15 Ways To Help Buyers Make A Decision

Now that the market has changed across most of the country and inventories have grown, buyers have more homes to choose from, making it more difficult for them to make a decision.

One key service you provide is helping them weigh their options to reach a sound decision. Here are some practical tips to put to use with your clients. Details...

You may be having a difficult time deciding whether or not you need the services of a Virtual Assistant. Learn the Benefits of a Virtual Assistant on my website. Then give me a call or send me an email...I'm here to help!

Thanksgiving Marketing

If you are like a lot of us you spend a lot of time and money marketing for new clients and run out of time to market to the people who know and love you...your sphere of influence. Who is more likely to give you business? A stranger or someone you know, who has already experienced your extraordinary service? Someone who knows you, of course!

Here is an idea for holiday marketing to your sphere. As a thank you, offer to provide dessert for their Thanksgiving dinner. Send a postcard with your offer, directing folks to your website to order their pie...and of course ask for a referral! Arrange to have pies baked at a local bakery and have pick up times in your office a few days before Thanksgiving.

Your Thanksgiving Pie Give Away serves a number of purposes. You have shown your appreciation, you have provided added value, and you have brought folks to your office to reconnect.

If you like this marketing idea, but don't have time to implement it, give me a call, 757-271-6047, drop me a line, ruthann@myreassistant.com or visit my website. As your real estate Virtual Assistant, I can handle it for you.

Small Business Tax Advantages

As a Realtor, you are a small business owner and may be able to take advantage of accelerated tax depreciation benefits just by purchasing a new Land Rover before December 31, 2006. See your tax advisor to determine if you are eligible for this benefit. Visit landroverusa.com/taxbreak for details.

There are also tax advantages to hiring a real estate virtual assistant rather than onsite help. You don't pay taxes, health benefits, holiday and sick time. Visit my website for details and then give me a call so we can discuss how working together can save you money.

Realtor Safety Quiz

As a real estate professional, you are in potentially dangerous situations everyday. Meeting new clients, showing homes, and even walking to your car at night can be dangerous. It’s essential that you make safe decisions and know how to react when confronted with trouble.
Take the Realtor.com Quiz and test your ability to handle yourself when the going gets tough. Most of all...stay safe!!

One of the safest decisions you can make is hiring myREassistant.com as your real estate virtual assistant. Read what my clients have to say about my services.

Do You Have Paraskavedekatriaphobia?

If you are like me, you had no idea when you saw the word 'paraskavedekatriaphobia' what is means. It is the fear of Friday the 13th. Who knew it actually had a name!

It hadn't even dawned on me today is Friday the 13th until I decided it was time to visit you here. I guess this means I don't have paraskavedekatriaphobia? One internet site claims when you can pronounce the word, you are cured of the fear. Makes sense to me!!

Interested in the origins of Friday the 13th fears. Read more...

Looking for a real estate Virtual Assistant? You don't have to worry about me taking the day off on Friday the 13th becasue it is unsafe. I'll be available for you...Friday the 13th and any other day you need me. Take a look at my website to learn how I can help make your life easier.

500 Real Estate Blogs To Watch

I feel like the plumber with the leaky faucet. I write blogs for a number of real estate agents and never seem to find the time to write my own. You'll notice my last post was August sometime. Well...that is changing! I was motivted by the fact that 2 of the blogs I write have made it to the Pittsburg Home Daily's 500 Real Estate Blogs To Watch list. Blog's on the list I write are Knox County Ohio Blog and Okemo Mountain Real Estate.

So, I decided what I do for other people, I will do for myself. This is my first of many regular posts to come. I'll enjoy sharing with you on a more regular basis.

Are you a real estate agent and want to get on the blogging bandwagon, but don't have the time? blogging is just the kind of task a Virtual Assistant can do for you! Visit my website and drop me an email. I can help!

What's New In Real Estate Marketing?

New ideas in real estate marketing.

"What's New?" is a new page on my website where I will share with you new ideas in real estate marketing. With the market changing and homes not selling as quickly, Realtors are getting back to basics. On my What's New? page, you will find back to basics marketing with an edge, using cutting edge technology.

I hope you will visit What's New? often and then contact me to add these cutting edge marketing ideas to your marketing arsenal.

Tags: back to basics, changing real estate market, cutitng edge marketing

On Being Focused
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, 7/24/2006

This past weekend there was a valuable lesson that developed during the 2006 British Open (referred to as “The Open”) golf tournament that Tiger Woods won. First, for non-golfers, The Open maybe the most sought after golf title in the world as it was one the first, if not THE first, golf tournament in history. For Tiger Woods this was the THIRD time he won this most prestigious tournament. Why is this tournament important in regards to being focused?

