#1 Best Tool For Real Estate Agents

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Best Effective tool for Real Estate Agent Lead Targeting

Benutech, a lead generation company based in Costa Mesa, CA has developed the #1 best tool for real estate agents to grow their business. Benutech hones in on life events that cause people to sell their homes like: Divorces, Notice of Defaults, Probates, Tax Defaults, FSBO’s, Estate Sales, Empty Nesters, Bankruptcy, Affidavit of Death etc.  With Benutech’s ReboMatic product, you are 5 times more likely at acquiring listings than with typical farming.  ReboMatic is the best tool for Real Estate Agents.

In order to succeed in today’s highly competitive real estate market, you need to stand out and you the best tools out there. You still need to be aggressive with marketing, but you need to be smart about how you are marketing as well. One way to make your marketing more efficient is to target only the homes that are most likely to sell and not waste time on the others. Sound too good to be true? It isn’t!

The automation of acquiring listings is a good enough reason to use their products on its own.  However, the price makes it a no-brainer.  Benutech has a variety of ReboMatic products that range from $600-1,000 per month. However, with ReboMatic, the agent will automate their marketing campaign, generating far more business.

Superior Product

While any title rep can pull a farm, there is something to be said for using the automation of the ReboMatic platform instead. While there are other data aggregators that attempt to predict sales, no other company has the combination of data, tools, and marketing efficiency than ReboMatic. What’s more, if you don’t want to come out of pocket to pay for their services, you are able to finance them through current and future transactions.

Flexible Financing- ReboExpress

Unlike other subscriptions that must be paid monthly or quarterly, ReboGateway understands the cyclical nature of the real estate business. You can finance ReboGateway through ReboExpress, a new financing option offered by Express Cash Flow. This allows you to manage your cash flow and budgeting much more effectively, and is one of the many benefits of ReboGateway.

Express Cash Flow, Commission Advances

Should Realtors Get a Commission Advance?

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Express Cash Flow, Commission AdvancesThe Commission Advance Conundrum

Like many businesses, a typical real estate brokerage may have a line of credit available when a cash crunch occurs.  The brokerage can meet its recurring administrative payroll, pay office expense, and maintain regular budgets for recruiting and advertising.  When transactions are slow, similar to a commission advance, the line of credit kicks in to offset expenses.

This arrangement is necessary for the brokerage business and businesses of all kinds to be successful. It is not hard to understand why it is also necessary for realtors as well.   Realtors also have teams that require regular payment, regardless of the agent’s production. Most have listings that require advertisement and promotion.  Since most agents are running their own business, they are also responsible for all of their own expenses, and that can get expensive.

The problem is, realtors who sell 24 houses a year do not typically sell two houses each month. Rather, there is a spike in production in April-September, and a sprinkling of transactions in all other months. During the slow months, agents have little alternative but to ask for an advance. If they go to their broker for this, tension can mount.

A Solution!

Realtors stuck in this situation often don’t know what way to turn, but just like in any business, there is a solution.  A commission advance company like Express Cash Flow can provide an external solution to this problem.  When a realtor goes to a third party company for a commission advance, what can be an informal arrangement becomes formalized.  An amount is given as an advance, for a specific period of time, and there is a fee for doing so.

There is also a clearly laid out extension fee schedule, leaving no room for ambiguity.  The best reason for using a third party commission advance company is that it removes the tension between agent and broker if a deal falls apart.

Yes!  Get A Commission Advance!

More realtors than one would think utilize commission advance services.  Some of the top producers whom are very well known and have massive marketing budgets use commission advances.  If you have aspirations of success, a commission advance should not stop you.

Attractive blonde young woman at the wheel in her new car

Realtor Tips – Buy vs Lease Vehicles

by Commission Advances
Realtor Tips - Buy vs Lease Vehicles
Realtor Tips – Buy vs Lease VehB

Realtor: Buy vs Lease

A typical realtor makes well informed decisions when it comes to the vehicle they are going to drive.

In today’s economy, if car dealerships had it their way, everyone would be leasing their vehicles.

For starters, the shorter term life cycles of leases guarantee more transactions will happen, keeping dealer volume high.  When a customer returns a vehicle on lease to the dealership, multiple transactions happen.  In addition, customers enjoy the perks of a short term lease, such as a full manufacturer warranty, and customer loyalty is always the goal.  This is the dealer’s best case scenario.

Do Your Homework

Any realtor looking for a new ride will want to map out goals ahead of time.  Having a plan of what you want will help avoid the pitfalls of an unethical salesperson.  If you are going to consider a lease, keep in mind that realtors drive more than almost any other profession.  In fact,  National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates the average realtor driving in excess of 30,000 miles annually for business alone.

