Does anyone have experience in signing up with ABF and receiving REO and Short Sale listings? Any information would be greatly appreciated regarding if this is a good investment. Thank you.
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Bill is suggesting that ABF adopt the same business model as I already suggested. That is: you offer FREE signups and services initially. Since your company doesn't have any REO listings, and may never have them if they don't get 4,000 agents signed up, it makes sense to (1) get as many agents signed up as possible; (2) provide VALUE; and then (3) start charging once agents recognize the VALUE.
Today's NEW business model is: FIRST provide VALUE, then earn trust, then charge fees. ABF is going by yesteryear's OLD business model of charging first.
P.S. Megan please upload your photo so we can see your lovely smiling face! ;)
Regina P. Brown
CA Real Estate Broker
Vicki Smith > Regina P. BrownMay 2, 2009 at 1:21pm
Hi Regina,
Do you have any new information on ABF? They seem to be off the grid for the last week or so? I would love it someone would prove me wrong on this company, but so far no luck.
Vicki
Megan:
I just believe my above comments as the facts. As you can tell I am not in favor of grading. If you have a Real Estate Lic and E and O I think that should be enough. We are moving away from relationship based businees in favor of computers.... Computers can not sell a home. People sell homes. I know top agents that have sold over 50 million dollars worth of homes and can not get an REO listing to save their life because they are not graded in "the system."
I can tell by Bill Travis comments he is very bright. I would want him to represent me but not based upon any grade that is held by a computer but by his ability to make rational decisions and comments, he is a great writer. All you have to do is look into his eye and see he is prepared to do war to sell a home. He is a professional,just look at his picture. What happened to the old days when you had to interview for a job, now we buy our jobs from consolidators. Change is not a good word all by its self. Change needs to be coupled with POSITIVE to make it less than netural.
Ethics and principles are always tested in down markets, but holding to them is what gives us all opportunity. If there is an asset manager reading this and needs a favor in San Diego County, I would be happy to do that favor. How fast I can do an admistrative task can be graded but my willingness to be kind, helpful and caring can not be graded. It seems rather funny that being Kind, helpful and caring is what really sells homes...
I appreciate your time here in this forum. Could you elaborate for a minute on what makes ABF different from other companies. not for the agents, but from the bank's point of view. in other words, what does ABF have that will encourage a lender to take a chance with you?
In all fairness Megan is only doing what REOTrans and Res.net do but has expanded the pricing structure. To me that is the American Way changing pricing. The deeper issue here is being graded. If your a new agent to the market and don't have any gradings you don/t get any assignments. In my opinion this is where Megan has an opportunity to give some new agents to the REO Business a leg up so to speak.
I am sure you have heard of the First Time Buyers Programs on everything from Cars to Homes. These allow for the person to get a start. Maybe a way to look at Megan is that she is trying to give some people who may not otherwise get an opportunity a start in this hard to break into phase of the industy.
What would be interesting would be to find out how many assignements Reotrans and Res.net gave to new agents this month. What percentage of business went to agents without a grading. Fat chance we will ever see that.
Thanks for your clarification of a few issues, but as you can sense by mine and others questions and comments, some of this just doesn't make sense.
I understand ABF is just starting up, and it sounds like a good business model and a great opportunity to get signed up from the beginning. However, investing money from the beginning seems risky to me since you have no track record. We realize there are no guarantees, there never are with the various companies we work with, however we also are not required to pay monthly fees with those companies either!
The $150 training is reasonable (however, almost all companies I work with have never charged anything)
$99/zip/mo-it is great that you don't start paying this fee until you get a listing, but if you get 1 listing, and then never get another one, the monthy fee could far exceed any net commission. ABF is getting a 20% referral fee from any closings, so why the double fees?
Monthly fee for the esigning service-This is required before you can start receiving listings. However, I am in Illinois and you haven't even started to assign listings here. So I could be paying this monthly fee for months on end and never receive a listing. I realize you keep saying we can use it for our other business as well, however, I know I wouldn't use it enough to warrant this fee as I already have a system set up.
I realize you want committment from agents to start building up your coverage areas, but without having any kind of track record, how can a new agent commit? You need agents to increase your coverage area in order to win bank contracts. Why not initially offer free/discounted fees during a trial phase as many companies do? This way you can boost your coverage which is essential in trying to win contracts with banks. If you don't have coverage in an area, how can you promise the banks service? I would think you would need the coverage first so you are prepared when listings start coming.
Do you have any agents currently getting assignments that could give ABF a reference?
As I mentioned before, this could be a great opportunity for us agents, we just need these fees to make sense to us. Thanks for your comments!
Replies
Have you received any listings yet? Where is Megan?
Vicki
Just came up for me. Go back and try it.
Thanks everyone for your input. This has been quite a healthy discussion!
Suzanne
www.HermannLondon.com
Have you had any listings yet? Megan doesn't seem inclined to answer my questions.
Vicki
Bill is suggesting that ABF adopt the same business model as I already suggested. That is: you offer FREE signups and services initially. Since your company doesn't have any REO listings, and may never have them if they don't get 4,000 agents signed up, it makes sense to (1) get as many agents signed up as possible; (2) provide VALUE; and then (3) start charging once agents recognize the VALUE.
Today's NEW business model is: FIRST provide VALUE, then earn trust, then charge fees. ABF is going by yesteryear's OLD business model of charging first.
P.S. Megan please upload your photo so we can see your lovely smiling face! ;)
Regina P. Brown
CA Real Estate Broker
Do you have any new information on ABF? They seem to be off the grid for the last week or so? I would love it someone would prove me wrong on this company, but so far no luck.
Vicki
I just believe my above comments as the facts. As you can tell I am not in favor of grading. If you have a Real Estate Lic and E and O I think that should be enough. We are moving away from relationship based businees in favor of computers.... Computers can not sell a home. People sell homes. I know top agents that have sold over 50 million dollars worth of homes and can not get an REO listing to save their life because they are not graded in "the system."
I can tell by Bill Travis comments he is very bright. I would want him to represent me but not based upon any grade that is held by a computer but by his ability to make rational decisions and comments, he is a great writer. All you have to do is look into his eye and see he is prepared to do war to sell a home. He is a professional,just look at his picture. What happened to the old days when you had to interview for a job, now we buy our jobs from consolidators. Change is not a good word all by its self. Change needs to be coupled with POSITIVE to make it less than netural.
Ethics and principles are always tested in down markets, but holding to them is what gives us all opportunity. If there is an asset manager reading this and needs a favor in San Diego County, I would be happy to do that favor. How fast I can do an admistrative task can be graded but my willingness to be kind, helpful and caring can not be graded. It seems rather funny that being Kind, helpful and caring is what really sells homes...
I appreciate your time here in this forum. Could you elaborate for a minute on what makes ABF different from other companies. not for the agents, but from the bank's point of view. in other words, what does ABF have that will encourage a lender to take a chance with you?
thanks-
Lisa Crawford
In all fairness Megan is only doing what REOTrans and Res.net do but has expanded the pricing structure. To me that is the American Way changing pricing. The deeper issue here is being graded. If your a new agent to the market and don't have any gradings you don/t get any assignments. In my opinion this is where Megan has an opportunity to give some new agents to the REO Business a leg up so to speak.
I am sure you have heard of the First Time Buyers Programs on everything from Cars to Homes. These allow for the person to get a start. Maybe a way to look at Megan is that she is trying to give some people who may not otherwise get an opportunity a start in this hard to break into phase of the industy.
What would be interesting would be to find out how many assignements Reotrans and Res.net gave to new agents this month. What percentage of business went to agents without a grading. Fat chance we will ever see that.
I understand ABF is just starting up, and it sounds like a good business model and a great opportunity to get signed up from the beginning. However, investing money from the beginning seems risky to me since you have no track record. We realize there are no guarantees, there never are with the various companies we work with, however we also are not required to pay monthly fees with those companies either!
The $150 training is reasonable (however, almost all companies I work with have never charged anything)
$99/zip/mo-it is great that you don't start paying this fee until you get a listing, but if you get 1 listing, and then never get another one, the monthy fee could far exceed any net commission. ABF is getting a 20% referral fee from any closings, so why the double fees?
Monthly fee for the esigning service-This is required before you can start receiving listings. However, I am in Illinois and you haven't even started to assign listings here. So I could be paying this monthly fee for months on end and never receive a listing. I realize you keep saying we can use it for our other business as well, however, I know I wouldn't use it enough to warrant this fee as I already have a system set up.
I realize you want committment from agents to start building up your coverage areas, but without having any kind of track record, how can a new agent commit? You need agents to increase your coverage area in order to win bank contracts. Why not initially offer free/discounted fees during a trial phase as many companies do? This way you can boost your coverage which is essential in trying to win contracts with banks. If you don't have coverage in an area, how can you promise the banks service? I would think you would need the coverage first so you are prepared when listings start coming.
Do you have any agents currently getting assignments that could give ABF a reference?
As I mentioned before, this could be a great opportunity for us agents, we just need these fees to make sense to us. Thanks for your comments!
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