grow your real estate business Archives - Page 5 of 10

Why Winter Is The Best Time To Buy Or Sell a House

Wade Webb on November 20, 2019

Knowing what the biggest objection you face over the next few months allows you the edge to be prepared when it strikes. We all know the #1 objection all agents are going to get from real estate buyers and sellers is “We want to wait until the spring.” So having the ability to change how the buyer and seller feels about waiting to buy or sell until the spring is imperative to your winter real estate success!! Don’t try changing their minds and building their defense mechanism up but educate them and change how they think and then they change how they feel about buying over the winter instead of spring. The fact of the matter is, the reasons and myths are endless so it’s our job as REALTORS® to be equipped with facts and a strong reality check to combat these reasons we hear every day. To help you educate the consumers through the winter season I put together some of my top reasons a client would want to choose this time of year to buy, sell and list a home.

Here Are The Top Reasons to Sell Real Estate Over The Winter

#1 – Only The Serious Buyers Are Looking Over The Winter

Yes there are fewer buyers, but those buyers are usually very SERIOUS about making a purchase or many HAVE to make a purchase. Who else would want to look at buying during the winter?

#2 – Fewer Winter Listings Means Less Listing Competition

Most sellers wait until the spring or summer to list, so your home will have far less competition
Spring = Greater supply = Same Demand = Less Money

#3 – January Is The Biggest Corporate Transfer Month

More corporate relocation moves happen during January than any other time of the year.
Catch the corporate relocation buyers while you can.

#4 – Better Personal Prompt Customer Service

By putting the home on the market during the winter you experience better, personal and faster customer service from movers, lawyers, banks, insurance providers etc. Listing realtors have more time to better serve their sellers and get all the marketing strategies in place.

#5 – More Bargaining Time to Get More Money

By starting to market your home early, you may be able to secure a higher price with more listing exposure time. This season allows a seller to not be in a rush to sell and allow for more market exposure time and ultimately generate a higher price than in the spring.

#6 – Timing Is Everything. So Sell Now & Buy In The Spring

If your home sells quickly, you will be able to shop for your next home during the winter, a great time to find a bargain!
More time to look and not pressure to shop and beat the other buyers. Sell first and then buy in the spring when the inventory and selection begins to rise for you when you are the buyer.

#7 – Standing Out In A Smaller Crowd

Most REALTORS® and offices have less inventory during the winter, enabling your home to stand out even more.
Less marketing noise out there for the buyers and they see your home with ease now.

#8 – 20% Of Sales Still Happen During the Winter

Buyers and Sellers are usually quite motivated to get the transaction completed. We still have 20% of the business in the year occurring during the winter.
This can mean less price haggling and fewer hassles during the process.

#9 – Buying Without Having Something To Sell First

By selling now you may have an opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when more houses are on the market!
Less “subject to the sale” offers from buyers and you are not one of them when you are buying your next home.

#10 – No Yard Work When It’s Freshly Covered In Snow

Great time for a home that needs a yard make over to sell.
No need to worry about your yard work. Snow makes it look fresh and white.

BONUS…..

#11 – Buyers Time Everything Too

Buyers begin the search and purchase for spring moves in January, February.
Busy move times are March Spring Break, April Easter, May long weekend and July long weekends

#12 – No Pricing Wars With Others Sellers

Less choice for buyers means less sellers to play pricing against each other
Buyers will often make more concession in their buying decision with less choice

#13 – A Holiday Magic Feel To Your Home

Property shows well, almost staged with holiday décor adding to the ambiance
Tis the season for your home to shine!

#14 – Higher Quality No Looky Loo Showings

Little chance of quick showings and not being prepared to show your home
Easier time of year to make appointments and give sellers advance notice.
Higher quality showings

#15 – Right Buyer, Right Time Odds

The odds are the same for the right buyer looking at your home regardless of the season.
Right buyer, right time, right home

Here Are My Top 10 Reasons to Buy Over The Winter

#1 – Fewer Or No Multiple Offers

Little or no chance of multiple or competing offers for the buyer during this time of year

#2 – Better Personal Prompt Customer Service

Better service from all service providers like the agents, banks, insurers etc. Not as busy now.

#3 – Sellers Are Motivated

Sellers motivated at this time of year if still trying to sell from summer or fall.
Sellers willing to negotiate, been on the market for some time now. Give and take.

#4 – Expired Listing Inventory

Buyers can shop the expired listings market, which has the largest selection this time of the year.

#5 – Better Closing Options

Good time of year to make an offer and do the due diligence, buyers can move quickly now or slower in the spring if not in a rush.

#6 – More Alternative Housing Options

Easier for sellers to find alternative housing, not as much pressure finding a rental vs. the really busy spring and summer season.

#7 – Contingencies and Subject to the Sale Of Acceptable

Great time for buyers to make contingent “Subject to the Sale” offers and get them accepted and movement on the price.

#8 – Better Available Moving & Service Providers

Easier time for a buyer to move and find help and services like movers, cleaners, storage.

#9 – Smoother Mistake Free Completions

Better timing for buyers on completions with lawyers, banks land registry. Not that busy and time to attend to you now.

#10 – Buyer Competition Lower

Less competition for the same property from other buyers on the deals that pop up this time of year.

Bonus

#11 – Having More Time

Having time to make a decision and not be pressured in to offers or pressured into removing conditions or speeding up your due diligence time.

Now that you’re equipped with ammo to overcome any objection, educate the consumers and debunk the myths and go out there and list and sell some real estate this winter season!!