There are many reasons. First, Tiger Woods from his most early memories idolized the famous golfer Jack Nicklaus who to many is the greatest golfer who has ever lived. Nicklaus has won 18 major golf tournaments in his career and a lot of experts felt that this record would never be broken; it was that unusual. Major golf tournaments have a tremendous amount of pressure on the participants and players who otherwise would be unaffected by such pressures oftentimes succumb to the pressures of a major tournament and fail to play to their potential. Tiger had set his sights on the 18 major victories that Jack Nicklaus had set when Tiger was only a child. A lot of children grow up wanting to be firemen, policemen, doctors, or what have you. Tiger wanted to “be like Jack” if not better. Most children change their desires as they grow older but not Tiger. He had a laser-like focus on this goal.

Tiger Woods is only 30 years old and thus far has won 11 major golf tournaments and at the age of 30 has won a total of 49 golf tournaments and that places him number 7 on the all-time victory list just two behind the famous Billy Casper and trails the likes of Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Byron Nelson – all Hall of Famers! This is a perfect example of what can happen when you set your sights on a goal and then stay focused on the goal and act like you have already accomplished it. But there is more…

During the play this past weekend, one of the announcers reminisced about an interview he had with Jack Nicklaus when Nicklaus said, “I never missed a 4’ putt.” The announcer did not want to contradict the King of Golf but had to when he recalled several 4’ or less putts that Nicklaus had missed. Jack reiterated, “I never missed a 4’ putt!” with the emphasis on the word “I” as emboldened herein. What Nicklaus was saying is that he was totally focused on his desire to put the golf ball into the hole and then to take whatever actions were required to do so. By saying that “I” never missed a 4’ putt he meant that he took those required actions, put the necessary stroke on the ball and for whatever reason, what happened between the time he made the stroke and when the ball reached the hole was not within his control. And while the ball may not have dropped into the hole, his “focus” was on making the putt which in his mind he did. Did he actually make “every” putt? Of course not but he made the stroke he felt he had to make to drop the putt – that is the lesson learned from this conversation – he was focused – he knew what he had to do – he did what he had to do – and then “chance” took over that he could not control – that was not his concern – he did what he had to do! Therefore in HIS mind, he made the putt!

On the final round of the 2006 Open, there was another perfect example of remaining focused on the task at hand and it involved Tiger Woods. The PGA (Professional Golfers Association) has a policy of no cameras on the course during play as people tend to take photographs at the most inopportune times thus disrupting the thought process of players. Professional camera men and women ARE permitted but they are aware of when they can take photos and when they cannot. Plus they usually have very powerful long-range lenses so that when the camera clicks, they are far enough away that it does not interfere with the player’s swing. This weekend, however, it was different as “today” is the day of “cell phone cameras” and they were in play this weekend like never before. Time after time one cell phone camera click after another disrupted the thought process and pre-swing thoughts of not only Tiger Woods but other players as well. Time after time Tiger Woods would back away from his set-up to take a shot. His focus on the moment was clearly disrupted. To most players this would have been devastating during normal golf tournaments but during a major it would and has been disastrous!

But on this weekend, even with the disruptions of the cell phone cameras, Tiger Woods prevailed and won the tournament. How did he overcome these distractions? I cannot tell you the “how” he did it only that he did. I would imagine that he was able to “compartmentalize” the distraction and put it into its proper perspective. By this I mean he realized that one or more of the fans also had become focused on getting a photograph of someone who at least in my mind and probably their mind, is now “the greatest golfer to have ever played the game.” They took the photograph out of total admiration for this individual and his obvious accomplishments. What they failed to realize that fans all over the course were doing the same thing and that what to them might have seemed harmless had become a series of distractions from the first hole to the final hole of the tournament. Their actions, what seemed innocent to them, were actually a show of disrespect to Tiger Woods. They failed to realize that with each click of the camera they may have caused Tiger to hit an errant shot that could have cost him this third victory in The Open.

