80 Miles an Hour!

By now, nearly everyone has probably seen the video of Warren Buffett talking about Berkshire Hathaway Home Services as the train going 80 miles an hour, and certainly our competitors can already hear—and fear—the oncoming powerhouse.  We’ve chatted previously about some of the misleading things they’re trying to tell agents and our potential clients, so we’d like to make sure you can be proactive and take full advantage of the power of that 80 mile an hour momentum!  So here are the first of our BHHS talking points you can use, ala Dave Letterman:

10. Berkshire Hathaway was named by Barron’s last year as “the most respected business in the world.”  Above Apple.  Above Disney.  Most respected IN THE WORLD.  Confidence.  Success.  Savvy.  Quality.  Resources.  Best.  None of the competition is even on the list!  Who wouldn’t want to be associated with that level of recognition, support, and good will?  Oh, and for those who perhaps don’t read Barron’s, can anyone name the guy who provided the backing for the billion-dollar prize for a perfect NCAA bracket this year?  ’Nuff said.

9. Harris Polls Equitrends named Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices as the top ranked Real Estate Agency Brand in the USA!!  Given that the company opened its first offices only in September, 2013, this award is a testament to the power of the Buffett Effect and the Berkshire Hathaway brand name along with the success and reputation that Home Services, the second largest independent brokerage firm in the nation, has achieved in its markets. Wow, what home seller wouldn’t want THAT name, and all that goes with it, on the sign in their yard!!  And what buyer wouldn’t feel comfortable relying on a trusted pro with that name on their business card! 

8. $200 BILLION in corporate net worth backs up Berkshire Hathaway Home Services.  No other brand in our business comes close to that level of resources to make sure we lead the way with new technology, tools, and marketing as our business continues to evolve.

7. BHHS will be an international company.  That global reach, along with Berkshire Hathaway already being recognized as the most respected corporate name in the world, will have a huge impact on our relocation business as well as our overall reputation and name recognition.  That potential million-dollar buyer moving here from Munich or Milan or Manchester will already know our name and our reputation.

6. Luxury home sales will get a separate marketing program and the Berkshire Hathaway name will open doors in a new way for us.  And yes, nearly every one of our markets has a luxury home segment and clients who will love that special treatment.

So be prepared for any curveball the competition may be tossing our way, and stay tuned for more of our Top 10 Talking Points so you can enjoy and profit from the ride of your life!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

That Nasty Eleven Letter Word

The good news in the market recently is that the inventory of well-positioned, well-priced homes is way down.  And the bad news is that, well, the inventory of well-positioned, well-priced homes is way down!  We’ve all heard how good homes—whatever the price range—are often selling quickly, sometimes with multiple offers, and even for list price or above.  Ah, a whiff of the good old days!

So how do we take advantage and build our business this year?  How about some tried and true, as well as some unique approaches to prospecting for those new listings?

FSBO’s and Expired Listings come to mind, those methods as old as the hills, and most often left in the drawer for most agents these days.  Yet these approaches do work, and at least the owner has some level of motivation to sell.  So, given the low interest rates and tight inventory, along with the eventual arrival of some spring temperatures, maybe you can be that magic agent who can help position and price that unsuccessful listing just right.  For minimal investment of time and postage, maybe it’s time to dig out and target some of these homes to add to your inventory.

Next, another trusty old approach that most agents no longer use, Farming, may be just the thing.  If you can focus on a neighborhood or zip code where you’ve achieved success in units sold, or Days on the Market, or percentage of list price, maybe a targeted mailer, reminding folks of the tight inventory and low interest rates, could net you an addition to your listing inventory.

Finally, here’s where your Sphere of Influence—those folks with whom you’ve built and maintained a relationship of trust in you and your expertise—can really work for you.  An email, or better yet, a phone call or a round of golf (okay, not this week!) or a glass of scotch and a cigar, reminding your friends of the potential opportunity the tighter market reflects, and asking them to let you know if they have other friends sitting on the fence about selling their home, is the best way to make use of a warm contact and increase your inventory.  One agent even posted an article about the market on Facebook and netted a few new listings from his friends and their referrals! 

So lets get creative and go after those new listings and enjoy the tighter market this spring!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Means Versus Ends

A recent article in the Inman News caught my attention with its use of two of my favorite ideas in the title: "Paperless is Great, But Don't Confuse it with Customer Service!" Perfect! Yes, indeed, being paperless sure doesn't guarantee great customer service, I thought, and I couldn't wait to see the suggestions to make sure the latest trend could be enhanced and optimized to assure the best customer service ever! After all, paperless is a means, not an end, right? We all know that, right?

