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Old fishermen never lie …..
(Things I’ve learnt about the real estate business from fishermen) written by Tony Rowe
Spend time in a boat with a fisherman and you are bound to get some advice. I’ve spent some time on the Manning, Hastings, Clarence and Richmond Rivers over the years – and some of the advice the old fishermen up along the coast dispense can easily be applied to the real estate business.
They’ve got a lot to say about life, or business, or the universe, when they’re telling you about fishing.
Fishing is a recreational pursuit for many Australians. It is the largest participation sport in the country.
My Dad loves fishing and he’s passed that on. He knows a bit about it, and has dispensed his own advice about how to catch particular fish over the years. He used to beach fish, but doesn’t any more. He would rarely go “black fishing” when we were kids – but likes to now. We used to go fishing on the river bank – but now he’s got a boat. He likes to catch flathead, whiting and bream, but won’t eat them.
He knows what bait to use; where to get the bait (live or not); and knows where the “fish are biting” (even if they’re not, he reckons he does!).
Applying the same principles to the real estate game, a good fisherman can catch whatever they are fishing for. If they have the skills (or know where to get them); if they can apply the knowledge; if they have the right gear (or know where to get it); then it’s likely they’ll eat a hearty meal of good sized fish – as regularly as they like!
The parallels are yours to draw. See how the lessons of fishermen apply to the real estate industry.
There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
~ Steven Wright
1. You really need to know what you’re fishing for
a. whatever you’re fishing for, you need to know what it is
b. what it likes to eat
c. when it’s likely to be around
d. what will make it come out of the water for you
2. Decide on the right location for the fish you’re after
a. deep sea, lake, beach, surf
b. river mouth, mountain stream, fresh water, salt water
c. boat or shore
3. Have the right bait
a. know what the fish you’re after like to eat
b. flies, live bait, fresh bait, frozen bait, smelly bait
c. is burly needed
d. make sure the bait is secure on the hook
Good things come to those who bait. ~ Author Unknown
4. Have the right gear
a. rod, reel, handline, net, trap
b. hooks, sinkers, floats
c. dress for the conditions (& recognise that they might change)
d. waders, hat, “aeroguard”, chair
e. have a tackle-box that’s full of options for changing conditions
5. Sometimes the gear gets tangled – know how to sort it out
a. The line can get tangled when pulling ‘em in
b. Be careful when landing the fish, that the line is out of the way
c. Use a net if you have to, to land them
The solution to any problem – work, love, money, whatever – is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be. ~ John Gierach
6. Sometimes, you’ll hit a snag – know how to deal with it
a. Hazards are everywhere (rocks on the bottom, floating debris, seaweed, etc) – keep an eye out for them; avoid them if you can
b. Have a contingency plan and supplementary equipment – in case you have to cut the line & lose some gear
7. Don’t jag the line at the first feel of a bite
a. Fish can take your bait, but not the hook
b. Be patient and let the fish swallow the bait (& the hook)
c. Different fish take the bait in different ways – some “strike & run”, others “suck it & see”
d. Make sure the fish is hooked, before you reel it in – or you might lose the bait, your hook & the fish
8. Know the habits of the fish
a. Have an idea where the fish you’re looking for might be
b. “Big Game” fish won’t be found upstream
c. Fresh Water cod won’t be caught off the beach
d. What bait they’ll swallow usually depends on what they like to eat
9. Know the tides
a. It affects when the fish will bite
b. It affects what gear you might use
c. It impacts on the success of your trip
d. It can affect whether you get home!
10. Keep an eye on the sky
a. The weather can change quite quickly
b. That can impact on your capacity to catch the fish you’re after
The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. ~John Buchan
11. Big fish are harder to catch than small ones, but you get a bigger meal
a. “Small fish are sweeter” – but they take more bait, more time, more effort, have little bones (which can cause problems for you)
b. When it comes to fish, size does matter!
c. A big trout is better than a small one!
12. Don’t go after bream on a full moon
a. You won’t catch them – they’ll see you see them and go away
b. Small brains they might have, but they still know to run from a predator
13. Bag/size limits are important
a. Ensure there’s a sustainable future for the activity you enjoy so much
b. Leaving the little one in the water for a while longer, means they‘ll grow up into bigger ones for later
c. “There’s plenty of fish in the sea” – being selective about what you catch can be an important distinction between the professional and the amateur
14. Don’t make too much noise; you’ll scare the fish away.
a. It’s quiet in (and on) the water – keep it that way
b. Let the bait & the gear do the talking
15. Be patient
a. That’s part of the exercise
b. Relax, wait, “chill”
c. Good things come to those who wait!
d. Enjoy the experience anyway – full bag or not, enjoy the fishing!
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Skills can be developed; opportunities come our way; circumstances change. The message of people who fish – old & young, men & women – remains pretty much the same: It is a pursuit all can enjoy – if you have the right gear and the right approach, a fishing trip can be just what the doctor ordered!
