Rule of 95%

 

As a Real Estate professional, you are in business for yourself, you might think you work for your Broker, they might think you work for them, however neither is really true. You are in business for yourself, you are the CEO, CFO, and President of your own business, or at least you should be. However, most of us are trapped in the 95 percent thinking, not the thinking of that business owner who should be facing us in the mirror. To change, you must first understand what it means.

One of the wisest men I have ever known told me the Rule of 95%, upon hearing it I knew that I had heard something quite profound. This gentleman is someone who raised himself from a school teacher living in a mobile home to a businessman whose enterprise does nearly a billion a year in business. It makes sense listening to those who have the fruit of success on their tree. Another one of his sayings is that "A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with a theory."

The Rule of 95%

The Social Security System several years ago did a study to determine the statistical financial results of people at 65 years old. What they found:

At 65:

1 was rich
4 were self sufficient.
5 were still working.
36 were dead.
54 were dead broke living off friends, family, and/or government.

That isn't too motivating at the surface. However, the question is how to reach at least the top 5%. Do you believe that those 95% intended to be dead or dead broke? Of course they didn't plan to fail. We have all heard the saying that they didn't plan to fail, they failed to plan. However there is more to it than that. It takes more than planning, but proper planning.

If the above is correct, and it is, that means that at least 95% of everything you have learned you have learned from someone in the 95% bracket, isn't that true? If you learned what you know from those who ended up in the 95% where would you likely to end up? Again, the 95% would be likely wouldn't it? Those who taught you, your family, your teachers, and professors, they were not trying to harm you, they just taught you what they knew, and that was 95% thinking.

Wouldn't it make sense if you wanted to end up in the top 1% you would need to learn to think like a 1%er? Because you don't know what you don't know, and that is why you don't have. If you knew what you don't know, you would have what you don't have, and to know and not to do is really not to know.

How do you learn to think like a 1%er? Listen to them? Pick their brains? There are many who have written their story into books, read them. Learn not just how they did something, but even more important, why they did something. What you want to learn is how they think.

Once Aristotle Onassis was asked by a reporter what he would do if he lost all of his great wealth. His reply was if he were poor, he would live as cheaply as possible, do whatever jobs he could get to make enough money to buy a fine suit of clothes, and at least once a month have lunch at he most expensive restaurant in town where the wealthiest businessmen ate lunch. He said that the ideas that fell from their conversations like crumbs from their tables would be all he would need to start another business empire. In other words, listen to and learn from those who you would like to emulate. If they are speaking somewhere, go, take notes, if you can get a chance to meet them afterward to ask questions, do. If you can get them on CD or DVD do, and wear it out. You won't get all of the information out of it in less than five playings, because as you listen it will cause you to think and you will be distracted and miss portions. If you can get with them for lunch, buy them lunch, so you can pick their brains.

If you want to be a 1%er you must think like a 1%er. Are you in Mastermind groups with the top agents in your firm? Are you taking them to lunch, spending time with your Broker? Is your Broker, or were they top producing agents themselves? If not, find those who have the fruit on the tree of success and learn to THINK as they do, not just how but why they do what they do. Your life will change forever.

The Cost Of Leadership

 

In our world today we see so many so called leaders in business and politics who are all about themselves, their own benefits, their own rewards, their own egos. It makes it hard for people to understand that what they are showing is the antithesis of leadership. True leadership is built on sacrifice.

Sacrifice is a constant in leadership. It is an ongoing process, not a one-time payment. Many times the cost of moving forward in leadership is often financial, there is usually a temporary step back in income when you take on a new challenge of leadership. If you do your job right the finances will come, never hesitate to make a sacrifice when you know the step is right.

Leaders who want to rise have to do more than take an occasional cut in pay. They have to give up their rights. When you become a leader, you lose the right to think only for yourself. Dexter Yager says "If you have a decision to make, you can never go wrong choosing the option that is best for your people over what is best for you personally." For every person, the nature of the sacrifice may be different. For example, Lee Iaccoca's sacrifice came late in his career to save Chrysler. Former South African president F. W. de Klerk, who worked to dismantle apartheid in his country sacrificing his own career. The circumstances change from person to person, but the principle doesn't. Leadership means sacrifice.

Leaders give up to go up. That is true of every leader regardless of profession. Talk to any leader, and you will find that he has made repeated sacrifices. Usually the higher that leader has climbed, the greater the sacrifices he or she has made. Effective leaders sacrifice much that is good to dedicate themselves to what is best. Robert Palmer said in and interview, "In my model of management, there is very little wiggle room. If you want a management job, they you have to accept the responsibility and accountability that goes with it." He is really talking not about management but the cost of leadership.

