Dana (Lerner) Sparks

To navigate your journey through this real estate market, you must begin the way you do any journey! So where do you start? ... Start with your vehicle - make sure you have a reliable car with all the parts in tip-top shape; next you'll need the proper type and amount of fuel to make your trip. Get regular tune-ups to keep everything in working order throughout the trip and finally, don't forget the map - you need to know where you're going. With the right vehicle, all the parts tuned up, the fuel topped off and the map towards your destination... let the journey begin!

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The Necessary Parts:

• The Vehicle & its Parts- Your Sales Skills
• The Fuel - Your Mindset and Sense of Professional Value
• The Tune-Up - Business Success Systems
• The Map - Market Cycles and Market Trends

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The Vehicle = Sales Skills

• Powerful & persuasive communication techniques
• Understanding the sales process
• Eliciting the client's motivation criteria for helping them get what they most want
• The power of asking questions
• Conversational selling vs. confrontational selling
• Knowing what to say before you approach a customer
• Well thought-out and understood presentations explaining the advantages in today's market

The Fuel = Mindset - "The Inner Game of Real Estate"^TM

• The value you bring to others through the sales process
• Seeing through the perception that the media creates
• Looking for HOW to help people vs. wringing your hands over this market
• Looking for advantages in real estate sales
• Being the leader that your clients and prospects need and desire

The Tune-Up = Business/Success Systems

• Systems to automate your business
• To avoid having a "roller coaster" business
• Regular and consistent practice and research and study
• Effective training and coaching based on the current market cycle where you sell
• Constant business generation
• Consistent prospect and client interaction

The Map = Market Cycles

• To know where your market has been
• To evaluate where your market is now
• To determine where your real estate market is going
• Learning how to read your listing service statistics for trends and predictions
• Real estate sales follows a cycle based on supply and demand
• Due to the escrow period, the real estate market predicts itself when you learn and understand how to read those statistics

As a real estate sales agent working in today's market, you know you need to bridge the gap between where you are, where your clients are and where you want to go. Others including your broker, more experienced agents, books, even many other coaching companies will tell you, "Here is where we are. This is a tight market. You need to sell more real estate. You need to prospect more hours. You need to take listings at a lower price. You need to help buyers understand they need to pay more for the home." The problem is that these other resources do not provide the skills necessary to accomplish these actions. We are on one side of the river and many will tell you that you need to get to the other side. "Great!" you think to yourself, "but how do I get there?!?!"

The way to get there is through the vehicle of skills and having all of those "parts" working together through understanding the sales process. Then it is necessary to have the proper type of fuel and enough fuel to get you there. Have you noticed that the pervasive "negative" fuel will not move your vehicle forward? Have you noticed there are so many abandoned cars on the side of the road because they ran out of gas? The business systems are what keep you moving smoothly and efficiently and consistently. Keeping your car tuned-up will keep you moving forward on cruise control when fueled with the right mindset. Move ahead consistently and point yourself in the right direction, with the requisite map provided by a thorough understanding of market cycles.

When you are navigating the course of your real estate sales journey, all of these facets must work in concert. You can build a business by helping people with their real estate needs AND get the results that you are looking for only when you have the right vehicle that is tuned up and fueled up and headed in the right direction! When leaving one location on your exciting and fulfilling journey, remember that just because you cannot see your eventual destination does not mean that it is not there. Happy trails!

Real Estate Coaching is the best way to learn more about the "HOWS" of what to do and say AFTER you say "hello" to a prospect. For more information on real estate coaching thorough Real Estate Made Crystal Clear, please contact Dana Lerner at 678-369-8400 or Dana@RealEstateMadeCrystalClear.com.

Image Sources In Order of Posting: Flickr - SEMA Show Mercedes Bling Bling Cool- Airgap. Exploded Car - Moving Graphics. Map Project - Teepoole

© 2009 Dana Lerner. All rights reserved.

THESE are the "good ole days!" The "perfect storm" is upon us NOW as far as real estate goes. Now is the time to get your clients to buy property or very shortly you will be having the "I told you so" conversation! As my coach, Dave Kohler, repeatedly says, "It is better to be ten minutes too early rather than one minute too late!"