Once I clicked on the headline and opened the full article, though, I swung right through the author's curveball: "Let's face it, brokers get more out of it than their clients." Really? REALLY? She states that "I can make more money with less effort by taking advantage of technology." That sounds like a good thing, right? Well, not so fast! She goes on to note that in our drive to be more efficient--whew, at least she recognizes that being paperless can certainly make one more efficient!!--that we may be putting distance between ourselves and our clients when we insist on doing things electronically, missing out on potential opportunities for some good old fashioned face time to get their signature on that fifth counter offer.

Okay, I can buy that. But only to a point. Of course, she's correct in the larger sense that for each of our clients, we have to find out how they'd prefer us to communicate with them--face to face, phone, email, text, handwritten note--and then do our best to please them in the context of getting things done and making sure the transaction doesn't fall apart--and not wasting their time, either. We covered that in my post on Leading with Questions, and it's an approach that can prevent a lot of misunderstandings. But the author seems to miss the point that, as technology develops and electronic signature capabilities have improved, that efficiency she seems to disdain is also of huge benefit to our clients!

And that sounds to me like excellent "customer service!”

For example, I've told the story several times of one of our top agents who was too busy last year to fully incorporate electronic signatures into their toolkit, so had to send the typical email with "Please print out the counter, sign it, scan it, and email it or fax it back to me" directive to the client. Within a few minutes after the email was sent, a response came back with the counter signed, clearly electronically! The agent called the client and asked how they'd done it. Turned out the client was sitting in the airport ready to fly out on vacation, got the email, had one of the signature apps on his iPhone--it's not just for real estate, you know--signed it and sent it back. Talk about efficiency! Unfortunately for our agent, the client then of course asked why we didn't use such technology to make our clients lives a lot easier! Can you spell embarrassed?

At any rate, the article's author then steps into silliness as she notes that her clients would be very upset at her paperless approach if she refused to put flyers in the yard box! Okay, she's making the point that we still need some paper, but I wonder if she's never seen those riders where one can text a number and get all the info, or those QR codes that one can scan and bring up a ton of info on one's smartphone or tablet? Hmmm, I wonder which way we're headed on this one?

So, yes of course, we should never force a paperless approach--or any other approach, frankly--on our clients. But why not be leaders in helping our clients learn how a cutting edge firm and masterful agents can speed the process and save them time on relatively simple, mundane things like signing a document, while we focus our face and phone time on strategy and positioning? Then, with that highly efficient and thus totally effective transaction closed, you and your client will both have plenty of time to toast the closing at your favorite restaurant, or even the cigar bar. 

 
Talk about means to an end!

Marketing on Facebook

We’ve written frequently about our Tablet Revolution and becoming paperless in our business, and we’ve often mentioned GoodLife Realty, in Austin Texas, a brokerage that positions itself as the Paperless Brokerage and has lead the charge toward being a completely paperless business as we all look to optimize our effectiveness as well as make the process easier and faster for our clients. 

Of course, part of the paperless approach is also using the internet more effectively for our marketing.  Around the state, we’ve heard from several agents who have found the consistent use of Facebook marketing a great way to grow their business, but we haven’t been able to share much of the specifics of “what” to post on Facebook.

Well, the GoodLife folks recently shared a blog piece on “5 Ways to Use Facbook Ad Campaigns in Real Estate, and here are their ideas:

Promote Your Listings - you can not only promote your listings to your network, but you can promote listings to people who live in a specific area, or who’ve experienced certain life milestones (such as just getting married or a new parent). You can even promote your listings to neighbors of your fans.

Share What Your Buyers Are Looking For - if you are working with a buyer, you can run ads to attract potential sellers by communicating what buyers are looking for in a particular area. Here’s an example: “I have a client l ooking for a home in Fishers in the $150K - $200K range with at least 3 bedrooms... know anyone whose been thinking of making a move?”

Market to Specific Price Points in Your Area - using Facebook’s marketing tools, you can choose to put ads in front of people who live in speficic areas who live in homes that are in specific price ranges in those areas. For example, you can target all people who have homes between $200K and $300 in specific zip codes.

Market to Newly Weds & New Parents - Life events are often signals that someone will be looking to make a move. Facebook gives you the ability to run ads to people who have recently gotten engaged, married, or have children... there’s even an option to run ads to people who FB has determined are “likely to move.”

