What if we charged by the hour?

I was talking to some agents recently about all the things that an agent does for her client, and how she does them “on spec.” No matter how many times she shows that listing, or does open houses, or advertises the property, she makes nothing if it doesn’t sell. And no matter how many time…

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November 30th is a HARD Deadline — Be Prepared

It has occurred to us that we should send out a general alert to all of you to start preparing for November 30th. What’s November 30th? It’s the last day that first-time home buyers can close to take advantage of the federal tax credit. It’s going to be a massive closing day. It’s also, unfortunately,…

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Giving our clients good pricing advice

A year ago, I was in car accident. I was on Kinderkamack road in Emerson, and stopped because a line of geese were crossing the road (new rule: drive over the geese), and a woman who apparently wasn’t paying such careful attention smashed into the back of my car.  She pretty much destroyed the rear…

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Staying on top of things

If you’re going to be the “World’s Best Real Estate Agent,” you have to stay on top of things.  For those of you working with first-time home-buyers, be advised that the New York State government just shut down the state’s first-time home-buyer tax credit.  As we predicted in the Market Intelligence blog a few weeks…

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Using New Technologies

Brian Boero of the 1000WattConsulting Blog had a great post this week about the “Bizarro World” of social media, making many of the same points I’ve talked about with regard to adoption of new technologies. I’ve talked to lots of agents about utilizing facebook and blogs to help build and develop their social networks. Blogging…

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Clean Windows Service — Getting Property Taxes Right

In a “World’s Best” class we had last week, agents in the class firmly made the point that a fundamental aspect of a great service experience is getting the taxes right. From a listing perspective, you have to go to the town or village to get the right taxes, not just trusting the seller to…

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What Would the World's Best Real Estate Agent Do?

We just had a great session today with about 300 agents covering how the World’s Best Real Estate Agent would develop her business.  The question I’m posing to the class is “What Would the World’s Best Real Estate Agent Do?” with regard to all aspects of her business. How would she manage her clients? How…

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You guys are wonderful…

In our recent “World’s Best Real Estate Agent” class, we discussed all the tasks that a professional real estate agent performs in taking care of a client. My point was this — You guys are wonderful. For the work you do, the time you spend, the efforts you make for your clients, you are simply…

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Bringing the WOW

I taught a class last week where we discussed the “Bringing the WOW,” that element of service that just completley overwhelms a client.  Bringing the WOW is performing a service for a client that surprises and delights them.  It can be a simple gesture, like a birthday card, or something more extensive, like catching a…

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Who is the World's Best Real Estate Agent?

We’re going to be on a mission in this blog to identify the tools, systems, and processes that we need to put in place to help you become the World’s Best Real Estate Agent.  But even before we do that, we have a pretty good idea of what we’re looking for if you want to…

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