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Be Memorable

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I couldn’t help but notice, that with my fashionably late arrival, there are twelve contributors on the Agent Genius mission of change and awareness. Thanks to childhood indoctrination I immediately mentally connected to the twelve disciples.

It's not straight L2PhotoshopYou know Matthew, Mark, Luke, John….

Oh Judas of course.

and…

D’oh Peter!

and…

Hmmm, been a while. 

Well those other six guys aren’t important I guess. (By very defintion, half the disciples were below average disciples, so I don’t feel so bad for forgetting them.)

I'm in the fifth rowAnyway… So I got to figure a way to stand out from the crowd. I mean, there’s a lot of us, I’m a competitive jerk and anyone with a keyboard can write a blog post. I’m gonna get disintermediated by Russian splogs any day now otherwise.

So here’s some all purpose advice for you and me. Also I suggest eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream as you read, transforming the post into Advice a la Mode. (Everything is better with ice cream)

/clears throat to give serious advice

I suppose a good tip here would be to write a book or something. Seemed to work out for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Write it down and BAM! You’re an expert. How dumb is that. I mean use it, before it gets nerfed because everyone wrote a book.

Book = Smart about something. People seem to respond to that.

Or maybe try being the villain in the piece. Go go Judas style. No publicity is bad publicity or something. Like in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies where that English Captain guy (damned if I can remember his name sorry) says to Captain Jack Sparrow…

Cardboard Cut Out English Captain: “You’re the worst pirate I’ve ever heard of”.

and Jack says…

Captain Jack Sparrow: “Ah! But you have heard of me.”

I only said sometimes I Easter Egg Captions in imagesQuite a witty come back I thought. I mean try and think of a pirate right now AND NOT THINK OF CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW.

<—— No Thinking!

See you can’t do it. Wow he’s good. I mean if you needed a pirate right now, who would you call? 1–800–BOOTY4U? Nope, even though he isn’t much good, you’d probably call Jack. 

I’m not sure how to advise you to be a villain though. I’m a big marshmallow on the inside really and suck at the macho man stuff. Once I said to my wife..

Marshmallow Being Tough: “That’s it! I’m going out to a strip club and getting drunk!”

and she’s like..

Wife: “We need milk.”

so I’m like..

Marshmallow Being Tough: “I’ll go to Wal-Mart then, because we need kitty litter too.”

(Well we did need kitty litter and it’s cheap at Wal-Mart)

Peter GriffinAlso Peter GriffinOr you could try it Peter style. Everyone loves Peter, he’s the big goofy one, but somehow seems to pull it together in the end. But yeah, being likeable and social apparently goes a long way.

 

I mean if you suddenly needed a disciple, you’d be like…

You Needing A Disciple: “Heck I need a disciple, but there’s twelve of them to choose from”

and the other side of your brain would be like…

Other Side of Brain: “LOL get Peter, he’s a barrel of laughs. Remember him eating all those pies for charity and hitting on Cheryl?”

So that seems like a good plan. I can’t really help you with that though, as I’m the type of guy that enjoys short walks and working on the computer too long. I had a little chuckle figuring out I was only age 25 in hexadecimal just now.

So there we have it. Write a book, act like a sexy pirate, or be lovable and fun. That will blow your sales up big time, with a 100% full refund for reading this blog post if it doesn’t pan out. (Pro Tip: Be a lovable fun sexy pirate WHO WRITES A BOOK! That’s a rich vein to mine right there free of charge. I’m just giving this stuff away, I’m in the zone and just sweating advice through my pores. If you licked me right now you’d gain 20 IQ points!)

Anyway, that all seems straight forward but time consuming, so I’ll take the easy way out.

I’ll just post everything in red.  😉

It’s All About Me – Again

vickimoore
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Aaron Dickinson reminded me of something that always leaves me a little let down. The end of the transaction.

We work extremely closely with our clients, spending a great deal of time with them. We learn about their families, jobs, finances, personal preferences, even their favorite tv shows. We’re creating a relationship, a bond, a trust.

In order to find just the right house, we need to know if they like to garden. Do they have a dog? Big dog? Inside or outside dog? What do they do for a living? How far will they be commuting? Or do they need a home/office? Maybe they bring home a work vehicle. Do they cook and have a lot of gadgets? Do they prefer a gas or electric stove? Do they have one car or two? Have they purchased/sold a home before? Do they enjoy the negotiation process or is it going to keep them up all night? The questions go on and on. Why?

Realtors always have a dilemma: are we providing to much information or not enough? It’s important for the client to be educated, not overwhelmed. They should be comfortable in making decisions, know they’re in control of the process and understand what’s happening and why, know what’s normal for a purchase or sale, and know what the options are in each situation.

We’ve got the criteria. The next challenge begins. Now we have to put it into a tangible property in the right price range, location and condition. That house isn’t always available. We’ve gotten to know the client and now it becomes a concern of them becoming disappointed. We want them to not only be happy with our services but be happy with the process. If they see too many houses they don’t like, it becomes discouraging and frustrating.

We find the one. We review the disclosures and there’s something unappealing about them. Nope, it’s not the one. The process starts all over. By now I know them even better. We’re a team. We’re working toward a common goal. The stakes are really high. If I make a blooper now, it could ruin all the trust I’ve worked so hard to build. And the client is out all of the time and commitment they’ve invested believing that I could do the job for them.

Right from the beginning, I’m fighting an uphill battle. I have to prove that I’m not the same as Aunt Patty’s realtor in Florida who cheated her out of her life savings.

So back to shopping we go. We find the right home. It’s the one they’ve always wanted. The inspections and disclosures are great. Friends and family come by to give their approval. Now I’ll really be a jerk if I screw it up.

We get the appraisal. No problem. Loan documents arrive at the title company. We sit at the table together while they sign them. A few days later, they’re proud, happy home owners holding the keys to their dream. Their new life is off and running.

