Franchising

2010 Start-Up Nation Most Innovative Franchise Contest

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:04:32 -0700

I am excited to announce that Area Pro Realty has been nominated as one of the most innovative franchises for 2010 for Start-Up Nation.com. In order to win though, we need your votes. In order to vote, all you have to do is click below to vote for us. You can set a daily reminder to vote as well.

Thanks in advance for voting!

vote now

if the above link isnt working, copy and past this in your browser:

http://www.startupnation.com/home-based-100/contestant/9042/index.php

Advice for Realtors- A House Isn’t a Home

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:37:38 -0700

As the president of a real estate franchise, I read a lot of blogs, especially those from other Realtors.

Let me first disclaim that the wealth of information and creativity I read on the Internet is amazing and the advice in this article is only meant to bring back the consistency of two common real estate terms that have seemed to lose their meaning in the last few years.

Too often than not I see Realtors and brokers mixing the terms "house" and "home". For example, a Realtor might say or write "I would like to sell your home", or "Selling your home is my top priority".

Webster's dictionary defines a house as: A building that serves as living quarters for one or a few families.

Webster's dictionary defines a home as: The social unit formed by a family living together.

Now, this may seem picky, but when a Realtor states they will "sell your home", they are stating they will be selling the social unit of the family, rather than the actual structure that comprises the home itself.

Realtors sell houses, and as far as I know, no one sells "homes". I am sure you have heard the old saying "A home is where the heart is". A home is comprised of the people in the house and can be made anywhere. A homeless person could technically call a street corner his home, even though technically there is no house there.

The distinction is important for a Realtor. Using the term house minimizes the emotional involvement of the transaction. As any experienced Realtor will tell you, when emotions are involved in a transaction, it almost always complicates the process.

I hope the above article distinguished the difference between a house and a home and I was able to drive the point house....I mean drive the point home.

Michael Volkin the president of Area Pro Realty, a new national franchise and author of How to Evaluate a Real Estate Franchise.

One Click Marketing

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:21:11 -0800

One Click Marketing

My job as Strategic Social Networking Specialist for Area Pro Realty requires me to keep up on the latest technologies and advances in social media. The fun part is sharing it with you.

Here is a great tool that WordPress.com has added to an already great site:

Now you can repost your blog on Twitter with one click right through WordPress! If you are a Realty Franchise owner and follow my blog, you know that you can use blogging sites like WordPress or Blogger.com to post listings and share them with a very large audience. Now, with one click, you can repost a listing to one of the most used websites in the world.

Another great site is Ping.fm. I teach our Real Estate Brokerage Franchise owners to use this site to simultaneously grab audiences on Blogger.com, Twitter, MySpace, and several other of the most popular social networking platforms with minimal effort. Writing one blog and posting it on four or five sites with one click is a great time saver.

For busy Real Estate Franchise owners trying to market their brokerage as well as juggle agents, recruiting, training, and everything else that falls into your lap, a quick click to help you sell a house is worth the time setting it up. These are just a couple of the innovative and time saving things that we do at Area Pro to minimize the giant list of tasks that a franchise owner deals with on a daily basis.

Area Pro Realty is at the tip of the spear when it comes to strategic social networking for real estate professionals. Watch this short video, contact us to discuss our real estate franchises for sale, and how we can untangle the web of social networking to make it work for you!

Leave a comment below! How do you make marketing more efficient for your brokerage in terms of social networking?

Follow me on Twitter!

How To Launch Your Listings Through Twitter

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:00:59 -0700

How To Launch Your Listings Through Twitter

If you have read my previous posts, you know that retweeting is a way to share informative links, photos, listings, blogs, or any other content that you think other followers may benefit from. In the real estate industry, however, you want to be known for creating great content as well as sharing it with other real estate professional and clients.

