TOC - Prelimprelim).pdfSteps to becoming a successful Agent Common characteristics of successful...

RealEstateChampions.com 1.877.732.4676 1


Success as a Real Estate Agent For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Cheat Sheet

Preface

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Acquiring the Keys to Real Estate Success

Chapter 1: Developing the Skills of a Successful Agent

The Proven Path to Real Estate Sales Success

Steps to becoming a successful Agent

Common characteristics of successful Agents

Sidebar: What realtors are and are not


Embracing the Sales Mindset

Selling is the name of the game

Acquiring the most important skill

Climbing the sales success ladder

Playing the Listings Game

Why become a listing Agent?

Using listings to leverage your way to income and

a quality lifestyle

The listing Agent’s unbeatable edge

Viewing Real Estate as an Odds-Based Business

Swinging the Odds to Your favor

Chapter 2: Residential versus Commercial: Deciding

Which Type of Real Estate is Right for You

Sizing Up the Differences between Residential and Commercial

Realtors

Comparing apples and oranges

What is residential real estate?

What is commercial real estate?

Weighing advantages and disadvantages


Pros and cons of a commercial real estate

specialty

Pros and cons of a residential real estate

specialty

Chart or Table: Residential and commercial

real estate advantages, disadvantages, and

differences at-a-glance

Selecting Your Specialty

Evaluating your risk tolerance

Taking the 7-question litmus test

Choosing your field

Sidebar: Developing a Commercial Real Estate Specialty

Changing Your Focus

Moving from residential to commercial

Moving from commercial to residential

Chapter 3: Matching Up With the Right Agency

Comparing Different Types of Agencies

Large firms

Small firms


Independent firms

Franchise firms

Who’s Who and Who Does What in an Agency

Principle broker

Broker/Owner

Broker associate

Sales agents

Office managers

Receptionist

Listing coordinator

Closing coordinator

Knowing the Rules

Understanding the rules of the house

Standard operating procedure

Commission split arrangements

100% commission arrangements

Weighing Your Agency Options

Attributes of a good office

Does size really matter?

Prioritizing your values and expectations

Creating Your Agency Short List


Doing your homework

Interviewing broker managers: 12 questions to ask

Making agency comparisons

And the winner is . . .

Joining Your New Agency Team

Building a relationship with your manager

Your manager’s role in your success

Earning respect from your manager

Earning respect from your peers

Forming partnerships

Working with agents in your office

Cooperating with agents in your marketplace

Key office personnel

Strategic partners

Chapter 4: Researching and Understanding Your

Marketplace

Taking Advantage of the Value of Marketplace Knowledge

Collecting marketplace information

Industry resources


National resources

Regional and local resources

Analyzing the facts and figures

Compiling a marketplace analysis

Projecting trends on the horizon

Putting Your Findings to Work

Sharing your market research to build prospect

relationships

Distributing your findings to gain publicity

Taking your findings on the regional lecture circuit

Part II: Prospecting for Buyers and Sellers

Chapter 5: Prospecting Your Way to Listings and Sales

What Prospecting Is -- and Isn’t

Prospecting defined

The purpose of prospecting

Prospecting for listings

Prospecting for buyers

The difference between passive and active prospecting


The Four Pillars of Prospecting

Putting Prospecting to Work

How prospecting works

Targeting prospects

Going after the right people

Setting and achieving goals and objectives

Making contact

Understanding and conveying your value

statement

Sidebar: The Hierarchy of value

Shattering the myths

There is no magic pill

If it seems to good to be true

Top producers don’t prospect

My clients don’t want to be bothered

Finding Safety and Success in Numbers

The law of accumulation

Consistency creates prospects – and cash

The never-ending prospecting cycle

Keeping Track of Your Prospect Contacts

Staying in Touch


Keeping Your Pipeline Full

Chapter 6: Mining Gold from Referrals

Building a Referral-Based Clientele

What is a referral?

Sources of referrals

Current clients

Past clients

Networking

Business and social contacts

Three golden rules for referrals

1. Be referable

2. Mine your contacts

3. Leverage your relationships

Developing Your Referral Strategy

Defining the type of referrals you seek

Setting your goal

Targeting your referral sources

Listing, evaluating, and tracking referrals: Popping

the question


Approaching your referral sources

Asking the right questions at the right time

Making the request

Skills development

Sample scripts

Keeping it simple: Referral request do’s and don’ts

Establishing Relationships with Referrals

Making first-time contact

Knowing the objective of your call or visit

Using the name of your referral source to

open doors

Sample scripts

Converting referrals into clients or referral sources

Personal visits and calls

Written notes, email messages and mailers

Newsletters

Printing and mailing newsletters

Sending e-newsletters to opt-in mailing

lists

Client Appreciation Events


Chapter 7: Winning Business from Expired and FSBO

Listings

Turning Bad Listings to Good Business: The ABCs of Expired

Listings

What constitutes an expired listing?

