Tag: Help-U-Sell

Help-U-Sell Receives Franchise Satisfaction Award

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Wins Franchisee Satisfaction Award
Help-U-Sell Real Estate won a 2012 Franchisee Satisfaction Award from Franchise Business Review.
We are honored to announce that we have been selected as one of the top real estate franchises in North America for 2012.

The designation is based on franchisee satisfaction as determined by a survey conducted by Franchise Business Review, a U.S. franchise market research firm. You can view the list of real estate franchise winners on the Franchise Business Review website.

What we love most about receiving this award is that it means our franchisees believe in our business model and, more importantly, believe that we at Help-U-Sell Real Estate are serving them to the best of our abilities.

To our franchisees, we say “thank you” for your votes of confidence. To prospective franchisees, we encourage you to contact us if you want to learn more about the Help-U-Sell franchise opportunity. You can learn more about Help-U-Sell and also contact us via our Franchise Opportunity Center.

Broker Focus: Debra Schmidt

Help-U-Sell Heritage Real Estate's Debra Schmidt
Help-U-Sell Heritage Real Estate's Debra Schmidt

One of the leaders of the Winter Warm-Up Contest, Debra Schmidt of Help-U-Sell Heritage Real Estate lives and works in Owatonna, Minn., a town of just over 25,000 residents.

Being smaller has its advantages, such as the ability to offer the personal touch. Schmidt maintains a database of past clients and sends them an item of value each month. This usually consists of timely information about home-care topics such as winterizing your house. Her office takes this one step further and occasionally goes door-to-door with gifts. Recently, Schmidt handed out pizza cutters emblazoned with the phrase “great service any way you slice it” and the Help-U-Sell logo. In the past, she has delivered Christmas cookies, Valentine’s candy and pumpkin bread.

Her eventual goal is to get 90 percent of her business from referrals. For now, half of her business remains foreclosures and short sales. Schmidt said the market is picking up in Owatonna. Her goal for 2012 is to increase the number of listings and sales by 50 percent over 2011.

Schmidt attributes her office’s success to and pins her future growth on the following simple-but-effective tactics: “Do what you say you’re going to do. Keep in touch with buyers and sellers. Know what’s going on in your market.”

For new brokers, she advises, “You need to be in real estate for more than just the money.”

If you have advice for new brokers or agents, please share it with us in the comments section.

Top Producers for January 2012

Congratulations to our first top-producing offices of the year!

1) Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties finished January with 12 closed sides.

2) Help-U-Sell Direct Savings Real Estate, in Waynesboro, Va., takes the #2 spot with seven closed sides.

3) Charlotte’s Help-U-Sell Buy Today is tied for third place with six sides.

3) Help-U-Sell Galleria Realty, out of Tucson, also logged six closed sides.

With the South and the West represented, this is a sign of great things to come in 2012.

[Figures as of Feb. 1, 2012.]

New Help-U-Mail Program from Excel Printing & Mailing

Starting Jan. 31, our friends at Excel Printing & Mailing will officially launch a new program just for us. Called Help-U-Mail, it is more cost-effective than door hangers, and the bulk of the work is done for you.

Excel will work with you to customize your 8.5” x 11” mailer and place their bulk rate postage permit on each one. You pay for the printing up-front and pay for the postage only when you mail out the flyers. You will be required to mail to at least one full carrier route each time you send the flyers, but you can choose to order as many flyers as you like ahead of time and mail them out in batches. After you take them to the post office, the flyers should be in mailboxes within two business days.

If you order 10,000, the cost will be $0.11 each for printing. If you order fewer, the cost per piece will increase. The postage per piece will be $0.142. However, Mike Paholke of Excel told us today to expect an “aggressive offer” on the launch date, so look for even lower pricing then.

John Powell of Help-U-Sell Galleria Realty and Craig Flint of Help-U-Sell Flint Realty have tested the program already. Powell is planning not to mail out half of his 10,000 order but to insert them into a local newspaper instead. You can see Flint’s flyer below. He has mailed out 9,000 so far and garnered several calls and a few likely listings.

Help-U-Sell Flint Realty mailer, side 1
One side of Help-U-Sell Flint Realty's new mailer
Help-U-Sell Flint Realty Mailer, side 2
The other side of Help-U-Sell Flint Realty's new mailer

To get started on Jan. 31, go to www.husmailnow.com.

Winter Warm-Up Contest Update

We have just six weeks left in our Winter Warm-Up Contest!

During the contest, which started Nov. 1, Help-U-Sell offices earn points for each new listing, each closed buyer side and each closed seller side. The top three offices in total points at the end of the contest win prizes in the form of admin fees, Help-U-Sell shirts and, of course, bragging rights. The top point-getter in each of the three categories (new listings, closed buyer sides and closed seller sides) will also win prizes. Note: Offices that won in the total-points category are not eligible to win in the categories. For more details, see our previous Connect post.

Because no one can win in more than one category, these would be our winners if the contest had ended Jan. 15:

Total Points:

1. Honolulu Properties

2. Heritage Real Estate

3. Detwiler Realty

New Listings:

Galleria Realty

Buyer Sides:

Select Real Estate

Seller Sides:

Select Services

But there’s still time to make your move up the leaderboards! Our standings as of Jan. 15 are as follows. We have listed the top five in each category to give a better idea of the big picture. [Note: There are a few ties.]

Total Points

  1. Honolulu Properties      251 points
  2. Heritage Real Estate       189
  3. Detwiler Realty                 139
  4. Galleria Realty                  126
  5. Select Real Estate            108

New Listings

  1. Honolulu Properties      225 points
  2. Heritage Real Estate       150
  3. Galleria Realty                  95
  4. Detwiler Realty                 90
  5. Quad Cities Realty           85

Closed Buyer Sides

  1. Select Real Estate            39 points
  2. Real Estate Specialists   30 (tied for 2nd)
  3. Triad Realty                       30 (tied for 2nd)
  4. Heritage Real Estate       21 (tied for 3rd)
  5. Galleria Realty                  21 (tied for 3rd)
  6. Detwiler Realty                 21 (tied for 3rd)
  7. Federal City Realty         18
  8. Edmond/OKC                    15 (tied for 5th)
  9. Distinctive Homes           15 (tied for 5th)
  10. Sims Realty                         15 (tied for 5th)

Closed Seller Sides

  1. Select Services                 46 points
  2. Honolulu Properties      26
  3. Central Properties          24
  4. Real Estate Specialists  18 (tied for 4th)
  5. Heritage Real Estate      18 (tied for 4th)
  6. Detwiler Realty                18 (tied for 4th)
  7. Select Real Estate            14

Good luck to everyone and keep up the great work! Remember, the contest ends on Feb. 29, and winners will officially be announced on March 7.

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