Coach Patti Kouri's Blog

The New Year is Here – Time for New Resolutions!

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:26:05 -0800

The new year is just around the corner – literally! Last time, I mentioned that I've been planning and setting goals, and my hope that you've been doing the same. New Year’s resolutions (or goals) are a great way to plan for the coming year. Some of us, however, are suffused with the dread of potential failure. I'd like to offer some tips to help your resolutions succeed, so that you can accomplish your goals.

There are many benefits to setting goals at this time of year. You're feeling the glow of the holiday season, and your enthusiasm is undoubtedly high. You’re better motivated to steadily move towards achieving the results you really want. This will boost your self-esteem, your confidence, and your belief in your ability to make things happen. I do want to offer a word of caution: Don’t forget to balance your enthusiasm with living in the moment. Looking too far into the future inhibit you from enjoying your life right now!

Setting goals can help to eliminate the stress of feeling out of control, especially in a still-recovering real estate world. Many of us have a tendency to set too many resolutions, or to set the bar too high. The result? We become disillusioned within the first couple of months. Here's my thought: Look at your resolutions more as realistic goals that will lead to your greater happiness. Who wants to feel bitter and unhappy because it seems like we’ve “failed?” Make your goals specific, and break down larger goals into more detailed "bite-sized" pieces.

Once you’ve established a goal, formulate a plan to explain what you’re going to do next and how you’re going to achieve this goal. Balance your goals as you do your entire life; some goals should be career and financially focused, with others directed to your family and home focused. Make sure that you write your goals down -- research suggests this is the best way to ensure your success. Place them in a prominent place, and review them regularly.

Enjoy the process of outlining your goals and resolutions, then reap the benefits of sticking to them! Believe that you will achieve your goals. Make the most of this time leading up to the new year. It's time to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. Leave your comments below and tell me…Have you established (and written down) your goals for 2012?

Want to find out more about The Real Estate Game® being offered on January 9? Let me know - I'll send you a link! Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Coach Patti, the owner of Accelerated Performance Coaching Inc., and The Real Estate Game®, strives to maintain an atmosphere of community, connection, and harmony by becoming your resource base to enhance and enrich your personal and business life. Coach Patti was voted one of the ‘Top 50 Most Influential Women In Real Estate Leadership in 2008’ by the 2008 edition of the Swanepoel Trends Report. www.CoachPatti.com and www.TheRealEstateGame.com.

Use the Holiday Season to De-stress and Plan for a Great New Year

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:57:48 -0800

Hello, and welcome back! I’ve taken some well-deserved time off to take in the holidays and fully enjoy my family. Hopefully, you've been able to do the same. Right now, I’m goal setting and planning for next year...and I really hope that you're doing the same thing. If you're one of those folks who believes that taking some down time will cause your business to decrease, I'd like for you to consider this: Taking time off creates room for new business. If you'll step back and take a little time off, you'll find that when you come back, you've broken out of the rut you may be in.

Part of that “rut” may also be convincing yourself that you have to learn to manage your time better. Newsflash: You can't manage time. You can manage yourself, and that's it. Focus on figuring out how you can do less and accomplish more. Making a conscious choice to enjoy a big cup of hot chocolate and watch Holiday Inn doesn't mean your work will suffer; it means you've made a choice that doesn't involve feeling guilty! When you DO make a conscious choice to work, you'll be able to think clearly about that holiday greeting you want to send to your SOI.

Let's face it. Regardless of how delightful, the holidays are stressful. Without going into all of the science, suffice it to say that if you're working at being jolly AND working at running a successful business...your brain and your body are stressed to the max.

Without adding stress, I'd love to see you incorporate some self-care into the things that you're taking care of this holiday season. Exercise will get the endorphins flowing, which means you'll feel more positive and more relaxed. Getting plenty of rest is paramount – if you're sleep-deprived, you're going to feel exhausted. More importantly, you're going to forget things, and it's going to be harder for you to learn new things. You won't be able to think clearly, and that gets in the way of planning and goal-setting.

If you've never meditated, give it a try during the holiday season. It's a wonderful way to quickly and easily calm and center yourself so that you can think clearly. And finally, although it may sound counter-intuitive, don't isolate yourself if you feel overwhelmed. Staying in regular contact with family and friends – your support network – will help keep your mood balanced.

The holidays ARE stressful, but they're also a wonderful time of the year. It's time to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. Leave your comments below and tell me…How do you handle the extra stresses of the winter holiday season?

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

When Is It Okay To Worry?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 10:08:13 -0700

The answer, practically never.
But why do you do it? And what are your other choices?

As a coach to Top Producers, I can tell you they worry a whole lot less than regular agents. It's not because they have lots of leads, or because they have 7-10 closings this and every month… It's because they have a GPS system for their real estate business that warns them ahead of time when to take action before a "situation" compounds into worry!

Like the GPS in your car, boat, or plane, their real estate GPS system guides them around common Realtor roadblocks that you probably don't even know you are hitting on your way to work everyday. For instance, they know how to fire toxic clients quickly and painlessly before they waste precious time driving around or throwing money at advertising that won't sell!

They know the 47 proven GPS signals you can plug into your business to stop the worry about time and money once and for all! Wouldn't you like to know them too…

…And finally get where you what to go with your life and career!

http://TheRealEstateGame.com

Like a GPS for your business my Real Estate Game group telephone coaching program starts tomorrow morning and is almost full… With most of the spots taken by agents who attended my live class Friday, they felt the value and decided to join and play…

I am opening one of the last spots to you, so tomorrow you too can activate your GPS for your business and get tons of momentum under your belt before 2012 starts! The end of the year is really here and now is the time to "stock up" on action so you can break free from the worries you had in 2011.

As a real estate coach for so many years, the only cure for debt, stress, anxiety, and worry is massive guided action!

http://TheRealEstateGame.com

With only a few spots left, take action now, don't let 2012 start with the same struggles you faced this year. Put the past behind you and get what you really want from real estate!

Talk to you soon!

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Are You in Your Clients' Social Sphere?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:42:07 -0700

When you meet with a seller or a buyer, you've got to be aware of the fact that you're not the only folks participating in the conversation. Today, everyone you meet has a seemingly endless array of socially networked contemporary colleagues and acquaintances whose opinions and knowledge base are valued and trusted.

That client, whether they want to hear it or not, IS hearing the blended whispers of a throng of well-intended advisers comprising their social network. And for you to successfully communicate with them, it helps immensely to be aware – not of what's being said, of course – of the fact that the chorus is there, cranking themselves up with every word that comes out of your mouth.

Kris Berg with Inman News shared one of her experiences that helps to illuminate this point."My friend at work said that agents will give me some of their commission if I let them help me buy a house," a client said to her, completely matter-of-factly. "Will you? And how much?"

Berg had buyer client who had “tossed aside a dozen or more suitable, fairly priced properties.” all because “some dude in his bowling league snagged a stunning five-bedroom home with a view of the earth's curvature for $12.”

We've all had similar experiences; the take-away here is that many client's home buying goals have become mostly about things like bragging rights and getting one up on their neighbors.

It's a huge challenge in our business today. We're scrutinized by our clients' self-taught inner circles, and every move we make is questioned. Our responses to even the simplest of questions are analyzed.

You can find the positive side of this “tag team” approach to real estate. It requires us to be at the top of the information heap at all times, because our clients (and their supporting cast) come armed with a LOT of information. The problem is that the information is often completely incorrect.

Before the current housing and economic fiasco, things were easier. We interviewed to get the work, and we proved our worth by providing a successful closing. As Berg says, “Everything in between involved simply doing the job for which we were entrusted -- putting our experience and training to work.”

We have to use our GPS to stay on the right road in this new world. Our clients aren't going to stop turning to their (more trusted) inner circle for advice, counsel and, ultimately, validation. What their “friends and family network” says about EVERYTHING will trump our best listing presentation every time. We're being assessed on a scale of how many of our clients' inner circle “Like” us. That is why the social reach of our brands has never been more important.

The ways in which you branded yourself and your business when you started are unlikely to be working perfectly today. It's time to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. Leave your comments below and tell me…How are you working with your clients' social networks?

Talk to you soon.

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Who REALLY Wants to Be a Realtor Today?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:45:18 -0700

Remember that old adage, “Those who can't do, teach”? It's really a demeaning statement about what the speaker thinks of teachers; it's diminishing, denigrating, and generally a dismissal of folks who choose to pursue a truly noble profession.

Have you noticed lately how many people who are out of work and announcing (with little or no enthusiasm) that they'll “Just get a real estate license.” That pronouncement seems to reflect the idea that, as Kris Berg over at Inman noted, the true salvation for those who are unemployed is to get a real estate license. But let's face it – most of them have absolutely no idea of what they're considering getting into.

Please note that I say this in very general terms – not just as a reflection of the topsy-turvy (mostly “turvy,” lately) real estate market. Right now, as the only flood coming our way seems to be one composed of less-than-stellar moneymakers (aka distressed properties), you're probably doing one of two things. You might be scratching your head and saying, “Why the heck would anyone want to get into this field right now?!” - a thoroughly understandable response, especially if you're not working to your own maximum capacity in this crisis.

Or, you might be reading this and turning an interesting shade of purple as you sputter, “Hey! There are already too many Realtors in my neck of the woods! I'm busting my butt and I don't need more competition!” An equally comprehensible response, since you're obviously one of those who IS working to your absolute limits (that doesn't mean that you're working smarter; it just means that you're working harder).

Either way, only YOU know why you signed up for this job that may often feel like torture. Your reasons may have been well-founded, and they may have been really flimsy – but regardless of the logic (or lack thereof), it's the field you chose for yourself. More importantly, you know why you choose to stay in real estate, even when the media seems to come up with newer and more interesting terms to describe the market (this week, The Economist called it “moribund”).

You've got to look inside and remember your reasons for being a Realtor, and you've got to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. I want you to really think about why you got into real estate. You had terrific inner strength and resiliency then. Those are the qualities that set you apart – that imbue you with the ability to not just weather the current challenging market. Leave your comments below and tell me…What are you doing to stay fresh and motivated?

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Another New Challenge: Late Stage Loan Rejections

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:39:32 -0700

Just when you've positioned yourself to switch into cruise control, when you've acknowledged and embraced all of the current vagaries of the real estate market, another challenge pops up out of left field. To help you succeed, I can say nothing other than, “Learn to deal with it.” My own best far-reaching strategy is to give you a heads-up, and offer alternatives for dealing with the latest, greatest potential obstacles. The old adage holds true: Forewarned is forearmed.

So here's what's happening – and needs to be on your radar – right now. Are you experiencing an upsurge in clients having mortgage loan rejections? There are lenders who are, according to Inman News, rejecting 50% (or more) of their loan applicants – after the applicants have paid for an appraisal, and in some cases after they have paid a nonrefundable upfront fee to the lender. The overall rate of rejection is far higher than it was before the financial crisis.

The rise in late-stage rejections has been due in part to the more restrictive underwriting climate that arose after the initial financial crisis. This includes not only more restrictive lending terms but also tougher enforcement of the rules (including more extensive checks of closed loans for compliance).

Loans that fail compliance checks may have to be repurchased by the originators, which is very costly. Underwriters entrusted with responsibility for assuring that loans are not returned from buyers on grounds that they did not meet the requirements almost invariably err on the side of rejection.

It's time to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. Are you experiencing an increased in client mortgage loans being rejected? Leave your comments below and tell me…What are your thoughts about late-stage mortgage loan rejections?

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Image: hans.gerwitz

Get Set for Your Next Career Challenge

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:49:13 -0700

You've probably had your fill of new and creative challenges in the housing industry. Well, prepare for the next one. The paperwork correction glitches in the foreclosure process nationwide are being rapidly rectified, and states are allowing banks to resume repossessions. That's created a glut of discounted properties that are getting ready to flood the marketplace.

This means that the prices of non-distressed properties are going to suffer a negative impact. Your question may be, “Why?,” and that's fine. Your next question should be, “What can I do to prepare?” Let's look at first things first. There are two reasons for the adverse effect on the prices of non-distressed properties.

You know that there are only a finite number of home buyers in any market. Some of these buyers will buy those new-to-market distressed properties, because they're terrifically affordable. That's the first reason for the negative effect. It goes hand-in-glove with the second reason.

As those distressed properties are sold, they'll become the comparable sales used by appraisers in their valuations. These comparables will be used for the establishment of value on all homes in the market (both distressed and non-distressed) sold in the future. Since these properties are sold at a discount, they will have a negative impact on other valuations.

You need to come to grips with the fact that the housing market simply will not recover until we clear this shadow inventory. Are distressed properties your first choice for transactions? Of course not – we'd all prefer to be dealing only with luxury properties. But the speed at which these properties come to market – and are sold – will determine the speed at which the housing market recovers.

You've got to change your way of thinking. Distressed properties are likely to comprise the lion's share of your real estate bread and butter in the coming months. But take heart – the latest S&PShadow Inventory Report shows that the months of shadow inventory already is decreasing. The report explains that the number of families falling 90 days behind on their mortgages has decreased dramatically. The end to the housing crisis is within sight.

It's time to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. Leave your comments below and tell me…What do you think about this new challenge?

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

What Will YOUR Real Estate Fortune Cookie Say?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:24:55 -0700

Recently, Kris Berg at Inman News wrote a terrific piece about the fact that, as much as we'd like to believe their contents, fortune cookies really do generally tell us exactly what we want to hear. So my question for you is this: Are you (at least subconsciously) basing your real estate career planning and decisions on the kind of wishful thinking found in fortune cookies?

If you are, it's time to think again. As Berg notes, “These assurances [found in fortune cookies] tend to buoy the old spirits, but they're not real.” Fortune cookies are inevitably upbeat. When was the last time you opened one and read, “Your CRM tools will soon fail you”? Whoever makes up those little one-liners knows that we want to be happy; we don't particularly want to be served the truth, even in a cute little edible package.

Berg compares the fortune cookie promissory note of “something for nothing” to our real estate licenses. A lot of folks operate under the truly delusional notion that unlike some other fields of endeavor, a career in real estate isn't really “work.” And yes, you might get lucky; my hope is that you'll realize that with your present ways of thinking, what you're experiencing IS likely little more than luck. It does happen to most of us, at some point or another.

But we all know that luck is one fickle lady. The only way you're going to move out of that mindset is to realize that you have to consistently make hard choices. One of those choices is how you're going to spend your time. How many agents and brokers do you know who are whining about business in their market being dead...while they're out playing the back nine? Conversely, how many of them are stymied when their “lucky” peers are working every single day...and making money?

You need to ask yourself some hard questions, and “get good” with the answers, so that you can move towards a success-based reality. Have you ever turned down a listing because the property was too far away? When was the last time you ignored a call because you were on vacation? It's too easy to blame less-than-optimal clients or a lousy market for a serious downturn in personal income.

Real estate is cyclical, and we're still in a really bad cycle right now. Nobody's offering a lot of joy-filled “Business will be fantastic and you'll be wealthy!” fortune cookies, and if they are, you need to ignore them. Now is the time to make the tough choices. As Berg so poignantly notes, “A real estate career isn't something that happens to you. Success is not a promise delivered with your license, nor is guaranteed wealth your just desserts.”

This is the time to diversify your thinking. YOU create your career “fortune.” What kinds of changes are you making to ensure your success? Leave your comments below, and share what YOU think!

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Are YOU Tapping the Shift to Rentals?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:39:42 -0700

It's a given – dealing with rental properties can provide income and future clients for savvy, open-minded agents. Inman News ran an interesting article recently, highlighting just this point. Remember, it's all a matter of how you think – we're in a make-it-or-break-it economy, and if you're smart, you're scrambling to not only use but create best practices to put yourself at the head of the pack.

Rentals have BIG potential as a new money-maker for real estate professionals. By 2015, the nation's home ownership is projected to drop from about 66% today, to 64% - the same rate as in 1968, said David Vivero, CEO of RentJuice, which provides online rental relationship management software to real estate professionals.

Vivero noted that while that drop may seem small, it represents more than 10 million people who will go from being home owners to being home renters. For real estate professionals, that means by 2015 there will be 4.3 million more rental units and 1.8 million fewer owned homes; 463,000 homes sales will be lost, worth $2.4 billion in commissions; and 150 million leases will be signed, worth $6.8 billion in commissions.

"If you offer only sales, (a total of) $11 billion in commissions (will be) out of your reach," Vivero said.

So that's the “not very happy” news. Real estate agents and brokers would do well to remember that renting is often a stepping stone to home ownership. Agents can use a rental practice to provide exposure to renters, and to landlords who may decide to buy more properties in the future.

