The REALTOR Benefits® Program: Helping NAR Members Save
The REALTOR Benefits® Program, the official member benefits resource of the National Association of REALTORS®, brings NAR members discounts and special offers on products and services from over thirty industry-leading companies including Dell, Chrysler Group, FedEx, Lowe's, Sprint® and more. Offers can be used for both business and personal use so be sure to visit www.REALTOR.org/RealtorBenefits to see how the Program can help you this holiday season and into the New Year. PLUS! Are you overwhelmed by the mandates of the Affordable Care Act? REALTORS® Insurance Marketplace is a valuable resource designed to help make the insurance selection process simple. Administered by NAR's trusted partner, SASid, Inc., whose licensed benefit representatives are there to help guide you through your options and enroll you and your family in a plan that meets your needs and budget. With SASid and the REALTORS® Insurance Marketplace, NAR members no longer need to sort through health insurance options alone. They are insurance experts so you don't have to be. www.RealtorsInsuranceMarketplace.com NEW! Multi Merchant Prepaid Card. Created exclusively for NAR members with closing and thank you gifts in mind, this unique card highlights the value of homeownership and offers the recipient not just one, but over 150 popular places to shop, dine and have fun. www.multimerchantcard.com

5 Ways to Grow Your Business with Designations
Real estate agents are busy people, right? Between prospecting for business and working with clients, who has time to earn real estate designations? It's true that only a small percentage of agents have completed the requirements for one of the official designations or certifications awarded by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). But don't assume they have plenty of time on their hands. Rather, designated agents represent the upper echelons in their field, go-getters who consistently outperform other agents. Here's what they gain from their designations: 1. Fresh ideas. Every agent can benefit from learning new and better ways to do things. NAR's designation courses are packed with regularly-updated information on the best ways to work with buyers and sellers—and deal with other agents. If taken in a classroom setting, designation courses also provide a great opportunity to hear fresh ideas from some of the best instructors in the industry, as well as other attendees. 2. Time savers. Designations are about much more than training and education. They also provide members-only access to many time-saving tools that simplify your work with buyers and sellers, including professional marketing materials, consumer education tools and other benefits. 3. Competitive edge. In a crowded market, designation training helps agents bring more skills to the table and tout their credentials online. It's tangible evidence that you've set the bar higher and could easily be a key difference-maker when consumers compare your credentials to a competitor's.

Are You Taking Advantage of Your Member Benefits?
As the exclusive member benefits program of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, the REALTOR Benefits® Program brings NAR members preferred pricing and special offers from over thirty industry-leading companies including Dell, Chrysler Group, LLC, Lowe's, Sprint®, REALTORS® Health Insurance Marketplace and more. Whether for professional or personal needs, members can save time and money, gain a competitive edge and grow their business with the products, tools and services they use every day. REALTOR Benefits® Program categories include: FINANCIAL SERVICES and RISK MANAGEMENT PERSONAL INSURANCE MARKETING RESOURCES OFFICE SUPPLIES and SERVICES TECHNOLOGY SERVICES ELECTRONICS and MOBILE TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT TRAVEL/AUTOMOTIVE EDUCATIONAL TOOLS Visit www.REALTOR.org/RealtorBenefits often for the most current information, including special offers and new partners. Live support is also available Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. -5:00 p.m., Central at 1-800-NAR-5233.

Is There ROI in Virtual Assistants for Real Estate Agents?
In business, those who are the most successful typically get plenty of help: advertising agencies to handle their ads, marketing companies to promote their services and administrative people to handle the small details. Interestingly, real estate agents are notoriously reluctant to delegate any tasks and seem to prefer to wear all the hats in their business. When it finally gets to the point where they can no longer juggle all the various demands that the business imposes, and they are completely overwhelmed, they finally decide it's time to get to help. "Bottom line: If you are truly running your business like a real business and you are still overwhelmed, you're leaving too much money on the table by not adding to your team," cautions Mark Young with Stouffer Realty in Northeast Ohio. While Young's staff members are all employed in-house, he directly correlates a rise in his income to the number of staff members he adds to his team. But I Don't Make Enough Money Some of the big real estate coaches used to counsel agents that they needed to reach a certain income threshold and remain there consistently before even thinking of hiring an assistant. What they seem to have failed to realize, however, is that all that time the agents spent doing the work an assistant could have been handling was time spent away from performing the very activities that would allow them to consistently reach the income threshold. Thankfully, those days are gone. Virtual staffing companies and virtual freelancers allow agents the flexibility to schedule as few or as many hours of assistance per week as needed. Now agents can pick and choose the tasks they need the most help with. No longer do agents have to be sure they can continue to pay an assistant every month. With virtual freelancing assistants, agents can hire help on a short-term or task basis. This is especially valuable for agents who are just starting out; they can get help when they need it and save money when they don't.

The Value of a Swift Response
Here's another great retro article to celebrate the 4th of July. This one comes to you from Jose Parez. You finally decided that with prices still low, you are going to upgrade to that bigger house you and your husband have been talking about for years. Things are good with both your jobs and now is the time. You have heard from several people that XYZ Real Estate has a good reputation and you see a lot of their signs around town so you decide to start your search on their website one night after work. They have a nice site and you are getting excited about the listings they have in the neighborhood you have been wanting to move into. Saturday morning you decide that you want to spend Sunday looking at a few homes for sale in your dream neighborhood. You get back on XYZ’s site while you are having your morning coffee and put in a request to speak to someone about viewing homes tomorrow. It’s about 9 AM and you give them your cell phone number in case they call while you are out and about. Soccer, baseball, yard work, laundry, and grocery shopping chores are done by mid-afternoon. You and your husband finally sit down to relax before cooking dinner and wonder why you have not heard anything from XYZ Real Estate. You are both eager to look at homes tomorrow so you check your email to see if someone has gotten back to you. Nothing on email and nobody has bothered to call after several hours. Not impressed with the lack of response, you get back online and start searching for other companies. Does this happen every day in our industry? Unfortunately, it happens hundreds of thousands of times every single day!

Don't Make Them Wait!
You finally decided that with prices still low, you are going to upgrade to that bigger house you and your husband have been talking about for years. Things are good with both your jobs and now is the time. You have heard from several people that XYZ Real Estate has a good reputation and you see a lot of their signs around town so you decide to start your search on their website one night after work. They have a nice site and you are getting excited about the listings they have in the neighborhood you have been wanting to move into. Saturday morning you decide that you want to spend Sunday looking at a few homes for sale in your dream neighborhood. You get back on XYZ’s site while you are having your morning coffee and put in a request to speak to someone about viewing homes tomorrow. It’s about 9 AM and you give them your cell phone number in case they call while you are out and about. Soccer, baseball, yard work, laundry, and grocery shopping chores are done by mid-afternoon. You and your husband finally sit down to relax before cooking dinner and wonder why you have not heard anything from XYZ Real Estate. You are both eager to look at homes tomorrow so you check your email to see if someone has gotten back to you. Nothing on email and nobody has bothered to call after several hours. Not impressed with the lack of response, you get back online and start searching for other companies. Does this happen every day in our industry? Unfortunately, it happens hundreds of thousands of times every single day!

Predict When Homeowners Will Move!
Wouldn’t it be great to know which people in your social network or business contact lists are the most likely to move in the next six months? RealAgile, a predictive analytics company, says their new CentreScore technology can quickly rank a list of names and addresses based on the probability they will make a real estate move.