Welcome to this edition of The Monday Morning Message…..I hope you all had a fantastic weekend filled with fun and enjoyment. I know many of you spent some time doing last minute shopping and final preparations for the upcoming holiday, and I hope you made the most of it. You have worked extremely hard this year and you truly deserve to enjoy this season. I have seen many of you succeed and some of you struggle over the year and I want each one of you to know that I hope you are as proud of yourself as I am of you. Your character, passion, determination, and will to succeed was on display in 2009. Watching great agents like you this past year has reminded me that enormous accomplishments may be had regardless of current circumstances. It was not always easy, but great successes never are. We do not ask for the easy road. We do not pick the short term gain. We do not rise while holding everyone else down. Success has been achieved by all of you. Think about your accomplishments, large or small. Be thankful for them. Be proud of them. Be prepared for more. Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do.

Wishing you all and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday.

ENCOURAGEMENT CORNER…

I wanted to share a word with you that I think is very fitting at this time of year – BELIEVE. I hope that all of you still do, in many things large and small. I hope that all of you share this wonderful concept with all the people you care about. I hope you all never loose this magical idea – Believe.

I Believe we have not come this far to fail or give up now.

I Believe we are meant to go through storms before we see the beautiful sun.

I Believe the kingdom we live in is unshakable.

I Believe family become friends and friends become family.

I Believe all my hard work will pay off.

I Believe 2010 will be the best year of my life so far.

I Believe I have the power to change anything I do not like.

I Believe collectively we are stronger than we are apart.

I Believe love is the solution to all problems.

I Believe time brings about opportunity and thought.

I Believe I have been put on this earth and in this position for a purpose.

I Believe I am capable of anything as long as I have the desire to do it.

I Believe the choices I make are my responsibility alone.

I Believe I am who I am because of all the people in my life.

What do you Believe?

WORDS TO LIVE BY…

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another. Thomas Jefferson

You’ll see it when you believe it. Wayne Dyer

I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious. Vince Lombardi

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary. Lou Holtz

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night. Henry Ford

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. John D Rockefeller

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done. Dale Carnegie

LET’S MAKE THIS THE BEST WEEK OF THE YEAR!!!

Tuesday- RE/MAX of New Jersey awards luncheon

www.facebook.com and YOU.

8 Business Benefits of using Face book

1. Branding- Face book can be a great resource for generating brand awareness.
2. Customer engagement- you can connect with past and current clients. Take your database and find those people and connect with them.
3. Drive Web Traffic- Face book can act as a portal point for driving traffic to your site or to sites where your listing are located.
4. New Customer Awareness- People can find out who you are and what you do.
5. Lead Generation- A Realtor in Minnesota was looking to refer someone to New Jersey. 1st place she went to was the CRS directory…then to face book. She found me both times!!!
6. Access to the social world- it’s cool to be on face book right now and potential clients who are into it will be into you for being a part of it.
7. The Virtual Effect- takes word of mouth to an entire new level. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
8. Growing your sphere of influence- I have found tons of people I grew up with and have not seen or talked to in many years. They all now know what I do for a living…and they have friends I do not know who NOW KNOW WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING!!!

Here are a few other portals you should check out:
www.activerain.com
www.Linkedin.com
www.betternetworkers.com
www.tagged.com
www.youtube.com

This week I will be doing a seminar/brainstorming session on Time Management.
Wednesday- 9:30am in Branchburg
Thursday- 12:30 in Berkeley Heights
Friday- 10:30 am in Basking Ridge

NEXT MEETING- Short sales seminar by our own Sean Carroll.
Wednesday February 11th- 2pm in Branchburg
Thursday the 12th- Berkeley at 12:30pm
Friday the 13th- Basking Ridge 9:30am
West Milford- I will be working with Linda and Sean to bring both programs up on the same day. (1st or 2nd week in February)

ALERT- it has come to my attention that we have a poor turnout for the RE/MAX Awards lunch on February 17th from 11am-3pm. Please consider going, it will be fun, educational and it’s good to support your fellow Realtors/winners.

Monday- Sellers seminar in Branchburg
Thursday- Sellers seminar Basking Ridge
Friday- Sellers seminar Berkeley Heights

The following is information regarding a food drive at the Berkeley Heights office. As I mentioned in my last post the food banks are extremely low due to the poor ecconomy , so we all need to work towards helping them.
The Branchburg and Basking Ridge will both be doing events on the 6th of December to also help….

HELP US HELP THE COMMUNITY FOOD BANK FEED OUR NEIGHBORS THIS THANKSGIVING SEASON!

DROP OFF CANNED AND POWDERED FOODS (SUGGESTIONS: CANNED TUNA/CHICKEN, POWDERED MILK/FORMULA, BOXED MEALS, CANNED STEWS/SOUPS, PEANUT BUTTER, CANNED VEGETABLES/FRUITS)

DROP OFF MONDAY – FRIDAY (NOVEMBER 17 -21)
10 AM – 4PM
RE/MAX CLASSIC GROUP

440 SPRINGFIELD AVENUE, BERKELEY HEIGHTS

Last night- Classic teamed with 2 other RE/MAX companies and the region to put on “60 min with RE/MAX”. It was a huge success!!! Jeff Snyder (Regional owner) talked about RE/MAX and what it means to the agents, there was a technology demonstration on all the great tools we have and then a few RE/MAX agents talked about what RE/MAX has done to help them reach their personal goals. I want to personally thank all the Classic agents who came and helped spread the RE/MAX word. What I got out of the evening was that most of our agents only tap into a small percentage of what RE/MAX has to offer, so I have a few suggestions!!

1. Take the time to really learn what is possible with the design center.

2. Go to Main Street and discover all the great things it has to offer. Including how you can maximize the effectiveness of your lead street site, all the great programs RE/MAX is currently doing and sooooo much more…..

3. You should all start getting together to watch some of the GREAT programs on RSN. There are so many programs on every topic you could imagine.

4. Network more with Realtors outside our area, referrals at RE/MAX are a great way to get and give business in this challenging market. (and of course at RE/MAX you keep all of the referral commission)

Dwight sent me this Q & A from a top producing agent, its worth a read….
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing you did yesterday and expecting different results!

1. What are you doing to get sales? I am getting back to basics- working my sphere, farming my neighborhood, calling on FSBO’s / Expireds, working on my scripts for better presentations.

2. How are you marketing your business & listings for less expense? Learning to make better use of internet/email. Calling my SOI instead of mailing/drop bys, being more particular as to the clients I work with- “A” clients get in my car, anything else gets referred or moved to a drip campaign. (I work mostly with buyers.) I no longer will work with a buyer who has not signed a buyer agreement/contract with me. What free sites are showing results for placing your listings on (Portals, social media, etc?) Personally I don’t have any listings, I work mostly with buyers. As a team we are just getting into using the internet as a tool for our listings.

3. Are open houses worth the time of day, right now? I always love to do opens, I find Sunday afternoon to be the best time. I bring my laptop and some work to be done, or a RE book if it is slow. And I usually pick up at least 1 prospect per open house. The key is to make sure you follow up, and maintain contact with them after. We are cutting down on our print advertising and experimenting with some other methods to drive people to our open houses. Some of the things are inviting the neighbors and putting up open house signage early in the week, stating the house will be open, making sure that we put the opens on Craigslist etc. We are just starting, so I really can’t tell you how this will work for us. One of the things we are doing is making sure to ask everyone in the door- where did they learn about the open house.

4. How are you using the new tax incentive for first time home buyers to your advantage? I haven’t really pushed the tax incentive. I mention it and I think I will send a reminder letter to all my qualified buyers in January. Don’t forget to remind that this does need to be repaid over the next few years. So it really is more like a loan than a rebate in my opinion.

5. How are you staying positive in a challenging environment? As I have mentioned before, I am very fortunate that my market area is really holding pretty steady. We are seeing a slight (I think 3% is the number) decrease in sales price. And our foreclosure rate has gone up just .25%- to 1.25%. So really the only challenge I see in my market is overcoming the massive amount of negative media coverage about the market in general. There is a benefit (? Maybe) to all this negative focused media- the sellers are hearing what a bad market it is and my buyers are getting some very good deals right now. My sales are up considerably from last year- I am very thankful.

I want to help get your listings priced right or repositioned to sell before the end of the year, so I have come up with an idea and I will test drive it Oct 22^nd in the training room in Branchburg (7pm-8pm). Here is the idea:

State of the market seminar for YOUR listings.

The current market is a price war and a beauty contest- what it takes to WIN!

I will be getting out marketing material for you to send to your listings.

My goal is to discuss why homes have not sold, and what it will take to sell them.

I will be doing the pricing aspect of the seminar and I will be looking for a home stager to speak about what they can do to make their home look its best. I also will have a mortgage person to discuss how they can pay down rates etc.

(if you have references on a home stager, e-mail me the info)

I will set up a few more dates for the other offices after we test drive in Branchburg.

 Last week at our meetings we talked about asking your closest sphere for help, marketing to other agents, and how to work your database for business.

Here is a perspective from a successful agent.

As far as my personal sphere, I have a tiered system: an "A" is someone I’ve done a transaction with who has referred me or attempted to refer me. There are 63 of those. A "B" is someone who I think would refer me, but the right opportunity hasn’t come yet. I’ve got 79 of those. Then there’s the Cs — hundreds of people who I have relationships with, who know me and recognize my name — but they’re not the first people I call when my pipeline runs dry.

As far as agents, I have 292 agents who I am actively marketing to. I’m always interested in hearing (about and from) the Best of the Best, so I would welcome anyone who is interested in building a reciprocal referral relationship to contact me.

 What do you use as your database product?

Agent: I use Top Producer, which my assistant is better at than I am.

 And you’re marketing materials? Are you a call-people-on-the-phone person, or a drip e-mail person, or something in between?

Agent: I’m not into mass marketing. If the average stranger doesn’t know my name, that’s fine with me. But I find that I have a better life and I have a better business if I have real relationships.

A lot of the people that I know (meet for) a monthly dinner club, so many people cycle through once a month or at least once a quarter. I couple that with phone calls that are more personal, and then more generic e-mails.

You have to fit your communication style to the recipient. I used to think that if I gave generic marketing stuff to people who I knew they would be offended. I do want to reinvent the wheel, but it helps to start with the wheel that’s already moving. You will come to a dead stop if you take all the wheels off at once! So the balance was to find things that people I know would find value in.

You also have to fit your communication style to your limitations. I can’t drive to every person I know every quarter. When you touch your people once a quarter, you do that by phone or e-mail

  What do you say?

Agent: I have a great line that I use — do you want to hear it? Here goes: I say to them, "Every adult knows six people per year who are either buying or selling. If you could refer half of them to me, that would make a huge difference," and then two weeks later they call and send me someone.

You say that maybe once a quarter to them, and then they’ll look for those opportunities.

It sounds odd, but you’re kind of giving them a quota. And remember, they want to help. It’s just that if you don’t ask, they don’t pay attention to the conversations that they hear over the water cooler.

 Even in this slow market?

Agent: I know the market is tanking just as I’m trying to build a business, but the strong survive. It’s tough, but you hang in there and with the right relationships it happens. Also, (money is difficult in this market) — with short sales, they’re trying to renegotiate the commission after the contract.

I think it’s a mistake that we try to give the illusion that we work for free. I would prefer that someone say, "What do you charge?" And I can say, "This is what I’ll do for you." We really need to say what we’re worth, and if we can’t, then maybe we’re not worth it.

Don’t miss this great opportunity!  Tomorrow is the last day to register at the reduced cost of $15, after that the price goes up to $25.

 RE/MAX Success University

Michael Russer, Thursday, October 2nd

www.remax-nj.net/rsu

This week at Classic:

I will be in NYC at the leadership conference. For those who are going on Thursday, please take advantage of all the great sessions, and do not worry about going to mine… you can hear me anytime.

               Having the right mindset!!!!!

Many of you are continuing to experience market challenges. What is your attitude about your market? Does it need a lift? I have often heard it said that the toughest real estate you will ever manage is the six inches between your ears. Succeeding in a down or challenging market depends on more than your expertise and skills…just as important is your mindset!

Consumers everywhere are looking for positive news from positive people. So what are you doing to put out the positive message? What does your marketing say? I challenge you to find the good in your market and talk it up! You will be an irresistible magnet to those who really want to buy and really want to sell.

In addition to your mind "check up", do a listing "check up". In your gut instinct (and you know what it is, deep down inside), are your listings priced to be one of the two best buys in their price range and neighborhood? If not, what will it take to get them there? Pricing is the name of the game right now! Don’t take listings that will just sit there! Are your listings presented beautifully to the market? A great expression used in the staging world is, "the price to stage a property is much less then the first price reduction done on a home that has not sold". As Realtors, it is one of the ways we can offer value. Providing connections to stagers and facilitating a "face lift" will create huge loyalty and results! These added services will go a long way to have our Sellers understand the value in hiring us as professionals.