Eric Richardson's Real Estate Tech Blogs

Feedback Requested: Appraisals and your listings - do you pre-appraise?

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:22:35 -0500

Hello fellow 'Rainer's!

I was recently asked to write an article for our quarterly publication, The Appraisal Press. As you may or may not know, a la mode started as a desktop software publisher for real estate appraisers 23 years ago. To this day, over 60% of the appraisers in the United States use the number one desktop appraisal software, WinTOTAL.

Anyway, as you have probably experienced - many home purchases have either fallen through or have been on the verge of falling through because of the final value of an appraisal. I was asked to write an article educating appraisers on how they can go about getting appraial orders before a home is listed to help support not only the listing price, but help build their business beyond waiting to receive an order from a lender or AMC.

So I ask my fellow 'Rainers a two part question:

"Do you suggest getting an appraisal before listing a home"

and/or
"What could appraisers do to get agents to suggest getting an appraisal before listing a home"

I'm looking for any and all suggestions as well as your view about getting an appraisal -- good idea? bad idea? Thank you in advance to all who reply. I know this will be a great article that could help both sides of the real estate transaction.

Social Networking 'Experts' - I'm Calling You Out!

Wed, 13 May 2009 16:07:34 -0500

If you've been in real estate for the last three years, undoubtedly at some point you've found yourself in a room where the speaker, panel group or ‘expert' was talking about the social networking ‘revolution' and how it's going to set the real estate world on fire. As a speaker and as an agent it infuriates me to hear the generalities that get thrown out there with absolutely no direction for the attendees. I hear things like, "If you're going to speak to today's buyers and sellers, you have to participate in social networking." And "Buyers and sellers are finding agents through social networking sites. It's free to have a page so not having one could be hurting your business." They cite examples like, MySpace and Facebook and say, "If you're not already doing it, you need to." The thing that gets me is that you have agents out there that take these words at face value. They hear that they have to have a MySpace and Facebook account and they have to ‘tweet' on Twitter, so they leave the presentation, go back home or to their office and sign up for a profile. But when it comes to what to actually write, they don't know. What do you write? Do you talk about your history as an agent? Do you put up hundreds of pictures of your listings? Do you add your logo? And that is where I find the disconnect between what is being said and how it's lost in translation.

The fact is social networking can be an invaluable tool for an agent. But does that mean that your profile has to strictly adhere to only your real estate career? No. Your real estate career is a part of what you do. It's the extension of who you are based on your personality and interests. Those things have to be present to show people that you're not a robot that drives people to houses and writes contracts. By listening to some of the panel's or speakers that I've heard, I would think that if I simply create a real estate-centric social networking page, buyers and sellers will flock to me as if I held the title to the internet.

Successful and impactful speakers will not only point you in the direction, but they will also hand you a map. Sadly, most speakers don't, so agents find themselves lost or frustrated and will typically give up.

Think of the rest of this article as your "map".

What Social Networking IS:

•· A great tool to communicate with friends and family

•· A great way to reconnect with past classmates

•· A wonderful tool to stay up on the latest happenings at some of your favorite places

•· A great way to make thousands of people aware of important items without the SPAM label attached

•· A place to find people with like interests

What Social Networking IS NOT:

•· The answer to all of your successful real estate career dreams

What should a successful Facebook or MySpace page look like for an agent?

You! It should contain your interests, where you went to school, your career, your hobbies, where you're living now and your favorite destinations but most importantly it should be ‘loose'. The reality is that the majority of your page should talk about vacations you taken, what your main interests are (please leave "real estate" off, it's a given) and things that help your friends understand more about you. In your bio, talk about where you've been, what you've seen, what you like to do when you're not slinging real estate but also talk about how much you enjoy real estate which is why you chose the career that you have. Those are the things that give people a ‘snapshot' of you. Add pictures of vacations, outings, time with friends or sporting events. If you volunteer, add pictures of events you've helped put on. If you're a motorcycle enthusiast, add photos of your last ride, cross country trip or fundraiser poker run. If you're a wine enthusiast, add photos from your last wine tasting event or party.

But keep in mind, what people see in those pictures helps form the perception of who you are. Does it mean that you should only have pictures of you helping little old ladies across the street or the ridiculous pose of you handing the keys to a new homeowner? No. But it also doesn't mean the picture of you chugging down a beer bong at a wet T-Shirt contest might be the best to add either. Just as employers have turned to these pages to review potential employment candidates, your clients do the same.

Should I only join Facebook and MySpace?

No. Social networking isn't confined to just these two sites. They're simply the most well known (or at least the only ones talked about in these real estate conference's). The reality is there are thousands of social networking sites out there. Typically they fall into two categories, "General" and "Focused". General sites are those like Facebook or MySpace where the goal is to create a page that's open to many different interactions. Focused sites cater to specific hobbies or interests. The fact is, if you're into something (travel, cars, motorcycles, etc.) there's a networking site for those. If you're into specific things within those interests (Travels to Ireland, BMW's, Harley-Davidson's, etc.) there's a networking site for those too. It's as broad or as narrow as you want to ‘socialize' with. Almost every one of them is free and almost all of them have a ‘profile' page that you can customize. Find as many or as few as you like and give them a try.

Personally I am part of 6 groups that I actively participate in. All of them have the potential to create opportunities for my listings or to help gain buyers, regardless of the subject. Heck, YouTube is a form of social networking! I have a profile on there with 2 videos. One is of my family's vacation to Mexico (before Swine Flu) and the second one is a 60-second vignette about my real estate services. I've actually gotten a couple of e-mails from people that have seen it and asked me to help them in their home search or listing their home.

How does having my personal life information help?

It creates a community. It helps people find other individuals that have like interests. I've been asked to join groups of Harley-Davidson owners in the state of Oklahoma that I didn't know existed. How did they find me? They searched for other Harley enthusiasts and because I listed "Harley's" in my "Interests" area, I came up. Not only is it great avenue to discuss my hobbies and interest with other people that like the same things, it's a great way to generate business from those riders that buy and sell homes. Typically there's no list that you can buy of everyone that rides motorcycles in your area to hit your target market. But if you're using social networking to form friendships wouldn't it naturally benefit you when one of them is looking to buy or sell? If your social page is strictly about real estate and contains no personal information, guess who you'll be most likely to attract -- yup, other agents. While this isn't bad, it does make it extremely hard to build clients from people that do the same thing you do. You should be part of real estate agent groups, just don't make it the mainstay of your profile.

So how do I use Social Networking in my business?

Our whole goal as agents is to put ourselves in front of as many people as we can, right? So if this is the case, wouldn't it benefit our clients to put them in front of as many people as we can as well? Sure it does. If you have secured a new listing from a couple in their mid to late twenties and thirties, they're going to expect to see their home everywhere on the web. This means the MLS, your website, your brokers website, Zillow, Trulia, CityCribs, Craigslist, and yes... Facebook and MySpace. Every listing that you have should be blogged about and dropped on your Facebook page. You should write a blog about your new listing (including photos) on your MySpace page and finally, you should ‘tweet' about it to your Twitter followers (more about Twitter later)

What happens every single time someone logs onto MySpace or Twitter? They get an overview of what has happened since they've been gone. This includes that new listing that you posted. Just happened to be that their friend (whom you've never met) is moving to your town and this house is in the price range they're looking for. So they send the information to their friend (whom you've never met) and they contact you!!! Social Networking SUCCESS!!! Chances are you might not sell them THAT house but you wind up selling them A house. Pretty good investment on something that's free. Your seller is happy because they see how you're using the web to get the most eyeballs on their home. And your buyer exposure has increased tenfold.

"Tweet" but don't be a Twit

Twitter... oh, Twitter. You seemed so innocent. You were created so that millions of people could keep millions of other people informed of articles, promotions, specials and interesting stories. You could ‘follow' other Twitter members and stay informed right there on your mobile device. Then you were released to the masses and much like the video of the Miss South Carolina stammering through her "map" question, you spread fast far and wide. Unfortunately, you didn't come with instructions so your use was left to interpretation. People started ‘tweeting' about anything and everything. "Bill is going to the doctor", "Melissa is thinking about having sushi", "Mike just found a goiter on his elbow" and your effective use was decimated. Nowadays if you ‘follow' someone, typically it means that you get to share the most intimate and inane details of a person's life all at the same time. It's like we've all become, "The Truman Show" and nothing is sacred.

