eBestAgent

Last year one in four adults read no books at all in the past year. Read this article, “One in four read no books last year” by the Washington Post.

Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year _ half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.I’ve read similar report that the average American reads less than 4 books after formal education. That’s truly surprising statistic.

All my successful clients’ homes and homes that valued more than average priced homes ($750,000 in Southern CA) contained a library. I’ve noticed while working as a real estate agent.  Did the owners just suddenly decide to put a library or start it years ago?

It’s very obvious that they started that library many years ago. They read good books to improve their skills, expand their thinking, define their character, and impact their life.

Average book price is $26.81 based on the publisher’s retail price. Pay $26 for someone else’s years of knowledge, hard work and experience. That’s cheap compare to what you can get out of it.

I strongly believe that everyone has equal chance to become successful. You have the seeds of greatness inside you. The education investment you make in yourself is the fertilizer and water. If you’re always willing to learn, your success is assured. It’s time to unplug TV and read more books.

Technorati Tags: Value of Books, book investment, successful tips

Use UPPERCASE when filling WinForms or other real estate related legal forms.

I alway use uppercase on all WinForms. There are many benefits of using uppercase instead standard lowercase.

1. More visible: It stands out of rest of the documents. It makes easier to spot and identify the information.
2. Better for Faxing: If you fax the contract to other party or to your clients to be signed, your return fax copies will be shrunk. It makes them difficult to read even at the higher resolution.
3. Emphasize: If you add an addendum or attachment, other party will less likely miss the notes you made.
4. More Readable: If you have bad hand writing, use uppercase. It looks more readable and cleaner.
5. Stands Out: Which one looks bigger, 1 million or 1 MILLION? It may help you get the attention needed if you’re one of the multiple offers.

Technorati Tags: WinForms, WinForms tips, contract tips, contract writing tips

Real Estate Agents need to be at the same level of other professionals. You must develop, practice and execute your own scripts everyday.

Many professionals in other fields are well-scripted or planned. NFL teams have the first 30 plays of the game planned. The late San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh yelled to players, “Don’t think on the field! Execute the play!” They know exactly which plays they will run and make few adjustments on the field. They will evaluate how the plays work and continue to use the best ones the following Sunday.

Other well-scripted professionals include attorneys. Many use the same argument that worked to get clients acquitted in similar cases. The pilots who take off, fly, land their planes the same way every time, according to scripts & check lists. They all have all scripted out what they are going to do.

Real Estate Agents need scripts for following categories.

1. Prospecting: cold calls, door knocking, past clients, expireds, FSBOs, and referrals.
2. Buyers: answering, qualifying, open house, and objection handling
3. Sellers: listing presentations, qualifying, price reduction, weekly communication, and objection handling.
4. Agents: follow ups, negotiating, getting paperworks, and time line.
5. Affilliates: referrals, sphere of influence, and networking

Excellent professional salesman have perfected their delivery of words. They have practice how to overcome all the objections. Your success could be based on these scripts and deliver them with effectiveness.

Technorati Tags: Real Estate Salesman, Scripts, cold calling, prospecting, sellers, buyers, real estate, affiliates, agents

True Definition of Persistence

Do you know Froy Candelario? Have you ever heard of his name? Froy Candelario is an agent based in Southern California.

He sells way too many homes. Anywhere from 300 to 400 homes per year for the last 10 years. He doesn’t even list his listing on MLS. He sells 80% of his home by himself which means he represented both buyer and seller sides to keep all his commission. He works with only 4 staff members. He is one of the super agent in the whole country. He gets his listing with only cold calling and door knocking. Quite amazing stats. He’s net worth is estimated at upward of $100 million.

Froy’s true story is not in his real estate stats. Originally Froy is from Mexico. He and a friend decided to come to the United States, the land of opportunity to escape poverty from Mexico. They cross the border by hanging on to the underside of a train. They rode for hours, clinging to the train for their lives. They had no idea where they were and they could not let go for fear of being run over by the train. The miles clicked by and they were getting extremely tired. Finally, Froy’s friend could not hang on any longer. He let go and was crushed. Froy was devastated by the loss of his friend, but vowed to hang on. Less than five minutes later the train stopped. Froy had reached his destination. He had made it to the United States.

The lesson that Froy learned from his immigration experience is that one componen of success is being able to hang on a little bit longer than the next guy.

That’s the true definition of persistence.

Persistence:

1. the action or fact of persisting
2. the quality or state of being persistent; especially : PERSEVERANCE

Persisting: to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning

Perseverance: to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement.

Technorati Tags: Persistence, Froy Candelario, amazing story, persistent, perseverance, inspirational story, motivation

Ever wonder how the big agents earn so much money? Why is that some agents make fortunes selling real estate and others barely make a living?

According to the NAR, 93% of the business is now being done by only 7 % of the agents. While I have always been suspect of how they determine those numbers, the thing I am sure of is that most of the business is being conducted by only a few agents.

Doesn’t it make you wonder what the difference is? With so much information available, why isn’t everyone at the top of their game? When I asked myself this question, I began to look for answers. And do you know what I found? I have found that there is a big “untruth” out there. I found that most agents believe that all that is separating them from the big money is information. They believe that if they only knew what the others know, success would be theirs.

Let me tell you, information alone will not make you money. But if it would, you would still have to be sure you get the correct information. While all agents are not equal, just about all of them can get a house to closing. Learning how to better do what you do know is not the answer. There’s more to it.

When you decide to become a real estate agent, the first thing you do is take a licensing course. Then you need to pass a test. The first thing that then pops into most minds is this. How do I make money at this? Something they neglected to cover in the course. But you are not alone. There will always be lots of competition in any business that is easy to get into with the promise of making a lot of money. Most newly licensed agents don’t have a clue of how to make money at this. Most turn to their brokers for help, but in many cases that doesn’t help much, if at all.

Why is it that most agents only do a few deals a year and only a select few others are able to do several hundred? Is it because these meaga agents have teams? Is that the difference? Well that is actually deceiving. They are able to have teams because they are successful. It’s not the other way around as many believe. Because they are very good at bringing in business, it becomes necessary for them to hire a team because they couldn’t handle the volume by themselves.

How do they do it? Marketing! It’s how good they have become at marketing that makes them money, not how good they are at real estate. If you think of marketing as sphere of influence, farming, post cards, FSBO, expired listings, etc., you have been lied to once again. If you tried any of this stuff, you most likely found it doesn’t work as well as you had hoped. If you are waiting for the next deal to come to you and don’t have a clue as to where or when it is coming, you are not marketing effectively.

The bottom line is that very few real estate agents know how to market their business. This may sound negative but it is not. The fact is that this is the greatest opportunity for you. With so few doing it, it’s actually easy to succeed. Unfortunately, most of the information that is available won’t help you. If you tried any of it and it didn’t work, then you know what I mean.