Ever have a problem nailing down showing agents by phone trying to get showing feedback for your listings? Playing phone tag, or dealing with a fellow agent who is annoyed with the fact you called to bother them is never fun. (Been there, done that.) Then some of the online feedback systems either cost to much and offer too little.
Well today I wanted to share a great tool to help your showing feedback results. And best of all it is FREE! The program is www.ShowingFeedback.com, and my agent client and I had recently stumbled upon it when looking for cost effective showing feedback solutions.
ShowingFeedback.com allows you to create and send short surveys to agents that show your listings, and then give access to your sellers to review the reports and comments that have been left by the agents. To use you simply enter your listings and seller's information into the system, and when there is a new showing, add the agent's information and a showing feedback is sent back to the agent. So far in using it the past few weeks we have seen about a 90% response rate from the showing agents and we are very impressed. And of course, the sellers like getting direct notification of their showing activity and feedback.
And did I mention that this was free? Give it a try, you have nothing to lose!
Does anybody have any feedback on the company, ushud.com? (also known as allhud.com, hudworks.com, Heavy Hammer Inc.,etc.) I have an agent client that who has recently signed up to be an "exclusive agent" with ushud.com, and I want to see if this system will really be worth it for them for the price.
I know that AR has many sales people on here associated with the ushud.com/Heavy Hammer company, but I want to hear from the actual users. I don't want to hear from the sales people. What I am looking for some real honest feedback from real agents that have worked with them.
So ushud.com users, past and present:
Are you receving the amount of leads promised from them?
Are the leads you receive/received from ushud.com quality leads?
Have you had additional closings directly related to the leads received from ushud.com?
Feel free to comment here, or email me privately at megan@barbervasolutions.com. I appreciate any comments or feedback you can provide me.
I always look out for the best interests of my clients, and want to make sure they get the best ROI on all of their marketing efforts. I am not always sold on these types of lead selling systems, but if it is worth it to them, then I am all for it.
Though internet marketing has taken up the forefront of many Realtor marketing plans, many agents still find success by regularly marketing to their prospects and sphere of influence via direct mail marketing. The ultimate goal is to continually stay in front of you past & present clients, prospects, and farm, so that they remember you when it’s time to talk real estate. So what are YOU doing to stay in front of your sphere?
The Fall is a great time for marketing, with many ideas or excuses for you to reach out and touch your prospects. And it is always helpful to send them something of value, that they would appreciate and hold on to. The following are a couple ideas to get you going on your fall marketing.
Fall Events Calendar - Send your sphere a postcard containing fun fall events going on in your neighborhood or town. Let them know about the hayrides, pumpkin displays, fall festivals, or costume contests going on in your area. And be sure to attend some of those events to meet your prospects and show them that you are not ALL about real estate ALL of the time.
Fall Time Change Reminder - The most popular fall time marketing opportunity is the fall time change reminder. It is a simple thing, but clients appreciate it, and it’s a great excuse to get in front of your contacts.
Winterizing Tips - Homeowners appreciate a good home improvement tip. Remind your clients to keep one of their biggest investments, in top shape. Before the sting of winter takes it’s hold, send your clients a few tips on how to winterize their homes and get ready for freezing temperatures.
Thanksgiving - Sending Thanksgiving wishes seems almost an obvious choice for fall marketing, but I recommend you do it with twist. Use it as a client appreciation opportunity and work out a discount coupon with a favorite local shop or restaurant (local business love cross promotion). To “give thanks” to your sphere, they can bring the postcard to said local business, and appreciate a discount on you. You may even get extra cards printed for that partnering business to display for you.
Do those get your creative juices flowing? Need to know how to implement something like this? Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions has your answer. Let us coordinate your fall postcard marketing with our custom designs and we arrange the printing and mailing for you too!
Announcing our “Pre-Vacation” Special - Order your Fall Time Change postcard from one of our exclusive designs before the deadline on October 6th, 2008*, and receive 10% off the design fees we normally charge. Contact Megan for more details on this and other postcard marketing opportunities.
*Orders received after October 6th for the fall time change are not guaranteed to be sent out in the proper time. Please act fast!
Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent over 10 years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.
I know that there are people that are truly vicitms in this whole foreclosure mess and I do feel bad for them. But then there are others that have either simply made bad decisions at the peak of the market, or have been blatently irresponsible. The sad thing is we ALL will probably end up bailing them out.
My Craig's List issues won't seem to die. I awoke this morning to several new comments in my inbox on a subject that seems to have been revived from Part 1 and Part 2 of my venting on flag happy people on Craig's List.
