Nashville, TN

Just Staged in Nashville

Courtney Edwards emailed photos of another high end condo they staged with a live in Home Manager in Nashville on historic Music Row. This $500k condo has been on the market for a long time and now looks great.

Nashville, like a lot of cities, has had rampant condo development downtown. During the boom, these were selling to buyers and investors at a rapid clip. Today they are stagnant and not moving well. Adding a Home Manager and staging each room gives life to the unit and life to the complex. Buyers need to see that other people LIVE in the complex, not just the furniture and a Home Manager makes a huge difference.

Here are her photos:

What do you think?

Thomas Scott

www.showhomes.com

You're a part of a team or Lead a team of professional REALTORS.

When the team started, there was much synergistic excitement, and since the day the team gelled, business has been great,

Now the market has shifted . . . and everyone on the team continues to work along . . .

But there's a new tension in the mix. The Team Members begin to watch the Team Leader more closely . . . looking for signs of fear or instability.

Everyone knows the lead flow is down . . . as are the closings. The energy shifts to a more nervous flavor . . . perhaps even frantic as everyone on the team begins to realize that money is not going to flow like it did before.

The first reaction is denial: "Everything'll be OK!" . . . Then shock and anger . . . and the actions turn towards a commitment to "MAKE things happen!"

The Buyers and Sellers are not cooperating.

Perhaps, the team members slip into the blame game for a period of time: "If you had only . . . " or "why aren't you getting the leads anymore?"

That does not feel good.

The Team Leader sees the cash reserves dwindling and initially has regrets that he/she had not (when times were good) put more money aside for this rainy day . . . But the reality is that this leader is facing some tough music,

The team either needs INCOME or fewer EXPENSES . . . and the model in the SHIFT book is to "Remargin" the business. We know that in a down market, the key to survival is FIRST to cut expenses.

And so it is time to consider shrinking the team.

The first bit of this strategy has GOT to be performance based assessment of each person on the team. Is everyone doing their best? Are they all great fits? There's a chance that there are some "weeds" in the garden . . . Pull those weeds FIRST!

But what if everyone just LOVES everyone else . . . and things are not so black and white?

also

We know that those teams who survive the down times emerge from the ashes stronger and mightier with more market share than before . . . and so it makes good sense to actually BUILD a solid team during the down times . . . hmmmm

enigma . . .

Read the Book "The Energy Bus"

In that book is a wonderful little story with a great lesson. When it is time to "sort the wheat from the chafe" and you're not certain who on the team is "WITH you" and who is "AGIN you" . . . It's time to lay things on the line - Explain the situation - Affirm the truth that we can not continue to keep doing the same things and stay in business . . . and ask the question to the team members as a group;

"What can we do to reduce our expenses without folding the team?

What creative ideas do you each have?

My options include the possibility of having to release the staff and shifting those staff duties to others on the team . . . but I don't want to do that because I love ALL Y'ALL!"

This scenario will do two things:

1. You'll learn who is WITH you!

2. You'll learn who is NOT with you!

And odds are great that you will not have to fire anyone . . . They'll simply opt out.

Those who want to stay will get creative. Admin folks might agree to reduce their pay without reducing their work load or "Farm themselves out" to other agents in the office to reduce the overhead (with the promise of returning full tilt when times improve).

I think what I am trying to encourage Team Leaders and members is that the most important thing they can do is "PAUSE THE GAME" and profess their individual commitments to the team and get creative to preserve the team knowing that in the end, they will ALL prosper together.

What NOT to do?

Don't climb into your cave and shut down the enterprise . . .

Be a turtle . . . Stick your neck out and require anyone who chooses to play in your pond to stick THEIR necks out.

We're all in this thang together.

Best,

b

Barry Owen

Career Development Coach

Principal Real Estate Broker

Keller Williams Realty - Nashville,TN - Green Hills

www.theowengroup.net - We're shrinking and growing and sticking our necks out there every day for home Buyers and Sellers in Middle Tennessee

www.creatingspaces.blogspot.com- Barry's other blog

Simply & BOLDLY Living the FourFold Way in Open Space!

Nashville real estate - I've noticed that my office seems to be running at a different pace lately, and the customers I talk to that were waiting on the election, are now talking about the holidays. Just what you need is another excuse to wait.

The fact of the matter is that some people look at this as the perfect time to pick up a great deal on Nashville real estate. With less traffic, the good homes stay on the market just a little longer, and might be available for a little better price. The bad ones are always available.

Some people need to move. Transfers, divorce, and family, can force people to move, even when they know it's not a great time to sell.

I want to the Nashville realtor that's ready to work for them. The other Nashville realtors can take the holidays off.

Staging success story in Nashville

Courtney Edwards of Showhomes Middle Tennessee emailed me these photos of a $579k Green Hills cottage they staged and sold using a Home Manager. This home had been on the market for sale for almost a year and sold in just over 3 months!

Here are some photos:

Great job!

www.showhomes.com

About a month ago, Our team leader Alice Charron announced a new class for our training schedule. The original title of this class was to be something along the lines of "The "Shift" Book Club" . . . The concept of the class is for Alice to work through the Shift book from start to finish with whoever shows up and thereby (in a sense) create a "Group Coaching" environment.

Alice's promotion of this class was relentless, and the timing could not have been better. Her marketing emphasized the importance of plugging the fundamental wisdom presented in the book into the agent's respective businesses to Survive and perhaps even THRIVE during these uncertain times.

The message was simple and positive.

By happenstance, the quarterly "Citywide Mega-Agent Mastermind" was also to be held on that day. These masterminds are generally very well attended . . .

DRAT!

Alice made the smart move NOT to change the day/time of her Shift class and offered a "make-up class" for those who wanted to attend the Masterminds. She would hold her first class as scheduled.

In our office of @ 120 agents . . . more than 30 agents showed up for this first session. The energy was high . . . It was truly exciting to see this levelof engagement in the office.

This is a classic case of "Right theme - People show up" . . . Alice's "Tribe" consists of the agents in our office and any other agents she is inviting from other real estate firms to come take a look at joining Keller Williams. She knows what they need MOST, and she DELIVERED.

She actually did the whole tribe a favor with her relentless marketing and prospecting of this class . . . Personally calling people she knew who would benefit from the class.

SO

How's your prospecting marketing going in your business?

Are you seeing results?

Are leads flowing in?

Appointments happening?

Buyers and Sellers signing agreements to work with you?

Contracts moving and closings consummating?

I think there's a lot to learn from Alice's campaign to fill the room for her new class . . .

The most significant lesson is that she discovered the RIGHT theme . . . A theme that her target audience has passion for . . . a theme that fills a gap . . . potentially salves a pain . . . and is TIMELY . . .

and then she relentlessly broadcast this theme to her "Tribe" . . .

and she delivered as promised even when circumstances presented her with a seemingly formidable obstacle (the Masterminds).

In your business . . . Your lead generation efforts bear fruit when the THEME (message) you are projecting accomplishes all of the above . . . and when your Tribe (Group of Mets and target market) are in alignment with your PURPOSE . . . and when you do all of this with a level of COMMITMENT that can ONLY be defined as being RELENTLESS.

Best,

b

Barry Owen

Career Development Coach

Principal Real Estate Broker

Keller Williams Realty - Nashville, TN - Green Hills

www.theowengroup.net

www.creatingspaces.blogspot.com

Simply and BOLDLY Living the FourFold Way in Open Space!