Real Estate Relish

A few weeks ago, I went with two of my colleagues to look at some new office space in Ft. Lauderdale. After a few hours of getting “the lay of the land” as we are new to the area…we decided to look at homes to see the price points, and what we might be able to afford.As we were driving through a particularly pretty area, we noticed a sign for an Open House, and decided to stop and look, as there were two homes across the street from each other.

When we went into the small house, the agent who was there told us about it, and the fact that it was owned by a family who’d recently inherited it. Their father never updated it, and it was in pretty rough condition. The agent agreed on our assessment and that the price was high, because of all of the upgrades it needed.Then she showed us the upgraded home across the street. It was twice as expensive, was fully finished and on the water.

Along the way, we mentioned that our price range was approximately the cost of the “home in need of help”. As we left, and traded cards with her…I was wondering how I would feel if I’d heard her comments as the owner of the fixer upper home. I guess I wouldn’t want to list my property with her for a couple of reasons: 1) She didn’t tell the prospects about the wonderful opportunities for the home, like the huge backyard, the possibility of building out the kitchen, and the fact that it was a small home on a street with large ones. 2) She made the owner sound “cheap” by not fixing the place up.

Maybe they weren’t in a position to do so, or maybe they didn’t want to upgrade after their father passed away.It all brought to mind some people I’d met recently when I did a speech at the Luxury Portfolio Meeting at the Boca Raton Hotel. All those top realtors selling high end properties seemed like they were honest, straightforward and had good characters. I chatted with them about their families, careers.

No one put anyone down, even their competitors. It is like when you do RIGHT, good things happen.I’ve seen the same type of good chaaracter in the halls of top corporations when I’ve met with clients at JP Morgan Chase, American Express and others. The folks at the top (for the most part, of course) are decent human beings.

So, I’m thinking on my realestaterelish.com blog, and on activerain, that it might sound preachy, and I don’t care. Good character can be noticed in the way that you treat your customers, your prospects, your colleagues, friends and family.Just for a few days, take note of the people you meet and respect. Look at our Presidential candidates. Who would you want your children to emulate? Then maybe button your lip when you have the impulse to gossip, or tell a client about an owner, or anything that will reflect negatively on you. After all, in real estate, YOU are your BRAND. Make it shine with good character.

I was talking to my assistant the other day, on the way to a meeting and she told me about her friend who is doing great.

This friend of hers came to our seminar on Marketing for Realtors and I liked her immediately. She took notes, followed up with me, and was just new to real estate. Privately, I thought it might be a real struggle for her to make it in this Miami market, now when she didn’t have many connections, and was starting from square one.

So, I was surprised when Amanda told me that she had several closings this week. How is she doing it, I asked. Amanda answered that many of the buyers were referrals, and she was simply plugging away, and following up on every lead.

That is a great lesson for us all. Last Thursday night we had dinner with several people and one of them told me that she is an illustrator. Well, being in marketing, we are usually looking for good young talent…so I told her to email me some of her work. I asked her for her email address, but she had no card and no pen. Well, she didn’t get back to me, and I was disappointed.  And, she lost an opportunity.

So, maybe the magic of all of this business for Joanne is that she does meticulous follow-up with every prospect. Perhaps she’s set up a database of her former clients and keeps in touch with them, and asks if they know people looking for homes. Maybe she drops notes to owners whose homes she’d like to list, and then calls them afterwards.

It is not rocket science. It works…always. Maybe we should take a lesson from Joanne.

Dear Readers,

Today I’ve invited my dear friend, Andrea Nierenberg to post here on Relish. She is a great speaker, trainer and educator for many major corporations in America. She’s the author of Million Dollar Networking, and Non-Stop Networking. Today she’s writing to us about being an effective real estate agent…and relishing your job every day.
Here’s Andrea…..

Raising Your Sales to The Next Level

Standing in front of over 100 seasoned realtors on ‘raising your sales to the next level’, I thought—I might be in for an interesting challenge!!

I decided to make it fun as I always try to do in my sessions and crafted an interactive discussion, which at the end all realized was the easy to remember ‘acronym’ of REAL ESTATE

What started out as a tough group—see picture above—turned into ‘children of the world’

Think of the following every day—this is all ‘common sense—just not always common practice’ which I find is usually not that common!!

