Words of a Champion

Dirk Zeller
CEO

To find your place is one of the biggest challenges in life.  We are all born unique.  We each have innate strengths and skills.  We also have particular skills that have been developed since childhood.  Many of us started preparing and honing our skills that we use today, at a very early age.

Take Tiger Woods as example.  Before he was attending school he was swinging a golf club.  People marvel at his level of skill being so young.  It’s really not too surprising, he had been preparing for his career for over 20 years. 

The truth is, we are one-of-a-kind.  There will never be another person like you ever in the history of time.  You are the best and the only you there will ever be.  You were uniquely created to fulfill a purpose.  The objective is to find out what that purpose is, if you don’t fulfill it, no one else will.  We are counting on you…all of us.  The question is, what is your secret dream?  What is it you have always wanted to do?  What would you do in life if you could not fail?

Then let’s look at what you do best and have the most fun doing.  This should be what you build your career and life around.  Too often, we end up doing things that are not fun.

To truly achieve your purpose we must align the steps of success, which may be difficult, with the fun things we like to do.  Often we may have to change our mindset to align the “fun” with those necessary activities. 

• What are your real strengths?
• What are your known talents?
• Do you have any hidden talents?

These questions can help you determine what you should be doing to create the impact you desire.  Success is derived from applying the discipline that is necessary, so you can ultimately live out your purpose to the fullest.

Once you clearly know your purpose, your path to success will be clear.  For most of us we are in constant change.  We are adjusting our target and our path.  The one who has a clear purpose has a huge advantage over the rest of us.  In the end, a true purpose does not change your path; it inspires the necessary changes to occur.

To Your Achievement of Greater Success in 2009,

Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com

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Avoiding Closing Derailment

Like a train, a transaction can get derailed at any point on the track. A closing can be hit by a clouded title, a home not appraising for value, a rapid change in interest rates, an undisclosed credit or income issue, or one of countless other unanticipated issues.

Choke points cause delays and delays cause all kinds of problems for buyers, sellers, and agents. Moving plans get thrown into disarray. Interim housing or early-possession requests become necessary. Contingency plans need to be thrown together. Nerves get jangled. The resulting situation can be a nightmare even for the most seasoned agent, and a productivity killer as well.

Eighty percent of the problems in closing transactions fall into three basic areas. Stay on the lookout for these problems and solutions to steer your transactions clear of as much trouble as possible:

1. Documentation and verification: Lenders needs to assemble considerable paperwork and complete dozens of documents based on information submitted by the loan applicants. Then they need to verify all information for accuracy by checking the applicant’s employment status, funds on deposit, and income level. The document preparation and information verification process takes time. Counsel your buyers that if they fail to submit the required information on a timely basis, or if they turn it in piecemeal and bit-by-bit, delays are certain to result.

2. Repairs, repairs, repairs: This is a chokepoint that good advance planning can avert. When you are representing the seller, state clearly in writing that only lender-required repairs will be done. If you don’t, you leave the sellers open to the risk that the buyer will come back with a laundry list of items.

   A lender-required note usually limits repairs to structural, mechanical, or health and safety issues – with not a word about nicks in a walls or non-matching door knobs.

   Also consider writing a dollar limit for repairs into the initial contract.  The number isn’t etched in stone, but it will help keep a lid on the potential amount for which your seller is responsible. The buyers may still refuse to lift the home inspection contingency until additional lender-required issues are dealt with, but the limit will help most of your sellers most of the time.

3. Underwriting of the buyer’s loan:  This is the stickiest of all closing choke points because the underwriter has complete power to approve the loan, approve the loan with additional conditions, or suspend the file until certain conditions are met, in which case the borrower starts the underwriting process all over again.

   Underwriters check to make sure that the loan meets guidelines for debt ratio, loan-to-value ratio, credit score, employment history, and other qualifications. They also evaluate the loan based on whether it can be bundled with others in a big loan package that can be sold to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or another entity that buys mortgages.

   Very few lending institutions hold their loans to maturity. Most write loans, realize profits through origination fees, document preparation fees, and margins on basis points, and then sell the loans within 30 to 60 days, recouping the loan amount to sell again as part of the next loan deal.

   If the underwriter approves a loan that can’t be resold, then the lending institution has to keep the loan in its portfolio. If that situation occurs too often, and too many loans can’t be resold, the lending institution runs out of money to loan, driving it out of business.

