…BECAUSE THEY EQUATE ‘BUSY’ WITH ‘WORKING’!!! How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m just so busy I hardly ever get things done at all, much less on time”?   Most people think being busy is the same as working and it’s NOT.  It’s not even close! Studies show that we spend only 20% of our time on things that produce results (i.e. working), while 80% of our time is spent on things that produce little or no results.   Other studies show every time you get dragged into “Got-A-Minute Meetings” it takes between 15 to 30 minutes to get back to what you were working on. If this happens 6 times a day to you that’s 3 hours a day wasted. You’ve got to find ways to get that time back, and make it productive.   If this is your goal, I highly recommend you read the following books first as they will give you a good foundation. 1) Dan Kennedy NO BS Time Management For Entrepreneurs 2) Dan Kennedy NO BS Ruthless Management of People & Profits   I have to warn you though; these books get to the bottom line, and are definitely not warm and fuzzy.   I got these books because I realized I was spending more and more time on emails, phone calls and other people than I was on things important to me. I was getting over 175 calls per day and 600 or more E-Mails and I was quickly losing sight of the significant things like my family and business.   After reading these two books I worked out a series of steps to fix the situation.   First I kept track of every call that came in. I wrote the name, call time and I set up system to measure the call: 1- Business; 2- Personal; 3- BS. (If you have a person who takes forever to explain something, even if it’s a business call, you must place it in the BS category).   I figured out how much time of the call was spent in each area. If you do this for three months you will be amazed how much of your time gets wasted.   Here are my findings on my TOP FIVE offenders. ( I won’t use their names; I want to protect the guilty). Remember, you must be ruthless. It’s your time, your money and your life.   Time Bandits sorted by offence, May 2010 Subject #1: 62 calls average call 28 minutes. (1) 4 minutes (2) 2 minutes (3) 22 Minutes Subject #2: 48 calls average call 31 minutes. (1) 1 minute (3) 30 minute Subject #3: 38 calls average call 25 minutes. (2) 25 minutes Subject #4: 20 Calls average call 21 minutes (1) 8 minutes (2) 8 minutes (3) 5 minutes Subject#5: 17 Calls average call 16 minutes (1) 1 minute (3) 15 minutes   I found the best people on the phone are the people that charge you for their time (Attorneys, CPA’s etc). Hard to admit this but the lawyers were the best at it. They got to the point fast and were off the phone. So big kudos for the lawyers.   My family times were not counted and never will be. My babies know they can call and talk any time and for as long as they want. All others, forget it.   You now get the idea of how much of your time people waste. And how much of it is costing you money and lost productivity . Next I started to make changes. It took some people time to get on board but they are now following the ‘Da Costa time management program’.   First I changed my voice mail message asking them to leave their question and reason for the call so I can have an answer when I call them back. If they only leave a “call when you can” message I DO NOT RETURN THE CALL. Do this a few times and they get the hint. Also if they are in the top 15 time bandits I usually let the call go to voice mail first and I deal with it on my time.   When I do answer or return a call, I make it a point to say how much time I can take. Once I hit that time limit I end the call politely and go on to the next call or back to work on the next project.   I also set up certain times throughout the day to return calls. First I had 4 times at 30 minutes each, now I am down to 2 call times at 20 minutes each.   With E-Mail I’ve stopped filling out forms for free stuff, or forms that someone sends me, if I haven’t asked for them. If someone sends me an E-Mail that has something to do with my business or my personal life I always thank them but I make it quick. I also only answer e-mails that truly need to be answered. You can see this will take courage on your part to be ruthless with your time but the payoffs are well worth it.   Here are my results: Since I have controlled my calls (both dialed and received) I have been able to reduce my cell minutes from 5000 per month to 2500 saving $175.00 per month or $ 2100.00 a year. That alone has been worth the effort.   My productivity has doubled. I am getting more done in half the time. I also find time for myself now and time for the family. I love to read, and am now getting to read a book a week. If you’re having a hard time getting things done you need to read both the books I suggested and follow the plan. You will see the rewards quickly.   Final thought on this subject: I was in Ohio for the Dan Kennedy Wealth Days. He focused a lot on time and people management, and the bottom line is this: You have to work with difficult people some of the time. But you can limit your exposure to them since they are a drag on your business and your time. And if you have toxic people in your business and personal life you MUST AT ALL COSTS GET RID OF THEM. These people will ruin your business and suck the energy right out of you. And they will think they are doing you a favor spreading their negativity to you.   One of the members of my Real Estate group started keeping track of her time and how she was using it. She was shocked to find she was spending 2 hours a day just on Face Book and Twitter. (How much time do you spend on just these two time bandits?) She also found she was spending more than 3 hours answering E-Mails and voice mails throughout the day. So between the Face Book and other time bandits she wastes 5 hours of the work day on low productivity activities. You can bet she’ll be making some changes! How about you?   Tags: 30 minutes, A-Minute, amp, area, Bandits, BECAUSE, bottom line, business, business call, BUSYâ, call time, category, charge, courage, CPA, Dan Kennedy, deal, e mail, EQUATE, GOOD, good foundation, Happen, idea, IRS, life, losing sight, Management, May, Meetingsâ, minute, minute meetings, money, person, phone calls, productivity, profits, question, real, Real Estate, real estate group, Ruthless, show, significant things, situation, style, Subject, system, thatâ, three months, time, time management, track, Turn, two books, WORKINGâ

