Realty World Northern California & Nevada

When you buy a big boat and register it with Homeland Security and the Coast Guard you have to name the vessel and its hailing port to obtain your documentation.  So, years ago when it came time to name our boat, which we worked hard for and we’re fortunate to finally get, I took the matter seriously.  I wanted a name that reminded me of good dealing, clean hands, equity and honor.  So I named her Covenant.  I thought the name would best represent our faith, goodwill, meaningful alliances and promises we make with others and our consequential relationships with much of the universe.  And, I’m equally proud of her name as the American flag she flies.

Recently I’ve had some dark thoughts about people’s obligations to mortgage companies and other creditors in these tough and trying economic times.  Those small lingering thoughts of default; the breaking of a promise and the premeditations of allowing one’s self to break a covenant with another have met a different reality and environment that give these notions birth.  Sadly, these seas are rooted politically.

I’m not referring to borrowers who have suffered a substantial or complete loss of income or those who obtained mortgages that shouldn’t have; I think those are separate matters entirely.  I’m talking about the people who have equivalents in income and other growth and income opportunities that otherwise could financially afford to maintain their present obligations and promises to lenders and simply choose not too.

Increasingly, reports of creditworthy and stable individuals are weighing the risk of future losses in real estate equity and purposely plotting strategies to benefit from mortgage default.  They reportedly move to a similar property in the same area that has gone down in value and walk on their present loan(s).  How they get financing remains a question to me?

Many have coordinated time lines to maximize withdrawals on remaining credit lines, equity loans and have somehow balanced in their mind a cost benefit factor of living with derogatory credit report.  Just the thought of that is a big reach for me and I grow increasingly worried about this situational ethic, off-the-rack culture and what that will mean for self worth of America’s children and our investment reputation in the financial world.

But, this is what I have to say to the real estate brokers and agents at Realty World…  Please stay clear of any involvement in a transaction that smells of this.  Even in times of desperation your self worth and personal integrity has greater equity than a commission from a transaction that is part and parcel to this behavior.

I understand economic waters may be rough; I’m right there with you.  But we have navigated through tough currents before and during these times, and while trying as they may be it brings me no justification to change the name of my boat.

I hope you feel the same way.

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net

Logorrhea? What’s that? I know… maybe I could have picked a better title. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw it fitting. Let’s start with a clear definition:

logorrhea \law-guh-REE-uh\, noun:

1. Pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.
2. Incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility.

Example: By his own measure, he is a man of many contradictions, beginning with the fact that he is famous as a listener but suffers from “a touch of logorrhea.” He is so voluble that one wonders how his subjects get a word in edgewise.
– Mel Gussow, “Listener, Talker, Now Literary Lion: It’s Official.”, New York Times, June 17, 1997

Okay, now we’re past that and you’ll hopefully agree that is not something you want. I can tell your customers certainly don’t and are experts at avoiding it. Simply, they are in search for the perception of quality in a relationship with the agent they choose. The notion behind my approach in bringing this to you is simple… In struggling markets a habit that many salespeople develop is one of a compulsive nature to spew information, statistics and the like to consumers. It is a bad habit that can manifest itself into an appearance of personal desperation. I can think of a few time-share salespeople that have a terminal case of this!

What we are talking about is narrowing your focus in real estate; the shift from a general practitioner to that of a “specialist”. Why? Because the perception of quality will always reside in the mind of the customer; whether a buyer or seller in this case.

When you narrow your focus in your blogs, and other marketing channels you become more of a specialists than a generalist. You’ll agree that a specialist is typically perceived to know and understand more (or have higher quality) than that of a generalist. Would a cardiologist know more about the intricacies of the heart more than a practitioner of general medicine? Most people would think so. The perception is certainly true. This connotation is one of the reasons we label you a specialist in our system.

This is where the content of your blogs become very important. Potential customers interested in property in your ‘neck of the woods’ will probably be following you before you even know it. You can become a specialist and avoid catching logorrhea by providing content that narrows the focus to your market and the characteristics your market offers. If a customers asks about a community event you can certainly discuss that, however we should refrain from having your blog be the ‘official’ site of that event and remain focused to real estate related matters you actually specialize in.

