Can She Do it? Take a Vacation from Active Rain, that is...My wrist hurts. My arm is numb from the shoulder down. My chiropractor tells me it's from typing too much. That sounds reasonable. I type A LOT. Coincidently, I'm going on a little vacation tomorrow - heading back to Alabama to smell my just-getting-ready-to-bloom gardenias, do a little river fishing and play some darts in a smoky southern bar. I'm also going to try to stay off Active Rain for the duration. Give my wrist (and brain) a much-needed break. Can I do it? I have no idea. I literally cannot remember the last full day I stayed away from the computer - but I know it's been YEARS. I'll keep you posted. Wait, NO I WON'T!!! If all goes as planned, you won't hear from me until the middle of next week. By that time, my brain should be exploding with analogies, rants and lectures. I can't wait. Ta-ta! Jennifer A Bidding War on My New Listing! Hey, This Stuff WORKS!Last week, I released the newest Sell with Soul product - I affectionately call it The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent - it's a package of tools created by moi to help real estate agents GET good, sellable listings and then turn those FOR SALE signs into paychecks. Whaddya' know, I followed my own advice and put my new listing under contract in four days, with multiple offers. Actually, I can't take all the credit; my sellers were phenomenal and did everything I asked them to do, including pricing it to sell. If you haven't already signed up for mine & Borino's free workshop this Saturday morning, please do! It's called From Listed to SOLD and it's a 90 minute teleseminar discussion between the two of us about SELLING those listings you work so hard to get. At the end of the workshop, we'll be giving away some cool stuff, including my new Outrageously Effective Listing Agent package (retail price $199) and Borino's Expired Plus program (retail price $197). You can register for the workshop here, or email me for more information at Jennifer@sellwithsoul.com But yeah, this stuff does work. Almost feels like the Good Old Days!
JUST LISTED! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
From LISTED to SOLD - Free Show on May 3rd!On Saturday morning, May 3rd, shy little me will co-host a teleconference workshop/seminar with my friend, Borino, founder of Expired Plus. What on earth am I, the queen of SOI* doing hanging out with a guy who does expired listings? Good question - glad you asked! While I never pursued expired listings myself, I know that many of you have, or would like to, if you could only find a way to do it "soulfully." None of this pushy, patronizing, disrespectful nonsense for you, right? Well, of course, I feel the same way, so when I happened upon Borino's Expired Plus program last year, I was impressed. It's aggressive, yet respectful. If I ever decide to go after expireds, his program will certainly work for me. But anyway, I digress. The May 3rd workshop is not about pursuing expired listings, or about pursuing your SOI for that matter. Nope, what we're going to talk about is what to do with those listings AFTER you get them, whether they're expireds, FSBO's or your Aunt Lulu's. Having your FOR SALE sign in the yard is fun, but not nearly as much fun as turning that sign into a paycheck. The workshop will be held over the phone (or as a webcast, your choice). It's free of charge, except for long distance charges. Yeah, we might try to sell you something at the end, but we're also giving away some pretty great stuff, so bear with us. Trust me, this will not be a 90 minute sales pitch (egads)! Topics for the workshop include:
-- and a TON more.
HOW TO REGISTER FOR THE WORKSHOP Easy as pie. Click here. Register. Be there on May 3rd at: 8:30 Pacific Questions? Just Ask!
JUST LISTED! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
*SOI = Sphere of Influence = The People Who Know You Reading Between the Lines of My "Fan Mail"I must be honest - getting fan mail from loyal readers is my very favorite thing about being a writer. I wake up Often in these notes, the writer tells me his or her story and often asks for advice. I'm happy to give it, when I can, and those who have written me can attest that I do almost always respond. It's fun for me and heck, I have books to sell, so the more happy customers I have, the more books I'll probably sell. I hesitate to continue because what I'm about to say may make some of my readers a little uncomfortable. Reading between the lines of the notes I receive, I'm pretty sure I can tell who is going to make it and who isn't. Now, I obviously don't have any cold hard data to support this claim, but I'm confident I'm right. There is a HUGE difference in attitude between agents who have the mojo to survive and those who don't. Between the agents who truly understand (or at least truly WANT to understand) the process of exchanging real estate and those who just want to know how best to get clients FAST. Between agents who have the confidence in themselves they'll need to project a can-do attitude... and those who are just desperate for a sale. I wish I could provide some examples so you could see the difference, but obviously that would be uncool. My point is that if it's this obvious to me that someone is struggling -- simply thru their written word, I imagine it must be even more obvious to those in their day-to-day world - those who (whom?) the agent is depending upon for his or her professional survival. Mojo is really important. Confidence is really important. Knowledge is really important. And you wanna know how you get some Mojo? It's not that hard... Knowledge... leads to Confidence...leads to Mojo. Keep those cards and letters coming (yeah, right, I probably just scared most of you away!)
