HOW TO LIST AND SELL REAL ESTATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

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RISMEDIA-NRRE VOL 16-2 March 2000

HOW TO LIST AND SELL REAL ESTATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

by: Danielle Kennedy

Editor?s Note: The following

is an excerpt from “How to List and Sell Real

Estate in the 21st Century” by Danielle Kennedy

People who have purpose find goal-setting easy. Their purpose is more important to them than the difficulties they face carrying it out. Their minds are too filled with purpose to allow space for difficulties to expand there. They are impatient with barriers, and think constantly of how to avoid or get through them, not on how formidable and distasteful those barriers are. Because such people have no interest in difficulties except to solve them, they find themselves constantly achieving goals, and then setting new and higher ones for themselves.

The future looks far different to people without purpose. Forced to function without a driving purpose to crowd their minds, they find their problems expanding like hot air in a balloon. Purposeless people devote most of their time and energy to trivialities, and see their lives enclosed by walls. Their chances are small of ever finding a purpose outside their self-imposed walls because they think those walls can?t be scaled. With purpose, one sees the handholds, scampers over, and is away to the greater world outside.

It all comes down to purpose. Is your mind filled with expanded purpose? ? or expanded problems? Your mind must be dominated by one or the other, it cannot be dominated by both. Pump up your purpose, expand the positive side, and the negative side must diminish.

To me, purpose derives from having other human beings in your life who care, who love you ? yes, who are dependent on you. Nothing nourishes purpose from seed to great oak like being special to your own special people.

Find your purpose. Find big and small reasons to want more from life. Then fulfill your potential. You may think we?re all worms ? then be a glowworm. Glow as you worm your way along. I remember the glowworm stage. At first I was delighted to glow a little, and then I wanted to be a butterfly. Then a meadowlark. And after that, an eagle.

It all starts with purpose, purpose that?s more important to us than the barriers we must go around or through to achieve our finest destiny.

Everyone must develop on their own, and at their own particular rate of growth. But growth would be dull without people who care about us, who provide the spark, who encourage our development. At every step of the way, from birth to the present time, I?ve had people ? adults or children ? around me. These people have given me more purpose. I?ve felt loved. I?ve been loved, and the more I?m loved by my children, and by the adults in my life whom I care about, the better I get. I could never have opened a real estate company with partners I didn?t love. I could never work for anyone unless there was some emotional feeling there. I?ve been accused of mixing my head and my heart on decisions. If God permits, I?ll stay that way the rest of my life because working strictly for my own satisfaction is not my ambition.

RECALL THE PICTURE OF YOURSELF AS A CHILD

Before thinking about the targets or goals you wish to achieve, let?s go back to a point in your life when you were quite free ? about age five. What did you like to play? What did you pretend? It?s important that you think about this, because often we had purpose as a child. We were born with some innate talents, needs and wants that so often lie latent in adulthood. If we can recall a time when pretend and mental imagery were part of our everyday life, we can regain some failed purposes in our life. Let me talk about myself for a minute. As a child, I did a lot of pretending and talking to myself because I was without brothers and sisters. I can recall wanting to be grown up and have lots of children around me. I wanted to be a mother very badly, but I never saw this as a restrictive thing. I wanted to be a dancer, a singer, and a doer at the same time as being a mother. My parents never gave me the impression that if you were a mother, you couldn?t do anything else. As a teenager, I loved President Kennedy and Bobby and Ethel and their eleven children. I used to cut all their photographs out of Life magazine. I loved the action going on in that group. People running for office and playing touch football ? it was fascinating. My mental imagery always painted me in the middle of a picture like that. So, when I began my family, and had one baby after another, I was delighted ?and I always had something else happening. I?d take courses at the local university, read textbooks, burp babies and practice a new dance step at the same time. People who didn?t like surface confusion would come into my house and wonder how I could stand all these growth rings I had going on at the same time. Then, when the expansion of the family brought out the need for money, I entered real estate. I wanted things for my family that my imagination told me we could have. I was inspired to work because my purpose was great. I tell you these things so you will examine your own life. Remember our motivation is rooted in our reality.

Because, if you don?t have the excitement in your soul that creates purpose, the simple suggestions I?m about to give you on goal setting will be futile. Many writers and speakers can turn people on for an hour or a day, but that turn-on is an external thing and it?s only temporary. Only you can motivate you!

Purpose that remains powerful for long periods of time must be internally generated. All I can hope to do is picture the growth ring. You must open that ring, and all the growth rings that lie beyond, for yourself.

