“The Power of Yes”. It is a slogan that will probably go down in history because it says so much beyond the words on paper. Here is a WaMu commercial from the archive.

Here is a photo in what is sure to be a Halloween filled with scary Wall Street themes.

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Disregarding the immediate fact that this is a technology centric blog, I wanted to write a post that is “getting back to basics.”

With all the technology programs out there I think that real estate agents are losing sight of the larger issues. We need to get back to basics and start doing the things that the other sales industries do. When was the last time you talked to your clients on the phone, sent them a personal email or even a letter? The answer for most agents is not recently.

In our current market people are scared, they’ve lost lots of their retirement in the stock market and the media keeps telling them that their house isn’t worth anything. As a professional in the real estate market this is your time to shine! Call your clients and have a discussion about the real estate market, maybe offer to do an impromptu CMA so they can see what their house is worth. This is not the time to sugar coat the market but to embrace it and use it to your advantage. The more honest you are with your clients the more they will respect you and likely use you again; maybe give you a referral.

In these times of economic uncertainty; you’ll always need a place to live, sleep, eat and raise your family and your clients should be reminded of that. Lets be professionals, leave the amateurs at the used car lot. 

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A lot has happened in the last few weeks to reshape the American (and world) financial landscape. I’m quickly learning that what I knew about banking and liquidity I learned from It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m as naive as Zuzu’s petals. The crisis we are in is not about mortgages anymore. The speculation in the real estate market over the last 10 years followed by the decline in home prices was just the match that ignited a firestorm in shadowy investment models holding trillions of dollars. Here are 3 programs EVERYONE needs to listen to to get an educated background in how we got here and where we go from here.

The first is the 60 Minutes piece from Sunday’s episode. The episode looks upsteam from the mortgage market to the problems seizing the paper markets.

The other programs we all need to listen to are from NPR’s This American Life. Another Frightening Show About the Economy (10/03/2008) explains the crisis in the paper market in a way that is easy to wrap your brain around. Giant Pool of Money (05/09/2008) starts at the beginning when the depths of this crisis were only started to appear. You’ll never look at mortgages and lenders in the same way after hearing how the industry was run over the last 10 years.

As professionals in the industry it’s important to understand this big mess because it will have lasting effects on our industry for the next decade. Then we’ll be due for the next speculative bubble to pop.

We are in a historic event right now which will be debated and studied for years to come. Some day you’ll look back on this and say “I remember where I was when the market went down 700 points”.

Final point: Right now someone is working on the next big idea.

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Watching agents interact with clients I believe that there are 2 things that most agents are lacking but desperately need. 

1. You need a current resume: It seems so basic but when was the last time you asked an agent for their resume? For every listing and buyer appointment you should have a resume printed, ready and up to date. If I’m going to “employ” you as my agent, you’d better have the same things on hand that you would if you wanted me to give you a traditional job. 

2. You need an “Elevator Speech:” A business associate recently recommended that I read a book by Eric Albertson called “How to Open Doors with a Brilliant Elevator Speech.” In our current market, I see that agents are begging for people to ask them what they do as a “full service real estate agent.” The issue they run into is that everyone knows a real estate agent and assumes that they all provide the same service. What this book teaches you is how to combat that by instead of saying “I’m a real estate agent” to something that peaks the other persons interest and elicits a “tell me more response.” Go to http://www.succeedinginbusiness.com/marketing-doors.html, it will be the best $49 dollars you will spend this year. 

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Bono, Al Gore, and Steve Jobs all have something in common. They know the power of audio visual. Have you ever given a listing presentation or held an open house in a home with a giant flat panel TV over the mantel? That piece of entertainment magic leads a secret life as a computer monitor. With a simple VGA cable you can connect your lap top to most models of flat panel tvs. At your next open house you can give the visitors a multimedia experience by plugging in and turning on. Display photos of the house, neighborhood tours, comparable sales, market statistics or just bring up your favorite real estate search engine. You can turn your next listing presentation into a dynamic presentation with PowerPoint, comparable properties in real time, photos of past listings, the sky is the limit. How would you like to be the agent that has to present their CMA after that?

As with any presentation always have a Plan B incase you can’t connect or something doesn’t work as planned. Practice your presentation and bring print material as a back up. Don’t forget pop corn for the kids!

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Mike Rahmn and I attended an office meeting regarding office and agent websites last Monday. There were many good questions asked which is the basis for this post; Field Best Practice: Successful Agent Websites.

