Ever get those missed calls from unknown numbers? You know, the ones you ignore and then Google to see who called? Well, guess what? This is what your leads are doing when they’re not picking up the phone. And it’s a golden opportunity knocking at your door.

 

Turn missed calls into clients

 

Imagine turning those missed calls into clients. Have you ever actually Googled those numbers to see what shows up when the leads Google the number?

This isn’t some far-fetched idea — it’s a real tactic that can boost your business. It’s a micro-moment that’s oft-neglected, especially when it comes to phone numbers tied to a CRM. CRM-based numbers are more likely to seem like they’re fake when calling. They’d have no history or results most of the time, which for many people is a clear sign of a scam call.

So, that snap judgment of, “Is this spam, a scam or a call worth answering?” is a critical moment. You don’t have long to convince someone.

 

Do these two things

 

You should do two things — the first is setting up a branded call display.

The second … Imagine this for a moment. They type your phone number into Google and the first result is:

“Did XXX-XXX-XXXX just try calling you? That was me!”

They’re going to click on that.

 

What to include in your call

 

The same way you respond to online leads, you approach this with:

1. A polite opening
2. A mutually agreeable fact
3. An easy-to-answer question

Tell them who you are, point out why you’d have been calling and then ask them a question.

So, that opening could be: “Hi, I’m Andrew with JSH Realty. You got a call from XXX-XXX-XXXX, you typed it into Google and now you’ve come here. Are you curious why I called?”

Then, you can list out the ways you collect leads and go into a call-to-action. These will be specific to your business.

This is a really easy backend page to put on your website. It will also be easy to rank at the top for your phone number since no one is trying to compete with you.

 

Turning missed calls into clients isn’t just possible, it’s a simple way to boost your conversion rates. By creating a dedicated phone number page, you provide potential clients with the information they need and make it easy for them to reach out to you. Start implementing this today and watch your missed calls turn into valuable client interactions.

By the way, if you want a PDF template of how the page on your site should be structured, just DM me on Instagram with PHONE SEO so I know what you’re looking for, and I’ll send you the PDF.

 

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Aditya Soma from Windsor. His story is an inspiring one. Raised in India with his family, with very little to their name, Soma came to Canada as a student. He started out by investing in real estate himself, then, a few years later, getting his license in 2019. In 2023, his team had their best year ever, coming close to the 200 transaction mark. 2024 is on pace to beat those numbers.

When you speak with him you can feel his passion and energy for the life he’s built. For what real estate has done for him. You can see why he’s been successful. He found a system that works for him, and he executes it. He wasn’t chasing shiny objects. He was doubling and tripling down on what had provided the most success. 

Growing up in India, Soma didn’t have much time with his family. They didn’t have a lot of money, so his family was rarely together, with his father having to go as far as Dubai for labour work. Over 25 years, his entire family was never together for more than a month.

 

The drive for financial freedom

 

“I was driven by the need to provide a better future for myself and my family,” Soma explains.

He was working in IT and read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It changed his perspective completely. Soma started investing in real estate before he ever got his license. Starting in 2017, he began investing in real estate with the money he made in IT. By 2019, he owned four properties, but he was also seeing trouble starting to brew.

Between paying for his sister’s wedding and one of his projects failing, he had a problem. Soma was almost $190,000 in debt, and he needed to do something. That’s when he started thinking about sales and he decided to become a realtor. He powered through the courses as fast as he could and got licensed that same year.

By the end of his first year in the business, Soma had done 55 transactions and paid back the entirety of his debt — every single dollar. 

So how did he do it?

 

Sharing the journey

 

He started a YouTube channel about his journey to get his real estate license. He talked about the process, from the investing he was doing and everything he could that didn’t need a license to talk about. By being open and honest about what he was doing, he ended up with three clients waiting to hire him once he finished his licensing. Soma recalls, “Each post was crafted to showcase my learning process, challenges and victories, making my journey relatable and engaging.”

One of the keys to his videos doing so well, according to Soma, was that he shared everything. “I don’t take things out. I’d even share projects where I lost or didn’t do well. I share very transparently.”

 

An action taker

 

Throughout our interview, it was clear Soma didn’t think it was anything unique that he had done. He took action. When he got his license, he consumed content all the time. He learned from the best and then took action on that — books, podcasts and any other content he could get his hands on.

Soma credits these books for having the biggest impact on him:

• The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller
• Sell it Like Serhant by Ryan Serhant

They provided the blueprint, and he executed it.

 

The power of YouTube

 

During Soma’s entire first year, he struggled to get even 1,000 subscribers on YouTube. Most of his videos never got more than 55-100 views. Very few ever went over 500 views. He did 55 transactions though, with most of those leads coming through YouTube.

It’s not all about volume, but the quality of the people viewing the content. His content targeted the Windsor area and what people there might be thinking about when it comes to buying and selling homes. 

Soma’s focus was to make sure anyone searching Windsor on Google would have his videos show up. He’s putting up longer-form videos every week and shorts daily.

To figure out the best content, he kept it simple: “What questions were people asking me? What questions did I have when I started investing? What challenges did I face? For the Indian immigrant, it was important to show people the possibilities. You could buy with as little as 5 per cent down which was unheard of at the time in India.”

Every video needed a hook, which was in the first 3-5 seconds. Something to grab their attention, which Soma says is the most important part of each video. Then, he’d give the content and at the end tell viewers to call him. 

This strategy worked so well that he later had to take his phone number out of the videos. Soma was getting too many calls and couldn’t handle the volume anymore. So, he pivoted to sending people to Instagram where they could DM his account, and he has assistants who help to answer all the messages. When the prospect is ready to speak to an agent, they get passed to the team. Think of these assistants as Instagram-focused inside sales reps (ISAs).

 

Building his team

 

“(My) first hire I didn’t pay; I hired my wife. She was a bank teller at the time. She used to write offers, book appointments and then slowly take the calls.” 

Any task he could pass off to someone without a license, he started getting his wife to do. Soma noted that he wanted to spend all his time doing two things: generating leads or converting them. Everything else he wanted other people to take on.

He shares his journey over and over, and it continues to inspire people to take action. During our interview, Soma would light up talking about the people who have joined his team. He told the story with particular pride of a man who lived in Barrie, Ontario, about four hours away, and was inspired by his videos. He quit his job, got his real estate license, packed up his life and moved to Windsor. 

The man then showed up at Soma’s office, and he had yet to speak to him at that point. He told him what he did and that he was all in. Soma recounts him saying, “Just tell me what to do!” 

