Salt Lake City Real Careers and Training Estate Podcast with Joshua Stern

You can buck the trend and become an exception to the 5% rule. According to the Social Security Administration, if you take any 100 people at the start of their working careers and follow them until they reach retirement, only one will be financially healthy. Four will be financially secure, five will continue working because they have to, 36 will be dead, and 54 will be broke and dependent on family, friends, and the government to take care of them. Only 5% of us will be successful in creating a life of freedom, while the other 95% will have to continue to struggle all their lives. Are you on track to be in the 5% or the 95%? If you are in the 95%, what is the one thing you can do right now to start the journey of joining the 5% right now? It could be as small as setting a date in your calendar to map out your plan. Now's the time to get after it. Give me a call, text, or email if you'd like to set up a free, no-obligation consultation to help you set up a business plan to get started on your goals. If you have any other questions about the real estate business, don't hesitate to reach out. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The final five uncomfortable realities of working as a Realtor. Today I'm finishing my three-part series on the realities of being a Realtor. Let's pick up where we left off: This is not an easy job. In fact, it will probably be the most challenging job you've ever had. There's a lot of emotional stress because the stakes are so large. In some industries, you can just punch in and punch out. As an agent running your own business, you'll quickly discover there is no off button. Agents who succeed in the long term spend a massive amount of time on the front end, and there is no shortcut.Even once a practice is up and running, a lot of work goes into keeping it working. You'll also need to learn a wide array of skills, such as prospecting, managing client expectations, marketing, crisis management, counseling, and so much more. Successful agents master fundamentals. They rely on and execute scripts flawlessly to succeed. This requires hours of practice, role-play, and dozens of hours on the phone. It's dull, laborious work punctuated only by the occasional insult, rude hang-up, and odd family friend who's working with another agent instead.  “Even once a practice is up and running, a lot of work goes into keeping it working.” You will not be your own boss. Many choose to become Realtors because someone told them they could be their own boss. This is one of the cruelest cons in the business. As an agent, every client is your boss. The more you work with, the more bosses you have. If you're working with a couple, you might have two bosses for a single transaction. Your clients are hiring you to perform a service, so they will have hopes, dreams, and expectations of you. Your schedule will not be as flexible as you think. Many get into real estate because they think it will give them the freedom and flexibility they could never have in a nine-to-five job. Yes, you might be able to attend pre-school graduations and other events in the middle of the day. However, you will also be on call round the clock. You will work weekends, meet clients in the evenings, and have to bolt from your home to deal with emergencies. True flexibility and freedom only come years down the road. Not every brokerage is a good fit for new agents. Some would start best on a large team, like mine, instead of fending for themselves in the office agent pool. Those who want to be solo agents should look for offices that resonate with their values and methods. Virtual brokerages may not be a good match for those who want an active, collaborative environment.  I've been a Realtor for about eight years. I've seen ups, downs, and plenty of bizarre things. I've worked through the foreclosure crisis and the pandemic and, despite it all, I've beaten the odds. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing my recruiter didn't explain the highs and lows of the business because I may never have experienced what has become a truly fantastic career.  Call, text, or email me if you'd like to set up a free, no-obligation consultation to review your goals and set up a one-page business plan. My team and I would love to hear from you. Part 1 | Part 2

Four more uncomfortable realities of the real estate industry. Today I'm back with part two of my three-part series on the realities of being a Realtor. Here are the next four things to keep in mind: You will not automatically get access to free leads. Large real estate teams often have a serious investment in lead generation baked into their organizations. They know their brokerages will never provide the types of leads they need to grow their businesses. Unless your office has a dedicated team for generating leads, you'll have to create your own. You'll never see 100% of any commission check. Even if you work for a company that insists it has a 100% split, you will end up paying some fee designed to make the brokerage money. Even if you're working for yourself, you might have to pay for marketing, lead generation, administrative support, and more. “Other agents will take your clients and think nothing of it.” Not all Realtors make a ton of money. The median income of Realtors in 2020 was $50,000. That increased to $52,000 in 2021. In our region, approximately 86% of agents sell six or fewer homes a year. While many agents look successful from the outside, they're probably mortgaged to the hilt and living paycheck to paycheck. Real estate is a hyper-competitive industry. Other agents will take your clients and think nothing of it. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and just because you have a great set of ethics doesn't mean everyone else does. Call, text, or email me if you'd like to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. We'll review your goals and set up a one-page business plan. Part 1 | Part 3

Who you surround yourself with has a huge impact on your success. As you try to scale up in our businesses, the idea of who you're surrounding yourself with becomes incredibly important. You tend to become the average of the five people you most commonly surround yourself with.  Now that we've reached the new year, ask yourself who you're surrounding yourself with. Are you happy being the average of those people? If not, who do you to replace or add to bolster your personal average? “Readers are leaders.” Also, think about your environment when you're generating leads. Do you have a place to go where you can do your most important work without being disturbed? Having an environment conducive to your work is key. Finally, what are you putting into your brain? In other words, what are you reading or listening to? Readers are leaders, after all, so it's key to feed your brain with good books or podcasts that help accelerate your business. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a 30-minute consultation to discuss this in more detail, don't hesitate to give me a call or send an email. Hope to hear from you soon!  

Don't let yourself get entitled; the world doesn't owe you anything. Today I'm here to tell you that the world don't owe you jack. Regardless of your performance, the world doesn't owe you anything. Your family doesn't owe you; your boss doesn't owe you. No one owes you! When we get into this mindset of entitlement, we're taking a big step back. We're losing ground on everything we've made, which keeps us from reaching our desired outcome. Only when we move forward with purpose and accountability can we accomplish everything we want. When you hit that intersection of victimhood and entitlement, remember what we talked about today. If you have any questions or want some additional coaching, please call, text, or email me. Make it a great day!  

The rhythm method and how it can help you meet your goals this year. Today I want to talk to you about the rhythm method. Let's start by talking about how success is sequential, not simultaneous. It comes from habits that are built up over time until the goal is achieved. Since it's Q1 of the new year, now's the time to focus on your habits and your rhythms. Do you have any? Do you have a one-page personal business plan to guide you through the rest of the year? Have you unpacked this plan into actionable items and set aside time each week to get these items done? Only once you've completed all of these steps can you execute at your highest level. As always, I hope you found value in this post. If you'd like to learn more about creating a one-page business plan, or if you have any questions, please call, text, or email me. We can set up a complimentary 30-minute evaluation. 

We're halfway through the first quarter? How are you doing on your goals? Are you on course with your goals? We're about halfway through the first quarter, so it's time to check how things are going. If the quarter ended today, would you be hitting your target? What changes do you need to make to ensure that you reach your objective? Do you need to revise the plan or simply execute it at a higher level? Remember that changing the goal is not an option. That's the easy way out. It's time to take inventory and make the necessary changes to perform in the second half of the quarter. I hope this has been helpful. If you're looking for additional coaching or accountability, or if you just have some questions, please call, text, or email me. Make it a great day!

You can snowball small habits into big ones to lead to success. James Clear wrote the best-selling book “Atomic Habits,” where he outlines the importance of how habits shape our success. He suggests that even the smallest habits can snowball into bigger ones that will ultimately lead to your goals being achieved. The concept of snowballing habits is similar to how compounding interest works.  For example, if somebody wants to lose weight, they can begin by simply getting to the gym and doing five minutes of weights. Over time, five minutes expands to an hour of working out, which leads to better eating habits, additional physical activity, a different lifestyle, and ultimately achieving that weight-loss goal. Start small and build up. This idea of stacking habits translates into all areas of life. When you think about your businesses, what are some big goals you have that feel unachievable? Think small and start with the smallest habit first. Then, add on additional habits once the first one sticks. Do this over time, and even the biggest goals will be met. If you have any questions or would like to set up a 30-minute business consultation, please call, email, or text me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Today I talk about taking risks and not getting swamped by analysis.   Last week, we talked about the word commitment, what it means, and how it shows up in our daily lives. This got me thinking about the phrase “paralysis by analysis.” We want the most information we can get to make the best decision and reach the best outcome. While it's nice to have all the right information, the consequence is a huge loss of production. I realize now that I faced “paralysis by analysis” because I feared being wrong, making mistakes, and not choosing the best decision. Then I got a piece of advice that changed everything. Even bad action will outperform a lack of action every single time, so don't let it take you 20 years to figure it out like it took me. Go out there and take some risks. Take action because even if you're wrong, you're already further ahead than those who took no action at all. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to connecting with you.

