Success is Simple, Not Easy

What’s the first thing you ask yourself at the start of your workday? Is it “What do I have to do today?”  Take a look at the verb in that question — “have.” By asking yourself what you have to do, you shift your focus from doing the important thing to doing the urgent thing.

A better question to start your day would be “What do I choose to have happen today?” The simple change of asking a more powerful question can dramatically re-shape your workday — and ultimately your life.

As the BOLD Law states, “Success is simple, not easy.” By really breaking things down, you can see the simple steps that will lead you to success and put yourself on that road each and every day. Instead of putting out fires and letting yourself get caught up in urgency, just follow the simple steps of your roadmap and do what’s important.

“At the end of the day, it’s not complicated to succeed,”says BOLD Coach Steve Schlueter. “It’s just a matter of making simple choices each day to do the right things.”

Schlueter explains more about the BOLD Law of “Success is simple, not easy” in the video below.

You Own a Business — Act Like a Business Owner

When you think about a business, what do you picture? Maybe your first thoughts are of places that have inventory that is sold directly to consumers, like your local Starbucks or McDonalds. After all, a single Starbucks location can create $1.1 million in revenue per year. A McDonalds franchise can do twice that number, pulling in around $2.4 million each year.

Your real estate career is no different than those other more traditional businesses. In fact, when it comes down to numbers, a real estate business often can do even bigger business than those examples from above. Take it from Tony DiCello, vice president of research and development for MAPS Coaching. “How many other businesses move $45 million in product?” DiCello asks. “Just because we don’t take possession of inventory doesn’t mean we don’t have businesses. You own a business – act like a business owner.”

Before you can focus on effective team building for your real estate business, you have to focus on the “business” part of your real estate practice. As a real estate agent, you own a business. You may start off as the sole employee of your business, but as you move into real estate team building, you’ll need to be sure you have the foundations of a successful real estate business in place first.

The power of an extraordinary business can be yours by focusing on the following three foundations to grow your real estate business:

1) Lead generation through leverage: Lead generation is the heart of your business. Your efforts toward building a real estate team will ultimately be about increasing your capacity for lead generation.

2) Leadership: Not all agents are leaders, but without this learned skill, you will find it nearly impossible to grow your team and your business.

3) Scalability through the Millionaire Real Estate Agent (MREA) Models: A commitment to MREA Models will keep your business efficient as it grows.

With these foundations underneath your business, you’re already acting like a business owner.

This Month in Real Estate: How to get your home SOLD more than a month faster than your Competition.

 

 

Annual Projected Homes Sales: 4.9 million

Median Home Price:  $198,000

Home Prices are up 1.3% from last week and 9.9% from last year.

Average 30 year fix Mortgage Rate: 4.39%

 

Contact Keller Williams Palmdale for any of your Palmdale Real Estate needs 

Rima Rafeh from our own KW Palmdale Office is #22 in the Nation!

Congratulations Rima!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact us today to join the # 1 Real Estate Office in Palmdale CA

The #1 Team in Maryland Switches from RE/MAX to Keller Williams

Prior to January 2014, Bob Lucido had three goals for his 30 team members and 10 employees: (1) To be the most respected real estate team in his market and the industry, synonymous with service-oriented brands such as Nordstrom, Lexus and the Ritz Carlton; (2) To have a great work environment where everyone on the team has fun; and (3) For everyone to make money.

The #1 team in Maryland now has a fourth goal. “We want to integrate the Keller Williams systems and processes into our entire team in a significant way,” said Lucido in an interview last week. “We want to live and breathe the system and the culture!”

When all of this happens, the real estate powerhouse believes they will be able to achieve their ultimate vision, which is to become #1 in the country and #1 in the world.

“You’re either alive and growing or dead and dying,” he said. “We need to be in proactive growth mode and we need to continue to be who are for our clients and our people.”

Lots of Growth

That kind of progress is partly why Lucido and his wife and business partner Tracy Lucido chose Keller Williams Realty after years with RE/MAX. “We wanted to be with a company that truly supported the team growth model.”

