The estates dotting the hilltops in Europe provided the stimulus for this custom-built residence nestled into the hillside of this Southern California guard-gated community known as The Country in Diamond Bar. 3015 Steeplechase Lane is a thoughtful compilation of horizontal building forms, brick elements and detailed accents that remind you of a quaint European village.
As your business takes off in real estate, it’s important to maintain the relationships already established with not only your former clients but also in the communities you serve.
One of the best ways for agents to gain exposure and build new relationships with potential clients is through the gift of giving. Recently, Raj Qsar of The Boutique RE, a residential real estate brokerage in Orange County, California took this idea for a spin.
They teamed up with Giveback Homes and Soul Cycle for a unique way to give back to the community. By reaching out to their network, they organized a #RidetoBuild spin class to help raise the funds needed to build a home for a deserving family.
Raj and his realtor friends managed to raise the money and feel the burn while helping to better the life of a family in need with the guided help of Giveback Homes.
Fueled by the passion of real estate pros like Sindeo Advisory Board Member, Raj Qsar, and hundreds of other leaders in real estate, Giveback Homes has made the opportunity to give back easier than ever.
Giveback Homes provides their members with marketing and design services, tutorials on how to incorporate giving into their business, local Build Days, international Build Trips, and tangible results of the impact they’re making throughout the world.
Recently, Sindeo helped fund a home for Marie in Haiti and Arcadio in El Salvador, and has plans to join Giveback Homes for their first Build Day in San Francisco this Spring.
Want to help too? Click here to donate to the San Francisco project or any of their Build Projects throughout the world.
Get out of the office and make personal connections that generate leads.
Starbucks and other places like it are great locations to generate leads.
Be consistent and focus on creating relationships that build credibility and lead to sales down the line.
Always bring marketing materials and discreetly advertise yourself with branded accessories, such as a laptop cover.
Starbucks isn’t only the place to pick up your daily triple nonfat latte with a drizzle of caramel and extra foam on the side — it’s also a great place to find leads.
James Michaelin recounts how he got two leads in one morning at Starbucks thanks to good listening and quick action.
“I overheard a business meeting that someone was starting a business and they brought up needing to find a Realtor for a location,” he wrote. “Well, [the] keyword Realtor was said so of course I introduced myself, gave my card to both of them and they [wanted] to get together soon.”
Twenty minutes later, James got another lead from a man who overheard his conversation with the two businessmen.
As it turns out, Michaelin isn’t the only agent who uses Starbucks as a lead-generating tool. There’s been a lot of chatter online over the past two months about the power of Starbucks and other places like it, such as Panera Bread or even Dunkin’ Donuts.
Here’s some of the advice agents gave on how to make Starbucks work for you:
1. Mark it on your weekly schedule
Raj Qsar goes to Starbucks three times a week to do local real estate research and work on handwritten thank-you notes. Because of his consistency, customers expect Qsar to be there and look forward to asking him questions.
2. Make your presence known
Agents aren’t the only people who use Starbucks as a second office. Most of the people are there are to get work done and rarely look up from their phone, tablet or laptop.
So how do you let people know a Realtor is in the room? JT Takacs suggests telling the cashier to write “Realtor (insert name)” on your cup, so when the barista calls your name, everyone will know your profession.
3. Discreetly advertise yourself with branded accessories
Order a customized laptop cover that has your name, logo, website URL and a great call-to-action. Amanda Miller Hudson says: “I have the Realtor ‘R’ logo in sticker form over the apple on my MacBook Pro. It works! I picked up a seller lead last November at Panera.”
4. Focus on making personal connections before generating leads
What agents love about Starbucks is the chance to get from behind the tech wall and make real-time, face-to-face connections. Don’t stop in with the expectation that you’ll walk out with a handful of deals each day, because as many will attest, there will be days and weeks when you won’t.
But you will build the relationships and familiarity crucial to establishing your brand and long-term success.
5. Offer on-the-spot advice
When Zillow evangelist Jay Thompson goes to Starbucks, he brings a sign that says: “Have a real estate question? Fire away!” And he buys a cup of coffee for those who are brave enough to take the offer.
6. Bring marketing materials
This seems like a given, but some may feel apprehensive about bringing their regular marketing materials with them into Starbucks. David Fresquez suggests having a set of “ready-made buyer or seller folders that includes information about you, your latest accomplishments along with some social proof.”
Keep these folders in your briefcase, backpack or bag and give them to your potential lead once your conversation is done.
7. Small sacrifices can hook a big fish
At Luxury Connect in October, Josh Altman shared a story about how he was able to snare a sale at Starbucks. He frequents one Los Angeles store in particular and had purchased his coffee when he saw a well-known celebrity join the line.
So Altman threw out his just-procured drink and stepped in line behind the celeb, struck up a conversation and discovered he was looking for a home. He offered the star $1,000 to come with him to a place he thought would fit the bill — certain it was perfect. And it was. Being willing to throw out the coffee and offer money to show sincerity generated a happy ending to the story, a $12 million sale.