Here are 10 ways you can succeed in real estate without raw talent. If your real estate career isn't going how you planned, it's easy to chalk things up to a lack of talent. However, every great agent knows that the most important ingredient in a successful career is hard work, not raw talent. That's why we want to give you 10 ways to succeed without any talent:  1. Be on time. This requires zero talent; all you have to do is have decent time-management skills. Even if you are bad at keeping track of time, there are plenty of apps to keep you in check.  2. Show up and do the work. Bill Belichick, the head coach of the New England Patriots, is famous for telling his players to just do their job. If you're supposed to be somewhere or do something, just do it. It's truly as simple as that.  3. Do your best. You don't have to be the greatest, most charismatic real estate agent of all time—all you have to do is your best.  “If a problem is getting you down, focus on the solution rather than the problem itself.” 4. Be positively contagious. We all know how great it is to be around positive people, so try to keep things positive no matter where your career takes you.  5. Have an attitude of gratitude. Thanksgiving just passed, but we should keep a grateful attitude year-round.  6. Seek solutions. If a problem is getting you down, focus on the solution rather than the problem itself. This will help you keep a positive attitude.  7. Have passion. If you don't have passion for what you do, don't do it. Not only will it make you miserable, but your lack of enthusiasm will creep into your work.  8. Be coachable. There's a difference between being coachable and being teachable. Being teachable only means you know how to learn while being coachable means you know how to use that knowledge to take action.  9. Doing more than what's required. You may have heard the term “minimum standard” at other brokerages, but we've eliminated all that language from our team. We only have standards, and it's every agent's job to go above and beyond that standard.  10. Believe in yourself. Be confident and know that if you follow these steps, you'll probably have a good outcome.  Hopefully, these tips have put your career in a new light. If you have any questions or you'd like to talk about today's topic, please call or email us. We'd love to speak with you! 

Here are a few things to consider the next time you say you're committed. Today we want to talk about a word that will send shivers down some of your spines: commitment. You've probably heard someone say they're committed to something only to not live up to the expectations. We see this all the time across the real estate world in classrooms and even in relationships.  According to the dictionary, commitment is defined as “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity.” That differs from a goal, which is the object of someone's ambition. Commitments are more than a goal; they are non-negotiable and mean you will do everything to achieve that goal.  Where in your life are you falling short on your goals? Where do you lack abundance, and where do you desire more? Commitment is measured by one thing and one thing only: the result. If you're not getting the results you want, ask yourself if you're truly committed or if you're simply interested in the desired outcome.  I hope this made you think a bit. If you have any questions, feel free to call me.

You should always try to be learning-based in everything you do. We're right in the middle of our “Six Personal Perspectives” series. We believe that these six practices are the key to our success. This week we're on No. 4, so without further ado: Be learning-based. A learning-based individual is someone who has decided to constantly try and acquire knowledge so that they can achieve better outcomes. This can be done in business, athletics, in your relationships, and really any other area. Being learning-based means coming from the place where you realize that you don't know everything and that there is still more to learn for you to get to that next level. Think about what you can do this week to level up your knowledge base and learning practices. If you have questions about how to do this or anything else related to real estate, feel free to give us a call. We'd love to hear from you.

Here's how you can improve yourself to having a purposeful mindset. Today in the third installment of our “Six Personal Perspectives” series, we're discussing moving from “E” to “P” — moving from an entrepreneurial to a purposeful perspective. We all have habits and behaviors that come naturally to us, things that we're naturally good at that don't take much effort. Those are things you can pull out when you need them and keep your productivity at a certain level. All of that is entrepreneurial. To get to the next level, you need to have breakthroughs. A breakthrough requires that you're purposeful. As an example, a couple of years ago my business was cruising along levelly, and then I hired a coach. That coach cost me some money and time out of my calendar each month, but I was purposefully doing something different than I'd been before, so it allowed me to have the next breakthrough. Since I was being purposeful, my business saw an upward trajectory. As time went on, that trajectory started to level off too, so I needed to find an additional way to be purposeful and get another breakthrough. “Since I was being purposeful, my business saw an upward trajectory.” We're gifted with entrepreneurial mindsets and do our jobs well, but what can you improve today just by being purposeful and doing things differently? When you change something to increase whatever it is you're trying to improve, you'll know you've had a breakthrough and have moved from E to P. We'll come back next time with our fourth personal perspective. If you have questions about these personal perspectives or anything else, call us. We would love to help you.

I discuss the 80/20 rule and how we can apply it to real estate. For part two of our Six Personal perspectives, we'll talk through the 80/20 rule. Last time, we went through self-mastery. If you missed it, you can access it here. The 80/20 principle was developed by Vilfredo Pareto back in the 1800s. What it states is that 20% of our efforts will lead to 80% of the outcome. Pareto saw this in crop growth, with 20% of growers making up 80% of crop yield in the area. If you look this up, you'll see it happening in lots of different industries.  “Find out what you're currently doing and develop those key items, the 20% that can help you improve.” We can use this by remembering that 20% of what we do, as long as we do the right things, will lead to 80% of the outcome. What actions make up these 20% in real estate? Lead generation, lead follow-up, writing contracts, negotiating contracts, and going on appointments are all probably part of this.  When agents focus on that 20%, over time that leads to 80% of their income. Find out this week what you're currently doing and develop those key items, the 20%, that can help you improve. You could even reverse engineer this and think about what goal you want to reach and what tasks will help you get there.  Next time we'll be back with our third part, going from entrepreneurial to purposeful. If you have any questions about this topic in the meantime, don't hesitate to give us a call. We're always here to help.

To attain self-mastery, use the KASH acronym. Today's video marks the beginning of a six-part series called “Six Personal Perspectives,” a curriculum developed by Gary Keller that was designed around self-development. The first of the six personal perspectives is self-mastery. Let's dive in! Self-mastery starts with a process called KASH, which stands for “knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits.” To be the master of anything, you have to have the right knowledge, attitude, and skills. Once your skills are established, you can develop long-lasting habits that will allow you to accomplish anything that you want. “As you reflect on what you're trying to master, remember KASH.” Take marathon running as an example. If you want to master that, you have to be knowledgeable about running, as well as have an attitude conducive to accomplishing your goal. You also need to have the skills, which means you'd have to know how and where to run. Finally, you have to develop the habits over days, weeks, and months. Without actually committing to it regularly, there's no chance you'll ever master it. With that in mind, I implore you to reflect on what you're trying to master within yourself. Is it a specific hobby? Is it leadership? Parenting? Your job? As you think it over, remember the KASH acronym. If you have any questions about self-mastery, don't hesitate to reach out to me via phone or email. I'd love to have a conversation with you.

An example of how our team leverages showing agents to grow the business. On our team, one of the most foundational ways we encourage our agents to leverage their business is through the utilization of a showing agent. A showing agent is someone who works directly with a buyer agent to help open doors and show clients properties that the buyer agent can write contracts for. This year, our transactions are up 27%, and leveraging showing agents is a big reason why. We've hired four showing agents to give our buyer agents more time to do other things that grow business like additional lead generation, more appointments, or more time writing and negotiating contracts. If you have questions about leveraging showing agents, give me a call. I'd love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have.

Skills pay the bills in every industry, and real estate is no different. When I was listening to a podcast this week, a phrase stopped me in my tracks. “Skills pay the bills.” That hit me as a team leader who is coaching many agents on my team and outside of my team. Our coaching always comes back to skills like lead generating, time blocking, the language of sales,  tie-downs, and assumptive closes. Those agents who work hard on their skills have a much higher income in this industry. Here's an example of this in the sports industry: Tom Brady was a late-round draft pick for the Patriots 20 years ago, but he is now considered the greatest quarterback of all time. What he did better than anybody is that he focused on his skills. He has more Super Bowl rings than he can fit on one hand. If you're looking to grow your business and thrive, find a coach and hone your skills. Give me and my team a call. We'd love to talk through these things with you.  

