Blog, Matt. Blog!

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I Saved the Best for Last!

How to Know the Odds of Selling Any Home…

What if you could actually know the odds of selling a client’s home in 30 days… or 60 days… or 90 days?  Wouldn’t that make advising that client a lot easier?  Well now you can!  And it’s easy. Continue Reading…

Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago at 5:50 am.

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A Business Plan in a Box!

Show me an agent with a six-figure income and I’ll show you an agent with a business plan.  I know what you’re thinking… “But I don’t have the time to write a comprehensive business plan.”

Well, now you do!  Introducing our brand new Business Planning Calculator.  Build your very own comprehensive business plan in less than 5 minutes.  No kidding.  I’ll show you.  But first, let’s talk just a minute about planning. Continue Reading…

Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:51 am.

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Advertising Just Got Easier!

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 8 months ago at 3:45 pm.

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Ten Steps to Real Estate Success (Step 10)

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, 2 weeks ago at 9:33 am.

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Calculators

Absorption Rate Calculator

Want to impress that builder? Run absorption rates for him at various price ranges using this simple calculator. Or maybe you just want to have the current absorption rate handy for your residential clients to assist them in negotiations or pricing their homes. With this calculator you won’t have to wait for the end of the year numbers. Go to calculator »

Advertising Calculator

Let’s face it — we all know that much of what we spend our marketing dollars on is a complete waste of money. Using this calculator you can evaluate any advertising idea, and know instantly if it is within your budget or whether it makes sense to use in your market. Eliminate the guesswork — know without a doubt! Go to calculator »

Appreciation Calculator

Using this simple calculator, you can immediately calculate the market appreciation rate over a particular period of time. This is a great tool to help you in verifying your CMA or in helping a client in negotiations. Having accurate appreciation rates gives you a huge advantage over the typical agent. Go to calculator »

Business Planning Calculator

We all want to know exactly what it would take to make a certain amount of income at the end of the year.  What if you could actually know?  Well, now you can.  Using this calculator, you can simply input a handful of your market variables and let this calculator give you a step-by-step road map for planning your day-to-day practice. Go to calculator »

Comparative Market Analysis and Proceeds Calculator

Use this simple calculator to build the Ultimate CMA and Proceeds Estimate in only a couple of minutes. This calculator is the perfect companion to the Ultimate Listing Presentation as taught by Matt Jones in our blog archives. In less than 5 minutes you can create a scientifically accurate CMA and Proceeds Estimate that will impress any seller. Go to calculator »

Days on Market Calculator

Knowing the actual “days on market” for your particular area is important. Unfortunately, the number given by your MLS is typically understated because it only measures the days on market for homes that actually sold and not those which never sold. Use this calculator to compute the actual days on market for your city, a neighborhood, etc.  Go to calculator »

Sale Probability Calculator

Ever have that client that just had to know his odds of selling in a particular time frame? You’ll love this calculator then! Simply put in the accurate Days on Market and the number of days to estimate, and you will instantly know the statistical probability of selling within that time frame.  Go to calculator »

Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago at 8:15 am.

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The Summit

The following is excerpted from a NewsGeni.us featured article, September 10, 2008.

Twice a year, Matt Jones — broker, coach, and author — opens his doors to a small group of agents for the FavoriteAgent.com National Training Summit, a free two-day crash course on his company’s “new way” of doing real estate. Anyone who has attended this seminar before can tell you that Matt Jones’ unique outlook on the business can radically transform your practice.
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The Summit is for agents who are working harder, only to achieve fewer results, or agents who thought they knew the business, but are realizing that it has changed. Whether you are struggling to survive in the “Internet age” of real estate, or are simply looking for a fresh approach, The Summit is for you.

Unlike most real estate training, the seminar is provided for agents at no cost. Not everyone can afford to shell out hundreds of dollars, leave their businesses, and go to a high-priced conference so that “experts” can sell them their latest line of products. A conference doesn’t have to cost several thousand dollars for agents to take away something valuable.

