How Does Our Profit Structure Benefit You?

How Does Our Profit Structure Benefit You?

Today I wanted to talk about the profit structure we have here at DEEB Realty. We feel this sets us apart from other companies because it’s high and consistent. Our 20 year anniversary is coming up here in December and our profit structure has stayed the same. As the end of the year approaches and we start to think about the New Year, it is a great time to go over the profit structure of your business.

We offer 70-90% commission from day one with no hidden fees that is not based on a rolling 12 month total. Our system is based on transactions; we treat a $100,000 house and a $400,000 as equals (if you’re a dual agent, we count them as two). As a new agent, you start at 70% and work up to the 90% level. Once the 90% level is hit, you stay there forever; we also determine if you deserve a raise and reward your success and loyalty with the company.

Another program that is very attractive to our Realtors is our 100% program. For $500/month, you receive 100% of your commission and the only fee we charge is a $75 transaction fee. You are also able to add team members for $250/month.

We are very excited about our 20 year anniversary. We feel like we are just getting started and we are doing great things in this company. One thing that sets us apart is the fact that we have not charged a dime in fees over the last 20 years. We have no media fees, technology fees and no monthly fees. We reinvest the percentage we take on closing back into the company to increase the services to our agents.

If you have any questions, I love to talk to you as our meetings are always confidential. I appreciate your time and wish you the best of luck in the rest of 2013!

Our Training Courses Give You the Tools to Succeed!

Our Training Courses Give You the Tools to Succeed!

Today I wanted to talk with you about the training we offer at DEEB Realty. With our industry constantly changing, our training extends past new agents and includes tenured agents. This allows us to develop cutting edge training classes and keep professionalism at the forefront of our business.

For our new agents, we offer what is called “New Agent Academy.” We provide everything a new agent needs to know within a short amount of time in a 1-on-1 setting. What’s also unique about our training program is that it is proactive rather than reactive. To do this, we put structure on an unstructured business. In addition to new agent training, we offer over 200 training courses throughout the year. These training classes are interactive, fun, taught by industry experts and offered locally in Omaha to ensure all information given is relevant to the agent. We also know our Realtors have a busy schedule; our training classes are offered during lunch hours, in the evening and also on weekends.

Our training catalog includes 65 CE/BAT (Broke Approved Training) courses and has the most in the state. Not only do these classes offer state credit, they’re also free. Other training accommodations we provide are online manuals, small group settings and individual coaching.

Remember, all these resources are free. We do this to provide the best training and education to our employees as possible. If you have any questions, please call me as I would be happy to talk to you.

Internet Audit Your Listings

Internet Audit Your Listings

Welcome back to my video blog! Today, I wanted to invite you to do an Internet audit on your listings. You may have Googled your name before or a friend’s, but what about how your listings show up online?

More than 90 percent of buyers start their search online. Is your contact information easy for them to find? Here are four things to keep in mind when listing a property online.

1.    Your company website: This may seem obvious, but is your number and picture easy for a viewer. Is it your direct number or is it a general help number?
2.    Embrace Zillow, Trulia, Realtors.com, etc. Using a third party is a hot topic for a lot of people right now, but I saw embrace it. They effectively market the listing and consumers want to use them. So, find out how to maximize that. Is there a way to get your name listed at the top, etc?
3.    List hub channels. Find out whom you syndicate to! Then find out how your name and contact information is displayed; can it be improved?
4.    Syndication remarks: Some people don’t know in place of the public remarks, you can do syndication remarks. You can use those syndication remarks to put your information in!

These are just some tips to help you generate more leads in your business. If you have any questions, please give me a call!

Get Involved and Be Informed

Get Involved and Be Informed

Hey, guys! Welcome back!

I just got back from the Nebraska Realtors® Association fall meetings in Lincoln. The staff does a tremendous job and always makes it a good time.

Today, I wanted to talk about ‘Getting Involved’ and ‘Being Informed’. A lot of Realtors® can get consumed in their day-to-day work and they forget about the associations they belong to that offer support. These associations are really advocates for our industry, not only for buyers and sellers, but for the Realtors® as well.

So, I strongly encourage you to attend a meeting. You will find out how our industry is so much bigger than what you do day-to-day. It’s important to know what’s going on and how current discussion can really impact your business.

Here are just a few things going on in our Nebraska market.
1.    Tax reform is a big topic nationally, but also statewide. There is discussion of placing a 2 percent tax on property sales. How will that affect your seller?
2.    Tax on services. Your real estate commission could possibly be taxed. How would that impact your business?
3.    QRM would require all down payments to be 20 percent for residential mortgages.
4.    Elimination of MID. As a homeowner, that deduction would go away.
5.    Elimination of notarization. How much more efficient would this be in our digital world?
6.    Streamline of agency disclosure. A lot of the times laws get outdated.
7.    CMAs for clients. If we can’t provide a general CMA, that’s against our statutes.
8.    100-year anniversary of our code of ethics.

