As the first quarter of 2007 comes to an end, are you on track to achieving your business goals for the quarter?

Did you list as many houses as you thought you would? Did you show homes to the number of buyers you expected to work with?

If you did, great!

If you didn’t, don’t beat yourself up about it. Nobody hits their goals every time. Million dollar baseball players only get 3 hits out of every 10 at-bats. Just increase your at-bats.

Look at this next quarter and re-evaluate your goals. Set new goals for the quarter. Better yet, set new goals only for the month of April.

You see, setting annual goals can be a big problem. If you get side-tracked or some things go wrong for you over a couple of months, then your goals for the year are shot.

Setting annual goals is a recipe of disaster. Don’t set yourself up for that!

You don’t know what the economy and other outside forces will do in the coming months, but you can control what you do.

Why didn’t you achieve your goals? Were they too lofty or did you not do what you said you would do to achieve them?

It’s easy to fool others some of the time by saying everything is going great, when it’s not. I’ve been there. Done that. We all have at one point or another in our lives.

But when you have to look at yourself in the mirror, that’s the moment of truth. You can’t lie to yourself.

Too many people only focus on their RESULTS. That’s the WRONG thing to look at. What you need to do is write down which activities you need to do on a daily and weekly basis and focus only on completing the activities. Consistently doing your activities day after day may not seem like you’re making much progress, but over time, you will jump by leaps and bounds and the results will be there with all of your success.

You don’t have any control over the results. Results are often out of your control - buyers balking, sellers saying no, lender messes up, bad inspections, etc. All outside factors.

You only have control over your own activity!!!

So, take 30 minutes by yourself and review your goals for the next month. What do you want to accomplish in the next 30 days? Don’t worry about the next 12 months…only the next 30 days. Then when you achieve your goals, that’s a stepping stone to your next set of goals. We all know how to eat an elephant.

Some call this strategy: Plan, Do and Review. Make it a monthly strategy. PLAN out what you want to do, DO the activities and after the month, REVIEW the results and see if and where you need to tweak your activities to get better results.

Set up a personal REWARDS program for yourself and your team if you have one. Decide what kind of reward you’ll give yourself when you achieve your goals. It could be a massage, take an afternoon off and play a round of golf (without your cell), go to your favorite restaurant, take a weekend off, do whatever excites you that you normally wouldn’t do.

To your success,

Dan

Learn how to earn $100,000+ selling real estate.
Subscribe to FREE, weekly e-zine: Agent Success Tips

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas:
Click Here to activate: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

One single idea can change the focus of your life.

If you could be anywhere in the world, imagine yourself at your most peaceful place.

Your eyes are closed and your mind is calm.

“Imagine you are laying on a cushioned lounge chair under a palm tree at your favorite spot on a sandy-white beach at 3:00pm in the afternoon with the sun sparkling through the branches. It’s 82 degrees and you have your favorite drink. All you can hear is the soft, gentle breaks in the ocean waves with the occasional sound of seagulls. Your body is fully relaxed and your mind is at peace.”

Wow, that’s so powerful! If you closed your eyes, you could really “see” that. The more detailed you got in your description, the more “real” it became in your mind.

(Now I didn’t mention cell phones, laptop, or deals, did I? That would have ruined the moment.)

Suddenly, pinpoints of light flash beneath your eyelids as your sub-conscious mind works at a feverish pace.

An idea sparks!

A single solitary idea…

What if this one new idea could be the answer.

One tiny bit of information that will take the business you have now and hyper-charge it. If only you knew what to do with it.

Imagine being able to take that one bit of new informationand turn it into a tidal wave of income crashing on your doorstep.

Write it down and expand on it. What steps would you need to take to achieve it? Write them all down. It doesn’t matter if youor someone else would do them. If you were unclear about how to do it, ask someone…a coach, a mentor, someone who has the expertise to teach you.

Just take action on it! It may work, it may not. Either way, do it and then discover another idea that can make a difference in your business. Never stop implementing new ideas.

To your success,

Dan

Learn how to earn $100,000+ selling real estate.

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Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas:

Click Here to activate: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

We all love referrals!

That’s one of the many benefits of being a part of different real estate referral networks, like CRS, ABR, e-Pro, SRES, Active Rain, any coaching program or if you’re a member of a national real estate company, etc.

But it’s not enough just to ask for referrals and say you’ll pay X % in a referral fee.

It’s important to share with others why they should refer one of their valued clients to you over someone else. What makes you different from other agents in your area? Do you offer any guarantees? Especially with relocation, communication between you and the buyers as well as the referring agent is very important. Many times the referring agent is out of the loop and if you aren’t keeping them updated, you’re going to miss out on future referrals from them. It’s important to keep the referring agent updated throughout the process, so they can feel comfortable with you and your systems for bringing their referral to a closing.

