Motivation

4 minutes
Working on a tablet with chart overlay.

The Path Toward Real Estate Success: Don’t Be Replaced By Technology

Joshua Smith
Making Money in Real Estate
Mastery

We can’t stop the growth of technology, but we can control how we harness it.

Technology, one could argue, is already creating somewhat of a perception that a realtor can be replaced. So the focus must be in showing our true value to our clients.

Ways To Overcome Technology and Show Our Value To Clients:

#1: Know your area EXTREMELY well. Know the local businesses, local schools, subdivisions, recreation, houses, inventory, etc. Focus on becoming an “Information Portal” for your area. If someone says, “We are looking for a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2800 + sq.ft, with a large kitchen/kitchen island home, in walking distance to an elementary school, that has an A rating,” you need to know your area so well that you can say, “I know of 3 subdivisions which feature A rated elementary schools within walking distance that features the type of home you are looking for.” Spend time on Zillow and identify what Zillow can or cannot provide to the consumer. You must become that bridge of information.

#2: Stop using technology that diminishes your value. Technology is great, of course, and allows you to stay on top of activities and develop deeper relationships with your clients, but many realtors unfortunately allow it to diminish the relationship and their value. For example, many realtors use an online signature program, like DocuSign. Let's say you just get done showing homes and your clients have picked a home. You tell them that you are going to go to the office and will email over the contract to them, where they will open/sign on their email. They receive the email, and it takes them 5 seconds to sign it. All they see is that 5 minutes. They do not see the 45 minutes it may have taken you to fill out the contract, which absolutely can diminish your perceived value and the relationship. I am all about systems like DocuSign when necessary with out of area or traveling clients or if it is a quick addendum we need signed ASAP. However, when writing the initial offers, bring the client back to your office, fill out the contract together, explain everything in detail, answer questions, etc. Let your client see everything live, which will help create a deeper connection and allow clients to see your true value.

#3: Pick up the phone. I get it; email and texting is so easy. But they can’t replace an actual phone or face to face conversation, especially when people are buying or selling the largest assets of in their life. Be the support system they really need, and ensure you are facilitating the best experience you possibly can for them.

#4: Build world class buyer and listing presentations which show your step by step process to ensure the buyer or seller is successful at accomplishing their real estate goals. Most buyers and sellers have no idea all the things their realtor is doing for them. Make sure you communicate everything you are doing, and never assume that they already know this stuff. Educate them on everything.

#5: Focus on building strong relationships. At the end of the day, we are in the human connection business. Focus on developing a strong connection with your clients, and focus on maintaining that connection with continued follow-up (more on effective follow-up here).

Technology is critical, and will allow you to do more with less inside your business. Just don’t make the mistake of allowing technology to replace the human connection. Instead incorporate it into your business and view it is a way to enhance the human connection!

Thanks for reading!

  Joshua Smith, Realtor/Mentor/Entrepreneur

-Voted 30th Top Realtor in America by The Wall Street Journal

-Over 5,000 Homes Sold & Currently Selling More Than 1 Home Daily

Joshua Smith Aug 21st, 2020
4 minutes
Celebrating during a table meeting.

The Path Toward Real Estate Success: Motivation

Joshua Smith
Making Money in Real Estate
Mastery

“Motivation doesn't last, but neither does bathing; that is why we need it daily!” Zig Ziglar

Getting motivated is easy. Staying motivated is hard.

To create long term success, you must learn how to stay motivated day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and even decade after decade. So, how do you do it? 

Tips On How To Get Motivated & How To Stay Motivated Long Term:

#1: Get clarity on “What You Want!” You have one chance at this brief life. What do you want to create for yourself, for your family and your loved ones?  What type of impact do you want to have while you exist?  When you are on your deathbed, and reflecting on your life, what must have happened, what must you have created for you to not leave this planet with regret? 

As Mary Oliver asked, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

#2: Once you have clarity, ask yourself, “What must happen in the next 12 months to get one step closer to making what I want become a reality?” This is the start of goal setting.  “A goal is a dream with a deadline,” according to Napoleon Hill. 

#3: Create a business plan which breaks down what must happen over the next 12 months to make your goal a reality. Then break that yearly business plan down into quarters, months, weeks, and then days. A good business plan will break down the numbers in such a way that you know every single day what actions you must be taking to create your desired reality.

#4: Review your goals every morning as soon as you wake up and every evening before you go to bed. Most people do not set goals, and those who do only review them a few times a year. You, however, will review your goals 700+ times yearly, if you do so twice per day.  You will massively increase your likelihood of accomplishing your goals by reviewing twice daily.

#5: Learn to control your environment. Have your goals posted in your office, do a vision board, get posters with your favorite quotes, etc. Make your office a place which makes you inspired daily. Also, understand that people are part of your environment as well. Are you spending time with people who do not support your goals? Are negative people bringing you down, etc? Consider spending less time with those people. It is said in business and life that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Analyze those five people closely!

#6: Be very intentional about your self development! As the amazing Jim Rohn stated, “The day you learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job is the day your life begins to change.” What you watch, listen to, and read absolutely matters!

#7: Pay attention to your feelings! Learning to observe your own feelings can become very powerful. If you are feeling sad, down, and depressed, analyze the situation, who is you around, what is going on, what is happening. Then investigate what is causing these feelings. You may find certain people, certain things, certain environments, etc. are creating those feelings. A lot of people don’t realize it, but things as simple as food can create depression in people. Learn to be very observant.

#8: Take action! Nothing breeds motivation like taking action! The more action you take, the more motivated you will be to take more action!  

