Most people are familiar with the idea of crowd funding. Sites like Gofundme.com and kickstarter.com have helped some really great ideas get off the ground and brought in to reality.
This week, Nathan Roach, the CEO of MassVenture.com explains to us how the laws in Texas have recently been changed to enable a crowd funding spin to be applied to real estate investing. Through the platform, individual investors can invest as little as $500 in the projects they have curated for their members.
This week we sit down with Don Leonard. Don has been in the real estate industry for 34 years, giving him a wealth of knowledge and expertise in real estate. Don has hosted two radio shows in Houston about real estate, currently teaches at the Champion's School of Real Estate, and has had his own broker's license for 18 years.
Don sits down with us this week to swap war stories and offer some advice on some specific questions Karen has about a deal she's currently working. Don also shares with us some of the details of a coaching program he is hosting entitled the Nature of Real Estate. If you're an agent looking for a different way to do business than cold calling, door knocking, and publicly begging for business, then you're listening to the right podcast, and you should consider this coaching program.
Just imagine it: You wire your money to the title company as instructed the day before you buy your dream home. You show up to closing, and they ask you, "Where's your down payment?" You think this must be some kind of silly joke, so you say, "You mean the massive wire I sent you yesterday wasn't enough?"
"Wire? I checked a few minutes ago, and we didn't receive a wire from you, but I'll go double check." The serious look on the escrow agent's face tells you this isn't a joke.
"Yes," you say, "I sent it to the updated account you asked me to use via email yesterday."
"... I didn't send you any updated wire instructions yesterday."
After a few eternal minutes of double checking both on your end and on the title company's end, it's clear that you did indeed send the down payment, but you did not send it to the title company. Instead, you sent it to an overseas thief who has now disappeared with your money. How could this happen?
This has been a growing problem in the real estate industry that was highlighted by ABC news station KOMO in Seattle.
What can you do to prevent this?
As an agent:
As a consumer:
Don't get screwed, friends!
If you want to know what Phil Dunphy, roller derby, and dental work have in common, listen to the show this week.
Customer service seems to be a dying art in our increasingly digitally connected, yet personally disconnected world. Kevin and Karen talk about some recent customer service experiences they've had to illustrate why excellent customer service is one of the single most important ingredients to a successful real estate transaction.