As a professional real estate agent, there are three key elements to consider for your successful career in sales:

1. The Opportunity in Today's Market
2. Looming Inflation
3. The Professional Value You Bring to Your Prospects/Clients

1. Why Buy/Sell Now: There are a myriad of variables in place indicating that NOW is the time to transfer property:

• Prices are low
• Selection is abundant
• Interest rates are low
• Sellers are making many concessions
• The government currently provides many tax incentives for purchasing property (which may disappear)
• Currently there are favorable tax treatments for home ownership (which may not be as favorable as the economy changes)

Agents... help your clients BUY and SELL NOW!!! Learn what is happening in the economy as well as in your own marketplace and then go talk to people! LOTS of them! (wink wink!) If you, as an agent and as a Seller, are having trouble selling property in a sub-5% interest market, what on earth are you going to do when inflation hits and interest rates begin their rapid climb by the end of Summer/early Fall?

2. Looming Inflation Brings Higher Interest Rates: The economic indicators are present and hiding right out in the open!

• U.S. Long Term Treasury Bills
  • The Chinese government (and other foreign governments) NO LONGER want to invest in U.S. Treasury Bills
  • The U.S. Government has STARTED investing in our own T-Bills for the first time
• Government Deficit Spending = Inflation
  • When a government spends more than it takes in, the result is inflation
  • The result of inflation is higher interest rates
  • Mortgage interest rates typically remain 2% - 2.5% above rate of inflation
  • The government will probably look to collect more in taxes as well (watch for decreases in tax write-offs for property taxes and mortgage interest rates as well as changes in capital gains exclusions and capital gains tax rates)
  • The government has a blank check to continue to de-value the money supply since we have been off the gold standard (since 1971)
• The Chairman of the Federal Reserve told Congress he will raise interest rates
  • Ben Bernanke said he will raise interest rates as "economic recovery begins" to try and fight pending inflation
• "Smart money" from overseas is buying U.S. real estate now

All one needs to do is take an historical perspective (think 1973 - 1982 = "stagflation" and the "misery index") to understand what is going on economically today. When one prints more money (i.e. trillions of dollars) one "waters down" the value of that money supply. The value of the dollar is rapidly being diluted - it is NOT a "wait and see" game! It takes more money to buy the same amount of goods and services; prices of commodities go up including the price of money as evidenced in interest rates. The eventual "good news" (if you are a Seller) is that the price of houses will go up as well however, there will be a lag in this pricing increase due to the surplus of inventory relative to the demand and the pending rise in interest rates.

3. How You Can Best Help Sellers and Buyers Today: Know your value as a real estate professional and bring your expertise to the public! Find a great brokerage and a great real estate coach to get you and keep you the skillful authority you should be.

• Know Your Industry
  • Inventory, local market trends, mortgage rates, tax incentives, tax treatments available with home ownership
  • Do some historical research on your own: economic indicators and real estate prices and interest rates, the media's prediction of market cycles and the actual changes in the housing market
• Be the Expert
  • How the economy affects your real estate market for buyers and sellers
  • YOU are involved with property and prices and rates every day, not a reporter who is trained in journalism and broadcasting!
  • Learn how to help Buyers with non-traditional financing (contact our coaching services for more information)
• Sell Against the Perception that the Media Creates
  • Historically, the media has not correctly predicted a tend in the housing market yet!
  • Those people who rely on the media for their primary stock market investment advice lose LOTS of money
  • Can you imagine the results if you relied on the media for your primary health advice or primary nutritional advice?

How do people buy real estate? People buy based on terms rather than price! Most people buy a certain priced house based on how much their monthly payment will be rather than the ultimate sale price of the home. The biggest factor that determines their payment is the interest rate on their loan! To paraphrase Warren Buffet (the world's "richest man" in 2008 and 2nd richest man in 2009) "Give me my terms and I'll give you your price!" Someone's "personal affordability" combined with their motivation and criteria to move determines their decision to buy and sell real estate.

"Is it more important that you pay less for your house or that your monthly payments are less?"

What happens when mortgage interest rates rise? As a Seller, there are fewer people available to buy your house; as a Buyer, your purchasing power decreases and you will have to settle for a less expensive house than you can afford today. Today's advantages in real estate are obvious on the purchasing side (so Sellers should use their house as a tool to put themselves in the position to buy right now.) If a prospect wants to wait until "housing prices decrease," ask them, "What happens if interest rates go up faster than list prices go down?"

For example, if the interest rate on your loan likely rises from 5% to 7% (or higher) your monthly payment will rise by almost 25%! How will THIS affect your decision versus waiting for a potential 2-4% decrease in sale price?

