It’s a bad idea. Here’s why. It comes down to “cost per lead”. I’ll show you. Let’s take a typical market where the average sale price is $206,500 and the average commission side is 2.6%. That means that the average Gross Commission Income (GCI) is $5,369. According to real estate “experts” an agent should budget 20% of GCI for marketing. I’ve even heard numbers as high as 25%! (Incidentally, the rest of the entire business world budgets less than 10% of revenue for marketing, but what do they know?) Continue Reading…
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago at 9:27 am. 5 comments
Let’s face it — we all know that much of what we spend our marketing dollars on is a complete waste of money. And what’s worse is our advertising amounts to the single biggest expense we have as agents — as much as 20% of GCI or gross commission income! That means if you gross $100,000 a year in commissions, you are likely spending up to $20,000 a year in advertising. Continue Reading…
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:45 pm. 2 comments
In the last nine steps I’ve shared what I believe to be crucial keys to being successful in this new age of real estate. But this final step is the most important step of all. And more importantly, if you skip this step, you may as well not do any of the other nine. Continue Reading…
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 9:33 am. 2 comments
What if I offered you a choice between two options. Option 1 you earn $1,000 every day, starting July 1, for the entire month. Option 2 you earn one penny on July 1st, and double your earnings every day for the entire month. Which one would you choose? Continue Reading…
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 3:40 pm. Add a comment
Have you ever had so much business that you couldn’t even keep up? So much that when you eventually got through that wave of business, you took a deep breath, and realized you didn’t have anything else going on? You suddenly realized that you had to start from scratch again filling that pipeline of business. I don’t know about you, but it’s definitely happened to me. It’s what I call “the slinky effect”. Continue Reading…
Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago at 8:55 am. Add a comment
Step Seven is Organization. Let’s face it: As a group, REALTORS® are not very organized. In fact, that’s probably the understatement of the decade! Why? Primarily it is a matter of gifting. And agents tend to be very “social” and not very “administrative” in terms of gifting. That’s OK. That social gifting is what makes them great with people. That’s why clients like you!
Continue Reading…
Posted 9 months ago at 12:21 pm. Add a comment
Customer followup is a skill. Master that skill, and you will be rich! Don’t, and you won’t. In fact, you’ll likely not make it in the real estate business without this skill. I’ll even go one further: In my opinion, there are two critical hurdles to making phenomenal money in this business. One, generating an unending supply of new leads. Two, learning the art of customer follow-up. Continue Reading…
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 12:19 pm. Add a comment
According to the 2008 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, a full 87% of all our customers (and an amazing 94% of buyers between the age of 25 and 44) are using the Internet for their home searches! And that number is growing every single year. Continue Reading…
Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:17 pm. Add a comment
If there is one thing that agents do that makes me crazy, it’s this: Agents waste more of their money on worthless advertising ideas than on all other expenses combined. No kidding. There just seems to be an assumption in our industry that you just throw it out there, and maybe it works and probably it doesn’t. And for some unknown reason, that’s all right. Continue Reading…
Posted 10 months ago at 12:13 pm. 1 comment
I started to call this step “Building Your Infrastructure” but I liked “Assembling Your Tools” better. I guess there are a couple of reasons I prefer the word “tools”. First, it doesn’t elevate the technology to a place that it replaces personal skill or responsibility, and second, because tools are just that — tools. Continue Reading…
Posted 10 months, 1 week ago at 12:11 pm. Add a comment