Archive for Launching Right in Real Estate
Help Your Agents Choose the Absolute Best Team Leader for Them
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Help your agents choose the absolute best team leader for them.
As a three-decade owner and manager on the firing line, I’ve seen some teams thrive and many others fail. Here are the questions an agent should ask before joining a team, from my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
Questions:
- How many leads are distributed to a team member per week? Per month?
- Am I expected to generate leads for the team? How many a month?
- Let me see your vision and mission statements. What are the values you expect your team to uphold?
- If I want to leave the team, how will you help me transition to my own business?
- How will I be held accountable? (meetings/reports/CRM input)
- Ask how much turnover there has been on the team.
- Ask whether you can sell and list houses outside the team—and how much the rainmaker will charge you if you do.
- What is your experience as a leader? (courses, jobs, etc.)
- What are the systems you use? See the specific systems the rainmaker will use with his team. Lack of systems means the team will not operate as a team, and you will be left trying to figure out how to take action on your own.
- What is your commission structure: Read the contract the rainmaker asks you to sign. Be sure you understand the consequences of your involvement. Evaluate how good a leader that rainmaker is.
- Interview tip: Do not lead with a question about commissions! As a manager, that was a red flag to me. I want to see if we are a ‘fit’ before we talk specifics about pay.
Great Salespeople; Lousy Leaders
Some rainmakers are great salespeople, but lousy leaders. As a result, their team never jells. Most team leaders ultimately expect their team members to generate their own leads in addition to team leads. If you cannot meet the rainmaker’s expectations, you are terminated. Be willing and ready to take the responsibilities of team membership seriously.
Starting Over: When you leave the team, you are generally starting again as a new agent, since you have not generated your own leads (unless you have worked for an exceptional team leader who has helped nurture you so you can transition successfully into your own business).
Managers: What did I forget? What is your experience working with teams in your office?
Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School will save you hundreds of hours in explaining real estate to would-be agents. It will help you advise people in whether real estate is the career for them. Now, available in paperback or eBook. You need this book so you know what I’m advising would-be agents to look for, too!
P. S. Great tools, too, to use for your Career Nights.
The Five Interview Questions You Need to be Ready to Answer
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Here are the five questions you need to be prepared to answer. They probably aren’t the questions you’ve anticipated.
I’ve just finished my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School. It addresses every question I’ve been asked by the hundreds of would-be agents I’ve interviewed.
Agents Get Many Misperceptions about the Business
I know. As an interviewer, you want to sell your company, your office, and yourself. That’s fine. But, many would-be agents draw the wrong conclusions from those sales pitches. They get the idea that real estate is easy. They hear they are special. They assume they will make gazillions of bucks–just like they see in those reality TV shows. Plus, they get information from other sources: Their agent friends, their other friends, etc. The result is that they go into the business with rose-colored glasses. That’s why it’s estimated that over half of all agents who enter the business in any given year are out of the business by the end of that year.
Agents Need to Look Behind the Curtain
Besides the sales presentations, would-be agents need a full picture of the business, so they can make good decisions. In my Launching book, I give would-be agents the facts about real estate sales. I provide them self-analysis tools so they can find out if they are good candidates for this business. In addition, I give them the five most important questions they should ask their interviewer. Here they are:
Figure_9.6_The_Five_Critical_Questions_to_Ask_cropped
Are you asking these questions? How can you prepare for these questions?
Get Ready to Provide the Proof
Throughout the book, I advise these candidates to ask for proof of claims. They hear:
“Our training program is great.”
“You can make lots of money here.”
“We provide leads.”
“Our new agents make money fast.”
Instead of accepting these statements, I advise interviewees to ask to see outlines, schedules, and statistics. You will stand out if you can verify your sales statements with the facts.
Try This Recruiting Tool and Hire More Winners
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Try this recruiting tool and hire more winners.
Successful recruiting and selection depends on your forming a trusting relationship with your candidate. Here’s one way to do that. Plus, the bonus: You’ll prepare those great potential agents to sell fast, because they will hit the ground running.
