Lucky,

The first time I read through your thread I felt like I had been castrated with a rusty spoon. Anyhoo, it took my manhood a while to recover but I have to thank you for bumping up my number of contacts, reminding me of the basics and showing us what is possible if we choose to treat this as a business. I'm also giving some serious thought to Bruce Keith.

Thank you for sharing your experiences, I suspect we gain more from this than you do. Looks like you can head down to the tropics without feeling guilty which is Smart.


Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas


Hunter.

Great job, Lucky! Very Happy for you...and thanks for the inspiration and guidance this year.

I suspect that starting this thread, telling everyone your goal of increasing production by 20%, then reporting your numbers monthly, must have helped you attain the goal as well...smart.

By the way, for the new year, will you be starting a new thread called " I MAKE 200 COLD CALLS EVERY DAY & LOVE IT!" ?

Lucky, sorry if this has been asked and answered before, but what is the average and median price range for your listings? What's the market time?

Not exactly sure of The Median price. Haven't run the list. I guess it's around $400-$450. Higest sale this year was $820k, lowest was $299k.

This is one of my points about Active Prospecting ie: cold calling for me. I target the higher commission checks, the motivated sellers (ie: I do not carry listings, I sell them becuase they must sell or I try not to take. Actually, I don't even go on the appointment...qualifying scripts)

My listings sell in under 30 days, (ie:priced to sell because they must sell....they don't just want to list for the sake of being on the market) Let's be honest, if they reduce the price to the right price, it will always sell unless you live in the Sahara Desert)

My highest commission cheques came from prospecting.
My lowest came from past clients and referral, Ie; no control.
My closest listings from cold calling.
My farthest was past client, ie; 45 minute drive for a $299k sale.
All my double enders were from prospecting.
My last deal from prospecting...double ended in 11 days, 10 minutes from home, $23,000 commission.

Recently, one of the top agents in my market are exploiting the competition act by advertising 3% total commission.
1.5% and 1.5% to selling broker.
They must be working like dogs and for peanuts. Sure lot's of Volume but Bad business plan.

I would love to get my average commission to $20,000 and only do 50 deals....enjoy life, my family, etc.

Life is too short to work too hard. Work smart. Low volume, low overhead, high commissions. That's the beauty of prospecting. Control, Control, Control!

My local collegues commission averages are about $8,000 and all over tim buck two, driving, driving, driving, driving.
Buyers, Buyers, Buyers, Buyers. Sure buyers are fun...but not smart business.

Not sure if I am going to do 200 contacts for 2011. Definitely will I need more leads. Lead follow up has always been my weekness. I would literally average 1 hour per week. I need to do one hour per day in 2011.

Happy holidays Everyone.

Congrats on your success and sharing it with the rest of us. You have motivated myself and others to up our own games on the prospecting front.

Impressive stuff Lucky, interesting learnings tucked into your post.

I'm pissed of with the real estate industry for not being honest with me. I was told that you had to prospect to build up your data base and from then it would be smooth sailing there after.(Big Lie Here) Speaking to 50 people a day face to face gave you incredible power, you could always drum up business no matter what, you knew that you could relocate to any city in North America and make money your first month in the business. This gave one incredible confidence and peace of mind.

Thing is while you were doing your 50 people a day you were always waiting for that day when your data base would kick in and you would live happily ever after, this never really happpened. Yes my data base produces business but not the kind you always want and it's not consistant enough to depend on.

Now it's bloody hard after 18 years to work your way back to were you began,
wish they (managers/trainers) had been more honest from the outset. There was a smart [censored] kid that posted earlier that he was wondering why I had to door knock at age 45, well, give me a call in 20 years and tell me what you have learnt.


Now I remember there was a lady that was honest. This lady always sold one home a week no matter what. I was visiting one of her agent open houses and
she smiled at me and said "Hunter, I hope you are aware that you will be knocking on doors in 20 years" I didn't take this comment very well, I thought she was taking a cheap shot at me or just trying to mess with my head. Turns out she was right. Weird thing is her daugher took over her business and when ever she is in trouble her mother says to her go and speak to Hunter. I take this as a compliment.

Leasons from an U.S.A Olympic Athlete by Dan John.


Question: You work with Brian Oldfield. Can you tell us all their secrets?
Brian’s breakthrough year came after he got serious with Dave Davis and actually lifted for more than a few weeks. He simply did Power Cleans followed by Jerks off the Rack. He did a single heavy pyramid of both exercises, two days a week.

He told me in Ohio that his “Best” training program was doing rack lifts of 15 reps of partial front squats, partial pulls and partial presses (short top end movements only) for about five heavy sets twice a week. “That’s all you need to throw far.”

He was a real fan of sprinting and sprinting on your toes. He told me the same thing, many, many times, Fred, that plyos are BS. Now, I have to agree with him: if you are a thrower or O lifter…what the hell are you doing leaping off boxes?




The great insights of Brian:

1. Lift twice a week, but do full body, explosive, heavy stuff

2. Train with overweight implements

3. Take your minerals

4. Sprint training or hills is very important

5. Become a true student of your event and try to think through every single aspect of what you do

6. Discover what foods you are allergic to

7. Complicate the movement with drills to simplify it in the ring

8. Enjoy yourself…have some fun!

I think the reason people think that Brian, John Powell, and just about every other quality thrower or lifter “HIDE” their training is that, usually, it is so damn SIMPLE.

