Change to Change Your Life

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Never confuse motion with action". If you are frantically busy but not getting any closer to your goals, it might be time to ditch your routine and try some life changing habits.

I read that in a magazine lately and it really hit home with me. Todays real estate market is not what it used to be. It does not operate as it used to. In 2008 when the mortgage industry began to crumble and the stock market fell, things changed. We Realtor's had to re-learn the market, and marketing strategy. What worked before no longer worked. At the same time technology was changing. Our industry is constantly getting bombarded with new ways of marketing on the world wide web. What we paid hundreds of dollars to do 5 years ago is now free, but at the same time we are spending hundreds on new marketing avenues. You never know which strategy will be the next Google or IPhone.

Same goes with todays buyers. Yesterdays buyer might call from outside of a listing, or see it on the web and inquire. That buyer 5 years or even 2 years ago has changed. 95% of buyers are now looking online 1st. They might inquire about a property today, but may not make a purchase for 60,90, 180 even 365 or more days. It is the agent who responds first and who keeps in contact with them that gets the sale. So the amount of buyers I am trying to track to purchase has expanded 10 fold.

Daily there are many things that have to be done, and so managing the buyer leads is so overwhelming. In the past 2 years I have tried so many ways to keep track of them that I have lost track of some...who they are, what did they want? Are they still looking?

About 5 months ago I made the decision to give them more attention, get them into a manageable system, put them on automated email campaigns that keep me in contact with them, as well as automatically send them the latest property available. And what has occurred is that I am seeing those relationships develop into actual buyers...Granted it may only be 10% of the leads I am tracking. But regardless, they are buying and some are contacting me...which is the whole point!!

So here are some great ideas to keep up with your goals:

Use the rule of 5:
Make a list daily of your top 5 things you want to accomplish.
Make a list of the top 5 things you want to accomplish this year.
Last list the top 5 goals for your life.

Now make an action plan:
What do you have to do to make those things happen?
What is the obstable that stands in your way?
What will it take to get over or thru that obstacle?
Is it worth it?
Just Do it!

Go to bed early, Get up early. Take some time for reflection, excersize or study your Bible, it is still the best self help book you can buy. Excersize has been proven to help you succeed. Studies show that top CEO's regularly excersize.

Confront fear. Fear is still the largest deterent to success...once again, the Bible is the best self-help book on the market. It has sold billions of copies. If yours has a reference section, look up fear...it will give you lots of scripture.

Make the decision to start every day with the right attitude. As the saying goes, attitude is everything!!