A majority of buyers now start their home search with an Internet MLS search for Sequim and Port Angeles properties. This is true all over the United States.

Did you know that not all real estate brokers and not all agents are necessarily members of your local MLS (multiple listing service), wherever you may live in the U.S.? What does it mean if a broker is not? Let’s consider the implications.

Most people know that the MLS is where real estate agents post their listings. This is the first step in marketing a property. Putting the listing in the MLS gives other agents who are members of the MLS the ability to view the details of that listing and share the listing with their potential buyer clients. All of this exposes the listed property to more potential buyers.

So why wouldn’t a broker be a member of a local MLS? There are three logical reasons. First, it is too expensive. That is not likely, since it is not an expensive service. In fact, it is the least expensive marketing an agent will ever do. The second possible reason is that the broker has a better marketing plan. That could be, but this also not likely, since the best marketing plan would include first listing it in the local MLS. The third possible reason would be that the broker’s membership was suspended or revoked by the local MLS board. If that is what happened, we don’t even want to discuss going further with that broker. Anyone who list with such a broker either does not know about the suspension or revocation or they are on Ritalin.

For the consumer, there are several more important considerations in deciding to list with a non-MLS participating broker.

When it comes to hiring a real estate agent, do your due diligence. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as getting a broker who wants to list your property but is not even in the MLS.

Your logical goal when selling your home is to get the highest possible price in the least amount of time. I recommend choosing your real estate agent carefully. It’s a very important decision for you.

Courtesy Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC

Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC is currently accepting applications for the position of real estate agent. A limited number of agents will be hired. Compensation is commission only. Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate is the newest, most innovative, and powerful real estate brokerage in Clallam County. Why?

1. Our entire focus is on our clients, not us. That means our business model, our customer relationship management, our marketing, and all that we do is designed with our clients’ best interests in mind. We practice what we preach 24/7.

2. Our marketing is some of the most effective marketing in the business. We do not share our marketing secrets with our competition, and virtually no one is doing what we do as effectively as we are doing it.

3. Our designated broker has tremendous real estate experience that is unsurpassed. His experience goes back to the mid 1970’s when he started his career in real estate as an agent and later as an associate broker while still in Alaska, then 20 years of real estate law in Washington, head of an escrow company, personally closed 100’s of transactions, negotiated 100’s (if not 1,000’s) of real estate transactions, drafted real estate residential and commercial documents of all kinds, litigated most real estate issue agents deal with, acted as an advisor to top producing agents for 15 years, and so on. Enough of that.

4. We have the most technologically advanced staff of any brokerage on this side of the Columbia Gorge. This information is top secret, so it will not be revealed here.

5. While our clients are the center of mass for our business and all that we do, our designated broker also considers the financial, professional, and personal welfare of our agents a top priority. Not only do we train and mentor for success, our agents get paid 90% of their commissions. Our philosophy is that our work should be enjoyable and our relationships at this company will be healthy and productive and profitable relationships. We love our clients and we love what we do.

6. Our agents pay all their own expenses, and either work out of their home office or their own public office. Sellers want to meet us in their homes, so we can see them and evaluate them. Buyers typically want to meet at their hotel or coffee shop if they are from out of town, or we meet at a central location (the broker’s office), and drive out to look at homes. Clients do not care about brick and mortar buildings. They care about effectively marketing their home for sale or finding their dream home. Our full business model, which is very extensive, will be shared only with our agents.

7. Because our agents get paid 90% of their commissions, and because we teach them how to keep their operating expenses extraordinarily low, it is highly probably that an agent’s net commissions for the year could double (or triple) from their previous experience. We teach agents what they need to learn to earn a six figure income. It should be obvious that the owner/broker is keenly interested in the success of his agents.

Here is a short segment of an interview of the owner/broker of Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC [read the full interview here]:

Blog Manager: Chuck, you did not join a major real estate franchise. Do you think people look for the big names?

Chuck: I’ll tell you what clients have been telling me for nearly 30 years. They want someone who will help them find what they are looking for. They could care less about the name of a company or the size of the building. They don’t sit in California or Arizona, or even in Seattle, and say, “Honey, let’s call a big name franchise in Sequim or Port Angeles, and see if they can help us find our dream home at a rock bottom price.” About 75% of buyers start their search for their next home on the Internet, and they’re not using real estate portals or franchise websites. Like all of us, they are searching with Google or Yahoo. Again, it’s not about me, it’s not about the company, but it is all about the client and what the client is looking for. I have a completely different business model than 99% of the crowded brokerage business. For me, it really is all about the client, not me.

Blog Manager: Chuck, since you talk about serving your clients more than anything else, can I assume that you have free resources that people can check out?

Blog Manager: Well, there you have it folks. Check out those websites, and thank you Chuck for sitting under the bright lights for us.

Chuck: My pleasure.

Applicants should email their Resume and a cover letter explaining why Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate should hire them. Please email to chuckmarunde@gmail.com

Include your telephone number and email address. You will be notified if you are chosen for an interview.

Traditional real estate brokerage is history, just like the Model T is history. Consumers know this. Home owners and buyers have known this for several years. What is interesting is that so many real estate brokers don’t know this.

Real estate brokers who operate under the traditional model are still using a 20 year old business model, but the business world, and in particular, the real estate world, has dramatically evolved in the past two decades.

