Posts Tagged ‘real estate sales’

Real Estate Licenses

February 10th, 2012

A real estate license is the key to a lucrative career in the real estate industry. A real estate license is a powerful tool in the property business. Real estate will always be a dominant market in America. Homes will continue to be bought and sold throughout the state. Getting a real estate license will allow a person to be a part of this booming industry.

People decide to get real estate licenses for many reasons. Many like to work with the public. Some want to be in control of their own schedules. Others are interested in buying real estate for themselves and think that agents have access to ‘the best deals’. For this purpose, a real estate license is mandatory. Real estate brokers are constantly looking for new, ambitious real estate sales people and there is significant money to be made in real estate sales.

Obtaining a real estate license in any state where a person may have interest in doing business is not difficult. However, it is important to know that obtaining a real estate license is not solely about taking a real estate exam. The process may differ from state to state. There is no such thing as a national real estate license. Each state has adopted and enforced its own laws and regulations regarding the sale of real estate, for the general purpose of protecting the consumer. Almost every state requires that the candidate complete some form of real estate pre-licensensing course. The successful completion of that course and the minimum number of training hours must be shown, before they will allow the candidate to schedule a real estate license exam. Most states permit the person to take this course not only online, but also in live classrooms, or even by way of a correspondence course.

For a successful career in the real estate business, it is now required by law to have a valid license. Many online education portals provide guidance for the process of acquiring a license. These agencies also provide adequate information regarding the various laws applicable in different states.

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Prospecting For Commercial Real Estate Listings

January 15th, 2012

When you prospect in commercial real estate sales or leasing situations, you will meet with and will talk to many people on a daily basis. The more people you do this with the better. Prospecting is critical to your business growth and listing processes in any market.

It is interesting to consider what prospecting situation you find yourself most often in. The answer is different for everyone as each person has communication preferences and methods of approach that works for them over other standard approaches. It is therefore most important to prospect in the way that suits your character and business style.

Your daily prospecting method should be the thing that works for you and gives you the best results and could be any or all of:

Telephone
Door to door
Networking events
Referrals
Face to face contact

In all respects the prospecting and meeting process will be enhanced if you refine it and use a small number of statements that gain the attention of the prospect. We call these statements ‘Prospect Value Statements’ (PVS) and they must relate to you and your commercial or investment real estate market.

Prospect Value Statements

The ‘Prospect Value Statement’ is one of a kind and should match you, your business, and your focus. It should clearly declare and communicate the fundamental reason why your organisation exists and why you’re selling or leasing commercial investment property from the prospects perspective. It is the most important thing that you can learn and use in commercial real estate. That being said, it is amazing how many salespeople in commercial real estate do not master the concept and some never even know about it. The PVS is such an important statement to your conversion process that we will spend time now on it in helping you design your own.

So why is the PVS so important? It succinctly, clearly, and precisely defines what you do and how you do it in commercial real estate. Better still, it does so in a way that your clients and prospects can see and know why they should do business with you. The PVS will tell them that you are better than the competition agents in the market.

The PVS plays a role in just about every business opportunity and prospecting situation that you come across.

Sample of a Commercial PVS

‘We assist our commercial investor clients in the industrial market at Salisbury to find new tenants that match their investment plan or cash flow expectations, and therefore enjoy a more stable occupancy. We do this by canvassing all tenant changes in the region for the coming 3 years and directing deals to the desirable tenants at the right time for our clients.’

Sample Structure of a PVS

‘We assist our commercial clients (companies, tenants, or investors) in the … industry (or business, or market segment, or location) to … and enjoy … We do this by …’

To make this work, it’s important for you to know and really understand what end result benefit you actually deliver to your commercial real estate prospects, customers and clients (be they landlords, tenants or investors). You also need to know exactly what benefit your prospects or clients actually want to gain, enjoy, achieve, or have in this market. Your PVS is matched to the end user of your services at all times.

‘Your PVS will also change over time as it will have relevance to the current market conditions and the pressures that your prospects need resolved.’

So What Results and Benefits do Prospects Need?

Before you start to create a PVS or a series of them for you and your business, let’s define some of the results and benefits that are typical desired outcomes for a client or prospect in a commercial real estate sale or lease situation. Consider your market. What are the priorities of the prospects that you deal with today?