There has been a lot of talk from Washington and Wall Street about the continuing housing slump and foreclosure problems. The lament is about how to get the foreclosure rates down and housing moving again. Some say the

$ 8,000.00 first time home buyers credit was a bust.  But consider this:  every house that was sold with the $ 8,000.00 credit was a success because someone just became a homeowner for the first time. Realtors, closing agents, home inspectors, lenders and a host of other people collected a pay check for that one sale.

Washington keeps saying that banks must make funds available to lend. Banks say they are doing just that, and point to all the houses that are reported as sold from the National Association of Realtors and other data collecting agencies. While it’s technically true that there are loans being made, there are not enough to make the impact needed in the market to really get it moving in the right direction. So here is what I feel what must happen if this market is to get moving for real.

1) Congress and the President, as well as the private sector, must stop talking about creating jobs and actually work together to create them. Just as important, they must keep jobs from going elsewhere. Don’t worry I’m not going to get political on you. I’ll leave that to people who have nothing else to amuse them.

American business has to start looking at the long term business plans not just the next quarter.

(Wall Street created this monster) The CEO’s can only care about the next quarter earnings and being a Wall Street favorite. So they sacrifice quality and service, looking for the cheapest labor they can find and cutting corners. This way they hit their numbers, Wall Street is happy, the CEO is considered a genius and the cycle starts all over again. But what really happens is every time people here are laid off, and the jobs are outsourced to a country with fewer regulations and lower wages, it limits the number of people who can afford their product here. It’s a vicious circle.

Now our leaders in Washington have to take as much blame for this as the CEO’s because they make it hard to do business in America. They have so many overlapping regulations and laws it’s impossible to keep track of them. Hiring regulations and tax laws change all the time and each government agency has its own set of requirements. It’s hard to plan your future if the rules changes daily. Fear of lawsuits is a big and costly issue. Employee and consumer safety must be prime considerations, but frivolous and outright stupid lawsuits must be stopped.

 I know the Government and Private sector can work together to solve this and many more issues. The economy will not get better if people don’t have jobs or feel their job is next to be eliminated.  Spending will not increase as these people will either not have the income, or will hold on to what they do have, just in case.

2) Banks and other agencies must give us a true picture on the actual number of homes that have been foreclosed on and that are behind on payments. The number of homes that are reported and the numbers of homes that are on the market are not even close. Conventional wisdom says that there is a big ‘shadow inventory’ out there that nobody wants to talk about. This is flat out wrong.  But until people have a clear picture of the problem how do we know how to fix it? And Government alone is not capable of changing this perception. Until this is revealed people will not feel comfortable making any decisions and will take a wait- and-see approach.

3) Finally the housing market is not going to improve if the banking and the financing industries continue to refuse to work with the small investor. A large number of the foreclosed homes are in complete disarray and are unable to be sold to an end user. So this only leaves the investor class to pick up these properties and make them usable. But banks and other agencies have put so many hurdles in the way of small investors it’s hard to get a deal done. Private cash is available but harder to raise because of the reasons stated above. FHA with the 90 day rules and 180 day rules makes it almost impossible to fix a house up and sell it to an end user quickly. These rules don’t help home buyers at all, but somebody in Washington feels that they have the right to dictate how much money an investor can make. And the banks add their own set of rules on top of the Government. Some of the big banks won’t even loan money on a house that the owner has owned for less than 90 days. And others dictate how much profit investors can make for up to 6 months. (These rules, however, don’t apply to the banks themselves)

It’s the small investor who will restart the housing market, not the big institutional investor who buys 500 homes at a time ( and who, by the way, still needs to sell to someone)  The small investor is the key to the whole recovery. Banks and the government need to work together to allow the small investor to buy homes and fix them up and sell them or keep them for their rental portfolio.

 

Paul J Da Costa

Is a licensed Realtor in Georgia. He is a Real Estate investor, educator, and national speaker.

