Business todaycustomer servicesLivingReal Estate RelatedUncategorized January 30, 2013

Are you a Victim or a Player?

 

I don't know about you but I'm not one to want to hang out with the type of individual who blames everything that happens to them on everyone else. Sure we all know someone like this don't we? They tend to see the negative in most everything, they always have something going wrong in their life and none of it ever seems to be the fault of their own! They tend to focus on the negative news of the day then they will manifest that news and weave it into their own failure in some way. This pattern is a spiral down mentality and a mindset from scarcity. They have little trust and most of the time they think that everyone is out to get them. This is a very difficult way to go through life. It also does not help in attraction. When you live in this space the energy you put off is highly negative and repealing. Most victims usually attract other victims.

The opposite way of thinking is that of a player. This individual takes full responsibility for their situation and is always open minded to others to help he or she to become a better individual. They usually measure their success not by what they get but how much they can give. Their mentality is that of abundance. They try to focus on the positive 90% of the time and normally have trust of most others.

A great example of thinking as a victim or a player as it pertains to Real Estate is our Inventory today which is a big deal. Every where I go I hear this. "We have an inventory problem!" Would you say that is an Victim or a Player statement? Things will get better when we have more inventory. What are we blaming for our lack of business?
I would suggest a different approach! If inventory is the issue then that would tell me, as a player, that we need to go out and create some Sellers! The biggest generation of today is the Boomer generation. The individuals were born between 1946-1963.

This generation in mostly in transition. They are prime for moving to the retirement world or are already there but are still living in homes that they raised their families in. They want to make the move to a warmer climate or get that smaller condo but no one has helped them understand how to make that happen. Well you're a Real Estate trusted adviser that has this knowledge. Instead of complaining about low inventory get creative and go seek out sellers and help them make the move!

When you create a seller you generate inventory and bingo problem solved!

The image at the top of my post is that of Tom Solcum in the 1991 Boston Marathon at the 20 mile mark. He started 24 hours before the other runners. Tom has a player mentality. Next time you are blaming someone else for where you are in life think about Tom and what he faces on a daily basis.

Business todaycustomer servicesLivingUncategorized November 16, 2012

How often are you face to face with your customers?

I'd like you to meet Joie Gowan. Joie as been in the real estate business for over 25 years. I walk past her office daily on the way to my office. Today I walked by and noticed over 100 of these on her floor.

I asked Joie what they were? She told me they are shopping bags wrapped up nicely with a hand written note and a small gift. She explained that they are hand delivered.

You might be saying, "really a shopping bag.?" It's not any old shopping bag, it is a very well maid great designed shopping bag.
I happen to know some of Joie's customers and they tell me that every time they grab this bag out of their car they think about Joie. BINGO!

She does this every year for her customers. I want you to know that Joie understands value and relevance. She also knows that faceless relationships don't last. Maybe this year some of you might take a page out of Joie's book and ask how you are doing something special to be face to face with your customers?

Business todaycustomer servicesReal Estate Related October 19, 2012

Real Estate as a Career.

There are 3 serious questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Am I committed to having Real Estate be my career?

2. Do I believe in the company I work for?

3. Do I believe in myself?

 

I read a recent blog form 1000watt and there was one part of the post that stuck with me and made me want to expound on this statement.

Strive to be able to one day proudly say, “100% of our agents attend our company meetings, use our tools and get five-star reviews. And 100% of our past clients return to do business with us.”

This article talks about how many real estate agents today are creating a perception in the eyes of our customers that as a whole we lack professionalism, integrity, and accountability.

This is why the 3 questions are so important. If you see Real Estate as a career then there are things you are going to do.

Show up every day ready to exceed customers’ expectations. Understand and have a process for working with customers that gives predictable outcomes. Running your business like a business. Being proactive and not reactive. Seeking to solve problems for your customers regardless of the net dollar outcome. Selfless and humble. It is these traits that have proven to create the most rewarding business in real estate.

Do you believe in your company? Does your company provide you with tools that help you to differentiate the value proposition to your customers? Is there an environment that enhances your drive to be better? Are your surrounded by others with similar drive and professionalism? You would be surprised the impact being around other successful people will do to your own business.

The most important question of all however is "Do you believe in yourself?"
If you don't believe in yourself then the rest really doesn't matter. How are you getting your mind in a place on a daily basis to show up with a can do attitude? Looking past the hurdles and only seeing a path of success. It isn’t easy, but needed. Life can be brutal and create obstacles that at times can look like an un-passable mountain. If you question yourself then these mountains can stop you in your tracks. Often we underestimate the power of the mind. It controls our path 100%.

I would ask you to think about each of these questions and then listen to that little voice in your head. Really listen hard to what it says. If there is a negative thought that comes out then that will be the starting point for you to know where your work needs to begin.

Business todaycustomer servicesReal Estate Related October 19, 2012

Real Estate as a Career.

There are 3 serious questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Am I committed to having Real Estate be my career?

2. Do I believe in the company I work for?

3. Do I believe in myself?

I read a recent blog form 1000watt and there was one part of the post that stuck with me and made me want to expound on this statement.

Strive to be able to one day proudly say, “100% of our agents attend our company meetings, use our tools and get five-star reviews. And 100% of our past clients return to do business with us.”

This article talks about how many real estate agents today are creating a perception in the eyes of our customer’s that as a whole we lack professionalism, integrity, and accountability.

This is why the 3 questions are so important. If you see Real Estate as a career then there are things you are going to do.

Show up every day ready to exceed customers’ expectations. Understand and have a process for working with customers that gives predictable outcomes. Running your business like a business. Being proactive and not reactive. Seeking to solve problems for your customer’s regardless of the net dollar outcome. Selfless and humble. It is these traits that have proven to create the most rewarding business in real estate.

Do you believe in your company? Does your company provide you with tools that help you to differentiate the value proposition to your customers? Is there an environment that enhances your drive to be better? Are your surrounded by others with similar drive and professionalism? You would be surprised the impact being around other successful people will do to your own business.

The most important question of all however is “Do you believe in yourself?”
If you don’t believe in yourself then the rest really doesn’t matter. How are you getting your mind in a place on a daily basis to show up with a can do attitude? Looking past the hurdles and only seeing a path of success. It isn’t easy, but needed. Life can be brutal and create obstacles that at times can look like an un-passable mountain. If you question yourself then these mountains can stop you in your tracks. Often we underestimate the power of the mind. It controls our path 100%.

I would ask you to think about each of these questions and then listen to that little voice in your head. Really listen hard to what it says. If there is a negative thought that comes out then that will be the starting point for you to know where your work needs to begin.

Business todayEducationInteresting stuffLivingReal Estate Related June 25, 2012

Are you one of the 78 Million Boomers?

 

America’s 78 million Baby Boomers comprise the largest chunk of the nation’s population and carry most of its wealth. Most have paid off their homes and want to age in place. Baby Boomers also have longer life expectancies than previous generations. In fact, according to the American Medical Association, those individuals who make it to age 65 in today’s world have a 50 percent chance of living another 25 years.

Have you been asking yourself any of these questions?

• Do I have enough money to meet my current lifestyle needs?
• Do I have enough money to meet my future lifestyle needs?
• Do I have enough resources to spend time with my family, grandchildren, and friends?
• Am I concerned about my long-term care needs?
• Am I, or is someone whom I know, retired and in need of additional monthly income?
• Am I concerned about running out of money before I leave this earth?
• Can I afford to do the things that I really want to do during retirement?
• Is my portfolio down?
• Have my assets been reduced to a fearful level?
• Would I like to live in a newer home?
• Would I like to have a second home in a warmer climate?
• Would I like to be able to help my children, grandchildren, or others financially?
• Do I want to leave a financial legacy for my family, church, or others?

In order to be successful today in business no matter what business your in you need to be able to either solve a customer's pain or figure out what their pleasure is.

The Boomer population is huge and I guarantee you will have customers in this demographic. I’m always looking for ways to better understand how to add value to my customers, this book is just another value add for you to better understanding the financial options out there for the baby boomers who may have been asking the above questions.

