10 Best Real Estate Recruiting Tips for Brokers

10 Best Real Estate Recruiting Tips for Brokers

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Best real estate recruiting tips for brokers and teams on a minimal budget!  Get some new ideas and grow your business.

Expanding your office with a hands-on marketing and tracking approach can be extremely cost effective and efficient.  If you have some support behind you make it a team effort and delegate some of the ideas below.  Before you start on the 10 best real estate recruiting tips get a handle on your strategy:

  • Strategize on what type of agents will fit your culture the best; i.e.: new or established agents. Do you want self-starters or needy agents that ask you a lot of “How about this”, “What if this happens” questions?
  • Have a full media profile for yourself and your company. Actively use the account by posting about yourself, your brand, agents, properties, trends and other news.  Outsource this function to an admin/marketing person if needed.
  • The best real estate recruiting starts with…tracking every recruiting activity such as interested calls, phone interviews, in-person interview and offers made in an excel spreadsheet every week so you can see your activity and what your spending money on.
  • Go beyond compensation, make agents want to work for you and in your office. The highest commission split, biggest marketing budgets and lowest E&O insurance premiums are not all that matter. Make an exciting and welcoming environment for your new and existing agents.  Introduce them to your preferred title, escrow, and insurance reps.  Discuss tools and training that have worked in the past and open opportunities.
  • How much is this recruiting going to cost you in marketing, on-boarding, training and materials? If your escrows do get delayed consider a commission advance to help with expenses from Express Cash Flow at ExpressCashFlow.com.  They will provide up to 75% of your net commissions within 4 hours.

10 Best Real Estate Recruiting:

1.       Friends, Family and Associates

Post on social media that your looking to expand and grow your office.  Tell everyone! What are the benefits to working with you and in your office?

2.       Hold an office contest

Encourage your agents to setup appointments for you with potential prospects and reward them with $250 on each new hire.  Or maybe the prize is dinner with you or just recognition in front of the entire office.

3.       Targeted Mailings

Targeted mailings could increase your brand awareness but the list needs to be very focused so that the conversion rate is higher to offset the costs.

4.       Local Charities

Get involved in local charities and attempt to serve on a few non-related real estate boards in your community. Learn to tell success stories about past clients and how you worked in different situations.  Everyone wants to hear good stories so rehearse them for when you have a few minutes before a meeting starts, dinner conversation or just telling friends.

5.       Become Friends

Get to know agents from competitors in your area.  Comment on their posts.  Are they active producers? Work ethic?  Values?

6.       Open Houses

Open houses are a great way to meet other agents in a comfortable setting.  Introduce yourself, hand out business cards and tell them what’s unique about your company, marketing, and culture.   Always follow-up, it might take 2 months or 2 years but plant your seed!

7.       Recruiting Landing Page on Your Website

Have a landing page for prospective agents to learn more about your business and fill-out a small questionnaire.

8.       Ask your past Clients

Ask your past clients (buyers or sellers) if they know anyone looking for a new career?  Email, phone call, text message, etc. Maybe it’s a niece that is just graduating college, someone that is in retirement looking for part-time work, a teacher that has the summers off and looking for a pay raise?  You won’t know if you don’t ask.

9.       Community events – 4th of July, Open House, New Shopping Center, etc

Have a table with some free popcorn, give aways from the 99-cent store or kids toys with your contact information. This is especially important if its in your “farm” neighborhood.

10.   Senior Centers

The best real estate recruiting tip! You may think that once people are in a Senior Center they might not need a real estate agent but it is truly the office administrators that you might want to deal with.  What happens when a couple needs to move into senior center and they have to put up the deposit and sell their house?  The office administrators usually recommends a real estate agent or two in their area that can sell their house quickly for top dollar…THAT NEEDS TO BE YOU OR YOUR AGENTS!  Obviously, you might have to pay a referral fee but you should come out on top!

