This was a resturant that we had lunch in. The town was Condom (fair dinkum) in south west France.
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Property Management – no longer “just a job”- now a career path
October 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Those property managers who, like me, have been around for a number of years would know that the perception of property management as a job choice has changed for the better. And that’s a great thing!
The days are long gone when rental properties were somehow looked after by the ‘girl’ behind the front counter and the management of properties was considered something an agency had to do because they had sold a client an investment property. In some cases, property management was seen as the training ground for those wanting to enter the sales side of real estate.
It would be no exaggeration to say that managing property in most agencies was limited to finding a tenant, providing a lease agreement and receipting rent. Not a lot of significance was given to any of these tasks being completed in an effective, professional manner. It was just something that needed to be attended to and it didn’t matter who did it. Many vital areas were ignored by the majority of agencies.
There was simply no consideration given to the reporting side of property management, inspections, systems, policies and procedures, duty of care, maintaining appropriate files, and the list could go on.
Again speaking generally, most people engaged in the management of property were not there for the long haul. The common ideology seemed to be that it was what you did until something better came up or the stress under which you were working became too much to cope with.
Meet the ‘new’ property manager
Times have changed and definitely for the benefit of all parties involved. Not only has the property management industry become extremely professional and highly systemised, it has also become very specialised. Well trained, experienced property managers have become a sought after commodity and they play a critical role in the modern agency’s team.
There is now a career path in property management and a number of areas of specialisation.
Firstly there are the mainstream types of management:
• Residential property
• Commercial property
• Holiday rentals
• Strata management
Within these mainstream types there are now a number of less traditional areas of management, which require the skills of experienced and informed property managers.
Let’s look at the most easily recognised management area – residential property management. Historically this has meant managing a residential property for an investor owner and that property could be a freehold house, a high rise unit or a townhouse.
Now managing residential property can mean a number of other things;
• Managing blocks of student accommodation
• Retirement villages
• Apartment blocks
• Defence housing
• Government housing
• Mining towns
Specific systems and skills are required for each of these new property management areas and subsequently a whole new world of opportunity has opened up for property managers.
Opportunity knocks in mining towns
Until recently mining companies were responsible for management of the property they supplied to their employees. This meant the management process was handled by administration staff normally not trained in the area of property management. Sometimes tenants were placed in property without tenancy agreements, bonds or condition reports. In some mining towns when an employee left the company, which meant they left the property, it was quite common for kitchens to be replaced, the property could be painted inside and out or in extreme cases the property could be totally refurbished.
Obviously this created a number of issues for the mining companies, who didn’t have the bandwidth or skill set necessary for their team to manage the associated problems. It also added enormously to the cost of providing rental accommodation to their employees.
Not another church!
October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
If only I’d done that right from the start….
October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
If only I’d done that right from the start….
by Dave Skow, on 28th October, 2009 • No Comments
Hello there! Thanks for visiting GenYre.com, we hope you find this website useful. You might also want to subscribe to our Comments RSS or News RSS Feeds. You can also receive regular GenYreTweet updates via Twitter or contact the owners of GenYre with scoop on a news story or just to ask a question. In any case, enjoy your stay, comment away and make sure you come back soon.
Setting the right habits from the beginning of your career can make a world of difference for a sales agent.
Those who have been in the industry a long time know just how all-consuming and exhausting real estate can be. There’s always a danger of burning out.
So rather than have you say, “If only I’d done that right from the start”…., I thought I’d share 6 Success Tips to help you move forward faster.
1. Switch On & Switch Off
The most important habit for sales agents to adopt is time-management. At the beginning of their career, sales agents are generally very ambitious and enthusiastic, so much so that some don’t take the time to relax at all. Working 14 hour days, six and a half days a week isn’t a healthy way to make it big. There needs to be a balance between striving to be successful and having time out.
