Below are the presentations from our distinguished speakers from our Economic Expectations program on October, 25, 2023

• Dr. Lawrence Yun's Presentation

• Dr. Mark Melnik's Presentation

GBAR is pleased to announce a new member benefit through our partnership with SafeShowings LCC, to bring a mobile app that gives REALTORS® control of their safety in real time.

The safety and well being of our members is ALWAYS a top priority and this is the FIRST mobile proactive safety app of its kind. We we encourage you to implement and use this new member benefit in your real estate business! 

SafeShowings is the first mobile proactive strategic deterrent, safety app of its kind. It captures a real-time image of the person or people to whom a professional, most often a lone worker, is about to show a property. The images are then uploaded to a secure location. If a user is unable to end a SafeShowings showing properly and within the allotted time, the application will immediately notify the user’s selected emergency contacts with the exact location and images of the person or predator. This is the only real-time, locale-entry strategic deterrent application that dissuades criminal behavior because the person intending to do harm clearly knows that they will get caught. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) states that “Research clearly shows that the chance of being caught is a vastly more effective deterrent than even draconian punishment.” According to the NIJ, a strategic deterrent is the number one way to ensure that you and your employees are safe. A strategic deterrent is the last line of defense.

With SafeShowings, the uer captures the following every time he or she enters a property:

• Images
• Contact names
• Cell phone numbers
• GPS location of the SafeShowings user

Click here to download the SafeShowings App--for FREE!

Resources

Getting Started Video
FAQs

SafeShowings App Launch Webinar Replay

Click here to view a replay of our SafeShowings App Launch Webinar, and learn more about how to get setup and start using this effective tool at your next showing or open house!

On October 19, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB) held a webinar for to introduce college students to introduction to Commercial Real Estate (CRE).

GBREB consists of five divisions: Building Owners and Managers Association, Boston (BOMA Boston), Commercial Brokers Association (CBA), Greater Boston Association of Realtors (GBAR), Real Estate Finance Association (REFA), and Massachusetts Apartment Association (MAA).  The program included a panel discussion with industry professionals from all five divisions who provided an introductory overview of the Commercial Real Estate Industry and its many career paths, and will share their tips on how to connect, network, and launch your career. 

Moderator: Kathleen Franco, Senior Vice President, Residential Operations, Claremont Properties, 2023 GBREB Chair  

Panelists:
Jessica Buonopane, CAPS, Senior Vice President, Residential Properties, National Development, 2023 MAA President
Alison Powers, Executive Vice President, JLL, 2023 CBA President
Ravi Ragnauth, Partner & CFO, Berkshire Residential Investments, 2023 REFA President-Elect
Tanisha N. Salmon, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty, GBAR Director & GBAR DEI Committee Chair
Jennifer Twombly, General Manager, Rockhill Management, 2023 BOMA President

View GBREB Career College Showcase video

Article Courtesy of: Inman News
By: Jimmy Burgess

Social media and YouTube are marketing machines that can transform your business in ways you can’t imagine. It's time to build your presence in a way that attracts more of your ideal clients

The idea that you need to be everywhere to be effective online is completely wrong. The key is to start on one platform, have a well-calculated plan and build from there.

The two main ways to grow a following are to spend money for someone to execute for you or to invest the time and effort to do it yourself. These options have often been referred to as debt or sweat.

Although scaling your growth on social media is hard to do without hiring someone to help you, starting out or beginning to build momentum is usually achieved by taking action yourself.

Here we’ll focus on the steps needed to get focused and build momentum. These steps will be broken down using the word “sweat” as an acronym.

S: Study your ideal client

All marketing efforts should begin with identifying your ideal client. Who is it that you want to work with? Who is it that your experience and expertise will benefit most? Is your ideal client a first-time homebuyer, an investor, or a homeowner in a specific community? Once you’ve identified who your ideal client is, you can begin to study where they spend their time. This will give you a better understanding of which platform to focus on to build your presence.

The social media or video platform you decide to focus on should be driven by the one where your ideal client spends the most time. If your client is a first-time homebuyer, then they may be spending most of their time on TikTok or Instagram. A more mature seller or buyer may be on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. An investor may be on LinkedIn or YouTube more often.

Spend time researching which platforms your ideal clients spend their time. Once you’ve identified which platform you should focus on, you can shift to the type of content your ideal client engages with.

