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The real estate boom early in the new millennium created many wealthy REALTORS® and lenders. The owners of huge brokerage companies started thinking they were geniuses! Huge homes, second homes, vacations, and cars were on everyone’s lists. When the bubble burst, real estate prices along with many other asset classes plummeted. Many investors and real estate companies declared bankruptcy; many owners found themselves upside down. I had personally been through two other “big bursts” in my 40-year real estate career.

One of my coaching clients recently had a listing client who was annoyed with her regular listing emails. Below is the exchange including the message we used in easing his frustrations and assuring him that work was being done to sell his house.

Sanford Systems has the best systems for making money in real estate. Sometimes, our clients forget how to stop discounting and to instead raise their “fee.” This month, we’ll cover five ideas and next month, we’ll share five more.

Many times, new coaching clients don’t know what to ask for. They don’t get “turned on” until they hear what others are planning to get. Real estate sales is like a buffet -- almost anything you can imagine. My clients tweak lead generation, answer objections with value, speed up the process, and don’t get involved in bad deals or with low/no profit individuals. They start seeing their needs met and then seed capital for the future.

Last month, we covered the first five ways to increase your commission, and we’re wrapping up the year with the last five ways to increase your commission.

Walter Sanford has championed checklist systems for over 30 years. He has a time-saving checklist for everything you probably will ever do in real estate.

There should be more profit-refining rather than adding a new layer of overhead or technology. Sometimes, the basics are not addressed when looking to increase the company’s or individual agent’s net returns.

We recently received a question from some of our favorite coaching clients. The Premier Team is lighting up the upper end, downtown, and historical St. Louis real estate markets. As coaching clients, they are challenging for me because they demand new value and service for their clients each week. In fact, Chris and Lisa know that to dominate an industry they need to have tools that the competition does not. They require tools that not only make the job easier, but also more profitable for their clients. Here is the result from a recent request from which we created a letter handout for the listing presentation and for advertisement in other media.

When an interested buyer drove by a property then followed the directions for more information (easy-to-remember URL, QR code, text back system, or IVR system), I always made sure they had reasons beyond a great listing to contact me personally. The buyers are out looking at listings without their agent so maybe their real estate agent is inefficient! Why not attract them to the most professional representation in the area? I would provide a list of reasons for them to call me directly via an attachment to the listing flyer in the brochure box, on my website in the buyer’s section, and even on the fax/text/call back systems. This list worked like a charm!

For many, it’s simply call reluctance. You just never seem to get around to making those phone calls. I run up against this challenge with even some of the best agents in the country. Call reluctance can freeze you in your tracks, and that’s why coaching can be so important – the prodding needed to get it done and the wording to get it right.