Friday, February 03, 2006

Persistence equals results for Chicago agent

Below is an email from Bill Barnes, an Agent CEO with RE/MAX City in Chicago. He's doing what it takes to build his business for the long haul, and has a strong understanding of how to work his leads to be successful. Keep up the great work Bill!


Mark-

It was good to see you at the seminar. Sorry, I left early for a listing appointment, but I did take the listing on the spot!

The real surprise came the next morning when I received two early morning voice-mails. One was from a HomePages buyer. She and her fiancee are moving here from Virginia. We'll do our first showings Friday. With one official month in existence, HomePages is starting to produce results!!

And finally, I'm happy to report that the other voice-mail was my first HouseValues listing! It's a guy who contacted me in late September by email, told me he had fired two different Realtors and asked for credentials and what I would do different. I replied that I was surprised that neither Realtor had told him he was priced twelve to eighteen thousand higher than the highest sold in his entire town!

I went to his house, sat with him and his wife, and told them that as much as I would like to take the listing now, they were headed into a slow season in a slow market and that their best bet was to wait until Spring to achieve their desired price. This gentleman was my second voice-mail!

Great way to start the day!!

You've always told me it would start to happen, and as frustrating as it has been at times, I've had to remind myself that you are not handing me SALES, you are giving me LEADS. Some are sincere, some are re-financing, some are doing "what-ifs", and some are probably nosy neighbors. It's how I handle them that makes the difference.

The first one's the hardest. Now I need to review what I've been doing and fine tune it to create regular conversions. I believe that HouseValues is as good as your ability to utilize it. Thank you for your help and support.

Bill Barnes
RE/MAX City
Chicago... and the World