This material is Copyright. Ray Wood 2013 · 2013-05-20 · real estate contact systems are not only available but also essential for continual and sustained real estate success

This material is Copyright. Ray Wood 2013 www.LockedOn.com


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The Ultimate Real Estate Success Manual

Discover the essential secrets to real estate success

By Ray Wood

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“Focus is more important than intelligence” Albert Einstein


Who will benefit from this Success Manual?

• You are going to get lots of great innovative ideas and personal inspiration and motivation from this manual if: You have often thought you could be successful in real estate. It’s been playing on your mind and going by what you’ve seen, it’s not going to be that hard to be good.

• You are about to start in real estate or you are in your first year. You are committed and ready to go. You are thirsty for knowledge and hungry for success. You want the lifestyle benefits a real estate career can give you. Others are out there doing it right now. Why can’t you?

• You are already in real estate and have been for some time. You may be in a ‘slump’ or finding your real estate career a real challenge or you may be highly successful but looking for an edge or Unique Selling Proposition to set you apart from the crowd.

• You are a real estate broker, team manager or business owner. You may also be responsible for training and helping your team with innovative and proven real estate success ideas. Many of the ‘tried and true’ listing and lead generation ideas are no longer working. You want new tools in this new economy. In fact, your team are relying on you to introduce new and exciting lead generation initiatives to help them get more listings and make more sales.


I hope you don’t mind if I’m direct and straight to the point? I discovered early on that tip-toeing gently around the edges never gets you anywhere. Personally, I don’t have time to wade through ‘fluff’ to get to the good stuff and I’m sure you don’t either. I want to quickly find the information I need, digest it and then test it if I think it worthy.

My directness also goes to the core of the personality of a successful real estate agent. If I was personally mentoring you in real estate success, I would be coaching you to ask the right questions as you progress towards and through any negotiation. We call this ‘closing’ and I love to close.

Real estate’s best will not hesitate to ask a buyer to buy or a seller to sell. Like a good trial lawyer, they know what, when and how to say the things that get results. This is part personality and part learned skill.

To get you excited about the content of this success manual, here’s a breakdown of what you’re about to discover:

• How much you can expect to make in your first year? • Is right now the best time to get into real estate? • What makes a great real estate agent? • From broke single mother to millionaire. (A real life case study) • How to create your Unique Selling Proposition • How to position yourself as the real estate authority • Are you and real estate a good match? • How long does it take to get started? • What specific skills do you need? • Do you need to live where you work? • 10 real estate myths exploded (Warning: These may

surprise you) • What are the most common reasons for failure and

how to avoid them • What are the key features all top real estate agents have in

common? • How much will you need to spend on marketing YOU? • Visioning. How to create your 'success blueprint' and

make it a reality • What’s next?

You’re reading this Success Manual because you either want to know more about a career in real estate or you want to become more successful in your real estate career. I understand that time is our most precious resource and I want to make every second you invest reading my thoughts, suggestions and ideas the best possible career training investment you will ever make.


Okay… let’s get to work... I’m impatient for your success!


First things first

Real estate success is all about creating a following and positioning yourself as the real estate ‘authority’ in your area. Real estate success comes from getting listings to sell. Focussing on buyers might be interesting but your success will always be eclipsed by the agent who focuses on getting listings. Think of it this way: This morning, a seller in your area woke up and decided to call some agents with a view to selling. Have you had the call yet? If not, it can only be one of two reasons: The seller doesn’t know about you or the seller doesn’t consider you a real estate authority in your area. So how do you change that? How does anyone in real estate REGARDLESS of experience put the odds in their favour and boost their chances of getting more of those calls every day? I grew up in a rural area near a large farm. One of the buildings on the farm was a massive plant and equipment storage shed. When you’re a child everything seems much bigger but I’d say it was about the size of 5 basketball courts lined up side-by-side and open on four sides with no walls. There were trucks and grain harvesting machines and tractors and lots of mice. I remember the rain storms were amazing and when it rained we would run for the shelter of this enormous building and watch as the water poured off each side of the roof in great torrents to form mini lakes around the buildings. Then one year it hardly rained at all. As kids, this was great because it meant we could spend more time riding horses or motorbikes and just playing outside… but to the farmer, it was disaster. Farms like this one need regular rain to fall on the pastures so that grass would grow and make the sheep and cattle fat before they went to market. Without water, the livestock had nothing to eat or drink. The following year was mostly dry as well and the farm could no longer support any livestock. But the farmer took action. He built a spout drainage system around the massive shed and built 7 enormous black water storage tanks beside the building.


The long brutal drought continued for many years but what rain did fall was gathered and stored. The farmer started to buy breeding cattle and feed them hay. He watered the cattle in long toughs fed by his new rainwater tanks and made it through the drought. A few years later when one of his neighbours was forced to sell, he bought their land and eventually grew his farm to twice his normal size. So what’s farming tale got to do with real estate success? Most agents live in hope that sellers will call them. Like rain from the sky they hope a seller will fall on them and appoint them to sell. Most agents don’t go to the effort of installing a system that will harvest contacts and maintain a relationship so when the seller decides to sell, that agent is already top-of-mind. Technology has advanced to a very exciting point where dedicated real estate contact systems are not only available but also essential for continual and sustained real estate success. In the coming year, about 30% of agents will leave real estate. They will give you any number of reasons as to why but the most likely will be because they had no system in place to collect contacts and build relationships. Nothing to feed their listing and sales pipeline. Many real estate newcomers consider Outlook or Excel as real estate systems but they are not. These agents will quickly fall prey to the tech savvy agents leveraging technology and using a great real estate CRM who will eat them for breakfast. If you’ve started on this manual to become more successful, you need to start with a great real estate CRM. If you are using an inferior system or something you hate to use then please make the commitment today to get something you not only love to use but will make you successful. Nothing will be more beneficial to your career.


What am I? I cost very little to set up. You can use me to earn an unlimited income. I will give you the ultimate in ‘job security’. I can give you a life and a lifestyle that others only dream about and you don’t need to study for five years to have me?

Yes. I am a successful real estate career but I come with a price and that price is; • The ability to acquire the right knowledge and technology • The ability to focus and • The ability to plan and execute.

