Monthly Archives: March 2014
It’s official! Lease is signed!
Just 5 short months ago we began the search for the perfect facility and location to open the new Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office in North Orange County. The search began for an office between 4,000 and 6,000 square feet in the Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills areas. This proved to be a challenge with the lack of highly visible commercial office space available. As with everything worthwhile, patience paid off! After a month of searching and looking at what was available out there, we came across this free standing 10,000 square foot building in one of the busiest retail shopping centers in Yorba Linda with plenty of parking and several monument signs on Yorba Linda Blvd and New River as well as directional signage within the center. Additionally and most importantly we were able to secure huge signage ON the building on multiple sides for the beautiful Coldwell Banker sign. The location couldn’t have been more perfect with it strategically situated on the Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills border too! At this point, the realization kicked in that we are now considering double the square footage that we started looking for, and a massive full demo and remodel of the entire facility and the number crunching began. From Irvine to New Jersey, an entire team from financial analysts, facilities managers, and executives, began working to shift our North OC plan to a substantially larger presence. During the process, the updates were flying “How many agents will come? How many have been hired? etc. etc.” And happily I was able to report that phenomenal agents were joining and willing to work out of our temporary facility in Anaheim Hills. I had some agents even saying “I want to be your first hire! and I want to be in the first 10, 20!” To say I was flattered would be an understatement! But these agents all were able to see what an incredible change to the landscape of North Orange County was about to happen! For years there were only a couple large companies with strong value propositions to the customer, and agents continually were traded back and forth between them all, and the options became very limited. Finally, a strong, large, and financially stable company with a powerful and respected full service luxury brand name decided to open in North Orange County with a very strong agent and customer value proposition. And here we are!
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Previews International, Owned by a Subsidiary of NRT LLC., (The Number 1 and single largest real estate company in North America) has committed to North 
Orange County with offerings to agents like they have never seen before. The customers will realize a new option that provides them with exclusive benefits, exposure, and services that have yet to be offered in the area! With over 720 offices and 41,000 agents in the US in our firm alone, and then over 80,000 agents and 3100 offices in 51 countries and territories with Coldwell Banker franchises combined, we are able to simply offer a completely different agent and customer experience than our competitors!
We’ve been called a “disturbance” to the market by agents and others in the industry since this is clearly a “game changer” to so many. We see this as a great compliment!
I want to thank the now 63 agents and growing daily who have joined prior to this lease and building becoming a reality! We are now on our way and looking forward to continuing our positive growth with the most professional and productive agents in the area!
If you are interested in more information on our firm, please feel free to call me at 714-782-2723 or email me at Brad.Pearson@camoves.com
Brad
Check out our first fun intro video below!
Realtor Tech, Mobility, and the must have iPad apps! -By Brad Pearson
There was a time when some of us tech geeks would fantasize about the future of technology in real estate and try to figure out what the next big thing would be. I got my license in 1992 right as Windows 3.1 was finding it’s way into real estate offices. The MLS was a DOS based system and Word Perfect was still on many computers that we printed to our dot matrix printers with the paper with the holes we had to tear off the sides after printing, and there was no such thing as WIFI or high speed internet and we were all on dial up. Oh and we all carried pagers and cell phones were few and far between, not to mention enormous. Yes, I’m dating myself, but I am fortunate to have started in real estate when I did. In 1992, MLS books were disappearing and the world was changing despite a full blown recession had started. I was sitting in a real estate office listening to agents complain about the things that were going away, and expressing frustration with the new technologies that were showing up. For me, being a budding 22 year old tech geek, I was in heaven! I spent $3000 on my moms credit card at Circuit City with the promise to pay back when I “closed a sale”, on a giant 100mhz Windows computer that couldn’t even fit in the trunk of my car. As I hauled all of the big boxes into my office, I had agents looking at me like I lost my mind. Some asked, “why would you buy that and not just use the office computers?”, and my response was, “because I want my computer to do more!”, then they asked “More what?”, and that’s where I said, I’ll let you know when I figure that out!” I share all of this because we are and have been in a period of time where the world has changed so much technologically that if someone told us that we would have a device that fits in our hand that is hundreds of times more powerful than the huge computers we used to use in the 80’s and even 90’s we would laugh at them. Now we have the ability to do so much from anywhere on a small device that fits in our hands, yet there is still a large part of the real estate industry that hasn’t embraced the technology, leaving opportunity for those who do to outperform them with efficiency and service to their customers! Just like in 1992, things are changing all around us and those who jump on the hottest tech early will be light years ahead of the rest competitively while providing their clients a higher level of service.
