There are some interesting findings within this Press Release issued today by the REA Group…

• Eighty four per cent⁽¹⁾of property hunters find inspecting properties to be more stressful than visiting the Boxing Day sales.
• Fifty seven per cent⁽¹⁾ of property hunters have become so distressed by the property search that they have fought about it with their loved ones.
• New South Wales property hunters are the most stressed out in the country while South Australians are the most relaxed.⁽¹⁾

“Australia’s obsession with property hunting is stressing out the nation and impacting our relationships with loved ones, according to new research by leading Australian property portal, realestate.com.au.

The nationwide survey of over 1,000 adults⁽¹⁾ revealed 84 per cent of prospective buyers believe looking for property is more stressful than visiting the end of year Boxing Day sales. The news comes as realestate.com.au enhances their website to alleviate the pressure.

The findings reveal three-quarters (74 per cent ⁽¹⁾) of Australians find inspecting properties  stressful, with New South Wales property hunters coming in as the most stressed out state in the country.

Unsurprisingly, this added stress is having an adverse effect on wellbeing, with 57 per cent of property hunters saying they have become so distressed by the property search that they have fought about it with their loved ones.

Clinical psychologist and relationship expert Dr Timothy Sharp, also known as Dr Happy, says the findings come as no surprise to him.

“Many people underestimate the effect big decisions, such as buying or renting a property, have on our state of being and how happy we are day-to-day,” said Dr Sharp.

“The key is to reduce the stress associated with the process. In doing so, we not only make better decisions but we bring the fun back to house hunting,” he said.

Despite finding the search for their dream home stressful, it seems Aussies are addicted to the hunt. Ninety two per cent of property seekers spend over one full day per month (up to 25 hours) researching potential homes online⁽²⁾.

The research also revealed that 86 per cent⁽¹⁾ of respondents believed using online property websites like realestate.com.au could help ease the pressure felt when house hunting.

General Manager Consumer Marketing for realestate.com.au, Henry Ruiz says the site enhancements help minimise the time wasted in searching for properties, meaning house hunters can find that dream home faster.

“At realestate.com.au we know how stressful the house hunting process can be. We’ve listened to our customers and as a result we have implemented new tools on our website to streamline the search process,” said Henry.

“Some of the new tools includes enhanced search functionality, a compare feature and a myrealestate zone”, he said.

The enhanced search function enables house hunters to now search by the exact street name, suburb or address. The compare feature allows consumers to scan key attributes of each listing and eliminate the ones they don’t like, while the myrealestate zone acts like an online scrapbook allowing house hunters to save all their search activity in the one place for future reference.

KEY STATE FINDINGS⁽¹⁾:

• Seventy nine per cent of New South Wales residents claimed they get stressed when looking for property making them the most stressed out state
• Property hunters in South Australia are the least likely to get stressed with only 64 per cent claiming they have felt the pressure when looking for their dream home.
• Property hunters in Western Australia spend the most time looking for properties, spending almost nine hours a week on the search.
• Property hunters in Queensland are least likely to fight with loved ones when looking for property with only 53 per cent claiming they have come to blows.”

Even though this media release coincides with the launch of realestate.com.au’s new look site, I thought that the article could also act as a timely reminder for agents to show understanding & empathise with clients who are going through the process of buying, selling or renting because it can be an extremely stressful time for your customers.

The more you can do to relieve their level of stress the more your customers will sing your praises.

(1)    Independent online survey conducted by Longergan Research of 1,028 respondents for realestate.com.au, March 2010

(2)    Internal research conducted by realestate.com.au. Online survey of 1,200 respondents, 5-9 October 2009

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In order to have a sales or property management team that achieves great results, a great coach and effective coaching methods is an absolute necessity.

Think of a sales or rental department as an elite sporting team. Each member has their specialty position and skills, and as such, the coaching methods used to ensure their success should be tailored to their individual functions.

Too many principals implement training based on general sales or property management needs, where they should be focusing on individuals’ strengths and weaknesses, and the skills that these people require to excel in their specialty area.

