Matthew Stamer
Broker
EXIT Realty Central
Central Florida

Region served: Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties
Years in real estate: 16
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 95
Average sales price: $115,000
Average time on market: less than 30 days
Best idea for time management: Pick five things that can produce you the best results every day and spend 80% of the day on them.
Keep meetings productive by…Going into the meeting with a clear-cut agenda. Rather than addressing what has negatively occurred in the past, address the positive approach to the future.
Can’t live without tech tool: My smartphone

What strategies do you have in place to ensure you always get the right listing price?
All of our brokers and agents are very well trained in BPO (broker’s price opinion) preparation and we stay away from listing properties that are overpriced. The numbers on our BPOs are within the selling price of the home 98% of the time so our sellers are confident with the data we present them. Especially in today’s market, there is mounting evidence against inflated pricing of homes and sellers realize it is pointless to overprice their homes because they have seen overpriced homes in their marketplaces sit on the market.

What are your strategies for working in declining markets?
It is crucial to list a home at or below market price from the beginning. This way, you are beating everyone else to the final price because buyers will be looking at your homes since they are priced lower and more accurately than other companies.

What are two fundamentals that are essential to your company’s continued success?
The banking relationships we have developed in the foreclosure department as well as our consistent building and training of new talent in the sales arena have kept us successful over the years. Not only do we recruit agents into the company, but we provide them with ample opportunity to get involved with foreclosures as well as Web business.

How are you keeping consumers in your marketplace educated about the buying opportunities of today?
Our company is very active in the social networking arena. Not only do we have a Facebook page, but we also keep an ongoing blog of the current market situation (www.exitrealtyorlando.com/blog). Social networking allows us to stay in touch with customers long term who will buy or sell in the future.

How are you staying one step ahead of your competition?
We stay ahead of our competition by constantly building bank relationships, properly pricing our properties, and hiring and training new talent.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

For more real estate tips and topics on RISMedia.com, be sure to see:
Looking Toward the Future – How Should Home Equity Figure into Your Retirement Planning?
A Fix-Up Strategy Works in Long Run: If You Have Time on Your Side, Improve and Enjoy Your Home

Joyce Bytoff
Owner
Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group, Inc.
Appleton, Wisconsin 

Region served: Northern Wisconsin
Years in real estate: Since 1964
Number of offices: 16. We also have a number of satellite offices in various small towns throughout Northern Wisconsin.
Number of agents: 450
Average listing: $137,000
Average time on market: about 90 days
The best way to stay in touch with agents…We have several ways in which we stay in touch with our agents. Our internal, Web-based communication system is updated every three hours and provides our agents with new listings in addition to when a home has been sold or is in the closing stages. In addition, our voicemail system allows me to stay in close communication with my agents and keeps the community feel of the company intact.
Key to staying profitable…Stay in front of the market. We have decreased our print advertising considerably and turned to the Internet and have embraced social marketing so that we are always in front of our clients.
Best strategy for dealing with difficult customers? We have a reputation in our community of always doing the right thing for our customers and this has enabled us to gain over 50% market share within our primary market. Not only do we honor what we say, but we are heavily involved in the community. 

How are you reaching out to first-time home buyers?
The $8,000 Federal Tax Credit has been a huge marketing point for our company. I have TV spots that are shown twice a day within the area that talk about the credit and its advantage for first-time buyers. In addition, we have a countdown to when the tax credit ends within our local newspaper as well as on our website. We are doing everything we can to get the word out to potential buyers about the tax credit and to show that now is the time to buy a home. 

What’s your best strategy to get buyers to see a listed home?
Last year we partnered with the Green Bay Packers and ran a promotion in which we held a drawing and gave away tickets to a game. With a wait list of 78,000 people to buy a ticket, whoever came to our open house had the opportunity to be entered into a drawing to win a ticket. 

How are you keeping consumers in your marketplace educated about the buying opportunities available today?
We work hard to keep our consumers informed and reach out to them through various mediums. Not only do we take advantage of radio, TV, word of mouth and our website, we also include teaser ads in the newspaper. This way, we can grab their attention and then lead them back to our website where they can find additional information about the property as well as our mapping tool, which allows consumers to be able to look at the area surrounding the property. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

Don’t miss these headlines on RISMedia.com:
First-Time Homebuyers Have Unique Advantage in Mortgage Market
Taking Advantage of Negotiation – U.S. Homebuyers Paid $7,039 Less Than Listing Price in July

Doug Radford
Founder
Realty Executives Exceptional Realtors
Northern New Jersey 

Years in business: Since 1985
Number of offices: 6
Number of sales associates: 150
Survival tip: Try to keep an even keel. Don’t get too high when things are good or too low when things are not good. Represent yourself professionally and treat people fairly. Don’t let the lows affect your personality. 

