Need to Generate More Revenue? 7 Ancillary Services Brokerages Should Consider
Running a real estate brokerage is rarely a wildly profitable enterprise, but the current environment has been exceedingly tough for even many experienced brokerages. High mortgage interest rates and inflation have combined to put a big damper on would-be buyers' ability to purchase a home, and the lack of inventory means that many would-be sellers are reluctant to leave a good-enough home for the wilds of the unknown. So how can brokerages help to push back against shrinking margins and find new areas of profitability in their businesses? It's not the easiest thing to do, but it's far from impossible. If you haven't yet considered adding one of these ancillary services to your business, then it might be time to ask yourself if it could generate the revenue you've been missing. 1. Mortgage loans Just about everyone who's interested in buying a house — and many people who are interested in selling — are going to need to apply for a mortgage loan. Most buyers need to secure a mortgage loan in order to buy a house, as very few people have the cash on hand to purchase a home outright. And sellers will almost certainly need to move after selling, unless they plan on negotiating some kind of rent-back deal. Instead of referring borrowers to an outside mortgage lender, why not offer your own mortgage loans through your brokerage? Even if only a segment of buyers decide to go with your mortgage loan, the additional revenue could make a big difference for your bottom line. Companies like HomeLendia provide franchise opportunities that can allow brokerages to offer these kinds of products and services without an unreasonable upfront investment. (On Tuesday, October 24, HomeLendia is hosting a webinar to explain how its mortgage franchise works; register now to learn more.) 2. Rental services Another potential area of expansion and growth is helping landlords or investors find qualified tenants for their rental properties. While some rental owners prefer to do this on their own, if they don't live locally or if they only have one or two properties to rent, they may not have a very robust network of people who would make high-quality tenants. As a brokerage, it's almost certain that you have access to a network of aspiring buyers, move-out sellers, and young adults moving out of the house for the first time. If you can leverage that to help landlords and investors fill their properties quickly and seamlessly (and charge a fee for it), that could be a decent amount of extra revenue for a relatively small lift. 3. Property management Both long-term and short-term rentals, especially single-family homes, will require some kind of property management oversight. Short-term rentals like vacation rentals need to be cleaned in between each visit, and if something breaks at a rental property, owners will typically have to call someone to fix it as opposed to fixing it themselves. Many real estate brokerages have existing relationships with house cleaners, general contractors, plumbers, electricians, and other problem-solvers that a property management company might call up to help with a rental. Property managers can charge either flat fees or collect a portion of the rental money, but either way, it's some additional revenue for your balance sheet. 4. Title and escrow To move a real estate transaction from offer to close, title and escrow companies must become involved in order to handle any earnest money deposits, review the home's title and provide title insurance, and serve as notaries on closing day, among many other duties. These tasks are typically outsourced to title and escrow firms, which charge to fulfill them. Offering these services in-house as part of your brokerage can be a good way to increase your bottom line. 5. Relocation help Here's a fact: While people might enjoy shopping for a new home, almost nobody enjoys the process of moving itself. Providing services around moving, from packing to loading to hauling, can generate more business for your brokerage (people love full-service options) as well as potentially create a new revenue stream. 6. Staging and photography services Sellers who want their homes to capture the best possible price are usually going to be interested in professional cleaning, staging, and photography. If you can find the experts and create a suite of products around home staging and selling that cater to this need, you could even consider outsourcing the offerings to other real estate firms. 7. Investing advice and opportunities Many people would like to get their foot in the door of a real estate investment property, so to speak, but they have no idea where to start. As the expert on real estate in your area, providing advice and data to aspiring investors can be another way brokers can increase their baseline sales business while also generating new income in a new way. The market might be tough, but you have options! Remember to register for the HomeLendia webinar to learn more about adding mortgage ancillary services to your brokerage.

[Podcast] 'It's Closing Time' with Chuck Hattemer, CMO and Co-founder of Poplar
In this episode of It's Closing Time, Michael Lucarelli sits down with Chuck Hattemer, CMO and Co-founder of Poplar — a property management solution for homeowners and renters. Chuck has over 10 years of experience in professional marketing, sales, and executive roles. Since co-founding Poplar in 2014, Chuck has grown his company to over 300+ employees, with over $75M in venture backing and 13,000+ doors under management across the country. He contributes to Forbes and other industry publications such as the SFAA Magazine in his spare time.    

