On the advice of Ben Kinney I have ordered the book Purple Cow.

If you are interested in standing out in your market (ie. in this new more competitive market) you should take a look at it as well.

Here is a bonus chapter: http://www.sethgodin.com/purple/chapter.html

Enjoy

There is no way I could begin to capture all the information here. Lot of it are pretty basic but that is because simple works. I used to run a 15 person internet advertising company up to about 8 years ago. I was there when all you had to do to get number 1 SEO placement for "Alaska" at WebCrawler was to put the word Alaska on the page about 500 times.

In the 15 years I did SEO things changed bunches but since I left to pursue real estate and other goals about 7 years ago not so much seems to have changed.

Writing a blog post, here are RainCamp's hot tips for getting Google Juice.

[Title]

1. Must be geographically specific
2. must be short and consise
3. named after the phrase that you want to rank in the search engines

[Body]

1. Keyword density 2% to 4%
2. 300 - 500 words (if more break it up into a series)
3. Start and end with the phrase you want to rank in the search engine
4. 2 - 4 outgoing links
5. Insert pictures for user experience (get traffic from Google - right name/keywords)
   

[Tags]

1. This is your table of contents for your blog
2. Helps organize your content
3. Writemultiple articles about the same phrase (more than three articles in each tag)

Here are some examples of phrases:

• place, state homes for sale
• place vacant land
• homebuilders in place
  
• place waterfront homes

Okay you get the idea. Let's see if we can build the ultimate list of keywords and phrases which any of us could use in our individual areas.

Wow! Rain is the best.

For those of you who could not be here, get Rain to bring this show to your town.

Lots of excelent information showing why "old time" real estate sites are declining in readership and what Realtors need to do to promote themselves and the properties they represent.

Oops, break is over, stay tuned, I will summarize after camp.

Our team of five agents is searching for a third assistant. The person would handle some or all of the follow general job functions:

• Client Care Manager - keeping in touch and taking care of clients who are not actively working with an agent. This will include working with our list of friends and associates as well as past clients as well as lead conversion.
• Agent Assistant / Listing Manager - assisting agent in day-to-day activities including but not limited to handling much of the listing process for our clients.
• Marketing Assistant - Working with our team leader to promote our team and team's websites as well as assisting with our social media marketing program.

Must be honest, reliable and hardworking, organized and have good people skills. Having a WA real estate salesperson't license will be a benefit but is not required.

The position is full time in our office.

This is an awesome opportunity with a fast growing team. If you know of someone who would be awesome in this position please have them contact me at 360-513-5811.

Howard Goff is the team leader and listing specialist for THE GOFF TEAM. His years of experience in online marketing and researched pricing strategies make him the ideal person to handle the job of getting homes sold in this market. If you need any advice or want to ask Howard about the prospects of selling an existing home call him direct at (360) 513-5811.

Melanie Goff is our lead buyer specialist. As an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR), she works directly with buyers and supervises our growing team of four buyer agents. Melanie has a keen ability to figure out exactly what her clients are looking for and is skilled in finding the best home available in any price range. Melanie works with her clients from first meeting to closing, helping them find their new home and negotiating on their behalf to obtain the best terms. Patient and an excellent listener, Melanie truly works to understand her client’s needs. Call her anytime at (360) 433-5187.

We had a buyer that just resinded on a short sale which was over 5 months old. The negotiator kept getting information back but the bank couldn't get it together. We have been being promised a decision is withing a couple of weeks for the past two in a half months.

Finally the buyer asked if we could just find them something without the uncertanty of a short sale. Within 10 days we found a property and it got signed around today. That was one of the last short sales we have in the pipe. This spring, between two agents on our team, we usually had around six short sales in the pipe but over the past few months it has gotten so rediculous that we just avoid them all together now.

What are the banks thinking and why can't they get their act together. I cannot blame the client for saying enough-is-enough after 5+ months.

That statement should send up red flags for at least a few of you.

“Before taking a client that you are not fully qualified to handle, ask yourself if the few thousand you will make is worth taking a chance of costing the client 10’s of thousands of dollars.”

I have a family member that needs to sell a house belonging to an estate. There are two people involved in the estate: one with a majority interest and the other with a minority interest.

I am a Realtor but not in the state where the house is located.

Yesterday, I was told by the first person that the second person's spouse was a Realtor and that an uncle had a person living in his basement that he needed to get out. Lucky enough, the uncle is also a Realtor. The guy living in the uncle's basement wanted to lease-option the home for a few months until he could purchase it. The uncle was excited to have a way to help the person move out of his basement. He made it known that he would be expecting a 3% agency fee for representing the guy and "bringing the buyer".