You recently moved away from an independent business model to join the Realty Executives franchise. What was your motivation in doing so?
We really weren’t seeking out a franchise; we were attempting to franchise our business model when the opportunity with Realty Executives presented itself. For us, it was a Godsend. Realty Executives was looking for a broker to head up their New Jersey region and develop it to become a turnkey franchise operation. Realty Executives allows regional owners to run their business the way they best see fit. When we looked at the tools and systems Realty Executives offered, combined with the fact that we weren’t changing our current business model, but rather supplementing it with great tools and platforms, we realized that with Realty Executives, we would not only have a strong position as a brokerage but now have a whole additional business of selling franchises. 

Has joining Realty Executives allowed you to expand in the region?
Without a doubt. We implemented a new business plan in the beginning of 2007. We used to operate completely as a virtual company. In real estate you don’t need bricks and mortar or a fancy office to be successful. We believed that as long as you could provide Realtors with admin, marketing and tech support, that you could help any Realtor improve their production level. At the beginning of 2007, we started expanding and opening small, efficient branch offices while everyone else was completely scaling back. We’ve now opened six offices and that allows our agents to be more productive. We hope to expand even further now as part of Realty Executives and help other brokers implement our business model. 

How do your agents utilize your physical office locations?
Some of our agents go into the office every day. A large percentage utilizes the office as a place to meet a client and sign a contract. We offer all electronic data storage and filing so associates don’t need to go into the office to fax papers, for example. If someone has a BlackBerry, it’s just like being in the office. 

What is it about Realty Executives that attracted you to their franchise over others?
We have 150 sales associates and the networking is going to be enormous because they are now tied to almost 11,000 Realtors across the world—before we were an island from a branding standpoint. We now have access to a tremendous marketing platform—instead of reinventing the wheel, we can now rely on Realty Executives to come up with the larger initiatives that we can then implement locally. 

What’s your approach to expanding in the New Jersey region during a time when most are contracting? Can it really be done?
Absolutely! We are eternal optimists. Candidly, the last three years have been a great time to expand because others were all cutting back and cutting services for Realtors and their clients. For high-level Realtors, there’s a lot of frustration out there—the corporate entity is not necessarily the answer to being a successful Realtor. We have a great company plan that includes profit sharing and attracts many high-level Realtors. 

What’s your philosophy on leadership and motivating agents in this challenging time?
It’s a matter of treating people fairly and with respect and understanding because challenging economic times put pressure on everyone. Our philosophy is to do everything we can to help our associates and we intend to do the same thing with our franchisees. These days, Realtors are looking for positive leadership and someone who sees an end in sight to all the negativity. We want to inspire agents to believe in themselves and talk positively with their clients. Associate yourself with positive people and positive things happen. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

For more real estate tips and topics on RISMedia.com, don’t miss:
18% of Prospective First-Time Home Buyers Say Extending $8,000 Tax Credit Would be Primary Influence on Decision to Buy
6 Steps to Generating Free Leads on Craigslist

Keith Nelson
Designated Broker
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive
Bellevue, Washington 

Region served: Greater Puget Sound
Years in real estate: About 30
Number of offices: 5
Number of agents: 230
Average sales price: $399,000
Best idea for time management: Know how to use Microsoft® Outlook and keep it current. Update all of your devices and make sure they are synched.
Keep meetings productive by…having a thorough agenda and sticking to it.
Key to staying profitable: Know how to do every job in your organization so you can look for efficiencies.
Best advice for real estate rookies: Don’t listen to the nay-sayers; there is good business to do right now. 

What is your biggest challenge in today’s market and how is your company taking it on?
Now that we have become affiliated with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, our biggest challenge is informing our agents about all the new technology they can use to their advantage. We are constantly working to keep new technology in front of our agents and helping them learn to use it effectively so they can succeed. For example, setting our agents up with Facebook and Twitter accounts allows them to take advantage of the perks of social networking. We have also updated our website to include more Web 2.0-type content, which we’ve found resonates with today’s consumer. 

How do you effectively communicate with your agents?
My goal is to get back to any of my agents that have a question within the same day they have contacted me in order to keep the lines of communication open and to get issues resolved quickly. Additionally, we send out a monthly newsletter that covers new hot topics within the real estate industry as well as new laws that have been enacted that will affect our business. 

How do you ensure you always get the right listing price?
Be truthful and honest with your sellers and understand they have an emotional attachment to their property. Research market data so you can provide clients with information that will enable them to make informed decisions. Today’s consumer wants to work with someone who will provide good, personalized information. 