There is no doubt that Tiger Woods has “the game” to eclipse the records of Jack Nicklaus and others; that is not in question. The question has become can he eliminate from his mind the never-ending distractions that constantly occur around him during play? This past weekend he clearly answered that question when shot after shot was disrupted and yet his shot found its desired target and he played as flawlessly as anyone possibly could and ultimately won. It is my opinion he simply took the disruption in stride, accepted it for what it was and then as if he could turn a switch on and off, he turned the off-switch on the disruption and the on-switch on his goal. By turning on the on-switch in his mind, he shut out all the people who were watching and the noises they must have been making and then set about FOCUSING in on the target and what he wanted to accomplish and then simply did it! His primary sponsor NIKE may say it better than anyone – JUST DO IT! And, do it he did!

There are two stories to this Nugget and they both involve FOCUS – yours and that of someone else! Sometimes your desire to achieve your objective requires the assistance of someone else but what is THAT person doing and are you disrupting them? Sometimes your objective may be of such a necessity that it requires immediate disruption and that is understandable. At other times, your objective could wait and wait it should until a more convenient time. You know when you are disrupting some who is deep in thought or totally engrossed in a project and that is the time to weigh your need against their need and take appropriate action.

Then there is your personal focus and where it “should” be as compared to where it actually is. It has been said that the mind cannot conceive two thoughts at the same time. Therefore when you have a job to do, your first thought should be, “what is the most productive thing I should be working on at this very moment?” Then answer your own question. Then get as focused as Tiger Woods would on what you need to do first, then second, then third in order to see the process clearly in your mind and then take the action required to achieve it. Let nothing deter you from achieving your task at hand – nothing. But if some external force does interrupt, take a deep breath, accept it for what it is and then use the same switch used by Tiger Woods to get back on track and do what you need to do – right now!

It does not matter what business you are in; you have certain tasks that are more “dollar-productive” than others. What is your MOST productive activity that you should be engaged in at this moment? What is the second MOST productive activity? Don’t even think about starting the second activity until you have completed the first! Then, as Tiger Woods so clearly demonstrated, whatever that activity is – be there in your mind AND your physical presence. My favorite story that exemplifies this involves the father and his son fishing on the lake on a Sunday morning. The father is thinking, “I should be in church with my son!” Then the next Sunday he and his son ARE in church but this time he is thinking “I would prefer to be on the lake fishing with my son!” Then as if the minister could read his mind, he suggests that “wherever you are, be THERE!”

This is where each of us needs to be – where we are – both physically and mentally! Be focused on what you desire to accomplish. See it clearly in your mind. Put aside disruptions because they will occur and then get back to doing what you need to do and do it now!

This past weekend some people watched a golf tournament – I had a graduate-level lesson on being focused!
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Are you focused on your most dollar-productive activity? If not, a Virtual Assistant can help you keep you focus where it needs to be. Give me a call, I can help!

Tags: tiger woods, virtual, assistant

Determining If You Need an Assistant

How do you know when the time is right to hire a personal assistant? That depends on a lot of things, most notably your business volume and how much free time you would like to have.

Real estate trainer and speaker Ed Hatch, CRS®, of Ed Hatch Seminars in Greenbelt, Md., informally surveyed some top salespeople and found that the majority decided it was time to hire an assistant when they had reached 25 to 35 transaction sides.

At that point, “there’s too much transactional maintenance and personal promotion to do, so time with family falls apart,” Hatch says. Besides Hatch’s numeric guidepost, there are other ways to determine if it’s time to don a manager’s hat:

• Calculate whether your sales volume has plateaued.
  
• Determine if there are goals that you have not been able to accomplish. If you’re unable to eliminate busywork, reduce the hours you work, prospect more, or get more involved in your community, it may be time to get an assistant.
  
• Keep track of all your activities for a week to determine if there are things that an assistant can do instead.
  
• Calculate what your time is worth per hour and compare it to what you might pay a personal assistant. When calculating the cost of an employee, keep in mind that you need to pay your assistant’s salary and FICA — the employer’s Social Security contribution, Medicare contribution, and federal unemployment tax. These payments can add 10 percent or more to the total salary.

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When you decide you are ready for an assistant, visit my website. Here you will find solutions to your needs.

Tags: assistant, goal, real estate, trainer

Online Transaction Management

A new survey conducted by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® shows that the use of online transaction management systems has grown from 13% in 2005 to 26% in 2006.

Take at look at our online transaction management services. All you do is fax us your contract and we do this rest. We coordinate all the details of the closing, communicate with you clients and track the loan progress.

Having been licensed Realtors, we know the importance of effective communication and the urgency of deadlines. We understand how stressful the moving process is for your clients and are sensitive to their needs.

We believe our job as your Transaction Management Team is to make sure everyone is doing their jobs in a timely manner and to ensure a smooth process from contract to closing.

