Every year when I put together this post I hope many of you will do more than just "plan" to pick up some of these books and implement what they teach. Reading these and similar books over the years are a huge part of why I have had the success in my business and personal life that I've come to enjoy.
Reading not only offers us more information, it also keeps us in the "student" mode of life which helps keep things fresh, new and exciting while opening ourself to new and previously unknown possibilities and opportunities.
In my early years as a real estate agent I had the privilege to see Jim Rohn speak at an event. One comment he made all those years ago still sticks with me today "miss a meal before missing a good book".
HERE ARE MY MUST READ BOOKS FOR ALL REAL ESTATE AGENTS
1. The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents
The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents beautifully blends strategy and inspiration in an enlightening parable from the bestselling authors of The Miracle Morning, (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication, and The New Rise in Real Estate. This book takes you on a journey into the lives of real estate agent Rick Masters and mortgage professional Michelle Phillips. Rick and Michelle face new challenges as the demands of their industry have left them stressed, overweight, and unfulfilled. Something has to change.
They attend an event and meet other agents who have transformed their lives. Although Michelle is optimistic, Rick is skeptical. Little does Rick know, there really is a not-so-obvious secret that will transform your life in just 30 days.
Discover it for yourself as you join Rick and Michelle on their life-changing journey. You'll learn how 30 days from today YOUR life and business can be everything you've always dreamed. It’s your time to rise and shine!
2. Your 1st Year in Real Estate
Welcome to the world of real estate sales, and the start of an exciting new career! Your destiny is now in your hands. Along with endless opportunities, flexible hours, and the freedom to chart your own path, you also have the potential to earn fabulous amounts of money. All you need for total success is preparation. Revised and expanded, Your First Year in Real Estate contains the essential knowledge you need to start off right in today’s vastly changed real estate market, avoid common first-year missteps, and get the inside edge that will take you to the top.
Real estate expert Dirk Zeller has compiled the industry’s proven secrets and strategies that will enable novice agents to hit the ground running and excel from day one. You’ll get the insider’s guide to:
• Selecting the right company
• Developing valuable mentor and client relationships
• Using the Internet and social networking to stay ahead of the competition (NEW!)
• Setting—and reaching— essential career goals
• Staying on top in today’s challenging real estate climate (NEW!)
• And so much more.
3. The Book of YES
In The Book of YES, you will find the most powerful scripts in the real estate industry today.
If you're tired of the same old sales scripts or if you've done away with them all together, I know how you feel because I've been there.
I was tired of seeing the same B.S. (bad sales) approaches and I wanted something that felt more natural for me.
So I started creating my own scripts, for the simple reason that I hated being told, "No." For me nothing was worse than that feeling of rejection. I was determined to figure out the perfect thing to say in every situation, and how to say it in a way that would cause sellers and buyers to want to say "Yes!" to me every time. This book is the result of that quest.
And I've broken it in two unique parts so you can spend less time reading it, and more time using the life changing scripts inside.
Part 1 will give you the foundation for making the scripts work for you. Not just some of the time, but every time! You'll master how to inspire sellers to say "YES" to you giving you the magic key to unlock the success you want as a real estate agent.
Part 2 Is the actual scripts that allow you to have smooth, choreographed conversations that lead you down the path to more success and more income. Included in this section are...
a. Prospecting Scripts for sellers that lead up to the listing appointment.
b. My Unique Listing Presentation Scripts with examples of exactly how to deliver them for maximum impact.
c. The Buyer Scripts that I've personally used for years to build my own real estate business from scratch.
d. The Objection Scripts that will show you how to overcome any objection with ease and never be scrambling for words when a client throws you a curveball.
In all there are 27 scripts in this book that will show you how to handle any situation, conversation, and objection that might come your way.
And each script has been tested, tweaked and perfected. How do I know this? Because I've used each and every one of them to close millions of dollars worth of real estate in my nearly 2 decade career.
4. Secrets of Top Selling Agents
In this must read book, Joe Sesso shares the top tips and secrets of real estate giants from the webinar series Secrets of Top Selling Agents. Barbara Corcoran, Dave Liniger, Gary Keller, Chris Smith, and others tell you exactly what you need to do to be a top selling agent!
Each chapter includes advice and tips from a different real estate superstar. In the Secrets of Top Selling Agents you will learn how:
•Barbara Corcoran turned her real estate business into an international brand.
• A devastating illness forced Dave Liniger to rethink his life and change his perspective on the business.
• Gary Keller and Jay Papasan focus on the one thing to achieve success.
• Katie Lance leverages social media to bring the real estate industry into the twenty-first century.
• Chris Smith discovered how you can increase your GCI by 50 percent.
• Jay Baer created the concept of “youtility.”
• Jimmy Mackin manages multitasking and reaching the elusive “Inbox Zero.”
