Mitch 's Blog

Whether I'm on Active Rain, at Tropical Realty talking to my Agents or talking to one of my members at The eHomes Realty Network, I am always talking about creating customers for life.  To me, the only way to be successful in this business is to make sure that every customer you receive, they become your customer for life. 

When I first got in the business I spent my first few weeks listening.  I listened to Agents that had been in business for 20 years talk about their deals.  Mostly what I heard was complaining about how tought the deals were or how their customers wouldn't make a decision.  It always seemed that they were complaining about something!  Then I started meeting other Agents around my county and most of them were complaining about something with regard to the business and to their customers. 

Listening to all of these Agents complain, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they would stay in this business if they didn't like the business and if they didn't like the customers.  Why would you want to be so miserable?!  Again, since I always try to do everything different from my competitors and office mates, I knew that with an attitude of negativity, it would be seen by the customer even if the Agent faked having fun.  Luckily being happy is easy for me.  I'm always happy and I'm always in a good mood.  I just figure if I wake up each day it just can't be that bad! 

So what does this have to do with creating a customer for life?  Everything.  If you run your business correct, after just a few short years of being in business, you have the ability to have a successful business just built on referrals and your past business.  I know that some Agents have lots of referrals and repeat business.  That should be every Agents goal. 

Let's list a few things that I believe you should do to create your customer for life!

1.  Make it fun - The best compliment I have received by most of my customers has been that I was a lot of fun to work with.  I always kept it light while looking at homes.  Some might say I may have been a little too fun, but nobody ever complained.  If you truly have a good time with your customers two things happen.  First they use you to buy a home.  Second they tell everyone how much fun they had while looking for homes with you.

2.  Go the Extra Mile - This should be a no brainer but it's amazing to me how most Agents want to get away with the least amount of work.  Provide excellent customer service for your customer.  Let them know that helping them find or sell their home is most important.  If your customer is a golfer, supply them with golf information, if they have children, supply them with school and after school activities info etc.  The more you help them the more they will be WOW'd by your expertise and customer service.

3.  Extra Bonding - When I was showing homes I almost always took my customers to lunch or dinner.  Two things happened.  First, they because extremely loyal to me.  Second, we talked about everything other than Real Estate.  We became friends.  If a customer was a golfer, I always took them golfing.  That is the best bonding activity you can do.  The beauty about golf, especially if you a good, is the ability to have your customer to chat with about everything for 4 hours or so.  When people finish golfing, they are friends.  I have sealed the deal with so many customers because of our relationship after playing golf with them.  It's like an unwritten code!

4.  Actually help them - One thing I hear from customers all the time is that the Agent that were using previously didn't help them find their home.  Now some Agents will say that the customer gave them all the listings to see.  However, if you don't refine their search and take control of your customer, you are not doing a good job in finding them their home...you are making them find the home.

5.  Communication - Yes, this should be a no brainer too but its not.  I can't believe how many Agents will get a contract and then not keep in touch with the seller or the buyer.  Both Agents will communicate through the inspection period but then there is usually a couple weeks before closing that they Agent barely talks to the customer.  You should be talking with them and asking them if they need anything all the time. 

6.  Don't be cheap - Recently I had sold a home to a customer of mine that has bought 4 homes from me.  During the entire transaction I spent about $650 on things from dinners to a better home warranty, additional pool inspection and a few other things.  My office manager thought I was crazy.  She said that nobody does this for their customers why are you?  I said to her that was the difference between me an other Agents.  My commission for the house was $12,000.  By paying for little things that took some hassle out of my customers hands while they were dealing with moving, etc. I secured my customer as a customer for life.  In reality, I had already done that with these folks since they have bought 4 homes from me as I said before.

7.  Give a gift - This one amazes me too.  I know of so many Agents that don't give their customers gifts when they buy or sell a home.  A gift costs $50 - $75 and it goes so far.  I always try to give things that tend to be entertainment.  After a long stressful transaction and move, it's nice to chill out.  What you give isn't the most important thing, it's just that you were thoughtful enough to give something.  I have had a couple of Agents tell me that the reason they don't buy gifts is because they feel that they gave the customer such customer service they don't need to buy them a gift.  That's just another way to say "I could care less about my customer they were only a dollar sign to me". 

