Nudging the boundary of complacency in Real Estate Success

Your November 30-Day Challenge is fun and, in my mind, a meaningful way to build social, personal, and long term business connections. Here is your challenge: ‘Pick one person a day, and send them a Thank you Note by any means possible.’ Your Thanks You’s can be about them inspiring you; being in your life; being good listeners; caring for you; being kind to others; doing great work; and on and on… The essence of your Daily Thank you is to be in the presence of your friends and colleagues greatness, see the good in them, and acknowledge them for that good. You can use any means possible; you can thank them publicly at a meeting; you can thank them on Social Media; you can send them a private email; you can even go old fashioned and write them a letter. In the presence of gratitude our days brighten and our work becomes meaningful. Please share this 30-Day challenge with your friends and colleagues, and thank you for reading my posts.

Norman Vincent Peale wrote ‘Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.’ Dr. Peale is best known for his famous book The Power of Positive Thinking published back in the fifties, and this quote sheds some light over the power of Passion, I think it also sets the tone for work habits. One can choose to approach one’s job as a necessity or as a joy; the work is the same; the routine is the same; and the pain is the same; but it is the experience, the residual results, and the person that are transformed. When you throw your heart into your work you add curiosity and engagement, you are not just filling out paperwork – you are present to your work, you start seeing patterns emerge, efficiencies you can take advantage of, and even ways to take care of your clients. The Passion in your heart stirs your thoughts and lead to greater imagination, the kind you had when you were young and still possess if you allow it to bubble up.

The form factor you create for your work habits is more important than the tools you have; let us agree that the biggest challenge Real Estate Agents face is themselves, or more precisely the box of ‘work behavior’ they have created for themselves. It is known that Agents are independent contractors, so they are free to create the form factor of their workplace; yet this is precisely what gets in the way of most of them thriving. All of you have experienced the feeling you get when you are getting ready to go out on a Saturday Night; the process of getting groomed, putting nice clothes, playing music puts you in the mood for going out – well it is the same with work. You need to create the environment that puts you in the mood to ‘work,’ and very few people are able to achieve that at home; that makes sense, it is your home after all. If your spouse sees you sitting in front of laptop, it does not matter that you need to concentrate to work on your deals, they will say: ‘I am going to the store watch kids while I am out!’ To your spouse the work you do at home from your computer is add-on work, it is not the REAL work of Real Estate; in your spouse’s mind Real Estate work only happens when you are showing property. My advice: Go to the office and get to work – very few of us have the structure at home to separate work from family!

The state of online security and passwords in 2012, going into 2013, is still scary – yes the number one (#1) hack-able password is still, you guessed it, ‘password’ followed closely by his best friend, come into my computer and steal my identity, favorite of some many ‘123456’. Here the list of their other easy friends in tow, #3 is ‘12345678’, #4 is the loveable ‘abc123’, and not to be outdone at #5 we have the huggable ‘qwerty’. By the way these are the most used passwords on the internet today – shocking!. Creating Strong Passwords is not difficult, let me share with you my trick; 1. Start with an object or memory you have a strong bond too; an object that resonates emotionally to you, say: your mother’s meatloaf; 2. Make sure it contains at least 6 to 8 characters, the object ‘car’ would not be good, too few characters; 3. now intentionally misspell it so that it retains the phonetic sound of ‘meatloaf’ but written differently; let’s try: meetloaph. 4. Now pick a letter in the mix and capitalize it; let’s try: meEtloaph; 5. finally either start or end it with a number and a special character; as in: 17meEtloaph! This alone will give you a strong password, one that will retain an emotional connection to you which will help in your recollection.

At what point will you become aware that your Business Systems are working well? When they become invisible to you! When managing your emails, contacts, contracts, Listings, bills, tasks, prospecting lists, etc… you want to do so without too much attention on the system itself; you want to be in a state when you are not wondering whether you forget to contact a client, or respond to an urgent email but can’t remember who you were supposed to email it to. Breakdowns create noise and apprehension; fluid systems that work well are always transparent and invisible. It is the same principle as the process of driving, you are not aware that you are driving, your muscle memory and your mind have that system down pat and so it becomes invisible to you. You want to get to a point when you are no longer thinking about the system you are using to manage your business, and using your mind to create new business opportunities and sales. Your habits are the glue that must always supersede the system or software you use; it is the consistency of implementation that creates more results than the price tag or complexity of the software or machinery.