• Other real estate professionals have adapted to today’s challenges.
These titans of the industry will change the way you approach your real estate business.
5. The Lazy Realtor
The Lazy REALTOR by Wade Webb is built on universal, proven and tested business principles designed to inspire, coach and educate you into reaching and surpassing your wildest dreams to build a successful real estate business and to enjoy the lifestyle that goes along with it.
The Lazy Realtor goes into great detail on all the main components required to start, grow, and maintain a recession proof real estate empire.
• Learn about getting started, the learning curve, budgeting, goal setting, how to become an EXPERT
• Buyer & seller cycles, listing cycles, pricing psychology
• Databases & relationship lists, expanding your database
• Potential clients everywhere, multiplying leads, lead generation, cashing in on leads
• Glengarry style, sales and power prospecting methods
• Enter the World Wide Web, power of connecting, new Marketing IT
• Open House strategies
• Triggering emotions, features vs. benefits, psychology in sales
• Staging homes, selling sellers on staging
• Farming, direct mail, cold calling, warm calling
• Expired listings, for sale by owner, FSBOs
• Making listings more salable
• Managing your time, time blocking, breaking the realtor-phobia, selling yourself
• Showing luxury homes
• In buyers shoes, one house at a time, Exclusive Agent anyone?, helping owners with direct sales
• Winners never quit, quitters never win, discipline can go a long way, 3-Part Formula for Success
• Pricing strategies, connecting with your sellers, getting inside their head
• 22 solutions to kick-start your business development (and yourself!)
6. How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate
The realtor's essential guide to harnessing true earning power
How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate gives real estate agents both the powerful sales techniques and the practical management tips they need to double their income by closing more transactions. Based on the outstanding success of Darryl Davis's seminar "The POWER Program," this motivational guide utilizes POWER Principles to help the new agent as well as the experienced top producer dramatically increase listings and sales.
The book is full of Davis's surefire methods for managing the sales process, including time management for agents, prospecting for listings, handling the seller's and buyer's concerns, maintaining a winning attitude, and generating more sales in less time. He also reveals how clever use of the Web can provide a competitive edge and how the top producers work smarter ¬¬not harder. Offering field-proven tools and techniques, Davis shows agents how to progress at their own pace to their own personal Next Level and accelerate their entry into Top Agent status.
7. Million Dollar Agents
Have you ever wished you had direct insight into how the top agents have successfully built a sustainable and prosperous real estate practice ... without overinvesting in lead generation and marketing?
Have you ever wondered how million-dollar agents meet loyal clients, make a 6-7 figure income and create a steady stream of referral business year after year?
Have you ever wanted to increase commissions, get more listings and stand out as a real estate professional while working less hours and having more work-life balance?
If you want to know how the top agents operate a successful real estate business and create a truly abundant lifestyle, then this book is for you.
A select few of the top 10% of real estate agents in North America reveal decades of insider knowledge that carried them to the very top of the industry and also what it takes to stay on top.
Featured in Million Dollar Agents, are interviews with industry leaders with a wealth of insider knowledge in the real estate industry you won't find anywhere else.
Uncover the behind-the-scenes techniques and insights that you can use to build your own successful real estate business.
8. UnMarketing: Everything Has Changed and Nothing is Different
UnMarketing shows you how to unlearn the old ways and consistently attract and engage the right customers. You'll stop just pushing out your message and praying that it sticks somewhere. Potential and current customers want to be listened to, validated, and have a platform to be heard-especially online. With UnMarketing, you'll create a relationship with your customers, and make yourself the logical choice for their needs. We know you've been told to act like other people, talk like other people, and market like all the people, but it is time for you to unlearn everything and start to UnMarket yourself.
UnMarketing includes the latest information on:
Idea Creation, Viral Marketing and Video, Marketing to Millennials, Authenticity, Transparency and Immediacy, Ethics and Affiliates, Social Media Platforming, UnPodcasting, Word of Mouth, Customer Service, Consumer Advocacy and Leadership.
9. Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness
Salespeople hate to read. That's why Little Red Book of Selling is short, sweet, and to the point. It's packed with answers that people are searching for in order to help them make sales for the moment―and the rest of their lives.
