This idea submitted by agent Julia Rivera explains how your attitude can be your best marketing tool to build a successful real estate business. Here she is in her own words…

“As a Realtor you are looked at as a “People Person”. The best way to market yourself is to change your mind set from Real Estate being about you to making it about your friends, family, and business partners.

When you are a Realtor you are in the public eye. You are saying, I am here for you, I am caring and respectful, and I am competent and can sell your house. I know what it is to go through the real estate transaction, I do it everyday. I am knowledgeable. Therefore, the best marketing tool is your attitude… How you come across to your prospects once you’ve captured them is what sets your success.

That is how you build solid, long-lasting, referral-based relationships. Keeping in touch with them via a phone call, a note, a small token of appreciation is key for you being the first person to pop up in their mind, when the words Realtor, real estate, houses, home value, arise in conversations. Real Estate is not difficult; we make it difficult by not doing what every successful Real Estate agent is screaming to the rest.”

So much is changing so fast in real estate, it’s hard to know where to turn for reliable advice on growing your business – especially in today’s tricky market.

That’s why I want to share with you a proven, time-tested way to create any size income you want to make in real estate…a way to make your success a “mathematical certainty.”

It’s actually a modified excerpt from my recent book, “The Ultimate Real Estate Success Secret” and just by running this little 3-Step exercise will open up new opportunities and ideas for growing your business to exciting new heights.

So let’s get started…

Did you ever take physics in high school or college?

I cringe when I hear the word. But if you did take physics, you might have learned about an amazing concept called “Critical Mass.”

What is “Critical Mass” and what on earth does it have to do with real estate success?

“Critical Mass” occurs when an object or process in motion reaches such a momentum that it continues at that momentum…even increases that activity for long sustained periods of time – even forever!

And did you know that your real estate production can hit a point of “Critical Mass”?

It’s true. In fact, after teaching more than 18,000 agents how to get breakthrough production and lasting profits in real estate…

I Have Never Seen a Real Estate Practice Achieve Long-Term

Success WITHOUT Reaching Critical Mass™…

Yes, it’s that important. Let me explain further…

See…about 12 years ago…when I was working with small groups of agents, I coined the term “Critical Mass™” to explain the dynamic of growing such a strong “marketing momentum and personal market share” you actually start to generate 70%, 90%, even 100% of your clients from your created marketing momentum.

But more than that…I discovered a way to make your production continue to grow and grow almost automatically year after year.

Picture your real estate production like a small snowball in your hand. If you take that snowball and start rolling it down a hill, it will start growing bigger. And as it grows bigger it will start to take on its own momentum and start rolling itself.

And as it starts rolling faster, it also starts to get bigger…and bigger…and bigger. And as it gets bigger, it starts to roll faster…and faster…and faster.

Do you see what’s happening here?

At some point your snowball reaches a point of “Critical Mass™” where its accumulated momentum will keep it rolling and rolling and rolling.

So what happens when your real estate practice starts reaching Critical Mass™?

Amazing things start to happen…

Your production will multiply, and continue to grow for as long as you practice real estate, because you’re creating your own momentum…your own personal market share – it’s a mathematical certainty as you’ll soon see…

You will never cold prospect again…never face the humiliation and frustration of cold marketing – nearly all of your clients will come to you the easy way: by referral, word of mouth, and repeat business…

You will never face the brutal consequences of a slow market…

You will work half as much and stress a fraction of the amount you do now…and in the process you’ll make multiples of your present income.

Why will all these good things happen? Because…

You Will Spend Your Time Only On the Most Productive

Real Estate Activities: Working With Clients,

Closing Deals and Getting Paid!

Imagine if you could wake up each morning, and, instead of dreading your day cold prospecting or wondering where your next client is coming from, you relish in a steady flow of clients who want to work with you and only you.

It’s not a pipedream. It’s not a fantasy – agents are now doing it all the time.

But there’s a small problem.

See, most agents never reach Critical Mass™. They lurch from one bad effort to the next, because they never learn about the concept, or how to get there. So they either quit the business, or give up and sadly assume real estate needs to be a constant struggle.

And many of those who actually reach Critical Mass™ get there by accident…or take 10 to 20 years to reach that point.

Well, I’m here to tell you: You don’t have to be a victim of ignorance. You don’t have to struggle and strain or take 10 or 20 years to finally “make it” in real estate.

You can “short-cut” your success by 90% or more if you simply apply this strategy into your practice – and build your own personal “Critical Mass™” momentum and market share.