What about me? I don’t get to see or talk to them several times a week. I lose track of their every day life. Yes, I call to catch up, but it’s not the same. So I’ve gotten quite sneaky. I make them my friends. That way I can call whenever I want, drag them to dinner or a movie, go to the dog park, birthday parties, baseball games. I have to say, it’s worked out quite well.

Are You a Renegade Realtor®? Just Wondering …

Mariana Wagner
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For those of you who know me even a little bit, you have often heard me say, “I can’t STAND real estate agents” as I roll my eyes in utter disgust. Ugh… My life would be so much easier if it weren’t for so many of those “people” that have those “real estate licenses”. Yes. I can be quite the little ranter. Someone once called me down off of my soapbox long enough to tell me that I should call become a Renegade Realtor®. Pretty sure they were joking, but it DOES have a nice ring to it …

A couple days ago I read REALTOR MOST DESPISED – AN OPEN LETTER (an absolute MUST READ) where RE comrade (and fellow Genius) Realtor® Benn Rosales looks at the current real estate agent “situation” through the eyes of the public and makes some dead-on observations about the perception of Realtor®.

That post got me thinking, and those who know me, know that me=thinking is not always productive and often gets me into trouble. Well, this time it brought back some memories, as well as an itch that still needs to be scratched.

If you have read my “real estate rants” for any amount of time, then you probably read: Perception = Reality: Real Estate Agents Suck – in which I go off on the awful, yet well-deserved reputation that has followed real estate agents throughout the decades. (Funny thing, if you type “Real Estate Agents Suck” in to Google, a version of this post pops up as #1. I outrank an agent-hating FSBO. Gotta love that Google-Juice, there!?!)

Of course, I AM a real estate agent, a Realtor® in fact. Many of my BFF’s are in “the business”, too. (For those of you without the “luxury” of raising a teenager (lucky you) and having to learn the “code”… BFF= Best Friends Forever.) And, I completely stand behind what I wrote. But I also stand behind the small-but-growing population of RE agents that seem to “get it”. Maybe a “new wave” of agents will become the motivating force in the paradigm shift that NEEDS to take place in the world of real estate and rebuild a better reputation… a better business.

Now, I have found (over the past year) that many of the others who share my view are mostly here, in the Blogosphere – other real estate agents whose skins crawl at the current image propagated by a large chunk of “our” industry. (Is there a correlation between “those who blog” and “those who promote stereotype busting“? Hmmm … Maybe.)

Anyway, so now what?

What needs to happen now? We all know that things need to change. (I can say “we” because I know that there are not any of those “other” agents reading this.) What forces need to rise above the Blogosphere … enter into the real-world of real estate and hijack the current reputation and turn it into something that we can all be proud of? What are YOU actively doing to change OUR reputation?

Are YOU a Renegade Realtor®? … just wondering.

Scripps Ranch Under Evacuation Orders

Lani Rosales, Managing Editor & Lead Business Writer
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California-fire[3]We just got word on Fox News that Scripps Ranch, home of our close friends and fellow Realtors, Kris & Steve Berg has recently fallen victim to the massive fires in California- homeowners have been evacuated and while coverage was fuzzy on if any structures have been burned, they were clear that Scripps Ranch is part of the flames. Our prayers are with you guys in this tough time and with all of the Californians in peril and worry right now.

California- our thoughts and prayers are with you- we do not take for granted that we will sleep peacefully tonight and pray that you too return to normalcy soon.

-Benn, Lani & all of the Agent Genius Contributors

UPDATE: Kris & friends are in their back yard drinking wine and getting rained on with ash but swear it’s a precautionary evacuation and the real fire line is soooo far away. Regardless, Kris is stubborn and will remain in our prayers!

Put Your Hands Together For Athol & Mariana

Lani Rosales, Managing Editor & Lead Business Writer
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No, Benn didn’t offer money, Italian food or fancy cars to get new authors on board, but Mariana Wagner and Athol Kay have both jumped on board despite not being bribed! We are so excited to add these two to the contributor sidebar- you are all in for a treat.

avatar-athol-kay.jpgAthol Kay blogs from Bristol, CT and is best known for his series “Bad MLS Photo Of The Day”where he single-handedly raises the bar for MLS photos. He is also known for his “Feed Bag”that summarizes his favorite blog articles of the day (or week or hour as time permits). Athol is never scared of confrontation, has an amazing sense of humor and first caught our attention with his article “Redfin Consumer Bill of Rights Is McWeaksauce” way back in April.

Athol is like that extra kick of Bailey’s that people sneak into their coffee- makes you feel all warm and giggly but has a serious espresso side to it making it the perfect way to start the day!

avatar-mariana-wagner.jpgMariana Wagner is the Colorado Springs expert who knows the value of keeping her blog focused on local issues. We are very excited to hear Mariana’s take on national issues, especially regarding blogging and technology. Mariana is part of the Wagner i Team (we love this concept) and is a local RE tech/internet trainer and blog coach. Despite her love affair with the Internet, she somehow still has time for snowboarding!

Mariana is like that surprise you get when you see the boring white icing vanilla cake cut for the first time revealing that it’s actually chocolate underneath that icing (hooray- your favorite)!

Thanks for joining us Mariana & Athol- we look forward to seeing you two stir up the pot!

Daniel Rothamel Sweeps the 64th Carnival of Real Estate

Ben Rosales, Founder & Publisher
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core-ramses.jpgIn honor of Ramses being “Number Whan,” we award this week’s top spot to DANIEL ROTHAMEL with his article, “How Your Business Can Benefit From Social Media Right Now.” Daniel not only dissects social media applications’ functions, he relates the dos and donts of each application. I won’t admit to which of his tips, but there was one that gave me an “aha!” moment- I’m sure you too will experience this upon reading. Every so often an article comes along with a solution, but rarely do they call us to action that we can take immediately!

Get on over there to read the most hillarious carnival ever!

The Baglady- San Mateo consumer calls it how she sees it

Ben Rosales, Founder & Publisher
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We had the pleasure of having the San Mateo California Baglady by today to comment on a post by Vicki Moore which led me back to her page out of curiosity. I found myself reading & reading what she had to say, and I thought it was valid enough to bring it into the spotlight for all to read.

