Last week I felt I had the perfect opportunity to use the consulting model.  A gentleman contacted me and had some questions about a property that is for sale about 30 miles from here.  (We are a very large county, but with only 25,000 people so 30 miles is not out of the area for me.)

Anyway, he told me that he had already seen the interior of the property and was interested in writing an offer if my answers were satisfactory to him.  I took that brief pause to explain that the property had a pending contract, so that any offer would be a backup contract.  I answered his questions and he still wanted to write a backup.

Just posted a blog over at Active Rain about what we've been talking about a bit here... that if YOU truly believe that what you're offering is good for your customer, you won't have any trouble offering it... explaining it... and "selling" it. Below is the blog in its entirety or you can jump over to Active Rain and read it there! 

https://activerain.com/blogsview/2719116/you-can-sell-anything-you-believe-is-a-good-deal-for-the-customer

Those of you on Active Rain may have seen today's featured blog that went out as the headliner in the daily newsletter about, basically, an agent's frustration with how we're paid. I know we've all seen these posts before and the subsequent responses of "Yeah, but that's the way it is and it will never change," and so far, there's nothing really new in the blog itself, but I wanted to post my comment here because it's something I feel REALLY strongly about going forward here at ACRE!

In the midst of all our discussion about the rebranding of ACRE, etc., the topic came up yesterday about whether or not the consumer has any real interest in our consulting services. The comment was made (to paraphrase) "the reason the consulting movement isn't spreading is because consumers don't see the benefit" or something like that.

During our beach-front brainstorming session, Merv had the great idea to tap the brains of the former management consultants in our midst as we're developing the ACRE/TCP 2.0 course. We'd love to pick your brains about how consulting works in the "real world" so we can better explain a consulting model and practice to real estate practitioners who may not fully get it.

Hey ACRE's!

Merv and I are going to spend the day at my beach house talking about (among other things) the ACRE website. If you have anything you'd like us to put on our agenda to discuss, please let me know asap! 

There is a significant gap in what we are promoting and the ability to personally own it. The REALTOR® community is flush with agents that call themselves REAL ESTATE CONSULTANTS but only know and understand the commission model. Some of these truly are consultants. They have the experience, knowledge, proven methods and a business approach whereby they are giving their clients the best advice and produce justification, evidence and work products to back up their opinions. How they charge for services is irrelevant except for the fact that it may not be very transparent. They know real estate and practice consulting but only grasp one business model.

As this year comes to a close, I would just like to share with the rest of the ACRE members, my feelings and thoughts for the coming year.

How many times have we taken a listing at a great (or not so great) commission rate, spent many hours getting the listing set up, taking classy pictures, adding a virtual tour, getting the sign, lock box and fancy color brochures and running repeating ads in the local print media only to have a listing sit on the market too long because the seller is reluctant to get competitive on price, becomes impatient and then fires us and finds another agent? Yuk. All that expense (including your time) with absolutely no return. What really ticks me off is when the seller lists with the next agent at a price we were telling them to lower to in the first place!

Risk:

• In the standard commission model the agent is taking all the risk.
• If we were to be paid on time and materials, the client takes all the risk
• Sharing risk - here's an alternative approach I used to get paid for what I do and at the same time share some risk with the seller:

Do you work with buyers? Then don't miss this webinar!

Join Industry Partner Glenn Freezman of Nucazza for a powerful webinar focused on gaining new buyer clients.  Glenn will demonstrate how ACRE®s can access a whole new pool of home buying clients through the relationships they have with banks, credit unions and other lenders.

This 1 hour webinar is scheduled for Wednesday,  July 13th at:
4:00 PM AST, 3:00 PM EST, 2:00 PM CST, 1:00 PM MST, 12:00 PM PST.