It’s a great supplement to your regular marketing so long as it’s free. As a stand-alone marketing technique, it is destined to fail, and if executed perfectly will yield you maybe a deal a month. Statistically, it can never make you a top producing agent, and here’s why. Continue Reading…
I’m often asked, “Matt, what do you think of SEO?”. The short answer is not very much! I’ll explain. First, most of what is known as SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is really a misnomer. When companies call you to sell you their SEO service, they are not really talking about optimizing your website for search engines, but rather they are talking about trying to fool search engines. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a minute. Continue Reading…
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…
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…
Have you ever wondered why the average Days on Market (DOM) number from your local MLS never feels right? Why the MLS always seems to paint a rosier picture than reality? That’s because it’s not right! Sometimes it’s off by a little; other times it’s off by a mile. But it’s never accurate. Continue Reading…
Let’s be honest: my approach to real estate — the FavoriteAgent.com approach — is way outside the traditional box. So much so that it’s attracted the attention of CNN who identified our company as “changing the face of real estate in America”. (Watch the video below.) But believe me, it needs changing.
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The fact is that traditional real estate is adrift today. Realogy Corporation, the largest and most traditional real estate company in America and parent company of Century 21, ERA, Coldwell Banker, and Sotheby’s International Realty, posted operating losses of over $2 billion for the 12 month period ending in March 2009! In almost every market, large traditional companies are closing their doors forever. Why?
Because real estate is not changing — real estate has already changed. Sure, people are still buying and selling homes more than ever before, but the methodology for attracting customers and delivering real estate brokerage services to the public has changed. The undeniable fact is that technology has changed our industry just like it has every other industry.
But, change is good! Old-school real estate must give way to real estate the new way. It’s the natural evolution of our industry. And I believe our company has identified this new direction and we’re already training and empowering agents to succeed in this new age of real estate.
So if you find yourself identifying with my outlook on our industry and with real estate the new way — the FavoriteAgent.com way, and you’d like to explore a closer relationship, there are several ways you can take that next step:
License Our Virtual Office Technology
Join a Virtual Real Estate Office
Help Us Open a Virtual Real Estate Office
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
LCM: The Secret to Success in the New Age of Real Estate - ©2005, Book. Matt Jones describes the secrets that made him one of the top producing agents in the country in just a few years. This book is an overview of the technology and the methods that grew FavoriteAgent.com from a single agent practice to the largest company in Matt’s home town of Fayetteville, NC. Available in e-Book format for $9.95.
The Ultimate Listing Presentation - ©2006, Book. Matt follows up his debut release with an expansion on his listing presentation — the very presentation that won him over 114 listings in his first year in the business, all at 8% or more, in a market that typically lists for 6% or less. This is probably the most unique listing presentation you’ve ever seen, and it works every single time! You’ll have your clients begging you to list at a premium! Available in e-Book format for $9.95.
Traffic: How to Sell Fast and Net More - ©2007, Book. In Traffic, Matt takes his listing presentation — the very presentation that won him over 114 listings in his first year in the business , all at 8% or more, (see The Ultimate Listing Presentation, above), and presents it to the “non-professional” general public. In it he discusses when selling their home FSBO is a good strategy for a seller and how to find a good agent. Available in e-Book format for $9.95.
Becoming a Mega-Producer - ©2008, Book. Becoming a Mega-Producer moves from the listing side of the business and speaks directly to the buyer side. This powerful edition is a step-by-step walk in the shoes of Matt Jones, as he shares his secrets to becoming one of the top agents in the country in less than 5 years. Available in e-Book format for $9.95.
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.
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:
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!
Several years ago I began sharing my listing presentation with agents across the world. For those of you who don’t know, I developed a listing presentation that allowed me to list over a hundred individual homes in a single year, all at an 8% commission in a market that typically listed for 6% or less. I later wrote a book titled The Ultimate Listing Presentation, that showed other agents a step-by-step process of how they could list at a premium as well. But while I love selling my books, I also believe in “giving back” so I also released it in eBook format and as a seminar by email, both for free. Continue Reading…
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