This
book is designed to help you make MORE money with less effort in commercial
real estate. Using advanced technology,
support staff and prospecting techniques, you will gain a force multiplier
effect in your business that will propel you to the next level. In other words, it will be easier to make
$600,000 in fees than it was to make the first $400,000. This book will help you transform your real
estate business into a money making machine.
Every
success and failure that you have experienced thus far in your real estate
career (and life in general) can be directly attributed to the daily choices
that you have made along the way. For
ultimately it is you who decides to do this thing or that. It is the compilation of countless choices
that have brought you to your current point in your career today. Now, you have another choice to make. Do you invest your valuable time in to
reading a book about commercial real estate?
Do not discount the knowledge that is contained within this book just
because you only paid twenty-five
dollars for it. On the contrary, reading
this book is going to cost you the most prized possession that you have—your time.
There is only so much time in the day and by judiciously managing
this scarce resource you can positively impact both your finances and your
happiness. This is just one lesson that
is covered in these chapters.
This
book was written to help anyone endeavoring in commercial real estate brokerage
make more money in any market
condition and should be considered a best practices guide to commercial real
estate. Whatever your specialty is in
commercial real estate, you will benefit from the information contained
within. You will learn new techniques
(and reacquaint yourself with some old techniques) that you can use immediately
to grow your business. In fact, I would even challenge you to set a
goal of doubling your personal income over the next 12 months.
If you are an office manager or a seasoned commercial sales veteran who
has decided to pass along your trade to the next generation, please make this
book required reading for your junior agents. There are wonderful prospecting tools and explanations on how to become a
productive agent inside. This book
marries new software technology to proven business development techniques which
will help both new and seasoned agents alike grow their business in an
increasingly competitive and challenging environment.
It
is an unfortunate truth that as you become more successful in this business
some naysayers will be critical and attribute your success to pure luck. They will ignore your long hours of hard work,
personal sacrifices and the disciplined approach that you took to become a
success in commercial real estate. Pay your critics little attention,
because they are the ones that will stagnate in the business.
I
am very passionate about helping commercial real estate professionals make
money. In fact, I am determined to
change the entire commercial real estate industry for the better. I believe that technology should make the commercial
real estate practitioner’s life easier and must never replace or marginalize
their value proposition to the clients that they serve. It is the pursuit of this vision that drives
me and frequently finds me working into the early hours of the morning. This book and the companion software that I
have helped create would mean absolutely nothing to me if I did not truly
believe that they were making a difference in thousands of careers right
now.
Please
share your success stories with me. I am
very curious to see how you utilize this material in your real estate business
and how you have grown your income.
Thank
you,
Dan
Dulin, CEO
REALHOUND.com ®
1001 Avenida Pico, C514
It was my original intention that this
book was to be written in two parts. The
first part would explain how to use advanced software technology in commercial
real estate brokerage to save you time and increase your income while the
second part would discuss techniques and business strategies for commercial
real estate agents and companies to become more successful in their
businesses. However, as the book
progressed it became obvious to me that the two parts were not separate, since
continued success in commercial real estate is due in part to discovering,
mastering and applying new technological advancements to a practitioner’s real
estate business. In the end the two
parts of the book were integrated into one and it is my belief that the result
is a fluid and concise description of how to use existing technology to grow
your business in any market.
A
brief overview of the technology
RealHound® Live!, the companion
software that is discussed in this book, was developed in collaboration with
some of the best commercial real estate brokers in the country. Prior to the creation of this program, there
truly were no good existing software solutions available for commercial real
estate professionals. You are gaining
the benefit of a business tool that was created at a combined cost of over
eleven million dollars (and growing) in labor, research, equipment and
capital-- all poured into a product that is the absolute best commercial
real estate contact management software in existence today. This book will guide you through the same
processes and will teach you the same system that these top brokers use to
consistently make six, seven and eight figure incomes in commercial real estate
using this software.
The strength of the companion software
is its simplicity. The program was
designed with the novice computer user in mind but is powerful enough to meet
the needs of the most experienced commercial practitioner. It simplifies and automates complicated
commercial real estate processes which increases productivity. You can run the program as a single user, in
a team of networked multi-users, remotely (with or without the internet) or
have a true virtual office. Your company
can actually rebrand the program with their logo and a different name. It allows you to manage your contacts,
properties, escrows, listings, leases, sales, loans, buyer & tenant needs,
prospecting, marketing, and most importantly your time—all from a single
application. You no longer have to toggle
between various databases and different applications in order to run your
business.
RealHound® is the most powerful
commercial real estate software that you can buy. Whether you work alone, have a partner, are a
broker with an office full of agents or have a single assistant, RealHound® is
ideal for sharing data (locally or over the Internet), storing electronic files
(documents), managing transactions, communicating with other members of your
team and granting client access. If you
have a team approach to commercial real estate our software will make you more
money by increasing your team’s capabilities and productivity.
The program greatly simplifies the
prospecting process because you can easily execute cold calls, target your
contacts with direct mail, and identify potential properties for buyers and
spaces for tenants all from within your database. Find missing phone numbers (unlisted and
listed) and addresses right from a contact’s record by simply clicking on BullsEye
or a Smart-Link. If cold calling is a part of your business
plan (and I’m certain that it is), IntelliCall will increase both
your chances of reaching property owners on the phone and getting new business
from them when you do. The Auto
Compare feature gives you instant access to Rental,
Our revolutionary DealFinder
& Tenant
Wizard features will automatically match buyers with sellers and
tenants with available space. You can
even search for and import listings directly from the Internet, match them
against your buyer & tenant needs and share property information with the
real estate community- all from within the program! RealHound®
is the only commercial real estate software that can actually help make you
money.
Your
world is what you believe it to be
Something that the top performers in
commercial real estate all have in common is that they all view themselves
first as business owners, and second as sales, leasing, tenant rep or marketing
experts. Likewise, it is up to you to
develop a positive business mentality.
They know what their business goals are and they take consistent daily
action to attain those goals. If
something does not work they will take a different approach, but they never give up trying. Another commonality of the best performers is
that they all have made a commitment to continuously improve themselves. They read books, take classes, attend
seminars related to their field of expertise and have a business coach. They have written goals, experiment with
technology and new ways of doing business.
They are not afraid to invest in their business and get the best
equipment, software and people to support them.
They understand the concept of leverage
and have hired staff to support their business.
They also know that success in this business depends on daily Prospecting and Controlling the Inventory (through
exclusive representation of sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants).
Finally, if you are a Broker with
independent agents working for you, don’t miss Chapter Ten for a revolutionary
new way to approach agent retention and increase your market share.
If you are currently struggling with
another software program that was half heartedly adapted to support commercial
real estate sales, leasing and tenant representation you are wasting your most
precious asset - your time. RealHound® was purposefully designed for one
industry – commercial real estate. You
can use it straight out of the box without any customization.
Everyone at my company believes that
they are in a partnership with our users and want to help you succeed in your
business by supplying you with the very best commercial real estate software
available. We truly care about your
success in commercial real estate—it’s our passion!
Are you ready to grow your business
and make more money? Great, now let’s
get started!
Download
your free trial of the companion software at www.RealHound.com
Chapter One
Your Success In
Commercial Real Estate Depends On Just One Thing…
-Continuous Prospecting-
Some people will tell you that it is
easy to sell commercial real estate because there are particularly low barriers
to entering the commercial arena as an agent.
