My new Book

I have a book that was a collaboratory work between several agents and Ghost written by Ryan Fletcher. The title is THE VALUE-DRIVEN APPROACH TO SELL REAL ESTATE: A practical Guide to Protect Yourself from Real Estate GREED & Bank an extra $30,000 profit by Thinking Like  the Great Warren Buffet. When did I do this or help do this? I am tired of talking to people about selling their home and find that the house did not sell or that they started way too high in the price, because an agent walked in the door that made promises and told them what they wanted to hear.

How does this Happen?

Well a low information agent gets to the seller through friends, family, maybe facebook ad or off the internet. The home owner is not sure who to use or what to ask. A lot of home owner's are more concerned with the cost of hiring an agent and do not really know how to judge a good agent from a bad one. The challenge is finding a good agent for some that term is  a oxymoron.  

What is low Information Agent?

A low information agent is an agent that has not taken the time or effort to train themselves in business. Real estate is a business ie.., marketing, sales, presentation, positioning, contract law, people, investment,  all things real estate agent usually do not get trained in. Some are very good at sales thus they get listings and sell buyers. Do they do it for the customer or for a paycheck? I would have to say many start good and end up doing something they would not normally do to pay bills. They get desperate and make bad decisions based on their need. A few get hooked on the money and closing the deal and this drives them to make decisions based on their GREED. I would say a good percentage are good people that have not taken the time or put in the effort to really Learn their Responsibilities to the consumer. Then they go to a BROKER, COACH or GURU that is just like  them and BAM! a low information agent is created. This is why we have low information agents. 

How am I Different?

Well I continue to read books on business, relationships, communication, listen to podcast of business owner and thinkers. Why? I strive to continue to grow and hone my skills as a business man and as person. My goal is to protect your interest as a buyer or seller. Purchasing a house is the biggest investment most people will ever make, thus you need an agent who is well informed not just of schools and the neighborhood. You should require that agent to be a businessman/woman who also cares about you. If not you could end up selling for too low or buying for too high. My goal is to help you get the most for the best value and to sell for the most that the market will allow. This brings up a couple I just help sell their home and buy a new house to make into a home.

The Couple Who Hired a Low Information Agent

 In September a couple hire an agent that said he could get $180,000 for their home. Classic low information agent. He used the price of the new track down the street instead of what had sold which was same size and age,  then look at the owners home to establish price. They had no showings. This lead to price drops. several as a matter of fact. No offers or showing the couple called after receiving my newsletter and said HELP.  I looked at the house, looked at what had sold in the area, looked at the pictures of the houses that sold read the marketing comments. I came up with a value of $162,000.00. The house was currently listed at $167000 down from $180,000.00. Their home was turnkey, great colors and manicured yard. We had an 3 offers in 7 days and was in escrow at $168,000 in 10 days. Less than first listing price and more than after price drops. 

What was different about approach?

I saw the value in their house. I used a professional photographer to take pictures that really showed off the house. I created a virtual tour out of the pictures and created a marketing story about how the family had turned a house into a home. We had showings the day after it was put on the market and were getting calls for people to put in back-up offers after we moved it to pending. I market a house not list it. I send it to buyers that I know are looking, I sent it to agents I know that have buyers I don't keep to myself and try to sell and get both sides of the commission. It is about the seller not me. I was able to find them a house to turn into a new home for the family that they wanted and they got it for $265,000 and it appraised for $285,000. They could not believe how fast things went and they felt that I made it look easy. I have done this for many families over the years. This is why I am different and why I was a part of the project to create the book.

You can get your copy at freebook4mankind.com. If you want to receive my newsletter you can email mail your address and I will add you to my mailing list zbloans@gmail.com.   

 May I take you on a bit of journey? …

Four Stories To Higher Profit – from your home sale and, anything else you sell in life.

By Zachary Betts, author of the forthcoming book The Warren Buffett Approach To Sell Real Estate: A practical guide to protect yourself from REAL ESTATE GREED & bank an extra $30,000 by taking a VALUE-DRIVEN APPROACH. 

