Real estate is local when it comes to market conditions and market trends. Real estate differs from region to region in styles, architecture and amenities generally speaking. For instance; in Florida fireplaces are not the norm whereas in cold winter areas such as Colorado, fireplaces are a standard addition to a home. In some areas of our country people have wood burning stoves and others have coal burning furnaces. There are areas of our country such as here in Florida where you would not dare live without Air Conditioning but in many homes in Washington for instance, air conditioning is more of a luxury than a necessity.
So when we are discussing the effects of cap and trade in your real estate business you will need to take into account the region in which you live as some areas will be more effected than others.
You can move your mouse over the map and see who voted, what party they belong to and their district. You will be able to see that no matter whether they were democrats or republicans if they are in the farm country of America, high manufacturing areas of America, low energy bills of America and the heartland of America- they voted NO on this bill and for very good reasons.
"For a household of four, energy costs go up $436 that year, and they eventually reach $1,241 in 2035 and average $829 annually over that span. Electricity costs go up 90 percent by 2035, gasoline by 58 percent, and natural gas by 55 percent by 2035. The cumulative higher energy costs for a family of four by then will be nearly $20,000.
But direct energy costs are only part of the consumer impact. Nearly everything goes up, since higher energy costs raise production costs. If you look at the total cost of Waxman-Markey, it works out to an average of $2,979 annually from 2012-2035 for a household of four. By 2035 alone, the total cost is over $4,600." Heritage Foundation.
You will notice that the states where the votes were yes are also the states that already have the highest energy bills. The states that voted no are mostly states with presently low energy bills.
Instead of calling this to Cap and Trade- We can really call it the Tax On Electricity Bill.
How does this information pertain to real estate agents? If you live in the lower energy pricing states you are going to be seeing huge increases in household energy bills. If you live in states that are coal powered or oil powered you will see the largest increases ever in your energy bills because those energy sources are going to be punished with taxation.
How is that going to effect home prices?
How is that going to effect movement in and out of your state?
How is that going to effect your real estate office utility bills and who is going to pay for this?
The House is at it again. This was a 1,300 page bill and again as with so many large bills was not read by most of those that voted yes or no. What is it that they don't get? The American people expect our leaders to read what they vote on.
So what else is tucked away neatly into this bill that perhaps no one knows the full implications of yet?
How about the Federal imposition and takeover of building codes? Your local planning and building offices will not be qualified for any Federal funding of any kind unless they adopt what the FEDS say is the new energy efficient building standards. This will create higher prices in building new homes which is then passed on the homebuyers and then you as a real estate agent are also effected because less buyers will be able to afford to buy a new home built . Not to mention having to wait for the Feds to come and inspect the builders and the homes.
How about the new Federal EnergyNazis Inspectors who will come and rate your home before you can sell your home. So before you can list a home for sale, the seller will have to wait for the Federal inspectors to come out. DMV lines anyone? Once that inspector comes out, he or she will give the home an energy rating. If the home does not meet the guidelines the seller will be required to do the work necessary to bring the home up to energy standards before they can sell the home! Can we say money? Does that mean that there will be homeowners who will become prisoners in their homes because they can not afford to make the energy repairs that the feds require? Is that an invasion of your privacy as well as an attack on your property rights?
Hmmm, how is that going to effect short sales where the seller has no money to make the repairs and adjustments?
How is that going to effect your ability to get listings in a timely manner?
How is that going to effect your seller who is about to lose their home in a foreclosure?
How is that going to effect the seller who has to relocate for their job?
How is that going to effect the estates with heirs having to do these repairs and such when there won't be any money until the estate is sold?
I wonder if our House of Representatives and our Congress men and women EVER thought to actually ask us in the field working this business day in and day out how these bills will effect the housing market?
Of course, the US will be living Cap and Tax while the real perpetrators of dirty air like China and India get off scott free. There will be an unfair advantage in pricing products and manufacturing to the point that if a US company even stands a chance of staying in the manufacturing business will have no choice but to move their company oversees which in turn will cause a massive layoff of people increasing the already high unemployment problem we are facing in our country.
How will the unemployment effect your real estate business?
How will the unemployment effect the REOs and massive foreclosures in your community?