[Podcast] The Benefits of Having a Property Management Division with David Howell of McEnearney Associates
In this episode of It's Closing Time, RentSpree CEO Michael Lucarelli talks with David Howell, CIO at McEnearney Associates, about getting into the real estate business, the effectiveness of a property management division, and the short and long-term benefits of agents (especially new agents) working with rental clients. McEnearney Associates ranked in the top 10 of brokerages with rental transactions completed and tenants placed according to the first-ever RealTrends + RentSpree Rental Power Rankings 2022. Learn more here.  

[Podcast] The Modern Agent with Neema Bardi of Atllas
In this episode of It's Closing Time, RentSpree CEO Michael Lucarelli sits down with Neema Bardi, CEO, and Founder of Atllas, a tech-based real estate brokerage headquartered in Los Angeles. What makes Atllas unique is that Atllas agents retain 100% of their real estate commissions. Neema only started his real estate journey in 2020 during the pandemic and broke the record for the number of closed deals by a first-time agent. And in this episode, he shares his tips for new agents on beings successful in their first few years, as well as the growing needs of today's modern agent.  

[Podcast] Building a Recurring Rental Business with Yansey Valdes
In this episode of It's Closing Time, Yansey Valdes sits down with RentSpree CEO Michael Lucarelli to discuss the unique rental market, how to build a successful, recurring rental business, nurturing relationships with renters and landlords, and much more. Yansey serves as the Associate Broker at Julie's Realty based in Florida.  

[Podcast] It's Closing Time: Maya Tuvia of Coldwell Banker
In this episode of It's Closing Time, Maya Tuvia sits down with RentSpree CEO Michael Lucarelli to discuss her already impressive 8-year career in the real estate industry. In that time, Maya has amassed incredible experience in property management and representing home buyers and sellers through her firm, 365 Management Group. As a RentSpree power user, Maya leverages rentals to build her network of potential home buyers as well as utilizing various technologies to streamline and service a robust database of clients. Additionally, as a woman in real estate, she touches on the challenges and opportunities that women have in the industry to make an impact on the business and leadership positions across the board.

Divvy Homes and zavvie Team Up to Offer Innovative Rent-to-Own Buying Solutions to Brokerages and Their Agents
Aspiring home buyers have had to seek out novel solutions if they wanted to get their foot in a door of their very own throughout 2021. Cash offer products, buy-before-you-sell bridge solutions, and other options became increasingly popular as buyers sought to compete for a limited number of homes, helping them write an offer that could win a bidding war. Today, another buyer solution powered by zavvie, the nation's first real estate brokerage marketplace that connects broker-agents to buyers and sellers, and Divvy Homes, a leading property-technology startup valued at $2 billion, will deliver a more accessible, affordable and innovative rent-to-own buying solution to real estate brokers and their agents. Divvy Homes uses technology and a human-centric approach to partner with consumers at every step of the home buying process, helping renters transition into homeowners. Buying a home with Divvy begins with a five-minute online application that delivers an approved home-buying budget and the ability to start shopping with a real estate agent. The Divvy Homes rent-to-own program is currently available across 16 major U.S. metropolitan areas, including Atlanta; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Dallas; Denver; Ft Lauderdale, FL; Houston; Jacksonville; Memphis; Minneapolis; Miami; Orlando; Phoenix; San Antonio, TX; St. Louis and Tampa, FL. Now part of zavvie's recently expanded brokerage marketing place, Divvy Homes can potentially reach tens of thousands of new real estate agents, turning more of today's renters into tomorrow's homeowners. "Divvy Homes helps make sure zavvie delivers every option for today and tomorrow's home buyers and sellers — and that a trusted real estate agent remains at the center of every transaction," said Lane Hornung, zavvie co-founder and CEO. Over the next decade, industry analysts estimate Divvy Homes could help as many as 100,000 families become homeowners. It allows renters to work with a real estate agent and choose the home they want to rent-to-own. Then Divvy purchases the qualifying home, and the renters move in with 1% to 2% of the value paid upfront. A portion of their rent goes toward saving for a down payment. Within three years, these future homeowners may have accumulated as much as 10% toward their down payment, allowing them to buy the home from Divvy. "The path to homeownership is more challenging today than ever before," said Divvy Homes co-founder and CEO Adena Hefets. "Divvy is leveling the playing field by accelerating one's ability to become a homeowner. We're a new kind of real estate company that is helping people build wealth while living in a home they will soon own." Divvy Homes application is online, free and won't impact credit scores. Once a customer's income and savings are verified, a Divvy Homes-approved home budget is provided within two business days. Most Divvy Homes customers become mortgage-eligible in fewer than three years. At any point, a Divvy Homes customer can either buy back the home with the money saved or move out and take any savings with them. "Housing affordability and accessibility offers exciting new opportunities for brokerages and their agents," said Hornung, "Agents who embrace these new buying options can do well by doing good."

