Archive for November, 2008
Finding Foreclosures An Insiders Guide to Cashing in on This Hidden Market
Finding Foreclosures An Insiders Guide to Cashing in on This Hidden Market
Discover Hard-to-Find Foreclosures at Rock Bottom Prices!
Foreclosures are the ultimate bargain, and there’s never been a better time for you to cash in on the booming foreclosure market. Imagine the thrill of buying a house, vacation home or investment property for as little as half price-some are discounted even more!
Until now, foreclosures were difficult to find and even harder to buy. Most of the great deals were hidden, purchased early in the pre-foreclosure stage by in-the-know professional investors before they ever made it to a public foreclosure list.
Not any more. Real estate experts Danielle Babb and Bill Nazur have leveled the playing field by making this once-privileged information available to you. Armed with their significant knowledge of the foreclosure market and notable expertise in using revolutionary internet tools recently made available to the general public, you’ll have everything you need to find and buy your dream property.
You’ll learn how to:
- Spot foreclosures before other investors
- Find amazing deals in the pre-foreclosure stage
- Identify great properties using powerful but easy-to-use internet tools
- Negotiate with sellers and win auctions with exclusive strategies
- Estimate market value and secure funding
The insider information these foreclosure specialists divulge on how to find, value, negotiate and win is your key to the inner circle and will put you on the inside track to saving big money.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars RealtyTrac Recommened in Book Could be a Ripoff
After reading the book, I came away with a little bit better understanding of the foreclosure process but it did little for me in practical application. They have a big push at the end of the book for the website RealtyTrac.com which they claim is the best on the web yet they say they have no vested interest in this site. Being skeptical by nature I did a review of the RealtyTrac.com website and found most everyone was moderately to severly displeased with the site. Here is one link which actually seems to think the site has illegal implications. http://www.oregonherald.com/n/special-eports/real_estate/realtytrac.htm This does not give me great confidence in these authors if their highly recommended website for finding foreclosures is so disliked. Do your own search on Realtytrac and see. I admit I never subscribed to the site because of was afraid of wasting my money.
3 Stars Mixed Review for Finding Foreclosures
Overall this book is quite helpful in explaining the foreclosure process, with tips on how to find foreclosures and how to be prepared in order to act quickly when pursuing foreclosure property. There’s a helpful glossary of terms, great links to useful sites, and a balanced look at the upside and possible downsides of this type of investing.
What’s lacking, in my opinion, is a clear explanation of the economics of buying foreclosures. In this regard, I feel like the book is a little too inside, even for this licensed real estate agent. The authors seem to assume that everyone understands the basics of aggressively leveraging equity in order to invest. One chapter about this would make all the difference.
My biggest gripe is the poor editing. The book is riddled with typos and sometimes poor composition. It feels very much like a first draft, and this fact, for me, eroded a little bit from the authors’ sizable credibility. Lack of attention to detail makes it feel like the authors are only out to make a quick buck.
If you’re interested in finding and investing in foreclosure properties, this book is a great primer. Just be prepared to do your homework, learn from your mistakes, and ask lots of questions. Also, be sure you have a good understanding of actual financing and risk. It’s still a good buy.
Tags: buying a house, foreclosure market, Foreclosures, investment property, pre-foreclosure, professional investors
My Blue Goose Exploiting The Wow Factor in Real Estate Marketing
My Blue Goose Exploiting The Wow Factor in Real Estate Marketing
My Blue Goose exploits some of the latest trends in real estate marketing while incorporating ideas and tactics used by Fortune 500 companies throughout various industries. The 128 pages address subjects such as microsites, blogging, guerilla marketing, internet marketing, direct mail, social networking, public relations and contact creation.
The book s title comes from an old Chinese tale about a boy with a very unique goose. The townspeople become intrigued with the blue goose after it is placed in a store window at the end of town. The goose becomes a focal point and a lucky charm for the village. The analogy of exploiting something different about a business is used throughout the book.
My Blue Goose is quickly making ground with real estate professionals throughout the country.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars In response to Elizabeth…
Hi Elisabeth:
I just read your review of my book and I am sorry to hear that it failed you. Much of the information in the book represents what only 18% of real estate are doing and yes, some of it is filled with the “you’ve heard it all before” things. This book was meant to speak to the other 82%. Sometimes the answers are not always outside of the box.
What this book does well is it mentions the foundations for real estate marketing and teaches the reader to explore ways to build onto this foundation. It’s only with this foundation that we can all become better real estate marketing professionals.
1 Star You’ve heard it all before
It is ironic that the author warns agents about investing time and money in a real estate course that promises to boost sales because they all tell you the same things (make regular contact via phone calls, mail and personal visits with your “sphere of influence”) and then he essentially repeats that same message himself throughout the book.
I am dismayed that I paid $21.95 for this tiny book with large type, lots of white space and absolutely nothing new to say. Even the realtors he interviewed and quoted were cagey with their advice. No wonder people don’t trust real estate agents if this is what passes for honesty and integrity.
