Cheaper Isn't Better

When you get "hit up" over commissions in your listing consultations, remember what it's really about.  Commission objections are ALWAYS about the Seller's net and NEVER about the commission amount.  You need a Unique Value Proposition that shows the Seller how you will NET them more money,  It must be so compelling that the Seller will feel that they would have to be a fool to do business with anyone else regardless of price.  Here's a hint from Simon Sineck: "People don't buy what you sell, they buy what you believe."

These days The Truth is in short supply.  But there's high demand for it.  In fact, people CRAVE it!  So sell the truth... sell what you believe.  If you want to hear and feel what that sounds like in a listing consultation, be at SLAM DUNK on Wednesday May 14th from 9am to Noon at the new NorBAR offices. - Get Tickets Here

Yes you CAN list and close at least one Short Sale per month!

If you're working with buyers right now, then you know how big a problem lack of inventory is.  When you finally do find the right property for your buyer, there are multiple offers or, worse yet, the property goes pending before you can even get your buyers offer submitted. Want to solve this now??  The GET YOUR OWN INVENTORY!!  Short Sales can be listed and closed with a system just like REO and retail listings.  The real power of learning and perfecting the system is in the results. On April 18th from 10am to 2pm at SYAOR Christine Papworth will lead this 4 hour short sale lead generation and processing workshop.  Christine Papworth closes over 200 Short Sale listing sides per year in the Stockton California area. As a short sale listing pro you can: Save families from the nightmare of foreclosure Get the listing before some out-of-town REO agent Help support neighborhood pricing Help your buyers get into the right home Get at least two Buyer-side closings from every listing sign Register now for this FREE event!  See you there!! Cheers, The Real Estate Pro Resource

Personal responsibility - at first it's bitter... But if you chew on it long enough, it's yummy!

People use the same lame excuses for mediocrity in fitness, relationships, and business. It's easy to think of plausible reasons why you "can't" because these reasons make you a victim of circumstance rather than a victim of your own lack of action or initiative. Your excuses move everything out of the realm of your own control and personal accountability, and therefore the inadequacy of your current situation is not your fault.


Successful people fail just like the rest of us. The difference is that, when they fail, they realize it's their own fault. Then they analyze the failure, figure out the reason they failed, get up, dust themselves off, and try again with a new strategy. In order to do this, you must first accept responsibility for the failure.


Personal responsibility - at first it's bitter... But if you chew on it long enough, it's yummy!

6 Things Your Broker Won't Tell You

More Realtors think about switching brokerages around the first of the year than at any other time.  For agents with thriving, established businesses, a move can either be an expensive distraction and a bump in the road, or it can be the next big step in the evolution of their businesses.  For newer agents or agents who are struggling, it can either be a step toward a business worth owning, or the first step on their way out of the business.  For a Realtor, trying to make this kind of decision is sort of like running with your eyes closed holding a pair of scissors.  The problem is this - with one notable exception, brokers will not share the key information required to make a fully informed, sound decision.  With that in mind, here are 5 crucial pieces of information that brokers will not share:

Where will I be the most successful??