How will the unemployment effect home values as you get more and more vacant properties in your area?
If you are an agent in America's farmland you will begin to see farms no longer being able to produce a profit. Farms use a lot of energy. Energy use will be punished. This is why nearly every politician from a farm land state no matter what party they are affiliated with voted no to this bill. Their districts will suffer terribly. As this happens we will be buying more and more produce from other countries with far less health standards than our own. I don't trust foods, especially produce from China or other countries except Europe. But we don't import our veggies from Europe!
How is this going to effect your real esate business if you live and work in a farm land state?
When it comes down to the nitty and the gritty about this bill you must remember that GE is the biggest supporter of this bill. They stand to make billions of dollars from the passage of this bill. The politicians voting yes on this bill, many of them are getting paid to vote yes. And Al Gore will become the very first GREEN billionaire. It is just too bad that he is not a real capitalist. He could not become a billionaire playing fair and square. Instead, he has an unfair advantage, legislation to make him filthy rich. Not exactly the free market way. It is all about the money.
Contact your Senators now to vote NO now. Click on this link to find your Senators and contact them by email, phone and fax today. Let them know how this is going to effect your business and your community homeowners and buyers. Pass this on...
Google has expanded on their Universal Search options to include video-specific results. This is bringing more eyeballs to videos from searches. Oftentimes videos will even show up in Google's organic results without the need to click the video link. We recently did a rental video marketing campaign for a client and within days were able to see results. The video ranked on the first page in Google's video search results and in less than a week the video received over 350 views from the different video portals.
Are you taking advantage of video marketing for your listings? If not you are missing out on Google exposure as well as exposure from the video portals.
How about creating localized videos about your county? Creating a targeted video optimized around different cities in your county can be another way for you to dominate your local area.
There’s a correlation between search phrases, search volume and conversion rates that anyone interested in dominating their local market should understand. The graph below illustrates this relationship between short tail (highly searched, low converting) keywords and long tail (low searched, high converting) keywords.
The balance that needs to be implemented in any search engine marketing plan is that of quality AND quantity. Dominating an online market involves a strategy of achieving top search engine placement for all relevant search terms and driving lots of targeted visitors who will ultimately convert into quality leads. So how do we accomplish this?
The Problem With Targeting Short Tail Keywords
The search phrase “Real Estate” is entered into Google 45,500,000 times/month and is highly competitive. For an example let’s think about this from the perspective of a someone looking to dominate the Seattle Washington market. Only a fraction of those 45,500,000 searches for “Real Estate” would find a Seattle real estate related website useful.
Would a Seattle website ranking at the top of this search term generate leads? Sure. But with such a general “Real Estate” term some of these leads may be looking at Seattle, Denver, Miami or other cities. The extra effort it took to rank for such a generic search term would have been better spent targeting many highly searched Seattle related terms.
The Problem With Targeting Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords by definition are very specific search phrases with low competition. An example of a long tail keyword is “Queen Anne 2 Bedroom Home For Sale” (Note: Queen Anne is a popular view neighborhood in Seattle, WA) and ranking well for this phrase is relatively easy.
Unfortunately, taking a quick glance at the search volume for “Queen Anne 2 Bedroom Home For Sale” using the Google Keyword Tool there is “Not Enough Data” to report the search volume meaning this phrase is hardly searched. Despite the fact that very specific search phrases enjoy higher conversion rates into leads, even #1 ranking for this term will generate little business. So, how do we capture many of these long tails and optimize and rank for high volume related search phrases?
Finding The Balance – Quality AND Quantity
Initially keyword research and then a long-term strategy, balancing what will produce the quantity and quality of search results, are invaluable in dominating a local market. Accomplishing this takes a two-fold approach.
1. BUILD AUTHORITY FOR THE MID TAIL:
First this involves selecting a ‘mid tail’ keyword phrase, something that is highly search and relevant to the website. Based on these factors for the Seattle market the keyword phrase “Seattle Real Estate” fits wells with 8,100 searches/month, enough volume to support lots of lead generation if ranked well and the visitors will be specific enough that they will convert at a decent percentage. Optimize the main page of the website for this keyword phrase by building links and Google authority.
