Virginia 2-5-18

VIRGINIA EDITION

5 Tips to GET NEW CLIENTS Developing Your PRICING PHILOSOPHY

DON’T WORRY, Be Happy!

How to Make Your Commute PRODUCTIVE

COVER STORY

AMY CHERRY TAYLOR

VIRGINIA EDITION

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AMY CHERRY TAYLOR

CONTENTS 4) 5 TIPS TO GET NEW CLIENTS

18) DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY!

13) DEVELOPING YOUR PRICING PHILOSOPHY

22) HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMMUTE PRODUCTIVE

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5 Tips to Get New Clients If you’ve been in the industry for a while, you’ve probably built up a healthy percentage of repeat and referral business.

Although it can be tempting to just maintain those relationships rather than generating new business, there’s something to be said for staying on top of 4

your game by never resting on your laurels. Actively pursuing new clients is not only a way to generate more business, but depending on how you do it, it could even lead to a profitable new niche. Here are just a few ways to build up your new client base.

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Become a referral partner with industry peers

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Cold Call Expired and FSBO Listings

Everyone from mortgage lenders, to financial planners, to insurance agents, can be potentially lucrative referral partners for a Realtor®. You may already have great relationships with some that just need to be more formalized. But, you don’t just want to partner with anyone, make sure these are people you also feel completely comfortable referring your clients to - people who share your values and work ethic.

Another avenue to consider is divorce attorneys – yes, you heard that correctly. Helping people go through this difficult period actually requires a very specific skill set.

You need to be able to handle the legal aspects, as well as the emotional ones. There are numerous training courses you can take if you decide to take this route, which could end up being a lucrative and much-needed specialty.

This is a route a lot of agents take when they are just starting out, that usually leads to great success. You probably haven’t cold called since you started out, and this is a great skill to build up again.

It will not only sharpen your sales skills, but could generate a lot more business.

People with For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) and expired listings, are usually very motivated to sell. This is a great chance for you to really hone in on why they need to hire you. Do you offer innovative marketing plans? Access to a large sphere of influence? Expired listing clients are looking for ways to sell a property that seems impossible to move. With FSBOs, you need to show them how you can get them more money in their pocket, even

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with paying you a commission. Pursuing both will really engage your mind to think outside of the box, which will not only get you more business, but make you better at what you do.

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Partner up with a Relocation Company

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Become a Builder’s Realtor® of choice

This is another niche market that you can really capitalize on if you want to pursue a new specialty. But, it is a specialty, so getting educated on the process will help you generate the business you want. It’s a complicated area of real estate, you’ll often

times be helping to facilitate dual transactions, as you try and secure a property at the same time you are helping your relocation client sell their previous home. This specialty is becoming an in-demand skill in areas that have major corporate headquarters.

This can be a real score for any Realtor®.

The competition might be fierce to land a client like this, but there are numerous ways to make yourself stand out from the rest.

Gain certifications and become knowledgeable about the construction process. Be wellversed on what trendy materials, features, and finishes will add value to a property.

Get the builder on board with you by offering to take just a segment of the subdivision then wow them with your marketing skills.

Take on properties they haven’t been able to sell. You can even offer to throw an open

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Create a Website that Offers Real Value to Potential Clients

Perhaps the most useful way of getting contact information for people looking to sell is by adding a home valuation feature to your website. When people are first considering selling their home, finding out how much 6

house for them. This is another way to show them the level of service they can expect from you. These clients might be harder to land, but the payoff will be enormous.

it is worth is one of the first questions they want answered. By becoming a resource to potential clients (and current clients!), you just might be the first person that comes to mind when they’re actually looking to sell.

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AMY CHERRY TAYLOR

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AMY CHERRY TAYLOR After years working for a lobbying firm in D.C., Amy Cherry Taylor was ready for her next challenge. She’d enjoyed her career building relationships and advocating on behalf of others, but with her family growing, she craved a role where she could make it her own, while still serving the needs of others. That’s when real estate arrived. She’d always excelled at negotiations and contracts, and the transition to becoming an agent was made easier by her natural affinity for people. That was fifteen years ago, and Amy has been on a swift upward tra8Copyright Top Agent Magazine

jectory ever since. Last year, her team served 265 families in buying and selling homes—a staggering figure that illustrates Amy’s reputation for client-centric service that delivers results.

Primarily serving the greater Fredericksburg region, Amy earned her broker’s license a few years ago and now heads a team entering its third year. Together, they earn 71% of their business from repeat and referral clientele, with the remaining clients generated through Top Agent Magazine

her extensive online presence. Amy and her team also provide award-winning relocation services. As a Fredericksburg native, Amy affords clients an insider’s eye when it comes to buying or selling property and understanding the various neighborhoods and counties in the metro area. What’s more, Amy cites client responsiveness, clear communication, and a personal flair as the foremost drivers of her success to date. “We manage the process down to the smallest detail,” she says. “Our clients are extremely confident in our ability to be proactive, thorough, and always on the offensive.

We always have a professional team member on call for our clients’ needs, and I leave a daily message outlining my schedule so everyTop Agent Magazine

one knows where I am and when I’m available.

We also have a customer service number that’s always accessible. I set expectations early on and make communication with my clients a priority. As a team, we’re always working hard and we make sure that quality communication is on the forefront of what we do.”

To keep in touch with past clients, Amy and her team have started hosting quarterly appreciation events—the last one drawing more than 340 people to a local trampoline park. Amy also dedicates a portion of every day to catching up with clients, checking in with them on social media or connecting by phone. When it comes to listing a property, Amy utilizes her Copyright Top Agent Magazine9

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BA in Communication with an emphasis on marketing and advertising to combine the best practices of traditional and digital marketing.

From print collateral that showcases future open houses, to professional photography and videography that document a home in its best light online—no stone goes unturned when it comes to preparing a property for market. This has led to Amy’s tremendous success in her list to sale ratio of 80%—compared to the market average of 65%. Likewise, promoted visibility on the leading digital listing platforms ensures maximum exposure, while reaching out to agent databases gets the word out to fellow industry colleagues. Once the closing table is in sight, Amy taps into her prior professional background and wages negotiations that blend Top Agent Magazine

kindness and firmness to deliver incisive results. While her methods are comprehensive and take into account the littlest details, Amy always keeps in focus the people and families at the heart of every house that’s bought or sold.

“Real estate is always about making a large life decision,” she says. “I love to connect with my clients and help them make that transition in their lives. From selling a home and relocating, to buying a house—I love being a part of their story, and they become part of our family.”

To give back to the community she calls home, Amy has participated in meaningful area organizations and charities over the years. For years, she served as part of a local mother’s group and now gives to a program called Transitions4You, Copyright Top Agent Magazine 11

an organization dedicated to supporting families as they overcome obstacles of housing, employment, finance, and spirituality. In her free hours, Amy most enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys, as well as her off the track thoroughbred.

Looking ahead, Amy has plans to continue growing her business mindfully, never sacrificing the boutique attention she bestows

on those she serves. For now, she’ll continue building her progress year-over-year, with hopes to offer her services to more aspiring buyers and sellers in the greater Fredericksburg region. Now, with fifteen years of flourishing experience behind her and determination fueling the future to come, the road ahead is bound to be paved with promise for Amy Cherry Taylor and her team at Avery Hess Realtors.

To learn more about Amy Cherry Taylor visit AmyCherryTaylor.com, e-mail acherrytaylor@gmail.com, call (540) 369 – 8500, or visit her Facebook page here. www.

http://www.facebook.com/amycherrytaylor

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Developing Your Pricing Philosophy

By Dirk Zeller

Ask a dozen agents to explain their home pricing philosophy, and you’ll

hear a dozen different approaches. And if the talk reveals frank responses, you’ll also learn that the most common pricing strategy is no strategy at all.

Here’s my advice: Break out of the ranks by establishing and following a specific strategy for arriving at the ideal selling price for each home.

Adopt the philosophy that, in real estate sales, price is king. Price trumps all other factors—including marketing approaches, home condition, market competitiveness, and sales approach. I believe that, in the end, marketing and condition of the property are controlled by the price.

The alternative, advocated by many agents, most sellers, and even some sales trainers, is to emphasize marketing over pricing. Rather than working to set the ideal price, they believe success will come from optimizing the home’s condition and presentation and then marketing it with skill and savvy.

I take the opposite belief, based on years of experience working with sellers who wanted unrealistic prices for their homes and who experienced firsttime sales failures as a result.

