Real Estate Career Not Just About Sales

Easy money, flexible schedules, and being your boss seem to be the buzzwords with those considering a career in residential real estate. Sales was intentionally left off the job title. Real estate is moving away from being a sales career to being a resource for consumers that are buying or selling a home.

Mark Nash author of Starting & Succeeding in Real Estate and three other real estate books and a regular columnist for RealtyTimes.com shares the inside story on how begin and prosper in today's transitioning real estate market.

-Pre-license education will provide you with knowledge about the applicable real estate laws in your state, but will not prepare you to be successful in residential real estate.

-The first office you choose to hang your real estate license in will greatly influence your success or failure in the business. Visit at least three offices and meet with the managing broker before making a decision.

-Technology skills are a must. Over seventy-percent of all home buyers start their search on the Internet before contacting a real estate agent. Web site development, text messaging, virtual tours are the bread and butter of real estate today.

-Savvy consumers search out full-time agents. Real estate is not a part-time business, no matter what you have heard.

-Understand that successful real estate agents work fifty to sixty hours a week, many times at odd hours and holidays. You have to be available when clients want to see properties or list their home, which is after normal business hours.

-People oriented personalities thrive and succeed in residential real estate. Patience, level-headed, and pleasing agents are the top producers.

-You're an independent contractor. Many new agents think their broker will build their business, you are a business within that brokerage business. Think like a sole-proprietor and develop a business plan.
Tip! Join your area REIA (Real Estate Invesment Association) good deals are at every meeting. Some REIA's have hundreds of members who have properties ready to go that may be just what your looking for.

-Look and act like a professional. Many new agents are too casual in their demeanor and dress and this spells failure. Consider that home buyers and sellers are dealing with their largest asset when dealing with you, is their accountant or doctor showing up at appointments with them in flip-flops or tennis shorts?
Tip! Equity. Real estate investment equity may take several forms.

-Real estate is not about sales, it's about being a resource and developing relationships. In the go-go days of the real estate market, many new agents were order-takers. Now with a transitioning market, you need to provide clients with information and strategies. With less motivation and energy in markets, building relationships over the long-haul positions you as a real estate resource.

-Join clubs, organizations and non-profits. Networking is how your grow your relationships. Meeting new people who know other people with a real estate purchase or sale need will grow your business. You won't meet new people holed up in your real estate office or your living room.

-In takes money to make money in real estate. Many new agents are tapped out financially by the time they pay for pre-license education. Factor in start-up costs such as errors and omission insurance, Board of Realtors(R) and Multiple Listing Service dues, and business marketing costs. Health insurance is available through national real estate association. Plan on no income for 6-9 months.

-Find a coach or mentor. Beginning in real estate can be lonely as you'll soon realize that you have a minimal support system. Find a mentor within the business and a coach outside it to help organize and plan your business.

Mark Nash's fourth real estate book, "1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home" (2005), and working as a real estate broker in Chicago are the foundation for his consumer-centric real estate perspective which has been featured on ABC-TV, Associated Press,CBS The Early Show, Bloomberg TV, Bottom Line Magazine.CNN-TV, Chicago Sun Times & Tribune, Fidelity Investor's Weekly, MarketWatch, HGTVpro.com, MSNBC.com, Smart Money Magazine,The New York Times, Realty Times, Universal Press Syndicate and USA Today.

Tips to Jump Start New Real Estate Agents

The first year in real estate can be rewarding for those that can set objectives, gather information to support and find resources to meet them. When a new agent that I coach doesn't have objectives, information or resources it's a red flag. Being a fresh face in a new career and office overwhelms the majority of we call the future of real estate.

With the growing ranks of new agents, the competition is getting tough. Do your new agents have the support from you, a mentor or your company to find real estate sales rewarding? Here are some tips to jump start new agents.

Set objectives through a business plan. ·Be realistic.

-Set attainable goals to motivate and reward yourself. ·Develop three-month, six-month and twelve-month goals.

-Look short-term the first year to minimize stress. ·Focus on closed transactions, either buyers or sellers.

-Remember buyer's turn into sellers in time. ·Create a marketing plan to develop yourself as a brand.

-Diversify your marketing to include Internet, print, and direct mail. ·Work smart and use good time management skills.

-Evaluate clients and office demands of your time weekly. ·Appreciate people and their personalities.

-Understand that selling or buying a home is a vehicle for people to interact.

-Gather information to position your self as an expert. ·Attend office caravan or tour every week to get an early view of new listings.

-Familiarize yourself with new inventory to share with clients. ·Participate in broker's tour each week to see other offices listings.

-Investigate new listings on broker's tour and with MLS hot sheets. ·Visit public open houses to see what buyers are saying and interested in.

-Understand first hand what buyers are looking at and their feedback.. ·Research current market prices and how they contrast to previous years.

