7 Habits of Highly Ineffective REALTORS® | Real Estate Agent Mistakes Not To Make

There are probably scores of mistakes real estate agents can make, however, there are 7 mistakes, or bad habits, that bother me the most. Probably because I see them more that I would prefer to. Here is my list of 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective REALTORS®:

1. Tardiness, or being late for appointments. When a real estate agent shows up late for an appointment, it communicates the message that "my time is more important than your time," or "I'm too irresponsible or careless to provide a courtesy call communicating an unforeseen event," and/or "I simply do not care enough." Enough said on that.

2. Not returning calls promptly. We've had listing agents simply not return calls. The agent lists the property, then does not return calls on the listing. Not returning calls at all is certainly an extreme example, however returning calls promptly is important to the flow of business. Better yet, answering the phone when it rings is even better. Statistics say that a prospective client will go with the first real estate agent spoken with 80% of the time.

3. Not calling on the business cards left by real estate agents showing your listing. The real estate agent whose buyer is not interested in your listing is a prime source of information. Information like, did the house show well, were the sellers at home and disruptive to the process, does the house have curb appeal, is the house smelling like pets, nicotine, etc.

4. Bad listing pictures.

5. The car being used. In our opinion, using a car that appeals to middle-middle to upper-middle class America is important. The bright red 2008 Mercedes communicates decadence and "I make too much money," however, the dirty late model Ford (or whatever) communicates a lack of success and unprofessionalism.

6. Profanity. It never ceases to amaze me the profanity that is spoken to strangers in a business situation. Not knowing the background of the stranger, the real estate agent may be using profanity to a pastor, missionary, or whomever. Along these same lines, course words, jokes, and stories, are in the same way unprofessional.

7. Misinformation. Having the proper listing description, for instance. Providing accurate answers to questions when asked. Essentially, knowing the product you are selling and/or representing.

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The Levity Effect: Using humor to win more sales
by: Adrian Gostick

Who hasn't suffered through a sales presentation so mind-numbingly dull that even the speaker seemed ready to nod off? Why put your customers through that torture? And what did they take away from the bore-a-thon, besides a desire to step in front of a charging water buffalo? Probably not much.

Whether you're about to make a presentation to senior management to get funding for your big idea (outsourcing to primates), to pitch a sales prospect who could make your year, or trying to engage a troop of distracted Camp Fire Girls, great communicators know that a little humor goes a long way toward making you and your messages more memorable.

Some salespeople mistakenly worry, however, that humor dilutes their message, makes it less urgent and torpedoes credibility. Nothing could be further than the truth. Sending a message with levity demonstrates a clear understanding of the principles of effective communication. It also shows the audience you value their time enough to want to entertain and connect with them and make it worth their while.

Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO of the Kaplan Thaler Advertising Agency, is famous for using humor to stand out in traditionally conservative categories such as insurance (she created the famous Aflac Duck campaign). She wouldn't have had a chance to create such memorable campaigns if she hadn't won the business in the first place. And, she says, those wins are often due to the humor her team uses in presentations.

"I'm always trying to lighten it up in a sales situation," she said. "We were pitching an account for Panasonic. Our strategy was that no one likes to shave, which was the understatement of the year. In fact, 15 agencies were pitching the account and all were going to end up doing the same pitch. So we needed to find a way to be more creative and funny. So I wrote a song called ‘Shaving Sucks.' "

As the business meeting began, Kaplan Thaler and her team sat around a conference table with the executives from this electronics giant. The Panasonic brass was expecting a formal presentation, but instead Kaplan Thaler smiled and said, "Pretend I'm one of the guys." Then she proceeded to sing, "Shaving sucks, shaving sucks, like a Band-Aid getting stuck, why does half the human race tear the hair out of their face ..."

After sitting through days of drab pitches, the executives were very quickly snorting and hooting in appreciation of the zany song.

"They loved it, and we got the business. They said, ‘You didn't have the best strategy, but you had the most entertaining way to do it. So we figured you guys are going to be a lot of fun and more entertaining to work with.'"

She concludes: "There's a silent, secret rule that no one really shares in sales. Very often the team that most entertains the client wins the business."

That's why many leaders follow the Zap Rule, which is basically this: Audiences need a zap at least once every three to six minutes during a sales presentation to stay focused and interested. Research shows that the average adult has an attention span of six minutes. So that three-hour sales pitch on new safer work boots you're planning had better be packed with gory accident videos or something funny or you're in serious danger of an apathetic audience, at best. Sad, but true.

For 142 tips on how to add humor to your sales presentations, read The Levity Effect, the new book from New York Times bestselling author Adrian Gostick and humorist Scott Christopher. Visit www.levityeffect.com for more information.

Do You Know How To Deliver An Effective Sales Presentation?
By: Bill Brooks

What defines a powerful, effective sales presentation? Perhaps the argument could be made that you have given a great presentation any time your prospect has bought your product or service!

However, that reasoning is erroneous. Your sale may have had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of your presentation. It may have been timing that performed the trick. Maybe you gave your presentation directly on the heels of a poor presentation by a competitor. Perhaps your price was the lowest.

