She sat next to me on a plane.  She is an executive with a medium size manufacturing company (over $100 million is sales per year).  She wasn’t expecting to work at this time in her life.  She expected to be raising children but her husband, who was earning a solid six figure income in the building industry, got laid off in 2007 and had to start at the bottom of a new industry. 

Bob Dylan sings a song with a line that says, “You’ve thrown the worst fear… that can ever be hurled… afraid to bring children… into the world.”  For financial reasons more and more young couples are making that choice.

Oh, in 2006 they bought a house for $550,000 that is now for sale for $355,000.  They have burned through all their savings and most of their retirement accounts.  The house will be sold on a short sale or foreclosed on, depending on whether the bank ever accepts a short sale offer.  They are not sure what credit ramifications this will have on them. 

And yet, they have gotten past their anger, their sadness, their frustration, and fear.  She is amazingly and wonderfully positive.  She knows that she and their marriage can handle very tough times.  She has many friends in similar situations that are divorced.  She is proud that her husband has risen to an executive position in less than 24 months in a new field. 

Are they one of the lucky ones?  In a way yes, absolutely, so let’s keep our problems in perspective.  Let’s applaud people’s ability to handle adversity.  And let’s work to enjoy the many good things in our lives.

How many are there like this couple?  Regarding their finances, I hope there are fewer and fewer every day.  Regarding their spirit I hope that there are many; and more every day.

This was the topic of my presentation at the Texas State Convention yesterday and again next week in Idaho.  I share 18 ways.  One of them is to create a stronger relationship with each person on your Transaction Intact Team.  These are the professionals who either make your transaction happen or not, inspectors, lenders, other Agents etc.  In addition to the Professionals that you refer to, create a stronger relationship with every inspector that you meet, with every lender that is on your side or the other side of the transaction.  You will meet them again, so create that relationship now.  Contact them and introduce or reintroduce yourself at the outset of every transaction you are involved in with them so that they know it is you.  Then, if it becomes necessary you have a much greater opportunity to get information that will save the deal or influence a decision that could put the transaction in danger. 

Every one of these people is in a profession in or around Real Estate.  I guarantee you that most of them, when they are at a party or picnic, with friends or family, they get asked about Real Estate and the market.  They get asked who  they consider are good Agents or who they would recommend.  If you are top of mind, you will get that referral.  If you reward that referral with a continued relationship (and a gift if it is legal to do so in your State) then you will be creating a continuous referral source.   

Start today.  Contact one of the professionals you use or one that you have met or someone you would like to meet.  Lenders, Inspectors, Attorneys, Title People, Plumbers and skilled workmen and women, there are many others.  Call one, tell them that you are making an effort to get to know better the people in the other professions that you run in to in the business and ask if they would be free for coffee.  When you meet, ask about them and their lives.  Ask how, as an Agent, you can make their jobs easier or more productive. 

Start easy with people that you already have a relationship.

The rewards are many; in saving your deals, getting referrals, having influence, and just making your job a better place to work and live.

So you’re trapped at the car wash . . . what do you do? You watch whatever is playing on TV. You’re waiting for a plane . . . what do you do? You watch what’s playing on TV. We’ve grown so acustom to the television and more importantly video, that it’s amazing that more agents aren’t following the trend.

If you want your message to get out and have it make an impact, don’t just tell about it, don’t even show pictures about it. You need to raise the bar and show videos about it. Why? Because only video has the features of moving video, sound, voice over and even musical background if you so choose. Many agents are making huge profits from their video expertise and many new products are coming out to not only assist with video but also video editing as well.

To make my point, I’ve included one of our “Pocket Presentations” on this huge new Internet feature below:

“It’s like a roller coaster.  If you don’t have enough momentum going down, then you won’t have the momentum to get back up.”  Bob O’Brien said it.  Bob has been selling Real Estate for ten years.  He has already sold more this year than any entire year in the past.  (which is common for my coaching Clients) and he was referring to the fact that he is very busy when many of the other Agents around him are not.  And that he is going to finish the year strong so that he has a stronger start to next year.

I just finished writing an article entitled “September: A Dangerous Decision Time.”  E-mail me and we’ll send you the link.  I spoke with Bob about the article and he made that astute comment.  It is perfect.  There are slower times of the year.  Each lasts just a week or two; as kids finish school, as school starts, some of the holidays, when the temperature is below near or below zero or over one hundred degrees and sometimes for no apparent reason whatever.  If you are not creating momentum as you feel these times getting slow, it will take much more effort to “get back up” as the market comes back.

“WOW”!! . . . Is this what your viewers are saying when they look at your website? Unfortunately the answer is typically no. In fact when viewers see most agent websites they react with a yawn. What’s the difference between the two? Dynamic page content. It’s the difference between telling a story and allowing the viewer to interactively experience the story.

Let’s get specific as to what I mean here. I’ve seen many websites where the agent tries to tell the viewer about how to price their home. On the other hand I’ve seen much more successful sites where the agent is giving the viewer a tool to allow them to be able to “ballpark” a price for their home through an interactive, or “dynamic” page. Now in this instance we are not replacing the value of the agent as there is much more to pricing a home, but sellers love this kind of page.

Another example for buyers is that of the mortgage calculator. There are tons of these either with your MLS or as 3rd party widgets that can be used in your websites.

If you’d like to see examples of the best of these types of site pages, take a look at the following short video: