The Month of Love

It can be a challenging business, this world of real estate.  When the going gets tough, what keeps you going, moving forward?  Successful people in all walks of life, and especially real estate, will tell you that you must find what you love about the business to keep you motivated, positive, and satisfied with your career choice.

What do you LOVE about real estate?

There are so many facets and varied skills required in the field of real estate.  Chances are you’re not madly in love with every single one of them.  But take a moment to think about what you do love, what really gets you jazzed and motivated each business day.

Design and Architecture – The pure art and enjoyment of good design and architecture can be a hugely motivating factor for some Realtors.  In what other profession do you get to experience beautiful, interesting spaces on such a regular basis?  What other job lets you see firsthand how other people live in their spaces?  Lots of people may love House Beautiful or Architectural Digest, but you get to live it!  Take advantage of Open Houses and Brokers’ Caravans to see unique or historical properties.  It will keep you informed and inspired.

Meeting New People, the Social Aspect of the Business – They say the most effective kind of lead generation is the type that you will actually do on a regular basis. Are you a social butterfly?  Do you reply “Yes!” to every Evite, be it birthday, cocktail or holiday party?  Then you are a natural social networker.  You love to meet new people, and your effusive personality will draw new potential clients to you.  Don’t be shy about letting everyone you meet know what you do.  The leads will flow naturally.

How Every Day is Different – There’s a reason you find all kinds of creative and diverse personalities in the field of real estate.  For those allergic to monotony, real estate is a great match!  Each day is filled with different activities and challenges depending on you and your clients’ needs.

Creating Your Own Schedule – Was not punching a clock, or being chained to a desk from 9 to 5 a big determining factor in making your career choice?  The freedom can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your time management skills.  Part of being a successful Realtor is creating and adhering to a realistic schedule.  If you need help with creating a workable schedule, or just need a boost in the time management department, get the assistance you need to succeed.  ProREA Staffing is expert in schedule creation and accountability, in person or virtually.

Making the Deal, Negotiating – The thrill of going to bat for your client and making a win-win deal is a huge motivator for some.  It can be a rush to go the bargaining table and bring back a big win for your client.  You feel capable, savvy and smart and, most importantly, that you are truly protecting your client’s best interest.

If negotiating is not your strong suit, a facet of the business that causes you stress or anxiety, it may be time to brush up on those skills.  Avail yourself of the many scripts and dialogues available for practice, online and in classes.  A ProREA Staffing assistant can hold you accountable to practicing these skills until they become second nature.

The Hunt, Finding the Right Home for your Buyer – Finding the perfect home for your buyer is not unlike matching them up with a perfect date.  A potential mate…or home must have certain qualities and features, must not have others, has to be geographically desirable and needs to ignite a certain amount of excitement in your client to give them ample reason to pursue.  Like a good yenta, you must listen to what they want, notice what they respond to, and make sure the personalities of the client and the home are a good fit.  When a match is made, everyone is happy and you feel great for a job well done.

Creative Marketing of Your Listings – Is photography, graphic design or creative writing a passion of yours?  If so, you probably take great satisfaction in creating excellent marketing pieces for your listings, and yourself as a Realtor!  Use this interest and talent to set yourself apart from the standard issue ads, flyers and brochures that flood our industry.  Think outside the box and really make these pieces your own, branding yourself and your team in the process.

The key to enjoying and succeeding in this business is doing what you LOVE well, and delegating the rest.  Marketing not your thing?  Scheduling a challenge?  Scouring the listings not your favorite way to spend your valuable time?  ProREA can provide you with highly skilled support to take care of your not-so-favorite parts of the business, so you can spend more time on the things you LOVE!  Call us today for a complimentary consultation.

The end of the calendar year is a time for reflection and planning for the year ahead.  What goals did you set out for yourself at the beginning of 2011?  What improvements did you make over the last year, and what would you like to improve upon in the immediate future?  In what ways did you surprise yourself, and how did those successes come about?

