A Fresh Approach to Real Estate Rookie-hood with Jennifer Allan

Visit most real estate training sites and you'll pretty quickly see references to being a Superstar or a Champion or a Hero or a Top Producer or some other high-falutin' descriptive term for a tippy-top level of real estate production. You'll see testimonials from agents who bought whatever system is being marketed claiming to have tripled their income or hit the half-million mark in commissions or sold 167 houses their first month on the program.

Wow. That's something. I'll admit to being intimidated by such marketing, both as an active real estate agent AND a real estate trainer myself. Gee, I never made $500,000 or sold 300 houses in a year. Neither has anyone I've ever coached or mentored or trained.

Do I believe the claims? Sure I do - no real reason to believe that such levels aren't attainable just because I never did it or know anyone who did.

But I don't believe that the majority of agents are going to see anywhere near those production levels, regardless of what system, program or philosophy they follow. No, not even in a good market.

And that's okay! I have a loyal following of several thousand real estate agents who don't want or need to set the world on fire - they just want to make a consistent, comfortable living, doing business in a manner they're proud of, making more people happy than unhappy. They also want to have time for their families, their hobbies and their naps. They don't want to be Power Prospectors who generate business 14 hours a day and then hand it off to their harem of assistants and specialists on their way out the door to drum up even more.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be the Top Dog in your office, neighborhood, city, county or state. But if you don't, that's okay, too. There's plenty of room (and commission checks) here in the middle for those with slightly less-grand aspirations.

So, don't fret if you doubt you'll ever be a Superstar. You're in very good company.

 It's DONE!
The Sequel to Sell with Soul
AVAILABLE NOW! 
Order Here

I have a new soapbox that has fired up my blogging energy... doncha' love it when that happens? Off we go...

I had an interesting meeting last summer with a real estate agent who started in the business the same year I did, in the same company. That year, he was the Rookie of the Year ... and I was runner-up to him. Neither of us recall who was third, of course!

Anyway, we literally hadn't run into each other since that awards ceremony in the mid-90's. Oh, I've seen his name around and he's seen mine, but we've never actually talked. We both went on to have successful careers and to set our individual worlds on fire (in our own minds anyway) and are still alive and kicking, almost 13 years later. Good thing.

So, last summer, we had the opportunity to chat about our respective careers. Since his dad had been a mega-producing broker at the time this guy (let's call him Skip) entered the business, I always assumed that his success had been handed to him. Au Contraire!

Skip explained that his dad wouldn't even let him in the door of his real estate office until he had, get this, worked for a year as a copier salesman. After that, he had to get his appraiser's license. Only then did Dad allow him to hang his new real estate license. But that was only the beginning - the boot camp then begun. Skip had to call all 600 of his dad's past clients, had to knock on 20 FSBO doors and call 20 expired listings per week. He had to hold two open houses every single Saturday. I'm sure there was mass-mailing and advertising tossed in there, too, but he didn't mention it.

And, voila! Skip was Rookie of the Year!

At the same time, I was taking my friends to lunch and attending social events with my future-ex-husband. I did some open houses and returned phone calls in nano-seconds. That was about it for my prospecting efforts.

And voila! I was the Rookie of the Year Runner-up!

Truth be told, Skip blew me away in production. He sold something like 70 houses that first year to my 25. But I was pretty darn happy with my 25 and I was enjoying the heck out of my new real estate career. So, for me, it worked. Had I been forced thru Skip's boot camp, I wouldn't have made it past my first month.

Fast forward to today.

Both Skip and I have had successful careers. We've made a lot of money and have consistently been top producers in our offices. I'm sure he has a lot of plaques on his "me wall," as do I.

But our approaches are still vastly different. He said he has to sell AT LEAST 100 houses a year to be profitable - that is, to support the systems and staff he's put in place. He HAS to cold call, he HAS to door knock, he HAS to prospect, prospect, prospect to stay afloat. He said that if he only has 5 closings in a month, he's in deep financial doo-doo. 

Me? Well, my "best" year was in 2001 when I sold something like 70 houses. But you know what? That year, I brought home less than 40% of my gross commissions (not counting taxes) because the cost of maintaining that level of production was astronomical. A few years later, I sold "only" 35 houses and netted exactly the same amount, working half as hard and taking on only half the risk. Hmmmmmm.

Today, my business is very simple (and cheap) to run. It's just me, myself and I. No assistants, no buyer agents, not even a free-lance transaction coordinator. I don't advertise, farm or SEO. Due to my strong sphere of influence and past client database, I have a steady stream of good business. Will I sell 100 houses this year? Uh, no. But do I work 60 hours a week? Nope. Haven't done that in years.

I imagine Skip's annual income is close to a million, if not more. Mine? Nowhere close to a million! But do I feel as if I'm been blown away by my fellow Rookie? Not really.

I don't ever want to be in the position of having to be a mega-producer in order to survive. I just want to take on the amount of business I can handle all by myself, the amount of business that I can easily attract using the soulful methods and philosophies that have always worked for me.

I must be getting old...

 It's DONE!
The Sequel to Sell with Soul
AVAILABLE NOW! 
Order Here

A few months ago I was approached by a state Realtor association - New York, maybe. Well, it wasn't actually the association; it was the marketing firm for the association, trying to sell me ad space in their magazine.