These are just a few things going on in our Nebraska topic. Get involved. Voice your opinion. These all affect you and your clients!

Give me a call if you want to know how to get involved!

Absorption Rates in Omaha

Hi everyone thanks for visiting DEEB Realty’s video blog.

Today, I wanted to talk about absorption rates. If you aren’t familiar with absorption rates, they are a great tool to use on listings. What is an absorption rate? It is a way to get an accurate picture of how the market is doing.

In Omaha, the absorption rate is 4.5

What does this mean? With our current inventory, if no other homes came on the market, it would take 4.5 months to sell everything. We get this number by taking the amount of closed transactions in the first six months of the year, divide by six and then divide that number into the amount of current listings.

So, I wanted to take a look at more specific types of homes and their absorption rates.

Homes priced $200,000 and under have 2,766 current listings which give us an AR of 4 months. Homes priced between $200,000-$300,000 have 722 listing which also gives us an AR of 4.

As we get into higher priced homes, though, the buyers’ pool becomes smaller so the absorption rate increases. Homes priced between $300,000-$500,000 have an AR rate 6.6 and homes above $500,000 are at 13.7 months.

These are really helpful when you are getting ready to sell and want to know how long your home may be on the market.

2013 Omaha Housing Market Update

Hey everyone. Today I wanted to give you an update on the first six months of 2013.  As everyone already knows, it’s been a really good year.

We currently have a decrease in listings; we are down 8.9%.  In terms of pending contracts, though, we are up 7.8%.  We are up 3.7% in closings, as well. So we had a great first six months of 2012, but this year was even better.

The average sales price has increased by 10% in the last 18 months in the Omaha area.  Another remarkable number is the number of closings on new construction; we are up 32.3%!

The average days on market is down 12% with average being 59 days and the median being 31. Of course here at DEEB Realty we’ve always been proud of our success. We continue to lead with an average days on market of 51 and median of 22.

Some other interesting points to note are there are 5,741 properties that have closed in the Omaha area so far this year.  Eighty-nine percent of those homes were under $300,000.

I hope some of these statistics were helpful to you. I really appreciate you watching! If you have any questions please call me 402-491-0100!

Cloud Based Management System - Cartavi & Docusign

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What if you could have the world’s leading digital signature technology company that provides service to 95 Fortune 500 companies and over 30 million users worldwide, and the industry’s best and most easy-to-use cloud-based transaction management company all under one interface with a single sign-on?

What if you could not only attach digital signatures to all of your contracts and addendums, but create the documents in the same system?  What if you could store everything in the cloud and access it from your pc, laptop, tablet, or smart phone?  What if you could fax or email documents into the system creating a completely efficient and paperless environment?  What if you could provide access to your customers to view their documents, or maybe lenders, or the title company?

What if you could do all of this and it was actually easy to use?  What if all of this was free?

Well, the what-if’s are reality at DEEB Realty.  We were the first real estate company in the area to provide digital signature technology on a company-wide basis absolutely free of charge to our agents.  Now we are the first to combine the leading digital signature company Docusign with the leading transaction management company Cartavi absolutely free to all of our REALTORS®.

These types of technologies will revolutionize the way REALTORS® and real estate companies do business in the future.  As the area’s most innovative real estate company we are constantly bringing new ideas and resources to our REALTORS®.

The really great thing about all of this is not only that we provide it, but also we have the staff to help you learn the products, and answer questions when you have a problem.  Oh yeah did I mention we do all this without charging our REALTORS® fees and giving them the best commission splits around!

If you haven’t checked out DEEB Realty in a while, you owe it to yourself to see what we have to offer.

DEEB Realty Agents Share Why They Are Among the Happiest in Our Industry

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There is a plethora of choices when it comes to selecting a real estate brokerage to affiliate your business with and before you make that choice, it’s vital to consider how each will impact the strength of your business operations. While one firm may specialize in a strong support staff, another might possibly provide little management reach despite a flexible commission structure.

The question to ask is, “what do I need to truly succeed in my business?” and at DEEB Realty, we answer that question with a solid team of very happy real estate agents. We are fortunate to have a strong team of individual business owners, each with a unique style and way of doing business. And as you can see in our video collage of agent testimonials, that’s just one of the many reasons our real estate agents love working with us.

A far more lenient and flexible commission structure, strong camaraderie among team members, excellent technology support and a management team that is accessible; these are a few more of the accolades that our agents love about DEEB.

We invite you to join us, come visit us and experience for yourself – the freedom, flexibility and ultimately the success that you will enjoy as a member of the DEEB Realty real estate family.

Why Building is a Great Option

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A great indicator in the real estate market is what’s going on in new construction. We’re seeing a huge resurgence in new construction, which we haven’t seen in four to six years. New construction sales were up over 40% compared to 2012 at this time last year and up 70% over 2011. What’s the cause? There’s a whole host of factors: low interest rates, low inventory for existing homes, pent-up demand and increased home prices over the last two years. People are taking advantage of new construction.  

