The capitalist world in which we live is made of lenders and borrowers. A lender gives money to a borrower and in return the lender will receive interest from the borrower on each return payment. Those looking to purchase Santa Monica homes for sale however don’t usually need finance. The risk to the lender comes in the form of the borrower possibly not being able to make the repayments. To hedge this bet, lenders often need reassurances or insurance that the borrower will not default. This is true in almost all the markets of capitalism but is especially true in real estate markets. Often times, the lender in a real estate market, such as a mortgage company or bank, will be confident that the borrower will make their monthly mortgage payments, but will be concerned that the borrower will default on their homeowners insurance or property tax paymentsThe big worry for banks who lend to you to fund your house purchase is not that you will not pay back the loan, but that you may default on your property tax repayments. Banks usually do not tend to worry that much over those purchasing Santa Monica homes for sale.

If a borrower does not repay the payments on their insurance, then their home will no longer be covered. If the property is then destroyed and the insurance was defaulted on, the owner can walk away and has no obligation to pay the bank back often. Further to that, if the owner doesn’t pay their property tax then the government can seize the home. Should any of the two scenarios actually become reality, the lender will find themselves vastly out of pocket. To insure that the borrower makes their insurance and tax payments, both parties will want to set up an escrow account. This practice is popular in California, particularly with the buying of Santa Monica homes for sale.

All I hear on the news today is how bad the property market is. Yes, it’s true that house prices have dropped, but with all the negative talk you’d think that marketing was dead! By this I mean that if you truly want to sell your house within a month, you can. Here are my top tips to sell your house as fast as possible.

1) Advertise properly – There are literally thousands of bland, boring ads in the papers and all over the internet. Spruce them up a bit with some good photographs and targeted calls to action. Use phrases like “move your stuff in today” and “own this today”. Avoid acting desperate, and keep things exciting.

2) Turn your thumb green – By this I mean your garden. Nothing boosts the curb appeal of a property than having a beautiful front yard or garden. Cut the grass, plant some trees, install a cheap water feature, and generally neaten the place up. If done properly you’ll see a significant boost of pass-byers calling up.

In today’s market selling skills training does not equal product training or pressure tactics.  If product training or pressure selling (the hard sell) are on the top of your sales training agenda or the only training you offer your sales people then you may want to rethink your sales training strategy.

What is expected of sales people today by way of skillful thought and action goes way beyond the product or the hard sell.

Let’s first look at what clients want.  This will then help us determine what sales people need to be able to do.

Clients today have access to more information than ever before. Clients can make product versus product comparisons very easily.  And most clients know what they are after even if they don’t know how to articulate it. Clients don’t expect to be coerced, bullied, tricked or intimidated into buying either.  They don’t expect to be treated like an ‘idiot’ or a ‘sucker’ by sales people who just talk at them and flash brochures or product sheets, looking for someone to boost their commissions.  Nor on the other hand do they necessarily want to make ‘friends’ with sales people.
Clients expect to communicate and deal with a real professional who knows their own business and how they can best serve their clients’ needs with creative solutions and fresh ideas.