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!
Outdoor living spaces are a huge attraction, especially in areas like Houston where the weather makes them useful nearly year round. In this episode, we interview Deedra Chavez from Bello Domani Outdoor Designs.
Deedra has been in the industry for many years and has a great eye for design. She designed the outdoor living space in Karen and Kevin's backyard and we have been referring business to her ever since.
Deedra shares with us some of the most popular features and upgrades available on the market today, like high efficiency pumps that allow you to greatly reduce the energy cost of running your pool (roughly $15 per month). She also gives us detail on our favorite pool upgrade, the in-floor cleaning system. While we absolutely love this upgrade, there is one... let's call it "unexpected feature" that the system brings to the pool experience. You'll have to listen to the episode to find out the hilarious truth!
We also hear about some of the creative things people are doing by mixing fire and water features with outstanding results. In the episode, you'll also hear about the outdoor living feature that provides an average 130% return on investment.
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.