Most agents advertise their market area, referral fee amount, yrs in business, etc, but why not stand out from the crowd and share something different that’s going to make the referring agent call you instead of someone else.

You should design a web page on your web site that talks about the points of difference you can offer to those who are considering referring you business. A good way to connect with other agents is to share a hobby you love, a niche market you focus on, a charitable organization you’re a member of, etc. Share some client testimonials that can prove your level of service.

When advertising your services for agent referrals, include your e-mail address, web address with a link to your “Realtor referrals” page and one phone number (the best one to reach you). Don’t list 3 or 4 phone numbers that cause the agent to try and track you down. They’ll move on to another agent.

Finally, when an agent has a referral for you, take a few minutes to question them about the referral. You need to get more than just their name, address, and phone number. Find out about the agent’s connection to them…what are their wants and needs…their preferred timetable to act…their concerns/fears about the process. The more you know, the better you can help their referral. As soon as you hang up the phone with the referring agent, contact their referral immediately and start building rapport with them.

One other point just came to me that I use from time to time. If an agent wants to send me a referral, where they want to look in an area that’s outside my coverage area or specialty, I will recommend an agent, who specializes in that area. Instead of trying to be greedy when I don’t know the area and possibly hurting the referral, I give the referring agent another agent’s name and don’t ask for a referral fee. I can always tell that it’s appreciated by both sides and you know what? It comes back to me in other ways down the road. My recommendation is to NOT be a jack-of-all-trades. Focus on being the best you can be in your niche markets. The rest will take care of itself.

If you have any successful strategies for receiving more agent referrals, I’d love to hear about them. I may even share them in the future and give you the credit…another referral opportunity.

I hope this helps you.

To your success,

Dan

Learn how to earn $100,000+ selling real estate.
Subscribe to FREE, weekly e-zine: Agent Success Tips

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas:
Click Here to activate: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

One reason to keep in contact with your clients and to show them that you care about them is to make sure that their mortgage situation is in good shape and that they’re not getting in over their head.

With the millions of foreclosures currently happening as well as those looming on the horizon, it’s not inconceivable that you may know of someone who has or could lose their property.

Have any of your clients recently taken out a second mortgage, home equity loan or line of credit?

Was their original mortgage a fixed or adjustable rate loan?

For example, if you have a client, who has a 3-year ARM and they planned on re-financing down the road, you may want to have them look into locking into a fixed interest rate now. Many ARMs are going through their interest rate adjustment right now or in the near future. If your clients aren’t financially prepared or aren’t able to pay the increased amount, they may need to look at re-financing into a fixed-rate mortgage (if they qualify and the fees aren’t excessive) or consider selling their property.

There are consumers out there, who have an ARM, option ARM or other mortgage product, but that was the only way for them to get a property. They thought their personal situation would cover the future rate increases, but things changed and now they’re in a financial mess.

Often times, people are embarrassed to talk about their financial situations and may get behind in payments for a variety of reasons. If you have a client, who’s having trouble keeping up with their payments, find out if they’ve been in contact with their mortgage lender. The last thing they need to do is to keep their lender in the dark about their situation, because their lender will find out and then it may be too late to do anything about it.

It appears that the mortgage industry through the actions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is tightening the regulations concerning certain mortgage products and what credit score is going to be needed for consumers to qualify for those mortgages.

If consumers are considering re-financing to keep their mortgage payments more stable (except for typical increases in homeowners insurance and property taxes) and to get away from an adjustable rate mortgage, that’s probably a good idea. But if they want to re-finance to consolidate credit card bills and loans, etc, then they need to make sure that they have the financial discipline not to start charging up the credit cards again. In many parts of the country, housing appreciation rates are not increasing at the rapid rate that they were in the last 5 years, so your clients need to understand that they can’t keep re-financing over and over and hope to stay ahead of the game.

There are mortgage lenders out there that will allow consumers to borrow more than their property is worth….103% to 125% LTV. I hope these companies go away, but they will probably always be lurking out there.

That’s where you need to educate your clients about the pitfalls of taking out too much equity (maybe more than their property is even worth) so that they don’t fall into financial ruin.

Inform your clients to contact you when they’re considering re-financing. You may be able to recommend several reputable mortgage consultants, who can review their situation and see what they should do, if anything at all. They also need to get a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) from any lender they consider using, so that they don’t get any surprises later. Finally, they need to review the final closing documents (preferrably with a real estate attorney) to make sure that all of the fees are what were disclosed in the GFE and that there aren’t any junk fees added or any terms to the mortgage and note that your clients weren’t aware of.

Also, always make sure that you recommend to your clients to talk with their accountant, financial planner or other advisors to help them determine their options that best fits their needs.