Hashtags: #RealEstate #Broker, #realtor #realtorlife #realtors #luxuryrealtor #topproducer #realestateagent #realtormarketing #recruiting

Qualified Opportunity Zones Tax Savings

Qualified Opportunity Zones Tax Savings

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Did you know that there is now a better method of deferring capital gains tax on appreciated assets than a 1031 exchange?   Even better than that, did you know that it is possible to sell massively appreciated real estate free of any capital gains tax whatsoever? Answer Qualified Opportunity Zones!

One of the lesser discussed and lesser known aspects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was the formation of Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) and Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOF).  It’s on page 130, and doesn’t directly affect you unless you have large quantities of capital gains on which you’d rather not be taxed, so I’ll forgive you if you haven’t heard of it until now.

If that situation applies to you though, it is worth looking into.   But how do you know if the situation applies to you, what is a QOF and what is a QOZ?  Glad you asked- that’s what I’m here to answer.

There are two sides to this legislation that can benefit different folks in different ways.  Let’s first start with people who have recently sold an appreciated asset and are going to have a capital gain.  That might already be some of you, and that may be others of you in the future.

In the past, if you’ve sold this appreciated asset (let’s assume it is real estate), your only option to defer capital gains via a 1031 Exchange, in which you must relinquish your appreciated asset and purchase a replacement asset within both a finite period of time and a stringent set of guidelines.  The problem inherent in doing that, though, is that if you are picking a particularly good time to realize your gains (seller’s market!), guess what you’re going to need to do in order to defer your capital gains?  You guessed it, buy into that same market.

Now there are ways around this, you can sell in an “A” market and buy in a “C” market, or you can sell a particular type of property (residential) and buy a different type of property (Industrial?) via which you will be able to achieve a higher yield.  Or you could turn one multi-family property in CA into 85 single family rentals in Ohio, which I’ve helped facilitate and absolutely do not recommend for everyone.

But let’s say you don’t want to do any of that.  Let’s say you just want to not pay your capital gains tax at all.  Do these opportunity zones let you do that?

Well… kind of.

Here is exactly what the IRS has to say about Qualified Opportunity Zones:

Q. How do Qualified Opportunity Zones spur economic development?

A. Opportunity Zones are designed to spur economic development by providing tax benefits to investors. First, investors can defer tax on any prior gains until the earlier of the date on which an investment is sold or exchanged, or December 31, 2026, so long as the gain is reinvested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund. Second, if the investor holds the investment in the Opportunity Fund for at least ten years, the investor would be eligible for an increase in basis equal to the fair market value of the investment on the date that the investment is sold or exchanged.

Ok, so that’s a lot to unpack, and you can read more about what the IRS thinks are the important questions here, but essentially what the benefits actually are:

  • You can defer your gain until 12/31/2026
  • If you hold the reinvested funds via the QOF into QOZ assets for a minimum of 5 years, your basis in the original transaction increases by 10%, and if you hold for 7 years, you get an additional 5%, for a total of a 15% decrease in your initial liability (not bad!)
  • If you hold the investment for a minimum of 10 years, your basis upon sale is equal to your sales price.

I’ll go ahead and comment on those- 1 and 2 are cool if you’re talking about large dollars, but only really moves the needle if you are talking about very large numbers.  3 is a different story- 3 says that if you a buy a property through a QOF, don’t sell it for 10 years (or more), you pay no tax on the appreciation in that period.  This is an astounding bit of legislation, especially for those of us familiar with development and entitlements- things that generally take a while to accomplish, and see substantial amounts of profit (much of which is typically eaten up by capital gains tax).

If you’re like me, it might take a minute to fully appreciate the impact of that.  That means that if you buy a property in a QOZ via the captive capital gain in your QOF and hold it for 10 years, or more, your gain upon sale is entirely tax fee.  No two ways about it.  Just to make sure though- let’s walk through an example.

Let’s say that you sell your appreciated asset and that creates a capital gain of $2 Million.  You then invest that gain in a QOF, and that QOF buys property in a QOZ (also for $2 Million).

You then wait the requisite ten years (and remember, after year 8, the amount you are taxed on decreases to $1.7 M), and your property is now worth $5M.  The additional $3M gain is now not going to have any capital gains at all.  Zero.  $3M of tax-free gain… the holy grail of real estate investment (or any investment).

Ok, so these sound pretty cool?  Where are they?