The statement "genetics makes a good realtor" causes me to start becoming concerned. Your relative may be an awesome Realtor but not just because they are a relative.

You might also guess but a lease-option is something that I don't think is always the best option.

Over the course of two days, I provided some insight and the conversation changed to a Purchase and Sale agreement with a 90 day closing period and early occupancy. Still makes the hair on the back of my neck crawl but some progress.

So I ask the first person if it would be okay if I arrange for them to meet with a Realtor from my franchise who works in the area, no relation and no referral fee just to get a second opinion. She agrees.  So I call the market center assistant at the local office and ask for their best listing agent. The meeting is setup for this afternoon.

Now understand, at this point no one has hired this other realtor. It is just a meeting to talk about price and services, maybe look at a CMA to see if the suggested price makes sense.

If the other agent thinks it is a good deal they will offer to handle contract-to-closing for 1%. If the deal doesn't work out and the property has to be put on the market their fee would be a standard 3%. But again, this meeting is just finding out about options, no contracts have been signed or even promised to be signed.

Now here is where it gets interesting. The second person who is the spouse of a Realtor is suddenly infuriated that her spouse was not getting to sell the property and get the commission.

Then the uncle calls the first person and to verbally harasses the her for agreeing to meet with an agent. Yes, this is the uncle who has declared he will be representing the potential buyer calling one of the sellers to harass them about wanting to talk with an agent about being represented themselves.

So far as I can tell, neither of these family Realtors have completed a significant number of transactions for clients other than themselves in the past year or so.

It amazes me to think that there was even consideration about letting these two Realtors put together this deal without some third-party sanity check. Maybe the deal is great but if it is so great why all the angst when a suggestion to bring in a neutral third-party for their opinion?

My #1 priority as a Realtor is to make sure I can properly represent any client I choose to serve.

I usually handle listings but we have buyer agents on our team and they feel exactly the same way.

Please, if you are a Realtor, and have family or friends who need to buy or sell property, before agreeing to represent them please put their interests before yours and ask yourself if you are in a good position to represent this person. Do you have the currently needed skills, resources and do you know their local market.

Especially in this market! An agent without the proper skills to do a good job can cost their client a significant amount more than the agreed upon commission.

So, before taking a client that you are not fully qualified to handle, ask yourself if the few thousand you will make is worth taking a chance of costing the client 10’s of thousands of dollars, whether they are family or not.

After a great start on Active Rain I fell off the horse. Months have gone by and although I have visited often, I have not been very good about contributing.

Well, I am going to try to turn over a new leif and make at least occasional posts to Active Rain.

Well, I just reached 10,000 points!

So now I have to see if I can keep going.  Wish me luck...

I have heard it from more than one buyer, "I just don't want to have a contract with an agent".

Last week I attended an intensive Buyer Mastery class taught at the local Keller Williams Realty office. Like all of their training, it was incredible!

We have closed over 25 sales this year so I thought we were pretty on top of our game but Brian Combs showed me how we still have huge potential for growth. Look out ahead, here we come.

Here was one of the most important take-away messages.

A proper initial buyer consultation can greatly improve the efficiency and smoothness of the home buying process for both the buyer and the agent.

Buyers, if your agent is not trained to sit down with you, in their office, and properly consult with you about:

• your needs and wants
• your "must haves"
• the things you need to know to buy a home in whatever market you happen to be in

...BEFORE LOOKING AT HOMES, switch to an agent who offers this as a standard part of their service.

Yes, you will probably end up under contract but who is "under" who. Yes, the buyer agreement talks about how the agent will be paid for their work but it also specifies the duties of the agent to the client so would it be more correct to say you now have the agent under contract to perform the services you need.

In that initial consultation, a well trained buyer's agent will help you find out things about your preferences that every you were not consciously aware of. Then they will use the results of your initial consultation to help you quickly narrow down just which homes are worth considering. By doing so you will need to view fewer homes and will end up with more of what you want. In short, this initial consultation is the best investment you can make in your buying process (usually the only cost to you is an hour of your time).

Maybe you are someone who really likes looking at homes week after week but really, is that your goal?

Something else to think about the next time you call an agent and they say, "let's meet at the house you want to see"...

Ask yourself, would a property owner ever hire an agent to sell their home without interviewing the agent and getting that agent under contract? At the listing appointment, the selling agent will consult with the owner for up to two hours about things the agent needs to know to do their job well and things the seller needs to understand about the process.

Buyer consultations are usually shorter but no less important. Make sure you are working with an agent who is able to take you through this process and who then offers you a buyer-broker agreement.

You don't want to be locked into a contract? Then don't be, ask the agent to stipulate that the contract is cancelable by you at any time.