How to Build Instant Rapport for Real Estate Success
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2162
- WEALTHY: 13 ways to get people to trust you (Bill Twyford)
- HEALTHY: The surprising benefits of a weekend walk (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: George Ross on business relationships
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Two years to becoming a commercially successful artist (Michael Masterson)
- 3 tips for powerful marketing copy (Heather Robson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about the perils of satellite navigation
- Add "parse" to your vocabulary
He’d Have Called Them Crazy – Or Worse!
With the Internet, it’s now possible to spend no more than a few dollars, write a couple of very basic ads, and have instant access to millions of potential customers all in a matter of minutes.
If anyone had told Jim Sheridan he could bank thousands in just 24 hours… without any product of his own… without spending a penny on getting it or promoting it, he’d have justifiably said they were nuts.
But Jim made a decision that he would overcome his skeptical nature and give it a go. Boy, is he glad he did! That one deal alone banked him $187,296 in one day.
Take a look at how Jim brought in over $187,000 in a single day!
- Patrick Coffey
"To be successful, you have to be able to relate to people; they have to be satisfied with your personality to be able to do business with you and to build a relationship with mutual trust."
George Ross
How to Build Instant Rapport for Real Estate Success
By Bill Twyford
Have you ever met someone you immediately didn’t like, even though you couldn’t say why? At the time, you may have thought he just "rubbed you the wrong way."
What you didn’t like probably wasn’t the person himself. After all, you didn’t know anything about him when you first met. It’s more likely that he had poor communication skills.
Whether you’re a doctor, a real estate investor, or work in a fast-food restaurant, the way you communicate has a strong influence on people’s first impressions – good or bad. People who know how to communicate in a way that cultivates rapport make others feel comfortable – and that’s an important skill to master in today’s real estate market, especially when it comes to foreclosures.
According to The Wall Street Journal, foreclosures in August were more than double the number of last year’s. So this is an area where you may find most of your investment opportunities. If you want to succeed in this emotionally charged market, you must know how to deal with people who are going through stress – whether it’s a banker or a property owner. And that means you have to know how to build rapport with a potential seller instantly.
Build Rapport From the First Knock on the Door
I like to knock on doors when I’m looking for motivated sellers, because I’ve found that it’s the fastest way to get deals. If I knock on 20 doors over a weekend, I’ll have several contracts by Sunday afternoon. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend a day or two getting multiple deals instead of waiting for my phone to ring hoping for just one.
Over the years, I’ve learned some dos and don’ts for meeting homeowners in person:
- Don’t wear sunglasses or a baseball cap. If homeowners can’t see your eyes, they subconsciously become suspicious.
- Carry a clipboard to make sure that both of your hands are visible. If you stand with your hands in your pocket or behind you, homeowners may think you pose a physical threat and won’t hear what you’re saying.
- Never wear cologne or perfume. I know this one seems strange, but fragrances can evoke negative memories and associations as well as positive ones. There’s no reason to take that chance.
- Be aware of the color of your clothing. Studies have shown that green, for example, promotes trust, while red suggests dominance. I recommend colors like green, blue, pink, or brown. Stay away from reds and blacks.
- Dress casually, but professionally – no suits. You should also lose the jewelry when you’re going door to door. Homeowners who need to sell a home in a hurry don’t want to see you wearing a Rolex.
- Watch what you’re driving. If you drive a BMW, consider getting a middle-of-the-road car for meeting homeowners. While it’s true that looking successful can build confidence, distressed homeowners shouldn’t feel that you have become a millionaire from buying properties like theirs. You don’t want them to wonder if the reason you have so much stuff is because you’ve taken advantage of others.
- Be certain you are speaking to the right person. Instead of blurting out why you are there, first ask if this is Mrs. or Mr. So-and-So. When you are sure, continue with your conversation.
- Never use the "f" word (foreclosure). Instead, mention that you’ve been doing some research and see that they have a "pending problem" with their property. This puts the blame on the property, not the homeowner, and leaves them more open to your offer to help.
Good Communication Skills Can Also Help You Build Rapport Over the Phone
Here are a few telephone techniques that have led me to many successful deals:
- Speak as slowly – or as quickly – as the homeowner. People who speak fast think that people who speak slowly are stupid. Likewise, people who speak slowly think that fast talkers are slick and untrustworthy. Even if it isn’t true, it’s a subconscious assumption most people make without being aware of it. Matching the homeowner’s rate of speech can make you seem familiar. It encourages him to like you, even though he may not know why.
