What is a success portfolio for a real estate professional?

Well, if you've ever gone to a photographer, architect, or even a wedding planner, you'll often see a book of their work—a portfolio. This showcases what they've done for other clients in the past.

Think about yourself. We often have listing presentations and now even buyer presentations, but do we have a portfolio of past performance?

This portfolio can be the pre-listing kit you've always dreamed of or the pre-buy meeting kit that will really motivate and inspire people to want to work with you.

So what would you put into this success portfolio? Of course, you'll include the properties you've sold and testimonials from other clients. You can also add marketing examples to show what you've done to market properties on social media, with flyers, with postcards, and even in a digital presentation, including video.There's a lot you could include in this presentation to make it really come alive and pop.

Now, imagine you did...

Quick question:

What is in your buyer presentation right now?

With the NAR settlement just around the corner, you need to address what you’re doing about it. One thing you need to do is have your buyer presentation dialed in.

Here are 11 things to include in your buyer presentation post NAR settlement:

1. The Search Process: This can't just be you searching the MLS. Buyers can do that on Zillow or realtor.com. Go further by curating listings, hand-selecting the best fits, and commenting on each one. Be involved in the search process daily.

2. No Stone Unturned: The best listings sometimes don't hit MLS. Look at for-sale-by-owners, expired listings, and network with other REALTORS on coming-soon listings. Canvas neighborhoods to find potential sellers.

3. Research Process: Dive deep into any specific home you're interested in. Check permits, architectural plans, disclosure statements, plat maps, aerial maps, assessed values, and neighborhood trend lines. Interview neighbors to gat...

Here's an interesting question to put out on social media to your audiences:

Would you move from your current market because of climate change?

I've been in the business for 35 years, and we never really talked about climate change as a motivator for people to move. But it's becoming more and more of a reason for people to relocate. In fact, 30% of Americans today, especially young people, say they would move because of climate change or make a decision about where to live based on it.

That’s why this is an interesting question to ask on social media.

Climate change can take many different forms. In my market area, for example, it's fires.

We had a fire come through our neighborhoods that burned down 2,700 homes. It was one of the biggest fires in the nation for destroying homes. Absolutely devastating for our community. We went through several summers of fire, and a lot of people moved because they couldn't deal with the smoke and terrible air quality.

On the flip side, you migh...

Let's pretend a seller says, "Nope, I'm not paying the buyer agent commission."

This can happen, albeit rarely. When it does, it’s your job to educate them on what comes next. Just because they say they don't want to pay it doesn't mean they won't receive offers requesting them to do so.

It's likely most offers will include language requesting the seller pay the buyer agent commission of X dollars. Then, the seller will have to decide to either reject the offer or counter it. We need to educate the seller about this.

You could do this by saying, "Hey, I totally get it. But just so you know, most offers we receive will still ask you to pay the buyer agent commission. At that time, we can look at the overall offer and decide if you want to do that or reject all offers that include that verbiage."

"I wouldn't reject everything out of hand. I'd suggest looking at the whole spectrum—what they're offering versus what your net will be. We can judge it on an offer-by-offer basis. I just wa...

Here's an amazing number you should share with everyone in your sphere of influence:

The average American homeowner now has $298,000 in equity, a record high!

This presents a fantastic opportunity to update your clients on their equity growth over the past year. We should do this every year with our clients, and if you haven't done it yet, make a point of doing it now.

Consider shooting a quick video and saying:

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"Hey, good news! Across the country, the average homeowner now has $298,000 in equity. If you're curious about your equity position, I'd love to do a PAYER report for you.

What's a PAYER report? It stands for Personalized Equity Analysis Report. It provides a quick update on your home equity and where you stand. If you're thinking about selling, I'd love to help you. Or, if you're considering investing in more real estate and building even more equity, I'm happy to assist you there as well. At the very least, get a copy of that free PAYER report.”

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That's the s...

