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The Ultimate Listing Presentation
Master listing agent reveals the actual listing presentation that landed him 114 listings his first calendar year in real estate--all at 8% or more! Learn from one of the top listing agents in the country. Now available in e-Book format. ...
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Master listing agent reveals the actual listing presentation that landed him 114 listings his first calendar year in real estate--all at 8% or more! Learn from one of the top listing agents in the country. Now available in e-Book format. ...
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The Science of Online Marketing
Learn the secret to capturing over 100 new customers every month from your web site. Learn from one of the industry's most respected experts in online marketing. Now available in e-Book format....
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Learn the secret to capturing over 100 new customers every month from your web site. Learn from one of the industry's most respected experts in online marketing. Now available in e-Book format....
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The Virtual Office Model
Leading author, trainer, and broker discusses how the traditional model has failed agents, and how you can be a part of the emerging solution. Learn where the real estate industry is headed in this new e-Book release....
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Leading author, trainer, and broker discusses how the traditional model has failed agents, and how you can be a part of the emerging solution. Learn where the real estate industry is headed in this new e-Book release....
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Max-Bang Series: Lose the Overhead!
By: Matt Jones
For my final installment in this 20-part series, I'd like to leave you with one guiding principle that will make you more money, or save you more money, than all the rest. (Isn't saving money the same as making it? My wife tells me it is when she gets back from the mall.) Anyway, here it is: Lose the overhead.
What do I mean? Think about it: If you want to increase your bottom line, there are really only two ways to do it. You can increase your top line (your revenue) or you can decrease the lines in between (your expenses). Either way, or a combination of the two, will help you make more money. In this series, I've covered 18 separate strategies on making money -- on getting the maximum bang for your buck. Nine have been strategies to help you earn more, and the other nine have been ways of reducing your expenses.
Most of us focus only on increasing the top line because we think we are already ruthlessly eliminating extra expenses. Most of us like to think of ourselves as frugal. But are we really? I've already covered many of the areas where you could save money, from advertising, to technology, to phone systems, to rent, to insurance. They're all good ideas.
In fact, I get emails and phone calls on a regular basis, asking me where I come up with these ideas. I'm constantly being told that my stuff is so totally different than anything they've heard or read before and that it is fresh. The reality is that it's common sense, but then common sense is not really that common in our industry. So I'm going to tell you how I come up with these ideas. It's really pretty simple.
With this last installment, rather than share another cool idea, I'd like to give you my mindset. I would like to get you to adjust your way of thinking so you create a culture of saving money in your own practice. I don't just want you to adapt a few of my clever ideas and otherwise just keep spending money. Instead I want you to develop a lifestyle of saving money on your expenses. I'm going to try to give you some practical examples that will hopefully help you understand this final and most important point.
What are your biggest offenders in terms of expenses? For most brokers it is their brick-and-mortar overhead. That's what it was for me, but before eliminating nearly all of mine by going to a virtual office model I did something outrageous. (If you haven't read my series on the Virtual Office Model, you really should.) At the time I leased the entire top floor, all 8,000 square feet, of a nice office building. It was a very nice space, complete with nice decor, nice furniture, and nice office equipment.
Unfortunately, it was also complete with a very nice, hefty price tag. The triple-net monthly lease payment was just over $13,000 (not counting taxes, maintenance, or insurance). Then add the other costs, like utilities, common area maintenance, janitorial, and on and on and on and you have a pretty big nut to crack every month. Believe me, I'm not bragging -- I'm complaining.
At the time it hadn't occurred to me that I could take my real estate practice virtual, so in my mind I was stuck with the brick-and-mortar. But then I had an idea: What if I could outsource some of my overhead? So I approached two lenders and an attorney and arranged for them to open branch offices inside my brokerage office.
My lenders each paid me $3,500 per month and received access to my agents. The attorney paid me $2,500 per month. It was a win-win-win. The mortgage companies got an incredible 42% of all of our mortgage business while the attorney got nearly all of our company's legal work. And I got the entire top floor of an incredible office building for about $4,500 per month!
Did you catch my guiding principle there? Here it is: Always keep your eyes open for creative ways to either eliminate expenses, or else get somebody else to pay them for you. In this case it was getting someone else to pay them. In this next example, it was eliminating the expense.
When I started in real estate, I dressed like an agent. Along with that, I had a dry cleaning bill like an agent -- over $100 per month and that doesn't count the hassle of stopping at the cleaners or of having to wear clothes that smell like dry cleaning solvent. One day I thought about it. Is it possible to look professional and not spend all that money? Yes. That same day I ordered polo shirts with our company logo embroidered on them.
In the summer, we wore them with nice chino style shorts, and in the winter with full-length wash and wear slacks and even a sport coat if we need to dress it up. We wash them ourselves, and our customers see us as every bit as professional as we were in suits. Franky, the new look is more comfortable, less expensive, and saves a ton of money. Why? Because I looked at an expense and asked how I could either eliminate it or get somebody else to pay it.
If you think back through this series, much of what I have shared with you is one example after another of that principle in practice. One of the ideas that received more feedback than any other was the Open House 'til It Sells idea. Think about it: I allowed a client to pay my entire office overhead while creating a huge win for him.
In all of them -- Letting a Lender Pay Your Ad Bill, Fire Your Receptionist, Incorporate Yourself, Just Say No to E&O, Fire Your Phone Company, Free Advertising, Add Video for Free, and Free Electronic Document Archival -- I used the very same principle.
Here it is again, in case you missed it: Always keep your eyes open for creative ways to either eliminate expenses, or else get somebody else to pay them for you. If you can train yourself to think like that, you will save (or make) a lot more money. So let me close by giving you a practical exercise.
Take a few minutes to review each of your expenses, one by one. With each one, get creative. How could you eliminate it? Using technology? Just cutting it out all together? Who would notice? Would it effect your business in a negative way? Who else benefits or could benefit from that expense? If you have to keep it, how can you get them or somebody else to pay a portion of it or maybe even all of it for you, while making it a win for them?
Now I want you to share some of your ideas with me and our fellow readers. Take a few minutes to post a comment sharing one or two of your favorite cost-cutting ideas that could benefit us all. I sure don't have all the answers. I may even include your ideas in a final chapter of this series when it becomes a book, and of course, I'll give you credit.
Finally, thank you for investing your valuable time in reading this series of articles. I am honored and humbled that thousands of agents would take the time to read and comment on them. And knowing that I have been able to touch the lives and practices of many agents across the world makes me very happy. Let's see... helping agents and being happy? That's Max-Bang!
By: Matt Jones
For my final installment in this 20-part series, I'd like to leave you with one guiding principle that will make you more money, or save you more money, than all the rest. (Isn't saving money the same as making it? My wife tells me it is when she gets back from the mall.) Anyway, here it is: Lose the overhead.
What do I mean? Think about it: If you want to increase your bottom line, there are really only two ways to do it. You can increase your top line (your revenue) or you can decrease the lines in between (your expenses). Either way, or a combination of the two, will help you make more money. In this series, I've covered 18 separate strategies on making money -- on getting the maximum bang for your buck. Nine have been strategies to help you earn more, and the other nine have been ways of reducing your expenses.
Most of us focus only on increasing the top line because we think we are already ruthlessly eliminating extra expenses. Most of us like to think of ourselves as frugal. But are we really? I've already covered many of the areas where you could save money, from advertising, to technology, to phone systems, to rent, to insurance. They're all good ideas.
In fact, I get emails and phone calls on a regular basis, asking me where I come up with these ideas. I'm constantly being told that my stuff is so totally different than anything they've heard or read before and that it is fresh. The reality is that it's common sense, but then common sense is not really that common in our industry. So I'm going to tell you how I come up with these ideas. It's really pretty simple.
With this last installment, rather than share another cool idea, I'd like to give you my mindset. I would like to get you to adjust your way of thinking so you create a culture of saving money in your own practice. I don't just want you to adapt a few of my clever ideas and otherwise just keep spending money. Instead I want you to develop a lifestyle of saving money on your expenses. I'm going to try to give you some practical examples that will hopefully help you understand this final and most important point.
What are your biggest offenders in terms of expenses? For most brokers it is their brick-and-mortar overhead. That's what it was for me, but before eliminating nearly all of mine by going to a virtual office model I did something outrageous. (If you haven't read my series on the Virtual Office Model, you really should.) At the time I leased the entire top floor, all 8,000 square feet, of a nice office building. It was a very nice space, complete with nice decor, nice furniture, and nice office equipment.
Unfortunately, it was also complete with a very nice, hefty price tag. The triple-net monthly lease payment was just over $13,000 (not counting taxes, maintenance, or insurance). Then add the other costs, like utilities, common area maintenance, janitorial, and on and on and on and you have a pretty big nut to crack every month. Believe me, I'm not bragging -- I'm complaining.
At the time it hadn't occurred to me that I could take my real estate practice virtual, so in my mind I was stuck with the brick-and-mortar. But then I had an idea: What if I could outsource some of my overhead? So I approached two lenders and an attorney and arranged for them to open branch offices inside my brokerage office.
My lenders each paid me $3,500 per month and received access to my agents. The attorney paid me $2,500 per month. It was a win-win-win. The mortgage companies got an incredible 42% of all of our mortgage business while the attorney got nearly all of our company's legal work. And I got the entire top floor of an incredible office building for about $4,500 per month!
Did you catch my guiding principle there? Here it is: Always keep your eyes open for creative ways to either eliminate expenses, or else get somebody else to pay them for you. In this case it was getting someone else to pay them. In this next example, it was eliminating the expense.
When I started in real estate, I dressed like an agent. Along with that, I had a dry cleaning bill like an agent -- over $100 per month and that doesn't count the hassle of stopping at the cleaners or of having to wear clothes that smell like dry cleaning solvent. One day I thought about it. Is it possible to look professional and not spend all that money? Yes. That same day I ordered polo shirts with our company logo embroidered on them.
In the summer, we wore them with nice chino style shorts, and in the winter with full-length wash and wear slacks and even a sport coat if we need to dress it up. We wash them ourselves, and our customers see us as every bit as professional as we were in suits. Franky, the new look is more comfortable, less expensive, and saves a ton of money. Why? Because I looked at an expense and asked how I could either eliminate it or get somebody else to pay it.
If you think back through this series, much of what I have shared with you is one example after another of that principle in practice. One of the ideas that received more feedback than any other was the Open House 'til It Sells idea. Think about it: I allowed a client to pay my entire office overhead while creating a huge win for him.
In all of them -- Letting a Lender Pay Your Ad Bill, Fire Your Receptionist, Incorporate Yourself, Just Say No to E&O, Fire Your Phone Company, Free Advertising, Add Video for Free, and Free Electronic Document Archival -- I used the very same principle.
Here it is again, in case you missed it: Always keep your eyes open for creative ways to either eliminate expenses, or else get somebody else to pay them for you. If you can train yourself to think like that, you will save (or make) a lot more money. So let me close by giving you a practical exercise.
Take a few minutes to review each of your expenses, one by one. With each one, get creative. How could you eliminate it? Using technology? Just cutting it out all together? Who would notice? Would it effect your business in a negative way? Who else benefits or could benefit from that expense? If you have to keep it, how can you get them or somebody else to pay a portion of it or maybe even all of it for you, while making it a win for them?
Now I want you to share some of your ideas with me and our fellow readers. Take a few minutes to post a comment sharing one or two of your favorite cost-cutting ideas that could benefit us all. I sure don't have all the answers. I may even include your ideas in a final chapter of this series when it becomes a book, and of course, I'll give you credit.
Finally, thank you for investing your valuable time in reading this series of articles. I am honored and humbled that thousands of agents would take the time to read and comment on them. And knowing that I have been able to touch the lives and practices of many agents across the world makes me very happy. Let's see... helping agents and being happy? That's Max-Bang!
Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com and nationally syndicated author of LCM: The Secret to Success in the New Age of Real Estate, The Ultimate Listing Presentation, Traffic: How to Sell Fast and Net More, Becoming a Mega-Producer, and 20 Questions: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Real Estate but Were Afraid to Ask. Jones' North Carolina-based company has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed FavoriteAgent.com is "changing the way real estate is being done in America." This content is cross-posted in the following locations: BlogMattBlog.com, RealBlogging.com, NewsGeni.us, and now Amazon Kindle.
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As a new agent, and armed with this same listing approach, I began to take listings. My initial goal was to take one listing a week. And because I really discovered the approach I'm about to teach...
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Here is the best-kept secret about finding new listing leads.Most agents know what to do when a customer fills out a CMA request on his website (or calls to ask for one). The problem is that those...
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The New Ultimate Listing Presentation (Part 6)
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What exactly is a lead capture gateway and how is that different from my website?In this part, I'm going to explain how lead capture technology works. Just like in the example above, imagine that same...
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