RE/MAX real estate
Office Newsletter - Week of August 26th Edition
September Team Collaboration - September 25th
It's Time to Invite Your Clients!
Postcards and Evites Ready Now!
Ways You Can Step Up Your Safety Practices
Safety should always be your priority! As an agent, safety is something that can’t be discussed enough. From every open house showing to every meeting you have, safety should be an important factor.
From adequate preparation to communicating effectively with colleagues, there are several ways you can better ensure your safety on the job. Here are some steps you can take towards achieving that:
Keep Lines of Communication Open
Although this is one of the easiest precautions to take as an agent, it’s also one of the most commonly overlooked. Letting others in your office know where your headed—whether it be a showing or to take clients out in your car—is one of the most important habits to get into to ensure your safety. If you’re a very busy agent, creating a shared Google Calendar with the location and time of all your appointments may be an easy solution.
Control Your Own Schedule
Set the hours that you’re comfortable meeting with clients, and stick to them. Make them readily available to all sellers and prospective buyers by including them in your marketing materials. If you’re uneasy about working after dark, be sure you make that known and notify family or colleagues of where you’ll be if you ever plan to work late.
Always Be Prepared
Remember to always be prepared and don’t be afraid to carry pepper spray. You can keep it on your person and concealed at all times. Also, self-defense classes are an excellent way to prepare yourself for a worst-case scenario. Be prepared when you leave the office or your home, so that you’re ready should an uncomfortable situation ever arise.
Agents, what precautions do you take to ensure your safety?
While you are committed to uphold the principals of fair housing, you may find the occasional client or customer who hasn’t accepted your pledge.
They may ask you to turn your gaze as they engage in unlawful and furtive discrimination; they may ask you to promote their discriminatory practice; they may suggest that your duty to them outweighs your obligation to uphold the law and your Realtor® commit to promote it.
What to do when a client directly seeks your support of a discriminatory practice or does so in a way that is understood without being directly stated? Your complicitness in discriminatory housing act may go unnoticed. You will earn a commission that will spend like any other dollar earned, but….
Assuming, however, that you want to do the right thing, there are a few choices. Not everyone wants to be preachy (the irony is not lost on me about what I am doing here), and not everyone is comfortable addressing the matter head-on. Do you mention your commitment to the Fair Housing Act and that it is illegal for your client to consider race, national origin, familial status, etc. in their decision making? Maybe it’s best just to terminate the relationship and say nothing.
The answer lies within. It’s not preachy to tell your client that discrimination in housing is unlawful and subjects them to substantial adverse consequences. Remind him that your own participation in such a practice is unlawful and, therefore, you will not promote that practice.
What to do if you know your client is not heeding your advice to eliminate illegal discriminatory practices? Isn’t the only reasonable choice to sever the relationship? A simple, honest statement is all that need accompany your termination of the relationship. So what if there are days, weeks or months left in your employment contract with the consumer? What are your buyer’s or seller’s damages if you terminate the relationship early? Is it hard to find another licensee willing to promote the legitimate and nondiscriminatory interests? I have never seen a suit filed against a broker and salesperson who terminated the relationship prematurely for any reasonable decision.
The federal government, in passing the Fair Housing Act, declared a national policy prohibiting discrimination in the sale, lease or rental of housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, anywhere in the United States. NAR unequivocally supports the act and its aims, as does PAR and your local association. Realtors® proudly display NAR’s equal housing opportunity logo and are encouraged to do so.
I am pleased to serve Realtor® associations who strongly uphold the principals of fair housing. I am not familiar with any other group, and certainly none that boasts the membership of NAR, that makes such effort to teach and promote the principals of fair housing. Recent national attention to race, however, has increased focus on race relations, bigotry and all that surrounds it.
For most of us, fair housing is not an issue. We’ve proudly supported its laudable goals and we proudly display a logo demonstrating our commitment. We should be proud that the professionals who call themselves Realtors® are at the forefront of this issue.
By James L. Goldsmith, Esq.
Do you have a client that needs to sell first before they buy?
Watch how to present the 5 choices that a seller/buyer has to decide between to get them from their current house to their new house.
This is a classic way a Ninja adds value.
Remember, we control the process and they control the decisions.
Thought of the week:
Detach from the outcome to start enjoying your business!
Silent Need
We have a tendency to respond the fastest to those things which make the most noise. That which is urgent almost always can distract us from what is important. We're often fooled into believing they are the same thing, and this minor self-deception can leave us feeling unsatisfied with our work (or even blind to more important issues).
What I'd like you to think about this week is this: What do you need that you have allowed yourself to ignore?
Set aside some time to take a mental, physical, and emotional inventory. Is there anything you have "sold out" to the demands of the squeaky wheel? Sometimes, because of the pressure of work, we allow ourselves to constantly prioritize a variety of external demands above our own needs. It leads us to see our own needs as "nice to have" rather than "must have."
You may have an extraordinary balance in your life, but I would wager to say there is something you've been ignoring, however small, that may have a profoundly positive effect in your life if you choose to actively name and address it as soon as you can.
