Dear friend,

This week we’re going to talk about how to make the most money you possibly can in the next six months.

Now I believe that these next six months are going to be one of the biggest opportunities for you if you’re focused on the right things so let’s get right into it and let’s talk about ten ways to make sure that you make the most money in the next six months.

Number 1: Make a decision that you’re going to make the most money you possibly can in the next six months.

When you say that to yourself, what comes up when you say those words?  If you say, “I’m going to make the most money I possible can in the next six months”  What are the things that immediately come up in your mind?  Do you hear little voices saying, “but what about the market?” or “no-one’s buying right now.”  Do you get some voices in your head that are telling you all the reasons that you can’t possibly make a lot of money in the next six months.  Write it all down and examine each of those thoughts individually. You know do you really believe that now is the time to buy a home?  What would you do if it were your money, if it were your situation where you were a first time buyer or you were an investor in today’s market? Do you really believe in your heart that right now is the best time to do something? Examine the evidence, you’ve got prices that are lower than they’ve been in a very long time. You’ve got interest rates that are the lowest in six decades.  You’ve got foreclosures, rising, there’s a great supply of wonderful homes at low prices but fear is also high right now.  Now what would you do?  If you can’t believe it yourself how can you help other people believe it?

See I believe that the decisions that you make right now are going to determine what the next six months is going to be like for you. It might be time for you to cut your losses and get out of the business now.  If you really examine in your heart and you do not believe that now is the best time, if you do not believe that we’re turning the corner and there are better things ahead maybe now is the time for you get out of the business and really look at starting something for yourself that’s new. But if you do decide to stay in the business make the decision to make as much money as you possibly can in the next six months.

Number 2: Find out where the money is being made right now (and what I mean by that is what’s actually selling right now).

Where if you look at the stats, if you look at what’s selling in your market place is it bank owned homes, is it short sales, is it first time buyers who are buying the  homes, is it investors who are buying the homes, is it luxury homes that are selling, is it ocean front homes, is it new homes, find out what is the most active part of your market right now and who is doing the buying.  People are buying and selling homes every single day right now but every single market is different.  Find out where that activity is in your market and make the decision number three.

Number 3: Focus on that for the next six months.

Focus on where all of the money is happening, it just makes sense doesn’t it, you want to fish where the fish are biting and not just biting but schooling, you know wherever you can get to where there’s a feeding frenzy that will be the very best place to fish.

Just for this next six months decide to focus all of your attention on the highest probability parts of your market.  Every market is different, there are parts of the country believe it or not that are not really affected by foreclosures, there are parts of the country where every other home on the street is not vacant.  If you live in an area where that’s the case you want to maybe be aware of that and focus on what the actual market is doing in your market.  It may be harder for you to do this if your identity is wrapped up in a certain part of the market, if you have for years been the go to source for horse farms or for historic homes or for luxury homes and that is not the part of the market that’s moving right now you may need to do a little adapting.  The more adaptable you are the more money you will be able to make in the next six months.

Number 4: Stop doing things that aren’t working and invest in the things that are.

Right now is a great time to look at every dollar you’re spending and every marketing piece making it accountable for its results just like you would an employee.  You know if you were to move every ad and marketing piece in your virtual sales team from salary to commission, that’s a great metaphor for you to think about which ads, which marketing pieces, which activities are actually brining a return on that investment.  Not just because some ad has been around for a long time or you’ve always had a bus bench in your neighbourhood or you’ve always had a billboard or you’ve always had a full page ad in the high school football program, just because you’ve always done it doesn’t necessarily mean that right now it’s the thing that’s actually working.

Really pay attention to the parts of your marketing that are brining you the best return and focus more on those.  It’s more important than ever that we spend every dollar that you spend on marketing wisely.  We want to invest in marketing that multiplies itself and divest ourselves of marketing that doesn’t.

Number 5: Let go of listings and focus on sellers.

Now if you look at your inventory right now of listings how many of those listings are actually sellers and by sellers I mean people who are five star sellers, people who are motivated to move meaning they’re moving out of town or they’ve built another house or they own another house and they’ve got to get rid of this one.  There’s some real motivation for them to sell the house, they’ve got it priced for today’s market.

They’re not pricing it based on what their hopes are, what they need to get, what it used to be worth, all of those things don’t matter anymore, the only homes that are selling, competing with the foreclosed properties, competing with the short sales are the homes that are priced for today’s market.  Homes that are staged to show their best, you know if you’ve got listings that don’t show well that don’t show as good as they possibly can it is almost impossible to compete against the values that are out there right now, your house needs every advantage it can possibly get to make it stand out.

There are no marketing obstacles with a seller meaning they’re not putting any of your hands behind your back, they’re not saying, “we don’t want a locked box” they’re not saying”we don’t want a sign, we don’t want our neighbours to know” they’re not saying “we don’t want anybody showing the house when we’re not home”.

Those are all marketing obstacles. In order for you to sell a house you need to have all green lights, it’s got to be able to be shown.  Then the real sellers are willing to help, they’re willing to help and do everything they can to spread the word to keep the house showing its best to do everything that they can to let people come through the home when they have the opportunity for it to be shown.  All of those things, those are the earmarks of a five star seller.  People who don’t have those, people who are not motivated, people who are not willing to price it at the right price for today’s market, people who are not willing to stage the home or do repairs to make it show its best.  People who put up marketing obstacles in your path and people who are unwilling or uncooperative to help you get the home sold, let go of those listings and focus all of your attention on the sellers.

Number 6: Let go of the lookers and focus on the buyers.

Same thing applies here with your buyers, a lot of times you might be working with people who are just lookers, who are unrealistic who are not motivated, who are not qualified who aren’t realistic and who aren’t ready.  How many times have you shown homes to people that you know it’s a good value for them, you know it’s exactly what they’re looking for, you know that this is priced right and yet they insist on going in at 50% of what the new list price is or they insist on not participating in multiple offers or being, not taking your advice on things, you’ve got to let go of the people who are not willing to adapt to what today’s market conditions are.

Number 7: Develop the skills and the specialized knowledge for the new economy.

If you’re in an area where this is going to be the next six months all about first time buyers, all about bank owned homes, all about short sales, all about finding exactly the types of knowledge, the types of information that you need to succeed.  It’s a great time if you live in an area where the USDA Rural Housing Programme is available, it’s a fantastic program for you to help people buy homes with zero down.

Where I am here in Winter Haven we’re blessed that there are parts of Winter Haven, some nice parts of Winter Haven that are in the USDA area for zero down and there are bank owned homes.  So not only can people buy bank owned homes and get a great price they can buy that bank owned home and get a zero down mortgage and get $8,000 back when they buy that home.  So if you’re in an area that has some rural element to it find the bank owned listings in those areas and make those your best effort to try and attract new people.

Number 8: stop taking the news at face value.

If we were just to take the news at face value it’s very easy to get just as scared as the buyers and sellers are in today’s market. The better thing to do right now is to look for the facts.  They talk about 8% unemployment but what they don’t talk about is that means that 92% of Americans have jobs and are getting their salary every single month.  They talk about how the market is doing and the banks are failing but interest rates are at a six decade low right now.  There’s a huge inventory of wonderful, great value homes that are on the market right now, selection is high, interest rates are low, prices are low it’s a fantastic time to be a buyer.  Don’t be fearful – be factual.

Number 9: become more resourceful with your time.

Now just like your marketing we’re going through your marketing and looking for all the lazy parts of your market, looking for all the salaried, tenured positions within your marketing team and moving everybody on to commission where they have to pay for themselves, do that same thing with your time, look for the deadweight in your calendar and invest your time in doing things that are going to have a big payoff, doing things that are going to provide you with new income and make sure that you’re cutting out all the negative drains on your time.

Number 10: Focus on movement not meditation.

Just do something, spread the word about the market, offer to help your friends and your clients if they need information, if they are wondering what’s going on in the market, talk it up, you know become the go to source for all the answers and straight talk of what’s going on in the market, communicate more often with your clients and your sphere.

See, right now your clients and your friends and your sphere they’re all talking about the economy, they’re all talking about the real estate market and their plans so what we really want to do is make sure that your clients, your sphere and your friends notice when the conversation turns to real estate and that they think of you and that they introduce you into that conversation.

So there we have it, if you focus on those ten decisions, those ten activities for the next six months you will have the highest probability of making the most money that you possibly can in those six months.

So that’s it for this week, tune in next time and we’ll talk about even more ways to get listings, find buyers and convert leads.