Does Your Team Lose Your Money? - 08/31/07 11:27 PM
I have had several discussions lately with people about the costs and benefits of running a real estate team.  Great employees can make you many times what you pay them, but poor employees, or even "adequate" employees, may end up costing you thousands, or millions, of dollars.
Let's take a buyer's agent, for example.  If you give a buyer's agent leads, and expect that buyer's agent to follow up on the leads, then you would tend to expect closings down the road.  What is a reasonable number?  Well, that's probably something that you'd have to determine based on the type of … (2 comments)

Misspellings can spell embarrassment! - 08/28/07 09:57 PM
Recently I was teaching a class to several new agents on the amazing opportunities for free advertising on the internet.   I was set up, complete with LCD projector and laptop connected wirelessly to the internet.  My class was going quite well, with the agents taking plenty of notes. 
It was time to present a favorite site for internet savvy real estate agents, to explain about the numerous possibilities available in free classifieds.  I pulled up my internet browser, typed in the website, and as it loaded, I began to speak of the benefits offered.
There was giggling.  And laughing.
Ask any … (4 comments)

Don't Become Another Murder Statistic - 08/28/07 09:08 PM
I am going to deviate from the more common real estate themes of my blog and write about a topic I am passionate about:  REALTOR® safety.  Perhaps it is my background in law enforcement, but I feel that there are many REALTORS® who work day to day oblivious to the possible dangers that lurk in our world. 
REALTORS® place themselves in contact with strangers everyday.  It is our job to get out there, meet people, and broker the sale of properties.  Unfortunately, many people from the criminal element also know this fact.  Each year, REALTORS® are assaulted, robbed, and even murdered.  … (8 comments)

Free Internet Tools - Please Share! - 08/26/07 02:11 PM
I'm interested in compiling a list of free internet tools for real estate.  These can include anything that helps us in our businesses.  For example, craigslist.com or postlets.com are free for advertising our listings. 
What else is out there?
If you will drop comments and let me know what all is out there, I will compile this list into another post to share with everyone.  I am also going to use this to compose a powerpoint presentation for training in my market center, and I'll be happy to share that with anyone who is interested.
Thanks in advance for your help.  I look … (7 comments)

Surviving or Thriving? Where is your real estate career? - 08/26/07 01:26 PM
If you don't list, you don't last.  This concept is driven into our skulls by real estate trainers year after year, but I would like to go one step further and make the argument that if you don't generate leads, you don't list, and therefore you don't last.  Now this may sound quite simple to most of you, and I am quite willing to concede that it doesn't take a doctorate in Realestateology to figure it out.  Unfortunately, the big, ugly truth is that even though 100% of you may understand this, we have an 80% failure rate in real estate! 
… (5 comments)

Real Estate Training - The (Often) Most Overlooked Part Of Our Careers - 08/26/07 01:01 PM
Think back to when you graduated from Real Estate School.  This could be a few months ago, or several decades ago when caves and sod houses were the hot listings.  What did you get out of your pre-license training?  Most people will say that the class got them through the test, and that is true.  If you maintained consciousness you also learned a great deal about the law, generally the "thou shalt nots" of real estate, but there was a huge, gaping hole that begged to be filled with know-how.
You didn't learn how to sell property, write contracts, input listings, … (2 comments)

REALTOR SAFETY - Think Positioning When Showing Houses - 08/26/07 12:39 PM
All agents, at one time or another, have really been excited to show a house to a potential client.  They practically dance through each room, pointing out the features with a flourish, all the while anticipating that the next thing the prospect will desire is their name on a contract.
What if the prospect desires nothing more than to take your money and leave you for dead?
It's a sobering thought, but unfortunately, it happens more frequently than most of us want to acknowledge.
As a REALTOR(R) Safety Instructor, I think that it is paramount to point out a basic concept … (9 comments)

Allegiant Air going to Vegas from Greenville-Spartanburg Airport - 08/24/07 09:30 AM
Many of you know that I am a pilot, and I follow aviation news pretty thoroughly.  I was excited to find out that Allegiant Air started its first service to Las Vegas from Greenville-Spartanburg airport (GSP) today about seven in the morning.
Allegiant is a low cost carrier, and they currently fly to two other destinations from GSP, both in Florida.  The Vegas route will be a boom to their business, if you ask me.  I'm sure there are plenty of Upstate South Carolina residents who would like to try their luck in Vegas. :-)
GSP is also in talks with … (0 comments)