The final three things new agents can do to grow their business. We're back for the final episode of our series on the 10 steps new agents should be doing to grow their business. Today we'll be talking about calling expired listings, for sale by owners (FSBOs), and direct action. We encourage everybody to call the recently expired listings since there aren't many of them. However, you should also call the people that expired their listing two or three years ago. Touch base with them and see if they're still looking to sell. You'll be surprised how many people will want to meet with you because nobody else makes these calls. “Showing your value is your ticket to getting contacts and building your business.” There are a ton of FSBOs out there. A lot of people think it's super easy to sell your home right now, but the fact of the matter is that FSBOs sell for about 12% less than somebody using a trained professional. Showing your value is your ticket to getting a listing signed and building your business. Take direct action and have conversations. Industry averages show that it takes 50 real estate conversations to close on one sale. These conversations should be highly intentional and about real estate. Ask if they know someone who's looking to sell their home. Ask them for permission to stay in contact with them. Keep them updated on the market so that when they do have an opportunity or a question, you're the first person they call. We hope you found these 10 steps helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.

Here's my latest episode on actions you can take to grow your business. Today I'm bringing you episode four of our series on the 10 actions every new agent should take. As always, these tips are aimed at new agents, but I think even experienced agents could learn a lot from them. In this episode, I'll be going over tips seven and eight.  The seventh action you should take as a new agent is probably my favorite: hosting open houses. This is a great way of finding buyers. My challenge is to look for people holding open houses and offer to host the open house for them. I've been doing this for six years, and this is still a huge part of how I run my business.  “These methods are relatively cheap, and they can bring in a huge return on your investment.” The eighth action you should take as a new agent is to choose a farm. I've recently moved, and this is a great opportunity to build a new database. Even going door to door can be a great way to introduce yourself to a community. The key takeaway is that you want to offer people value upfront. For me, this usually means a complimentary market analysis. By keeping in touch with my database (or ‘farm'), I can have a constant stream of potential clients at the ready.  Hosting open houses and farming for your database are perhaps two of the most important actions you can take as a new agent. They are relatively cheap or even free, and they can bring in a huge return on your investment.  I look forward to seeing you next week when I finish up my series on the top actions every new agent should take. If you have any questions in the meantime, do not hesitate to reach out to me. I am always willing to help.

Here are the steps that every new real estate agent should take. Welcome to episode three of my series where I go over 10 steps every agent should take to build their business. This series is meant for newer agents, but they're still great tips that every agent should be following.  Today, I'm going to start with step five: Join a networking group. Groups like Business Networking International are a great way to share your knowledge among peers. As you do this, you'll naturally gain contacts where you mutually benefit each other. If you aren't in a networking group, I recommend you join one as soon as possible. They offer too much opportunity to skip out on. “It's important you attend conferences so you can sharpen your skills and network with people from all across the country.” My next step is to attend conferences. As we're getting back into the community after COVID, in-person conferences are starting up again, but zoom conferences get the job done too. Either way, you should attend these so you can sharpen your skills and network with people from all across the country. This helps you build a referral network outside of your specific geographic location. This is a huge advantage for an agent to have.  Next week, I'll get back to you with steps seven and eight. Until then, if you have any questions about today's topics, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I am always here to help.

The steps every new agent should take to help grow their business. Today, we'll be discussing the next steps every new agent should be taking to build their business. 1. Document your journey. In this world of social media, I think just about everybody has Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. Whatever social media that you're on, document your journey and let people know what's going on. Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media. This is such an easy and free way of letting people know that you're in real estate. However, you need to offer value every time you're doing a social media post. 2. Have direct asks. Ask your contact list who they know, who's looking to buy or sell, and if they're looking for a complimentary market analysis on their home. Without those direct asks, you're probably leaving business on the table. “Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media.” 3. Market yourself to agents in feeder markets. In Utah, we have a lot of people moving in from California, so we directed our team to connect with agents in the big metro areas of California. Now they have opportunities to procure additional business just through referrals as people move east to Utah. If you reach out to them, make a connection, and offer value, you'll get some referral business from them before you know it. We'll be back with some more steps that every new agent should take to build their business. Until then, have a great and profitable week, and reach out to us if you have any other questions.

The steps every new agent should take to help grow their business. Today, we'll be discussing the next steps every new agent should be taking to build their business. 1. Document your journey. In this world of social media, I think just about everybody has Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. Whatever social media that you're on, document your journey and let people know what's going on. Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media. This is such an easy and free way of letting people know that you're in real estate. However, you need to offer value every time you're doing a social media post. 2. Have direct asks. Ask your contact list who they know, who's looking to buy or sell, and if they're looking for a complimentary market analysis on their home. Without those direct asks, you're probably leaving business on the table. “Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media.” 3. Market yourself to agents in feeder markets. In Utah, we have a lot of people moving in from California, so we directed our team to connect with agents in the big metro areas of California. Now they have opportunities to procure additional business just through referrals as people move east to Utah. If you reach out to them, make a connection, and offer value, before you know it, you're going to be getting some referral business from them. We'll be back with some more steps that every new agent should take to build their business. Until then, have a great and profitable week, and reach out to us if you have any other questions.

It's time to put you in business as an agent. Whether you're a brand-new agent or thinking about entering the real estate profession, there are 10 steps you need to take to get into production and fulfill the reasons you may have (or had) for becoming an agent in the first place. Here are the first two steps: 1. Build a database. The most popular reason people leave the real estate industry is that they don't have a database of people to market to. This business is all about numbers: The more people you can market to, the better opportunities you'll have to connect with people and gain clients. Think of everybody you've ever done business with, interacted with, or given money to. That could include your hairdresser, dentist, parents of the children your kids play with, etc. Once you add these people to your database, start marketing to them with your value proposition. People with the largest databases tend to have the most robust businesses. “The more people you can market to, the better opportunities you'll have to connect with people and gain clients.” 2. Private message anybody you've ever bought anything from. If you communicate enough with the people you've purchased things from, you'll create an ancillary way of connecting with people. They're getting into your database as well, but this is more of a direct or referral-type business. Either way you slice it, this is a new avenue for new and old agents to develop an income stream. We've all purchased something recently, so direct message whomever you bought something from and watch what happens with the business you start attracting. Stay tuned for more episodes from this series where we'll cover the rest of the steps you need to take. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you.

Today we're giving you our last couple of tips on winning with buyers in this market. If you have an issue or you think the appraisal is going to be an issue, work with your lender to get that appraisal ordered right upfront. The lender that we use and recommend can get those appraisals sent out within the first couple of days of being under contract. That way you could flip your due diligence and your appraisal deadlines to start addressing price with the seller. We have started to see a lot of offers submitted where financing is being waived. If you're working with a lender where your buyer is fully underwritten and you don't see any issues, then this is a contingency you can remove and it will significantly strengthen your offer. What you've now done is taken your offer from middle of the road to the top of the stack. If you have questions at all, don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be happy to help you out. Have a great day.

I’m back with even more tips to help buyers win in today’s market. Last time, I discussed nine tips to help your buyers win in today's crazy market. Today I'm back to continue that discussion with two more tips for success: 1. Increase the earnest money deposit. In this market, I propose that you increase your earnest deposit to be in line with your down payment. To be clear, if they're putting down $20,000, try having them put it all in their earnest money. That money goes toward their down payment anyway, and with any built-in contingencies, that money isn't at risk should your buyer decide to cancel. I've seen contracts recently where the buyer put $100,000 down; that's the sign of a very serious buyer who shouldn't be taken lightly. 2. Lead with your best offer. That might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many offers I see come in that could have been higher and better. When you're representing buyers, be sure to educate them and encourage them to put their best offer out there right from the beginning. You never know what you're competing against in this market. If you have any questions about how to help buyers win in our current market, reach out to me. I'd love to help you. Until then, have a productive week!

