Ever wondered whether a team is for you.  Click below for a few pointers.

To Team or Not To Team - That is the Question

Feeling Left Behind?

As I was driving down the road the other day listening to some commentary on the news channel, I heard an interview with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company talk about the importance of innovation within his industry.  He discussed how the company's strong commitment to innovating and reinventing their product has helped them maintain their #1 ranking in customer service and market share for nearly four decades.


The term innovation derives from the Latin word innovatus, which is the noun form of innovare "to renew or change"


When many of us picture innovation, we think technology or product development.  Some brainiac engineer in the back tweaking and mixing chemicals to produce the next world's greatest idea.

Innovation though is the result of small strides taken daily by each of us and it is just as important in the real estate industry as in any other industry in the country.  To see innovation at work, look at Google.  They give their employees 20% of the work week to engage themselves in whatever project they want to, whether it is within their day-to-day scope of focus or not.  Look at a Realtor® delivering contracts digitally so a purchase offer contract can be executed by a wife on a business trip in Asia and a husband traveling in California.  


So what can you do to innovate and invigorate your business?

• Work "on" your business - So many of us spend our days working "in" our business.  Running around chasing the issues of the day.  It is imperative that you have time to reflect "on" your business.  Take some time, say every 6 months, to take a step back and analyze what is working and what is not working.  This is innovation at work.  Small tweaks here and there in pursuit of success.
• Try a new marketing idea - perhaps you have been mailing a newsletter or calendar to your clients for five years.  Maybe send them a personal note or instead of a monthly newsletter you decide to throw a party and invite all those on the calendar mailing list.
• Send a video email - Video marketing certainly looks as if it is here to stay.  Why not try to send a video response to an email inquiry instead of the same old same old canned response.

The key here is try something different and new.  By now, we should all know Albert Einstein's definition of insanity.  Yet, so often in our business we practice the art daily without ever realizing it.  Constantly expecting different results, while we stick to our old tricks.


Before the end of the year, try something new.  Commit to it and enjoy the results.  Remember, progress is achieved through change.

Are We Having Fun?

Sometimes we forget to smile and have fun.

Innovative RE/MAX Technology Delivers - remax.com Connects Over 10 Million Customers to Agents

An overwhelming majority of families start their home search online and they find what they’re looking for on www.remax.com, the number one real estate franchise website. With advanced search properties and complete home listings in thousands of cities and towns, the site also connects homebuyers and sellers with award-winning and experienced RE/MAX agents through the RE/MAX LeadStreet® system. To date, remax.com and Leadstreet have provided more than 10 million unique leads for RE/MAX Associates across the country. And, those agents have helped millions of families buy and sell homes.

“The success of LeadStreet and remax.com is proof of our dedication to customer service and our dedication to our agents,” said Kristi Graning, RE/MAX Senior Vice President of eBusiness and Emerging Technologies. “The fact that RE/MAX agents have received more than 10 million leads, without the referral fee that our competitors typically charge, has brought more experienced real estate professionals to our network. And, those professionals make their customers a priority.”

LeadStreet debuted in 2006 and has sent out an average of 2 million leads a year to RE/MAX agents via email, which means they can receive leads on any computer or mobile device and get back to the customer within minutes.

“Staying on the cutting edge of technology is extremely important. Homebuyers and sellers today expect a quick response and they deserve one,” said Graning. “The combination of LeadStreet and remax.com has helped our agents become the most productive sales force in the industry.”

Two recent respected national surveys show RE/MAX agents continue to outperform their competitors, selling more homes, assisting more families, and leading all other national real estate companies in sales performance.

In the REAL Trends 500 survey, the average RE/MAX agent achieved 14.5 Transaction Sides in 2010, compared with the 6.8 average of all others in the survey. In the 2011 RISMedia Power Broker Report, RE/MAX agents averaged an impressive 14.7 transaction sides, outselling many competitors by more than two-to-one.

Makin' Hay, While the Sun Shines

I am always amazed at how much actually gets done in the spring and summer months.  It seems to me, virtually every industry (short of retail stores, think Black Friday) cranks it up when the winter finally breaks.  We all know the farmers are making hay, the movies are stockpiling their big releases, and of course we real estate professionals are out there cranking it up.

Busy times are definitely fun, but can be stressful as well.  While the business is coming in and things are looking up, we all have a tendency to forget about the daily grind that produces these great results.  Try to stay disciplined and carve out a time to maintain your lead generation.  It doesn't matter whether you are calling your network, calling open house leads, sending postcards, sending magnets, whatever it is you do, you've got to be consistent with it.

The busy times can be the hardest times for us to be consistent.  Long days of showing, listing, and negotiating can drain our battery a bit.  This is completely understandable, but you'll want to take some steps to avoid this drain.  The more you can systematize your follow-up, the better your results will be.  And remember, a system doesn't mean it is not personal.  A system means you can repeat the action constantly and consistently (like my golf swing, ah, okay wishful thinking, but you get the idea).

You may not be able to implement your system and plan today, but at least begin jotting down notes.  You can use these notes to build your system in the slower times.  And remember, the importance of scheduling time for yourself to relax and recharge can not be understated.