To illustrate with prices:

• Sale Price: $300,000
• Loan Amount (10% down payment): $270,000 at 5% interest rate
• Monthly Payment (Principal & Interest:) $1,450
• Monthly Payment at 7% interest rate: $1,796 (24% increase in monthly payment for a 2% increase in interest rate)

Versus:

• Sale Price: $288,000 (4% decrease in price)
• Loan Amount (10% down payment): $259,200 at 7% interest rate
• Monthly Payment: $1,724 (19% increase in payment vs. 5% interest rate at the higher sale price)

People buy with favorable terms especially based on how much their monthly payment will be! What if waiting costs you more?

Conclusion: This is the real estate market that your clients cannot afford to miss if they want to make a smart financial investment! As a professional and well-coached real estate agent, the ultimate key to your success is first and foremost to discover what is best for your clients today. If they are even considering making a move in the next 18 months, at least set an appointment to evaluate their options now. No agent can talk someone into making a move if they are not ready. Your value as a professional lies in your expertise in helping your prospects evaluate what is in their best interest from an overall financial perspective regarding their largest investment! With knowledge and coaching, you can easily create a marketable distinction between you and other real estate agents for the benefit of your prospects, clients, their referrals and your productive and lucrative sales career! Truly, these ARE the "Good Ole Days!"

Contact Dana Lerner of Real Estate Made Crystal Clear for coaching services regarding how to help your clients make smart financial decisions regarding their real estate transactions! 678-369-8400 or Dana@RealEstateMadeCrystalClear.com

The real estate market has shifted... have your selling skills?

© 2009 Dana Lerner. All rights reserved.

How social do you have to be in today's real estate market? It depends on how much business you want to do! It is time to cure your social "dis-ease" and jump in to social media networks to explode your sales business!

By attending "RETech South," (thank you to Brad Nix and Matt Fagioli) one of the largest conferences for social media technology for real estate, I learned that it is essential to engage some form of social media to enhance your relationships and hence real estate business. As an added bonus.... you will have a lot of fun along the way!

The more relationships you have and can cultivate, the more successful your real estate career will be! It was not all that long ago that an agent would have paid a lot of money to be able to access several thousand people inexpensively... and now there are many social media venues which allow you to do that for FREE, easily, effectively and enjoyably! What an easy way to get back to enjoying your real estate career and creating opportunities to help many people buy and sell real estate and receive many commission checks!

Although there are many "social networking media" marketing avenues, the primary ones discussed were:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blogging
• LinkedIn
• Flickr
• Active Rain

So where do you start and what should you do? (If you wish to check the availability of a specific social networking "username" go to: www.Checkusernames.com.)

Facebook: Facebook is the easiest program to begin your adventure! Simply go to www.facebook.com, enter your email address, password, basic information and that is all there is to it! There are many tutorials and blog sites regarding all of the specifics regarding how to navigate your way through. Facebook is designed to "help you connect and share with the people in your life!" The overview is this: find "friends" (from real estate, schools, clients, family, neighborhoods, past places you have lived, etc..) Write in your "status update" what you are doing in terms of your life and your real estate business (i.e. selling in specific geographic areas, specific price range, helping Sellers use their house as a tool, finding dream homes for Buyers, helping people prevent foreclosure, etc..) Your information will be broadcast-ed on your friends' walls and news feeds and all of their friends will see that you are a productive, professional (and such a technologically savvy wink wink!) real estate agent! Remember that you are a well-rounded person and "talk" about more than just business! This is networking on steroids! For added business tips, read "10 Facebook Strategies Your Competitors Don't Want You to Know" coutesy of Reggie Nicolay (@Cyberhomes) of www.cyberhomes.com. One caveat to Facebook: it can be addicting!

Twitter: The fastest growing networking site online today for making an impact on your local real estate sales market! Go to www.twitter.com and enter your name and twitter identification and password. Then you will "follow" people and others will "follow" you. You can follow me: @RealtorResults. Twitter is considered a "micro-blogging" site in that you broadcast your activities, ideas, resources, informative web sites, your blog site, tips and tricks for selling houses, and anything you care to share. However, you are limited to 140 characters per tweet! This is the fastest and most fun way to discover who wants to buy or sell a home in your neighborhood. You engage in conversations with others regarding your business and interests and activities. If you are interested in the latest breaking news, you will find it on twitter before you will anywhere else! There are many ancillary programs on the web to enhance your twitter experience: Tweet Deck, Twitter Local, Twitter Search, and the list continues! For a fabulous tutorial on how to grow your network on Twitter, download (www.mytechopinion.com) Nicole Nicolay's (@Nik_Nik) free e-book: Twitter for Real Estate Twits.

