Here are the latest tech tips from Matthew Ferrara & Company
Need technical support? Call the TECHHOTLINE at 866-95-FIXPC for fast friendly support for a low price.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR OUTLOOK CALENDAR
Here is a handy tip for you to use while working in OUTLOOK. While your calendar is open, click on a day. Now, hit ALT + 2 to display two days. ALT +3 for three….all the way up to 9 days! This shortcut helps when you need to quickly see the days ahead on your calendar.
What is the vision for America from its leaders? Clearly, it’s one where the meek shall inherit our money, our praise, and eventually our lives. Anyone who is capable and productive – and proud of it – will incur the wrath of government upon him. So REALTORS had better watch out – because it’s not just the media that hate capable men. Legislators, a la Connecticut, will use their power to punish anyone who proudly demands compensation for his accomplishments. Government itself now holds our most productive minds in disdain. Guilty without charge – for bank CEOs and basketball coaches – and anyone else who has earned their living. As an industry obsessed with “top producers,” REALTORS should be very worried that the best of their ranks will be targeted next. Simply for being great.
This video made me jump up out of my seat and cheer! Finally, a businessman who isn’t embarrassed by what he earns – and is willing to defend it in front of the mass purveyors of guilt, the Media. Every REALTOR should watch this clip and see what it looks like when someone stands up and says, Yes, dammit! I’m worth every penny! I may get paid a lot, but I create a LOT MORE value in return. We need a lot more of this kind of attitude in the industry these days – rather than the doom, gloom, hat-in-hand wimpishness that’s rotting our industry. From the inside out.
REALTORS face this kind of “you are overpaid” attack every day. From the media. From dis-intermediaries who think their fancy websites can kill the traditionally paid agent. As if there were something wrong with being paid, traditionally. And of course, we hear it from consumers sitting across the table from us. You want how much in commission? Wow, that’s a lot! Do you deserve it? Shouldn’t you charge less because my house is declining in value? And suddenly, the consumer has the upper hand, doling out guilt without the facts. And most REALTORS simply cave in.
They could learn a lot from Jim Calhoun.
What Mr Calhoun showed us in one minute is the result of years of pride of ownership. He owns his career. He earned his pay. And he did it by producing more for those he “serves” than they could have on their own. Jim certainly was rude – he even admitted it. But it’s the kind of rudeness we need a whole lot more of in real estate these days.
It is the rudeness of self respect that refuses to accept guilt for being great.
In previous blog entries, I have asked REALTORS why they don’t have the success they deserve. Some agents blame the market. Others the consumer. Brokers blame lame agents. Or the secretary. Or technology. Yet Jim Calhoun’s sixty-second outburst reminds us who is to blame for our failures. And for our successes.
And if we want to be paid what we’re worth, we have to believe we’re worth it, and be willing to say so when it counts.
The Calhoun Outburst makes a perfect business principle for overcoming much of our industry’s challenges. For example, when faced with a seller who insists we list their home at an overpriced amount, a Calhoun Outburst recommending they “get some facts” would certainly put things in perspective. Equally helpful, an Outburst telling sellers to just “shut up” when they insist we run a newspaper ad would nicely remind them who knows how to do the job: Go out and show me the newspaper ads YOU are using to find YOUR next home, Mr Seller, and then we’ll talk about using the newspaper to find a buyer for your home….
Maybe if our industry’s leaders had a few more Calhoun Outbursts, confidence in the housing sector would recover sooner, too. The next time the media claims house prices dropped another 20%” last quarter, without offering a baseline or a location, brokers and agents could “Go Calhoun” on them. Pick up the phone, call the radio and newspaper, and post on their blogs, “Like hell it did! Get some facts – because there are more than 25 major cities in America where prices are stable or rising!” It’s not all doom and gloom. But we have to learn to speak up for the facts, and loudly, Calhoun-style.
I’d even go so far to say that a few Calhoun Outbursts might work wonders inside many real estate offices. Brokers face the firing squad like Calhoun faced the media every day, especially from whiny agents who haven’t sold a thing in months. Has the agent done their homework, following up on every lead, before making claims and demands for more from their broker? Like the off-camera journalist in the video clip, many agents take for granted that the best of us – like Calhoun, and brokers – have to “sacrifice” for the sake of others. Calhoun should take a pay cut because times are tough; so brokers should spend more to generate more leads – even though the agents just throw them away. Calhoun-style Brokers need to just say, “meet me outside” and we’ll settle this once and for all.
Of course, none of this is really surprising to me. Jim Calhoun is a coach. His outburst was really a coaching moment: He was trying to teach the journalist an important lesson. His style was classic – something lacking in today’s “be nice, don’t offend, hug everyone” world. Maybe it’s time the for a little less tolerance for “say anything, do anything” antics from the media – and from non-producers in our offices? Calhoun wasn’t willing to accept guilt for being successful – especially from someone who didn’t do their job well (get the facts) in the first place. Could there be a new model here for dealing with agents who feel entitled to more of the broker’s money while simultaneously refusing to prospect or come to meetings? Hmmmm?