"Renters may turn into homeowners; prove yourself early," Vivero said. "No one's born 35. Between 22 and 35, they're renting."

You're right if you complain that commissions from leasing rental properties are smaller than those from sold homes. But, as Vivero said, they do provide "a steady income stream" that "[can] help keep frustrated agents afloat." If you're thinking of handling rentals, your best first step is to "simply just put content out there and hang a shingle as a rental service," he said.

Keep in mind the fact that the multiple listing service cannot be your only strategy when marketing to "Generation Rent," Vivero said. The marketing is different. Given demographics that skew toward younger singles, school statistics and mortgage calculators are likely to be less effective than a focus on lifestyle factors such as commute times and nearby amenities, Vivero said.

It's time to diversify your thinking if you're going to stay in the game. Leave your comments below and tell me…What do you think about handling rental properties?

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

The Debt Ceiling Crisis and the Real Estate Market: Do You See the Parallel?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:19:46 -0700

For weeks, the question on nearly everyone's mind has been, “Will the U.S. Government default on its loans?” The situation created a lot of worry and a lot of fear in a lot of peoples' minds. A primary concern in our field was the impact on the already fragile real estate market. As foreclosures continue, a lot of us were left wondering whether a debt decision delay would worsen the market.

Well, the House passed a $2.4 trillion debt-ceiling increase Monday night, by a vote of 269-161. That final tally highlighted deep dissatisfaction among the rank-and-file members of both parties. And there's still plenty of uncertainty out there regarding the precarious state of the real estate market.

Don't fool yourself, or let yourself be lulled into old ways of thinking. Despite the fact that a decision was reached, there are still perilous times ahead. Do you see the parallel between the U.S. debt crisis and the real estate market? You should. The fight stemmed from a very gut-level response, with Americans telling the government that they didn't want to see more money being spent. The average person said, “Hey, we have to live within our means, now you learn to do the same.” That's why there was a fight in the first place, and that's why fewer and fewer people are able to purchase (or stay in) homes.

Look at it this way. Mortgage interest rates are, slowly but surely, inching their way up. And lending is, without question, going to tighten up nationwide. The greatest impact is most likely to be seen by folks who want to purchase properties priced between $100,000 and $150,000. Why? Because those people are the most heavily reliant on stable mortgage rates in determining the practical affordability of purchasing a home.

Of course, if your buyers have cash in hand, it is time to urge investment in real estate. Sure, things will stabilize eventually; they always do. In the meantime, increased inflation means increased rents. So the reality stands: real estate is a great investment, even now.

You've got to diversify your thinking, and better sooner than later. What impact do YOU think the debt ceiling crisis will have on the real estate market? Leave me your comments below.

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Are There Harmful Effects When the Listing Price is Changed?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:05:18 -0700

Recently, Keeping Current Matters posted an extremely interesting blog by Ken Johnson, PhD, who is at Florida International University, and Editor of the Journal of Housing Research. I found it particularly enlightening, because it addressed the issue of whether there are negative implications to changing the listing price of a property.

It's a question that absolutely, especially now, looms large in the minds of Brokers/Agents, as well as property sellers. The question has been investigated – scientifically – by John R. Knight. And although the research was conducted in 2002, it's still, or perhaps even MORE, pertinent in these hectic times. Knight's research looked at two variables: The types of property that are most likely to experience a price change, and the impact of changing a property’s listing price.

Knight found that, on average, “properties which experience a listing price change take longer to sell and suffer a price discount greater than similar properties.” Greater price changes experience even longer marketing times and greater price discounts.

So what does this mean for you? The bottom line is this: Get the price right from the outset. It's simple. As a Broker or Agent, you can't express strongly enough to seller that if they want to over list, they're going to take longer to sell and they're going to sell for less. And if YOU make the mistake of taking a listing and figuring you'll “get the price right later,” you're not doing yourself or your sellers any favors.

Get it right from the beginning. And continue to work and think about things that way – permanently. It's all part of acknowledging that the marketplace has changed, and is likely to change even more in the coming months and years. Remember, any alteration to price will ultimately lead to longer marketing times and lower prices. Change the way you think, and the way you relate to your clients, and you'll find yourself soaring.

Leave me a comment below and tell me…What do you think?

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Are You Ready for the Next Bad Day Looming on the Real Estate Horizon?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:39:54 -0700

The federal government has come up with a lot of interesting ways to rescue the housing industry. As Keeping Current Matters notes, one of those ways was to raise the maximum loan that can be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (for FHA loans), known as the Conforming Loan Limit.

This was a good thing, indeed! Increasing those loan limits offered liquidity to mortgage lenders, which in turn enabled them to lend at competitive rates across the country. As we all know, there are two principles associated with good things. First, they always come to an end. Second, they almost always have a flip side – the bad thing that counters them.

The expiration date for the conforming loan limit increase is set for September 30. Given the government's vigorous backpedaling on “helping” real estate, that deadline is looming, and it appears to be immutable. That's the bad thing.

You could, at this point, certainly indulge in a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth that you desire; it would be understandable. You could throw up your hands; you could say, “Well, that's just one more thing that's going to drive my business into the ground!”

Or, you could grab your well-worn bootstraps, pull yourself up, and face the facts. You need to be really well-versed in what this change will mean to you and your clients. If you are, you're positioned to be an informed voice in the industry. You're also positioned to take action, and that's incredibly empowering when you find yet another huge stumbling block on your horizon.

Your goal is to be aware of the two primary impact points of the impending expiration of the Conforming Loan Limit. Understand this: less people are going to qualify for loans. This is a circular problem; higher rates mean less qualified buyers. In turn, less qualified home buyers means that home prices are going to drop. People buy homes on the basis of their monthly cost, and higher rates require a reduction in the asking price of a home, if the mortgage payment (the monthly cost) is to remain manageable. Those are the two impact points, and they need to be front-and-center when you deal with clients.

As far as taking action, we have the means and ability to put pressure on our elected officials to extend the current loan limits until the market is on more solid footing. It's our responsibility as real estate professionals and as mortgage professionals.

Leave me a comment below and tell me…What do you think? When you're finished, be sure to stop by my Facebook page – I'd love to see you there!

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Turning “Risky Business” Into Your Successful Business

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:29:06 -0700

We all know that buying a home can seem like a real risk right now.

The recent situational assessment at Keeping Current Matters is spot-on; with a still-fragile economy and continuing high unemployment rates, just about everyone who's dipping into the housing marketplace is doing so with extreme caution.

When things in the real estate market are running smoothly, referrals practically fall out of the trees, don't they? Clients have smooth, happy transactions. They tell their friends, relatives, and coworkers that you're the best agent who ever walked the planet, and business is great.

We all remember – and avidly hope for the return of – those glorious days.

But we're in the here and now, and when the pervasive sentiment, even among real estate and mortgage professionals, is that home prices will continue to drop (especially with a fresh influx of foreclosures) and that mortgage interest rates aren't likely to jump significantly in the near future, the question remains…

“Why would anyone that doesn’t have to buy now, buy now?”

It's your job to be able to answer that question – not just for yourself, but, more importantly, for your clients. You can't do that if you're buying into the “conventional wisdom,” because that “wisdom” is a real downer right now.

So think it through, and see if you come up with an answer that really resonates with you. Because if it doesn't, you're setting yourself up to remain in a down slump well after the rest of the industry has picked up the pieces and moved onward (and upward!).

The real question is this: What is a home? A home is a place for what Dean Hartman has identified as the “four Ps – pride, peace, preference, and pleasure.” Sure, home ownership is still, and always will be, representative of a really good long-term investment.

A home does remain a good long term investment. But the emotional component is a much bigger issue. It's the part that actually delivers the visible results. Think about it; what's more likely to make you smile – or better yet, actually GLOW? The knowledge that you're sitting in a pretty good long term investment? Or the knowledge that you're going to host your first adult Thanksgiving with all of your friends and family at your own house?

Hands down, we all know that the financial benefits of buying a home are probably significantly overruled by the emotional benefits. You know that you're the consummate real estate professional. The hard part is putting yourself in the shoes of the skittish client, being able to relate to where they're coming from, and then successfully brokering the biggest deal of their lives. The only way to do that is to fully believe your own answer to the only real question: “If I didn't have to buy a house right now, why would I?”

Leave me a comment below and tell me…What do you think? And don't forget to visit my Facebook page - I'd love to see you there!

Talk to you soon.