1. Profitability - Is the brokerage profitable? - No matter how big they appear to be, businesses that are not profitable eventually close. Hanging your license at a brokerage is a high-level business partnership.  If you and I were starting an LLC where we were going to buy and hold property for example, we would both surely want to see personal financial statements that show we had the means to contribute to the success of the LLC.  Imagine going to the expense and hassle of making a move, only to have the brokerage close or declare bankruptcy soon after.  Could be a career-ender.
2. Are They a LEAD STEALER? - Independent national surveys overwhelmingly prove that company affiliation is NOT a factor in choosing an agent.  People choose to do business with YOU not company XYZ.  So why do most brokerages FORCE their agents to put the office phone on their panel sign, their cards and all the rest of their marketing?  Simple... so that the leads from your hard earned listing go to the floor agent.  The floor agent is generally a less-busy, lower split agent.  So the company dollar from the lead is greater if it closes with the lower split agent.  Some brokerages even charge a referral fee to their own agents for incoming leads.  So you go out, do the work, get the listing or the buyer lead, and if your lead calls the main office number, you're out of luck.
3. Do They Train or Educate? - All the major (and most of the small independent) brokerages will tell you they have great training.  The best... even world-class training.  Let's be clear about one thing.  Training is the functionary nuts and bolts, the step-by-step, the "here's how you fill out the purchase agreement" type stuff.  Is it necessary?  Absolutely!  Is it true high-level real estate business education?  Of course not.  Real education for a real estate business owner involves sharing successful lead generation concepts, business building techniques, hiring and accountability systems, winning business strategies and more.  It involves all of this along with coaching and consulting.  If the brokerage does not provide this (and I can only think of one that does), you'll need to go out and get it on your own.  And it's EXPENSIVE!
4. Commissions and Fees - For some reason, most brokerages will tell you about the commission and some of the fees while leaving the rest of the money details buried in their Independent Contractor Agreement and fee riders.  So your first commission check usually comes with an unpleasant little surprise.  In addition, most brokerages use fees for things like office rent, copies, and E & O insurance as profit centers.  My very first brokerage is a great example.  At this well-known national brokerage, the agents were charged $1,900 per year for E & O insurance.  The brokerage was paying what amounted to about $500 per year for the coverage.  At that same brokerage, there were agents who's production was well below mine who were on higher splits due to favoritism or whatever negotiations took place to entice them to stay.  In addition, the agents at this type of brokerage who are the top dogs often get marketing coops and kick-backs.  These deals are ridiculous. The top agents still pay far more than they should AND the coops and kick-backs create animosity among colleagues.
5. Do They Share REAL Profit? - Do they actually share a set percentage of the company dollar back to the agents?  This is critical for two reasons:
• Agents who share in the company dollar profit at a brokerage have a vested interest in the success of that brokerage and so it follows that the more successful their fellow agents are, the more profit there is to share.  At a brokerage which is sharing company dollar with agents, you will find the top agents are very willing to teach the rest of the agent population just what they are doing to generate and close so much business.  Profit share thus creates and environment of friendly cooperation between agents and their colleagues and between the agents and the brokerage.
• In order to truly share company dollar profit, the books must be open.  Any agent must be able to look at the books (the very same books that the owners use) any time.  You can see what the staff is getting paid, how much the building costs, the utilities, the paper, copier, FAX, etc.  So you'll know if you are getting dinged on the fees.  Open books keep the broker honest.
6. The "Split" Never Ends! - At the traditional brokerage, the split goes on forever.  The more business you do, the more you will pay the brokerage.  The last year that I was at my first broker, I paid them over $95,000 in commission splits just to be there.  I believe that it should not cost more than a fixed maximum amount of money in any 12 month period to be in business with a broker.  There are now several brokerages who cap the amount of commission at a set amount per year.  When you compare these houses, be sure you shop on value, not just on price.  If you are doing 30 sides per year and brokerage A's cap is $12,000 vs brokerage B's cap at $18,000 it might seem like a no-brainer.  But what if brokerage B's high-level coaching, consulting, and education could get you just 3 more deals per year?  What if brokerage A's semi-hidden fees and negative work environment started to add up?  What if brokerage A defaulted on it's building lease?

The real estate business has gone through some major changes in the last 12 years with respect to the value of the relationship between the broker and the agent  If you are thinking about making a move, you owe it to yourself to do your due diligence and make the wisest, most business savvy decision possible. Your career depends upon it!

Two Big Reasons NEVER to Hand Out Your Business Card

You've been there before.  Your having a nice conversation with someone at the bank or maybe at a store.  The conversation turns to real estate.  They tell you they're planning on making a move soon.  You talk to them about the move and ask them for their contact information so you can get with them later to help them out.  They say, "no problem.  Just give me a card and I'll give you a call."  You hand them a business card and they go away, never to be heard from again.  Or, are you one of the really pro-active card agents?  I mean the ones who give their card out to anyone and everyone who might have a real estate need.  If so, you would not have asked them for their contact information.  You would have just handed them a card and told them to give you a call.  In any case, the result would have been the same.  Ever wonder why?

Let's look at what I call the two BIG reasons to NEVER hand out your business card:

1. Once the prospect has your information, you don't need theirs. - Always look at every exchange from the prospect's perspective. - So the conversation was good.  You seemed nice and knowledgeable.  They have your information.  They'll call you if they need you.  Thus your business card's final odyssey begins.  If it's in the prospect's pocket, it goes through the wash and into the trash.  If it's in the prospect's wallet, the next time they look at it, it's a year later.  They're cleaning out their wallet and they throw it away because they have no idea who you are or why they have your card.
2. You could have had a lead.  But now you don't. - You only have a lead if you have legit contact information.  YOU have to have it... not the prospect.  The person with the contact information is in the driver's seat.  They are the only ones in control of whether on not you ever speak again.  In sales, that always needs to be YOU!

Always remember - The object of any exchange is to make an appointment.  If you can't get an appointment, the fall-back position is to get the prospect's full name, phone number, and email address (that is a lead).  Just practice saying this: "Oh wow... I don't have any more cards with me.  Let me get your email and phone and I'll get in touch with you tomorrow."

