Guerilla Training Blog by Matt Jones

Rethinking Your Promo Photo

Several times in the last week I had almost identical conversations with different agents, so I thought it might be a good idea to share it with my readers. During the course of showing agents around my website we would eventually come to my photo. The reaction is almost predictable. There is a weird kind of stunned, nearly audible silence where you can almost hear the wheels turning in their minds as they try to decide what to say. On the one hand, they almost universally like the photo, but ... Read More »

Success Team Q&A Session

This audio was recorded live on November 17, 2011 directly from a Success Team Q&A session. In this conference call, agents from all across the US and Canada engage in a mastermind session where we discuss problems facing agents today. This is the kind of stuff you can’t get in your local office where everyone sees their fellow local agents as competition. Great stuff that you won’t want to miss. CLICK HERE and learn how you can generate 2-3 inbound leads every day without spending money on advertising. Read More »

Ten Steps to Real Estate Success (Step 2)

Harvey MacKay, the best selling author of Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, made the following statement: “Failures don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.” Sadly, many an agent has thrown in the towel after investing months or even years at learning the business of real estate when they might have been successful had they only prepared properly. Antoine de Saint, a French writer once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” I’ve met hundreds of agents who had a broad goal of business ... Read More »

The Most Important 5 Seconds of Any Real Estate Transaction

For every closing… every single deal… there is that one moment… that one crucial moment where things can go terribly wrong but don’t. The “tipping point” of any transaction where if you handle it right the result is a commission check, and if you handle it wrong, there is the frustration of yet another missed opportunity. Sure, you may tell yourself that the lead was just a tire-kicker — a poor quality lead — but in your heart of hearts you know that it really came down to that moment… ... Read More »

Hey Eeyore! (Part 2): Money for Nothing and Clients for Free!

Okay, let’s talk about everyone’s favorite four-letter word: LEAD. For some reason, we in the real estate profession want to tell ourselves that we are somehow not in the sales business. That we are above the crassness of selling. Selling is for those lower on the developmental ladder. It’s not for professionals like us. Well I’m calling BS! Of course we are in sales, and it’s great! The highest paid profession in the world is SALES. I love sales. You should love sales. We should all hold our heads high ... Read More »

Help Me Solve a Mortgage Problem

I remember it like it was yesterday: my first December in real estate. I’d been working very hard and my business was finally starting to take off. I had four closings scheduled for the month, and believe me, I needed the money. After a lean six months in a new career, we were going to have a normal Christmas again, and I was thrilled. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not materialistic and my family has cheerfully endured good times and bad, but let’s face it, more is better than ... Read More »

The State of the Industry…

Where do I start? Let’s talk about the big picture– the state of the real estate industry. Last week it was reported that sales of existing homes was at the lowest point in 14 years. Then two days later we learned that sales of new homes was at a 10 year low. It’s been less than a month since the National Association of REALTORS(R) said that their membership suffered the first year of negative growth in over a decade, down 7% from last year. It seems that nearly every day ... Read More »

The Secret to Stopping the Slinky Effect

What would you do if you had no active clients and you needed to generate some income? Many of us have experienced that before — hectically finishing up with a flurry of deals, depositing the last commission check and then waking up the next morning “unemployed”. For many of us that means dusting off the database and starting to call our sphere of influence. Others will head down to the nearest shopping area and start trolling for business. Still others will volunteer for floor duty, model home duty, or host ... Read More »

Do You Know Today’s Real Estate Customer?

Not long ago I finally got around to looking at The National Association of Realtors® annual report Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers — 120 pages of great information about our customers. If you haven’t taken time to read it I highly recommend you do. But buried deep within those pages are what might be the two most important statements in the entire report. Not only are they critically important, but when taken together, should be a major wake-up call for every single real estate professional. Here they are: “Age ... Read More »

Lose the Overhead!

For my final installment in this 20-part series, I’d like to leave you with one guiding principle that will make you more money, or save you more money, than all the rest. (Isn’t saving money the same as making it? My wife tells me it is when she gets back from the mall.) Anyway, here it is: Lose the overhead. What do I mean? Think about it: If you want to increase your bottom line, there are really only two ways to do it. You can increase your top line ... Read More »