They might say something like, “even Bozo the Clown can sell commercial
real estate” or “selling commercial real estate isn’t exactly rocket
science”. And, if we are honest, who
among us has not from time to time thought that one of our competitors exhibited
some clown like attributes? But what
makes Bozo a success while Joe Schmoe washes out of the business? The answer is that daily prospecting
practically guarantees your success in commercial real estate. Consistent prospecting is the
difference between the agents/brokers who truly succeed in the business and
those that only limp along or worse yet fail entirely.
There are two highly effective ways of
prospecting in commercial real estate, cold calling and direct mail. There is a system to each method that you
must master and practice regularly to ensure steady annual growth of your
income. Cold calling and direct mail can
work independently from one another, but when used in conjunction with each
other they create a powerful lead generating machine that practically
guarantees your success. Most commercial
real estate agents favor one method over the other and the most popular method
is also the least effective in a competitive market; direct mail. You must use both methods to have the
greatest impact in your market.
You cannot effectively prospect if you
do not know what your target market is or who your real prospects are. As simple as this principle sounds, I am
surprised to find that many agents still overlook this basic rule. The most successful commercial real estate
agents know what their target market is and have compiled their own integrated CRM (Contact Relationship
Management) /property database. This
data is meticulously maintained because it is essential to the continued
success of the agent’s business.
Cold
Calling
Cold calling is the most effective
method of generating new business and it is also the undertaking most dreaded
by commercial agents. But let’s put this
highly productive activity into perspective-- you will simply make a lot more
money by calling owners and tenants in your market than by not calling
them. Think of it in terms of
probability, there is an excellent chance that there are property owners in
your market that want to buy or sell real estate right now regardless of
whether the market is good or bad.
Somebody wants to lease space and there are property owners who are
thinking about changing their leasing agent.
Consistent telephone calls to property owners and tenants in your market
will help you anticipate their needs and keep you ahead of your competition
(Cold Calling techniques and other helpful calling tools are covered in detail
in a later chapter).
You should contact every property
owner (or major tenant) who is in your target market at least once per quarter
(every 3 months).
TIP: To determine how many
calls you need to make on a daily basis to reach your goal, divide the number
of owners and tenants in your target market by work weeks in the quarter
(typically 12 weeks) and finally divide the resulting number by the number of
workdays in the week. You now know how
many calls you need to make per work day to reach every owner (or tenant) in
your target market quarterly.
If
you realize that there is NO possible way to reach everyone on your list in a
three month reoccurring cycle, then you have too many prospects on your call
list. Cut your list down to a more
manageable level. A good rule of thumb
is that one person can effectively contact 700 to 900 prospects by telephone
per quarter. Remember, your goal is to
talk to a live body who can make real estate decisions and not just mindlessly
dial the telephone.
Dedicate at least two consecutive
hours each work day to cold calling.
Schedule your cold call time during the week, alternating the days that
calls are made in the morning and afternoons.
Don’t let anything distract you from making your daily calls. Remember that calls come first and EVERYTHING
else comes after that.
To avoid unnecessary distraction,
alert your staff that you are not to be disturbed while making your calls. The first couple of calls tend to be a little
awkward, but you will get into a rhythm that will make each subsequent call
easier. If you allow yourself to become
distracted, you run the risk of never finding your rhythm or finishing your
daily call quota.
Each call must be tracked and a brief
synopsis of the conversation saved in the prospect’s contact record for future
reference. Both buyer and tenant needs
should be recorded for future reference.
Every conversation that you have with a single prospect builds on the
previous conversations and it becomes easier to talk to that contact over time. RealHound simplifies the entire cold calling
process which reduces your anxiety and allows you to make more effective
calls. Like most things, the more calls
you make the better you will become.
In a healthy real estate business,
prospecting is a continuous process
that is done in parallel with every other daily activity in that business and,
when done correctly, can be characterized by smooth steady growth of a
practitioner’s income. By contrast,
sporadic prospecting results in income peaks and troughs which are also known
as porpoising (yes, like a dolphin).
This hair-raising experience can be avoided with consistent daily
prospecting and will greatly reduce your anxiety and increase your faith that
you will always make money in Commercial Real Estate.
Direct
Mail
Would you believe it if I told you
that there is a magic recipe for sending out mailers? Well, it’s true and I’m going to share it
with you now. Mailers are expensive in
comparison to cold calls but if done correctly they will more than pay for
themselves. If you approach mailers
incorrectly you will be wasting your money on print costs, postage and, more
importantly, your valuable time.
When done correctly you can expect a
350% (or more) return on your investment.
In other words, for every dollar you spend on mailers you should get 3.5
dollars in return. However, if you are
just starting your direct mail campaign, your results will not be
immediate. It takes approximately six
months for your prospects to recognize your name and want to call you.
A successful
mailing campaign has these five critical elements: regular contact intervals,
accessibility of the message, simplicity of design, a call to action and a
take-away (which is a
compelling reason for the recipient to call you). Unless you are sending out a newsletter or a
targeted letter, you should always mail postcards only to the prospects in your
target market. Postcards are the least
expensive mailer that you can possibly send and they are also the most
effective. They are more likely to be
read because the recipient does not need to open an envelope to receive the
message. A simple glance at your well
designed postcard gets your message across quickly.
.
Maintaining regular contact intervals with your prospects is the first key
component to a successful direct mail marketing campaign. If you are just beginning your mailing campaign,
it is important that you brand yourself and your services in the minds of your
prospects. In order to do this, your
initial mailings to your target market must be once a week for four weeks. After the first four weeks, you will send a
mailer out every two weeks for the rest of your career. Like anything worthwhile, a successful
marketing campaign takes time and mailers can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months
to become truly effective. If you fail
to send mailers out for more than 6 weeks you run the risk of having your
prospects forget who you are which will force you to start your mailing
campaign over again from scratch. A
record of each mailer sent and the results it received get entered into each
recipient’s contact record (RealHound® does this with just a push of a button).
Each marketing piece should have a
consistent message that can be as simple as “Your commercial real estate sales
expert”, “Your office & industrial property sales specialist”, “Exclusively
representing the interests of tenants”, “Your full service commercial real
estate expert” or “Your commercial real estate sales & leasing
expert”. A successful message will
clearly state what you service you have to offer.
Another component to a successful
mailing campaign is to have a compelling reason for your prospects to call
you. Offering something for “free” or a
take-away is the most persuasive reason for the recipient to contact you. Some of the best freebies that you can offer
are: property valuations, market rent surveys, lease analysis, market trend
reports and sales surveys. When your
phone rings in response to a mailer it is your responsibility to flush out a
prospect’s need and assess their motivation.
TIP: If a property owner calls you to take you up on your
offer for a free valuation of their property; they are thinking about selling
it. Make
sure that you personally meet them as soon as possible.
This will further your branding
initiatives and allow you to begin to develop a more personal relationship with
your prospect.
The overall appearance of your
marketing materials is very important.
If you do not have sufficient experience designing marketing materials,
then leave the design work to the professionals. There are many companies that can design and
even mail your marketing materials for you.
Their services are generally affordable and will save you a tremendous
amount of time. More marketing
information will be discussed in detail in a later chapter.
And what about email? Well, it is cheaper than direct mail but most
unsolicited messages wind-up in the recipient’s junk folder.
