The estate market continues to grow in 2018. Hence, agents should think about the ways to improve their estate corporate marketing methods this year. This is crucial to have tactics that will help individuals maximize visibility and stay apart from the competition, says William Bronchick.

There is a huge competition in estate industry these days, hence individuals needs online and offline marketing strategies. If you are looking for some marketing ideas then you are at right place. In this article, we have compiled a list of estate marketing ideas to help agents stand out in the digital age.

Following are some creative Real Estate marketing ideas that you should follow in 2018:

Create a Responsive Website

More than 30% of visits are from smartphones. Hence, you should make sure that your website is optimized for all platforms (Android, iOS etc.) as well as devices (smartphone, desktop etc.).

Upgrade the Quality of Photos

Actually, inexpert eyes can tell the difference between good quality photos and hurried clicks. If individuals are looking for home and pictures are blurry, it will leave a bad impression. Therefore, you should take some time to take quality pictures.

Active on Social Media

Todays, people of every age use social media to share updates about their lives. Being an estate agent, you can utilize the social media channel to grow or cultivate your real estate business. Moreover, you should share value-rich content on different social media sites.

Add Live Chat Option to Your Website

Live chat is an effective online marketing tool. This option allows website visitors to ask questions and get the answers in real time. Furthermore, live chat creates a stronger user experience and provide valuable information to reach out.

Create Content that Provides True Value

According to William Bronchick, the primary focus of an agent should be on clients who want to buy or sell a home. Estate agents have to share the content full of valuable information applicable to individuals not presently in the niche. Moreover, sharable content also increases agent’s exposure to prospective clients.

Follow Up With Clients

This is essential to stay in touch with your previous clients. There is a need to send newsletters and email on regular basis. By providing valuable information about your business and reaching out continuously, previous clients will more likely to remember you when they need some help.

Ask for Referral

Word of mouth marketing is one of the simpler, easiest and cost-effective marketing methods. Here, the key is to ask. You should create a referral program with affiliates, maintain a good relationship with clients and ask them for referrals. More than 80% estate agents agree the fact that referrals from present and past clients are the successful marketing efforts.

Bottom Lines

In order to grow and cultivate estate industry, it requires effort and time. The marketing tactics here are given by William Bronchick, which worth agent’s effort if they follow different techniques wisely and attentively.

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William Bronchick | Creative Real Estate Marketing Ideas in 2018

William Bronchick: People settle claims out of court all the time, and that is often the smart thing to do. But, most people forget the one simple step that is crucial to the process. This simple step, if omitted, can result in a future lawsuit against you, even if you allegedly settled the claim.

Consider the act of settling with a tenant who his behind on his rent: you accept the keys, waive his back rent and he moves out quietly. But, the tenant can always come back and sue you years later regarding damage to his property because of a leaky pipe. There is a simple way to avoid this lawsuit from happening.

Consider the times you may have accepted or given an earnest money deposit on a real estate contract. The closing never happened, and you either kept or forfeited the earnest money. Does this mean you can’t be sued in the future for breach of the contract? Don’t bet on it!

Consider the times you may have settled a claim with your neighbor regarding any controversy that may have allowed him to sue you. It may have been a situation where he fell on your property and was injured. You offered to pay his medical bills and he graciously accepted. However, two years later, what is to stop him from suing you for additional damages for pain and suffering? The answer: nothing! OK, so now you are begging me to reveal the secret of how to avoid future liability on transactions such as these. The answer is simple: you need to get a written release of liability.

A release, also known as a “general release,” is a simple document by which someone agrees to release you from all liability. A properly drafted release will prevent the signor of the document (the “releaser”) from bringing any claims against you in the future that he had as of the date of the release. Keep in mind that the release will not prevent the releaser from suing you for new claims related to events that arose after he signed the release by William Bronchick.

