Jack of All Trades, Master of None: Why Not Try Being a Master of One?

If you feel over-taxed in your real estate career and the results are not where you would like them to be, it might be time for you to refresh yourself with the basics and find one particular area to master.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Today I want to impart some tips and insights that our team has learned over the years that you can use to save time and get to the income level that you deserve in your real estate career. We had some great one-on-one meetings this week, so I would like to share my takeaways with you.

One of my agents told me that he was making lots of calls but was not having any luck converting or reaching people on the phone. I asked him when he was making these calls, and he said he was making calls between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m because of other things in his life.

If you are calling out in the early afternoon, you are wasting your time—you would be better off going to the gym or going out for a bike ride. The best time to call is between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at night, and between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. in the morning.

I have an agent who time blocked those periods for calls and she was making $10,000 a month. Her connect ratio was so much higher than if she had made the calls in the early afternoon. Success can be manufactured by properly structuring your day, such as reevaluating your time blocks.

Our team often feels like it is being pulled in 18 different directions—we are trying to door knock, work on our scripts, call FSBOs with Vulcan, write handwritten notes, check our emails, get sold leads, and figure out new ways to succeed in real estate without working.

My takeaway from my agents was that we were not focusing on the basics. While trying to juggle all these tasks, we were unable to do any of them exceptionally well. On this, I agree with the genius Gary Keller: You want to focus on one thing at a time.

Years ago in coaching, a friend of mine was struggling on the verge of bankruptcy in his business. I told him that he needed to focus on the fundamentals. He was trying to implement too many things at the same time.

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While trying to juggle all these tasks, we were unable to do any of them exceptionally well.

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Find your one weak area that, with improvement and mastery, will get your business where you want it to be. It could be mastering scripts or market knowledge. You will not master anything if you are trying to do 18 things at once. After meeting with many teams over the years, I’ve seen that top agents all master one area. That doesn’t mean you need to limit yourself, however. You can continue improving other areas after you’ve mastered one.

If you want to know what it’s like to be on a team and have the career and life you deserve, reach out to me. Here is to your continued success in real estate!

The Importance of Holding Yourself Accountable

If you’re not holding yourself accountable in your business, you need to find someone to do it for you.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Who holds you accountable in your business?

This is a question that was posed to me recently by a real estate coach, and it’s an interesting one because right now is the first time I haven’t had a real estate coach in eight or 10 years. 

Us Realtors hire coaches to hold us accountable for tasks we need to complete each week. Otherwise, there’s no accountability in our business—there’s no one telling you to get out of bed, get to the office, and get things done. In real estate, you’re an independent contractor. If you want to sleep in until 10 a.m. every day, you can do so (you probably won’t be in the business very long though).

I was listening to the audiobook version of “The 5 Second Rule” recently, and the book’s premise is that you have five seconds to act on something, and your role is to be a parent to yourself. A parent’s role is to help their children grow and excel, but their role is also to get them to do things they generally won’t do on their own, so being a parent to yourself is what accountability is all about. 

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It’s important in this business to stay on track and have an accountability partner.

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This week, think about who holds you accountable. If you’re not holding yourself accountable and you’re not self-motivated, get an accountability partner. On our team, everybody has an accountability partner. 

If you need help being accountable, call me and I would be happy to use our systems and processes to hold you accountable and get your career on track. Otherwise, call a real estate coach. 

If you have any other questions or you’re interested in joining our team, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you. 

How Does My Team Sell So Many Homes?

Today I want to tell you the secret of how my team sells so many homes. A big part of what we do is about our environment.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

People frequently ask me how my team is able to sell so many homes. Today, I thought I’d share the answer with all of you.

As you may know, we’ve been ranked as the third top team in all of New York State by The Wall Street Journal. Not only that, but my team members average about 30 sales each.

To illustrate how we’re able to achieve this, I’d like to depart from real estate for a moment. This morning on my run, I noticed that my mile time was 30 seconds faster than it had been earlier in the week.

I was surprised by this and found myself wondering what had happened. Nothing had changed about my routine. But it was then that I realized that something truly had changed—my environment.

Earlier in the week I was running on hot, humid mornings. However, the weather was much nicer on the day I noticed that improvement in my mile time.

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The success of my team is partly due to our environment.

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Environment really does matter. This is true for real estate, as well. The success of my team is in part due to our environment. The team-based environment that we foster with our shared ideas and mutual investment in our goals is a key factor in our success.

