I was reading the post below regarding a copycat website by Tammy Anderson-Owens this morning and it triggered something in me that has been a hot button of mine for a while now and I have been preaching to my agents about it constantly with little or no change.

"A very interesting thing has happened and I shared it with my office today thinking they would get a kick out of it.  We were talking about blogging and A/R and were going over the benefits of blogging driving web traffic up.  We were looking at my homepage and I started telling them the story of another local agent that has copied my website verbage word for word." 

I can't believe that a realtor would think they would not get caught doing something like that. They must be trying to get into the search engines like the original probably is. What a hard worker!!!!!!! NOT!!!!!

In this day and age, Realtors need to be doing the basics everyday better than anyone else. It seems as though most of them got into the business over the past 6-8 years when the market was exploding and none of them were ever taught how to prospect or run a business. Now that easy street is gone, they are heading back to corporate America.  

I have an agent that has a team and he did at least 10 deals per month for the better part of 3 years and he has not kept in touch with one of his past clients. Recently one of them contacted him and they sold and bought a new home from him. It yielded almost $50,000.00 in Gross Commission and he STILL WON'T start mailing or calling his past clients. How much more motivation do you need to realize that there is a gold mine there. I already offered to put them all in my database and pay him a referral, and he won't even allow that!?!?!?!?!? The following is a list of minimums I think agents should have in order to maintain a strong business.

Develop a business plan(I bet no more than 5-10% of agents have a business plan)
Start timeblocking(If you don't do this, try it!!!! It WILL change your business. I promise!!!!!)
Keep in touch with your past clients(They already know you, like you and trust you)
Prospect, Prospect, Prospect(You need this if you don't have any of the above)
Get a website
Start Blogging(This will enable you to meet others in the industry and network)
Network(Chamber, Toastmasters, CRS, BNI)
Attend your company's International Convention(Learn about new tools and systems.)
Attend NAR, WCR, CRB(You need to stay ahead of your competition by getting tools and info first.) 

Just my thoughts,