Archive for August, 2007

Meet The Real Estate Coach in Las Vegas - Real Estate Marketing Blog

Friday, August 31st, 2007

As many of you know, I have moderated a few of the more popular online real estate forums for many years. Although I pretty much just moderate and do not participate on a regular basis, I always come across some interesting threads that just make me scratch my head. On many occasions over the past few years I have witnessed long threads with people griping and moaning about why they have to pay dues to the association, National Association of Realtors.

First, I believe this is simply a cost of doing business and if you can’t afford $500 bucks or whatever it is, you should just get out of the business right now. Second, I believe NAR does a heck of a lot for those dues. To be clear, I believe only part of the dues actually go to the association, the rest goes to State and local associations. I belong to two State associations, 3 local associations as well as the national association and I believe all of my association do way more for me than I pay them.

Now, instead of getting into all of the reasons why the association earns it’s due, I believe there is one single aspect of NAR that is worth the entire amount we pay for all of the associations. And that is the National Association of Realtors Annual convention that is held every November at different locations around the United States. This year the annual real estate convention is being held in Las Vegas November 13th through the 16th. This year NAR has many speakers and entertainment lined up including coach Lou Holtz, Bill Crosby, Seth Godin and James Taylor for a concert just to name a few. In addition they also have many real estate trainers, speakers, etc. doing sessions each day.

In addition to all of the speakers, entertainment and learning they also have my favorite part, The Trade Expo. The trade expo costs I believe $25 and is one of the most amazing trade shows you have ever seen. I could spend 3 days just going through the trade expo.

I have attended the convention every year for the past 10 years and I have to say that I have got enough out of the convention to pay a lifetime of dues to the association. So, if you can, make plans to attend the convention in November. All of the details including hotel information is available at a great website, Realtor.org. (Another benefit of your dues to NAR)

Although I believe just the convention alone is worth our dues to the association, I challenge each and every one of you to actually do some research, attend the convention and make up your own mind whether or not your association dues are worth it, I bet you will be surprised at the services and resources at your disposal.

Before I conclude this post, I would like to invite anyone who would like to meet up with me for drinks during the convention to send me an e-mail personally to: brian@toolboxu.com and I will make arrangements for us all to meet!

Posted in Real Estate Events | No Comments »

Real Estate Coaching - Is it worth the time and money - The Real Estate Coach

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

First, let me just say right up front that I have been through several real estate coaching programs over the course of my career. Among the coaching programs I have been through are Real Estate Champions, By Referral Only, Brian Buffini, Craig Proctor and Mike Ferry. There are many others out there as it seems the next real estate coaching “guru” is popping up everyday.

I believe all of the above coaching programs have positive aspects about them and they do work if you work at implementing the strategies they teach. Personally I was never able to get what I wanted out of these programs when I went through them. Let me explain. Most coaching programs have a definite starting point and a definite ending point. The starting point always seemed to be backtracking in my career. I was already selling over 200 homes a year and they were putting me through the same program as people selling 5 homes a year or even just getting started in the business with no sales under their belt. This is neither fair to someone like me with a lot of experience or to that rookie agent.

Now, some coaching programs are now segmenting their coaching groups by experience. But, from what I can tell, they are teaching the exact same content, just segmenting the group. Again, not very effective in my opinion. There definitely should be separate, unique content and training for all the segmented groups.

Another factor with real estate coaching is price. Some of the programs mentioned above and others cost as much as $14,000 per year and most are around the $7-8,000 per year range. Now, I like to buy nice things and would generally consider myself in the upper echelon of money earners in the U.S. but $14,000 a year for a caoching program to me these days, is not right. Now, all of these real estate coaches can argue and say, it’s not a cost, it’s an investment or it’s what you get out of it that matters. B.S.

So, back in 2001 I decided to start what I sometimes call a hybrid coaching program. The reason i call it hybrid is that it combines coaching, tools, community but one key distinction is that it was set up in a way to meet any real estate professional right where they are at in their business and mold to their goals and level of experience. There is nothing else like it out there anywhere I can promise you that.

The program is $399 up front and $67 per month, that’s it, no hidden fees, no B.S.

The $399 goes towards a very large package of over 30 Cd’s and 13 manuals that you physically receive in the mail. Remember when I said above that the program molds to your experience level in the real estate business? This package is how it is accomplished. It takes you through a series of questions and training to help you clarify your goals and set your marketing plan based on your goals, experience level and financial budget for building your real estate marketing plan.

Once you complete the real estate marketing plan you then move onto the $67 per month coaching program. This program is not just coaching and training but also includes the tools to carry out your marketing plan that was developed in the initial stage mentioned previously. For $67 per month you have access to: coaching, community forums, unlimited websites, the best real estate contact manager on the market, unlimited single property sites, unlimited podcasts and blogs, unlimited lead capture websites, newsletter templates, streaming audio and video and much more.