IMPORTANT NOTE: Following the above eight tips will absolutely help you stay motivated with higher frequently and on a much higher level than if you do not do them. BUT, you will still have times where you do not feel motivated, even by doing the eight tips above. Truly successful people do not wait to get motivated to take action, they take action regardless. Even if they feel depressed, they take action! You are NOT your emotions, and it is 100% your choice to listen to them or choose to not listen to them and take action, even if you are feeling down!

Follow these eight tips, get more motivated, take more action, and create more success!

Thanks for reading!

  Joshua Smith, Realtor/Mentor/Entrepreneur

-Voted 30th Top Realtor in America by The Wall Street Journal

-Over 5,000 Homes Sold & Currently Selling More Than 1 Home Daily

Joshua Smith Jul 17th, 2020
3 minutes
Young woman reading in front of a laptop.

The Path Toward Real Estate Success: Read to Grow

Joshua Smith
Making Money in Real Estate
Mastery

“The amount of money you are making is a direct reflection of what the general public perceives your value to be… If you want to make more money, then you must add more value to yourself that you then can transfer to the marketplace.”

-Jim Rohn

The average high school and college graduate reads one book after graduation. Ever. One book.

The average Fortune 500 CEO, on the other hand, reads sixty books each year. 

Jim Rohn also said that “Unsuccessful people have big TV’s, where successful people have big libraries…”

The difference is a commitment to self-development.

As we discussed in the tip on finding the right mentor/coach (read more here), so many people have created massive success and have written books on how they did it. So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you must take the time to educate yourself. Books are a great and inexpensive way to do so.

Perhaps you are thinking that you don’t have the time to read books. Well, the great thing about today is that you can listen to audiobooks while you are driving, while you are getting ready, while you are working out, cleaning your house, etc. No need to add another task, just integrate your self-development with things you are already doing. 

The average person drives 12,000 miles per year. That’s 300 hours behind the wheel, or about two semesters of college. As realtors, we tend to drive much more than average, so listening to a book a week while on the road can be easily achieved.

But not all books are created equal. So find authors who have created success in the topic they are writing about, so you can learn how they did it, and apply those strategies to your life.

josh Don’t read books just to get through the book, rather read books to get from the books. NASA has shown that the average person only retains 10% of what he/she learns the first time around. So you may need to re-read, or re-listen to a book multiple times to really get the information down. Then understand it is not the information which makes us successful, rather taking action on the information we learn which then creates the success.

A good place to start is to make it a personal rule that while you are getting ready in the morning and while you are in the car by yourself, that you are going to listen to an audiobook. You will quickly find yourself being able to listen to a book a week. A book a week can quickly change your life!

Start getting intentional with your self-development, and you will start seeing massive improvements inside your business and life!

Thanks for reading!

  Joshua Smith, Realtor/Mentor/Entrepreneur

-Voted 30th Top Realtor in America by The Wall Street Journal

-Over 5,000 Homes Sold & Currently Selling More Than 1 Home Daily

Joshua Smith Sep 4th, 2020
4 minutes
Looking at an empty wallet with despair.

The Path Toward Real Estate Success: Stop Wasting Money

Joshua Smith
Making Money in Real Estate
Mastery

If I asked you, and be 100% honest, to give me your exact year to date net profit and monthly expenses, would you be able to answer?

Don’t feel bad if you can’t give me the answer yet; over 95% of realtors don’t know those exact figures.

So far in this blog series, we have discussed some real estate specific numbers such as tracking your lead sources, appointments set, closing ratios, etc. But you must also track and pay attention to your business financials, aka your profit and loss statement (P&L).

In short, a profit and loss statement shows you how much money you are actually making and how much you are losing. However, a good P&L will show much more than that!

I highly recommend you run and review your profit and loss statement every single month. But where do you start, and what should you be tracking on this statement?

First, understand that tracking your business financials does not need to cost you any money. You can spend money and get a program like QuickBooks, of course, but you don’t have to. Word or Excel can work just fine.

Items You Want To Have and Track Monthly On Your P&L:

1: Track/Document your Revenue. For realtors, this will be your commissions. I recommend you break it down from buyers/sellers/rentals, as well as each lead source so you know what is coming in and from where. 

2: Track Your Expenses. Just like your revenue, you want to break down your expenses. Some examples would be: individual lead sources, websites/systems, rent, license fees/dues, vehicle expenses, property photos, flyers, open house signs, etc. You will want to break each category down individually, so you know and can see those exact costs each and every month.

3: A Total of your Gross Revenue, Gross Expenses and then Net Profit or Net Loss.

You cannot make intelligent financial decisions for your business without a detailed business financial tracking plan. When you track these figures each and every month you are forced to pay attention to your finances and see a true picture of what is happening.

Every month, when I review my P&L statement, I analyze every expense to see if it is absolutely necessary. I also look at all my revenue to look for opportunities to increase sources with a high return on investment. For example, with this information you can see your exact ROI for each lead source. You may discover one lead source is getting you double the return of another. You can then safely cut the lower ROI lead source and put those funds into increasing the lead source getting you the better ROI.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You must stay organized to properly analyze your business financials. I recommend getting a large, letter-size envelope and writing the month on the front, and then toss every invoice you pay and every receipt you get inside that envelope. Of course, you should be tracking your closings as well in Word or Excel, for instance. Then, after the end of the month, you will have all the information to enter onto the document. Yes, it is another task you are adding to your schedule, but one of those absolutely crucial non-negotiable tasks which must be added to create success!

If you are not doing so already, start running your profit and loss statements ASAP! I can assure you it will be a game changer!

Thanks for reading!

  Joshua Smith, Realtor/Mentor/Entrepreneur

-Voted 30th Top Realtor in America by The Wall Street Journal

-Over 5,000 Homes Sold & Currently Selling More Than 1 Home Daily

Joshua Smith Aug 14th, 2020
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