The conference carried an inspiring sports theme with a featured presentation by Paul DePodesta, currently VP of Player Development and scouting for the New York Mets. In Michael Lewis’ movie Moneyball, Jonah Hill plays DePodesta, who, at the time, was Assistant General Manager of the Oakland A’s.

You may not be a sports fan but stay with me, as I point out one of many parallels to be gleaned from the world of sports and your business as a real estate professional. For those of you who did not see the movie (please rent it), Depodesta and Billy Beane (General Manager for the Oakland Athletics, played by Brad Pitt) came to the Oakland A’s after a six-season losing streak with the lowest player payroll in Major League Baseball. Conventional league thinking was that wealthy teams who spent three times as much on talent as less wealthy teams win games and ultimately the World Series. After four seasons of DePodesta and Beane as managers, the Oakland A’s won more regular season games than the heralded New York Yankees who, during the same time, spent $350 million more on payroll than the A’s.

How did they achieve this level of success? The answer to this question produced an entire bestselling book, which did an even better job of unveiling the thought process than the movie. I have not read the book but have heard it’s terrific. It boils down to rethinking how the system worked by asking what they referred to as the “naïve question”…”if we weren’t already doing it this way, is this the way we would start?”

GREAT question! How often do we continue going about our days doing things because that’s the way we have always done them? Many of you want greater levels of success, whether that be more commission income, more time with your families, more referrals, whatever, but don’t stop to ask yourselves the challenging questions that can and will take your business to the next level. This combination of thought and behavior demonstrates the too familiar definition of insanity: “continuing to do what we have always done and expecting different results.”

At the conference, Steve and his team did a great job of applying the Moneyball concepts to real estate brokers/owners who want to attract and develop the most talented agents – that’s YOU! I would get a jump start and begin to ask yourself the critical questions. Assess your own knowledge, skills and activities that have gotten you to where you are today, and take appropriate action to set yourself up for greater levels of achievement.

The process that Paul and Billy infused at the A’s was very analytical, using miles of data to make decisions. In today’s information society, data is king and those who understand how to use it soar to high heights. If you aren’t running your business today off of a set of consistently measured data points, start. I have heard many of you say that you aren’t “numbers people.” If you are one of these, talk to your managing broker and ask for their help to build a data-driven approach to your business. They will be thrilled just by this question and happy to help you. Chances are they have a terrific program or “system” to support you; upon doing so, I think you will find that a practical, logical and, frankly, common sense approach will make marked improvements in your business.

Over the last few years our industry has undergone unprecedented and exponential change which has resulted in the need for adjustments and a re-calibration of business. In order to be successful in this new world of information availability and data analysis, it’s imperative that you stop and ask yourself the “naïve question” – then implement. It’s easy to do the same things we have been doing, but as leaders of your own individual businesses, you owe it to yourself to do more. Be more than the ordinary!

See you at the World Series!



Michael McAllister & Paul DePodesta at the 2012 Gathering of Eagles

On our layover breakfast in the Twin Cities, one of three flight routes out of our hometown of Fargo, ND, we talked about texting, specifically during school. I inquired who Anna was texting at nine in the morning on an official school day. She was texting with a friend who was, yes, at school. For any parents who may be wondering, it does happen. Texting in school, the contemporary form of passing notes (which I was oddly pleased to hear still happens as well), is another outward expression of our human longing to connect with others. The teenage generation is often criticized for their predisposition for electronic forms of communication; however, I sense a broader awareness about the appropriateness of when and how to communicate most effectively from this incredibly sharp generation. There is much be learned from these future leaders.

We all long to connect with others and in the real estate business being an effective communicator equals success. As an entrepreneur, my ability to communicate effectively through appropriate means is a critical component of my success. I am fortunate to have an outstanding team and their ability to do the same equates to the success of our business. As real estate professionals, the same is true for you. Often, agents and brokers just plain talk too much! We have all been guilty of this – become aware of it and stop. The consumer doesn’t care nearly as much about you and your story as they care about your ability to help them get what they want.

Sales training 101 reminds us that we have TWO ears and one mouth for a reason. By respectfully listening more to the needs and desires of our clients and prospects, we can better deliver what they want and build a lifelong client. According to NAR, 8 out of 10 homeowners use a different agent to list their home than they used to purchase their home. Why is this? The number one complaint from sellers about their listing agent is “our agent didn’t communicate about what was happening with our home.” Dissatisfied buyers complain that “our agent just didn’t listen to what we wanted. They kept showing us property that didn’t fit.”

Make a commitment to yourself and your success in the real estate business to engage in some kind of activity every day, every week, or every month to fine tune your communication skills. There are countless resources in all formats to support you.

Could it be that your teen, who spends more time texting than talking, may actually be listening so they can thoughtfully speak when appropriate? My Twitter friend Hilary Marsh shared this article, “20 Phrases You Can Replace with One Word,”  which reminds us that when it comes to written communication, less can also be so much more.

Best wishes to you for an enjoyable holiday weekend full of effective communication and connection with others!

There is a crazy amount of interest in successful open houses and that makes sense because we are in a market where the pent up demand of the past few years along with some decent economic news and continued low interest rates are driving hoards of people into the market.

The keys to a successful open described in the article and its attached checklists and scripts is to engage people at the open in the conversation that leads to make an appointment with you to discuss working with you to buy a home.  Stage the home as a place where, in addition to the house showing well, you are demonstrating your personality and professionalism.

Then treat the open house for what it really is, an opportunity to generate a bunch of leads in one place and in a relatively short period of time.  This also means choosing opens that you know will have good traffic and not holding homes open just because the owner wants the open when you, the Agent know that there will be little or no traffic.

Bottom line: unless you abhor open houses this is a market in which well priced houses, newer on the market and relatively easy to access are worth thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars.  My record is eight appointments made at one open house that turned into six sales to Buyers and one listing.  See if you can beat that.

The asking price was $769,000.  The offer came in at $625,000.

Debbie is smart and talented.  As the owner’s anger and frustration arose, Debbie calmly explained that: “All offers are good offers,” that in this market, buyers feel that owners may be desperate.  The key is that she kept the owner objective.

She did not disparage the offer, the other agent or the buyer.  She didn’t compliment them either.  Instead she kept it objective.

The owner countered at $725,000.  The buyer came back at $640,000.  Again, as you might expect the owner was angry and frustrated.  Again, Debbie kept her cool and told him:  “I want to be as upset at you are but my job is to keep my eye on the goal of getting you the price you need to get the job done.  So, let’s decide do we want to tell them we won’t respond until they raise their offer?  Do we want to make a small concession and keep inching closer?  Or do we want to go to or close to your bottom line and send the message that we want to get this done with less “Mickey Mouse” back and forth.”

She explained the risks of not responding and allowed the owners to lead the decision making with her guidance.

So many agents who are far less skilled negotiators than Debbie empathize with their client in ways that paint the other agent or the other party as wrong, greedy, etc.  Debbie demonstrated three key negotiation skills of a talented negotiator:

1. She kept the negotiation and her client objective.
2. She kept the conversation and the negotiation focused on the goal.
3. She kept herself objective and focused on the goal.

Agents that I coach all over the country are using this and literally everywhere it is generating listing leads.

You have a buyer who you have shown everything on the market and they can’t find what they want.  So, you send what I call a “Property Need Letter.”

You drive the buyer around the area and select the specific homes and or the specific blocks of streets that truly have what they are looking for.

Then you send a letter to those specific houses.  The letter has to have a specific structure and language so that it is credible.  In fact, don’t do this unless it is real.  The letter gives some details about the buyer, what they are looking for and what they are not finding.  It offers a confidential one time showing request.

My coaching clients have been doing this for many years.  Right now it seems to be more effective than ever.  Perhaps because there are so many sellers who are waiting for the market to improve but given the opportunity they would like to sell and move.