It is literally everything you need to build your business based on your well thought out real estate marketing and business plan. And the best part is that you don’t have to stop anything you are already doing in your business that is working. Everything we do will seamlessly integrate. It is much more than a coaching program and every Realtor in the world should have an account, it is that good. Of course I am biased, but I really believe it is the best value and most comprehensive marketing machine/coaching program anywhere. Check it out!!

http://www.realmarketingpros.com

Posted in General Shop Talk, Real Estate Technology | No Comments »

New Features Added to BAP Real Estate Marketing System

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

NEW FEATURES LIVE!
Thursday, 23 August 2007

Over the last days we have launched many new features including…

1. Removed Campaign tasks and replaced with Activities
2. New options in Campaign manager based on Activities
3. New activity types - labels, letters and envelopes (postcards in final development)
4. Scheduling of activities by clicking the calendar’s date
5. Hundreds of New Letters, Scripts, Checklists & more.
6. All new desktop printing functionality (IE only)
7. New tabbed view of desktop
8. New printing template manager
9. Integrated Web Browser for web access without leaving BAP

The power and flexibility these recent upgrades adds is enormous!
More on the way !!!

For a limited time, you can get a free account complete with full featured contact manager, one of the best marketing forums online and much more. Just visit http://busyagentpro.com

Posted in Internet Marketing, Real Estate Technology | No Comments »

Real Estate Coaching Expert Talks with The Real Estate Marketing Coach about Flexing Your Mental Muscle

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

Every Thursday my good friend Scott Paton and I do a real estate marketing podcast. This week we had a very special guest and another friend of mine, Kim Ades. Kim is Founder and President of Opening Doors, and Frame of Mind Coaching. http://openingdoors.tv

Between 1995 and 2005, Kim was the Founder and President of Upward Motion and is well known for dramatically penetrating the international real estate industry with a product called the Real Estate Simulator, a web-based assessment tool for the recruitment, selection and training of top performing real estate agents.

On this podcast Kim talks about the 7 Secrets of all successful real estate professionals. She shares some wonderful information on what she calls, “Flexing Your Mental Muscle.”

Listen in as Kim shares some incredible information

Posted in Audio/Video Library | No Comments »

Fire Your Real Estate Customers - Real Estate Marketing and Coaching Series

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

This Strategy is going to be short and sweet or maybe not so sweet, you choose. Anyway, if you have clients that just aren’t worth the time, they complain, nitpick, chisel away at profits, call you at all hours of the day for every little thing they can think of…

Get Rid Of Them!

Fire their $#%&. Sorry, I have no patience for people that think just because they are the consumer in a business relationship that it somehow gives them a license to be a jerk.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule. It says that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. Also, 80% of your problems come from 20% of your clients. If it’s the same 20% you may have problems. J

If someone is never satisfied with anything no matter how good a job you are doing they aren’t worth the headache – no matter how much business they give you.

Decide right now to give quality, superior and professional service. Then, if you feel you’ve done more than what is expected and have done a great job, and they still complain…just fire them. I’d even give them their listing back to get rid of them. Plenty of my clients have done this. There’s no need to chase after their money no matter how bad you think you might need it.

Life is too short and there are too many good people out there to waste your time on jerks.

Posted in General Shop Talk | No Comments »

Evan Muskopf Interviews Pay Per Click Expert Perry Marshall - Real Estate Marketing

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

The Real Estate Toolbox Exclusive Interview Series has been a huge hit. We have had some incredible guests including Armando Montelongo, Mitch Axelrod, Richard Paul Evans and many others. The series continues with a very exclusive interview with world renown Pay Per Click Marketing Expert Perry Marshall. On this call RETU Vice President Evan Muskopf does a great job of grilling Perry on how to use Pay Per Click marketing in their real estate business.

Perry Marshall was kind enough to join us on our RETU Exclusive Interview Series on Monday, August 6th to talk about Pay Per Click advertising. Perry is by far the expert when it comes to showing small businesses how to capitalize on this form of advertising.

If you joined us on the call, then you will remember that we mentioned Perry’s FREE 5-Days To Success With Google Adwords mini-course. I recommend that everyone get that course today!

It is FREE and it is jam packed with information to help you overcome the Google AdWords learning curve so you can start a successful campaign immediately!

CLICK HERE to get your hands on Perry Marshall’s FREE 5 Days To Success With Google Adwords Mini-course!

Below is a replay of the RETU Executive Series Interview with Perry Marshall:

Click Here to Download MP3

Posted in Audio/Video Library, Internet Marketing | No Comments »

The Real Estate Marketing Revolution - The Real Estate Coach Talks about The E2 Revolution

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

A number of years ago, i started a new movement in the industry called The E2 Revolution. A number of my current coaching clients have asked me what ever happened to E2. Basically, E2 became what you are seeing here, RealEstateToolbox.com. But, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what and how The E2 Revolution came about.

E2 was started to empower real estate professionals from around the country to take back control of their leads and prospects.

Over the past five years many large companies as well as certain inside people in the industry have made a consorted effort to encroach upon just about every major and minor real estate market in the country and they are even reaching smaller markets as of late 2005. Each and everyday that passes we are losing more control of our businesses to our brokers, companies, franchises and lead aggregation companies.

These companies and individuals have deep pockets and are using advertising space in our newspapers, magazines and particularly online to beat us as agents to our own leads so they can turn around and sell them back to us for large referral fees. The E2 Revolution encourages competitive marketing among national franchises as well as independent companies but we are committed to defending ourselves as well as making pre-emptive strikes against these large companies know as lead aggregators and taking back control of our local markets one at a time.

Posted in General Shop Talk | No Comments »