Most agents conduct open house inspections on Saturdays, meaning that Sunday really is the day of rest. However is this enough? Why not set aside a few hours on a Wednesday afternoon to swing the nine iron around the golf course? Or unwind on the couch with a good book? It is hard to do, but this balance is essential to assuring longevity in the sales field.
2. Set daily and weekly work plans – and stick to them!
Sit down and work out your most dollar productive activities. Then set aside time per day and per week for that task.We all know that the key to success in a new sales person’s career is prospecting, however, it’s also perhaps the most loathed activity they undertake. Having time set aside every day to complete prospecting is vital. Similarly, maintaining contact with current clients and customers, as well as all those who grace our database will ensure happy vendors and purchasers and referrals falling over themselves to get to you.
Or how about trying this: turn off the ‘new message’ indicator on your email program and limit yourself to checking your inbox twice a day (unless of course you know something important is there waiting your perusal).
3. Keep your own personality
Most established agencies have set strategies, often in the form of scripts and dialogues, which ensure agents’ compliance in anything they say to the public and are aimed at giving them the confidence to converse with consumers.The danger, though, is for new sales agents to stick so closely to the script that they sound fake.
People can spot a fake a mile away. One of the most persistent comments I hear from friends and family after dealing with agents, particularly those new to the profession, is how robotic they can tend to come across.
While I am a big advocate for the use of these scripts, far too many new agents lack the personality behind the message they put across. Instead of harnessing a positive approach to begin building rapport, they shoot off these lines as though it’s the thousandth time the phrases have come out of their mouths that day.
The relationship between client and agent is as important as the actual products and services on offer. It is imperative that, from the first meeting, trust and confidence is attained. By simply finding a common ground with the client, agents can go a long way to achieving this.
4. Build your database and nurture your contacts
One of the biggest regrets many sales agents have is not getting to work on building a database from the very start of their career.Whether it is on flashy computer programs or by using a card filing system, everyone with whom you do business or meet during prospecting needs to be recorded for appropriate follow up and action.
Even before commencing a career, agents should sit down and really think about all the people they have any relationship with. From friends and family right through to the dentist you have been visiting every 12 months since you were five, everyone with whom you deal is a potential client or customer.
Once this list is created, an introductory letter announcing the big career change should be mailed to this list. You have now planted the seed. But in order for the seed to grow and for the plant to bear fruit, it needs feeding by way of regular contact. This could be through monthly newsletters, regular phone contact or occasionally calling on your contacts face-to-face.
Follow up is also vital. As a benchmark, agents should aim to make at least 75% of their turnover as a result of referrals and repeat business within the first three years in the industry. To achieve this, it is imperative to remain the only name that comes into your past clients’ minds when they think of real estate agents. This is easily achievable, not only by maintaining contact, but also through simple gestures like settlement gifts, tokens on the anniversary of their sale or purchase, and by offering them advice about the state of the local market before they even think of asking.
New agents also need to create a network of ‘people of influence’. These can be anyone from bankers, financiers, builders, tradespeople and solicitors. Meeting on a scheduled basis, say once a month, can go a long way to building relationships within the group. Together, you form a super-power of providers of property services and can assist each other not only through referrals, but also through the wealth of knowledge that the network possesses.
5. Develop your image
Traditional newspaper advertisements and brochures are still extremely useful in profile building, but the innovative agents know the importance of doing more than just this.Your name needs to be everywhere, on your signboards, billboards, local television and radio. And even more than this, in this day in age, social networking has a huge role to play in your image (but I’ll leave the finer points of this technology to other experts like Greg Vincent).
However, agents need to be mindful of how they may be perceived. If you think you are God’s gift to real estate and you like to flaunt it, you probably come across as arrogant and people will avoid contact with you.
On the flip side, if you are too lax in your attitude towards your abilities as a sales agent, people will probably see you as not interested and lacking enthusiasm and drive. It is a fine line to tread, but one that is essential in order to build a flourishing client base.
