Here’s a fact: You won’t find a place in your local town square where all potential buyers and sellers are sitting around unifying in an effort NOT to buy or sell anything in your marketplace….ain’t happenin!

Real estate is a personal life management event.  People’s lives dictate whether they buy or sell given certain circumstances. Weddings, divorces, new babies, graduated babies, mother in laws, job changes, job losses; all contribute to housing market activity.  Just because the market is soft(er) doesn’t dictate that people buy or sell  due to the fact that  their housing are dictated by their own wants and needs.

If your market is stagnant, and that is a possibility, look at your local statistics. Were there absolutely NO sales anywhere in your town for the last 6 months?  If that is the case, you may have a real challenge if you are planning on earning a living selling real estate in that area alone.  Factors like natural catastrophes, etc. do have an effect on real estate transfers, but if you aren’t getting buyers to buy or sellers to sell and there are actually recorded transfers out there, it’s time to buckle up and change your mind set to change your income.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1) Where is my attitude? 

If you are buying into “it’s a lousy market and I can’t get any buyers to buy or sellers to price right”, it could be your attitude.  Prices will always fluctuate up or down or even more down! You have to make the decision to be the professional and better yet be the EXPERT professional.  It’s been said if you invest an hour every day on your craft in 10 years you will be an expert in your field. How much do you invest in your marketplace in the way of actually studying the trends, statistics, new construction starts, number of foreclosures, short sales, tax sales, etc.?  I can bet that most agents do the minimum and simply scan the comparables and don’t invest in the deep due diligence that creates top level expertise in your distinct marketplace.

2) When you have expert level status, you can confidently be the leader in any transaction.  Armed with solid facts and information, buyers and sellers are more likely to feel a level of comfort when their real estate professional truly knows the marketplace to guide them in issues like pricing, marketing, and negotiating.   In a competitive marketplace, facts and knowledge convey value when working with potential buyers and sellers, and as a professional, you waste less time, energy and money by working with those prospects that respond to that leadership.

3) What kind of marketing plan are you relying on in a competitive marketplace? 

The days of doing the minimum to get a property exposure is not nearly enough to get it sold.  Dollar for dollar, sellers deserve to get the best marketing plan available if agents expect to be paid.  Just putting a property in MLS and sticking a sign in the yard puts you in competition with the mundane.  The questions to consider are:

“What am I doing that is better than or different from my competition to get buyers to buy and get properties sold?”

Are you implementing the latest tools, resources and programs to get properties well positioned in the marketplace?  If you seek to be on the cutting edge to find better ways to get buyers attracted and engaged in a property you need to be doing activities that are different from when the market was much easier.

Tools like text-available 24/7 information from yard signs, virtual tours with participation and interaction trump simple photos on a soggy listing sheet in a brochure box.  Buyers want attractive photos that engage them, yet many agents hang on to their basic cameras to simply fill the minimum of a photo for MLS to avoid penalties.  That’s not fair to the seller, or the buyer for that matter!  One agent in a small town in middle Tennessee has seen a 43% increase in sales simply because he is taking better photographs of properties than his lazy competition…..it pays to engage!

Brochure boxes have been replaced with systems that have accountability and trackability. Monitoring activity and response helps you define, refine and redesign your marketing efforts. That saves money and market time so properties get sold and the feedback and auto-response capabilities give the prospect immediate information while providing valuable automatic follow up services for the savvy agent that uses them.

4) Are you using any online media channels to attract, engage and service prospects 24/7 until such time they are ready to engage to buy or sell? Blog sites that offer information about neighborhoods.  YouTube videos featuring real life testimonials help buyers make better decisions before buying a property or interviews with local vendors help agents bridge the gap for possible prospects and offer “link bait” to their blogs and websites. Yet many of today’s agents have limited or no interest in helping to connect with prospects using these popular internet channels.  NAR reports that almost 98% of all property searches are done on the internet BEFORE connecting with an agent and over 67% are reported not having even a website!  This kind of information indicates the customer demand to getting information how they want it when they want it and indicates agents need to provide web information if they expect to connect with prospects on the internet.

Change isn’t easy, but with change comes challenge and personal and professional growth.  It’s time to do some things differently to make yourself more valuable to your customers and clients and you can win in any marketplace.

