Wild, Wild West - Lisle McCallum, Saskatoon, SK.

Networking by ATV, East Coast Style.

Network Superheroes

Tons more new stuff on the blog

Professional Standards, Sheldon Johnston, Edmonton, AB

Third issue of network news... who woulda thunk it? Thanks to everyone who has written in and checked out the blog. We're adding more stuff to the blog everyday, and have started a second consumer oriented blog which has already been rated the 16th best real estate blog in North America. With the Coldwell Banker broker meetings happening this week, we've decided to feature all brokers in this issue. Hope you enjoy our "Power Broker" edition. Be sure to check the blog this week with live updates from the broker meetings.

And now, my thoughts on the housing bubble... So we may not be in for an explosion, but there seems to be a market correction on the horizon in most markets. In fact, some markets in the US and Canada already have already started to slow and some have even seen declines. With that, comes positives and negatives. Obviously there is certainly more competition for listings and buyers. On the other hand, discounters and the like tend to fade away when times get tough.

How can you prepare for a market correction? Well, I'm no expert, but I've been reading what a lot of experts have to say, and the general consensus is to strengthen the bonds with your existing client base.

We all know the golden rule of marketing - it is easier and less expensive to get business from existing clients - but when the market is strong it's easier to focus on the business that is in front of you, than to take care of past clients. It's time to get ahead of the crowd and prepare for a market correction. Consolidate the different databases of clients you have, be it Outlook, Top Producer, Virtual Assistant, mailing lists, a board database or a three ring binder - wherever your data is stored - and reconnect with those clients. And while you're at it, give them something of value, something they will want to read.

Sara.

Wild Wild West

I first met Lisle McCallum, the broker owner of Coldwell Banker McCallum Realty, in September of 1993. We were the only two Canadian Brokers at the CBSO (Coldwell Banker Systems Orientation) in Mission Viejo, California, back when Coldwell Banker was owned by Sears (that may be 5 or 6 or more owners ago, I’ve lost count). The most memorable thing from that trip was definitely meeting Lisle.

Lisle is probably one of the quietest men I’ve ever met, but when he speaks, you’re a fool if you don’t listen. His knowledge of real estate goes beyond that of ordinary past presidents of the Saskatoon Real Estate Board and the Saskatchewan Real Estate Association. Lisle owns a property insurance business and property management business as well. He often gets involved in guaranteed sales on to help his agents secure business. His methodology in this is nothing short of GENIUS. I could take a couple of articles just outlining how simple, safe and profitable his guarantee program is (my last calculation was a low of 16% and a high of 34%). For more information you’ll have to contact myself or Lisle directly. I can tell you that once he showed me the gist of his program I was SOLD.

To know Lisle is to know he is a devout family man and loves his football. His outlook is positive and it reflects in the salespeople that work with him. “Saskatoon is doing well” - most people would say thriving but that’s his conservative approach. A university city with oil and gas prospects and the buzz of diamonds has things on a steady curve up in the big S. Lisle’s son Gord has a thriving mortgage brokerage business in Edmonton, and you can see how similar they are in their ethical approach to their businesses. Gord has a couple of breakthrough ideas of his own that could revolutionize the mortgage business. More on that another time.

So back to Mission Viejo... Here’s this quiet Canadian broker from Saskatoon in a room full of charming American brokers who have no idea where Saskatoon or Edmonton are. The activity we were participating in was an observation activity. We would face each other for 10 seconds. Then turn away from each other, change 10 things and see if the other person noticed what changes we made. After doing this a couple of times you become limited in what changes you can make. Needless to say on the third time I turned around pretty much nothing had changed, but there was Lisle standing face to face with me in his red boxers. I couldn’t help but laughing and every single one of those American brokers learned where Saskatoon was. As always Lisle got his point across in the fewest words possible, and I learned my first lesson from a Real Estate great.

Broker/Owner
Coldwell Banker
McCallum Realty,
Saskatoon, SK

cb.mccallum@shawbiz.ca

Some people say still waters run deep and that is certainly true of Lisle. If you get the chance to meet him you’ll have the privilege of meeting one of the most intelligent and
ethical people in the business. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from one of the best.
I haven’t.

Sheldon Johnston.

Bea and Brian Richford, of Coldwell Banker First Choice Realty in Moncton, NB wrote to me about a great east coast adventure they took last June. Along with Brian Lekas and Darlene Irvine (also from First Choice), Janet Kazakevicius, broker/owner of Coldwell Banker J. Kazi Realty in Brantford, ON, her husband John, and 7 others, they drove across Newfoundland on ATVs. The adventure started with a ferry ride from Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques, NL, which is an overnight trip.

Upon arrival they set out by ATV to cross some of the most picturesque and rugged landscape this country has to offer. Following the ‘T’railway’ they crossed over 100 bridges and saw mountains, beeches, ocean views, Puffins, whales icebergs and even snow. John and Janet officially got “screeched-in” Newfoundland-style in Buckins.

Bea writes: “You cannot imagine the scenery in Newfoundland - you could never have seen such sights by road. Newfoundland is absolutely the most hospitable province in Canada! They have such a way of making you feel so welcomed! We certainly would love to invite any adventurous Coldwell Banker people to come along anytime! See you on the trails!”

