Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
The sun rose over the eastern sky as my alarm went off on what was quite the unusual March morning. Well beyond the fact that it was nearly 50 degrees, I decided to take my wife’s advice and go to the neurologist and chiropractor after six days of constant migraines.
As I sat in the chiropractor’s office, I was reliving every Charlie Sheen joke about chiropractors from “2-1/2 Men” in my head and sadly it blended very well with my own personal experience. But as I sat there waiting for my name to be called, I read through the pamphlet that was provided to me by the office manager – it dawned on me – these people were on the ball.
Are you on the ball?
They gave me three sheets of paper that outlined three key things that I wanted to know.
- What was going to happen on the first visit.
- What is going to happen on the upcoming visits.
- How to work with insurance and other options to pay for the treatments.
It got me thinking. Am I preparing my clients this effectively for the transaction? Sadly, REALTORS® have about the same reputation as chiropractors for working their clients over.
How can we take a page from this chiropractor?
- Provide a pre-meeting itinerary that outlines exactly what the meeting will cover and how it will go. This does a few things, but most importantly it keeps the meeting on track and provide a road map, keeping the awkward silence to a minimum. Continue reading »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
The question on my local NPR station was simple enough: “Why do symphonies sound different when they are made up of the same parts?” The response was very eloquent and educated — I assume. It made as much sense as Pig Latin to me. “Well each one focuses on different things…”
I’m sure that musicians in the audience totally understood what the conductor was describing. But the “common person” was lost and tuned him out.
Are you doing that to your real estate clients?
How about that letter soup? Or the intricacies of how your company differs from the next?
Make sure you’re explaining things without their eyes’ glassing over. All they want to know is that you are a great agent who will handle their transaction like it is the only one you have.
However, you have to continually read your clients and provide them the information they need to make a decision without overwhelming them. How do we do it? Well, it can be quite natural — just shut up. Yes, I just told a group of REALTORS® to shut up, and know that is almost impossible for any of us to do so. But we need to just stay quiet and let the clients talk.
Before you start rattling off the details on an FHA 203K loan, how about finding out if they need to know about the 203K loan. Kind of embarrassing when you explain it for about five minutes and she says, “I know, I created them for years as a loan officer.” Did I build any rapport with them during that five minute session? Probably not, as they already knew and were debating whether to use satin or silk in the living room.
The point is, if you listen to your customers and provide knowledge where the gap is present, then you have done exactly what they’ve hired you to do: You are adding value to the transaction. And the next time they hear a real estate agent going on about “blah, blah, blah,” they’ll just tune him/her right out because they’ll know — you’ll provide the answer they need.
Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.com.
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
I’ve had the fortune of serving on committees for the Delaware County Board of REALTORS®, Ohio Association of REALTORS®, and National Association of REALTORS®. By far, whenever the topic comes up around agent and non-agent friends alike, the focus is shifted towards NAR and how “cool” that is.
Sure, I’m a big fan of the work NAR’s Professional Development Committee does, and it has a large impact on members, but how does that really help my buyers and sellers? OAR is in the same boat. Discussing issues as the vice-chair of the communications committee is great. Yet, how much does that really impact the people that I’m working with as buyers and sellers?
When it comes to my community, I get the most out of working as a member on the public relations committee for the DCBR. Why? Because this is where the decisions and time commitment I have made are make a real impact on those I serve. Such as the bowl-a-thon that has donated about $3,000 a year to a local hospice. The ideas and action we take at that local level make our communities better places to live and work.
So, the next time your local board needs volunteers. Remember those hours will have the greatest direct impact on your community.
Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.com.
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
She’d been courting both of us, and promised that she’d let us know tonight who she chose. I waited patiently by the phone, but finally drove by her house.
That ain’t my sign in her yard.
I thought she was the “one” and that we’d be together forever – well at least the next six months – but she made her choice tonight.
And that ain’t my sign in her yard.