Here are some detailed tips on how to properly construct a tweet that will be shared rather than skimmed over, and keep your listings sailing through cyberspace:

1. Always include a link. Using shortening websites like bit.ly or ow.ly to make room for an assertion like:

“Upper East Side Home-Once in a Lifetime XXX.bit.ly”

2. Don’t waste space. You have 140 characters to create a beautiful description of your real estate listing, but that’s what your link is for. It will only take nanoseconds for someone to consider whether or not they are going to click your link let alone pass it on. Short tweets leave room for other people to insert their comments. Doing so will only lend more intrigue and credibility to your original posting. Here’s an example:

“RT@AreaProRealty AMAZING Property! Upper East Side Home-Once in a Lifetime XXXbit.ly”

3. When you are retweeting, make an addition, don’t just forward. Say something original, even if it means making some adjustments in grammar or punctuation to the original tweet in order to insert your thoughts. Remember, you’re trying to attract attention to your brokerage by sharing other people’s content, so include your mark as well.

4. Never have your brokerage’s information more than one click away. The reason you are on Twitter, after all, is to promote your brokerage and grow your business.

With social media marketing progressing at the speed of light, you either have to hitchhike to keep up, or have your own vehicle to set the pace. Area Pro Realty has a set the land speed record in strategic social networking for real estate. And we’re about to go airborne.

As the Strategic Social Networking Specialist for Area Pro Realty, I help our Real Estate Franchise owners learn, implement, and perfect marketing a Realty Franchise via social networks. If you are operating a brokerage, and want more support, expert advice, better technology, and more business, contact us today about a opening a Real Estate Brokerage Franchise with the most technologically advanced real estate company in the world, Area Pro Realty.

Do you have any great tips on Twitter for real estate professionals? If so, we would love to hear from you.

We have Real Estate Franchises for Sale. Click here for a Short Video.

Follow me on Twitter!

How To Attract Homebuyers on Social Networking Websites

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:43:55 -0700

How To Attract Homebuyers on Social Networking Websites

Helping to build a brand for the individual Realty Franchise owner at Area Pro is one of my favorite aspects of my job (Strategic Social Networking Specialist for Area Pro Realty). As a part of helping brokers, I teach them how to attract homebuyers via Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites. Here are some strategies and a couple of tools that I use to help our franchise owners attract more business online:

Add a survey to your website or blog.

This tool keeps potential homebuyers thinking, engaged, and actively doing something on your site rather than just browsing through your listings. WuFoo has a great free tool that is as easy as posting a quick snippet of code onto your blog or website to build and manage an online survey.

Add a poll to your Twitter page.

This is a perfect call to action for your Twitter followers that you would like to convert into leads. Tweeting for real estate can be a great way to reach a wide local audience, and again, asking your followers do something makes you stand out from the pack. Twtpoll offers a way to expand your audience even further by allowing users to instantly retweet. (See my blog titled “how to make your listings go viral” to learn more about retweeting.)

Post a YouTube video That Invokes Comments

Did you know YouTube ranks your video on over 200+ factors? That’s right, when you post your video, YouTube takes into account the quality of the video, the comments received, the user rankings, and much more to rank your video. Posting a great video with lots of feedback can turn your video into a national success. Check out this popular real estate video. Posting videos on YouTube is a great way to capture the emotion of a subject that is important to you, or give tips on an area of real estate that you specialize in. Your target market can easily communicate with you on subjects that spark their interest and curiosity using either text or video responses. One last tip is to always remember to ask a question if you want a response.

As the Strategic Social Networking Specialist for Area Pro Realty, I provide our team of Real Estate Brokerage Franchise owners with the latest tools, technology, and ideas for making their business a success. We have Real Estate Franchises for Sale, and I'm happy to provide you with any information on how easy it can be to own the most innovative, supportive, and successful Real Estate Franchise in the world.

Get Your Brokerage More Attention on Facebook

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:31:00 -0700

Get Your Brokerage More Attention on Facebook

Have you ever thought that you would like a consolidated, professional looking, and easy to manage platform to get information out to your agents and clients other than a weekly e-newsletter? All of us have.

