success

7 Tips How To Turn Your Passion Into Success

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What is your driving force?  What is your true passion?PASSION

In the search for a meaningful and fulfilling life, it is extremely important to determine what you are passionate about. Too many people go through the motions of life without purpose because they are not pursuing their passion.

Here are my thoughts on passion.

Prioritize what is important to you.

Assess yourself and see if you have the ability to do what you are passionate about.

Skills will be necessary, so develop them continuously.  The better you are at what you love, the more passionate you will be about it.

Seek the people and the knowledge you will need to get better.  Always learn more from those who have been there and read voraciously to be the expert on your passion.  A mentor will get you where you want to go more quickly with fewer hiccups.

Initiate – as Nike says, just do it.  Take action to pursue your passion.  If you delay, you will only be hurting yourself, your success and your happiness.

Optimism, positivity and productivity in your life will ensue when you follow your dreams.  The choice you have every day to be positive or negative is easier to make when you are taking action on your passion.

Never give up – never, ever give up.  There will be obstacles in any endeavor but remember to keep your eye on your prize, you will make great things happen.

If you are looking to improve your life, do more of what you desire, improve by enhancing your skills and learn from others that know what you want to become.  Take action sooner rather than later.

Now, go sell something!

Scott MacDonald

RE/MAX Gateway

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How Productive Real Estate Agents Make The Most of Winter Storm Janus

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Real Estate is more than just showing houses. Learn how to take advantage of inclement weather, snow days, and how to build your relationships and business as winter storm “Janus” pushes her way through the Midwest and up the east coast.
Scott MacDonald, Broker/Owner/President of RE/MAX Gateway mentors and offers practical advice to real estate agents. Want to learn more? Contact Scott MacDonald (703) 652-5777 scottmacdonald@remax.net to learn more about how to be your best as an entrepreneur in the real estate world. Read more at https://scottymacsblog.com/

Multiple Offer Strategies In Real Estate: Help For Home Buyers

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It is no surprise that we are seeing more and more multiple contract situations.  The perfect storm is in place – interest rates are at 65 year lows, inventory levels are at extremely low levels, and there are buyers anxious to get into houses.  Affordability levels are near all-time highs as well so it only makes sense that buyers are finding themselves competing to get into a home today.

So, the question is how do you win and get the home your client’s desire?

  • Add an escalation clause which allows you to bid up the price above any other offer up to an amount you are comfortable paying.  The escalation amount should be an interesting number like $1,150 as most people just do $500 or $1,000 – make your offer stand out.
  • Increase your earnest money deposit to show your interest in purchasing the house.  If your down payment is 20%, make your deposit 10%.  If you are doing FHA, have your deposit equal your down payment of 3.5%.  You are going to be putting the money down anyway, why not do this and attract more attention to your offer?Multiple Contract Strategies
  • Have a very short time frame on your home inspection contingency and radon contingency if you choose to have them.  Also, consider doing the inspection contingencies for informational purposes only just leaving yourself the opportunity to void if you find something so egregious or beyond what you expected.  If you and your agent are confident in the home’s condition, you may want to consider eliminating these contingencies but be extremely cautious when not exercising these contingencies.
  • Have a quick settlement date – Ashley Smith with Atlantic Coast Mortgage can close a loan in just 8 days if she has a complete loan application from her clients.
  • Additionally, encourage your loan officer to be proactive and call the listing agent and explain the financial arrangements and status of the loan.  Pat Cunningham of Home Savings and Trust was one of the first lenders to mention he was doing this for his clients.
  • Allow the seller to rent back after closing giving them flexibility on when they need to move or to give them time to find a home.
  • Put in a home of choice contingency for the sellers if they have not found a home yet – make the contingency for an extended period of time so they have the opportunity to find the house they really want.
  • If you are so bold, you can have the clients waive the appraisal contingency.  In order to do this, you need to work in conjunction with your lender and see if they can get a quick turnaround on the appraisal.  If so, have the appraisal done in concert with the home inspection contingency and if it doesn’t appraise, you can void based upon the home inspection or on the HOA/condo documents.  Not one of my favorite suggestions but it is a strategy you can undertake to help your contract win.  Also, if your lender can get a quick turnaround, make the appraisal contingency 5 or 7 days.
  • If you are dealing with a home owner and not a bank or investor, have your clients write a letter along with photos explaining why the house is so important to them and the trials and tribulations of their home buying experience.  It can sometimes help to pull on the heart strings of the owners.
  • You can explain to the listing agent, the highest contract isn’t always the best contract.  You need to have the right people in place to consummate the transaction not just someone willing to throw a high number just to get the house to only experience remorse later and back out of the contract.