How does the traditional model market listed properties? This old worn out approach markets property by:

1. Entering it in the local MLS;
2. Advertising it once every 6 weeks in a little newspaper ad.

That’s it! Let’s pause here to answer the objection a traditional broker would immediately have at this point. He/she would say, “Oh, no. We do much more than that. We send out “Just Listed” post cards to neighbors, we send out price changes to other agents through our email system, we put the house on the broker tour, we hold an open house, we run ads in the newspaper, . . . we have it on our website, oh yes, we do so much more.” They would also talk for several minutes in a fast and nervous voice, but when they finished, you would not be able to repeat what they said, because it didn’t really seem to make sense.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. All of these things are just more of the same, and all of this is part of the 20 year old business model.

There’s nothing wrong with such tactics, but the world has changed in the last two decades, and buyers and sellers have become very savvy. Buyers and sellers do not necessarily understand how the world has changed in real estate sales, or what marketing tactics work or don’t work, but nearly everyone is aware that the traditional approach is no longer effectively connecting with buyers.

It’s much more than just ineffective marketing that is at issue. A simple concept called CRM, or customer relationship management, became a popular subject about 15 years ago. The dialogue focused on meeting the client’s needs and communicating regularly with the client during the relationship, keeping the client informed, building a positive relationship, and doing such a great job that the client would eagerly send referrals. Today, 15 years later, the vast majority of real estate brokers have NO customer relationship management system in place.

Again, consumers don’t necessarily understand how it should be, but their gut feeling is that something is wrong, and they are not being treated the way they should be. Clients do not like being ignored for months at a time.

The 20 year old model focuses on the real estate agent, rather than on the client. For example, the old model suggests an agent promote himself or herself, brag about his sales record, or boast in other self-centered ways. But consumers have one question, “How are you going to help me sell my home?” Traditional real estate brokerage doesn’t understand that it’s not about me, the agent, but it is ALL about the client. The client is and should be the center of mass for all decisions made. It is the client’s best interest that should be the focus.

Consumers sense this, and they don’t like it.

The world has dramatically changed in the past two decades. Clients expect more. They expect brokers to sell their homes using cutting edge technologies and in such ways that strong and positive relationships are built during the process. Technology and the Internet have dramatically changed the way the real estate business is done. Most brokers are only slightly aware of the significance of this. In a feeble effort to demonstrate they are using the Internet, they have techies build a website that is no more than a static brochure on the Internet.

Consumers will not be fooled by counterfeits. Consumers are demanding more. How real estate is bought and sold is dramatically changing, and consumers know it. Unfortunately, most brokers and agents do not.

Port Angeles homeowners and Sequim homeowners who want to sell their homes, and buyers from California, Texas, Arizona, and on the Seattle side of the pond, are looking for leadership from real estate brokers in Port Angeles and Sequim.

When the real estate market goes through a phase of uncertainty, as we are now, and especially in the slowest time of the year, clients are asking important questions like:

Should I put my house on the market now?
What is a fair listing price on my house?
How long would my house be on the market before it sells?
Is this a good time to buy a house?
Should I buy a home in Sequim or in Port Angeles?
Should I buy an existing house or have one built?

Clients do not want to look into a crystal ball. They want professional guidance that comes from experience and integrity. If you are buying or selling, this is a time for strong leadership from your real estate broker and agent. Do the due diligence to find an agent you can trust and who can do an outstanding job for you. Knowledge, experience, and trustworthiness are all important. Don’t buy or sell your home without them.

What’s behind the mask? If you’re buying real estate, is your real estate agent representing the seller, too, and acting in the capacity of a dual agent?

Dual agency is legal in every state, provided there is full disclosure to both parties, and provided the dual agent does not compromise the special duties he or she owes exclusively to the seller and to the buyer.

Here’s the challenge. A dual agent owes his client a duty of loyalty, obedience, disclosure, confidentiality, financial responsibility, and reasonable care and diligence. It’s easy to understand how all these duties would apply to an agent’s seller, or to an agent’s buyer, but to both at the same time?

Imagine you are a buyer, and your agent is a dual agent, meaning he or she is also the listing agent for the seller who owns the home you want to buy. Because the agent owes special duties to the seller, there are things your agent cannot share with you. In order for your agent to work in your financial best interest and beat up the seller on either price or terms, your agent would have to work against the seller’s interest. That would violate the law of dual agency, and subject the agent to legal liabilities.

In one case, the buyer closed on a unit in a co-op only to find out later that he could have purchased a unit in the same complex for 40% less, but his agent also represented the seller. Was the buyer upset? You bet, but it was too late, since he had already closed on the transaction. There are many other issues besides price that could be negotiated in favor of the seller to the detriment of the buyer if your agent is a dual agent.

This is why a buyer’s interest are clearly best promoted when a buyer retains a real estate agent to act as their exclusive buyer’s agent. In this case, there are no divided loyalties, and you have an agent who has one client, you. You can be confident your agent is promoting your interests, and your interests only. This gives your agent freedom to withhold nothing from you, to help you negotiate the best price and the best terms, so you come out the winner.

You wouldn’t go watch an NBA game if there was one coach for both teams? Can you imagine the coach running back and forth to coach the players on each team during time outs? What would he tell the players? How would he promote their best interests? Likewise, why would you hire an agent who represents the seller when you want to buy?