Real Estate

5 Things Real Estate Agents Can Do Working From Home

By Joe Lins
March 24, 2020

Are you quarantined due to COVID-19? If so, there’s some things you should be doing for your real estate business to stay on track. First, don’t be watching the news 24/7, it’ll drive you crazy. Here’s 5 things you can do working from home during this period of time that you are quarantined or self-isolating.

#1 – Get on your phone and call your clients.
Call your sphere of influence (SOI), call your past clients, call your prospects. Check in with them and see how they’re doing. Everybody likes that kind of a phone call: “Hey, how’s it going….”

#2 – Update your Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool.
Whatever CRM that happens to be, you need to be updating it on a regular basis. Our agents have access to a great one on 21Online called Business Builder. Everyone asks, “What’s a good CRM?” Well, it’s the one you actually use. Find one and use it.

#3 Update your Listing Presentation.
How does your current listing presentation look? Make sure it’s ready to go when you get a call to go on a listing appointment. Update it and make it unique to you and the value you provide your sellers.

#4 Set up an email campaign.
A wonderful tool for email campaigns that our CENTURY 21 Discovery agents have access to is also in Business Builder. Set it up, get a campaign going where you don’t have to do anything and every couple of weeks something is going out. This will help you stay top of mind with your clients who are also quarantined or self-isolating. Tip: Copy yourself on the campaign so you can see what it looks like when it goes out.

#5 Clean up your emails.
Go through your emails and unsubscribe from all the bright shiny objects someone is trying to sell you. Unsubscribe and clean it up so you’re not getting 250 emails a day.

There’s a lot of things you can be doing when you are forced to work from home due to the COVID-19 situation. Stay focused on your business during this time so you can come out on the other side of this stronger and ready to go.

For now, wash your hands, stay healthy and Charge On!

Joe Lins

About the author: Joe Lins is President, CEO and Co-owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. If you are interested in becoming part of the CENTURY 21 Discovery team or would like more information about our services or training we provide contact Joe at 714.626.2069.

How To Find Sellers

By Joe Lins
September 26, 2019

Today we are talking about how to find sellers. There’s a ton of opportunity to be had in regard to sellers. But where do you find them?

If you’re paying attention, there are many signals that can indicate a home is getting ready to be sold. This information is available as a public record or you can use services to help you mine the data for the information you need.

It requires awareness of the neighborhood and the desire to assist the seller achieve their desired outcome.

This latest episode of our podcast covers what you should be paying attention to in order to get listings.

Listen to the full podcast here:

Joe Lins Author


About the author: Joe Lins is President, CEO and Co-owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. If you are interested in becoming part of the CENTURY 21 Discovery team or would like more information about our services or training we provide contact Joe at 714.626.2069.

Are You Coachable?

By Joe Lins
July 25, 2019

In this episode of our podcast, I talk with our Communications Director, Suzy Lins, about why an agent should be “Coachable”. Full disclosure, she is also my wife.

Suzy explained how we have a marquee outside our building that we use for marketing our listings and promoting our agents or community events. We also utilize it for recruiting purposes and put up recruiting posts a few times a month. One of my favorites is “Looking for sports minded people – We are hiring!” I like this post because it generates a ton of activity and phone calls. Most people think we want sports minded people because they tend to be competitive. That’s partially true. We definitely need agents like that in this competitive industry of ours. There’s also another reason. We want people who are coachable.

My favorite recruiting post on our marquee.

What does it mean to be coachable?

I use a lot of sports metaphors in my business because you can learn a lot from team play. Sports-minded people are typically coachable and agents, especially newer agents, must be able to follow instructions from their “coach”. Coachable means you are able to listen to what your coach, manager or broker has to say and then do it unconditionally to achieve success as a result.  Are you the type that goes out and asks five or ten more people their opinion and get totally confused and sidetracked? That’s not coachable.

Who should be your coach?

