[Mitch]

Hi 1ParkLake! The answer all depends on what you are doing. I'm a big believer in finding someone who is successful and then copy their model. Unfortunately when I started in Real Estate and wanted to use the Internet there was nobody to copy so I developed my own systems.

We are having a great year and last month had the most sales, 41, in a month we have ever had. Our market is tough right now but our little office is comanding close to 10% of all buyer sales!

Here is what I would suggest:

1. Look at where you are spending your money. To me most Agents spend their money in non lead generating areas. Place your cash only in areas that will generate a return. My guess, as with most Realtors, you don't have the thousands of dollars to brand yourself properly.

2. Sharpen your skills. We have been able to turn tire kickers into sales by by developing our "Buyer Presentation". This let's buyers know from day one what is really going on in the market and where they will need to be price wise if they want to really buy a home.

3. Make sure you get a prequal letter. If they aren't taking the first step which is getting financed, then they are not really interested in buying.

4. Be sure you are spending the right amount of time with the people who will buy. For instance. If you are showing 10 different people in a month and giving them all equal time, you run the chance of losing business. I like to give each buyer a number on a scale of 1-5. 1 meaning they are hot and 5 meaning they are not buying. I spend a lot less time with the the 5's as I do with the 1's!

5. Education. I believe the reason most Agents fail is that they are not properly educated in how to run a business and what do to when the market changes. Since I have owned over 15 companies now, I've been through these cycles. Sometimes it's important to change your business strategy. For instance, we stopped taking listings from Jan. 2005 through Jan. 2009. They just werent worth the hassle. We concentrated just on buyers and grew each year.

Hope that helps a little.