Managers: Your new agents wait to start training until AFTER they join an office. Why? Think how much faster they could go if they had lots of the organization and training under their belts prior to their first day in the business? Okay. I know. Until they are licensed, they can’t do the things licensed agents can do. But, they can do many things. And all those things get them ready to hit the ground running. At the end of this blog, I’m providing you my checklist, 30 Things to Do Right Now to Hit the Ground Running, from my new eBook, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
New Agents Lose Lots of Time Because They are Not Prepared to Start the Business
New agents generally spend the first 1-2 weeks or more getting ‘oriented’. Brokers have checklists to assure they get their keys, join the Realtor association, etc., etc., etc. How long do you estimate it takes the new agent just to get those orientation checklists finished? 2-4 weeks? In some cases, they never finish them!!!!! Not only that, they probably think that finishing those checklists assures they are going to be successful agents. Ha!
When Do New Agents Plan to Start Lead Generating?
My studies show that the majority of new agents want to make a sale their first month in the business. That means they will need to start lead generating their first WEEK in the business! From hiring and training hundreds of new agents, I’ve observed they put off the inevitable (lead generation) as long as possible, hoping ‘there’s another way!’ In fact, the more ‘get ready to get ready’ work new agents doing, the worse their habits become and the less money they make.
A Better Method to Get a Check Fast
Instead of waiting until new agents are are licensed, why not get them prepared to sell real estate while they are in pre-license school? These eager beavers can do things like
- Decide on the database/CRM they want to use and learn how to use it–with your guidance
- Populate their databases with 100-300 potential clients
- Prepare an email/hard copy note/letter/social media announcement to all those in their databases saying they’ve joined_____________ real estate company
How this Helps You Recruit
You will
- Form unbreakable relationships from helping great candidates through this checklist
- Be able to see if your candidate goes to work and is serious about a career in real estate
- Develop a great program to prove to would-be agents you are the best choice (keep the statistics and show how much faster these agents make a sale after licensing)
30 Things to Do While in Pre-License School
Even though I call this a ‘checklist’, it’s much more than that. It’s really a mini-training program. You can use my eBook, Launching Right in Real Estate as a reference to help agents through the program.
Proof
How do I know this program achieves the three goals I stated above? I used it as a manager. I saw how some people went to work. These same people literally ‘hit the ground running’ and made sales faster than those who waited until they got their licenses.
Click here to gain my checklist. Let me know how it works for you.
Your Crystal Ball: Three Ways to Determine if They Will Make it As Agents
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Do you feel like you need a crystal ball when you’re interviewing? We may think we’re good at picking winners, but, the statistics say we….well, I’m going to say it–we suck.
How do I know? I see the retention statistics in real estate offices. I just spoke with an agent who told me they were hiring lots of people. That was true. However, out of the 150 people they hired last year, only 40 are still with them. Sounds like a lot of work for little reward.
Three Ways to Predict if They will Succeed
- They let you lead the interview
Don’t you love it when that would-be agent wants in, and immediately tries to grab the conversation? Usually that person opens with, “What are you going to give me?” Or, I want a special deal.” There are two problems here. The first problem is that they asked for a special deal and you don’t even know who they are. After having interviewed thousands of would-be agents, I’ve concluded that the ‘importance posturing’ is just that. The second problem is that they aren’t letting me lead the interview process. If they won’t let me lead now, are they trainable? My experience is that they are not trainable. They know what they know and they defend it to the death.
2. They demonstrate the qualities you want with ‘past-behavior’ questions
Frequently, interviewers ask ‘future-based’ questions, like, “If you were ever in a situation where you had to lie, would you?” Well, of course, the candidate has the ‘right’ answer ready for you. Avoiding any future-based questions is one of the keys to choosing the right interview questions to review what you want to learn. Instead of those future-based questions, learn to ask ‘past-based behavioral predictors’. In the next blog, I’ll explain these questions. In short, these questions revealed how the candidate acted in the past. The truism is
we behave in the future as we behaved in the past.
3. They demonstrate, through their actions, they possess the qualities and skills you want.
Few interviewers decide in advance the qualities and skills they want in an agent. If you haven’t done that, do it now. Rate them in order of importance. Now, create questions (past-based), that will reveal to you whether the candidate has the qualities and skills you want.
