Despite that compelling fact, 35% of all Realtors^® don’t even have a website!

With most buyers using the internet to find their next home, you’re missing out if you list your home with a Realtor^® who’s afraid of technology!

How can you tell if a Realtor^® is tech-savvy?

Here are some things to check on when selecting your listing agent:

Does The Agent Have Their Own Internet Domain?

If they do, their e-mail address will be something like Phil@PhilHoover.com, not susieq123@incrediblycheapemail.com.

Serious agents have their own domains, hosted by commercial hosting providers to ensure that they receive all of their e-mail.

And, they have ample e-mail inbox sizes to prevent people from receiving that dreaded “the recipient’s e-mail box is full” message when trying to send the agent an offer.

While free or low-cost e-mail providers like AOL, HotMail, Yahoo, MSN, and Google mail are okay for personal use, they are not generally adequate for business use due to file size limitations, shared servers, and possible downtime.

If the agent is using one of the free or low-cost e-mail providers, it may be an indicator that the agent is not tech-savvy or has a meager technology budget

Does The Agent Have Their Own Website Or Just A Web Page?

Here’s how you can tell ~ if the agent has a website, the domain name will be something like www.PhilHoover.com or www.BoiseBlog.com.

However, if the agent only has a web page, the address will look something like www.susieq.incrediblycheaprealestate.com ~ a web page buried deep in the bowels of their broker’s website where it will never be found by a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

If the search engines can’t find it, no one will ever see your home on the internet!

Does The Agent’s Website Provide Useful Information?

It’s one thing for an agent to have a website, but it’s a whole different deal for an agent to have a useful, deep website with the kind of useful content that buyers crave.

For example, does the agent’s website have helpful articles about the home buying process, an online relocation package, photos, virtual tours, slideshows, and other features that buyers want?

Or, is it just another boring “me too” business card website with minimal information?

Can You Find The Agent’s Website On The Major Search Engines?

If the agent has any substantial internet presence, you will easily find numerous results for them when you search for them by their name.

No results = no internet presence!

Does the agent’s website come up when you search key phrases commonly used by buyers searching for homes in your area?

In the Boise area, try searching with the search phrases “Boise Real Estate” and “Boise ID Real Estate” to see if the agent’s website can be found easily.

Does The Agent Have A Blog?

Fewer than 2% of all agents know what a blog is!

A blog (acronym for “web log”) is like an online journal and it’s interactive.

You are on a blog right now!

Visitors can post comments to the articles (posts), thereby creating a sense of community.

Boring, static websites are being replaced by more interesting blogs because they are informative and include fresh, personally-written content that helps them rank high in the search engines.

Does The Agent Use Call Forwarding?

I run all of my calls through my home office and answer my own phone to avoid having a human being between me and my clients.

The last thing I want is to miss your call, make you wait, or have your voicemail placed in someone else’s voicemail box.

Then, if I am away from my office, my calls are forwarded to my cell phone and I personally answer all calls without the caller knowing I’m not in my office.

My business card has one voice phone number on it ~ (208)938-5533 ~ instead of several different numbers for office, cell, pager, home, etc.

You shouldn’t have to figure out where to call me!

Does The Agent Push Their e-mail To Their SmartPhone?

Does the agent have a SmartPhone, or just a cheap, ordinary cell phone?

A tech-savvy agent will have a SmartPhone with the capability to receive e-mail forwarded from their computer.

I push my e-mail from my office computer to my Blackberry World Phone so I can respond immediately to urgent e-mails from visitors to my blog.

I want to talk to those people before they contact another agent because most buyers end up buying from the first agent who helps them.

In Summary:

These are just a few suggestions about how to determine how tech-savvy a real estate agent is before you list your home with them.

Remember:

You will miss 90% of the buyers if your home can’t be easily found on the internet, so make sure you list with an agent who embraces technology vs. an agent who fears and avoids it!

First-time homebuyers (that is, people who have not owned a home within the last three years) may be eligible for the tax credit. The credit for FTHBs is 10% of the purchase price of the home, with a maximum available credit of $8,000.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

Current Owners

The tax credit program now gives those who already own a residence some additional reasons to move to a new home. This incentive comes in the form of a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified purchasers who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years.

Single taxpayers and married couples filing a joint return may qualify for the full tax credit amount.

What are the New Deadlines?

In order to qualify for the credit, all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010.

Tax Credit Versus Tax Deduction

It’s important to remember that the tax credit is just that… a tax credit. The benefit of a tax credit is that it’s a dollar-for-dollar tax reduction, rather than a reduction in a tax liability that would only save you $1,000 to $1,500 when all was said and done. So, if a first-time homebuyer were to owe $8,000 in income taxes and would qualify for a tax credit of $8,000, she would owe nothing.

Better still, the tax credit is refundable, which means the homebuyer can receive a check for the credit if he or she has little income tax liability. For example, if a first-time homebuyer is eligible for a tax credit of $8,000 but is liable for $4,000 in income tax, she can still receive a check for the remaining $4,000!

Higher Income Caps

The amount of income someone can earn and qualify for the full amount of the credit has been increased.

Single tax filers who earn up to $125,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, single filers who earn $145,000 and above are ineligible

Joint filers who earn up to $225,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, joint filers who earn $245,000 and above are ineligible.

Maximum Purchase Price

Qualifying buyers may purchase a property with a maximum sale price of $800,000.

Credit: Paula Peck of Prospect Mortage

10) Office tour.

