), Las Vegas - NV (-7.1%), Bakersfield - CA (-6.6%), Sacremento - CA (-6.4%), Washington, D.C. (-6.3%), Tucson - AZ (-6.2%) [projected drop in median home prices are placed in brackets()].
For more details from this article/slide show, click on here.
TOP 10 FORECLOSURE MARKETS according to Business 2.0 & Realty Trac:
1. Greely, CO, 2. Detroit, MI, 3. Miami, FL, 4. Indianapolis, IN, 5. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 6. Denver, CO, 7. Dayton, OH, 8. Dallas, TX, 9. Fort Worth, TX, 10. Atlanta, GA
For more details on this slide show, feel free to click here.
How do I know where to buy the future?
Investing in Real Estate is a tricky endeavor. However, some research reports that are provided by popular magazines are a good place to show you what may be good to buy for the long run.
For example, an article recently published by Forbes identified the “Best States for Business.” Well, if the state is good for business, it probably means the state is also good for jobs and is a boost to the local economy. The higher demand of people moving into the areas makes it an easy decision to buy in those locales. Virginia topped the list (no wonder why D.C. is so expensive — even though I realize it’s not a part of Virginia, it basically serves as a county of it, LOL), but the article focused a lot on my home town: Seattle.
I’ve always new that it was the best place in the country despite the gloomy jokes about the rain. It has literally the best weather in the summer & has almost no humidity during the summer despite being next to the Puget Sound with 2 other major lakes lodged off to the immediate east. It has the best of everything including one of the largest, if not largest software companies in the world, the largest plane manufacturer (even though they’re headquartered in Chicago), one of the largest paper companies (in Federal Way, just south of the city), one of the largest online travel and books/CDs stores, one of the largest logistics companies for package deliveries, one of the largest cell phone providers…shall I continue?
There was another report/article that identified some recession/bubble proof markets for real estate. Seattle was on the list of the short list of 5 including San Francisco (4.2% appreciation since 1946 - to 2006), Los Angeles (3.7%), Seattle was 3rd in appreciation since 1946 (to 2006) at 3.2%, Boston (3.0%) and New York City at 3.0% as well. Las Vegas, Floridian cities and Phoenix were missing from the list.
Hello Real Estate World!
Welcome to BehindRealEstate.com!
My name is Brandon Na and I was a “Realtor”, a real estate agent, a Real Estate Consultant (according to my company Keller Williams) and honestly, a sales person for the first time in my life. I’ll be writing to you about the “inside information” and details I picked up while working in the Real Estate industry from 2004 to 2006.
The real estate business is an interesting one to say the least. There are people from the consumers to the agents to vendors who serve the agents to the companies who manage the brokers who manage the agents. There are laws and there are squirrely ways to get around them. There are times when you wonder when you’re getting “slimed” and then there are really hard working people in the field who try to make this very critical decision or decisions a very pleasant one despite all the complexities involved in most transactions.
The real estate industry is metamorphosizing into something very interesting with the Internet. I’ll help you understand the tools that are now available and how they relate to the ways that we “used to do it.” I’ll educate as beset as possible from my limited, yet very comprehensive experience. By the way, I went from a $0 producer in the first 4 months to the 2nd highest producing agent in my office which was the main office of Bellevue, Washington — a somewhat ritzy town next to the hometown of the richest…oops, sorry, the 2nd richest man in the world: Bill Gates.
I hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave comments & I’ll do my best to get back as soon as possible. I have to admit I am doing several projects right now…so it may take me a little more time than normal. Cheers!