Well, here.  And while the zones are certainly in places that you might expect them, they are also in a number of places you might not expect.  Huntington Beach?  Costa Mesa?  San Clemente?  These aren’t exactly areas that are screaming for outside capital to renovate a forgotten about and forlorn metropolis.  But, through the miracles of bipartisan legislation, they were included.

If you would like to know more about Qualified Opportunity Zones and how to best take advantage of this new and unique opportunity, feel free to reach out and we can connect on the topic.

Express Cash Flow – www.ExpressCashFlow.com

Recruiting Real Estate Agents pointing at contract

Real Estate Agent Recruiting Tactics

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

We all know that agent recruiting is the life blood of any successful real estate office, and it should be the goal to recruit the most, best agents.  But how does a real estate brokerage actually go about doing this?  Here are some of the tactics used by the most successful recruiters from around the world.

  • Some of the best agent recruiting is done by your current agents! Ask your agents whom they’ve enjoyed working with on past transactions, and whom they look up to at other offices.  Then provide incentives (trips, meals, a boost in their split) for the agents that provide you with the best referrals.
  • Get involved with charities and your local community. Sometimes the best way to find good real estate talent is in the most unlikely of places, and being involved in communities outside of your industry will help you grow your network immensely.
  • Get involved in communities in your industry, too! Hold a new agent training for your local board, and make sure to follow up with any qualified candidates.  Have your agents support you in this endeavor, and encourage them to follow up as well.
  • Email all of your top recruiting targets with their end of year sales and what they could have made working for you- NOTE: make sure you are confident of their current splits and that this would compare favorably before sending.
  • Organize an outing or mixer for some of your top agents to mingle and socialize with your top recruits, so the recruits can get a feel for what will allow them to continue to grow and succeed.
  • Everyone wants to grow their network, make sure you not only connect with your potential recruits on social media, but ensure that you impact your relationship with them positively.

Once you’ve had a chance to implement all of these tips, agent recruiting will no longer be about hunting whatever agents you are able to convince they should switch to you, but rather farming your various networks for the most, best agents around.

Happy recruiting!

Millennial Realtor having fun together

The Millennial Realtor

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Now more than ever, millennial’s have become disillusioned with the rigidity of the most desirable professions of generations past, most notably, law and medicine. Whether this is because of the mountain of student debt required, or the competition, or the lack of quality jobs in these fields, what is certainly the case is that millennial’s are now flocking to professions that allow their time to be more flexible…the Millennial Realtor.

One of those professions is, you guessed, it, real estate. They see big dollars and have an innate familiarity with social media, so it seems like a natural fit.
What’s more, they are probably the right hires for the job. According to Realtor.org, the average homebuyer is 33 years old while the average realtor is 57 years old. This disconnect, combined with the ever increasing usage of technology in the home buying process, means that there will be plenty of successful millennial realtors. So, you might as well recruit them to come work for you. But how do you go about doing that, exactly?

  1. Meet them the old fashioned way. This may sound counter-intuitive, but going the extra mile to meet potential new recruits in person will help you make a great impression, and also give you a better feel for the person that you may eventually ask to come work for you. But how do you go about finding people to meet in person? The best referrals for new agents, just like the best referrals for new clients, often come from within your own warm network. This is a great place to start.
  2. Embrace technology and social media. Millennials are already well adapted and familiar with these, so it is best for your brokerage to “go where the crowds are”. Having a social media platform that millennials can relate to and enjoy interacting with will help you grow your brand more quickly than any other form of getting the word out, and you will be rewarded with energetic and technologically savvy agents. If you want to truly take your web savviness to the next level, you can even build a presence at an online recruiting platform where millennial Realtors can compare and contrast the benefits for different brokerages.
  3. Create a truly great place for them to work. Whether this is by creating a luxurious office aesthetic or providing terrific intra-camaraderie, getting your new agents to enjoy the workplace will be one of the most important and valuable tasks you have as a broker. Their happiness will be clear in the stories they tell their friends, family, and the all-important social media, about how work is going. Ensuring that these stories are always positive ones will not only help you retain these agents, but help you grow your brand as well.
    With all of these tools in your pocket, you’ll be the talk of the town among the next generation of real estate agents!
People bumping fist

Attracting the Best Realtors (and Keep Them from Leaving)

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Attracting the best realtors is an interesting thing, in that its very premise requires changing your prospect’s mindset so drastically that they make a major life change, and once successful, ensuring that they never have their mindset changed in a similar fashion in the future.

