How One Lead Changed One Agent’s Career … and Life

Provided By Blog.KW.com

Not too long ago, $80,000 would have been about four years’ worth of income for Connie Austin. And in her first years in the real estate business, it would have been more like eight years’ income. But since joining Keller Williams, Austin landed that much in just one deal as both the listing and buying agent on a $1,380,000 home.

“I don’t think I felt anything at first; it took a while,” said Austin, who is part of the Keller Williams Realty Experience market center in Murray, Kentucky. “My operating principal and my team leader were initially more excited than I was. Some of them have been in this business way longer than myself, so now it’s really sunk in, and it’s been a huge blessing for us.”

That check, $80,136.35 to be exact, could not have come at a better time for Austin and her family. When her husband became sick and unable to work, the Austins faced dire financial troubles. In no time at all, their savings was drained, and they had to move out of their home. The Austins were living in less than desirable conditions, and the only way Connie could get to appointments was in an old black pick-up truck with tires in such bad shape that she had to carry an air tank to fill them up every time she had to go back into town.

“I struggled for two years, and then Keller Williams came along and things got a little easier,” she said. “Aside from this deal, Keller Williams has allowed me to come home to a home, have a reliable vehicle, pay my bills and put money back in my business. I feel like for the first time that I have a business and that I have control over it. If I get leads and don’t work them, it’s my own fault, so I do the best I can to follow up on everything.”

In the case of the million-dollar listing, Austin relied on Keller Williams Realty’s My ListingsMy Leads – KW.com’s lead-routing system designed to route Internet leads directly to the listing agent – to secure both ends of the transaction. The listing involved a partnership of two sellers, only one of whom Austin knew. Both of the sellers had relocated to California, which complicated the process. Four different buyers made offers on the property, but it was the one who came through Austin that was the right one.

“Oddly enough, the one buyer who was my lead, who had seen my marketing online and how it fed back to me, he had the right mentality. He was out for a win-win deal, which made it easy on my part.”

Ultimately, the deal took only two days, one of which included an eight-hour conference call to close; due in part to the ease and convenience of the Keller Williams myTransaction paperless program, which allowed the buyer and the sellers to reach across time zones and state lines to sign all the necessary documents quickly and painlessly.

“I love the paperless program,” she said. “It’s sped up my business. It’s like instant gratification. I’d say 85 percent of my clients are on the paperless program, and once I got them to try it they never went back.”

Another element of Austin’s success is her commitment to learning. She sets aside at least 30 minutes each week to take part in a class while also taking advantage of audio education while she’s driving or doing dishes.

“Keller Williams is amazing,” she said. “I’ll never go anywhere else. When I was in my past life, I had no idea this was out there. It’s a blessing and a half. Just believing that I got that kind of money all in one deal makes me want to go out and find another one.”

How to Launch a Successful Real Estate Brokerage in Today's Market

Provided By KW Blog

rofitability is a big deal for all real estate offices. But perhaps nowhere is it more critical than in the launch phase. Start-up costs are inevitably high, validity in the marketplace is still largely undetermined and people question whether the business is going to take off. These were all challenges The Fairfax Capital Properties market center faced when  launched in 2011.

From the beginning, the market center fit the bill of underdog. During the pre-launch phase, they underwent ownership changes, lost some of its original agents and saw two different team leaders come and go. Then came a ninth-inning rally in the form of Matthew Sutter, an unlikely savior since he had never been within a thousand miles of Fairfax, Va., prior to interviewing for the team leader job. Once he landed the gig, he left Austin, Texas, and arrived in Virginia just in time to turn things around for the market center.

“My first day in the role was the day we opened our front doors,” Sutter says. “Being the third team leader, our ALC (Associate Leadership Council) was concerned about whether they could trust me to stay. The pre-launch phase had also worn out some of our initial agents and they left, discouraged that we would never actually open.”

From those inauspicious beginnings, Sutter and his team emerged months later as the runner-up for the Keller Williams Realty Home Run Launch Market Center Award, thanks to the market center’s $115,865 in total profits for 2011. In addition to reaching profitability right out of the gate, Fairfax-Capital Properties also saw its team grow from an initial 27 agents to 120 in just 21 months. Sutter credits the success to the market center’s staff, Associate Leadership Council (ALC), original investor Tony Brodie and Operating Principal Bo Menkiti.

So what did it take to launch a real estate office on the heels of a massive real estate downturn? Here is Sutter’s advice:

3 Steps to Launch a Successful Real Estate Office

Step 1: Come From Curiosity

Sutter’s biggest challenges during the launch phase came mostly from being a Texan in Old Dominion’s court.