If you would like a copy of the property need letters, e-mail me.  Although they are one of hundreds of documents exclusively for our coaching Clients, I’ll offer them to you to encourage you to listen to our free webinars www.FreeCoachingWebinars.com and to introduce you to a bit of our success work.

Let’s be clear on another thing. If listings are the name of the game, buyers are the rest of the game. You don’t make a commission with a buyer. In fact, a qualified, motivated buyer with an urgent need is as good as the average listing (particularly in today’s market) any day; in fact, the better the listing, the more of those valuable buyers it will attract.

So, as I said in the previous blog, keep taking listings. At the same time, keep searching for qualified buyers who are eager and ready to buy. The key is to be rigorous in asking the buyer questions about their financial qualification, motivation and urgency as early as possible in the relationship (with complete respect for Agency and Agency laws).

Yes, I saw the statistics on how much more money is made by agents who focus on listings. And I completely agree that consistent success is based on a listing focus. I coach agents every day to extraordinary listing success. But the statistics are flawed. Here’s why.

Most, possibly all, agents with a team focus on listings. On their team are agents who focus on buyers. In fact in many those ‘Buyer Specialists’ refer all of their listing leads to the primary agent. The team leader (I call them the primary agent, thank you Patrick Daily) gets a portion of all the buyer sale commissions. This enormously skews the statistics. The more accurate measure would be individual agents who focus on Listings versus the ones who focuses on buyers. The problem with that is that the vast majority of individual agents necessarily focus on both.
The point is that focusing on buyers in a smart way is necessary for agents with or without a team. For the teams it would be a waste to get all those listings and not benefit from the buyers they would attract. For an individual agent it is also most often a matter of survival.

Buyers or listings, there is opportunity in this market. It absolutely takes more talent and effort to find it and close it in this market. Those who tough it out and learn to succeed in this market will be the top agents and the leaders as a healthy market re-emerges. And with a bit of blessing, it will.

But keep taking listings. Kyle Killebrew has taken 88 listings so far this year. That is about 30 more than previous years. His listing sold percentage is way off from previous years. He has sold just 68% of them. Oh, that’s 60 of them isn’t it? And from the leads generated from all those listings he and his team have sold another 52 houses to buyers. Even if less listings sell, having more of the listings means you sell more.

It is tougher to get listings sold in this market. The clients’ situations are often negative. There are job losses, divorces, and involuntary moves. We are always dealing with these types of situations but in this market and in this economy there are a higher percentage of those negative circumstances.
There are more sellers who believe their house should sell for a higher price. A higher percentage of sellers who sell are disappointed with the price they get.

All of that is true and keep taking new listings, getting price reductions, and re-listing because there are flurries. A flurry is when, suddenly, for no apparent reason a bunch of properties sell. The agents with the listings benefit from the flurries. These listing agents benefit in two ways.

First, their listings sell. Second, they the buyers contact them.

Kyle said, “Rich, you are right about the flurries. We sold six properties the first week in September. School starting, right after Labor Day, I wouldn’t have expected it. But I’m glad to have had the inventory.”
Keep taking listings.

1. 1. How you feel about your business is a distraction that is more likely to hurt your business than help it. If you feel bad it may motivate you, more likely it will de-motivate you. And if you feel good it may motivate you or it may make you complacent. I am a HUGE believer that your “attitude dictates your altitude.” However, in terms of your how you are doing in your business it is your measureable results that dictate your success, not your attitude. Focus on measurable results. So…
2. 2. What gets measured gets done. You get what you inspect not what you expect. What measures do you keep track of? What measures are you aware of? Do you have a sales goal for each month? If not, start there and set one now for July, August, and every month to the end of the year. Be sure it is open sales; in other words what you put under contract not what you close, in June etc. You must measure what you have the most control over. In terms of sales volume you have much more control over what you will put under contract each month than what you close that month.

   Do you have a listing goal for each month?  Set those too.