This presents a challenge, because you are dealing with precisely the population of people whose minds were once changed in the first place.  So how do you go about winning both of these competitions?  It is all about creating the belief that you as a real estate brokerage offer a competitive advantage in the marketplace, and that working anywhere else would leave them at a disadvantage.

That’s wonderful as a strategy to attract the best realtors, but how do you actually go about creating that belief?

  • Attracting the best realtors requires training not only on the mechanics of the business (writing contracts, negotiating offers, etc), but focus also on how to gain more business. While almost all offices will offer floor time and open houses to hungry new agents, these methods are outdated when it comes to optimizing your presence among today’s web-savvy buyers.
  • Having a committed, proven, and effective strategy for agents to boost their business with online marketing will help you differentiate your brand from the competition.
  • Be a leader in technology. In an ever increasing technology based marketplace, not only are buyers and sellers starting their searches online, but agents looking for a place to hang their license are as well.  Taking advantage of premium placement on agent recruitment sites like AgentBranch.com are a great way to stand out as a leader in technology.
  • Give agents the right incentives to stay. This might be the most important of all.  Recruiting new agents is only half the battle, as your new recruits are just as likely to leave you as they were their last employer.  There is no one catch all solution to retaining agents though, it is more about understanding what motivates each individual
  • Will your newly recruited top producer be more motivated if he is given an equity stake in the company if he meets certain thresholds of production, or would he respond better to having a higher split on each transaction?  Will your new licensees perform better if given freedom to market how they see fit on a higher split, or provided with lead generation on a lower split?  Answering these questions correctly for each agent is key.  At the end of the day, successful brokerages will make all of their agents as successful as possible, and in so doing, will help preserve the highest possible retention rate.
Real Estate Listing Marketing Idea

Real Estate Listing Marketing Ideas

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

We all think we know how to market our listing but sometimes a refresher of a few items will help, and it can also be an opportunity to try new things.  Don’t know how…learn it on YouTube.  Here are the top real estate listing marketing ideas and how to get the best price for the least amount of days on the market.

1.    Price

Let’s face it, price is one of the biggest factors to getting your listing sold quickly.  Price it in the correct range for the quality of the house.  If you’re going to price it above all other comparable listings make sure it will appraise for that price.

2.    Set the Stage by Staging it!

If it’s empty, then stage it, if the seller is still living in the home then ask to help clean-up the clutter.  Professional stagers can work wonders with even the least appealing of houses.  Possibly refresh the house with new paint and carpet?

3.    Start with a Strong MLS Listing Description

Use a lot of keywords that other agents would use to find this home.  Key words or groups of key words (Long tail keywords) help with search engine optimization and will boost the exposure for your listing.

4.    Lots of Quality Photos

Photos say a thousand words.   Professional pictures of the front, back and every room, yards, scenic views in the neighborhood; anything at all to make the home more appealing.  If the price is a little higher than the competition the pictures should show why.

5.    Create Address Specific Landing Pages to Capture Leads

Getting a prospective buyer/lead is the first goal.  An address specific website for a high-end home really shows what you’re doing and improves your search engine optimization for marketing your listing.

6.    Posting on Facebook

The popularity of Facebook almost requires you to Post on Facebook because of the reach, don’t forget to boost your post before an open house by spending $10-$20 a day. Real estate listing marketing idea: Use hash tags to hit a larger audience. Consider changing your Profile Image to the image of the house with Open House information, that way people are notified of your change.  Suggest your friends to “Like” your marketing listing. For Top Ten Realtor Facebook Tip click here.

7.    Posting Real Estate on Instagram

Post pictures and a video on Instagram to your friends in the best location of the house.  Use a very a short description.