Soma hires more and more people who come from similar backgrounds. The playbook worked for him and it has been easy to create the same playbook for his team members. In fact, it’s a requirement for anyone joining the team to do videos. 

He even employs a content team to help. Soma has a content ideator come up with video ideas and film them, and an editing team as well. All new team members need to do is shoot the videos. The content team handles the rest, from editing to even posting on their accounts for them. 

 

Reuniting the family

 

As mentioned earlier, Soma and his family never spent more than a month together in 25 years, as his dad often had to travel to get work. But due to the growth of his sales and investment in properties, he was able to reunite his family in Canada.

Now his parents live with him full-time in Windsor with his wife and daughter, and a few of their cousins, too. They’re even getting in on the team with his mom having the unofficial title of “Team Chef.” Almost every day, she hosts the entire team at the house and cooks food for everyone. 

Soma saw how hard his family worked to make ends meet and provide him with the best life they could. Now, he takes great joy in being able to repay them.

 

The negative side of living publicly

 

With over 30,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 47,000 followers on Instagram, it’s not all positive. By sharing his success and his journey, Soma attracts negativity in comments and DMs. For example, people telling him to “Go back to India” or asking “What could you possibly know about Windsor?”

Soma admits that in the early days, a lot of those comments would get under his skin. Sometimes he uses comments criticizing the content to improve it. The racist ones he knows aren’t about him.

Soma told us about a moment that changed things for him. He had helped a Canadian buy a six-unit building as a first-time home. She was a big follower of his content. He’d looked through comments and found some nasty ones, but she was there in the comments defending him with passion.

“All the negative comments were about their insecurities. After that fight, I never thought it was about me. I’m doing what I’m doing … It’s their own insecurities.”

 

A client-first approach 

 

Even when there’s negativity, those who support Soma do so with passion. They have his back. There’s a simple reason for that: he has theirs, too.

A lot of people say they work for the client, but they think of short-term commissions. Soma sent eight deals to his realtor before getting licensed himself, as he knew that thinking short-term would hurt him in the long run. He sent referrals and bought more through her because he trusted her judgement.

Every time a call comes in, he wants to get to know them, to learn their motivations, where they are in life and the why behind calling, and then help them figure out the best option for their situation — even if that means telling them now isn’t the right time.

“In the South Asian culture, trust is hard to build, they often don’t trust as easily as people in Canada do.” That’s why he credits so much of his success to YouTube. He was able to gain people’s trust through his videos by showing everything. The results speak for themselves. 

With his approach, Soma and his team had their best year yet in 2023, doing more transactions than ever before. Now in 2024, they’re on pace to beat the record set last year.

 

Photo source: adityasoma.com

 

A big thank you to Tamara and Shannon Stone. After our original March feature fell through, the Stone Sisters — who we were going to feature later in the year — agreed to move up their interview and accommodate us at the last minute. That’s why our March feature and Backstage Pass Q&A for March is coming in early April. 

Ultimately, the story of the Stone Sisters in Kelowna is the story of innovation, adaption, trust in family and relentless focus. Tamara and Shannon Stone have turned their business into a Kelowna household name built on the power of relationships. 

Let’s dive into their story.

 

The early days — laying the foundation

 

“29 years. I got my license in 1995,” Tamara reminisced about her start in the industry. Both her mom and dad were already successful realtors. They didn’t want Tamara riding their coattails, so they made her a deal. She could shadow them for six months and then she was on her own.

She started shadowing them and doing what they told her for six months. It went by so fast that she didn’t even realize that six months had already passed. “I showed up as I had for the prior six months, dressed in my business suit, and I said, ‘Okay, so what are we doing today?’ and my dad said, ‘Your mom and I are going golfing. I don’t know what you’re doing but you’re on your own.’ I had no idea what to do. It took me five months to get a deal and I was literally starving.”

She started doing open houses every single weekend. “I would do two on Saturday, two on Sunday. And I did that every weekend, with the odd exception, for two to three years because that’s how you met people.” 

Between her network and open houses, she started to build a nice business for herself. For the first 10 years of her career, Tamara built a business on her own, separate from her parents. That’s when, in 2005, her sister Shannon decided to get licensed.

 

Trial-by-fire

 

Tamara made Shannon the same deal she got from her parents: get trained for six months and then you’re on your own. She’d learn the ins and outs of the business. After the six months though, Tamara wanted to take the month of August off, thinking she could leave her sister in charge of her business during one of the slowest sales months of the year.

As the old cliche goes, “If you want to get busy, book a vacation.” That month, with Tamara gone, Shannon did almost 40 transactions — more than one a day. There was no question that Shannon’s ability to handle a month like that after only six months in the business meant she’d be an invaluable asset.

So, they took a Tamara-led “Stone Team” and formed the “Stone Sisters.”

 

Adapt to thrive

 

From even the early days, the pair has focused on leading when changes are happening.

“The big thing I did when I started that was revolutionary and wild was get a website. It was the first real estate website in town and it was shocking to many, and cutting edge. We still own the original domain name, too,” recalls Tamara. 

With a renewed energy for the business, the sisters continued innovating and adapting. Shannon’s marketing background brought a lot of ideas to both marketing and client engagement.

Spend time talking to the Stone Sisters about the evolution of their business, and you realize quickly they’re proactive about change. They’re looking ahead to see what challenges are coming and they’re getting ready.

 

See change coming, come up with a plan, execute with purpose

 

In British Columbia, you’re no longer allowed to double-end a transaction, a change that was hinted at for a couple of years before it came into effect. If implemented, they realized this would have a massive impact on running a team where you often have a buyer’s agent sell the team’s listings.

They looked at what that might mean and they came up with a plan. Shannon got her broker’s license. When the change happened, they completely shifted their entire model, going from being the Stone Sisters at Re/Max Kelowna to forming their own sub-brokerage, Re/Max Kelowna Stone Sisters. 

Now, instead of a traditional team model, Shannon and Tamara run the brokerage and the agents run their own business, with the Stone Sisters providing services and coaching along the way. This way, they act as the designated agents for their clients.

The sisters were able to completely shift the model and not miss a beat. They don’t sit back and complain when change is coming — instead, they see it coming, come up with a plan and execute with purpose. 

 

Marketing that works

 

Shannon had a background in marketing when she joined and, with that, brought fresh ideas and promotional efforts. With Tamara’s experience and her sister’s background, they came up with regular ideas that brought real business. Things that few others were doing.

For example, in Kelowna, where many properties are sold to people from out of town, the team tracks not only the percentage of properties sold to out-of-town buyers but also where they came from. This informs their next steps when it comes to marketing.

This tactic worked well during a big Alberta oil boom when the pair noticed a lot of business coming from buyers in Fort McMurray. They had some connections there and set up a learning seminar about buying property in the Okanagan. 

They flew into Edmonton, got this little rental car and made the drive up to Fort McMurray. A client that worked up there told them, “Don’t show up in your white suits and be fancy to people. Jeans, beer and pizza.” 

So, they rented the back room of a Boston Pizza, bought pizza, wings and beer for everyone, and started promoting the Okanagan. Little did they know, due to the big boom and undersupply of housing in Fort McMurray, there weren’t even hotel rooms available. They had to make the drive back to Edmonton at 3:00 am.

But it was worth it. The sisters sold a tonne of properties to people there until the downturn in the oil industry.

Today, they go to cities like Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto because that’s where a lot of their buyers come from. They do group seminars and 1:1 consults with potential clients to promote their book on the Okanagan. 

Social media advertising plays a big role in making trips to cities where they don’t have brand recognition a success. The sisters invest in it and see a great return. In a market where almost 50 per cent of buyers come from out of town, the Stone Sisters regularly see over 70 per cent of their buyers come from elsewhere — a testament to the success of their marketing strategies. 

 

What you measure, grows

 

Nothing happens by accident at the Stone Sisters. Much like tracking where buyers come from, the team tracks everything in their business. They look at where leads originate to evaluate the success of each marketing channel they try, and then what percentage turn into clients. They monitor the volume of phone calls, emails, social media messages and every other way that people reach out to the team.

Aside from the volume and nature of inquiries, the number of showings, traffic to and time on the website, social engagement and everything else that helps inform their marketing and get a pulse of what’s happening is tracked.

And no fancy dashboards needed — the team tracks it all across simple Excel spreadsheets. They can tell you at any time exactly what’s happening in their business and where the trends are going.

At the volume of deals the Stone Sisters are doing (300+ annually), their business metrics can say a lot about the greater Kelowna real estate market trends as well. 

 

The white suits

 

Since my earliest days in real estate, I’ve known the Stone Sisters. They were presenting at a conference on negotiation the first time I saw them. At that conference and to this day, they often stand out by wearing white suits. In fact, their entire team wears all white — it’s their uniform.

I asked them about this because they do stand out when you meet them. It went back to a Re/Max conference they attended in Las Vegas. There were so many agents there, they wanted to find a way to stand out from the crowd. A way to make them more memorable.

The sisters went with white suits. Now, the entire team does and it’s become a signature look. If anyone on the team, and now at their sub-brokerage, goes out in the community for their business, they wear white. This has become an integral part of their branding. 

 

The ‘Buyer Book’

 

Early on, Tamara and Shannon created what they call the “Buyer Book” for their business. When they got leads, they’d print out the email, hole punch it and put it into a binder. Any time things were either quiet or they had some downtime, they’d open up the binder to where they left off and “shake the tree.” 

The sisters would call everyone in the book. When they finished, they’d start over, back at the beginning. They made handwritten notes to send by snail mail to people they had good conversations with, a practice they still do to this day. There were people in that book for 3-5 years before they ended up doing a deal with the Stone Sisters — a testament to their consistency.

Today, the team follows a very similar practice, leveraging Follow Up Boss as their CRM. With organic buyer leads coming in, they convert them at a rate of 23.5 per cent. (During our interview, without having asked them ahead of time to be ready with anything, they had all the data at their fingertips. Like I said, they track and monitor their numbers.)

The most impressive stat? They convert 94 per cent of the website contact forms for a home evaluation to in-person appointments. As of our interview on March 20, 2024, the team had received 78 home evaluation requests and had done 74 in-person appointments as a result. 

That’s how strongly they’re seen as experts. Tamara mentioned that early on in her career they tried a series of TV commercials. “They were light and fluffy, like Cinderella, the Stone Sisters. It wasn’t us doing it; it was someone else’s perception of us. It gave the impression of, ‘It’s so cute they dress the same.’ Now, we have a much more serious reputation.” 

 

A little bit ‘hardass’

 

The sisters admit they’re known for being a little bit “hardass” at times, as they put it. They’re serious about the business and they get the job done. They’re not afraid to tell their clients what they don’t want to hear, and they won’t take a listing if the client is unrealistic about the price.

This brand they’ve built since 1995 is a huge factor in their conversation rates. On top of that, they work the phones, send out automated emails and encourage everyone at their brokerage to make as many phone calls as possible.

They find that even young people, who are often derided for not wanting to be on the phone, regularly have great phone conversations with their team. And when things get slow or quiet for a time? Everyone is encouraged to “shake the tree” as they do with the Buyer Book but with people in their Follow Up Boss database.

 

Systemized success

 

Like our previous monthly features this year, Mark Faris and Alex Wilson, it’s no surprise after talking to them why the Stone Sisters are so successful. They’ve built the systems, they follow them and they keep their agents accountable. 

The sisters are looking ahead at what’s coming and getting ready to adapt. They’re closely watching the commission lawsuits with NAR in the U.S. and Canadian equivalents. Despite verdicts likely being a ways out, they’re ready in case of changes. 

No matter what happens, one thing is certain: they won’t be caught unprepared. 

 

Dive into the remarkable journey of Alex Wilson, the visionary architect behind a niche-focused real estate team. This article unfolds the strategic blueprint that propelled Wilson from a serendipitous elevator conversation to dominating pre-construction investment properties. 

 

As part of our ongoing Backstage Pass features into the people who run some of the top real estate businesses in Canada, we’re turning to Alex Wilson of Re/Max Wealth Builders.

Alex Wilson’s path during his career in real estate unfolds like a masterclass in adapting and innovation. Starting his career amid the 2008 financial crisis, Wilson’s foray into real estate was less about chasing a passion and more about seizing an unexpected opportunity. He was planning to take a corporate job after moving back to Toronto from Vancouver. Real estate wasn’t a passion. 

 

Skepticism turned to appreciation and slow progress

 

His initial skepticism about a career in real estate sales gradually transformed into a profound appreciation for the value and respect the profession commands. The turning point came in 2009, with his first significant breakthrough. That February he made his first deal, but in April 2009 alone he made five deals.

Wilson recalls asking himself, “Why am I wasting my time trying to get a steady paycheque when I could apply that work to running a successful business in real estate?” He wanted to invest his energy and time into making himself successful, not someone else.