Here are two strategies that will help if you need to both buy and sell. In the current real estate market, buyers are having a tough time, especially if they also have a home to sell. Today I'm sharing two strategies that can help if you need to both buy and sell. If you're in a situation where you need to sell one property and buy another, you can remove the selling contingency with the help of a bridge loan. Talk to your lender about them because it provides insurance to the seller that you as a buyer can close on the deal. “Both of these are solid strategies to help you buy and sell.” You can also look into instant offers or buy before you sell strategies you can implement. Here at the Stern Team, for the right property, we'll buy it from the client so they can have cash to purchase their new house. Once their former property is ours, we'll sell it as a Stern Team listing.  Instant offers are getting plenty of attention because they're a new concept, but don't forget about bridge loans. Both of these are solid strategies to help you buy and sell. If you have any questions about these two options or real estate in general, reach out via phone or email. We would love to help you.

A great tip to help your buyers in this market is shortening the contingencies in their offers.  First and foremost, before you even come up with dates to write in the offer, call the listing agent. Find out what's most important to that seller as far as those dates go. They may be looking for a long leaseback, for example. Knowledge is currency in this market.  Let's start with due diligence. Make that deadline as tight as possible. You might even consider waiving this contingency. If you do end up waiving it, make sure your buyer knows what that means and what they're giving up. If not, make it as short as possible. Seven days is a great number; it means you're working with your buyer to get the inspections scheduled immediately. “First and foremost, before you even come up with dates to write in the offer, call the listing agent.” Next, look at the financing and appraisal deadlines. If you remember my last video, we talked about getting a fully digitally underwritten pre-approval. If your lender does this, there's a good chance you can shorten that deadline. Typically it's 21 days, but you can knock it down to 17 or 14 days.  The less space there is in the contract between these contingencies and the actual proposed closing, the better the chances your buyer has of winning the offer. If you have questions about today's topic or there's anything else I can help you with, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you.

These strategies can help your buyers win in our market. In my last video, I talked about a few different ways you can help buyers win in today's market. The key strategies I discussed primarily involved contingencies, but there are a few things I didn't cover that I'd like to add today.  “Sellers love buyers who show initiative.” First, you should order a home inspection before even presenting an offer. You can even include this in your cover letter. Then, in the event that your offer is accepted, you're showing the seller that you mean business because you already have an inspection lined up. Sellers love buyers who show initiative. Additionally, if your offer isn't accepted, you usually have no obligation to the inspection company — it's no big deal if you decide to cancel. Next, you could separate different contingencies. You could get the appraisal contingency out of the way early on, especially if you feel there will be an appraisal issue down the road. We'll sometimes put that contingency first and put the inspection contingency behind it. However, you should work with your lender to ensure they can set this up. By getting creative with your contingencies, you can help your buyer make an even more attractive offer. If you have any questions or would like more information about helping your clients, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon.  

Here are two more financing tips to help your buyers win. In previous videos, I’ve shared buyer tips on how to interact with lenders, but today I’ll share two more tidbits specifically about financing with the goal of helping your homebuyers find success in this crazy market. First, if you want to give your buyers the best chance of winning, get a fully digitally underwritten pre-approval letter, not a pre-qualification. In sellers’ eyes, that is as good as cash. Next, if your buyers need to ask for closing costs from the sellers (which might seem unfathomable in this market), talk with their lender to see if they can do premium pricing. That’s where they take the closing costs the buyer would have paid and roll them into the loan. Not asking the seller for additional items makes writing a winning offer much more feasible. If you’d like more tips to help buyers win in today’s market or you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Here are a few additional tips to help your homebuyer clients win. The last few weeks, we’ve been talking about how to win for your buyers in this environment by pulling your lenders into the picture. Today we’re going to talk about two important pieces of advice you need to win in this competitive market: 1. Have your buyers write a letter to the seller. A lot of people advocate against this, but as long as you are compliant with fair housing laws, that letter is very good and super effective. “A recent client of ours won without offering the most money.” 2. Have your buyers send a video. You could do this in place of a letter or in addition to it. Have your client explain why they love the home so much and establish an emotional connection. A recent client of ours won a home because of this. They weren’t nearly the highest offer. A bonus tip: You could also have your clients drop by after-hours with some cookies and apologize to the seller for being so over the top.  If you have any questions for me about helping buyers in this competitive market or anything else related to the real estate business, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.  

Here’s a quick tip to help you present offers in a more personal way. I get asked about how to present offers all the time. Since I deal with both buyers and sellers, the most common way I see offers presented is through an email with an attached offer and no narrative. Instead of simply sending over a digital version of the offer, I recommend taking a physical document over to the sellers. Some of you may be thinking I’m crazy, but trust me that it works.  In our world of building relationships, actions like this matter. You’ll stand out to the seller and their agent because not a lot of other agents will take the time to present their client’s offer in person. It could end up being a game-changer for you. If you have any questions for me about winning with your buyers or the real estate business in general, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.  

Today I explain my third tip to win as a buyer in today’s market.   I’m back with another tip to help buyers win. Today we’re going to be talking about the pre-approval letter itself. There are many different types from many different organizations out there but I have to ask, do you have the golden ticket? You’re probably asking, what is the golden ticket?  It is simply a pre-approval that’s fully desktop underwritten. It is, in essence, a cash offer in the seller’s eyes. If you’re getting a pre-qualification or just a generic pre-approval, I’m going to encourage you to work with your lender and make sure they can give you a desktop underwritten pre-approval. Make sure when you communicate with the listing agent that you tell them you have a desktop underwritten pre-approval. Educate them on what that is. Many of them won’t know and you will increase the likelihood of you winning with a buyer by simply having that golden ticket. “It is, in essence, a cash offer in the seller’s eyes.” Make contact with your lender this week. I challenged you last week to do the same thing in regards to having that lender reach out to the listing agent. One call can accomplish a couple of things today. Get that rapport with your lender intact-that way you have a better way of increasing your odds of winning with your buyer. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. Next week will be tip number four. Until then, have a great day.  

Here’s a tip to help you get a win for your buyers: Call the listing agent.   Today is the first segment in my new series about how to win with buyers.  This week I hosted an open house for a listing, and we received 15 to 20 offers. However, out of all those offers, I only heard from two of those agents. If you’re working with buyers, you need to reach out to the listing agent. Find out what the seller’s needs and wants are, then take that information back to your buyer to see if they’re able and willing to write the offer using what you learned. Then you’ll have what you need to write an offer that’s extremely attractive to the seller. “Get a win for your buyers by calling the listing agent.” One of the real estate agents that reached out to me called three days in a row to ask what else their client could do. I asked my seller what exactly they’d like in an offer, then I presented it to that buyer’s agent. Then, wouldn’t you know it, that was the offer that got chosen out of all the others. It wasn’t the highest-priced offer, but all the other terms met what the seller truly wanted. All it took was a few phone calls. So get a win for your buyers by calling the listing agent. If you have questions about how to call a listing agent or any other real estate topic, call or email me. I would love to help you.  

Shift happens, so how do we win in this shifting market?     Shift Happens! Many of us are pivoting our ways of doing business to appropriately navigate the new market of the moment. Suddenly, inventory levels have swung, and buyer and seller reluctance is higher than in recent years. How do we win in this shifting market? Starting April 13th, we will run through a 6 part series (via Zoom) where we will be reviewing and discussing the twelve tactics that will allow you to win in this new market. Week 1 we will be discussing Mindset and Expense Management tactics of winning. For any other questions you have in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be glad to speak with you. 

