Own Your Own Life In Real EstatePart 1
By Larry Cragun – Connect Realty
http://connectcareer.infoV1.1
I’ve Discovered a way to own your own life in Real Estate.
Are you interested?
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Please read at least the 1st 4 chapters, then If you are interested this is step 3.
Get more details, have your questions answered.
Ann Elwood
206-940-4044
General information and to Register for the Saturday 9AM Hillier Olson webinar
http://connectcareer.info (Great Content in this webinar)
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Step 3:
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Change Your Life, In Real Estate.
Have you ever thought what it would be like to own your own life?
Here is what trainer Don Failla means: “own your own life”.
_ when you subtract sleeping time, commuting time, working time, and things you have to do each and every day of your life, most people don’t have more than one to two hours a day to do what they would like to do; and then, would they have the time or money to do it?
_ Don has pioneered a way for people to “Own their own lives”. His way is through home based businesses – MLM Marketing.
_ This isn’t MLM marketing. We adapt Don’s system to real estate.
_ We also do what Warren Buffet is doing, build permanent residual income through real estate.
This is a simple system. It requires that you be licensed and does not require
that you be a great salesperson.
Looking into this won’t take much of your time, are you interested?
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Introduction
A Successful businessman once told me to observe what the masses are
doing, and do the opposite. Apply that to real estate. In real estate
there are many more sellers than buyers. Agents are quitting in large
numbers. It’s not a game for the masses. So is it time to put on your
real estate shoes? I think so.
If you do the right things, today real estate is a wide open opportunity. Doing the same ole
same ole is grim. For things to change, we must make changes.
There are some real estate brokers out there that are prospering. Not in sales you say? Right, at
least not for very many. This is about a way you can take advantage of the environment we live
in to shall we say, “HAVE A LIFE, EVEN A GREAT LIFE” and “OWN YOUR OWN LIFE”.
OWNING YOUR OWN LIFE IN REAL ESTATE Might seem like a foreign concept but we invite you
to give serious consideration to what that would mean for you.
In making sense of things we ask you to consider, even respect the value of even a small amount
of steady income. At the same time we invite you to open your mind to the possibilities that
reside in capturing a piece of the cash flow that takes place in the real estate industry, even
today.
What you will see if you proceed is truly how you can Own Your Own Life in a terrific industry
that brings great joy to clients. You will see there are various ways to fit into this business. You
will see how you can capture a long term income without large risks.
You will also see why some are calling Connect Realty, “The Perfect Storm”. Our teams
approach is to bring to you enough value added that you become a part of our team.
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Preface
“Owning Your Own Life? In Real Estate?
OWNING YOUR OWN LIFE was a concept introduced to me over 30 years ago by a friend, Don Failla. He said he was about to set out to teach people how to own their own lives in MLM marketing.
I scoffed at the idea. Well, in a way the laugh is on me, Don and his wife Nancy have made a huge success of their lives doing just that – owning their own lives and helping others do the same. He now travels the world teaching people to do what he has done.
There are reasons this is the time to apply these principles to the real estate industry. One reason is the state of the industry. Another is the personal financial situation of many of the agents. This is a terrific industry to be in. Finding a way to not only survive but to build a meaningful income is needed. That is what this is about. That plus enjoying the journey as we proceed.
We see that it is time for us to follow my friends principles and helping agents. That’s why you have been approached. We offer you the right opportunity, an easy to do approach, and an easy to duplicate system. What we introduce is based on simplicity. It is self motivating, or motivates ourselves as we do it.
Please read the first 5 chapters: 1: This Isn’t MLM My Friend 2:Respecting The value of $400.00 3: What Is Buffet up to? 4: Making Bad Agents Good and Good Agents Better. 5: The System
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This Isn’t MLM My FriendYes, 30+ years ago I rejected my friend Don’s invitation because I didn’t want to be a multi level junkie.
Everywhere I turned people were hitting on me, and not because I was cute. It was because I was a live
body. Don shared with me that if I could get 5 and helped them get 5 and on and on, I could be rich.
There were 3 problems with that concept, and one of them wasn’t the idea of getting rich, I was ok with
that part. The problems were 1- I did the math with him. I think it was if everyone recruited 5, at the 9th
level and we had the whole US population. That didn’t seem practical to me. 2- I didn’t really like the
product or think it was priced right. That meant I had to get in just for the money. I assumed then, that
it would be the same for others I recruited. 3- I concluded the 5 x’s 5 approach would mean there would
always be at least 5 times the number of losers as winners, those without a recruit being the losers. My
interest in MLM hasn’t changed but I am happy for Don’s huge success.