Blogging: Blogging is considered the most intensive method for enhancing your online real estate presence. There are many resources for establishing a blog site: www.featuredblog.com, www.wordpress.com, www.activerain.com, www.realestatetomato.com, and many others. You can blog on anything: real estate in your area, mortgage information (www.thexbroker.com,) specific neighborhoods, market reports, distressed properties, real estate technology, luxury markets, home inspectors, the closing process, events in your area, school information and test scores, real estate training and coaching (www.RealEstateMadeCrystalClear.com wink wink!) etc.. Blogging is an extremely effective way to showcase your real estate expertise and passion. Please note that blogging effectively to establish an audience and to organically rise to the top of a Google search takes time and commitment. You can utilize your blog to interact with the buying and selling public, to your past clients, to specific geographic or sociographic farm areas or to other real estate agents. If your intended audience is other real estate agents or if you desire to be informed as to what is happening in real estate throughout the world, Active Rain is the preeminent site for this goal. Thank you Jeff Corbett for sharing such compelling information as to how to expertly use Active Rain to augment and intensify your real estate career!

LinkedIn: LinkedIn initially began as an online resume service. It has now expanded into an important online networking site and functions very similarly to Facebook. Many of your past and future clients may be on LinkedIn (or Plaxo - initially an online business card site) solely or in addition to Facebook and Twitter. One of the beauties of www.linkedin.com is that you can have other colleagues and clients "recommend" your services. These online testimonials can go a long way to enhancing your professional credibility to your prospects who do not yet know you.

Others: www.flickr.com (photo sharing) www.trulia.com, www.delicious.com (social bookmarking), www.digg.com (social bookmarking) www.YouTube.com (video sharing) and many more!

There are several keys to the effective use of your online networking and marketing strategy. Primarily remember that your ultimate goal is to connect with people in order to establish a relationship and help them with their real estate needs and get paid for the value you bring to the situation!

Technically-speaking, make sure that you completely fill out your "profile" on all of these various sites. Include professional and personal aspects (items that make you an interesting person) of your life:

• Business information
• Professional associations
• Professional accolades
• Your various online presences
• Hobbies (knitting)
• Likes (Hairless Chinese Crested dogs, traveling, & writing)
• Passions (helping real estate agents and others in sales get the professional and financial results they seek)
• Activities (knitting, reading, running, working out, & blogging)
• Types of music you like (oldies, 80's, disco, World War II songs, Barry Manilow, & country)
• Movies you prefer (old musicals & romantic comedies)
• Academic interests (NLP & communication skills, mental toughness training, local market velocity^TM research, & creating inventions)
• Athletic interests (football - watching NOT playing!)
• Etc.

Portray yourself as the interesting and well-rounded person that you are so that others will be attracted to do business with you! As Jeff Turner (@respres) (active real estate techology blogger on Active Rain and founder of www.realestateshows.com) so adamantly pointed out in the RETech seminar in his presentation on social networking: the tools you use are not as important as the relationship skills you bring to the situation: awareness, conversation and engagement!

Regardless of the method you utilize to meet new customers, you are simply required to cultivate and hone the communication and relationship skills necessary to turn that prospect into a paycheck! They desire the real estate knowledge and expertise you possess and will gladly pay you for that value you uniquely bring to help them move forward with their needs. The fundamental principal of any and all of your marketing efforts is to be able to convey your value to them and to their network in a compelling and provocative way to turn those prospects into clients!

Please "Connect with me" on Linked In and/or Plaxo (Dana Lerner,) "Friend me" on Facebook (Dana Lerner,) and "Follow me" on Twitter (@RealtorResults,) and find me on Active Rain (CoachingGoddess.)

For specific coaching information on the necessary communication skills, relationship-building skills and scheduling requirements for your business and for more information on social media networking, please contact Dana Lerner of Real Estate Made Crystal Clear at 678-369-8400 or Dana@RealEstateMadeCrystalClear.com.

© 2009 Dana Lerner. All rights reserved.