In this high-tech world it's easy to lose sight of some of the simple things which we could be doing to develop business.  Here's one which impressed me.

On Monday evening, one of my agents pulled 100 business cards out of the box, and jotted a handwritten note of the back of each one. "If you're interested in selling your house, please call me.  Pat."

On Tuesday morning, around 5:30 am, he took his dog for a walk and he tucked those cards into storm doors on 100 properties in his area.

On Tuesday afternoon, the phone rang and an appointment was made with a prospective seller for Wednesday evening.

On Thursday morning, he brought the new listing to the office.

Based on our current market and the high level of demand in the area there's a good chance it will be under contract before the end of the weekend.

This idea is so simple it almost seems stupid but I have little doubt it made a greater impression on these home owners than most of the "flyers" we're accustomed to seeing in the mailbox.  He certainly gets points for delivering something different. Second, it was a bit of a personal touch, something we seldom see in mailbox marketing. Third, it was probably obvious to each of these homeowners that this agent was actually at their door, long before the sun came up, and he was walking the streets in their neighbourhood.  I'll bet a few of those business cards found their way to the fridge or that little drawer where you put stuff like this for future reference.

It's easy to get caught up in all of the new methods of prospecting. Personally, I enjoy them and I'm starting to see many benefits from my blog already. This story reminded me that there are other simple ways of standing out.  What a great way to make your morning walk pay.

Norm

My Other Blog

The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey for 2007 which measures affordability of housing in 159 cities in Canada, the United States, Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand has just been released.

This third annual survey compares median incomes for an area to housing prices and produces an affordability ranking for each.  Markets where homes can be purchased for less than 3 times the median income are considered affordable.

Regina, Saskatchewan and Fort Wayne, Indiana took the prize in the "Most Affordable" category. In either of these markets a typical home can be purchased at just two times the median income.

Los Angeles-Orange County, California topped the list of the "World's Most Unaffordable Housing Markets," where you can expect to pay a whopping 11.1 times the median income for a house.

Find out how your market faired here.

The power of "pinging" was brought home to me in a big way tonight when this post on my Saskatoon blog appeared at the top of my Google Blog search results, just eighteen minutes after it was posted to my blog.

As a newcomer to the whole blogging scene, I've spent many hours reading various blogs.  Those with a "how to blog" component have been most interesting to me as I flounder around out here trying to get started.  I have appreciated the advice that Barry Hurd provides on Barry's Blog and I love Jim Cronin's Real Estate Tomato.  Of course, who could even touch on this topic without mentioning Mary McKnight of RSS Pieces?  It seems that all of her posts are packed with more good tips than a real agent could be expected to implement in a month.  I think it's actually part of her plan for Web 2.0 domination.  Let them know just how much they should be doing with their blogs, give them just enough time to realize that they can't possibly do it all themselves, and when their brains are swimming in technical mumbo jumbo, bang, your all hers!! 

A couple of weeks ago, overwhelmed by the task at hand and not really knowing where to start, I decided to pick up on just a few of Mary's recommendations.  By this time I'm realizing that thinking about how I'm going to do it all has me paralyzed.  So, I picked a couple of small tasks which I knew I could handle and decided to make them part of the whole routine. 

I registered my blog at Google's Blog search.  "Thank you for submitting your blog.  We will try to index your blog soon as possible." 

Ah, crap! 

My blog platform is still in beta and I haven't figured out how to automate the ping.  Each day, after I've completed my daily post I scurry over to Google Blog search and conduct the "ping."  Tonight, I finally found that Google love as my first listing appeared there in the number one spot for Saskatoon real estate.

Thanks to Mary, Jim, Barry and the many others who give so freely at activerain and elsewhere.  I hope to spend more time here making an actual contribution as a settle into a daily blogging routine and get more comfortable with the whole thing.

Now, where to next?

I installed IE7 today and my Google Reader stopped working.  I can access the reader but it won't open any of the feeds.  The browser just freezes up.  Oh, good old Microsoft. It made me wonder if they're up to old tricks of messing up compatibility of competing products. 

Having said that, IE7 has a built in RSS Reader.  I popped a few of my subscriptions in it and I have to say it's kind of slick.  It displays posts beautifully and on several of my feeds I can also access comments and the blog tag list.  I think I prefer it to the Google Reader.  I've been using the browser all day and with the exception of this one glitch everything seems to be smooth.

In preparation for a post I wrote on my Saskatoon real estate blog, I spent about 30 minutes viewing listings on a typical real estate website.  I continue to be astounded at the poor quality of images which pass as acceptable to both sellers and agents.

In thirty minutes time, I managed to collect enough lousy images to create a virtual tour which I've titled, "The Unbelievably Bad Real Estate Photo Hall of Fame."  In it, you'll see a man, apparently asleep in his recliner while his living room is photographed, a kitchen that looks like it's about to slide off the face of the earth and about thirty other gems which somehow snuck past the stupid meter on their way to the MLS® and the Internet.

As agents, we must remember that photography is a very important element of MLS® and Internet marketing.  We would also be wise to remember that when we post a home to the Internet, the quality of our work, and the extent to which we care about the work we do is readily apparent to everyone who views your listing.  Friends, in many cases we look like careless idiots. 

I always assume that my seller will be one of the first to view his or her home online and I strive to build a presentation which will leave them feeling proud of their home, and perhaps even wanting to forward the ad to their friends and family.  Mean time, I am going to work towards marketing myself as some who cares and wants to present homes professionally. 

Please remember me with your Saskatoon real estate referrals.  You can reach me toll-free at 1-888-978-6676 or drop me an email through my ActiveRain profile.

