Charles's Blog

When is a Good Time to Buy a Home?

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:16:17 -0500

No one wants to purchase a home only to see its value decline. But should you wait to buy a home until prices bottom out? A quick web search will yield a number of articles and opinions for and against timing the real estate market, but beware of those in favor of market timing who also want to sell you a how-to book or system.

Many people who have tried to time the market miss out on the chance to build equity by waiting to buy until prices rise again. The chart below shows the gradual increase – along with typical ups-and-downs – of home values over nearly 40 years. The arrows indicate market low points when home values dipped before continuing their historical rise.

The problem? Market cycles only become clear in retrospect. In the midst of a market slowdown, it’s very difficult to predict when housing prices hit their low points. In addition, this trend line represents home prices at the national level, which may be very different than housing prices in your neighborhood. Broad national indicators may lag the market by months – meaning the actual price floor would not show up in reports until weeks or months later.

The best way to protect against buying at the wrong time? Sell at the right time. In many cases you can’t control when to sell, but you should plan on keeping your home at least six or seven years. The longer you own your home, the better chance you have of building wealth and protecting yourself from the market’s ups and downs.

Getting nervous buyers off the fence is one of the toughest challenges facing real estate pros right now. People are rightfully concerned about buying a home that will drop in value in the coming months. But buying a home is a long-term investment, and there’s more to consider than the just the purchase price.

Depending on the rate and the amount financed, the price of financing can easily exceed the price of the home. In the example below, it’s easy to see how mortgage costs can exceed a home’s purchase price. What’s more, the total cost of buying a home rises more than $70,000 when interest rates rise a single percentage point.

Rates have risen in the first half of 2008, but in historical terms, mortgage financing is still a great bargain. From 1980 to today the 30-year fixed rate mortgage has ranged from more than 18 percent to less than 6 percent, says Jim Elfelt, a mortgage banker in Virginia Beach, Virginia. If you’re waiting for home prices to come down another $10,000, you may pay more in the long run if mortgage rates rise in the meantime.

For example, suppose you’re applying for a 30-year, fixed-rate $300,000 mortgage. Note how a small change in rate makes a major difference in monthly payments and overall cost:

Interest rate	Principal	Total Interest paid	Monthly Payment	Total Cost	Total Additional Cost
6%	300,000	347,515	1,799	647,515	0
6.25%	300,000	364,975	1,847	664,975	17,460
6.50%	300,000	382,633	1,896	682,633	35,118
6.75%	300,000	400,486	1,946	700,486	52,971
7%	300,000	418,527	1,996	718,527	71,012

When you’re looking for a bargain, don’t lose sight of the big picture. If you try to time the market to save a few thousand on the price of a home, you could end up with a higher monthly payment and total overall cost of home ownership.

Get eNeighborhoods’ Now's the Time to Buy Free Special Report today.

http://offer.eneighborhoods.com/time/

Uncle Sam wants you…to be a homeowner!

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:19:08 -0500

Wouldn’t it be great if the government kicked in some money to help make home ownership more affordable? Because of deductions on mortgage interest and property taxes, the practical effect is that the government is subsidizing your home purchase. In fact, home ownership provides two of the best ways to reduce your tax bill.

Mortgage interest you pay can be deducted from your gross income to reduce your taxable income. For example, say you take out a $300,000 mortgage loan at 6 percent interest. You pay $18,000 a year in interest on that loan. That means your taxable income for the year is reduced by $18,000. If you’re in the 25 percent tax bracket that means a one-year tax savings of $4,500 (25 percent of $18,000).

Property taxes may also be deducted from your gross income, lowering your overall annual tax obligation. Property taxes are levied on homeowners in the United States to pay for a variety of public services. You may see local property tax rates between 1 and 2 percent of the property's current assessed value, depending on where you live. Property taxes are fully deductible on your primary home, second home or vacant land.

Speaking of tax smarts, be sure to also consult your advisor about tax breaks that may be available on the proceeds from selling your current home, and on any “points” paid when taking out a mortgage loan.

In another move to help restore confidence and stabilize the housing market, in late July President Bush signed a far-ranging housing bill into law. The legislation provides funds to shore up finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who guarantee a large portion of the nation’s mortgage loans. The law also provides help for troubled borrowers struggling with mortgages and tax credits for first-time homeowners.

Get eNeighborhoods’ Now's the Time to Buy Free Special Report today.

http://offer.eneighborhoods.com/time/

Mastering the Market in Turbulent Times

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:26:57 -0500

In turbulent times, real estate professionals have a unique opportunity to step up and successfully guide buyers. You will be ahead of the game if you help clients separate the facts from the hype and clarify how national real conditions affect local markets. Buying a home can be stressful under the best of conditions. When you add in general anxiety and confusion about the housing market, you’re bound to have buyers waiting on the sidelines for a better day.

Go local. The Internet puts today’s consumers a click away from a world of real estate information. You can’t know all the news that’s available to your clients, but you can maintain the information advantage by becoming the expert on local markets. Focus on information your clients don’t have. Local market information gathered from your experience, your MLS, and your network of local contacts is unique and provides value to your clients that other sources can’t match.

Do the math. You don’t need to be an expert in statistics, but you should know what the key numbers mean and how to explain them clearly. Numbers like days on market, units closed, list-to-sales price and pending sales can provide great insight on where your local market is headed. It’s also impressive to clients when real estate pros know how local trends stack up against national numbers.

Show and tell. Using your MLS and marketing tools such as eNeighborhoods, you can provide personalized reports that show current neighborhood information and local demographic information such as schools, crime, employment and education. Provide branded leave-behind reports and materials homebuyers can reference later. When you become the local source who can explain market conditions with current statistics and visual summaries, you gain an advantage over less-prepared agents.

Bring the bad news. Yes, prices are falling through the floor in many areas, particularly where activities like sub-prime lending, overbuilding and investor speculation occurred. The media tends to focus on areas where these abuses occur, bringing the bad news into sharp focus. You can help clients understand that falling prices in these areas are part of a natural – and necessary – market correction. As prices continue to fall, the real estate market will begin to recover as part of its normal cyclical process.

Be sure to keep your prospects and clients engaged throughout the recovery process. Changes in local sales, home prices and inventory are good indicators of your local market’s health. The national real estate market will inevitably recover, and those buyers who are on the fence now may be ready to purchase in the near future as some sunlight begins to emerge from the market’s dark clouds.

Get eNeighborhoods’ Now's the Time to Buy Free Special Report today.

http://offer.eneighborhoods.com/time/

Down, but not out – there are still many benefits to home ownership

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:06:29 -0500

In recent years, the cost of buying a home in most markets has increased while the cost of renting remains flat. But it’s never a good idea to base long-term investment decisions on short-term conditions. If you decide to rent instead of purchasing a home, you may be in a bad spot if the cost of rentals in your area shoots up.

Typically, a weak housing market corresponds with a strong rental market. If the rental market is strong in your area, it may indicate weakness in the local housing market, which typically favors buyers over sellers.

When you buy a home with a fixed-rate mortgage, you can lock in a predictable monthly payment for 15 or 30 years. That means the largest part of your housing costs, principal and interest, are fixed. For some people, that stability, along with the sense of community that comes from being a homeowner, is enough to tip the scales toward home ownership.

If the monthly cost of buying vs. renting is comparable, you may consider some related factors to help you decide. When you rent, your landlord receives any appreciation and tax breaks associated with owning the property. If you plan on any significant remodeling, buying may be also preferable to renting.

Some people just don’t have the discipline to set aside money each month to save and invest. In this case, a home is more than a shelter, it acts as sort of an automatic savings account. You can build your savings in two ways:

First, each month a portion of your payment goes toward the principal to build equity in your home. In the early years of the mortgage, most of your payment goes toward interest. Over time, however, that turns around and your equity growth begins to accelerate.

Second, U.S. home prices have always appreciated over the long term. Average appreciation on a home is, 5-6 percent annually, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Over time, history has shown that owning a home is a solid financial investment despite periodic market downturns.

And wouldn’t it be great if the government kicked in some money to help make home ownership more affordable? Because of deductions on mortgage interest and property taxes, the practical effect is that the government is subsidizing your home purchase. In fact, home ownership provides two of the best ways to reduce your tax bill.

Speaking of tax smarts for home buyers, don’t neglect the selling side of the equation. Be sure to consult your advisor about tax breaks that may be available on the proceeds from selling your current home, and on any “points” paid when taking out a mortgage loan.

Get eNeighborhoods’ Now's the Time to Buy Free Special Report today.

http://offer.eneighborhoods.com/time/

Special reports, spin and snide remarks about the housing market

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:00:58 -0500

OK, so we (eNeighborhoods) release a special report about the housing market and how different the stories are. Some real estate pros simply smile and repeat the mantra that “now’s the time to buy” regardless of market conditions. These agents lack credibility.

On the other hand, media focus tends toward housing market coverage on hard-hit areas such as Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California where much of the nation’s pain is felt. This news is interesting, but unfortunately, most of these headlines and sound bites are something like hearing about an Orange Alert at the airport. It’s clear that there’s cause for concern. It’s not clear what to do about it.

That’s why real estate professionals who understand the market have a unique opportunity to step up and provide buyers with valuable guidance. If you can separate the facts from the hype and clarify how national real estate news affects the picture in your local market. Buying or selling a home can be stressful under the best of conditions. When you add in are generally anxious and confused about the market seem to be waiting on the sidelines for a better day.

The point of the special report, Now’s the Time to Buy: 10 Reasons Why ( www.eneighborhoods.com/time ), is to help real estate agents provide guidance to home buyers to help them make better decisions in today’s challenging market. The report addresses why:

- There’s no such thing as the housing market
- Media reports tend to focus on bad news
- Housing market indexes vary
- Financing is favorable for now
- Uncle Sam wants you…to be a homeowner
- Buyer’s markets are difficult to time

We think it’s a fair read on reasons to buy (or not buy) a home in today’s market. Here’s the snide and actually pretty funny part. The Palm Beach Post weighs in with comments about the Special Report! We were hoping for effusive praise and perhaps some new business. But snide is OK, too. It's just real estate marketing...see the links to the right.

Wanted: Real Estate Industry Visionary

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:25:17 -0500

Hey, executive type...put down that Wall Street Journal and read this! eNeighborhoods, the nation's premier compiler of real estate related home and neighborhood information, is looking for a new leader.

eNeighborhoods delivers a comprehensive set of marketing and analytical tools to the real estate Industry. Our technology can be found on more than 4,000 desktops around the world. In 2002, eNeighborhoods became a partner in the National Association of REALTORS®' REALTOR Benefits® Program. The company provides MLS data sharing and marketing tools to top MLS organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The company maintains strategic alliances with major real estate franchisers, including CENTURY 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, EXIT Realty, GMAC, Keller Williams, Prudential, Realty Executives and RE/MAX International as well as many of the major independent brokerages. eNeighborhoods is the proud founding sponsor of NAR's Good Neighbor Awards. Now, we're seeking a new General Manager (a CEO level position) and Technology Leader.

The ordinary need not apply...here's the pitch. If you're the one, let's hear from you, or please pass this along!

General Manager - eNeighborhoods

A Division of Dominion Enterprises

eNeighborhoods (a division of Dominion Enterprises) is seeking a General Manager. The General Manager for this successful and growing operation will lead expansion of current web-based products in addition to developing and executing business plans for future products. The position will be based in Boca Raton, Florida and report to a Division President.

eNeighborhoods is the nation's premier compiler of home and neighborhood knowledge, providing marketing and data services to the real estate industry's top performers. Successful candidates for General Manager will join a dynamic team responsible for exceeding our customers' expectation and providing powerful tools to agents, brokers, MLS organizations, and franchises. General areas of responsibility will include:

Providing vision for business and securing necessary resources to achieve goals
Hiring and developing a team to develop, sell and support web-based products
Daily leadership, management and coaching of staff
Managing financial performance, to exceed budgeted revenue and income

REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS INCLUDE:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent, with a minimum of 10 years experience in a leadership role
Minimum expectation of 5 years successful experience hiring, managing, and developing managers
Proven ability to hire, manage, and develop sales, marketing, operations, and technical staff
Demonstrated success in real estate technology and online business environment
Proven track record of success in growing a customer base for web-based products
Success in developing and executing budgets and business plans
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Highest standards of ethical business practice
Deadline-driven and detail oriented, with a focus on continuous improvement

Dominion Enterprises (www.dominionenterprises.com) is a leading marketing services company serving the wide-ranging needs of many industries including real estate, apartments, specialty vehicles, employment, automotive and travel. We offer a dynamic environment, excellent growth opportunities, competitive earnings and a comprehensive benefits package including a generous 401(k). Dominion Enterprises supports a diverse workforce and is a drug-testing employer.

If you have the skills and seek a challenging growth opportunity, please send a cover letter and resume to (no calls please):

matt.paddock@dominionenterprises.com

757-314-2512 (fax)

150 Granby

Norfolk, VA 23510

What if all the real estate headlines are wrong?

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:35:33 -0500

OK, time for a 30-second real estate market quiz. Quick...which is the more exciting scenario?

- A man slowly walks down a flight of stairs, sometimes pausing or retracing his steps until he reaches a floor. After trudging along for while, he notices another staircase and begins ascending, occasionally pausing or taking a step back before methodically proceeding upward.

- Ignoring the safety railing, a man hurtles down a terrifically high flight of stairs. He hurries recklessly downward, dodging obstacles in his path as he goes. He suddenly cries out as he loses his footing, sails through the air, tumbles down several flights and crashes through a banister. The badly injured man is bandaged from head to toe and attached to a variety of complex medical devices that monitor his vital signs. Experts debate his condition but agree that the situation is dire and prospects for recovery are uncertain.

...and that's why more headlines say "Home values off the cliff in Phoenix, Miami and Las Vegas" than "Things aren't bad in Seattle, Portland and Charlotte." Most readers just find sensational headlines more interesting. And while they may help sell newspapers, they also scare buyers and sellers to the sidelines, though the news may be very positive for home buyers in particular.

Add public relations acumen to the long list of skills today's real estate professionals need to be successful. Real estate is a long-term investment, but it's easy to lose sight of that fact when current conditions and recovery prospects seem grim. As REAL Trends Editor Steve Murray* says:

"Rather than say ‘it is a good time to buy,' sales professionals need to present facts, figures and charts that show it clearly. The time where housing consumers took our word for this has likely come to a close."