Purpose comes from self-knowledge, and from your love of the people who kindle that purpose. Make a list right now of your purposes in life, and of the people who will bring those purposes out loud and strong. Keep in mind that these faces must undergo changes from stage to stage of our lives. Life is change, but as long as you have significant persons in your life ? in present time, in memory, or in imagination ? you can be strong in purpose, happy and effective, and you can grow.

PICK YOUR TARGETS

Take a notebook to a quiet place. Go there alone and get comfortable so that you can think in clear and large terms about the four vital areas of your life. Consider each in turn. Begin by writing these two words across the top of a page in your notebook:

Financial Targets

Below that heading, write a short paragraph to describe what you want to attain financially. Don?t begin with specific sums of money. Focus on the purposes that you want the money for initially. Your first paragraph might read something like this:

“My purpose is to be independent of outside financial aid for the rest of life, and to support myself and my family. I wish to provide my children with college educations, and ourselves with two wonderful trips together each year.”

Think about what that will cost, and then write a second paragraph:

“My purpose is to have a steady income of ___________ for the rest of my lifetime. I can realistically achieve this in the field of real estate by attaining a volume of ______________, and by investing in ___________ on this program:____________.”

On this first page, keep your thoughts on the overall picture. Then write out your financial purposes in great detail on succeeding pages as you refine your thinking.

Work at recording your purposes with all the freedom that intensity can give you. Remember as you write that you can always revise your purposes whenever you close one series of growth rings and open another. Set your purposes on what is excitingly alive for you now. The next target area to cover, with a fresh page in your notebook, is:

Social Target

Here is the format: Write your own purpose that reflects your emotional needs.

“My purpose is to have three significant people in my life who are outside my family. These three will be people I love, people I can count on in times of joy and sorrow. I would like to share common interests with them. I am not a club joiner, and prefer a small, select group of intimate friends. I recognize that this will take time and patience to develop.”

You may be a club joiner. Beautiful. You may prefer having a wider circle of friends. Perhaps traveling abroad, and developing friendships with people of other cultures, intrigues you. There?s an enormous variety of social purposes. Having ones that strengthen your will is what?s important, not who they are. Now head another page of your notebook:

Spiritual/Mental Target

“I wish to read at least two books a month, and attend at least one new seminar quarterly. I want to go back to college and ____________. I wish to develop my spiritual awareness, and increase my understanding of the supreme forces in life by ___________________________ .”

Now explore the last of the four target areas:

Physical Targets

My body is healthy and I intend to keep it that way through good diet and adequate exercise. To this end, I will________________ (jog, lose weight, play tennis, whatever). I intend to reach these measurements, ________________ , and remain there. I also realize that if I follow this good physical program all my life, I will be more desirable and the statement that you get better, not older, will be very true of me.”

The most common barrier to strong purpose is the failure to throw off negative childhood training. Many of us are blinded to what we want by our compulsion to do what we think others value. We?re so busy worrying what other people think that we don?t tune in to what we feel. We must hear our own inner voices to have strong purpose.

You may have to think about these four target areas over a long period of time before you can truly get in touch with yourself on all four of them. But, unless you write them out, your purposes will tend to remain as flimsy as clouds. Write them out now. Your initial targets may stand for the rest of your life, or you may intensify them tomorrow. What?s vital is to start the process of building powerful purpose through knowing exactly what you want from life.

IMAGINE YOUR TARGETS.

DO THEY BALANCE?

As soon as you finish writing your four targets, take a critical look at their balance. Some people are too work-oriented. Others are too play-oriented. It isn?t too much work, or too much play, that sends workaholics and high-life addicts to the mortuary too soon, it?s lack of balance. I know about the destructive force of an out-of-balance lifestyle ? I?ve been there. In my case, it was addiction to work that threw my life into turmoil. I?m not sure that problem is more easily cured than an over-fondness for the bottle, but at least it gives you the energy to attack it.

Balance your income and outgo, not only of money, but also in the social, spiritual, mental and physical target areas as well.

For a while, I was clicking out the listings, and clicking out the sales, night and day. Holding open houses by day, and washing clothes by midnight. Burping babies, healing wounds ? all but my own. Was I tired! I wanted to go dancing, and didn?t. I wanted to go golfing, and didn?t. I wanted to fly, skate, ski, laugh, and click my heels ? but I didn?t. Maybe after this next closing. Just one more check. Just one more customer. Just one more referral. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I will do it. But by the time tomorrow came I was exhausted. I wasn?t exercising. I wasn?t eating. I was stuffing food down my throat at very odd hours of the day and night. Socially I was down to maybe two friends ? everyone else had tired of being put on hold. Mentally I was a little nuts.