So two weeks agoI started to look at San Mateo real estate in decline on Redfin. Today I did another scan of the San Mateo properties that have been listed on Redfin for less than 14 days. I found another 46 properties that have listing prices lower than their last selling prices. There were about 300 to 400 properties in San Mateo County that were listed on Redfin in the last 14 days, so that means 46 properties is a little more than 10% of all the new properties coming up for sale. After I looked through the properties it seems that at least a couple are old listings with new lower prices. Here are some highlights of these listings.

This is a four part series shes banged out- complete with factual breakouts of real estate in San Mateo California. I would also suggest the comments to you, as some of them are very interesting.

Let us know what you think…

Geeky Web Design Part II – Who Are These People and What Do They Want?

Kelley Koehler
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This week in our website redesign saga, we try to answer the question: Who are these people and what do they want from me anyway? (You can catch up on Part I here)

I came across a theory that says people will do business with me if I can be the resource that finally answers the questions that visitors can’t get answered anywhere else.

Running with that for a bit, I decided to categorize web visitor types, and investigate what each category would want answered that they couldn’t easily find elsewhere, building off of four major personality types.

Site visitor categories would be things like Relocation Buyers, First Time Buyer, Those Just Looking, Move-up Seller, Investor, and so on. We’ll stick with 4 personality types, calling them Methodical, Spontaneous, Humanistic, and Competitive.

Let’s look at a Relocation Buyer – someone who has probably bought a home before, is moving to the area but is not very familiar with it. In my experience, this person is usually already convinced that they need an agent, and usually comes to me already pre-qualified for a loan.

category analysis for relo buyer

We follow this with a big brainstorm list of things that category of site visitor might like to see, just to get all our ideas out in one place. For our Relo buyer, it’s things like examples of typical costs and who pays them, explanation of local real estate taxes and auto registration, how to finance a home here if the existing house hasn’t sold, local attractions, more specific items like that. These are items that span many personality types and categories.

This was a more difficult exercise than I had anticipated. For example, I don’t get those Spontaneous types, those fast, emotional decision makers. I’m a Methodical. I understand the Competitives, and somewhat less so the Humanistics, but for the life of me, I can’t wrap my mind around what the Spontaneous-es want. Which means I probably won’t easily attract or work well with them anyway. It’s okay. I don’t want a site that sets expectations that I will be one way and then I’m totally different in person. However, I’m not going to neglect that personality type as we’re all most likely at least a little bit of each.

So now we know the various types of information and features that I need, and how to present it in different ways to attract a larger audience. Now, I can start framing paths for these various scenarios. I know that on a market stats page, I don’t need a big link to testimonials. I know that anytime I offer or describe a service, I need to quickly and clearly describe the advantages and link back to a guarantee.

This would be the framing of the site – figuring out how someone might enter the site, what information they want and how it should be presented, and eventually presenting them with a call to action that is a tangible reason to return to the site, to build a trust relationship with me, and want to work with me.

Man. It’d be a lot easier to come up with some fantastic feature list and pass it off to a developer! I am convinced this is time well spent, however.

What about your website? Who is your clientele and what do they want? How do you answer the WIIFM for them?

I’m running with the idea that answering questions that can’t be answered elsewhere will make people want to work with me: an implied quid pro quo. Does this make me a useless bag of information? Am I really adding value, answering a need, becoming useful? Or was Mom right about not buying the cow if the milk is free?

Who Says I Don’t Deserve 6%?

vickimoore
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This Just In …

Jonathan Dalton
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Can I have your attention? I have just been handed an urgent and horrifying news announcement. So I need you to stop what you’re doing and listen to me …

I’m not Macho Nacho blogger. I’m also not worth the gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe. And don’t even get me started on my lack of participation in the Blog Fiesta.

I’m just a girl telling a boy that she loves him.

Dammit. Tobey threw that one in. I swear.

That’s fine. I’m a self-contained unit. (One whose alma mater currently ranks higher than BOTH OU and UT in the BCS standings.)

So there.

Where the bold saguaros

Raise their arms on high

Praying strength for brave tomorrows

From the western sky.

Where eternal mountains

Kneel at sunset’s gate

Here we hail thee, alma mater

Arizona State!

No cowbell necessary. If you’ll excuse me, we’re goin’ streakin’ down to the quad.

The Real Estate Vacuum: It Sucks For Noobs

Carson Coots
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real-estate-noob.jpgThis is my first post here at Genius, and since I probably have a much larger audience here than over at Real Estate Remix, I would like to address something that bothers me about the real estate blog world. The most popular blogs in the real estate realm seem to be saturated by posts that assume that their readers are extremely tech savvy and hip to the online world. With all of the sarcasm, name dropping, and “inside” jokes, you would think that this stuff is all common knowledge. I mean, I spend at least 2 hours or more per day just clicking around on Google reader and reading my favorite real estate blogs, and with all of this blog-world insider articles out there, sometimes even I feel like I’m out of the loop. And I know for a fact that I’m saturated in it. Who else has dreams that they get to go to Connect NYC?

Can you imagine what a first time reader would think about all this? I can tell you what my co-workers think… NERDS! What are we trying to accomplish in our writing? We are starting to write to our savvycolleagues first, customers second. True, most readers of blogs come from inside this tech-savvy tight circle… but are we really trying to reach them? If you need links from them, maybe. If you are trying to make blog friends, surely. But if you are trying to present useful, long lasting information… don’t write to yourcolleagues.

A blog positions you as an expert in your industry. Use that platform to educate, not just critique. When you start to assume that your readers know about everything you do, you will never take a step down and realize that there are millions of real estate professionals who don’t know the first thing about blogging or wordpress, much less the stories behind VFlyer, Redfin, Trulia, Google Base, Zillow, FOREM, Tomato, RSS Pieces, Carnival of RE, Inman Connect BlogFiesta, The Sellsius Bus, or even Active Rain. Of course, they all know about AgentGenius :). At this point, I see around 2,000 registered profiles in Texas on ActiveRain. Only a fraction of a percent of those people actually use it regularly. That means an enormous amount of real estate professionals in this great state have not even created a profile.

I know you may think that posting an introduction to ActiveRain article will make you look really, really behind to your fellow bloggers. They may stick their nose up at your post. You may think “that is so last year”. But the truth is, those old posts are buried in the blogging rubble, and when a bonafide “noob” hits the average real estate related blog for the first time, the first thing they will say is “WTF”. Of course, there are certain blogs (like this one) that clearly have audiences that prefer a more relaxed yet in-depth look at the industry. Like my Grandma says, there’s a place for everything and everything has a place.

The thing that floors me is when I discuss real estate marketing, SEO, or social networking with freinds or coworkers. Their unfamiliarity with online world baffles me. The basics seem like common knowledge by now. But they are not even close. They have real lives. Veteran real estate bloggers and tech experts should be happy though, the chasm between those “in the know” about online real estate and the novices is widening exponentially by the month. Just like any other skill, it takes a lot of time to catch up. And the vets are way ahead of the game.

Who’s reaching out to the noobs? But then again, who really cares?

The Genius of Lighthouse Listing

John Harper
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harper teamI’ve got the flu. Haven’t felt this bad since my first potential client decided to use a discount brokerage. I just finished a four hour catch-up-on-sleep nap after a really crappy night. As if I didn’t have enough crap to deal with, I just got this email:

Please consider writing a review about our website, https://www.lighthouselistings.com, on your blog. In return we would feature your blog feed on our new Real Estate Blogs page at the link below. Our website attracts almost 2000 unique visitors each month and growing rapidly.

Now, I’m no genius, but when someone sends me this kind of crap I wonder about their level of intelligence. Here’s another paragraph from the email:

lighthouse_listingsLighthouseListings.com is a real estate listing website that currently services the Northern California area. Its website allows property owners to advertise thier house for sale or rent and reach the millions of users who are on the internet daily. LighthouseListings.com also allows home seekers to quickly search through its database to find the exact home that is right for them. It was founded in 2005 and has been in operation since February of 2006. LighthouseListings.com has grown rapidly since then and is continuing to increase its presence over the internet and reach into more areas of real estate.

Since I have nothing better to do with my time and, as I said, I’m no genius, I decided to take a look at Lighthouse Listings. Why anyone would post their listings on this site is beyond me – especially if you had to pay for it. Just for grins, I clicked on the first listing in Walnut Creek.

Here’s a news flash: There’s an open house on June 19th at 329 Kincross Drive.

Looking at the number of listings on the site, maybe 60 or so, you can see that Lighthouse Listings is having a hard time keeping up with their press releases.

Here are a couple of questions for the geniuses over at Lighthouse Listings:

  • Why would I want you to link to me?
  • Why in the world would I want to link to you?

I ask you, my fellow agents, am I nuts or just lacking genius?

P.S. Love the About Us page. There’s nothing like impersonal anonymous crap to make someone want to spend money for nothing – look out Zillow, the competition is nipping at your heels!

Baby You Can Drive My Car

vickimoore
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Does the car you drive really make a difference to your business? I guess it depends on who you ask.

When I first started, I drove a Mustang 5.0. It was hot! I still recognize the sound of them rumbling down the street.

Warren’s girlfriend, one of my first buyer clients, hated it. She had to sit in the back – he was too tall to smash himself back there – besides he was the client.

Later I traded the Mustang for a more practical 2000 Explorer – AKA the lumbering beast – which I still drive. When drivers ride up on me while I’m maneuvering a tight turn, I shout out to them: This is a truck! It doesn’t grab the turns, it rolls to the outside of them.

During my best year ever, I leased a convertible BMW 325. Another hot car. It really only fit two people but it’s a beautiful machine. A few months ago, I had a listing in a hoity-toity neighborhood. Because the Explorer is more practical, I drive it more frequently. I had met the buyer’s agent several times while driving it. For some reason, she was really rude and condescending to me. It really bugged me. She wore velvet pants and drove a Land Rover. I decided to test her. I pulled up to the property inspection in the Beemer, top down and all. Not so amazingly, she changed her tune.

Well, the beast is running out of time. I’ve been looking around. 07_ext_durango_thumb_06.jpg

The Charger is really cool, but I need an SUV. I haven’t driven the Durango but that’s a nice looking vehicle too. I think about the hybrids. I have clients who drive them. But I love the sound of flow masters. Can you get those on a hybrid?

I Surrender

Jonathan Dalton
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There’s been speculation over the past few days about what may come out of the NAR Convention next month in terms of “blogging compliance.” I always though compliance was the purview of the state legislatures and Congress but by bringing pressure to bear on the brokerages, perhaps NAR can change the face of real estate blogging.

I could fight the wave but why try? It’s a fight we can’t possibly win. If NAR or my broker want me to shut down my blog, I guess I’ll have no choice but to do so.

So to all my readers ….

[MUSIC BLARING]

“Wait a minute! That’s … That’s Degeneration X’s music! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I DON’T BELIEVE IT! HERE COMES DEGENERATION X!”

(Yup, that was easier to find than the Police Academy info the other night.)

Intellectuals vs Genius

John Harper
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geniusIntellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them. – Einstein

I was starting my daily grind through all of the blogs I follow and the first post I read tied me up for an hour.

intellectualsReading about the Jaco Bay spammers led to three comments by me on other blogs, a post on our site, a post on my Active Rain blog, and an article on Digg.

In the process of doing all of that, I Photoshopped three graphics, wrote a post on my Open-Secrets blog, answered email and set an appointment to show a house.

I freely admit that I am no genius, but those guys at Jaco Bay are going to need a train load of intellectuals to clean up their mess!

What Have We Done?

vickimoore
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realtorlogoHas the poor reputation of the real estate industry created the consumers’ insatiable need for knowledge and information about buying and selling homes?

I know it’s the information age, but we’re standing around naked. We’ve given the public access to everything we’ve got. Realtors used to be the keepers of the information. Now we’ve given it all away. The data that I pay for, the memberships, the classes, the ongoing education, all of that information is available across the www. Consuming and understanding all of it is another thing; buyers and sellers – and of course, those thousands who got their licenses to become the next Trump – try to absorb that galaxy of data. But it’s all there for the taking. How many clients have you worked with that have confidently told you how to write an offer?

In my client interview I ask what experiences they’ve had, if any, with a real estate agent. Has a friend told them of any experience they’ve had? This past weekend is one of the few times I’ve heard a consumer say, “I really like the agent that sold my house. We became good friends and talk every week or so.” Most often, their eyes light up with delight to tell me their uncle’s cousin’s brother bought a lemon and is still in litigation.

My lawyer client and I had a discussion today about who’s lower on the food chain: Realtors or attorneys.

We decided it’s used car salesmen.

By allowing under-qualified, unprofessional agents into the community we’ve allowed them to make us appear to be bottom suckers. There are no real requirements to take the exam. When I took it, the exam hadn’t been updated in years. There was a formula: If the question is X, the answer is C. If the question has Mary Jones in it, the answer is B.

Once the exam is passed, there’s no on-the-job training or apprenticeship. When I was green, I went to my broker, scared to death. “What do I do? How do I do it?” He said, “Go find a client. We’ll tell you what to do.” “WHAT? You’ve got to be kidding me.” At least I had the brains to know that I didn’t know squat and I needed to find out before I took someone’s savings and advised them to buy 3-Mile Island.

The NAR is so proud to tout that there’s 1 billion sold. Quantity doesn’t equate to quality. How about half that number of educated, qualified, professional, knowledgeable, caring, trustworthy, honest individuals.

Every time I see a Realtor advertising as caring, trustworthy, and honest, I have to laugh. If your client can’t figure that out on their own, your telling them isn’t going to make them believe it. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the next marketing blow-out from NAR – especially after “Real estate is our life.” I can see it now: One billion Realtors. We care. We’re trustworthy and honest too!

If blogging is the sizzle, C.R.M. is the steak!

Shailesh Ghimire
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Almost every company knows that it is more expensive to acquire a new customer than to service an existing one. I say almost, because there are plenty of companies out there who don’t seem to understand this principle at all. Well, either that or they simply don’t care.

Empty memoryIn real estate you need to not only have repeat customers, but you need to generate referral business from past clients. Many seem to find this a tall order and so focus only on obtaining new ones. Maybe that is why there is a sudden explosion in real estate blogging. However, in today’s world staying in front of your past clients and referral partners is not that hard. From a purely effort perspective I think it’s a lot easier than blogging!

Real estate is a people business. People have short term memory. They are constantly bombarded with new and irrelevant information. You could be Superman and they will forget you after you whisked them away as they were falling from a burning skyscraper. That is why it is so important to consistently stay in front of people. In fact your relationship with your clients can be the foundation to your future success. How you manage these relationship is more likely to determine your future sales volume than any amount of blogging.

From personal experience I have found that long term customer loyalty is not simply earned by the level of service you provide your customers. You can walk your buyer (borrower) through one of the most amazing closings they have ever been through, but if you don’t have a means for them to reach you, then it means nothing in terms of future business. Nada, no-thing. You will not get any referrals from them. Maybe you’ll receive one referral that first month but after that you’re history. That is where an effective CRM system comes in.

Car SalesJust think of the last great car salesman you ever worked with. You may have felt you received the best darn service, price, everything that fine sunny day when peace prevailed and all was well with the world. But do you have his number today? Can you pick up the phone right now and get a hold of him? The most likely answer is “no”. If that is how you’re running your business, then you’re spinning your wheels and leaving thousands of dollars on the table

A complete customer relationship management (CRM) system does not need to be expensive and complicated. It just needs to be consistent, accurate and organized. Here are the main features of a good CRM for the real estate business:

1. Prospect campaign: Here you enter the basic contact information for any prospect you receive. Do not forget to obtain a valid e-mail address. Then depending on the budget you’re working with you can then run a postcard, e-mail or newsletter campaign. I suggest 8-10 touches a year. I do a rapid fire 8 week e-campaign to win their business right away. If things do not materialize right away then I settle for a slow drip by sending a quarterly hard copy newsletter and 4 e-mail newsletters a year.

2. Transaction management: This is where you shine. You set up an alert in your CRM to notify the borrower/buyer of major milestones during the transaction. Call them a day before the inspection period is over, call them when the appraisal comes in. Send them a post card with a last minute checklist four days before the closing. I suggest a standard program for all clients, so that when they refer someone they know the kind of service their referral will receive.

3. Past client campaign: The whole darn enchilada lives here. A thank you card and gift several days after the close is a must. However, beyond that I suggest 8-10 touches a year. I have set up my CRM to send four seasonal post cards, four holiday postcards and four quarterly newsletters. I also send an e-newsletter from time to time. That’s a lot of touches, but I think in today’s climate it is necessary.

4. Business referral management: Referral partners include those professionals who send you referral business. It could be the HR mangers you work with, RE attorneys, Estate Planners, CPA’s etc. In know as a mortgage professional this component of relationship management is very important to me. With so many lenders going out of business I need to let all my business referral partners know that I’m still here. I suggest you stay in touch with your referral partners at least once a month.

Last weekend, we received a call from a past prospect. In late 2004, while working on a loan prequalification, they had decided to move out of state. We kept in touch with them over the years. They ended up moving back to Arizona this summer. As soon as they were in a position to buy, they called us. It’s as if we picked up right where we had left off. That is the power of an effective CRM system and to this day blogging hasn’t done the same thing for my business – just yet!

Carnival of Real Estate- Come One, Come All

Ben Rosales, Founder & Publisher
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16

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How Long is Your Memory?

Jonathan Dalton
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7

Having a decent memory helps greatly in the real estate game. From a sales standpoint, it helps greatly to remember names and faces. From a customer service standpoint, it helps to be able to remember differences between the 37 homes you visited over the past three weeks as your buyer lurches closer to an eventual decision.

But sometimes a short memory is necessary. Like closers in baseball and defensive backs in football, a short memory is the key to long-term success. Spend too much time dwelling on the failures and your mindset never will get right for the successes ahead.

I’ve not been blessed with such a short memory, unfortunately.

About two months ago I received a call from my Westbrook Village website from a couple asking me to help find them a casita in the Village. We spoke on the phone twice more that week and met one Sunday afternoon to look at homes. No decision was reached as they needed to put her condo on the market before they could buy.

Two days later, I was asked to keep them updated on any changes in Westbrook and more specifically with two of the casitas we’d visited. We scheduled another showing tour for the coming Saturday.

Friday night I get a call canceling the appointment. They didn’t want to look at any more until they had her condo sold. Four days later, I was informed that I’d been fired in favor of someone “with more experience” in the area. Checking through sold listings today, I saw they wrote a contract the weekend after I was fired.

Who wrote the contract? Not someone who has “more expertise” but rather their listing agent, who likely offered some sort of rebate for using her on both sides of the deal.

Now, I don’t begrudge using the same agent for the purchase as for your sale especially if there’s a rebate involved. I routinely offer something similar to my clients. But I do have a significant issue with being lied to.

Real estate agents are accused of being little more than used car salesmen who’ll say anything to secure a deal, but it’s rarely if ever pointed out how often the public will lie to an agent (theirs or otherwise) rather than being up front any given situation.

In what may be a supreme act of chutzpah, I’ve asked for referrals from this couple – since they didn’t use anyone else who works in this area, my expertise likely was not the issue. So what have I got to lose? In truth, it seemed like a far better solution that calling them both miserable liars, deserved or not.

In any event, other buyers and sellers are waiting so the time’s come to try and put this memory behind me and move on to the next pitch. Whether that works is another story.

Getting Geeky with Website Design – the Saga, part 1

Kelley Koehler
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5

It’s that time again.

Every couple of years, Housechick.com gets a revamp, or in this case, a complete redesign, in order to keep it on the cutting edge. If you look at it now, it’s, well, blah. A little better than the “look at me” first version, but overall, not impressive.

I was discussing it with Benn the other day and he suggested that I blog about it here, which I took to mean “create an epic blog series of your journey from idea to website.”

I’ll warn you now that I tend to go a little overboard with my projects. It’s the engineer in me, I can’t help it. I’m not going to post the Gantt chart, but rest assured that it’s been created and we’ve got timelines and deliverables and requirements and all the good things that keep me organized.

We’ll be outsourcing some portions of the design, and Hubby will be developing most of the back end, so that we can reuse the components for other ideas. Which means conversations at home go like this:

“Kelley, what are you doing?”

“Making a Halloween pumpkin using only Paint.”

“Um, that’s not on the project plan.”

Here’s the overall process:

  1. Discovery. This is where we will define the objectives for the website, develop a strategy, and uncover who the client is and what they want. This is developing the who of the website.
  2. Framing. This is where we will define the flow of the site. We’ll define potential entry and exit points, decision points, and the paths a visitor might take through the site: where those paths lead, and if those paths will achieve our objectives. This is the what of the site.
  3. Prototyping. This is how we will achieve the what of the site. Included here is a graphic design, development of page copy, overall style, structure, and navigation. Here’s where we look closely at usability, ease of navigation, the look and feel of the site.
  4. Coding and Content. This is where Hubby comes in with his development of the back end – the integration of the interface with the data – and I get to create the actual content of the site – presentations, reports, and whatnot.
  5. Testing. Once the site is live, there’ll be some initial testing and tweaking, to make sure our landing pages are optimized and converting the way we want them to. This is really an ongoing process, where we evaluate elements of the design or content or navigation to make sure everything is working as best and as smoothly as possible.

I’m sure it sounds like overkill (if you’ve even read this far), but I think the overall scheme is applicable even if you’re not as huge a geek as me. There’s no use getting excited over technologies and cool features if they don’t answer a need or provide value for your site visitors. Once we know how to be useful, how to provide value, how to keep someone coming back to the site, then we can make decisions: WordPress or Drupal? Blue or Green? Ajax or Flash? Top navigation or side?

Next time – Discovery begins. The Client, Strategy, and Objectives.

How Your Business Can Benefit From Social Media RIGHT NOW

Daniel Rothamel
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26

real-estate-social-media.jpgDid you ever go to a school dance? Was it awkward for you? Were you paralyzed by the fear of having to dance with a classmate, the fear of being rejected, the fear of embarrassment?

The current Internet environment can be a lot like that sometimes.

Let’s face it, if you are a real estate agent who is surveying the current Internet landscape and trying to figure out what your next step is going to be, it is very easy to get confused and to suffer paralysis.

The Internet provides so many marketing opportunities that the choices can sometimes seem overwhelming. Sure, you may have your own personal website, complete with all the bells and whistles (content management, SEO optimization, user registration, customized property search, lead generation, etc.) but you want more. You want to be on the bleeding edge of technology, innovating and moving your business forward. In short, you want to dance, but choosing the right partner can be difficult.

Now what?

You may have heard of social media (or user-generated content). Even if you haven’t, you are sure to have heard of its examples: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, blogs, and wikis, just to name a few. The expansion of social media is the latest and greatest phase of the Internet. Because of this, it should at least be on the radar screens of real estate agents who are interested in more completely leveraging the power of the Internet to grow their business.

Since the social media options can sometimes be so overwhelming that brain freeze can quickly occur, I thought that it might be helpful to offer what I think is a basic primer on using some of these sites to benefit your business. This is a basic primer, designed just to expose you to sites that can be of some benefit, and also sharing strategies for realizing that benefit. This is not meant to be an exhaustive review by any means, but is should be enough to put you on the road to building meaningful relationships with clients, customers, prospects and other professionals.

If the Internet is like a dance, then your song is about to come on. . .

The Philosophy Behind Social Media

The first thing that you need to understand about the social media movement is that it is built around relationships. Social media sites exist to foster conversation between people. The people who use these sites want to engage with others, not just experience one-way communication.

The majority of traditional real estate marketing is one-way (i.e. look at my listings, read about my service, visit my website). Social media sites are different. The expectation of people who use these sites is that they will have a part in the conversation. The good thing about this, for agents, is that it enables agents to cultivate relationships with people. Rather than marketing to prospects, you can converse with them and build trust in a more natural and meaningful way. Traditional Internet marketing takes your hand and says, “dance with me!” Social media sites offer a hand and ask, “shall we dance?”

4 Resources You Can Use RIGHT NOW to Build Meaningful Relationships

1) Blogging— You are reading a blog right now, but you probably knew that. The reason that blogs can be beneficial to agents is that you can use the blog as your own personal slice of the Internet to show people what you are really about. A blog gives you a way to share your insights and expertise with people as often as you would like. At the most basic level, a blog gives people a way to meet you before they ever meet you face-to-face.

How to use your blog: Use it as a way to converse with and inform your readers. Your goal should be to share with them your insights, opinions and experience is such a way that benefits them. After writing a few posts, and receiving a few comments, you will find that you will be learning just as much as you are sharing.

How NOT to use your blog: To advertise listings. There are plenty of other ways to do that. If you really want to use a blog for advertising your inventory, create a separate blog for such a purpose. I did just that.

2) Facebook: Facebook was a sight that was originally created as a way for college students to communicate with each other more easily. Originally the exclusive domain of colleges, the site has since been opened to anyone with an email address. That means you. Facebook is a social-networking site that allows you to share as much or as little information as you want with others, but especially your “friends.” Aside from being a cool place to find friends, former classmates and colleagues, Facebook can also be a valuable business tool.

How to use Facebook: Use it to establish yourself as an expert in your community and build relationships with people you already know and also with potential clients. If you are looking for great ways to use Facebook for business, you can find some here, and some real estate-specific possibilities here and here.

How NOT to use Facebook: Remember that if you are going to use one Facebook profile for both business and personal use, anything that you put in your profile should be appropriate. You may have had a great time at that party the other night, but do you want your real estate clients and prospects viewing that photo of you with a lampshade on your head?

3) LinkedIn: LinkedIn is like the big-business brother to Facebook. While Facebook is a personal social networking site that people use for business, the explicit purpose of LinkedIn is to foster business networking. It isn’t quite as social as I would like it to be, but their Q&A section can be a great resource for learning. The basic purpose of LinkedIn is to start a profile and link yourself to other professionals, thereby increasing your overall network by degrees. I have linked myself not only to other real estate professionals, but also to any of my clients who have profiles. The networking potential is enormous.

How to use LinkedIn: Build as detailed and creative a profile as you can. This will be people’s first impression of you. Answer as many questions as you can on the message boards as a way of making additional contact by sharing your experience and expertise. Who knows, you may even be able to leverage your network to create new business opportunities.

How NOT to use LinkedIn: Don’t spam people, and don’t use it to advertise your listings (again). Like all the others, LinkedIn is a networking site, not an advertising outlet. Engage people and become part of the conversation.

4) Twitter: Twitter is a site that I recently started using. It is essentially a micro-blogging platform. While many people use it just to publish status updates (telling people what they are doing at any given moment), the site has possibilities far beyond that. The most valuable feature of the site is the ability to follow the tweets of others. Find some interesting people, and you will have insight into what is catching their attention. A lot of news breaks on Twitter, since it can be disseminated instantaneously. Also, by using “@” replies, you can actually converse with people, like the chat rooms of yore. Right now, there isn’t a tremendous real estate industry presence on Twitter, but I hope that will change.

How to use Twitter: Read this first. I am sure, however, that there are plenty of other innovative uses for the site as it pertains specifically to real estate. Most of them are going to require building a cadre of followers for your tweets, so you are going to need something interesting and compelling to follow, first.

How NOT to use Twitter: While the original purpose for Twitter was to answer the question, “what are you doing?” Don’t get carried away. No one wants to know when you are going to grab a cold one from the fridge. If you are doing something that you think people may find interesting, than tweet away. Oh yeah, “I just listed ‘such and such house’ today,” does not qualify as interesting. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so choose wisely.

Get Out on the Dance Floor

Those are just 4 social media resources that I think are valuable. There are plenty of others. I included these because I have personal experience with them. Doing just a little bit of research will yield plenty of other possibilities. My advice is to pick a few and use them faithfully for a while. Only use as many as you can effectively manage. That is why I use the 4 listed above. Any more than that would get a bit unwieldy for me. I like them, and I have experienced some degree of success with all of them.

The main thing to remember is that social media is about building relationships. In order to do that, you need to do something. Maybe you just start a blog and see how it goes. Maybe you build a Facebook profile and find some groups that are interesting to you. Whatever it is, believe me when I tell you that your colleagues, friends, clients and prospects are out there socializing right now.

Remember those school dances? If you have been standing on the wall, waiting for the music to change, the time for waiting is over. Now is the time to dance!

Is it Time to Throw more Money Away?

John Harper
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4

money lincolnYou don’t have to be a genius to understand the simplicity of logic presented by Russell Shaw’s post about Realtor.com

Before I get going, let me just say that the graphic accompanying his post is not only functional, it sums up the situation quite beautifully.

I was a fan of Realtor.com about eight years ago. Since then, things have changed for the better everywhere but on Realtor.com. Realtor.com is a fine example of the mindset behind many Internet real estate websites. It goes something like this:

Lets get the real estate agents of the world to supplies us with their listings for free and then we will charge them to generate leads from their listings for them!

Now, there’s a business plan made in heaven.

I’m not the biggest fan of the NAR or Realtor.com and though I am no genius, I do consider myself open-minded. I’ve even changed my mind, position, or perspective more than once in my life.

I’d love to hear what others think on Realtor.com and the NAR. Does it work for you? Give me the numbers, please.

When it comes to FHA, having no credit is better than bad credit

Shailesh Ghimire
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5

Bad credit, no credit, no problem. Well, not exactly.

