WHEN SELLERS AREN’T INCLINED TO PRICE THEIR HOMES COMPETITIVELY, HERE’S A SHOPPING ANALOGY TO DRIVE THE POINT HOME.

By Gary Keller, co-founder and chairman, Keller Williams Realty

It’s one thing for your clients and prospects to read in the paper or hear on the news that home prices have declined. It’s quite another when the reality hits home, and you’re at the kitchen table helping a client come to terms with the fact that the price that they want or “need” isn’t in line with current market values.

Pricing conversations can be a critical moment of truth in any market, but when local market values have trended downward, pricing a home to sell – and explaining this dynamic to sellers – takes on a new dimension.

I was recently talking to Shaun Rawls, concerning the challenge of resetting seller’s expectations about the listing price and market value of their home. He offered some great perspectives and a solid script.

Gary: How are you counseling your agents to initiate pricing conversations with sellers?

Shaun: It’s a conversation that should be backed into, and is the case of so much of what we do, success hinges on asking good questions. Even though the media has given a lot of attention to the “down real estate market,” we need to keep in mind that most people have come to take for granted that home values would remain on a constantly upward trajectory. The last time they bought or sold a home, they essentially hit the pause button  on market dynamics. That’s why, before we start talking price, it’s important to ask, “Tell me about when you bought this house.” That opens the conversation to a comparison of how the current market is different from the market that they remember.

Continue reading ‘Retail vs. The Clearance Rack’

Last week, Ignite, Keller Williams University’s (KWU) newest course, launched in more than 400 Keller Williams market centers across the United States and Canada.

The response among trainers and associates was that this course is all about getting into action immediately.  The first part of the class is dedicated to mindset. Then attendees learn the skills, scripts and strategies to get listings. This includes lead generating on the phone during class giving attendees the chance to hone their scripts and secure appointments. After a successful week, our associates took the Keller Williams Facebook Page to post their pictures and videos. Here’s what caught our eye!

Ignite has a single objective: to propel agents into immediate productivity. To achieve this goal, the course contains a wealth of fundamental and foundational real estate content, enhanced by productivity-based exercises, an online tracking system (MyTracker), practical job aids, and powerful scripts.

Join the company-wide launch of Keller Williams Realty’s latest course by talking to your Team Leader today!

Be sure to post your videos, pictures on Facebook and tag Keller Williams Realty

Or post directly to the Keller Williams Realty Facebook Page!

Learn more about Ignite on the KWU Website.

For most entrepreneurs and independent business owners, fourth quarter is a time of reflection on the past year’s successes and an opportunity to put together a solid business plan for the next 12 months.

As you might imagine, Gary Keller, co-founder and chairman, Keller Williams Realty, Inc.  goes through a rigorous planning process. Below is an email exchange between him and Todd Butzer, regional director, North Central on creating the “Master Plan.”

-----Original Message-----

From: Todd Butzer

To: Gary Keller

Subject: planning question

Gary –

I am pretty sure you go through a specific planning ritual this time of year.

Wonder if you would mind sharing any part of it?

T

Todd Butzer

Regional Director

North Central Region

-----Original Message-----

From: Gary Keller

To: Todd Butzer

Subject: RE: planning question

hey !

i work from a simple concept:

1.   i start with the end in mind:  i envision my life at the end of it and ask myself what i want to have done.  i then mock up a simple 5 year look (in

kind of a grid form with the years to the left and along the top the categories – like health, giving, john, mary, mom, business, writing,etc…) at what i should be doing to be on track and then i look at the first year.

that creates my goals for the year.

2.   i then take each goal and ask one question:  what is the one thing i can do that by doing it everything else that could also be done to accomplish this would either be easier or unnecessary?

3.   last, i go to my calendar with that answer for each goal and i time block out the year to make sure those things get done.  first, i time block all my time off – vacations, days off, short days, etc.,  so that i make sure they don’t get left out.  if i intend to work hard then i’ll need this time to renew.  next is, my meetings with the people who report to me. next, i make sure i have my time to plan out every week. (i’ve done this so long on a sunday night that i don’t even block it anymore), usually an hour a week on a sunday.  then it’s all about work.  so, for example, if lead generation is your number one business action then you time block it for 5-6 days a week for 3 -4 hours a day before noon.   for me it’s writing so my goal is to just make sure that gets done – then i’m open to the possibilities of everything else.

my motto is “until my number one priority on my list is done each day all else

is a distraction”!  ALL ELSE!  as such, i guard my time when i’m on a priority task fiercely and without apologies.  it’s my life and i answer to no one as to my time. doesn’t always make me highly visible or highly social, but that isn’t the goal when i’m doing what i want my life to be about.

hope this helps.  feel free to share.

onward……

garykeller

By Chris Alston, Team Leader, Keller Williams Realty

Ignite…

So many things come to mind when I think of the word.

Combustion, fire, flames, spark, imagination, light bulb, innovation.  I don’t see a camp fire, I see a bon fire! I bet the fire you see is different from the one I am imagining, and yet they are both hot!  I’m not looking at the actual size of the light bulb, but the fact that there is light in the dark that existed before that ray brightened the room.

When I think of the word Ignite and how it plays into a real estate agents’ career, I see something so similar!  Success, listings, contracts, money, leads, growth, achievement are all words that come to mind.  And again, I am not seeing a new agent just starting out or launching their career, I am seeing agents, and their rise to the level of success the desire. And here’s the coolest part.  The level could be 20-40 deals, or 100-200, or maybe it’s taking the leap to achieve a first transaction.  I bet the level of success I am thinking is different from yours, yet they both are successes.

We all know that the fundamentals of real estate still apply. We are in the business to generate leads.  Without lead generation, our careers may shrink and force us to believe that we need to go find a “real” job. What we have to remember is that real estate sales IS a real job.  Too often we stand around the water cooler and buy into the gossip about how open houses do not work, and cold calling is terrible.  Or that no one wants to hear from us anyways, so “why bother calling.”

Continue reading ‘How HOT is your production?’