6. Increase your knowledge
It’s also important to keep improving your skills and knowledge through training.With access to information so freely available to consumers, agents have never had to be more on the ball than they do now. Statistics show that purchasers spend 34 days researching on the internet before making any kind of initial contact with an agent. Some look for a particular type of property in a particular area for months before purchasing.
Make sure you know what’s happening within your area. Keep an eye on new listings coming onto the market & research sales happening in your area. It’s extremely important that you are able to share up-to-date, relevant information with your clients so you can become seen as the expert in your area.
Agents should also be allocating approx. 10% of their income to professional development – whether that be through conferences and seminars, subscribing to organisations who offer continuous learning material or through the local business networks. As the old saying goes, ‘Knowledge is power’ and agents need to possess all they can to keep at the top of their profession and remain a step ahead of the competition.
4.2 million users per month in Australia are watching videos online
October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Josh Williams
4.2 million users per month in Australia are watching videos online
Posted at October 27, 2009Do you have any videos online for your business yet?
Whether you are leveraging this amazing online marketing medium or not, the statistics prove there is a huge opportunity here to take advantage of.
In this article from the Sydney Morning Herald there are a heap of quite exciting figures on the growth of online video in Australia.
One quote that I found really interesting was…
Nielsen Online’s research shows that when users are multitasking between online and radio or online and TV the internet emerges as the primary focus of attention.
So when you are planning your online marketing strategies for 2010, make sure you include online video.
This is something that will continue to grow and soon become expected by more and more of your customers and online prospects.
If your website does not have video, I’d highly recommend getting in touch with a local online video marketing company that can guide you through the process of planning your strategy, managing your production and also helping you distribute this content online to get the biggest bang for your buck.
Part of the focus of this article from SMH is on TV style video – shows from television that are now available for people to stream online from the major media channel websites.
My advice when considering online video in your marketing is to think of the big picture.
Look beyond getting one video to put on your website and expore more creative ideas like creating your own ‘TV’ show to position you and your business as the experts in your industry.
I hope that gives you some food for thought.
Keep your eye on this website because I am soon to launch my own online video series to share The Wizard’s Secrets, Spells an Tricks for Online Marketing MAGIC!!!
Agents: Spreading Your Message Online Doesn’t Get Much Easier Than This.
October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Agents: Spreading Your Message Online Doesn’t Get Much Easier Than This.
by Greg Vincent, on 23rd October, 2009 • No Comments
Hello there! Thanks for visiting GenYre.com, we hope you find this website useful. You might also want to subscribe to our Comments RSS or News RSS Feeds. You can also receive regular GenYreTweet updates via Twitter or contact the owners of GenYre with scoop on a news story or just to ask a question. In any case, enjoy your stay, comment away and make sure you come back soon.
Are You Using One Of The Most Powerful Tools On The Internet – Twitter? If you’re not, then I hate to tell you but you’re missing out on something that can have a massive impact on your online success & help to spread your marketing message out all over the web at the same time.
Twitter is one of the fastest growing phenomena on the internet & it’s not just for the celebrities & politicians.
Lots of companies are now achieving great results by incorporating Twitter into both their marketing & their day-to-day online communications.
With people now spending more & more of their time on Social Media, it’s important that real estate agents & property managers start to become part of the online conversation.
What is Twitter & Why Is It So Good For Real Estate Agents?
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows messages (tweets) of 140 characters or less to be posted up onto the web in real time.
It provides the convenience of text messaging but with the additional advantage that the messages are posted up onto the web for others to see, plus it’s without the costs involved with SMS, because Twitter is free to use.
How Can Agents Leverage Their Marketing By Using Twitter?
Did you know that one single message posted onto Twitter can also be automatically sent out across to numerous other Social Media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendfeed, Plaxo, MySpace, Blogger, WordPress, etc… all from just one single tweet.
Also, if other people on Twitter like your message then they will often share your tweet with their followers as well, and your friends on Facebook could share the message with their friends on Facebook too, etc, etc.