Coach Patti

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Staying Positive in a Negative Marketplace

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:41:17 -0700

The housing market, like the American economy, is a mess. Unfortunately, it's going to get worse before it gets better. In fact, the experts say that, with the number of properties in foreclosure looming on the horizon, it will be the end of 2012 before any kind of substantive rebound occurs. It's enough to make you wonder why you ever got into the real estate business in the first place, right?

WRONG! Sure, there are times when as Realtors we can’t seem to avoid negative thoughts about the industry. We're bombarded by negative messages on television, online, in magazines and in newspapers. Those messages crowd in on us, and we just can't seem to stop thinking about all of the “what ifs” out there. But, like everything in life, there's an upside to this downturn.

Think about this. Does anyone really want to hear that the market is bad? Of course not! Thinking negatively leads to acting negatively. And what does that accomplish? Nothing. So why not try something different?

Are you a “list person”? If not, you might consider becoming one, at least for a few minutes; it's a quick way to give yourself a much-needed reality check. Your list should include your negative thoughts about your job, how those negative thoughts make you feel, and a reality check. Here's an example:

Negative thought: The housing market is in a real slump. Nothing's moving. I feel like a complete failure!

How that makes you feel: I always knew my career success was based on luck and nothing more.

Reality check: Every Realtor in the country is experiencing a downturn right now. I need to brainstorm and come up with some innovative marketing ideas.

The reality check is an anchor to help you stop the negative thinking. Once you've organized your thoughts in writing, you'll immediately notice that the negative thoughts won't have an impact on you.

Second, start thinking positive thoughts. It sounds easy and, in fact, it can be if you'll let it. It's critical that you clear the negative thoughts and focus on positive things. By doing so, you'll find yourself having more – and more positive – interactions with both clients and colleagues.

Finally, remember that it's perfectly acceptable to act a little silly sometimes. If you can laugh at yourself, you'll find others laughing with you. Throw every ounce of positive energy into growing your business. It's summer; suggest that your colleagues join you for lunch at the local park, and bring a Frisbee! Make a conscious decision to stop moping around and stop acting desperate. Choose instead to have fun and enjoy life, and you'll find your career soaring.

Remember, there's nothing you as an individual can do to change the state of the economy. You can, however, make a conscious decision to respond to – rather than react – to the current real estate environment.

Try this out for yourself right now. Then leave me a comment below and tell me…What do you think?

Talk to you soon.

About Coach Patti Kouri:

I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up!

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:02:05 -0700

Have you ever felt like you’ve fallen and you can’t get up?

One month you are clicking along in your real estate business, things
are going well and you are in the zone. The phone is ringing, referrals
are coming in, listings are selling, sales are closing…

Then all of a sudden, for whatever reason, you hit a bump in the road.

You lose your balance and fall. The phone STOPS ringing. Referrals slow
down.Your listings are not selling. And your pending transactions didn’t
close.

Falling is one thing. But when you just can’t seem to get back up and
get going, that is when it becomes a problem.

What at first seems to be just a lack of focus, becomes lack of
motivation. Then what? Lack of confidence sets in.

If you lose your confidence, fat chance of ever getting back up without
a crane! Worse yet you lose hope and begin to think, I can’t, or maybe

I should just get out of this business and do something else as this is
becoming way too hard and time consuming and just plain NO more fun!

If you can relate to this…

I’ve got an inspiring and uplifting story to share with you today.

I recently sat down with one of my clients, Tom. And we recorded a short
“case study”… about where he was at the end of last year before he started
playing The Real Estate Game™ , then what he did to pull himself up by
the bootstraps. What he did to “get up”… after he had experienced a bad
“fall.”

Even though Tom is still in his reinvention process, you’ll hear all about
what made him fall, and why he felt like he could not get up… to how his
life and business are today. Full of confidence from what he’s accomplished,
lots of hope for rising even higher in the real estate business…

And more financial security than he’s had in a long time.

Listen in to our conversation, and you’ll get a sense of “I can!” that will
enable you to pick yourself up and get going again, too.

Listen To My Conversation With Tom Here

Then come back to this post and leave your comments below.

Talk to you soon.
Coach Patti

When A Ticked-Off Client Is A Good Thing

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Sat, 28 May 2011 12:04:23 -0700

When A Ticked-Off Client Is A Good Thing

We are professionals. We focus on customer service. We go out of our way to
not offend any prospects or clients because we know that it's bad for business.
But once in a while you do something that really ticks-off a client, and you
don't even realize it until it’s too late. Oh no!

But wait…I've got a story for you about how I really ticked off a client – didn't
know it at the time – and it turned out to be the best thing that could have
happened to her!

I met Laurie when she started playing The Real Estate Game about three years
ago. Little did I know that practically the first thing I said upset her so much
that she got angry with me and almost quit before she started!

Laurie was not in a good place that first day – her business wasn't doing well
(it was the end of 2007 – remember what the real estate market was doing
then?!) and her personal and financial lives were also not in good shape.

That was three years ago. I'll tell you this much – Laurie did not quit that day.
She came back and completed The Game…and then kept coming back for 10
out of the 12 games that year!

She hung in there and got the results that made her a believer. And the
results she got from playing The Real Estate Game(r)?

Her business increased six fold in the first year!

(Since then, she's been back to play even more sessions of The Real Estate
Game!)

Want to find out how she did it?

You can hear Laurie's story first hand… in my “case study” conversation with
this remarkable agent.

Listen To Laurie’s Amazing Story Here

Why Am I Not Making More Money…When I KNOW I Can?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:12:32 -0700

Ever ask yourself, "Why am I not making more money when I know I can? I'm busy all the time, working hard…so what's wrong?"

Good for you! When you are an experienced agent who knows the real estate business, if you can still ask yourself basic questions then you are on the road to finding your way back to the kind of success you know you've earned.

The way to do that is to step back and figure out which of those "7 Deadly Mistakes Stopping You From Getting What You Want From The Real Estate Business" you are making. Let me give you a case in point, a true story.

In the last session of The Real Estate Game, one of the players was a seasoned, savvy agent. She has been in the business for a good while. She was very busy and yet not making as much money as she knew she could in this business. She was all work and no play, spending all her energy in her business. As a result, she had stopped paying attention to her own personal needs and had even added some unwanted pounds.

In our month of working together, her business goal was to acquire 5 contracts in 30 days while playing The Real Estate Game. Her personal goal was to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. She was clear on why she wanted these things, and she had a strong desire which propelled her to take the necessary action – to do something different to get a different result.

While playing the game she got loud signals that, although she was busy and savvy, she was making some small mistakes that were adding up to big losses of income. She recognized that she was making two of those 7 Deadly Mistakes, and they were the root of her disappointing performance.

Deadly Mistake #1: Spending 80% Of Your Time On Non-Money Making Activities… showed up in the fact that she was very busy and yet not actually producing more income.

And Deadly Mistake #5: Not Holding Yourself To Higher Standards… showed in the fact that she was not doing a good job of being true and consistent in pursuing the goals she set for herself.

Through playing the game, she noticed she was working with a lot of people who were zapping her time rather then helping her make money. So she cleared the clutter in her office and with people. She started working with better clients, qualifying them better up front, and getting rid of those she had that didn’t fit her standards. She refocused on talking to more people daily, increasing her prospecting contacts.

She had also become an information junkie, but decided to focus only on three new things that were going to support her in hitting her goal rather then taking in everything that came across her desk. She woke up an hour earlier each day to get in exercise to support the weight loss, and she ate only what would also support that goal.

Above all, this experienced professional was open to new ways of looking at things and thinking about them. She was very coachable and acted on trust. She kept herself focused and went to work to accomplish the important goals she had set for herself.

The result? Not only did she hit her goals but she hit them ahead of schedule!

This dedicated professional used The Real Estate Game as her GPS and listened to the feedback it gave her. She knew what to do, she just needed help in returning to basics, support, and a place to stay committed and be accountable. She got those things and used them to return to her profitable path.

So if you ever ask yourself, "Why am I not making more money?" the answer just might be in one or more of those 7 Deadly Mistakes. The good news is that you can change. As George Elliott said, “It is never too late to become what you could have been.”

Can you relate to this? Have a similar experience? Then leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

And if you haven’t already, get yourself a copy of the 7 Deadly Mistakes here… and see if The Real Estate Game can be your real estate GPS too.

To your success.