What makes your company unique in today’s market?
Unlike traditional brokerages, we have never functioned with a traditional brick and mortar, “cube farm” mentality, but rather a “click and mortar” mentality. While we have always been efficient with centralized services, we have become even more efficient by centralizing most of our administrative needs, moving our documentation to a digital transaction storage system and setting up convenience centers for our agents to utilize 24/7. In addition, we provide a high level of risk management and tech support to our agents. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

For more real estate tips and topics on RISMedia.com, be sure to check out:
Social Networking Strategies – What’s the Right Way to Push Your Business on Facebook?
You Can Be in a Small Market and Succeed Big-time Online

David Moody, CEO, Qualifying Broker
Greg Martin, President, COO
ERA Sunrise Realty
Atlanta

Years in the industry: David Moody: 22; Greg Martin: 11
Number of offices: 8
Number of agents: 175
Region served: Metropolitan Atlanta, North Georgia Mountains & Athens, Ga.
Average sales price in your market: Right around $193,000
Average number of days a home spends on the market: We cover a large area with the Athens market probably having some of the highest days, but overall, the average runs probably anywhere between 130-150 days.
Average number of days a foreclosure spends on the market: Most of the foreclosures are priced between $90,000 and $200,000, so they’re still close to the average but slightly under. They seem to be drawing buyers’ attention.
Letting the numbers speak: Looking at the closed numbers for May, we are sitting currently YTD 363 units, $1.7 million in GCI. That’s 12% above last year in units, 8% above last year in GCI.
Market outlook: We’re looking at this market as an opportunity. We’ve been buying companies and opening offices. We’re trying to position ourselves so that when the market comes back and returns to normal, our competition will say, “How did these guys get so big?”
How are the challenges of today helping real estate in the long-run? We believe the reduction in sales associates in the long-term will be a good thing. There were people who were not productive. The bad news is, however, that in certain markets that have declined more severely, our recruiting efforts have been challenged because more and more sales associates have gone back to full-time jobs. We have a smaller pool of talent to draw from to make offices productive.

What’s the best strategy for finding the right listing price for sellers, especially when they’re competing against foreclosures and distressed properties?
The first is training our sales associates how to offer a higher commission to the selling agent in order to drive more traffic to our inventory. Second, because we own an appraisal company, we spend a lot of time helping our sales associates price listings to sell, adjust for square footage, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. to come up with a better market-based price. Also, when you’re competing against foreclosures, the property must be in superior condition. ERA Real Estate has a program called Gold Star Property. We’re actively training sales associates to deploy the program that ensures the home has been pre-inspected and is in absolute top showing condition-allowing us to advertise the property as a premium, ERA® Gold Star Property.

What helps differentiate your company?
The single thing that differentiates us is that four years ago, we started “rainmaking” at the ownership level. The average real estate professional is good at working with an individual seller/buyer, but many of them have some difficulty in this challenging market finding enough clients. So we started going after big whale deals-Freddie Mac, HUD, local builders, our relocation contract with Cartus. Our sales associates can count on us to provide them business to keep them going in a down market. In 2008, 57% of our sales associates participated in that company-generated business. We created a business model that allows us to spread the wealth across a large population of our people. On the other side, an agent can earn 100% commission on business they generate. And our brokers don’t compete with our sales associates.

How is your company reaching out to first-time home buyers?
One of the things we’re doing here is running ads and encouraging sales associates to run ads about the tax credit. We use sign riders, promoting the credit. We’re also promoting the $100-down program in purchasing a HUD home. Two months ago we did a HUD-home buyer bus tour that we promoted on radio, in flyers, and on websites. We rented a bus, gave the guests a full overview of buying a HUD home and what the process entails, gave a box lunch, took them out to see HUD properties. When we brought them back to office, we had lenders and sales associates on site to answer questions and help participants place bids. It was wildly successful.

What other technology-related tactics are you using to integrate your marketing approach to consumers?
We encourage social media from management down. The sales associates especially ought to be taking advantage of social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’re looking at a creative Internet lead management team to more aggressively handle our Internet leads, process them, and get them closed more effectively.

Within ERA Real Estate, we have the Direct Market Resource Center that has electronic marketing pieces sales associates can use to send out automatically to former clients. For a sales associate who signs on, they’ve got an automatic e-mail drip campaign as part of being in the ERA system for buyers, sellers, and prospecting.

How does your website stand out in the market?
We’ve merged four MLS systems into one. We have Athens, Northeast Georgia, the Georgia Association of Realtors and First MLS all aggregated on our website. Our consumers and competitors can go on it to see all properties. We also have HUDs and foreclosures on the site and separate tabs that feature certain subdivisions to help market saturation. We have found that the first sales associate to connect with a consumer has an increased chance for success.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

For more real estate tips and topics on RISMedia.com, see:

Re-Inventing Your Career at Any Age 
The Do’s and Don’ts of Short Sales

George Faucette
President
Coldwell Banker Faucette Real Estate
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Region served: Northwest Arkansas, which comprises three counties: Washington, Madison and Benton; northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri
Years in real estate: 45
Number of offices: 3
Number of agents: 120
Average sales price: $160,000
When it comes to communicating with agents today…E-mail is a primary communication tool for us, whether it’s person-to-person or mass e-mails to our agents and staff.
Is getting back to basics still relevant? Absolutely-more so now than when the market started its rise six or seven years ago.
Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? We’re beginning to participate in more social networking. Personal vs. business-that’s the question, really. For example, if you’re on Twitter, how do you make yourself business-relevant locally? How do you get people to “follow” you?