When it comes to the FHA loan program having no credit is often times much better than having bad credit. Even though FHA is not a credit score driven loan program, if your score is below the 580 mark, well, lets just say things get really tough. In fact you may be turned down. The logic being that if you’re being scored, the program wants to see some semblance of a decent credit history.

However, if you don’t have a credit score, then FHA can be very advantages to you. The problem is most borrowers don’t know this. During the go-go days of the subprime phenom no one needed this kind of advantage. If you could fog a mirror you could get a loan, at least for the most part. In fact, very few loan officers are even aware of this facet of the FHA program. Ignorance aside, there is absolutely no reason for you to panic if you have no credit.

FHA allows for what is known as non-traditional credit. What this means is that if you can demonstrate four credit accounts in good standing then you are good as gold. These credit accounts could be your cell phone account, utility account, rent payments etc. You must be the account holder on all these accounts and demonstrate you have not been late on these bills within the past twelve months.

To demonstrate good standing the lender will also ask for a letter from these creditors stating the current status on these accounts. Make sure your loan officer checks with underwriting on the exact wording of the letters.

So to rephrase: bad credit – problem, no credit – no problem. It may not have a ring to it but it could mean the difference between owning and renting.

Thoughts on Choosing a Broker

Jonathan Dalton
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0

I used to play in a regular Thursday night poker game where the running joke every time someone wasn’t paying attention and forgot to toss their blinds into the pot was “what would you do if you were the big blind?”

Today reminds me of that as I find myself asking “what would I do if I were the man of the house?” Clearly the answer would be “watching football.” But since I’m not the man of my house and apparently run second to the beagle, I’m in the office working on blogs while my wife, daughter and beagle watch CSI re-runs.

(My lack of control also is evident in their decision to turn on our air conditioning even though it’s four degrees cooler outside than the air conditioner’s set temperature.)

Control, or the lack thereof, manifests itself in many places. Real estate agents each are building their own business but doing so under the auspices of a brokerage, so while you are branding yourself you also are branding the company for which you work.

When choosing which brokerage to work for most agents look no further than the splits the brokers take from a commission. For many, 100 percent = good and anything less = bad. As an agent’s career progresses that may be true. But for someone starting out, knowing the odds are 19-1 against surviving the first year (only five percent or so of agents do), the split may be one of the less important considerations.

Training is important – not just formal education, but also what you are able to learn from your colleagues and your broker and/or branch manager. I honestly can say that I would not know half of what I did if not for the informal training sessions every other Friday night at Rock Bottom. (My manager just wanted beer … I wanted information.)

But for agents who venture into the tech arena – and if you’re reading this blog, you likely fall into that category – you also need to make sure your new broker isn’t threatened by the online brand you build online and the lack of control he or she has over the content.

Since blog posts technically are not advertising they don’t fall under the general guidelines for broker approval. But that’s not to say opinions dissenting from the broker’s view, or an online presence that dwarfs the brokerage itself, will not create issues down the line.

If your marketing plan is centered around door knocking, cold calls and monthly recipe cards (and Lord help you if it is), then your broker’s view on marketing shouldn’t hold much sway. But if you are planning on creating an online presence or, better yet, striving for online global domination, then it’s a question best asked sooner rather than later.

And if you already have that established presence and your broker starts giving you grief? Find another broker … brokers are like craps tables in Vegas. The payouts may differ from house to house, the quality of the buffets you get comped may vary, but if the table you’re at isn’t meeting your needs (i.e., you’re getting your ass handed to you) there are another hundred from which to choose.

Get up and find one.

[tags]real estate marketing[/tags]

The Age of Empowerment

Ben Rosales, Founder & Publisher
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4
  • In the 1950s – the outsiders
  • In the 1960s – the hippies
  • In the 1970s – the hangover
  • In the 1980s – the punks
  • In the 1990s – generation X
  • In the new millennium we have the age of empowerment

sp902_die_hippy_die.jpgAs a society, we’ve always had ‘the younger generation’ that bucked the status quo. In every decade we’ve heard how people will rise up and change the world. The difference between then and now is youth has a voice- the Internet.

The spin in favor of Google began today- it’s not big brother, it’s little brother peering in on you. With Google & the Internet, you can do and say almost anything with little fear of being silenced- there isn’t much the status quo can do about it. What I find most interesting is that I believe the status quo is actually listening to its younger generation, maybe for the first time ever. The simple fact is- the younger generation is dictating how major corporations operate, speak, walk, talk, look, and even profit in some cases.

When I joined Facebook two weeks ago, it told me what I already knew- folks in my hometown in the midwest have no Internet presence. My friends from school do not exist, and I’m onlya younger thirty-something. Their family businesses have no web address- it is as if my generation has vanished. For reasons I can only guess, my peers are still either on the fence, or afraid of the Internet and have yet to be brought into this so-called ‘age of empowerment.’ The proof is there for all to see, when I searched Facebook, I didn’t see my old high school sweetheart, I saw her children, when I searched for my best friend from high school, I saw his son, when I searched my family, I found my younger brothers- not my parents.

This new reality goes far beyond the walls of real estate, and it is profound. Anyone who says we’ve seen this before is dismissing the voice our younger generation has- they’re even stars in their own universe now crossing over into our universe, or are we crossing into theirs? The question really becomes, how far will we ‘the elder generation’ go in bending to the demands to the empowered generation? How far do we flex to the so-called ’empowering professionals’ like Zillow, Redfin, and others who believe that by simply waiting out the mainstream, providing the medium, this new generation will meet them in the middle. We as a society are being twisted and contorted into something different- something we’ve never seen before…

No company or person has written the book on the social generation, in fact, it’s being written before our very eyes. How we as professionals and regular people design the next generation is up to each of us individually. Any company that believes they have the fix on how to proceed in this new era is blinded by themselves and may well be the ones who ultimately fail in meeting this generation in the middle. It stands to reason that standing still and observing may very well be the best advice for those looking for the way forward- or you could find yourself diving head first into the history books with other failed cultures of the past.

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