Social media sites open doors that real estate agents might never had the opportunity to knock on much less step through.  Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, allow for exciting networking possibilities.  People we may never have had the opportunity to meet are now just a conversation and click away.  Using social media allows the agent to be right where the customer is when the customer discovers they need an agent or simply have a question that an agent can assist with.  Social media also builds up our personal network.  We get to meet agents from all over the world, and share our successes, and laugh or discuss our business from a viewpoint that only another REALTOR can appreciate.

I believe I see another possibility for agents spending time on these social media sites.  Time wasting.  For some agents being involved with social sites can also have a negative impact much like you might find in any real estate company. 

For visualization I will compare it to agents who gather around the office water cooler.  At first, standing around the water cooler exchanging war stories, discussing ways to improve marketing, prospecting or even the business itself or catching up with your office friends is harmless.  The problem starts when the agent never leaves the comfortable feeling the water cooler provides.  You will find the agent day after day loyally maintaining their post waiting for anyone who might drop by to give them an ear.  But by the end of the day, week or month, that is all they have accomplished.  No surprise, their income reflects where and how they have spent their time.

A successful agent on the other hand understands how to balance.  You will rarely catch them wasting an entire day talking the talk because they understand that their career depends on them walking the walk.  Walking requires moving away from the water cooler, walking requires physically meeting with those who need their services.    Walking includes developing a business plan that includes social media as one of many sources of business. 

While I have talked to some very good agents who skillfully use social media to further their brand or business, I do not think the majority of existing top producing agents in our industry today have embraced social media.  When successful agents finally sign up, I believe they will quickly discover how to optimize their time and effort to the benefit of themselves, their business and the customer.  Those are the agents we will want to pay attention to, those are the agents we will want to follow, friend or connect with.

The weekend is the time most of us in the real estate profession are busy with moneymaking activities. Working with buyers, showing property, holding open houses or meeting with potential sellers.Wednesday and Thursdays are when we should be working on our appointments in order to have the weekend fully scheduled with customers and clients. If Friday rolls around and you have nothing scheduled for the weekend, you need to carefully re-examine what you did during the past week in order to figure out what when wrong.

In order for the weekend to be filled with real estate activities, during the week you should do at least one thing daily that has a chance of resulting in an appointment. What that one thing is will be determined by what you are most effective at. You definitely will not want to spend time doing what you did the previous week, which resulted in no appointments for the weekend.

You should try what has always been successful, calling or visiting your past customers, calling or visiting your farm area or calling on expired or FSBO. These are aggressive steps to gain an appointment and are usually the last on the list for those who agents who can never seem to get an appointment.

Go ahead and make a conscious effort to make an appointment a day and your weekend will fill up quickly with opportunities to earn a paycheck.

Irina Netchaev with the LA Real Estate Examiner asked this question in a recent article. In the article she included many tasks a real estate agent should do as part of their business.In my opinion a great real estate agent boils down to this;

Professionalism + Knowledge + Honesty = a great real estate agent

An agent who can say they have all 3 qualities will also have satisfied, happy customers that will think of them as great at what they do!

Is it possible you are not cut out to be a real estate sales person?

• If open houses don’t work and are a waste of time…
• If floor duty is not for you and only the lucky agents receive the good calls…
• If you never call expired listings because it is obvious they want too much money for their home…
• If you never stop to visit a FSBO because you are sure hundreds of other REALTORS have already been there before you and besides the homeowner must hate real estate agents…
• If short sales require way too much work and banks are impossible to deal with…
• If you believe it is impossible to list REO property so there is no sense in trying…
• If the Internet is just a waste of time…
• If you believe cold calling is an intrusion into the lives of others…
• If no one in your family or circle of friends is interested in buying or selling a home, ever…
• If you think farming should be left to farmers…
• If you are a home body and hate to be around people…

You have chosen the wrong profession.

Every agent in our office recently received an email from a Broker/Owner of a competing brokerage.  The email was similar to the numerous other spam offers I have seen over the years.  Much like the old fashion hand written chain letters according to this email the path to a free computer was simply to forward the email to 8 of your closest friends and a brand new laptop will be arriving at your door within days.

When will agents understand there are no free computers to be had?  I predict agents will finally get it when:

• When the number of agents who blog exceed the number who don’t.
• When agents start checking their email account regularly.
• When agents start consistently listing their website addresses on all their marketing pieces.

Until that time I am confident will continue to find these amazing computer offers in my inbox from agents who would not understand how to get the best use of the computer even if it was given to them.

Monday, June 1st, 2009 from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM, real estate agents in Jacksonville can attend a seminar where they will learn how to sell HUD homes.  This seminar will be at the Northeast Florida Association of REALTORS Headquarters 7801 Deercreek Club Rd., Suite #1 Jacksonville, FL 32256.(the Resource Center Auditorium).  INFORMATION

Regular contact with your center of influence can serve as a gentle reminder that you are still in the real estate business.  Calling on a regular basis to say hi and touch base keeps you fresh in the minds of your past customers, friends and acquaintances. What do you call about?  Here are a few suggestions and topics you can use in order to maintain contact with your center of influence.

• Your family/Their family
• Ask them if they have questions or comments about the topic of your latest newsletter, blog post or direct mail piece
• Let them know what is going on in the market that is influencing their home’s value
• Talk about community event, the success of the local sports team, an upcoming charity event
• Recent headlines relating to real estate, the economy, current events

These are people you know and trust and they know and trust you.  It should be easy to find topics and reasons to call to say hello.  You will find the hardest part is taking the time consistently to make the call.  Once you get into the habit of calling on a regular basis, the conversation will be easy and enjoyable.

Recently several agents mentioned that they are receiving a lot of response from their free CMA card.  This card was part of their direct mail marketing and prospecting efforts.  However, after meeting with the home owners, the agents were hit with the reality that the majority of the sellers they met could not afford to list at the price the CMA suggests.

I asked the agents how they determined who the cards would be mailed to and discovered very quickly why the agents were meeting with the wrong home owners.  The bottom line is these agents were sending the cards out without researching the area first.   They were leaving their success completely to chance instead of increasing their odds for success by sending the cards to the right houses.  What are the right houses?

If you are sending a CMA card out to someone who purchased their home within the past 2-3 years you are probably going to be meeting with owners who have little or no equity.  If, however, you do the research and only send your cards to home owners that have owned their home for let’s say 10 years or longer, you have a better chance of helping these potential home sellers and obtaining a listing that can be sold.

So before you send out your first piece of direct mail ask yourself, are you reaching the right houses?

Cleveland area agents can pick up HUD training in June.  National Home Management Solution, LLC has announced an upcoming training that real estate agents in the Cleveland area can register for. The training will be held on June 23, 2009. Check out this flyer for more information.

Kansas City, Kansas real estate agents have an opportunity to learn how to sell HUD homes by attending an upcoming event.  This event will be held on Friday, May 29, 2009 from 9:00am to 1:00pm at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kansas City.

Visit First Preston for registration information