Take Your Real Estate Business to a New Level

Are you a motivated Realtor who

would like to build a successful
real estate business?

Are you a real estate professional
ready to build a successful team?

Ever feel like you are stuck in the
whirlwind of the real estate business,
never seeming to get ahead?

Would you like a partner in creating
systems that will create real success
in your real estate business?

If you answered YES to any of these
questions, then a pro real estate coach may
be just what you have been searching for.

Take our Are You Coachable Quiz
to see if Coaching is right for You.

We work with real estate agents, brokers, loan officers and managers to help them achieve real success in their business and in life.

We work with individuals who are looking to make a quantum leap in their business.

Through a proven method of positive accountability with an experienced proven coach, you will set and achieve goals far above what you ever imagined possible while living a life of balance and fulfillment you once thought unattainable.

Make this the year you take your business and life to the Next Level !

Contact Us Today!

Coaching and training for real estate agents

Business growth begins with personal growth.

Whether you are looking to expand your own business, or build a successful team, coaching will give you the extra boost you have been looking for in your business. Sometimes we get caught up in how busy and stressful our industry can be. Whether it's time management, team management, goal setting, or budget plans, we can lose sight of what our own goals are, preventing us from attaining the success that we want and deserve.

Coaching will help you keep your goals in line.

No matter how busy you are, or how slow your business is, staying on track with your business plan will ensure that you are ready for anything and that you are always moving forward. As we all know, the real estate market is constantly fluctuating. Staying consistently afloat and never losing sight of the horizon will not only keep your business alive, it will give you results you never imagined possible. It's difficult to do all of this alone, especially when it seems like the market will never get better. You need a coach to inspire, direct, and train you toward a method of planning for both peaks and valleys in your business.

Support, Accountability, Success

As a real estate agent, you know what it's like to work completely on your own. Independently working gives you freedom, but it also gives you isolation from the accountability that most occupations are surrounded by. Your real estate coach will support you in your business endeavors so that you don't feel like you're completely on your own. However, your coach will also hold you accountable so that you don't lose sight of your goals and the steps that you need to take to achieve them. This type of support and accountability that real estate coaches provide is the key to your success.

Contact Us for more Information about Real Estate Coaching

Grow To Greatness in Real Estate
TIME MANAGEMENT AND DELEGATION
By Cheri Alguire Remember the “best made plans of mice and men often go astray?” The old adage applies readily to your business plan if you do not manage your time effectively and/or delegate activities when needed. You can have the most inspirational vision, the tightest budget, the most sensible production plan, but if you do don’t have the time or resources (staff) to accomplish the goals, you are little better off than when you started. To better understand the importance of the concept of time management, take a look at how you spend you time when working. Begin with a work day and then expand your analysis to the entire week. How much time do you spend “IN” the business? This refers to the crucial everyday details of the job. It includes the showings, the opens, the listing appointments, and the negotiation of contracts. How much time do you spend on the technical aspects of the business? The accounting, the scheduling, the entering of data and working on files? Without question, this can take the lion’s share of any given work day. However, danger awaits you if that is the case. Working “ON” the business is vital if your business is to ultimately succeed and cannot be ignored. These tasks include management of the business and visionary activities. It includes mentoring, motivating, training and tracking accountability. It also includes “the big picture” activities like studying, reading, attending speakers and seminars. The problem with working ON the business is that it is too easily set aside for the daily “put out the fire” duties of tending to clients and paperwork. But that is why it is critical to create a physical time management plan that you abide as religiously as your budget. Chart it out, mark it in your Outlook calendar, and pay attention to it. Similarly, you must think ahead in terms of the number of tasks that have to be completed to successfully make your business run. You cannot do it alone. Again, you cannot do it alone. (At least, not for very long.) Remember early on in the business planning process, we referred you to THE E-MYTH? Revisit it again in order to (re-)learn the lesson of wearing all the hats. Probably the best way to delegate the work load of the business is to create and refer to the resources chart and written job descriptions. If it’s not your job—delegate! If the person responsible isn’t doing the job, confront the problem and replace him/her as needed. You are running a business. Without delegating responsibility, you are doomed to crash and burn. And you won’t be having any fun, either. Coach Cheri Alguire has helped hundreds of Super Small Business Owners, Realtors, Managers and Coaches create Business and Life Plans. Check out http://RealEstateBusinessPlanningGuide.com or http://www.SmallBusinessPlanningGuide.com/ contact us today at http://www.CheriAlguire.com

