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  • The FORD Method

    The FORD Method

    As a professional REALTOR®, you should always be ready to discuss Real Estate. But, don’t be a boor.

    “Hi there! I’m Jack Smith with ABC Realty! Are you folks in the market to buy or sell within the next 30-90 days?”

    Ugh. Get away from me, Jack.

    Guess what? The world is sick and tired of salesy slicksters.

    Instead, you should be working on establishing a reputation as a Trusted Real Estate Expert, and conducting yourself like a professional.

    Have you ever met a family physician at a party, and all of a sudden, they’re handing over their card and inviting you to come in for a check-up? You’re trying to get away from them, and now they’re following you around. “You know, I think I ought to take a look at that mole on your neck!” ‍⚕️

    No? This hasn’t happened to you? Yeah, me neither. Because physicians are professionals.

    You should conduct yourself like one, too.

    This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to strike up conversations about Real Estate with people you don’t know. You should!

    But it’s more natural and far more effective to initiate a conversation about something else entirely, and let it come around more naturally to “what you do.” ‍

    If you have a hard time striking up a conversation with people you don’t know at a social gathering, try using the FORD method.

    FORD is an acronym for Family (Do you have any siblings?), Occupation (What do you do for a living?), Recreation (What do you like to do for fun?), and Dreams (Could you see yourself doing that professionally?).

    Note: The “Dreams” part of the acronym is NOT usually a conversation starter, but it’s a topic that might be appropriate to use later, as you get deeper into a conversation.

    “Appropriate” is the key word.  For example, you wouldn’t walk up to a stranger at a party and ask them, “Do you have any siblings?”

    However, you might mention to a person that the crazy guy on the dance floor reminds you of your free-spirited (drunken?) brother, wait for a response, and then you might ask if they have any siblings.

    Hey! You’re having a conversation!

    The FORD Method is a research-backed way to build rapport with people, by asking questions, and then really listening to their answers. Next, you will comment on their responses and ask follow-up questions.

    Being adept at small talk is an excellent skill to have to meet potential new clients. Showing interest in the other person will lead to more in-depth conversations, and the subject of “what you do” will come up very naturally.

    Unless, of course, the other person is a complete narcissist and only wants to talk about themselves. If that’s the case, move on.  Those people are toxic. ☠️

    Once you’ve gotten started on a conversation, it will usually proceed quite naturally. It’s the starting part that is hardest for most people, including myself. But, I’ve found that if I push through that initial awkwardness, most people appreciate you striking up a conversation because they were probably feeling the same way!

    Just remember “The FORD Method.” After you’ve practiced this skill for a while, you’ll get good at it, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly conversation starters come to mind.

    This is a skill that takes practice, just like anything else.

    Next week, we’ll talk further about how to have productive Real Estate conversations, the first important step in nurturing prospects to become clients.

  • Building Relationships

    Building Relationships

    Many REALTORS® believe that Real Estate is a transaction-based business.  Those are the poor ones.

    The rich ones know that Real Estate is a relationship-based business.

    If you want more clients, you need to interact with more people, more often, and you need the right skills to develop trust and rapport with them.

    The most successful REALTORS® project these four distinct attributes, all at once:

    • Professionalism
    • Confidence
    • Friendliness
    • Authenticity

    What about you?  Ask a close friend or co-worker for their honest opinion, and if you are not clearly projecting all four of these qualities in your interactions, consider how you could improve.

    I would say that most agents are weak in at least one of the four.  When you are honest with yourself, and you work to improve your core competencies, you’ll be surprised how quickly people become drawn to you.

    Professionalism

    In Real Estate, you’re a true professional if you continuously work towards improving your knowledge and skills, and you conduct yourself at all times with the highest possible level of integrity.

    Being honest isn’t always easy, but it’s an absolute necessity if you want to develop a reputation as a Trusted Expert.  Telling people whatever they want to hear is the polar opposite of being a true professional.  Your clients are looking to you for expert guidance, so you’ll frequently need to employ a high level of tactfulness!

    Tact is the art of telling the truth, while still considering the other person’s feelings.

    Tact involves many things, including self-awareness, emotional intelligence, diplomacy, courtesy, and of course, …honesty.

    Confidence

    The more knowledge you gain, and the more skills you develop, the more confidence you will exude.  However, even if you feel confident, you need to determine if that confidence is coming through in your voice.  Ask a friend for feedback.

    Be careful not to overdo it!  People are attracted to quiet confidence — not boastfulness. ‍

    Here are a few tips to increase your confidence level:

    1. Always make eye contact with whomever you are speaking with.
    2. State your opinions with conviction. To do this with sincerity, you need to have a thorough understanding of whatever subject you’re talking about!  If you are weak in any area of your Real Estate business, make a conscious effort to increase your knowledge and skills in that area. ‍
    3. Prepare and practice. For example, if you’ve got a newly developed listing presentation and you haven’t practiced it thoroughly, you’re probably not going to sound very confident. I’m a proponent of the Deep Practice method:
    • Practice small chunks at a time. For instance, rather than practicing your entire listing presentation all at once, just practice one segment;
    • Repetition, repetition, repetition. Do it quickly, do it slowly, do it differently.  But keep repeating the action;
    • Be mindful and notice when it goes well. Then, celebrate success.

