Smart Homes; Agents Be Careful Out There

The Orange County Realtors

Led by David and Cassie has scheduled an outstanding speaker to present numerous seminars at the Association. His name is Craig Grant from Florida and he is known as the Real Estate Tech Guru. His forte is Social Media. His seminars are expensive normally, but OCR presents them free to members.

I Had Three Takeaways:

1. Homes are now very smart. They are wired for sound and video, etc. This can be a problem when showing property. You have to be on your best behavior and watch your comments, good or bad. You might want to have pads and pens for everyone to make comments. Baseball managers and players now hold papers in front of their mouths so no one can read their lips. One agent showing a home stole a bottle of wine, and the whole incident was caught in living color. That person was fined $1,000.00 by his Association and some other sanctions. His photo is now on the CAR Wall Of Shame with a description of the action. AND, he never got to drink the wine.
2. Bands of lawyers are examining websites to see if any copyrighted photos are being used without permission. Then, they sue the agent with the site or flyer. Sorta like the scam a few years ago of measuring handicapped ramps. Sounds farfetched. A Mission Viejo Real Estate team was just invoiced for around $7,500.00 by one attorney group. Just one stinky photo on a web page.
3. Scammers are hacking real estate agents, escrow companies, title companies, etc. and sitting on the sites until money is wired in any transactions. They quickly get the money rerouted out of the country. In a recent seminar of 95 students in Laguna Hills, I asked if anyone in the group had heard of this in their companies. Several hands shot up with stories to tell.

So. Steps Of Action:

Go to CraigGrant.info and get your free Ebook and tell him Duane Gomer sent you. Get a copy of CAR’s WIRE FRAUD AND ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER ADVISORY, form WFA. Read it thoroughly and give to all clients, customers, prospects, friends, enemies, associates, and others. The money you save could be your own.  AND find a good internet attorney or compliance expert and get your site and forms checked out. Let’s all stay out of court and not have any visits to Professional Standard’s committees.