Over the years many of you have heard my buddy Joe Niego talk about not having a spray and pray approach when it comes to the focus of your business and how to generate a lead…and he is so right. That’s why we teach the working by referral system – to help you maintain your focus.

However, in order to get an offer accepted today, the rules have temporarily changed. Helping a buyer has always been a process of elimination. You educate a client in a geographic area and start eliminating homes that they don’t want until they find the one or two they like the best. You then write an offer, negotiate, get it accepted and work on getting it closed.

Today if you write an offer on a short sale or a foreclosure you have approximately a 1 in 4 chance of getting it accepted – even if it’s the best offer. You have a 1 in 3 chance of even getting a response. Many of us are frustrated because this is not how the business is supposed to go. Well folks this is how the business is going today. You need to educate buyers that we’re going to follow the spray and pray approach.

“We’re going to find a home you like, write an offer and there’s a pretty good chance we may not hear back. There’s also a pretty good chance the offer will expire without hearing back so immediately after writing an offer, we’re going to look at more homes. We may have to write offers on five homes to get one accepted.”

This is not how I like to do business and I’m sure it’s not how you like to do business but right now we need to have different expectations and so do our clients. As long as short sales and foreclosures are the first choice of buyers we have to educate them that they going to have to put up with a season of frustration for the opportunity to get one of these deals.

As I told a young buyer the other day; you’re buying this home for $100K less than it sold for a year ago…it will eventually regain it’s value and how long would it take you to save $100K?

So yes we’re going to have to spray a lot of offers into the market but don’t forget to pray. You’ve got to have faith in this market: Faith that things are going to work out; Faith that the market will turn; and faith in the intrinsic value of real estate itself.

I have faith in you.

It’s a good life!

Brian

If you’ve been following the national news recently regarding the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the stock market getting hit and Fannie and Freddie being taken over by the government, these are all the classics signs of the bottom of a market correction.

Right now, we don’t have so much of a real estate problem as we do a banking one. Prices have mostly stabilized across the country and in the short sale and foreclosure market we’re seeing multiple offers. Although I do believe there are a couple more banks in trouble and there’s not yet a full complement of mortgage products to satisfy all the buyers in the market, trust me that will get sorted out. For thousands of years lending money has been one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Banks make money by lending; not by deposits. So they will figure out ways to package loans and get cash into the hands of consumers. I believe this is the final cleansing process and in the next six months we’ll start to come out on the other side of this.

Make sure your clients don’t get caught in the “cudda shudda wudda” of taking advantage of this market. Make sure all your investor clients are fully aware of all the deals that exist and if there’s any way possible, see if you can pick up one of these real estate deals as part of your own investment strategy. We won’t know what the bottom is until after but I believe it’s pretty close. Keep your head down working hard.

It’s a good life!

Brian

A couple of years ago, buyer or seller objections were likely related to the lack of inventory, or to multiple-offer scenarios. While this presented its own set of challenges at the time, today inventory is up, the market has adjusted and objections are a big piece of the puzzle you have to solve. Oftentimes an objection is the only thing standing between you and doing business with someone.

Typically, objections are just smokescreens for peoples’ fears. Instead of telling us they are afraid, they’ll throw up a smokescreen as a way to get time to think. When making a decision, we are committing to something and that can make us nervous. And if there’s one thing that can make people nervous, it’s buying or selling a home.

Listen to your client’s concerns; try to help them isolate what is causing the fear and then work together toward a solution. Remember, this is not a sword fight. A transaction is a commission that’s often already spent, but a client is an asset that grows and grows for years to come. Don’t win the battle and lose the war. If you have a desire for approval,  it can be easy to get sucked into an objection so don’t be defensive when you encounter objections. Take a listening approach to this and remember; objections are a smokescreen for what the real fear is.

A professional is excited to deal with obstacles...so go into battle for your clients; not against them!

It’s a good life!

Brian

The demands of the current market environment require us to be a highly skilled professional. The higher our skill level, the more leads we’ll generate, and the more income we’ll earn. Oh, by the way…we’ll have clients so satisfied with our services that they’ll become advocates for our business.

So the skills we develop are the tools of our trade. It’s true in other professions also. For a carpenter, it’s a hammer and saw. For a painter, it’s a brush and roller. For a pianist, it’s their fingers and keys.

For us…it’s what we say, and how we say it.

Using the right words at the right time with a seller is the difference between a sold listing and an expired one - a frustrated client or an advocate. The ability to master our dialogs and phrases is what makes a professional. So a word to the wise: use your words to build up; not tear down. Use phrases that inform; not infuriate. And most of all, be mindful that the words we use each and every day are often the difference between failure and success.

It’s a good life!

Brian

The three opportunities in today’s market are first-time buyers, move-up clients and investors: 

• First-time buyers. Many people have a desire to buy a home almost as a rite of passage or that fulfilling sensation of having a place to call your own. No matter what the market conditions, first-time buyers are always going to try to break in to home ownership.

• Move-up clients own a house but it either doesn’t fulfill their current needs, or it’s not the house or neighborhood they want.

• Investors who are looking for a long-term play in real estate are enthusiastically looking for properties right now because it has a built-in discount and an investor who’s smart enough to hold onto a property will have a nice piece of built-in equity.

