Help-U-Sell® Connect

Broker Focus: Adalberto (Tito) Gonzalez

Tito Gonzalez of Help-U-Sell South Santa Clara County

Adalberto (Tito) Gonzalez is casting his net wider this fall. Already the broker/owner of Help-U-Sell South Santa Clara County in Morgan Hill, Calif., he has a second office opening soon in San Jose.

“Now that buyers are off the fence and buying homes, a second office in the San Jose area makes sense to capitalize on future sales,” Gonzalez says.

Business is booming in his Morgan Hill office. “Homes are trending five to 10 days on the market before going pending,” he says. Any home under $500,000 attracts multiple offers, and many houses under $350,000 receive all-cash offers.

His San Jose office, to be named Help-U-Sell Fine Homes and Estates, will focus on properties in the $500,000 to $2 million range.

Gonzalez sees great opportunity with the new office as a means of broadening the brand’s exposure and getting more leads. His biggest challenges will be setting up the new office and splitting his time between Morgan Hill and San Jose.

For franchisees opening their first offices, Gonzalez offers his wisdom earned from years as a Help-U-Sell broker/owner. “Make sure your clients understand your true value as their broker that goes beyond knowledge and service,” he says. “I like to tell my clients that once all the agents have been interviewed for a listing, take a look at the numbers and see which brokerage is actually giving them true value in the form of cash savings in their pocket.”

He encourages Help-U-Sell brokers and agents to communicate with clients consistently, but not to talk too much. Visibility is also paramount for growing the business. He advertises locally, participates in downtown events and solicits testimonials for online use.

How are you going to expand your office’s reach in the near future?

Help-U-Sell University Gears Up for Students

It’s back-to-school time for the kids, and Help-U-Sell University is almost ready for its students to start classes, too. We’ll officially launch it at the Success Summit, but here’s a little pre-orientation peek.

The online program consists of seven modules containing up to nine lessons each, all delivered in video form, with some audio components also. The lessons are accompanied by a print workbook and quizzes. An updated Help-U-Sell Operations Manual will be included, too. A coach will lead new franchisees through the lessons and help incorporate the information into the franchisees’ operations. Existing franchisees can learn at their own pace.

The lesson topics progress from an introduction to the Help-U-Sell Real Estate system and how to select an office location to how to court expired listings and tips on hiring buyers’ agents. Watch the lesson on creating your elevator speech on YouTube.

Help-U-Sell University is geared toward broker/owners but agents are welcome to participate.

Attendees of this November’s Success Summit will see a preview and receive the web link and a username and password to start learning immediately. We hope you can join us in Orlando. If won’t be able to attend, everyone will have access to Help-U-Sell University after the Summit.

Top Producers for August 2012

Our top producers apparently didn’t take vacations in August. The offices, representing five different states, rounded out the last unofficial month of summer with a combined total of 47 closed sides.

1) Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties finished in first place again, but on its own this time, matching July’s impressive 16 closed sides. Half of those were seller-only, six were buyer-only and one was a double-sided transaction.

2) In a three-way tie for second place, Help-U-Sell Central Properties, out of Chandler, Ariz., had eight closed sides: seven seller-only sides and one buyer-only side.

2) Also with eight sides, Indiana’s Help-U-Sell Options Unlimited closed two double-sided transactions, three seller-only sides and one buyer-only side.

2) Help-U-Sell Santa Maria in California rounded out the second-place finishers. Ken Kopcho’s office closed one double-sided transaction, four seller-only sides and two buyer-only sides.

3) Perennial top producer Help-U-Sell Detwiler Realty took third place with seven closed sides, five of which were buyer-only sides.

Congratulations to everyone!

[Figures as of Sept. 4, 2012.]

OMS Addition – Drip Email Module

The highly anticipated drip email module is close to completion. We aim to launch officially next Tuesday, Sept. 4, but it is available now via OMS. You can access it under the Marketing & Content tab.