(Disclosure: Working The Magic manages the #1 ranked website for “Seattle Real Estate” in Google with 10,000 visitors/month that converts roughly 5% of all visitors into leads)
2. CREATE CONTENT FOR THE LONG TAIL:
Once authority is built into the website, the second part of balancing quality and quantity is to then generate content for the long tail. This involves blogging, neighborhood and community information and additional commentary on the website. Using the long tail example from above it would make sense to add content to a Seattle website about Queen Anne 2 bedroom homes that would likely rank well for that search term. The additional content will add relevancy to the website as a whole and those pages will show up in results for all types of long tail keywords.
Did you know that your ActiveRain blog includes an RSS feed?
Many do not realize the power of RSS feeds and what you can do with them. One
of the most powerful things you can do with feeds is easily distribute and share
your content on the web. As you probably know, the more places on the web that
your content is, the better.
Did you know that you could easily add your ActiveRain feed to FaceBook, FriendFeed,
ClassifiedFlyerAds and many other online resources?
Adding your feeds to these resources will instantly distribute your content into these networks. All you need to do is get the URL from the rss link on
your blog and input that URL into other online resources that accept feeds.
A conversion is generally defined as an event that results in a transaction. A "transaction" will be defined differently based on your business model and what your end goal is (ie. information, sign up, subscription, payment, etc.). Regardless of how you define your conversions and transactions, it is important to track where they are coming from.
Maybe you blog on multiple blog platforms such as Wordpress and ActiveRain. Are you keeping track of leads you get from those platforms and in addition to how many of those leads are converting? Maybe you post videos to different video platforms or syndicate your listings to multiple directories. Maybe you use Twitter or Facebook or focus heavily on your own website. Are you tracking the leads and conversions you receive from all of these sources?
If not, you may be spending valuable time in places that are not giving you a return on your investment. Sure, maybe some of these resources are free but your time is not free; it is an investment. Maybe it's time to take a closer look at which resources have the highest conversion.
Nobody knows your business like you do. Using self-serve online solutions for your business puts the power in your hands. You have the control and can make decisions on what is best for your business.
Education
You might be surprised at just how much you can learn when you start using tools that are readily available. You will learn about online marketing, SEO, advertising, technology and so much more that your competitors don't know about. It will take a little time and patience, but the payoff will be huge.
Economics
You will save BIG. And when I say "big", I mean thousands of dollars or more.
In order to make "self-serve" work for your business, all you need is initiative, a plan, and determination. The effort you put in to learning to effectively "serve yourself" will pay off in more ways than one, and lay the foundation for a lasting change in your business.
There are so many self-serve tools online that empower small business owners to create their own online presence (ActiveRain, Wordpress, ClassifiedFlyerAds, Squidoo, Social Networks, etc.) without paying big bucks for custom work. All small businessesreally need is to be educated on how to use these tools. Once they learn about the technology and how to "serve themselves", they will be able to take their business to a whole different (and higher) level.
You may have noticed a few changes around ClassifiedFlyerAds in the past few weeks. That's because we've redesigned the site to make it easier for you to get exactly where you need to go in less time. With a more intuitive site navigation and sleeker look, you'll be able to post classified ads online in a snap!
In addition to the benefits of the new design, our Real Estate members can now assign a display status to their listings (i.e. "Sold", "Pending", "Active", etc.), enabling them to better organize their listings and use them as testimonials as well! See press release
As you know, once you've created your listing on the site, we'll post the ad to dozens of sites and directories across the internet through our signature syndication process.
Now, with one extra click, you can instantly share your latest classified flyer ad with your connections on social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, StumbleUpon and more. And don't forget that all of your web flyers have the ShareThis technology built right in, which allows others around the web to share your listings as well. Read More
If so, then we'd love to give your blog some "link love"! Send us the link to your blog post about ClassifiedFlyerAds, and we'll post an excerpt on our website homepage with a link to your blog. Talk about traffic and some great Google juice!
We've made it easy with our resource page of quick access to images, videos, and information to use in your blog post. We'd love to hear what you're saying! Vist resource page
Chris Harmon is an Auto Dealer in Topeka, Kansas who really knows how to showcase his inventory! He makes great use of photos to show off his cars and other automobiles with virtual tours, which of course comes free with his membership.