Which brings me to our little formula for building Critical Mass™ in your practice…

It’s a simple math calculation for building any size real estate practice you desire…a calculation that will reveal to you the exact size of your “house list”…your personal market share required to reach Critical Mass™ in real estate. It’s our…

Critical Mass Targeting System™

Follow along carefully, because this is the most important little calculation of your real estate career. I want you to understand the dynamics here as well as the simple math.

Take out a piece of paper and follow these 3 easy steps…

STEP #1: Write down the number of real estate transactions you want to achieve to reach Critical Mass™ in your real estate practice.

Critical Mass™ is a different number for everyone. For some agents, it may be 15 transactions a year. For others it may be 40. And for others it may be 400.

Another way to calculate the number of transactions you desire is to back into it. Simply take the “net income” you desire, and divide it by the average NET commission you make per transaction (that’s after all expenses: broker split, marketing costs, employee expenses, office rent, auto expense, etc.).

For example, if you want to make $200,000 and your average “net” commission (after expenses) is $5,000, then your Critical Mass™ number is 40 transaction sides ($200,000/$5,000 = 40).

As a side note (and food for thought): the higher the average price of homes you sell, the fewer you need to sell to meet your Critical Mass™ income level. But you already knew that, right?

STEP #2: Write down how long the average person in your area owns their home, and multiply that number by #1 above (the # of transactions you need to reach Critical Mass™).

National home ownership average is about 5.5 years. But it’s changing in today’s market. So to be conservative, let’s assume its 7 years in your area (you can use 6 or 8 or 10 for that matter). Check with your local MLS or REALTOR® Association if you’re not certain – or just assume for now.

For example, if the average homeownership period in your area is 7 years, multiply 7 times 40 transaction sides (from #1 above). 7 Years x 40 = 280.

THE RESULT: In our example, you will require 280 homeowners on your “house list” to generate 40 transactions EVERY year (your Critical Mass Target™.

Now remember, this doesn’t include the referrals they could send you. It’s just the number of direct transactions that will statistically come from this group (and you can check your math: 280 people divided by 7 years = 40 deals per year will come from this group).

But HOLD ON!

Those 280 are your goal ONLY if you get ALL of their transactions. Let’s be reasonable: you won’t get all those transactions.

Regardless of your efforts, some will go FSBO. Some will go to “Uncle Charlie.” And some will go to another agent.

That’s why we now need to adjust for your “Personal Market Share™” with that group to get your true Critical Mass Target™.

STEP #3: Divide your “house list” number (from #2 above) by the estimated “Personal Market Share™” you have with those folks – to get the “actual” number of people required on your house list.

What do I mean by “market share”?

Market share is the propensity of these people to think of YOU FIRST (and final) for real estate services before any other agent.

How do you figure your market share %?

Over time (a year or so) you’ll understand your market share because you’ll know how many transactions came from your house list or target farm or whatever list your using.

And remember, marketing to that group over time will have a cumulative effect, and actually increase your market share with them.

But for now, I know our agents using Service For Life!® harvest between 30% and 80% personal market share with their “house list.”

So let’s work an example…

Continuing with our previous example, let’s say you have a 30% market share with your folks. That means you should divide your 280 people by your 30% market share: 280/.30 = 933 people.

So if you have only a 30% market share with your house list or target farm, you’ll actually need to have 933 people on your “list,” not 280.

But what if…because of your relationship contact systems – like our Service For Life!® subscribers – you actually harvest 50% of those people?

280/.50 = 560 people. You now need only 560 people to harvest your 40 transactions every year (not including referrals they could send you). You just cut your list size almost in half!

And what if, because of your relationship contact systems, you actually harvest 80% of those people?

280/.80 = 350 people. You now need only 350 people to harvest your 40 transactions every year (not including referrals they could send you). You just cut your list size by one-third again!

Do you see the “dynamic” that’s happening here?

The SIZE of your list required to reach Critical Mass™ depends on the QUALITY of your list.

And the quality of your list is controlled by YOU!

The higher the quality of your list (i.e. the closer the relationship), the fewer people you need to reach Critical Mass™. The fewer people required means lower marketing costs and higher profits for you.

By the way, I’ve seen agents create house lists larger than 700 in their very first year following this system – and they closed an extra 20 to 50 transactions just in the process of building that list.

And remember, the “Critical Mass Target™” number does NOT include the referrals you could harvest from these folks – it’s just the direct transactions that will come from that group.

Many of our Service For Life!® agents actually add up to 40% more business from the referrals they generate from their house list.

Question: WHO will be the agent representing these people when it’s time to buy or sell?

Answer: The agent who’s created the closest relationship with them.

The agent who has nurtured the relationship.

The agent they can trust.