Last night it looked like someone decided to to bring their anti-Realtor battle to my Active Rain blog (comments in part 1), via what I call "drive by" commenting. Apparently I am too dimwitted to understand that CL is apparently only for the little guy and non-commercial people. And then there was the usual excerpt from the TOS that was meant to back up their claim.
I left my own follow up comment there, but really, I can tell them the same thing over and over about how my agents ads have never violated the TOS, blah, blah, blah. They will never really listen or understand. For someone who calls me out as dimwitted, they fail to research and understand the facts and only look foolish themselves. Quoting that same TOS passage over and over again does not help them as there are so many holes in that argument, it's not funny.
So they want to bring their battle to Active Rain? I haven't the time to waste on this, but if Smitty is brave enough to engage the AR community, good luck with that.
Unfortunately Craig's List was not worth the harassment and time spent to keep reposting for my clients in the Santa Fe market area, and have since moved on to using only Backpage.com. We still us CL for other market areas, but Santa Fe CL is hopeless.
I'm sure many of you that read the news or frequent the Drudge Report like I do, came across this little gem in the news: Unhappy home buyer, feeling misled on price, sues agent. The fact that this was on Drudge made me groan in disgust.
Now I must say in my whiniest of "Meredith Gray" voices (from TV show Gray's Anatomy)... Seriously? It has come to this? Seriously?
There are so many things wrong with this article, one of which being RE/MAX is written totally wrong (an annoying pet peeve of mine). And the whole slant of this article seems to paint picture that the "big bad Realtors" have found another way to scam the consumers through the use of buyer agency. This whole thing is preposterous.
Not being a Realtor myself, but an educated consumer, I do know how to do my due diligence when selecting a neighborhood and examining the sold prices in the area by viewing public records. It does take a little bit of work, but that is the right way to do it. One's laziness or stupidity is no one's fault but their own.
Really, I am getting so sick of this litigious society in which we live, and how the solution is blaming anyone else you can for your own stupidity is beyond me.
New Year, New Start. It's the time of year where people traditionally make resolutions and set personal and professional goals. I have occasionally done this year after year, but this time I'll add a little more accountability by putting it out there for people to see
2008 may be a little over a week old so some may think that I am a little late at making my goals, but goal #1 was to make my goals for 2008 so here goes.
Professional goals:
Finish putting together my Operations Manual (thanks for the reminder Laura) documenting all the processes of what I do each and every day
Finish up my Policies and Procedures Manual for my Associate VA team members and possible future in-house assistants
Add 1-2 more Associate VA team members to assist with more clients and allowing my business to grow
Develop relationships with professional web designers and graphic designers and professional copywriters to be able to enhance the services my company offers
Start a new blog geared towards advising Virtual Assistants and individuals considering starting a VA business
Organize, make improvements & redesign my home office to make it more functional for my needs and encourage more productivity (looking for feng shui advice)
Stick to my office hours, and remove myself from "work" mode after 7pm every night (a tough one for me)
Create a monthly newsletter to send to my clients and interested parties
Personal Goals:
Cut out my diet soda intake and replace by drinking at least eight 8oz glasses of water a day
Eat more fruit and vegetables, and less junk
Get out of the house and get an at least 30 minute walk 3-4 times a week
Shine my sink every day, and get back into a firm daily routine (FlyLady is the best).
Keep my house in order, one baby step at a time
Kiss my husband goodnight every night and thank the Lord that I have such a wonderful man in my life
I could probably go on, but these will get me started for this year. Now that I've let the world know what they are, I better hold to them. Here's to a happy and prosperous new year for us all!
Vineland, New Jersey. Megan Barber has successfully completed the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHERTM certification to join an elite group of real estate professionals who have earned the prestigious certification offered through the National Institute of Webographers, LLC (http://www.webographers.com/). Megan has successfully completed 12 short courses which include: Online Business Strategy, Agent Websites, Single-property Websites, Lead Generation and Management, Virtual Tours, CMA and AVM technology, Neighborhood Search, Online Transaction Management, Electronic Forms, Virtual Assistants, Mobile Technologies and Blogs.
The REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHERTM certification teaches real estate professionals how to develop and maintain an effective online business strategy in a web-based environment. Candidates learn how to establish an effective consumer-facing, all-inclusive web presence; while increasing their knowledge on real estate technologies and strategies clients expect. The program helps real estate agents and affiliates increase marketability by aiding them in determining where they should invest their resources to generate leads, acquire new clients, advertise and facilitate closings.
About Megan Barber Megan Barber, owner & CEO of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant and a REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHERTM professional. She specializes in providing high quality support services to real estate professionals knows how to assist her clients in winning more listings, attract buyers by turning a listing process into a marketing process. For more information about the valuable services that Megan provides to her clients and web-savvy consumers, please feel free to make contact with:
About National Institute of Webographers, LLC Since 2004, The National Institute of Webographers, LLC has specialized in the education, training, assessment and certification of web-based technologies for the Real Estate industry. The REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHERTM Certification (REWTM) provides consumer-facing solutions, education and training through a series of interactive online courses. Certification, online modules for REALTORS® and Assistants include Agent Websites, Single-property Websites, Lead Generation and Management, Virtual Tours, CMA and AVM technology, Neighborhood Search, Online Transaction Management, Electronic Forms, Blogs, Mobile Technologies, Virtual Assistants, and the Learning LaboratoryTM, where Certificants can access an array of showcased technologies for hands on learning. Available 24/7/365, these courses provide the opportunity for working professionals to learn at their own pace while enhancing the skill sets necessary to compete and excel with today's web savvy consumers. REWTM professionals provide consumers with a positive and profitable Real Estate experience. For more information regarding the National Institute of Webographers, please visit http://www.webographers.com/ or contact Scott Lau at ScottLau@Webographers.com.
So yesterday I told about some of my client's Craig's List ads being flagged due to a campaign being waged against Realtors by some Craig's List users.
This is an example of what we're dealing with here in Santa Fe's Craig's List: http://santafe.craigslist.org/rfs/529079852.html. It is frustrating how misinformed some people are, and this person seems the type that could never be convinced otherwise (like the one who decided to send a nasty email one of my Realtor clients off of CL recently, or who decided to do this).
I can tell them till I am blue in the face how these ads (my client's in particular) are not violating CL's terms of use, and are NOT promoting commercial services as these people claim. The ads we post simply advertise the property they have listed and have no external links going anywhere. Where is the violation here?
And Craig's list seems not to care. As long as their "version" of harassment is not involved, they see no issue.
Not being a Realtor myself, but a Virtual Assistant, maybe is not my battle to fight. And Craig's List is not the forum to be fighting this battle on. Needless to say, I feel like I am spinning my wheels and I am frustrated.
UPDATE 01/06/07 - The original ad had been flagged and removed, so unfortunately those that have come late into the story missed out on reading an arrogant butt-head's rant on "evil" Realtors. But if you check the Santa Fe craig's list from time to time, he posts again and you might just catch it before it gets flagged again for removal.
The unfair flagging has not stopped unfortunately and we are refraining from spending any more advertising on there until it has died down, and either Craig's list put a stop to this, or they come up with a solutions where FSBO's and Realtors can advertise in harmony.
So is Craig's List really worth taking the time to post in? Who is really seeing good results?
Or what about using something like vFlyer or Postlets? Do people really care or pay more attention to those "fancier" html ads done through something like vFlyer or Postlets? I know agents really like them, but is the public care?
Well someone in the Santa Fe NM area's Craig's List seems to have a vendetta against Realtors, and Realtor's posting on Craig's List. They are flagging ads left and right, for what I assume is simply the fact that they do not like Realtors. And since it is "community moderated" the CL powers that be don't really check to see if ads are wrongly being flagged and just remove them. The flagged ads, including some of my very own clients' ads, are done with things like vFlyer or Postlets, both companies who have taken a great deal of time in making sure their ads are in compliance.
The person doing this has announced as much posting right on there and wants Realtor's off Craiglist, stating they are in violation of CL terms of use. From what I understand, both vFlyer and Postlets ads are in compliance with Craig's Lists terms of use, as long as they do not have links to external websites and are not repeatedly posted like spam. and I really try to space out my clients listings so they do not look spammy.
I don't think I am going to convince this person otherwise, but I'm starting to wonder if it is even worth it to try. What does the rest of AR think?
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Ever have a problem nailing down showing agents by phone trying to get showing feedback for your listings? Playing phone tag, or dealing with a fellow agent who is annoyed with the fact you called to bother them is never fun. (Been there, done that.) Then some of the online feedback systems either cost to much and offer too little.
Though internet marketing has taken up the forefront of many Realtor marketing plans, many agents still find success by regularly marketing to their prospects and sphere of influence via direct mail marketing. The ultimate goal is to continually stay in front of you past & present clients, prospects, and farm, so that they remember you when it’s time to talk real estate. So what are YOU doing to stay in front of your sphere?
Hello 2008! 
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