If you’ve made the wise decision to leverage your business with an assistant, I suggest that you capitalize on their talents and inspire more teamwork and success in the year to come by utilizing your assistant as your Personal Accountability Coach.

Your assistant knows your business, the way you work, and the rhythm of your weekly schedule.  They can help you achieving new levels of success by holding you accountable.  To begin, involve your assistant in plotting your business plan for 2012 and make sure they are on board with your goals.  Identify those goals in measurable terms and break them down into monthly, quarterly and yearly guidelines.

Once you’ve broken down the overall schedule of measurable, achievable goals, name the tasks your assistant can do to help you reach them.  These can include tasks such as an end-of-day reminder of your next day’s appointments, maintaining your calendar, creating buyer and seller packages, updating contacts, and creating call sheets for your daily contacts.

Next, identify specific, measurable tasks that YOU must perform in order to reach your goals and put your assistant in charge of holding you accountable.  This part is chiefly about what you are willing to commit to in order to hold to your business plan.  Map out a plan for success by creating a task list that is do-able.

Some examples of measurable goals are;

-          Call 10 people from your database everyday

-          Schedule 1 face to face meeting with a SOI or past client each week

-          Attend 1 networking event each month

-          Enter 20 new contacts into database each week

-          Add 10 new FaceBook friends and 5 new “likes” on fan page each week

-          Post 3 articles on blog each week

-          Take 4 listings per month

Put your assistant in charge of tracking your daily, weekly and monthly results, as well as reporting on these figures during your weekly team meeting.  As additional incentive for both of you, tie at least part of your assistant’s bonus to reaching the goals the two of your set together.

While consistent effort is key, your numbers may vary from week to week.  Whatever you do, don’t get discouraged and throw out the baby with the bathwater!  If you have an “off” day or week, just recommit your efforts and get back on track again as quickly as possible.

In order for your new 2012 Accountability Business Plan to work, you must empower your assistant to take charge and hold you accountable.  If you ignore your assistant, they will become discouraged and stop trying.  Remember, they shouldn’t have to nag you to get you to accomplish what you’ve both set out to achieve.  And likewise, you shouldn’t have to remind your assistant that it is their job to track and monitor your team goals.

Finally, set yourself up for success by taking on realistic goals.  Keep it simple by focusing on three to five short-term goals at a time.

Pablo Picasso is quoted as saying, “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”

If you need help in creating that plan, contact us and we’ll be happy to guide you and your team to a fantastic 2012.

ProREA Staffing wishes you every success in the coming year.

The process of hiring an assistant, whether it is your first or your tenth is always faced with some level of trepidation.  We all want to find the perfect assistant and never have to go through the hiring process again anytime soon.  We try to find clues during the interview process that point to a candidate’s potential for success or failure on our team.

As much as there are things to look for in an assistant, there are also a few warning signs, or red flags, you want to look out for and avoid.  Here are the top 5 warning signs that should make you think twice before taking someone on.

1. They are a current Agent that wants to become an assistant

It may seem that an experienced agent who knows the ropes would make for a good hire.  However, for a number of reasons agents make poor assistants.  For one, the personality type and habitual behaviors that makes for a good agent is quite different than that of a good assistant.

If you are familiar with the DISC behavioral assessment tool, you’ll remember that we all contain varying degrees of each of the four personality traits; Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance.  Agents tend to have a higher amount of Dominance and Influence, making them “take charge” people assertive in action and convincing in communication.  Both are leadership qualities excellent for performing the tasks of an agent, such as lead generation and negotiating.

Individuals with more strength in the Steadiness and Compliance departments tend to make for better assistants.  They exude the qualities of patience, persistence and thoughtfulness that are hallmarks of Steadiness.  Compliance, in this case, is not considered a weakness but a strength that relates to structure and organization.

In reading these two personality portraits, who would you rather have as an assistant?

1. They can’t provide their direct supervisors as references at previous jobs

Companies fold, merge, and change name on a regular basis these days.  In the event a previous company of employment simply doesn’t exist anymore, it’s reasonable to expect references may be difficult to come by.   However, if a potential employee has a problem providing contact information for their previous supervisors, mark it as a warning signal.  It could indicate a troubled employment history or termination for cause.