By the end of his first year, he was already #4 in his brokerage for production. He credits the idea of giving up his pursuit of going for a corporate job and putting 100 per cent of his energy towards being successful as a realtor. His advice for new agents is you can’t be desperate for money in the first six months because you aren’t going to be making any — you need a stockpile until you start getting income.

In years two and three, he didn’t see a meteoric rise. He increased his overall business by about five deals a year and made approximately 30 deals in his third year.

 

The elevator moment

 

Wilson has always been a people person, talking about everyone he could. He hosts fun events for friends and maintains a large social network. He loves talking to people. Conversations create opportunities you never knew existed and he focuses on having lots of them.

In December 2012, living in his first condominium, he was in the elevator and chatted with a woman in it, too. As it turned out, she specialized in pre-construction and had units coming up in the building across the street. Wilson asked if he could be involved.

He wrote up an analysis of the project for his database after buying a unit for himself and made a business case for his clients. Over the next two weeks, he sold 12 units. That was the moment he knew where he wanted to focus his attention.

Over the years that followed, Wilson started getting a reputation with builders and their sales & marketing departments as an agent who could deliver. More and more deals started coming his way.

 

Niching down

 

Wilson says that when you’re dealing with people and the roof over their heads, it carries a lot of emotion. He would even tell his clients, “Put those emotions on me and I’ll carry them on my back.”

When it comes to investment properties, it’s purely a math-based decision. It also allows a scale you normally don’t have in resale. Most agents on their own will start to burn out doing 50 resale transactions a year without help. The time involved in showings plus the emotional fatigue can add up quickly. 

According to Wilson, you can double that by doing pre-construction deals. One of the big factors was how much time he was spending on the road in his resale business. He thought, “How can I condense my market area since I only have so much time each week to do business? If I’m on the road, how can I be focused on growing the business?”

It became clear that for Wilson to scale, pre-construction investment properties were his future. The decision to niche down paid off: in 2022 Wilson and his team did 650 transactions. Even in 2023 when the market was slow, especially in pre-construction, his team still did over 350 transactions.

The other big benefit Wilson has found in pre-construction that most see as a downside is you usually don’t get fully paid until a building is completed. Typically, you’ll get some commission within 6-12 months of the transaction and then another when it closes. That means for Wilson, he already knows his baseline revenue for the next 4-5 years. He recounts talking to realtors who say “It’s January 1, we’re back to 0, let’s hit the grind again.”  Wilson never feels he’s back to 0 anymore. 

 

The approach

 

Wilson has a very simple model with his database. Once he finds a project he likes, he buys at least one unit himself. He does the due diligence, invests and then reaches out to his database with the simple premise of “follow my money.” 

In doing so, he educates them on the entire process. He doesn’t want anyone buying a property without knowing all the implications. Especially in a down market, people seek out experts’ advice. They are scared to make the wrong move. With a focus on being an expert, even in a down market, you can attract clients. For Wilson, it’s his recession-proof business plan.

You have to be knowledgeable, not just about your niche, but about world events. When you’re with clients only about 5 per cent of the time, you’re generally talking about real estate. But, you want to be able to hold an interesting conversation the other 95 per cent of the time, and staying up to date on world events is part of the business. Try to be as well-rounded a person as possible, Wilson says. 

The educational approach regularly brings him clients. For example, in early COVID when the Ontario government made it impossible to evict tenants, he launched a webinar for landlords on what their options were. He brought on a paralegal for it and years later, that webinar replay still brings him leads. He’s also brought in an accountant to talk about how to build a tax-efficient portfolio. 

When you educate people, you increase their certainty in their decision-making and reduce their anxiety. This makes those who are transaction-ready reach out to him. Wilson lets people come to him.

 

The big pivot

 

Wilson says he doesn’t sell anything he doesn’t believe in. That’s why he buys and does due diligence for himself first before bringing anything to clients. And that’s what caused the next big pivot in his business.

Running the numbers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with 20 per cent down you can’t have a cash flow-positive property anymore. Wilson doesn’t believe that you should put yourself in a situation where you can lose money, and you only lose money when you sell. So, he says, don’t put yourself in situations where you have to sell. He believes that appreciation shouldn’t be the only way to make money on an investment property — that’s a recipe for losing hundreds of thousands. 

Wilson’s personal philosophy was that he didn’t want active investments — the more passive the better. Rehabilitating old properties, the “BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) method” many advocate for, was too active. This is why he likes pre-construction. Newer buildings require less involvement from owners and maintenance is covered by the condominium or strata corporation. 

Wilson had to look outside of Ontario to find investments that fit his philosophy, and his due diligence brought him to Calgary. So, he did what he did in Toronto and started buying units for himself. Then, he went back to his database with his “follow my money” messaging.

In 2019, Wilson and his team started focusing a lot of their attention on the Calgary market. It was a market they believed had great fundamentals with cash flow-positive units when you put 20 per cent down: appreciation upside, better tax situation for investors and landlord-friendly regulations that don’t exist in Ontario.

He launched webinars for his database on “Why Buy Calgary” where he would open by showing his own portfolio, and walk through market fundamentals from his due diligence. Wilson would bring up factors like the population being set to grow by 48 per cent over 20 years (double the rate in Ontario), the fast-growing economy and the city having the second-most corporate head offices in Canada. 

His clients followed him. From December 2019 to the end of 2023, Wilson and his team sold over 1,000 units in Calgary to investors.

 

Building a replicable foundation

 

Wilson spent 2023 building systems and processes for his team — he wasn’t as focused on growing their sales the same way he had in the past. As a father of three young children, he wanted to build systems that allowed him to spend time with his family, his most important piece, while still consistently growing the business.

Wilson built a replicable system for his team members, helping a couple of them reach over a million in GCI on their own. A lot of his focus is on how to simplify that process as much as possible. 

He has his team members follow the same approach that built his business. They invest in a unit on a particular project, invite their database to a webinar on why they did so and then call each attendee after the webinar. The rest of their time is about adding people to the database so the next webinar is bigger. Online leads are a large part of this. If his team members do that and consistently make 30 touchpoints a day, Wilson sees averages of 5-10 sales per month per team member.

He found this easiest to do initially with new agents that didn’t already have businesses. It was more difficult to make that jump for people who didn’t specialize in investments and still focused a lot of time on their “legacy business”, as Wilson puts it.

 

The next big leap

 

With that foundation built, Wilson is turning his eyes to another period of growth in 2024. He believes the next big leap is solving the challenge for those with a legacy business.

Instead of moving their license to his team or even to their brokerage, he has partnered with them. They collaborate and do the deals as referral fees. This is basically the same process he has for his team members, who buy a unit and promote a webinar to their database about why they bought it. From there, Alex and his team get on follow-up calls with the agent and the people who attended the webinar. This way, the agent can still focus on their database, the resale business and the commitment that this requires.

 

When you listen to Alex Wilson talk about business and his approach, he’s never deterred about a new initiative not working. He also doesn’t write something off that didn’t work the first time. Rather, he looks for why it didn’t work and what adjustments would solve that, and then tries again.

The little details, being improved consistently, have led Alex Wilson to be one of Canada’s top teams. 

 

Photo source: ReMaxWealth.com

 

When you sit down with Mark Faris, it doesn’t take long to see why his team has done over 1,700 transactions in a single year. Even in 2023, when the market was down for many, his team still did over 1,000 transactions.

Kiran Gandhi and I sat down, over Zoom, with Mark recently to get a backstage pass to how Mark operates. We didn’t want to just break this down into what he’s doing now. We wanted to go back to the beginning, and then see how that approach has changed over the years.

Here’s a glimpse into how Mark built his business. His approach was shaped by necessity and ingenuity. Let’s dive into the journey.

 

In the beginning

 

Looking back to 2007, Mark brought up the piece that most don’t talk about early in their career: “There’s always a race when you start in real estate, a race before you run out of cash. You have a certain amount of money and you’re going to burn through that. And so, for me, there was a race there because we were burning through our credit cards and we had a limit.” 

Mark looked at the cost-effective methods for building his business when he didn’t have a lot of money available.

“Cold calling and door knocking, which a lot of agents don’t like, but I didn’t have any money for anything else. I’d bring them a little calendar. But I didn’t knock on every door. I’d only knock on the doors of the leads that I had from cold calling. It was a more targeted approach. (In) some cases I did full streets if it was in an area that I liked.”

Mark did 12 deals in his first six months and decided to set a goal of 40 deals for the next 12 months. He fell short and did 38. Then, he jumped from 38 to 100 in the next 12 months. Since then, he hasn’t looked back.

 

The script

 

We asked Mark what he did when he was cold-calling and door-knocking. What was he saying to people that contributed to his success?

Mark kept it simple. He’d call or knock and say: “Hi, it’s Mark Faris from Royal LePage, we just listed a home down the street from you. We’re really excited about it, we’re curious and we’re working hard for our sellers and want to get it sold. Do you know anyone looking to move to the neighbourhood? Any friends or family? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to pick your own neighbour?” Then, he’d follow up with, “Oh, by the way, have you thought about selling?” 

The ice was broken and he already started to prove to potential clients how hard he works for his existing ones. That made him get in enough doors to gain the traction he needed to win the new real estate agent race.

 

The listing presentation

 

When someone is passionate about something you can tell. They lean in a bit, their face lights up and the enthusiasm shines through. Get Mark Faris talking about listing presentations and you’ll see the passion.

He likened how much he practiced listing presentations to how he used to practice shooting hundreds of pucks a day. “I can still pick the corners because I did it so much. The more you do something, the more fun it gets.”

Mark had his listing presentation fine-tuned. He’d start by telling the sellers he’d arrive within a 30-minute window. That way, if there was traffic or other issues causing delays, he wasn’t panicked about a few minutes here and there. He’d try to always arrive at the beginning of the window, but he had a buffer.

Then, he’d get himself enthusiastic and excited because enthusiasm sells. He’d walk in, pay a compliment about the home, take a tour of the home and then sit down to deliver his listing presentation. The focus is on being very clear about what differentiates him from other realtors and adds value to the seller.

Mark doesn’t believe in skipping the listing presentation, especially for friends and family. It will help save your relationship down the road. If you skip the regular procedure because they’re a close personal relationship, you put it at risk. You need to avoid the “What are you doing for me?” question that’s answered during a great listing presentation.

When Mark was still selling homes, he was personally selling 150 a year. It was starting to hold back his team’s growth. At its size, he needed to be focused on the business, not working in it. “That was a hard thing to give up, the listing appointments, because that was my baby,” he recalls.

 

Reputation is everything

 

“Reputation is built by leaving sparks and seeds of hope, love and care.”

This is something Mark shared in the interview, when he expressed there’s nothing more important to him and his team than their reputation within the community. It’s everything. It encourages more referrals because people put their reputations on the line by referring their contacts to you. They need to be confident you’ll protect that.

Mark understands that not everyone can be perfect — no one is expected to be. Your reputation is just as much built on what you do in those scenarios. Even if it means writing a check sometimes to cover a client’s loss when you weren’t legally required to. Don’t think of those situations as losing money in a deal; think about them as investing in your reputation.

When you fix mistakes, it shows people that you’re stepping up. Investing in your reputation is always the right move; it’s more important than money. Admitting, “I was off on that, here’s what I’m doing to make it right,” will cement you as their agent forever.

 

Focus on scale

 

Now, Mark’s time is spent mostly focusing on scale: how to scale the business up and make it better. 

When he was selling 150 homes a year and his team was doing 1,000, he was doing four to five listing presentations a day. He described it like he was a madman during that time. He was also asking himself how companies scale and why they hit ceilings. 

Mark is constantly reading books and looking for advice on what he can do to improve his business. For example, more than once during the interview that focused on us writing stories about him, he stopped to ask us questions that might help him improve his business. His care and passion shine through.

Mark doesn’t believe there are any silver bullets in this industry. Instead, he believes there are what he refers to as  “golden bee-bees” — the little things you do consistently over time. Just keep doing them better, that’s what creates and grows a brand. It’s the boring minutiae of the day that most get bored by.

He’s also not afraid to still get his hands dirty. When building out their ISA (inside sales) department, Mark’s team went through several iterations to figure out what worked. He jumped in while acting as the CEO to take lead calls to help refine the system. It was a lot of trial and error.

An avid believer in the systems and processes from the book Traction, by Gino Wickman, Mark sees himself in the visionary role. One of the pieces that really helped him scale was finding his vision. Then, he focused on the 20 per cent of processes that drive 80 per cent of results. 

 

The culture

 

Mark likes to ask his team members, “What’s the number one thing about working here?” The responses are always interesting but often vague — from “the people are great” to “there’s just something different here.” 

Mark views culture as a living, breathing challenge and is constantly asking himself about how to formulate a better team culture. You keep a high threshold for people coming in, and sometimes you have to “liberate people to the marketplace”, according to Mark. 

