10 Things Everyone Hates About Ambergris Caye Real Estate

Just recently I was asked to do a talk for my good friend and co-author

of our best-selling book in Singapore titled Get Rich Now: 15

Strategies from a Self-made Millionaire, Dr Dennis Wee. (Dr Wee is one of

Singapore's most celebrated entrepreneurs. Despite not having completed his

high school education, he managed to start and build up his own real

estate company, Dennis Wee Group, to become of Singapore's leading real

estate companies generating S$3.8 billion worth of sales in 2006.) ™

He wanted me to share some marketing secrets with his real estate

agents and I was more than happy to do so because I believe there's so much

more that agents can do to position, brand and market their services.

Sadly, most agents, whether in real estate or financial services

(insurance) or any other industries, tend to see themselves just as a

salesperson. This perception of themselves is limiting their growth and income!

By thinking that they are just salespeople, they don't see the

possibilities of growing their careers into full-fledge businesses. There are

so much more benefits for someone to think big and build a big business,

compared to just existing, and making a living. Donald Trump said: "If

you're going to be thinking, you might as well think big." But that's

another topic for another session.

Here, I'm going to show you some detailed examples of how an agent can

differentiate himself using some simple positioning and branding

strategies that I have used with other clients to great success.

Many people perceive that being an agent in any industry is like being

a salesperson. Someone who is always competing with all the other

thousands of salespeople in the industry. To a certain extend it is correct.

Those other agents are also looking for the same deals that you are. It

is a matter of who gets the deal first. So they are relentlessly going

out there to cold prospect.

Now, I am not a fan of cold prospecting. To me, cold prospecting is

like bashing your head against the wall, hoping it will crumble before you

start bleeding... most people just end up being very disappointed. Why do

you think new agents don't last long? I strongly suspect it's because

they realized that their heads can't go against the wall.

But there are ways to turn the table around. In my talks I like to ask

the audience: Would you prefer to work hard and look for prospects, OR

would you prefer to let your prospects seek you out?

The answer is obvious.

But more than just having less work and an easier time, there are

deeper psychological advantages to being able to let your prospects seek you

out instead of you cold prospecting them. Simply said, when you seek

someone out, you will be open to the person's ideas, advice, expertise.

That is the reason you seek him/her out in the first place--to get expert

advice.

There won't be the wall of resistance you've grown accustomed to when

you cold prospect. In fact, now it's them who are jumping over hoops to

seek you out in your domain. Man, it's always exciting to talk about

this!

Believe me, it's a whole new paradigm. Imagine you becoming a celebrity

overnight and people are just doing everything they can to get in touch

with you. Think of stars of reality shows like Survivor and American

Idol... It is that powerful!

So how can you achieve that?

Let's look at a typical scenario:

You have probably have opened your letter box day after day only to

find it stuffed with piles of flyers from various real estate agents. Just

take a closer look. You will realize that all of them claim to be the

"specialist" in the area. Now if everyone is a specialist, then does it

matter who you call? Absolutely NOT!

"But I'm different from the rest. I have more experience, quality,

etc..." you protest.

Let me be upfront. It doesn't matter who you are or what your

background is. If the prospects don't recognize that straight away, Belize Real Estate you are just

like everybody else. No matter how different you think you really are.

Repeat after me: If you are like every-body else, you are a no-body.

Remember: It's all about their perception, not yours.

So instead of being just another area specialist, be different. So far

I've not come across any agent who positions him/herself as the

specialist to serve "first-time home buyers". Do you think that is powerful?

Absolutely!

First-time home buyers are inexperienced. They don't know what to

expect, what the whole buying process is going to be like, how long will it

take, what possible hiccups might occur, etc. They are in a place where

they don't know what they don't know. Do you think they have different

needs/concerns compared to those who have bought a house before? Of

course! If you are able to gain their trust, do you think they will look

for someone else?

The point is this: you have the information that first-time buyers are

looking for (in fact all real estate agents should know these

information). But by letting them know that you are the expert who can guide

them through the whole process safely, will in itself, earn you a closed

deal.

You might need to make some minor changes in the way you do things,

such as explaining the buying process more thoroughly, going through the

nitty gritty details that you won't normally need to with experienced

buyers, etc. But all these will help to cement your positioning and

branding as the expert to serve first-time buyers. And once your branding

gets out, you will be busy with so many referrals for other first-time

buyers. Is the first-time buyers market huge enough for you?

