Mission Forge

I. Checklist for Marketing

□ business card ideas-different occasions, cheap, target distribution.

□ All profiles-RE/MAX, Zillow, Realtor.com, MLS, etc. (need a brief bio)

□ Social Media profiles, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.

□ Identify your sphere and push the boundaries, groups, spouse, interests, etc.

□ Develop a Marketing plan with prongs-Social, Mail, Face to Face, Business Cards, other.

II. Action items for Marketing

a.     Order cards

b.     Work on profiles

c.      Start adding names and contact numbers to your CRM (contact relationship manager)

d.     Seek reviews/testimonials/likes when appropriate

e.     Create a personal brand

III. Best Practices for Marketing

a.     Be honest, sincere, courageous, aggressive, persistent

b.     If you are not certain, ask permission

c.     Always identify your office and contact information to the office

d.     Hand out many business cards

e.     Advertise under the supervision of the broker

IV. You Oughta & Gotta for Marketing

a.     Check with your broker before running a campaign, ordering

b.     Disclose according to DPOR (Virginia Regulatory Board)

c.      Properly use RE/MAX and Realtor Images

d.     Follow Fair Housing Rules

e.     Talk to people about what you do

f.       Use approved suppliers

g.     Be patient

h.     Follow up

V. Pitfalls for Marketing

a.spending money without approval and you are out of compliance

 b. not doing small things daily, throughout the day.

 c. not resonating or connecting with the market

 d. not tracking results

 e. Not giving it enough time to see impacts

I. Checklist for Mortgage

□ have a list of preferred lenders, to include those in the office and others you trust (3-5)

□ buyer always chooses, but you can suggest and recommend

□ qualify buyer VERY early in the process—notice I did not say at the beginning

□ communicate with lender throughout, be skeptical of hard to reach, unknown, out of area lenders

□ know the loan types and also make suggestions to the buyer to consult with loan officer

II. Action items for Mortgage

a.     Collect cards from preferred lenders, make a quick list easy to distribute

b.     Get to know them (ask for their card & they will probably buy you lunch)

c.      Connect with them on social media

d.     Seek reviews/testimonials/likes when appropriate

e.     Ask them ways they can help your business, ie. Postacrds, open houses

III. Best Practices for Mortgage

a.     Understand the different loan products

b.     Be a resource, not the source

c.      Exercise your right to know, be willing to slow process if you’re in the dark

d.     Stay up on trends in the industry

e.     No-one knows where rates will go, but know the rates!!!

IV. You oughta & gotta for Mortgage

a.     Understand FHA

b.     Understand VA

c.      Understand Conventional

d.     Understand FHA 203-k

e.     Understand VHDA (conv or FHA)

f.       USDA-rural

g.     Be patient if a client needs time to qualify, help them

h.     Understand Cash 

i.       Understand LTV or Loan to Value

V. Pitfalls for Mortgage

a. Not being involved in the process will bite you.  Loan officers may not be forthcoming.

 b. Loan type may influence quality of offer to seller

 c. Down payment may influence quality of offer to seller

 d. Pre-qual vs. Pre-approval may influence quality of offer to seller

 e. As a listing agent you will need to help the seller make decisions on offers

Some things are built to last.  

Analogy to the wooden bottling Crate

Explanation

 Manufacturing designed to be more cyclical causing replacement and increased consumption of goods.

Did the person who built my wooden bottling crate have any idea the crate would be around for generations?

We do not manufacture things in Real estate.

What are our materials?

 What are our building blocks.

 These are our actions, methods, routines and manner.  We don’t have boards and nails.

The assembly is the fruit of our actions

putting it all together in a way but that is meaningful and memorable.

  If done right, the Realtor creates an experience for the consumer. 

Think of it as being the director of the movie.  You are not an actor.

Imagine an audience viewing the entire transaction in a theater.  

Is it a production they would watch again,

Or one they would walk away from?

Assembly is the fruit of our actions. putting it all together in a way but that is meaningful.  No control of the outcome, but we can direct the way things unfold. If done right, the Realtor creates an experience for the consumer.   Credit to Kendall Bonner and her podcast Improve Your Hustle.

Lastly, Realtors don’t often think about retirement.

But we have no retirement built into our business.

What if you had 20, 25, 30 years of valued experiences?

Hundreds of satisfied clients who are your advocates.

What could you do with that?

Have you considered the value as a means to retire?

Show up with your manners, as politeness should be the coin of the realm. Demonstrate you care by taking the time to exercise good manners.


Prepare and practice like you want to play. Teams that make it to the play offs and the superbowl, practice to win, and prepare for any contingency. They play to win.

Listen more than seems right and allow for the client to direct the direction of the occasion. You need to avoid the schpeel and the rote memory blurb that you practice. 

Imagine you have an injured friend who you take to eat at your favorite buffet.  Here in town it would be Peking. Know your content so well that you treat it as a buffet for a friend who cannot walk. When you are done listening, you know exactly what they would like and you will deliver.
 
