If you want to know who will push the economy forward in coming years, look no further than Generations X and Y. The Generation X and Y age group, ranging from 18-48 is 103 million strong making them a group of consumers and eventual homebuyers that will make a major impact on the market. I had Continue Reading
Mar
29
2011
Why Your Customers Are Ignoring You on Social Media (Plus: 3 Ways to Get Noticed!)
by 2
It seems like you can’t go anywhere without hearing people cheerlead social media. “Over 100 million Facebook users in the U.S., you gotta be there!” and “You aren’t connecting to your customers on Twitter, go there too!” they’ll say. So how can so many people cheerlead something that Continue Reading
Feb
24
2011
Financing, Financing, Financing ….It’s all in the Financing!
by 1
Five years after we entered this current downturn, some real estate professionals still attempt to close transactions through the sole use of traditional forms of financing. By traditional, I am referring to “30-year fixed”, “ARMs” and “Balloon” mortgages, yet these financial tools Continue Reading
Jun
22
2010
Operational and Compensational Implications of Reducing Office Size
by 10
As is true with everything in business, the issue of reducing office size cannot be viewed in a vacuum. If you decide that reducing office size is an important initiative for your company, first consider all operational attributes that are impacted by changes to the physical plant. Keep in mind that Continue Reading
May
19
2010
Lease Renewal Analysis
by 1
How much square footage do you really need? How many walk-ins do you get anymore? The old math dictated that we allow 100 square feet per agent, but this has become less and less relevant and less and less practicable. To the extent that you are running a “traditional office” with desks, Continue Reading
May
12
2010
Attributes of Great Real Estate Firms
by 7
Last week, Steve Murray and Nicolai Kolding closed out the REAL Trends Gathering of Eagles conference in Dallas, TX with a presentation highlighting, in their opinions, the key attributes of great real estate firms. The audience, which consisted mainly of some of the largest and most productive Continue Reading
May
06
2010
EOO: Effective Office Occupancy in a Desk-less Environment
by 3
My argument for measuring environmental efficiency in a ‘desk-less’ environment is through determining ‘Dollars Retained per Agent’ (DRA) via ‘Weighted Costs per Agent’ (WCA). By understanding this metric, an EOO Ratio can be calculated. It is important to note that DRA is not Continue Reading
Apr
19
2010
Agent Segmenting as a Coaching Tool
by 16
Companies that “Segment” agents by production levels, typically group agents in ‘quartiles’ by arranging them in descending order according to some specific unit of measure. For example, Adjusted Gross Commission Income (AGCI) is a commonly used metric in the segmenting of sales agents. Continue Reading
Mar
22
2010
Three Success Factors
by 1
Whether you are a brokerage owner or an agent, there are three factors that can ultimately be used to measure your success. A lot of variables go into these outcomes but at the end of the day it is the outcome in these three areas that will shape your tomorrows in this industry. 1) Talent Continue Reading
Jan
06
2010
The “Rent to Own” and “Lease Option” Alternatives for Homebuyers
by 7
If you desire to own your own home, but are unable to secure conventional financing today, you may want to consider houses for rent with an option to buy, using a lease option contract. It can make your rent money work for you. Typically, many rent-to-own homes offer generous monthly rent credits Continue Reading
Managing and Developing the Culture of your Organization
Have the guts to include your agents in the conversation I truly believe that a large part of the office manager’s job is to help their agents think like business people. Anyone who has spent more than 30 minutes leading a sales force knows that salespeople tend to be somewhat unrealistic about Continue Reading