The first person you should got to is the broker or manager of the office. If they are not the type of leader who can coach you, they may have somebody they can refer you to. It may be a professional coach, like Brian Buffini or Mike or Tom Ferry or others like that. It could even be one of your peers in the office if they have a mentor system set up for agents.

Let’s talk about competition

Your number one competitor is you, the man in the mirror. You have to establish your goals and hold yourself accountable. You’re also competing with different agents out there from other firms that have different ways of doing business. You have to pick your way of doing business and compete on that level. You need to strive to be the very best in what you do. If you want to be part of the top 10% you have to do what the other 90% aren’t willing to do. It’s not that difficult.

What makes an agent coachable?

  • Don’t second guess your coach
  • Do exactly what your told to do – Don’t resist
  • Implement what they advise you to do
  • Trust your coach
  • Be open and honest with your coach

Listen to the full podcast here:

 

Joe Lins Author

 

About the author: Joe Lins is President and Co-owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. If you are interested in becoming part of the CENTURY 21 Discovery team or would like more information about our services or training we provide contact Joe at 714.626.2069.

The Buyer Interview

By Joe Lins & Stephanie Goedl
January 29, 2019

The Buyer Interview is the initial meeting with your buyer to find out what their real estate goals and aspirations are. This is important because once you figure out what your client wants you can do a better job of finding that property for them. Our value as a Realtor is finding the house that is good for them. The only way you can do that is by asking questions and building buyer loyalty.

Listen to our podcast to learn what questions to ask when interviewing buyers.

Listen to the podcast here:

 

Watch the video of the podcast here:

If you would like a copy of our Buyer Interview Questionnaire we would be happy to share it with you! Just email us at Careers@C21Discovery.com. To get the latest podcast episodes subscribe on iTunes, Google Play or Podbean.

About the authors: Joe Lins is President, CEO and Owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. Stephanie Goedl is Chief Operating Officer and Broker/Owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. If you are interested in becoming part of the CENTURY 21 Discovery team or would like more information about our services or training we provide contact us at 714.626.2069 or Careers@C21Discovery.com.

Stephanie Goedl

Are You Trained & In Shape For 2019?

By Stephanie Goedl and Joe Lins
January 15, 2019

To succeed in real estate you need to continually work on your presentation skills, negotiating skills and be up to date on the current industry forms. In this episode of our podcast, Stephanie Goedl and Joe Lins discuss the importance of training in your real estate career.

Listen to the podcast here:

 

Watch the video of the podcast here:

About the authors: Joe Lins is President, CEO and Owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. Stephanie Goedl is Chief Operating Officer of CENTURY 21 Discovery. If you are interested in becoming part of the CENTURY 21 Discovery team or would like more information about our services or training we provide contact us at 714.626.2069 or Careers@C21Discovery.com.

Stephanie GoedlJoe Lins

How To Stay On Track During The Holidays

By Joe Lins and Stephanie Goedl
December 12, 2018

Staying on track during the holidays can be a challenge for real estate agents. Agents who take the month off, who stop working, stop prospecting, find themselves in a huge slump in January and February.

Here are some tips to stay on track during the holidays to ensure a successful start in the new year.

Role Play

December is a great time to practice your scripts and role play. Brush up on your skills that need work.

Prospect and Lead Generation

Now is the time to do some aggressive lead follow up. Follow up with clients you worked with this year. Follow up with the buyers you were working with who took themselves out of the game and didn’t buy anything. Give them a call and let them know that right now there is a nice inventory to choose from. Take them out to look at some homes.

Refresh Your Listing Presentation

Update your listing presentation with new information and a new look for the new year.

Goal Setting

If you haven’t done it already, you need to sit down and set your goals for the new year. Once you’ve established your goals, then define the steps that you need to take to achieve those goals.

Your clients and SOI are probably making goals too! This the time of year people have more down time and are having conversations with family members about finding their first home or their next home. Give them a call to see how you can help them achieve that goal in the new year.

Balance

You don’t need to work 12 hour days during the holidays to start the new year off right. Have some balance in your life to enjoy this time with family and friends. Just don’t completely abandon your business through the holidays or you’ll be caught behind the 8 Ball come January 1st.