Someone once asked Abraham Lincoln what he would do if he had eight hours to chop down a tree. His response?  “I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” For the last tactic of our “Shift” series, we’ll talk about bulletproofing the transaction. When it comes to real estate, being forewarned means being forearmed. We must educate our clients and tell buyers and sellers what to expect—it keeps the drama out of the transaction.  With that in mind, here are the specific transaction issues you need to bulletproof: Inspections and appraisal repairs. Things can go wrong during inspections, whether it be unexpected findings, inspection report complexities, confusion about who pays for what, etc. There are also repair timetables and potential doubts about the home’s worthiness to consider. That’s why we focus on setting up expectations up front for buyers and sellers. Oftentimes, we’ll have our sellers have their homes pre-inspected before listing, and it might be a good idea to attend the pre-inspection with the buyer or seller. Also, we always help select and supervise the vendors based on track record and quality, and we reassure buyers throughout the process.  When it comes to appraisals, they can sometimes be an issue in downward-trending markets when they don’t support the home’s contract price or loan type. The condition of the home can present issues, too. In these cases, you want to provide as much information as possible to the appraiser up front. You also want to help buyers find additional funds to close on the loan and negotiate with the seller and the lender for funds. You can always ask for an appeal if the appraisal doesn’t match your valuation.  Loan approvals and funding. Potential issues here include credit issues, delays in application, documentation problems, and the lender’s failure to approve and fund. To stay ahead of these issues, select an originator who will get the buyer through the full underwriting process prior to home shopping. You can also offer to assist buyers with paperwork or refer them to a credit counselor and then have them reapply or do a parallel loan application.  “The bottom line is, successful people know how to shift.”In terms of buyer credit issues, there are seven don’ts of mortgage funding that you should educate your buyers on up front and throughout the home purchase: Don’t change employment status Don’t make any major purchases Don’t increase credit card debt or miss any payments Don’t change bank accounts or make undisclosed large deposits Don’t apply for a credit card, cosign on a loan, or make any credit inquiries Don’t spend money you’ve set aside for closing Don’t delay providing all necessary paperwork Other contingencies (the sale of the buyer’s house, getting third-party approvals on short sales or distressed properties, etc.). In this case, you want to take backup offers on your listings and know who to communicate with during complex transactions. Also, be sure to get preliminary title reports on your listings and read them before going on the market.  Co-op agents. We hear plenty of complaints about co-op agents, but let’s do our best to keep our own egos out of the negotiations and assume that these agents are less educated about the market. They may be unintentionally giving bad advice due to poor communication, or they’re making bad vendor selections. In any case, you can stay ahead of this by clarifying your clients’ intentions. Own the process and deliver sound communication throughout.  Deadlines. You might have tight inspection or repair deadlines, or the selected closing date won’t work. We often see occupancy issues with taking possession and delayed approval because of delayed documentation being delivered by the buyer to the lender. In these cases, be sure to confirm appraisal and inspection appointments and follow up on their progress. Build in some buyer and seller flexibility up front, prepare them for any common delay issues, and manage your closing checklist.  Being proactive in the transaction will help everyone focus on the positive. Also, keep your clients intentional and flexible, and make sure you keep all players in the transaction accountable. Be a problem-solver and be customer-centric in handling whatever goes wrong.  That wraps up our “Shift” series and the various tactics millionaire agents use to thrive in a shifting market. The bottom line is, successful people know how to shift. You can’t do all things at once, so focus on what’s important first. Remember that we “fail” our way to success, and keep in mind the words of the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” As always, if you have any questions for us about your continued success in a shifting market or about today’s topic, please let us know. You can also visit our website to sign up for our agent newsletter, our business planning clinic, or to book a one-on-one appointment with our team. We’d love to have a conversation with you!    

In a shifting market, you need to get creative in order to help buyers buy and sellers sell. With that in mind, there are three areas of creative financing you need to be aware of:  Creative things sellers can do. These can include seller contributions, seller-funded permanent or temporary buydowns, owner financing, contract for deed, seller second loans, lease option and lease purchase, as well as assuming mortgages.  Creative things buyers can do. These can include gift funds, selling and refinancing existing assets, adding non-occupant co-borrowers, equity transfers, bridge loans, etc.  Creative things lenders can do. These can include lender-paid buydowns to permanently or temporarily lower interest rates, running scenarios with automated underwriting systems, premium pricing to get the interest rate to absorb the loan cost, and state/city/national grant programs to assist with buying (where buyers can look to private lenders for hard money loans). “The options we just laid out only scratch the surface of what’s possible.” The basic financial terms of any real estate transaction are the offer amount, down payment, loan amount, interest rate, and length of the mortgage loan. Since the very first real estate transaction, creative individuals have tinkered with these variables to get houses sold, and the options we just laid out only scratch the surface of what’s possible.  If you’d like to talk more about these creative financing scenarios, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to speak with you.  Also, feel free to visit our website at www.RealEstateCareersInUtah.com to sign up for our agent newsletter. There, you can also sign up for our Business Planning Clinic or book a one-on-one appointment with our team to dive deeper into a valuable conversation about how to ensure your business thrives in a shifting market.   

We’re back with Part 8 of our 12-part Shift series, and this time we’ll be talking about how to utilize staging during a market shift.  Presentation matters. This is true in both real estate and in life.  To illustrate this, think back to the last time you went out for a nice meal. If you spend $50 on a single plate of food, you undoubtedly expect that dish to be worth the price, right? Even if it tasted great, you’d probably be disappointed if it was served to you in a slop bucket.  Upscale restaurants know that the first bite their patrons take is with their eyes. This is true of buyers in the real estate market, as well. Buyers only care to think about a home’s features and amenities after they’ve been wowed by its appearance.  Sellers who take the time to stage their homes will sell for more money and in less time than those who don’t. In fact, a review of over 2,800 properties in eight cities found that staged homes sold 50% faster and for 6.3% more than their unstaged counterparts.  “You never get a second chance at a first impression” You never get a second chance at a first impression, so your seller’s home needs to look its absolute best if you want to attract buyers. After the home is staged, have professional photographs taken and then put them online in the following order: curb appeal, entryway, kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom, living areas, other areas, and, finally, the backyard.  One great way to instantly improve a home’s appearance is by giving it a coat of fresh paint. Paint is cheap but can add a lot of value. Also, make sure your sellers clear their homes of clutter. Buyers want to see a clean slate, not someone else’s messy living space. It’s all about the little fixes. After all, pennies make dollars.  If you want to learn more, sign up for our agent newsletters, or register for business planning clinic, visit www.realestatecareersinutah.com. We’d love to talk more about how you can thrive in a shifting market. As always, if you have any other questions, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.  

A market shift forces agents to rethink almost everything that they do. One crucial area that you may have to reassess is your internet strategy, which sits at the crossroads of expense management and lead generation. Here’s the catch: Generating quality leads from the internet is difficult at the best of times. In a shift, it can be downright daunting. You can’t expect to meet today’s challenges with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow. If your website isn’t consistently generating appointments with motivated buyers and sellers, then it isn’t earning its keep. The only measure of an effective website is how many appointments it generates that give you business. If you’re not thinking mobile, then you’re not ready for a shift. A good website will be content-rich and will focus on the shelf life of its content, as well as delivering what its buyers and sellers want. You must meet and exceed their expectations or they’ll go elsewhere. With buyers, give them access to all of the listings, as well as a system to provide notifications of new listings. Additionally, give them information that they want about schools, neighborhoods, communities, and the ever-so-complicated home buying process. With sellers, give them free home evaluations with better insight and data than Zillow. Give them market statistics and information on the home selling process. Lead generate for traffic, because a great website—and I’ve seen a lot of incredible websites—without any visitors is completely useless. Offline and online marketing is used to drive traffic to the website. Here are a few topics and features to consider adding to your website: 1. Search the MLS for free best-buy lists2. Reasons why you should buy in a buyer’s market instead of waiting3. Five mistakes sellers make in a buyer’s market4. Five mistakes buyers make in a seller’s market5. Things you don’t know about financing that could benefit you6. Instant notifications of homes for sale7. Find out what your home is worth today8. Free market reports 9. The myth of renting versus buying10. How the market affects you “You can’t expect to meet today’s challenges with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.” There’s no such thing as a bad inquiry, just inquiries that aren’t properly followed up on. Don’t capture a bunch of inquiries if you can’t address them in some way.There are three keys to successful lead follow-ups: 1. Follow up immediately, within two minutes if possible2. Have a short-term follow-up plan that includes at least 15 phone calls in the first 90 days3. Have a long-term follow-up strategy that includes calls, emails, and text messages Your long-term plan should be one that lasts at least 12 months. Over 80% of sales occur during lead follow-ups. Also, be sure to dedicate specific teams each week to make both the short- and long-term follow up calls. If you have any questions, you can visit our website at www.RealEstateCareersInUtah.com to sign up for our agent newsletter. There, you can also sign up for our business planning clinic, or you can do so by booking a one-on-one appointment with our team and dive deeper into a valuable conversation about you, your business, and how to thrive in a shifting market. We hope to hear from you soon!