R-Relate to your customer-develop a rapport and take the time because it leads to a relationship and referrals!! The lifeblood of our business!

E-Have energy and enthusiasm on each call. You never know who you are meeting, who they know and how they can become a client. Some people show their emotions on their face that almost say “you will never buy” and then they are surprised when they find out the person buys from their competitor.

A-Ask your clients and prospects open ended questions. Learn about them, their interests, and show some articulation in your voice. The more you know and show interest in them, the more they will want to work with you and buy from you and refer you!

L-Listen!! Easy to say, and hard to put into practice. Most of us hear, and don’t really listen. We think we do, yet we have that internal voice going 90 miles an hour so we are blocking out what they are asking and telling us—what they want and how we can work with them. Listening creates loyalty!!!!!

E-This is all a process and a period of ‘evolution’ –it takes time to develop these relationships and it all sounds easy and almost elementary—do what I call ‘execution’ –put all of these and your other tips and techniques into consistent practice

S-Smile and look like you are happy every time you go on a call or meeting. Show them the apartments with a feeling of success as you walk in the door and greet them—the end result is hopefully a ‘sale’

T-Talk less and listen more—when you do so and this takes time, you will develop trust with your client and remember, this all can result in more sales and referrals.

A-Actively stay in touch. Don’t think it, do it! Find ways and Always be inquisitive and growing learning all you can about your business, your clients and your properties.Turn your clients into your best advocates—they will continue to refer you.

T-Timing is everything—you just never know when that time will be—so you have to consistently be working and thinking and ‘you never know’. It may take one call or one interaction to connect with a great client or it might take years. There is no way of totally ‘knowing’. Remember what Charles Revson said’
“50% of my advertising doesn’t work—I just don’t know which 50%” so—you have to consider ‘timing’ to be 24/7!

E-This is all ‘evergreen’, classic—never goes out of style. You just have to do it!!
Sounds easy—the action and consistent action is the hard part.

The most successful salespeople I know continually go back to the basics and find ways to fine tune them and grow from them and share their success with their partners, friends, teams and mentees.

There truly is enough business for everyone—just continue to build on what you already have!

By Lois Geller

When I was invited to speak at this event, I knew that everyone there sold luxury real estate. I guess I was curious if the brokers themselves were luxury people. A funny question.

I wondered whether they started at the bottom selling mobile homes then worked their way up to starter homes, ranch homes and so on until one day they were showing places on Star Island. Or does this kind of realtor start at the top? Are they somehow to the manor born? Do they mingle freely with rich folks so they get the inside track on who’s buying and who’s selling?

I wasn’t at all sure that my down to earth style of speaking would appeal to the champagne swilling, caviar scoffing, Bentley driving set. And what would I wear?

If you’ve ever heard me speak at a venue like Coldwell Banker, Prudential Douglas Elliman, the Lore Real Trends Conference or any of dozens of other conferences, you know that I love getting out of Mason & Geller, my direct marketing agency, to teach new things to a lot of people, and make new friends. But this Luxury Portfolio group had me second guessing myself before I even got there.

I worried for naught. They were wonderful.

At the beginning of the conference, we toured three magnificent homes, each available for a mere $19,000,000 or $20,000,000.

One of them had a sensational spa. Another had a collection of sports memorabilia that was like the best of Cooperstown, Canton and Springfield all in one.

We all had dinner in the in the garden in one of these mansions, overlooking the Intracoastal, of course. I had the chance to meet some of the attendees and compare notes about the homes we’d seen. They were really so nice and down-to-earth and they all seemed to know one another. It was an easy evening.

The next day, I learned a lot about the group from the speakers who preceded me, and I learned how luxury brands work together, and how luxury realtors can help their buyers with their selections and recommendations for changes. (Now I definitely want a Christopher Peacock kitchen in my apartment.)

Then I gave my keynote speech. It was based on my book, Customers for Keeps, about how to build long-term relationships with clients and prospects. I talked about keeping in touch with buyers and sellers after the sale and about some of their websites which I’d checked out in the previous week - what I liked about them and what I thought could be improved.