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Coach Patti the owner of Accelerated Performance Coaching Inc., and The Real Estate Game®, strives to maintain an atmosphere of community, connection, and harmony by becoming your resource base to enhance and enrich your personal and business life. Coach Patti was voted one of the ‘Top 50 Most Influential Women In Real Estate Leadership in 2008’ by the 2008 edition of the Swanepoel Trends Report. www.CoachPatti.com www.TheRealEstateGame.com.

Is Your Structure Strong?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:44:54 -0700

Is Your Structure Strong?

If you've ever watched a building being constructed, you know that they don't start with walls and a roof. The first thing that is built is a foundation, and onto that goes the basic structure of the building – the steel bars and girders that provide the strength and stability for the building to come. What do you suppose would happen if some of those bars started to bend, or were missing? Obviously, the building would no longer be strong and safe.

It's the same thing with your real estate business. When you began you laid the foundation with your education and training, and then you added the structural framework with the way you did prospecting and follow-up, phone calls and email, your website, and all the other pieces of your business that support your main purpose – listing and selling real estate!

The Flaw

Now consider what happens if one or more of those structural pieces falls away or weakens from lack of attention? Even if all the other pieces are strong – if you're busy making phone calls and answering emails to be responsive – you still can find that your business suffers because some of your infrastructure is weak or missing.

Here's an example of what I mean: I worked with a real estate coaching client who was so distracted by her short sale problems and issues that everything else in her business was falling by the wayside. Her infrastructure is weak, and because she didn’t realize it, she wasn't taking steps to fix it.

The Clues

Could this happen to you? Here are some clues that let you know you are off course:

You have too many distractions, you are always emergency driven, putting out so many fires that you can’t find the time or the energy to do the things you ought to do.
You make mistakes that you could easily have avoided.
You are too tired to even care.

The problem is that you are stuck in the scarcity mindset. When your infrastructure is weak you intrinsically know it, and yet you may be in denial about the specifics. Living and working in fear of loss or of being hurt tends to bring exactly what you fear into your life.

The Mess

Here's what it looks and feels like when you stray way off course:

You are lost. You are not on track and you have no clue how to get back on. You probably don’t even know how you got lost in the first place.
Excuses! You find yourself thinking/saying, "I can’t…Poor me…I have no time…I can’t afford it…."
You make mistakes. Big expensive mistakes.
You suffer loss of income because your transactions are falling apart.
If your transactions do close, you don’t have enough business in the pipeline to replenish those transactions. Either you don't have enough leads or not enough good leads.
Now you've lost control of yourself and your business. You start to chase business.
You start lowering your business standards to work with anyone who is breathing just to get things rolling again, creating the same mess all over again.
You aren't getting referrals any more because you are not doing a good job.
You begin to spin out of control.
You begin to blame everyone and anyone for your mess.
You come home and take out your misery on anyone and anything around.

This is all feedback that’s letting you know you are off course. Now it's time to stop screaming that it's happening, listen and pay attention, and then respond differently.

The Cleanup

Let’s turn on the GPS. Do you hear what your GPS would say to get back on course?

Thinking back to the agent whose business was suffering because she was spending too much time and energy on short sales, what could she have done? Well, if your infrastructure is weak because you don’t have the expertise or assistance to support you with these transactions, put the ego aside and find a person who is highly qualified. Refer all your short sale leads/REO leads to that person, and take a healthy referral fee when they close. It's that simple! You just zapped a big old hairy psychic vampire. And you left room for the kind of business you handle well…and profitably! You'll find yourself energized to go out and prospect daily for new business.

Here are some ideas and techniques to help you get back on course:

Create time blocks and time frames, and stick to them.
Define your boundaries. If you won't assert boundaries you’ll never be able to handle the stress of success.
Get rid of all distractions. Shut the door!
Don’t react to the phone or email. Check email and voice mail every couple of hours. Get a phone message service. Resist the temptation to believe that there are real need-you-this-instant emergencies in real estate.
Create check lists, and don't let them get stale.
Raise your standards and set expectations with your seller up front.
Outsource. Hire an assistant to help you or enroll people like the title company and others involved with the transaction to do some of the leg work. Or, get your company involved to hire a team you can outsource to. I have access to inexpensive, high quality assistants who can support you in your business… that I share with agents playing The Real Estate Game.
If the transaction is a short sale, ask the bank for exactly what they want and expect. Then communicate that to the seller, and make it the seller’s responsibility to gather the necessary information. The Realtor® is not responsible for the seller’s debt!
Continue to prospect to get different kinds of leads, not just short sales. The more you do this, the more good qualified leads you’ll have so you can say "no" to the busyness and business that will get you lost all over again.
Pray and/or meditate.

We can get so busy that we lose sight of flaws or weaknesses in our own structure. While coaching a client in this month's The Real Estate Game, we realized the part of her infrastructure that was weak was in prospecting. Prospecting is one of the bearing walls to your business, so if you don't do anything else, you must prospect. This agent wasn't prospecting because she was too busy doing all the busy work, and didn't have the time or energy to do the income building tasks. She was too busy to get business. But her job was to create business – and realizing that was the breakthrough.

Right from the beginning of this session of The Real Estate Game, she was relentless with her prospecting. And the result? She acquired several high quality leads, two of which led to 2 week sales!

A strengthened infrastructure leads to immediate business.

Is your structure strong?

To your success,

About Coach Patti Kouri:

Are You Making These Deadly Real Estate Mistakes?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:55:50 -0700

There are many ways to do things right and become highly successful in real estate, and just as many ways to go wrong. Did you know that, according to The National Association of Realtors®, just 11% of real estate agents are responsible for 90% of the sales made in the US each month? That means 89% of all the agents in the US are just getting by!

What sets these two groups apart? You can identify lots of traits and habits, but if you look at the top agents you will find that they all have learned to identify and then avoid the 7 Deadly Mistakes that most under-performing real estate agents make in their day-to-day routines.

Get Down to Basics

Agents don't start out to make these mistakes. Of course not! But even though it looks from the outside like all you really need is a real estate license, a nice suit, a good pair of shoes, a car, and the gift of gab to make it in this business, you soon learn that it's much more complex. Too many agents go into real estate without recognizing that as a Realtor® you are a business owner, and all the motivation and direction for your business have to come from you. Not all real estate brokers give you this training, and for sure you didn’t get it in real estate school.

There are some clear basics – things you must do – without which you cannot be successful:

Understand your market – where buyers and sellers come from - and your competition.
Use that knowledge to create a marketing plan to attract clients while leveraging your time and money.
Start creating a network of people you know and who know you, and then create an inexpensive way to stay in touch with your network monthly. Give them value, don’t stalk them.
Have a clear understanding of your financial abilities and learn how to budget your money. You are responsible for paying your own taxes and funding your own pension, so always set aside money from your commission check.
Plan on preventing burn out. You can be very productive and create great profits only when you have the energy and motivation.
Take professional real estate training classes and possibly work with a coach to learn how to capture/attract and hunt for business beyond the people you know. The Real Estate Game is one proven business booster.
Have high standards and strong boundaries for yourself and your clients. Resist the temptation to work with just anyone; toxic clients waste your time and energy.
Recognize that there is no such thing as "time management." You manage yourself within the 24/7 time structure.

All well and good – you need these and other basics. But you also need to be able to recognize and listen to feedback. I'm not talking about things people say to you, although that's an important kind of feedback. I mean the feedback that comes by way of what happens – or doesn't happen – in your business. For instance, suppose you find that your business is not growing as you want it to. You're working your farm area like always, but not getting the results you used to.

Listen to Your GPS

Do you recognize that as feedback? Can you hear your business GPS telling you it's time to make a turn in a new direction? Maybe you need to broaden your target market. If you've been focusing on young families, what would happen if you also target empty-nesters or single professionals?

We all have a business GPS that will help us find our way, just like the GPS in the car that takes us turn-by-turn to a destination. Those turn-by-turn instructions are feedback, and if we take a wrong turn, that feedback helps us find the right way again so we can reach our goal. Your business GPS works the same way, giving you feedback messages that come in terms of goals not met or number of listings declining. If you listen and recognize the feedback, you can use those messages to help turn you in the right direction. The hard part can be hearing the messages and recognizing them for what they are. That's where you can benefit from a collaborative coaching environment like The Real Estate Game where you get both feedback and help understanding it from a professional coach and your fellow players.

A Deadly Mistake

Hearing the feedback you receive from your business GPS, and listening to your colleagues and coach are all ways to help yourself set goals and move towards them. But even the best plans will fail if you make one of the 7 Deadly Mistakes in real estate. In this case, it's Deadly Mistake #7 – not having a clear, consistent, and driven intent of action.

