Maestro Auctions

Real Estate Professional Magazine

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:12:28 +0000

Reprinted from The Real Estate Professional Magazine

“According to a study done by the National Association of Realtors, the future of the real estate auction business may be heading toward one in every three properties being sold or influenced using an auction listing. If that’s the case, any brokers looking for new opportunities to generate additional revenues, might want to consider opening an auction division.” – Robert Albanese (BHG.com)
Next Big Thing in Real Estate: an In-House Auction Division
By Dennis Buettner

A Baltimore company has found itself in the national real estate spotlight for advancing an old idea in property sales – auctions – but with a twist that makes consumers more comfortable with the process and brokers happier with the profits.
The concept comes from Express Auctioneers (www.NextBigThingInRealEstate.com) and the twist is that the listing never leaves the brokerage because the brokerage acts as the auction house, operating as a division within the brokerage company itself.

Home sellers are happy because they continue to work with their listing agent throughout the transaction, and the brokerage is happy because it captures 5 percent on the sale.
Given the current state of the housing industry, that percentage could add handsomely to the bottom line of any firm, especially since the National Association of Realtors® reports as many as one third of all transactions in the near future may be through auctions.

The Express Auctioneers business model is sufficiently innovative that it caught the attention of national industry pundit Stefan Swanepoel, who named Express Auctioneers as a business to watch in his 2011 Trends report.
“The irony,” says Express Auctioneers CEO Larry Makowski, “is that it’s taken hard times to bring auctions to the forefront, even though they are just as effective in boom times.” Makowski points out that in nations such as Australia, auctions are the preferred method of real estate transaction – and for good reason.

“With an auction, you know with near certainty that the property is going to sell on a specific date,” he says. “You know it’s going to sell ‘as is,’ and you have a pretty good idea what the price range is going to be.

“If it doesn’t sell at auction (in Australia), then the broker has to list the property and put it on the market for 60 or 90 or whatever number of days. The seller has to spend his money to fix it up. There have to be showings. There are negotiations. And the seller pays the commission.”

Auctioning property, says Makowski, is quicker and simpler. And, just as important, the burden of due diligence – arranging financing, conducting home inspections – is shifted to the potential buyer and it all takes place before the auction, avoiding the increasingly common practice of buyers reopening negotiations after the purchase agreement has been signed.

The New Concept

Under the Express Auctioneers program, sales associates – as many in a company who would like to be trained – are taught the real estate auction process in an online course and the training is free.

After completing the course (four to six hours on average) and taking a 70 question test, they become certified Real Estate Auction Agents (REAA).

The next step is for the brokerage to contract with Express Auctioneers to create a virtually no-cost co-branded division within the real estate firm. (It’s possible to set up a private-label division if the broker prefers.)

Express Auctioneers offers the agent-training free and manages the internal auction division.

The Express Auctioneers program includes the “Easier Auction Seller Information Electronic Reporting (EASIER) System,” a CRM system that keeps the entire team (the broker, sales associate and home seller) informed throughout the transaction. The system utilizes more than 40 “critical checkpoints” that must occur during the standard Express Auction event.

One or more Real Estate Auction Agent team leaders are designated by the broker to work directly with Express Auctioneers and the cloud based EASIER System to make sure details of the sales are worked out.

The in-house Real Estate Auction Agent Team Leader, following the checkpoints, sends at least eight emailed Express Auction “critical updates” to the entire team, along with telephone and in-person follow ups.

The typical listing is sold in 30 days and closing occurs 30 to 45 days later. The seller pays a nominal marketing fee. All closing costs are paid by the buyer.

The brokerage and Express Auctioneers divide the buyer’s premium paid by the successful bidder – typically an additional 10 percent above the sales price. The seller pays a modest marketing fee to help offset the advertising of the home.

If a buyer agent is involved in the transaction, the buyer agent would typically receive 20 percent of the buyer premium and the listing company and Express Auctioneers would divide the remainder.

Overcoming the Auction Stigma

Makowski is mindful that marketing an auction concept in the United States is to sail against a gale force wind.

