Mitch 's Blog

I had a great conversation with one of my members of The eHomes Realty Network tonight.  It started with a simple question.  He asked, "How do you continue to always be upbeat and motivated?"  It was a good question because sometimes I ask myself the same question.  Even though my revenues are pretty high in this market, I don't make nearly the money I made when I was an Agent selling homes versus a Broker with 24 Agents.  I decided to open my brokerage at the worst possible time, March of 2005, right before the market fell down.  It was a little bit of a struggle, but we have made it through the toughest part of the decline and have managed to grow our business from 6 Agents to 24 Agents and to become the number one office in buyer transactions in Brevard County Florida.  However, none of this was easy and it came with lots of sacrafice and determination.  So when my member asked me this question, I wanted to give him an answer, but I had to think about it for a minute.

Every since I was a kid I have always been super competitive. In fact my brother just left this afternoon and as we do once per year, we have a marathon golf tournament.  We battled each other all the way until the end, 11 rounds in 7 days.  It was exhausting but a ball.  But since I was a kid I have always had the desire to win and be the best I could be at pretty much everything I did.  When I played baseball, I always wanted to be the best, and at the time, I was.  When I played in a rock band I always wanted to be the best in the area, and we were.  When I had obstacles like getting kicked out of college for grades after my first year, I had to figure out why.  I did and went on to get a 3.6 at my next school.  As in all my businesses, I always like to measure my success against the others in my field.  Real Estate was no exception.

When I first got into the business I told my broker I would be number 1 in the office by my second year, and I was.  I used to look at the sales board and if I didn't see my name up there with the most contracts and closed sales I would work twice as hard until I did.  I guess it's just really fun to me.  So to answer my members question, I just had to think back of my competitiveness and realize that I just like to win.  I hate to lose!  So what motivates me to succeed?  Winning!  Why am I always upbeat and happy?  Because I like winning!  I don't think that makes me a bad person does it? 

So why am I telling you this?  When my member asked me this question, it made me realize that I am no different than anyone in this business.  The only difference is that I might work a little harder, try different things that nobody else is willing to try, and surround myself with excellent people to help me succeed.  So are you winning in the Real Estate Business?  Maybe you should ask yourself some questions.

1. Are you selling as many homes per year that you would like or are you not hitting your goals? 

2. Are you working 40+ hours per week to accomplish your goals?

3. Do you have a business plan? 

4. Do you blame the current market conditions for your lack of success?

5. Are you afraid to spend money to become successful?

6. Are you doing the same thing today that you did last year without success?

7. Where do you want to be and how are you going to get there? (you could always become a member of The eHomes Realty Network and we can help you)

I have found that if you just smile all the time and be happy good things will happen for you.  A great attitude is the beginning and foundation for success.  Throw in helping your community and your fellow Realors. And then work hard, honestly, with great ethics and take care of your customers and they will take care of you.  It's all just waiting for you to grab.  It's all right at your finger tips. All you have to do is grab it and the fun begins.  Winning in Real Estate is no different than winning at anything.  You just have to do it!

Hi Everyone!  

I'm sitting here getting ready to play my last game of golf with my brother...it's been a well needed break although my brother kicked my butt this week.  Of course my brother leaving is running into Amanda (my daughter) and Lola (my granddaughter) coming tomorrow.  Great stuff!   I was sitting here this morning just thinking about the past 7 years.  Today, 7 years ago, we were just getting ready to start our weekly Tuesday meeting.  I was brand new and just started on Sept. 10th.   I went from the excitment of starting my new career to the horror of the trade centers coming down in a matter of minutes.  What was supposed to be an interesting start turned into a decision of should I go and join the service and fight for our country.  Of course that didn't matter I was 40 years old...I was ready!  What a way to start a real estate career.  

I know the past two and a half years have been a tough road to battle.  Our real estate market has been hurting bad and we have all struggled with those results.  Luckily we have a strong group of friends (Agents) all working together in both offices to help us through the days.  I know it's easy to just give up but you have all showed the will to survive and to grow.  My hats off to all of you.   Right now I'm watching the Today Show who are actually saying good things about the housing market.  Prices are down and interest rates are low.  It's a great time to buy and it is up to us to let our customers know.   

