A Real Estate Broker’s Guide To Entrepreneurial Success
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- 1 – Introduction (9/2/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience - Chris McAllister’s latest book, “Take A Look at your Future - A Broker’s Guide to Entrepreneurial Success,” helps Broker Owners realize the full potential of their business. While most franchise companies focus on two things: agent recruiting, and selling more franchises, Chris is going to show you how to build a profitable and sustainable company that will add value to… …
- 2 – The Client Experience: Relationships vs. Transactions (9/9/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, real estate brokers literally had the only keys to the houses for sale in their market. There was no internet back then. There were literal printed ‘books’ of listings that brokers had exclusive access to - the Multiple Listing Service was a book! Information about listings was strategically disseminated in the local newspaper or… …
- 3 – The Client Experience: Working by Referral (9/16/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - Working by referral is the essence of our company. As Chris discussed in his previous book A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to the Good Life, it is much easier (and less stressful) to take the long view for your business and create advocates for your services and expertise. During his first year as an agent, Chris discovered Top Producer, which… …
- 4 – The Client Experience: Avoiding the Commoditization Trap (9/23/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - One of Chris's ongoing motivations for creating a real estate brokerage platform centered on the needs and desires of our clients is to avoid becoming a commodity. We’re not all alike. Many broker owners compete largely on price to survive in a commoditized market. We’re not interested in a pay cut, are you? We package our unique methods and processes… …
- 5 – The Client Experience: From Listing Focused to Client Obsessed (9/30/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - Many brokers believe that listings are the life-blood of their business. Chris agrees that they’re critical to a firm’s financial health. However, with Zillow and Realtor.com as the preferred shopping platforms for home buyers, we no longer control information and access to homes for sale. And online, a house is a house. Unlike a brand-loyal Mercedes driver, nobody is going… …
- 6 – The Client Experience: The Times They Are a Changin’ (10/3/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - We all know the Baby Boomers and Generation X, but both of these groups are dwarfed by that cohort that arrived between the early 80’s and Y2K, I’m talking about 82 million Millennials. The number of people from 15 - 34 living at home has grown dramatically, the unmarried couples are increasing and the birth-rate has dropped. But as the… …
- 7 – The Client Experience: Property Management – A Point of Differentiation (10/7/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - In any given market, roughly 60 to 65% of the people live in a home they own. That means at least 35 to 40% live in homes they don’t own. Why do the vast majority of brokerages serve barely two thirds of the population? What about the other 35 to 40% of the people that still need a roof over… …
- 8 – The Client Experience: Client Touch Points (10/14/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - One of Chris’s five aspirations is to create the most referred real estate brand in the land. (We’ll discuss all five aspirations in detail in Part 3.) We strive to connect on a level that creates a client for life by breaking down and improving every detail of every brand interaction. This is an ambitious agenda that we will tackle… …
- 9 – The Client Experience: Moments of Truth (10/21/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience, Uncategorized - A moment of truth can easily turn into an obstacle and a ‘pain point’ for a potential client. Gaps in our understanding of what a client really wants, brand ‘misses’ where we fail to execute as promised, or a failure to acknowledge what a client might be feeling, are just three common challenges that interfere with the desired brand experience.… …
- 10 – The Client Experience: Marketing and Advertising (10/28/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Part 1: The Client Experience - Chris and the team continuously refine our brand content and processes to capitalize on every client touch point opportunity. The process will never be complete because improvement and iteration differentiates our brand. As Chris likes to say, “this is how we roll.” We are driven by the goals, needs, thoughts, and emotions that motivate our clients to make some of… …
- 11 – Part #2 – The Agent Experience – A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to the Good Life (11/4/2019) From the book: Uncategorized - Client touch points in the agent recruiting and retention process occur from the moment an agent becomes aware that we exist, continuing throughout our career-long relationship. Ideally, a prospective agent will be referred, ‘discover’ us passively, or succumb to our marketing efforts. It should be easy for the candidates who are a fit to find us organically, and when they… …
- 12 – The Agent Experience: Attracting New Agents – Our Best Candidates Are Referred by Our Own Agents (11/11/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success - It should come as no surprise that our best agent candidates are referred to us by our best agents. Chris is always happy to schedule an appointment with almost anyone that wants to talk about our company, but he always ask them to read A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to the Good Life first. Anyone who reads the book and… …
