By Paige Tepping
Jon Coile
President & CEO
Champion Realty
Severna Park, Maryland
With the recent turns in the mortgage industry, and your company’s standing as a one-stop shop, what are you doing to alleviate consumers’ fears concerning the unstable market of today’s world?
The number-one thing I want consumers to know is that it is a great time to buy. Although the current state of the market may be saying something different, the reality is that prices have adjusted and there are deals out there. As president of Champion Realty (a HomeServices of America company), I understand the importance of letting anyone in the buyer’s market know that we are standing on solid ground.
With this being said, many buyers are still skeptical of the current market situation and I am using that skepticism to create new programs within my company to alleviate these fears.
Creating these programs is the first step. We take it a step further by guaranteeing buyers that we are here to protect them-and protect them we will.
Everyone at the company believes it is their duty to keep buyers from getting caught up in the turmoil within the industry, and we are going to great lengths to achieve this goal.
One of our new incentives to draw buyers back into the market-and to show that we are financially stable-is the “Champion $1,000 Guarantee.” This is a program that we have put in place that promises that we will fund your mortgage, and if we don’t close on time, we will pay you $1,000. We are using our strength in being backed by both Wells Fargo and Berkshire-Hathaway to guarantee that we are financially sound and that we will protect you. Both of these things combined are used to calm the jitters of buyers in today’s market.
We are also the first real estate company to launch a streaming video company newsletter (think YouTube) that comes out every Monday. The newsletter is a four- to five-minute clip in which I talk about and explain all of the latest news within the industry. This is a tool that not only keeps my agents up-to-date, but also the general public. I find it important that this information be available to buyers, agents and even the general public so that no one is kept in the dark when it comes to news in the real estate industry. The link to the site is www.Champion411.com.
In addition to these things, we have slightly altered the focus of our advertising that appears in the newspaper. At this point in time, 20% of our ad space is now being used to tell people the truth about what is going on. What this means is that we are promoting our guarantee to protect our buyers, letting them know that we have the money to make these guarantees and that they shouldn’t be afraid to buy today.
