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Goodbye 2017... Welcome 2018

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     Its just a few hours before midnight and instead of any having celebration plans to ring in the new year, I'm home, taking down all my Christmas decor.  As I was removing ornaments from the tree, I found myself drifting back to the events of the year.  In all honesty, all of 2017 was important to me.  It was full of new experiences, gratifying triumph, and oh so much learning.       At its core, my profession is helping people buy and sell real estate but each one of my clients I helped in 2017 brought with more then just the need to buy or sell.  I was blessed to have known each of my clients prior to staring my real estate career, so when each one of the transactions closed I was doubly excited for each of them.  Three sellers and 5 buyers.  But each one was so much more then that.  I helped empty-nesters downsize, a family relocate from out of state, and several start their chapter of home-ownership for the first time.       In March of this year, I had the pleasure of
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First year reflections

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      As the calendar creeps closer to my anniversary date of the day I joined the Windermere/NCW team, I found myself looking back on all that I've learned and done this past year. By the numbers: 12 months of real estate practice  28 floor duty sessions (this is when I'm stuck in the office praying for the phone to ring) 8 transactions closed Open House Selfie 5 buyers 3 sellers 5 contracts that failed to close 5 open houses hosted 11,000 miles driven 1 fender bender 6,673 minutes talked on the phone 6,692 text messages 2.2 million dollars in volume  2 continuing education courses taken (Peak Producers & Accredited Buyer Representative)  1 MLS committee joined (YAY for party planning!) Personal Signage Advertising door hanger Wenatchee Valley Farmer's Market Booth   Wow, seeing the numbers on paper is a real eye opener.  Sometimes you don't know how crazy things are when you are in the thick o
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2017...Quarter 1

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Hello everyone! As I'm sure you've noticed, I took a couple months off from blogging so that I could focus my energy on putting all of my real estate knowledge into action.  And what an action packed first quarter it has been! Starting at the end of January, I invested in my continuing education and took a twelve week course from Buffini and company called Peak Producers.  This program is a step by step action plan to help real estate agents develop the habits, attitude and skills needed to be become a peak producing agent. I'm so thankful I got to take part in this program because as a fresh agent, barely into my fourth month, I was struggling to find my footing.  Now that I have the Peak Producers diploma hanging on my cubicle wall, I feel that I have a solid plan.  I know what I need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis to be successful and to represent my clients to my highest ability. Midway through February, I received my first big break.  I took a
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Learning the forms...all 200+ of them

The last point to my business model triangle is learning the forms.  Washington State has over 200 of them.  That's a form for every scenario that you can think of and yes...I have to learn what all those scenario could be.  This is why you hire a professional to buy or sell your home.   This last week I was given the assignment to write a purchase and sales agreement from start to finish. So I set out to pick my practice property and begin writing it up for my fictional buyer.  My dog, Cooper, was going to make an offer on a lovely 3 bedroom home in the neighborhood I grew up in.   After reviewing the manual, I thought, "I've got this".   HAHAHA, Man was I wrong! After sitting down with my managing broker, we went line by line through the purchase and sales agreement. I had the key components for making the offer, I named the parties involved, had a legal description of the property, had the purchase price but I was missing my fictional clients back story.  Meani
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Learning the market

So, I've been at this gig for 2 and a half months now and the whole time I've been working hardcore on marketing myself.  Because without clients you wont make any money.  However, as it was gently pointed out to me by a colleague, "What do you do when you finally do get a client"?  That is a HUGE question. So I sat down with my managing broker like I do every week and we discussed the the triangle of real estate success.  A triangle because there are 3 points that need to be learned and mastered. Number 1, Marketing.  Number 2, Forms. And number 3, Inventory. My last post was about marketing which I feel I have a pretty good handle on.  I've got a good following on my Facebook page and I did decide to advertise on Zillow.com so I feel I have opened the conversation gap with those I know and some I'm meeting along the way.  I've also started going to Realtor Association events such as Fast Pitch, a networking coffee hour for brokers and affiliates like
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Marketing your business

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When starting a career that solely depends on lead generation and referrals it can seem daunting.  One would ask, "how do you get leads"?  There are several ways, some are tried and true and others are more risky and require lots of attention.  For example, Facebook page, direct mailer, and personal letter introducing oneself.  I have chosen several different platforms for getting my name out there. They include: The first thing I did was set up a business page on Facebook.  Its FREE so why not.  In today's society its almost a requirement to have an online presence for any business.  When looking for a home today most people do months of research online prior to contacting a Realtor and you can bet that Realtor will be Googled by the potential client.  I know I did that when I was in the client position. Another platform that I took advantage of was my agent website.  This tool is included in my desk fee that I pay to Windermere.   Once the administrative assistant p
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Signing with a firm

My last post left off with me comparing the two brokerage firms that I interviewed.  Thankfully I didn't have to deliberate for too long before I came to my decision.  Windermere came out on top.  My main reason for choosing Windermere is EDUCATION.  Some firms sign agents then say "have at it", they struggle to swim in the new environment and unfortunately this method is why the turn over rate is so high.  Did you know that real estate has an 83% drop out rate?  That's crazy high.  So I went with the firm that was going to provide me the tools to succeed in my new career. I scheduled an appointment with the managing broker at Windermere to discuss me coming aboard.  That morning I arrived thinking I would sign some paperwork then be on my way until I was "ready to start".  Well I was in for a huge surprise.  First we tackled the contract.  A 17 page document that covered everything under the sun that you could think of.  Commission rate (very important)
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