1. They lack outstanding follow-up skills during the interview process

Has the applicant followed up with you after the initial interview in a professional and timely manner?  Do they exhibit a sincere desire and interest in the job?  The level of thoroughness of a candidate’s follow-up during the interview process is a good indication of how they will follow-through once on your team.

1. They live more than 45 minutes away

Traffic is a factor everywhere today, whether you work in a major metropolitan area, suburb or smaller town.  If your assistant lives more than 45 minutes away the chances for delays caused by traffic or other factors are more likely to cut into your work day.  Hiring someone with less of a commute will cut down on everyone’s stress and increase productivity.

1. Their resume is poorly formatted

Even if a candidate’s resume demonstrates good skills and experience, a poorly formatted resume is cause for concern.  First impressions in any business, especially real estate, are of paramount importance.  A sloppy resume indicates how the applicant chooses to present themselves and their sense of aesthetics, and shows their level of comfort with MS Word.

Conversely, there are some factors that are not cause for concern that may have raised an eyebrow in years past.

1. Recent gaps in their resume

Even the best assistants have had trouble finding work in the last few years.  The most highly skilled and therefore highest paid assistants have had the toughest time finding work.  If you see a one or two year gap in someone’s resume, simply be sure to ask what they filled that time with.  Many people have gone back to school to learn new skills, have chosen to spend time with their young ones, or have been doing work as an independent contractor.  That kind of work might not be mentioned on their resume, but may still be relevant to the position you’re offering.

1. A recent job outside of real estate

When the real estate market hit bottom, several assistants left the industry after being laid off and are now trying to get back in.  Not to worry if they left a real estate position in 2008 or 2009 and worked in another industry for the past few years to survive.  Although there have been some industry changes, the basics remain the same and a solid assistant will catch up in no time.

1. Short job tenure during the past 3 years

In the last few years, company closings and downsizing have been so common that even good employees have been faced with multiple layoffs.  In this case, it is helpful to verify employment and confirm that they were actually laid off and not fired for cause.

We hope that these guidelines prove helpful to you in this exciting team-building time in your career!  If you need further hiring assistance, ProREA Staffing is expert in finding and hiring excellent support staff.

To your success!

How does your average Realtor become a tech savvy super agent with a web presence?  The answer is Social Media Marketing, and it doesn’t have to be as daunting a task as it may seem.  The key to effectively utilizing the world of social media is consistency.  And with the help of a skilled ProREA Staffing assistant, or your own assistant, you can take social media marketing off your “to-do” list and move it over to “done!”

Here are some of the many ways a ProREA Assistant can help you create and maintain a successful online marketing plan;

Monthly Newsletter – Offering valuable information on a monthly basis is one of the best services you can provide.  It will endear you to current and future clients, and let them know you are on top of what’s happening in the market.  In 2-3 hours of work time, your assistant can create and send an eNewsletter on a monthly basis.

Blogging – Regular posting to a blog on your own website, or on sites like ActiveRain, can immensely increase your web presence.  Posting career updates, sales news, and helpful information shows you are “moving and shaking” in the real estate world.  Your ProREA Assistant can create and post blogs for you two to three times per week, with a time expenditure of only about 30 minutes each.

Twitter Updates – Show the world you are up-to-the-minute and on-trend with your social media marketing by using Twitter.  Twitter uses brief messages, up to 140 characters, to send instant updates to followers and friends.  A quick message let’s everyone know your efforts, successes, and witticisms.  Each tweet takes less than three minutes, and can be taken care of by your trusty assistant as frequently as you prefer.  

FaceBook – An international phenomenon, FaceBook is the way so many people are connecting, and reconnecting.  Use this powerful social marketing tool to network with everyone you know, and everyone they know!  Your ProREA Assistant can make “friend requests” on FaceBook for your entire list of contacts, and interact with them on your behalf. They can also create a “fan page” for your business which can show off your listings, blog posts, and other information. If you’re not using this powerful networking tool to secure referrals and stay in touch, you’re missing out. 

