Investor Tips (US): Passive Income
http://ow.ly/mrJjy
Seller Tips – Discount Brokers
Did you know that houses listed with discount brokers are historically more likely to expire, which means trying to save that extra one or two percent might have actually cost you a sale. That’s because just about anyone can put a house on the multiple listing service and stick a sign in the yard. A full service agent, on the other hand, can more than make up for their commission because they do the work to earn it. Want to know more? Talk to your local real estate professional
http://ow.ly/mptzS
Keller Williams Realty Expands into Austria, Germany, and Switzerland
AUSTIN, TX (April 15, 2013) — Keller Williams Realty, Inc., the largest real estate company by agent count in the United States, is continuing its international expansion by launching a new region serving Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
“Despite their sophistication, the German, Swiss and Austrian real estate markets all lack companies with a clear commitment to professional services and their associates,” said Rauert Peters, the master franchisee who is leading the new venture. “Keller Williams has clearly shown its commitment to a high level of agent education by remaining a company ‘by agents, for agents.'”
Peters brings a strong international business background and cross-cultural skills to the new venture. Born and raised in Germany, Peters received a master’s degree in International Relations and Business from San Francisco State University. Prior to joining Keller Williams Realty, he spearheaded U.S. expansion for a major European real estate company as COO and CEO.
“We are constantly looking for the right people to foster and spread the Keller Williams Realty mission, vision, and culture around the world,” said Chris Heller, president of Keller Williams Worldwide. “We are excited about the opportunity to work with Rauert and his team to serve international clients at the highest level.”
In 2010, Keller Williams Realty CEO Mark Willis announced the expansion of Keller Williams Realty beyond North America. Since then, the company has awarded franchise agreements in Vietnam, Indonesia, Southern Africa, and Turkey. The company plans to become the worldwide leader in agent count, transactions, and volume.
“Keller Williams has been incredibly successful in the USA and Canada,” Peters said. “We look forward to the proven systems and models delivering game-changing results in the German-speaking regions of Europe and beyond.”
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About Keller Williams Realty, Inc.:
Keller Williams Realty Inc. is the largest real estate franchise company in the United States, with approximately 700 offices and 80,000 associates around the world. The company has grown exponentially since the opening of the first Keller Williams Realty office in 1983, and continues to cultivate an agent-centric, education-based, technology-driven culture that rewards associates as stakeholders. The company also provides specialized agents in luxury homes and commercial real estate properties. For more information or to search for homes for sale visit Keller Williams Realty online at (www.kw.com). For more information about KW Worldwide, please visit http://www.kwworldwide.org.
Investor Tips (US) Tax Deductible
http://ow.ly/me93J
Seller Tips – See The Light
http://ow.ly/mbMb4
A Day in the Life of a REALTOR® Geek
On November 19, 2012, in Benefits, Blogs, NAR Benefits, Real Estate, Smartphone Apps, Social Media, Technology, by National Association of REALTORS®
By Nobu Hata, REALTOR®, Director of Digital Engagement, NAR
Hi everyone! For my first NAR blogpost I was asked to nerd out on you guys a little bit, so I decided to the “Day in the life of…” route. A glimpse into one of my final days as a practicing agent – just a couple months ago – with all the tools and practices I used in my business, plus a couple other bonus links of cool things agents across the country are implementing. I hope you enjoy it! Special thanks to the REALTOR Benefits® Program crew who allowed me to link to their forthcoming Black Friday/Cyber Monday Technology sales. Check ‘em out! There are a ton of great deals there.
Tuesday, 7:30am. A new day! Meeting day. Broker open house day. Buyer and seller decision day… large coffee day, because I’ll need it.
8:00am. It’s time to prepare for the all-office meeting. It’s the first Tuesday of the month so pouring over the previous month’s MLS stats – absorption rate change, sales by neighborhood and zipcode, month over month and year over year change – is the name of the game. I dump the stats into a Powerpoint presentation which is then deployed to agents via the company shared Dropbox folder.
9:00am. (Okay, more like 9:05ish-am.) The meeting begins! Agents, already prepped of the presentation come prepped and ready for conversation. Agents unable to attend in person are looped into the morning meeting via join.me. Heading into the fall, it’s time to prepare for the winter lull and prepare for the following year’s marketing with the stats at hand. Best tips for new marketing techniques are shared, best buys for technology are presented (iPad, Dell laptop/tablet hybrid, wifi, writeoffs* baby!), emerging trends like collaborative client technology like Relay and Ziplogix are discussed, donuts are eaten.