T

here is a website on the Internet that I believe is the best website in the world. Would you like to know which it is? I’ll reveal that website in a moment but first have, let me share with you several stories that recently impacted me.
The first comes from a book, written by Carmine Gallo.
     “Meet Aimee Mullins, she as 12 pairs of legs. Like most people she was born with two, but unlike most people Mullins had to have both legs amputated below the knee due to a medical condition. Mullins has lived with no lower legs since her first birthday.
     Mullins grew up in a middle class family in the middle-class town of Allentown, Pennsylvania, yet her achievements are for from ordinary. Mullins doctors suggested that an early amputation would give her the best chance to have a reasonable amount of mobility. As a child Mullins had no input into that decision, but as she grew up she refused to see herself as or to accept the label most people gave her—“disabled.” Instead, she decided that prosthetic limbs would give her superpowers that others could only dream of.

     Mullins redefines what it means to be disabled. As she told comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert, many actresses have more prosthetic material in their breasts than she does in her whole body, “and we don’t call half of Hollywood disabled.”
     Mullins tapped her superpower—her prosthetic limbs—to run track for an NCAA Division One program at Georgetown University. She broke three world records in track and field at the 1996 Paralympics, became a fashion model and an actress, and landed a pot on People magazine’s annual list of the 50 Most Beautiful people.
    When Mullins told her story to the world, “The opportunity of Adversity,” just as I have told you her story here, it was quickly viewed nearly 1.5 million times.

     Let me tell you another story. This is story that I both witnessed and read about. In his book, Gallo puts introduced me to Cameron Russell. 
     In a presentation, Russell tells the audience, “Looks aren’t everything.” Cliché? Yes, if it had been delivered by anyone else. Russell, however, is a successful fashion model. Within thirty seconds of taking the stage Russell changed her outfit. She covered her revealing, tight-fitting black dress with a wraparound skirt, replaced her eight-inch heels with plain shoes, and pulled a turtleneck sweater over her heard.

     “So why did I do that?” She asked the audience. “Image is powerful, but also image is superficial. I just totally transformed what you thought of me in six seconds.” 

     When Russell told her story, the full version, not just the intro has I have shared with you here, it was quickly viewed more than 6.5 million times.

     Let me tell you another story. This one about Magic Johnson but more specifically, his business partner, Ken Lombard. Ken and Magic were scheduled to meet with Peter Gruber who, at the time, was the CEO of Sony pictures. Upon meeting Gruber in his office, the first thing Lombard said was, “Close your eyes. We’re going to tell you a story about a foreign country.” Gruber thought it a little “unorthodox,” but he shut his eyes and went along with it. Lombard continued, “This is a land with a strong customer base, great location, and qualified investors. You know how to build theaters in Europe, Asia, and South America. You know how to invest in foreign countries that have different languages, different cultures, different problems. What you do, Peter, is you find a partner in the country who speaks the language, knows the culture, and handles the local problems. Right?” Gruber nodded in agreement as his eyes remained shut. “Well, what if I told you a promised land exists that already speaks English, craves movies, has plenty of available real estate, and no competition? … This promised land is about six miles from here.”

    Lombard and Johnson were pitching Gruber on building movie theaters in underserved urban communities, but knew Gruber wouldn’t be interested if he knew from the start that this was their idea.
     Lombard knew, first, he’d have to create a desire for Gruber to own such a location. For this, he needed to tell the above story. He’d need to take Gruber on a journey, so he could see, and imagine, before he judged and ruled out.

    Through the power of storytelling, Lombard and Johnson cast themselves as the heroes of the narrative who would help Gruber navigate the waters to reach the promised land. It worked! In the first four weeks of opening, the first Magic Johnson Theater was one of the top five highest-grossing theaters in the Sony chain.  

     Now, before I wrap this up and reveal to you what I believe is the world’s greatest website, let me tell you one last story.