The picture isn't all doom and gloom. Real estate pros can make a convincing case that, for many homebuyers, now is a great time to buy. But you're going to need some proof. Get listing data, neighborhood information and compile your own reports on market conditions. Be able to explain market conditions with visual summaries. Provide leave-behind reports and materials homebuyers can reference later.

So what's needed in today's market? In the form of a classified ad, it might look something like this:

Wanted: Real estate professional with public relations skills, local expertise and nerves of steel. Strong understanding of industry trends affecting buyers, sellers and homeowners. Must be able to recognize risks and opportunities inherent in shifting markets, provide candid assessments and expert guidance. Ability to troubleshoot and deliver creative solutions for skeptical consumers. Positive mindset and understanding of buyer and seller psychology required.

Who's on board?

*Author note: If you see Steve Murray on the agenda at an industry event, check him out. You can learn more about real estate market conditions in one session than reading real estate headlines for six months.

Real estate 2008: New media replaces old advertising, traditional agents become guides

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:01:30 -0600

In real estate, the only constant is constant change. As we move through 2008, it's clear that the market is changing and evolving -- it never stops. But it's important to distinguish between cyclical changes, (observers expect the national housing market to remain flat for much of 2008) and permanent ones.

In short, the market will recover, but some current technologies and business practices are never coming back.

One global trend impacting real estate is the declining effectiveness of traditional mass advertising. Years ago, advertisers could reach the majority of real estate consumers through just a few channels. Radio, television, print and outdoor display ads were all real estate pros needed to promote their practices. Today, it's no longer enough to promote your services or listings through a single advertising channel and wait for the phone to ring.

In today's Web 2.0 and social media world, people get real estate information from the Internet, email, podcasts, instant messaging, video feeds, networking sites, Blogs and more. It's a challenge for real estate professionals to understand various marketing channels and be proficient in their use.

It's also a great opportunity to develop deeper, one-on-one relationships that turn prospects into clients. The real estate information today's buyers and sellers find on the Internet ranges from current and relevant to outdated and awful. This gives real estate professionals the opportunity to guide clients and provide them with the most current, relevant and local information available.

The ability to translate information overload into local market and transaction knowledge has become a required survival skill. Listing information is freely available, but that's only part of what's needed to make effective buying and selling decisions. Agents must supplement listing information with neighborhood information and understand current market conditions.

For example, in the South Florida market, agents must master the complex property tax and insurance issues that affect every real estate transaction. As industry groups push to preserve profitability and consumer interests strive to contain costs, state lawmakers struggle to come up with a viable solution. Unsure of what do to, many buyers and sellers wait on the sidelines until some type of legislative resolution is reached.

As a wise marketer once said, your personal brand is less about what you say, and more about what you do. Today's real estate consumers are not looking for a salesperson to say something. They are looking for a trusted advisor to do something - successfully guide them through increasingly complex decisions and transactions.

The market is challenging, and opportunities will be limited for real estate salespeople. But opportunities always exist for savvy agents who understand how market trends and challenges affect individual transactions. If this skill set sounds like a combination of agent, futurist, economist, insurance expert and tax attorney, welcome to real estate 08!

For more information on tomorrow's real estate consumers, download this special report: http://www.eneighborhoods.com/cyber/

Does your website have a perception problem?

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:58:53 -0600

Months of inventory. Tighter mortgage money. Continuing sub-prime blues. Your real estate marketing message doesn't matter. Wait, what was that last one?

It sounds harsh, but it's completely true. One of the hardest principles for real estate professionals - and all advertisers - to accept is that their intended message is not really important compared to audience perception. You may spend countless hours carefully honing your brand image and value proposition, but you're just the sender.

First, your message passes through the Internet, a channel with its own challenges for online marketers. Then, the audience on the receiving end of the channel defines what your message means by the actions they take (or don't take). Your message is not what you intend, but what your audience perceives and acts upon.

So what can you do to make online marketing effective? One key is managing visitor perceptions. In fact, aligning three types of perceptions - personal, peer and credibility - provides a powerful formula to move prospects to take action. Think of these perceptions as a three-point strategy to improve response:

1. Personal perceptions

Personal perceptions are what website visitors think of you and your value proposition. Agents typically spend most of their time managing personal perceptions. The most important success factors include presenting information clearly, specifically, and in the right order. It sounds simple, but if you visit a dozen real estate websites, you will find lots of focus on wonderful agents and brokers, and considerably less information on benefits for prospects and clients.

- A clear value proposition should answer this important question for site visitors: Of all available agents, why should they choose to work with you?
- Use your Web presence to clarify the benefits of doing business with you. This goes back to your unique value proposition...can you do something for the website visitor better than everyone else? If so, make it clear. "Contact me for all your real estate needs" sounds vaguely positive, but it's a weak call-to-action if you want prospects to pick up the phone.
- Many agent websites also have no clear starting point to get visitors' attention, and no reason for them to become further engaged. Interactive marketing gurus Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg call the process of converting prospects to satisfied customers AIDAS - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction. Jumping ahead to the Action without establishing Interest or Desire means trouble. In marketing, as they say, marriage is better than a one-night-stand.

2. Peer perceptions

Peers may include current and former clients, and other professionals involved in the real estate transaction. Peer reviews and testimonials can be critical to conversion success. A recent study by Deloitte Consumer Product Group found that 64 percent of online shoppers read reviews by other consumers in deciding whether to buy. More than 80 percent of the survey's respondents said reviews affected their buying decision, and a remarkable 98 percent found consumer reviews "very" or "somewhat" credible.

Adding testimonials can make your website more effective, especially if for newer or lesser-known agents. Be sure your testimonials are current, brief, and mention specific benefits you provided. "Fred is wonderful" is not as good as "Fred helped me find an affordable home near an A-rated elementary school." Adding client photos can help personalize a testimonial, particularly if that person is well-known in the community. The moral? Don't blow your own horn. Ask your loyal fans to do it for you.

3. Credibility perceptions

Accreditations and association memberships are important sources of credibility. For real estate professionals, these may include the REALTOR® designation, as well as various accreditations such as Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR), or certified residential Specialist (CRS). Also, don't forget to include academic degrees and other licenses and certifications that may help.

To make the most of credibility indicators on your website, be sure to explain their significance. Don't just add an e-Pro logo to your website, explain how that training benefits clients who work with you. Have other academic degrees? Use these on your Web site and in your promotional materials. Prospects may not know what a GRI is, but they are familiar with a CPA or MBA, and may have one of these designations themselves.

Even in traditional mass marketing, when there were three fuzzy television stations and no Internet, consumers controlled their perceptions of marketing messages. Today, consumers have even more control and more options to manage their media experiences. Digital video recorders, SPAM filters, pop-up blockers and do-not call lists are all popular ways to fend off unwanted advertising. To make your marketing messages more successful, check them for perceived value and credibility before sending them out to the world.

For more real estate marketing ideas and insights, visit http://www.eneighborhoods.com/

Can you get rich with the right real estate niche?

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:49:10 -0600

I don't know about success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone - Bill Cosby

OK, so Bill Cosby is better known for Jello pudding promotion and loud sweaters than for real estate expertise. However, he did deliver a keynote address at the NAR Expo 2007, and this particular bit of wisdom really works for real estate pros. Many agents are reluctant to position themselves as specialists, for fear of limiting their earning potential. A broad range of potential customers is both a blessing and a curse for real estate agents. If you're a generalist, nearly everyone you meet is a potential client. On the other, being all things to all people can lead to unfocused business plans and lackluster results.

