After years of hearing complaints from real estate agents that buyers just aren't loyal, longtime educator Jim Hogan developed the "American Dream Passport," a tool to "put a sign on a buyer" that has been so successful that it's now being offered in a Canadian version, under the Re/Max balloon and soon may be appearing with the logos of other major real estate brands.

Hogan and his wife, Esther, who have run the Hogan School of Real Estate in Tucson for 26 years, say they are very pleased with the initial responses to their 4" by 5 ¼" embossed passport, having sold over 50,000 of the 24-page booklets since their introduction last October.

"We've had a really good response to it - all across the country," says Esther Hogan. "We've had a tremendous response from different companies, different agents. I'm not sure if there's any state where we haven't sold it."

The passports run about $3 each at the most, and much less when sold in bulk to agents, who then hand them free to their clients as an organizing and time-saving tool.

The idea of the booklet is to not only help buyers keep track of the houses they've seen, but it also lets their agent know where they've been. As the Hogans note, "Even with a buyer broker agreement, buyers visit open houses and new home subdivisions unescorted. They even buy homes through other agents."

The Passport contains pages educating buyers about agency and home shopping, reinforces do's and don'ts, helps buyers compare and contrast homes, allows for an open house agent and builder to sign the booklets (which the Hogans note "could assist in procuring cause issues"), and includes pages for loan information, important dates, and lists of service providers to facilitate the move-in.

Jim Hogan, who teaches Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) classes in Arizona and California, said surveys of thousands of agents have turned up the same primary complaint -- buyers aren't loyal.

"When a listing agent puts a sign in a seller's yard, everybody knows that Joe Blow has that listing, but how do you put a sign on a buyer, other than putting a tattoo across his forehead?" notes Esther Hogan.

The passport, she said, is "an attempt to sort of put a sign on the buyer. It's a small, quality product that has added value - it differentiates one agent from another. Agents like them and buyers like them."

The passports have an inside cover page with two see-through pockets for the buyer's photo and/or business cards for the buyer and the agent. On the first page, the name of the buyer and his or her agent are written in and the page is signed. Pages 2 and 3 contain the agent's pledge to the buyer and the buyer's pledge to the agent, both detailing their commitments.

For additional information, contact: 800-320-6660.

Published: August 5, 1999

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