Your Next 30 Days
The fast-track to success in real estate sales
Pat Sims
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Pat Sims
From a Distance Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced either by hard copy or electronic methods in any form without the prior written permission of the author and publisher.
No actual situations are used in this text and any similarities are purely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Getting Busy, Your Personal Commitment; What you need to learn now; Mentors, Time Management; Farm areas; getting organized; Activity Plan.
Chapter Two - Preparing Your Business Plan
Steps to the Business plan; Commissions; Ends; Sales needed to achieve goals; Example of a Business Plan; Step by Step Preparation of the Business Plan; Your personal living expenses, business expenses and marketing costs.
Chapter Three - The Marketing Plan
TOMA; Your personal image; How buyers and sellers select their Realtor; Where to find Clients; Step by step Marketing Plan; Marketing Ideas.
Social and business meetings; Door to door canvassing; Continuous Marketing; Nine Penny Plan; Prospecting, Your Sphere of Influence; Belly to Belly.
Chapter Five - Working with Sellers
Sellers’ motivations; Insufficient equity; FSBOs; 70% of all business…
Chapter Six - The Art of Selling
Closing a Sale, Asking for the Sale; The most Powerful Methods of Selling; The Greatest source of buyers for your listing; Features of a valid Prospect. Conclusion
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Forms
A number of forms are freely available to you by downloading them from our web site. I recommend you print them before you finish Chapter One. They show an example of a Business Plan and Marketing Plan followed by blank forms to complete your own. Instructions for their completion are in this text.
Realtors and MLS
The text uses the term ‘Realtor’ rather than, agent, salesperson, sales associate, or sales representative but readers should know that it is a registered word owned by the National Association of Realtors and the Canadian Real Estate Association and only their members may use it to describe their occupation. Likewise ‘MLS’ is also a registered name and stands for Multiple Listing Service which is an online data base of real estate listings, historical sales, and other statistical information that is widely used by Realtors, the public, and others.
A real estate ‘Broker’ is the licensed person who is responsible for the management of a real estate agency. A ‘Manager’ is a person licensed to sell real estate who is responsible for the management of a real estate agency office under the broker’s supervision. A ‘salesperson’ or Realtor is also licenced to trade in real estate and works under the supervision of the manager and the broker as employee or a contractor.
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Introduction
This program is a ‘jump start’ to your business and provides you with all the basic components to become a successful Realtor. This is for new people to the real estate industry and for those who want to start over. It is a pathway to early success and a basis for becoming a top producer.
This eBook has been created with the help of thousands of real estate professionals across North America who have attended my seminars and have volunteered their own comments and experiences. They are from a wide variety of real estate practitioners including brokers, managers, and realtors who answered the question, “What did you need when you were starting out?”
Readers will learn how to become productively busy from their first day and how to create a personal business plan and a marketing plan for their future. It covers some of the basics of being a Realtor and shows the value of being organized and having clear goals in preparation for a successful career.
In very simple terms, the idea is to generate business activity by taking direct and positive marketing action.
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Chapter 1
Getting Started….Getting Busy
You don’t have a job ….you own a business and you are the CEO.
One of the great benefits of a career in real estate sales is that you have many free choices. One of your first is whether to follow direction from experienced, caring professionals or whether to go it alone and do it all your own way by trial and error. Which way do you think is more likely to succeed? You are encouraged to learn from the best people around you and when you have become one of them, show others the way.
I want you to make a personal commitment to this program and to your career. If you are not one of those people who are naturally well-organised and studious then you are part of the majority but I want you to take the time to read this eBook diligently within the next 24 hours. Your future prosperity may well depend on reading and following the advice right here so do you think you can find the time? The information here will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration. Look at it this way - all professionals need to be trained before they are qualified to earn the maximum fees so why do you think you don’t?
I hope you will read everything without ‘cherry picking’ those sections of particular interest, skipping pages, backsliding or procrastinating - I just want you to do it now and be successful.
But more than that, I want you to be a real estate professional with high ethical standards. The high achievers in this business find it is a lucrative and fulfilling way of life and, in my experience, most of them are ethical, energetic, knowledgeable and generous.
What other business offers such opportunities? You can be a top producer, too, if you want it badly enough. Most successful business people are not just lucky - they work hard at their chosen profession in order to become lucky.
Here is your basic business plan but first I need your total personal commitment.
My Personal Commitment Statement
I promise to:
* read this eBook in its entirety within the next 24 hours.
* complete all the business and marketing plans promptly and with enthusiasm.
* “stick with the plan”.
* show my progress to my broker/manager at least once a week.
* be knowledgeable about my brokerage policies and obey them.
* act ethically and obey the law and the rules of the industry.
