“You have been just the encouraging kick in the a*s I have needed. Thanks! I still need to work on my daily “to do”. Help??

~ Sharron

Doing stuff matters. Doing the RIGHT STUFF is important – and we’ll get to that in a moment. But first….

There is to it than the doing part to reach your goal. Yes, prospecting, contacting expireds, calling, door knocking – all that is all well and good. But the important secret is in FOCUS. What you focus on expands. What you focus on you attract into your life.

1. Focus on WHY you are in real estate. What do you like about the business the most? Keep reminding yourself why you do what you do every single day.

2. Focus on FUN and JOY. What do you enjoy doing most? Do more of that and MORE of it will show up. I know I’m going a bit Tony Robbins on you here, but feeling good is so important. Feeling good is contagious. If you feel good, people around you feel good. That includes your prospects and your clients.

3. Focus on PEOPLE. What type of people do you enjoy working with most? Be specific. My list includes “fun, interesting, agreeable, pleasant and ready, willing and able to pay for my services” people. Make a list and keep looking for those and they WILL show up.

4. Focus on your SUCCESS. What are the things you are most proud of right now? Keep reminding yourself and more will show up.

Now back to the DOING – the action part. Here is your plan daily plan to get you up and running quickly:

• Before you do anything else, review your FOCUS list every single day, first thing in the morning for 2-3 minutes.
• Practice by yourself or with a partner: 15 minutes – prospecting scripts and role playing, 15 minutes – listing presentation
• Call one person on your SOI list and chat with them
• Call or visit in person one expired listing and/or one FSBO
• If weather permits, knock on 10 doors around your listing (or your company listing) and chat with the neighbors
• Call two leads on your follow up
• Preview two listed properties near your listing
• Preview (drive by) two recent sales
• And finally, absolutely take at least one full day off per week. No work, no cell phone, no email, nothing that has to do with real estate. Just fun, family, friends.

Take command of your Direct Mail Army! Your expired listing letters and postcards are talking to your potential (and current) customers when you’re not there, or when you can’t. Many expired listings will not have a phone number. Vacant properties, sellers out of the area, gated communities…. In all those cases, direct mail becomes your way of introducing yourself to them. After the initial contact, direct mail talks to your leads about the benefits of working with you. It keeps reminding them who you are, how you are different from the regular real estate crowd, and how the sellers benefit by working with you.

Here are eleven quick tips to help you spend less and get more leads, more listings, and more commissions.

1. Repeat. Don’t rely on single mailing. Consistency is just as important as interesting content. Set up a plan to mail at least two or more mailings in a sequence. More is better.

2. Vary your content. Make some pieces educational, some interesting, and some about you. Don’t make each one ONLY about you. Leave ego promotions for your competition.

3. Vary the format. Mix up postcards, letters, newsletters, updates, fliers. Keep it interesting.

4. Have a good design. Make sure each piece is well designed. Design creates a powerful first impression about you and your business. Your audience will create opinions before they even read your letter, postcard or a mailer.

5. Always mail letters first class. Nothing screams “junk mail” like a bulk stamp and a window envelope.

6. Mail the right message to the right audience. Each piece needs to be target-specific. Expired listings worry about getting the house sold and getting it done right. FSBOs are concerned about commissions. Make each message RELEVANT to them.

7. Four questions. Every point in every mail piece MUST answer your customer’s questions: Why is this important? Why should I care? How will this benefit me? What do I do next?

8. Keep it personal. A quick way to a trash can is through using sales talk, business jargon, and empty buzz words. Make your language informal, personal, interesting, and easy to read. Write as if you were speaking to your reader in person.

9. Test and adjust. You will never be done. It’s a process that always evolves. Talk to your customers, ask them what worked, what didn’t and why. Then go back and make changes. Everything works sometime. Nothing works all the time.

10. Follow up in person or over the phone, if you can. Don’t rely on mail alone.

11. Use testimonials. Third party can sell you and your service faster and better than anything else. Use pictures, stories, and be as specific as you can.

The U.S. housing market has started to recover from the most far-reaching crisis since the Great Depression, data released Thursday show. Sales of previously occupied homes rose for the third month in a row in June.