As the Strategic Social Networking Specialist for Area Pro Realty, I'm always on the hunt to make our Realty Franchise owner's lives easier. Having an online forum for news, updates, and other brokerage information is important for your agents and clients. Facebook Fan Pages are perfectly suited for this need, and you can create a cutting edge newsroom for your business. They're easy to use, free, have a high level of visibility, and can be assembled in just a few minutes. Here's how to do it:

If you are logged into Facebook, scroll to the bottom of your screen.
In the footer links, click the link called advertising.
Click "+ Create Facebook Page".
Fill out the forms and be descriptive.
Proceed as prompted
Next steps will be adding different applications to make the page more interesting and fun to use.
To activate your page, you will need to "Publish" it. There will be a link to prompt you to do this.
In the future, to manage it, a link called "Ads and Pages" will always be on the left.

Note: you will want to become the first fan of you page, it's not done automatically.

You can set your newsroom to be on autopilot by using some of these applications:

Facebook Notes - This is a default application on your Fan Page. To access it, click on the Notes tab at the top. Using the subscribe option, you can enter your brokerage's RSS feed. Now new note posts will show up automatically on your page.

Networked Blogs - This app will let you import your brokerage blog feed, as well as display links to other blogs, like this one, for instance.

Simplaris Blogcast - This is a way to import multiple blogs, so you can stream this blog in addition to your brokerage's.

Selective Twitter Status - You can either stream your entire Twitter feed, or use this, and your Fan Page will only post tweets with #fb at the end. This way you can select which posts go to your agents and which go to clients.

Involver for Pages - this is a host of applications that allows you to stream in your Twitter feed, RSS feeds, YouTube channel, and other features that will automate your brokerage's fan page.

http://areaprorealty.com/franchise

Follow Me on Twitter!

How to Make Your Listings Go Viral

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:07:35 -0700

How to Make Your Listings Go Viral

If you have been following my blogs, you probably know by now that I am a huge fan of Twitter. Taking a great listing and blasting it out to your entire network of clients, colleagues, and contacts in a matter of seconds at no cost is a dream come true for most real estate franchise owners and agents. Twitter has been a great asset to our marketing efforts, and the "ReTweet" feature has played a pivotal role.

The concept is simple: if you receive a tweet from someone you are following that you find useful or interesting, you can forward it on to everyone in your network with just one click. Apply that one click simplicity to a great listing that you send out, and a beautiful home for sale can go from an audience of ten to an audience of ten thousand in a matter of minutes.

Here's how to do it: simply insert "RT @" and then the username of the person who originally posted the tweet at the very beginning.

Here's an example: (RT@ AreaProRealty Check out this Beautiful Luxury Home! http://tinyurl.com/mo4vd7)

You may need to shorten the message in order to meet the 140 character requirement.

I strongly suggest sending out a quick message to your followers on How To ReTweet as a friendly tip. That way, you know your followers are armed with the tools to make your listings go viral. You can also offer a prize to the person who retweets your listings. If they find a buyer for you, perhaps a gift certificate can be awarded.

I'm in the process of training all of our Real Estate Brokerage Franchise owners to utilize this Twitter feature to its fullest extent. At Area Pro Realty, I am constantly making sure that Strategic Social Networking is a part of the daily activities of all of our Realty Franchise owners. If you want to learn more about the technology, support, and innovation that makes Area Pro Realty the best Real Estate Franchise opportunity in the world, follow us on Twitter, or click the link below.

Currently, there is a new, cleaner version of the RT feature set to debut. As it stands, you can only forward the original tweet without making changes. Some argue that Twitter is killing a part of the conversation by not letting a person who RT's to add their opinion, and others argue that having a clean, simple one click share option aligns with the simplicity of Twitter that made it what it is today.

What are your thoughts on ReTweeting for real estate, commenting, and streamlining the feature?

Area Pro Realty has real estate franchises for sale. Check us out at www.areaprorealty/franchise

Homebuyers Spend More Time on Facebook Than Google

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:07:33 -0700

Homebuyers Spend More Time on Facebook than Google

So you think having your website at the number one page rank on Google is enough? Think again. According to Nielsen Media Research, the people who are looking for you are spending three times as long chatting, reading, and posting on Facebook than they are searching on Google. If you're not on Facebook, to those users, you won't exist.

The days of spending thousands of dollars to have your website optimized are coming to an end. Today, having a strong presence on popular social networking sites is the key to being a super star real estate broker and agent.

Productive Realty Franchise owners often ask me how to take advantage of the marketing potential on Facebook, and still have time to run a business. My answer is that you have to embrace social networking strategically. Still today many real estate brokers only put up a Facebook fan page and think that is enough to spur business. There is a vast array of free services in cyberspace to help you market your business and services. One way to keep on top of these services is to keep track of my blog. I post helpful articles at least twice a week on the subject of social networking.

I am the Social Media Resource Specialist for Area Pro Realty. I'm dedicated to ensuring our Real Estate Franchise owners have the technology and support necessary to be on the forefront of Strategic Social Networking. With technology taking leaps and bounds forward on an hourly basis, Real Estate Brokerage Franchise owners need a full-time support staff to keep up with the ever-changing technological demands.

Take a look at how our system and support can transform your business into the powerhouse you know it can be.

www.areaprorealty.com/franchise

Facebook Lite for Real Estate Brokers

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:41:07 -0700

Facebook Lite for Real Estate Brokers

Facebook has come out with a new version of their social networking site called Facebook Lite. It's a less cluttered version of the original, which has received complaints about usability.

Facebook Lite reads more like Twitter, and has more screen space (i.e. less clutter and less advertising) This new version makes it easier to send out Twitter-like messages without all of the distractions.

This version can be useful in the Real Estate world for several reasons:

• It works great on a mobile platform, so you can update your followers and customers on the go

• You can, quickly and easily, post a link to a listing or website that may be urgent (i.e. timely news)

• It requires less bandwidth, so you can have several applications running.

The site appears much more professional without apps and ads focused on a younger demographic. There seems to be a big buzz surrounding the new site because of the lack of applications. Some argue that Facebook was propelled into the top spot because of the entrepreneurs behind the some quarter million external apps, and blocking them from what may become a more popular site may be counterproductive. For our purposes, I say it's almost perfect. The only aspect that I see missing from Facebook Lite useful in Real Estate is the groups feature. There is talk of a separate platform for applications, but doesn't that defeat the purpose? Internet users are finding simple, useful sites more attractive these days, so why clutter it all over again?

I will be working on integrating Facebook Lite into our Real Estate Franchise Strategic Social Networking plan in the coming weeks. I'm excited to see how our Realty Franchise owners will find new and innovative ways to use this technology. I'm responsible for ensuring that Real Estate Brokerage Franchise owners at Area Pro Realty are armed with the latest technology for supercharging their exposure on the web. Come find out why so many brokers have made the switch to Area Pro Realty, the most technologically advanced Real Estate Company in the world.

http://areaprorealty.com/franchise

How To Use Facebook For Real Estate

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:57:07 -0700

How to Use Facebook for Real Estate

How to Use Facebook for Real Estate

If you operate a real estate brokerage franchise or are an agent working for a real estate broker, you will appreciate the below advice.

A few days ago, I posted a blog called How to Use Social Networking for Real Estate. I received some great comments, and started corresponding with a nice couple from across the country. My post had raised their curiosity, but their use of Social Networking for real estate was limited. They had some doubts about joining Facebook for business purposes.

They were having trouble seeing beyond the casual, social aspect of the site, and hadn't seen the business applications that Facebook had yet to offer.

I wrote them back, and equated Facebook to television. I explained that there are many different channels, networks, and forms of entertainment on TV, some of which could be very useful in business,

FaceBook has groups ranging from casual meeting places to nationwide Real Estate groups, and the largest of them has 40,132 members at this moment.

