Email really is a great tool and one that saves real estate agents a lot of time and energy. I can remember back to the days before email when even the smallest bit of information required a phone call to the other agent or our customer. We have so many great tools at our finger tips today. They assist us with doing our business, emailing being a huge one.

That is the good news; the not so good news is in how easy it is to misread or misunderstand the senders tone, attitude or words in an email. When it comes to communicating in an email I believe “measuring twice, cutting once”, is sage advice. Our business can be very stressful. How we communicate through email with sellers, buyers, and lenders, etc. can work to increase or reduce the stress we feel.

If you receive an email where you perceive the sender’s message coming across as them being upset, angry or rude, before responding back make sure you are reading and understanding the sender’s intentions correctly. This may require you to send a follow up email asking for clarification from the sender or you may want to pick up the phone to avoid further problems and confusion.

There will be times where we read more into the email than was actually there or incorrectly interpret, or just plain misunderstand the sender’s message, or feelings, due to busy schedules and our fast paced lifestyle. Taking the time to compose an email that accurately reflects the intent of the message is a must as our transactions become increasingly difficult and stressful.

Suggestions that will prevent your emails from coming across wrong would include;

• Using a polite or friendly salutation and a valediction. The beginning and ending of your email will help set the tone. The use of dear, hello or just using the recipients name at the start of the email and ending with thank you, best regards, all the best or something similar will make it less likely your email will be misinterpreted.
• Be careful when using jokes or satire. If the reader is not following along, jokes and satire could create an unwanted situation between the writer and the person receiving the email.
• Write as though the person was right in front of you having a conversation. It is important to remain politically correct, polite, clear and concise with our message just as we would speak to the person as if they were in the room with us.

Re-read your email before hitting the send button and practice the suggestions mentioned here and you will reduce the number of times your emails are taken wrong.

Just prior to the start of the upcoming college football season, many agents within our company purchase magnetic sports calendars that features schedules of the Florida, Florida State, Georgia and Miami college football season games. These marketing pieces include the agent’s contact information and are usually given to those in their center of influence or farm area. The hope is that these little reminders will be displayed on the refrigerator or near the home computer. I would not be surprised to hear that agents from around the country use magnetic football calendars as well, as one of their marketing tools.

I have also found another opportunity available to real estate agents just before the start of football season. An opportunity not often thought of is blogging about the upcoming season schedule for the local high school, college or professional team. Real estate blogs that offer more than just housing statistics will attract more readers. You will be surprised to discover how many people in your local community are searching online for the date and time of the next football game. Once they have discovered your blog and see all the great information available to them, it is very likely that they will subscribe or put your blog in their favorite places.

Kick off this football season with a blog post or two about the local season and watch your visitor count grow.

A real estate agent needs to think twice before complaining about a seemingly endless list of tasks that need to be completed during any given business day. A busy day filled with a variety of tasks that include putting out fires and last minute miracles, in order to close, are going to be part of a top producing agent’s day just as prospecting, marketing and networking are.

Better time management will help reduce stress and add an additional hour or two to your schedule but in reality the only agents not faced with an endless list of tasks on a daily basis are the non producing agents.

I attended a meeting recently where the CEO of Watson Realty Corp., Mr. William Watson Jr. stated, “If your list of must-do tasks ever dwindle, you are in trouble.” His words rang true. If we are able to spend a lot of time playing online games or catching up on the latest office gossip, this is a clear indication that our “to-do’ list needs restocking.

Start by stocking up on ways to get new business. Make sure a significant portion of your day is used to meet new people. Once you start meeting new people; inspection deadlines, ordering surveys, meeting appraisers, ordering deposits, putting out fires and doing the impossible in order to close, all of these things and more will quickly find their way onto your lists.

As a manager of a busy real estate office you will be answering questions from your agents’ everyday of the week.  I have found nearly all questions that agents ask have a common answer.   I have listed these answers below in no particular order. 

Any answer that contains conversation about commission is of course meant to be considered in context to your personal office policy and in no way suggesting that commissions charged are fixed by real estate agents.

