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Interview With a Winner:
George Wilkinson

Avalar Real Estate Services, Inc.
Orlando & Clermont Florida

2005 transaction volume: $11 million ($30 million total office)
2005 transactions: 40 personally, 175 total office
2005 average home price: $365,000
Software: Lucero Summit (transaction management software), VPN (virtual private network), Micro Base, Palm Treo 650, Lightning CMA, Outlook, QuickBooks, MLS
Referral Source Mix: Personal Referral 75%, Farm 20% other 5%

In Touch Today: How did you get started in the real estate business?

George Wilkinson: I was a hotel executive, working in development. Many of my direct reports held real estate licenses and were doing a few transactions for themselves. . I didn’t have a real estate license so I decided to get one. I ended up putting my license with a national chain and selling a few things to my friends. It just transitioned from there. I took the leadership and management skills that I had, as well as my time management skills, and transitioned them into a good real estate career.

In Touch Today: How long have you been in the real estate business?

George Wilkinson: I started solely in the real estate business in 1999.

In Touch Today: How long have you owned your own company?

George: Two and a half years.

In Touch Today: What made you decide to go from being an agent to being an owner?

George: When I started looking at what I wanted from my career I saw that I wanted to take the real estate acumen that I had learned as being a top agent – (I was the number one Century 21 agent in Central Florida for a time) – along with the leadership skills that I have honed over the years and go out on my own and reward my agents for their success. We have the ability to get agents to 100% commission in addition to wide variety of benefits.

In Touch Today: So not being rewarded adequately was one of the big motivators for you?

George: That was the motivator. I was this broker’s top producer and his business plan did not match up to mine. I had leadership skills, managerial skills and planning skills so I thought I could make a difference to agents by offering this terrific business plan for them as far as their financial rewards go.

In Touch Today: How many real estate agents work in your office?

George: We’re at about 37 between both of our locations.

In Touch Today: What are your sales projections for 2006?

George: Between both offices 225 transactions... We’ve had to reforecast our numbers.

In Touch Today: Because of rising interest rates?

George: That is a factor as is inventory. Central Florida has never had more inventory available. Last year we were down to 3500 units during the height of the market which was May-September. After September, the inventory started rising and now we’re at about 17,000 units, which is the most we’ve ever had in Central Florida. However, properties are still selling – and for a good price. We continue maintaining our average price in Central Florida ($250,000). But properties take longer to sell because of the increased inventory.

In Touch Today: Are you finding that you’re selling more to the primary buyer or are you selling more to the vacation buyer.

George: Both. Certainly the second home market is a contributing factor with people wanting to have homes to visit during the colder season. The second home market across the United States is statistically broadened in the past 5 years. It’s the boomers that are dominating that market right now with purchases.

Another sub-market is the tremendous number of hotel condominiums that are being built right now. Many of our agents have been active in that market. The timeshare market is another sub-market that has always done well in Central Florida. It’s an easy and inexpensive way for buyers/users to block vacation time every year. From anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000 for the rest of their lives, they can own one week a year. We compete with that in the second home market.

In Touch Today: What do you do to help your employees either become motivated or stay motivated?

George: It starts with leadership. The broker needs to be an open-minded leader and listen to the suggestions of the team, even if you can’t act on all of them. It takes a partnership with the agents. They are a critical success factor for us. It is important to listen to them... It also starts with training and coaching. We dedicate a portion of our team meetings to developing skills. Our skill sessions talk specifically about trends in the real estate industry. Maybe one week we’ll talk about farming, the next we’ll talk about how to promote an effective bulk mail campaign, the next we’ll talk about specific articles that add value to the team’s success or the individual’s success. We also have coaching sessions where we get really deep into the issues and talk about the agents’ business plans. We talk about time management. The essence of success in any business person or any individual is how they are managing their time.

We have a program called “Revenue Sharing,” which rewards the agents who have been successful in identifying and attracting other agents to any of our local or national offices. By identifying and signing up agents to our offices, they have the opportunity to participate in Revenue Sharing. The lifetime benefit of this is that you can become fully vested in this program and when you walk away from the real estate business, and you’ve been with us for as little as three years or up to seven years, you have a scale that will pay you anywhere from 20% of that residual income up to 100% of that residual income for the rest of your life.

There are companies that offer profit sharing but we’re revenue sharing – and it’s right off the top. I don’t control the revenue so to speak. As a broker/owner or manager of an office you can control the profit. For example, if the broker decided to go out and buy an expensive car tomorrow, who’s paying for that? The company’s paying for that car and it’s going to erode the margins. In the Avalar system, it’s all generated off of the revenue.