 

One thing was clear in talking to Mark: he knows what it takes to succeed and he focuses relentlessly on how to do so at a high level. Despite his success though, Mark could only be described as confidently humble. He knows he doesn’t know everything and is constantly trying to learn more.

Spend time with Mark Faris and you’ll see why he leads one of the top teams in the world. 

 

Photo source: FarisTeam.ca

 

You need to post on social media every day to stay relevant!

You’ve heard it time and time again from agents, trainers, influencers, etc. … It’s well-intentioned advice, and much of its original meaning was right at the time. However, I believe that, over time, the original intention has been lost. As social and online marketing has evolved, so should the advice.

 

Do you need leads from an organic social media pipeline?

 

The phrase “You need to post on social media every day to stay relevant” in its full form would be, “If you want to build a pipeline of business from organic social media, you need to post on social media every day to stay relevant.”

But, you may not actually need that pipeline. Any pipeline of leads that helps drive your business should be able to get you at least 25 deals a year. Organic social media is one of them. Even within organic social media, you could build strategies to drive clients that don’t require daily posts. 

On top of that, as social media has evolved, our feeds are flooded with content every day that people post for the sake of posting. It’s a common joke in real estate conferences, one I’ve said on stage before, that people don’t need that email with the latest pumpkin pie recipe or a reminder to change their clocks. Well, guess what? They also don’t need to know that it’s National Talk Like a Pirate Day on social media.

Let’s look at a few of the reasons NOT to post daily anymore.

 

Quality over quantity

 

When people post daily, they regularly struggle with what to post so they look for anything they can post. That means a lot of what goes out is just bad content. They’re jumping on the “I have to post something today” bandwagon.

Take the Daniel Day-Lewis approach. He doesn’t take every role he can just for the sake of being in another movie. He takes one when he feels it’s right. Roles that ignite his passion and he feels connected to. He puts everything he can into them.

You can go for the take-every-role approach and make a career, or you can choose the Daniel Day-Lewis approach, opt for the highest quality content you can and put everything into it.

 

Engagement over frequency

 

Let’s compare two scenarios.

Agent 1: Super organized, spends a day creating a ton of content and then schedules it out a month ahead of time. Now, they can move on to other important tasks and not look at social.

Agent 2: Posts maybe once a week, every other week, and some months only posts once. Throughout the week they spend time on social. Mostly engaging and talking to people.

I would be willing to bet that Agent 2 is the one who actually pulls clients from social media. They’re out there engaging with people. Building relationships. Agent 1 just checked the social media box and then threw the content into the void.

 

The brochure presence

 

Regular posting is a great strategy for many. It works for a reason. But, it’s not the best use of time and money for many others.

Some agents only need what I call a brochure presence. 

This means when people look them up on social, it acts like a brochure that shows the agent is good at their job. It shows their professionalism, what they offer and some social proof. A living brochure instead of a static printed one. 

This doesn’t need daily posting to achieve it. You can do this with a weekly or even bi-weekly post, plus your listings. This way, if someone looks you up, it won’t make them not want to hire you. If you still want to get business from your social media with a brochure presence, you’ll need to spend time engaging with people.

 

Opportunity cost

 

When you’re spending all this time thinking about what to post, worrying you’re not posting enough, then creating the post, figuring out how to post, then posting … then checking constantly to see what kind of engagement it got … that’s time you could be spending on other activities.

What other opportunities are you overlooking because you’re spending a lot of time doing these things? All of that time could have been spent taking a referral source out to lunch or being helpful in a local Facebook group. Those activities could potentially drive more business.

 

I hear from agents all the time about getting so stressed with social and how they’re dropping the ball. Except, they don’t even know where social fits into their marketing strategy. Take a step back first and map out your strategy. Then, figure out where social fits in for you.

Just because so many of us are saying you should be posting daily on social media doesn’t mean it’s true for you. Step back. Evaluate your marketing strategy, look at what time and resources you have and think about where they’re best spent. 

Your answer may be that you’re going to post daily on social because that’s the best fit for your business — but, it doesn’t have to be.

 

“If you’re not doing video, you’ll be out of the business in 5 years!”

That was over 10 years ago when I got my license. One of the first training courses I attended outside of my brokerage. The speaker went on to say that agents who do video would push the rest out of the business. Hindsight is 20/20 but quite obviously he was wrong.

 

Video is powerful when done well

 

I’ve heard this about video marketing and so many other trends in the industry. Don’t get me wrong, video is a powerful tool that when done well can change your business. I’ve used it a lot over the years and it has served me very well. So has blogging, so have podcasts and so have many other methods of content creation and distribution.

There are teams doing 100+ deals a year, and you can attribute a lot of it to their video marketing. One of the most successful agents in Canada, Mark Faris of the Faris Team, you could argue got there by leveraging high-quality video marketing. There’s way more to his success than just video, but that is a key pillar.

You can also find successful agents like Melanie Piche and Brendan Powell, who run the BREL Team in Toronto. They do so mostly through blogging. There’s video in their marketing, but blogging is their key pillar.

 

But it’s overrated

 

Video has become one of the most overrated silver bullets touted by – well, let’s be honest – people like me. Not everyone needs to make videos. You can run a successful business without ever making a single video. There’s a time and a place for it and for some, that time might be never.

Picture this: a few months ago before it got blocked, you saw a news story on Facebook. You thought it sounded interesting and wanted to get the whole story. You click on the link and instead of a written article, it’s a 3-5 minute video. How many times do you just exit because you just wanted to read (or skim) the article?

 

Consider changing situational preferences

 

Some people prefer to read, some prefer to watch, while others change their preferences based on the situation. Sometimes at home watching the big screen and scrolling on your little screen, you’d rather read so there’s no noise interrupting.

In an ideal world, you’re doing a mix of all different types of content. When you’re getting going with your content marketing, pick one and focus on it. If you’re a great writer, then write. If you’re not comfortable on camera but love speaking, do a podcast. Over time, add in a mix.

I’ve heard speakers talk about this strategy for SaaS companies. Pick one offer, and present it over one channel to one audience, until you make a million dollars.

 

Find what works for you, grow, then diversify

 

There are lessons in that for real estate, too. Pick a way to grow your business that works for you, and then double down on it. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects and that new shiny thing you heard about.

As you grow, you’ll need to look at diversifying. I firmly believe any agent can get to 30-50 deals a year through a single method done well. It’s about finding the one that works for you. If you hate doing something, it’s going to feel like a grind. You’re better served doing the method you enjoy.