Be the card-less Realtor!

Open Houses - How to Make Them Pay Off in Seller Leads

How many times have you heard a fellow agent say, "...open houses are a waste of time, boring, useless, time consuming...".  Or better yet, "... the only people that came were looky-loos from the neighborhood."  HELLO??  Can you say, "seller lead"?  I bet you hear it all the time.  Below is a system that we use to turn a 4 hour open house into a neighborhood event that generates a minimum of 3 listing leads and 5 buyer leads every time without fail.  If you knew that this would work, would you do it?  Read on then!

First, pick the right listing - find a listing agent in your office who has a listing in a relatively high-traffic location.  Try to avoid cul-de-sac and dead-end streets.  It should be easy to get them to allow you to hold it open.  I know in our office, there are several opportunities every weekend.

The prime time for an open is Saturday or Sunday from 11am to 3pm.  Possibly the greatest key to high turnout is this - use a minimum of 15 directional signs.  Our surveys have indicated that almost nobody who attends our open houses comes in response to newspaper or internet ads.  This means that a prospect's decision to go to your open house is largely spontaneous and driven almost exclusively by your directional signage.  These signs MUST be up no later that 8am on the day prior to the open house.  So, put a flyer on the door of the listing indicating the hours of the open house.

Partner with a lender who can be there to pre-qualify buyer leads and is willing to provide refreshments and a prize for a drawing.  If you lender is not willing to cooperate, do it yourself the first time and start looking for a new lender partner.  Our summer-time open houses were ice-cream socials.  We called them grand openings.

On the day prior to the open house at 5:30pm, door-knock at least 50 homes in the neighborhood with fliers about your Grand Opening.  Our fliers said something like, "GRAND OPENING - SATURDAY 11AM - 3PM at 1234 MAIN ST!  FREE ICE CREAM!  WIN AN iPAD 2!  COME SEE ONE OF THE FINEST HOMES IN ARDEN PARK!"  We gave away one prize per quarter.  It doesn't have to be an iPad.  It could be anything that is perceived as valuable enough to generate interest.  Don't over-think it.

So, have balloons at the home, a table out in from of the house where you will register everyone to win the prize.  We kept an empty iPad box taped down to the table so that we didn't risk getting the real one stolen. On the table, along with the registration sheet was a framed picture of yours truly shaking hands and handing the last iPad to the lucky winner from last quarter.  The picture had a caption that read, "Last Quarter's Lucky Winner!".  Inside the home, we had an apple pie baking in the oven.  I usually brought two so that we could keep the smell in the house for the entire four hours.  In addition, take tons of pictures during the open house.

So how do you convert the leads?  Simple:

• Buyers - ask them to register to win | ask them if they are looking just in this area | invite them to have a look inside | tell them to be sure to check with you before they leave so you can give them a list of available homes in the area and also you'd like to tell them about some homes that are coming soon but are not yet on the market.  Once they engage with you in this dialogue, it's time for the needs analysis.
• Sellers (neighbors) - First let me be clear.  You MUST assume that everyone who comes to your open house has a real estate need of some kind.  Keep a stack of 2-up (an 81/2 x 11 page cut in half) cards that say, in BIG RED LETTERS at the top, "REAL ESTATE EMERGENCY??".  Under the title print, "Late payments, facing foreclosure, call our 24-hour foreclosure prevention hotline at (999)999-9999 before it's too late.  The stack of these cards should be strategically placed where they are seen by anyone touring the home but can be picked up by a prospect discreetly.  A spot in the master bedroom usually works well.  When you ask a seller lead if they are looking in the area, they will say something like, "Oh, we're just the nosey neighbors".  Ask them, "Have you ever seen an open house like this in the neighborhood before?"  They'll say, "No".  Ask them, "Do you know why we do it this way?"  They'll say, "No".  Tell them, "Because this way, when the buyers come through there are a lot of people in the home.  It creates the perception that the home is in demand.  This results in higher offers sooner".

After your grand open house, everyone who registered gets a thank you call or email.  They get entered in your database and put on your 33 touch campaign.  When you do the drawing to give away the prize, you make the winner pick it up at your office.  Take a picture of them receiving the prize from you.  Take that picture, along with the ones that you took at the open house, overlay them with a small size version of your logo.  Post them on your Facebook page and tag anyone whom you know in the photographs (use the email addresses you got on the registration to find and friend the people on Facebook first).

It's really that simple.  If you do it, it will become a HUGE pillar of your lead generation.  In addition, it will get you instant deals, instant business, instant leads, and instant success!