tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42259526518347430962024-02-08T12:14:30.816-08:00How to Succeed in Real Estate SalesDo You Want To Succeed in Real Estate Sales? Confessions and uncensored stories and unbeatable tips and advise from a retired and highly successful Real Estate Agent. A must for the Real Estate Consultant.Alby Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038461860561865895noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4225952651834743096.post-21233672163163918872006-12-11T02:17:00.000-08:002006-12-22T01:18:27.413-08:00Becoming a Millionaire in Real Estate Sales<div align="center"></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;color:#ffffff;">.</span></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">1972:</span> Ah yes it was long ago now but I remember those early days in Real Estate, oh so well.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;"># </span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">I was so young then - just 22 years old - still wet behind the ears - and in partnership in our own recently opened real estate office. I was determined to succeed in Real Estate Sales and was as cocky as hell as most 22 year olds are. I needed a partner and the "personality plus" wife of a vendor whose house I had sold, proved, as it seemed at the time, just right.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">#</span></div><div align="left">Before we opened our own real estate office, I'd been in real estate sales part time for just under 3 years working for another real estate agency. I could best be described as a head strong and over confident real estate sales consultant. </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">#</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">In those days we were on commission only – of course no sales meant zero checks (I also had a young wife and a baby girl to support). </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">#</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"I knew it all" (at least that's what I thought at the time) and could readily see that the real estate sales industry was totally inefficient. I ran a small part time retail business to keep myself solvent while I continued to "observe, observe and observe" and at the same time plan, scheme and test. </div><div align="left"><br />(NB: Like my long time good friend and co-retired real estate agent <a href="http://charlesgoodwin.blogspot.com/">Charles Goodwin </a>author of that amazing book <a href="http://www.wealth-creators-club.com/">The Secrets Of Wealth Creation Revealed</a> said "If I ever hear that useless crass cliché 'Location - Location -Location' again I am sure I will want to vomit" - but more on that later.)</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">#</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">One couldn’t help but noticing that a day in the life of the average real estate salesperson was, to put it mildly, a total inefficient bludge which left me wondering, 'how much money could I really make if I automated real estate selling?'</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />A typical Monday morning:</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">The office would open at 9am. I observed that my colleagues began arriving from about 9.30 - 10.30. The first two hours would be an extended "smoko time" around the coffee pot discussing all the weekends sporting events, politics, weather, TV programs and dare I say it, sometimes even the many "sales that got away".</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left">"Bloody buyers," a salesman would proclaim, "I showed those useless ratbags over a dozen properties. Drove them around for days. They promised me that they would buy through me. Yesterday they rang and said that they had found just the house they have been looking for. They said that they wanted to buy through me but the house was listed with another agent. Damn buyers, you simply can't trust them!"</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"So why do you bother with buyers?" I would counter, "Why not spend all your time getting exclusive agencies on the properties and then insist that the buyers come to you?"</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">My colleagues would look at me as if I was from Mars. "Because young Alby, that is not the way it's done. Vendors list their houses with several local agents and it's always been on a first come first serve basis. The agent with the buyer wins the commission. That my friend is the way we have always played it."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"Well that isn't the way I'll be doing it when I start my own Real Estate office."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"Yes Alby," they would scoff "We all know you will be a millionaire within 5 years. You have told us that many times.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"The occasional phone call that came in was usually greeted with an attitude of "how dare they bother me on a Monday morning. Don't they know I am busy?"</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Eventually someone would announce, "My God look at the time. It's almost lunchtime. Let's go down to the local and have lunch."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">About 2.30 the cars would return and they would lumber up to the office and back to the ever-popular coffee pot.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">At about 4 pm, someone would notice the day was slipping away and proclaim, " By Jeeves, the days nearly over - better bung an ad or two in the paper."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">The problem was that Tuesday through to Friday was not much better. The office was nothing more than a social club. The few hours a week of real work generally happened after hours.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.<br /></span>But as I said, although I sold the occasional house, I mainly observed and planned for the future. In our office the average sales was about 2 sales per month per salesman so I made sure I averaged at least 5 sales in each two month period. The average salesperson made an average wage. </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.<br /></span>Later my record with my partner was 27 sales in a weekend from Friday evening through to late Sunday evening! And not once in my whole real estate career did I ever door knock or take a buyer out in my car. </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br /><strong>Alby Adage Number 1:</strong> The Real Estate sales market can be likened to one very large Cherry cake. To automate real estate sales one needs to only pick out or deal with the cherries and leave all the crumbs to the opposition.