3 Minutes on a Park Bench with Lisa and Goran Forss from Team Forss Realty Group

Lisa and Goran Forss from Team Forss Realty Group tell the Patch about the vibrant market in the Temecula area and recall a few strange things that happened to the team while showing homes.

Patch: What is your definition of success?

Goran: Knowing that you love what you do and can be absolutely passionate about your business while building wealth for our clients and still provide for your family.

Patch: What’s the best piece of sales advice you’ve ever been given?

Lisa: Be client focused, their needs always come first. You have to listen and ask the right questions to know what their pain point really is, so that you can help solve the issue.

Patch: If you had to recommend someone three books what would they be and why?

Goran: 4 Disciplines of Execution - Getting the organization laser focused on improving the business. The One Thing - Goes hand in hand with 4DX because you want to be focused on everything until you reach that goal. One ThingEnergy Bus - Attack each challenge with a “How do I resolve this? approach,” rather than a complaint. Keep the eye on the goal and be positive about it. Your attitude sets the tone for everyone around you and make sure everyone is on the "right seat on the bus".

Patch: What’s the best thing about selling homes in your area?

Lisa: It's a great market as we have so much activity. Temecula is relatively affordable, ranked as one of the top safest cities, very scenic, excellent schools and there is so much to do - great place to raise a family

Patch: What’s the strangest thing that’s ever happened to you when showing a home?

Goran: Many strange/funny things over the years. Here are a few from our team:

Had a valid MLS listing that I printed. I made an appointment with the agent and confirmed it was the right address. Took a car full of people to the home. Walked around the back yard with them first, they love it, and walked up to the front to look for the key to an angry homeowner that yelled at me because his house wasn't for sale and has never been for sale and I better get my car off "his curb" or he's going to have me towed. That was house #1 for the day! #NAILEDIT!

I let two dogs out of a house at Menifee Lakes and chased them around for an hour and couldn’t get them because they kept running way from me. I went back to tell the owner and she said “Don’t worry about it, I hope they don’t come back”.

We showed a house to a client who walked upstairs in her very short dress wearing no underwear!!

Many of us can attest to walking into a bedroom with a sleeping or unclothed occupant.

Patch: How’s the market these days?

Goran: HOT. A normal market has 5-6 months of inventory. A slow market has 10+ months of inventory. Temecula has approximately 2 months of inventory. Great market for sellers.

Patch: What is your favorite part about working the real estate industry?

Lisa: Helping so many families build wealth with their investment, find their life long family home or just find or sell the property at the right time to help them build equity. The added benefit for Goran and me, personally, is to help so many agents in our Real Estate family build wealth and help them fulfill dreams. Growing this business allows us give back to the community and charities, which has become a team passion.

Patch: What sets one real estate broker apart from another? And how are you unique?

Goran: There are several thousand Realtors who service Temecula. We are unique as we have closed $140M which translates to 365 families served in 2015, and we’re growing fast. In fact, we’ve grown 10-fold over the past 5 years and we’re going to be featured by Inc 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal ranked us #1 locally, #4 in California (out of 420,000 agents), and #96 nationwide (out of 2,500,000 agents). We also have a lot of happy clients as you will be able to see from our great reviews.

Patch: What three questions should readers ask when trying to find a reputable realtor?

Lisa: We would recommend anybody looking to sell or buy to do some due diligence, before they hire a Realtor. It’s amazing how much info is available online nowadays. You can see the performance of every Realtor (and team) on Zillow. You can also read reviews on Zillow, Yelp, Google and Angie’s list. Some questions in addition to checking on the Realtors reviews might be: 1) How many homes have you sold in the last 12 months ? ( you want to see how successful or full/part time that they have been recently) 2) Do you just represent sellers or do you do both buyers and sellers? (you will want someone that does ONE….its hard for most people to balance all aspects of the industry and be great at all or “available to you”, when they are doing all of them.) 3) What are their hours? (Some have restricted hours or days that they work. You want to be able to reach your agent when you need them. Doesn’t take much to be responsive and answer a quick email or text…Some shut it down completely during certain days/hours)

Be leery of agents that bash colleagues on their blogs or websites. You want someone focused on positive results for the sale of your home. We get bashers on our guaranteed sale program and since we bought six last year, they just need to ask for references. Look for a positive laser focused realtor. 

Patch: What’s your advice to someone who’s looking to a buy a new home right now?

Goran: Find a great LOCAL agent who has a track record and offers performance guarantees. Make sure it’s a good fit and ask questions. If they are dodging or not directly answering your questions, find someone that will. You want someone that has time to work with you and not be stretched or too busy.

Patch: What advice would you give to someone trying to sell his or her house?

Lisa: When it comes to SELLING a home, it requires a completely different skill set. Look for someone with a solid track record and a HUGE marketing budget. If someone is looking to get the highest possible price, it is critical to get maximum exposure for the home which translates to more offers and higher sales price. The marketing requires much more than beautiful photos and fliers. You need the Realtor to invest a lot into marketing to make sure EVERYONE can find it. The seller also needs someone with the skills to negotiate best terms and price, and has a proven record to negotiate hundreds of deals. Again, I would look on websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Yelp.

Patch: Do you have a coach?

Goran: The real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank TV show is our coach. She coaches us exclusively in our market. She has also introduced us to the other Sharks, like the billionaire Kevin O’Leary (Mr Wonderful) and Daymond John both of whom gave us some amazing advice for our business.

Patch: How can readers contact you?

Goran: Here at Team Forss Realty Group we're available 7 days a week and we can be reached at (for Goran) 951-760-6027/ (for Lisa) 951-302-1492 or by email at goran@teamforss.com.