Julie Nelson

I missed writing Part 3 of my adventures last week, so this will be a combination of part 3 & 4. What I have learned from the 30-day plan is to be more organized, set a plan, stick to it, contact lots of people, be pro-active. I did not contact 400 people for the month. That was next to impossible. I did however pick up one listing and I have a condo in escrow. I am also working on some farming mail-outs. I had an interesting weekend. On Saturday I was on floor duty. It was a quiet morning. No walk-ins. I heard a noise out in the parking lot sounding like a bird, but this wasn't a bird. I was convinced it is a kitten or cat in distress. I paced the parking lot for 10 minutes and each time I thought I got close to the sound it would stop. I was on my hands and knees looking under cars, in the bushes. I found the noise. It was a kitten the size of my palm (I am a small person so you can imagine how tiny this little guy was), and he was sitting on the tire of a parked car. When I lunged to grab him he dove inside of the tire. Now I definitely can't get him. I ran back in the office to get some type of food product to lure him out, when I turned around to walk back outside a guy was getting in the car that had the kitten in the tire! I raced outside screaming at him like a mad woman telling him not to start the car. The guy looked familiar. He was, in fact, my instructor Jeff from my MLS Paragon course from the other day! What are the chances??? Jeff and I were on our hands and knees trying to get the cat out from the tire. I was reaching around the tire - getting grease all over myself. Jeff thought he should jack up the car and take the tire off. That was the trick. Once we did that the kitten jumped down. I went on a chase with this kitten for a few seconds. I rolled under the car and gently grabbed him by his back paw before he was about to jump up into the chassis of the car! He was saved! I gave Jeff a big hug - getting tire grease all over his white shirt. He was such a nice man to help me save this cat. Anyone else would have told me to take a hike. I went back in my office with the kitten and wrapped him in a little towel and waited for Animal Control which arrived 40 minutes later. The kitten was pretty dehydrated, frightened, and exhausted, but he fell asleep on me and purred and once in a while would open his eyes from his cat naps and look up at me with gratitude and some sadness. Since it was a Saturday I was the only one in the office. I sat there quietly by myself for 40 minutes with this kitten who's life I had saved. 40 minutes in silence holding a helpless animal put some things in perspective for me: 1) My job is not a Realtor. My job is to be a considerate, caring, compassionate individual and 2) Timing in life is EVERYTHING! If I would have reacted a few moments later to the kitten's sound he probably would have been a goner. If I would have reacted a few seconds too late to grab the kitten before he jumped back under the car, we never would have gotten him out. If it were someone else on floor duty that day and not me, the kitten wouldn't have been saved. I believe in coincidences. I believe in perfect timing. Things happen for a reason. That old saying being in the right place at the right time couldn't have been more true here.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Part 2

Day 6 of the Up & Running 30-day plan. I began the week with a positive attitude. This program can change my life, my career, my way of doing business day-to-day. Had a monkey wrench thrown into my first two days with some unexpected meetings and phone calls. This set me back but I truck on. Part of the plan is to call or personally visit 400 people each month. This is supposed to return 8 qualifying appointments that will result in 8 showings that will result in 1 sale. From the listing perspective 400 contacts a month will result in 4 Seller-qualifying appointments that will lead to 1 qualified listing which will sell in normal market time. 400 contacts a month? Wow. Very overwhelming. I realized that the author of this book is on the mainland (the continental U.S.) and this way of doing business does not relate to my market. I can't go knock on doors to get a listing because that owner is not there. They are only there 3 months out of the year - when? I don't know. And they may also have it in a vacation rental program. This is not suburbia, but I can use the 400 number as a goal. It's all about goals. My biggest fear as I wrap up Week One is I may not want to be in Real Estate after this, but I don't think that will be the case. What I am learning so far is to make a plan, stick to it, focus, make lead generating contacts - in person or by phone, and not spend so much time on "business support" which we do to support our business such as creating marketing pieces and this does not make us money. Lead generation does. I first started off the week by compiling a list of people I know - friends, acquaintances, old co-workers. I discovered I know more people than I thought I did, but I don't have any of their phone numbers! Emails, no problem. Our world today is electronic. I can't recall the last time I spoke to my old college roommate, but we emailed each other 5 times yesterday! So, I emailed all these friends and acquaintances for their mailing address and phone number. Embarrassing to ask someone "I've known you for over 10 years but I don't have your phone number!" I'm either a really bad friend or I just don't use my phone much. Maybe a little of both. This needs to change. Since I don't have a huge client base to pull from I am starting with these acquaintances. You never know who they know who has wanted to buy real estate on Maui for ages and now they finally have a connection! People love to refer. I think about when I refer people to a restaurant I like and they go there and tell me how much they liked it - this gives me satisfaction that I introduced them to something new. The same can be applied with real estate referrals. I think today will be good day and I hope today will set the tone for the rest of the week. I submitted an offer today for a buyer I've been working with for months. I also had two walk-ins during my floor duty today. I'm looking forward to next week....Stay tuned for Part 3.

Adventures in Real Estate: Diary of a Rookie Realtor

Saturday August 29, 2009

I have started reading "Up and Running in 30 Days: A Proven Plan for Financial Success in Real Estate" by Carla Cross. The Sales Manager at my office asked if anyone wanted to do this program and of course I jumped on that bandwagon. I am really excited about this program and officially start it on Monday. I am fairly new to real estate and definitely new to general real estate. Since the beginning of 2006 I have been selling pre-construction real estate in Ka'anapali Maui for a developer. It was an exciting time and a new resort for the area. People wanted it bad. It was easy to sell...until the market turned. I still hung in there though despite the negative news and slow market because I felt it was (and still is) a fantastic resort but I couldn't continue on the pro-bono path. In the Spring of 2009 I decided it was time for a change. I took the plunge into general real estate. I am now working for one of the best real estate companies on the island. I am happy with what I'm doing but I AM NEW, I have a lot to learn and most importantly I have not had one sale since I began in general real estate 5 months ago. While selling developer real estate it wasn't required that I had designations or even take real estate courses. We dealt with developer written contracts, not State of Hawaii contracts and the only courses I took were CE courses. Now that I'm in general real estate and the market is still fairly slow, I have had time to take several courses and even completed the ABR course and recently started courses for my GRI designation. I could take a course every day but this is not paying my bills. So, it is time for a kick start. I am hoping what I accomplish by the end of this 30-day program is #1 - how to be a more productive, successful Realtor and #2 - get a sale in 30 days!

I decided to chronicle my adventures while doing this program. No one really hears about the day-to-day activities of a Realtor, especially a newbie, so I hope readers will find this insightful.

Stay tuned for the next installment.....