Archive for the ‘Real Estate Training’ Category

Your Class Bell Is Ringing - Back To School!

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

With all of the changes happening in the real estate and mortgage industries, it’s important to keep up with everything that’s going on.  There are new skills to be learned, like short sale strategies and dealing with lender-owned foreclosures.

The skill sets of the last few years need to be tweaked and improved upon for you to stay in the game.  What worked in 2005 won’t for the most part work in today’s market.  I’ve talked with agents, who have over 30 years experience and even they’ve not seen a market like this.

You need to continue learning how to improve your business and keep your sales and negotiating acumen in top-notch condition.

Are you listening to CDs, DVDs, mp3s, training webinars, and reading books on a daily basis?

You need to schedule time each day for education.  Just apply the strategies.  It will make a difference in your business.

So take half an hour to an hour or so a day, where it’s quiet and study various strategies and marketing ideas and test them to see if they work.  This time is as important as a client appointment. 

Just a brief glimpse into my life:  I’m a voracious reader.  I’m also a night owl, so it’s not uncommon for me to read books or listen to CDs, DVDs or old training tapes in my home office up until 1:00am or 2:00am long after everyone else in my family is fast asleep.

The selection of which target markets you focus on, i.e. your client base, REO business, FSBOs, etc., are not as important as the conscious and proactive approach to completing and achieving your daily and weekly game plan.

I strongly believe in never-ending, self-improvement.  In today’s market, in order to survive, you need to stay focused on self-education and self-motivation.

 

 

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Focus On The Right Questions and Then Take Action!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Focus On The Right Questions and Then Take Action!

I’ve always believed that the questions I ask myself will shape my future.  There’s nothing more important to one’s business than the questions you constantly ask to evaluate your business as well as the questions you ask your prospects and clients.

Too many of us are looking for answers to the wrong questions. We spend our lives looking for solutions when we should be taking the time searching for the right questions.

Here are five questions to ask yourself:

  1. What does your daily work schedule look like and how much of it is on “A” activities?
  2. What do you really want to accomplish in your real estate business?
  3. What additional skills or knowledge do you need to achieve your goals faster?
  4. What daily actions, when done consistently, would dramatically increase your productivity?
  5. What is the one committed action, when mastered, would make the biggest difference in your real estate business?

Now, copy and paste these questions and take a few minutes to answer each one right now.  Then, put them away for 24-48 hours and then read the questions again and see if you’d answer them the same way.

If the answers are still the same, go ahead and plan to implement them. 

Spending time asking the right questions will help you acquire the answers you need to achieve the success you want in your life.

To your success,

Dan

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Finding The Needles In Your Hay Stack!

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
With most communities having plenty of housing inventory to choose from along with incredible mortgage interest rates to qualified buyers, now is the time to build up your client pipeline for the spring market.
 
I know there are many agents struggling in this real estate market, but homes are still selling.  Obviously, not at the numbers that will sustain the current level of Realtor NAR membership, but if you are willing to work harder and smarter, I believe you can and will survive in this challenging market. 
 
Like many, I believe that you have to continually improve your skillset.  For example, knowing how to handle short sales and foreclosures is something a few years ago we never dreamed we’d have to learn.
 
So what are a few simple steps to jump start us heading into the spring market?
 
Here’s 3 areas you can quickly analyze and take action on:
 
1)  Do you have any prospects that have slipped through the cracks over the past several months?  Maybe you wrote their names and phone numbers on some post-it notes or pieces of paper.  Call them NOW to see if they are ready to buy or sell within the next few months.  If not, find out when they’ll be ready and keep in touch.
 
Don’t just ask them YES or NO questions.  Think of WHO,WHAT, WHEN, WHY and WHERE questions to ask them.  By asking meaningful questions, you’ll separate yourself from other agents, who just ask typical sales questions.  If you know their “WHY” for making a move, bring it up in the conversations and see if it’s still valid.  People will only take action on their intentions when their “WHY” is strong enough.
 
2)  Review your list of current buyers, who’ve said they want to buy a home and if it’s been awhile since you’ve shown them a property, schedule a time to meet with them again one-on-one and have them re-focus on their housing goals.  Find out what’s most important to them.  Interest rates are great right now and it’s your job to educate your clients and reiterate that fact.  If they are watching or listening to the news, they may be frozen in their actions, because their sub-conscious mind is getting a blast of “doom & gloom”.  You have to counter-act that. 
 
3)  If you have active listings that aren’t moving, meet your sellers with an updated CMA and discuss the current market place with them.  See if they’ll adjust their listing price to get an offer on their property.  (In some cases, it’ll take a price adjustment, just to get a showing on their home.)  Do they need a dose of reality in having their home in top showcasing condition?  If their home needs some work, take them to a couple of other homes on the market that you know show well.  In some cases, removing wallpaper and painting or updating the kitchen or bathrooms can work wonders in getting buyers interested. 

Your sellers need to be motivated to sell or you’re just spinning your wheels going into the spring market, where there will be a lot more inventory to compete with.  If they aren’t motivated enough to sell, then do everyone a favor and recommend that they take their property off the market.  With many areas having 10 - 12 months supply of properties for sale or higher, now is NOT the time to ‘test’ the market.

 
Don’t start off this year with baggage from 2008.  See who wants to make a move this year and either ‘delete’ the others or allow them to continue simmering for awhile until they too are ready.

 

 

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