So, whenever you have a dispute with any other party that is settled, make sure you have that party sign a general release form before you give any money or consideration. And, speaking of consideration, there must be consideration given for the release to make it legally binding. In other words, you can’t just get someone to sign a release with nothing in return. A promise to waive your own legal rights against the releaser is sufficient consideration (i.e., you may have to sign a release against the other party as well). If you can’t think of any consideration, consider any counterclaim you may have against the opposing party, and threaten legal action to create a “dispute.”

For example, if someone threatens to sue you over monies owed for services, consider questioning any part of the services provided that may have been performed inadequately. Of course, you may have to visit with a lawyer to determine what claims, if any, you may have against the party threatening you. In other words, don’t lie or make something up. Do what lawyers do: use your imagination, find a creative argument that might hold water, then bluff! Even if you have a very small chance of winning on your counterclaim in court, it is sufficient consideration to waive that claim in exchange for the opposing party waiving their own claim.

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Best-Selling Author and Attorney Colorado

William Bronchick: You buy a property, you wholesale it, you profit. Do you need a license to wholesale Property? In most cases, the answer is “no”.

Real estate brokerage is an activity regulated by states on their own terms, thus each state defines which activities require a license. There is a lot of vagueness and ambiguity in some of the state licensing codes, as well as “gray areas”, which complicate the matter. Furthermore, if you vary the techniques and your business practices beyond the scope of what I teach in my courses, it is not always clear how the state authorities might view your practices. Therefore, this discussion is limited to the simple act of buying and flipping as follows:

1. Sign a contract with a seller, assign it to another investor

2. Sign a contract with a seller, sign another one with a third party, then double close

“FOR ANOTHER”

The large majority of states use the “for another” language in their state licensing statutes. The “for another” language means the law provides a laundry list of activities that require a license if you do it “for another.”

A good example is the Ohio Statute:

§ 4735.01 Definitions. As used in this chapter:

(A) “Real estate broker” includes any person, partnership, association, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or corporation, foreign or domestic, who for another, whether pursuant to a power of attorney or otherwise, and who for a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration, or with the intention, or in the expectation, or upon the promise of receiving or collecting a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration does any of the following:

The Ohio code then goes on to list all types of activity, such as buying, selling, offerings, leasing, negotiating, etc. This type of statute would clearly exempt you from doing any of the listed activity so long as you were doing it on your own behalf. The following court case clearly delineates the difference between acting on your own behalf and acting as a broker.

In Xarin Real Estate v. Gamboa, 715 S.W. 80 (TX 1986), an investor named Xarin entered into a purchase contract with the owner, Gamboa, then assigned his purchase contract to a third party, Baker. When the deal blew up, Baker sued Xarin claiming, among other things, that Xarin was illegally acting as a real estate broker without a license.

The court ruled that “No evidence exists to show that Xarin was acting for anyone but itself when it sold its interest to Baker. Xarin was shown on the sales contract to be only the purchaser and was not shown in any agency capacity… There is also no evidence that Xarin acted for Baker when Xarin acquired its interest in the property from the Gamboa’s. Generally, to establish that one person has acted for another in a normal agency relationship, there must be an agreement between two persons and one must exercise some control over the other.”

Two important points are worth noting here. First, the court acknowledged that Xarin had “an interest in the property” when it signed a purchase contract with Gamboa. As we will discuss later, having “an interest” in real estate allows you to sell your interest, which is specifically exempt from many state licensing laws. Second, the court made an important point that the Xarin did not have a deal with Baker in place when it made the deal with the owner of the property. This is important because the reverse can also be true; if you make a deal with a buyer first, then find him a property, a good argument can be made that activity is brokering on behalf of the buyer said by William Bronchick.

CLEAR EXEMPTIONS

Other states that do not use the “for another” language clearly identify specific exemptions in their licensing statutes. A good example is the South Carolina statute, which reads:

“This chapter does not apply to:

The sale, lease, or rental of real estate by an unlicensed owner of real estate who owns any interest in the real estate if the interest being sold, leased, or rented is identical to the owner’s legal interest”

However, you must have an interest in the property before you sell it. In general, a contract to purchase property gives the buyer an equitable interest in the land. 27A Am. Jur. 2d Equitable Conversion § 10. Thus, if you have an interest in the property, you are basically exempt from the licensing regulations in these states.

