Open houses can bring the perfect buyer to the negotiating table or attract enough interest in your home to spark a bidding war.
In 2006, a group of title agents at a sporting event sat in a luxury suite sipping on their drinks and discussing the state of the industry. They were sharing war stories, highlighting real estate transactions coming through their closing rooms that were astonishing, from houses they knew were overpriced for the neighborhood, to buyers’ financials that didn’t line up with their ability to meet their mortgage obligation, to inflated appraisals.
“This is not sustainable,” one title agent said dolefully.
That turned out to be prophetic, of course, as one year later the house of cards came tumbling down, launching the Great Recession.
Today, we have strict laws that have eliminated the most egregious violations of the past, but there are still situations that arise that call for ethical consideration and a true soul searching to determine if an action you want to take is an action you should take.
Here is a look at the excuses we use to absolve ourselves of ethical guilt and what we should take into consideration when weighing our involvement in a questionable matter.
We are all guilty at one time or another in our lives of coming up with a great excuse for doing something we know is questionable. Here are a few favorites:
Instead of making excuses that could ultimately damage your reputation, it’s important to stop and thoroughly analyze the situation to determine what the ethical ramifications are, and vet the situation with someone you trust and respect to see if you are making the best decision. Here are some situations that could arise.
Your real estate agent wants you to leap-frog their transaction ahead of others that have been in the queue for weeks. There may be very legitimate reasons for this request, but you have to make sure you are doing it for the right reasons and in alignment with your own company policies.
An investor wants you to keep the details of a transaction from some other participant “to avoid difficulties.” Run away from this one! A transaction is designed to be transparent to all participants and keeping information away from other parties destroys the very foundation of what it means to be a neutral third party in the transaction.
You want the deal for your agency, but you are suspicious about the seller and the “special” requirements. You look the other way because you are getting a lot of business from the seller’s agent, putting your interests ahead of your ethical and contractual duty to all parties to the transaction.
A property is being sold on behalf of an elderly parent and you sense all is not as it should be. Your role is to protect the interests of everyone in the transaction, so it’s critical that you investigate further to ensure the proper steps have been taken to protect the rights of the owner.
In all cases, the best way to ensure that ethical decisions are being made is to have written company protocols that elevate questionable circumstances to a higher authority and to engage in open and honest communication internally and as needed with the buyer, seller, lender and real estate agent.
At FAN, we pride ourselves on providing expert, compliant, and professional services to all of our clients. Contact our experienced team today to see how we can help with all your business needs.
Valued Client,
We’ve seen some confusion recently with regards to the requirements of Florida’s new Conveyances to Foreign Entities Act, which took effect on July 1, 2023. Foreign principals from “foreign countries of concern” (The People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, Islamic Republic of Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Cuba, Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro, Syrian Arab Republic) are now prohibited from owning or acquiring any agricultural land or real property on or within 10 miles of any institution or “critical infrastructure” facility anywhere in Florida.
We’ve been fielding questions regarding the now-required Affidavit of Non-Applicability of Restriction on Foreign Ownership – Natural Person(s) and the Affidavit of Non-Applicability of Restriction on Foreign Ownership – Entity. Specifically, who needs to produce the documents and who needs to sign them? We are attaching copies of both for your convenience. Several of our underwriting partners are requiring all buyers to sign both documents at every closing.
We would be delighted to discuss these new requirements as we understand them at the present time, but since the law is so new we do not have any solid information on how it will be applied or enforced in the times to come except as contained in the attached notices. We will not, unfortunately, be able to advise individual buyers on their specific situations other than requiring that they sign and comply with the notices attached to this bulletin. We do, however, also strongly advise that foreign buyers that are citizens of one of the subject countries speak with independent legal counsel in Florida before entering into a contract to purchase real estate in Florida because the law may impact their ability to purchase the property and that inability may result in a breach of the purchase and sale agreement.
We understand that this is new to everyone in our industry. With this bulletin, we are hoping that it helps provide some guidelines to the new process. Please note, we are unable to guide you, or your client, on whether they should enter a contract to purchase. If you have questions or would like to discuss the statute in greater detail, we are always happy to hear from you to try and help as much as we can. Simply give us a call or email us, and we’ll set a time to discuss.
Regards,
Florida Agency Network
Bulletin PDF Notice to Buyer PDF Affidavit of Compliance PDF
FLTA Notice on Affidavit(s) for Interests of Foreign Countries
The sure signs of summer are here. We’ve just come through Memorial Day weekend. The out-of-office vacation auto-replies are starting to multiply. And the National Settlement Services Summit is upon us. (Be sure to check out our own Andrea Somers’ presentation about growing new lines of business in spite of turbulent markets).
We’ll be interested to hear from our counterparts, clients and partners from across the industry. While origination forecasts remain hopeful, it’s becoming clear that the best opportunities will be found in geographic pockets or perhaps more specialty products such as reverse mortgages. We’ve also shared in the past that we believe now’s the time to up your game, whether it’s via more efficient workflows or increased capabilities, such as RON and the ability to conduct digital closings. That makes the exchange of ideas and observations at events such as NS3 so important.