Everyone understands the current market demands that agents work harder for every dollar earned.  Make sure you’re also working smarter by employing all the social media tools available to you for little or no cost.  Give yourself some low-cost leverage by hiring a ProREA Assistant to create, implement, and manage your social media networking plan.  It’s inexpensive, it’s current, and it is so important to show the World Wide Web you are in the know!

The Dog Days of summer and the Importance of Refueling Your Tank

Ancient cultures believed the Dog Star, Sirius, and its close proximity to the sun was responsible for the steamy, sultry days of late summer.  Hence, the phrase “Dog Days of Summer” was born.  The actual dates vary depending on latitude and climate, but here in the Northern Hemisphere (please excuse me if you’re finding yourself south of the equator and reading this) these canine-themed summer days are happening just about now. 

Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress.  And there’s nothing like a lack of progress to strike fear and anxiety into the heart of a motivated Realtor!  As agents, we have the tendency to be in constant motion, often working seven days a week tending to client needs and open houses.  While it’s incredibly important to work hard and tend to our various responsibilities, it’s equally important to rest and rejuvenate.  You cannot give what you do not have, and you can’t run on an empty tank!

Striking a balance between work and play will make you a happier person, and a much more productive Realtor.  Finding balance is easier to accomplish when you’re well organized and have your systems in order.  To help you reach that goal we offer the final pages of your Office Procedural Manual – Payroll Schedule, Frequently Used Vendors, and Username and Password Reference.

Payroll Schedule will delineate pay periods and paydays for your team.

Frequently Used Vendors is an invaluable reference sheet.  An important part of our job as agents is to connect clients with vendors who can fulfill a specific need.  Use this sheet to easily contact your favorite Inspectors, Marketing Specialists, Handy People, Contractors, etc.

Your Username and Password Reference will eliminate wasted time and frustration searching for logins and passwords.  Just make sure to keep it in a secure place, giving access only to your trusted team.

We wish you success, rejuvenation, and balance in your work and life.

As the CEO of your business, you want to set an example with the way you dress. As Realtors, we are out and about in the community knocking on doors, holding open houses and taking clients on showing appointments. Your appearance is a walking store-front advertisement for current and potential clients. Make sure you are conveying an image of professionalism, care and success. This doesn’t mean you have to wear a designer suit every day. Be yourself, have your own flair, but make certain you and your team are well put-together, projecting an image you can be proud of.

Sometimes if can be uncomfortable to discuss dress code policy with employees – especially when they are not meeting your standards! Save yourself embarrassment later on by putting your dress code policy in writing and sharing it with candidates before you hire them.

Below is an example of some verbiage you can use in your own dress code policy:

All team members are to be neat, clean and presentable in appearance and dress. Business attire, and when appropriate, business casual attire is acceptable. Please refrain from the following items in your dress for work:

• Torn, faded or frayed clothing
• Clothing that is inappropriately sized (too small or too large)
• Gym shoes, or any workout, beach or swimming apparel
• Dresses or shirts that expose excessive cleavage, or midriff
• Strapless dresses or shirts
• Dresses or skirts with hemlines above mid-thigh
• T-shirts with logos or writing
• Unnatural hair colors, piercings other than in the ears, and black or non-traditional fingernail polish such as blue or sparkles.

Company Equipment

Within a professional setting, it is helpful to set clear guidelines on the usage of office equipment. In general, office equipment such as phones, faxes, printers, scanners and copiers should not be used for personal purposes. Maintaining these important office tools is often costly, and any unauthorized use can not only cut into your bottom line, but also take up valuable work time. It’s up to you if you want to allow the occasional personal usage of office equipment, with your permission. Just make sure the policy is clear, agreed upon, and adhered to by your entire team.

Setting these standards of dress and usage of company equipment in your office manual keep these issues professional instead of personal. It’s much better to have standards of conduct set from the beginning of your relationship with any employee or staff member, rather than have to make a comment or correction on an individual circumstance.

