1)   Always…..No, really, ALWAYS have business cards with you.

2)   Stash business cards with your spouse, in your car, in your brief case or purse.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to rescue myself from rule #1 by going to my stash of business cards I keep in the unused ashtray in my car.

3)   When presented with a business card take a moment and read it. This shows respect in any culture.

4)   When you are handed a business card, and of course you take a moment to read it, don’t put it away, keep it in your hand while you talk with the person you just met. By keeping it in your hand, should the name of the person in front of you drift from your mind it is easy to sneak a quick peak at the card. Additionally if you look at the card from time to time during your discussion as well as use their name several times you stand a much better chance of remembering their name in the future.

5)   Ensure your business card is easy to read and to the point. Consumers are inundated with contact information, phone numbers and other information. Keep yours simple, your name, business name, business address, business phone, cell phone, e-mail and web address.

6)   Keep your real estate designations to a minimum. I know you are proud of the alphabet soup after your name but the public could care less. You are better off to show your professionalism by how you show yourself, how prepared you are and your actions.

7)   If you work for a large company don’t deviate from their color and layout scheme. There are plenty of other places to show your individuality like personal brochures and flyers. Large companies spend millions to build a brand identity and I’m sure you are paying good money to be part of that company. Ride their marketing coat tails to the benefit of your own business.

8)   When you begin working with a buyer or seller give them a stack of your cards and ask them to give them to people they know. Having a pocketful of your cards is especially beneficial to buyers who visit open houses. When approached by the hosting agent they can simply present your card thus holding off advances from the other agent.

9)   Use your cards in everyday life. If a waitress gives you good service leave a nice tip and offer to return the favor of good service if ever they are interested in real estate. The same would apply to any other services offered, barber, masseuse, personal trainer, shoe salesman, auto mechanic. Everyone appreciates a compliment; perhaps write a quick note on the back of your card.

10)                   Collect other professional’s cards and hand them out. Nothing will get business coming your way quicker than referring business to others. Ask for a stack of business cards from your home insurance agent. Write your name on the back and next time you are asked who a good insurance agent is hand them one of these cards as well as your own. This will get back to the insurance agent and what better person to network with. Again, this applies to everyone you work with that offers good service. By becoming a cheerleader for others they will become a cheerleader for you.

11)                   Bonus business card practice…….refer to rule #1

In my last post we talked about the concept of adding a little extra effort to something we are already doing to create something bigger than the original event. We are leveraging our business and adding “facets” to every thing we do in real estate in an attempt to touch more people and create more impressions. 

Adding additional facets usually has little or no added cost, yet you are leveraging the hard work you have already done by getting the listing, writing the blog post, taking the class or earning the designation. You are turning a single event into a Multi Faceted Marketing Event (MFME). 

As promised here are some more examples: (F=Facet) 

New Listing:
          F1- Sign goes up (lots of new impressions)
          F2- Just listed cards go to neighbors
          F3- Follow up phone call to neighbors
          F4- Place listing on company website
          F5- Syndicate the new listing to popular
                   real estate websites
          F6- Seller sees how pro-active you are 

Open House:
          F1- Invitations to neighbors
          F2- Add in local paper open house section
          F3- Open house placement on your website
          F4- Door knock neighborhood 

Writing a Blog Post:
          F1- New entry on your blog
          F2- E-mail link to your new post to sphere
          F3- Print out new entry for hand outs at open houses
          F4- Print out for use in first meeting packs for buyers
                  and sellers
          F5- Post links back to your blog from your website and
                   places like Active Rain.
          F6- Drive people back to your blog through all of your
                   marketing, you receive increased credibility.         

Taking a class:
          F1- Learning new information
          F2- Change voice mail greeting, lets callers know you
                   are honing your skills at the class
          F3- Press release
          F4- Write a blog post about the class, what you learned
                   and how it will benefit your customers. 

Earning a new designation like GRI, CRS, ABR, SRES etc……
          F1- You’ve learned some great stuff
          F2- Place designations on marketing material
          F3- Write a blog post about it and what the designation means
          F4- Write a press release
          F5- Add this information to your listing and buyer presentations 

Price reduction:
          F1- Helps you to get your listing sold
          F2- Send post cards to 50 neighbors
          F3- Follow up post cards with a phone call 

Please, in your comments share your ideas for turning everyday real estate business into MFMEs. 

You will find that by focusing your business efforts on Multi Faceted Marketing Events you will do more business, with less cost and have greater success and control over your business and personal life. 

Good luck and please share your thoughts.

A diamond has its brilliance and sparkle because of the facets that have been cut into it. 

Add brilliance to your real estate business by adding facets to it. A Multi Facetted Marketing Event (MFME) is taking something that you may already be doing on a daily basis within your business, and adding more dimension or facets to it. A facet is added anytime you take your original activity and spin it off allowing you to make more impressions or talk with more people. 

This is a concept that I developed some years ago while teaching agents how to effectively market themselves and their listing to the public and I feel that it will allow you to do more business with seemingly less effort. 

I realized the power of a MFME the other day when I bought flowers for my wife for our 27^th wedding anniversary. I could have just gone down to the store to buy her a bunch of daisies, but, that would have only had 1 real facet, (albeit the most important one….her) more on this later. 

So, lets take a look at how not to do it so that we can discuss the contrasts: 

An agent can, on Thursday, decide at the last minute that they want to hold an open house. They through up some signs, sit aimlessly at the open and then go back to the office and whine about how this open house stuff is not very effective. 

A different, unenlightened agent, can write a blog post and after several days of no comments or e-mails conclude that blogging is a waste of time. 

Instead, whenever you do something in your business think about how you can add facets to the work you’ve already done. 

Lets take the open house as an example:

You are already prepared to be at the open house for 4 hours. But what if we can leverage that 4 hours into something greater with just a little extra work by adding facets. (F = Facet)

            F1- You make sellers happy you are holding an open house
            F2- You send post cards out to all of the neighbors, say to 50
            F3- You door knock the neighborhood a couple days before the event
            F4- You send invitations to your sphere (demonstrating to them you are
                      active)
            F5- Your open house ad shows up in the paper
            F6- Your well placed open house A boards make impressions
            F7- You place your open house info on your companies website
            F8- You syndicate your open house info to other sites
            F9- You network with other agents in the area holding open houses on the
                     same day to encourage cross traffic and sales.
            F10- You feed all of this back to your sellers reinforcing your
                       efforts to them. 
A little extra work leverages your original 4 hour investment into something much greater. 

So, how did flowers for my wife turn into an MFME? 

I was going to get her flowers any way, but by adding facets I was able to touch more people and make more impressions…so instead of buying the flowers at the local grocery store I bought them from one of my agents who was doing a fund raiser (hey, timing is everything), here is the break down: 

            F1- My agent looked good for supporting Rotary
            F2- I felt good supporting one of my agents
            F3- Rotary was able to help others through this
                    fund raiser
            F4- My wife loved the roses

So, the original effort I was going to do anyway was now able to help or support more people. 
My next post will have examples of other Multi Faceted Marketing Events that you can engage in. 

Now….with regards to this MFME thing and roses for my wife….let’s just keep that between you and me. We know it was a Multi Faceted Marketing Event…she just thinks it was romantic…..yeah…I’m good with romantic.

The number 1 way to increase your business……is to be in front of people. Some agents try to do this through geographic farming, standing open houses, door knocking or other prospecting means.

How about a new approach, do something you enjoy doing AND oh by the way you happen to sell real estate. When you work side by side with people, toiling over a common goal or conversing about common interests and you later do business with them, you will find that business to be more meaningful, successful and fun.

When you lead as a salesperson you often loose, when you lead as who you are as a real person, everyone wins. Try these ideas and get involved.

Opportunities to Network:
Chamber of Commerce
Historical Society
United Way
Hospital Foundation
Navy League
Food Drive/Bank
Kiwanis
Rotary Club
Whaling Days
Regional Economic Development Council
Literacy Council
Visitors and Convention Bureau
Masons
Elks
Moose
Eagles
Symphony Foundation
Local theater group
YWCA
Junior Achievement
Business and Professional Women’s Org.
WINGS
Various Church Organizations
VFW
Humane Society
Boy/Girl Scouts
Local Search and Rescue
Kids Sports organizations
Local Golf & Country Club
Lions
Young Republicans
Young Democrats
NRA
Habitat for Humanity
Toastmasters
Exercise Club/Gym
Sorority
Seniors Computing
Bridge Club

So, now that I’m part of a group what do I do?
Write articles for news letter-Free
Show up to meetings-Free
Interact with members-Free
Volunteer for work parties-Free
Become a leader-Free
Sponsor something-Cost
Ad in Newsletter-Cost

Rewards:
Productive
Giving back to society
Respect
Business
Personal satisfaction

Hints:
Wear your name tag.
Whenever you write an article ensure your professional contact information is used.
Use your professional e-mail when corresponding with people you meet in these groups.
Make sure your signature block reflects your website and contact info.
Provide a page on your website for the organizations you belong to.

Cut the fat out of your real estate business

As real estate agents, offices and companies struggle to figure out this market it is important to stay focused on what is working and what is not. “Working” means money spent that earns a return in the form of phone calls, appointments, revenue units, or direct business support items. Examples of “not working” would be money spent on; things that feed your ego, post cards bought and put under your desk, educational CDs purchased and never listened to, print advertising that never makes the phone ring.

Spend one day a month working on your business, not in your business. What this means is setting aside one day per month in which you work on the big picture; finances, marketing plans, business plan review and the like. During this time do not engage in working with buyers, sellers or ongoing contracts, don’t answer the phone and if you need to, hold this meeting with yourself outside of the office.

One of the things to look at each month are your expenses. As revenues slow with fewer closings you may be wondering where to cut expenses. This is a good discussion to have with yourself…..in good times as well as in bad. Determine a base line of what you need to support your business and what that base line costs. Consistency is important here. You don’t want to have the lights on when things are good and go dark when things slow down.

This would not be the time to cancel your cell phone plan. It would be the time to cut down on some of the fancy features that you pay for but rarely use.

This would not be the time to turn off your website….It would be the time to make sure you are getting the biggest bang for your buck by making sure your site has rich content and is generating traffic that could turn into leads.

This would be the time to not buy that new expensive marketing plan……It would be the time to pull out those cards that are under your desk that you always meant to send but never got around to it.

This would be the time to look closely at the money you are spending on print media. If it is not making the phone ring or is a significant source of traffic to your website, eliminate it.

This is more about what you do spend and less about what you save. Make sure every dollar counts. You still need, gas for your car, feature sheets and home books in every listing, a search engine friendly website, a base line mailing program or newsletter, membership in local mls’s or professional trade organizations, educational classes and the like. There is actually so much you can do to communicate with your sphere of influence and talk with potential new clients, use your one day a month to work on your business not in your business to generate some low cost or now cost ides. If you get stuck, check back and I will post a list in the near future…..Update: check out this list of low or no cost ways to jump start your business.

1. Send out unsolicited CMA’s, follow up with a phone call.

2. Hand written notes to your clients.

3. Call 50 houses around your new listing

4. Door knock 50 houses around your new listing

5. More photos for each of your listings

6. Blog (Limit your time spent here)

7. Do your own SEO work on your website (Limit your time spent here)

8. Call expired listings

9. Use drip e-mail marketing

10. Talk with FSBO’s

11. Develop and door knock a geographic farm

12. Develop a social farm

13. Set up past customers with automatic e-mail notifications for any homes that come on the market in their neighborhood.

14. Add content to your website (Limit your time spent here)

15. Meet with past clients and provide an annual CMA

16. Hold an open house on the weekend

17. Hold a “twilight” open house one weekday afternoon

18. Wear your name badge

19. Volunteer in the community and wear your name badge

20. Send out a monthly e-mail newsletter (Don’t write it yourself)

21. Call everyone in your sphere

22. Invite 10 past customers to lunch (one at a time)

23. Mail an anniversary card each year to your past buyers for the day they bought their home.

24. Ask your past customers to write a testimonial for you.

25. Post past customer testimonials to your website

26. Write a press release about your attendance at a class or workshop, or new designation

27. Take 10 minutes and make sure you have an informative signature block for e-mails

28. First of each year mail out a copy of the HUD-1 to each client who bought or sold a home last year.

Anything you can do that will have you talking or interacting with people will help you build the marketing momentum you need to grow your business. If you are with people you will find business……if you’re not you won’t.

“should i consider a career in real estate right now?”

So I thought I’d use this opportunity to, not only pump the importance of having analytics as part of your on-line marketing stratagey but to also answer….or attempt to answer this question.

Actually the answer may have always been the same…..it depends.

Starting out in real estate is just like starting any other business. You have to do the research, compare your tools and talants to what is called for, put together a plan and last but certainly not least set aside plenty of start up capital. Many, if not most businesses fail because they are under capitalized.

For a quick start to the steps of getting started go here…..

The real estate profession is still full of part time agents, speculative agents and agents who are waiting for the next big market. What this means to you is that if you come in, do the homework and apply yourself there is plenty of room. You must treat it like a business and apply yourself.

As you jump into the deep end you will find many trainers, books, CDs and manuals. In the big picture if you pick most any one off the shelf and apply yourself they will work. A couple of my favorite programs or trainers:

Walt Frey http://www.waltfrey.com/

Brian Buffini: http://www.buffiniandcompany.com/

Joe Stumpf: http://www.byreferralonly.com/

Cindy White: http://www.cindywhite.com/

Renee Chatalas: http://www.themakingofapro.com/

I like each of these…for different reasons. One of the challenges in getting started is if you ask ten agents their opinion you will get ten different opinions. Some advice for a new agent:

1) Listen to your Broker

2) Listen to your Mentor (if you don’t have one get one)

3) Listen to your trainer

4) Stop looking for the magic pill…everyone wants to find the one piece of advice that will make them rich, the one pill that will make them thin, the one procedure that will make them attractive, the one line that will get them lucky……..well stop it!

5) Don’t solicit advice from the resource room or common area of your office. Often the agents who have the time on their hands and are most likely to offer advice or “take you under their wing” are the ones you do not want to listen to.

So, despite the times, the economy, the bail out, the headlines….there are still buyers and sellers out there. If you have the gumption to get into this business and do it right, it is the perfect time.

Too often agents want to jump in and order up a website so they can check that task off some list they have in hand. Later, when the going gets rough financially they jettison the website because it is not meeting their needs.

Before getting the website ask yourself some questions, this may require a bit of introspection:
1) What kind of business do I want to do. Am I focusing on residential resale, commercial, new construction, condos…….etc
2) Write a paragraph describing your perfect buyer

3) Write a paragraph describing your perfect seller
(in both cases be specific to type of home, geographic location, qualifications of the buyer or seller)

4) What are your goals for the website?
Be realistic here. Come up with a number that you can logically work toward.

5) How much am I willing to spend?
This has to be a realistic number that will not change with the market. Too often agents and companies spend lots of money when the market is good and pull it all back when things get tough. The key word here has to be “consistency”. Granted, you may invest more as you have more to invest…but you should always have a core marketing effort going on. Note…I use the word “invest” on purpose. Dollars you spend are either to improve your business, have a goal and measurement attached or it is a charity. Too often business people mistake the two.

6) How am I going to track my success?

With this information you will be able to tailor your site to meet the needs of the people you are trying to attract and keep as customers. Don’t try to make one site do too much. If you do residential sales and property management you may want to consider two separate websites, otherwise you dilute your message and will make it harder for your site to show up on the first page or two of search engine rankings.

Now that you are sitting down to actually start planning the website looks are important but only go skin deep as the old saying goes. Content is king. I’m running across good, hard working agents who have invested a lot of money into a website that looks good but has no real content. Make sure your website developer can and does provide the IDX feed for your site. Without it you will not be able to provide interactive home searches for your clients, nor will you be able to use many of the tools that make a great site like flyer makers, CMA tools or automatic e-mail notification services.

The other day we had one of our instructors, Justin Waskow in to talk with us about some of the tech tools that are already available to our agents. So often we get caught up in the new that we don’t take a moment to look at what is already available. Especially in this tight economy it is important to use what you already have and spend as little as possible on new stuff.

The title of the class was Ten Top Tech Tools for 2009. The list ranged from Google Analytics to your alarm clock and included Facebook and LinkedIn.

After the class agents asked me about the roll these sites should or could play in their marketing plan. Here is my take on how your Blog, Website, Facebook and LinkedIn can all work together to carry your marketing message to the world of buyers, sellers and home owners.

Today’s consumer is part Sherlock Holms and part research librarian. When they find something they are interested in they research it. In the case of a real estate agent they dig in to learn all they can about an individual. Most agents are not even aware they are being virtually interviewed.

Your WebSite: should be written for your customer. It is for and about them, not you. I always look at the website as a reference book. This is where your customers come to search for houses, learn about the buying and selling process, research schools and neighborhoods and get a list of local resources. Make your site information rich and easy to use. If you do, they will come back often.

Your Blog: If your website is a reference book then your blog is a magazine. It should contain short stories about current events within the real estate world. Interest rates, discussions about inventory or buying and selling tips are all useful to the reader. If you tend to be verbose, break the content down into several entries. Use plenty of graphics or pictures to break up the page. At first post 2 or three times a week, as time goes by and your inventory of information builds you can post every week or every other week.

LinkedIn: This is your on-line resume. Buyers and sellers will find your profile and meet you on a professional level. This is where you will put your professional designations, time in the business, other business you’ve been in and your education. Additionally LinkedIn provides a platform for others to give you recommendations.

Face Book: This is the personal side of you. While your LinkedIn profile will have a business photo, Face Book is the place for a more relaxed picture of you in your natural habitat. This is the appropriate place for your favorite shot of you and your pet. This is where your potential clients will see the books you like to read, the movies you’ve enjoyed and the people you hang out with.

It is important for you to periodically review what others are seeing. Do you really want your potential clients to see a picture of you chugging that pitcher of beer?

Be sure to cross link each of these platforms to make it easy for customers to follow the path. Always reference your website or blog on all of your marketing materials or articles that you write. And by all means place Google Analytics on your blog and website so that you can track your traffic.

Each of these sites has a place in your marketing plan and the great part is they are very inexpensive or free and once set up easy to maintain.

The problem with that is, for awhile at least, this worked. A whole new group of real estate entrepreneurs were born. Flippers, speculators and wanna be land barons began to flock to real estate as the next ladder to financial independence. Then….we woke up and now find ourselves with the light of reality shining in. Those new to the business are now wanting to know what to do. What is reality now that the laws of gravity have been re-established.

The good news is that there is nothing new here. The basic reasons for investing in real estate are still in tact. The reason why people buy and sell real estate in our area are the same as a few years ago……..again. Rather than listening to all of the hype and overly negative media it is time to focus on what we do have and not on what we don’t. Yes this is cheer leading at it’s most basic form….but isn’t that what we need right now? Reminding people why home ownership is so important, why it is such an honor and how lucky we are to be able to purchase a home when in much of the world ownership of real property is but a dream.

It is time to bring common sense back to the market, our agents and consumers. Though the below is based on Kitsap County WA I’m sure you can find some parallels for your area:
We live in a very desirable area:
Reasonable house prices (Now)
Great Schools
Great quality of Life
Not in the city but only a ferry ride away
Good health care availability
Close to recreation
Wonderful scenery
Interest rates are very reasonable
We have a relatively stable job market
We have a wonderful selection of homes to choose from
We still have sales going on
Homes are a good investment:
Home values are down fractionally compared to other investments.
Good tax benefits
Offers more control over your living environment
Good way to build wealth over a long period of time
Provides control over your living expenses provided you have a fixed mortgagem
Homes continue to be a good long term investment.