These tips will help you win more contracts.  Consult with the clients and make sure they are comfortable with your recommendations prior to implementing them so they fully understand the repercussions of their actions.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

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Magic Tricks Inspire Leadership and Growth In Northern Virginia and DC Metro Real Estate

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In our Vistage meeting this week we had a very dynamic speaker by the name of Andrew Bennett. Andrew has a very interesting background and actually uses magic in his presentations to aid in engaging his audience.  He spoke about analyzing your business through the skills magicians use: appear, disappear, and restore.  Using slight-of-hand, Andrew evokes concepts: what in your company do you need to take on as a new initiative to grow your business,  what do you need to eliminate from your business that is unproductive or preventing growth, and what needs to be fixed – worth keeping, but hasn’t been tweaked to operate at full capacity.

The Magic of Andrew Bennett Blending knowledge of leadership, organizational culture, and mental management with magic.

Key areas we discussed were culture and employee engagement.  It all starts at the top and filters down to employees.  Look at how you use your words, how you inspire, develop relationships, develop your self-awareness, display your authenticity and utilize discipline; apply the appear/disappear/restore analysis to your business. Let’s look at each of these areas individually.

  • WORDS – Researchers say you have 60,000 thoughts a day – 57,000 were thoughts you had the day before.  What do you ask yourself so as to drive yourself to be successful?  Be intentional in your thoughts and in the questions you ask yourself.  To change your thoughts, change your words.  Think in terms of, “what I speak is what I create”.  Think about what you say to others and more importantly, to yourself.
  • INSPIRATION – the definition is “to breathe life into”.  Inspiration comes from the inside, so touch what matters to others – help them believe the impossible is possible.  As a leader, deliver the power of WOW.  Passion and hope come together and become inspiration.  Build on emotions and sense of accomplishment.  Think about what inspires you about your business?  What are you willing to suffer to get what you want? Why is that important to you and why does that matter to others.
  • RELATIONSHIPS – Your individual supervisors and the amount of communication they have with your people are critical to employee engagement – know personal things about your people to build trust – recognize other’s mannerisms to determine how can you help them.
  • SELF AWARENESS –  What we believe is what we see.  What do you see?  Who fosters these beliefs to encourage you to greatness?  How do my beliefs result in how I show up each day?  Pay attention to this area – how you show up is critical to the culture you are developing.
  • AUTHENTICITY – Transparency and vulnerability are your keys to authenticity.  Ground yourself in reality but be hopeful.  What are your challenges or struggles and how will you overcome them?  Be true to yourself and you will be authentic to others.
  • DISCIPLINE – do what I say, it is that easy!

Things to consider as you contemplate these topics:

  • What excites you about our organization?  Communicate this with others.
  • Who are your trusted allies?  Seek them out and ask for feedback.
  • Where are your blindspots?  We all have them and your trusted allies can help guide you through discovering them.
  • Deliver your message consistently but paint the picture in different ways to appeal to your team members.

As you move in this direction be passionate about what you do, help make a difference in other’s lives and build something greater than yourself through inspiring others to achieve more.  Get it?  Got it?  Good.

Now, go build something!

Agent Success: Professional Courtesy

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As the Spring market begins and Real Estate Agents are showing and listing more properties, Scott MacDonald offers a few tips and reminders when showing properties. Want to learn more about the REMAX Gateway?  or contact Scott MacDonald directly at (703) 652-5777 scottymacsblog.com

Business Planning for 2013: LEAP!

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I’m excited that you have taken the big step in your career by investing your time, energy and effort to take your business to the next level.