In Touch Today: It sounds like you’ve put together a pretty thorough plan for helping your agents to succeed.

George: For our new agents we have our “Success Express” series. It was designed for those new agents who have completed real estate school and wanting to move forward in their real estate career. We have them up and running in 30 days.

It’s intense training that takes them from writing a contract through to learning about mortgages and everything in between. It is very comprehensive. Upon completion of Success Express there is the opportunity to enter the mentorship program. This is where we pair new agents up with an experienced agent. They help that experienced agent in their transactions and learn how to do it as well as that experienced agent will work with them on their first few transactions.

In Touch Today: What mistakes do you think new agents typically make?

George: Thinking that this is an easy business and that they can make money just by showing up. I don’t think they realize that this is a full time job. I think a lot of new agents are under the pretense that they can do real estate part time. I do not have many part time agents.

Part time agents can be liability for the broker. The part time agents can take up more time and their production is usually less than full time agents. I prefer to hire full time professionals who will learn as they grow.

In Touch Today: What would you say your top producer did last year?

George: Our top producer did $15 million last year.

In Touch Today: Is he working in about the same home price market as you?

George: His main thrust is the investor market. His investors are speculators. They buy land and develop it or they buy builder homes and turn them around.

In Touch Today: So what other mistakes do you think newer agents make?

George: They think that the broker is going to provide them all their leads. In most brokerages, agent will achieve leads and referrals through performance... Those agents who are out there executing their business plan every day are the ones that are turning in the results – and the ones who are going to get the relocation leads.

Don’t wait for your broker. A good broker will give you the tools and give you the acumen to go out and be successful, but the broker is not going to be the sole source of income.

In Touch Today: And what do you think are the biggest mistakes veteran agents make?

George: They stop prospecting and take their sphere of past clients for granted. They shut down the marketing and think that they can rest on their past performance. Some agents can pull it off. I’ve seen them with other companies. There’s an agent in town that does nothing but play golf, and that’s where he gets all of his business – on the golf course.

In Touch Today: If you had a son or a daughter entering the business, what advice would you give him or her?

George: Be a relationship builder and manage your time effectively.

In Touch Today: So with respect to time management, what is it that you expect people to figure out?

George: Take your goals and break them down into weeks. After you break it down by the week, break it down by what you are going to do each day to be successful. What time do you plan to come into the office? What are you going to do when they get here? How many phone calls are you going to make? How many door knocks are you going to do? How many expired listings are you going to contact? How many for sale by owners are you going to contact?

In Touch Today: How do you teach people to deal with those things called “interruptions?”

George: You always must build them in. Interruptions are part of EVERYONE’S day... If for some reason you don’t get finished with that one particular item in that day, you need to move it over to the next day and prioritize it as the number one item. Try to stay off the e-mail or the computer until you’re done. When you get in in the morning, the first thing, don’t get on the computer and don’t sit around drinking coffee with the other agents.

In Touch Today: Do you do any cold list marketing or anything like that to get business?

George: I keep my name in front of my market with newsletters from In Touch Today. Those are sent to neighborhoods that I’ve been successful in. I don’t want to lose my base.

In Touch Today: How many listings would you say you get as a result of that?

George: Three a month. The most recent newsletters were mailed out last Friday so the phone is already ringing.

In Touch Today: And how many people do you send that out to?

George: 2700 each month. I also advertise my listings on 14 different websites.

In Touch Today: Do you do any newspaper advertisements?

George: Absolutely. I just completed editing an ad that we’re putting in the newspaper this coming weekend. We advertise in luxury real estate magazines as well.

In Touch Today: How would you rate your web advertising as compared to paper advertising?

George: There’s no doubt about it – I get more leads off of our website than I do off of the traditional print media.

In Touch Today: Why do you think that is?

George: Because 85% of the people who are looking for a home start on the web. They’re more likely to find me and my company and our listings on the web versus a traditional media.

In Touch Today: Do you do any walking of your farm area anymore?

George: Not anymore, but I used to. One promotion I still do is in the neighborhood in which I reside. I don’t want to lose market share that I have in this neighborhood of 400 homes. I host a Halloween party every year for the neighborhood. That gives me an opportunity to do a little face time in front of the neighbors to thank them for their past business and their referrals.

We host the party the afternoon of the Saturday before Halloween. There is a costume competition for the kids with prizes. We’ll do a drawing (for restaurant gift certificates) for the adults to get them on or to update my mailing list. It takes about an hour and a half, and the kids and their parents all seem to enjoy it. It allows me to meet people that I may not have met or to stay in contact with people that I’ve known over the years.

I’ve encouraged my agents to do the same thing in their own neighborhoods. Agents could also do an Easter egg hunt or a Santa visit. There are all sorts of high contact marketing methods you can use to keep your name out there in your neighborhood.

You could even do this in a neighborhood you have an interest in farming but don’t actually live in. Just check with the president of the home owner’s association.

In Touch Today: Overall, what do you think has been your most successful marketing campaign?

George: The newsletters through In Touch Today for listings. It takes seven points of contact to build a relationship. Agents need to be consistent in getting your name out... The newsletter certainly does that on a year-round basis.

In Touch Today: What other types of marketing do you recommend to your agents?

George: A bulk mail campaign is an important tool, whether using the newsletter portion or just dropping postcards to give a market update. The more people see your name, the more they’ll remember it when it comes time for their real estate needs.

An another tool is emails. You’ve got to grow your database. There are many of tools on the internet to help you stay in contact with your sphere of influence or your potential prospects – and many of them are virtually free.

In Touch Today: Will you share one of your turn-key sales or marketing ideas that you use in your office?

George: “For Sale by Owner” properties in central Florida represent about 9% of the marketplace. When FSBO’s represent 9% of the marketplace it means 91% of the marketplace ends up listing with a Realtor. FSBO are successful only about 40% of the time out of that 9%. So that leaves almost 50% available for Realtor to list. One of the tools I provide my agents to market to FSBO is a series of letters that can be sent. You stop by and introduce yourself, send them a thank you letter for allowing you to visit their home, and also send them some information on the first letter which talks about what has happened in the marketplace over the last 90 days in that particular neighborhood.

The second letter you typically want to arrive on a Monday because after a frustrating weekend of not selling their home, having open houses, having to spend the whole weekend at home hosting these open houses and not have time with family. We’re hoping that FSBO’S get frustrated with the process and will call us. That second letter covers the contract that they may receive and it will point out some of the pitfalls in the contract. What we’re trying to do is establish doubt in their ability to sell their house and the liability that it may create if they do decide to do it themselves.

The third letter covers contingencies that the buyers may be asking for and what they’re going to do about title insurance and escrows. Again, we’re creating doubt that the owner has the ability to move forward with the process themselves.

In the final letter, we’ll cover other peripheral issues such as home warranties that the buyer may ask for, the costs that are associated with the typical real estate transaction... Again, we are providing some value but also creating some doubt on that seller’s ability to move forward with the process.

In Touch Today: What would you say your turn rate is on getting the FSBO to say, “You know what? You’re right. I can’t – I don’t want to do this.”

George: As an office, we’re getting three FSBOs per month. It’s hard work, but nonetheless you’ve got to do it... Some agents will prospect this market, others are not comfortable. It’s that seven points of contact that you’re building over that three to four week period, from the knocking on doors to the letters to the follow-up phone calls, and hopefully at the end of the campaign they are going to be dealing with you.

In Touch Today: Who or what has been the biggest contributor to your success?

George: I have been fortunate to work with great team member in my career. I believe that there’s nothing more important than building relationships. As for the leadership skills, I have honed them by looking up to and following some of the great leaders that I’ve worked with over the years. I also find that being a good listener will positively impact leadership. I’ve worked for a Fortune 100 company which provided me with tools to take my leadership to the next level. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some very smart people over the years. They’ve taught me quite a bit from not only the relationship side but from the leadership and from the operational side.

In Touch Today: If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your business?

George: I would change the market right now. I would have it more balanced. I would like to see our marketplace with fewer listings and a more buyers.

In Touch Today: Has the rise in interest rates made a difference for you?

George: It has. It is my understanding that for every 25 basis points that the interest rate goes up it takes about 100,000 buyers out of the market across the United States. In the 90s when interest rates were up, it took longer to sell homes. Realtors had to work harder to find buyers. Between 2002 and 2005 it was a strong market in Central Florida and now that market has shifted. A large issue that Central Florida will be facing over the next 24 months is it’s going to be tougher to build new homes because of water rights, new roads and new schools. This issue may bring the market to a more balanced status.

In Touch Today: Is there anything else you’d like to share with agents who aspire to the success that you’ve created?

George: Agents need to have a plan and stick to that plan. And again, while sticking to that plan, don’t be afraid to change it and celebrate your success. If you continue to try something and it doesn’t work, feel free to change your plan. Have flexibility in your plan. But the most important is to have a plan.

And another important resource:

Now is a great time to prospect!

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