If leaders have to give up to go up, then they have to give up even more to stay up. Have you ever considered how infrequently teams have back-to-back champion seasons? The reason is simple: If a leader can take a team to the championship game and win it, he often assumes he can duplicate the results the next year without making changes. He becomes reluctant to make additional sacrifices in the off-season. But what gets a team to the top isn't what keeps it there. The only way to stay up is give up even more. Leadership success requires continual change, improvement, and sacrifice. "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Sacrifice is the rule of leadership, yet nothing is more rewarding that leadership. Helping others follow a vision, helping them realize more than they ever could have dreamed of without your leadership is priceless. Of course leadership is rewarding financially in the end, it isn't what you get out of it, it is about who you become.

It's too bad so many of our leaders in name or title only have it all backwards.

Tis The Season For Goals

Tis the Season that the visions of goals dance in our heads,  goals of years past, goals of the present, and goals of the future, haunt our minds and chase away our sleep.

If you are currently chasing down the finish line on your goals for the end of the year, Congratulations, keep going, you can do it!!!

If you gave up on your goals months ago, you are far from alone. Would you like to be in the position those above are next year?

If you aren't going to miss your goals, because you never set any for this year, is it because you find them frustrating and a waste of time since you never hit goals you set anyway? Would you like to know that is one of the most common things I hear when I am visiting with agents, no matter what flag flies on their office. It isn't surprising since most people have never been taught how to set goals that will be a driving force for you.

 Are written goals important? There was a study done years ago where they studied a freshman class at Harvard finding out how many had clear specific written goals, and in the hallowed halls of the prestigious institution only 3% had done so. When they checked in on them twenty-five years later they learned those 3% held 80% of the total wealth of the class. Coincidence?

What most people do wrong is they just decide out of thin air what they will set as a goal, how many sales, how much money they would make, whatever, then go out and try to reach it. They may even go so far as to break it down to what they need to do a month to reach their yearly goal in dollars or sales. However they have no daily action plan, they have no emotional commitment to it, they are doomed to fail. At some point through the year, normally early, they look up and see how far off they are from their target and decide it was a stupid idea anyway and bail on it. Does this sound familiar?

 Let me suggest a change of strategy. Rather than just pulling a number that sounds good out of the air, let's arrive at a number to accomplish something you really want. Let's start with Why and then figure out How. What is your WHY, what do you WANT? Take some time to soul search and figure out something you really want, a family vacation, a cruise, a new house, new car, a Rolex, something for a family member, your church, whatever it is that really moves you. It doesn't matter if anyone else is excited about it, what matters is that you are.

 Now, figure out how much that WHY is going to cost over what it takes for you to cover your living expenses for the year comfortably. Let's say your WHY  is going to cost you 10,000.00 cash and your standard of living is 70,000.00, now you know you need 80,000.00 this year to reach your WHY. Adjust up or down as needed for your standard of living and your own WHY.

 So if you need to make 80k, now we need to figure out how much you make per transaction and your average drop out rate. In other words how many of your contracts last year fell through for whatever reason, let's say it was 10%.  Now divide the average per transaction say it is 3,000.00  from the 80k so we get 27 transactions and then multiply  by 1.10 to get 30 transactions, or 2.5 a month.

Next step is to start setting activity goals, those are things you have complete control over, unlike the above production goals. To set activity goals we need to look at some of your averages, what is the number of people who you have a face to face appointment that you get on a contract? How many phone calls (this could be texting, IM on Facebook, whatever) do you need to make to get one appointment? Now how many contacts or suspects must you make to get a phone number to call?

Now we know you need to write 30 contracts to get 27 closings, let's say our math said that you wrote a contract with 40% of those who you met for an appointment, (your numbers could be higher or lower,) so you must meet with 75 people to get those 30 to end up with 27.

 To get those 75 appointments we have to call people, how many people do you normally have to call to set an appointment? Let's assume 3 for 1 appointment, so now we need to call 225 people to set those appointments. Now, how many people do you have to meet to get contact information to make those calls? Let's assume 3 to get 1 number, these could come from Open Houses, Internet leads, referrals, standing in line with them at a store, where ever you meet people, now we see you need to have conversations with 675 people.

Let's break it down, that means you need to bump into 56 people a month through any source you use, to get 18.75  calls for appointments a month and we should get 6.25 appointments a month giving us 2.5 contracts.

