Increasing Numbers

While it hasn't been the quickest road, I'm steadily moving up the food chain of google for keywords Guam Real Estate. For one reason or another I've noticed an increase in numbers from visitors the past few days - not to account for much more than my high ranking for a mls guam, or guam mls search. I have not done much but try to optimize the site with the right keywords and provide content that people will want - it feels more like I'm willing my way there but it's happening!

Nowhere to be seen!

I know I submitted my site to MSN and Yahoo ... but am NOWHERE to be seen for any guam real estate keyword search. What's the deal here? Google apprently has no problem indexing my site, but for some reason I'm unknown to the rest of the search engine universe! I'll do some more research in to it and post another blog about optimizing for other search engines as well. I'm also contemplating whether or not to change my page names with the launch of my third version of GuamRealEstateResource.com to more search engine friendly hyphenated page names: i.e. guam-real-estate.html / guam-home-search.html etc. If there are any opinions on the matter it would be greatly appreciated! In the meantime I'm steadily trying to finish version 3 before the end of the month and will let you know when hits start becoming leads!`

Guam Real Estate Market

I just came back from our monthly Guam Association of Realtors meeting, where, by the way, I was officially inducted as a new member. I even got a shiny pin and certificate, momentus in their own right! One of the big shots in our industry, Nick Captain gave a short report on the current trends of the market out here - of which were nothing short of astounding.

Double Digit Gaines

It is important to note Guam does not have much correlation at all with the mainland real estate market. Often times when our market is down, theirs is up. Similarily the past two years have shown 20%+ increases in total sales from their previous respective years. The projected 2007 sales numbers are upwards of $700 million, a far cry from the $150 million average that has been consistent up until 2005. The market is expected to keep increasing over the next few years with the amount of foreign investment that is coming in. I sit here typing this blog (as a first year agent) wondering, how can I make sure I capitalize on this growth?

I Don't Know How

I don't know how it's going to happen for me, being a newbie in the Guam Real Estate market. I'm still hoping to corner the online Guam Real Estate Market with the launch of my third, and final version of my website. As of now I am ranked #15 and submitted my website a little over a month ago. A third and final version will be launched shortly and extensive marketing of the website will ensue on island following that launch. There is a lack of quality individual agent websites (not to mention search engine optimized) and I need to grab a hold of a great ranking before everyone else jumps on the website train - especially with over 8,000 Marines being relocated from Okinawa! Public MLS searching, anyone? Besides that I will continue doing what I have been doing - establishing relationships, not being apprehensive, and going for the gusto. I can taste the opportunity I just want to make sure I am capable of grasping it before it is gone! Positive thinking, positive thinking, and more positive thinking have helped tremendously up to this point - not to mention visualization techniques - but that's a whole nother blog - thanks again The Secret!

Welcome to Guam Real Estate, Rookie!

It's Not Easy

It's probably safe to say that my first few months of being a real estate agent in Guam has covered the entire emotional spectrum. I deposited my FIRST comission on a rental unit today - and it felt great! What started as an exciting venture forth in to the unknown world of real estate and all its endless possibilities has resulted in ... well ... an exciting venture forth in to the unkown world of real estate and all its endless possibilities. What I have discovered so far is that nothing is concrete in this world! A deal you feel certain will close falls through - inexplicably as close as possible to closing without closing. Inevitably the thoughts run through my head: is it my fault? is there something more I should have done? maybe I'm just not meant for this? Then comes the out-of-the-blue floor call that turns from a lead to a close within a few days. All I can say is ... I love it! I get to help people find their ideal place of residence, investment property, or dream home EVERY DAY. I get to make my own schedule! I get paid on the basis of what I accomplish by my own efforts! Amazing.

What The Future Has In Store

It feels like there is always something more I should be doing. I want more than anything to succeed and thrive in this business. Guam is about to experience a real estate boom and I want to be there to take advantage of every opportunity I can! I need to know more, learn more, and do more on a daily basis. I want to become an expert on my island. I want to make money to invest in real estate. I am consumed! And still, the dissapointment and doubt is abundant - I guess it's a matter of moving past the negative and strictly focusing on the positive (thanks, The Secret). All I know is that I am where I am suppossed to be, and that this business has offered me the best of what life has to offer so far. I can't wait to see what the next 2 months has in store for me!

Virtual Tours

If you have not implemented virtual tours in to your listings you are truly missing out! I have yet to get my elusive first listing but did some research in to virtual tours and found out some interesting information. Along with the capabilities of virtual tours coincides the ability to create a unique domain name for your listing. I have secured GuamHomes.biz, GuamLand.biz, and GuamApartments.biz for use in marketing my (future) listings at their own unique URL for 24/7 access availability for prospective buyers.