10:00am. A new listing taken the weekend before means a broker open house; typical for Tuesdays. Blog post on neighborhood points of interests is written and added to my website, fliers printed with url to mobile video tour, ensure information of the home is up to date on all third party home search portals, and pick up 50 sandwiches (free food means high agent attendance).
11:00am to 1:00pm. It’s at this point where I thank the Lord for mobile technology at a broker open house. Open Home Pro is launched on my iPad and all attending agents sign-in to the app for my sellers’ benefit. I stream the Youtube home and neighborhood tour videos on my client’s Lenovo laptop direct to their flat panel TV. Agents who think they have clients who’d be interested in the home are sent the neighborhood report and the home’s website complete with video and surrounding points of interest, in real-time via email.
2:00pm to 3:30pm. Towards the latter part of the day and into the night, it’s game-time for my “right now” clients and time to prep for my new seller referral and buyer clients ready to pull the trigger. For my new sellers, it’s about “getting to know them” with the info that I know: social media presence and Google search returns of them and their home… I’ve got to tell these guys to tone it down a bit on the social media end of things. For my buyers, we’re seeing two “final contender” homes so I print out website’s neighborhood reports on the homes they like, along with the REALTORS Property Resource® reports that bore down home information to specific facts with flood maps and US Census demographic data – the husband’s an engineer and will love this info.
4:00pm to 5:00pm. I meet my new seller clients in their home and the peptalk begins. Agency and a seller rep contract is talked about and signed – they “know” all about me from my Google search returns, website content, conversations with their friends who used me in a transaction the previous year and a website…
Produce more leads with video!
http://ow.ly/m9nti
Home Buyer Tip: Home Warranties
http://ow.ly/m0czG
The Dipper and the Bucket: A Leadership Principle
On May 1, 2013, in From the LAB, Leadership Insights, by NAR Staff
Scott Lalli, UT, 2012 Class Representative on the Leadership Academy Advisory Board
My Grandfather was a wonderful story teller. Growing up I remember him teaching me many things by sharing stories which usually included a principle about life. One of my favorites was the story of the dipper and the bucket.
All of us have a bucket and all of us have a dipper. When things are good our buckets are full. When our buckets are full we feel happy, content and are generally pleasant. All is right with the world.
But when our buckets are empty, we are sad, discouraged and not all that much fun to be around. The world around us seems tough, even cruel and we have a hard time seeing the positive in anything.
We also all have a dipper. We can use that dipper in two ways. One way is to pour into a bucket and one way is to take out of a bucket. Here are a couple of examples:
I recently received a hand written note from an agent in my office thanking me for something that I’d helped them out with. It was a small gesture, but that little note really meant a lot to me. They used their dipper to fill up my bucket!
Unfortunately, the opposite can also be true. Sometimes we use our dippers to take from others’ buckets. It can happen in a variety of ways. Some are subtle and some are blatant, but all leave ones bucket a little emptier than it was. I remember a time when our office had a particularly productive month. I wanted to say thanks to our team so I decided to cater a hot breakfast for our meeting. Normally, if there were bagels or doughnuts at a meeting that would be a real surprise, so I thought a full breakfast would be a really big deal! It was nicely done with a big spread of wonderful food as a surprise to reward a hard working team. Most were excited and expressed their gratitude to me for doing this. I was feeling really good and thought I’d really done something nice. And then one of my agents walked up to me and said, “Why would you have this restaurant cater breakfast? Their food is always terrible”, and then she walked away.
She got her dipper in my bucket that day!
One of the great things about leadership is that you frequently have the opportunity to put the principle of the dipper and the bucket into practical application. Great leaders are careful about the way they use their dippers. To me, the best leaders are bucket fillers and are always using their dippers to fill up someone’s bucket. The interesting thing about filling someone’s bucket is that your bucket usually is filled as well. What a great reward! As a leader, it is important to seek out opportunities to fill buckets and in turn, you will see your bucket filled.
Realtors® all take the role as a leader at some point. Whether it is to your clients, in your office, or in your association, we all have the chance to lead by being a bucket filler. You don’t need a title, position, or to win an election to do it. All you need is the desire to fill another’s bucket and the rest will take care of itself.
kwps 