Watch this video for the full video recording of this Podcast below or listen to it at:
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-sbbpn-a091a1

About the authors: Joe Lins is President, CEO and Owner of CENTURY 21 Discovery. Stephanie Goedl is Chief Operating Officer of CENTURY 21 Discovery. If you are interested in becoming part of the CENTURY 21 Discovery team or would like more information about our services or training we provide contact us at 714.626.2069 or Careers@C21Discovery.com.

 

 

Pre-Appraisal Checklist

By Chris Smith
July 24, 2018

There are some things you can do to help ensure the home appraisal process goes smooth. See this checklist provided by the residential appraisal management company PropertyRate.

 

About the Author: Chris Smith is a Senior Loan Officer (NMLS  #253394) with New American Funding. For more information about home financing you may contact him at 714.401.5921. 

Do’s & Don’ts of Real Estate Photography

By Suzy Lins
July 17, 2018

One of my pet peeves are poor quality photos of real estate listings. It drives my crazy! I get it that not all properties are “photogenic” but there are some basic things you can do to make sure the photos of your listing look good. Do me AND your client a favor and check out my Do’s & Don’ts of Real Estate Photography.

 

About the author: Suzy Lins is the Communications Director for CENTURY 21 Discovery. For more information about CENTURY 21 Discovery you may call (714) 626-2000.

Protect Your Clients From Wire Fraud

By Chris Smith
June 28, 2018

Real Estate agents are often the first line of defense in preventing wire fraud. Let your clients know upfront how you communicate. You may want to add a disclaimer on your email signature stating that you never send sensitive financial information via email. Insist they do the same. Here are some additional security measures your clients should take:

 

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About the Author: Chris Smith is a Senior Loan Officer (NMLS  #253394) with New American Funding. For more information about home financing you may contact him at 714.401.5921. 

 

 

 

 

*Reprinted with permission from New American Funding. Licensed by the California Department of Business Oversight under the Residential Mortgage Lending Act – License #4131117 Broker Solutions Inc. dba New American Funding (NMLS #6606) Corporate Office is located at 14511 Myford Road, Suite 100, Tustin, CA 92780. 800.450.2010

 

 

Home Buying: Is this the right time?

By Mariella Reyes
April 19, 2018

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Ismael Chavez of TEAM ChavezHomes at CENTURY 21 Discovery to discuss if this is the right time to buy a home.

“Clients always ask me if this is a good or bad time to buy their home,” CENTURY 21 Discovery’s Real Estate agent, Ismael Chavez says. Eleven years after, buyers entering the market are still shaken up by 2008’s housing bubble. According to Chavez it’s unlikely another bubble will happen again soon because of the fixed interest rates the circumstances are different.

Photo Credit: Marlon Marshall Parungao

Ismael Chavez began his real estate career in 2007, right before the market crash. “Those were dark times for the real estate industry, but the experience made me a stronger and better REALTOR®. I care about my clients,” he says. Shortly after the housing bubble, he expanded his practice and formed his team of agents operating under the business name of TEAM ChavezHomes at CENTURY 21 Discovery located in Fullerton, CA.

Chavez is optimistic about the future of the industry.

Ismael, what are some tips you can give future home buyers and sellers?

“It’s a seller’s market; we get many buyers but we have a shortage of homes for sale. It’s a great opportunity for those who’ve been thinking of moving and selling their homes. Although there’s never a wrong time to buy, home buyers will have to be competitive and focused during their search!”

We’ve added some extra pointers for both Buyers and Sellers below.  Happy house hunting.

About the Author: Mariella Reyes, is an Independent Content Writer for TEAM ChavezHomes of CENTURY 21 Discovery.  She’s worked as a content writer and producer for brands in the industries of escrow, mobile, fashion, plastic surgery, and beauty, and was the Marketing Coordinator during her time on the Board of Directors for Lean IN Los Angeles in 2016-2017. You can contact her at: mariella.reyesm@gmail.com