Richmond Hill Georgia Real Estate

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

Richmond Hill / Ft. Stewart Real Estate

Selling homes in a small coastal town has its advantages and disadvantages. Richmond Hill, GA, is a town of approximately 18,000 people and it is located just a few miles south of Savannah, GA. It is a bedroom community between Ft. Stewart, GA and Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA. One of the big advantages of selling in such a city is that the town is small enough that you will see and recognize people at local restaurants and stores. Often I see couples that I have sold their home or families that have bought a home from me around town.

One of the disadvantages of selling in a small, coastal town like Richmond Hill, GA is that the number of homes on the market at any given time is pretty small. From time to time we have 400-500 active homes on the market in our town. There are neighborhoods in Atlanta or other neighborhoods in major cities that have more homes on the market than Richmond Hill, GA. So when a young buyer comes in to town we typically have only around 15-25 homes in their price range to look at.

Ft. Stewart is a large military installation that feeds us a constant variety of wonderful military professionals of all ages, occupations and backgrounds. The average price of a home in our city is $200,000 and the average age of a home in our city is right at 10 years since it was built. Many times a buyer will come to town and say I want an older home with a little bit of character. Their definition of older might be something built in the 1800’s and for me it’s a 1995 home in a planned unit development. We do have older homes that were built in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, and a few older than that. For the most part, 80% of our population and growth has occurred over the past 20 years and has been new construction homes in planned communities.

When I was a teenager, I remember Richmond Hill had a population under 2,000 people. So in the last 25 years you can see the major growth of this community. Richmond Hill does not have industry to speak of but we do have many residents that work at Gulfstream Areospace in Savannah, JCB, Great Dane Industries, and several other large manufacturers in Savannah and surrounding areas. I don’t think I would change anything about selling homes in such a small town. I have to realize that sometimes being a big fish in a small pond is the best way to go.

Richmond Hill Georgia Real Estate Richmond Hill Georgia Homes

Richmond Hill Ga Homes - Buyers on The Clock

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

How Much Time Does It Take

A running theme in real estate is a sense of pride when you can show homes and close a client in a short period of time. How much time does it take to meet a new client, show them homes, and get them to write a contract? That’s the million dollar question. Not everyone is the same. Every situation is different.

I take pride with my team to prepare for a client before they arrive, and have a pretty good idea of what home they’re going to buy before they get here. You know you’re becoming a really good Real Estate agent when you can narrow it down to one to three homes that you think they’re going to buy. Of course, you’re going to show them as many homes as you can to assure value, and you’ve probably been given a list from the buyer that they want to see the following homes.

Here are a few tricks for our system that we use to make the process more efficient.

1)      Assess do they want to buy or do they have to buy? Is this a corporate relocation or military move?

2)      What is their report date or start date for their new job?

3)      Do they have a home to sell?

4)      Have they gone through the process of not just getting pre-qualified, but getting qualified and knowing what it will take for them to buy a home in their new city.

5)      How much internet shopping have they done? Most of our systems now will allow us to see how many homes they’ve viewed and saved.

6)      How active have they been on the website?

7)      Have you sent them a relocation packet?

8)      Are they receiving listing alerts several months before they arrive?

9)      Have they made a realistic list of homes that they want to see that fits the profile of their price range and family needs?

10)   Who’s in town shopping? Is it the husband and the wife? Or just the husband or the wife? We have a rule as a team that we will never sell a husband a home without the wife giving her blessing on it, either looking at a high def video or making a trip to town just to ok the decision. Never believe the husband when he says I know my wife and I know what she likes. The funny part is the opposite is the wife does know her husband and does know what he likes.

11)   When they arrive in town, are they respectful of your time? Did they arrive on time to their appointment with you? What is the family dynamic? Is it a partnership or a dictatorship? Are the kids present? I’m a proud father of many kids and would never make a decision without my kids involved.

A very important question that you need to know the answer to is what is their mind set on real estate in general? Are they coming from a market where a seller discounts his home by 20%-30%? Are they realistic in looking at the numbers and understanding what the market is and what it will take to buy a home in this market? A lot of the time, either the husband or the wife, most of the time it’s the husband, after looking at homes steps in to the restroom, comes out with a mask and cape on and calls himself Super Negotiator! He’s often saying, “Don’t worry, dear, I’ll take it from here!”

