The last installment was more geared toward brokers and team leaders so I will make this one for agents.  I’ll warn you: This strategy will not make you friends, but it will make you money.  If you are like most agents today, you are struggling for sales opportunities.  You know what to do when you find a new customer, and hopefully, you do a great job.  The problem is finding enough customers.
Here’s a great way to find new customers, and it costs almost nothing.  It works best if you have …

First impressions are almost always irreversible and can make or break your connection in a matter of seconds, and how you connect on and offline will make determine if you will win or lose!
What can you do differently than you have been doing?  Are you relying on the same old things, systems, and habits…. or even more concerning, doing the same things your competitors are doing?
Today’s savvy consumer knows what they want, and are not willing to pay for services that do not meet their need. The largest buying segment …

It’s almost time to start our Zero2Hero Agent Challenge 2010, but it’s not too late to for you to enter.  We already have a good sized field of contestants and we hope to get started soon.  So far we have agents from Georgia, California, Hawaii, Florida, Michigan, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, Texas, and even one from Hong Kong.   We have agents from big cities and small towns.  We have new agents, and agents starting over.  From national franchises and local independents.  In short, we have a great sample of the real …

Identify & Obliterate Six Barriers to Your Success!
It’s the beginning of yet another year, and as many of us sit with pencil in hand we might be thinking…”Should I even bother to set new goals again this year…and if so… will it even make a difference?
At the beginning of every year we all start out at zero….and it seems daunting to look at next December and wonder how we are going to “get there”! Will we beat this year’s numbers? Will this be the first year that you will really …

Philosophically speaking, are you a person who wants and believes that people can do a lot of things well or a few things well?  There are huge differences in businesses that follow the philosophy of hiring generalists or specialists.  Your vision for the size of your team a few years down the road will also determine the generalist versus specialist discussion.
 
In a specialist business, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t doing things that they aren’t so good at.  In a specialist practice, your objective is to minimize the time in …

If you think it’s been a tough year, bad market and find yourself thinking from a scarcity point of view, you might find yourself believing that there is little you can do to get more business…Think again!
Before you go with “scarcity thinking”, expert Harvey MacKay gives us 66 creative and meaningful ways to connect with even the most elusive prospects.
MacKay is the bestselling author of “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive”. He says, “Anyone can get the order if he’s willing to stretch the truth far enough. Whether …

I’m often asked what I think about REO business.  Here’s what I think: It beats no business at all… barely.  Now that I have your attention, let me take a minute to explain why.
First, for the uninitiated, let me explain the term REO.  REO stands for “Real Estate Owned”.  Talk about dumb names!  I am not aware of any real estate that is NOT owned.  Are you?  I digress.  Bad name aside, REO has come to mean real estate that is owned by the lender, after a foreclosure.  Now why …

Whose fault is it that your buyer’s short sale didn’t close in time for their needed move date and they walked from the deal….and you….forever? Well, it’s the lender’s fault of course. NOT!!! Sorry but the blame starts and ends with you. You should have never even gotten your client into that situation in the first place. We all know the nightmares of getting short sales to close in a timely manner. If you have a buyer who absolutely MUST be in a new home by or around a certain …

Lately, it seems you can’t read anything about real estate and not see somebody selling their unique short-sale technique, their book or system on how you can become the “short-sale king” in your area, or their coaching on how to profit from doing short-sales.  It’s become so prevalent now that it seems there is even a Certified Short-Sale Professional (CSP) designation!
Don’t get me wrong — I’m all in favor of agents handling short sales for their clients when necessary, and doing so is often a great service to your client …

I’m often asked what I think of open houses. Well, I think it’s as good a way to waste a Saturday afternoon as any. My advice is to just take a long nap and catch up on your sleep instead. It will advance your real estate practice a lot faster than an open house! Let me explain.
An open house is simply an advertising idea. Nothing more. Nothing less. As such, it should be evaluated like any other advertising idea. Cost per lead versus budget per lead. So how do we …