There seems to be a lot of not misinformation, but misconceptions of what a website is supposed to do. What the consumer is ultimately looking for with an agent website is validation that you are a professional. If you don’t have a website, the gen X consumer immediately discounts you as a professional, content or not. How people get to that website a direct function of cost; both hard dollar costs and opportunity costs. The two schools of web design are static content that provides informational needs that remain unchanged and dynamic content that is ever evolving. If you are reading this post, you are seeing a website that’s sole existence is based on dynamic content, the more Justin and I write, the more likely Agent Field Guide is going to be found on search engines like Google. Websites like Agent Field Guide are commonly referred to as a “Blog.” A good example of a static website would be the King County Website (http://www.kingcounty.gov/) where the traffic is derived by large amounts of “static” content that serves a specific purpose but remains relatively unchanged for the life of each page.

The most common misconception is that spending lots of money on a website will make you the king of web real estate. The only way to immediately compete with those websites that show up whenever you type real estate into Google is by spending lots of money. Now it’s up to the consumer to find something meaningful on your stale website. The more effective way to compete, both monetarily and philosophically, is to create a webpage with great content, that is dynamic and highly useful. You may not drive traffic to your website like you are ReMax, but you will likely find people that are genuinely interested in what you have to say. What you ultimately end up doing is “Blogging” about your activities, market and other things that relate to your business and clients.

Taking all that into account, the most important fact to remember is that you can spend $10 or $10,000 on a website. What you ultimately get out of that cost is totally up to you, but the important thing is that you have a website. The one caveat to the Blog based website is that you have to be diligent on using it, otherwise you will end up with your standard “stale” website.

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Going with the theme Justin identified in the previous post, my first Field Best Practice is the use and understanding of Real Estate Statistics. One of my favorite quotes is that “The person with the most information wins.” Lets put that into the context for real estate agents.

I recently heard an agent in a resource room complaining that they didn’t have any “good” statistics to give to their client. They then asked another agent “what should I do, give them to the client or not?” I’m a firm believer in that news is news; whether it is good or bad. You do both yourself and your client a disservice by not giving them all the available information.

The use of services like trendgraphix.com has opened up a completely new way to display and explain what is happening in the current market. Your client is going to be barraged by statistics in the local and national media regarding both the economy and the RE market anyway, so why not give them something that is localized for them. You may be surprised how much credibility you gain by giving them all the information available. Show them the stats that are particular to their situation; and the larger local macro economy (likely their city or county). Be ready to explain what they heard in the news and how that either applies or does not apply to them. Be the person with the most information, you’ll be surprised how often you will WIN!

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Here at Agent Field Guide we invite you to check out a new series of posts designed to identify tools that can make you more successful.  In the Field Best Practice posts we’ll identify necesary tools and programs and give you the information needed to put them to use.  As I think forward to possible posts I imagine some will be obvious, others obscure and probably even a few that are bizarre. They might not all work for your business but we’ll put them in the context of real estate and give you direction on how to put them to work.

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It has been said that a picture says a thousand words but does that also apply to digital photography?

Helping agents manipulate their digital pictures on a regular basis, I’ve seen a pattern. One of the beauties of a digital picture is that it doesn’t cost anything; one photo has the same production cost as 1000. Because digital photography is a relatively new phenomenon many people use their digital cameras like they would have used a film camera. With a film camera you find your best vantage point and take one, maybe two shots and move on. You wouldn’t want to waste your film and have to pay to have it printed. Same agent now has a digital camera; problem is that their habits don’t change with the new medium. Stop being an amateur and “shoot like a pro.” When was the last time you sat next to a professional photographer and watched their technique? They constantly take pictures. Of those hundreds of pictures some turn out bad, some okay, and occasionally they get a great shot. We should all use that same technique when taking pictures of houses. If you take 20 shots of the front of a house from 20 different angles and exposure settings, you’re bound to get a great one.

So to bring this full circle, if a picture says a thousand words, say a couple hundred thousand!

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Thanks for checking out Agent Field Guide.  As the name implies this site is designed to be a resource where you can find frank answers about the tools that are available to agents today.  Brian and I bring an objective eye to the technology and marketing programs offered in the industry. We aren’t agents but we spend our working hours leading agents through the murky waters of the ‘08 real estate market.  In our experience we’ve seen both Bull and Bear markets.  We’ve seen a lot of agents make it and agents fail.  Through these experiences we’ve developed an inventory of skills needed by successful agents, brokers and support staff.  Agent Field Guide was created in the spirit of sharing that message and filtering out what tools and practices will hold you back and which tools will propel you forward. We welcome an open discussion throughout our site. Our ultimate goal is to make your business more successful and turn your clients into enthusiastic evangelists of your professional services.  Don’t worry, we’ll make sure to keep it fun and entertaining too!

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