We hope you have a successful summer!

When an office functions at a high level of organization, you save time, money and frustration.  Being highly organized means your systems are in place, and many daily tasks are “automatic” in execution.  This frees you and your team up to put more energy into moving forward and allows your productivity to soar!

This month’s topic from the Office Procedural Manual Outline is Filing and Mailing System.

How many times have you or your team spent unnecessary minutes, or even hours, looking for a document or item that would have been easily found had it been filed properly?  Do you have pieces of mail, incoming or outgoing, that tend to fall through the cracks?  Stop that time-wasting pattern in its tracks by implementing a Filing and Mailing system that everyone uses and maintains.

Continuing with the Office Procedural Manual, this month we give you page 9, Filing and Mailing systems.  Below is a sample outline for filing and mailing systems and procedures.  You can use this as a starting point for your own system in your Office Manual.

Filing – Electronic Documents

• All documents will be saved in the appropriate existing Folders (i.e. Buyer Presentations, Correspondence, Listing Presentations, Market Research, etc.)
• Documents will be labeled in the following manner:  Folder.Name.Initials of Originator, for example BuyerPresentations.AgentBio.jm.

Filing – Physical Documents and Items

• An Alpha-Numeric System is used for our files.  In regards to property files, please file by Street Name first, Address numbers second.
• All documents will be filed with the most current in the forward most position in the file.
• Property files will be organized in the following sections and order:  property information, contracts, escrow documents, disclosures, reports, correspondence.
• Documents will be filed as soon as possible, and not later than 24 hours after receipt or origination.

Mailing

Out-going Mail

• We use four different types of mail services in our office; USPS Standard Rate, USPS Priority Rate, and Fed Ex and Messenger Service.
• Ask the agent which method is preferred, depending on recipient and urgency.
• USPS, Standard or Priority, use envelopes and mail meter stamp located in office supply room.
• Fed Ex, envelopes and labels with pre-printed account information are located in the supply room above the mail meter.  Complete label, affix to envelope or package, and give to front desk.
• Messenger, address package clearly, take to front desk and log delivery information in Messenger Log Book.

In-coming Mail

• All mail is to be open and distributed to the appropriate party the day it is received.
• Please save all marketing pieces for agent review.  We may want to save it as a sample.

The more specific you can be in your Office Procedural Manual the better.  Minimize questions and confusion with clarity.  When your filing and mailing systems are clearly outlined, these important daily tasks become streamlined and automatic for you and your entire office.  With a place for everything and everything in its place, you’ll be sure to know just where something is when you need it.

Here’s to working smarter!  We wish for you a highly organized and productive second half of your year.

Office Procedures_Filing and mailing systems

You go to social networking events, you trade business cards with people in the supermarket line, and you knock doors in your farm.  The crucial next step is getting those people you’ve already made contact with into your database!  Proper, continual management of your database is the lifeblood of your business.  With a clearly outlined database management system, you’ll never need to worry about letting a contact fall through the cracks. 

Ensuring your contacts are dealt with correctly means you are following through with the most important element of your business – lead generation.  And time is of the essence when trying to convert leads into clients.  A good database management system will help you implement appropriate plans of action for each and every contact, increasing your chances of them becoming the source of your next deal.

Continuing with the Office Procedural Manual, this month we give you page 8, Database Management.  Below is a sample outline of database system procedures.  You can use this as a starting point, or template, for your own system in your Office Manual.