At the very least, the industry as a whole can learn from Calhoun: Sometimes, we need to stand up and demand a little respect for ourselves. And any journalists, agents or sellers who don’t agree can meet us outside to talk about it….
- M
Here are the latest tech tips from Matthew Ferrara & Company
Need technical support? Call the TECHHOTLINE at 866-95-FIXPC for fast friendly support for a low price.
SHRINK TO FIT ON ONE PAGE
Microsoft WORD has a useful tool that you might not have noticed before called the SHRINK TO FIT ON ONE PAGE tool. If you have a document that has a last page with one sentence or one word on it, click on Print Preview and then under the preview section, select SHRINK TO FIT ON ONE PAGE.
At first, I thought it was a joke, something to lighten the mood of an otherwise dour real estate industry. Yet a few clicks of the email invitation told me it wasn’t a joke, it was actually back by “popular demand” of a lot of REALTORS. If I hurried, I could save a seat at the “all new and updated” course that would unlock my power colors and align my compass at a very affordable price. I couldn’t help it, and just laughed out loud.
Feng Shui for real estate is back. It’s being conducted in the Temples of Real Estate Associations across America. Even more incredibly, in some states it has been approved for Continuing Education, a sanctioned topic that deals with “consumer protection.”
The high priests of Feng Shui contend it will help you be a better professionals, maximize referrals and increase sales. Their rites-of-passage into this sales Nirvana include:
- Using “success colors” in marketing pieces, like business cards and brochures
- Conducting space clearing and blessing ceremonies to chase away stagnant energy
- Written instructions on how to use “success symbols” to energize your office
Just bring your compass directions and floor plan and the Wizard will teach you how to rearrange your furniture and your career. Read more…
Here are the latest tech tips from Matthew Ferrara & Company
Need technical support? Call the TECHHOTLINE at 866-95-FIXPC for fast friendly support for a low price.
OUTLOOK CONTACT HISTORY
Here is a great tip for those of you who use Outlook as your email client. You can quickly, and effortlessly, find a full history of mail sent to and received from any outlook contacts.
To get a full mail history with an Outlook contact:
- Open Outlook.
- Click Contacts.
- Locate the appropriate contact from your contacts list.
- Double click the contact.
- Select the Activities tab
The resulting window will display a history of all your communications with that particular contact.
As President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law yesterday, the vast majority of Americans, and some REALTORS, registered their vote against it. No, another election wasn’t held – but the 300 point drop in the DOW Jones Industrials Index is a better indicator than an election of citizen sentiment on any given day. Obviously, most Americans aren’t fooled by this bill: It neither inspired confidence nor demonstrated a clear path out of the recession. Political pundits on both sides of the aisle were forced into the interminable pattern of “yes, but…” in their commentary.
Yet the National Association of REALTORS’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun hailed the move, saying, “… the housing component is clearly the best measure to turn the economy around.”
Apparently the President isn’t the only pseudo-economist around here.
Like a three ring circus, the housing bill distracts the American taxpayer with shiny baubles. Behind the scenes however, the bill will likely destroy the housing industry and the careers of millions of REALTORS. Yet the moths continue to fly toward the fire, praising the insidious federal policy of giving away down-payments to buyers, forcing banks to write down mortgage principle, and protecting non-paying borrowers. All this , and more, just to set the stage for the big act:
Commission caps for REALTORS. Really.
Haven’t Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac done enough harm already? Remember Barney Frank’s “roll the dice” policy of funding credit-less borrowers? Not any more. Faster than slippery snakes shedding their skin, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s political patrons have shifted the media’s attention towards “evil bankers” whose Vegas junkets on corporate jets were the real cause of the current recession. This is not to say that bankers were asleep at the wheel during the credit boom, but they are taking their lumps in devastated stock prices today.
We should not forget, however, that Congress put up the Big Tent under the name of “Everyone has a Home” and gave out tickets with cheap Greenspan money. Pointing the legislative gun called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) at banks, Fannie and Freddie sent the message: Put people in homes.
It is the tendency of our age that many things are moving toward centralization. Like efforts to collectivize our economy, health care, school and retirement systems, similar proposals in the real estate industry tempt us to move control of our vital business data to a national system. Now REALTORS have the urge – under the guise of fixing the troubles with our industry, the “urge to merge” threatens to undermine brokers’ local control of their companies. Ironically, an industry that insists that “all real estate is local” is actually on the march toward nationalizing its listing database.
One wonders if all that’s missing is the appointment of an MLS Czar?
Months ago, we wrote that traditional internet marketing was dead. In August, 2008, MySpace outranked Yahoo for the top spot in ad displays. More people saw more pages – and advertising – on a social network than searching the “trusty” search engine. Did REALTORS take notice? Apparently not, since we’re still getting emails from agents asking “what website service” should they use.
They shouldn’t feel alone, since the story went largely unnoticed by everyone – except by us – while SEO and PPC web marketers tried to write it off as a fluke. Today, that fluke is setting the stage to knockout the traditional web-marketing rules of lead generation for the real estate industry. Read more…