The important thing to realize is showing up is not enough.  You need to be engaged, focus and have a level of commitment to the plan your come up with this weekend.

In addition, you will need to change.

Change your approach to the business by adding accountability into your schedule.

Change the way you do business – perhaps developing a mobile strategy, online strategy, or including something else new.

Change how you view your business – become a visionary.  Think about what is coming down the road and how you will need adjust your approach to the business.

Most importantly, you will have to take action – not just talk about it.

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As time goes on, you will need to make adjustments.   Just like a pilot, a plane is off 99% of the time while in the air because of turbulence, air stream, storms, etc. you will need to adjust throughout the year as well.  How do you do this?  get a mentor or a coach.  We are hear to help.

You will need to take a leap of faith in your business and your plan.  Try different things – client parties, popbys, coffees, write notes and most importantly, you will need to do it consistently. Join networking groups – get out there and be present while you are with them.  The more things you try, the more likely you are to find something that works for you.  Do it, fix it, try it again.

In addition, consider the law of momentum.   Continually staying in motion will keep you moving towards your goals.  Do something – everyday to move you closer to your goals.  Embrace the self-discipline it will take to make it happen.

We have an agent Kay Woodard who has been getting up at 5:00AM and has been walking 5 miles.  She has been getting up in all types of weather and temperatures to walk regardless of the conditions.  She has done it whether she wants to or not.  This means, you have to do it whether you want to or not to build your self discipline.

If you are taking on a new initiative, take the time to educate yourself on what it will take to be successful in that area.  Meet with others who are successful in this area, read extensively about it, and then do it.

Also, analyze yourself – find out what is your “prime time” and get things done during this time – plan and prioritize around this time of day to get things done.  Top performers pay now so they can play later – low performers do what is fun and easy versus what is hard and necessary.  Commit to yourself today and everyday that you make the sacrifice and not play now and have to pay later.  Get up a little earlier – become the Ninja inside of you to write your gratitudes down, do your affirmations and write those personal notes.

Think and speak positively – be an optimistic force in your own life so you can be a positive force in the lives of others.  Optimism builds enthusiasm within you and gives you energy as well as gives you self esteem.

Lastly, be prepared – for your day, your appointments, your plan of action, and lastly your success so that you can build upon it,  daily.  Now, let’s begin!

 

Staff Sergeant Reminds Us

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Yesterday I was at a meeting for Homes for Heroes and I heard a young Marine speak about his life and how it had changed after being injured in Afghanistan.  His name is Staff Sergeant Joey Jones

Here are some notes I took and wanted to share with others – enjoy:

  • Build a life on purpose – decide what you want and go get it…
  • Determine what your personality is and what serves you best for your skills
  • No “one” is better than the whole
  • Make a decision to make a difference in someone’s life
  • Decide – what are you gonna do now
  • You control yourself and your destiny
  • You hold the keys to drive your life – don’t give the keys to anyone else.
  • Work hard
  • Care about others
  • Give back
  • Make it happen
  • What makes you happy?  Figure it out and do it more…
  • How can you be a hero to someone else today
  • Determine your goals and aspirations and achieve them
  • If you do anything – do it right
  • Nothing worth doing is ever easy
  • Be respectful to others at all times
  • Read the book – Lone Survivor
  • Check out the campaign www.bootcampaign.com and contribute
  • Take time and practice then make the appropriate adjustments
  • Commit to giving 100% at all times

 

These are things we have heard in the past at one time or another but it never hurts to be reminded of them to keep you focused.

 

Are you the 20%?

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Have fun and make a difference! That was the premise of the speech I heard today from Doug Smith, compliments of Leslie Wish, McLean Mortgage Group.  If you’re not having fun at your job, then why are you doing it?  That was his lead into discussing the Paredo Principle and how we, as Realtors, fit into the rule.

The Paredo Principle is the rule of 80/20.  Twenty percent of the Realtors are doing 80% of the work. The 20% are defined as professionally persistent and instinctively insistent. We’ve heard it all before, but asked us what was the difference between those that are in the 20%? What are the 20% of Realtors doing that the 80% Realtors aren’t doing? And once you figure out what those tasks are, how can you do more of them to make your days more productive?