Don’t waste your money or your time on this book. Well, if you can get a hold of a copy for free, it is so incredibly short you won’t waste much time reading it.
Tags: blogging, blue goose, contact creation, direct mail, guerilla marketing, Internet Marketing, microsites, public relations, Real Estate Marketing, real estate professionals, social networking
1 200 Great Sales Tips for Real Estate Professionals
1 200 Great Sales Tips for Real Estate Professionals
Perfect for brokers, agents, and other real estate professionals, this handy guide brings together the best ideas from years of incredibly practical lists and checklists published in REALTOR Magazine. This practical, one-of-a-kind guide is perfect for learning the business of real estate and perfecting the best and most effective tactics and techniques for helping your real estate career and business grow.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great Reading!
As a Realtor with 2 yrs. part-time experience, I received a lot of helpful information by reading this book. Keep a notepad handy when you read it because it has great tips and leads to other resources. I’m looking forward to the “sequel”.
Tags: Real estate career, real estate professionals, real estate sales tips, Realtor, REALTOR Magazine
Real Estate Marketing and Sales Essentials Steps for Success
Real Estate Marketing and Sales Essentials Steps for Success
Real estate can be a rewarding career – for those with the savvy to succeed. Written by a real estate training authority, Real Estate Marketing Sales Essentials: Steps for Success equips new and experienced agents alike with a comprehensive resource of invaluable tips, advice, and hands-on instruction on how to convert their knowledge into sales – and profits. The book walks readers through the major daily activities of real estate professionals, including prospecting for seller appointments, seller listing procedures, prospecting for buyer appointments, buyer listing procedures, objection handling techniques, client follow-up, referrals, contract writing, negotiation, closing, financing, and more. It also offers sound advice on the characteristics of successful salespeople, equipping readers with insight on such key skills as professionalism, ethics, technology, time management, and the psychology of marketing. Agents are already sold, praising Steps for Success for its real-world scenarios, out-of-the-box thinking, humorous examples, valuable timesavers, and cost-cutting advice.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Excellent for new agents or seasoned!
I am an experienced agent, but bought this book after about my first year in the business. I went through a stage where I searched Amazon for all books related to the business of real estate that had good reviews and purchased them. Then it sat on my shelf for about a year or so. Things got so busy and hectic that I didn’t have time to read anything! I moved out of state and started up again in my new location so I had some free time on my hands.
After reading this book, I was sorry I didn’t go through it sooner. Regardless of that – it reminded me of some basic principles that got lost along the way and it was just a fantastic refresher. I HIGHLY recommend this book to new agents and it has certainly earned it’s spot on my book shelf to flip through now and again.
Very few parts of the book I would consider ‘out-dated’ for the way we do business today – it gets back to the basics of selling and client prospecting. There was a time when agents got into this business and didn’t have to learn any of it – clients fell in their lap. The world of real estate is changing and it’s going back to the ‘good ole days’. New agents, relish in the many scripts and suggestions this book will offer to you.
Wishing you all success….
3 Stars More of the same
I was somewhat disappointed in this book. I work for Century21 and had higher expectations. I found the material in this book to be a repeat of all of the other books I’ve read on how to be a top producer. If you REALLY, REALLY want to know how to get listings, I recommend Bill Nasby’s Door to Success CD series. In fact I would recommend any of the Bill Nasby products over what I’ve read by people claiming to have the materials you need to be a top producer.
Tags: client follow-up, closing, contract writing, financing, negotiation, objection-handling techniques, prospecting for buyers, prospecting for seller appointments, psychology of marketing, Real estate career, Real Estate Marketing, Referrals
Real Estate Market Analysis A Case Study Approach
Real Estate Market Analysis A Case Study Approach
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Not Quite a Doorstop
Critic and curmudgeon Ambrose Bierce once dismissed an author’s efforts with the review: “The covers of this book are too far apart.” Schmitz and Brett tempt me with the flip side of Bierce’s proposition; the covers of this book should be about 300 pages further apart. Its 220+ pages of well written, well organized coverage of how market analysis applies to vital development markets remains – utterly unsatisfying.
The book seeks to cover everything an analyst could hope for:
* basic real estate market analysis goals and concepts (Chapter 1),
* basic approaches to real estate market studies (Chapter 2),
* sector specific considerations for various market segments
(residential, office, industrial, retail, hotels, and mixed use
developments – Chapters 3 through 7), and
* a baker’s dozen case studies to illustrate the concepts.
I started with high, soon to be dashed, expectations.
Real Estate Market Analysis – A Case Study Approach is published by The Urban Land Institute (ULI). ULI also published the brilliant but stodgy landmark treatise on real estate development by Miles, Berens, and Weiss (MB&W). Most notably, ULI is recognized as the ideological vessel of James Graaskamp. Graaskamp posited the (then radical, now established) tenet that the public and the body-politic are major stakeholders in development. Either can propel or sink a project. Hence, a case study approach from ULI that devoted only three paragraphs to the importance of public and political awareness in market analysis was monumentally disappointing. Ironically, Schmitz and Brett preface their minimal coverage of the topic with the observation:
“Given the often contentious environment associated with the proposed closure and reuse of a military facility, public participation is extremely important.”