Owning your own life in real estate is somewhat of a foreign idea now. In sales it’s a struggle. Hanging by
your toenails is more descriptive than doing well. It’s such a struggle that many of those who are in the
business are doing something else to pay the bills. It’s called part time. Part time is probably not a good
idea, professionally. In reality when the going got tough many got going – to another career.
On our team, we sponsor instead of recruit. In other words, we have systems, we support, and we teach.
We help. We keep it simple. We have fun. The marvelous Connect model compensates us correctly.
Connect is unconventional. It uses the un-office concept. Maybe they will start having an un-convention
rather than a convention. It is the future and others will copy it.
Connect offers a low cost way to be an agent. At the same time it delivers all of the basic tools you need
to be in business. Your monthly expenses will go down. If you look further you will see that the Connect
model compensates me to help build you. I would also say that in my many years as an agent- broker this
is the only company where I have experienced a natural sharing, environment, You will experience the
same thing I am sure.
You will see in Chapter 3 that we are talking larger numbers. Don says that MLM checks often begin
around $7.50 or so, my first override check in Connect was about $400.00 and still averages that.
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Respecting The Value of $400.00Either by need, from greed, or from ignorance we often fail to respect the value of seemingly small amounts of money. As I mentioned, my first override check in Connect was about $400.00. When we received it I told Kathleen to deposit it that there were to be many more. It wasn’t a big deal as I had high expectations. I wasn’t real humble or appreciative of what I had just been blessed with.
I now know that there is another important way to look at that those $400 checks. It is important to point out that these are residual income checks, not commissions. There is an important difference.
The difference between commission income and residual income is the residual continues after you have done the work. Connect vests you after 3 years, 2 years if you are over 62. Your overrides can permanently grow and continue. What is the value of a continuing income of $400.00? If I want it safely placed at my bank I might earn about 4% on my deposits. If I sponsor someone who by themselves brings me 400.00 on a steady monthly basis I need to deposit in my bank account $120,000.00 to match that. How about that? How many do you know that added $120,000 to their retirement portfolio this year?
Play with this concept, the interest rate, and the numbers all you want. You will talk to very few in any avocation that does that. And here we are offering it to you as a realistic opportunity.
The opportunity to earn residual income with a company like Connect in an industry like real estate is worth more than having an office instead of an un-office.
In Summary: I promise to be more humble about and more grateful for those $400.00 checks.
I assure you I will seek to help you get your $400.00 residual income and the good news is that when you earn $400.00 there is a good chance I will too, on the same transaction.
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What Is Warren Buffet up to? Warren Buffets is buying up real estate companies, lots of them. He has been collecting them for years. He added to his empire recently. In fact his company, Home Services of America is the Biggest U.S. Residential Brokerage after Apollo Management’s Realogy Corp. Home Services of America Operates Under 17 different Names in 18 States. It’s not real obvious as they keep the brand name that they buy in place: Schiller Real Estate, Prudential California, Prudential Carolinas, Graham and Boles, Long Realty, Edina Realty, etc.
Why is he doing this, even now? For the same reason we ask you to consider it. Large numbers, The reason I make this point is important. Kathleen and I have been in the real estate and mortgage business for many years. Part of that has been as the owners of a mortgage company. We were no Bank of America in size. We had 4 employees on salary, 100 (many part timers) loan officers, and some contract processors. In 2003 This relative small team produced what was to me a shocking almost 1 billion in loan volume.
Realizing what volume we did that year helped 1 billion come into perspective for me. One billion In real estate is not big. Yet, if you as an agent could just make 5% of 3% in commission on 1 billion dollars you would earn $1.5 million dollars. That’s big. Or is that small?
The Connect model allows a whole lot of agents to accomplish the same thing. The difference is in risk, capacity and work. We had a huge risk in the mortgage company. our financial statement was getting better but I still had limited capacity financially. Oh how we worked. The pressure was immense on all of us. I wouldn’t do it again.
I am now helping people own their own lives in like manner, except without much risk, without the huge financial commitment, and without all of the pressure.
My motto is sill the same as to what attracted loan officers to our company: my job is to help you make more money, easier to do, and to help you be more professional.
More simply put: Help you own your life, in real estate.
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Making Bad Agents Good and Good Agents Better.
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I am certain I will never run into a bad agent, I just liked the catchiness of the heading. With that in
mind I will just focus on making good agents better.
Kathleen and I also started a .com, had a social medial marketing business, and a very Google
Friendly blog business. If you go to http://neighborhoodsUndressed.com you can click links in right
sidebar that will take you to just some of the hundreds of ways our Issaquah Undressed blog shows up
on page 1 of Google naturally without paying for search results.
In these endeavors I learned at least 5 things a good agent wanting to be a better agent might
appreciate:
1- We could make more money (in residual income) if we provided our technology at no cost to our
team so agents could eliminate the I can’t afford it in my budget problem. Smart eh? It only took
years to figure that out.
2- Some agents are intimidated by the technology and I could help them overcome that problem.
3- After all this time in social media I knew things agents must do to prosper which I could teach.
4- There are some things agents haven’t done online that are urgent and I can help them get it done.
5 - I had gathered others around me had that had other important things they were willing to
provide. ATOM is an example of this. If you embrace it, ATOM will supercharge your career. Thanks
Jim Warner.
I say this often, “I have been licensed with several good companies. Some are very
proud of their training and team spirit. I have never seen a company walk the walk like
I have seen it walked here. From Bellingham to California people have reached out in a
giving way to help me, some having no financial benefit in doing so. I promise you, you
will see it for yourself if you join us.” It’s a big deal.
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The System.Rule number 1: The system cannot expect us to be good sales people.
Rule number 2: It has to be simple and easy for anyone to do, in other words easily duplicated.
Rule number 3: It has to be self motivating, motivates ourselves as we do it.
Let me point out that by your being this far you are already in the system and seeing it work. You
are in step 2 of a 3 step system.
First you were given the 1 minute presentation.
Next you were provided this book and asked to read at least the first 4 chapters. Here you are at
Chapter 5 and you may keep on reading. You were also provided a CD. It’s a quick 12 minutes.
The CD is part of step 3. You learn a little more detail about us. I am available almost on call if
you want to ask questions. There is a Saturday Webinar put on by this agent Steve Hillier and a
colleague John Olson. Go to http://ConnectCareer.info/ and you can get the link to this free
webinar. It really is an in depth look at why this company is a good choice. It’s pretty simple.
I needed less than this to sign up with Connect. We want all to be able to grow, not just the
studs. I contacted Connect because they had the low monthly costs and splits I wanted. Then, I
realized how rare an opportunity, how big an opportunity this is. I got it. I hope you do to.
So where are you? Are you ready? Do you need more? We are here to do our part in getting you on
the path to owning your life.
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The Un-Office.In my lengthy career I have worked at small boutique offices and large regional and national
brokerages. These had from 1500 square feet and a receptionist to almost a whole 20,000 square
foot building and several support staff employed. I have been licensed with one of the nations
top 5 that had big meeting rooms, offices, conference rooms, and more.
It’s been nice. However, from my experience I have concluded that my success does not depend
on having a close by fancy office. Yours doesn’t’ either. An office is often a place to go to waste
time or socialize. Why do you think some companies prefer to have employees telecommute?
Efficiency and lower overhead? Connect is all about efficiency and low overhead.
What if the tradeoff was that it could change everything about your future? All business is a game
of the bottom line. Offices don’t come cheap. Staff to support that environment is even more
significant. Agents pay for this overhead, even if they didn’t sign the lease and cut payroll.
Connect has a few offices, two to be exact: 1 in Houston, Texas and 1 in Tacoma Washington.
With Connect it will always be skinny in this form of expense. The result is a tradeoff: the
residual income and lower monthly overhead opportunity.
As we roll out the “own your own life in real estate” program you will experience not only can
you be successful in your business with the un-office, you will enjoy it more. You will lose little
of import and can gain much.
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Circles of Influence. A Specialty We Teach This could have the subtitle of making good agents better.
People In Your Community Are Going To Select Someone. You Want It To Be You. Have you met enough of them?
Do they know what you do?
How do you connect with them?
Do you? Often enough?
Are You On Target With Your Community?
Your Community Consists of a large amount of people you know & don’t know.
They Can’t Choose You Unless They Know You or Know Of You.
And they Must Know What You Do!
You need to meet them (mets).
Meeting them is ok– Meeting & Connecting with them is much more important.
Remembering you is necessary.
Turning them into clients, advocates, and core is the goal.
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The Hub And Spokes Solution:This is the second class we teach could have the subtitle of making good agents better. All marketing can be more effective by this concept. It moves you to take action. It helps you be effective without a lot of expense. All marketing is part of the Hub and spokes Solution.
WORD OF MOUTH HAS JUST BEEN GIVEN A MEGAPHONE - Instant Communication and a Vast Audience
• VIRAL – Tell One, Tell Many
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS HERE TO STAY – Traditional Media Models are Unsustainable
IT IS INEXPENSIVE MARKETING – Not Free – The Currency is Your Time
FAST WAY TO BUILD YOUR REPUTATION – Good or Bad
SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS – The Way Consumers Research & Shop
THE BIGGEST MARKETING REVOLUTION EVER
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ATOM This is the third class we teach to make good agents better. It becomes a process of coaching.
This is Jim Warner’s baby. He is sharing it with us, and it is important.
If you speak to someone who has had this class and the follow up coaching you would sense, this
is something special. ATOM is: Accountability Tracking & Opportunity Matrix.
Make A Commitment to do the right things.
Place a $ value on your activity
Previewing listings, making contacts, etc.
Vs
Reading email, making flyers, etc.
Making flyers doesn‟t make you money. Find out what does. Measure how much many you will make by the score you
get for the activities you did.
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Refer Out Agents So you don’t want to sell homes. You do want to own your own life. That works. You can be a team builder
without selling real estate.
However as you tell people you are in the business you will come across buyers or sellers. What you will do that will be
a win win win for many is to refer them to someone that is right for the client that is on your team. You would expect a
referral fee and receive residual income form the transaction. You win, the client wins, and the agent you referred the
client to wins. There are agents making serious money just as a refer out agent.
I encourage agents that are part time to not be part time. I believe part timers should be in the business but that they
should be refer out agents.
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Been Here Before?Have you been teased, talked to, or tempted to embark on a new great opportunity? I have.
In looking at Connect, after I got my questions answered about the costs, the commission splits,
and what they provided me for the monthly costs I was in. One phone call answered all my
questions. But that was not enough for my sponsor to be Elaine, she wanted to encourage me to
value the power of the residual income part. She arranged for a meeting with Kathleen and I. It
was in that meeting that it hit me: I had been here before.
Many years ago I had been introduced to a similar opportunity in the insurance industry. They
had a great product which I believed in. It too was a large dollar volume industry. That
opportunity had the ingredients to make a lot of people a lot of money while providing a great
consumer service. It did accomplish that, but not for me.
I did well but not great. I reached the level of Regional Vice President. With the same effort,
had I started two years earlier I could have been one of the giants. That company took a large
number of ordinary people and made them millionaires. The key was timing.
Elaine has encouraged me to stay focused, the last time I spoke to here her team was up to
about 90 people. She says I get it. Thanks Elaine.
The key is still timing and that is why you see me focusing as I am, trying to lead as I am.
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Clarity – Confidence - ActionA simple message with simple questions and a comment.
Where there is clarity, there is confidence.
Where there is confidence there is action.
Success takes action.
Is there clarity in your business life?
Will duplicating your last year lead you to owning your own life?
Would you like it to own it sooner that later?
I encourage you to give your destination some serious thought. Are you doing what will make you truly happy? Is there
hope and enthusiasm in your daily work? Does what you do motivate you to do more of it. Will it help you own your
own life? Do you even want that? My hope is that I can help you reach that place, whatever path you take.
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Sizzle SessionsSizzle sessions are the fun way we will build, train, and help you in your Connect business. Why not build it the fun
way? Sizzle sessions are definitely fun!
We will be using Twitter as an easy way to announce or find these sessions. If you go to Twitter and search like this:
#Sizzle Sessions you will see where they are at, the content, and who is the instigator. You can all do this, just post it
on Twitter the same way. I am already using this. Join in. (#sizzle session on twitter)
From an online comment by Nancy Failla: A sizzle session is an enjoyable educational social event. This is not
where you‟re going to solve the world‟s problems or discuss al the problems in your life. This is a very social function. I
like to tell people that if you know a lot of lonely people, why don‟t you start a sizzle session? You can share your ideas
for the business, as well as plan some fun things, like potlucks, bowling parties, picnics, or „un-conventions‟. We‟ve had
sizzle sessions on cruise ships. We‟ve had them in motor homes and in trailers. You can have them on your lunch hour
at work, or in your home. We‟ve even had them standing in a parking lot!
As you know, our motto is “Own Your Life”. That means you can have the time, money and health to be able to do
whatever you want with your life. And remember, you could build all this around sizzle sessions. The sessions become
more and more exciting as time goes on. They get easier and easier as well. You will find that your sizzle sessions will
grow because everybody wants to be with a fun, social group. Let‟s face it. These are the movers and shakers of the
world. These are the people who realize there really is a better way to a better life. So, let‟s get on with it and start
having more fun
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Next:
Own
Your
Own Life
In Real
Estate
Part 2 19
