Ask Yourself These 5 Questions Each Week...

As I review each week, I look back to see how I did.

It's a part of my PLAN - DO - REVIEW sequence.

The successes, the frustrations, the activities completed...

I have a simple checklist on a 3 x 5 card that I have taped to my computer. I want to share it with you, so that you will make an effort to 'consciously' think about your week and see how you could have improved upon it.

Here's what I do on Friday afternoons for 10 - 15 minutes...

End Of Week Checklist - (Questions to ask yourself)

1. Have I improved myself and/or my business this week? If yes, in what areas?
   
2. What mistakes did I make that I can learn from and improve upon?
   
3. Have I done at least 1 thing each day this week that I didn't want to do, but that would help myself or my business if I did it?
   
4. What have I put off that needs to be tackled next?
   
5. What are the most important actions I need to be focusing on next week?

Prior to implementing this strategy, I would find myself going through the motions of every day real estate life...doing the tasks I enjoy and procrastinating on those that I greatly disliked.

When I made a more conscious effort to start asking myself more powerful and productive questions, better
results immediately followed.

You will be amazed at the results of this strategy when you consistently and faithfully do it each week.

You need to stretch yourself. You can complete more in the same time and watch your businesses increase in profits without putting additional time constraints on yourself.

You and I can be SO much more than we presently are.

Let's GO FOR IT!

Are you in?

Make a 1-week commitment...then a 4-week commitment...then a 90-day commitment. The longer you do it, the better and more focused you become.

Your business will take off...it'll EXPLODE!

But don't fool yourself, nothing will happen without action.

Each day, take 1 action that you REALLY want to put off.At the end of the week, read your 5-Question Checklist and write down the answers and put them in a binder. Then each week, keep adding more answers for the week.

After 90 days, look back and review your answers. If you're being honest with yourself, you should see a better Realtor in the mirror looking back at you, because you stretched yourself and did activities that you weren't previously doing.

YOU deserve amazing things and I believe in you.

Now just go DO it!!!

3 Highly-Effective Habits For Success!

Is your business doing as well as you expected so far this year?

Do you find yourself not hitting your goals?

With all of the news media outlets constantly harping on negativity in the housing market, it can be easy to get distracted and think that the real estate market really is bad. Well, the reality (my reality) is "It's an incredible time to buy!" Don't get sucked into watching all of the talking news heads.

What you may be experiencing is a lack of focus in your business and life. One of the ways to help you get back on track is to develop a few routines that when done consistently every business day will increase your income, increase your confidence and put you in a great mood.

Habits are like routines. Every day, you have a routine of a series of steps you take when you wake up and when you go to bed. You don't even think about them. You do them automatically, because you've been doing them for a long time.

Everyone has habits in their business too. They may be good habits or bad habits, but we all have them. If you continually do your bad habits, then you're not going to get the results you want. One common bad habit is procrastination. You may be thinking to yourself "I can do that (task) later." The problem is when you procrastinate, you're greatly reducing your effectiveness in your business for that day. None of us get a re-do of any day in our lives.

Well, here are 3 Simple Disciplines (Habits) That Will Help You Achieve Your Goals:

1. Design Each Day - Have you ever heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Well, by taking 30 minutes each morning before you get to work to rejuvenate yourself, you will start out refreshed and focused on the day's tasks. During this 30 minute warm-up to your day, you can read 10 pages of a good book (or an article on prospecting or negotiating, etc, something to improve your skills). If you believe in affirmations and visualization (professional athletes do this all of the time), take 5 - 10 minutes in a quiet space to do this. It's also good to do this while exercising, so you can multi-task your time.
2. Review Your Business Plan - Some agents have a 20-page, extremely detailed business plan. Many agents don't have a written business plan at all, while others use a simplified plan, where they know how many transactions they want to close or how much income they want to make each year. I would go a little deeper than that, because you need to break down your annual goals into monthly-weekly-daily tasks to help you achieve your goals. And most importantly, it all needs to be in writing, so that you can review the numbers and tasks each day. If you fall behind a bit, then you can look at your numbers and increase them by 20 - 25% until you catch up to where you should be. If one of your tasks is to call 10 of your clients/prospects each week, turn it into a daily action step of calling 2 people each day. Why? Because it's too easy to say "I'll get to it tomorrow." It's critical to your success to consistently do your tasks each day.
3. Turn Drive Time Into Learning Time - We're all so busy in life. We never seem to have enough time, but here's an ideal place to educate yourself while you're on the road. Turn off the talk radio and music stations and invest in some real estate training CDs and some motivational CDs from speakers like Paul J. Meyer, Les Brown, Zig Zigler, Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins. You'll pick up ideas each time you listen. Listen to them several times, because you'll retain different strategies each time you listen. I love doing this and every time I get excited wondering what idea I'll learn about and put into action.

So, in closing, remember that to be successful in life, many times it's taking action on simple steps over and over again. It may seem mundane at times, but keep striving for perfection and making your skills better. We all know what's easy to do is also easy not to do. That's why you need to focus on your business plan to take you to where you want to go.

To your success,

Dan

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What The OLYMPICS Has In Common with Real Estate!

As I've caught peeks of watching the Olympics the past couple of nights (Michael Phelps & the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team competition), there is a lot to be learned those athletes...commitment, focus, a dream, a vision for anywhere from 5 to 15 years or more.

Tonight they mentioned that the American gymnasts start training hard for Olympics selection and competition at the age of 10, while the Chinese hand-pick girls at the age of 3 to start training.

Think about the years and years of endless training, food portion control, various injuries to work through, normal childhoods lost forever...is it worth it? Only each athlete can answer that question for themselves.

