Episode 26: Success From Scratch

Episode 26: Success From Scratch

Jason Todd, says helping veterans is one of the most rewarding parts of his real estate practice.  He started his real estate practice after 15 years in retail management where he was working 80 hours weeks – including weekends and holidays. Today he has a great work, life balance and runs a successful team that is exceeding expectations on a daily basis.
Watch today’s episode to learn more about Todd’s fundamentals of success.
“Everybody needs to have a reason ‘Why’ they do it.”
– Jason Todd, JP and Associates REALTORS®
Episode 25: Success From Scratch

Episode 25: Success From Scratch

Lee Idom from JPAR Austin is our guest on today’s edition of “Success From Scratch.”

A serial entrepreneur, Lee focuses on being a hyper-local expert, positive relationships and delivering on the promises he makes. He is well on his way to serving 40 consumers buy, sell or invest in real estate this year.

Lee had a breakthrough, he learned to focus on his true market. Once he switched his focus his whole business changed from doing a few sales to nearly 40 sales per year.

Being consistently persistent is Lee’s mantra, learn more from Lee by watching now.

“Be consistently persistent, do the things that are working and do the same thing over and over again.”
– Lee Idom, JP and Associates REALTORS®

 

 

Don’t Be Broke On January 1st!

Don’t Be Broke On January 1st!

There are 80 working days left in 2018. Depending on how many days you work, how many holidays you celebrate and so on, you have about 80 days to wrap up 2018. 80 days…

How do you want your bank account to look like on January 1st of 2019? Do you want a bigger bank account or a smaller one? I suspect a bigger one… so let’s get to work.

Whatever your goal is, NOW is the time to make that happen. The next 45 to 55 days will be critical for setting yourself up for strong close to 2018 and a fast start to 2019. What you do in the next few days and weeks will determine the size of your bank account on January 1.

Let’s face there are two types of agents today… hobbyists and CEO’s. This blog is not intended for part-time agents or those that work real estate sales as a hobby. For those of you that run your business like a business, those of you that know your daily number and know what it takes to generate one sale… this article is for you.

How many families or investors do you want to serve between now and the end of the year?

How many contacts do you need to make to drive that number? One rule of thumb is 40 to 1.

What systems do you have in place to create the result you desire?

Write down the number of sales you’ve made so far this year.
Write down the source of those sales.

This is your system… a system will produce what a system will produce, nothing less nothing more. If your system is not producing the expected result, it’s time to update your system.

A couple of things to consider
  • Decide Now. Decide now how many days you will work, how many days you will be off and how many “flex days” you’ll have between now and the end of the year. Decide if you will create an investor campaign to take advantage of year-end investment buyers. And, decide now how many listings you will earn between now and the end of the year.
  • Diversify your lead generation sources. Too many of you rely on ONE maybe TWO lead sources. 4 to 6 sources of business is a minimum standard. Don’t add them all at once, start with one get it working and stable then add another until you reach 4 to 6 sources. In any market, more lead sources will serve you better than fewer lead sources. Relying on 100% of your business with one lead source in a shifting market is a formula for disaster.
  • Up your CRM game. At JPAR you have a world class CRM kvCORE as part of our base package. You also have Top Producer and Commissions Inc. at a preferred rate. So, there is no excuse for not having your CRM update date and working for you.
  • Delegate. Is it time to find some help? An office or virtual assistant. Your highest and best use is prospecting.; lead generation; going to appointments, and negotiating contracts. Everything else can be delegated. Scared? Get resourceful, many new agents I know are sharing a fractional assistant to split cost yet keep them fully employed.
  • Target Market Clarity? Any market rewards the hyperlocal expert. Are you an expert in a community? Are you an expert in a profession like Nurses, FBI agents, CPA’s? It’s probably time to expand your targets and diversify.
  • Real Estate Play Book. Complete our JPAR real estate playbook ASAP. It is full of practical ideas you can execute immediately.

 

So, I’ll leave you today with three more things:

1. Cash… cash is king. Are you building your cash reserves? Reducing bad debt? Investing in marketing? (Hint: You can do all 3.)

2. Knowing what you know now, what immediate adjustments do you need to make?

3. Have you started a small weekly accountability group with like-minded, goal-oriented CEO’s like yourself? If not, what are you waiting for?

#WinTheDay

Episode 23 : Success From Scratch

Episode 23 : Success From Scratch

Melissa Horton shares her real estate journey with us on today’s episode of “Success from Scratch.” “Fear was producing excuses everyday,” she says. Fear held her back and put her business into paralysis. It was her decision to “take action” that launched her career. Watch this week’s episode for her full story!

” Do not focus on the income, success is measured in 3 ways: contentment on both sides after the deal, my client will see me as a friend, doing the right thing without compromising my own character.”
  • – Melissa Horton, JP and Associates REALTORS®

What Does Your System Produce?

What Does Your System Produce?

How would it feel if you could help 50 families buy, sell or invest in real estate every year?

A system will produce what a system will produce… nothing less, nothing more. So I’m curious, what is your system producing for your business? Are you happy with that result or do you want more? If you want more, read on.

Are Your Systems Producing Reliable Results?