    Friendliness

    Whenever you are in situations where you’re talking to people, whether on the phone or face-to-face, it is vital that you come across as a friendly person, especially with Amiable and Expressive communication styles.

    This applies to email messages, also!  You don’t need to overdo this but throw in some ‘friendly’ in your writing, especially near the beginning of your relationship.

    When I say, “don’t overdo it,” what I mean is, if you want to maximize your potential, you can’t JUST be friendly. You need to balance your friendliness with the other three essential attributes.

    I’ve seen some REALTORS® who can survive on friendliness alone!  But they usually max out at about 20 deals per year.  Your natural friendliness is a wonderful trait, so use it, but if you want to increase production, you need to improve the other three attributes.

    By the way, I think of myself as a naturally friendly person, but I’ve been told by friends that I sometimes come across as grumpy and disinterested.

    This feedback has helped me to have better self-awareness, so I’m more conscious about this part of my persona—not only in work-related situations—but in social situations, also.

    Self-awareness is the key to self-improvement. So, ask for feedback, be conscious of your delivery, and make adjustments as necessary.

    Authenticity

    When you study sales techniques, being “yourself” is not something that is talked about much, but it is highly effective in any relationship-based business.

    You should always be looking for ways to better connect with your prospects and clients.

    This is why I hate scripts. No matter how smooth you think you are, your prospects can feel when you’re reciting from a script. This is an entirely different experience from simply being a genuine person and following your gut.

    Being genuine can’t be faked. If you’re honest and you have your clients’ best interests at heart, why do you need a script for anything?

    Besides, it’s much more fun and satisfying to be yourself and speak to your clients in the same way as you would a friend.

    Conclusion

    In case you’ve never heard this before:

    People do not particularly like salespeople.

    So, don’t be a Salesy Slickster.

    Be a friendly, professional, confident, authentic provider of valuable information and expertise.

  • Being a Technical Dinosaur

    Being a Technical Dinosaur

    I’ve got some good news for all you technical dinosaurs:

    Don’t worry about it! ‍

    It’s just not very important to be up-to-speed on all the latest techie stuff, to be a great REALTOR®.  In fact, if you’re continually re-inventing your business to accommodate the latest trend, it’s impossible to deliver a compelling and consistent message.

    Real Estate is a relationship-based business, and you don’t need technical gadgets to build relationships.

    I’m not saying you shouldn’t try your best to keep up with technical tools that can help run your business more efficiently. You should. Just don’t drive yourself crazy, adding technology for the sake of adding technology.

    Sometimes, a low-tech solution could work better for you than a high-tech one.  For example, I still keep an appointment book.  That’s right; an actual book, made out of paper, that you write on, with a pen. ️

    I like to be able to open my book and see everything I’ve got going on for the next week, all on a single page. Plus, I find it hilarious when I book an appointment with someone, and it takes me two seconds to write it in my book, and it takes them two minutes fumbling around with their phone. I sit and stare at them and chuckle to myself.

    I’m not saying everyone should keep a written appointment book, like me. It has its drawbacks, too; for example, with recurring appointments. But overall, I’m very comfortable with my simple appointment book.

    As for my “To-do List,” I do use a technical tool for this, but the name of it should give you a hint at what’s important to me. It’s called ‘Simpleology.’ It’s just a SIMPLE way to keep on top of all kinds of lists and to keep you productive and on-task throughout the day.

    One of the best features of Simpleology is the ‘Dream Catcher’ function. This is where you write down whatever idea pops into your head and forget about it. This can be done on the home page, or with the App that works in conjunction with it. Then, you organize that idea the next morning when you go through the ‘Start my Day’ routine.

    Before I discovered Simpleology, I used to send an email to myself whenever I thought of an idea.  Just do whatever works for you!

    I do highly recommend ‘Simpleology’ for REALTORS®, by the way. It’s a super-easy way to keep yourself organized and focused on what you need to get done.

    Like I said, go ahead and use technical tools that you are comfortable using. And it doesn’t hurt to push yourself a little bit. For example, if you know you should be using a spreadsheet to organize a list, and you don’t know how, just go to ‘The Google’!

    “How do I use Excel?”

    I just typed this into ‘The Google’ and one of the top results was this:

    “How to use Excel: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started.”

    I clicked on this, and there’s a complete super-easy course that will tell you EVERYTHING you are likely to EVER need to know about using Excel. For free. You can learn the basics in less than ten minutes. ANYONE can do this.

