March 2008 The New Quick Mortgage Minute
Weekly Newsletter for Your Business! 
Sam Dear Sam,
 
I'm trying to start a community garden in Laurinburg and I've been promoting it at church, on the radio, in the newspaper, with flyers in doors, in mailboxes, in other churches and in retail spaces all over town.  I wanted 100 people and after 4 weeks of promotions, I am only at 16.
 
What I am discovering is what many of you that have been in real estate for several years learned a long time ago in promoting your properties.  That it takes a lot to get people to do anything these days.
 
As I am pondering more ways to help get my initative off the ground, here is something you can do to help you get some interested buyers!
 
Take advantage of other people's sphere-of-influence and offer to hold a first-time buyer seminar/party at their house or apartment.  Everybody loves a party and by having it at their home, many are more likely to show up.
 
Just provide them with some stuff about credit scores, mortgage rates, home prices, expected payments for various scenarios.  Make sure to show the apartment dwellers how much house their rent could buy them too!
 
If you need any help with any of this, let me know.  I would love to help you.
 
Sam Thompson, Senior Mortgage Advisor
Mortgage Services, PHH Mortgage
 
843-230-7929

 
 
You will reap what you sow!

seed
Are you planting seeds?
 
 

You've heard the saying that you will reap what you sow and this is so true in real estate.  Well, spring is here so you need to start throwing out your seeds if you want something to harvest or 'close' this summer and fall...

 

You can sit around and wait on people to come to you or you can try some new initiatives and practice good networking systems that plant seeds that will come in as a plentiful harvest.

 

The question is what can you do? 

 

You know the answer.  Just think about what you could be doing differently right now to grow your business and then you just need to do it!

 

Okay, in case you are having a 'brain fart' today, here are a few ideas...

 

  1. Block out 9-11AM and 2-3 PM and call past clients or prospects that never did anything to see how they are doing.  Always ask if they know anyone you can call.
  2. Take someone to lunch!  Remember the 'bathroom tip from last week's email when you do.
  3. How about sending a card to past clients, apartment dwellers and your inactive clients that says something like this... "The housing slowdown is poised for buyers to get into the market right now with attractive pricing and great mortgage rates."  For the expired listings and FSBOs you could say something like, "The bottom of the housing slowdown is nearing the end if not already at the bottom, according to many pundits so now is the time to get your house ready for listing.  When this slowdown, that has mainly affected other parts of the country, starts to turn, buyers are going to be coming out of the woodwork!"  End with, "Call me for a free consultation today!"
    4.
 
Good Luck!
 
 


My brands* that I represent are:
 
phhlogo     cblogo 
 
    c21logo    eralogo
 
Want to jazz up your website?  Add the "get approved" graphic below and then put my website link in the properties of the image as follows.  Call me if you need help with this.

*Any time I am working with your client, if you are under a specific brand, I am projecting your brand logo in all that I say and do as do my colleagues.
 
Weekly Tip -  Virtual Yard Signs.
 
 
virtualyardsign
Cool Idea!

I saw a blog about Zillow rolling out virtual signs and that gave me an idea.  Why don't you include a separate page on your website showing pictures of every house you sold and every house you helped a buyer buy?  It helps your prospects see that you know what you are doing. 

You can also put a text listing or map image showing the locations of homes you sold or helped others buy.

Anyway, Zillow has a good idea that you might want to consider but there might be some issues with this.  Read on...

Here's Zillows link... 

Zillow's Virtual Yard Sign

While you are working on your website, add a link to my website for a quick pre-approval and mortgage information.  This will help add value to your site for your online visitors!  And, the more linking you do, the better page ranking you get.  This will help you appear higher on search engines like Google. 
 
Weekly Mortgage Commentary Snippet
 Rate Lock Advisory - Monday Mar. 31th


This week is light in terms of the number of economic reports scheduled for release, however, two of the three reports that are scheduled to be posted are considered to be of high importance. With important data being posted only Tuesday and Friday, we should see several days of little movement in mortgage pricing.

The first relevant report of the week comes late Tuesday morning when the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) will release their manufacturing index. This index gives us an important measurement of manufacturer sentiment by surveying trade executives. A reading below 50 means more surveyed executives felt business worsened during the month than those who said it had improved. This month's report is expected to show little change from last month's reading of 48.3, meaning business sentiment remained close to last month's level.

 

For the entire report click here.


 
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final 4 is set!
2008final4
 

Well, Davidson almost became our Cinderella Team!  In case you haven't heard, this is the first time in NCAA tournament history that the top seeds in each region made it to the final four!  This year, the bookies might be sweating it a little.

Here is the standings so far!

Names Points Tie Breaker
Jamie Moss-Godfrey 75 160
Jane Smith 70 166
Dianne Wall 68 161
Tom Tallon 65 156
Craymon Strickland 65 175
Amy Guinn 62 156
Michael Humble 61 163
Joey McMillan 59 171