What is a success portfolio for a real estate professional?

Well, if you've ever gone to a photographer, architect, or even a wedding planner, you'll often see a book of their work—a portfolio. This showcases what they've done for other clients in the past.

Think about yourself. We often have listing presentations and now even buyer presentations, but do we have a portfolio of past performance?

This portfolio can be the pre-listing kit you've always dreamed of or the pre-buy meeting kit that will really motivate and inspire people to want to work with you.

So what would you put into this success portfolio? Of course, you'll include the properties you've sold and testimonials from other clients. You can also add marketing examples to show what you've done to market properties on social media, with flyers, with postcards, and even in a digital presentation, including video.There's a lot you could include in this presentation to make it really come alive and pop.

Now, imagine you...

Join this conversation with team leader Stephanie Peck as she outlines how she grew from being a solo agent working primarily by referral to a team leader running a seven-figure business. From her first hire to her current business model, Stephanie breaks down the steps she has taken to ensure she maintains a healthy work life balance while providing raving fan level service to her clients. Learn her unique prospectives on marketing, client acquisition, and how she uses social media to stay highly visible with her sphere of influence.

Quick question:

What is in your buyer presentation right now?

With the NAR settlement just around the corner, you need to address what you’re doing about it. One thing you need to do is have your buyer presentation dialed in.

Here are 11 things to include in your buyer presentation post NAR settlement:

1. The Search Process: This can't just be you searching the MLS. Buyers can do that on Zillow or realtor.com. Go further by curating listings, hand-selecting the best fits, and commenting on each one. Be involved in the search process daily.

2. No Stone Unturned: The best listings sometimes don't hit MLS. Look at for-sale-by-owners, expired listings, and network with other REALTORS on coming-soon listings. Canvas neighborhoods to find potential sellers.

3. Research Process: Dive deep into any specific home you're interested in. Check permits, architectural plans, disclosure statements, plat maps, aerial maps, assessed values, and neighborhood trend lines. Interview...

Whether you’re in real estate, lending, insurance, wealth management, banking, tax, or other industries that interact with property owners, Big Tech is driving up your cost of client acquisition. So what’s the solution? Listen as Justin Stoddart CEO of Pro Insight lays out an incredible strategy for going upstream in your business model to tap industry professionals who can provide you with a steady stream of high-quality referrals. This low cost high value strategy can be implemented by all agents regardless of how long you have been in the business. This win/win business model can be a complete game changer for agents looking for a unique way to begin working with more buyers and sellers.

Do you ever judge somebody when you meet them for the first time?

The answer is, we all do. We can't help it. It's human nature. In fact, there's a scientist, Daniel Kahneman, who recently passed away. He was an expert in this field. He pioneered the idea of heuristics, or the ability to quickly make decisions by rapidly processing millions of pieces of data.

Some of us benefit from the "halo effect," which means people make a positive judgment about us based on how we present ourselves. Others don’t benefit from this phenomenon.

So, how do you present yourself?

There's something I like to refer to as the "million dollar—or maybe in today's world, $5 million—standard."

This means if you got a call today from someone asking you to list their $5 million house, would you be ready within 10 minutes to walk out the door and do it? Or would you be struggling, thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm not ready for this. I have to get a million things put together."

This standard of...

Here's an interesting question to put out on social media to your audiences:

Would you move from your current market because of climate change?

I've been in the business for 35 years, and we never really talked about climate change as a motivator for people to move. But it's becoming more and more of a reason for people to relocate. In fact, 30% of Americans today, especially young people, say they would move because of climate change or make a decision about where to live based on it.

That’s why this is an interesting question to ask on social media.

Climate change can take many different forms. In my market area, for example, it's fires.

We had a fire come through our neighborhoods that burned down 2,700 homes. It was one of the biggest fires in the nation for destroying homes. Absolutely devastating for our community. We went through several summers of fire, and a lot of people moved because they couldn't deal with the smoke and terrible air quality.

On the flip side, you...

Let's pretend a seller says, "Nope, I'm not paying the buyer agent commission."

This can happen, albeit rarely. When it does, it’s your job to educate them on what comes next. Just because they say they don't want to pay it doesn't mean they won't receive offers requesting them to do so.

It's likely most offers will include language requesting the seller pay the buyer agent commission of X dollars. Then, the seller will have to decide to either reject the offer or counter it. We need to educate the seller about this.

You could do this by saying, "Hey, I totally get it. But just so you know, most offers we receive will still ask you to pay the buyer agent commission. At that time, we can look at the overall offer and decide if you want to do that or reject all offers that include that verbiage."

"I wouldn't reject everything out of hand. I'd suggest looking at the whole spectrum—what they're offering versus what your net will be. We can judge it on an offer-by-offer...

Here's an amazing number you should share with everyone in your sphere of influence:

The average American homeowner now has $298,000 in equity, a record high!

This presents a fantastic opportunity to update your clients on their equity growth over the past year. We should do this every year with our clients, and if you haven't done it yet, make a point of doing it now.

Consider shooting a quick video and saying:

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"Hey, good news! Across the country, the average homeowner now has $298,000 in equity. If you're curious about your equity position, I'd love to do a PAYER report for you.

What's a PAYER report? It stands for Personalized Equity Analysis Report. It provides a quick update on your home equity and where you stand. If you're thinking about selling, I'd love to help you. Or, if you're considering investing in more real estate and building even more equity, I'm happy to assist you there as well. At the very least, get a copy of that free PAYER report.”

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That's the...

A question you should ask every seller when you’re about to list a property is: "Do you have an FHA, USDA, or VA loan?"

These loans are often assumable, making the property highly valuable. If they have an interest rate below 5%, the house can fetch a premium price.

For example, if current interest rates are at 7% and a buyer can assume a 4.5% loan, it's a fantastic opportunity. There are some caveats, though. Be cautious about locking up veterans' benefits, preventing them from using those benefits elsewhere. If the seller is retiring or doesn't plan to own another home, they might be okay with someone assuming their loan.

For USDA and FHA loans, the buyer must qualify. They can't be a deadbeat; they need to qualify for the loan. Most buyers in a position to assume these low-interest loans will be thrilled, and your sellers can get a premium price.

Start asking sellers, "Do you have an FHA, USDA, or VA loan, and would you be okay with it being assumed?" There are many...

Here's a massive opportunity for you when you're looking at your sphere of influence. If you've got a list of people in your sphere that own businesses or are entrepreneurs with locations, we’re in a unique position with the commercial market right now. In many areas, the commercial market is really struggling.

The script for reaching out to these business owners in your sphere of influence is straightforward. Start by asking, “Do you rent or own your current location?”

Most will be renters, some will be owners.

If they say they are renters, you can respond with this:

“If you'd like to own, this is one of the best times in the last 10 years to buy commercial property. There are several factors at play:

• Vacancies are high
• Rents are declining
• Rental prices and commercial real estate prices are stable, with some areas seeing decreases

There’s a real opportunity to get a bargain in today’s market.”

Or if they already own their property, ask,...