“We’re a big team. We attract people who find themselves in stagnant jobs – the bars, the beach, the streets – and build up their raw talent with education, training and accountability. Keller Williams has so much training, education and coaching that every one on our team can tap into.”

Dollars Out, Dollars In

The Lucido Team has worked hard to create a brand that gains the trust and mind share of their Maryland clientele. They don’t shy away from admitting that they spend a significant amount of money on marketing.

“Keller Williams’ agent-first mentality and culture of rewarding the agent and putting them first has been a fantastic fit for our team and our model. People are loyal to us because we’ve created our own brand and are visible in the papers and on television.”

Lucido’s team has gotten pretty creative in their marketing strategy over the years. “We have a commercial that plays at the largest movie theater in town,” he says. They also have moving trucks wrapped in their branding. The difference between Lucido and other agents with moving trucks is his strategic approach which includes placing them in major thoroughfares around the city. “We’ll park them at popular restaurants during peak traffic periods,” he explained. Even their “just listed” and “just sold” cards aren’t your run-of-the-mill marketing; they choose jumbo and high gloss every time. The also send out a glossy newsletter to targeted areas. “We want people to keep the newsletter around and use it on a regular basis.”

And if you thought newspaper advertisements were dead – think again. “We have a 3 x 5 inch jewel box in the bottom left-hand corner of the front page. Whether it’s my face, a new listing or a just sold, the Lucido brand is always there.”

Change is Good

Lucido’s transition to Keller Williams is in full swing and he is thankful the support he’s received on a local and national level. “Everyone is jumping in. It’s like a SWAT team helping, which has made the move absolutely seamless,” he says. He’s particularly grateful for Seth Campbell, regional director of Maryland and D.C., the regional and Ellicott City market center staffs as well as mega agents Joe Rothchild (Signature market center), Mark Spain (Atlanta – North Fulton market center), Keller Williams CEO Mark Willis and Co-Founder and Chairman Gary Keller, who sent Lucido a personal note when he joined.

“Joe has a big team and truly understands what it takes to make a transition at this level. He spent two days on the phone with me and even offered to fly up and help,” Lucido says.

 

Contact Keller Williams AV to get you started in becoming an agent!

Real Estate Pricing Strategies Checklist

What was your last listing appointment like? Did you successfully get the seller to agree to list their home at the appropriate price based on the market? Or did their emotion get in the way of your expertise?

Moving sellers’ and buyers’ pricing psychology and emotion onto a fact-based playing field are among the biggest challenges agents face. This is because sellers and buyers are typically out of sync with the realities of the market.

In a seller’s market, sellers tend to dwell on the future – higher prices – while buyers tend to value the past, when home prices were lower. This discrepancy creates a situation where sellers want to push prices up and buyers want to hold the line.

In a buyers’ market, buyers want to place themselves in the future – lower prices – while sellers want to dwell in the past, when prices were high. In this scenario, buyers want to push prices down and sellers want to hold the line.

The net result is a gap between a buyer and a seller’s perception of what a home is currently worth. The job of a listing agent is to close the gap – it’s one of the few absolutely essential competitive skills.

Agents who are better at it consistently win more listings and sales. The good news is that pricing is also a process. Learning to do it well requires knowing pricing strategies based on the principles that drive markets. It also requires knowing pricing tactics – comparative market analysis (CMA) building and presenting, and the scripts that go with it.

Ignite, a course from Keller Williams University identifies the six critical real estate pricing strategies you need to bear in mind as you approach pricing any property.

1. Know what sells: always evaluate for both competitive price and marketable condition.

2. Know what sellers can and can’t control: communicate what does not matter in pricing (what they paid; what they need; what they want; what their neighbor sold for; what another agent says it’s worth; cost to rebuild).

3. Understand the window of opportunity: be persuasive about the importance of pricing right the first time, and being in great condition, to capture peak interest in the first few weeks on the market.