But all is not lost. There are still effective usages for Twitter. Use it for its intended purpose: To quickly update friends and family about relevant or useful information. If I have a new listing, it's going on Twitter. I can even give links to where they can find more information! By doing absolutely ZERO marketing, I have over 50 followers on Twitter, you can do the same. But remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Fight the urge to "tweet" about everything.

"X" marks the spot

So how does social networking work for successful agents? It's simple; they use it sparingly but effectively. They post their listings to their Facebook page, they write an article about the Home Buyer Tax Credit on their MySpace, they ‘tweet' about articles showing growth in the housing market for their area and link to the article. They join forum groups and participate in social sites that deal in their interests and create opportunities to educate members about what they do and create a higher visibility for their listings. There's even social sites where people that have real estate questions can go on and ask a real estate professional. Even better, they have filter that will recognize when people are asking about your farming area and send it directly to your e-mail or phone! That is social networking. It's creating opportunities to expand your profile to greater numbers.

Hopefully, this has helped give some actionable items to the generalities that we hear when we're sitting in these sessions. It's great to talk about how social networking can help agents but it's another thing to show them how to use the tools to succeed. Good luck and happy socializing!

Use Your XSite Like A Google Machine To Draw In Leads

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:02:13 -0500

If you're like me, it's sometimes hard to commit hours and hours of writing "why" you should live in my area when choosing a home. Sure, I could frame in a local page of great information but what makes the internet great is the ability for a user to have endless searches, endless possibilities and endless educational pieces that they can (and will) find. With my XSite I have the ability to actually frame an outside page directly into my site which will give me the flexibility to have it launch in another window or frame it with the header of my XSite theme. But if I were to simply frame the page that talks about the only thing that I want them to see, am I really doing them justice to only have one solution? To me the answer is no. If we take at face value that 80% of buyers and sellers start their search on the internet, we have to be mindful of the key word in that statistic, "search". What that means is that they don't stop at the first result and never go further. They dig, the probe, they ask questions and most of the time, the do it through Google.

One of the things that I watch on a regular basis is where people are going on my XSite. This helps me keep my XSite fresh with relevant content but also shows me what's working and what's not. And because I provide a location for information about my city, Edmond Oklahoma, I see a lot of traffic directly to this page to get more information. Instead of just typing static information that I know or have gotten from other sources, why not make it dynamic for them to search while they're there?

So how do I keep my options open but still show a higher service level? I simply ask them to "Let Me Google That For You". LMGTFY (www.lmgtfy.com) has become the easy way to guide visitors to your pre-determined search results and helps corral them to an open library of information. All you have to do is visit the site, type in your preferred keywords and LMGTFY will generate a unique URL that you can then copy and paste as a hyperlink in your XSite.

Let me give you an example. The "About Edmond" page that I talked about earlier gives me the ability to have a brief overview with quick highlights but instead of me having to go back and update that page constantly to talk about what's happening around the city, I created a LMGTFY link that is continually updated and broadens my visitors search options. If I were to type in even, "Edmond", the results are scattered all over the place which often will include multiple real estate agents, large real estate sites like Homes.com, REALTOR.com and others looking to offer their services. But if I add a link to my site provided by Let Me Google That For You, I can actually type in the preferred keywords that help give them information about the area but also display results that have many of my entries about the area that rank higher from many of my blogs.

How I edited my page:

How I set up my page is this, I will created a button on my website called "About Edmond" and then write an opening paragraph that talks about some of the highlights of living in my great city. From there I will leave an area open for different topics such as, "Edmond Events" Now, I can either make the term, "Edmond Events" the hyperlink to the Google search or I can add a separate line with a link that says, "Let Me Google That For You" which will lead them to all kinds of information from our community bulletin board, Edmond Convention and Visitors Bureau and our Chamber of Commerce. This gives them access to not just one source of information but a whole site of entries that they can view and explore.

On more than one occasion I have had visitors actually fill out a lead generation form (conveniently provided on this page) asking me where I came up with this idea. Some have said how they actually like being able to explore more than just one page of information and it actually kept them coming back to my site because it wasn't limited.

If you approach your XSite as a source of information opposed to just a slim marginal view of your idea of what you think visitors should read then adding "Let Me Google That For You" keywords and links will help expand your expertise as not just another real estate website but a gateway to the beginning of your visitors home search.

Considering putting FSBO listings on your website? You should

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:45:47 -0600

I was talking with a broker this morning about an idea that he had. He was talking about marketing to FSBO's -- shocker, right? Actually his idea had some merit. He was talking about marketing to FSBO's not to get the listing but instead give them the ability to list their home on his website. His initial thought was to look for another service provider that would give him the ability to do this but after thinking about it I came up with a different way to use his current XSite. Because a Broker XSite gives you the ability to add profiles for every agent, that doesn't mean that they have to specifically be agents. Let me explain further.

Because you have unlimited profiles that you can create under a Broker XSite, why not add the FSBO's information as they write in telling you that they want to list their home on your site? Now, let me say that you should definitely check with your local board as to whether you can add FSBO listings to your website -- I know in Oklahoma, our board eliminated the "$500 gets your home on the MLS" marketing, because there were agents getting the $500, posting the listing on the MLS and then not doing any service behind it when a contract came in. Sellers were under the assumption that for $500 they were getting the whole service (list, negotiate, sell, etc.) So they put a nix on this a couple years ago which is why I say to check locally.

But if a FSBO called or e-mailed me wanting to add their home, I would fire up my XSite, log in and then add their contact information as a new profile. And because my Broker XSite lets me set the permissions that they have I would simply limit them to only having permissions to upload their listing. There is a menu selection that includes FSBO as one of the entries. At this point I would create a custom listing page that filters out all listings but the 'FSBO' status. Bingo, all FSBO properties on my website! If someone writes in to ask about the listing I can either have the e-mail go to the homeowner or I might go above my normal service level and work with the FSBO. Who knows, I might even work out a fee for the service at the end. I might even be able to turn a few of these "customers" into full fee clients.

What a great marketing piece to the FSBO community! With the decline in FSBO website traffic, this might be a way to build an inventory of FSBO listings that hang off of your marketing and search engine results. This would definitely drive me to change up my postcard message and talk about a great website to see all of the FSBO properties in your area!

In a world overflowing with agents rushing to get into the foreclosure market, this is a way to identify a niche that makes you the expert in a sea of faceless foreclosure agents.

Are you an educated decision or an impulse buy?

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:29:54 -0600

Has the Internet made an negative impact on how we list and sell homes? Do we just give up too much with the Internet for buyers and sellers? Is it too easy for buyers and sellers to scan the Internet and find what they want without ever calling an agent? With all of these articles and blogs about how to buy or sell a home have we taken the mystery out of buying or selling a home? Thankfully, YES! Sorry if you were thought of these questions as a rallying cry to arms to cut down that big tower that transmits all that Internet stuff but let me explain. Honestly, I am happy that technology has moved center stage on how we do business because it's created opportunities that would have never been there before.

Can you believe that I have friends of mine that are agents in their 30's that actually HATE the fact that technology has made such an impact on real estate? I'm talking people that think it's the scourge of what is wrong with the industry. "They have too much information." and "There's no reason for them to contact me if they have all of the information right there." are just a few of the things that I've heard before. I guess I am a glass half full type of guy. My thought process is, this is exactly why they will contact you but it's not going to happen magically. It will require you to work different. If you only have a website for your real estate business you're not arming yourself with enough ammunition.

Put yourself in your clients shoes. When you first learned that an agent has to have a website to succeed in real estate, you probably started doing your homework to find the best fit for you. You might have asked another agent that you know but no matter what their answer was, you still did some research online. You might have gone to Google and typed in "Real Estate Websites" and gotten hundreds of pages of results. You probably clicked into the first couple of them and saw an ongoing list of features or ‘must haves'. You might have read testimonials from their customers that talked about how their business improved by using "Brand X" website provider. But then you clicked a couple of other providers that gave an entirely different list of ‘must haves' and new pricing and their customers testimonials about how much better their business is because they used "Brand Y" websites. After you've looked over a couple of site providers you started to notice that one or two companies have multiple results in that search. Yes, they have their website but they also have articles about them, press releases, reviews, blogs, etc. and there's a pretty good chance that you might have chosen this company as your provider. Why? Because you felt that if they had this much information out there, they were probably the best choice out there because of their exposure and expertise. But, isn't this the same thing buyers and sellers do when it comes to choosing an agent?

