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  <title>Melinda's Blog</title>
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  <id>http://activerain.com/blogs/me</id>
  <updated>2008-04-27T11:45:55Z</updated>
  <author>
    <name>Melinda Sanchez (Liberty One Real Estate)</name>
  </author>
  <entry>
    <title>What are your expectations??</title>
    <link href="http://activerain.com/blogsview/486443/What-are-your-expectations" rel="alternate"/>
    <id>http://activerain.com/blogsview/486443/What-are-your-expectations</id>
    <updated>2008-04-27T11:45:55Z</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Melinda Sanchez (Liberty One Real Estate)</name>
    </author>
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&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;u&gt;What are your expectations?&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;As a seller, what do you expect from your Realtor?&amp;nbsp; As a buyer, what do you expect from your Realtor?&amp;nbsp; As a Realtor, what do you expect from your clients, the buyers &amp;amp; sellers?&amp;nbsp; Everyone in a Real Estate transaction has expectations.&amp;nbsp; There is no problem with that.&amp;nbsp; The problems begin when the expectations are not clearly expressed or made known.&amp;nbsp; In order to help make a transaction run smoother, it is a good idea to be clear on what each party expects from the other.&amp;nbsp; One of the first things I discuss with a potential seller is what they expect from me.&amp;nbsp; I let them know UP FRONT that my goal is not to &amp;quot;meet&amp;quot; their expectations, but to &amp;quot;exceed&amp;quot; their expectations.&amp;nbsp; In order for me to do that, I need to know what those expectations are.&amp;nbsp; I will also let them know what &amp;quot;my&amp;quot; expectations of them are.&amp;nbsp; One of three things will occur.&amp;nbsp; One, they may decide after discussing expectations,&amp;nbsp; that I am not the best Realtor for them or two, &amp;quot; I&amp;quot; &amp;nbsp;may decide that I am not the best Realtor for them, and I would rather part now as friends, than enemies later, or three, we are a great match and I will represent them.&amp;nbsp; As a seller it is very important that you let the Realtor &amp;quot;KNOW&amp;quot; what you expect.&amp;nbsp; For instance, some sellers will think in their minds, &amp;quot;I expect open houses to be done everyday&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect my home to be on the cover of Homes Illustrated every month&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect you to call me everyday with a report of what&amp;#39;s happening&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect you to call me back within 20 minutes when I leave a message&amp;quot;. That is fine but please let your Realtor know what you expect IN THE BEGINNING so the Realtor can decide if they can meet your expectations.&amp;nbsp; As a Realtor, please let your sellers &amp;amp; buyers know UP FRONT what you expect from them. For instance you may say to a seller, &amp;quot; If I list your home, I expect the home to be in show ready condition at all times&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect the utilities to remain on during the entire listing period&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect you to allow the home to be shown WITHOUT YOU BEING THERE&amp;quot;. Buyers, you need to let your Realtors know UP FRONT what you expect from them. For instance you may be thinking, &amp;quot;I want to see a least 50 homes before I decided which one I want to make an offer on&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I want you to call me everyday with a report of what is happening on my file&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect you to pay for some of the&amp;nbsp; repairs out of your pocket if the sellers decide not to fix everything&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I want to be able to call you any time day or night whether it is a weekend, holiday etc...&amp;quot;. If these are your expectations, let your Realtor know UP FRONT.&amp;nbsp; Realtors, let your buyers know what you expect.&amp;nbsp; For instance, I may let my buyers know that &amp;quot;I expect you to work exclusively with me&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect you to work with the lender (if a loan is needed) and submit all documents that are required in a timely manner&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;I expect you to follow the timelines of the Purchase contract&amp;quot;.&amp;nbsp; These are just a few samples of expectations that should be expressed, preferably in writing, at the BEGINNING of the transaction.&amp;nbsp; Let&amp;#39;s work together to make this a win-win situation.&amp;nbsp; So, WHAT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;ARE&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt; YOUR EXPECTATIONS?????&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>Why Use a Coach?</title>
    <link href="http://activerain.com/blogsview/84565/Why-Use-a-Coach" rel="alternate"/>
    <id>http://activerain.com/blogsview/84565/Why-Use-a-Coach</id>
    <updated>2007-04-26T14:15:50Z</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Melinda Sanchez (Liberty One Real Estate)</name>
    </author>
    <content type="html">
&lt;p&gt;I am a Productivity Coach.&amp;nbsp; I hear this questions over and over again. &amp;nbsp;&amp;quot;Why should I use a Coach?&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; This question has been asked by new and&amp;nbsp;seasoned agents.&amp;nbsp;Well, there are several reasons why EVERYONE should use a coach.&amp;nbsp; If you are&amp;nbsp;a&amp;nbsp;new&amp;nbsp;agent, you will learn right away, that you NEED a Coach.&amp;nbsp;A Coach is someone who should mentor and guide you through&amp;nbsp;your first transactions.&amp;nbsp; You will have MANY, MANY questions when you first start your new career.&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;What forms are required?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;How do I fill them out?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;What can I say and not say?&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp;&amp;quot;How do&amp;nbsp;I get&amp;nbsp;my first leads?&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp;&amp;quot;How do I handle the leads&amp;nbsp;I do get?&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; These are not the only questions I&amp;nbsp;answer on a day- to- day basis.&amp;nbsp;There are many, many&amp;nbsp;more. &amp;nbsp;I&amp;nbsp;help&amp;nbsp;agents get their &amp;quot;business&amp;quot; up and&amp;nbsp;running.&amp;nbsp; I&amp;nbsp;may assist them with their slogan, business cards, marketing ideas, goals, time management etc.......... There are so many things agents must consider when starting this business.&amp;nbsp; For a&amp;nbsp;seasoned agent, there are other questions.&amp;nbsp;&amp;quot;How do I increase my sales?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;When &amp;amp; how do I hire my first assistant?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;How do I reach the next level of my career?&amp;quot; These are all great questions; questions that your coach should be answering for you and with you.&amp;nbsp; Look at the professional athletes.&amp;nbsp; Do they stop working with a coach after they &amp;quot;know&amp;quot; what they are doing? Of course not.&amp;nbsp; As a matter of fact, they may increase their coaching sessions to not only keep their skills fine tuned, but to grow into a better athlete.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I always say to agents I meet; A&amp;nbsp;GOOD&amp;nbsp;AGENT IS A TRAINED AGENT!!! There is no better training than working one-on-one with a coach.&amp;nbsp; I would recommend it to you all!&lt;/p&gt;    </content>
  </entry>
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