Archive for December, 2006
Part diatribe, part expose and all fact:
Many mortgage brokerages do their own advertising and have their own referral base. My Novation Mortgage has a huge client base and spends heartily for on air, print and web advertising. Our phone rings off the hook. No joke. Our average originator turns roughly 50 applications per month. Of those 50 approximately 25 are new callers who have not yet found a home. Of the 25 who have not yet located a property approximately 10 have not yet engaged the services of a real estate professional.
Now let me tell you a story about a not new agent to whom I sent a referral several months ago. We will call her “Faye”. Faye was so excited and pleased to have this opportunity to work with me and just knew she could find the buyer the exact home they were looking for. Read the rest of this entry »
— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452
One of the more frequently asked questions from new investors and real estate agents is, “What is hard money?” The answer is much less mysterious than when and why to use hard money. Hard simply means it is tied to a “hard” asset such as real estate, gold, silver, etc. For our purposes it will be tied to … real estate.
Hard money, since it is tied to real estate and not so much the borrower, is generally loaned at a lower LTV (Loan To Value) than conventional funding but does not place as much weight on the borrower’s strengths. It is not generally true, however, that “just anyone” can get a hard money loan. Read the rest of this entry »
— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452
Do not start looking for acronyms 1 through 11 here on ActiveRain just yet. This is acronym #11 from my staff sales meetings in 2006. It just ocurred to me today that a wider audience may also benefit from or add to the power of acronyms and power phrases we use regularly around my office. So please do so! I love hearing from you fellow Rainers.
What makes acronyms so powerful is that, when they are accurate and not just cute, they help you remember a process or a pattern which has led others or yourself to previous success. Power phrases we find are more for getting yourself excited or getting your prospects on board where the acronyms we use are generally for remembering processes. Read the rest of this entry »
— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452
It’s in the high 60′s here in north Georgia today. The sun is bright and the sky is blue. Better than that most homes are clean and decorated for the Holidays. What a great sales opportunity it would be today. But the Ice Man Cometh.
My beautiful wife, Myra, is from Alaska. When we first met she was living in Tampa, Florida. Before we married and she knew she would be living in Georgia she asked, “Does it ever get cold there?” Read the rest of this entry »
— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452
Often my writings include inverted viewpoints and inverse thinking to prove the positive side of the same issue. Normally motivational speakers and authors present facts from the positive side. In doing so repetitively and with great frequency some readers may have become numb to the power phrases heard regularly. So here is a bit of inverted thinking from the opposite side of sales motivation. While I am a lover of “do’s” I am also guilty of “do not’s”. Read the rest of this entry »
— Ken Cook NMLS ID 208452
I MUST CLOSE THIS YEAR!
If the deal has not already been submitted to the broker/lender and it is a purchase I would say you are out of luck. However if you have the appraisal and it is in the broker’s/lender’s name, the client does not have any credit issues, the title search has been done, you already have the homeowner’s policy in place, and the lender has already okay’ed the closing date you should be fine. Read the rest of this entry »
— admin
I have an employee who is probably reading this. He’s a great guy with good experience and wonderful people skills. He is doing very well and in fact has been near the top performer for the last couple of months and looks like he will wear that crown this month. When he first started I had my wonders.
He wouldn’t hush. Read the rest of this entry »
— admin
… lender.
Ouch. I know most people really do not know this especially sellers and buyers it seems. The closing agent’s fiduciary (not pronounced fudooshree as I hear so often) responsibility is to the lender to make sure all of the documents are fully executed in the right manner and that the necessary recordings are performed to make the exchange legal. Not all states have the same rules and regulations and I’m definitely writing from my own little world but all states have regulations and it is the closing agent’s job to be intimately familiar with them. Read the rest of this entry »
— admin
Agents – read closely and get yourself multiple sales for one client:
Investors – read this and don’t drive your agent nuts and acquire lots of equity
My employees chuckle when they see a graduate from one of my seminars walking around with their spread sheet and AVM report. I chuckle when an investor says, “my wife/husband didn’t like the paint color“.? Evidently I’ve failed to properly communicate.
You may have read it before but I use a golf tee (or ball) as an example in my Real Estate Investment QuickStart Workshop to illustrate the point. Holding up the tee I ask, “what do you see?” Read the rest of this entry »
— admin
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Please to put a penny in the old man’s hat.
Or put another lead in your pipeline. I know I will!
I wish someone had shared this information with me back in the 70′s. Instead, I learned it on my own in the 90′s. Now it’s my gift to you if you don’t already know … Read the rest of this entry »
— admin