Everyone may think they can tell a high-quality product or service from a low-quality one, but sometimes it is not that easy. Does a BMW have fewer mechanical difficulties than a Buick? Are you sure? Does a Cartier keep better time than a Seiko? Are you sure? Is an agent that specializes bank-owned properties know more about local property values than an agent who specializes in short-sale negotiations? Are you sure?

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net

I recently posted a blog about rebranding yourself titled Rebranding Your Cow So Your Buyer Can Find It so your customer could find you in this rapidly forming mountain of consumer generated information, social networks and other sites growing in the Internet. And, while your marketing, prospecting and relationship building skills must be adjusted to these new forms of media; your personal skills will ultimately be called on by the all demanding consumer. So, if you think that you can survive in real estate with only some technical savvy and a high powered PC, you’re sorely mistaken.

In fact, I believe your personal relationship skills will be called on even more in the days ahead, especially with advertising being shifted to conversations rather than the old push methods that generally had a “selling” message. If you’re in your forties you may even recall a time when you used the services of a travel agent to purchase plane tickets. Now that experience seems like a distant memory as you use online programs to obtain information and “buy” the service for yourself.

Unlike the simple purchase of a plane ticket, real estate, among other things, is a different animal and consumers are going to have questions and shop. The shopping part is going to be relegated to your use of technology and the question part is going to be all you, “unplugged” as they say today!

The crossroad is where your relationship and trial closing skills have been called upon through your implementation of good tech habits and systems that help attract consumers. As I write this today, Facebook is the fourth most visited site in the world trailing only Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo sites, according to comScore. Social networks are ultimately about friendships, where members add value to each other’s lives through interaction.

This interaction is all about your knowledge and personal relationship skill sets. It is about meeting and greeting the consumer; establishing rapport; seeking needs and confirming those needs to be true; isolating customer indifference from objection; providing supporting statements and finally asking for the close.

Nothing could be less technical. The road ends leads directly to your raw talent and abilities as a professional salesperson, product specialist and steward of exceptional customer service.

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net

We are on a mission to rebrand our company. That is to say, the name won’t change but the experience will. From a business perspective, branding is not that different from marking the hindquarters of cattle with a hot iron. It becomes a mark, or an identifier, that distinguishes us from all the other cattle in the pasture. That’s because sometimes we, the real estate professionals, look pretty much the same to the consumer. (A hard truth for many of us to admit!)

Obviously the name of the game is to gain realization in the mind of consumers that our real estate brokers and agents are the ultimate specialists in their market. Increasingly, almost exponentially, you’ll note that the trends of this experience are happening in the online world. Welcome to the new pasture.

This is the subject of a many real estate blogs these days, however done by a limited number of contributors. Although growing, and I suppose I’m now one of them, I’d like to place emphasis on the shift from marketing a product or service to buying a product or service.

This is important in real estate today and really deserves much more focus. Especially since branding and marketing are essentially the same thing to most. This becomes increasingly important as the trends from “selling” are declining. Because of culture, technology and the myriad of distractions in day to day life; most products and services are bought by the consumer nowadays and not sold to them.

The trend began when you got your first computer and entered the young grasses of the Internet. Just think about the increase in online purchases you have experienced throughout the past ten holidays without physically being in the store with a salesperson. How many online greetings and gift certificates have you received?

Now you see why we have to reposition the brand. It must be online and it can’t be just a logo, it must be an experience. Consumers are being attracted to a knowledge base and the brand makes ratification to the purchaser that the product or service is that of quality.

The most successful businesses on the Internet are interactive and full of recent reviews, information, pictures and video. The experience is rich – you can talk back to it, follow it, share it and have access to from a cell phone. This is the territory we are rebranding.

So, how is this happening? It centers on our associates understanding that personal promotion is now done online. Secondly, it is not the personal promotion the industry pundits have sold you over the past 15 years. Simply, it is solely about promoting your knowledge base of your market, not by saying you are good, but by actually showing and delivering content and information through our technology. That is the experience, which is part and parcel, to the rebrand.

We are enthusiastically creating and updating these systems for our customer, the Realty World Northern California and Nevada franchisees and their associates. If you’re not using these systems today, we invite you to come with us and discover the tall grass!

