Real Estate Prospecting - Turning Cheese into Soul - 11/30/09 07:49 AM
It's that time of year where thoughts turn to holidays and business plans. What to do, what to do in the new year to make it better than this last one?!
It's awfully tempting to seek comfort in traditional prospecting methods that have worked (?) for decades. Even if it sounds ghastly to you to knock on doors, call up perfect strangers or pester your friends for referrals; even if your bank account can't really handle an expensive mailing or advertising campaign, you figure... "heck, if it's good enough for so-and-so, it's good enough for me!"
Trouble is, and you know … (21 comments)
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A Ridiculously Easy Way to Charm Your Sphere of Influence Today - 11/25/09 08:28 AM
Today you'll probably gets lots of Happy Thanksgiving ecards in your inbox.
Respond to each and every one. Won't take more than a few seconds. Just hit that REPLY button, say something nice, e.g., "Thanks for thinking of me - have a wonderful holiday!" or, take it a step further and initiate a get-together after the holiday, e.g. "Wow- I was just thinking about you - let's go have coffee!"
Feel free to send me YOUR Thanksgiving ecard and watch me practice what I preach!
jennifer@sellwithsoul.com
p.s. if you're on my mailing list, watch your email over the … (17 comments)
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"I'm Your Friend, So I'll be Honest with you...!" - 11/23/09 05:12 AM
Couldn't sleep last night. Got up, turned on the TV, flipped thru channels until I landed on HGTV. When I can't sleep, HGTV tends to be my go-to channel since they usually have SOMETHING on besides "paid programming."
Anyway, I got my first taste of The Property Shop with real estate goddess Tatiana. I'd heard that she wasn't exactly the warmest, fuzziest real estate broker on the planet... and, indeed, I doubt she's often accused of being a little ray of sunshine.
This particular show's overall theme was the difficulty of working with friends and family. Okay, fine. You have my … (116 comments)
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Greatness Doesn't Inspire Me Nearly as Much as Mediocrity Does - 11/20/09 07:54 AM
We read about Great leaders who have overcome tremendous obstacles to achieve... well... Great things. We hear stories of tippy-top producers who found themselves at some point living in their cars... but today make gazillions of dollars. Closer to (my) home, there are stories like Jack Canfield's where he had to peddle his idea for the Chicken Soup for the Soul book to dozens of publishers before one bit... and it became one of the best-selling books of all time.
Stories like these are supposed to be inspiring. But can I be brutally honest for a moment? I find them … (25 comments)
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A Real Estate Career is NOT for the Liability-Phobic** - 11/11/09 06:04 AM
Been watching a conversation elsewhere on the web about whether or not to put buyers in your car... as opposed to driving separately. While some of the comments are ridiculously snotty ("They can drive themselves!" or "Let THEM use their own gas!"), the most sincere objection seems to be that putting another warm body in your car creates liability for you.
We hear similar objections all the time to doing things that serve our clients. DON'T attend inspections! DON'T recommend mortgage brokers! Don't give any advice that might be construed as legal! Don't put buyers in your car! Blah blah blah.
Basically, in … (140 comments)
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Pricing Historic Homes in Urban Neighborhoods, Step Four - Analyzing the SOLDs - Dealing with the Outliers - 11/10/09 08:06 AM
Thanks to those who are sticking thru this series with me! While I think that the process of properly pricing homes is fascinating stuff, I know it's not nearly as sexy as other topics! (Although SELLING your properly priced listing is very sexy, indeed.)
In the previous installments...
IntroductionStep One - Before you price, prepare!Step Two - Preview, preview, previewStep Three - Play detective
...we talked about how to effectively preview the competition to figure out where your potential listing falls into the scheme of things. So, what about the SOLDs?
The problem with using SOLDs in your market analysis is, unless you've … (4 comments)
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Broadband Cards, Bandwidth Limitations, Back-Up Programs... and Video Blogging - 11/08/09 06:52 AM
Yeah, I know. Scintillating stuff!
But I'm wondering...
I live out in the country and the only high speed internet I can get is through a broadband card (well, I could have satellite, but satellite sucks). For $60/month, Verizon gives me 5GB of bandwidth to use to my heart's content. They SWEAR that's more than a normal human being could ever possibly use.
Uh, not quite. My first month I blew through 24GB of bandwidth, which I later discovered was due to my Carbonite back-ups always running. Y'know how much going almost 20k over your bandwidth allowance will cost you? $900. … (13 comments)
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Playing Detective... Pricing Historic Homes in Urban Neighborhoods - Step 3 - 11/07/09 06:04 AM
Here's the third, well, kinda the fourth (if you count the introductory teaser) installment in my series "Pricing Historic Homes in Urban Neighborhoods." You can read the rest of the series here:
IntroductionStep One - Before you price, prepare!Step Two - Preview, preview, preview
I've had a few comments come in to the tune of "Wow - that's a lot of work - is it really necessary to spend so much time pricing a home?" Well, I say - YES! It is necessary! After all, our product is property, and our sellers pay us darn good money to know our product and … (18 comments)
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The Facebook Fan Page - Do You Join Because There's Value There... or Just To Be Polite? - 11/05/09 05:00 PM
In my continuing effort to better understand the professional value of a presence on Facebook, I am now going to ask for help on the concept of the Facebook Fan Page.
Let me disclose upfront that I have Fan Page and I am grateful for every one of the 305 310 313 fans who have, well, become fans. I even post there most days, and get a huge kick when someone comments on my postings.
But I must admit, I really don't see the point. As far as I can tell, conversations generated on Fan Pages tend to die out pretty quickly since the conversationalists aren't notified … (39 comments)
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Pricing Historic Homes in Urban Market - Step Two - Preview, Preview, Preview! - 11/04/09 07:43 AM
Just another installment in the series: Pricing Historic Homes in Urban Markets...
IntroductionStep One
In the last installment, I recommended that you always, always, always drive by your subject property before doing anything else. If you can get inside, so much the better...
So after you have a good visual of your subject property, it's time to go check out the competition - otherwise known as "previewing." (If your market frowns on previewing, and many do, please share with the audience how on earth you properly price homes!).
When I interview to list a property, I often find myself bonding with the … (23 comments)
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It's That Time of Year Again... Doo-Dad Time! - 11/03/09 06:09 AM
Ahhhhhhh... flickering jack-o-lanterns... the changing o'the leaves... the first snowfall... chestnuts roasting on an open fire... and time to order your end-of-year Doo-Dads!
Every year 'round this time, real estate agents open their checkbooks (or, better said, key in their credit card numbers) and spend millions of dollars on calendars and other Doo-Dads designed to be distributed to anyone and everyone who crosses their paths. The goal? Why, to ensure that every human being on the planet knows who they are, what they do and how to reach them, of course!
A worthy goal, indeed.
Even I, staunch opponent of … (35 comments)
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