TRYING TO SKIRT THE LICENSING RULES

While the basic types of activity I have described is generally exempt from licensing regulations, there are cases in which a license would be required.  For example, if you are finding buyers first, then shopping around for properties you can wholesale to them, this could be essentially acting as a buyer’s broker.  The premises of my discussion assumes that when you go under contract with the seller you do not have a buyer to assign or flip to, thus you are “at risk”.

REGULATION FOR ALL

A few states limit the real estate activity of any persons, even if you are acting on your own behalf. SD, MN, WI, MI, MD & MN all have limitations on the number and frequency of real estate transactions you can do before you will need a real estate license. For example, Michigan law limits you to 4 transactions per year, although it is not clear whether using multiple corporate entities will be a workaround.

There’s few, if any, reported cases of people being prosecuted anywhere in the country for not having a real estate license. The issue of licensing is more relevant to the enforcement of your profit. For example, if you assign your contract prior to closing and expect the buyer to pay you at closing, he may stiff you and argue “you don’t have a license”.

The bottom line is that if you don’t act like a real estate broker, the state agencies that license brokers will leave you alone. If you use the licensing exemptions to skirt the licensing laws, you will likely hear from the state licensing agencies. It is important that you make it very clear to all parties in the transaction that you are not a broker and are acting on your own behalf.  Sometimes having a trusted advisor, attorney or mentor can truly keep you out of trouble

William Bronchick: Too many investors go to closing and sign documents without ever reading them, taking the word of the “professionals” involved in the closing. This is a huge mistake unless that professional is your lawyer, and he or she has read and understood the loan documents. Don’t presume that the lawyer you are paying represents you. Many banks have lawyers that represent them and charge that fee to the borrower.

Mortgage brokers and lenders are not by their nature dishonest but there are enough shady characters that try to slip things by on borrowers. In some cases, it is a mistake by the lender or a miscommunication between the mortgage broker and the lender, both of which result in the borrower getting a different loan than what was promised.

The most common things that are incorrect on a loan are:

Prepayment Penalty

The most common “hidden” clause is a prepayment penalty that the lender does not disclose or that was supposed to be omitted. The only way to know for sure is to read your mortgage note to see if there is a prepayment penalty clause. In some cases, a lender may say there is no prepayment penalty but has inserted a “soft” prepayment penalty (applies to refis only). In addition, read carefully how much the penalty is, and how long after the loan is originated the penalty applies.

Fixed versus Adjustable Rate

If you pay for a fixed-rate loan, you may end up with a surprise at closing in the form of an adjustable-rate loan that is fixed only for a certain time period, such as two years. In some cases, you may be promised a five-year fixed rate and end up with a three-year fixed rate. Moreover, read carefully about how the loan adjusts. Some ARM loans can only be adjusted twice a year, others can be adjusted monthly. Finally, look at the amount the loan can adjust each time, and the maximum rate the lender can charge over the life of the loan. All of this will be spelled out in the mortgage note. (Hint: if the note is titled, “Adjustable Rate Loan,” it’s a dead giveaway that you don’t have a fixed-rate loan!)

Owner-Occupied Loan

If you apply for the loan as an investor, the mortgage broker may submit it for approval as an owner-occupied loan, either by accident or on purpose. Read the documents carefully. Do not sign your name to any document saying that you promise to live in the property if you aren’t actually going to do so. William Bronchick says that in most cases, the mortgage or deed of trust will have a rider (addendum) that says you do not intend to occupy the property as your principal residence.

The bottom line, my friends, is READ before you sign. Once you sign, you are out of luck, because there’s no three-day right of rescission for an investor loan!

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