Guerilla Training Blog by Matt Jones

What Do All Top Agents Have in Common? (Part 1)

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a top producing agent? What a great question! If you’ve ever asked yourself that question, you’re already on your way. What if I told you that the difference between a struggling agent and a mega-producing agent is tiny? What if I told you that most agents I’ve met have within them the potential to become top agents? “Okay, Matt,” you’re probably thinking, “if it’s so easy, then why are most agents struggling today?” I believe they struggle because of fear. Fear ... Read More »

Prepare for 2014 by Doing Three Things…

In less than two weeks it will be 2014! Wow, did this year fly by! I don’t know about you but as I wrap things up for this year, I begin to think about next year. For years I didn’t think about next year until January, but eventually I realized that if I waited until then, I would end up wasting my first month of the new year. So I began a habit of getting ready for the next year during the final weeks of the current year. And I ... Read More »

Learning from Failure: Lesson Two.

In the last installment, I compared the restaurant manufacturing operation with real estate. In this installment, we’ll look at a restaurant as a sales organization. While the back of the house (the kitchen) is all about manufacturing, the front of the house (the dining room) is all about sales. Meeting customers, setting expectations and exceeding them, and attention to detail are crucial elements in any sales organization. A restaurant is no exception. Everything is important — from the elegant music, to the dress code of the staff, to the words ... Read More »

Why Are Internet Leads “Bad Leads”?

As the President of a company who specializes in helping agents capture customers online, one of the things that troubles me is hearing agents say, “Internet leads are ‘bad leads’.” In fact, it bothered me so much that we commissioned our customer service department to actually conduct a survey. Here’s how it went. First we looked at the statistical buying cycle for the real estate customer. The average search time is 8 weeks. In other words, 50% search longer than 56 days and 50% search 56 days or less. Now ... Read More »

The Virtual Office Model (Part 8)

The FavoriteAgent.com Virtual Model Imagine starting your very own real estate brokerage. I know what you’re thinking: “But I don’t have the $20,000 for a franchise fee, or the $10,000 for a lease deposit and and first month’s lease payment. For that matter, I don’t have the $50,000 it will cost me to buy the desks, tables, chairs, fax machine, copy machine, and all the endless stuff that I need to get things started. And even if I had the $80,000 in hard start-up costs, and another $100,000 available for ... Read More »

Advertising 101 (Part 3)

So now that we’ve decided on direct response advertising as the “how”, we need to next identify the “who”. This should be self-evident, but looking at advertising from agents around the country, I can assure you it’s not. Who is your audience? In case you don’t know the answer to this simple question, let’s first think about the purpose of your advertising — to generate business. If your sole purpose is to generate business, then your target audience should be the customer you want to attract. Right? Right. I’ve seen ... Read More »

How This First Year Agent Made $80K Working Part Time!

As a broker owner of a real estate firm with over 70 agents, I’m amazed sometimes at how some agents seem to “get it” and some seem to be “ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an avid proponent of learning… but let’s think about today’s real estate training for a minute. I have an agent that started with me last September. She had everything going against her: She’s only 27 years old, she was only able to work ... Read More »

Zillow, Realtor.com: “Checkmate!”

Have you noticed? A funny thing has been happening in the real estate lead generation space over the last few years. Consolidation. Consolidation is where companies merge with or acquire other companies. After several years of consolidation, there are now only two major players and most of the small players have been either bought up or closed down. The two behemoths that remain are Zillow and Move, Inc. (Realtor.com). If you think this doesn’t affect your business, then keep reading. The sequence of events we already see unfolding will impact every ... Read More »

Ten Steps to Real Estate Success (Step 1)

Let me ask you a simple question: Why should anyone use you as their agent? Go ahead, take a minute to think that through. What do you bring to the table that 1,000 other agents don’t bring? A key to the lock box? Access to the MLS? Are you kidding?! OK. Then let me ask you this question: Who’s the best agent in your market? If the answer is not you, then I need to ask you this: If you’re not the best agent, then why don’t you simply refer ... Read More »

My 8% Listing Presentation: (Part 2)

The following article written by Matt Jones was originally published in Broker Agent News on May 22, 2006. It is presented here in its entirety as it was originally published. While non-commercial use of this copyrighted material is encouraged, unauthorized, commercial use is strictly prohibited. Inside Part Two The Ultimate CMA Putting the Pieces Together Two Ways to Sell the House In part one, we talked about your becoming the best agent for the job. I mentioned the importance of learning your market statistics and told you exactly how to ... Read More »