With all that said, as you go through your busy day today, please take a moment to say a prayer for our fallen trade center victims, their families and our troops oversees that are fighting to insure we don't have another Sept. 11th of horror.   Keep up the great work and be happy just to be alive.  The rest is a piece of cake!

I recently posted a blog on assistants and the importance of them.  I received several emails from my members at The eHomes Realty Network and from Active rain members so I thought I would elaborate a little.

To me, the most important job a Realtor has is to be out showing property. I spent my first two years of my Real Estate career not using an assistant.  I would have a great month, then a bad month, then a great month and then a bad month and so on and so on.  The cycle was consistent!  After reading a few books I broke down and hired a full time assistant.

The results were almost instant and were totally amazing!  Not only did I have more time to take care of my customers, I didn't have to do any of the stuff that I really didn't like doing.  I have never been the most detailed person in the world so doing all the transaction stuff of a closing was never any fun.  By having an assistant, I was now freed up to market myself more to keep my pipeline full and show more property to increase my sales...and increase my sales I did!  My sales went from 4 every other month to 4-6 every month.  The best part of all, is if I had nothing going on that day, I could go golfing instead of catching up on all the admin stuff I was never having enough time to do.

I always recommend that your assistant be licensed.  For no other reason than if gives them the flexibility to do more for you.  I also recommend paying them well!  I know some Agents that are constantly going through assistants because they try to do it as cheaply as possible.  My suggestion is some sort of base and 10% of the commission.  If you don't want to pay a base, you may have to pay a little higher commission.  Either way, it's well worth the money.  The numbers are simple.  If you can double your sales wouldn't you give up 10% or more of your revenues...it's a cost of doing business that will pay off way more than running ads in the local papers...does anyone do that anymore!

Assistants can help with all the transactions, lead follow up, open houses, inspections and more.  However, the more you use them for different tasks, the more you should be paying them.  If they are doing a substantial amount of your work for you, pay them accordingly.  I would have no problem giving my assistant 20% or more if the value was there. 

After having an assistant, I couldn't imagine going back to not having one.  I have convinced about a third of my office to have an assistant in one capacity or another.  It's funny how they are quickly becoming the most successful ones in my office.  The others say they don't make enough to pay an assistant.  Here in lies the catch 22.  If you don't invest in your business, your business will most likely never grow.  You have to remember, growing a business costs money. 

One final note, if you are going to hire an assistant, you must learn how to become a manager.  I have seen so many Realtor assistants quit their jobs because their boss (the agent) has no idea how to be a manager.  In one of my manuals, Train the Trainers, which can be found on The eHomes Realty Network site for my members, you can learn how to treat staff as well as Agents in your team as you start to grow. 

So if you are ready to grow your business,  you may want to consider an assistant.  If you want help in developing a team, you should think about joining The eHomes Realty Network.  We are always here to help you become the best you can be!

I just got in from training one of our eHomes Realty Network members in Virigina.  I don't usually fly out for a one on one training session but I have been working with Chris from Long and Fosters for quite some time and he was in a rutt.  Usually when I do my trainings, I spend the first day trying to figure out what they are doing wrong from a systems approach and the second day is training on sales, our 100MPH Marketing system, Listening and Evaluating Customers, Floor Calls and a few other manuals.  Within an hour with Chris we realized his problem. 

His biggest problem was not calling his leads and never following up with phone calls.  The biggest and most important part of converting leads to a sale is following a strict follow up phone call program.  But there was a problem.  Chris just was having trouble finding the time to do this.  So what is his option.  Well, if you read anything about successful Agents and Teams the one thing that they all have in common is an assistant.  I explained to Chris that the sales he was losing (about 2 or 3 per month) would easily pay for the assistant and more. 

By having an assistant it will free him up to do revenue generating things such as showing property!  That's something in which he enjoys and excels.  So we discussed the role of the assistant who will be paid by commission based on sales.  Basically she will be making the first calls, the follow up calls, loading the new leads into the system and then helping with closings as a transaction coordinator.  When he realized that based on the volume he should be doing, the cost of the assistant is going to be around $100k per year.  I explained to him that he is paying her that much, first she won't leave, and second he must be making a ton if he is paying her that much.  With that said, he agreed.

Sometimes it's just important to have someone to run your ideas by with someone that does this every day for his company.  I have been building our systems and converting leads for almost 7 years now.  It's been great and our success proves the systems work great.  My goal with the Network is to put a lot of other minds following the same system and helping each member of our Network to grow and perfect it even more.  The beauty of having everyone on the same page is we are all helping each other for the common good.  I only let a few Agents from each area to join to insure we don't have members competing with each other.  Good stuff!

With all that said, if you are having trouble doing it all, and you really want to grow, you need to really consider having an assistant.  When I was selling houses and finally broke down and hired an assistant, my sales went from 2-4 sales per month to 4-6 sales per month and I didnt work as hard. 

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! 

I have had a few people ask me why I thought they should join The eHomes Realty Network. To me it's really a no brainer unless you are already doing more business than you need to do.  I have spent the past several years perfecting that systems that have made my real estate company, Tropical Realty of Suntree in Melbourne Florida, the Number 1 Brokerage out of 500 offices in buyer transactions for almost 2 years straight!  I'm very excited about those numbers and even more excited about sharing my systems, training and ideas with other Agents and Brokers.  I spent over $500k in the past 7 years understanding how to do build a real estate career as efficiently as possible.  I'm not sure where you can find all the training, systems, consulting and tools that are offered through The Network for only $39.95 per month.  If I could have had access to this, it would have saved me thousands and thousands of dollars.

I do understand that many of you out their in the Real Estate world are constantly having companies trying to get into your pockets.  That was why we have our product review section.  This allows me to evaluate products we have tried as well as our members to hopefully save you money.  I'm sure that the information I supply is well worth the price of admission.  After all, if you obtain just one sale per year from what I teach, you are ahead of the game.  You would pay more than your membership dues in a referral fee. 

With all that said, feel free to check out what some of the Agents I have helped, say about myself and my services.  Don't take it from me...I own the company!  Go to:

http://www.ehomesrealtynetwork.com/index.cfm/Member_Testimonials

As always, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to email me or call me.  My cell phone number is 321-258-4150.  I'm so confident in my ability to help you become successful that I'm not afraid to put my cell phone number on here!  I hope to hear from you and I look forward to adding many sales per year to your bottom line.  By the way, this year my small Real Estate company has over 200 sales from the Internet.  We are located in one of the worst Real Estate markets in the country and have almost a 7% market share in buyer transactions...not bad for a small company!

August was another excellent month for Tropical Realty of Suntree in Brevard County Florida (probably the worst real estate market this area has seen since the mid 80's and one of the worst hit in the country) I'm so proud of my Agents as they have shined while other Agents are packing it in.  We do owe all our success to the excellent systems that we have developed over the past several years for our Internet programs.  In August we closed 28 sales and remain the number 1 office in Brevard County Florida in working with buyers out of over 500 Real Estate offices.  Not bad for a very small company and only 24 Agents.  I haven't done my numbers yet for the year, but this should put us over 200 sales this year which have all come from the Internet in one way or another. 

If you are interested in learning how we do all our sales through the Internet, you can join The eHomes Realty Network .  All of our training and systems are there for all our members to share.  Since my Real Estate company is pretty much on auto pilot, I spend most of my days these days either out of the office training other companies (I'm in VA right now training a small group) or answering questions for all our members.  I love teaching others how to be successful doing what we are doing!  In reality, each of our Agents is showing an average of 6-8 different buyers per month.  Because of market conditions, we are only closing about 1.25 of these people per month.  Once our market comes back we should be at 4 sales per month per Agent....we can't wait! 

If you have any questions about The Network, please feel free to email me at mitch@mitchrealty.com or give me a call at 321-258-4150.  I'm always here to help!

Hi Everyone!

As most you know, I own and operate The eHomes Realty Network.  Since my launch two weeks ago the membership has been growing steadily and I'm helping a lot of Agents probably just like you!  Currently I'm in Viriginia training a small group.  This is probably my favorite part of my job, helping small to mid sized groups of Agents "get it".  Usually by the time I'm done most of the Agents will realize they have been missing out on a lot of sales!

I have put a survey on my site that will help me to understand the Internet knowledge of Agents.  I'm looking for a little help if you could in filling it out.  I have made all the questions not mandatory so you don't have to leave your name and email address if you choose not to.  It's really just a fact finding mission for me to better help other Realtors.

Thanks for helping me out. Go to:

http://www.ehomesrealtynetwork.com/index.cfm/Internet_Marketing_Survey

Thanks to all of you who are helping to build the largest Team in the country.  The eHomes Realty Network is all about Agents helping Agents!  Of course not to mention having me as a personal consultant at your finger tips!

I remember when I first started in Real Estate.  My broker, on my first day, told me that she doesn't do any training.  She did tell me that her advice was to follow up, follow up, follow up.  Those words were excellent words of advice.  However, I was thrown to the wolves trying to figure out how to be successful.

The first thing I heard was not to do floor time.  It's a waste of time!  After listening to many of the Agents do floor time, I realized that the reason they didn't like floor time was because they didn't know how to to do it.  I found it very easy and my first year in business I had 28 sales just from floor calls. 

A couple of quick tips for those of you who are new to the business.  Firstly, learn how to do floor calls.  They are a great source of sales.  I would do as much floor time as allowed because those are buyers calling you.  We love that! 

Secondly, do open houses.  Personally I'm not a big fan of open houses.  However, when I first started I did open houses every weekend that I could. I knew that I had the potential to meet one or two new buyers every weekend...and I did.  Over the next couple of years I sold a bunch of homes to people that I met at open houses.  Even if you don't have listings, I'm sure most of the Agents in your office will be happy to let you do an open house at their listing.  Make sure you pick the higher priced homes as that wiill get you higher priced buyers.

At The eHomes Realty Network, we are in the process of working out a deal with a local and national online and offline school.  They have asked me if they could be a reseller of the Network.  It wasn't my intention, but they convinced me that I need to be offering this service to new agents and brokers.  In reality, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars making mistakes.  The idea behind The Network is to save Realtors and Brokers money by not making the same mistakes I made.  I have mastered the Internet and lead capture and conversion.  Learn how to maximize your traffic to your site by capturing leads and converting them to customers for life.  In the end, within 4 months, you will be generating sales and on your way to being successful. 

If you have questions about The Network, feel free to contact me.  I'm always here to help and our Network is growing daily.  Our goal is to build the largest Team of Realtors nationwide of Agents helping Agents.  It's really something else!

Being a brand new Agent can be very difficult.  Just by using the two tips above, you can become successful.   If you would like to discuss the floor call system we use, please don't hesitate to email me. 

Have a fun night!

So I guess there was some confusion over a post I made this past week with regard to affiliate marketing.  Let me explain it hopefully a little better.

Back when I owned my Internet company, I was one of the first companies online to do affiliate marketing.  The goal was to have my affiliate partners have my content and business on their site but make it appear to be my affiliate partners.  It was a win/win situation; when someone bought something, through these sites we both benefited.

A few weeks ago it dawned on me that I should be using this approach in the Real Estate arena.  I haven't seen anyone do this so it's understandable that most Agents won't really understand what I'm doing.  However, if you don't, don't miss out on the opportunity.  Just call me at 321-258-4150 and I will explain this the best I know how.

Here's how it works:

Once we agree that you would like to participate, I will create an IDX page that is for Brevard County Florida.  Since over 80% of our leads come from out of state, we are partnering with other Real Estate Brokers all over the country.  The IDX page we create for you will allow your visitors to search for homes by going through your site.

Once someone does a search on your Brevard Couny IDX form, our Agents will do what we do best, convert Internet leads to sales.  If a lead from your site becomes a sale, we send you a 25% referral fee.  Almost as important, you will receive a copy of each lead knowing that they are most likely going to be selling their home before they can move to Florida.

You simply will place the link on your site stating: "If you are thinking about moving to Florida, click here to search for homes in Brevard County Florida."  Of course you can market this as little or as much as you would like.  The more you market it the more chance of getting listings and referral fees. 

Just one last note, as The eHomes Realty Network grows, so will our referral network.  Whether you are a member or not, you will then have access to all of Florida and beyond!

As I mentioned above, if this makes sense to you, and you would like to receive listings leads and referral fees, please feel free to email me at mitch@mitchrealty.com or call me on my cell phone listed above.