Being Hands On While Being Hands Off! 
We’ve all faced our fair share of curveballs in our professional lives. Adapt and overcome, right? We’re working under new rules and regulations thru MLS with Clear Cooperation, on again – off again iBuyers, while reinventing how we perform a hands on job in a hands off world. Video tours, 360 floorplans, 3D, drones, virtual open houses, zoom meetings, drive thru signings, learning to smile with our eyes because our true smiles are hidden behind masks…all while trying to avoid shelter-in-place fatigue and keep ourselves and our families safe.
Has the pandemic put you in a position to minimize your direct contact with your Buyers and Sellers? Be less hands on than you normally would? We have a solution for you. Our Stepping Up! Teams have a long history of maintaining profitable businesses for productive agents in need of short or long-term assistance. Our Teams have effectively adapted traditional showing, open house and online marketing strategies while focusing on protecting ourselves and our clients as we introduce Buyers to new homes and creatively solicit quality offers for Sellers. We are willing and able to safely be feet on the ground. Our Stepping Up! Teams have kept the businesses of agents wanting or needing to minimize their public exposure operating with many seeing an increase in volume year over year even with COVID 19. We’d be happy to talk to you about how we can help keep your business running during these unusual times.
You’ve spent years building a substantial real estate business, now is not the time to lose visibility just because you have made the reasonable decision to stay at home! As Realtors we will settle into our “new normal” soon enough. Let us support you during this unfamiliar time. We will all come out of this stronger! Call us today for a CONFIDENTIAL discussion. We can use Zoom or GoToMeeting to keep physical distance to protect you as we speak! We have ideas and we are willing to share. Lori Mares, Realtor
Even THE Best Plan Needs A Back Up!
We’re asked this question all the time, “What’s THE best Succession Plan for my business? What has the most long-term sustainability?” We believe a stable, well-trained and motivated Family Member is by far the very best Succession Plan as long as that family member has the desire, drive and business sense to keep your business going. Your clients will see him/her as an extension of you. Introducing him/her to your sphere is fun and easy!
So, how do you effectively train this person? Can you objectively assess how your protege is progressing in learning solid business practices? Will they love it as much as you do? Are they the right personality to meet your clients’ needs long term? Is this their dream… or yours? Alternatively, how can you refuse a relative if they want to partner with you, especially a son or daughter? Neither you nor your family member will know how wildly successful, or what an epic failure, this strategy can be until you give it a try. You have to!
Having a successful family team can be so personally rewarding. I would love to work beside my son every day! (Definitely my dream, not his!) If you choose this route, please note that for as many great reasons there are to team with a family member, there are just as many reasons that this succession strategy may not work. Watching your family member enjoy success in the good times is great! However, do they have the stamina to stick out the tough times? Do they want to?
Do you have a B Plan should your family member not be the best succession plan? An easily executed back-up plan can keep your sphere engaged, your income intact and save you both from long term regrets.
Even if your family member is a “chip off the old block” (and so many are!), a back-up plan is a good idea and just good business. We have plans; let’s talk. Tom Ebenhack & Lori Mares, Realtors
Can I Sell My Book of Business?
A great question we get asked a lot. We’ll cover it in detail at our Exit Strategies CE Class, but the quick answer is probably not. At least not for what YOU are worth! We’ll cover what other agents have gone through in the process and some of the disappointments associated with that idea. And alternatives that make sense, and cents! YOU are your Book of Business, and without YOU its value disappears. We just happen to be in one of the few industries where we can work our whole lives building a great business and find we can’t sell it for any reasonable price.
Your DATABASE
What is a database? Why do I need one? Well, you have one whether you know it or not. It’s the collection of people who you know and work with. Your friends, past clients you’ve enjoyed working with, those who trust you, those who refer you, those who actually want to do business with you again—people you’ve spent your lifetime developing relationships with and caring about!
Sometimes they’re organized into an electronic spreadsheet or a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), and sometimes they’re not. The more organized, the more consistent your outreach or marketing to them can be. We’re good at collecting the necessary data to market to them in the future. So, if you don’t have yours well organized, don’t fret it.
Talk to us, we can help. |