Warning: Kryptonite or a big dose of reality won’t affect this person.

All these factors will determine how much time it will realistically take to get the buyer to contract. If you don’t have answers to the above questions and you try to learn as you go, you’re in for a very long week, weekend or several weeks of home shopping.

Fort Stewart Ga Homes

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

Working with Military Clients

I have the pleasure and privilege to sell in a great, small town called Richmond Hill, Georgia. This town is about 15 minutes from Fort Stewart, Georgia, which is the largest military installation east of the Mississippi River. Fort Stewart has about 20,000 active duty soldiers on their base. As you can imagine we get an influx of military personnel transferring in and out throughout the year.

Real Estate is full of specialties. Luxury home experts, REO/Foreclosure experts, First Time Buyer experts … Add “Working with the Military” on that list of specialties. There are certain things that you need to know when you work with the Military.

First and foremost, the government gives a housing allowance called “BAH” or “Basic Allowance for Housing”. This supplement is in addition to their pay and the amount of money they receive is based on the Soldier’s rank.

When the soldier is given orders, this means that they have to report to a new duty station by a certain date. When they arrive in town and sign in, they are given 10 days to shop for a home. Many of my savvy soldiers parlay leave time ahead of their report date, arrive in town, find a home, secure the home, and then sign in and use the 10 days as vacation time or family time.

It is critical to NOT sell a Soldier a home that he or she cannot afford. Most of the soldiers now are very young and impressionable. Sometimes it’s our job to save them from themselves. It’s also critical to make sure that you ask yourself, “Is this the home they should buy?” The chances of them staying in a home longer than 5 years is next to nil so the end result always has to be in mind; can I sell this home for this person and them not lose money 3-5 years down the line?

One of the things about any military community is that they are a tight group that spends a lot of time communicating either in chat rooms or Facebook, or even word of mouth. If you do a poor job for them, it won’t take long before everyone knows it. The up side is if you do a great job for them, you will have an incredible amount of repeat business and referrals.

Assess every situation independently. It is cheaper for a soldier to come in to our town and buy a home than it is for them to come and rent a home. That does not necessarily mean he or she actually needs to buy a home. I talk to my team and remind them from time to time that in the lives of the military, if they make a mistake or if they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, they could die. The stress factor on their lives has to be 100 times what ours must be in selling real estate. Making the home shopping process easier and less stressful is just a small part of saying “Thank you” for what they do.

Richmond Hill Ga Homes- The Closing

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

After the Close

Let’s be honest with ourselves, it’s hard enough to maintain great service from time of contract to closing table. I’m going to present an idea today that may be new to you. Most people when they buy a home are in what I call the honeymoon phase. At closing, everyone should be happy – Buyer, seller, buyer’s agent, and listing agent. They’re getting a new home or selling their old home. Who wouldn’t be excited about that? The National Association of Realtors came up with a statistic that said over 70% of clients that were polled would use the same realtor again down the road when they needed to either sell or buy again. But the reality is only 18% of them actually do. Why is that? It’s simple. We fall in love with the deal and we feel like once we put them under contract and close them that our job is done.

Sending a client a post card from time to time isn’t enough. Within the last year I’ve implemented a system that has worked beautifully and has generated referrals from my past clients. At the time of closing we will give or send a very nice hand written note to the client. A lot of times if you bring a gift basket or cookies or any kind of closing gift at the closing table, the affect of the gift is watered down by the excitement of the new home.

So here’s the fix.

30 days after closing my clients get a gift. Either a gift card to a local Starbucks, movie theater gift cards, a gift card to a nice restaurant, anything that you can think of that would have a positive response from your client. A handwritten note is sent along with the gift card thanking them for working with me.

60 days after closing another gift, maybe another gift card, maybe a gift basket, or maybe tickets to dinner and a movie, and another hand written note is sent to the client telling them that I really appreciate them being a part of my real estate family, thanks so much for your business.

90 days after the closing, you guessed it. Another gift. This time the hand written note in the gift says “I was just thinking about you today and thought about how wonderful the experience of working with you and your family was. I would love the opportunity to work with your friends or family that may need to buy or sell, here’s a little gift for you guys to go out and have some frozen yogurt or ice cream on me. Thank you, your Realtor for Life.”

