Category: Orlando Realtors

How Should My Agent Be Marketing My Home?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

If you’re selling a home in Orlando…or anywhere else for that matter, one of the single most important factors besides pricing it correctly is to do a proper marketing campaign.

Since my real estate career began back in 2004, one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from unhappy home sellers over the years is that they didn’t feel that their real estate agent is marketing their home properly or that it was getting enough exposure.

Top Orlando Realtors utilize a whole arsenal of marketing techniques and strategies. Some of these techniques are a direct approach in which the home is directly promoted to buyers, while other techniques are more of an indirect or passive nature but can be just as effective and sometimes even more so… depending on your audience.

Working as one of the top listing agents in Orlando, I feel that it’s of the up-most importance that my listing clients know exactly how, where their home will be marketed, and why.

If you or someone you know are thinking about selling a home and wondering what your agent should be doing to market your home then continue reading below…

Local Publications

Some agents… especially the younger generation of agents, feel that print advertising has become completely obsolete and just doesn’t work anymore. This isn’t true… While print advertising has decreased substantially over the years in every industry known to man, there are still people that prefer to read from the actual paper. And yes you guessed it… It’s the older generations that happen to be a large part of the buyer’s pool.

By advertising your home in local newspapers, gazettes, and even penny pinchers, you are ensuring to reach an audience that wants nothing to do with the internet… probably because they don’t know how to use it correctly.

Direct Mail

Another popular strategy that’s been increasingly overlooked by realtors is good old-fashioned direct mail campaigns. Postcards, for instance, are a great way to inform everyone in the neighborhood, subdivision, or zip code that you’re selling a home right in their area.

This can be an effective marketing tool for selling real estate primarily because the residents who receive the postcard might know a friend or relative who’s looking to move close to them.

Like placing ads in local publications, this technique requires the agent to spend money they haven’t earned yet. However, it could pay off big time!

Online Marketing

It probably won’t surprise you to know that over 90% of ALL homebuyers across the nation begin their search online. Your listing agent should also be aware of this staggering statistic… If they aren’t then you may be with the wrong agent. It’s vital that when selling a home that it’s being exposed everywhere online. The best listing agents will have a very strong internet presence making them very easy to find.

Here are some of the most important online strategies to maximize your real estate marketing campaign

Real Estate Website

In this day and age, I imagine it would be hard to find a real estate brokerage that doesn’t have a website. You should know that just because a brokerage has a website, it doesn’t mean that YOUR AGENT has a website. Pay close attention to this…a successful listing agent should have their own, user-friendly website. Not only that, but it should be ranking on the 1st or 2nd page at least on all the major search engines.

A top-quality Realtor website should be loaded with user-friendly tools like a home search tool, home valuation tool, mortgage calculator just to name a few. In addition, it should have also have community pages as well as a blog where consumers can get all the information they need to help solve their problems.

Quality Photography

Because the internet is the starting place for most potential home buyers, listing agents must use only high-quality photographs in their marketing materials. A seller should expect their agent to take photos that are nothing short of spectacular.

As a listing agent in Orlando, I first started by hiring a company to take photographs of all my listings. As time went on I chose to invest in the proper equipment to take all the spectacular photos I need whenever I want.

A good tip when looking to hire a listing agent is to look at some of their listing photos…do they make you say WOW!? or does it look like they used their 1st generation iPhone to take the pics?

Believe it or not, quality pics can make a huge difference in how much your home sells.

Videos

I just love videos… I love to shoot them and I love to watch them… period. Whether I’m learning how to build a cardboard boat or I want to view a house listing. The video makes everything better!

Most listings will provide a virtual tour automatically by compiling the listing photos together, and that’s better than nothing. However, if you want to make a huge impact on the marketing of your home, then your agent should take things a step further.

For every single listing at ORC, we create a highly creative, informative, and fun video showcasing the home’s best features along with all the important information that goes with the listing. Our YT Channel “Top Orlando Realtors” hosts hundreds of listing videos as well as information and institutional videos and we have become well known for it.

Social Media

We now find ourselves in 2017 where social media and real estate are like bread and butter. Homeowners should expect their agents to be using social media to their full capacity.

Top real estate agents should be on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and even LinkedIn making it easy for them to spread the word to thousands of people instantly about any homes they have listed.