Why and how to engage an expired listing

What to say and how to say it

Sales skills

Sample scripts

Working an uneven playing field

Entering the For-Sale-By-Owner World

How FSBOs work

How to find FSBOs

The Successful Agent’s Approach to Converting Listings

Organizing your plan of attack

Targeting your prospects

Defining your territory

Making contact

Putting the postman to work

Dialing for dollars


Overcoming rejection and staying resilient

Sidebar: When most salespeople quit

The game of lead follow-up

Getting face to face

Building relationships

Honing your competitive skills

Outflanking competitors and FSBOs

Getting through the door

Face-to-face encounters

Mail contacts

Providing service to cement relationships

Losing the battle but winning the war

Chapter 8: The Ultimate Prospecting Tool: Planning

and Hosting a Successful Open House

Why Host an Open House?

A chance to meet potential clients face to face

A way to meet the needs of dual-income families

A means of catering to the do-it-yourselfer’s home

buying needs


Setting and Achieving Open House Objectives

Planning Open Houses to Gain Maximum Exposure

Featuring a high-appeal home

Leveraging the power of street appeal

Landscaping

Paint color

Creating a neighborhood event

Featuring a home with an upper-middle price point

Leading prospects to the open house

Managing the Open House

Before prospects arrive

Be ready to present the home you’re featuring

Be ready to discuss other available properties

Shoo the homeowners out the door

Implementing last-minute open house touches

During the open house

Following the open house

Chapter 9: Presenting and Closing Listing Contracts

Qualifying Your Prospects


Why and how to qualify prospects

Checking your prospect’s “DNA”

D for Desire

N for Need

A for Ability and Authority

Presenting to Qualified Prospects

Creating a quality presentation

Knowing your purpose and key points

Making it useful and interesting

Keeping it short and sweet

Four steps to a great delivery

Conviction

Enthusiasm

Confidence

Assertiveness

Staying in control

Setting the agenda early-on

Following a structure for success

Dealing with Sales Objections

Delaying objections

Handling objections in four easy steps


The power of the pause

Acknowledging concerns

Isolating concerns

Responding with confidence

Asking for the Order

Bringing the Presentation to a Natural Conclusion

Part III: Developing a Winning Sales Strategy

Chapter 10: Determining a Home’s Ideal List Price

Conducting a Competitive Market Analysis

What is a CMA?

Creating a short-cut CMA

Using the CMA as your primary pricing tool

Weighing the CMA factors

Sold properties

Pending properties

Active properties

Expired listings

Taking CMA results with a grain of salt


Developing Your Pricing Philosophy

Getting the listing at any cost

Starting high and reducing later

Coming in on-the-button

Sidebar: The Magic Marketing FormulaFive Steps to

Successful Price Reductions

Rules to Follow When Taking Over-Priced Listings

Chapter 11: Getting the House Ready for Showing

Counseling Clients on Home Improvements

Improvements that contribute to the sales price

Improvements to skip

Passing the Curb Appeal Test

Landscaping

Exterior paint condition and color

Prepping the Interior of the Home

Staging the home

Removing clutter

Simplifying traffic flow

Toning it down


What “stuff” to keep and what to remove

Ways to make a difference without getting carried

away

House clean-up checklist

Final Ways to Make a Great First Impression

Enhancing the first glance

Letting the buyer “move in”

Tips of the home-showing trade

Chapter 12: Marketing Properties Online and in Print

Creating Your Marketing Message

Positioning the property

Why positioning is important

How to develop the property’s positioning

statement

Writing high-impact advertising copy

Defining your target audience

Emphasizing benefits versus features

Calling for action – now!

