NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 12-2-19

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA EDITION

How to Make Your Commute Productive

5 Ways to

TRANSFORM RENTERS INTO OWNERS

GOOGLE ADWORDS:

HOW TO MAKE GOOGLE DO THE WORK FOR YOU

COVER STORY

Ben Beesley

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA EDITION

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BEN BEESLEY

CONTENTS 4) 5 WAYS TO TRANSFORM RENTERS INTO OWNERS 13) HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMMUTE PRODUCTIVE 16) 5 STEPS TO ACHIEVE LONG TERM SUCCESS AS A REAL ESTATE AGENT

19) GOOGLE ADWORDS: HOW TO MAKE GOOGLE DO THE WORK FOR YOU 22) TURN OPEN HOUSES INTO DESTINATIONS

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5 Ways to Transform

Renters into Owners Perhaps the largest demographic of untapped business lies in the rental market. From major cities and suburbs to rural communities—renters across generations are opting to rent rather than own. The question is: why? For starters, many Americans are undereducated about the inventory and financing options available that might suit their budget and lifestyle. Secondly, many would-be homeowners have difficulty 4

visualizing the potential investment of purchasing property, and how homeownership can build wealth and security in the long-term.

As an agent, you’re always on the lookout for potential clientele. Now, to guide renters toward the real estate market, keep a few of these strategies in mind as you meet and greet this untapped demographic.

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Show renters that purchasing a home isn’t impossible

Possibly the biggest hurdle for renters is believing homeownership is possible. Beyond saving for a down payment and boosting credit scores, there are dozen more factors to consider: affording utilities, homeowner’s insurance, renovations, property taxes, and more. Besides that, assembling pay stubs, finding an agent, arranging house tours, negotiating a price, and timing the transition are all major considerations to surmount.

One way to combat this thinking is to make the process transparent and demystified. Find examples of past clients who made the leap successfully, or profile the average buyer in your marketplace and see how that renter compares. Provide evidence that it’s been done before and can be done again, then build a game plan from there.

into play. Consider making a checklist, or step-by-step road-map, that guides clients through the process from start to finish. This way, you’ll manage expectations and create a path to ownership that’s specific, instead of abstract. They won’t have to wonder what goes into buying a home when they can look at an interactive site or read a document and see the steps outlined before them, with you there to guide the way.

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Collaborate with mortgage professionals to find the right financing opportunities

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Help would-be homebuyers create a road-map to ownership

It’s no secret that buying a home can feel overwhelming. Compared to signing a yearlong lease on an apartment, taking on the house-hunting process is a daunting affair.

That’s where your expertise as an agent comes Top Agent Magazine

Many renters aren’t aware of the variety of mortgage financing options out there that cater to first-timers, offer low down payments, or down payment assistance. Most buyers believe that the standard 20% down is a hard and fast rule, when in reality, there’s far more flexibility out there to cater to renters where they are. There are even loan options catering to freelance workers, renovation options, and other unconventional routes to ownership.

Work with a mortgage pro and find the route that suits your renter best.

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pay monthly in a mortgage—while building a lasting asset.

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Compare and contrast rental rates with monthly mortgage payments One way to convince renters to make the shift is to demonstrate the savings potential of paying into a monthly mortgage, rather than throwing away rent on a property they don’t own. To do this, draw up the average rental rates in your area, then find some potential listings that would demand a similar amount in monthly mortgage payments. Sometimes placing these numbers and images sideby-side can prove to renters that what they manage to pay monthly in rent, they can

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Paint the big picture

For most, renting isn’t the most sustainable financial option when it comes to housing.

Rents rise, families grow, and retirement looms.

Building a financial future and homeownership go hand-in-hand. When planned appropriately, buying a home can create a path toward retirement and position homeowners in a better place for further investment in the future. A rental has little security or investment returns to offer, while owning a home makes a renter king or queen of the castle.

Prospecting renters as potential homebuyers may seem like a time-intensive way to cultivate new clients, but logic is on your side.

Keep these tips in mind as you broach the conversation with renters in your hometown.

All it takes is clear-cut value proposition and a listening ear.

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Ben Beesley

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BEN BEESLEY Under the banner of Keller Williams Coastal Estates, Team Beesley caters to clients across the Monterey region, including Pebble Beach and Carmel By The Sea. Ben Beesley found his way to real estate by following in his late mother’s footsteps.

Arliene Beesley was a major force in the industry, launching the Women’s Council of Realtors and carving out a legacy of great repute in their hometown region of 8 Copyright Top Agent Magazine

Monterey Bay. Ben joined the business back in 2003, teaming up with her and cutting his teeth in all things real estate.

Today, Ben has built his own reputation for lasting relationships and communitycentric service.

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Under the banner of Keller Williams Coastal Estates, Team Beesley is headed

by Ben, in conjunction with his business partner and best friend, Shannon Vereker and their marketing, social media and client care coordinator, Melissa Everett.

Together, they cater to clients across the Monterey region, including Pebble Beach and Carmel By The Sea, where their downtown office is located. With a Top Agent Magazine

business model driven almost entirely by repeat and referral business, Ben describes his working style as community-oriented, with a focus on relationship-building and superlative client care. “What sets us apart is our involvement in our community,” he explains. “Both Shannon and I are passionate about where we live and improving the lives of our neighbors and friends. We’re incredibly professional, Copyright Top Agent Magazine 9

but we also like to have fun.

We care about the people we work with and we bring a positive attitude to the process.” Likewise, past clients have praised Ben and Shannon’s honesty, open hearts, spirited approach, and perhaps most memorably, their “care for mankind.”

When listing properties, Ben begins with a comprehensive assessment of a client’s home, in order to maximize value prior to professional photography, videography, and virtual tours. Once homes are documented in their finest light, he and 10Copyright Top Agent Magazine

his team turn to the leading online listing platforms, social media, and promotions across the nation to lure ideal buyers from a range of markets. Beginning two weeks before a home’s debut, he stages a Coming Soon campaign to build local buzz, then hosts a neighborhood-only open house, followed by an open house blowout on opening weekend to create interest and spread the word. In one of California’s most desirable seaside Top Agent Magazine

“What sets us apart is our involvement in our community. Both Shannon and I are passionate about where we live and improving the lives of our neighbors and friends.” marketplaces, Ben’s preparedness and execution ensure listings stand apart.

Beyond the office, Ben has built a lasting legacy through his participation in causes big and small. He’s served as the past Chair of the Carmel Chamber of Commerce, and was a charter member and past president Top Agent Magazine

of Rotary Club of Monterey Pacific. He is also passionate about causes including the Special Olympics, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society—where he was Man of the Year in 2012—and emcees the local Taste of Carmel event. In his free time, he most enjoys time spent with family, staying active, and traveling.

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Now, with more than fifteen years of experience and insight, Ben Beesley considers what he enjoys most about his chosen field. “Every day is different, and I love that our work affords us the freedom to do all the things we do with the community,” he says. “That’s

how we think about our business: we ask ourselves how we can make this a better place. People come to this area from all over the world, and we’re having the time of our lives in real estate and in this community. We love being part of where we live.”

To learn more about Ben Beesley call (831) 236–6876, email Ben@BenBeesley.com, or visit TeamBeesley.com www.

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How to Make Your Commute Productive The highest caliber business owners and entrepreneurs utilize every minute of their day.

Though this may be a lofty goal, there are certainly ways to make our daily routines more efficient and productive. Consider the morning and evening commute—time blocks that are accounted for every day. For some of us, daily commutes may mean a lengthy drive through gridlock traffic, or perhaps just a quick fifteen-minute crosstown excursion. However short or long your commute may be, there are ways to maximize this component of your daily routine and reap the rewards.

With that in mind, take a look at some ideas below to inject some energy and productivity into your daily commute.