The ‘Act Now’ Concept is one of those simple ways of planning your Real Estate Business and remain sane during the day. As an agent or broker you get barraged daily by a series of emails, calls, texts, and communications that require action. Let’s be frank half are from people trying to sell you something but the other half are coming from clients or related colleagues, and they need a response from you – you start drowning when you carry over some of these actions a few days with no action. What if you started thinking of your day this way?: Your early mornings are ‘Thinking Hours’ typically 7 to 10am; Your midday hours are ‘Act Now Hours’ typically 10 to 4pm; and finally your evening hours are ‘Reflection Hours’ and they tend to go from 4 or 5pm to hopefully no later then 7 or 8pm. During your ‘Act Now Hours' try to clear any communication that you confront in rapid fire but also responsibly; don’t give them a chance to fester and do act methodically – if a piece of communication requires your thinking schedule it for the appropriate time, your morning hours. Start looking at your day in this manner and you will start regaining not only your sanity but also increase your productivity.

What is the best definition of an Organization? Habits. Yes Habits! Systems, Tasks, Procedures, Employees, and Management are all habits-driven. Each player knows their job description by having the right knowledge, habits, and efficiency of implementation. Learning is crucial if it leads to the creation of meaningful useful habits that nourish performance and Sales. The glue to designing good organizations is the concept ‘Habit Accountability’ – each one of us will slack off if left to our own devices, but when we are part of a larger Organization our habits are part of a larger whole; they contribute to the organization health and growth. It is unfortunate though that the percentage of Real Estate Brokerages that are built on ‘Habit Accountability’ are few and far in between; the fierce independence of some Real Estate Agents leads to rogue individualism that shuns accountability from the brokerage; and the irony of it is that it ends up hurting the production of said agents, and of all the brokerage – go figure!

Simplicity with high productivity occurs when you embrace communication in a timely fashion; Delayed Communication causes not only missed opportunity, loss of sales, but also emotional distress. Think of this way: Good Communication is Good; Bad Communication is Good; but Delayed and Ignored Communication is a Business Killer. Let me explain: by ‘Good Communication’ I mean a call or email from your current customers that are acknowledged and worked in a timely fashion; by ‘Bad Communication’ I mean a client or colleague who is angry with you or a situation and you respond and make yourself available for a solution quickly and proactively. The Business and Opportunity Killers are the ‘Delayed’ or ‘Ignored Communications,’ especially the ones delayed or ignored on purpose by you. You are not supposed to respond to every communication, some of them are a waste of your time, but keep your eye on those you are skirting or trying to avoid – they tell you more about your habits then the problem or person you are trying to avoid.

The State of Computing, Mobility, and Content Portability – what a week this is going to be! Apple is going Mini today with lots of colors and upgrades; followed with Surface and Windows 8 from Microsoft, and not to be outdone Google is going Maxi and Mobile; yes Google is going to release a competitor to the iPad called the Nexus 10, a higher resolution than the Retina display with new Android 4.2. The talk is that the Nexus 10 will be manufactured by Samsung. Google is also releasing a 4 inch phone with LG that some are calling the Nexus 4, as well as adding 3G to a newer version of Nexus 7. Do consumers benefit with this much competition? Absolutely; computing and mobility are finally delivering on the promise from the sixties about the ability of ubiquitous information access; can we start working on teleportation? – can’t wait to say Beam me up Scotty, or would I say Beam me up Siri?

Ponder these quotes to inventions and ideas that at their time were seen as pure folly: Lee De Forest, a radio pioneer was quoted saying in 1926 the following: ‘While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility.’ How about this Internal Memo from Western Union in 1876: ‘This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.’ Your ability to have mental agility requires a few ingredients to succeed in business; Your ability to engage the world with ‘Curiosity’ is a must, and it can only be truly nourished if you choose to read in a consistent manner. Reading fires up your neurons and your ideas to express themselves, and not just reading business or how to books, reading for pleasure accomplishes much of the same effect. How about you try this book by Bob Burg and John David Mann - ‘The Go-Giver: A little Story About a Powerful Business Idea.’

