Chickenhawk Scratchings

Recently I was teaching a class to several new agents on the amazing opportunities for free advertising on the internet.   I was set up, complete with LCD projector and laptop connected wirelessly to the internet.  My class was going quite well, with the agents taking plenty of notes. 

It was time to present a favorite site for internet savvy real estate agents, to explain about the numerous possibilities available in free classifieds.  I pulled up my internet browser, typed in the website, and as it loaded, I began to speak of the benefits offered.

There was giggling.  And laughing.

Ask any seasoned instructor, and they will tell you that laughing is good while you're instructing, PROVIDED that it is a response to something humorous that the instructor intentionally did or said.  I personally love to add humor throughout my presentations, to liven things up and to keep the audience interested.

This giggling was not good.  The laughing was not good.  I was suddenly nervous.

At this point, I couldn't remember adding anything humorous.  That's when I looked at the computer screen and saw what was projected on the screen behind me.

Apparently, it was not the classified site that we all know and love.  I had misspelled the website name, leaving out a particular letter (no I won't tell you which letter that was, but I bet half of you are pulling up a new browser window to try).  The misspelling had pointed my browser to a much more questionable site.  Let's just say that it bared more than my ideas.

Needless to say, in one of the rare moments of my life, I was speechless.  I quickly blocked the screen, blushed profusely, and muttered some appologies. 

The moral of this story: Save your websites ahead of time under favorites!

I am going to deviate from the more common real estate themes of my blog and write about a topic I am passionate about:  REALTOR® safety.  Perhaps it is my background in law enforcement, but I feel that there are many REALTORS® who work day to day oblivious to the possible dangers that lurk in our world. 

REALTORS® place themselves in contact with strangers everyday.  It is our job to get out there, meet people, and broker the sale of properties.  Unfortunately, many people from the criminal element also know this fact.  Each year, REALTORS® are assaulted, robbed, and even murdered.  Is that enough to make you want to quit selling and find a safe career in basket weaving?  Hopefully no, but I would like to increase your awareness to what happens all around you.

Awareness is probably the biggest key to remaining out of harms way.  If you are familiar with your surroundings, and keep an eye on what is happening, then you eliminate many threats.  Criminals generally look for targets of opportunity, and if you are alert they may pass you by to prey on someone who has their head stuck in the proverbial sand.

Above all, if something terrible DOES happen, don't be afraid to fight back.  In a recent study, it was found that 80% of females who fought back at attackers escaped the situation.  Survival is a MINDSET.  Make it your mindset to make it back home each and every night, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST.  This may sound a little extreme, but when it comes down to a YOU vs. THEM moment, YOU should be victorious. 

There are several things you can do to increase your overall safety, but unfortunately I don't have the space to delineate them all.  Take an agent safety course that emphasizes safe behavior as well as self-defense.  Encourage yourself and other agents to meet prospects at the office before ever meeting them at a home.  Prospects are generally glad to do this, while the prospect of the presence of other witnesses may scare criminals.

Don't fall into the mindset that if you carry pepper-spray on your keychain that you are impervious to criminals.  If you carry any weapon, you MUST know how to properly use it and what the effects are.  This goes for anything from pepper spray to firearms.  Weapons are a great deterrent, but only in the hands of those who are knowledgeable. 

If you know of any safety threats that have affected REALTORS(R) in your area, please share them below.  Perhaps by commenting on safety problems that we have experienced or heard of, others can learn.

Stay Safe!

I'm interested in compiling a list of free internet tools for real estate.  These can include anything that helps us in our businesses.  For example, craigslist.com or postlets.com are free for advertising our listings. 

What else is out there?

If you will drop comments and let me know what all is out there, I will compile this list into another post to share with everyone.  I am also going to use this to compose a powerpoint presentation for training in my market center, and I'll be happy to share that with anyone who is interested.

Thanks in advance for your help.  I look forward to learning about more low cost alternatives to traditional advertising and tools!

