RE/MAX Hallmark Blog

Karen Wins Silver Medal

Karen Cockburn wins a Silver Medal at the Beijing Olympics.

And just think, about a month ago Karen joined us on our company boat cruise through Toronto Harbour, taking time away from her busy schedule. This Olympic year was our first time RE/MAX Hallmark sponsored one of our Canadian Athlete's. Karen Cockburn was hooked up with us and we couldn't be happier or prouder.

Winning a Silver Medal a couple of days ago put Karen into rare company. I think only 5 Canadian Athletes have ever one medals at three consecutive Olympic events. Three Olympic Events equals 12 years of being on top of your game, in the world. Fantastic.

Well done Karen, and congratulations to all of our Canadian Athletes participating in Beijing.

Productive or Unproductive?

As always, like to spend my time on developing new projects or working through new ideas.  For me there is nothing better than taking hold of a new idea and working it through. Of course, the “new project” has to be productive.  In the past several weeks I have begun using a new trainer as my business coach. My coach reminds me to think of the things I do throughout the day as productive or unproductive, or proactive work or reactive work. Makes sense to me, since I really don’t like having to break off what I am doing to react to things outside of my daily plans. I am not talking about urgent matters, but issues that really are around and end up taking a big part of my day.

Let me share some examples.

As a Board of Director at the Toronto Real Estate Board, we are set up to deal with policy matters, to set the direction of the Board. My idea of bad unproductive work is sitting at one of our board meetings and spending countless hours discussing items which really should be dealt with a committee levels. What a waste of time for me. After kicking the issue around, we usually just send it back to committee to have them work on it.

A good productive day for me is spending time working on new things or ideas. In the last couple of weeks I have been putting together some ideas for a new website, one with a specific target market. It is always interesting for me to work on things from scratch, invent the idea, and then involve others to work with me on it. More recent productive work has included contacting other brokers and agents to discuss some new ideas I have for building team and individual agents businesses.

My business coach has made me more aware of how I am spending my time, how are you doing with the time you are spending, are you productive or unproductive?

It is always important to recognize daily issues that really need my attention and that absolutely need to be dealt with by myself. It took awhile, but it has made my work much more productive and enjoyable. Besides, I have amazing people in my life who are much more capable dealing with many of the things that cross my desk everyday.

Re-inventing one self is so important to growth.

This Thursday I am heading down to Colorado for 6 days with a group of 26 Hallmark agents to visit the most beautiful golf course in the world, Sanctuary, www.sanctuarygolfcourse.com The Sanctuary is a private club with only two members, Dave and Gail Linegar, co-owners of RE/MAX International. We are playing at a charity golf function, which will be a lot of fun for us. I should be able to figure out how to post some beautiful photos of our trip.

New Class of Just be Great Starts!

We started another Just Be Great series of 5 classes on Monday April 3^rd. Already this year we have completed two series of Just be Great and are on schedule to present 8 full series this year, that’s 40 weeks of Just be Great.

When we developed Just Be Great 3 years ago, our intention was to collect information on the fundamentals of real estate to present to new agents entering our industry and our company. Along the way, we were asked by “senior” agents to be included in Just Be Great and now our classes have a mix of 70% senior agents.

Presenting Just be Great requires a lot of preparation and always a lot of participation and work for the class members. But from all the feedback we receive, it is all worth it.

In this group we have one broker from RE/MAX in Vaughan. John was recommended to take our course from the folks at RE/MAX Ontario/Atlantic and hopes to be able to use the great material for his agents. We also have a co-op student in our class who hopes to learn more about our industry to help her with the career choice of her future. As always we have agents in the class that have taken Just be Great before. Class levels are kept at a maximum of 20 students.

The success of each series depends heavily on the participation of the members. This group looks good, lots of eager faces ready to get involved and contribute. In our first session we asked each agent to indicate to us what they expected to get from the class, how long they have been in the business and what they thought the role of a realtor was. Debra concluded the day by presenting her amazing Buyer Package. Debra presented the value a buyer would have in working with you under contract, along with all the material needed to create your very own buyer’s package. We had a special guest for Debra's buyer session, Brenda Gwilliams, a staff member from TREB observed in hopes of using some of our material in her work.

If Just be Great is of interest to you, check out www.justbegreat.com or email our assistant Teri-Lynn. Our next session begins in May and is already filling up. Teri-Lynn can be reached at [email protected].

Seminar from Just be Great

Can you describe or identify your client? Do you know who you are trying to attract to do business with you? If not - you need to take steps to identify that client. Only then will you have the means to attract that perfect client.

If you are an experienced agent, a simple exercise would be to go over your client list for the past several years. Identify the market price in housing that your clients are either buying or selling. What kind of profession are they in, what kind of work do they do? Are they typically young, nearing retirement, divorced, married with young kids or do your clients typically fill a specific client base. Know who has been using you as their realtor.

Perhaps you would like to develop a different type of client base, either moving up to a higher level of house price or concentrating on beginner homes. In either case, take some time to describe what you imagine that client to be. Where do they generally work, where do they spend their leisure time, what hobbies do they have. What are their social activities?

Only after this review will you be ready to formulate an action plan to attract your ideal client. If your ideal client has young kids, has a professional job and a stay at home partner, being involved in local community organizations, school and faith groups is a must. If your ideal client is older, well established and in a higher price range of housing you will need to get involved in charitable causes at the committee level. Take action at all times to make a difference, to get involved and to be places where your clients are. Not only will you meet some amazing people, develop a great client pool but you will make a difference to the organizations you are involved in as well.

Assess your actions, marketing and always review.

Continued success

Just Be Great

For the past several years we have been running for our agents a course called "Just Be Great" Initially this course was designed to appeal to agents that were recent to our industry. Topics centred around the fundamentals of the business, with seminars delivered on basically all aspects of our business - from a beginners viewpoint.

Over time, the course has evolved and now has appeal to agents at all levels and experience. We have had participants in our course from one day in the business to 30 years in the business.

Our next course, which always has a limit of 20 participants and runs every Monday afternoon for 5 weeks begins April 3. The course is open to all RE/MAX Hallmark Realtors and to a limit number of agents outside of the company. For more information please visit www.justbegreat.com or email [email protected]