Online Mentors

HouseValues subscribers Paul and Laura Kroschewsky are shining examples of what the MasterMind forum is all about. An online community for real estate agents helping each other become more successful:



"You will find that most of the people who you contact will immediately tell you that they were "just wondering what my house is worth".

We have been subscribers to HouseValues since October of 2002. We receive only seller leads and we know that everyone is not going to list but we know that some of them are. We know they may very well list with another realtor. We know that some will list with us and they have and they are and they will.

The key to making this system work is following up quickly and in person and on the phone. We respond with a Pre-CMA e-mail within minutes or hours of receiving the lead. We respond with the CMA sent electronically within one or two days at the most unless it is a holiday like Christmas. We hand deliver a hard copy of the CMA the next Saturday morning. We hand deliver to everyone unless we discover they are absentee owners and then we mail the hard copy. If the people are there we smile and introduce ourselves and explain that we are the people who provided them with the information that they should have received a couple of days before in their e-mail in box. Did they receive it? If not would they like to provide an alternative e-mail address so we can stay in touch? Is this their correct phone number?

When do they plan on moving? How long have they lived at this address? If they were to move where would they go next? When would that be?

If they are not at home we leave the package on the front door and follow up a day or two later with a phone call. Most of the time we just leave a message saying we dropped off some information last Saturday morning and we hope they received it.

We listed a home last week from a HouseValues lead who initially requested an evaluation in 2004.

We closed a home last week from a HouseValues lead who initially requested an evaluation in 2003.

Neither one of those sellers had even considered listing with someone else.

When they were first contacted they "were just curious about what my home is worth".

Of course there are dozens of leads that list with other agents.

There are hundreds of leads who will never list.

This system does work if you work it. You may need to change the market area you are subscribing to; you may need to customize your e-mails and your comments in your CMA's. You may need to fine tune and change various elements of your system and strategy but the bottom line is if you respond quickly and if you hand deliver to everyone and if you follow up with some consistency, it works and it works well.

If you think of it as anything other than a numbers game that must be played consistently and over the long run then you may not get it to work for you.

Go to the seminars. I have been to see Bruce Downs and Claudia Wicks every time they have come to Austin and most of the times they have come to San Antonio.

Listen to all of the MasterMind calls. You will learn so much from people like Don Love in Portland and Stacey Dancey in Southern California and a myriad of other outstanding realtors who are literally superstars who use this system religiously.

Talk to your coach and don't berate them or spend your time complaining. Listen to them. They will tell you what is working for other subscribers in various different markets and you can modify those tactics to your market and experiment a little and the system will work for you. You must work the system and you must be positive and have realistic expectations.

Best of luck to you."