Jan O'Brien - Real Estate Coach

Making Money with Effective Open Houses

Open Houses...You either love 'em or you hate 'em.  And depending on your attitude as a real estate agent - they either work for you or they don't. 

In my experience, open houses are the single, easiest, most cost effective way to make money in the real estate business.

Let's consider the benefits:

• Marketing exposure for your sellers and your active, saleable listing inventory.  There have been offers written and accepted on the actuall property an agent is holding open!
• Opportunity to meet and work with buyers and sellers and make additional sales.
• The real investment is your time!  Open houses can be the most cost effective prospecting activity if done properly.
• Worst case scenario - if no one shows up - you can catch up on admin tasks, follow-up calls, mailers and other "busy" work at the open house.  Preparation and planning is required! 

Attitude is Everything!
o Know  that the open house is going to be productive
o Plan, Prepare and Know the Property and the Market
o Ask, Believe, Receive!

Selecting the property
o Location (choose a listing that has great traffic; cross streets)
o Condition, price, terms (How does the property show? Is it priced to sell?)
o Your own listings – leverage success through

• Invest in Personalized Yard and Open House Signs
• Hold open houses on listings in your farm areas

o Research office/company listings and coordinate with the listing agent to hold them open
o Vacant vs. Occupied properties
o Open houses work any day of the week!!

THE Key to Real Estate Success...Always be Prospecting!

A majority of your time in this business will be spent prospecting...that is if your goal is to succeed.  ABP (Always be Prospecting) It is the most basic, critical element of success. It is imperative you develop and follow a plan. Build your plan around annual, monthly, weekly and daily prospecting activities. Demand of yourself a weekly minimum number of prospecting contacts. If you are new to the real estate business, 90-95% of your time should be spent asking for business. Do not let pending contracts or any other activity take you out of the business of prospecting every day. Prioritize your prospects, track your results and maintain a simple follow up plan. No other task in the real estate business can be performed until you have a person who is ready, willing, and able to buy or sell.

Regardless of what prospecting method you use, the goal is the same!  The main objective is to establish rapport, put the client at ease, minimize their perception of the threat you represent and always direct your dialogue towards their needs. Your goal is to turn a prospective lead into an appointment with a motivated buyer or seller.

When qualifying a prospect you must ask a lot of questions to help you determine their needs and whether pursuing them is the best use of your time.  Remember:  Questions Attract...Statements Repel. Listen carefully to the answers, take notes and show concern and a willingness to help solve any problems or needs that you uncover.  The answers you receive are not only the client’s needs, but also tell you what methods to use to meet those needs.  These answers will also help you personalize your proposal to secure the client.

You may get objections. Do not be afraid. Objections are a good thing. Objections are simply another form of a question or concern or an indication that you have not totally gained their total rapport. It can simply mean a prospect has not made a decision. Always remember, for every no you are one step closer to a yes. When you have determined that the client is motivated to make a move in the foreseeable future, close.

How to Design Your Exit Strategy

On my Active Rain Blog, I started a series of posts on how to Create a Saleable Asset and Design Your Exit Strategy. 

Here's what I will be covering in this series:

• Determining the value of your real estate business
• The Essential Real Estate Business Systems
• Real Estate Team Building Systems - an overview
• Establishing metrics to measure your business health
• Exit Strategy - from training your replacement to buyout considerations

Visit this first post for some ideas on how to determine the value of your real estate business.

Interview with Matthew Hardy of Real Estate Success Tracker

Last week I interviewed Matthew Hardy, developer and designer of a powerful Real Estate software system called Real Estate Success Tracker (REST).  You can listen to the call above or download the audio file.

Several weeks ago my team and I previewed the unique features and usability of the program through an online demonstration with a team from REST.  Simply put, I was impressed.  The program is a comprehensive, easy to use tool to follow-up with your sellers, buyers, and sphere of influence as well as track your real estate transactions.  The online training and tech support is also outstanding.

