2006 List Issue: Get it Done

You never know where you’ll find the inspiration to take your business to the next level. For this year’s List Issue, REALTOR® Magazine tapped a wide range of sources — image consultants, sales coaches, marketing and management gurus, tax experts, and real estate practitioners — to bring you tips on prospecting for new customers, polishing your sense of style, navigating business and legal issues, and improving your tech I.Q.

Need to Know

In real estate, it’s dangerous to overreach when it comes to providing guidance on structural, legal, and financing matters. Here are some basics, but be sure to send buyers and sellers to the appropriate experts when necessary.

• 10 Structural Red Flags
• 8 Loan Products — and Whom They’re Perfect For
• 6 Deadly Deal Busters — and How to Beat Them
• 5 Ways to Give Less to Uncle Sam
• 5 Ways to Practice Law Unlawfully
• Avoid These 5 Contract Pitfalls
• 10 Signs There May be Fraud

Style & Design

Frayed hemlines and poor manners can hide the true professional in you. Appearance matters in the homes you market, too. Here are tips for dressing, acting, and styling homes with confidence.

• 9 Tips for Dining With Style
• 14 Ways to Work a Room
• Cool Tools That Won't Break the Bank
• Random Acts of Kindness
• The 10 Habits Billionaires Have
• 7 Ways to Update Your Look
• 21 Hot Building and Design Trends
• 11 Ways to Add Flair to Showings
• 5 Feng Shui Deal Breakers for Buyers
• 5 Feng Shui Concepts to Help a Home Sell

For Brokers

Having an intimate knowledge of real estate won’t ensure success when you hang your own shingle. Here’s some of what they don’t teach you in real estate school.

• Is Your Office a Fortress or a Sieve?
• 5 Fatal Brokerage Beliefs
• 10 Recruiting and Retention Tips
• Cool Name!
• 12 Questions You Can't Ask in an Interview
• Heading Off Conflict
• What You Can Learn From...
• Motivate Your Sales Force
• 9 Need-to-know Federal Job Laws

Business Smarts

Some people always seem to have it all together — the right phone numbers at their fingertips, the right answers at a listing presentation, the right balance in their lives. Want to be one of those people? All it takes is planning.

• 10 Numbers to Program into Your Cell Phone
• 7 Steps to Get Out of a Slump
• 10 Ways to Stop Wasting Time
• 7 Things to Consider When Looking for a Mentor
• 22 Listing Presentation Slip-ups
• How to Improve Civility in the Profession
• 5 Tips for Great Public Speaking
• What's Hot, What's Not
• 11 Open House Blunders
• Tips for Volunteers
• 11 Steps to a Clutter-free Zone
• 10 Jobs an Assistant Can Handle
• 8 Ways to Ease E-mail Overload
• 9 Key Rookie Mistakes
• Know Your Neighborhood

Prospecting & Service

Finding new customers and providing better service to those you have . . . what’s more important to your business? Whether you’re reaching across generations or around the globe, here’s how to be the real estate pro people choose.

• Give Customers What They Want
• 15 Ways to Succeed in Different Types of Markets
• 5 Credit Mistakes Buyers Can Avoid
• 5 Ways to Make People Happy
• Great Ways to Personalize Closing Gifts for Less Than $40
• Generating Referrals
• A Word to the Y's
• Teach the Children Well
• 5 Niches to Consider
• 6 Creative Prospecting Events
• Meet the Buyers
• 7 Tips for Working with Foreign Real Estate Buyers
• New Immigrant Gateways
• 4 Important Rules for International Pros

Tech Watch

What’s the use of having great tech tools, such as text messaging or a Web site, if you aren’t using them to their fullest potential? These tips will help give you the tech edge you need.

• 19 Text Message Abbreviations You Should Know
• 10 Tips for Using Video
• Create a Successful Blog
• Flash Drive 101
• 10 Timely Tech Etiquette Tips
• 8 Tips to Prepare the Home for a Virtual Tour