Spent a great morning with Kendall Laine the owner of Hommati’s Orange County Office.

What a wonderful person to work with.  Love what Hommati is doing to help real estate agents with 3D Interactive Tours,

Aerial Videos, 2D Ultra HD Photography, Guided Tours, Virtual Staging, and Augmented Reality.

Kendall Laine can be reached at 929-466-6284, Email Laine@hommati.com or Web  hommati.com/office/182

Jim Forde Ignites Real Estate Students

Jim Forde believes that to have a great real estate com­pany you have to have great Real Estate Agents and he is 100% committed to providing Real Estate students with all the tools they need for success.

>Young home buyers are more comfortable texting than talking, which means big changes for agents and lenders.

By: Stephanie Guiles

Editor, OCRENews.com

Both Tim Walsh, the Division Manager at Ditech Mortgage in Tustin, CA and Dale Cheema, the Broker of Record and Designated Officer for Keller Williams Realty – Irvine, know from their own experience as fathers of “millennial children” that they quickly had to learn a new way to speak to their sons. Dale Cheema remembers trying to call his son, Alex, with no results, so he sent his son a quick text and to his surprise got a quick answer back. Welcome to the new world.

What Tim and Dale are discovering is that while millennial homebuyers rely on technology, they still value face-to-face contact with an agent and lender.

For decades, the telephone has been the real estate agent’s tool of the trade, but a new wave of younger homebuyers is changing the way agents use those phones. Millennials, those born between 1980 and the late ’90s, don’t want to talk. They want texts.

“We’re on our phones all the time and this generation does not like to pick up the phone,” says George Chriest, Branch Manager at Ditech in Tustin. “They don’t want to bother with a conversation if it can be texted.”

As the millennial generation, also known as Generation Y, takes a greater role in the housing market, young people’s preferences are starting to shape the way real estate business is done. Dale Cheema predicts that his Keller Williams real estate portal, KW.com, will have more and more millennials and will overtake baby boomers as the generation purchasing the largest number of homes this year.

“Because of their size, whatever they decide to do will have an impact on the housing market,” says Jim Forde, Director of Approved Real Estate Academy in Irvine. Forde is now the leading trainer of new Millennial Agents that want to get into the real estate business. Forde is advisor to Keller Williams Realty, Ditech Mortgage, and the Real Estate License trainer for Diamond Resorts International.

It goes without saying that this group relies on technology. According to data from the National Association of Realtors, more than 50 percent of millennials search for homes on their phones, and among those, 26 percent end up buying a home they found that way.

“Mobile traffic to our app has outpaced traffic to our desktop site dramatically,” says Dale Cheema, “Folks first go to their iPhones and their iPads.”

Dealing with these tech-savvy buyers has posed a challenge for the nation’s real estate Agents who are considerably older than the home buying population they serve. A NAR survey of its members in 2012 found that only 3 percent of agents were under 30 and 81 percent were older than 45 of which 25 percent were over 65. This is a problem that Jim Forde hopes to solve by spending most of his time talking to students at universities in Southern California.

“We’re seeing a population on the consumer side that is not being served by its own age group,” Forde says. “It’s causing a significant change in the way experienced agents are having to communicate.” At Approved Real Estate Academy we teach the basics, but have added new sections on how to “communicate” to different groups.

To meet the needs of Millennials, Jim Forde creates groups of young agents in Southern California to help Diamond Resorts International, Keller Williams, and Ditech meet the needs of younger customers and recruit young agents. We do this, said Forde, since many millennials had a negative image of real estate agents and loan officers. When we show them the technology and have them meet similar-age agents they quickly see the endless possibilities and sign up for our school.

“Millennials are driving change in a lot of industries,” Forde says. “They’re making these industries revisit some traditional practices.”

Keller Williams Realty is an example of a company that has changed some of the traditional ways real estate is bought and sold, with technology taking a key role. Customers can ask for home tours online or via the company’s app, as well as sign up for alerts about new listings. They can use their phones to search for open houses near them. The KW.com app lets customers keep tabs on the process of their transactions 24/7.

“We find that our buyers, and particularly millennials, like having that information at their fingertips,” Cheema says.

Both Ditech and Keller Williams Realty have found that customers still value face to face contact with an agent. Predictions that technology would make agents obsolete have proved unfounded.

