Take a Journey into the life of a Young - Motivated Agent

I am a problem solver?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:32:13 -0600

I am not sure if I am right or wrong with this thought. Nonetheless I am quite curious as to what other people may think...

Growing up I looked at everything as something that could be solved -- one task at a time.

Let me add something to this as well: I love Legos. My brother and I would build entire cities and then tear them down when we were young.

Anyway, I have faced a problem this past couple of days, weeks, months, or years... not quite sure how long it has been going on.

So you may be asking "what in the world are you talking about?"

As I was watching "HOUSE" tonight and Dr. House looks at everything on a white board as a problem. So how do we solve this problem he asks?

And here is where the connection comes in ---

I work best when I look at everything as a problem - a task. Why not look at my real estate business as a box of legos or a person in a hospital needing help?

My goal is to help my clients sell there homes. I don't feel like I have lived up to my standards. So far I am just another agent, an inexperienced agent. I have tons of good ideas that are good to me. Yet, I haven't spent enough time on anyone of them to make them work.

Not quite sure what I am trying to say -- but that I realized tonight what I needed to do to get back on track!

STARTING WITH MY SPHERE!

Longevity is KEY

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:17:36 -0600

Over the past few weeks I have been busy with a new plan: working my sphere of influence.

I have dedicated the time I was spending at the computer to spending it with potential clients and people who may want to buy a home.

My goal is to find a happy medium of time on the internet and time with my sphere.

An important mentor of mine recently told me that the key to success and staying in business is longevity. Now, obviously this is not the only key. However, in a market like ours today survivability is extremely important. I think I am almost at a point where I should be able to make it through the winter without any major worries.

Anyway, to all the newbies out there, if you need help or have questions please let me know!

Thanks,

Nick

You CANT do it and YOU WONT :( the bet is on!

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:06:08 -0500

So I was talking to my dad this past weekend about how my business is growing and I feel like I am almost there. (side note: my dad is a builder in Washington state and step-mom is a REALTOR).

Anyway, he kept telling me I need to get a full-time job and realize that it will take me 5-7 years to get on my feet and that I can't do this full time right now.

I told him that I know I can do this: I mentioned how we have one agent who did $2 million in sales in one month this year. He told me there is absolutely NO WAY that I will be able to do that next year.

I was a little offended, I mean after graduating school in 3 years, already working towards my broker's license, teaching, and still have had 3 closings in 6 months, I felt like he had little faith.

So, I bet him that I would be able to do $2 million in sales (that is 10 $200,000 sales in the next 12 months)

Motivation?? Absolutely, oh the shear joy in proving people wrong is the best feeling in the world. I am not in this business for the money, I am here because I love it. But, if I need to set a dollar mark to show someone what I capable of then so be it!

Have a great week!

Progress Report for September: Marketing, Organization, Website, Etc.

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:10:07 -0500

Over the past month I have started to see some of the same readers commenting on my blogs: I want to start out by saying:

THANK YOU!

I have been a little down and out lately due to a cold, appendicitis, and lack of financial resources. Thus, I thought I'd give my progress report to make sure I'm on the right track to getting back in the swing of things:

My website is up and running. I have received 200+ hits in the past week: www.NickvRealEstate.com
My marketing packet is almost completed (I have about 5 pages left to go out of 25+ pages)
I have compiled a sphere of influence (a little late and not sure what to do with it)
I have created a log book to track my progress and activities throughout the day.
My listings all have maximum exposure. (however, none seem to be selling)
My desk is more organized.
I got in touch with an appraiser as well as other service people to create a team.
I signed up for point2homes neighborhoods:
Not sure what else to do... it seems like when things are going they are GOING. and when they are not; things are DEAD.

Anyway, here is where I am at. In terms of overall performance I rate the month of September as a "C-" I feel that I did well on long term planning and investing in my business. However, with survival one of my top priorities, I just didn't perform as well as I thought I would.

Marketing Subdivisions: YES or NO

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:57:09 -0500

I see a lot of companies out there have at least one or two development projects that they market. We are one of the few "franchise" companies in the area that are not marketing any subdivisions or development projects.

Do you have an experience with the results or effectiveness behind taking on one of these projects?

Would you recommend them?

If so, any tips or advice?

More or Less on my Homepage?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:13:16 -0500

Hey Everyone,

I am trying to make my website be a bigger part of my marketing strategy. I have been teaching students that when it comes to your homepage LESS IS MORE. After looking at some of the top producers websites, I am beginning to think maybe I have been miss informing them. What do you think is LESS MORE?

www.NickvRealEstate.com

Property Management: YES or NO?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:08:16 -0500

I am currently working on offering property management as one of my services. However, while I have carved out a niche for online marketing for real estate, as well as been able to find many real estate resources, I am relatively unfamiliar with Property Management.

So, I come to you!

First and foremost: do you recommend property management?

