On May 26th at Touchdown Terrace the 9th annual CMN Children’s Art Auction will be held. 100% of the funds raised go to Shands’ Children’s Hospital. CMN is AWESOME!

All of the art pieces are created by kids at Shands and the Arts & Medicines Team. Every piece has a story behind it that is full of struggle, faith, and love.

Since 1992 RE/MAX International has donated over $100 million to CMN. RE/MAX Professionals of Gainesville has donated over $250,000 in the past 9 years to CMN to help benefit Shands Children’s Hospital.

Come and be a part of this amazing event on May 24th and be a part of the History of Memories in the lives of kids right here in the community.

Children’s Miracle Network does the right thing for kids.

After they rave about him, spend a few minutes reading some quotes from his presentation and asking yourself if your approach to social media is truly serving you well.

Later, watch some video and order his new book, “The Thank You Economy,” which was released the day he spoke to RE/MAX.

And if you can’t find anyone who was at R4, it would be a good idea to read on anyway.

Insights from Gary Vee:

• Social media value – ”What’s the ROI of social media? I don’t know. What’s the ROI of your mother? What’s the ROI of your best friend? There’s a lot of things you can’t put black-and-white numbers on, especially when it’s this early. You’re in the people business, and people are now talking publicly on the web in a way we’ve never seen before. Your ability to mine it with no cost, to look at the data and interact with them, is zero except for the time you put into it.”
  
• Future of business – ”Every business wants to talk. We want to push our message and our agenda, our phone numbers our websites. The ‘Thank You Economy’ is all about listening. You guys have all been in business and have never had a listening platform. For the last 100-plus years, the only way business had to communicate was by talking. It’s not your fault, it’s the way the game was. But guess what, it’s about to change.”
  
• Real estate – ”In the last 15 months, 55 percent of all new homeowners were 30 years or younger. How do you think you’re going to talk to them? You think they’re going to get pumped for those billboards and bus ads? Because I promise you, when they’re in a bus they’re looking down at their iPhone. Social currency will be the dividing line between selling your properties and not.”
  
• Pull, don’t push – ”We’ve all been in the push business, but now it’s pull. So many in the audience say ‘Well, we tried this Gary.’ I know what you did in social media – you pushed. You said ‘Come to our open house.’ You were talking; you weren’t listening. You weren’t giving to your community. You were using the skill sets that it takes to give a presentation; you weren’t using the skill set that it takes to be good at a cocktail party. Everybody treats social media like they’re a 19-year-old dude; they’re all trying to close too fast. You need to relax. People want real. If you don’t want to be real, you’re going to lose.”
  
• Practicality – ”People don’t think it’s practical, and some say that I don’t understand. ‘You don’t get it, Gary, we’re a different business.’ I do get it. We are in the people business, and people have never been more attainable. The reason I can answer this guy’s Facebook post is because I want to. The cost is much lower than the way I used to have relationships. And I don’t want to hear that we’re losing relationships. It’s the opposite. I believe everybody’s dramatically more in touch with their friends, much more social. I get it, I know it’s new and it’s a time commitment, but you have to reallocate.”
  
• Traditional strategies – ”While I was a junior in college, I launched winelibrary.com. From 1998 to 2005, I grew the business from a $4 million to a $45 million business. I built that business in a traditional way – billboards, radio, print with local TV ads, bus stop ads. I believe in traditional media; just do it right. I think you should do everything you still do, but please don’t close out where it’s going. When things get tight, people retreat and they go to tried and true. Don’t go back to what got you in the bad place. You go in a different direction.”
  
• About the end user – ”No tweet left behind. Everybody who tweets has to be responded to. How are we going to do that? Take three commercials, don’t do them and instead hire nine people to actually care about your end user. Stop throwing cash down the toilet. Maybe you don’t buy a Yellow Pages ad this year. You don’t need it, I promise. You’re better off doing smoke signals off the top of the building. It’s 2011. If you go into the trenches of social and go to one-on-one, making a contextual relationship with your end user or the person who can give word of mouth through another end user, you will be living through the five-year gold rush of this system.”
• Not an age thing – ”I didn’t grow up tech. I didn’t have a computer until I was 20 years old. I hear people say, ‘Gary, I didn’t grow up with this, I’m older.’ Well, you didn’t grow up driving, but you figured it out. It’s not an age thing – it’s a DNA thing. From the beginning of time till 2003, there was this much content. Now every 48 hours, that much is produced. What that means, my friends, is one thing: It’s going to be difficult to break through. The only thing that’s going to break through is caring about the end user. Personal relationships close the day in every business. Once you create that emotional context, things happen.

© 2011 RE/MAX, LLC. RE/MAX Affiliates may share this article, provided they do not charge for it and this notice is included. All other rights reserved.

The word “professional” has a strong meaning to Lisa Landers and the nine Louisiana agents who joined her new RE/MAX office. They wanted to align themselves with a company designed for experienced agents, and RE/MAX was the obvious choice.

Most of the agents were top performers at their former Keller Williams office with a combined sales volume of nearly $30 million. They left Keller Williams after Landers formed RE/MAX Professional in Baton Rouge in January. The new office name was chosen with careful consideration.

“We consider ourselves professionals, and we’re finally in an environment that embodies that concept,” Landers says. “This move has been a year in the making, and now that we’re with RE/MAX we have advertising, tools and brand recognition we never had before. We’re having fun again, and we’re writing more contracts.”

