How To Form a GREAT Web Strategy - 01/31/08 08:19 AM
This morning's article on Web Site vs. Web Strategy in Broker Agent News really hit the nail on the head.  It says, in the simplest, most easy to understand way, what our M.O. at Real Estate Client Referrals has always been. Having a solid web strategy means posting frequent updates to your web page, being able to give the prospect a free list of the latest homes for sale in your area, and letting them choose when and how to get in touch with you.
For those of you who don't have time to read the whole article, here are a few … (5 comments)

Positive Reinforcement About Life - 01/29/08 01:13 PM
Every once in a while, I like to review all of the inspirational quotes that I have seen over the years.  I would like to share a few of those with you in the hopes that one or all of them ring true to you as well...
Dont ask yourself what the wold needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Harold Whitman
Dont bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.  Try to be better than yourself. -- William Faulkner
If a man … (2 comments)

Check Out My Sister... - 01/28/08 03:23 PM
Ok, so maybe I meant to say ‘Check Out My Sister Company'...
In this ever-increasing world of internet requirements, Real Estate Client Referrals has decided to launch a new division of our company:
Iprogrammer is a full-scale website production, creation, design, and programming company that specializes in database creation, web design and reconstruction, shopping cart integration, and PayPal compliance.  We can do anything you need.
If you would like more information about how we can help, please contact Clint or Jerrold at 406-532-3717 or 800-977-7058.
… (1 comments)

Has the Market Hit Bottom in Your Area? - 01/28/08 11:40 AM
I read a post this morning on BrokerAgentNews that said we've finally hit bottom on the real estate market. Now the only way to go is up.  My question is, do you think the market has really hit bottom in your area? Will home prices rebound now in sellers' favor or do you think the market will still be struggling into next year and beyond?
While I'm not a real estate agent, I can tell you that our seller-related offers (that we promote to consumers to help them sell their home with the help of an agent), have really surged in the … (9 comments)

How to Cut Your Home Showings in HALF! - 01/25/08 03:22 PM
How to Cut Your Home Showings in HALF! 
If you've been in the industry for any length of time, chances are you've played chauffeur to some finicky homebuyers looking for that elusive dream home. A recent CAR study shows that on average, agents showed 20 homes to their traditional buyers before having them settle on one. 20 homes! Can you imagine what an impact that makes on your time and productivity?
Now what if you could cut that number of half?
You can - and here's how - it's easy!
Start filling your day with home showings from Internet prospects! On average, they … (3 comments)

Hey HouseValues - Scooping Up the Winners Won't Improve Your Image... - 01/24/08 12:37 PM
Here's an open letter to HouseValues that I would invite and encourage all agents (and HV contributors/employees) to respond to:
It's no secret you're slumping, HouseValues. Lots of real estate agents here love to hate you. Fellow Blogger Cheryl Johnson even came right out and told you what you could do to be better. Things like actually verify your referrals, don't charge an early cancellation fee, don't lock people in to a long-term contract, and so on.
Here's a thought. How about, instead of scooping up all the businesses who "got it right" the first time (ActiveRain), you concentrate instead on improving your … (3 comments)

HouseValues Suggestions Already in Place by Their Competition - 01/24/08 12:20 PM
Dear HouseValues (and ActiveRain participants),
I read the following suggestions on the Open Letter to Housevalues blog by fellow concerned agent Cheryl Johnson about how HouseValues should clean up its image:
So there's item 1 for the suggestion box: Confirm, verify, and validate leads before you sell them.
Absolutely! At Real Estate Client Referrals, we've done this right from the start. We have a full-time staff verify each and every one of the referrals that come through our system. A large portion of them are flagged and deleted right from the start. We only send them on to our (exclusive) agents when they have … (12 comments)

Are you as loyal to your internet leads as they are to you? - 01/24/08 09:01 AM
Are you as loyal to your internet leads as they are to you?
When some agents think of internet referrals, they think of junk leads with names like "Mickey Mouse" and phone numbers like 555-1212.  They also mistakenly think that Internet referrals are all out for something free, and just want to waste the agent's time. Furthermore, some agents think that internet prospects are going to drain all the time they've normally reserved for their "real" prospects - the office walk-ins or phone calls the agent gets.
However, nothing could be further from the truth! Here's proof:
According to a 2006 study from … (7 comments)