8. Follow up - This is probably the hardest and definitely one that I was guilty of not doing.  I was always good at calling my customers the day after closing to make sure they were ok and to see if they needed anything.  Where I fell short is in calling them a month later to check on them.  And then to call them every quarter to say hi and help them.  I require all my Agents to call their customers 3 days after closing to check to make sure everything is good.  We then put all our solds into a quarterly drip system plus the newsletter which we send monthly.  Of course I try to get my Agents to call quarterly too, but I'm not very successful with that practice. 

Do yo have to do all this to create customers for life?  I think you do.  I want to know that if any of my customers, their friends, and their family, will contact me for anything to do with real estate.  In fact I have such a great relationship with my customers I invited 50 of the to my wedding in 2004.  Think about your customer first, always have a good time and take care of your customer every step of the way and you will create your customer for life!  You will find that the extra work you put in now with these customers will be very fruitful in the future for you. 

You can never give to much customer service!

Do you know that only 2% of floor calls are converted to customers?  This webinar will teach you how to handle a floor call.  Since we do most of our marketing online, we receive a ton of floor calls.  Once you are done with this webinar, you should be able to convert 80% or more by following our system. 

When I started in Real Estate everyone I talked to in the business told me not to waste my time on Floor Time.  They said that Floor Calls were a total waste of time!  Of course, being the entrepeneur that I am, I noticed a large opportunity.  I thought to myself, if I can figure out how to convert a floor call to a customer it would help me launch my Real Estate career.  The rest is history of course.  I sold 36 homes my first year with 28 of them coming from floor calls.  Everyone was in shock in my office but not one of them every wanted to learn what I did to accomplish my goal. 

On October 23rd from 2pm to 2:30pm I will be holding a Webinar for my eHomes Realty Network.  This information is so simple but yet so powerful.  I have room for some guests to join us, so if you are interested, please click here and register. 

I look forward to helping you!

Before I say what I'm going to say here, I want to make a few things clear.  Firstly, I am a registered Republican.  Second I don't vote my party, I vote for the right person and the right programs.    I have voted Democrat and Republican many times.  And finally, I'm not a big fan of either candidate.  Personally if these two guys are our best choices for President out of 300 million people it's pretty sad.  Now that I have that out of the way, here is my thought.

Over the past several years our lobbyist for Real Estate in Washington and throughout many states have been fighting the sales tax on Real Estate.  In a country where we are headed for Socialism and a huge amount of government programs, you can be sure that they will get the money from somewhere.  My belief is once our future completely democratic government starts their spending, more and higher taxes are on the way.  One of the quickest and easiest means of the government adding a tax base is to start taxing services.  From what I have seen, we are headed toward a trillion dollars in new spending on top of the huge increases we had over the last 8 years.  If the market starts to come back in the future, be prepared for this new tax.  No matter how good our RPAC people are, they will not be able to stop a tax and spend mentality.

On top of all this of course is that we are all small business people.  I don't want to pay higher taxes and be forced to provide health insurance because my company earns more than $250k per year.  I have worked 80+ hours a week for 25 years to become successful.  I don't need the government taking more of my money and giving it to people that don't have the drive to succeed.  I give away money and time every year and usually a lot of both!  If the government takes that money out of my pocket to redistribute the wealth as Obama told our Joe the Plumber, what is going to happen to our charities that we all support?  If I'm paying the $20k that I donate a year to the government, I won't have it to help the small charities that I currently support.  My question is, at what point do we stop this madness and start talking about taking our country back. 

Ok, I just had to get some of this off my chest.  My goal is to try to semi retire in 2 years when I turn 50.  At that point I'm going to start our revolution.  My goal....take back the country, implement the fair tax system, and add term limits so we don't have career politicians that care more about their career than they do about helping our country.  If anyone would like a copy of my thoughts on changing American for the good, click here.  My points might not all be the best, but they are suggestions on how to fix the problems instead of complaining about the problem.  Why is this my goal?  I love my country.  I love everything we used to stand for when I was growing up.  I love the fact that my family came here in the 30's as poor Americans and worked hard to get out of poverty and become middle class Americans...who learned how to speak English.  At some point, if you love our country, you are going to have to start doing something about it. 

