Insider Real Estate Secrets Revealed! (Educational Course for Home Buyers and Sellers) Lesson # 5

Darren Meade
Welcome to this week's edition of Insider Real Estate Secrets Revealed! (Educational Course for Home Buyers and Sellers)

We hope you have learned a tremendous amount from our articles and we look forward to providing more educational material to help you on your home buying or selling journey.

In this edition of Insider Real Estate Secrets Revealed, we will discuss the 8 questions Real Estate Agents hate, but you need to ask. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy this edition.

8 Questions Real Estate Agents Hate!

There's a rule in the Real Estate world called the 80/20 rule. It says that the top 20% of all Real Estate Agents sell 80% of the homes. So, it goes without saying that since you will likely pay the same amount to work with a top Agent or a mediocre Agent, you might as well make sure you are working with the best Agent possible.

One way to accomplish this task is to ask the right questions. By asking the following 8 Questions, you can weed out the mediocre agents in a hurry.

Question #1 - Do you have a list of previous clients I could contact?

Always ask for references. As a matter of fact, ask for 5 or 6 references. Then, randomly pick one or two names from the list and call them. These folks should give you an idea of how proficient the Real Estate Agent is at selling homes.

Question #2 - How many homes do you sell each year?

This is probably the most important question you can ask. The average agent sells less than 10 homes per year. That's less than one home per month! Why is this a problem? Simple - the amount of homes an Agent sells is a clear indication of their sales skills and talent.

Some Agents sell 50 homes per year and some sell 10. Imagine if you were shopping for a stock broker to manage your investments. Would you hire the stock broker who averages a 50% return on investments or a 10% return?

Question #3 - What can you offer to me that no other Agent can?

Every agent you speak to will claim to have the best service. Good service is a given. ANY agent should offer that. You should be looking for something unique. Some agents have special marketing plans for their listings, some offer guarantees on how quickly they can sell your home, etc. Try to weed out what makes this agent unique from any other agent you have spoken to.

Question #4 - How long will it take to sell my home?

Most agents are not psychics, so this will be impossible for them to answer. But, they can tell you how fast their previous listings have sold. Every home seller wants essentially the same thing. You want your home to sell fast and for top dollar. Unfortunately, you will have a hard time discerning whether the agent is being truthful or not in some cases. This is why we advise contacting your local Board of Realtors® . They maintain a listing of each agent's statistics.


Question #5 - How many buyers are you working with right now?

The sad truth in Real Estate is that the majority of agents are scrambling to find new listings to sell, as opposed to finding buyers to purchase the listings they already have in their pipeline. This is because a listing is like money in the bank. When a Real Estate Agent lists your home, they know it will eventually sell, no matter how bad the market is. This is why it is critical that you know how many buyers the Agent is currently working with. The more buyers they are working with, the better.

Question #6 - How do you plan to market my home?

Specifically, you want to find out how the agent is going to attract buyers. In addition to the sign they place in your yard, what else do they do? Do they advertise in the homes magazines? The newspaper? Do they advertise on TV, radio or any other medium?

Make sure the agent gives you a specific marketing plan.

Question #7 - What is my exit strategy?

Find out how difficult it will be to cancel your listing contract if you decide the agent is not selling your home quickly enough. You are the boss, and it shouldn't be a difficult process to fire one agent and hire another. Some agents will try to get you to sign a contract which forces you to pay a penalty if you cancel your listing before the contract expiration date. If your agent is truly worth their weight, they won't force you to sign a contract like this. Always ask and get everything in writing.

Question #8 - Who controls your advertising?

Find out if the advertising is controlled by the agent or their broker. If your agent is not in control, your home may have to take a back seat in the marketing department, to all of the other listings from all agents in the brokerage. This is not what you want. Make sure your agent has control over their advertising.

Bonus Tip! - If you have just read this report and are reconsidering hiring an agent because of the complexities involved in picking the right one, let us help! We offer a NO-COST 'Agent Locator Service'. Because we are 'in the business', we know which agents are hot and which ones are not. We would be happy to introduce you to a top agent.