For example, would it be beneficial for Jarryd Hayne to spend all his time training to make the big tackles and hard hit ups? Of course not, because he doesn’t play in the forward line. It would, however, be ideal to use those training methods for a front rower such as Petero Civoniceva.

Is it really a good idea to implement a standard training regime across the whole sales team? Or would it pay to take the time to identify each member’s role, and their strengths and weaknesses, and then tailor training to suit their individual needs.

The reason that players in a sporting team are chosen to represent their country is because they are the best player for that position. The winger is quick, the forwards are tough and the fullback is agile.

In a sales team, the best lister is confident and empathetic, the best seller is great at negotiating and the support staff have an eye for detail. Therefore, tailor training to enhance these skills. Make them market leaders in your area.

Consider joining strong members of your team with other strong members. Cameron Smith & Cooper Cronk are good players in their own right, but as a duo they form a force to be reckoned with. Likewise, band together a star performer with a weaker player in your team. Just as Darren Lockyer can make anyone look fantastic and inspire his team mates to perform, the weaker player will be driven to lift his game.

Another mistake some principals make is not ensuring the sales team sticks to their core market area. In a slow market, it is easy for sales staff to take on listings as business outside of their local or specialty area.

Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of the 21st century, but he would probably get slaughtered if he ‘laced up the boots’ and ran onto the rugby field. As the old adage says ‘Stick with what you know and what you do best’.

But how do you put this training into practice? By conducting a simple training needs analysis. Sit down with each member of the team and discuss with them what they think their strengths and weaknesses are and what they can do to improve. Then implement training to suit their needs.

It can be something low scale like role playing scenarios they have trouble dealing with, or specific skills based training to broaden their knowledge of their core area. With the introduction of compulsory CPD, the popularity of skills based training has decreased dramatically. But as any proactive coach will tell you, training is the key to producing great staff that get results and remain a cut above the competition.

Just as all elite athletes aspire to be the best and represent their country, does your sales staff aspire to be the best and represent you?

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Last week I presented at A Morning with Australia and New Zealand’s Top Agents and had the absolute pleasure to catch up with my friend Julie Ryan, whom I regard as one of the world”s best real estate trainers.

When connecting with Julie on LinkedIn, I happened to notice one of her recent presentations was available on SlideShare and thought I”d share some of Julie”s insights with GenYre = energy readers.

Whilst I appreciate that the SlideShare presentation isn”t anywhere near as effective as it would be with Julie presenting it, I believe that you can still gain a lot out of her presentation slides.

There are some great points that Julie shares about appearing different in your market place. She is also a big believer in using the internet more effectively to help build your profile and make the right first impression.

Julie has also included some very interesting stats about Social Media and a great insight into Dominant Buyer Motives,  plus lots more…

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Ignite your career in 2010 – network with other young agents over a drink at The Loft in Sydney, and be inspired to do what it takes to achieve industry-recognised excellence.

Young agents Eddy Piddington, Jessica Thei and Adrian Wilson are all recent REINSW Awards for Excellence winners and will share what drives them to succeed.

Come along to the Young Agents’ first event for 2010!

Thursday, 15 April 2010 at The Loft in Sydney 4.00pm – 6.00pm (includes a short panel discussion)
$35 REINSW members / $55 Non-members (cost includes drinks and canapes)

To book your seat or learn more Click Here

I’m looking forward to attending this event and catching up with many of the dynamic young agents who are part of the REINSW Young Agents Chapter.

If you’re not in Sydney, there’s a great event being held for Young Agents next week (Friday 19th March) by the REIV on Creating A Successful Future.

This looks like being a great event, featuring one of the GenYre = energy contributors Braden Walters.

Here are the details of that event.

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I’m currently reading a book by Jason Jennings & Laurence Haughton, titled “It’s not the BIG that eat the Small…it’s the FAST that eat the SLOW – How to Use Speed as a Competitive Tool in Business”. It’s a fascinating book.

In Part 2 of the book they discuss Fast Decisions…

“Fast thinking won’t get you very far unless you’re able to quickly process your thoughts and make a decision. Nothing slows down an organization more than paralysis by analysis – the inability to make even the smallest decisions quickly.”