Become a SalesDog!...(It's FREE) - 01/23/08 12:31 PM
I wanted to post a quick testimonial about a company that I use for information on how to sell better.  Check out www.salesdog.com.
It is a free weekly newsletter that is emailed to you every Monday morning.  The information covers every aspect of sales from cold calling to closing and everything in between written by national sales gurus.  I think it is wonderful...I have used it for over a year now...and have applied many of the techniques to my own pitch with much success.  I highly recommend it!!!  And yes, I bought the book too!!!
Happy Selling!!!!
If you would like to discuss the … (0 comments)

Real Estate Blog Directory - 01/22/08 09:49 AM
Just wanted to let fellow AR members know about a blog directory I just found online. They have a pretty good Google pagerank, so linking to/from them also helps your active rain blog increase in the search engines:
Real Estate Blogs - A directory of real estate blogs and blog sites of industries affiliated with and serving the real estate industry.
It's a side effort of the #1 listed Google site when someone searches for "real estate agent forum" as well, so why not get extra exposure for your AR blog by joining the forum AND adding your blog to the directory?
(Please note, I'm … (4 comments)

How Fast Do You Follow Up with Online Prospects? - 01/22/08 09:01 AM
When you get a new prospect in your email inbox, how soon do you follow up with them?
An hour later?Four hours later?A day or more later?
If you can identify with any of those timeframes - you're too slow!
Did you know that the average internet prospect said that the most important reason they selected their agent was that they were the first to respond?
Replying to your email leads should be no different than if they were standing in your office.  Just a quick note to let them know that you got their message and that if they have any questions about the … (8 comments)

5 group limit??? *UPDATED* - 01/18/08 10:13 AM
Can someone please explain this to me..............You can only post to 5 groups. The first 5 were saved, the rest were ignored.
As an AR member, you can become a member of any group you wish...as many as possible.  But, when posting a blog, you can only post it in 5 groups.  Why the limitation?  Is it to avoid the same people seeing the same blog on multiple groups?  Or is it something else? 
Either way, I dont get it.  Any explaination would be appreciated.  Thanks!
Update is at the bottom of the comments....Thanks.
… (24 comments)

From Washed Up to WhooHoo!! - 01/18/08 08:18 AM
My name is Jeremiah Thompson. I started out as a complete and utter real estate rookie seven years ago working in a small RE/MAX office in Missoula, Montana. 
I spent countless hours "in the field"... hosting open houses, only to feed cookies to the neighbors.I spent long hours on the phone, cold-calling and even getting yelled at sometimes.I put in so many hours at work, that it cost me a relationship with my girlfriend and some of my most valuable possessions...
The "Crazy Idea" That Turned My Career Around and How It Can Work for You
I decided that things had to change. … (11 comments)

How $99 Referrals Can Be Worth More than $1,075 Leads - 01/16/08 02:21 PM
How much would you pay for a good referral?
I mean a referral that, let's say, had a 20% chance of buying or selling their home within a year?
Now that may not sound like much at first. But consider the fact that, unlike with traditional lead programs, where there's a slight chance that 1 in 100 of the leads you get will turn into a closing...but our average closing rate is 1-in-5.
That sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Why do you think that is?
That's because, until we came along, "lead generation" companies actually bragged about their 1 in 100 closing … (0 comments)

Featured Member? - 01/15/08 11:39 AM
Well, with only a 2 months under my belt on AR, I have just become a "Featured Member" in my county and city.  Not sure exactly how that happened other than me blogging like a dog.  :-) 
But, where are my ribbons???  My confetti???  My hoots and hollars about what an amazing accomplishment this is???  Where's the dancing girls???  My free drinks???  My big band blowing a rendition of 'When the saints...'???
OH!!  WAIT!!!  My AR profile and several of my blogs are all ranked in the top 10 on Google on a natural search of my company (Real Estate Client Referrals) … (4 comments)