As they compete, the difference between the medalists and the rest is usually only separated by 1/100th of a second in the swimming pool or the slightest slip on the balance beam, which results in a deduction of points. I saw an American gymnast tonight miss her entry jump onto the balance beam. After she completed her routine, you could see she was holding back the tears as the cameras focused on her. Her teammates tried to console her, but you know that didn't help her much. It's the smallest of mistakes in a competition that helps decide the winner.

It gets me thinking sometimes about you and me. Are we the best we can be in real estate? It's a career where never-ending improvement and education do come into play. You never know it all. Are you presentation skills perfect? How would your listing presentation be rated by a panel of your peers? Would you earn a 9.75 or 8.25?

We are in constant competition with each other, but the reality is we're really only in competition with ourselves. By improving our own skills, we can increase our number of transactions or increase the dollar amount per transaction or ultimately, predetermine a numbers goal, which we complete in 9 months (instead of taking 12 months) and then take time off for the rest of the year. Just a thought!

What are your dreams?

What are you willing to do to achieve them?

Are you as committed as an Olympian?

Michael Phelps (has earned 5 gold medals out of 8 events so far) many years ago committed, focused and dreamed of these 2008 Olympics. His dreams are coming true. Will yours?

What you do today can change the course of your life far into the future. Today is critical. Today really counts. Live for today and do today what needs to be done to achieve your "GOLD" medals.

In real estate today, you have to be at your best in so many every day situations.

In today's markets, where many buyers are in control of which property they buy and for how much, it's critically important to make sure that your sellers know how best to prepare their property for top dollar as well as know what to expect during negotiations and inspections.

You must make your sellers aware of ALL of their options in today's buyer's market. Yes, there may be a few markets, where the seller is still king, but those are few and far between.

You are being paid to represent, counsel and negotiate for your client. Whether that's a buyer or a seller, it's important to explain as much about what will work effectively in today's market as possible. Consumers crave information. It's your job to interpret it for them and make recommendations for them to make the final decisions.

Even when there are tough situations that have to be worked through, that's part of your job. Don't back off! By recommending that a seller accept an offer now that may be less than they wanted, you could be helping your clients avoid a more serious financial distaster down the road in their life. It's not always easy, but you need to stand up for what you believe is in the best interest of your client and tell them. Then it's their decision on what they decide to do.

Be like an Olympian and strive to do your best every day. Think about walking up to the podium to receive your "GOLD" medal for yourself and your team.

To your success,
Dan

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A Lack Of A TEAM Is Costing You Business!

An experienced team will increase your profits and increase your business and save you time!

Are you surrounded by an experienced team?

In today's market, it's imperative to have an experienced team of professionals around you. Even if you're a solo practioner without any personal assistants, you can do this.

Let's look a few people outside of your office that can be vital to having a successful real estate business:

Mortgage Consultant - You need to align yourself with a mortgage lender, who has years of experience, communicates frequently with you, and has a staff that knows what they're doing behind the scenes.

There is no such thing as an easy deal any more when a buyer gets a mortgage. It's also okay to have a couple of other lenders when a client wants a second opinion, but hopefully your preferred lender can provide quality service, competitive interest rates and timely closings.

(On a side note, you should promote experienced lenders that you work with as mortgage consultants, not loan officers. When you talk with your clients, showing that you work with a group of professionals, not salespeople, exudes confidence and can give your clients peace of mind.)

A great mortgage consultant will also save you time when you have your prospects and clients contact them to be pre-approved. If you think back in your career, there have been times when you showed homes to unqualified prospects, because you believed them when they 'said' they could get a loan, but hadn't talked to a lender yet. We've all done one time or another. Now your mortgage consultant will be able to tell you if the prospect can afford what they think they want to buy and you won't be spending gas money on a prospect's pipe dream.

Title Co. Rep - A title company is as important as a lender in making you look good or bad during a transaction. So many closing tasks happen behind the scenes and if a title rep isn't doing their job effectively, they can cause you massive headaches. You know what I'm talking about. If you don't, when you have a closing as a listing agent, you'll see which title companies are bad real quickly.

With all of the short sales and foreclosures happening in the market, your title rep can be your deal saver. Without them, you could end up with a lot fewer closings.

When's the last time you received a closing statement 5 days prior to the closing? Does your title rep order the seller's payoffs? Does your title rep ever step in and take the lead to help you eliminate the problems? A great title rep will do all of these things for you and make you look good in front of your clients.

Home Inspector - In my opinion, a home inspector's purpose is to inspect and accurately state the condition of a property to the best of their ability at the time of the inspection as well as explain the various components of the home to the buyer during the inspection. If they are unsure of something, then they should figure it out or find an expert in the particular field who can answer it. It's not an inspector's job to make you look good, but to protect the buyer's interests. The more experience an inspector has the better....a minimum of several hundred to a few thousand inspections under their belt is ideal. In my state of Ohio, we still don't have licenses for home inspectors, so I don't want my clients going through the Yellow Pages and end up finding some newbie inspector. If a property inspection reveals a bunch of latent, material defects, I want my client to know it, so they can decide if they want to move forward or not with the transaction.

These professionals need to be a part of your core team. They can help you identify, qualify and close on the properties that your clients want. I do believe in giving your clients and customers recommendations, but the cream does usually rise to the top when it's time to select the various professionals.

If you don't have a core group of professionals or only a partial group, don't rush into finding just anyone. You need to take your time, watch and build a rapport to make sure you have the best professionals surrounding your team.

There are other professionals that you can add to your core team, such as a termite inspector, insurance agent, financial planner and others. Think of who else can help and be a benefit to your clients.

It will make a difference in your business and you'll end up with a lot fewer headaches!