Have a great day,
Bill

If you don't list, you don't last.  This concept is driven into our skulls by real estate trainers year after year, but I would like to go one step further and make the argument that if you don't generate leads, you don't list, and therefore you don't last.  Now this may sound quite simple to most of you, and I am quite willing to concede that it doesn't take a doctorate in Realestateology to figure it out.  Unfortunately, the big, ugly truth is that even though 100% of you may understand this, we have an 80% failure rate in real estate! 

So what is the underlying problem in the quest for making a real estate career work?  I often find that it is a lack of understanding the basics of lead generation, and even more prevalent is a lack of DOING some sort of lead generation activity.  I can sit here and quote the conversion rates for mailing to people you haven't met (1:50), or lead generating to groups of people who know you, like you and trust you (2:12), but if you don't actually DO something, the only number that will mean anything is the 80% failure rate. 

What keeps many people from lead generating is fear.  Fear can take many forms, such as fear of rejection, fear of saying the wrong thing, and so on.  We cannot allow fear to run our career, because our career will run into the ground.  Understand that the only person who is going to really care if you are rejected, or stumble through your script, is YOU.  You might not get an appointment, or a listing, or a buyer, but that shouldn't stop you from going onto the next prospect and TRYING AGAIN!

Here are some very simple tips to get your lead generation kicked off.  First, don't reinvent the wheel!  There are several great lead generation programs out there, so use one!  For instance, read The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (Keller/Jenks).  There are some very simple lead generation systems that will get your business flying. Go see a national trainer and use some of their programs.  Talk to your peers who are successful, and see if they will give you some pointers.  Just DO SOMETHING and do it CONSISTENTLY!

Second, pick up the phone and keep in touch with people that you know.  Make sure that everyone knows you are in real estate, and remind them in a subtle way whenever you talk.  Mention a closing you are about to have, or a trend in the market.  After all, the question we always get when someone knows we're in real estate is "How's the market?"  Know how to answer them in a way other than, "Doing as well as ever."  People want to do business with those that they know, like and trust, so keep in touch with those you already know!

Consistency and repetition.  Consistency and repetition.  Consistency and repetition.  Even if you are doing something small, it will yield some sort of result, if you keep doing it, and doing it the same way.  The only person who will get bored by your lead generation activities is you!  Now, get out there, and get some leads!  After all, I want you to stay in the other 20%!

Think back to when you graduated from Real Estate School.  This could be a few months ago, or several decades ago when caves and sod houses were the hot listings.  What did you get out of your pre-license training?  Most people will say that the class got them through the test, and that is true.  If you maintained consciousness you also learned a great deal about the law, generally the "thou shalt nots" of real estate, but there was a huge, gaping hole that begged to be filled with know-how.

You didn't learn how to sell property, write contracts, input listings, market for prospects, farm neighborhoods, utilize technology or talk vendors into buying your lunch.  The last one comes naturally, but all of the other ones require one big word:  TRAINING!

Aside from vendor lunches, training is perhaps the most important part of a real estate company.  When you're new, you need mentoring; when you're more experienced, you need coaching, but as long as you're breathing and still possess a real estate license, you need training!

Since I was blessed with a bouncing baby boy 17 months ago, I'll use babies as an analogy for new REALTORS®:  When a baby is born, he or she will know nothing except for who mommy and daddy are.  When the baby grows, he or she learns things such as colors, shapes, and types of animals, with the help of interactive parents and family.

New agents generally know nothing, though they already have a leg up on babies with color recognition.  With the right training program, they will start showing the signs of sales aptitude, and before you know it they're asking for the car keys... to show buyers, that is.  If an office has no training program, agents are left floundering without a strong foundation, and knowing the red house from the blue house probably won't cut it.

A top rated office needs a top rated training program, a program in which new agents can learn the trade, and experienced agents can learn how to excel beyond their current ceiling.  Training should benefit everyone at one point or another, including bringing agents up to speed with new technologies and new methods.  Agents should be turning in contracts within a month or two, not just sitting by the phone waiting for the next call.