When you’re searching for success in your own endeavors, ask yourself what kind of environment you are in.

Next, you need to ask yourself if you’ve made a commitment. Everyone on my team is full-time and they are all constantly striving for self-improvement.

Your skill set is the one thing that will really differentiate you in the business of real estate. Making a commitment to be at your best will pave your path to higher achievement. If you treat something like a hobby, you’ll never see the kind of results you might expect from a career.

Our team is expanding, so if you’d like to know what it’s like to work on a team, I’d love to get together and talk.
 
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Do You Have a Set Schedule?

Do you have a dedicated, set schedule? If you are disciplined with your time, you will be more successful as a real estate agent. 

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

One of the most important things as a real estate agent is your schedule. To be a successful agent, it’s incredibly important that you are disciplined and able to manage your time. 

So, if you don’t have any appointments on a Monday morning, what will you do? What is your schedule? 

My most successful agents will get up, get dressed, come into the office and start prospecting. They make connections every single day, which is the key to success. 

I have guys coming into my office in T-shirts and flip flops. When I ask if they have the day off, they say, “Oh no, I’m working.” I know that some people enjoy that laid-back style, but it’s just mind-boggling to me. If you are a professional, then you need to dress like a professional. I think that is so important in our industry. 

Have a disciplined schedule and show up. That is the key to success in our industry. After all, real estate is a contact sport. You need to have a schedule and prospect for two to three hours every single day. If you do that, then you can’t help but make $200,000 to $300,000 a year. 

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Control your own schedule and be disciplined with your time.

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If you don’t have appointments, are you showing up to prospect? Are you disciplined enough to control your time, or do your clients control your time? When one of your clients calls you, do you run out for a showing or are you disciplined enough to make sure that your sacred prospecting time does not get interrupted? 

When I first started out, my sacred time was 8:30 to 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. I would prospect every single morning. 

As time has gone on, that changed. Now, we do a lot more inbound calls or call follow-up. Still, it’s incredibly important to have that set schedule. Set aside family time, time for home showings, and time for prospecting so that you can get what you want out of life. That way, you’re not reacting and running around at the whim of your clients. 

So this week, think about drawing out your schedule. Personally, I’m in the office almost every morning to return emails and make follow-up calls. My appointments are in the afternoon. As our company has grown, I no longer have to take weekend or evening appointments, so I’m able to devote that time to my family. 

Control your schedule. By being disciplined with your time, you will set yourself up for a successful career.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be more than happy to help you!

How Using 2 CRMs Can Grow Your Business

Today I’m excited to share with you what I know about how to choose a CRM. It’s a question I’ve received time and time again, and one that I’ve asked many times myself. The truth is: you really need two.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Today I wanted to answer a question for you that I’m always receiving: what lead and CRM systems do I use? 

Now, I get this question over and over again. I’ve used most of the systems out there but, interestingly enough, I ask that same question to my friends who are incredibly successful in real estate. I’ve learned that the answer is always different.

They tell me they’re using Agent Office, Top Producer, Boom town, Commissions Inc—the list goes on. With all this variety, the truth I got out of all these answers combined was this: use what works for you and, if you have a team, what works for them. 

Myself, I’ve been on Top Producer more than ten years, and from personal experience I can tell you that while there may always be a better, more efficient program out there compared to the one you’re using, the real secret is knowing which is the best for you personally.

My good friend Howard, who started Tiger leads, is a CRM expert. With how quickly systems change over the course of time, Howard makes a good point: you really need two CRMs in your business—one for the now business to follow up with your buyers and sellers, and one like Top Producer, which will follow up with your contacts after you sell the home. 

Despite all the advertisements I run as a Realtor, 40% of my business is from referrals. This is because we keep in touch with things like our monthly mail-out newsletter, bimonthly emails, and other miscellaneous touches we add for our clients throughout the year.

The fact of the matter is that if you’re looking to grow your business, you need to invest in CRMs.

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The fact of the matter is that if you’re looking to grow your business you’re going to need to make an investment in CRMs.

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I’ve personally spoken with the owners of several programs including Commissions Inc, Boom Town, Tiger Leads, and more, and I know how important it is to get your contacts into a database so you can connect with your clients and grow your business. 

If you’re looking for more information about CRMs or have any questions in general that I can help you out with, give me a call or send me an email. You can also feel free to get in touch if you or someone you know would be interested in joining our growing team. I look forward to hearing from you.