Dealerships often offer leasing as an attractive option due to a lower monthly payment, but this can be misleading. The monthly payments may be lower and tempting, but so is the annual mileage allotment.  Exceeding this mileage allotment will result in extra payments, and possibly even a higher payment than the purchase option.

Let’s see which real estate agents should NOT lease:

Any agent who drives more than 17,000 miles per year. NAR estimates that its own agents average about 30,300 miles annually for business-related driving. If you do that much driving from open houses to showings, or if your lease is not set up correctly (cannot afford the payments of high mileage lease), don’t get talked into leasing a car. Since leasing companies charge between 15 – 30 cents per mile you drive over their standard limit of 10,000 miles annually, a 7,000 mile overage could end up costing as much as $2,100 at the end of the lease.

The Decision

If you are not into changing cars every three years, and would like to buy one and drive it until you are ready for a change.

If pre-owned is an option. You can save several thousands of dollars on a one-year-old, low mileage pre-owned vehicle.

It’s practically impossible for buyers—who on average only buy three to five cars in a lifetime—to keep track of it all and be informed enough so no one takes advantage of them. There are many loopholes and facts to be aware of and so make sure you do your homework before going into the dealer.

About Us:

Express Cash Flow provides commission advances for real estate agents and brokers.  Check us out at www.ExpressCashFlow.com or call us at 844-818-2274.

Commission Advance

Top Commission Advance Tips

by Commission AdvancesExpress Cash Flow Blog Posts

 

What Is A Commission Advance?

Why should you have to wait for your commission until the closing day to get paid when you could use a commission advance instead?

  1. No Credit Checks–Look for real estate commission advance companies that don’t require a credit check. Advance companies provide you with funding based on a contract of sale and a pending commission, which you sell to them.  Your Purchase and Sales Agreement is the collateral for your advance.
  1. Same-Day Approval– The approval and underwriting process should be quick with any advance company.   The longer process is usually gathering DocuSign signatures and getting confirmation from brokers and escrow companies.
  1. Simple Application– Advance companies usually have an online application. The advance company you choose to work with should offer a quick application and a very concise and clear list of documents that can be uploaded.

What Do You Need?

The documents for a commission advance are simple:

A. Purchase and Sales Agreement
B. Driver’s License
C. Bank Account Information
D. Broker and Escrow contact information
E. Summary of Closed Transactions

  1. Multiple Commission Advances – Every advance company is different but usually you can have up to 2 or 3 advances at one time. Some commission advance companies tranche or fund in 2 payments because the agent requests a large advance amount. 
  1. Listing Advance vs. Commission Advance – some companies offer Listing Advances, which is when there is no identified buyer but only a listing agreement with the seller. Traditionally at least 2 or 3 listings in order to qualify for a Listing Advance.  A commission advance is when a broker or agent receives a portion of their commission prior to closing.

Find a commission advance company that fits your needs and works with you.  Some regional franchises may have different underwriting procedures due to state rules, but most nationwide advance companies like Express Cash Flow provide excellent service.  Check them out at ExpressCashFlow.com.

#CommissionAdvance, #Real Estate, #Realtor, #businessCredit, #BusinessCash, #BusinessCashAdvance

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LinkedIn Profile Tips for Realtors

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

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Maximizing Your LinkedIn Profile

In today’s age of social media being the go to for verification of business acumen, it is crucial to have an optimized LinkedIn profile.  Here are some tips on how to do just that:

1. Have your best and clearest profile picture and complete your entire profile,
2. Address what you do in your Headline not just your title,
3. Join Groups to connect with your customers, partners and prospects,
4. Tell your friends, co-workers, etc to “Like” and “Share” your post,
5. Publish articles to show your knowledge of the industry,
6. Contribute and comment to blogs,
7. Automatically connect with your contacts: sync your email accounts with LinkedIn,
8. Ask a title rep for all the homeowners in your farm and connect with them on LinkedIn,
9. Search senior job titles in your city and connect by writing them a note,
10. Lastly, and to supercharge your connects…connect with people that have a high number of shared connections by searching your “2nd degree connections”. They will usually accept your invitation more easily than ones that you don’t have share connections with. This will exponentially grow your network!

About Us:
AgentBranch.com is a real estate recruiting platform for real estate agents and brokers.
ExpressCashFlow.com provides commission advances for real estate agents and brokers.

Realtor Financing – Commission Advances

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Real estate is just like any business: it requires capital. The solution:  Realtor financing.