4. Price to reflect market movement: price to reflect the direction the market is moving and the speed of change .

5. Price ahead of the market: price so your seller does not get caught chasing the market down, or does not miss their maximum opportunity in a rising market .

6. Don’t be afraid to be brutally honest: ask, “do you want me to tell you what you want to hear, or do you want to hear the truth (about price and condition)?”

With practice, you will absorb and internalize them. They will become part of you as a real estate agent and make you an outstanding advisor to both buyers and sellers.

How to Close Three Homes Every Week

Jack Coden is no stranger to success. After a career as an international banker in New York City he made a big move – all the way to Miami, Fla. to take on a new challenge. As an agent, Coden was successful right out of the gate, earning $80,000 in gross commission income (GCI) his first year and double that in his second.

His business has grown every year since, which opened up new opportunities for ownership in the Miami Beach market center and solidified him as a multi-year leader in regional and nationwide sales. Today, he averages three closings each week. Today, he averages three closings each week. In 2013, he made $1.5 million in GCI and closed $52.1 in volume.

What’s fueling that success is his team’s focus on farming, which is geographic, demographic or niche-based marketing activities to plant the seeds with future business and nurture existing clients.

Farm Fast, Farm Often

Coden farms several communities, condos, neighborhoods, commercial properties and restaurants in the greater Miami area, which he says requires consistency and frequency. “One of the mistakes agents make when it comes to farming is sending one or two print pieces and then stopping,” he says. Residents of Coden’s targeted farms see something from him every week for eight weeks, then every three weeks after that. His farm postcards stand out. They’re oversized, have a picture of Coden and his team, and showcase a home in their neighborhood that he recently sold or just listed for sale. “I never send the kind of card that says, ‘I’m your neighborhood agent, give me a call.’ I want them to see that nearby properties are selling well and plant the seed to call me when they want to sell theirs too.”

Coden has developed ongoing relationships from farmed clients, building up a reliable database that he uses for most of his outreach. He’s an expert networker and heartfelt relationship builder, which is the crux of his success. Here he shares some of his proven networking techniques that can help you meet new people, nurture relationship, and grow your own million-dollar business.

Create Personal Curb Appeal

“Networking is often about displaying a genuine desire to help others progress. I make sure our clients sense that from the very beginning. I say, ‘I’m here to help you.’ Sometimes it’s to give emotional support, sometimes to give financial advice, and often it’s to connect them to people they can’t find on their own. Most of our listing appointments are a minimum of two hours. Half the time we’re not even talking about real estate, we’re just getting to know each other.”

Talk to Strangers

“My cell phone number is on every yard sign, postcard, magazine and marketing piece. When people call, it comes to me. I always answer their questions, but not right away. Instead I ask them questions, asking whether they have kids, where they work, what they know about different neighborhoods; we bond over questions. At some point the conversation shifts to the price of the property. If it’s not in their range, they’ll often ask me to help them house hunt anyways. If it’s a personality fit, I’ll work with them or match them up with one of the buyer agents in the Jack Coden Group.”

Enlist the Power of a Business Card

“I have a unique business card. It’s a little larger than the norm, with a silver foil border. It’s kind of flashy; people comment on it and seem to love it. I never offer my card upfront. I engage in conversation and I wait until people ask for it.”

 

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The Spring Home Shopping Season

Annual Projected Home Sales: 4.9 million

Median Home Price: $196,000

Average 30- yr fixed Mortgage Rate: 4.48%

Over 90% of buyers today start their home buying process online. Then spend almost 2 months looking before finally finding the right home for him. That 2 month lag time means that the homes on the market in Palmdale, Lancaster, and Quartz Hill are in the best position to close by spring.

In turn if you are looking to sell your home in the spring. You’d want to list your home now!

BOLD Is Back! BOLD Law: “Want equals lack”

The average person has 60,000 thoughts per day. The problem is that most people have the same thoughts today as they had yesterday, and the day before and the day before that. They continue with their habitual thinking until it is programmed into their brain. When your mind is programmed to only think negative thoughts, you get stuck in a scarcity mindset.

What does scarcity sound like?