Jackie Karmilowicz will be out of the country August 16-September 7. Filling in for me will be Mike Boyle. He will be providing the same level of service that I do and can answer any questions you may have while I am out.
Mike can be contacted at mike.boyle@nrg.com. Please let me know if there are any questions or clients you have this week prior to my Thursday evening departure.
Business Development Manager
NRG NE Realtor Channel
Office: 267-295-5836
Personal mobile: 717-875-7690
https://www.nrghomepower.com/energy-choice/energy-solutions/concierge/
I'm sure Matt will reach out to each of you individually over the next few weeks.
Fab Four of the booj Platform
These booj attributes will leave any agent smiling
Simple. Effective. Game-changing.
That’s the booj Platform. This integrated system places the most powerful tech advantages into the hands of the most productive real estate agents. It streamlines the way RE/MAX Affiliates do business.
And on the heels of its launch in August, here are four booj game-changers for Affiliates. RE/MAX agents are already among the most productive in the industry. Now they have business-streamlining technology in their toolbelt.
1. Technology that fits
2. One ecosystem
Tired of costly third-party, siloed solutions that don’t work with one another? Well booj has that covered. The individual booj tools are seamlessly integrated with one another, and designed around the key challenges brokers and agents face on a daily basis. Basically, the tools communicate with each other, giving agents an end-to-end solution to effectively increase efficiency and productivity in their business throughout the transaction process.
“It’s very intuitive,” said Laurie Thiel, the Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Equity Group in Oregon. “Our agents will really appreciate how easy it is to use.”
3. Client engagement
Never forget to reach out again. The booj Platform’s Sphere Interaction tool updates you on when to connect with customers. The visual indicator shows when you last communicated – and if it’s time to reach out again.
“It’s a game-changer,” said Kendall Bonner, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Capital Realty in Tampa, Florida. “Most agents are tracking and connecting in the deal process, but they are not tracking in between. The sphere interaction will let them know to stay in contact with that client. It will fill in for that in-between phase. A lot of opportunity is lost when they are not paying attention between transactions.”
4. This is just the start
The booj Platform incorporates a constant “feedback loop” with RE/MAX Affiliates for continual development. This means the system will never become dated; rather it will constantly evolve to address the ongoing needs of agents with more and more features and updates rolled out over time.
“The booj team is on top of it,” Bonner said. “They are already planning on the future. It builds such great confidence that they are looking at the past and present but future as well. That’s very reassuring that it’s happening in the background.”
First-Time Homebuyers Guide
12 Fun Facts About First-Time Homebuyers
First-Time Homebuyers Infographic + Checklist
One out of every two homebuyers are first-timers. Use these 12 fun facts to make a great first impression.
Download Packets Below
More Pro Tips to Help Guide You and Your Clients on the Home-buying Journey
TIP 1
Once your client finds a home in which they’re seriously interested and would like to make an offer, open a loop and share third-party lender information directly from the dotloop platform.
TIP 2
Only have a contact’s phone number? Text a listing to the prospect and any transaction documents you have using dotloop’s in-app Messenger. Messenger lets you send texts to phone numbers, emails and even group chats.
TIP 3
In a tight seller’s market, you might advise homebuyers to first obtain a full underwritten preapproval before starting their home search. This sends sellers a message that the buyer is serious and their credit and finances will pass the test.
TIP 4
Educate clients to avoid opening or closing any credit cards, making big purchases or taking out a new loan prior to the closing date. For best results, they should also try and pay down their existing credit balances to below 30% of the credit limits and make timely payments in full every month.
TIP 5
Guide clients to look at not only the house but the neighborhood and surrounding community as well. As an agent, you can help by providing neighborhood crime stats and school district information and by helping them compare commute times and proximity to public transportation — both high-ranking factors among first-time buyers.
First-Time Homebuyers Checklist
Frank Posocco
Alexandra Fiorini
Cathy Wilkins Taylor
Tim Getz
Deb Lush
Mario Castanhas
Fran Collins-Leech
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 15
Barb Harries
8/1/2019
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 32
Years in Real Estate: 41
Elizabeth Kotyuk
8/1/2019
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 2
Years in Real Estate: 16
Alex Fortna
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 1
Years in Real Estate: 1
Phil Edminston
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 4
Years in Real Estate: 4
Katie Fluke
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 2
Years in Real Estate: 2
Pat Fabozzi
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 21
Years in Real Estate: 34
Nicki Ivey
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 15
David Goncalves
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 4
Years in Real Estate: 4
Annette Weiss
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 14
Merry Cardone
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 2
Years in Real Estate: 16
Kausar Jaffer
Years with RE/MAX real estate: 1
Years in Real Estate: 1
RE/MAX real estate
Let us know about your open house TODAY!
Email: joel@LehighValleyHomes.com
Website: www.LehighValleyHome.com
Location: 3120 Hamilton Boulevard, Allentown, PA, United States
Phone: 610-770-9000
Facebook: Facebook.com/LehighValleyHome
Twitter: @jdiaz01