Sometimes, even with experienced real estate agents and brokers, I find that they have never really studied sales.  They have never really had a system in place to help them be a better sales person.  I know, most of us say that we are not like real sales people, I agree.  However, we still must use some of the same skills that anyone successful sales person would employ.

For instance, if you don’t listen to your customer, you won’t know their needs.  If you don’t educate your customer, you might lose them to another agent.  If you don’t provide accurate answers to their questions in a timely manner, you might as well kiss them goodbye, too!

Sales, and I don’t really care what you are selling, is all about having a good solid system and understanding of what you need to do to help your customer.  If your goal is to do whatever it takes to help your customer, you are on the right track.  However, if you are ADD like me, it might be a little easier said than done.

This Thursday, Feb. 11, at 2pm Eastern, I will be holding a real estate webinar that I am opening up to Agents that are not members of The eHomes Realty Network.  I find that the lack of understanding of basic sales inhibits most Agents from succeeding.  Whether you have been in the business for 20 years or 2 weeks, this webinar will help take your business to the next level!  I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Mitch Ribak will be a presenter at HomeGain Nation Live Real Estate Forum 2010 on March 1 for the 11am session titled “Internet Lead Conversion Made Simple”.

If I wasn’t constantly being told be the TV, radio, newspaper, and magazines that we are in a financial downturn, would I know that from my every day life experiences over the last year?

My answer is no.

My life has gone on pretty much unchanged from what it was prior to this “down turn.”  No, that’s not right.  Truthfully, it is much better. My business has remained very good. As a matter of fact, the last couple of years were the best in my career.  There have been a lot of eager buyers — eager to buy a home, and eager to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit.

In some ways, business is much easier now.

Sellers are much more willing to deal and try harder to put a sale together and keep it together.  Also, builders are paying nice bonuses for selling their homes — homes that I probably would have sold anyways to the buyers that I have.  Everyone seems much more appreciative of my efforts — co-op agents, builders, mortgage lenders, title companies, etc.

As far as listings go, sellers have been less likely to try to cut commissions. Continue reading this post

I’m a big believer in hiring people to take on tasks that I do not enjoy or do not excel at these days.  Of course, these days I do not sell homes because of my dedication of running my Real Estate Brokerage and belief that in order to grow a company, it wouldn’t be possible if I continued to sell homes…as much as I miss that part of the business.

Of course these days I’m also very busy with The eHomes Realty Network and helping my members.  With this said, over the past 2 years we have tried to figure out a program where a person is hired to make all follow up calls for my real estate agents.  Before I get into this, let’s take a step back for a moment.

As most of those who know me know I’m addicted to lead conversion.

I find it extremely interesting and for most, very difficult.  I have also found that by implementing consistent systems to convert leads to customers for life, we have become stronger and stronger each year.  One of the weakest links for most Agents is follow up.  Most Agents don’t have a hard time making the first phone call to their leads.  The struggle is in making the follow up phone calls and keeping up with them as your database increases.  The more leads you have in your system, the harder it is to stay on top of your leads.

My agents are no different.  They are great people but have the same flaws as most when it comes to follow up.  I decided a couple of years ago that if I am going to take lead conversion to the next level, I will need to start the Lead Conversion Administrator (LCA) position.

We started out by having one LCA and she was making the initial phone calls for 7 Agents.

Along with this, she also learned how to master Continue reading this post

Two more members have earned over $500,000 in gross commissions from HomeGain business; HomeGain inducts a total of 18 agents into its elite clubs

HomeGain today announced the induction Therese Albertini of LifeStyleMOVES and Carl Medford of Windermere Properties of the East Bay into its elite HomeGain AgentEvaluator® Diamond Club. HomeGain’s Diamond Club now has 23 members.

Therese Albertini stated: “Service, commitment and caring are three attributes you want from a business partner. Our relationship with HomeGain has been wonderful for our company and those we serve. Helping families and individuals achieve their homeownership dreams is what makes our team passionate about what they do. Thanks, HomeGain, for your partnership over the years.”

Carl Medford commented: “We have closed 2 1/2 times the business this past year than we have ever done in any previous year. And the year isn’t over. Thanks, HomeGain!”

HomeGain also announced the induction of 16 HomeGain member agents into its other elite clubs, including:

• Five new HomeGain Platinum Club members (now totaling 352 members who have earned $125,000 or more in gross home sale commissions from AgentEvaluator)
• Six new HomeGain Gold Club members (totaling 279 members who have earned $75,000 or more)
• Five new HomeGain Silver Club members (totaling 231 members who have earned $50,000 or more)

“We are pleased that we can quantify the continuing success of our members using AgentEvaluator,” stated Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain. “AgentEvaluator now has nearly 900 elite club members. We are proud to that such highly devoted and successful real estate agents have chosen HomeGain as their marketing partner.”

Read the full press release

Read October 1 press release: HomeGain Inducts 39 Members Into Its Clubs

Read more HomeGain Club news

Read more HomeGain press releases

Long time AgentEvaluator member, Virginia Cheezum, who has recently been inducted into the prestigious HomeGain Diamond Club, met with me to discuss the changes she’s seen in her market this year (in Virginia), how she’s adjusting her business, how AgentEvaluator keeps her busier than ever — and how it helps put her in the top percent of real estate agents across the U.S.

Listen in as Virginia Cheezum of RE/MAX Allegiance divulges some of her best tips for how to achieve a half million dollars from the AgentEvaluator program.

Hear the HomeGain Radio Clip:

Listen to more HomeGain Radio clips

I mastermind with agents from my area on a regular basis and a question came up in discussions with this mastermind group of top agents in Tampa, Florida, that I thought would be a great blog topic.

So, when do you know it’s time to add a full-time assistant to your business?

I was asked this question and the first response I could think of was: “When you can afford it”. I’ve learned in the last year, as our business has more than doubled, that if I hadn’t taken the plunge to hire my assistant, I’d still be in the same place I was last year.

Looking back a year ago when we decided to build a team, hire staff and add agents, I realize there were some tell tale signs it was time for us to get “people leverage” and help to take our business to the level we wanted to.

We were very productive and profitable (I sold $7 million that year and was “lean” on expenses) but we had lofty goals and knew there is no way I could keep up with it all myself.

Ultimately, I knew if I wanted to sell more real estate, I would need someone to handle the paperwork, admin tasks, transaction management, appointment setting, photo taking, lock box hanging, and all of the other tasks that can take us away from our lofty sales goals.

However, you have to have enough income or savings to be able to afford it for a few months. It’s always a risk because you could hire the wrong person, lose money, disappoint clients, etc. Continue reading this post