Knowing this, what really defines an effective, powerful sales presentation? Let's look at 10 essentials for a powerful sales presentation.

• Your presentation is absolutely, 100% on target and addresses the specific issues, needs or problems your prospect has to have solved. There is no gap between your product or service application and the solution the prospect is trying to achieve.

• You design your presentation to be a dialogue instead of a monologue. You will seek and receive feedback, reaction, comments and an acceptance level from your prospect.

• Your prospect will become engaged physically and psychologically with you, your presentation and how it applies to them. Allow them to experience your product or service.

• You consistently stress benefits and positive, end-result solutions that your prospect will receive if they purchase your product or service. You don't just stress feature after irrelevant feature.

• You will create value for your product or service. You will not just quote a premature price or anything that doesn't translate into value for your prospect.

• Your presentation will mirror your prospect's time frame and schedule for making a purchase. Not yours.

• If you are one of multiple presenters, you should either make your presentation first or last. Under no circumstance do you want to be buried in the middle between other potential suppliers.

• You are willing to course correct, adjust or modify your presentation as you move along. You are not afraid to resubmit, rewrite or reconfigure your presentation.

• You will have garnered sufficient internal support to guarantee that you have enough depth in the account to provide you the level of knowledge you need to have in expediting the account.

• You will not confuse your prospect. Don't use buzzwords, acronyms or any phrase or word that could, in any way, be confusing to your buyer.

Making an effective, meaningful presentation is at the very heart of professional selling. However, without input from your prospect it is impossible to make the most meaningful presentation you can. As a consequence, there are two essential issues that must be dealt with before you can begin to achieve this. They are:

• Pre-Call Planning and Preparation

• Accurate questioning and the subsequent targeting of precisely how your product or service will address your prospect's situation.

Another essential here is your depth of product knowledge. This will allow you to search your personal database of information and extract from it your best method of presentation and the capacity to make what could be a complex presentation more easily understood.

In making a great presentation, remember this - simple is better. Also remember that it is all about your prospect and how your product or service will bring value to their situation. It is not about you or your pocketbook. If you remember all of these essential tips, you will be a world-class presenter of your product or service.

The real bottom-line issue is one that all salespeople need to understand and apply. If your product or service is not something that clearly addresses a problem, fills a need or helps your prospect do what they do better, don't even make the presentation! If there is not a fit, move on to the next prospect. There is nothing worse or more tragic than a salesperson who continues to joust with windmills that aren't there. If your product or service is not right for one situation, there are lots of other situations where it will fit.

That leads to one final point. Have you ever thought that, perhaps, the most essential key to an effective presentation is really prospecting? That prospecting and identifying prospects who really do have an interest in or need for your product or service just might be the best way to ensure the best presentation? Give it some thought...I believe you'll discover the answer.

It's Not What You Make That Counts - It's What You Get To Keep
By: Patrick Astre

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."- Albert Einstein

There are two things in life you don't want to watch closely as they're made; the first is sausages, the second is tax laws. While death and taxes are inevitable, death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. The constant push-pull of special interests, partisan and "pork barrel" politics left us with an income tax system that is convoluted and overly complex.

The system has one saving grace: it's semi-voluntary. For example, everyone knows that if you own a home, you may deduct the property taxes and mortgage interest. But you are not required to. You could file form 1040A and forego deductions and "volunteer" to pay more taxes. 

There are a great number of tax-saving opportunities available to business owners. Sad to say, many of these opportunities are not well known and often ignored even by tax planners, CPAs and attorneys. By not using them, you will have "volunteered" to pay more taxes.

Let's get one thing out in the open at the get-go: Everything this article covers is legal, audit-tested and rooted well within the IRC (Internal Revenue Code.) So let's get started so you can keep more of that hard-earned money from your business.

There are plenty of business tax savings in the system without resorting to illegal strategies that can come back to bite you. Stay away from tax evasion schemes such as foreign trusts, secret offshore bank accounts, claiming your house as a "church," and other shady deals sold out of magazines or the Internet. Remember what happened to Wesley Snipes recently? Well, here are a few legitimate strategies you can implement now:

Rent part of your home to your business. Many business owners use part of their homes for business, second office, storage, etc., and yet those expenses are not deducted. Determine the portion of your home that is used for business and rent it to your corporation or LLC. Rent should be reasonable and average for your area. You must report the income on Schedule E of your personal tax return (1040) but you will apply a percentage of deductions against that income such as utilities, home insurance and maintenance, depreciation, etc. that you cannot use otherwise.

Don't fear the home office deduction. If you operate as a sole proprietor, you cannot rent part of your home to yourself. However, you can use the home office deduction. A court ruling in the late 80s resulted in that deduction being outlawed and denied to many businesses. Legislation two years later overturned this ruling and restored the deduction. However, many accountants to this day fear using this. Don't listen to them. Home office deductions are legitimate and allowed by the IRC. As in all deductions, be sure to keep documentation to back it up.