The Summit will cover topics like strategic planning, virtual office technology, Internet marketing, and Matt’s unique listing strategy that he has taught to over 80,000 agents across the world. Here are some of the things agents have said about the training:

“Great Presentation! Informative, Entertaining, the CMA Section alone was worth sitting here all day.” - Linda Smith, Rose and Womble Real Estate

“Of all the course I have attended and books that I have read, this is by far the most sensible, different, and hands-on information that I have received. I’ve already mentioned it to several persons that I know, as it’s truly creative and gives information that no one else is using. It’s amazing!” - Janet Beddoe, Cape Coral, FL

“I am learning a lot from your presentation, and I have received ideas that are foreign to me. I do believe that this information will make a difference in my business. I have been considering leaving real estate, but I will stay another year with your new ideas to implement. Your presentation is a blessing.” - Cindy Merz, Medina, OH

So why are we telling you about this? We’re telling you because this year Matt has agreed to extend that invitation to our readers! Offering this two-day seminar free of charge is a mind-blowing value. Those who are able to get a seat are truly in for something special:

Everyone is invited.  However, attendance is limited so that the sessions can be more intimate, and the slots are filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Reserve your seat as soon as possible! We are currently planning the following Summit events.

Hickory, NC (Coming in Spring 2010)

Take a moment to fill out this quick, 1-minute registration. Our event staff will contact you to confirm your seat and to send you some advance information. Thanks.

Matt Jones
President/CEO
FavoriteAgent.com

Register Now!

Your Full Name:

Your Email Address:

Your Direct Phone:

Select a Summit:

Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago at 9:22 am.

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Join a Local Virtual Office Team

Hi.  My name is Matt Jones, and I’m the president and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com… but I’m also the managing broker of our local real estate firm, and I personally manage about 70 agents every day.  Joining a real estate company, whether you are considering a move, or joining for your first time, is a very important decision and one that you should make carefully and deliberately.  So why should you join FavoriteAgent.com (or any company for that matter)?  What a great question!
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To be perfectly honest, we didn’t know the answer so we conducted a survey.  And after asking nearly half a million real estate professionals, we discovered that it really comes down to just five reasons why agents choose one brokerage over another, and we believe that our company excels in all five.  See what you think.

Customers

Join FavoriteAgent.com and you’ll immediately solve the number one problem facing agents today: not enough customers.  Our agents have exclusive access to our lead capture technology, enabling them to produce as many customer leads as they want to work.  Our typical agent only spends about $250 in advertising and yet generates about 80-90 customer leads ever month!

Tools

Today most agents spend a small fortune on tools.  Not at FavoriteAgent.com.  Our agents get their very own state-of-the-art LCM Web Gateway lead capture technology, their own LCM Phone Gateway lead capture technology, their own personal Agent SimpleSite website, their own integrated client management software, and Virtual Assistant application.  They also get the most powerful Virtual Office real estate platform available today, complete with hundreds of training articles, videos, calculators, business planning modules and much, much more.  Our technology bundle costs over $1,100 per month to license it directly, and yet our agents get it all for free!

Training

Many companies talk about training.  FavoriteAgent.com actually does training.  I’m a nationally syndicated author of real estate training material with well over a hundred articles and four books to my credit.  More than 90,000 agents have taken my training either online or at one of our National Agent Summit training events, learning how to succeed in this new age of real estate, and I’m personally active in coaching and training our agents.

Freedom

At the end of the day, the only thing you have to sell is your time.  That’s why FavoriteAgent.com doesn’t waste it with useless sales meetings, caravans, floor duty, or non-productive company meetings.  Our company empowers our agents to be productive while maintaining the support, community, and structure that many agents crave.

Money

Ask most agents how much they make and they won’t have a clue.  It depends on whether it’s a cross-sale or in-house sale.  New or existing.  January or December.  Most company commission plans are a virtual shell game.  The FavoriteAgent.com Agent Compensation Plan is probably the simplest and most generous you’ve ever seen.  Here it is:  Every single agent pays a 50% split on their first transaction with the company.  That’s to offset all the administrative costs in adding a new agent to the company.  But after that, all agents keep a minimum of 80%.

