If you ever see me speak you will find out quickly that I love what I do! I love speaking and training and I love the nervous energy that I feel before every event! I am often asked if I mind all the travel and being away from my family and my answer comes quickly. I love what I do and the travel just comes with the territory; it is the means to that end. I don’t think about it; traveling is simply part of the process that creates opportunities for me to influence people and hopefully help them make changes in their lives and businesses that will impact their families in a positive way. Yes, being away from my family is difficult, but I am blessed to be married to an awesome wife who does an amazing job of caring for our six children. Without her, I simply could not do what I do.

One of the most important things an agent can do today is take careful self evaluation by simply asking these questions of yourself: “What do you do?” “What is your most important role?” “Where do you find your greatest value?” and “Are you a sales person?”

The first few questions establish your core values and motivating factors that allow you to do the difficult tasks, but interestingly, the last question is the one most agents struggle with—I call it the “Sales Denial Syndrome.” I recently spoke to a large group of real estate agents and asked the entire group to raise their hands if they think they are in sales and the response was mind boggling! Less than 10% of this group considered themselves to be “sales people”. I was floored—how can you be successful in real estate if you can’t sell?

Too often, when we hear the word “sales person” we conjure up an image of a sleazy, slick talker wearing a plaid jacket—and we sure don’t want to be associated with that image! But I simply ask you: How do you convince people to do business with you if you don’t give a great sales presentation? How do you overcome objections like “I want to think about it” or “I’d like to sleep on it” or “Another agent said they could do it for less”? These are all objections that require great sales skill and dialog in order to overcome them. The better you are at selling yourself and your services, the more likely that you will be successful as a real estate professional.

Think about it from the perspective of today’s home seller. Knowing what you know about the market and how slow home sales are in most price ranges, who would you prefer to hire, the agent that will provide you “great service” or do you want a “Freaking Sales Animal”? The difference is that the Freaking Sales Animal will follow up aggressively with every potential buyer, they will negotiate with confidence on any and all offers, and if they get a live one they will stay with that client until they buy or tell them to die!

I came into real estate as a salesman. I attribute my success to the training and experiences I had outside of real estate in competitive sales environments. I love sales, I love the selling process and my clients hire me today because they know I can sell their homes. I agree that exceptional service is critical to long-lasting relationships and repeat business, but you never get to the repeat business part if you can’t close to begin with!

Don’t be afraid of the supposed stigma that is sometimes attached to being in sales; embrace it and be confident with who you are! Study sales and sales strategies and get trained by the best sales people you know. When I coach agents today it is with the specific focus on helping them incorporate technology into their business, so they have more sales opportunities.

“Sales” is a 5-letter word not a 4-letter word! Now repeat after me: “I’m a Freaking Sales Animal and I am proud of it! I LOVE what I do!”

Verl Workman, Speaker, Trainer, Coach & Freaking Sales Animal!

www.CoachVerl.com

Join me on Facebook! www.Facebook.com/VerlWorkman

Follow me on Twitter! www.Twitter.com/VerlWorkman

Two weeks ago, I did a post on how to stop procrastinating. Today’s post looks at one of the biggest obstacles with respect to procrastination–the status quo. 

If you’re like most people, you have at least one or two areas where you have been putting off taking action. Your awareness of the issue is high, a clear path of action exists, and yet you can’t bring yourself to do anything about it.  Take a moment to write down one situation where you are clearly aware of the necessity for taking action yet you are caught in limbo between keeping the status quo and taking the action to change it.

Before figuring out how to move out of this state of limbo, let’s look at the consequences of maintaining the status quo. In the physical world, energy is required to maintain a stable or balanced state. Just as your body requires energy to maintain an even temperature of 98.6 degrees, maintaining the status quo also uses energy. Maintaining the status quo when a change is needed, however, actually requires additional energy over time. The longer you’re stuck in “limbo,” the harder it is to escape into action. For example, the longer you go without exercising, the harder it becomes to start exercising again. The converse is also true – the more that you exercise, the easier it is to continue exercising. Thus, the longer you have been doing something, the more momentum or inertia you have to keep doing the same behavior.

