Clear communication is vitally important, especially since most of us are extremely busy trying to balance some personal time while staying on top of all the changes, challenges and opportunities of this emerging market. The way we communicate our thoughts, ideas and solutions can make or break  meetings and relationships and can stifle the ability to successfully resolve issues and generate positive breakthroughs. What is your communication style, are you a magnet for people's attention or do they try to find a back door escape when they see you coming? Let's take a look, shall we.....

I have opened the recruiting flood gates!  I believe I have stumbled upon the cure for all recruiting and retention woes.  I am a genius and will forever go down in history for saving our industry from demise.....

It Could!!!   Do you realize that any online property marketing tool has the potential to link out to your competition in 2-4 clicks?  You pay for a nice property website or visual tour with all the great fancy links to area information and fun stuff that are very engaging to buyers. Buyers love your site so much that they click and click until they are so far away from the original listing they were viewing that they may even end up on your local competitor's website searching for more properties and filling out information inquiries....How does this happen? (link to example below)

Please forgive my potty mouth but I happen to believe that every human being has the right to sell their own property and not be treated like they are complete idiots and have no ability to write and read a contract or negotiate with a potential buyer.  Please read on before you kick me to the curb.  I have noticed that supporting a FSBO in the sale of their own home is seen as taboo.  Shhhhh...don't tell them about any of our secret tools to get their home sold....give me a break!  If we don't accept the shifts in our industry and the ability for information to be dispersed globally with a key stroke by anyone at any time, then we are fooling ourselves.

Recruiting has changed dramatically over the past year as we have come into this new emerging market.  Our ability to attract and retain quality agents will be determined by our ability to distinguish between our context and competencies.  I will use Amazon as an example.  You logon to Amazon.com, order a book, pay with your credit card and it is delivered to your front door the next day.  Just a few years ago, this was a very special event however, today it is common practice and considered a context.  Context means an expected tool or level of service.  What is expected in a brokerage and what is true competency?

This is very interesting information regarding the release of mls listing information to 3rd party vendors written by Diane Bartz on Rueters.  I am in a quandry about my feelings.  As a real estate company owner, I don't want this to happen but as a vendor and consumer advocate....yee haaa!!  I will keep my feelings to myself until I can digest this well enough to share....read on.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Association of Realtors will open its vast listing of homes for sale to cheaper, Internet-based brokers in an agreement to settle a federal lawsuit, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

Give me a break!  Can we please try to remember that we are in the business of solicitation????  Why do some agents have so much trouble when others try to solicit them via legitimate email?  I guess one man's "junk" is another man's treasure.

People are sending the stupid "contract" response emails, like the one below, to senders who are legitimately marketing to them from a list THE RECIPIENT subscribed to.....  Please, remember what we do for a living.  In my mind, sifting through promotional emails is no different than shuffling through my snail mail.  A mailbox is a mailbox is a mailbox. 

I know what you are thinking…how old fashioned is this person?  Well, to tell you the truth, it’s not me, it’s one of my agents Mary Lou Thompson.  Mary Lou believes we do ourselves and our children a disservice by allowing them to override all adult conversation and interaction.  Let me tell you why she believes this….

For 2 yrs I have avowed this correcting market to be the biggest opportunity we have experienced in over 2 decades.  Some of you have agreed and some of you looked at me like I had “luny” written on my forehead.  I still believe this is the window of opportunity we pray for.  To prove my conviction, I have ventured into a new real estate company in Tucson, AZ.  We just opened a new 5,000 sqft upscale office in the foothills of Tucson.  I believe this new office is a model for future real estate companies.

The culture of a company is highly dependent on how much interaction there is between agents and staff and how nurturing that interaction is.

I would really like to get some feedback on this topic.  This post comes from my observations of the Arizona Association of Realtors adopting Stewart Title's SureClose application and making it the transaction management tool of choice for their entire membership. It is an opt-in program so brokers don't "have" to use it.  If they choose to sign on, the application is covered in their current dues structure...fine and dandy but what about those who already have a transaction management platform and don't want to switch? Will the association give them back that portion of their dues so they can pay their vendor of choice?

Boards, Brokers, Office Managers...Take Control Of Your Meetings!!!

Target/Niche web marketing is one of the newest trends in our industry, yet 95% of real estate websites don’t take target markets into consideration. Most sites provide basic company/agent bios and contact information, access to local listings through a frame or live data, area information and snippets of information on buying, selling, mortgage and title.  Boring.  Take advantage and be one of the first target players in your market. You will attract more people to your website and keep them coming back. 