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” -Viktor Frankl, from “Man’s Search for Meaning”   When the market turns, it’s time to roll up your sleeves, and for everyone around you to do the same. Cutting expenses and finding your margin, as we discussed in our last video, doesn’t necessarily mean slashing quality or delivering less. It means getting the job done with less money available to do it and working more hours to deliver exceptional service.  In other words, it means doing more with less. How do you do more with less? Do what all great businesspeople do: Focus tightly on the basics and remember the core competencies of the real estate business: Lead generation and follow-up Presenting to sellers and buyers  Writing and negotiating contracts Coordinating sales to closing Managing money These priorities show up in your business in this precise order, and when it comes to people leverage, you must ask yourself: Are the people in your group talented? Are they motivating you? Are they improving your business? Real talent will see a market shift as an opportunity; cul-de-sac talent will likely only end up costing you in a shifting market.  “Real talent will see a market shift as an opportunity; cul-de-sac talent will likely only end up costing you in a shifting market.” Sit down with your people and share your vision for the future of your business. Tell the truth about the situation, where the business is today, and where you see it heading. Visit with each person to see if they’re also willing to do whatever it takes. Realign job descriptions around the core competencies that must get done. Seek flexibility so your tasks can be cross-trained without changing titles. Be positive, communicate clearly, and be prepared for either results or resignations.  Also, establish a simple training schedule so everyone knows what to do, how to do it, and what’s expected of them. Training builds confidence and competence. This is a skills-based business, so meet weekly with each individual to evaluate their success and reach agreements on any corrective action. You must inspect what you expect and touch base regularly to see how they’re doing. Additionally, don’t forget to celebrate the small victories along the way. Pennies make dollars, so celebrate individual wins along with the greater team success. If you’d like to talk more about how to do more with less in a shifting market, don’t hesitate to give us a call. If you’d like to sign up for our agent newsletter or register for our business planning clinic, visit our website https://realestatecareersinutah.com/ In the meantime, stay tuned to future episodes for a deeper look into how to survive and thrive in a shifting market. If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you soon.   

How can you manage your expenses in order to thrive in a shifting market? Expense management is all about protecting your margins. It’s not necessary to change your spending habits during a shift, because survival isn’t mandatory for all agents. Shifts hit everyone equally, though, and what happens first is the equalizer and occurs without choice. What happens next, however, is unequal and determined by choice. There is no expense that’s untouchable and no cut too small, so cut, cut, and cut some more.  You’re cutting costs to live another day, and there are two areas to focus on in regard to this. The first is variable expenses. These might include hidden fees, add ons, or other third-party lead generation platforms. Additionally, check for unchecked and ineffective expenditures that have little-to-no return.  After that, look at your fixed expenses. These can include car payments, phone bills, rent, monthly technology fees, and salaries. It’s best to think about how to convert these into variable expenses. If you can shift fixed costs into performance-based costs, do it now.  “Don’t try spending your way out of a shift.” So, make your money smart again, because once the market shifts, it immediately becomes dumb. In other words, what once works no longer does. Warren Buffett once said that the first step toward financial recovery is to stop doing the wrong things. You don’t have to make your money back in the same way you lost it.  A smart dollar is one that’s invested and will generate multiple returns, so reduce your expenses, find your margins, figure out what works, and put your money behind that. Don’t try spending your way out of a shift. Open and close your books monthly—if not weekly—because the key to changing your budget is changing the way you think. Challenge everything, make nothing sacred, and become a budget bully. When you lead from a position of profit, your world is full of possibilities.  If you’d like to sign up for our agent newsletter, register for one of our business planning clinics, or book a one-on-one appointment with our team, feel free to visit our website https://realestatecareersinutah.com/. We’d love to sit down with you and dive deeper into how you can thrive in a shifting market.  If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us as well. We’d love to help you.  

In our new 12-part coaching video series, we’ll be covering how to deal with a shifting real estate market. When applied, the techniques we discuss will allow your business to thrive during a shift—or in any market, for that matter. For our first episode, we’ll be defining what a shift is. To put it bluntly, “shift happens.” Real estate has always been cyclical, and what goes up must come down. Fortunately, what is down will also come back up. These shifts occur when supply and demand move out of balance, and there are a few driving forces that cause this. Buyer demand is driven by affordability and perception—how many people can afford a home and how many think it’s a good time to buy. What else causes economic shifts? Currency exchange rates, political climates, interest rates, inflation, population, jobs, household income, and much more. “A shift becomes a time of great opportunity for people who are willing to do what others won’t.” There are three types of markets in real estate:  Buyer’s market—more than seven months’ worth of home supply Balanced market—Between five and seven months’ worth of home supply Seller’s market—less than five months’ worth of home supply A shift becomes a time of great opportunity for people who are willing to do what others won’t. There’s no escaping the certainty—there’s only dealing with it. In a shift, the effort that got you to where you are isn’t going to keep you there.  If you came from an era of average effort, you’ll have noticed that you don’t receive more than what you put in. This average effort may have simply meant that you got to keep your job, but in an era of extra effort, working at an average level could cost you everything. In real estate, there’s the law of equilibrium. It states that the available income in the market determines the number of agents in it. As the number of transactions increase, so does the number of agents. Conversely, when there are fewer transactions, there are fewer agents. Those who take advantage of this will earn better rewards. History repeats itself, but in order to profit from it, you must remember it.  If you’re working three steps forward but the market drives you four back, you’re out of the game. Three steps forward and three steps back means you’ve simply survived. But if you’re three steps ahead and the market only goes back two, you’ve absorbed the hit, you’re still in the game, and you’re doing more than just surviving. If you can shift your thinking, you can shift your tactics. Research shows there are specific tactics that must be used in order to conquer a market shift, and we’ll be covering the first tactic in the next episode of the series. In the meantime, visit our website and sign up for our newsletter to learn more great tactics, tips, and strategies. Until then, stay tuned! 

For today’s “Millionaire Agent Mindset” tip, we’re going to list the 13 tips it takes to generate $138 million in sales volume per year. These tips come from my friend and colleague Noah Ostroff of KW Philadelphia, and we can’t wait to share them with you today.  1. Align your accomplishments with your goals. The right coach will hold you accountable when you set out to achieve something.  2. Work more on your business than in your business. Things happen. There will always be meetings, mishaps, and other such things that demand your attention, but by having a plan for how you spend your time and energy each day, you’ll find it much easier to continue to grow despite any distractions.  3. Guard and protect your lead generation time. No matter how busy you are, make sure you spend time every single day generating leads. 4. Allow yourself to be open to improving your areas of weakness. Don’t be offended when your coach points out areas you can (and should) work on. They are there to help and to offer an unbiased perspective on your performance.  5. Set goals equal to your potential. A goal is a dream with a deadline, yet people often set goals that aren’t nearly ambitious enough. If you’ve got big dreams, you need to have equally big goals.  6. Surround yourself with success. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so surround yourself with a cadre of professionals who aim high and succeed often. 7. Think like a businessperson, rather than a real estate agent. Sales are important, but they aren’t all that goes into a strong business. You need to get outside of your comfort zone if you want to become a top producer.  “If you’ve got big dreams, you need to have equally big goals.” 8. Change your perceived limitations. Our lives and our careers are determined by our acceptance or rejection of these perceived limitations. 9. Set the stage. Make sure you have the tools and systems necessary to fully implement all the ideas that will be generated by coaching. 10. Don’t be afraid to pay well for the right talent. A great hire is worth three times what a good hire is.  11. Have a plan. A coach or mentor will help you refine your business plan, concentrating on activities that are directly tied to your success. 12. Dig deep and home in on your big “why.” Let this motivating factor be the bottom line beneath everything you do. 13. Remember that ideas are rewarded, but their execution is worshipped. Make sure that the right education is a key component of your action plan. Knowing for knowing’s sake leads to nowhere.  We hope these tips have been helpful, and we look forward to sharing even more tips with you in the future.  If you have any other questions, would like more information, or would like to discuss your coaching options, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon. 

