Incredible day of learning at reBARcamp Calgary

It was a great pleasure attending the Real Estate REBarCamp today in Calgary. In fact, I am so glad that I made time for this camp, because the lessons and knowledge that I learned were incredibly valuable. Over the course of the day, I was exposed to many real life stories and hands-on experiences of creating successful businesses. 

The REBarCamp is an open environment where everyone shares their successful techniques to maintain their clients and grow their business – since there were no restrictions on revealing these secrets, I would like to share what I learned today to all the real estate agents out there and I hope you all benefit from this information. 

How to WOW the Client During the Entire Real Estate Process, from Start to Finish and Beyond

Kelly Kimber from Kelly Kimber Consulting organized a great discussion about staying in touch with your client. First of all, in the real estate business, cold calling is very time consuming and is an ineffective use of your time. Instead of spreading yourself too thin, you should seek to add value to your current client base - capitalize from the very first meeting by understanding your client’s needs and purchasing style on a deeper level. This is true whether the client is someone who needs their hand held throughout the entire purchasing process, or an experienced buyer looking strictly for professional services.

Of course, providing a good service is a given, but where do you go from there? There were a number of ideas being discussed around the room today, and a pretty popular one was “Client Appreciation Day.” On this day, you would invite your clients to NOT talk about business but rather about their personal lives, and gain their trust throughout the process. You can also recommend bringing their friends with them, in order to grow a potential client base for the future. This method can be quite costly, so real estate professionals are recommended to keep in mind the marketing budget they have – if large client appreciation events are too pricy, one can still share a coffee or a beer with a small group of people.

Another recommendation was to ask your clients to write you a review at the end of the transaction, and to provide them with some direction in terms of how to write one. Rest assured that your clients will not give you a bad review as long as they feel connected to you. 

Finally, consider recording important moments such as when your clients move into their new house, or when you high-five your clients the moment they sign the contract, and so on. Afterwards, have your video professionally edited and send it to your client, or even share it on your website with your client’s permission. This could add tremendous value to your current services.

Real estate is a great business, but it is also a very competitive market. To stand out in this business, you need to creative, personable, and relatable to your client.

Identify and Create Your Real Estate Brand

Terri Conrad moderated a session on how to create your Real Estate Brand.

To understand the importance of branding, one must understand what branding is to a real estate expert. Branding is not the commercials you see on TV or in the Metro, but rather what your client could say about you when you are not in the room.

Your brand is based on your professional track record. In this digital age, consumers can easily search for your historical performance, and in that moment of truth, they often make the decision whether or not to use your service. This is why your brand needs to be consistent.

A trick to stand out in today’s real estate market is to start with WHY. Why are you working in real estate? Why should your client pick you? Your entire business should be based on your core values, and your brand should be developed from there. If you’re having trouble identifying your brand, you can ask your clients and your trusted friends for their opinion. If you still don’t know your brand, here is a little trick – write down 50 core values that you identify with, and start crossing them out until only five are left on the page. These words would then be your brand, and everything you communicate to your client should revolve around these values.

Just a quick note – as of this month, you will lose your personal Facebook page if you are overly aggressive in marketing your business.
And lastly, just two words: BE REAL.

3 Ways to Better Organize and Streamline Your Real Estate Business

There are two problems that many real estate professionals face when trying to grow their business.

Problem 1: you cannot remove yourself from daily operations and still make money

Problem 2: your business depends on your personal reputation – once you pass on the operations or the face of the company, your business immediately loses value.

Kelley Skar, pointed out that in order to earn passive income from your business, your must start to live on a fixed salary. You need to pay yourself a reasonable salary, and whatever amount that is left over must go back into the business; whether it is for business development or for client expansion, your primary goal should be to increase the value of your business. 

The solution to the first problem is to simply lower your expenses, learn to live on a fixed salary, and start investing in your business. 

Meanwhile the solution to the second problem is passing on the torch of your client relationships to your successor. You need to set up a team of committed employees, and prepare someone to assume a more significant role in your business - for instance, the chosen individual must learn how to leverage your established brand to generate more leads and manage client relationships. It takes roughly three to five years to groom someone to become your eventual successor, and afterwards your business would no longer be dependent on just one person.


In conclusion, to achieve profitability and generate passive income, you need to create a lead generation system, a training system, and relationship transition system.

Create Your Authentic Value Proposition for Listings and Buyer Presentations

I really enjoyed this workshop led by Virginia Munden. She stated that a very clear value proposition was needed when booking an appointment with your client, and so on. These propositions can be found by using 10 or 20 valuable facts and statistics that are results-focused. 

Unique value propositions include things that make you stand out, such as your educational background or your listing to sales rate. 


In your value proposition, you need to state 1) your value 2) the benefits of your value 3) consumer expectations from your value.


Examples: 

Value #1: Knowledge of a geographic area. You need to know everything and everyone that is relevant to your area.
Value #2: Measures that demonstrate your proven performance, such as your superior negotiation skills (Days on the Market).
Value #3: Educational designations

In additional to the above three values, there are hundreds of other value propositions out there such as the value of professional partners (home inspectors, lawyers, and home decorators to provide the total real estate package).

Virginia mentioned that if she were to start her business all over again, she would invest in a CRM system (Consumer Relationship Management) as well as an administrative staff to make her business more efficient and effective.

Always keep in mind that you are not a salesperson, but rather a lifestyle provider.

How to Identify Your Niche Market and Become a Community Specialist

Barry Lebow started with this quote: “Salespeople chase leads, but professionals attract clients."
A niche Real Estate Professional has clients come to them through referrals or word-of-mouth promotion, which is way more effective.

Thus, finding your niche market is extremely important in this business.

























The following is a list of niches that real estate professionals can use as a reference:

• Condos
• First time buyers
• Ethnic/cultural buyers
• Athletes
• Elite properties
• Nursing homes
• Farms (varies)
• Ranches
• Recreational
• Waterfront
• Carwashes/gas stations
• Nursing home/care facilities
• Medical practices
• Fast food
• Restaurants
• Automotive lots
• Seniors
• Divorcees
• Motels, hotels
• Ski
• Brownfield
• Specific neighborhoods
• Women buyers
• Police
• Military transfers
• Relocations
• Dog boarding
• Funeral homes
• Student housing
• Conversion to residential
• Tear down, infill
• Golf courses
• Mines
• Handicap accessible
• Specific store types
• Life/work
• Out of country
• Mobiles
• Mortgage arrears
• Grow ops
• Churches/mosques

The last take away is also based on a quote: "If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If an egg is broken by an inside force, then life begins. Great things happens from the inside."

Best of luck to all real professionals out there – I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. I would personally recommend the REBarCamp to those who want to learn more.

 Until Next Time!

Written by Cornelia Le, Staff Writer, RankMyAgent.com Team