Real Estate Solutions

Surprise someone with a note today.

I’ve attended the Howard Brinton Conferences for a number of years and have listened to his Star Power Tape Series for even longer.  One of the ideas that has stuck with me since I heard it …. Star Bob Wolff’s routine of writing notes every day to not only clients, but to average people he comes in contact with.  He has some amazing stores of how a simple note “touched” someone enough to create future business for him…a waitress, a cab driver, the gas attendant.  I’ve tried to keep up the routine of writing short notes but need a reminder occasionally. I’ll consider this my reminder for the New Year.  In the email age, people are really surprised and pleased to receive a personal hand written note. I’ve even had people call to thank me for a thank you note!

From my bookshelf - The E-Myth

The E-Myth is my all time favorite business book. Hands down. I first read the E-Myth in 1995 and it changed the way I did business. It was eye opening for me and I read it in record breaking speed, anxiously looking forward to the next chapter. I know that sounds a bit dramatic but it is true.  I always considered myself to be organized but this simple book by Michael Gerber started me down the path of developing systems for my business.  I now read this book once a year, about the same time I work on my business plan.

The E-Myth was originally published in 1988 and replaced 8 years later by The E-Myth Revisited.  I actually liked the original book better. Gerber explains that the revisited book is a clarification of the E-Myth point of view.  Fine, but I still liked the original book better, even though I was able to have my Revisited book signed by Michael Gerber at a seminar I attended. (I found him to be a better writer than a speaker.)

The basic premise of the book is that most small business owners work "in their business" and not "on their business" as they should. The E-Myth Revisited is written with small business owners in mind but single real estate agents or team leaders can embrace the principles Gerber shares. Gerber tells stories about successful small businesses that have developed systems and built "franchise prototypes" to run their companies more efficiently.  These businesses, similar to McDonald’s, are systems dependent, not people dependent.  I call it my "getting hit by a truck" theory.  If I were "hit by a truck" tomorrow, my business should be able to run without me because of the systems I have put in place.

Although The E-Myth was originally written in 1988, the ideas presented are timeless, and every real estate agent should have this book on their real estate book shelf.  You have one of those don’t you?  With the birth of this blog, I’m taking a look at all my business books, thinning the heard and including my favorites on the bookshelf in the sidebar here. 

By the way, after I read the E-Myth the first time, I became known in the office as the "binder queen" as I developed system manuals for every aspect of the business. Since then, software programs like Agent Office are now able to launch "plans" for repeatable actions of a real estate business and eliminate the need for binders. Not able to help myself, I still have a few binders in use.

The E-Myth Revisited  is an absolute 10.  I like this book so much that I have given dozens of copies away to colleagues, either starting in business or looking to move their business to the next level.

Don't Let Your Competition Read This!

If you came here looking for a "Welcome World" post, move along; you can find that sort of stuff in the "about", and "bio" tabs above.  I thought my first blog post should be about farming. Farming propelled me from average to good back in 1980.  (I didn’t get to great until the 90’s.) I started by mailing postcards to 200 houses in a medium priced neighborhood. I added a few more houses until 22 years later, I was reaching all 6300 households in my hometown of Ledyard. 

Here’s a secret: one reason farming works is because most agents think it doesn’t. The agents that do give it a whirl, give up before it starts paying dividends. I’ve lived in the same neighborhood for 30 years and during that time I have received TONS of farming materials from other agents.  The longest any agent continued to farm was one year.  That is the first reason geographic farming doesn’t work for most agents; they are not consistent and don’t think of it as part of a long term business plan. Don’t expect to get results after 3 months or even a year.  The second reason farming doesn’t work is because agents send out boring and/or crappy stuff.  HAVE SOME FUN!!! ( pssst…. No one cares that you are #1 in anything or have a new designation.  That’s booooring.)  If you absolutely can’t bring yourself to have some fun, then provide some useful information like market updates, emergency phone numbers, or refrigerator calendars.

If you are ready to become a farmer, I like the idea of starting out with postcards. I figure most of it ends up in the trash anyway but at least your prospect might glance at a post card between the mailbox and the trash can.  Color For Real Estate is a company I use quite often.  They are a fun company with postcards that are definitely not boring or crappy.  I also design some of my postcards on Microsoft Publisher and have them printed by Express Copy.  Turnaround time is fast, the quality is excellent, and the price is reasonable.

Once farming starts to pay for itself, consider creating a newspaper or newsletter.  I send a customized newspaper to my geographical farm 6 times a year published by Custom House Publishers.  I get oodles of listings from my newspaper. (Oodles means a lot.)  A prospect called me to list his home last year because he enjoys reading my newspaper every week.  He seems to have me mixed up with our local weekly. That’s a good thing.

I was reading a post in Active Rain not too long ago.  A new agent commented that some of the old timers in her office still farmed their neighborhoods. She thought farming was an old-fashioned idea and that it is all about technology now. She figures she is going to out-tech the old farmers.

This old farmer just smiled. I hope my competition thinks exactly like she does.