My hope for people in the real estate community is not only will they help their clients skillfully through the transaction process, but they ultimately get to participate in real estate as an investor themselves. Become your own best client…and your fortune is assured. 

It’s a good life! 

Brian 

In 1974, Morris Albert recorded this Grammy award winning song. At that time, it was considered one of the most strongly emotive and moving melodies. As time has gone by, when viewed in hindsight, the same lyrics that won a Grammy have often been lampooned as the sappiest song ever written.

Whether you like the song or not, feelings can be very dangerous for your business. In today’s market, there are lot of emotions; fear, anxiety, frustration and regret. Maybe you don’t know where your next commission check is coming from. Maybe you’re consumed with fear about where the economy and this market are going. Maybe you’re dealing with frustrated sellers who constantly focus on how much their home used to be worth as opposed to what’s it’s worth today. Perhaps you even have a ready, willing and able buyer who’s just afraid to pull the trigger because they don’t want to pay too much for a house.

The answer for a professional is to manage their emotions by keeping perspective. You need to know the historical trends of this business, how good of an investment real estate is (check out www.housingmarketfacts.com), and keep track of your own daily activities so you know you’re doing your best each day.

Feelings are great things. They let you know you’re alive. Personally they deliver the highs and the lows of the human experience. When it comes to your business, feelings don’t help at all. Manage your emotions, manage your business and manage your success.

How many calls, notes, Pop-Bys and business to business meetings are you having?

It's a good life!

Brian

With two adults and six active kids, you can imagine how much laundry there is to wash at our house. Sometimes we miss a couple of days, the baskets in the kids’ rooms overflow and when all piled together, the mountain of clothes looks like an overwhelming task with no end in sight. We have a choice at that time; clean clothes or go shopping for more.

As grown adults when we get behind on our lead-generation activities such as writing personal notes, making calls or doing Pop-Bys to our favorite clients, it’s just like a pile of dirty laundry. The thought of catching up seems overwhelming, the notes begin to pile up, and rather than sitting down and dutifully going through these one at time we let our minds drift: “Let’s run out to the Realtor® store and buy a talking house sign”, “Let’s go buy some internet leads”, “Let me do anything other than chip away at that big pile of unfinished tasks which will ultimately allow me to get my financial house in order.”

Very few people allow their dirty clothes to pile up for weeks on end, but in my experience, many small business owners will allow their lead-generation activities to pile up. Allowing your laundry to pile up is not the most hygienic thing to do… and if you put it off long enough, you’ll have nothing to wear. Putting off lead-generation activities isn’t too healthy for your business either and eventually will leave your financial cupboard bare!

It ain’t sexy but it’s simple enough: take care of your business before your financial challenges become your personal dirty laundry.

It’s a good life!

Brian

When Samuel Clemens uttered these immortal words under his pseudonym Mark Twain, it encapsulated what economists had been trying to say for years…that the fundamental law of economics is supply and demand. Outside of volcanic activity on the Hawaiian Islands, no new land is being created. Therefore, supply is limited.  

The world population grows by approximately 90 million people a year increasing demand year over year. Human beings have three basic needs for survival; food, shelter and clothing. And I don’t see that changing any time soon. On occasion, the market goes through cycles of having too much resale inventory and too much new product followed by a housing shortage and price increases.  

And even in the midst of surpluses like today, there is certain built in demand. For example, there’s a tremendous shortage of apartment buildings in many cities. Many markets are experiencing a surge in rental prices of single family homes. This creates pressure for the first time buyer to own and investor clients to buy. 

So buy land; preferably with a house or apartment building on it. They’ve stopped making it! 

It’s a good life, 

Brian

The American breakfast provides a great analogy for commitment. Just like bacon and eggs on your plate, the chicken is involved but the hog is committed!  

I’ve met a lot of people involved in their businesses but not committed to them. They put in 70 hours a week but they’ve never really made the commitment to their career.  

Now I'm not saying you need to know what you want to do for the next 25 years, but I am saying that you need to be fully present in what you’re doing today. Who knows where life will take you…you may well be doing this for a very long time, perhaps in a different capacity or by working fewer hours, but when you’re not committed to your business as a career, you know it and so do your clients.  

So what’s it going to be? Eggs or bacon? 

It’s a good life! 

Brian

That was what my old high school coach used to shout to me on the field. That was his clarion call to increase the level of physical play on the field. It seemed to work as he led us to a National Championship. One thing I know is that principles don’t go out of style. And if you want to win a championship in your business, it’s time to step up your physical interaction with your clients.

In the colder climates, people have been cocooned in their homes with fewer people interactions than normal. Now that springtime is here, get out amongst your people. See them at work, at home, at events, or at business networking meetings. Attend seminars, classes or take in a show or ballgame together.

Visibility is key; especially with all the negativity in the media about the marketplace. Knowing that you’re active and out and about deepens your hold on being their trusted advisor. When the going gets tough, the tough get out and visit people.

So, get in your car and Pop-By! Visit, or break bread with your favorite people. And for goodness sake, let ‘em know you’re there…for them!

It’s a good life!

Brian