Get a Life Outside Real Estate
I have two questions for you:
- When was the last time you took a full day off—no phone, no text messages, just a day totally devoted to relaxing and enjoying life?
- During the last 30 days, how many times have you let a real estate appointment keep you from taking time off?
While you may feel all those clients and appointments are critically important, here are some other important questions to consider. 
When you look back over the last ten years, what memories do you have? Do you remember all those important clients that you missed events for? Or are your memories of the special times when you did take time off?
Chances are your most special memories are those outside your business. In general, the richness of our lives comes not from how many houses we sell, but from the times spent with friends and loved ones. If you haven’t done so already, schedule at least one full real estate free day as soon as possible.
Where to Get Plenty of Blog, Instagram, and YouTube Post Ideas at No Charge
Would you like to get some great topics to post on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or your blog?
If you’re like most agents, you probably haven’t cleaned out the sent box of your email for quite some time. Well, that’s actually great news and here’s why. One of the best sources for posts are the questions you normally answer for your clients in an email.
Each time a client asks you a question, make a point of emailing the answer to the client and then posting the written information on your blog, your Facebook business page, and/or Instagram. Next, use that information to make a video you can post on YouTube as well as Facebook and any other social media or video sites you use.
Now go back to your sent box. If you have ever answered questions for your clients via email, you already have a treasure trove of blog posts already written that are just waiting to be posted online or turned into a video. Just cut and paste and you’re ready to go!
The Biggest Regret of Most Top Producing Agents
Are you ready to hire an assistant for your business? In Steve Kantor’s book, Billion Dollar Agent: Lessons Learned, almost every agent who had sold over a billion dollars of property had the same regret. Can you guess what it was?
They all wished that they had hired their first assistant much earlier in their career.
As a rule of thumb, you generally need one assistant for every 50 deals you do. If you do 100 deals, your first two hires would be administrative assistants. When you’re doing over 100 deals and your administrative support is solid, that’s when you’re ready to hire a buyer’s agent, but not before then!
The advice above has been solid for many years but guess what? Almost all the administrative tasks that you need to do today can be accomplished using AI. At $20 per month for the premium version of ChatGPT, now is the time to take the big leap and start using AI.
It’s Time to Rewrite Your Marketing Materials
Here’s a great way to upgrade all your marketing materials that will definitely help you to generate more leads.
- The first step is to print out a copy of all your marketing materials, whether it’s postcards, a newsletter, your website, social media ads, etc.
- Next, take a red marker and circle each time you use the word, “I” in the ad copy.
- Now go back and use a different color marker to highlight how many times you use the “you.”
If you’re like most agents, you will have a lot more “I” language than “you” language.
The secret to generating more leads from your marketing efforts is to be focused on your customer, not on you and your accomplishments. The simplest way to do this is to shift from using the word “I” to using the word “you.”
Always remember to stay focused on the question that matters most to your clients: “What’s in it for me?”
Have a great week and remember to check out #3 below with some excerpts from this week’s Investor Scoop newsletter.
The Cost of Taking One Percentage Point Off of Your Commission
The most common reason agents reduce their commissions is they are unable to show how their services will help the seller net more, even if they list at a full commission, as compared to agents who cut their commissions to get the deal.
If you’re working in a market where listings are selling quickly with multiple offers, you may be tempted to cave on your commission because the market is so strong. Don’t do it and here’s why. The fall out rate, rather than being 10 percent, which is typical, can be as high as 40 percent or more when there is a multiple offer. The reason? When people pay over asking in a bidding war, they often get cold feet later.
If you need some additional motivation, here’s how much you’re leaving on the table by lowering your commission from six to five percent. Assume you take 15 listings per year at an average sales price of $300,000 and that you’re on an 80-20 split.
- At a five percent commission (2.5 percent on the listing side), your commission will be $90,000.
- At six percent (3 percent on the listing side) your commission would be $108,000.
- The difference between five and six percent costs you a whopping $18,000!