By Carrie Foley
At this year’s Summit Conference in Scottsdale, AZ, one of the keynote speakers was Darren Hardy, best-selling author, public speaker and master motivator.
I recently read his book, The Compound Effect, and was intrigued to hear how he would customize his message to real estate agents. So, I sat in the grand ballroom at Summit and listened as he spent the next two hours engaging the group of hundreds while also connecting with each audience member individually.
By Carrie Foley
With summer in full swing, I like to spend my time off at the pool.
Recently, I was watching a timid child try to swim. I could only imagine how the depth and the vastness of the pool probably seemed frightening and overwhelming to a beginner. The child clung to the edge of the pool watching the others swim about. She spent more time sitting on the side than in the water.
She eventually got up the courage to jump in.
By Carl Guild
Want to succeed in real estate?
I’ve got two words for you: client retention.
Some of you may say that we don’t want to retain our clients. We want them in and out. Well, the truth is you want to retain your clients FOREVER. You want their inventory in and out, but the relationship must remain so you can represent them for every deal, every real estate milestone, and receive those all-important referrals. Don’t believe me? All right, have it your way.
Here are five surefire ways to make sure your client relationship doesn’t last:
By Melissa Kandel
A friend asked me yesterday if it was possible to sprain her thumbs from excessive text messaging.
“Of course you can’t,” I told her confidently, even though I had no idea. She shrugged, satisfied, and returned to her phone. We had met for a late afternoon coffee and these were our first words exchanged. For the better part of an hour, we sat in the corner of an almost-empty café, untouched lattes between us, phones in hand, silent except for the soft taps of fingertips on glass screens. Was this really the portrait of modern friendship?
By Sean Cawley
I may be a West Coast resident now, but I was born and raised in Omaha, NE.
Home to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. headquarters, Omaha is also home to me and I make it a point to return each year to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting with my brother, Brian Cawley.
By Chuck MacPhee
It was 2005.
I was two years out of college, had a great consulting job, traveled the country, and got married. So what do you think the first thing this financially stable, 20-something newlywed did? Well, he fulfilled the all-American dream and purchased a home, of course.
By Player Murray
It wasn’t too long ago that many of us in the real estate business felt like we were heading toward a completely “mobile” business. Nowadays, we can do practically everything from our phones, tablets and laptops, and going “paperless” has become more and more common. Given how much business we can accomplish on the go, it would stand to reason that the physical office space is becoming less important to our agents, but I propose that just the opposite is true.
By Lynn Minnick
These days, I’m trying to be more efficient with my time, because there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
If I can combine some of my monthly real estate goals and activities in a way that makes the best use of my time, I’m all for it. If I can do all that and have FUN doing it, even better!
By Margaux Pelegrin
I live in Philadelphia where snow has become a four letter word.
February is traditionally the beginning of our ‘spring market’ and yet here we are at the end of the month and nothing feels like spring! Each week brings a new threat of yet another snow storm – keeping kids home from school, parents on the brink of insanity and buyers behind their computers trolling the Internet for new listings instead of walking through streets to look at properties.
While the winter weather is no doubt to blame for decreased inventory and sales, many popular real estate websites are reporting a 25% increase in traffic from December. But cold weather troubles aside, a lot of buyers are starting their home searches on the web, which means our web presentation of listings is more important than ever.
With that in mind, here are some tips to optimize your listings’ web appeal.
By Sam Guillen
I love ‘new school’ technology.
Some would say I’m addicted. I’d say I’m eager to adapt what’s new. After a long and productive day at work, who wouldn’t want to set the temperature for an evening bath from a tablet device? Or, watch your son smack a homerun at his baseball game from your cell phone while you’re at a business conference 2,000 miles away?
Thoughts on Leadership 