Zillow Does It Again: This Time They're After Your Rental Income
This month, Zillow announced that your MLS rental listings would no longer be syndicated directly to Zillow. Instead, if listing agents, teams, or brokerages elect to publish their rentals on Zillow, they will have to pay $9.99 per week, per listing. With this policy change, Zillow forces every agent, team, landlord, rental specialist, brokerage, and MLS to create an account with Zillow Rental Manager and pay this hefty fee to appear on Zillow. At Rental Beast, we ran the numbers. The potential economic impact on real estate is massive: potentially tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. By the numbers Large MLSs may have as many as 10,000 listings each month or more. If you take 12,500 rental listings and multiply it by an average cost of $9.95 per week for 4.5 weeks (the typical amount of time it takes to rent out a listing), the expense for a single large MLS would be over $6.7 million annually. Even a smaller MLS with 200 monthly rental listings would be looking at an unbudgeted annual expense that tops as much as $107,000. A large brokerage with just under 1,000 monthly rental listings would have to find more than $500,000 annually to pay Zillow. Considering the low margins most brokerages struggle with to remain viable, one has to wonder: Is Zillow trying to get blood from a turnip? The typical agent, only working their sphere of influence, will generate a couple of rental listings per month. To put their rental business on Zillow will now set them back over $1,000 a year. The Rental Beast alternative With more than 113 million renters today, listing agents and landlords need a better choice. Rental Beast provides a great alternative to individual agents and landlords. Most importantly, Rental Beast, which has nearly 9 million rental listings, offers seamless integration with MLSs. In addition to cost savings, the Rental Beast all-in-one solution provides a powerful suite of tools not offered by Zillow or similar listing platforms, including enhanced agent search detailing agent commissions, rental concessions, co-operation, financial requirements, and more. Rental Beast also captures the landlord renter's insurance requirements, then pairs the information with preferred rates from Liberty Mutual. Our advanced AVM is another significant competitive advantage because it encompasses 50+ data points culled from nearly 9 million rigorously maintained rental listings on Rental Beast. We also deliver extensive education and training through Rental Beast University. We've seen this before from Zillow On January 12th, many agents were astonished to see an email from Zillow with the subject line, "Your rental listings are no longer on Zillow." But if you look at Zillow’s track record, this move should not be surprising. When Zillow bought New York City's rental listing site StreetEasy in 2017, Zillow began charging $3 per listing per day, or $21 per week. About a year later, Zillow increased its daily listing fee by 50 percent to $31.50. The next year, in 2019, Zillow increased its daily listing fee on StreetEasy by another 33 percent to $42 per week. Over two years, Zillow doubled its listing fees for rentals on StreetEasy. Will anyone be surprised if Zillow raises its $9.99 per rental listing per week a year or two from now? Talk to agents who use Rental Beast Agents are finding better ways to promote their rental listings, like Sandra McKimmey with Better Homes and Gardens Winans Real Estate in Dallas, Texas. She markets her rental listings on Facebook Marketplace through Rental Beast. While she has only used Rental Beast for a few months, it has already paid off, as she earned $1,400 in commissions for rental listings she said only took "a couple of hours to close." Ronald Nordgren, a leasing consultant with Infiniti Properties in Homewood, Illinois, tells other agents they do not need Zillow if they use Rental Beast. He closed 95 leases using Rental Beast last year and was the number one agent for rentals out of more than 200 agents in his office. For J.R. Alexandre, an Ethanmour Realty agent serving Boynton Beach, Florida, Rental Beast was a "game-changer." Alexandre found using the Rental Beast digital platform was a time-saver, explaining, "I don't spin my wheels doing paperwork." Rentals on the MLS is the future Agent experiences like these are happening with thousands of others. Our agent reach is growing exponentially as more MLSs partner with Rental Beast. Because many renters will become homeowners, Rental Beast delivers future business to agents in partnership with MLSs. Finally, as the leading source of rental listings on Facebook Marketplace, we delivered more than 263,000 potential leads to real estate agents and landlords in 2019. Facebook notes that Rental Beast "provided 54 percent more leads per listing generated than other online listing services." Rental Beast is, today more than ever, the rental solution for agents, teams, landlords, rental specialists, brokerages, and MLSs. Learn more about who we are and what we do at rentalbeast.com. Ishay Grinberg [pronounced ee-shy] is the Founder and CEO of Rental Beast, the largest rental listing data provider with nearly nine million rentals nationwide. Sourced directly from property owners and updated in real-time, the Rental Beast database, directly and in partnership with local Multiple Listing Services, provides real estate professionals with an unparalleled view of all properties and owner types.