Strength and courage,
Wade

Planning For Real Estate Success 2020

Wade Webb on November 13, 2019

A mentor and someone I admire incredibly Jim Rohn, the legendary business philosopher always said to “Finish your week before it begins.” He meant that we take control of our schedule and real estate business and plan for the week ahead before it even happens. If we don’t take control then someone else or something else always does!

So when the year begins to wind down you should not wait until the very end to start planning for next year. This means having a crystal clear understanding of the successes and challenges of your current year, how it impacts your upcoming year, and developing a vision of what you want to accomplish, and how. Many agents aim for nothing every year and most hit it with amazing accuracy!! I believe you should always start working on your next year strategy months in advance of the new year. This awards you enough time to make an impact on your final quarter, and lay the groundwork for making sure your next fiscal year starts off on a solid footing.

For agents who want to achieve greatness, push the envelope, and grow their business through market share, market penetration, paying down debt, increasing sales, profits and cash flow, I urge you to get going now! The way I see things is, if your business isn’t growing, pushing the envelope, thriving, and maximizing profit, then all you’re really doing is suffering a slow death. Believe me, your competition is fighting the fight every day, and they didn’t wake up in the morning and say “Gosh, golly, I hope I stay even in 2020.” They want to eat your lunch, take your business, absorb your market share and steal your customers away.

Some people might ask me if they should start planning by looking at their competition, and I say NO. Why focus on the competition, instead of focusing on yourself? When it comes to my business, I don’t care what others do. I care about what I do. Recognize your competition for what and who they are, and then put your best foot forward by pushing the envelope in your business. You should approach the new year as if you are going to battle, and for that you should develop a strategic plan.

Business Plan – a written document that describes in detail how a business, usually a new one, is going to achieve its goals. A business plan lays out a written plan from a marketing, financial and operational viewpoint.

FACT: LESS THAN 3% OF REAL ESTATE AGENTS HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN

FACT: ESTIMATED 3% OF REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN NORTH AMERICA DO 97% OF THE BUSINESS

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Writing a business plan may seem a daunting task as there are so many moving parts and concepts to address. Take it one step at a time and be sure to schedule regular review (quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) of your plan to be sure you are on track to meet your goals. It is that time of year again when we begin to build our plan for 2020 so let’s look at the key areas of the agent’s solid business plan.

Business Plan for the Successful REALTOR©

Step 1) “Success and history always leaves us clues.” I began by looking back to identify the clues that have been left for us and the business. I would look at the real estate market first and search for the following clues.

What have the number of sales been doing the last year? 2-5 years? Up? Down?

What have the number of listings been doing the last year? 2-5 years? Up? Down?

What have the average and median prices been doing?

What price ranges are experiencing more activity? Less activity?

What neighborhoods or areas are experiencing more activity? Less Activity?

What property types are selling more? Less?

What buyer types are buying more?

Where are the buyers coming from? Local? Next state or province? Over Seas?

Imagine the targeted and strategic plan you would be able to build for you and your real estate business with this kind of information? Now you are not just winging it. You really know where and what to focus on.

Step 2) Looking At The Present State of Your Own Real Estate Business

What have my sales been doing? Up? Down?

What have my listings been doing? Up? Down?

What is my average price? Can I raise my average selling price?

What is my Gross Commission Income doing?

What is my average deal worth?

Where are my listings and sales coming from? Sources of business?

What types of buyers do I represent?

Where are the buyers coming from? Local? Out of area?

What are my pending sales?

What do I have for potential buyers and sellers?

What is working? What is not working?

What do I need to start doing again? Stop doing?

What if you took the time to really track and measure and reflect on your business at a deeper level and see your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of yourself and your own business?

Step 3) Activity Plans – Take the time to lay out your activity plan calendar a year in advance. Focus on the activities you know you are good at and you see a return on your invested time and money. I am guessing for most agents it would be your sphere of influence, referrals and face to face or voice to voice activities. Set up a schedule for a month or two in advance of your activities for generating business. What is the activity? When? How? To Whom? Track and measure each of these scheduled activities to help identify the best of the best.

Step 4) Budgeting – Profit is the goal in business. Knowing what your personal life and your business world cost you monthly is so important. Expense management is just as important as your income and earnings. Have a clear picture of your expenses and measure all of them for their return on investment or if they can be reduced in any way. I understand this my be terrifying for most of us to see what we are spending personally and professionally but it is the foundation of your business plan to know what your personal and professional lives cost and then be able to set a financial target that is enough to cover them both and leave you some profit! So many of us stay away from this and run in a deficit and that is not good practice for any of us.

Step 5) Goals – If your “Why” is big enough the “how” will take care of itself. What is your purpose? Vision? Values? Mission Statement? Taking the time to know what it is you want and why you want it is a game changer for us all. Nothing gives me more joy than impacting and improving people’s lives personally and professionally every day. I have realized that the driving compelling force in my life is serving others and having the means to create memorable experiences with the people I care about most and nothing else has given me more joy than these amazing WHY’s in my own life.

In my own real estate business, taking the time over the last 25 years to create a business plan has been so incredibly beneficial for me and I know it will for you as well. In today’s post I have given you a brief business plan overview. To help you get going with your own plan I put together a Step-by-Step Real Estate Business Plan Workbook you can download for free by clicking the link below.

Click here to download the new 2020 business plan PDF….

Strength and courage,
Wade

Sure Fire Ways To Get Real Estate Listings

Wade Webb on November 6, 2019

As a Realtor© what’s your goal? More buyer leads, more listing appointments, better brand recognition and market share? No matter which of these you’ve set your sights on, there’s one sure-fire way to help with each of these: listings.

In addition to generating new real estate buyer and seller leads, listings also offer the opportunity to showcase your brand and expertise with valuable, relevant content. So if you believe More Listings = More Leads and you want more of both, you’re in the right place. Read on for 10 strategies to generate listings from your past clients, sphere of influence, cold leads, and more.

