What Military Appreciation Month Means To Many Of Us

About a year ago I wrote about the initiative of "Joining Forces" that First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden had started.  Here we are a year later and the program continues to grow, as a military spouse, I respect the work that both of these strong women have done to help our military families.

May is Military Appreciation Month and to every person in the United States this month means something different.  To me it is celebrating the sacrifices that my family and our friends make each and every day.  The six months I spent last year away from my husband and my son spent away from his Daddy, the six months my best friend and her son are about to spend away from her husband, the 13 months a good friend of mine and her two boys are currently spending away from her husband, the nights we spend alone, the never knowing where the next set of orders will take us and the pride that we have for what our families are part of.

I asked for this blog to be posted today because it is a very special day for so many of the people that work with us, it is Military Spouse Appreciation Day.  What many of our clients and blog followers don't realize is that our network of Stay At Home Mom's includes 10+ military spouses that every day support your business and help you to meet, and often exceed, your goals.  Each and every day these "ishidos" work on your listings, closings, marketing, they call your leads, they are your Key Assistant and they help you to analyze your goals for this year and help to make them reality...all the while they are juggling households that may be impacted by a deployed spouse or a spouse that is at work all hours of the day or night.

Today I wanted to recognize all of our military spouses that work with us each and every day.  I just wanted to share my "Thank You" to them for being the strong support system that they are at home while also making this job so enjoyable each and every day.  They aren't just my co-workers, they are also my friends, and I want them to know that they are recognized for the sacrifices they make each and every day.

We also want to thank our co-workers and our clients for supporting each of us as we face each day and each new challenge that the military throws our way.  As a client of ours, you support our military by supporting a company that chooses to not only hire Stay At Home Mom's but also military spouses.

I hope that each of you over the next year will find a way to support the efforts that "Joining Forces" stands for.  For more information on the "Joining Forces" initiative, please go to www.joiningforces.gov

Put Your Best Foot Forward!

A few weeks ago I started working with my husband's siblings on the sale of their parents hunting ranch estate (a 650 acre hunting ranch in Texas with house, bunkhouse and barn).  Having worked as a real estate virtual assistant for some of the top agents in the United States for the past three years they asked me to help them to find an agent.  I quickly accepted and began to do some research on an agent in the area that could help us to sell the property.

What I thought would be an easy assignment was the most eye opening as well as horrifying experience of my life!  To say that the first two agents I heard from made me want to run screaming is an understatement.

The first agent sent me a copy of his listing agreement.  One page with just names, addresses, listing price, commission amount and a 1 year listing date.  I stood in awe looking at what was before me, is this guy for real?  His email jokingly told me that our attorney would probably laugh at the contract because it's so short but that he believes that either you're in it or you aren't.  I just couldn't believe that the lack of legal mumbo jumbo that is common in a listing agreement is there for a reason.  Over the last three years I have seen many different agents versions of listing agreements and none of the successful ones would even consider using this format.  Was this guy for real?

The second one was given my information after I emailed the broker/owner of an agency that is part of a pretty well known national name.  I had looked them up right away during my search because of my experience with this national brands agents, they've always had a great reputation with me and I couldn't imagine any of them not being top level.

The email reply I got from this agent didn't impress me from the moment I saw the greeting.  Dear Mrs. Johnston it started.  Wow, my last name is one of the most common last names and you can't even manage to get that right?  I kept reading and I wanted to scream and call this guy and ask him if he was on his smartphone, on the road, driving with one knee and drinking his coffee (or maybe something else) at the same time he was writing that email because surely he must have some excuse for this mess.  I stared at that email over and over again that night, in pure disbelief.  I almost forwarded it to his broker to ask him if this is the way he lands a more than half a million dollar listing, because I know that isn't how I would do it.

Whenever I write in this blog I always talk about a lesson learned.  This time isn't any different, I know I don't need to detail it out for you, but I will anyway.

• Invest in your paperwork - if you can't write up a decent listing package to help you close the deal then get help.  Remember, a listing contract is just that, a contract.  It should cover you as well as the seller and make everybody comfortable that the sale will go the way both parties want it to.  One page doesn't do it.
• Put Down The Smartphone! - when replying to your leads by email, make sure you are able to send an email that makes sense.  Don't do it on the fly, and for sure don't send it without reading it over again to be sure you don't look like a fool.  You're first impression is the one that counts and you may lose a sale, and the commission tied to it, if you don't take the time to be sure you are putting your best foot forward.

We take great pride in the work that we put out for you.  Whether it be marketing a listing, putting together an email campaign, calling your clients or leads, or creating the very documents that you use to sell yourself to buyers and sellers, you can feel confident knowing that we always put our best foot forward!

Research Your Leads So You Don't End Up Only Working The "Princess Luncheons" With Your Son!

I recently took my 6 year old son to Disney World in Orlando for a weekend away, just the two of us.  While we were there I decided to do one of those character lunches.  Not doing my normal full research on it, I booked us a lunch "with characters" in Epcot.  We arrived at the prescribed time and were taken in to the restaurant.  We got in line for the picture of my son with the "character" at the time.  Imagine my horror when I realized that my lack of research had led us to be booked at a Disney Princess Lunch!  He was a good sport.  He got kissed by one very attractive Belle from "Beauty and The Beast" and then also got a nice smooch from Snow White.  He kindly asked Cinderella and Ariel to refrain from the kisses, which they did.