Bio: Terri Murphy, speaker, and communication consultant, and e-Strategist.  She is the author of 5 books, including one with Donald Trump. She is the Pres. of MurphyOnRealEstate as CIO of U. S. Learning in Memphis.  email: Terri@TerriMurphy.com

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Rates are as low as they can go.  Mortgage lenders borrow nearly all of the money they lend and that money is borrowed from another source.  For each of these sources to operate with a profit, each has to charge a slightly higher rate.  It is impossible for that to happen and for rates to be less than the 4% to 4.5% now available.

These rates will only last as long as there is a bad economy.  As soon as businesses begin to feel more confident to hire, borrow, and invest the economy will improve and the banks will be able to lend at higher rates. 

You may have heard that businesses are sitting on a lot of cash, waiting to hire, spend and invest it in their businesses.  This sitting on funds and slow spending slows velocity of money in the market.  The passing of money between parties is called the velocity.  As the velocity picks up by consumers and businesses spending more the lenders will raise rates. 

So what?  In your marketing, your blogging, your newsletters, e-mail blasts, casual conversations and every media available to you, tell people that the slow economy is causing the slow rates and as soon as the signs are better the rates will rise.  It will happen relatively fast, in a matter of a month or less.  If they wait for a stronger economy to start looking for Real Estate, then by the time they find what they are looking for, they may end up with a rate significantly higher.  At a higher rate, they will qualify for less.  So, if they are in a position to buy then need to be looking now;  putting themselves in a position to buy.  So that when the economy shows signs of improvement and the rates begin to rise they can take advantage and not be frustrated as they chase a rising market. 

For you the Agent, you run the risk of some slower Buyers.  You also receive the benefit of more active Buyers who are respecting your advice which leads to more loyalty, more referrals and more sales. 

A big thanks to Ann Zeilingold, Vice President of First Meridian Mortgage for the information that prompted this blog thought.  Ann can be reached at Phone: 845-354-9700 azeilingold@yahoo.com.

My living is made now by making real estate agents famous. Well, at least their websites famous. I probably see hundreds of websites every month. Of these, I see the good, the bad and the ugly. I have the opportunity to be amongst a rare breed of real estate agent. Those that GET IT! Let me be clear.

If you want to be seen as successful, you need to look successful. I’ve always told people that “Whatever you give to people represents who you are”. It’s no different with your marketing. Those agents who are the most successful right now, even in a down  market are those that can work smart. They are the ones that can make their website work for them. Aside from many tools that can be used successfully, there is one common to all successful agents. . . . Drip marketing.

When I speak of “drip marketing”, I’m not talking about the online newsletter or “how to” articles. I’m talking about the “Subscribe to New Listings” or “Get New Listings by Email” campaigns. These are tools used by the agent to allow the buyer to fill in a form detailing exactly what parameters in a home/condo they are looking for, and then (drum roll) mention that a name, number and email will be needed in order to send these new listings from the MLS to the buyer.

When building these forms, PLEASE make sure you do them right. NEVER ask for their name and email first. They don’t know yet what you’re about to give them. Having them fill out the form of their preferences first gets them hooked in the process and actually makes them want to give you their information.

If you’d like to know more information about how to create a “drip marketing” page for “Subcribing to New Listings”, check out the video below for more information.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Does your listing presentation ‘knock their socks off’? We’re all presenters: Any time we’re in front of two or two thousand, our goal is to persuade the audience to our point of view. However, most of the time, we just get in front of people and say whatever we think of first. That lack of attention to presentation organization leads to some big presentation mistakes, and costs us ‘sales’. Instead of stumbling through a presentation, why not organize it to grab their attention, persuade them to your way of thinking, and motivate them to action?

Grab Their Attention in the Opening

Have you thought about your opening? Or, are you nervously standing at the sellers’ door, worried about what you’re going to say? Are you hiding in your office because you dread doing that sales meeting? When we haven’t organized our presentation, we come up with some really boring, off-putting openings, like:

I won’t take much of your time, but

We have a lot to cover today

We won’t get through the outline

I know you don’t want to listen, but

I’m not really prepared

You just open your presentation book, point to the pretty pages, and say, “here’s a keybox” (I’m not kidding. I’ve seen it….)

Great openings, yes? Yet, we’ve heard them dozens of times. You don’t have to settle for whatever comes ‘naturally’. Instead, make your openings

Provocative

Interesting

Different

Engaging

A Middle that Educates your ‘Audience’ to your Point of View

In the middle of your presentation, add those stories, statistics, and visuals that support your point of view. By the way, as you create that presentation, jot down your point of view. If you’re doing a presentation to sellers, one of the major objectives of your presentation is to persuade them to your listing price point of view.

Why use Visuals?