1. Call your past clients and sphere to share some good news. Let’s start with a big one: this tip can help you with every single person in your database (and ones who aren’t even in there yet). Bring value to the table right away with an interesting stat about the housing market. Here’s a great one to start, with a great angle built into it: The value of the North American Housing Market increased by $1.9 trillion in 2018. That’s a 6.2% increase! Want to know how much your house’s value went up as part of it? You know your market better than we do, so if you’ve got a more interesting or relevant stat about your area, lead with that. Regardless, find an appropriate angle to pair with your stat and you’ll start having better conversations that lead to more listings.

2. Send this email. Here’s another stat for you to share with your past clients, sphere, and seller leads, and it’s a doozy. It’s been a huge hit and has generated a ton of interested replies and appointments. For the subject line: Zillow was WAY off! Here’s the message we wrote: Did you know the CEO of Zillow sold his home for 40% less than the “Zestimate”? They actually have a disclaimer on their website where you can see exactly how INACCURATE they are. They just make it hard to find. With that in mind, if you are considering the sale of your home, (or the address of a home you want to buy), reply to this email right now with your home’s address and I would be happy to send you a “Zactimate.”

3. Post A Social Media Poll. This might be the easiest tip to act on – you can open your phone and do it right now. Add to your story: “Are you planning to move this year?” Obviously you’ll get more “No”s than “Yes”es but any Yes or more in-depth answer provides an easy opportunity to follow up via DM.

4. Start Each day prospecting for sellers. Use the 5-5-4 routine and it’s easy to duplicate. Every day, you should have: 5 conversations with people you don’t know, new potential prospects 5 conversations with your hottest prospects 4 conversations with your sphere of influence. What do you say on the phone with your sphere? Try “Have you had any thoughts of selling?” and “Do you know anybody that’s had thoughts of selling?” Tim’s sphere is so used to answering that now they start thinking about who might be selling any time Tim pauses in the conversation.

5. Refresh your listing presentation. It’s a valuable lesson in what sales really boils down to: human communication. Have you ever bought or sold a home with a realtor before? How long do you think it will take to sell your house? What do you think the difference will be between the asking price and the initial offer?

6. Sell your services. If you ask the average real estate agent what’s more important between buyers and sellers, they’ll typically say sellers. But when you look at their websites, the first thing highlighted is a home search. Stop sending the wrong signal, start selling your services. Every real estate website should have a page that sells its services to potential home sellers. Selling your home is a daunting process, so give your prospective clients the peace of mind that you have a tried and true plan to list, market, and sell their home.

7. Establish a Seller Success Series. When you’ve used all the tips on this list, you’re going to have a lot of happy sellers. You can turn those into even more listings, by turning the corner on a common business practice and making something truly compelling. He’s leveled up his reviews by turning his wildly positive customer experiences into evergreen content that sells every new person who comes to his website. The stories are interesting, unique and are an authentic representation of his brand. The best part? People help support what they create. Feature your clients in a positive light and turn them into your brand ambassadors! We believe that if you tell more stories, you’ll sell more homes. Create a landing page to display on like www.wadesoldit.com

8. Update your referral network. This is actually a two-step tip: first up, it’s time to update your list of approved and recommended vendors. Finding reputable people that you trust is the hard part, so take this question to your email database and your followers on Facebook. “We’re updating our list of approved vendors. Who do you love and recommend?” Be sure to let them know you’ll be publishing your list publicly.

9. Re-earn their business. One of the biggest mistakes we see people make is mistaking delivering a great experience for earning a customer’s business for life. For some, sure, a job well done means you’ll go back to the same agent the next time you have a real estate need. But some consumers treat transactions like exactly that: You do a service for them, they pay you for that service, end of transaction. That’s why it’s important to stay on your past clients’ minds, but not be intrusive or obnoxious about it. We’ve crafted an email for you to send that can help achieve both. Subject Line: What’s your plan? Here’s the message we wrote: Hi [name], It’s sometimes hard to imagine a day when you’re going to want to sel l your home, but that day eventually comes. 1 year, 3 years, 5 years? It’s hard to say because life has a way about being unpredictable. I wanted to make sure you knew I was here for you when that moment came. My job is to help develop a plan: There are things we can be doing now and in the future to help maximize your profit when you sell. This includes your mortgage payment schedule, what home improvements to make or avoid, and, of course, timing. All of these factors (and many more) have a dramatic impact on what you should do between now and when the time comes to sell.

10. Speak to their pain points. People have a hard time believing you can solve their problems if you haven’t made it clear you understand what those problems are. Many avoid writing, discussing the potential pitfalls, not wanting to appear to be a fearmonger. But there’s a lot of space between “everything is awesome” and being a Negative Nelly – space that real people occupy and need guidance through. So don’t be afraid to acknowledge those pain points in your ads and emails. Speak to issues like not knowing whether it’s the right time to list, whether they’ll be able to afford a new home, the complications of the home selling process, and more. Then point them to the Seller Services page we recommended you build.

I trust you were able to find a nugget or two that will rev up your listing inventory for the fall and help finish the year on a high. Please share in the comments with our readers some of your sure fire listing ideas, we would love to hear from you. To your success.

Strength and courage,
Wade

WHEN AND HOW TO HIRE A REAL ESTATE ASSISTANT

Wade Webb on October 23, 2019

When and how to hire a real estate assistant is a question so many agents ask themselves once they get into the industry. Some even go years contemplating whether or not it is the right time. Many people ask the same questions such as, “should I hire someone now?” and “can I even afford to hire someone?” Now we know it can be scary to let someone into your business like that but in actuality, it needs to be done sooner than later. If you are constantly asking yourself if you should hire an assistant, then that alone should tell you that you need to hire someone. When it comes to affording one, if they are really doing their job, they will be making you a significant amount of money. Here we are going to break down when and how to hire an assistant through 3 different phases. Each phase comes with 4-5 questions and steps into ensuring you are using the right solution.