  

Some Thoughts on Leads

Interesting points from Stephen Pacinelli speaking at the RE/MAX R4 Convention. "It’s not what you say about you, but what other people say about you that counts, testimonials and reviews rule the world, and that’s what ‘world of mouth’ is all about." says Stephen Pacinelli Lean into testimonials and reviews – According to Nielsen  Research Company, 90 percent of people trust peer recommendations, but only 14 percent trust advertisements. Be aware of your rankings – If consumers are weeks from starting the buying or selling process, chances are they’ll start searching for an agent on Google. If they search "real estate agent," one key result in the list of suggested searches is "real estate agent reviews." These sites are in their infancy, but they’re not going anywhere.  Setting up profiles on most of these sites is free. Make reviews part of your process – Ask clients to visit your profiles on the one or two websites you've chosen to focus on  after each transaction closes. Pick just one or two, because clients aren’t going to visit seven websites to write reviews. Use compete.com – Which is the best agent review site to focus on? It’s hard to say, but compete.com can give you  current information about how much traffic these sites are receiving. Create profiles on the one or two that are most popular.

Property Management

The secret is out, real estate prices declined a bit over the past 4 years or so!

No doubt the past few years have seen a few changes to our market.  While most of the changes would fit into the "I didn't need that" category, a few opportunities have come to light.

One of these, is the rental market and the opportunity to provide these services for your clients.  In PA, the services need to be provided through a broker, but therein lies a great opportunity for the agents of today.

Your office provides the framework for the property management, including all the not so fun work of collecting rents, calling in repairs, etc.  You get to:

• Increase your range of services - It is pretty simple here, the more topics and tools you can offer someone the more people, clients, and profit you stand to make.  The rental market is starting to grab the headlines, be prepared!
• Engage with future buyers - The vast majority of the rental market includes those who want to buy, but just are not ready.  With a well thought out, but simple follow-up plan, who might these folks turn to?
• Learn the property management business - so when you're ready to build your investment portfolio you or your office will have the right tools in place.

Opportunity lurks out there, are you or is your office providing the tools for today's client?

Do You YouTube? 5 Things to Consider

With all the choices out there today to market ourselves and our business, one of the most popular and successful avenues of late has been the creation short, information rich  videos.

Since we started producing these videos in 2010, our online sales leads have doubled.  As with any new undertaking, we had a learning curve, but now we have a system that helps us keep our video content fresh. 

And Google rewards us for our regular updates by boosting our placement in search results.

Below are a few keys we wanted to pass along:

Simple is better - Don't concern yourself with purchasing expensive equipment and editing software. All you need is a Flip Video Camera or similar product, a stage against a branded or colored wall, and a desk lamp shining on the set. If the lamp creates a glare, simply cover the end of the lamp with a white piece of paper. Visitors aren't expecting Hollywood-quality production; they just want the information. As viewership improves, your comfort level creating the clips will improve too.

Be relevant and focused - Focus your segments on very narrow topics, such as three tips for first-time buyers, current interest rates, or  what it means to work with an agent who has a team. The topics should be based on general Realtor knowledge, trends in your market, or client situations that agents are confronting.

Keep them short - RE/MAX QuickHits are a great model of how long viral videos should be.  Being the long-winded guy I am, some of our early clips were as long as 10 minutes. Now we understand two or three minutes is all the consumer will hang in for.

Film several clips at once - Record five or six segments at a time so that you can steadily roll out new content, which Google looks for. When only two remain in the queue, plan a new time to shoot the next half-dozen videos.

Broadcast them - On your office's YouTube channel, social media networks, blogs.  Wherever you think it would make sense.  The beauty of the multiple channels, is that the exposure can grab more consumer traffic for your videos outside your market and even internationally.

Sign Calls - Where Art Thou?

Who gets the calls on your listings?



Here we follow the three strike rule to help ensure all callers speak to the most knowledgeable agent on the property, the Listing Agent!

If the average listing generates 12 calls, how many more transactions would you close?

Just a thought.

What's in Your Toolbox?

Trust me, this is not about SEO, Social Networking, Web 2.0, or any of those other catchy marketing phrases. This is about the tools available to you at the office.

The first step is to analyze the technologies available in your office and from your Broker/Manager. What are they providing that will help enhance your productivity without giving up more of that precious commodity called time.

Here are a few core technologies to consider;

• Web based software allowing you to access critical office docs, contracts, leads, etc. from any computer in the world
• Office Intranet
• Wireless at all offices for you and your clients
• Sales meetings available LIVE via the web
• On-demand training videos
• VOIP phone system


In today's day and age it is quite easy to get caught-up in the latest and greatest technological advancement. We can lose sight of how it relates to our production. Frankly, the same thing can happen to an office.

Your office and the support you get from it should be real and easily understood. You should measure the strength by what you get on a daily and monthly basis. How is it helping you reach your goals. It should include a strong commitment to today's relevant tools, a proven and real lead generation system, and the willingness to work with you personally to push your business forward.