What does it take to get the best possible price for sellers?
To get the best price, you have to make sure that everything else is taken care of. You have to put the house’s “best face on,” so to speak. Our agents always hold a home enhancement meeting with their sellers to go over what might cost the least to stage the house. The key issue is knowing the market; know your comparables-what others have sold for.

What’s your biggest challenge in your market and how is your company taking it on?
We have to work hard to coax buyers off the sidelines; if they’re secure in their jobs and have the ability to move up, it’s a matter of convincing them to do so. Waiting for interest rates to fall to 4% is not going to happen. If it works and they’re making a good buy, why not do it now?

What are the advantages to being able to offer your clients a home warranty through American Home Shield?
AHS is a great company; in my opinion, they’re the strongest home warranty company out there. They have a good plan; it’s not the cheapest, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s very comprehensive and branded with Coldwell Banker as the Coldwell Banker Home Protection Plan. It’s exclusive just for us, so we do not allow the marketing or promotion of any other home warranty company in our offices. AHS is great about always looking at the gray area-what’s between the client’s claim and the company’s general guidelines. They’re always willing to say, “Let’s look at this.” The line is not drawn in the sand, which is great for us because it helps the client and reflects very well on us.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Don’t miss these headlines on RISMedia.com:

How Real Estate Agents Can Sell More Homes by Studying Demand  
How to Rank the Quality of Your Leads

Ty Dodge
President & CEO
RealtySouth
Birmingham, Alabama

Region served: Alabama, as well as Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia
Years in real estate: 31
Number of offices: 21
Number of agents: 1,120
Average sales price: $201,000
Best tip for running a productive meeting: Be prepared, be focused, engage those who are in attendance and make it worth their while.

What strategies are most effective for you in terms of recruiting?
Real estate is a relationship business that requires personal contact to achieve success. We can’t rely on marketing to get the job done so we have to prospect for agents just like our agents prospect for buyers and sellers.

What is the biggest challenge your company is facing in today’s market?
The greatest challenge of this market is staying focused and staying positive-and helping our agents do the same. We do this by maintaining personal relationships within the company, spreading the word about all the good things that are happening and providing our associates with a lot of basic skills training and motivational opportunities.

What makes your company unique in today’s market?
RealtySouth is one of the only full-service companies in our market. When buyers go out into the marketplace, they’re not looking for a house, a loan, a title policy, homeowners insurance and a home warranty-they just want to buy a home. RealtySouth simplifies the process and, in doing so for our buyers, we serve our sellers, too.

What are the advantages of being able to offer your clients a home warranty through American Home Shield?
Each week, our managers stand at the front of their sales meetings and deliver the good news about claims paid out to our clients who have reaped the benefits of having an AHS® Home Warranty in place. AHS warranties can benefit not only our buyers, but our sellers, as well.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Costa Poulopoulos, Broker of Record/Owner
Mary Johnson, Salesperson/Owner
Realty Executives Elite
London, Ontario

Years in the industry: Poulopoulos: 22; Johnson: 12
Years as business partners: 13
Number of offices: 1 head office in London; 1 satellite office in the city
Number of agents: 45 sales Executives/agents (at time of publication)
Region served: London, Ontario-nestled between Detroit, Michigan and Toronto, Ontario
Average sales price in your market: $210,000 (Canadian dollars)
Average listing time: Between 60 and 90 days
Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Yes, about 75% of the sales Executives here are using social networking forums. It’s hard to track, but our associates say they’ve gotten a listing/sale from Facebook because, for example, they were friends with someone on Facebook who was friends with someone who needed an agent.
Our brokerage is unique because…At Realty Executives, even though most agents operate under an independent contractor status, we’re interdependent. When you compete with someone, you either win or lose. When you cooperate with somebody, everybody wins. That’s what has happened in our brokerage.
One way we help our agents stand out is by…The office we built. It’s an environment that lends itself to collaboration and sharing amongst our sales Executives. We’ve worked hard to make our office inviting and professional with marble floors, a fireplace, an espresso machine, boardrooms, client rooms, sitting areas, etc., that are all available for use by anyone, at anytime. It doesn’t matter if you’re buying a $70,000 condo or $700,000 home-everyone’s treated equally. You get by giving; you don’t give to get.