Norm Fisher, Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate

Flipper Nation released their second episode today. "The Blame Game" attempts to get to the bottom of the meager profit Richie and David earned on "The First Flip."

Does it "really matter" what your interest rate is?

Does "Bermuda Bluegrass" actually double the value of your property?

Just what kind of "team player" is Carmen?

These questions and more answered.  Check it out here.

Jim Cronin of the Real Estate Tomato published an interview today with Greg Swann of Bloodhound Realty.  Greg is a frequent contributor to his own BloodhoundBlog.  I have visited both of these blogs on a daily basis and and enjoy them very much.  The interview titled, "Straight from the Hound's Mouth" is certainly an interesting read.

Here's what really got me thinking.  Jim asked Greg, "If you were to recommend one blogging strategy for new real estate bloggers, what would it be?" 

Greg's response was, "Depends on the objective. If you want leads, don't weblog."  I also got the impression that Greg doesn't think there's much of a market for a blog which primarily appeals to consumers.   

So, how about it?  Are there agents out there who have managed to build a blog which primarily targets buyers and sellers of real estate that is actually delivering a measurable return?  I've been spending a fair amount of time on my other blog and I would hate to think that I'm neglecting my family and my business just for the pleasure of hearing myself talk.  :)

I just wanted to share two pieces that I found about blogging and the addictive nature of it. 

The first piece is featured on Sellsius, titled "You Might be a Blogoholic If..."

The second is a pretty funny video on PhilTube called "Did you Say Blogging?"  Caution: some colorful language, but bleeped.

I hope you enjoy them.

I am amazed at the extremely poor quality of images which agents and home sellers seem prepared to accept.  My MLS is full of photos that do nothing but make a property look very, very bad.  At a time when the bulk of all home searches are starting online, it's time that we either learned a bit about photographing homes or hired our work out to a professional.  It's just too important to be done poorly.

Most attempts at photographing homes could be drastically improved with a few simple tips.

1. Ensure that the home is prepared as it would be for showings.  Remove clutter and obvious distractions.  Beds should be made, clothing and toys neatly put away, counter tops clean and free of household appliances.  Examine the room through your viewfinder or digital display and pay attention to what you see.
2. Don't be scared to move some furniture out of the image.  Over furnished rooms don't photograph well.
3. Let as much natural light as possible into the room.
4. Turn on all lights to brighten the room.  Ambient light gives nice warmth which is normally welcome in "home" shots.
5. Don't attempt to shoot rooms which your equipment cannot properly capture. Point and shoot camera are not going to take complimentary shots of small bedrooms, so don't bother.
6. If you don't have equipment which will effectively deal with bright windows try shooting in the late afternoon or early morning hours when the sun is not so bright and there's a better balance of light between the outside and the inside light.  Draw curtains if necessary.
7. Consider investing in some decent equipment light a digital SLR camera, wide angle lens, external flash and a tripod.  Today, for a couple of thousand dollars you can get a pretty nice rig.
8. Read Chris Groenhout's "Guide to Photographing Display Homes."
9. Check out NYIP's article titled, "How to Photograph Interiors."
10. Visit Larry Lohrman's awesome blog, "Photography for Real Estate."
11. Practice and have fun!

As humans, we are predisposed to promoting and protecting our own interests and for the most part, this is considered to be an acceptable approach to living our lives.  After all, we are responsible to look after ourselves and if we don't at least consider our own interests we might find ourselves in bad shape.   

It seems to me that all of the great religions of our day have one thing in common; they promote a selfless approach to life. Some texts call for a metaphoric "death" to self as a necessary step on the walk to holiness.  As I understand it, those who make a serious commitment to their religion attempt to serve their Higher Power, selflessly, with obedience and some understanding of the concept of greater good.  They have "faith" that their selflessness will ultimately be rewarded.  Many of us see true beauty in people who are able to be faithful to their convictions and we are repelled by those who fail to "practice what they preach." 

I'm not advocating for religion or suggesting that only "believers" understand the concept of greater good.  Neither will I suggest that your client relationships rise to level of your relationship with your Higher Power, if in fact you have one. Whether one does or doesn't have faith is not really relevant to my point.  Most important are the concepts of true service, promises, faithfulness, and the richness of the rewards which naturally flow from them.

There are some interesting parallels which can be drawn when comparing such a spiritual walk to a career in real estate.  In fact, every day in real estate is a spiritual walk of sorts, at least for me.   We work in one of a small handful of professions which calls us to conduct ourselves in a selfless manner.  We make promises, important promises.

The basic precept of "agency" can be summed up as "protect and promote the interests of your client above all others."   With that comes the promise of utmost loyalty, obedience, confidentiality, avoidance of conflict of interest and secret profits, and full disclosure.  Every single time that we sign a listing agreement or a buyer brokerage agreement we pledge to do just that.  If this comes as news to you, you might want to spend a few minutes with a lawyer to brush up on the law of contracts and agency.  These are heavy burdens, not to be taken lightly.  Every action, every decision, every bit of advice which we offer should be calculated and put forward with the client's interests and only the client's interests as the primary consideration.  Self-interest must be put to death when it is in conflict with the client's interests.  It's our promise, our higher calling.

Understanding that the promise has been made is the first step towards faithfulness.  What follows is the beautiful truth that it is always in our interest to act in the best interest of the client.  We know that broken promises destroy relationships, breed mistrust and at some level, create spiritual scar tissue.  Such failures, done intentionally, change the way that we feel about ourselves and the way in which others see us.  On the other hand, promises fulfilled build, confidence, character, inner peace and self-worth. 

Being faithful to our promises is good for the spirit.