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">I also continually observed that "purchasers buy houses in spite of agents, not because of them!" That is, if it's the house they desperately want, most buyers would deal with the devil rather than miss out. </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">This was illustrated to me clearly on one highly embarrassing Sunday afternoon open inspection.The owners had left for the allotted three hours and I settled into the comfy lounge chair. I had a late night the evening previous and coupled with some new hay-fever tablets, soon drifted off into a deep and wonderful sleep. </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.<br /></span>I woke up startled, just in time to hurriedly exit the house before the owners returned.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">That evening I had a phone call.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"Mr Goldman?""Yes." I answered.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"We inspected the house this afternoon and fell in love with it and have now decided we would dearly like to buy it."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Ah such music to my ears. "I see - what time did you see it?" I stuttered in sheer wonderment.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"We were there for about an hour inspecting the home. You were snoring your head off in the chair. We didn't want to disturb you - so we stayed very quiet.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"Gulp! I cleared my throat. "I am so sorry - you see I took these new hay-fever tablets and...."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"No, not at all, it was refreshing to be able to inspect the house without an agent badgering us. Mind you there were others who came to inspect, who were obviously not quite as impressed."</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"How many others?" I asked in stark embarrassment.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">"We didn't count … but I'd say about five or six couples."</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">I jumped into damage control. I took the buyers full details over the phone - filled out the contract and the required forms - rushed to their house and signed up their full price offer then drove immediately across town to the vendor. Needless to say they were delighted at their efficient real estate salesperson.</div><div align="left"><br />Phew I was off the hook!</div><div align="left"><br /><strong>Alby Adage Number 2:</strong> Buyers buy a house in spite of the agent – not because of them.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Incidentally, later on this blog, I will share with you many embarrassing and/or hilarious moments (easily enough to fill a book) in the life of a real estate consultant. For example, like the time I gently began discussing a prospective offer with an elderly owner lying in her bed quite dead. (The buyers were right behind me as I spoke). </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.<br /></span>Also in a similar vein, the ten minutes or so I spent explaining the details of an offer through a screen door to a parrot. "Hello is anybody there?" and the answer was melodic but quite clear. "Hello - what do you want etc?" Damn parrots with large vocabularies! What ever happened to "Polly wants a cracker"? Although, I did wake up to the fact it was a parrot only when it began telling me repeatedly to F.... off!</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Anyway back to our recently opened new real estate office.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">I was interviewing a young English, pipe smoking, prospective new salesman straight from the assembly line at GMH. He mentioned in the interview that his father and mother had just arrived from the UK that week.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span><br />"They plan to retire here and buy four or five houses as an investment," explained my first new recruit.Then right then and there, I removed my *fountain pen* (please - never use a cheap ballpoint) out of my jacket pocket and in less than five minutes wrote a small classified advert that would soon rocket me, my partner and my new recruit to millionaire status. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">To this day I can read this wonderful ad out loud verbatim.</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left"><br /></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;">Want a Quick Cash Sale?</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">Recently retired English investor</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">(just arrived) who is putting his</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">money into Real Estate anxious to</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">buy houses (all areas) in or out of</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">repair. He'll pay you cash and you</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">can name the settlement time.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">If You want a Quick Cash no fuss sale </span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">Ring without delay as this is urgent!</span> </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center">---o0o---</div><div align="center">*</div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ffffff;">*</span></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="left">And boy oh boy did that ad work! </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.</span></div><div align="left">To be continued.........</div><div align="left"><span style="color:#ffffff;">.*</span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Success in Real Estate Sales</div><div align="left">*</div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;">Copyright 2006 © Alby Goldman. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, storage in a retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior express written permission of Alby Goldman. </span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:85%;">Prospective publishers with expressions of interest are invited to contact Charles Goodwin at </span><a href="mailto:wealth@wealth-creators-club.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">wealth@wealth-creators-club.com</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div>Alby Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18038461860561865895noreply@blogger.com4