Making a plan of action and simply going through the motions each day just isn’t enough. The degree and frequency of action you take must be absolute. You must be willing to commit yourself to acting on your plan with as much vigor and energy on the last day of the month as you had on the first day. Consistency always pays, and being inconsistent with your real estate marketing will always lets you down.

So when you have clarity about the actions you’re taking, and you are taking action in an unwavering, consistent manner, are you all set for huge success? Sorry, but no. How can that be? Simple: you’re missing the one essential piece of the puzzle that drives your actions in the direction of profits and success: Being clear and consistent about the intentions of your actions.

Succeeding Intentionally

As I always tell my students, 100% Intention = 100% Results! Anything less will get you less than the results you want. If you lose sight of what you want for even one day, you can find yourself off-track for reaching your goals. That’s why it’s so important to review your goals daily, weekly and monthly. And why it’s so important that you attain total clarity about what you want.

When you can accomplish this feat (which many agents miss completely), you have mentally reached the level of the elite 11% of happy, respected, financially free agents. The rest is just follow-through. Honing your clarity, being ruthlessly consistent, and always knowing why you’re doing something, and exactly what doing that activity will bring you.

Now it’s time to decide for yourself – will you go on as you have been (with the same results), or will you take action and join the world of top agents?

Here's my challenge: First, download my special report, "7 Deadly Mistakes Stopping You from Getting What You Want in the Real Estate Business (…that they didn't tell you about in real estate school!)". Read it thoroughly. Then come back to this blog post and leave a comment. Let me know what you learned – what simple change you can make today – that will help you step your career up to a new level.

About Coach Patti Kouri:
Coach Patti the owner of Accelerated Performance Coaching Inc., and The Real Estate Game®, strives to maintain an atmosphere of community, connection, and harmony by becoming your resource base to enhance and enrich your personal and business life. Coach Patti was voted one of the ‘Top 50 Most Influential Women In Real Estate Leadership in 2008’ by the 2008 edition of the Swanepoel Trends Report. www.CoachPatti.com www.TheRealEstateGame.com

Hear That? It's Feedback Talking!

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:17:31 -0700

Hear That? It's Feedback Talking

We receive all kinds of feedback every day. There's the large commission check that makes you feel on top of the world. There's the honking horn that tells you the traffic light turned green while your mind was wandering somewhere else. There's the silence from a valued friend or business partner where there used to be lively conversation. And there's the ghastly screeching noise when the speaker with the microphone gets too close to the amplifier.

These are all useful – well, maybe not the screeching sound system. Feedback is a natural result of action. Once youbegin to take action, you immediately start getting feedback about whether you’re doing the right thing. If youlisten to the feedback you get, and recognize what it's telling you, you will find a treasure trove of informationthat can help you improve any and every area of your life.

There are four varieties of feedback, and you can use them all to your advantage:

1. Solicited
2. Unsolicited
3. Negative
4. Positive

Solicited feedback is what you ask for. It's everything from the evaluation form you fill out for a speaker after a presentation, to a simple "What do you think of this idea?" You ask for feedback because you want to know if people are hearing/seeing/understanding what you intend to say and do. But asking for feedback is only the first step; you have to be willing to respond to feedback…and not to shoot the messenger if you hear something you don't like.

Unsolicited feedback comes at you all the time, often unspoken. It tells you how you can improve when an outcome is not what you wanted or hoped for. Think about the messages you receive about income, relationships, health, grades, etc. – it's all feedback.

Positive feedback is the kind we prefer, of course. Happy results, money, praise, a raise, a promotion, satisfied customers, awards, happiness, inner peace, intimacy, and pleasure – they make us feel good. Positive feedback tells us that we are on course, that we are doing the right things.

Negative feedback is the kind we'd rather not have. Lack of results, little or no money, criticism, poor evaluations, being passed over for a raise or promotion, complaints, unhappiness, inner conflict, loneliness, pain – they make us feel unhappy with ourselves and our lives.

But is there useful data in negative feedback? Of course. In fact, negative feedback can be as useful as positive feedback, because it helps us pinpoint what's going wrong. It tells us that we are off course, or headed in the wrong direction, doing the wrong thing. That is very valuable information.

In fact, it is so valuable that one of the most useful projects you can undertake is to change how you feel about negative feedback. Can you give yourself these messages about negative feedback?

• "The world is telling me where and how I can improve what I am doing."
• "Here is a place I can get better."
• "Here is where I can correct my behavior to get even closer to what I say I want – more money, more sales, a promotion, a better relationship, better grades, or more success on the athletic field."

To reach your goals more quickly you need to welcome, receive, and embrace all the feedback that comes your way. As Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson Co authors of The One Minute Manager say, "Feedback is the breakfast of champions"

How do you get feedback? Ask powerful questions.

Most people do not give feedback voluntarily. They may be uncomfortable or don’t want to hurt your feelings. So you are going to need to ask for honest feedback and make it safe for the person to give it to you.

To help you move ahead in your life, one powerful question you can ask your family or friends is:

“How do you see me limiting myself?"

You might think the answers will be hard to hear, yet they are so valuable that most people are grateful for what people are telling them. Armed with new feedback, you can then create a plan of action for replacing your limiting behaviors with more effective and productive behaviors.

Here's a question to request feedback on a relationship or service:

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the quality of our relationship (service/product) during the last week (2 weeks/month/quarter/etc)?"

And a variation of that question can get you feedback on the short term:

"On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate the meeting we just had, me as a agent, coach, parent, this class, this meal, my cooking, my golfing, our sex life, this deal, this workshop etc.?"

If the answer is not a 10, then ask:

"What would make it a 10?" This is where the truly valuable information comes from, so listen carefully!

The important thing to remember here is that you cannot improve your life, your relationships, your game, or your performance without feedback. There is nothing to be afraid of, and once you know what needs work you can do something about it.

Sure, you can choose to not ask for feedback. But what might you miss? How will you ever know if there is something you are doing – or not doing – that is making the difference between where you are and having the life you love?

Is all feedback accurate?

Of course not. You have to use your brain and consider the source. But you can and should look for patterns in the feedback you get.

If one person says you are a horse, they are crazy. If three people say you are a horse, there is a conspiracy, yet if ten people tell you you’re a horse, it is time to buy a saddle.

The truth is that if several people are telling you the same thing, there is probably some truth to it. It is at least worth your considering if they might be right, no matter how much you don't like the message. You may think you get to be right, but the question you have to ask yourself is:

• “Would I rather be happy or right?”
• "Would I rather be right or successful?"

One thing I've found is that getting and discussing feedback in a supportive environment can help you sort out the truth and get moving in the right direction. Whether you form a group of friends or work in a structured group like The Real Estate Game, get some support at this important stage of dealing with feedback.

Turn feedback to your advantage

So what do you do with the feedback? Ask yourself:

• What feedback have I been getting from people or results that you need to pay more attention to?
• Are there any patterns that stand out?

Make a list of the things you want to change, and next to each item write an action step you can take to get back on course. This can be more difficult than it sounds, and it's one area where a coach can help you think through the possibilities.

Now you can start mining the gold in your feedback, and turning it into great results for your life and your business.

Get the Message?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:22:24 -0700

Did you ever play a game where someone reads you a short paragraph, then you tell someone else what you heard, and that person tells another? After about four or five people, the story is nothing at all like the original. The message is completely garbled! And that's with everyone trying to remember the details.

Message

Now suppose the person sending you messages is yourself. Do you think that can get garbled? We all hear an inner voice – a message – about what we should or should not be doing. But we don't always pay attention because there's so much going on in our lives and businesses, and we tend to look at the most urgent problem of the moment. Sometimes we're so busy just keeping up with things that we can't hear the message for all the background noise – it's garbled. That's when we need help to hear the message, and we often have to find help from outside ourselves to do that.

Our inner guide is like a GPS – something I've talked about before – there to help us get back on track.

Problem

When that inner voice speaks, can you tell what problem the message is spotlighting? Often, it is a combination of fear, lack of knowledge, and the pressure of so much being expected of a professional real estate agent that there seems not to be enough time for everything. Some people try to speed up and do more, but find that in doing more they accomplish less. They make mistakes and have to redo paperwork or apologize to clients or flat miss important appointments and lose clients altogether. Others may feel that they don't know what to do and end up not doing much at all; the prospect of being forced out of your comfort zone without a safe landing place is certainly scary.