In reality, there is little risk in foregoing commissions you don't have a reasonable chance to earn. Few agents have the time and resources to market to a very broad audience, so choosing a professional niche in which you can excel makes sense. In addition to helping you differentiate your services from other real estate practitioners, you can build credibility and focused expertise. Better yet, as you you develop a reputation for a specific area of expertise, you are actively reducing competition for your services.

Now all that's left is choosing a highly profitable niche. To help you get started, here are some suggestions for highly lucrative niches, and also some to avoid:

Good agent specializations: Bad agent specializations:
- Homes near top-rated schools
- Equestrian properties
- Income-producing properties
- Waterfront or beachfront properties
- Townhomes
- Vacation homes
- Historic properties
- Green or energy-efficient homes
- Ranch or farm properties
- Upscale and luxury real estate
- Mountain views

- Active retirement communities
- Agent with obvious toupee
- Agent still using high school yearbooks photo
- Agent whose car always needs vacuuming

- The Bad Haircut agent
- The agent who repeats lines from Sienfeld episodes
- Agent who never wears socks
- The too-much-perfume agent
- The agent who talks about her cats
- The really irritable agent

- Agent who also sells Amway and Herbalife

- The agent who could use a shave

- Agent with a comb-over
- Agent who apparently doesn't own an iron

Obviously, some niches are better than others, and there are still plenty of real estate agents out there trying to please everyone. The bottom line: Prospects today are not looking for a salesperson, they are looking for a trusted advisor to guide them through important financial decisions and complex transactions.

Does your professional niche brand you as a a real estate expert, or someone who sells real estate? As author and sales consultant John Graham says, it's better to be known for knowing something, not just selling something.

For more real estate marketing ideas and insights, visit www.eneighborhoods.com

Direct Marketing for real estate pros, Dave Meyer on Inman TV!

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:49:01 -0500

Direct Marketing for real estate pros

One advantage of working in real estate marketing is the opportunity to meet with leading marketers both inside and outside the industry. One direct marketing guru who has a foot in both worlds is Lois Geller. Her formula for direct marketing success was so clear and concise, we included it in this article from our eNeighborhoods Direct Marketing eBook.

Also, check out eNeighborhoods co-founder Dave Meyer on Inman TV talking about real estate data, Dominion Enterprises and the future of data sharing.

Direct marketing formulas for success

As direct marketing professor and practitioner Lois Geller frequently notes in her seminars, direct marketing is a process, not an event. Many real estate professionals have sent a one-time email or postcard campaign to local residents just to "see what happens." Don't be one of these one-hit wonders. Although sending a single campaign seems like a harmless experiment, it can lead to two issues.

First, making decisions about the effectiveness of direct marketing based on a single campaign is not realistic. The only way to learn and improve is to test the campaign components, including the offer, list and the creative. The creative refers to the design, including colors, copy, images and more. If you've written off the value of direct marketing based on a single mailing, you may be wasting your marketing dollars elsewhere.

Second, it may sound counter-intuitive, but sending a single campaign actually carries more financial risk than multiple sends. Suppose your budget allows for sending 2,000 direct mail postcards. Research has shown time and again that sending 500 postcards to the same list four times will provide greater returns than a one-time mailing to 2,000 recipients. Without significant changes to your postcard design or offer, you're almost certain to get better results by increasing your frequency.

Many direct marketers will tell you the list, or target audience, is the most important component in direct marketing, followed by the offer, then the creative content and design. In her book, SOLD! Direct Marketing for the Real Estate Pro, Geller is even more specific about the results you can expect from these three main drivers of direct marketing results:

The list
(target audience)

40 percent of results

The offer

40 percent of results

The creative

20 percent of results

So, if you're wondering how to improve your campaigns, focus your time accordingly. A good offer and a good mailing list are about equally important, and together determine about 80 percent of campaign results, while the creative treatment is responsible for about 20 percent of results.

Get a CLUE

Is this beginning to sound like the old CLUE Board game, in which players had to assemble three clues to solve a murder? Was it Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Candlestick? Direct marketing works in much the same way.

By sending different offers and creative treatments to different lists and carefully tracking the results, you'll eventually hit on those winning combinations that send results through the roof. Mystery solved. There's no shortcut. Direct marketing done right requires some work, but it can mean great rewards for your real estate practice.

Happy landings for real estate pros - Direct marketing on the Web

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:24:05 -0500

For many real estate pros, the most effective response devices are offers directing prospects to agent websites. According to the 2006 NAR Profile of Buyers and Sellers, four out of five recent buyers used the Internet to search for homes. Many prospects see your offer will not be ready to pick up the phone and call you. For those people, having the option to learn more about you before deciding to make contact is critical.

The issue for many agents is a disconnect between a very specific offer and a very general website. Because many agents don't have the time or technical resources to create offer pages, or landing pages, site visitors are often directed to a home page and must navigate through the site to find the promised offer. The issue is that very few site visitors have the time or patience to find their way through your website.

The result is a high "bounce rate," the percentage of visitors who arrive at your site, fail to find something compelling and quickly click off. Here are some ways to make direct respondents feel welcome on your website:

• If your postcard, for example, is sending respondents to your website, try repeating the offer, including the headline and key phrases, on the landing page. This is especially important with free offers, which make many people think, "What's the catch?" Repeating the offer also quickly orients readers and assures them that they are in the right place so they can continue on to your offer.

• Ensure text and images are complementary. It seems obvious, but many direct marketing pieces contain images that don't explain or illustrate the offer. If you're using a strong photo to capture people's attention on your postcard or sales letter, try using the same or a similar one on your offer page. Real estate is a highly visual medium, so it's surprising to see so many listings with low-quality images or with no photos at all. Don't skimp...use high-quality images on all your direct marketing offers and landing pages.

• One offer per page is best. The reason it's not good to send prospects who respond to your offer to your home page is decision paralysis. Your home page probably has numerous images, links and options for visitors to choose from. They may follow another path and forget about your offer. It's more effective to send visitors to a single-purpose landing page and make it as easy as possible for them to accept your offer.

• KISS - Keep it short and simple. The purpose of the landing page may be to have readers sign up to receive your email newsletter. If your offer is about your newsletter, explain the benefits of receiving the newsletter and move quick toward the goal of collecting a name and email address. Establishing an ongoing relationship with a prospect at this point is more important than listing your other services, awards and community service.

• Asking visitors for information causes anxiety, even for free offers. As a general rule, only ask for the information that's necessary to complete your transaction. If your offer is to receive a report on neighborhood schools via email, don't make address and phone number fields mandatory. If you're offering a free instant home valuation, you will need the address...make the information you request appropriate to your offer.

• Remember to keep text to a minimum on landing pages. Use a strong headline that matches your original offer. If your postcard or email says "Prepare your home to sell for top dollar," then repeat that headline on your landing page. Use short paragraphs and bullet points to lead the reader's eye down the page to your offer. Save the many other services you offer for a different page.

Finally, be sure to make your call-to-action highly visible. Some landing pages bury the call-to-action in a block of copy or make readers scroll down a long page just to find the TRY IT FREE button. If you don't have a button, there's nothing wrong with putting your offer in capital letters or red text. There is a time for subtlety, but this is not that time.

To learn more, download a free eNeighborhoods Real Estate Direct Marketing Guide today. To learn more about eNeighborhoods Home Sale Alert Postcards or NewsLetters, call Eric at 800.975.9742. Dial 1, then 3757. eNeighborhoods is a division of Dominion Enterprises.

Gain clients, build relationships with direct mail marketing

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:31:35 -0500

If you needed to capture the essence of direct marketing in only two words, act now would be a good choice. This famous call-to-action is what distinguishes direct marketing from other types of advertising.

For many real estate professionals, marketing includes any activity that supports the goal of selling more homes. But to make the most of your marketing dollar, reach your goals and achieve powerful direct marketing results, it's important to define our terms. Direct marketing:

- Requests a response. The requested response may be a phone call, a click-through to a website, subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase.

- Is highly measurable. The response that makes direct marketing work also enables you to control spending and evaluate effectiveness. By asking for a specific action that you can measure, real estate direct marketers can evaluate and improve your campaign results.

- Transcends mediums. Direct marketing is more than direct mail. It has crossed from old to new media, and exists in both print and online channels. A postcard, yard sign, email, and pay-per-click may all be forms of direct marketing when they contain a call to action. Direct advertising includes print, interactive and broadcast channels.

- Is targeted. As marketing technology advances, so do opportunities to segment, test and target marketing campaigns. One of the main advantages for real estate professionals who work at direct marketing is the opportunity to identify and reach profitable target audiences and niche markets in their communities.

Why is targeted direct marketing so important? As a real estate professional, prospecting and lead generation are the lifeblood of your business. Direct marketing provides a way to make personal connections with people who want and need your services.

Also, a strategic approach puts you miles ahead of real estate pros still using the "spray and pray" approach to send identical communications to generic mailing lists. It's no exaggeration to say that real estate professionals waste millions of advertising dollars each year with ineffective marketing campaigns, sending the wrong offers to the wrong people.

The good news is that wasting marketing campaigns can easily be avoided with a little planning. Act now. With a little research, strategic planning and tracking, you can create an effective - and cost-effective - pipeline to build your real estate business for years to come.

Ready for more? Download a free eNeighborhoods Real Estate Direct Marketing Guide today. To learn more about eNeighborhoods Home Sale Alert Postcards or NewsLetters, call Eric at 800.975.9742. Dial 1, then 3757.

eNeighborhoods launches new Home Sales Alert Real Estate Marketing postcards

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:15:04 -0500

Launched our new real estate marketing postcards this week...Home Sales Alert postcards featuring five recent home sales for any neighborhood in the USA. Press release here:

New real estate marketing postcards feature enhanced branding,
personalization and recent home sale prices for any neighborhood in the U.S.

eNeighborhoods, a real estate technology provider and a division of Dominion Enterprises, today introduced a new direct mail marketing solution for real estate professionals, Home Sales Alert Postcards. For the first time, real estate professionals can now send a direct mail piece with advanced personalization, localization and branding capabilities.

"As real estate markets remain cool in many parts of the country, real estate professionals are rediscovering the power of direct mail to build relationships and sales," said Bryan Ehrenfreund, eNeighborhoods director of product development. "In today's do-not-call and do-not-spam business climate, postcards offer an effective and economical way to reach potential home buyers and sellers."

Direct mail research shows that personalization, localization and relevance produce better campaign results. One way to ensure real estate postcards are relevant to local residents is to include information on neighborhood home values. eNeighborhoods new Home Sales Alert Postcards feature five recent home sales, with addresses and selling prices, close to the recipient's address.

Home Sales Alert Postcards also feature full-color graphics and professional designs to match agent branding or preference. Real estate professionals can set the minimum and maximum price range for recent home sales as well as the distance from the target address. And, with eNeighborhoods easy-to-use interface, an entire postcard campaign can be launched in minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.

eNeighborhoods subscribers can now take advantage of complete postcard campaigns, starting at just 45 cents each - including mailing lists. The company is offering free trial subscriptions for its PowerSuite marketing tools, so now is a great time to become a subscriber and try our postcards as well.

"Home Sales Alert Postcards are unique in the real estate space," said Greg Robertson, eNeighborhoods general manager and executive vice president. "Our subscribers tell us they have had success with just-listed and just-sold farming postcards. Home Sales Alert Postcards are kind of an enhanced version of these postcards, providing current, local information on neighborhood home values. It's another way eNeighborhoods enables agents to build their personal brands and raise their visibility in exactly the areas they want to target."

You can download a FREE eNeighborhoods Real Estate Direct Marketing Guide today. To learn more about eNeighborhoods Home Sale Alert Postcards, call Eric at 800.975.9742. Dial 1, then 3757.

About eNeighborhoods, LLC

eNeighborhoods^TM, a division of Dominion Enterprises, is the nation's premier compiler of real estate related home and neighborhood information, providing the real estate and marketing services industries with a comprehensive set of marketing and analytical tools. In 2002, eNeighborhoods became an endorsed REALTOR Benefits® of the National Association of REALTORS®. The company provides MLS data sharing and marketing tools to top MLS organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The company also powers the Internet's top real estate franchise Web site, remax.com, and maintains strategic alliances with major real estate franchisers, including RE/MAX International, Realogy, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, EXIT Realty, GMAC, Keller Williams, Prudential, and Realty Executives as well as many of the major independent brokerages. eNeighborhoods is the proud founding sponsor of NAR's Good Neighbor Awards which educates, encourages and rewards outstanding community service by real estate professionals throughout the country. For more information on the company, visit www.eneighborhoods.com.

About Dominion Enterprises

Dominion Enterprises, headquartered in Norfolk, Va., is a leading media and information services company serving employment, real estate, automotive, recreation and industrial markets in the United States. The company operates a variety of technology businesses that offer Internet marketing, Web site design and hosting, lead generation, CRM, and data capture and distribution services including Advanced Access, PowerSports Network, and Dealer Specialties. The company has more than 500 paid and free magazine titles such as The Employment Guide, For Rent, Harmon Homes, Boat Trader, Cycle Trader and RV Trader with a combined weekly circulation of over 5 million, and more than 40 market-leading Web sites such as EmploymentGuide.com, ForRent.com, Homes.com, and TraderOnline.com, reaching more than 8 million unique monthly visitors. The company has nearly 7,000 employees nationwide and 2006 annual revenue of more than $850 million. For more information, visit www.DominionEnterprises.com

FREE Real Estate Marketing Success eBook

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:32:41 -0500

We near the end of an era...our most popular eNeighborhoods eBook to date is nearing the end of its run. This FREE downloadable eBook and and Marketing ROI Tracker is available here:

http://www.eneighborhoods.com/kw/freebonuses.asp

Have you downloaded your FREE eBook yet? The eBook provides powerful strategies to help you power up your prospecting, lead generation and conversion to clients. You'll learn to:

- Build a more profitable real estate practice

- Quickly qualify and identify high-potential leads

- Create a sales pipeline for long-term, consistent profits

You also get an easy-to-use spreadsheet tool to help you track your most important success metrics:

- Number of real estate prospects

- Number of real estate clients

- Approximate annual sales

- Approximate annual marketing costs

- Return on your real estate marketing investment

Our next eBook is coming soon...it's called the Guide to Direct Marketing Success for real estate professionals. It's filled with great advice from direct marketing leaders like Lois K. Geller, Dean Rieck and top-producing real estate pros who have found success with direct marketing.

Six tricks: Keep marketing content in context

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:04:53 -0500

Here's the real estate version of an article from my marketing-interactive weblog. The subject of keeping content in context doesn't specifically refer to real estate websites, but it's as important their as anyplace else in the online world. How many reputable real estate businesses have websites with outdated, unconvincing and irrelevant content? Too often, the real estate website is an underperforming member of the team. Here are some ways to make sure your content counts.

For veteran copywriters and content providers, it's always gratifying to see research highlighting the effectiveness of text copy to attract online visitors, persuade them to take action, and ultimately drive sales. Text copy will always be a key driver in marketing and sales, but in the evolving online, multi-platform world, it's no longer sufficient to seek comfort in the "content is king" credo and write on.

Why? For all types of marketers, the true north of actionable content has always been to make it relevant and deliver it to the right audience at the right time. These same principles apply across platforms, whether content is distributed through Weblogs, streaming media or podcasts.

But as people become more sophisticated and diverse in the types of content they consume, the application of simple rules becomes more difficult. Is your content breaking news or old news? If you're not sure, here are six tricks to ensure your content retains its regal status:

1. Mind your medium: Today people have the opportunity to interact with more types of media than ever before. Your message could be delivered through an animated billboard, podcast or a branded desktop application. You probably wouldn't send the same content to a senior corporate executive and a 19-year-old gamer. But many organizations will try to reach both target audiences with the same marketing channel. While television may reach both parties, it may not be the most effective way to reach either one. It's said that more than $50 billion is spent annually on television advertising, but young males may spend more time playing video games.

2. In your eyepath: Eye-tracking is an increasingly popular way evaluate web pages because eye movements provide insights into the human thought processes that cannot be derived from surveys and self-reporting. On a very practical level, eye-tracking has confirmed things like scanning behavior and "banner blindness" in web users. Although studies have underscored the relative importance of text versus graphic content, they have also shown that people habitually scan rather than read, skipping large portions of text on every page they visit. Use color, bolding, bullets and subheads to break up copy so it can be easily scanned.

3. Target your list: Direct response diva Lois Geller champions a quick formula to identify the components of success in direct marketing campaigns: The offer and list are each responsible for 40 percent of campaign success, with creatives accounting for the remaining 20 percent. You may have extremely relevant and valuable content, but if it's sent to the wrong list, you won't make a connection. The best practices of direct response marketing have been developed for more than a century, and they still provide valuable direction in the 2.0 world.

4. Use the right offer: All the persuasive and elegantly written copy in the world can't make up for the wrong offer at the wrong time. If your campaign is underperforming, and you're fairly certain you are sending the right creative to the right audience, then you probably have the wrong offer. There aren't that many moving parts... time to test some different offers to see what's most attractive. If this offer-list-creative trio is beginning to sound like the old CLUE board game (Mr. Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick), it should. Put the three together in the right combination and you've found the killer (marketing campaign).

5. Keep it in order: It sounds basic, but a quick survey of print ads, emails or web pages will yield plenty of examples of putting the cart before the horse. The problem of ordering your message becomes more difficult as technology provides people with more and more control over how they consume media. In many cases, a solution is pitched before a compelling business problem is outlined. In others, the proposed solution may follow the problem too closely. Especially in more expensive or complex sales, let your content and campaign establish relationship with successive degrees of involvement. Print, broadcast or interactive, the right content in the wrong order is a recipe for mediocre results.

6. Consider the source: While telling your own story is an essential skill for marketers, sometimes it's better to let someone else take the podium. A great rule of thumb from Marketing Experiments is to back up your own claims with data, while leaving qualitative praise for your product to customer testimonials. The same can be said for online credibility indicators such as seals and certificates. Most real estate agents don't sell items on their websites, but credibility is important because they are still selling themselves and their services. Placing the Better Business Bureau seal or local association memberships is probably simpler and more effective than creating a long explanation of why prospects should trust you.

Any other thoughts on effective real estate websites? Weigh in!

Prospecting, Conversion & Sales real estate marketing newsletter

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:23:09 -0500

Well, it took a while to get rolling, but we finally launched our new real estate marketing newsletter. We're on our second issue of eNeighborhoods PCS (Prospecting Conversion & Sales)...you can see it here:

http://www.eneighborhoods.com/pcsnewsletter/

So far we've received some great suggestions and contributions from industry leaders and very polite feedback. We even got a favorable comment on the newsletter from Stefan Swanepoel (This email was promptly forwarded to several people to make sure they knew we had received a click-thru from an industry visionary - so there).

But the problem with polite feedback is that doesn't drive real improvements from month to month. Our goal is to offer a free resource for real estate professionals that would be truly useful, so if anyone has comments / suggestions / criticisms, send them this way. If you have articles or ideas to contribute or insights to consider, send them this way.

The leaders in this industry and this community know that real estate marketing is a contact sport, an open dialog, and a laboratory for experimentation and improvement. In that spirit, we hope to use the PCS newsletter to share a few of our own marketing ideas, and useful ideas from marketing innovators in real estate and other industries.

If you want to subscribe and send criticism every month, that would be great, too. Our feelings won't be hurt, and we may actually learn something!

eNeighborhoods, based in Boca Raton, Florida, recently announced free monthly newsletter for real estate professionals. According to the press release, the newsletter will feature how-to articles, best practices and success stories from top real estate industry professionals and will help agents to:

Take control of prospecting and lead generation to develop an effective sales pipeline
Learn best practices for effective prospecting and lead conversion
Organize lead generation into a system to prioritize and handle high volumes of leads
Recognize prospects with greater potential
Identify effective business strategies for local markets
Be known for something, not for selling something - be an expert - John R. Graham
Subscribe | Send Comments | http://www.eneighborhoods.com/

Looking for a profitable niche? Try neighborhood schools expert

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:28:48 -0500

It's hard to overstate the importance of neighborhood factors such as school quality on the home buying decision, yet few agents seem to be known as "schools specialists." Agents can gain a competitive advantage by becoming an expert on local schools. By providing objective information about the school's current programs, test scores, teachers and librarians, prospects can make better buying decisions.

Most real estate pros are well aware of fair housing issues and the dangers of providing unsubstantiated opinions about local schools. In the past, some real estate pros have run into trouble talking about "good" or "bad" schools based on opinion or other subjective criteria. One way around this issue is to provide consistent information from reputable sources to all your prospects regarding local schools.

In other words, provide objective information about the school's current programs, test scores, teachers and librarians and let prospects decide for themselves. Here are some great ways for real estate pros to help buyers size up local schools:

Student-to-teacher ratio - Unusually large class sizes may be cause for concern. Sources such as eNeighborhoods have this information as well as librarian-to-student ratio and facts such as expenditures per student and what percent of total school funds are spent on instruction. Again, this information may not show good or bad, but it provides a useful way to compare schools.

Standardized test scores - Standard scores such as SAT and National Merit Scholar awards can provide insights for current students' academic performance.

Faith-based real estate - Have buyer prospects already expressed interest in a specific type of church, temple or other house of worship? This may be an important factor in their choice of schools.

Play to your strengths - Just as real estate agents promote their specialties, many schools are happy to tell you about distinguished programs in sports, science, technology or the arts. What are the school's clubs and associations? Knowing how to match a prospect's children with a school where they can follow their dreams can quickly lead to a sale.

Show, don't tell - Create a map showing the names and locations of local schools to use in your presentations and reports. If you have a mapping tool, you may add personal notations like "Here are the practice fields for future soccer stars!"

