Ben's Short Sale Insights

   I've been in sales since 2002. So, six years and counting. The most frustrating thing in sales is finding new customers. Most people recommend cold calling. But, everyone hates that because of all the rejection. No matter how wonderful you are, not every person you call is going to love you. A...

I noticed something interesting the other day. In Fort Myers, Florida, one of the hardest hit housing markets in the country, the median sales price in January 2008 was $234,000. Today, the median sales price is $94,900. In short time period prices have dropped a bunch. But, volume is up by 124% ...

Ever heard about the technique Indians would use to kill buffalo? This was before they had guns. An Indian tribe would send out 10-15 guys to steer a buffalo herd over a cliff. They would work together to scare the buffalo and get them going in a certain direction towards a cliff. Once the herd g...

I have a reminder before I start today. Today is March 2nd. Make sure you pull all of the expireds from Saturday and Sunday. We got a bunch from the end of the month. Chase them down today. In direct mail there are certain things you can do to separate your letter from the rest. The ideal letter ...

I heard a crazy story the other day. A guy was trying to make a point to people. His point was this. People can only relate to something if they have experienced it themselves before. To illustrate, he took a $10 bill out of his pocket and walked around and tried to give it to people walking down...

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up knowing it must outwit and outrun (at least) the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When...

Right now real estate is getting trashed by the media. Sometimes it seems like they don’t think anyone should buy a house. It’s frustrating when you work with a buyer and then they decide not to buy because a friend told them not to. “Oh, we’re just going to rent and wait for the market to go dow...

Sometimes I have agents tell me they have no leads. If you’re looking for good solid buyer leads, or “come list me” seller leads, then good leads can be few and far between. There is no readily available list of buyers. They don’t put a sign out in their yard telling you they want to buy, unlike ...

Working as a buyer’s agent on a team was tiring. That is why three and a half years ago I decided to start working with sellers. This was because I was sick of working late at night all the time and being on call for a buyer. When I first started chasing listings, I called the FSBOs to see if I c...

If you’ve got a sense of humor you need to read this. In my case you would have to call it ‘’sisterly love’’. Our family is definitely out of the ordinary. I am number six out of ten kids. I usually don’t bring it up because people are shocked and it is kind of embarrassing sometimes. We grew up ...