    For anything beyond this basic stuff, if you’re really not comfortable, then hire it out to a professional. You hire professionals all the time, right? For example, you don’t do your own photography, do you?

    As I said, Real Estate is a relationship-based business. You should be spending more time establishing solid relationships with people, and less time driving yourself crazy, trying to implement technology that you don’t need.

    More on building relationships next week.l

  • The Team Option for New Agents

    The Team Option for New Agents

    You’ve got your shiny new Real Estate license, and you’re all signed up at a brokerage!

    Now what?

    The choices you make now will have a direct impact on your entire career, and there are a thousand choices that are equally compelling and confusing!

    For example, should you join a team?

    The word “team” has a positive connotation, doesn’t it?  It implies all kinds of good things – mentorship, structure, support, training, camaraderie, and everyone working towards the same common goal.

    This sounds wonderful!

    And it could be!  If you’re lucky enough to be joining a small team with a high-integrity leader—one who genuinely wants to mentor you—this could be a great way to launch your career.

    However, before you make this critical decision, be very cautious about the Big-Box Team with the celebrity “mega agent” and their slick recruiting message.

    The bigger the team, the slicker the message, and the further it is from reality.

    The problem is, if you join a Big-Box team, you’re NOT learning how to successfully run all different aspects of your own Real Estate business. Why would the team leader teach you everything you need to know to become his or her strong competitor? ‍♂️

    Sadly, many agents who choose this path end up leaving the industry after a year or two, disillusioned, and with an utterly FALSE SENSE of what a great career Real Estate can be. This is because they’ve only seen the worst side of our industry, the part where you’re memorizing scripts and calling poor quality “leads” trying to convert disinterested people to clients.

    You didn’t think they were giving you the good leads, did you?

    Question: When you did all that work to get your Real Estate license, did you secretly want to become a telemarketer?

    I doubt it. But, in my opinion, this is one of the main reasons that so many agents leave the industry, disillusioned, and often broke.

    It’s just not that easy to become one of the few who becomes a great success, but this is true for any profession.

    For example, let’s say you’re a professional athlete. Are you making millions?

    Probably not. Because the vast majority of athletes spend their entire careers in the minor leagues, barely eking out a living, while only a select few make it to the big leagues.

    It’s the same in Real Estate. Did you know that NAR statistics show that 87% of REALTORS® don’t make it to their fifth year in business?

    And by the way, here’s what that data doesn’t tell you: Out of the remaining 13% that do make it to five years, there is a large percentage of those who are merely parking their license at a cheap brokerage and doing between zero and three deals a year.

    That means the actual failure rate is MUCH higher than 87%!

    There’s only ONE main reason for this despicable poor record; a lack of education and direction on what to do AFTER you finish Real Estate School. I think it’s ridiculous that we expect new agents to make it in the real world, based on the tiny bit of education you’ve received so far.  ‍

    It’s like being sent out into the workforce immediately after graduating from kindergarten.

    If you’re smart, it won’t take you long to figure out how little you know.

    “OK, Ted!  If joining a team isn’t the right answer for you, what should I do?”

    Invest in yourself. You know the basics. Now, please take it to the next level.

    The Agent Skills Master’s Program will give you a massive advantage over 99% of your competitors within six months. You’ll take a huge leap forward in your career, surpassing agents that have been struggling for 20 years in the business.

    If you don’t agree, I’ll give you all your money back, no questions asked.

  • My First Year

    My First Year

    I started my career the same way as most of you did, fresh out of Real Estate School with zero prospects and not having a clue what to do next.

    I wanted to learn more, so I explored all the coaching options that were available at the time.  But none of it seemed right for me, especially the idea of “prospecting” every day. Yuck!

    I’m just not the type of person who enjoys calling people out of the blue and reciting canned scripts, “If they say this, you say that!”

    Honestly, if I had to be a telemarketer to make a living at Real Estate, I’d rather scrub toilets in a Mexican jail.

    I’m not passing judgment. We’re all different, and for some agents, “prospecting” is a highly-refined art, from which they derive both great success and personal satisfaction. To each their own.

    The other thing the coaches were espousing was spending gazillions on “marketing,” including nonsense like “Guaranteed Sale” programs. What a crock!

    I became disillusioned with the fact that virtually everything being taught to REALTORS® was all about how to GET business, and there was nothing about how to BE a great REALTOR®!

    It was as if there was no discernible difference between one agent and another, so the only skill to be learned was how to “fool” people into working with you, rather than one of the other clones.  ‍ ‍

    This is like saying all professional athletes are exactly the same.

    The reality is that the vast majority of athletes spend their entire careers in the minor leagues, barely eking out a living, while only a few make it to the big leagues.

    It’s exactly the same in Real Estate.

    What’s the difference between the minor leaguer and the major leaguer?

    SKILLS, my friend.

    How do you get the SKILLS? By having a hunger to learn and being willing to practice every day.

    As a brand new REALTOR®, it’s a good thing I was smart enough to know how little I knew.

    I still had zero prospects, so—with nothing better to do—I decided, “I’ll just go look at properties and see what I can figure out on my own.”

    So I previewed listings every day, beginning with anything that was near my home. I took detailed notes, and then I followed up and tracked what happened to each listing; when they sold and for how much.

    I started to notice the “cause and effect”; how much each property sold for and how long it took, based on the initial list price, condition, features, surrounding amenities, etc.

    On the weekends, I borrowed listings to do Open Houses (I had zero listings). This was uncomfortable for me because I’m not a naturally outgoing person, but I worked on improving my interpersonal skills. I took the Dale Carnegie Course and several other personal development courses, and I read piles of books about sales and marketing.

    When working at Open Houses, I mostly just tried to become more comfortable with interacting with people. And I started to enjoy it!

    One day, at an Open House, I asked a young couple how they liked the house. They were very open and explained why it wouldn’t work for them. So, I mentioned a nearby listing that I had previewed the day before, and how I thought it was well-suited to them and well-priced too.

    They were intrigued and said they would drive by, and they would call the agent and ask to see it.

    I managed to choke out, “I could show it to you if you like!”

    They agreed, and I showed them the property. It turns out it wasn’t quite right, but I established a relationship with this couple, and a short time later, they bought a house; my first sale!

    I continued previewing every new listing, and I got better and better at working Open Houses. Being able to talk very knowledgeably about all the surrounding listings was by far my biggest advantage. People started to regard me as the Local Expert!

    Then it suddenly occurred to me; I WAS the Local Expert!

    In terms of understanding the nearby inventory, I knew more than any other agent, including about listings that had recently sold. I started feeling more and more confident with pricing and advising on how to maximize results, whether buying or selling.

    Then I realized that I was more than just a Local Expert. Through practice and study, I had gained skills that I could now apply across a broad spectrum of different situations and areas. ‍

    I started getting really busy! After a slow start (it was months before I made my first sale), I managed to earn $186,000 by the end of my first year. Then things started to get crazy. I earned $590,000 in my second year, while still making all kinds of major blunders, since the truth was, I still had a LOT to learn.

    As I learned more, I earned more. Within a short time, I was earning in the $800’s, as an individual agent, and I had to start getting picky about whom I worked with.

    There’s a lot more to my story, of course, but I just wanted to write a bit of encouragement to you newbies.

    There are many paths to having a successful career in Real Estate. You don’t have to be salesy. You don’t have to be a telemarketer. You don’t have to give up an ounce of your integrity.

    The best advice I can give you—early in your careers—is to pursue more knowledge and skills, and never stop learning!

    The quicker you can get a head start on your skill development, the quicker you’ll develop a reputation as a Trusted Expert. When you achieve that status, and you do the right things, the business comes to you, not the other way around. With a little guidance, it doesn’t take long.

  • The Intelligent Price Reduction Strategy

    The Intelligent Price Reduction Strategy

    If you’re a typical Real Estate agent, you’ve probably got about $100,000 worth of uncashed commission checks in your desk drawer, or as some people refer to them—your collection of over-priced listings.

    It’s kind of like that stamp collection you had when you were a kid. You still have the stamps; you just never look at them anymore.

    The only difference is your stamp collection is probably NOT worth $100,000.

    Here is the standard list of excuses used for NOT fixing your problem, and NOT being $100,000 richer. Pick your favorite!

    1. You’re too busy (chasing after new business, rather than taking care of the business you already have)
    2. Your clients are stubborn and won’t listen to you
    3. You’re bad with confrontation
    4. You’ve got a showing booked for Friday, and you’re hoping for a miracle!
    5. The market is awful, so there’s nothing you can do
    6. You feel dumb for recommending the price in the first place
    7. (Insert your ‘unique’ lame excuse here)

    An excuse is simply a challenge that you’ve decided has power over you. – Jen Sincero

    Let’s just cut to the chase right now and give you a list of the real reasons why you’re not cashing out your $100,000 stamp collection:

    1. You’re not giving your clients ENOUGH information
    2. You’re not giving them the RIGHT information
    3. You’re not giving them ANY information!

    Remember last week when I talked about sending the right information BEFORE the Listing Appointment, and how if you do it right, your clients will figure out the price for themselves?

    Click here to see last week’s ‘Memo.’

    The same principle applies:

    The BETTER the information you provide, the more likely people will make informed, intelligent decisions.

    Would you like to see the EXACT step-by-step strategy I used to ensure that over 99% of my listings sold within the first listing period, even if the price was too high at the start?

    Would you like to know why my clients called me regularly, asking if they should reduce their price, and how I frequently had to talk them out of it?

    I’ll send you a copy of my step-by-step guide, “The Intelligent Price Reduction Strategy,” in return for a simple favor (see below).  But first, there are three reasons I’m NOT including it within this ‘Memo.’

    1. It’s extremely valuable. Besides liquidating your $100,000 over-priced-listing collection, this document provides a permanent and logical solution.
    2. It’s a simple strategy, but to explain it adequately requires more space than is available inside this ‘Memo’ format.
    3. My competitors are already “borrowing” from me. (Thanks for the compliment!)  I know they’ll get their hands on the information anyway, but it’s only sporting to make them work for it a bit.

    There’s a fourth reason, too:

    If you’re too lazy to do me this simple favor, there is a 100% chance that you’re also too lazy to implement the strategy I’m going to give you.  It does require some work on your part, after all, specifically in the area of customer service.

    In fact, “The Intelligent Price Reduction Strategy” is a misnomer.  But my original title seemed a bit long, “The Intelligent Way to Run Your Business with a System that Easily and Consistently Delivers Powerfully Convincing Information to Your Clients”.

    As with all effective business strategies, it’s not about how you react to calamity, but instead, it’s about proactive planning and having a system to ensure highly-effective ongoing communication. “The Intelligent Price Reduction Strategy” reveals the exact method I used, and one of the key reasons for my success as a top-producing agent, who made his living from a steady stream of referrals.

    So, here’s the simple favor I am requesting, in return for this extremely valuable 2-page document:

    Please ask two of your REALTOR® friends to sign up for the Real Agent Memo.

    Then, I’ll send you my step-by-step guide, “The Intelligent Price Reduction Strategy.” It’s only three steps, by the way.  I love simple!

    After you receive it, please DO NOT share this document. After all, I’m asking very little (two sign-ups) to get it.

    If your friends want it, all they have to do is sign up two other friends. If that’s not entirely fair, I don’t know what is. So, please honor this request.

    Your REALTOR® friends can be anywhere in North America, as long as they are licensed agents and not current subscribers. After they subscribe, simply email me and tell me their names. Even if they unsubscribe an hour later, at least you tried. This is in the spirit of helping each other.

    Deal?

  • Before the Listing Presentation

    Before the Listing Presentation

    This Memo is a continuation from last week when we discussed the C-L-M (Come-List-Me) call ☎️ and the Seller Information Form.

    Here’s how to explain why you need their email addresses:

    “I’m going to send you a link from our system showing ALL of the recent comparable sales so that you can view each one of them in detail before our appointment.” – This piques their interest.  They WANT this information!

    “This will save time during the appointment.” – Everyone wants to save time!

    “The reason I need both your email addresses is that some email servers have different levels of security for messages containing links, so I want to make sure that at least one of you receives the information.” – True and understandable!

    Having both email addresses (for a typical situation with two decision-makers) also increases the odds that both decision-makers will look at the information before your appointment.

    You want to get this information to them as soon as possible, but you also want to give yourself enough time to carefully consider how to extract the best possible comparables— the ones that will guide your clients to the correct price.

    Even if your Listing Appointment isn’t for several days, the sooner you get started on the CMA, the more time you will have to “stew” on the best strategy, even on a subconscious level.

    I can’t tell you how many times I would think I had it all figured out, but then I had an epiphany moment —sometimes in the middle of the night—that helped me to look at the pricing of a property from a completely different and unique perspective.

    Your brain is far more powerful than you realize, but you’ve got to get it started and let it run.

    If you give yourself enough time, it’s always good to come back to your CMA the day after, and re-examine your criteria.  This process is both an art and a science, so don’t rush it.

    The opposite of the above is the agent who waits until the last minute, runs off a few comparables on his way out the door, checks them at the stoplights, and shows up feeling flustered and ill-prepared.

    Please don’t be that guy. He’s poor, you know.

    Back to the email:

    As mentioned, there’s a balance on the timing. You want as much time as possible beforehand to think about and re-think your criteria, but you also want to send the information at least 24 hours before your appointment. This is why you should always try to book your listing appointments a minimum of two days ahead, preferably three.

    If your appointment is on Thursday evening, for example, try to send the email on Wednesday afternoon, and ask for a confirmation that they received it! If they don’t respond to the email, text them! Emphasize the importance of them reviewing this information before you get there.

    I typically would send a link for TEN sold comparables, using the best available format from their perspective, and explaining the exact criteria I used:

    “Attached are ALL of the sold comparables matching the following criteria:

    • Geographical Area;
    • Size range;
    • Type of property;
    • Price range;
    • Date Range;
    • Etc (anything else that is relevant).”

    The exact process I use to establish the criteria, including how I exclude outliers (the ones that risk drawing your client to the wrong conclusion), is beyond the limited scope of this Memo, but it is logical, learnable, and powerfully convincing.  

    Here’s WHY you’re sending this information BEFORE the Listing Appointment:

    It’s to allow your clients to look at all the data in as much detail as they wish, in the comfort of their own home, on their personal computer monitor, for as long as they want.

    Remember, this is the most important and relevant information they can get. Why would you want to rush this part of the process?

    Here’s a simple, powerful fact that most REALTORS® don’t seem to get:

    The BETTER the information you provide, the more likely people will make informed, intelligent decisions.

    If you do this right, what conclusions might they gather, based on the valuable information you’ve given them?

    It’s the cold hard truth that their home isn’t worth what they thought it was.

    It’s not their fault they thought their home was worth more! Before you sent them proper data, all they had to compare to were the over-priced active listings, or as I like to call them; the FAILURES.

    You’ve now completed the most difficult, time-consuming, and contentious part of the listing presentation, without saying a word, and before you’ve even met them.

    Does this really work?

    Well, I can only speak from my own experience.

    I was known for consistently pricing my listings at the sweet spot—not too low and not too high. This meant that my clients typically sold their homes quickly and very close to the asking price.

    I hardly ever had to argue over the price. If anything, sometimes they wanted to start too low, and I had to talk them up.

    Guess who was a hero to his clients, thrived on a constant stream of referrals, and never made a cold call once in his entire life? 

    Me. That’s who.

  • The Phone Call

    The Phone Call

    “Hello, this is Sammy Seller.  I’d like to speak with you about listing our home.”

    “Hello, this is Sammy Seller.  I’d like to speak with you about listing our home.”

    Yay!  This is the best phone call!  Right?

    I remember getting this call at times, and being so excited, I lost my mind and forgot to ask all kinds of important questions.

    To resolve this, I made a simple Seller Information Form with space for the following information:

    • Name(s) – The caller and every other decision-maker
    • Address (!)
    • Phone number(s) ☎️ – Just in case I need to clarify something before the appointment
    • Email address(es) – Stay tuned for a very important ‘Real Agent Memo’ next week about why you should send the Sold Comparables by email before the Listing Presentation
    • Referral source – If it wasn’t a referral, use this space to specify why they called you – It’s essential to track the source of your business, for future reference.
    • Appointment Date and Time ⏰ – Make sure every decision-maker is there
    • Description of Property – See below
    • Expected Price – See below
    • Competing Agents ‍ – See below

    This form will keep you focused, ensuring that you don’t forget to ask any crucial questions. I suggest you keep your blank Seller Information Forms in 3-ring binders, readily accessible wherever you might be:

    • In your office within reach of your phone
    • In your home in 2-3 easily accessible locations
    • In your vehicle. When you get a C-L-M (Come-List-Me) call, tell them you’re in your car, and can you call them back in ten minutes?  Then, pull over at the first opportunity, grab your binder, get yourself in the right frame of mind, and call them back. As soon as possible!

    In the description area, describe what they think are the best features, as well as any negative factors which could affect marketability. What are their plans? Why and where are they moving? What is the time frame? Try to get a sense of their motivation level, and write it down in this section. If they’re selling AND buying, ask additional basic questions about their next home.

    If you can find out their price expectation ahead of time, this can be extremely helpful, if for no other reason but to determine if you are dealing with reasonable people, or not. Having this knowledge ahead of time will reduce your anxiety, and it may help to determine your strategy in guiding them to the correct list price.

    Your casual delivery of the question is the key, “I’m just wondering how closely you follow the market, and if you have a number in mind that you are hoping to get for the house (?), even if it’s a range of plus or minus $50,000 (?).”

    Some people won’t tell you no matter what, but in my experience, once you get good at this question, you’ll get a clear answer at least nine times out of ten. If you’re not successful at first, continue practicing your delivery (using your own words and style).

    When you ask, you need to be confident, friendly, professional, and authentic, all at the same time! The better you get at this, the more successful you will be at all different facets of your Real Estate business.

    (I have an entire module—Relationship Selling—dedicated to this skill-set in my upcoming online course – The Real Estate Master’s Program)

    Here’s another critical question, “May I ask if you are interviewing other agents? ‍If so, what are their names? I have no issue with you telling them my name, by the way, so it’s perfectly fair for everyone.”

    If they ask why you want to know, you can respond, “It’s just because knowing who I’m competing with might help me to explain better the most important points about my marketing plan that I know are different, and this will save some time at the appointment.”

    Everyone likes to save time!

    With practice, you’ll become more and more successful at getting your listing prospects to tell you about potential competitors, which can be very helpful. For example, if it’s a mega-agent, you’ll be able to subtly and easily differentiate the advantages of your vastly superior personal service, at the listing presentation.

    Next, you need to decide on an appointment time ⏰. Many trainers espouse that you should try to be the last agent in, which is usually a good thing, but this can backfire on you sometimes. Personally, I never worried about this too much.

    However, it would help if you tried to allow at least two days to prepare your CMA properly, and also for them to review the sold comparables that you will send ahead of time (more on this next week).

    Simply tell them that it usually takes a few hours for you to do a proper Comparative Market Analysis, and you won’t have time to get started on that until tomorrow, so the earliest would be the next day after that. They will appreciate your thoroughness.

    That covers all of the information you need on your Seller Information Form.

    I suggest you go ahead and make up your own SIF right now – while you’re thinking about it – and put them in binders in various easily accessible locations, as I suggested.

    If you’ve got a better high-tech solution for ensuring you remember all the important questions on “The Phone Call,” I’d love to hear about it!  But sometimes a low-tech solution is the best one.  Simply following along on this form will help to keep you focused on the task at hand.

    Next week, I’m going to talk about why you should send the Sold Comparables by email before the Listing Appointment.  This is a huge time saver and a major reality check for your clients!

    Here’s hoping for many great phone calls over the next few days!

  • Good Habits – How to Get Them

    Good Habits – How to Get Them

    In 48 hours, I’m going to get on a bicycle and set out on an epic journey—220 kilometers—as part of the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer.

    If you’re young and fit, 220 kilometers may not seem like a huge challenge. But it sure is for me!

    It was an even bigger challenge when I first joined Team Believe five years ago. I had several personal reasons to join the Fight to Conquer Cancer, but challenging myself to get into shape was one of them.

    If I was going to have any hope of completing The Ride, I knew I would have no choice but to make some radical changes to my lifestyle.

    Confession time: As a busy REALTOR®, I had completely let myself go physically. I was a big fat blob of mush. Imagine Fat Bastard (from the Austin Powers movies) riding a bike, and you’re not far off.

    I’ll never forget my first practice ride in the spring of 2015. After five kilometers, I was not only completely winded, but my legs were screaming, “What’s this? Ex-er-cise? Stop this NOW!”

    I thought to myself, “Oh boy, what have I done? I’m in big trouble here.”

    By the way, this article is NOT going to be a lecture on getting into shape. It’s about something much bigger.

    I’m not one to lecture on fitness, anyway. I smoked for half of my life. I was a mushy blob for MORE than half my life. I have other bad habits that I’m just now—finally—challenging myself to overcome.

    We ALL struggle with our demons, and we ALL use excuses to hold us back from achieving our true potential.

    “An excuse is simply a challenge that you’ve decided has power over you.” – Jen Sincero

    I had gone all-in on The Ride, including publicly bragging to all my friends and family. Backing out was not an option. The wild boasting spree was before I went on that first 5K ride, by the way.

    I started riding my bike three or four times a week. And, I started being more careful about what I was eating. I was a horrible junk food addict, so I began by simply eliminating junk food; then, I gradually adding a few more elements, such as drinking more water and not eating after 7:00 pm.

    You don’t have to do it all at once, folks! If you’re having trouble getting started on a new habit, start with a baby step and build on it.

    The pounds came off slowly but surely, and I gradually got in better shape. By the time that first epic ride came around, I was still scared stiff, but I was in FAR better shape compared to when I started training.

    It was still the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I rode the last 20K on sheer willpower, with tears streaming down my face.

    But I did it!

    I’ll never forget the feeling of accomplishment and camaraderie with my team-mates when I finally crossed that finish line.

    Since then, having committed to participate in this event every year, I’ve made fitness part of my routine. I now work out three days a week at Orange Theory, and I love it!

    My old excuses for not having fitness as part of my life seem pretty stupid now:

    1. I don’t have time.
    2. I don’t have time.
    3. I don’t have time.

    Now, my energy level has improved so dramatically that I have way more time to accomplish the things I need to get done every day!

    Maintaining fitness is a simple good habit. And, the critical element to EVERY good habit is CONSISTENCY.

    If you never go to the gym, and then you go once for three hours, that’s a waste of your time.

    This is true for practically everything worthy of pursuing in this world. Think about it.

    To achieve CONSISTENCY, you need to learn to time-block ‘Appointments with Yourself’ and then HONOR your commitment to those appointments, just as you would honor an appointment with your best client.

    It sounds easy, but it’s not, because as a REALTOR®, you’ve trained yourself to put everyone else’s needs ahead of your own. But by doing so, you are holding yourself back from achieving your potential.

    If you go to a seminar to learn how to be a better REALTOR®, but you don’t schedule times to apply what you’ve learned, you might as well not even go.

    Knowledge is useless without Action!

    The first module of my upcoming online course is called ‘Getting Stuff Done.’ Why the first module?

    Because I’ve discovered that most REALTORS® are terrible at ‘Getting Stuff Done.’ Most times, being a solopreneur is a new thing for REALTORS®, which means, for the first time, they don’t have someone else telling them what to do and when to do it. They haven’t learned self-discipline.

    By making ‘Getting Stuff Done’ the first module, my students learn a few essential but straightforward work habits, which means they’re going to get FAR more out of the rest of the course.

    It’s all about consistency, scheduling, and honoring your commitments with no excuses.

    I used to dread going to the gym, but now I go to Orange Theory on specific days, three times EVERY week. I’ve learned to honor those ‘Appointments with Myself.’ There’s no self-debate about whether I should go or not. I just do it.

    You can do the same with EVERYTHING you’re not currently doing, by simply learning a few necessary skills, and consistently applying them.

    You can be reading this and agreeing with everything I’m saying, and absolutely nothing will change until you take ACTION.

    The choice is yours. That’s the best and hardest thing about being a human.

  • Your Price or Their Price?

    Your Price or Their Price?

    “Is it your price or their price?”

    Every experienced REALTOR® has heard this question and knows precisely what it means, “Is this the price you recommended to your clients?

    Or, the one they insisted on, despite the evidence that clearly shows it makes no sense?”

    As a general rule, EVERYONE on the planet believes their home is worth more than it is.  There are several reasons for this:

    1. In the owner’s eyes, their home was the best one available within their budget and within their search criteria, at the time when they purchased it.
    2. Buyers subconsciously justify the price they paid, and tend to believe they got a “good deal.”
    3. Owners tend to focus on the best features of their property, either ignoring or justifying negative elements, “Oh, the sound of the train is quite soothing once you get used to it!”
    4. For competing properties, they tend to do the opposite; focusing on the worst elements and ignoring the best features.

    Having an emotional connection to your own home and believing it’s worth more than it is, is a perfectly natural human tendency. I’m no exception.  When I sell my house, I will undoubtedly ask for an opinion on the price of another trusted agent.

    I doubt very much that I’ll be happy about it!

    But a skilled REALTOR® is trained to look at your home through the eyes of current potential buyers and from a completely unbiased perspective.

    Accepting a listing at “their” price almost always means one of the following scenarios occurred, listed in order of the most likely to the least likely.

    1. The REALTOR® is unskilled and doesn’t know how to price a home accurately. This is WAY more common than what the public realizes because let’s face it; accurate pricing is BY FAR the most challenging part of being a REALTOR®.
    2. The REALTOR® is afraid to lose the listing if they push too hard on the price, so they acquiesce to the sellers, with the idea that “I can always work on reducing the price later.”
    3. The REALTOR® doesn’t care if the property is overpriced, because they will “use” the listing as a lead generator, and then they’ll work on reducing the price later. (This is a rare occurrence, but there are bad apples in every profession, and Real Estate is no exception.)

    The overwhelming most likely result of all three scenarios is this:

    After a very long time on the market, and having the price adjusted multiple times, the property finally sells at a much lower price than it would have if it were priced correctly in the first place.

    This is the opposite of what the public seems to believe about pricing, which is, if they are patient enough and “not in a hurry,” they’ll get their price eventually! But every professional REALTOR® knows that the opposite is true.

    The quicker a property sells, the more money a seller is likely to get.

    A new listing always generates the most excitement and interest. If priced correctly, buyers are fearful that someone else might buy “their” new home, and therefore, they’re more likely to put forward a strong offer.

    But pricing is tricky!  In fact, in my opinion, accurate pricing is hands-down, the most challenging part about being a REALTOR®. 

    Not only is it the most challenging part, but there is virtually NO training available anywhere to teach REALTORS® how to strengthen their skills in this critically important area.

    Why?  Because the truth is that hardly any REALTORS® are highly skilled at pricing. And if they are, they don’t want to teach their hard-earned skills to their competitors.

    But who else are you going to learn from? Someone who’s never even been a REALTOR®?  Ya, right.

    Confession time:  After several years of experience and having listed and successfully sold HUNDREDS of properties, I still felt very unsure of myself when it came to pricing.

    Do you feel this way?

    If so, this proves you are a high-integrity agent; one who takes your responsibilities seriously and one who doesn’t want your clients to have to pay for your costly mistake.

    I used to agonize for hours over pricing, long into the night, preparing for a listing appointment the next day.  I didn’t want to get it wrong!

    The opposite of this is the agent who spends a quick 15 minutes looking at comparables and thinks he can produce an accurate price. Or worse, the agent who pulls a price out of thin air, with ZERO homework. This happens far more often than the public realizes, often with slick “celebrity” agents who spend more time worrying about their public “image” than actually doing a good job.

    These types are the exception to the rule, thankfully.

    Most REALTORS® try their best when it comes to pricing, but it’s still the toughest part of the job, with virtually no proper training available.

    Think about it. You want training on how to make cold calls, and recite scripts on how to GET listing appointments? No problem!  There are a hundred trainers to teach you those “skills.” (Not me).

    But beyond the most basic text-book stuff they taught you in Real Estate School, which is entirely unrealistic in the real world, training on being a pricing expert is practically non-existent.

    Until now.

    The Big picture CMA and Pricing Psychology are two of the most eye-opening and in-depth modules in the entire Agent Skills Master’s Program.