Here is the advice I offer to you to maximize your Facebook effectiveness:

• Create a Facebook page strictly for business

• Join local or national groups that are relevant to what you are trying to accomplish

• Keep personal contacts(ie friends and family)separate from your business profile

• Link your Social Networking sites to each other via widgets (small buttons that can be added to your website or blog that take the reader to another page that you have posted content on).

Our Real Estate Franchise owners at Area Pro Realty are well trained on how to use Facebook to enhance their business. Strategic Social Networking is just one of the many technological advances that I'm spearheading. If you're interested in learning more about our Realty Franchise, then check us out at www.AreaProRealty.com/franchise.

"There are a lot of real estate franchises for sale, choose wisely, as the most innovative franchise might have been one you haven't considered"

Use FriendFeed to Find a Ton of Clients

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:19:10 -0700

Use FriendFeed to Find a Ton of Clients

Username: MVolkin, connnect with me on FriendFeed.com!

FriendFeed.com is a website that in one place aggregates your friend's (or potential cleints's) streams from across different social sites. In other words, from one user, you can view real-time updates from Twitter posts, Facebook updates and tons of other websites. FriendFeed can be an extremely useful website for getting to know your local community and marketing to clients, but be careful of its addictive nature. FriendFeed can easily give you information overload and you could get lost for hours clicking away at the vast amount of information.

To find people on FriendFeed, simply create an account (I'll be your first friend; connnect with me on FriendFeed.com, username: MVolkin). Once your account has been created, log in and click Browse/edit groups (bottom right side of the page). Here, you can search for groups where your target audience may be. For example, if your looking for real estate clients, search for your city or town name. Or better, yet find people with similar interests in your area. So if you play Tennis in Sacramento California, look for a tennis group in Sacramento Join the group and start communicating with potential clients instantly.

Link up with me on FriendFeed and I'll show you how to network strategically online. Log in, click "browse/edit friends" in the middle of the page on the right hand side. Then, click "find/invite friends", and in the text box type mvolkin. Once my picture pops up, simply click "subscribe". These are the kind of ideas you will get for free if you join Area Pro Realty, a new real estate franchise focusing on leveraging technology. With our realty franchise, you can start and maintain a brokerage at a shockingly low cost.

Michael Volkin is the President of the most innovative real estate franchise in the US, inventors of strategic social networking, Area Pro Realty. Brokers, come and check out what a new realty franchise can do for you. There are many real estate franchises for sale, choose wisely as the most attractive one is right under your nose. If you think social networking is a great way to expose yourself online, check out our real estate franchise opportunties.

TweetBeep Your Way to More Clients

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:15:40 -0700

TweetBeep Your Way to More Clients

How would you like potential clients emailing YOU!? You can get that with Twitter. Twitter is a great tool, especially if you know how to use third-party applications like tweetbeep.com. With Tweetbeep, you simply insert a few keyword alerts that potential clients may be tweeting about, then, once a twitterer uses those keywords in a tweet, that tweet is emailed to you. You can then start following that person and reply to that person directly. BAM, instant friend and potential client.

I must warn you that upon first contact to not "spam" that your a real estate agent. Your first contact with this person should be strictly friendly. Let the relationship develop on its own. Believe me, when you first respond to that person, s/he will look into your profile. If your smart, you will have your services mentioned in your profile. Many times, your new friend is impressed at your local expertise and will ask you a real estate question anyway.

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Michael Volkin is the President of the only national real estate franchise that focuses on strategic social networking, Area Pro Realty. Brokers, come and check out what a new realty franchise can do for you. There are many real estate franchises for sale, choose wisely as the most attractive one is right under your nose. If you think social networking is a great way to expose yourself online, check out our real estate franchise opportunties.

real estate franchise opportunities, real estate brokerage franchise

Fwix.com has great potential for real estate agents and brokers

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:12:50 -0700

Fwix.com has great potential for real estate agents and brokers

One of the great aspects of owning a real estate franchise is that I get contacted early with new online tools that could help real estate agents and brokers. One of those new tools is Fwix.com. Fwix is an online replacement for a newspaper. Our realty franchise focuses on going green and Fwix definately fits that mold. An agent can be connected to his/her local community and even share a neat widget on their website with local news without printing a single piece of paper.