Tony Rowe is General Manager of Corum Training, a specialist provider of training to the property sector in NSW. Corum Training has fully qualified trainers with extensive knowledge, expertise & experience in the delivery of assessment & training services in real estate across Australia and New Zealand.
Tony can be contacted on 1300 793 723 or www.corumtraining.com.au
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Getting out of your own way
One of the major obstacles we have to overcome is our selves. We simply get in the way of our own journey.
This style of obstruction comes mostly from our belief systems, what we believe to be true, even if it is completely wrong. For many of us, these beliefs, about what is fair, the way things work, or what we deserve or can expect, are in place by the time we reach our late teens. The problem is most of them are wrong, in some cases not just a little bit off the mark but up to 180 degrees away from reality.
Carrying around these beliefs is in effect a disability, as it restricts us in our ability to make an informed decision about the next best move forward.
Often our beliefs are passed on by those around us. These people may be seriously under qualified to give an opinion and they just continue their cycle of belief through into us. What they know and believe may once have been true; but could now be a generation out of date, and has long been passed by with the advance of discoveries in technology, science, medicine or finance, to name a few.
The dream we have, to achieve something specific in our lives, can be easily quashed by someone near to us who doesn’t believe it is possible and voices that opinion. A dream can be diverted or diluted by someone who wants to protect us from failure and so convinces us to take a safer option. The result in the end can be a journey much further away from our original goal, so far in fact that the end result is the ‘other person safe dream’, not ours.
Many wonderful singers, who as children may have taken the brave step to sing out loud only to be told, it wasn’t good enough, or to be laughed at for trying, quietly retreat away, never to sing again.
When people pass comment about us, they are telling us all about themselves. The person, who told the child they couldn’t sing, didn’t want to sing themselves. Or did want to sing, but didn’t have the courage. They passed on their beliefs and fears to the child. The result a disaster for both parties!
So the first step to success is being careful who you share your dreams with, make sure they are people who will support you on the journey, and that they will be able to put wind under your wings.
The next step is to ensure that if you need advice; to only get it from someone skilled in that area. Why would you take financial advice from someone poorer than you? Why would you take medical advice from a builder, or take real estate advice from a restaurateur.
So you can see how others can affect your journey, and that can be much easier to see because you will have someone ‘external’ to blame.
You need to remain totally focussed on the outcome of your goal or your dream and no matter what, no matter who tries to divert you, who tries to dilute it or who tries to contain it or whoever tries to quash it, you remain true to yourself and to your dream!
But what about yourself? The number one internal terrorist to achieving your dreams!
The last step is to deal with your internal conflict, and perhaps the greatest hurdle to overcome, is getting started then sticking to the plan. A test I like to use when I have to complete a task that I don’t really want to do, but needs to be completed to get me one more step closer to my end goal is the ‘Pleasure or Pain’ test.
It is simply this, no matter how bad the next task is, how much I fear it or how much it puts me out of my comfort zone, – will the end result be more pleasurable of more painful to me.
If it is going to be more pleasurable then I do it. If the end result is more painful I don’t. Everyone will have an opinion about why it can or can’t be done. You will be bombarded with facts and figure, opinions, strategies and ideas but….
Just remember this!
“If the dream is big enough – the facts don’t matter”
The Power of Written Testimonials
Sales people often make the big mistake of trying to build a successful career on their own, without any help from their ‘Sphere of influence’.
Well a big part of that Sphere of influence is their current and previous clients. These people, if you have done your job well should be very happy with your service and the results you have achieved for them.
It’s just not practical to have everyone phone up your past clients for a reference so the answer is to ensure that you obtain a written testimonial that can be used many times, over and over again, during your sales career
The best time to ask for a testimonial is in the ‘post deal’ 24 hours of euphoria’. A good technique is to simply ask your clients if they were happy with your service. The answer will undoubtedly be yes!
At this point the trick is to ask the vendors straight up if they would be happy to give you a written testimonial to use at your next client appointment?
Of course they will be willing, but a big mistake would be to leave the request at that, in the hope that at some time in the future the testimonial will arrive in the mail.
No, the best solution is to let your clients know when your next appointment is, and that you would love to collect the testimonial from them prior to that, so you can use it to get this new listing on-board.
Perhaps it is this Thursday at 5pm. This clearly gives the vendor a time frame to work within and they will feel obligated to perform to this measure.
If they need help with writing one, you may like to leave your current testimonial book with them to give them some ideas of the style of writing that is required. Another good idea is to have the testimonial ‘undated’ so that it remains timeless.
You may collect a large amount of testimonials this year, but they don’t look to good a few years later. It says you were good back then, but are you still good now?
Getting the content right is important too. You may also like to prompt the vendors to mention how well you negotiated the price for them, or how the marketing campaign was such a success? How creative your marketing was or how reliable and efficient and you were.