8.    Posting Real Estate on LinkedIn

This should be most of your business connections so get a few thousand connections that really count and market yourself as the go-to Agent and market all your properties.  Update your company profile with a professional description to make you and your listing stand out. For more information on LinkedIn Profile Optimizing Tricks click here.

9.    Open House

Consider a sign-in sheet and invite the neighbors. Do an evening open house with wine and cheese; everyone is in a better mood when the environment is festive.  Stay open later just don’t do the minimal Sunday from 1-4, maybe to 6pm.

10. Marketing in Magazines and Newspapers

One of the top marketing listing idea is the old-fashioned email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing to reach your audience.  You must dedicate an hour or two a month to update your contacts and maintain your Customer Relationship Management (CRM).  Send out at least one email a month about yourself, the local market, your brokerage and your listings.  Master the “Subject Line” it like the cover of the book, if its not interesting it won’t be opened.

11. Master your Elevator Pitch

What’s your 30 second pitch? Literally, if you were in an elevator going to the 20th floor, what would you say to the other person that just said they were moving to your marketing territory?

12. Email Marketing

One of the top real estate listing marketing idea is the old-fashioned email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing to reach your audience.  You must dedicate an hour or two a month to update your contacts and maintain your Customer Relationship Management (CRM).  Send out at least one email a month about yourself, the local market, your brokerage and your listings.  Master the “Subject Line” it like the cover of the book, if its not interesting it won’t be opened.

13. Send out Mailers

The same email marketing database (CRM) solution your using should also include mailing addresses to mail out postcards or flyers.

14. Brand yourself and the Property Profile across all Marketing Channels

If you have a team add their full profile to yours, and make sure to add the properties they sell to your page to boost your portfolio even further.  Review Building the Best Referral Base article click here.

15. Google Adwords for Real Estate Listing Marketing Ideas

If there are certain key words and long tail key works that buyers use in your area you can buy them on Google Adwords so your name is the first to show-up.  Real estate listing marketing idea examples:

  • “Vacation Beach House” – These key words can be purchase for a city or county.
  • “Napa Real Estate Agents” – Great for high end clients looking for an agent
  • “Beach houses in Newport Beach” – Great example of a long tail key word with a city

You can upload your contacts in Google as an Audience and market targeted ads to them.  The audience needs to be 5,000+ or more and Google will suggest similar lists that you can add.  The ads can be placed in Gmail accounts at the top of prospects emails and other locations.

Make sure to add “Negative Key Words” so that you are not marketing to everyone and wasting your budget.  Google support is available anytime and it’s a free resource so click on the large (?) at the top right-hand corner and call them with questions.

For a full ad on Google Adwords add the extensions for free to link to different tabs of your website.  Useful extensions would be to Listings, About Us, Resources, Contact Us, etc.

16. Yelp Account

Create a Yelp account and maintain it so it shows your current address, phone number, website and pictures.  Request past customers, associates and business partners to give you 5 stars along with some useful commentary.  This will help in your search engine marketing (SEO), not many real estate agents are focused on SEO but when you have the right profiles on social media accounts it really takes off.

17. Commission Advances for Real Estate Listing Marketing Ideas

If you have some listing marketing expenses that you need covered you may want to consider a commission advance.  An advance for a transaction that is in escrow is the most cost effective.  This is a quick and easy way to get part of your commissions early and get a portion of your commissions upfront.  Commission advances can be done for residential and commercial properties.  For more information on Commission Advance Tips click here.

18. Google your Name

When you google your name or company name and you don’t show up on the top then you need to work on your internet profile.  Make sure your social media profiles are all consistent with the same profile picture, phone number, website links and branding message.

19. Link it to Zillow

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) states that 92 percent of buyers house hunt online. As the largest real estate website with more than 160 million visitors per month, Zillow is the first place you need to be.

Real Estate Listing Marketing Idea: Once its listed in interesting statistic is the “Competition for this Home” which will show you the number of views in the last 30 days and the “Shoppers Saved” which means the number of individuals saved this home as a favorite in the last 30 days.

For more Zillow Tips & Tricks click here and here.

