After leaving a large franchise in 2006, Kim Heddinger and her partner Lynell Stokes decided to open their own brokerage—Golden Realty in Eugene, Ore. “We decided to keep it small, just our team,” says Heddinger, who has a buyer specialist and a listing specialist in addition to her and Stokes. “We closed 81 transactions last year,” she says.

Here are her tips for success.

1.    Time block. Heddinger has been working with Coach Dirk Zeller of Real Estate Champions since 2004. The most important things he’s taught her, she says, is how to block out her time to be more efficient. “I’m freshest in the morning, so I’m in the office by 9:30 a.m. calling past clients and doing new business generation,” she says. During this time, all incoming calls get blocked. “That’s the secret. I try to call five past clients a day and 50 percent or more of my business comes from referrals from those past clients.” After 11:30 a.m., Heddinger works on direct income production, returns phone calls and deals with any issues that crop up. From noon to 5 p.m. she goes on listing appointments, looks at houses and meets face-to-face with past and potential clients. “I run it like a business, I don’t let it run me. I stopped doing open houses in 2004, and I don’t work weekends, however my team members are on call,” she says.

2.    Write a business plan. I’m sure you’ve heard this ad nauseam, but it really works. Have a written business plan. “We’re in a business where so many of us don’t operate as owners. You must know where you’re going,” she says. Heddinger trains her team members on building a plan. For example, for her buyer’s agents, she helps them track sales by season, then details how many appointments they need to meet goals as well as how many contracts they need. “I look at my business plan every single day. For example, I need to go on seven listing appointments to get six listings for the month and that’s my January goal.”

3.    Consider a price reduction addendum. “Last year was the most challenging year I’ve ever seen,” says Heddinger. “I’m going to scream if I hear one more seller say he or she doesn’t want to give the house away, so I implemented a price reduction program.” Sellers who list with Heddinger are asked to sign an addendum that outlines when price reductions will take place and for how much. “If they refuse to sign the addendum, then I extend my listing contract to 12 months. I started declining listings last year and would pick them up when the listing expired.”

4.    Track the market. Heddinger breaks down the market into price ranges to see where the activity is and pick up on trends. “My price ranges are $0 to $250,000 (that’s where all the activity is right now, we have seven months of inventory), $250,000 to $350,000 (11 months worth of inventory in this range); $350,000 to $500,000 (14 months of inventory) and over $500,000, which has over 50 months of inventory right now. Obviously, you can’t make money in that price range, so this helps me focus where the activity is and target that activity.”

5.    Have a unique marketing message. Heddinger is a committed animal activist who donates her time to the Humane Society and has several Golden Retrievers, thus the name Golden Realty. She built her marketing concept around the dogs and her community service with animal programs. “I’m known throughout the area as the lady with the dogs. It brings a warm fuzzy into my listing presentations and I’ve had people call me specifically because of the dogs. We have a lot of fun with it,” she says.  “I get three to five clients a month who list because of the dogs.”

Do you have a success story? We want to know. E-mail the editor at Tracey@traceyvelt.com