If you feel that you're behind the curve right now, and your knowledge level is not where it should be, perhaps it's not you... it may be time for a new training program at a different company.  If you ever start to look for greener pastures, ensure your future by checking on the available training, and make sure that it will fit your future real estate goals!  If it's not time for other pastures, sit down and have a heart-to-heart with the Powers That Be at your company, and try to come up with a more comprehensive training solution that will be a Win-Win for all the agents.  As the Career Development Chairperson for my market center, I take training VERY seriously.

Now, I must go.... time to figure out where that baby boy bounced off to...

Bill

All agents, at one time or another, have really been excited to show a house to a potential client.  They practically dance through each room, pointing out the features with a flourish, all the while anticipating that the next thing the prospect will desire is their name on a contract.

What if the prospect desires nothing more than to take your money and leave you for dead?

It's a sobering thought, but unfortunately, it happens more frequently than most of us want to acknowledge.

As a REALTOR(R) Safety Instructor, I think that it is paramount to point out a basic concept that can save your life - POSITIONING.

This is something that I taught police officers for years, in my previous life. Positioning is vital to cutting off an assailant's line of attack.  What do I mean by positioning?  Simply this - the way that you place yourself in regards to the location of your prospect(s), as well as the physical geography of the home that you are showing.

Let's think of some examples - First, what is the place in most modern houses that you are the MOST trapped?  I ask this in my safety seminars, and the answers are usually the basement, or the bedrooms.  In my opinion, the area that you are MOST vulnerable in is the master bedroom closet.  In most modern houses, you have to walk into the MBR, then into the master bath, and finally into the walk-in closet.  Most of the time there is only one point of escape - back through the bedroom.

In this example, how would you show this series of rooms?  I would stand at the entrance to the bedroom, and allow the prospect to go into the other places by themselves.  You can still speak to them.  If they want to ask you a question about the bathroom, you can move to the entry of the bathroom without entering it, and with ALL of the prospects inside the bathroom or further.

My basic rule of thumb is to keep all prospects in front of you, never turning your back on them.  Make sure that you have a point of escape.  If someone wants to do something to you, they will probably want to get to the most isolated spot in the house before they act, because there is an inherent fear of getting caught.

Constantly keep your position in mind.  I require couples and families to stay together when I show a house.  This way, one party won't lure you into an area of the home while the other party sneaks up from behind you.

I will be posting more later on REALTOR(R) Safety, especially with our national Safety Week coming up!  Keep posted, and please - BE SAFE!

Bill

Many of you know that I am a pilot, and I follow aviation news pretty thoroughly.  I was excited to find out that Allegiant Air started its first service to Las Vegas from Greenville-Spartanburg airport (GSP) today about seven in the morning.

Allegiant is a low cost carrier, and they currently fly to two other destinations from GSP, both in Florida.  The Vegas route will be a boom to their business, if you ask me.  I'm sure there are plenty of Upstate South Carolina residents who would like to try their luck in Vegas. :-)

GSP is also in talks with Frontier airline to provide a low cost flight to Denver, as well as other more Western cities.  This would be great with me, having all my family in the Denver area!

GSP is a great asset to Upstate South Carolina.  In my opinion, it is one of the greatest airports in the South East.  Service is good, and it is very convenient to many major cities.  It also helps our real estate values, by providing air travel for many business travelers and executives in the area, thereby making it more commercial real estate friendly.

Time to get back to lead generation. Enjoy your day.

Bill

I have a home that I will be selling in the VERY near future.  It is gorgeous, and has been staged well except for one thing - the owner has smoked in it his entire time there.

This is quite aggravating, because I've seen the way that buyers generally react to smoke odor in a house.  Even smokers have a tendency to overlook these houses, especially if they are smokers who take their cigarettes outside because they KNOW the negative consequences on their homes.

