I’m going to turn 30 in september. I wonder to this day, when will my real estate business take off? I see wildy successful people like Russell Shaw. I even see Greg Swann’s goal of 1k a day. Truthfully, I wish I was up to $200 a day. The game is hard in Florida, but that’s why I’m in the fight, it’s a challenge filled with some heart ache and infinite fun. So far this year, I’ve made a decent wage, but nothing to brag about. I have kids and a stay at home wife, so you do the math. I’ve always said to myself, if I could just be self employed and pay the bills, I’ll have it made.
I wake up some days and do the typical routine and think, how on Earth can I hit it big in this business. Where’s my break going to come in. I work literally 7 day’s a week. Yet my fellow bloodhounder Greg Dallaire works 30 hours a week and is averaging $500 a day. I ask myself, where has my business plan failed? Well it hasn’t failed, but it’s not where I want to be. I’m doing something wrong and I don’t know what it is. I don’t want to work the rest of my life 7 days a week and make $200 a day.
What have you done in your business to take it to the next level? Oh I know, times are tough, but lets face it, I’m doing something wrong and not talking to enough people is what it comes down to. I need to be better at generating leads and handling them properly. So how can I get there. SEO blah blah, I’m doing it everyday and yes it’s paid off. I suck at recruiting agents. How do I recruit agents?
You see, I have a great wife, great kids, I sleep good at night, and I even love real estate, it’s a beautiful thing; but I want the beautiful real estate thing to be like Miss America. I want to step it up.
1)Can someone please help a fellow bloodhounder out? How did you recruit agents?
2) Did I select a target market that is to broad?
3) Does my website needs modification?
4) Do I need to post sweaty collared shirt pictures of myself like Greg Swann (smile).
I ask myself, where am I lacking to make a 1k a day? Please help me. I’d even pay for your time.
Yours truly,
The young blood
Robert Worthington
ryan harrman says:
Let’s do it here. What’s your url? Any inventory? If not are you hud kosher?
May 16, 2011 — 6:39 pm
Jim Klein says:
You may find this trite, Robert, but my answer is this. It’s critical to know yourself and your values, and you’ve obviously got that down pat. But in the business context, the only thing that matters is what the customer wants, and the customer’s values. You have to get into their heads and figure it out, because you can be darn sure they’ll be more than happy to buy it from you.
“Build it and they will come.” Just pinpoint what they’re trying to get, is all. It’s obvious, at least to me, that you can provide it…but first you have to know what it is.
May 16, 2011 — 8:15 pm
Greg Swann says:
I have about a thousand words in reply to this, so I expect that will end up being a post tomorrow.
Meanwhile: I want to commend you for being so forthcoming about your results. That took guts. My hat is off to you.
May 16, 2011 — 9:23 pm
Broker Bryant says:
Hi Robert. I checked out your website. It looks to me like you are a one man office. I would forget about recruiting agents until you are able to generate enough business. The exception would be if the agents bring business with them. They need to have an active data base.
Lead generation is ALWAYS number one priority. Enough qualified leads will solve all other issues. Forget about SEO and social media and all of that stuff…for now. Those things help but neither are necessary.
You need immediate income. First focus on expired listings. They are with out a doubt the best lead you can get. Not only have they already decided to sell but they have also already decided to use an agent. You should be banging on these doors everyday first thing. Have a good expired listing package you can leave on the door step if they aren’t home. By the way, work the withdrawn listings too. Smart agents withdraw the listing before it expires.
Next you need to be going after short sale listings. If you are not already working short sales you are missing about 50% of the market in Florida. And they are much easier on the list side than the buy side. In Florida you don’t even need to worry about 60/90 day late lists. Every 4th house is behind on their payments. Another 4th will be soon. Just pick a demographic area and either knock doors or do consistent mailers. Also check communities for HOA newsletters. You can run ads in these inexpensively. I pay $185 a month for a HOA monthly that hits 20,000 properties!! Delivered to their mailbox once a month.
Drive around on the weekends and visit yard sales and FSBOs. Great opportunities for listings.
Notice I didn’t mention buyers? Listings generate buyers. Get 20-30 listings and you’ll never have to worry about buyers. In fact you will be able to hire a couple of buyer’s agents.
Reduce your overhead to a bare minimum. Get rid of the “view our agents” buttons on your website. I click over and see you don’t have any agents. Not good. Instead why not have registration forms? Give away some free information or lists for folks that give you an email addy.
LISTINGS, LISTINGS, LISTINGS That’s my 3 words to success plan 🙂
May 17, 2011 — 4:59 am
Ryan Hartman says:
ahh, just realized your url was in your author byline 🙂
Anyway, where’s the “core lead capture offer” on your home page? I mean, what kind of something value can I trade my email address for, and where’s the form?
(Also, you should start gathering likes to a fan page, then dropping hot deals onto it…)
These two above should do you another transaction/month alone over the long haul, (assuming you’ll commit to driving traffic to them)
May 17, 2011 — 7:29 am
Jeff Brown says:
Hey Robert — Been there, lived that. I feel your frustration.