   Of all the choke points in a transaction, the underwriting process can cause the biggest delays. Expect that there will be times when underwriters slow things down with requests for second appraisals or additional documentation of value, especially if the home is in a high price range. Once you clear the hurdle, the documents can be drawn and sent to closing.

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Challenges for Sales Professionals

The most significant challenge for sales professionals is their time control. How a sales professional uses their time determines income. The sales professionals in the top 10% of their industry control, use, and invest their time more wisely and effectively than the lower performing sales people.

The Champion Performers are more effective with their time blocking schedule than lower performers. The concept of time blocking is not new. Most of us have been exposed to it but have yet to master it. Through years of study and coaching sales professionals, I have observed some common challenges that most sales people experience when trying to master their time blocking schedule.

1. Over access problems:  The proper screening of calls by an effective gatekeeper can save hours weekly. Too often, issues, problems, and challenges that could be handled by another penetrate the walls and enter our world. These problems could be minor or major in nature, but granting unfiltered access creates large amounts of lost time for many sales people.

   There should be a limit in terms of time and people who have access to you. Successful people have a short list of people who have unfiltered access to them. They do not deviate from this short list of people. These people on the short list can interrupt the schedule any hour of the day based on their importance.

   My short list includes my wife, my father, my attorney, and a few key associates. The people on the short list are often extremely important to your personal life. There are very few clients that find their way on truly successful people’s short lists.

   There should be times in your schedule when you are uninterrupted. The biggest error that sales people make is getting sucked into the interruption game. They have limited structure for their time, so access to them becomes easy. Access should be granted, not taken. You are the controller of access.

2. Location Issues: The nature of your physical office can effect production dramatically. It can effect drastically how you use your time.

   There are two issues in regard to location for real estate Agents and teams:

   • The size of the practice versus size of the space of your work environment.
   • Your personal office must be private.

   These two areas often are detrimental to production increases. If you don’t have enough square footage for yourself and your staff, your production is stunted.

   I had a client a handful of years ago who did 150 transactions with her and three associates out of 150 square feet of office space. They were tripping over each other. They were constantly searching to find things they needed in their office. It was amazing they did the production they did out of the limited space they had.

   When they increased their space to 500 square feet a dramatic production increase happened for them. They had the discipline, talent, and skill to increase production. Their physical space limited the growth opportunities. The issue of space is essential for a growing business.

   The other critical issue is private space for the Champion Agent. There are too many focused activities in a day for the Champion Agent to be in the bullpen of activity. If your staff surrounds you, you’re in the wrong place.

   A Champion Agent needs their own private office away from distractions and staff.  The only way to control their planning and prospecting environment is to make them exclusive to you.

   The one way to prospect consistently, and with focus, is to have a private office environment. If you have the buzz of the staff, inbound phone calls, problems, and challenges, even a Champion Agent will be tempted to engage in helping. The tendency is for us to jump back into the issues of servicing at the expense of our new business creation.

3. Appointment Issues:  Successful professionals operate on an appointment-only basis. Your doctor, dentist, or attorney operates based on appointments that you set with them. Too many agents are willing to meet at all hours of the day and night. The Champion Agent creates appointment slots and drives prospects into those slots. The goal is efficient and effective use of your time; to see production with every minute you invest in your career.

   Studies have shown that 80% of your prospects will meet with you in your schedule. The reason they don’t is because we don’t want them to. We allow them to dictate appointment times. We juggle our schedule to reflect their needs. We then justify that because we are in a “service oriented” business. We feel that being available to them is equal to service. Operating as a professional on an appointment-only basis is more valuable than running your business on a referral-only basis.

4. Excessive Distractions:  We are the most interrupted and distracted professionals on the face of the planet. We experience distractions from phone calls. These phone calls, for most Agents, come on their office, home, and cell phones. Most Agents never get away from the distractions of the phone. We have the distractions of e-mail. More often than not the e-mail is not a lead. It’s the fastest offer for Viagra or another unsolicited e-mail. If it is a lead, the conclusion ratio of Internet leads is less than 1%. Why give in to a 1% conclusion ratio if you are engaged in productive activities currently. Other Agents can be a distraction, as well. They can interrupt your rhythm and flow. They can also tempt you to join their coffee and donut group.

   There are two effective techniques to use to control distractions. The first is to plan for them. If you want to socialize with other agents, then plan a set time to do that. Block the time in your schedule in terms of the exact day and time. It’s acceptable to socialize, provided it’s of short duration and you have planned for it.