I will tell you the difference between spending $100 for an initial gift basket at closing and staggering $100 worth of gifts over the 90 days after closing is the difference in night and day responses from the clients. I’ve received more thank you notes because of this, positive referrals, Facebook posts saying that I was the best realtor they ever worked with and the only thing I’ve done differently here is staggering the joy.

I have a calendar on my wall that every time we have a closing we write the client’s name on the month that they closed and the next 3 months after. You will see amazing results by doing this one small thing. Sometimes it takes us thinking outside the box a little bit to make us stand out for great service or creative new ideas. Try, it. It works.

Richmond Hill Ga Homes - Open House

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

The Gold Standard Open House

The ultimate open house goes as follows;

Within 3 weeks of acquiring a new listing, the wheels should go in motion for an open house. First and foremost, go to a domain supplier such as GoDaddy or DomainSolutions and secure the address name of the property as a url. Let the seller know that the open house is going to be planned for a Sunday afternoon from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. This allows for a potential buyer to sleep in or go to church, have a good lunch, and visit the open house in a positive mood with an open mind.

Within 14 days prior to the open house, daily craigslist ads should be posted announcing the open house to get the word out and spur interest.

Within 10 days prior to the open house a blog should be written on the upcoming event using the address as the title. The ActiveRain community is the perfect vehicle for the announcement and by posting it to the hyper-local pages it should show up on a news feed for your area, city or community.

Within 7 days prior to the event, 50-100 postcards should go out to the community and neighborhood announcing the open house and the give-away’s you’ll be providing to the people who attend. The give away’s can include things like a $25 gas card or $25 gift card to a local restaurant. This is the most you should have to spend on the give-away item.

2 days prior to the event, or no later than the day before, you should door knock 50-100 homes around the open house to invite the neighbors to come see the home and to ask them if they know about anyone that wants to buy or sell a home in their community.

The day before the open house, directional signs should be placed at major intersections and directions leading the consumer to the house. Please note, if this is done too soon, many city enforcement agencies will remove the signs.

The morning of the open house you should pick up your food tray, also pick up a small gift of cookies or pastries from a local bakery. Show up to the home, make sure the home smells good, looks good, and it’s in its best light.

After every event or action, the seller should be sent an email or called to inform them of what is taking place on their home. Once the open house starts, have a sign-in sheet and inform anyone who walks through the door that the owner has requested that anyone coming in that they please fill out the sign-in sheet with name, address, phone number and email address. I have learned not to have them sign in immediately. Have them walk through the house and enjoy it first then casually ask if they would please mind signing in.

During any open house, there are going to be lulls in activity. Periods where no one comes through the door. If anyone mentions during their visit to the open house that they have a home to sell, and they have filled out the sign-in sheet properly, when you leave the open house you’re going to go by their home and take a picture of their home, create a post card, the post card should thank them for attending the open house and informing them that you would love the opportunity to interview to sell their house. Hand written notes should be written during lulls for anyone who’s attended the open house that day, and if you want to stand out from the crowed, shoot a 30 second video using your phone or small digital video camera, we use BombBomb as our platform, thanking them for attending the open house and letting them know you would love the opportunity to get to work for them. It will take 30 seconds to shoot the video, 5 minutes to edit it and you will leave a lasting impression on anyone who came through the door.

Richmond Hill Georgia Real Estate

Richmond Hill Ga Real Estate- The Preparer

Richmond Hill Ga Real Estate

The Perpetual Preparer Syndrome

I often wondered why the fail rate in real estate was so high. In a few places I’ve read it’s up to 80% of new agents entering the market will be out of the business within a year. I don’t know of another profession where the fail rate is so high, except maybe professional sports. Studying a typical real estate office on any given day where you have a mixture of new agents and seasoned pros – An overwhelming consistent trait stands out – The new agents are waiting to learn before they do. The agents that seem to make in this business do then learn as they make mistakes.