Doug has put those differences into his 5 C’s for Success and differentiation from the rest of the pack. These are the things that the 80% lack and the 20% excel at…

1. Confidence: How do you answer the question “how’s the market?” What do you do when you walk into a room of people you don’t know? Confidence is an ability that many of us lack, simply because we are afraid of making mistakes and looking bad. Instead of saying that the market is great and that the numbers are this and that, say “It’s remarkable, I’ve never seen anything like it!”

2. Contacts: The opposite of contact is reluctance. Reluctance can be to pick up the phone and make that call. The more contacts you have in your sphere, the more contracts you will write. So who’s in your contact zone? Business partners, family, friends, transaction partners such as home inspectors, etc. Don’t be afraid to tell your friends and family that they have a friend in real estate. Many agents think they shouldn’t reach out to their friends in case the transaction goes bad and results in losing that friendship. That all goes back to a lack of confidence.

3. Control: Control of your business, your time, your career, your clients. Agents who have a plan, a written plan, have more control over their business. Those that take it a step further by having a plan each day, a to-do list; have even more control over their business.  Agents who control or “drive” the conversation when speaking with clients, maintain more control of the transaction and get the job done! Doug spoke about Sales Speak. Here’s an example of Sales Speak presented by those in the 80% and those in the 20%…

80%: Did you think you might want to see a few houses this weekend?

20%: Let’s go see 3 or 4 houses this weekend. What day is better for you, Saturday or Sunday?

Or

80%: So, you like the house? Ok, great, do you think that maybe you might want to make an offer on it?

20%: What do you think? You like it, great. Let’s make an offer.

The difference in the two shows that the 20% agent is steering the client to move forward with the transaction because that’s what they hired the agent for. They didn’t hire the agent to make their own decisions. They hired him/her to help them make the best decision based upon the needs/requirements they expressed to the agent for their new home. Think about that next time you are on the phone with a client. You might just find out that all this time you’ve been using speech associated with the 80% and it might be time for a change.

4. Consistency: Extraordinary people are not truly extraordinary; they just do it with ridiculous consistency! Those who are consistent see more results than those that do things from time to time. Doug mentioned 3 things you can do daily to generate 13-15 sales per year and add 1,440 contacts to your database per year and those are (1) handing out 1 business card a day, (2) use some form of correspondence 2 times per day either through email or snail mail, and (3) make 3 calls per day to anyone…past clients, lender, agent, friend, etc. The more you do things consistently, the more it becomes a habit and you will find yourself doing them instinctively while receiving more business.

5. Courage: Courage hides behind the things we fear the most. Courage is acting in the presence of fear.  In cases such as these, we need to change our focus, take responsibility for ourselves and expect more of ourselves. We can do it and should remind ourselves everyday either through affirmations or changing your focus and mindset. It takes courage to do a lot of things, but once you start to do those things the easier they will become.

Doug ended the session with a great quote by Mary Kay-Ash, “Most people truly have no idea what they are capable of. It’s so much more than we think.” This rings true with the 20%. They have the 5 C’s, they have more sales, they know more people, they make more phone calls, and they work more hours than those in the 80%. Implementing the 5 C’s in your life will help you move (if you’re there) in to the 20%. Based upon the number of agents in the United States (965,000) and the projected number of transactions that will take place this year (4,400,000), agents in the 20% will average 18-19 sales this year. Wouldn’t you like to be in that top 20% of all Realtors in the United States? Stick to the 5 C’s and best of luck!  Now go sell something!

Got to love great real estate minds….

