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Hey Agents Have You Ever Googled Yourself?

kelowna on October 19, 2016

I am often reminded of the importance (if you have never done it before), of googling yourself. Actually sit down, open up google and search your name on google and look at what you see or worse, what you don’t see.

So let me ask you a question. When you google yourself, how do you rank?

When you google yourself, what else came up during your search? Anything? Nothing?

When I google myself I gratefully rank on the whole first page of the search but I found a solar company by the name “Wade Solar” and a judge in the mid-west with the name “Wade” in the search.

Now more importantly, how many results were about your business and would they make you want to work with you if you were a buyer or seller looking for an agent online? In February of this year, Inman reported that businesses with 10 or more reviews get 3.5x the attention and 6.5x the inquiries. Client reviews and testimonials help boost your incredibility with leads like crazy. They also help boost your credibility with Google.

So, if you’re not getting the results you want when you Google yourself and your business, that means Google doesn’t quite trust you yet. There are really only 3 ways to get traffic to your real estate website (Ads, SEO, and Social). This week we’re going to explore how your social media pages can help you rank better and higher in Google searches.

While Google may or may not use signals on Facebook or Twitter such as the number of followers you have to boost your placement, it’s clear that each platform still ranks and ranks well, at least for broad searches. If your content performs well and is widely shared, it can help drive more traffic and qualified leads your way for years to come. But let’s get back to social media. Social profiles are often among the top results in search listings for individuals and brand names. While your Pinterest page may not have the same impact as a 5-star Yelp review, it’s still a great place to start.

Think about it. If a lead only knows your name, they may start with that as a way to find out more about you and let’s be real – social media platforms are becoming just as much of a search engine as Google is. It’s likely future clients are going to want to learn more about you and the quickest way to connect is through social networks. If you’ve got a stellar Pinterest presence with several well-crafted boards full of useful information and a decent number of followers, you’re well on your way to making a great first impression and achieving your goal of gaining trust with your viewers and Google.

Whether you’re active on two or 12 social sites, here are a few practices that will easily increase your SEO and help push you to the first page of Google. Whether you have 100 or 100,000 followers on any given network, the way in which they engage with you will help establish you as a credible source. Growing your follower base is one way to do this, but they’ve got to be high-quality fans. What does this mean?

Well, for one, that they’re not bought. Buying Likes/followers will do absolutely nothing for you. Do Not Buy Fans. It’s not worth it and will ultimately decrease your chances of ranking on Google. As I said before though, there’s still a lot of conversation happening around whether your sheer number of followers even influences your Google ranking and whether it does or it doesn’t, how you interact with your audience totally matters. When thinking about increasing your reach, I want you to keep these three words in mind – Resonate, Relevant and Reach… let’s quickly break these down.

The way you will resonate with your target audience is by producing relevant content and these two things will increase your reach. Listen to what your viewers are saying. This could be one person or 10. It doesn’t matter. Because if you can help one person solve a problem, chances are there are many more people looking for answers to the same question. Help them solve it to increase your reach.

Optimize Your Posts – Again, this all comes back to content. To make the most of your updates, make sure you’re sharing strong, valuable content consistently. A detailed blog post, video or infographic will help you accomplish this the fastest. Make sure to also say something about the content you’re sharing in the post description and try and include a keyword or term relevant to that search.

You can also focus on optimizing your posts for your local community and having them show up in big search engines. Hint: This is how you can start to compete with portal giants such as Zillow and Truila. It is impossible for you to be a local expert like them, so get out there and make it happen. An easy way to get started on this, aside from making sure your actual profile is up-to-date with your location and services..etc., is to engage other local players. Try Googling “best pizza (your area)” and see what comes up.

Choose the top 3 and then check out their social media profiles. Try out each one for lunch or dinner over the next few weeks and write your own guide for newcomers. You can then tag each place across social media and begin engaging them on a more regular basis.

Whether you work with a team or are a one-agent show, you are your brand. The best way you can increase your brand awareness and authority is by publishing quality content regularly. Your online reputation is essentially built upon your social media presence. In order to generate and maintain a credible image, you’ve got to keep active. Your social media presence, though important, is really just a way to give you more visibility online and drive traffic to your site. That’s where the real action happens.

