Your First Day In Real Estate

The one thing I can say about staying out of trouble is that I have never been in trouble. After 1,000's of sales I have never been sued. I have never been fined, and I have never even been in arbitration or mediation. Knock on wood. The thing that I believe kept me out of hot water was my unwavering morals and standards for the way I treat the clients. I do not sleep well if I feel there is something I can do to fix problems. Although we have our e and o insurance this is not enough walk on the dark side. Over the last 20 or so years I was able to keep my nose clean by following these simple guidelines. I hope they work as good for you as they do for me. 1. Ask lots of questions. Asking questions is a great way of discovering the history of a home. Better yet, if you know there could be troubles ask your clients the same questions phrased differently. This way You are able to pull out the truths without running into trouble later. 2. Get an Inspection. Sometimes buyers ask me about who they should hire for an inspection. Some companies discourage agents from recommending one particular company. Some brokers are suggesting that we offer them a list of home inspectors for the buyers to use. Lately I have just told my buyers to look in the phonebook. I follow up by saying that they are all the same if they are licensed but I cannot recommend one. Most of the time they will not question it. 3. If you have to ask yourself," should I disclose this?", then you should. I learned this from a very wise broker years ago and it has worked for me. 4. Slow down. Take time to read and re-read the details of a contract. Don't keep your eye on the prize when it should be on the paperwork. 5. Get more education. Take every class you can that your board of Realtors gives. You are already paying for it. 6. Follow the rules. They are there for a reason and not meant to be broken. 7. Think before you speak. Sometimes as agents we jump in to a conversation way too early. The best thing to do is shut your mouth until you know it’s your turn. It also make you look smarter not to talk and to listen attentively. 8. Think before you hit send, or, post, or tweet or update. I know with social networks being interesting is hard. There is no reason to like crude humor or make comments on flammable topics. When you put things on the web it stays on the web. You would be surprised how much is left behind. 9. Pay attention. Pay attention to the environment, pay attention to the clients words, pay attention to the prelim,to the disclosures, to the body languages. Pay attention to the people around you, pay attention to the neighborhood. Pay attention to recent sales and listings. Pay attention to interest rates. Just pay attention. 10. Know the score before you call the shot. If you do not know what the situation at hand is then you should not lend your opinion. Know what you are dealing with before you start talking. 11.Get help and second opinions from those around you. You have so many resources. Your association has a hotline to get legal help. Ask your broker or your company attorney. Ask the ones who you know are smarter than you. There are no stupid questions, actually there are, but go ahead and ask. 12. Follow your gut, sometime all it takes to use common sense to decide whether or not you are stepping into the red zone. Sometimes it’s a vibe you get from an up call, or a feeling you get in an empty house. If you don't feel right about a situation then step off. If the potential client is a real jerk then walk away. You will make more money without them. Better yet, refer them to your biggest competition. 13. Double check everything. Before your fax, before you make the call, before you sign documents. Double check before you show the home and make sure it is not sold. Double check that all of the signatures are there. Double check that you have the file before you leave to the clients. 14.

Real Estate Sales Trainer and Coach Episode 0068 Keeping your Focus at Work

Branding ideas For Real Estate Agents

I have been a fan of using video as a creative outlet ever since I snuck into my dads closet and "borrowed" his Twenty pound VHS Camcorder and made home movies. That passion was halted by his discovery of my antics. It took almost 20 years for the pric...

Once your website begins to generate new leads for you, the tough part is over. However, you still need to quickly convert those leads into money. Agents that are wise to adopt to these methods are the ones getting ahead this crazy market while those s...

Email marketing is one of the most effective channels of marketing that is widely used by bloggers, website marketers and companies. Although this can be a great marketing tool, its effectiveness will depend on your resourcefulness, your  intelligence ...

