First off, it's now late September. Let's take a hard look at the calendar and our numbers and be honest with ourselves. Are we on track to make our 2022 individual income goals as Realtors? How about your "free time" goals? If you are, God bless you and keep on keeping on! If not, and you're serious about real estate as a career, sign up now for the Ninja Installation in January. Not signing up tomorrow; do it right now by clicking on this link:  CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Your company is investing $300 in you if you sign up before October 1st! That's in addition to the substantial investment in time and money to have the event brought to us IN HOUSE in the first place. Check out all of the really high producers who've signed up for the second or third time. This a no-brainer if you're not meeting your goals and want to be successful long-term in this business. As the market tightens, even more so to invest now.   

You may or may not know this, but I am the broker in the Fairhope office, and I am also a working agent. So, I typically write about what I plan or need to do, what I've fallen short on, etc. Today, I know that I need to reach out via telephone to every person in my CRM (my SOI - sphere of influence) within the next few months. To truly earn our sphere's business when the time comes for them to buy, sell or refer, we need to continuously feed real estate items of value to them. I suggest using all of the auto-flow options Bellator offers (if you've not done this yet, do it as you go through your CRM). Marketing has a lot of training materials on this and offers support. Once these things are done once, there's very little to do ongoing. (Yes, it's automated!)

More importantly are the calls that I'm going to make. Do you avoid making calls because you think the person will think that you're only calling because you want their business? I get that. Start with FORD (family, occupation recreation and dreams) talking points, allowing them 70% of the talking time.

For these FORD calls, make sure to ask them if they're currently paying PMI with their mortgage payment. If you're new to the biz, PMI is premium mortgage insurance that is typically required if you put less than 20% down on your loan. For the most part, once the owner has over 20% equity in the home, the PMI can be removed (to confirm this is the case with their mortgage, they'll need to contact their lender). This cost can be $200-400 or more per month added to their mortgage payment. Anyone who is paying this now that has owned their home for more than a year can likely have it removed due to this year's appreciation plus their down payment alone. If they're paying PMI (or even if they're not) offer to do a Real Estate review to go over their home's current value. We owe this to them annually, at least!

My goal, and I hope yours too, is to be every one of my SOI's trusted real estate advisor, their advocate expert. To that end, we need to remain engaged and at a minimum attend weekly training sessions whenever possible. Read articles like this one and others provided by Bellator, the board, the state and NAR.  When you think about it from the consumer's side, why would they ever choose to use an agent who chooses to know less about his/her profession?  Especially when that knowledge (or lack of knowledge) can represent thousands, perhaps 10's or 100's of thousands in lost money on the largest transactions of their lives. Spend the time and effort to be excellent at your job. Don't make them regret choosing you; that's a quick way to a short career.

Do you think your sphere will appreciate your call if it saves them $400/month for the life of their mortgage? You bet they will. And they'll look for your newsletters, campaigns and future calls with bated breath. If you're paying attention and working at being an excellent agent, there's always an item of value that you owe to your sphere. It's like a contract, you can expect their business (not just because they know and like you) but because you are the very best that you can be. You will make them more money and mitigate their risks and you help them with real estate even when no commissions are involved.

If, like me, you've fallen short on these calls, don't fret. Simply start them TODAY. Learn to use YOUR tools and always keep learning the business. Block time, show up and do these things regularly. They will become habits. You will be in the habit of being excellent.  You or I would want nothing less for our SOI. They are our friends and family after all.

I hope this was helpful to some of you. Now I'm off to make my 5 calls today. 

I hope you all have a great weekend!