Strength and courage,
Wade

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Are You In Control Of Your Money Or Is Money In Control Of You?

kelowna on October 5, 2016

I will never forget the time I was sitting in a seminar presented by T. Harv Eker on the Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind and the crowd of nearly a thousand people were all asked to bring with them a $100 cash bill to the evening session of the seminar for an exercise to teach us about our mindset and blueprint we all have about money. We are all asked to hold up our $100 bill and if you were unable to bring that bill with you then you were politely asked to leave this part of the seminar and demonstration.

We then watched a few of the seminar staff line up in front of the stage with burning candles for the crowd to begin to line up and prepare to burn your $100 cash bill to prove to yourself you are in control of your money and money is not in control of you. As I sat there I saw a wave of emotion come over the crowd as some people are getting angry and others are starting to cry and others are really showing no sign of emotion of what they have been asked to do.

Personally I am sitting there saying to myself I can do this but honestly I wish I could give it to someone in need or it go to better use but if I need to do this to prove to myself money is not in control of me then so be it. They slowly have the crowd stand and begin to line up in front of each of the staff members holding the open burning flame and let the emotions and energy build and build in the room. Then at the very last second they say “ok, everyone sit down and put your $100 bill away and start journaling what you experienced and what you felt through that exercise.”

So how would you feel about doing that? Would the money control you or would you be in control of the money? Would it make you mad, sad or feel nothing? Here are seven powerful tips I used myself from Clason’s novel “The Richest Man In Bablyon” and strategies for you to implement and be in control of your money in real estate and not the money in control of you.

A Part of all you earn is yours to keep.
The most powerful and most important message you read and hear from all experts in financial prosperity. “PAY YOURSELF FIRST.” Clason refers to this as “Starting thy purse to fattening” He uses the story of the humble egg merchant. If the egg merchant put ten eggs in his basket each morning and take out only nine by evening. Eventually what will happen? It will in time become overflowing. Or how about every ten coins you place in your purse you take out and use only nine. Your purse will fatten and soon will build increasing weight and bring you great satisfaction. Create a second account that is difficult to access and take that one egg, take that one coin and let it build and overflow over time. Just like this merchant you too create an account at a different bank and set up automated withdraw into this account, that can’t be readily accessed to build up your purse.
Control your expenditures.
“BUDGETING” – All men are burdened with more desires than they can gratify. We have this false idea we can gratify our every desire. Clason states there are limits to your strength, limits to the distance you may travel, limits to what you may eat and limits to the zest you may enjoy. The key to controlling your expenses is taking the time to really identify your fixed expenses and eliminate or minimize your non fixed expenses. Discipline yourself to live lean and mean. Pay yourself your fixed expense amount at beginning of the month. Review Constantly – identify habits; implement cost savings i.e. basic cable or even no cable. Apply the same principle to your business accounts.
Make your gold multiply.
“INVEST” – The greatest opportunity and wealth building strategy we all have is buying what we know… Stocks, Bonds, Mutual, Commodities, Mortgages, Rentals, Loans etc. Clason states a man’s wealth is not the coins he carries in his purse but it is the income he buildeth, the golden stream that continually flows into his purse and keeping it bulging. Amortization in wealth building is key… Example: Only $5,000 per year or $416 / month Invested. Over 10 years – at 5% becomes 66K at 15% becomes 116K… Over 20 years at 5% becomes 173K at 15% becomes 589K.
Guard your treasures from loss.
“INVEST WISELY, CONSERVATIVELY” – Start by investing small amounts and learn to protect and grow those first. Clason said every man is tempted by opportunities where it would seem he could make large sums by its investment in the most plausible projects. So often we are urged by friends or family to eagerly enter these high return investments. Remember the risk or penalty is probable loss. TIP – borrowing to invest. Ask your advisor for their personal net worth statement. WORDS OF WISDOM – Invest only where the principal is safe and where the principle may be reclaimed if needed and where you will not fail to collect a fair return. Consult with wise men. Secure their advice and let their wisdom protect your treasures.
Make of Thy Dwelling a Profitable Investment
“OWN A HOME” – To a man’s heart it brings gladness to eat the figs from his own trees and the grapes of his own vines. To own his own domicile and to have a place he is proud to care of and put confidence in his heart and reward behind his endeavors. Discipline yourself to pay this home off. Blessings to the man who owneth his own home. Greatly reduces his cost of living and making available more of his earnings to build his wealth.
Insure a Future Income
“SAVINGS” – It behooves a man to make preparation for a suitable income in the days to come, when he is no longer young and to make preparations for his family should he be no longer with them to comfort and support them. It is important you maintain savings and have funds put away for many different reasons. Health, emergency expenses, major financial setbacks or economic down turn. You will get old. You may get sick. You will die one day and you should be prepared. TIP – wills, insurance life & disability
Cultivate, Study & Learn
“BECOME A STUDENT” – Constantly improve yourself and become more skillful. Act on these principles and have the discipline to learn and implement them. Then begin to teach them to others including your own children. Clason reminds us “There is more gold in Babylon my students than you could dream of. There is abundance for us all.”