Don't neglect business use of your automobile. Simply because you don't use your car often in your business, it doesn't mean you shouldn't deduct the amount that you do use. Keep a log of your business mileage, reimburse yourself by using the IRS mileage rate and deduct it on your business tax return. Do not include commute to and from your business, and make sure to document the business reason for auto usage.

Make your spouse part owner (shareholder) of your Sub S Corporation. A recent tax court ruling held that any money paid sole shareholders of "S" corporations from the business must be taken as payroll. That's because "S" distributions are not subject to payroll taxes and the IRS wants those taxes paid. The tax court backed it up by stating that a single shareholder-owner is rendering service to the corporation. By having a spouse part owner, you no longer have a sole shareholder and the spouse may receive distributions without payroll taxes. Caution: Be certain you have a good marital situation because your spouse will now own part of the business.

Are you bad at record keeping? Consider LLC "Disregarded Entity Status." If you are a single member LLC owner, the IRS allows your status to be "disregarded' for income tax purposes. You file a Schedule C (Self employment) just like a sole proprietor, yet you are protected from liability. The advantage is simplification of record keeping. You can take money out of your business anytime, you can co-mingle money, avoid filing as a corporation and generally make business life easier. Caution: You must still document income and expenses and retain documentation to back it up. 

Set up a SEP IRA, SIMPLE, 401K or other retirement plan. Since it comes off the top, this will save 27.5 percent and 7.5 percent (NY) in the average brackets. Sure, you can't spend it until you retire, but so what? You're going to get older and need money for retirement; where will it come from if you don't accumulate it? Caution: If you have employees you must contribute equally to their retirement plan. Consult with a pro for the details.

These are only a few business ideas. There are tons more in the IRC. Be proactive. Work with your accountant to develop safe, tax-saving strategies. If you want to "volunteer" money, give it to your favorite charity, not the IRS.

SIDEBAR - How small businesses can audit proof their tax returns:

There are differing degrees and levels of audits, yet they all have one thing in common: They are triggered by what people put in their business tax returns. The IRS has something called Discriminate Function programmed into their computers. When the numbers on a return fall under certain criteria, the return is flagged for manual review. An agent will determine if that return should be audited. Although the specific criteria are secret, we know that certain things will trigger audits: Ratios and unusually high deductions, and certain tax shelters and strategies. You should claim these deductions if you have incurred them, but retain documented proof such as receipts and cancelled checks.

Here are a number of audit triggers on corporate, partnership and other business returns that you can easily avoid

Round Numbers: Deductions rounded off to the nearest hundred or thousand will lead the IRS to think the taxpayer is guessing rather then determining from accurate records. You didn't spend $10,000 on advertising - it was $9,487.56!

Answer all questions and boxes: Blank doesn't mean "no." Questions on various returns involving trusts, partnerships, foreign accounts, accounting methods, etc. should be answered. Don't leave them blank.

Categorize deductions: Large deductions headed "Miscellaneous" or with vague wording may lead the IRS to decide you're not keeping good records, can't prove the deduction, or are hiding false deductions within that general category.

Be careful about distributions on Schedule K of your corporation tax returns (1120 or 1120S) If you are a sole shareholder of a "sub S," a recent tax court ruling holds that you may not take distributions, it must be structured as payroll. If there are multiple owners, the amount of distributions on Schedule K must always be less than officers' compensation on page one of your 1120S. If you are a "C" corporation most distributions will be considered a dividend and subject to double taxation. 

Document NOLs (Net Operating Loss) very carefully. If you have a year in which you occur large losses in your business, you may go back three years by filing for NOL and receive refunds of taxes paid previously. NOLs are scrutinized very carefully and audited most of the time. Be sure your documentation is near perfect before filing.

Skewed ratios and constant business losses. You can't operate a plumbing business for a decade and lose money each year. A real estate office may have gross commissions of $200K in one year and expenses of $190K. A couple of years later the gross income rises to $600K. Will the expenses also rise to $570K? Usually not. These are actual cases that were audited. As you may guess the results weren't very good. 

Choose your tax-preparer and accountant carefully. You are responsible for your business return. If there are errors triggering an examination, you are the one who will be audited and pay. When the IRS suspects tax preparers of incompetence or misconduct, it can force them to produce lists of clients who may face examination. Here are some guidelines to use when choosing an accountant or tax-preparer:

Always use preparers with certifications. EAs (Enrolled Agents), CPAs and Attorneys are the only ones authorized by the Treasury Department to represent clients before the IRS. There are many good preparers out there without certification, but how would you know which are good and which are not?

Never accept a return without the preparer's tax ID number and signature ... this is required by law. If it is left blank or states "Self Prepared" there's something wrong!

Review your return. Are the figures on the return the ones you gave? Ask questions. Even the best preparers can make a mistake, especially during the pressures of a busy tax season. 

Talk to your accountant. Be sure you're on the same page and ask about strategies. Be proactive. It will keep you out of trouble and save you money. 

In recent years IRS audits have dropped for staffing reasons, but are now increasing. Businesses and average-to-higher income individuals have greater chances for audits in coming years. This is just a small sample of the savings possible with good planning. There's not enough room to list them all, but they're out there waiting for you ... just like the IRS.