Remember: LarsonEd is not only your Florida real estate school, but also your insurance school of choice!
To sign up for insurance classes, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com/insurance.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
You may think that leadership is fixed and finite–a boss tells people below them what to do, and those people do it. However, as your personal skills change so too will your leadership needs. Likewise, as your team grows and improves, your leadership skills will become more valuable.
A one-size-fits-all approach to leadership may be hurting your real estate business. Here are 4 leadership styles you need to know as a real estate professional and when to use them.
Directive
Use this leadership style when people are highly committed but not necessarily competent with the given task.
When the task is difficult, and the people performing it are inexperienced or have low commitment, then it’s necessary to give instructions as to how the job should be done. This style of leadership puts a strong emphasis on the task, as well as a low emphasis on the people performing it.
Coaching
When people have some competence relative to the task, but are low on commitment.
When the task is difficult, but the people have some skill they need direction and supervision because of their relative inexperience. They also need support and recognition to build their confidence and involvement in decision-making to restore their commitment (which may have declined because of frustration on the team).
Supporting
Use this leadership style when people are highly committed but have varied competence.
When you have a situation that requires a supporting leadership style the individual’s skill-set has improved, but they still require support to sustain motivation to bolster their confidence. As a leader, you can start to take a backseat, giving acknowledgement and praise when necessary.
Delegating
Use this leadership style when people are both competent and committed.
People who are competent and committed will be able and willing to work on a given project by themselves with little supervision or support. Occasional monitoring allows you, as a leader, to stay informed and ensure that team members have the necessary resources. But, for the most part, this team will be better when left alone.
The better you understand your team, the more likely you’ll be able to use the most effective form of leadership. Utilize these 4 types of leadership to better lead your team in the future.
To sign up for classes, including brokers post-licensing courses, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
The real estate market is dominated by distressed properties. Real estate professionals are competing with short sales and REOs. The best strategy is to price the property right when it’s listed. If the market demands change, then it’s time to lower the price. Here are some things to consider if one of your listings isn’t moving:
You’re drawing few lookers
What are the sales statistics? Why aren’t buyers looking at your home? The answers to these questions may tell you why your listing isn’t attracting potential buyers.
You’re drawing lots of lookers but have no offers
Something is wrong if good buyers are buying other properties. An overly high price may be discouraging buyers from making an offer.
Your home’s been on the market longer than similar homes
How long is it taking similar homes to sell? It may be time to price the home UNDER the market.
You have a deadline
It’s a race against time. The price is not determined by how much money you need or when you need to sell, it’s determined by the market.
You can’t make upgrades
If comparable homes in better condition are selling, buyers are paying less for a home that doesn’t show as well as others. If the money isn’t there for fix-up, then the price must drop.
Sometimes your hands are just tied
The competition has changed
Take a look at recent sales and current listings. You’re competing against the properties priced to sell, not the properties that are priced to sit.
Keep these 6 points in mind when trying to consider whether or not to lower your client’s selling price.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
You’ve got a listing presentation scheduled with a potential client. Fantastic. Now think of your upcoming presentation as a job interview: you are trying to convince your potential client that you can sell their home faster, for more money, and with more care than any other agent. Therefore, your first impression should let your potential clients know that you are trustworthy, knowledgable, and prepared. Because if you don’t they may be inclined to go with another agent.
Think you can go into this or any other presentation and wing it? Failing to plan is another way of planning to fail. The true difference between rookie agents and the superstars is a preparedness. Your listing presentation is won or lost, in large part, before you even meet with the potential client. Follow these tips to better serve your potential clients’ needs.
How often do you get a personal, hand-written note from people anymore? It’s rare, but it feels great when you receive one. It shows that somebody cares about you enough to take the time to write something specifically for you.
After every listing presentation, send your potential client a handwritten letter and perhaps a small, thoughtful gift to show them what kind of personal attention they’ll receive as your client.
Also, be sure to get their email to add them to your email newsletter list (if they are interested).
5. Be ready for common questions
No, you can’t know exactly how your presentation and conversation with your potential clients will go, but there are some questions that will come up time and time again as you do more and more listing presentations. It behooves you to come prepared with some answers to those questions.
For example, they might ask: “What do you think of our property?”
Be sure to project your enthusiasm for their home—remember, this is their castle. Highlight some of the key positive features while gently sliding into a few things that could stand to be fixed.
Or they might ask: “What are your credentials?”
This one should be easy for you. Let them know if you are an accredited Realtor. Give them a rundown of your recent sales history and some average sales prices for different property types. If you are a full-time agent, mention that—it will give you more credibility than a part-time agent. If you are a part-time agent, be honest about it, but be sure to spin it into a positive by pointing out how your sales record is all the more impressive because of your part-time capacity.
6. Get the seller, not just the listing
Dale Carnegie said: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Now, you don’t have to be friends with your clients, but employing the same quality listening skills that would get you a friend can help you better serve them. What is their body language saying about how they feel? What kind of questions are they asking? Paying attention to these forms of communication can help you gauge your client’s interest in your presentation.
Follow these tips to better improve your listing presentations. To sign up for classes, including real estate post-licensing, visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com, or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Naples real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
You’ve got a listing presentation scheduled with a potential client. Fantastic. Now think of your upcoming presentation as a job interview: you are trying to convince your potential client that you can sell their home faster, for more money, and with more care than any other agent. Therefore, your first impression should let your potential clients know that you are trustworthy, knowledgable, and prepared. Because if you don’t they may be inclined to go with another agent.
Think you can go into this or any other presentation and wing it? Failing to plan is another way of planning to fail. The true difference between rookie agents and the superstars is a preparedness. Your listing presentation is won or lost, in large part, before you even meet with the potential client. Follow these tips to better serve your potential clients’ needs.
1. Research
Yes, of course you should look up tax records for details on the property and look at similar listings in the area. But don’t overlook the value of looking up your potential clients on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Get a sense of where they’ve been and where they’re going in their careers and lives by looking at job and personal information publicly available on their social media profiles.
If you think looking up your potential clients online is creepy, then consider this: What do you think people do every time they consider using your services? That’s right, they type your name into Google. This is interpersonal research in the 21st century.
2. Prepare materials
Your potential clients will want to hold hard copies of documents in their hands at a listing presentation—having tangible evidence of your work adds to your credibility as well as the credibility of the information you are presenting.
Prepare a CMA and have a full-color market analysis on hand, along with some of your personal marketing materials. Also, consider bringing along some of your photographer’s work as a sample, but remember: only do this if you get nice glossy photo paper. It’s better to present an electronic version of an image than a poorly printed hard copy.
3. Competition is your friend
What would you think of a doctor who discouraged you from getting a second opinion? They might come off as insecure and, perhaps worse, it’ll mean they’re more concerned with their own image rather than your well-being. This is how you make a potential client feel when you discourage them from interviewing multiple agents. Encourage your potential clients to talk to your competition—this displays confidence in every way.
And, if you have prepared like you should, you will stand out from your competition anyway.
Most importantly, do not speak ill of your competition or put undue pressure on your potential clients. Inform them, be honest, and speak with confidence and you will already be ahead of the game.
Follow these tips to better improve your listing presentations. To sign up for classes, including real estate post-licensing, visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com, or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Naples real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Earlier this week, Gulfshore Business Magazine awarded their fourth annual Best of Business awards at the brand new Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center. Awards ranged from Best Architect to Best Private Country Club. In the Best Family-Owned Business category, who else but Larson Educational Services came out on top.
Votes were tallied during the months of April and May and, according to LarsonEd founder Brad Larson, the school came out on top “becuase of the support of our current and past students.”
Owners Brad and Dave with the award.
But Larson wants people to know that although this was a Family-Owned Business award, that doesn’t mean this was a Larson-only achievement. “This award goes out to everyone in the company,” says Brad, “not just those with the last name Larson.”
Brad also wants Larson customers and employees to know that he feels like they are all part of the Larson family. “To our intructors, customer experience team, and vendors, I want to say congratulations, because you are LarsonEd,” the owner says.
The LarsonEd team thinks people are drawn to their business not ony for their unique instruction and course materials, but also because they have such intimate knowledge of their products and care for the customer experience. “We feel the same emotions as our students in regards to their success in achieving their goals,” says Larson. “We feel the jubilation and triumph when someone passes a test, and we also feel the disappointment when things do not go according to plan.”
But, like a family, LarsonEd is willing and able to provide the support necessary to get students to the next step. “And we’ll do it with a smile on our face because we know that we can make a difference in someone’s life.”
To sign up for classes, including our brand new health insurance pre-licensing courses, visit our website, www.LarsonEd.com, or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Naples real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Being a real estate sales associate will require you to have a certain verbal panache that will improve your communication skills. Use these question and answer types to make better your interactions with potential clients.
When you talk, you can only say something you know. When you listen, you may learn what someone else knows.
Follow these quick tips to very easily improve your conversational skills:
When you begin to hear a person speak in generalities, that’s your indication to start asking specific questions to clarify what’s actually being said.
Listen actively to empathize with the other person’s feelings from his or her point of view.
Observe the nonverbal cues to determine what is not being said.
Focus on your audience, not yourself.
Use the types of questions/statements below to obtain necessary information and maintain focus:
Open Questions:Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
These questions allow the other party to speak freely and to reveal critical information.
Leading Questions:Do you… Would you…
These questions are used to obtain very specific responses, which will be helpful to your presentation.
Confirmation Questions:So you agree that…
These questions are used to obtain a simple yes or no response. Conditioning the other party to say yes throughout the discussion establishes a feeling of goodwill.
Supportive Statements:Yes, that’s true, or That is very helpful.
These comments provide positive reinforcement for those remarks made which are favorable to your case.
Utilize these conversational tips and question and answer types to better serve your client (or potential client).
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
More and more consumers are demanding that real estate sales associates arrive at the walk-through already armed with market information. It’s important to have information about all sales in the immediate area over approximately the past six months. If there have been relatively few sales, you might have to expand the analysis to include similarly desirable areas.
In performing your market analysis, determine the highest price the seller can expect to receive in the least amount of time with the least inconvenience.
Avoid Overpricing
Overpricing reduces the response from advertising
Properties offered for too long become shopworn
Salespeople lose interest after a number of unfavorable reactions
Improper pricing can get you dejected.
Overpriced properties don’t compete with other similar properties that are priced lower
Buyers expect more at a high price
Use these cautionary tips to accurately price your clients’ homes.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Depending on word-of-mouth recommendations is still the way to get business in real estate. However, sometimes word-of-mouth isn’t shared in person anymore. Nowadays business recommendations happen online. As real estate agents, you are likely one of the best offline person-to-person salesmen in the country. But there’s a chance you may not know how to apply this showmanship onto social media platforms. Here are your tips for giving you the edge in social media marketing.
1. Focus on your local area
In 2015, for the first time ever, 1 billion people signed onto Facebook. That means that social media could be used to reach literally a billion people around the world—in theory. But trying to reach a lot of people may take more effort than it’s worth. Why? Because you’ll be putting in work to reach people who will never use your services. Think locally—mold your content to your local leadership. When you talk about news and trends, focus on local trends, rather than national trends. Consider tagging and mentioning your local followers as well.
2. Create or curate
Few things improve your social media presence more than creating relevant, helpful content such as blog posts and articles that people can use to improve their daily lives. However, you may not be comfortable with writing your own articles—that’s okay. Finding information from other sources that might be relevant to your sphere of influence can be just as good as creating your own content. Websites such as inman.com, activerain.com, and realtor.com are never short on advice for homeowners and real estate agents alike.
3. Keep it simple
Spreading yourself thin on social media can be more time consuming and stressful than necessary. Pick a couple of platforms and dedicate your time focusing on those. You don’t need to hire an outside media specialist, just spend 30 minutes a day on this stuff. Post your articles and blog posts onFacebook, for example, and share beautiful listing photos on Instagram.
4. Personalize it
You shouldn’t use your social media sites as a way to consistently brag about your business, but you can use it to give your clients and prospects an insight into your life, both inside and outside of work. Share a photo of you and some colleagues out on the golf course or at a networking event. If they’re up for it, share a photo of a couple who just closed on a home with you.
No matter how you choose to go about your social media posting, consider the 80/20 breakdown of social media: post 80 percent about interesting content (like relevant blogs), and 20 percent promoting your brand (like sharing photos of sales and listings).
Follow these 4 rules of social media and you’ll have more followers and more customers in no time.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. To sign up for real estate education from Larson Educational Services, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, LarsonEd.com.
Networking is one of the most important parts of building your business as a real estate agent, yet many professionals fail to increase their sphere of influence on a consistent basis. This is not the business for introverts. Utilize these 5 simple networking tips for real estate agents to help flesh out your list of prospects and clients.
1. Stay off your phone
Sure, you’ll need to use your phone when it comes to emailing, calling, and texting clients and prospects, but when you find yourself at a trade show or other networking opportunity keep your eyes up. By simply talking to people, eliciting information, and keeping off your phone you can set yourself ahead of other agents. Listen to people. And be sure to get their cards and follow up.
2. Keep notes
When you get information about a new contact, add notes in your phone. Reference that information when you follow up so they know that you not only listened to them when you met, but you also cared enough to remember details about your conversation.
3. Have fun
No, you shouldn’t go out of control on the open bar, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t be laughing and smiling when you’re meeting new people. Everybody gets nervous at networking events, so you can set yourself apart by being present and outgoing. Take a breath, notice something funny about the venue, and make a situational comment to your neighbor and you’ll be laughing in no time.
4. Don’t try to close a deal immediately
Few things put people off more than pushy salesmen. You’re not using a networking event to “hit on” potential clients or business people you think could become a part of your sphere of influence. You’re only setting the ground work for a relationship that may or may not yield a business partnership. Don’t be too quick to put pressure on your new contacts.
5. Get out of your comfort zone
It’s great if you see someone you already know at a networking event. Make sure you say hello to them and connect for a few minutes, but be sure to break off and meet some new people. You aren’t doing you or your friend any favors if you only talk to each other the entire time. Seek out someone who looks shy and say hello. Before you know it you’ll be making new friends and increasing your sphere of influence.
Utilize these 5 simple networking tips to help you better take advantage of every networking opportunity you come across, whether it’s a planned event or a chance meeting of a prospect at the grocery store. Check out more tips for new Florida real estate agents here: https://www.larsoned.com/realestate/post-licensing/real-estate-tips-for-new-agents/
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. To sign up for real estate education from Larson Educational Services, give us a call at 239-344-7510 or visit our website, LarsonEd.com.
Naples Real Estate School 