I recently studied our main office here in Savannah, GA and I noticed agents walking around doing a variety of different things. The new agents seem to want to go to office depot or staples two or three times a week to get an extra set of pens, cases of paper, and desk calendars. They are constantly preparing to get in to the real estate business. We’ve all seen the agent in the office ordering incredible real estate signs before they even have their first listing, several thousand of the nicest business cards with no intentions of handing any of them out any time soon, car magnets announcing their arrival in the business and such other items. Sadly these agents, in a few months, are out of the business.

The progression is not straight out of the real estate business, it starts off by switching companies. It’s the company’s fault that I’m not successful, or I just didn’t work well in that environment, they just didn’t like me. I mentor and teach new agents, telling them that you have to get battle scars and make mistakes to become good in this business. Saying the wrong thing to a “For Sale By Owner”, giving the wrong information on a school system to a potential buyer, mispricing a home on a listing presentation, or flat out looking like an idiot in front of a client or other realtors by just not knowing. These events make you better! Yes, you’re going to mistakenly violate license law several times in the first year. Yes, you’re going to an illegal statement such as “No kids allowed”. It’s a part of our business. Hopefully you’re mistakes aren’t large enough to draw attention and we’re very fortunate to be in a profession of other professional realtors that are very forgiving of someone new.

How many times have you been in a room and two seasoned agents look at each other as a brand new agent is talking and make that eye contact “They must be new….”

The unspoken word goes a long way.

If I had my way I would not allow new agents to order anything but business cards and frankly the first batch of business cards would be bare bones, name, address, email, and phone number, no glamour shots allowed, no magnets, no yard signs, one pen and one pad of paper. We’re going to go to work and earn the right to go buy office supplies.

Richmond Hill Georgia - Your Business

Richmond Hill, GA Real Estate

Your Business Duplicatable, Not Predictable

The widget maker can look down the assembly line and know what the widget will look like at the ending point. The color, shape, size, and weight are duplicatable and predictable. As realtors we can only wish that this was true in our business. Trends, waves, market conditions, public sentiment, perception and inventory levels all affect our business from day to day. No matter what business plan you put in place this year rest assured that you are going to get business from sources that you were not thinking about or counting on. You will also lose business from sources you thought were certain would pay off.

Your valuable tools that you possess are the foundations on how to do a contract, how to negotiate, how to interact with a buyer or seller, and what the real estate laws are. Once the foundation is in place you must stay in concentration on your daily task sheet. Believe in your system whether or not you see an immediate result.

Every day in my business I do the following things:

· First and foremost I post a blog on ActiveRain. I properly structure the blog for SEO purposes and I make sure the content is relevant to provides value to the real estate community. I don’t just mail it in.

· Two, I write 5-10 hand written notes every day thanking people for great service or for taking time with me out of their busy schedules or lives.

· I post craigslist ads, all of my listings as well as call to action ads.

· I call 10 sellers or buyers every day.

· I send a personal email to all of my buyer inquiries every day.

· I shoot a video of a potential home for an out of state buyer almost every day.

· I put together relocation packets for out of state buyers every day.

· I meet with my team every day to find out what we are doing, any obstacles they are encountering, and what can we do to be better?

I was once told by a seasoned agent when I first got in to the real estate business that you have a bucket underneath a spout, business is the water dripping in to the bucket. Sometimes it drips slowly or maybe not at all. Sometimes there’s a steady stream. Real estate is a funny business. It rewards activity. I tell new agents that if you wanted to make a business model out of door knocking for business only and you did it consistently with structure and follow up you will be a mega-agent in a short period of time. There’s no one path to success in real estate. There are young agents in this business that are so tech-savvy that I’m sure they could find out what I had for breakfast this morning. There are other seasoned agents that still don’t know how to download digital pictures then upload them to the MLS. Staying in concentration with your systems will make your business duplicatable but certainly not predictable at times.

Richmond Hill Ga Real Estate- Mail Christmas Cards This Week!!!

Richmond Hill, GA Real Estate

Mail Christmas Cards This Week!

In this business everyone talks about modeling, mentoring and coaching. Find a successful agent and copy what he or she is doing. My company is big on not reinventing the wheel and taking advantage of other peoples experiences. By doing this you will absolutely get valuable education on what works or does not work. It will give you a jump start and save you time and money.

