Welcome to RealClues The Weekly Newsletter for Real Estate Professionals www.RealEstateCoach.com–The Place You Go to Make Real Estate Dough(tm) Thursday, January 29, 2009 No. 360

Copyright (c) 1996-2009 www.RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com, LLC. All rights in all media reserved. We have a no SPAM policy. If you received this newsletter and did not subscribe to it, visit www.RealEstateCoach.com to unsubscribe.

A Special Invitation: Our Third Annual Really Awesome Women in Real Estate Conference will be held in Savannah, Georgia from March 25-27, 2009. If you are a woman who holds a leadership position in CRS, Women’s Council, or if you hold an executive or management position at your Board, Association, or company, and would like to know more about this conference, please email me at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com. This event is by invitation only. At last year’s conference, 24 of the 100 most influential women in the industry were in attendance. We wanted to make it available to those of you who support our efforts here at REC. Don’t wait–we only have a few slots left.

Table of Contents 1. CoachingClues: Tune up Your Technology for Peak Performance in 2009 2. Welcome Notes: Secrets of $50 Million Producers 3. Reprise: Become the Dominate Player in Your Market 4. Create a Better Life: Victim or Victor–Which Will You Be? 5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg): More Good News from California–Could the Worst Be in Back of Us? 6. This Week at www.LuxuryClues.com: (Check out our new look!) *Four Ways to Persuade Unrealistic Sellers to be Realistic *Listen to Bernice’s Top Tips for 2009 in her interview with Jack Peckham of RECyber.com 7. Featured Products: Tell that Woman Her Stuff Really Works! 8. New at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com for January 16-31, 2009 *Six Business Strategies for Becoming a Real Estate Mega-Producer *Stop Wasting Money on Ineffective Real Estate Advertising *Don’t Market Real Estate Locally–Market Real Estate Globally *How to Dump the Baggage of Negativity 9. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching 10. Give Us Your Feedback on this Newsletter 11. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe

1. CoachingClues: Tune Up Your Technology for Peak Performance in 2009 Regardless of what type of hardware you are using, it’s important to keep it running in tip-top shape. Here are four key ways to achieve maximum performance from your hardware in 2009.

1. Make sure you’re using a cell phone with a full computer style keyboard At Triple Play last month, I did a seminar called “Why Didn’t You Just Text Me?” Although the session focused on generational differences, we had eight agents who had never sent a text message. Before the session began, I offered to help them send their first text message. What I did not anticipate was that seven of eight agents had the traditional phone keyboard with just 10 numbers. If you wanted to use letters, you had to hit “shift” and then hit the appropriate button 1, 2, or 3 times to get the letter you want. No wonder text messaging seemed incredibly difficult!

If your cell phone doesn’t have a keyboard like the one on your computer, upgrading your phone will save you both time and money. Gen X and Gen Y are currently the most active buyers in today’s market. To do business with them, you must be able to text message. Also, the number one complaint about agents is that they don’t stay in touch. Using a smart phone with email and text functionality makes keeping in touch simple. The latest generation of smart phones also make it easy to do posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.

There are multiple options available in the $200 price range including the new Blackberry and iPhones. While I loved my Palm TREO because of the touch screen coupled with an easy to use full keyboard, the iPhone definitely provides a much better web surfing experience. On the TREO, text messaging is as simple as tapping the “message” key on the touch screen and typing in your message, exactly the same way you would send an email. The new Blackberry and the iPhone rely exclusively on the touch screen. The older Blackberry products have the full keyboard, but lack the touch screen application. Many of the touch screens are not as accurate as the push button keyboards and can be particularly challenging for older agents. Both the Blackberry and Palm products work with most MLS keysafes. In contrast, finding an MLS that supports this function on the iPhone is rare.

Google’s new Android phones have a full keyboard plus most of the touch screen functions found on iPhone, Palm, and Blackberry. They also integrate all the functions you would normally use on Google.

Before you purchase a new cell phone, check with your local MLS to see which, if any phone, allows you to access your MLS keysafes. BTW, all eight of our agents did successfully send their first text message.

2. Is your computer backed up? If you have ever had a computer virus, had your computer die, or had it stolen, you know how devastating losing your data can be. You have two options. You can use a web-based system such as Mozy.com or Carbonite.com. These systems charge a fee and automatically back up your system at a specified time each day. A different alternative is to back up on to a hard drive system such as the well reviewed system from iomega.com. The cost is approximately $300. Due to the direct connection to your computer, it’s much faster than most web based solutions. For me, I prefer a web-based product because if there is a fire or something else that damages the location where my backup system is, I’m backed up elsewhere. If you’re using an iPhone or Apple computer, MobileMe automatically backs up your music, photos, calendar, and email simply by plugging your phone into your computer. If you lose your phone or there’s a problem with your computer, you can still retrieve your lost information from MobileMe online.

3. Eliminate spam If you are using Outlook, Eudora, or any email program that resides on your computer rather than on a web-based system such as Gmail, allowing your Inbox to become crammed with too many emails can crash your hard drive. One of the best ways to eliminate spam from your computer is to send and receive your messages through social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Only people that you personally approve can contact you. Another approach is to use your ISP (Internet Service Provider) system or a program such as Spam Arrest. Many of these programs require the user to do a one time approval of the sender. Most users find these aggravating. A third approach is to use a company such as Postini that scans for viruses and spam at the level of your server. Postini eliminates hundreds of pieces of spam from my Inbox daily. Some spam still gets through. The virus protection, however, is great. I only receive a warning from my virus protection service about three or four times per year.

4. Get rid of adware If your computer seems to be sluggish, it may be due to “adware.” In a typical week of web browsing, it’s very common to pick up over a hundred adware “tracking cookies.” I had let my adware protection expire and just renewed it. I had 348 items the program needed to repair. I like www.adaware.com since it is priced at $26.95 and is lightning fast.

While it may cost some money to install these upgrades to your hardware, they will more than pay for themselves in the time and money you will save throughout 2009. 2. Welcome Notes Welcome to our new subscribers this week. Each week RealClues provides you with great strategies to improve both your business and your life. If you find this issue of RealClues helpful, take a moment to hit the “forward” button and send it to another friend in the business.

If you’re coping with a buyer’s market (and most agents are), training is the most important investment that you can make right now. Sadly, this is one of the first areas that most companies cut. Our List and Sell Real Estate Like Crazy Program was written to cope with the demands of both buyer’s and seller’s markets. Until recently, agents have been focused on listings. Today, you need help with getting properties priced right as well as closing more buyer sales.

The agents who have embraced the strategies in our various training programs among the most productive anywhere in the U.S. To give you an example, two of them have each closed over $50 million during the last year. Due to how tough the market is out there, we decided to slash the cost of this valuable program available from $297.00 to $147.00. To check out the complete Table of Contents, visit http://budurl.com/9rud (Be sure to scroll all the way down the page.)

This program allows you hear two very effective listing presentations as well as providing over 200 pages and 11 hours on audio CD of strategies and proven techniques for converting more listings and buyers into closed business. If you order by February 14, 2009, you will not only get List and Sell, we will also include a copy of my new book, Real Estate Dough(tm) plus $5 Million in Real Estate Dough(tm). These three resources will give you the ammunition you need to put you on top in any market.

Have a great week!

Bernice Ross and Byron Van Arsdale, Chief Dough Makers www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.RealEstateDough.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.RossdalePress.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com, and www.TeleconferenceLine.com

3. Reprise: Become the Dominant Player in Your Real Estate Market According to NAR, there are 1.3 million REALTORS(reg) and approximately another 1.3 million people who hold real estate licenses. Competition, especially in a declining market, is tough. What can you do to stand out from the crowd and have a great year? The article below that first ran in 2008 has the answers.

http://budurl.com/9sxz

4. Create a Better Life: Victim or Victor–Which Will You Be? The most important factor in coping with today’s shifting market is your mindset. If you want to keep your production high no matter what the market does, it’s imperative to avoid those who are negative. This article shows you how.

http://budurl.com/bf6u

5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg) Discover how easy it is to find out what’s right about the real estate business–just click and listen!

More good news from California plus how to persuade your buyers to take action now.

http://budurl.com/aju9

(If this is your first visit, don’t miss our first Positive News that is just as appropriate today as it was a year ago! Just click and listen–it’s that easy!)

http://budurl.com/8fsw

6. LuxuryClues.com: Persuade Unrealistic Sellers to be Realistic Persuade Unrealistic Sellers to be Realistic http://budurl.com/68mj

*Listen to Bernice’s Top Tips for 2009 in her interview with Jack Peckham of RECyber.com http://budurl.com/nbh2

7. Featured Products: Tell that Woman Her Stuff Really Works! A member of our coaching team loaned his sister who was new to the real estate business his copy of List and Sell Real Estate Like Crazy. As a new agent, his sister was struggling with what to say and how to say it. After listening to the CDs, she went out and obtained an upper end listing for her market. Her comment, “You tell that woman that her stuff really works!” If you want materials that have worked for thousands of agents and that will work for you, click on the link below to learn more! http://budurl.com/9rud Order before 2-14-09 and get a copy of my new book, Real Estate Dough(tm), Your Recipe for Real Estate Success as our thank you bonus to you.

http://budurl.com/fh4p

8. New at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com for January 16-31, 2009 *Six Business Strategies for Becoming a Real Estate Mega-Producer What does it take to double or even triple your GCI? This session unlocks the time-proven secrets of mega real estate production.

*Stop Wasting Your Budget on Ineffective Real Estate Advertising Are you wasting your shrinking marketing budget on ineffective advertising–tune in to find out how to get more bang out of your advertising budget and how to really make it work.

*Don’t Market Real Estate Locally–Market Real Estate Globally One of the major trends in 2009 is going global. This session provides you with great ways to go global plus getting your listings translated into 13 languages for only $6.99 per listing.

*How to Dump the Baggage of Negativity No matter who you are, there are times when life can get you down. Learn six proven strategies for coping with tough times.

9. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching Looking for a well-trained coach who knows the real estate business? Our coaching team can help you increase your production and make your dreams come true. Send an e-mail to Shane@RealEstateCoach.com and we’ll help find the right coach for you.

10. Give Us Your Feedback On This Newsletter We want your feedback-to share your thoughts and suggestions, please e-mail us at Shane@RealEstateCoach.com.

11. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe Visit our Web site, http://www.RealEstateCoach.com to subscribe/unsubscribe to RealClues.

Copyright (c) 1996-2009, RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute RealClues as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the contributors to this newsletter is attached.

Contributors to this newsletter: Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC, Owners, www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com; www.RossdalePress.com; and www.TeleconferenceLine.com Shane Bowlin, REC General Manager

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