Since Chris titles each flyer with targeted and effective phrases, he consistently enjoys placement on the first page of Google for related searches. This earns him very valuable and targeted leads.
Keep up the great work Chris, and best wishes for your continued success!
More Neat Stuff
Have a ClassifiedFlyerAds testimonial to share?
We'd love to feature you on our home page! Just send us your short story and we'll post it on our front page and testimonials page with your photo and a link to your professional profile. Submit your testimonial via the contact form on our website or send an email to service [at] classifiedflyerads.com. We'd love to hear about your success!
More Broker Branded Templates
When we launched our Smart Templates last year, they were an immediate hit! With the large focal picture and multi-page layout, these templates feature your properties for sale in style. We've recently added more broker branded styles to the list, including Keyes, Realty Executives, Windermere, Weichert, and John L. Scott. Come on over & check 'em out!
First of all, let me start off by saying that this is not directed at any one person in particular, just a trend that I’ve seen a lot of lately. I apologize now if this post offends anyone… okay now that that's out of the way, let me get right to the point!
It seems like the trend lately in blog posts is:
How to blog
How not to blog
What to write
What not to write
How to comment
How not to comment
How to promote
How not to promote
How to use Twitter
How not to use Twitter
Wow, where did all of these "experts" and "gurus" come from so fast?
Why should anyone's way be "the way" for everyone? What works for some may not work for others – the workings on the web are not black and white. Your preferred method may not be someone else’s preferred method. What it boils down to is this: you should do what works for you. If you are blogging for business, then do what brings in the most leads. Once you figure that out, then all the advice people give about what to do and what not to do will matter very little because you will know what works for you.
One of the great thing about blogging and web 2.0 is that if someone doesn’t like what you are doing; how you are blogging, what you are tweeting, what message you’re sending, then they can simply ignore you.
I would much rather see posts about "tips" on what you are doing that is actually working for you and specific examples of methods that have brought you leads, rather than the constant "don’t do that" scolding posts with no meat behind them.
If you can show "why" along with "how not to" or the "don't do" then I will be more open to taking the advice. This post is also in no way meant to attack all the wonderful "how to" tips that AR members bring to the table.
With social networks, bookmarking sites, blogs, and micro-blogs, there are more ways than ever to spread the word about your listings. ClassifiedFlyerAds just made it easy-as-pie to share your current classified ad listings in more places around the web.
Thousands of Realtors use ClassifiedFlyerAds.com for their Real Estate Listing Syndication and top search engine placement. Now, with one extra click, you can instantly share your latest classified flyer ad with your connections on social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, StumbleUpon and more.
You are even provided with 2 versions of posting HTML for ActiveRain. One formatted for your normal ActiveRain blog and a second smaller version for outside blogs and Localism.
It's our way of helping you get the most out of each and every one of your classified flyer ads! Here's a quick peek at the new feature... share your flyer as soon as it's saved!
Using slideshare for your listing presentations can give you the advantage. Your slideshows can be made public for everyone to view and possibly be picked up by Google and it also gives your potential clients easy access. Slideshare slideshows can be viewable from the web, can be downloaded and embedded. If you know how to use Powerpoint, then you already have what it takes to market on SlideShare. The site allows you to upload presentations from Powerpoint, OpenOffice, or a PDF file, and share it publicly on the web. As is typical with most social sites, you can connect with other people, comment on their presentations, and develop conversations and relationships with people who are interested in what you have to say. Read More >>
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.
A conversion is generally defined as an event that results in a transaction. A "transaction" will be defined differently based on your business model and what your end goal is (ie. information, sign up, subscription, payment, etc.). Regardless of how you define your conversions and transactions, it is important to track where they are coming from.
Using slideshare for your listing presentations can give you the advantage. Your slideshows can be made public for everyone to view and possibly be picked up by Google and it also gives your potential clients easy access. Slideshare slideshows can be viewable from the web, can be downloaded and embedded. If you know how to use Powerpoint, then you already have what it takes to market on SlideShare. The site allows you to upload presentations from Powerpoint, OpenOffice, or a PDF file, and share it publicly on the web. As is typical with most social sites, you can connect with other people, comment on their presentations, and develop conversations and relationships with people who are interested in what you have to say. 
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