Here is important information on the SmartPlan™ cost, licensing, coaching and payment:

COST: The SmartPlan™ templates are free. You only pay for two hours of consultation on how they are built and how to use them with clients. A single purchase is $350 for individual one-on-one coaching. You CAN "buddy up" with one or more agents and the cost is $200 each. The coaching will be done simultaneously with all "buddy" participants via a conference call.

I recently received an email via my contact info on my Blog from an agent pondering the question: "Should I do C-CREC, ACRE or both?" Here is my response:

C-CREC was the only organization active when I started in the business. Since then, ACRE was born with the primary mission of actually helping practitioners implement the consulting model through our coaching program (I am one of the coaches).

You don't need both. Choose ACRE.

As you can see I fully disclosed that I am an ACRE coach so he would know that I perhaps had a personal motivation for pointing him to ACRE. That being said, I do strongly believe that ACRE provides a more practical experience coached by people who have actually practiced what we preach.

Here's the rub and it is more disturbing...

If you are easily offended, do not read any further. If you value an honest opinion, read on. I'm warning you ... this is not sugar coated.

Once in a while I run across an obscure article that seems to be relevant to what we are all about. Here is one such article:

Charging what you're worth (see Contents: Page 11: FreshViews)

This comes from the Costco Connection magazine in the FreshViews section. Also on the same page is an article Hip marketing tips to attract new customers. Both are excellent and timely.

Costco caters to the small business entrepreneur. We are all small businesses entrepreneurs... aren't we?

PS: This is not my main business read but sometimes they have some juicy nuggets!

Focusing on the highest professionalism in everything we do and using the SmartPlan to make our fee transparent is priceless. By the way, this client chose the Shared Risk approach and paid me $2,200 in the first 30 days of the engagement with the balance at closing.

Here's a note I received from a recent listing client that settled on their sale October 1st:

Here is an example of the consult and refer approach:

A few weeks ago I received a call from a potential client who asked if I would do a property evaluation in preparation for listing their home. I replied that I worked as a consultant, it would take two hours of my time at $175 per hour.

They agreed, I did a bit of comparable research, met them at their home (they had the check in hand for $350), gave them some verbal advice, took notes and subsequently sent them a written report (Property Evaluation Report.pdf). I also sent them a proposal for the listing using my Shared Risk approach being paid up front for my marketing. Because of cash flow issues, they were not able to accept my proposal although they were impressed with my professional approach and thoroughness in presenting my analysis and wanted to hire me.

As a result, I declined the listing and referred it to a friend with another broker. He took the listing with a traditional commission approach and is willing to pay me a 20% referral fee if and when it sells. It is a $1,000,000 property in an upscale Northern Virginia neighborhood.

There is more than one way to earn a living using consulting.

As I continually ponder this business model it occurred to me that what I really do is "activity based pricing" of real estate services. This is a much better description of what I do and what my clients love. Fee schedules are out. Activity based pricing is in! Look at my spreadsheet in the document library (in the fee schedules category).

I described "activity based costing" in this article I wrote almost a year ago. Now I have a new way to present my fees: Activity Based Pricing. What better way to say it?

Wonders never cease! I received an email from one of my Blog (the Northern Virginia Real Estate Guide) followers asking for clarification on our business model. I set up an "on-line" appointment with him with a password protected website I built that has a link to my fee schedule. The conference occurred this morning at 8:30. I spent about an hour with him explaining the consulting approach and walking through my fee schedule (literally designing a listing program with him on-the-fly). He was impressed with how transparent it is is (full disclosure on what I will do and what it will cost.

Net: The resulting fixed fee I will charge is equivalent to a 5% listing on a $425,000 property (3% to a coop broker and the equivalent of 2% to me). I asked if he wanted to talk it over with his wife and his response was "No, I like this approach, I know what I will be paying for...when can we sign an agreement!" We will sign the listing Tuesday night.

This is about the fifth time in the last 12 months I get a call and literally take the listing over the phone. It pays to be a consultant and it pays big time to get on-line exposure. In my case, the Blog.