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Real Estate Team vs Solo Agent… The Pros and Cons

Posted on by Jenny Zamora


If you’ve had your ear to the ground in the Orlando Real Estate industry, you’d know that real estate “teams” are on the rise. All of a sudden real estate teams are being created it would seem almost daily and usually range from just a few agents that have joined forces to teams of 40-50 agents recruited to form a team.

Most of the time these real estate teams are formed to bring in more sales to the Real Estate Brokerage.  I believe that inflating sales numbers is the wrong reason to put together a team. However, if the team was formed to provide better customer service then I’m all for it.

If you plan on buying or selling a home in Orlando FL, you must understand who you are hiring to help you through the process. Whether you are interviewing a Realtor to sell a home or help you find your dream home, it’s important that you know whether this Realtor is a one-man [or woman] show or if they work with a team.

Like anything else in life, there are pros and cons to both sides of the coin. In this article, we’re going to talk about both the benefits as well as the drawbacks of both. you have to have a strong understanding of the pros and cons of both to make an educated decision.

So What’s a single Agent Vs a team of Agents?

Before I start discussing the pros and cons of working with a team versus a single agent, let’s talk about the difference between the both of them.

Single Real Estate Agent

A single real estate agent is just what it sounds like… It’s a Realtor who works with a seller or buyer directly from beginning to end and does everything in between.

This is the kind of real estate agent that you will see on the initial consult, provide you a CMA, take photos, inspections, and throughout the rest of the process of selling your home.

Successful single agents usually use some type of CRM, aka customer relationship management, which helps them stay organized by setting up appointments and alerts for important deadlines like inspection periods, etc.

Real Estate Agent Teams

A real estate agent team can have a lot of different people involved and can often get pretty complex with hundreds of moving parts.  It can be made up of just a few single agents or several dozen agents complete with administrative staff. Many times real estate agent teams are broken down into different departments consisting of buyers agents, listing agents, transaction coordinators, admin assistants, and of course a marketing dept.

Not all teams are created equally

If you hire a team of agents to buy or sell a home, what to expect will depend a lot on how that team is being run. You should have a deep understanding of how a team works before committing to them.

Here’s an example… If you’re buying a home in Orlando, the last thing that you want to have to happen is to find out that the agent who gave you the listing presentation and the agent you’ll be working with are 2 different people. Then once you get a house under contract or receive an offer on your house, you might be working with yet another agent…

The Pros of Hiring A Single Real Estate Agent

Building a relationship…
Selling or buying a home can easily be one of the most important events in someone’s life. There is a lot of stress involved and it’s very emotional, especially if it’s someone’s first time. A crucial part of a successful real estate transaction is that you…the buyer or seller…are comfortable with the person or persons you’ve hired to represent you.

Probably one of the biggest advantages of hiring a single agent is the opportunity to build a relationship with a single person that will stay with you until the end.  Buying or selling a home sometimes involves openly discussing your financials. That’s why you need to be able to trust your Realtor and feel comfortable talking about these things with them.

Single Agents are responsible and accountable for everything that happens. When you decide to hire a single agent to help sell or buy a home, that agent will be fully responsible for the entire transaction. There is no “passing the buck” for this type of agent, they are fully aware that their job moving forward is to protect your best interests.

The Cons of Hiring A Single Real Estate Agent

Limited availability- A Realtor who works by themselves can’t be in 2 places at one time. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of hiring a single agent to buy or sell a home.

Here’s an example… Let’s say you’re a buyer and a new listing, which is perfect for you, hits the market. You’re going to want to see that home ASAP, especially if it’s a hot market. If you’re working with a single agent and they are already booked for that day with another client, then you could potentially lose that deal because you didn’t go see it on time.

A good way to try and avoid running into this sort of problem with a single agent is to find out how many clients they are currently working with. A successful Realtor who works alone should be able to handle 10 – 15 clients at once with the proper systems in place.

The Pros of Hiring A Real Estate Team of Agents

Several Realtors for the price of one
Probably the single biggest advantage of hiring a real estate team as opposed to a single agent is that it costs no extra money having access to several people instead of one. You can potentially have a listing specialist, buyers agent, closing coordinator as well as a marketing specialist depending on the makeup of the team.

Assignments or tasks are delegated
Since teams will usually have various systems in place, certain tasks will be assigned to different agents. In this scenario, everyone should be a specialist at what they do.

The Cons of Hiring A Real Estate Team 

Communication breakdown
Like the old saying goes “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup”. Probably the biggest disadvantage you may face with working with a team of real estate agents is failure to communicate. Sometimes having too many departments increases the chances of someone dropping the ball.