“Agents from other companies weren’t exactly jumping up and down to sit one-on-one with me. Which was a challenge, because validity in the marketplace is built on relationships with really influential icons.”

A former mega agent with a team, Sutter had a genuine interest in helping other agents reach their potential. So he began sharing the education and training that is characteristic of all Keller Williams market centers. From social events, to core Keller Williams courses and regular meetings to discuss business strategy with top producers, Sutter’s curiosity in other agents’ success drew people to him …. and the market center.

Step 2: Lead with Revenue

Adhering to the Keller Williams launch phase model was the second pillar under Sutter’s launch plan. “Profitability in the beginning stages is about never deviating from the model,” Sutter says. “It’s about leading with revenue and keeping expenses as lean as possible. If there wasn’t a direct indication that an expense was going to lead to immediate revenue, chances are it was getting cut. We also stayed away from trying to be creative. I’ve always loved the idea that you have to ‘earn the right’ to add creativity to the model. No one that is in the launch phase has earned that right.”

Step 3: Make it about others

There’s a quote from John Maxwell, best-selling author on leadership that sums up another key element to the Fairfax, Va. market center’s success: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

“I was very fortunate to have a highly-engaged ALC who, along with Bo and Tony, committed to the vision of becoming the Home Run Launch market center,” Sutter says. “Their enthusiasm and determination carried over to our staff, our agents and even our core service partners. It became contagious, and everyone embraced a whatever-it-takes attitude.”

Committed to either making the launch a success or burning out in every capacity, Sutter  let go of old habits in favor of new ones. “Being so new, I needed to ensure I was supporting my ALC and staff, because they were the ones that could add the real value to our growth. The idea of ‘success through others’ was far different than how I ran my previous sales team, but it was a concept I loved. The less I made it about me, the better we did, and I quickly learned that leadership isn’t about knowing all the answers or being able to do everything yourself. It’s more about knowing who can provide what resources and then making sure that those individuals are nurtured and provided for. To me, that’s the ultimate win-win.”

Maintaining Visibility On The Web

Provided By Realty Times

In the real estate industry, a firm's online presence - its ability to have superior technology solutions, complemented by a team of experts - is critical. Without that support, and without the resources to maintain a firm's regional or national visibility on the web, success can quickly become its own worst enemy. Meaning: real estate firms with aggressive marketing campaigns must maintain the connectivity and bandwidth necessary for substantial increases in traffic. This assistance is the direct result of working with a colocation provider with the infrastructure to handle these issues, which include running multiple servers and having the expertise of talented professionals available at a moment's notice.  

These principles of access, intelligence and mobility (AIM) are the critical difference - for companies in general and real estate firms in particular - between one colocation provider versus another. In the absence of AIM, real estate firms risk selecting the wrong colocation provider, which can cause a negative impact on brand reputation, new business opportunities and existing relationships with clients.

I write these words not to condemn the competition, nor to sound unnecessarily alarmist, but realtors need to know the facts: that access, a network of offices throughout the United States, which can support a firm's online growth, backed by technical experts who will remedy any unforeseen developments and guarantee 100% uptime -- all of these things are essential for real estate firms that seek to appeal to current and prospective clients nationwide.  

Remember: a firm's website is often the first point of introduction for people interested in working with a broker, or listing a home with a specific branch. If that firm has unreliable connectivity - if it loses valuable, confidential data, or falls victim to poor hosting services - it will damage its respect in the marketplace. Indeed, the sheer force of social media - the disparate number of blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages - will all say the same thing: that this real estate firm has a shoddy web presence, a site easily overrun by even the slightest increase in traffic and thus not worth visiting or retaining.

All of which brings us back to working with the right colocation provider. In fact, the concept of AIM - strengths that apply to any business - is something realtors should replicate in their dealings with clients. Start with the notion of access, that, as a professional, you will be available to accommodate the needs of your clients; that you have the offices to be a credible force within your industry. Secondly, emphasize the technical expertise that defines your commitment to excellence; assemble a team of distinguished leaders, who share your vision for solving complex problems and customizing solutions for each client. And thirdly, have the mobility to go anywhere, at any hour, to maintain the quality of service your clients deserve.  

These rules are our unofficial motto; but they have added importance concerning the union between real estate and technology, because - in the absence of a reputable colocation provider, one with a suite of integrated services and on-call experts - everything is liable to collapse. In that situation, everyone is the victim of false promises and unrealistic expectations. Put another way, behind most successful online companies there is a successful colocation provider. Our advice to real estate firms is, therefore, simple: choose the right colocation company. Period.