The module, named Drip Email Setup, has been preloaded with a few drip email campaigns, including ones for newly registered buyers and sellers, and agents you’re recruiting. We will add more in the next few weeks. You can modify all of the existing campaigns to fit your writing style, and we encourage you to localize them to your office and marketplace. We have embedded some automated personalization into the emails. For instance, the signature will include ##OFFICE_NAME##, which will be filled in with your office name when the email is delivered. A cheat sheet containing these personalizations will be accessible in the module soon.

You can also create new emails for the campaigns we’ve created, as well as create whole new campaigns. All of the emails have headers, footers and images that you are free to use for your new emails. The system will allow you to upload your own images, too.

Help-U-Sell Drip Email Module — The new Help-U-Sell drip email module enables brokers to edit existing emails, create new ones, schedule messages and make new campaigns.

After you have your campaign messages ready, you can set up the emails to send out automatically on a schedule that you determine. For example, within a campaign, the first email would be indicated as the #1 message with 0 days’ delay. The second email would be named #2 and send out 7 days (or however many days you choose) after the first email is sent, and so on. You will also be able to create and schedule recurring emails. We suggest you use the Test Email button to see how the email will appear to the recipient before you send out the email.

You will set up your campaigns and monitor the results in the Campaign Setup section. The Active Campaigns tab lets you see when campaigns began, their statuses and how many contacts have received each message. Clicking on the View Details button will display when a campaign’s emails were sent (or will be sent), who received them and whether a recipient is active or unsubscribed from your campaigns.

Active Drip Email Campaigns — Brokers can view all active email campaigns to see when the emails have been or will be sent out.

The Setup Campaign tab is where you select your contacts to receive each campaign’s emails. You can also change the “from” address (by default it is “noreply@helpusell.com”) and the date your campaign will start.

Help-U-Sell Drip Email Campaign Setup Screen — The Setup Campaign tab is where you choose who receives the emails for each campaign.

The last piece of the puzzle is your contacts. You will want to make sure your office contacts are up-to-date and in good order. This is where the module will obtain the contact lists for your campaigns. You can create new contact lists in My Office Contacts. Some examples of useful contacts lists include past clients, potential agents and seller prospects.

How do you plan to use the drip email module? Tell us your campaign ideas. Also, we encourage you to test out the module this week, and if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us.

Broker Focus: Lona Murphy

Lona Murphy, owner of Help-U-Sell Select Real Estate in Eugene, Oregon

Lona Murphy, broker/owner of Help-U-Sell Select Real Estate in Eugene, Ore., has owned her franchise since April 2011. In that short amount of time, she took the office, previously known as Help-U-Sell By Owner, and made it into an even more successful business.

Murphy attributes the growth to a strategic approach that started with the name change. She wanted to ensure that potential clients knew that her office offered full representation, not just assistance to FSBOs. She improved the company image by moving the office from a retail location to a corner office downtown. New marketing materials, taking advantage of inexpensive online marketing tools, and focusing on being proactive and following up furthered the efforts to be seen as a great option for home sellers in Eugene.

The office also incorporated Murphy’s existing rental program into the revenue stream. Their 20 rental units have provided a consistent source of income and of buyers and sellers. She says their property management clients have made many referrals to her office.

One of the biggest challenges Select Real Estate has encountered has been from competitors claiming Help-U-Sell is a discount brokerage and that other agents won’t show its listings. Murphy and fellow broker Tiffany Guerin assertively overcome objections using facts and statistics. “We don’t use negative references to other Realtors,” she says. “[But] we don’t back down.” She has rarely lost a listing to a traditional brokerage.

Murphy has begun to turn down certain listings, however. “I don’t take overpriced listings anymore,” she says. Her slogan is “I don’t list properties to list them; I list properties to sell them.”

For new Help-U-Sell brokers, she advises not to take it personally when traditional agents and brokers say you’re inferior. “Persevere and be committed to what you do, and that’s to help people and save them money,” Murphy says.