Signed:
Date:
Your name:
Your company name:
Broker/manager signature:
Date:
This form is available on the website for free download
Getting Busy
The first step in your ladder of success is to become productively busy. That means that nearly everything you do should have the ultimate goal of making sales. A famous motivational guru, Napolean Hill, said that, “Every office has a friendly group of people who will welcome you to their long coffee and smoking breaks….but you will learn nothing of any value from them. You will learn much more from those who are working hard and have to be encouraged to break away and talk to you”. We are here for business, not for socializing.
Business is unlikely to come to you by staying in the office waiting for a call. You just have to make that phone ring by creating a need for home buyers and sellers to deal with you. I know that if you follow the steps shown here, you will be receiving calls and doing business within the next thirty days.
Your manager is likely to have some tasks ready and waiting for you when you first arrive but it is always a little uncomfortable on your first few days. I believe that the learning process should start on day one and the information here will help. The idea is to bring you up to speed quickly by becoming familiar with your new office environment. This will lay the groundwork of your new business and provide you with the confidence to begin taking and making sales calls.
If you receive a call on your first day or two at the new office and someone wants to list or find a home, could you handle it properly? I don’t think you could without lots of help. Your job now is to prepare for those calls and those questions that will lead to sales and prosperity.
The following form will help you get all the information you need about your brokerage and will provide a reference for the future. Take the time to complete it and you will find it will be a good reference sheet when you need basic facts.
All the forms shown in this eBook and more are available for free download from our website.
Brokerage Information Sheet
Full Company Name:
Address:
Postal Code:
Telephone #:
Fax #:
Email:
Broker’s Name:
Manager’s Name:
Company Owners:
After hours and emergency numbers:
Office Administrator’s Name:
How many salespeople work from your office?
Obtain a business card from each Realtor in the office and memorize their names.
Does your broker know where to find you when you are not at your desk?:
Rules & Regulations
Read the Company “Policies & Procedures Manual” and be familiar with the terms of your contract.
Do you have your license with you?:
Is there a dress code?:
Are you complying with it today?:
What is the brokerage auto insurance requirement?:
Do you comply?:
What day and time are the Sales Meetings?:
What time and day are the office “caravans”?:
What are the continuing education requirements for your license?:
Office Policy
Who makes the coffee?:
Who pays?:
Who cleans up?:
Where should you park?:
Who unlocks and locks up the office and when?:
What is the policy on long distance phone calls?:
What is the policy on using the photocopier? :
What is the policy for recording your clients and referrals so that your commission claim is recognized?:
Here’s what you need to know…now
What do you need to learn in the next thirty days to become an effective Realtor? You probably feel overwhelmed with all the information you need to acquire and the following list will help you focus on the essentials. Look over this list and add any items you think may be missing. Plan to gain complete familiarity of all aspects of your business and check them off as you learn them.
[ ] Ethics
Read the standards of business practice section of your real estate association manual and/or your regional regulator. This can be really boring but it can save you from making mistakes.
[ ] Education
Check your licensing educational requirements and any other optional courses that may be available.
[ ] Computer skills
Get familiar with Word (if you are not already) so you can do letters and memos. See what data base systems are being used by other Realtors to record prospects, sales leads, and any real estate activity. Check if your company has any online promotional templates for listings, newsletters and other uses.
Know how to send and receive emails with attachments and photos? Learn how to send bulk emails.
[ ] Operating MLS
Learn to input listings, search, and review statistics. Do lots of ‘dry runs’ as if you have clients. MLS will be your closest ‘friend’ in the near future and you need to get familiar with it quickly.
[ ] How to produce CMA’s (Comparative Market Analysis)
Practice doing one on your own home or for someone you know. See if someone can give you some basic training - maybe the office has a training session.
[ ] The sale process
Follow a transaction from the Listing Agreement to the Agreement for Sale and to the closing statement by reviewing a recent transaction file. It is important to ask permission as sales files are confidential.
[ ] Web sites
Check the brokerage website and then compare with other brokerage’s sites. Review successful salespeople’s sites.
[ ] Working with other Realtors
Check viewings protocol, commission splits, ownership of clients, and referrals. See later.
[ ] Desk Duty
Check kiosk and front desk duty schedules. When will you be ready for them?
[ ] Forms
Understand all the office forms related to transactions as you will now be expected to counsel clients on their purpose and how to complete them.
[ ] Agency
Review all aspects of agency - do you really understand it? Check the brokerage literature and the standard forms to make sure you know.
[ ] Open Houses
Review advertising, house preparation, and hosting. Are other Realtors in your office looking for help to handle theirs? Are you ready yet?
[ ] Showings
Check how to arrange showings. Ask if you can accompany an experienced Realtor for one or two showings to ‘get the hang of it’.
[ ] Offers
Make sure you understand the process of preparation, presentation, deposits, counter offers, multiple offers. Read the forms and get answers to your questions. Practice completing the forms.
[ ] Transaction paperwork