I did a mini-interview for the local FOX affiliate for a story they were doing on "Blogging for Buyers" - how some agents are using social networking and blogs to reach more consumers (Gen Y in particular). Here's a link to the story and video clip: Realtors Use Internet To Attract Young Buyers If you are not familiar with the term Gen Y (aka Millenials), here's an excerpt from Wikipedia: Gen Y represents more than 70 million consumers in the United States and refers to a specific cohort of individuals born, roughly, between 1980-83 and 1994 (first half) and 1995-2001... Read more →

I am excited and honored to be a part of the RE Blogworld Conference on Friday, September 19, 2008 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. I will be joining Pat Kitano of TransparentRE and Kevin Boer of 3Oceans Real Estate as moderators for this full-day conference kicking off the Blogworld & New Media Conference set for September 20 and 21 in Las Vegas. Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman are the organizers of this full day event for real estate agents, mortgage brokers and other real estate professionals. Learn from the leaders in the RE.net about how to leverage the power... Read more →

Building your database is an ongoing and daily process. It's a mindset. Set a goal of the number of people you want to add to your database on a weekly or monthly basis. Every day, you will have opportunities to network and talk to others. Turn every day situations into an opportunity to discuss the real estate business and invite someone to be added to your mailing or email list. Here are some strategies and ideas to begin implementing in your daily Action Plan today! Build a habit of sending personal notes Commit to a certain number of personal, hand-written... Read more →

In the real estate business, there are several types of "farms." The geographic farm (prospecting specific neighborhoods or subdivisions) is the most common. Other farms might include: Professional (teachers, attorneys, nurses, doctors - maybe from a related previous career) Apartments and tenant occupied residential properties Out-of-state owners Your last name (I could farm all property owners with the last name O'Brien, O'Brian, O'Bryan for example.) Cultural group Real Estate Farming is analogous to agricultural farming. The "farmer" must analyze the land; prepare and fertilize it; sow the seeds, water, weed and nurture the garden; then harvest the crop when it... Read more →

There are 3 basic reasons why many agents fail to conquer the most important real estate system to implement – your Sphere of Influence (SOI) and Past Client Referral System. 1. They never decide on a contact management or software solution. 2. If they have a solution, they don’t enter the contacts, sort and categorize them. 3. They over-analyze or never decide what to do or send out each month – thus, ultimately doing nothing for months on end. So, let’s break it down step-by-step, get this critical system in place and generating business and referrals immediately. The key to... Read more →

In any market, but particularly a buyer's market, the listing that looks the best, shows the best and feels the best will sell faster (that is given the listing is also priced properly!). The best staged home will sell faster when all other things are comparable (price, terms, location). Helping a seller to prepare the home for showings and staging the property are two initial and essential strategies in a successful listing and marketing program. The three major areas of consideration for preparing a home to go on the market are: Clean De-Clutter Stage individual rooms Las Vegas real estate... Read more →

In the June 2008 issue of Southern Nevada Realtor, GLVAR attorney, Deanne Rymarowicz, addresses the subject of managing short sales. In this article she answers some very specific questions real estate agents are currently dealing with in our market. I recently addressed Common Questions and Answers on Short Sales and want to expand on the discussion regarding multiple offers and best practices. Deanne answers the question "Can the seller refuse to respond to all offers, and finally accept only the one the bank approves?" To summarize her answer: "If the licensee is advising the seller to refuse to respond, there... Read more →

I just read Seth Godin's post entitled Email Checklist - "Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list...." It's a classic and got me thinking about my love-hate relationship with email. Most days I am so done with email! Is an empty Inbox a real possibility in this lifetime? Seriously, how many hours a day are you spending on email - reading, sorting, deleting and responding? Is email making your life more or less stressful? Is it really more efficient then picking up the phone and talking to the other party? Personally, I... Read more →

It is interesting how the learning curve in real estate truly reflects who is doing the business. It amazes me how every day I am coaching and advising real estate agents on how to handle a short sale or REO sale. I catch myself saying, "how is it that this agent or the agent on the other side of the transaction is not aware of how to handle these situations?" After all, haven't we covered this in numerous sales meetings? Don't they read the company attorney's blog? Listen to the CEO's conference calls? Did they catch what the GLVAR published... Read more →

Basic Business planning is a 3 step process: Set Your Goals/Outcomes Keys to Achievable Outcomes and Write Your Goals - Download Keys-to-an-Achievable-Outcome.pdf Create Your Written Business Plan Form to Review your Previous Year's Business Download a_review_of_your_business.pdf A basic 3 page Business Plan Download basic_real_estate_business_plan.pdf Track and Measure your Results Basic Income and Expenses Statement - Download income_statement.pdf Visit this post - "Three Steps to Creating A Real Estate Busines Plan" for more details on real estate business planning and to download all the business planning and goal setting forms. Once you have your business plan in place, it is critical... Read more →

In the coming weeks, I will be posting a series of articles on how to implement effective systems for your real estate business. As I conduct group coaching sessions for Prudential Americana Group, REALTORS, I will post the supporting documents, key strategies and any audio or video files from the training classes. The focus of these sessions is to work on your business while you are also working in the business. Most training and coaching programs focus mainly on skillset - prospecting, sales techniques, closing, contracts, listing and selling techniques. Of course, mastering these key real estate sales skills is... Read more →

I discovered the Eco-Safe widget today on Chris Brogan's blog as I was reviewing my blog feeds. What a great idea and a way to promote more environmentally-friendly alternatives to printing. I immediately installed it on my blog and checked it out - brilliant! Works as advertised, simple and green. The widget allows visitors to your blog alternatives to printing thus helping to reduce the to staggering amount of paper used daily for web printing: Send the page via email Email a PDF of the page Download a PDF of the page Do your part to help the planet today...... Read more →