While he’s been here for a few months now, we’re officially ready to talk about the fact that we brought on Blaine Davidson as a member of our Exeutive Team.This is in a continuing effort to help us improve.In this video podcast you will meet Blaine and learn about all of the awesome things that will be coming to GetMyHomesValue.com clients soon… take a look below!

In talking to a FSBO just yesterday, he was not so much intrigued by showing him how I was going to make him more money by going with me and paying my commission (although he was impressed) nor was I able to close him on the mere fact that listing his home with me will bring in better more qualified buyers. His eye brows raised and the head started to nod based on the fact that selling your home on your own and sticking that red and white FSBO sign in the yard opens the doors for anyone to stop by at any time.

He travels quite a bit for his job and his wife stays home with the kids who are both under 8 years of age. After that he told me they sold their Townhouse on their own a few years back without any problems and that is why they are doing it again. I proceeded to explain is it worth the safety of your family? That red and white sign in your front yard is typically an Open Invite to anyone driving by to stop in at anytime of the day and not only knock on your door, but walk around your house, peek in the windows and even bug your neighbors. A lot of these individuals have not even applied for a mortgage and truly have no interest in buying a home. In some cases you could be opening your doors to someone staking out your home for a future burglary. Is it worth it, I continued to ask?

When you list your home with a real estate professional you are automatically providing a much safer and secure means for marketing and selling your home. You will dramatically decrease the chance of drop-ins and nosy window peekers and you will more than not have pre-approved people going through your home.

I then asked, how much is all of that worth? I proceeded to answer it for him as he was truly speechless….It is priceless Mr. FSBO, absolutely priceless!!

We encourage agents all the time to use the promotional power of the internet to their advantage. But we can talk about it until we’re blue in the face – are there any agents out there actually doing it?

One agent in Kansas City is using a series of blogs for ALL THE RIGHT REASONS. Chris Lengquist of Keller Williams Realty, Diamond Partners, Inc., operates one of the best blogs a real estate agent can about Kansas City Real Estate Investing.

Dating back to January 2006, Chris has used his blog to cover real estate headlines in Kansas City and create conversation about the community. Nearly every one of his blog posts generates multiple comments from his readers, which Chris then uses to build social relationships. Like we’ve said in our Real Estate Followup Plan podcasts, you never know when a relationship is going to turn into a lead or referral. Even if the person you’re speaking to isn’t in the market to buy or sell, it doesn’t mean they don’t know someone who is.

In addition to using his blogs to build relationships and show off his expertise in KC real estate, Chris does an awesome job of allowing his readers to get to know him. Without spending much time on Chris’s blog, readers learn that he is a genuine family man who loves Kansas Jayhawks basketball. How many of your prospects know information like that about you after your first meeting?

Chris uses his blog as a tool for marketing and lead generation by positioning himself as an expert and letting readers to get to know him as a person. Because he is so easy to like after reading his blog, he makes his services easy to buy… and remember, people would much rather buy than be sold to.

Keep up the great work, Chris.

Dave Smith over at realestatebloglab.com has a great idea for helping agents to assist buyers in the remembering of homes that they saw while touring with you.

Check it out… he even talks about putting on your cape and becoming a “super agent”!

So, we have been back and forth with a customer we’ll refer to as Mr. Agent. His wife signed up with our service in September and did not do the things that we suggest. They are refusing to contact the people who are in need of help that come through our site. I could go on and on. Now, they are threatening to call the Better Business Bureau, The National Association of Realtors, and others to tell them how we have “wronged” them because they canceled on January 2 and wouldn’t refund them (we already spent marketing for January and our contract clearly states that you must cancel by the 15th to end your subscription for the following month).  Keep in mind, we don’t even have a long term contact like most of our competitors… so there’s never someone who’s “locked in”.

I was concerned that maybe we did something wrong so I investigated.  That’s when I found out that we have literally introduced them to 22 people, 12 of which were verified with a real estate need. These leads were not followed up with.

Mr. and Mrs. Agent did not follow up with these people and have made comments to us that we’re selling “swamp land in PA”, and that we’re not providing a valuable service.  The funny thing is, they haven’t even used the tools that we provided them with.  They did not view all of the educational webinars that we created either.

I don’t usually get directly involved in issues with customers at all any more, but because my personal character was attacked this time, I thought I’d share a letter to them publicly through our blog. Feel free to share your comments… this blog is an open, transparent book.

Mr. and Mrs. Agent:

You stated in your email that you are refusing to contact any of the leads that we send to you. That doesn’t seem like a very intelligent business decision. If you’re getting leads, why on earth would you not contact them? I will be sharing your emails with the National Association of Realtors as well as Long and Foster’s corporate team through our blog. We have a horrible ethics problem in this country with agents not following up with customers who request information. It is truly a shame. We spend hours on the phone apologizing to home buyers and sellers on behalf of agents like yourself who never contact them. It’s comical to me that agents purchase our service, don’t do the things that have been proven to be successful over and over again and then claim that our service is “garbage” instead of looking in the mirror and acknowledging that it’s their lack of follow up and desire to succeed. It’s always easier to blame someone else, I guess.

Do you realize you haven’t even logged into Prospect Maximizer since November 29!?!?!? How on earth can you state with a straight face that our service is garbage when you’re not even utilizing the thousands of dollars worth of tools we provide you with at no cost?

You also haven’t done a thing with the RemarkableAgents.com web site that we provided you with and you didn’t attend the educational webinars that teach you how agents that are making a lot of money with our service do things. The more I look into this, the more frustrated I get.

Regarding you not being with our service, your first email stated December 31, and the more recent ones have stated the 7th. I am staring at an email right now that you sent on January 2, 2008. You are set for cancellation on January 31, which means you will continue to get requests from buyers and sellers until then. We are contractually obligated to continue serving you through January 31, and will do so.  You will not be charged on February 1st.

I advise that you DO contact these home owners who have requested information from you. Not only is it a horrible business decision not to (it’s money in your pocket), but it is also EXTREMELY unethical to not serve the community that you promised to serve when you became a licensed Realtor.

I understand that you are retired, but even so, you have the time to spend typing an email over and over about not being with our service, but do not have the time to call Mr. Johnson regarding his request for your service? My associates and I have sold more than half a BILLION dollars in real estate between us, we are now in the business of helping other agents do the same. Some agents follow the system and are literally earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year with our service alone, others don’t take the time to educate themselves on the internet consumer or how to be more effective with online lead generation and fail.

What do you suppose the difference is between an agent who is successful with internet leads and an agent who is unsuccessful with internet leads? We have both of those subscribing to our service. The difference that we see is that the ones who are successful understand how sales works, understand CRM (contact relationship management) and it’s importance and have an incredible grasp of the internet consumer and the differences between them and leads from traditional sources. I would encourage you educate yourself on the internet consumer through our siccess center and your concept of what a “junk” lead is will change.

I will be informing NAR of the veri-link that we had on the line who had an immediate need on September 28, which you elected not to contact. I will also be personally contacting all of the people we have introduced to you to find out if they received their home value reports that you comited to providing them with when you signed up. I will then be sending a report to NAR, NJAR, and Long And Foster’s executive team with my findings. We have hundreds of happy Long and Foster customers nation wide between our different services. Again, what is the difference between you and them?  Many of our customers are making money with our service and have received less leads than you have.

GetMyHomesValue.com is a company that my partners and I personally built from nothing which turned out to be one of the fastest growing companies in Pennsylvania. My wife, my children, my friends and those that I do business with know us as ethical, upstanding, charitable citizens with great integrity and character. I take it extremely personally when someone who should look in the mirror accuses us of something like “selling swamp land in PA”.

If your goal was to anger someone because you were angered yourself, you have succeeded because of your personal attack on our character. Congratulations. So, here we go… you contact the BBB, NAR, NJAR, Harrisburg, The attorney general, and whoever else you mentioned… I’ll do the same. I’ve got 22 people, 12 verified (and counting) that wanted your services that you refused to help after signing a contract that you would. Those organizations will be interested in hearing from each one of them individually.

There are winners and losers in life. Winners don’t always win the game… but they ALWAYS give it all they have. Losers come up with excuses for not giving it all they have.

Dave Conklin
President, Co-Founder
GetMyHomesValue.com

We have finally had the opportunity to edit our first of many video podcasts. This particular one you have already read about if you keep up with our blog. It was recorded while we were in Wenatchee, WA meeting with Blaine and Erin Davidson. It’s our first one, so please accept our apologies for the lack of video quality.

In this podcast we learn now Blaine and Erin Davidson have amast over 40 real estate transactions from nothing more than a lot of on line lead generation and a great business model. Those who learn, implement and do what they have to say here will be champions.

Earning over $40,000 in Gross Commissions every month sure sounds like a great idea for most agents. Now go get “schooled”!!! Have fun.

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Actually slept into 6:30am so I have a little bit of time before a 4:00 meeting with Kelly and Charlene. I know that Dave and Mark headed out early for their “Trek” to the Grand Canyon which started out being a 7 hour journey by one informant and ended up being a 4 hour drive each way. Although Dave and Mark did there best to have me attend their adventure, I knew my goal was to play Troon North - Monument Course and the round lived up to my expectations even though I played above my handicap, what a great course and a fun time.

Met up with Kelly and Charlene at the hotel and we sat down and started picking apart what they needed to do from this point forward. Charlene agreed that she needs to be more assertive with people that tell her “NO” or that brush her off. And she knows that I am going to keep her accountable for that goal. Kelly is going to PHocus on the technology, the higher end market and managing the team which will require my assistance for greater success. And she knows I am always honest and transparent with my advice. We broke down the PHocus of the team, went over goals, plans for adding personnel including assistant and future buyer agents and finalized some marketing strategies and objectives. Dave and Mark rolled in and told us about their trip and added some great comments. Before we knew it, 8:00pm rolled around and we had to bust out to the airport to catch our “Red Eye” to Philly.

We left Phoenix with no clouds in the sky and 90 degree days and arrived in Philadelphia at 5:30am with rainy 50 degree weather. As the three of us stood shivering outside waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to our car we looked at each other and confirmed that this was a great trip and we look forward to the next one.

Early flight….wake up at 2:30am at airport by 4am and taking off at 5:25am arriving Phoenix 8:10am and in rental car (Sweet-Ass Suburban) by 9:30am and arrive at Hotel by 10:30am for an early check-in. We stayed at the JW Mariott and I highly recommend it…simply top shelf. Kelly Tiff from Remax Fine Properties in Phoenix, AZ is one of our GetMyHomesValue.com clients and one of the clients I Coach. The guys and I met up with Kelly at her office around 2:30pm along with her team Charlene Abeyta and Heidi Majidi to discuss in further detail the ideas behind the business model I have in mind for Kelly and her team. The meeting turned quickly into role playing, objection handling and fine tuning their existing skills. Motivation and working on some of their marketing materials became hot topics as well and we were very happy to offer our assistance.

We left her office to grab some dinner where the conversation continued and we had the pleasure to meet Kelly’s husband Pat who joined us for dinner. After a great meal we went back to our hotel and sat outside for a few drinks to reflect on the day and discuss some further ideas for Kelly and other clients. Stay tuned for even more….

So we flew into Seattle yesterday and spent some time at the market. If you have read the book Fish!, you know that the World Famous Fish Market is there. It was really neat getting to see that. And, by the way, the book is great as well… you can buy it by clicking here.

The scenery out here is absolutely gorgeous. I have taken pictures, but they just don’t do it justice.

The drive from Seattle to Wenatchee was about 3 hours or so and was stunning. Rory has been in many places all over the world and he referenced this drive as one of the most amazing he has ever seen.

We then had dinner with Blaine and Erin Davidson, which was also amazing. Blaine made these incredible ribs that were to die for. We discussed some business and then went back to the hotel… We’ll update again soon!!!