- 13 – The Agent Experience: The Online Agent Attraction Strategy (11/18/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success - Our new agent marketing funnel consists of four parts: reach, engage, activate, and re-engage. In the reach stage, we cast the widest net to reach all possible people who self-identify as Realtors in specific geographic areas, and capture their interest with our weekly recruiting videos and blog posts drawn from A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to the Good Life. The… …
- 14 – The Agent Experience: Your Brokerage for Life (11/18/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success - Just as Chris wants to attract clients to our brand and retain them throughout their lives, he want the same for our agent and broker relationships. A great relationship starts with attracting someone who is personally aligned with our brand values and aspirations. The relationship grows over time as we continuously add value to an agent’s business and life. As… …
- 15 – The Agent Experience: Training and Technology (11/25/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success - Agents want two things from their broker: training and technology. If we presume to be leaders in our industry, we need to be very specific about how the training and tools we provide support their businesses. And we must be deliberate in the implementation and ongoing support so that it adds value over time. There is a lot of junk… …
- 16 – The Agent Experience: Transitioning to a New Culture (12/2/2019) From the book: Uncategorized - Chris has agents who have been with him since his RE/MAX days. They have seen him at his best and his worst. They weathered the transition from RE/MAX back to a local Mom and Pop operation and stuck with him through the creation of and the transition to, ROOST Real Estate Company Transition can be traumatic. Most people avoid change… …
- 17 – The Agent Experience: The Four Freedoms of a Real Estate Professional (12/3/2019) From the book: Uncategorized - If real estate doesn’t offer a superior way of making our way in the world, Chris doesn’t see the point of being in the business at all. There are easier ways to make a living. Much of A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to the Good Life paints a picture of what the life of a real estate professional can be… …
- 18 – The Agent Experience: The Rhythm of Our Business (12/5/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Another key difference in the culture of our company is how we embrace the annual rhythm of our business. Working by referral makes for more consistent income throughout the year, the business is still seasonal. Our agents need to be aware of it, be comfortable in it, and we need to lead the way. Chris knows exactly when we need… …
- 19 – The Agent Experience: The Agent Service Manager (12/6/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Chris set out to create an environment in which everyone is free to do what they do best. We ensure that our agents are free to do what they do best through the support of the Agent Service Manager (ASM). The ASM supports the daily business activities of their agents. They are often the primary point of contact between the… …
- 20 – The Agent Experience: How We Support Working by Referral (12/9/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - We offer Referral Maker CRM (Client Relationship Manager) to our agents. This platform is a flagship of Buffini and Company, our training and coaching partners. Referral Maker allows agents to track their referral-creating activities, relationships, and transactions. And Referral Maker for Teams allows the broker or sales manager to manage leads, and reward referral producing activities for all agents in… …
- 21 – The Agent Experience: Backstage Support (12/10/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - A real estate professional focused on building relationships, generating leads, and closing transactions doesn’t always have time for all of the ‘backstage’ activities that make the ‘on stage’ work possible. That is why we offer each agent a complete productivity package designed to allow our agents more time with their clients. Each agent is set up with an automated showing… …
- 22 – The Agent Experience: Your Pay Your Way (12/11/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Whether you are new to the business, an experienced professional, or a team leader looking for the best possible brokerage to build your business with, ROOST Real Estate Company has a compensation plan and fee structure that grows with you as your business grows. Your Pay Your Way™ is designed to be transparent, easy to understand, and most of all… …
- 23 – The Agent Experience: Financial Goals for Our Agents (12/12/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Chris would love to see every one of our agents earn at least $100,000 in gross commissions each year. If that agent is paid on a 70/30 split, they are paid $70,000 and the brokerage retains $30,000. All agents are responsible for their annual board dues and licensing fees, MLS fees, and a monthly errors and omissions insurance fee determined… …
- 24 – Part #3 – The Broker Owner Experience: Partner with ROOST (12/13/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - In this section of the book, Chris provides a sense of what sets our broker owner relationships apart from the industry norms. We want to share the essence and spirit of our brand, and how that will come through in the marketing and advertising materials we have in development. So let’s start with some of the content from our Partner… …
- 25 – The Broker Owner Experience: The Self-Managing Real Estate Brokerage™ Part I (12/16/2019) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - The Self-Managing Brokerage™ is our training program for our broker owner partners and franchisees. It is a self-contained business plan designed to to launch a new brokerage, or to transition an existing brokerage to the Real Estate Brands Ltd model. Creating a Self-Managing Brokerage is not a one-time training event, it is the foundation of our value-added relationship with our… …