Contact
& Property Information Management, aka- Your Database
Your contact and property database is
truly the foundation of your success.
Think about it. Without knowing
who owns the real estate or leases space in your target market, how can you
effectively prospect?
Successful agents all have databases
that contain property data, corresponding ownership, lease data and tenant
information. Internet sharing
capabilities, ease of use and functionality are extremely important aspects of
an effective database. Their data is
unique and not dependant on third party data providers. Every change of ownership and major lease is
verified against multiple sources including the Buyer and Seller (calling them
to talk about the transaction is a great way to pick up new business). Leases are verified with the leasing broker,
landlord and the tenant. Successful
agents know who they have talked to, met with and who is receiving their
marketing materials.
Unsuccessful agents do not have a
database at all, try to use Outlook for the task or have a hodge-podge
collection of dysfunctional data that was imported and never verified. Their contact records contain so many informational
gaps that they would have better luck prospecting blind folded from a
metropolitan phone book.
Without an accurate contact and property database, effective
prospecting is not possible. If you
cannot effectively prospect, you cannot maximize your business opportunities. If you are not maximizing your business
opportunities- your real estate business will stagnate. This is evident in the business models of
many “Old-timers” in the business because they only work with a handful of
clients. As their clients transition out
of the business and are not adequately replaced- their incomes start to
stagnate.
Caution: There are no
shortcuts to creating and maintaining a property and contact database. Some people only want to import data in to
their database without ever questioning and verifying the quality of the
data. If you decide to take this
approach toward maintaining your database, it can cost you hundreds of
thousands of dollars each year in lost fees.
Effective methods of maintaining your database are discussed in a later
chapter.
The top performers in commercial real
estate invest in technology that works FOR them and not against them. RealHound® is the ONLY Commercial Real
Estate software that is specifically designed to help you prospect. It is the only software that leverages your
time by making the daily processes in commercial real estate
simpler. It manages your contacts,
properties, cold calls, listings, escrows, projects, buyers and tenants. It is designed specifically to meet the needs
of a growing real estate business, to keep you organized and it is extremely
EASY to use. It is the only software
that can actually help make you money.
Power Moves
1) Daily prospecting is the key to making a lot
of money in commercial real estate.
Devote two hours of everyday to prospecting on the telephone. Do nothing else during this scheduled time
and make sure that you do not entertain any interruptions. Record your call results for each contact
reached in their respective contact record.
Your goal with each phone call is to talk to the real estate decision
maker and meet that person. People do
business with people they know.
2) Send mailers out on a regular basis to every
owner or tenant who is in your target market.
Your mailers must have a consistent message and should compel the
recipient to call you. Don’t forget to
offer some service for “free” or a take-away.
Most people find it difficult to resist free offers. Record every mailer sent in each recipients
contact record. The secret to a
successful direct mail campaign is to send out your mailer at regular
intervals. This will further reinforce
your branding efforts.
Email blasts tend to get ignored and left
unopened in the recipient’s spam box.
3) Your database is the foundation of your
success. Successful agents all have
databases that contain property data, corresponding ownership, tenant
information and lease information. Without
this critical information, effective prospecting is not possible. If you are currently struggling with
another software program that was half heartedly adapted to support commercial
real estate sales, you are wasting your most precious asset - your time. RealHound® will be a different experience for
you because it was specifically design for commercial real estate by the TOP
practitioners in the industry.
What One
Person Can Achieve Another Can Too!
-The Law of the Vital Few, True Value of Time,
Business Models and Surviving a Down Market-
In any given group from any industry,
the highest paid and most highly recognized people are those that consistently
outperform their peers. To these victors
go the lion’s share of the reward. This phenomenon is known as the Law of the Vital Few or the Pareto
Principle. But what really makes these
Vital Few so successful while the rest of the group can barely achieve
mediocrity? The thing that truly
separates these people from the crowd is an unwavering dedication to achieve
the maximum results for the amount of time and effort invested into their
endeavors. This is recognized in our
society as a commitment to excellence.
There is no magic or innate talent to
being one of The Vital Few; it is not
an exclusive club and the essentials can be learned by anyone who really wants
to be excessively rewarded for their efforts.
You are probably wondering about fairness to one’s fellow man but I am
pleased to tell you that this system is perfectly fair. Everyone has a choice to have, to do or to be
anything that they want. The real
question is whether or not they will decide to take the action necessary to
achieve their desired outcomes. This
speaks volumes about an individual’s motivation and has nothing to do with the
question of fairness.
So what is the common characteristic
shared by the most successful commercial real estate agents? They execute the fundamentals of the business
very well by getting the maximum results out of the time and effort spent at a
task. They prospect, control inventory
and leverage their time--- and so
must you!
Use the Pareto Principle (80/20
Rule) for Maximum Results
The Pareto Principal (which is also
known as The 80/20 Rule or the Law of the Vital Few) was named after the Italian
economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed at the turn of the 19th
century that 80% of
The Pareto Principle states that 20%
of actions accounts for 80% of the outcomes in any phenomena. The value of this principle to you and your
commercial real estate business is this- your focus should be on the 20% of the
actions that really matter. This does
not mean that the other 80% can be ignored entirely. It simply means that you must choose to put
most of your attention on the top 20% of all activities that will yield you the
most results in your business.
Most commercial sales agents
misallocate their time to the 80% lowest yielding activities in their business,
instead of focusing more closely on the productive 20%. Conversely, the most successful commercial
sales agents, The Vital Few, focus on
the top 20% and delegate the other 80% of lower yielding activities to others
on their team.
Some argue that the 80/20 rule should
really be the 90/10 rule (10% of causes result in 90% of outcomes) or the
80/10/10 rule, in which case, 10% of causes yield 80% of outcomes and the
remaining 10% of causes yield no measureable outcomes whatsoever. The percentages are purely conceptual and may
be different as long as the total equals 100%.
Think about the validity of the 80/20
rule to the following applications:
- 20% of the commercial sales
people in your office generate 80% of the company’s revenues-- which means that 80% of sales people
generate just 20% of the company’s revenues,
- 20% of workers do 80% of the
work-- which means that 80% of your workforce does just 20% of the work,
- 20% of all Brokerage companies
control 80% of the market-- which means that 80% of all Brokerage
companies control just 20% of the market.
- 20% of Buyers & Tenants
you talk to will do a deal and 80% will not-- which means that 80% of
all potential buyers and Tenants will be a waste of your time.
- 80% of a goal is achieved in
the last 20% of the remaining time before the goal deadline.
This concept also applies to negative
results:
- 20% of your clients will
create 80% of your problems,
- 20% of inaction can ruin 80%
of what has been accomplished,
- 20% of your workforce take 80%
of the cumulative sick days at your office,
- 20% of your workers account
for 80% of the tardiness in your office.
Try to avoid the misallocation of your
resources to the unproductive 80% in your business. Some examples of this type of resource
misallocation are:
- 80% of a company’s sales
revenues are produced by just 20% of a company’s sales force, but 80%
of a company’s resources go into making just 20% of its revenue or
supporting the other 80% of the sales force.
- 80% of your marketing
resources are spent creating just 20% of your sales leads.
Warning:
Do not assume that you can rid
yourself of the unproductive 80%. The
80% gets redistributed as the size of the population changes. Instead, use this information as a tool to
spot inefficiency and to better manage resources within your business.