     Meet Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn. They founded the site SignificantObjects.com, a website dedicated to the power of story. Significant Objects was a social and anthropological experience devised by Rob and Glenn. The two researchers started with a hypothesis: a writer can invent a story about an object, investing in the object with subjective significance that would raise its objective value. In other words, they could buy crap, tell a compelling story about that crap, and because of the romanticism of the story, create a desire for the object to sell it for far more than they purchased it for. They curated objects from thrift stores and garage sales. The objects would cost no more than a buck or two. The second phase of the experiment saw a writer create a short, fictional story about the object. In the third step, the object was auctioned off on eBay.

    The researchers purchased $128.74 worth of objects. The thrift-store “junk” sold for a total of $3,612.51. The men had discovered that a powerful story had raised the average products’ prices by 2,700 percent. For example, a fake banana cost 25 cents and sold on eBay for $76 after the story was added. An old motel key cost $2 and sold for $45.01, after a story was told about the object to make it “significant”—hence the name of the site, Significant Objects.

    Through the experiment the researchers concluded, “Stories are such a powerful driver of emotional value that their effect on any given object’s subjective value can actually be measured objectively. Or simply put, “When someone likes a story about an object—or your home, if its on the market and you’re selling it—that emotional connection is expressed by the buyer in his willingness to pay a higher sales price. This of course, earns the seller of the object a greater profit for what object whatever that object is being sold.

     “So why tell you these stories?” Because each one of these stories reveals a secret that we use when working with real estate clients to realize higher bottom-line profits. If you want to turn adversity into opportunity, for example, you craft a story. Every home has its flaws; there is no perfect home. But through the power of story, as Aimee Mullins demonstrated, how those flaws are seen and viewed to the outside world can be changed. The thesaurus definition for the word disabled is: broken-down, confined, decrepit, handicapped, helpless, hurt, incapable, laid-up, lame, maimed, out-of-action, paralyzed, powerless, weakened, worn-out, wounded, wrecked. But as Aimee Mullins exemplifies, even with no lower legs, none of these “definitions” are true. She believes her prosthetic limbs are her superpowers and give her options. Longer prosthetic to make her taller for balls and black tie events, spring-loaded prosthetic legs for running at incredible speeds, shorter prosthetic for every day… she has options we do not. And while I can’t ever imagine wanting to trade my lower legs for no lower legs, through the power of hearing Aimee’s story, I wouldn’t now fear it. With every adversity there is opportunity. The Power of Story helps real estate clients to see that same truth, when looking at or selling a “flawed” home. We can turn it into a positive…

     If you want transform the look of your home, as Cameron Russell revealed, image is only surface deep. In the same way Russell completely transformed her image within 30 seconds of taking the stage, we, through a process called “Scientific staging”, can transform the image of a clients’ home. In her full presentation Russell talks about, in preparation for a photo shoot, of having a team of hair and make-up stylists, photographers, fashion coordinators, people to help her pose, etc., all working to tell a story through her newly created image. And, in real estate maximum profit works in exactly the same manner. Through the creation of a new imagine, we’re able to tell a home’s story. And, from Rob and Joshua’s research at Significant Objects, on the power of story, we know this is a path to higher profit.  

     The reality is, we all love stories.
     They have the power to entertain us, suck us into a message, and help us envision the impossible, even change our minds about deeply held beliefs—as Lombard proved to Gruber about building theaters in urban areas. This is why I spend so much time on TED.com, listening to and studying stories. Sure, I enjoy them, but also, for my clients, my job is to tell them effectively. Their profit, and the speed of their home sale, depends on it.

     If you love great stories and stories that really make you think, I believe the site TED.com is the best website in the world. If you search Mullins and Russell, you will find their full presentations along with others.

     I guess my point is—never forget—the story you tell about your home, in more ways than you can imagine, has impact on your bottom-line profit. So don’t shortcut this step and be certain that no agent you may hire to help you, shortcut this step either.    

For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, go to: www.FreeBook4mankind.com. There you can request a FREE copy of my forthcoming book “The Warren Buffett Approach To Sell Real Estate: How to protect yourself from Real Estate Greed & bank an extra $30K in profit by taking a Value-Driven Approach.