Do you have any extra advice for getting leads at Starbucks? What are some other places you like to hang out? Share them in the comments below.
Join us for a fun, family friendly gathering at our office in Corona del Mar. Come by for some Valentines Day Treats, photo booth and a complimentary home valuation report.
It’s a forum for advice and mentorship where brokers in the real estate industry can share best practices.
Inman has launched a new Facebook group for for brokers, franchise executives and real estate company leadership. Inman’s Broker War Room is a forum for advice and mentorship where brokers in the real estate industry can share best practices, help each other solve gnarly problems and become better owners.
Members are limited to broker-owners, executives and franchise team members.
It’s a closed group, but brokers and their employees, as well as franchise members, can join here.
“We created this group for brokers, by brokers and with brokers,” said Inman publisher Brad Inman. “The best advice and counsel can come from one another, not consultants, gurus or, god forbid, journalists.”
Real estate broker Raj Qsar and Stacy Stateham, vice president of marketing at Bloom Tree Realty, are serving as volunteer administrators for the group
“With so many Facebook groups geared toward agents, there is a void for real estate company leadership,” said Stateham. “Until now! As much as every real estate brokerage and company is unique in how we go to market, we have a lot of similarities in the common challenges that we all face, and my hope is that the Broker War Room gives us a place to collaborate and share.”
Power is an elusive concept. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “the ability or right to control people or things.” Of course that raises the question of what is meant by “control.” Control is defined as directing the behavior of, or to cause a person to do something. Power can also exist even though it may not be exercised, simply because having power can discourage others from challenging it.
Not easy, nor straightforward. So you can just imagine the healthy debate we had as to what criteria should be used in creating such a list. But we all agree what this is not. It is not a popularity contest. It is a not casual quick selection of people you know. It is not based solely on head count, office count or revenue, and it is not pay-to-play.
In the end, the SP200 is based on a great deal of research. We scoured the Web, read hundreds of bios, read hundreds of LinkedIn pages, sent hundreds of requests for additional information, made endless telephone calls to verify or confirm statistics, and cross-referenced data with surveys and reviewed company financials, and annual reports, and announcements. In short, we did more homework than anyone else does.
So after some 400 hours of evaluation, eight members of the SP200 Editorial Committee got together for a face-off to deliberate the nominees (see VIDEO here). Some people have entrepreneurial power, and some have financial strength, some hold high office, some have personal power, some have positional power while others have political clout. Some are innovators, some executives, some doers, some dealmakers. It doesn’t matter. We have tried to analyze them all and listed leaders in nine different categories – check the tabs at the top of the page.
Congrats to our very own CEO & Founder Raj Qsar for being named to the SP200 for 2016. Honoring The Most Powerful 200 People in Residential Real Estate for the category of Social Media Influencers.
Asking $200 million, Playboy Enterprises plans to reinvest the proceeds of the sale; a buyer would have to remodel the ‘dated’ interiors and let tenant Hugh Hefner remain.
By
CANDACE TAYLOR for The Wall Street Journal
The Playboy Mansion—the sprawling Los Angeles house that over four decades came to embody Hollywood’s sybaritic party culture—is going on the market for $200 million.
Longtime resident Hugh Hefner has no plans to leave: Seller Playboy Enterprises is stipulating Mr. Hefner, 89, be allowed to remain at the home for the rest of his life.
Founded by Mr. Hefner in 1953, Playboy helped usher in the sexual revolution, but more recently has shed staff and reorganized its business. Scott Flanders, Playboy Enterprises’ chief executive, said in a statement that the sale of the mansion “enables us to continue to reinvest in the transformation of our business.” “The Playboy Mansion has been a creative center for Hef as his residence and workplace for the past 40 years, as it will continue to be if the property is sold,” he added.
On roughly 5 acres, the property is one of the largest in Holmby Hills and borders the Los Angeles Country Club. According to listing agentsMauricio Umansky of the Agency and Gary Gold andDrew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland, the mansion is roughly 20,000 square feet. The property includes an elaborate swimming pool and grotto, zoo and game house.
The estate is in need of renovation. “The house will require remodeling, for sure,” Mr. Umansky said, though he added that the value of the land alone is close to $100 million. The home’s interiors are “dated and will need to be remodeled and redesigned,” he said. Moreover, a buyer may want to increase the size of the house.
Acquired by Playboy Enterprises in 1971 for $1.05 million, the mansion is the longtime home of Mr. Hefner, who rents the mansion from the company for a “small, nominal amount each year,” according to a Playboy spokesperson. While Mr. Hefner’s remaining at the property is “nonnegotiable,” Mr. Umansky said, the exact terms of the arrangement will be determined during purchase negotiations.