Tane Cabe, an authority on the boomer real estate niche just came out with a new book for agents to educate and specifically speak to the needs of their boomer clients on strategies around buying and selling real estate. The book in turn can help build your business within the boomer niche. Tane is offering his book for free to the first 1,000 agents that request one. If you want a copy of “Double Your Retirement Dollars; Little Known Strategies to Quickly Increase Income, Assets and Cash for Today’s Retiree”, all you need to do is pay $6.97 for shipping and handling. He’s also offering some free training videos to go with the book. Simply click here to get your copy.

Business todayReal Estate RelatedTechnology April 13, 2012

Real Estate, Relationships, and the Digital Age.

When I was first introduced to the world of real estate in 1995, less than two percent of real estate agents used computers. It was a world based primarily on interruptive marketing to a farm of unknown individuals. Today, relationship marketing is still very much alive, but now consumers have access to an infinite amount of information and multiple channels of communication. At the same time, real estate agents have greater access and insight into their clients’ lives than ever before. When used correctly, this can be a win-win for both agents and consumers.

“Over the next 10 years, the amount of both real-time and historical information available to a single person will have increased exponentially, as will the ability of a single person to instantaneously touch – and influence – a billion people in the time it takes to read this sentence.” – Intelligent Catalyst Blog
This is a pretty profound statement, but one that is quite believable when you consider how far technology has come in the past decade. What we have today is a generation of consumers who are hyperconnected via multiple channels, exchanging information every second. They now have a voice to the masses to communicate their opinions (good, bad, or otherwise), and information is readily available anywhere via smartphones, laptops, and iPads. This phenomenon is forcing everyone in real estate to shift their thinking about how they build and maintain relationships with consumers.

Many agents are beginning to understand that the mass marketing methods of the past are being replaced by a hyperlocal, customer-centric approach. Some do this by writing a blog on something they are passionate about, building loyal followers (and potential clients) with every post. They are mastering the paperless transaction and understand that knowing how to capture digital signatures can be used as a point of differentiation. They are learning how to repurpose data and content in a way that adds value in the eyes of their clients, and they know how to use these clients’ testimonials to enhance their SEO. Their websites are dynamic resources rich with real time information that simultaneously serve as a hub to their many spokes of social media.

Agents who have made the decision to embrace new technologies understand what hyperconnectivity means to them, their clients, and their business. They’ve seen first-hand how being active on social media can add significant value to their client relationships. These agents post regular updates on Facebook, tweet valuable community information, check in to their favorite spots using foursquare, and keep their LinkedIn accounts up-to-date. They understand that having the tools and hardware that allows them to do all these things is imperative – because their clients are doing it too.

This new world of technology and social media can be intimidating, so it’s important that agents have some level of support in their offices. If you aren’t comfortable being the point person, find someone in your office who can take the lead. Simply having an agent or staff person that agents feel comfortable going to for help is really all it takes. Those early adopters will help your office improve their proficiency while adding to the overall value of your organization.

Business todayReal Estate RelatedTechnology January 25, 2012

Tools to help the Real Estate agents.

So Today at the Windermere’s 40th anniversary symposium we unveiled a new Ipad application called Touch CMA. This program is very robust and I thought I would just show you some of the screen shots of its functionality.

Cover page of your CMA

Map of comps around your home that has been GEO located.

Draw a circle or outline of the neighborhood you want to search using your finger.

Great Display pages.

A world class CMA presentation tool
An efficient and powerful CMA authoring tool (in the same app!)
A robust feature to construct and send PDF copies to yourself and your client (right from your iPad!)
An automatic generator of trends, graphs, and charts to get the outcome you want
Presenter of marketing materials that support the brokerage, the agent, or the region
Highly usable and simplified user experience that any agent can pick and use from the first minute
A search-by-fingertip function that allows the agent to draw right on the map and find matching listings
A customizable Seller’s Net Proceeds worksheet that clearly demonstrates the use of proceeds from a sale and more!

This is available today on the Ipad app store. To find out more e-mail info@windermeresolutions.com

Business todayReal Estate RelatedWindermere Real Estate August 3, 2011

The person in the room with the most information wins.

A recent stat I saw a few days ago stated that 73% of Realtors make most of their income from non real estate work. Scary! What if you walked into a coffee shop and the person making your latte was your doctor? I don’t know about you, but that would not instill very much confidence in me about the skill set of my doctor. I know I’m being a bit flip but I really want to drive a point home.

