Wednesday, June 24, 2020

The More Prospects You Talk To, The More Listings You Get

The most basic rule of salesmanship is, "The more people you talk to, the more people you sell.".  If you want to list ten houses in a month, you likely need to make ten listing presentatons.

Many new Realtors only see two prospects per month.  Then they wonder why they are not listing five houses per month.  Here is the rule.  You have to get face to face eyeball to eyeball belly to belly with a prospect to get a listing.  You have to sit down at Mr. and Mrs. Seller's kitchen table and tell them why they should list with you.  In today's world their kitchen table might be a Zoom meeting.  Face to face is still best.

If you do this really really well, maybe eight out of ten will list with you.  If you are average, five out of ten will list.  If you are mediocre, two out of ten will say yes.  How many presentations did you make last month?  If your answer is two and none listed, here are your choices.
Make more listing presentations.  You will get more listings

Make a lot more presentations per month or improve your presentation or learn to live on a strict budget.  Please start thinking in terms of " How many listing presentations have I made today?".

If you will make one listing presentation every day to a seller, you will make a nice living in real estate.  Do you suppose that you might get pretty good at making listing presentations with all that practice?  Do you reckon maybe you might get good at answering objections? If you need help answering objections, watch this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7KlVi2Ic8Y&t=1222s 
The good news is as your presentation skills improve, you will hear less objections.  Pretty soon, your most common question will be,"Where do I sign?".

Choose to make more listing presentations.  To whom do you make presentations?  SELLERS!  Lots of people woke up today in your marketplace and decided to sell their house.  Will they call you?

If they received your "just listed" postcard last week that you mailed out when you listed their neighbor's house two blocks away, they probably will call you.  Maybe it was seeing your new sign that prompted them to think about moving.  Why would any Realtor anywhere list a house and NOT mail out two hundred "just listed"postcards to the neighbors?

Why wouuld any Realtor anywhere sign a bilateral contract between a buyer and a seller and NOT mail out two hundred "just sold" postcards to the neighbors? Why indeed?

Why would any Realtor anywhere leave a closing and NOT mail out two hundred "just sold" postcards to the neighbors again?  Could it be because...... Well I can not think of a reason but please leave me your excuse in the comments.  Ron, I did not mail out "just sold" postcards to the neighbors because..........

If you do mail out "just listed  and "just sold"  postcards to the neighbors , someone will call you and say," We have been thinking of selling.  Can you help us?"  This s called prospecting or lead generation.  The person that called is called a prospect.  What is a prospect?

A prospect is "someone that needs or wants your product,the services of a Realtor, can afford it, and will likely buy it from you or your competitor within aa reasonable time period".

What if you also mailed out a similar postcard to all the EXPIRED LISTINGS in your MLS every day?  Would they call you?  Are they prospects?  Well let's see.  They need the services of  a Realtor.  Their motivation has increased since they listed with Nogood Realty six months ago.  They are now living five hundred miles away.  They are making payments on their new house.  They are still making payments on their old empty house.  Will they call you?  Yes indeed they will call you.  They will ask you, "Can you get my house sold?".  Can you take it from there?

Mr and Mrs. Out of Town Seller are called red hot prospects.  If none of them are calling
 you now, it is because you are not investing fifty cents to mail them a post card.

If you are not listing,at least, two houses per month, you need to be making more presentations.  You need to be prospecting more.  This is top priority.  This is more important than the Board of Realtors luncheon.  This is more important than you child's  soccer  game.  This s more important than your club meeting  Call a prospect today.

If you live in central Florida and need to get a real estate license or take a post license course, check out  https://demetreerealestateschool.com/  When you call, guess who answers the phone. 

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Where Did You Learn Your Racial Bias?

I went to my daughter's house last week.  We try not too talk politics.  She had a sign in her front yard that said, "Where did you learn your racial bias?

What a great question!  I was raised in south Georgia near Jeff Davis county in the 1950s.

Could I have learned racial bias from my my mom?  I don't really remember us talking about it.

Maybe I learned it from my teachers in elementary school.  Schools were racially segregated then.

Maybe I learned it in Baptist Sunday School.  We went pretty nearly every Sunday.  We did not have any black people in Sunday School.  We did not have any Methodists either.  I remember that song we used to sing:  Jesus loves the little children
                            All the children of the world
                            Red and yellow black and white
                            They are precious in his sight

Where does all this racial bias come from?  It has been illegal since 1968.  Many people reading this article were not even born then.

