Category: General

Recently, I had the chance to meet two different real estate agents who have different approaches to their business. Both of them are very successful, so their approaches to their business obviously work very well for them, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, I believe, the biggest reason they’re as successful as they are is due to what they have in common. Let me explain.

Agent A works independently. She doesn’t have assistants, associate agents, or other people who report directly to her, and she gets a lot more done in a single day than many lesser agents accomplish in a week. Agent B has amassed a large team with ranks of assistants, agents, and other support staff to keep this machine she has built running at optimal speed and efficiency. Agent A has gone head to head with big-team agents in competing for big-ticket listings, and she’s come out on top. Agent B, along with her team, has created a referral-generating system that is a sight to behold – and their hit rate with those referrals is incredibly high. At the end of the year, it’s very likely that their individual paychecks are quite similar in size.

So, what’s this . . . thing that they share that makes them successful? The answer may be so obvious you just might throw something at your computer screen or reflexively kick a small dog. For the safety of your technology and all living creatures around you, I’ll wait until you put down anything you might be holding in your hand and clear the room of all pets. Are we good?

They give PERSONAL attention to each and every client. In the case of Agent A, that is one of the biggest reasons she’s been able to go head to head with big-team agents and win the prestigious listings: she makes it very clear to the client that SHE’S IT – they won’t be speaking with an assistant or a flunky who will have to take a message and get back to them once they’ve been able to get in touch with her. In the case of Agent B, while she has an army of people generating a lot of business and working on details in the background, she’s the person with whom the client ALWAYS has contact. Because of that, a big part of her referral-generating system comes from her VERY SATISFIED past clients – the same can be said for Agent A.

Another agent I know – we’ll call her “C” – has told me numerous times that real estate is a numbers game. She’s gone so far as to tell me that she’s figured out almost the exact number of times she needs to hear “no” before she gets to a “yes” – and she looks forward to each “no” as it tells her how much closer she is to a “yes”. Many – perhaps too many – real estate agents view their business as ONLY a numbers game, so they build teams and processes to push as many people through as possible. When deals don’t work out, it’s okay for them because they just keep filling the pipeline with more people and more deals. My friend “C”, while she plays the numbers game, is very much like Agents A & B. She gives personal attention to assure the deal goes through as seamlessly as possible and her clients are happy at the end of it all – and because they’re happy, they LOVE referring their friends. After all’s said and done, working with referrals is a lot easier than having to find new customers constantly to fill an inefficient pipeline. You might say it’s as easy as A, B, C.

I’ve just read possibly my 893rd news article about the millennials and how we all need to change the way we market so we can reach them. Of course, in every single article I read touching on this subject, they never give me a single suggestion on what I should change or do differently to reach this bloc of buyers. Ugh!!!!!! I’ll come back to that in just a moment.

Research indicates that millennials have grown up with a strong distrust for big institutions. That same research tells us that millennials have trust issues – they lived on the sidelines during the subprime meltdown and foreclosure fiasco – and they have a hard time trusting the “older” generation. The typical real estate agent is 57 years old, and the average age of a loan officer is 54. The median age of first-time homebuyers is 31. Here’s the reason these things matter: Millennials account for 32% of all home sales and 68% of first-time homebuyers – and those numbers will continue to grow.

As I said, the pundits (that’s a fancy word for “experts”) keep telling me I need to change and adapt to reach out to and connect with the millennials, but they never tell me how. Why? Because they don’t have the foggiest idea. Don’t despair, though: I have three pieces of advice that will help you connect with the younger buyers – and these things will help you connect better with ALL of your buyers. None of these suggestions requires you to create an app for a smartphone or invent a new technology that predicts who is going to enter the market before they even know it themselves:

1. Be reachable AND responsive by email and text – yes, I said “text”. If you are immediately responsive (meaning: in an hour or two, not in a day or two), the millennials (and everyone else) will be impressed. Honestly, that’s as tech savvy as you need to be.

2. Use plain English. Gone are the days when people are impressed with our ability to trot out terms like BINSR and amortization. This does not mean I think the millennials aren’t smart enough to handle the home buying process and that it needs to be “dumbed down” – quite the opposite, really: they’re demanding that we know our stuff well enough to translate it into plain English so we’re not trying to hide behind big fancy terms. The way we assure we’re not doing the job for a lesser agent (read: not as smart) is making the process so easily understood that clients see us as the reason for that clarity – we “outsimple” the competition. That’s how we gain their trust.

3. This is where and how you gain their loyalty – yes, their loyalty – in two words: constant contact. I don’t mean sending them a post card every six months. You need to call, email, and text them (pick one method at a time) on a fairly regular basis with a recommendation of a landscaping service, a pool cleaner, a good restaurant, a financial planner, etc. If they see you as a constant source of knowledge (that pays off), they WILL come to you first to buy that next house, that vacation home, and eventually that retirement home. With the younger generations, gaining and keeping loyalty is like maintaining a healthy lifestyle: no slacking.