Take that down further, 56 people a month becomes 14 a week or 2.8 a day if you work 5 days a week. Those 18.75 calls per month become 4.6 calls a week, or 1 call a day five days a week.

So to reach your 80,000.00 goal to buy your 10,000.00 WHY you will meet 2.8 new contacts per day somehow, and will call 1 prospect per day five days a week.

If this is brand new to you, my I suggest that you give yourself rewards for hitting your goal every week, if not every day. It doesn't have to be expensive, just something you want. Learn delayed gratification it could be you love one of those fancy Starbucks drinks and you get a few each week, take them away from yourself unless you hit your activity goal the day before, make them a reward. It matters not what it is, just that you want it but won't let yourself have it without earning it.

Everyone should put rewards for each month if you reach your goals that month, maybe a massage, a cigar, who knows, whatever floats your boat. If you focus on the daily activities and reward yourself for achieving them, you will find that this time next year you will be chasing the victory and that big exciting WHY!

It's Here!!! Realtors Property Resource Is Here!

 On November 1st the National Association of Realtors opened their Realtors Property Resource or RPR website for all REALTORS nationwide. Until then you had to be with a local MLS board that had signed on to it to have access to it. You can go to www.narrpr.com to set up your free account. You will needs your NRDS number, if you don't know it, you can go to www.Realtor.org to find yours, or look at your REALTOR magazine address label.

 When you get there you will learn that you now have a national database of information for REALTORS only that you can get information on everything from what you could get on your own local MLS, but much more, with ready to print reports that will help you be the true expert when you meet with your clients. As we are all aware our Cheese moved as Realtors, and continues to do so, with all the information our clients can get on their own. If you want to show more value to them, take advantage of this amazing tool that only Realtors can access.

 Unfortunately, our own Metropolitan Board of REALTORS has chosen not to participate in RPR.

" The MIBOR Board of Directors has been following the RPR™ discussion for the last three years. The Board has formally discussed whether MIBOR should contributed BLC® listing service data to RPR™. In each discussion the same concerns have arisen; at this point there are concerns about the accuracy of the information and philosophically, the Board has been opposed to releasing data under an arrangement where RPR™ intends to resell the data but not compensate the brokers within the listing services who have provided the data. For those primary reasons, the Board has adopted a “wait and see” approach. We will continue to be part the discussion with RPR™. BLC® listing service participants will have access to RPR™ regardless of whether your data is included. Member feedback on the how useful RPR™ is to your business will be part of the decision making process moving forward. "  Dona Keefe, Communication Liaison for MIBOR.

 It seems that MIBOR has much the same concerns too many agents hold, that somehow that their only value is the information that they restrict to only be available to come from them. To me, that is locking the barn door after the horse ran away. The information is out there now, our clients are accessing information through Google that we can never take back. If you believe that your only value is your access to information, quit selling yourself short.

 Have you ever been upset when a client comes to you with their "Zestimates?" Have you ever complained about the inaccurate information clients are finding? Now is a chance to do something more about it. The RPR is a tool for Realtors by Realtors to open up the entire country at your fingertips so you can be that expert. It will also help to capture more and more accurate information. If you are sitting down to list a house and in RPR it says it is a 3 bdrm 1 ba, and you know it is a 4 bdrm 2 ba, you can change it online right then and get it correct. Think Wikipedia, an encyclopedia of Real Estate information and data that not only scrapes the MLS and government systems to provide you information but you and your fellow Realtors can correct mistakes when you find them.

 This system could be truly a silver bullet for some of the challenges that Commercial agents exerience. How does a nationwide database of commercial properties and all the information you need on them at your fingertips sound to you?

 NAR came to our office and showed this system to us about two years ago, we have been excited about it ever since. What they did this month was give each and everyone of you a chance to access it, see it, play with it and if you see the potential we do, you can call MIBOR and ask them to let you have access to all it has to offer.

Who Do You Work For? Who Works For You?

 Who do you work for? Who works for you? Who should you be working for? Who should work for you?

Are you working for your broker, or are you working for yourself and your family? Are you working for your creditors just to get through each month’s bills, or are you working for your future?

Who is working for you? Are you? Is your broker? Are your mortgage lender, title rep, home warranty rep, insurance rep working for you? Are they focusing on how they can make your job easier? Are they focusing on how they can make you look like a rock star to your clients? If not, why not?

As an independent contractor, you are in business for yourself, maybe though not by yourself. In our industry it seems that many believe that they work for their broker, and frankly many brokers feel they that the agents work for them as well. It seems to be that often in our industry that the Broker believes that they hire agents to work for them and as conduits to the agent’s clients to bring those clients into the broker’s firm. It is amazing how many agents seem to buy into that thought process.