Which means that one tweet can not only be leveraged out across a number of your own Social Media accounts but they can also end up being shared amongst the Social Networks of your friends & followers to help you get your message out across the web.
For instance, there have been lots of times where I’ve posted a message onto Twitter which other people on Twitter have found interesting & subsequently they’ve shared the message with their followers by Retweeting my message.
And likewise there’s lots of times where I Retweet other people’s messages that I think my followers may be interested in.
Here’s an example of how a retweeted message looks.
RT @GregVincent: Suncorp says Thank You Mr Hooker as they sell LJ Hooker to LJ Hooker ~ http://ow.ly/qQ6d
Sometimes, the people who retweet your message have only a handful of followers & others have thousands of followers who can potentially see your message.
And, this is only a small part of how Twitter can spread your message.
Here’s a snapshot of how Twitter works for me & how it could work for you.
As well as writing articles & posting them onto sites like GenYre = energy, each week I write the Real Estate Agent Newsletter for the Real Estate Agent Success Club & send it out to agents via email.
Prior to using Social Media, email was the only way that I could share my newsletters out across the web.
But now I can also share each of the Real Estate Agent Newsletters with my followers & friends across all of my Social Networks via a single tweet.
For example, here’s what I do each week.
Once I’ve completed my newsletter I email it out to my database. Then I simply post a tweet with a link to the Real Estate Agent Newsletter up onto Twitter for my Twitter followers to read. And then within seconds, that same tweet automatically appears as an update on my Facebook profile, Facebook Fan Pages, plus it also appears on my other profiles like LinkedIn, Friendfeed, Plaxo, etc.
On top of that, I also have a Twitter feed appearing on my websites which means that if someone is visiting my site then they can also read my tweets & potentially read the newsletter too.
Should Agents Have More Than One Twitter Account?
You may have noticed that the Twitter feed for this site appears on the right hand side about half way down the site & features updates from Twitter.com/GenYRealEstate & not my personal Twitter account.
Twitter also allows you to have multiple accounts & I’ve created a separate Twitter account specifically for this site.
The reason I’ve done this is because the GenYre site has been set up for multiple contributors & the contributors will also have access to update the GenYRealEstate Twitter account which enables them to share tweets that they feel may be helpful to the Genyre = energy readers & followers.
(Real Estate Agents could easily do a similar thing by having a personal twitter account for each staff member & a company twitter account that each of their staff could tweet interesting real estate related content to.)
Since the Real Estate Agent Newsletter provides helpful tips for real estate agents which is good information for GenYre = energy readers & followers, I also send out a Tweet linked to each week’s newsletter via the Twitter.com/GenYRealEstate account simultaneously.
If you think this sounds a bit hard to do or really time consuming, check this out…
Now that I have this set up, all I have to do is write an article, email it to my database & tweet a link to the newsletter and within seconds I have shared my newsletter out to thousands & thousands of people amongst lots of different networks over the internet.
When I think back to what I had to do years ago to get thousands of people to read one of my articles & the expense involved, I have to say that spreading a message doesn’t get much easier or any cheaper than this.
Plus, there’s also an extra added bonus.
Because my articles now sit up on the web forever, people also come across them via Google, Bing, Yahoo and other Social Bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon & Delicious, etc. People will often quote from my articles & link across to them from their own articles too.
If you’d like to find out more about how you can create a similar marketing strategy within your agency and how it all works, you may want to come along and catch up at one of the Social Media for Real Estate Seminars.
Here’s something else that works really well…
Before I go, there’s one more thing that I do with Twitter that I’ve found works really well & could work well for real estate agents too.
In a previous post I shared a YouTube video I did about The Password To Help You Achieve Your Goals & whilst it’s really easy to create & upload a video onto YouTube, the hardest part is getting a large number of people to watch it.