So if we feel like we're "giving too much away" on the Internet, why do we ask our clients to be different than the very way we operate? Just as you typically will not choose the first entry on a search engine result because it was there, why do we assume that if you're first on the "Orlando Homes for sale" search that they're going to choose you? If there's one thing we know, it's that today's buyers and sellers are some of the most tech savvy clients we've ever dealt with and that trend will increase not decrease. With our instant gratification society, they have too many television shows, website pages, iPhone applications, and other forms of media to simply leave it up to fate and choose the first result in a search engine "just because they were first".

Instead, we need to expect the same of our clients that we expect of ourselves -- to make an educated decision. This brings me back to my original story about the friends I mentioned earlier. These are the people that think because they have a website with 15 pages on it and provides a ton of information about the buying and selling process, provides all of the available homes in their market, and has a bio about how fast they can sell a home, that they're going to have a chance of capturing these web surfers. While a website is a great start, having just 15 pages out of the millions that are available, there's a pretty slim chance you're going to capture a lot of buyers or sellers. When this happens, those agents tend to look at 'technology' as a bad thing because they still see the Internet as a free-for-all. Or they'll make the grave mistake that I commonly see. When an agents website doesn't produce leads they'll set up a trap -- most agents will call it a "Guest Book". But forcing people to sign in and give information will actually produce the exact opposite of its intended effect. If you were only getting one or two leads from your site, this move will ensure that you will drive that down to zero. People don't want to feel forced to give information and they know they can find it somewhere else.

The best way to increase your leads and one of the best ways I found was to increase my exposure and make me a multiple result was to start branching out past my website. I created a profile on ActiveRain and started writing about things I encountered when listing or selling a home. These included solutions that other buyers and sellers should watch for, questions on how to handle situations to other agents that were on the forum and technology suggestions that I wanted to pass on to the group. Within my first 4 articles I was finding my blogs and conversations popping up when someone typed in, "Belle Pointe Edmond Oklahoma". Because I was including the cities I covered in my articles and adding them as keywords to my blogs, search engines were picking them up and returning them as results in future searches. I also put out a press release about a new technology that I was using to help decrease a home's days on the market and sent it off to the real estate section of my local newspaper. They picked it up, wrote an article about it and it appeared on their website as well.

Within a couple of months I had gone from trying to compete for buyers and sellers armed with just a website, to multiple articles, press releases and blogs about my business that showed I was the expert when it came to selling homes in my area. When buyers and sellers see your name over and over in their search results it helps connect the dots to making an educated decision.

Hello and welcome

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:56:28 -0600

I wanted to take a second to introduce myself and welcome you to our new real estate broker technology group. My name is Eric Richardson and I am the Real Estate Technology Advisor for a la mode. My purpose for creating this group is to provide brokers from all over the country a dedicated place where they can come to discuss the technology that affects their industry.

To give you a little insight to my background, I have been in the real estate technology field for over 10 years now. I became a licensed REALTOR in 2003 and in that time I have actively listed and sold properties all over the Oklahoma City metro. In 2008 I was given the "Outstanding Production" award by Keller Williams which was achieved through the application of the technology practices I use in my business.

Since 1998, I have traveled all over the country and spoken to thousands of real estate professionals in seminars and trade shows about how to best utilize technology in their real estate or appraisal business. By continually reading and exploring the latest real estate trends and new technology, this has helped me offer real solutions to brokers and agents and help them stay ahead of the constant change that technology brings.

So how will this group be different than the thousands of real estate technology articles and blogs currently out there? While most of the articles and blogs I read are catered directly to the agent without any thought of how brokers can help their agents or how brokers can use technology to help their office. Many of the brokers that I have met and did presentations for consistenly commented that they either felt 'out of touch' with their agents when it comes to technology and that's why I created this group.

I want to bring together brokers from every experience level to discuss what things are working for their office, what things they might want to bring to their office and finally, what suggestions they can make to their agents to help reduce their agents list and sell more properties and how to get higher fees (and in turn higher splits for you) for their services.

This isn't a one way conversation though. Although I will be continually posting my findings and the results of my meetings with other brokers, this group was created for all members. i look forward to building our group into a deep informational pool to help new and experienced brokers alike.

Again, welcome to the group.

"Thank you for your e-mail. You're not important"

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:38:52 -0500

"Your e-mail is important to me. Typically I read and respond to e-mail between the hours of 11:00am - 12:00pm and then again between 5:00pm - 6:00pm"

Is their e-mail important, really? What part of, "I'll get back to you when it's convenient for me", says, "You're important"? I see these "auto responders" a lot when I will e-mail a colleague about something going on in our transaction or just question in general. My first thought is always, "People still use these?" Here's why I say this. In the late-90's when e-mail was quickly becoming the staple of communication between individuals and smart phones with e-mail support were but a far away thought, there was a need for auto reply. In some cases it helped the individual sending an e-mail to know why you might not be responding to their instant communication form immediately and it let them know that their message didn't fall into an e-mail black hole. But just as times have changed, it seems that some agents don't want to change. With millions of today's of our potential buyers and sellers receiving and responding to e-mail directly from their phone, can we really afford to basically tell them, "You're going to have to wait."? Every time I see auto replies like, "I check and respond to e-mail within 24 hours" I seriously cringe.

There was a time that a 24 hour turn around was acceptable; it was right around the time that we attached those shoulder cradles to our land line handsets to take long calls. The truth is, we now have a window of 30 minutes or less response time and frankly with the advancement of instant notifications, it's going to get shorter. Put yourself in their shoes. You're excited about your first home that you've been approved on. You log onto the web, start your search of homes that are available in their price range and then you find it, the perfect house. It's everything you want, you want to see it now so you click the link on the "Contact Me" section of the site. You type all of your information in and ask when you can see it. You click "send" and in 2 seconds you get a reply that tells you, "Thanks for writing me about your home needs! Typically I check mail once a day and when I do, I'll get back to you. Remember, I love referrals!!"

I always wonder if those agents that have these types of auto replies wonder why they usually wind up splitting the commission with another agent. If a person that takes the time to fill out one of your lead generation forms or makes that first contact, they're typically expecting a quick response. If you won't do it, they'll earmark the property they want to see and contact the agent that will get back to them quickly. It's not uncommon for a person looking to sell their home to e-mail numerous agents at the beginning and talk to the first few that respond. If they receive an e-mail that says you will respond on your time, those typically get deleted. Their thought process is, if you're that unavailable at the before you've listed their home, how are you going to be if you did list their home?

"But Eric, I make myself available for those people that are my clients." Great, but what about those people that want to become your client and you've essentially told them that they haven't made "that list" yet?

The truth is, if you can't do it, there are some hungry agents out there biting at the bit to provide that extra level of service and include a 20-minute response time as part of their normal business. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you have make yourself available within 20-minutes of a buyer or seller contacting you. What I am saying is that it isn't that hard to simply personally reply or call that person to explain that you're with a customer, getting ready to walk into a closing, or simply having lunch and you'll be happy to call them back shortly. Doing this, eliminates that impersonal, cold e-mail that they get with an auto responder and it lets them know that you are an agent on top of their game.

Do yourself a favor, go back into your auto responder and uncheck that box, you'll be glad you did.

If listings are the lifeblood of agents... why are most of them anemic?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:05:31 -0500

If listings are the lifeblood of an agent, why do some agents treat them with such distain? You've seen them while cruising through the MLS, looking for that perfect house for your new buyers. You add all of the criteria that they're looking for, the price range and click "OK". After a little spin through the MLS, it returns 20 properties that match your criteria. When you start to dig through them, it's amazing to see the complete disregard that some agents have for their listings. Here are some examples to name just a few:

No photos - the death knell for a listing, ESPECIALLY in the first 10 days of the listing hitting the market
Descriptions that look like newspaper ads - "2br,3bth,grt loc8shn,clos 2 evrthng... $800,000 wont last!" Wow, if that doesn't scream "buy me!" I don't know what does.
Typos - Here's an actual listing I saw: "Enjoy you're own Concert pool this Sumer" ("You're" instead of "your". "Concert" instead of "concrete". "Sumer" instead of "Summer)

There are so many examples I could give about this scenario, but the simple truth is, should we really be shocked when a FSBO is hesitant to work with an agent or the fact that real estate agent jokes rank right up there with lawyer jokes?

Quick Comparison:
Which listing might your buyers pay attention to more? (Given a 200 character limit)

"This home has it all! 4 bedroom, 3 bath with a large backyard, custom carpet and tile work in the kitchen. You'll love this house!" -or- "Located in central Edmond, this beautiful home boasts 4 large bedrooms and three baths, custom tile work in the chefs kitchen. Built in 2007 this home has all of the luxury you seek in your next home."

Your listing is your brand. It's your first impression. It's your calling card. Simply put, it's how buyers, sellers and even other agents view your approach to your business and what you'll be like to work with if their buyers decide to buy your listing.

I hear agents tell me that it's just so "time consuming" to enter a listing (especially if they have to enter it twice, whew!) Well, it should be time consuming. In this day and age, we should be thrilled to flesh out as many details about a listing that we can. If we have to enter it twice, that's just another chance to get it right. It used to be (when a listing went on the market and sold in the same day) a little easier to get away with sloppy listings because they didn't stick around. No more is this the case, and now we need our listings to stand out from the other 50 listings for sale in the same neighborhood - and in some cases on the same block.

As I drove through a neighborhood last weekend to drop off my son at a friend's house, I saw approximately 20 houses for sale in their subdivision. Most of these were clusters of homes that were on the same block or street. However, on every one of these listings I was shocked to see simply the proverbial yard sign and flyer box (most empty) with no other distinction between any of the houses. Oddly, every home was listed by a different agent so it tells me that for every seller that saw their neighbors house up for sale, there was nothing that differentiated the agent that caught the neighbors attention and made them at least inquire about listing with that agent.

As a seller, would I maybe look at an agent that had a "See the virtual tour of this home at www..." or "Need more info? Visit www.2701DuPont.com"? If I saw an agent that deployed these sales tools, would I be more inclined to ask my neighbor that's listing the home, "Hey, does your agent do this on all of the houses they sell?" Heck, I probably would even call to tell that agent, "I want you to use all those things to sell my home."

The point is that we should be doing everything we can to provide an extra level of service with our listings. Not just to combat the "What did you do for me" mentality that we sometimes get post-sale, but to become "the" agent in your sellers mind and to help garner numerous referrals in the future.

That means that we need to take advantage of all opportunities to do the following:

Write full descriptions about our listings.
Provide virtual tours.
Create a Podcast.
Create branded brochures.
Use marketing programs to announce Open Houses.
Shoot a homemade video and post it to your site.
Record an audio tour and post it.
Add maps to your listing.
Share your listing with other agents on their sites (Listing XChange).
Automatically syndicate your listing to the hottest real estate sites out there.
Write a Blog.
ActiveRain Bloggers, "UNITE"!
Send "Just Listed" postcards and announcements.
Create a dedicated website for each listing. Example: http://www.2701dupont.com

Now, before you throw out the "Uh, yeah Eric, BUT that would cost a TON of money," let me finish. In my XSite from a la mode, most of these features don't cost a thing except for my time. And I'm sorry, but to make 3-4% per listing, spending an average of two hours per listing doing all of the items I mentioned is nothing; but my return on investment (my time and very little money) is huge. Mix that with the fact that if I garner just ONE referral or have one seller in that same neighborhood that noticed my marketing methods of information available about the home and that received my "Just Listed" postcard, I've doubled or in some cases tripled my investment.

We've always had to justify our commission rates in some fashion or at some point in getting the listing. "I've got a great personality" doesn't always cut it anymore. However, when sellers have seen my marketing campaigns that I've deployed, it's actually funny that I rarely get that objection any more!

There's an SEO expert in all of us

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:03:01 -0500

One of the things that is largely overlooked in an agent's website is their tracking ability. Not just their number of visitors but where those visitors come from and what terms they used to find you. I want to show you how to do a little work on your site and get results organically. For me, this achieves two important things for my website. First, it ensures that I am continually updating my site with new and fresh content which will help with search results. Second, it helps me identify what actual buyers and sellers are typing into the major search engines and what I might need to change, delete or update on my site.

Inside your XSite is a Stats tool that will show you the number of web visitors you've had from today through the last 90 days. It also shows how many of them are returning visitors. This is great information to share with your sellers. But there are two areas that I continually watch and want to focus on here: "Referring URL's" and "Common Search Phrases". These two areas tell me exactly how and where people are finding me on the web.

Referring URL's

It might look like gibberish but there's gold hidden in those links. As I scroll through the list of addresses, I take special note of areas that appear numerous times. If it's a site that I have a profile with (like ActiveRain), I will make sure that I update my profile on that site and also write down that site for later use. I look at the search engines that are ranking me and write them down as well. But here's the big secret: if I see a site like Yahoo in my list, I will move my mouse just over that link. When you hover over it, a yellow banner will appear and show the address. At the end of it you'll see exactly what the visitor typed to find your site!

Here's an example:

Notice at the end of the link it shows, "Richardson+Homes+Oklahoma+City", what that tells me is that a buyer or seller went to a search engine and typed in "Richardson Homes Oklahoma City" and my site came up. Knowing this, I would then go back to my home page in the "My Content" area and edit that page to update my Keywords at the bottom of the page and add these terms to help boost my rankings. See example below.

Common Search Phrases

This area tells me the most common words or phrases that were typed into a search engine that resulted in my site coming back in their search. I look for the most frequently used terms that returned my site as a result to see if the general public is looking for a common item or term about real estate. I can use that to boost the information on my site or even create an entire page to it. By eliminating those pages that get no views and replacing them with what people are actually looking for, I keep my site relevant and fresh for visitors, while optimizing it for search engines.

Yes, I'm guilty... I DWT. (but not anymore)

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:39:20 -0500

Oh it drives my wife absolutely crazy. There we are driving along the open roads of the beautiful metro of Oklahoma City and then she'll hear it... "DING DING" At that point she knows this ride has gone from an enjoyable ride with a safe and cautious driver into, "Crazy Drive while texting driver". I'm guilty, I admit it. Sorry.

For the life of her, my wife can not figure out why my friends and I don't simply pick up our phones and call each other. Instead we choose to go back and forth for hours texting our thoughts and observations over our phones -- sounds ironic doesn't it? Texting on our phones instead of calling on our phones. Anyway, as soon as I see the message I begin to shift into my DWT (driving while texting) position:

Knees raised to the 5 and 7 position, rolling eye checks of the traffic ahead to ensure that I've properly backed off another 10 feet from the bumper of the other car (just in case of a lock up) and I begin...

It's like a science but lately I've seen the error of my ways (and lost partial hearing in my right ear from my wife yelling, "WATCH THE ROAD")

But now, that's all gone...

Enter JOTTER www.jott.com

This little free beauty has freed me forever. It's quite simple, log on, create a profile, enter your cell number and e-mail address. At this point, you'll be prompted to call a toll-free number to confirm your phone number and there you have it.

From here, I saved the toll-free number in my favorites on my phone, I call the number and an automated voice asks, "Who do you want to Jott?" I'll say the name, it confirms and then I start recording. Once I am done the voice will tell me, "Got it". I hang up and magically my voicemail is transcribed into text and sent as a text and an e-mail to my recipient. The cool thing is that you can also set reminders for yourself, set tasks and confirmations as well.

My car is set up with bluetooth so I recorded the Jott number into my car and all I have to do is tell it to call Jott, record my message and it's delivered immediately. The best thing about it, my hands never leave the steering wheel.

Since I've signed up, the drives with my wife have gotten much more enjoyable, for both of us.

Try Jott, you'll love it.

Open House - Open Website

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:41:31 -0500

How many countless Sundays have you spent sitting in your open house and either reading or using that time to "catch up" while individuals stroll through your listing? I know that we always jump up when we hear the crack of the door to make sure that we provide a friendly face to greet visitors - but what do we do after that initial greeting? Typically if it's like most of the open houses I've walked through without my "agent hat" on, most agents will greet me upon entry, hand me a flyer and let me know to look around and feel free to let them know if I have any questions. Once they've made that introduction, they'll scamper back off to the living room or kitchen where they have established their "open house camp" (that area strategically set up as a work area/greeting/pivot spot) and wait for the visitor to make their way back in order to take a temperature of the buyers' like or dislike of their listing. At this point, following typical protocol, they'll give a smile, ask how everything is going and then wait for the buyer to see the other half of the house before hurriedly making small talk as the buyer is leaving.

How many opportunities do we squander by doing this repetitive routine? One of the most successful things I do to help increase the awareness of my visitors is to have my XSite on my laptop open and running. I also open my contacts folder in my XSellerate to capture information about the buyer when I've engaged them during their visit. After their walkthrough and before they head out, I will engage those buyers not working with an agent already by letting them know that I have a full virtual tour of this listing I can send to them so that they don't have to drag around 100 flyers from all of the open houses they'll be visiting today. At this point, I'll ask them if they've planned out their route to look at open houses or if they're just driving through neighborhoods. No matter what their answer is, I will let them know that I have my website up and can quickly show them a list of open houses today and even e-mail a driving map to them so that they're not driving around aimlessly. Our MLS will let me narrow searches for open houses and even provide printable or e-mail centric directions. I find that over 80% of my visitors carry a SmartPhone that they can use to check e-mail or receive messages. I think I've been turned down a handful of times in the whole time I've offered this.

When we go over to enter a visitor's information, I will have my website up with the contacts information available. I'll then type in their information, save it to my contacts and tell them to expect the open house driving directions e-mailed to their phone shortly.

For those visitors that take me up on my offer, what I've done is capture their information so I can follow up with them later. I've also completed two things: 1) I've provided another level of service that they're not used to seeing; 2) I've again established my website by telling them that they can find a lot of information about the various subdivisions in our area.

Face it - how many people like filling out a blank sign-in sheet when they walk into an open house? I'll bet I've met more "Mark Jones" and "Michelle Smith's" than I care to imagine -- because they don't like feeling that they'll be spammed to death. But with a simple suggestion to help them plan a route to help them ease gas consumption, I have people that appreciate the effort to help them instead of them thinking I view them as another faceless visitor of my open house. All of the information that I send to them is branded with my website address and the follow up e-mails that they'll receive in the coming days announce other properties that match their search criteria.

I've picked up more than 10 new buyers and sellers - directly or indirectly from their referral -- using this method that normally would have just resulted in another person walking through my open house. With air cards being offered by almost every major cellular carrier, the return on investment that could be had by simply having your laptop "always on" is immeasurable.

Are you a doorway or a doormat?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:10:35 -0600

"New home sales plummet."

"Housing industry lowest in 20 years."

"Foreclosure rates skyrocket."

A homeowner reading the newspaper or watching the national news these days wouldn't think they had a chance if they wanted to sell. On the flip-side, seeing these headlines would make buyers think that it's close to impossible to get a loan given the foreclosure rates and lack of money in the real estate market. Both buyers and sellers may assume that they should hold off until they start seeing different headlines touting that the real estate market is back and flourishing.

The biggest problem that I've seen in this market shift is that agents are subscribing to this thought process as well, which really surprises me. Is the market down right now? Yes. Does that mean that the entire industry is dried up and there's no more houses being bought and sold? Hardly.

There are specific things about the market that can not be refuted:

Foreclosures have tightened the regulations involved with getting a
home loan.
Homes are sitting on the market longer than what we're used to.
Home values in SOME -not all- areas, has taken a drop.

But there are other things that are still true too:

There are buyers out there.
There are sellers out there.

Our job has gotten harder but not impossible. Now it's critical to start really digging in and working with clients in your area to educate them about what your market is doing and become the voice of reason in your area.

Did your area experience a modest growth over the last 10 years? If so, do your buyers and sellers even know this or are they left to what they see and read in national publications and networks? Is your market in a value tailspin? The reality is that there are still people that are fine with a modest 3 or 5 % return because they bought in 2002 and they need to sell. We tend to assume that if the 50 - 60% returns are gone, then people don't sell. Not true.

So how do we spread this message? There's some effective and practical ways you can change your advertising to start becoming the voice of reason in your area.

1. If you're in an area that has sustained modest growth, let people know. For example, consider a postcard that said, "Knoxville homes survive the real estate plunge"? That kind of headline is specific to the recipient and gets a further read. I would use the limited space to give the facts:

Knoxville experienced a modest 3% growth
Homes are still maintaining their value
Homes are seeing an additional 30-45 DOM
Visit my website to read all of the statistics of why now is still a good time to buy and sell in Knoxville

2. If you're in an area that's been hit with lower values, you can still take an approach that gets them to read your message. For example, your headline could read something like, "Why would anyone buy or sell a home in Naples?" And again, I would just to stick to the facts:

Naples has seen a decrease in values but that doesn't mean that homes are not selling
Days on the market have increased but they're not unrealistic
Visit my website to see what steps I can take to ensure that your home stands out among the crowd

3. Make sure to add monthly neighborhood statistics to your website, newsletters and blogs. Organically, this is one of the best ways to return in the search results for individuals scouring the Internet about their area. Because the information is fresh and specific, this not only helps to educate your potential clients but also help set expectations and realities in your area as well.

4. Finally, don't forget to promote why you are uniquely equipped to sell houses in today's market. Do you have years of experience? Make sure people know that you've been around for the booms and busts over the years, which has prepared you to help them navigate this challenging market. If you have other competitive advantages such as great listing tools, shorter-than-average listing times, etc., share them in your marketing message.

At the end of the day, people are looking for solid information and good advice about how the real estate market effects them. Now is the time to share information with buyers and sellers about their specific market that could help them tremendously and gain you clients for life.

When did homeowners start setting the price?!

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:59:27 -0600

(Stepping up on soap box)

So, I am watching HGTV over the weekend (my wife is absolutely addicted to this channel) and I walk in to catch this agent sitting down with a potential seller at lunch. It's all cute and quaint as they sit in this open cafe with the sun shining down only shaded briefly by the overhanging trees that dot the landscape. As this "team" of agents sits down with the seller they begin to tell her that given all the information and comparisons in her neighborhood this team had arrived at a listing price of $495,000.

The seller then tells these ladies that she had budgeted a sales price of NETTING $525,000 (by my estimations, this would be a listing price of approx. $560,000+) to give her money to put toward the home she wished to purchase. Her reasoning for listing higher? "I hope that someone comes in and just falls in love with it" (Mind you, this home is a 2 story colonial, on a busy street, complete with PINK, PURPLE and GREEN rooms...)

My wife's response was, "Well, lets see what her house looks like." My response was to scream at the television, "WALK AWAY AGENTS. THIS SELLER ISN'T GROUNDED IN REALITY!!!" To my absolute shock, these agents look at each other and...AGREE TO LIST THE HOUSE AT HER PRICE! Are you kidding me? Now, I am completely glued to the television so that I can watch as this trainwreck unfolds. After the commercial break, the film crew is riding along with this agent and her comment was, "I really hope we can get a good Broker's Open today. Maybe some agent will walk in for the free food and then remember, "I have a buyer that might like this house." She went on to say that she hopes it sells in a couple of weeks, otherwise the seller will pull the listing and just stay in the house. Really?

Fast forward, the agent team pays for catering and holds what appears to be a smaller turnout than they expected and the show ended with the seller staying in the house.

WHY oh WHY would an agent do this to themselves. First, let a seller tell them that they HAVE to sell the house for more than what it's worth KNOWING that it wouldn't sell they still take the listing and on top of that, they're given a window of a couple of weeks to sell.

I just don't get it. Would anyone here take a listing KNOWING they have a tiny or no chance of selling a property just to have a listing? Am I missing something? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I just can't see footing that much up front money for a listing that has a sales price, listing window and terms set soley by the seller. Don't we owe more to our profession to bring people to reality?

(steps off of soap box)

Thank you.

Working smarter and with less paper

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:50:10 -0600

Here's a question to the AR community...

I have a couple of buyers that I am working with. I set them up for auto-notifications of properties that meet their criteria that come on the market, have a price change, etc. My buyers will e-mail me for more information about a particular property that they want more information on and when they want to schedule a showing.

Here's where I would like to hear some suggestions on working smarter. When I pull the MLS sheet for the property they want to see, I will print it off and use this as my "everything" reference about that house. I go through and circle whether the home is vacant or not, if the home is on MLS lockbox or combination, the asking price vs. the original list price and finally the days on the market.

When we visit the house I will use the back of the sheet to write down notes that they mention (bad and good) about the house and then at the end of the evening, I will sit down and type out an e-mail to them with all of their notes and a PDF of the MLS of the individual property.

WHEW!!!

So here's my question: Am I working too hard?

My utopia would involve a software that integrates with my website where I could create a special page for my clients on my website where they have their own login page. From there, I would like to be able to load all of the listings we've seen and the notes from their visits so that they could view them easily. Oh, also I would like for them to be able to give the listings a ranking and give them the ability to add notes they might have thought about after we saw it.

Take that a step further, whenever I upload information about our showings, it automatically alerts my buyers with an e-mail that their page on my site has new information. Stay with me here, it would also fire off an e-mail to the listing agent where they could hit my site and view the feedback and give them the ability to forward that feedback to their own client. MAN, talk about service.

I know TopProducer gives me the ability to manage my clients with trackable contacts and things like that but a program that integrated with my website and streamlined my business model would rock.

What do you think? Am I dreaming? Am I overlooking something that would make it even better? Let me know!

"Bring me a contract"... Well, since you asked.

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:46:52 -0600

I have to share this with the group. So I pick up a new buyer last week and we're in the process of sizing up homes and we're going through to arrange the homes that he wants to see. We narrow it down to probably four or five and I start making calls to schedule the showings and out of the four, three of them went just like this.

Me: "Hi _______? This is Eric Richardson with Keller Williams I wanted to schedule a time to show your listing on Stray Fox Road"

Agent: "Absolutely what time were you thinking?"

Me: "How's 4:00?"

Agent: "Perfect"

Me: "Great, I will call you with any feedback I get from my buyer"

(and here is where it derails)

Agent: "Okay...(almost in a singing tone) Bring me a contract..."

Is this some new way that REALTORS are saying goodbye to each other? I completely missed that policy change in my last CE class. I just don't get it -- is it nervous excitement that someone is going to look at the house? Is it the fact that you can hear the seconds ticking away on your listing agreement?

I always have to kind of giggle when I am hanging up because I just don't know what to say at that point. If I say, "Okay" then I'm lying. If I say, "I'll try" then I could be found guilty of steering. If I say, "We'll see what happens" then I feel like I've got a lot of pressure on me while showing that house. That's just not right.

Nothing earth shattering in this post. Just a little glimpse of humor in our everyday lives.

Why having a website is no longer enough

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:33:44 -0600

Having a website is no longer enough

No matter how long you've been in the business, you've probably already started to find more and more of what I call "super-buyers" and "super-sellers". These were yesterday's buyers and sellers who are now armed with a vast array of information and education we've seldom before seen. From the constantly increasing availability of information on the Internet, to the many real-estate related shows now on television, this new generation of buyers and sellers has raised the bar. In doing so, they're forcing us, as agents, to step up our game if we're to be recognized as residential real estate experts.

With this new era of buyers and sellers, it's no longer sufficient to just have a website. Even more crucial, at least to my business, is having a fully integrated and automated system for keeping in touch with my clients before, during, and after the sale. That's why I use XSellerate.

It puts makes those personal touches right at your fingertips, and it's so simple. When I get a new client referred to me I immediately enter their contact information into my XSite contact database, along with any other information I can get (kids names, birthdates, anniversaries, etc.). I then assign that contact to a "group" (buyer, seller, investor, renter, etc.) Total time? About 15 minutes.

The very next step for me is to build an ongoing, automatic campaign that matches their status. If they're a buyer, I will set them up to receive "Steps to Homeownership" which talks about getting pre-approved, lists which documents they'll need, discusses why they have to get pre-approved before I'll start driving them around, and includes a few suggestions of lenders or Mortgage Brokers that I recommend.

Next they'll receive campaigns that talk about "What to expect when a contract has been written", "What goes on in the 30 days of purchasing your home", "Why home inspections are necessary", and others.

The great thing is, XSellerate has dozens of pre-written, spot on campaigns to choose from but there's an added bonus... you can edit any of them or completely write your own and add it to your campaign library for future use.

The benefits are clear. I am providing a service that most agents don't. I am educating them to remove some of their anxiety. Remember, we have sold countless homes and we know what to expect in the home buying or selling process. However this might be our clients' very first home and they may be pretty nervous, even if they don't say so. If you fail to communicate with them pro-actively, you could be hurting your chances of earning a true referral later.

Next, I increase their e-mail campaigns about 12 days from our closing with educational pieces like, "Transfer and set up of utilities", "Don't forget to forward your mail" and others, to help them remember the simple things that easily get overlooked in the hustle bustle of the final days before closing.

I have had many of my e-mails forwarded to my clients friends and family members only to have them come back and hire me BECAUSE of my correspondence. Think about that. I send them somewhere around 10 e-mails (which are all automatic) and potentially pick up 3 new clients over the course of a year. That's a great return on investment.

After the sale, I do the typical follow up with birthdates and home ownership anniversary emails. Then in a couple of years, I'll send "Your amortization has peaked; is it time to remove your PMI?" In short, I can talk to my clients for years because I spent 15 minutes the very first day I met them to input them into my automated follow-up system (XSellerate).

Being committed to spending those precious few minutes up front to enter those contacts into XSellerate has netted me many, many clients years later. For me, XSellerate is perhaps the most crucial component to growing my business - even more so than my website, especially in a difficult market.

For more of my articles, and other agent marketing insider articles, click here: http://www.alamode.com/support/Marketing/Agent

Why the iPhone will change the way we do business as REALTORS

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:08:46 -0500

Okay, so it was a little far fetched and hard for me to get behind the national excitement about the iPhone. I looked at it this way, I had the Samsung Blackjack that I had just bought at the time of the iPhone announcement ($500 thank you Cingular) I mean, I didn't need all of this Steve Jobs hype -- my Blackjack checked e-mail, gave me web access, let me view listings and even edit my messages -- so really, what did I need an iPhone for? Let me tell you how wrong I was.

The iPhone will eventually (if not already) change the way we do business. I stopped in yesterday to my local AT&T store and coolly said to the sales representative, "I would like an iPhone...8 Gig please". She turned and walked into some back room as I craned my head like a kid in Willy Wonka's factory to see if there was some super secret room where they actually built the phones. She returned, small black box in hand and slid it on the table across from me. I think it took me about 15 seconds to answer her next question before I mumbled something incoherent and had her ring it up.

Right off the top, even the boxing is sexy on these things. I got back to the office, gingerly started tearing the plastic covering off as if I would spoil the surprise if I went too fast. I opened it and there it lay in all of it's black, compact, shimmering glory...the iPhone.

First thing I noticed was how drop dead simple this phone was to activate and sync with my Gateway laptop. It fires up iTunes, recognizes the phone and asks me to input my cell number. Once I completed that, I picked my plan (which oddly was $20 cheaper a month than my Blackjack for the same plan -- so there's $240 back in the ol' pocket) All told, I might have spent 8 minutes bringing my iPhone to life.

Now for the good part, this little invention of modern science -- this will become my listing presentation in a box. With the way the iPhone handles video, photos and the Internet, using the iPhone in a listing presentation is an absolute no brainer. More and more, sellers are looking beyond the typical brochure. They want to be entertained and engaged with multi-media presentations about how their home will be showcased and the iPhone doesn't disappoint. I look at my business model as this: my future clients already consider things like iPods, iPhones, Internet research and blogs as standard items. This is all they know and if you're not speaking their ‘language' how can we expect to land them as clients?

I know what most of you are thinking, "You can't have your iPhone do all the work" and you're exactly right. You don't want it to. I still have my supplemental docs that present items like their particular subdivision's market analysis. But when it comes to how I will advertise their home, the websites I post to, the single property website that I will build for their home and finally the sample video tour that gets shot for their listing.

Take this one step further, because there's a "YouTube" link right on the home keys of your iPhone, why not video your previous clients with their testimonials?! How cool would that be? Play it back, let the sellers view actual wording of your expertise in front of the home you just represented them on?

Also, with the mapping capabilities built right in, how nice is it to lock in your destinations to show houses right in your phone? Tom Tom? No... iPhone. ;)

Going deeper than that, the mapping software even has satellite view to point out a detailed aerial view of the prospective house. Cool factor points? +15

I've owned the iPhone less than 24 hours now and already I have had people asking me about it at the grocery store and the gas station. Think about it, what a perfect segue into "why" you bought the iPhone and let these people see what you do in action. Follow that up with a business card and you have the perfect entry into conversations. Although it doesn't interact with my Supra lockbox key like the Treo but I look at it this way, it's a minor trade off with major points on the positive side of my iPhone.

Mark my words, this will become the standard.

Listing your friends home - good idea or friendship killer?

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:54:39 -0500

In January of this year my best friend and his wife decided that it was time for them to sell their home and downsize because his wife wanted to quit work and stay home with the kids. Okay...no biggie. Naturally, he approaches me and asks if I will list and sell it for them and I let them know that I need to do some homework on their house first and I will get back to him.

The following week we all sit down and go over the findings and my listing suggestion, haggle back and forth on the commission and all come to an agreement. The house hits the MLS at the end of February; I print the flyers, add it to my personal site, and create a custom site for the home. All good right? Not so fast. I typically don't do an open house for the first couple of weeks because all it typically results in is a merry-go-round of all the neighbors traipsing through. I also write off the first 30 flyers to the neighbors as well because my "Just Listed" postcards won't get to them for at least two days.

My friend calls me the day after the listing and asks what time do they need to be out of the house for my Open House that I'll be doing that Sunday...err...well...1:45? I mentioned my neighbor story to him but he still wants one done. Oh, and he also wants one done until the house sells. Eeek. Not wanting to upset the friendship cart, I let him know that I will do them. (I know what you're thinking -- "It's your fault for not putting your foot down in the first place -- and you're exactly right)

Moving on...fast forward to June. I've done an open house every single weekend since the home was listed (except for Mother's Day -- my wife would have come unglued) and I am still fielding calls from my friend but our casual conversations about everyday things has disappeared and has been replaced with, "What's the deal on my house? When are we going to get an offer? We need to move." It almost got to the point where I didn't even want to answer my phone, but alas I am a professional.

Finally we get an offer, find them a new home (which the seller said that he won't do the deal unless I agree to 2%) negotiate the deal, the inspection findings, the repairs, dealing with the title company, ad naseum...

To make a long story a little shorter, we closed last Friday and I haven't heard from him at all. I feel like overall I made a good commission but it cost me my friendship or at least seriously damaged it.

Although I will never do business with a friend, has this happened to anyone out there and what was the outcome?

Maximize your website content to ensure maximum leads potential

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:57:03 -0500

I am a big fan of using the Internet and websites as the starting point for my clients. Although I have five different websites from four different providers, I find that the easiest and the one that gets the most results is my Agent XSite by a la mode. Part of my success in getting leads and clients from my website is to constantly tweak and update my site regularly. This blog entry gives just a few small items that I have utilized with my XSite over the last couple of years.

Of all the criteria used to rank websites, search engines value unique, relevant, and well written content above all else. While your XSite comes with a library of professionally written content, it's lacking one thing: you. It's not personalized. Professionally pre-written content will suffice for a new user just getting started setting up his or her site, but for those actively pursuing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), regular, relevant revision is an absolute necessity.

Here are some tips for personalizing your website:

Be specific. The more specific you are, the higher your chances of being ranked at the top of a consumer's specific search. For example, there are millions of sites out there that talk about "real estate." If your content is that generic, you'll be competing with millions of other sites and you probably won't ever get in the top rankings like you need to be. The more specific and local your content is, the better your chances for getting a first-page ranking.
Publish your specialties. Do you specialize in first-time homebuyers, second homes, or investment properties? Devote pages on your site to talk about why you're an expert they can count on. We have pre-made pages covering many types of buyers, sellers and agents, but you can make them even better when they're specific to your brand and your strengths. And don't be afraid to brag a little. After all, you're trying to convince visitors you deserve their business.
Use keywords and phrases often. Use them throughout the site. Don't try to overuse specific keywords. Search engines may think you are attempting to trick their "spiders" (automated programs that "crawl" the Web indexing sites) into giving your site undue rank. As long as you use those keywords naturally throughout the web page, search engine spiders will see those important terms and rank your site based upon them.
Showcase local news and events. Adding a couple of local pages is a great way to keep visitors coming back. Add the high school football schedule, arts festival dates, the best restaurants, or anything that makes your community unique. And, don't forget to add RSS feeds to your site. It's a fast and easy way to get local content on your website and your XSite comes with built-in tools for easily adding RSS feeds.
Finally, don't forget to update your content often. Search engines record how often your site is updated so they know how "fresh" your content is. If you're just getting started, start small. Try setting aside just 30 minutes each week to update your site. If it's not perfect the first time that's fine, you can come back later and change it. It's really easy to do and you'll be glad you did when you see your site climbing the search engine ladder.

When did REALTORS become enemies?!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:24:42 -0500

So I am currently working two deals that are closing next week and I have somehow fallen into a bad scene from Boston Legal. I know that our code is for all the agents to work for the best interest of all parties but lately it's become this thing where each Realtor digs in their heels and "fights" for their client?

I look at it this way. There are always going to be things that the seller doesn't want to concede to and there is going to be the same on the buyers side, however...this doesn't mean that the REALTORS have to take things personally. I literally had a REALTOR tell me that, "her client" just isn't going to go for that BEFORE SHE MADE A PHONE CALL!

When I asked her why she assumed that, she then told me that she knows what's best for her client and that she was going to advise them not to do it. Are you serious? I approach real estate as an open line of dialogue between all parties. It is in our best interest (financially and career wise) to not take offers, counter offers, negotiations personally. I just don't know where that comes into play but more and more, I am finding that it has become worse than a divorce proceeding.

Has anyone else dealt with this and if so, how do you bring the other agent to reality that it's business and not personal?

Signed,

Open to suggestions

Study your stats to make your website more effective

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:32:53 -0500

The most successful online agents know that a great website is the result of a lot of work, mixed with a lot of trial and error. But when you use your XSites stats to learn what works (and doesn't) it's easy to build a lead generating super-site.

Giving your site visitors what they want means knowing what they like

Are you caught in the new website owner trap? You may be, whether you've had a site for five years or five minutes.
You've probably spent a lot of time customizing your Agent XSite. And the result is probably something you're happy and comfortable with.

But of every person on the planet, the one that least needs to like your XSite is you. You're going to visit it all the time no matter what! Right?

Sure, you know your potential clients, you know who you're marketing to, and when you build your XSite you're trying to meet their needs. But how do you know if you're successful?

Are you constantly making changes to your XSite, even dropping or modifying features you think are cool, based on what is most effective?

If not, you need to be introduced to your XSite's statistics area. This is where you see which pages on your site have been getting the most traffic and from where.

After logging into your XSite admin area, click XSite Statistics from the My Office screen. We've arranged this screen and the information so that you don't have to be an Geeky McWebberson to make heads or tails of the information. And once you understand it, you can easily use it to make your site as effective as possible.
Note:

Most of the sections show you a page name and then stats going back a varying number of days. You can sort columns in these lists by clicking the column header.
You can pick your own date range for a category by picking your own start and end date and then clicking Submit.

Ok, here's what you'll see and how to use it.

Listings - This shows which of your listings is getting the most traffic.
What to do with this info: Spend some time thinking about what the top-traffic listings have in common. Incorporate your findings into all your listings.

First time and returning visitors - Whenever someone visits your website, their IP address and other information is logged on our servers. So, we know if they've been to your site before and give you statistics here.

What to do: Rarely if ever will someone make a decision to work with a real estate agent after seeing their website once. A cardinal rule of marketing is that prospects have to see your message multiple times before they make a decision. The more repeat visitors you're getting, the more business you're likely to get from your site.

Page Views - This shows a list of your top pages and how many views they're getting. Your home page is usually your top page.

What to do: The good, useful information here is what other pages are getting the most traffic. These are your subpages that visitors are finding and reading. This gives you a glimpse of what your visitors are looking for -- and finding -- on your site. If you find for example that local content pages are getting the most page views, you know it would be a good idea to deliver more local content.

Entry pages - An Entry Page is the first page somebody hit when they entered your site. For most, your home page will probably be the top entry page.

What to do: Other entry pages show which parts of your site are getting linked elsewhere, on other sites or in search engines. The content of these pages are the most effective, and you should figure out what it is about them that gets so much traffic. Use your conclusions to make content on other pages better.

Referring URLs - Another piece of information sent to a web server when a computer browses to a site is the last website you were viewing before reaching the server. If you see a lot of "hits" that have Google or Yahoo! in them or maybe a news site where you posted an article, you'll know from where it is people are hearing about your site.

What to do: Knowing where visitors are coming from tells you where you want to be linked. Getting a lot of hits from google.com? Search engines are your friend, and you may even consider a pay-per-click campaign. Trulia.com, Homes.com or another listings aggregator is sending a lot of traffic your way? Focus your marketing efforts on those sites.

Common Search Phrases - We analyze your referring URLs and pick out which ones are from search engines and also the text that led someone to find you there.

What to do: Learn what search phrases are bringing the most visitors to your site, and deploy those keywords liberally throughout your content. You may find that "Atlanta lofts" is a search phrase bringing a lot of visitors to your site, and not so much "Atlanta real estate" or "Atlanta agent." If so, get "Atlanta lofts" into your site -- on content pages, in your site title and keywords, as a footer -- more than it is.