When done well, video marketing can blow up your business. For the people who put a lot of effort into video and grow their business, it’s because they spend hours doing it. They’re always looking at how to improve it.

Do you know what else could blow up your business if you put consistent time and effort into doing it better every day? Almost anything.

Video can be powerful and I’ll continue to use it, but you don’t have to.

 

Let it go if you need to

 

If video has been this daunting thing you felt like you have to do but keep putting off and it’s stressing you out, consider this your permission, as Queen Elsa of Arendelle would say, to just

via GIPHY

(That one was for my daughters.)

 

Next time, one of my favourite topics: why some of you don’t need to post to social every day.

 

In Star Trek, few challenges are as daunting and legendary as the Kobayashi Maru. For the uninitiated, the Kobayashi Maru is a Starfleet training exercise, a simulation designed to confront cadets with a seemingly unwinnable situation. It’s not about emerging victorious but rather a test of character, leadership, and decision-making under immense pressure. Can a cadet make the hard calls, even when there’s no clear path to success?

Much like the would-be Starfleet captains, realtors often face their own version of the Kobayashi Maru.

In this new series, “The Kobayashi Maru of Real Estate,” we’ll present you with complex, seemingly impossible real estate scenarios. Seasoned industry veterans will then weigh in on how they would handle them. Offering their insights and strategies. Just as in the Starfleet test, the goal isn’t necessarily to “win” in the traditional sense but to navigate the situation with integrity, expertise, and foresight.

Welcome aboard. It’s time to face the impossible and chart a course through uncharted territories!

 

The situation 

 

On a rainy Thursday, you’re contacted by Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, a middle-aged couple seeking to sell their home at 742 Evergreen Terrace. The couple had purchased the house during a peak market period, and now, due to the economic downturn, fluctuating neighbourhood valuations, and a few outstanding loans, the current market value of the house is lower than their outstanding mortgage. They owe the bank $650,000, but recent comps and evaluations suggest the house will likely sell for only $600,000 at best.

To complicate matters further, the Simpsons are relocating for work in two months, and they are desperate to sell the house before they leave. The impending move means they don’t have the funds to cover the deficit on the mortgage, let alone a commission.

With the rise in a client’s variable rate mortgage, they can no longer afford their investment property. They decide they want to sell. The place is tenanted, and they do not want to leave and have signalled they will be uncooperative with the process. How would you handle it?

 

How would you handle it?

 

Jordan Boyes 

Broker/owner, Boyes Group Realty Inc.

First, I would arrange a meeting with them to understand their specific circumstances and goals. Listen carefully to their concerns and gather all relevant information about their mortgage, outstanding loans, and the property itself. 

Next, I would conduct a thorough evaluation to determine its accurate market value. Present the couple with their available options, including selling the property at the current market value and covering the mortgage deficit out of their own funds (if they have); negotiating with the bank to explore a short sale or loan modification, given their financial hardship; explore creative selling strategies like rent-to-own agreements, lease options, or seller financing to attract potential buyers who might not qualify for traditional financing given the situation they are in. 

I would then try to set up a meeting with the bank to explore a short sale or loan modification to help them initiate negotiations with the bank. This may require providing financial documentation, a hardship letter, and other relevant paperwork to support their case. 

Then, I would price the property competitively based on the accurate market value and the couple’s urgency to sell (consider slightly underpricing it to generate more interest and multiple offers). I would also recommend legal counsel to ensure that the sales process complies with local laws and regulations, especially if exploring unconventional selling methods, given the current situation with the bank. 

Once a sale is obtained, help the couple develop a financial plan for covering the mortgage deficit, moving expenses, and any outstanding loans they may have. This might include exploring options for debt consolidation or refinancing on other assets they may own. I would then utilize my network of legal experts and financial advisors to provide the couple with the best possible guidance and resources.

 

Tony Joe 

Broker/owner, Re/Max Island Properties

As we all know, we can’t create values that don’t exist. Promising the Simpsons a sale that can’t be achieved in the present market is not an option.

You’d want to start with an overview of their financial position. You already know they owe at least $50,000 more than the house is worth, but other factors must be considered, including legal fees, mortgage penalties and your commission. For them to achieve their objective of moving, how much will they need to come up with to make it happen?

Those who have been in the business for over 25 years remember that there were long periods when sellers routinely had to bring money to the table in order for their sale to close. It meant coming up with thousands of dollars just to be able to move forward. It also meant at the time that one of the documents we’d have sellers sign was authorization for the bank to release their mortgage balance, enabling us to determine if there was enough equity (or available equity) in order for them to close the sale.

If the Simpsons are not able to or are unwilling to close at a deficit, stop where you are and don’t proceed further; you can’t assist them. Remember — you’re not a genie. You can’t wave a magic wand and miraculously create a unicorn buyer who will pay them what they need to move. Even if you could, would the house appraise?

If they’re willing to discuss further, bring up some other options. Is their company paying for the relocation— are their moving expenses being covered? Could a loss in equity potentially be covered? Have they even asked these questions? Could claiming their moving expenses against their taxes be helpful?

What is their current interest rate and balance? Is their mortgage assumable? It could be a huge selling feature for a buyer to walk in and take advantage of a sub-2.0 per cent interest rate in today’s 7.0 per cent environment. While this won’t make their house worth more money, it could facilitate the sale.

The last option for them is to consider keeping the house and renting it out until they are in a cash-positive position.

But the key here is that you can’t create a value that doesn’t presently exist. You may feel for the Simpsons and try to get their dollar, but deep inside, you know it’s not going to happen, resulting in an expired listing and money and time spent that you can’t recover. It’s a business decision, pure and simple. You can’t save everyone.

 

GinaRose Cristello

Broker/owner, Solid Rock Realty

Do the Simpsons have a decent relationship with the party/group/person holding their mortgage? If so, they may be able to negotiate a short sale of the property, which would allow them to sell it (and still pay commissions). They could do this in conjunction with requesting assistance from their new employer(s) for moving expenses, etc.

Alternatively, they could look at renting out their property and then renting themselves in their new city. The rental market remains strong throughout much of the country, and they may find that their home can generate enough rental income to cover the majority of the expenses. If there is a small shortfall, hopefully, the job they are relocating for pays well and can help cover those costs. By holding the property and renting it out, they can wait to sell when the market has recovered, and all of their expenses on the property can be written off against the income.

If holding the property is not an option, they could investigate taking out a loan to cover the cost of the shortfall in the sale and the commissions. Ideally, though, keeping the property keeps them in a better financial position down the road. Sometimes, the best advice we can give is not to sell!