10. Perfect Phrases for Real Estate Agents & Brokers
The Right Phrase for Every Situation…Every Time
In our current real estate climate, it's more important than ever to have the right words at your fingertips. Whether you're new to the game or a seasoned seller, Perfect Phrases for Real Estate Agents and Brokers has just the right words and phrases you'll need to track down prospective properties and clients, manage transactions, negotiate terms, facilitate communications between buyer and seller, and close the deal. This easy-to-use, quick-reference guide gives you:
• Hundreds of quick, ready-to-use words and phrases
• Coverage of every situation you'll face, from meeting a new client to finalizing the sale
• Winning approaches that persuade prospects and generate sales
• Expertise from a top realtor educator and author
11. The Million Dollar Real Estate Team
Ever feel like you can’t jump off the real estate merry-go-round of listing appointments, property showings and one transactional fire after another? Do you want to build a team that can operate without your day-to-day involvement, but don't know where to begin? If you're like thousands of other successful agents, you probably feel like you're producing as much as you can as a sole operator, but moving from 'Captain Everything' to an ownership mentality sounds too daunting. Contained in this book is a step-by-step business plan with simple, unambiguous directions on which steps to take and in what order. Learn from Chris Watters and Bradley Pounds how they scaled their business at a breakneck pace and earned a profit of over $1 million in just three years.
12. Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times
Markets shift, and you can too. Sometimes you'll shift in response to a falling market, and other times you'll shift to take your business to the next level. Both can transform your business and your life. You can change your thinking, your focus, your actions, and, ultimately, your results to get back in the game and ahead of the competition. The tactics that jump-start your business in tough times will power it forward in good times. No matter the market-shift!
SHIFT explores twelve proven strategies for achieving success in any real estate market, including
• Master the Market of the Moment: Short Sales, Foreclosures, and REOs
• Create Urgency: Overcoming Buyer Reluctance
• Re-Margin Your Business: Expense Management
• Find the Motivated: Lead Generation
• Expand the Options: Creative Financing
13. The Honest Real Estate Agent
Thousands of new Real Estate Agents have bought "The Honest Real Estate Agent" book since it was first published in 2011. This is the 3rd Edition with brand new content and helpful ideas to build your career as a new Realtor. One of the drawbacks of most real estate schools is they teach you only how to pass the real estate exam. They don't teach you how to succeed as a Real Estate Agent once you get your license. This is the book for you because it will help you hit the ground running once you get your license.
14. How to Make it Big as a Real Estate Agent
"There are many great suggestions in How To Make It Big As A Real Estate Agent. I am returning to real estate sales after a several decades long hiatus and have a game plan to implement which lines up with those which Mark has used. But the idea of building a team is a new one to me and is one I will implement. Great advice for new agents, particularly making it clear the extent of dedication and hard work required to achieve the upper levels of success. I strongly recommend this book." -Ray Mark Ferguson has been a Realtor for over 15 years. He runs a sales team of 10 who have sold over 1,000 homes. Mark has personally sold over 200 homes in one year. Mark has been featured in the Washington Post, Yahoo, Zillow, Realtor.com, Realtor Magazine, Time, Trulia and many other major media outlets. In this 220 page book Mark describes exactly how he has made it big in real estate and what to expect as a real estate agent. Mark breaks down how much money real estate agents can really make as well as how much work an agent will have to do. There are many stories out there about how little money agents make and how they are on call at all hours. The truth is real estate can be a wonderful business if you treat it as a business and plan accordingly. There are many things an agent can do to be successful, which Mark details in this book. Choosing the right broker Getting off to a fast start selling houses Finding the right lead sources Where to spend your money Where not to spend your money The best ways to network How to build a business not create a job How to make your real estate agent business a sell-able asset Much, much more If you are family with Mark and his writing style, you know he hates fluff. This is a straight to the point book with an immense amount of usable information and techniques.
You can find mark at https://Investfourmore.com, where he has created one of the most popular real estate blogs.
15. Ninja Selling: Subtle Skills. Big Results
Stop Selling! Start Solving!
In Ninja Selling, author Larry Kendall transforms the way readers think about selling. He points out the problems with traditional selling methods and instead offers a science-based selling system that gives predictable results regardless of personality type. Ninja Selling teaches readers how to shift their approach from chasing clients to attracting clients. Readers will learn how to stop selling and start solving by asking the right questions and listening to their clients.
Ninja Selling is an invaluable step-by-step guide that shows readers how to be more effective in their sales careers and increase their income-per-hour, so that they can lead full lives. Ninja Selling is both a sales platform and a path to personal mastery and life purpose. Followers of the Ninja Selling system say it not only improved their business and their client relationships; it also improved the quality of their lives.
16. The Emigrant Edge: How to Make It Big in America
A New York Times, USA TODAY, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal bestseller!
Brian Buffini, an Irish immigrant who went from rags to riches, shares his strategies for anyone who wants to achieve the American dream. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Brian Buffini immigrated to San Diego, California at the age of nineteen with only ninety-two dollars in his pocket. Since then, he has become a classic American rags-to-riches story. After discovering real estate, he quickly became one of the nation’s top real estate moguls and founder of the largest business training company, Buffini & Co., in North America.
But Brian isn’t alone in his success: immigrants compose thirteen percent of the American population and are responsible for a quarter of all new businesses. In fact, Forbes magazine boasts that immigrants dominate most of the Forbes 400 list.