First let me get the Android vs. IOS/iPhone/iPad debate out of the way. In real estate, IOS is the only way to go… Period. Why? Simplicity and features! While I carry an iPhone/iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, I rely mostly on my IOS devices for daily use in real estate. To break it down and end the argument, try to seamlessly open a contract from Zipforms Mobile to a signing App, sign, and email to a client. On Android you will be there forever emailing to yourself, or trying to use the native Digital Ink program and give up frustrated, on the iPhone or iPad you can do it seamlessly with the “Open In” function and be done in literally seconds. Try creating and presenting a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation on an Android device… First you need to find the right app amongst many that will do what you need it to do. On the iPad/iPhone you can use the Keynote app and create or play Powerpoint or Keynote, and even export as PDF to share the slides with anyone. I can go on and on. It is my hope that at some point these issues are simplified on the Android OS for us as I do love so many things about my Note 3, but for now, the iPhone/iPad wins for real estate.
Now let’s get down to the iPhone/iPad apps that you should have if you are in the real estate business. And while I know there are many more than what I’m listing below, I want to just give you a solid starting point.
1. Sign n Send = There are many signing apps, but this one is the easiest and most versatile in my opinion. But I’m open minded so if you found one that you think is better, then please share!
2. Keynote = This app will allow you to create, edit, play, and present both Powerpoint and Keynote presentations. Built-in templates, easily share a presentation via Apple TV or VGA Cable to TV with adapter, and send out a copy right from the app in PPT, Keynote, or PDF format. Very easy to use.
3. iMovie = Create videos on the fly with music, transitions, etc. You can use built-in themes and even make movie trailers if you so choose. Upload directly to your YouTube channel and promote your listings or information in seconds and look good doing it.
4. PDF Splicer = This app will allow you to combine, sort, re-order, your PDF files, documents, etc. This comes in handy when you have a lot of contracts to get signed and don’t want to keep having to go back to Zipforms over and over. Just prepare before the appointment and have one easy file to open and sign in Sign n Send.
5. Scan To PDF = This app will allow you to scan documents using your iPhone/iPad’s camera function and send via email as a clear PDF file. This is great for online transaction management platforms where you can just scan and email documents right into the system. Easily send signed copies to your TC, co-op agent, and client and forget about the old fax machine or complicated scanner at the office.
6. Dropbox = Move all of your important files to your Dropbox on your computer and have them anywhere you go on your iPhone/iPad. Share public links with people, create shared folders, upload photos from your phone to the Dropbox and have them accessible on all of your devices or any computer.
7. Penultimate – Evernote = Take notes on your listings, in meetings, etc. Treat it like paper. Use your finger or a cheap stylus and have your notes automatically on every device. Start a new file for each listing and actually have a conversation log that can help you in the future in the event of a dispute or legal challenge.
8. iBooks = This native app is perfect for keeping important and often used PDF documents at your fingertips. Have your PDF listing presentation here to be able to review and then easily email to a prospect. Keep copies of your marketing materials, post cards, property flyers, real estate license, scripts, business plan, testimonial letters, and anything that you may need to refer back to or share quickly with someone in person or via email.
9. Pages = This app enables you to create beautiful flyers on the go for almost any situation. There’s even real estate listing templates preloaded! Thanks for thinking of us real estate folk Apple! Create your letterhead, compose letters, open in Sign n Send, sign, and email out without ever printing to paper. There’s so many possibilities with this app and it’s so easy to use.
10. Title company apps = I would suggest that you talk to your title rep and ask them if they have an app. Most of the large title companies have phenomenal apps that enable you to do many great tasks including pull/order property profile information directly from the app enabling you to provide your clients with accurate data on the fly.