As of the first of the year, new construction costs started to rise, and lot prices are also rising because of a shortage of lots to build on in some areas. To assist our agents go through the new construction process with their clients, we have a new construction manager. He represents builders but primarily works one-on-one with our agents. Our construction manager reviews builder contracts, provides information on financing options, researches lots that are available, keeps agents up to date on subdivisions, developments and SIDs, and recommends quality builders. To further assist our agents, we also provide regular new construction classes for our agents.

Another way to help our customers is through a special web site we host—omahaarealots.com. It’s the most comprehensive lot and subdivision search site in Omaha. The site features more than 115 new construction subdivisions, available lots and properties, covenants, plat maps, descriptions of the builders and links to their sites, floor plans, photos and more. You can also access a list of questions to ask a builder. It’s great for consumers looking to do new construction. We’re always updating it.

As the market increases, please know that we at DEEB Realty® are trying our best to guide you through the new construction process. Give us a call so we can tell you where to be positioned and how to be successful in this market. Please call us at (402) 491-0100.  We’d be happy to assist you.

Technology at DEEB Realty

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In our industry, just as with most everything else in our lives these days, we are getting bombarded with technology.  By the time you learn one thing, it seems there are ten new ones out already to replace it.  How many times have you heard this, “I am waiting to buy a new phone, tablet, laptop because I think they are coming out with a new one shortly.”  Yeah, and six months later the one you just bought will be out of date.  That is just the nature of technology today.

As it relates to the real estate industry in the Omaha/Bellevue area DEEB Realty has always been the most innovative company since our inception almost 20 years ago.  Recently when some of our competitors came out with their first mobile app there was much fanfare about how innovative they are.  To give them credit they are both wonderful companies that do a great job.  However, what was lost in the shuffle was that DEEB Realty was actually the first company to develop a mobile app and deliver it to our local market almost eight months earlier.  Forget 2nd generation, we were on our 13th update by the time anybody else even had an app.

DEEB Realty was the first to provide digital signature technology to all of our REALTORS® s a free company-wide service.  We feel that paperless transactions will be the primary way our business is done in the next five years so as usual we want to set the bar.  We are the only company to provide our REALTORS® with two personal websites free of charge that offer web-based lead generation.

Our agents have the ability to generate free QR codes directly from our website that they can put on all of their marketing and advertising.  They can access our 4000 piece on-line marketing suite by simply logging into our REALTOR® Resource.  From e-marketing and drip campaigns that help them stay in touch with their sphere, to more traditional methods, we make it simple.

It is one thing to offer the latest technology, but unless people know how to EFFECTIVELY use that technology it really doesn’t do any good.  Not only do we continually offer class sessions on a variety of technology subjects, we also offer individualized training to help ensure everyone knows how to use the tools that are available to them.  For those that have some sort of allergy to anything new, we make technology easy for you too!

Whether it is a class or webinar on leveraging social media to gain business, or providing the latest and most relevant products in our industry to our REALTORS®  we have set the bar for 20 years, and we look forward to doing it for the next 20 years!

Our Agents Are Our Clients

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At DEEB Realty we always try to put ourselves in our agents shoes and ask the questions, “What’s in it for me”, “Why should I care”, “How does that help me grow my business and make more money?”  By always looking at our company from the standpoint that our agents are our customers it allows us to focus on the things that are important to REALTORS®, not just the company.  We know if we don’t provide our agents great tools, service, and support someone else will.

Just over two years ago we created DEEB Realty accountability groups to help our REALTORS® increase their production, enhance their knowledge through peer collaboration, and provide tangible data through predictive analysis so they can anticipate what their production will be in the future (instead of just hoping).  This is one of the most successful services we have ever offered at DEEB Realty.  Many of our accountability group members have more than doubled their annual production, and in some cases agents have quadrupled the amount of business they were doing putting them in the top 3% in the Omaha area in sales.

We have expanded the program considerably because of popular demand, and we now offer seven different groups.  A couple of the great things about our groups are that we match you to a group based on YOUR goals what the company wants you to do, and you don’t have to be a top producer or even want to be in order to benefit greatly.

As a REALTOR® you have to be intrinsically motivated because you are a business owner.  There is no one requiring you to be at work at 8:00 every morning, outlining the tasks you must get done, or creating performance standards that you must achieve.  This is good and bad.  The good is you are your own boss, the bad – you have to hold yourself accountable in order to be successful.  Through our accountability groups we help you to do this.  Most top producing agents have had coaches through their careers, but they pay a ton of money for those services.  Our groups provide you a coaching group of your peers, but it goes way beyond that!  And, it is all free!

The word is getting out about the success our groups are having, and other companies are asking, “What is your secret?” All we can say is it is something you have to experience to realize why it is so effective, and different from similar programs other companies have tried.