He recognizes that we are on to something with the SUCCESS! Real Estate model and has been impressed by what we all accomplished together.  He is anxious to be part of it once again and we are confident that he can help us make a great thing even greater!

Deborah Riley
deborah.riley09@gmail.com

This month’s Realtor of the Month is Deborah Riley.  Deb had a strong finish in 2012 and is continuing that trend in 2013.  Deb has increased her business over the last year by focusing her time and efforts on her database.  By staying in touch with her sphere of influence Deb has been able to generate referral business along with a new client list.  Deb also includes open house leads, past clients, and her social networks in her sphere.  Her work with her client database is a long term goal that she has set for herself.  Staying consistent and not giving up on this goal has payed off.  Deb points out that committing to your business goals takes a lot of patience and focus but by doing so you will continue to grow your business and your income.

Among the many methods of connecting with her clients, Deb finds that email, Facebook, and good old fashioned snail mail (had written cards and notes) are some of the most effective.  She believes sending her clients something personal or something of value to be very powerful.  One of Deb’s strongest business tools is technology.  She stays on top of all of Christine Pierce’s tips and advice and incorporates her own strategies using technology into her day to day business.

Deb enjoys being part of the team at SUCCESS! Real Estate.  She loves the work environment, the culture, and cannot say enough great things about the support staff in our offices.  Deb is married and is a mother to two teenage boys.  Congratulations to Deborah Riley!

Feel free to reach out to Deb directly: deborah.riley09@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

John Connolly
SUCCESS! Real Estate
john@johnconnolly.com

Here is a great tip to make communicating and connecting with your clients an easier process:

Subscribe, Subscribe, Subscribe – Why reinvent the wheel?  Re-purposing great articles and ideas is a smarter way to work.  And there is no need for you to go off into the vast world of the internet to find these gems on your own.  Subscribe to a few great sources that will do the work for you then “share” the articles on your social media sites, blogs, and email newsletters.  Important catch, be sure that if you paraphrase any info you find that you give credit where credit is due.  ALWAYS reference the full article along with the author.  Adding a comment or two of your own will give it that personalized feel.

Check out these article feeds and subscribe to the ones that you think your clients might relate to:

• LinkedIn Today: This is a great feed that gathers business/real estate/industry articles and data from all over the web.  You can customize your subscription so that it will only send you the info that pertains to you.  Login to your LinkedIn account and go to NEWS/LinkedIn Today
• Food Network: Sounds crazy?  You don’t always want to post business and industry news.  That makes your client communication boring.  Food Network has a subscription to “Recipe of the Day”.  Something that your foodie clients just might appreciate.  Register at their site: http://my.foodnetwork.com/registration/register.esi  and select the kind of recipes you would like to receive.
• Zillow Blog: Looking for fun, interactive Real Estate news to share?  The Zillow blog does this well.  If you are already a Zillow member simply update your settings to include Zillow Blog updates.  OR visit http://www.zillow.com/blog/ and browse the different blog post categories.  They post great stuff like inside photos of celebs homes, most popular areas to relocate to, and interactive posts like “which home would YOU rather live in?”.
• Inman Next Agent: This is another Real Estate related site that gathers interesting and informative industry news.  They post several times a day so there are a lot of articles to choose from.  Register for their free subscription.  https://register.inman.com/membership/

These are just a few ideas.  Visit your favorite sites and see if there is the option to register for updates.  Remember to shake it up a little…keep it interesting and informative.  Your clients will appreciate it and they will be more likely to remember your name when they are looking for professional services.

As of December 13,  2012 our sales team has officially reached 1130 transactions*.  This number is up 28% compared to last year – and we have not even reached the end of 2012!!  This is a new high water mark for sales in our company.  You should all be very proud!

* total units sold so far this year (2012)

Once again, congratulations to Jennifer Kern from all the REALTORS®, staff, and management at SUCCESS! Real Estate!

