Tag: Realtor

Clean UP your Email Contacts

July 15th, 2023

After 23 years in real estate I found that between my 2 email accounts, I had 14000 email addresses. When you can only send out 500 emails a day it is hard to maximize the benefit. WHAT TO DO? Create an email that includes a great offer. Here is mine:

Rocket Mortgage is offering Down Payment Grants

Combine the 2% grant (you don’t have to pay it back) with Rockets 3% down NO PMI conventional mortgage and buy a home for 1% down, plus closing fees.

You get the idea.

Once you have the offer…and you can use mine, start putting your email addresses in folders of 50 addresses.

You can name the folders. Friends, Family, clients, etc. Or if you are like me, you have no idea who most of these people are…

Put them in folders for example 1 Not Sent, 2 Not sent, 3 Not sent, 4 not sent, 5 not sent.

(there are rules you do not want to break. Do not send more than 500 emails a day. 499. A day is 24 hours, not the calendar day. If you violate the rules you will get locked. DON’T GET LOCKED. Send out 400 a day so you can still do business from your email account). Dont send out 400 at once. The portals will see all these emails and think you are spam.

Sending 50 emails 8 times a day is a good number.

Create an email with an amazing offer. Send it to yourself. BCC the first folder. “1 not sent.” Very Cool, when you click on the BCC, it will give you a drop down menu. Click the “1 not sent folder” then click all, then insert. All 50 email addresses will populate the BCC.

Hit send. Now go back to your contacts and rename the folder “1 not sent” to todays date “July 14 sent 50.”

Send the second folder, 2 not sent. Rename it “July 14 Sent 50 A”… and so on B, C D, … for the remainder of the folders for today.

VERY IMPORTANT> I have been getting around 20% + of these emails coming back as bad emails. You should delete the email from your system. For me, I have to delete the bad emails from both email addresses. I have gone from 14000 emails down to 11,500 so far.

Once I have all of my emails in folders of 50, and have them named by the date of last contact, I will be able to send out other great offers.

Randy Jenkins Rocket Mortgage NMLS 205-3417. Florida Real Estate Partners 727-409-4663 RJ409home@Gmail.com

If you use my offer, send me the contact.

Thank you.
Realtors and Mortgage Nightmares

April 4th, 2023

Realtors and Mortgage Nightmares

Ask a seasoned Realtor about their buyer’s mortgage experiences and they will tell you of the nightmare borrowers have experienced at the closing table.

Repeatedly, we have witnessed the sticker shock of a borrower’s realization that the mortgage fees are very expensive.

By law, the mortgage broker is supposed to give the borrower a good faith estimate of the closing fees. This is called a loan estimate.    It gives a detailed list of the fees. These fees are broken down by those that can be shopped for and those that are not negotiable.   There seems to be huge differences in fees for those who get a loan estimate and those who find out the fees at the closing table.

When you are at the closing table, you are under contract to close on time, buyers have movers waiting, they have logistics that have been weeks in the making, it is too late for them to go back and negotiate the fees on the mortgage. So repeatedly, the buyer takes the deal, because they have no choice.

SO, what is a realtor to do? Many realtors do not give referrals. I do not recommend my roofer, although he is great, I do not recommend my electrician, and I do not recommend mortgage brokers.   No matter how good they have done in the past, it seems as soon as you recommend a vender, they drop the ball, and it reflects badly on you.

I always ask…who do you bank through? Do you have a credit union account. Do you know of a lender? Have you bought a home before? Who did you use, were you happy with them?

All buyers that are paying with a mortgage get a pre-approval letter in writing.    We, the realtor, must advise them to get the loan estimate, in writing as well so that the borrower won’t get whacked at the closing table.

When they get the pre-approval, we realtors have a chance to be a hero. By insisting that the buyer get a loan estimate, the buyer will KNOW what they are getting into. They will know the fees. They will not have sticker shock at the closing table. And very importantly, they can compare the loan estimate to the actual closing fees, and they can then fight the fees, if they deviate from the loan estimate.

Finally, to be a real hero to the borrower/buyer. Have them shop around for the mortgage.

We shop around for the best car deal, we shop hard for the best deal on a home, but buyers do not seem to shop around for the best deal on a mortgage. When you apply for a mortgage, they may do what is known as a “hard credit pull”, it will impact your credit score. Mortgage brokers do not want you to shop around for a better deal. Of course.   They want you to believe that the fees are fixed and nonnegotiable.   They would like you to believe that the fees will be the same wherever you go. Your credit will be impacted even more if you make multiple applications.

If the company is doing a “soft pull”, it won’t impact your credit and your name will not be sold by the credit reporting agencies to other lenders. And a fact they won’t tell you is if you do multiple hard pulls for a mortgage within 45 days, it only counts as one pull. Companies that do a “soft pull” must pay the credit reporting agencies extra for that service. So be sure to ask if the lender you are using does a soft pull or a hard pull, so they won’t be bombarded with calls from lenders.

Randy 727-409-4663 (409-home).

Randal Jenkins

Rocket Mortgage NMLS #205-3417

Coldwell Banker F I Grey and Son Residential

5636 Grand Blvd

New Port Richey Fl 34652
The State of Real Estate in Central Florida

February 25th, 2023

Pasco County is an example of what is happening in Central Florida and the statistics and trends sited are a microcosm of the general trends for the area.

As covid started we entered an era, that I call the insanity period. 2.5 years of real estate, that we have never seen. 15-25-30 offers on new listings that appeared to be well priced. Offers $20k-$30k-$50k over the asking prices. Offers not dependent on inspections, not dependent upon appraisals, sight unseen offers. The insanity period.

In Pasco County there were around 3000 residential listings. 2300 or so under contract, leaving sometimes under 700 residential listings to choose from. When interest rates started rising, there were around 100 new net listings per week. This rose to over 2800 active listings. Just under 5000 total listings with around 2000 or so pending listings.

In the last 5 weeks we have seen the number of active listings drop by nearly 100 a week. Today Feb 25, 2023, there are 2223 active listings, 2312 pending listings and the 30-day solds around 1220.

What is happening? Interest rates doubling from 2.75% to 5.5% and now around 6.5% slowed buyer exuberance, more sellers put their homes up for sale, and the market slowed down with transactions falling 40% or so.

Yet prices have not dropped much. Under 5% in most categories and virtually no drop in some, try buying a 3/2/2 pool home, you won’t see any discounts.

WHY?

Why is the Florida market and central Florida in particular so strong?

Why does Florida’s population keep rising? Jobs. Weather. No state income taxes. Politics?

Look at the alternatives. Cold, violently cold winters in the North. Wildfires, earthquakes, high taxes in California. Water shortages in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California and throughout the southwest. Devasting tornadoes from Oklahoma to Alabama. Landslides and flooding in the Carolina’s, West Virginia, Tennessee and the mid-eastern states. Extreme weather in the Northwest. Snow in southern California. It’s a mess.

Yes, but Florida has hurricanes. We get at least 2 days’ notice.

What is going to change the attractiveness of Florida real estate?

Home insurance and flood insurance is the Florida real estate markets biggest challenge.

I will talk much more about this in future blogposts.

Thank you for reading this post.

(Randal Jenkins, is a Realtor, Mortgage Loan Officer and president of a Real Estate investment company. After spending 18 years in the financial services industry, Randal has devoted the last 23 years to Real Estate.)

Tag: Realtor

Clean UP your Email Contacts

Realtors and Mortgage Nightmares

The State of Real Estate in Central Florida