A quick recap from part one of my "Secrets from a six figure agent" blog.

I am only in my second year of Real Estate Sales and this year I made $200,000. In a down market I have added five members to my team and I have plans to quadruple my income for next year. Sounds too good to be true? Sounds like a cheesy TV commercial? Nope, this is the real deal.

What special training did I have before this? For 10 years I was a crew member on a large USAF military jet that flew around the world delivering supplies which basically means I had no specialized training to become a successful Realtor. The military gave me strength and discipline but the rest I picked up off the internet and from reading books. (right now I'm reading "All Real Estate is Local" by David Lereah which I highly recommend)

In the first article I mentiioned some of my obvious traits which made me successful including:

Answering the phone and E-mail in a timely manner, being available 24/7, being polite, having a good website, a 1800 phone # and the fact that you should not do what everyone else does unless you want results that are similar to everyone else. 

Now that I've re-capped the first article I'll add more of what made me stand out from the rest of the pack.

NICHE MARKETING:
I'm almost afraid to post this here because I'm sure I'll be copied but Niche marketing is why I'm successful.  I don't have a big website where I profess to be an expert in every field and display every home available in my area. What I do have are several small niche websites where I only display certain types of homes. Take a look at my Rehoboth Beach Condo site. Notice the lack of single family homes, land, farms and everything else other than condos and townhomes? In a world where consumers know what they want they very rarely type "YOUR  TOWN REAL ESTATE" into google. What they do type is "your town horse farm" or "your town lake house" 
You may say, But Mike, isn't expensive to create and host multiple websites?
It certainly is but sometime to make money you have to spend money. This year I put 1/4 of my profits directly back into my websites. For those of you who are bad at math that's approximately $50,000

KEEP YOU SITES UNIQUE:
I  look at websites from other industries and see what ideas I can borrow from them. It's very rare to have an 100% original idea but it is quite easy to take another idea and modify it. I have features on my newest websites that I have not seen on any Realtors site anywhere in the country but if you take a look at bmw.com, amazon.com or cnn.com you may see some features that are very similar. If you start to think like I do there are millions of great ideas out there just waiting to be modified for real estate sales.

So there you have it. Niche sites, unique features and hard work are my secret.  

Now before you run off and spend $50,000 on 5 new websites remember a website without promotion is nothing other than an expensive place holder on the web. It may be the greatest thing since sliced bread but if no one knows it's there you've just thrown away a good deal of money. 

In my next article I'll share some of my web promotion techniques. Quite honestly you can find most of them on the web yourself by searching google for "website promotion" but be warned there is a lot of fluff and BS out there. I'll try to separate some of the things that do not work from those that do.

Want me to build you a website(s)? I don't have the time right now but ask me again in six months. I've hired two in house web developers who were originally just working on my sites but I think my new system is so good I may just market it to other Realtors (limited to just one Realtor/brokerage per major metro area). Are you a broker in the Caribbean Islands or a SKi town out west? I'd love to partner up with you as I love to ski and sail;)

 

Till Next Time

Michael Brown REALTOR
Rehoboth Beach Delaware
mike@bwbeach.com

"The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it."
Ray Kroc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 Comments on Secrets from a six figure agent PART II

NOV
17
2007
 Michael-Great post.  In your recap of your post #1 you hit on something huge.  Answer your phone in a timely manner.  I showed property yesterday and I can not tell you how frustrating it is, to not get calls back from agents.  Especially when they do not put the combo code in remarks or have new listing that has been on the MLS for several days but in the remarks it says no lock box.  So you call the out of the area agent and he says Oh well I'm coming down there this weekend.  In my opinion, in this market with so much available for buyers to choose from, this is a huge disservice to your client.  My client actually decided to pass on looking at two homes that were in her price range and as a result those agents lost a potential buyer.  Sorry for my rant this morning.  I haven't had my coffee yet :)
10:00am • #1

Hello Michael,

This is great and congratulations. 

You've showned us that doing what everyone else is doing is not the way to go.  There are people who have been in the business 20 years or more and they don't have a problem telling you so over and over again, who is not getting the same results as you are. 

 
10:01am • #2
Michael, Please don't take this the wrong way.  If you made $200,000 last year and are adding 5 more agents this year, how much of this $200,000 was yours to keep?  In other words, how much of this went to pay your staff and buyer agents?
10:05am • #3
127,538 Points Localism Sponsor
Hey Michael, very good advice. one of the things i wrestle with is Niche--which one. With your approach I could have 2-3 niches--separate web sites--in these times there is a tendecy to want to grab at everything and be all things to all men--big mistake.
10:09am • #4

Sheri,

The $200,000 was what I kept after paying the other team members but I did spend about $50K on the websites and promotion. This means I only kept about $150K. Not filthy rich (yet) but significantly more than what the Air force was paying me and probably a good deal more than what your average Realtor is making.  I realize there are some who make SUBSTANTIALLY more and I'm all ears for any advice they would like to throw my way.

 Even if I had only kept/made $30,000 of the income the systems have been put in place to make money for years and years into future. What many people do not realize about websites is that once you have paid for them they can pay you back for a very long time.
10:12am • #5

John,

I recommend going after whichever market you are comfortable with or a market that you would like to become  comfortable with. If you like selling new construction make a "new construction" site, if you like selling lake homes make a "My town Lake Homes site"

If there is high competition for a certain niche you may want to go after something with less competition. 

Although not glamorous my first niche site was "vacation mobile homes"  talk about a niche without much competition!!! I was ranked #1 almost over night and the phones never quit ringing. in 2006 we sold over 100 of these units priced from $20K - $200K and we (My wife and I)had a $120K year. I put some of that $ into the condo site and low and behold our income went to $200K for 2007. I'm unleashing a hand full of other sites for 2008 which I'm expecting will have similar results.

10:15am • #6
NOV
19
2007
2 Featured Posts

Michael - EXCELLENT article.  It is so funny (as in HA HA) to me that most everyone does what most everyone else is doing and then they complain about getting the same results, well, no kidding!  Kudo's to you for breaking out of the pack and getting the results you are.

Jackie
10:36am • #7


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Michael Brown

Rehoboth Beach, DE

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Mann & Sons Inc. Rehoboth Beach

Address: 30224 White Hall Drive, Milton, DE, 19968

Office Phone: (302) 227-6398 x 477

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