Welcome to Mike Ferry TV the week of May 5th. Boy, this year is going by quickly and I hope that you’re having a lot of success in the process. I’ve got a couple of thoughts that I want to share with you today, and I think probably if you really focus on the first two thoughts I want to share, it can make a big difference in your life as it has made in so many other agents that you probably know, seen, and have heard from.

1) Selling Real Estate is Simple, But Not Easy

So, the first thought I want you to write down is selling real estate is simple, comma, and it’s what’s after the comma that’s important. It’s just not easy. It sounds so easy. Find a buyer. Sell them a home. Find a seller that wants to sell and get a contract signed. And of course, the industry often says to you that this is not a difficult business. It’s only because we make it difficult. I don’t believe that. I think that selling real estate is simple. There are buyers and sellers in every market, every day. Doesn’t matter what the economy is doing. It doesn’t matter what’s going on with interest rates. There’s buyers and sellers in the market, but it’s our job to find them, to present to them, to pre-qualify them, to handle their problems and their questions and get a contract signed.

2) The Four Words that Define Real Estate Success

The second point I want you to write down, selling real estate is about four words. And we’ve done this before mindset, skills, activities and the actions you’re willing to take daily. So, look at the word mindset. What’s going on, on the inside shows on the outside, in your attitude, your behavior, your energy, your lack of enthusiasm, etc. etc. and of course, skills are the ability to take a person through the process and get them to sign a contract. Third, of course, is activities. Are you willing to do the things that people do to get contracts signed on a regular basis? And then the actions is doing something every day. And that’s the hard part of real estate. Somebody said to me a couple of weeks ago, what is the biggest challenge we face today in real estate? And I said, the commission checks. And the person smiled and said, what do you mean? I said, they’re too big. I talked to one of our clients, this is probably 1st of March. And I said, how much was your average commission check ten years ago? And he smiled and said, I think it was between 7500 and 8000 per transaction. I said, what’s your average commission check today? He kind of smiled and said, well, today it’s about 16 to 18,000. I said, are you changing the marketing? Are you changing the market that you’re trying to sell? Are you going after a higher end listings? He said, no, Mike, it’s just the average sales price with inflation has gone through the roof. So, I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done with the same people. I’m just being paid twice as much. So, the actions we take are vital because when you’re getting large commission checks and you’re not used to making a lot of money, it’s a very difficult thing to handle and process and do daily.

3) How Well Do You Score on These Four Words

And then I wrote down number three. How well do you score on these four words. Because to me mindset is vitally important. Obviously, the activities you’re involved in are important. An open house versus contacting your past clients. Both activities totally different in terms of response and obviously the actions you take are important. But the key really is the skills that we have.

And there’s 11 skills that we’ve been teaching for virtually 50 years. I know it’s hard to believe that I could be that old but trust me when I tell you I’m that old. So, 11 skills.

A) Creating a Production-Based Schedule

A creating a production-based schedule and then doing your best to follow it every day.

B) Calling your Database

B calling your database. These are people that you know. These are people that are friends, family, neighbors, etc… Past clients. Why not go after them before you go after somebody else.

C) Other Methods of Prospecting

Letter C is the hard one. Other methods of looking for. Looking for and finding business. Other methods of prospecting

D) Effective Lead Follow-Up

D Effective Lead follow-up… They gave you their name for a reason. They thought you could do something to help them buy or sell. They’re probably not sitting around saying to themselves, I wonder if we should call the realtor. They’re waiting after they give us the name and number for us to call them.

E) Pre-Qualifying

E is the pre-qualifying process where one of the only industries that doesn’t teach pre-qualifying in depth. You know, the commercial side of real estate pre-qualifying is critically important. Being a doctor, an attorney, an airplane pilot, an accountant, pre-qualifying is vitally important.

F) Listing Presentation

But then letter F the Listing Presentation… How well do you make a presentation? Because just think about it this way. All a sudden you’re on stage. The spotlights on you, and that seller is saying perform. And that, of course, is the Listing Presentation.

G) Pricing Property

Letter G pricing property. Well, a year ago pricing wasn’t an issue. Today it’s a huge issue. If you’re five, seven, eight, 10% over fair market value, you’re looking at a potential Expired listing because of a lack of confidence to price it properly.

H) Showing Property

Showing property is letter H because that is a very important activity. I know a lot of you like working with buyers versus sellers, and that’s a choice that you have to make. And a lot of you prefer listings versus showing

I) Handling Objections

Letter I handling objections. Always remember the objections are not new. The objections have been the same for 55 years.

J) Closing for a Signature

Letter J closing for a signature. Which of course is the hard part, because that’s when the pen has to go from your hand to theirs and a signature put on the contract itself.

K) Negotiating

And then of course, the last step in this 11-step process is negotiating, whether it be your listing sold or your buyer-controlled sale with the other agent and their buyer or seller.

So, I wrote down there’s a lot to learn, and the hardest part is admitting we have a lot to learn, because again, that average commission check can make us feel like we’re highly successful when we’re doing 5 or 6 transactions a year and making 15,000 per transaction. But think about it this way if you can do 5 or 6, you can do 10 or 15. If you can do 10 or 15, you can do 20 to 25. And there’s really not a reason except what goes on in your mindset that will keep you from doing it. So, let’s go have a great week. There’s a lot of business to be done and buyers and sellers are looking for you to do it. Talk to you next week.