Nov. 12, 2007 - Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

A group of 20 top agents have started an instant effort to gather hundreds of ideas from agents around the country of how to succeed in the coming 2008 market.

• If you reply to survey below and share ideas you will receive a free copy of the ebook PDF by Thanksgiving.
• This effort is being organized by Best Agent Business, the publishers of Billion Dollar Agent: Lessons Learned to help top agents, RealTown, and a consortium of real estate professionals!

Please take 5 minutes, complete survey below, and forward to fellow agents:
Survey for Real Estate Agents

Nov. 12, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Keep a positive mindset, keep consistency in both schedule and daily work habits. Keep our egos out of the way and do what is required to succeed inspite of everything that is going on around us. Then we will have the right results.

Nov. 13, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Would love to learn great information to develop more business

Nov. 13, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Would love to learn great information to develop more business

Nov. 13, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 13, 2007 - Project Tinkertoy

Nov. 14, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

become better listeners, invest in themselves

learn how to present themselves as consultants and advisors, not salespeople, listen first to what is important to the client, what do they value in business relationships.

Once you have this and their trust you will go far

Nov. 14, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 14, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 14, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Focus - stay focused.  And stay positive.  No matter how bad any market may be, always remember that the Empire State Building was built at the height of the Great Depression at a profit! 

It's your attitude and your focus that will make you succeed .  A dilligent, sustained and relentless attention to the basics in both non-technology and technology driven methods is also essential. It's just as important to keep yourself visible in town as it is to maintain your drip email campaigns.  With systems that keep the basics going in all ways and a positive, focused attitude, you simply can't fail.

Nov. 17, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 17, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 18, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Just to let the web master know, I could not get into the survey questions.

I just returned from NAR conference in Las Vegas. I am working hard for referrals and reconnecting with Brokers.  This does work if you work it.  Target market for your buyers.  Also, I know we are interviewed for the listing but I also interview for the listing, also.  I want to make sure the seller knows what the market is doing and do they really want to sell at todays prices or do they want to wait.  Pricing is the key to selling now.

I am a Women's Council of Realtors President Elect for 2008.  I also do a lot of referrals throught WCR.  Beside's teaching great leadership tools and how to be the best in a slower market, the referrals help fill in the gaps.  I am never to busy for referrals.

Nov. 18, 2007 - Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 19, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Tips to an extraordinary Real Estate in 2008

 Patti Kouri, Master Coach

There are Realtors working today, some very successfully, who have never worked in a “buyers” market. Their license exam was hardly finished before the commissions started rolling in. There were always lots of sellers, lots of buyers, and lots of money changing hands. Interest rates stayed low and prices stayed high. That doesn’t mean that business was always easy, or that it wasn’t competitive. It just means that now that the market has changed, agents have to course-correct to take advantage of the  opportunites of this market.

There are tremendous opportunities in every market!  ‘If you think the market is good….you  are right, if you think the market is bad…. you are right’.

Here are some key steps to an extraordinary 2008.  

create a schedule. To create peak performance you need life balance, therefore  your schedule should include both your personal and business life.  

Jack Canfield’s book “Success Principles” suggests the use of a “time block” system to create your schedule. Block specific amounts of time for each daily activity then “just do it”.    Remember to allow time to relax and recharge.  Decide in advance the days you work and the days off.   Waiting until you have time to take off will cause you not to do it.  Time off is just as important as time worked.   Have boundaries around your schedule.  so you can complete your tasks.

 Prospect.  Shift your thoughts about prospecting to panning for gold.  Your job is contact to contract.  How can you get contracts without making contacts?   Contact people you know and people you don’t.  Prospect on the phone or in person; Prospect expired, FSBO, apartments for buyers, investment properties, foreclosures, and out of area owners. Ask for referrals from your raving fans, connect with power partners.  The list is endless. The truth is if you are not spending a minimum of one hour everyday hunting for new business, you will eventually not have any.

 Qualify. Now that you have your schedule in place and you are prospecting and picking up leads, it is important that you take the time to make sure that potential clients are truly motivated—both financially and emotionally. Even if you really, really need a client right now, is it worth your time and peace of mind to lower your standard and accept an unqualified client or worse yet a toxic client? Unqualified or toxic clients will consume you and disrupt your equilibrium. Their endless demands will take you away from serving truly qualified clients.

