Property Investing Secrets 8. The Challenge Of Retention.
Property Investing: A Buyer's Secret Weapon When Purchasing Real Estate
My friend, Roger, does property investing and is a licensed real estate agent. Recently he looked at a property in another state that was probably worth $225,000.
After some rapport building, the agent told him that he may be able to purchase the property for around $200,000. Roger loves property investing and he follows fundamental rules like doing his home work. He still thought the property was expensive and did not pursue it further. About a month later, Roger received a call from the real estate agent.
The agent said that the seller would probably now accept about $180,000. The agent explained that the seller had paid about $180,000 for the property eight years earlier and he just wanted to get his money back. Roger was surprized that the seller had not factored in costs of ownership.
It also happened to be April Fool's day and Roger sometimes he has an off beat sense of humour about property investing. He said to the agent, look tell the seller I'll pay $150,000. Roger also said he would sign a contract now and fax it to the agent immediately. After that was done the real estate agent rang him back the next day and said, "I can't believe it....you've bought the thing. Had I known he would have taken that price I would have bought it myself!"
There are a couple of lessons in this example. First do your homework when you're property investing. That means you know where bottom of the market it is-before you meet the real estate agent. Secondly, do some rapport building with an agent. Now some of you may be wondering how Roger could make an offer of $150,000 to the agent. Roger presented himself as a serious buyer.
Roger's secret weapon was that he didn't care whether he purchased the property or not. In fact when property investing he never gets emotionally involved. He told me he'll make an offer on a property, not caring whether he owns the real estate. This is a secret weapon of many accomplished property investors-thought at times it can be difficult to put in practice.
I've found when property investing that if a seller wants to sell to me today, when I make an offer it's the best I can do on that day. Just as Roger's best offer was $150,000. More often then not, this strategy will enable you to purchase property at a discount. Bottom line it's important not to get emotionally attached and chase real estate.
Rick Otton is the director of We Buy Houses Pty Ltd. He has been property investing full time for 14 years. Rick has completed over 351 property transactions in Australia and the United States.
Rick specialises in creating positive cash flow through a variety of strategies he perfected in the United States and adapted to Australian conditions. He sells home study courses on vendor finance, one year mentoring program as well as a yearly 3 day boot camp on the Gold Coast. Go to http://www.rickotton.com for more property investing information ring 1800 003 588 in Australia.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
I being employer believe that our real assets/customers are our employees. It means, if our employees are satisfied they will automatically be loyal to the company, which ultimately leads to growth and development of the company.
Meeting the demands of today's changing environment requires building and retaining satisfied, loyal, and motivated staff. In this competitive work environment, workers are no longer inclined to stay at one position or in one company for the entire duration of their career. The most talented professionals are more likely to be hunted by other organizations, especially by competitors, and previous company is left with tears of turn over costs, which include recruitment, rehiring, and orientation/training cost and the turnover effect on the targets is another big issue. With the turnover ratio of 15% in higher management and 10% in middle and lower management, company can't make succession planning because success does not depend only on financial and material resources but on satisfied and loyal employees and good leaders.
The manager whose mood swings, determine the climate of the office on any given workday. Poor interpersonal skills, unfortunate office practices, some managers by sheer shameful force of their personalities make working for the employees rotten. So we can call them toxic managers. Apparently, their results may look fine but behind the screens, none is OK even if you loose one from your workforce. It is unhealthy, unhappy, and unproductive, and it will eventually undo HR's efforts to create a healthy, happy, and progressive work place.
Here the question arises that why managers are remembered as toxic. The main reason is that companies don't rate the managers outside the productivity and business performance. The reasons are culture and the background.
Another cause for high turnover rate of any company is unsatisfactory compensation and benefits plans e.g. Base pay, performance based pay, equity based compensation and bonuses, benefits packages and different allowances
and facilities like conveyance, medical, house rent etc, also the lawful benefits like gratuity and provident funds, which varies across countries. This plan of C&B depends on the HR of the company as much as the HR is strong, it will make and implement good policies.Putting aside some specialized industries, I believe that there is no labor shortage in this country, if in case there is any that is of unemployed people; however, there are millions of qualified people in labor market. Hiring the people from open market is not a big issue but hiring and retaining competent work force is the biggest concern. Now the question arises, how to retain them? How to reduce the turnover costs? What policies make the employees happy and satisfied?
The key to retain employees is that one must start before the first day of the job, when a worker looks for a place to hang a jacket, or refrigerator to keep his lunch fresh. As the first impression is the last impression. This is the work environment a good worker look into.
Company should identify the bad apples (toxic managers and workers who are responsible for dissatisfaction of other employees). HR should take care of these bad apples and should recreate these into detox. Because we do not need dictators, we need good leaders, who could inspire the employees and can motivate the staff even under the hard circumstance and work conditions. We need managers who could manage things instead of complaining and de motivating the staff so by finding good leaders and managers; we can prevent future problems, which can also reduce turnover ratio.
If you cannot offer with good salaries than at least keep your compensation packages competitive to the market. If, comparatively you are paying a little lesser, compensate them by other sources, as money is not every thing for every body, may be some employees are interested in big increments and salaries, but for most, it has no attraction. The good working conditions, environment, good communication, leader subordinate relationship, caring management, employee relationship and career development through training and development and career management plan, all are very important factors to motivate and retain employees.
The awareness also plays an important role in employee's management. First of all employees should be well aware of the goals, which are given to them and of course regarding rewards and benefits expected after completion. They should have a vision and a mission before them. All managers should be communicated about the turnover cost on priority bases. Managers should also be held accountable for employee's turnover and the cost involved. These costs should be a part of every department's profit and loss statement, and should be made integral aspect of each department's budget. Today employee retention is a big issue, and can only be handled successfully by team effort along with a strong communication network, and feed back mechanism.
Aamir Shahzad, Human Resources Specialist and consultant from Pakistan.e-mail: aamirhrd@yahoo.com, cell.# +92 300 5229192
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