- 26 – The Broker Owner Experience: A Word about Chris McAllister (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Chris has been a Realtor® since 2001 and a broker since 2003. Chris has owned franchises and helped manage a locally owned firm. He has lived the best and worst of both worlds and believes that a real estate firm has to be about the profession and the client to be successful. It cannot be simply about the agent or… …
- 27 – The Broker Owner Experience: Our Five Aspirations (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Chris has five ‘Core Aspirations’ for our company. Be the Most Referred Real Estate Brand in the LandKeep Clients for LifeBe the Only Partner our Realtors Will Ever Need Lead in Average Agent ProductivitySupport the Most Profitable Broker Owners in the Industry Aspirations #1 and 2 are prerequisites for 3, 4, and 5. But all five aspirations support and enhance the… …
- 28 – The Broker Owner Experience: Chris’s Take on the State of Our Industry (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Technology has had a profound effect on the real estate industry during the last decade. Our industry has become a revolving door for new licensees who cannot gain traction quickly. Successful agents have learned to both work with, and to leverage technology, so that it works for them. Big players will always be with us, however, small players and niche… …
- 29 – The Broker Owner Experience: Broker Profitability Matters (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Chris believes that where our passion for our business intersects with our desire to be heroes to our clients lies our opportunity as entrepreneurs to be rewarded handsomely for our efforts. This is not a magic formula however. If it were, many of us would be very well off indeed. Profitability requires focus, structure, a set of proven processes, and… …
- 30 – The Broker Owner Experience: Managing Revenue and Expenses (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Your Pay Your Way™ attracts agents who want to build a scalable and sustainable business in a way that rewards the broker owner for their efforts. It sets standards of service and production for agents and sets the bar high enough to be a challenge. It is flexible enough to accommodate high producers without compromising the integrity of the strategy.… …
- 31 – The Broker Owner Experience: Marketing with Mindset Scorecards (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - As Chris mentioned earlier in Part #2, we are working on several marketing projects using what we call mindset scorecards. We are currently beta-testing the Good Life for Realtors scorecard, the Make Your Real Estate Work scorecard for prospective property management clients, the Happy Home Buyer and Successful Home Seller scorecards, the What Success Looks Like scorecard for staff members,… …
- 32 – The Broker Owner Experience: Brand Position and Concepts (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Back in 2012, Chris partnered with Andy Hayes of Hucklebuck Design Studio to bring ROOST Real Estate Company to life. Andy’s portfolio included branding for several prominent establishments local to Springfield, Ohio, as well as some work with nationally recognized companies. After several extensive meetings and interviews, Andy distilled the essence of the company in Chris’s head to four key… …
- 33 – The Broker Owner Experience: Brick and Mortar (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - A real estate company’s success is no longer dependent on the location of their office, or in some cases, even having an office at all. These days, most of our agents only come in as they need to, usually to meet a client, attend a closing, or to turn in a file and collect a commission check. Technology has given… …
- 34 – The Broker Owner Experience: The ROOST Culture (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - The following core values of the company are critical to delivering the results our clients deserve. A career with ROOST is not for everybody, but for those who share our desire to transform the real estate industry, the potential for growth, achievement, and unlimited income are all very real. We Are All Free to Do What We Do Best Chris's… …
- 35 – The Broker Owner Experience: What Success at ROOST® Looks Like (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - Have an Ownership Attitude When there is a problem, step up and take responsibility. Never report a problem without bringing a solution along for the ride. Create Value Continuously look for new ways to be of greater use to our clients and fellow team members. Look for new ways to contribute and help our clients realize their goals. Take Initiative … …
- 36 – The Broker Owner Experience: The Self-Managing Real Estate Brokerage™ Part II (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - This is our onboarding and training program for new franchisees. The initial training is an evolving work in progress. Our ultimate goal is to create our own Hamburger University for our broker owner partners and managers. The initial training is five days long including travel into and out of either Dayton or Columbus, Ohio. The training is held at our… …
- 37 – And in Conclusion (1/4/2020) From the book: A Real Estate Broker's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, Uncategorized - So, what do you think? Do you want to join us? Our company is five years old in conception and well into our fourth year as a going concern. In that time however, we have laid the groundwork for a scalable and sustainable enterprise that addresses the needs of the client, the agent, and most importantly, the broker owner. We… …