 A-Game-- bring yours or stay home. If you are not in all the way, someone else is. This is not the 4th grade—and 4th grade is a hard year, by the way.  Nothing against the 4th grade. But as adu


Start with a win! Adam Contos shout out. RE/MAX CEO podcast

 Think of your important tasks from the moment you awake. If you have important tasks the day ahead, think of them as you go to bed, and first as you awake. What are the simple and easy steps you can take right away to set your mind on a win? Do you rise 15 minutes early? Prepare a final review of your work? Check one or two last resources for additional content? Take one more proof read?

Hit the nail on the head with content that is deeply relevant to the audience. Spencer Johnson wrote a popular book called the 1-minute Manager.   Spend a minute thinking about the situation you are preparing for.  Spend a lot more tie preparing what is called for, then spend a minute before you enter the appointment and recall the thoughts about who you are meeting with and what they need you to bring to the table.

Planning-
a-get a goal based on your needs and wants--not sure what to list for your wants?  Talk to your family and they will surely give you some ideas. Not sure what to list for needs? Look at last two years of expenses and average them. housing + lodging+ food+ utils+ insurance+
 
b-be sure to write it down.  I strongly suggest using an excel spread sheet, but paper and pencil is fine also
 
 
c-Consider breaking your annual goal into smaller quarterly goals, book idea the twelve week year.   Advantages are that you do not get lost in the distant ending of the year from now.  You can also adjust as you go.

The 12 Week Yearby Brian P. Moran (Author), Michael Lennington (Author)

d-know your expenses, your financial needs, MLS dues, Realtor Dues, key fees, advertising expenses.  I am sorry to say, but this is called budgeting.  Ugly word that no one likes.  But if nothing else look at your last 2 years of taxes and especially at your Schedule C.  Take the average of those expenses and plan your budget for the next year.

 
Execution
a-if you have reasonable goals and expectations your goal should be achievable in modest routine steps through out the year.  You should have monthly goals (1/12 of annual or 1/3 of quarterly) 
 
 
 b-And those tasks and expenses can be divided into weekly and even daily tasks. USE GOOGLE Calendar for tracking your due dates for business expenses (color code them to schedule C) All advertising might be red, dues could be green, etc.
 
 
 c-separate spending into personal and business. Though not required, it makes tracking much simpler at tax time and any time you want to analyhttps://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.pdfze either personal or business.  I suggest a separate business credit card, checking and savings account.


d.-plan expenses ahead, document them, and be able to prove the expenses are justifiable business expenses.  Know your schedule C categories.  See attached and also the link to IRS instructions.  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.pdf

Strategy
a-If you commit to tracking, you can work a strategy into place.  Track results to watch expenses, using an app or a simple spreadsheet.  Old school?  No prob, just use a notepad.
 
 
 Apps are BizXpenseTracker, Shoeboxed, Expensify, Foreceipt
 
 b-tracking will allow you to identify what works and what is not working so you can fine tune, reallocate, and improve.  Look for patterns, make connections, fix what needs fixing and dump the rest.  Do not obsess over small abnormalities, especially if you know the root cause (ie. lost your phone and had to replace it for a big expense)  that is not likely to occur again soon.  Pay more attention to the routine day to day, month by month patterns.
 
 
 c-cancel old subscriptions to websites, clubs, services you do not use or that were not helping. Call and negotiate terms on existing ones you want to keep, look for cheaper alternatives prior to calling so you are ready to walk away. Doing this could easily free up $1000 you could reapply to market to past clients.

Application
a- be very careful look at your commission income as divisible and not the whole dollar.  You are dealing with a raw dollar that has other obligations.  As a 1099 independent contractor you absolutely must pay taxes, must consider other benefits you do not get afforded by your work such as health insurance, retirement,  sick leave, emergency fund, etc. Consider AFLAC, consider hiring an accountant to advise you
 
 
b-diversify your income.  Consider multiple streams of income as a Real Estate agent.  You should work with sellers, buyers, tenants, landlords, and you should participate actively in referral, incoming and outgoing, you should be a buyer, a landlord, a seller.  You are on the front lines of RE and you get a discount due to your job.
 
 
c-invest in relationships.  Always work to strengthen your relationships with other practitioners, vendors, your clients and the public in general.  If you do nothing else this day or this week, but build up a handful of relationships, you will have helped your self and those others.
 
d-have a business reserve fund to get you through the down times.  If you do your business planning correctly these should not happen or they should happen ingrequently, however, you MUST have reserves so that you can withstand the unforeseen months with no income.  It gives you financial muscle and the confidence in your deeper abilities when you know you can withstand slow periods.  I suggest starting small, a month or two, then build to 3 or 4.  Aim to hit a target you can live with, but 6-8 months would be IDEAL for any business.