Now I?m practicing what I preach. You can sell as much real estate when you work smarter, not harder. That?s on the short run. Over a period of years, you?ll make more money by keeping your balance, enjoying life, acquiring new skills in other areas and keeping your purposes strong.

HAZY TARGETS ARE THE HARDEST TO HIT

Now let?s get down to specific goal setting. How many doors will you knock on today to pay for your trip to Europe ? or the rental property you want

to buy?

In the other areas of your life, set goals just as specific. If your target is to be a better parent, how much time each day are you going to spend with your child?

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS

Are my targets real or pretend? Determine this by asking yourself:

? How realistic are my goals considering my time schedule?

If you have floor time today and a dance to chaperone tonight, plus seven kids to drive places in between, your commitment to knock on 50 doors each day for the next two weeks is in trouble. At least it is today. Cut down the overall goal a bit, or modify it when your personal schedule is heavy. That decreases frustration and increases your energy for the hours when you can throw yourself fully into your work.

? How realistic are my goals, considering my natural talents?

This is a tricky area, because your natural talents are so much greater than you think they are. But if your ankles are weak, don?t try out for roller derby.

? How realistic are my goals considering the people close to me who frown on my every move?

Don?t draw back just because everyone doesn?t agree with what you?re doing. But, if you have a spouse or loved one who gives you a lot of trouble, you?d better recommunicate. When loved ones feel compelled to hold you back, there are deep-seated problems that should be pulled into the light and looked at. Such problems don?t get better without loving attention bestowed in time.

? How realistic are my goals considering my pocket book?

Suppose your target is a super-promotion in your farm every single month this year, but you haven?t had a transaction close in six weeks ? and you?re about to miss your second house payment. I suggest you cut the supers, order a good supply of scratch pads, and go from there.

GIVE YOURSELF WINS

Some people never pat themselves on the back. I have a tendency this way. I?ll give a speech to a group, and before I even say “Hey, I did good,” I?ll go after the critique cards. Sometimes, I catch myself hurrying through the wins looking for the guy who hates me and the fact that I?m on this earth. Then I have to get hold of myself, and take time to bask in the wins so when I hit the losses, I can keep my perspective.

When you make a goal and achieve it, stop and smell the roses. I don?t care if your goal was only to close one transaction this month, even though you sit next to Mr. Realestate who?s presently handling 30 transactions. You made your goal, so take your body to the best dress shop, men?s shop, hobby shop or whatever?s your turn-on ? and go for it. Then grab your loved one and jump for joy. Record your wins on the calendar. Write the goals you?ve achieved in tall letters and add some whoopee stuff. Learn how to let yourself feel really good about winning ? you?ll win more often if you do.

REVIEW YOUR TARGETS PERIODICALLY

Decide if what you?re doing is still what you want to do. Some people keep knitting sweaters when they?re ready to open up a stitch-and-sew shop. You?re changing into a bigger and better person, so keep your targets current. Goals age much faster than we do. Pearl Bailey, at age 60, went back to school at Georgetown University.

BREAK UP YOUR WORK CYCLES

Here you are with lots of purpose. You?re attacking your goals with vigor, and knocking them down left and right. But don?t overkill. You can burn yourself out. Learn to take mini-breaks: five minutes, an hour here or there, an occasional afternoon, a long weekend. On those mini-breaks use another capacity, preferably physical. Exercise is the best healer for the pressures of real estate. If you don?t allow yourself to get physically exhausted, an hour?s exercise (especially if it?s doing something you enjoy) can repair a hard day?s damage ? and leave you fresh for an evening?s work or frolic.

Break your big goals down into simple, small tasks. If your goal is to become the listing king or queen, and that means you have to double your production, break your ambition down into small daily wins. Contact so many FSBOs, call so many expireds, write so many notes a day.

LIFE DOESN?T HAVE TO BE

Life doesn?t have to be a series of failures looked at over your shoulder, and more failures seen ahead. Here are some phrases that have no place in your vocabulary:

? If only

? How I wish I

? If I had it to do over

? I could have

? It?s too late

Life is for the living. You and I are alive now, and can do anything we want to do. It?s just a matter of knowing what that anything is. Once we discover that new purpose, or rekindle an old purpose, we can be on fire carrying our message through our space of time. It?s exciting stuff, flying our craft through skies that are sometimes stormy, sometimes calm, but never dull. Discover your goals, and let them guide you to any port you want. Viva La Dolce Vita.

Danielle Kennedy is an award-winning top producer who has sold at least 100 homes per year. She now teaches how increase home sales production. She has written a monthly column on sales for several real estate magazines. To get a copy of the book or get more information, call 800-848-8070 or visit www.daniellekennedy.com.


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