Who should be working for you? How about after you, first and foremost your Broker should be working for you, aren’t you in fact their client? If not you should be. Shouldn’t your success be something that they are striving to help you achieve?  Shouldn’t your relationship be that you are in business for yourself, but not by yourself? How should that look? The Broker’s corporate culture should be agent centered; from the Broker down throughout the staff should see you as their client they serve.

What is amazing is how many are working in situations that really don’t serve their best interests, and even if they are made aware of it, decide to stay knowing it isn’t really serving their needs. Why would they do it? Many people, even who are independent contractors and are in business for themselves, still see themselves as employees and have employee mentality. They fear taking a risk, fear losing friends, fear making a change of any kind. There are a lot of people who prefer staying in a situation that isn’t good for them just because it is known and comfortable.  Are you doing it out of loyalty? Have you asked would they take care of me if something happened? Will they pay your kid’s college, or your retirement? If not, why be more loyal to them than you and your own family’s future?

This is like the story of Jeb and Clem who were sitting on Clem’s front porch rocking while Clem’s old coonhound kept moaning and groaning. Finally after listening to this dog for a couple hours, Jeb asked, “What is wrong with your dog?”  Clem said, “He’s fine, he’s just lying on a nail.” Jeb couldn’t believe it, “Why doesn’t he move?” Jeb, “It doesn’t hurt enough for him to move, just enough to complain about it.” Isn’t it amazing how many people are like that old dog?

This is not a new way for people to behave, in the 1850s Harriett Tubman was risking her life to keep going into the South and leading runaway slaves into freedom through the Underground Railroad. Of course it wasn’t underground and there was no railroad involved. It was moving by night walking north going from safe house to safe house. She carried a gun, but not so much to defend her and those she was escorting, but to either warn or shoot those who she was helping to escape who wanted to give up and turn back. She couldn’t have someone go back that could tell her routes and contacts. There were those who wanted to return to the “known” of slavery if she would have let them.

Even in the story of Exodus there was a reason that the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. Keep in mind that the desert wasn’t that big; in fact it could have been walked across in a matter of several days. However, the Israelites and Moses wandered about for 40 years, why? It was because the Israelites kept wanting to go back to Egypt and to slavery where they knew what to expect and were used to it, God decided to not let any of them with “Slave” mentality into His Promised Land, he waited until that generation who had allowed slavery to be a mental state to die off before moving their children into the Land of Milk and Honey.

Hopefully none of us will be like that old dog, or one of Tubman’s or Moses’ followers who chooses to stay behind in a known lesser life rather than race for freedom and opportunity.

If Passion is Possible Why Settle For Less

If Passion Is Possible Why Settle For Less?

 Have you lost the joy of working your business? Has it become a job that you simply do to pay the bills? Have you asked yourself if you still like the business? Have you ever blamed these thoughts on “how much the business has changed,” or “it just isn’t any fun anymore?” Could it be because you have forgotten why you came into the business in the first place? Did you have a burning reason to get into it or did you just end up in it? Would you like to find your joy again in Real Estate?

The secret ingredient in any venture in life is passion. Passion is a game changer, if the Dream is Big enough the facts don't matter. If you have a passion for something, then you will see magic happen. Not only will you find a way to see your dreams come true, others will follow. People follow passion. We see so little of it around us, it is a natural attraction. It draws positive people to you like moths to flame.

We only are given one chance to live our lives, what are you doing with yours? Are you going through the motions in autopilot where you go to work, go home, go to work, go work, home, work, home without any real punctuation marks to make it something other than a rut? Have you ever driven through a traffic light and then wondered if it was red or not? Does one day run into another in seamless sameness? The only difference between a rut and a grave is the rut doesn’t have to be permanent.

Mark Twain once said, "Most men die at 27, we just bury them at 72."

Henry David Thoreau said, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with their song still in them."

How sad is that, we know instinctively that those comments are true, don't we?

Why is this? What happens to the dreams inside we bring out of childhood? How do we start going through the motions of our lives and quit actually living them? I think it starts when we decide to start settling for safety and security instead of chasing our dreams. I believe that is why we see so many people taking anti-depressants and encumbered with addictions of all sorts. We are built to dream. God created us with dreams inside and we only function correctly when we are chasing them. God said, "Without a vision, my people perish." The sad thing is when you give up passion for security; you have traded for a mirage.