The group of close friends made the switch because they wanted to create a boutique-style brokerage that offers intimate quality service in Baton Rouge’s upscale southeast side. Landers says that her agents are each getting up to three leads per week through LeadStreet, and they love RE/MAX University’s on-demand training.

Landers, who works primarily with luxury listings, is especially happy about the marketing options in The RE/MAX Collection. She used to pay considerable money for usage rights to Keller Williams’ luxury brand on top of costs for signage and other marketing materials. With RE/MAX, she pays only for signage.

One of the new agents, Jill Lemoine, saw the move as a prime opportunity to create a quality experience for her clients.

“RE/MAX has a great reputation and brand name recognition, and my clients are happy with the transition,” Lemoine says. “The web presence on remax.com is fantastic, and it’s very user-friendly for both consumers and Realtors.”

The agents’ move to the network affirms that experienced, productive agents want to work with other top producers, says RE/MAX Mid-States & Dixie Region Owner Dennis Curtin.

“The best agents continually seek out ways to take their businesses to even higher levels,” Curtin says. “While most real estate companies are retrenching in these challenging times, Lisa and other Keller Williams agents made the wise decision to switch to RE/MAX. It’s a perfect fit.”

© 2011 RE/MAX, LLC. RE/MAX Affiliates may share this article, provided they do not charge for it and this notice is included. All other rights reserved.

The best way to find success? Look at how others have achieved it and do the same.

Michael Kozlowski, a Chairman’s Club member with RE/MAX Professionals in Englewood, Colo., closed roughly 60 transactions totaling $26 million in gross sales in 2010. How does he do it? Here are six simple but effective tips:

Spend money to make money.
It takes time, consistency and investment of dollars into your marketing and systems to get to the next level. But if you keep at it, you’ll be effective. Online listing exposure on numerous websites is one of the best ways to invest your marketing dollars.

Consider the luxury market.
High-end listings must be aggressively priced, in great condition and in a good location. If you want to work this segment, start cultivating corporate relationships with executives and human resource representatives to find high-end clients. A lot of agents have backed away from luxury homes, and that provides you with plenty of opportunity if you have the patience and persistence to work this niche.

Work harder than ever.
Working 9 to 5 doesn’t cut it in today’s market. In this environment, replying to a client’s e-mail at 2 a.m. gets noticed more often than you’d think. Clients want to know you care and that you’re on their side. Make sure you show them how hard you are working.

Stay informed.
I have only have a few designations, and I have never used a coach. However, I spend a lot of time on the Internet reading, learning and staying on top of the latest trends. Soak up every article or publication you can find.

Communicate often.
Communication and service are keys to keeping clients happy, but you have to go beyond expectations. If you’re well informed about the market, your clients will be, too. Take every opportunity you can to educate them and they’ll keep coming to you as the expert (and agent) of choice.

Provide resources to clients.
Have a team of trusted experts, such as a good lender, title company, contractor, insurance agent, stager or handyman, ready to share with your clients. It shows them that you care about their needs beyond the transaction.

© 2011 RE/MAX, LLC. RE/MAX Affiliates may share this article, provided they do not charge for it and this notice is included. All other rights reserved.

RE/MAX veteran Diane Capodilupo and her $32 million-producing team are starting 2011 off with a bang after leaving Keller Williams.

Capodilupo had been with RE/MAX since 1988 and earned her way into the elite ranks. She left for Keller Williams in 2007 to become a franchise owner, but she quickly realized that the move was a mistake.

“When it comes to support and quality, RE/MAX and Keller Williams are like a Porsche and a Pinto,” Capodilupo says, adding that she was the only top producer in her Keller Williams office, which included mostly new agents. “If you’re an experienced agent, RE/MAX is the place to be and has the highest caliber of agents. I have a lot of plans for my new office; I want to create an Internetcafé and recruit the area’s best performers.”

Mike Gallagher, former owner of RE/MAX Achievers in West Roxbury, Mass., was looking to sell his franchise. He approached Capodilupo first, and she said yes right away, inheriting his seven agents while adding her own buyer’s agent and licensed assistant.

Capodilupo cautions those who might be considering a switch to another brand.

“No one will take care of you or compensate you the way RE/MAX does, but other franchises will try to convince you otherwise,” Capodilupo says. “Throughout my entire career with RE/MAX, I was empowered and encouraged to succeed, and I achieved more than I ever dreamt I would.

“Dave and Gail Liniger are my heroes; Dave revolutionized real estate and told agents to market and promote themselves – a concept that was unheard of at the time. RE/MAX is filled with innovative minds. If RE/MAX hadn’t come along, we’d still be on 50/50 splits and the focus would be on the brokerage and not the agent.”

There has been a resurgence of returns to the network, as well as new additions in today’s market, says Fiona Beecy, Vice President of Brokerage Operations for RE/MAX of New England.

“Some agents think the grass is greener on the other side, but in a tough market, they need the support and tools that only RE/MAX offers,” Beecy says. “As a result, we’re attracting high-quality, experienced agents.”

© 2011 RE/MAX, LLC. RE/MAX Affiliates may share this article, provided they do not charge for it and this notice is included. All other rights reserved.

I know plenty of very happy agents in our office.

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