Staying legal


Federal Fair Housing Law basics

Advice to follow

Examples to avoid

Promoting Properties Using Flyers

Creating successful inside-the-home flyers

Creating successful outside-the-home flyers

Design and production tips

Spreading the Word Online

Using Realtor.com

Putting your Agency’s Web site to work

Creating your own Web site

Deciding whether or not to build a site

Attributes of a good site

Using a Web site template

Creating a customized site

Enhancing Exposure via Virtual Tours

Producing a virtual tour

Steps to follow

Mistakes to avoid

Resources

Leading prospects to your virtual tour


Including a virtual tour with your listing

Embedding your Web site link into the tour

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

Taking digital photos

Capturing the best images

Choosing the best shots

Featuring enough (yet not too many) photos

Chapter 13: Negotiating the Contract and Closing the

Deal

Preparing for the Final Step

Setting the right tone

Keys to representing a seller

Keys to representing a buyer

Advice for partnering with the other agent

Advancing or Accepting an Offer

Extending a seller’s low offer

Extending a buyer’s low offer

Dealing with receipt of a low offer

Taking the insult out of an insulting offer

Getting beyond emotion


Turning concessions into victories

Dealing with I-win-you-lose clients

Creating a win for all

Reaching and Closing the Deal

Forming a Closing Team and Working With the Players

The loan officer

The home inspector

The appraiser

The escrow closer

Avoiding Derailment

Three choke points of a closing

1. Underwriting of the buyer’s loan

2. Repairs, repairs, repairs

3. Documentation and verification

Timing is Everything

Reading buying signals

Moving at the right moment

Making the transaction easy


Part IV: Running a Successful Real Estate Business

Chapter 14: Staking Your Competitive Position

Calculating and Analyzing Real Estate’s Big Three Statistics

Average list price to sales price

Average days on the market

Average listings taken versus listings sold-

Interpreting the Findings

Determining sales trends

Comparing the performance of other agencies and

agents

Comparing sales numbers and sales volume

Comparing agent productivity

Assessing your own performance against market-area

statistics

Pinpointing your competitive advantage and market

niche

Increasing Your Slice of the Market

What is market share?

How to calculate market share

How to increase penetration in your market


How to gain dominance in your market niche

Conveying Your Competitive Advantage in Prospect

Presentations

Defining your unique competitive position

Proving your excellence: You don’t get paid for second

place

Chapter 15: Building Credibility and Trust

Building Credibility

What buyers want

What sellers want

Techniques for raising your credibility quotient

Gaining Trust

Why realtors struggle to achieve trust

Overcoming built-in obstacles: Trust-development

techniques

Using questions to build trust

Using confirmation processes to ensure

you’re on the same page


Chapter 16: Keeping Clients for Life

Calculating Your Ideal Client’s Lifetime Value

The value of a transaction

The value of a referral

The value of a testimonial

The value of repeat business

Achieving Relationship Excellence

Knowing what you stand for

Promising, then flawlessly delivering

Viewing the closing as a starting point, not a finish

line

Creating After-the-Sale Service

Setting a service agenda for the first 30 days after

the sale

Establishing an ongoing communication strategy

Using direct mail

Staying in touch via e-mail

Picking up the phone

Showing appreciation

The power of a thank you note


The difference between unique and

one-size-fits all

Exceeding expectations

Creating different approaches for different clients

One-time or transactional clients

Long-time or relationship clients

Establishing Awesome Service

Developing a service plan

Surprising clients with thoughtful gestures

Exceeding even your own high standards

Extending extra touches that create gold

Chapter 17: Maximizing Your Time

Spending Less Time to Accomplish More

Treating time as your most valuable asset

Reorienting your mindset

Starting to work smarter, not harder

Understanding Pareto’s Principle: The 80-20 Rule

Making time for the things that impact your

success


Weighting your time to what matters

Focusing on income-producing activities

Addressing production-support challenges

Setting an 11:00 rule

Avoiding time-consuming fires

Time-Blocking Your Way to Success

Setting your schedule in time blocks

Blocking an appointment time for every task

Avoiding time-blocking mistakes

Killing the Time Killer Called Procrastination

Moving forward with a clear vision

Knowing your objectives

Setting your priorities

Giving yourself deadlines and rewards

Carpe Diem: Seize Your Day

Stop wasting time

Stop letting others waste your time

Manage interruptions

Keep phone calls short

Use your car to gain efficiency and career

advancement


Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 18: Ten Essential Tools for a Successful Real

Estate Agent

Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Landing a Listing

Chapter 20: Ten Tips for Making a Sale

Chapter 21: Ten Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid

Them

Chapter 22: Ten Best Web Sites for Real Estate

Index and Back Matter

Total page count = 384 pages

TOC - Prelimprelim).pdfSteps to becoming a successful Agent Common characteristics of successful...

Documents

Transcript of TOC - Prelimprelim).pdfSteps to becoming a successful Agent Common characteristics of successful...