Effective writing is important. This is why this, the 10th and final Agent Commandment, is about writing.
We have seen far too many examples of horrific writing on the part of real estate agents. You don't need to read very many MLS listing descriptions before they'll start popping out at you. Poor spelling, bad grammar, lack of punctuation. They all jump right off the page and detract from the professional message you're trying to communicate on behalf of your client.
For this reason, we've enlisted the help of Laura Peterson, Author, Teacher, Entrepreneur, Podcaster, and Digital Nomad. On her podcast, Copy that Pops, you'll find a wealth of information on how to write effectively for your newsletter, ads, and blog posts to drive traffic to your destinations.
Listen in as we have a wide ranging discussion with Laura about the impact of effective writing, vomit comets, living in Europe, and International Dog of Mystery, Tuck.
Listen in as we discuss the difference between being interested and being committed. It's a huge distinction! Our stand is that agents should be committed to their chosen profession of being a real estate agent!
You want to know what that cryptic message means? You have to listen to the podcast to find out. Perhaps the Spartan King Leonidas will clarify what it means to be committed to your profession. Maybe NFL Coach Herm Edwards can point out how being interested versus being committed has an immeasurable impact on the performance of the team.
Your realtor is a member of your home buying or selling team, and like any major event in your life you want a professional and a committed team member watching your back. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.
Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a review on whatever platform you use to listen to the show!
In today's episode we interview Mike Michalowicz, author of 4 different business books. We had no intention of turning our conversation into a Commandment, but Mike shared so many great insights that we had to do it. Mike is the author of Surge, Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan and the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. He is also a popular keynote speaker and successful podcaster.
Mike built and sold two multi-million dollar companies by his 35th birthday. Confident that he'd discovered the secrets to success, he became an angel investor... and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Now building his third multi-million dollar company based on the thesis of Profit First, Mike shares his insights with us on the program.
Although Mike shared a lot of insights and fascinating stories in and about his books, we thought his advice from The Pumpkin Plan was spot on for real estate agents. In order to get noticed, you have to be different! You shouldn't expect to gain the attention from the marketplace by being exactly like every other real estate agent out there, you have to be different in order to get noticed.
Think about it - the human brain is conditioned over millions of years to notice things that are out of the ordinary. If you're watching a freeway with car after car whizzing by, you'll get bored pretty quickly. Wouldn't a person riding a giraffe down the freeway immediately grab and hold your attention? Of course it would!
Remember though, being different doesn't guarantee success, it only guarantees that you'll get attention. What you do with that attention depends on you!
At the end of the episode, Mike fills us in on his hit book, Profit First, and talks about the critical takeaways from that book that can be applied to every real estate agent out there. If you're struggling in your business, whether it's in real estate or any other business, give this episode a listen, you won't be disappointed!
Connect with Mike:
Website: http://www.mikemichalowicz.com
Podcast: http://www.mikemichalowicz.com/category/profit-first-podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mike+michalowicz
Books: Surge - Profit First - The Pumpkin Plan - Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
This is a special episode! We recorded it in front of a live audience at the University of Houston with special guest host, Hank Moore. Hank has been shaping our culture for a generation, and is a living legend in many spheres, including the Non-Profit sphere. Listen to this episode as we discuss how important it is for agents to be committed to giving back to the communities they serve.
Real estate agents, more than any other profession, are intimately linked to the communities in which they do business. It is therefore imperative that we make our businesses about more than just making money for ourselves. A portion of our profits should go back to the community in the form of philanthropy. It's good for the community and it's good for your business.
If your agent can't name at least one charity that they personally support through their work, you should start looking for another agent!
If you're a new agent, you will likely be approached fairly quickly by an experienced agent who wants you to join his/her team. They pitch it to you as a great deal for you because they have a steady flow of leads from all of their existing marketing efforts, and for a cut of the commission, you can almost immediately start making some money and learning the ropes.
All of that sounds great, and it would be great if that were the whole story, but sadly it's not. Frequently, your responsibilities under this team agreement begin to sound like a job description. Okay, that might be fine for people who need a little structure in their business. If you're in to that kind of stuff, knock yourself out. But the one thing that is common in these team agreements is something I simply cannot condone:
On top of the requirements for you to spend a minimum number of hours prospecting for leads for the team, if your prospecting does turn up a qualified home SELLER, you are required to hand that lead over to the team leader for him/her to handle.
THIS IS NEVER OKAY.
While it does take a lot of work to help a client sell a home (which you can learn about in Episode 10), it's far more time intensive to represent a buyer because of all the driving to showings (and working around your buyers' schedules) that you will have to do. The team leader will try to justify this by telling you they're sending you all the buyers listings, but wait a minute, you're paying the team leader a cut of all of your commissions in exchange for those leads, you don't owe them your sellers too!
Why is this bad? There's a damn good reason the team leader wants to represent sellers (and only sellers). After selling their home, what does a seller need immediately after? That's right! A new home! Typically sellers provide their agents with two transactions, a sell followed by a buy! Sellers are also typically much lower cost clients to acquire, especially if the seller comes to you because you represented them on their original purchase.
DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR SELLERS, FOLKS! A seller that comes to you as a repeat customer is your reward for doing a great job for them the first time around and for continuing to be in touch with them after the sale.
It's been a frequently repeated position on the podcast that the barriers to entry into the real estate business are far too low, and that results in a lot of unqualified people getting their licenses. These agents frequently get frustrated with how difficult it is to be consistently successful as agents. They frequently take these frustrations out on their fellow agents by making transactions harder than they need to be.
In this episode, we tell a number of stories of agents who refused to maintain their professionalism, and in the process ended up costing their clients money. The upshot of these stories - as an agent, it is your JOB to be professional and dispassionate so that you can act in the best interest of your client at all times.
In general, "bait and switch" marketing is at best unethical, and in some cases illegal. Yet it is pervasive in the real estate industry.
In this episode, Kevin and Gil discuss the despicable practices that are common in the industry and which contribute to the negative impression most have about real estate agents.
Kevin, Karen, and Gil discuss the annoying things that real estate agents do in their misguided attempts to find clients. These practices are taught to agents by brokers and coaches because the industry as a whole has bought in to the sales culture that measures success by how many contacts are made.
There is a better way!
Kevin, Karen, and Gil discuss the second commandment, "Thou shalt pursue thy clients' interests, and ONLY thy clients interests". Real estate agents are in a position of trust with their clients. Sadly, it is all too frequent that agents ignore their solemn duty of fidelity to their client and pursue their own interests instead.
Safety should always be consideration #1. Real estate agents are the victims of violent crime at a higher rate than the average population. In this episode, Kevin and Gil discuss some common sense strategies for safety and share some stories that illustrate those points.