There has been much negative news about the real estate industry from media, politicians and even our own industry leaders.  It is rare to find positive press.  Frankly, I am excited about this market.  This is the opportunity of a lifetime!!

Notice the title says “Correcting Market” not bad, scary, challenging, or stressful market?   People who have been in the business for 20+ years understand that a correcting market is one of the biggest opportunities you will ever have in your business and career.   Yes, it can be painful when we are in it but try to keep you eyes on the big picture.

Recruiting from within is 2 fold, first you must establish how to recruit from within yourself and then put your efforts into recruiting within your own office.  We start with re-recruiting  yourself and the agents you now have under your leadership. Re-recruiting yourself to the industry, your brokerage and your goals is vitally important right now.  Remember how excited you were and how much great energy you presented to people when you first got started and when times where much easier? What has happened to you over the past 12-18 months?  Where are you mentally regarding the changes that continue to occur in our industry?

Vendors this one is for you.  I represent solutions that help agents and brokers make money and I’m always preaching that you must invest time and resources in your business to be successful.  In a lot of markets agents and brokers are pulling their money from vendors they have enjoyed working with for many years. Vendors are being asked to reduce their fees and still maintain the level of service and quality expected. We have to get through this together.  If you want to ask your vendor for discounts then help sell their solution among your peers the same way you ask for referrals and may give a discount to a client who consistently refers you.   We need our vendors!

Focus on team recruiting efforts and maximize team performance by identifying and balancing skill sets.
An unusual number of teams evolved in the years prior to this correcting market.  Supporting teams is very different than supporting individual agents.  Most agents who brought on team members did so out of necessity not because they wanted to. They may not even posses the skill-set nor desire to manage other agents or staff. 

Syndication is all the buzz but what really happens when you place your listing data on sites other than your local mls and your own corporate or broker websites? What are you giving them permission to do with your seller's listing data? Are they reconfiguring it? Manipulating it for sales of leads back to the agent population? Find out.

Error! Your password must be at least 29 characters long, include 1 upper case and 1 lower case letter, 2 symbols, 5 numbers and not have any repeating characters.  You will be asked to provide 4 unique questions and answers and you cannot make them up!  For your safety and the safety of others, this password must be changed every 3 weeks. ***Warning*** One more attempt at your brainless login and you will be banned from your account forever!!!  Read on for information on successful management of your logins and passwords.

Click to talk, click to chat, click to get an instant connection with me.  Question is, are you really there?

We are moving at lightning speed deploying technologies that put us together with consumers with the click of a mouse. We can even send files, webpages and links from our cell phones directly to the consumers desktop while we are on the phone with them. It's not new technology but the rate at which it is being adopted is astounding.  Having the ability for consumers to contact you at the height of their interest is a very compelling opportunity and the affordability of these solutions make them perfect for this market.

What would happen to your online commodities if you were seriously injured or died today?  Have you prepared a will that states what will happen to your website, email, blogs, contact management system, user-names, passwords etc. upon your passing? 

This new world of technology has us facing situations that we have never been trained on or prepared to face.  Big online businesses that generate 100% of their sales online get it and are taking major action to protect their assets.  We need to start taking this more seriously as an industry and help each other better understand the value of online business.

Interesting New York Times article sent to me by a friend.

By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: January 22, 2008

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Marty Ummel feels she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing boom.
What makes Ms. Ummel different is that she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault.
Ms. Ummel claims that the agent hid the information that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less because he feared she would back out and he would lose his $30,000 commission.   Read the entire article>

I have been hearing so many negative rumors about brokerages/offices, closings and bankruptcy, my head is spinning.  I know this is happening because I see it but I will not believe any such “rumors” until the Broker/Owner tells me directly, I read it in the newspaper or the closed sign is hanging on the front door.

Before I really get into this, I would like to say that I am all for the competition of recruiting and being very shrewd in how it gets done. It is a game to me and I like to win. I just don’t feel like recruiting from a perceived negative is the way to do this business.

Listening to Bernanke speak on Thursday, January 10, 2008,  I wanted to pull my hair out. Can't we just get on with it and do a 1% cut right out the chute for 2008 and then cap it for the year?  I feel like this crawling to get to a reasonable fix is delaying a market stabilization. I keep hearing that there is a threat of other countries seeing us as weak and vulnerable if we make drastic changes...oh come on!  

The buzz words coming out of leaders who have been in the business for many years are "Get Back To Basics."  Issue is, a great deal of agents have no idea what those "basics" are and have never had to develop the skills of prospecting on a very personal level with strangers.  As a matter of fact, I find it funny they would call it "Back To Basics" considering what they are talking about were highly evolved skills and strategies that took training boot-camp to master...it was far from "basic" back then.