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Have you often avoided making those dreaded cold calls? Do you dream of how much better your business could be but just can’t bring yourself to pick up the phone? You’re not alone. In the 15+ years that I have specialized in coaching real estate agents, I have noticed the same avoidant patterns in each of my clients. This article gives you five tips to make it easier.

If you’re a new agent just getting started in the real estate industry, the following elements are crucial as you set yourself up to hit the ground running. 1. Secure your own domain name. It’s important to have a domain name that you can use with your company-provided site or a site of your own. Domain names allow you to start branding from the beginning so that you have a solid foundation in place from the get-go. 2. Make sure you have a stand-alone website that can easily grow with you. Ask your Web provider if you can add unlimited pages, photos, videos, social media elements and even your own links and PDFs. This allows you to have a solid foundation in place even if you end up switching companies down the road.

Last Wednesday, February 1, President Obama announced the details of a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages in hopes of bolstering the housing market. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, this proposal will allow buyers to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing into loans backed by the FHA, if they are current on their mortgage. The plan is estimated to cost between $5 billion and $10 billion, which Obama plans to cover by pressing a fee on large banks.

The industry’s leading residential real estate firms are quickly responding to RISMedia’s 24th Annual Power Broker Survey, reporting strong numbers for 2011 despite a challenging economic landscape. As the preeminent ranking of the industry’s top residential real estate brokerages, RISMedia’s Power Broker Survey is responsible for revealing real estate’s “who’s who.” Brokers must complete the survey by February 24, 2012 in order to be considered for inclusion in RISMedia’s 24th Annual Power Broker Report, a preview of which appears in the April issue of Real Estate magazine.

Setting yourself apart from your competition is becoming increasingly difficult. The emergence of social media into the business world has created platforms where constant, ongoing contact is possible. As a result of this desire to be in constant contact, many agents and brokers have struggled with what constitutes valuable content. What do we post, tweet and send? If you think about it, the idea that your friends and acquaintances are sincerely interested in an up-to-the-minute play-by-play of your daily activities is somewhat absurd. This confusion in the marketplace creates real opportunities for leaders to emerge. When I say leaders, I mean thought leaders, market leaders, industry leaders and even neighborhood leaders.

While more and more consumers are turning to their smartphones for information, brokers and REALTORS® everywhere are adapting in order to properly serve their mobile, forward-thinking clientele. The latest trend in the world of mobile marketing is not only dominating the mobile world, but also changing the way agents are promoting their listings and printing their signage. Over the last couple of years, QR codes, short for quick response codes, have been popping up almost everywhere you look. Advertisements in magazines and newspapers, posters, billboards, and even real estate for-sale signs have all been sporting these small, square codes.

In my years of experience with coaching clients to maximize their success, I have created powerful tips to help accelerate progress. The first of these is to get clear on exactly what "success" means to you. I can't tell you how many agents I have worked with who have a general idea that they want to be successful but they don't really know where they want to be professionally 12 months from now.

(MCT)—The lower-than-expected annualized growth rate of 2.8 percent reported Friday for the final three months of 2011 raises doubts about the strength of the U.S. recovery, and concerns that 2012 may be another year of muddling along. Most mainstream economists had expected the fourth-quarter number to come in at 3 percent or higher, and the lower final number from the Commerce Department meant that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent for all of last year. That’s below 2010’s growth rate of 3 percent for the nation’s gross domestic product, the sum of goods and served produced in the U.S. economy. It points to a tepid recovery after the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

Despite a challenging real estate market, the industry’s leading residential brokerage firms continue to demonstrate resiliency and growth, and will prove this by participating in RISMedia’s 24th Annual Power Broker Report & Survey. As the industry’s preeminent report ranking the industry’s top brokerages, this listing of the real estate industry’s “who’s who” has long served as an important differentiator and competitive tool for real estate firms across the country. To complete the survey now, please click here. The survey deadline is February 24, 2012.

In a year when breaking even on year-over-year home sales might be considered a lofty goal for some real estate companies, Blue Ridge, Georgia's Coldwell Banker High Country Realty, has reported a 49 percent increase in homes sold in 2011 over the previous year. What’s their secret? Broker/Owner June Slusser says it’s all about providing information, which she has done with the help of RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network® (RREIN).

Remodeling sentiment rose to the highest level in five years, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the fourth quarter of 2011. Released yesterday, the RMI increased to 46.6 in the fourth quarter from 41.7 in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the RMI component measuring current market conditions rose to 48.4 from 43.0 in the previous quarter. The RMI component measuring future indicators of remodeling business was also positive, increasing to 44.8 from 40.4 in the previous quarter.

National Association of REALTORS® President Moe Veissi made the following statement, regarding President Obama’s State of the Union address this week. "The National Association of REALTORS® commends President Obama for his remarks in support of homeowners and the struggling housing market during tonight's State of the Union address. As leading advocates for homeownership, REALTORS® know that restoring the health of the housing market is the only way to achieve a broader economic recovery. "REALTORS® stand ready to help Congress and the administration implement Obama's proposal to significantly reduce monthly mortgage payments by streamlining the refinancing process.

Many people who want to create success for the New Year don’t realize that in order to do that, they need to have a blueprint for success. What does that mean specifically? It takes two things to create a blueprint for success. The first thing you have to have is a clear vision of what it is you want to create. The more powerful your vision and the more you can feel your vision, the stronger it is. So for example, if you want to make $500,000 in real estate in the year 2012, and you’d like to work 30 hours a week or less, and you’d like to work with your ideal clients, then create a mission statement to that effect.

If being connected 24/7 was supposed to make our lives easier, the business world didn’t get the memo. Most American professionals just can’t shake the end-of-the-day feeling that they didn’t get enough done. So day after day, they find themselves responding to work e-mail on their smartphones right up until their head hits the pillow. Sound familiar? There is good news, says Jason Womack: By implementing a few small changes, you can get more done in less time—which not only staves off burnout, but leaves more time for doing what you love.

The growing number of lawsuits over non-disclosure of land pollution is creating increased liability for real estate brokers. Soil contamination, groundwater contamination and concern surrounding hazardous vapor intrusion into homes is putting real estate brokers on the firing line in debates as to whether or not they properly informed a prospective home buyer that existing environmental contamination on the land on which the home has been built, or nearby contaminated land, has the potential to impact the value of the property and even their health.