The Pareto Principal teaches us to
allocate scarce resources (capital, labor and time) in the pursuit of the most
effective use of those resources.
Streamline your actions to obtain the maximum results for the amount of
resources invested into your endeavors and watch your business grow!
The True Value
of Your Time
Have you ever stopped to consider the
value of your time in a scenario where you accomplish everything by yourself
with no outside assistance? This would
mean that closing a real estate deal would have the same time value as buying a
roll of stamps. In other words, the
highest and most productive use of your time has the exact same value as the
least productive use of your time.
Using the Pareto Principal where 20%
of your efforts create 80% of your income, the True Value of your time is the value of your time when you are at
your most productive. You must increase
the TOTAL value of your time by using leverage and delegating certain
activities to hired staff that do not require your special talents so that you
can focus on the top 20% of the money making activities in your business.
Example:
Let’s suppose that you make $350,000 per year, work 50 weeks per year
and 40 hours each week adding up to a total of 2,000 hours worked per
year. Your unleveraged time is worth
$175/hour ($350,000 income/2,000 work hours).
However, just 20% of your time was spent on activities that generated
80% of your income. Using the 80/20
rule, you are only at your peak productivity for 400 hours/year and have
misallocated 1,600 hour to activities that only produced 20% of your
income. Therefore, the true value of your
time is when you are at your peak productivity or in this example $700/hour
($350,000 x 80% of your income= $280,000/400 hours=$700/hour). Your
non-productive time is worth only $44/hour ($350,000 x 20% of your
income=$70,000/1,600=$44/hour).
What this means is that you should
hire someone to manage and complete the tasks that are a misallocation of your
talents (the least productive of use of your time). You can hire them in a fulltime position, pay
them up to $44/hour and still expect to come out ahead on the arrangement as
long as you discipline yourself to focus on your top 20% and let your employee
complete those tasks that are a misallocation of your time.
Reminder:
There are many different people in
this world that you can hire at many different pay rates. Make sure that your new hire(s) is fairly
compensated so you can minimize employee turnover. You goal is to hire competent people and keep
them for many years. Don’t just hire
people to fill an immediate need without thought to the future. Carefully screen your prospective employees
for the skill sets necessary and willingness to perform the job.
Caution:
The cost of a bad hire could set
you back months in achieving your financial goals. Do not take the hiring process lightly. Do not hire people just because they need a
job. If you decide to hire family
members or friends, think about the consequences on your relationship if things
to go badly. Take it from the
Author—hamburgers and hotdogs might not be the only thing getting roasted at
the family BBQ after you fire a family member who was not pulling their weight
in the business.
Your goal after delegating your low
yielding tasks to your staff is to focus exclusively on the highest yielding
activities in your business (prospecting, deal making, etc). Imagine what your income would be if instead
of spending 400 hours a year on your most productive tasks, you spent 1,000
hours a year maximizing those opportunities.
To use the numbers from our previous example, your income would increase
from $350,000 to $656,250 per year after paying out $87,500 in
salaries. Yes, you are going to make a
lot more money.
It is only fair to mention that you
will never completely achieve your goal of exclusively focusing on the top 20%
of productive tasks. As your business
grows, so will the demands on your time.
You will always be evaluating what the most productive activities are
and delegating the rest to hired staff.
Some agents have hired professional drivers to chauffeur them to and
from the office so they can maximize their productive time. Others have hired off-shore virtual
assistants to do database entry and upkeep.
What tasks could you delegate right now to become more productive in
your own business?
Your time is very valuable. Do not squander it on unproductive meetings,
unqualified buyers & Tenants, web browsing, unmotivated sellers,
substandard software or just hanging around the water cooler.
Four Fundamentals to a Successful Commercial Real Estate Business
In order to
master the three fundamentals of a successful commercial real estate business,
you must understand these concepts and make them part of your core business
focus.
1) Prospecting: Prospecting is the life blood of a successful
commercial real estate career. You MUST prospect on a daily basis by
telephone and send direct mail to your farm weekly. It doesn’t matter what else is happening in
your business—prospect first and handle problems later.
Your
prospecting goal is to
getting a face-to-face meeting with every qualified person that to speak to on
the telephone. Build and foster long
term personal (but within the bounds
of professional) relationships with your clients because people like doing
business with people that they know.
2) Controlling Inventory: Commercial real estate is a business of
control. You either have control or you have nothing. Your goal is to be your clients’ exclusive representation
as a listing agent, buyer’s representative or tenant representative. This
is called controlling the inventory and the concept extends beyond properties
to include people that you represent (both buyers and tenants).
The purpose of getting control is not
to generate offers on listings or drive all over town with your clients but to
close transactions—always work toward this end goal. Make sure that your clients’ are motivated,
qualified and their expectations are properly managed. Agents that Control the Inventory get paid
when their exclusively represented clients (sellers, buyers & Tenants)
close deals.
3)
Leverage: Hire employees to help leverage your time and
increase productivity (don’t be afraid to explore the possibility of hiring off-shore
labor to maintain your database if you are on a budget). The
Pareto Principle states that 20% of actions account for 80% of the outcomes in
any phenomena. This does not mean that
the other 80% can be ignored entirely.
Successful agents focus primarily on the 20% of actions that maximize
results, such as prospecting and deal making.
Assign hired staff deal with the other 80% of actions that yield minimal
results. Using leverage effectively
allows you to grow your business. As an
agent’s business grows so should their level of staffing. Remember, each hire should be based on true need and not ego.
4)
Control
Your Focus: What you focus on you get. Ask yourself this question at least 3 times a
day: I am working on my top 20% or have
I gotten myself sidetracked? If you are
caught up in a diversion, shift your focus back to your top 20%. If you are like most people, you will catch
yourself drifting a few times a day.
Leverage a workforce to maximize your productivity and income
How did the Pharaohs build their
pyramids? Nobody is sure how it was done
exactly, but we can safely assume that the Pharaohs who ruled Egypt did not
carve or carry any of the stone blocks used in the construction of the pyramids
up the ramps! This is a fantastic metaphor
for the use of a workforce to achieve leverage in your real estate business.
You can accomplish much more by instructing and directing a workforce of others
than you can do on your own.
There are typically five stages of
leveraged growth in commercial real estate.
While it is not necessary for every agent to grow their business to
stage five (or beyond), most commercial agents are comfortable at stage two or
three. However, without the proper amount of leverage in your business it is
practically impossible to maintain a high income and balance in your personal
life.
When you add staff their job
responsibilities should include everything that can be delegated that is not
part of your top 20% of productive activities (remember that your key
activities are prospecting and deal making). This allows you to leverage your
time. Pay everyone on your staff a competitive salary with bonuses to keep them
motivated to help you achieve your goals.
Your first hire should always be an assistant and do remember that you
get what you pay for. Junior agents
should be paid a small salary and be commissioned to start. As their skill set develops their position
should evolve to be 100% commissioned.
You will have to make a commitment to
train your workforce. Train and retain
the first two members of your team and then they will train all future new
hires. Have your staff document their
job duties and the steps to accomplish those tasks so those skills can be
passed to the next generation.
The key concept behind leverage is not
to work harder or work less, but to work smarter and focus on your top 20% (but
working less is always a nice perk too!)
