Real Estate Photo Tips for Everyone

How many times have you gone to see a listing only to hear your Buyer say - "Wow looks lots better than the picture!" Sometimes I wonder if real estate agents even got out of the car before taking the photo. You know the ones I mean - where you can see the edge of the window or the side mirror. It's almost as if the photo is an after thought to getting the listing. When I present my listing presentation there is already a photo of the house on the front cover. This let's my Seller's know that I have done my homework before I come to price their home.

Then there are the photos with spring flowers and there is snow on the ground now. Or snow pics in the summer. Photos need to be updated seasonally. Listings are lasting longer so I thought I would share with you a few photo tips.

Outside

• Crop out sidewalks and streets using your computer photo software
• Remove cars from the driveway and street
• Put away - trash cans/toys/tools/pets
• Shoot close up angled photos to make the house look bigger
• Avoid shade on the house
• Avoid shooting into the sun
• Have the lawn mowed before you take your shot
• Let it be a blue sky day
• Ask the Seller when the front yard is sunniest - then take the pic at that time of day preferably morning
• Take pics of the neighborhood dock/gym/community garden/pool/tennis court/clubhouse

Inside

• Open shades, blinds and curtains
• Turn on all the lights
• Remove toys/trash/pets
• Close toilet lids
• Avoid shooting into mirrors (unless you want to be in the pic)
• Bring in fresh flowers
• Set the dining room table
• Focus on interesting details like a fireplace
• Use a tripod so that you can get different angles

Final word of advice - take more pictures. Use all the slots on your MLS to show that listing inside and out. With everyone searching on line first you will be really glad you did. Studies have been done that show you need to take a minimum of 6 photos for internet Buyers to look at.

Shannon Aldrich, Keller Williams Coastal Realty Market Center Instructor

Shannon Aldrich
Keller Williams Coastal Realty
Portsmouth, NH
www.RealEstateSeacoast.com

13 Top Rookie Mistakes in Real Estate

Real estate is a business that offers great rewards and can also create enormous heart ache and stress. Here are a few of the most common mistakes I see with new agents.

Not Being Prepared to be Self Employed
You need to fully understand that you are now self-employed. You did not just get a new job. You went into business for yourself. Big difference.

Not Having a Business Plan
If you don’t know where you are going how do you honestly expect to get there. What does it really mean to you when asked the question “Are you successful in real estate?” 5-10-15-150 deals, where are you on the spectrum. Without Goals how will you know when you get to the top?

Not Arming Yourself with the Necessary Tools
Getting started is expensive. There are certain costs that can’t be changed like joining a Board.

Trying to do Real Estate Part Time
There really is no such thing as part time in real estate. Clients need full time attention. When you lack proper funding to get started it sets you up for tremendous stress. The rule of thumb is to have 4-6 months of savings when starting. When I started I worked real estate full time while I still had two other part time jobs. My focus was always real estate first.

Taking Over Priced Listings
If it won’t sell, what’s the point? Having a sign up won’t help either when the buyer calls don’t think you know what you are doing. Over priced listings cost to much money and time. If they are starting out over priced you should have a plan already in place with the seller for quick price reductions.

Reducing the Commission
When you de-value your commission, you de-value your services in the eyes of the seller. Trust me, you will earn every penny of that commission.

Failure to Master the Listing Presentation
This is to important to just “wing it”. Learn your scripts and they will carry you to the closing table. You cannot practice what you are going to do on a Listing Presentation too many times.

Failure to Master the Buyer Scripts
Honestly folks, learn your scripts. All of the objections are common and the scripts are the map of the territory. You wouldn’t go hiking in the White Mountains without a map, why would you pass up the information on how to do real estate from those who have gone before you? So learn your scripts and practice them until they sound like you.

Failure to Seek Referrals
You must ask for the business. All of your friends and family are sources for referrals.

Refusing to Spend Money on Marketing
You have to invest in yourself and in your business. Be careful where you spend your money. You need to be strategic but please understand it takes some money to make some money.

Failure to Continue Education
Yes, you passed the real estate licensing test. Congratulations. It has next to nothing to do with selling real estate. Now the real learning curve comes into play.

Failure to Understand the Contracts
This is serious business with serious money on the line. Attend contracts class, ask questions and most importantly READ the contracts.

Thinking that Just Having a License Means They Will Do Business
Real estate does not just happen for most people. Just because you have a license does not mean that deals will automatically fall in your lap. You may trip over the occasional deal or two, but if you want to make a living in real estate you have to get to work.

(c) Shannon Aldrich 2010
http://www.therealestateclass.com/

Positive Affirmations - 3 Ways

Positive affirmations are great tools to keeping you in the right mind frame to work in the ever changing field of sales. From Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins there are so many ways to bring this into your life. One of the things I noticed is that I rarely speak negatively to myself in the first person (ie You are so stupid vs. I am so stupid). Once this came through I decided to try working my affirmations in a different way. I say my affirmations 3 ways.

For example

1. I love working in real estate and I am richly rewarded for all I do
2. You love working in real estate and you are richly rewarded for all you do
3. Shannon loves working in real estate and she is richly rewarded for all she does

It felt a little strange at first but I quickly discovered that my inner speech started to change.
Does anyone else do something like this?

Shannon Aldrich
Keller Williams Coastal Realty
Portsmouth, NH
www.RealEstateSeacoast.com

Broker Open House - Hot Chcken Lunch with Pie

Marketing to the local real estate agents is one of the easiest way to get your listing sold. They are working with the Buyers we need to complete the job we have contracted for with our Sellers - in short - Sell The House. So how do we get them out of thier offices to preview our listings? The most common way seems to be the Broker Open House. After all if you feed them - they will come. My favorite menu for a Broker Open House is one where the leftovers can be used at home and not just thrown away. Also it needs to pass the test of attracting attention from other real estate agents in the area. Hot Chicken Lunch with Pie sounds like a big meal but is actually very cost effective and easy to pull together. It can all be served in an 18qt. electric roasting oven with buffet inserts. This makes a mini steam table to keep everything hot and allow for easy serving. Ask permission of your Seller to use their microwave to warm food and oven to bake the pie. Sometimes the pie is ready for the agents and sometimes it's purpose is to make the house smell great. It all depends on your schedule that day. I usually leave the pie behind for the Seller's to enjoy. Depending on the Seller I have also be known to leave behind a plate for every member of the family for them to enjoy when they get home from work and school.

Before your Broker Open send out flyers to all the agents in your area by email, fax or postcard. Consider sending a special invite to the Top 10% of Buyer agents in the area letting them know you are inviting them because they are in the Top 10%. Send your first flyer 5-7 days in advance and then send again 1-2 days before the event. I always include the detailed menu for this Hot Lunch Special.

• Hot Chicken with Gravy
• Fresh Mashed Potatoes
• Vegetable (I like peas but use the vegetable you like)
• Cranberry Sauce
• And PIE

Chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetable, cranberry sauce and pie is the menu so let's break it down to what you need.
Equipment:

• 18 qt roaster oven with buffet inserts
• Small serving bowl for cranberry sauce
• 3 large serving spoons & 1 small serving spoon
• 1 can opener
• 1 knife and spatula for pie
• oven mitts
• Press and Seal Wrap
• Disposable oven liner
• Rolling Broker Open House Kit

Ingredients:

• 2-3 roaster chickens pre-cooked in the deli aisle
• 2-4 jars chicken gravy
• Make your own mashed potatoes (I like to make mine with heavy cream instead of milk) or buy pre-made potatoes
• 1 bag frozen microwave vegatables of choice
• 1-2 cans cranberry sauce
• 1 frozen pie
• 2-3 liters of soda or lemonade with cups

The night before pull all the meat off the chickens and put it in one of buffet servers pour 1-2 jars of gravy over the chicken, cover over with Press and Seal wrap and put in the refrigerator. Use the extra gravy to heat up on site and bring your chicken to hot faster. If you have extra chicken put in glass bowl in case you need to heat it up in a microwave.

Make you mashed potatoes and also store in another one of the buffet servers.

You will need to give yourself an hour to get the food ready on site.

The vegetables can be heated up on site very quickly.

Open the cranberry sauce and serve on the side. I get more comments on the cranberry sauce touch than anything else.

Put the pie in the over with the disposable oven liner as soon as you arrive. Don't worry if it is not ready when the agents arrive - them smell alone will bring warm smiles.

Now that the food is ready don't forget to put out plenty of signs with ballons or flags, call the surrounding offices to remind them of your hot lunch special, set out your Broker Price Opinion surveys with plenty of pens so that you can get feedback on your property and the price. Once everything is ready to go don't forget to sit down and enjoy Hot Chicken Lunch yourself.

Sailing out to sea from the Piscataqua River in New Castle NH
Shannon Aldrich, Keller Williams Coastal Realty Portsmouth, NH

Testimonial are the keys to Open More Doors

Testimonials - why do want them, need them or even like them. Well, in my mind they are a key to establishing credibility on line. The average client doesn't care if you say you are "The Best Real Estate Professional Around" and they are not necessarily going to believe your marketing hype. But having several letters from past happy clients that they can read on your web site provides potential clients with overwhelming evidence the you are the best and most competent agent around. Anyone can toot their own horn - testimonials are proof. They want to know you are the best agent ever, they just don't want to hear from you alone.

How do you get testimonials - the same way you get referral business - you ASK. Simply ask for the testimonial immediately after a successful closing. Ask when they are really excited about buying/selling a home. You can even provide examples of other testimonials in order to get them started. You want to make sure you ask them if you can use their full name and address on your marketing. This adds a factor of believability to testimonials you post on your website.  Or go the extra mile and have photos of your happy clients in front of their new house. Send a thank you note after receiving each and every one. You can never have too many testimonials or happy clients.

Use them everywhere - in your listing presentations, home buyer guide, web site, ads, farming letters, frame them and put them on the wall of your office, anywhere you can think of. Sometimes you might drill down the information to just one or two lines with a name and town and in other cases you will want to reprint the entire letter.

Now is a great time of year to set up a campaign to get more testimonials in your tool kit. Go through all of your past clients and prepare a simple one page letter for them. Add in a sheet of paper labeled "Testimonial Form" that they can fill out. At the bottom have the release of information that allows you to use the testimonial, their full name and address. Stating that they are giving permission for you to reprint and a place to sign. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope to make it even easier to send back.

Remember that hand written thank you note for each one that arrives.

The letter could go something like this -
Dear Happy Client:
In today's world it is difficult to know a true real estate professional that you can trust and is competent to assist you in one of the biggest financial transactions of your life. My strategy is not to talk about myself but to share comments and experiences some of my best clients have had while working with me. And that's why I am writing you today. Would you mind sharing a few words about your real estate experience working with me. Did I help you save money, time, stress? Did I go the extra mile? What stands out in your memory. Enclosed you will find a simple for to fill out and a SASE to mail it back with. I thank you in advance for taking the time to send me this testimonial.

Testimonials also are great to give you a lift when you are wondering why you sell real estate. Keep a book of them and listing sheets of all your sold properties to lift you up when the weight of the world is dragging you down. All you need is a three-ring binder and a box of sheet protectors to boost your attitude anytime.

Pumpkin Fence at Barker's Farm in Stratham NH

Progressive Broker Open Houses

"If you clump them - they will come"

Have you ever thought of doing a Progressive Broker Open House? What is it - well it is where several agents get together on the same day to open several listings. You don't have to limit yourself to only listings in your office - open it up to other agents who have listings near yours. That will also help with attendance since you will have agents in other offices promoting your listing along with theirs.  A great way to build relationships with agents from other offices.

• Keep houses within a mile of each other. The closer the better. Condo complexes are great for this.
• Provide directions to each house on the flyer. Put them in a proper driving order.
• Get together with the other agents and split the cost of a raffle prize.
• Have agents "qualify" for the raffle by attending all houses. Two ways to do this. Have them drop a card at each house and sort them out at the end. Or have them drop a card at each house and use one of their cards to get initialed at each house that they drop at the last house.
• Put the MLS numbers with each address
• "You are invited to 5 Broker Open Houses" makes a title that attracts interest.
• Let agents know what you are serving for food. You can also have the food split between the houses. Have one agent do appetizers, another sandwiches and a third doing dessert.
• Bulk email can get the message out there quickly but don't forget to fax. Check with your local board to see if they will send out these kind of announcements.
• Call all the surrounding agencies on the day of the event to remind them of the "Free Lunch" or "Fab Raffle Prize"
• Add the agents who attended to your agent email database so that you can contact them in the future.

Feel free to add your ideas to this list - the more the merrier!

Real Estate Agents Marketing Event - Blood Drive

Ever thought of hosting a blood drive? Excellent way to get your name out in the public and do something good for your community. Great way to get you name in the paper. Here are some ideas to increase your attendance.

Challenge local clubs, groups and non-profits - the groups that donates the most pints will "win" a donation to their organization. You decide the monetary amount say $200-500 that will be the "prize" money. Check with you accountant to see if you can also deduct the donation from your taxes.

Ask local merchants to donate raffle prizes. Put this information in your press release.

Hold it around Halloween - Have a vampire themed drive. Dress up for publicity photos and include with your press release.

Create a Power Point presentation that runs automatically in the waiting area or snack area showcasing all of your listings. Don't have any listings? Ask your fellow agents in the office if you can "borrow" theirs.

Send your press release to all the local papers and your Chamber of Commerce.

Host the event in your office if you have a large enough training room.

Signage is always crucial at an outside event - Don't be a "secret" agent

If you have any ideas - please feel free to share them.



Shannon Aldrich, Keller Williams Coastal Realty
Portsmouth NH


Yellow Spider, South Berwick ME

Shannon Aldrich
Keller Williams Coastal Realty
Portsmouth, NH
www.RealEstateSeacoast.com

The Broker Open House Kit

Here is a handy way to always be ready for your next Broker Open House
One Cooler on wheels with handle

Pack the following inside using gallon ziploc type bags to keep everything clean and to easily see what you are running low on.

• 6.5" Paper Plates
• Small cups
• Napkins
• Plastic spoons
• Plastic forks
• Plastic knives
• Garbage Bags
• Sponge(s)
• Oven Mitt
• Travel Salt & Pepper

Now all you need is food and drink and you are ready to roll!
What do you carry in your kit?

 Fishing Huts, North Hampton NH

Shannon Aldrich, Keller Williams Coastal Realty Portsmouth NH TheRealEstateClass.com

Practicing Pie = Practicing Scripts

On Friday I was told that I was being put in charge of pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving feast at my cousin's house. Sounds simple enough for the average pie eater. I, however, am up against the legend of my Gram, Helen Sten. Gram made pies. Dozens of them as gifts for everyone from the mechanic who serviced her car to her hair dressers (students always at the local beauty school). She made real crusts that cannot be reproduced. Often I would see her with a small stack of white boxes with a clear plastic window each one with a fresh pie nestled into it. Pumpkin, squash, apple and her perfect lemon meringue's, flowed out her kitchen. Each with a handmade crust, each a work of pie art and Gram's love.

So when I learned that I was off green bean casserole duty and now on pie detail, my heart skipped a beat. My specialty is cookies not pie. Gram was the pie diva, I am the cookie queen. Cookies cook quick. Pie is an exercise in patience. So I set off this weekend to practice pie. Recipes from the internet yielded mostly the traditional pumpkin/sweet condensed milk pie with a couple of interesting exceptions. Notably the Paula Dean pie and a tofu pie. The Paula Dean recipe is of course, a heart stopper of a concoction. The tofu pie would be the first attempt to bake with soy products. This pie would have no eggs or milk to make custard part of the pie but would rely on silken vanilla tofu.

My office has been eating pie all week. But why practice pie instead of just make a pie? Because you get better at what you do when you do it over and over again. Practice makes perfect is the simple truth. The same goes for real estate scripts. Practice your scripts until you become one with them. Then you will have the right words flow when you are in the field talking to your sphere of influence. At the beginning you are going to feel foolish standing in front of the mirror with a piece of paper in your hand just reading out loud. But time goes on and sure enough you will have success. Scripts can set you above the rest because you are prepared for the conversation. The same goes for pie - I have test baked four pies now and have a handle on what happens in the life of pie. The agents in my office have tried all the pies and given great feedback on my technique. Like a script, I now know what to expect, how to conquer obstacles and deliver the perfect pie.

For all of you who have followed the pie saga on Facebook the overall winner in the pumpkin pie tasting was the TOFU PUMPKIN PIE~! Traditional pie came in second place. The Paula Dean pie was most often picked by people who started with "Well, I don't like pumpkin pie but..." So it just goes to show that we need several different types of scripts (and pie) in order to please all of our customers. So go spend some quality time in front of the mirror and practice what you are going to say. Let's get a handle on how to overcome objections and move forward to the closing table.
 
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Let's eat pie!

February Holidays

Most months have their big holidays and February is no exception. Valentine's Day is the first one most of think of - with President's Day coming in a close second. Leap Year is here in 2008 and could be an interesting target market campaign with the thought that you shouldn't wait another 4 years to buy a house. Or hold a food drive for Canned Food Month to benefit your town. Invigorate your standard marketing plans with some of the more unusual celebrations. Also check out the monthly and weekly holidays to plan your volunteer activities that will get you out there meeting new people and building stronger friendships. After all people do real estate with people they know

Holidays with Changing Dates
Shrove Tuesday (The day before Lent) AKA Fat Tuesday AKA Mardi Gras is always 46 days before Easter
President's Day (February 18, 2008) Third Monday of the month
Monthly
African American History Month (Black History Month)
American Heart Month
Bake for Family Fun Month
National Pet Dental Health Month
National Cherry Month
Children's Dental Health Month
Library Lovers Month

Weekly
1st Week
National Burn Awareness Week
National Consumer Protection Week
3rd Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week

Daily
1 National Freedom Day
2 Ground Hog Day
4 National Stuffed Mushroom Day
6 Massachusetts became 6th State in 1788
7 Oklahoma joined the Union 1905
8 Boy Scouts Day
11 White Shirt Day
12 Lincoln's Birthday (traditional)
14 Valentine's Day
14 Ferris Wheel Day
15 National Gum Drop Day
19 Chocolate Mint Day
22 Washington's Birthday (traditional)
22 Girl Scouts World Thinking Day
22 National Recreation Sports and Fitness Day
29 Leap Year every four years