Fwix makes it easy to identify with and connect with local business owners. Simply visit Fwix once a week to be informed of everything newsworthy in your local area. You can also enter your email address to be informed of breaking news that is happening right in your community.

If your looking for other neat ideas on how to market yourself online, look no further than the social networking friendly real estate franchise opportunities at Area Pro Realty.

Michael Volkin is the President of Area Pro Realty, a new high-tech national real estate brokerage franchise changing the way brokers and agents do business. "There are many real estate franchises for sale, be careful in choosing, sometimes the perfect one is one you havent researched yet"- M Volkin.

Area Pro Realty ads Key Personnel to Staff-Social Media Resource Specialist

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:59:37 -0700

Area Pro Realty ads Key Personnel to Staff

Area Pro Realty is proud to announce Nick Roth, the new Social Media Resource Specialist. Mr. Roth brings a wealth of knowledge to the agents and brokers and will provide invaluable support furthering the Area Pro Realy brand that is growing so fast.

The many real estate franchises for sale realize the importance of social networking, but Area Pro is taking it one step futher and dedicating a person to further the online brand.

If your considering a realty franchise, be sure to find one that understands the importance of industry technology. The purchase of a real estate franchise is a major decision of a brokers life, make sure you make an educated decision before signing that franchise agreement.

Area Pro Realty franchise information can be found here.

Online Resources for Real Estate Brokers

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:59:51 -0700

Online Resources for Real Estate Brokers

There are many real estate franchise opportunities out there, but only one (Area Pro Realty) that gives you the resources you need to truly be innovative and succeed in the online marketplace. With a real estate brokerage franchise, you should be exposed to at least one of the following:

Facebook

Ning

Delicious

The three above websites can help you put your real estate franchise on the map and exposure your realty franchise to new clients and agents via the web.

If you want to team with Area Pro Realty, you will have access to our social networking university, which gives you detailed video instructions on how to exposure yourself and your company on these websites.

Best of luck in your online endevours.

Michael Volkin is the President of Area Pro Realty, a new innovative real estate franchise. To see the real estate franchises (territories) for sale, call the office at 925-798-2732

Real Estate Brokers Searching for a New Type of Franchise

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:26:31 -0700

Throughout recent years, many new real estate franchise owners have been searching for a new business model that molded itself to the current (and future) economical times. In the past, a realty franchise was a simple, "one business model" type of company. Only recently have new business models surfaced, some good, most bad. Of all the real estate franchises for sale, Area Pro Realty has proven to be recession proof (as said in RIS media).

"Real estate brokers MUST evaluate all the real estate brokerage franchises out there" says company president Michael Volkin. "If they do not, they might be missing out on that one company that fits you like a glove; the great real estate franchise opportunities are out there".

Area Pro Realty Announces New Offices in Florida

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:51:42 -0700

Area Pro Realty Announces New Offices in Florida

The newest national residential real estate franchise, Area Pro Realty has just announced three new brokerages opening in Florida. "This is an exciting time for the real estate industry" says company President Michael Volkin, "You have a new national realty franchise with a fresh business model that is virtually recession-proof, a lot of quality brokers are being attracted to the company."

Technology supervisor Gene Ward claims "Of all the real estate franchises for sale, Area Pro Realty is implementing the freshest ideas moving forward"

Area Pro has real estate franchise opportunities in 45 states and territories are available. To learn more about Area Pro Realty, check out their 3 minute company pitch here

Shawn Murphy, the broker-owner of the newest Florida franchise claims "I was looking for a real estate brokerage franchise which shared my views of the real estate market moving forward. Area Pro definitely shares the same vision as me."

