This will seem like a small, nit-picky difference. It’s not. Here’s why:

Finding a qualified buyer, doesn’t mean that buyer will work with you. Far from it. Identifying that qualified prospect is just the start of your “battle” to win their business. To end up collecting a commission check you still need to pass through the buyers five “litmus” tests. They are:

• Buyers Litmus Test #1: Is the agent qualified and skilled at his job?
• Buyers Litmus Test #2: Does the agent know the local area like the back of his hand?
• Buyers Litmus Test #3: Will it be enjoyable enough to work with this agent?
• Buyers Litmus Test #4: Can the agent demonstrate that he understands my needs, desires, restrictions and limitations?
• Buyers Litmus Test #5: Is the agent persuasive and a strong enough negotiator to drive the best deal possible for me?

If you pass these “litmus tests” then you make it to the next step – the “consideration set.” This is the group of agents from whom the “winner” will be selected. Passing these screens takes work and while it brings you somewhat closer to getting the business, you’re still far from victory.

The problem with this is that most agents spend large chunks of their available time each week sifting through the general populous trying to identify qualified buyers. This is a huge waste of time, as you usually won’t win the business when you’re trying to pass these litmus tests as an unknown. Instead of selecting you (an unproven and unknown quantity) they’ll usually opt to be represented by someone they’re already connected to in some way – a neighbor, their 3rd cousin once removed or their husbands colleague’s spouse.

But, what if you could pass these litmus tests with flying colors, BEFORE a qualified buyer has ever met you in person? And, even better, what if you could become their “preferred” agent of choice without even having had a first meeting?

Impossible? Actually quite the contrary.

This is exactly what is happening every day of the week to top producers. They have qualified buyers calling them, out of the blue, requesting to work with them. Unconsciously, over years of trial and error, they’ve created a dynamic that brings them a steady stream of buyers in both good economies as well as bad.

#1 — Become a Published Real Estate Author: Authors in our society are put on a pedestal. They are seen as the best and brightest amongst us. If you want to quickly separate yourself from all the other agents in your market, become a published author. The trick is to do this in a way that doesn’t take a lot of your time, and gets qualified buyers seeking you out. So, start by publishing “Special Reports” on topics of interest to home buyers (electronically, so it’s cheap and can be distributed easily over the Internet). Here are a couple of sample titles, to get your mind working:

• The Secrets to Buying a Single Family Home in a Down Market
• How to Negotiate a 15% Discount Off a Home Sellers Best Offer
• How to Identify and Buy a Home in Montgomery County, Maryland – Before it Goes on Sale to the General Public

Only those interested in buying a home will have any kind of interest in these reports. And it gives you a powerful forum to demonstrate your skill, expertise and competence. It only needs to be a few pages long, but write it well and provide your contact info in the document and I guarantee you that you will get calls from people ready to start working with you.

#2 — Offer a Free Real Estate Home Buyer “Alert” Service: Offer buyers the ability to stay on top of breaking developments in the market they’re looking to buy in. They provide you all of the vital details of what they’re looking for: Type of home, price range, preferences, neighborhoods etc. Then you send them information as news breaks regarding things they’re interested in. This could be anything from new homes on the market and price reductions to details of a recent sale. This allows you to know the specifics of what a home buyer wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get new listings because home sellers will want to tap into all the subscribers you have following your “alerts.”

#3 — Create “Facebook” for Your Community: One of the hottest trends in marketing is social networks. This is illustrated by the ubiquity of social networks like Facebook and MySpace. You can put yourself in an extraordinarily powerful position by creating the social network, the “Facebook”, for the communities you serve. Buyers moving in to your community will be searching for information, by owning this portal you can be one of the first people to know of their desire to look for a home in this area. Best of all, the editorial will come from the community, drastically reducing the amount of work you need to do. And, there are tremendous (and free) software services that power these networks. Check out www.Ning.com and www.Kickapps.com.

No question these strategies require some effort to implement. But, do any one of them and you will shortly find yourself with customers knocking on your door (maybe sometimes even begging) for you to represent them.

Let me show you an example of a marketing campaign that won’t sell more, faster. Follow me here…

What is most peoples most valuable asset? Their home, right?

And, we find ourselves in the midst of a financial crisis, caused by a depression in the housing market. Homes are languishing on the market, unsold month after month, and when they are finally purchased it’s for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars less than the home would have sold for just a year ago.

When it comes to selecting a realtor to help you sell your home, there is not a homeowner on this planet that is more than one degree of separation away from knowing a real estate agent. Everyone knows a cousin, neighbor, sister-in-law, co-worker’s husband etc who is in the business.

I live in suburbs of Washington D.C. and let’s suppose for one reason or another I’ve got to move, which means I’ve got to sell my home. I’m terrified because if I don’t sell my house relatively quickly I’m going to be stuck paying TWO mortgages, my current home and the one I’ve got an agreement of sale to purchase, or lose the home my wife wants so dearly. And, to add to my anxiety level, there are two other comparable homes also up for sale in my neighborhood that buyers are going to be able to choose from.

Then, in my mail comes the direct mail piece you see below. It’s a “gift” of a Washington Redskins football schedule, given to me by these two nice, smiling real estate agents. Maybe I even think “this is exactly what I need, let me put this on my refrigerator.”  That’s probably exactly what these agents were hoping I’d do. But, the real question is does this “gift,” inspire me to want to work with them?