So, what I do is, anytime someone follows me on Twitter they automatically receive an email from me saying,
” Thanks for following me. Here’s a quick video tip I made that may help you to achieve your goals http://tr.im/lQg1 “
I set this automated email response up from my Twitter account about 4 – 5 months ago & before doing this I’d only had about 20 people who’d watched the video in the previous 2 months. Now the videos had over 650 views & I haven’t touched it since setting this automated response up.
So much of my marketing happens automatically for me now.
Note: http://Tr.im is a URL shortening service that makes it easier to link to a website within the 140 characters available on Twitter & the links are trackable.
As of today I’ve had 339 people click open the link directly from the automated emails sent to my new followers. I don’t know where the rest of the other 300 views have come from. They could be from the previous blog post or from people simply watching videos directly on YouTube. I’ve done the video once & the rest just happens.
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Tags: Bing, Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Friendfeed, Google, LinkedIn, MySpace, Plaxo, Social Media, StumbleUpon, Tr.im, Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo, YouTube
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Next entry: Real Estate Agents: Are You Going To Finish Strong In 2009?
Previous entry: 26 Ways To Build Subscribers To Your Newsletter Or Blog
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Real Estate Agents: Are You Going To Finish Strong In 2009?
October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Greg Vincent
It’s about this time of year that I always made sure I finished strong by focusing on the one deadline that can be extremely important to property sellers & that deadline is Christmas.
Over the years, I’ve found that there are some sellers who definitely want to have their property sold & moved prior to Christmas so they can celebrate Christmas in their new home.
If you need confirmation that Christmas is an important deadline to home sellers, just ask the new home Builders & Conveyancers who frantically work like crazy in the last few weeks leading up to Christmas to either get the home built or get the transaction settled.
I also know first hand that Christmas is an important deadline for home sellers, because I remember as a young child the builders let us move into our brand new home on Christmas Eve. Our whole family was really excited.
We’d been watching for months as our new home was being built & we were all so keen to spend Christmas in our new home that we ended up sleeping on mattresses on the floor waiting for Santa. All the while, hoping & praying that Santa knew that we had moved.
Then, there are other sellers who just want to have the peace of mind of knowing that they have the sold sticker on their property prior to Christmas & don’t have to worry about keeping the place tidy just in case a buyer turns up.
These sellers can start packing & getting ready for their move over the holidays & be comfortably settled into their new home just in time for the first term of school to start.
Moving prior to the start of the first term of school can be extremely important to some sellers, especially if their children are moving to a new school.
And, then there are other sellers who don’t really care & will be happy to sell when they get their price sometime in 2010 (or in some cases 2011).
So, all you need to do now to finish the year off strong is identify who amongst your existing home sellers wants to be sold by Christmas & set a plan to help them achieve this goal before this very important deadline.
Also, if you want some inspiration about finishing strong in 2009, here’s one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen.
26 Ways To Build Subscribers To Your Newsletter Or Blog
October 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
26 Ways To Build Subscribers To Your Newsletter Or Blog
by Kirsty Dunphey, on 27th October, 2009 • No Comments
Hello there! Thanks for visiting GenYre.com, we hope you find this website useful. You might also want to subscribe to our Comments RSS or News RSS Feeds. You can also receive regular GenYreTweet updates via Twitter or contact the owners of GenYre with scoop on a news story or just to ask a question. In any case, enjoy your stay, comment away and make sure you come back soon.
The weekly newsletter we put out from www.kirstydunphey.com is currently circulating to over 5,000 people weekly. We’re often asked how we’ve built our database to that size in just a few years given that this newsletter started as just an in house newsletter to around 20 staff! To follow are some of our best success tips on building your newsletter (or blog) database.
26 Ways To Build Subscribers
1. Have a sign up button or form on every page of your website.
2. Don’t make it too difficult for people to sign-up, people get bored if they have to jump through too many hoops. All we ask for is first name, surname (optional) and email.