Yesterday I wrote a blog explaining why I am a big fan of Template sites.  When I talked to one of my members today from The eHomes Realty Network, I explained in more detail why I like Template sites.

So what happens when you don't spend that $20,000 on a website and actually put it into marketing.  Let's take a look at this great example of what you can do with that $20k you are about to spend on that fancy customer site.

Let's say you are using Pay Per Click and are paying $1 per click.  If so, this would result in 2,000 leads.  If you are excellent at Lead Conversion you will close 1 sale out of 30 leads.  However, let's say you get 1 sale out of 40 leads.  If you were trained through my Network you would be at 1 out of 30 or better. 

So this means if you have 2,000 leads divided by (1 sale out of 40 leads) you would receive 50 sales.  Then we take 50 sales with an average of $200,000 which will equal $10,000,000 in volume.  Multiply that times 3% and that gives you $300,000 in gross commission.  Even if you are on a 50% split, you will earn $150,000 from this investment.  So let's see, you spent $20,000 and you had a gross profit of $150,000.  I would do this every day.  Wouldn't you? 

So that gives you my main reason why I would rather use a Template site versus a Customer site.  My site investment for this was $600 (at $50 per month) if this took 1 year to accomplish. 

The moral of this story is that you don't need to spend a ton on your site being "special" if you can gain the same amount of leads from a Template site.  With the money saved, you could build your business very quickly and be very profitable!  Profit is good!

I posted here yesterday that I was looking to hire an administrative assistant.  Yesterday at 4pm I place a help wanted ad on Craigslist.  By this morning we had 33 applicants.  By tonight we had 53 applicants.  Eihter there are a lot of people looking for work or Craiglist is the help wanted ad placement I have ever used.  It was crazy and best of all....free! 

So if you are in need of hiring any admin people for your office, I highly recommend using Craigslist.  We have used it in the past to market homes with some success, but this was very cool!

Have a fun night!

I'm looking for a person to work 30 hours per week or so in my Melbourne Florida office.  The person does not have to be licensed, but that would be nice!  Job responsibility will be tracking our lead flow sources, helping with website changes (no expereince needed) and other office stuff!  If you know of anyone, please drop me an email as we are hiring immediately!  Thanks!

I just finished answering one of my other blogs where I had mentioned that I liked Template sites better than custom sites.   Then it dawned me that I should share that with all of you. I see so many Agents and Brokers spend thousands and thousands of dollars on their websites.  I talked with an Agent the other day that had a nice site...he spent $30k building it.  I had reviewed it and mentioned he needs to make a few changes.  He appreciated my changes and told me he had to have his webmaster make the changes at $75 per hour.  Yikes is what I thought.  I can have almost two months of one of my sites for that price!

Here is what I wrote in the other blog:

Hey Bryant!  Just think of how much I actually give my members!  In reality, I've been teaching sales most of my life.  Since 1996 I have been involved with the Internet and back then through 2000 worked with Radio stations throughout the US and Canada.  Back then we didn't have templated sites.  In fact, my first functional site cost me $950,000!  Of course it did a ton of stuff that nobody was doing back then, but...you could build that same site now for about $30k.

I really don't understand why people spend $20k-$30k on sites when you can buy a good site that does the job for $50 a month.  Knowing what I know about sites and after working with my SEO guy, Eric Blackwell, it is the only way to go...in my humble opinion of course!  I was told the reason why everyone spent that amount of cash was to have SEO rankings.  Eric, in three months, has me ranked in the top ten with all my landing pages. 

The other major reason I like using a templated site is the ability for me, or one of my admin, to change things on instantly.  When I had a webmaster, I had to get hold of him and have things added or changed when he could change them.  Ok, so I think you get my drift!

That pretty much says it all. The only reason I contemplated building a site was for SEO reasons, but after having Eric do my SEO and do great with it, there is absolutely no reason to have a big fancy expensive site.  I'm sure my $50 a month site will do just as much if not more than any expensive site.  By the way, Eric not only does a great job, but he gives members of The eHomes Realty Network a 10% discount which is more than the cost of the membership! 