Over my sales career, I resurrected and re-listed more than 600 expired listings—nearly 75 a year. Among all those transactions, I never met an owner with an expired listing who thought that an unreasonable price had anything to do with the home’s failure to sell. They all blamed the previous Copyright Agent Magazine Top Agent Top Magazine

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agent and that person’s approach to marketing. Each sought some magic marketing strategy to change the reality of the law of supply and demand.

There is a magic strategy: Price the home correctly.

Price is the only factor that can overcome sales obstacles, compensate for a home’s deficiencies, and motivate a purchaser even if the condition of the property and your marketing approach is less than perfect.

Getting the listing at any cost Does this scenario sound familiar? An agent (usually a newer agent) is short on business or maybe even desperate for the chance to stake a sign in someone’s yard. The agent wants a listing at any price – even if the chance 14

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to seal a deal erodes the likelihood of selling the property. To gain a seller’s nod of approval, the agent makes a flatteringly high pricing recommendation, throwing out a number the client wants to hear and then hoping something good will result from the bad situation.

I can think of few examples, if any, where this philosophy works. Hope isn’t a successful pricing strategy. Worse, the please-the-client mindset is a hard one to abandon. Agents who achieve listings with unrealistic prices find it hard to later counsel their clients honestly.

If you take and price a good listing competitively, it will sell. You can’t keep a good price a secret!

The pitfalls of a “please the buyer” approach are many and significant. By overpricing, you can practically count on a reduction in your productivity, profitability, and salability, and here’s why: It’s impossible to keep your productivity high when your time is spent in conversations with an unsuccessful seller who lacks motivation to take corrective action. The seller’s negativity, concerns, and phone calls will only increase with each week or month the house remains on the market.

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As time goes on, you’ll devote more and more time unsuccessfully trying to create a sale not only for your seller but also for yourself. This will pull you away from activities that are more likely to deliver income. The ensuing frustration will de-motivate you and stunt your ability to secure better appointments that create other income opportunities.

An unsold, overpriced listing negatively impacts your profitability because it costs you time and money to service while it delivers no revenue to your business. And the situation only gets worse the longer the listing languishes on the market. You’ll end up deducting the expenses of this in-limbo listing from the proceeds generated by any revenue-producing deals you manage to close in the meantime, reducing your net profit and business success.

Unsold homes that linger on the market seriously diminish your salability, which is the term that describes your sales success track. Your salability is based on such key statistics as your average ratio of listing price compared to sale price and the average number of days your listings are on the market.

Obviously, these statistics, which prospects rely on when choosing one agent over another, can be crushed by a “get the listings at any cost” philosophy. They’re also harmed by the “start high and reduce later” tactic.

If you take and price a good listing competitively, it will sell. You can’t keep a good price a secret!

Dirk Zeller is an Agent, an Investor, and the President and CEO of Real Estate Champions. Copyright© 2014, Dirk Zeller. All rights reserved.

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Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

– Bobby McFerrin

By Barry Eisen

A gizzillion years ago I had the honor and privilege of spending time with Norman Vincent Peale, Methodist minister, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, controversial thinker and one of the best motivational speakers I’ve ever heard.

He told of a chance encounter with one of his parishioners, George, on a street in New York City. George was despondent. When Dr. Peale asked him about his state of mind, George let go with a tirade of confessions of being so overwhelmed with problems and worries that he couldn’t sleep at night and couldn’t think straight by day. “I’m a depressed mess,” George sadly confided.

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the end of TODAY. Preparing for tomorrow at the end of today helps you rest well. The mind doesn’t have to spend the night worrying “Remember this and Don’t forget that!”

You wake up knowing how to start and where you’re going! Be sure to prioritize your list with an A, B, or C. Let go of yesterday and focus on your To-Do-List of today. If it was important from yesterday and “George,” Dr. Peale said, waiving his incomplete, it’ll be on today’s list. arm slowly over the horizon, “here Do things, not because you have to, are thousands of souls who haven’t but because you get to. got a worry among them. If death means you have no worries, to worry • Keep your mind busy with the must mean you’re alive! And if you highest priority in the moment. Inhave lots of worries, how much more stead of figuring out why you are the alive you must be!” It’s a matter of way you are, stay on task knowing perspective.” that you can only do one thing at a time. Consider the satisfaction you Worry is something we choose that will feel when that one task is acis not of the world, but rather, in complished and then turn to your how we think. It’s a distraction that next. Of course interruptions will takes us away from confronting our happen. When they do, ask yourself: realities.