“It’s hard”

“I can’t”

“I hate”

“I hope”

A scarcity mindset dwells on what doesn’t exist. An abundant mindset, on the other hand, focuses on attracting your deepest desires to you. An abundant mindset sounds like:

“I intend to”

“I desire to”

“I choose to”

“I prefer”

“I trust”

Spot the differences?

The thoughts you allow yourself to think and the topics you allow your mind to dwell upon influence your environment. Everything in your life today is conditional by your habitual thinking. You have power over your thoughts. When you choose a state of poor, then you attract more of the same to you. And when you choose rich, what do you attract? Riches, a happy family and a fulfilling job.

“When you live certain laws, you absolutely have success with mathematical precision,” says Dianna Kokoszka, CEO of KW MAPS Coaching and Keller Williams University.

Out of this idea, Kokoszka created the BOLD Law: “Want equals lack.” Here she is explaining it.

33 Ways to Stick to Your Schedule

Distractions are the potholes of our time. They thrust you off your original path and onto a winding bunny train.  Deflecting these diversions starts when you master the art of protecting our schedule – here are 33 ideas to stay laser focused.

1. Make certain your staff and your family knows your schedule. Lead generation and lead follow-up is done every morning.

2. Create a daily voice mail message stating when you will be returning calls.

3. Control your interruptions: Leave your cell phone in the car or where someone else can answer it and take messages until you can return the calls.

4. Do not check email prior to prospecting.

5. Anything other than lead generation in real estate can wait until noon.

6. Write a check for $1,000 in the beginning of the month and if you have kept on schedule for lead generation all month, cash it, spend it or put it in savings. If you haven’t completed your lead generation schedule, then give it to charity or give it your competitor and tell him/her to use it to advertise against you.

7. Do your prospecting first thing in the morning.

8. Buy a chess clock and use it during your lead generation time. The right side is for making calls, the left side for any other time. See how much time you are actually on the phone.

9. Treat your career as though you were hired to do the job and convince yourself that you are losing money or could be fired if you do not follow your schedule.

10. Go to bed early and get up early. You can’t hang out with the turkeys at night and fly with the eagles in the morning.

11. Do not listen to any voicemail messages or return any calls until you are finished with your lead generation.

12. Do your lead generation at the same time every day. Zig Zigler states that it is easier to get focused when you have the habit of the same time every day.

13. Have a separate desk at the office or home office where you can concentrate on nothing except prospecting.

14. If needed, revise your schedule every six months for variety.

15. Make certain your schedule is realistic for you and something that is accomplishable.

16. Reward yourself often when you find that you stayed on schedule.

17. Punish yourself if you fall off track. Fine yourself, prospect on Saturday or do an open house on Sunday.

18. Review your business plan often (daily). Keep it to one page.

19. Have pictures of your goals all over the place. Make a dream book or dream board (i.e. vacation spots, pieces of jewelry, cars, etc …)

20. Shut the ringer off on your phone if you find it interrupts you.

21. Play loud, upbeat music and use headphones (when you’re not prospecting, of course).

22. Have an accountability partner and make sure they hold you accountable and vice versa.

23. Take a ten minute break every hour and walk around to regroup and reenergize.

24. Put your schedule into your “listing” package and give it to your clients to be held accountable. Invite them to come by the office and watch you proactively look for buyers for their home.

25. Only role play with dependable role playing partners.

26. Reward the receptionist or assistant once every so often if they help keep the distractions away from you while prospecting.

27. Make certain you have a start and end time for lead generation and keep to it! Treat it like a listing appointment.

28. Do you least desirable things first thing in the morning.

29. Call people from your training classes to talk about keeping a schedule. Ask for advice or share solutions.

30. Keep a journal or a victory log. It’s always good to fall back on when you don’t feel like prospecting is working for you.

31. Go to Mega Camp, Family Reunion and Masterminds.

32. Expect results from your schedule.

33. Be coachable at all times. That means you will allow a coach to tell you what you need to hear to improve and what you need to do to make sales.