How Can Solo Agents Compete With Teams & Top Producers?

I recently got back from a trip with some fellow top producers, and the prevailing questions I received were about how agents can compete with top-producing teams like mine. The answer comes down to one simple aspect of your business.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

I was recently in San Diego for a trip with some fellow top producers, and many of them wanted to know how they could compete with someone like me who has endorsements like Barbara Corcoran and has my name out there like I do. They did a survey asking sellers what was most important when selling, and the No. 1 response was customer service. 

Basically, the majority of clients wanted to feel like they were their agent's only client. 

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Clients want to feel like they are their agent's only client.

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If you're an individual agent, you can give clients much more attention than a team member can. We know that 40% of business is referral business, and that's because of the client experience.

So how can you compete with a team like mine? It's all about managing the client experience from day one. We've reached the point of making a promise about the level of our service to clients from the very beginning. If we break that promise, there will be major implications for us as a firm. 

Think about having the client experience in the forefront of your mind as you meet people and talk to clients knowing how important it is to most people.

If you'd like to talk more about your business or you're interested in joining our team, I'd love to grab a cup of coffee with you. Just give me a call or send me an email soon. Here's to your continued success!

How to Avoid Problems With the Appraisal

If you want to avoid issues with appraisals coming in low, do as much as you can to make your appraiser’s job easier.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Values are rising in our market, but this is causing problems with appraisals coming in low. How can you get past the appraisal without any problems?

Many people don’t know this, but I spent many years as a full-time real estate appraiser around the capital region and the New England area, and I’m still a state-certified general appraiser in New York state. Name the type of property, and I’ve probably appraised it before. 

You have to understand that appraisers are overworked and have to cover many areas they have to become experts in very quickly. Often, we’re seeing appraisers come into areas with which they’re simply not familiar enough. The easier you make an appraiser’s job and the better relationship you have with them, the more likely they’ll give you a favorable result. 

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The easier you make an appraiser’s job, the better your results will be.

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Just the other day I had an appraiser call me about one of my vacant listings. The tax records showed that the home was 65 years old, but in reality, it had burned down 15 or 20 years ago and been replaced with a module. It’s possible the appraiser picked up on that, but most likely they didn’t. They were probably going to list the age incorrectly, keep that error in the appraisal, and produce an evaluation that was not favorable to my client. Obviously, I wanted that appraiser to know the truth as well as the comparables I used when I valued the home so we could get a more favorable result. 

Appraisers don’t want to kill your deal. They just want to give the bank a valuation that’s on the money. In today’s market, that’s a hard thing to do unless they start taking time adjustments. When an appraiser looks back six months for comparable sales and prices in real time are moving forward, they’re the ones holding value down, and that becomes a difficult situation. 

If you have any questions about the appraisal process or you’re interested in joining our team, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I look forward to hearing from you.

Teams Are Taking Over in Real Estate

If you want to grow your business, I’ve got three words for you: Consider a team.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

I just got back from a great conference with Zillow and I want to share some insight into what I learned. I was really inspired by Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Zillow. I know we as agents love to hate Zillow, but the truth is Zillow and Trulia drive 80% of the online traffic in our industry right now. However, that’s not what I want to talk about. 

I’m heading out to San Diego in the next couple of weeks to Mastermind with some of the top agents in the country. I don’t think there will be anyone in the room who is doing less than $1 million in revenue. It’s a great opportunity I like to take advantage of every year. 

One observation I’ve made while attending these conferences is that teams are taking over the industry. If you’re an individual agent, it’s incredibly hard to get your business cards made, get your website set up, and compete with the service that’s provided by a team. 

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If you want your business to grow, think about joining or creating a team.

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At the lower level conferences, people are trying to buy their way to success. At the upper level conferences that host experts like Zillow premier agents, the discussions aren’t about buying your way to success. It’s more about setting up systems and processes and working on conversion and the client experience. As an individual agent, it’s almost impossible to have the speed of follow-up needed for online leads and a conversion process that provides the level of customer service that a team does.

I’ve got a brand-new agent that was licensed six weeks ago who has five houses under contract. I don’t think any agent going it alone could accomplish that type of feat, but with a team, she’s learning from all the people around her and getting the best training. It’s amazing to watch. 

Your growth is not a something, it’s a who. If you want to grow, you probably need to bring in someone to help you. Whether it’s a listing assistant or an office assistant, bringing someone in is essential for growth. 