Business Planning Tip: the Production Plan can be more effective if you plan for the stuff behind the numbers
By Cheri Alguire Like the budget, writing a production plan for success is a lot about numbers. Black and white. Hours, dollars, and widgets. There is a sensible layout to follow. You map out the big picture by breaking down your transactions to quarterly and monthly goals. You examine the buyer sales, listing sales, and number of new listings it takes to produce the income needed to support the budget. Easy, right? Well, straightforward, maybe. Easy, no. Production planning is as much about problem solving and perspective as it is about the numbers. Why? Because you know you will not always hit your numbers. (If you do, you probably were not challenging yourself enough during the visioning process.) And not hitting the numbers obviously means you have a problem. You may be overspending the budget and/or underproducing the income. Not hitting the numbers for an entire quarter might not just mean a problem, but a genuine crisis. So it is important when production planning to focus not just on target numbers, but on the potential problems related to production so that you can plan proactively to stay in business with a smile. Lets look at some Givens. #1 You are in control of more than you think. If you chart the numbers for first quarter and fall short, what do you do? (First of all, you always review the numbers.) If first quarter is lean, be prepared for you and others to blame outside influences. Oh, the market. Oh, those fickle buyers. Oh, those unrealistic, so-and-so sellers. Oh, those banks. Slap yourself and your teammates awake! The market is what the market is. Buyers and Sellers are simply responding to it. YOU are the expert. YOU need to take control. Take control of their expectations. Take control of your own emotions. Adjust your numbers if necessary for the rest of the year, but take control of your sales. If you were successful before this market, there is absolutely no reason you can’t be successful now. You have the experience and the skills. If you are new to this market, you have no excuse to be anything but successful because you don’t know the difference! If you were three sales short in the first quarter, plan now what it takes to make up those three in quarter two. #2 There are some things you cannot control. Let go! A teammate’s sudden divorce is going to affect your business. No doubt about it. Can you influence that event? No. (Even if you offer the unhappy couple an all-paid expenses weekend at the Poconos in a heart-shaped tub, their relationship will not change because of your generosity and desperate attempt at keeping your top buyer agent happy and productive.) Curse fate all you like, but know that the teammate will have court dates, down days, and need extra time off to be with the kids. Let go off the idea that life is unfair and provide as best you can for the loss in production through your own efforts or added staff. Know that these things happen. Deal. #3 Not to overuse and abuse the often quoted, Attitude is Everything, but it is. The mindset you get up with every day determines the success of your production plan. Is the market everything you read about in the papers or hear about on the TODAY SHOW? Is the sky really falling? If you believe it, your numbers certainly will reflect that view, (and you will need to hope that your spouse doesn’t mind supporting you for some time to come.) On the other hand, if you wake up each day seeing opportunity and, yes, fun in the current real estate market, your numbers will bloom and grow with every positive step. It’s not a Pollyanna world, but neither is it Oscar the Grouches. Your perspective determines outcome. Plan for the numbers. Plan for the problems. Plan for success. --------------------- Coach Cheri Alguire has helped hundreds of Super Small Business Owners, Realtors, Managers and Coaches create Business and Life Plans. Check out http://RealEstateBusinessPlanningGuide.com or http://www.SmallBusinessPlanningGuide.com/ contact us today at http://www.CheriAlguire.com

Budget: A Necessary Part of a Good Real Estate Business Plan
Budget: A Necessary Part of a Good Business Plan By Cheri Alguire With the constant bad news about the economy, everyone is talking budget these days as if it were a new and exciting phenomenon—just discovered! How to save a buck How to budget for a successful future How to make your dollar stretch the farthest The truth is that there is nothing new, trendy, or sexy about budgeting. A well-planned budget is simply the most practical aspect of your business plan—and one of the most important. It’s also not that much fun. But if you think about it, if you have completed the other parts of your business planning guide, you’ve done the hard part already. You’ve already analyzed where you spent your money last year and how well it returned your investment. You’ve articulated the vision for your business in the next year, five years, and ten. You’ve written down the action steps to achieve that goal. Now it’s just a matter of the numbers. The easiest way to tackle this job is with a good software program like QuickBooks, but you can also manage the old-fashioned way, by hand on a chart, if that’s what it takes to get you started. The budget records your total income, gross and net. It includes the numbers for your current expenses, plus those you anticipate adding under your new vision. It breaks down the expenses and itemizes them so that nothing is overlooked, creating a potential drain on your cash flow down the line. And remember: cash flow is the goal. When the numbers are complete, if you don’t like the result, you need to remember to reevaluate the plan. If your marketing exceeds your income, for example, then you must make a decision: slash the marketing budget or make more money. Either way, your budget needs to “show you the money.” Approach #1: Gary Keller reminds us to “lead with revenue” when budgeting. He cautions only to spend the money that the business has generated and avoid the “Field of Dreams” mentality of expecting business to materialize if you spend enough money on marketing, desk staff, quality equipment, etc. Approach #2: Write down the number of marketing dollars you will need for the next year to reach your goal then do the math. How many lists will you need to carry in order to create that cash flow? How many will you need to sell? How many buy sides? Those are your numbers to live by. Truth be told, a combination of these approaches is probably the wisest course, but regardless, the budget is the budget and you stick to it. (That’s the unsexy part.) But don’t worry about that because this axiom can serve you well when some annoying vendor tries to convince you that you really must buy his refrigerator magnets by the gross with your logo embossed on them in order to be a success at the next home show. You now have your ready-made excuse: “oh, we set our marketing budget last October.” The budget might not seem to be your best friend at times, but it should be your wisest adviser—the one you trust with your most important decisions. Accordingly, spend enough time with it to do it, and yourself, justice. Your business, and your profit/loss statement, will thank you. --------------------- Coach Cheri Alguire has helped hundreds of Super Small Business Owners, Realtors, Managers and Coaches create Business and Life Plans. Check out http://RealEstateBusinessPlanningGuide.com or http://www.SmallBusinessPlanningGuide.com/ contact us today at http://www.CheriAlguire.com