Once you have established your branding, it is easy to market your

services. You can easily get the publicity that once used to be impossible

for you. If the media wants to get an opinion on what first-time buyers

think about a new housing policy, who do they look for? They will

interview the expert (you). And after appearing in the media, you will have

gained even more credibility. Can you see how this will snowball into

your profits?

It all starts with creating a powerful positioning, branding and

marketing strategy that is suitable for you.

What other positioning can differentiate you? How about:

o The property investments expert (investors love to work with those

who understand their investing needs, someone who is not just another

agent); or

o Divorce cases specialist (they definitely have different needs as

compared to the usual buyers); or

o Downgraders or upgraders; or

o Serve only those looking for luxurious, high-end houses worth $XX

amount and above (your service must of course reflect that); and

o Many more!

As you can see, it is critical to create a powerful positioning to get

your prospects to start looking specifically for you. I assure you I'm

not an expert of the real estate industry. But I'm an expert in

positioning, branding and marketing. These same principles can be applied in

other industries, such as the financial services industry, perfectly

well.

So start positioning yourself today!

All the three estates of freehold interest might possibly exist at one and the same time over the piece of Jamaica land. This does not mean that there would be three tenants simultaneously entitled to the same Jamaica real estate. An estate may give a man the right to the immediate present possession of the land or it may only give him the right to go into possession and to enjoy the land at some future date, In the former case the tenant is said to have "an estate in possession'; in the latter "an estate in remainder" or very often simply "a remainder".

Remainders might be illustrated in this way. When the owner of a fee simple estate in possession alienates his land he may pass to the new tenant the whole fee simple estate in possession, which was everything that the old tenant had to give; the new tenant is then entitled to the present enjoyment of the land and no question of remainders arises.

Suppose, however, A is tenant in fee simple in possession of Blackacre and grants Blackacre "to B for life and then to C in fee simple". Here B will receive a life estate and since it carries with it the immediate right to enjoy the land, it will be a life estate in possession. C, on the other hand, gets a fee simple, but since he is only entitled to enjoy the land when B dies, it will be a fee in remainder.

In this example, A has granted away the whole estate in the land which he formerly held, because the grant ends with a gift of the fee simple in remainder to C. If, however, A had only granted Blackacre "to B for life", what would happen to Blackacre on B's death? Here it can be seen that A has not granted away the whole of his estate, but only a part of it, namely, a life estate and the rest of the estate, after taking B's life estate out of it, remains the property of A.

Consequently on B's death the land will come back or revert, to A. A's right to the land in this case is a right to enjoy the land when B dies and because, when this happens, the land reverts to A, A's estate is called "a reversion". A reversion is thus similar to a remainder in that the right to enjoy the land is postponed to a future date, but is unlike a remainder in that the land comes back to the person who granted the intervening interest (the "grantor") instead of passing on to someone else.

Of course the same grant may contain both a remainder and a reversion, as where X who has a fee simple estate in possession in Whiteacre, grants Whiteacre "to V for life and then to Z in tail". Here V has a life estate in possession and Z an estate tail in remainder.

But again the gift of the estate tail to Z does not exhaust X's interest in the land, because a fee simple is of longer duration than a fee tail, so that X still has a fee simple in reversion and on the failure of all Z's descendants the land will revert to X in fee simple.

Before leaving this point it is important that it should be understood that although an estate may be in remainder or in reversion and in consequence give no immediate right to possession of the land, the estate itself, as opposed to the time at which possession may be obtained is, nevertheless, Jamaica property which is immediately valuable and transferable.

In the last example quoted in the previous paragraph, Z's descendants might not fail and Z's estate tail might therefore continue, for say three hundred years. X, however, having a fee simple in reversion, has a piece of property which he can leave in his will or sell in his lifetime, or if he dies without making a will, the fee simple will pass, with his other property, to those persons entitled on an intestacy.

A remainder or reversion therefore, is the subject of present ownership. The difficulty of understanding this concept is largely because to the non-legal mind it is the land which is the subject of ownership. We have seen, however, that a tenant owns no land but only an estate in the land, the estate giving him a right to enjoy the land either immediately or at some future date and for a shorter or longer period.

The estate and the land to which it relates are thus two distinct matters and an estate may be the subject of present ownership although the right which it gives to possession of Jamaica real estate and land may be postponed for many years.