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As a co-founding member of Crager-Bartels Real Estate my day is a little different than the typical Realtor salesperson in that I am not only representing my personal clients each day--I also work to grow my overall company and make it successful for my agents. The last three years we've become the #1 referred property management company in Indianapolis although our primary focus remains real estate sales. We've grown from 0 to 10 producing sales agents. I've helped Governor Mitch Daniels' statistics by growing paid staff from 1 to 16 in just two years, though I've not received a personal thank you. :)

Every day my tasks are centered around all of the above. I am an active member of two mastermind groups; one with real estate brokers like myself and another that focuses purely on marketing. I've added a new phone system and recently a help desk ticketing system just like the Fortune 500 companies use, both to make customer service the best it can be. My partner and I maintain 300+ web domains though focus most of our energies on our top 10. We constantly add content and services that cannot be found elsewhere.

Last week I hired an 18 year old in Chile to customize a web project. I've also worked with programmers in Europe & Asia. Just part of my day, I consider the world my domain.

We keep alert and utilize the latest technology and make it work for us. Just because something is new doesn't mean it is good for you or your business. I created Indiana's first Visual MLS at http://BuyingIndiana.com that includes an option I've not seen anywhere else in the world, namely a Bargain Finder option that highlights all of the homes in Red, Yellow or Green so you know instantly whether a home is over priced, average priced or under priced.

I tweet on twitter, post on facebook and access my email all on my new Palm Pre cell phone. I have a mobile computer and internet card mounted in my car that allows me to conduct real estate business wherever I am.

I read books and study the latest marketing trends on a daily basis. After all, knowing real estate doesn't get your house sold. It takes top notch marketing of your house to get it sold quickly for the highest price.

Outside of real estate I officiate IHSAA soccer, a business counselor for SCORE, volunteer for local non-profits, am a registered ambassador for Indianapolis, and constantly boast about how much the Indy Metro area has to offer the world.

I also play soccer once or twice a week and just last week suffered a collapsed lung that took me for a two night stay in the ER. Wrong place wrong time I guess...I can't wait to get back out on the field though--I love the game.

I usually find something strange and extreme to experience, for example, last month we made Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream, which is really the same process as using ice and salt, except that when you use Liquid Nitrogen you can make two gallons of ice cream in ten seconds.

Oh, and I have four kids age 8 to 17 that keep me busy when I've got nothing to do... The oldest, Kirsten, is currently scouting colleges she can play soccer at while earning a good education. Have any recommendations? Jessica & Charles both play a lot of soccer themselves and my youngest, William, has yet to make up his mind officially, but loves the game too.
Go figure, Indiana being a basketball center of the universe & with autographed Damon Baily books to my two oldest, my kids choose soccer.

How did you get started in real estate?

I bought my first real estate investment property the same day my daughter Jessica was born. My idea was to purchase a home for each child so that when they graduate high school theequity in the home would ensure they have a college education.

Like so many investors I originally acquired my state license so that I could save a partial commission on my investment purchases. I advise against this though if anyone is contemplating the same thing only because of additional hoops one needs to jump through as a licensed agent.

Once I started working with people I fell in love with the process. My first company was a small but talented commercial firm located near the airport called RealPro. My job was to create & grow a residential department, which I had moderate success in doing. My brush with local fame was when I was able to assist my broker, Glenda, with her client Pat Galyan of Galyan's trading post fame.

My business partner Craig and I hung our own shingle on Main Street Plainfield in 2003 on a lark. The lark being that I acquired a great location through a purchase option I had placed three years earlier. The building had no tenant so we threw up a road sign and Crager-Bartels Real Estate was in business.

Statistics show that a franchised company has a better chance of survival than an independent so I began reviewing franchises. Not wanting to duplicate--I interviewed national franchises that did not have a presence in Indiana. I found two. I met with Keller Williams representative in Ohio and then Weichert flew me to New Jersey and then Nashville trying to persuade us. What we discovered is that all of the national franchises were in the same quandary. The internet had turned their world upside down and all of them were fighting to adapt and stay alive.

With technology a strong point of mine(I had operated one of the first 100 online stores in the world in the early 90's) I decided to take the $50,000/yr in franchise fees and simply educate myself and my team. It was money well spent and we quickly became one of the top ranked real estate companies in the state.

I stepped away from day to day duties in 2004 to become Vice President of Floyd Wickman Sales Training. Floyd WIckman is arguably the best Realtor sales trainer over the past thirty-five years and one of only two trainers named best ever. My goal was selfish; learn from the master himself and train my agents to be the best in the nation. During this time I wrote articles for national real estate publications and worked to bring two books to publish. The last was my own book I coauthored with Floyd which can be found on Amazon.com titled 'Should I Quit Real Estate?' You can also find copies at http://IQuitRealEstate.com I stepped away from the national spotlight eighteen months ago to help my co-founder continue to grow our local real estate company.