In my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They don’t Teach You in Pre-License School, I give would-be agents the qualities will-be successful agents possess. I also provide them some questionnaires to help them determine whether they have those qualities.
Here’s my list:
What’s your list? What questions do you have that indicate whether the candidate has the qualities you’ve observed show they will make in the real estate business?
Interview Time Saver: Questionnaire on Your Ideal Job
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Interview time saver: Use this self-analysis tool.
Having interviewed at least hundreds of would-be agents, I know that they really don’t want to be interviewed. They want information. So, I used to spend hours educating them. That is, until I figured out that shouldn’t be my job. But, somebody has to, right? That’s why I wrote Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
Pre-qualifying Tools for You
When I wrote the book, I was thinking of those hundreds–or thousands–or hours I spent, and how futile that was. Why? Because the majority of those people either wouldn’t go into real estate or weren’t serious about making it a career. Was I naive? Sure. Did I do a poor job of screening? Yes. But, that’s how I learned to provide the information would-be agents need, and the self-screening tools to help them make the best decisions for them.
Help Them Choose the Best Job for Them
One of the pre-qualifying tools I created for the Launch book is called ‘What’s Your Ideal Job’? This helps people clarify what they really want. It also opens the door for you to probe further to find out what’s really on their minds.
Make your Career Night Stand Out
Most career nights are simply sales jobs. The speaker tries to convince everyone to join the company. And, these speakers are good salespeople! So, many people go into real estate sales who really shouldn’t be there. That’s one of the reasons we have those high turnover rates. Using the self-analysis tools in the Launch eBook for your Career Nights will help you screen people properly–and will help them separate the myths from the truths about selling real estate.
The Self-Analysis Tool: What’s Your Ideal Job?
Use this in your Information Package and/or Career Nights. Let me know how it works for you. Here’s to an effective, time-saving process for pre-screening your candidates.
Figure_1.1_Your_Ideal_Job-with-referenceA Simple Method to Help Your Agents Manage Time
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A simple way to help your agents manage time.
We all have the same amount of time. Yet, some agents start their careers like rockets, launching fast. Others just can’t seem to get a foothold.
I’m just finishing my new book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School (out in about 3 weeks). Although the book is written for the person thinking about real estate as a career, or is in pre-license, this book actually is a treasure trove for any agent. Why? It
- Lays out a simple, effective business start-up plan
- It exposes the mistakes agents make in launch, that costs them time and money–and sometimes a whole career
- It helps agent budget–both personally and professionally
Time Allocations for Newer Agents
New agents attend training school. They learn lots of interesting–and sometimes valuable-information. But, they seldom learn how to organize their businesses, prioritize their time, and measure their advancement. One of the basic premises to success is to allocate their time to the right activities. Here’s my list, from Launching Right in Real Estate:
Figure_3.6_Time_Commitments__How_To_Allocate_Your_TimeCommon Time Management Mistakes
The new agent: We go into real estate with lots of confidence. We love houses. We like people. We want to help people. Then, we find out there’s a whole lot to learn. So, we spend most of our time ‘getting ready’. I’ve watched new agents spend many months learning–and avoiding jumping on what I term the sales path--talking to, working with, and selling homes to real people.
Compare Your Agent’s Time Management to My Allocations
Use my time management allocations to coach your agents. What do you see as differences? What are the activities leading to a sale? What are the activities that actually protect you from working with those challenging people–those potential clients? What adjustments do you want to make to create a faster career launch for yourself?
Career Night Strategy: A Great Way to Involve Your Attendees and Recruit More Winners
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Holding career nights is one of the lead generating methods recruiters use to find great recruiters. But, too many career nights sound the same: Sales spiels of the company and how great the company is. After while, it’s not believable. Instead, why not use some methods to involve attendees and help them self-select for real estate.
Hiring Someone Who Won’t Contribute Doesn’t Help You
First, before I show you my quick questionnaire of self-analysis, let me ask you: Do you want to hire anybody, just to have a body? I know. Managers tell me they are careful who they hire. Yet, 50-75% of their hires fail in the first year. How does that compare with retention rates of other businesses? Not so good–in fact, it’s pathetic…..
What Do You Gain with High Turnover?
Well, you do gain bodies and momentum for a short time. You gain bragging rights. Maybe you even gain market share–at least agent market share. And, it takes some time to see what you are losing. So, what do you lose?
- Your good agents–they don’t want to work with non-producers
- Your staff–they burn out trying to help those who won’t go to work
- Your bottom line–your expenses go up, without profit coming in
- Your position in the market–you become the place to go where people don’t work
Help Them Screen Themselves Before they Enter Real Estate
I’m just finishing my book, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School. In it, I’ve put several self-analysis tools to help those interested people decide whether they will love real estate, are willing to do the work, and what it takes to succeed. Here’s one of those analysis tools:
Figure_1.2_Self-Analysis_Attributes_for_SuccessMake Your Career Night Stand Out: Be the Counselor, not the Salesperson
Most people who hold career nights act like super salespeople, and they may be. But, just selling someone on something without interviewing them is against all the sales principles we use today. Why not follow the guidelines of principles sales, and inform, educate, and counsel. You’ll stand out as a quality company who upholds its values and chooses wisely. Great recruits will appreciate your approach.
Let me know how this self-analysis works for you.
Is the “A” Word in your Vocabulary?
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Here’s why your agents aren’t achieving to their potential, and what you can do about it.
Each week, I do a live Zoom coaching call with all those agents and coaches in my Up and Running in Real Estate program. This week, we talked about why many agents don’t make it in real estate–or fail to achieve their goals.
We’re New: How Would We Know what Good Performance Looks Like?
I surveyed 400 agents under three months in the business to find out their expectations for income–and when they expected to make their first sale. (See Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School). The majority of these agents said they expected (not wanted, but expected) to make their first sale in 30 days. What does that mean? They must go to work lead generating their first week in the office. But, most agents feel they just can’t go talk to people. They need training. Lots of training. So, they sit in the classroom for weeks, soaking up the expertise of the instructors. Then, unfortunately, their money runs out before they really get started. Their self-esteem goes in the dumper. They don’t know what good performance looks like.
Coaches provide the Framework for Good Performance
Let’s say you want to learn to play the piano. So, you come to me for piano lessons (I taught piano for several years). We have our first lesson, and I give you the assignment: Practice the lesson a half hour a day. That is the expectation. You are accountable to play for me next week–and to play up to an acceptable standard. I’m serious that this is the way you’ll learn to play. But, you don’t practice that week. When you come to your lesson, guess what? I’ll have to fire myself as your teacher. Why? Because my reputation depends on your being able to play. Not only that, you told me you wanted to learn to play the piano.
Accountability in the Real Estate Office: Coaches Have Three Jobs
Your new agent just doesn’t know what’s expected of her. She doesn’t know what it takes to succeed.
- Your first job as her coach is to lay out a program that will get her the sales she desires in the time frame she desires. That’s the ‘music’.
- Your second job is to provide expectations.
- Your third job is to hold her accountable to the actions she agreed to do.
Anything Goes…
In many real estate offices today, there are no expectations. There isn’t any accountability. Even though we provide training and good advice, agents get the idea they can take it or leave it. When they leave it, they fail. Because we don’t carry through, agents think they don’t have to do certain activities to achieve.
How do you use the laws of achievement (a plan, expectations, and accountability) to help your agents succeed?
Be Prepared! Five Questions Every Candidate Should Ask
Posted by: | CommentsHere are the questions I think are most important for a would-be or transferring agent should ask their interviewers.
Unfortunately, the interview process is not as practiced or prepared by either party as it could be. So, the interviewer doesn’t find out critical information from the candidate, and the candidate asks a few general questions. I hate to say this, but some interviewers spend most of the time selling the candidate on the benefits of that particular company. Candidates get excited and join–and then find out there’s more to the story.
Any Surprises Should be Good Ones
It’s very dis-enheartening when the agent new to an office finds out that something he heard–or assumed–was not exactly what he found after being hired. Guard against that by fully informing that would-be agent prior to hiring. The only surprises the agent should get are good ones!
It’s a Retention Issue
I don’t think we in real estate appreciate how important our approach to interviewing and onboarding is to retention. According to a recent business onboarding survey, the majority of those new to companies (all companies, not just real estate), decide in the first 30 days whether they want to stay with the company. It pays to be fully transparent and consistent, from that first interview, through onboarding, and into training.