 Don’t let someone you don’t even know take you off track of your goals.  You have complete control of your time. Use it to your best advantage.

80/20 rule. 80% of your time ought to be spent in “income producing” activities and 20% of your time ought to be spent in “income servicing” activities.  This one shift will make a world of difference in your production results.   How much of your time spent is generating production?  Divide your gross commission by the number of hours you worked. Now look at how you’re spending your time. What are your top four income-producing activities? Which of them is generating the most income? If you’re spending more of your time sitting behind the computer, or servicing your listings and behind in generating income, it’s time to recalculate your schedule.  Understanding the 80/20 rule as it relates to your income will allow you to shift where you spend you time and earn to your full capacity.  Remember you are responsible for your production not the market.

Develop your own strategy.  Coach Vince Lombardi once said,  “In all my years of coaching, I have never been successful in using someone else’s plays.”

You may think of it as a mission statement, or ethical guidelines, or your specialty. Perhaps it’s all three. But whatever you call it, you need to define your strategy;  your segment of the market. The top agents in the country all have a sales and service strategies. They specialize in a type of property or a geographic area or another market segment. That’s not to say they won’t accept referrals outside their market area. They will, if their service can measure up to their usual standards. But these very successful agents also have extremely robust referral networks that they nurture just as vigorously as they work their prospects. Most out-of-market leads will be referred to someone they trust from this network.

To truly serve your clients, you must be able to reach them through your marketing, to make contact with them personally, and to respond to their requests quickly and efficiently. That’s hard to do when your market is the entire planet.

Your strategies will help you defines your market and also provides people with what’s unique about you and your service; what separates you from everyone else who wants the same slice of the pie? Just like qualifying your clients and understanding your business, defining your strategies helps to confirm that your business is on track.

Winning attitude.  No one wants to work with a negative, frazzled agent.  Make sure you’re sending the right message.  What you think most about you create.  If you think you can you can.  If you think you can’t you can’t. By Henry Ford.  Winners make things happen.  Losers let things happen. 

 Attraction. Does it seem like some people have all the “luck”? Well, guess what? Those people are Incredibly Attractive—and we’re not talking about physical glamour.

The idea of attraction is based on the principle that like attracts and cause and effect.   Some steps to attraction:

We attract what we are.  So zap those ‘psychic vampires’ that suck the energy out of you in a negative way that leaves you with little or no energy to do the things you want to do or ought to do.  Take really good care of yourself to elevate you energy.  If you don’t no one else will.   Create space for your success.  If you don’t have the space how can you create it? Have clarity about what you want to attract.  If you can’t see it how can you hit it?  Be grateful.  How can you get more if you are not grateful for what you have?  Give back.    What you give out you get back.  Allow it to come in to your life.  Allowing is absence of doubt.  See that your goals are plausible.  If some one else can so can you.  

Nov. 20, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Nov. 20, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

1.  Keeping a positive attitude is important. 

2.  Also, it helps to always be thinking of personalized ways to contact your past clients, sphere of influence and current clients so they know you are thinking of them.  I like to print off current articles regarding the real estate market and either read them to my clients by phone, or email them a copy for their interest. They like the personal attention. 

3.  Ask for referrals for their friends or family or work associates that may benefit from your services.  Always compliment every person you meet. 

4.   Build a relationship, find out how you can help them with their real estate needs, qualify them, then if they qualify, take care of their purchase or sale.

5.  Under promise and over deliver is what my trainers say. 

Nov. 28, 2007 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

  Hi , I heard about this web site at NAR. Great Idea! To be successful you not only need to go to Seminars but pick one think from the Seminar that you are actually going to implement ! That is a key! I have to bring a more technology into my business in 2008!

Jan. 3, 2008 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

More than ever before, I believe in surrounding yourself with people who have clear goals and who are willing to share strategic ideas and practices.  This puts the focus on growth, and keeps one looking forward.

Meeting with like-minded people on a regularly scheduled basis to keep energy high and activities driven to produce results will not only increase business, but the pleasure factor as well!

Go BDAG!

Jody Peterson Lodge

Jan. 3, 2008 - RE: Survey: What Do You Need for Success in 2008?

Do what your coach tells you, and don't try to reinvent the wheel.

Set goals that motivate you to be successful to obtain them.