Our parents and our teachers  and our Boy Scout leaders and coaches must be the culprits that taught us all this racial bias.

Now our children and grandchildren tell us that they were wrong.

I wonder what else they taught us that was wrong.  My mother taught me to respect the police.  I have never been hit or shot at by a police officer.  I have had plenty of traffic stops.  I have never never never been rude or physical with a police officer.  Only a dummie would do that.  Don't you agree?  Even if you are Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee, you can not whip a cop.  Reinforcements are on the way.  Why try?  The consequences are dire.

I remember studying the Civil War in the fifth grade.  We learned that Robert E. Lee was a great general that was worthy of our respect.  Jefferson Davis'  birthday was a state holiday.  There was no school.  Now I am wondering what else did I learn in school that was debatable but taught to me as fact.  Was General Sherman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea really as bad as we were told?   Was Col. James Doolittle really a hero?  What about Davy Crockett?
The Government made the "Stars and Bars" part of our state flag when I was a boy

When I was in the third grade, the government changed the Georgia state flag to include the Confederate battle flag.  Everyone in the state was proud to display the "Stars and Bars" on our state flag.  Today NASCAR says displaying the "Stars and Bars" runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.

Maybe one day the "Stars and Stripes"will get the same treatment.  Who knows?  We learned to stand in respect for the American flag and the national anthem. It was that same group of teachers and parents and coaches and aunts and uncles and preachers that taught us that.   Maybe we should be kneeling or sitting or squatting or texting.   Maybe we should not respect the national anthem but use it as an opportunity to display our displeasure and protest to something else.  Maybe Emily Post didn't really know much either.  Who appointed her queen?

There is lots of new stuff  to learn before I go to meet Saint Peter at the at the Pearly Gate.

How can we know if what we are learning today is correct?  Because today' info comes from an authority figure.  That will not pass the litmus test.  I had never heard the word defund as in Defund the police until I saw a teenager carrying a sign that said defund the police on TV.   I see on the news that the city of Minneapolis' city council has voted to do this.  I also saw on the news that the city council has hired private security to protect them from angry constituents aka as VOTERS.  I don't think their mayor or the city council will need protection after the next election.  They will need a new job.  How do we know who to learn from?  Is mob rule better than the system we have now?  It certainly works faster than petitioning the government.  When the mob decides they want a statue down or a Wendy's removed, it happens fast. 

The city of Washington, D.C. and the city of New York and the city of Orlando has painted the phrase "Black Lives Matter"  on the street in great big letters.  Is there a connotation there that black lives matter more than other lives?  Is there a connotation that only black lives matter?   In forty years will the mayor's grandchildren ask these questions of their parents?  Maybe the mayor's grandson will ask him, Why didn't you paint All Lives Matter on the street?".  There are no eight year olds in my household.  Maybe the kids are asking these questions already.  I just don't know it.  Have you seen the emperor's new clothes?  Maybe Hans Christian Anderson saw something back in the 19th century that we all need to see today. 

I notice in the news that there is a push to take police out of schools to create more racial equality.  Who came up with the brilliant idea of putting police in the schools in the first place?  It was probably the same group that believes we can not trust a teacher to possess a gun in a locked desk drawer.

Maybe we don't need a bunch of new laws.  Maybe we need more love and more thinking and a better attitude.   We certainly don't need anymore looting or burning of other people's property.  We don't need mob rule.  I think spray paint and lighter fluid should be declared a lethal weapon and require a permit to be carried in your backpack.  Pray tell, who would qualify for such a permit?

We are certainly living in trying times.  If there was ever a time when you need to vote and think before you vote, it is 2020.  If you don't vote, you are a big part of the problem.

I respect the police.
I do not need a law to tell me to wear a mask during the Covid crisis or stay at home. 
I don't like mob rule.
I think looting is morally wrong.
I think the American government is the best government in the history of the world.
I think Socialism or Marxism  is not even a close second.
I respect the American flag and the national anthem.
I believe that if you want a statue removed, you can petition the government. That is how prayer got removed from school.   
I love my family
I believe that  David Dorn's life was just as precious as George Floyd's life.
I love the first amendment. You should have the right to free speech. You don't have the right to burn my property or harm me if I disagree with you.
I love law and order.  I am wondering how much we will all be paying for private security in the future.  When you dial 911, will the first question be ," What is your credit card number" ?
God bless America.  




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