“The commission is never worth your life”

 

Agent safety is an under-discussed topic that usually comes up when something terrible happens. I wanted to bring attention to it again before something happens again to help make the industry safer.

I reached out to the local police department here in Aurora, to speak to them about how to be safe as a real estate agent. They sent a local officer to answer questions and offer some on the job safety tips.

Soliciting questions from the real estate agent community and coming up with a few ourselves; here’s what we learned:

Carrying Weapons

 

One of the most common questions agents have is “What can I carry with me to protect myself”? 

 

Note – This is for the Canadian Market where agents cannot carry a gun. Which, even if they could, the officer did not recommend it as a measure of self-defence.  

 

Agents provided examples, asking things such as; can they carry bear spray, knives, and special key chains that can be used as weapons, and more?

 

Bear spray, or even dog spray, is legal for an agent to carry with them.  This comes with a few very important words of caution. First, you must know how to properly use whatever tool you choose to keep on hand.

 

In the example of bear or dog spray, do you know how to spray it in a way that won’t harm you? What if you spray outwards but it deflects back on you? This could cause you just as many issues for you as the potential attacker. It is imperative to not use anything you aren’t trained to use.

 

Secondly, any weapon you carry is just as likely to be used against you during an attack. If you are carrying a knife, you could end up being harmed while defending yourself. This is why guns are often not a recommended means of self-defence. (This is not meant to start a debate about gun control; this is the advice from a professional).

 

Finally, in the event that you are attacked, are you given free reign to do whatever necessary to defend yourself?

 

There’s a very fine line that is situational and dependent on how far you can go when defending yourself. The basic rule of thumb is that you can use whatever means necessary to defend yourself until you are able to escape the situation. If you harm your attacker after you’ve had the opportunity to escape, you can then be charged with assault.

 

At the end of the day, the officer says that if your life is on the line, its no holds barred. You should do whatever you have to do to make sure you get out alive.

 

(These laws can vary a lot province to province, state to state, so seek independent legal advice in your area if you are going to carry a weapon with you for self-defence)

 

 

Meeting Someone New

 

Meeting new people is the key to success in real estate. You have to get in front of people, or as the old school coaches always say “belly to belly”. With this comes risk though.

 

It is not uncommon to end up at a vacant property in a remote area.  How can you protect yourself when meeting someone new in this type of situation? The easiest answer is exactly what people have said for years; never go alone.

 

However, as a real estate agent that’s not always possible. If you can, get someone else from your office, or a family member to join you. If you can avoid meeting someone new alone, take it at all costs. Also try to meet somewhere beside the house, or out in public.

 

It is strongly recommended you ask for ID before going into any home. If the person you are meeting resists, be upfront and honest about why you’re asking. It’s a safety issue. If they don’t understand, that’s a red flag about their intentions.

 

When you meet someone at a house, try to record his or her license plate number. Whether you do it covertly or openly is a personal preference. You should always inform your office where you are going, when you are going, and when you will check in again.

 

When you arrive to a house, make a phone call so the person you are meeting knows you will be checking in with your office again. For example, on the phone say “Hi _____, just here showing 123 Main Street with *Name of Person*. I’ll call you in 20-30 minutes when I’m on my way back to the office”.

 

If you are meeting a new client at your office, make sure to introduce them to someone you know. Anyone looking to commit a crime wants to remain anonymous. The more people connected to you that knows them, the more of a deterrent that may be.

 

Google is also your best friend. You can learn a lot about people by using Google. It’s not perfect but you can confirm a lot of information about people.

 

 

Showing Properties

 

When showing properties there’s some steps you can take to better prepare yourself. As mentioned above, the ideal is always to have someone accompany you.

 

You should never take the same car as the client/potential client. According to the officer, it’s more likely that there could be an incident in the car than in the house.

 

When you get to the home, let the client enter first. You should keep them in front of you throughout the entire showing and do not lock any doors. Keep your phone in your hand at all times. If your gut has even the slightest inkling that something is off, have 911 ready to dial immediately.

