San Diego Real Estate Training Podcast

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.The difference between business owners and real estate agents is that business owners tend to focus on profit, rather than commissions. “If you don’t know whether you’re on track with making a profit, you should. ”This is because the point of a business is to turn a profit. I can’t tell you how many agents I meet with who don’t have any idea what their profits are like. If you don’t know whether you’re on track with making a profit, you should. Based on your income level, what should you be taking home for a net profit?I’ve got some great PowerPoint slides that can help you determine these numbers. They’re from the new Keller Williams course “Business by the Book,” and they’re available for download here and here.If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.As real estate agents, it’s very important that you play “Red Light, Green Light” with your expenses. In other words, we agents have to hold our money accountable, especially as you make investments to grow your business. You need to understand that those are investments, not expenses. We meet so many agents who throw their money at different things. When we ask what kind of return on investment they get on those, they shrug their shoulders. Frankly, they have no clue what their ROI is. “Do you know what your return on investment is? ”We make sure that our agents are getting a return on their money. That could mean the investment they are making with us here at Keller Williams, online lead generation, and more. We have a few suggestions of where your budget should be spent as an agent. We also have a little exercise on how to play “Red Light, Green Light” with your expenses. Check out the PDF here and here.As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.Today I want to present you with something that can help you build a team and build your business.In the video above, I have in my hands the organizational chart many of the top agents here at KW Realty use to go from being a solo agent to building what we call a “seventh-level business empire.” “With this chart, you can build a seventh-level business empire too. ”What’s cool about this is Gary Keller talks about the seven levels of real estate success in his book “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent,” which was published nearly 11 years ago. On page 202 of that book, you’ll find a lot of the same models and systems this chart has. This chart, though, has updated versions of them—they’re the new seven levels from a course we teach called “Business By the Book.”I’d love to share these models and systems with you. You can download a PDF copy of this chart here.If you have any more questions about how you can build your business to the seventh level, give me a call so we can sit down together and get started. I’m happy to help you.

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.If you want to grow your database and your real estate business, most agents know that there are two ways you can go about it: prospecting or marketing. Most new agents focus on prospecting. They do open houses, knock on doors, make cold calls, and call expired listings and for sale by owner properties. They go out and find the business. Most top agents focus on marketing. Typically 80% or more of a top agent’s business comes from marketing. They get past clients, repeat business, and referrals. What do they do to market? I have the answer here. “Top agents focus on marketing.”In our Business By the Book class, we teach the top marketing and prospecting techniques to help you grow your business. You can download the list here. If you have any other questions or you’re interested in our class, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

How do our top agents stay in front of their databases and close hundreds of transactions per year? The answer is simple and I’m going to share it with you today.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.As an agent, your database is the core of your business. Even though we talk a lot about the database, it can be hard to truly grasp the significance of what it does for you and your real estate career.Your database is something that you’re interacting with every day. So, how do you communicate with it in a systematic way?“These systems and tools help our agents to stay in front of their databases. ”Systematic communication with your database is going to be key to your success, and I’ve got an amazing way to achieve it: the updated 36 touch system and the 19-to-connect from the Millionaire Real Estate Agent 2. These slides are from our great Keller Williams class called “Business by the Book.” This class teaches you all about how to connect with your database, and these are the same tools and systems that our top agents utilize all the time with their databases.These systems and tools help our agents to stay in front of their databases and close hundreds of transactions per year.Click here to view the marketing system for yourself.If you’d like to learn more, have any other questions, or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

For a limited time only, we’re allowing you to use the Keller Personality Assessment to find out what your strengths are and how to leverage them.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.Have you ever taken a behavioral assessment before?We have many agents who want to build teams and leverage behavioral assessments in their screening process to determine whether the people they’re hiring will be a fit. The most common of these behavioral assessments is one called the DiSC profile, and the big mistake a lot of people make is going to Tony Robbins’ free website and using the free DiSC profile offered there.The problem is, that particular behavioral assessment is geared towards a person who is in their personal and home life, so the results you get from it can vary wildly from something you’d get from a paid Abelson DiSC that costs anywhere from $10 to $20 per report.Dr. Abelson has a great DiSC report that’s entirely based on a person’s job world, and it provides much more clarity for the hiring process. Beyond that, we see people also use things like activity vector assessments from corporate consulting that cost $250 each.“This the only assessment that analyzes cognitive abilities as well as behavior. ”At Keller Williams, we’ve built our own proprietary tool that our agents have access to called the Keller Personality Assessment. This is the only one that actually gauges not only what a person’s natural behavioral style is, but it also talks a little bit about their cognitive abilities by checking things like IQ and how quickly they pick up on new things.We’re very excited to be able to offer this to our agents. For a limited time only, you can click here and submit the form and we will send you a link where you can complete the KPA. We’ll then sit down with you and talk about what your strengths are and how you can leverage them to be a great real estate agent.If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’re here to help.

