How to Follow KW Family Reunion 2011 on Twitter

Provided By KW Blog

Why follow KW Family Reunion on Twitter? Following an event on Twitter adds a rich new dimension to the experience. With your smart phone in hand, you suddenly have a backchannel into what hundreds of others around you are observing, thinking and doing. Twitter says its mission is to “instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most important to them.” Each day news stories are broken as users around the globe post 140-character updates about events unfolding around them. As a result, Twitter has often been called the “pulse of the world.” We think it’s the perfect tool for you to experience a big event like Family Reunion from as many perspectives as possible.

Vendors will be tweeting special events. Agents and brokers will be sharing aha’s and tips from their breakout sessions. Networks will announce impromptu gatherings. Jokers will be cracking wise about gaffs and goofs. And, of course, the social media team at KWRI will be sharing interesting and informative information as well.

So what exactly do you need to do to tap into this undercurrent of information and entertainment? Who are the best people to follow?
If you don’t currently have a Twitter account, visit https://twitter.com/signup and get started. There is also a Twitter Start Up Guide available on myKW on the Marketing tab.

For everyone else, login to Twitter and search for the KW Family Reunion event hashtag: #KWFR. You can then click the “Save this search” button on the top, right-hand side of your page to save the search. All the popular Twitter mobile apps will allow you to add a column for the same search so you quickly access the stream of event-related tweets.

Here is a short list of notable or official #KWFR Twitter profiles:

1.@KWRI — Amber Presley is our Social Media Manager at KWRI and will be a great resource.
2.@KWRINews – A channel for KW’s weekly enewsletter ThisWeek@KW, managed by marketing’s Laura Price.
3.@MapsCoaching—The award-winning MAPS Coaching team.
4.@carysylvester — Executive Director of Technology at KWRI.
5.@emarks – Ellen Marks is the Marketing and Communications Director at KWRI.
6.@JoelleSenter – KWRI leader and agent technology advocate.
7.@alexismacintyre — Director of Keller Williams University.
8.@Swanepoel — Stefan Swanepoel is a keynote speaker at Family Reunion, author of Surviving Your Serengeti and Principal at RealEstateTrends.
9.@KCKatalyst — Kevin Carroll is a speaker at Family Reunion, founder of the Katalyst Consultancy and author of Rules of the Red Rubber Ball.
10.@DanielPink — Daniel Pink is another keynote speaker at Family Reunion, and author of Drive, A Whole New Mind, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, & Free Agent Nation.
11.@TechSavvyAgent — Chris Smith is a guest speaker and co-creater of TechSavvyAgent.com.
12.@BenKinney — Ben Kinney is a KW OP, MegaAgent, IMSD founder, co-author of the book soci@l and an agent technology leader.
13.@mayaREguru – Maya Sabot Paveza, a real estate social media and technology leader, is another guest worth following at the event and beyond. (edit: Maya will not be at Family Reunion after all-sorry if I got any of your hopes up that you would meet her!)
14.@DotLoop, @Market_Leader and @KWeEdge – For lots of great info on the KW eEdge sessions.
15.@BethTorrence, @KevinLKauffman, @Mizzle, @ChadHyams, @AllStarMom3, @Seychelle912, @SueAdler & @Liz_Landry – Because they are smart, tech savvy KW associates that have taught me much and are also a lot of fun.

Of course, I’ll be tweeting about all the of the above from @JayPapasan. There are literally thousands of KW associates on Twitter every day, building relationships, sharing information and prospecting for referrals and clients. This list is far from comprehensive! I’m sure I’ve missed lots of KW stars. Please share. Who will you be following at #KWFR?

Short Sale Mindsets - Short Sale Training

Provided By KW


Jay Papasan, VP of Publishing and co-author of a number real estate best-sellers, shares short sales.

How Rising Interest Rates Will Impact Affordability

Provided By KW Blog

In a recent Forbes blog post, multimillionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson declared that today’s record-low interest rates made this the best time to buy homes in fifty years. “If you don’t own a home, buy one,” Paulson said. “If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.” Why should we care what Paulson thinks? Well, he was among the few to accurately predict the subprime collapse and, while no one has a crystal ball, a closer look at the numbers supports his call to action.

Historically low interest rates are the key…and they aren’t likely to hang around for long.

