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WHAT
HIGH TECH,
HIGH TOUGH REALLY MEANS!
Office: 651-486-5628
Cell: 651-398-6261
Res: 763-795-8979
Fax: 651-483-3681
In 1999, Ray Singhal, CRS, and his wife Nimi, moved to the St. Paul, Minn. area ready to pursue a second career in a field for which Ray Singhal had developed a passion: real estate sales. Starting this new career wasn't going to be easy for these former university professors. (Ray Singhal has a Ph. D. in pharmacology and Nimi Singhal has a Masters in Educational Psychology, having taught mentally challenged children for more than 20 years.) The Singhals knew no one in the area and thus had no sphere of influence at all - no family, no friends, no business associates. How were they to develop a client base?
"My first mentors, Robin Peterson, then vice president and director of Coldwell Banker Burnet and now president and Peggy Langeslay, branch vice president, told me that my only choice was to work FSBO's and open houses." Ray Singhal recalls, in just four years the Singhals have become masters at turning cold leads into hot sales.
In 2002, the Singhals and their team of four expect to list and sell 65 to 75 homes for total gross volume of $15 million to 18$ million in the St. Paul suburbs where homes average $275,000.
Don't Chase People Around at Open Houses
Ray and Nimi Singhal and their team are complete professionals when it comes to holding open houses. Four licensed professionals help them out. Lisa Faribault is a buyer specialist; Kevin Moss and Ganesh Dahal are relatively new members of the team who are working in a variety of capacities coordinating leads, managing technology and working with both buyers and sellers, and Kelly Becker joined recently as a full-time assistant.
On a typical weekend, the team holds four open houses on Saturday and tour on Sunday. In addition, Singhal has had success with holding open houses during the week from 4p.m. to 6:30p.m. When people are driving home from work. "I learned a lot about working FSBOs from Coldwell Banker's Jump Start program for new agents, initiated by Bill Stafford." Singhal says. "There I learned not to chase open house visitors around the house, but instead to greet them warmly, leave them alone for five to ten minutes, an allow them to come to you at the end. It's basic human psychology; you have to allow people room to feel comfortable."
Singhal says body language and demeanor are important too. "Perhaps it is an advantage that we are from India, as our whole culture is "soft', non threatening, non invasive." Singhal says. By using this approach, Singhal says he and his team members leave open houses with very complete contact information plus a pretty clear understanding of home-buying needs for 99 percent of the visitors to open houses. "I think we project the right image eve in the selling of an open house." he says. "Our motto is, the client is always right. We see ourselves not as salespeople but as counselors. It's our job to see the situation from the client's point of view."
Value of Internet Leads
In addition to working open houses relentlessly the Singhals have grown their business by embracing technology Singhal was one of the first 500 agents in the nation to earn NAR's e-PRO designation. He also has invested in internet marketing. Singhal has 10 Web sites. The most visited ones are named after popular communites in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
www.Roseville-realestate.com www.Shoreview-realestate.com www.StPaul-realestate.com www.ShoreviewHomes.com www.BlaineHomes.com His team has exclusive rights for internet leads in several zip codes generated from three different sources. Housevalues.com for seller leads, Househunt.com for buyer leads, and Intergrowth Data Inc. for both buyer and seller leads.
Getting these exclusive rights means I'm teing up some major marketing dollars - about $2500 to $3000 a month for the three sites altogether. But Singhal says it's worth it. He receives about 300 leads annually from Housevalues.com and is able to convert about 10% of them into sales. "Think about it," he says, "That's 30 transaction sides a year from the internet." He and his wife are part of the Honor Roll at Housevalues.com, recognized for completing a record of number of CMAs and responding to inquiries within 48 hours.
Singhal also appreciates technology because it enables the real estate transaction to go more smoothly. "We use e-mail to stay in touch with our present, past and prospective clients on a weekly basis, for providing information on properties to buyers and for managing the entire transaction up to the closing." he says. All internet leads are entered into an automatic system called Tim total Internet marketing for regular follow up. We also e-mail virtual tours to prospective buyers with photos of the property."
Connection, Connection, Connetion
Success is a matter of hard work, intense focus, good time management, staying on top of technology and continuing to sharpen skills and build knowledge through securing designations such as CRS, ABR, e-PRO 500, and GRI." he says. Singhalearned all of these designations in his first four years in real estate. People see us as being us as being technology savvy and having good people skills. Luck of course has played a very important role too, as the market has been very strong since we started in 1999." he notes.
The most significant challenge he faces is controling expenses, especially marketing expenses. "There are so many new methodologies and materials to try." he says. "They are all a temptation, but you have to choose a few to use well." Striking balance between work and pleasure, building strong motivation and work habits among team members and keeping up with Internet leads also keep life intersting, he says.
Providing outstanding service with the clients interests at heart pays off. Ray Singhal believes. He tells a story of listing two FSBOs recently, one a home for $275,000, the other priced at $368,000. Both had 24-hour exclusion clauses because both clients flet they had buyers. Despite the fact that it took three days for the offres to come together. Singhal helped evaluate the negotiate both offers without commission. "Believe me it was really worth it," he says. "I received four referrals from one client and two from the other, and they were high-quality referrals. I think being client-centric, acquiring good work ethics and skills, and remembering that the business now is connection, connection, connection and not location, location, location, is the secret to success!"
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Ray and Nimi Singhal
Coldwell Banker Burnet
100 Village Center Drive
St. Paul, MN 55127(651) 398-6261 cell
CRS, ABR, GRI, e-Pro 500, ESA, SRES Platinum Producer (top 1% nationally)