So there you have it, 7 powerful financial laws that made a difference with my control over money vs. the money having control over me. I challenge you to implement these strategies into your personal and professional lives and take control over the finances and win the money game.

Strength and courage,
Wade

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The Art Of Real Estate Offers In 2014

kelowna on October 22, 2014

Real Estate Offers – Learn From the Legends

I realize my more than two decades of real estate experience may hurt me this week and I may get some of the new generation of agents thinking this content is completely ridiculous but I honestly believe the art of real estate offers has been lost and that we need to seriously be reminded of some old school fundamentals.

What happened to the days of face to face presentations of real estate offers?

Doesn’t the amount of money we receive for our services warrant the listing and buyer agents getting together and bringing the clients together in the office for an offer presentation?

I remember the day when the listing and selling agents would actually call each other and talk prior to the offer.

Without breaching agency and without breaking our fiduciary duty to our clients whatever happened to both agents prior to preparing and presenting an offer share with one another what the seller is doing if they sell? Why the buyer has chosen to write on this listing and what is their second choice?

Is the seller thinking that their Price, Timing or Terms are most important?

All three?

Why not ask the listing agent to send over their comparables they used for establishing price for their seller and you send the listing agent the comparables you used to establish your buyers price and each of you may find one or two that you might have missed and be able to present to your clients?

Another idea I have is sharing about the average days on market and the average list to sell ratio percentage and try to bring both agents and their clients education levels up prior to entering into the offer and presentation.

After covering the pre offer strategies let’s take a look at some of the presentation strategies that would help get more of our offers accepted.

The most important thing both agents want to create is a spirit of cooperation vs. a spirit of competition.

So many times I have had to say to the other agent “Hey, I am not the enemy here I am just the messenger. The last time I checked you and I get paid if we can get our clients together so let’s try to keep that focus and not work on another offer that doesn’t come together.”

Once we have established that spirit of cooperation then we establish the location and grounds for presentation and there is no better place than to meet at the office. The office is neutral ground and the seller is emotionally disconnected from their home and when the agents and both clients are all meeting at the office we send a message to all parties that something is going to happen and this is business.

Face to Face Real Estate Offers

The presentation begins and the worst thing the selling agent can do is open with a presentation of their own market evaluation. This will send two messages to the other agent and their sellers.

The first is that the listing agent doesn’t know how to do their job and you have taken the liberty to do it for them and the second message is the seller is uneducated and not well informed and you are here to bring them up to speed.

I just cringe when the agent does this because when they leave the presentation usually my sellers are absolutely insulted and don’t care if they ever sell their home to that agent and their buyer.

Someone needs to take control of the offer presentation and that person is you!

I always take control of the presentation by taking everyone out on what Floyd Wickman called the “safe island”.

The safe island is a technique that lets all the parties know what is about to happen prior to it happening.

“I want to thank the selling agent for coming this evening and choosing our home to write their offer on. We know they had other choices. What we will do first is get the selling agent to tell us why they chose to write on our listing first and let us know if they have a second choice.

Then tell us a little about your buyers, who they are, where they are from and what they do for a living.

Then we will get the selling agent to start with their offering price because the price is most important to you Mr. and Mrs. Seller and then share with us the dates and terms of the offer to follow.

We will then have a chance to ask the selling agent any questions and clarify any details of the offer. We will ask the selling agent to excuse themselves and have a chance to discuss the offer with Mr. and Mrs. Seller in private.

Why don’t you begin by telling us about your buyer?”

A few other tips I like to add is pay the clients a compliment on their choice of agent and only if you truly respect that agent.

I also like to remind the seller they have three decisions to make today…

1) Accept the offer and you can stop showing, cleaning and get onto your next goal.

2) Counter and risk losing the buyer and continue showing and cleaning and maybe losing the property they are wanting next.

3) Reject the offer and not respond, again losing the property you want to buy next. I always like to remind the buyer and seller that market value is “what a willing seller and a willing buyer are going to agree upon at that day and time.”