Catastrophe

What do I mean by catastrophe? Well that can be living in a never-caught-up mode where you are peddling fast just to keep up but never getting ahead. Do you take time to step back and look at your business, to plan for your own future in the profession, and to lay out the specific steps you will take to reach your goals? If you say, "No way! I don't have time for that!" then you are probably already living in catastrophe mode. You are scrambling as hard and fast as you can – and in the process maybe taking clients and deals that you shouldn't – but you don't feel as if you have time to do anything else.

Start by recognizing that you may not be able to do it all by yourself. In fact, it's a pretty good bet that you'll need some help. Here's a true story from my own experience.

I am completely directionally challenged. When I was selling real estate back in the days before every car and smart phone had GPS, I got lost. A lot. I wasted time, my self-esteem when down the drain, and I lost money because of it. But I saw the negative effect on my business, and I found a way to manage what I couldn't change. I got a guidebook of my area, tore out and laminated the pages I needed. Then every time I needed to find a property, I would draw the route on the laminated map with a wipe-off marker. I would drive and hand the map to my buyer, and assign them the task of navigator. I created the means to solve the problem, and recruited help from someone else to make it work.

The concept of a GPS isn't limited to a device to help you get from one address to another. Think of it in a larger way as something – a plan, a course, a coach – that can help you get from where you are to where you want to be, in business and in life.

What's It All Mean?

What does this mean to you? Well, if you are like most real estate agents, you are in the business to sell houses and make money. If you've been in it for a while, you know that the market changes and you have to change with it. If you're brand new to the profession, you've seen from the outside that the world of real estate has changed in recent years. Either way, what used to work doesn't necessarily work any more. The routes that went through before are now blocked by construction, or changed to interstates with limited access. If you're rolling down that highway alone, you won't necessarily figure out where to turn to reach your destination. But a business GPS – a program that will help you navigate the changing profession – will help get you where you're going. Not only will it direct you to the best and most efficient route, but it will also tell you when you've made a wrong turn and then give you turn-by-turn directions back toward your destination. That's what a good business GPS – a coach – can do for you.

So you can see what I mean by a business GPS. It's getting and using feedback from outside yourself in a way that helps you go from where you are to where you want to be. It gives you turn-by-turn directions, it displays your route, and when you make a wrong turn it helps you get back on track. That's what you'll find in the cooperative and collaborative setting of The Real Estate Game^®, where you learn to set your goals and move toward them steadily and successfully.

Let me wrap this up with one of my favorite stories –

A US naval ship observed a flashing light off the coast of Newfoundland, and had this radio conversation with the Canadians:

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

They say the story is not true, but I still love it! The Americans had a sort of GPS – they certainly had radar – but they were so sure of their rightness that they ignored the messages they were receiving, and were headed straight for a catastrophe.

The signals are there whether we pay attention or not. Get the message?

Is Your Swing Smooth? (Or Are You Hooking and Slicing Your Way to Real Estate Hell)

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:56:05 -0800

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know I'm a golfer – I love the game, and work at improving every time I play.

One thing I've learned is that there's a rhythm to it, just like dancing (which I also love!). And when your swing is smooth, you have a better chance of hitting the ball cleanly, and having it go where you want it to.

But if you start your swing and then hesitate – well, you might hook it, or slice it, or even top the ball and watch it dribble just a few feet from where you started.

When you're dancing, if you start a turn and then hesitate, you're liable to end up tripping over your own feet… and “sitting” not very gracefully on the floor.

Not a pretty picture, and certainly NOT what you planned!

Just as hesitation in golf and dancing can cost you strokes or cause you embarrassment… hesitation in your business activities can cost you clients, sales, and income.

Here are some suggestions to help you get “back in the swing.”

The Flaw:

Hesitation!

The Clues:

Do these describe you?

Hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock of life.
Stuck in your comfort zone, just getting by in business and life.
Putting off, procrastinating, delaying, doing what you know you ought to do, telling yourself
- "I'll do it later."
- "I'll do it when I get the money."
- "I'll do it when I get the time."
- "I don’t know how."
- "It probably doesn’t work anyway."

Sometimes when we are looking for a person to blame for our problems, we just need to go to the closest mirror and we'll find 'em. Ouch!

The Mess:

You may relate to this story.

I’m currently coaching someone who is not on track. She’s working really hard but clinging to doing what she's always done. This agent knows that she needs to change how she prospects to ultimately achieve the goals she so desperately wants for herself and her family. So together we created a plan.

She said she would start and didn't. She keeps saying she will start "today," then never does, always with excuses why she doesn't.

What it really comes down to is that she is not comfortable doing the new actions that her plan requires. She's comfortable with what she knows, and needs practice to master the new way of doing things. But she is so afraid of looking like a fool that she won't even start, she won't even try

I told her, "You miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t take advantage of! You always have at least a 50/50 shot at success when you start. You can either practice and get better, and take the risk of losing, or lose because you don’t give yourself a chance to win!"

After much kicking a screaming, she decided to take me up on my gentle challenge.

To her surprise, this agent was much better at her presentations then she gave herself credit for, and started converting listings and sales almost immediately! I still have to push her out the door from time to time, but she is at a much different level now, having tasted success.

The Cleanup:

There's no substitute for taking action. We know nothing happens until we do something, and that reaching our goals won't come from sitting on the sidelines.

The first time you swing a golf club, take to the dance floor, or make a listing presentation, you are stepping outside of your comfort zone. But you are moving in the direction of something you want, and that desire will carry you a long way.

But you must take that first step!

Get your hands off your snooze button and get your butt into the game.
Work with a plan and be accountable, preferably to someone like a coach, who can help keep you motivated and moving toward your goal.
Create an environment in which you and your business can not just survive, but really thrive. Give yourself the tools and support you need.
Be aware of those psychic vampires that eat away at your confidence. They are the voices that tell you that you don't know enough, you're not good enough, and it probably won't work anyway. Nonsense! Don't let them talk you out of the success that you plan for, work for, and earn. Look to your plan, your support system, and your own strength… knowing that your have everything you need for the success you desire. It takes practice, and commitment, but it is within your ability and reach.
You have opportunities to make choices daily. Each choice takes you either toward your goal, or away from it. If you see a choice taking you in the wrong direction, choose again!
Remember that your old ways have to die off. As you allow them to die off and replace them with new more successful ways, you WILL get uncomfortable! It’s a part of life. Change is not easy, but it is necessary to get where you're going.
You've often heard that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You are your own chain of skills and desires and goals. Some of your links are stronger than others. Pushing beyond your comfort zone can help you strengthen those links that will carry you to the goals you desire. The new and the unknown are scary, but conquering each step takes you where you want to go.

Caution is fear's little sister; feel the fear and do it anyway! Don't look back to where you have been - keep your eyes on where you are going, and enjoy the success you build for yourself.

I'd love to hear about how you have overcome hesitation and procrastination, so before you go please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

And if you’re ready to squash your fear, procrastination and hesitation for good, you’re in luck! Because the next Live session of my personalized 20 person coaching program for agents… The Real Estate Game®… is kicking off next Monday, February 28^th.

(Deadline to register for this session is Saturday, February 26^th at Midnight PT.)

The Real Estate Game® is guaranteed to eliminate fear, procrastination, hesitation, and a host of other “bad habits” and constraints holding you back from the success, income and lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

Find out more about The Real Estate Game® at this web page.

And if you’re ready to work on that swing, so you can make a “hole in one” the next time you step up to the Real Estate fairway, I’ve got a spot for you.

Take a Lesson from the Caterpillar

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:53:23 -0800

Some of the simplest and most profound lessons are right in front of us if we just stop long enough to see and learn. Caterpillars don't move very fast, and they can only chew up so many leaves a day. But they are persistent, they keep at it, and in time they can make their way through bushels of leaves.

No, I'm not telling you to go out and eat leaves! But I am saying that caterpillars can help you get past one of the most destructive flaws we all face at one point or another.

The Flaw:

Over expecting what you can do in a day, and under expecting what you can do in a decade.

The Clues:

How many of these are you dealing with?

Frustration!!!
You give up
- before you reach your goal,
- before you see the full result, or
- when you see a little result but not everything you were aiming for.
You cheat on yourself
You fall into denial and make excuses, blaming your lack of success on everything and everyone but yourself.

