Dress for Success

I saw this on the internet - and although it refers to promotion it really applies to all aspects of our business and social life:

Tom Musbach, Yahoo! HotJobs

"Fashion really does make a statement -- especially in the workplace. What you wear on the job could help determine whether you get promoted, according to a new survey.
In a Yahoo! HotJobs poll on workplace fashion issues, a majority of the general workforce (68%) and HR professionals (82%) believe that how employees dress at work affects their chances for a promotion.
"How you dress at work definitely shapes how others perceive you," says Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing for Yahoo! HotJobs. "Our survey shows that it's worthwhile to choose your work attire carefully, because those choices could help to move your career forward." More than half of the survey respondents (57%) said they would be willing to buy a new wardrobe in order to get a promotion."

In this day and age, the suit is still in fashion, but we have seen a trend that allows quality collared shirts, However, unless you are selling farm and ranch - blue jeans are never a good idea.

Market Update with Legacy Mortgage

Thanks to Bob Gardner for once again providing a highly informative market update. Bob pointed out that are market remains strong. Although down from the previous year, it is important to note that we have had record markets year after year. Our current market would have been another record market two years ago. We will post their report information as a scanned document to this post later. It will be very useful for marketing purposes.

Lynanne's New Listing - E-Card

E-Team Meeting

Thanks to the E-Team members that showed up for the E-Team training session with Leslie Walsh of Prudential. Several great items she shared: (1) you can create a saved search for your registrants who have not saved a search (2) you can save a listing to their portfolio; and (3) you can turn on subscriptions. These are all great ideas. However, we do recommend that you send an e-mail telling your registrant what you are doing and giving them the chance to respond with an opt-out for the change you made to their profile.

Kelli's New Listing - another E-Card

Open House Show - Update

Just a reminder, if you committed to the Open House Show, you need to come into the office today and sign the contract and credit card agreement. The contract was supposed to have been returned to their offices yesterday (o8/27).

Shirley's Buyer Bonus

Congratulations to our E-Team

Last December, our E-Team conversion rate was at 8%. We overhauled the process and by February, the new system was in place. Essentially starting over, with a new E-Team the conversion rate for the last 12 months now stands at 14% - a 75% improvement. Although our 14% rate is the best in the San Antonio market, it does not reflect where the E-Team's numbers will be. The numbers reflect over a half a year under old policies and really only about 4-5 months under the new program. Since much of the E-Team business is long-term - we have not fully tasted the fruit of our hard work.

Once again, congragulations to our E-Team and we look forward to even more substantial improvements in the future.

Welcome to Mary Longi

We have a new agent in our office. Mary Longi is good friends with Debbie Brasseaux. She has been grabbing duty and really getting after it. When you have a chance, please give Mary a friendly Hi!

Open House Show

If anyone is interested, things need to happen pretty quickly. Amy just e-mailed me and there are only 9 spots remaining out of the 30 for the entire show.

Sales Meeting Notes from 16 August

http://spacklequeen.googlepages.com/august16salesmeeting

Please click on the above link to read some very interesting articles that I had prepared for yesterday's sales meeting

The Open House Show

Amy Bettes gave a nice presentation at our sales meeting regarding a new TV show that will be aired on Fox on Sunday mornings (as I recall) that had an interesting format. For $95 a week an agent (or group of agents) can commit to a spot to advertise their listings on the show. For example, if six agents decided to share a spot - once very six weeks an agent would essentially be responsible for paying the $95 and getting their spot. The advertising agent will receive a DVD of the show where their spot runs and they will generate and host a virtual tour for the agent. The virtual tour could be linked to our MLS and looked preety cool. If you want to see more, please go to the http://www.theopenhouseshow.com/ .

Now here is the cool kicker. If a group of agents get together and make a commitment (they sign the commitment - not the company), then the company will match that commitment. For example, let's say that 8 agents got together and committed. Instead of having one spot every 8 weeks, they would have one spot every 4 weeks - basically reducing the cost to $45 for the spot.

That is an awesome deal and I would encourage a group of agents to make a commitment.

Hilarious Real Estate Site

Courtesy of Debora Longoria and and the Virginia Association of Realtors - check out this link to check out the site

Betsy Sparks New Listing - E-Card

Bob's Training/Sales Meeting Update

Please remember this Wednesday - 10 AM we have a great buyer presentation presented to us by Pam O'Bryant. We would like a good showing. Pam always puts on a great class and we always learn from her.

And then… Thursday Sales meeting, we have something very interesting, a company talking to us about open houses, and we have 4-5 previews. We would like a great attendance at both.
Thank you.


Bob

Shirley's Just Listed E-Card

Custom Articles

Just a reminder for our sales associates: Prudential develops a provides a monthly article available for distribution under your name. That's right - you have the right to publish this material under your name.

We are all familiar with the many community newspapers in our area i.e Bulverde, Canyon Lake and the various recorders. There are also many HOA publications and other neighborhood publications. Many of these community papers are looking for content. They often need articles to publish in order to fill space.

If you contact the papers, you have a great shot at being a contributing writer. You simply use one of the hundreds of articles prepared by Prudential for release. You add your name and the company name - provide them your picture - and you get free advertising.

It only takes a few minutes to send these materials in to a publisher.

Could that benefit your business?

Kelli's New Listing - Cool E-Card

Prudential's E-Cards are the best in the industry. Here is an excerpt of an E-card for Kelli's new listing.

Agent 24/7 Video and E-Card

Click the image for the Agent 24/7 Commercial. This exact same video is also available through one of the E-Cards that are available for free.

Great Gas Price!

FYI - I saw gas for under $2.60 at the Walmart inside 410 on Jones-Maltsberger.

Sales Meeting - August 9th

Don't forget the special meeting tomorrow. The Center for Living Education will be holding a "Lunch with the Expert" lunch and learn seminar. Dr. Webbg is coming to our office to give an informative presentation on how to incorporate a healthy diet into our lives. The presentation is entitled, "the Science of Nutrition: How a Healthy Diet Creates a Healthy Future" and will start at 9 am in the training room. The presentation will last approximately 45 minutes.

Please show up for our meeting on time this Thursday.

In addition, there will be a free lunch from Subway provided for those who sign up. So if you are interested in learning how to lead a healthier lifestyle and would enjoy a free lunch provided by Subway, then please RSVP to Patti.

Betsy Sparks New Grandchild

Make sure everyone asks Betsy about her new Grandchild. Her second grandchild is Cambri and she was born in Stephenville yesterday. Cambri was 7 pounds 13 ounces.

Agents of the Month

Congratulations to Jeanne Desha - our Agent of the Month for July. The agent of the month has the highest combined volume of listing and closed sales dollars. Jeanne was the listing agent of the month. Deborah Brigham was the sales agent of the month.

Is that agent licensed?

Within our industry, you must be licensed by the State of Texas to sell real estate. The question that agents sometimes ask is: "Is that other agent licensed to sell real estate?" Anyone can do a license search to make sure they are working with a bonafide real estate agent. The Texas Real Estate Commission has a searchable database of licensed real estate agents. Here is the link.

Forbes- Various City/State Rankings

I am always leery of qualitative rankings of various locales. If you every examine the criteria, it is clear that a certain amount of bias is unavoidable. Regardless of any issues, there are several interesting links available from Forbes.com:

Forbes - Texas Top 4 States for Business
Forbes - San Antonio Top Six City for Flipping Homes
Forbes - San Antonio 36th Ranked for Young Professionals
Forbes - San Antonio Top 4 Market for Home Sellers
Forbes - San Antonio Top 3 Housing Market
Forbes - Texas Top 4 State for Quality of Life

E-CARDS - Free, Easy, Powerful

As part of our affiliation with Prudential - their think tank is constantly developing new and improved ways to help our business. Prudential E-Cards are free to our agents. Imagine hundreds of cards honoring every possible event - all beautiful and professionally designed. Imagine animated cards and cards with video. Visualize cards where you can ask questions and get written or multiple choice responses - exactly the way you want them. Imagine cards that can be customized to your own personal design and creativity. Think about virtual cards that cost nothing to send - yet provide you detailed reports on how who is opening and not opening your cards - all the stats a CPA could every hope for. Wonder at the simplicity of importing your database(s) into the system and the ease in sending the cards. When you consider all these things - it makes absolutely no sense not to be using a tremendously valuable tool

I personally have sent out about 50.000 E-Cards in the last 6 months. It is powerful. Using creative approaches - I have achieved over a 30% read rate on some mass mail-outs. Can you imagine sending 8,000 marketing letters and knowing that over 2,400 are read?

The opportunities are as limitless as your imagination. Above, you will see just one great idea - sending e-cards to all your clients of the Dallas Cowboys Schedule. Is that a good idea?

As you develop a database of prospects and former clients - you can easily and cheaply (free) keep them informed about all that is going on in your real estate life. You can share information about property values, tax valuations, real estate trends, interest rates, investment opportunities, parties and other events.