But what about individualism? What about creativity? Trying to stand out in a crowed? If everyone is doing the same things, what makes one realtor better than another in an independent consumer’s eyes? Is the top producer that people are copying just better at selling homes than the new agents? Does he or she have an advantage because they came up with the system first? Maybe. Most likely the new person can see the inefficiencies in a system that has been done for a very long time by a seasoned pro and make the systems better.

Think about it and ask yourself these questions:

· Do your systems need to be updated? I.E. are you faxing or using a pager?

· Are there too many sharks in the water right now? Do you need to find a new pond to swim in?

· How many people are now doing or copying the systems you created and have watered down the results?

· How can I reinvent myself?

I think one of the things about being with a successful real estate company, sharing your knowledge with new agents, is yes they’re going to copy what you’re doing, yes they most likely can do it and do it better or at least put a modern spin on it, but this will make you grow. Come up with the new idea or system to attract business; new buyers, sellers, and military relocations. Come up with clever new ad campaigns.

I will be mailing in the next few weeks a Christmas card. Yes I do know it’s going to be May when this happens, but I know that people when they receive cards in the mail, they will open and read it. I will send it to my farm area and past client database. The Christmas card will simply say: Just want to let you know that I’m always ahead of the rest. If you know anyone thinking about buying or selling, please let me know!

Coming up with these fresh, new ideas is fun. It forces us to think outside of the box and maybe work a little bit harder. For all the agents who feel like sharing information with new agents or teaching your systems is a taboo, I’d say do it and watch how your business can grow.

Richmond Hill Ga Real Estate - You Want To Know?

Richmond Hill GA Real Estate

Do you want to know?

If you want to know how strong your real estate team is, just unexpectedly miss a few days of work. Most rain makers are “A” type personalities or high “D”s on a DISC profile and rarely miss work. They have their hands in the mixing bowl of everything being made. What if all of the sudden the top producer is out sick for a few days? Unannounced absence due to sickness, family emergencies, or the emergency vacation you’ve been dying to take will tell you where your missing or weak links are in your team.

Who stepped up on your selling team?

What administrative person jumped in and got things done?

Were more things done while you were gone than you expected?

Did anyone panic?

If your staff is like mine, they welcomed a day without a person with attention deficit and obsessive compulsive traits randomly jumping from project to project. If you have the right people on your team – They are task driven and more focused on getting the job done than watching the clock or thinking about taking off early to get their nails done. It never fails – As soon as you take a few days off, especially unexpectedly, that a seller calls with an emergency, that home buyer calls in a panic. How your staff deals with these interruptions will tell you if you have a strong team. Did anything get missed? Did someone step up and write a blog on ActiveRain while you were gone? I’m proud to say we did! Was attention and love given to clients as if I was standing in the room?

I recently watched a reality show where restaurant owners sent in secret cameras watching their staff and were appalled at the bad service that the staff was giving to clients and customers. Unlike the restaurant business where a client or customer will walk out never to return, rest assured that an unhappy buyer or seller will call and leave you messages if your executive assistant didn’t return his or her call quickly enough. One piece of advice that has served me well; Take up for and defend you staff at all times, even when they’re wrong. I’m not saying that you need to lie if a wrong was done, what I’m saying is your staff needs to know is that you have their back at all times. You privately pull them to the side and say hey, you probably should have handled this a little differently and here’s how. I would rather lose a million dollar buyer than disrespect a strong team member who made an honest mistake or was treated unfairly by a buyer or seller.

I know not many of you rain makers will take time off without a bunch of preplanning involved but try it one day and see what happens.

Richmond Hill Georgia Homes- The Hand Written Note

The Hand Written Note

The old form of communication, the hand written note, is making a comeback. In this modern day of communications through email, blogs, Skype, face-time… There’s something about receiving a note card in the mail that gives you a bit of anticipation and you’re excited to see what it is. It might go back to being a child, knowing Grandma is sending you money in your birthday card. The simplicity of it is that someone who stops and takes time to write you a thank you note for services that you performed just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I make it a point every day to sit down and write 3-5 notes, sometimes more if I’m inspired. The obvious recipients of these thank you notes are buyers and sellers that we work with every day. Think about it, we come in contact with people in all professions throughout the day that need to be congratulated or thanked for providing great service.