If you haven't had me send you my tips for Internet Success Tips, you might want to go ahead and do that at: http://www.ehomesrealtynetwork.com/index.cfm/Free_Internet_Success_Tips.  It's brief, but it will get you in the right direction with your Internet program.  I had also written a blog yesterday on the cost of running an Internet program monthly so you can figure out just what you need to get started and do it right.  That blog is at: http://activerain.com/blogsview/742632/How-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-successful-Internet-program

As always, if you would like any help with your Internet program I'm always here to help.  I give everyone who asks an honest opinion of what they are doing and how they can acheive success.  In fact, I don't even push my Network on people.  The reality is, if you don't want to join my network I don't want to push it on you.  I figure if I help enough people, then many will join...and so far that has worked great! 

One of my potential members of The eHomes Realty Network asked me this question today and I thought it was something I should share on here for my fellow Active Rain members.  I get this question asked a lot!

So how do we even figure this out?  First we must look at what you need to create a successful Internet program.  Here is the break down of what I use for our very successful Internet program.

Website - I'm a big believer in templated websites.  There are many companies out there where you can get a site for under $50.  We will use $50 as our number

IDX - A decent IDX system to add to your website can be bought for approximately $50 per month.

So basically for less than $100 per month you can have a good set up to capture leads.  At Tropical Realty we spend $80 total for our IDX and Website. 

CRM - There are many systems out there from $10 per month to $100+ per month.  I'll use Top Producer as a benchmark and using their basic system $39.95 per month.  Keep in mind that to start off you can easily use Microsoft Outlook to do most of what a CRM does.  One difference between a good CRM and Outlook is automated drip emails.  With that said, for over 6 years, before we automated with our 100MPH Marketing Software, we have run a very successful Internet program with just two emails per month to our entire database.

Marketing - This is where it's tough for me to give you a price because it really depends on your beliefs.  As most of you know, I am a big believer in Pay Per Click.  I have built a successful Brokerage using PPC and would never take it out of my marketing.  Others believe SEO is the answer.  SEO is great but can also be costly if you need to hire someone.  Even if you don't, it's not a predictable business model so I'm going to stick with PPC for this business model.

PPC - $250-$500 per month.  Personally if you are going to spend less than this amount, it's probably not worth spending the money.  The average ppc is around $1 per click.  Of course in some areas this is much higher and others worse.  $500 spent would result in 500 clicks.  A 10% capture would get you 50 leads per month which is the number that I give my Agents on a monthly basis for them to be successful.  This year 50 leads per month has resulted in 1.5 sales per month per Agent in my office but more importantly has resulted in 8 different buyers per month per Agent.  With this showing activity, we know that when the market comes back a little, we will average 4 sales per month per Agent which is my goal for each of my Agents.

Newsletter - I use Realty Times for $299 per year ($25 per month if broken down).  There are many options out there, but I have found them to be one of the best and easiest to deal with.

The eHomes Realty Network (ok, just a little plug for me) $39.95 per month

These costs of course are the basics costs and they can be higher or lower depending on the factors.  However, it will give you a little idea on what your monthly costs are if you choose to use the Internet the 100MPH Marketing way.  I'm sure most of you know that my little brokerage is on track to hit 250 transactions this year using our systems.

So let's look at the summary:

Website and IDX = $100
CRM =                  $ 39.95
PPC =                   $500
Newsletter =          $ 25
The Network =       $39.95

Total                   $704.90

These are the facts Jack!  If you want to be successful running your Internet program, these are the basic tools and costs you need to succeed.  Of course when you start out, you can lower your PPC spending to $250 which of course won't get you the amount of leads I like per Agent on a monthly basis. However it does give you a chance to start at $454.90 per month.  Don't join my Network and you can bring this down a little more but of course the goal of the Network is to save you money by saving you from making mistakes I have made in the past.