PHASE 1

In Phase 1 begin to ask yourself, “How do I know it is time to hire an assistant?” Like mentioned earlier, if you are asking this question, then it probably is necessary. You are clearly starting to become overwhelmed once you start even thinking about having someone to help.

Question 2, Do you stay up late doing non best use of time tasks, also known as “BUT’s”? These include very simple tasks that are more tedious than they are difficult. After a long day of meetings, going to open houses and meeting new clients, the last thing you are going to want to do is work yourself up on those simple everyday tasks you had to keep pushing aside because they weren’t a priority at the time.

Question 3, Do you have aspirations to grow beyond where you are now? If you have aspirations to grow financially or even from a team standpoint, you are never going to get there alone. The only way you are going to grow and get the most out of your potential is to have help. Asking for help can sometimes seem as a belittling standpoint but it shouldn’t be. Everyone at some point or another asks for a helping hand and so should you.

Question 4, Do you live in the clouds? Meaning, are you not able to implement in the way you need to? People who are in real estate, especially self-starters and entrepreneurs live in the clouds and you need to take this in account for needing the help with your brain storming.

Question 5, Do you know that you are losing business? The more you wait for help, the more projects you are going to have to shy away from because of how busy your schedule is. The longer you wait, the more money you are going to lose, period. Their job is not just to do the tedious and hard work, it is also to make you money. As they say, you don’t remember what you’ve forgotten.

PHASE 2

Now that you have finally agreed to yourself you need an assistant, it is time for phase 2. What are you supposed to look for when you start looking to hire? The first thing you should be looking for is if they are detail and system oriented. In order to find someone who is, the best way is to make them follow multiple steps in the hiring process on the application. These can include: using a specific font size, only sending the application through a PDF, use a specific format, include this header and more. Now if they don’t follow the steps correctly you instantly know they are not good with following directions and are not detail oriented. In all, you are looking for a person who can get annoyed with a lack of order rather than too much detail or instruction.

The second thing you should be looking for is a naturally positive person. Now, this can be a little more difficult because in actuality, everyone is “nice” during their first interview. This is why you need to take it further and have multiple interviews in multiple settings. It is known miserable people can only act happy for so long until it takes one thing to take them over the edge. You need to be able to see how they act with more than one or two interactions with them to get their full personality and potential.

The third thing you should be looking for in a potential candidate is if they are self-driven. This person should be looking for ways to make your life easier. You want someone to anticipate everything so they can adapt to what is needed and what isn’t.

The fourth and final thing you should be looking for is someone that must be tech savvy and able to type. Now we’ve all seen how our grandparents and even sometimes our parents use a computer which is funny to us of course, but when it comes to hiring an assistant, it won’t be funny down the line when you are on a time crunch and they are still working on that first email. There are plenty of people in the world, especially nowadays with technology being as advanced as it is, that know how to use specific software and can adapt fast to new software.

PHASE 3

Moving on to the 3rd and final phase, you should now have hired someone but you don’t exactly know what to do next…

The first thing you should do is either take the time to properly train them or take the time to redo their work. You need to set aside time to be able to train them respectively because the quicker you train them, the quicker you will improve your business and make money.

Secondly, you need to give them clear expectations of what you want from them. You only have one chance to create expectation so think carefully. You want to set expectations such as what time they need to be there, the kinds of activities you expect them to do, what they should be able to do in a specific amount of time, etc. Be very clear in what you want out of them so then everyone is on the same page.

Next thing you want to do is teach them a marketing strategy to implement immediately. This is because it will shortly after bring your business making not only you feel good, but making them feel good as well. Try to teach them how to do things such as saving a search in a MLS, emailing listings, saving listings and similar tasks. All in all, they are adding to your business this way and it can only lead to great things.

Lastly, do NOT micromanage them! Many agents respond to this by saying, “but what if they don’t do it right?” Well, it is not that they won’t do it “right” it is that they won’t do it YOUR way. You need to let go of what you’ve been doing in the past to make room for the new because clearly something needs to change. Additionally, in most cases, they often do it better than you which may catch you off guard at first but you need to remember it is only making you and your business greater. You need to give them the freedom to be the person you hired them to be and let them do their thing.

If you haven’t already realized, there are only positive outcomes that will happen if you were to hire an assistant. After going through these 3 phases, you should see a massive positive change in not only the business but with you as a realtor. Now start looking for that assistant before all the good ones are taken!

Strength and courage,
Wade

USE THE FORM BELOW TO GET YOUR FREE COPY OF THE AGENTSBOOST “HOW TO HIRE AN UNLICENSED REAL ESTATE ASSISTANT” STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE.

Pre Open House Strategies In 2019

Wade Webb on October 9, 2019

One of the best activities I did for my business was an open house and it never failed me and should never fail you if done correctly. An open house will always be one of the top ways an agent can generate business because face to face lead generation is where most of us are at our best. This is the best opportunity for the consumer to meet you and get to know you and with enough skill they will even like and trust you.

So what was my goal for an open house? My number one goal was to capture a contacts Name, Email and Cell number and win the right to meet with them for an appointment outside of my open house and share solutions to their challenges in today’s market place. Some of you may say Wade the goal is selling the listing you’re hosting an open house at, and I say “yes I get it” and I also say “The blind squirrel does find a nut once in a while” but focus on contact capture and setting the appointment.