 

James R.G. Cook

Partner, Gardiner Roberts LLP/REM columnist 

The issue with tenants refusing to vacate is subject to applicable landlord/tenant laws which may be different in each province. In Ontario, there is a process that must be followed to obtain an order from the Landlord and Tenant Board to evict an unwilling tenant and it can take many months to obtain a hearing date. One alternative is to try and reach an agreement with the tenant (colloquially known as “cash for keys”) where you essentially bribe them to leave without issue.

 With regard to the need to sell for a price below the value of the mortgage, this isn’t really a legal issue since the mortgage will have to be paid out on closing regardless of what the current market value of the property is. The sellers will likely need to look into finding alternative financing options to assist them.

In my last column, I mentioned what I believe is a major issue in our industry, apathy toward what happens in organized real estate. People only care when decisions they don’t like are made.

There’s a separate column about the pros and cons of the current governance models in the industry across Canada, but that’s for someone else besides myself to write. If that person is you, please reach out. 

I was recently at the National Speakers Association (NSA) Conference in Orlando called Influence. NSA for the speaking community would be similar to a provincial or national association in real estate, with the exception that membership is not mandatory. Yes, I realize that technically you don’t have to be a member of associations if you’re licensed, but we all know that using that argument isn’t truly made in good faith. If you’re serious when you get your license, it’s mandatory.

While in Orlando, I couldn’t help but notice all the similarities between those who run a business as a speaker and realtors. Everything from the volume of transactions/gigs separating the average from the great, the loneliness as a solo operator for many, the challenges, the full-timers having professionalism issues with the part-timers, and so many others. 

What could we learn from them about member engagement? NSA members continually rave about the value of membership at both their chapter and association levels. I love looking outside the industry for things we can bring in.

So here are two things I’d love to see brought in inspired by the NSA conference:

 

Meeting attendance

 

Attending chapter and association meetings isn’t mandatory to maintain membership, but once you obtain your Certified Speaking Professional certification, it’s incentivized.

To renew your certification, you have to earn credits during the renewal period; one way to earn credits is to attend local chapter meetings and association events. They also earn credits through courses, much like renewing your real estate license.

What if instead of taking courses, you could also renew your licence if you attended meetings at your local board, more for sitting on a committee, and even more if you get elected to a director position?

I believe this would foster more professionalism in the industry than just clicking next a bunch of times on videos. When it comes to licence renewal now, the most common comment you see online is some variation of “Just poured a drink so I can get through this.”

Does that sound like it has real value when that’s the reaction? I could count on one hand the number of people in Canada I’ve spoken to who took their renewal courses and said, “That was a good use of my time that made me a better realtor.” 

Let’s incentivize meeting attendance by making it contribute credits to renewing your license. This isn’t even a new concept; there have been boards that have done variations of this in the past. 

Compared to the current renewal options, I would bet attending meetings, joining committees and getting to know your fellow realtors better would foster more professionalism.

Certification

 

One thing that struck me that the real estate industry is missing: an easy-to-identify designation of a true professional. Since you have to be a member of the associations to sell, the comparison of being a realtor to a licensed non-realtor is watered down at best. Realistically in the eyes of consumers, the distinction is meaningless. 

The NSA has a certification called Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) which is an extra designation you have to qualify for. Only about 20 per cent of NSA members have the designation. Wonder what percentage of the business that 20 per cent does…

To earn it initially, you must have done 250 speaking gigs or more in the last 10 years. You also have to prove you earned at least $50,000/year minimum for five years of the last 10 years from speaking. These must all be proven. You also need to send questionnaires to people who’ve hired you; at least 20 of them need to respond, and then they’re followed up with to make sure they’re genuine. 

On top of the industry recognition as a top professional, some companies only book speakers who have their CSP because they know they’ll deliver. There’s also access to private CSP-only masterminds.

There are a few other requirements, such as some mandatory courses but those above are the main ones. If you go through the application phases and are approved, you are given the CSP designation. They only let one group of people in a year with an application deadline. If you miss or don’t qualify, you have to wait for the next year to try again. It becomes a celebration at the annual conference to get your official designation.

This gives you the CSP designation for five years. To renew it, you have to earn 24 NSA credits which you can earn by attending specific events. As in, you have to be active in the community to maintain your status as a Certified Speaking Professional.

 

How it could be useful in organized real estate

 

Let’s imagine we did this in real estate and created a Certified Professional Realtor designation (you might want a different acronym than CPR). Much like brokers are held to a higher standard than sales representatives, certified professionals would be held to the highest. 

Now there’s a true way to differentiate those who take this seriously as a real business and those who do it part-time as more of a hobby.

If you had ethics violations, your certification could be permanently removed. At the very least, you’d have to take it to a committee of your peers to convince them you should retain your designation.

 Here’s a start to the conversation of how I’d like to see the qualifications be:

• A minimum of 200 transactions in the last 10 years — must be verifiable, and leases can count.
• $75,000 in gross commission in at least 5 of the past 10 years. Not an average; it must be in individual years.
• At least 30 submitted client evaluations, and clients contacted for the authenticity of submissions.
• If you meet either of the first two conditions but not both, you may apply for an exception to a committee that hold their designations already. This would be, for example, for realtors who specialize in high-end luxury. They may not have the same volume, but they could deserve it — a committee of your professional peers would be able to judge. 
• Any application fee should be the minimum needed to cover the committee’s time for processing the application and a small marketing budget to promote the value to the consumer of the designation.

Incentivizing involvement

 

While a private organization could create a designation like this, I think it has more weight coming from a national association. This shouldn’t be a for-profit certification.

It could become a worldwide designation as long as you meet the criteria. A Canadian-led initiative to raise the bar globally. An organization, even one like REM, could create this, but I genuinely believe it shouldn’t be a for-profit designation. Either the Canadian Real Estate Association or them in conjunction with the National Association of Realtors should.

It’s time more involvement was incentivized. Being face-to-face with the colleagues we work with day in and day out regularly would foster more professionalism. Decisions wouldn’t come as a surprise when they’re happening. By incentivizing participation, instead of making it mandatory, some can still keep their head in the sand if they want, but it’ll be easier to get involved.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments on the following:

1. Licence renewal credits for attending board meetings, association meetings, and joining committees.

2. A not-for-profit designation for a “Certified Professional Realtor:”

• • • • What criteria do you think should be the minimum to get the designation?
      • What could we add as a benefit to the certification to make it more valuable to those obtaining it?