Let me clarify. For some of you reading this blog, losing weight might be an example you can relate to. Losing 10 pounds is a GOAL. Changing the way you eat for life is a SYSTEM.  Many of you have a goal of helping 20 or more families buy, sell or invest in real estate this year. That is a GOAL. What systems do you have in place to ensure that outcome?

So let’s review first why you need systems in place. Unless you are a hobbyist in real estate, you’ll need systems for:

  • Consistent quality – for you, your clients and your partners.
  • Simplifying your workload – like a checklist for a pilot, you don’t have to always guess what needs to be done next
  • Saving time – less time wondering what to do and more time doing it
  • Highlighting inefficiencies – with the right systems in place you can see what’s working and what’s not
  • Growing your business – serve more people, make more money

As a real estate broker and later as a real estate business coach, I’ve seen, reviewed and put into practice virtually every system out there. In my current view of the business, the perfect place to start is with Gary Keller’s three L’s from The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: Leads, Listings, and Leverage.

Next-level agents – those that run their business as a business – implement real estate systems to handle each of the three L’s. Let’s dig in.

LEADS

Leads are the lifeblood of your real estate practice. Without leads, you have no clients and no deals. Systemizing your lead generation and conversion processes will result in more clients and more successful transactions. One such system is outlined in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, which outlines a system to move prospects from your outer circle to your inner circle.

In the book, we learn 2 prospecting categories and 11 marketing categories to choose from and implement. Exploring all of them would spread you too thin, yet having a plan to start with one and “add one” each quarter is a solid process to build a strong real estate practice.

Lead systems include:

  • Eight by eight – everyone you meet goes into a campaign with the purpose of establishing a relationship. Once a week for 8 weeks you make some type of meaningful contact. Text, follow up call, email, social media direct message, handwritten note. Get creative and systematize it.
  • Thirty-Three Touch – everyone you know goes into the 33 touch program. 18 touches via newsletter, cards or drop-offs; 8 thinking of you touches; 3 telephone touches; 2 birthday touches (both partners); 1 touch each for a special holiday. Get creative – old media and new media –  and systematize it.
  • Twelve Direct – for those people you have not met in your target market area. 12 direct contacts a year. Get creative and systemize it.

Move Prospects From Your Outer To Your Inner Circle.

Your business is just math – depending on market conditions, your skills and results you will need to increase or decrease your formula:

For every 12 people on your “met” contact database – when you follow this system – you can reasonably expect to net 2 sales… either a direct sale or a referral for a sale. Do you want to do 5o sales this year? Then a solid database of 300 people using this system can produce that result.

For every 50 people in your “not met” database you can reasonably expect 1 sale. You want to do 5o sales this year, then you’ll need 2,500 people in your not meet database.

LISTINGS

If you want to run an efficient real estate business, focus on gaining more listings, not more buyers.

Listings require less time and allow you more scheduling flexibility… you don’t have to work around the clients’ schedules nearly as much as with buyers. You can also be more confident in your ability to collect payment as a seller’s agent than as a buyer’s agent. We’ve all had buyers cut us out of a deal at one time or another. And even with a buyer’s brokerage agreement, forcing payment of commissions can easily get contentious. It’s a headache you just don’t need.

One of the best resources I’ve run across for a listing system is Hoss Pratt’s book LISTING BOSS

So work with well-qualified, sense-of-urgency buyers, but focus your efforts on earning listings from sellers.

Listings systems include:

  • Creating Home Value and Neighborhood Activities campaigns
  • Listing presentations: what can you show prospective sellers during your listing presentation that will distinguish yourself from your competition and help your sellers feel comfortable contracting with you?
  • Staging: how will you help your sellers stage to sell?
  • Property marketing: how will you promote your new listings? In our market, your marketing needs to be like the new home builders.
  • Client communication: when and how will you be in touch with your sellers while the property is on the market and under contract?

LEVERAGE

Leverage is all about finding and utilizing resources to help you scale your business.

Perhaps you could spend more time landing more listings if you hired a transaction coordinator to manage the paperwork for your pending deals. Or you could spend more time on income-generating activities if you hired an assistant to handle the administrative aspects of your practice.

Leverage your resources to help you serve more clients and increase your revenue.

Leverage systems include:

  • Assistants: what tasks can you delegate to an assistant (as an employee or even as a freelance virtual assistant)?
  • Buyer agents: as your business grows, you may find you need a designated Buyer’s Agent to handle your buyers.
  • Automation software: can some of your tasks, like social media posts or email campaigns, be handled by automation software?
  • Your CRM… without a solid CRM and CRM process you are not in business you simply have a hobby.

Feeling overwhelmed? Good, that’s the place where all growth begins. Break it down into small chunks and get started today. If you have not read my article Delegate, Automate or Eliminate, now would be a good time.

Need a business coach? Schedule a consult with us today.

#WinTheDay

Episode 18: Success From Scratch

Episode 18: Success From Scratch

In this week’s episode of “Success From Scratch” Amber Harper, from JPAR San Antonio shares how her career in real estate started at 20 years old. Amber shares how her initial feeling of fear held her back and what she learned to build “trust” with her customers by conquering both her business is growing and a success.

“Don’t be a secret agent, be a SPECIAL agent!”

-Amber Harper, JP and Associates REALTORS®