There are two reasons to use visuals in your presentation:

We believe what we see

We retain the information much longer

As you organize your presentation, ask yourself:

What are the main, and frequently, unspoken objections my ‘audience’ will have? How do I educate them to show them the reasoning behind my point of view?

The Ending: Back to the Beginning

Have you thought about your wrap-up? Or, like many presenters, does your ending sound like this?

Well, that’s all. What do you think?

We’re out of time. Thank you. I hope you’ll list with me

I don’t have time to close.

I couldn’t get to much of the material, but you can read it

In fact, even the most professional presenters frequently have trouble with their endings. One of the main reasons is that they run out of time. Another is that they haven’t thought the ending through.

How to Do a Stunning Ending

Crafting an effecting ending is the second most important part of your presentation. (The first is the opening). To craft a great ending,

Go back to your beginning opening theme

Summarize the benefits of going ahead with you/take action

Motivate your ‘audience’ to take action

A Great Presentation is Crafted like a Pop Song

As a musician, I know that all pop tunes are constructed with this format:

theme—variation—theme

This is known in the music business as the ABA format. Think of your favorite pop tune: Hum the beginning. Think of the end. They’re alike, right? It’s the middle—known as the ‘bridge’—that is the humdinger. It wanders all around. Your persuasive presentation should be crafted like that pop tune:

A A compelling start (think Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, etc.)

B An interesting, developed middle, with stories, statistics

A Back to that theme, with a motivating ending

Now, you’re all set to craft a great listing or buyer presentation, great recruiting meeting or sales meeting, or awesome product/service presentation to any audience.

P. S. Practice!

Many more tips on presentations and presentation skills are in my new resource, Knock Their Socks Off: Tips to Make your Best Presentation Ever.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a former master-level CRB instructor, popular international speaker, National Realtor Educator of the Year, and author of 6 books and 20 audio programs. She specializes in ‘people development’—strategies for real estate professionals to enjoy highest production and profits. Join her newsletter community and receive her complimentary eBook, Getting to Yes: Ten Powerful Tools to Bash those Barriers to Purchasing Today. Learn more at www.carlacross.com, or contact Carla at 425-392-6914.

Have you noticed that business today is facing a bit of a challenge?   With costs of doing business changing every day, today’s businesses are overwhelmed, overloaded and stressed to find new ways to save money, time and streamline efficiencies. If you are struggling to figure out what to do and are looking to pump up your real estate sales, here are a few key activities that can help you begin to take action:

• Start with an attitude shift! Studies prove that whatever you focus on becomes your reality and positive thinkers usually get positive results. Abrupt change opens the door to seek more creative solutions, so focus on how to enthusiastically embrace new innovative approaches to what appears to be obstacles.  Begin with identifying the possible positive outcomes which will spur creativity.  Every change reveals new opportunities that would ordinarily be lost in the mundane and routine!
• Investigate your Options:  More millionaires are born in a challenged economy than in a robust one.  When markets get tough, the tough go back to basics, get creative and become intensely focused in every aspect of how their business functions to discover new ways to deliver their products and services.  When sales stall, we’ve got a window of opportunity to re-design, re-work and re-ignite new processes in our service, delivery and fulfillment that would not have ordinarily been discovered.  When things are down like they are today, it is a great time to turn up the heat and initiate new relationships and seek new solutions.
• Use new tools! Get in the game and learn about and invest in the latest tools and programs that help you be the expert your customers and clients expect!
• Embrace Adaptability!  Studies prove that flexibility is the vital key to thriving and surviving.  It is critical that when we reinvent service and communication processes that we focus on engaging the 4 different generations who make up today’s consumers.  GenX is rapidly advancing and dominates the buying public. Their core preferences and values differ greatly from Boomers and Civics. Responding and resonating with their preferred mediums for information and service open the doors to compete and win.
• Marketing Message Makeovers:  Forget the self-aggrandizing message touting years of experience and impressive sales numbers. Today’s generation is not interested in an experienced provider, so much as enjoying a good buying experience.  Learn to utilize words and tools that speak to your target audience so that you can guarantee a more successful return on your marketing investment. 
• Use new tools to engage GenX and Y using social media channels like Facebook, YouTube and TWITTER.  Incorporate more TEXT messaging in your cadre of communication tools.  Start posting tips and information 24/7 posts on social networks that link back to your blog site to provide interaction and participation.
• Get a Web Makeover:  Successful web sites have migrated from being an informational to interactional destination. Add tools that integrate a social platform that allows you to interact or “speak “with the consumer.  Incorporating social interactive tools like blogs, video and podcasts provides the medium for participation that promotes creating more of a “community” online and ultimately drives more traffic and adds “stickiness” to your web visits and pumps up search engine optimization.
• Learn to sell Value! – In today’s competitive environment, learning what is valuable to the end user is the key to repeat and continued business, which is ever changing.  We need to seek new ways to deliver our services and products more efficiently that excites and delights our customers and clients.  When the value of our products and services is combined with strong relationships, high integrity and authentic care, price becomes a lesser issue.  Focus on delivering high quality services and your customers will insist on working with you.

Change is inevitable and how we handle the challenge makes for winning or losing.  Don’t try and tackle everything at one time, as making micro changes will be easier and less intimidating. But whatever you do…stop whining, take action and start winning!

Bio: Terri Murphy,  speaker, and communication consultant, and e-Strategist.  She is the author of 5 books, including one with Donald Trump. She is the Pres. of MurphyOnRealEstate as CIO of U. S. Learning in Memphis.  email: Terri@TerriMurphy.com

Copyright©2010- All rights reserved

Terry is a Real Estate Agent who is moving to Tulsa in December.  She has worked very hard and spent significant amounts of money to create a following in Albany where she started her career.  She is planning to transfer her business to another Agent and receive a referral fee for five years.  I recommended a larger fee the first year, less the second and then a much more modest fee for years three through five.  Terry will share the cost of marketing the first year.  That first year marketing will indicate the transition to the Agent taking over her business by including both of them with more presence of the takeover Agent as the year progresses. Terry will stay in touch with the Clients through completion of the transactions for as long as it takes to ensure that as many as possible become Clients of the takeover Agent. 

This will work very well.  I have coached over a dozen Agents through this process successfully.  But that is not what this blog is about.  This blog is about how to screw this up.

You see Terry started telling people about her move and almost killed her business. 

Over the December holidays she ran into a friend at a social event.  The friend said, “We were going to call you to sell our house and buy another to take advantage of the great rates and the tax credit but we heard you are moving to Tulsa in December”.  They went on to pleasantly talk to Terry about her move.  When she told me about this in our coaching session, I told her to ‘SHUT UP ABOUT THE MOVE.”  (We have a strong relationship so I could be direct with her, with others I would have been more tactful.)  I made her swear that she would not tell anyone else about it and to ask her closest friends and relatives to keep it quiet. 

She ran into another friend recently who said, “I understand that you are moving to Tulsa in December.”  Terry answered; “I am looking at a lot of things.  I wish I could kill that rumor because I’m really committed to my business and my career here.”  The person said, “Oh good, we want to refer you to our brother who is moving to town.”  They gave her a huge referral, at a price nearly three times her average. 

Yes she is moving.  And yes she wants her business to flow uninterrupted.  That correction will make her hundreds of thousands of dollars, the same for the takeover Agent.  You have a professional persona.  To forget that, ignore it, or treat it casually is a costly mistake.

With all the real estate SEO focus being put on buyers, sometimes we forget to address sellers, and the benefit that they can be to our overall website. While we should be writing our websites with the buyer in mind, we can also be making money with the seller as well . . . but in a different fashion.

Buyers will find your website looking for the MLS or homes to search. Sellers will see your website because you bring it to them . . . physically. Try this. At your next listing appointment, place on your website their home in the “Featured Listings” portion of your website. (Come on, I know you all have notebook computers by now. It’s time to use them.)

To really make this feature prominant, add background music, voice over and/or titles to your listing presentation on the “Featured Listings”. While it probably won’t have taken you too long to do, it will look like it took HOURS. Plus it will really impress the seller. For more information on this and other areas for sellers and Featured Listings, watch the video below:

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Is there such a thing as ‘agents’ ten commandments’? I think so. When you joined your real estate office, I’ll bet you asked the interviewer, “What are you going to do for me?” Did you think to ask the interviewer, “What do you expect from me?” It’s a fair question. As my eighth grade teacher used to say, “Turnabout is fair play”. I know you want to get the best from your manager.

From working as an agent for 8 years, and managing agents for almost two decades, I’ve drawn some conclusions about the ‘turnabout’s fair play’ that I believe agents owe managers.

Getting that 100% Management Commitment

I’m sure you want a 100% commitment from your manager. You want your manager to focus on training and coaching you to sales–fast. Unfortunately, some agents unwittingly de-motivate their managers from providing 100% support. How? They don’t follow the ten commandments I’ve listed below.  Here are what I believe are reasonable agents’ ten commandments to get that 100% from your manager:

1. Do the work.

2. Don’t argue.

3. Don’t make excuses for not doing your start-up plan.

4. Don’t tell the manager you’ve been in the business two weeks and you have a better way.

5. Do thank your manager frequently.

6. Do tell other agents that you appreciate your manager’s efforts.

7. Do tell other new agents you meet in other companies that you have a great manager.

8. Don’t bug other people in the office to find another answer because you didn’t like your manager’s answer.

9. Don’t change the proven start-up plan your manager is coaching you to because you “don’t like it”. (You just don’t like lead generating, do you?)

10. Don’t miss a coaching appointment!

I’d love to hear what you think of my ‘ten commandments.’ Are there others you think are important?

Managers: Why not make your own ten commandments and discuss them in your interview process. Then, turn the tables and ask the agent about his expectations of you and the office.

Agents: Before you hire on, get in writing exactly what your manager is going to do to assure your success, so you won’t have disappointments later. Getting agreement on what we both expect before we decide to work together is key to a happy partnership. The only surprises I want you and your agent to have after you start working together are good ones!

Side note: Managers: My belief is that you owe it to your agents to coach each one, regularly and professionally, in starting his or her business. That shows your 100% commitment to each person’s success. So, grab that proven game plan and your coaching companion and coach each agent to the success they believe they can have with you.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a former master-level CRB instructor, popular international speaker, National Realtor Educator of the Year, and author of 6 books and 20 audio programs. She specializes in ‘people development’—strategies for real estate professionals to enjoy highest production and profits. Join her newsletter community and receive her complimentary eBook, Getting to Yes: Ten Powerful Tools to Bash those Barriers to Purchasing Today. Learn more at www.carlacross.com, or contact Carla at 425-392-6914.

“Buyers are liars.”  An Agent I was coaching shouted this at me yesterday.  He went on to colorfully describe two situations in which Buyers who gave him a strong indication that they were going to buy, now aren’t returning his phone calls.
This brings up a lot of thoughts and feelings, about Buyers, about the market, about competence, about qualifying, about all kinds of things. 
The Agent and I discussed his initial Buyer presentation and distinguished two critical errors that were costing him this kind of grief. 
One was his discomfort discussing people’s finances, particularly if they were a high end Buyer or had cash.  The second was his demeanor as a “glad handing” salesperson.  The first, discomfort with financing had obvious drawbacks, for example working with unqualified Buyers.  The second, his demeanor was causing people to take him less seriously and feel more comfortable blowing him off after they left his presence.
At the initial Buyer presentation he was so happy and confident that people felt comfortable being dishonest with him.  His lack of adding a serious tone to his demeanor allowed people to treat him with less respect. 
Also at the initial Buyer presentation he was reluctant to ask direct questions about finances, motivation, time frames, and contingent properties or to probe more deeply on these issues.  This reinforced the Client’s taking him less seriously. 
My favorite book on motivation, self esteem, and personal growth is Louise L. Hay’s, “You Can Heal Your Life.”  She repeats the idea and theme that your power is in the present moment.  Specifically that your power in the present moment is created by the thoughts you are having in the present moment.  This Agent’s thoughts and your thoughts that you bring to a presentation set the stage for your demeanor which are all the clues the Client has to know how seriously to take you and your work.

You may know that NAR has told us that the number 1 reason that viewers/prospects to your website will stick around is for the “Search The MLS” or “Property Search” feature. This can be an invaluable feature on your website to get you bookmarked for current and later use for assisting your prospects. If your prospects see you as an aid to their real estate search, they will find it easier to work with you later on. Also, if they find a home during this search, you are the one they will likely call.

But there are things that you should know to make sure that they call you instead of possibly the listing agent. Much of this is handled with the way you handle “Search The MLS”. Are you asking your prospects for the Name, Email, Address, Phone Number, Age, Educational Background BEFORE you let them see the MLS? Of course not. But that’s what it feels like to your prospect when you simply ask them to fill out a short registration form before you allow them to search the MLS.

If you are one of the heavy hitters in real estate you know that our business is all about service. With that in mind, if you have a “Search The MLS” link/button on your website, ALWAYS go straight to the search parameters, and then ask them for their information. Many agents will even allow the prospect to make so many searches before they force the prospect to “opt in” or “sign up” for the service. At least by doing this, you’ve seen the service that you’re being asked to sign up for.

There are many other good ideas in the following video that will help you to use the “Search The MLS” to your advantage: