How many of you have this designation? ePRO on your business cards and / or your website?
How many of have laughed at the test after you took it?
Okay. Okay. Put your hands down.
I took the test a few years ago, too when I was working for Bohnen Realty.
I stopped in the middle of the text and asked my broker Michael Bohnen if I really *had* to get my ePro designation. He said it was up to me. So I dumped it and never looked back.
You know how to use a computer. Big deal. Like that's gonna impress your next time home buyer. I hardly think so.
The scary part of this is -- there does exist a need for some basic PC and Macintosh computer training for a lot of you out there.
I'm no longer shocked to learn just how many REALTORS don't know much about the computer. I'm not talking about how to break your PC tower apart and put it back together again. I'm not talking about how to write jQuery, Javascript and HTML 5.0 web pages either.
The sad truth is, it's 2010 and there's a lot of agents and a few brokers out there that somehow managed to survive this long and barely know how to move the mouse on a PC.
As a "hired gun," and a real estate success coach, I started keeping track of agents and brokers "PC basics" by keeping a running total of the agents and brokers I run into. The list below is far from complete. It's just the top 16 items from my keeping track of this stuff since January 2009.
- Don't know how to left click/right click, use the wheel in the center of your mouse (72)
- Don't know what Operating System they have installed. Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 (54)
- Search for websites by typing everything into Google instead of entering www.Some-Website.com into the browser's address bar. (135)
- Can't install FireFox, Google Chrome or some alternative browser (209)
- Attachments on emails. Don't know to get them or attach and send them (32)
- Are still using AOL to access the Net then use Explorer on top of AOL (17)
- Don't know to create a Facebook or Twitter account (58)
- Can't create a Twitter background theme (211)
- Still using #1 Expert, Homes.com, Advanced Access Website. (193)
- Has no clue what a Stealth Website is. (64)
- Can't get leads into Top Producer, have never used it but are still paying the monthly charges for it every month (41)
- Can't enter their username or password into IDX iHomeFinder to get leads, despite it's a link on every IDX page they have on their website (21)
- Still run Real Estate Ads like it was 2002 (39)
- Can't create, manage their Google AdWords ads for getting any kind of page one visibility (46)
- Never heard of Word Press blogs (34) and have ZERO interest in wanting to learn how to use one.
The 3 Fix Steps for the Technology Challenged: Education. Education & More Education.
The 3 most important things to keep you current and at the top of the real estate food chain. Remember this. There's hundreds of bodies that are littering the road to success. These are bodies of your colleagues all around you.
And the ones ahead of you are the ones you need to watch and catch up to. These are the agents and brokers who are doing the right things. They have a Stealth website. They have an SEO friendly website with a Word Press blog.
If you have time to get your 30CE's to keep your license, you got time to do some reading and self-improvement.
Below are the Bartman's 5 Must Have Books from Amazon for 2010. All of them real page turners and all of them put together givew you the Go Juice you need to get your website and your real estate turbo charged for getting the leads you crave.
Get them, and don't bother wasting your time on the ePro designation. It's stupid and not worth one hour of your time. These books however, will deliver a ton more high octane Leads Per Gallon than anything NAR is white washing right now.
I don't drink the NAR Kool Aid anymore. And neither should you.
Don't Make Me Think. by Steve Krug, 2nd Edition
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Website usability, website testing. Shows you how to identify the weak points in your site, and how to hire a small group of friends and family and customers to TEST drive their website. If they tell your menus suck, your website is me-too and they had no luck in being able to find a home or register and get automated email alerts about homes they want to get from your website. Then LISTEN TO THEM. TEST your website with a group of people and then make the changes and watch your leads take you from Zero to Hero.
Making Ideas Happen, by Scott Belsky
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You get the Cliff Notes how to make incredible things happen. Ideas: They're out there but where to look and how do you learn to think outside the box? This book delivers a lot more than just inspiration. This book shows you to overcome the obstacles to thinking clearly. Turn your brain into an idea generating powerhouse.
Fascinate, by Sally Hogshead
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This one looks at how you get inspired by some people and turned off by others. Why do people become fascinated with some websites and people and turned off by others? This book shows you how people get turned on and turned off. We're living in the Trust economy today with the ability for people to research you and expose every one of your mistakes and make a mountain out of a molehill. This book will show you how to polish up the details of your site, your appearance which when done right... ultimately only improves your sales.
REWORK, by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
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This book is really different. Business Plans suck. Business planning can hurt you. What? How? The very concept of writing any business plan for your real estate business right now is futile, and worthless. Why? Let's assume you're a broker. You are leaving Coldwell Banker to spin up your own full service, one stop shop. Brokerage. Title. Mortgage. Relocation. All under one roof. Not a bad idea. But what happens to the "whoops factor?" Google changes direction. Yahoo gets bought out by Rupert Murdoch. The Buyer's Market fades out on May 19th and the next day, it's Seller Market and 2002 all over again. Wow. You can never plan for these things which is why many companies today are dumping the nostalgic business plans and are taking business challenges and opportunities by the horns. Smart companies fine tune and reinvent themselves every 90 days. This book will make you completely rethink your team, your business direction and how to take a few sparks of an idea and fan them into a wild fire of opportunity.
The Comedy Thesarus, by Judy Brown
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Erma Bombeck was right after all. Humor really *is* the BEST Medicine. Add a few jokes to any email as you warm up to your prospects, customers and especially your Broker the same afternoon you are going to hit them up for a Commission Advance. Humor sells. Humor works and too many of you take your business way too seriously.
"We just bought a house. My husband calls it a "fixer upper." I call it a piece of crap." -- Maryellen Hooper
"My house is made of balsa wood. I lift the house over my shoulders and tell the kids in the neighborhood to stay out of my yard, or I'll throw the house at them." -- Stephen Wright
"Never hire a cleaning lady named Dusty." -- David Carrado
"I finally sold my house last week. I got a decent price for it but it made my landlord mad as Hell." -- Gary Shandling
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