With every apology to country-music star Rhett Atkins and his “That Ain’t My Truck” hit from a few years back, we’ve all been in that same position. Court that potential listing with your pre-listing package, give a dynamite listing presentation, and follow up that’s top notch. Yet, you still find that there is another agent’s sign in the yard.
That initial feeling of betrayal and frustration gives way to the nagging question, “What did I do wrong?” And while you struggle with the question you’ll find a few old-fashioned break-up lines to help you out.
There are Other Fish in the Sea. Amazing how much less you worry about “the one that got away” when you have a net full of other listings to work on. While dating requires matters of the heart, the good news is that generating more listings is simply more prospecting.
It’s Not You, It’s Me. The favorite one of all time. When it comes to your real estate career, remember one thing – you can only control your side of the presentation. Did you do everything that you’ve done for the listings you earned? Did you follow through and make sure it was the best for them? If the seller interviews multiple agents they may have a magic trigger button. They picked the cutest agent, the one that showed up in the nicest car, the fattest one, or whatever it was. You can’t control that, so why bother trying.
So the next time you realize that ain’t your sign in her yard, don’t go getting the blues … just put the chin up and move on.
Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.com.
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
We’ve all seen the advertisements on television. The more Axe bodywash you use, the more female attention you are going to get.
Well, I recently conducted a not-at-all scientific experiment and wore Axe body wash to the library. A couple of girls and guys smiled at me, but I was really disappointed as I expected there to be a line out the door complete with cat fights. I mean, that’s what the advertisement leads us to believe will happen, right?
Ahh, yes. But we know better. We know that isn’t true. We know that there are a lot more things that go into whether you’ll have a female talk to you than what body wash you used this morning.
So how is it that so many of these “real estate gurus” continue to travel the country selling the exact same thing? The magic bullet that will save your real estate career and desperate agents buy into it.
“Those that came here today hoping to just pick up one piece of usable information are just prolonging their failure.” It was the line that got me in 2006. I was struggling and forked over $600 that we really didn’t have for a system that I never really ended up using. Why? Because I needed a magic pill and they offered one.
When teaching technology classes in my office and others, I see too many agents looking for the same result from social media. The most common question is, “How much will blogging make me?” Well that’s hard to answer because it depends on what you do with it and where you take it. But you can do it. Sadly, I can count on one hand the number of blogs I’ve set-up over the years that are still functional and being maintained.
Yet every single agent has access to the “magic pill” for their real estate career — a business plan. Continue reading »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
It was a hot summer day in late July 2006 as I slipped down U.S. 23 to the Ohio Division of Real Estate testing center. I had made the jump into real estate without a safety net – quitting my job in higher education public relations and knowing that if I failed this test it would be a very-very bad sign.
Well, I passed the test. Actually, I scored a perfect 100 percent on the state portion of the test, a feat that none of the folks working that day had ever seen achieved. So I entered into the world of real estate with a swagger and confidence. “I got this.”
We got through two years when 2-out-of-3 licensed agents aren’t even using their license. And now about to hit the five-year milestone and the only thing I’m certain of is how little I really knew when I said, “I got this.”
While the last five years have been an emotional and financial roller coaster, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I honestly – even if naively – believe that I’ve learned more during this period than I could have in any other venture.
“I wish you’d made the jump a few years ago,” said a former agent. “It was so easy, the phone just rang and buyers were there.” That sounds like being an order taker to me, so why not work at a local fast food restaurant?
What have I learned in five years in real estate: Continue reading »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
Sitting in the classroom taking licensure classes to become a licensed real estate agent in the state of Ohio, suddenly it becomes very obvious: They want to make sure you know people don’t like you.
“You are spoken in the same breath as used car salesmen,” a local real estate attorney is fond of stating. (Of course he often neglected to mention that the other half of the comparison is to his own profession.)
However, are we in the same class as used car salesmen? Nope. Not even close according to the U.S. Better Business Bureau’s recently released 2010 numbers . In fact, the number of complaints against real estate agents isn’t even in the top 50 industries. The most complaints in 2010 were registered against:
1. Television – Cable, CATV & Satellite: 30,408
2. Cellular Phones Services & Equipment: 24,876
3. Auto Dealers – New Cars: 23,906
4. Banks: 22,609
5. Collection Agencies: 14,966
6. Auto Dealers – Used Cars: 13,902
Real estate agents slipped in the 54th position on the list with 3,034 complaints. Which I believe was made even more impressive by the fact that more than 400,000 inquires were made for real estate agents of the Better Business Bureau in 2010.
So next time you look in the mirror, remember, “Dog gone it, people like you.”
Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.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 »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
I rolled up on the house like I always do, peering at addresses to verify the location with where the GPS was placing the destination.
However, this time I missed the house. And that’s where this story took a possibly tragic detour. With four years of experience processing broker price opinions I’ve developed a safety routine that goes back to my days working as a bouncer.
But on this day – ironically the same day that the Ohio Association of REALTORS® Communications Committee of which I’m vice chair introduced a motion for a year-long safety reminder and training course – I veered from my course of action and elected to walk back to the house for the photos. As I was taking a photo of the front of the house a tenant appeared at the door and inquired as to why I was there. I responded but obviously not to his liking as he asked me to leave and displayed a hand gun.
I walked briskly away from the scene before the realty of the situation hit me. I found a comfortable parking lot and just shook for about five minutes before getting myself back together. As the hours progressed I continued to think about the situation and what happened and how I should have handled the situation – and how I’d done just about everything wrong.
I’ve defused a lot of dangerous situations with words and avoided fisticuffs on most occasions (and I’m sure I deserved to get popped more often than I didn’t) with several key techniques. The YPN model is to share and work with each other to develop better agents. So, my five key safety techniques are:
1. Have a Game Plan – What will you do if you are put into a situation where you become uncomfortable? If you can’t answer that question right now, then you need to sit down and work out a plan – this is one time where failing to plan can be more damaging than just failing it could get you robbed or worse. You can’t be prepared for every situation, but if you know how to handle that “too friendly” guest at the open house or the angry dog on a BPO then your instincts will lead you in the right direction when it is time to rely on instincts. Continue reading »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
The couple slid through the front door, their faces painted with obvious pain and anguish over having to go through this all over again – and after talking to them, it became very obvious why.
This was the first time I’d met the couple, but I was far from their first real estate agent who they’d viewed houses with. A past client referred them my direction and as we stood in that house, it became obvious that the agents they’d met were not paying attention to the clients.
While I’m sure that no one that reads the YPN blogs is guilty of this at all, it seemed a good time to remind other professionals of a few items.
You Work for the Buyer (or Seller). This is an amazing concept, I know. While many clients will lean on your expertise the key is to remember that every – and I do mean EVERY – decision in this transaction is theirs. Stop putting your values, ideas, and personal biases on to your customers – they don’t care and more importantly it could be a lawsuit waiting to happen if it is deemed to be steering due to a protected class.
Lead the Horse To Water, Let It Drink. The neighborhood isn’t the best one in the market – but which is the best? Is that a subject or objective statement? Of course it is subjective which means it needs to be left up to your clients. Showing houses last weekend and the street felt very busy to me and the buyers have a young child – made me uncomfortable. Did I voice my concern to the buyer? Of course, but it was in a constructive way, suggesting they come by the house a few times to make sure they were comfortable with the traffic and speed on the street. Led them to the water hole, and to drink or not was their decision. Oh yeah, and they wrote on the house.
Show Some Personality. I’m unique; actually I believe when I was in school the word was “special.” And I’m proud of that. You should be to. Embrace who you are and utilize it to the best of your abilities. I’m a natural educator and I believe that my home buyers are some of the most educated about the process in the area. I work with people who share similar beliefs from an affiliate stand point and it has worked for me during my four-and-a-half years in real estate. Continue reading »
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