Low inventory actually means big opportunity for real estate agents, and I’ll explain why today. Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.There are a lot of agents out there who are moping around because there are only one-and-a-half months of inventory on the market.On the contrary, low inventory actually means big opportunity for you and your real estate business.In fact, just last month we sold 214 homes. That is the second-highest month that we’ve had in 10 years of being in business, beating even our May, June, and July numbers.So, how are we doing that when there are only 4,800 homes on the market?“You have to proactively prospect every single day. ”We’ve helped our agents realize that low inventory means big opportunity. You can’t just do three of the four P’s in real estate. You can’t just put the sign in the yard, pop the property on the MLS, and pray that another agent brings a buyer along.You have to proactively prospect every single day to find listing inventory.Send mailers, knock on doors, and consult your sphere—there are several strategies you can use to turn this market into a great opportunity for your business.Click here to download additional buyer plan of action strategiesIf you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

The San Diego County market is suffering from an inventory crisis. However, the best agents are turning this into an opportunity for more business.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.The latest numbers are in for San Diego County, so I wanted to take a moment to talk about the real estate market and what I’m seeing right now.We’re down about 9% in the number of new listings from last year. We’ve only brought about 12,000 homes on the market this year compared to 14,000 last year. The pace of sales is slowing down a bit too. We saw 7,400 home sales by this time last year, but right now we’re sitting at around 7,300.Combined, those two factors are really knocking down inventory in the market just as the busy season is starting. That’s going to make prices shoot up. Who knew that San Diego County could get more expensive to live in, right?Our median sale price is up by another 5.5% from last year and sits at $510,000, which is absolutely incredible. Half of the home sales are below $510,000, but the other half are above that number. That’s a higher figure than we saw in 2006.“There are only 1.6 months of available inventory right now. ”The big question looming for Southern California is what will happen with our active inventory. We’re down by 30% year-over-year.As of April 1st, we had 4,864 properties listed for sale in the entire county, a 1.6 month supply. We typically sell about 3,700 homes each month and that number can rise as high as 5,000 in the summer.Buyers face a scary proposition in this market. When you consider that half of buyers are also sellers, the inventory problem makes sense. Sellers are hesitant because it’s hard for them to answer the question of where they are moving next in this kind of market. That’s where the best agents are turning this market into an opportunity.Next time, I’ll talk about how you can turn these market conditions into a big opportunity for your business. If you have any questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

Are you aware of tying arrangements and the risk they pose to agents? You need to be careful when tying a buying and selling transaction together with the same client.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.Most agents know about tying arrangements, they just don't know what they’re called.A tying arrangement is when we talk to a client who wants to put an offer in on a property and we ask if they will list their home with us. Any time you tie two transactions together, you put yourself at risk for an antitrust violation.“This can put you at serious risk for antitrust violations. ”The biggest instance where this can show up for agents is when an agent takes a listing and the buyer says 'If I sell this house with you and buy the next one, will you give me a discount?' Agents can't sell a house for a client and buy the next one with them at a discount.It's a tying arrangement and it just can't be done. If you want to give them a discount independently of their ability to perform on two transactions, it's your money and you can do what you want with it. You just can't tie two transactions together.If you have any other questions about tying arrangements or any transactional violations, give me a call or send me an email. I'm here to help.