Those Questions Candidates Should Ask
Here are the questions, excerpted from my new eBook, Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-LIcense School.
Figure_9.6_The_Five_Critical_Questions_to_Ask_croppedWhat do you think I’ve missed with this critical list of questions?
P. S. Launching Right in Real Estate has 77 questions or categories for candidates to choose from, to assure they get the information they need to make the right choices for them.
Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.
Tips to Help Them Pass that Real Estate License Test
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You’ve interviewed that would-be agent with great potential. Here’s a method to not only stay in touch, and support them like no other manager will.
Launching Right in Real Estate, What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License school, tells would-be agents everything they need to know to choose real estate as a career, how to prepare for the license exam, the secrets of a great interview, choosing the best company, office, and manager for each individual–every question a would-be agent has! Here’s an excerpt from the chapter on real estate exams: What to expect and how to pass that exam the first time.
Tip #1: Before each in-class session, or when you start your next online chapter, skim the new chapter for highlights. Then, read the chapter carefully. You need to get the “big picture” before you grasp the details. This is “the forest and the trees” study truism: “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” When you use this study tip, you will see both when you need to.
Learning Fact: Experts tell us we “learn what we already know.” In other words, you must have a context for what you are learning. By seeing the big picture first, you have context. Then, you fill in the blanks with the details. Works every time… I promise.
Tip #2: Right after class, review your class subjects and notes. Why? We remember only ten percent of what we’ve heard three days after we heard it.
Learning Fact: We learn through repetition. You will need to revisit each concept at least six times to commit it to memory.
Tip #3: Make a notebook (hard copy or online) with all the definitions you covered in each class session. Create test questions to match words and definitions.
Learning Fact: It takes time and repetition to make that learning stick long-term. Now you are making your learning go deeper. You are rearranging it so you really grasp it.
Tip #4: If you learn through listening, and you can’t listen to audio only, record yourself saying the definitions. Play these in your car as you drive.
Learning Fact: Use all the senses to learn. Seeing, hearing, and using the material increases your retention to 65 percent three days later.
Tip #5: Keep up with the class work. Faithfully attend every session and study every chapter. Study regularly between sessions. If you have ever gotten behind on your work in school, you know why this is important!
Take every practice exam until you are comfortable with the process and format.
Learning Fact: When you are successful doing something, your fear goes away, and you look forward to doing that again. Train yourself to win!
Taking the Test
Face it. We have all had exam anxiety at some time. Here are five pointers that will help you relax, control your emotions, and pass the test the first time you take it:
- Read each question slowly; then, read all the possible answers. Do not jump to conclusions to mark the “right” answer. Instead, tell yourself why each answer is wrong. By the process of elimination, find the only answer you think is correct. If you find two out of four that may be correct, leave that question and come back to it.
- Remember, the point of the exam is to limit the number of agents coming into the field. One of the ways to do this is to write exams where exam takers jump to the “right” answer. Do not fall for it!
- Do not answer any questions unless you are absolutely sure of the answer. Skip questions for which you are unsure and come back to them. You will either remember the answer later as you “warm up,” or the remaining questions will give you some hints as to the other answers.
- Take your time. You will have plenty of time to answer each question on the exam.
- Build your self-confidence as you start by skimming the exam. Find some questions you are certain you can correctly answer and answer them first. Amazingly, when your mind gets warmed up, you will find you can think through questions that baffled you when you tried to attack them at the beginning of the testing period.
- Let the test give you the answers. By reading through the complete test first, answering only the questions you are sure of, you will find hints of other answers. Your confidence will soar, and you will find you are answering more questions as the test period continues.
These tips are excerpted from my new eBook for anyone interested in real estate as a career. Carla Cross, CRB, MA, has interviewed thousands of would-be agents. As a successful real estate agent, manager, owner, regional director, and international trainer, Cross knows the questions you have—and what you may not be told—and should know. Order her new eBook here.
Managers: Use this to inform those great potential agents while you save time so you don’t have to answer the same questions again and again. Helps the best candidates choose real estate as a career and take it seriously.