“Agents are needed because they are that trusted resource when it comes to signing a contract,” Cheema says. “If you are on your own, it can be overwhelming. It would be a second job.”

Both Tim Walsh of Ditech and Dale Cheema of Keller Williams see the following ways millennials are changing real estate:

Don’t call us and we won’t call you. Many millennials prefer to communicate by text, but some prefer email. It’s important for agents and customers to clarify upfront how they will communicate and how often, as well as how quickly they can expect a response.

We’ve done our homework. Millennials rarely need agents to find homes for them to see. They usually have their own list, and they’ve already researched comparable sales and chosen a neighborhood. “With millennials, we do not control information,” Walsh says. “What they need is for us to interpret the information.” At times, that can mean demonstrating that the information is not accurate. This generation may not simply take the agent’s word without proof and visuals.

We don’t like surprises. Younger buyers want to know what to expect and when. “I see them wanting to understand what’s going on at any time in the process more than any other generation,” Cheema says. They like timelines, checklists, and charts. “If they don’t know what’s coming around the corner, it could cause paralysis when they get to the next step,” Walsh of Ditech says he sees this every day.

We want customer service and we want it now. Millennials expect to be partners in the home search and they want quick answers to questions. “They want information – valid information – and they want it right now,” Walsh says. “They’re the generation of Google at your fingertips.”

Is there an app for that? Younger buyers live on their smartphones and use them as a key tool in their home searches. Apps are often their preferred method to check listings and collect other information.

For more information on Millennial Agents contact:

Tim Walsh
Divisional Manager
Ditech Mortgage
Email: Tim.Walsh@ditech.com
Phone: 657-218-2310

Dale Cheema
Broker of Record and Designated Officer
Keller Williams Realty – Irvine
Email: DaleCheema@yahoo.com
Phone: 949-246-2000

Jim Forde Director
Approved Real Estate Academy
Real Estate Agent Trainer
Email: Jim@ApprovedRealEstateAcademy.com
Phone: 714-875-0979

Now is the best time to start real estate school in Orange County with Approved Real Estate Academy

This is a very good post by John Barney. It is so true that now is the time to get into real estate.

“Now is the accepted time” You only fail if you refuse to try”.

“If you pay too much attention to market conditions, you will be too afraid to make a move”

Interesting quotes. And yet they convey the feeling many people have about real estate. Is it the right time? Should I move now or wait? What about all the things I don’t know about real estate?

Some call it the “paralysis of analysis”. If you look too long at the reasons why you can miss the fact that now is a great time to get into investing. Why am I saying that? Because real estate has been and still is one of the foundations for building lasting wealth that can impact future generations.

I got introduced to this business in the late 1980’s. I have seen interest rats shoot up over 15% on residential mortgages. Points were 3 to 5%. FHA was becoming the way to go because of the down payment requirements. At one time FHA did loans to investors. And REO’s were not the norm for the average investor. All you had to do is find an area you wanted to be in and then look for deals. It was not hard to find them.

Property has certainly been on a ride since then. Interest rates have been in single digits for years. Investors have found it much harder to get traditional forms of financing and Hard Money loans have soared. The concepts of wholesaling and flipping properties have become national past times with many teachers and gurus being raised up looking for students.

I still believe that NOW is the best time to get into Real Estate. Why? Because it isn’t going anywhere. People will always need a place to live, businesses and factories will need a place to operate and many other professions are dependent on a solid housing market.

The key to getting into real estate now is finding the right deal for your circumstances. If you don’t want the hassle of landlording, then consider learning how to wholesale properties to other investors. If you want to be a landlord, then find properties you can manage for their cash flow. If you like doing repairs and construction work, consider fixing a property and flipping it to a consumer. Based on your current level of skills you can find the place to put your expertise to the test and become an Investor.

If you are considering getting into real estate now, don’t hesitate. Why? Because prices are not dropping, interest rates wont be getting much lower and the need for people to own and control real estate is growing stronger.

APPROVED REAL ESTATE ACADEMY
4010 Barranca Pkwy., Ste. 100
Irvine, CA 92604
Phone: 714-875-0979
Email: Jim@ApprovedRealEstateAcademy.com

MAILING ADDRESS

Approved Real Estate Academy
PO Box 4163
Tustin, CA 92781