Conclusion

If you’re not technically savvy then hire an assistant or a marketing consultant because being a professional also means showing you’re a professional on-line.  If you’re not in front of your prospects then another realtor will be!  Having available cash flow to market your listing in the most professional and aggressive manner may require to have part of your commission early via a commission advance.  For more information about commission advances please check out Express Cash Flow.

Zillow logo

Top Zillow Profile Optimizing Tricks

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

 

A Zillow profile is the cornerstone for lead generation which helps convert prospects to contracts.  Placing your profile in the right location is key…marketing costs differ by zip code.  While 75% of a real estate agent’s business comes referrals and word of mouth, you still need a solid Zillow profile.

1.      Start with a Professional Photo that Matches all your Other On-Line Profiles

Start with the photo. Use a high-quality head shot. Avoid logos, yard signs and team pictures. A clear, individual headshot seems to work best.

2.      Introduction and About Us

Add your experience, specialties and skills.  This should include your geographic area of focus, and any particular specialty you have, like short sales, REOs, probate or buyer representation.  Also include your team and their profiles.

3.      Add Your Listings and Past Sales

This is usually done automatically but you can manually add your listings if you have recently switched to a different MLS.  You’ll want to highlight all of your best transactions, even if they didn’t occur on the MLS.  

4.      Professional Information

Have a complete and updated profile of your office address, cell phone, brokerage name, social media websites and our real estate license information.   Add a Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Website and for the Blog us Instagram.  Make sure the links work after you have completed your profile.

5.      Update your other social media profiles for consistency

Have the same profile picture, brokerage and links that work.

6.      Include an intro video

Prospective buyers and sellers want to get to know you in a 30-60 second video.  Who are you and what are you going go to do for them.  Why are you better than other agents?  Also market this video on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

7.      Ratings and Reviews – Get 5 Stars

This is huge!  You’ll want to ask past clients to review your skills for Local Knowledge, Process Expertise, Responsiveness, and Negation Skills along with adding some commentary.  Respond to every review — positive, negative or neutral. You’ll look professional and focused on customer service (stay positive!) fora complete Zillow Profile.

8.      Add other Members of your team to your profile.

If you have a team add their full profile to yours, and make sure to add the properties they sell to your page to boost your portfolio even further.

9.      Become a Zillow Premier Agent

The Zillow Premier Agent program is designed with the simple purpose of bringing agents more buyers, more sellers, and more business. Each service tier is loaded with innovative and powerful features aimed to generate more traffic to your brand and your listings — helping you sell homes faster.  To help finance your marketing check out www.ExpressCashFlow.com.

10. Other Real Estate Marketing Ideas

https://www.zillow.com/agent-resources/blog/100-real-estate-marketing-ideas/

Conclusion

Build a complete Zillow profile and be sure to revisit it every few months (set a quarterly reminder on your calendar, or you will forget!) and update as necessary.  When you get a lead be very responsive…within 5-10 minutes otherwise the prospect might move on.

 

This post is brought to you by Express Cash Flow – Helping you grow your real estate business by providing you with cash today.

Express Cash Flow, Commission Advance

 

 

a person typing on a laptop with Credit Check form

Hard Pull vs Soft Pull Credit Checks

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

For many an individual and business, access to credit depends on FICO scores, recent credit checks and the contents of credit history reports maintained at the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. A “pull” is a credit inquiry from a legitimate entity, made in order to check your credit.
A hard pull is one that can affect your FICO score, whereas a SOFT PULL HAS NO EFFECT. This is important to remember, because too many hard pulls can lower your credit score. The Fair Credit Reporting Acts sets limits on why and when your credit report can be pulled.

Soft Pulls – Credit Checks

All credit inquiries that are not credit checks by a prospective lender are soft pulls. First, any inquiries you make upon your own credit reports or FICO scores are automatically a soft pull credit check, so feel free to make as many as you like.
Other soft-pull examples include:
• Credit inquiries from businesses that want to offer you goods or services (for example, a promotional offer from a credit card issuer or mortgage lender)
• Inquiries from businesses where you already have established a credit account.
• Pre-approved loan and credit card offers
• Employers and others performing a background check on you. For some reason, employers tend to gravitate towards job candidates with good credit ratings.