Capital is needed for expenses such as business cards, advertising, office equipment, and transportation, just to name a few examples. Since capital, or cash, only flows into the coffers of a realtor upon completion of a sale, financing these kinds of expenses can be challenging. If you are a realtor and you find yourself particularly stretched financially between sales, there is good news. You can use real estate advances to finance your business.

Commission Advance Cost?

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

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How much does a commission advance cost?

 

This is usually the first and most important question to real estate brokers and agents who inquire about commission advances. This is a very reasonable question, but not a simple one.

While other companies have flat fee or fixed pricing based on the amount requested for an advance, Express Cash Flow don’t operate that way. This is almost always to the benefit of the agent requesting the advance.  A one-size fits all approach doesn’t take into account the different variables of a real estate transaction.  It also doesn’t factor in experienced agents and inexperienced agents. If no two transactions and no two agents are exactly alike, then it makes sense that those transactions have different risks. If they have different risks, then it would only make sense that those different risks resulted in different pricing. So, what are the different risks, and how do they affect the commission advance cost?

Transaction Risk
No matter how solid a real estate deal seems, there is always the chance that it could fall apart. Sometimes a buyer is unable to qualify for financing, or has a cash emergency. While this is rare and unfortunate, it does happen. There are a number of hurdles to each transaction, and any of them can be its undoing. As such, an advance requested early in the lifespan of the transaction will always be more expensive.

Agent Risk
While there will always be risks associated with a transaction, we also measure your production history as a real estate agent or broker and the risk associated with a replacement transaction should your transaction fall apart. The more history of closed transactions you have, the lower our risk, and the lower your pricing will be.

Delay Risk
It is also entirely possible that there will be delays.  Because of this, we have to have protection from these delays since close of escrow date determines pricing. So, the only fees you will ever see besides our initial quoted fee is if your property does not close escrow on time. Note, however, that the close of escrow date we agree on does not have to be the same as the close of escrow date on the purchase agreement. In order to avoid these fees, you can project a close of escrow date after the scheduled close of escrow, which is a savvy, cost saving move.

Conclusion
There is only one right answer to our most frequent question “How much does a Commission Advance Cost?” That is, we don’t know yet, but would be happy to look at your scenario individually.  If you’re able to provide us all of the details, we should be able to give you a ballpark price.  The good news is, unlike some of our competitors, we give you the full amount you ask for and are paid back only at close of escrow, so our interests are aligned with yours throughout the transaction.

About Us:
Express Cash Flow provides commission advances for real estate agents and brokers. Check us out at www.ExpressCashFlow.com or call us at 844-818-2274.

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Should You Get A Second Appraisal?

by Express Cash Flow Blog Posts

Another Appraisal?

It’s a nightmare scenario. After brokering an excellent deal and receiving an offer right at or slightly above purchase price, the home sellers, buyers, and agents are simply waiting for the final details to fall into place, when the unthinkable occurs: an appraisal below purchase price.

Nothing can kill a real estate deal faster than an appraisal falling short of the agreed-upon purchase price because buyers can’t get a loan for more than an appraisal says the house is worth. The National Association of Realtors reports that about 10 percent of canceled sale contracts are due to low appraisals.

So what’s a real estate agent to do when this situation occurs? First, these are times when commission advance can help agents maintain cash flow to their real estate businesses while sellers, buyers and agents attempt to salvage the deal.

What Now?

So, should you seek a second appraisal? Here are a few things to consider.

It’s important to remember that an appraisal is simply the opinion of one appraiser. This means two different appraisers can conclude two different values for the same home. As a real estate agent, you have certain tools at your disposal to determine whether an appraiser’s opinion is accurate.

Most lenders have a process for challenging an appraisal, so savvy agents often start by pulling comparable properties that have recently sold and making a case to the buyer’s potential mortgage lender. Appraisers typically pull comparable sales information from multiple listing services, so if sales occurred outside of the listing service, point those out. Also, check if the comparables used by the appraiser were short sales or foreclosures. Short sales and homes in foreclosure usually sell for less than homes sold by owners in good financial standing with their lenders.

Find out the lender’s appraisal challenge process. Appraisals cost the buyer or the lender, so be prepared to give specifics about what the appraiser missed in valuing the property. In addition to providing comparable property sales, be prepared to show improvements to the home that an appraiser may have overlooked. If the appraisal shows two bathrooms when there are actually three, ensure that the lender or appraiser on a second pass knows the correct number of bathrooms and bedrooms and the correct square footage of the home.

Many times, these contracts that fall apart due to low appraisals can be salvaged, but it takes research and effort to get the job done. An express commission advance can keep the bills paid until a delayed deal closes.