Training & Business Development: Weathering a Market Downturn

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RISMEDIA, August 22, 2007—Upon entering the real estate industry in 1993, Eva Keagle of Colonial Real Estate in Harker Heights, Texas was a multi-million dollar producer her first record-breaking year.  Now an industry veteran of 14 years, having weathered up and down markets alike, Keagle lives by an overriding principle that governs every aspect of her business, regardless of market conditions. 

Explains Keagle, “You have to understand that what you’re doing here is not a game, it’s a business, and you better make sure you have a budget plan in place where you have a line in the sand that you draw where you say, ‘This is where I need to go.  Then you need to follow that course; you need to run it like a business.”

When asked what advice she’d give to newer agents who’d been in the industry less than three years, Keagle offered, “You have to get back to basics, and getting back to basics is nothing more than making sure you keep in contact with your clients, making sure you put out a good product, create good ads, really dot every “ I” and cross every “T,” and if you weren’t doing that before now you certainly better start doing it now, because the competition is only going to get stronger as more people are trying to feed themselves.”

Keagle goes on to describe her entry into the industry; explaining that it was four years before she joined the ERA franchise.  As a result, her first few years in the business were entirely self-taught, as there was no formal training program available to her.  She maintains that training is one of the most important things a new agent should pursue in order to come up to speed quickly.

“It’s just like iSucceed.com; you need to enter the business believing that you will succeed, and you need to put a plan in place to ensure that. Earn your credentials, take as many classes as you can, watch what the big agents do but don’t necessarily spend their money.” 
 
Keagle elaborates further on what new and veteran agents should do to weather the current market shift in this week’s Business Training and Development Call, “The ABC’s of Weathering a Market Downturn”.   During the interview Keagle also reveals what she believes to be the single most beneficial exercise to quickly establish one’s career and raise visibility in the local community in order to jump-start your business.

Hosted by iSucceed’s own Kelly Kelley, the interview will be available for one week only at www.isucceed.com/rismedia.  Every Wednesday the RIS Media/iSucceed Business Development and Training Call presents profitable real estate strategies and introduces agents across the country to the full 30-minute iSucceed Weekly Counseling Call, available only at www.iSucceed.com – the most comprehensive online provider of real estate tips, tools, secrets and success strategies, directly from North America’s 200 most successful real estate professionals.

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