If you want to know what it’s like to be on a team or you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Is Your Real Estate Career Paying Off How You Hoped?

Today I’m going over how to overcome problems with lead generation or lead conversion that might be holding you back from reaching your financial goals as an agent.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Are you making enough money or the money you feel you deserve in your real estate career? If your answer is no, why not? 

The answer usually boils down to problems with lead generation and lead conversions. 

First, do you have enough leads coming in? How many leads do you need to get an appointment? How many appointments do you need to get a contract? If you’re not getting enough leads to get you to the number of appointments and contracts that you need to meet your goals, you need to generate more leads. I will gladly go over ways in which you can boost your lead generation and ultimately wind up with more sales. 

Second, how are you converting your leads? Are you an expert on scripts, dialogue, and the market? Do you have a system in place to follow up on leads and referrals quickly? Those are all very important parts of the conversion process. 

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We do some really interesting things to generate leads.

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So, you need to ask yourself if you have enough leads coming in and whether or not you’re an expert on the conversion process. If you have any questions about either of those things, call us. We do some really interesting things to generate leads. In fact, you can see our latest endeavor, an endorsement from Gary Levox of Rascal Flatts, at the end of the video above. We’re also experts in lead conversions, so we can teach you all about that as well. 

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’re always happy to help!

Why Your Outlook & Perspective Are So Important

I recently said goodbye to my father-in-law, someone who really helped shaped my perspective. Here's how he helped me change the way I look at a real estate transaction.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about your perspective and outlook.

Unfortunately, I lost my father-in-law recently to pancreatic cancer. He was a great guy who really changed my perspective on what's important in life and how we shouldn't get hung up on things in life and in real estate that don't really matter.

As a listing agent, I often have buyer's agents presenting an offer in an adversarial manner. They'll ask where I got a price from and demand to see comps. Obviously, in real estate we're judgmental and we're competitors, and yet, we collaborate. As a listing agent, I'm trying to get the best price for my client while the buyer's agent tries to get the best and lowest price for their clients.

However, we need to work together to resolve the conflict and settle on a fair price. I think that when it comes to perspective, instead of being judgmental of each other, we need to step into a mode of curiosity. We should hear something and wonder, "That's an interesting point. I wonder where you're coming from and why you feel that way." 

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How can you get into a mode of curiosity?

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We sold four properties this week, and as for the adversarial buyer's agents, well, I can tell you that the offers that we moved forward with were the ones that were the easiest to work with and who I knew had track records of closing. These weren't the agents who were acting adversarial and demanding comps or insulting my pricing. 

So think about perspective a little bit in a general sense in your career and step into a mode of curiosity when you can. 

Finally, I wanted to touch on your career as a real estate owner. I told my team that we should all own real estate and we should all be flipping homes and owning rental properties; we're in the business, so no one is better suited. If you don't own real estate, I encourage you to think bigger. How can you build wealth owning real estate? It's the best investment in the world. 

If you have any questions about today's topics or you'd like to learn more about joining our team, give me a call or send me an email. Here's to your continued success!

Why Is Prospecting the Key to Real Estate Success?

Prospecting is vitally important to your success in this business. It’s what got me where I am today.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

The year is off to a great start. Inventory is low, and listings are the name of the game. Hopefully you’re on track to hit all of your goals. Today, I really wanted to talk about something that has changed my career. It all starts with setting a schedule. 

A lot of people are attracted to real estate because they can set their own schedules and come and go as they please. However, if you really want to be a top producer in the business, you can’t just eyeball it. If you want to make the leap in your career, it’s really important to have a set schedule each day. Within that schedule, there is one activity that should not be compromised no matter what. 

The most important thing you need to add to that schedule is prospecting. When I first started my career with no budget, prospecting is what allowed me to get where I am. I took two hours each day to lock myself in my office and prospect. I called FSBOs, expireds, and circle prospected in different neighborhoods.

Fortunately, all of our marketing these days produces inbound calls. However, if it wasn’t for me making those prospecting calls at the beginning, I wouldn’t have been able to get to this point anyway.

I advise you to take at least two hours each day to prospect. That’s only 10 hours per week. With the rest of your schedule, you can work on other marketing tasks and setting appointments. 

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You need to prospect every day.

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Don’t be dominated by inbound sign calls or pushy clients. Work on prospecting first, and all the other pieces will fall in place. 

