Hard Work vs Smart Work

For as long as I can remember there has been a perception among the public that “Real Estate agents don’t work hard for their money they throw up a sign, ask for marketing money and bank the cheque”.

I’ve realised that Real Estate Sales people are not good at telling people the things we do for them - and the amount of hard work that get done behind the scenes building a business that ultimately finds buyers that are prepared to purchase our vendor’s property.

Let’s be fair here in todays world its easy to advertise a house - $200 -throw it up on www.trademe.co.nz with a photo/two and write an ad (gee you can just copy a salespersons ad make it suit your property) and bingo you’ll sell the house.
YEAH RIGHT!

On any given day I can show you properties that haven’t sold that are being marketed well, that are doing all the right things - and I can show you a pile of FSBO (For Sale By Owner) properties that are -frankly- poorly marketed, overpriced, stale or unsaleable with their existing presentation.
Now I am not knocking the people who have the motivation and determination to have a crack at selling their own house - I believe the Real Estate Agents have consciously/unconsciously put buyers and vendors in a position where they have placed little/no trust/value in the Agents available in their area. And for the record I’m not knocking the use of www.trademe.co.nz I used it as a simple example…one of the easy options available to all sellers.

As an industry we need to communicate the difference a Qualified Agent makes and the value we add to buyers and sellers.

As a Sales and Marketing Consultant I invest time and money into building a sustainable Real Estate business - by setting myself up properly:

• I get economies of scale (buying advertising at bulk prices)
• I get leverage by belonging to the Harcourts Levin team all motivated to sell my properties
• national leverage by belonging to the Harcourts NZ team and
• International leverage through the Harcourts International links and relationships
• I get regularly trained by qualified Harcourts trainers with awesome industry experience
• I have access to Industry training that is Nationally Certified
• I use specialist software that allows me to produce great reports for vendors and buyers, email, text and statistical tools that allow me to contact multiple buyers with personalised buying portfolios in their unique communication requirements
• I have a strong team around me - that helps with motivation, experience and competitive motivation - for example when I list a property I take all the agents to the property on a caravan so all the office know about my vendors’ properties
• Most importantly I invest in self development - that keeps me at the “sharp edge of the wedge” with higher motivation, fresh market knowledge and a desire to apply best practice tools and techniques to acheive results for my clients.
• One other aspect which is lost on many people but which is really lost on a number of people - true real estate success is based on basic hard work and planning that allow you to focus on productive activities when they demand 100% attention.
  

Bryan Thomson Harcourts CEO made the point today that guaranteed success comes from hard work http://blog.harcourts.co.nz/2008/12/04/guaranteed-success/ I agree but I also think extraordinary success comes not just from working hard but from working smart - working hard at those activities that give great results.

Three of the most successful in the Mana Kapiti Horowhenua group Ray Marshall, Donna Everton and Sue Cottle - all good examples of people who not only work hard but work smart.