Real estate author outlines his 'blueprint' for success

Alan Sharan

Selling more than 100 homes a year can be accomplished by implementing systems and taking advantage of technology, according to Alan Shafran, a California Realtor®.

Shafran, who grew up in a real estate family, co-authored the book, Blueprint for 100 Deals or More than $1 Million Per Year in Income. Starting in the real estate business when he was 18, he was quickly in the top 1 percent of Realtors® earning more than $1 million per year for over a decade.

He gives several skills necessary to achieve success:

• Be a good team leader. Surround yourself with a good team with an administrative assistant and buyers’ agents. The leader should be the very best salesperson on the team. It is not reasonable to think that you can simply get your license, assemble a team and sell real estate. You have to have experience, success and strong sales skills to help you train the other team members. You need to teach them how to close deals, stay out of trouble, how to coordinate transactions, how to communicate with clients and how to make the transaction the best experience for clients. It takes a blend of skills to lead a profitable business and the team leader is accountable for the team’s direction.
• Strong people skills are important. As a leader, you need to know how to communicate with others. You need to know how to close the deal but it’s just as important to be able to make the people on your team love what they’re doing and feel appreciated. If you have a lot of turnover, you won’t see 100+ closings. It’s critical to learn how to manage people.
• Have organizational systems in place. In today’s market, you must be efficient. You must have strong systems in place using technology so you have a “one-touch system.” That means whatever you do, you only touch once. So when something is saved on the computer, everyone on the team is aware of the process so they don’t have to ask you for the documents. By harnessing this type of system, we become much more efficient. It allows team members to access information from anywhere, not just the office. Clients are aware of paperless transactions and online signatures. They want to know why you’re not taking advantage of this technology.
• Learn how to manage buyers on another level. It’s important to manage buyers just like sellers. Realtors® should be using an agreement with buyers to show value to what the Realtor® brings to the transaction and to set a price for our services. Use a Buyer Brokerage agreement. This is similar to the Listing Agreement as it has a term and a fee that the Realtor® gets paid if the buyer buys a home during the term of the agreement.