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Wow, what Platinum Group today.  Agents are feisty, fed up and frustrated with lenders.  Issues were flying across the conference room fast and furious.  The question was asked – How’s the market?  Here is what came about – Financing problems are prevalent.  Some owner problems by not disclosing full details – not telling agent about businesses, tax situations or other properties owned.  But most seem to be lender problems – mainly, not telling the truth.  One lender didn’t tell the agent the Visa expired, said application was in all paperwork submitted and nothing was turned in – contract and lender letter said conventional then switched to FHA at appraisal time.  Lending guidelines are too strict, lenders are too ambiguous and regulations need to be relaxed to make well qualified, legitimate buyers home owners.  We are held accountable to performing at a higher standard and the lenders are not – it is a huge problem!  Lenders need to adhere to a business standard – develop one, make them sign it and if the lender doesn’t, don’t use them.  They have no skin in the game, no accountability and no repercussions.

Agents have buyers coming out of their ears.  Listings are being shown but there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency from the buyers.  Move up buyers seem to be lurking out in the market as well.

What prices are selling?  The lower price points are selling – mid price points are coming down and languishing on the market.  Prices are up year over year but are dropping month to month since July.  Keep an eye on this trend through the winter.  Prepare sellers to price competitively from the beginning or the house may not sell or you will end up chasing the market.

Are foreclosures coming?  Agents are not doing BPO’s, short sales are down, and notice of trustee sales in the papers is down so the answer is not now.  Asset managers don’t have any idea of what is coming down the road either.

How are short sales progressing?  One has been in process 2.5 years – has had 6 contracts and still not approved – it is a Bank of America deal…no surprise.   We had one agent had 3 short sales drop out last week.  Another one has 10 under contract and they are languishing on the market.

Is the loan limit reduction hurting your business?  It has had only a limited effect on the agents in the group.  Only one deal has had an impact with 10 agents and multiple transactions in process.

Agent’s years are about the same as last year.  Their volume is up but units are down but overall, income will be the same – we will see how the loan limit reduction will affect us next year.  How will 2012 be for you?  Spring is going to be strong.

All the agents agreed that this was one of the best meetings we have had which is great.  The energy was high, there was lots of passion and everyone left with enthusiasm.

Now, go sell something.

You’ve got to do more to get more!

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Sales is a tough job, no doubt about it, especially today in real estate.  You hear, read and talk about with others that in the real estate business, it is a numbers game.  If you want more results, you have to do more activities, talk with more people, hold more open houses, make more calls, and basically, just do more to get more business.  While this is true, it is only partially true. 

You need to have quality contacts to truly have an impact on your bottom line.  You need to provide value to those you speak with and earn the business or else your bottom line won’t change.  You must engage others buy asking about them, their families, their business, etc. and take an interest in them before you talk about you – basic relationship building. 

In addition, it is not just enough to say you are in real estate and business is unbelievable, you need to have an “elevator speech” about the services you provide, the information you share, and how you are different than others in the business.  If you don’t, why would your business increase?  Holding more open houses, knocking on doors, calling more FSBO’s or expired listings won’t get it done – you need to build relationships.  You need to add value to those you speak with to earn their trust and in turn, you will get the opportunity to grow your business through referrals. 

You need to know what is impacting our business and how that is impacting both buyers and sellers today.  Yes, today because the real estate market changes virtually daily.  How are property values and why is now a good time to buy and conversely, why it is a good time to sell.  How do the low rates effect payments at loan amounts of $250,000, $300,000 or $500,000 and what is the difference if rates go up 1%?  What are house values in your neighborhood, your town, and county for all categories of houses – condos, townhouses, and single family homes?  How many properties are for sale?  What are the month’s supply of houses and what does this mean?  Is it a buyer’s or seller’s market?   What price ranges are hot, who is buying in those price ranges and why?  How is the rental market locally?  How are their prices?  What is their month’s supply?  If you had the answers to these questions, do you believe you would be perceived as an expert by those you encountered and hence, obtain more business? 

You have to know the real estate business, the numbers and the trends.  Where is the market headed and why?  Give your opinion and be able to back it up with facts.  Watch videos, read blogs, read newsletters, network with others in our industry and absorb what they are saying and develop your conversation strategy based upon what you have learned to earn more business.

As previously mentioned, you need to increase your activities but you also need to improve the quality of your conversations.  You need to become an expert in the business.  If you only increase your activities or only gain knowledge and don’t share it with others, you won’t have the same business building results if you do them in concert with each other.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!