Mention auctions to consumers and it conjures the image of a destitute farmer losing his land and possessions while his wife tearfully stands by. Update that image a bit to today, and you have the vision of a sheriff standing on the courthouse steps selling foreclosed homes.

Inside the industry the reputation is nearly as bad. Auctions are seen as a last resort – and often what comes after the last resort.

By the time a property hits the auction block, attempts to list and sell it have been exhausted, the original listing agent has lost the listing and any potential commission (and also lost his client), the price already has been cut. If the property has been foreclosed by the bank many times the property itself has been looted by the owner and savaged by vandals.

By the time the foreclosure auction occurs, the property is a shadow of its former value.

Makowski believes that if owners and agents will consider the auction option as an alternative at the beginning of the transaction, rather than at the desperate end, the outcome would be better.

“The way the real estate business is traditionally done, the agent lists the property and then waits for a buyer to show up,” he said.

“With an auction, you can pin point the time of the sale, everyone shows up, the property gets sold and everyone can move on with their lives.

“The biggest problem we face is educating the consumer, the seller and the real estate agent that (auctions) are a better alternative.”

Although Makowski believes fewer than 10 percent of Americans have ever been to a home auction, the practice is more familiar than it was 20 years ago because of things like eBay and cable TV shows such “Storage Wars.”

“Once people sell through an auction, they wonder why they didn’t try it before,” he said.

Makowski also understands that many consumers have a fear of auctions that comes from television stereotypes.

In the real world of real estate auctions, he says, the auctioneer is not a rapid-fire talker like the one featured in the old American Tobacco Company commercials. Nor are there usually secret signals or people who bid by scratching their nose or rubbing their arms. (But it also is not unheard of for buyers who don’t want their neighbor to know they’re bidding to work out some signal in advance with the auctioneer.)

A good auctioneer, however, usually does have a good “chant” – the banter by which they get bidders to up their offers.

“The idea is to get people emotional. Once you get emotion into it, the price will start going up.”

Born in Bad Times

Express Auctioneers was founded more than 30 years ago at time when real estate was trying to emerge from another crisis – the S&L debacle when the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) inherited thousands of properties.

Makowski said that “When the RTC sold out of properties, Express Auctioneers developed our alternative auction service in Maryland and Virginia (Mid Atlantic region).”

Armed with statistics from NAR and a boost from the Swanepoel report, the company is now poised to go national.
“Companies can set up an auction division, just as they have mortgage and title ancillary services divisions,” Makowski said.
Having the auction division in house also feeds another need – providing leads to the sales associate.

Express Auctioneers registers everyone who comes to the auction and those names go back to the listing agent. Since people who bid at an auction are ready, willing and able buyers, the unsuccessful bidders represent excellent prospects for follow up.

The wrap-around service is what earned Express Auctioneers a spot in the Swanepoel report.

In the 2011 edition of the annual Swanepoel Trends Report (www.retrends.com), Express Auctioneers is listed with seven other new business models that have been identified as potential game changing companies. “America has always admired entrepreneurs willing to bet on his or her abilities to find a path to success and these innovative companies should be commended for taking on the challenge, says Swanepoel. “Express Auctioneers is the pioneering company to provide training and only company that provides an auction service to existing real estate brokerage companies and it will be interesting to watch their growth.”

©2010-2011 The Real Estate Professional. All rights reserved. The Real Estate Professional is a publication of North American Consulting Group, Inc. REALTOR® is a registered trademark of The National Association of REALTORS®.

Our Heroes

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:05:23 +0000

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For more information about the Heroes of Tomorrow, click HERE.

Press Release – Game Changing Company

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:04:31 +0000

The Next Big Thing In Real Estate Selected By Swanepoel Trends Report As Potential Game Changing Company

Baltimore, Maryland – (PRWeb) – Your Auction Division – The Next Big Thing In Real Estate™ by Express Auctioneers – has been selected as potential game changing company by the world renowned Swanepoel Trends Report.

“Express Auctioneers is proud and honored as we have been selected to be the first and only professional Real Estate Auction Company in the USA to ever be recognized by the world famous Swanepoel organization as ‘one of the most creative approaches that were launched during the last decade’.” stated Larry A. Makowski, CEO of Express Auctioneers LLC, “Our goal is to work diligently with the NAR, our Realtors® and Real Estate Broker partners in the USA and abroad to train and help them build profitable no cost Express Auction Divisions in their offices. As trends in the Real Estate industry are evolving to accept The Express Auction Method as a viable part of their short and long term revenue strategies we will grow with them to increase their bottom line as we help our sellers to move on.”

Makowski continued, “With hundreds of billions of dollars of real estate sold in the USA every year and over 1,000,000 active Realtors in the USA, Express Auctioneer’s one of a kind no-cost, ‘Your Auction Division’ program is designed to train and professionally designate agents and brokers as Real Estate Auction Agents™ for free and assist them in selling the ‘1 in every 3 properties [which] will soon be sold or influenced using an auction listing’ as noted in a recent study by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR also stated, ‘any brokers looking for new opportunities to generate additional revenues, might want to consider opening an auction division’. We create and manage “Your Auction Division” and you get up to a negotiated 5% in-pocket commission. This keeps your life long sellers in your full service office! If only one company does all of this with absolutely no competition, that company must be – The Next Big Thing In Real Estate!”

Swanepoel Trends Report

“In the 2011 edition of the annual Swanepoel Trends Report (www.retrends.com), Express Auctioneers is listed with seven other new business models that have been identified as potential game changing companies.” stated Stefan Swanepoel, CEO of Real Sure, Inc. “America has always admired entrepreneurs willing to bet on his or her abilities to find a path to success and these innovative companies should be commended for taking on the challenge. Express Auctioneers is the only company that provides an auction service to existing real estate brokerage companies and it will be interesting to watch their growth.”

Express Auctioneers – The Next Big Thing In Real Estate

Known as the “Next Big Thing In Real Estate™”, Express Auctioneers, LLC & Maestro Auctions, a visionary and powerhouse 30 year Real Estate Auction firm was founded by Mr. Larry Makowski, AARE, CAI. Express Auctioneers, LLC is renowned for the first and only no-cost; Your Auction Division™ real estate training, and sales program in the USA and internationally. Your Auction Division is designed so that Real Estate Brokers around the country can operate and market a fully functional and profitable auction division from their current Real Estate Office while receiving excellent in-pocket commissions. Express Auctioneers centrally manages all national Express Auctions from our headquarters in Maryland utilizing The Express Auction Method™ (TEAM) and EASIER System™.

Ever the innovators, Express Auctioneers is the first and only company to provide free national education, training and Professional Real Estate Auction Agent designation programs in the Real Estate industry. Our comprehensive Professional Real Estate Auction Agent courses, designation and tests are completely free and anonymous to take.

Candidates need only to supply their email address for us to process and return their test results. No name, address, city, state, zip code, telephone number or credit card is ever needed. The Professional Real Estate Auction Agent website provides you with everything needed to become a Professional Real Estate Auction Agent. You may take the Professional Real Estate Auction Agent course and test from anywhere in the world via desktop, laptop, iPhone, iPod, Android, or any Java enabled handheld device. When you pass the test with a 70% or greater you may decide to receive professional designation as a Professional Estate Auction Agent and open an Express Auction Division in your office.

For more information about the no cost Your Auction Division, Professional Real Estate Auction Agent Programs and The Express Auction Method, please contact:

Mr. Larry Makowski, AARE, CAI

CEO, Express Auctioneers, LLC

http://www.NextBigThingInRealEstate.com

410-852-6928

Press inquiries please contact:

Mr. Dennis Buettner

Director of Marketing and Media Relations

http://www.NextBigThingInRealEstate.com

410-852-6928

Real Estate Auction Agent™, Real Estate Auction Broker™, The Express Auction Method™, Express Auction™, Our Company Is Hiring™, National Association of Auction Agents and Brokers™ , Next Big Thing In Real Estate™, and any variation of these marks are trademarks of Express Auctioneers, LLC.

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