By adding this strategy to your After-The-Sale Service Program, your clients will appreciate you and hopefully refer you more often.

To your success,

Dan

Learn how to earn $100,000+ selling real estate.

Subscribe to FREE, weekly e-zine: Agent Success Tips

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas:
Click Here to activate: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

As the first quarter of 2005 comes to an end, are you on track to achieving your business goals for the quarter?

Did you list as many houses as you thought you would? Did you show homes to the number of buyers you expected to work with?

If you did, great!

If you didn’t, don’t beat yourself up about it. Nobody hits their goals every time. Million dollar baseball players only get 3 hits out of every 10 at-bats. Just increase your at-bats.

Look at this next quarter and re-evaluate your goals. Set new goals for the quarter. Better yet, set new goals only for the month of April.

You see, setting annual goals can be a big problem. If you get side-tracked or some things go wrong for you over a couple of months, then your goals for the year are shot.

Setting annual goals is a recipe of disaster. Don’t set yourself up for that!

You don’t know what the economy and other outside forces will do in the coming months, but you can control what you do.

Why didn’t you achieve your goals?
Were they too lofty or did you not do what
you said you would do to achieve them?

It’s easy to fool others some of the time by saying everything is going great, when it’s not. I’ve been there. Done that. We all have at one point or another in our lives.

But when you have to look at yourself in the mirror, that’s the moment of truth. You can’t lie to yourself.

Too many people only focus on their RESULTS. That’s the WRONG thing to look at. What you need to do is write down which activities you need to do on a daily and weekly basis and focus only on completing the activities. Consistently doing your activities day after day may not seem like you’re making much progress, but over time, you will jump by leaps and bounds and the results will be there with all of your success.

You don’t have any control over the results. Results are often out of your control - buyers balking, sellers saying no, lender messes up, bad inspections, etc. All outside factors.

You only have control over your own activity!!!

So, take 30 minutes by yourself and review your goals for the next month. What do you want to accomplish in the next 30 days? Don’t worry about the next 12 months…only the next 30 days. Then when you achieve your goals, that’s a stepping stone to your next set of goals. We all know how to eat an elephant.

Some call this strategy: Plan, Do and Review. Make it a monthly strategy. PLAN out what you want to do, DO the activities and after the month, REVIEW the results and see if and where you
need to tweak your activities to get better results.

Set up a personal REWARDS program for yourself and your team if you have one. Decide what kind of reward you’ll give yourself when you achieve your goals. It could be a massage, take an afternoon off and play a round of golf (without your cell), go to your favorite restaurant, take a weekend off, do whatever excites you that you normally wouldn’t do.

To your success,

Dan
dan@AgentSuccessCoach.com

Learn how to earn $100,000+ selling real estate.

Subscribe to FREE, weekly e-zine: AgentSuccessTips

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas:

Click Here to activate: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

How many books, magazines, tapes & CDs do you have on your shelves?

We all have them…some more than others; often from all of the seminars.

If you have any of these items lying around your office or home, I guarantee you’re missing out on implementing strategies that could earn you thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars or more.

It’s time to pick up one of these money-making tools and dive into it to see what ‘treasures’ you can find. Write down the valuable nuggets you uncover and make a timeline to take action.

If you started reading a book awhile back, maybe you read a couple of chapters and then put it down. Months later, you haven’t picked it back up yet. I know I’ve done that before.

When you sit down to read a business-related or motivational book, do you read it passively or do you really want to get some workable ideas from it?

When I read a book, I make sure that I have a highlighter marker, so that when I come across a great idea or philsophy that I want to implement, I mark it so I don’t forget it later. Then if I get interrupted and have to put the book down, when I pick it up later, I can review the highlighted parts of the book that I previously marked and that gets me back into the flow of the book.

When I finish a book, I head to my computer and start typing out all of the highlighted sections of the book and I call it my “(name of the book) Summary”.

Then I review the “summary” and determine which ideas I can implement in my business right away and put timelines on others.

It’s also a great time-saver, if you want to read the book again in the future, because, in essence, you can just read the highlighted segments ( the best parts) and not spend extra time reading parts that are not of interest to you.

A quick tip for magazines: When you receive a magazine, instead of putting it on your desk to read later, peruse it quickly and tear out any articles that are of interest to you and toss the rest of the magazine away. Then when you have time to read the articles, use the highlighting strategy from above.

I hope this helps you.

I’d love to hear any ideas you have on this.

To your success,
Dan
dan@AgentSuccessCoach.com

Learn how to earn $100,000+ selling real estate.
Subscribe to FREE, weekly e-zine: AgentSuccessTips

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas:
Click Here to activate: ActiveRain Real Estate Network