Real Estate Contact & Prospect Management

James Kimmons*

It's always interesting to see a successful real estate agent or broker working hard and long to keep their information systems updated, their listing information accurate and closing transactions on track.

Then, when you hear that same REALTOR® discussing their next training or continuing education, it's a course or seminar on building more business. So they learn some new business building strategies, which if they work, will have them working longer and harder, with the probability of quality degradation and dropped balls increasing. Since repeat business and referrals are so important in this business, a seamless transaction without major upset should be everyone's goal.

Most of us would do just as well building business if we devote the time and energy to implement strategies we already know. By using sensible technology to manage your contacts, listings and transactions for efficiency, you can free up valuable time to do the behaviors and activities necessary to grow your business.

Many of those in that growth phase of the business curve make the decision to put on one or more assistants. Then they have to take the time to train and manage, not even talking about the overhead expense. Not that I'm against assistants, as we'll talk about how to make your team more efficient with intranets in a section devoted to intranets. However, what if you could do more in less time and with more accuracy. You could delay that first assistant and save that overhead expense in time and money. Let's bullet some of the important things we need in Real Estate Contact and Project Management integration:

• We need to keep track of contacts and buyer/listing prospects with their contact information.
  Once we have the contacts in our database, we need to be able to market to them via email, snail mail and/or telephone.
• Once a listing prospect becomes an active listing, we need the ability manage the listing process. This includes tasks with reminders for the many to-do's required to set up and maintain a listing.
• We need to regularly communicate what we've done for that listing, including marketing and other progress.
• Once we put a listing under contract, or write a contract for a buyer, we need to manage the closing transaction requirements and progress. This includes a large number of deadlines and tasks that need to happen in a timely and accurate manner.
• We need to report to our client the progress of the transaction, including its related inspections, appraisals, etc.
• After closing, we want the ability to regularly communicate with our client to keep our name in their mind for future referrals.

Those are the basic requirements for a good solid real estate contact and project management plan. Some are doing all of these things. Some are doing some of them. All too many are doing few of these things. Contact management is probably the most-used of the two, but there are a lot of us who do not have a good project management solution in place. Thus we don't have all those tasks pre-built so that we can just apply them to a new listing or closing and have the task list create itself.

Author is a About.com Guide

Real Estate Education enhances transparency, professionalism & business volume

by S.K.Jha*

Real estate broking profession lacks credibility and is always looked at with suspicion. However, the credibility of this profession can be enhanced through real estate education. A thoroughly planned system of real estate education can not only improve the credibility of property professionals by inculcating numerous changes in the profession but also enhance the business volume of educated and certified professionals. Suitably planned real estate courses, targeted at different functional areas in real estate, can teach property professionals the much better, profitable and convenient way of doing real estate business. Few of the key changes that education system can bring into real estate business and property market are as follows:

Transparency in transaction and business professionalism: Knowledge enhances transparency and professionalism and this is true for real estate market also. Today, several property brokers are active in the market without any structured knowledge of property sales and transaction process and therefore they are forced to provide wrong and partial information to their clients. They are not able to close the deal properly, mostly at the cost of prospective home buyers, because they have not studied how property ownership is verified, acquired, transferred and leased. In the Indian real estate market, there is a sub set of property advisors, who want to upgrade their knowledge and skill but are unable to do so in the absence of a system of real estate education in which they can study as well as run their business.

In this scenario, a proper system of real estate education consisting of a network of real estate institutes offering full time, part time, evening, week end, distance and online real estate courses could have improved the subject knowledge of professionals and in turn would have improved transparency in property transactions and professionalism in the property business, especially property consulting business. A point to be mentioned here is the initiative of EduMark realty education services which offers courses for those looking for real estate jobs as well as for existing property professionals looking for professional development. EduMark is the first and only institute in India that offers full time, part time, week end, evening, distance and online courses.

Customer Service Efficiency: A knowledgeable and informed property advisor can serve his clients effectively and efficiently which in turn increases his demands in the market. Such demands increase his overall volume of business because one satisfied customer can create ten new customers. However, structured knowledge and information come only through structured system of education.

Real estate subject knowledge and business volume: It is an established fact that buyers tend to prefer a knowledgeable advisor (knowledge displayed through his educational qualification) more than that of an advisor who is not well informed and knowledgeable. However, in the absence of real education system, real estate courses and real estate institutes, property brokers can’t display their knowledge because they can’t acquire any suitable real estate qualification and therefore potential home buyers can’t identify the best suited advisor.

Business ethics and business volume: By offering fraudulent advice, one can derive benefits in short term but it is a net loss in long term. This is very true for property brokers also. This is because, as mentioned above, one satisfied customer can create ten new customers but one dis-satisfied customer can dissuade hundreds of potential clients, so the losses are many folds. However, this fact can be explained to these property consultants only if they are inclined towards learning and there is sufficient opportunity for such learning. 

