The 1 Star review
For many the first urge is to bury this reveiw with many, many better reviews.
But, just wait a minute.
There may be gold in that review.
Take a look a this 6 minute video my Jeff Walker.
Give an example of a 1 start review in your business and how you can leverage the review for ‘self-selection’ purposes.
You’ve probably done this before: sitting at home or in your office, trying hard to “have a breakthrough” for your real estate business… “What else can I do!”
You are trying to think harder, to plan better, to be more strategic, to come up with something more effective… but not getting anywhere you haven’t been before.
At some point in every agents business experience, we all have to realize that you can’t create breakthroughs just by wanting them.
Even experienced coaches can’t create a breakthrough on demand! (If they say they can remind yourself, ‘you’ve been here before.’)
To get to a breakthrough one must understand the real estate business’ and the agents situation, background, mission, motivation, strengths, and challenges. Their resources, skills and purpose. And that also means spending time, asking all the right questions, and perhaps finding a especially good ear that can hear you, can listen, too.
You and your collaborator work to explore ways to move step-by-step toward accomplishing the big goals and fulfilling the big mission, find that breakthrough.
If it takes an expert coach all that time and effort to create a business breakthrough for a real estate agent, how can any of us expect to do the same on our own when we don’t have that level of strategic expertise? I can’t afford, my budget won’t allow, hiring these high powered, high priced experts to get me to my breakthrough.
The truth is, if you, like most real estate agents, been racking your brains alone, trying to figure out exactly where you’re going and exactly how to get there…
…then it’s time to get help.
Yes, the option to hire a consultant, coach or strategist is always present.
But there is another option. It is elusive mainly due to lack of unawareness of the cage constructed that limits ones thinking and obscures their vision.
The escape from the cage into the breakthrough may be as simple as embracing the truth that wisdom resides in the council of many.
What if you could engage experienced business owners, real estate business owners, who are capable of asking the right questions, probing for the real values, sufficiently courageous to challenge counter-intentioned thinking and work towards the breakthrough you need.
Would you be willing to pay the price?
There is a place called ActiveRain.com wheres those with a lifetime of real estate experience gather for sharing and teaching opportunities.
Active Rain is a community that has demonstrated a willingness to help.
Active Rain is a sincere group who truly want to help others but do not care to engage in such a serious undertaking in a public forum. However, they would participate if the group contained those willing to contribute in a meaningful way and are willing to pay the price of learning that has been previously listed.
How would you suggest such a collaborative effort be facilitated?
Private FB
Video conference
Webinar
Open chat room
Other
With news of Russia interfering with USA elections, fake news and hate groups, many have become disillusioned with Social Media. Some going as far as saying, “They are done with it all!”
As marketers, we need to assess what ‘Done with it all!” means.
(Chart from Pew Research Institute.)
We already know Facebook is the 800 lb gorrilla in the Social Media space with YouTube a hard pressing second.
Take notice that there are substantial differences in social media use by age. Some 88% of 18- to 29-year-olds indicate that they use some form of social media. That share falls to 78% among those ages 30 to 49, to 64% among those ages 50 to 64 and to 37% among Americans 65 and older. But none of that is new.
Snapchat: 78% of 18- to 24-year-olds are Snapchat users, but that share falls to 54% among those ages 25 to 29. Will these become eligible homebuyers when they reach the 25 to 29 bracket? Will Snapchat still be around?
Facebook is used by a majority of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups.
There is stronger appeal to certain subsets of the population. In addition to the age-related differences in the use of sites such as Instagram and Snapchat noted above, here are a few more prominent examples:
With more than 50% of those over 50 years old using FaceBook and/or Youtube, to abandon social media may prove to be a self-sabatoging decision.
7 Excellent Disruptive Marketing Tips Every Brand Needs To Know About http://bit.ly/2iXHkkr
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In the past 30 days I have worked with two buyers who purchased FSBO houses and assisted a seller in getting their home sold. Although I have felt loath to publish a FSBO themed blog, these recent experiences have revealed a real need to do so. Not so much for agents but for those owners who don’t believe. They don’t believe how expensive this choice will be. The outcome could be irrelevant if the goal is to say “I did it myself’ as opposed to saying, “I received $30,000 more than I imagined possible.” Unless I were to assume FSBO makes this choice as their personal commitment to reduce the cost of housing for buyers, the real cost must be below their radar, going undetected as the ownership of their house changes.
Annette Lawrence, Broker Associate, REMAX Realtec Group, Palm Harbor FL 727.420.4041
In 2015, according to the MidFloridaRegionalMLS and local tax records, the average FSBO was sold for $210,000. The normal home with an agent’s help went for $249,000. It’s not a surprise what a real estate professional can offer.