Now, there are two ways any agent can make 90%!  First, by being a top producer.  If any agent completes four or more transactions in a thirty-day period, he is paid 90%.  Or make 90% by recruiting.  If any agent recruits five other agents to join your company, his commission is increased to 90%.  And that’s 90% commission with with no office rent, no transaction fees, no administrative fees, no nickel and dime fees, period.

Interested in learning more or arranging a discreet interview?  Click here and fill out the simple online application and someone will contact you.

Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago at 11:20 am.

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Ten Steps to Real Estate Success (Step 9)

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, 2 weeks ago at 3:40 pm.

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Ten Steps to Real Estate Success (Step 8)

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.

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Help Us Open a Virtual Office

Imagine starting your very own real estate brokerage. I know what you’re thinking:

“But I don’t have the $20,000 for a franchise fee, or the $10,000 for a lease deposit and and first month’s lease payment.  For that matter, I don’t have the $50,000 it will cost me to buy the desks, tables, chairs, fax machine, copy machine, and all the endless stuff that I need to get things started.  And even if I had the $80,000 in hard start-up costs, and another $100,000 available for operating capital, I can’t begin to afford the advertising campaign that will be required to recruit agents and to let the public know I exist.”

So instead, you resign yourself to continue to schlep houses until you drop. Riding in cars with buyers. One frustrating transaction after another. Not that you mind making new friends, but enduring the daily grind of chasing from deal to deal gets old. Let’s be honest. You have ambitions to get out of the trenches and you have vision for how things might be. There has to be more than this. Right?

Well I have some great news! There is more!  So much more! I’m going to show you how you can own your own Virtual Office brokerage, and how you can do it inexpensively. I’ll show you how you can recruit agents, train them, and manage them better than in a traditional model company. Most importantly, I’m going to show you how you can make more money in the process — a lot more money.

What’s more, in this model you can be up and running in days, not weeks or even months. You don’t have to be able to ride out a long start-up period with yet another big slice of your hard-earned savings.   And what’s even better is that this model is thriving during the current depressed housing market. Sounds too good to be true, right? It’s not.

You could open your own Virtual Office brokerage with us and never miss a transaction. I want you to imagine being the person in the plan I’m about to lay out for you. It could very well be you, and the entire transition could take place in a few days.  You’ll see. I know you have your doubts, so we’ll just call you Thomas (as in doubting Thomas). Okay, Tom. Here is your plan:

Day 1. Getting everything in place. A building, a managing broker, and your Virtual Office technology platform.

  • First, your building. Some states require you to have a physical brick-and-mortar location for your company (at least for another few years).  Legally, that can be your house, but I’m not suggesting for an instant that you use your house to meet clients. Here is our model.  I’m assuming you are a working agent, so you have been using both a lender and a closing attorney. Start there.Go and ask either of them — no ask both of them — if they’ll allow you and your agents to use a conference room to meet clients, if you continue to send them your business. If they won’t, then find another who will.  Believe me, this will be the simplest negotiation of your life. I’ve never heard of an agent being turned down when they asked for the ongoing use of a conference room.  Remember, they want your business, and what better way to get it than to let you and your agents use a conference room that sits empty most of the day.
  • OK, now your Broker.  If you are not legally qualified to manage yourself or other agents, don’t panic.  The beauty of our industry is that we have lots of agents who are qualified and yet leaving the business.  Find a qualifying broker and make him or her a deal to pay them so much per deal to be the “legal oversight”, and to review your work. It shouldn’t take more than a few phone calls to set that up.  Remember, this arrangement can always be changed as you expand your business.
  • Finally, Get your Virtual Office technology in place.  That one’s simple.  Call FavoriteAgent.com and we handle the rest.  In a typical office of 30 agents, we cover the the cost of roughly $35,000 per month for the agent’s technology.  How easy was that?!  No big checks.  No first and last month’s rent.  No deposits.  If you qualify to open an office, we pay the technology bills.

