Great Webinar today! Thanks so much to both Ron Stuart and Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn for serving as fantastic panelists. Ron, you do a wonderful presentation.

A few days ago I received a call from a gentleman in my marketplace who wanted to hire me to consult on pre-sale preparation of his home so that he could maximize his sale next year.  He didn't want to get tied down to any particular Realtor or real estate agent just yet.

I am at a more "traditional" brokerage but to their credit, the guys who run it have been somewhat open to other business models - cautiously and in small doses.  When I got the call for pre-sale help, I explained to the home owner that I thought I'd be able to assist but needed a clearance from my broker as that hadn't been on my radar since moving companies.

Long story short, I couldn't reach my manager too fast but told the potential client that we could do a one hour free consultation (my usual) and that if they wanted more we could talk about it down the road - after I got the green light.  The green light did come, but it was a new concept for them (my company) to consider: getting paid for the work you do rather than hitching everything to a sale and a commission.

Yesterday I did meet with the future sellers, who are super nice and so is their home.  They were thrilled to have a free 1 hour consultation and I did  explain that in the future if they wanted more help they could pay me (and that I would reimburse them later if they hired me to assist them in selling their house). (My manager thought that my approach was "very very fair" and I agree.)

So it was a huge win on two levels:

• I got an opportunity because I am on the ACRE website
• This opportunity allowed me to present a scenario to my brokerage that they were willing to consider and eventually OK'd

It was a breakthrough for me that I can consult and charge for particular services. My manager wants his agents to expand the ways in which they can earn a living in real estate so he views it as a win, which it is.  And it was great to be able to be found because of the ACRE website.

I've written my break out post on ActiveRain.  When you have a minute, please check it out and comment if you will.

https://activerain.com/blogsview/2517301/for-sale-by-owners-you-ve-got-options

Thanks a million,

Charita

Great webinar today to kick off our monthly "Skills Series" whose goal is to take the concept of consulting and apply it in the real world to gain more business.

I've posted a video of my opening presentation. We are working on getting the audio of the rest of the session so if you weren't able to make the webinar today, or you did and want a review, stay tuned!

Recently a seller emailed me for a consultation. She had seen a lot of my writings and knew that I was very knowledgable of her area.

She said she needed more infomation to make a decision on what to do with her current house. Sell now; sell next year; rent, etc. She was moving out of state and would buy a home there. She said the Realtors she had spoken with would not give her any advice; they just wanted the listing.

She said she would be willing to meet me at my office, or at a coffee shop, and she would be willing to pay me for my advice.

G'Morning ACREs:

Bob Ashauer just sent in his versions of the Buyer and Seller Needs Analysis. You'll notice that he groups a lot of activities together.

I want to thank Bob for sharing with the community. While we are still small in number juxtaposed against the whole industry, we can do a lot to help one another by sharing what we come up with.

I encourage everyone to check out the Library on the Exchange where these versions will now reside. There's a plethora of materials and ideas there!

NeedsAnalysisBuyerAshauer.pdf

NeedsAnalysisSellerAshauer.pdf

Here is the Active Rain post from Mimi Foster.

https://activerain.com/blogsview/2321036/why-should-a-seller-use-a-realtor-

 It is a very good itemized list of what she does for sellers.  It is a very long detailed list. You should see it.  I reposted it on my blog

https://realtyconsul.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/list-of-what-we-do-for-sellers/

I am going to use these ideas to create a list services to be used with the "Needs Analysis Checklist Form". The list of services will be renamed "What We Can Do" because our menu may have tasks that the client wishes to do instead of the consultant.  I suspect that this list of tasks may be too large to include in the "Needs Analysis Checklist", therefore I may make a separate print, in 14 point font with one page for each subcategory of services. The purpose will be to inform or remind the seller of the daunting time required to sell the property. Therefore the seller may decide to pay his consultant for a larger bundle of services, thus more revenue earned by his consultant. I am still developing this concept and will discuss with ACREs at a later date.

I met Sellers today who just bought their Condo Last Year..Nice Condo Lots of Updating..Getting their Purchase price and updating, Regular Commission is going to be a Challenge..I offered to Do a Flyer, my CMA Advice so far and they post their Condo on the Bulding Builton Borard For Sale for a week, if it Sells they Pay me $500 for my time todate and $125 Hours if they need me to help with a Sale, any Realtor calls to referred to me...I though about asking to be paid $500 Now, but thought it's only for one week then I'm listing it at my Regular Commission...

I thought you might like to know

I completed the ACRE study program and earned my certification.  I added a consulting services page to my website and prepared myself for this shift in the way I approach real estate.  Today I got my first consulting gig!  Here is how it went:

I received and email through my website requesting a meeting regarding my real estate services to list a couple's home.  I showed up both prepared to list the home in the traditional manner and also to present my consulting services menu for the first time.

We sat down at the dining room table and the husband says to me, "I am curious, we read on your website about your consulting services and we really want to hear about how that works."  I was so delighted!!!  The consumer asked me about consulting and it made me think..."This is really where our business is going, people are curious about having options and choices!!!"  AWESOME!!!

I launched into how I came into the whole consulting concept, about ACRE and about how the wants and needs of consumers are changing and moving in a direction that affords them to have the service that they want without being held hostage by only one way of doing real estate.  They both agreed that what I was telling them was true and then they proceeded to tell me which services they wanted from me!  It was amazing and somewhat surreal!

I am putting together a proposal for them for helping them sell their home and just had to get online and share my first consulting experience!  The take-away...this is really cool and I love it!  Thanks ACRE for lighting the path to a new way of doing real estate!!!

Info and paperwork to take out to a FSBO to try and get the listing or atleast some kind of business from them.