Bonus app recommendations = Google Earth, Google Voice & YouTube. These great products work perfectly on the iPad/iPhone via the apps. Check them out and you’ll see immediately how they can help you gather information, showcase information, and connect better with your clients.
In closing, if you’ve seen my presentation on these tools, then you know that I tout these as the way to provide a more personal level of service to your clients. While many see technology as an attempt to depersonalize our business, I see it completely differently. Using tools like Skype enables us to be face to face with distant clientele, Google Voice offers the ability to have a personal voice mail greeting for each and every person in your address book, going paperless and being mobile makes you more efficient so you can spend more time working to seller your clients home or find them a home rather than standing in front of a copier or fax machine fixing paper jams, using your tablet or smartphone to provide factual accurate data rather than just opinion can help your clients make huge personal life decisions based on solid information/data…. And lastly, realizing that our clients would rather spend more time with their friends and families and less time with their real estate agent, sharing this technology with your clients will enable you to get more done in less time with them, enabling them to have more free time to do what they want, rather than what we want/need.
Apple Store iPad Seminar for Realtors
As always, I’m here to help you grow your business! Having been a guest speaker at the local Apple retail store to Realtors on using the iPad in their business, and personally using the iPad and iPhone as my primary daily business devices, I can also help you learn and use the most cutting edge tools available to us. I am constantly staying on the cutting edge of any technology that I see as being useful in our business and can help you decide where to spend your hard earned money when you begin the search fora device or look to upgrade/update what you are currently using.
I’m proud to say that Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage recognizes the impact that new cutting edge technology has in our industry and offers our agents the most powerful tools to help them be more productive and capture more business. For more information, call or text me at 714-782-2723 or email me at Brad.Pearson@camoves.com
Brad
Click to learn more!
Welcome Leeann Iacino!
Leeann Iacino Recruited as Vice President Field Operations by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage for its Southwest Region
Leeann Iacino, Vice President Field Operations,
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage / Southwest Region
IRVINE, Calif., March 10, 2014 – Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, ranked #1 in residential real estate throughout the Southwest region, has recruited Leeann Iacino as vice president of field operations for its southwest region. Iacino brings to the position years of residential real estate and management experience, most recently as chief operating officer at Prudential California Realty, now Berkshire Hathaway Home Services California Properties.
“Leeann has an infectious energy, creativity and knowledge of the residential real estate industry that’s already making a noticeable difference here in a short time,” said Jeff Culbertson, president and CEO, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Southwest Region. “Bringing her on board is one of the best hires we’ve made in this region.”
Iacino has won numerous awards for her business acumen, including being named a Woman Who Moves the City by San Diego Magazine, Outstanding Women in Business by Wells Fargo and the Denver Business Journal, Top Power Broker, and Business Leader by the Denver Business Journal. She has also won a community service award from the South Metro Denver Realtor Association.
About Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage / Southwest Region operates more than 80 offices throughout Southern California, the Desert Region and Arizona with approximately 4,000 independent sales associates. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage ranks #1 in the area and is part of NRT LLC, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage company.
Click to learn more!
Small paragraph, but big deal to your clients! by Brad Pearson
Click for Concierge Service
With so many important paragraphs in our Residential Purchase Agreement, it’s one of the smallest that seems to create the most stress for our home sellers and buyers. Unfortunately, many agents don’t often put enough thought into the impact of it. “Page 3, Paragraph 5. Closing and Possession:” addresses what is widely recognized as one of the top most stressful life events. In many surveys I found simply google’ing “moving home stress”, moving ranks ahead of even bereavement and far ahead of even selling the home when it comes to stress. Having been a real estate agent for over 21 years and in leadership positions for nearly 15 years, I have seen the best and the worst in people involved in the stress of moving out or even into a home and I can honestly speak for myself that I would rather do almost anything instead of moving to or from a home. Arranging movers, packing boxes, scheduling utilities, changing schools for the kids, etc. etc. etc. and then the chaos of the actual moving day. I’ve watched spouses battle with each other, neighbors complain about moving trucks blocking the street, movers arriving late, kids crying because their favorite toy was packed up, and more. But the biggest and most preventable hiccup is when the real estate agent forgot to properly fill out Para 5 or they didn’t allow enough days for the sellers to move, and the buyers are pushing to move in before the sellers are out, or have had a chance to clean the home up after the move. Add it all together, and you have a living nightmare before you that could have been prevented. Some of the tips below can help you as a professional real estate agent, avoid being the cause of additional stress during your clients move.