If you have any questions for me about prospecting or anything else related to the real estate business, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

How Well Do You Know Your Numbers?

Getting the income you want in our industry means knowing your numbers. Here are the numbers you need to know and track as an agent.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

In the real estate world, it’s very important that you know your numbers. Let me tell you about a couple phone conversations I had recently that illustrate this point. 

The first conversation was with a friend in another market. When I asked him how 2016 went for him, he told me he sold 200 homes and made $900,000. It was then that I had to break it to him that he didn’t actually make $900,000. That was just his gross. I then found out that he really didn’t know what his net income was or what his expenses were. In other words, he didn’t know what was working for him because he wasn’t tracking his numbers. 

The second conversation was with an agent who was thinking about joining our team. The first question he asked me was, “What’s your split?” That was a bad sign. There are a number of other questions he should’ve asked me before that one, such as:

1. What systems do you have?
2. How many leads do you have?
3. What’s your average call ratio to the number of conversion ratios?
4. Can I make $200,000 a year (which is what I want to make) with your systems, processes, and structure?

Don’t get me wrong—the split is important, but if I can get you $200,000 on a 40-hour work week, the split doesn’t matter. 

In our industry, we tend to focus too much on the number of transaction we make. A mega-agent can brag about selling 8 million homes, but at the end of the day, their net might’ve been better if they were an individual agent with an assistant. 

In 2017, my firm has started doing real-time tracking of the number of calls we make, our number of contacts, and the number of showings it takes to get a contract. All of these numbers are broadcasted on a 48-inch TV in my office so everyone can see them. These are the numbers that matter because they’re the ones that get you to your net income. 

In 2017, if you don’t do anything else, know your numbers. Know your numbers in the market, know the median home price, and know the average days on market. More importantly, know how many contacts you need to make to get the income you want. 

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If you don’t do anything else in 2017, know your numbers.

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If you’re not making $150,000 or $200,000 a year and you want to get there, please call me. I have agents on my team who were out three months last year and still made $180,000. I’d love to grab a cup of coffee and tell you more about the great things my team is doing this year. I look forward to hearing from you!

The Key to Making 2017 Your Best Year Yet

How can you make 2017 your best year as a Realtor? Examine your pillars of lead generation and ask yourself, “How can I get more referral business?”

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

What do you need to do to make 2017 your best year yet? 

First, think about the pillars of lead generation that you use in your business. People always tell you to create a big budget for TV and radio. Those venues are great; they have produced great returns for us. TV and radio attract business to us rather than us having to prospect and call expireds, like we had to do in the old days. 

That said, I was looking through our sources of business in 2016 and found that 40% of my business came from referrals. Referrals are the number one source of my business. Any agent can take advantage of referrals, which are very cost-effective. 

How can you get more referrals in 2017? 

For one thing, keep in mind that a satisfied customer isn’t good enough. You want raving fans. Make sure that your client has a fantastic experience. Do anything you can to follow up after the sale or even before their sale. Teach them about the transaction, hold their hands throughout the process, and take care of whatever needs to be done during the transaction. 

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Satisfied customers aren’t good enough; you need raving fans!

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One thing I do is record videos explaining the buying and selling process to send to my clients. That has a huge impact on our client’s satisfaction. We also send handwritten notes during and after the sale to let our clients know how important they are. 

What should you do if you don’t have very many past clients yet? You should make a huge impact on your community. Do some volunteer work and let people know what you do and how your business can help them. 

I foresee a time down the road when 60% of our business comes from referrals. Referrals will be your best business asset. 

If you would like to learn more about getting referral business or need any other tips, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

How to Work More Efficiently & Sell More Homes

The key to making more money in our industry is to work more efficiently. Today, I'm discussing a key metric my team and I look at that helps us measure and improve our efficiency.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

I hope you're crushing it as we start 2017. It's not too late to update your 2017 business plan to make more money and have a better life this year. As you know, the three ways to make more money are to sell more homes, sell them at a higher price point, or charge a higher commission. Most of us focus on selling more homes.

So how will you do that? How will you work more efficiently?

As you might've noticed in the video above, I'm working at the new standing desk my team got me for Christmas and it's working extremely well. This desk is helping me be more efficient—how are you going to be more efficient? You don't have any more hours this year than last year.

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Making more money is about working more efficiently.