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Listen to the latest industry-centric podcasts or audiobooks Whether you drive, bike, walk, or take public transportation, a commute is the perfect time to tune into an industry-oriented podcast or audiobook as a way of building your skills or getting into the zone for the day. Instead of letting your commute time be passive, you can process insights from leading industry professionals, or develop your skillset on a topic you haven’t yet made time for. Perhaps you’d like to develop your social media presence, or maybe you’d like to tap into the millennial homebuyer market—whatever the case may be, there is audio material out there suited to your interests. What’s more, podcasts are free and easy to incorporate on your smartphone or

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tablet, and there are ample audiobook subscription services out there that make regular listenership cost effective.

Create a mental to-do list to get a head-start on your day, or to prepare for tomorrow Getting your thoughts in order with a straightforward to-do list can help you dive in once you make it to your desk, or serve as a conclusive mental routine to end your work day.

If you drive to and from work and don’t have your hands free, don’t fret. Speaking your to-do list aloud can help you detangle your thoughts and tasks by vocalizing them. You can also try breaking down your to-do list by verbalizing the day’s goals, the week’s goals, and the month’s goals as a way of structuring priorities. If your commute is hands-free, you can incorporate a variety of apps that serve as custom-made todo lists that’ll organizationally map your duties for the day. In either case, use your commute window to identify and name the tasks ahead of you, and you’ll be able to hit the ground running when the time comes to perform.

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Tend to your personal commitments and planning A productive commute can boost your professional performance, but it can also serve your personal growth and out-of-the-office responsibilities, as well. Perhaps you can think out and plan your meals for the week so that you don’t come home burnt out and with nothing in mind for dinner. Maybe you check in with a relative or partner and catch up for a spare twenty minutes.

Not only does this eliminate a few items off of your personal to-do list, it can actually give you a more focused mind at the office. If your personal life is in good order, you’ll be able to devote your full attention to work tasks.

As the old saying goes, there are only so many hours in a day. If you added up all the minutes spent commuting around town, how many hours would amount? Though the trek to and from the office is an engrained part of professional life, it doesn’t have to be a drag. Account for those spare commute windows in productive ways, and in only a month you’ll have devoted a significant portion of your time to bettering yourself as a person and a professional.

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5 Steps to Achieve Long Term Success as a Real Estate Agent Real Estate can have a reputation as an industry with a high turnover as far as agents go. Being a ‘people person’ with an entrepreneurial spirit is a great start, but what some fail to realize when starting out is that this is a business.

So if you’re in it for the long haul, you need to treat it that way. Here are some key steps you need to take to have your own successful real estate business.

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FIND A MENTOR

Once you get your license and hang your sign at a Brokerage, you’ll find that you’re pretty much on your own. That’s why it’s a good idea for new agents to find a large Brokerage that offers in-house training and mentorship or a boutique brokerage that has more seasoned agents who are eager to take a new agent under their wing. Being able to shadow a more experienced agent is invaluable and allows you to mirror what you’ve seen and run through the numerous scenarios that will arise when you are representing a client.

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CONTINUOUS TRAINING

This is a business that is constantly changing, so it’s smart to always stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new technological innovations and systems. There are even numerous online resources, where you can keep up on your trade, such as blogs by top producing agents that are a treasure trove of information. A confident agent with an in-depth knowledge of the business is one that easily earns the trust of their client, leading to repeat and referral business, which will be the bread and butter of your business.

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BUILD A STRONG ONLINE PRESENCE

Yes, referrals are the basis of your business, but building a strong online presence and marketing yourself to new clients is also important, especially before you’ve built up a strong referral base. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media tools are great way to get leads both for your listings and for yourself. It’s even a good idea to buy several domain names when you start, so that when you’re ready to build a website, you can ensure you have the names you want. Obviously the internet is also a great resource to find leads. Before you find a niche for yourself, it’s important to take advantage of every avenue there is. A lot of successful agents started off doing things no one else wanted to take on like foreclosures, expired listings or lower priced homes. But as you’ll find out, helping those who need it most is a great way to build a loyal client base, that will not only come back to you when they are ready to sell or buy again, but will be your biggest cheerleaders when it comes to referring you to friends and family.