So where do we start?

Setting The Stage – Pre Open House Strategies

Select properties on salability, location, traffic, curb appeal, condition, style, area, price.
Choose the date a week or two out to properly plan for the event.
Consider working the open house with another agent to be able to control the crowds.
Preview and tour the home and comparable homes, so you really know your market.
Decide about food, beverage and entertainment for the event.
Strategize where the public looks for open houses online and offline to generate more traffic. Check out www.preopenhouse.com
The day and time will not matter if you have prepared and marketed the event properly.
Post a sign rider on the property for sale sign for the week or two prior to the event.
**POWER TIP** Market and advertise only the start time of your opens. Open @ or Open from …… This will make people call you and leave you their name and number ( lead capture) to ensure you don’t leave before they have arrived and you will call them when leaving. You also now can leave if nobody comes within an hour and not be held hostage to an open house that has nobody attending. Make sense?
Join forces with other agents and other listings in the area to drive your activity and traffic count up for the open house.
Announce your open house event using Facebook Live, Email your database, Social media posts.
Door knock and invite all the neighbors in the area of the open house and have them come to the open 15 minutes prior to the public start time. When the public arrives the open house will already have the neighbors there and creates a buzz and hype for the public arrival thinking this is a hot listing with traffic arriving early.
Drop a post card or door hanger invitation for the surrounding neighborhood when someone is not home to be invited in person.
Door knock the Expired listings and for sale by owners around your open house listing and offer to show their properties and give them a taste of how hard you work to market homes.

So there you have some of the pre open house strategies and I trust some of these will help you plan better or consider making adjustments to what you are already doing. Don’t hesitate to share in the comments below some of your own strategies, we would love to hear from you!!

Strength and courage,
Wade

The Dark Side of Retargeting: How Retargeting Could Be Killing Your Sales

Wade Webb on September 25, 2019

Retargeting is the holy grail of digital marketing. It’s the solution to shopping cart abandonment. It’s the end of wasted Adwords revenue. It’s awesome. Except when it isn’t.

Before I launch into what comes next, I want to make it clear I am a fan of retargeting/remarketing. I use it. I recommend it. I think it rocks. Whether you’re trying to sell a pair of shoes or marketing a SaaS, retargeting has major advantages. It works on social media, general web browsing, and even across devices. Remarketing is a smart technique with a ton of advantages. But is there a dark side to retargeting? The short answer is yes. Let me explain.

Retargeting Can Be Expensive. Many marketers leap into retargeting because they assume it would somehow reduce their overall advertising costs. For a long time, PPC experts have been strategizing the means and methods for reducing adspend. The high cost of Adwords and the meteoric bidding levels for ultra-competitive terms have sabotaged some marketing budgets. Based on the promises of many retargeting services, it seemed the obvious solution. In reality, however, the way to reduce spending is to make a decision and stick to it. While retargeting may have a higher ad ROI, it doesn’t necessarily follow you’re going to spend less on it.

Retargeting Can Annoy or Anger Customers. When it comes right down to it, what does your customer think of retargeting? This is a significant issue, because ultimately, retargeting is about them (not you). Take a look at the data. InSkin Media’s consumer survey found the two main responses to a retargeted ad were annoyance and anger. Based on the data, the more frequently an ad is displayed, the more aggravating it can be. By the tenth time someone sees an ad, they get the message. More impressions aren’t going to compel them. You’ve driven them off a cliff. It’s too late. What do these emotions mean for sales? Again, let’s look at the data. The news isn’t great.

55% of customers put off buying

53% get irritated

Only 10% buy

If you are retargeting, it’s probably not a good idea to increase the number of impressions. The higher your frequency, the greater the likelihood of ticking someone off.

The chance at gaining 10% is nice. But what about the remainder of your potential customers? Are you gaining a few at the expense of alienating a majority? Rather than risk it, it’s best to err on the side of fewer impressions and happier potential customers.

Retargeting Can Create Concerns Over Privacy. One of the most common complaints about retargeting is that it’s “creepy.” This is why ClickZ had to try to explain away the creepy sentiment surrounding retargeting. Retargeting may not be creepy in actuality, but that won’t keep customers from thinking it’s creepy. Saying it ain’t so won’t change the fact they think it’s so. In a New York Times article on retargeting, reporters quoted Julie Matlin who was innocently looking for shoes. Her quick glance at a pair of kicks on Zappos.com turned into a recurring marketing experience: “For days or weeks, every site I went to seemed to be showing me ads for those shoes,” said Ms. Matlin, a mother of two from Montreal. “It is a pretty clever marketing tool. But it’s a little creepy, especially if you don’t know what’s going on.” The creepy sensation has been enough to increase the interest in Do Not Track laws rolled out by the government.

Retargeting Can Ignore the Buy Cycle. It’s ironic. One of the most fundamental of all marketing principles can be so easily overlooked in the frenzied rush towards retargeting. I’m talking about the marketing buy cycle — the concept that customers go through a cyclical process that prepares them to buy. It’s similar to the sales funnel, in that the process begins with more customers, and ends up with the converting few. Retargeting is intended to capture more of those consumers as they proceed through the funnel. If you’re not careful, however, you can actually damage conversion rates by ignoring the buy cycle. The customer may simply not be ready to buy. They’re no longer leaning towards your alternative. They’ve chosen a competitor. Maybe they already bought the product from a competitor. If you keep your retargeting window open for a long time, you increase the likelihood you are retargeting a customer who is no longer in the right spot of the buy cycle.