One effective tactic that's sometimes overlooked is a personal visit to neighborhood schools. Request a tour for yourself and take photos, make notes, shake hands and meet people. What buyer wouldn't be impressed by photos and firsthand local school information in a marketing presentation or on an agent website?

Don't hesitate to call the administrative offices of local schools and ask if it's possible to take clients for a personal visit. It will deepen your own knowledge of local schools and demonstrate your neighborhood expertise to school administrators. Local teachers, principals, school-board members can make excellent contacts for your business. To learn more about incorporating school information into your marketing materials, take a complimentary eNeighborhoods online training class.

Will podcasting pay the rent?

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:54:09 -0500

Many real estate professionals are embracing social media in a bigway, including weblogs and podcasting. In a crowded marketplace, these social media tools are an important way to cut through the marketing noise and extablish dialogs with prospects. Although blogs have already made a huge footprint, the jury seems to be out on podcasting for real estate marketing. Is this social marketing tool for you?

In the world of interactive marketing, one never has to look too far for the next big thing. One promising channel that's become buzzworthy in the past few months is podcasting - the Internet distribution of audio or video content, usually using an RSS feed.

As usual, though, standing behind the early adopters gushing praise for a new technology, someone will have to figure out how to turn podcasting from a promising technology into a trusted marketing tool.

There seems extraordinary growth potential for podcasts in the next few years, but that's just untapped potential until podcasting novelty is replaced by podcasting utility.

Even if there's no money exchanged, the content at a minimum has to be worth the trouble to download. If I have to actively search and download, I will listen to few of them. If I can automate the downloading of a few that I'm interested in, as with an RSS feed, I'll be more likely to check them out.

Podcasting may or may not develop into a marketing channel with broad applications, but there certainly are opportunities to deliver targeted content. I have a stack of articles on my desk that I'll get to sometime - behavioral marketing, presenting effective web seminars, how to reinstall Windows XP - if someone came along and made these into mp3s for me so I can listen to them in the car, I would be most grateful. Perhaps even to the point where I would listen to a short ad. You might even put up with a commercial if it's wrapped in sports highlights (More March Madness coming up, but first a word from Gillette's new XtremeTrac 5-blade, now with Unibrow Control).

One interesting facet is that as more and more marketing moves to interactive channels, podcasting is sort of a one-way, more passive medium. Maybe its' just a matter of time until players have some kind of feedback button you can push to indicate yes, download the next e-book chapter, that podcast was valuable to me, or send me more information.

Then next time I plug my player back into my laptop, my preferences are sent back to the podcasters. Or maybe there's no rush for that...

Overall I think it's very positive that this form of new media marketing is accessible to nearly anyone who wants to create a podcast. Certainly, consumer-controlled media is an exciting trend and there's a lot of home-grown content out there that's much richer and more original than what's generally available from commercial radio.

There is a possible downside if personalization is carried too far. One day soon, as you're motoring down the highway, you may hear a podcast from your spouse reminding you to pick up orange juice and warning you not to speed.

A system to get that listing: Walk away with that listing contract

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:49:56 -0500

After working with hundreds of real estate professionals over the last decade, eNeighborhoods has identified some ideas and insights that consistently help agents create powerful listing presentations. Each presentation should accomplish three goals:

1)      Introduce yourself and your brand
2)      Agree on a selling price - don't just present
3)      Get the listing agreement signed

Introduce yourself - and your brand!

Successful agents lead with a dynamite resume and a professional CMA package such as eNeighborhoods. Your materials should include your photo, company logo and contact information.

Along with your experience, include any certifications, professional associations and personal information that build your Neighborhood Expertise. Lived in the neighborhood for 20 years? Let your clients know!

Agree on a selling price

The key to agreeing on a selling price is to provide accurate information and insight into the pricing process. If prospects are comfortable with your research and methods, it's easier to break through any objections that stand between you and the listing.

Supply your seller with high-quality comps to quickly build credibility. Explain why the comps are relevant and include FSBO comps if possible. Sellers should know about all their competition, not just broker-listed properties.

In addition to recently sold properties, be prepared to answer questions about current listings, FSBOs and expired listings to help determine an accurate valuation of their home. Show them a map with the comps clearly identified so you can prove your data is good data. Accurate and detailed market research will help you answer the common objections from owners who find your selling price too low.

One way to break through price objections is to use research that shows that a properly priced home is attractive to a larger number of buyers and is likely to sell faster. Show them that overpriced homes tend to sit on the market and ultimately sell for less, and miss out on the buyer interest that new listings typically generate.

Get the listing agreement signed

If you want the listing, you often have to ask for it more than once, in different ways. Fortunately, using the eNeighborhoods CMA makes this easy. One technique that makes asking for the listing more natural is to include a marketing planner in your CMA that details all of the things you will do to get the property listed and sold.

Your planner should include every task that's important for the sellers to know, starting with "Get Listing Papers Signed." Making the task of signing the listing agreement step one is a great way to gauge the seller's reaction to your presentation. If you encounter an objection at this point, you can handle the objection and move on before you pull out the contract.

Another closing technique involves using your marketing planner to talk about scheduling open houses. Suggest a date and time that you'd like to do the open house. When you show sellers this task on your planner, ask them if they can be out of the home on that date. If they say yes, you've made a powerful step toward getting the listing.

To help seal the deal, consider taking a digital photo of the seller's home beforehand and printing several flyers with different design themes to show how you will market their home. Ask sellers if they like the photo, or the property description. Ask them if the property features you've listed are accurate.

After you have asked for feedback and you are listening to the seller's ideas, it's time to pull out the contract and ask once again for the listing. At this point, asking should not be that difficult - after all, it's the only way you and the seller can begin working together to get that property sold!

TIP: The end of your presentation should be the beginning of a working relationship. The key is to create marketing materials that not only show how you plan to sell the home, but provide the foundation of a productive relationship with that seller. eNeighborhoods provides CMAs, Neighborhood Reports and Flyers to help make any listing presentation a success - Here's an article I worked on with eNeighborhoods Online Trainer, Phil Culver, from our Prospecting, Conversion and Sales Monthly Newsletter.

Real estate prospecting and closing - how to get there faster

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:44:24 -0500

One way to streamline these early stage activities is to develop a prospect rating system that enables you to quickly sort your leads. Even if you simply rate them A, B, or C leads, you actively work the A's, put the B's into some incubation process and throw out the C's. Working only the A's is short-sighted, but many agents feel it's all they have time to accomplish. The risk is that you may not get a chance to develop the skills to "warm up" leads to make them better.

Lots of people talk about getting qualified or unqualified leads, but without a systematic approach, you will never know how many can really be converted into new business, repeat business and referrals. A few criteria you can use to qualify are:

Motivation - What's prompting the buy or sell transaction? Does the prospect walk the walk? Expressing interest in buying or selling and taking steps are two different things.

Budget - If the prospect can't afford to buy a house or pay for your services, it's not an A lead. If buying or selling expectations are unrealistic, it may not be an A lead.

Timing - Is there a timeline, such as a relocation or retirement date in the picture? Ask questions to assess motivation to buy or sell.

Match - Ideally, any potential buyer or seller is your client. In reality, your client base is best built with your specialties...neighborhood expert, waterfront, luxury buyers, condo specialist or e-PRO. Your real estate experience is one thing clients recognize - and the closer it matches their needs, the more willing they are to pay for your expertise.