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net

Recently I attended Connect 09, in San Francisco which is produced by Inman News. If you’re not familiar with this conference you’re missing some of the most relevant news, technology, trends, and networking opportunities the business offers.

What was interesting was the underlying current of people that said they were bloggers, yet didn’t understand how blogging worked exactly. I’m speaking in terms of more business and not a vanity parade or a new age personal promotion campaign. Blogging is not about that. This is to say it’s about consumers and not about the content provider.

It is really about dating. Time stamping, in other words. The moment you click the button that causes your content to be published to the Internet. Let’s say you’re looking online for information about a cancer for instance. Just two years ago you would have seen websites and a few places offering information on bulletin boards that dated back to 1958 for example. Much of that information you would have to sift through to find what you’re looking for. So, you make the information “relevant” to you by searching for more recent information related to your query about cancer. Assuming you don’t want cancer information that was originally published in the 1920’s.

Consumers rarely go to real estate sites looking for houses for sale in 1972. They want houses for sales today. Some that even came on the market today. So, your content you provide consumers needs to reflect the time. That means you can’t write to your blog last month and expect traction in cyberspace. Search engines want to help people by making the returns more relevant. And what is relevancy? The date!

So, blog often (everyday) because it really doesn’t take long – just write what you know and the people will come. The search engines see that you’re providing content and its dated everyday, which really means it could be more relevant that the blog someone else wrote last month. This activity will drive your blogs to the top of the list.

And, that is what it has to do with you.

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net

Two times per month (sometimes three) we schedule and conduct our staff meetings; each department makes their presentation on current projects and updates everyone on where we are and where we’re going. Sometimes the meeting is not too much different than what we all talk about in weekly emails, but it is still good to get to the table and get some belly-to-belly time in.

We have fancy grids and graphs that show a myriad of information from accounting reports to newsletter statistics to who just received the most recent lead from our online system. During this morning’s meeting I couldn’t help but hear some of the staff talk about how certain agents receive more leads than others based upon, not only listing inventory, but article inventory. Basically, blogging more is what they were saying.

Think of it like this… the more you blog or post an article to your webpage, the more search engines seem to like you. Your online information becomes “more relevant” to searches because of the frequency of date/time stamping in conjunction with the words you use in your article and information you post. Hence, the more you do this, the more search engines pick up on you and the propensity to attract more consumers is increased.

The concept can be likened to the use of one’s toothbrush. You’re not going to get the results of good oral hygiene without some elbow grease on the business end of your toothbrush. Likewise, blogs in this world need to be used daily and, sometimes two or three times per day, to achieve the desired whiteness, so to speak.

I’m pretty sure you know this by now. So my message to you today is just a friendly reminder.
 

Scott LeForce
President
Scott.LeForce@rwnc.net

I was recently on a camping trip with several families and their children. Many of the kids are approaching their high school graduation in a year or two and, naturally, the subject of their futures popped up now and then while talking around the campfire. 

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a couple of the older kids were interested in retirement and saving money. Wow! These are teenagers? I was excited to talk with them about saving money and the benefits that grow from starting the practice early. I told them (true story) that I bought my first home before my 21st birthday from savings I had tucked away. I have to thank my parents for making me save ten percent of my lawn mowing, stable shoveling, and busboy jobs. Admittedly, I really didn’t understand how important it was when I was a young teen, so I was fortunate. 

Anyway, if you have kids or grandkids, yesterday is the best time to start instilling the discipline of saving and teaching the power of compounding. Every kid should have a Roth individual retirement account (IRA). Don’t question the wisdom of starting to early as your kids might… the earlier the better. To open one, a child must have some type of earned income, however. The annual contribution is limited to the amount they earn during the year or $5,000 in 2009 (whichever is less).  

Children of real estate brokers and agents can have good jobs too! My daughter helps her mother with mailers, wrapping client gifts, gathering information, filing, and the like. As she became a little older, she answers the phone and makes appointments, and even helps out at open houses.

With summer job season here, now is certainly the best time to teach these valuable life lessons.   

Scott LeForce
President
Scott.LeForce@rwnc.net