 

This is more for the ladies than the men but avoid high heels and clothing that restricts your movement. You want to be able to run if possible. Leave your purse at home or in your car as well.  Only bring into the showing the items you need for the showing itself.

 

Ultimately, trust your gut, if you have a bad feeling then listen to it.

 

 

 

Open House Safety

 

You’ll start seeing a trend here, but the first safety tip of an open house is to not host it alone. Bring someone from your office, a mortgage broker, family member, or a friend.  When you get to the home, remove all valuables. Also, remove potential threats such as the knife block on the counter.

 

It’s smart to have guests sign in, ideally with their ID. As mentioned above, explain it’s for security purposes and if they still do not sign in then that’s red flag. Any reasonable person will understand.

 

Make sure your cell phone is charged, car keys are readily available and leave valuables – like your purse – in the car. It’s also important to be very cognizant of all the exits and ensure they are unlocked. Also, make sure you check all the exit routes. If you plan to escape through the backyard, do you know which side the gate in the fence is on? Is there an exit from the backyard?

 

Break-Ins

 

One question I received when I announced I was going to do this post was “Do homes listed for sale with pictures of the interior, make them more likely to be robbed?” The answer is actually No. The officer said he didn’t have any official stats, but typically burglars do not choose homes based on having seen it before. This is for a couple reasons. The first is that many homeowners, in anticipation of strangers coming through, are more likely to hide or remove all valuables.

 

The main reason though is that burglars are more likely to choose a home based on what it looks like from the outside. Is the front door visible from the street? Is there landscaping blocking the view of the door? Does the house have cameras? These are the deciding factors for a would-be thief.  Ideally a home should have a front door that is always visible from the street with no landscaping in the way.

 

 

False Accusations

 

Another question we received was “How do I protect myself against false accusations?” The rate of false accusations is quite low but its still better to take precautions.

 

Ideally, you wouldn’t meet people alone but that is not always possible. The officer recommended having your phone recording anytime you’re alone with someone. A simple app like Smart Recorder can save you down the road against a false accusation.

 

In Canada, you do not need both parties permission to record a conversation.  If you’re a male and meeting a woman, it’s better that the person you bring with you is another woman.

 

 

 

Using Security Cameras

 

 

One way to help protect during showings is to have security cameras. You are completely within your legal right to have security cameras throughout a home and you do not need to notify people of this. The more obvious the better though, since they act as a deterrent.

 

While you can have cameras throughout your home without notifying anyone of their presence since there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in someone else’s home, there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bathrooms so no cameras in there!

 

 

Warning Others

 

Many agents wonder if they can keep a file of suspicious people and share it amongst themselves. According to the officer I spoke with, this is not an issue from a criminal standpoint. You can keep a file of suspicious people and share it privately BUT… This is an important but…If that list was ever made public, or a person on the list found out they were listed, they can sue you civilly.

 

You could be on the hook for civil damages if they were able to prove the list negatively impacted them. The same goes for when you use your phone for recording, or the video cameras in the home. You’re legally allowed to but if you publish any of the content you could be held liable from a civil perspective.

 

Trust Your Gut – The Gift of Fear

 

At the end of the day, nothing is more effective than your own gut. If you have an uneasy feeling then don’t risk anything. Trust your gut and get out of the situation. Even if this means you have to cancel a showing while in the driveway with the potential client. It’s better to lose a potential client than end up in harms way.

 

When Should you Contact Police?

 

This is where a lot of people might not have some questions. Where’s the point that police should be involved? There has to be a direct threat regarding harm.  For example; someone saying the phrase “I’m going to get you” is not enough for the police to get involved.

 

 

 

Since people are innocent until proven guilty, the phrase I’m going to get you could be open to interpretation. They might actually mean, “I’m going to get you…a nice bouquet of flowers”. They have to directly threaten your physical safety.

 

Any form of physical contact without consent can be considered assault. If they touch your arm and you didn’t invite it, then that’s considered assault and you can call upon police. However, according to the officer, nothing will likely come of this, other than the incident being on record if they just touch your arm.