In addition to catching up with old friends and making new connections, we’ll also be paying attention to “what’s next?” That could be the practical impact of game-changing technology like Chat GPT (Natural Language Processing AI). It could be how affiliated arrangements and similar partnerships can be leveraged to improve revenue. And we’ll certainly be talking to lenders and others about which mortgage products will be leading the way in the eventual rebound, whether it’s HELOCs, HECMs or quick-turn mortgages.
We’ve also found that there’s always something to be learned from the booths and people in the exhibitor halls. We like the fact that NS3 leans on more of a tabletop exhibit approach, which makes it more about the people and the products/services, rather than about who can afford to build a three-story house inside the building (if you’ve been to some of the mortgage lender conferences of yesteryear, you know what we’re talking about!). This is also a great place to see what your partners, clients and competitors are gravitating towards when it comes to new technologies or partnerships.
Finally, conference season is a great time to acknowledge and learn from the best our industry has to offer. Our own Aaron Davis was honored with the 2021 Philanthropy Award at last year’s event. We look forward to congratulating this year’s honorees.
It can be tempting, especially during turbulent marketing cycles, to let disappointing headlines and negative speculation take on a bigger part of our mindshare than might otherwise be healthy. So, above all, we’re looking forward to gathering with other success-driven and client-focused title businesses to get a better look at the bigger picture. Yes, 2023 has not been one of the great years for the title or mortgage industries. But it also hasn’t been the worst, and there’s a lot of time left to go. We’re hoping NS3 is a little boost to the industry that reminds us there’s an opportunity out there if we’re ready to go meet it!
Regarding your business’s website, it’s often said that we must keep our conversions high and bounce rates low, but what does that mean? How do we go about it in the real estate and title industry?
If you’re getting plenty of traffic without a good conversion rate, ask yourself this question: Is your bounce rate too high? Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on your website, then leave, or “bounce” off, after viewing a single page. For example, if sixty people visit your website and thirty leave after viewing the first page, your bounce rate would be 50%. Google Analytics is the most common helpful tool for gathering site data, including your bounce rate.
Why do visitors bounce? Could it be that they found everything they were looking for and didn’t need to linger? It’s possible but unlikely. Even if they did get the answer they were searching for, you still want to keep them engaged in hopes they’ll check out more of your content. After all, you want their business, right?
It can be tough to determine why visitors leave; is the content irrelevant to what they’re searching for? Are they struggling to navigate your landing page? Are there functionality issues? Whatever the reason for their abrupt departure, the good news is there are strategies to reduce your bounce rate and keep users returning for more.
What’s a “good” bounce rate? This is tricky to pinpoint because it’s relative. It depends on your industry and where your traffic comes from. What matters most is how your bounce rate compares to your industry average. It’s more about understanding what your average means within the context of your business and ensuring that it aligns with your goals. The average real estate and title industry bounce rate hovers around 41%.
Tips for reducing your bounce rate to keep visitors coming back for more:
These are just a few practical tips for engaging visitors to keep them coming back for more. While it might seem overwhelming to consider everything - start small when trying to maximize your website to reduce bounce rates and, in turn, boost conversions. Above all else, know your audience while focusing on the big picture.
Everyone anticipated a slowing real estate market in 2023 as interest rates soared over the past year, putting many properties out of reach, particularly for first-time homebuyers.
The Florida market, which has been especially competitive over the past few years, has experienced declines similar to those across the country, but is already showing signs of improvement going into the summer. Sales of single-family homes in March fell 15% year-over-year, but that was a healthy uptick from the 33% decline in January and the 21% decline in February.
According to the Florida Realtors Association, March saw more for-sale inventory and higher median sales prices compared to a year ago, with single family homes trending up a modest 2% and condos up nearly 4%. Sales overall are more like the pre-pandemic market, with price hikes moderating and buyers enjoying a bigger selection of homes to choose from.
In addition to slower home sales, title agents are also dealing with the total deterioration of refinance transactions.
It’s a good time to take a step back and analyze the best way to capitalize on areas of the market that are still showing positive growth, and in Florida one of those opportunities is directly related to migration – both domestic and international.
According to data just released by the Census Bureau, Florida was the fastest-growing state in 2022, with an annual population increase of 318,855 or 1.9% within a year. In fact, that was the first time since 1957 that Florida’s population grew faster than anywhere else across the United States.
No other state even came close.
Sumter County made the top ten for growth at 7.5%, and three other Florida counties – Polk, Lee and Hillsborough – posted large gains in 2022, collectively adding 92,848 residents.
And of course, the star of the show when it comes to international migration is still Miami-Dade County, whose stats more than doubled from an increase of 15,108 in 2021, to nearly 40,000 in 2022.
