Only the top 3-4 percent or so of brokers made six figure incomes when this book was written, and this book is squarely focused on how to get you into that narrow area. I think this book will be of most value to those who want to make a high income, and are excited about trying new techniques to make themselves more effective.

Although I do not practice as a real estate broker (although I am licensed), this book fits my understanding of how that business works. The most productive parts are when you get a listing or make a sale. Mr. Ferry shows you how to get more listings in time and cost efficient ways, and to have the way you get those listings help you make sales more easily.

Here's what he has to say about this process: "It's not uncommon to see a salesperson's production double within months after starting to use the tools given here." " . . . [T]reat your real estate career as a busines. You can then use proven techniques for increasing your productivity."

The introduction gets the book off to a fast start with excellent ideas for setting goals for your psychological, spiritual, family, physical, and financial success. He then encourages you to create action plans for each goal area, and to start taking action in the first five minutes after writing the plans. People with written goals and plans like these outperform the rest of the world routinely. He also encourages you to break your old habits, to ask for help where it is needed, to be sure you understand what you should be doing, and to keep going whenever you get something to work. In this way, he wants you to create excitement that will overcome whatever procrastination you may have.

Willie Sutton said that he robbed banks because that was where the money was. Real estate brokers have to ask real estate owners about their plans to sell and buy all of the time -- that's where the real estate transactions are. He describes how to do this if you have a natural community to draw on (like your church or club). He also encourages you to try cold-call door knocking, and compare the results. For many new brokers, the cold-call door knocking will work faster and be less expensive. After you are more successful, you can hire someone to help you with this through mailings and telemarketing. He encourages you to do this prospecting all of the time. A recommended target is For Sale By Owner properties (most will eventually hire a broker). Expired listings are also a good source of new listings. You will find many scripts to help you with these contacts.

Once you have a lot of listings, you will make a lot of sales. Good processes for working with buyers are described here as well.

Once you have a lot of sales, it's easier to get listings because you can promote how many sales you make. Sellers are looking for top sellers!

Many brokers will be uncomfortable with his advice. But you can probably rewrite the scripts so that they feel authentic coming from you. That will also help you with procrastination, if you are like me.

He offers several plans for getting started. I suggest that you try one that is for an activity level you can stick with.

Chapter 12 has a number of examples of people who are getting great results. I found those examples particularly helpful, because it made it clear to me that you don't have to be a Mike Ferry clone to have more time for yourself, more self-esteem, more control in your life, and more income.

Good luck with improving your real estate business!

After you have been using his process for 90 days, I suggest that you take a look at where you have been most successful in getting listings and do more of that. Also, analyze the places where you have been less successful by asking those who turned you down how you could have improved in approaching them. If you do this every 90 days, you should get even better results!

Mike Ferry is the best   March 1, 2006
James Ng (Oakland CA)
13 out of 18 found this review helpful

Mike Ferry is the best real estate sales trainer in the world.
The reason the reviewer went backrupt or maximized his debt is because he did real estate the traditional way. I used to do it the farming way, the advertising way, the referral way (giving lots of gifts and cultivating relationships). Mike Ferry's ideas are the first to treat the business like a professional business. Every successful agent I know has prospected like Mike Ferry. The reason why that reviewer is out of the business is because he didn't prospect for new business every single day. How can "Prospecting" put you in debt? You pick up the phone, learn some scripts and start calling. Its all the other crap that traditional brokers teach that causes you to go bankrupt. Spend $100,000 on mailings, spend $250K on farming, spend $50,000 on classified ads or harmon homes. Bus Benches and Billboards costs thousands a month. I know because I used to have all this stuff. We call people and get motivated seller and buyer leads daily. The point that mike always talks about and is not mentioned here enough is consistiency.
Mike has updated alot of his stuff from the time this book was published. The top 5 agents in my brokerage including myself as subscribed "Ferryites". Look, even if you did everything mike talks about in his book, you have to remember that true results happen after 18 months of implementing the system. You will get much better results before then, but it will take 18 months before you understand everything and do it a proficient practice. Good luck to all out there.


This is the beginning of success.   July 18, 2007
David Stewart (Auburn Hills, MI United States)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful

Got $50,000 to buy a clientele? No? Then get this book, and get with a real business system in real estate.

Ferry starts with foundations--20 techniques that one needs to practice. Now, I would say only 18 of these are daily actionable. (#2 and #3 are general principles you can check yourself on every week or month.) Secondly, he deals with time management--the bane of the independent contractor.

Third--what everyone hates--prospecting. Ferry prioritizes prospects correctly, in two dimensions: First, high-impact versus low-impact prospecting; second, who to prospect. Now, this book is aimed primarily at people beginning, so its priorities are: FSBOs and Expireds; cold doors (now primarily phone); then---well, pretty much everything else is low-impact.

Let me address some of the criticisms levelled against Ferry in other reviews here. A couple people have said this is old-school. I dunno--when I started, no one told me about knocking on doors as a systematic practice (or using the phone to targeted groups). What they told me about were farming and direct mail (sometimes one and the same, but not always), and of course (and correctly) FSBOs. Door knocking and systematic phone calling are not common and not typical. And they are productive compared to (what Ferry calls) low-impact methods of prospecting.