 

If the harassment is digital, they can run traces and find the person. With the exception of the computer savvy type who know how to hide their digital footprint. However, most messages online found to be harassing can be tracked.

 

My personal recommendations – err on the side of caution and call the police if you think it may be warranted. Worst case they tell you there’s nothing they can do.

 

 

 

What if the worst happens?

 

You’ve taken all the steps possible to protect yourself, but sometimes that may not be enough. If someone has the intent of harming another person, they can do it. This type of crime is rare with all these steps taken.

 

If you are attacked though, what should you do?

 

Step 1: Call 911

 

Step 2: Make note of all the details about the attacker as soon as possible. Their height, weight, clothing, approximate age, hair and eye colour, facial hair, and any distinguishing features. If you can, take note of their car, if you don’t know the make then note the colour and if its a coupe, sedan, SUV, etc…

 

Step 3: If you were sexually assaulted, do not shower, do not change your clothes. That will all become evidence. When 911 arrive, they will help take care of you and make sure everything is done properly.

 

Step 4: Find a support group or counselling services. No matter how tough you are, these groups can help. You’re not the first person to go through it and others will be there to help you.

 

CONCLUSION

 

In real estate we often talk about what goes into finding the right home. For many it depends on location, condition of the property, and budget. The perfect home will fit all 3.

 

For crime to happen it’s similar. The 3 sides of it are; opportunity, criminal desire, and the victim or location. By doing what you can to be aware of your surroundings and limiting opportunity, you can do a great deal in protecting yourself. No matter what precautions you take, if someone is highly motivated to do harm, it will be hard to stop them from trying.

 

This is true for everyone in society, and not a real estate agent specific problem. Limit their opportunities as much as possible and remember these 4 key takeaways.

 

1. Don’t assume anything
2. Never take anything for granted
3. Be aware of your surrounding’s
4. Trust your instincts
5. Never take anything for granted

 

 

Stay safe out there!

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the NAR Tech Edge event in Parsippany, New Jersey. There were a lot of great speakers sharing a ton information so I wanted to go over some of the highlights for all of you here.

 

The event was hosted by Jeff Lobb, the brain behind SparkTank Media, and one of the great guys in real estate. Jeff is a huge proponent of having a specific hashtag strategy. He doesn’t just talk about it, he leverages one that has even made him and his family very well known locally. You should check it out yourself on Instagram by looking up #lobblife.

 

Its important not to get stuck in the past. Stop being nostalgic about what used to work and embrace what works now. The way you market your business can keep changing and its your job to stay on the forefront. If your clients are all on Facebook right now then be there. If they all move to Snapchat then move there. It’s not about what you want, its about what your clients want.

 

On the note of embracing the way people are is the increasing use of emojis. They aren’t just for young people. Ask everyone you know over 40 and you’ll be surprised at how many are increasingly using emojis every day. As stupid as they seem to some they actually solve an important pain point in peoples lives. Its hard to convey tone and get the message across sometimes with only text. Emojis can help bridge that gap.

 

Hyper-Local Content

 

There was a great presentation by Judy Weiniger of the Weiniger Group. She’s an incredible agent from New Jersey. She echoed so much of what I’ve always believed about the advantage that real estate agents have over the big online portals. You may never compete with “homes for sale” on google but no big portal can compete with you over hyper local searches. They don’t have the information that you do.

 

As the local expert you should be promoting your area in ways that no one else can. Tell the stories of the locals. Find what’s unique in your area and highlight it. Check out this amazing video Judy made about a local pizzeria. Look at how little its about her or her business and instead focuses on the business.

 

 

Here are some great ideas Judy shared on types of content to create, especially with video:

 

• Schools
• What the commute is like
• Who has the best pizza
• How are the highways
• How do you get to the city
• Taxes
• Flood zones
• Parks
• Children Activities
• Grocery shopping options
• Gyms and Yoga Studios
• Local restaurants and entertainment
• Guide to Local Farmers Markets
• Where to go Pumpkin Picking
• Answer your clients questions

 

The trick is to just get started. Don’t wait for things to be perfect. You’ll get better over time but just start doing it now. This also isn’t going to be a free method of building your business. Good videos do require an investment. At the very least you should be investing in a lavaliere mic.

