The difference between business owners and real estate agents is that business owners tend to focus on profit, rather than commissions.
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If you don’t know whether you’re on track with making a profit, you should.
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This is because the point of a business is to turn a profit. I can’t tell you how many agents I meet with who don’t have any idea what their profits are like.
If you don’t know whether you’re on track with making a profit, you should. Based on your income level, what should you be taking home for a net profit?
I’ve got some great PowerPoint slides that can help you determine these numbers. They’re from the new Keller Williams course “Business by the Book,” and they’re available for download here and here.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
As real estate agents, it’s very important that you play “Red Light, Green Light” with your expenses.
In other words, we agents have to hold our money accountable, especially as you make investments to grow your business. You need to understand that those are investments, not expenses.
We meet so many agents who throw their money at different things. When we ask what kind of return on investment they get on those, they shrug their shoulders. Frankly, they have no clue what their ROI is.
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Do you know what your return on investment is?
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We make sure that our agents are getting a return on their money. That could mean the investment they are making with us here at Keller Williams, online lead generation, and more.
We have a few suggestions of where your budget should be spent as an agent. We also have a little exercise on how to play “Red Light, Green Light” with your expenses. Check out the PDF here and here. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!
Today I want to present you with something that can help you build a team and build your business.
In the video above, I have in my hands the organizational chart many of the top agents here at KW Realty use to go from being a solo agent to building what we call a “seventh-level business empire.”
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With this chart, you can build a seventh-level business empire too.
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What’s cool about this is Gary Keller talks about the seven levels of real estate success in his book “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent,” which was published nearly 11 years ago. On page 202 of that book, you’ll find a lot of the same models and systems this chart has.
This chart, though, has updated versions of them—they’re the new seven levels from a course we teach called “Business By the Book.”
If you have any more questions about how you can build your business to the seventh level, give me a call so we can sit down together and get started. I’m happy to help you.
If you want to grow your database and your real estate business, most agents know that there are two ways you can go about it: prospecting or marketing.
Most new agents focus on prospecting. They do open houses, knock on doors, make cold calls, and call expired listings and for sale by owner properties. They go out and find the business.
Most top agents focus on marketing. Typically 80% or more of a top agent’s business comes from marketing. They get past clients, repeat business, and referrals.
What do they do to market? I have the answer here.
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Top agents focus on marketing.”
In our Business By the Book class, we teach the top marketing and prospecting techniques to help you grow your business. You can download the list here. If you have any other questions or you’re interested in our class, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!
Are you aware of tying arrangements and the risk they pose to agents? You need to be careful when tying a buying and selling transaction together with the same client.
Most agents know about tying arrangements, they just don't know what they’re called.
A tying arrangement is when we talk to a client who wants to put an offer in on a property and we ask if they will list their home with us. Any time you tie two transactions together, you put yourself at risk for an antitrust violation.
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This can put you at serious risk for antitrust violations.
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The biggest instance where this can show up for agents is when an agent takes a listing and the buyer says 'If I sell this house with you and buy the next one, will you give me a discount?' Agents can't sell a house for a client and buy the next one with them at a discount.
It's a tying arrangement and it just can't be done. If you want to give them a discount independently of their ability to perform on two transactions, it's your money and you can do what you want with it. You just can't tie two transactions together.
If you have any other questions about tying arrangements or any transactional violations, give me a call or send me an email. I'm here to help.
We're heading toward a market shift, so pricing a home properly is going to be a more important skill now that it has been in the last 10 years. How do you help your sellers do this?
I wanted to give you some advice on helping your sellers choose the right price for their homes.
As we go into this shifting market, pricing a home is going to be a more in-demand skill than it has been in the last 10 years. As we come into the fourth quarter of 2016, we’re starting to see that the homes that aren't priced exactly right are sitting on the market. In fact, a lot of them end up having multiple price reductions and selling for less than they probably should have right out of the gate.
When you're helping your seller choose the right price, here's the simple formula for me: I want to get real about the condition of the property I'm about to bring to market. Is it a two or is it a 10? From there, I want to get real about the condition of the other properties on the market. Are they nicer, or is your seller's property nicer?
Once I've identified that, then I'm going to look at the competition and the way they are priced. I intend to be the best, highest quality home on the market for the price. What I'm saying is that if you're the best value on the market, you'll always be the first to sell.
As somebody who has sold dozens of properties of my own and thousands for other people, I can tell you unequivocally that the market does not let properties sell too cheaply. Here's what I mean by that–if you think a property is worth somewhere between $450,000 and $500,000, I'm listing it at $450,000 every time. If I list at that price and it was supposed to be $500,000, I'm going to get multiple offers in a short time and it's going to sell for $500,000 or maybe even more.
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The free market will always help you find the right price.
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That's the beauty of the free market system; the market always helps you get the pricing right. It also punishes you when you get greedy on the front end.
If the property is worth $500,000 and you price it at $510,000, the property begins to stagnate on the market, you have a low number of showings, and buyers start to wonder what's wrong with the property. Other agents may not show it, and it eventually sells for far less than it should.
Do the right thing by helping your sellers pick the right price out of the gate and get the home sold quickly. If you have any more questions about pricing homes or I can help you in any way with your real estate career, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to help you out!
