Explanation of Activities - Some examples

The concept with these plans is that you just go down the list of activities in each plan, and delete the ones that are not relevant to you. As you're going down the list, you may see that there are some things that you do, that are not on the list. Add them as you go.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SEND ME THOSE, SO THAT I MAY ADD THEM FOR FUTURE RELEASES.

Agents with different levels of experience will get different things out of these notes. For those of you who have been through closings many times, many of them are basic - BUT - there are also things you may not have known. I strongly recommend that you read through all these notes.

Some of them:

1) Explain what the description means, period.

2) Some explain the description to an assistant or a new agent, that may not know the business well yet.

3) Remember - these plans MAKE NO ATTEMPT to satisfy all the legal requirements for you in your market. You are solely responsible to ensure they are all met.

The following are an excerpt from the list of activities:

We'll start with the beginning of the alphabetical list...

Add to eShowings - A service available on the Internet that takes care of making appointments to show your listings, get feedback, etc. http://eShowings.com

Add to "My Home Management Club" - My Home Management Club is a drip e-mail system that gives prospects/"members" the ability to access the MHMC Web site, which has a great deal of homeownership information. In the bi-monthly e-mails, you also have the opportunity to add any content you wish - including listings. More info available at

http://realestate-agenttools.com/mhmc.htm. The most inexpensive ‘touch’ system I know, and you can monitor who reads it!

Add to personal Web site - If you are adding listings to several sites, and you are mentioning that fact in a visual listing presentation - consider printing examples of listings from those sites, to include in your presentation. Everyone TELLS people they'll be there. A point of differentiation is that you SHOW them.

All ‘Parties’ Keyed into TP? - Add them to your contacts, and don't forget to add them as a 'Closing Party' in the 'Closing' tab. If you add all the parties to the transaction there, you can print out a report with all of their information for closing. NOTE: EVERYONE in your life, business and personal, should be in TP. Use ‘Types’ to separate them. I have a contact called; Fist Name: Computer, Last Name: Help. In the notes for that contact, I have tips I want to be able to access from anywhere, including my PDA!

Appraisal in? Repairs required? - If repairs were required by the home inspection, township, or appraiser, have they been finished?

Buyer/s attending settlement? – if not – is the proper paperwork completed? Power of Attorney, etc.

Buyer? Seller Prep Letter - A letter to review some things that need to be/should have been done in preparation for settlement. Over the years, you get different questions from the clients about preparing for settlement, some, pretty strange J I sent this letter for several reasons. Obviously it's good customer service, but it's impressive to the buyer/s for you to answer their questions before they know they have them. Another reason was to avoid unnecessary calls from them that essentially wasted my time. Some of the issues in the letter may not be appropriate for your market. Use the concept of this letter to work for you in your market.

Change 800# recording - If you subscribe to an 800# service, this is a reminder to amend the script for it to reflect the price adjustment.

Change contact ‘Type’ to… - In my classes I teach that buyers and sellers should be categorized in 8 ‘Types’:

1. Seller Prospect - self explanatory

2. Seller Active - listed, but no contract yet

3. Seller Pending - under contract, awaiting settlement

4. Seller Past - closed/settled

5. Buyer Prospect - self explanatory

6. Buyer Active - in your car, but no contract yet

7. Buyer Pending - have a contract and awaiting settlement

8. Buyer Past - closed/settled

And one more -

Settled/Closed 20XX (new one each year)

It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that this is too many; too detailed. Wait until you want to do an e-mailing to your pending buyer’s suggesting they lock their rate, or to your past Buyers in Doylestown, that their school taxes are about to drop by 10%. Staying in touch is much easier when your database is more ‘typed’. I learned the hard way over years of trial and error. How you learn is up to you. If you’re concerned that you won’t remember to change the ‘type’ as the client progresses through the transaction, don’t be. Changing their ‘types’ is IN THE PLANS!

And some more...

Create return address labels - Create them with the client's new address and make a gift of them. Just another idea to differentiate yourself!

Create recurring anniversary activity – Call them, send them a post card, whatever… Do something to remind them that it is the anniversary of the day they settled on their new home.

Home Inspection deadline today - How many days do you typically allow for the home inspection and other contingencies? They're not always the same, which is problematic for standardized activity plans. There are 2 ways to deal with it. You can change the number of days for the contingencies in this plan, to the number of days most common in your transactions. Then, after launching the plan, you can change the contingency activities to the correct number of days, one by one, if they differ from what is in the plan. The other way to deal with it is to use the 'Copy' button in the ‘Plans Setup’ menu, to copy this plan, and modify the plan to use a different number of days for the contingencies. Simply name the new plan accordingly. In other words, this plan could be the standard, and the other one could be 'Seller from contract date -15' - meaning it has 15 day contingencies in it.

Note that some seller agents prefer to let the contingency deadline go by if there is no word from the buyer's agent, to give the seller the negotiating advantage. Some prefer to give the buyer notice that this is the last day, to avoid disagreements, which means time and potential trouble. The "Collaborative" style of negotiating, thought to be superior by professional negotiators, favors the latter. Either way, plan your number of days accordingly.

Homeowners Insurance ordered yet? - If it is not yet in your state, it probably soon will be something that is mandatory to accomplish up front, as opposed to a week before settlement. Those days are gone. If you have not already heard about it, you REALLY need to learn about the CLUE report, and it's ramifications. http://www.choicetrust.com

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These Plans & Letters are available for OTHER programs too!

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