 

Simple Video

 

Steve Pacinelli from BombBomb came up talking about the benefits of using simple video to build relationships. Unlike the videos Judy was talking about that are for the masses, these are 1 to 1 videos that are used to build the know, like, and trust thats all so important.

 

Short videos can help convey so much more than text ever can. Whether its good news, bad news, responding to al lead, or any other number of personal communications, video can make it so much better. When you get the opportunity try and send a message you’d usually do over the phone or email and try sending it with video. See how the response can be different.

 

Smart Home Technology

 

We also had Joe Sullivan from CRT Labs (a division of NAR) to talk about the future of smart homes. It was really interesting to hear him talk about the future of the home and the devices within it. Also highlighted the importance of agents becoming very familiar with these issues.

 

For example, did you know that with a Nest smart thermostat, if your client buys a home with one they have to get the seller to transfer ownership to them? If not, the previous sellers could continue controlling the thermostat from their phone.

 

Another huge advantage of smart home technology will be the ability to keep people in their own homes longer. With the ability to help monitor and make their lives easier, smart home technology will prolong how long people will stay home.

 

People buy smart devices for convenience, to simplify their life, security, reduce energy consumption, reduce costs, and for the fun of it. Personally I have a smart garage door opener and its great to be able to check if its open or shut from my phone anywhere in the world.

 

Support your Community

 

Sharon Steel, another great New Jersey agent, is heavily involved in her community. She builds her business by getting really involved. Everything she does is centred around the idea of helping the community.

 

A great example is her direct mail campaign that she sends out. Once a quarter she sends 10,000 cards to the community. Except it has almost zero mention of her or her business. Each piece showcases the work of local artists.  She’ll run competitions to see which person has the best piece to showcase each month. People are even framing these cards. Locals who have moved out of state are asking for copies to be mailed to them as a reminder of home.

 

On the back of cards she doesn’t take advantage of the space to promote herself either. She talks about the artist, what the piece means and represents to them.

 

Get involved in your community, put them first, and give as much value as possible.

 

There were a ton more great takeaways from this event but I could write a 3,000 word post about it. If you have the chance to attend a NAR Tech Edge event I’d recommend it.

 

At the 1st Annual Blue Mountain Real Estate Conference Barry Lebow gave a presentation reflecting on his FIVE DECADES of experience in the real estate industry.

 

Barry brought the crowd to their feet with this talk, check it out!

 

The Inman Connect conference in San Francisco has come and gone. Not everyone was able to make it so I thought it would be valuable to do a recap of some of the things that came out during the conference.

 

If you’ve never been to an Inman conference before you should definitely plan to. It’s usually great content and the networking opportunities are second to none. The next one is in January in New York City. The hotel bar overlooks Times Square, its awesome!

 

Lead Conversion

 

The best part of the first morning was the panel on lead conversion with Rachel Adams, Jesse Zagorsky, and Keith Dunham. For reference, Rachel Adams converts online leads at 14%. That’s borderline ridiculous. The industry average is closer to 2%. The better agents are usually at 5%.

 

Anyone with skills like that is worth listening to.

 

Here are some of the things they do that you should adopt:

 

• 30 Seconds or Less. That’s how long it should take you to follow up with a lead when it comes in. You often hear five minutes or less but 30 seconds is even stronger.
• If you don’t connect in the first 30 seconds they’ve seen a massive drop off in the contact rate until about the 10-12th attempt at contact.
• The leads aren’t weak, you’re weak. This was a common thread. You have to practice converting leads. A lead is a lead. Leads aren’t always stronger or weaker, someone clicked a button for a reason. You have to uncover what it is.
• Rachel Adams said one of the main ways to contact a lead that gets a response is to call right away with a script along the lines of “Hey there, this is NAME with COMPANY, I just saw you registered on my website and just wanted to let you know that there’s a real person behind the website. I saw you were checking out ADDRESS, just calling to find out what’s going on in your situation.” and then go into finding out about them and their specific/unique situation. If you don’t get them on that first call, the one in less than 30 seconds, do a video of the same script and text it to them.
• I’ll repeat that, if you don’t get them on the call right away then take the opportunity to text them!