Think about the lady at the post office that always has a smile on her face, the girl at the bank who is obviously having a bad day and just needs someone to say that she’s appreciated, the home inspector that stopped what he was doing to answer questions and concerns you had, the closing attorney willing to stay an hour past their end of business to get the closing done for your clients.

I want you to consider something that I’ve started doing in the past year. I must warn you, this isn’t easy to do. Send a hand written thank you note to someone that has given you a hard time or has given you bad service or just downright wasn’t friendly.

I had to fire a client this week. The client was rude, inappropriate, and put my staff down with profanity and comments that certainly could not be true. I was proud of myself for keeping my head and telling him that we were going to allow him to move on to someone else. To say I was angry and mad is an understatement. I swallowed my pride, got out my note cards and sent him a really nice thank you note for allowing us to work with him and apologizing that it didn’t work out. That note card took ALL DAY to write. The little devil sitting on my shoulder was telling me all day long to not send the note. But, you know what? Somewhere down the line that guy will remember that I was courteous, gracious and friendly to him even through the exit.

With all the reports of the post office downsizing, possibly stopping Saturday mail delivery, I hope we never lose the ability to sit down and write someone a hand written thank you note.

Richmond Hill Ga Real Estate Randy Bocook Keller Williams Realty

The Hand Written Note

Richmond Hill Ga homes

Archaeology in Real Estate - Richmond Hill Homes

Archaeology in Real Estate - Richmond Hill Homes. Real Estate Agents can be an eclectic group. After all, we're in constant friendly competition with our piers for good notoriety in our communities and areas of business.

It is this good natured competition that causes some agents to try to distinguish themselves from the crowd. I see it every day in print advertising. We distinguish ourselves by specializing in certain classifications of Buyers or Sellers. Agents call themselves the "Luxury Home Specialist" or the "Beach Front Specialist". I've seen "Rural Land Specialist", "Rental Condo Specialist" and "First-Time Home Buyers Specialist". You can get a designation for any of these classifications and then add it to your business card. Does it make you a better agent? Maybe, I mean you do have to take a class to get the classifications. Continuing education is a cornerstone of our growth as agents. Will continuing ed. alone be enough to carry a new agent? I've seen several print ads featuring newer agents with so many capital letters after their name it looks like a new language, and the same goes for seasoned agents.

I also see quite often, too often actually, agents who refuse to update their picture. It's 2013... if your picture is in black and white or technicolor, you should update the photo! In a thousand years, there will be an archaeologist who unearths my business card or more likely my personalized yard sign (sadly I know the home in front of which the discovery will be found... still unsold). He will study it, carbon date it and determine it to be about a thousand years old. However, in the here and now, carbon dating isn't necessary because it says on YOUR card, " Selling (fill in the blank city) since 1963". And the picture shows you with a bee hive hairdo and spectacles that look like the front end of a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville! Get a new picture! All that image relays to a potential client is that you may have sold a house to Lyndon Johnson! (Cue the Jurassic Park theme song!)

Sadly, some agents have taken this advice for granted and had their picture professionally taken by a photographer. Photographers are an eclectic group as well. Most pride themselves on being current with technology. Sometimes they are a little too proud of their technological abilities. Don't let a photographer OVER-touch up your photo! You don't look like Angelina Jolie! It's a big let down for a potential customer to see your photo-shopped image in a real estate magazine, form an image of you in their mind, and when they meet you they get "Bea Arthur". The bottom line is: you lose credibility when you fake it.

Shouldn't we all strive to distinguish ourselves by our track record as opposed to our photo or slogan? Shouldn't our list of personal referrals speak volumes and not our list of specializations? The reality is we have to toot our own horn as no one else will. And we have to find a way to set ourselves apart from the crowd lest we be lumped in with the status quo.

I'm looking for that "happy medium" I suppose. I hope to never be the agent with the thirty year old photograph on my business card and I hope none of my yard signs have to be carbon dated by an archaeologist. Heck, the picture on my business card is only seven years old! That's NEW in terms of Real Estate Agent photos. Archaeology in Real Estate - Richmond Hill Homes.


Mark A Douglas, Realtor

The Randy Bocook
Keller Williams Realty Richmond Hill
(912) 659-0096