In This Issue...

• Words from the President
• Creating After-the-Sale Service - Open the Door to Referrals
• How to Handle Today’s Seller’s Greed - Like a Pro
• Does the Industry Have Too Many Agents? - Guest Author Stefan Swanepoel
• Promoting Your Listings Online - Guest Author Paul Sheng

Words from the President

Thanks for joining me today on your journey toward success as a Real Estate Agent.

The two areas that we'll focus our time on today are Creating After-the-Sale Service & How to Handle Today’s Seller’s Greed. Either of these could help you change your life in 2007 if you'll read, absorb, and use the information.

I hope that you'll invest 13 minutes of your precious life with me today and that the information proves to be a blessing to you and your career.

To your achievement of success in life,


Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc

The Champion
Real Estate Agent - Book

Now on the Shelves

A proven plan for peak sales performance—and a better life!

In The Champion Real Estate Agent, renowned sales trainer Dirk Zeller shows you how to dramatically boost sales and achieve all your professional goals. But there’s much more to being a champion Agent than just selling. Zeller’s proven program not only turns you into a top sales performer, it gives you all the tools to build your real estate business and guaranteed to create a secure and prosperous future for yourself.

Full of insider tips, expert advice, and real-world examples from Zeller’s many years as a champion Agent and trainer, this comprehensive career guide presents a complete system for managing your business and time—so you can earn more money and enjoy more of life.

Don’t just get into the real estate game; become an all-star when you learn how to:

• Supercharge your sales and commissions
• Use Zeller’s unique referral strategy to turn effort into income
• Develop trust and credibility with customers
• Design a custom business plan that fits your life and goals
• Generate multiple streams of income

Take a Guided Book Tour Today!

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Tour Through the Book!

Creating After-the-Sale Service - Open the Door to Referrals

If you don’t plan for it, after-the-sale service won’t happen. You’ll get so consumed with the next deal and with the task of earning the next commission check that you’ll overlook the opportunity to create long-term revenue through your past clients.

An after-the-sale service program is like most things in life: people get derailed before they take the first step, and if they don’t take the first step – the step that involves establishing the program you commit to follow ­­– they can’t begin to meet the objective.

Use the following to guide you as you create your plan. It helps you define exactly what you need to do in the first 30 days after the sale and on an ongoing basis thereafter.

Laying the groundwork during the transaction period

When working a real estate transaction, you have two prime opportunities to develop interpersonal connections and high-grade referrals.  One is during the transaction period when you’re working with your client to buy or sell a home and close the deal. The second is during the 30 to 45 days that follow the closing.

If you do a poor job during the transaction, you’ll be hard pressed to recover lost ground after the closing. An attorney who blows a case doesn’t get a second chance from the client, and the same holds true for real estate agents. Your service during the transaction must be stellar, or you’ll sacrifice the chance for repeat and referral business, which is the easiest and least costly business to acquire. If that isn’t bad enough, you’ll also lose the opportunity to collect client testimonials and generate positive word-of-mouth.

During the transaction period, you’re in frequent contact with your clients and have ample opportunities to provide excellent service; make a strong, positive impression; and develop the basis for a long-term relationship by following these steps:

• When you first begin to work with clients to buy or sell a home, their enthusiasm is high. They fully anticipate and expect that they will be able to find the perfect home and that you are the ideal agent to accomplish the task. During this initial period, your clients think about little other than their real estate hopes. Your presence becomes woven into the fabrics of their lives and their conversations with friends and family members. This is an ideal time to ask for and win referrals.

• If the sale or purchase process drags on, expect your clients’ level of excitement and energy to ebb. At the same time, expect their focus on their purchase or sale to intensify. The most important thing you can do during this potentially dangerous time – when your clients are experiencing concern and talking non-stop about their real estate issues with others – is to stay in frequent communication; offer solutions; provide calm, professional advice; and retain the clients’ confidence in you and your abilities.