You can Facebook, Tweet, and Instagram all day long – no harm in that – but the way to reach out to and connect with the millennials still revolves around being available and knowledgeable. You don’t need a pundit to tell you that!

Recently, a lot of very burly men gathered in Northern California to put on tights and very expensive shoes so they could prance, frolic, cavort, and make merry with one another in an open field – and we called it Super Bowl 50. Unless you’ve been living on another planet (or Bakersfield without cable), you’ve at least heard that Cam Newton didn’t take the loss all that well and his post-game interview was less than . . . gracious. His behavior in that interview really got tongues wagging, and a lot of criticism was heaped on Mr. Newton. He later released a statement as a response to this criticism: “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser. . . . If I offended anyone, that’s cool.”

From everything I read, there wasn’t a single significant criticism about his failure to apologize for the loss. No one was expecting him to start writing checks to the fans to make up for the fact the Panthers lost the game. The criticism can be summed up in the short statement given by Newton’s head coach, Ron Rivera, in which he said he wished the quarterback had “handled it differently.” That’s all – and that’s the lesson for all of us.

No one LIKES to lose (unless you’re a member of Weight Watchers). We don’t wake up in the morning, look ourselves in the mirror and say, “I can’t wait to have someone beat me at my own game!” When we do lose, though – and the fact of the matter is it’s going to happen every now and then – how we act either inspires those around us (and even inspires ourselves) or causes people to step away from us and choose another partner.

Have you closed EVERY deal in which you’ve been involved? Has EVERY deal gone exactly the way you anticipated with respect to your client’s wishes and the commissions involved? I’m going to take a WILD guess and say, probably not – there have been, maybe, two or three times when the deal didn’t follow your plan to the letter. When things have gone sideways on a transaction, did you go to your client and say, “They beat us! I hate losing! If I offended you, that’s cool” – and then you just walked away? Of course not!

I’m going to go out on one more limb here and say that the likelihood of your getting a referral from a past client is MUCH higher if the transaction you completed involved problems – problems that you overcame – than if the transaction went off without a hitch – one in which you “won”.

Cam’s still young – he’s still a “beginner” in the NFL – so we’ll cut him some slack. That reminds me of something I read recently on the Internet (so it must be true): “Do you want to know the difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” Be the master your clients deserve – don’t just talk about it!

In a recent interview for “Housing News Report”, Jonathan Smoke – Chief Economist at Realtor.com – says that, “2016 will be our best year since 2006, but also our most normal year since 2000. We’ve lived through 15 years of abnormal trends, and after working off the negative effects of the housing bust, we’re finally seeing signs of more normal conditions.” What? Is this man psychic? How does he know this? While I’m confident Old Smokey (I’m pretty sure that was his nickname back in college) is a pretty smart guy and he didn’t get his job as Chief Economist on his looks alone, let’s look at some of the factors he most likely reviewed to make his feel-good statement.

According to Freddie Mac, fixed-rate 30-year prime mortgages were priced at 3.87% at the end of 2014 and 3.96% for the week of Dec. 24, 2015. At the end of 2014, there were MANY people predicting that rates would be at 5% or higher by the end of 2015. If only there were some way to bet on things like this. Hmmm.

What were some of the things that kept the interest rates in check and should continue to keep them in check, you might ask. Here are just a few:

• Uncle Sam’s Drunken Cousins: Last year, there was a lot of negative interest in the European and Asian markets – this meant there were boatloads of capital available to underwrite U.S. mortgages.
• Suntans & Treehugging: With warmer weather and more people driving more fuel-efficient cars, oil demand has been significantly reduced – and with more sustainable, renewable energy options becoming available, demand for oil should continue to stay below levels we’re used to seeing. While this is a huge problem for energy producers, it’s a major boon for U.S. consumers. This means more disposable income for you and me.

And for the BIGGEST reason Mr. Smoke and others are optimistic:

• The White House Lease is Up: Yes, it’s an election year. While we all have to put up with listening to people who have never held a regular job tell us how they’re going to improve our lives better than the two cats standing on either side of them in a debate, there’s a silver lining to all of that – everyone and their dog who has ANYTHING to do with the economy moves heaven and earth to NOT rock the boat while the country chooses who’s going to be the Next American Idle.

This should be a VERY GOOD year to sell real estate: stable interest rates (fingers crossed), more disposable income, and rent prices rising faster than house prices – too bad yesterday’s Super Bowl 50 loser didn’t have a scouting report this good!