The nice man with the heavy New Yawk accent threw out a bunch of numbers and statistics and options, trying to entice me to spend several thousand dollars advertising in the magazine. Readership, distribution and such. Oh, several thousand dollars is out of your budget? Okay, well, we also offer very effective classified ads for a fraction of the cost (but still several hundred for a 3-line ad or something like that).

Okay, well... I've spent a lot of money on advertising in my life and I can honestly say that NONE of it has worked for me. In fact, it's rare that it even pays for itself, much less generates a profit. But, hey, I'm open to new venues for business, so I made this proposal to Mr. New Yawker:

"Sir (okay, I didn't really call him sir), I'd be happy to give your magazine a try, but I don't have that kind of budget to risk and in my experience, print advertising is a waste of money. But if you're sure that an investment in your magazine will pay off for me, how about you run an ad for me for a few months and if it generates business for me, I'll be delighted to pay for it. And, obviously, if it's producing results, I'll continue paying for it."

Well, as you can imagine, that didn't fly. Didn't expect it to, but thought I'd give it a shot.

I guess when you work in an industry where you only get paid if you perform; you're much less excited to pay upfront for something that might NOT perform. And, since so much advertising simply doesn't work, I'd love to see the marketing/advertising industry adopt a policy of showing US the money before asking for ours...

Crazy? Maybe. But I'm from Missouri - the Show Me State!

www.SellwithSoul.com

MYTH #3: You Have to Pester (er, Cold Call) Strangers to Build a Successful Business

Some people have it, some don't. The desire and willingness to cold call, door knock and network, that is. I'll bet many competent future real estate agents have been deterred from their calling, thinking that they had to spend their lives bothering people to get their business. Not true! I am living proof of that and so are countless other successful real estate agents.

Strangers are probably not your best source of business anyway. Many real estate agents primarily prospect to strangers with newspaper advertising, web placement, bus bench ads, even billboards, but these self-promotion techniques are expensive. I've found that the agents who attribute their success to these techniques are the ones who could not pay the bills relying on a referral-based model. In other words, they don't get many referrals! Possibly because they are spending most of their time and energy on massive marketing projects rather than focusing on doing a good job for the clients they already have.

I've known many agents who operate this way. Their marketing efforts are legendary. They blanket their farm area with thousands of postcards, harass every expired listing, advertise on the radio and TV and pay big bucks for top placement on search engines. And they do get a lot of business, so I guess you could say these efforts are successful. But that's not the way I'd want to build my business.

(If the above sounds good to you, see if you can get a refund for this book. It won't be much use to you.)

It doesn't have to be that way. You can build a successful business on a combination of referrals and warm prospecting, which we'll discuss in depth later. Just know that if the thought of making a hundred phone calls a day asking the poor sap who answers the phone if he "knows anyone who's thinking of buying or selling real estate?" leaves you cold, don't for a minute think that you can't be as successful as you want to be.

Tomorrow... Myth #4

The 7 Myths of a Real Estate Career
  Your Love of People Will Make you a Successful Real Estate Agent
  Your Love of Houses Will Make You a Successful Real Estate Agent
  You Have to Pester (er, Cold Call) Strangers to Build a Successful Business
  Your Job Is to Drive Buyers Around and Hold Open Houses
  You Will Work Every Weekend
  Real Estate Is a Team Sport
  You Shouldn't Ever Discount Your Fee

* due to heightened self-imposed stress due to participation in the NAR Convention, I am blogging with material from my book until the end of October (unless something absolutely brilliant strikes me that I MUST write about).

copyright Jennifer Allan 2007

We've all heard from the guru's how we should prospect two to three hours a day. Uninterrupted. No distractions. After all, we are self-employed and need to ensure ourselves a steady stream of business in order to stay IN business.

Fair enough.

But for those of you who shudder at the thought of pestering strangers every day, here's a new approach, compliments of Loreena Yeo.

Loreena is my consulting client. She hired me to help her succeed in her real estate business. Per our agreement, I get paid for my efforts. But, with her insight and wisdom, she's helped me every bit as much as I've helped her.

Here's what I learned from her this week.

To give myself credit, I introduced Loreena to the concept of an SOI business model. And she's run with it. She is now the poster child for how to succeed in real estate sales by being a good friend.

How does Loreena prospect to her SOI? Well, you can check out her blog for lots of ideas. But the one that struck me this week was this...

Loreena spends her "mandatory" two to three hours a day prospecting time writing personal emails. Not calling FSBO's. Not pestering expired listings. Not cold calling her farm area.

She spends that time catching up with her friends. Via email, because she's a little shy, it's easier that way. Does she ask her friends for real estate referrals? NO WAY. Does she share her latest success story? I doubt it. She just does what we woman creatures do naturally. Communicate, nurture, offer compassion when needed.

Is it working? Oh yeah. Just ask her. She's crazy busy and her phone is indeed ringing. With business and referrals from her SOI.

Here's the best part. She estimates a 90% success rate. As in, 90% of the people she writes to write back. Do they have a real estate need or referral today? Probably not. But when they do, you can be sure they'll think of Loreena.

How does a 90% response rate compare with YOUR prospecting efforts?

www.sellwithsoul.com

copyright Jennifer Allan 2007