My Projects
iPhone Pano
Click the image to view in Panoramic viewerThis image was take with an iPhone I constructed a panoramic head to rotate the phone precisely. I will be adding a second axis of rotation to capture more vertically.
Setting the Appointment
You have spent the time and effort to build good traffic to your site. People like what you have to say and they are obviously interested in Real estate because they are searching for homes, saving homes and sometimes even requesting showings. Congratulations!! Now the big question…are you doing any business?
If the answer is no or not much, there is a conversion problem. The first step to conversion is identifying motivated people, the second is asking for an appointment Yet many agents I see don’t take this step. Your conditioned knee jerk reaction to someone saying “I am interested in Real Estate” should be great “Would you be open to getting together for a cup of coffee to see if we are a good fit to work together.” Or something to that effect.
Of course many times the prospect does not come right out and say “I am interested in real estate please help me”. However, if you are consistently paying attention to the communication you will see “I am interested” conveyed in many ways. The key is to listen and ask questions this is a skill and some people have it naturally and some of us have to learn it.
Listen for any sign of “I am interested in real estate” then ask “would you be open to getting together to see if we are a good fit.” That’s the simple take away message.
DO NOT follow with. great let me run back to the office and send you tons of crap about me and the market to prove to you that I am a great agent and know what I am talking about…oh and I always put my clients interest first and some shit about my personal mission statements;…oh and here is a picture of me on the top of Everest with my shaman….oh and did you know I am not like all those other agents (who are Idiots) I always call back…oh and the ten thousand other things you could say.
Just meet with them to see if you would be a good fit to work together…then take it form there.
Sphere 2.0
Staying in touch with your sphere is the cornerstone of Realty 101. The old way was to put everyone you know into a database management system (Top Producer, act, etc). The new way is connecting your database with your social networks and blog sites. It allows your to move your ideas and activities out into the open for all your sphere to see. It also allows other connected with your sphere to discover you. Set up the structure then be an interesting participant.
Simple steps to Real Estate Success
If you execute these three items at a high level – you win in real estate. Is is as simple as that. Don’t mistake simple for easy though. Any process that is truly in production mode is simple but that does not mean getting there was easy.
Lead Generation – meeting people
Meet tens or hundreds or thousands or millions of People. Create consistent sustainable engines that are run in production mode. There are many strategies and tactics the key is to find ways that fit with your strengths. If you are working against your strengths and talents it is very difficult to maintain over time. It can be face to face or virtually but you must meet people or your real estate career is dead!
Manage client and prospect relationships
Meeting lots of people results in opportunity to further relationships. Our primary role is to inform and help people through the process of buying or selling homes. It is all about building trusted relationships and providing the appropriate information at the appropriate time. If you can follow up with every conversation while adding value you are headed for transactions.
Facilitating Transactions
This is our actual job as far as the clients are concerned. Be a great advocate for the client and get deals done for them. They will love you and happy customers create opportunity.
The key to big time success
Keep all three items consistently running at a high level at the same time and you have a highly productive real estate practice that earns a very high income. Then if you can enhance what is working and fold in additional modules without disrupting the existing structure you can become a mega agent.
Simple but it requires a broad set of skills, solid planning, help from others, and a strong work ethic. It helps tremendously to be in a supportive environment where poeple understand the process and are qualified and motivated to provide asistance. M
Production vs Development
I was recently discussing my frustration around our product development with a friend of mine. The problem centered around how we handle always wanting to build more than we have capacity to possibly get done. Tony asked me a simple question that changed the way we develop Homequest. It also directly applies to building our brokerage and to us as individual agents.
Do you know the difference between production and development? my answer was I think so…um yeh…um no whats that. I felt a little stupid because I have been in direct charge of Homequest Development for years and this sounds like a simple question. It is a simple question and the answer is simple and the implications are huge.
production is where there are no unknowns. for example we sell custom headers for our agent IDX sites. they are $500-1,200, we have a set process for meeting with the client, evaluating their needs, generating mock up, We know how much time and resources they take and block out capacity each week for header production. This program runs on auto pilot we don’t have to think about it, just sell and produce. It is clearly in production. It got that way because we designed it from the start to be in “Production” the internal structure was put in place, we tested our assumptions with a pilot, made some adjustments and now it is reliable.
Development is where there are unknowns. for example we are in the process now of developing a virtual tour integrated into our IDX and Looking glass. We also are in the last stages of development of “orange dots” they are about to enter the Pilot phase where we measure the effectiveness and make small adjustments. You can’t sell things that are in development this includes services as well as products. They are inherently unreliable, take more effort than you think, and it is very difficult to meet the clients expectations.
The key is to really understand your business as it relates to production vs. development. Production is where all the money is generated and development is where innovation occurs and future production components are generated. A balance must be found where new revenue is consistently generated from production and development continues to move the company forward.
This obviously applies to a development company like Homequest but it also directly applies to an agents real estate practice. Can you identify the activities and programs that you can classify as production. Those programs that run on auto pilot and consistently generate revenue? are you spending most of your time coming up with new programs that you are going to implement? I see lots of agents planning and devising new programs but not understanding how to package, test, adjust, and move a program into production.
Our team has esablished an internet marketing program that is now fully established into production mode. We have two new programs that are in development that wil be piloted this years and may or may not reach full production depending on how well they work. The key is that the new pilots will not interfere with the current production that generates our revenue.
Work hard to get programs into production quickly then opperate, and make small adjustments. Only then work on larger innovations and new programs.