Second: where can I find tips for running a successful company?

Third: if you have experience, is there any advice you could give me?

Finally, any tips for my property management section of my website? NickvRealEstate.com

Once again, thank you everyone for your valued input.

Time + Focus = Success??

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:07:14 -0500

Is it true that IF I have time and can remain focus, THEN success will follow?

This week I plan to come out of the gate full speed ahead! I plan to do everything that I can to stay focused. I will be patient and take time to complete my projects to the fullest.

Finally, I know that success is something that comes over night.

I am really excited for the week to be here. I have a feeling that things are going to start working out for me. My marketing packet is almost complete, my website is up and running! NickvRealEstate.com.

Finally, I have received a large amount of advice in response to my posting about my office and my future. I really appreciate everyone who has been here to help me out. Don't worry, I have many many more questions to come. In the mean time it is your inspiration that I look forward to each day!

Thanks Everyone!

Changing Times: How do I transform an "old time" office?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:09:57 -0500

I want to help my office. I want to help everyone in the office and at least bring us up to the STANDARD technology level.

My broker does not use a computer
Our secretary is using windows2000
We just now got a fax/scanner/copier
Our online marketing costs of.... ME

Is anyone else experiencing this???? What are you doing to solve these problems.... there are many more. I just feel like I am all alone on the move to Standardize our company. Its tough when I have to do it all by myself.

I NEED SOME ADVICE... PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

33 Days and I'm On My Way!!

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:52:40 -0500

Ride the Internet Wave!!

I have been on ActiveRain for 33 Days and I am now the 2nd Featured Agent for my County and City.

33 Days and 15,000 points later and I can honestly say I have already seen results!

33 Days and 350+ Comments later; I want to Thank You for supporting me.

33 Days and Years to Come I can truly say:

I am riding the Internet Wave and Loving it!!!

My Neighborhoods

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:38:25 -0500

Yesterday I posted a blog about Point2Agent.com's free resources and the benefits of the site:

-- Point 2 Homes Blog

I have purchased a few neighborhoods that I want to focus on:

Towns:

Middleton

Star

Cascade

McCall

Garden City

Neighborhoods:

Kurtz Addition

Yale Park

Fall River Estates

Royal Meadows

Carriage Hill

If you happen to know of anyone who is buying or selling in these areas please let me know. In time my blogs will begin to focus solely on my marketing strategies and neighborhood information.

Also, please check out my website: www.nickvrealestate.com and let me know what you think!

Free Point2 Homes Website

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:48:39 -0500

Have any of you had success with being a neighborhood expert on point2homes?

I recently took a really large risk and spent some money to become a neighborhood expert. I figured this would help me ten fold.

I will be forced to take the time to set up each neighborhood information page.
I will be back on track to learning the market in these areas.
Sellers will see me through gained exposure of being in front of them.
In turn more hits on my websites.
Each neighborhood costs $20.00
This lasts for 3 month period which is a good time base for getting exposure.
I invite everyone to check this out.... think about it:

A free website + an $8.00 domain + $20.00 neighborhood + time = Success???

Check out my site and tell me this is not an AMAZING DEAL!!

www.nickvrealestate.com

Neighborhood Specialist or City Specialist???

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:41:48 -0500

I have been doing a substantial amount of research on lead generation. Time and time again I come across posts and website indicating that the best way to generate leads is to become a specialist.

Where do I start though? Should I begin with an area or neighborhood? Or do I stand out as my towns specialist and not limit myself to one area?

I feel that maybe I have been spreading myself out too much with discussing many of the towns around mine (however I feel that I need to know how the market is in those areas).

So what do you think? a BROAD FOCUS or A NARROW FOCUS in terms of neighborhood specialist or city specialist?

I think I can, I think I can.... Chooo Chooo

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:06:10 -0500

:) Honestly, I really wanted to start off my Tuesday on a positive note. These past couple weeks have been a roller coaster ride and I never know how my day will begin. So, instead of letting whatever happens happens, I decided to say "this is it, I will make today I great day!"

I hope you too have a great day and succeed at whatever goals you have set forth for yourself!!

Nick Vanassche
Windermere Real Estate
www.nickvrealestate.com

How do you get a featured post?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:23:57 -0500

What are people doing to get a featured post?

I see so many people on here getting featured posts, and once upon a time I too had one. However, I had absolutely no idea how or why my post was featured. Are there certain criteria?

Any tips or ideas on how this happens would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Nick

Nick Vanassche
Windermere Real Estate
www.nickvrealestate.com

The Free Resource List

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:28:18 -0500

No seriously: this blog was created specifically for naming available free resources from the internet.

What free resources have you found most useful?

As new ones are added I will add them to this list. I guess we could call this a:

Give a free resource / take a free resource.

I will start.