 

It’s also important when you’re talking to leads to remember that the majority of them have most likely been in touch with another agent within the last 30 days. You have to work around that issue.

 

Katie Lance

 

Katie Lance also jumped on stage to share some of her best 5 tech tips in 5 minutes. (Side note: As a speaker, these short ones are always the hardest to pull off and Katie nailed it!). She talked about tools to help systemize your business. Mainly Trello, Slack, and Asana. Our team uses Trello and Slack and I think I’ll be looking into adding Asana if it makes sense on top of those or not. There’s always the risk of trying to bring in too many different “solutions”.

 

She also mentioned how to 10X your content creation (which we all need to do) and to create micro content. Tools to help with Micro content include Canva, Wordswag, and Together.

 

I’ve mentioned it many times and Katie did as well, the gold is in your email list. You can make such a big difference in your business if you’re properly leveraging your email list.

 

Then the final tip was about turning the online offline. This is important to remember when doing your online marketing. If its not geared towards all these relationships you’re building to having a face to face meeting then you wasted your time.

 

Katie Lance has made her slides and some information available for people to get their own copy at KatieLance.com/ICSF2017.

 

Other great insights from the morning include making sure you know the local real estate market data like the back of your hand. This includes absorption rate, DOM, average sales prices, etc… You can do everything you want to generate leads but if you don’t have the expertise you’ll never last.

 

 

Facebook & Instagram

 

One of the speakers mentioned boosting posts on Facebook, which if you follow me know that I say you should NEVER boost a post. If you want to promote a previously made post I recommend using the ads manager anyways to do it. Don’t always take everything said on stage as gospel, it can be wrong.

 

Scott Shapiro, from Facebook, also came to sell the audience on using Instagram. He talked about the newly released tool that allows listing data to be fed automatically into dynamic ads. This is a really interesting development but for individual listings I don’t think its the right tool. After listening to Scott for a little while he even confirmed it himself, its really meant for brokerages and brands, not individual brokers.

 

For individual agents he recommended using Lead Ads, similar to Facebook. We use these for our clients and while he spoke about how great Instagram ads are we can say that from our ads we get anywhere from 5-10x more leads from Facebook Lead Ads than Instagram Lead ads.

 

 

What real estate CRM should I use?

 

Stop if you’ve heard this question before? It’s a running joke in some real estate groups about how many times this question gets asked. The real thing here is that the right CRM for you is going to be unique to your needs. What you want it to do and a variety of other factors will determine which CRM is right for you. After all, as one of the speakers pointed out, the CRM is the pacemaker for the heartbeat of your business.

 

When evaluating CRM’s you should ask yourself five questions.

 

1. What is the objective?
2. What results do I want out of the system?
3. What is your MUST haves?
4. What is the desired life expectancy for the CRM?
5. What is your budget?

 

 

Building a Proper Campaign

 

Jimmy Mackin, of Curaytor, spoke in a great breakout session that was so popular they had to open up the wall to the next room. He presented on what actually goes into a high performing campaign. It’s not a magic bullet that automatically gets you customers. It’s a specific strategy and series of ads.

 

The first round of ads goes to people who don’t know you to get them into your network. Then you run a second round of ads with valuable content to start building the know, like, and trust up. Then third round is a full retargeting campaign for everyone in the last 30 days who’ve been to your site or engaged with your content on Facebook. This is an oversimplification of the process but it was an hour presentation.

 

I can tell you from experience runnings campaigns similar to that with our clients, it works really well. Jimmy Mackin is one of the top Facebook marketers in the world for a reason!

 

 

Unmarketing

 

Scott Stratten performed one of the best keynotes I’ve seen in years. It wouldn’t do it justice to try and recap everything he said. You should just follow Scott Stratten and learn more about his thesis.