 

Key questions and points from the telephone interview:

• How is REST different than the competition
• Challenges facing today's real estate agent
• Why use REST
• Functionality, features and cost
• Using REST with teams and multiple users
• Tech support and training available

I invite you to check out the software and take it for a test drive yourself.  For more info contact the REST Team at:

GetRESTNow or
Real Estate Success Tools

480-626-4461

Review of Group Coaching Sessions 1 & 2

Here's an update on Our Group Coaching Session & Discussion Forum series.  In our first session, we covered Keys to Success in Team Building, the components of a successful business, and business & financial basics.  Outlined below are the key points on business & financial basics.  See the specific blog posts for details on team building theory and components of a successful business.  I am currently editing the audio of the second session on Real Estate Systems and starting a series of blog posts this week to cover each system individually.

• The five successful components of any business
  1. Know Your Desired Outcome
  2. Measure & Track Your Results 
  3. Take Action
  4. Operate from a Physiology and Psychology of Excellence
  5. Ask for Help
• Business & Financial Essentials
  • Establish yourself as a corporate entity (including your license)
  • Begin establishing routine financials (Profit & Loss; Balance Sheet)
  • Utilize a recognized software package (Quickbooks, Peachtree, etc.)
  • Utilize a financial consultant (CPA preferred)
  • Establish a separate business banking account and credit card
  • Create a dashboard of metrics measuring your operations health

In the second group coaching held on April 23rd, we had an excellent small group breakout session on 4 of the key systems:  SOI/Past Clients; Farming; Listings; Buyers.  Download GroupNotes4_23_07.doc  for the best ideas from the discussion groups.

Team Building Systems Overview

Over the next several weeks, I will be completing a series of posts on how to establish effective team building and real estate systems.  The focus will be on how to first implement the system for your personal business. This information will benefit all real estate agents whether you are or plan on building a team.  I will also discuss how to create a team version of each system.  One of the keys to success in building a team is to have easily, duplicatable real estate systems that your team associates can simply plug in to - plug 'n' play - don't reinvent the wheel. 

Here are the major systems we will be focusing on (one by one) over the next several weeks:

1. Business Systems Assessment & Financial Essentials
2. Team Vision, Mission, Values & UVP
3. Team Branding, Marketing & Promotion
4. Team Organizational Chart 
5. Team Building Admin Basics
6. Team SOI/Referral System
7. Team Listing System
8. Team Buyer & Escrow System
9. Team Farming System
10. Team Business Plan & Goal Setting
11. Lead Generation & Follow-up Systems
12. Recruiting/Affiliation System

Keys to Success in Real Estate Team Building

Building a successful and profitable team is truly an art as well as a science.  The initial priority considerations are hiring talented individuals for your key staff positions and implementing effective business and real estate systems.

1. 1.   Hire Talented People to Key Positions

• Team Manager – A Critical Factor
  The key to building a successful, productive and enduring team is having an effective Team Manager.  The Team Leader who recognizes this basic concept will enjoy the benefits of more time, more income, less stress and the creation of a business asset that incorporates an exit strategy (the brokerage within the brokerage model). 

  The duties and responsibilities of the Team Manager include:
  o Set up and implementation of all team building systems that generate additional leads and income for the team
  o Recruiting team associates
  o Training and retaining team associates
  o Holding the team associates accountable to goals and production standards
  
  Your other key player is a solid administrative assistant/transaction coordinator.  Hiring an assistant is actually first priority if you don't already have one.  A general rule of thumb is that you are ready for an assistant when you are consistently closing 2-3 transactions each month.
  
  Here are some documents to get you started in the process of hiring an assistant:
  Sample Admin Assistant Ad Copy Download re_admin_asst_ad_copy.doc
  Sample Interview Questions Download InterviewTemplate.doc
  Job Description Template Download template_job_description.doc
  
  Don’t hire team associates until you are ready!  And ready means (1) you have an administrative assistant or transaction coordinator and ideally also a Team Manager and (2) you have established systems in place.

• Implement Effective Systems
  
  The following business and real estate systems are essential to creating a productive, profitable and successful team:

• Business Basics, Incorporating and Financial Essentials
• Team Vision, Mission, Values & Unique Value Propositions
• Team Organizational Chart
• Team Building Basics
• Team SOI/Referral System
• Team Listing System
• Team Farming System
• Team Business Plan & Goal Setting
• Lead Generation & Follow-up Systems
• Recruiting/Affiliation System
• Exit Strategy

Systems + Staff = Success & Sanity!