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I just had a meeting with my team where we looked at some different metrics on our team. One metric we focused on was how many homes each agent sold, but there was a much different performance metric in it. Some agents showed as many as 42 homes for one closing while other agents showed as few as nine. There's a huge difference in the amount of time spent with a buyer. The agent showing nine sold nearly $16 million worth of homes last year and the agent who showed 42 homes to get to one closing is brand new, and it's to be expected while she gets her feet wet.

So how can she lower that number and show only eight or nine homes for each buyer to get to a closing? There are two important things the experienced agent does to achieve this. One is to properly pre-qualify the buyers and make sure they're ready and able to buy a home in the next 30 days before she even puts the buyers in the car. She realizes that her job is not to show every home, but to find homes that are suitable for the buyers, not the perfect home. No one will ever find the perfect home—it's about getting them a reasonable value for their money and a home that will work for them going forward.

I also think she's more direct with her clients in showing homes. A client might say something like, 'We want to think about it,' but a solid agent in this market will realize that it's important for her to take control of the situation and let the buyers know that they risk losing a home and how important it is that they take action.

So in 2017, work more efficiently by focusing on how many showings it takes you to get to a closing. It's really important to know your numbers. If I can help you in your career in any other way this year, give me a call or send me an email and let's grab a cup of coffee. Until then, I wish you success this year!

Join Us Next Year in the Bahamas

My team and I just got back from our yearly, all expenses paid trip. We’d love to have you join us as a team member next year.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

If you check out the video above, you might notice that I look a little different. That’s because my team and I just returned from an amazing trip down in the Bahamas!

We were lucky enough to bring local comedian [name??] with us, and we all had a great time petting the dolphins and hanging out in the water.

So the questions today is, why weren’t you with us in the Bahamas?

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Why weren’t you with us in the Bahamas?

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It’s simple—hit our sales goal and we go for an all expenses paid trip. This year, 14 of us went, and it didn’t cost my team members a dime.

We’d love for you to join us next year. If you’re interested in finding out how you can come with us to the Bahamas, give me a call and let’s talk soon. If you’re not where you want to be in your real estate career, give me a call. We have people earning more than $50,000 a year and some earning more than $100,000. Some are even approaching $200,000 in earnings.

Give me a call and let’s get you there. I hope to hear from you soon.

How Does Having a Coach Help You Succeed?

As an agent, hiring a coach can help you stay motivated, be accountable, and persevere through the tough times. You can’t afford not to have one.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

I just finished up a fantastic week. Not only did we hit our sales goal of 300 homes, but I took half of my team to Philadelphia to train directly with our coach, Bubba Mills, of the Corcoran Consulting Group.

Know what my biggest takeaway was? How important coaching is. The team and I didn’t learn anything groundbreaking, but we did learn about small, incremental improvements we could make that will lead to massive success over time. lead to massive success.

Every time I go to an upper-level coaching event like that, the common thread is that all the top agents are there, and they’re all there to learn. It’s so important to continuously learn in our line of work. To quote Usain Bolt, “The work happens behind the scenes. The competition is the fun part.”

When we look at success, we see a person who maybe drives a nice car. What we don’t see is how many times they failed first, and we don’t see how hard they work. I think coaching helps in this regard in that it keeps you motivated, holds you accountable, and helps you persevere. As we all know, in our industry, there are times when you feel like you want to give up.

If you think you can’t afford a coach, I’m going to tell you that you can’t afford NOT to have a coach. If your budget is tight, give me a call and I would be happy to sit down and draw out a business plan with you. I’ll tell you exactly what I did to build a $60 million business in a very short period of time.

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As an agent, you can’t afford not to have a coach.

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I’m happy to share both my failures and my successes. There’s plenty of business to go around. My average agent sells over 30 homes a year. If you’re struggling in your career and not earning six figures, please call me. In the meantime, I hope you have a great holiday season, and I look forward to a fantastic 2017.

How to Adapt in an Ever-Changing Industry

In an ever-shifting industry, the agent of the future is someone who can convert Internet leads and pair them with good old-fashioned customer service.

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

What does the agent of the future look like? 

In the old days, real estate was done differently than it is now. Agents used to send out postcards with pictures of homes that were just sold or just listed, and all transactions were done face to face in places like clubs or churches. 

Now, larger corporations are taking over the industry, and 96% of buyers start their home search online by hitting sites like Zillow, Trulia, or Realtor.com. Those leads then get sold back to us. The Internet is generating the leads. 

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Larger corporations are taking over the industry.