Pay for Play

Most virtual touring software and/or hosting companies are going to cost you a pretty penny. Some services offer per month payments, per tour payments, or you just buy the software and implement the tour in to your own server. After some super sleuthing I came across this gem: FlyInSide.com. While I have yet to use the service they seem to offer free virtual tours with an amazingly simple layout. Is there a catch? I certainly hope not! Please let me know if you have used this site before or find it useful as I will be implementing it into my own listings and as the webmaster of a few other Realtors websites. If you haven't seen the site before, I hope you find it useful!

Itch Your Online Niche

Even as a wet behind the ears real estate agent, I am well aware of the importance of targeting a niche in order to be successful in this business. My principle broker believes your niche comes to you when you're first starting out - that is after a year or two, analyze where your success was, and never look back! As a wet behind the earsweb site developer I have quickly had to learn the ropes of the ever-changing and omnipresent importance of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.

SEO and SEM Your NICHE: Why You Need It!

So you have your website, are networking like pro, and have a target niche where you do most of your marketing. Why would you not optimize your website for your niche? Not only do you set yourself apart from every other real estate agent with a generic website advertising as [your state's] best real estate agent, but you OPTIMIZE your search engine ranking (that being how high your website comes up on keywords relevant to your business) for a niche that is yet to be filled!

Walk the walk, talk the talk

Keep in mind I am 2 months in to real estate and 1 month in to having an active real estate website and learn more and more each day from blogs on AR, my co-workers, and all the great resources available online and at the bookstore. I unknowingly optimized my site for the savvy niche of real estate consumers who know what the mls is. Type in Guam MLS on google and my site ranks fourth - and I've only been up a month!

Immediate Success

I unknowingly put Guam MLS on almost every page on my site, which I am assuming why google felt my site would serve those best that search Guam MLS. While I would ideally like to be in the top ten for Guam Homes for sale or, Guam Real estate etc. this feat alone is driving traffic (slowly albeit) to my site (which I know thanks to the AWESOME statistics provided by google analytics. So if you are a designer, make sure your keywords = your target niche! And if you pay someone to do it and you still are not in the top ten for your target niche tell them to include your keyword niche in to every possible niche (no pun intended) possible on your webpage. From the Title tag to Body content - repeat your niche in a relevant manner and you will be rewarded!

A real Article about this

I was inspired to write this after reading this article from brokeragentnews.com which touches in a much more professional, editorial type manner than I am capable of!

Thank You!

Thank you to Bobby Carroll, VP Dakno Marketing for the website evaluation! Quickly after becoming an AR noob I began searching for anything relevant to website and SEO (search engine optimization) assistance. I have a fair amount of webpage authoring skill and decided it would be most beneficial to create a website that has a look and feel that will draw and keep surfers there, as compared to other Guam realtor websites. So I posted a comment at their blog, that if they had "any free time", to let me know what they thought of my website. One week later, Bobby sends me an email with great insight in to ways to improve the existing structure and target audience. People here are great!

Guam Real Estate Resource

So came Guam Real Estate Resource, which I QUICKLY found to be more time consuming than I would have ever imagined. I still have MUCH work to do and am revamping the entire website, for the third time, until I am satisfied with the results. It's not quite perfect yet but hopefully soon.

Danko Marketing and SEO Help

Did I mention how awesome AR truly is? Along with sound real estate advice you can join the Blogging and SEO group, or better yet subscribe to Brad Carrols web design blog for great tips to get you on that search engine!

Coming soon: The SEO Blog Series --> Mission Top 5

I'm going to start a series of blogs that follows my quest to the tops of the search engine ranks for keywords: Guam Real Estate, once my new site is completed. From step 1, submission to search engines, to step 999,999, utilizing the amazing Google Analytics tool on each webpage. It gives you UNBELIEVABLE statistics, I highly reccomend anyone with a website without this to jump on the google train.

As part of our Guam Real Estate Broker's course our instructor played the first 30 minutes or so of the movie The Secret. Sure it's been out a while and I'm late in the "secret game" but nonetheless it has certainly changed my perspective on life. The mere importance of understanding the power of positive thinking not just when we are discouraged but on every thought that crosses our mind has worked wonders in my daily attitude and ultimate level of perseverance. I consider myself a “passion worker” – that being I’m operating at full capacity when I am thoroughly enjoying what I am doing, which is why Real Estate has been such a blessing. I have always believed that how we think affects who we are and who we associate with. If you are one of the few, like myself, yet to watch this video, I strongly suggest you use one of the following links and set aside an hour and a half of your time to (hopefully) be inspired.

Interview

Watch Bill Whitaker dive into the secrets behind "The Secret" with Rev. Michael Beckwith, on a CBS interview. It provides a more realistic view than the hollywoodesque movie might depict.

Watch It Free!

Being the super-web-sleuth I am I investigated other ways of viewing the movie besides ordering it and waiting to have it shipped all the way to Guam. The Secret Story.com contains a FREE version of the original movie to view. While the image quality and voice is somewhat distorted it is still understandable and best of all, free.

Pay-Per-View

You can also watch the movie at TheSecret.tv on a pay-per view basis. Image quality and sound will be up to par on their site and it only costs around $5.00. I’m sure this is not the first post on the movie and won’t be the last, but maybe someone it will service someone in the same way it has me.
Edit:I should mention that while I agree with a majority of the video, the aspect of "wanting and thinking about something so bad" that it suddenly appears is quite the exaggeration of understanding that if we want something bad enough we will diligently work to achieve that.

First off in no way am I bashing the AR community or system that they have developed.  As an AR newbie I am overwhelmed by the support and sound advice available all throughout the network.

However, I just received a disheartening email:

Gabriel, I do wish that we could add Guam, Puerto Rico, and all of the US Territories to our system, but at this time, we are concentrating on the areas that we have listed. Guam and Puerto Rico are the on the list to be the first added when we expand. Even though we do not have your areas, you are still welcome to be a member. Cheers, Lydia Heaton

While I will continue to blog and enjoy the amazing features AR has to offer, and I more than understand the meticulous work and time it takes to maintain and respond to everyone's queries, I was hoping for a more positive response than this.  When will they be "expanding"?  I've been bragging about AR to all my Realtor buddies on island here and they are all waiting for the opportunity to join when Guam becomes an available market location.

Anyhow in the mean time my location will continue to be Hawaii as it is the closest land to my home, and I will keep updating further responses from AR support.  And regardless of that email I am still more than impressed with AR's amazing capabilities.

Winding up my day today, thankfully.

As part of my new membership with the Guam Association of Realtors we had an all day long Real Estate Essentials class, going over more of the legality involved with contracts and how to avoid getting sued.  I heard an interesting statistic in class today, that 1 out of 10 new realtors actually stick to there job.  I thought to myself, that means just within my class (8 people) there is a chance NO ONE would be a realtor within a year or two.  Kind of shocking.

I'm sure everyone has the, "I'm going to be that one" attitude, but in all honesty I've completely convinced myself that this is job is what I was meant to do.  Whether that self-convincing will prove to be fruitful or fatal wil be dictated by the course of action I take.

Is it just me or do most new realtors always feel like they should be doing something more?  I've kept myself busy and will be closing on a few rentals, but definitely nead to work on my networking and lead generation.  I've heard of people going door to door with their business cards, meeting two new people every day, etc. - I wonder if any seasoned AR Realtors that come across this post would be gracious enough to give some advice?

 Gone are the days of freedom on weekends, but I can't complain. Tomorrow is an all day "real estate essentials" class as part of my new membership with the Guam Association of realtors. Hopefully this afternoon I will receive my first deposit for a rental unit that has been weeks in the making.  It had to pass military inspection, numerous formalities that had to be altered on the agreement, a realization that my client's cap was $1710 not $1900, etc. etc. etc. I feel like I'm learning to run before I can walk!

 Real estate has essentially been much more than I would have ever expected. Passing the exam and going through the liscencing process was one thing, but the details and difficulties that are a part of every day life are another. But I understand it is these new trials and experiences that will get me where I need to go.

 The frustrations are numerous, the let downs - actually the excitement - then the let downs have been repeated.  I'm reading and soaking up as much knowledge as I can but often do feel overwhelmed by the variables that as an agent I should be able to somewhat control (i.e. amount of purchase client "should" offer) but feel incapable of giving sound advice (i.e. "you're REALLY lowballing") to the client.

 Realtor-realtor relations, client-realtor relations, broker-realtor-client that doesn't like your brokerage but likes you relations ... so many variables so many options. It's going to be an interesting road to the paved access of top real estate agents indeed.

 Nonetheless, Active Rain has so far proved invaluable in offering encouragement and sound advice for new real estate agents.  Thank you to the numerous repsonses to my first few comments, it has certainly made a wet-behind-the-ears agent on a distant island chain feel welcome!

 Till then,

Gabe

PS. Still waiting on AR support to allow me to choose Guam as my location! We do exist, really we do!