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Thanks for stopping by my accountability page. I will be posting my status updates here as a way of making myself accountable for my business growth.

As a self employed Realtor® if I do not work I do not get paid. If I do not get paid I am not able to provide for my children, nor am I able to eat. I love my children and I really like to eat! So, simply put I am committing to six or more hours of prospecting every weekday for the next 120 days. September 1st through December 31st 2010. What will happen if I put this much effort into prospecting or as it is also known lead generation? I don’t honestly know. I do not know any other Realtor® who puts in 30 hours of prospecting a week. I do know that no matter what the outcome is I will come out of this experiment a better Realtor® and a better person.

What drives an otherwise middle of the pack as far as production real estate agent to take on this type of commitment? Frankly I am tired of the nagging feeling that I have never really accomplished anything. I dropped out of college, tried my hand at many different types of jobs from being a mortgage funder in the mid 80′s to loading trucks for eight years, to working in a data center for a large retailer, to selling software, filling vending machines, selling antiques online, and a whole bunch of other things. The thing I realized out of all of those experiences is that I am a terrible employee. A great worker but not a great employee. I ended up in real estate after losing my job working for a large non-profit agency. That was the summer of 2006 and my wife at the time was managing a real estate office. I had always wanted to get into real estate ever since I was in college yet the fear of not getting a regular trip to the feedbag every two weeks kept me from trying to sell houses. I studied and passed the test and thought the world was my oyster. Trouble is for over a year I did not sell a single house. My resolve was tested I kept plugging away and after 13 months I sold my first house. I followed that up with another four in the next 2 months and thought I had it all figured out. Well my wife and I divorced and my other source of income dried up. The market was declining and it was getting harder and harder to sell homes. I’ve stuck with it and each year I have done better and better as far as number of units. Average price has dropped but units have gone up. I am on pace to have my best year as far as closings this year.

But, it’s not enough. I am capable of better. I love doing selling real estate but, I can do better. So the accountability challenge. Being accountable to yourself is a common theme over on Bloodhound Blog a real estate related blog that I am a frequent reader of. Recent posts have been focused on salesmanship and professionalism and accountability. They’ve inspired me to make a bold statement and announce to the world (or anyone who actually reads this) that I am SERIOUS about building my business and taking to the next level.

I will be fleshing this out over the next few days. For tonight this is good enough. I am publishing it and soon Google and Bing will be sending their little spiders out and my proclamation that I will prospect for six or more hours a day will be recorded and I will not be able to deny ever making the claim.

Here is a photo of my home work area. Why is this important? I am not sure that it is. However, I will find it interesting to see how the area changes during 120 days of dedicated prospecting. One of the things I like about my home office is that it allows me to be around when my teenage kids are home. One of the things I do not like about my home office is that I am trying to work when my kids are at home. I also have a desk at my Keller Williams office in Gig Harbor. To this point I have not been utilizing my KW office as much as I should. One of the areas of improvement during the challenge is to maximize prospecting efforts and I will be using my KW office more and more. My being more focused on my prospecting efforts I will be able to be more focused on my parenting efforts when I am not working. Looks like a win win for myself and my kids.

Update 9/3/10

Three days in and I have yet to make the six hours a day that I have set as the target. I have however set a showing with a referral from an online referral partner, 2 listing appointments, and the direct contact information for a REO department with a local lender. I will update the blog with what I have been doing specifically. Too tired tonight for write anything that anyone would find interesting.

Update 9/5/10

What I am Doing to Prospect 6 or More Hours a Day

Last modified on 2010-09-06 05:05:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Good question when I know I will tell you!

Ok kidding aside that is one of the big questions that is being asked of me by everyone who is inquiring about my progress with the prospecting challenge. As of tonight I really do not have a clear roadmap of how I will be spending my time prospecting. When I made the announcement that I would prospect 6 hours or more a day I was really responding to how I felt emotionally when I read a few posts by Jeff Brown and Greg Swann over at Bloodhound Blog. So I spoke up, I climbed up on the online soapbox of the Internet and said to the world that I will prospect 6 or more hours a day!