Understanding Future Homebuyers and Connecting with Technology
In just a short period of time, the way we search for homes has rapidly advanced thanks to property technology, or PropTech. It's become more important than ever for real estate brokerages, brands and professionals to differentiate themselves in an increasingly tech-savvy market. David Chervenic, broker at Keller Williams Chervenic Realty, is always looking to better serve his clients and believes using the latest technology is paramount to delivering an outstanding customer experience.

What Do You Really Know about Apartments.com?
The other day, we at RE Technology were talking about Apartments.com. As we frequently explore different companies and products to stay current in the market, we sometimes like to challenge our initial perception before further research: As of now, what do we think we know about Apartments.com? Our guess, of course: that Apartments.com just focuses on apartments. We could not have been more wrong. We learned they have many different rentals, not just apartments, and most importantly...RESIDENTIAL RENTALS (single family homes, condos, duplexes, townhomes, etc...) which is the reason they are attending all the top industry conferences.   What is ever more amazing is that there is NO cost for an agent, broker or an MLS to display their listings on the Apartments.com Network. Most importantly, this is “Your Listing, Your Lead” where there is no advertising from competing agents on a single listing. The Apartments.com Network is positioned in the industry as a lucrative lead source for agents to incorporate rentals into their business.  Renters become buyers! We were absolutely amazed that you could find homes, townhouses and condos using the Apartments.com network, which boasts nine different rental sites that receive over 50 million monthly visits.  Each of the different sites fill a different niche for renters. Apartments.com ForRent.com, ApartmentFinder.com  Apartamentos.com ForRentUniversity.com After55.com WestsideRentals.com CorporateHousing.com  ApartmentHomeLiving.com. You would think that using the sites in the Apartments.com network would incur expensive fees for agents and brokers. On the contrary, as stated, —Apartments.com is FREE to the agent, broker, or the MLS. Having a feed thru the MLS is easy for the agent, as their data feed prevents them from having to re-enter the listing every time, automatically uploading it to the Apartments.com network. Last, but not least—for two reasons, the Apartments.com network of sites cannot be a better lead source for agents that deal in rentals. First, the network has more than 50 million renters visit their sites every month—the #1 most visited rental source in the country! Second, renters eventually enter the homebuying market as an additional lead source to agents.  Apartments.com Network is already connected to 200 plus MLS organizations across the U.S.  To find out if your MLS already offers the Apartments.com Network in your marketplace, click here.  If you are not sure that your local MLS is connected, click here to get them added.