Stage One: Sole Practitioner with No Leverage
Gross Fees: $50,000 - $300,000
Prospecting comes before anything
else. Database maintenance should always
be done after you have prospected for the day.
Stage Two: One Staff Member
Gross Fees: $300,000-$700,000
Database:
Assistant maintains and checks new availabilities against the Buyer and Tenant
Needs
Stage Three: Two Staff Members
Gross Fees: $700,000-$1,700,000
Database: Team maintains
Note: One variation of this model
would to have a junior agent handling Buyer & Tenant Representation.
Stage Four: Three Staff Members
Gross Fees: $1,700,000-$3,000,000
Database: Team maintains
Stage Five: Five Staff Members
Gross Fees: $3,000,000-PLUS
Database: Team maintains
Technology Is the Foundation of
Your Success
The foundation of all the business
models illustrated above is the agent’s database. Consider your database to be
your very own gold mine that, if maintained properly, will yield you a
tremendous personal fortune. Successful
agents all have databases that contain property data, corresponding ownership,
tenant data, available space, For Sale and lease information. Their data is
unique and not solely dependent on third party data providers. Every change of
ownership is verified against multiple sources including the Buyer, Seller and
brokers. Newly lease space is verified
with the tenant, landlord (what a great way to pickup new business) and
brokers. Depending on their target market, they track ownership, properties for
sale, Buyers, transfers of ownership (Sales), rents, tenants, leases, new
construction and properties taken out-of-service. They know who they have talked
to, met with and who is receiving marketing materials. Without this
critical information, effective prospecting is not possible. If you cannot
effectively prospect, you cannot maximize new business opportunities. If you are not maximizing new business
opportunities your income will decrease.
A successful database is scalable to
an agent’s business, meaning that as the agent’s business grows, so their
technology must grow with them. Networking capabilities, ease of use and
functionality are extremely important functions of an agent’s database. The top
performers in commercial real estate invest in technology that works for them
and not against them.
RealHound® is the ONLY Commercial Real
Estate software that is specifically designed for commercial real estate. RealHound® greatly enhances your ability to Prospect, which in turn leads to new
business opportunities (listings, buyer & tenant rep). It is also the only software that gives you
the advantage of leverage by making the daily processes in
commercial real estate simpler which saves you time and makes your team more
productive. It automatically matches
buyers with sellers and tenants with available space. You can search the Internet for listings and
import newly discovered property data into your database with a click of a
button! It manages your contacts, properties,
listings, escrows timelines, property photos, documents, projects, buyers and
tenants. It can be scaled in order to
meet the needs of a growing business, keeps you organized, can communicate data
over the Internet and it is extremely EASY to use.
Agent Business
Plan
The agent business plan is a critical
component to maximizing your revenues for the year. It is nothing more than a
document containing goals and milestones for your personal real estate
business. Without clearly defining your business goals you run the risk of
getting distracted and falling short of your desired outcomes.
The key elements of a successful agent
business plan are:
Simplicity:
One or two pages max
Revenue
Goals: How much do you want to make and how many
deals do you need to do it?
Why
Statement: Why MUST
you accomplish this plan?
Target
Market/focus: Define
your target market and personal focus (top 20%)
Transaction
Velocity: Does the deal velocity in your market support
your revenue goals? Judging from prior
years, is it possible to make your revenue goal?
Staff,
Equipment & technology: Do you have the proper resources to pull it
off?
Prospecting:
How much daily telephone time will you commit to reach your revenue
goal? How many new prospects will you
meet with per week? How many and how
often will you send out mailers?
Budget:
What is your budget?
Review
the top goals in your business plan daily and your entire business plan
monthly. Make adjustments to your
approach until you achieve your desired results.
Use Ants to
beat your Competition
It seems that I am always asked how
RealHound® can best be used to really beat the competition and gain market
share. My reply is always the same—use Ants. Now you’re probably thinking that
I couldn’t possibly be referring to the little insect, but I am. You will not
literally dump a box of ants on to your competition’s doorstep to drive them
out, but you will use your study of the insect to accomplish the same thing.
Ants are amazing creatures. There are
species of ants in South America that can clear an entire forest when they are
hunting. By sheer numbers they can take down larger more powerful prey. When
they have a collective goal, they are fearless. All creatures big and small
flee from them.
So too will your competition flee from
you. Your market is your forest and your potential clients are your prey. Cover
your market exactly as described in this book and you will drive your
competitors from your business forest.
Will you be the Market Cycle’s
next victim?
A couple of years ago when the real estate market was edging its peak, my
local newspaper ran an article predicting the market would continue to
climb. I remember the article quoting a
major commercial brokerage firm proclaiming that the traditional real estate
market cycle was dead and that there was not going to be a “bust“ to this
market’s “boom”. Time has obviously
proven that statement wrong. The real
estate market cycle is here to stay; it is as unavoidable as the law of
gravity. If what goes up must come down,
the question is how can you avoid becoming the next victim of a market
downturn?
Even during a market downturn, the fundamental truth about commercial
real estate is that the demand will never completely dissipate. Sure, the players and economics may change,
but the real estate itself must always be owned, managed and leased by someone
– which in turn creates demand for your expert services. In a downturn, your client could be a doctor
one day or a bank that foreclosed on a property the next. Always market your services to the people who
can say “yes” to your fee.
All market cycles have identifiable characteristics that are easy to spot
if you know what to look for. For
example, in an up market excess demand for commercial real estate services can
be satisfied by amateurs but in a market downturn that demand shifts quickly to
a dependence on the expert real estate advisor.
The expert always gets busier and makes the most money in a down
market. And the amateurs… well, let’s
just say that they get an education paid for by the market cycle scholarship
fund!
We are now on the verge of the largest transfer of wealth in modern
history where the prepared commercial real estate practitioner stands to
directly benefit. Let me emphasize that
preparedness is the key. Do you have the
skill sets needed to be an expert advisor to your clients in their time of
need? Have you incorporated the latest
real estate technologies into your business?
If not, you must make an immediate change to your business plan while
you still have time.
An expert advisor understands the mechanics behind commercial real estate
and the forces at work in the marketplace.
If you do not know the difference between a CAP rate and an interest
rate (yes, it is a trick question), I recommend that you attend several classes
offered by:
|
CCIM
Institute Toll Free: 800-621-7027 |
|
Society
of Industrial and Office REALTORS ® |
|
|
Phone: 202.449.8200 |
|
|
|
|
Both organizations have a spectacular reputation in the industry and offer
professional designations that will distinguish you from your competition. When it comes to technology, you must use an
integrated CRM (Contact Relationship Management) and property database software
system in your daily business. I am sure
you know the one that I would recommend!
Power Moves
1)
The
most successful commercial real estate agents all execute the fundamentals of
the business very well by getting the maximum results out of the efforts spent
on a task. They prospect, control
inventory, leverage their time and focus to achieve peak productivity.
2)
The
foundation of your business is your database.
Consider your database to be your very own gold mine that, if maintained
properly, will yield you a tremendous personal fortune.
3)
Leverage
is the key to growing your business each and every year. You are now familiar with the Pareto Principal, the principle that
states that a mere 20% of your actions accounts for 80% of your results. Commercial sales people consistently
misallocate their time to the 80% lowest yielding activities in their
business. The most successful sales
people focus on just their top 20% and delegate the other 80% of their low
yielding activities to hired staff.
4)
Using
the Pareto Principal, 20% of your efforts create 80% of your income; you can
estimate the True Value of your time
as the value of your time when you are at your most productive. You must increase the TOTAL value of your
time by using leverage and delegating those activities that do not require your
special talents to hired staff so you can focus on the top 20% of money making
activities.
5)
Without
the proper amount of leverage in your business it is practically impossible to
maintain a high income and still achieve balance in your personal life. The key concept behind leverage is not to
work harder, but to work smarter and focus on your top 20% high yield activities.
6)
Always
prepare an annual business plan to keep you focus on your business outcomes for
the year and review it regularly.
7)
Use
Ants to beat your competition!
8) Don’t be a
victim of a down market cycle! Be
Prepared.
As a real estate
professional, the data that you have accumulated about the real estate market
is your stock and trade. If you do not
track information about the marketplace, your value proposition to your clients
is greatly diminished. A key component
to accomplishing this ginvolves collecting, verifying and warehousing all
property related market data that impacts your business and having it at your
fingertips when you need it. If you sell
apartments and industrial buildings then collect data about those property
types in your trade area. If you lease
retail space, collect information on retail properties, owners, leases and
tenants. Tenant reps will focus on
companies and their lease data. Property
information is a commodity these days.
Most of the information you need to build your database can be found
using online public databases, purchased from a third party, uncoverd with a
quick property visit or a phone call.
There are only two
ways to warehouse all of your data- the easy way and the hard way. The easy way is to use the companion
software, RealHound®. The hard way is to
use anything else. When you choose to
use RealHound® your data is stored in the most advanced database that you can
buy for commercial real estate. It
organizes your market data so you can retrieve it quickly and logically. It has a powerful customer relationship
management (CRM) component that helps you develop and maintain client
relationships by tying their contact records directly to the real estate that
they are related to. It will also match
buyer & tenant needs to available properties/space in your database or on
the Internet. This powerful tool will
save you a tremendous amount of time and can make you a ton of money.
The key to any
database is to keep the information current.
Even if you have already created a database that has information that is
relevant to your specialty in commercial real estate (such as ownership,
tenants, phone numbers, property data, property photos, sales comparables,
properties “For Sale”, rental data, and lease data) and have also created a
farm area/target market, you should still review this chapter to learn new
ideas that will increase the effectiveness of your database upkeep.
As a successful real
estate practitioner, you will need to track information related to your
specialty which could include: owners, tenants, leases, properties for sale,
buyers, transfers of ownership (sales), rents, new construction and properties
taken out-of-service. Most of your (or
your team’s) database efforts will be spent keeping this information current
and recording the conversations that you have with your prospects in their
respective contact records. Consider
your database to be your very own goldmine that, if maintained properly, will
yield you a tremendous personal fortune.
Your goal for creating
a database is to have at least 700 properties with corresponding ownership,
owner phone numbers, owner addresses and property photographs. Leasing specialists and tenant
representatives will add lease and tenant contacts to their database. In addition to the 700 properties mentioned
above tenant representatives should have at least 500 tenants with phone
numbers and addresses in their database.
You will use 3rd party data services, public records, interviews with
other brokers and your own personal research to complete and maintain your
database.
Sources
of Property Data
Title companies are a good source of
basic property and ownership data.
Contact your local title representative for more details. Public records are another excellent source of
free data. (RealHound.com ®
is currently exploring the possibility of having this sort of data mining
ability automatically integrated into the program, so stay tuned for further
details!)
There are a number of subscription
services in every metropolitan area that will sell you property data. Use your favorite internet search engine to
locate relevant data providers in your area.
Caution: It is occupational
suicide to exclusively use a single
third party data source as your database because that makes you no better than
the guy down the street who is doing the exact same thing. There are a few agents in every market that
try to prospect from a single third party database without having built their own
personal database. Traditionally, these agents do poorly in the business and don’t last
through a full market cycle.
RealHound® has a very powerful import
mechanism, but most subscription data contains errors and/or have license
restrictions that limit your ability to use their data. Therefore, we do not recommend that you
import data directly into RealHound® from those sources but rather manually
enter and maintain your own data.
Rental data can be obtained from
vendors such as Realfacts® in select markets, but you should augmented the
information obtained from them with a personal phone call to their respective
property owners and/or their property managers because an owner rental survey
is a great reason to call prospects in your market.
Create
Your Database
Input your information into a new
database. Data can be imported or input manually into RealHound. Anything that can put into an Excel
spreadsheet can be imported into the program by mapping the data fields or by
using the Easy Import Wizard. If you
choose to key in your data by hand, we recommend that you start inputting your
data on the Property Overview screen.
Create your Farm
With RealHound® you have the
possibility of storing an unlimited number of properties and contacts in your database. A farm
is a subset of properties or contacts in your database that you are continually
prospecting for business. Your farm
could be determined by such factors as geographic area, property size, tenant
type or property type.
If you are operating as an individual
agent with over 1,200 properties or contacts in your farm, you will not be as
effective in personally contacting all of the prospects in your target market
and you will have to slim down the size of your targeted group.
Conversely if you have a large
multi-agent team, your team will be able to effectively handle a larger volume
of prospects based upon the number of members on the team. As a general rule you should have at least
700 properties in your farm with a minimum of 500 individual owners or tenants
per agent on your team. Your goal is to
contact every prospect in your farm area at least once a quarter to secure a
face-to-face meeting. Owners with properties
(or Tenants) that are outside of your farm but are in your property database
can be targeted with direct mail.
Identify a target market to become
your farm. Your
target market, your farm, will become a group of properties or tenants that you
will continuously prospect for business and become an expert on. Some criteria that you can use to select
your target market are: property size, geographic location, property type,
tenant type, city or county. When you
have selected your farm save it as a Property
Group and give it a name that is easily recognizable to you, or simply call
it “my farm”. If you are working as a
tenant rep you will also need to save your tenant contacts as a Contact Group.
Easily Find Phone Numbers Using Realhound.com’s® BullsEye and Smart-Links
In the past researching owner and
tenant contact data was laborious, time consuming work. In many cases the information that you were
able to glean about a property owner was only partially complete or no longer
current. Finding accurate contact
information for each prospect in your database is critical to your success, but
that doesn’t mean that it should take you all day to find. That’s why we created BullsEye and
Smart-Links and integrated them into the program.
BullsEye searches ten different
pay-per-use databases across the Internet to find information missing from your
contacts, and it is fast! It is an
affordable pay-per-use service that is available to all of our users. We have secured prepaid bulk pricing with the
largest information providers in the country and pass their services along to
you at a nominal cost. The benefit to
you is that you can now find a prospect’s published and, in many cases,
unpublished telephone number for as low as 75 cents right from a contact’s
record. That’s less than a call to
directory assistance!
To use BullsEye, go to a contact
record that needs to be researched.
Simply select the BullsEye icon on the menu bar for the missing
data. Click the accept data button to
save the information in your contact’s record (if the search results are blank,
there is no charge). It’s that simple.
Reminder: Some people do not want to be
contacted by phone, fax or email and it may be unlawful for you to do so. It is your responsibility to determine the
legality of your actions, so please use RealHound® in accordance with all
Federal, State and local laws.
Smart-Links are preset connections
from your RealHound® database to some of the more useful websites on the
Internet. When you use a Smart-link,
information about a contact or property is automatically sent to the
corresponding website and information is retrieved without manually entering
data on the website.
RealHound®’s most popular Smart-Links
are to ZoomInfo® and 411.com. The
411.com Smart-Link is represented by a red “4” icon next to the contact name on
the Companies & Contacts tab. To use
this Smart-Link, select a contact record and press the red “4” icon. 411.com will automatically lookup a contact’s
phone number from the internet free of charge.
ZoomInfo® can be found under the Smart-link menu. A ZoomInfo® Internet report pulls available
information on the selected contact that includes company information, related
articles that the contact is quoted in, address, education and phone numbers. Narrow down your results by selecting a state
or other qualifier on the ZoomInfo® webpage.
Smart-Links can also be completely
customized to send information from your RealHound® database to your favorite
websites with a click of a button. One
use for a customized Smart-Link would be to send property information from your
database to your county assessor’s website.
You can create your own Smart-Links under the File Menu>
Administration> Settings…> Custom Add-Ins tab.
Property Photographs
Once you have input your property data
into RealHound® you will need to photograph each property in your farm. Not only does having property photos in your
database give you a tremendous advantage when you are on the telephone with
property owners or tenant, it also gives you the ability to quickly generate
reports with photographs and distribute those reports on a moment’s notice
instead of driving all over town to take pictures.
TIP:
Even
if you are a seasoned pro in commercial real estate there is still tremendous
value in “driving the real estate” in your farm area. Buildings and neighborhoods change over
time. If a building has fallen into
disrepair the owner might be in trouble and may need to sell. Tenants might want to relocate from a tired
shopping center. You should be on top of
the situation to seize such an opportunity.
Try to drive to each building in your farm at least once every three
years.
The best way to accomplish
photographing your entire property database is with a digital camera, laptop computer,
Microsoft Streets and Trips (the newest version sold with a GPS receiver) and a
driving buddy. Start by exporting your
property addresses from RealHound® into an Excel spreadsheet and import that
spreadsheet into Microsoft Streets and Trips on your laptop. Map the properties and select optimized
route. Plug in the GPS and drive to each
property. The passenger navigates and
the driver safely keeps their eyes on the road.
Reminder: Using
your car’s navigational system to guide you to a large number of properties is
probably not the best use of your time (Yes, someone did ask the
question). It takes a considerably
longer amount of time to key each property into your car’s navigational system
than it does to use your laptop to map out all the properties at once.
Take at least four digital photos of
each property using the medium quality setting on your camera. This should give
sufficient resolution and detail without maxing out your camera’s memory media.
The first shot of every building should be of the property address or monument
sign. This will give you a reference point to discern one property from another
when you download your photos to your computer. Other things that you should consider
photographing include: the view from the front sidewalk, HVAC system, parking
lot, amenities, property directory, tenant signage, and different building
angles.
Make sure that at least one photo is
good enough to be used on a marketing brochure or on a postcard. This will save
you time in the future when you are trying to complete a report; you will not
need to run across town to take a picture. Don’t forget to take notes about
each property that you photograph. When you get back to the office, download
your photos to your computer. Next, locate your photos on your computer and put
each property’s 
photos into individual folders. Name
each folder with the corresponding property’s street address (EXAMPLE: 123 N
Camelback Rd). Import your pictures and
record your notes into RealHound®. The Photo import button is located under the
picture frame on the Property Overview tab on the Property section. The program
will automatically organize and optimize your photos.
Properties “For Sale”
The two main classifications of properties that are “For Sale” are FSBO (for sale by owner) and Exclusively listed. Internet listing services, your competitors’ websites and your local newspaper are great sources for finding properties that are “For Sale”. Check these resources often for changes that affect your market. Input the offering data on the Property Overview screen in the offering section and change the “For Sale:” dropdown box to Yes. Type “FSBO” in the status field if the property is For Sale by Owner or type “Listed”, if the property is Listed (this field is customizable to fit the way you work). Double click or go to the “Offering” tab if you need to enter more information about the offering. Do this for every property that is For Sale in your farm. Update this information on a weekly basis.
Reminder:
You
may also import newly listed properties from the Internet from within the
program.
As you talk to property owners in your
target market, it will not be uncommon for you to run across owners who tell
you that they will sell only if the price is right. These owners are price
motivated and are difficult to convert to listings. If they will not list their
property with you, you should still consider their property for sale. Change the “For Sale” dropdown box to Yes and type “FSBO” into the status
field. Enter in the Listing Price, CAP and as much relevant data as you can in
the offering section on the property overview screen as you can. FSBO’s are
notorious for selling their properties at below market prices. Tracking this type of data will let you
quickly find owners who will consider an offer if you are working as a Buyer’s
Representative or when using the
Buyer needs portion of RealHound®.
Warning: Working with property owners that are price
motivated and refuse to exclusively list their properties can be hazardous to
your wallet! If you bring a property
owner a offer, make sure that you have a signed commission agreement from your
both your buyer and the property owner. Many times the buyer will make sure that
the seller pays the commission for fear of being left on the hook for your fee.
Even with a commission agreement you still might have to fight for your fee.
Track
down tenants & valuable lease data
If leasing or tenant representation are part of your business plan, you
must collect and store tenant information and lease data in your database. Some people will take a shortcut and
exclusively rely on third party data providers for this valuable information. (If you are one of these people, please step
into my common sense corner for a moment.
If you were the leasing broker
in a transaction and you were asked
to provide the lease details to a company that was going to make the
information available to everybody on the planet, how accurate would your reporting
be? The same holds true for the
landlords. Do you think they want every
broker in town chasing their tenants at renewal time?)
Tenants can be easily located at any building
address through the internet. Google
Maps™ will list the majority of the tenants at a given location by property
address. 
To lookup
tenants automatically within RealHound®, select your property and from the
Smart-Links menu select Tenants from Google Maps.
One of the best ways to drum up tenant representation opportunities and
get valuable lease data is to go and physically “knock on doors”. Pick an office building or a shopping center
and go to each suite. Ask to talk with
the business owner and always have something to offer such as a competitive
lease analysis, lease audit or market survey.
Make sure that you talk to them about their business goals and expansion
plans.
Reviewing a tenant’s lease can help both you and the tenant. Is the tenant being charged correctly for
common area maintenance (
Reminder: Do not
plan on meeting and greeting tenants while you are photographing your
properties for your database. If you did
this, you would never finish this essential activity of getting your database
photos!
Data Imports
You can import REA 8, 9.x, Act 6, Act 2005-2007 and
any type of data that you can view using Excel.
From the File menu, select the Import/Export… option and Import…. Select the import option that best
accomplishes your goal.
The Easy Import Wizard
Data
can be easily imported into the program without complicated field mapping using
the Easy Import Wizard. The Easy Import
Wizard works by copying data from one Excel spreadsheet and pasting that data
into the correct columns in another Excel spreadsheet that is created by the
Easy Import Wizard. After all of the
data has been pasted into the newly created spreadsheet, the Easy Import Wizard
will automatically bring the data into the program.
Warning: Always
backup your original database before you attempt to import any new data into
it. There is always a chance that you
will corrupt your original database with any new data import, in which case,
you will be thankful that you took the time to backup. From the File
menu, select Backup Agent…
Using the Import Wizard
1)
From
the File menu, select the Import/Export… option and Import… option.
2)
From
the Import Agreement window.
a)
Click
the Backup Now button to make a
backup of your current database. If you
happen to adulterate your current database with your newly imported data, you
will be very thankful that you took the time to backup.
b)
Read
the Notice and, if you agree to the terms contained therein, select the “Agree to only import data that I am
properly licensed to import or that I own” radio button.
c)
Confirm
your agreement to the terms in the Notice
by typing Yes in the box provided.
d)
Click
on the Next button to continue.
3)
Click
the Easy Import Wizard button to
start the Import Wizard.
4)
From
the Import Wizard Screen select the type of data that you wish to import. If you want to import property data, select
the Properties and Contacts radio
button. If your spreadsheet contains
strictly contact data, select the Contacts
Only radio button.
5)
Enter
a name for the spreadsheet that you will paste your data into.
6)
Click
the Create Excel File button to
create the new spreadsheet.
If
you selected a file name that already exists you will get a message similar to this
screenshot. Select Yes ONLY if you are sure
you want to ERASE the original file and replace it with a new file with the
same name.
7)
Open
the spreadsheet that contains the data you wish to import into the
program. The new Excel file you just
created in Step 6 and the data file you wish to pull data from will now both be
open.
If
you are importing Property data, start pasting your data in the cell marked
“Enter Data Here”. It is extremely important that you have the correct Property Type
listed for each property being imported.
Only those properties that have valid RealHound® Property Types will
import correctly. Use Excel’s Find and Replace functions to change invalid types. Valid types include: Apartment, Office,
Industrial, Retail, Land, Storage, Hotel, Casino, Condo, Mobile Home and
Single-Family.
If
you are only importing Contact data, don’t forget to clear the contents from
Cell A2 and start pasting your data in the columns for contact data.
In the
following example we will import Property and Owner Contact information. Select the first column of data (be mindful
not to copy the field header), hold down the Ctrl key and press the C
key. This will copy the selected data to your clipboard. In our example we will select the Company field.
In
the spreadsheet created by the Easy Import Wizard, find the equivalent field
name (in this case, it is Owner Company) and select the cell immediately below
the name. With the receiving cell
selected, press and hold the Ctrl
key while pressing the V key. This will paste the contents of the clipboard
in that column starting at the selected cell.
Alternatively,
you could right click on the receiving cell then select Paste.
8)
Continue
to copy the data from the original data file and pasting it into the
appropriate columns in the new data file created by the Easy Import
Wizard. If your data source has
"123 N Anywhere St", you would simply paste it into the Property Address Full field. If
your data source has two "123" and "N Anywhere St" address
fields, you would paste the data into the Property
Address Street Number and Property
Address Street fields.
9)
After
all of the property and contact data has been pasted into the new spreadsheet, Save the changes and Close Excel completely.
10) Return to the open Import Wizard window. Click the Import Excel File button to start the import process.
11) From the Import Status window, select the
options that best meet your import goals.
Once you have selected your import options click the Start button.
From
this point forward don’t touch your
computer, allow it to finish and it will automatically return to the
RealHound® database screen. A data
import is one of the most computer resource intensive processes that you can
ever do and it can take a long time depending on the number of records. If Windows Task Manager states that the
program is “Not Responding” this is perfectly normal. Just let it run.
12) After the import completes, click the Tune-Up Database button from the main
login screen or your newly imported data will not show correctly in your
database.
Data Doctor fixes and cleans
your data
A
truly unique feature of the program is the data management suite called Data
Doctor. Data Doctor allows you to
globally change the data in your database and perform duplicate checking on
your data. There are over 75 data
management and cleansing features in this section of the program.
Warning: Always,
Always, ALWAYS backup your original database before you attempt to use any
feature in Data Doctor. There is
significant chance that you will corrupt your entire database using Data
Doctor, in which case, you will be thankful that you took the time to backup.
Data
Doctor is not for everyone and was specifically designed for your database
administrator and IT professionals.
Using Data Doctor
1) From the File menu, select Administration
and then Data Doctor…
2) Find and run the data management
feature that you wish to use.
Partial Data Doctor feature list
|
Transfer
and update field values |
Phone description update |
Set default records |
|
Duplicate checking with merge and delete functions |
Setup users |
Data Clean up & optimization |
|
Switch data between fields |
Data Purging |
Execute SQL Statements |
|
Advance field splitting |
Direct edit of Contact table |
Global Replace |
|
Clean & Update Contact data |
Direct edit of Property table |
File Sucker (photos & File) |
|
Clean & Update property data |
Direct edit of unit mix table |
Reset GUIDs |
|
Standardize documents folders |
Direct edit of sales table |
Direct edit of activity table |
1)
As
a real estate practitioner, the data that you have on the real estate market is
your stock and trade. Without local
market knowledge, your value proposition to your clients is greatly diminished. You must distinguish yourself from your
competition. To accomplish this you must
collect and verify all property related market data that impacts your
business. You or your team should do
your own data input, research and data verification. Maintain professional relationships with your
peers so they are willing to share information about their transactions with
you. Prospecting from an accurate well
maintained property and contact database will make you a lot of money.
2)
It
is occupational suicide to exclusively use a third party data source as your
database because you have no control over the information. There are a few agents in every market that
try to prospect from these online databases without having built their own
personal database. Traditionally, these
agents do poorly in the business and don’t last through a full market
cycle.
3)
Identify
a target market to become your farm. You
should have at least 700 properties in your farm with a minimum of 500
corresponding owners per agent on your team.
Tenant representatives should have at least 500 tenants. Your goal is to contact every prospect in
your farm at least once per quarter.
Owners and tenants that are outside of your farm but are still in your
database can be targeted with direct mail.
4)
Save
your farm properties as a property Group and give it a name such as “my
farm”. Tenant representatives can save
their prospects as a contact Group.
Alternatively, if you have linked all of your tenants to the properties
that they have leased under the “Leases” tab, you should save the properties in
a property Group.
Saving your farm as a Group will save
you time when you are prospecting and need to query your prospects at a
moment’s notice.
RealHound® is divided into three main
sections: Property, Today and Contact sections.
The Contact section is where you will spend most of your time in the
program. Each of these main sections is
broken down further into other related components.
Reminder: First
time users of RealHound® may find the multiple Sections with numerous tabs and
a seeming sea of endless fields slightly intimidating. However, you have the ability to hide tabs
and fields so you can customize the look of the program. As your confidence grows, you can turn on or
off areas of the program that you may or may not want to use. To take advantage of this feature go to:
File>User Interface… to turn on or off program Tabs or File>Administration>Settings…>Field
Visibility to hide fields in the database.
The Contact Section
The first tab in the Contact section
is the Companies & Contacts tab. The
Contact Screen displays a contact’s primary information, history of property ownership,
related contacts, group membership, leases and history of activities relating
to the contact. Everything that is mission
critical to successful communication with your clients is displayed on this one
tab. You can also send emails,
generate letters and schedule activities with your contacts without leaving
this screen. The Companies &
Contacts tab’s screen is broken down into the following components:
Contact information: The top half of the screen contains
information about your Contact. Always
try to enter in as much relevant data as possible. You never know when you will need to reach
your client at some obscure location that they gave you the telephone number to
months ago.
TIP: If
you are just getting started with RealHound® and you think you might be missing
some of your contact records, click the ALL
button on top of the screen on the menu bar.