So what are the secrets? In The Emigrant Edge, Brian shares seven characteristics that he and other successful immigrants have in common that can help anyone reach a higher level of achievement, no matter their vocation. He then challenges readers to leave the comfort of their current work conditions to apply these secrets and achieve the success of their dreams.
17. Mindset, Model and Marketing!
Real estate is a tricky business. Some agents dominate the market, while others can barely keep their heads above water. There are secrets the top producers possess that every agent needs to know. This invaluable guidebook from #1 New York Times best-selling author Tom Ferry explores the systems and strategies that can transform you and your team into real estate rock stars.
In Mindset, Model and Marketing you'll learn how to:
• Take the massive action necessary to become the dominant agent in your marketplace
• Win listings by presenting and closing with confidence
• Profit from your database and geographic farm
• Implement one of four team models to scale your business
• Take control of your time to work smarter, not harder
With Tom's proven business-building techniques, you can become a force to be reckoned with in the real estate industry and secure the future you've always wanted.
18. Deliver the Unexpected: and Six Other New Truths for Business Success
Praise for Deliver the Unexpected
"Richard's insights are exactly what entrepreneurs need to read to transform their business in today's new reality."
—Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX International
"Deliver the Unexpected is an absolute must-read for any entrepreneur serious about changing the game."
—Robin Sharma, bestselling author of The Leader Who Had No Title and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
"Much more than just a fascinating story and much more than just a book on success. Be ready to come away with knowledge of the principles that will help you take your career and income to a whole new level."
—Bob Burg, coauthor of The Go-Giver and author of Endless Referrals
19. Interrupt the Pattern
I do this work because I believe we have been and continue to be misled. We have bought into ideas, concepts, and programming that don't allow us to experience and live as our authentic selves. My whole life I have questioned everything. I have known deep within my soul that we live in an environment that continues to pull us away from our true self in our constant need to gain approval from everyone but ourselves. We have been programmed to believe in that which does not serve us. We have bought into it and continue to repeat our unhealthy history. We are then left very unhappy, unfulfilled, and empty inside. We are encouraged on the surface to cultivate self love. But, if you look deeply enough, the conditions are never present for us to be secure enough to allow ourselves to be loved.
We are conditioned from cradle to grave to live in a way that encourages us to believe we are separate from each other and nature. But the truth is we are all connected and we are nature. Our misunderstanding of the concept of love leads us down destructive and tormenting roads over and over again.
When you give yourself the gift of looking deeply into yourself - your programming, your life - you can unravel the big lie you are force fed. When you identify the source of your insecurities, you are automatically on the road to coming into your true power as a human being.
There is no doubt that working with Interrupt The Pattern will bring you into cognitive dissidence. This is part of the process because the truth you will discover will directly polarize that which you have been conditioned to believe.
This book will take you on a journey of exploration. In the following pages, you will discover that you always have the choice to create whatever you want in your life and that, when you are in service to yourself first, other people benefit.
20. The Conversion Code: Capture Internet Leads, Create Quality Appointments, Close More Sales
Capture and close more Internet leads with a new sales script and powerful marketing templates
The Conversion Code provides a step-by-step blueprint for increasing sales in the modern, Internet-driven era. Today's consumers are savvy, and they have more options than ever before. Capturing their attention and turning it into revenue requires a whole new approach to marketing and sales. This book provides clear guidance toward conquering the new paradigm shift towards online lead generation and inside sales. You'll learn how to capture those invaluable Internet leads, convert them into appointments, and close more deals. Regardless of product or industry, this proven process will increase both the quantity and quality of leads and put your sales figures on the rise.
Traditional sales and marketing advice is becoming less and less relevant as today's consumers are spending much more time online, and salespeople are calling, emailing, and texting leads instead of meeting them in person. This book shows you where to find them, how to engage them, and how to position your company as the ideal solution to their needs.
• Engage with consumers more effectively online
• Leverage the strengths of social media, apps, and blogs to capture more leads for less money
• Convert more Internet leads into real-world prospects and sales appointments
• Make connections on every call and learn the exact words that close more sales
The business world is moving away from "belly-to-belly" interactions and traditional advertising. Companies are forced to engage with prospective customers first online—the vast majority through social media, mobile apps, blogs, and live chat—before ever meeting in person. Yesterday's marketing advice no longer applies to today's tech savvy, mobile-first, social media-addicted consumer, and the new sales environment demands that you meet consumers where they are and close them, quickly. The Conversion Code gives you an actionable blueprint for capturing Internet leads and turning them into customers.
I hope these books will open your minds, lives and hearts as much as they have for me.
Please leave a comment with your own recommendations in the box below.
Strength and courage,
Wade