Setting a service agenda for the first 30 days after the sale

If you did everything right during the transaction, then your clients were totally satisfied with your service when the deal closed. Now you have a decision to make: Do you wish your clients well and walk away, or do you begin an after-the-sale service program that turns them into clients for life? You already know the answer: You begin to turn them into clients for life.

• Begin by personally calling your clients at least four times in the 30 days after the closing.

• Call in the first few days after the closing to thank them for the opportunity to serve them. Tell them how excited you are for them to be moving into their new home. Share an anecdote about working with them that will make you all laugh and touch their hearts.

• After the call, send a hand-written thank you note further expressing your thanks and asking for future business or referrals.

• By the end of the first week, call again. Once again, express thanks for trusting you. Then ask: How did the move go? Did anything get broken? How do the kids like their new rooms? Have they met any of the neighborhood kids yet? Did the seller leave the home properly? Is there anything that wasn’t right that they need any help with?

• This last question can open a Pandora’s box of issues, and that’s exactly why to ask it. If there are problems you don’t know about, you may be blamed for the mishaps without any opportunity to do anything about them. Most will be issues between the seller and the buyer, and power over the seller – unless legal action is involved ­– is gone because the transaction has now closed. Sometimes all you can do is provide a listening ear and sympathetic voice. Other times you can make a few phone calls to help right the wrong. The fact that you are willing to listen and to see what you can do speaks louder than any demonstrable action. It shows that you care.

• At the conclusion of the second call, send another hand-written note. Express concern for the unresolved issue and again thank them for their trust and for taking time to talk with you today.

• Call again at the two-week mark. Ask how they are doing getting out of boxes and settling into their new home. Update them if you’ve made progress on the issue that was concerning them. Ask them about the kids and their transition. Before hanging up, ask if your service is needed. Also, ask them for referrals.

• On their 30-day anniversary in the home, call again. Congratulate them on their great decision in selecting this home. Check on the kids and their progress settling in to the house and neighborhood. Thank them again for the honor to serve them.

Simple as this approach sounds, it will enable you to lock your clients in for life, plus it will open the door to referral business that flows freely.

• While you’re at it, call the other party involved in your real estate transaction as well.

Every real estate deal involves a buyer and a seller. In most cases, you represent only one of the two parties, but why not call and offer after-sale service to both? Do you think the other agent is doing this? For your answer, you only have to look at the National Association of REALTORS®’ finding that only 13% of 2004 real estate clients used an agent they had used previously to represent their interests. My estimation is that fewer than 10% of agents actually call their clients after closing.

When calling to follow up with the party represented by the other agent in your transaction, be ready for a response of surprise and great appreciation. The fact that you are calling four times in a month, while the agent who got paid to represent their interest hasn’t called even once, will positively awe most people. By the end of your 30-day after-sale service period, the names of the other agent’s clients will be in your database, and you’ll be the one receiving their referrals.

• Deliver or send a gift to your client.

This gift is usually called a closing gift, but even if you attend the closing, don’t take the gift with you for two reasons:

• At the closing, your clients will be focused on the transaction and thinking about their impending move and all the challenges that lie in front of them. Your gift will be lost in the shuffle.

• The papers presented at the closing put the amount of the real estate commission in writing, causing your clients to focus on exactly how much money you made from the transaction. If you give your gift at the same time, they could make a negative comparison between the value of the gift and the money you received.

• In choosing your gift, don’t go overboard. Save any over-the-top gestures you might want to extend until after your clients have settled in and after your commission has long-since been paid. The more you deliver after you get paid, the more your gift communicates that you care about your clients, not your commission check.

• Find a closing gift that reminds clients of you and your service.  Give them something that can be used rather than consumed. A great bottle of wine or gift basket quickly disappears. A customized mailbox, door knocker, or yard plant will last almost forever.

• By taking or delivering your gift to your clients’ new home, you’ll put it in their hands at a time when it can create the most significant feelings of good will, warmth, and referrals. If you want to give them something at closing, hand them a thank you note.

Another nice gesture is to help your clients notify their friends of their move.  Offer to create a postcard with a picture of their new home on the front and to print up a couple hundred for their use. Then offer to mail them out on your clients’ behalf.  You’ll save them the cost and enlarge your database to boot.

