Friday, March 27, 2009

Real Estate is Like Life

Real Estate is like life... there are ups... there are downs... and most of the time it's just steady living, working, and being. This past week, RE/MAX Prestige has had it's share of highs and lows. We enjoyed a fantastic St. Pattys Day as most of our office descended upon Boston for the annual RE/MAX Awards gala. It was truly awesome. The Lazrak Duross team accepted the prestigious Chairmans Club honor, one of only 14 teams in New England to achieve such status. As well, Dan O'Connell, Jim Dolliver, and Dennis Page, accepted the prestigious Platinum Club award. Dan O'Connell and Dennis Page were recognized for the Lifetime Achievement award and Kevin Durkin for the RE/MAX Hall of Fame. We also had 37 other agents accepting awards at this occassion.

Tragedy struck our RE/MAX family this week when our own Michelle Rivera lost her teenage son suddenly. It was heart breaking news and our prayers are with her family during this time. It was amazing to see the Prestige family rally support for Michelle offering to do anything they could do ease the pain.

As we were all realing from the tragedy, a bit of sunsine emerged, when Jenn Davis announced the arrival of her new son, Jacob.

Tragedy and triumph.... real estate really is like life.

Monday, March 9, 2009

What Happens In Vegas....

Last week, Andy and I were in Las Vegas at the 2009 RE/MAX International Convention where we had the opportunity to learn from some of the best speakers in the country. The two most memorable keynotes were from Chris Gardner and Howard Britton. All were moved by Chris Gardner's story of perseverance and triumph in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness and he's even more amazing in person. Ask, believe, NEVER give up, then receive...was the powerful message he eloquently delivered on Tuesday. Real estate coach, and owner of Star Power Systems, Howard Britton's message was concise, "Don't just learn to weather the storm... you must learn to take off your shoes and dance in the rain!" Howard featured agents that are thriving in this market, earning more then previous years. What are the traits of such successful agents? According to Howard the 10 Traits of agents thriving in this market are:

1. They create their own happiness. Most embrace positive affirmations regularly.
2. Like Sully, the heroic pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson, successful agents have great attitudes and rather then panic at the changing market, they calmly and swiftly seek solutions.
3. Typically they are spending 70% of their time prospecting.
4. They apply the mentor learning model - they learn from others.
5. They use scripts… if you’re not selling a lot of real estate you’re not using good scripts.
6. They work every lead by constantly and aggressively following up until told to stop.
7. They call their database for buyers and ask "Who is the next person you know that is going to move?"
8. They are being seen – attending more public events.
9. They are embracing social networking to make deeper connections.
10. They are frank with their sellers.

We spent three days accumulating powerful tools for agents to utilize in their businesses. We look forward to putting this knowledge to good use. Make sure you come to our monthly sales rally on Wednesday, March 11th, where we will unveil new tools and announce exciting changes that will help you excel in your business.