You may be subject to a soft pull and not even know it. Often, soft pulls help businesses save money when canvassing for new customers, because these inquiries can rule out some potential prospects, saving the business paper and postage costs.

Hard Pulls – Credit Checks

Hard pulls result when a potential lender wants to review your credit application. Common credit applications that trigger hard pull credit checks are ones for credit cards, mortgages and car loans. Each credit check is counted as one inquiry. However, you get a break if you are “rate shopping,” in that all inquiries for the same purpose, such as a mortgage, business loan, rental property, student loan, etc., within a 45-day period are counted as only a single hard pull. This has implications – if you are apartment hunting, its best to do it within a short period if you want to maintain your FICO score.

Common Soft Inquires:
• Verification of identity
• Unsecured debt
• “Pre-qualified” credit card offers
• “Pre-qualified” insurance quotes
• Car rentals
• Obtaining an Internet or cable account
• Opening a bank account
• Requesting a higher credit limit
• Contracting for a cell phone account

Common Hard Inquiries:
• Mortgage applications
• Auto loan applications
• Credit card applications
• Student loan applications
• Personal loan applications
• Apartment rental applications

Pulls and Scores

Although a hard pull can affect your FICO score, the impact upon your score can vary. The score is sensitive to several factors:
• The inquiry must be a voluntary application for credit
• The number of new accounts you have recently opened
• The percentage of your accounts that have recently been opened, by account type
• The number of recent credit inquiries you have had
• The amount of time that has elapsed since you opened an account, by account type
• The amount of time since the last credit inquiry

The good news is that a single hard pull or credit check might not affect your credit score at all, and even if it does, the cost is usually less than five points. The bad news is that if you have a short credit history or just a handful of credit accounts, a hard pull can have a greater impact on your credit score. So can multiple hard pulls that are not categorized as rate shopping. Wonder why? Here’s the dirty little secret – consumers with at least six credit inquiries are 8X more likely than those with no inquiries to file for bankruptcy.
By the way, you can dispute a hard inquiry performed without your permission. Authorized hard pulls usually hang around on your credit history for a couple of years.

Soft Is Better for a Credit Check
Now, if you are looking for a commercial business loan, keep in mind that Express Cash Flow uses soft credit pulls that won’t affect your credit score. When you combine this with our fast, no-hassle process and quick turn round, it’s easy to see why Express Cash Flow is growing into one of the commission advance companies in the U.S.

Open House Sign

Realtors plot statewide database to combat Zillow, Redfin and other apps

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Open House Sign
Open House Sign

Is the Realtor, run property listing service in California obsolete?

Several brokers, agents and “multiple listing service” operators expressed concern during a panel discussion Wednesday that commercial websites like Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com have overtaken the patchwork of industry databases agents use to find homes for clients.

“The world of big data doesn’t seem to have come to the MLS in any meaningful way,” said David Silver-Westrick, a partner at San Clemente-based Keller Williams OC Coastal Realty. “We’re missing the boat on lots of big data opportunities. To the extent that consumers have better tools than we do, we just become irrelevant.”

The California Association of Realtors sponsored Wednesday’s event, held at CAR headquarters in Los Angeles, to plot the future of broker-run MLS sites and to find ways to meet the association’s 12-year-old goal of forming a single, statewide database in California. There currently are more than 40 MLS’s in California.

Agents use the MLS to disseminate information about homes for sale, providing property details as well as insider information about showings and compensation.

The statewide MLS effort so far has led to the formation of the Diamond Bar-based California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which currently represents most of Southern California and the Bay Area. CRMLS includes more than 92,000 agents and 37 local Realtor associations. But that’s still less than half the local associations in the state and doesn’t include San Francisco, Ventura County and most of Santa Barbara County, according to the MLS’s website.

“I think that there is an opportunity that is fast fading,” said CRMLS CEO Art Carter. “If we do not do it shortly, then we will forever be chasing others that will most likely take the handles and move forward.”

Other panelists lamented MLS problems include inaccurate and outdated data as well as the lack of consolidation.