The lack of research is totally not like me.  But, I thought about it today as I was working through things for a few clients who are considering using our services for calling of their leads that may have been lost in the wind somewhere.

My lack of research is much like most agents lack of follow up with the leads that six months ago or so may have been "C" leads.  These leads may be the "big" one now, but because they are still a C in your database you aren't giving them the attention they need.  Had I done my research, I could have ended up at a lunch or dinner with Buzz Lightyear instead (much more of a great thing for a 6 year old boy).  But, because I ended up at the Princess luncheon, we had fun, but not nearly as exciting as Buzz would have been.

Our calling services find those Golden Eggs for you and do it for little investment on your end.  Imagine if while you are showing houses or taking a new listing you come back to your computer or check your Blackberry to find that we have been calling through your leads and has turned just one of those C leads into an A lead that wants to buy that big house on the hill you have been dying to sell for months!  Or when you get back and see that we found not one, but three leads for you to go sell a house to.  In the email we send you is all the details, what price range, how many bedrooms, etc.  You just need to call them and find them the house!  Our calling will find the Buzz leads for you with your 6 year old son instead of leaving them there and likely losing them to another agent because you didn't act fast enough or didn't stay in touch enough.

Let us loose!  We can make the world of difference for you and your business!

Let Us Help You Cool Off This Summer!

My son was recently in swimming lessons and on the fourth day of classes I found myself watching him with his yellow life jacket on making his way to the two story slide that was on the other side of the large pool, as I watched him make his way up the stairs I was nervous, he didn't like his head to go under water and I knew it was inevitable, even with the life jacket.  I was shocked as I watched him make his way to the top, get into the slide pool at the top and push himself off to begin the decent to the bottom.  As he shot out the other side of the slide, his head went slightly under water and then the life jacket kicked in and popped him back up to the surface.  His face emerged with a giant smile on it, he looked across the pool to me and yelled "Mom, that was cool!  I'm gonna do it again!".  That day we remained at the pool for most of the day, all the while I laid out and worked on my tan, watching him as he made his way up the stairs, got in the slide pool, pushed off, and came out the other end, only to do it again for three hours straight.

I found myself thinking about this today as I was sending emails to clients and discussing client agendas with various team members.  I've spent the past few weeks thinking about different ways to help my clients with different items so that they can concentrate on selling homes.  It was then that I thought about how we are just like the life jacket, our clients come to us either about to fall into the water and go under, or already under the water and they need to be brought back to the surface and made to see that everything is okay.

We help bring it all together, giving you the resources to stop spending hours and hours each week doing work that we could do for you.  You can't be out showing houses if you're on the phone tyring to qualify leads, or entering a new listing into the MLS or sending out marketing newsletters, can you?  Imagine being able to just send in the leads and somebody qualifies them for you, or you send in the information on that new listing and somebody else markets it for you, or what about somebody writes up your newsletter and sends it out for you!?  We give you the resources to get done the things that you don't really have the time to do...let us be your life jacket!

You Don't Need More Leads, You Just Need To Work The Ones You Have In A Smart Way!

I recently worked with a client who's business is based in an area of Florida that has not seen much pick up in the real estate market.  She is a real estate agent that has been very successful in the past but the recent housing market crisis has changed that.

When she became my client she told me that she needed more clients.  After a brief review of her database I found that she had more than she could possibly work and that she just needed some help looking at them "differently".  One thing that I have learned is that most of my clients think they need more leads because the leads they have right now aren't in front of them.  In most cases, these current leads don't know that they want to buy or sell for sure, they are just "thinking" about it.  I hear that all the time as a matter of fact.

The truth with every one of my clients is that they have needed to clean up their database, it's just convincing THEM that they have to do it.  As with my client, she was very apprehensive about doing database cleanup work with us.  But, we make it a little less painful by exporting the leads to Excel, telling you how to code them, and you sit down and spend 5-10 hours (depending on your total database size) to clean up the entire database over a month or so instead of spending five times more than that trying to do it on your own.

After about a month my client realized that she did in fact have enough leads.  As we began sending her weekly leads reports and she began working through them, updating the notes, coding (Buyer, Seller, SOI (sphere of influence) and the rating (A, B, C) she started to notice just how many leads she did have in play.  As we worked more and more through the leads she started to realize the value in what we do for her.

It was about five months into her service with us that I had a conference call with her and the owner of our company, Steve, and we discussed her three major constraints that she had at the time.  I saw it coming, "Time, Money and Focus" she told us.  As we talked more and more we discussed her existing leads and it was then that she realized her buyer's agents weren't doing their jobs.  Instead, she was killing herself day in and day out showing houses to buyers while trying to work her active listings as well as find new listings.  Steve told her about a great idea, hire agents at $10-$15 an hour as showing agents.

A week later she ran the ad in the paper, hired two showing agents and found herself making money in April while also having time to start working the leads she had for new listings!

Had she not had those leads sheets and not cleaned up her leads database, she may never have noticed that her buyers agents weren't actively working their leads and may still be losing money.

That is when I truly realized the importance of a clean and organized database for every business, not just real estate agents.

Remember these two main points that I have learned through this experience and now preach to all of my clients...

1. You don't need MORE leads, you just need to be able to identify your current leads on a priority level and then work them in a smart way.
2. It's not the quantity of your leads, it's the quality of them.

If you can learn to live by these rules, I believe you can be successful at whatever your business does, just ask us how!