First Impressions 

August 21, 2007
Volume 2 Issue #2  

Last week I took my youngest son back to college. He's a first year junior as opposed to my oldest son who is a second year senior. Calm and quiet is setting in at our house. 

The trip to college made me think about first impressions and how important they are in school and in real estate. OK, it also made me reminisce about other things than first impressions but Im not going to write about those things. This newsletter will be about first impressions in real estatefun, but not quite the same kind. 

In real estate we have several opportunities for first impressions. The major times are when we meet someone on the phone, in person, with an email contact or when they visit our website. It seems like there are plenty of cliches covering the all important first time. In fact, if you check on Google there are 34,400,000 results when you type in first impression. 

How do you handle these first impression opportunities? The answer seems obvious; be prepared! (Same thing I heard my Eagle Scout fifth year senior say over and over when he was an active boy scout.) 

How about a checklist by the phone of questions you will ask a first time caller? Why not have a list of websites where you can find information that callers request most often? Ask to listen in when a pro in your office handles an inquiry. Quick, confident answers make for good first impressions. 

Do you have a plan or a checklist for meeting sellers or buyers? Visualizing how you are going to approach each appointment including the questions you are going to ask, increase your odds of success. Are you dressed appropriately in every business situation? Even though we are in a much more casual world, you are still evaluated by your appearance. 

With email, first impressions might also be called fast impressions. How do you make a great first impression with email? Answer quickly! Statistics back up that clients choose the first agent that responds over 50% of the time. 

Your website is your 24 hour first impression. How would you rate your first impression on the web? It seems even the Totally Internet Inept become World Wide Web Experts before they venture into buying or selling real estate. Make sure that your web site reflects the quality of service you provide. 

Right now Im wondering what kind of first impressions my sons will be making with their professors. What kind of first impressions do you think they are concentrating on? 

Speaking of first impressions, we will be in Booth 603 at the Illinois Association of Realtors Convention on September 20-21. Stop by and say hi. Hopefully, we will make a good impression, please let us know! We will also be at the Coldwell Banker Expo on October 3 with a booth and as part of a panel discussion on websites, VOWs and IDX. 

Monthly Tech Tip

Many people are under the mistaken impression that if something is on the Internet, it is free for everyone to use. This is not true. If you find a picture on the Internet or an article on someones website, it is not yours to use on your website. Make sure you get permission or you could face some legal problems.