Price reductions are never ideal. However, we have a good strategy to share for how to approach them.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.No seller likes to have to make price reductions, but sometimes they are necessary. How do you determine when your seller needs a price reduction?Today, there are fewer than 5,000 homes on the market in San Diego and in any typical month we sell between 3,000 and 4,000 homes. If your home has been on the market for weeks or months without accepting an offer, it’s time for a price reduction. Homes priced correctly are selling very quickly in today’s market, within days and weeks.The best time to set the stage for this is during the listing consultation with the seller. This way, they can clearly understand the dynamics of today’s market. If we are on the market for more than two weeks and have had fewer than 10 showings and no offers in that time frame, we need to start entertaining the idea of a price reduction.“The best time to set the stage for this is during the listing consultation. ”The key to getting the highest price when reducing your price will be to cut fast and cut hard so you get the property under contract quickly. The longer a home sits on the market, the lower the seller’s net is. Sometimes getting the highest possible price for a property requires being brutally honest. If a home has been on the market and is not receiving offers, we call our sellers and let them know the situation. If the market has spoken and the price is too high, we have two options for a reduction. One is a big 10% price reduction to sell quickly or a 5% reduction to test the waters further.At this point, it’s not even an opinion that the home is overpriced, it’s a fact. If you have any questions for us about price reductions or anything else, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

We're heading toward a market shift, so pricing a home properly is going to be a more important skill now that it has been in the last 10 years. How do you help your sellers do this?Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.I wanted to give you some advice on helping your sellers choose the right price for their homes.As we go into this shifting market, pricing a home is going to be a more in-demand skill than it has been in the last 10 years. As we come into the fourth quarter of 2016, we’re starting to see that the homes that aren't priced exactly right are sitting on the market. In fact, a lot of them end up having multiple price reductions and selling for less than they probably should have right out of the gate.When you're helping your seller choose the right price, here's the simple formula for me: I want to get real about the condition of the property I'm about to bring to market. Is it a two or is it a 10? From there, I want to get real about the condition of the other properties on the market. Are they nicer, or is your seller's property nicer?Once I've identified that, then I'm going to look at the competition and the way they are priced. I intend to be the best, highest quality home on the market for the price. What I'm saying is that if you're the best value on the market, you'll always be the first to sell. As somebody who has sold dozens of properties of my own and thousands for other people, I can tell you unequivocally that the market does not let properties sell too cheaply. Here's what I mean by that–if you think a property is worth somewhere between $450,000 and $500,000, I'm listing it at $450,000 every time. If I list at that price and it was supposed to be $500,000, I'm going to get multiple offers in a short time and it's going to sell for $500,000 or maybe even more.“The free market will always help you find the right price. ”That's the beauty of the free market system; the market always helps you get the pricing right. It also punishes you when you get greedy on the front end.If the property is worth $500,000 and you price it at $510,000, the property begins to stagnate on the market, you have a low number of showings, and buyers start to wonder what's wrong with the property. Other agents may not show it, and it eventually sells for far less than it should.Do the right thing by helping your sellers pick the right price out of the gate and get the home sold quickly. If you have any more questions about pricing homes or I can help you in any way with your real estate career, give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to help you out!

With inventory as low as it is, your sellers should be receiving multiple offers. You need to be prepared to help them pick the best offer for their unique situation.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.Inventory is at an all-time low, and if you have a property that is priced right, you should be concerned if you’re not getting multiple offers. As a listing agent, it is your job to help your sellers choose the best offer.Is the best offer always the highest price? Or is a cash offer the best offer? Should you go with a buyer with conventional financing or a buyer with a VA loan?The best offer can actually be any of the above. Ultimately, the best offer is the one that makes the most sense for your seller and is the most likely to close in the time frame your seller wants.Let me give you an example. One of our agents recently sold a great house. An offer came in over asking price — in fact, it was so far over asking that we knew there would be an issue with the appraisal. The agent asked the buyer to add a clause that stated if the appraisal came in up to $25,000 under the offer price, the buyer would write a check for the difference.“As a listing agent, it is your job to help your sellers choose the best offer in a multiple offer situation. ”The buyer agreed to the clause up front and we went to get the okay from the lender. We needed to verify that the buyer had the funds to cover the difference and that the loan program would allow them to do so. In this instance, the buyer didn’t have the funds, so we took an offer that was a little bit less money but more able to close.As the listing agent, our job is to fully educate the seller and help them see the upcoming bumps in the road that they might otherwise miss.If you have any questions about dealing with multiple offers or if there is anything else you want to know about, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

A lot of sellers are assuming they should wait until spring to list their homes. As you will see, this is a mistake.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.A lot of our agents are hearing their clients say, “I’ll just wait until after the holidays are over and catch the spring market next year.”Here is the concern for those clients: year over year, when we look at our real estate market here in Southern California, we’ve got almost 20% less inventory across the board than we had this time last year. Generally, homes are selling over 20% faster than they were last year. Based on that, you’d expect prices to be going on a straight vertical climb. The reality, though, is that they’re only up 2%.“If I’m a seller holding on to a property, I’m listing that property now. ”When we look at this trend and factor in interest rates being almost a full 0.75% lower, that means buyers have about 7.5% more purchasing power today than they did a year ago, and they’re only choosing to use 2.9% of that. This tells us that we may be right at the top of a market shift.If I’m a seller holding on to a property that I want to get top dollar for, I’m listing that property now. Not tomorrow — right now. In fact, with our own personal portfolio of property, anything we don’t want to hold through another market cycle is either going on the market or has already been on the market.If you have any questions about buying or selling, please feel free to get in touch with us. Just give me a call or send me an email, and I’d be happy to help you.