An entrepreneur and a relentless innovator of the real estate industry, Zachary Betts is the creator of the “Value-Driven Approach to Sell Real Estate,” author of the infamous report, “Frauds, Lies, Cheats & Unethical Scams,” he also founded the High Desert’s Teacher Only Program®, and is a licensed agent with Z Realty. Zachary has been called "provocative and entertaining," but also "a committed philanthropist" for his mission to raise/donate over $10,000 to local and teacher-related charities each year.   Zachary also supports many great national charities too, such as: St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Salvation Army, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®, Victor Valley Animal Protective League among others.

     Zachary is a leader in the High Desert business community as well, and co-founded ENG (Entrepreneurs Networking Group™) High Desert Chapter—an exclusive group of business owners, sales professionals and entrepreneurs, focused on three core pillars of impact: Philanthropy, Business, and Growth!

bad customers are created by bad agents

Today I had a customer call me. She had in her own words "a small shack in Apple Valley that needs lots of work". It is a 600 square foot homestead property with 2.5 acres of land. It has Great Views,  but the house needs lots of work. The plus side is that it has a car garage 700 square foot.

 Now she had it listed for 6 months with an agent in the area for $85,000.00. Now this may sound reasonable to many. I sold a 1 bedroom home in Victorville with an Acre that the house needed no work for $80,000.00 and it was a nice property without a garage. So the trade off may be the same you may say close into town and not needing work verses out in the desert and needing work with views.

 This is not the real story. What is? That the house was on the mls for 6 months the pictures were bad and you could not see the inside because the owner did not want to be disturbed.
1) Lets look at the pictures it does not show a great view, the pictures show a lot of dirt. The pictures      do not show any of the inside. The angle of the pictures was not good. No professional pictures
2 ) You could not view the inside of the property until you wrote an offer.  Now I understand this if a       tenant is in the home. However this was owner occupied so how do you think you can offer your       house for sale and not allow any interior pictures and also not allow any interior inspection until         and offer has been written.
3) Now this house has been listed several times and in the comments are the same thing property             needs a lot of work and the owner will not do any repairs. None of the agents that have listed this       have changed what they write or what they have done. No interior pictures, and the listing has             expired several times. Every time the house has bee listed above market at the time. It has been           listed 11 time withdrawn 6 expired 5 times.
These are the glaring things that point why this house has not sold. I had a conversation with the owner this is how it went.
" Do you sell properties like mine?"
 I don't know what type of property do you have?
"It is a shack in Apple Valley and it has a 3 car garage."
 Sounds interesting and we have sold all kinds of properties. One of the agents in my office has a customer looking for a property like yours. I would like to see it then go from there.
"Well it has great views and a very nice garage an investor could  tear down the house and build a very nice house here."
That sounds good can I stop by tomorrow to see it.
" What would you list if for?"
I don't know I have not seen it yet.
 "It sounds like you don't want to sell it."
 Why do you say that?
 " This is a great opportunity for an investor to buy and tear down my house and build a new one, they could turn the garage into a house and build new garage, it has great views."
 I'm sorry I can not see the views from here I can stop by tomorrow and discuss it from there.
 " You just don't want to sell this property."
 Well I don't know why you say that please tell me how much did you have it listed for?
 "  It was listed for $85,000.00."
 How many offers did you get?
 "Well I got an offer for 10,000 less than listed but I would not cut out my agent."
Why would you have to cut out your agent?
 "Because the guy would not put offer in with my agent."
Did you have your agent call him?
 "No"
Why Not?  silence. It is not that I don't want to sell the property I don't  want to waste your time and mine if I can not see the property or if customers can not see the property. Did you see the property before you bought it?
"Well of course I did and I would not buy a property without seeing it."
Isn't that what you are asking me and asking other buyers to do bye not allowing me to come and see it before giving my professional opinion of the property and how you previously did not want anyone to see the inside until they wrote and offer?
"Well I will just put it in the paper and sell it myself click.

