Success Stories From the Road

As most of you know, I spend a good amount of my time traveling the country, speaking to agents about the Agent CEO philosophy. It’s exciting for me to speak with so many successful agents from across the country, not only to hear what the local markets are like but to hear so many individual stories of success.

In most cities I visited in March, the real estate markets has definitely changed. This seemed especially true in Florida, where an extreme seller’s market experiencing 23-26% appreciation is now much more balanced. Newer agents shared concern about this change, but the experienced agents find it much less stressful. They no longer have to write up eight buyer offers to get one accepted. Instead of considering this change a negative, they literally told me “now it’s back to normal.”

A few more specific Agent CEO stories worth sharing:

Mary Kreulskie in Tampa joined HouseValues about a year ago, after having been in the real estate business just three months. She had tried many of the traditional prospecting methods her broker taught her, but wasn’t getting anywhere. A year later, she had not only closed several transactions directly from Internet leads, but used her prospect management tools to turn those customers into several referrals.

Linda Harper in Orlando has grown her business so quickly that she has her son assisting her. Simon Conway from Orlando earned more than $450,000 in commissions last year by working his Internet leads better.

Roger Nakazawa in Washington DC mentioned that for every dollar he spends on his current marketing strategy, he receives five dollars back. That’s a 500% return on investment. Awesome!

Rayna Henchon in Austin has been a real estate agent for two years, and a subscriber of JustListed.com for one year. I remember her from last year, when she told me she was inspired by Sherry Daminski and wanted to exceed her prospect pipeline (which currently stands higher than 15,000 prospective customers). Today, Rayna is on her way, with more than 4,000 prospects and positions open for two full-time assistants to help her.

Catherine Gortner told me in Fremont, California that Internet leads from HouseValues account for 80% of her business.

It’s April, and 25 percent of the year is behind us (can you believe it???). Are you 25% towards your 2006 goals? If not, how do you plan on getting back on track? You are the CEO of your business. Make new goals, and stay focused. Incredible success still awaits you this year!