The Mansion has six bedrooms, six full baths and two half baths, the agents said. The first floor has a great hall with 22-foot-high ceilings and custom hand-carved oak panels. Two staircases lead up to the second floor, where the master suite and other bedrooms are located, along with four offices. The living room is also used as a movie screening room, where there is a pipe organ that has been restored over the past decade. An office, with hand-carved wooden walls, has a secret door to the wine cellar. The party-ready kitchen has a butler pantry and a walk-in refrigerator and freezer.
Outside sit the heated swimming pool and a grotto, which were built in the 1970s after Mr. Hefner purchased the mansion. The cavelike grotto contains four separate hot tubs. The pool area also includes a koi pond, and an outdoor bar and kitchen. A stone bathhouse has four changing rooms, a sauna, gym and a tanning area.
The property also has a zoo with exotic birds and monkeys, and is one of only a few, if not the only, home in Los Angeles to have a zoo license, Mr. Umansky said. He added that the zoo license would transfer to the new owner along with the property.
The separate game house has poker and pool tables, pinball machines, a piano and an old-fashioned Wurlitzer jukebox with jazz recordings. The property also contains a four-bedroom guesthouse with two bathrooms, a sitting room and a solarium.
GivebackHomes is a trusted network of real estate professionals dedicated to creating social change through the act of buying or selling a home. By simply choosing to work with a Giveback Homes real estate agent, you will help build a home for a family in need. People want to work with people who are doing good, and Giveback Homes is making it easy to find them. Founders, Blake Andrews and Caroline Pinal were recently named to the prestigious Inman 101 List highlighting the Most Influential 101 people in real estate for 2015.
The Boutique Real Estate Group, a worldwide luxury real estate brokerage, with national & international recognition and known for its brilliant design, beautiful marketing, luxury services and world-class technology has made a commitment to partner with Giveback Homes for their Orange County build day. “Our goal of raising $5,000 to help build a home for a family in need is our goal,” says, Founder/Owner Raj Qsar. “Our brokerage is motivated and so encouraged by the work that Giveback Homes has been doing in the real estate industry,” says agent Christina Boladian with The Boutique.
Joining The Boutique in the cause are other celebrity and well known Real Estate Companies and personalities including; Mauricio Umansky with The Agency, Madison Hildebrand with Pacific Union, Joyce Rey with Coldwell Banker Previews International, David Parnes & James Harris with Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles and Roh Habibi from Million Dollar Listing San Francisco.
The next international build project for Giveback Homes is in Nigaragua and they only have 4 spots left. To register see below.
👉 The business greeting in many cultures is often the initial impression an individual can give to their clients. Since our team assists clients in buying & selling residential real estate in Southern California we have many different cultures we come across and each culture seems to have their own unique customs in regards to business. Over the last 8 years, we have seen a massive influx of individual from 🇨🇳 China who are buying & selling homes here in Orange County. A few things we have learned over the years in regards to business greetings & etiquette include:
Some helpful tips:
1. You must have a business card. Not having a business card is like not having a name and the equivalent to not shaking someones hand in western culture.
2. Your title on your card is also very important. Most Chinese people want to feel they are speaking to someone very important or someone at their level. So if you are meeting a CEO of a Chinese company they will want to speak to the CEO of your company.
3. Receiving or giving your card:
a. You MUST be standing up (this shows respect)
b. You MUST have your cards in a case (this shows you are organized). The case should have a spot for your cards and for the card you are receiving.
c. You MUST hand your card over with both hands (as the photo above represents). This is the highest form of respect. Never give a card out with your left hand. It is considered a total insult.
d. When you hand your card over please make sure the writing is face up towards your client (this shows courtesy).
e. Then you MUST accept your clients cards with both hands as well (as shown above).
f. When you receive the clients card, pause, read it and make a comment about their company, their title or simply repeat their name. If you are unsure how to pronounce their name now is the perfect time to ask and clarify.
g. Now place your clients card back in your case and put the case back in your jacket pocket over your heart (left side coat pocket). This shows honor as you are placing their card over your heart. If you are not wearing a jacket keep the card in your right hand for the entire meeting. If you are seated, then place the card in front of you (not face down).
Things to NEVER do:
1. Never hand out a ripped, torn or dirty business card.
2. Never write on someone’s card. It is the equivalent of writing on someone’s face.
3. Do not accept or give your card with one hand. And never with your left hand (as mentioned above).
4. Never place a business card in your pant pocket and then sit on the card. It would be like sitting on that persons face.
5. Do not stack your cards on a table and have your client simple take one.
6. Never ask a client for another card and say you lost it. It is like you have lost their face.
Christmas is almost here. This year I’m really thankful to have lived another happy, healthy year. I have enough stuff so I’m spreading my Christmas Cheer to families that do not have a home – something I cannot even imagine. Together, we can change their story.
I’m asking friends and family to support my campaign (that is you)! Every penny of the money raised will directly build a new home. Even better, New Story Charity will show us, with video, exactly which family we funded once the home is complete. Use link above to spread the love.