Rental Property Tax Deduction: IRS Schedule E and More
Many real estate agents and brokers own rental properties or think about acquiring them. Sometimes, it works out amazingly but other times, it leads to losses. These losses can lead to a rental property tax deduction on IRS Schedule E form—but you need to understand the IRS restrictions on rental losses. What Is the Rental Property Tax Deduction? Investing in real estate can lead to great returns, but it doesn't always lead to a profit. When that happens, you can take a rental property tax deduction. Like many investments, real estate may not always pay off during the first few years. The government wants to encourage investment, so it allows for write-offs with some strict limitations. If you have rental property losses, you have plenty of company. IRS stats show that more than half of the 8.7 million taxpayers with rental income showed a loss. Some of this is due to the depreciation deduction allowed on the cost of the property. What Is a Rental Loss Limitation? You have a rental loss limitation if all the deductions from a rental property you own exceed the annual rent and other money you receive from the property. If you own multiple properties, combine the netted annual income or losses from each property to determine if you have income or loss from all your rental activities for the year. You report your rental income and deductible expenses on IRS Schedule E. You can find a sample of this form on the IRS website.

Student Housing: the Hottest Real Estate Investment
Multi-tenant rental properties are big, according to a Business Wire press release announcing this latest in real estate trends. What makes student housing in the U.S. so lucrative? It is not simply the ease of renting out student spaces to a captive student audience in need of four walls and a roof each school year. The changing nature of student demographics and preferences is now skewing toward a wealthier market, courtesy of state funding cuts and ever-inflating college costs that are driving up student-housing on the “want list” of successful investors. Forget drab dormitories Luxury apartments are where it’s at, with students in search of buildings close to campus with added security, as well as on-site management and an array of amenities like fitness centers and swimming pools. Supporting the trend? Parents who don’t seem to mind throwing their kids a little extra green to maintain their usual lifestyle. Ditching declining enrollment concerns Despite declining college enrollment, the right type of properties offer success, specifically buildings close to campus at top-tier schools that aren’t suffering the same enrollment pressures of smaller community colleges and four year schools.

Greetings from a Millennial: This is What I Care About in Real Estate Search
All I want is to live next to a bagel store. I want to walk out my apartment door in the morning, smell bagels in the air, and know I'm smelling New York City--or at least breakfast. While I'm pretty sure you've never had this exact thought, if you've ever cursed the six blocks to the nearest grocery store or the six miles to the nearest pharmacy, it boils down to one regret. You really wish you had done more research before moving. You want to be informed, but with the staggering amount of options for where to live, how do you know where to start? Where can you find about neighborhood demographics and the closest bars and restaurants if you don't have 12 hours to spend browsing the census database or perusing different queries on Google maps? The tools are there. If you are interested in neighborhoods (more and more people are finding that neighborhoods are almost as important as the actual home), you'll find the most compelling information on PlaceILive, PadMapper, and StreetAdvisor. PlaceILive PlaceILive takes a wealth of information and formats it into a familiar Google-esque map. It gathers information from public sources and makes it easily accessible. You can search distinct addresses, or whole zip codes and learn the lay of the land. Its signature tool, the Life Quality Index (LQI) is interesting because it meshes the factual information, Census data, business information and safety information with user reviews to create a well-rounded view of an area. The map tool is fun to explore and you can end up learning things you didn't set out to (there is a bagel shop search, if you are interested). PlaceILive launches this week globally in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Berlin, and London.

3 Tips for a Rockin’ Rental Portfolio
Whether it's low maintenance costs, access to amenities, or the uncertainty of committing to a mortgage, more and more people are starting to realize the benefits of renting. In fact, the National Association of Realtors found that five to six million new rental properties will be created within the next ten years. Working with these renters can offer real estate professionals a unique opportunity to grow your referral network, establish relationships with future buyers and ensure long term wealth. Here are three helpful tips that will help you build your rental portfolio by better marketing your rental properties, so that you can start taking advantage of this growing market! 1. Renters Now, Buyers Later Millennials are the new wave of home buyers, but with most of them up to their eyeballs in student loans, the majority of them are renting. The good news is that half of all renters are optimistic about buying a house in the near future (Fannie Mae). With this in mind, it would be a good idea to get your foot in the door with these clients by helping them find a rental, because it can lead to big business further down the road. Two out of three of these renters would prefer to work with someone that they have worked with in the past (Harvard Joint Study). Start building relationships with these future homeowners by providing them with all the resources they need during their rental search. Try sharing the Homes.com Rentals app with them so that they can search for properties on-the-go or keep them updated on new properties in the area. These simple tips will make their search much easier and will help them establish trust in your services!

5 Strategies to Get Your Rental Listing Off the Market Faster
How are you marketing your rental listings? If you're like most real estate professionals, you've probably invested most of your time and money into properties for sale and wait for someone to contact you about a rental. While this strategy may have worked for you in the past, times are changing and more homeowners are deciding to rent their home rather than put it on the market. Whether it was the need for additional income or it was time to move and they couldn't get their home sold fast enough, a homeowner would only consider renting their house as a last resort. Nowadays, due to economic and lifestyle trends, we are starting to see an increase in the single-family rental market, and real estate professionals need to realize that it presents a great opportunity to grow your business. As the economy continues down the road to recovery, home prices are beginning to rise and credit restrictions are loosening for more entry-level home buyers. That being said, an increasing number of homeowners are recognizing the value of renting their homes rather than selling. This is why we've deemed it necessary to share the top 5 ways real estate professionals can better promote their rental listings. 1. Internet Marketing: Ninety-six percent of millennial home buyers report using the Internet during the home search process, many of whom are seeking rental properties. As with any listing, using visuals is the key to successfully marketing your listings online! Prospective renters scroll through countless properties before they contact you, so it's imperative that you draw them in with compelling photos of every room and the exterior of the home. In addition to listing photos, be sure to share pictures and videos of the community and anything else that might make the property more appealing.

Real Estate Connect brings attention to rental market and big data
This post comes to us from the Down Payment Resource blog: We always come back energized after attending Real Estate Connect alongside thousands of real estate leaders. In this dynamic market, we're continuously looking for the "blue ocean"...the untapped market opportunity. According to Homes.com, rental searches and even rental leads outpace that of purchases--and it has for a while. It struck us that there's a tremendous opportunity to reach millions of income-qualified renters who don't know they could buy a home. Many are waiting it out to save for the down payment. Savvy agents see the long term opportunity in working with renters. In fact, Chicago REALTOR® Lauren Mitrick (recently named to Forbes Magazine's and the National Association of REALTORS® "30 Under 30" lists) said she still handles volumes of rental deals to build relationships and referrals with future buyers, despite making little or no commission.

Marketing to Renters — Know What They Want!
For those who aren't in the market to purchase a home just yet, finding the perfect place to rent is just as monumental as a home search. If you haven't already, you will undoubtedly work with renters and rental properties in your real estate tenure, so it's important to know exactly what renters want. An extensive survey conducted across thousands of renters from all walks of life answers that question in depth. We've created an infographic displaying the results so you can know exactly how to interact with any renters who may come to you in their home search. For instance, this survey found that: 75% of renters base their rental decisions on online ratings and reviews. 73% of renters want to pay rent online. 80% of renters watch videos through Facebook. Check out the rest of the stats in the infographic on the next page.

Real Estate News: Tightening SFR Rental Market Presents Broker Opportunities
A number of factors are contributing to heat up the Single-Family Rental Market. A perception that in many markets pricing has bottomed out and is beginning to increase has brought more investors into the market. At the same time, the aggregate number of ex-homeowners forced to rent after a foreclosure event is at an all time high. Nationwide, rental leasing volumes have been up every month during the last two years. Year-to-date, leasing volume is up 12 percent year-over-year. Listing time is steady at six weeks. Smart brokers will find a way to insert themselves into a market where demand is up and supply is down. Read the latest MarketPulse Report for more detail and city/state specific statistics.

4 Reasons to Start a Rental Division
We’ve been wowed by whitepapers from RentJuice before. Well, they’re back at again with an exceptional whitepaper entitled “Everything You Need to Start a Successful Rental Division.” You can download the whitepaper at RentJuice.com. Without further ado, let’s look at the reasons to start a rental division. 1) The economy calls for it. The disastrous state of the housing market has changed the real estate profession. One of the changes is that rentals are in demand. The RentJuice whitepaper points out that: Rental vacancies are at an all-time low. A Barron’s report predicts an additional 10 million people to move into rentals in the next five years. The increase of renters deferring home purchases and the increase of homeowners switching back to renting is also influencing this shift.