Home Sales Results by MSA For AgentEvaluator® Subscribers

Earlier this week, MDA Dataquick reported that in HomeGain’s backyard, the San Francisco Bay area, home sales in June had jumped by 20% YOY. Solano County, a long term poster child and whipping boy for the foreclosure crisis, saw a whopping 67% increase in sales during the same time and reached sales levels not seen since August 2006.

The million dollar question is, have things bottomed out?

It’s sure starting to seem that way. Prices have started to stabilize, or in some markets actually beginning to go up as foreclosures are accounting for a less percentage of the total properties sold.

In the recent HomeGain home prices survey, Gillian Goldrich of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Woodbridge, CT noted “Markets are definitely picking up…buyers  are getting off the fence and taking advantage of tremendous buys.” Many of our agents expressed similar opinions as they are seeing declining inventory levels , raising prices and multiple offers.

Looking Back

The first half of 2009 was a memorable one for HomeGain agents as several achievements were reached. We  inducted our second agent (Alan Shafran) into the HomeGain Million Dollar Club for generating over 1 million dollars in gross closed commissions. Seventeen agents were inducted into the HomeGain Diamond Club for generating a half-million dollars in gross closed commissions.

Combined with the dozens of agents inducted into each of our Silver, Gold and Platinum Clubs, HomeGain AgentEvaluator agents used the turbulent conditions to further grow and expand their market opportunities.

Top MSA’s for First Half of 2009:                    Continue reading this post

I know that most everyone looks at me as an Internet guy who is good at lead conversion. As much as that is one of my strong points, one of my favorite things I do is teach my agents about Customer Education. Over the past few months I have spent a ton of money to educate myself on new concepts I could bring to the real estate world to help my company increase our business.  

One of our biggest obstacles, and most likely one of yours, is the lack of commitment that many home buyers are making these days. When I started my search a few months ago, I had no idea what I was going to learn.

I learned how to use Customer Education in our business to help drive sales.

Usually, as Realtors, we are quick to blame everyone and everything else about why a customer didn’t end up buying a home from us. I have observed this since I got into the business in 2001.  Since then I have realized that in order to become successful in this business, in fact in any business, is to accept responsibility and learn from our errors. Over the past year our Real Estate Agents have averaged 8 new buyers per month but only sold 1 home per 8 buyers per month.  

After analyzing these numbers, I realized that the reason Buyers were not commiting was because of the lack of information or more importantly their misinformation. After all, we are all products of the media these days and if they say the Real Estate market is bad, that’s a great excuse for Realtors not to become successful.  

If the Realtors don’t believe in the market, how can the buyer believe? Continue reading this post

In this edition of HomeGain’s Winning Agent Calls, Janelle and Eric Boyenga of Intero Real Estate in Silicon Valley, California, reveal the do’s and don’ts of building a successful real estate team.

The Boyenga Team’s accomplishments include: over 12 years experience in real estate; recipients of the Intero President’s Circle, being ranked in the top 2% of Realtors in their agency since 2004; sold over $100 million dollars in home sales; named in the top 5% of Realtors in their county by San Jose Magazine; certified home staging professionals; have closed double digits in home sales with HomeGain.

Listen to this month’s featured Winning Agent Call, hosted by Peter McCullough:

Highlights:

Continue reading this post

Hi everyone! It’s been some time since I have written. The good news is I have been busy developing new skills to teach my staff. Any of you who know me know I’m very into training and keeping my staff updated

on their training, etc. Of course, most of the time, I have been teaching others how to do what we do here at Tropical Realty in Melbourne, Florida. Recently, however, I have decided I needed to work a little more on my business than traveling around the country. 

Since the beginning of the year I have been working on how I can take my team of 20 Real Estate Agents to the next level.  One of my goals is to help all my Agents become successful. I’m so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of Agents working for me. Even though some might be struggling and not working as hard as I like, they are all great people. With that said, I also have a business to run and to grow.  I won’t be happy until my Agents are all doing at least 36 transactions per year each or more.  I know they can do it, and I’m learning day by day how to be a better teacher. Up until recently I had always blamed my Agents for not working our system strong enough. But, recently I realized that I have been training all wrong and have to change the way I teach. 

Here are 6 things about training that I’ve learned so far:

1. The only way you can become better is to commit at least 1 hour per week to training and becoming an expert in just a few skills.  Just 1 hour per week can have a profound benefit to your business.
    
2. It’s not about knowing 4,000 things a few times.  It’s about doing 3 or 4 things 4,000 times.  Once you do, you are an expert! Continue reading this post

We are pleased to announce the HomeGain AgentEvaluator Top Performers™ of 2008.

Many HomeGain real estate agents and brokers had successful years, despite the downturned in home prices market nationwide. We are proud to recognize these agents for their high level of accomplishment in association with HomeGain’s AgentEvaluator marketing program.

In addition to highlighting the 2008 Top Performers by Region, 2008 Top Performers by State, and Rookie Agent of the Year, HomeGain recognizes agents in each region of the country that had impressive sales and are deserving of honorable mention.

HomeGain is proud that we can quantify the many successes of our AgentEvaluator agents in 2008.

Congratulations to all of our 2008 top performers! We look forward to continued success for all of our member agents during 2009.

Before announcing the Top AgentEvaluator Performers below, here are some 2008 AgentEvaluator and market highlights:

2008 AgentEvaluator Highlights:

• HomeGain recognizes 51 of its member real estate agents who have received Top Performer awards based on nationwide, regional and state achievements,
• Overall, in 2008 HomeGain’s top five Realtors earned an average of $236,918 in gross closed commissions from their HomeGain AgentEvaluator business and an average of 20 closed transactions.
• We now have a  total of 846 member agents in the AgentEvaluator Silver, Gold and Platinum Clubs based on the following criteria:
  - 229 agents are Silver Club honorees with an excess of $50,000 in gross commissions earned from their HomeGain leads.
  - 271 agents are Gold Club honorees with an excess of $75,000 in gross commissions.
  - 346 agents are Platinum Club honorees with an excess of $125,000 in gross commissions.
• The average AgentEvaluator Platinum, Gold or Silver agent earned over $31,348 in gross closed commissions in 2008 and closed an average of 5.5 transactions.
• HomeGain’s average home sale price nationwide was $236,602 in 2008.
• HomeGain’s average home price nationwide fell only 3% in 2008 over 2007. ($236,602 in 2008 vs. $244,006 in 2007)

And the 2008 Top AgentEvaluator Performers are… Continue reading this post

Moving into 2009 I was thinking that the Realtors who plan are going to be the ones who survive and thrive. How many transactions do you want to do in 2009?

Most Realtors will answer quickly that they want as many as they can get. This is true but I personally think you will get the number you plan to get.

What seems to work for many top producers is to set a goal of how many transactions they want to have and then plan there activities based on those goals. There are industry standards that will tell you how many met contacts you need in your database to get a certain number of transactions for the year. How many website visitors you need to get a certain number of transactions from the web? It is the same for your farm and listings.

OK so how can this work for me?  I know that is the question you are asking.

So let’s take an example. Mr. Real Estate Agent would like to do 40 transactions next year. Continue reading this post