 

The big takeaway is simple. If you want people to talk about you, then do things worth talking about! It’s that simple. To get people talking about you then you have to give them a reason.

 

Are you giving them a reason to talk about you?

 

 

Thrive, Not Survive

 

I’ve joked with many people that I go to conference so you don’t have to. There’s a reason I say this is a joke, because you should go to a few each year. You have to be strategic about which to go to and there’s definitely a line you can cross into too many conferences but you should be going.

 

Why?

 

Sometimes the best experiences, the best learning, and the best connections are made at conferences. From the lobby bar to dinners on the town with other attendees. This year was no different.

 

Billy Ekofo – do you know Billy? You should look him up, he’s awesome – organized a dinner for a small group on one of the first nights of the conference. At this dinner I had the pleasure of sitting next to Jim Walberg, one of the nicest people in real estate as it turns out.

 

He has an amazing life story worth listening to. Jim had cancer many years ago and was not given good odds of survival. Jim didn’t want to just survive, he wanted to thrive for a long time. Then he tied it into an amazing motivational comment. Life isn’t about surviving, it’s about thriving. Surviving means running a marathon and falling across the finish line, throwing up, and then sleeping for 3 days. You should be proud of your accomplishment, but imagine instead, you run across the finish line with your head held high and ready to go further.

 

When you set a goal you should never aim to fall over the line and just get there. You should be aiming to run up to your goal, hit it, and then keep running.

 

Thrive, don’t just survive.

 

Thank you for the inspiration Jim!

 

 

Looking forward to the next Inman Connect conference in New York. If you don’t have a ticket, you should get it here. (That’s not an affiliate link, I don’t have any special deals on tickets, but I still think you should go.)

 

Do you know what the best in the business are doing to get even better?

 

Training events are the best place to find out. The key is to pick the right events. The events where top producers are going and the people teaching you actually know what they are talking about.

 

Get Better at Your Job

 

Attending training events will help you get better at what you do, at every level. When picking an event, it’s important to look at where you struggle. Are you struggling with generating leads? Go to an event that talks about online lead generation. Are you struggling with conversion? Go to one that helps you with your sales skills.

 

Hint: For most people, it’s a lead conversion struggle, not a lead generation one.

 

Learn from the best and shorten your path to success. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel in real estate. The industry is relatively simple once you know what to do. The true work is in implementing it. By attending the right training events, you can shorten the path. Learn what others learned from experience. They may have made 1,000 calls to prospects and learned what works. Now you can learn what they did before you even make a call! That 1,000 calls just got shortened by 900+ (you’ll still want to practice what they teach you after all.)

 

Network like a Boss

 

Our personal favourite reason for going to conferences? The networking. You can learn so much, sometimes even more than from the conference itself, by networking. Talk about how others run their business, learn from them, and build relationships. The right speakers are amazing to learn from but what you learn over a drink at the hotel bar can be just as valuable.

 

On top of learning from other agents, you get to build the relationships for referrals. If you work the agent to agent referral side of the business, you can do very well for yourself. I know many agents who do six figure commissions just by going to events, networking with other agents, and building those relationships. You need a plan, you need to stay in touch, and you need to be consistent (which is true of any business-building method). Do this and you can build a business based on referrals.

 

See the World

 

Keeping all that in mind when looking at events, where are the top producers going? Which event is hosted by someone or an organization that knows what they’re doing? Where is the event located? Some locations will draw more than others. That would be one of the reasons Inman Connect is held in New York City and San Francisco every year. Who doesn’t want to visit those cities?

 

We’re always working on clearing some space in our schedules to head to events. To see if we can pick up some techniques which we can leverage for our clients.

 

What other conferences are worth going to? Let us know in the comments!

 

Hosted a webinar with Katie Lance today to talk about How to Hone Your Social Media Strategy.

 

A lot of great tips, Katie is one of the best in the industry. Check out the replay below.

 

Resources Mentioned

Content Grid

Rev.com

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