Is the interruption or is the task at hand of HIGHER VALUE for THIS Here are nine potentially life chang- moment? (Most therapists don’t try ing ideas. Some you maybe doing, to figure out why a person is worrysome you have done in the past, ing; but will prescribe that a patient and for some may these serve as a do something or learn something on reminder to get back on track. If any which to focus positively. Learning/ would serve you, start now. stimulating the mind can get a person out of their ego-centric predicament.)

• Make your list for tomorrow at Multi-tasking has been proven not to Dr. Peale asked George if he could spare some time to meet a large group of people who might have answers to George’s worries, since this was truly a worry free group. George, at his wits end grunted “sure.” After a long car ride to near the tip of Long Island, Dr. Peale had the taxicab stop in the middle of a large cemetery and the two men got out.

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be the best way to go. Slow down and focus.

likely to show you their good if they feel that availability from you. Don’t listen to T.V. or read internet news be• Allow yourself to risk. Enter en- fore you go to sleep at night. Count the ough. A friend of Nan’s had won the things for which you can be grateful grand prize on the American Chop- (full of greatness!) and sleep better. per contest. When asked how he won, he laughed and said, “When the con- • Smile more and hold eye contact test was announced, I ENTERED.” with others. Create a positive posYou’ve got to allow yourself to enter ture. Your positive physiology will the game and know that you aren’t be reflected by others and even if going to win every time, but you’re a you’re faking it, your forced smile, winner by playing and playing your eye contact and positive posture will best. Enter enough! If worrying about feel more natural and comfortable. losing stops you from entering, it Little shifts. guarantees a loss. Enter enough and you’ll find those places where you • Delegate responsibilities. Do what win. And as you enter enough, your you can, but let go of things before skills get better. Make up for lack of you become overwhelmed. If someskills, not by thinking about the lack, one else can do a task only 80% of but with enough activity. Show up... the way you would do it, but it gives you 100% of that time for another most don’t. taks which only YOU can do...you • Focus on what is right, the good, are 180% productive with that time. rather than on what is wrong. So Life is too short. What parts are really much of the media focuses on the worth your attention? isolated disaster story. Happy stories don’t sell. Media stories appeal to • Exercise/eat well/sleep well. Exthe lowest common denominator of ercise is a great idea even though our interests. Don’t go for the easy you may feel stressed about time and “take” or opinion of others. Consider other preoccupations. The endorthe possibilities. Have you ever had phins that reduce feelings of worry, your good intentions misread by fear, adrenaline production, also others? Allow the benefit of doubt by promote a more relaxed mind and seeing good in others. They are more body. As we grow older it’s inactivity 20

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On the top of a full size piece of paper or, if you prefer, a digital memo app, write or type the words WORRY LIST. When a worry comes to mind, instead of letting it interrupt what you are doing, take out this list and jot down/type the worry. Keep doing this for one whole week. On Friday afternoon between the hours of 4:005:00 PM lock yourself up in a room • Take breaks. Short (10-15 minute) alone and take out your worry list. periods of meditation, stretching or Worry about everything on your list self hypnosis have been proven to for that full hour. So, you haven’t minimize mental fatigue, re-direct missed your self-made opportunity thinking to positive vision, and (choice) to worry, but you did it prompt productive, feelings of well under your conditions, and wasted a lot less time. being and energy. that will contribute most to pain and suffering. Do what’s right. Stay active. Cutting back on simple carbs allows the brain greater clarity.

Good sleep patterns promote a healthier brain and better transmission of neurotransmitters (especially dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin -- happy! happy! happy!).

• Do something nice for at least one someone each day. Go out of your way to make some else’s life a little better. Get out of your own head, just a little. Pass it forward.

If this idea seems silly, it is...and it’s not. (You might be surprised at how many people with whom I’ve shared this thought, took it seriously and found great benefit.) Value yourself and those around you by not sweating Worry is not caused by external events so much of the small stuff... And as or situations, but by how we perceive the wise man said, “It’s ALL small those events or situations. But for stuff.” those self sabotaging warriors who are reluctant to give up worrier ways, Copyright©, 2015 Barry Eisen. All here is a great idea: rights reserved.

Barry Eisen teaches personal development seminars and coaches Southern California top producing REALTORS®. “Your business will never grow more than you do” is the theme; self hypnosis and behavior modification are the tools for playing a bigger game. barryeisen.com, barryeisen@LA.twcbc.com 818-769-4300 Top Agent Magazine

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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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