Matthew discusses why buyers dislike the open house process.
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Here are ten simple phrases managers can work into their recruiting conversations with potential candidates. The agent’s reaction to any one of them should instantly tell you if you have found the right person for the job.

Matthew Ferrara’s presentations on Generation Differences in Real Estate and Leads Management from Leading Real Estate Companies of the World 2010 Conference in Las Vegas.

In a tough market, real estate companies need everyone to contribute their best efforts daily. Agents need to prospect, follow up on leads and ask for referrals. Marketing departments need to revamp websites, produce constant blog content and create company buzz on social networks. And what should managers do to contribute their best? Get out of their office!

According to a new survey by NAR, by a factor of 4, most buyers think open houses are far more useless than they were just a year ago.

What separates good agents from great ones? Almost always it’s a matter of goal clarity. Great agents have a written business plan – as straightforward as one sheet of paper – that identifies their specific goals. This helps them connect their daily activities to their desired outcomes, and make key decisions about anything – marketing, technology, whether or not to take a listing – by asking: How does this help me achieve my goals? Anything that detracts from reaching their goals is eliminated. Everything that has to be done to accomplish goals and reap rewards is moved to the front of their daily schedule. Without goals, most agents simply do lots of activities, and waste time, energy and money. Think about it.

In one of the cruel ironies of the housing market today, the total number of units sold this year isn’t that far from historically normal volume. According to the National Association of REALTORS, the seasonally adjusted annual rate for sales in May is around 4.77 million – generally trending the pre-bubble long-term volume  for a typical year. Some segments continue to decline – such as housing starts – but it makes sense to stop adding more units to the million-plus excess inventory units available already. Clearing the excess inventory remains an important goal for the market. Only when supply and demand level off will prices stabilize. Yet real estate companies find themselves doing the same (or more) work for less results. Even selling historically normal units prevent a revenue decline; and nobody’s picking up “extra” units these days. With median home prices down 30% to around $173,000, volume strategies alone cannot sustain most brokerages. Thankfully, the consumer has provided real estate professionals with a ready-made solution. It’s up to brokers and agents to start selling it. Just like they used to.

What do Hyatt, FedEx, Microsoft, and Burger King all have in common? They all started during recessions. And today they each are winning companies in their industries. Every one of them understood that recessions cause both economic uncertainty and reveal new opportunities. Their success is a result of capitalizing on the companies who went into “automatic” mode during good times, forgetting that change, and recessions, always come. One look at these companies today proves that recessions and innovation go hand-in-hand. They either invented or re-invented how their industry performs during a time when rivals tried instead to weather the storm. They took risks that helped them grow through the downturn, and win a dominant position in their industries.

Why do some agents make more sales than others? What makes some agents capable of creating sales when others struggle for a single lead? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a cool web tool or a more expensive marketing plan. Almost always it comes down to a single, consistent factor, no matter what company or place in the country: A great manager.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Listen to this blog entry by clicking the play button above. You can also click the podcast icon to listen in your default mp3 player. In the news today, the real estate market soared as buyers finally concluded that the prices of houses on the market accurately reflected their needs and desires, plus their ability to pay, given the broader conditions of the American economy. When asked how quickly they might begin making offers on current inventory, John Q. Public, spokesman for the Common Real Estate Buyer (CREB) said, “Looks like we’ll see a lot of offers being made this month, now that REALTORS have stopped trying to get our members to pay too much for their next home. Looks like the managers in most offices have finally started taking control of their companies and rejecting overpriced listing agreements from their agents.”

Here’s a cool tool I’ve been playing with for a few weeks. It’s called Viigo and it’s a RSS reader for your Smartphone. I’ve been testing it on my Blackberry Pearl (which still continues to leave my students in awe at the fact that they don’t need to carry around lunch-box sized smartphones unless their cranky old MLS mandates it) and it has worked flawlessly. So it’s time to share the product with all of you. Oh, yes. And it’s free!

Just had a great conversation with Karen today about leads (if you don’t know Karen, she’s our Executive Director conversion and national averages. Our consultants and trainers are constantly being asked about the “key” to success in online leads conversion: is it software, is it an auto reply, is it template emails. Well, yes, sure, all of those help. But the real key? Managers. Managers are the key to lead conversion success for two reasons: First, they know how much it costs to generate leads – which is a good way to help agents understand why they should not throw leads away so quickly. Only by sharing the full picture with the sales force – of what it costs to run the website, direct marketing, PR campaigns – in other words, what it costs to generate leads – can agents get a better picture of why leads conversion is so much more than just getting another deal. Converting online leads is critical to spending money wisely; if conversions don’t happen, then it’s just like throwing money down the drain. Managers (and management) can advertise and build websites; but it’s up to agents to make the sales happen. Secondly, managers help [...]