HELP ME! Terrible Staging Problem - Getting Smoke Out - 08/24/07 08:49 AM
I have a home that I will be selling in the VERY near future.  It is gorgeous, and has been staged well except for one thing - the owner has smoked in it his entire time there.
This is quite aggravating, because I've seen the way that buyers generally react to smoke odor in a house.  Even smokers have a tendency to overlook these houses, especially if they are smokers who take their cigarettes outside because they KNOW the negative consequences on their homes.
Overall, it just makes a house "feel" dirty.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  … (11 comments)

Time for another theatre part for me??? Greenville Little Theatre Auditions - Dracula - 08/24/07 01:52 AM
On Monday August 27th the Greenville Little Theatre will be holding auditions for the upcoming play "Dracula".  I dropped by the theatre today (well, technically yesterday since it's quite early in the morning) to chat with my friends at the box office, and I picked up a script for the show.
It's hard for me to decide what I want to audition for in this show.  There are several good parts, although the parts of Dracula and Van Helsing are pre-cast (the excellent talents of Will Ragland and Allen McCalla respectively).  There is a part for an insane guy... hmm, that could be … (0 comments)

Leveraging Your Business - 08/24/07 01:35 AM
If you break down the top three things that will dramatically affect your real estate career, they are Leads, Listings and Leverage.  Leads give you the ability to gain clients.  Listings give you inventory to cultivate contracts and buyers with.  Leverage makes it easier for you to get more of the other two, and gives you the ability to ENJOY the life you are creating through your highly successful real estate business, or at least enjoy a cup of coffee once in a while.
Simply put, leverage is multiplying your ability to get things done.  It would be ideal if you … (2 comments)

South Carolina's Foreclosure Situation - Not Too Bad! - 08/24/07 01:12 AM
No matter where you are, you can't escape the news of a record number of foreclosures hitting the United States.  Fortunately for South Carolina, we are not doing as bad as the national averages.  Our housing market has slowed, it's true, but overall our market is doing fairly well.
According to RealtyTrac, the state's foreclosure rate in July, with 412 foreclosure activities, was 4.04 percent higher than a year ago, but down 6.15 percent from the same month two years ago.  That works out to be about one foreclosure activity per 4,679 households in the state.
RealtyTrac, which follows foreclosure proceedings, published a … (0 comments)

Fun with Sheep and Darts - 08/23/07 05:24 PM
Got your attention?  My mom just sent me this fun little link.  Try it out.  So far I'm a bobbing bobcat.
Go mom!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swf
 
Sometimes it's nice to have some meaningless entertainment at hand.  Afterall, we don't need any more distractions, do we?  I think that if I try really hard, I might actually find time to do some work one of these days.  Perhaps.
I won't hold my breath yet. 
On a serious note, it's nice to have mindless things to help de-stress the day, when you have a tough conversation with a client, or a hard meeting.
… (3 comments)

Tips: Preparing Your Home For Sale - 08/23/07 03:48 PM
There are some things that you can do to help your home sell quicker and for more money.  When you are selling your home, you have to think about the buyer's perspective and not your own. "The way you live in a home and the way you sell it are two different things," says home-staging guru Barb Schwarz in her book "Home Staging: The Winning Way to Sell Your House for More Money." Here are some home-staging tips to share with anyone preparing their home for sale:
Staging is not decorating. Decorating is personalizing a space, where staging is "depersonalizing" it. … (1 comments)

Don't Get In Too Deep - 08/23/07 03:28 PM
After working in the real estate industry for six years, I have found that there are a lot of people out there who think that they MUST get the most expensive home that they can afford.  This can lead to a lot of problems, not the least of which is financial ruin.
WAIT???   A real estate agent is saying that people buying MORE EXPENSIVE homes is a PROBLEM???
Yes I do, but let me explain.  Throughout my experience, I have run into countless people who get qualified for a loan, and they feel that they NEED to look for homes that … (4 comments)

My first of many! - 08/22/07 08:27 PM
Today I step across the threshold of another milestone in my life.... the first blog entry!  While I have utilized the latest in techology for many facets of my business, the wonders of the blog are relatively new to me.  I think that part of it stems from a fear of learning the art of "blogging".  After several conversations with fellow Keller Williams agents from across the country who maintain highly successful blogs, I came to the conclusion that this is the next step for me.
That aside, I love to write, and I love to share ideas.  The blog will … (9 comments)

 
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Bill Kennedy - Homes For Sale Greenville SC

Greenville, SC

More about me…

Keller Williams Realty Greenville Central

Address: 800 Regent Park Court, Greenville, SC, 29607

Office Phone: (864) 990-1224

Cell Phone: (864) 505-1259

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The idle contemplations of one of the up-and-coming real estate agents and trainers in Upstate South Carolina. Feedjit Live Blog Stats


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