– ALWAYS discuss Para 5 with your clients. Make sure they understand that this is a completely negotiable time frame and the time to ask for more time is during the initial negotiations and not after the acceptance.
-Plan for the worst, expect the best! Consider how long the sellers have lived in the home, the amount of occupants, size of the home, and your past experience in the real estate business, to properly counsel your clients and establish legitimate expectations for the time it will take to move.
-Have your buyers and or sellers consult with movers EARLIER than later. At Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, we have a personal Concierge Service that will personally discuss and assist in making moving arrangements, hiring movers, etc. ConciergeService.com
-Don’t trust that the co-op agent knows what they were doing when they left Para 5 blank or wrote a short time frame in. Double check, and ask to be sure.
-Be careful on Contingent transactions! Remember, if the buyer is closing escrow first, and then sending their money to escrow to close on their new home, there could be a day or even two that the next transaction is delayed depending on escrow and title, loans, etc. And if that buyer had 3 days after the close to move, and the seller on their purchase only has 3 days to move, then they are going to intersect right in the middle and you will have a conflict that you will remember the rest of your career. I’ve always recommended that the buyers as for up to 5-6 days to move from their home to plan for any delay in their purchase/sellers move time frames. It can get confusing, but once you experience this mistake it will become very clear and you won’t ever make it again. 🙂
-Be very careful with tenant occupied homes. The seller should work to have the tenants moved prior to the close of escrow at all times. They need to commit to selling their home and just accept that this is the safest decision. If the tenants decide not to move out, or delay their move after the close of escrow, this could be disastrous and now we have a landlord tenant law situation in the mix.
-Short Sales should be carefully considered based on each individual sellers situation. While most sellers will abide by the time frames, it is important to ensure that all of the parties in the transaction understand the agreement they make. In some cases, it may be best for the sellers to move prior to the close, and in others, it may not. Either way, everyone should be aware of the risks involved.
-ALWAYS stop by on moving day to offer to make calls, answer questions, help create calmness, show support, etc. This will go a long way in establishing a great referral relationship. Just being there for people in times of stress is a big and memorable deal. Bring by some cold sodas, snacks, order them some pizzas at lunch, drop by some breakfast burritos, donuts, and they will remember you forever! If you give closing gifts, deliver it on moving day to make the biggest impact and give them a moment of joy in a time of stress!
I hope these tips and suggestions can help you avoid a nightmare after the close and help you lower the stress to your clients during this difficult yet exciting time in their lives.
As always, I am here to answer any questions and support you in the growth of your business! No challenge is too big for me to assist you with so don’t hesitate to reach out!
-Brad
Click to see how to make your clients moves easier!
Click to download PDF!
Know your inventory! by Brad Pearson
We’ve all been there… We go shopping for our next car after finally deciding on make, color, and options. We search the internet for weeks and start making calls and visiting dealerships. If your experience is anything like mine has been, then you’ve had this experience. We call the dealer to ask if the car in the online ad is available, and after getting transferred around a bit and put on hold, a sales person finally answers and we ask about the car, the sales person has no clue about the car in the ad, has to put us on hold again, shuffles through papers or starts pounding keys on his computer, and eventually says, “so what are you looking for?”, we continue down the path about the car in the ad, and finally give in and just tell them what we are looking for. Over the next few minutes, the sales person says “can I get your number and call you back and let you know if we have that car?”, and we know that is a ploy to get our phone number, but it is also the painful truth that the sales person has NO idea what their inventory is, they don’t even really know what their best deals on the lot are. It get’s better, once they call back, or if we are at the dealership, and the sales person finds the car, when we ask for details about the car, like horsepower, options, etc. the sales person is stumped once again. No wonder no one likes shopping for a car! I had this experience in a luxury car dealer years ago that has stuck in my head ever since. I was standing next to a $75,000 car intently looking at it and a salesman yells down from the elevated display section of the lot and asks, “can I help you?”, and I replied “yes, I’ll have a ham sandwich on rye with light mustard and a diet coke!”, he said “what? Sir, this is a car dealership.”, I replied, “oh, ok then, I would like to buy a car, and I have a question about the horsepower on this one here!”, he, still standing on the platform, says “I’m not sure, it should be on the sticker on the window somewhere”. At this point, as a sales person myself, I could not fathom allowing this gentleman to get the sale. Not only was he too lazy to come down to the lot, but he knew nothing about his own inventory. That very evening I drove to another dealership in Newport Beach and bought a car. I only mention the location because if you are selling luxury cars in Newport Beach, then you don’t get to walk onto the car lot as a sales person without knowing your inventory and details on every car intimately.
