Melissa Krchnak
By Melissa Krchnak
We all have pieces of our business that can suck our time away from being successful: meetings that don’t feel productive, emptying our inbox, conflict resolution, admin tasks, and chatting with our friends and colleagues. Just yesterday I encountered the worst of the time sucker, the commitment-phobe. This particular person is an over-analyzer who uses that as an excuse for, you guessed it: Never. Making. A. Decision.
I’ve met with this person three-to-four times over the last couple of weeks with each meeting lasting an hour or so. Yesterday, when he was supposed to be signing on the dotted line, he again wanted to ask more questions. He knows this is the best decision, but can’t “buy in.” I worked through every objection masterfully until I was fed up. So, I gave an ultimatum. “You need to make a decision on how you want to move forward by Wednesday at 3 p.m.” No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I don’t know what Wednesday holds precisely, but one thing it certainly does possess is a resolution.
Melissa Krchnak is the assistant team leader for Keller Williams Realty in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Connect with her at kwrancho.com.
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
“What do you think Heather Jones* does?” my mother-in-law inquired as we followed a heavily decorated mini-van through the streets of a north-central Ohio community.
“Well, I think it would be real estate,” I replied. “You can just make out a ‘just listed’ and ‘sold’ in the paintwork beside the license plate.”
“How in the hell was I suppose to figure that out?” she quipped back.
Ahh, Ms. Jones* — name changed to protect the guilty – did you just get the gist of that conversation? Your marketing while stunningly beautiful and definitely eye catching lacked the most important thing – the why factor.
Why.
It is a simple three-letter word that is often the first question children learn. Yet it is often the last question that we tend – or desire – to address as adults. It is a challenging question – nothing like how. How can be explained away, it is a process. “How am I going to sell your house? Well, first I’m going to…” What, Where, and When are just as easy.
But that continues to bring us back to that pesky “why” and just as important “why did I just do that?”
Every successful agent knows their return on investment for various projects that they continue to run. It doesn’t have to be a hard-and-fast number but something that says this is working and this is not. Has anyone ever gotten a deal directly from giving away a pumpkin at Halloween? Odds are low that many have, but yet hundreds of offices around the country continue to draw people into their office for a free pumpkin. Continue reading »
Chris Nichols
By Chris Nichols
Assumptions — we all make them. But have you ever stopped and thought about the dangers involved in making even just simple assumptions?
Wikipedia states, “In logic an assumption is a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were true based upon presupposition without preponderance of the facts.”
Have you ever assumed what the needs of a client were without asking them specifically? This generally results in expectations missed, whether it be a buyer seeing houses he or she doesn’t really want, or a seller who is more concerned about selling quickly versus getting top dollar. These are all assumptions that can be costly to our pocketbooks as missed closed transactions and frustrated clients.
There’s also another type of assumption that can be costly: Oftentimes, in the middle of a transaction, we make assumptions about the REALTOR(R) on the other side of the transaction. Or perhaps about their client.
It is so easy to fall into this trap and allow our unfounded or preconceived notions dictate how we handle negotiations. I recently had this very thing happen to me as a seller allowed their assumptions cloud their judgement of my buyer due to an FHA appraisal coming in short of value. Unfortunately, the seller’s REALTOR(R) could not change their client’s presupposition that this was a ploy on the buyer’s part.
The last assumption I want to touch on is the assumption we sometimes make about leaders in our association. I can speak from firsthand experience as the president of a local association that I have learned much in the two plus years leading up to taking this office. I can remember the many misconceptions I had about all three levels of our association. But as I’ve taken the time to learn, to ask questions, and to get involved, it has been easy to replace incorrect assumptions with actual facts and understanding. Continue reading »
Dave Robinson
By Dave Robison
What’s the worst buyer you have ever worked with? I hear it from many agents. “Ohhh, this buyer can’t make up their mind. I’ve shown them a million homes; we have done several offers and they just can’t find that perfect home. I’m tired.” Matter of fact, just Monday, I had a buyer’s agent call on one of my listings and the agent said, “Dave, this guy is an engineer and I’ve shown him a million homes.”
There could be multiple reasons why this is happening. However, I am here to tell you as an agent, it is your fault. Why is it your fault? Because the agent misunderstands the buyer and doesn’t know how to help them.
We helped “one of those types” whose name is Adam. He likes to research data, ask a million detailed questions, etc. I assisted Adam in learning about his talents. Adam also read an article that explained the dangers of his talent. As a result, Adam only saw eight homes before he bought a home. That is it! How did we take “one of those hated buyers” and help them buy a home after seeing only eight houses?
1. We helped Adam understand his talent by taking an assessment. You can order one online at www.kahunarainmaking.com (It’s $50 for a buyer assessment.)
2. We showed Adam that his talent was to prevent risk and his natural tendency would be to look at everything he can so that he would make the perfect pick…however, we showed him that if he did that, he would end up feeling like he “settled.” As someone who likes to research, we gave him an article so he knew what we were saying had credibility. The article is here: http://www.kahunarainmaking.com/TheTyrannyofChoice.pdf
3. We had him research online and narrow down his selections to about 10 homes. Continue reading »
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