The agent who’s demonstrated their competence over the years.

The agent who brings regular, welcomed value.

The agent who has differentiated themselves from every other agent out there!

Don’t fall prey to the thought that you need to carpet the area with your one-time contact – that’s a losing strategy. This is about more; this is about QUALITY RELATIONSHIP.

Now you know why…

…Agents Bob and Lois L. from Orange, CA make $240,000 per year off a house list of just 332 people…

…Agent Kathy Low from San Jose increased her monthly commissions over $17,251.00 within a few months on a house list of 400…

…Broker Cathy McGrail now sells 62 homes a year – every year – in her tiny market of Englewood, Ohio…

And how you can too.

Building your house list is easier than you think – I’m going to give you easy strategies for building it faster and bigger than you ever dreamed possible in Part II of our course (link to download it free shortly).

The only thing that’s missing for you is…

How Do You Get Your Personal Market Share™ with

Your House List as HIGH as it can Possibly Get?

How Do You Make Yourself the ONE Agent Your Market

Thinks Of Before Any Other Agent Comes To Mind?

The Answer: You need a consistent contact system that involves them. Gets read and shared. Automatically builds a deep relationship worthy of referrals, word of mouth and repeat business.

A tool that brings your prospects and clients value so they’re subconsciously forced to reciprocate and do business with you. A tool that bonds them to you like family.

That’s why I developed our Service For Life!® prospecting and referral generating tool just for real estate professionals.

I know it all sounds a bit like “hype.” But look at the facts. Look at the logic of it all.

Doesn’t it make sense? It’s intuitive.

But don’t take my word for it. You can examine hundreds and hundreds of success stories from agents just like you (and get access to your Free copy of “The Ultimate Real Estates Success Secret“) at…

www.ServiceForLife.com

Go there and scroll to the BOTTOM of the page – there you’ll see all kinds of links about how you can quickly multiply your production year after year using a simple “marketing system.”

Oh…and if any of my points in this article struck a nerve, why not head over to www.ServiceForLife.com and enter your name and address into the form on the main page – I’ll give you the entire Ultimate Real Estate Success System and send you a fantastic “success kit” by first-class mail…

…and you can now get started building Critical Mass™ for your own business.

Today is a great day for you. Why do I say that?

Because today I’m going to give you the easiest, most powerful marketing secret (a 100% proven system) for growing your production to any level your “greed glands” can tolerate.

It’s so simple a 7-year-old could learn it. It works so fast, you’ll be seeing serious results within 2 to 6 months. Best of all, it’ll work in any economy (even today’s humbling market), any area, and for any agent – AND it will keep working for as long as you practice real estate.

Read this article like your life depends on it…because I’ve never seen a real estate practice achieve significant, lasting success without using at least some form of what I’m about to show you.

But there is a “catch”…

The “catch” is you need to be as consistent as the morning sunrise to make this work – and that’s going to be a problem for most “instant gratification” people. This is about making a dedicated investment into a lasting, ever-growing sustainable business – not some fly-by-night sales venture.

So let’s get started…

I’ve often said that the most profitable strategies are usually the simplest. This one I can explain to you in 3 simple steps.

Step #1: Lock your Target in the Crosshairs

I know it sounds trite and cliché, but if you don’t know specifically what you want to achieve, then you’re committed to achieving nothing! So here’s what I want you to do…

Write down the Gross Commission Income you want to achieve the next 12 months as a result of applying this system. Just do it – this is important. As an example, let’s say you want to make $300,000 GCI.

Next, write down the average commission you make for each transaction you close. For example, if your average close is $250,000, then a co-broker of 3% means you make $7,500 for every deal.

Now remember, this is GROSS Commission. If you want to figure your net, look at last year’s “net” as a percentage of gross and do the math accordingly. To keep things simple, I’m just going to deal with your gross.

Now do the math. If you want to make $300,000 GCI, and your average commission is $7,500, then you need to sell 40 homes, right? ($300,000 divided by $7,500 = 40).

OK, hold that number in your head – in this case you want to sell 40 homes.

Step #2: Build Your Personal Real Estate Market

You’re now going to build the most valuable asset of your entire practice – I call it your “house list”.

What’s a house list? It’s a list of people who know you or know of you in a positive light: your friends, family, acquaintances, suppliers, strategic alliances, and (most importantly) your past clients and (yes, even…) your prospects.

Why do you want to create this list? I could give you 40 great reasons, but here’s one that should get your “AH-HA!!” juices flowing…

The NAR report, “Profile of Buyers and Sellers” reveals that 74% (nearly ¾) of all real estate transactions are achieved because the client either 1) already had an existing relationship with the agent (knew them or knew of them in a positive light) OR, 2) the client was referred to the agent from a trusted source.