Retargeting can cause you to abdicate control. One of the major benefits of retargeting is it allows a more hands-off approach to marketing. One B2B blog describes the advantages of a managed retargeting platform: Managed platforms are ideal for retargeting newcomers who are unlikely to roll up their sleeves and dig into the minutia of managing a retargeting campaign. Managed platform providers will help you run your retargeting campaigns based on the target metrics and settings you specify. These platforms offer account managers and automated optimization tools that help build and tweak campaigns to maximize performance. Yet this perceived advantage can quickly become a disadvantage. Being hands-off of any marketing effort is risky, to say the least. At worst, it can turn into a sales-killing, prospect-aggravating, brand-ruining fiasco. I have a very simple recommendation if you’re considering letting your retargeting machine roll along on its own: Don’t do it. It’s not just about losing control. It’s more about losing all awareness. If there’s one thing marketers need, it’s a keen understanding of their data and the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives. What’s successful and what’s not. Who’s converting on what? Which method has the higher ROI? Which version is adequately reaching our target audience? Setting up your retargeting, and letting it purr along without your oversight is a risk too great

Retargeting can create negative organic search engine optimization. My own website designer discovered after a year of retargeting ads our website was becoming irrelevant to Google with so many click ins and click outs from people who didn’t want to go to our website. We began to lose huge search engine positioning with Google and our website slid back several pages, so consider driving the retargeting to another landing page and not your main website in risk of becoming irrelevant to Google.

So…Am I saying you should stop retargeting? Absolutely not. Retargeting is the modern wave of marketing, and we ought not neglect anything simply because of some attendant risks. We don’t give up on something just because it has risks. There is risk in doing business. There is risk in life. The pathway to success is paved with bricks of risk. What we must do is be aware of the risks in retargeting. It’s not the holy grail some marketers claim it is. It’s powerful. It’s effective. But it does have a dark side. Know this dark side, and you’ll be able to use retargeting with maximum effectiveness.

Have you seen any pitfalls with retargeting? Share your comments below with our readers.

Strength and courage,
Wade

Realtors: How To Finish Your 2019 Strong

Wade Webb on September 11, 2019

The summer is coming to an end and we just have one quarter left in the business year so let me ask you some questions? Are you on target for the year? Are you ahead of your target? Are you behind on your target? So what’s holding you back? What fears are weighing you down? What is making you overwhelmed? This week we are getting back to the fundamentals of our business and finishing your year in real estate strong. The past is the past. Time to just move forward!!! All we need is a little momentum and get that giant stone of business to start rolling with this action plan I believe you can…..

1.) Low Lying Fruit – What would help me get paid today??

a) Get A Saleable Listing
b) Get A Price Reduction
c) Present A Reverse Offer To Interested Buyers. Seller and their agent make the offer to the buyers sitting on the fence. Start the process!
d) Find Something For My Hottest Buyers To Buy
e) Get A Buyer To Sign An Exlusive buyer agreement.
f) Get A Private Seller To Sign A Fee Agreement or Exclusive Listing and find them a buyer. Doesn’t have to be on the MLS to work a listing.

2.) No More Getting Lucky – Time to work on our

a) Seller Counselling Skills
b) Buyer Conversion Skills
c) Questioning Skills
d) Presentation Skills
e) Pre Listing Packages
f) Pre Buyer Packages
g) Closing Skills
h) Advisor Skills

3.) Full Contact Sport –

a) Present Offers Face To Face
b) Present Counters Face To Face
c) Get Signatures In Person
d) Take Clients Their Paperwork In Person
e) Meet Your Clients At The Office For Advisement Session

4.) The Gift Of Time –

a) Coffee, Lunch, Breakfast
b) Pop By gifts just because
c) Phone Calls, Texts
d) Calendars, Christmas Cards, Birthday Cards, House anniversary cards.
e) Hand Written Personal Notes
f) Client Event
g) Complimentary CMA
h) Business Directory Book
i) Past client visits

5.) Face To Face Activities –

a) Open House
b) Mall Kiosk
c) Door Knock ( Just Sold, Bona Fide Buyer )
d) Networking event
e) Volunteer

6.) Planning 2019 – 2020

a) Business Plan
b) Marketing Plan
c) Budgeting
d) Track, Plan, Measure
e) Implementation Execution

7. Set 90 day goals and an activity plan for the next 90 days. Written out and commit on execution. No excuses!!

8.) Make a list of activities that generated your business this year. Now go do what already has made you money and do more of it!

Let us recap…..Change Your Mindset ( Hunt or be hunted! ) Worry about the things you can control and not the things you cannot control. Get Face To Face, STP (see the people), Implement & Execute or your intentions are wasted. Do what you already know works. Back To Basics. Practice Your Skills vs. Being Lucky. Be Intentional, Strategic and Planned. Do More Of What Always Worked. Give Others Your Greatest Gifts ( Your Time, Touch, Talents and Treasures).

I dare you to think, act and be bigger than you have been this last quarter and finish strong!!!

Strength and courage,
Wade

Secrets To Attracting More Real Estate Listing Leads

Wade Webb on August 28, 2019

Have you ever heard the saying, “List to Exist”? One of the very important lessons I have learned as an agent is that getting listing/seller leads is crucial to my success. Something to consider… When you lead generate and market to attract buyers, you typically get 1 sale. But when you go after listings/seller leads, you typically get 2 sales. Why 2 sales? Because the seller, a lot of the times, also buys once their home is sold. Or… You may get the 2nd (or even 3rd) sale from a sign call, internet lead, or open house lead as a result of having the listing. Pretty cool right? SO HOW DO YOU ATTRACT MORE LISTING LEADS?

