I don't even know where to start. I was warned before I went to the class that there was A LOT of information to be learned. I didn't know it was going to be like putting a fire hose to my ear and turning it on. WOW! I learned so many cool little tricks and tactics that it will be impossible to incorporate them all into my business. Of course, the instructors stated over and over that we couldn't use them all but we should pick a few that we were comfortable with.
The first day of class was fun. I met a lot of knew people and did some networking with Realtors from all over the state of Arkansas. I can proudly say I know some good Realtors that will be getting my referrals if I ever have any for their areas. Kay Lawrence was our teacher on the first day. She has been in the business for many years and has a vast knowledge of the industry. It was an absolute pleasure to meet her and I am lucky to have been able to attend her class. Kay taught me a lot about getting back to the basics and working my SOI to the fullest of its capabilities. She gave me some great ideas on keeping in touch with my SOI and some percentages on the number of them I need to touch on a weekly basis. She really stressed organization and goals. Both of which have been beat into my head here at The Rain.
One of my favorite things that she stressed that I haven't been doing enough is MAKING time for family activities. If you can't enjoy a little time with the family after your hard work then what are we working for? She also stressed that we should prepare a marketing budget/schedule and stick to them. We should also closely monitor what is working best and what isn't working and adjust our marketing budget often. Hey if something isn't working, why pay for it! One last thing that she taught was learn how to delegate. Being in the Army has helped me a lot with this aspect of the business and let me tell you, delegation can save you a lot of time.
The second and third day of the course were taught by John Mayfield. Let me tell you one thing this man knows about technology and I soaked up every word that he spoke for two days. I was lucky enough to get to go to lunch one day with him and picked his brain. If you want to learn A TON about technology, check into getting John at your next event as a speaker/instructor. http://www.RealEstateTechGuy.com I promise you that you will not regret it. I can't even begin to explain everything that John taught us in the class so I am going to highlight a few. Some of my favorite things were the free programs/websites he showed us. Like http://www.cutepdf.comwhich is a website that converts documents to PDF format, FOR FREE. Wow! http://www.tinyurl.comis a great website. It takes looooooooonggggg url's and makes them short. A great tool to use with twitter. Also, http://www.hellotxt.com is a website where you can post things one time and it will post to most of your networking/socializing websites. That is so awesome!
John Mayfield also showed us some cool toys we should definitely get. First, I am absolutely convinced that I now have to have an iPhone. I did not know the wide array of things this phone can actually do. One of the cool applications for the phone is actually a digital voice recorder that can convert your voice to words. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You mean to tell me that I can speak into a voice recorder and it can convert my words to writings??? Wow! Does that sound like it could save you some time blogging? Just a thought... Also I have been looking at buying a more expensive camera so we can take wide angle shots. Slow down Josh, you don't have to. John showed us a site called http://www.magneticlenses.com With these lenses, you can take wide angle shots at a cost of just over $35 and the lenses fit most digital cameras. Even the cheap ones! Yeah!
One of the cool software programs that John showed us that is free is Photo Story 3. You can create virtual tours all by yourself and you don't have to pay a company to do them for you and it is FREE! Add music, voice over, text, etc. it is a great program and we are already using it. As you can see I learned a ton of technology tools from the class and I am pumped about them. You would think this is all of it but I am here to tell you that what I have written above is a drop in the bucket to what all he showed us.
The last day of class was taught by Tina Daniel. She travels the United States teaching in almost all areas of Real Estate. Let me tell you, this woman knows her regulations and she knows Real Estate. http://www.AIRE.usThis is her website where you if you are an Arkansas Realtor you can take many courses on-line that will help you with your business. Tina really help me discover things that I didn't know about the Real Estate process and help me improve my knowledge of things that I had forgotten.
Tina also got into reverse qualifying, which as I understood was common practice in Real Estate a few years ago. It sounded like a great tool to help a buyer early on in the process of buying a home figure out how much home they should be looking for. She also got into the subject of unauthorized practice of law. Let me tell you that there is a very fine line between what we do and the practice of law. So, if you haven't read your regulations lately, maybe you should pull them out and make sure you are doing the right things to stay in the know and out of trouble.
Well, I am sorry I have babbled on and on about the class but it was a great experience. I still have 8 more classes to go but I am extremely stoked about the opportunity to get my GRI and to soak up more information that will help not only myself, but most importantly my clients. Anything that I can learn to help my clients will make me a better Realtor and I can be happy with that. Thanks for stopping by!!!
http://www.joshandkathyschmidt.com
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