The Ten Systems of Success in Your Real Estate Career
by Rich Levin

For agents at every level, from those still waiting to complete their first transaction, to those closing hundreds of transactions each year, success in your career is comprised of ten systems. Overcoming every challenge and all growth in your business only occurs through your skills and application with these ten systems. They are:

1. Planning - You need a simple way to set goals and manage their completion. We call our method "Goals and Measurable Results." Our client's annual goals are broken into initial appointments weekly and production in three categories recorded monthly.

2. Lead Management - Successfully managing the generation, capture, conversion, and retention of your leads is an ongoing challenge. Whether you use contact management software or three by five cards and a paper calendar we coach a lead follow-up system and habit that relieves the pressure of all those loose leads in your life.

3. Marketing - Most agents miss the boat on Marketing, even those spending thousands of dollars on it. What are your markets? What message do you wish to convey to those markets? And, what is your best method and media to convey that message to those markets? How do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing and do you get a minimum 400% return on your investment?

4. Service - There is more business for you in great Service than there is in great prospecting. Our clients prove that, year after year. What are the service systems that make you the most money? Do you maintain consistent, scheduled communication with every listed seller and pending client? Do you use a checklist or whiteboard for your pending actions and actively manage it daily? Most importantly, do you keep your word?

5. Presentations - A Real Estate career in which you have complete confidence requires mastering your Seller Presentation, Price Reduction Presentation, Buyer Presentation, Offer Writing and Negotiating, and Property Showings. Each of these has a structure, scripts, and a mindset for you to learn. Learning them takes time. The reward is confidence, skill, and results that make you a highly successful professional.

6. Quality of Life - We say that your business should serve your life not your life serve your business. Days off occur when you schedule them. Putting your health or your loved ones first occurs because you choose it that way. One of our leading coaches and top Agent Rusdi Sumner says that once you are licensed everything is an appointment. You turn your choice into your life by putting your health, happiness, and loved ones activities into your calendar, then keeping your word to yourself and others by honoring those appointments.

7. Assistants and Teams -Between thirty and sixty transactions you reach a limit to your ability to grow your business by yourself. To get past that point you either add assistance or your business and/or your quality of life decline. To grow past your transaction limit you are challenged to learn and master hiring, training, delegating, and supervision. These are the early skills of leadership. Do you hire part or full time, for how many hours? When do you consider a buyer specialist? Should your assistant have client contact? There are many decisions for high producing Agents that lead them to the next level and beyond.

8. Financial Freedom - We discovered that people in the habit of being broke stay broke regardless of increases in their income. For those with this affliction you have to work directly to challenge and break the struggling mindset and habits so that as your production and income increase, your financial stability and freedom follow.

9. Technology - Every Agent faces technology challenges; choosing a mobile phone or new computer hardware, choosing your level of web presence and web vendors, plus a myriad of hardware and software choices. Every one of the above systems includes and is impacted by your technology choices. We are constantly challenged, as you are, to seek the technology tools and services that preserve your time and increase your profitability. We are constantly discussing these tools and services with our clients and among our coaches to keep our knowledge up to date and offer the best possible suggestions to you.

10. Self-Esteem - In our "Rich Levin's Hierarchy of Success" model, Self Esteem is displayed as the foundation. Success in your business and in each of the individual systems rests on the strength of your self-esteem. We work indirectly and sometimes directly on how you think and feel about yourself personally and professionally. We teach two basic affirmations.
Try these in the privacy of your own mind. "I like myself, unconditionally." And, "I completely trust my own judgment."

Each time you improve a skill in one of these ten systems that comprise your business, your career improves. As you work continuously on one skill after another you watch your results improve and your confidence reach new heights.

About the Author: For more information on how you can implement the ten systems and ?Rich Levin's Hierarchy of Success? into your business, call or visit us on the web at RichLevin.com. You can register for ?The Rich Levin Success Club? and receive tips, articles and other information to take your career to the next level and beyond.

Rich Levin is a nationally recognized Coach, Trainer, and Speaker. His specialty is working with top producing Real Estate Agents and Brokers taking them to their highest levels of production and performance in their business and in their lives. Rich Levin is President of Rich Levin's Success Corp. Contact Rich at 585-244-2700 or rich@richlevin.com.

As a Virtual Assistant, I can assist you with planning, lead management, marketing, service, presentations, assistance, and technology. This assistance allow you the financial freedom and the quality of life you desire. Give me a call, 757-271-6047. I'd enjoy being a part of your success!

WOW Your Clients and Get Referrals

Your clients will be impressed when you present them with their own personalized Closing CD which includes the documents of their transaction from listing/contract through to closing...contract, inspection reports, HUD deed, survey, etc., as well as, multiple photos of their home. Your clients can visit your website and send you a referral right from the CD.

Your CD will be branded to your business and set to music. Templates will be designed for both buyers and sellers. After closing, you email me the photos and scanned documents. Then I mail you your CD. What could be easier?

This is a great gift for your buyers, sellers. Adopt the buyers of your listings by sending them a CD, also.

Click here to view a sample and order your CDs.

Think You Have Too Many Balls In The Air?

If you think you are juggling a lot in life., you’ve got to see this video. Crank up your speakers and take a look. It truly is awesome.

http://marketplace.espeakers.com/movie.php?sid=5290&aid=10558

If you still feel overwhelmed, give me a call. I can help, 757.271.6047.

Blogging...is it for you?

Blogging is one of the hottest trends to hit cyberworld in recent years. But, what is it and why is it beneficial to your real estate business.

The definition of a Blog, which is short for weblog, is a journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption.

But, I have a website you say, so why do I need a blog? Here's why according to About.com...

1. You can share ideas with a larger audience, saving you time and money.

2. The software is relatively easy to use and in many cases free. Who can pass up free?

3. When linked to your websites, your search engine rankings can increase dramatically.

4. It is a convenient solution to communicating fresh and up to the minute information.

So, OK, you agree a Blog would be a benefical tool in your marketing arsenal, but you just don't have the time to devote to updating a Blog 1 or 2 times a week.

The good news is, you don't need to. I can do it for you. I will:

1. Set up your Blog.

2. Link it to all your websites.

3. Incorporate RSS feeds...this is how the blog search engines find you.

4. Get other agents to link to your Blog, increasing your rankings.

5. Add content to your Blog once or twice a week and notify you when it has been updated.

You don't do a thing!

Give me a call, 757.271.6047 or drop me an email. I'd like to Blog for you!

A Favor to Ask, it only takes a minute....

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. And, you can do it every day.

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site!

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com

Pass it along to people you know...it could save someone's life!!

And please tell 10 friends to tell 10 friends, today!

Finding Balance

Are you finding there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done? Your business runs you instead of you running it.

Inc.com offers an number of ways to find more balance in your life. Here are a few:

1. Learn to say no
2. Focus on key tasks
3. Delegate
4. Develop systems

This is where I come in. You focus on dollar productive activities (2) while I work behind the scenes (3). I create sytems to make your office run more smoothly or manage the systems you already have in place (4). You get to enjoy yourself more and actually have a LIFE!

I can help you have a life...give me a call!

Lesson From The Trenches

Just like you, I use drip email campaigns to prospect for new business. I had created a fairly unsophisticated campaign...sort of homey, but talking to specific concerns of my prospect. For every 500 emails I sent out, I would average 1-2 requests for more information. Not a bad return.

Then, back in December, I switched to an HTML email campaign. I figured if I got 1-2 requests from the unsophisticated campaign, this should produce 3-4. The emails looked great, but definitely more commerical. Content was the same, just packaged differently. Result: no requests for information in 30 days.

Needless to say, I have gone back to my more homey emails and my information requests are back on track.

So, keep it simple! Forget the fancy stuff and stick to a more personalized approach.

If you would like help with your prospecting campaigns, give me call,
757-271-6047 or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

What Is A VA?

The first question most people ask is, "What is a Virtual Assistant and what can you do for me?"

First, a VA, or Virtual Assistant, is an independent contractor providing administrative, creative and technical support. I work off site...at my own computer in my sweatpants. Believe me, this is one VA who will never use a webcam!! Thus, saving you overhead costs. You don't provide space or equipment for me.

And because I am an independent contractor, you don't pay benefits, vacation time or employee taxes. I'm the best of both worlds! I offer the benefits of outsourcing along with the dedication of a valued Team member. You can find a more detailed explanation on my website.

What can I do for you? My specialties are systems development, marketing, listing coordination, Internet marketing, lead coordination, etc, etc. The only thing I can't do for you is make copies and put up signs & lock boxes.

If you are wondering if you need a VA, ask yourself how much time you spend sitting in front of a computer or fooling with paperwork instead of being in front of Buyers and Sellers. If your answer is "too much", then you need my help.

Learn more about me and my services by clicking here. Then e-mail me or give me a call and we'll figure out how I can help YOU!