In each of these cases, you can run a simple Facebook Ad with a minimal budget to get leads from these campaigns. Compared to newspapers, magazines, flyers, and Google, FB is far less expensive to get your message in front of the right people.

So give FB a chance and see what you might be able to achieve—
and remember to thank the folks at the Paperless Brokerage for the tip!

Pass the popcorn and don't forget to read Getting Things Done!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Action Versus Motion

Have you ever been watching a movie or reading a novel and found yourself asking, “What’s the point of all this stuff going on?” There may be characters flying around or wandering all over the place, yet it all seems pointless, and the story has stopped moving forward, has lost its ability to keep you on the edge of your seat. So instead of being immersed in the story, you lose interest and turn off the TV or put down the book. A disappointment, and you probably consider the time you invested a waste.

In dramatic terms, that failed movie or book had tried substitute “motion” for “action.” Motion simply means “stuff happening,” while action—the key to a successful story—means things happening that move the story forward, that keep the viewer or reader interested. In other words, action leads to the goal of the story, while motion is, well, usually a waste of time.

In our real estate business, action means controlling your time and doing those tasks that move you toward your goals, while motion is pretty much any activity that doesn’t! And we all know how easy it is to fall into time- consuming motions—the interruption of responding to emails or calls; showing those rental homes to clients we know will never buy; putting out fires with clients or other agents that might have been avoided through the right Quadrant II, proactive “action;” or failing to say “no” and allowing our time to be in others’ control instead of our own. We all have our own particular “motions!”

So, in our real estate business, how do we make sure we’re working on action versus simply being in motion?

One key is to make sure you have those monthly, weekly, daily, and yes, even hourly priorities for what you need to accomplish—actions—to keep you on track to meet your overall goal of making more money per hour. Of course, it starts with establishing all those goals in all that detail. Then you can put in place a system of priorities and time management—David Allen in his book Getting Things Done calls these "Next Actions" and I call them an Action Agenda—ideally using a tool like Evernote, to keep you on track so you can avoid falling into time wasting motion, and focus on the action that moves you forward like that story toward your goals. Your coach is there to help you with goal setting and systems to maintain focus on your priorities, so your career story can have a brilliant plot and a successful conclusion. Please pass the popcorn and don't forget to read Getting Things Done!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

The Bandwagon Picks up Speed!

Over a year ago, I wrote a Playbook titled “Me and My Buddy Warren!” that responded to the fact that some of our competitors were showing their first signs of fear about our Prudential brand being purchased by the smartest investor in the world, Warren Buffett, and Berkshire Hathaway.  Well, it looks like that fear has grown to trepidation as the wave of success for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices spreads across the country!  Sadly, but not unexpectedly, I continue to hear in coaching sessions with agents around the state that the wild tales from our competitors are growing even more foolish and desperate!

So, as the BHHS bandwagon picks up speed and we get ready to jump on board ourselves, let’s make use of this exciting opportunity to enhance and grow our business in all our markets by proactively trumpeting what Uncle Warren brings to us and our clients!

First, Berkshire Hathaway was named by Barron’s last year as “the most respected business in the world.”  Above Apple.  Above Disney.  Most respected IN THE WORLD.  Confidence.  Success.  Savvy.  Quality.  Resources.  Best.  Who wouldn’t want to be associated with that level of recognition, support, and good will? 

Oh, and for those who perhaps don’t read Barron’s, can anyone name the guy who provided the backing for the billion-dollar prize for a perfect NCAA bracket this year?  'Nuff said.

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, Harris Polls Equitrend named Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices as the top ranked Real Estate Agency Brand in the USA!!  Wow, what home seller wouldn’t want THAT name, and all that goes with it, on the sign in their yard!!  And what buyer wouldn’t feel comfortable relying on a trusted pro with that name on their business card!

Finally, for those of you who didn’t attend the BHHS/Pru Convention in Nashville, it was amazing to hear the stories of agents and companies growing their businesses almost overnight as potential clients CALLED THEM simply because of that solid platinum name, Berkshire Hathaway.

No wonder our competitors are quaking in their boots!

Bottom line, if Warren Buffett buys our brand, that’s a heck of a compliment and a long-term commitment—backed up with plenty of financial wherewithal—to ongoing improvement, growth, and excellence.  Sign me up!

So yes, our brand (not our company, and shame on any of our competitors who imply that!) has been bought, and it clearly strengthens our position in the world of real estate.  It means we’ll be getting even stronger when maybe some of those smaller or older or more locally focused companies can no longer keep up!

Get ready to jump aboard that bandwagon!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching