R4 2016 Las Vegas

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…

Unless you’re a REMAX agent! Then the relationships you create at R4 will nurture future business for your real estate company for years to come.

My business partner and boyfriend (both Hamilton Realtors), headed down to Las Vegas this past week for the ever valuable International RE/MAX Conference.

It is held at the MGM Grand over 4 days, and offers training programs, awards ceremonies and luncheons, among other things. Like networking opportunities!

Networking is one of the most important facets of being a Realtor. Because we are self employed, we must create our own business! We don’t go into work at 9am on Monday with a list from our boss of things to be done. We are our own bosses, and must hold ourselves accountable for our own success. But that is another subject of it’s own.. I’m not here to talk about the business structure of the way we run our business, but to touch on how important is it to connect with like minded business professionals. And boy, there were enough of them in Vegas!

R4 is an international conference held for REMAX agents around the world. This gives us the opportunity to connect with ‘foreign’ agents and share with each other our tips and tricks of the trade that we use, and can implement when we get back home. It also provides an opportunity to learn about world wide real estate markets, and how we can potentially put our (and our client’s) money to work by investing in foreign housing. This is beneficial to both ourselves and our clients, and facilitates great opportunities to create referrals for each other.
Here is me passing by our Broker & Owner (Conrad Zurini) and Manager (David Yunker) connecting with some other agents

Another awesome aspect of R4 are the training programs that are held throughout the 4 day event. Although the conference is held in America, there are speakers from around the world that hold seminars to share information on how they became successful, and how their strategies can generate more leads and efficiency in our own businesses. There are a wide array of courses, from creating more value for our clients, to how to create better listing presentations to get our clients top dollar for their homes!
My brokerage, REMAX Escarpment, holds unbelievably amazing seminars weekly, on how to be a better agent, so I went into this conference having high educational standards. Although real estate markets around the world are quite different, being an amazing agent holds the same essential principles. Even just picking up some key words an American agent uses to close a lead, or negotiate with a Buyer, could make all the difference to making or breaking our next deal!
Key speakers are chosen from their solid reputation, and did not disappoint (especially our favourite friend Mr. Brian Buffini!)

Why do you care?

Because you want an experienced agent to assist you through your next real estate transaction, right? What if your Realtor learned how to attract more Buyers for your listing? or how to negotiate a desirable offer when you are in competition to buy your next home? ALWAYS check how up to date your Realtors knowledge is, and if they continue educating themselves on how to serve you better.

Although I did not attend a REMAX awards ceremony, I can attest that it truly is an inspiration to see these people (‘just humans’!) that worked their butts off to build relationships, and subsequently grow their business to be internationally recognized as a top agent. How cool is it to be a part of an organization that appreciates the hard work of an individual?! I am in my second year of my real estate career and hope to hit the awards stage in the coming years! Watching (through photos/videos) and meeting, these award winning agents achieve recognition and success is so motivational for me to work on building my business to exceed expectations and achieve new standards of success in this ever changing real estate game.

Another amazing opportunity that was provided to us was attending a Lunch hosted by my generous and ever wonderful Broker of Record, Conrad Zurini. Sure the sangria was splendid (just kidding, I didn’t try any… I had a little too much at Marquee the night before..), but chatting with one of the top producing agents in our brokerage over some mouth watering tapas proved to be insightful and eye opening. Keeping my eyes and ears open to the best of the biz was crucial in this trip, as I was constantly surrounded by successful agents! Did I mention how awesome the Tapas were?

Besides R4 hosting tons of great training programs, providing networking opportunities, having a marketplace that vendors and agents can do business at, hosting killer events (Hello Lady Antebellum!), and putting on a golf tournament, their good souls also had multiple charitable events, to give back to our global community. REMAX agents sells houses, so it only seems right to help underprivileged people put roofs over their heads… another reason I am proud to be a part of this global network!

It wasn’t all about getting down to business though. We decided to check out the conference for 2 of the 4 days it was on, and soaked in as much of it as we could.. the rest of the time we spent taking advantage of being in SinCity! (For this segment, I will play by the, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas rule…). We took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, went to 3 stellar shows (Ka, David Copperfield & Absinthe), rode a roller coaster, went up the eiffel tower, checked out the legendary Bellagio fountains, shot a friggin MP5 submachine gun!, and realized I can’t party like I did the last time I was in Vegas at 21 yrs old.. We ate like Kings and I got treated like a Queen (and I didn’t go broke at the casino!).

Vegas by default is a great place to travel to. I am so fortunate (and proud I chose this life path) to end up having this wonderful experience of meeting tons of inspirational people (and some not so inspirational characters on the strip), learning how to better myself and my business, and growing as an individual and professional.

I hope to see all my fellow REMAX agents at R4 next year and am looking forward to doing business with the best in the biz!

Nice to meet you International Referral Network, have a prosperous 2016 and I’ll see you at R4 2017!

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