If you'd to learn how to carry this momentum forward and create referrals... check out chapter 8 in my new book "The Champion Real Estate Agent" here.

The Champion
Real Estate Agent - Book

Now on the Shelves

A proven plan for peak sales performance—and a better life!

In The Champion Real Estate Agent, renowned sales trainer Dirk Zeller shows you how to dramatically boost sales and achieve all your professional goals. But there’s much more to being a champion Agent than just selling. Zeller’s proven program not only turns you into a top sales performer, it gives you all the tools to build your real estate business and guaranteed to create a secure and prosperous future for yourself.

Full of insider tips, expert advice, and real-world examples from Zeller’s many years as a champion Agent and trainer, this comprehensive career guide presents a complete system for managing your business and time—so you can earn more money and enjoy more of life.

Don’t just get into the real estate game; become an all-star when you learn how to:

• Supercharge your sales and commissions
• Use Zeller’s unique referral strategy to turn effort into income
• Develop trust and credibility with customers
• Design a custom business plan that fits your life and goals
• Generate multiple streams of income

Reserve Your Copy Today!

Click Here to Get My Personal
Tour Through the Book!

How to Handle Today’s Seller’s Greed - Like a Pro

The marketplace pressure to overprice property is extremely high right now.  This pressure is clearly due to the low supply of listings we had experienced in some markets over the last few years.  These inventories, however, have loosened up recently.  We are experiencing a significant rise in properties on the market for sale.  This rise in inventory has not yet linked with a more reasonable seller’s expectation of value.  We, as Agents, are facing sellers on a regular basis whose greed factor is on overdrive.

With the rise in inventory has come a less frenzied seller’s market and a considerable amount of overpriced properties.  In many markets, Agents have decided to take the listing knowing it’s overpriced.  In this season, between the multiple offer insanity of the previous market and the softening to a neutral market, or even a buyer’s market, therein lies a danger.

We have two core focuses to zero in on:

1. Education of the local market trends to the seller:  Being able to show the seller the growth in inventory is essential to counseling them to a lower initial asking price.  We must engage in actively educating them about the market realities of today.  Through education, we can guide them to a lower view of expectation. We have to use the law of supply and demand to illustrate how, when supply increases and demand stays constant or is reduced, the price of a product has to fall.


2. Determine our criteria for taking and keeping overpriced listings:  Inevitably, Agents will take overpriced listings in this changing marketplace.  The dynamics of the marketplace will catch even the most seasoned Agents with overpriced inventory.  The effects will be even more significant for the largest group of Agents.  According to NAR, over 50% of the REALTOR®s today have been in real estate fewer than three years.  This group of Agents has never experienced anything other than an inventory short, quick selling, multiple offer, short servicing, and explosive appreciation marketplace.  The current swing could be deadly.  We must determine when, how, and why to take or keep an overpriced listing.  Here are the criteria I am coaching all of my clients to use:

In the end, it’s not enough for them to understand it; they must accept it.  Acceptance means that they accept that they will not be the exception to overpricing their property.  They won’t find the needle in the haystack; the sucker born every minute; the miracle out-of-state buyer who thinks it’s a steal!  They all have to accept that they, not you, will be bringing all these negative consequences of the salability of their property; that 60 days from now they take full responsibility when their home fails to sell.

• The seller must understand and accept the benefit of pricing their home competitively.  These benefits are the opposite of the overpriced items.  They will receive a better offer from better prospects.  Thereby creating a smoother, less emotional, potentially higher net dollar transaction to them.

• Buyers only buy homes that they are convinced are the best value of its type in the marketplace.  Buyers today are more sophisticated than ever.  They have more detailed information in today’s information age than ever.  They have done more research and have more knowledge than ever before.  They have the ability to personally “shop” for a home.  With the rise in inventory, they are more cautious, wanting to assert their control in the real estate transaction. For years, sellers dictated terms of purchase through multiple offers, large earnest money deposit, no home inspections, and no contingencies whatsoever.  Currently, in many markets, buyers are working to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction now that inventory has risen.  Buyers want value for their dollars.  They will use any means at their disposal to get it.