In the end, it's up to you if you really want to have a successful Internet program.  This is the program that works for any Agent.  Can Agents that understand all this do it less expensive using SEO and other online marketing programs?  Sure!  However, in my experience in dealing with my members, this is not the norm.  The other factor that changes everything here is your ability to follow a lead conversion system that works.  The numbers above are the costs to get the leads.  If you can't convert them, then this number can seem very large, hence the purpose of the Network as part of your monthly costs.  However if you spend this amount, and invest in your business, within 3 or 4 months you will start to see the benefits of consistancy and database building. 

As always, I'm here to answer any questions and help anyone that needs help.  I never charge for an initial consultation.  I do them daily with many Agents.  Some join the Network, and others don't.  The ones that have been joining the Network have been proactive in building their Internet business.  So far most of the ones who haven't joined, didn't make a commitment to be successful online. 

Good luck and I hope this helps!

I know I just wrote a very long blog on why you should write your business plan.  I also wrote that you should have an Internet strategy.  As most of you know, I am the founder of The eHomes Realty Network and I spend a good amount of time with all my new members evaluating their websites.  After all, you may have the best Internet marketing program out there, but if you have a site that doesn't capture leads or give you enough info to convert those leads, then you are not going to accomplish your Internet goals. 

Tonight, in appreciation of all the new members of the Network that have come from Active Rain, I am offering a free website evaluation for any Active Rain member that would like one.  There is no obligation, simple follow this link, give me your web info, and I will give you an evaluation of your site.  The last couple of times I have done this I have received a lot of them.  Since I'm assuming tonight will be no different, please give me a day to finish the evaluation. 

 http://www.ehomesrealtynetwork.org/index.cfm/Website_Evalutation

I look forward to helping you!

Well it's that time of year again.  It's time to start thinking about the year 2009.  I know, it's hard to believe that we are in the year 2009 almost.  I remember graduating high school in 1978 ( my 30th reunion is next month) and wondering where I'm going and how I'm going to get there.  Unfortunately back then I didn't know where to go or what to do.  I knew I was going to go to college.  My goal at that time was only to be a rock star with my band.  School was a promise to my mother that I was going to keep no matter what. 

Then, on Aug 22, 1978 at 7:45pm an unbelievable turn of events changed my life forever.  I was pumping gas in my friends car, before there were self serve (the attendant was busy and we didn't want to wait), and the gas tankl spit back at me getting gas on my fishnet shirt (remember those!).  After finishing pumping gas, I went in the car and my friend asked me for a light for his cigarette.  I flicked the bic and the gas on my shirt ignited.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Luckily, thanks to Jerry Lewis's Drop and Roll commercials of the day, my friend thought quick enough to get me out of the car and roll me on the ground and put the flames out.  I remember rolling one way and seeing the gas tank to the car and the other way and seeing the gas tanks of the gas station.  I was telling my friends to run in my head but of course they couldn't hear me.  I thought about so much in that short time I was on fire.  My life passed before me and I said my good byes to my parents, my friends and my girlfriend.  My life was going to be cut short.  I wasn't in any pain while I was on fire, I was actually pretty calm.  Then, all of the sudden, the fire was out and many people were standing over me.  Then there was the pain.  I hope nobody on here ever has to feel the pain of burining 20% of your body with 3rd degree burns.  They told me that I would have been dead if I was on fire for another 10 seconds.  The shirt would have melted into my organs. 

It was a pretty horrific site.  Burnt skin was hanging off me from my hands and arms.  My chest and stomach were charred black and the doctors and nurses were working fevershly to keep me alive.  They worked on me for 6 hours before they were able to transport me to intensive care.  Quite an experience.

The point of this story is coming.  The first few days were a blurr. I was pretty drugged up.  It was probably the third or fourth day before I can remember talking to my doctor.  At that point I was pretty restrained in a private room.  All I could think about was that I was never going to play guitar again.  The doctor assured me I would.  It was then that the doctor told me I would be here for 4-6 months recovering.  The probem was, I had a gig in a month that was our biggest gig of our bands career.  We had several others that another guitar player filled in for me, but this one, a month from my accident, was the biggest and I was determined to play.  My doctor told me if I could make a fist with my left hand (the burns were pretty much down to the bone) that I would be able to get out.  He also told me not to get my hopes up because it was very doubtful my burns would heal enough for me to leave the hospital that quickly.