Overall, it just makes a house "feel" dirty.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  I will appreciate all of the feedback.  Once I compile all of your comments, I may post another blog on here as a summary, to give others these ideas.

Thanks, and have a great day!

Bill

On Monday August 27th the Greenville Little Theatre will be holding auditions for the upcoming play "Dracula".  I dropped by the theatre today (well, technically yesterday since it's quite early in the morning) to chat with my friends at the box office, and I picked up a script for the show.

It's hard for me to decide what I want to audition for in this show.  There are several good parts, although the parts of Dracula and Van Helsing are pre-cast (the excellent talents of Will Ragland and Allen McCalla respectively).  There is a part for an insane guy... hmm, that could be interesting!

For those of you who don't know, I am a theatre enthusiast and a part time actor.  I've been in three shows at the Greenville Little Theatre: Guys and Dolls, Ah, Wilderness, and Into the Woods.  Two musicals and a comedy - not too bad for someone who made their first on-stage appearance EVER at the age of 31!

I'm still trying to make my final decision on whether to audition or not.  The biggest decision maker is my schedule.  If that works out ok, and I"ll have the time for the rehearsals, then I'm going to put on my best British accent and audition!  The worse case scenario is that I don't end up auditioning, and get to watch it from the theatre, which will be very enjoyable in itself.

Come and see the show (regardless of whether I'm in!).  The Upstate is lucky to have such a fine institution as the Greenville Little Theatre, and I think that everyone should check it out.

You can see a schedule of this years season at http://www.greenvillelittletheatre.com

Until next time,

Bill

If you break down the top three things that will dramatically affect your real estate career, they are Leads, Listings and Leverage.  Leads give you the ability to gain clients.  Listings give you inventory to cultivate contracts and buyers with.  Leverage makes it easier for you to get more of the other two, and gives you the ability to ENJOY the life you are creating through your highly successful real estate business, or at least enjoy a cup of coffee once in a while.

Simply put, leverage is multiplying your ability to get things done.  It would be ideal if you could just replicate yourself a couple times, and designate one of yourselves to marketing, one to client relations, one to data entry, and so forth.  Unfortunately, after extensive research, I have concluded that human replication is not possible yet.  Ok, so I actually was watching the twenty-four hour Trekkie marathon on the Sci-Fi channel, but who's counting?

Leverage may come in many forms, but it can most easily be broken down into two primary components:  technology and people.

Leverage through technology is perhaps the first method that the majority of agents turn to as their business grows.  You can leverage your abilities through software such as Top Producer, Goldmine or ACT.  The MLS systems that we use often include database software that enables us to make automatic contact with clients about prospective homes.  Marketing may be done virtually, such as e-mail drip campaigns that run hands-free after the initial setup, or websites that allow you to mail to hundreds of prospects at the touch of a button.

Equally important are the benefits that leverage through people offers.  Many agents are concerned that they will hire the wrong person, and that is a well-founded concern.  A top agent will invest time and money into finding the right person for the job.  Perhaps the worst hire you can make is a good hire.  If you want talent, find GREAT talent.  Good talent is just enough to get the job done, but great talent takes you above and beyond your expectations. 

Don't be afraid to start a team.  Most agents who utilize the services of an assistant will tell you that they should have hired that person much sooner.  A great assistant will only INCREASE your income, because they will free you up from the day-to-day tasks and allow you to concentrate on lead generation.

For a detailed look at leveraging your business, with special emphasis on leveraging through people, I recommend that everyone associated with real estate read "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller.  The book targets leverage in an easy to follow manner that walks you from the day that you got your license in the mail, to the moment that you net one million dollars a year.  My copy is a bit dog-eared, from my constant referencing.  You can get it on Amazon or at most book stores.  If you're an agent here in my market (Greenville, SC), just let me know and I might be able to get you one for free.

That's all for now.  Have a wonderful week, and stay cool (at least we were under 100 today!).

Bill