Johnston, IA

There are many benefits to working in our brokerage both tangible and intangible. We like to have fun and there are a lot of events to attend all year long. One regularly scheduled event that never fails to inspire, inform and entertain is the monthly breakfast meeting we have the second Tuesday of every month at the Hilton Garden Inn in Johnston, IA. Attendees can expect a delicious full breakfast buffet complete with bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, pancakes, fresh fruit and an assortment of delectable pastries. If attending you can also expect to network with top agents, brokers. lenders, stagers, photographers, and other interesting folks. Our brokerage has six offices in Des Moines, Newton, West Des Moines, Altoona, and Grimes and breakfast seem to be the one event that draws the biggest crowd probably because the timing 9-11 am fits well into everyone schedule. The meet and great alone is worth the trip.

The format usually consists of some market and brokerage sales stats, real estate trends and a motivational speech from our founder Robb Spearman. Next is one or more guest speakers: everyone from sales trainers to magicians, to builders to vendors and local volunteer groups. Next week we'll have a time management and organization expert, Lori Vander Krol. According to the advance email:

"Lori Vande Krol, Productivity Consultant and Owner of Life Made Simple, LLC, will show you how to cut through the clutter, stay focused on your goals and spend your time on the work that matters most. Lori will share her proven 5-step process for creating your ideal productive environment. You'll learn how the FAT (FileActToss) System helps you more easily make decisions regarding your information - whether it be related to paper, electronic files or email. Lori will share tools and cutting-edge technology that will help move you towards a more organized workspace and a more efficient workday. In addition, Lori will discuss time management techniques that are losing impact in today's fast-paced, 24-hour access world and provide strategies that DO work, including tips for setting goals, prioritizing your workflow, and scheduling your day."

We welcome guests and you can attend by calling Angela Caldwell at 515- 276-2872 to reserve your seat to this exiting event. There is no cost and the benefits are legion. And if you come, you can have one of these!

If you've been a reader of my blog this year chance are you've seen mention of the awesome breakfasts our brokerage hosts the second Tuesday of every month at the Hilton Garden Inn in Johnston, Iowa. About 80-90 agents from all six of our locations: Altoona, Beaverdale, Des Moines South, Downtown, Grimes, and West Des Moines get together for approximately an hour and half to enjoy a great meal, networking and a variety of speakers. Oftentimes agents from other brokerages join us to share information about their projects, upcoming events, charitable opportunities or just to see what we're all about.

The standard fare is a breakfast buffet led off with overflowing fruit and pastry platters followed by chafing dishes of hot cakes, sausage links, bacon, scrambled eggs, and mounds of cheesy potatoes, chased down with endless pitchers of ice water, coffee and an array of juice beverages.

There's a different speaking format each time which keeps the venue vibrant and exciting. This month's speaker will be real estate attorney Jamie Bergkamp who will share "information on the foreclosure process and how to remove a second from a short sale. Therefore, allowing you to sell the property without dealing with the second mortgage." If possible, that's worth the investment of time in and off itself.

You can click on the Youtube link below to hear our broker, owner and all good guy Robb Spearman explain in more detail about this month's event and lineup. If you are an agent with an outside brokerage and would like to attend, just call Angela Caldwell at 515-727-8810 to reserve your seat. We will also be taking donations for a family of 13 we have adopted via The Big Brothers-Big Sisters Organization and we will be accepting 2 cans of food for the Food bank of Iowa. It the last one this year so come if you can, it'll be worth it! (Free!)

On the second Tuesday of every month our brokerage puts on a breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn on 86th St in Johnston. The event is unique in that agents from all brokerages are encouraged to come and are welcomed at the venue. This week, in addition to Real Estate Concepts agents from Des Moines, West Des Moines, Altoona, Grimes and Newton we were honored to have guests from both Coldwell Banker and Iowa Realty among us.