• The seller must know and accept that you will talk with them bi-weekly about adjusting their price.  Don’t allow them to have selective amnesia.  They must be willing to continue the discussions about your overpricing concerns, and you agree to listen to your customer about price reduction of their property regularly.  When you call them again two weeks after you take the listing to talk about a price reduction, they can’t act dumb or hide from you and not return your calls.  They must accept that these discussions are a necessary part of you doing your job.

If you'd like step-by-step training on how to handle just about every seller objection you may run into... check out my new program "Objection Handling Mastery™" here.

Does the Industry Have Too Many Agents? - Guest Author Stefan Swanepoel

The past six years or so comprised one of the hottest real estate markets on record in which the industry enjoyed tremendous growth. During this period the country experienced a buying frenzy fed by low interest rates, a plate full of new mortgages, bullish customer confidence, low unemployment, strong economic growth and excellent price appreciation.

Many economic factors were required to be in place to foster the prolonged real estate boom. The consumers' hunger seemed to have no end but it took more than just an appetite for "bigger and better" to fuel such a run in real estate. The media directed new programming at the housing market from home-repair to fix-and-flip to home-make-over shows. This surge in media coverage only compounded the frenzy. Many were looking for a "get-rich scheme" while others just didn't want to be left behind.

Real estate became the new "Internet Craze" where anything containing the words "home or real estate" seemed to be as hot as anything with a dotcom during the late 1990s. According to some, the frenzy will have a hangover affect for the next few years as many if not all of the following adjust and correct themselves:

• Too many new agents and brokers
• A reduction in number of transactions
• A decrease in housing prices
• Too many new mortgage brokers
• A rise in the number of foreclosures
• An increase in mortgage fraud

Adjustments on various levels would be a good thing for the industry, but at this time they may be slow in coming, as the industry still has to deal with the morning after affect. Consequentially some speculate that with the abundance of agents and their inability to be profitable in a strong market, let alone a down market, that a large portion of these marginal agents may be tempted to commit fraud.

Statistically the average REALTOR® (NAR member) sold fewer transaction sides in 2006 than in 2000. Normal supply and demand would result in halting the influx of new agents, but alas commission income was supplemented by the sharp increase in house prices and this did not happen. Furthermore, the increase in NAR membership even outpaced the increase in new households.

Now, with house prices declining, there are too many agents with many of them not even earning a living; they simply survived on inflated prices. So an overall reduction in the number of agents and Realtors is inevitable for 2007 and probably even 2008.

It's not that the industry hasn't experienced a shifting housing market or any of these challenges before. But for a great many agents that have never experienced anything other than the most recent feeding frenzy, they are going to be learning them first hand.

For the rest who have "been there before," it's a time to reflect on the last time through the cycle and learn from the lessons. Just remember that every down cycle or sideways movement is not the same and this time it's the combination of many factors, including the changing consumer and advancing technology that will probably cause additional restructuring in the real estate brokerage industry.

There is always a certain percentage of real estate professionals that want to play in a new market with yesterday's mindset and habits … their prospects for success are always limited. Then there are those that are willing to change and become proactive in the process. They are the ones that will end up on top. Which one are you?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This is an extract from the 159-page 2007 edition of the Swanepoel TRENDS Report that details the Top 10 trends impacting real estate brokers, agents and REALTOR® Associations.

"Swanepoel Real Estate
Trends Report"

During the past year, the real estate industry has experienced unprecedented change and significant innovation. You’ve no doubt experienced it first hand.

The key to being successful in real estate, or any other career for that matter, is staying apprised of the trends in your industry. If you can see where things are heading, you can utilize new opportunities before your competition.