I share the above story with you as a real estate professional because the same expectation applies to us from our customers. There’s likely nothing more frustrating than being a buyer or even a seller calling real estate agents and hearing “let me get that information and call you back”. I would propose that the real estate professionals who take a call from a prospect and are able to immediately answer their questions, as well as offer them options and information that can immediately help them in their quest, are the ones who are able to convert those inquiries into sales.
I get asked all of the time from agents what the top agents do to continue to grow, and why momentum plays such a large part in the success of so many agents. I always attempt to drive the point home that as an agent lists more homes, they get more buyers, as they get more buyers, they view more inventory while showing those buyers homes, as they view inventory their local market knowledge grows exponentially and they are able to field calls and have on the spot market knowledge from being out in the field so much. The only way to artificially duplicate this process is to get to know the local inventory intimately! Here’s some questions that every agent should be able to answer whether taking a buyer inquiry, holding an open house, or getting a “what’s my home worth” phone call…
1. What is the best deal on the market in the area for 2 bedroom homes, 3 bedroom homes, 4 bedroom homes, 5 bedroom
homes?
2. What is the best deal in the area where you are holding your open house, or advertising a listing?
3. What are the hottest pool home deals on the market right now/today?
4. What can a buyer get for $300,000, $400,000, $500,000, $600,000, $700,000, $800,000, $900,000, and $1,000,000, and so on!
5. How many short sales and distressed sales are on the market right now?
6. What came on the market in my area today?
These are questions that you should know the answers to every day. If you are out listing and selling 30-40 homes a year, then you will know this information because you are researching constantly for your prospects. If you are not yet selling 30-40 homes yet, then it is likely that you need to go through the daily exercise of answering these questions to have the same intimate knowledge of the market of those who do.
Just imagine knowing the answer to these questions and being able to say to a buyer prospect; “I know of the absolute best deals on the market. Everyday, I scour the market and go preview the hottest deals on the market for my clients. Let me tell you about a couple of them right now…. Would you like to get together to see one or several of these great homes that have not had the time to even be advertised yet?” You are now empowered to provide information that will spark interest in the prospect while showing that YOU are the EXPERT in the market and KNOW your INVENTORY/MARKETPLACE. A simple expectation that every perspective client has that so few are actually able to meet.
The great news is that if you are currently in the process of growing your business, this is one of the quickest ways to get a solid strategic advantage over most of the other agents in the industry and your market area! As “they” say, Knowledge is Power, but I would rephrase this a little and say that you can EMPOWER yourself with KNOWLEDGE and as a result, dramatically increase your success in your daily efforts to grow your business while delivering a substantially higher level of service to the customer on the first contact.
As always, I am here to help, whether you are already with Coldwell Banker or even with another firm and just need some help and support. Of course, I am always available to meet confidentially to show you why so many great agents have made the move to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage! Just email me at Brad.Pearson@camoves.com or call/text 714-782-2723.
-Brad
Click to learn more!
Just in case you missed it tonight!
Tonight our Coldwell Banker TV commercial entitled “Your home” aired during the Oscars. This commercial does a phenomenal job at putting the importance of “home” to us all in perspective. It is great to see a real estate company spending so much time and money to promote their brand and home ownership! Enjoy…
Click to learn more!
Brad Pearson's Blog 