How does the law of supply and demand relate to real estate? How can you use supply and demand to educate your buyers and sellers? All economies are driven by the law of supply and demand. Simply put, supply and demand is the most fundamental concept of economics, and it’s the backbone of the market economy. Demand, of course, refers to how much of a product or service is desired by buyers. Quantity demand is the amount of product people are willing to buy at a certain price. Supply represents how much the market can offer, and the quantity supply refers to the amount of a certain good that producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain price. Price, therefore, is a reflection of supply and demand. In the housing market, it’s considered a level market when there is between a five- to six-month supply of homes available. If there’s less than a five-month supply, it’s considered a seller’s market. If the supply is greater than six months, the market favors buyers. Buyer and seller markets, then, vary drastically depending on how much inventory is available. “All economies are driven by the law of supply and demand.” To calculate the absorption rate (or months’ supply of homes) of our housing market, you take the total number of active listings and homes under contract and divide that number by how many homes have sold in the last 30 days. This absorption rate indicates how long it would take to sell off all available inventory if no new homes came on the market. The absorption rate helps us Realtors educate buyers and sellers. It’s also very helpful in forecasting where the market is moving. For example, if you have many more properties under contract than those that have come on the market in the past 30 days, that means the market is moving deeper into a seller’s market. Absorption rates can apply to a city, zip code, or a single neighborhood. This statistic is also useful for bracketing price ranges in specific zip codes. For example, let’s use the market snapshot of Draper, Utah during May 2018. Draper had a 6.5-month supply of single-family homes at that time, which looks like a slight buyer’s market. If you broke it down by price range, though, you’d see that there were only 14 single-family homes that were active, under contract, or backed up below $400,000. In the previous 30 days, 11 of those homes had sold. This shows us that Draper had just a one-month supply of single-family homes under $400,000. On the other hand, there were 154 single-family homes above $500,000, and only 21 had sold in the past 30 days, which means there was over a seven-month supply in that price range. It was like a tale of two markets—very little entry-level product, but plenty of product as you move up in price range. I generally find that you can price a home ahead of the market if the supply is less than three months. The higher the months’ supply of homes above the six-month mark, though, the more aggressive you have to be. In that situation, sellers might also have to go the extra mile to help their homes stand out among the competition. Likewise, buyers will have more room to negotiate in that scenario. We hope this helps you understand the power of supply and demand. As always, if you have any questions about this or any other real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to speak with you.  

In the spirit of helping you achieve your own greatness and potential as an agent, today’s tip is on creating the perfect real estate schedule for yourself. First, as you get your morning underway, make “I am” statements part of your routine. This could be anything from “I am successful” to “I am a powerful negotiator.” See, your brain operates like a CPU and expands upon what you’ve already programmed into it. Further, emotional highs and lows can take root and stand in the way of your success when you don’t have a clear design to your day. Think about it in these terms: If you have 24 hours to plan for an upcoming trip and make sure you leave no loose ends in your life and business, you’ll create a list, pack, make all your calls, and check off all the boxes on your to-do list before you leave. In the same way, this is how your day-to-day schedule should be. Start your day off on the right foot and design your schedule in advance because, let’s face it, if it’s not in your schedule, it doesn’t exist. Prioritize what matters most by scheduling it first, and plot out a timetable for when you’ll practice scripts, generate leads, and follow up with leads. Organize follow-up calls by crafting specific scripts. For example, use one script when reaching out to, say, 10 sphere of influence contacts and another script for follow-up with contacts established from the prior weekend’s open houses. “Start your day off on the right foot, and design your schedule in advance because if it’s not in your schedule, it doesn’t exist.” Some other early-morning scheduling tactics include journaling with a focus on daily goals, getting to the gym bright and early, and engaging in meditation or prayer after or before your trip to the gym. Then, cap it all off with a nutritious breakfast. Get to the office between 8:15 and 8:30 and set aside about 30 minutes to run through scripts using a colleague as your partner. From there, jump on the phones and aim to land 25 new contacts over a two- to three-hour period.    When you have a few free moments with no calls or appointments booked, use that extra time to work on and enrich your individual business. If you have any further questions about what we covered today, please give us a call. We’d love to speak with you.

Open houses can either go really well or really badly, but in either case, they’ll still generate a lot of foot traffic. How do you plan an open house so that you gain leads from it, though? There are a few important tips to remember.  First, focus on having the right mindset. Believe that the connections you make at your open house will translate to either a sale or a new lead. After all, when you host an open house, you’re there for two reasons—to sell the house and gain leads.  Beyond having the right mindset, you also need to set out a lot of signage. Our team sets out as many as 15 signs for our open houses. The more signage you have, the more traffic you’ll generate. Putting out a lot of signs can be time-consuming, but it’s worth it in the end.  Door knocking is another way to generate interest. Even though the people you meet may not attend the open house, it’s still a great way to make connections, and they can make a great addition to your database.  Now that you know what to do to prepare for your open house, what should you do the day of? First, make sure you arrive 15 to 30 minutes early. There’s nothing worse than walking up to an open house only to find someone already waiting for you in the driveway.  “Open houses are a great way to get clients, so keep your energy up and be yourself.” Next, have a sign-in sheet ready for everyone who attends. You can use anything from an iPad to a pen and paper—just make sure you get the contact information of the attendees. This includes their names, phone numbers, and email addresses. They should also provide the name of their agent. However, people who aren’t willing to sign the sign-in sheet shouldn’t be allowed to view the home.  The goal of an open house is to connect with people on an emotional level, so don’t be overbearing toward people as they view the home. They should feel at ease and totally relaxed—you’re not there to sell them on “you.” And if a neighbor comes over, make sure that you welcome them as you would anyone else.  Also, don’t forget to have some fun! People will pick up on the vibe you put out. Do this because you want to, not because you have to.  After the open house is over, it’s a good idea to take notes about the connections you made. Again, don’t forget to add these people into your database. Keep in mind as well that your ultimate goal is to sell the home, itself. If anyone attends with their agent in tow, be sure to let the listing agent know, because this is a great opportunity to get some feedback about the house.  To summarize, open houses are a great way to get clients, so keep your energy up and be yourself.  If you have any more questions about this topic or there’s anything else we can help you with, feel free to reach out to us. We’d love to assist you. 

The idea here is that when you meet people, you should intentionally work towards getting their information and asking about putting them on your special VIP client list. This way, you can earn the right to their business, as well as to their referrals. This is not going to happen without a prospecting-based, marketing-enhanced, stay-in-touch system. The first part of this prospecting-based, marketing-enhanced, stay-in-touch system is called an 8x8. Put simply, the 8x8 system is where you complete eight touches in eight weeks. It’s used to cement in the client’s mind that you are their real estate agent of choice as you begin the process of forming a relationship with them. Now, the 8x8 system means literally eight touches in eight weeks—not six touches in eight weeks, and not eight touches in 10 weeks. Let’s dig a little bit deeper into the psychology of how this system works. The human mind is under a constant bombardment of advertising and marketing. Over time, it becomes saturated. Realize that every day, we’re being bombarded with 5,000 or more marketing messages, but the mind can only hold a finite amount of information at any one time. According to the National Association of Realtors research, 76% of all sellers had only contacted one agent before listing their home, and 16% had contacted just two agents. For buyers, 59% had interviewed just one agent, and 22% interviewed only two agents. “If you’re not No. 1, you’d better be No. 2, and if you’re not No. 2, you simply don’t exist.” There are tons of agents out there who are all vying for buyers’ and sellers’ attention. People have a limit to what they’re going to be able to remember, but remember this: If you’re not No. 1, you’d better be No. 2, and if you’re not No. 2, you simply don’t exist. The question is: How do you win that mindshare? Has there ever been a time when you thought you owned a buyer’s or a seller’s mindshare, only to find out that you didn’t? As Seth Godin says, “Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.” Generating leads and building relationships will take a wide variety of marketing and prospecting tactics. Prospecting is a proactive and direct approach—making contact through phone calls and personal visits to ask for business. By the way, telemarketing and face-to-face visits are the most effective methods of prospecting, not to mention the least expensive. Marketing is proactive and indirect. You attract clients, and they find you. This can be done with letters, postcards, newsletters, emails, personal notes, market reports, social media, etc. These will need to be purposeful and systematic in order to establish the customer’s mindshare. Think of it as diversifying your lead generation portfolio—the multiple methods and sources will not only bring you more business in prosperous times, but they will also help diversify and protect you during uncertain times, like during a market shift. Your focus should be to feed your database. But, just adding people to your database with no focused plan of action simply isn’t going to do the job. So, for each week of our 8x8 plan, here’s what we do: Write a thank you note and drop it off in person or send it in the mail. Contact an individual by phone to follow them up. Send or drop off an item of value, like a branded coffee mug or a real estate market report. Contact an individual by phone to follow them up. Send or drop off an item of value, like a refrigerator calendar or a market evaluation for their property. Send an email with industry knowledge that is useful to the client. Send or drop off another item of value. Give them a phone call. Once a client has gone through this system, you’ve cemented your name in their mind. When they think of real estate, they should be thinking of you. When they’re finished with the 8x8, you should then add them into a 36-touch maintenance program, which is, by the way, where those people will stay until they die, or you do. In my next installment in this series, I’ll go into much more detail about this 36-touch program. If you have any questions in the meantime, I encourage you to reach out to me. I’d love to open up a discussion about the 8x8 system and tactics on how to cement yourself in the minds of your clients.  