What do you tell people when they say it’s a poor housing market?

There is a Chinese proverb that reads 'In chaos there is opportunity'. I'm a firm believer in this basic premise. Followers of W. Clement Stone know how he doubled his company's sales during a similar 'Economic Downturn'. I tell people that it is all perspective. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't. If you are looking to buy or sell a home today, finding the right Realtor is so very much more important. My company has doubled sales every year since 2005. There is no bad time to buy or sell.

What do you find most challenging working as a Realtor?

The most challenging task I have as a Realtor is finding clients that stay out of their own way. All too often real estate clients try to pilot the proverbial plane and tell the Realtor what to do; and all too often us Realtors let them tell us what to do. What I mean is that if a professional is getting paid to protect your best interests, then by all means respect their profession and trust them to do what is right. One seldom questions a brain surgeon or an NFL quarterback like Peyton Manning, they get paid big money like we do so let us do what we know how to do. If you can't trust your agent then fire them and find someone you can trust.

What are three things people can do to prepare to buy a house?

1. Get preapproved with a credible lender & give your agent a copy of the preapproval letter before you start shopping. The credible part is the winner here. Ask your agent for a recommendation, never shop from the newspaper, yellow pages, radio or online.
2. Make no major purchases the year before house shopping and definitely wait to make such a purchase until AFTER you've closed on your new home.
3. Sign an Exclusive Buyer's Agency Agreement with your real estate agent. You will end up with a Realtor that will spend more time with you, do more for you and end up saving you thousands of dollars on your purchase. Without this agreement it's possible that your agent could actually be representing the seller and their best interests, not yours. If your agent doesn't know what an Exclusive Buyer's Agency Agreement is...run and find someone who does.

There are statistics that show that a professionally staged home sells for more money than a non-staged home. This doesn't mean that you can't do most of the work yourself.
1. Clean up the inside of the home. Less is more. Take personal items off the walls and shelves. Remove extra furniture that is unneeded. Throw a rug over troubled floors. Paint ceilings white and walls an off white or other lighter color. Turn lights on everywhere.
2. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Curb appeal. Keep lawn cut, weeds trimmed, bushes trimmed, screens and windows repaired and make the front door stand out. If the front door is anything but fantastic, paint it or replace it. Not enough money for a front door, spend 1/2 as much on a good looking storm door.
3. Find an agent that knows how to take photos and has the ambition to take a lot of them. The phrase 'A picture is worth a thousand words' in the real estate industry turns into 'A picture is worth a thousand dollars.'

A success story: A couple in working class Carmel had a thirty year old 3BR/2BA home they needed to sell. They were in position to buy their next home before selling this one so they had already moved by the time we met. They expected to sell their home pretty quick and so did not worry about the double house payments. Unfortunately for them their home was on the market for over twelve months when they called me. Six months with a discount broker and then six months with a large franchised broker. Their dilemma, much like many home owners, was that they needed a minimum sale price to pay off their mortgage and had already burned through their savings making two house payments. I listed their home on a Saturday for $5000 more than their previous listings. By Monday I had received and scheduled five showings for Wednesday with a sixth showing scheduled that same day. By 6pm Wednesday night I had received two full priced purchase offers. The sellers chose the best offer and were out from underneath their double house payments just thirty days later--also saving them from bankruptcy. The moral of the story is to trust your biggest investment to someone who takes action. Of all the Realtors that have ever been, 70% have failed out of the business, so when you choose your Realtor make sure you know who you will be working with.

An entertaining story about a move or sales transition. My favorite story is one where my father was my client. Are you laughing yet? My father is a self made man who always has advice for others but finds it difficult to heed the advice of others. He had a fairly unique home, sitting on 3 acres and built into the side of a hill. It was his dream home for forty years but only lived here about five. I advised him to use a local Realtor more familiar with his neighborhood, someone to better serve him. Mrs. Realtor advised my father to do a little clean up and make some small repairs to his home. Seven months later the house sat unrepaired and unsold. I reluctantly stepped in to sell my father's home and gave him a short list of repairs to make before I would officially list it. He said no--and so did I. I took the lead and got a quote for the repairs in the amount of $1100, he reluctantly agreed. After the repairs I took photos and listed the home for sale on a Saturday. The following Saturday we received a purchase offer from two IUPUI professors for $5000 more than the list price. An interesting twist is that one of the buyers is the recently departed Mary Ellen Reed who was a vital piece of 1960's & 1970's WTTV Channel 4 television. Mary Ellen gave Cowboy Bob his start when she hosted Lunch Time Theatre, filled in for Janie and hosted a horror show that followed Sammy Terry. You may remember her as the cleaning lady mopping the halls of an otherwise abandoned building.