The Mess:

When you over expect your day's success, and discount how much you can accomplish over time, you find that you:

Never hit your goal – you quit too soon
Have poor self-esteem and low self-confidence – you always see yourself in someone else’s shadow, and you get to be right when you complain, “I can’t.”
You are afraid to take risks and so you don't – (you can't win if you are afraid to fail).
Never really make it big – so you learn to play small.
Find that depression sets in, dragging you down even more.

The Clean up:

You know the definition of insanity: "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." You must do something different to get a different result! That doesn't mean you should throw in the towel just because you don't like the outcome you are getting. It simply means that you need to step back, take a look at what's going on, and change how you respond. And once you make those changes, you need to be ready and willing to hang in there until you get the result you want, even if it’s painful or uncomfortable or difficult. Because that is when you can make a breakthrough.

Here are a couple of real life examples:

Example 1: I have a client who has struggled with a weight issue for some time. She watched what she eats and works out, but somehow she wasn’t losing. She'd lose a little, then cheat and put it back on. She ended up hiring a fitness trainer who challenged and pushed her out of her comfort zone, way beyond what she could ever imagine. What she realized was that she didn’t die and she actually could do the extreme workout. Once she saw that she could, all the walls of resistance came down. For the first time in years she has dropped almost 30 lbs and in record time.

She gave herself the gift of ‘knowing she could’. Once she realized she could, it changed her belief and the weight melted off. This rubbed off in her business as well. Her self esteem and confidence is unshakable, and her business has also broken loose and is on fire.

Example 2: I coached a guy who had big goals for his business yet was very scattered and quit before he ever saw much success. He hired me to help and together we made the mechanical plan: how many people to talk to, who, when, where. He then plugged the plan into his schedule, and day after day, no matter how uncomfortable he got, he stayed with that prospecting schedule

After three months he still had no success he was so frustrated he wanted to throw in the towel and give up, but I wouldn’t let him. The rule is: You can’t quit before you get your win. Literally within a matter of days of his melt down, he got his first listing, and from that point on all the leads that had been acquired during that 90 day period started to convert. He had his best year ever.

Every story about caterpillars has to have a moral, and here it is:

Just when the caterpillar was getting ready to give up, it turned into a butterfly!

Now What?

If you are truly ready to make those changes and spread your wings, here are some thoughts to keep in mind as you work through your own metamorphosis:

If someone, somewhere in the world has achieved this goal, so can you.
Take risks. You can’t win if you are afraid to fail.
If you fall, and you will, get up, shake it off. Say to yourself, "So what, now what?"
Visualize yourself as the winner, and focus on the benefit when you win…realize the cost of not winning.(which could be worse)
Get someone to be accountable to.
Instead of thinking "what else can go wrong," change the thought to "what will be my next accomplishment?"
If you don’t like the outcome, keep changing it up until you get what you want.
Have faith in yourself. Realize that being worried is like running on a treadmill. It keeps you busy but doesn't get you anywhere.

You may try and fail but don't ever fail to try! Get up and go get 'em!

Now, before you go…share your thoughts by posting a comment below.

Are You Missing Something?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:46:51 -0800

Are You Missing Something?

I'm not talking about your keys…we all lose track of them from time to time. And I'm not talking about the latest episode of "American Idol" that you forgot to TIVO. I'm talking about an important indicator of the health of your business.

The Flaw:

Missed sales and or listings…OUCH!

The Clues:

You have lots of listing appointments or buyer showings, but not nearly enough listings or sales. These days you are hearing a lot of:

"I want to think it over."

"I want to talk to other real estate agents."

"I’m just not sure. I need to think about it."

The Mess:

Watching your selling success rate go down can be either a wake-up call or a quick downward spiral. If you are not aware, you can find yourself frustrated and even getting depressed about your future. Are you spending money and time on listings that are not selling? Do you have lots of showing appointments with lots of buyers but no sales? Time to clean up your act.

The Clean Up:

The QSC Method…or, How to sell anything from pens to penthouses

If I gave you a pen and asked you to sell it, how would you go about it? The answer to this reveals what kind of sales person you are.

So, what is the most effective way to sell a pen? When coaching a sales person I love using this technique. I pull out a pen, hand it to them, and tell them to sell it to me.

80% of sales reps start the same way – they start pitching. “This pen is brand new, never used. It comes in different ink colors. It comes in two different points to compliment your writing style. It even comes with a highlighter so it is easy for you to emphasize what's written. Some pens even have erasable ink and come with an eraser; others have ink that is permanent and best used on products you don’t want washed off."

Some sales people can (and do!) talk about it for five minutes or more before they ask a question or ask for an order. As the sales person rambles on, I begin to look disinterested, yawn, roll my eyes etc. Amazingly, this just makes them talk even more! What’s wrong with this picture?

Now let’s look at how the top 20% go about selling. As soon as I give a top sales person the pen, they pause, and then they begin asking questions:

“So how often do you use a pen?”
“ How many do you go through in a month? What do you use them for?"
“ At what other locations does your company use pens, and how often do they order them?”
“ What quantity do you usually order?”
“ Besides yourself, who’s involved in the buying decision?”

Quite a difference, huh? I’ll tell you right now, I have listened to hundreds of sales people and they can easily be separated into these two groups: Those who pitch, pitch, pitch, and those who take the time to understand their prospect’s buying motives, and properly qualify to understand the entire selling process.

Now let’s see which category you fit in. When you speak with a prospect for the first time, how much of your script is focused on describing and pitching your product or service as opposed to questioning and uncovering buying motives?

If yours is like most scripts I review, then it’s filled with descriptions of what you do and how your product or service helps them. Most scripts attack the prospect with a barrage of “value statements” that turn people off and makes them want to get you off the phone as quickly as possible.

Want a better way? Then take a tip from some of the best “pen sales people” and change your script and opening to focus more on questioning – discovering whether you’re dealing with a qualified buyer – and what it might take to actually sell them. Without knowing this, you’ll just end up with a lot of frustration and a lot of unsold pens at the end of the month.

Q – 80% of your presentation ought to be on asking questions to find motivation, challenge, or problem.
S – 15% gives the prospect the solution and why you are the best to represent them.
C - 5% is the close

If your prospect is qualified to buy or sell and you didn’t get the close, you probably didn’t spend enough time asking questions. Go back to square one and restart!

Before you go… leave a comment below, and let me know your thoughts on what makes a great sales professional. What works best for you?

Do You Have a Business GPS?

Coach Patti Kouri (Accelerated Performance Coaching) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:29:54 -0800

Do You Have a Business GPS?

How many times has this happened to you…

You have an appointment at a place you've been before, and you're pretty sure you know how to
get there. Of course you don't want to be late, so you set off a little early, leaving plenty of time
to make your appointment.

But then you get to the area and it's not exactly how you remember. You take a wrong turn and
realize right away that you need to go in the opposite direction, but can't turn around right away.

You finally arrive…late and frazzled.

These days, most of us have a GPS in our cars or even in our phones. That friendly voice tells us
exactly how to get where we're going, turn for turn, and even helps us out if we turn the wrong
way. We get where we're going, on time, and ready for the appointment. What a difference!

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a GPS for your business?

Well, I do, and so do a lot of other real estate professionals. And just like a GPS for traveling, this
GPS helps to keep you going in the right direction and moving toward your goals. I think of it as a
personal, interactive support system with accountability built in, delivered with friendly voices and
personalized feedback.

You can call it a GPS or a support group – I call it The Real Estate Game.

One of the hardest parts of making a change in your life - whether it's losing weight, or exercising,
or getting more listings, or closing more sales – is being consistent on a daily basis.

Over the years of coaching many real estate pros, I've seen how consistency carried on long enough
to see results – doing the right thing on a daily basis - makes an enormous difference in the level
and rate of success.

And consistency alone in not enough: If you diet two days a week but splurge the other five days,
you're being consistent, but you're not doing what you need to do on a daily basis. This is where
having a support group or “business GPS” can be the difference between just plugging along and
soaring.

Our lives are already so busy that adding one more thing can seem like a sure path to overload. But
if adding that one thing – that one daily structuring – actually helps you declutter your life, identify
and focus on your goals, and support you in being consistent and accountable, well, why wouldn't
you? The Real Estate Game is that one thing, that GPS, that can help you make 2011 your best year
yet.

No more wrong turns

You can take the right turn now – sign up for the next Real Estate Game starting on January 24.
Along with 19 other like-minded real estate professionals, and me as your guide, we can support
each other to success.