Successful Real Estate Brokerages and Agents are engaged in their community, and one way to be fully be engaged is to learn CPR; yes Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation! Do you know that your local Fire department, Police Department, or even local Healthcare providers offer free trainings and certification in CPR? What a better way to involve Real Estate Agents with their community than to help them learn how to administer CPR and get certified for it. No one wants you to ever have to use that skill, but if someone collapses in front of you they may only have 3 to 5 minutes and you could be the one who can provide the necessary life resuscitation technique. If you are a broker call you local Fire chief, ask them about their program, then go to your agents and gather them with their family members and make it happen; your community needs you. Here is a short video on how to learn CPR in 2 minutes: goo.gl/PJ1z6

You will find yourself dealing with urgent matters when you have not worked on them when they were ‘not’ so urgent. I know that this sounds like the simplest of statements one can make, yet there are many business professionals who function in crisis mode most of the time; they fail to appreciate that they are accumulating Stress on themselves, their colleagues, and their families; but worse they are also developing the nasty habit of always reacting, rather than creating. Take the Real Estate Business; Agents will be handed their fair share of crises to handle from every corner of the biz; the Sellers, the Buyers, Loan Officers, Inspectors, Appraisers, Lawyers, other Brokers, etc… Yet it is still possible to function from a creative side if you allow yourself time for reflection on a daily basis; take 20 minutes away from your phone and emails and ground your thoughts about your upcoming daily events; wake up early and prepare for your day; if you trust yourself you can even predict what some of the breakdowns will befall you that day and get ready for them. It is this time for reflection that is the most misused, abused, or ignored – what a shame!

When skill, training, intention, and knowledge are equalized there is only one area that will reveal the Real Estate Agent who will thrive versus the one who will struggle to make a good living; it is the implementation of a trusted Personal Management System. What is a personal management system? It is a trusted way of interacting with one’s business plan, calendar, tasks, communications, activities, habits, and most precious: Time. It is not a piece of software but a way of relating to your most efficient actions and follow ups. For example some use Outlook and related tools to organize all of their business; others use Gmail and its related tools to do just the same; I even know some who use paper calendars with written notes to deliver the best service and design to their business. As I said it is not a set of software or newfangled tablets you need to buy; it is more habit driven than tools driven.

Here are some thoughts and Rules you ought to consider:

Rule #1: You must use One (1) and only one System for it to become powerful.

Rule #2: You Must stop using your mind as storage and start dumping all of your mental to-do activities into your system.

Rule #3: Perform Daily reviews and updates on your system and align them with your calendar.

Rule #4: Perform a Weekly Review of your system preferable on a Friday afternoon.

Rule #5: Make sure your Smartphone, tablets, and computers are all synching.

Rule #6: take action on the activities you promise you will undertake and try not to deviate too much.

Rule #7: Never, ever forget to schedule Prospecting Activities in your System.

This is a quick blog that describes in general terms what a Personal-Management System is, follow my other posts where I deal in details with each aspect of these ideas.

How do you create more time? Well, time is a commodity like any other; you simply buy it in the form of assistants, qualified administrators, managers, and sometimes partners. The difficulty arises on how to pay for it and who to pay to take full advantage of these added hours. There is a simple way of thinking about ‘time’ in Real Estate: Full Time Agents who desire to earn more than $45K a year need to close One (1) transaction a month, and since they are full time they do not need to buy more ‘time’, all they need is to manage their business hours like hawks; (caveat: this assumes they are well trained agents of course.) Very few agents can move up the ladder of 2 transactions a month on their own; all of us know of some that do but they are rare. In order to achieve 24 transactions a year you need a well-trained part-time physical assistant for 20 hours a week (4 days a week / 5 hours a day.) Finally, any aspiration to go beyond 24 transactions must be grounded with a great Full-Time Administrator, great communication, great systems, and a clear vision grounded on a well-written Business Plan. We are all aware of how a majority of Real Estate Agents squander this precious commodity – maybe we can start there and awaken some of them to the cost of such needless waste.

Avoidance and its mounting consequences – Is there a person or client you are trying to avoid? Have you received a piece of communication you know you must handle but are trying to ignore? Your natural desire to avoid confrontation comes with tremendous consequences; the bad news is that the things and people you avoid do not go away, they linger like a bad rash, but the worse consequence of these avoidances is that they start coloring your current good relationships. The Real Estate Business is a business of people and communication, and you will encounter conflict – how you approach and react to said conflicts will either make or break you. So, what are you currently avoiding? How would you tackle these avoidances? Is there a colleague, mentor, friend who can help you work out these challenges? Is there someone you need seek forgiveness from? Are there promises you failed to keep that you must acknowledge so you can move on? Your humanity matters; re-center yourself and know that you can handle all the business challenges that cross your desk because you are not alone!