If you employ assistants it may be best not to have their individual names included in case they later leave, making this letter out of date too? Perhaps just mention ‘your team’
Create a series of books with copies of all your testimonials, (keeping the original safe and sound) have at least 10 ready to go, so these can be sent out with your presentation.
You will need to have a few in the system, as not all of them will come back, especially if sent off to out of town clients.
What is a written testimonial worth? I estimate that each letter is worth at least $20,000, probably double that. Quite simply it can mean the difference between getting the business and missing out all together.
Using a testimonial book is a powerful selling strategy, especially if you know you are up against a competitor who the client is yet to meet; The script here is to remind the client to ensure they ask the other sales person to show them their testimonial book. And if they can’t produce one, then to ask them why?
Robert Yates once said
“It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit.”
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Negotiation – It’s all about the Terms not the Price?
The Price is not the only part of the deal? That’s right the Terms and conditions are often the most critical.
In fact the most effective and productive real estate sales people are the ones that can create an offer on ‘creative’ terms and conditions where the average agent can’t even see that there is a deal right in front of them?
One of the biggest mistakes a real estate sales person can make is to just focus on getting the seller the ’seller’s price’. They become so focused on this that they (without evening realising it) are pushing the buyers right away.
As a general rule, sellers are 15% over priced and the buyers 10% under priced, so unless you have a strategy to bridge this gap then you are destined to have a listing expire before it gets sold, and as a result, no commission in your pocket, and no testimonial to gain the next piece of business.
At the time of the listing it is essential to interview the seller to understand not just their reason for selling, and their motivation, but most importantly their flexibility to negotiate a deal. What concessions can they make, when the times come to negotiate a contract?
The average agent will ask if the dishwasher is staying, or the spa pool remains in the deal, but the super agent asks the really good questions.
The more information you gain here is all very important later when you will want to shape an initial deal on terms the purchaser is willing to commit to and have you present.
I remember having a coffee with a developer I was doing a lot of business with and in the conversation he mentioned to me he was thinking of buying a new boat. We talked about this for a while, boat and fishing talk, at the time I thought nothing more about it, it was a chat over coffee. I returned to the office and about three hours later, I was on the phone talking to a client, when I overheard a customer speaking to the duty agent. He had walked in and asked if the agent knew anyone who would swap a boat for two houses. The agent answered No, he thought that was a real long shot. That was to be the end of the conversation, and the buyer was turning to walk out. I could not get off the phone quick enough, after a quick deal with the duty agent to take over the buyer; I raced up the street after him. Within an hour we were at the harbour on the jetty viewing a boat, and by the end of the day, I had sold two houses and a boat! And made three commissions.
How good is that? It was not about the price; it was all about the terms and conditions. It was about satisfying both parties end goals, price was just a small part of the deal. Well what type of questions should you ask?
Things like can they offer a long settlement? Can they leave money in the deal for a period of time? With or without interest being paid? Can they trade a property to create a sale (and you make two commissions). Will they offer to rent the property to the purchaser prior to settlement, or allow the purchasers to make improvements to the property before they settle? There are so many more examples, and all I can say here is that before you write any deal off, take a slow walk around the block and ask yourself, how can this deal be put together? What is each party trying to achieve and what can you construct to make that happen for both of them? I have had deals where the pet sheep in the paddock have been listed as part of the deal.
I even remember a 6 house deal where I had multiple properties stacked up all conditional on the other selling, the lowest property was worth (at the time) about $150k and the highest one worth about 1.5 million. We needed the bottom property to sell so everyone else could move on up the chain. In the end I negotiated with the seller of the highest value property to buy the lowest one as an investment property to trigger the whole chain. So simple really!
So while the price is what all parties focus on from the beginning, the most important factor for the seller is that they get a result, get sold and move on. After all, the one thing that is going to fund their dream is the one thing that is also stopping that dream from happening, so they need to get the house sold to move into the next stage of their life.
And for the purchasers, I have never seen a deal fall over for $10k, if you can get within selling zone, then often some creative terms and conditions is just what is needed to bridge the gap.
Just like for your sellers, real estate is there to supply you – your dreams – too. Is the one thing that you can have fund your personal dreams -also the one thing that is currently getting in the way of you creating a wonderful life for yourself.
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Grant Thorpe is an internationally recognized achievement based Real Estate Coach, Mentor and Professional Speaker. His specialty as a coach is working with high performing entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, corporations and salespeople from around the world. With a Real Estate coach, you will heap success on success until you gain the balanced and rewarding life you desire and know you deserve. Read more about the results Grant Thorpe can achieve for you on his website at http://www.grantthorpe.com Listen to his audio series http://www.realestatesalessecrets.com Grant Thorpe is the author of the book ‘Easy Million Dollar Idea’, download your free copy from http://www.easymilliondollaridea.com |
This is eaxctly it. It's not about the price or the house it's the reason why they are selling. 