So what did I have here?  I had goal and I had motivation.  My goal was to make a fist with my hand and my motivation was getting out of the hospital and playing my gig.  Every night, while being pumped with morphine, I would be in tears trying to make a fist.  Every day it felt like I was getting nowhere but I was not going to give up on my goal and ultimately playing that gig.  Four weeks later I was on stage wearing rubber gloves on my hands and sitting in a chair playing my guitar for 1500 or so screaming fans.  I accomplished my goal.  It was probably the first goal I can remember that I had accomplished.  I'm sure I may have had more, but this was the one that sticks out in my mind the most.  Of course, it was a little more dramatic than any other situation in my life.  Yes, I had sports goals playing baseball and accomplished many of them, but this was different.  Baseball came easy to me, this was not easy!

What is the point of this story?  It's really quite simple.  It shows that no matter how much people tell you can't accomplish anything, you can.  You all have in you the ability to do whatever you want to do.  That accident back in 1978 shaped my entire life.  I have been goal driven since that painful month.  Sure I have had failures, but I have also had many successes.  The biggest reason I accomplish most of my goals is that I "Just Do It"!

I know what many of you are going through.  You know that you can be successful using the Internet for a base of business.  However, you also have so many of the "old school" Real Estate people telling you that the Internet Leads are terrible and you will never make a living working them.  I know you are sitting in your office looking at all the other Agents who are blaming everything but themselves for their failures.  Of course it's the real estate meltdowns fault.  All Agents are failing right now.  You hear that every day.  In fact, you are starting to buy into the fact that you are not going to be able to accomplish what little goals you have left because according to the news, the agents, your broker, the market is dead.  How could you possibly become successful in this market?

How do I know you are going through this?  It's because when I started in Real Estate all the "old school" Realtors told me not to do a bunch of things.  They told me not to do floor time because it was a waste of time.  They told me not to waste my time with any of the Internet leads my broker was giving me. They told me that this business is extremely hard and if I sold 10 homes my first year I would be doing great.  They told me not to work with investors.  They basically told me that if I did any of those things that I would fail.  All those things they told me, that was my motivation.  All I had to do was come up with my goals and my plan, which was pretty easy. 

So with all this yacking done, don't listen to the "cancer" Agents.  Sit down tonight or tomorrow and start working on your business plan for 2009.  It's not something you want to start working on in January.  If you do, you will be a month behind right from the start.  Start planning your first quarter, first month and first week of how you are going to accomplish your goals.  Run your Real Estate career as a business and write this all down.  If you don't know how to write a business plan, ask someone who does.  It's really not hard.  You can keep it pretty basic.  Start with your year goal.  How many homes do you want to sell to buyers?  How many listings do you want to sell in 2009?  Break that down quarterly, monthly and weekly.  Large goals are much easier to tackle when you break them down to the month and week.  You will see you only have to sell one house every other week to hit 24 sales.  That's easy enough isn't it? 

Once you have figured out what your production should be, now you have to figure out how to get there?  As I have mentioned many times on Activerain, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just pick a few things and give it 100%.  Many of these goals can be accomplished by becoming an expert on converting floor calls to sales.  Remember I was told they are terrible?  I sold 28 of my first year 36 sales from floor calls.  Does your office supply Internet leads?  If so, learn how to convert them to sales.  My broker back in 2001 used to give me 10 leads a day because nobody else would work them.  Unfortunately I listened to the old school realtors on these leads.  I'm sure I left a lot of sales on the table.  That is one area I can help you, we are experts at lead conversion in my office.  I don't look back though, I always look ahead!  Finally, figure out what your marketing budget is going to be.  If you really want to be successful then you need to invest in yourself.  When I first got in the business 20% of every check I received went into my marketing fund.  I never stopped spending at least 20% on marketing which might be the reason I never slowed down in my business when everyone else was complaining about every thing.

In the end, I will say what I say to my Agents every year.  Don't make the goals so small that even a caveman can reach them.  Make your goals a challenge.  Spend a good amount of time figuring out your plan.  Most of all....Just Do It!