-Seek historical data and how it impacts market conditions today. ·Know all the details of the transaction process.

-Contemplate situations to appear knowledgeable to clients. ·Understand the importance of the Internet in real estate.

-75% of all buyers start their search on the Internet. ·Gather statistics on national, regional real estate trends.

-Learn the big picture, clients will ask you to interpret the future. ·Know your competitor strengths and weaknesses.
Tip! If you are really serious about building something lasting and worthwhile in real estate, resolve to get into real estate for the long term, for a minimum of ten to twenty years. Real estate investment is not something that you jump into and out of.

-Strategize exceeding real estate consumer's expectations in your market. ·Develop an interest in local building, zoning and planning agendas.

-Attend meetings to watch for decisions that could impact your clients.

-Find resources to support business objectives. ·Find a mentor in your office.

-Approach an experienced agent to share their cliff notes for real estate. ·Research low-cost training for floor duty, prospecting and lead generation.

-Contact Real Estate Agent board for training in weak areas of your business. ·Consider corporate relocation a fast track to developing new clients.
Tip! An accountant or bookkeeper. To keep proper books for real estate investments is getting more complicated with all the tax-law changes.

-Inquire about certification to receive incoming referrals. ·Give back to your community through non-profit participation.

-Discover the power of giving back to receive. ·Understand that your client pipeline is your future.

-Communicate regularly with past clients who could provide future referrals. ·Network by meeting new people out of your office, family and friends.

-Join professional organizations outside of your sphere of influence. ·Accept administrative, marketing and technology expenses in your business.

-Budget for business costs from day one in real estate.

Mark Nash is the author of "Fundamentals of Marketing for the Real Estate Professional", "Starting & Succeeding in Real Estate", "Reaching Out: The Financial Power of Niche Markeing", and "1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home". Mark is a contributing writer for: Realtor (R) Magazine Online, Broker Agent News, Real Estate Executive Magazine, Princilpal Broker, and Realty Times. His tried and true real estate tips has been featured on CBS The Early Show, CNN, HGTVpro.com, The New York Times, and USA Today. Purchase his books at http://www.1001RealEstateTips.com

Real Estate Agents: Niche Marketing Versus Farming

Ask yourself this question: "Before you were in real estate sales, how many of those flyers, newsletters, recipe cards, and even calendars that you received from an real estate agent "farming" your household went straight into your wastebasket?" Studies indicate that return on direct mail advertising is somewhere below two percent. Wouldn't it make more sense to direct all that time, energy, and money formerly spent on developing a geographic farm into building relationships or a niche with potential clients? Now ask yourself: "How many other agents in your community are also marketing to the same geographical farm that you do?"

So with your farm saturated and "Do Not Call" what's an agent to do? Consider niche or target marketing also known as relationship selling. Niche marketing was the success story of consumer products advertising in the 1990's. Consumer product manufacturers realized that generalized marketing was expensive and was not generating response or sales because they were attempting to reach too broad a market. Targeting specific groups or niches and building a relationship with them brought manufacturers increased sales from a more focused message to a group that has shared goals, beliefs, or history. The message wasn't "buy now" it was "we understand you have specific needs and we want to build a relationship with you".

This new marketing strategy paid off because manufacturers took the time to study and survey their potential consumers on how they developed an affinity for a product or service. You can utilize their results in developing a niche in your real estate business. First you must have a sincere belief and interest in the niche. Second you have to give back to the niche with your time or financial support. Some examples of niches are: community interest, political and professional organizations, spiritual, intramural sports, and gender. Let's look at how we take one of these niches and develop a more focused sub-niche to market to.

Original niche: Gender Sub-niche: Women Sub-sub niche: Women single heads of household Sub-sub niche: Women single heads of households who are first time buyers Sub-sub niche: Women single heads of households who are first time buyers in Deerfield

Finding women single heads of households who are first time homebuyers in Deerfield would start with an Internet search in a search engine such as Goggle. Inquire about support groups at the library, social services or village hall. Day care centers and park districts could also provide you with resources. This is an under-served niche from my own experience. A referral client Renee never thought she could afford to buy a home as a single head of household. She cried the day she closed on her own home after conditioning herself that she would be a life-long renter. She went to her single mothers support group and shared her home buying story. Other single mothers from her support group are calling to begin their home searches. A mortgage broker and myself have proposed to sponsor and host a quarterly home-buying seminar for Renee's group.

The professional and personal rewards from having a niche in my real estate business makes my geographic farm look like finding needles in a haystack.

