September 2008 Weekly Motivational Ideas!
Inspirations that I hope will help you make more $$!!
 
Sam		 Dear Sam,
 
What a week for the financial industry last week!  Hopefully things will settle down this week with Henry Paulson's bailout plan and we can get some new buyers in our pipeline!  It's all about consumer confidence and we all need some...
 
Here's a quick great tip for those of you with a lot of initiative.  Why not offer to hold a "Yard Sale/Open House" with your sellers?
 
One realtor in my region does this and not only does she make some extra cash by selling some of her items in the sale, she develops better rapport with the sellers and shows the property too.  This agent said I could share this with you to help stimulate your business and the market as a whole.  With the slow economy, a yard sale is really a great idea to lure in some buyers! 
 
She just made $61 a couple of weekends ago and got a buyer too!

Hey, if you are really ambitious, you can approach all of the neighbors to go in with you or get them to have a yard sale too to really bring in more people and prospective buyers into the neighborhood!  This would be a great excuse to talk to the neighbors about your listing and about your service to your client.
 
Since people are attending yard sales more and more, this is a great way to prospect for buyers and sellers.  With Christmas right around the corner, this is a great idea to unload some items and to make some extra Christmas cash too.
 
 READ THIS PART!
 
Just include this additional service in your listing presentation that will help your potential sellers see that you offer more that the next guy.  Say that "In order to help get the house in top showing condition, we can have a Yard Sale/Open House.  This will allow us to de-clutter some things so the rooms look roomier and then we can stage it at the same time to they can see the potential. This yard sale will generate interest in the neighborhood and draw in prospects from all around town!" 
 
Isn't this a neat idea!
 
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Are you still promoting the $7500 1st-time buyer tax credit!  This will probably make the mortgage payment for the entire 1st year for most houses in our region!  How's that for a great incentive!
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Thanks for your business.

mysignature
Senior Mortgage Advisor
President's Club Member 2007
Mortgage Services
 
Click here to write your congressman to save the Down Payment Assistance program (DPA) program for FHA loans.  I wrote to all the congressmen in my territory by changing the zip codes I work in.
 
 
910-489-6918 or
843-230-7929
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Great News for my NC Realtors!  I can now originate USDA approved loans for 100% financing in NC!  SC will have to wait until November and by then; I'll be an expert on these.   
 
The Doctor Referral Analogy!
  doctor
 Who do you call when looking 
 for a Doctor?
 
Think about it.  How did you select your Doctor or Surgeon?  How did you select your CPA or Attorney?  What about your Plumber or Hairdresser?  Usually from asking close friends who they use, right?  You want to make sure that they are good from personal experiences and not from the ads you saw in the yellow pages, etc.
 
The same thing happens in Real Estate.  I don't know the statistics on this but my guess is that it happens more than the others because, most people don't know much about these transactions because they only happen once or twice in a lifetime.
 
People probably call someone they know that recently bought or sold a house to find out what they thought about their Realtor or they ask someone they trust that may know like their CPA, Attorney, etc.
 
This is why the good agents that have been in the business the longest are doing so well.  It's through direct referrals that they get from past clients and other service providers.  The ones that are getting the most from this are the ones that stay in contact with their past clients and network with other service providers on a regular basis.
 
Here are a few ideas I think will really help you develop this marketing strategy.
  1. Treat your clients with respect with professional and friendly service.  Keep them well informed at all times.
  2. Ask them for a reference letter after closing.  This is very valuable in building a good presentation binder and in helping your clients think about how good you were throughout the transaction.
  3. Stay in touch with them on a regular basis with holiday cards and birthday cards.
  4. Stay in touch with other service providers that are likely to get asked if they know a good realtor too.
  5. Finally, call your past clients at least annually to chat about THEM and not YOU.  People love to talk about themselves if you will pause and let them do it and this really helps your rapport with them.  But, always end the conversation with some good information about the market and ask if they know anybody that might be entering the market soon!
Then, your past clients will give you some referrals and they will remember you more and they will be out singing your praises. 
 
Think of them as your little army of PR specialists!
 
 
Also, when your clients need a great mortgage guy, don't forget about me!   If you refer them to me, I'll do everything I can to help them with professional and courteous service and I'll promote you too!
 
   


My brands* that I represent are:
 
phhlogo     cblogo 
 
    c21logo    eralogo
 
Want to jazz up your website?  Add the "get approved" graphic below and then put my website link in the properties of the image as follows.  Call me if you need help with this.

*Any time I am working with your client, if you are under a specific brand, I am projecting your brand logo in all that I say and do as do my colleagues.
 
Weekly Tip -  Monthly Activity Reports!
 
 
activityreport
 
Monthly Activity Reports
Help you see how you are doing! 
 
When I worked for Rockwell International, United Technologies and Marley Engineered Products, I was required to submit an activity report that was put into a companywide activity report each month. 
 
This allowed the plant management to report how we were doing to corporate in meeting our goals and in the various projects that we were involved in like production improvement, quality improvement, cost reduction, employee training, compliance, inventory reduction, etc.
 
But for me, the process of writing the activity report was always
valuable in reading through my planner pages (where all my daily notes are kept) to remind me of my projects and progress on them.  This process allowed me to stay focused on projects and in planning them better.
 
Why am I telling you this?  Because I think this would be a great thing for you to do for your business.  Just take your business plan that you are developing and start reporting to yourself how you are doing in following your plan and hitting your metrics.
 
Brokers-In-Charge could require you to do this so they can see how you are doing and so they can help you better too!
 
Record your daily activities in your planner and this process will help you stay on track, stay focused, help you in your follow-ups with prospects and clients, help you fine-tune your plan and help you make a lot more money in real estate.
 
Remember that 60% of all sales happen after the 5th call so this will help you keep track of your progress on this.  For this you can have a table like this:
 
Client      Call 1     Call 2     Call 3     Call 4     Call 5     Call 6
John D.   03/23     04/21     05/19     06/21     07/18
Sarah E  05/2       05/30     06/25     07/14   
 
Just copy this portion of your report and add to it to save time. What you will find when you start doing this is that you will make the calls you haven't made yet while writing your report and you will pick up some new active buyers and sellers when you do.
 
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If you still haven't started working on your business plan yet, click on the link below and get your own copy of a great template full of neat marketing ideas you can try.  Then you can tweak it with your ideas.
Weekly Mortgage Commentary Snippet
Weekly Rate Lock Advisory - Friday, Sept 19th.
 
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Friday's bond market has opened sharply lower following a huge rally in stocks. The stock markets are reacting favorably to the news of further Fed intervention in the banking crisis. This has pushed the Dow higher by 375 points and the Nasdaq up 71 points. The effect on bonds has not been pretty. The bond market is currently down 53/32, which will likely push this morning's mortgage rates higher by approximately .625 of a discount point or slightly more than 1/8 of a percent in rate.

The stock market reaction to the Fed news isn't exactly surprising. Neither is the bond market's reaction to the stock rally. The same funds that were shifted into bonds while stocks were tanking are now being moved out and back into stocks. This has driven bond yields and mortgage rates much higher. I suspect that the markets will stabilize sometime early next week, as long as we don't get more news.