Time to do some research.
Buyers migrating to Florida are often doing so as an investment or as a retirement destination. They begin the process by working with their own local services providers in their home state to handle the business end of the deal. This could be a lucrative niche market for a title agent willing to do the research. There are title agents all over the northeast who would love to have a foothold in Florida to take on these long-distance transactions for their clients, but don’t see the benefit of going through all of the hoops it would take to establish a fully functioning agency in Florida for what is in essence a small portion of their business.
Partnering with these agents could give you a new stream of business, handling the local end of the transaction for these incoming buyers. It also gives the out-of-state agent a way to enhance their own marketing as an agency that can effectively handle multi-state business through a feet-on-the-ground local presence.
In tough times, you have to get creative and figure out new ways to develop your agency business by entering cooperative agreements with agents who have business in your backyard, without having a presence there.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you create effective and lucrative partnerships with other agents.
Although it’s been a choppy year thus far, spring never fails to bring some life back to just about any market. This year, as order counts start to rise, will be a little different than the past few. If anything, while there will be opportunities out there, there will be competition—fierce competition—for those opportunities. A purchase market is just about always inherently competitive; doubly-so in a year of depressed volume.
Down market cycles call for agents to rethink how they’re approaching the market…and how they operate.
It's during times like these that title agents need to get the job done fast and well. They also need to do it at minimum cost. And while the industry has undergone some painful staffing cuts to reduce expenses, there are also many other ways to be more efficient. Quite a few of them involve seeing the opportunity present in just about everything and everyone. The real estate transaction is a chaotic ballet of constantly moving (and changing) parts…and participants. And the vast majority always have something to bring to the table.
FAN and its family of brands has always operated on the concept of “coopetition.” Yes, there are times when we’re vying with another title agency for a REALTOR’s business, but by and large, we see almost every business in our space as an opportunity to partner for mutual benefit.
Coopetition as a survival strategy
We’ve called before for the title industry to make 2023 the year of “coopetition.” That’s a made-up term that’s gaining favor in the business world these days, and it means collaboration among business competitors for mutual benefit. That’s a little foreign in an industry as competitive as ours, but consider the following. How many times has a title agent in one geographic market turned to a competitor in another market, steering clients and orders that competitors way in order to earn at least part of the business? Especially during markets like this, there are numerous ways for title agents to partner to win at least a share of the reduced opportunities out there. For example, we work with title agencies or settlement services businesses that don’t have a brick-and-mortar presence in the markets in which we specialize, but want to grow their geographic footprint in some form. We’ve also been involved in enough M&A activity that all kinds of businesses will consult with us to be sure they’re doing it the right way. Or, consider the title agencies seeking to scale their production costs. The FAN family can also provide shared or centralized resources, such as back office services, that give our partners increased scalability and flexibility. And you may already be aware that we are the leading digital closing/RON provider of all title agencies in Florida. We frequently partner with lenders and other title companies seeking to add these services to their offerings.
The world of real estate is a world of cycles. Our own Aaron Davis has written before about “recession-proofing” your title agency. We at FAN strongly believe that the businesses who survive the inevitable down markets are generally those that are willing to partner, expand their service offerings and scale their operations so that they’re in good position when the market (inevitably) turns again. Give us a call if you’d like to see how we can partner with you for mutual benefit!
It’s Wise to Recognize!
Recognizing employees for their efforts and achievements in their day-to-day duties has long been a cornerstone of effective management practices. Employees feel validated for their work, and it’s evident that the company appreciates them. As the employment market becomes more competitive, employers must find new ways to recognize and commend their teams for their work.
Craft a core recognition program that reviews employees’ value they bring and how they are recognized and rewarded. As a company grows, it’s challenging, but leadership must remain dedicated to new and innovative ways to improve employee recognition.
From a young age, people are recognized by their parents, teachers, and friends. Unfortunately, this drive and desire for positive affirmation and reinforcement, especially during formative developmental years, means that people may interpret a neutral or less-than-enthusiastic response as negative.
Employee recognition remains a driving force as people mature and enter the workforce. Consistent reinforcement encourages high job performance, helps your organization retain talent, and improves employee engagement.
Companies recognize their employees for many things, including common achievements, hitting desired metrics, going above and beyond, and reaching significant career milestones. Establishing criteria for what they are recognized for is as important as how they are rewarded. Consider the following:
While people appreciate general praise, recognition tends to be more meaningful and impactful when it’s tied to a specific objective or accomplishment. Be direct and genuine.
Recognition means more when received promptly, so find the time and make an effort now.
There are several ways to recognize employees for their efforts, and monetary rewards aren’t the only option. Catered meals, surprise time off or a significant shout-out can work well.
While grander gestures stand out and are an important part of employee recognition from time to time, never underestimate the power of daily thanks and other affirmations. Scheduling reminders for birthdays and work anniversaries are great places to start.
For more information, check out this article.
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