Realty Viewpoint: More Good News - Asking Prices Flatten - by Blanche Evans - It's a housing market that's being measured not in sales, but in the rate of decline. Finally there's some good news for sellers -- a floor is forming for some of the most volatile markets. According to the Altos 10-City Composite Price Index, real-time asking prices for homes declined just 0.3 percent in May. Some may look at that and say, yes, prices are still falling, but look at the momentum. Prices of properties listed for-sale increased in 15 of 26 major markets according to the Real-Time Housing Market Report and Real IQ. Prices are still volatile in vulnerable markets like Las Vegas, down 3.7 percent during May, but prices rose by the same amount in Denver. Overall, prices increased by more than one percent in 11 of 26 markets. This is no easy feat considering that listing inventories rose in 25 out of 26 markets, or 3.7 percent in the 10-City composite. The surprising exception was Miami, where inventory actually declined 1.3 percent in May. "The weakest markets continue to be concentrated in Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada which all experienced the biggest price increases during the boom times," said Michael Simonsen, CEO and co-founder of Altos Research. "Now these same markets are outpacing others on the downside as foreclosures and price declines continue relentlessly. We're seeing some stability in many markets outside of these hard-hit states." For the Altos 10-City Composite, the average days-on-market was 106 -- an improvement from 111 in April and 113 in March. Miami experienced the longest days-on market at 152, while San Francisco had the fastest rate of inventory turnover at 73 days on market. One reason why the Real-Time Housing report and 10-city indexes are more positive than other indexes such as the Case-Shiller is that the information is not based on sold data or same sales data, but tracks real-time listing prices. Also included is a wider range of cities, some of which are less volatile, like Austin, Houston, and Indianapolis. Data in the Real-Time Housing Market Report is based on current analysis of over one million properties currently listed for-sale in 26 metropolitan markets across the country. The 10-City Index is composed of 31 major MSAs. Published: June 12, 2008

Saturday, June 7, 2008 - A Tale of Two Marketing Campaigns - No matter what your business is, it is crucially important to remember that you are not primarily ‘in’ that business; you are primarily ‘in’ the business of marketing that business. So whether you are a real estate agent that uses RTV software to advance your real estate marketing strategy or if you are a virtual tour provider that makes a living providing commercial and real estate virtual tours, your primary focus must be on the marketing of your business to be at all successful. Without marketing, there is no business and there is no way around that fact. The marketing department here at Team RTV understands that we have many different businesses that utilize the marketing material, systems and campaigns that we produce for our Inner-Circle Members. That is why we are always on the lookout for unique ideas, even from outside our industry. This week we came across two very different marketing campaigns, each from outside the virtual tour industry and each with very different conversion goals. In the first example I will show you how a company effectively spends marketing dollars on a campaign to bring highly qualified (yet unsuspecting) leads right to their front door with one advertisement in a magazine. In the second example, I will show you how a very large corporation spent what must have been hundreds of thousands of dollars on a marketing campaign that brings them zero qualified leads. The first example is a marketing campaign for a children’s book company which is placed in a children’s magazine. The advertisement features a ‘scratch & match game’ that uses the assumption that you are playing to ‘win’ something. But, if you look closely, nothing in the advertisement says that you are going to ‘win’ anything. In fact, every bit of text on this advertisement clearly states that you ARE getting free gifts. All you have to do is scratch, paste, enter your kid’s name, place it in the mail and you get the free gifts. You don’t even have to fill out your address, because the magazine company has already personalized the advertisement with the address of the magazine recipient. So, why the ‘scratch & match’ game? Its way more effective in drawing attention to the ad, getting people involved with the offer by scratching the apples and dropping it in the mail. It’s so simple that even a kid could do it. And kids love games, especially ones that they win. Redemption of the ‘prize’ requires nothing more than the kid to fill in their own name and drop it in the mail. This tactic is borderline manipulative (using kids to obligate parents) in my opinion, but very effective in converting the magazine’s customer list to their own. The second example is a small game piece featuring a “$50,000 cash out contest” for a lunchmeat company. The game piece is place inside the lunchmeat package with images of $100 bills and the words “$50,000 Cash Out Contest” in monopoly-like lettering. When you open the game piece to reveal your ‘PIN number’ for the contest, you are directed to a website to enter your code and find out if you have won. So far, so good. The company has effectively reached people that are already buying their product. So you would think that the next step would be to collect information from these customers and sell more to them right? Nope. When you get to the website, you click on the link to take you to the page where you enter your pin. A screen comes up with an ‘entry form’. You enter your number and it tells you whether you did or did not win. That’s it. Game over. I couldn’t help but feel an empty void when that happened. Is the marketing department sleeping? They spent ALL of this money on these game pieces and the website and they didn’t even ask me for my name. Nothing! Even if they had a ‘consolation prize of a 50 cent coupon, then there might have been a clear conversion goal, but there isn’t. Zero leads, zero up sell. The most they would get out of a campaign like that is geographical location of the consumer via IP address, but since the product is shipped to supermarkets and people usually purchase from supermarkets close to home, that would be a waste. Once this contest is over, they have no effective means of reaching consumers that engaged in their contest. At the end of these two marketing campaigns, the first company has a customer list of parents with kids old enough to read, write and manipulate stickers on a page. Exactly the target market they are looking to sell their books. And I would be willing to bet that a pretty high percentage of those parents pay for the books that their kids ordered, so they also have many new customers. On the other hand, the second company has a cool looking website and no customer list. Which company would you want to be after spending your marketing dollars?

