Realtor magazine, in a recent issue, surveyed some of the nation’s top producing brokers and agents and asked them what they would advise others. Here are some of the responses:
• Be a lifelong learner; you never know everything you need to know. For example, I’ve just acquired a Palm VII and learned to use it to send and receive e-mail in the field so that I can stay in better touch with tech-oriented buyers.
• Associate yourself with a company that has a commitment to training and coaching to help you build a career. If you’re just starting out, find people who are successful in selling to mentor you. Ask them to breakfast and pick their brains.
• Carry a camera with you at all times and use it to take pictures that build relationships. Send the photos to the media, put them in your newsletter and on your website, and be sure to send the person a copy.
• Be a businessperson, not a one-person business. That doesn’t mean having a huge number of people working for you — instead, it means focusing on systems such as database management and e-mail that make marketing and other functions more efficient and businesslike even if the work is only done by you and one part-time assistant.
• Be consistent with advertising, especially direct mail. Use the same marketing tag line, the same photo, and the same logo on all your materials, business cards, Web site, everything, for at least a year. The constant repetition helps fix you and your marketing in people’s minds and creates a brand identity for you.
• Stick to the basics: dialogues that build relationships, prospecting, listing, and buyer presentations. Technology may allow you to add new twists and communicate faster, but don’t let it take your focus away from the core tasks that build business.
• Let the property sell itself. Even if you read people well, you may not hit on the one feature that makes them ready to buy. Sit back and let the buyers tell you what they like, then reinforce their ideas.
• Be honest and admit your mistakes to clients as soon as they occur. Problems will seem worse if you try to hide them and the clients find out later. It will destroy their confidence in you and could even lead to a lawsuit for misrepresentation.
• Set daily goals for yourself, and then hold yourself accountable. List each activity you plan to do and the time spent doing it, as well as any unplanned interruptions. If you have assistants, require that they do the same. Time is your most valuable commodity so you can’t afford to lose your focus and waste it.
• Don’t be a slave to every technological bell and whistle. For instance, virtual tours take too long to load and view and can crash a computer. You want to move prospects from high tech to high touch as soon as possible — remember, you can’t make a sale until you see the whites of their eyes.
• Don’t be so anxious to get the prospect into the car. Instead, use extensive prescreening to narrow down the number of properties you show. Spend time asking people about everything they want in a home: Do they need room for entertaining? Will the configuration of the bathrooms let everyone get out on time in the morning? What sorts of academic and extracurricular program do they want their schools to have? How far are they willing to drive to work? Then get out a map of the entire metropolitan area and pinpoint exact neighborhoods.
• Encourage sellers to set a realistic price by getting them to look at their home from a buyer’s perspective. Use detailed prior-sales information from the title companies to give sellers a realistic picture of what houses recently sold for in their area or even on their block. This research lets sellers see what actual sales have been, how long sales are taking, and what the competition for their home is. Ask them to walk through their home and look at it as if they were buyers. Ask them what they would offer to buy the house.
• Under-promise and over-deliver. If you promise to have information to a customer in three days and they receive it in two days, they will recognize your attentiveness. Help ensure you make these impressive deadlines by building in a little cushion for yourself. If you think you need three days to complete a CMA, tell the clients they will receive it in four days.
• Take personal time to avoid burnout. It can be as simple as a walk during your lunch hour. Long-term, plan vacations for yourself periodically so you always have a break to look forward to.
• Get the seller to sign a price-reduction addendum to the contract when you take a listing. This way, if you need to adjust the price later to save a deal, you’ve already got the sellers’ agreement.
• Make direct dollar-producing activities, such as listing, your first priority. Set aside a specific number of hours for each moneymaking task, and don’t let anything interfere with that time.
• Don’t procrastinate. Forget saying, “Just do it,” and say, “I just did it.”
– Realtor magazine is the official magazine of the National Association of Realtors