Commercial Real Estate Lease situations:

Stable tenant
Good rent
Long lease
Major tenants
Quality tenants
Ability to refurbish
Make good obligations
Growth of rent
Stability of rent
Sound lease document
Resolving vacancies faster

Commercial Real Estate Sales situations:

Quick sale
Higher price
Confidential sale
Method of sale
Faster settlement
Good enquiry
Good promotion and marketing
Comprehensive market coverage
Sale to investors
Sale to owner occupiers

Given these benefits and your market trends now in your location, you should be able to easily construct a series of PVS models that suit the prospects that you deal with. Ideally you should be able to quickly call on 2 or 3 of these statements in any prospecting conversation to match the needs or interest of the prospect you are talking to.

Need More Help?

John Highman is a prominent investment real estate speaker and coach that helps real estate agents and real estate brokers globally to improve their commercial real estate market share and close more sales and leasing deals. He himself is a successful real estate agent that has specialised in commercial, industrial, and retail real estate of all types for over 30+ years.

Whether you specialise in real estate sales, leasing, or investment, John has the tools that can help you and your office succeed in your market.

Today John Highman gives workshops and keynotes to real estate agents and brokers globally on how to be professionally better than your competition in any market and drive more of the right listings and commissions.

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Commercial Real Estate – Listing Tools and Tactics

January 8th, 2012

Attracting new property listings is an ongoing task that requires constant focus for the commercial real estate agent. Whether they are new or old to the industry, prospecting for new listings is (or should be) ongoing. Clear tactics are required if you want to dominate your market and the other real estate agents around you.

Without new listings you cannot generate the commissions and quality of enquiry you require. What I will give you here is a well proven base plan and set of tactics for generating listing opportunity.

Understand this, the more enquiries you generate from the people you know, the better your real estate business. You have to know a lot of people to be successful in the real estate business.

With the advances in technology today you would think that this is prospecting process is easier than ever before, although some people still struggle with it.

So where can you generate the property enquiry that you need? Here is a list that will help you on the way:

Old real estate sales and leasing activity over the last few years will give you the names and dates of transactions that will soon potentially come back in the market. That means you should use the old property sales and leasing records from your region as a base of fresh prospecting and cold calling. Most investment property will change hands every 5 to 7 years. It is a cycle that allows you to target properties that have been held for some time by the same owners. They are likely to need your help soon.
Business owners may lease or own their premises. Make the call to these people or drop in at their offices to find out what they need and want in the way of property.
Walk the streets that contain the good properties and the good businesses. Leave your business card and pick up the business card of all the managers or proprietors.
Ask the people you meet in the local businesses about the local properties around them and any changes that they know about. This is a great source of market intelligence. They know the market around them better than you do.
Vacant land should always be researched as to the owner and what they are doing about the property. You can put your sign on vacant land if the owner lists their property with you. The more signs you get up the better for your market image and market share.
Old property listings that other agents have failed to sell or lease should be monitored in case the listing can be reactivated. As part of this keep a tally on the time on market for the listings. This will tell you when the market is changing with certain listing types.
Make cold calls on developers, solicitors, accountants, and architects. They all have an interest in commercial property and will have clients that need help from time to time.
Rent rolls and other property managements held by other agents are prime targets for new business. By their very nature, the owners of these properties are investors, and many investors own more than one property.

You and your daily activities are at the center of this prospecting process. Prospecting is hard for some people given that the level of self-discipline required is high. Many salespeople will find something else to do that is easier. Any excuse will do to avoid prospecting. Many salespeople will take the easy prospecting process of dropping flyers and sending generic mail to hundreds of local businesses where they do not follow up. Does this really work? Yes but only to a minor degree and the road to success is slow.

You have to talk to people if you want to fast track your listings and opportunity.

If you take on this challenge and practice your prospecting processes until they are second nature, then you will create better results. As you improve, the more meetings and presentations you can do, and this leads to listings.

It pays to keep a running tally of your calls, meetings, and conversions to listings. This helps you understand when you are getting better at the prospecting process. So who are you going to call? This is the research part of the prospecting model and every day you do a bit more research into the properties and the areas that you are interested in. This also helps you understand what is going on in your area.

New property listings help you build your database. It is the database that will bring you so much market share and qualified enquiry. The bigger and more accurate your database, the more people you can call when some enquiry or opportunity arises. Your database is a very personal thing and should be maintained by you personally. This helps you take ownership of the process.

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