The REXI Agent Development program is un-branded – for now.  We’re continuing to look at branding / packaging options and will be rolling out a new improved packaging soon. 

Today REXI launched the REXI HQ Agent Portal using the Ning.com social networking tool.  The functionality ofthe Ning.com tool set is  well suited to the needs of keeping the network of now over 450 agents connected to the REXI staff.  We’ll be able to send group messages, establish forums for exchanges and more – this blog shows up on the front page there!

We’ve got more exciting ‘Web2.0′ tools, training and more coming too… REXI is moving aggressively into the next Century and the 31st year of operation!

REXI Agent2.0 is moving ahead nicely.  We’ve reset the main website (realtyexpertsinc.com) as a more consumer-oriented site, connected the MLS to it and will be opening a REXI agent portal by the weekend.  Stay tuned for more on the portal – all 400+ REXI agents will be given an announcement email and access will be lmited to REXI agents, brokers, and approved vendors.

More on the portal as it launches!

This last week was pretty busy.  The dust is settling though and we can all welcome three new executive and a few moves. 

Ann Marie Stevens has accepted the position of President and will be taking over the daily running of Realty Experts from Kevin Cronin.  Ann Marie was prior a branch manager and Legal Affairs Coordinator / Human Resource Director of 1st USA Realty Professionals.   She also authors a periodical column for real estate called ‘FYI:Legal’.   Her drive and talent are sure to be an asset to REXI.

Elizabeth ’Lisa’ Johnson has joined REXI as an Associate Broker and will be developing a program for referral / commercial real estate sales.  Lisa was prior with Guranteed Realty, EXIT Realty , Century 21 and started her real estate career with Coldwell Banker in 2000.  Her experience will help in just so many ways.

Next, is Steven Groves. Steve takes the position of Director of Marketing for REXI.  Steve is a business writer, an active blogger (he’s also the REXIBlogger – now you know!) and a technologist who is putting his special talents to work for REXI and developing an agent development program.  He has actively been working in the entrepreneurial community for the last three years and has been a guest lecturer at ASU, the Kaufmann FastTrack program and is working on the next Entrepreneurship Conference with the team from OTEF.  We’re very excited about how his talents and ideas will be applied to our ‘Agent2.0′ program and contribute to REXI into the next phase of our growth.

Kevin Cronin, the owner of REXI, has not left the building though; with these three joining the team, his efforts will be toward developing and launching the national expansion.  Phyllis Sigley has accepted the position of Brokers Assistant, now working directly with Richard Hanten.

Call in anytime, meet the newest additions to the team and let Phyllis know how much you appreciate her efforts – and get ready for a rocket ride…  Realty Experts is getting ready to grow – again!

Every successful entrepreneur know that they have to give something back to the community – while maybe not directly, it is the community that got them there and helped make them successful – no one ever does it alone…

REXI has identified the Miracle League of Arizona as a benefit charity to their efforts.  Miracle League of Arizona (MLoAZ) is a 501(c)3 and supports the special needs community with team recreation based around the Great American Past Time of Baseball.  Now, regardless of the special needs of an athlete, they can play baseball just like everyone else.  Frank DeFord, of HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumble, said that when kids are sick, the worst think is that they’re sick (or with special needs), the second worst thing is that they’re different… Miracle League shows them that they are part of a larger community.

Visit the MLoAZ website and find out more about this amaziong organization and their affiliation with the City of Surprise, Phoenix and Scottsdale.  Ask about donating a brick to their construction program!

‘Agent2.0′ is the adopted title of the Agent Development program REXI has launched, effective the first of April.  It’s not completely fleshed out, but here are the foundations of the program as we see them and the considerations behind them.

Personal Improvement – This has to do with the idea that many real estate professional are not dyed in the wool sales people, some are we know.  With new and experienced agents alike, we believe regular access to sales training, personal improvement clinic and more, aimed at the improvement of the individual, will drive sales performance.

Technology from the Web2.0 model -Web 2.0 refers to many emerging elements of technology, many of which have benefited early adopter in their business.  We see the direction technology is heading, will maintain a ‘finger on the pulse of it’ as it matures and will make sure REXI agent have access to the best and most effective elements of it.

Sales Performance Management - Leads come from a variety of sources; past clients, personal networking and from Internet based sources;  It’s these sources that will feed a lead management / sales performance system and impact sales for many, many real estate companies going forward; we’re making a stand that REXI’s program will be second to none.  This will be part of a program to make sure leads are properly dealt with and that the investment is well made for the benefit of the team.

Mentoring and Coaching - success begets success; experienced agents who can manage others will be encouraged and compensated to do so.

With the 30th anniversary of REXI this year, we know that this is the year to kick off the Agent2.0 program – more details to come starting tomorrow!

Greg Swann and Joel Burslem are trouble makers – so is Jay Thompson and Jim Cronin….

… and I say it with the greatest respect for them and their work.  They are all RE bloggers and have a opinions on what is being called ‘Real Estate Agent 2.0‘, the real estate agent of the future or at least what the promise of the future should be – and they are all invested in it.

Now I’ve not met all these guys yet and have only had interactions with a couple of them, but I find their writing powerful and insightful.  I’m introducing them here, because 1) they are becoming a regular resource for me in my own work on the real estate technology, and 2) I like what / how they write… a lot.   

As sat down for this post, I realized how important the transition is going to be for not only agent, but also broker in the Agent 2.0 world and if I were to identify the theme of the blog, that would be it – how REXI is going to approach the Agent 2.0 paradigm and be successful supporting the agent of the future.

Here are some of the foundation posts from my mentors / associates / fellow bloggers that I can draw my comments from -

Last year Greg crafted a great post on ‘Apprehending Realtor 2.0‘ in which he lists the essential skills for the coming generation of real estate professionals -

1. HTML Skills
2. Graphic Design
3. Search Engine Optimization
4. Client / Server Side Programming
5. Web 2.0
6. Videography / Photography
7. Writing

I’m not sure if he expects geeks to become agents or agent should become geeks – lot’s of geeky stuff in that list.  Fortunately with many of the blogging platforms, the geek-factor is minimized by the interface, my comment is that you shuld not be put off by them – writing something interesting is the essential skill here.   

Jim Cronin is a long time proponent of real estate blogging at the RealEstateTomato and usually has interesting posts.  Blogging is something a community can / dos do however.  One of Jim’s compatriots, Teresa Boardman / The St. Paul Real Estate Blog, ( I read her a lot too, but not everyday) made a great point in her December posting at The Real Estate Tomato on digital divide between those who use blogging as a tool to connect with the industry and clients and those who don’t – the salient comment I read from her post was -

“The learning curve looks much steeper to our colleagues that are watching us from far away. They encourage us to get back to the basics because that is all they know,  as if they are certain that doing more of the same and working harder at it is the way to grow our businesses in a shifting market, and a new age.“

…we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto and if ‘going back to the basics’ is what you know, those of us in Web 2.0 and chasing the Agent 2.0 paradigm will bless you and wish you well on the return trip to what you know…

Joel Burslem is now a contributor at Inman Real Estate news and writes excellent copy at The Future of Real Estate Marketing.  The recent posting from Joel was contrary to that of Gregs though on the relevance of the Redfin ‘Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights’- Greg stirred things up and Joel at least liked the idea of some kind of customer oriented manifesto.  Redfin, of course, want’s things their way and Greg caught them at it – Greg’s mantra is the “Divorced Commission,”… a model in which the buyer pays his agent and the seller pays his agent – separate from one another vs. the seller paying all the commissions from the sales transaction.

Lastly, Jay Thompson is a wizard with stats and in finding relevant stats on the Phoenix market, blogging as ‘The Phoenix Real Estate Guy‘, you expect that I suppose.  I really like the experiment on the ‘Real Estate Minimalist Website‘ and the results are impressive – very Agent 2.0 stuff…

So while the REXI Blog is a new addition to the crowd, we’re aiming at making it relevant and useful as we produce our own version of the Agent 2.0 model.  Come join the fray and let’s make the journey…

The REXI Blogger

If you’ve just graduated from real estate school, congratulations!  Your ready to join 47,000 of your Arizona-based brothers and sisters out there helping people in what is one of the better markets for real estate, that number is based on a recent analysis by Jay Thompson / PhoenixRealEstateGuy blog.

While we recognize that the school curriculum is sometimes difficult, it teaches you only how to conduct business legally as an agent.  You’ve pretty much learned the rules and regulations that govern our industry and you’ve learned how to successfully pass the test administered by the State in which you choose to practice – but do you know how to sell?  Selling is a skill, learned and developed – a seasoned, successful professionals often talk about the days of being given a phone, a desk and, if they were good and stayed around long enough, a box of business cards. 

We think there is another way to address the success needs of the real estate professional of today and for tomorrow – introducing the REXI Agent Growth Program.

REXI cares about your success; we want you to be a successful, competent real estate professional – the obvious portion of that statement is that we’re not making money of you aren’t – but it goes further; our philosophy is that the only stable relationship is win-win, the place where both parties involved in a transaction win.  The model ALWAYS disintegrates to lose-lose when either party tries to move to the unbalanced model of win-lose (or lose-win).  So we avoid this model in all our intentions and business dealings with our agents. We’ll uncover more of the program in as it develops; this post is about the impact of developing your charisma. Wait a minute – did he say ‘develop‘ charisma?  Everyone knows that charisma is not a developable skill – it’s one of those things that you are just born with right…. right?! Recently the Phoenix Business Journal (Phoenix Business Journal article on The Charisma Clinic) and other Real Estate marketing and sales bloggers have picked up on Hilari Weinstein and her ‘Charisma Clinic’.  Hilari is a presentation coach and she’s identified the aspect of presntation that impact an audicens perception of charisma attributed to the presenter.  In her clinic, she’ll share the three “C’s” of charisma (below) and more about how you can develop your own charismatic presence.

Working with Executive Conversations with Steven Groves of Phoenix, REXI is packaging up the Charisma Clinic for it’s agents; new and experienced, young and old.  It’s part of the overall program, but contact the office for more info or click here to send an email and ask about it for yourself.

To All Your Success,
The REXIBlogger

To REXI associates and industry officials, let me say Hello…

As the REXI Blogger, I will be bringing you news and information both useful and informative.  The openeing post from Richard is his way, and mine, of letting you all know that technology is on our side now.  A blog can have lost of different impact for those who subscribe to them, read them and use the ‘blog-sphere’ as a part of their marketing – and we’re adding it as another tool in our toolbox.

 Stay tuned, get sunscribed and let us know what you want to hear about from us…

Let’s go sell! – The REXI Blogger

Greetings,

This is the first post for the REXI BLOG. We are very excited to introduce our new and improved internet presence. Our goal is to offer the latest and most advanced technology for our ever growing Realty Experts Inc. family. Please check back frequently to stay up to date on the latest happenings in the Arizona Real Estate industry. If you would like to be a guest blogger, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to consider your post.
Thanks for reading.

Richard Hanten
Designated Broker
Realty Experts Inc.
http://www.RealtyExpertsInc.com