LET US DO THE LEGWORK! - It's FAST, EASY AND NO-COST TO YOU!

To sign up for the NO-COST Agent Locator Service, visit my website.
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Darren Meade

To share with you a brief history, I was homeless as a teenager for two-and-half years where I lived in the streets begging for food and change. As you can imagine, my life was filled with a great deal of uncertainty.

By divine grace and guidance, I took shelter in the parking lot of a gym. The owner of the gym noticed me camping out there and after several weeks took me in. Pretty soon I had been adopted by the group of bodybuilders there and was given the nickname 'Pup'.

However, it was after the very painful experience of my father committing suicide six months after getting off the street that I began my personal journey into spiritual growth and began questioning how I could affect a greater number people in a more loving, profound and personal way.

Over the course of several years I went from being homeless to living in a condo on a golf course and representing the United States in international events culminating in winning the middleweight title of the IFBB Mr. North America bodybuilding competition. At the same time I co-founded a nutritional which exploded in the nutrition market and by age 27 I made my first million. Being young, I then squandered my first 3 million to turn around and build it again and again...slow learner at times!

Many of my lessons learned through out my spiritual path have been in the face of adversity. While "crisis" has often had its own way of waking me to the moment and reminding me of what is important to me now, it is not a requirement of this journey.

Just when I thought I had a handle on life, the handle broke.

I've learned another new lesson about life; including truly releasing and forgiving those whom hurt you. In April 2008 my aorta (main artery from your heart) ruptured in three (3) places.

I was given less than a 10% chance of survival and I was on life-support for 3 weeks. During this time the charge nurse spoke to a family friend and informed them they were going to amputate my leg, and that I was to young to die and they needed to transfer me to a new hospital (UCLA).

While I lived, my personal relationship ended within 10 days of my being discharged from the hospital. To be fair the doctors said I might never walk again, and that they believed I would be on a catheter for the rest of my life. I lost 50lbs of muscle. So she was leaving someone who might never be able to walk; make love or be able to return to work. However I've always been an over-achiever.

For instance I went off diaylisis, my bladder which had nerve damage returned to normal, the catheters out and I the leg another hospital wanted to amputate is responding and I'm learning to walk on it once again. I no longer use my wheel chair and am learning to walk without crutches.

The only suffering came from my own thoughts, believing this person would be with me to over-come these issues. I now realize that was the largest blessing of all.

EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHY OF DARREN M. MEADE


Darren Meade, of Kairos-Meade, has a life, which exhibits the quintessential triumphant story. He was abandoned by his parents and homeless at the age of 14, weighing less than 100 pounds and today negotiates multi-million dollar agreements.

His business career developed initially from his passion for body building. As a youth, after being homeless for two-years, he was taken in by individuals who allowed him to utilize their company gym. Darren focused that passion and successfully won several awards in competitive body building, culminating in winning the Mr. North America title for the middleweight division and represented the United States in international events. His extensive exposure in competitive body building assisted in developing relationships with industry leaders in the medical device and nutritional supplement industries.

As Darren rapidly progressed in
professional endeavors, he designed a new business model not yet used in the industry for a then unknown nutritional company. The retail experiment led by Darren worked, and within two years he drove sales from $1 million to in excess of $40 million.

Moving forward to his next success, Darren proved that he could do it again and took another company to $35 million in a single year. He diligently oversaw all facets of assisting an international research organization´s quest to gain acceptance in the U.S. biotechnology sector by partnering with one of the world´s largest biotechnology companies within only five-months. This was accomplished after the organization had tried for years and used over 50 consultants and development personnel without results.

A key to Darren´s success is his passion for each new business he enters. He specializes in building profitable long-term relationships with clients, vendors and staff.
He has proven that success is contagious.

In addition to his business accomplishments, Darren has actively participated through service of time and finances to homeless shelters and civic community organizations. He is a Deputy CEO of the Invisible Youth Foundation. Darren recently volunteered on Arnold Schwarzenegger´s successful run for Governor. Due to his efforts, he was offered a position in Sacramento. He was selected by the Orange County Register to write columns regarding the process of the campaign through to the inauguration and planning for policies.

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