To get at the real answer to that question, you have to dig below the surface, examining not just what people who get this kind of communication consciously think, but more importantly what they unconsciously conclude about these agents.

I ask myself the question: Do these nice ladies seem like they are THE ones I should entrust with my most valuable asset? Here’s what my subconscious thinks:

• Hmmm…they’ve sent me an irrelevant communication (can’t get more disconnected than football and real estate)
• They must be newbies or amateurs if this is how they promote themselves
• They’re probably housewives who sell homes as a hobby.
• One probably takes clients to see houses, while the other watches their  kids.
• They are not serious about selling real estate
• They’ve got no clue about how desperate I am to sell my house quickly and for a decent price

My conclusion:  I’d be a moron to use them.

They’ll likely argue “everyone” in real estate does marketing like this, and from what I’ve seen with agents in my Real Estate Thought Leadership Marketing Mastery Program, they’re unfortunately right. The problem is that since everyone knows a real estate agent, don’t you think they’d opt for an agent they know over an agent you don’t know, if they couldn’t tell their skill sets apart?

Here’s a just a handful of things they could have done that would have lead to much better results, without having to spend a dime more than they did:

• Reflect your markets sentiments. You want to be perceived as having your finger on the pulse of the industry and your prospects feelings. A headline like “Don’t Risk Having Your Home Unsold For Months” will show you as being in touch.
• Use market data. Establishing your credibility is key to gaining your prospects trust and using objective statistics is a powerful way to do that. With a little research you should be able to come up with some authoritative copy like “From May-September 2008 homes in Montgomery County, MD have sold in an average of 6 months and 3 days. In the same period Jim Smith listings have sold in an average of 3 months and 14 days, beating the average by 43%.”
• Show your expertise while building your prospect database. Create a special report that ties in with the times, such as “The 10 Most Common Mistakes Homeowners Make When Selling in a Recession.” Authoring this kind of report will help separate you from all the other realtors in your market and will force prospects to start interacting with you in order to get the report. Anyone interested in this report is likely a qualified prospect for you.

Almost anything would be better than sending out a football schedule… including doing nothing at all.

Let’s examine what an Obama presidency is likely to mean for the real estate industry, so we can better determine the best course of action to take for a Realtor™.

Based on Obama’s written policies from his website – www.barackobama.com/ -There are five (5) outcomes that appear fairly certain. They are:

#1 – Fewer and Less Swift Foreclosures. Obama believes that the real victims of the subprime mortgage mess are the homeowners. He feels they were mislead into taking out mortgages, far beyond what they could afford. To fight this perceived wrong, expect the government to be there to protect, and potentially, bail out homeowners. Previously he had introduced legislation that provided counseling to homeowners and tenants to avoid foreclosures and increased the ability of borrowers with risky mortgages to protect themselves in foreclosure proceedings.

#2 – Crackdown on Mortgage Industry. Nearly two years ago Obama introduced legislation to fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending practices. Obama’s STOP FRAUD Act provides the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increases funding for federal and state law enforcement programs, creates new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud, and requires industry insiders to report suspicious activity. Long story short, this will likely mean tighter credit, with home buyers qualify for smaller mortgage amounts than in the past.
#3 – Tax Relief to Lower Income Home Buyers & Owners. Obama has pledged a 10 percent universal mortgage credit that gives tax relief to Americans who have a home mortgage. The Obama-Biden proposal will provide 10 million homeowners, most of whom earn under $50,000 per year, with an average of $500 in savings. This tax cut will provide direct relief to many homeowners who are struggling to maintain their mortgage payments. This will be a helping hand, but no game changer, for low income families.

#4 – More Accurate Loan Disclosures. As president, Barack Obama has said he will work to enact laws to ensure that all prospective homebuyers have access to accurate and complete information about their mortgage options. Obama will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages. The HOME score will allow Americans to easily compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost of the loan. The HOME score would also help borrowers understand their long-term obligations and would be required to include mandatory taxes and insurance.

#5 – More Renegotiated Loan Terms. Investors who own multiple homes and people with vacation homes can renegotiate those mortgages in bankruptcy. However, current Chapter 13 law requires ordinary families to stick with the original terms of their home loans—regardless of whether the loan was predatory or unfair. Obama has stated he will repeal this provision so that ordinary families do not suffer this unfair treatment.

What does all this mean?

From a macro perspective in the near term the biggest consequence is going to be tighter credit. This will mean fewer eligible homebuyers, who will each be able to afford less house. This will likely keep home prices down even though mortgage rates continue to stay low.

On a micro level, down to the individual agent, it means there will be fewer deals to go around. However, if you’re a serious real estate professional, don’t panic. This will not be as terrible as you might think, because there is a quick“ thinning of the herd” going on with Realtors™.

Over the last year we’ve seen many agents leave the industry on account of the downturn. And, our research indicates many others will be leaving soon, as they’re having trouble paying their own mortgages and bills.

Most of these agents who are leaving are “cream skimmers,” the people who were able to make money when the market was overheated, but weren’t serious enough about the business to develop the skills that would make them the “top of mind agent” in their market over time. Even in this down cycle, “Top of Mind” agents are and will continue to do very nicely financially.Top 3 Concerns in Real Estate Includes – What? – Barack Obama Himself