From Broker To
Real Estate Professional

If your goal is to sell your house at well over the price you asked for and for the whole transaction to be hassle-free from A to Z, then perhaps you should start thinking like a real estate broker or agent.

During times when the real market is rollicking to new, unimaginable heights, and you hear of brokers pocketing enormous amounts of commissions and fees making them millionaires overnight, you'd like to know, deep down in your heart, what makes them tick. This new crop of wealth builders is making everyone envious, including you.

And here you are - all you really want is to learn the tricks to sell your house successfully. Learn from the pros. What makes the pros stand out and the mediocre drop out later in the game? Get inside the mind of the real estate professional and think like him. Who knows, after you do sell your house successfully, you may decide to be a broker yourself, having learned the pitfalls and felt the glory of just this one deal.

Tom Hopkins talks about the true professionals:

"Professionals are highly goal-oriented.  They strive for a certain number of homes listed and sold each month, a certain income, a trophy, or an award.  They know exactly what they're looking for and when they'll achieve it… you see, the successful ones, the true professionals, begin where the failures stop.  They do what the failures are afraid or too lazy to do."

 

Attitude is Everything!

A positive attitude tops the list of characteristics that real estate professionals live by. When the world comes crumbling down, as in a depressed real estate cycle, they look at downturns as an opportunity and maximise on that opportunity.

Professionals make every effort to let their image speak for their success: The trappings of success must convey your competence in the field. Do your car, briefcase, desk and office communicate a successful business career?

Professionals have an organised and efficient follow-up system. Their success at closing deals depends on returning calls, prioritizing appointments, punctuality and integrity. This is the only way people will entrust the sale of their homes to them. The client's comfort level is important to a professional - an element he never takes for granted.

A real estate professional stays in tune. He reads the classified ads religiously, and makes it his business to know what's going on. His networking skills are above average, he attends the latest seminars, nurtures close relationships with people who are directly or indirectly connected to the real estate industry:

• Contractors
• Builders
• Developers
• Bankers
• Insurance companies
• Settlement agents
• Trustees
• Other brokers

Reach out and see people. Hopkins says: "There are literally thousands of people in your area who need and deserve professional assistance with their real estate needs. If you don't take it to them, they might be short-changed by someone less professional. The more people you can meet, the more you can serve."

The Steps to Being a Professional

Successful real estate selling is based on being well-informed about the hidden strategies of the trade. If you do decide that you want to be a real estate professional - a profession that will most likely bring you into the inner sanctum of the cult, how do you get started?

Apart from taking the usual course and getting licensed, Tom Hopkins believes you should take the following steps:

• Have a professional photograph taken. Clients like to put a face to the name, especially the person they picked to sell their house.
• Get a quality cell phone (e.g. iphone) and make your voice mail message courteous and professional. Return calls promptly.
• Purchase a good computer with a high processor capacity, and get your hands on software such as ACT!, Goldmine or Top Producer.
• Have a professional email address. Who doesn't need an email these days? Surveys show that less than 6% of real estate agents with email check their mail twice a day. Be ahead of the pack.
• Be Internet Savvy - be familiar with thousands of resources dedicated to the real estate industry: industry news, training opportunities, public records, lead generation, etc. Be sure you have Mapquest (you don't want to waste time figuring out how to get to a particular address).
• Have a digital camera handy. You'll want to produce quality photographs of the properties you're selling.
• And don't forget to have professional quality business cards printed.

About Doubts…

Some individuals have doubts about a real estate professional's competence when they're just starting out. Experience is, after all, the old reliable - in any profession, not just in real estate.

But the true, beginning professionals don't let this long-held belief discourage them. They are usually able to demonstrate, quite skilfully, that they are the hungriest and the most willing to do whatever it takes to sell a house.

Enthusiasm and zeal go a long way - two traits that older professionals sometimes take for granted because they've been in the business long enough to develop a subtle smugness.

Next, we will examine What Makes Some Properties Hot, and others not.