Hawaii Real Estate | Hawaii Relocations | Hawaii Home Buying & Selling

The first tip to gaining a client is to ANSWER your PHONE!  How many times do they contact me and say the reason they decided to go with me was because I answered my phone and responded right away to a text or email. Goodness, it isn't rocket science to know that communication is the key to having a great business relationship!

We also LISTEN to our clients about what their priorities are when it comes to searching for homes.   How's about hearing that the home buyer kept insisting they wanted a certain criteria and the agent didn't seem to hear what they were saying?  They kept insisting they needed to see higher priced homes or put their 2 cents in about how the buyer ‘should' love the house because they do?

They want to know what we will do for them...NOT hear you brag about how many listings you have.  They especially do NOT want to waste time and drive around looking at the homes you sold instead of looking at homes they might possibly be interested in! 

The consumer and our peers also read our blogs and get an idea of who we are. Let's not forget our online presence and how we portray ourselves before they even pick up that phone!  Many leads first start with reading about who we are...what we do...and they see how we interact online. Internet empowerment.

Within the past week I answered my phone and received a home buyer (showing property this afternoon) who said no one called them back. I received a call yesterday and subsequent referral from ActiveRain member Courtney Cooper.  I received another referral from an agent who works full time in our office  for a double transaction (listing their property next Saturday and a purchase). I put in an offer for an investor who immediately took a liking to me because I HEARD what they wanted.

Communicate effictively!

Give the consumer and your peers what they NEED...

Not what you THINK they want.

........By the way, I will tell the groomer (again) to stop putting bows on my doggie. She really doesn't like them. I guess she didn't hear me.

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I subscribed to FeedJournal a while back and didn't do a whole lot beside fiddle for a couple of minutes. I  decided to check it out this morning and actually do something with it.  It's free to try, so why not? 

What it is:  FeedJournal is a site where you can create internet content into a ‘newspaper' or ‘newsletter' into a pdf file to send to clients, friends, family and so forth. 

Think this might interest you?  Sign up for a free account now!

You'll first have to get a ‘feed' for your ActiveRain Blog and one of the places you can get if from is Google Feedburner .  You will be able to insert your feed from your ActiveRain Blog and then pick and choose which posts you want to insert in your Newsletter. 

I did my NOVEMBER 2010 NEWSLETTER. Pretty cool... now I can send my pdf file to clients too!  What a great way to give your clients and leads a bit of info in one place!

If you like FeedJournal after trying the free version, you may want to have your own ‘branded' newspaper with FeedJournal Publisher

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Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman  is a Realtor-Associate® with Century 21 Liberty Homes in Mililani, Hawaii. With a sharp understanding that a listening ear is the key to a client's needs  she serves the island of Oahu (Honolulu County) and all Hawaii Military Relocating to Hawaii, Hawaii Retirees, Hawaii Job Transfers and Hawaii Residents.

Specializing in Hawaii VA Loan Real Estate Transactions

Are You Documenting Your Transactions?  Are you documenting correspondence so you still have the ability to open files right from your ONE pdf file for each client?

Protecting yourself, your documents, your correspondence is a MUST in our business. It helps to grasp a piece of an email conversation and you can also find an attached document at the click of a mouse if you use Outlook and Adobe Acrobat 9 PRO.

All those conversations that lead to "he said, she said" on that phone log just don't cut it. It's all HERESAY and does not grasp the conversation like the written word.  No matter if I have a phone conversation with anyone involved in the transaction I will follow up with an email directly after reiterating our conversation.

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro is great for just this task!

Organize your clients in to their separate folders (if you have not done so already and right click on the client folder you want to convert to PDF and click on "Convert Client to Adobe PDF" and save to your Client file on your PC. (Picture above)

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It will start the conversion and when finished open up to your PDF file with each email showing on the top ....

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Your emails with the attachments will show and you can highlight it and then open up the attachment from your pdf file.

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What a simple, easy and organized way to document, save and have ONE file to refer to all your emails ....AS WELL AS ALL THE ATTACHED FILES...... ready to open at the click of a mouse.

It's TAX time again! What does that mean for Realtors®?  The one thing that changed this year for me was that my tax man finally made me put my expenses in categories. In the past I listed each one line by line (date by date) and I guess he got sick of categorizing for me. LOL.

Another reason to bring this up again... is so the consumer realizes it's not just a paycheck and running to the bank. I put heart and soul into helping my clients sell their home or buy a home and though it is a means of making a living there are the rewards in the end with a job well done. If it were just a paycheck I'd be working a 9-5 job and not have to worry about.......

What is an Independent Contractor?

In a nutshell it means I am self employed. Even though I hang my license as a Realtor-Associate®  with Century 21 Liberty Homes, Mililani, Hawaii.....I am my own business and I have responsibilities (paperwork and that dreaded itemizing expenses/deductions and PAYING my own TAXES) that automatically come with being an independent contractor. 

• I pay my own quarterly estimated self employment 1) Hawaii State Tax, 2) Federal Tax AND 3) GET (General Excise State Tax).
• I pay my own expenses: postcards, real estate shows burned to cd, flyers, postage, gasoline, supplies, marketing, extra classes, licensing fees, MLS dues, NAR dues, HAR (Hawaii Association of Realtors) dues, HBR (Honolulu Board of Realtors) dues, E & O Insurance, Sentrilock lock System fees and dues, cameras, videos, computer equipment, pc upgrades, software (and that list goes on) client closing gifts and anything and everything that goes with my business down to my whole home office and the added expenses to run my own home office.

I do not get paid by the hour nor am I an 'employee'. 

I do not get paid until a transaction closes (records) no matter if I'm representing a buyer or a seller. (In other words everything comes out my pocket and not always does a sale close)  By time each brokerage gets their part of the commission, the buyer/seller agents then get their %. (Some think that we get that WHOLE commission) and then I am able to pay bills with that commission check.

I also set aside 30% to pay for my quarterly estimated self employment taxes (Federal/State) and 4.5% for quarterly General Excise State Taxes. I seriously wonder why I am paying more GET now for the Honolulu transit (rail) system when I KNOW I won't be riding around with clients on that rail system as long as I am a Real Estate Agent.  lol.

Now. For expenses and deductions and keeping track all year for end of the year taxes?

• I have  a yearly excel file with one sheet for commission (income),
• Another sheet for deductions (expenses) including payments for GET tax which is a deduction (scanned receipts to go with) Make sure to ask your professional tax person exactly what you are able to deduct.
• Another sheet listing all my clients and the mileage to and from wherever and the total milege for each as well as total for the year.
• And the last sheet has my auto expenses (gas, insurance, oil changes, maintenance etc.). My two year old car is paid off but there are still expenses and depreciation for my tax man to tally up.
• I have finally got Quicken installed so I can make life easier for me for this next year :)
• When the 1099's and the W-2's come in I am ready to send it off to ....MY TAX MAN!

This info just may help a new agent in the Real Estate Industry realize that it's much more than just closing a transaction.

It's income AND debit.

It's the following up and keeping up with the 'behind the scenes' work and responsibilities that come with  running your own business.

It's about running a tight ship along with the professional service, caring and expertise we give our clients.

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Note:  We received all our W-2's and my 1099's and as of two days ago, our tax man has filed our taxes. I'm glad that's over. Now...to start on this year. :) Yes, I'm on it  :)

Note#2: I am also an employee for C21. I help with admin/property management, office support, websites, mls, opening/closing files etc.

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Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman is a Realtor-Associate with Century 21 Liberty Homes in Mililani, Hawaii. With a sharp understanding that a listening ear is the key to a client's needs  she serves the island of Oahu (Honolulu County) and all Hawaii Military Relocating to Hawaii, Hawaii Retirees, Hawaii Job Transfers and Hawaii Residents. Website: www.hawaiihomesmarket.com