But there is a difference in just telling them everything you will do for their home verse why it makes such a big difference when they list with an agent.
This is one of the most difficult, and not thought of parts, that owners run into when selling by themselves. NAR reports that 12% of FSBOs said that paperwork 
was the hardest part of the whole process.
It varies from state to state but there is a whole lot of forms and legal paperwork they get stuck with. The sales contract, counters, disclosures, maintenance records, providers, repair confirmation, association documents, and more are what needs to be done.
Even if they have a pre-made contract that doesn’t mean a DIY seller will understand each part of it.
When a non-professional submits a purchase offer on a non-standard form, the purpose could be to cause the seller to abandon understanding and to rely on taking the buyer at their word.
What could possibly go wrong?
LBefore a real estate professional speaks with or interacts with a FSBO, they need to know all the typical and unexpected costs a FSBO will have. Most owners won’t know them. A few of those costs are shown below. The situation of the owner may alter the costs involved.
Some loans, usually non-government loans, have a prepayment penalty. A prepayment penalty means if they pay off their mortgage, typically within the first five years, there is a penalty for doing it too quickly.
Holding costs are costs that an owner must pay while they wait for their house to sell. Most experts suggest that they will need to pay 4-6 months of payments after listing, at the very least. Some of these costs include:
Research statistics from MidFloridaRegional MLS show that homes in certain segments are on the market for about 91 days. Even when an offer is put on their house and the closing process starts, these costs are still there and can endure for months..
According to Realtor Magazine, about one-third of all real estate transactions fail to close. Failure to close can create some of the biggest cost these owners face. Each failure adds to the costs and stacks up the days on market, both create a deterioration of potential profit for the home owner.
There exist nine additional areas of cost for which an agent considering talking to a homeowner considering a DIY solution should be made aware.
The Tampa Bay FL, jobs news this week ACTIMIZE
Monitoring the job market enables a real estate professional to respond to employment questions about their area. A lot of available employment equates to businesses expanding.
High paying employment is indicative of the vibrant and durable regional economy.
But sometimes you see a true anomaly that compels more research.
Last week the jobs list to the right was published.
Twelve job posting by different companies was for “Actimize Development“ which had not appeared on any previous jobs list.
As it turns out Actimize is a suite of products to secure online financial transactions for all types of business.
It is understandable with all the robberies of USA financial enterprises successfully completed by hackers across the globe. Everyday USA citizens become MORE vulnerable, not less. Every business and institution endures cyber attacks everyday.
Two things trouble me.
One goes back to the Chinese drywall that plagued some homes during the past building boom. A US judge found the Chinese Government owned gypsum company who made the dry wall guilty and obligated to pay restitution. The Chinese government declared they do not recognize the authority of the US courts over a Chinese government owned company. The blatant disregard, by China, regarding providing a safe product resulted in no punishment. The idea that China can participate in the global economy and accept NONE of the responsibilities ANY company would be obligated (Think Volkswagen) to assume is troubling.
In the past 30 days I have worked with two buyers who purchased FSBO houses and assisted a seller in getting their home sold. Although I have felt loath to publish a FSBO themed blog, these recent experiences have revealed a real need to do so. Not so much for agents but for those owners who don’t believe. They don’t believe how expensive this choice will be. The outcome could be irrelevant if the goal is to say “I did it myself’ as opposed to saying, “I received $30,000 more than I imagined possible.” Unless I were to assume FSBO makes this choice as their personal commitment to reduce the cost of housing for buyers, the real cost must be below their radar, going undetected as the ownership of their house changes.
For Sale By Owner, (FSBO) implies that the owner must know how to professionally market, show the property, negotiate a selling price for the house, and (of course) manage to get all the necessary paperwork completed for the eventual home sale.
That last aspect usually includes finding an attorney to draft the necessary sale 
contract, as well as a title company to support and help complete the sale. All these aspects can turn out to be pretty challenging for someone who is not fully prepared to take on this challenging task. Too often, a home owner spends a few hours on ‘the dark side’ website and concludes they are prepared to sell their most valuable asset.
But the audience reading this blog are real estate professionals. Real estate agents must understand it is important for the agent to do extensive market research on the matter before any attempt to market themselves to a FSBO
Saving money is one, and most often cited, reason a homeowner may choose the FSBO option. The reality, as I experienced the past 30 days, reveals an entirely different truth.
6 Reasons FACEBOOK Advertising Does Not Work!
The title could have read “6 Essential Steps Required to Make Your FACEBOOK Ads WORK.”
Those considering starting a Facebook ads campaign will be the ones who will benefit most by reading this blog.