74% come from just one source: Relationship!

Most agents spend their time prospecting in areas with the LOWEST potential for success, completely neglecting the areas with the highest potential. Go to the NAR and get the report and you’ll be shocked: 1% come from cold prospecting, 3% from sign calls, 7% from the internet (yes, only 7%!!), etc. etc.

Yet 74% come from THIS source. Does this give you an idea of where you want to be spending your time, energy and money for maximum success?

OK…so how do you build a house list?

It’s easier than you think. Go to page 67 of the FREE marketing system, “The Ultimate Real Estate Success Secret” by clicking here and I give you SIX easy, ingenious ways to grow your house list. Just go to the site and download (and read) the system, you’ll be thrilled you did.

Now…at this point, you might be asking yourself, “How BIG of a list do I need to build”?

Good question. I have agents who’ve built their list to over 500 people their first year following my methods (and made big $6-Figure incomes in the process). So let’s figure out how big YOUR list needs to be.

Do you remember back in Step #1 you wrote down the # of homes you needed to sell to reach your target? In our example it was 40 homes.

Take that number and MULTIPLY it by the average length of home-ownership in your area.

For example, nationally, the average time of home ownership is about 6 years. Your local board or MLS may have the number for your local area, but it’s probably a similar number.

OK, so take your number from Step #1 and multiply it by the average home ownership time. In our example, take 40 homes and multiply it by 6 and you get 240.

This means that, if you build a list of 240 people, 40 of them will sell their home (on average) every year. And remember, this is only direct sales – it does NOT include the referrals they could be sending you.

QUESTION: Who’s going to get those deals?

Let’s face it, you won’t get all those deals. Some will go FSBO. Some will go to “uncle Harry.” And some will go to another agent who’s just lucky to be there at the time.

BUT…the person who’ll get the lion’s share is the agent with the deepest relationship with the homeowner…the agent who’s provided on-going value, who’s demonstrated their competence and professionalism…the agent whose NAME comes first when they think “real estate” (before any other agent). I call this…

Your Personal Market Share™

Personal Market Share™ is the answer to the question: “When people think of real estate, how likely are they to think of YOUR name FIRST, selecting YOU without question and before any other agent comes to mind“?

In other words, they’ve already made up their mind about you (not just “top of mind”, but much, much deeper).

OK…so we need to adjust the number of people in your house list to account for your Personal Market Share™.

(By the way, in your first year you’ll estimate your Personal Market Share™, but in future years you’ll know exactly how many deals came from your House List. I also want you to understand an important dynamic happening here…)

It’s very easy to do – simply DIVIDE your list number from above by your “estimated” Personal Market Share™.

Now, if you’re an “average” agent who does nothing to nurture their House List and is clueless about “back-end marketing”, your Personal Market Share™ is going to be incredibly LOW – probably around 10 to 20%.

Divide your list size (240 in our example) by 20% (I’m being generous) and it turns out you need 1,200 people in your list to get 40 deals from them.

Holy Cow, that’s a lot of people!!

BUT…if you’re an agent who follows my guidance coming up in Step #3, your Personal Market Share™ could be as high as 80%. So work the math: 240 divided by 80% (.80) is only 300 homeowners.

Do you see the difference here?

The HIGHER your Personal Market Share™, the FEWER people you need in your house list…the LESS MONEY you spend nurturing the relationship, and the MORE MONEY you “NET” with every transaction – that’s money you put into your pocket!

Here’s the simple analysis we just went through, so you can do this for your own practice…

So how do you maximize your Personal Market Share™ to 80% or higher? You follow my advice in Step #3…

Step #3: Create a Systemized Relationship-Nurturing System

Did you notice that I said “Relationship Nurturing” and not “stay-in-contact” system? There’s a good reason for it…

Nothing differentiates you over any other agent than having a deep, nurturing relationship with your House List. Problem is, most agents completely underestimate the depth and type of contact required to nurture a relationship to the point where you become the stand-out choice. They’re “missing the boat” entirely.

So here are 4 elements for creating a “Systemized Relationship Nurturing System”…

Here’s What’s Going to Happen When You Use this System…

The NAR reports that a “contact” system should take at least 12 months to start working. Our system has been able to cut that time in half – and in some cases we’ve had agents get as many as 8 transactions on their first issue.

If you’re a new agent, or you’ve never cultivated your House List in the past, you need to be persistent to build your Personal Market Share™. Here’s what’s most likely to happen:

Month 1-5 – Not much will happen unless you’ve been working your list in the past and have accumulated some Personal Market Share™ (but things are happening behind the scenes, so keep going).