I also like to remind the other agent to remain “Charged Neutral” which is to stay non emotional in all of this and try not to be the “White Knight” and remember this is not our property, not our money and definitely not our decision today, it is our clients.

We are all busy and I know we have all this amazing technology that allows us to never see anyone during the process but I believe if we can merge some of the old school with some of the new school we may just win a few more offers and create a boost in our real estate income and business.

BONUS REAL ESTATE OFFER TIPS:

Multiples Offers

Always ask the listing agent if the competing offer is their own.
Always wait to present the multiple if possible face to face.
Bring your buyer to the offer presentation. Shows you are very serious and can act quickly.
Leave the acceptance time for your offer for only say 30 minutes. Doesn’t leave the listing agent enough time to play your offer.
Try to bring a letter from the lender stating your buyers financing position.
Try to present last if possible. Ask if the other offer included any commission concessions?
Take time to educate your buyer to put their best foot forward. They may only get one chance to offer.

Back Up Offers

Confirm the collapse date of the first accepted offer prior to writing your back up offer.
Make sure you put “Subject to the seller not being obligated to the previously accepted offer on or before (Date). For the sole benefit of the seller.
Add the term “Seller and sellers agent agree not to grant any extensions to the first accepted offer.”
Add the term “Seller and sellers agent agree not to notify the first party of the existence of the back-up offer.”
Add the term “Seller and sellers agent agree not to disclose any details including price, terms and time of the back-up offer to the first party.”

**DISCLAIMER: Consult with your broker owner and/or legal counsel regarding adopting and/or implementing the above information.**

I trust some of this content is helpful and that you can take it and implement it today in your business!

Strength and Courage!
Wade

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Unselling – Real Estate Sales are Overrated Find out the Latest Rage!

kelowna on October 15, 2014

People Love Stories… What’s the Story of Your Real Estate Business?

I was so excited to receive my much anticipated copy of Scott Stratten’s new book “Unselling” and dive right into it… and just as expected it did not disappoint.

This week’s post are from some of the things that resonated most with me and hopefully will with you as a REALTOR.

“Sixty percent of all purchase decisions are now being made before you even get a chance to make your pitch.”

Gone are the days of “buy or good bye” and focus all our energy and efforts on the moment of the sale and counting our sales numbers.

Up until now all of our efforts as REALTORS have been on our sales funnel and ignoring those outside it before, during and after the sale. Stratten refers to this as “Funnel Vision” and it needs to stop!

Unselling in real estate is about everything but the sale like customer service, support, branding, experiences and even product quality.

It is about the Big Picture like creating raving fans, repeat clients, referrals, not treating clients like faceless numbers and become the go to person or product.

The question is are you creating experiences that make it so easy for people to share them? Unselling is about content, connection and engagement and separating yourself, your product, your company and most important your service from the pack of real estate noise!

What’s Your Story in Real Estate?

The book shares a great story about the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island and what they did for a little boy that left his favorite stuffy giraffe at the resort and what their staff did for the little boy and his family to create an incredibly easy story to tell.

The story began with the little boy discovering his stuffy was gone and being so upset and not being able to sleep and cope so his father thought it would be a great idea to tell his son his stuffy was still at the resort for an extended stay and would be back soon.

The story (or lie) seemed to ease the little boys anxiety and was able to finally go to sleep. The next day, to the fathers delight, the Ritz-Carlton called and said they had found the stuffy so the father to try and smooth over the lie he had told his son asked if they might take a photo of the stuffy by the pool and send it with the package.

Well the staff didn’t just send a photo and the stuffy they sent a package with branded goodies like a Frisbee, football and a binder beautifully prepared with the stuffy wearing sunglasses sitting by the pool photo, getting a massage in the Spa, hanging with other stuffies, driving the golf cart and even his own employee badge for the stuffy giraffe.

Needless to say the family went out of their way to let as many people they could know what type of service the Ritz-Carlton provides their guests and would never consider staying anywhere else.

So what kind of real estate experience are you creating?

What stories are you making easy for your clients to tell the world?

Why are these experiences so important?

We are not alone in this business and have a ton of competition and online people have a ton of access to information and remember sixty percent of them make their agent decision before you even get to meet with them face to face and this is why making exceptional easy to share experiences is so important to you and your real estate business.

When it is a negative story being shared about you and your service or no stories being shared about you and your service there is always another agent ready to make a good impression.

According to Forrester Research about “about forty eight percent of customers reported that social media posts and reviews are a great way to discover new services, products or brands.”

What are they saying about you in the cloud?

3 Keys to Remedy “Funnel Vision” in Your Real Estate Business

Never, ever think of peoples as “leads”… online or offline. We do not walk around with invisible prospective numbers on our heads, and no one wants to be valued based on their possible future profit to you.
Create amazing products, services and content first. If you put it out in the world, make it good. Social media sentiment is not to blame for your disappointing quarter. A bad product and/or service is.
Trusted referrals are the best marketing. When customers pass through your company funnel, they do not go live on some deserted island, they go back into the mix. They share their experience good and bad and those listening value those opinions ahead of any ad or campaign.

“Unselling” as a REALTOR is what happens when you understand the humanity of your market, produce a quality product, and create experiences that lead to trusted referrals. Step back from the sale and focus on everything else but the sale.

Special thanks to Scott Stratten for sharing this great work of literature “Unselling”

Check out more of Scott here…

twitter@unMarketing
facebook.com/UnMarketing

Strength and Courage,

Wade

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Critical Non Essentials – Memorable Realtor Customer Service

kelowna on July 17, 2013

Want to Be the “Starbucks” of Real Estate Customer Service?

I am amazed how much people will pay for an experience in “anything” (including buying or selling real estate).

Take coffee for example, Starbucks the greatest marketer of the coffee experience. You can drink coffee or you can drink “Starbucks Coffee”.

You walk in to the most comfortable setting in the world for drinking coffee. Leather sofas, tables and chairs to visit or work on your laptop or mobile device and Jazz greats softly playing in the background. Sitting around the coolest place to drink coffee with the coolest people on the planet around you drinking the coolest coffee on the planet too.

It is the mecca of coffee experiences…

For only a mortgage payment a day, you too can have this coffee experience. Starbucks has provided us with a ton of “critical non essentials” to enhance our coffee experience.

How can you apply the same principle to the “real estate experience“ with your own customers?

[ez_box title=”My Top Critical Non-Essential Ideas to Enhance Customer Experience……” color=”blue”]

Pre Appointment Tips
- Personal hand written note sent with your business card to let them know you are looking forward to meeting with them.
- Courier to their home or place of business a home buyer or home seller package. Something to really impress them before you even meet.
- Courtesy call or reminder of your appointment confirming the date, time and place the day before your actual appointment.
- If you are meeting at the office, let the receptionist know they are arriving. Have them greeted by their names. Offer them coffee or water and let them know you have been expecting them.
Buying and Selling Process Tips
- Pet and kids contracts. Have a one page agreement with the children and family pet that they help with selling the home in exchange for a $25 Gift Card to Pet Smart or Toys R Us on the sale of the home. (leave a comment below to receive a copy of the one page agreement)
- Deliver a nice bouquet of flowers to their home with a small note of thanks for their trust in you. This enhances their home visually for selling and makes them feel important.
- Thank you letter signed from the company owners for selling or buying their house with you and your company.
- Allow time to pick up a special coffee before viewing homes. Pack bottled water, snacks and umbrella in vehicle for clients as well. DVD player and videos for small children.
- Mini listing cards. Create business cards on one side and mini MLS® feature sheet of their home on the other for sellers to help you help them sell their home by handing these cards out to friends and family.
- Weekly or Bi Weekly face to face meetings with buyers and sellers to review where they have been and where they are going. Re-evaluate and give them your time. Don’t just email, phone or text.
- Offer a few hours of yard work, house cleaning, carpet cleaning or home staging to really enhance the presentation of the sellers home.
After Sale Tips
- Customer survey form sent out.
- Call them 1 day, 1 week and 1 month after the closing of the sale of their home, just to check in.
- Photo book gift as a keep sake of their home photos to remember for years to come.
- House warming party. You ask for the guest list and you send out the invitations, you host their house warming party as a thank you gift. Chance to expand your database.
- Meet on site for the walk thru and key exchange on the possession date.
- Deliver a meal on moving day.
- Provide them a young person with a truck as their concierge to help with anything they need on moving day. For example, moving, cleaning, junk removal, etc.
- Change of Address cards. Your business card on one side and photo and new address of their new home on the other to send out to their friends and family.

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Hopefully you picked up a couple tips here to take your customer service to the next level.

What are some of your favorite critical non-essentials you provide to clients?

Strength and courage,

Wade

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