1. Meet more people.  Meeting more people is the number one answer to most of the issues or problems a real estate agent may face that centers around their career or income.  If they are not making enough money, they need to meet more people.  If they do not like listing property they need to meet more buyers.  If they do not like working with buyers they need to meet more sellers.  If they are terrible closers then theoretically they would need to meet more people to increase the odds of their bad closing skills working.  Are you following how this is going?  If they come in your office and they say, “I am not sure what I should be doing today, how can I start my business, or what is the secret to success?”  Your response will be, “Meet more people!”
2. What did the buyer/seller say they want to do?  How many times have you had an agent come into your office and lay out a situation going on with a deal?  Perhaps the appraisal came in low, or the inspection report revealed a problem or the closing is going to be delayed for any number of reasons.  The agent may tell you that they have been talking about whatever it is with the listing or co-op agent, and now they wonder what you think is the best way to handle whatever “it” is.  Your first response should be “What did the buyer/seller say they want to do?”  You will be amazed at how many times the agent sitting in your office has not stopped to call the customer.  As long as what the customer wants to do is not illegal, immoral or unethical, do that.
3. Measure twice; cut once.  This is the answer you should give an agent when they are ready to send off an angry email, or make any important decision that falls within their ability to make.  Measure twice; cut once is an old carpenter’s term that means you better measure that board twice before taking a saw to it.  This way you can be confident you are making the right cut, or in the case of your agent, the right decision.
4. Put it in writing.  Here is a no brainer but one of the most forgotten by our agents.  When they are sitting in your office and you start hearing a lot of “he said, she said”.  You need to say, “Get it in writing!”  Writing means more than an email.  It means getting signatures and the information on the proper company-state approved legal form/contract/addendum to legally bind all parties to what “they said”.
5. Go talk to the other agent.  This is the answer you should give to an associate who comes in with a concern or complaint about another agent within your office.  The situation might include confusion over which agent a customer belongs to, or a referral owed or something overheard at the water cooler.  Agents are professional businesses within your business and should be professional enough to deal with each other.  Before you put on your striped shirt and whistle and start acting as a referee, tell them to go talk to the other agent and work it out.
6. Google it.  As a manager you are expected to know everything.  In most cases you probably do have the answer to an agent’s question.  You have the answer, not because you are a walking talking encyclopedia, but most likely because you have done the research in order to find it.  In order for your agents to learn and grow, they need to do the research themselves too.  What does a specific zoning code allow?  Google it.  Where can I get flood insurance? Google it.  What does egress mean?  Google it.  
7. Say no.  This is something we do not learn early enough in our careers.  The buyer wants me to write an offer a zillion dollars below asking price, what should I do?  Say no.  The seller wants me to list the home so high I need a helicopter to see the top, what should I do?  Say no.  Mr. Unethical Agent wants me to participate in something that does not feel right.  Say no.  The seller has asked me to list their home for a penny.  Say no.
8. Never give away money.  There are times when we have to make concessions but those times should be few and far between and the person or persons who got us to give up a dollar should feel like they had to pry it away from our clenched hands.  The last person to give up money to fix a leaky roof, pay for past due HOA fees, offset the cost of a delayed closing, or get the seller to sell by reducing commission is you, the agent.  When an agent asks you about giving up some of their hard earned money, revert to answer 7 and include answer 8 to never give away money.  Tell them to work all other solutions first and then report back to you.
9. Let the facts speak for themselves.  This is the advice you need to give your agents when they are sure that something needs to be sugarcoated or when you start hearing phrases like, “Well I believe the buyer/seller/other agent is dealing in good faith”. The contract answers almost everything that a buyer or seller might question.  Point the buyer or seller to those answers and then zip it.  Let the facts speak for themselves.  They do not need your additional commentary.
10. Quiet the noise.  This could also be called focusing.  Real estate sale is an easy business but is hard to be successful.  The hard part comes in because our minds will often run amok.  I need to send out direct mail. I need to build a website. I do not speak as well as the next person.  My family is not supportive.  I am sure to fail.  The real estate market is bad.  My boss hates me.  I get the bad floor time.  There is too much paperwork.  I am afraid someone will hang up on me.  No one will attend my open house.  The buyer won’t qualify.  The seller will want too much.  I can’t get bank owned property.  I don’t understand the contract.  I will embarrass myself.  All of this noise is paralyzing!  You have got to help your agents quiet the noise and learn how to focus on the task at hand or they will never succeed in this or any other business.

Show our troops we care – donate today

Florida Realtors® have started a campaign asking for donations in order to purchase calling cards to be used by our men and women overseas.

“To our soldiers, ‘going home’ means 10 minutes on the phone hearing a loved one’s voice. If ‘home’ to our service sons and daughters is a short phone call, then we, as Florida Realtors, should help them find home.” - Wendell Davis, Florida Realtors president.

Visit the Florida real estate association site for more information.

It is not unusual to listen to an agent talk about their career buyer. You know the career buyer, right? They are always looking but never buying. Either they place offers that are ridiculously low or they never make an offer at all because they just can’t find the right home.

If you are going to work with buyers you should follow these steps:

Find them, find out what they want, give them what they want, if they do not buy, find out what they want.

Finding buyers

How you find buyers is up to you. The best way to find a buyer is to hang out where they hang out. Historically buyers have been know to hang out at open houses, they have been seen calling or stopping in an office during floor time, buyers have also been spotted associating with people you already know and an increasing number of buyers hang out around the internet.

Find out what they want

This is the qualification period in your relationship with the buyer. Qualifying a buyer goes beyond their financing. Finding out what a buyer wants involves understanding what type of home – style, pricing, location, enhancements – will motivate them to make a serious offer in an appropriate time frame.

Give them what they want

An agent who thoroughly knows the market will be able to easily identify all of the homes that match the buyer’s criteria. These are the homes you will want to present to the buyer and show them over the next few days.

Uh oh, the buyer is not buying you better find out what they want

So you have found the buyer, listened to them and thought you found out what they want but now they are not buying. It is time to re-qualify them in order to avoid having your very own career buyer.