A question you should ask every seller when you’re about to list a property is: "Do you have an FHA, USDA, or VA loan?"

These loans are often assumable, making the property highly valuable. If they have an interest rate below 5%, the house can fetch a premium price.

For example, if current interest rates are at 7% and a buyer can assume a 4.5% loan, it's a fantastic opportunity. There are some caveats, though. Be cautious about locking up veterans' benefits, preventing them from using those benefits elsewhere. If the seller is retiring or doesn't plan to own another home, they might be okay with someone assuming their loan.

For USDA and FHA loans, the buyer must qualify. They can't be a deadbeat; they need to qualify for the loan. Most buyers in a position to assume these low-interest loans will be thrilled, and your sellers can get a premium price.

Start asking sellers, "Do you have an FHA, USDA, or VA loan, and would you be okay with it being assumed?" There are many opportunitie...

Question:

Let's say you have a seller that says, “Jim, I watched the news this weekend, and I understand that I don't have to pay a buyer's rep.”

What will be your response to that?

Now, if you get that, I would say that they’re right, and they really haven't had to do that for years. The only difference is that the buyer rep fee is not going to show up in the MLS as of July.

But should you choose not to pay a buyer's rep?

Here's my personal thought on this:

When you offer to pay a buyer's rep, what happens is you’re going to attract more showings and thereby get more offers and more exposure for your property because there's not many buyers that have the money to write a check at closing to their buyer's rep.

So when a seller says they’re not going to pay it, a lot of times they're just going to eliminate that house from consideration. They'll just go look at the houses where the buyer's rep is being paid.

Now, if they choose not to pay a buyer's rep—and that's their choice—he...

Okay, guys, here's an important question regarding this NAR settlement and everything around it:

We are going to have to start having buyer representation agreements. In that agreement, it's going to say how much you're going to get paid, right? You’ve established what you charge sellers a long time ago, but now you've got to do it with buyers.

What's going to be your minimum commission standard with a buyer?

First of all, accept the fact that you have value and that you are worth more than some other agents in your community. So, you're not going to base your number on what another real estate agent is doing. Maybe they're brand new or barely active.

Instead, you need to base your numbers on the services you provide and your experience.

But here's a bad tendency with a lot of agents: They're going to undershoot their value.

They may say, "I don't want to be greedy, so I'll come in lower."

But don't go too low. There's still going to be sellers offering buyer agent compensation....

So the NAR settlement, what does it mean to you? What should you do today as an agent?

First of all, what does it mean to us?

Here are three big things it means:

1. Buyer comp is not going to show up in the MLS as of mid-July. If this is approved, it probably will be.

2. You're going to have to sign with your buyer a buyer representation agreement, which says how much you're going to get paid.

3. It's going to outline the fees that are going to be paid to you by the buyer. Now, that doesn't mean that the seller can't pay. This is the biggest misconception of this. Just because the fee is not going to show up in MLS doesn't mean sellers won't still agree to pay it. This is something specifically that was in the NAR proposal.

I'll read it to you:

The NAR said the proposal would allow sellers and their listing agents to continue offering compensation for buyer broker services. That's clear. It's just not going to show up in MLS.

So let's think about that now. How are you going to ...

In the real estate industry, there are two types of ghosts:

The first occurs when a buyer initiates contact but then disappears. It's common, but we shouldn't ignore it. Instead, we should follow up with these individuals after some time has passed. More often than not, they simply got busy, not because they disliked us or found another agent.

Reaching out with a call, text, or email is essential. We should inquire politely about their home buying progress. Even if they ghost us again, it's not a big deal. Let's not fear this type of ghosting and continue to pursue potential leads.

The second ghosting scenario involves us ghosting others inadvertently. It happens when we forget who certain contacts in our phone are. To address this, we should review our contacts and ask those we're unsure about to remind us of our connection.

By doing so, we might uncover opportunities we would have otherwise missed. Let's stop being ghosts ourselves and maintain connections with our contacts. Thes...