Today I want to talk about how the MLS has changed in our real estate industry. Ten years ago, our value proposition was centered almost entirely on it.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.You may see what’s happening out there in the market, but I want to talk about a functional perspective of the MLS and how it’s changed our real estate industry.Ten years ago, the value proposition of a real estate agent was basically just the MLS. We had access and everyone else didn’t. They had to go through us to get the info. That’s not the case anymore. The bar has been raised for what a great agent does. Now, I’m worried about agents who rely on the MLS as the cornerstone of their business.“The bar has been raised for what a great agent does. ”In today’s fast-changing world, you’ve got to do what other agents aren’t willing to do to survive. This means knocking on doors, working your sphere of influence, and finding sellers before they know they’re sellers. That’s how you create the best opportunity for your buyers. You can’t rely on the MLS for that anymore.If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line or shoot me an email.

Not everyone will understand right away all the work we do on their transaction. A lot of professionals like to openly question why they should hire a real estate agent if they could just do everything online anyway.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.You’ve probably encountered this situation before.You have a client come to an open house who is a professional, whether it be a lawyer, doctor, or accountant, and they say something like this: “You real estate agents sure make a lot of money. Why do I need to hire you if I can just use the internet and sites like Zillow to buy and sell homes?”If you run into this situation, here’s what you have to do. You have to help them see it from a perspective that they can relate to. Let’s say the person asking you this question is a doctor. A good answer would be something like this. “As a physician, why would I need you? I can go to WebMD, figure out what kind of prescription I might need, go down to Mexico and get it, and medicate myself.”“You’ve got to appeal to their professional side. ”Maybe it’s because there is a chance things could go wrong. Something bad could happen, and you could get really sick by trying to save a few bucks. Things can go wrong in the real estate transaction the same way. You might not get sick by not hiring an agent, but you could really get taken advantage of when buying or selling.In order to win with a professional client, you need to establish yourself as a professional as well.I hope this tip helps. If you have any questions for me, feel free to reach out and give me a call or shoot me an email. I hope to talk to you soon!

There is a new scam out there where hackers are watching your email while posing as real estate agents.Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.Today, I want to talk about wire fraud and protecting your client’s money.There is a new scam emerging out there where internet hackers are watching your email while posing as a real estate agent. They’re waiting for you to click on a certain link. You might see something come along one day from DocuSign, or your office, or another agent that you trust saying something along the lines of “Download this document,” or “Click here for more information,” or “Will you take this referral?”Once you download this link, it will then ask you to sign into Google. What’s actually happening here when you “sign into” Google is that you’re giving away your username and password to these hackers. Initially, they don’t do anything with it. They just keep watching your email transactions, waiting patiently. The instant they see a set of wiring instructions, however, is when they strike. They take those wiring instructions and modify them to match their own banking information. They then send that information back to the escrow company, absconding with your client’s proceeds, earnest money, or sometimes even the bank’s proceeds. It’s a scary thing, and I’ve seen multiple escrow companies here in San Diego get hit to the tune of a million dollars each.“Always verify attachment links that look fishy by calling the escrow company. ”So be aware, and be careful. Whenever you’re looking at an attachment that feels fishy, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call the escrow company. When your clients are sending wiring instructions or wiring money to the escrow company, talk to the escrow officer and confirm where they’re sending that money.Hopefully, this helps you in your business. If you have any more questions, feel free to call us up or send an email.