W: Who’s winning in other markets?

The beauty of living in today’s world is that you can easily figure out the type of content potential prospects will respond to by studying agents in other markets that have built followings on the platform you wish to grow on. This leads to a search for agents that you can use as case studies. If you’re looking for agents that are doing well on Instagram, you can find 23 of them here.

Once you’ve found a few agents that present themselves and their business in a way that you would like to model, go to their wall (home page). Click on the Reels button and as you scroll down their wall the number of views and engagement of each Reel will show up. Identify the top five to ten reels they posted and produce content like those, highlighting your market instead of theirs.

If YouTube is the platform you are looking to build on, you can find a list of video types with an agent example here. Once you’ve identified agents on YouTube you would like to model your videos after, go to their page and click on the video tab. Once the dropdown box comes up, click on the popular tab. This will show you the most popular videos for this agent.

Again, model the video after the one they shot. Copy their title while changing out their city for yours. By modeling what has already worked for agents in other markets, your time frame for success will accelerate.

E: Escalate your activity

The next step is to escalate the amount of activity you are taking on your targeted platform. This not only includes posting more, but it also means liking and commenting on other people’s posts in your targeted market area. The most effective way to do this is the $1.80 strategy that Gary Vaynerchuk stated was how he built his extensive following online.

The $1.80 principle states that you should give your “two cents,” otherwise known as comments, on 90 posts that are relevant to your area or your ideal client a day. This may sound extreme, so consider doing it at whatever scale you can do.

I’ve done this myself at times where I set a daily goal to leave my “20 cents” or 10 comments on other people’s posts per day. Whatever level of commitment you can make, make that commitment. Just remember, the more you engage, the faster you will grow.

You can find posts to comment on by utilizing hashtags or becoming active on local platforms that have big followings. For instance, #YourCity (whatever it may be) will show you all the posts recently made using that hashtag. Use this to find content creators, local pages or local businesses that have an audience interacting with their pages via questions or comments.

Add value by answering these questions or adding to the comments and becoming a resource. Following active members who comment and interact on these pages is another great way to build your audience as well.
When you escalate your activity and become a resource, your following will grow.

A: Add value

The agent who adds the most value to the market will always, eventually, become the top-producing agent in their market. What are the biggest pain points for your ideal prospect? Produce that type of content to grow your presence and the trust your ideal clients will have in you.

Forget about making yourself feel/look good by letting people know that you’re number one. Focus on giving them what they want, whatever that is.

Answer the questions you most often receive. Talk about programs for first-time homebuyers that help with closing costs or that provide down payment assistance. Talk about the local schools if your ideal client is a family with children.

Whatever they are concerned about should be the focus of your content. When you focus on them, they will notice you and your value, in their eyes, will grow.

T: Take the long view

Success on social media is a process. Yes, you can have one post or video go viral, but true success is built through building a following that views you as their local resource. This takes time. It requires consistency and commitment. But time will pass either way.

A year from now, or three years from now, will your business be better if you make the commitment to be consistent on social media or through video production today? I believe it will. This is not something I think can happen, it’s something that I know can happen.

It took me 72 videos and 14 months to get my first 100 subscribers on YouTube. But now, just a few years later, I’m adding over 500 YouTube subscribers per month. When you look at the amount of time viewers watch my videos monthly, every second of real time people are watching four seconds of my videos.

Imagine how building a YouTube channel that provided four seconds of marketing for you for every second of real time would change the trajectory of your business.

Social media and YouTube are marketing machines that can transform your current and future business in ways you can’t imagine. Now is the time to get focused and build your presence in a way that attracts more of your ideal clients.

Jimmy Burgess is the CEO for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida in Northwest Florida.

Article Courtesy of: Inman News
by: Beverly Jacobo

Whether it’s a newbie with poor people skills or a veteran top producer who thinks they’re the only one who matters, power imbalances and a lack of professionalism can occur in even the best brokerages or on the most tight-knit teams. Sometimes toxic behaviors go on too long before they’re addressed, creating a negative environment that drives away valued agents and staff members.

As part of the leadership team, you’ll need to come up with a plan to address problem agents, whether they’ve been there for years or just came aboard. You’re not doing anyone any favors by letting bad behavior continue. Here’s how to make an honest assessment of the situation, and create the change you want to see.

1. Recognize your part in creating the problem

Sometimes we find that we’re playing a part in the drama of a workplace conflict, even with the best of intentions. 
• Maybe you don’t have a strong enough onboarding program for new agents. 
• Maybe you lack adequate ongoing training and education programs.
• Maybe you need to rein in some of your more veteran agents who don’t think the rules apply to them.
• Maybe you need more face time with all of your agents on a weekly basis.
• Maybe you need to better define your brokerage’s mission and cast a more compelling vision to get everyone onboard.

Great leadership starts with taking a look in the mirror before trying to change the behavior of others.

2. Be open to changes in your process

It takes time to change the processes that you’ve put in place, along with a willingness to do what’s necessary to get better results. Even if it costs more, even if it’s frustrating, be open to the necessary changes and don’t put them off. Every day that you defer creating positive solutions is another day that your business is operating at less than peak performance.

3. Create an open dialogue with others in your organization

You may need to have some conversations with stakeholders inside and outside of your organization. Problem behaviors may require you to speak with staff members, agents, current or past clients, and other members of your professional network. This should be handled delicately and without gossiping. Get the facts and use this as an opportunity to repair relationships to the best of your ability.

4. Have an honest conversation with your ‘problem’ agents

Once you have the facts in place and you’ve done your part to create a better environment, it’s time to sit down with the agents who aren’t yet getting with the program. Some of these conversations may be difficult and painful. Some may be productive and based on a simple lack of knowledge. In either case, it’s usually a good idea to have someone else in the room so that you have a witness to your interaction, then follow up with a written record of the meeting.

5. Work with them to create a plan of action

Be part of the solution for those agents who need to improve. Work with them to define their areas of concern and help them understand what constitutes acceptable behavior and performance. Connect them with a coach or mentor as needed, or help them to find training that can provide the tools to create the level of improvement you’re seeking.

6. Understand what harm has been done and make corrections as needed

Denial will not help you, and it will not help your business’ reputation. Don’t continue to defend an agent whose behavior is unacceptable and don’t overlook their actions because they bring a lot of money in the door. Truly problem behavior can have severe consequences both on the agent and on your brokerage.

In some cases, your conversations may make it clear that it’s time to part ways. Ensure that you’ve kept comprehensive records of your interactions and the interventions you’ve put in place in the past so that you can accurately recall everything that led up to the separation.

7. Continue to reevaluate and make changes as needed

It’s easy to initiate change but can be difficult to keep it going. Check in frequently to make sure that the action plan you’ve put in place is being followed and that any policy changes you’ve made organization-wide are being correctly implemented. 

While improvement is often incremental, it’s important to ensure that adequate progress has been made according to the process you’ve outlined. Remember, it’s your role to be helpful, not to enable or excuse unprofessional or problematic behavior. Make sure you’re doing what’s best for everyone, not just one or two individuals.

Beverly Jacobo is the agent success manager at Doora Properties.

Date: November 15, 2023 | Location: Greater Boston Area
Pick Up Scheduling Dates: October 2 - October 20
Contact: Gentle Giant Moving Co. at 1-800-442-6863 

GBAR and Gentle Giant Moving Company have partnered to help fill the furniture bank at Household Goods of Acton. Please participate in our furniture drive where we will have moving trucks collect items from you, which will then be donated to families making the transition from homelessness into permanent housing. The families will “shop” at the Household Goods of Acton warehouse and select the items that will suit them best in their new home. To schedule a pickup, please contact Gentle Giant Moving Co. at 1-800-442-6863 - at prompts press 3 and then 0 for the receptionist. The dates of calling to schedule a pickup are October 2 through October 20. You must provide Gentle Giant with an explanation of items you are donating so that they are able to efficiently plan the truck route. The people who receive the donated furniture move the furniture themselves into their new home. They often move into second-floor walk-up apartments. Our goal is to give them furniture that can fit up the stairs and into their new home, so we will not be able to accept oversized furniture.

Acceptable items include:

Couches/Love Seats | Futons | Upholstered Chairs | Nightstands |TV Stands | Dining/Kitchen Tables & Chairs | Dressers | Small Bookcases | Counter-top Microwaves | Toasters | Coffeemakers

**All items must be in clean and usable condition. Please no over-sized items.
No rips, tears or stains. Please no glass or stone. Also no drafting or gaming.

For additional questions or to help determine if an item will be acceptable, please contact Gentle Giant Moving Co. at 1-800-442-6863.