The specifics of my grand idea well like many political promises are vague when you look closer. Unlike a political promise I want to make my plan a well documented story so that perhaps someone else will find the inspiration to do something bold with their life and follow along and perhaps, just perhaps find a nugget of value in my notes.

As of this moment my prospecting has consisted of connecting with the people in my database in a top down effort. What I mean is that I am working my way through my database cherry picking the easy ones and waiting until later to take the harder ones on. I realize that this is not the best thing to be doing. I need to be reaching out to everyone in my data base whether it’s easy, hard, or uncomfortable. We all have names in our lists that we are not quite sure when was the last time we communicated with. My goal is to reconnect with everyone in my database and to make sure that they know I am ready, willing, and able to help them.

After cleaning up my database it is time to add new names to it. This of course will be happening while I am cleaning up the database. So far I have picked up one new buyer referral and two listing appointments in my first three days of prospecting. I am pleased with the early results.

How I will be adding new names to the database is a bit of a mystery to me at this moment. Many people have very strong opinions on what works and what does not. I know that I need to challenge my comfort zone and to get outside of my box. At this point I am not willing to say I will not do that to anything that is prospecting related. I must give it a try before I say no to it.

That’s it for this post. More posts to come. Thanks for dropping by. Leave a comment and offer suggestions. Together we can all get better!

Update 9/13/10

Discovering the Art of Prospecting? Still working on it.

Last modified on 2010-09-14 14:27:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Thanks for taking the time to stop in and check up on how I am doing. I have not been prospecting as much as I stated I would. I am getting in 4 hours a day or so but I am finding that business and life is getting in my way to accomplish more than 4 hours of actual prospecting.  I am making adjustments to my life to allow for more prospecting time.

• I have hired an assistant to help me 10 to 20 hours a week.
  • Training the assistant has been taking more time than I budgeted
  • Assistant will be a vital piece of the prospecting success plan
• I am setting up a new computer network that will allow me to access my files from any location that I am at.
  • Purchased all necessary software. Microsoft Small Business Server and Windows 7 Ultimate
  • Purchased a tabletPC used off of Craigslist
  • Installing software over the weekend of 9/18

As you can see I have been focusing on systems instead of prospecting. I need to discover and practice the art of prospecting. Six hours a day is a doable amount of prospecting if one has the necessary support in place to allow concentration on the prospecting. Reaching out and contacting people about real estate is really quite simple if you know what to say and if you are coming from the position of contribution. One of the things I have noticed is that I find any excuse to stop prospecting to create systems or some other non-income producing activity. I am focusing my efforts this week on contacting my database and building rapport with the people in my database.

So far I have had the following successes

Showing multi-million dollar commercial property to client. Showing 2nd home condos to a client. 2 new leads from floor time at office. One turned into a showing and the other will as soon as the particular house is back on the market. 2 listing appointments. 1 new co-listing. 3 showing of townhomes to existing client. Meeting with developer to consider purchasing partially completed townhome projects.

I’ve been busy as the above indicates. I know I can do better and I will do better. A lot of really positive things are happening for me in my career and the rest of 2010 will be a whole lot of fun

Best wishes-

Scott

Update 9/16/10

Interesting relation between prospecting and Twitter

Last modified on 2010-09-16 14:05:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Something interesting is happening that I would of not thought would be happening. The number of people who are following me on Twitter has increased at a very high rate since I have started prospecting. Random chance or direct results? I do not know.

Those of you who know me and have attended any real estate or social media events know that I am not a big Twitter fan. (understating it just a bit I would say) so why the increase in Twitter followers? Are people using Twitter to stay abreast of what I am doing? Perhaps I should start tweeting more? I do not really see the business need to tweet…… could this be another area that I need to reconsider?

Prospecting going well. Took a new listing yesterday. Co-listing another one as well. Introduced to another potential seller who is looking for help. Not a bad day. 3 sign calls on one listing yesterday as well.

TabletPC and I are still not friends after I let it play with Windows 7 but that really is my fault now isn’t it? New server has OS installed and is ready to be plugged into router and firewall.