How can you change the status quo? Begin by taking a small, simple action step. You probably know the old joke about “How do you eat an elephant?” (One bite at a time!) The key is to take a tiny bite and to keep biting. In other words, if you want to start exercising at least four times per week, begin by increasing your physical activity 10 minutes today. Tomorrow, you might do another 10 minutes or perhaps 15 minutes. If you miss a day, that’s OK. Just plan on taking another bite tomorrow.

If you’re tackling an elephant, have fun working on it. For example, one woman had been working in the UK for the last 3 years and had placed all of her things in storage. She literally had hundreds of boxes to go through before she moved into her new home back in the US. What she decided to do was to make the tedious task into a treasure hunt. In each box, she was searching for the one treasure she would take to her new home. Everything else she would discard since she didn’t have the space to ship it.

A third approach to changing the status quo is to alter your environment. If you’re tired of telemarketing calls during dinner, disconnect your phone before you sit down to eat. If you find yourself hitting the vending machines at work around 4:00 PM, take an apple or some other healthy snack and place it in your desk so it will be there when you get hungry. If you’re intimidated about speaking to your boss in her office, ask to have the conversation in a less threatening environment.

A fourth approach is to partner up. Parents Without Partners, Weight Watchers, and a host of other organizations assist people facing major life challenges by providing a supportive relationship where positive action is acknowledged and reinforced. In fact, one of the very best ways to partner up is by hiring a coach.

Whether you tackle the elephant alone or with the help of someone else, breaking the cycle of inaction will increase your energy as well as your self-confidence. Remember–just a bite at a time!

Posted by Bernice Ross, CEO, RealEstateCoach.com and author of the #1 best selling book at NAR 2008, Real Estate Dough(TM), Your Recipe for Real Estate Success

Randy Eagar

1. Lines and linework

These terms refer to borders, frames and rules and do not refer to pen-and-ink or pencil sketches. Yes, I am talking about actual lines here. Horizontal or vertical, thick or thin, regular or irregular, they help define and delimit spaces around various elements on your pages. Good linework increases both the readability and “directionality” (see #5, below) of the design as a whole.

2. Shape

Most people don’t think about this, but any enclosed area, form or contour in your design is a shape. Shapes in most layouts are square or rectangular, but nothing says they must be, and circles are useful, too. You can also use images to create other, regular or irregular shapes. In addition to shapes, I’ll include here “white space”, or the lack of shapes. White space can be just as effective as lovely graphics and shapes.

3. Texture

One thing that custom sites have over the typical template design website is the addition of texture. Texture imparts a “surface” feeling, and is tactile in printed matter, so choosing the paper stock-matte, weave, coated-is a design decision, too. Textures on layouts meant for broadcast or the Internet are visual only, but still key. Most textures do not add to the drag of drawing the website, as most textures are implemented in “chunks”, or in pieces that are pieced together.

4. Color/Branding

Color and branding go hand in hand. You need to know what your colors and thus your brand is ahead of time, before starting on your website. Color is probably the element that most designers are at least acutely aware of, if not schooled in. However, color is not required in many designs, and some art educators suggest creating designs without any color first. The artist, in this view, should then add only as much color as needed to enhance or complete the design. Another school of thought holds that color should be one of the first elements determined. Experience and experimentation will help every artist develop a good color sense and strategy.

5. Direction

Effectively designed layouts, in magazines or on your computer screen, usually have a sense of motion. A good design will lead the reader’s eyes through the design deliberately, using color changes, shapes, linework and copy placement direct viewers’ attention to what the designer wants them to see.