Like anything useful, there will exist some level of care and feeding required. As real estate professionals we have so many issues and concerns demanding our attention. Add to that the insecurity of chasing after shiny things and a great reluctance to invest time or try something new creates a static inertia that usurps the energy required to get a valid result.
We each have 24 hours in our day. No level of time management can change that. What 
you fill those 24 hours with is called task management, the only management we actually can do. I have elected to fill a time slot with strenuous exercise because I place great value on the benefits of exercise. Without seeing or experiencing the benefits is would be hard to invest great energy and allocate the ‘care and feeding’ required of disciplined exercise.
The same will prove true with any marketing effort, is you can not see, you will not do. Those who ‘see’ the Facebook potential are willing to make the following effort to care and feed for their Facebook ad campaign.
Why don’t Facebook ads work? Let’s talk a walk through the Facebook reality.
Did you know that in the past year Facebook has changed their algorithm so extensively any pre-existing ad campaigns simply must be replaced. It is not a suggestion but a Facebook reality. Those running ads created in 2015 are absolutely correct when they say, “Facebook ads don’t work.”
Let’s take a look at 6 common mistakes most folks make that result in “Facebook ads don’t work” outcomes.
Continue reading
So often when you talk with the bigger than life heroes, they see themselves to be just like you and me. The only difference is they were at a place at a time that required someone to do something, usually to help, protect or save someone else. They typically ask, “What else was I supposed to do?”
They have a story to tell.
They have a story they want to tell.
They have a story they need to tell.
A story we all need to hear.
Their stories invariably teach us how we should live our lives, engage our community, raise our family, fulfill our responsibilities and to, in humility, accept the help of others with a warm thank you.
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For so many, their story perishes having never had the opportunity to nourish another who strives, or comforts one who weeps, or lifts up another downtrodden or liberates the one of broken spirit. Their story of the noblest acts of our kind are purposed to instruct, encourage, uplift, forgive, release, heal, and even admonish, that we may all be lifted higher.
Sandra, the shift nurse who works the neonate section in the Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa. My confused ears burn as she shares, “We cure half of them.” She embraces a profound purpose beyond my grasp.
Rebecca, the manager at Beacon Street who works 29 hours a day as an advocate for the homeless and hungry in Clearwater and barely has enough for herself.
Tony, who never accepts my invitation to BBQ in my back yard because he works at Walmart and WaWa and Perkins and takes care of lawns in his spare time, because he has a family to which he is committed. “I love my family. How can you hurt someone you say you love?”
Amelia, at the DMV, who is berated by everyone, but she still smiles and suggests success means taking a number from the dispenser, never hinting of the great burden she carries as she worries about the future of her family when she is gone.
Aaron (not real name) a 11 year old who is too aware of himself and what happens around him. Always smiles and insists on giving a hug only an 11 year old can deliver. “Don’t you know Aaron, that not everyone wants to be hugged?” “I know,” he responds, “but they need to be hugged.”
Mercedes has two beautiful children and when calamity struck, lost her security, society and home. $2,000 from insurance purchased enrollment in school while she tended her family while being swept from one address to another. Worked menial jobs, attended school, did homework with the kids at the table every evening, read them stories, laundry, clean, groceries and studied into the night. Upon completion of school, she was taken in by a business owner who said. “You’re on your own. Learn to swim or you will drown.” Confused, frantic, distressed and ever-present anxiety threatened to overcome Mercedes, for she was truly on her own, an abyss approaching at alarming speed.. Both of Mercedes children are overachieving students with a work ethic unparalleled whose mother was present every step of the way. Mercedes created a thriving real estate business and now eagerly extends the hand of help to those who calamity visits. “My story,” she says, “is that of thousands who calamity visits. What choice is there?”
For these whom I call HERO, it is not about a moment of valor, but a lifetime of commitment, a legacy of caring, a remembrance of their purpose, that because they can effect change in the life of others, a purpose that is greater than them compels them towards greatness that few will ever know, a greater purpose so profound, their own words can not reach its depth.
Yes, I do support heroes and have yet to see a cape on any of them.
I encourage YOU to steal my text if you want, change the names, change the action, but acknowledge the heroes around you for those heroes are the ones who lay the foundation from which our greater tomorrow will emerge. They are the fabric which binds our society together, and they do so in the silence of enduring commitment and tireless love.
The PURPOSE of this blog goes one step further. You too are a part of the fabric, a integral part of the mosaic we call community. Don’t wait for the cape! Be the hero you need to be to exhibit your love, commitment, hope, compassion to those who are important to you. They will tell your story. As often and as long as your story is repeated, you live.
Annette Lawrence's Weblog 