IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY MIGHT NOT COME

September 8, 2006
Issue #3 

The famous line from the baseball movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come", popped into my thoughts last month while playing softball. It takes me so long to run around the bases that I have plenty of time to think. I slid into third base (my wife reminded me at my age it wasn't a good idea and that the phrase might be referring to a hospital rather than a ball field) and during the time it took me to get up I knew what I wanted to write about this month, if I were physically able to write.

 This famous phrase brings to mind three different areas that should be addressed right now.

The most important area has to do with your relationship with your past clients and sphere of influence. Even though you have "built" a relationship with them, you have to constantly work on maintaining it. One of the most painful sights any agent can see is a competitor´s sign in an old client's or friend's front yard. Worse yet, is having one of them invite you over to take a look at their new house. Ouch! The lesson- Build a plan to stay in touch with your old clients and sphere3; then actually do it. Calling them periodically can work wonders. Good things will happen if you do (they will come back to you and send you referrals if you ask for them).

Lately, I have been doing a lot of web makeovers for agents. Why? They found out that just "building" a web site does not insure that people will come to the site. If prospective clients came, there was no reason for them to stay or contact the agent. The lesson- Your web site has to be written with an eye toward both what your potential clients and search engines want and find valuable. You also have to personally promote your site in every way possible. Your web site is really never finished; it should keep growing and getting better. (I am waiting for Oprah to call me when she has her web makeover show.)

The third area that "if they build it..." applies to is builders. There is a huge opportunity to do business with builders now, who were not very real estate agent friendly in the past. It is time to look at builders both large and small who have "built" but have found that not many buyers have come. The lesson- There is a pool of very motivated sellers, namely builders, who have to sell out there, who need a good agent to represent them, or are willing to negotiate with or offer incentives to buyers and the agent who accompanies them.

So there you have my three "if you build it" real estate scenarios. Every month I struggle to send out my newsletter because I know if I do, I pick up business each time it goes out. Did I mention I do web sites and individual coaching? Make sure you are always building and following up, because if you do, they might just come.

Monthly Tech Tip

Don't you just hate it when you get an email and you are one of 400 people who got the same thing. By the time you get to the message halfway down the page after all the other email addresses, you are thinking this just isn't the right way to do it and you are not feeling so special. How can you avoid having all the email addresses show up? If you are sending to multiple email addresses and you don't want everyone´s email address to appear, put the addresses in the BCC (blind carbon copy) box. It is usually below the CC (carbon copy) box. If you can't find the BCC box, you might have to use Help to find out how to send blind copies (AOL users especially)-your email program has it-trust me