9)   MLS tour.

8)   Itty-bitty print ads that say “Hurry, this one won’t last!”

7)   Black and white marketing materials.

6)   Full graphics on an agent’s Hummer, proclaiming that they’re #1.

5)   Bus bench ads.

4)   Grocery store shopping cart ads.

3)   Delivering pumpkins to your neighborhood at Halloween.

2)   Including recipes in real estate newsletters.

And, my favorite: (bada boom!)

1)   Handing out refrigerator magnets to your neighborhood.

(As a Realtor^®, it’s really, really fun to list a home while glancing at another agent’s refrigerator magnet on the fridge!)

 **  Breaking News  **

According to the Associated Press, Senators have agreed to extend the tax credit for first-time homebuyers and to offer a reduced credit to some repeat buyers.

Reportedly, Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time homebuyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years.

The tax credits would be available to buyers who sign sales agreements by the end of April 2010. They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes.

This is a preliminary report, details and conditions may change as the legislation becomes finalized.

I will provide more details as they become available. 

Recently I was giving an out-of-town buyer a courtesy tour to educate them about the Boise area, in anticipation of their possible move to our area.

They had told me to they were going to relocate and that Boise was high on their list of relocation alternatives, but needed to visit and learn more about the area.

So, I agreed to give them one of my comprehensive local tours ~ a good faith gesture for someone who might become a future client.

I had been in contact with them for several months, had answered many questions by e-mail, and had arranged to show them around, plus show them a few homes.

They said they wanted a newer home, so I searched MLS and found some good examples.

As I pulled up in front of the first new home, they proclaimed “We don’t want to be in a subdivision!”.

Well, gee, folks, all of our new homes just happen to be in subdivisions!

In fact, when you stop and think about it, everything has been subdivided since the day our planet originated.

So, I left them at a local restaurant for lunch while I went back to the office to search MLS  so I could start over and show them old homes in old neighborhoods.

I retrieved them from the restaurant, resumed showing them homes, and while we were in the first home the wife answered a cell phone call.

I thought it odd that she moved to a corner of the kitchen and turned her back, and then I overheard her furtively say “Yes, we are looking for 1,500 to 2,000 square feet with four bedrooms and a three-car garage″.

Stunned, I realized that she was actually talking to another agent while I was showing her and her husband homes!

Kinda tacky, huh?

Kinda like being out on a date and having your date take a call from someone else in the middle of dinner, right?

I should’ve just taken them back to their hotel at that point, but instead, I showed them the remaining homes I had planned to show them.

When I finally took them back to their hotel, I asked them if they had talked with any other agents.

They admitted that they were going to be working with two other agents while they were in town.

They didn’t appreciate it when I explained that all agents work from the same MLS listing inventory and that no experienced, competent agent would give them the time of day if they learned that they were working with multiple agents.

Loyalty matters when you’re in a business where you only get paid for a closed transaction.

I try to give everyone a chance, but every now and then, someone gets to me.

But, I am in real estate and I’m amused every time I see one of them!

Does anyone really care what an agent’s sales volume is?

Well, impressive as those $4 license frames are, here’s the straight scoop about how (un)impressive it is to be a “Million Dollar Producer”.

In real estate, we divide up each sale into a listing “side” and a selling “side” because most sales involve two agents ~ the agent who lists the home and the one who sells it.

And, we typically split the commission (usually equally) between those two agents.

So, if you assume a 6% commission (not always the case anymore, but a good example), each agent gets 3% of the sales price.

If you multiply the $1 million X 3%, you get $30,000 in gross commissions per agent.

But wait . . . there’s more.

Most agents split their commissions with their broker, and many agents typically get to keep 50-60% of their earned commissions.

So, let’s be generous and assume our agent is on the higher 60/40 commission split.

That means that 60% of $30,000 gross commissions now becomes $18,000 in net commissions to the agent after the broker takes his cut.

From that, the agent gets to pay for their car (figure $500/month = $6,000/year), their own health insurance (figure $400/month = $4,800/year), gasoline expended on free tours with buyers who don’t buy (at least another $200/month = $2,400/year), advertising, computer, internet, telephone, MLS fees, dues, E&O insurance, licenses, taxes on any remaining profit, etc.

In the end, our “Million Dollar Producer” hasn’t made a penny after expenses.

The truth is that our “Million Dollar Producer” doesn’t even have any money left over for groceries after expenses.

No wonder we have so many part-timers with “real jobs”!

In the real world of real estate, you don’t even start to earn a living until you sell several million dollars worth of homes each year.

But those license frames sure are impressive, aren’t they?

People would go to the shopping center to buy groceries, walk by a real estate office, gaze at the photos in the windows, and occasionally “drop in” to inquire about a home they had seen.

Predictably, those people were “just looking” and not likely to actually buy or sell anything.

The duty agent, aka “floor agent”, was there in the hopes that a real buyer or seller would show up, but floor agents were usually about as lonely as the Maytag repairman.

My best guess is that the last time anyone walked into a real estate office to inquire about a photo of a home taped to a window was probably around the time dinosaurs disappeared from the earth.

The exception to this is perhaps resort areas like McCall or Sun Valley, but the truth is that floor time is mostly unproductive for most Boise real estate agents.

For that reason, most offices no longer have floor time and instead route inquiries to the listing agent.

Or, they assign floor duty to the office rookies who have not yet realized that there are better uses of their time.

Fact is, experienced, successful agents will not take floor time!