“As someone who lists and sells real estate, I need it to be more efficient,” said Jeanne Radsick, an agent with Century 21 Tobias Real Estate in Bakersfield. “I need to not have to go to multiple sources to find what I’m looking for.”

Technology isn’t an issue, panelists said. Carter said a statewide MLS could be established in three months once the paperwork is in place.

The main obstacle is politics. Concerns among agents and brokers include the question of who controls broker information — the MLS or the brokers themselves. MLS employees also worry about losing their jobs under a consolidated system. And smaller MLS sites fear larger, out-of-area brokerages will take away their business if the outsiders have access to property data in their areas.

“The politics (is) on the local level with (small) MLS’s. You can’t even get Arrowhead and Big Bear to talk, and they’re right next door to each other,” said Sandra Deering, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Newport Beach. “The reality is those people are still protective of their jobs. … They don’t have the bandwidth, I don’t think, to see beyond their day-to-day operation. I don’t know how to overcome that.”

Deering has to join 25 MLS sites for her business, “and just managing the licensing, the payment process is a full-time staff person,” she said.
“These changes in the environment, particularly on the consumer side, have given the consumer … the ability to have information that is equivalent, if not superior, to what the agents have,” said Joel Singer, CEO of the state Realtor association. “The question is can this current structure survive? Or perhaps the question is should this current structure survive if it doesn’t alter.”

Singer said that when he bought a house last year, the MLS data from his broker “didn’t compare very well to the data that I got when I signed up with Redfin. … Is this a problem for us?”

Carter and other panelists see a statewide MLS as a precursor to forming a nation-wide system.

“It’s a process of becoming a lot more aggressive,” Carter said. “Consolidate with the willing and (share data) with the unwilling to consolidate and go around those that are just willing to do neither.”

Source: Redfin California

Re/Max: Real estate expected to boom in 2018

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Crystal Ball Real Estate Prediction

After a year of rising home prices, low inventory levels and ongoing homebuyer demand, these conditions will increase even more in 2018.

As the year begins, one expert breaks down some of the major trends to come in 2018, saying the year will bring an abundance of positive trends.

“Turn up the volume on new home building,” Re/Max Co-CEO Adam Contos said, citing housing starts that are down 2.9% year-over-year and well below the historic 50-year average. “We’d love nothing more than to see the next generation of homebuyers start building equity now.”

Contos gives these four predictions for 2018:

1. Inventory is key

Contos explained that the volume on new home building will increase, but until that happens, the market will struggle with low inventory and some markets will feature all-out bidding wars. In 2017, housing starts were down 2.9% year-over-year and well below the historic 50-year average. Even though there’s a shortage of l

abor and a spike in material costs, the primary reason for the low starts is that builders have focused on more profitable, higher priced homes and multi-family residential construction. But now, at the end of the year, single-family homebuilding and permits began to surge, he pointed out, saying he would like to see that trend continue.

2. Existing home sales on the rise

Fueled by renewed consumer confidence, wage growth and an improving economy, existing home sales could increase and may even surpass record levels set back in 2006. However, any negative impacts on the stock market, even tighter inventories, a repeat of 2017’s devastating hurricanes and fires or even the recently signed tax reform bill could slow down home sales.

3. Changing migration patterns

Home buyers discouraged by affordability and low inventory in certain cities, markets and states, will look to other, more attractive and more inviting neighborhoods. Contos said he expects to see more home sales in the suburbs, less-populated markets and even more affordable states. Cities that have the most effective transportation systems and those that promote high-amenity, “walkable,” contemporary neighborhoods will benefit the most.

4. Always the unexpected

Gadgets, apps, online tools, real estate agents and technology – anything that makes buying and selling a home more plausible and less stressful will continue to launch and evolve, especially in 2018. He predicted consumers may not use bitcoins to buy a home tomorrow, but that could be in the future.

“We’ll certainly see our share of challenges in 2018,” Contos said. “But with the challenges will come ecstatic home buyers and sellers, new and booming communities, one boasting the new Amazon headquarters, and fresh innovations in real estate that we never saw coming.”

To see more forecasts for 2018, click here.  Source: Housingwire