3. 3. Look at your monthly sales volume and listing goals every day. Yes, every day. Of course there are days they won’t change. And of course you will remember what those goals are and how you are doing if you only look at them a few times a week. But you won’t do it unless it is a habit. It will take you… oh, let’s say… thirty seconds, maybe less because you could be looking at a goals sheet on paper or on your computer while you are having breakfast so can do it in N.E.T. (no extra time). When you have those goals set and you look at them every day, it prevents lengthy slumps and it motivates you in the most effective and legitimate way.
4. 4. Choose, right now, what success in your Real Estate career will do for your life that you desire most. What is it? Will it reduce the stress of unpaid bills? Will it buy you another income property, fund college educations, pay for that surgery, allow you to take that trip or take the trip with greater ease and enjoyment. What is it for you? And once you hit on that thing that gets your juices flowing, that thing that creates a sense of excitement in you, when you hit upon that thing; write it down. And each day as you look at your goals connect that desired outcome with those measured results. That $400,000 of sales in June means that I’ll be able to… Make that connection each day. Dwell on it. Yes it may be painful for some who are struggling and exhilarating for those who are already doing well. For both and for all it will ultimately create permanent motivation.

The secret to the success of my coaching Clients are a few simple disciplines. The business is hard. Buyers and Sellers, Lenders and Appraisers, Personal Property and Possession Dates and more, offer continual challenges; awareness of your numbers brings greater ease, sanity and motivation. These four simple solutions will make a huge difference to your success.

We are all prisoners of our habits, and especially after a certain age, it is tough to “change”.  It’s been said, that if we keep on doing what we’ve always done, we’ll keep on getting what we have always gotten….but that is not true anymore!  In today’s competitive marketplace we may not even be able to survive doing the “normal”.  Today’s market requires innovation, creativity, and execution, using new tools, systems, strategies and the biggie: A willingness to CHANGE!

If we don’t change who is going to notice?  From losing that extra five pounds to adding another day of exercise, or making more money…unless you have a plan and a coach to help you stay focused, there are no real outside consequences.

We are in a world that requires dollars for sustenance, survival and comfort, not to mention that money has been the measure of success.  So with that said, there are several experts out there that offer us a new path to create more guaranteed profits at this time next year if we are willing to embrace a few small changes.

Don’t have time??? Not an excuse anymore! With NAR’s FREE Realtor University Webinars, you can learn from top experts anytime, anywhere. All you need is the willingness to learn, a computer and a little willingness to CHANGE!  Here are some great resources:

Follow a Plan – Expert coach, author and speaker Carla Cross offers the best first step, and that is to have an effective business plan.  She did a brilliant job presenting what you need to know in the Realtor University free webinar now available online: http://budurl.com/BizPlan2010withCarla

List for More $$ – More expertise to increase your bottom line with listings comes from super coach, author and speaker, Bernice Ross.  Bernice’s webinar offers solid direction on how to list more properties at higher commissions in 2011 by developing a premium marketing plan and use Web 2.0 strategies to get the listings signed up, priced right and sold!  Her million dollar information is offered FREE. Click here to get one on one direction: http://budurl.com/ListMore4MoreMoney

Be the First Agent they call – Did you know that an NAR survey shows that 60-80% of consumers work with the first agent who responds to them?  If you are not up to speed on the latest applications that the top agents are using to out respond and out communicate their competitors, you need to get with it!  Expert and social media instructor Amy Chorew offers an information-packed power hour on the PDA applications top salespeople all over the world are using to respond, engage and connect with hot prospects. Get the scoop by clicking on: http://budurl.com/AmysKillerAps4U

There is a WEALTH of information available to agents that are sick and tired of not making the money they want.  The choice is yours to take advantage of these valuable online webinars that are guaranteed to take your profits from dull to dynamic! WARNING: It does require CHANGE on your part!

Are you ready???  Then check out these and others at: http://budurl.com/FreeNARWebinars4U

Do it! And we’ll see you in the winner’s circle…same time next year!

20 Types of Dynamic Blog Posts

Just follow any of these 20 dynamic blogging post tips and have fun with your blog site.