1. UTILIZE YOUR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

The first thing to do is reach out to your sphere of influence via email and offer your contacts a free CMA. The key here is to have an excellent script. For instance, you may like to say something like:

“Hey [first name], Did you know that the N. American housing market increased by $1.9 trillion last year? As your Real Estate consultant, my mission is to always make sure you know the value of your home. If you would like a free CMA to find out your property value, click the button below or give us a shout.”Yes! I would Like to know more about my home! The button included in the message should send your contacts to a landing page where they can submit their data without needing to call you. This makes it easier for prospects to reach out to you — therefore increasing your conversion rate. You’ll also find out who, in your sphere of influence, may be thinking about moving in the next 12 months. This strategy is even better if you send a follow up email to make sure your leads received the information.

2. MARKET TO YOUR VIPS

VIPs are people in your sphere of influence who have either done business with you before or have sent you a referral. I dedicate more time and funds to this category than any other, as it yields significant results. Whenever you need to increase your listing leads, focus on this category. You can market to your VIPs in a few different ways:

1) VIP EVENTS It’s a good idea to hold VIP events quarterly, or at least as often as possible. This will give you face-to-face time with the most important people to your business: those who already love what you do and send you referrals.

2) GIVE GIFTS I also like to give my VIPs gifts on a quarterly basis. This allows me to show my appreciation to them throughout the year.

3) START A FACEBOOK GROUP Invite all your VIPs to a private Facebook group. They’ll all be able to provide value to each other, especially those who have businesses of their own and could benefit from referrals. A Facebook group is also a great place to keep VIPs informed about upcoming events and to share photos after the event takes place.

3. DON’T NEGLECT “FOR SALE BY OWNERS”

The “for sale by owners” category has not always been my favorite. However, thanks to some newer technologies, it has become a whole lot easier and cheaper to market such prospects in your desired area. Plus, it’s valuable: only 13 percent sell within their desired timeline and just 18 percent receive the price they want. For these reasons, it’s important not to neglect this category. Plenty of companies will send a list of newly-expired or “for sale by owners” listings straight to your inbox. Better still, you can gain this information for free by searching on Zillow. This will also allow you to define your exact geographical area and price range. Plus, the seller phone numbers tend to be much more accurate than those on purchased lists.

4. HOW TO REACH OUT

When you reach out to “for sale by owners” prospects, be sure to follow up at least 12 times. That may seem like a lot, but you need to bear in mind that most “for sale by owners” leads don’t make a decision or move until after seven to 10 weeks. Another thing you should do is use video text rather than phone calls. This is because 80 percent of people would prefer to have a text conversation with businesses — and only two in 10 people even answer their phones. Furthermore, using video texts sets your apart from the competition. I’m not saying that all 12 touchpoints should be through video text — just a couple times is enough — but the first time you reach out should definitely be through video. This allows you to make an introduction where prospects can see your voice and hear your tone of voice. Many people are resistant to make video texts, often because they don’t like how they look or sound on video. However, I can assure you that you’ll see it’s the right decision when the leads start rolling in.

5. CONNECTING WITH NEW VENDORS

My method is quite old school: wear your name badge or branded gear when you’re out and about. When you’re running errands between appointments, strike up conversations, especially with other people in branded gear. For instance, you could say, “Oh, I see you’re in the roofing business. Could you benefit from more referrals?” The people you talk to will be blown away that you’re offering to help them in their business. Follow up with additional questions, such as “Who’s your ideal client?” and “What geographical area do you serve?” A great option is to send these new connections to a dedicated landing page. You can text them a link to the page and they can fill out the form on their phones. If you don’t have a landing page, an alternative is to simply take down their contact information in the moment. HOW TO USE THE INFORMATION Add the data you collect to a vendor sheet. When you’re helping your clients during real estate transactions, refer them to these vendors. But you also need to go a step further: add the vendors to your sphere-of-influence list and market to them on a regular basis. Then, they’ll be able to help you out, too — and it’ll be a win–win situation for everybody involved.

6. DEVELOP SOCIAL PROOF

You need to gain social proof on all your social media channels, but most of all on Facebook because consumers use the app between eight and 14 times a day. As prospects are already hanging out there, it’s a great place to gain social proof. This will help you appear as an expert in your area and keep you top of mind for listing referrals. Gaining social proof could be as simple as posting testimonials from clients you’ve worked with. Alternatively, you could run a Facebook ad to market yourself as an expert in your area to your sphere of influence.

Whatever you do, work on presenting yourself as a successful agent — and people will send you referrals. Let me know in the comments WHICH OF THESE IDEAS IS YOUR FAVORITE?

Strength and courage,
Wade

What Top Real Estate Agents Do To Build Their Business

Wade Webb on August 14, 2019

For more than 25 years we have helped thousands of agents and brokers find better, easier ways to grow their businesses into profitable real estate practices.

Below are FOUR strategies that will help you generate more clients, and build a long-term viable business.

1. Prioritize Your Marketing Time, Money and Effort According To the QUALITY Of The Prospect/Market

“Quality” is defined as how well the prospect already knows you and how predisposed they are to use you over any other agent. You never want to chase cold prospects at the expense of higher potential prospects. So here’s how I believe you should prioritize your marketing:

Track your business with a “Power List” and market to them on a monthly basis (this is your “market share,” where 70% or more of your business should come from – more on this later).

Market off “Transactional Leads” (from your listings for buyers) and other listings (once you have them).

Work hot leads – follow-up is essential. At the very least, you know they’re in the market to buy/sell, and most agents hopelessly ignore follow-up.

Do your research to select market niches that have the most promise, and work them (i.e. fish in a stocked pond). This includes geographic markets (farms) and specialty markets (resort, golf, vacation, etc.).

Work FSBOs and Expireds – but notice the low quality of this group. We both know the reason, and here’s a revealing fact. The National Association of REALTORS® produces an annual research report called Profile of Buyers and Sellers. It’s filled with lots of facts and figures, but the most startling fact they’ve discovered is that over 70% of all real estate transactions occur because the client either 1) knew the agent already, or 2) was referred to the agent from a trusted source. This means that 3/4 of all transactions happen because of a relationship. Yet only 4% of all agents have any “systems” to harvest deep relationships and build market share. So about 4% get the lion’s share of business and 96% wrestle each other over the scraps. THIS fact alone is why I told you (above) to create a “Power List” of friends, family, past clients, acquaintances, etc., and market to them first and foremost. They already know you and will trust you to represent them when purchasing or selling a home.

2. When Starting Out, Spend 80% of Your Time Prospecting

Cold prospecting because it has a terrible return on investment if you value your time. Not to mention makes you feel like a sleazy person, always begging for business. There are much easier, more effective ways to generate new clients.

However, if you’re new to real estate or starting over, and have no money, you have to get the ball rolling. So, until you establish marketing systems and focus your time and energy on meeting new people and getting business. Remember to split your time prospecting into manageable simple 20 minute sections throughout your day rather than going longer and unfocused prospecting sessions. Who can’t put in a big day of powerful 20 minute prospecting session activities in their day? Don’t allow distractions (self-imposed or otherwise) to interfere with this task. And remember, don’t neglect establishing other marketing systems so you can quickly stop manual prospecting.

3. Product-Ize Your Real Estate Services

The real estate industry is a mass-commodity of agents all screaming the same thing to prospects — professionalism, dedication, integrity, blah, blah, blah. You need to be seen as DIFFERENT. And in ways that are important to your target prospects. So, create unique “products” out of your services. For example: “Your Maximum Value Home Marketing Plan,” or “Preferred Buyer Program.” Another example: Rather than give CMAs, agents will offer a “Maximum Home Value Audit” to examine and determine ways to maximize the value of a home and sell in the least time.

The secret is to weave the greatest benefit for the client into the name. Then, make a simple list of everything you do for the client as part of your program – even if other agents do it, it’s likely they don’t promote it, so you have the advantage.

4. Make Yourself A Self-Proclaimed “Specialist” in Your Market

Farming a resort area? Make yourself a “resort property specialist” and title your product specifically to it: “Gold Canyon Golf Property Specialist” and “Gold Canyon Maximum Value Golf Property Program.” Use your creativity and match your services specifically to the market or type of property you sell. Your success requires intense focus on your highest priority activities. This list will get you started down the right path of where to make changes to grow your real estate practice this year, and for the future. Be an expert at something rather than average at everything in real estate. People are attracted to the pros and experts of something first every time!

There you have four of the most impactful top producing strategies to put into action. I challenge you to take each one at a time and master them and let me know what happens to your business moving forward in 2019.

Strength and courage,
Wade

How To Avoid Or Get Out Of A Realtor Summer Slump

Wade Webb on July 31, 2019

Summertime is an interesting time for real estate. Many agents refer to the time directly before the summer start as the “selling season”and year over year, this time of year tends to be one of the most profitable for those agents who fully embrace spring and watch their summer numbers fall off slightly.

Is there really a selling season in real estate?

Well, yes and no. Do many people transact real estate (or at least put their homes on the market) during the spring time? Yes, year over year we do see an uptick in this activity. However, what is interesting is why “summer” tends to be a time in most agents years when things slow down. As with any business, cycles happen and it can be expected cycles in real estate happen as well.

But why do these cycles tend to happen? Well, it comes down to the way most agents set up their businesses. You see, over the past few years we have seen an uptick in agents and brokers signing on “teams.” What this has translated to is the sheer fact it allows agents to continue to do business 52 weeks a year, without having to work ‘in’ their business, but instead work ‘on’ it.

Summertime is an excellent time to really add value to people and focus on deepening the relationship side of your business and tap into the other 150 to 250 people each of those people know as well. It amazes me agents feel they have added value to their clients by newsletters, market stats, email market reports, calendars and on and on and on. Clients expect this from us not something they feel like we did unexpectedly or make them feel special. Have any of us had a client tell another client about the newsletter you sent? The calendar you delivered in the fall? Let’s take the time to really make our relationships feel like they are really valued.

One of my favorite books is “The Generosity Factor” by Ken Blanchard. In this book you are taught the value of your “Four T’s”

1. Your Time

2. Your Touch

3. Your Talents

4. Your Treasures

What do you think would happen to your business this summer and fall if you took time to implement the following action steps?

Summer Action Plan

* Phone call just checking in to let them know you appreciate them. Asking anything you could do for them?

* Breakfast, Coffee, Lunch. Take time to listen and appreciate them.

* Walk or a hike with a client.

* Drop off at a clients work place unexpected a Tri Pack of Ketchup, Mustard, Relish with a tag saying ” Just Ketching Up, Want you to know I relish your real estate referrals and let you know not all agents cut the mustard!”

* Host a client appreciation event. Like an open house at your home for wine and cheese. BBQ. Beach party picnic.

* Write them a personal hand written note of appreciation.

* Drop in and see them, giving them a hug, handshake or pat on the back letting them know you appreciate them.

So many agents underestimate the power of the simple. Wade it can’t be as simple as my time? Sharing my personality and strengths with others? Giving someone a hug, pat on the back or hand shake? Hosting them for a BBQ at my home? Dropping them a little BBQ toppings tri pack from Walmart?

We all have the time this time of year and you can only control what you are doing not what others are doing. So I challenge you to take up an item or all on the action plan and finish your summer strong and let me know what kind of momentum you created, I dare ya!

Strength and courage,
Wade