Later, dozens of attendees gave me their cards and asked me to keep in touch, which I’ll do. Some had specific marketing questions they wanted me to answer then and there, but, sadly, I had to leave for another engagement and flew out the door.

When I got back to my office, I learned something very interesting about these successful top agents: they were appreciative and already had terrific follow-up. I received dozens of emails thanking me for the information and advice. Then I started getting phone calls and letters. Some agents told me they’d already started implementing a few of the things I’d talked about. Five people just wrote to say thanks.

Now I know more about luxury agents. They make the extra effort to do something special. Yes, they wrote to me on nice stationery; some notes were typed, some were hand-written but they all meant the world to me. They already knew how to keep customers and make them friends forever. I just reinforced what they already knew well. Maybe, in some cases, luxury really means class.

It was an honor to speak to these wonderful people, all of whom seem, at the very least, to have been to the manner born.

The story of the Trolls.

The Tröllie Awards started when Lois K. Geller taught direct marketing at New York University.  She encouraged her students to respond to questions or to offer ideas by awarding lucky trolls to brave souls. When students began competing for trolls, she brought the idea to her seminars, boot camps and speeches around the world and her troll awards, Tröllies, quickly became her trademark.

Often, Lois would find herself in venues like the Javits Center in New York or McCormick Place in Chicago and people would make a point of telling her that they’d won trolls years earlier … and still had them!  One man said that his troll was the only thing he’d ever won in his life.

In December, 2007, Lois was speaking at the Yale Club in New York and one of the audience members volunteered an answer then asked “How come I don’t win a troll?”

So now the Tröllies have joined RealEstateRelish.com because a) they’re lucky, and b) they’re memorable like we want your marketing programs to be.

Real Estate Tröllies will be awarded throughout the year for outstanding real estate marketing programs in any medium: Direct Mail, Print, Internet, E-mail, even Billboards and Posters. Innovation helps, charm helps, but ultimately results rule. Entering is as easy as 1-2-3.  Just:

1. Write up the objective of your Program and describe your strategy and tactics;

2. Share the results, either as an “index” or as a percentage or dollar gain;

3. Send your entries to: Lois K. Geller, Mason and Geller, 1400 Marina Drive,                Hollywood, Fl. 33019 or email loisgeller@masongeller.com

Good Luck.  We hope you win many Tröllies and that your story appears on the SUCCESS page of RealEstateRelish.com

by Lois Geller

Real estate agents tend to use the same creative quite often. How about testing some new ideas? Take a chance. Do something new…and have some fun!

Here are some tried and test ideas will help you boost response.

1. Know who you are! A unique brand personality makes you stand out, makes people like you, makes them want to do business with you. It is more than your photo, it is your BRAND, like Target is a brand. You want to consider a “look” for all your marketing and advertising pieces, and that same look should also extend to your office.

So that you’ll be memorable. While you’re developing your brand, consider what you’re best at doing. Are you a specialist in waterfront property? If you are, maybe consider using that as your ‘tag-line’ under your company name.

2. Include some kind of letter. Even a fake “on-page” letter in a self-mailer or catalog. Packages with letters outperform letter-less mail 99% of the time. Even a boring, self-serving letter can be better than no letter. A well-written, 1 to 1 letter with some personality in it is better than anything. Get a pro to help you. It’s important.

Lose the postcards. They do not work as well as letters do! Continue reading →

By Lois Geller (Chapter 11 is from Sold! Direct Marketing For the Real Estate Professional)

We considered centralizing the marketing function, but our people are independent contractors and they want to do their own thing. Besides, if the company does the mailing, who gets the lead?

We used to get calls when people were looking to buy or sell multi-million dollar apartments. Those people don’t call very often now,because they don’t want to give you their name and telephone number.

They’d say, “I don’t want to tell you, because I’m not sure I want to work with you yet.”

The calls that come in are usually for small apartments, like studios.The agents usually don’t care that much about them and that is a mistake . . . because in reality, we should be working with people from cradle to grave. (Again, emphasis mine. LKG.) Continue reading →