Why a Development Plan is Critical to Your Real Estate Business Plan for Next Year
By Cheri Alguire It is almost time to begin creating your Business Plan for next year. One important part that is often overlooked is what I call the Development Plan. A Development Plan helps you to look at your overall business in different specific areas. A great story is told by Jeffrey J. Fox in HOW TO BECOME A MARKETING SUPERSTAR. It is the story of Pablo Picasso, dining at an elite New York City restaurant and being approached by a socialite who presumes to ask him for a drawing. Fox relates, “Picasso grabbed some paper, and with pen and pencil, promptly sketched the waiters passing parfaits. As the woman reached for the sketch, Pablo Picasso said, ‘Madame. That will be $10,000.’ Shocked, she replied, ‘But that only took you five minutes.’ ‘No, Madame,’ replied Senor Picasso, ‘it took me fifty years.’” Fox tells the story as a parable for understanding—and charging--your worth. (And come to think of it, that part of the lesson applies here, too: a solid development plan will help you avoid the folly of cutting your commission fees.) But we recognize Picasso’s remark about the fifty years as a clear symbol of the value of a development plan. It takes time to plan, but the plan should have long-lasting consequences that shape the course of your business down the road and, ultimately, your desired profit. A development plan, in effect, defines your practice. A development plan can be as simple as a list. But it is an essential list. On this list you need to itemize the changes needed in the next year to improve your business. On it you should include: Marketing and Lead Systems What kind do you need to bring in the number of leads? Sales and Servicing Systems Technology What about Facebook? What about Twitter? What about Texting? People and Staffing Do you need an office manager? Support Systems Training Policies What are they? And are they written down? Procedures Ditto Team Development Retreats Celebrations Training New Ideas What is next? This is the place where you name your dreaming: what is it that you want to create? To revise and perfect? To research? To implement? What kinds of systems and practices do you want to employ? What people and roles? At the development stage, you may be looking at assistants, additional agents, coaches, mentors, equipment, programs, and education. (Budget concerns are for another day.) In development, we identify what it will take to produce your desired outcomes. Put them in place, and the path toward your business future is paved. --------------------- Coach Cheri Alguire has helped hundreds of Super Small Business Owners, Realtors, Managers and Coaches create Business and Life Plans. Check out http://RealEstateBusinessPlanningGuide.com or contact us today at http://www.CheriAlguire.com