Greetings Everyone,

As a virtual tour provider in Southern MD.   I've been spending quite a bit of time lately explaining to Realtors that we've done tours for, the importants of marketing.  They seem to be a little lost about how its done and what to do with the tour after delivery.  Some have 10 to 20 years in the business and I would think they would have a contacts list that would be a mile long.  

I always offer my Realtor.com service as a way of marketing their listing but I also suggest the following: 

• Immediately sending the listing to all clients and Realtors they know via email
• Taking advantage of any free online ad companys like Craiglist
• Communicating with any organization they may be members of 

Just wanted to know what others are experiencing and their suggestions.   I enjoy helping my clients anyway I can.  Thx

 

Creative Realty Solution, LLC

Renard Johnson

www.CRSvirtualtours.com

Greetings,

As a full service RTV dealer in Southern MD, I would like to comment on my experiece with RTV and the tours that have been referred to me.   I received my first request to do a virtual tour from RTV in November of '07 for KB Homes, a builder in my area.   I read about tour track but didn't give it much thought until I received an email asking if I was interested in doing two tours for KB Homes.   I accepted the job and went out for the tours.  The tours turned out great and the support I received from RTV was outstanding.   Since then I have received three more tours and the results have been the same.  I truely enjoy the support and response I get from RTV.   Below are links to the tours.   They were my first and I've a gotten better since then with RTV's feedback.

CRS Tour #1 - Upper Marlboro, MD

CRS Tour #2 - Waldorf, MD

 

Renard Johnson

Creative Realty Solutions, LLC

www.CRSvirtualtours.com 

Greetings my fellow RTV Dealers,

 

Well as I mentioned in an earlier blog here are two new tours by Creative Realty Solutions of Southern MD.   This is only our fifth tour but I'll admit it gets easier the more you do.   The rush I get when going out is unbelievable and I get a chance to share with the owners and Realtors how to market the tour.   They are always grateful but the real joy is after the tour is done and hearing how excited they are about the tour. 

 

Creative Realty Solutions Virtual Tour #1

 

Creative Realty Solutions Virtual Tour #2

 

I'm always open to suggestions about CRS tours, so don't hesitate to comment. 

Renard Johnson

Creative Realty Solutions, LLC

www.CRSvirtualtours.com 

 

 

Greeting my fellow VT Dealers,

 

I received a call yesterday from a friend saying he just listed his home for sale in Eastern Maryland one week ago.   I asked him if he needed a virtual tour done and he said " how much ".   I informed him it would be $95 dollars as a favor rather than $110.  He said he would pay it and to come over this weekend.  I asked him why not have the Realtor pay for it?  He was apprehensive about asking him to do so since they had already signed a contract and it wasn't discussed then.  I immediately said to him its OK for you to pay him 18K as a commission but you can't ask him to spent $95 to help sell your home.   He finally decided to ask the Realtor and he said sure no problem.   My friend had the biggest smile you ever saw.  I simply said, " Why not ask, You're paying for it".   I intend to WOW this Realtor with the tour when its done so hopefully I can bring him on as a client. 

Enjoy and Be Persistent

 

Renard Johnson

Creative Realty Solutions, LLC

www.CRSvirtualtours.com 

Greetings,

I'm riding in my car yesterday and I receive a call on my cell.   I don't recognize the number so I was going to let it go but I decided to answer.   Turns out it was a real estate investor I met months ago in Baltimore MD.   He's interested in having virtual tours done for some of his properties.   He buys homes, fixes them up and then sells or rents them.   His gut feeling is he would like two to three tours a month done to start out.   I sent him an information packet after arriving home and we plan on setting something up for next week to get started.   Good thing I picked up.   Have a nice day.

P.S.  - I'm looking for a good management company and inspector for a 10 unit building in Knoxville, TN.   Pls drop me a line if you know of any.   Also I'm looking to speak with someone who knows north and west knoxville.   I have an interest in purchasing a multi unit in these areas. 

 

Renard Johnson

Creative Realty Solutions, LLC

www.CRSvirtualtours.com

 

It’s taken a while but I finally found the time to do my very first company blog.   Bear with me since I’m a little nervous but I know it will pass with time and more blogging.   That being said I would like to talk a little bit about being a virtual tour provider in Waldorf MD.     We became a full service virtual tour provider in October of 2007 through Real Tour Vision(RTV).   RTV has been great and goes above and beyond to assist you with any questions or problems.   RTV actually set me up with my very first tours with KB Homes in Upper Marlboro MD and Waldorf MD.    Your first tour is always nerve racking but I got through it all and RTV was very please with my work.   That gave me the confidence to move forward and approach other Realtors and businesses within Southern MD who may need a virtual tour provider.   So far the response has been positive and my clients are blown away with the final product.    The company web site for Creative Realty Solutions has been getting hits since its inception and we are working hard to increase its popularity through search engine optimization.   So far things look good and I look forward to working with anyone who may need my services in Southern MD.  Visit the company web site for sample tours and feel free to call for additional information.