Here’s a good test for you for your website as well as others. Pull up  your website and close your eyes while it is loading. Now open your eyes and pay attention to a couple things:

• Where did you eyes go first
• Where did they go second, third, fourth, etc.
• What places did they not look at

You’ll need to be very practiced in this as your eyes will tend to race over the website. You should only concentrate on no more than 4 or 5 main focus points. More than this will dilute your effectiveness.

Finally, pay attention to what your competition is doing and improve upon their design. It’s amazing how many good ideas you can get from your competition and not even look similar if you are changing up your design elements.

Randy Eagar, CRS
President, WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com

There is a change in the Truth in Lending Act that affects nearly all mortgage loans.  It does not appear that it will be overly troublesome for Real Estate Agents.  The one rule that may have some impact describes a three day waiting period if the APR changes by more than 1/8 (.125%) to allow the borrower to be notified. 

Below are three links that I thought might be helpful.  One of my coaching Clients (a Real Estate Agent) who lives in an area where closing happen with 30 days of contract acceptance is telling his Buyers and Sellers to anticipate possible delays of up to two weeks based on the new rules. 

This is a brilliant practice.  It shows your Buyers and Sellers your expertise and builds confidence that you are watching what is going on that might affect their transaction and that you are watching out for them.  In addition to the obvious value of preparing them for delays so that if they occur they are prepared.  Finally, it more strongly establishes your position of earning respect and trust which adds to your ability to be in control.  That is control in a good way, a necessary way, like a driver controls a car, or a Captain controls a ship.  As a professional you want to have earn that control.  It benefits everyone in many ways.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/regz20080714.htm

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n2-072309.cfm

http://minnesotarealestateinformation.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-truth-in-lending-rules.html

The Problem

Buyers are tougher than ever.  Buyers are taking longer to buy, looking at more properties, offering less, and negotiating more.  The list goes on. 

The Solution – Five Keys

The Buyer’s motivation dictates everything.  As an Agent you must find out why the Buyer is buying.  Use these four questions. 
Why are you thinking about Buying at this time?
Where are you thinking about going?
Ideally, if I could snap my fingers and make it happen for you, when would you like to be in your new home?
How important is it to make that move in that time frame?
Once you know the answers you will be able to accurately predict and anticipate the Buyers behavior.

Buyers are inexperienced.  Doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, business executives don’t know as much as you do about buying a house.  The Internet doesn’t teach them.  If you bought in another state how much would you know about the market, the contracts, the inspections, and even the financing?  You would know what questions to ask.  They don’t even know what questions to ask.  Your first job is to educate the Buyers.  (I recorded this a couple years ago.  It is still completely applicable today.  www.BuyerMarketTips.com) 
Educate the Buyers as early in the process as possible.  Educate the Buyers means to have a sit down session with them in which you go through the entire buying experience step by step.  Ensuring their understanding.  Answering their questions.  Preparing them for the subtleties and possible surprises of each step.  I call this your Buyer presentation.
(Nearly) Every problem you have with Buyers is solved in the Buyer presentation.  Can this be true?  Of course, because each time a new problem arises you add it to your Buyer presentation so that all of your future Buyers anticipate and are prepared for it.  Only those of you with weak Buyer presentations or none at all will disagree with this.  Those who already do it know the truth of it. 
This thorough Buyer presentation is a skill equal to your listing presentation.  It takes time, effort, and practice to get good at it.  A poorly prepared Buyer wastes as much or more time than an overpriced listing.  A well prepared (and motivated but you find that out at the presentation) Buyer is as valuable and efficient as a well priced listing.  If you plan to work with Buyers.  Build this skill.
Buyers have had a bad reputation ever since the expressions “List to last,” and “Listings are the name of the game,” became popular.  The truth is that every sale and every commission requires a Buyer and a Seller.  The most successful Agents have a team of Buyer’s Agents.  Hmmmm, there must be a lot of value in learning and developing a high level of skill with Buyers… if you work with them.  If not, pass these tips on to your Buyer’s Agents and congratulations on a successful team.