When was the last time you went “dreaming?” Thinking of “What would I do?” “What would I buy?” “For whom?” Hall of Fame Football coach, Lou Holtz, credits his career turning around from being fired and an unemployed high school assistant coach was a book his wife bought him called “The Magic of Thinking Big” by Dr. David Schwartz. He read it and wrote down a “Bucket List” of 106 things he wanted to do, two were to be head coach at Notre Dame and win a National Championship. He has now done almost all on his list. Your “Why” may not have anything to do with Real Estate, it could even be leaving a legacy with some charity or cause, but you might find that you can use Real Estate to fund your Dreams. Once you find the WHY everything changes, you will add passion to your daily actions.

Life is far too short to live it without a passion in your life. For me, I want to have a passion in everything I do. If it deserves my time and attention, doesn't it deserve my passion? I don't care if it is my marriage, my children, career related, spiritual faith, patriotism, hobbies, whatever, if it is worth your time, it is worth passion. If passion is one of the options, it should be the only acceptable one. I refuse to go through life timid or bored.

A friend and mentor of mine, Rick Setzer, taught a question we should always ask ourselves, especially if we are starting to get stale in our vision. "Are you working your business or are you chasing your dream?" There is magic in the latter.

If you have a true passion, you’re contagious. I once had a wonderful lesson in passion and its effect on others. My wife had read about an orchid nursery in Indianapolis that was one of the largest in America. She wanted to go buy orchids for all the ladies in our family for Christmas. I went with her and we were blessed with this amazing older gentleman as our guide and salesman. He looked like he had just been found on some deserted island, long gray hair and beard, skinny and gaunt, probably in his 70s, but had a twinkle in his eyes that captured you. He was a scientist who had traveled the world's jungles searching for new species of orchids most of his life. This was his collection of over 5,000 species he had found. He taught us all about them with a passion that sucked you into his world, so much so that I ended up raising orchids for the next ten years. I had never had a thought of them before walking in, but his passion was contagious. I will never forget that powerful lesson.

So, are you building your business, or are you chasing your dreams? Are you making a living or are you making a life? It is up to you; it is simply finding your passion and never working another day in your life!

Huge Opportunity

 There is about to be a historic shift in our markets, a passing of the generational torch of market dominance like never seen before. When the Baby Boomers came onto the scene, they were so large in numbers that the world was truly their oyster. No previous generation so completely dominated the market place for decades for they were 78 million strong. However every year there are less Boomers, and that is a trend that unfortunately for those of us in it, will continue. The torch is soon to be passed to the Millennial Generation who at 84 million will be a massive force on the market for many years to come.

 The millennial generation is already driving the housing recovery, and the future is bright with 88% of them saying they want to be home owners. To house them all it is going to require 40 million homes to be built that do not exist today. Someone is going to sell all those homes, why not you?

 The challenge facing the market place is that while the driving force in the market is the 18-33 year old Millennials, they do not have many Realtors who come from their generation. We have a Boomer dominated Realtor population. The median age of agents has increased from 51 in 2007 to 56 in 2012 indicating that it is the same people making up the Realtor community. Only 3% of all agents are under 30 years old and another 4% are 30 to 34 years old, another 22% are over 65.

 When nearly 50% of the home purchases today are by Millennials and only 7% of Realtors are of their generation, there is an unprecedented career opportunity available today, and way into the future.

Only 6% of all Realtors come in to the industry as their first career; most bring expertise and experience from other fields prior to real estate, the most common being in management, business, and financial professions, followed by sales and retail. The majority of members are women with college educations.

Fourteen percent of Realtors work fewer than 20 hours a week, 30 percent 20-39 hours per week, 41 percent work 40-59 hours and 15 percent work 60 or more per week. Those working 60 hours a week or more earned 80,900.00, and 17% of all agents earned a six-figure income.

Ninety-one percent of Realtors are homeowners. In addition they often invest in real estate and own other homes in addition to their primary residence. 43% own at least one investment property and 16% at least one vacation home, and 10% own at least one commercial property.

Realtors use technology daily, it is a key to their success, they are adapting quickly to the technology that is a part of the everyday culture of the Millennial generation. What a great opportunity for those Millennials who can come into a business where they can set their own hours, determine how much money they want to make and are willing to work for, using technology that is second nature to them, and a huge potential market of their generation pool who they understand the best.

As we find ourselves in an economy that has only produced jobs for 50% of all the college graduates from 2006 through 2012, and a huge need in the market place for them to serve the needs of their own generation as they make their home buying dreams come true.