Real estate jobs and cost of recruitment and training: One of the most important impacts of real estate education is on real estate jobs; While real estate courses offer a platform to potential candidates to start their career in real estate by taking up suitable real estate jobs, it reduces the cost that employers make on the training of new employees. Those candidates who have done a real estate course are already trained and ready for real estate jobs and therefore employers do not need to arrange fresh training of the such employees, which saves time and money both.

Overall, a proper system of real estate education enhances not only the transparency in transaction and business professionalism but also the business volume of the market players. Another advantage is the reduction in training and employee orientation cost.
* S.K.Jha is CEO of EduMark Realty Education Services

A Better Approach Towards Training ‘Fresh-Out-Of-College Grads’

It was about 65°F when we walked into the large auditorium at the west end of the college campus. Since it was late autumn, the leaves were turning yellow and the evening was turning dark earlier. You could see the street lights from the top-end of the glass enclosures of the room. It was the start of our winter quarter.

He shuffled slightly first and then picked up his pace as he made his way to the lectern. But it was not the fleece that he wore over his pale yellow shirt that struck me as odd; it was more his shoes, or lack of them. They seem out of place in the nippy air, I thought.

As Dr Lomanoco made his way to the podium, it was clear that he intended to waste little time introducing either himself or the course, to 29 eager computer science graduates. After distributing the course schedule, his office hours (times and days) and grading system, he proceeded to outline the homework for the next week. What, I thought, homework? Even before we were taught anything? What kind of a system is that?

It was the ‘learn on your own’ system, aka ‘figure it out yourself.’

Having finished my undergrad from India, I thought it would be customary for specific topics to be covered in the class by the professor, and then we’d proceed to review the same at home, do a homework piece and finally, prepare for exams. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Nope. That was not the case either for us at UMBC at the Master’s or for the undergrads in the Bachelor of Sciences programme.

You were to read and learn on your own. If you had questions, you’d either ask them during the professor’s ‘office hours’ or ask the teaching assistant during their sessions.

The thing that it teaches is the ‘way to learn’ on your own. By searching for it on your own, or researching with your study group. By digging for more information, either online or hitting the books at the library.

So when I joined Cisco after graduating, it was second nature to research practically everything yourself to get things done. Sometimes we’d RTFM. Most times we’d try, fail and learn. I never went to a Perl programming course, neither did I attend an Apache configuration class. We just tried stuff, broke stuff, learnt stuff.

But that’s not what I find with the folks being hired from many good colleges and schools in India. It is mandatory to go through 3-6 months of training. What? I thought they did just that for the last four years. I had five candidates whom we interviewed a year ago and they wanted to know what our start-up’s “training programmes for PHP and Java” were. Code and learn – was my answer. They looked at me with disbelief. One young lady’s parents (who came for the interview to ensure we are a legitimate company) asked us how we could expect fresh graduates to do any work without training them. If we wanted to train graduates, we’d be running a college, was my reply. Wrong answer. She did not join us.

I am hoping there are colleges which are trying to teach students how to learn, where to find stuff to learn and how to research topics. I would love to think this style of learning is limited to engineering programmes. No, that’s not the case. My chartered accountant spends 2-3 hours daily with the intern teaching him some of the most basic things in accounting. He’s a commerce graduate from a very good college.

There has to be a better approach than the hand-holding we do in most undergraduate programmes. Even if we undertake a single class on teaching folks ‘how to learn,’ we’d be doing an enormous service to them. So, this is an appeal to college professors in any college. Please teach your students ‘how to learn.’

So how do people ‘learn to learn?’

1. By example: I believe this is the number 1 way to learn anything. Looking at lots of examples. Sample code. Example blueprints. Creating balance sheets of real companies without looking at their details.

2. By trying: Sharad Sharma calls it ‘being a hobbyist.’ Try stuff. Break stuff. That’s when you learn stuff.

3. By teaching: If you learn something, I would encourage you to share it with your team in a small lunch-and-learn session. It is not for them to learn. It is for you to reinforce your learning.

Now, did you figure out how to learn?

P.S. As you can see from the first paragraph, I was hoping I’d be a best-selling novelist. I’m glad I took up working with technology instead.

Source: VCCircle

EduMark CEO Invited to Deliberate Upon Educational Framework in Construction & Infrastructure Sector

Union Government is planning to create a national vocational educational framework pertaining to construction and infrastructure sector in the country. In this regard, a meeting of experts has been convened on 27^th June, 2011 at Delhi under the chairmanship of Shri Kapil Sibbal, Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development and Communication & Information Technology. CEO of EduMark Realty Education Services has been invited in the meeting to deliberate upon the issues. EduMark is India’s first real estate focused Vocational Education and Training Organization. Hon’ble MOS for HRD, Dr. D. Purandeshwari is also expected to attend the program.

Government recognizes the need and is looking to formally integrate vocational education together with its current conventional educational streams across schools and higher education space and provide an opportunity and incentive to students to explore a larger universe of opportunity.