As we wrote in SHIFT, buyers who “choose to wait until prices come down more” are gambling that interest rates will hold steady or drop. The truth is even a 10 percent drop in home prices is nullified by a 1 percent increase in interest rates. The figure below illustrates how this works for a $250,000 home purchase and the relative likelihood of each scenario.

To figure out which was a smarter bet–counting on home prices to fall further or interest rates to rise–our research department took the last ten years of monthly home price and mortgage interest rate data and ran the numbers to see which was more likely: an increase in mortgage rates or a further drop in home prices. Here’s what we found:

A one percent increase in mortgage rates is ten times more likely to happen than a ten percent drop in home prices.
A one percent rate increase more than offsets a ten percent reduction in home prices.

When interest rates fall by one percent, the total interest paid is almost three times more than the interest savings from a ten percent drop in home prices.

The probability of both happening at the same time is ridiculously small, and homeowners would still pay 15 percent more in interest over the life of the loan.

Interest rates have dominated the news in recent months as we’ve shattered record low after record low. Potential home buyers need to understand the positive financial impact low interest rates have on the cost of home ownership and the thousands of dollars that can be saved over the life of a typical mortgage loan. For those who can afford to buy, trade up, or invest, our current market presents a lifetime opportunity.

Build Your Real Estate Business with Seminars

Provided By Keller Williams Blog
Published By Jay Papasan

One of my favorite interviews at our recent Mega Camp was Gary’s chat with Jim and Jeff Reitzel of Kitchener, Ontario. Among the Reitzels’ best business-building tools is holding investor and first-time home buyer seminars—a lead generation strategy that helped them do more than 120 transactions and over $67 million in business in 2009. And they are on pace to have a much better 2010.

So what are the keys to success?

1. Be Predictably Consistent – More than anything, the Reitzels attribute their success to predictability and consistency. For example, they hold their monthly investor seminar at the same place, at the same time on the third Tuesday of each month. After a while, interested buyers don’t need an invitation or directions. They just show up. It’s like the old Batman show: “Tune in tomorrow—same Bat time, same Bat channel!”

2. Persistence Pays Off – The Reitzels count on word of mouth to market their seminars. They invite every client. They invite fellow agents to bring guests. They invite just about anyone they meet. Over time, this simple message of “every third Tuesday” has sunk in, and the numbers have grown from the early days when Jeff might have gotten the opportunity to practice the ninety-minute presentation for Jim alone, to today when their investor seminars average 80 to 120 attendees!

The repetition of our marketing for these events combined with the word of mouth they can generate can be quite powerful. Jeff shared that one investor bought 22 townhomes on their second meeting. The investor had never actually made it to one of the seminars but, because Jeff was always holding them, he felt like Jeff must be the expert.

3. Big Audiences Are Great, Motivated Audiences Will Do – Even when only a handful show up, it can still be a success. Jim shared that this summer he taught a first-time home buyer seminar and only three people showed up. “I thought, ‘Oh great!’ but you know, one of those three became a buyer!” Similarly, you don’t have to start with a 100-seat training room. A coffee shop will do. When my wife Wendy started her business, she used Facebook to send monthly invites to talk wealth building through real estate over a morning coffee at “Millionaire Mocha$.” Some weeks, she has a crowded table; others, she has a hot cup of joe and works her database. Regardless of the attendance, in just a year the messaging has sunk in—everyone now knows she’s in real estate, and sometimes a friend of a friend will show up who Wendy didn’t personally invite.

4. Build on the Success of Others – Jeff began teaching investor seminars in 2003. He created his own material based on his investing experience. After seeing an hour long presentation on The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, he adopted The Millionaire Real Estate Investor Client Workshop and made it his own. When the Your First Home Seminar became available, he adopted it as well. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Adopting an existing presentation is much easier than creating your own from scratch. The same for marketing materials like the brand new 7 Reasons Why Now is a Great Time to Buy a Home.

Similarly, Jeff coached another agent to simply tell Jeff’s investing stories since he didn’t have any of his own. It worked. For the record, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor has more than investor profiles at the back of the book, and Your First Home tells a different tale of first time home buying between every chapter.

5. Follow-Up Matters – Don’t get people excited and just cut them loose. In 60 to 90 minutes, you likely won’t get far beyond the basics which means motivated buyers are likely to have questions. Get them on the phone and set a time for a personal consultation. When Gary taught seminars, he would stand by the exit with his calendar setting appointments as attendees left the room. That’s following up for the appointment!