One critic complained about Ferry's stated ratio, 99 no's to 1 yes, and said he didn't even get that. Well, all taken together, I do a lot better than that. Now, the legitimate aspect of the critic's complaint is this: It does indeed take a long time to get those 100 people. Today. Today it does; it was not so hard in 1993, when this book was published. Today, more homes are empty all day (and yes, I'm aware that a lot were in 1993; still, it is more common today). Today, people have Caller ID and many people screen calls (are you calling from your office? What's your CID say?). Today, there is the Do Not Call list. It is a lot harder to get hold of 100 people today by any method, or even combination of methods. Certainly by door knocking today it's impossible to do, or nearly so--it would take forever, and the critic's complaint about his 8 hours is justified.
So the unfortunate fact is that this book now has to be updated with two things:
1. Put your sphere of influence and past clients in the number one rank. This is something Ferry today advises in his training and coaching.
2. Door knock some--strategically, for your new listings or sales--but make the phone your primary tool. Again, this is something Ferry today advises in his training and coaching.

The fact is, this is an older book, which Ferry has not ever updated. **I am not saying to pass it up for that reason---I think it's still the single best book available on real estate business practice.** He has, however, done other things: He runs an entire coaching business, which is updated daily; and he has written another book, which, however, seems to be available only on his website.

So anent that area of criticism--"Door knocking takes forever and doesn't produce enough live bodies to talk to"--my response would be: That's true, and the answer is to use the phone instead; and furthermore put your sphere of influence and past clients (if any) in the #1 and #2 slots for high-impact prospecting targets; and stay up to date with Ferry's advice by reading his updated stuff on his website. Seriously, he GIVES IT AWAY. Not the coaching, of course, but he has a bevy of free reports, all of which are up to date and golden; and he gives away ALL of his scripts.

Another thing the same critic said was that much of Ferry's advice was like a sleazy used-car salesman. That is flat-out false. NONE of it is like that. There is NOTHING of manipulation in Ferry's methods. What there is: Intelligent questioning to get to the critical information one needs to do business and to do the best job for your clients. Maybe the critic thinks that closing on a prospect is sleazy; I don't know. If he's objecting to closings like "Do you want to close in 30 or 45 days?" or "Would you sign the contract please?" I kind of doubt he's ever going to transact much (wait--he already left the business), because he'll be too embarrassed to ask the client to do what the client wants to do--buy (or list) a house.

The same fellow suggested that you brand yourself. Like I said: Got $50,000 to buy a clientele? What Ferry did for me--I resisted buying his book, or looking into his methods, because I heard other agents telling me (falsely) "he's just a cold-caller" or he was dogmatic or "too salesman-y" (Hey, you know what? I AM A SALESMAN)--first was to show me that everything I was doing in the name of prospecting was not actually prospecting; it was blowing money to get my name on pieces of paper that would get thrown away without a second look or to talk to people who just wanted the two pieces of information and then to get off the phone or out the door: Farming (by mail, that is), floor time, open houses, image advertising, newsletters, etc. They cost a lot of money, and their hit ratio is more on the order of 1 in 2000 than 1 in 100.

Let's talk about that ratio: Look, every method of prospecting has a ratio of many, many no's and rejections to a single yes. But the ones that get you talking to 1. people you know and 2. (harder to do, and thus more important) people you don't know (there are more of #2 than #1), rather than sitting in your office and having some fulfillment house send junk mail out for you, or blowing hundreds (or thousands) on ads that are so unproductive that they can't even be measured as effective, are the ones with a ratio that can actually produce an income. And an income you can keep, rather than spending it all on more postcards, ads, newsletters, bus benches, shopping cart signs...

Now, is the book self-sufficient? No, not today; it needs the updating I mentioned above. And you can get all that for free on Ferry's website. But it is still the MOST useful book on real estate there is (beats Kennedy, Zeller, and everyone). So get this book--it will inspire you, and move you to actual business practice with a likelihood of actual production.


The BEST BOOK on how to make money   July 2, 2001
Richard N. Wang (San Francisco , CA USA)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful

This is a great book for anyone starting out in real estate. But be warned it requires committment from you. Changed my life and my career. It helps you get what you want, in the time you want, won't that be nice?


Inspiring, Practical, Powerful!   October 1, 2005
Jean L. Singleton (Wauconda, Washington, USA)
11 out of 15 found this review helpful

I am a real estate broker and while working as an associate in a large firm I kept hearing people talk about Mike Ferry and his systems for success. Agents would point to some of the really successful people in our office and whisper that they were following Mike Ferry's ideas. Eventually I invested in this small but powerful book. It was a quick read, but a solid book that I've come back to many, many times. His 20 "getting started" ideas are priceless. I SO MUCH appreciate his advice to run your business as a business, truthfully tell sellers the facts about market conditions, develop a sensitivity to the needs of your prospects, don't waste your time, give it your best shot, and then move on, and so much more. The ideas in this book have helped me immeasurably!