What’s the best strategy to get the best possible price for sellers?
In different pockets of the city you have to price properties properly and a lot of that has to do with experience. We offer a caravan every Monday, where the sales Executives tour homes just listed or homes that are going to be listed within the next seven days. During the caravan, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., the agents in our brokerage go out and tour and preview all of these listings and, at end of day, they put comments about what should be done to the homes-whether it needs to be staged, pricing, adjustments as far as appearance, etc. They offer objective comments, so instead of one agent giving an opinion, the seller has 45 sets of eyeballs on it.

How are you keeping your meetings productive in today’s market?
We have monthly luncheon meetings at hotels. It’s a working lunch that’s exclusively just for our sales Executives. A week before the meeting we ask them if they have any items they want to discuss. It’s their meeting and we’re there to facilitate, so any topics, concerns, new business, etc. that they want to discuss is forwarded via e-mail. We then circulate our full-blown agenda prior to the meeting. It’s a formal meeting, so we do introductions and offer name tags because, even though we all work in same brokerage, we don’t see everyone every day. We all brainstorm and trade secrets and implement ideas that are legal, ethical and good for the brokerage.

What’s your biggest challenge in today’s market and how is your company taking it on?
The fear of the economy. Today, both the buyers and sellers have to adjust to the fluctuation of market prices. The market has changed and it’s no longer a matter of listing on the MLS and, within a week, getting a sold sign put out front. Now is the time where agents are worth more and, when the market changes, you have to pull together as a team and as an expert. It’s our job to explain to the client and seller that you have to spend money to make money. It’s our job to market, stage, arrange prelisting inspections, etc. Based on that, we have to convey to sellers that our fee is this, but you’re hiring a professional who knows who to market your property. And when you do it collectively, with a big group of people that go out during the caravan, that’s the biggest asset we’ve found. It’s more than using a CMA, it’s using professionalism and sensitivity to relay the recommendations of the sales Executives in our brokerage. Do you spend $5,000 to get the price you want or put it at a price to sell as is? It’s all about tact professionalism and sensitivity.

What type of marketing sends the right message to consumers in today’s economy and real estate market?
Realty Executives has such an amazing tech-based marketing campaign that the tools and technology are light years ahead of other companies. We have digital magazines that entail taking a property and putting it in a digital magazine with photos-nobody else in our market is using this. When you send a property brochure digitally, the response we’ve had has been phenomenal. We also use a coffee table listing book. As an Executive with Realty Executives, you create your copy, select the number of pages and create a bound book that sits in the seller’s home. Buyers are going through the house and looking at it. They’re impressed. When sellers sell the house, they keep this book and take it with them. They’ll leave it in their bookcase; it has the sales Executive’s face and company name in it, helping to generate tremendous interest for more business.

How are you communicating with agents today?
We are using technology. When you go to our website, there’s an “Executive Access” login area. If we want to communicate with each other, we use the discussion board. This works because, out of 45 Executives in our office, there may only be 10 who have offices in the brick-and-mortar building. While we do have an area for them to use when they come into the office, when they work from home, they can use the discussion area. You can login and post that you’ve got a buyer looking to move into a particular area under $200,000, before you put on MLS, give me a call. Say I log on and see your post, I can send you a private message with the listing information and tell you to give me a call, etc. It’s like a virtual office.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Years in the industry: 38
Number of offices: 12
Number of agents: 538
Region served: Hampton Roads, Virginia
Average sales price in your market: $228,000
Average listing time: 70 days
Key to succeeding today: Staying realistically upbeat so that everyone recognizes we’re all focused on moving forward.
Tips for reaching first-time home buyers: It’s a smaller buyer pool so you must do as much as you can to attract as great a segment of that pool as possible. We’ve begun a program of staging multiple open-house events every other week. We promote these events on our website, through the MLS and with picture advertisements in the local newspapers. We enhance these promotions with direct mail and open-house signage.
Outlook on today’s marketplace: The most important factor in marketing a property used to be location, location, location. Now it’s also price, price, affordability. Sellers make concessions that help buyers get into the house, such as paying for repairs, closing costs and other buyer obligations. Offsetting upfront costs greatly affects the affordability of the property.
In order to get the right price for sellers…Be completely honest and give sellers a true overview of what’s happening in the marketplace-what has and hasn’t sold.

How are you keeping your meetings productive in today’s market?

We incorporate recent market data and input from our lenders, and have panel discussions featuring agents who have been successful in this market. We leverage their expertise by sharing it with the other agents.

What’s your biggest challenge in today’s market and how is your company taking it on?