Paul is available for select speaking engagements and can be reached at 941-716-2597

www.pauljdacosta.com

paul@pauljdacosta.com

 

 

 

 

 

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And It Doesn’t Matter Whether You’re a Real Estate Investor or a Realtor…

Every now and then a member of my Real Estate Group asks this question: Is doing an open house more profitable when you do it as a licensed Realtor? I do open houses both as a Realtor, and as an investor in states where I don’t hold a license and my answer is:

I do both types the same way, no changes, and I always get traffic!!!

 

First, you must plan your open house at least 5 weeks in advance. This is not the time to do spur-of-the-moment things hoping for traffic. You must plan in order to generate traffic. I always do the following before I even schedule the date.

Here are 6 things I ALWAYS include to make my Open House work:

®    If your house is listed ask your realtor to supply you with the names and complete addresses (including e-mail and phone numbers) for all the realtors who have sold at least one home in your zip code or within 3 miles of your property (if the neighborhoods are similar). Then ask your realtor to break down the list to find agents who have sold 2 or more homes. Don’t worry, in most cases it is not more than 10 to 15% of list. My recent list had 235 realtors and only 28 had sold more than 2 homes.

 

®    I know what you’re thinking: I’m not a Realtor and don’t have access to the MLS. I am licensed in Georgia only, but have property in 6 States. If you have your properties listed your realtor can supply the info. If you’re selling them yourself just ask a Realtor to get the information for you. When I do it this way I pay $ 10.00 per hour. It takes about 8 to 10 hours depending on the size of your area and number of sales. This will be a very targeted list as all names will have sold homes in your area. And if you have ever bought a list from a names broker you’ll know this is a low price.

 

 

®    After I have the names I sort them into in two groups (2 saIes, more than 2 sales). Then I do the following: The large list I send to Handy Mailing (Call Julie at 316-944-2231; she handles most of my printing and mailing needs). I also send her the flyer I had made for my property. She prints and sends them to the names on the list so they arrive about 7 to 10 days before the open house. Then I have my web guru (Steve Tickner 941-228-7810) upload all the e-mail addresses into my web server. I send them emails at the following times: 2 weeks out; 10 days; 7 days; 5 days; 3 days; day before; and the day of the open house. I have the Realtor e-mail the flyer to their office and contact lists. I also upload the flyer to my social networking sites (like Yahoo and Face book) to let everyone know about my open house.

 

®    Now for the small list: this is the list of realtors who have multiple sales in your market. I have a 3 page sales letter I send telling them the reason I’m contacting them is that I know they are among the top sales people in the area and I want them to see my houses and bring me a contract. I offer the buyer a few bonuses such as $ 2,000 in closing costs and a home warranty. For the agent I offer them 4% commission and $ 100.00 gas card. Along with the letter I have mock checks showing them what the commission would be and a DVD of the house. (I have a DVD made of each house; cost is $ 99.00). The video company I use puts the DVD up on their web site with its own URL, so I go to Go Daddy and buy the domain name for my property. I always use the street address.

 

www.3021delmonicodrive.com

www.2880belvederelane.com

 

(The URL’s also go on all my E-mails and social media sites). I send this packet to the top agents so they get it between 7 and 10 days before the open house. Remember, they are also receiving the Emails as well. Right before the scheduled date, I call each one of the top Realtors to see if they got the letter and answer any questions they might have. I personally ask them to please show and sell my home.

 

®    Another media type I make use of is the local paper. Most of the areas I have homes in have a number of papers, and I usually choose 2. I include the number of bedrooms, baths, address, open house hours and the web site address. I also buy extra 3 lines on top and 3 extra lines on the bottom and bold the whole add. This way it’s bigger than all the other ads and stands out.

 

®     And the final thing I do is put out signs. I use a combination of hand-written and pre-printed. I like to use the arrow open house signs that are pre-printed as they stand out better and the ‘sign police’ leave them alone. I usually put the signs out late Friday; you need to do what is best for your area. I also display a 4 x5 banner on the house on Wednesday before the open house date.

 

These actions and your advance planning will drive traffic to your open houses, whether you are a Realtor or an investor.

 

 

 

                                

 

 

 

 1181 South Sumter Blvd suite 301 North Port Florida 34287 941-716-2597

695 Mansell Road Suite 120 Roswell Georgia 30076 678-287-4800

 

 

 

 

 

Paul J Da Costa

Is a licensed Realtor in Georgia. He is a Real Estate investor, educator, and national speaker.

Paul is available for select speaking engagements and can be reached at

941-716-2597

www.pauljdacosta.com

paul@pauljdacosta.com

 

 

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