Articles by Wendy Forsythe

Each year that I attend the National Association of REALTORS® conference, I come away with some new buzz.  The conference is a great way to tune into buzz-worthy people, topics and catch phrases.

Here are my top 5 buzz-worthy take aways from this year’s conference.

Number 5:  www.tinyurl.com will convert long urls into tiny ones. Great for those hosted virtual tours, slide shows or web commercials that have dozens of letters in the url. Just go to this website and change the url to the street address or something else more meaningful. (For example: http://tinyurl.com/NARBuzz)

Number 4:  www.ping.fm will update your status on multiple social networking sites. Talk about one stop shopping!

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Last week, I had the pleasure of welcoming Gloor Realty Company to the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate network. Located in Oak Park, Illinois, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gloor Realty Company is a shining example of everything you hope for in a partner when building a real estate franchise network.

Announcement day is always a mix of anticipation and nervousness. The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate team waited in a separate room as Rich Gloor Jr. announced to his team that he had made the decision to franchise with our brand. Then he welcomed those of us from the brand to join the group. For me, this moment is always a little unsettling. You can’t help but wonder how the agents at Gloor Realty Company are feeling about the sudden news that they are now a part of a franchise system. You can imagine my relief when I was greeted by a room full of smiling faces.

Rich continued with his presentation explaining why he and his leadership team made the decision to franchise with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. He discussed the marketing advantages that the relationship offered to the local agents, the tools that would allow them to become even more competitive in their market, and the value of the Better Homes and Gardens brand name.

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Last week we kicked off our agent business planning program with part one of Planning for Profit: Getting Started. With the current economic conditions it is more important than ever for agents to develop sound, written business plans. However, it is also more difficult than ever.

The first ingredient in our business plan recipe is to set your production targets for the upcoming year. The uncertainty and concern from the agents was obvious. They asked questions like:

• Given the market, how can I possibly set production targets?
• Should I set my target lower then I actually want?
• Should I set my target higher then I actually want?
• Why bother, I’ve got no control over what is happening in the market. (Most are feeling this sentiment.)

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This week we launched our Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate Planning for Profit program. This program is focused on providing our agents with a system to develop their personal written real estate business plan — something the majority of agents desperately need, but don’t have.

Keeping in line with the Better Homes and Gardens magazine formula, we’ve created our Planning for Profit: Getting Started program like a recipe. When you are cooking from a recipe, the first thing you do is gather all the necessary ingredients. Then you begin mixing them together in just the right amounts. Along the way, you make adjustments to get your preferred outcome.

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By reflex the answer is “yes.” But the answer really is, “it depends.”

Now more than ever it is important that we are extremely selective when hiring new agents. We owe it to them, we owe it to our current agents and we owe it to ourselves.

For the potential new agent just entering the industry, you have to admire their courage. In spite of the daily barrage of media, people all across the country are still becoming licensed and choosing real estate as their career. We owe it to them to make sure they have all the info they need when making this decision and we owe it to them to provide them with the systems, training and support necessary to make their new career work. If you are not prepared to invest in their success to a higher degree than you’ve ever done before, don’t hire them. They deserve better.

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In real estate 101 training I was taught that you tell everyone you know what you are doing and then remind them every time you see them that you are selling real estate. One of my first lessons was to write down the names of everyone I  knew and then contact them to let them know I was now selling real estate. For many new agents today that is done instantly via their Facebook profile.

Now that real estate 101 and Facebook 101 have met, there are amazing opportunities. I admit, it took me a while to figure this out, but recently it dawned as me as I was watching the updates of my selling agent friends on Facebook. They’ve been posting their new listings as newsfeeds and sharing status updates on their latest work-related activities. Facebook has become the Web 2.0 delivery vehicle for just listed and just sold cards. Cool!

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When you have a thought it creates a physical reaction — the mind and the body are connected. If you are having negative thoughts you are likely to feel blue, lethargic, and pessimistic. With everything that is happening in the economic world how do we stay focused on the positive?

NAR data indicates that homes sold at a seasonally adjusted rate of more than 409,000 homes a month between August 2008 and August 2007. The brokers and agents who are focusing their energies on these activities have a very different frame of mind than the ones that are focusing on the various other economic challenges.

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I spent yesterday at the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates office in Stroudsburg, PA. They told me it was a typical day in the office, but what does a typical day in a real estate office look like these days?

If you based your answer on what you hear in the media about the economy and housing market you might think a typical day in a local real estate office is quiet, to say the least. That was not what I witnessed yesterday.

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Posted by Wendy Forsythe

1. Use competitors’ recruiting letters as part of your interview package.

Last week during the RISMedia Leadership Conference in NYC, I spoke on a panel about recruiting. A member of the audience asked the panel what she should do when her agents bring her copies of letters they are getting from other brokerages asking them to join their offices. Many of you have probably told agents to use those letters on their listing presentations as testimonials. Why not take that advice and use the letters as part of your presentation when interviewing potential new agents to join your office? Nothing demonstrates your ability to develop successful agents more clearly than the desire of your competitors to have your agents work at their offices! Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Wendy Forsythe

Tomorrow, I’m speaking at RISMedia’s 19th Annual Leadership Conference in New York City. The topic is: “Weeding Out Bad Recruits: 5 Ways to Recruit More Effectively.” I think we need to focus more on weeding out bad recruiters then recruits.

Here are my thoughts on 5 Ways to Recruit More Effectively. Read the rest of this entry »