   The second is creating a list of people who are granted instant access. Have your assistant memorize the list. If you don’t have an assistant, then work with your receptionist. Have her memorize and know who is granted unfiltered access. If you create a list larger than five people, then trim it down. The list should be five people or less. My list consists of my wife, my attorney, a financial advisor, and my sales manager. Any one else could get filtered out and scheduled for a call later in the day. Who is on your list?

The real secret to highly productive people is they accomplish more of high value with their time. They control their time rather than letting it control them. They minimize the distractions they face daily.

Lastly, they position themselves, through appointments, to be Agents in command. We all have a choice to be an Agent on demand. This is being at people’s beck and call all hours of the day and night. The other option is an Agent in command, where you dictate, control, and create your business and clients. That is the Champion Agent approach!

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Leadership

Being a great leader is crucial to becoming successful in real estate sales.  Many would think that statement is off the mark.  What does real estate sales have to do with leadership?  As REALTORS®, we are thrust into a leadership role.  We may not realize it at first, but we are the leaders of transactions.  We lead our sellers to price their home correctly.  We should lead the other Agent in the negotiating process.  We need to lead the buyer into the right selection efficiently.  We must lead our team of affiliates and staff (if we have one).  Leadership is a lost art in the real estate world.  Let me share with you three characteristics of great leaders:

1. Leaders make things happen

   Leaders are valuable because they see opportunities and seize them.  They make themselves, and those around them, better because of their ability to move forward at the appropriate time.  Leaders see the opportunity to close on a prospect and act on it.  They don’t wonder if they should do it!  Great leaders take advantage of whatever market condition is in front of them.  Dr. George Crane said, “There is no future in any job.  The future lies in the person who holds the job.”  If you are the person who holds the job, you have the ability to make your career in real estate whatever you desire.  Too many of us wait for the market to slow down or speed up, interest rates to lower, or one of a thousand other changes.  You control the future of your career.  Make the outcome you desire happen.

2. Leaders have strong influencing skills

   Leaders must have the ability to influence others to their perspective.  To be an effective influencer, you must focus on two activities.  The activities are preparation and practice.  As REALTORS®, we must prepare before our opportunities to influence arrive.  When we have a listing appointment, or influencing opportunity, we must be well prepared.  Preparing is beyond the obvious.  The obvious would be the CMA, or reviewing the market and condition of the property.  Preparation is knowing who else is interviewing for the job.  Preparation is knowing what matters to the clients, or how their decision or selection criteria will be evaluated.  If you want to be an effective REALTOR®, knowing what their goals, values, and desires are in life and home ownership will give you a better gateway to influence them.  If you are well prepared, the presentation becomes easier. 

   Practice is a key for great leadership.  Practice gives leaders the experience before they ever get there.  Professionals in every profession practice long and hard before they are in the moment of competition.  We REALTORS® have to view what we do as competition.  We are competing with other Agents and buyers to find the right home for our client.  We are competing with other Agents to get the listing.  We are in a profession that doesn’t pay for second place.  If we evaluate athletic teams, doctors, dentists, and most other professionals, they practice before they play.  Airline pilots practice in a simulator, for many long hours, before they are allowed to fly a plane.  The pilots get every possible situation, mechanical failure, and weather challenge thrown at them inside the simulator.  It allows them to be razor sharp when it happens in real life.  They practice because they are making life or death choices.  If you want to become a successful professional, your financial outcome for your family is determined by your commitment to practice. 

3. Leaders posses great attitudes

   You want to be a leader, so you must develop great attitudes.  Ultimately, an attitude is a choice that you make.  Each day you decide what attitude you will select for the day.  You can select an attitude of expectancy that is positive, uplifting, and focused on success.  This type of attitude is easy to carry around with you everyday.  It grows and builds with the day.  Your other option is the attitude of dejection.  This type of attitude takes tremendous effort to carry with you everyday.  This attitude is like the chain Jacob Marley carried around him in Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol.  This attitude, like the chain in that novel, gets longer and heavier with each passing day. 

   You have a decision to accept and create either of these attitudes daily.  You must clearly understand that the right attitude is the criterion for success.  A great attitude doesn’t cost anything.  You also couldn’t buy it for a million dollars.  The truth is attitudes are not for sale.  Resolve to select the right one today.  

Start each day with the decision to enhance your leadership skills daily.  Focus on making things happen each day.  Seize the opportunities that lay before you.  Prepare for those opportunities with constant practice and honing of your skills.  You then need to resolve to attach the right attitude to each day.  Insist on you, and the others around you, possessing the right attitude.  These three steps will enable your business and life to explode to the next level, leading others along with you.

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