Increase Your Real Estate Website's Search Engine Ranking - 01/14/08 04:36 PM
How many of you remember "back in the day" - say, in the year 2000 or so, when just HAVING a website meant you were automatically guaranteed to get customers?
I mean, having a website meant everything back then. It meant you embraced technology, that you were on the "cutting edge" of the Web. If you had a website, you were in the top percentage of real estate agents who were online, because so few people knew how to make a website, let alone attract the attention of search engines (if memory serves me right, Google wasn't even a major contender back … (7 comments)

YOU Have the POWER!...You Just Need To Use It. - 01/10/08 07:59 AM
Good Morning!  Today is a new day!!  Now, clear your head and get ready for this one...this is important...
The 'Clintonian' definition (thats my word for my version....kinda catchy, dont you think?) of INSANITY is this: Doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results.  Having that in mind, lets move on...I'd like to share with you all a little piece of advice I recieved from my Economic's professor in college...Dr. Colleen Johnson.  Smart woman...and I dont just mean book smart.  She was sharper than a two-pionted tack.  Anyways...here is what she told me upon graduation...Or, a close summary thereof...
If you … (8 comments)

Guarantees Matter - 01/09/08 03:45 PM
Have you ever thought about how much guarantees really matter to us? Sure, a 30-day money back guarantee does sound good - until you realize that by the time you get the product, have time to read/use it and decide for yourself, probably 20 days have already passed!
I used to think 30 days was enough. I mean, a month should be plenty of time to try a real estate marketing program out and decide if it's right for you, shouldn't it? But what our agents told us that they really didn't feel they had enough time to truly benefit from … (0 comments)

The Mothership Mentality and How it Can Hurt Your Business - 01/08/08 02:29 PM
One of the common objections I often hear from people interested in our program is this:
"Well, I already have a real estate website through [Insert Big Company Name Here] which provides me with leads."
What I'm referring to is the "Mothership Mentality" - the idea that these big real estate website programs can make you an associate under their umbrella of sites, and you'll get leads that way.  They sell you on the prestige of being associated with their "big name" and the copious amount of traffic they receive to their site.
What they DON'T tell you is that what they're selling will … (2 comments)

Referrals VS. Leads...Compare the Difference. - 01/08/08 07:51 AM
Having learned via an AR member yesterday that RealEstate.com is no longer offering it's popular "lead generation" services any longer, I wanted to extend an invitation to everyone on AR to check out my referral program, a unique system specifically designed for Realtors® by a Realtor®...
First off, let me be clear about one thing: Real Estate Client Referrals is NOT a "lead generation" company.  We are a full scale realty referral procurement agency with one primary goal -- To ensure that you make money using our network so that we can keep YOU as OUR customers for life!  The only way we … (0 comments)

RealEstate.com No Longer Doing Lead Generation? *UPDATED* - 01/07/08 04:35 PM
I had an agent contact me earlier today that found us off of AR....And she proceeded to tell me that RealEstate.com is no longer offering a lead generation service??!!!!  Supposedly, they are attempting to position themselves along the same lines as Top Producer.  So, I am curious if anyone out there in AR world can verify this for me.....Please send any info, links, etc...
Thanks!Update --- I went to the RealEstate.com website and the rumors are true.  They no longer offer any form of lead generation service as a subscription style service.  Although they have kept the contact management software in place … (3 comments)

I Love Small Town America...Other than that, this isnt about anything important...Or is it? - 01/04/08 10:52 AM
I grew up in a small town...and I know small is a relative term to most.  I am talking less than 1,000 people when I graduated high school.  My graduating class had 29 kids in it.  Im talking small town. 
I can remember:
-- having to go to the doctor...walking into the office and being seen right away and leaving without paying for anything because they knew they could send a bill to my parents house.
-- going to the drug store and getting perscriptions for pain medications for my dad and they actually gave them to me knowing I wasnt going to go … (6 comments)

"Life is like a box of......"???? - 01/04/08 08:00 AM
Unless you have lived under a rock for the last 15 years, you all know the obvious answer to this little proverb made famous by Forrest Gump -- "Life is like a box of chocolates....you never know what youre gonna get"  
However, Id like to propose an addendum to it.  Here's my version --- Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you are gonna get unless you are smart enough to look at the picture inside the box that tells you exactly which ones are the caramels and which ones are the coconut filled globs of doom...I hate coconut, … (4 comments)