The 5 Real Estate Business Secrets That Could Pay You Commissions For Years To Come

Ok,  I will admit right off the bat that there really aren't many secrets left that haven't been tried in this business and the following list really aren't "secrets" per se as the title suggested. But, if I would have entitled this post "5 Things You Already Know", you wouldn't have taken the time to read this very important post. So they aren't secrets but they really do seem to be somewhat secretive as so few of us remember to implement them regularly and consistently.  

It doesn't matter where you are currently at in your real estate business. , these secrets will generate the most money possible from your efforts. Whether you are brand new to the business or have been in the business for 20 years.

Since I probably don’t don't know you, your abilities or desire to succeed I had to make at least one assumption about you: You know something about the real estate business and you're older than 18.

If you're a reasonably intelligent person, then you'll have no problem understanding these points. I'm going to shoot straight from the hip... no sugar coating and no coddling.

Whether you agree with what I'm revealing here or not, is NOT the point... these are essential 'truths' to making BIG money in your real estate business, not speculation - they are time tested, battlefield proven FACTS.
Use them you see fit. They are here to help you and inform you.



#1: Capture EVERYTHING

You must CAPTURE the name, address, email, birthday, anniversary, interests, names and ages of family members, etc...(if you can) of every potential customer that contacts you in any way... by phone, fax, letter, personal contact, email, or website

In order for your business to be profitable, you must use the lowest cost methods available to you that generate a consistent and reliable flow of new prospects for your services.

You MUST store your prospects in a database or spreadsheet (like BusyAgentpro.com, Top Producer, Lead Commander or a number of others) so you can easily manipulate and retrieve and insert the prospects information into your marketing communications.

You must diligently and un-mercifully follow-up with these prospects until a sale is made or they want off your marketing list.

Normally it takes 7 and up to 100 communications with these prospects before they will buy, list, refer, or at least show some serious interest in doing any of these. DO NOT STOP at 3 letters or emails. Mail at least 10 times before giving up on them. 
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is in addition to any drip e-mail system you have following up with these prospects.  Drip e-mail systems are good but should be used only as a supplement to your regular follow up system.


#2: Sell Like A Madman

I’m taking a piece from someone I have learned a lot from over the years here, Ralph Roberts. Once a prospect has raised their hand and said yes they may be interested in your real estate services you must stay in touch on a regular basis until they either buy, list, refer someone to you,  or ask for you not to contact them any more as I stated above.


#3: Upsell To Profits

You MUST, I repeat MUST have a system in place that allows you to cultivate further business or referrals AFTER a client has already done business with you. This is where the BIG money in the real estate business is. I see so many real estate agents get into the business and become very, very successful in their first 1-4 years, then practically fall off the face of the earth. Do you know why this is? It is because they spent so much time and effort developing systems to generate NEW business that they forgot to develop a system of generate referrals after the initial sale has been made. 8 out of 10 times this is the reason Realtors® with less than 5 years under their belt quit.

You must diligently and un-mercifully follow-up with the people who have bought, sold or referred someone to you in the past.


#4: Save (This one I learned from my wife, thanks Jennifer)

You MUST KEEP every penny you make from your real estate business and be watchful you don't spend money indiscriminately. In order for you to be rich you must MAKE BIG money and you must SAVE every single penny you can. This is where most Realtors® FAIL miserably. They make the money, but then they spend it on non-essential items that do not help them to produce MORE wealth. I’ll never forget the year I closed 318 transactions in one calendar year. I went out and bought a new car , a new house, a bunch of gaudy jewelry for my wife and a bunch of other material items. The next few months my market plummeted and I didn’t sell a house for 3 months straight and was having trouble making payments on all my new stuff.

The market shift was temporary and I went on to sell almost 200 homes that year but I learned a big lesson. Don‘t just spend money because you have it, be conservative. Have fun, do the things you want to do, but conserve or better yet invest instead of buying things you really don’t need.

As for your business: ONLY spend money on advertising and marketing that gets results or on a “system” of some kind: equipment, office systems, software or marketing information that will help you MAKE more money. That's it.

Be very, very diligent about SPENDING..in most cases DON'T!


#5: DON'T MANAGE YOUR TIME... Control it!!

Managing time sounds like you have very little control over how it's used. Nothing could be further from the truth. You must be as diligent with your time as you are with your money, especially if you spend a lot of time on the Internet.

It's easy to waste minutes, half-hours, whole hours and days just “surfing” or “browsing”. Is that you?

Divide your time any way you want but make sure the majority of your time is spent on DIRECT CASH GENERATING ACTIVITIES such as listing presentations, writing a new marketing piece, or making “I care about you” calls to past clients and centers of influence.

Here's the model I use for controlling my business time:

80% to direct cash generating activities

10% to customer service issues

10% to planning your direct cash generating activities

And... every 20 days take one whole day OFF- no cell phones, no pagers, no computer, nothing! Really take a day off and re-charge you internal batteries.
Be very, very diligent about SPENDING your cash and your time and please ...don't waste either one!