Hawaii Randy's Real Estate Opinions: Randy L. Prothero - Hawaii REALTOR® (Century 21 Liberty Homes)

The consumers in general are looking for the best agents they can find.  They are dealing with the most expensive thing in their lives and do not want to put it in the hands of someone inexperienced.

I bet you are saying, is he disproving the title of this article?  I said can have an advantage, not does have an advantage.  So now that we agree that new agents have a distinct disadvantage, how do we make lemonade from those lemons?

Let's start with one advantage a new agent may have.  Having no or few other clients, they have more free time to dedicate to them and their listings.

What can a new agent do to get up and running quickly?

1. Consider teaming up with an experienced agent.  You now remove the objection of inexperience and the clients get the best of both worlds.  I seasoned experienced agent and a new energetic one who will dedicate a lot of time to them.
2. Take advantage of all cheap or free opportunities.
   1. Car door magnets and window lettering.
   2. Business cards and refrigerator magnets (you can buy peal off magnets at the office supply store and apply them to your business cards).
   3. Wear you name badge or have you tag embroidered on shirts.  Wear them every chance you get.
   4. BLOG!!!  Active Rain is free and a great way for clients to meet you.
   5. Door to door canvassing.  Create a newsletter or market report and deliver them door to door.  Shoe leather is cheaper than postage and more personal.
   6. Sit other agent's open houses and have handouts and marketing materials to hand out.
   7. Sit all the floor time you can get.
   8. Send out press releases to local newspapers.
   9. Build a professional website.  If you can not market yourself, how will you ever market their home?  Clients are on the internet and they are checking you out.
3. I know the conventional wisdom is to chase FSBOs (For Sale By Owners).  In some areas like mine, every fresh agent out of school is bugging the daylights out of them.  They have been told by a dozen green agents why they are idiots for trying it on their own.  If anything I would visit the FSBOs in person to preview their home and be friendly.  I always carry a copy of my market report for their neighborhood and share with them a copy.  I never push them for a listing, especially on a first visit.  There is a reason why they are not using an agent.  After being attacked by the green pea agents their resolve is probably stronger than before.
4. Expired listings are another source every real estate school teaches you to go after.  They are also getting bombed by the green peas.  There is a reason their home did not sell.  Many times it is because they were simply over priced.  If the last agent could not get them to price it right, what will you do differently?  Also they are probably extremely annoyed by the volume of contacts they are getting.
5. This is probably the most important item on the list.  HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN!  This is a business, if you do not have a written plan, what you do have is a plan to fail.

We all had to start from a stand still when we entered the business.  When I started I had to overcome the objections of potential clients.  It was not easy, it took hard work and dedication.

One last tip for new agents:

Make education a key component in your business plan.  Designations will help build you credibility in the market place. 

In my area I am seeing a shift in attitude from consumers.  They are hiring the best agents they can find.

When the market was hot, many sellers looked for price above service.  They felt any idiot could sell their home.  Real estate companies offering limited services began to pop up.  They attracted mostly inexperienced agents and prospered.  Some of them opened second and third offices here locally.

As the market shifted, many limited service companies and agents became less successful.  Many of their listings sat and rotted.  Those that sold took longer and their clients required more help and time.  Many of their agents have left and are leaving the business or moving to full service companies.  Some began to close offices and consolidate.  Recently a large local, limited service company changed their business model to full service and did away with flat fees.  They also changed their name and their name.

The market goes through cycles.  We are in a cycle were homes are not selling as easily as they did a couple of years ago.  In a changing market real estate agents and companies need to be at the top of their game to succeed:

• Homes are taking longer to sell.
• Marketing is more expensive.
• Sellers need better guidance, through the entire process.
• Home preparation and pricing is critical.  If the home is positioned wrong it simply will not sell.
• Sellers need increased and improved services:
  • Home staging
  • High end photography.
  • Better printed materials.
  • Virtual tours and websites
  • More open houses
  • Increased advertising of their homes.
• Consumers are checking you out.  They want the best they can find.
  • They demand full time professionals who are dedicated to selling their home; not someone who is doing this on the side.
  • They are looking for designations and accomplishments.  Consumers are reading about them on the internet and know what they are.
  • They are looking for neighborhood experts who are moving the homes in their area.
  • They are getting referrals from their friends and families instead of quotes.
  • Consumers are checking out your website and reading your blog posts.
  • Sellers are looking at how you are marketing your other listings.

Do I believe we will be seeing the death of the limited service business model in my market?  Absolutely not!  Several will survive this market, many will die.  The same is true of full service companies who may not have been at the top of their game.

When the cycle changes again and homes are flying off the MLS quicker than you can buy an ad in the newspaper, the various business models will be thriving again and popping up all over the place.  Every hair dresser and fast food worker will be racing out to get a real estate license.  Those of us who do this professionally will still be here. We will be thriving as we did in the tougher market, but will have even more war stories about what the agent on the other side of our transaction just did.  We will also have tons of material to write about in our blog posts.

There once was a president's mother who said if she had a $Million she would hire a hit man.  I am sure most of you are too young or maybe not even born yet.  The idea has a certain appeal in some cases.

If I had a $million I would love to hire an electronic hit man to target all of these spammers who keep filling my e-mail box.  Doesn't the thought of targeting telemarketers who refuse to take no for an answer sound like fun?

It would be so cool to be able to pay someone to cause the spammers more trouble than they are causing us.  The last several e-mail messages that had viruses attached were all spam.  Thank goodness for good computer security.  I currently receive about 200 spam e-mails a day and have a few days where it exceeded 1000 in the last year. Granted I have several e-mail accounts and get repeats of the same messages.

My cell phone is now the target for telemarketers.  Having it on the "Do Not Call" list does not seem to make any difference.  I am getting several a day.  The sickest part is that most of the calls from the same 6 or 8 companies.  No matter how many times I say no will just keep calling. Do they feel if they annoy me to death, I will get a change of heart and want to do business with them?  Do they think by calling me at 4:00am I will recognize them as people who know my business (maybe not my time zone) and be drawn to them?  For some reason they must believe that to be the case, because they keep calling me at that time. 

If you had an extra $Million laying wouldn't you love to hire folks to track down those pesky  telemarketers and call their homes and cell phones all hours of the night and day.  If they were to get annoyed, wouldn't that mean they needed more calls?  Maybe another 50 calls to them at 4:00am would help them realize who much they really respected our persistence and needed our service.

Of course we know these folks do not feel what they are doing is good or right.  Why else would they block their phone number in most cases?   Why else would the e-mails have non-returnable e-mail addresses and no phone number or address?

I almost forgot there is one more group I left off the list.

Let me start by saying, I as a professional Realtor® I have access to the MLS System and I know my inventory.  I do not need 25 to 50 e-mails a day telling me what listings are on the MLS.  It is faster to check the MLS than read your messages.  I especially do not appreciate the ones with 5-10MB attachments on them.  Why do you think choking out my e-mail box will make me want to sell your listing?  I am also not interested in all the new listings in other states as they come on the market.  Last month my computer security stopped two spam messages from other REALTORS® that had viruses attached to them.  I sent one an e-mail telling her to please stop sending me her listings from another state and let her know she had a virus on her computer.  I have received three more messages since.  Fortunately she cleaned the virus off.

To be fair there are a handful of top agents in my area who share information with me.  We let each other know when a new listing is coming up that we think the other agents may have a buyer for.  That is different than sending me all of your listings every few days.  Please, I saw that house in Ewa Gentry 6 months ago.  It was over priced then and it's still over priced.

OK enough venting for today.  If you have an extra $Million laying around and nothing planned for it, you might consider hiring an electronic or telemarketer hit man.

When I joined Active Rain, I never imagined where this would take me.  I thought blogging was for kids. 

When I logged on the first time, I did not think I would have much interest in it.  After spending a little time on the site, I began to see the potential power of this forum.  Man someone had a great idea here.  So I built my profile and checked out some blog articles.  There were not that many members back then.  There were a few really good one though.  Broker Bryant and TLW were among the first that, I latched on to learn about blogging.  Mary McKnight was the technical expert that I learned how to make use of this forum from.  In a matter of a couple of weeks the point system pulled me in.  I can't help it, I am competitive.  I probably have never admitted it in public before, but the point system pulled me in.  Whoever thought this up was a genius. Sales professionals are competitive by nature and this point system plays is a natural to pull us in.

So here I am having fun, trading knowledge and making friends.  The first few months that was what I got from it.  Then one day it happened; I got a phone call from someone who asked if I was the VA expert.  He read my posts about VA financing.  YES!!!  I got my first contact for business through Active Rain.  A week or two later I got an e-mail from a buyer who was relocating.  Than another buyer called who said he was reading my posts and would like to interview me.  About 6 weeks later we closed escrow on his home.  Since then I have gotten leads, referrals and new clients through Active Rain.  My friends and existing clients follow my posts and speak to me regularly about various posts.  Other REALTORS® and loan officers in the area tell me regularly they have read my posts.  While attending a real estate seminar, three different agents approached me about my blog.  Wow, that is powerful.

When I joined on 11/5/06, I never imagined writing 600 posts and collecting 400,000 points.  Now that I have hit this milestone, I have only one thing left to do; that is set the next goal and keep on going.  500,000 points here I come!

Mahalo (Thank you in Hawaiian):

•  
  • To everyone who was involved with creating Active Rain.
  • To everyone responsible for keeping it running and improving.
  • To all of the members on Active Rain who have made this the absolute best forum of it's kind.
  • To all the great friends I have made here.
  • Celeste "WooHoo Sally" Cheeseman who is a great blogger and my buddy in our office.  She has made blogging a lot more fun since she joined our ranks.
  • To everyone who has shared their wisdom and knowledge with me.

Good Luck and Good Blogging!!

I just read Libby Cousin's Post:  Well, I am no Randy L. Prothero...

This Mililani sales report covers zip code 96789 which covers both Mililani Mauka and Mililani Area (which includes Mililani Town, Launani Valley and Waipio Acres).

Mililani real estate is still moving strong.  We are still seeing good real estate activity in the Mililani area.  Mililani has remained a balanced market giving buyer good selection, and seller's the ability to move appropriately priced homes.

A few dynamics in the area:

Castle and Cooke have almost finished selling the new homes in Mililani Mauka.

We are continuing to see troop movements at Schofield Barracks, which is contributing to the movement of inventory in Mililani.

Single Family Homes (resale): Average sales price and sales volume in Mililani Town and the valleys saw a bounce back from the same period in 2007 and we are seeing modest increases in both.  Mililani Mauka had a small decrease in average price and a 30% dip in units sold year to date.  Mortgage rates have remained low, buyers and sellers will continue to find the Mililani real estate market quite attractive.

Condo and Townhouses (resale):  Sales volume is down in all Mililani areas, while average sales price remained flat in Mauka and had modest increases in the other areas.  The good news for sellers is that condos and townhouses are moving.  If they are priced right and show well they still can move fast.  For buyers there is some really nice selection out there.  A client asked me what I think about Mililani.  I had a simple answer.  I live there, my office is there and my children go to school there.  I guess I am big on Mililani.

Currently Active for Sale (August 5, 2008): 

• 56 Single Family Homes - Mililani Area
• 56 Single Family Homes - Mililani Mauka
• 81 Condos/ Townhouses - Mililani Area
• 29 Condos/ Townhouses - Mililani Mauka

Currently in Escrow (August 5, 2008):

• 14 Single Family Homes - Mililani Area
•   9 Single Family Homes - Mililani Mauka
• 28 Condos/ Townhouses - Mililani Area
• 10 Condos/ Townhouses - Mililani Mauka

*These numbers were taken from the Honolulu Board of Realtors MLS system and are deemed to be accurate, but not guaranteed. 

©2008 Randy L. Prothero

Waipio Gentry Area also includes Crestview and Seaview.

Single Family homes sales have softened. Year to date average sales prices of single family homes has bounced back to almost the same level as the same period of time last year.  Sales volume year to date has also gone down.  Buyers will find Waipio Gentry a good environment for finding the home of their dreams.

Condo and townhouse sales have seen average sale price climb.  Sales volume has increased a little from the 2007 levels during the same period.  Average sales prices have seen a  modest decrease in the area.   

Currently Active for Sale (August 5, 2008)

• 11 Single Family Homes
• 27 Condos/ Townhouses

Currently in Escrow (August 5, 2008)

•   1 Single Family Homes
•   9 Condos/ Townhouses

*These numbers were taken from the Honolulu Board of Realtors MLS system and are deemed to be accurate, but not guaranteed.

You can find out more about real estate in Hawaii at: www.HawaiiRandy.com

Or at: www.localism.com

This Friday and Saturday Mililani High School Trojans will be scrimmaging against Moanalua High School at the Mililani Stadium.  The JV Team will be on the field at 2:30pm and the Varsity Team comes on at 4:00pm.

On Saturday both teams scrimmage against Kahuku at 10:00am.  The JV team plays in the Mililani Stadium and the Varsity Team will be taking on the Red Raiders at Kahaku the same time.

For a the Mililani High School Trojan schedule and additional information check out their website:  www.MililaniFootball.com

During the season the site will contain the most up to date information available.  The team has taken on a Mililani's top REALTOR® as their webmaster.  (Me)

If you are in or near Mililani, please come out and support the team.

Well known Hawaii REALTOR®, Randy L. Prothero will interviewed on local TV show, The Kukui Connection as a guest of State Representative Marilyn Lee. 

He will be wearing one of his other hats, that of Hawaii Chess Federation President and head of the "Chess in the Schools Program".

The show is scheduled to play three times this month.  It can be viewed on local TV channel 54 or through the station's website at the same times.

This half hour show will be aired at the following times:

Sundays at 4:00pm Hawaii Time (9:00pm CST) - August 3, 17, 31

• Hawaii Chess Federation President, Randy Prothero
• Is the guest on the The Kukui Connection
• With State Rep. Marilyn Lee
• Discussing Scholastic Chess in Mililani and in Hawaii
• Olelo Public Television - Channel 54
• (The show will be broadcast the three times listed above)

It can also be viewed from their website at the same times:  www.Olelo.org and click on Views 54 Livestream

The new Housing Stimulus Bill (H.R. 3221) was signed into law by President Bush. 

Here are a few of the things you will find in the bill:

• FHA and VA Loan limits have been changed
• Seller funded assistance programs have been made eliminated starting October 2008.
• Bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• $7500 tax credit for buyers
• FHA foreclosure rescue
• There are a couple of refinancing programs
• New loan originator requirements
• Neighborhood revitalization funds

Attached is a link to the National Association of REALTORS® summary of the new law:  http://www.realtor.org/gapublic.nsf/pages/hr_3221_key_provisions?OpenDocument

Ocean Pointe a planned community in Ewa Beach, Hawaii (makes up part of tax map key 191). The following report reflects resale's of homes that were reported through the MLS system.  New homes sales are not part of this report.  Ocean Pointe has the new marina going in and the new North/ South road, which will improve traffic in the area.

Single Family homes: Average sales prices of single family homes in Ocean Pointe have shown slippage of just under 5% over the same period last year.  Sales volume has seen a large drop during the same time frame.  There is a lot of new home construction in the area which has had an impact on the resale homes.  Buyers will find some really nice properties at wonderful values in Ocean Pointe.

Condo and townhouse sales are another story.  Sales volume is flat compared the period last year.  Average sales prices are down a  little over 9%, compared to last year during the same period.

Active for Sale (as of 8/2/08):

• 67 Single Family Homes
• 32 Condos/ Townhouses

Currently in Escrow (as of 8/2/08):

• 14 Single Family Homes
•   9 Condos/ Townhouses

*These numbers were taken from the Honolulu Board of Realtors MLS system and are deemed to be accurate, but not guaranteed.

You can find out more about real estate in Hawaii at: www.HawaiiRandy.com

Or at: www.localism.com