Bryant has it right, as far as he went. I’m also heavily biased toward listings. Listers don’t need buyer agents, but buyer agents are Von’s checkers without listing agents. They don’t like guys like me sayin’ it out loud, mostly cuz in their hearts they know it’s true. I was able to hit the road runnin’ cuz I bought into what Dad had been preachin’ to me at the dinner table since I was 16. List List List — then list some more.
What comes before listing? Never ending prospecting. Look at yourself as a gold miner, alone in the mountains. You labor from sun up to sun down with pick ‘n shovel, searching for the nuggets you KNOW are there. Close up, inside the mine, it seems as if you’re killin’ yourself for nothing. Then you find a small, half ounce nugget. It leads to a small vein. Before long you’re having to figure out where to hide your stash. 🙂
1. Prospect your ass off, then find a way to do it more often, more efficiently.
2. Online leads? Settle on an expert, let ’em do their thing, stop with the do-it-yourself delusion.
3. Instead of lookin’ for agents at this point, think assistant, paid per transaction so as not to drain your bank account. More time to prospect/list. Let THEM do the $200/day stuff.
Your problem isn’t work ethic, obviously. You’re spending most of your time, at least from where I sit, doing what produces pedestrian results.
But then you knew that already, right? If you think it might help, feel free to call.
May 17, 2011 — 9:28 am
Erion Shehaj says:
I second what has been said so far.
On a NET BASIS, having buyers agents work for you will add very little to your bottom line. In this moment, the transactions you close yourself will be the most profitable.
What level of leads are you generating so far? My guess is that this is your primary issue right now. Consider a blitz pay per click campaign, preferably built by an expert that knows real estate and bring in some leads, follow up and close them as part of a short term boost. Long term, listers last. But short term, the shortest distance between you and money is through motivated buyers. So focus your long term strategy on listings but your short term on buyers.
May 17, 2011 — 7:18 pm
Erion Shehaj says:
Broker Bryant
What constitutes a good expired listing package?
May 17, 2011 — 7:20 pm
Robert Worthington says:
You guys are all great. Thanks for the knowledge.
May 17, 2011 — 7:28 pm
Jeremy says:
Robert, I’ve been in your place and still am some days. One thing that’s helped me has been to cultivate an investor list for REO’s. In our market REO’s are about 25-30% of the sales, and having a handful of cash buyers in your pocket is great. I don’t know how large your market is, but for me it meant looking through county sales records and making a list of names that came up more than once in a month. Those guys are likely investors, and generally if you bring them a deal before any other agent they’ll begin to work with you. Good luck.
May 18, 2011 — 2:57 pm
Broker Bryant says:
Erion. A good expired package is one that works. Mine is very simple because my market is very simple. Just a letter, some market stats, sample paperwork all in a high gloss red folder.
Personally I think getting it to them on the morning the listing expires is more important than what’s in it.
The 2 biggest complaints from expired sellers are 1. Lack of communication 2. Locked in to a long agreement with cancellation fees.
My letter offers a 45 day listing agreement with no cancellation fees and a promise to return their call within 1 hour between 8am and 7 pm 6 days a week and weekly updates or they can fire me.
I also tell them that “I may not be able to sell their house in 45 days but I can certainly win their business during this time”
It works. But be sure to not make promises you can’t keep.
May 18, 2011 — 5:14 pm
Sean Purcell says:
Congrats on doing the one thing that most people won’t do: asking for help. In your second paragraph you say: “…where has my business plan failed? Well it hasn’t failed, but it’s not where I want to be.” Do you actually have a specific, written business plan?
I teach a lot of seminars out here for agents, both new and experienced, and I would guesstimate less than 10% actually have a real business plan. That’s a recipe for failure. Business plan should include very well-defined marketing campaigns, expected returns on those campaigns based on local averages, monthly costs, and so forth.
I have the basics for doing this, again, from my seminars. Don’t hesitate to call if you think it will help.
May 18, 2011 — 10:08 pm
Chris says:
These are some really great tips!
Being your own boss definitely has it’s benefits and downfalls. I applaud you for deciding to go the hard route on your own Robert. One of the hardest things you have to do in your own business is keep plugging away, even when you aren’t seeing the results you would like.
Stick with it Robert! Your site looks great and is starting to gain some page and domain authority which will help with your search results in time.
May 19, 2011 — 10:33 am
Dan Boyle says:
Kudos for asking the question. All of the answers were so good. I would only add that success is usually behind the curtain which we are a little reluctant to open. It’s the difficult or distasteful thing. But, the these things are usually easier than they look.
May 19, 2011 — 2:31 pm
Scott Hack says:
Robert,
I hear ya man. I feel like I’m spending a lot of time working, and not seeing the full results I’d like. Like you, I know it takes time… it has been a few months since you posted this. How about a follow up? What did you change? Seeing results?
August 10, 2011 — 7:42 pm