So you think you have problems in today’s real estate market?
You may want to rethink that scenario for a moment.  In a speech by author and entrepreneur, Nando Parrado, as he addressed an audience of over 1200 professionals last week, he said that we might not really have problems, but may be dealing with “issues”.
You may recognize his story of survival in his New York Times bestselling book, Miracle in the Andes”. His story recounts how he and his 15 teammates survived for 72 brutal days after their plane crashed into the frozen Andes mountains some 30 years ago, and if you’ve heard him speak, you surely understand that he encountered some serious problems.
Can you even imagine the numbing fear of being one of a few survivors in a tragic plane crash and trying to survive the dead of winter for over 2 months? Envision the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you heard the faint transmission of a news story coming from a dying transistor radio reporting that the search parties had been called off. Think about what you would do to make a dinner out of a single peanut and make it last 8 hours– knowing going forward there would be no food, water, or sufficient clothes to protect you from temperatures that plunged to 35 degrees below zero at night….Now those are some kind of  problems!
As I sat there in awe of his moving story about his experience in that vicious mountain environment, it was his reference to the difference between problems and issues that got my attention.

He asked, “Do you think you have problems? I think you might find that you have issues”.
When paralleled against this incredible story of tragedy and triumph, when we study the state of our market, you might say we are experiencing “issues” not problems. We have solutions, and can for the most part, find answers to questions.
Our market is in transition, but we still have resources on almost every level. Solutions are available to help to diminish the deep pain many suffer due to the consequences of our past troubled markets. But in many cases, we’ve been equipped with new solutions that  keep us moving forward.
When we mark up the positive side of our market we find that it shows some healthy resurgence in some areas.
• We presently have very affordable interest rates
• FHA has offered higher limits, and have made some innovative changes in their platforms
• New initiatives like the First Time Buyer $8,000 buyer credit with elimination of repayment requirement gets more qualified individuals into housing
• The market offers more affordability
• Expertise is required to become trusted advisors to serve clients and customers at a higher level which elevates our profession

There are serious hardships out there. Our lifestyles, comfort and choices have been impacted for the first time in many years. Families are challenged to cope with a new normal. Change isn’t easy, but if we weren’t open to change, we wouldn’t  see and experience the amazing innovations that come with the opportunity afforded by those changes  to look at things differently.
And the good news is that according to NAR’s latest reports, there are encouraging signs on the horizon. As Nando said, we don’t have problems… but we do have issues….and better yet… we have solutions!  If we take this opportunity, WE can be  THE solution for our customers and clients.  It’s how we handle those issues that put us on a path to success and create true clients for life!
Terri Murphy

Every three minutes there’s a new website, a new blog, a new cool piece of technology. It makes you want to spend all your time sitting at your computer all day until you perfect…..well, whatever you think you need to perfect to be ‘with it’. (I’m not telling you NOT to use the tools you feel will support you in your business. I’m just telling you that being a slave to those tools will not guarantee your smashing success).

At the same time, we’re told to find our own voice–to ‘brand’ ourselves. So, which is it? Running after technology or finding our own voice? Or, better yet, is there a way to combine both?

Yes You Can

As a musician (piano and flute)  from age four, I know a couple of things about developing yourself as a unique ’stylist’ (’branding’, in marketing language). I know

each pianist has certain talents, certain intuitions, certain affinities for specific styles of music–and needs to stick to those to ‘find his/her voice’

each pianist has certain physiological make-up that also determines how she/he plays and what she/he can play well

each pianist finds joy in playing the kind of  music that supplies that passion for what she/he does

What does this mean to you?

Your strengths are unique–are different than anyone else’s. Your talents naturally lead you to certain fields. Your skills make certain things easy and enjoyable. The sum of your strengths, talents, and skills make up your ‘theme’.

I created a straightforward, easy to use resource called Your Professional Portfolio, where I help real estate professionals identify what makes them value-added to the consumer. When I take agents or managers through the process, it is amazing the insights they get–and the confidence they build when they realize ‘there will never be another you.’

Put That Technology Back in the Game 

Being confronted with all that technology, while being told to brand yourself has to be confusing. I just created an all-new presentation titled YOU–the Brand, to help real estate professionals sort out their priorities and put selling, marketing, and technology all on the same page–with the right priorities. Much of this prioritizing and personal exploration comes from my musical background, where I figured out, early on, what my strengths were, and how to build on them (and how to leave well enough alone!).

You Can’t Copy Someone’s Else’s Personal Brand

Although technology can be copied, a personal brand doesn’t lend itself to copying. In fact, it’s comical (how many agents do you see with the same slogans or brochure headlines?). The joy is in exploring your own creativity (another next big thing I’ll blog about later) to discover  those unassailable strengths.

A Tool to Explore What Your Strengths Are

A good place to start exploring your strengths is with the very enlightening books on strength assessment by the research group, Gallup. Go to www.strengthfinder.com to see the various books, research studies, and even a profile you can take to see what your strengths and themes are. Armed with that, you’ll know which of those technology tactics to use, and which of those struggles you just can’t seem to win don’t need to be won!

P. S. If you have a presentation opportunity, you may want to consider my very different YOU–the Brand presentation. I’ll even teach someone to play the piano with me in 30 seconds to prove some of the points in this article. You just have to see/hear it to believe it!

Everyone has an online reputation. The question is, “Who is creating your reputation?” Failure to monitor what others are saying about you on the web can cost your business plenty.

To protect your online reputation, the first step is to make sure that you have a presence on the major social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter–even if you don’t use the account. The reason? Someone else who is angry with you could impersonate you online. If you do nothing else from reading this post, fill out a profile on these major sites and upload your photo. That way at least, it makes it much harder for people to pretend to be you.

The second step is to use a tool such as Google Alerts. This tool notifies you anytime there is a post the references you, your business, or any other phrase you ask the system to track.

An even better system has just been released by MyFrontSteps.com. Their system allows you to rank any postings that have been made about you. Their “Step-Rep” program has you rank various comments about you as “positive,” “neutral,” “my content,” “not relevant,” and “negative.” Their software optimizes the posts that are positive about you and pushes the negative ones towards the back of the search. Best of all it’s free!

If you’re not taking steps to protect your online reputation, there’s no better time than right now to get started!

Posted by Bernice Ross, CEO www.RealEstateCoach.com.(Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com)

With over 400 published articles and four books to her credit, Bernice has served as a speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach to the leading real estate firms in the country.

1. Instructional -

a. Instructional posts are meant to tell people how to do something. I find that my Tips posts are generally the ones that are among my most popular both in the short term (that is loyal readers love them and will link up to them) but also in the longer term. One of the reasons people search the web is to find out how to do things and if you can rank highly with your tips post you can have traffic over a length of time.

b. Make sure you give instructions on interesting topics and you will make your blog posts more compelling to read and more likely to be linked. It’s getting others to link to your post that will build back-links for you.

c. Instructional blogs are highly recommended and bookmarked. The reason for this is in the nature of wanting to just click back to the instructions rather than take copious notes on how to do something of interest.

2. Informational -

a. This is one of the more common blog post types where you simply give information on a topic. This is an easy one for most agents to use but also a very good one as we are constantly being asked about interest rates, appreciation/depreciation, foreclosure rates and so forth.

b. You can give information on any topic of your choice. The better the information that you give here, the more of an expert you appear. This is the nice thing about the Informational blog post. It sets you up as the expert.

c. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of the niche that you’re writing on. The more of a niche that you target the more interesting the post becomes.

d. This is the crux of successful sites like wikipedia. In fact many of my posts will reference Wikipedia and other reference sites to validate my point.