• All business cards are put in Assistant’s In Box with a code denoting what contact group the contact belongs in.  Assistant should remind Agent to give them the new business cards every few days.  Assistant enters contacts and assigns to proper plan.
• Assistant cleans up database emails every month based on bounced back emails.
• Agent’s goal is to make 10 calls per day from the database.  Assistant will hand call list to agent every morning at 9am and enter notes and follow-up into the database by the end of the day.
• Do not add additional Contact Groups without consulting the team first. For ease of use, we use as few Contact Groups as possible.   Select the Contact Group that best fits the contact and then add a Note to provide more detail.  For example:
  • An Attorney would go under “Vendor” with a Note stating “Real Estate Attorney” (in our office we always say “attorney” and never “lawyer”
  • An out of state Realtor would go under “Realtor” with a Note stating “Out of State Realtor, New Jersey”
• We use four Action Plans in our database:
  • New Seller Lead – apply to Seller leads
  • New Buyer Lead – apply to Buyer leads
  • Year Long Touch Plan – apply to all Met contacts, after Buyer or Seller plan is complete
  • 5 yr Past Client Follow-up Plan – apply to all past clients after close of sale

Outline your database system and procedures as clearly as possible for your team and future staff.  Revise your outline as necessary to incorporate changes in your growing business. 

Office Manual: Database Management

For more guidance, or help getting your database system running smoothly, contact  ProREA Staffing for a consultation.

To your continued success!

Now that we are into the second quarter of the calendar year, we hope you have found a rhythm with your business and that all the work you poured into your business plan and systems set-up is paying off. 

If you have been following our blog this year you know that we are helping you build your Office Procedural Manual by presenting a piece of the Office Manual outline each month.  So far we have covered:

-          Non-disclosure Agreement / At Will Employment

-          Important Phone Numbers / Emergency Contacts

-          Phone Scripts & Messages

As with many businesses, creating client confidence by presenting a consistent and professional image is vital in real estate.  That image must be integrated with you and your entire team in the daily tasks of lead generation, contact management and client follow up.  Turning contacts into clients is your goal, and the next section of your Office Procedural Manual will help you do just that.

With this month’s newsletter we continue with pages 6 and 7, including –

VIP List

Scheduling

By making certain your whole team knows who your VIP’s are, you can be sure to sidestep some uncomfortable, or even costly, social and business snafus.  While every call should be treated with professional courtesy, attention and respect, there are those very important people in our lives who need to be handled in a speedy and special manner.  These are the people that you want to be pulled out of a meeting or tracked down for immediately if they call.  Include name and relationship on this list along with any pertinent notes about the person in your manual.   VIP’s want to be instantly recognized as important and handled accordingly.  Show them you are on top of your game by making sure they get the attention they expect and deserve.

Use the Scheduling section of your manual to help you and your team manage a smooth, functional schedule.  Clients and business associates notice when an agent has a well managed schedule.  Appointments are made and kept easily, very little rescheduling needs to occur, confirmation calls go out the day prior to an appointment, and the agent shows up on time.  A well managed schedule shows the agent is in control of their world.  Outline clearly what system is used, who is in charge, and what the procedure is for making appointments. 

Here is an example of what your Scheduling policy might look like:

We use Outlook for Calendar management.  Agent uses an iPhone which syncs automatically with the Outlook Calendar.  All team members can view the calendar by going to Calendar in Outlook and clicking on Team Calendar in the left hand bar.  Agent’s schedule is always in RED. 

The Agent’s personal and professional schedule is managed by the Executive Assistant.  All appointments and changes flow through the EA and no one, including the agent is allowed to make changes to the schedule without discussing it with the EA.   

Agent’s work day begins at 8:30am and ends at 6:30pm.  Uninterrupted prospecting time is MWTHF from 9am to 11am.  Agent returns calls at 11am and 5pm.  Agent attends office meeting every Tuesday at 9am.  Agent attends weekly team meeting at 4pm on Mondays. 

EA is responsible for bringing a week and month schedule snapshot to every Monday team meeting for Agent review.  Every day at 5pm the following day’s schedule is printed and handed to Agent, along with any files, contracts, directions, etc that she will need for the next day’s activities.  EA will have already verbally confirmed all in person meetings prior to delivering the schedule to Agent. 

If a last minute change is made to the schedule EA will call and text agent right away.   

Watch for our newsletter next month, as we continue with the next important topic in our manual – Database Management. 

For more help or specific suggestions on any of these items, contact ProREA Staffing. 

Office Procedural Manual: VIPs

Office Procedural Manual: Scheduling