This is year is the 30th Anniversary of Ralph Roberto's brokerage. He arrived in Canada in 1967 as a teenager. His parents chose to leave Portugal, where he was born, with the hopes of a brighter future for their son, in a time when young men were being drafted to fight in the Portuguese colonies.

Ralph has always had a knack for sales and as a young man sold many things door to door - even music lessons! When asked why he chose the real estate industry he simply replied "I have always wanted to sell, and real estate was the biggest ticket item I could think of so I thought - why not give it a try?" Turned out Ralph was a natural in real estate and after two years in the business he had his own independent brokerage; 13 years later he joined the Coldwell Banker network, in 1989. His business has since ballooned to one of the largest companies in the Coldwell Banker Canada network.

Sounds like a piece of cake but the truth is Ralph’s genuine personality makes him a natural at sales. In an age when many brokers are just happy to just sit back and hope their agents do well, Ralph is proactively encouraging them to prepare for a market shift. This explains why, when Coldwell Banker introduced the HIT sites for agents Ralph didn’t just hope his agents would jump on board, he realized the importance of the Internet's and hired a trainer to specifically train his agents on developing their sites. This shows commitment to the building blocks of his agents’ success, not just a passing hope they make the grade.

This can only come from a person of passion. Maybe it’s the Portuguese roots or just the type of person he his but Ralph exudes life. Not only does he make traveling to networking events a priority, but he takes advantage of the event and adds a little extra time to take a motorcycle tour. When at the International Business Conference for Coldwell Banker was in Las Vegas he took a little trip into Arizona and California with Jim Holody, broker/owner of Coldwell Banker 1st London. His friendly disposition is unusual considering the success he has attained, and Ralph’s determination is obvious. You definitely get the sense that there’s more to come from Ralph.

Coldwell Banker R.M.R. Real Estate
Whitby, ON
rroberto@coldwellbanker.com

For years I've been involved in the regulatory and professional standards side of the industry. If you're really interested and would like to cure your insomnia then you can check out my resume on www.teamjohnston.com. The following represent a few observations from recent hearings:

Multiple offers – curiously enough we should never assume that every agent will fulfill their obligation under article 3 of the current code of ethics (the new code of ethics for CREA members comes into affect July 2006) and inform you when they are competing with an offer of their own. It is my recommended practice to get an instruction from your buyer that they request you be present if you are aware of this situation in order to have their interests represented. This may limit the amount of funny stuff you’ll have to deal with. Even if like me, you prefer not to have buyers agents being present with your sellers for offer presentations, you can’t deny that making sure the other agent gives a fair presentation is best for your buyer, their seller, your future business with that agent, and the peace of mind of not having to deal with a complaint. Obviously some presentation rules will be established by regulatory guidelines and others by regional practice. Know those rules but don’t always assume everybody plays fair. Some simple timely questions can save you a commission.

Do you have tenants? - Having tenants can be a great thing. Having tenants without a rental agreement can be a nightmare on your family if something should happen to you. What happens if the tenant claims they were living with you as a “common law” spouse? Proving this fabrication can be costly and next to impossible. It recently cost clients of mine over $25,000.00 to have their mom's tenant evicted when she passed away unexpectedly. Provide a service and recommend their rental agreements are in writing.

Property Insurance - More and more the insurance companies are tightening their restrictions. What happens if your clients move out prior to possession and take out insurance to cover themselves until possession day? What happens if there is a delay in closing and the property is vacant past possession. Just get an extension right. Maybe not. A recent case saw a well known insurance company put on almost extremely impossible to meet conditions on their continued insurance. It Might be a good idea to recommend your clients extend insurance beyond the possession date thereby reducing their exposure to risk.

Open ended expiry date and the perils of offer shopping – In some areas the date the offer will be open until is left incomplete. I must confess that in the past 17 years I have also used the flexibility of leaving the expiry of the offer incomplete. Figuring out the time for presentation of the offer can sometimes become a major factor in and of itself. Leaving it open though, definitely leaves the offer open to offer shopping, and lets face it, in an industry like ours the more time that passes, the more likely something will go wrong. There are also some legal perils (consult your broker, regulatory body, lawyer in this regards) in leaving it open. By the way, when it comes to the withdrawing of an offer verbally, it can come down to he said she said in terms of whether or not the offer was withdrawn or accepted.

Multiple offers continued - Some have suggested that the best way to compete in a multiple offer scenario would be to write an offer that is a certain amount above any other offers. The danger here is if there is no cap on the offer price the buyer could pay significantly over what they were willing and able to pay. If you're a sellers agent, and the buyer does this and requests to see the other offers as evidence, showing those offers could be a serious breach of  CREA's privacy policy and PIPEDA (those who are not members of CREA are equally at risk).

Thanks to Doug Symonds from Willow Creek Realty, Greg Falardeau from Interactive Realty and Rollie Cartier from Cartier Realty for participating in the link exchange suggested in the last issue. As I mentioned last time, the more links you can have going to your site, the better your search engine results will be. If anyone else is interested in exchanging links, just drop me a line.

Check out the Network News blog and share your stories, thoughts, comments. job postings...Heck, if you want to be completely self-serving just post your website address - a first step at improving your search engine performance. Want to know why? Read the blog and find out!