JUST LISTED! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
And Finally, the fourth reason to hold an Open House (even if you don't want to):If you haven't been following this series, the following blog may seem kind silly, just FYI!
And Reason Number Four... You might sell the house. Yeah, I know, fat chance, right? But it really shouldn't be discounted as a valid reason to hold the darn thing open for a few hours one Sunday. And, imagine, you might even double-end the sale if you get lucky enough to attract an unrepresented buyer who falls in love with your fabulous listing!
Tomorrow (or maybe Monday)... Thoughts for Rookies about holding open houses for others
JUST OUT TODAY! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
Yet Another Reason to Hold that Open House #3 (of 4):Earlier this week, I started this little series on Why You Should Do at least One Open House (on your own listings) even if you think they're a "waste of time." Why? Because... It will make your seller happy You'll gather feedback from the public And... today's topic: You'll Become More Familiar with Your Listing How much do you really know about your listing? Chances are that you took a little tour with your seller on the day of your listing presentation and probably another one when you took your photos and measured the rooms. But you've probably never spent much quality time in the home by yourself, just absorbing the features or even the challenges the property offers. When I do an open house, I tend to check everything out - admittedly, often out of boredom. Yeah, I open doors & drawers, wander in and out of bathrooms, flip switches to see what they do. And in the process, I discover things I hadn't noticed before, especially if I've always been accompanied by my seller on previous visits. Okay, so this probably isn't a gi-normous deal, but I do find that by spending some quality time in my listing without the distraction of rapport-building or just chattering with my seller, I'm a better listing agent. One more reason to open house... tomorrow!
JUST LISTED! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
Yes! Do That Open House! Reason #2Yesterday, I promised to chat some more about why an agent should hold his or her listings open, at least once. Something I didn't mention was that I'm only talking about YOUR own listings - not listings of other agents, although that's fine to do if you like (and I will talk more about this in a few days). No, I think you owe it to your seller to do it, yourself even, regardless of whether or not you think the open house will result in a sale. Why You Should Do Open Houses Reason #2 (of 4): You can gather feedback from the public to share with your seller. I did my first open house in three years this past Sunday. It was a fairly active open house - we had maybe 20 visitors in a three hour period. It was a beautiful spring day, people seemed cheerful and chatty and the feedback was flowing. At the end of the day, I had a page and a half of scribbled down comments for my seller. Most of them were positive; a few mildly critical, but how long would it have taken me to get that much feedback from showing agents? Uh, like forever? While my seller certainly appreciated the mass-feedback, as the listing agent, it is also incredibly helpful to me to see firsthand what features really jumped out at the visitors. Every single one of them commented on the "great light and all the windows," and almost everyone complimented the oversize kitchen. Do you think this might help me in my marketing efforts? I think spending three hours getting a concentrated dose of feedback from the general public is a great use of my time and a valuable service for my seller. Tomorrow - Reason #3 to Go Ahead and Hold that House Open!
JUST LISTED! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
No! Open Houses are NOT a Waste of Time!Do you think Open Houses are a waste of time? The verdict is divided on this - some agents swear by them, others refuse to even consider doing them. Well, I'm going to do my best to encourage you to do an Open House for each and every one of your listings - at least once. And for the record - I HATE doing open houses and I'm not very good at So... here we go: Why You Should Do Open Houses Reason #1 (of 4): It makes your seller happy. Don't discount the power of a happy seller. And don't let the Old Fogies tell you it's possible to convince a seller that Open Houses are a waste of time. If you don't do at least one Open House for your seller, he WILL doubt your commitment to the sale of his home. Oh, sure, he may agree with you to your face that Open Houses aren't necessary and that they only benefit the agent, blah blah blah, but when his house hasn't sold and he's getting nervous, he WILL remember that YOU haven't done an Open House yet. If I had a house on the market and my agent hadn't done an open house, he better not come asking me for a price reduction unless/until he does! Why? Because I'm pretty sure I'd feel he hadn't yet done HIS part to sell the house. Reasonable? Maybe, maybe not, but if I, as an experienced real estate agent feel this way, you better believe your sellers do, too. Did you catch that? I think it would take some nerve to ask your seller to reduce his price if YOU haven't done the most visible, most expected form of real estate marketing there is - the Open House. If your seller feels you're shirking Open House duty, he might not be nearly as open to your suggestions as to what HE needs to do to help get the house sold. A happy seller is a cooperative seller. And an uncooperative seller is a nightmare. You pick. Tomorrow - Reason #2 to Hold Your Listings Open
JUST LISTED! The Outrageously Effective Listing Agent Package - check it out!
"Farming" from a Hard-Core SOI'er's PerspectiveGeographic farming is a popular prospecting method where real estate agents choose a particular neighborhood in which to, shall we say, make their presence known. Typical farming activities include the mailing of postcards, the walking of streets and the painting of bus benches. The goal is to become a household name in the farm area, so that when anyone thinks of selling real estate, they race to their refrigerator, find the farmer's phone number from his fancy refrigerator magnet, and make the call. Fair enough. For years, I've advised new agents not to farm unless they're weighted down with way too much money and need to get rid of it efficiently. In my opinion, the only way farming is going to be effective is if you already HAVE a presence in the neighborhood - that is - you have For Sale signs around with your name on them! But that's just my opinion; I could be wrong. And anyway, that's not the point of this blog, which I'll get to now. In conjunction with my jump back into full time real estate sales, I've decided to FARM! But not with postcards, door hangers or advertising... No, I'm going to have way more fun (and spend way less money). I specialize in Central Denver, specifically an area known as Northwest Denver. It's a trendy little spot near Downtown with parks and lakes and coffee shops and yoga studios. Lots of young singles & families, most with dogs. That's where I live and, being a bit lazy, would really like to do all my business close to home! The good news for me is that I have a lot of friends who live here, too. So I'm planning to make my presence known in my favored ‘hood. I'll get my facials, my manicures, my haircuts and my massages here. I'll find a few nearby restaurants and make them my Cheers. My lawn service, my plumber and my dog-groomer will be my neighbors. If I advertise, it will be only in the local rags. If I'm invited to a social event in the ‘hood, I'll be sure to go. I'll show up at the First Friday Art Walk on Tennyson Street and the Highland Square Street Fair in June. Will I show up with my salesman hat and I Love Referrals button? Uh, no. I'll show up as a local, a neighbor, as a generally nice gal... who happens to sell real estate for a living.
Back and forth, back and forth - Just Make the Date Already!Email can be veddy, veddy efficient. Yet... email can also be veddy, veddy ineffient. I've been trying to get together with a old friend for two weeks now. We have a very close, loving email relationship - but we've rarely talked on the phone ‘cause neither of us seems to be much good at it. We're both introverts and are much more comfy chatting thru our fingertips. Problem is... we're trying to be oh-so-considerate with each other's time and schedule that we can't seem to get anything down on the calendar! You know what I mean... Me: "So, are you busy next week? Wanna go get a drink? I'm free Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday." My friend: "I'd love to see you - let me check my calendar and get back to you." (a few days go by) My friend: " Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Tuesday or Friday work for me - how about you?" Me: "Oops - my Tuesday and Friday are booked. How's your schedule the next week? I'm wide open." My friend (two days later): "Me, too, just pick a day." Me: "How about Thursday?" My friend: "Thursday is good, what time?" Me: "How about 5:30? Or later - around 6:30?" My friend: "Either way. Where would you like to meet?" Me: "Doesn't matter - want me to come your direction?" My friend: "I don't mind driving your way - whatever works for you." Me: "Let's meet in your neighborhood - I haven't been there in a while. What's a good place to get a drink?" Blah blah blah blah blah... this can go on forever, can't it? So... what I'm learning (yeah, I'm a little slow) is to offer up a date, time and place REAL early in the "conversation." Instead of all the back and forth, how ‘bout this? Me: "Hey, are you busy next week? Wanna get a drink Tuesday or Wednesday?" My friend: "Sounds great! Where should we meet?" Me: "How about Finnigan's on Tuesday around 5:30?" DONE.
p.s. this also works REALLY well with clients. Instead of trying to figure out what's convenient for both, just make a proposal. Chances are, it will work for your client and voila! You'll be on the calendar! |
Jennifer Allan, Author of Sell with Soul Denver, CO More about me… Sell with Soul Cell Phone: (303) 947-1335 Email Me ;) Links;) Tags (Tag Cloud);) Archives
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every morning to several emails from people who have read my blog or my books and just want to say thanks. To all of you who write ... I hope you know how much your notes touch my heart.
them. 
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