There are so many moving parts throughout the home selling or buying process that good communication is crucial. A failure to communicate can cause a deal to fall apart from one day to the next.

Team leader goes MIA
Some real estate teams in Orlando have a bad reputation is because it’s extremely hard to reach the leader once a contract is secured. It’s hard to believe, but it does happen sometimes. This kind of team usually has a very high turnover with employees and rarely gets repeat business.

How Do You Decide Whether To Hire A Team Or Single Realtor?

This is an important decision and should not be taken lightly. Hiring the wrong Realtor for the job can turn your home selling or buying experience into a disastrous event. Here are some tips that will hopefully help you decide which situation suits you better.

At the end of the day… you hired an agent, not a company

Realtors that are all part of the same team will have different levels of experience as well as work ethics in all areas of real estate. When it’s time to decide whether you want to work with an agent or a team just think about what suits you better. If you’re the kind of person who wants to deal with the same person who sold you a particular service or product from beginning to end then you’re probably better off finding a great listing specialist or buyers agent that works alone.

If you do decide on hiring a team instead of a single agent, make sure you are aware of how their process works. Who will be your next point of contact? Who will be in charge of marketing? Who will be in charge of negotiations? etc…

Closing Thoughts

When you’re involved in a real estate transaction either as a buyer or seller you need to realize that the Realtor that you hire can be the difference between a good experience and an awful one.

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Ask the Short Sale Expert

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Recently, we recently put out a survey where we asked Orlando homeowners who were currently behind on their mortgage, what their biggest doubts or fears maybe about short sales. The response was overwhelming which is why we decided to post this Q and A article where our very own Orlando short sale expert, Jenny Zamora RE Broker answers a number of questions about short sales and the short sale process.

Q: How long have you been doing short sales?

Jenny Zamora: We’ve been specializing in Orlando short sales since 2004 and have closed thousands of transactions in that time.

Q: In which way is a short sale different than a traditional real estate sale?

Jenny Zamora: A short sale usually takes quite a bit longer than a typical sale because you need to get approval from the lender. Even though a buyer may submit an offer and the seller accepts, it’s still not an executed contract unless the lender signs off on it. Many agents prefer to send their short sale files to processing companies because they’re either unfamiliar with the process or they prefer not to deal with all the extra work that comes with processing a short sale.

Q: Is a short sale different from a foreclosure?

Jenny Zamora: Very different… the foreclosure process usually begins when the homeowner misses 3 or more payments on their mortgage. It’s the legal process by which the bank will ultimately try and sell the property at a public auction. At that point, either someone will buy it or the bank takes back possession if they think the highest bid was still too low.

short-sale-process

It costs a lot of money in court and attorney fees for a lender to complete a foreclosure on the property… and then there’s no guarantee that they’ll meet their reserve at the auction.

A short sale is actually designed to avoid having both parties go through the foreclosure process. It starts out the same way in the sense that the homeowner is behind on their mortgage. However, with a short sale, the homeowner has to prove 2 things. First, the property has to be upside-down, meaning that the property is worth less than what’s owed on the remainder of the mortgage. Second, there’s some kind of financial hardship going on preventing the homeowner from making the payments. If these main points are met then there’s a strong chance the lender will approve a short sale.

Another big difference between a foreclosure and a short sale is your credit will suffer much worse from having a foreclosure on your credit than a short sale.

Q: How long does it take to complete a short sale in Orlando these days?

Jenny Zamora: These days the average turnaround time for a short sale in Orlando is 60 days. In recent years banks have put systems and rules in place to streamline the short sale process which used to take from 6 to 12 months. A few years back… some files could’ve taken a year or two, especially when the property has multiple liens on it or some other monkey wrench was thrown into the deal.

Q: Do you have any advice for someone in need of short sale on their home?

Jenny Zamora: The most important thing would be to find an agent that has a lot of experience with short sales. This is not the time when you hire a friend or family member that just got their license last month. Short sales are complicated and you need someone that is keeping up to date on all the new rules and regulations that come out. I would start with a Google search of “Orlando short sale expert” or whatever other city the homeowner may live in. The first page of results should give you a few good options.

I would like to invite anyone who still may have questions about short sales or anything else related to real estate in Orlando, to feel free to call us at 407-902-7750 for a free consultation or visit https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Why Use A Short Sale Specialist?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Most Realtors in Orlando won’t touch a short sale file while others… even though they’ve never done a short sale… refuse to ask for help which can seriously hurt a homeowner’s chances at selling their home via short sale.

As the leading short sale experts in Orlando, we take on all short sale listings, even the ones that other agents want no part of. You see, it is one thing to process a short sale with just one lender but when you have to deal with multiple lenders and or liens attached it becomes a whole other ball game.

A short sale specialist should know everything there is to know about the process and everything else that goes into facilitating the entire transaction. The agent should be aware of everything from foreclosure postponement, lender guidelines, and the latest state short sale regulations. There’s no situation that should arise that’s is beyond your short sale agent’s comprehension.

Cash Back To Seller Programs

Even though your lender is accepting a loss on what’s owed to them, many times we’re able to get our short sale clients anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000 back at the closing for relocation costs. A short sale agent should be up-to-date on all the various cashback to seller programs offered by different lenders. If they aren’t aware of this it could cost the homeowner thousands of dollars when they need it the most.

How Does A Short Sale Agent Get Compensated?

In a typical short sale transaction, the lender pays the real estate commission from the sale price. Some agents will try to put a short sale processing fee on the CD [Closing Disclosure formerly as the HUD-1] but it must be approved by the lender. You should never, ever pay a real estate agent prior to doing your short sale. Only attorneys are legally allowed to charge an upfront fee to complete your short sale.

If you’re in a situation where you need to do a short sale on your home, be sure to hire a proven expert in order to give yourself the best chance at making the sale happen. For a free consultation with one of our Orlando short sale experts visit https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com or call 407-902-7750.

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

5 Things To Know When Buying Your First Home

Posted on by Jenny Zamora


There aren’t many purchases in life that match up to buying your first home. It’s as exciting as it is unnerving… especially when you think about the huge financial commitment you are about to make for the next 15 to 30 years. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal to want to feel like you’re going to throw up at this point. Like labor pains for a woman about to give birth, this is something every first-time home buyer goes through….deep breaths…

Over the past 12 years as an Orlando Realtor, I’ve always tried to emphasize to my clients the importance of knowing exactly what they’re getting into before buying a home. These are some tips that will get you started in the right direction to becoming a successful home buyer.

1-Find Out About Your Credit

Unless you’re able to pay cash for your home, you’ll need to acquire financing to make your home purchase. If you’re new to this, the financial process can seem challenging and complex but if you have the right lender or mortgage broker helping you it should help make things run more smoothly.

Your mortgage options will basically center around your credit. You should educate yourself on what goes into making your credit score and how you can improve it prior to applying for a mortgage loan. Even more importantly you should find out what can cause a negative effect on your credit. I’ve had cases where a client has been pre-approved but when it’s time to close they get denied because of some recent purchase or payment.

If your credit needs help, then it’s time to start the credit repair process. By making sure your credit score is in decent shape you’ll be taking care of one of the biggest issues in the home buying process as well as have the best chance at getting a lower interest rate on your mortgage.

2-Get Pre-Approved

It’s imperative that you know how much you can afford to spend before going house hunting. Your lender or mortgage broker can give you an estimate on how big of a loan you can get approved for. Once you know how much you can afford or want to afford, you can then shop for homes within your price range.

3-Hire A Top Realtor

You could choose to start a preliminary search on your own through some of the national home listing sites like Zillow, but you’ll quickly discover that house hunting online can get exhausting real quick…especially if you’re not familiar with the area you’re looking in.

There are so many mistakes you can make and so much to learn that hiring an Orlando Realtor in your area is the best way to protect yourself and be more efficient in the home buying process. Be sure to interview at least 3 buyers agents in your area and get references from recent clients to make sure you get a good one.

4-Know What Kind Of House You Want

Houses come in all shapes, sizes, styles so it’s important to know exactly what you want in… condo? Single-family? Townhouse?. Take time to consider all the things you need and want in a home like the location, size, amenities, etc. Families with children usually start with their children’s needs like good schools, etc.

Once you know what you want then it’s time to have that conversation with your Realtor and get an idea of what your options are.

5-Set Up An Emergency Repair Fund

Owning a house is a lot more costly than most people realize. There’s no landlord to make repairs and you need to be prepared in case some big-ticket item needs replacing like an AC unit or a water heater. The best thing to do is have a few thousand set aside for just that and don’t touch it because sooner or later something will break…

By following these basic tips in your home buying process you’ll increase your chances of a positive home buying experience.

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields