Diary of a Realtor

Now I've Heard It All!

2009-04-21T20:04:00.002-05:00

Alrighty then! I did not believe that anything could top the listing appointment with the cat that jumped between my back and my chair and proceeded to claw my back throughout my presentation, which is another story altogether; (it had no claws, though, but still!)....however, now I've heard and done it all!

Today, while sitting through a FSBO listing presentation, the seller's pet bird flew over to my shoulder and stayed there throughout the presentation! It began to play with my hair with its beak which was slightly distracting to say the least. Between trying to decide whether or not to include the bird in the conversation and just plain making sure it didn't poop on my black jacket, I had to laugh at the whole situation and truly enjoy the humor!

The whole experience will be one I'll remember for a long time. In a shifting market, like ours today, we need humor to shake things up a little!

Hiring Talent

2009-04-15T19:39:00.003-05:00

Today was another great day! We interviewed a potential buyer's agent to add to our growing team and have another interview set up for tomorrow with another agent!

We have a specific "career visioning" process that makes the hiring streamlined and effective. Every time we used to skip a step, we'd make a poor decision that would lead to disappointment for all parties involved; therefore, we follow the career visioning process exactly. We start with a behavioral profile, then a quick interview, then references, then a final interview followed up with mutual expectations. There is a copy of our process on our website. http://www.fergusonrealtygroup.com/

We will always make room for talent on our team. The key to growing a team is to be constantly looking for talent. A talented team member could be anywhere; the waiter who gave excellent service, the agent on the other side of a transaction who went above and beyond to make the deal work, or even the teacher who loves working with people and is simply looking for more. Pay close attention when you meet other agents and be sure to keep in touch with your colleagues. Keep your funnel full! It's like another whole form of lead generation!

Whewee...just when I thought calling on FSBO's and expireds was enough.

2009-04-13T18:48:00.004-05:00

Well, can awesome be defined as nobody died? Mondays are amazingly crazy! We receipted in 4 offers on foreclosure properties-yippee,

worked out repair requests for a seller on a property-yippee,

went on a FSBO appt (who, by the way, does NOT like Realtors-warning please),

got my first real lead from facebook-yippee,

returned 17 calls to Realtors, appraisers, buyers and sellers,

listed a house in my neighborhood-yippee,

funded on a file that closed Friday & delivered the check to the seller-yippee,

proofed our new exclusive article to be published this weekend in the Krum Star newspaper-yippee,

helped 2 other agents in our office with questions on their contracts-my favorite thing to do-yippee!

found a lucky penny on my walk with the dog-yippee!

All in all, not too shy of awesome! Focus on the outcome you want and you will usually get it! (See photo)

2009-04-12T18:04:00.004-05:00

I'm so excited to be planning our first "foreclosure" open house tour for next weekend! We are going to advertise in the local paper and hold several foreclosure properties open on Sunday. Hopefully, this new "twist" on the traditional open house will do the trick!

We normally see anywhere from 0-8 homebuyers through the average open house. We expect to have to beat them off with a stick with this new idea. Why is it the key word "foreclosure" evokes such a sense of interest?

What else do consumers need? How about unprecedented low prices, unbelievable inventory of homes, or an $8,000 tax credit? Oh yeah, that's right, we've got it ALL!

The experts say 47% of ALL homebuyers in 2009 will be first time homebuyers and we expect to find them!

We need buyers during this BEST time to buy EVER! Oh yeah, we also need help! We are actively hiring team members to assist these buyers with their home purchases. Do you happen to know anyone?