Month 3-8 – You’ll start to hear people talking to you about your contact, and you’ll probably get a deal or two – enough to finance your contact system for the next year or two. You’re starting to make traction, keep it up.

Month 6-12 – You’ll start generating consistent transactions from your House List: new transactions, referrals, word of mouth and repeat business.

Remember that Personal Market Share™ (and responsiveness) increases over time and cumulative contact – so BE PERSISTENT. This is why I say this strategy is not for “instant gratification” agents, but for agents who are serious about building a real, sustainable business.

And the good news is, once your House List starts spinning off clients, it continues for as long as you cultivate it.

If you want to learn more about this system, go to The Ultimate Real Estate Success Secret by clicking here, and get this Free Course right now and READ IT – don’t let it sit on your shelf (or computer) gathering dust.

It’ll be the smartest thing you do for your real estate success.

In this installment of our series, learn how knowing the “lifetime value” of your clients can boost your income, how to recognize special events in your house list and how to tap the value of your top 20% “Power Player” clients.

1. House List Strategy #3: How Knowing The “Lifetime Value” of Your Clients Can Double Your Production. Most agents are so “single-transaction oriented” the lifetime value of their clients is whatever the original commission totaled.

Smart agents realize that, by having a client or a listing, they now have an asset to help generate more business for them in the form of buyer and seller attraction (magnet), referrals, word of mouth and repeat business.

Do business with someone once, and you make $5,000. Employ the strategies for maximizing Lifetime Value, and that $5,000 could turn into $20,000. Multiply that by the number of transactions you’ll do this year, and it adds up to some pretty big money.

The secret is understanding the 4 “values” every client brings to you.

The first value is the single transaction value – the commission you make from completing one transaction.

The second value is the “Transaction Multiplier™”. For example, taking a listing should bring you at least 2 buyers, when you use the appropriate sign tags, info tube flyers, “800 call capture” recorded messages, the “right” direct response advertising, and other “buyer and listing magnet” strategies (many you can find in our 3-Steps Program by clicking here).

The third and fourth values are the “Repeat Business” value and “Referral and Word of Mouth” capacity each client can bring you – IF you understand how to cultivate the relationship.

The average home ownership in the country is about 5.5 years. If you have a true back-end system to deepen your relationship, continue bringing value month-in and month-out, and position yourself as a true professional, who do you think will get your client’s business when it’s time to buy or sell?

And who do you think they’ll refer for real estate services when their friends, family, co-workers or acquaintances need a competent agent?

That’s why we created Service For Life – to create a ready-to-use marketing tool that acts as 7 tools in 1 to work to maximize the Lifetime Value of every client and every contact you make in your business.

Most agents are “single transaction oriented”, forgetting about their clients after a deal closes. They let their “next” deal walk out with their “last” deal.

Smart agents know the value of cultivating relationships, and rather than playing the stressed-out, feast-famine, “where’s my next deal” mentality, they have a long-term profit strategy that “steady’s the ship” and brings them consistent business year after year.

Build the backend of your business with these house list strategies, and you could triple the value of each and every client you get.

And here’s one more bonus: Working with your house list and their referrals is easy, the clients tend to be very high quality, and you work much less to make more money.

2. House List Strategy #4: Recognize Special Events in Your House List. Here’s a quick one, but it’s very powerful. People are “recognition and appreciation starved”.

It sounds trite, but when you send birthday cards, anniversary cards, home purchase anniversary cards, you make a BIG impact on the relationship.

Start capturing birthday, anniversary, and home purchase anniversary information on your database and recognize these events. Your production will rise with very little extra work.

3. House List Strategy #5: Recognize Holidays. I’ve got several agents who send something to their house list for a holiday every month.

They even find strange or unknown holidays, like “all saints day” or “rose appreciation month” as an opportunity to send something special and unique.

Every contact has an offer for his clients, and subtly programs them to think of him for referrals, word of mouth and repeat business. By the way, their production is HUGE.

4. House List Strategy #6: Treat the Top 20% of Your House List (your “Power Players) Special. There will be about 20% of your house list who will be “hyper-responsive.” That means they constantly send you referrals and talk about you to other people.

You treat these people special – very special! We have agents who hold golf tournaments, comedy club shows, exclusive movie premiers and other events just to recognize their very best clients/advocates. The impact is amazing!

One agent old me that, after hosting a comedy club party (for which other services she uses paid the cost), she generated over $60,000 worth of GCI business either directly from attendees or by referral.

Something you might want to consider doing yourself!