Blogging for Business-This Broker has Seen the Light

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:11:39 -0700

Blogging for Business-This Broker has Seen the Light

As the owner of a new and growing realty franchise, I have had the pleasure of heading up our company blog. There are two main tips I learned along my journy of increasing our website traffic considerably simply by blogging:

1) Be consistent- Most Realtors blog once or twice then stop. Blogging consistently at least once a month, if not once a week, will increase your web traffic considerably. Of the dozens of real estate franchises for sale, Area Pro Realty has one of the top blog for numerous keywords. How did I do this? Among having a great tech team in the office, blogs was a huge part of it. There are many real estate franchise opportunities but unless people know about you and your services, no one will ever find out, so blogging is a great way to help your search engine ranking.

2) Use keywords- If you blog about the same subject every time, your audience (if you have one) will get bored. However, you can use the same keywords and phrases every time you blog. This helps search engines like Google and Bing to find out what message you are trying to tell your audience. Thus if someone goes to Bing.com and searches for the keywords you are blogging about, BAM, your website comes up. So, pick your keywords carefully, they should be local and of course, relating to real estate.

If your looking for more neat tips like the above, check out the best new real estate franchise available, Area Pro Realty. If you are part of a real estate brokerage franchise already, you can convert to an Area Pro franchise very easily.

New Book Shows Realtors How to Market on Social Networking Websites

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:04:07 -0700

A new book has been released that will help Realtors market themselves online. The book is entitles Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth.

This book is intended to help the millions of authors and Realtors around the world sell books on the Internet via social networking (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc). As an author and Realtor, I have learned that great writing doesn't sell books, great marketing does. This book even helps brokers grow a real estate brokerage franchise.

Even though the title targets authors, it works for anyone who has a service to sell online, and is perfect for Realtors.

As the owner of a real estate franchise, I know how important it is to create a brand amongst yourself. You, as an individual real estate agent are a brand and once you realize that and embrass it, is the moment your career will truly change. Owning a realty franchise is parallel to being a Realtor. Our job is to build a brand that people trust, respect and will be loyal to for life.

Out of all the real estate franchises for sale, Area Pro Realy has embraced social networking in a way that directly helps Realtors. This new book is just another tools that proves how far Area Pro will go to stress social networking.

If your considering real estate franchise opportunities, be sure to check out the new exciting Area Pro Realty

Michael Volkin is a social networking expert and President of Area Pro Realty, a new innovative real estate franchise.

Real Estate Franchise with a Virtual Office

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:18:46 -0700

Real Estate Franchise with a Virtual Office

When the economy was good, many independent real estate brokers made a lot of money and established themselves well in the local community. For the most part it was easy, the houses were selling themselves and all a broker needed to do was get a license and get agents. Now, the economy isn't good and some brokers are scratching their heads trying to build their brokerage instead of close the doors.

This is when a quality real estate franchise is needed. A realty franchise can provide new, or established brokers, with the financial support, recruiting support and technological support a broker needs to grow a company.

There are dozens of real estate franchises for sale, choose wisely and understand what is involved. One of the most innovative new real estate franchises to consider is Area Pro Realty. Area Pro has been dubbed the recesion-proof real estate franchise becuase it incorporates new age technology with an completely unique virtual office. This virtual office is tied to a technology center where real estate technology professionals are literraly building websites and marketing material for Area Pro agents and brokers.

When considering real estate franchise opportunities, be sure to call exisiting franchisees. In my opinion, this is the best way to get information about a franchise, without getting committed to a formal meeting by headquarters.

This article was written by Michael Volkin, president of Area Pro Realty, the most innovative real estate brokerage franchise available in the U.S.

Real Estate Franchise- A Brokers Salvation?

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:11:47 -0700

Real Estate Franchise- A Brokers Salvation?

This article was written by Michael Volkin, president of Area Pro Realty, the most innovative real estate brokerage franchise available in the U.S.

Use My 4/12/3 Technique to Get More Clients

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:49:15 -0700

A large part of social networking is the grouping of individuals into a particular group of interest. People join websites like Facebook and MySpace to find people of similar interests. All social networking websites allow users to connect to each other via buttons and groups. The more friends you have on these websites, the bigger your network is.

I finished an experiment a few months ago which proved beneficial to my real estate business. My first goal was to make over 100 friends a week. The concept here was the more friends I had the bigger my network and the more people would hear about my real estate services. But the reverse happened. Even though I was adding many friends, none of those friends got any personal attention. After several more experiments, I found the perfect number. If you use 4 different social networking sites to make 12 friends per week (in your target market), by contacting each friend at least 3 times your sphere of influence will increase dramatically. Each friend is getting enough personal attention to be interested in you and your real estate knowledge. But, the benefit doesn't stop there. Those friends will tell their friends and so on and so forth. In essence, you gave the perfect amount of people a small bit of attention, enough for them to be interested in you. The next time they think about real estate, they will think about you.

Give it a try for one month, it takes a bit of persistence but it works.

Michael Volkin is a social networking expert and President of Area Pro Realty, a new innovative real estate franchise.

"Brokers, there are many real estate franchises available, choose wisely becuase real estate has changed and many companies have not. Sometimes, the best real estate franchise is one that you haven't considered."

Social Networking for Brokers to Build Your Business and Reputation

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:50:20 -0700

My new book Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth, is not just just for authors, it can benefit brokers and Realtors too. Anyone who wants to sell a product or service via the Internet needs this book.

As the owner of Area Pro Realty, the most innovative real estate franchise available today, I have learned a lot of tips and tricks to boost online traffic and visibility. Real estate franchises available today are numerous and mind-boggling. As a broker, in order to understand how to take over your local marketplace and get the attention you deserve, you need to understand how social networking can affect your business. As a franchisee for the best real estate franchise available (Area Pro), you will get this knowledge handed to you.

If your evaluating various real estate franchises for sale, check us out, you will be surprised you did.

Michael Volkin is the owner of Area Pro Realty, a futuristic forward-thinking real estate franchise.

How I made $12,000 in 12 minutes.

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:27:31 -0700

As the owner of the most innovative real estate franchise in the county, Area Pro Realty, I put the finishing touches on our technology program we call click-blast. With this technology our agents can blast their listing (without duplicate entry) to dozens of the most heavily trafficked real estate websites on the Internet. I tested it out on one of our office listings last week. It took me about 12 minutes to enter all the information about the listing and then I clicked the "blast" button. Within 5 hours, I recieved 4 offers. One was all cash for more than the asking price. We close in 10 days. All of this before it was even put on the MLS.

We may have Area Pro Realty Real Estate Franchises available in your area, please contact us for details at 925-798-2732. The best real estate franchise out there will help you (as a broker) and your agents not only increase productivity, but increase efficiency as well.

There are many real estate franchises for sale, make sure you select one that is constantly changing with the changing real estate market

Location, Location, Location-Great New Listing in Concord, CA!

Michael Volkin (Area Pro Realty) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:24:20 -0700

2741 Atlantic St
Concord, CA 94518
Location, location, location!

Mike Volkin

01490346

Office:	925 798-2732
Mobile:	916 501-9282
Website:	Visit Website

Price	:	$189,900
Bedrooms	:	3
Bathrooms	:	1
Square Foot	:	1,189
Lot Size	:	6,250
County	:	Contra Costa
Property Type	:	Detached
Year Built	:	1947

click for more information and pictures

Property Description

Very competitively priced new listing! Perfect for first time home buyer, investor, or small family. Walking distance to the Concord Bart Station. New paint inside and out. Solar paneling reduces monthly bills. This house features an open floor plan with a big backyard, perfect for entertaining!

Give us a call to schedule a showing.

Equal Housing Opportunity.

Area Pro Realty NorCal : 1850 Gateway Blvd. Suite 185 - Concord CA 94520 : 925 798-2732