Treasury Says Millions More in Foreclosures are Coming; Are You Ready?

By Mike Parker Print Article

RISMEDIA, September 17, 2009—According to recent announcements by the U.S. Treasury Department, another wave of foreclosures is on the way in 2010. For over a year, now, we’ve been digesting foreclosures and distressed properties and it looks like we’ll all be doing it for another year or so. It’s too large a market segment to ignore: in some parts of the country, distressed properties account for about 65% of sales these days. While some agents sniff imperiously and decline to partake in such unpleasant things as foreclosures, short sales, and Bank Owned Properties, others are laughing all the way to the bank. 

They are not laughing at the plight of their sellers, they are laughing because –broken down to its simplest truth, the foreclosure craze breaks down to this -everyone wants a bargain, and it is a fact that a great many people who rise to the bait of foreclosure properties are simply looking for a bargain. Nothing drives investors like smelling bargains, and there are bargains aplenty in most markets these days. Do you have any properties in your inventory you consider a bargain? Then you should adjust your website to include foreclosures, because – to Internet buyers—“Foreclosures” and “bargains” are interchangeable. 

Why you need to target Foreclosures and Bank Owned Properties

People are searching online for “Foreclosures” and “Bank Owned Properties” in your marketing area right now, regardless of your location. Will they find you when they do so? As we said above, many investors are prowling these channels looking for bargains. One such investor found Melanie Ross, the top agent with Coldwell Banker in Benicia, CA (and top-ten agent for CB in all of California) and Vallejo, CA. This one investor purchased nine homes through Ross early this year. In just the last quarter, Ross sold 15 homes with the help of her website and she has plenty of transactions pending for this quarter. 

Frequently, agents who know what they are doing can make multiple sales to one client. These clients are not investors, just people that need help and who are grateful to receive it when up to their necks in alligators. For example, here’s another real-life example that happened as I was writing this article: Joyce Tietz of Altera in Antioch, CA, received a call from a woman going through a divorce who was facing foreclosure and who was desperate to do a short sale. “I never look down on people having problems,” Tietz says. “I just try to do my job that can help them, and the results are really gratifying.” In this case, not only was Tietz able to stop the foreclosure proceedings and find a buyer for the property, she also was able to find a more reasonably priced property for the woman to acquire: One client, two sales. Opportunity is lurking in distressed situations. 

What you can do to position yourself online to participate

The first thing you must do is adjust your attitude. There is no shame in helping people; whether it’s helping someone eager to unload their home, or someone looking for a home they can afford. Anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong. 

Second, there are some basic technological things you can do to help yourself be found when people go online looking for foreclosed or bank-owned properties. 

These include:

-Adding the terms “foreclosures” and “bank owned properties” to your html tags and something about them on your homepage;
-Adding pages and tabs on your site to include those subjects, along with a full explanation of what makes a short sale and how it works for the homeowner;
-Compile a list of such properties by towns in your marketing area and offer them at no cost to people who contact you;
-Advise people never to pay for such a list as you will provide it to them once you have their contact information. Then, call them and chat about it for a moment before telling them you’re sending the list. Perhaps something good will develop from that brief chat, perhaps not; but you’ll be talking to people interested in bargains, and that’s never a bad thing in a bargain-filled marketplace. 

What you should NOT do

Many agents want to implement all sorts of high-tech mapping solutions and other goodies to show prospective buyers every possible thing about every possible foreclosure in their state. It may be cool to give away all that information, but it will not be even 20% as effective as having the visitor contact you for a foreclosed properties list in the town they want to look for a home in. Ninety-five percent of agents and brokers fail at Internet marketing. They fail for different reasons, but a constant major reason is that these agents haven’t figured out that the purpose of your website is to help you sell and list more homes, it is not to inform the world about everything they might ever want to know; conversely, your website exists to help you sell what you have and to bring you a source of prospects you would otherwise never engage. 

To put it even more simply, it’s not about giving information away. It’s about collecting information from real people who want more of it—information that you make your living providing professionally. Do not give away information without getting some in return and you will have plenty of interested prospects to call on every day. Give them information they want, like lists of foreclosed or bank owned properties, and they will allow you to engage with them. 

The suitcase and the handle effect

It is easier to be found on the Internet under “foreclosures” than under “real estate.” However, one of the great things about the Internet is that as you are found under ANY description more, you begin to be found under all descriptions pertaining to real estate more. Thus, you will also start getting more leads from regular buyers and sellers. (We call this “the suitcase and the handle” and you can read about how it works here: http://www.theblackwatercg.com/what_we_do.html). Also, a beautiful thing about the Internet is that once it starts working for you it gets stronger with time. 

In response

A few people write me from time-to-time and chide me for not going into more detail on these matters in these articles. To some of them, it appears that more could be explained. Folks, all I can say is that it is not easy to communicate complex ideas in 1,500 words. This article is meant to get you thinking about what you can do to partake of the coming resurgence in foreclosures and if you will think about what you can do and do just a few simple things, you will do better online. Thus, I invite you all to visit that site above and download any booklet you see there. Just go to “Success Stories” and hit the “Success Guides” button. These booklets are popular and filled with useful information and far more detail as to what it takes to succeed at online marketing for Realtors. They are also totally without cost, no one will call you, and you’ll get our complimentary online marketing tips newsletter each month automatically. 

Remember; it’s not about foreclosures, it’s about bargains. In the case of “foreclosure” seekers, they’re really looking for “bargains.” So, get smart and give the people what they want in your online marketing: access to lists of “bargains.”

If you are in a marketplace where a large percentage of transactions involved distressed properties, why would you not want a piece of that marketplace for yourself? Bargain properties exist today in all price ranges—luxury to basic. I assure you that the commission checks on bargain properties cash just as smoothly as those for conventionally priced properties, but they come far more frequently, and at full commission, too. 

Mike Parker has written more than 200 published articles about online marketing services for Realtors. For help in making your site effective for foreclosures or to request a free review of your website to determine if it can be found by Internet buyers and if it is set up to be effective for you, click here and we’ll review it for you at no cost or obligation. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010