A Coach!
If Tiger Woods, the best golfer in the world can remove his EGO and hire a coach, why not join him? I hired my 
real estate trainer and coach 16 years ago. After selling real estate in Houston, Katy, and Sugar Land Texas for 15+ years and selling 50-75 homes a year, thank God I found MFO. Now I sell over 200 homes a year, work less, and give better service to my clients who hire me. I was recently at a real estate Top Producer seminar in CA and they ask me to be a table speaker on what I had learned from coaching. I wrote 31/2 pages of my "Top Ten" ideas. I believe in sharing and will gladly help any Realtor who wants to grow, and learn how to give better service, and in turn make more money in less time. Of course I would not be doing my job if I did not remind you to send me all your Houston, Katy and Sugar Land Texas referrals...you and your clients will be glad you did. I hope you get at least one idea that can help you, your business and your clients. Thanks Liz Carter, owner/broker of Liz Carter & Team Realty, Katy Texas. "You become what you think about"!
What I've learned from being coached by Mike Ferry
"Top Ten"
Liz Carter, Owner/Broker
Liz Carter & Team Realty serving Katy, Sugar Land and the greater Houston Texas areas...I appreciate your referrals
Toll free 1-800-783-4041, Personal e-mail LCarter21@aol.com, web site http://www.lizcarter.com/
Pictured L to R Sabrina & Mike Ferry, with Liz Carter
Mike has been my Real Estate Coach since 1992
- Get back to the basics
- After doing it "my way" since 1976, I joined MFO in 1994, and changed everything I had been doing as a "top agent". In 1993 I closed 57 deals, I joined MFO and in 1994 closed 61 deals...my highest unit year was in 2001 when I closed 243 deals, and made over one million dollars. The #1 reason was he taught me to go back to work, and start prospecting instead of waiting around for one of my past clients to call me.
- I also went back to what got me business when I was new to real estate; calling fsbo's & expired listings.
- I also started calling around just listed/just sold homes.
This was not easy, I was the top agent in the greater Houston area, but I saw what was possible at my first superstar retreat. I was also on the verge of burnout, working 24/7, and heard agents who were working 3-5 days a week and doing 300-500 deals and I wanted that kind of life, so I had to change what I had been doing and get back to the basics, PROSPECTING for business instead of waiting for it to come to me.
- Having a schedule
- My first schedule had me prospecting every day for three hours from 8:30 AM till 11:30 AM, and I did that for 11 years, every day. You must believe that the best time to prospect is the first thing
in the morning before your day takes over. - You must be organized and have who you are going to prospect ready the night before, so you do not waste time pretending you are prospecting while getting ready to prospect. Pick up the phone the same time every morning and make your first call, and end your prospecting when you say you are going to. Don't make excuses for not doing it, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING than cannot wait until 11:30 AM, after all that is when most agents get to work!
- I called my expired listings first, and then my top producer calls (just closed clients, just closed OBC customers, one-month script, one-year script, happy birthday calls. Next, I would attempt to contact random 20-25 past clients, or around just listed/just sold, and back then, I would call fsbo's 1-2 times a week.
Remember if it is not in your schedule, it does not exist, no interruptions, no checking e-mails, cell phone off, and hopefully you have a separate area or room that all it is used for is prospecting. You should have nothing in there but your phone, headset, visuals of your goals, positive affirmations, and a list of who you are calling that day.
- Tracking my #S & source of business
- Before MFO I had no ideal of what my GCC, # of united closed or what my average sales price was. The only thing that I had (which was tracked by my co. at the time was my total dollar volume sold was. When you look at my attached "production of Liz Carter", it's very easy to see how tracking your #S is so important. My biggest jump in production was in 1997 with 135 units sold to 1998 with 202 units sold. This was caused by 1. Having been with MFO for 4 years. 2. Leasing a space that was separate from the main office. 3. Going through a divorce.
- Tracking your #S and source of business allows you to see where you business is coming from, and having a yard stick, but most importantly giving you insight on what you need to focus on the next year to increase your business and profitability. When reviewing my 2006 #s and source I had too many fallouts, my expenses were up, and out of 101 transaction fees on the listing side I had gotten 90 and my buyers agents had only gotten 11. You can make adjustments; see where your weakness and strengths are, and make adjustments based on the prior year. It is one of the most valuable things I have learned from MFO...track your #S & SOI.
- Mindset
- "What the mind of man can conceive & belief is can achieve", by being around others who were doing so much business in so much less time, I knew that I could do it, and that's were it all starts and stops, in your head.
- Think bigger, get out of your way and out of your box. By hanging around others who do more
you learn to think bigger and do more, even by accident. Too many things to list here, one of my biggest things I have been doing for the last 10 years is to have my clients come into the office to list there home. - Affirmations, the power of which is incredible. For many years I started each day with affirmations with "Sunshine", Lucy Ham. One day she would call me at 5:30 AM, the next day I would call her in Flushing MI. Your affirmations change based on what you want to bring into your life and business, once you have what you have been affirming you add a new one. Keep it short, simple and positive. What a great way to start you day! Dream books, journals, visual goals, reading, listening to tapes, having an accountability partner, etc. We all know what to do, but are you doing it on a daily basis?
- Becoming a business person vs. being a Realtor (independent contractor)
- This is a huge part of being involved with MFO, and makes you the most money. Set up corporations that allow you to have a defined benefit plan, get your uninsured medical bills paid, start thinking like a business person and always get your eye on the bottom line...how much of your money that you made did you get to keep? Stash the cash.
- Start outside business that will deliver you residual income for the rest of your life. A title company, a mortgage company, etc. Just remember to hire other people to take care of it, so you keep your focus on what brings in the most money, listing and selling real estate.
- Pay off debt, have rental properties, primary home, car, (of course NO CREDIT CARD DEBT) free and clear ASAP.
- How to build a team & keep them
- Use the MFO guidelines for building a team and don't hire before you need to, but also hire
before you have to. It's a fine line but looking at your #S should give you a clear ideal of when and who you need to hire.
You should hire you first assistant (we give them different titles of course) when you are at 40-50 deals and hire another one for every 40 deals. The fist person you hire is a listings manager/coordinator, the second is a closing manager/coordinator, and the third would be a buyers agent. By the time you are at 150-200 deals you should hopefully have a business manager that takes care of everyone else, and then maybe a second buyers agent. Remember a buyers agent must pay for themselves and make you a profit or you don't need them. You will need a runner, and if you own you own company a receptionist/client care coordinator. You should also at some point consider hiring another listing agent and someone that does all the contract negotiating.
Pay them according to your areas standard + 5%, go to http://www.salary.com/ to find out what pay you
should offer. After a 90 evaluation, consider giving them a pay raise. Out source all non-commission assistants, there are many companies that take care of all of this for you. I pay my buyers agents 35%, I pay my listing agent 25% if the source is mine, and if it is self-generated, they get 35%. You have to look at your cost of doing business to see it hiring someone makes sense and makes you money, if it does not, then don't hire them. In the Houston/Katy TX area, the average agent only earns $35,000 a year and that is before expenses. I can hire a licensed closing manager, listings manager for $40,000 to a max. of $60,000 and they are making a lot more than 90% of the agents and work 8-5 Monday-Friday.
Lead by example, praise in public, and citizen in private. Use Monica Reynolds "sandwich it", tell them what they did great, then tell them what the issue is, and then give them a compliment. Of course it goes without saying that you should put every one of your assistants into Monica Reynolds assistant training program as soon as you hire them. Likewise your buyers agents should go though the buyer assistant training program. In the end it is up to you to encourage, train, have a fun, efficient, and profitable team. At my office, we are all focused on the goals and are rewarded for reaching them. We have a monthly making goal team reward, and a yearly making goal team reward.
- Removing my ego and being coachable
- You pay money for your coaching calls, never miss one.
- Tape each coaching call, and keep a coaching call book while on the call for notes and things to
do, think about, etc. Also prepare for the call, have questions ready, and treat it as if it was a million dollar listing appointment. - Pay attention to what your coach tells you and do it.
- Systems & Procedures
- Don't try to reinvent the wheel; MFO has all the systems & procedures already done for you.
- Have your assistant, or if you do not have one yet, sign up for the assistant training and get a policy & procedure manual in place now.
- Don't keep it a secret let everyone know where it is and go over with everyone on your team what is in it, and have them follow it, including you.
- Pre-Qualifying
- 100% of the time, even if it is your Mother, period.
- It's Showtime
- It's your job and you get paid a lot of money so give your clients, and team what they deserve. As Mike says "No one wants to do business with a dead person", put a smile on your face, and in your voice, be full of energy and enthusiasm 100% of the time that your are "ON".
- Especially on the days you don't fell like it, or have just came home from a 3 week vacation...stick to your schedule, and show up for your appointments like it is the most important one of your life.
- You are an actress/actor, learn your scripts, adopt to the other persons personality type, and make them feel like they are the most important person in the world...this is what you get paid to
- do...and have some fun with it, keep a sense of humor, ask a lot of questions and pay attention.
This is such an important part of being a great Realtor, Showtime, and most agents never even think about it. Like in the 1979 movie, "All That Jazz" tells it brilliantly, the main charter played by Roy Schcheider has that one line in the movie. It occurs after a particularly long night of womanizing, drug-using, smoking, and drinking he wakes up feeling like death warmed over. He plays a dancer in a musical and is getting ready to have to do a grueling performance. He looks in his bathroom mirror after brushing his teeth, washing his face and downing more amphetamines and announces..."It's Showtime". So no mater how badly he feels, he is paid to be a performer and as they say the show must go on. Being the professional he is no mater how screwed up he is, he has to go and do his job full of energy, talent, and excitement. As a great Realtor, you too must do the same thing every morning (without the drugs of course), get up and be prepared to go out and find buyers for your sellers, and sellers for you buyers. You have to be full of energy, excitement, and talent, no matter what kind of night or personal issues you have going on.
It's your job, and "IT'S SHOWTIME"!
"There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it." - Napoleon Hill
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