Summer’s here. Buyers are out. And homes are selling again. So for a while the market may come into a nice balance. Properties moving, buyers buying, sellers selling. But then, as it always does, it will swing towards multiple offers, shortage of good listings, and bidding wars. And then back….

Just another cycle. But here is some more good news…

The share of foreclosures on the market is shrinking. About one out of three homes sold in June was foreclosure-related, down from nearly half earlier this year.

Not as many homeowners in trouble. That’s always good.

So, it all means NOW is the time to build up a inventory of good listings. Start going after FSBOs, expireds, even get in touch with your past clients. Price them well and get ready for a good time (all the way to the bank).

How is the market in your neck of the woods?

Hi Borino,

I purchased your Expired Listings system awhile back and I have a  question for you.  What do you think if using window envelopes?  I have a great mail merge program and it would be WAY easier for me to send the letters in this form.  Have you ever tried it?

Good question, Bryan. Yes, window envelope makes sense. Lot easier to produce, cheaper, and faster. I tried it. But there is one problem…

Your open rate will go down. See, the moment an expired listing receives a window envelope, what is the first thing they will think?

“Either a bill or a junk mail“, right? Your aunt Edna never uses window envelopes. So the wall goes up: “Somebody is trying to sell me something. There is probably not good news inside.“  Not a good mind set.

You want your mail to be from a neighbor. A counselor. A friend ready to help, not from a salesman. That’s why the tone of each letter is conversational and informal. And the call to action is soft and subtle.

So here are a 8 steps to make your mail to expired listings opened, read, and – most importantly – acted on:

1. Simple plain white envelope
2. Hand-written address
3. No logos on the envelope
4. No company letter head
5. No photos, slogans, or logos on the paper
6. Hand signed
7. Simple return address (name, street address, city, zip)
8. First class stamp

Yes, it can be a little time consuming, I know. If you get too busy, hire someone to help out.  Before I had a full-time assistant, I had to get creative…

here were times in my office when phones wouldn’t ring and the place was pretty quiet. So instead of playing solitaire, I had our receptionist help out with my mail. She made a little extra cash, she wasn’t just idly sitting there bored -  and my mail was more effective. Win-win

Now go out there and get some expireds!

I also got this one from Maricela: “Do you think that expired listings are good to do right now?”

The DNC Registry, no phone number, “why didn’t you show my house when it was listed?”…. and many more.

All the biggest problems, obstacles and challenges we face when working expireds.  So I put together a teleconference  and went over tips, tools and solutions.  Don’t worry if you missed it. The entire seminar was recorded. We talked about expireds and how to turn them into listings. BTW, this is THE PRIME time to go after them.

Private Teleseminar

Prime Season for Expireds

(and how to get a bunch of them)

Check it out here.

“Direct Mail Is Dead”

Nice design, heavy gloss paper, nice photo of the property. This poor guy mailed hundreds and hundreds of those expensive things to a neighborhood…

And yet not a single good lead, let alone a listing. Is direct mail really dead? No, of course not. The missing (and critical) part of the puzzle was, obviously, THE CUSTOMER. Let me explain…

We all get bunch of direct mail every day. Why is it that sometimes it flops, but other times works like magnet? Here is what goes on…

Normally I trash new car promotions as soon as I get them (unless there is a good idea that can be used in real estate). But recently, I was on the market for a new car. For several weeks I paid more attention to mail about cars and car buying – even junk mail. And several good postcards did get my attention, especially those promoting SUVs.

What changed? I became a potential customer.

• My car-buying radar was on
• I responded to interesting cards with SUVs promotions or pictures
• I particularly remembered dealers that sent more than one piece
• I responded to specific messages focused on ME – THE SUV CAR BUYER

So how does all that apply to a real estate mail campaign? It’s OK to mail to a geographic farm, a list of FSBOs, or expired listings. But NOT ALL the SAME card or a letter. So here is my secret formula for killer direct mail campaign:

Targeted List + Specific Need + Relevant Message x Repetition = $$$

Makes sense, right? Now go out there and get some expired listings!