Real Estate Scripts: FSBO Objections
By Cheri Alguire I am often asked, “What do you say when a For Sale By Owner seller says [asks]…?” I always have an answer for every FSBO objection, but only because I have the advantage of both knowledge and skill over the FSBO seller. Here is a list of common FSBO seller objections and a quick follow-up statement for the listing agent. They say: “I’ll save money. I won’t have to pay realtor commissions.” You say: “Well, you may save a portion of the commissions; did you know that over 90% of the For Sale By Owner homes are sold by realtors?” (FSBO response) “So, we are really talking about saving the seller side of the commission. Is it worth saving a small percent of the sales price, knowing you will eliminate the vast majority of buyers from even looking at your home? When would you have time to discuss a plan for selling your home?” They say: “I am going to see if I can sell it on my own.” You say: “Good! Have you considered what type of buyers look at For Sale By Owner homes?” (FSBO response) “Agents work with qualified buyers, people that have the means to secure loans or may be cash buyers. What arrangements have you made to assure your potential lookers are qualified buyers?” (FSBO response) “That is interesting. Do you have time this evening to get together to discuss a plan for pre-qualifying buyers?” They say: “I have an ad in the paper and I’m going to put it on Craigslist” You say: “Wonderful. What other methods are you using to expose your home to potential lookers?” (FSBO response) Do you have time to meet this weekend so I can share a few other ideas with you?” They say: “I have someone who is interested.” You say: “That’s great news. Are you aware of the pre-negotiation strategies that will assist you, as the seller, to secure the best possible offer without waiting days upon days?” (FSBO response) “Would tomorrow morning work for us to review the strategies?” They say: “My friend is an attorney, so she is going to do the paper work.” You say: “The four big steps in getting your home sold are: exposure, responding to buyers, negotiating and the paperwork. I am just curious, how is your friend going to assist you with the other three big steps?” (FSBO response) Would you be able to meet tomorrow during the day or in the evening to discuss these three big steps?” They say: “I can’t afford to list with a realtor. I need every cent of the sales price.” You say: “I understand. How did you determine your sales price? (FSBO response) “Great! Are you very familiar with the current market facts?” (FSBO response) “Would you have time to meet Monday or Tuesday evening to review the current housing market facts? I could do an estimate of proceeds for you to help you determine your bottom line.” They say: “I can pay $500.00 to have my home on the MLS.” You say: “Great! The MLS is one way to expose your home to agents who are working with buyers. What plans have you made to expose your home to buyers who are not yet working with realtors?” (FSBO response) “Would five or seven o’clock work for us to review how we capture interested buyers?” They say: “I don’t think realtors are worth their money.” You say: “Selecting a top realtor is a serious and important process. How many realtors have you interviewed for the job of selling your home?” (FSBO response) “Why don’t we meet this evening and I can assist you in writing the key questions to ask every realtor you interview.” They say: “I know my home better than any realtor.” You say: “I am sure that is true. I am going to be in your neighborhood previewing homes that compare to your home. Knowing your competition can give you a huge advantage. Would you like to join me?” (seller response) “Do you have any other selling concerns I can assist you with?” They say: “I have a friend in the business who is giving me advice.” You say: “Great! We can make your friend a partner in the process of selling your home and not miss any valuable market time. That way you know you’re getting the best advice. Can you meet tonight?” They say: “Will you cut your fee in half if you sell the home?” You say: “No. Are you very familiar with how the brokerage commission splits work through the MLS system? (FSBO response) Would you have time to meet tomorrow afternoon or evening?” They say: “What can you do that I can’t do to sell my home?” You say: “There are several factors that go into selling a home. A seller is responsible for and in control of two of the major factors (condition and price); the location is a given, and the forth factor is the realtor’s responsibility (marketing). Would you have time tomorrow to discuss the four factors?” They say: “I heard that agents will still show my home if I just have it on the MLS.” You say: “It is true, that some may show it. What arrangements have you made for compensating agents that show your home?” (seller response) “I may have some suggestions for you on how to attract more agents. Are you available tonight to discuss a few options?” They say: “I do not want unsupervised people in my home.” You say: “You’re right. Security is an important issue. However, as realtors we take several steps to maintain the security and integrity of the home buying process. Are you available this evening to discuss the steps we take to keep homes secure?” They say: “I sold my last home myself.” You say: “Good for you! What has to happen before you will consider interviewing a top agent who can get your home sold?” (FSBO response) “Can you meet this evening?” They say: “I just want to try selling it myself for thirty days.” You say: “Ok. I’m curious, if I brought you an offer that was 95% of that amount, how would you proceed?” (seller response) “If I could get you top dollar for your home in the next 30 days, would you list today?” (seller response) “Can you meet this evening to review our plan?” Two Plus One On the surface, FSBO objections have a dual focus: brokerage commissions and price of the home. After extensive interviewing or conversation, the peel back process will reveal the underlying concern or the true objection. The one big objection all FSBO sellers have in common is simply: realtor worth (or a lack of understanding of our value.) The challenge is getting the FSBO seller to understand and accept your value. One strategy is a comparison of your efforts (marketing, exposure, response time, access, availability, follow-up, feedback, legal forms, representation, fiduciary duties and negotiations) to their efforts (an ad, Craigslist, maybe MLS, limited web exposure, a sign, a friend in the business, or whatever). Once the comparison is made it should be a simple close. Your Value As realtors, you all compete against each other for listings. In the FSBO arena, your competition is extended beyond realtors to the actual seller. Your competition is the seller. Remember: Do not insult or belittle the seller’s efforts. They believe they can do your job and do it better. Focus your presentation on your worth, your point of difference, the true value you bring to the table. This is the only way to be a true champion in the FSBO arena. -------------------- Coach Cheri Alguire has coached over a thousand Realtors on scripts and other skills needed to take their business to a new level of success. For more information on her real estate coaching program, check out www.ProRealEstateCoach.com or ww.FSBORealEstateLeads.com

Pro Real Estate Coach | Take Your Real Estate Business to a New Level

Take Your Real Estate Business to a New Level

Budget: A Necessary Part of a Good Business Plan