Now that properties are staying on the market longer, every sale that occurs has a direct effect on the value of what is listed. If you’re not communicating this to your sellers, you’re really doing them an injustice. Sellers, at times, have unrealistic expectations, particularly in this market. There are many sellers who are still looking back at prices from several years ago. If the properties are priced right and are in good repair, we now get multiple offers and we sell the properties quickly. Our job as Realtors is to put the seller in tune with today’s market by pricing properties to be competitive.

How are you keeping consumers in your marketplace educated about the buying opportunities of today?

There is such a wide range of consumers today. The majority go to the Internet, so the placement of your information on the Web is critical. The more sites on which you place your information, the better you communicate with consumers. There are still buyers and sellers who prefer direct mail and print advertising. We really try to do the whole gamut and adjust to the needs of the consumer.

When it comes to recruiting, what strategies have been most effective for your company?

There’s nothing that can surpass the company reputation and the one-on-one communication between brokers and managers in the prospective talent pool. When you go beyond that, you have to show prospects that you have the support internally that will help them become successful-or even more successful-than they already are. Prudential training, marketing and branding give us exposure well beyond the real estate industry.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Don’t miss other real estate best practices on RISMedia.com:

How Well Do You Know Your Customer? 
Adapting to Change – In Any Marketplace

Ari Harkov
Vice President/Associate Broker
Halstead Property, LLC
New York, New York

Region served: Manhattan and select areas of Brooklyn
Years in real estate: 2.5
Number of offices: 12
Average time on market: 106 days
Best idea for time management: Use a calendar to plug in all appointments, meetings, calls and tasks. While a lot of tasks are important, not all are urgent, so it is crucial to prioritize.
Best tip for dealing with difficult customers: The most important thing is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and understand where they are coming from and what their needs are. You must also listen to what they aren’t saying as well as what they are saying, and learn to read between the lines, because oftentimes they won’t tell you the whole story.

How do you communicate with your customers?

Knowing your customer is the most effective way to communicate with them, as everyone likes to be contacted differently. You have to be willing to reach out to your customers multiple times, through different means. I e-mail a newsletter to my contacts on a monthly basis as well as send out print mailings to buildings in which I have done business in the past.

What makes your company unique in today’s market?

One thing that makes Halstead Property unique is that we are a privately held company. In addition, we are a New York City company that is owned by an overarching parent company, so our offices aren’t spread across vastly different markets. This has given us the opportunity to focus on a specific market and be knowledgeable about the market in which we work.

What is the key to staying successful in today’s market?

Real estate is all about numbers. Especially with today’s tough environment, it is even more important to network, brand yourself and advertise. Focusing on these items as well as mailings, newsletters, e-mails and phone calls will drive in leads.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

Read more tips from the pro’s on RISMedia.com, see:

Distressed Properties-Blight or Boon? 
Real Estate in an IRA Offers Agents New Way to Sell Houses

Cindy Cahill
Broker/Owner
Realty Executives Select
Taylor Mill, Kentucky

Region served: Northern Kentucky
Years in real estate: 20
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 20
Average sales price: $170,000
Average time on market: Five months
Best tip for running a productive meeting: Make it fun and knowledgeable.
Best idea for time management: Only handle a piece of paper one time, if possible.
Key to staying profitable: Watch your overhead closely and be efficient with your advertising.
One technology tool you can’t live without: The Internet.

How do you effectively communicate with your clients?
The most effective way I communicate with my clients is via e-mail. I also do a mailing four times a year, in which I send my clients information about changes in the real estate industry that will be pertinent to them personally.

How are you dealing with the negative effects of the media?
There is no better way to battle the negative effects of the media than to communicate and share with the public what is really happening.

What makes your company unique in today’s market?
We are a very personal and client-driven company. We have agents in our office that have experienced the ups and downs of different types of markets over the years, and these agents have proven beneficial in helping to guide our newer agents through the difficulties they have faced during this market.

What are your best marketing strategies?
We are constantly making every effort we can to keep all of our clients aware of what the real estate market is like today and how the current market can be used to anyone’s advantage.

What is your biggest challenge in today’s market, and how is your company taking it on?
One of the biggest challenges we face in today’s market is overcoming the misdirected information that is given by media. Another big challenge is helping to educate the public on the “real” real estate market as well as its current advantages.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

For more best practices on RISMedia.com, see:

• Bright Shiny Objects and Other Things That Glitter
  Toxic Assets, Toxic Titles, Toxic Times

Vincent Arcuri
Sales Representative
EXIT Realty Foundations
Tampa, Florida

Region served: Tampa Bay, Florida
Years in real estate: 19
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 3
Average sales price: $300,000
Average time on market: 30-60 days
Best idea for time management: Having my wife work on my team with me. We both keep each other motivated.
Best advice for real estate rookies: Even though it’s a hard time to get into the real estate business, you have to be consistent in order to see results.