John let me look at his training diaries and I was shocked to see that he did run an 880 (800 meters) before each practice and recorded the splits for each lap. He then did situps, dips and pull ups. And recorded his numbers. He did clean grip snatches, he calles them “push presses,” with 135 for sets of five, then did a very simple three day a week program.

Then, he worked on the disc. If he got bored, he did drills, if he found a problem, he spent a lot of time thinking about it and fixing it. He hung around quality people who could help him fix his lifts and throws.

So, some guy comes up in a meet and asks Brian: “how do you train?” Brian says: “power cleans, jerks off the rack, sprints, and I throw three days a week.”

Guy wants to hear: I microperiodize the loads, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. Or he wants to hear that Brian does exactly what the guy does THIS week! John told me that nobody every believes the good guys. Everyone thinks they have a “secret.” Then, of course, this guy walks away and says to his buddies: DRUGS.

It is really simple stuff. My great throwers are good at power snatches and overhead squats. They throw about 15 to 20 full throws a day. They run hills twice a week. So, I go to a clinic, show how I teach the disc, give the coaches every detail of our training.

Paul throws 214: coaches claim he is on drugs.

It is not that Brian gives out conflicting advice, it is that he is also summarizing probably thirty years of training. Did you ever reverse curl? Yes…coach now has his 9th graders reverse curling, but, truly, the question was flawed.

The great ones do the simplest programs. I just interviewed Dick Smith, Lee James’ coach. It is the mind of the athlete that makes the difference and the ability to keep from overtraining that leads to greatness. The great ones can “TURN IT ON.”

If you go to discus camp you can talk for hours with John and Brian. You will be largely disappointed if you think that you will learn the “real” secrets behind doors. The worst thrower at camp has all the tools for greatness after the very first session.

Like Jesus told the Young Man in Mark: “Now, go and do it!”

People hate that kind of advice: you know the answer, now follow the path you KNOW is the right one.”


PS
(I tried his routine two days ago, situps, dips, pull ups, power cleans, press,
front squats and I've been in pain for two days.) I figure this is not a bad new
years resolution and you don't need to join a gym to do it, just a barbell and some weight.


Cool Quote:

Oldfield would sometimes smoke cigarettes in between throws at competitions to show that he could beat anyone, even while smoking. Not surprising for the man who said "When God created man, he wanted him to look like me."

Hi everyone, this is my first online post, as I have read almost the whole thread. It's quite interesting to hear everyone's ideas and strategies. First I will apoligize if this is off topic, but I am currently enrolled at Real Estate school, and will be completing my license in one month. I have decide my niche market is downtown condos. I was wondering if cold calling works, or is there a more creative approach to deal with condo owners.

Oh and I live in Toronto, and if I call someone on behalf of an independent brokerage (like the one on mentoring) will they disregard my call if they have never heard of the brokerage.

Thx for any help

Who is "Oh" ? . . . . your significant other ?

Welcome to the Forum anyway !

"Hi, I'm a real estate agent working in your building, are you planning on moving?"

Problem solved... they rarely ask or care what company you're with.

I need to get a "I love Neil T-shirt": http://www.viddler.com/explore/neilschwartz/videos/1/

Thank you for the reminder, I've been hanging out with Santa Claus and have forgotten all this stuff. My wife thought that Santa was a "cookie monster" turns out she was very wrong, he, like me loves to drink beer which is lots of fun.

Even Lucky has trouble with follow up. If you remember in his opening statement he talked of follow up being his "achilles heel", turns out he still has it after one year of expensive coaching. Lucky, Mike Ferry owes you a refund.

From now on I'm going to call all my leads a minimum of 100 times and
I'll let you know how it goes. Imagine if we had had Neil as a manager
from day one.

Dont do the T-Shirt thing, very dangerous in Toronto with our large
gay population. These guys will lay a trap for you, what they do is
pretend to want to sell their home and invite you over for a get together.
If this happens DONT do an inspection of the master bedroom.

Lucky, you better thank Perky for running this Forum, your thread had brought
over 200,000 viewers and turned her world into a living hell, same goes for you RAH. We don't want them to think of us as "Rude Prospectors" (VK007, you too)

Lucky,

You sound classy and set up for success. Best of luck with your plan. If you implement it the way that you describe, you should do far more than 20 extra deals. BTW: I would add a website to my plan. Best of luck!

I am interested in how you did towards your goals in 2010?

The down side of taking a week off,

5:45am pole vaulted all the way from my bed into the hallway with my third leg. Made a coffee and fired up a cigarette, then started to have these scary thoughts of having to make my calls at 9am. This fear continued to grow and grow and I started thinking about extending my holiday for a few more days but I knew if I did this the grim reaper would ultimately come for me. Then I remembered what Mike Ferry said which was to exercise for half an hour in the morning. No worries, did a 5x5 of power cleans, front squats and presses after which the FEAR had subsided and my brain was calm. The end result was I made my calls from 9:10-12:15 with two breaks.

Thank god I'm doing them again!

The only way of knowing if this stuff works is by trying it and doing it...for a while...period.