It was not that I did not want to sell her property I sold a house not far from her 5 months ago for $50,000.00 it needed a lot of work. Lots are selling around the property the lady wanted to sell for $12-18,000.00 so if you add tear down, hauling and dumping fees it comes to about $7500.00 so the cost of the property would be about $92,000 for an investor. It did not sell because it is priced wrong.
The seller was uncooperative with the process and the agent allowed the customer to dictate to both of there harm.

This is not the first time this happened, it happened 10 times before and the issue has not been fixed. The customer had no respect for any of the real estate agents that came to list her property and they allowed her to dictate what happened and how and she has no real clue about marketing or business. The previous agents did not either.  This is what is wrong with my industry.

The agent took the listing thought maybe they might get an offer or that after some time they could reduce the price to get it down to the point where it would sell. This did not happen. I looked at the several times it was listed saw the lack of price drops asked a few pointed questions to find out her motivation. If you do not have the proper motivation a buyer or seller will not make the right decision.
This lady wants to buy a better home which would not be hard yet I did not after my call want to work with her in any way because she would not let me come see the property before I made any price recommendations.

 If you go by comps you can give an idea of value however you see the real value when you get there. The value approach to selling real estate is making it the best it can be to get maximum return. She was not willing to increase the value of the property yet she wanted above value for the property. How do I know that?

Well one on landscaping around the house nothing to make it look good as you drive up. The pictures had wood and other things laying around the house not pretty. She would not allow anyone inside to see the house before they write an offer. That is just ridiculous if you want top dollar. She had unrealistic business expectations. You can not expect an investor to offer cash for a property that will not make a return on the dollar. To expect because you have an emotional attachment to something yet brings no real value to the table is not realistic. An investor with cash has that because they do their homework and know what they can make before they put in an offer. It is not hard to know these numbers if you have been doing what I do for as long as I have it is an easy process. This lady was $20,000 over where she should be to sell. This is why I did not feel like I lost anything by not taking the listings. This listing would have cost me time and money and that is the real reason I am writing this.

I would have gotten her house sold. The problem as I see it other agents had allowed her to become a bad customer by their lack of professionalism. I do not like agents that allow the customer to direct what is going on. The customer is not right. That is why we are licenced, we go to classes, we have to go to continuing education classes. Agents that allow the customers to dictate to them are low information agents. They may sell a lot of properties that does not mean that they are good at protecting the customer. It is our job as agents to protect the public sometimes that even means from themselves. This may seem like a look rant. That is because it is. I apologize for this. I needed to get it out of my system. I hope is that you see that I am not like other agents that I am there to help and protect you, to get you the best return and do it quickly. Do not be surprised if I say that you are not right about real estate or that I attempt to get you to see it another way.

True Differentaion

It’s not as easy as you think to achieve maximum profit…

True Differentiation:
How it impacts profit and dictates strategy when selling a home.

  

By Ryan Fletcher, author and Zachary Betts co-author: The Warren Buffett Approach To Sell Real Estate: A practical guide to protect yourself from REAL ESTATE GREED & bank an extra $30,000 by taking a VALUE-DRIVEN APPROACH.

I

 realize the image to the right may look a little Howard Hughes-ish, but there is a method to my madness. And this sketch, if you’re thinking of selling your home, may have a profound and direct impact on your bottom-line profit. You’ll also want to share this with friends and family members that you care about too.    
     When I set out to study Warren Buffett, his investment philosophy, to find out what made him the world’s greatest investors, and, ultimately, how his methods could be applied to my clients’ home sale—I came stumbled upon a book called Differentiate or Die. This book changed my entire perspective on real estate. Jack Trout was the author. In the book he laid out the fundamental reasons why a business must differentiate from competitors, not just to be successful, but as the key ingredient to thrive in our current era of Killer Competition. Now, admittedly, from a business perspective, this is common sense. Every entrepreneur knows he must differentiate his business. As a mentor once told me, “Nobody needs two left shoes.” In business, if two businesses are the same, then one is dispensable. 