Brokers Open today at Crescent Valley and then a buyers consult in the afternoon.

Prospecting is tiring and I am acknowledging that I am tired and mentally drained. Much like going to the gym and starting out on the weights I used to lift when I was in college. Muscles that I forgot about scream in pain. Prospecting is having the same impact on me. The good news is that I am excited by the results and that is fueling my efforts to get out and about. Now, I need to figure out how to get into the office so they think that I am still alive =)

Update 9/20/10

Prospecting and Systems. What is working and what needs improvement

Last modified on 2010-09-20 13:11:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. I hope that you are at the very least finding it enjoyable watching someone who is moving from one set of habits to a completely new set of habits. It’s been fun for me and a lot of hard work. I am really tired; both physically and mentally right now. I will continue my efforts though as I have gone too far to turn back now.

To recap last weeks efforts.

Finally was able to show the house on Ketron Island to my new clients. The efforts to stay in touch paid off. Now we are in the discovery phase to see if an offer is in their best interests.  An offer that was made on a commercial space was not accepted. Seller is not willing to move off of asking price so we are still looking. Offer was received and accepted on one of my listings. One of my listings is coming off the market because it has been rented. A new listing was brought on the market that I am co listing with another agent. I added 15 new names to my database and all of the names have been scheduled for initial follow up this week.

With regards to systems and their creation and implementation last week. Purchased the  necessary software to install a new Small Business Server at my home office.  Still configuring the software on the new server so we are behind schedule. New completion date is for Wed 9/22/10. TabletPC is not yet configured to my liking but Windows7 looks promising. The Tablet will be field tested this week. Assistant was not able to spend much time with me this past week due to previous commitments. This week we look to have a full week of availability and I am looking forward to spending the time educating and training.

Prospecting went well last week. Not the 6 hours a day but getting closer! I have some very specific goals for this week. 3 listing appointments, 3 new buyers, 2 offers on my listings, and 2 offers written for clients. When I accomplish this set of goals I will feel fantastic about my efforts. I know I can obtain these goals if I keep prospecting with the intent of 6 hours a day.

Building systems that can scale is tough for me. I am not a systems guy. Yet, to maintain the business levels I want I know that I must have systems in place. I am spending a lot of time at the whiteboard drawing out systems and how I project them to work. I am getting most of my ideas and motivation from the Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller. The “red” book is simply amazing and the systems within the book would serve every agent well to follow.

Well off to prospect! Thanks for stopping by. I do appreciate the kind words of support even if you think I am crazy.

Update 9/27/10

Epic Fail Prospecting Week

Last modified on 2010-09-27 13:11:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

The train ran off the tracks last week with regards to prospecting. It seemed like every time I turned around something was getting in my way and keeping from being completely focused on business. Not throwing a pity party just stating that last week prospecting took a back seat to just about everything else in my life.

I had some pretty aggressive goals for the past week and I missed all of them. It is early on Monday morning and I will be starting the week off focused and on task for prospecting. This week will be a better week of prospecting.

I was able to complete the migration to my new computer network. The new server is sitting under my fax machine humming away now and I am very happy that that part of the business upgrade is completed. Many thanks to Todd Phillips for the amount of work that he put into getting everything setup right. Todd is a technical writer by day and fiction writer the rest of the time and if you are looking for a good book to read I am suggesting you read his latest book. You can find out more by following this link.

Goals for this week are 3 new buyers 3 new listings and 2 existing listings under contract. Stay tuned for results. It’s kind of like watching an accident on the freeway. You don’t want to look but you cannot seem to not look.

Very excited for this week The Stadium Art and Wine Walk is Saturday October 2nd. We’ve been working very hard to make the event a smashing success. I am also excited because this week is the Internet Marketing Roundtable week. It’s a hour of my week that I spend with others in the area that think similarly to how I think about leveraging technology for real estate success. I also have the Tacoma Arts Commission selection of artist for the new Cheney Stadium. As you can see a lot of non-real estate related activities this week. Prospecting will be worked in around the previous commitments.