There is such a thing as a ‘silver bullet’ Did you know that when it comes to fast tracking your real estate success, there is such a thing as a silver bullet? The ‘old school’ would have you believe you need to ‘pay your dues’ and ‘do your time’ but I know that they don’t know what you’re about to discover. In fact, that’s just one myth I’m about to explode. There are nine others and collectively, these ten myths have stopped many good people either getting into real estate or applied the ‘handbrake’ to their real estate careers. I’m here to stop that happening to you. Others have suffered so you don’t have to. After reading this document you will be able to make a well informed decision about real estate as a career and if you and real estate are a good match. You are also about to discover a wealth of truly awesome possibilities.

Can we talk about money for a moment? A very famous billionaire was once asked by a journalist what it means to be really wealthy. What does it give you? The billionaire thought for a moment and said “Choices. Wealth gives you choices” A million dollars is really not a lot of money anymore. In fact, the financial experts tell us that to retire comfortably in our sixties we will need savings of about two million dollars. I’m sure that the majority of the population gulps at these numbers because in reality they know that they will never achieve this savings target. In fact most of the western world lives in debt. Our debt culture has landed us in the place our parents warned us about.


Welcome to The Ultimate Real Estate Success Manual. I’m going to explode some myths and give you an insider’s look at the real estate industry so you can discover a wealth of personal opportunities. If you’re ready to begin your real estate career or you are already in real estate but not getting the results you want, then I have written this document especially for you. Did you know that if you earn $388,000 or more you represent one percent of the Australian population?

Real Estate Agents make up many of those earning more than $388,000 a year in fact, many earn $100,000 a month. I personally coach and advise a number of top performers and have documented their methods and strategies as well as many of my own techniques acquired over a long and successful real estate career.

Real estate has given me so much and it will do the same for you if you know what to do and when to do it. So can I urge encourage you to switch off your phone, your email or anything else that might distract you from what I’m about to share. I believe the life changing journey your about to make is worthy of your focus and full attention. I only wish someone had told me about the 10 myths before I started in real estate, it would have saved me time and a great deal of money.

10 Real Estate ‘success’ myths exploded

Myth #1 Getting my real estate license not only qualifies me to practise but will give me all the success tools I need.

Myth Exploded! Err... How can I put this nicely? If the instructors that teach the real estate courses are so good at real estate, then why are they not out there making a fortune?

Let me firstly say that there are some brilliant educators who are highly skilled at imparting knowledge and helping you learn the essential facts you need to know to pass a real estate licensing exam. But let’s not confuse that skill with hands on success ability. It’s one thing to teach, but something altogether different to ‘do’. In fact, many of the ‘success’ methods and practices taught in real estate school are way out of date and the reason why so many of the wrong people go into real estate and also why so many of the right people fail.

Long term and consistent success in real estate is not about following the crowd and doing the time honoured things that worked in 1975. Today’s real estate success machines embrace technology and relationship marketing and understand how they


have to have this working for them 25 hours a day.

Myth # 2 I realise I have to pay my dues and earn the right to succeed. This will take me a few years of struggling until I gradually see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Myth exploded! Yeah right. That light at the end of the tunnel might just be the 4.15 express and you are frozen like a deer in the headlights!

I believe this myth is perpetuated by the ‘plodders’ in real estate in their attempt to keep the up and comers from advancing. In other words, “I can’t succeed so I don’t want you to succeed because if you do you will make me look bad and I may lose my position here”.

Those new to real estate that accept this myth as fact do themselves a massive disservice. It creates a fatal mindset that mediocrity and poor results can be tolerated (even embraced!) for a long period of time. This type of professional masochism is a success ‘cancer’ that will hold you back. Regardless of what your new or next career might be, can I give you this simple advice? Don’t accept what you are told from those who struggle. Instead, seek counsel and suggestions from a top performer. Seek out the best person in your area and study what they do. What makes them such a success? There is such a thing as a silver bullet for a successful real estate career. You just need to know where to find it and how to fire it!

Myth # 3 The first thing I need to do is get out a letter to all my friends and contacts telling them I’m now in real estate and that I will gladly accept their referrals to help a buyer or seller.

Myth exploded! When I see these letters in my mailbox and sometimes they come in the form of a general flyer, I feel like calling the person and asking them why they would do such a crazy thing. As the saying goes: “the interesting thing about common sense is that it’s not that common”. I think the only person who would list a property for sale with a real estate rookie is strapped to a bed in a padded room on heavy medication.

Ask yourself this question: Would you entrust the sale of an asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the new kid on the block? The ‘I’ve Just Started my Real Estate Career’ letters are dumb and damaging. As you will discover with our training and


coaching, there are many other proven and highly results driven ways to launch your career.

Myth # 4 I realise when I start my real estate career I will have to door knock and cold call strangers to search for new business.

Myth exploded! There is a right and wrong way to cold call and door knock. With privacy laws and cultural changes in society with what is and is not acceptable, cold calling on the telephone has become a lot harder. On the other hand, done correctly and with the right ‘tools’ Door knocking’ can be exceptional productive. In fact, many top performers credit door knocking (the right way) as a big part of their early success in real estate when they were starting out.

The reason most people struggle and fail with this kind of cold prospecting is that they just roll up and ask for stuff. The secret is to offer something from the start. This is give-to-get marketing and the difference between this and the old fashioned ‘foot in the door’ prospecting is mind blowing.

Myth # 5 Getting a job in real estate is the big challenge. Once I’m hired, my new employer will spend lots of time training me to make me successful.

Myth exploded! Ya think? Every shred of evidence I can find is to the contrary. There may be some initial training but ultimately, it’s going to be up to you. Granted, some companies invest heavily in training new recruits to help them kick start their success but not many. My experience is that real estate’s top performers accept personal responsibility to get the essential training, coaching and mentoring they need to make sure they hit the ground running. Can I suggest that before you accept a position in real estate, find out what training and coaching they offer and look for evidence of success. Ask to speak with company employees and drill down to get an honest answer.


Myth # 6 I’m going to start working with buyers because it’s easier to find buyers than sellers.

Myth exploded! Can I make a suggestion? Cut and paste the following words onto a sheet of paper, print it off and pin it to your work station wall. THE AGENT WHO CONTROLS THE LISTINGS CONTROLS THE MARKET.

The highway to real estate success is littered with the rotting bodies of real estate rookies who spent all of their time trying to help buyers. The real estate food chain begins with the listing. If you list, you will last. It’s as simple as that. Do not be coerced, bullied, persuaded or bribed into acting for buyers. It will destroy you. Instead, get creative and help sellers understand your Unique Selling Proposition.

Myth # 7 If I hand out enough business cards and get out enough flyers, sooner or later I will attract business.

Myth exploded! I know I’m beginning to sound like the bad parent who shatters the child’s optimism and shoots down their ideas but I promised you an honest and direct insider’s look at real estate.

The thing is, 99% of flyers don’t work. I don’t know about you but my mail box is always jammed with really bad flyers from agents looking for listings. I have seen the whole range of ‘bad’ from the ubiquitous ‘Free Appraisal or Valuation’ letter or card to a recipe for Thai Fish Cakes courtesy of my local agent. It’s true, I view these lame attempts at marketing through the eye of a real estate marketing expert but the thing is, I know they don’t work. Most people only need to run into the back of the car in front of them once to understand the concept of a safe driving distance. Running up the backside of the car in front of you trains your mind to subconsciously keep your distance. Think Pavlov’s dog.

Then why is it, so many real estate agents continue to circulate the same non productive garbage in the hope they will get a different result? The way to attract new business with flyers and cards and letters is to offer something your competitors do not. And here gentle reader is the key to your success: You need to establish and maintain relationships. What can you give a property owner in your area that will encourage them to make contact with you? I call this Give-To-Get-Marketing and it is the single biggest business break though I have ever been involved with.


Coming up with cool and interesting ways to attract property sellers has made me more money than I can jump over. It made me stand out in my market and it will do the same for you if you get it right.

Myth # 8 I need to get my face and phone number on as many bus stop benches as I can.

Myth exploded! Funds are important at the beginning of your career. You need to be able to ‘Profit Link’ every expense in your business. I’m not saying Bus Stop Bench signs don’t work, I’m saying there will be a right time to introduce them as part of your ongoing marketing.

You need to think like a corporation of one. The thing about real estate is that it’s not necessarily what you make, it’s what you keep. So many real estate rookies churn and burn through their start up capital because they thought or were incorrectly told, that’s what they had to do. Before you commit to spending money on attracting clients, make sure you have exploited EVERY free or really cost effective way to do it. Only dedicated contact ‘harvesting’ and proven direct response marketing will help you win business.

Myth # 9 It’s essential I promote my company brand everywhere I can if I want to be a success in real estate

Myth exploded! Promoting your brand to attract more business will get you nowhere. You may as well pile that money into a heap in your garden and have a bonfire.

The ONLY place your brand should be promoted is in association with your listings like the ‘for sale’ sign, your newspaper or magazine ad or on yours or your company’s website. Numerous tests have shown that people are rarely influenced by brand. But tragically, here’s what happens: The new employee in a burst of enthusiasm comes up with a marketing idea for a letter drop flyer. The boss likes it but ‘insists’ the company logo is promoted as large as life. The result is a win for the printer but the new employee loses time and money. Many people have tried this and it simply doesn’t work because your target market is not interested in your lovely teeth, smile, hair, phone number or company logo. They are interested in themselves and what’s in it for them.


Myth # 10 Once I become successful, I will invest in the very best technology and training and study the masters to get even better.

Myth exploded! Quality, results focused and proven training and a great cloud based contact management system will make you better faster. In fact, I believe the success rate of new real estate professionals and industry retention would sky rocket with better even mandatory technology training and better coaching programs.

The best training is based on what the best are doing and how they get their results. Does it then make sense to simply copy the masters BEFORE you start? Time is your most precious resource? So every day you spend ‘learning’ and working out what you should be doing is a day lost. Proven systems will make sure you hit the ground running and get results faster. Waiting to become ‘successful’ before you invest in systems and training is like waiting for the fire to warm you before you put any wood on. It’s totally against the natural forces of the universe and will send you back to your former career at the speed of a very fast train. I want to level with you and share an observation I have made over the years about agents who struggle: Real estate’s battlers are universally reluctant to invest in their own success. They NEVER invest in the right tools or training and wonder why they struggle. The experience good month-bad month syndrome for most of their career and genuinely don’t understand why some agents are more successful than others.

So how much can you expect to make in your first year in real estate?

I get this question all the time and it’s not hard to see why. If I was going to change careers I would want a fairly solid indication of what I would be earning in the next 3, 6 and 12 months so I’m going to share with you exactly how I feel about this and give you my best estimates.

I guess it goes without saying that there are so many variables that will influence your income in not only your first year but each year of your career. There are influences you can do nothing about like the state of the real estate market, the volume of properties coming onto the market for sale in your area and also the number of real estate agents you will competing with.


In preparing this chapter of the manual I needed to do a little digging. I discovered that the average real estate annual income is about $50,000.

$50,000 is hardly an inspirational annual income for someone working 6 and often 7 days a week in their first few years which tells me the majority of agents are struggling. But what if I told you there were things you could do and actions you could take to make sure you ‘cruise’ past the $50,000 mark very quickly? Quite simply, the difference will be the tools and technology you use and what you do with your day. If you have the best tools and fill your day doing the right things rather than the wrong things, life will get a lot easier a lot faster.

So with this in mind, let’s look at some likely earning scenarios for your first year.

Your income and results will be ENTIRELY dependent on your ability to do four things:

1. get set up with the right tools to record new contacts and keep in touch with them. 2. Get listings (manage your new contacts through the pipeline) 3. Your ability to maintain a quality professional relationship with sellers who have appointed you as their agent 4. Make sales

I want the very best for you and I want you to experience a high level of results early in your career. This will have an enormous and positive effect on your confidence and personal power. Let’s ‘blue sky’ this for a moment. I want you to take a look at the income trajectory of a real estate career that gets off to a great start with a detailed personal business plan, the right tools and an excellent success training regime.

Take a look at the following table. This is a financial plan for a new recruit assuming an average net commission of $5000 when they sell their own listing and who hits the ground running with the right real estate CRM, training, support, drive, desire, ambition, energy and the RIGHT plan of attack.


Your first Year in Real Estate.

Estimated monthly commission earnings from Listings & Sales.

Month Number of new

Listings for the

month

Number of sales

you made for

that month

$ Earned for that

month $ Earned year to

date

1 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 5000 5000 3 2 2 10000 15000 4 2 2 10000 25000 5 3 2 10000 35000 6 3 2 10000 45000 7 3 3 15000 60000 8 4 3 15000 75000 9 4 3 15000 90000

10 4 3 15000 105000 11 5 3 15000 120000 12 5 4 20000 140000

Is right now the best time to get into real estate? Yes. Right now is perfect. Here’s why.

1. The real estate market has changed. Many who got into real estate when things were good found it easy to list and sell. There were plenty of homes coming onto the market and there were plenty of agents to list and sell these homes. But now the market has changed. In many areas there is less than half the number of homes for sale than there were 2 or 3 years ago. Many of the agents who started in the boom are no longer in real estate because they did not learn the essential success skills that are so important. Ask any successful agent: If you can learn the right success habits in a tough market, you can do seriously well when things get going again as they inevitably will.

2. Many of the agents who started their real estate careers in a good economic environment and did well are now struggling. They don’t know many of the basic and proven success techniques and strategies you will discover in this manual. Many have taken poor advice from the wrong people. So what am I saying? It’s easier to shine! It’s much easier for you to catch these jaded agents asleep at the wheel. Your energy, drive, enthusiasm and knowledge will quickly over-ride their so called experience. Your ability to take names and make and maintain professional relationships will quickly get you the start up business you need for your new career.

3. It’s not just a challenging real estate market where people want to sell for more, it’s any market but selling for more is particularly important to so many property owners right now. Many people are


forced to sell for any number of reasons. As I detail in this Manual, my Unique Selling Proposition was my ability to sell for more. If you can study and perfect this technique and system then you will quickly have a USP that your competitors would die for. If you decide to become a Bestagents member, you will get to use my ‘Sell For More’ system including my bestselling book that is a proven and powerful lead generator.

4. Success is in numbers and real estate technology has advanced to the point where the number of contacts we can keep and maintain is virtually limitless. Real estate’s best do awesome numbers regardless of market conditions, the employment rate, inflation, interest rates, the government or the economy. They live in their own economy and are essentially immune from market conditions because of the sheer volume of contacts they have amassed leveraging technology and a great real estate CRM.

What makes a great real estate agent? • Are you and real estate a good match? • 7 Specific skills and qualities of the elite performer Let’s take a look at the essential skills and qualities of a top performing real estate agent. I would ask you to keep in mind that this overview is coming from someone deep inside the industry. Having performed at the top level for many years, I personally experienced the challenges a career in real estate can hand out. I want to relate what I feel it is that made me and many others so successful so you can decide for yourself if you and real estate are a good match. Skill 1. Passion and Energy. The better you get at real estate, the more passion and energy you will experience. It’s like a success drug you just can’t get enough of. Even thinking about it right now as I write these words gets my heart pumping a little faster as the thrill of creating results releases endorphins in my brain. I love making money and helping others create wealth, but the real passion and energy comes from doing something I love. Skill 2. Optimism. Are you ‘glass half full’? Real estate is like life. It’s not so much what happens to us, it’s how we handle what happens to us. What we send out comes back. Successful people are fun to be around. They leave the person they were with in a better state. We have all experienced this. It’s a natural charm or charisma. It’s like a potent energetic state that rubs off on those around you. Do you have it or could it ‘come out’ if you were in the right environment?


Skill 3. Focus.

“Focus is more important than intelligence” Albert Einstein

The ability to get in and get stuff done and completed requires focus. Not every valuable action in real estate produces a result but having the discipline and focus to get the things done that are proven to create results is what makes a good agent great. Skill 4. Drive. Are you driven to succeed? Do you have a need as opposed to a want? For the last two years I have been working with a guy who wants to become a Formula 1 racing car driver. He needs more than one million dollars to enter the circuit and he’s chosen real estate to make it happen. His desire and drive is triggered by his need not his want. Everybody wants a better this or that but the one who succeeds will be the one that is driven by need.

Skill 5. Outsourcing. No need to do it all yourself. Real estate’s best are great at outsourcing. Technology lets us access markets we never even dreamed about. Leveraging cost effective resources is going to be central to your success. For example: Do you need a new design for some marketing? Go to fiverr.com and get it done for $5 Skill 6. Productivity. You will need to have the ability to get stuff done. Real estate’s best get the important and dollar productive actions out of the way at the start of their day. They have the ability to identify the tasks that will make them money and they have the ability to take action and GET IT DONE. Think of how productive you are before you leave on vacation... You need to be like that most of the time. But let me share something with you that will not only save you a lot of time, but will also make you a lot of money if you get it right: Chances are your best competitors are leveraging technology to get more results with less effort. They will be using a system that helps them collect and store client information them prompts them to provide value contact on a regular basis. In real estate we call this a CRM or Customer Relationship Management system and without it, you’re really just taking a knife to a gunfight. (You’ll find a special offer at the end of this program that gives you a free trial of real estate’s best software!)


Skill 7. Finding a way to get your way. Real estate’s top performers keep going when others give up. If you’re skilled at keeping on while others are dropping then you’ll probably be very successful in real estate. This dogged determination is a highly valuable skill.

Why do people fail in real estate? I’m a positive or glass-half-full person as they say, but I want to hit this head on and give you the benefit of my experience. I’ve had the opportunity to ponder this question and as you may well be relying on my advice in your decision making process I would like to explain my theory as to why I believe people fail in real estate. In fact, I believe that to succeed you have to know why people fail. The first reason is that people are poorly hired. They go for one or two interviews and bang! They are given a desk, a phone and a month. Not always but often. The tragedy is that nobody has taken the time and trouble to assess their suitability. It’s like an airline employing a flight attendant who is scared of heights! I strongly believe the real estate business owner has a duty of care to make sure the new person is actually suited to real estate. The new employee may also be fed one or more of the real estate myths I have detailed in this manual but regardless, their attitude, aptitude, personality and natural skill set may be poorly suited to a career in real estate. Anyone considering a career in real estate must also know that it’s a very different career. In fact, it’s really important that you get this point because your success will depend on it. Let me explain: A retail shop assistant goes to work each day to sell stock that is already there. All they need to do is turn up and sell it. If they don’t turn up, the retailer just hires someone else.

A teacher turns up each day to teach a class that will be there regardless of whether or not they turn up. A coal miner goes underground each day to mine the coal the company found in the ground. There will be miners to do the job if he doesn’t turn up. In real estate we need to create our own economy. When we go to work, there is nothing to sell. We need to create our stock (our listings) We firstly need to use our skills to find a seller looking to sell. (btw... elite performers always have a ‘hot’ pipeline of potential sellers). We then need to find a buyer. So in reality, we need to make two sales. Sale one is selling the seller on our skill and


ability. Sale two is selling the seller’s property to a buyer. There is no stock on shelves to sell, class of students to teach or coal to mine when a real estate agent turns up for work. We need to create our own workload and I believe many people don’t understand this fundamental difference. Again: THE AGENT WHO CONTROLS THE LISTINGS CONTROLS THE MARKET. (And will experience awesome lifestyle opportunities) The second reason people fail in real estate is because they receive little or no training, coaching and mentoring before or after they begin. The best performers I work with are ALWAYS training and looking to get an edge on their competitors. They get up early and get the dollar productive actions that make them the money out of the way. My friend Aaron Shiner is a classic example. Aaron is a driven guy who is always on the lookout for new ideas. Since working with Aaron, I have watched him rise from a basic $48,000 annual salary to build a personal business that makes him $100,000 every month. Yes that’s not a typo, he earns at least $100,000 and often more in commission from his real estate business each and every month. His income is not influenced by the property market, supply, demand, interest rates or anything else. He does this with one assistant and a brilliant system we have developed. But the thing about Aaron is that he is ALWAYS training and he loves it. In fact, he knows that there will be a fall away in income if he stops training. When most people travel in their cars, they like to listen to music. When Aaron goes on a road trip regardless of who else is in the car, he listens to advanced real estate success instructional audio. He’s into marketing, technology and proven real estate success strategies. He’s driven and he’s super successful. And he’s only 29 years old! Aaron started just as you should start; He copied the masters and studied their success strategies and ideas.

Do you need to live where you work? No… but it helps. I know of many successful real estate professionals who live well away from their ‘farm’ or business area but they keep a close eye on what’s happening in the area where they work. Real estate success is really boosted by being involved in your community. What’s going on in your area? What is coming through your letter box? Which agent’s signs dominate your local neighbourhood? What real estate news and advertising appears in your local paper or magazine.


If you don’t live in the area you work in, you need to befriend a local who will collect all the local papers and junk mail so you can keep up to date with community activity, news and trends.

From broke single mother to real estate millionaire. (A real life case study) I first heard about MaryAnn when she was in her first few months in real estate. Her employer asked if I would speak with her to see, in my opinion, if she had the essentials to make it in real estate. He told me nothing about her apart from the fact that she was a single mother of three and she had plenty of drive. We met at a real estate success seminar I was holding and I could see that she had good energy. I like to find out someone’s ‘story’ as soon as I can as it tells me a lot about them and their motivation. I asked the hard personal questions first to see what was going on behind the scenes. What were the motivating forces in her life? Did she want to do this or did she need to? It turns out MaryAnn was recently separated from her husband. He had apparently taken off with her best friend and left her with their three children (all under 7 years old), no income, no support and a mountain of debt. Fortunately, I have never been in such a vulnerable position so can’t even begin to imagine how hard that must have been for her. What on earth would you do if it happened to you? How would you react? I asked myself these questions and remember thinking that you wouldn’t really know unless you had to go through it. MaryAnn told me she faced a decision. She could be a victim and apply for government housing and some kind of pension or support plan, or get cracking and create an income, keep her house and build a better life for her daughters and herself. Listening to her speak I could tell she went for the second option. We talked for an hour and I was totally impressed with this woman and her drive. She was ‘forced’ into real estate out of sheer need. To MaryAnn, failure was simply not an option. Within 6 months she was number 4 in a very large and busy office. At 19 months she was number one and earning more than her former husband. It’s years later and her girls are older and doing very well thanks to their amazing mother.


Was it personal pride? Was it survival? Or was it the most delicious motivator of all... Revenge! As Frank Sinatra once said: The best form of revenge is massive success? Perhaps it was a combination of all three but MaryAnn’s reasons to succeed gave her the essentials to get the job done. MaryAnn is not alone. In the years since, I have heard of and personally met many amazing women with a similar story. Perhaps it’s why women can be so successful in real estate. After raising a family and getting so much stuff done, real estate success must look easy!

How to create your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and position yourself as the real estate ‘Authority’ Now we’re getting deep into marketing heartland and my all time special passion! My real estate business and my income went through the roof when I developed and perfected my USP.

To define and explain, you need to think like a potential client and ask yourself these questions:

• What is it about me or my business that is different from every other real estate agent?

• What do I offer that they can’t? • What do I have that they do not? • Why would a seller list their property with me instead of

my competition? • How do I market my USP?

Real estate success is about positioning yourself as The Real Estate Authority in your area. In many areas, you will notice how one or two people dominate the market. This happens with ‘sign saturation’ but only after the agent has become established. The key success ingredient with real estate is momentum. Nothing is as powerful as an agent dominating an area with signs. So this will be your mission and getting there is your first step. Let me run through how you do it because it’s going to be critical to your success that you get this right. These are the essential steps to establishing your real estate career and your future pipeline of business.

1. Establish contact with property owners in your target market. (Your USP helps you attract these contacts)


2. Provide/offer meaningful value contact with your people on your list.

Let me explain these points in a little more detail: Establish contact with property owners in your target market. (Your USP helps you attract these contacts) Real Estate is all about relationship marketing. If you’re looking to buy a newspaper, it’s a low cost investment and you have many options. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You lose a dollar or two on a paper that had no content that interested or engaged you. No big deal. If you’re looking to sell a property it’s a high risk exercise and you have a number of options. What’s the worst thing that can happen? Your agent is a dud and miss handles the whole thing. You were badly represented by an incompetent fool. The advice was terrible and resulted in you selling your property for tens of thousands of dollars below market value. So what am I saying? When it comes to selling real estate, people are more inclined to list their property with someone they know and trust. They simply can’t afford to mess up! Relationship marketing is about creating that connection and establishing that trust. The most successful real estate agents convey an attitude of client care. They continually remind their client that they have full and complete knowledge of real estate values and results in the area and they also have the client’s absolute best interest at heart. People do business with people they like so real estate is about who you know and what you know. Here’s something I proved myself and something I notice about every real estate agent: In fact, I’m about to share with you the most important statement in this entire document! The more contacts they have and the better they are at keeping in touch, the more successful they will be. My buddy Aaron who makes $100,000 plus a month in real estate commission has carefully collected and manages a contact list of about 2500 people. Every week, this list gives Aaron listings, referrals and sales. Why? Because he is in constant contact with them. He has a 24 point plan whereby he communicates via txt message, email, cards, letters, personal meetings and phone calls twenty four times in a year. His 2500 names create $100,000 in real estate commission each month. Guess how much Aaron made a month when he only had 1000 names? About $35,000 to $40,000! Can you see the point


I’m making? Contacts (and good communication with these contacts) = $ income. And by the way. Like all top performers, there is no way they could function at this level without a great CRM. Their contact database is the central cause of their success. It’s the backbone of their operation that carefully harvests new contacts then provides exceptional contact care. The value of a contact When I started to understand the importance of making and keeping contacts, my income started to sky rocket! I guarantee the following exercise will get you excited about making and keeping contacts and let’s use Aaron’s established and proven numbers as a formula. If Aaron’s 2500 contacts are responsible for making $1,200,000 a year then each contact is worth $480. (1,200,000/2500) So each time Aaron collects a new name and contact details, he sees $480! It will work the same for you if you work it correctly. When you become a student of relationship marketing some amazing personal growth and business opportunities will open before you. Provide meaningful value contact with people on your list. Once you have the contact details of a property owner in your area or someone who can refer you leads or referrals, you have a duty to not only keep in touch but to make sure each communication is of value to the contact. There are many ways you can do this and a number of my products offer specific information here but let me give you an example of something that does not work. Let’s say you have my number and I live in your area. If you were to call me and ask if I wanted to sell my home month after month, I would quickly grow tired of you and your need to list my property. If on the other hand, you called to inform me of a recent sale in the area (I call this a courtesy call as the word courtesy implies you are doing me a favour) I am more inclined to listen and be engaged because you are providing me with something of value. What you say and how you say it in your communication makes a huge difference. So let’s get back to my USP or Unique selling Proposition. I was not one of those to enjoy instant success. There was no Silver Bullet Marketing Plan available when I started in real estate (because I hadn’t created it yet!)


I did what the other agents did. Tired and meaningless letter drops that rarely produced a response. Costly newspaper ads that never made the phone ring. In fact, I trialled a heap of useless ideas that came packaged as ‘profit laden promises’ from supposed experts! I’m reminded of the classic Doobie Brothers tune: “What a fool believes”. But I can also tell you that I tried? I failed and wasted a lot of money and valuable time but I went to battle in the war to win clients and lived to tell the tale. In fact, my failure will become your victory. I have wasted the money and time so you don’t need to. I only wish I had then what I had a few short years later but sometimes you have to walk on the red hot coals to feel the soothing water of the ocean. My USP and saving grace came in the form of an idea. From the very start of my real estate career I became highly skilled at helping my sellers present their property for sale. I would help them style their home, clear out rooms, paint (in tones and shades that buyers LOVED) and recarpet where necessary. Then I would hire the very best photographer and WOW buyers with glorious images of my listings. This ‘formula’ (although I didn’t really see it as a formula at the time) never failed to help my clients receive great results. On many occasions, the contract price I was able to negotiate was close to or even above my asking price. I became really good at getting buyers to compete to buy a property and I excelled at managing my competing buyers through many a long and bloody bidding war. (The power and strength of raw emotion when it comes to real estate cannot be underestimated) I believe that sometimes you don’t choose a book, but a book chooses you and a friend gave me a copy of David Ogilvy’s Landmark book titled ‘Ogilvy On Advertising’. I got to thinking that if I applied Mr Ogilvy’s skilful marketing ideas to help me attract more clients it would give me the dynamic and compelling USP I needed. My challenge was to ‘package’ my skill and knowledge as someone who could help sellers get a better result. That was my Unique Selling Proposition. My only challenge was to package it. I went back to David Ogilvy’s book. I read and re read his advice and studied his brilliant campaigns to market everything from Jamaica (the country) to Rolls Royce (the car). Then it hit me. Mr Ogilvy used the book to establish his authority as an advertising expert. Why could I not do the same in real estate? I was the best kept secret in town. Once sellers learned of my value adding skills I would have all the business I wanted.


My book took me a year to write. It was an immense project that took up valuable time and resources. I remember the day my books were delivered and the excitement I felt. I was one step into my ‘experiment’ and one step closer to success. I created some marketing flyers to promote my offer of a FREE BOOK to property owners in my area and delivered them myself. Nothing. Disillusioned but not yet defeated, I went back to the drawing board. I reworded and crafted my letters and flyers and cards. I tested one against the other in different formats. Then, almost magically...things started to work. A lady who had been trying to sell her home for 6 months called me for a copy of the book. A Doctor with three investment properties that needed some serious ‘fixing up’ before sale asked to meet me at the properties and give him some advice and suggestions. A farmer from out of town found out about my free book offer and asked me to mail him a copy express post. He had also been trying to sell because he had the chance to buy more farming land but the agent he hired was ‘useless’. An elderly couple, who had unsuccessfully tried to sell their property themselves asked for a copy of the book and after reading it, asked if I would help them prepare their home for sale and sell it for them. Not every free book recipient listed with me immediately. In fact some never did but I always kept in touch. That was when I learned another valuable lesson about marketing: By keeping in touch and ‘cementing’ my relationships with ALL my contacts, I started to get referrals from every direction. My best connection was a lady called Mrs Marks. She was the live in manager of a large apartment building in my area. One day I went to the building to list an apartment and there, on the kitchen table was my book. There were yellow ‘post it’ notes sticking out of the book and a note pad of questions beside it. The couple selling their apartment said that Mrs Marks had loaned them the book and told them that I was the expert and to simply do as I said. This is what I call being ‘pre sold’. Thanks to my relationship with Mrs Marks, the apartment owners only interviewed one agent. Me! The turnover of apartments in Mrs Marks’ building was huge. In fact, I was selling an apartment in the building almost once each month. All from my free book offer and because I took the trouble to create a follow up ‘trail’ and develop my contacts. The more marketing I did, the more successful I became. Have you ever taken a risk in life and succeeded like that? Have you ever done something that others told you not to try because it


would fail... but it worked? The personal satisfaction I experienced was the best feeling ever. My ‘crazy’ idea worked! My book worked! My system worked! Business was booming all thanks to my USP. In the months and years to come, many other agents would approach me to use my formula and it’s now used successfully by real estate professionals in many different places. The more powerful and dynamic and compelling your USP is, the more success you will enjoy.

Visioning. How to create your 'success blueprint' and make it a reality People often ask me why I became a real estate agent. The answer is simple: I wanted to start making money and plenty of it. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed to admit that I’m into wealth creation. I understand the world in which we live and I would rather be rich than poor. I was not interested in going to college or university for years to be left with a debt and letters after my name. I wanted a car, a house, investments and skiing holidays in Europe. To me, the world is a big, ripe orange and I want to squeeze it and drink its juice as often as possible. Real Estate let me do it. It became my success vehicle. When you create your vision of how you see it happening, it’s much easier to convert it to reality. That’s exactly what I did and the experience was amazing. In fact, my greatest possible reward for doing this would be that you get to experience it too. Almost every day, I get messages from people I work with telling me about their success. I have to tell you this thrills me and I can’t wait to get to my inbox every morning and read these success stories. Some just blow me away because of the amazing journey they have made from adversity to success. The by product of this journey is an awesome and inspiring experience and a better life. Let me share: When a person sets their mind to success and achievement here are just some of the things that I have seen happen with my own eyes: • Self esteem increased • Confidence increased (this is a little weird but people actually look taller when they are confident. Perhaps because their shoulders are not stooped)


• Weight reduced (when it was needed). They look amazing! • Eyes brighter and skin clearer. (I put this down to better diet and better hydration)

• Energy increased • Money worries disappear

These are just some of the things I have witnessed when a person gets a ‘success focus’ and starts to make changes in their life. The human mind is a powerful weapon!

The changes you want will spawn and grow with your new version of your new self. Your journey needs a map and your statement is that map so bring your goals to life with a Visioning Statement. When we create a vision it has more power. ‘Goals’ are great but they are words on a page. A vision has impact. Television sells more product than radio, that’s why it costs more. Get it? Here’s how I suggest you get started. This is the point from which everything flows. I’m giving you the seed for your money tree. We all have the ability to write our own future. Literally. I’m a fan of dreaming big and always encourage the real estate professionals I work with do the same. I love Visioning and I do it all the time. A very successful friend of mine taught me how to do it and it has helped me enormously. It’s also really simple and fun. It’s simply a matter of vividly imagining your future life and how you see yourself in it. One of my coaching clients recently sent me his Visioning Statement and I have his permission to share it with you.

“My real estate career is going great. I’m working with 2 assistants which gives me every other weekend off to spend time with my family which I treasure. I currently handle about 15 listings and will sell 10 or 12 each month. With an average commission per sale of $8500 I’m earning $85,000 a month.

This will be the first year I have cracked the magic $1,000,000 in earnings! It’s almost unbelievable to think that I was struggling to make ends meet on $45,000 a year only 4 years ago.

My home is completely paid off and my kids go to a great school. Jennifer doesn’t need to work but her graphic design company is thriving as is our marriage. We have two investment properties and are searching for a third. We are looking at properties in good areas that need some basic cosmetic help. This February we’re taking the kids to Colorado for the skiing adventure holiday we have always promised ourselves.


At the age of 45 I have finally summoned the discipline and focus to get my weight where I want it. I workout in my home gym every day and my new ‘diet’ is now my permanent meal plan. I have arrived! I can’t wait to start my day which I do each morning at 6am. I have more energy than I have ever had in my life. I attribute my happiness to the solid financial base I have established with my Real Estate Career”

*****

When I first read this I had goose bumps. I can’t remember seeing 248 words used so well to create a positive and thrilling ‘picture’ of someone’s future. Can you see how Anthony has created the vision of where he sees himself and his life a mere 4 years into the future? Can you see how his vision summarises his goals and the things he wants? In the bestselling book ‘The Secret’, we’re told that we become what we think about. If you created this vision for yourself, you would be inclined to think about it a lot. We all have the ability to achieve the things we want and I believe Visioning is a very effective way to help us get there. So whatever you do and wherever you are, why don’t you invest a little time in your future success and create your vision. It’s a private document and blueprint for your future. If you are genuine and serious about achieving your goals and going after the things you want in your life, why not do what so many top performers are doing and create a living breathing vision of your success. And just to wrap on this... If it feels a little funny or weird that’s okay. If you do it, you are the part of the 1% who go to the trouble and time to create their vision and just another reason you are more likely to succeed. They make a decision to leave the security of their comfort zone and dream big. They draw on whatever inspiration they need to take their career where they want. The other 99% never go there because of fear. Fear of what others will think or fear of not knowing exactly what to do. But the 1% have an abundance mentality that lets the soar and achieve. Of course they’ll get knocked and bruised a little but along the way, but that’s part of the journey. Remember, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Time is your most valuable resource and there is no time to lose.

All the money in the world will not buy back the last 24 hours or even the last 24 minutes. Time is far more valuable than money because there are so many more ways to leverage it. In real estate, you don’t earn dollars per hour. You don’t swap time for money. You are not punching into a clock for a wage. Your hourly rate is


controlled by you and influenced by your ability to leverage your natural personality skills, your acquired knowledge and your ability to execute a plan of action. Action is your friend.

How to use testimonials. Take a look at the testimonials we use to promote the free book offer on the next page. This kind of feedback is gold! There is little impact when the agent tells a seller how good the book and marketing system is, but when someone who has actually read the book and employed the success strategies to sell their own property tells their story, the point suddenly becomes a lot more interesting and compelling.


Follow up note: The 9th edition of my book has just been released and

sales are approaching 200,000.


The most valuable marketing lesson I ever learned? I promise that if you really ‘get’ what I’m about to share, you will never waste a single marketing dollar for the rest of your life. Before we can sell something to someone, we first need to engage them. We need to establish a relationship. The vast majority, probably 95% plus of real estate agents either ignore this rule or have never been told about it. Real estate’s best performers excel at taking names and maintaining contact and the great news is that with so much technology at our disposal, it has never been easier. Marketing your brand (which is you) is critical to your success. But you can’t just sit it out there and expect people to call you. Okay, once in a blue moon it might work but is once in a blue moon marketing really an effective use of your resources? There are two types of marketing we do in real estate. First we must market ourselves to potential clients and this can only be done once the relationship is established and second, we market their property with our face and logo and phone number and all guns blazing. These are two totally different approaches and real estate agents that understand this difference are destined for great success. A great real estate contact management system is the solution.

What does a great real estate contact management system look like? Real estate’s best have made the commitment to leverage technology with stunning results. 2o years ago there were very few million dollar a year agents around because the number of contacts they could maintain a relationship with was limited to their ability to write them down and keep in touch with them. But the real estate world has changed forever. A great real estate contact system lets you retain an unlimited number of contacts. The best systems are in ‘the cloud’ so you can access it from anywhere. The best system sets a contact trail to prompt you with the next contact reminder. The best system lets you bulk SMS or MMS (a video SMS)


The best system let’s you see which contacts have opened your emails and which have not so you can follow up both groups differently.

The triumphant return of Direct Mail? You getting much email lately? Just as I install one spam filter to shut out all the junk I never signed up for, something else sneaks past my guard and takes up valuable space in my inbox. If you’re anything like me, you value the ‘real estate’ in your inbox and only want to spend time on engaging messages that solve a problem our help you in some way. Marketers are finding that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to communicate with their target audience because their email campaign ‘open rates’ are plummeting. The larger corporations are spending millions to monitor how their messages are received or even if they are read and the findings are not good. If this trend continues, email will become less and less effective and relevant as a way to communicate. Only those who ‘opt in’ to receive your message will read it as long as you engage them with interesting news and compelling copy. Before we had email we had Direct Mail. I’m talking about the letter that came addressed to you and engaged you with news or something that was of value to you. In the last year, I have been doing more and more direct mail and the results have been stunning. The Direct Mail rules that were first documented back in 1920 are today more relevant and powerful than ever. My buddy Aaron is a Direct Mail junky. The more he does, the more business he receives and keep in mind, this is a guy who makes $100,000 or more in real estate commission each month. Can I urge you to make Direct Mail a central part of your marketing strategy? As long as you follow the rules (and the rules that apply to Direct Mail for Real Estate) you can’t go wrong. My most popular training and success program is Direct Mail Power. I have tested, tested and tested again all the material in the program and it works. Direct mail is yet another way real estate’s best are leveraging technology. A good real estate CRM will let you mail merge specific client details to craft a beautifully tailored and personal letter. If there is no doubt this method works and the technology exists, why wouldn’t you be using it?


The raw power of social media? I love the New York City subway. A perfect day for me is to crawl all over Manhattan’s mountain bike, guitar and book shops. In minutes I’m anywhere I want to be grabbing the train and popping up in a new place with something new to experience. Social media is a lot like that. Always changing and always surprising you with fresh ideas and new opportunities. Right now, it’s Facebook and the real estate agents I know who are correctly leveraging this technology are connecting with future clients in an amazingly innovative way. I have plenty of tips and cool Facebook marketing ideas for you so if you haven’t done so already, go to Facebook.com/lockoncloud and become a fan. (I like to release my fresh ideas and blog updates on the page so the page fans are the first to get the jump on their real estate competitors)

Are you ready to go for it? I hope you’ve enjoyed The Ultimate Real Estate Success Manual. When I started writing this, I thought I could summarise my knowledge, best ideas and suggestions in a few short pages. But as you can see, it’s turned into something quite substantial. I have tried to answer every question you might have so you can decide if real estate is for you and what you’re going to do about it. I hope I have exploded enough ridiculous real estate myths so you can make up your own mind about your personal potential for a career in real estate and if you are a match.


If you’re in real estate now and want to get better, then study this manual hard and just do as the best in our industry do. We only get one life. Don’t we owe it to ourselves to live it true and well to the best of our ability? Do you want to have regrets in your later years or do you want to live them comfortably and with the knowledge that you kicked butt and capitalized on the opportunities before you? I believe knowledge is power so it’s my hope that you have gained enough knowledge from this document to move forward in the right direction. If you do decide to join the world of the elite real estate performer or if you are already in real estate and want to take your career to the next level, I really hope we get the chance to work together. I’m looking forward to being part of your success. Dream Big & Take names!

Ray Wood

What’s next?

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction. John F Kennedy

Real estate Customer Relationship Management systems started to gain market penetration in the early 1990’s. But they were clunky, difficult to operate and not much fun. Keep in mind it was the mid 1990’s before the internet started to gain serious consideration from business and it would be another 10 years before cloud based software was trusted enough by consumers to go mainstream. (think banks, hotels and airlines) During 2007 I started to get a growing number of messages from Bestagents members asking me which real estate software I could recommend. I did some research, found the market leader at the time and passed on my thoughts. My mistake was not trying the software my self because if I had, I would have experienced frustration and a very negative user experience. Even though this software lived on a PC hard drive it was super slow and users were driven mad burning daylight waiting to retrieve the simplest item


like a contacts phone number. So I did the right thing and started not recommending anything. But the concept stayed with me and I began to wonder more and more why a great real estate software system had not been produced. I did some more homework. Technology was improving rapidly and the systems were getting faster but the new (and somewhat better) real estate systems were designed by nerds not real estate people. Basic essential functions particular to our industry were either absent or problematic. With the need for an ‘intelligent’ real estate CRM on my radar I was approached by a Sydney based group to look at the development of a cloud based system that would not only meet but exceed market expectations. Weeks become months and months became years but the day finally arrived to test a beta version of the prototype. We were excited to have produced something so innovative that talked to agents in their own language and understood their priority hierarchy of needs. As one of two real estate people in the company we steered development on a solid path towards results based functionality. The goal setting and income-forecasting concept, which became Targets For Results is a unique idea and an example of how the system better understood the needs of a real estate industry thirsty for the opportunity to leverage better technology. In 2011 we launched LockedOn Cloud. This would be one of the first (and might I say the fastest) cloud based real estate systems specifically developed for the Australian and NZ markets. You’re invited to try LockedOn for yourself. Our support team headed by real estate IT guru, Luke Newton has built an excellent getting started video to guide you through the initial set up phase. Here’s a link to try it now and experience state-of-the-art technology tailor made for you to help you collect more contacts, get more listings and make more sales. http://www.lockedon.com

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This material is Copyright. Ray Wood 2013 · 2013-05-20 · real estate contact systems are not only available but also essential for continual and sustained real estate success