Positioning - Why do people choose a real estate professional? They are looking for local and industry knowledge, ethical conduct and responsiveness. Position yourself as the solution and you will likely get the sale.

This can be called personal branding, or creating a strong value proposition - the important thing is that you and your materials clearly outline the results prospects can expect from choosing your services. Be a visible asset

Visibility is essential because it doesn't matter if you are the world's greatest seller, negotiator or industry expert if no one knows about it. To highlight the importance of visibility in your community, our CEO and our President recently posed for this Real Estate Magazine cover. It was a humorous approach, but an important point. If you already have visibility in your community, you don't spend your time explaining who you are, and you can focus on meeting prospect's needs.

Many prospects reason that if you have high visibility in the community, you must be good at your job and treat people well.

So in many cases, visibility = credibility.

An agent's reputation and knowledge of the local area - what we call being a neighborhood expert - are the two most important factors sellers consider in choosing an agent, according to the National Association of Realtors® 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report.

Reputations are critical to word-of-mouth. People build their reputations by either providing outstanding or sub-par service. People talk about the extremes - really great or really terrible service, not average service.

Neighborhood expertise is something that's easy to demonstrate if you have the right tools. Don't just tell them - every weapon in your marketing arsenal - CMAs, Buyer Tours, flyers, newsletters or postcards speaks for you when you're not around. They should show your neighborhood knowledge.

Responsiveness - The fact that most people choose the first and only real estate agent they speak with shows that fast response is essential. In terms of expectations, it seems that every time someone does research, consumers expect faster response times.

Make it personal - Imagine you have found the love of your life and you're ready to propose marriage. The moment is too important to use a standard pitch or stock script. You try to make it as personal and meaningful as possible (Hopefully, you don't need to handle too many objections). Likewise, you don't want to present clients with cookie-cutter presentations, but you want to have materials ready to go. At eNeighborhoods, we have pre-designed templates so key marketing materials like flyers, CMAs and neighborhood reports can be ready in minutes. Enter a name and address, add some photos and you are ready to pitch.

Turn it around. When your competitors are focused on getting something, try giving something away. Take a digital photo of a FSBO home, create a personalized sales flyer or Neighborhood Report and drop it off personally. Introduce yourself and volunteer to answer questions. If the FSBO decides to eventually hire a seller agent - and most do - you can be at the top of the list because you provided something useful instead of just calling and asking for the listing.

Coffee is for closers...

In a memorable scene from the Movie Glengarry Glen Ross, a struggling real estate salesman played by Jack Lemmon is told, "Put down that coffee...coffee's for closers." Here are some of the best closing practices to help ensure you get your share of caffeine and commissions:

Don't close as a salesperson. One of the recurring themes at the 2006 NAR conference in New Orleans was that real estate professionals are practitioners with marketing expertise, not sales people. Doctors, attorneys, accountants have practices, and successful real estate professionals have practices too. So, position yourself to close as a resource, a trusted advisor, not a sales person - people appreciate resources and valuable advice, but they hate being sold.

Sell on value. What's wrong with selling on price? Price is only one part of marketing...if lowering the price is all it took to sell a property, people would not need an agent! Be clear about the value you bring: Higher selling price, faster sale and the least inconvenience. Focus on the skills and experience you have that clients lack.

Create a Marketing Planner checklist that shows sellers what you can do to market their home. In the eNeighborhoods CMA, the first item on the checklist is to sign the listing papers. There's also a checklist item to set a date for an open house. If people like the idea of an open house, they probably like the idea of listing with you! If you are not a strong closer and find it hard to bring this up, get some tools to help you with the close.

Finally, an idea for advanced closers - don't just close clients, close referrals. At this stage, top agents think a step beyond closing a client. This is an ideal time to gain referrals from the client's family, friends and business associates. Referrals are a simple and cost-effective way to grow your business that's often neglected. In fact, any channel you're using to generate leads should also be used to build your referral base.

This article is from the 2007 Real Estate Marketing Success eBook. Download your complimentary copy at http://www.eneighborhoods.com/

Real Estate Marketing - 12 Ways to Build Your Brand and Your Business

Charles Warnock (eNeighborhoods, Homes.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:42:24 -0500

Do you believe in the 80/20 rule? Applied to real estate, this principle suggests that in most communities, the top 20 percent of real estate professionals get 80 percent of transaction sides. This means 80 percent of agents struggle for the 20 percent of business that's left over after the top performers have taken their share.

Numbers aside, most real estate pros would agree that every community seems to have a few top performers who capture the lion's share of business. How do you join the elite 20 percent? In working with thousands of real estate professionals nationwide who use eNeighborhoods, we have seen some traits that top performers seem to share. Top-performing real estate professionals:

1. Most agents ask "How did you hear about me?" A good question, but also ask what people have heard about you. It's your reputation and livelihood, and this feedback can provide insights to help you improve your services.

2. Have a new designation? Congratulations! - Be sure to update your eNeighborhoods profile so that any Neighborhood Report, BuyerTour or CMA report that you present has your most current achievements.

3. Provide buyer and seller checklists. A comprehensive list with key dates and the steps buyers and sellers must follow to comply with their contracts can provide a stress-free real estate transaction, and save the frustration of missed deadlines. Mark off requirements when completed, and update your clients regularly by phone or e-mail, as they prefer.

4. Thinking about offering a referral to an out-of-town broker or agent? You can find out if their license is active at this website: http://www.arello.com.

5. Set a positive tone in client conversations. Ask "Which of these properties do you prefer?" rather than "Do any of these properties interest you?" The first question encourages consumers to choose among options; the second question presents an easy way to reject presented options.

6. Consider a brief email survey for clients when transactions are completed. Not only will you receive valuable feedback to improve your performance, you can turn good reviews into testimonials to use in your presentations and Reports. Be sure to get written permission from clients before using their testimonials.

7. Make the most of business cycles. Every agent has periods of greater and lesser activity. Speak with other agents in your office and ask if you can handle some of their excess business when they are busy in return for your providing referrals when you're too busy to give prospects the full attention they deserve.

8. Create a "brag book" with letters from satisfied clients, photos of buyers at their new homes and copies of designations and certificates. Again, get written permission to use letters and photos from clients.

9. Include testimonials from peers, not just clients, in your marketing materials. If another agent or broker says "You're the best - I could not have done the deal without you" ask them to put it in writing.

10. Build a better business card. Invest in a card that stands out, such as folded card with two surfaces. Use one section for contact information and the other for a call-to-action such as an offer to provide complimentary Neighborhoods Reports or CMAs on request.

11. When the market slows and your competitors cut back advertising, you should maintain or increase promotional activity. Why? Because you'll have less competition from agents who reduce their visibility, and a reputation for success, even in slowing market conditions.

12. After closing, make a point of calling or sending a note to thank mortgage officers, closing agents, loan processors, office assistants and others. Good work should be recognized, and the goodwill you create will be helpful to you in future transactions.

Charles Warnock is a Marketing Director at eNeighborhoods in Boca Raton, Florida. eNeighborhoods provides powerful marketing tools for real estate professionals, including Neighborhood Reports, CMAs, Buyer Tours, NewsLetters, Maps / Aerials, and the InstaLead Marketing System.

To learn more, visit http://www.eneighborhoods.com/2007success for a free copy of the 2007 Real Estate Marketing Success eBook.