The last time the National Association of Realtors posted their numbers, 38% of buyers were first-time home buyers and 19% were investors. By the way, that’s more than half the market. Astonishingly, going back to October 2008, these two groups average 59% of the market! Don’t miss out. Start using seminars to market yourself as the expert.

Local Real Estate Board Overrun by LG1Z1 Virus

Provided By KW Blog
By Jay Papasan

Austin-area REALTORS expressed shock and dismay when it was discovered that many of their coworkers were infected with the noxiously virulent and business-threatening strain of the LG1Z1 virus, commonly called the “lead generation zombie syndrome.” One local real estate board executive who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity reported, “This is a problem of pandemic proportions, not just in Austin, but throughout the industry – infected agents simply won’t ask for business.”

News of the zombie virus outbreak broke after the local Multiple Listings Service (MLS) hosted a series of meetings for agents and brokers to exchange old for new datakeys or “dkeys”, the electronic keypads that provide access to listed houses. One MLS employee—recently relocated from Colorado and in need of a real estate professional—facilitated exchange and met thousands of real estate agents without being asked if she needed an agent or even for a referral.

“This was the last day to exchange your equipment,” said KW agent Colin Platt. “I know for sure she had seen thousands of REALTORs over the previous few days.” Platt engaged her in conversation, established rapport and discovered she was new to town and thinking of buying. Platt asked for her contact information and got her commitment to meet about buying a home. “I really believe now that if you don’t ask, you don’t get,” he summed up.


Local board members called in specialists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who issued an urgent call for KWU training and MAPS coaching. Said one CDC official, “The great tragedy of the LG1Z1 virus is that, although it is the leading killer of real estate businesses, it’s completely preventable with regular training.”

How do I know if I have LG1Z1?

You may have the lead generation zombie syndrome if you have some or all of these symptoms:

1) Infrequent or irregular closings

2) Sphere of influence deficiency notable by a lack of referrals

3) Commission atrophy and client loss

4) Long periods of boredom, restlessness or inactivity

5) Irritable spouse syndrome

6) Increased Ramen intake

With other epidemics, quarantine is often an effective strategy, however with the LG1Z1 virus, experts are advising exactly the opposite. Congregating with like-minded agents in training and coaching forums seems to be the best medicine. In test subjects, regular exposure to scripts training and coaching effectively bolstered immunity to the virus. Alexis MacIntyre, director of KWU training and faculty development, explains, “The answer to an unasked question is always no. When agents arm themselves with proven scripts and dialogues, they have more confidence to ask for business and the ability to overcome common objections. We encourage everyone to get inoculated today so we can eradicate this virus!”

What is Social Media Priority #1 for Real Estate Professionals?

Published By Jay Papasan
Source KW Blog

Since Ben Kinney and I wrote SOCI@L last fall, we’ve had the opportunity to teach the material dozens of times. What’s clear is the enormous opportunity social media platforms provide to cut marketing costs and attract new business. It’s also just a bit overwhelming to think about adding Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a blog to our brimming daily task lists!

So we debated the question: If an agent were only to do one thing on social media, what would it be?

For most agents, their sphere is vital for referrals and repeat business. So one argument would be to work Facebook aggressively to build deeper relationships with our most important advocates. On the other hand, prospecting Twitter for buyers and sellers or just using it to interact with huge audiences are strategies that scale extremely well. Another school of thought argues that blogging is a proven method for increasing your visibility on search engines and helping buyers and sellers find your business. The challenge with all of these is they require regular effort and attention to be effective.

That’s why I argue that if you’re only going to do one thing on social media, let it be LinkedIn.

Besides growing and enriching your network, nothing says “I’m a modern professional” like a well-done LinkedIn profile. Chances are many of your prospective clients search for you online before they meet with you. What they find informs their decision to work with you (or not.) LinkedIn ranks very well on search engines so it will be one of the first four or five results in any search when clients do their due diligence. By investing a few hours of your time, you can make yourself more visible online and help ensure a great first impression.

Here’s what to do:

1) Join LinkedIn.

2) Complete your professional profile. Include a current photo, your professional highlights and make sure you identify yourself as an agent with Keller Williams.

3) Customize your personal URL. From the Edit Profile page, select “Edit” on your Public Profile Link. That how you get an easy to remember LinkedIn address like www.LinkedIn.com/in/JayPapasan which you can add to your business cards, websites and email signatures.

4) Invite your sphere! Select the Contacts tab and click “Add Connections” and follow the instructions to upload your email address book. With a couple of clicks you can invite your entire network to connect.

5) Give 10 recommendations. Pick some of your top, well-positioned advocates and sing their praises to prospective employers. And remember, you can offer character references for people you know and respect that don’t happen to be past or current coworkers.

6) Get 10 recommendations (so ask for 20!) Recommendations and testimonials remain some of the most powerful marketing tools in our arsenal, so go get some. Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations from people who are not past real estate clients. A testimonial is a powerful endorsement by itself; having real estate related one is a plus. (Tip: Ask for recommendations from individuals you would also feel comfortable recommending. You’re not expected to reciprocate, but it sure feels nice.)

“Out of all the current social media tools, LinkedIn has the best system for encouraging and accumulating testimonials.” says, top agent Michael Maher of Kansas City who averages more than 500 referrals a year. “I have received two new home community referrals as well as many individual referrals from LinkedIn. Plus, the referrals are more affluent.”

That’s it! The best part for busy professionals is that once you’ve invested a couple of hours to set it up, LinkedIn requires little to none of your time and you’ll still enjoy the benefits. If you want to go deeper, power up your referrals by joining some LinkedIn Groups like the Keller Williams National Agent Referral Network and the National Assoc of REALTORS.

Why Some Houses Sit While Other Houses Sell

Provided By KW Blog
Published By Jay Papasan

Even in the hardest hit markets, there are still properties priced well enough and in good enough condition to interest buyers. Those houses attract offers and sell. Houses that aren’t priced and staged competitively sit. It’s not complicated. It’s really that simple.

For your house to stand out from the crowd, you’ll have to listen to what buyers are telling you and make sure your house is priced well enough and in good enough condition to stand out from the competition. Here’s a quick video explaining how it works. Good luck!

2010—The Year I Double My Profit Share

Published by Jay Papasan, VP of Publishing and Executive Editor
Provided By KW Blog

For the past few years, my wife, Wendy, and I have taken an annual goal setting retreat. It’s our chance to get on the same page on everything from our professional aspirations to our investment goals, from selecting a Kindergarten to redecorating our vintage 1970 bathroom. These retreats also represent rare and valuable “spousal recharge” time away from the kids. Needless to say, we were hooked. Last year we logged onto Priceline, booked a four-star room at a two-star price, called in the baby sitter and drove all of two miles away to the downtown Hilton. Who said a retreat has to be far away?

We’ll it’s that time of year and one of the goal categories we’ll be discussing for 2010 is profit share. I joined KW in September of 2000 but didn’t receive my first profit share check until June 2004. I just didn’t get it. I thought that because I wasn’t a licensed real estate agent, profit share wasn’t for me. Finally, a light went off and the moment I believed the opportunity was mine, I started seeing opportunity. At the end of 2005, I got involved in launching a new office in my hometown. My sister joined and then things started to take off. I’ve received a profit share check every month since.

The smallest was $0.77. The biggest was $521. In all, more than $6,700 in just three years. Wendy got her license this year. In no time flat she sponsored two people and, in a team effort, we sponsored a third for her tree. She’s already received three checks for $1,249. We’ve officially caught the profit share bug.

You can’t predict where your profit share tree will blossom. Of the 120 people in my tree, five are directly responsible for almost half my tree. And only one of those is in my first level. I remember learning in the Grow Your Profit Share Tree class that of the more than 5,400 people in Althea Osborn’s tree, only 14 named her as their sponsor. The lesson: Focus on what you can control—the foundation—and time can grow your tree tall and wide.

I recently watched a video with Anne Dunajcik on treating profit share like a business and it really got me thinking about setting bigger goals for my first level. So when Wendy and I go on our retreat, I’m going to suggest that we each set a goal of attracting at least ten people in 2010. I want to double the first level. And I also want to focus on supporting those five individuals who’ve done so much to grow my profit share tree. I get it now. It’s time to treat profit share like a business. What are your profit share goals for 2010?