In case you've missed by other blogs on this topic, the food alone is worth the investment of your time, usually about an hour and a half. Served up hot are pancakes, eggs, sausage links and bacon, and hashed browned potatoes. There's also an obligatory courser of sweet rolls and such and an overflowing plate of fresh fruit. I often find myself wanting to get two plates, even though it's just breakfast.

This week's featured speaker was Jonnie Wright President and CEO of the Buyosphere, an organization devoted to helping companies provide stellar customer service. Jonnie is also an accomplished blogger and radio personality. His blog can be read at : http://theunsecretshopper.com/and he can be heard on the radio on Saturday mornings from 8-9am on 1350AM KRNT. Recently Jonnie secret shopped some agents doing Sunday opens, the results were rather shocking to say the least. In a time when agents should be treating prospects like royalty, many of those shopped flubbed even the basics of greeting, rapport and follow up. Equally unnerving were the answers some agents provided when asked about the ethnic makeup of the neighborhoods. You can read for yourself on his blog.

Mostly though Jonnie talked about creating a welcoming environment at an open, smile, shake hands, offer chocolate, have some music playing quietly, build rapport, show the home, use the prospects name, thank and follow up were themes he hyped. The analogy Jonnie gave was that customers, like all of us, want to be coddled much like we were as tiny babies, and postulated that all our lives were spent in a vain attempt to recreate the pampering and indulgence we enjoyed as children. Maybe so, maybe not, but suffice it to a smile, handshake, proper greeting and use of a person's name are all good advice. I think in general Jonnie made us all feel great and that we could accomplish great things and change peoples life just by making an effort to be interested in them and show them that somebody cares. Good stuff. Thanks Jonnie.

Next up was the cake! Naomi Babel, broker of the Real Estate Concepts West Des Moines baked and decorated a huge cake celebrating our broker, Robb Spearman's 10 year anniversary of the foundning of his real estate business. Bless her heart! Everyone broke out in cheers when it was unvieled. Between the great food, Jonnie with his feel good message, Naomi with her sweets and our broker Robb telling us he loved us all, we were all "feelin alright, uh huh." as the old Joe Cocker song goes.

If you missed this last breakfast you missed a good one to be sure. But we will have another on November 9th. If you'd like to attend just give us a call, ya'll.

About four and a half years ago my phone rang. Although it was after 10pm I picked up as much out of curiosity as anything else. It was a gentleman, Dave, calling from California. He was interested in investment property in the area and had found my name on the Internet. After a short interview I was hired. He'd already found the property he was interested in and just needed his own agent to look out for his interests. We negotiated an offer to his satisfaction and I helped him with selection of an inspector and lender. The property appraised, we closed, and he was very happy with the result.

This summer I received a call from a family member of his in the area. This person was looking for a town home and had been given my name by Dave and urged to call me. I met with them and we looked ata few properties but the ones they had located just were not appealing to them. I searched the area and came up with a list of possibles. Among those there were several that interested them. Over the next two days we toured them and narrowed it down to two properties, then eventually down to one. A little back and forth later later and we had an accepted offer which closed on Friday.

In the process of inspection and closing I got to meet nearly everyone in their family. My former client even showed up. It seems that he had entered the industry and had become an agent in his home state. I was shocked and humbled to hear it because he hadn't even asked me for a referral although I would have readily agreed. That fact alone made me doubly determined to provide that highest level of service imaginable. The clients were demanding, but I was happy to oblige any request. In the end everyone was very satisfied and buyer and seller got along famously. I love it when that happens. They were happy enough with the way things transpired to also write me a recommendation to show their appreciation:

"Matt helped us locate and succesfully negotiate an offer on the town home and helped us further with the recommendation of a lender and home inspector. We were able to do all this from California with the help of Matt's referrals. Although we were out of state Matt was always just a phone call or email away. Every time I called Matt he answered his phone quickly and he always returned emails promptly.

We are extremely happy with the work Matt did for us and would recommend him to anyone purchasing a property in the Johnston, Iowa area. Matt was a reliable resource from beginning to end."

Diane W. 10/08/10