Now it’s been a pretty busy morning, so go ahead and treat yourself to a nice relaxing lunch.  While you’re having lunch, let’s think about your company name.  Have you decided on a name yet?  Well, with our Virtual Office license, you get to use the FavoriteAgent.com nationally recognized trade name, and immediately associate with nearly 20,000 other real estate professionals across the globe. We have agents in all 50 states, in every province of Canada, as well as Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Let’s see: “FavoriteAgent.com Premier Properties” has a nice ring to it.  Perfect!

OK. Lunch is over. It’s time to think about a few logistics. You need to order some business cards and yard signs.  No big deal.  Our corporate office has all the art work ready to send to the printer and sign company.  Oh, and don’t forget to make sure your voice mail has your new company name on the recording.   Now log into your MLS and download the email addresses for all the area agents and start focusing on a list of possible recruits. Don’t worry, recruiting will be easy.

Here’s what I mean: Recruiting always comes down to your value proposition to the agent.  And what you have to offer them is so much better than everything else out there, hiring agents will be a snap.  Here is your value proposition in a nutshell.  You give them freedom, better tools, and more money.  What more could they possibly want?

Freedom because your agents don’t have to waste half their productive time pulling floor duty, sitting in sales meetings, driving to caravan houses, or any of the other traditional agent busy-work.  With FavoriteAgent.com they have none of that.  Freedom is huge to a productive agent.

Like any of the national franchises, your agents will each pay 10% of gross commission to FavoriteAgent.com corporate.  But unlike those other national companies, with FavoriteAgent.com they actually get something tangible for their money.  Instead of paying a franchise royalty to use a national name, they are paying a technology license fee.  That technology license fee buys them everything they need to operate a Virtual Office real estate practice.  Here’s what I mean.

Each agent gets his very own LCM web gateway, his own LCM phone gateway (both are state-of-the-art lead capture technologies), his own personal website, his own integrated contact management software, his own virtual assistant and mobile applications.  They also get the most powerful Virtual Office real estate platform available today, complete with hundreds of training articles, videos, calculators, business planning modules and much, much more.  Our technology bundle would cost each agent over $1,100 per month if they were to license it directly.

Now remember, as the broker-owner, running a typical 30-agent office, FavoriteAgent.com will be providing your company with nearly $35,000 per month in Virtual Office technology.  You’ll also be happy to know that all of your agent accounting is included in that licensing fee, so you won’t have to spend your money to hire a bookkeeper to run your brokerage, or shut the office down the entire office for the month of January to get all the agent 1099’s sent out.

But besides all the freedom and all the tools, you’re going to attract your agents the old fashioned way — you’re going to pay them well!  The FavoriteAgent.com Agent Compensation Plan is probably the simplest and most generous you’ve ever seen.  Here it is:  Every single agent pays a 50% split on their first transaction with the company.  That’s to offset all the administrative costs in adding a new agent to the company.  But after that, all active agents keep a minimum of 80%. To remain active with the company, an agent only has to complete one transaction a quarter, or, they can work full-time in real estate.  Now, there are two ways an agent can make 90%!  First, by being a top producer.  If an agent completes four or more transactions in a thirty-day period, he is paid 90%.  Or they can make 90% by recruiting.  If an agent recruits five other agents to join your company, his commission is increased to 90%.

And that’s 90% commission with with no office rent, no transaction fees, no administrative fees, no nickel and dime fees, period.  So, how easy do you think it is to attract agents when you can give them freedom, you can give them a state-of-the-art technology platform and the ability to forever solve their lead problems, and you can pay them 90%?

Believe me, it can’t get any easier.  OK, enough about recruiting.  It’s been a tough day but well worth the time invested.  Go ahead and take the evening off and get some sleep. You’re going to need it.  Tomorrow’s going to be really busy!

Day 2. Today you have your initial coaching session with FavoriteAgent.com. It will take about an hour, and during that hour you’re going to learn how to set up and manage your online advertising.  By the end of the day, you’ll have a steady supply of new leads coming into your own Virtual Office contact manager.  Don’t worry, if you forget something, the coaching staff is always there to answer any questions you may have.  Now it’s time to do your homework.