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BUILD A SOLID FOUNDATION

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SET GOALS

One thing you’ll find in this business is that doing a lot of work up top, will lead to a more successful outcome down the road. That goes for marketing plans for your listings, as well as your business as a whole. It might not be the fun part, but it will allow you to one day focus on what you do best, dealing with your clients. Set up your CRM and the other systems you want to use from the get go. Getting these things established before you’re hopefully a busy agent is the best time to really learn them and decide what’s best for you.

Once you build a strong foundation and are establishing your client base, it’s important to continually set goals that help you implement your business strategy.

You can even invest in a real estate coach if you need someone to hold you accountable. It’s also important to constantly reevaluate what you’re doing. Set up a monthly audit, where you go over what is and what isn’t working. As we mentioned above, this is a fluid business and things are constantly changing, the same can be said of your business. What worked a year ago, might be losing you money as your business grows.

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Google AdWords:

How To Make Google Do the Work for You There is no denying that the internet is the first place a buyer begins looking for a new home in this digital age. Knowing how to put the powerful tools available on the internet to work for you can give you a decided advantage when it comes to attracting prospective buyers to your listings, as well as you as an agent. Google is easily one of the major superpowers of the internet, and they have one of the most powerful advertising tools available. Knowing how to utilize Google AdWords in the correct manner can make your internet advertising immensely powerful and possibly your best way to reach prospective buyers.

Google AdWords is also extremely cost-effective. This multifaceted tool gives you much more control over your advertising campaign than other more traditional methods. You can target specific audiences, choose the specific search terms, also known as keywords, that will bring up your ad in someone’s search results, and you can set a budget for each campaign that will dictate it’s reach and how long the campaign will run. Here are some tips for how to put Google AdWords to work for you.

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ent websites. You want to set yourself apart from every other real estate website users are viewing in their search for a house.

MAKE SURE YOUR ADS ARE GOING TO SEND USERS TO A SITE THAT WILL CAPTURE THEIR ATTENTION

You can spend an infinite amount of money on Google advertising campaigns, but if those ads don’t send users to a site that will capture and hold their interest, then you’ve just wasted all that money. Don’t put your cart before the horse. Make sure you are considering exactly where these ads are going to send users. To set up your website for success, at the very least you want to make sure users are greeted by clear call-to-action, such as a message that will encourage them to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your blog. You want to set up your website to maximize and capture the leads the ad campaign sends your way.

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BUILD CUSTOMIZED OR CUSTOM-MADE WEBSITES RATHER THAN TEMPLATE WEBSITES It is easy and tempting to use template websites, or to offer your agents template websites if you are a real estate manager or broker. While this offers a cost-effective solution to providing every agent with a website, it does little to set you or your agents apart and capture the attention of users that are used to seeing a wealth of differ-

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MAKE SURE YOU ARE OFFERING VALUE ON YOUR WEBSITE

Don’t simply use your website as a kind of brag sheet. Let users know what makes your particular services valuable to them. Highlight your expertise in a certain location through tools such as blog posts, providing market updates, or giving pertinent information on a unique type of property. This will ensure that your online advertising campaigns are much more successful.

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LOCATION IS EVERYTHING!

Location is everything in real estate, and the same holds true for Google AdWords. You can target specific locations in your ad campaign. While one approach is to focus on the area around your location, a more advanced approach would be to link AdWords campaigns to your Google My Business account. This is a Google service that includes your address in the ad, allowing people to then click on it and see exactly where you are located on a map.

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USE GOOGLE ADWORDS IN YOUR CAMPAIGN TO EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS IN GENERAL

Focus an AdWords campaign on expanding your business by incorporating specific zip codes and neighborhoods that will help you establish a presence in an area where you would like to increase your real estate business. Making sure that your ad appears in search results that are related to the real estate in a specific area will help shape the image and brand of your business as well as bring in new leads.