- Ask the homeowner to tell you a little about his current situation. Listen with respect and empathy. Once you feel that they are done "venting," begin to ask for details. Homeowners want to tell you what happened, because they want to justify their situation. No one grows up with the goal of being in foreclosure. Something in their life changed… and they’ll want to be certain you know what it is.
- Make an appointment to view the property, then call back later to confirm. During the second phone call, ask more questions. Be sure that everyone on the deed is going to be home and willing to put a deal together.
- Listen for objections. When you’re on the phone with a homeowner, listen for the kind of objections you’re likely to get when you meet in person. For example, "We don’t have to sign a deed, do we?" If they ask such questions on the phone, be ready to handle them in person.
Establishing rapport is an easy skill to master. Take the time to be approachable, honest, and trustworthy, and business will follow. Better yet, just be that way naturally… and you’ll reap what you sow.
[Ed. Note: Bill Twyford is a former painting contractor who has gone on to do hundreds of pre-foreclosure real estate deals. He specializes in negotiating strategies and scripts that open the lines of communication and close deals. Bill will be sharing his money-making communication secrets in a teleconference call tomorrow, October 3. Spaces are limited. To register, click here.]
On October 9, the Most Powerful Force in the Market Begins Again
On October 9, you could be presented with a monumental money-making opportunity as public companies begin to release reams of previously undisclosed information.
The last time this came around, sharp investors had a chance to pocket gains of 149% on Marriott… 217% on Chaparral Steel… 160% on Qualcomm… and 136% in McDonald’s.
No other predictable event results in more price movement than what I have to share with you. Position yourself properly, before October 9, and you could make more money in the next six weeks than most investors make all year.
Dear Michael Masterson: "I went to art school to follow a lifelong dream."
"Your report on goal setting, ‘How to Create a Fool-Proof Master Plan in 5 Simple Steps,’ was very interesting. I do have some questions, however.
"You speak about breaking the day into tasks. You say: ‘As a general rule, it’s a good idea to structure all of your tasks so that none lasts more than an hour. 15-minute and 30-minute tasks are best. If you have something that takes several hours to do, break it up into pieces and do it over a few days. It will be better for the extra time you give it… and you won’t get crushed on any one day.’
"Because I am an artist, I have to paint all day and every day for a few months to create a body of work for an exhibition. I can’t take a year off to produce work and not be making any money, so I have to cram it into a few months. I then get exhausted and have no time for marketing. After the paintings are produced, I have to pick up a job to replenish my empty cash supply – and then, again, I have no time to do the marketing.
"I went to art school at the age of 32 to follow a lifelong dream. I am now 39, and really want to make a success of it. Any advice would be most appreciated."
Jane E Porter
Aberdeen, Scotland
Dear Jane,
Sadly, most artists live and die poor. The work schedule you describe is typical of what most of them do. So long as you are doing what you are doing, you should expect to stay poor. But being poor is not a bad thing – especially if you are happy with your work and creating art that other people enjoy.
Your question is about time management, but your problem is more fundamental. You are trying to do something – become a commercially successful fine artist – that is nearly impossible.
Don’t come to me for advice on how to follow your dream no matter what the odds are. That kind of thinking doesn’t make sense. Why spend your time trying to do something that has less than a one in a hundred chance of working out? Why not just spend your time painting and playing craps?
If you want to succeed, here’s what you must do:
- Modify your goal. You want to be a commercially successful fine artist. Okay. But you will have to define "commercially successful" as something like $25,000 to $50,000 a year.
- If you can live with that amount of money as your ultimate goal, then get serious about your schedule. Give up the romantic habit of painting till you exhaust yourself. Set up a daily schedule: four hours of painting every day and four hours of selling your paintings. Don’t tell me you can’t work that way. I do it. And so do plenty of other artists and writers I know.
- Start by selling your art to friends and relatives. Some of them will be buying from you just to help you. That’s fine. Thank them and take the money. Ask everyone who buys a painting from you (or turns you down) to recommend someone else who might be interested. Then contact that person.