10 ways of taking advantage of a low inventory 1-Calling Expireds 2-Follow up on warm calls 3-Door Knock 4-Social media publication of latest news 5-Encouraged your SOI to step up if they need help or are on the fence 6-Print and mail latest news to expireds and FSBO 7-Print and mail latest news to Warm prospects 8-Approach the For Sale By Owner with the news 9-Check your inventory and make price adjustments 10- Check your mindset about the market and believe that you need 100% effort RIGHT NOW!

Real Estate Sales Trainer and Coach Episode 11 Cold Calls and the DNC

Real Estate Sales Trainer and Coach Episode 0011 Expireds

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Landvoice Webinar On Getting 25 Listing Leads

Real Estate Sales Trainer and Coach Episode 0008 Asking Questions

A very Special thank you to Sammy Kohn for providing this episodes content. Hi James. I’ve been listening to your Podcast for the past two weeks in my car. Great stuff. You have such enthusiasm and wisdom. I am a new Realtor in Toronto, but I’ve been in sales for the past 10 years. I’m in the middle of looking for clients and spreading the word via Facebook, Linkedin, my web site www.sammykohn.com and I will be doing some print ads in February. My challenge is this. Almost everybody I talk with has a relationship established with a Realtor, or they just bought/sold or they aren’t looking at the moment. I can’t seem to get over the initial hump of getting a few listings under my belt, so I can showcase this. What would you recommend?

Real Estate Sales Trainer and Coach 0006 Price Reductions

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsG06Gqqpiw&list=UUkqVoftJJ4CmueRIEnhql7w&index=1&feature=plcp[/tube] With the current lowering listing inventory, it’s tempting to think that there are less sellers out there now than buyers. However, the fact is, whatever the market, there is always the same number of actual buyers and sellers (generally, one of each per transaction). It’s just that in a so-called “buyers market” – i.e. a market with relatively fewer transactions – there are fewer of both. That’s why it’s important to identify and work with truly motivated sellers and buyers, which raises the question: what is one of the best ways to find motivated buyers in these times? The obvious answer is: by having something  My attractive, multi-page Listing Presentations has everything I need to describe my services, company, marketing plan, pricing strategy and more, helping me convince seller prospects that I'm the agent who’ll get top dollar for their home in this market. You can also easily create custom presentations that target specific home types and seller lifestyles. Once they’re created, you can print them, email them or web publish them.to sell – i.e. listing inventory. And that’s why many high-profile sales trainers and top-producing agents stress the importance of getting listings, whatever the market. The key, of course, is persuading sellers to price them realistically. And when you create your  CMA, go to import MLS comparables data and photos directly into your presentation with just a few clicks. Comparables mapping is also a must in your presentation, which will help you convince your sellers of the need to price their listing realistically in relation to all of the comparable listings in their area. In addition to your Listing Presentation, you can also show seller prospects examples of the Community and School Reports you’ll use to sell their area to buyers at Open Houses, during showings and in general. Community and School Reports include detailed demographic, school, economic, weather, amenities information and more for every zip code in the U.S. Whether printed or emailed as a PDF, these attractive Reports, with easy-to-read graphs and tables, will help you demonstrate to sellers that you’re a local area expert. If you’ve been sending your seller prospects regular Market Snapshots with MLS comparables and local market trending analysis, they’ll probably already be more inclined to price their home realistically. If you haven’t, then you might want to bring your notebook computer to the listing presentation and, if you or they have wireless access to the Web, generate a CMA for them on the spot. Doing so will help them understand the current market through viewing a variety local market information like average and median home prices, average days on market, asking price to sale price ratio, recent sales to actives listings ratio, and more. This, in turn, will help you persuade them to list their home at a competitive price. You’ll also be able to point out how offering market reports helps you to attract motivated buyers. With sellers increasingly selecting their listing Realtors based on web presence and overall techno-savvy, you’ll certainly want to demonstrate how your site will showcase their listing. Additionally, in today’s market you’ll also want to highlight how your site offers information and services that act as a buyer magnet. A professional website gives you an attractive and cost-effective way to market your listings, provide important community and market information, and capture buyer leads.