And when reading this paragraph, it made me think of the road blocks that so many of the Gen Y real estate agents are facing each day due to committee meetings & old-school methods being used by lots of agents and the frustration some young agents are experiencing.

Whilst I’m not taking anything away from the wealth of knowledge that the Baby Boomers & Gen X agents can share with the Gen Y agents ( I”m a Gen X agent myself), but the slow uptake of real estate technology & Social Media that exists within our industry means that in many offices Gen Y agents are sent out into the field to do time consuming, ineffective hit & miss ”old school” prospecting to build networks.

Gen Y are the greatest networking generation ever.

As a kid growing up my friends either lived in my neighbourhood or were classmates,etc from school. Whereas, Gen Y have hundreds of friends online from all over the place. As I said before, they are the greatest networking generation ever and yet some agencies won”t even let Gen Y agents use a computer.

C”mon!! We are talking about a generation who were literally born with an email address and a mouse in their hand.

If only you could see what I”ve seen some Gen Y agents doing you would be blown away…

The leverage that some Gen Y agents are applying to real estate sales has to be seen to be believed.

They use the internet & Social Media to do a task once and then leverage marketing strategies around that task or use other marketing tools (eg. Personal Profile Video, Blogging, Facebook Fan Pages, etc).

It”s time that Baby Boomer & Gen X agents sat up and took notice of what can be done.

This year Gen Y will out-number Baby Boomers for the first time in history and for the older, more experienced agents, there will need to be a significant shift in thinking & marketing strategies to ensure that they remain relevant within their marketplace and find ways that they can deliver a more streamlined approach to help retain high performing Gen Y agents and at the same time make sure they appeal to the ever growing Gen Y customers.

When you think about it, this is the first time in history where parents have had to ask their kids how to do things. Like, how do I program my new phone, how do I do certain things on the computer, etc, etc, etc? And, this same situation is now happening within real estate agencies & other businesses throughout the world.

Bosses are recruiting to fill in the gaps for their weaknesses in technology, but in the main they aren’t seeking the knowledge required to ensure that they have a better than basic understanding of how online real estate marketing really should work.

This means that operating systems within the agency are developed around old methods which normally make things less efficient and leads to frustration from employees and customers.

I understand, for a lot of agents, learning about computers is one of the last skills sets they are interested in learning.

I’m not suggesting agents need to turn into computer geeks, but they need to get a basic understanding of why web 2.0 is important and the psychology of the internet and embrace internet marketing strategies so they can use them to leverage their time & resources more effectively.

Plus, at the same time, find ways that they can use technology to deliver a better end user experience so that customers will want to deal with that agency and/or recommend them to their friends.

It”s not enough to have your listings uploaded to the major portals, having a company website and database software. you need to understand why customers aren”t doing business with you & what you can do to build more trust over the internet and use strategies that help to convert website visitors into clients on an ongoing basis, 24/7.

I feel disappointed when I hear about good young agents leaving our industry or going out on their own simply out of frustration and a lack of vision from their leader.

I know of a number of agents who have left companies simply because they felt held back due to lack of vision from their boss and have ended up opening up an agency down the road as competitors. Which is something that is becoming easier & easier for agents to do, especially with the emergence of virtual agencies & the current National Agency Licensing regulations.If an agency wants to move forward and retain their Top Performing Gen Y agents, they really should sit down and spend time listening to some of the ideas of the Gen Y agents rather than sticking in the comfort zone of “this is how I did it when I started out in real estate so that’s the way Gen Y agents should do it too.” (Wrong)

If agents continue doing the old things they will simply frustrate the good new recruits out of the industry and end up employing a team of people who lack innovation, inspiration and will find themselves heading down the wrong track where there is only a dead end.

Gen Y’s love being part of a fast thinking business that embraces change.

Step out of your comfort zone and don’t hold your Gen Y’s back and stop killing off their enthusiasm by using those boring ‘old school’ strategies that all your competitors have all gone back to doing simply because that’s all they know.

Look for new and exciting ways. Innovate, Inspire & Embrace Change Faster.

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