Stay Positive and Keep Moving Forward | Interview with George Penner

By John Voket

Regions served: Palm Springs and Los Angeles

Years in real estate: 21

Number of offices: 9

Number of agents: 300

Best tip for getting the right listing price: Never “buy” a listing by telling a seller what they want to hear. Price the home accurately and know that your expertise will serve you when getting, keeping and selling the listing.

Top tip for running a successful meeting: Keep it brief and on its feet.

Can’t live without tech tool: My iPad.

Most effective way to motivate agents: Genuineness and positivity. This business can be tough, and every agent goes through dry spells, so it’s important to stay positive and keep moving forward.

How has your recent affiliation with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) expanded opportunities for you and your team?  LeadingRE has significantly increased our global exposure from a referral perspective, in addition to providing us with access to a collaborative group of like-minded, independent leaders. This is a collective group of innovators who are eager and willing to share ideas, offer opinions and collaboratively problem-solve issues related to our business on a macro level. With all the incredibly talented and successful brokerages in the network, we were thrilled to be honored with the 2020 Most Innovative Brokerage award for our invention of plumBid.

Tell us more about plumbid. plumbid is a patent-pending online platform that provides greater consumer transparency and control. On the seller end, plumBid generates a higher sales price and better terms, all in a condensed time period. For buyers, all information is furnished prior to an offer – from inspections to disclosures, title reports, upgrades and repairs, etc. With guidance from their agent, the buyer remains in complete control of the negotiation. During the 90-minute plumBid, qualified buyers see and compete dynamically by creating and submitting competitive offers based on seller preferences. Unlike a traditional auction, plumBid monetized seller preferences so buyers can leverage each other. In the end, the buyer most closely matching the seller’s parameters with the highest price secures the property and escrow is opened. Results so far have been impressive, and we look forward to making it available to a wider audience.

How are things shaping up as the state begins to reopen? Sales have been steadily improving at most price points, which has us feeling cautiously optimistic. This catastrophic crisis has been tragically felt by so many that it’s imperative we remain empathetic, as well as confident about the underlying strength of the real estate market throughout Southern California.

What steps have you taken to sustain and improve the client experience while keeping everyone safe as business starts ramping up? We have made significant improvements to our business by creating a more focused, consumer-centric experience for our clients. From virtual open houses, 3D walkthroughs and live-stream showings, we’ve implemented strategies that meet clients’ needs in the current environment. As a company, we’ve been geared toward enhanced remote communication and exponential expansion of our digital marketing initiatives to more effectively target the right buyers.

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