How to spot our economic recovery…..

   No,  this is not an April Fools lead in,  unlike Business Weeks nominating Franz Kafka International as the most alienating airport in the world, which is my personal favorite April 1st punk.

Yesterday at the Prudential National Convention in Las Vegas, Geoff Colvin, Fortune Magazine Senior Editor and acclaimed journalist spoke to over 3,500 Prudential agents.  He suggested that we will know when this economic crisis is behind us based on two economic indicators. The first being the Treasury Bill rates and the second is the Junk Bond ratings. Apparently during the “good times”, the disparity between the two ratings was just a little more than two point five, now the difference between the two is over 20 which suggests a high risk factor. As the ratings come closer, there will be less risk and we will all be able to sleep a little better a night.

 

Two kinds of real estate agents

Real estate agents can be divided into two distinct categories:

                  THOSE WHO MAKE ENOUGH MONEY AND THOSE WHO DON’T

What are some of the common characteristics of agents who make enough money?

There are three traits that they all seem to share and the first one that I see is confidence. Think about someone who you know who is confident, don’t they automatically instill trust?   

The second is enthusiasm, this comes across as enjoying what they do and being fully engaged in the process. Working with them is an enjoyable process because they focus on the positive.

And the third trait is self accountability.  Successful agents are successful because they take responsibility for their own success or failure, rather than placing blame outside of themselves.  An example of explanation that I hear from agents who are making enough money is that they credit their success to hard work and staying on top of the market trends.  

And what about agents who aren’t making enough money?

They also have some common traits that I see, and the first one is Fear. This shows up in many different ways for many different reasons.  Perhaps it’s because they’re new and fearful of the process, or uncertain of their own abilities. Perhaps they fear their financial future.  Can they pay the bills and make a success of this career choice?  This uncertainty comes across to clients as a lack of trust and non-focus.

The second is not being emotionally engaged.  Obviously if there is fear and uncertainty,  how vested can they be in the future? How enthusiastic will they be about prospecting and how well will they be able to think outside the box for new opportunities?

And the last and probably most important trait for agents who aren’t making enough money, is that they blame everything outside of themselves for their lack of success.  An example that I hear from agents who aren’t making enough money is “the market is terrible”,  “there aren’t any qualified buyers”, and “open houses don’t work” to name a few.

When I spoke of these traits at my last sales meeting, an agent came to me and said. “Well I’m not making enough money but I have all of the traits of an agent who is.”   So, I asked her what was she most excited about doing to increase her business and she responded that she didn’t want to do anything different, she really wasn’t excited about real estate anymore after all of the years in the business.  She then smiled and said “that probably means I don’t have all of the traits because I’m not enthusiastic, right?”  We then talked about things that she could do that she could get excited about and she left more confident and engaged in her business.

I would urge agents who aren’t making enough money to look at the above and take an honest accounting of where they are and then the steps they need to take to turn their business around.  And, oh by the way, have some fun doing it!

 

Oms for homes

I was having lunch with a friend recently and she was asking me about the current Las Vegas real estate market. I was probably going into way more detail than she cared to hear about, (I doubt she’ll ask that question again) but I was trying to explain that being in real estate for over 20 years I had seen many peaks and valleys. And just like the Zen story of the old man who experiences gifts and setbacks, his response of “We shall see”, works well for our current market.   I think there are advantages and disadvantages in every market, right now there are certainly advantages for buyers, there are many more choices now  and there is greater potential to buy more home for the money than in previous years. However if you bought a home in the last 3 or 4 years, your home may not have any equity at this point.  

The gift is finding the golden opportunity that this market has brought and I believe there is an abundance of opportunities. I’ve seen many of my agents have their best year ever in this last year! I also think this is a great time to buy and I am actively looking for another property to purchase myself. As far as what do I think about what has happened  in the Las Vegas real estate market……we shall see, we shall see…

 

Things I’m Grateful For….

  It’s the Friday before Thanksgiving and everyone is wishing each other a happy Thanksgiving as they leave the office, looking forward to as far as I can make out a weekend full of planning, shopping, standing in long lines to do a litany of endless tasks that have to be completed before the actual day of thanks. It just strikes me as odd that we would spend a week of complaining about all of the things that we have to get accomplished so that we can spend a few hours of gratitude on Thursday.

So I decided to be grateful starting today, I’m grateful that I have family and friends to be able to give to, and that I have such good health that I can be superwoman for a few day to accomplish what I want. I’m grateful for all of the little simple pleasures that this holiday brings like making cranberry sauce with my daughter,  and I’m truly grateful for all of the abundance that I have in this life and I must admit I now feel more relaxed and happy. Now if I can only remember this beforeI get stressed out next year! Namaste and Happy Holiday.

 

I need to make more money….

I heard an interesting proposition this weekend, and that was “the answer to any problem can solved by first asking the right question”.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

So being the good zen student that I am, I decided to not judge but to give it a try-so I asked my agents in a sales meeting if anyone needed to make more money. You can imagine at no big surprise that quite a few of them said yes, they would indeed like to make more money. The dialogue that followed went something like this:
me: The question is how can you make more money?

                              agents: By increasing our business.

                             me: How can you increase your business?

                            agents: By increasing our prospecting. (Is this true? If you                     increased your prospecting, would you increase your business?)

                            me: How can you increase your prospecting?

                            agent #1: By doing more open houses. (Is this true? If you did more Open Houses, would you increase your business?) 

                             agent #2: By personally contacting my Sphere Of Influence. (Is this true?)

                            agent #3: By consistently marketing to my farm. (Is this true)

                            agent #4: By doorknocking my Just Listed/Just Solds. (Is this true)

                            me:  Is this true, if you did all of these, would you generate more business?

                            agents: yes

                            me: would you then make more money?

I won’t bore you with any more because you’ve probably figured out where this was going long ago but it is a simple truth; more activity generates more business, which generates more income.

I would invite you to just do at least one if not all four if you need to make more money–Namaste.