     But, this got me thinking.
     Business, and the fight for new customers, really, is no different than real estate and the fight for homebuyers.
     Your home is a home, yes, but analogously speaking, it is also product no different than Tide laundry detergent, where you are the owner of that product, no different than Proctor & Gamble is Tide. And see, when you look at your home through this lens—the profit from your home sale; its ability to compete in the marketplace—comes down to your ability to differentiate.

     Is your home no different than the many other homes on the market? Is it just a commodity? Or is it different, and could it be judged superior?

     In my sketch above, you’ll notice there are three scenarios. Each scenario describes the starting position of your product, your home, in relation to other competing homes on the market. Each of these scenarios can also be thought of as a race.
     The more and better you differentiate your product, the faster you move forward toward higher profit. And of course, the less you differentiate the faster you move backwards toward lower profit. All the while the other homes on the market, in your neighborhood, in your price range, with similar square footage, amenities, etc., are competing in the same race.

     In scenario #1 – you, your home, you start even with your competitors. You are neither ahead of behind. There is no discernable difference between your home and others. No apparent advantages and no apparent disadvantages.

     In scenario #2 – you, your home, starts out ahead of the competition. This could be for a number reasons. But through some means of differentiation, you have the advantage of a 5-second head start. So as long as you run the race appropriately, and don’t trip over your feet or make a fundamental mistake, you have increased odds of winning.

     In scenario #3 –you, your home, starts out at a notable disadvantage to the competition. You are now the underdog, not the frontrunner. And to win, and bank the most profit from your home sale, you’ll have to run the race of your life.

Part of my job then becomes, prior to creating the actual “race strategy,” is to determine where a clients’ home’s starting position is.

    

If you’re running the 800-meter dash, for example, someone running on the inside lanes—from a strategic standpoint—must run a very different race than the runner who runs in the outside lanes. Similarly, the runner with a known disadvantage, like Aimee Lee Mullins who I wrote about last month, who set multiple NCAA records despite having her lower legs amputated as a child, must run a very different race than the runner who doesn’t have that handicap.

     Now you would think that every home, given the three scenarios above, either a) starts out even, b) ahead or c) behind the competition, right? Wrong. There is actually a 4^th possible scenario.

     In scenario #4 – you, your home, starts out ahead of the competition but…only “in your mind.” For obvious reasons, this is dangerous.
     When a homeowner is blinded to their true starting position in relation to other competing homes on the market; due to pride of ownership, ego, arrogance, lack of understanding of how true differentiation works, how value is created, etc., almost always, in my experience, they sabotage their chance for maximum profit.

    There is, by the way, nothing wrong with starting from behind. The fabled underdog story exists for this reason, to upset the odds-makers. But the underdog, to win, must realize he is the underdog and, through strategy, offset his handicap.

     David versus Goliath: An apparent mismatch, but in this fight Goliath’s size is no match for a small well-placed stone, shot from a distance, out of reach of Goliath, from David’s high-tension slingshot. Bing! One stone upside the head, and Goliath is out.

     This is why, in my book, The Warren Buffett Approach to Sell Real Estate: How to protect yourself from Real Estate Greed and bank an extra $30K in profit by taking a Value-Driven Approach, I talk about the importance of getting an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis—for this very reason—to identify your homes’ true starting point.

     The last scenario in the world you ever want to participate in is scenario #4.

     One interesting tidbit too, about how true differentiation works, when done correctly and effective, you not only control whether your home moves forward or backward “in the race” toward higher or lower profit, you also control whether other competing homes (with yours) move forward or backward too.

     I suppose its kind of like cheating, that is tying a rope around your competitor, and anchoring him to a tree before the start of the race, but hey – that other homeowner should have hired someone who understands true differentiation, then they wouldn’t have been in that position, chained to a lower potential profit.

     The biggest secret, though, for maximum profit, you must know your “product’s” starting point in relation to its competitors. Without this, nothing else really matters, as the details are fiction and hypothetical, and not reality.
     But with reality, we can get to true strategy.
     If it turns out that we’re the underdog, so be it, we’ll run the race of the underdog and in accord to the facts, to strive for the upset.