3. Set up a facebook fan page for your email and encourage your friends / family and current subscribers to join.
4. To attract those ever present Gen Y’s have a presence on myspace. Some of my favourites:
- http://www.myspace.com/kirstydunphey (and mine of course!)
5. Link your facebook, myspace and linkedin pages on your website and newsletter.
6. Any time you speak at a public event, mention your newsletter and encourage people to sign up. By public event I mean everything from a keynote presentation in front of 2,000 to a networking group of 5 – just mention it!
7. If you do any regular public speaking, grab a box, bucket or any receptacle and allow people to simply throw a business card in at the end of any of your talks if they want to subscribe.
8. Promote your newsletter on the bottom of your email (in your signature)
9. Make it easy for people to recommend their friends signup and mention that you’d like them to join in your newsletter (in ours we say we’re aiming for 10,000 subscribers – can they help?)
10. I regularly submit articles to be used in other newsletters. Our two most exciting contributions to date have been multiple entries in Zig Ziglar (www.zigziglar.com) and Jeffrey Gitomer’s (www.jeffreygitomer.com) newsletters.
11. Allow people to reproduce your articles in their newsletters – and make it easy. We do this by having a statement telling people they can reproduce our articles in every newsletter and a whole page of articles they can use here: www.kirstydunphey.com/usemebaby.html
12. We submit our articles (which reference our newsletter) to online articles. Try www.ezinearticles.com and www.articlesbase.com, www.goarticles.com
13. Solicit testimonials from the people who currently read your newsletter (even if it’s just 5!) and use them on your website.
14. Allow people to see archived copies of your newsletters – to give them a better idea of what they’re signing up for.
15. Don’t sell or loan your database and make it clear on your website that you won’t.
16. Mention your newsletter as often as possible (media, tv interviews, social events, networking).
17. Consider mentioning your newsletter on your business card / letterhead.
18. Link to your newsletter in your blog.
19. Oh yeah – have a blog (see: www.kirstydunphey.com/blog) and if you don’t think you have time to blog read: http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/02/are-you-already-blogging-and-you-just.html
20. There are lots of online ezine directories that you can register your database at (we’ve not had a great response from these – but hey – if you’ve got a spare 10 minutes go for your life!)
21. Ask your friends / colleagues if they’ll mention your newsletter on their website (see: www.kirstydunphey.com/recommendations.html) More links to your website can also do great things for your search engine optimization.
22. You can pitch your product in your newsletter – but it can’t all be a sales pitch. Find a happy medium that works for you in terms of selling vs educating.
23. If you write a book (www.unleashedknowledge.com), mention your newsletter in it.
24. Make your database feel loved – have special offers that are only for those people who subscribe.
25. Use a reputable email marketing service to ensure a good delivery rate, we use icontact but there are several other options available.
26. Finally, the number one (and most simple) way to get more people subscribing is to put something out there that’s of value to readers. If people like a newsletter they’ll forward it on and it’ll grow without you having to concern yourself too much!
Kirsty Dunphey is an author, speaker and entrepreneur who started her first business at 15, opened her own real estate agency at 21 and retired a self made multi-millionaire at 27. To sign up to Kirsty Dunphey’s weekly email, go to www.kirstydunphey.com
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Early morning in south west France
October 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Stick This Thing to Your Kid and You Won’t Lose Them
October 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Stick This Thing to Your Kid and You Won’t Lose Them
The Insignia Little Buddy is a $100 child-tracking GPS system. You simply duct tape the Little Buddy to your kid, and you’ll never lose the little bugger again (involuntarily).
A web interface positions you various little ones on a map marked with your custom “safety zones.” But the most enticing feature, if we’re studying the GPS tracking page properly, is that you can assign your children with various barnyard animal iconography. That’ll teach little piggy the consequences of being late.
The Little Buddy will be on sale at Best Buy shortly, and we assume the service could come with some sort of monthly cost. [Best Buy via navigadget]
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