Craigslist.org -- List your properties for sale.
Point2Agent.com -- Free personal Website
Vflyer.com -- Build flyers, widgets, and more!
Animationonline.com/freebanners.html -- Free Banners
Myspace.com -- Online Networking
ActiveRain.com -- um... I'm pretty sure you should know this one already!
backpage.com - list properties for sale
cowboy.com (formerly farmranchhome.com) - used mainly for properties that have acreage, a farm/ranch
facebook.com - another online networking site
yuwie.com - networking site
classifiedads.com - classified ads
usfreeads.com
www.kijiji.com
postlets.com - use this site to syndicate your ads and create html layouts.
backpage.com - advertise your listings
realbird.com - advertise listings/ search syndication

Sell your home

Homegain, HouseValues, or Reply Real Estate for Leads?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:24:04 -0500

Which lead company do you prefer or have you had the best results with? Are there others?

Homegain.com
HouseValues.com
ReplyRealEstate.com

I have heard good and bad things about all of them. Maybe looking to purchase leads is not the best way to go. Anyway, let me know what you think or if you know of another online lead generator!

Nick Vanassche
Windermere Real Estate
www.nickvrealestate.com

Is it bad to accept a 40% referral fee?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:12:24 -0500

Recently I underwent an appendectomy. Since then I have had some problems with my car and my school bills are coming active since it has now been 6 months since I graduated.

So, as I was doing some research on getting leads I asked myself:

Would it be wrong of me to accept 35-45% referral fee's if the leads were hot?

I have the time and could definitely use any extra cash.

So, what do you think?

If you know of anyone looking to move or invest in Idaho please let me know.

Thanks,

Nick Vanassche
Windermere Real Estate
www.nickvrealestate.com

Open House Success

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:54:29 -0500

I want to start out by saying that I have never been a huge fan of open houses... however, I have been at this home for three hours today and have had three groups come by. Of those three groups:

I may have picked up a listing
I gave out some advice to a couple selling their home and a free resource which may come back to benefit me!
And the third party complimented me on how well everything was set-up (cookies, marketing materials, etc)

So what does this mean? It only takes one time that someone happens to stop by and it is well worth it. I already feel that today has been a success and I still have two hours left!!

Nick Vanassche
Windermere Real Estate
http://www.nickvrealestate.com

My New Website

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:25:09 -0500

I am currently working on building a new website. I have spent quite a large amount of time working on it however I have a few questions:

How many meta tags should I use?
Is there anything I could do differently?
Do I have too many things going on?
Should the search engine description be short or very descriptive of my page.
Is it better to use registration for searching or free MLS searching?

Please check my site out for feedback: Anything at all is appreciated!

http://www.nickvrealestate.com

Do you need some inspiration?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:19:08 -0500

Times are definitely tough right now so I though I’d send out a little inspirational message to everyone who is going through a tough time.

KEEP WORKING HARD! YOU CAN DO IT!

I was thinking about my career today and realized that it is going to take hard work and committment to make it happen and be successful.

To EVERYONE out there who was been struggling in these times keep your head up; your not alone.

How do I find buyers?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:35:43 -0500

So, I was thinking today: "there must be a website or something that has a whole list of investors and buyers looking for real estate."

Is it wrong to think that there must be a resource available that has buyers looking for homes? Or is this a "dream."

I am not trying to cut corners, just curious as to whether or not there are tools available to help locate buyers via the web.

10,000 down ... 112,000 to go!! How I plan to rise to the top.

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:45:39 -0500

Wow, I can't believe I wasn't on this site earlier!

In one month I have learned more information, and new ideas from this site than all the other sites I have been on combined.

I see the top agents on this site doing a lot of local topics and I am having a hard time finding a way to not copyright information from my area onto the site. In order to rise up I will have to focus more in this area.

In terms of Marketing Ideas, as I compile my marketing packet I will continue to share my ideas.

Finally, I am a young agent with many questions. I seemed to have found all the help I could need right here on ActiveRain!

Thanks everyone for your support.

I need help with time management!!

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:13:22 -0500

Time Management Issues....

As a recent college graduate and a full time real estate agent I seem to be having a consistent problem:

I can't figure out how to consistently manage my time. I go through streaks of being extremely efficient; often at the sacrifice of time I would spend with friends and family.

Then I will hit a speed bump (often mentally) and have absolutely terrible time management.

So as a new agent or as an experienced one:

What do you do to effective manage your time?

How does your work schedule look like?

How do you continue to work hard without sacrifice to friends and family?

What is the best way to set up a new office?

Boise Idaho Real Estate - Nick Vanassche (Century 21 1st Place Realty) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:31:20 -0500

Hopefully in a few weeks I will be at a point where I can start up a new office with my broker.

I have a few ideas on how I want to set it up. I am thinking a satellite office will be the best way to go. However I am not sure exactly how to do this or if this is even the best way to go.

So I come to my activerain friends for some good advice!

What is the best way to set up a new office?