What is the biggest challenge in your marketplace and how is your company taking it on?
Getting homes priced correctly is our biggest challenge. Right now, we are dealing with home sellers who are facing negative equity situations and they don’t see a way out, so Realtors need to make it a point to educate themselves and give their customers the right advice.

How has being part of a team helped you in today’s real estate market?
Being part of a team has been a huge advantage as the whole point of the business is selling real estate and prospecting. Having a team allows one person to handle calls from buyers and another to negotiate contracts so that I can focus on bringing in new business as well as marketing the homes that are brought in.

What are some of the best ways to keep the members of your team motivated?
Keeping team members motivated is crucial in today’s market and it is important to surround yourself with people that have a passion for real estate. Allowing my team to participate in my success is another way in which I keep everyone motivated.

Why did you decide to leave your previous brokerage and join EXIT?
EXIT reminds me of why I wanted to be involved with a franchise in the first place. After interviewing with EXIT, I got a call from (President-U.S. Organization) Tami Bonnell and I realized that the high level management at EXIT was in tune with what was happening throughout the company. EXIT does a great job of publicizing their marketing materials as well, which has been big for me, as the tools that they provide have never been available to me.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

For more best practices on RISMedia.com, see:

• Help First-Time Home Buyers Help Themselves
  Moving Forward: First-Time Home Buyers Leading the Way

How are you differentiating yourself from your competition?
I have always been all about education. I always go to conventions and seminars. My husband calls me a “convention junkie.” I am also very involved with the community. I am kind of a pillar of our community, and when people need to go to someone for help, they turn to me. People are so nervous about the economy and they are running scared. So, for example, foreclosures were never a big strength for me, but I have made sure that I have taken a class and know about short sales and foreclosures so I can help people.

How do you ensure you are not perceived as a ‘typical’ real estate agent?
I have branded myself so I am always on the cutting edge. I am big into customer service and I have always been around people who enjoy that I am a hard worker. I have clients who I sold houses to 30 years ago and I am still in contact with these people today.

What specific strategies are unique to you and your team?
It is all about making and keeping the customer happy. I am always on the cutting edge and I am learning all the time. I have a CRS, CRP, certified luxury home designation, CDPE, and am also a buyer’s rep. Having all of these designations requires my staying on top of the marketplace, so I am always ahead of the rest of the pack. Thirty years ago, when I set out to differentiate myself, I went after the large corporations and their relo business and I have gotten to know a lot of those people who I count today as my closest friends. I set my standards really high and it has paid off.

How do you elevate your professionalism through marketing and technology?
Realtor.com is a big vendor of mine and I spend quite a bit of money with them. I want to make sure that I am always seen first and get the premium spots-I think I have 16 premier spots. It costs money, but I know that I have to spend money to make money. I have to get my listings seen for my customers. Also, I am in a Mastermind Group, which meets about eight times a year and we talk about what went right and what went wrong, and we share our goals. We keep each other accountable. We are all from different markets so we can speak freely about what we are doing. When we order products, we order as a group so we order in bulk and save money. But mostly, it’s the friendship and the support. We are almost as close as relatives.

What is your best idea for turning this market to your advantage?
The strong are going to survive, so if you have a brand and keep advertising, you can pick up lots of listings. People are nervous and they need immediate satisfaction. Your clients have to hear from you. You have to educate them on every level and share with them the good news and the bad.

What is your best idea for time management?
I have assistants who work for me, so we have it down to a science with my team.

Please describe your philosophy for a successful life in real estate.
First of all, you have to get people to like you and trust you and you have to treat everyone as you like to be treated. I treat everyone equally. It doesn’t matter if they are buying a very inexpensive house or a huge, expensive house. They all receive the same great service.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Russ Bono and Pawel Szott
Broker/Owners
Realty Executives OC Coastal
South Orange County, California

Years in the industry: Russ Bono, 7 1/2; Pawel Szott, 2 1/2
Number of offices: 5
Number of agents: 220
Region served: South Orange County, California
Average sales price in your market: Approx. $500,000
Average listing time: At least 90 days, but quicker if it’s a bank-owned property that’s priced aggressively.
The key to staying successful in today’s marketplace: You have to be well-versed in doing short sales.
Stay productive by…Having good managers and a great strategy. Be a contrarian in the marketplace, giving agents the flexibility that allows them to prosper.

What advice would you offer to agents for getting the right listing price?

RB: The first thing we all have to remember is to be realistic with our clients-not just tell them what they want to hear. Show them the comparables-even while most people are aware of what’s going on. If a seller is putting their home on the market, they have to be able to compete with the foreclosure market.

When it comes to dealing with difficult clients, what do you feel works best?

RB: You have to have confidence. If you’re not confident, a difficult client will walk all over you. But if you take charge of the transaction, you can keep these types of clients in line. You have to know your business and you have to know your craft.

How are you growing your company and why is today a good opportunity to do so?