The world of Business exists in two forms; one mapped out in our brain, the other mapped out in reality. You will always know as much as your brain allows for filters of business knowledge to let in new data; one of those filters is your business experience. The other form of knowing is driven by interactions with others, but no matter what you do you will never know everything about your business industry; even in your local market. You need information from the outside to nurture your inner knowledge; the mistakes that many make is they seek input that validates what they already think, and shun any input that brings into question their business beliefs; they keep surrounding themselves with people who agree with them in order to feel good about who they have become. Although validation is a normal human desire, in business it can derail you. Seek out business colleagues in your industry that you have labeled as competitors; make them your friends; but most of all get to know them. You will gain more from such relationships that a clouding of friends who keep agreeing to you!

Of all the good Business Habits that must be nurtured, with the longest lasting positive effects, it is the Mandatory Weekly Review. I must divulge it is not a sexy endeavor, and does not come with the pomp and circumstance of Academic Titles, yet it is one of the best efforts and investment you can make in yourself. Weekly Reviews enable you to catch mounting problems before they become breakdowns; get ahead of must communications you dropped and fix them quickly; get a hold of promises you made but could not complete; and best of all prepare for the week ahead with a grounded mind. During a Weekly Review you are performing four tasks: You are Collecting all of your data; you are Reviewing said data and placing it in Tasks lists and Calendars; you are Organizing your data by importance and delegating some to colleagues; and finally you are Processing urgent action. Your mind will love you for this – you will be able to start your weeks relaxed and with a greater sense of purpose, you will feel a little bit more in charge instead of always being reactive and defensive. But the best asset you will gain is how your mind will open up to creative new ways of growing your business, and that is your best asset – Try it!

The hibernative mind of Real Estate Professionals causes many to agonize at making a living in this wonderful industry; this is why those who truly succeed in the long run are a small percentage of all licensed agents. As Fall and Winter approach Real Estate Agents start behaving like bears who realize that the feeding will be rough, and must start to hibernate. They buy into the idea that we live in a society that likes to hunker down for the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter) and reawakens in the Spring; a model well suited for the 50’s, 60’s, I will even give you the 70’s and part of the 80's. Yet we are ever changing as a people; few of us ever work for an IBM and spend our whole career at the same employ; we are a society of nomads who must adapt to the working conditions of our current reality. Real Estate Professionals must remember a simple mantra; we work when others rest; and yes that means we work weekends; we work later than most; and our days off are best suited for Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Is it tough…? yes! But it is what you have chosen to embrace as a Real Estate Professional. Postpone your hibernation from now on and continue to prospect even though the leaves are changing.

A language without metaphors creates a society without imagination; Marketing is the creative pursuit of metaphors and must transcend the abundance of adjectives. Great Marketing Endeavors allow for the story of your brand or business to be told creatively. The only way to master such an endeavor is to commit yourself to writing stories, lots of stories; stories about your Real Estate Listings; stories about your vision; stories about how you help your local Sellers; stories about you attending community events; stories about your business colleagues; Stories; Stories; Stories… You cannot escape writing if you wish for the mastery of Marketing; and this is why I find blogging the most organic medium for sharing said stories – when you force yourself to write once a week you discipline your mind to start working with you to nurture creativity; and yes your mind needs to be whipped into shape from time to time. Embrace writing and the sunshine of creativity will brighten your business.

You, the Real Estate Agent, are never hired to offer the illusion of work and busy-ness; you are hired to offer the best Marketing and the best Local Pricing Strategy to help Sellers Sell fast. The fact that you can organize paperwork, prepare contracts, schedule Open Houses, follow up on conversations, talk to lawyers and inspectors, stay current with Real Estate events, are expected qualities and are a given – not why you were hired in the first place. You must develop good ‘System Habits’ that help you free your mind to focus on job 1 – Bringing the largest set of eyeballs to your Sellers’ properties, and helping them negotiate pricing relative to your local market conditions. If you are struggling to remember if client A has signed a contract; when to follow up with Buyer B; whether you sent a CMA to client C; etc. then your mind has been held hostage by busy-ness not Business; time to develop good habits and good tracking systems – the best thing about you is the Real Estate Advice and knowledge your bring to your clients.

