LeRoy Houser

The Future is NOW!

Winter is over and it’s time to Step It Up! The real estate market is heating up in many areas and is Red Hot in some. We are beginning to see some positive movement in the mortgage market, house prices are still falling in some areas, and the job market is looking somewhat better. We have more potential in the housing market now than we have had in quite some time, so spend the time, effort and money to stimulate your business now – not next year or the year after (as some of our real estate pundits are suggesting) but NOW as in TODAY! 

Here are Four Ideas to Get the NOW in Your Business!

1. Get a Good Start. It is a proven fact that starting the day off right is a key to having a good day. Most of us do better with a schedule than we do just managing the “crisis of the moment,” and the surest way to create more crises is to work without a plan or a focus. Sitting down in a quiet place (your car, for example) and developing a list of priorities for the day and week are necessary elements for having a good start; these activities help you get your mind focused on TODAY.

2. Build Your Brand. Building a brand does not take a great deal of study or a fat checkbook; it can be built piece by piece, day by day. In the past four months I have been focused on agent branding, or lack thereof, and quite frankly it has been shocking. We are in a time in which every customer matters because they can be few and far between. However, if you watched the behavior in most of my audiences, you would get the idea that this market is Red Hot. I recently had a seminar with 70+ students and only one wore a nametag, many did not have business cards, and there was only one car in the parking lot that had any REALTOR^® ID. What’s wrong? Technically, nothing – but it’s just a fact that when there are not many customers in the market, more salespeople start “slacking off” as opposed to “kicking it up.” The five key elements for building a brand are (and have been) nametags, business cards, car graphics, your appearance and a website. Sure, a person could add to these items, but these are available every day, don’t require a large sum of money, and are effective 24/7. Would you really buy a house from a salesperson that did not have a business card or a website? These five elements can dramatically increase the odds of a salesperson finding a customer, but without anyone of them, the odds are diminished. There’s something about having these five components that causes a person to look for opportunities “of the moment.”

3. Work the Hot Listings. The Hot Listings are those in price ranges with less than a six-month supply of properties. In some markets these properties could be above $500,000, but in most of the market the hot price range is less than $250,000 due in large part to first-time homebuyers comprising 50% of the market. So, why not spend time studying “what’s hot” and going after listings in those price ranges? Pursuing those listings is not difficult because over 40% of the listings in most markets expire unsold. Concentrate on those expired listing in the Hot price ranges rather than just working without a focus. After all, 50% of the buyers are first-timers, most of them rent, and they buy homes in the $200,000 price range. 86% of buyers go to the internet to find a home to buy and most of those go to realtor.com – how hard could it possibly be to find them? It pays to focus on the prize more than the problem.

4. Stop Hanging Around. “Hanging around” and “slacking off” are similar conditions that are symptomatic of those who don’t have a goal, a plan or a focus. The only way to stop these habits is to recognize them, get a pencil and paper and start writing. It is only okay to “slack off” if it is a temporary condition, so take some action!

Regardless of market conditions, there are more salespeople that are struggling than soaring right now. All of us have a choice as to what we are going to do and how we plan to do it, but we need to be smart enough to continue doing things that work and stop doing things that don’t work and cause us pain. The opportunities to sell real estate are increasing daily, so it’s important for each of us to maximize the opportunities we have by focusing on what is both doable and worthy of doing – and start focusing NOW!!!

So, What’s Your Brand?

We all have a brand. While marketing is one of the most important and effective ways to develop a positive image among current and potential customers, a person’s brand is about much more than just marketing. Everything you do contributes to the image a customer has of you. For example, Amazon.com has created a phenomenal brand among a worldwide audience, and they don’t have a phone number, a person’s name on their website, or even a retail store. However, they back up the brand by having a very user-friendly website, and they provide the information and products their customers want. It’s that simple.

Two key components of any brand are marketing and delivery. Just yesterday, we called two towing services to tow a vehicle to the garage. The first one we called is one we’ve used in the past, and the other was referred to us by a friend. The first did not return our call, while the second one returned the call immediately. The marketing image of the first started out excellent but was destroyed by the simplest of functions – returning the call. The second one captured the business with a referral and by providing service that was appreciated and unexpected. My point is that there are two main parts of creating a brand: one part is marketing, the other performance. And one is just as important as the other. So get started – here are some ideas to help you build and maintain a positive BRAND!

1. WWW. Without a website, it’s difficult to establish and/or maintain Read the rest of this entry »

Nobody Calls Anymore

Shelly, my assistant/daughter, and I have been talking about the fact that we just don’t get phone calls now like we have in the past. In the past month we have had two days in which we received no mail, not one single piece, not even junk mail, and it is not that we want an,y but we received none.  In the past, we charted our calls in our real estate offices to see how effective our marketing was working.  Not today!

Our lack of phone calls and marketing mail has been replaced by email and visits to our website.  We get hundreds of good email messages a week and sometimes more than a hundred a day, and hundreds of visits on our website every month.  The amazing part is that there are people in business, including REALTORS, who do not answer email messages and who do not have a website.  AMAZING! However, we all know salespeople who make a fortune without any of this technology, and I know some who don’t have business cards, flyers or any of the above.  There have always been exceptional people.

Success in any business requires that we communicate with the customer the way they want us to communicate and not the way we want to communicate.  Without a website and email  most of us in real estate would struggle for lack of customers.  I wonder at times if the changes that we are facing in this small business are being faced by others as well, and here is an article that confirms what customers want, and they don’t want to talk to us! Here is the link to an excellent article, “Why Your Customers Don’t Want To Talk To You”, from the Harvard Business Review and was written by Matt Dixon and Lara Ponomareff,

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/07/why_your_customers_dont_want_t.html

The basic fundamental idea that drives businesses large and small is to find out what it is that the customer wants and give it to them.  In 2010 most customers want electronic information- give it to them.

“Three Cords and the Truth…. “  Willie Nelson

I have always liked Willie Nelson and his music.  Truly an American Icon like his departed friends Cash, Jennings, and Ray Charles.  There was an article in Parade  on June 27, 2010 on page 4 titled “Three Chords and the Truth-That’s What a Country Song is’ and I thought you would enjoy this quote from a man who knows what hard times are all about..”Anybody can be unhappy,”he says.  “We can all be hurt. You don’t have to be poor to need something or somebody.  Rednecks, hippies, misfits-we’re all the same.  Gay or Straight?  So What: It doesn’t matter to me.  We have to be concerned about other people, regardless.”  There are a lot of good people who are really hurting during these times and they would appreciate a helping had, a pat on the back or a kind word.  Thank you for visiting with us!

Our latest seminar “Stop Waiting…..Make Money Now” would be the perfect ½ day seminar for any real estate organization, it is fundamental, straight forward and jam packed with relevant, doable information just like all of our other seminars. Contact Shelly at shellyj@comcast.net today for an information package.