If you want to make your future self proud, the first step is to stop letting short-term thinking prevent long-term results. To achieve this, consider levels one through four of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent Organizational Chart. A level-one agent is you and you alone. This model was typical up until about the 1990s. However, since then, the team model has grown in popularity, having really begun to blossom after the release of “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” by Gary Keller. After level one is, of course, level two. And it’s at levels two and three where I see a lot of agents encounter near-sightedness. Individual agents like to keep as much of their money as possible, but growing success means growing a team. Many agents who hire someone to help them don’t necessarily want to pay them. Instead of hiring someone who can help them build systems to handle future volume, they hire someone they expect to simply go out and sell homes. This isn’t a sustainable route, though, and won’t lead to growth. Remember the 80/20 Rule: 80% of the results are generated from the 20% of actions that matter most. As agents, the actions that matter most can be summarized by the acronym SLLAC, which stands for scripts, lead generation, lead follow-up, appointments, and contracts. So, at level two, you should be hiring someone to work administrative tasks like these. Level three involves hiring another administrator, which many agents will be hesitant to do. They, again, lose sight of the future and focus only on the money they could keep by hiring a buyer agent. However, this will only dampen your long-term success. Hiring a second administrator is what will really bring you the momentum needed to move on into the fourth and fifth levels. “Don’t let nearsightedness damage the growth of your business and your career. Instead, make your future self proud by focusing on long-term growth.” The first administrator will typically be involved in transaction, listing, and client care coordination while the second administrator should focus on marketing and customer-oriented systems to streamline your real estate business.  Finally, after the first three levels, it’s time to hire your first buyer’s agent. This is where you really want to consider your future success. You don’t want to hire just anyone. You’re not just hiring a buyer’s agent, you’re hiring someone who will play a leadership role in your future.  As you approach the fifth level, you should have a director of operations looking over your administration team. And over your buyer and listings agents, you should have a lead buyer specialist and a lead listing specialist, respectively. Then, at level six, you will need to have someone fill a leadership role overseeing all agents, and also managing all recruiting, training, and accountability systems. You may also have a director of operations working to oversee your entire administrative success team.  The point you’ve got to realize when considering each of these steps, though, is that it will take you between four to twelve months just to find and hire true talent. And it will take about three years to move those hires into leadership positions. Also, past level four, recruiting, selecting, and training must become a priority. About 10% to 20% of your time should be devoted at this point to building your team so that you have a bench of talent at the ready.  As you can see, it takes a long-term vision to achieve real success. Short-term thinking won’t help you grow. If you want to make your future self proud, you need to focus on more than what’s going on right now.  If you’d like to learn more, feel free to visit our website (www.realestatecareersinutah.com) to sign up for our agent newsletter or book a one-on-one appointment with our team. And, as always, if you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

When should you hire your first assistant?   This question reminds me of the first time I read Gary Keller’s book “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” back in 1994. There’s a section in the back called “A Snapshot of a Millionaire Agent” where various millionaire agents speak on the record about their failures, motivations, and keys to success. A common theme among their keys to success was hiring an assistant early—some of them within their first year. Another common theme among their list of failures was not hiring an assistant their first year. After reading this, I hired an assistant immediately, which was right at the beginning of my second year in business. Hiring your first assistant will allow you to spend more of your precious time and focus on your five money-generating activities: scripts, lead generation, lead follow up, appointments, and contracts. Your goal as an agent should be to spend 80% of your time on these activities, and your first assistant should be able to put together systems for your business to create efficiencies and focus on customer service. Usually, they’ll have several job descriptions, which include (but aren’t limited to) transaction coordinating, listing coordinating, customer service, and marketing. In my first year as an agent (when I didn’t have an assistant), I closed 27 transactions, and the average sale price of those transactions was about $106,000, which equated to roughly $2.8 million in total volume. My split with my broker at the time was 50/50, so I earned about $43,000. “Hiring an assistant was not an expense, but rather an investment.” If you only make, say, $30,000 per year, you might not feel comfortable with the idea of hiring an assistant. After I read “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” though, I realized that it would be difficult for me to grow my income. I was thinking more about my career—my business and my future—and less about today. I learned that hiring an assistant was not an expense, but rather an investment, and I would expect every dollar I invest to generate a positive rate of return. How did things turn out my second year? My number of closed transaction grew to 48, and my average sale price increased to $125,000, which equated to roughly $6 million in total volume. My earnings rose to $180,000. During this time, I also switched brokerages so I could learn more about growing a business with a company that was, at that time, new to town: Keller Williams. This means I ended up keeping more money because KW is a capping company and I only paid them $18,000 for the entire year instead of a 50/50 split. If you compare what I would’ve made if I stayed with my old company to what I ended up netting, this leap of faith added $22,000 to my bottom line. This is why, if you’re committed to making real estate your career, you need to hire your first assistant now so you can focus more on your valuable time and the income-producing activities that will ultimately lead you to a millionaire real estate business. As always, if you have any more questions about this topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you.

A lot of folks these days are spending a pretty penny on generating leads from sources like Pay-per-click, Realtor.com, Zillow, Homes.com, and so on. If you’re planning on generating leads from the internet, then you must have a plan in place to convert these precious leads into appointments. Here are three strategies the Stern Team uses for online lead follow-ups: 1. Immediate follow-up. According to the MIT research that was published in the Harvard Business Review regarding follow-up for online sales leads, you should follow up with the lead within five minutes of that lead actually coming in. That allows you a tenfold increase of being able to connect with that lead; after five minutes, your ability to connect with that lead drops by 400%. Set up your mobile device to alert you through email, text, or calling in the event that a lead comes in so you can be sure to make the follow-up call right away. 2. Have a short-term follow-up plan. Make at least 15 phone call attempts within the first 90 days. Did you know that 80% of sales are made between the fifth and twelfth contact? You approach a near 90% conversion rate after at least six call attempts. Also recognize that at least 30% of all online leads are never contacted at all. Just by making a few more call attempts, real estate agents can experience up to a 70% increase in contact rates. You must develop a weekly call schedule for new leads until the first contact is made. Automate this so you don’t have to think about who you’re going to call and when. 3. Have a long-term follow-up plan. Increase converted leads by 67% with a follow-up strategy beyond six months. Dedicate a specific time each week to contact older leads; I recommend a mix of text messages, phone calls, and a small number of emails that contain relevant information to the consumer. “If you stay positive, expect positive outcomes, and use these leads to feed your database, you’ll have a future as a millionaire real estate business owner.” The MIT study uncovered a few other statistics to note, as well. They found that Wednesdays and Thursdays are typically the best days to qualify a lead and that the best times to get in touch with leads are between 8 and 9 a.m., and even better, between 4 and 5 p.m. Plan accordingly to maximize your online lead strategy. You’re 160% more likely to reach a lead in the late afternoon than the early afternoon. Your mindset matters; we must stop thinking of online leads as bad leads and instead think of them as human beings who are beginning to learn about the home buying or selling process. If you stay positive, expect positive outcomes, and use these leads to feed your database, you’ll have a future as a millionaire real estate business owner. If you have any specific questions, feel free to give us a call. We’re here to help.