The coaching staff is going to suggest that you take an hour to make sure that everything is set up just like you want it, and to learn your way around the Virtual Office software. They’ll also tell you to import all your contacts into your software. While you’re at it, why don’t you go ahead and email the customer service department your list of local real estate agents, complete with the phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses.  You know, the ones that you downloaded yesterday.  Within an hour or so, they’ll have them all in your contact manager and ready to use.  Was that easy or what?!

Day 3. Now it’s time to actually start recruiting agents. Better check your Pipeline. Oh my! You have seven new leads waiting to be called. Sure, you continue to practice real estate while you build your team, but now you get to keep 90% of your commissions instead of giving over a third to your old broker.  Now you can spend less time drumming up business too, because it is coming to you faster than you can handle it.  Now you can actually think about building your business by recruiting.  Maybe you already are a broker and have agents working for you, or maybe you are just starting from scratch.  Either way, using techniques we’ll show you, you should be able to recruit 30 agents in less than 90 days.

Now let’s look at a realistic scenario comparing this model to the traditional model. Let’s say you recruit 30 agents over the next few months, and those agents average one single transaction per month. Here is how your income looks:

  • Traditional Model. With 30 agents and 30 transactions per month, using a typical traditional model broker split of 38% (or in other words, you pay your agents an average of 62%), and using an average GCI or gross commission income of $6,000 per transaction, you would have a franchise fee of $14,400. That plus any note payments you might have, and any mandatory signs and supplies you had to purchase. If you run your brokerage like the typical traditional brokerage, then you will bring about 2% to the bottom line or about $3,600! Don’t forget, you might not have that much business coming in, and your expenses will still march on, but for purposes of this illustration let’s say your agents come through and business is good.
  • Virtual Model. With the same 30 agents and 30 transactions, using the national average company dollar of 15%, and the same 30 agents and 30 transactions per month, you’ll make $17,901. In other words, your Virtual Office company makes about five times as much money and has virtually no risk. No rent. No utility bills. No accounting.  No company advertising bills. No additional staff. The very picture of simplicity.  And you have lots of time available to actually do some production, if you decide you want to.

Remember, in the traditional model, your cash outlay is nearly $200,000 and your risk is very high. At that level, your return on investment is minimal and you have basically bought a job. Unless you can live on a $43,200 income, you are going to have no choice but to sell houses every day and compete with your agents.

In the virtual model, you’d make $214,812 on the revenue produced by one virtual office of 30 agents. Let’s say you continued to grow that office, adding 30 agents a year for the next five years. You’d be making $1,388,016, and it would all be profit! Your company will be a virtual real estate money-making machine and you’ll have very little, if any, stress. Your agents will make more money, and your customers will be better served.  You’ll have the benefit of a national brand and state-of-the-art technology, and you’ll own a business valued at roughly seven times EBITDA, Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, or nearly $10 million.

Contrast that to the traditional alternative where you would likely still be leveraged to the hilt in your one brokerage of 30 agents, taking on a huge risk of capital, and working with diminishing margins as agents continue to demand more and more money and brokerage commissions continue to erode. Suppose you wanted to expand. You’d have to reinvest more capital to get and equip a larger facility.  And you’d have to add staff.  Your risk would continue to escalate with every expansion, and unless you’re a rare agent, you’d still be selling houses and own a business nobody would buy.

Day 4. Now comes the fun part… all you do from your fourth day on is make money. Now how cool is that!  To view our Virtual Office Team Leader Compensation Plan, click here.

Well I hope that helps you understand exactly how I’d recommend you open your own virtual office. It’s simple, and our company pays all the Virtual Office expenses for those qualifying agents who have big dreams but small balances. We’ll hold your hand every step of the way, and help you become successful. The only thing standing between you and a very enjoyable and rewarding life is your own fear to act.

Interested in learning more or arranging a discreet interview?  Click here and fill out the simple online application and someone will contact you.So, contact us, and we’ll help you get started doing real estate this new way!

Posted 8 months, 4 weeks ago at 12:46 pm.

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