5 Ways to Put Some Punch in Your Buyer and Seller Presentations

Published By Jay Papasan, VP of Publishing and Executive Editor
Provided By KW Blog

At a gathering of the KWU International Master Faculty last year, improv comedian Les McGehee told us about an icebreaker where three people volunteer to share a story about their lives. But there was a twist: Two were instructed to lie. The attendees then had to decide who was the truth-teller. Here’s the strange thing: Audiences almost always picked a bogus story. Why? Because when we share facts, we tend to believe the facts will speak for themselves. We don’t put any energy into the presentation.

This got me thinking about our buyer and seller presentations. Even though we may have a firm grasp on the market, a cold recitation the facts will probably not be enough to empower our clients to make the best decisions. Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a license to mislead. On the contrary, we need to power up our presentations and here’s five proven ways:

1. Make it Real

Chip and Dan Heath, in Made to Stick, tell us about Art Silverman of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and how he communicated the evils of movie popcorn. You see, back then popcorn was cooked with coconut oil, and a medium bag had a whopping 37 grams of saturated fat (almost a two-day supply in one serving!). “The challenge, Silverman realized, was that few people know what “37 grams of saturated fat” means…And even if we have an intuition that it’s bad, we’d wonder if it was “bad bad” (like cigarettes) or “normal bad” (like a cookie or a milk shake).” So Art called a press conference and shared that ‘A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings—combined!” He even laid out all the food to drive his point home. Fatty popcorn became a national story, moviegoers stopped eating it and theaters were forced to offer a healthier product!

So instead of telling your buyers and sellers that home prices are down 11.4 percent, say that the average home price has dropped $32,000. That’s a number they can feel, viscerally. Buyers might just get off the fence and sellers may think twice about shooting for the moon.

2. Avoid Jargon

Jargon is not real. Many people make the mistake of employing industry jargon and acronyms to appear more knowledgeable, but most jargon tends to be unintelligible to anyone outside the industry. At my first and only corporate job, they talked about “CTB forms” which left my head spinning until I finally had to the courage to ask what they were talking about. It stood for “Call to Bob.” No lie.

So avoid jumping into discussions of absorption rates (how quickly homes sell) or cap rates (a fancy measure of cash flow) and take a moment to make sure your client will understand you. Simply put, never use a fifty-cent word when a five-cent word will do.

3. Use Visuals

You may have noticed that the books and course we write are chock full of tables, graphs, and diagrams. At heart, Gary has always been a teacher. Give him a flip chart or a white board and he can make just about anything clear. Research shows that as many as six out of ten adults are visual learners—seeing, after all, is believing.

So, instead of telling your buyers and sellers about how overpricing can lead to chasing the market down, pull out SHIFT and walk them through the graphic on page 146 or use the dialogue and images on pages 150 to 153 which can easily be drawn on a napkin.

4. Ask Questions

As sales professionals, we know the importance of asking questions and then really listening to the answer. Questions have the power to open minds, change the direction of a conversation, and provoke thought. If you are presenting market trends on a graph, ask the seller, “So when you look at this trend, what does it tell you about how we should price your house?” When we ask questions, our buyers and sellers get a chance at self-discovery.

How much more powerful would your presentations be if your sellers and markets really understood how the market works?

5. Tell a Story

So we come full circle to stories. Not the fabricated kind, but rather true stories that help us make better decisions. In The Upside of the Downturn, Geoff Colvin talks about firefighters. Researchers showed both groups pictures of a fire and then asked each to describe what they saw. The novices noted the facts anyone would notice: where the fire was burning, the color of the flames, the amount of smoke. The veterans told a story about where the fire had started, what it was doing at the time of the photo and where it was likely going to spread. Colvin’s point was this: veteran firefighters instinctively placed the facts in the context of a story. They did it to save lives because we make better, faster decisions when we base our actions on stories (which mirror our real life experiences) than we do on a collection of facts.

This is why we role-play. This is why we trumpet our success stories. This is why the best agents weave past buyer and seller experiences into their presentations.

So for your next buyer or seller appointment, try using one of these tried-and-true techniques when making an important point. It may just put some extra punch in your presentation and help your client make the right choice.

You can bank on the budget model

Although market conditions change, the fundamental models and systems set forth in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent don’t. “Hold your money accountable, Play ‘red light, green light.’” You hear those words a lot when talking about the Budget Model, but the real questions is: are you adhering to it?

Watch “An MREA Moment” featuring Gary Keller and Jay Papasan to find out how to direct your dollars wisely.