- Keep in touch with your clients by e-mail. The moment you have a new painting done, let them all know about it – and then start a phone campaign, speaking to each one personally. Develop a thick skin for rejection. It’s not about how many people say "No thank you." It’s about how many say "Okay."
- Start walking your art into local galleries – particularly in touristy areas. And look into spending weekends as part of a traveling art show.
- Gradually develop your list of clients, and keep communicating with them. It should take between 1,000 and 2,000 hours of this kind of marketing to give you enough income to live on. But that’s all it will take. If you spend 20 hours a week marketing and 20 hours a week painting, you’ll have achieved your goal in two years or less.
- Michael Masterson
[Ed. Note: ETR's Total Success Achievement Program can help you accomplish your business, financial, and relationship goals this year. Sign up today and get weekly messages and twice-monthly coaching teleseminars designed to help keep you motivated and on track to reaching your goals.
Have a question for Michael Masterson? Write to him at AskMichael@ETRfeedback.com.]
3 Quick Tips for Better Direct-Mail Marketing Copy
As Michael Masterson has said many times, direct mail should be a component of every company’s marketing strategy. Whether you’re the company’s CEO, marketing manager, or copywriter, here are three tips to help you produce the most effective sales letters for your products:
- Keep It Current: Sales copy for everything from financial advisories to alternative health products to travel can be more powerful if it incorporates current news stories.
- Keep It Focused: Direct-mail sales are made by instilling a sense of urgency in the prospective customer. Identify a reason to buy your product NOW, and keep your copy focused on it.
- Stay Informed: By keeping up with industry trends and predictions, as well as the general psyche of your market, you’ll be able to make sure your advertising copy connects with your readers… and that will make them more likely to buy.
[Ed. Note: Heather Robson, who's been writing professionally for 10 years, is the copywriter for marketing company DragonFly Media and a contributor to Copywriting Insider,a free twice-monthly e-letter from AWAI and the editorial team at Inside Direct Mail. Get insider information on the hottest markets in the direct-mail industry, along with techniques you can use to improve your copywriting skills, by signing up for Copywriting Insider today.]
Add a Sunday Stroll to Keep Off the Pounds
A simple change in your lifestyle – something as easy as adding a weekly walk in the park to your routine – could be all you need to shed a few pounds, or at least keep weight gain under control.
Researchers in the UK studied the walking patterns of overweight and normal-weight individuals, and found only one difference: On Sundays, the overweight group walked an average of 2,221 steps less than any other day of the week. The normal-weight group reported no reduction in walking on Sundays.
So if you find yourself spending your Sundays on the couch, schedule an hour for a weekly stroll to increase your activity level.
For maximum fat-loss results, try interval walking – alternating between fast walking for a minute and slow walking for a minute, repeated up to 10 times. This should help boost your metabolism and fitness, while lowering your body fat faster than regular walking.
Eventually, work up to doing the interval walking four days per week, and add two or three total-body strength-training workouts to round out a balanced program.
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. If you want a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Fun to Know: The Perils of Satellite Navigation
In the past several years, satellite or GPS navigation systems have become popular features in automobiles and trucks. But these high-tech devices aren’t foolproof. Cars are sometimes sent up impassable mountain tracks, trucks are stuck on roads too narrow for their loads, and drivers are sent the wrong way on one-way streets.
This has prompted British authorities to put up signs alerting drivers in areas that are notorious for navigation-system misdirection. If these small-scale tests work, the signs could go up nationwide.
(Source: Reuters)
What If There Was A Way To Legally Beat A Traffic Ticket?
“When Attorneys Get Speeding Or Traffic Tickets, This Is What They Do… No Points, No Increased Premiums & Definitely No Stupid Driving School. These Tricks Work Like Magic.”
If you’re like me then the simple sight of a police car in your rear-view mirror is enough to send shivers down your spine, but…
When the lights start flashing…
There Goes That Safe Driver Discount… Right? Not anymore…
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Parse
To "parse" (PARS) – from the Latin for "part of speech" – is to critically examine something by breaking it into its component parts. The word usually refers to the process of analyzing a sentence grammatically.
Example (as used by Douglas Hofstadter in The New York Times): "There are too many spots where the rhythm goes momentarily awry; where words are used with murk, sloppiness, or phonetic imprecision; where sentences are so twisted around that they become hard to parse; even times where it’s hard to be sure just who or what is being referred to."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
Comments