CORE
Rules for CORE Agents #13: Be Good at Your Job
Take a look at a list of the most successful agents in your market and try to figure out what they have in common. How did they all become top agents? It’s not easy, because successful agents don’t conform to the superficial stereotypes that we all have of the dynamic “superstars” out of central casting. …
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #12: Whenever Possible, Get Digits
The single most important thing you can do to build your real estate business over the next ten years is simple: get digits. When you meet people, get their mobile phone numbers, and get their email addresses. Why? Because even while we live in a world of “over-sharing” that has become increasingly open and less…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #11: People Never Complain About Getting a Call From Their Doctor
You know you’re supposed to make phone calls to help build your business. They’re essential. A personal phone call is truly the best, sometimes the only, way to develop a contact into an active lead or cultivate a relationship with someone in your sphere. We all know that. And yet many agents are afraid to…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #10: People Love Giving Referrals, So Make Them Happy
People just love giving referrals. We love recommending restaurants to our friends. We love posting our favorite movies on Facebook. We love telling people that we “have a guy” if they need a plumber or an electrician or whatever. Indeed, hugely successful websites like Yelp and Angie’s List have been built around our natural impulse…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #9: Buying a Home is Easier Than Buying a Car
Too many real estate agents don’t believe in their value. They have become brainwashed by all the attacks on our industry from people who complain that we charge too much and don’t provide a valuable service. So they cut their commission every time a seller complains, hang their heads when they see a FSBO sign…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #8: Be Yourself, But Be Your Best Self
Real estate educators always want us to be like them. It makes sense. Most of them were wildly successful in real estate by running their business in a certain way, so it’s natural that they’d try to coach you to run your business that same way. They made money by committing to some extraordinary campaign…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #7: Talk Less, Listen More
Real estate agents talk too much. It’s sort of an occupational hazard. The whole industry has bought into the idea, for example, of a listing “presentation” as the cornerstone of the industry. That’s why agents get sucked into doing these hourlong “presentations” where they yammer on and on about their 27 point marketing programs and…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #6: Stop Annoying People!
The real estate industry has become very good at annoying people. Anytime there’s a new technology for communicating with people, agents seize on the new medium to inundate their clients, friends, and random people they don’t even know with information that those people don’t care about. Take, for example, those emails that go out to…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #5: Always Show Up With More Than a Knife and a Fork
Imagine that you were invited to someone’s home for a dinner party. You ring the bell, the door opens, the host looks out, and sees you standing there with a smile in your face, holding nothing but a knife and a fork in your hands. “Let’s eat!,” you say, waving your knife and fork. That’s…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #4: Be a Giver, Not a Taker
What do you think is the greatest force for driving sales in any business? If I were to ask you that question, you’d probably say something like marketing, or making cold calls, or developing a sphere, or whatever you just heard about at your last sales conference. They’re all fine answers, but they’re all wrong. …
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