3. Reviews -

a. Another highly searched for term on the web is ‘review’ - I know every time I’m considering buying a new product that I head to Google and search for a review on it first. Reviews come in all shapes and sizes and on virtually every product or service you can think of.

b. Give your fair and insightful opinion. Make sure that in your post, you mention the word “review”, as this is what will be used in the search engines. Think like a buyer might think for these.

c. Ask readers for their opinion. This is a great way to get input from your readers, is to ask for it. It also makes people feel special to have their opinions valued.

d. Reviews can be highly powerful posts that have a great longevity. People will bookmark and re-reference reviewed posts as purchasing decisions are often delayed for longer periods of time.

4. Lists -

a. One of the easiest ways to write a post is to make a list. Posts with content like ‘The Top Ten ways to….’, or ‘7 Reasons why….’ Or ‘ 5 Favorite ….’, or ‘53 mistakes that homebuyers make when….’ are not only easy to write but are usually very popular with readers and with getting links from other bloggers. One tip on lists - if you start with a brief list (each point as a phrase or sentence) and then develop each one into a paragraph or two you might just end up with a series of posts that lasts you a few days.

b. Examples:

i. Resource lists. The useful list of resources requires two ingredients: time and a good eye for quality. If a resource list seems useful many readers will bookmark or vote for it on face-value alone. If your blog is struggling, a useful resource list can be an effective way to spark up your traffic and links.

ii. Best-of lists. At this time of year you’ll see a lot of ‘Best of 2007′ round-ups, though best-of lists seem to work well at all times. They’re effective because people are constantly searching for the ‘best’ of everything. It’s a term that promises high quality. It also generates interest because ‘best’ is subjective - what’s best for you might be mediocre for others. Ranked lists always seem to generate links, traffic and debate.

iii. Lists of tips. Quantifiable lists of tips are really attractive to readers because they explain in just a few seconds what a visitors stands to receive in return for their attention. You see them everywhere - and that’s because they work.

5.   Interviews -

a. Sometimes when you’ve run out of insightful things to say it might be a good idea to let someone else do the talking in an interview (or a guest post). This can not only be good for you, but for your guest as well. I’ve done several interviews with those who do the same thing that I do, and I have just as much fun being the interviewer as the interviewee.

b. This is a great way to not only give your readers a relevant expert’s opinion but to perhaps even learn something about the topic you’re writing yourself. One tip if you’re approaching people for an interview on your blog - don’t overwhelm them with questions.

•c. One of two good questions are more likely to get you a response than a long list of poorly thought through ones. Make sure that you always give those that you are interviewing the chance to send you questions that they would like to answer.

Q&As with high profile people. Interviews with well-known bloggers always seem to get links, comments and traffic. The nice thing about this method is that the only work involved is writing questions and approaching bloggers. The success rates for getting interviews are pretty high as most bloggers love talking about themselves!

Randy Eagar, CRS
President WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com

A Coaching Client (a Real Estate Agent) recently asked this question.  It is a common problem and here is the solution. 
The Question
I think I am missing the boat on some Clients because I forget about them.  I lost contact with them and this is costing me thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars every year.  I really need to improve my average in this category.  I need something to keep them in front of me.  I need some sort of physical chart to keep them in my mind.  I can probably make my own if I knew of 3 or 4 columns to use.

The Solution
Absolutely, I teach my Clients to use their CRM (Contact Relationship Management) software. That doesn’t work for some so we pursue whatever system will work for them.  People are different from each other and need different solutions.  You have hit on a good one, the whiteboard.  The board itself it is quite easy. 

Five columns:
1. Urgency, A or B so you are aware at all times.  A, of course, is urgent while B is not. This will also prompt you to work on converting the B buyers to A’s. 
2. Name of the Buyer
3. Price Range
4. Location
5. Comments, anything specific they are looking for
6. Optional: Phone Number, before PDA’s Agents would put this on their Buyer whiteboard.   Now the number may not be necessary because you have it on your phone. 

When you, your Assistant or anyone on your team hears about a new listing or you are pursuing a new listing you can glance and the board.  Sell more of your own.  Act more quickly for your Buyers.  And stop losing leads that you already know is losing you money.