Most of the bad business decisions that confront entrepreneurs and small business owners are driven by a combination of lack of preparation, and lack of time for making said decisions. Let me share an example: Call Real Estate Brokerage Owners and ask them to send you their Administrator Hiring Policy, in other words the 4 to 8 page document that explains the Administrative position in details; the qualifications required; the details of all the duties; the software mastery required; the training they will need to undergo; the benefits of the position; and the procedures required throughout the year. Few will have one on hand, and fewer yet will have a document detailed enough to cover all aspect of the position. Bad decisions usually arise when the current employee decides to quits, or is befallen by an accident or major illness; and you see the Business Owner had plenty of time to prepare when he or she had the existing Administrator; yet did not plan for such eventuality in their Business Blueprint, and now will be rushed and end up doing a poor job hiring the replacement. So my question to you: what would you work on right now to prepare for a business event that you know will befall you?

Worry does not create Opportunity; Action is your only way out of worrisome situations. Most, if not all, business problems have solutions and outcomes; the conundrum is that you may not like the solutions nor the outcomes you are forced to consider, but they are always there. Problems can de divided into two major groups – ethical and systematic. Ethical problems have the largest of consequences and the least desired solutions; say you are lying on your taxes and an audit by the I.R.S. is in your near future; is this a problem… oh yeah, and a big one. This is not necessarily a business problem and the solutions of restitution or jail will not make you happy no matter what you do – best to hire a lawyer and hope for the best. Systems-driven problems, on the other hand, are either behavioral or due to poor business design, and there is always a solution for such challenges. Your job is to embrace action and get into solving the problem you are facing by talking to the right consultants, and starting to change the behavior of those who cause you the biggest headache. Consider the problem of not having enough Real Estate Listings; then it is time to Prospect and encourage your agents to do so; if they choose not to embrace prospecting – it is time to hire new ones. Worrying while in the middle of problems does not elevate your business, it makes you scared of taking action.

When will you finally fire your mind? Many of us have used our minds for storing our commitments and appointments, and never used a reliable system for managing our business. Your mind will not quit until your system is reliable and bullet proof. Your most difficult initial step is performing a Mind-Dump; getting all of your commitments, promises, agonies, appointments, and business challenges out of your head and into a written or electronic system, then making decisions of those that ought to appear as tasks in your Task list, appointments in your calendar, or actionable immediate calls or emails. Your first Mind-Dump will be the most demanding; it must be followed with progressive reviews and task management on a daily basis, followed by a weekly review, and reorganized by a monthly and quarterly assessment. It is this rigor than will help you free up for mind for creativity, business solutions, competitive research, and the learning of new and empowering concepts. I argue that if you allow your system to be more rigorous than your mind you will experience a better outlook, and will feel the benefit of being healthy and insightful. Why don’t you try it!

How do you prepare your business for 2013 if you are a Real Estate Broker or Agent, and plan to compete aggressively? Study your Competition! Real Estate is a Zero-Sum Business Endeavor, let me explain: there is a field of Mathematics named originally ‘Operational Research’ and has come to be labeled ‘Game Theory’, a lousy name is you ask me – there nothing flimsy or playful about the Mathematics; in Game Theory a Zero-Sum Endeavor is one in which the gain of one party is balanced by the loss of the other parties – and Real Estate is such an endeavor. Each market has predictable number of Listings, and therefore potential Sales for the economic conditions and turnover of its population. When a new Real Estate company enters a market it is not creating new listings per se, it is necessarily taking them away from existing Real Estate Companies who have not prospected or marketed to those potential Sellers. It is the job of the broker to study the market reach and marketing depth of the competition in order to match and work around their weaknesses. If you desire to compete and thrive you must: Study your competition inventory and clientele; Study their local and Internet Marketing; Assess their marketing Budget; Study their agents and stability; Study their community outreach and events; Study their leadership skills and effectiveness; Study their Global Internet SEO Placement; And Never, ever, dismiss or speak ill of them – their agents will soon become your colleagues.