Agent: Mr. Buyer when we first met we discussed in great detail the type of home you were interested in. You told me how many bedrooms you needed, the area you desired and you provided me with a price range that you would be willing to spend for the right home. You also indicated that you wanted to be in your new home within the next 60 days. Have your criteria or time frame changed?

The buyer’s answers to your questions will let you know whether you should modify your search criteria, hand them off to another agent in your office as a referral or stop showing them homes until they are really ready to buy.

Qualifying and then continuing to qualify your buyers during the buying process will result in you closing more transactions.

What is your main job as a real estate agent? What is it that you absolutely must do in order to earn an income? If you ask a group of agents what a real estate agent’s main job is they will offer a variety of answers that include: providing great customer service, listing houses, holding open houses, working with buyers, problem solving, selling houses, marketing and similar responses. All of these answers are part of what a real estate agent must do to earn a living, however, it is not an agent’s main job.

Meeting people

As a real estate salesperson your main job is meeting people. Until you are successful at meeting people you cannot accomplish all of the other tasks and jobs that are part of a real estate career.

Meeting people and then being introduced to more people will handle a multitude of issues you will face in this business. If you are not successful with taking listings you can offset that by increasing the number of buyers you meet and work with. If you have little success with qualifying buyers or getting buyers to write offers, you need to meet more sellers and leave the buyers to the showing agents.

If your day to day activity revolves around putting out fires, chit-chatting with fellow agents, staying on hold with the lender’s short sale department and little or no time was devoted to prospecting in order to meet new people, you will most likely never realize the success you expect.

Agents who enjoy a high level of success do so for reasons other than being accomplished at administrative or clerical work. They are successful because they enjoy being face to face with people and they know how to increase the number of people they are face to face with.

Their results show that they take the time to be involved in their neighborhood association, they are active in their community or church. You can glean from a top agent’s multiple closings that they continually monitor their prospecting efforts to ensure it is touching the right people with the right message. They are not shy about asking for a referral from past customers. They would rather delegate the paperwork instead of letting it get in the way of them meeting more people.

Meeting people is a real estate agent’s number one job. Ask yourself, “Have I got a plan in place to meet people today?” If the answer is no, rework your plan.

As the floor agent you need to be keenly concerned with the first impression the customer has of you when they walk into your office. During this first meeting the customer will form an opinion about you and your company within the first few minutes. When a customer walks into your office, what you do, what you say and how you act, is when the customer will form their opinion of you and your company.

You need to stand, smile and extend your hand in greeting whenever someone walks into your office. This will give the customer a warm, welcome feeling. Once you have determined that they are interested in buying or selling a home, take them away from the reception area and back into an office where they can feel comfortable to discuss their situation in private.

You should avoid; answering a ringing phone while they are with you or trying to conduct business with them at the front desk.

Customers who walk in are usually potential home buyers. Their expectation is that you will help them find a house. Take your time and work on building a relationship with them before you start hammering them for financial information. Make small talk first, why did they stop into your office? Do they live in the area? Have they lived here long? What do they think about the amazing weather, the local sports team? Let them get comfortable with you and you with them. Keep an eye on their body language and adjust your conversation accordingly. Ask them what type of house they are interested in and then listen. Find out if they are first time home buyers or repeat buyers and ask them if they have questions about the process; listen and answer . Once they feel you care and that you will listen, they will be more inclined to talk about the personal stuff like financing and getting qualified.

A great first impression followed up by great customer service will result in a customer who will turn to you for real estate assistance throughout your career.

Come on broker slash salesperson slash short sale expert!

I received an addendum from a listing agent as part of a counter offer on a short sale transaction. The addendum contained clauses that in my opinion were either repeating what the pre-printed contract already addressed or were written in such a way that made little sense and seemed open for wide interpretation.

I am not a lawyer and I do not play one in my role as a real estate agent. I would advise our buyer to seek the opinion of an attorney on this addendum as I would advise any buyer to seek legal help if they have questions about the contract to buy or sell a home. But it is important that I, at least have, an understanding of the document in front of me. So, I called the listing agent for an explanation.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, I am wondering if you could explain clause # 1, 2 and 3 on the addendum your seller would like our buyer to sign.

Listing agent: I am not sure how to explain it I did not write it.

Me: You didn’t write it? Who did an attorney?

Listing agent: No, the company handling the short sale negotiating for the buyer did.

The listing agent gave me the name and phone number of the short sale negotiator. The conversation with the gentleman who answered the phone contained the very popular; “we do this all the time” and “I don’t know why you are so worried”. When I pressed for an answer to who wrote the addendum, he directed me back to the listing agent. When I informed him the listing agent claims no responsibility to writing the clause, he then said an attorney did. I asked for the attorney’s name it turns out it was not an attorney but he picked this clause up from something another real estate agent had used.

As agents we should be careful allowing others write addendums and contingencies for our customers. At the very least we should have a clear understanding to what is being said. When a special addendum or contingency is required, you should seek the help of an attorney or your Broker.

The National Association has produced this video that helps explains some of the key elements of the HAFA program that is designed to speed up the short sale process.