StepStone Blog

Last week, the social media boards were a flurry of discussion as a result of an email sent out by TREC to licensed agents regarding a new bill recently signed by the governor directly related to wholesaling. While titled “Sale of Equitable Interests in Real Estate Clarified” it seemed to do more to create confusion and concern than clarify the new TREC rule.

Here is what the body of the email said:

SB 2212 amends Chapter 1101 to codify the clarifying changes to TREC rules regarding sale of certain equitable interests in real property.

Just like the rule, this statutory change clarifies that a person selling or offering to sell an option or assigning an interest in a contract to purchase real property must accurately disclose to potential buyers the nature of the interest offered. If a person offers a property for sale when the person does not own the property, that person is engaged in brokerage and must be licensed to do so. This is the current law. Continue reading “Clarifying SB 2212: TREC’s new Rule on Wholesaling” →

As your Broker, it’s always my goal to advocate for my agents whether they are having a challenge in an agency situation or as an investor buyer or seller. Sometimes my agents are in the right and I can help them navigate a tough situation for a positive outcome.  However, sometimes these issues turn into hard, but important, lessons learned. Elliot Grochel, Agent-Investor in San Antonio, recently had to suffer through one of those hard lessons.

Elliot (who gave me permission to tell you his name and his story) called me a few weeks ago with a frustrating situation. He had a contract on a listed home that he was trying desperately to close on.

All was moving along smoothly until the appraisal came in low. The seller refused to budge on the sales price so Elliot started looking for alternatives. He could get a different loan product but that was going to take some time and he would miss his closing date. The seller offered to  take a 2nd lien for the difference and spent several days negotiating back and forth with the seller until an agreement, via email, was made. Continue reading “Lesson’s Learned and Shared” →

Phase I of the Captain Program was a pilot program that met with a lot of success (and some learning/tweaks).  But we are excited to move into Phase II!

What is the Captain Program?  The Captain Program is first and foremost a way for those more experienced with StepStone to introduce new Agents to StepStone.

Captains also help those who are newly licensed learn the mechanics of licensed deals.  And they are there to help those who want or need it, to navigate investment deals.

Benefits to being a captain include:

·  Education:  Nothing will teach you advance skills faster than having to teach someone else.  We don’t always have the best answer, but by working with you, we will learn and we hope the same is true for you by working with us. Continue reading “Join our Captain Program” →

Recruiting new agents to StepStone is a great way to build residuals!  Last quarter, we sent out a check to one agent who has recruited several other agents that was more than $2,000.00!

So how do you recruit and make sure YOU get credit?  Below are the guidelines we recently posted in MojoDocs.  In the MojoDocs recruitment folder, you will find a lot of resources including sample emails and all of our marketing material.

Read these guidelines and ensure you get paid for people you help bring into StepStone! Continue reading “Guidelines to Recruiting New Agents” →

Sometimes, we don’t always get it right.  But you will easily correct mistakes with one simple rule.  Stay true to your core values!

Last month, Angie wrote a blog about our our core values.  Angie, Cameron and I spent over a month debating, changing, refining and making sure that they were the core values that really epitomized what StepStone was all about — not just to the staff, but to our agents and our clients as well.

Every business needs to spend time developing and sharing their core values.  Some recommended reading on the subject are Good To Great by Jim Collins and Traction by Gino Wickman.  Put these on your MUST READ list! Continue reading “Tough Lessons” →

Drive ⬘ People ⬘ Integrity ⬘ Community ⬘ Independence

Over the last two and a half years, Dan and I, with help and support of Cameron, numerous friends, colleagues and the agents who joined us early in, have worked on building StepStone Realty to what it is today… a thriving brokerage of over 120 agents and counting dedicated to the support of Investor Agents.  We spend a ton of the time working on building and improving systems, recruiting agent and building resources for existing agents. Just recently we decided to take a minute to step back and take a good look at where we are and where we are going.  Going through that process has reinvigorated our excitement for what we are doing and given us a new clarity on our direction.

A big part of that process was to determine the core values for StepStone Realty. We believe that by striving to uphold these values our success, and yours, will follow. I want to share them here with you and hope that you can get behind them. If so, I feel confident we can reach our goals together. Continue reading “StepStone Realty Core Values” →

Oh the thrill of checking your email to find an offer for your listing! Only to find that it has a Contingency for the Sale of Other Property…

While this isn’t ideal you can help your client (or perhaps yourself!) make good choices by being familiar with how this contingency works and your options going forward.

First of all, do you accept?

Here are a few items I like to consider:

Is the other property on the market? If it’s not even listed yet I might be hesitant to accept.

If listed, is it priced appropriately to get an offer asap? If not, I might discuss with buyer’s agent to find out if they are open to dropping price on the listing. Continue reading “Technical Talk: Dealing with Offers Contingent on the Sale of Other Property” →

One of the advantages of being an investor with a real estate license is the ability to list our own properties. This give us the opportunity for significant savings on the listing side but what about when a buyer is unrepresented… the savings can get even more substantial! But, in these cases, even more diligence is required due to the increased risks. It’s important in these cases that we follow certain procedures to protect yourself!

First, as a reminder, even when there is a buyer’s agent you must do the following to ensure that the transaction will be covered under your Errors & Omissions insurance when you are listing a property you own:

1.  Seller/Agent must disclose, in writing, their status as a licensed real estate agent. You should put this disclosure on the MLS listing in agent remarks AND in Section 4 of the TREC 1-4 Resale Contract. Continue reading “Technical Talk: Listing Agent & Unrepresented Buyers” →

I want to thank all of our agents who participated in our agent survey in August.  This was extremely helpful as we look at various programs and avenues for expansion that will best serve you!  We have worked hard to instill a culture of honesty and integrity with all of our agents.  I believe that includes being transparent as a company.  Therefore, this month we want to share with all of you the results of the survey.

However, I also recognize that a full report of the survey results may be a little boring and tedious.  Therefore, I’ve uploaded into MojoDocs a full report that you can read here: Full Survey Report

I definitely encourage everyone to read it as it will give you some insight into where we are and where we can go.  But for this blog, I want to hit the highlights.

What we are most proud of Continue reading “Survey Results – Key Findings” →