RB: A down market is a great opportunity to recruit and we have a system for bringing in significant talent. Some of the best agents are coming over because they see there’s a better way.

PS: We use direct mail and e-mail blasts, but our managers have the biggest role in recruiting because they attend meetings with agents; there’s a lot of networking, inviting agents to open houses, etc. Our company has outside-of-the-box thinking. When we entered Orange County, we entered with the mindset of not being typical-being unique and different in every way, from compensation to marketing, to how we approach agents, clients, management-you name it.

How are you keeping your agents productive in a slower market?

PS: We create different types of promotions for our agents. We have a foreclosure center that highlights foreclosures within our offices and we market them to the general public to generate leads for our agents.

RS: Our managers load their meetings with information that helps our agents to produce-it’s educational, informative, and stuff you can use in the marketplace.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Julie Vanderblue
The Higgins Group
Christie’s Great Estates
Years in real estate: 15
Region served: Fairfield County, Connecticut
Average sales price in your market: $900,000
Average listing time: 130 days

How are you working with sellers whose listings aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like them to?

We get very creative about getting people in to see the listings. We do a lot of charity events at the homes we are selling. It’s a good cause so the money we spend is well-spent. It’s not just a huge open house.

We are also very proactive about finding buyers. We work very closely with lenders and we do a lot of swapping. Say I have a property on the market that is listed for $1.1 million and the sellers are looking to downsize and buy a $600,000 house. We call every seller who has a home in that range and ask if they are looking to upgrade. We find someone who wants to upgrade and is selling a $600,000 house. By coordinating buyers with sellers, we have been able to put deals together. This also opens doors to relationships with other agents. We are all in this together and we have to work hard to improve market conditions.

How do you help sellers determine the best price?

I am definitely an optimist. My glass is overflowing. So when I first get a listing, I do a CMA and I look at the comps and come up with a range of value. I first tell the sellers that we think they should price their house closer to the low end because people want value in this market. Then I get my entire team of 10 agents to walk through the property. They each weigh in on the house’s merits and its debits and then we sit down with the homeowner again and, thinking of the industry and the competition, we come up with a very realistic price for the market. We want the price to excite the market when it first comes out. We don’t want to test out a price in this market. We really do a lot of fine tuning.

How do you adjust your marketing strategy to move listings?

I do a great deal of online marketing. I also believe very strongly in personal touch. I use my networking skills to reach out to buyers through after-hours events. Everyone knows people who would be buyers. This is the best opportunity, best time to buy. So if you are upgrading, it’s an ideal time to buy. You just have to be in front of people. I also go to a lot of seminars and bring back new ideas to my market.

How do you encourage buyers to act instead of waiting?

You explain that it’s a great market. You are never going to know when we have hit the bottom and once the market turns, interest rates will go up. I ask buyers how far they think it’s going to go down if they say they don’t want to buy until the very bottom of the market. When they say perhaps another 5%, I suggest they just offer 5% less. People are afraid and we just need to educate them about everything. They need to feel that they are being heard.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Are you Top 5 Member material? To become a part of the movement or learn the benefits of becoming a member, visit www.top5inrealestate.com. Be sure to check out the “Events” page where Top 5 is coming to a local city near you!

Jim Bass
Associate Broker/Owner
Real Estate Teams, LLC
Frederick, Maryland

Region served: Mid-Atlantic
Years in real estate: 15
Number of offices: 3
Number of agents: 187
Average sales price: $319,000
Average time on market: 96 days
Key to staying profitable: True accounting. We are a joint-venture co-op, and so we share the cost of operations as well.
One tech tool you can’t live without: Our intranet

How do you determine your marketing spend?
We started our own ad committee in 2003, and at that time, we were focusing 80% of our marketing in print and 20% on the Web. Since then, our numbers have changed; we now focus 20% on print ads and 80% on the Web.

How do you keep your agents motivated?
In order to keep my agents motivated, I make sure that there is constant communication between myself and them. Being in the real estate industry, we are constant students of our craft and we are always learning. I speak at national conferences so I always bring back ideas and new and different ways to do things. I believe in sharing these tips with my agents. There are a lot of great things going on in the industry that are working for real estate professionals, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

What are two fundamentals essential to your company’s continued success?
The spirit of cooperation that is found within our company is one of our keys to success. We are a company of companies with over 40 senior teams that are always working together and sharing business best practices and ideas with one another. The management team that we have in place is another way in which we continue to remain successful within our real estate market.

How do you remain ahead of your competition?
When I go on a listing presentation, I tell the seller that if they list their home with us, we will include it in our advertising and specifically in the local Real Estate Book magazine and their associated online sites. The promise to advertise has been a great motivating tool for many of my sellers and I’ve used the print deadline to get them to make a decision. Basically, professional marketing wins listings.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.