You will LOVE this home!

737 Cormorant Court
Corolla, NC
$319,000
3 Bedroom 2 Bath
MLS# 69204

You will love this charming home that was completely redone in 2004. Very well maintained and perfect for the small family vacationing at the beach. Open great room flows with the kitchen and dining. Three decent sized bedrooms with one being a Master. Nicely furnished and appointed, you won't find a more ready to go home at this price. The kids will enjoy the sandbox under the home and out of the sun! Laundry is on the ground floor perfect for coming off the beach and throwing your towels in for a wash. There's an outside shower, nice trees, great sun deck and additional parking on the side of the home. You will have some great times in this cozy beach home.

Watch the Manteo fireworks from the comfort of the back deck.

301 Cobbs Way
Nags Head, NC 27959
Nags Head Westside

$325,000

MLS#: 69098

Bedrooms: 4 Baths: 2.5

This home is in superb condition. Hardwood floors upstairs and downstairs in foyer and hallway. Three bedrooms on the 1st level and one bedroom on the 2nd level creates one floor living. Nice pantry and half bath off kitchen. Incredible deck space, over 1200 sq ft of decking. Watch the Manteo fireworks from the comfort of the back deck. Nice patio area under the home and a covered dry entry for those rainy days. Great location in Nags Head.

How to Follow Up On Your Leads

For those of you who read Lisa Coates excellent blog on “The True Definition of a Lead” this will be a great follow up to that. Now that we have a general idea of what exactly a lead is to us and our business (although some were a little far fetched in my humble opinion) let’s figure out HOW to convert more of them.

The common theme among everyone who commented is “develop a system” or some kind of routine method to stay in touch so you can build that necessary relationship or get the right questions answered. If we don’t follow up, what’s the point in generating the lead to begin with?

Regardless of how you generate them, leads have to be managed. After all, the number one complaint from consumers is that we don't call them back. So to avoid that trap, here are some simple ideas regarding Lead Follow Up!

• Have a definition of what a lead is (in case you didn’t read the blog). How long will you keep a lead in your system? Studies show the longer you spend following up on leads, the less business you do each year. Answer this question...A lead is someone who NEEDS to buy or sell within _______ days? My personal recommendation is no more than 30 days. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep their information and stay in touch. If after 30 days they aren’t going to do anything and you’ve been in touch, they know your name, they really become a COI don’t they? Let’s think about it. Our systems are full of people who refer business to us and may one day need our help as well…that’s what these folks become. See my blog (You Did the Hard Work, Now Call Your Past Clients) on how to effectively work your PC/COI list to get more from it.
• 70% of your business should come from lead follow up. That's right...it's that important. 70% of the time you will have to follow up with that lead to get an appointment set. 30% of the time you will set the appointment on the first call. So here's a scary thought...how much business are you losing by not having a great system?
• Lead Follow Up should be a daily activity posted in your schedule. Plan to spend 30 minutes to an hour a day calling your leads and setting up the appointment. A great time to do it is first thing in the morning. Call your hot leads and get some commitments which will start your day off with a great "high." For the not so hot leads, have a schedule of when you will call or email them to keep your name out there. The absolute best thing you can do with long term leads is provide them with information that is valuable. If they aren’t ready to buy or sell, sending them information about this stuff is useless. Send them a discount to a local business owner you’re friends with or some other information they can actually use TODAY.
• Remember leads have NO VALUE. Only contracts do. Are you converting your leads effectively? Where do you go with your lead system or file and say, I'll take a paycheck please...I've generated all these leads, now pay me. Well, not in this business. Leads don't represent security. They have no value until they are a closed deal. Over-managing and over-protecting gets you where exactly? Make it a regular habit to clean out people who never respond. Another habit needs to be finding new leads to replace the ones who buy or sell and the ones you throw away.
• The purpose of your LFU call is to SET AN APPOINTMENT. Period. Nothing else. Each time you follow up with a lead the goal is to get the appointment set. To make a sale you have to do a presentation. To do a presentation, you have to be on an appointment. To have an appointment, you need to generate a lead and get the commitment to meet. Simple as that. Anything else is just being a free information provider. Now, I do understand that you must give out some information to establish credibility and rapport. There is a difference between building trust and providing free information. Most of the time, you know when you've crossed over.
• Accept the fact that you will cycle through a large number of leads each year. Imagine if everyone you talked to bought a house. You could do all your business in January and take the rest of the year off. :) Since that is unlikely to happen, it's important to quickly move to the next lead when you recognize one is dead. As the saying goes, "when the horse is dead, dismount."

Implementing these ideas will help you convert the good ones faster. What are your thoughts on Lead Follow Up?

The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Remember this great song? Who would have thought the lyrics to be so relevant for a real estate market? The song goes on to say…”if I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double!” So come on agents, what advice do we give to sellers? Should they stay or should they go?

Well, it’s not an easy question to answer sometimes. There are some factors that have to be considered before making such a big decision. I always take the position with my clients that I give them the complete picture of both scenarios. If you sell, here’s what it will take. If you stay, here’s what you need to expect. Since I have this conversation SO OFTEN these days, I decided to write a little outline on some ideas and consequences all based on statistical data. As the saying goes…numbers don’t lie. Once I present this information, then it’s up to the seller. At least I know I’ve done what I can to help them make the best decision.

As a side note, the information provided here is based on the Outer Banks market only. Please feel free to input actual data from your own market as the concepts will likely be the same.

So, should you stay or should you go?

1. If you stay, be prepared for a long turn around. Cycles like these historically have taken about 10 years. We are only 3 years into it. We have another 7 years to go. Not selling today because of pricing means waiting at least 7 years to get a better price than we can today.
2. Many people own beach homes as an investment and part of their overall financial planning. Knowing that your home/investment is not going to gain value over the next 7 years, how does that affect your long term plan? Is it smart at your stage in the plan to keep money in an asset that will not grow at all for 7 years? If you sold today and took a bit of a loss, could you put the money in another investment vehicle that would actually GROW over the next 7 years? Of course you could. When your beach home goes from the family vacation spot every year to something you’re holding for financial purposes, the timing becomes so much more important.
3. If you stay and something happens over the next 12 to 24 months that causes a hardship and you HAVE to sell, know that you’ll be getting a lot less than we can get today. So before you make the decision to stay, how secure are you financially? Could something upset the balance and cause you to have to sell before the recovery?
4. If you stay you have carrying costs. Most homeowners here will spend $10,000 to $20,000 (sometimes more) each year owning their home. By the time you spend that each year for 7 years waiting for prices to come back up, how much did you actually make? Consider a situation where I recommend $500,000. You want $650,000. You spend $20,000 each year owning it for 7 years, that’s $140,000. Does it really make sense to wait?

Now you’re probably thinking, well all that sounds good, but how do you know for sure it’s going to take 7 years? As I said in a previous blog, I don’t have a crystal ball. What I do have are statistics. Statistical trends are pretty solid indicators of what to expect. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be used in any industry for predictions. That being said, here is some actual data that contributes to the 7 year timeline.

1. The top 3 sources resort buyers use to provide their down payment when buying on the Outer Banks are –

a. Equity from their primary residence or the sale of some piece of real estate. Until more people have equity in their homes, the number of buyer sales will stay limited.

b. Stock, bonds, funds or other investment sales

c. Bonuses, inheritance or some kind of money gifted

How long will it take before more buyers feel confident in this economy to use these kinds of funds for real estate purchases, rather than saving due to the economy?

2. Foreclosures. 16% of our active listings are a distress sale. Sounds small, right? Well, consider 40% of closed sales each month is a distress sale. While we don’t have an overwhelming inventory, they are certainly a BIG percentage of what’s selling. Does a distress sale affect the price of your home? With so many, how can it not affect you? The good news here is that 60% of sales are regular homeowners. They are also priced competitively with the distress sales.

3. Shadow Inventory. It is estimated banks are holding 50% of their foreclosed inventory off the market in an effort not to crash it. They are strategically releasing homes for sale slowly because they know more supply equals less demand equals lower pricing. So, if we have another 2 to 3 years of 16% of our inventory being distressed and 40% of closings being distressed, how can prices go up?

4. Homes are still being foreclosed on. Let’s not forget the foreclosure crisis is still happening. We get weekly reports in Dare and Currituck Counties of homes that are facing foreclosure. Each week there are at least 15 to 20 homes on the list. That’s 60 to 80 more foreclosed homes a month! How can we hit the bottom and start recovery with that many properties still being taken back by the bank and facing the open market at some point for considerably lower prices?

5. Inventory of regular properties. A normal market has 6 or less months of inventory actively for sale at any given time. Right now, we have over 2 years worth of inventory. AND, that ‘s if nothing else came on the market. Each month we get about 375 new listings. If we have right now OVER 2 years worth of properties to sell, how will it be better next year?

6. Once we DO hit the bottom, prices aren’t going to rebound instantly. So let’s say in 3 years we hit the bottom, prices stop going down and we have a better handle on inventory. How long will it take to climb back up to the price you’re comfortable with? Another 3, 4, 5 years? The decline didn’t happen overnight, neither will the recovery.

Please understand my goal with this information is not gloom and doom, rather reality. With the right agent, right exposure and right PRICE, your home WILL sell. That’s not the question. The question is typically when can we get more? The answer…7 or more years. If that doesn’t fit into your plan, sooner is better than later. Time is not your friend in a declining market.

So before it costs you double, give us a call for a complete analysis on YOUR Outer Banks home.

2011 is the year for Recovery!

I’m announcing 2011 as MY year for recovery. Does that mean I think the housing market is going to make a full recovery this year? No, hardly. In fact, I recognize that the market isn’t going to help me at all. It’s not my friend. I don’t care. I’m not concerned about the market. I have a job to do, clients to help and a business to run.

I figure I have two choices here…I can come up with all the reasons why I won’t achieve my goals, or all the reasons that I WILL! There is no substitute for hard work and good skills, especially in this market. I know my skills are strong and getting stronger. I heard once that in this market you will need 50% Hard Work, 50% Sales Skills and 50% Mindset. Now, obviously that adds up to 150%, which is EXACTLY what is needed in today’s market.

In my real estate recovery year, I’ve identified a few “aggressive” questions I need to ask myself on a regular basis. I thought I’d share them with you as well.

1. If prospects aren’t looking for me and I’m not looking for them, exactly how am I going to find them?
2. Am I willing to be held accountable and not get mad?
3. How much money am I losing by not doing ______________?
4. How can I be held accountable if I’m not involved or active?
5. If I keep defending myself and actions, how do I expect to grow?
6. Why am I afraid to challenge myself?
7. What is the change I am going to make to get closer to my goals?

With the right mindset, accountability and skills THERE’S NO STOPPING ME! The best part is, not only will my business grow but my clients will be the biggest winners!