They then present, without comment, a two bullet point chronology of this “extremely important” topic. Worse, the topic was the El Toro Marine Base reuse/mixed use plan. Public debate about El Toro persisted for seven years before a tentative plan was finally adopted. That largely unexecuted and heavily litigated proposal remains controversial eight years later.
Lapses of analytical and logical rigor are pervasive.
For a book on market analysis, the Schmitz and Brett work contains startlingly little analysis. Not for them digressions about how and under what circumstances one approach may be preferable over another. Schmitz and Brett content themselves with vacuous observations like:
An economic model is used to evaluate the relative benefits of each scenario over a twenty year period, or to buildout; the model typically presents five year development phases. It is based on assumptions generated by the market analysis and yields the following outputs by land use: total units or square feet, on site employment, total employment generated, land sale revenue, total output, and total income.
Without bothering themselves or their readers with hoary little details like: Which economic model, what assumptions, why are they relevant, how do we know that, and why are we concerned with that particular set of outputs? Unhelpful “directives-without-direction” further undercut Schmitz and Brett. I find the directive that an analyst should analyze some data and reach some conclusions about something singularly purposeless.
Schmitz and Brett are equally cavalier with logic. They can reason from the specific to the general based on a single observation couched in a unique example. For balance, they sometimes reverse the algorithm and reason from the general to the specific with equally little basis. They are particularly prone to this annoying form of ir-ratiocination when drawing conclusions from their case studies. None of their conclusions seem false, but it would be nice to know that their results are based on more than a wing, a prayer and the authors’ say-so.
It’s a shame that the authors offered no after-action evaluations or any other effort to validate those conclusions. To know that they employed (an unspecified) model on (unspecified) data using (unspecified) analytical techniques based on (unspecified) assumptions is exciting. It sounds so scientific. It would be nice to know whether it worked. Never mind finding out that it didn’t work and why not.
That being said, the book does not descend to doorstop status. According to their preface; “Real Estate Market Analysis was conceived as a practical guide for analyzing the market potential of real estate development” and “explains the nuts and bolts of how to collect and organize data and analyze demand and supply.” Their aims are laudable, but its best use is as text for guided discussion with a knowledgeable facilitator. The material is there, and for the novice, it outlines a useful conceptual framework and presents excellent information about major data sources, but it is woefully weak on the nuts and bolts. It’s an easy if not very satisfying read.
5 Stars A Thorough Reference
This book is written like a textbook – starting with the most basic concepts – but moves on to discuss the tools and techniques of market analysis in considerable detail. Separate sections deal with residential, office and industrial, retail, hotels and resorts, and mixed-use developments. Case studies are given for each type of property. Technologies and data sources to assist analysis are discussed.
The two primary authors are a real estate consultant and an author/director of the Urban Land Institute. Many other professionals are listed as having contributed to the case studies.
The book includes an appendix of data sources of use to market analysts, a glossary of real estate terms and a thorough index.
The Real Estate Agents Guide to FSBOs Make Big Money Prospecting For Sale By Owner Properties
The Real Estate Agents Guide to FSBOs Make Big Money Prospecting For Sale By Owner Properties
According to the National Association of Realtors, 86 per cent of new real estate agents don’t make it past their first year. The majority give up due to frustration and the overwhelming start-up costs involved in the industry. But there is an untapped resource that will help agents take their careers to new heights – the For-Sale-By- Owner (FSBO) listing. Many homeowners try to sell their home, without an agent, believing that they can find a buyer just as quickly and avoid paying a commission. But often, nothing can be further from the truth.Author John Maloof has built a stellar career by farming FSBOs. He made six figures his first year as a real estate agent using his prospecting plan. Now, in “Make Big Money Selling For-Sale-By- Owner Properties”, he shows other agents how they can do the same. Complete with Internet resources and a sample resume and log sheet, this is the one book that will show new agents and experienced Realtors alike how to make more money than they ever thought possible.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great Reading
This is a great book, but you have to keep in mind the do not call laws.
5 Stars A wealth of information and motivation
When I purchased this book I was not aware that John Maloof was a top agent for Century 21. I too am working for Century 21 in the State of Connecticut. This book has reitterated the training I’ve received from my coach and has given me the best ideas to take the next step in focusing on FSBO’s! John gives you basicly all the tools you need to excel in your career as a ‘FSBO’ real estate agent…the websites he guides you to has been a huge help in finding the information needed for many different areas. This book is an easy read and an interesting one that makes you want to finish it quickly and apply your new techniques. This is definitley a book I will re-read and refer to many times. Thank you!
Tags: avoid paying a commission, For-Sale-By- Owner, FSBO, FSBO real estate agent, National Association of Realtors, new real estate agents