If you're serious about web "hits," consider tracking the information from your XSite stats in a spreadsheet so you can get additional running totals and truly measure the success of your marketing efforts. And don't be afraid to change things when you learn what visitors are after.

Home Inspection

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:03:11 -0500

I am amazed at how many of my clients ask why they need a home inspection when it comes to them buying a home. Most of them ask not because of ignorance but because they look at it as a cost saving measure (inspections in Oklahoma typically run between $225 - $300) I can not stress enough that this is not the place that you want to shave your budget.

Although a home may look in perfect working order when we walk through it there are many, many items that we might not see that could become a potential hazard after you already own the home. A licensed home inspector is trained to test and examine everything in your home from the plumbing all the way to the roof. At the end of their inspection (typically 2 hours) they will hand you and your REALTOR a copy of their findings. Now, if your REALTOR has set a limit on the inspection repair findings, your REALTORS next move is to have qualified workman come in and complete this work before you move into the home.

An inspection is not something to take lightly. It can be the difference between home ownership bliss and dread.

Create the best direct mail piece your prospects will see all week

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:15:52 -0500

What goes into an effective direct mailing? Stick to these seven suggestions and your piece will stand out among the junk.

Personalize. "Dear Neighbor" simply does not get the response "Dear Kathy" does. Use the word "you" liberally. Those are "musts"; if practical and you've drilled down this far on your contact information for the mailing, sprinkle in other personalized details, too. "Like most parents with a child in Elm Street Middle School, you probably..." "I've helped more of your Hefner Pointe neighbors find their dream home than...". The more personal touches, the more attention your message will get.
Tell them what to do. A sales piece without a "call to action" is doomed. Tell them to call your number or visit your website or send for your free report... or otherwise be explicit about what you want them to do.
Use testimonials. Trust is an oh so important part of realty services. Include testimonials whenever possible. Just be sure they're real people who really said (or agreed to have their name associated with) what you say they said. Get a signed release from testimonials first -- it's important.
Use a P.S. Depending on who you listen to, the P.S. in a direct mail piece is either the first or second thing most recipients read. And virtually all of them read it, which isn't necessarily true of the meaty, middle part of your pitch. Use a P.S. to restate your offer succinctly and repeat your call to action.
Your opening is crucial. Besides the P.S., it's the one thing you can be most sure everyone will read. It can make them read on or it can turn them off right away. You need to keep the opening focused on the prospect, and you need to preview your offer.

Good opening: Homes in your area are selling for 20 percent more than your neighbors paid for them just five years ago. Now may be the best time to sell, and I can help in three important ways. Read on to find out how.

Bad opening: I wanted to write and touch base because I've helped your neighbors sell their homes, and you can trust me to get you the dream home that's right for you. I work hard to make sure you get the return you expect on your biggest investment and your fees and costs are kept to a minimum.

One focuses on the prospect, and shows a touch of personal service. You're keeping track of property values in their area, and it's probably because you've helped sell a bunch of them. And it previews the offer. The other, though it does use the word "you" quite a bit, is all about you. You want, you're trustworthy, you're a hard worker. Gee, that's swell. I stopped reading, though, so I don't know what's in it for me. The second opening has another problem. You promise low fees and costs, but you shouldn't be talking in your opening about how they'll have to take their medicine, but you'll help make sure it's not quite as icky. If there are obvious objections to your offer, address them later on, don't bring them up in your opening or P.S.
Write for "skimmers" as well as others. Bulleted lists, subheads, and call-outs are effective for reeling in people who don't sit down and read a sales letter top to bottom, in order. Which describes a lot of people. Make sure though that these devices don't distract the top to bottom readers. Make the lists "fit," make the subheads make sense. Don't just decide to put a random bold phrase before every other paragraph, or your piece will start to seem incoherent to careful readers.
Don't ignore the envelope. It's the part everyone on your mailing list will see, and if you can't convince them to open it, it doesn't matter what's inside. Studies, and maybe your own experience, have shown that for consumer mailings, hand addressed with a first class stamp is the kind of envelope most likely to get opened.

Eric Richardson is a licensed REALTOR in Oklahoma and is currently associated with Keller Williams Northwest. With over 5 years in full time real estate and 11 years in the real estate technology sector, Eric has positioned himself as one of the most renowned agents in the country today. His unique approach to how REALTORS can harness technology to increase their clientele has been published in some of the top industry newsletters and publications many times over. If you would like to have Eric speak at your next training session or conference, contact him directly at mailto:engagements@myoklahome.com

Why do I get real estate leads from the web?

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:56:12 -0500

Why do I get real estate leads from the web?

I talk to no less than 20 agents a day. "That's about normal with showings and cross-selling", you say? Nope, not for me. You see, I'm that "techie guy" in the office. So I've made a lot of friends in the industry really quickly. And more than half the time the first question I get is "How do I get leads from my website?"

The first thing that I ask is, "What does your site say to your visitors?" That's when I usually get a quirky tilt of the head with that far away quizzical look - that's answer enough. But when I dig deeper, the root of the problem is always the same. Their content is generic and as stale as three day old bread.

On the Web, content is King. And if yours isn't solid, online leads will be hard to come by. Here's a list of rules I stick to when it comes to writing my web content. I don't mean for you to rush out and try all of them tomorrow. But they've worked for me, and I bet my next listing they'll work for you.

Start offline. When I first launched my site, almost none of my traffic was a direct result of search engines. So I changed my focus. I started with the small things.

At the time, I was communicating with all of my past clients via e-mail, and I made 100% sure that my URL was in my e-mail signature. I also changed my voicemail message to direct people to my website. And when I started getting into printed postcards, I made sure that at least 25% of the printed area was devoted to my website. Even now, most of my traffic comes from the offline marketing I do. And I get hundreds of hits each week.

Engage prospects with information that buyers or sellers can identify with. Talk about your area. Why would they (or you) want to live there? Is your school district rated highest in your community? Is your area considered a historic area? What features does your area offer that your visitors would want to read about and how do you fit into this? All of these things are more important than the awards you won at last year's annual banquet.

Be proactive. Point them to links that are useful. If you like working with sellers, point traffic to your XSites home value estimator. If you'd rather work with buyers, point them out to the Steps to buying video. The point is, don't leave anything vague on your homepage. This is the first impression that your visitors will have about you.

Don't compartmentalize. I see a lot of my agent friends that segment everything on their site. So the only place that you can talk about schools is on the "Schools" page. That doesn't have to be the case. If it's relevant information and it flows with the context of your farming area, mention it on the homepage of your website. Buyers with new families are looking for this very information. Making them dig for it defeats the purpose.

Blog till it hurts. Blogging is the new communication for web surfers everywhere. It's a content rich feature that search engines love and it shows your visitors that you get what marketing is all about. So what exactly do you blog about? Everything. Did you have a recent scenario where you saved a closing that was almost off the table? Write about it. Do you have an insight to that new subdivision that's going in right down the street? Write about it.

There aren't any boundaries when it comes to blog posts. So just write about everything, keep it concise and people will read and respond.

Go on a diet. You've seen them - the websites where you feel like you've stepped off into a never ending stream of button links, cheesy animation, and cutesy pictures. Here's a rule of thumb - if you have to scroll more than twice to see all of your buttons on your site, put your website on a diet.

You don't have to have a button for everything you want to say. Keep it thin and keep it on target. People visit REALTORS websites to see homes. I make my website very easy to navigate. I have two buttons right on the front page that are very easy to see. I have a "Buyers" button and a "Sellers" button. No matter which one you are, there's an easy button for you to get right into the action.

Don't hold people hostage. The deadliest sin, and the one I see most often is the "I'm not getting any leads on my website so I am going to put a required sign-in sheet before people can see anything on my site" mindset.

I call this the "please wave goodbye as you leave my site approach". There are simply too many other real estate websites out there that offer information for free - and home buyers and sellers know it. Starting a friendship out of obligation is no easy ticket to success.

As a REALTOR, the best way to make your site a success is to stop looking at websites as those "techie things", and embrace them as the hub of our marketing. The content on our sites has to be as compelling as a face-to-face meeting, and provide at least that much local expertise. Without that type of commitment, we'll always wonder, "Why am I not getting any leads"?

Using your Agent XSite for all its worth

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:55:55 -0500

Most of the sections show you a page name and then stats going back a varying number of days. You can sort columns in these lists by clicking the column header.
You can pick your own date range for a category by picking your own start and end date and then clicking Submit.