What We Learned From the Classes:

The Digital Agent

• People are looking at property on mobile devices…mobile users are 7 TIMES more likely to contact you directly than traditional desktop/laptop users.  Are your properties optimized for mobile devices?  Make sure they are!
• Do you have a digital Pre-Listing package?  Something you can send to your clients BEFORE you meet with them?  If you do not, make one!  (We have one for SUCCESS!, it’s located on our INTRANET under Marketing Materials.  You can also schedule an appointment with Christine Pierce to create a personalized digital pre-listing package)

• Use Video in your pre-listing package if possible.  People are more likely to form a positive opinion of you if they can see you before they meet you.
• Use technology to lead your clients to a realistic listing price.  Show them other houses that have sold in their neighborhood in detail, video, interior photos, upgrades, pricing, sale price.  Let them compare their home to the other similar homes that have sold.  This will help you when you approach a pricing strategy with them.  They will be able to see the value of details like upgraded kitchens and baths, carpet vs. wood floors, landscaped yards, etc…
• Upload your CMA into iBook if you have an iPAD.  It will make you look tech savvy and professional.
• Bring a current market activity report for all your Open Houses.  Make sure your contact info is on it.  If they don’t buy the house you are doing an OH for, they may buy another one in the same market area.  Post the same info on your blog, facebook page, twitter.
• Create a digital file for all of your clients.  (Google Drive/Docs, DropBox, Evernote).  Share the documents that your clients need access to with them.  Files to upload into a digital file: listing photos, listing video, signed contracts, client communication policy, open house policy, sellers checklist, buyers checklist, properties your buyers have already seen with notes, market activity reports, and anything else that you think your clients would like access to.
• Create a digital listing presentation for each of your CMA’s.
• Create a value add for your clients like creating on the spot floor plans of their home using MagicPlan.  Offer them something other agents are not.
  
• Use a closing costs calculator to show them the estimated closing costs right from the start. http://www.stewart.com/minneapolis/sellers-closing-cost-calculator

Apps for the Digital Agent:

SlideShark: FREE tool that lets you upload any PowerPoint presentation.  Use this to create digital CMA and Pre-Lisitng Presentation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLRSxpw3h6Q

Cartavi: Cartavi provides you with one convenient place to store, manage, and share all those documents with anyone who needs them.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQhBkmHgFtY

Annimoto: Use Annimoto to create a video version of your listing presentations.  http://animoto.com/features

MagicPlan: MagicPlan MEASURES your rooms and DRAWS your floor plan just by taking pictures.
You can then get your floor plan in PDF, JPG and DXF format or publish an INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLAN on the web.  With MagicPlan, EVERYONE CAN CREATE A FLOOR PLAN IN FEW MINUTES. http://www.sensopia.com/english/index.html

Stewart Closing Costs Calculator: http://www.stewart.com/minneapolis/sellers-closing-cost-calculator

Evernote: Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pjn6YkCY2yA

PDF Editing Tools: EditPDF, EZPdf, Neu, iannotatepdf (google these to download)

Other cool digital agent apps to check out:

DayTracker

iScape | Landscape Design App

EasyMeasure

Sue McSweeney

This month’s Realtor of the Month is Sue McSweeney. Sue has been a REALTOR since 2005 and has been a SUCCESS! team member for last 6 years.  Since she has spent almost her entire professional career with SUCCESS! Real Estate, we wanted to know what has inspired her to succeed in our system.  Sue’s first response was the upbeat, positive atmosphere that she finds in all of our offices.  She feeds off of that energy and it inspires her to strive to achieve more in her professional career.  Sue mirrors that positive attitude in her day to day business.

Sue has a deep understanding of the struggles and challenges of keeping a sale together.  Her goal in each transaction is to keep the process moving forward and to try to keep all parties involved from becoming overwhelmed.  Sue believes the secret to a successful sale is to be open and flexible no matter what may come your way during the transaction process.  This will ultimately lead to a completed sale. She has learned in the past few years that another secret to success is persistence.   Every day she prospects expired, canceled, and pre-foreclosure listings.  Sue points out that weeks can go by without getting a new client or even a single response from her efforts –  but she understands that you have to keep working the system.  Eventually your persistence will pay off and great rewards will follow.

Sue regularly takes advantage of the training offered at SUCCESS!.  She meets with Christine on a monthly (sometimes weekly) basis.  She also participates in the mentoring program which requires her to attend a weekly accountability meeting.  Holding herself accountable not only to her own business but to her education keeps her skills current.  Sue believes in herself and the systems that she follows.

Sue has two children and two beautiful grandchildren that are the love of her life.  Congratulations!

Feel free to reach out to Sue directly: suemcsweeney1953@gmail.com or (781) 985-2972.

Sincerely,

John Connolly
SUCCESS! Real Estate
john@johnconnolly.com

Ann Bresnahan
MaryAnn Dempsey
Gabrielle Marie Fugere
Christopher Huban
Jillian O’Shaughnessy
Rosa Lopes
Christyn Hobbs

If you see someone you do not recognize around the office…it’s probably one of our MANY new agents.  Please reach out and introduce yourself.

If you know someone who might be interested in joining our team, feel free to share the following link with them: www.CuriousAboutSuccess.com