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Even if people have a great friend or know somebody in the business, the Internet is where they’re starting their search. They don’t even know which agent will be contacting them. Farming neighborhoods takes a very long time, so it's important to find a new way to adapt to the quickly moving market.

Millennials are starting to buy homes in bulk, but how do you reach them if they never open their mail? You need to get them on the Internet. 

The agent of the future is someone who can use new technology to convert internet leads and makes sure to always exhibit stellar customer service. The agent of the future can give instant follow up to those buyers who are combing Zillow on their iPhones and pair it with the ability to give the client a great experience. These days, that can only really be done with a team. You can’t be there for someone all the time, but a team can.

In our office, for example, the slogan ‘Clients First’ is brandished everywhere—in our bathrooms, our kitchen, over everyone’s desk, etc. Nothing is more important than our clients. They’re why we’re in the business. We place them ahead of our own needs. That’s what a team does.

If you have any questions or want to know how you can join us, give me a call or send me an email. I hope you have an absolutely awesome day. 

How to Manage Your Clients

All the top agents in the real estate industry have one thing in common: they control their clients instead of letting their clients control them. How is this done, though?

Looking to improve your real estate career? I'm here to help you make a smart decision when it comes to growing your business, improving your bottom line, and choosing a place to work in real estate sales. If you'd like to learn more about working with Clancy Real Estate, contact me at (518)861-7016 or Kevin@ClancyRealEstate.com.

Want to know something I’ve learned over the years about this industry? All the top agents have one thing in common: they control their clients rather than let their clients control them. By taking control, they’re being proactive instead of reactive. 

Top agents “drive the train.” By that I mean they don’t let their clients dictate to them. Instead, they give them guidance from their own experience and let them make a decision. That’s what the clients are paying them for.  

It’s important to manage the expectations of your client instead of jumping to them. This, of course, is easier if you have an abundance of clients; if you do, pick only the best ones. It’s not your job to be a chauffeur and show a buyer a hundred homes. Your job is to find a buyer a home that is suitable for them and let them live the American dream. If they have to look at 50 homes to do that, you’re doing something wrong.

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If you have to show 50 homes to the same buyer, you’re doing something wrong.

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The average person looks at seven or eight homes before making an offer. My agents try to cut that number down to four or five. They accomplish this through coaching and preparation. What happens when you don’t do these things? I put my own house up for sale a few weeks ago and got an offer the first day for $25,000 under the listing price. When I asked the buyer agent why this was, he told me that that was what his buyer wanted him to do. 

That’s absurd! That agent should’ve told his buyer that that kind of offer was going to alienate the seller—me—because that’s exactly what happened. You should be prepared for a scenario like that. Have a script if you have to, for instance, and use it to tell your buyer why it’s a mistake to come in at such a low value. 

Time and time again, I see deals fall apart because agents aren’t controlling the transaction and giving their clients good advice. They’re not driving the train; they’re letting their clients do that. In my opinion, real estate is a great business, but you have to control it. As an agent, you have to be in a position of power. Be honest and direct with your clients and tell them the things that they need to hear.

If you have any questions on how my agents only show four homes, give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! 

Focusing on the Right People to Grow Your Business

Today I wanted to talk about growing your business. Too often, we talk about buying our way to success; a new contact management system, a new lead system. Sometimes the growth in your business is not a 'what' but a 'who.'

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The key to growth is not a question of 'what,' it's a question of 'who.'

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I look back at my business and my success and see that I've been joined by some really great and successful people, and without them, I likely would have failed. I took almost the entire month of July off and we still have 82 homes pending, and our business is still flourishing. That's because I have great people. When you go from a job as a Realtor to a business owner, your first hire is going to be a great assistant, not a buyer's agent.

The key is to surround yourself with like-minded people who dream big and take care of them. I'm taking my team and their spouses to the Bahamas, for example. The trip will be on me because I appreciate all they do and how dedicated they are.

Another good example comes from a recent run-in I had with a former chairman of Churchill Downs who had just sold a 700-acre horse farm. Part of the deal, he said, was that if the new owner kept all of the farm workers employed, he'd keep 50 mares there. He could've sold the farm and walked away not caring about his people, but he didn't - he made sure they were taken care of.

The key to success as you grow your business is surrounding yourself with great people. Who can you surround yourself with to move from having a job into a growing a business?

I hope you found this topic interesting and helpful. If you have any more questions about growing your business or you're interested in joining our team, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you!