Buying or selling a home today is not easy. Buyers and Sellers want to hire a professional to help them with this process. How professional are you? Are you coming to the table with the most information?

Here are some great sites that can really help you to put together information that will help a seller better understand the market they are about to list a property in, and info to help a buyer understand what their new investment might do as far as appreciation is concerned.

PMI-US

Keep in mind these guys have money on the line when it comes to mortgage insurance. Their research on the future of certain markets tends to be very accurate.

Housing Predictor

Housing Predictor provides independent real estate market forecasts on home prices and mortgage rates for more than 230 cities in all 50 U.S. states, plus news and analysis on the housing market.

FHFA

The Act gave FHFA the authorities necessary to oversee vital components of our country’s secondary mortgage markets – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

City Data

They have collected and analyzed data from numerous sources to create as complete and interesting profiles of all U.S. cities as they could.  They have over 74,000 city photos not found anywhere else, graphs of latest real estate prices and sales trends, recent home sales, home value estimator, hundreds of thousands of maps, satellite photos, stats about residents (race, income, ancestries, education, employment…), geographical data, state profiles, crime data, registered sex offenders, cost of living, housing, religions, businesses, local news links based on our exclusive technology, birthplaces of famous people, political contributions, city government finances and employment, weather, tornadoes, earthquakes, hospitals, schools, libraries, houses, airports, radio and TV stations, zip codes, area codes, air pollution, latest unemployment data, time zones, water systems and their health and monitoring violations, comparisons to averages, local poverty details, professionally written city guides, car accidents, fires, bridge conditions, cell phone and other towers, mortgage data, business storefront photos, a forum and a social network with 1,000,000 registered members and 18,000,000 posts, blogs, 5,000 user-submitted facts, 27,000 exclusive local business profiles with photos, restaurant inspection results, and more demographics. If you ever need to research any city, zip code, or neighborhood for any reason, from considering a move there to just checking where somebody you know is staying, this is the site for you.

Business todayTechnologyWindermere Real Estate June 16, 2011

Be Smart when using a QR code.

So there seems to be a big buzz these days about QR codes. I’m seeing them pop up all over the place. The idea behind the QR code is great but I’m finding that Realtors aren’t really thinking about the content behind the code.

Let me give you a few examples.

So  you have a website that you love. You just found out that you can now put a QR code on your news letter that you mail out monthly. Great this is going to be so cool!

Ask yourself this question when you scan a QR code. “What device am I using?”  Yep, you got it your using a hand held smart phone in most cases.

So has that great site of yours been mobile optimized? What will your site look like on my Droid when I snap a shot of the QR code? What will the experience be for me? Will I be able to read all your great info?  Will I be able to see great high res pics of the homes you have listed?

Many times web pages look great on a computer screen but transfer them to a mobile device and they look horrible. Many companies today are making sure that they are building mobile optimized solutions so the experience the customer has when they find your QR code will be the best experience on the device they use to view your site.

Here is a good article that talks about some of the points I make in this post. Popular! But are they effective?

BTW Mark has done a good job making sure his site has been mobile optimized.

Business todaycustomer servicesReal Estate RelatedWindermere Real Estate June 8, 2011

To what extent do you go to offer great customer services?

When your a real estate professional sometimes your services doesn’t just extend to your customers but what about the customers on the other side?

Recently I sold my home and my home uses oil for heating. The tank for this home is underground and as some of you may or may not know at some point tanks will deteriorate and this can be a huge problem in both clean up and expense.

When I owned the home I made sure I had the PLIA’s Heating Oil Pollution Liability Insurance Program in place. The thing about this program is that it doesn’t transfer from home owner to home owner. What this means is that the new owners must go  in and fill out this form and doing so they now have protection in place should that oil tank have problems.

While taking my name off the oil account I was informed that they had not heard form the new owners and wanted to make sure they knew about the need to complete this form. They also wanted to make sure the new owner continued on with the services contract for the furnace.

What this told me is that the buyer’s Realtor most likely did not inform them of this and so here we have an opportunity. I quickly called my Realtor and he decided to call the other Realtor and pass this information along.

Paying attention to detail like this can set you apart in this business. The level of customer service will not go unnoticed. Also how happy will buyers be knowing that your looking out for their best interest?