Mark Nash is the author of "Fundamentals of Marketing for the Real Estate Professional", "Starting & Succeeding in Real Estate", "Reaching Out: The Financial Power of Niche Markeing", and "1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home". Mark is a contributing writer for: Realtor (R) Magazine Online, Broker Agent News, Real Estate Executive Magazine, Princilpal Broker, and Realty Times. His tried and true real estate tips has been featured on CBS The Early Show, CNN, HGTVpro.com, The New York Times, and USA Today. Purchase his books at http://www.1001RealEstateTips.com

The Importance of Branding a Real Estate Business

The importance of branding cannot be underestimated in any line of business. Add to that fact the fiercely competitive nature of the Real Estate industry and it becomes obvious that establishing a brand is vital in the endless push to stay ahead of your competitors.

Real Estate businesses can easily fall behind their competitors if the agents fail to see that the business is more than a just a job. A professional attitude is required across the board, and this can be encompassed in Real Estate just as in other businesses through branding.

We're not talking about fancy names and swish logos here by the way. Branding is proven to have immense benefits for a vast variety of businesses and organizations, including those in the Real Estate industry.

Branding as a concept is a simple one: establishing a positive image for your business in order to distinguish you from your competitors. When a person thinks of cola, we usually think of Coca-Cola; this type of brand recognition has been around for years in other industries.
Tip! Florida Real Estate = 78,554 online searches 2. Denver real estate = 65,752 3.

So for a Real Estate business, a positive image of being able to sell properties and give outstanding customer service are just two aspects of developing a brand. You should consider your strengths and targets, as well as previous successes and build on these when developing your business's image.

Typically, a brand would include the Real Estate business name, logo and perhaps an image or symbol. This brand would encompass the values and aims of the business in the minds of both the employees, competitors and ultimately the customers. Once the brand is established, you should look at coordinating and maintaining it via the traditional means such as advertising, business cards, as well as email signatures and a web presence.
Tip! Leverage. Leverage, with regards to real estate investment, is the use of borrowed funds in order to purchase realty.

Branding has many benefits, ranging from lower marketing costs and the ability to attract and keep better customers and employees to excellent customer benefits like reducing uncertainty and risk, simplifying their choice and saving time. As the task of choosing a Real Estate company is usually a difficult one, these benefits are obviously worth the time and effort required in revising your business image as a new brand.

For instance, imagine the impact of being the first choice Real Estate Company in your area! Not only are you at the top of people's list, you are also attracting customer loyalty which is an increasingly valuable commodity. With loyalty comes word-of-mouth publicity.
Tip! Move. Another way beginning real estate investors get their first investment is to buy a new home and rent out their first home.

Remember; in creating a brand for your business you have the opportunity to develop your Real Estate job into a Real Estate business with a whole new set of values and exciting prospects!

© 2005, Hamric Enterprise

About the Author Kandra Hamric is the President of Hamric Enterprise. Her areas of expertise include real estate, marketing, and real estate virtual assistance. For more information visit http://www.AssistantForRealEstate.com

This article can be reprinted as long as it is kept intact, about the author is used in its entirety (with hyperlinks) and an email notification is sent to Kandra@AssistantForRealEstate.com

The Best Ways for Real Estate Advertising

According to the National Association of Realtors, almost 75 percent of the people use the Internet to find their new home. Modern communication technologies offer an optimal way to advertise real estate. But there are slightly more traditional methods that are considered to work well, too. For example, you can do real estate advertising on a local newspaper or on the TV. Your local real estate magazines are another opportunity for attaining workable real estate advertising. If you are a home seller, you need to know all the different types of real estate advertising and use them in a profitable configuration that would attract buyers.

The most common one is online real estate advertising. Billions of dollars for online real estate advertising will continue to shift in the next three years. Fidelity Assets' Web traffic service promotes the service of campaign management tools, which can branch off traffic from AOL, Google, MSN and Yahoo! on behalf of their clients, so that home sellers can advertise their websites or listings. Thus potential home buyers or sellers can be targeted if they search in their local geographical areas. Another opportunity is to use the Company's Web Lead Service, which attracts buyers and sellers as they are doing their search in a real estate agent's area. Traffic is redirected to a special "landing page" which belongs to a particular agent. People can find more information about the real estate they are interested in. Another point is that there is no overlap between the real estate offered by one agent and another. They are different so that people can find the most suitable one.

Another way of real estate advertising is by classified ads in local newspapers. They cost little, and, most of all, they work. Put an ad for 3 or 4 days and you may be astonished at the results. Buyers are looking at those ads. You can advertise there your company and your brand name. But there is a specific order which you should obey when advertising: advertise property first, agent second and company in the third place. If people are recognizing your name, it may go well with everything you sell or offer: prospective clients will stop at a building or a sign that carries your name.

The last thing you should comply with is not to share too much information in your ad, otherwise clients won't call. Make people curious about the property you are selling. And take note of the right terminology: don't call a hut a house, and know exactly what style of property you are offering. Otherwise, you risk losing trust with the clients.

Article by Robbie Darmona - an article writer who writes on a wide variety of subjects.

For more information click =>Real Estate Advertising