HARNESS THE POWER OF DATA

When you run a Google AdWords campaign Google Analytics captures a wealth of information about your target client demographic.

You can gain real insight into your online visitors, such as when they visit, what they do and look at on your site once they get there, and what search terms they use. You can use all of this information to grow your business. Use Google Analytics to determine which users (location, gender, age) are utilizing specific aspects of your site, such as looking at multiple listings, reading your blog, etc. You can then use this information to target these specific demographics in your AdWord campaigns, Gmail ads, the Google Display Network, and other advertising.

Using the internet to help advertise your business and your listings is one of the smartest moves you can make as an agent in this modern age. However, you don’t want to simply go into the process blind or you’re wasting a lot of potential resources and data that could make all the difference. To reap the benefits of Google AdWords, you must apply an intelligent strategy to using these campaigns.

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Turn Open Houses into Destinations People are busy. Even those who are actively looking to buy a house or want to learn about the market for a future purpose have busy schedules.

But with bit of added time, creativity and investment in making open house into destinations, you’ll see greater turnout. And we all know that greater turnout increases the likelihood of offers.

There are several creative ways to hold an open house with a mindset of hospitality and with the goal of providing something of value to each person who attends.

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The neighbors-only open house Some agents embrace the “nosy neighbor” concept as a benefit, not an eye-rolling challenge.

With his client’s permission, Wesley Peters, a Keller Williams broker in the Baltimore Metro Area, often gets the neighbors together before a home hits the market. “We invite other brokers, too, but we include as many neighbors as we can,” he says, explaining that he schedules these events for a Thursday or Friday evening, happy hour-style, rather than midday on a Sunday. They get a better turnout at 5:00 pm than

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midday on a weekend when the neighbors are busy with their lives. In a relaxed setting, conversations flow, neighbors can mingle and catch up, and the buzz begins before the home is listed.

In advance, prepare invitations and hand-deliver them to homes on the streets you and your client agree are best to include. The destination is the event; the value each attendee receives is the social interaction and the removal of any awkwardness over visiting their neighbor’s house.

Your client’s benefit is the buzz.

A turnkey block party any time of year Once a property is listed, some agents take on the role of party planners. Certain streets or neighborhoods, they find, are perfect for lowkey social occasions. In some place, such as neighborhoods with many young families, a bounce-house or games may even ramp up the fun factor. But the idea of a seemingly spontaneous block party during an open house can be easy to pull off, whether you’re serving lemonade and cookies or coffee and pastries. The chance to meet prospective neighbors turns the event into a destination for both buyers and the neighbors; the value comes in buyers’ ability to see how the neighbors interact. Your seller’s benefit is that the grapevine will be filled with happy stories about their home. Tips: By keeping basic supplies in storage, you’ll be ready for a pop-up block party any time. Promote this type of event with targeted social media marketing and fliers or postcards to communities within a short distance of your listing.

Invite other professionals It’s common mortgage lenders to attend open houses. But why not provide even more value to people who attend? Chances are, you have more than a handful of professional partners who welcome an opportunity to join you at your open house. Consider inviting an interior designer, a contractor, a gardener, even a gardener or a painter. Invite them to your broker’s open in advance or give them time to view the property Top Agent Magazine

before the open house begins. Then encourage them to stroll the property during the open house or to sit with you. When visitors ask about needs or concerns they may have about the house – such as loan questions, the cost of improvements or upgrades or even remodeling – you’ll be able to introduce them to an expert on the spot. For that matter, your invited pros don’t even necessarily have to be in home-related businesses!

Prospective buyers always want to know about the community when visiting open houses.

Consider inviting representatives of community

organizations, like youth sports group or owners of mom-and-pop retailers to help your visitors get a feel for the neighborhood or town. For this type of open-house, prepare a flyer or card with your community contacts on it so visitors can leave with resources as well as information.

Open house should be about the buzz. They’re about creating a conversation about your listing and making the home memorable to visitors. By giving people a unique experience they won’t forget, you’ll show your sellers how creative you are in meeting their needs.

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