Why do I write daily a blog? Many reasons really, but the number one reason is to master the discipline of writing. I love writing, I love sharing ideas, I love offering business trainings, and by forcing myself to write in a methodical fashion I push the envelop of what I know and drive myself to become even better. The medium of marketing requires Writing, yet very few people tackle writing seriously. The power of blogging creates internet visibility, but the most important way of leveraging Social Media and SEO is authenticity and organic presentations. I have chosen first and foremost to be who I am in my trainings and to always exceed the expectations of my participants; I also have refused to solicit or email my clients for new products or trainings; I prefer to let them choose to follow my blog posts and decide whether they wish to come back or not. I hope you choose to follow them – know that I take them seriously and will never reduce my intentionality to have them support you in your business endeavors.

How do you define authenticity? Well… you can’t really! it is a way of being that transcends money, status, and pretense. Authenticity has a way of revealing itself when you are in its absence, especially when phoniness and galling manipulation are abound. The playwright George Bernard Shaw said: ‘Best keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you see the world.’ I add to that that you deserve the joy of becoming fully yourself!

Progress rarely happens if it is not subjected to a complete review; a full assessment of outstanding projects, tasks, and the next actions you must take. I know that most of you do agree with such a statement, but few actually act on these principles. Take for example the process of getting a Real Estate Listing; applying the right marketing techniques to it; designing a pricing strategy for it; planning the ongoing conversations with the Seller; and all the procedures a good Real Estate Agent must undertake. This an example of a Full Project; it has an arc of existence; a beginning, a middle, and an end – yet few agents add the component of ‘project review’ say every 2 weeks for every listing. I promise you that if you chose to undertake reviews you will not only find missed communications that could come back and haunt you later; assumptions of processed tasks that have not been done and could cause you agony; but best of all opportunity hovers when reviews are done – clarity creates opportunity, and project reviews provide for the existence of clarity in your life – try it!

Humans absorb information best in story form – and yes, we are all natural born storytellers, yet, as we advance in adulthood we do less and less of it; what a shame. Let’s talk about you, the agents and brokers in the Real Estate Business; you will truly breakthrough when you realize that you are in the business of information, and that the best way to convey it is via storytelling. I must admit that I have come to dislike (being mild) machine generated narrated tours, you know the kind that reads a bunch of text you have written without taking a breath, and does it in a British accent, and does not sound at all like you – not even close. These machine narrations rob the agent from shining; they dehumanize the relationship and create a machine barrier between the listing agent and the consumer. A good storyteller realizes that our voices have power; the way our words have intonation conveys our energy and passion; and one important aspect of telling stories is knowing when to pause and say nothing. I encourage my Real Estate Colleagues to come out from behind the shadows of machine generated Gobbledygook and embrace their natural voice; it is our job and passion to tell the story of Real Estate, and do it well!

Did you know that your mind is a control freak? And did you know that when it over-controls everything it starts trying to store everything and will compete with your Smartphone tools, calendar events, task lists, business plan strategies, and action plans. The only way you can tame your mind so it can stop trying to store information and start ‘thinking’ with you on solutions is to have a task management system that is trustworthy, and reliable. The steps to getting there are simple but require discipline – let’s look at few: 1. Go to sleep early and wake up early, say 10pm to bed 5:30am rise and shine; 2. Spend 20 minutes every morning on your task lists and calendar of events, around 7am is the best time; 3. Stop trying to remember when you are going to do something and place it in the calendar; meetings with blocked time, and tasks in your to-do manager list. 4. Make sure your Smartphone, tablet, and computer are all synching on the Cloud (Think Gmail.) If you do this for 6 to 10 weeks, and stick to it so it becomes a habit, you will gain a best friend – your mind; you will be able to use it to think clearly, strategize to gain a better edge on your competition, and all around have a good quality of life driven by purpose and intention!

The Real Estate Business and the Internet have been friends many a times and not so much at others. For many websites has been reduced to the simplicity of generating Buyers’ Leads and that business plan has been faltering for many; they spend more and more resources on Pay-per-Clicks and get fewer and fewer actual closings for said resources – in other words Buyers’ Leads are getting more and more expensive. The fundamental building blocks of Real Estate Brokerages has not changed; it is still, and will continue to be, about generating Listings, and 2013 ought not to become a year of survival, rather design it to be the year of Success and Prosperity. Brokers must design a clear plan of action driven by Prospecting; and that starts by having Web Services that complement and enhance such Marketing Services – your website should reflect your values and marketing to Sellers via Social Media, Education Videos, Narrated Videos, Community Blogs, and individually enhanced listing services. 2013 is a year that you can design to give you exactly why you choose to put into it – why not grow it the right way by having a plan of action!