This is an imperative need, considering 40% of India’s population falls within the age group of 21-35 years. In order to serve the aspirations of India’s youth, this step from government will spell a seminal moment that needs to be deliberated and reiterated together with the help of the industry. The basic objective is to augment and optimize the Human Resource.

Shri S.S.Mantha, Chairman of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), who extended the invitation, expects that EduMark will contribute effectively through an overview of its systems and nuances and provide the experts a comprehensive and insightful input pertaining to present and perceived need-gaps from the domain of Construction and Infrastructure Sector. This will enable the Government to prepare a holistic framework to support the industry.

Realty Estate Sector Witnessing Labour Shortage

Real estate firms are feeling the pinch of skilled and unskilled labour shortage as infrastructure growth picks up and workers get tapped by retail and other service-oriented industries. Cost of acquiring and retaining talent is going up too. “Delays are high in finishing stage. Shortages of carpenters, painters and electricians are even more severe than masons. It is inevitable that there will be delays in project completion unless the shortfall in these skills is overcome,” said Aroon Raman, vice-chairman of CII-Karnataka & MD of Raman Fibre. Mr Raman says the infrastructure industry right now employs 30 million workers of which 50% are in real estate. In Bangalore alone, the shortfall in people with slightly more advanced skills in the real estate segment including infrastructure creation and minor repair and maintenance projects — both residential and commercial — is expected to be of the order of 50,000 workers.

A World Bank study also says that India is staring at a labour crisis in the construction sector. The supply of skilled and semi-skilled workers will barely keep up with the pace of growth and will fall short by 18-28% under medium growth scenario. However, under a high-growth scenario, the shortage will be to the tune of 55-64% over the next eight years. To boot, contractors are finding it difficult to hire even migrant labourers for projects. “There is problem sourcing people, as these workers are migratory. It has become difficult to retain people too,” said Solomon JP, CEO, LabourNet, a firm that aims at improving earning opportunities of workers in the unorganised sector. And shortage of labourers has hit the construction industry at a time when real estate business is on a rebound. Mr Solomon says the shortage is forcing contractors to pull out workers from one site and park them in another. LabourNet has 20,000 blue-collar workers, majority of whom are employed in the real estate sector. Most of the skilled and unskilled labourers come from Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar and North Karnataka.

“Demand surge has consistently outstripped supply. Companies are taking certified people on contract. It is difficult to find skilled workers,” said Rajesh AR, vice-president of Bangalore-based staffing firm, TeamLease Services. To retain talent, builders are loosening their purse strings, upgrading technology, offering joining and retention bonuses, salary payments in advance, bringing labourers from rural areas and providing them accommodation and crèche facilities in the city. The wages have increased by 20% year-on-year. For example, Chartered Housing has taken a small number of electricians, carpenters and plumbers on its payroll and has also set up a team of in-house project management consultants to mitigate these problems, said Balakrishna Hegde, MD, Chartered Housing. The firm has six projects under execution. “Labour will become biggest constraint going ahead. Adopting new technology is the only way to eliminate labour shortage,” said Ravi Ramu, director, Puravankara Projects. The firm has adopted technology where it can complete a single floor in six days and reduce manpower requirements.

Sobha Developers too has set up a skill training institute for blue-collar workers. “Significant spurt in the construction activity is leading to shortage of workers. We train people who are PUC-qualified in our academy for a month and onsite for two months. And we retain most of our workers by offering regular increments,” said JC Sharma, MD, Sobha Developers. The firm, currently, has 11,000 workers onsite and will require an additional 6,500 with new projects coming up.

Nitesh Estate has tied up with multiple contractors to tide over labour shortage. “Shortage of construction workers is an inherent predicament in our industry. It is difficult to hold workers as they are migratory in nature and shuttle between jobs, said a spokesperson. Staffing firms Adecco and TeamLease have also moved in to ameliorate the crisis. “Companies are looking at migrant labour from industrially backward states to fight the shortage,” said Sudhakar Balakrishnan, managing director, Adecco India. Adecco and TeamLease currently have 7,000 and 8,000 blue-collar temps, respectively, on their payrolls across different industries.

India Inc faces talent shortage: Manpower

NEW DELHI: Talent shortage is again becoming a worrying factor for Indian employers, said a survey conducted by HR consulting firm Manpower.

According to the survey, 67% of employers in India are struggling to fill jobs, second only to Japan, where 80% employers reported struggling to fill positions. The India figure is almost double of the global average, which stood at 34%.

The survey further revealed that Indian employers are experiencing difficulty filling critical positions within their organisations, which includes positions in research & development, sales managerial positions and IT staff, compared to last year's jobs of skilled trades, cleaners & domestic staff and accounting & finance staff. In fact, one in three employers world-wide is struggling to fill key vacancies.

"While not all employers are feeling the pain associated with the global talent shortage, external forces mean it is likely that they will soon feel pressure," said Manpower Group India MD Sanjay Pandit. "Businesses need to adopt a long-term approach to ensure they have the talent they need to achieve their objectives."