“Borino, I may not have been able to afford your Expired Plus system, but I’ve followed your marketing plan for a month and have managed to sell 5 homes (my first five).

Thanks for the great advice!”

Mike Exit Realty, Alabama

In my latest seminar,  I’ll show you exactly what I taught Mike. I have tons of tips and ideas to go over. I’m really looking forward to chatting with you – can you tell?

Here are just some of the questions from you we’ll cover:

• How a new agent went from 0 to 5 transactions in 30 days – step by step
• What to do if you don’t have testimonials
• Fastest & best way to get buyers, sellers, leads to get started
• How to compete with veteran agents
• How to get listings as a new agent
• How do you build your confidence when you don’t have any transactions right now?

Listen to the recording below – and please leave a comment! Let me know what you think.

“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.

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?

“I must say Borino you made a tight webpage. In my neck of the woods taking listings isn’t converting much to sales.

In a regular market I could see the numbers working like your excel video. I can see in my mls (area) however everything that is selling is REO or an agent trying to work a short sale in pre-foreclosure.It’s not about if the sellers want to sell they just can’t sell at a price to attract a buyer to compete with REO’s.”

—————————————————-

Yes, true. In many areas this is a challenging market, no question. It takes a lot of effort to sell a house, especially with all the short sales and REOs. I know – Southern California has had its share of them.

BUT – it can still be done. There are folks out there today – right now who have to sell - expired listings or just regular sellers: job transfers, divorces, unemployment, you name it…

So how can you pull it off without losing your mind (and money) in the process? And without sacrificing all that’s left from the seller’s equity?

Here are some tips that helped me sell and close 8 out of 10 listings – even in a crappy market:

1. Market. I had to know my market inside out. What is selling: what area, what type of property, what price range. I would preview and study it every day. Here is the rule: I only list property I KNOW I can sell.

Are you in a market where nothing is selling? Why stick around – CHANGE your market.

2. Price. Price it RIGHT right from the get go. No “testing” nonsense. No “our house is better“. I would do my clients a HUGE disservice by overpricing their home.

3. Reductions. I review feedback and showings quickly. I wouldn’t wait a month to reduce the price. If there is no action in 7-10 days, it’s time to review the CMA and reduce the price. I know, it takes balls to go back to the seller after only a few days on the market. But what’s the alternative?

4. Commission. This is my biggest secret. Most REOs and short-sales offer 5%. Some retail listings offer standard 6%. I offer 7%, 4% to the selling agent. No strings attached. No “full price” silly conditions. Great way to get tons of showings (and offers).

5. Terms. What is the worst part of dealing with REOs and short sales? Terms. Long waiting time. Long approvals. Tons of paperwork. Lots of hassle. No inspections. No guarantees. No repairs. Pain in the ass. I make sure I highlight all the positives of my listings: short escrow, full disclosures, instant response, flexible seller, etc.

Yes, many REOs and short sales are priced low, but keep in mind it’s not ALWAYS just the price.

6. Condition. Many competing foreclosures are in bad shape and need work (or they do a quick-slap carpet/paint job). My listings need to show great. Clean, spiffy, and sharp. They must stand out.

There is more (and I’ll share it with you when Presentation Plus comes out in July). But for now just focus on the 6 points above and you’ll do fine.

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!