• Beating your competition to the next wave of opportunities
• Avoiding fads that could set your business back years
• Gaining valuable insights about revealing strategies you can use right now

Learn More Here

Promoting Your Listings Online - Guest Author Paul Sheng

Everyone knows that in today's market, it's not enough just to get the listing- you need to have an aggressive marketing plan. While printed flyers, signage and the basics will always have their place, over 70% of homebuyers begin their search for a new home online. Thus, the first step in successful and aggressive listing promotion is to make sure your property is featured where homebuyers are looking.

More and more real estate agents already have a website and are likely using it to promote their listings. Here are some suggestions to help you get the most out of your website's listings:

• Add listing details - A picture is worth a thousand words, and with many real estate web design services, you can add up to 100 photos
• Promote listings on your home page - make a featured property listing highlighting a particular property, and make sure that there an easy-to-access slideshow at the ready
• Keep your hot news hot - announce your newest and most-desirable listings
• Update your open house page - drive traffic from the web into your open houses
• Add a summary to your home page - with a dedicated link to your listing page

Can your site be found?

Once you've got your website optimized, you have to make it something people can find. Your website's address is very much like a phone number- if they can't find it, potential clients won't be able to connect with you! Make sure your property is included on all real estate websites used by homebuyers to search for their dream homes. Some suggestions:

Submit listings to your MLS - the property will be included in the IDX feed for that MLS; many brokers and agents offer a full MLS search direct from their websites leveraging IDX feed using services like iHOUSE's IDXPro MLS Search Solution.

Submit listings to popular sites for house-hunters - There are a handful of top national search websites:

1) Realtor.com is the #1 real estate website, and was ranked as the 70th Top Website in any category in the U.S. by Alexa.
2) Yahoo! Real Estate Classifieds - The most visited site on the Internet offers real estate classified ads.
3) Trulia Real Estate Search Engine provides its visitors with summary listing profiles that include prominent links back to agent's site to get more details.
4) Oodle Real Estate Classifieds – Positioning themselves as the online classifieds website, Oodle indexes current listings and sends web visitors directly to your website for details. Explore local classifieds websites – These are usually pay-per-listing submissions.
5) Craigslist.org – the first and still the most-popular online local classifieds, Craigslist.org is a top 10 destination website in the U.S. and in some markets is the go-to online classified resource.
6) Local Newspapers – your local papers may include listings online as part of their classified services, or they may have a separate online classifieds program.

Property search sites can help

Research specialty property search websites - There are specialty sites for commercial, farms/ranches, luxury, rentals, and so forth. Often these use a pay-per listing model, and may require a membership or charge a referral fee.

• LoopNet.com – #1 Commercial online real estate website, paid listing service.
  
• EscapeHomes.com – Promotes second-home listings, membership fee/referral fee.
  
• Land.net – Promotes land and commercial real estate available for purchase or lease.
  
• Rent.com – An eBay company, Rent.com claims to be #1 in online rental traffic. Listings are free, but you pay $375 with a completed lease.
  
• Leverage National Broker websites – If you belong to a national broker franchise like RE/MAX, Prudential, Coldwell Banker, or Century 21, don't miss the opportunity to include your listings on their national index hosted on their corporate websites. These websites capture a lot of traffic, and can be useful in capturing relocation leads.
  

You’re listed, now what?

Once you're listed, it's time to focus on grabbing the attention of prospective clients with a compelling presentation. Once you've secured the listing, it's time to capture other agents and potential buyers. Here's how to get started:

1. Email an electronic version of your property flyer to local agents with the latest open house schedule and include a link to the listing's webpage in the body of your email.
   
2. Use an email marketing program to create pre-formatted flyers and open house invitation eCards to get the attention of other agents.
   
3. Add a virtual tour. Sites with virtual tours have been shown to keep visitors three times longer and listings receive 40% more views than they would otherwise.
   
4. Stake out the next frontier: single property websites are becoming the new differentiator. Stand out from other agents during the listing presentation by offering a professional, stand-alone website dedicated specifically to your client's property.
   

These steps will get you to a place where you can offer your visitors the most information-rich experience, and will help them to remember you, and thus to return to your site again and again.

Paul Sheng is CEO of iHOUSE Web Solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.ChampionRealtorWebsites.com/

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