One of my favorite tools to use in my business is DocuSign. When it came out, it meant I no longer had to carbon copy contracts, and that was a life-saver. It has saved us so much time and energy in not having to run back and forth to clients’ houses to get them to sign things. Because of the higher likelihood of fraud with DocuSign, it took our brokers a long time to accept it. Today I just want to make you aware of two things. One is a potential issue.There is a group of attorneys who have made a cottage industry around unwinding transactions signed with DocuSign. Their argument is that since a client clicked on the DocuSign and signed the 10-to-20 page contract a few seconds later, they wouldn’t have time to read the whole thing before signing. They say since we know they didn’t read it and did nothing about it, we are liable for unwinding the transaction. The scary thing is that they are winning these lawsuits.“This strategy comes straight from our legal counsel. ”So here’s how to avoid this problem. First, before you ever DocuSign something to a client, email them a set of pdfs outside of DocuSign. Ask them to review them thoroughly before signing the contract in DocuSign. Then give them some time, maybe an hour or two, to review the contracts. After that, you will get the DocuSign back and send them an email thanking them for signing it, and asking them to confirm that they read and fully understood everything they signed.Those are the best practices, and they defend your business. It comes straight from our legal counsel here at KW. If you have any more questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d love to be a resource for you and your career.

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.As real estate agents, we have a lot of different tasks that we have to complete in order to go from the beginning to the end of a transaction. I’ve noticed one simple thing that my top agents do to make this process easier.“Top agents have systems for everything. ”They create a system for anything that they have to do more than once. You can easily tell an agent’s production numbers by asking them what happens when they take a new listing.A newer agent might rattle off a long list of processes that need to be completed. A more veteran agent would probably tell you that they drop the agreement on a coordinator’s desk and she then sends it on to the next person to schedule photoshoots, signage, and a pre-listing campaign, among other things.The process is probably not always the exact same, but because they have a uniform plan, they can measure their performance back against their expectations.The lesson is, what do you expect out of your business? Is your service standing up to your expectations?If you have questions about this content, please reach out to me. I’d love to continue this conversation!

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.We have two of the top five agents in all of San Diego County in our office. What makes them different? What’s the difference between a $100 million producing agent and a $1 million producing agent? The answer is simple: it’s the way they think.The $1 million agent gets to the office and focuses on whatever is in front of them, not what is most important. As the $1 million producer sees new ideas, strategies, and opportunities, they start to think, “Will this work? Can I do this?” They question their ability to perform at the next level.“Top agents turn possibilities into reality. ”The $100 million producer asks fewer questions, however, the questions they do ask are better. Instead of asking if something can work for them or their market, they ask, “How can I make that work for me?” Then they find a way to implement the new idea quickly.Top agents automatically know that things are possible for them. They just commit to turning possibilities into reality. They hear a great idea and they take action fast.When you hear a great idea, you have 24 hours to take that next action step and implement the idea into your business. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. The clock starts now!

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.Back in November 2015, we broke a threshold we’ve been pushing for years. We hit the one billion dollar mark! Our agents have listed and sold $1,041,758,014 worth of real estate, year to date. We couldn’t have done it without your support! This is a testament to what we do in the area. We're an awesome resource for training, coaching, and technology systems. All three have given these agents the tools to succeed at the highest level. However, this is only the beginning!If you’re interested in joining us with our two billion dollar push, give me a call or send me an email today!

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation. A lot of top-producing agents spend most of their time finding top-tier talent to join their teams. But doesn't it seem counterproductive? Why spend time looking for employees instead of gaining leads?Well, think of it like this. You can spend about ten hours lead-generating and cold-calling to find some listings. You'll probably sell one of those listings for $6,000 or $7,000, and you might get a referral and make another $6,000. That sounds good, doesn't it?However, if you spend 10 hours finding a rock-solid addition to your team, you can probably sell 20 homes by hiring that individual. So, when they sell 20 homes and they make $100,000, you also receive $100K if you have a 50/50 split.Top agents understand that people are your most appreciable asset. A great player on your team is worth many, many listings.Recruit, Select, Train, Lead & Motivate! It's all about finding, hiring, identifying, training, and keeping highly motivated people. As always, if you have any questions for me, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales?  Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.January 1st is expired listing day. It’s the single day of the year we can expect to have the most expired listings. It’s a great way to start off business in the new year. The good news about expired listings is that we know their scripts, but they don’t know ours. There are five common things an expired seller says:“I’m going to sell it myself.”“Where were you when my home was on the market?”“You’re 1 of 800 people calling me, why are you all bugging me?”“I’m going to re-list my property with my agent.”“We’re not moving.”If you know how to respond to these rejections, you can master expired listings. Reach out to me if you’re interested in learning how to combat these responses! Give me a call today.