Global Referral Network or Global Relocation Network - Watch out!

I wanted to post this out here since I, as a complete fool, tried this service for $1500.00.  I thought I had checked it out.  They even had agent referrals they used which I called upon.  This is a total scam and I am contacting law enforcement regarding this company.  I hope it helps that I saved every scrap of communication, including voice mails.

This company has had 5 months to deliver leads and they haven't delivered a single one.  Please, if they call you, do not sign with them and further let them know the word is out.  I used to credit myself with better smarts and I haven't ever paid for a lead generation service until this time.

I feel foolish and wanted to warn any and all agents that read this about the company and their practices.  The goal was to expand my client base to people moving to the area via relocation, etc.  That is what they highlighted in their sales pitch.  They had referrals, sample leads, you name it.  I checked it all out so please don't think my case is isolated.

Stefan

Temecula and Murrieta Real Estate Clients Finally Listening to Advice!

In the midst of a difficult time in the Temecula real estate market, there is one thing I am thrilled to report - people are finally listening to the advice and valuing experience.  Whenever a market booms, every person in the world jumps in.

When Temecula and Murrieta CA real estate starting posting US leading growth, the amount of real estate agents and loan officers exploded.  Buyers didn't think you needed to care who helped you. Good experience in the industry was shunned for a family or friend in the business.

New loan people were stealing away business from established people that actually took seriously the giving of advice and long term outlook of things.  While, I don't do loans, I saw way too much craziness in that environment and have stuck with my loan team throughout.  And my team is still here, helping my Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, and Wildomar home buyers by explaing and offering the programs and long term planning that best work for the client.

BTW, For Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar and Menifee home loans, I highly recommend Mark Woelky of PRMG (www.markwoelky.com).   I have always felt he put the client's interest first and often gives advice that often costs him business today but is in the best interest of the client.

Over the last three years, I have told all of my Murrieta and Temecula real estate clients to contact me before they look at new housing tracts, change their loan program via refinance, or have family moving here.  I did this because of the dangerous nature of the market and I take my job of protecting my clients seriously.

However, for the last three years many of my clients didn't listen and now I am getting the phone calls I have dreaded.  I have clients that:

• Altered title by adding family on.
• Co-signed loans for family on new housing tracts.
• Got into terrible loan refinancele situations.
• Bought new homes while upside down in a current one.

The sheer amount of people that refinanced into bad loans really frustrates me.  I have also been very frustrated by builders in Temecula and Murrieta who sell people into high tax rate homes and then undercut the very people they sold to! If you are even considering buying a new home in Temecula or Murrieta, please talk with an EXPERIENCED broker first or you are playing russion roulette. Believe me, the builder's sales people aren't going to stop you from poor decision making!

But I am glad to say the Temecula real estate market is finally changing. We are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  The professionals, like myself, who have experience and a passion for the people we work with are more in control.  With that control comes the responsibilty of doing the right thing over a quick deal. 

And new and old clients are truly starting to appreciate working with a Temecula real estate expert again and giving them credit while taking their advice.  I truly believe that this is the first step in a recovering market!

Homegain, any good for actual leads that turn into sales?

I have received a couple emails on this now and have to admit it is getting me curious.  Anyone enjoying the "new" AgentEvaluator program? 

In a tough market, I am all about pushing forward and have continued to do so.  My website (http://www.stefanwest.com/) is stronger and better placed then 90% of my competitors.  I continue to add to my business by go after loan traffic and referring it to lenders who in turn refer me business.

So I am definately about expanding and pushing harder in a down market.  Due to loan conditions, I just assume that we need more contacts for each future sale since less qualify, etc.

But I have stayed clear of the Homegains of the world, finding that I can get leads on my own.  However, at say $29.95 a month plus 27% (ouch) of the commission, it seems more fair and possible.  Anyone have any success with this program?  Any experience and insight would be great!

I am reading through it now but I don't think the leads are exclusive.

Stefan

Temecula Murrieta Real Estate and MLS Online, Great Placement But Getting Clients?

I joined this community and worked diligently on my website because I truly believe that the majority of Real Estate searches start on-line. 

However, now that I have built a solid website, done some fundamental SEO, gotten good placement, and leveraged ppc, I am finding that the people contacting me want to use my knowledge but work with another agent.

I have people hit my site all day and I do get some clients from it.  But the majority of people have been eager to use my knowledge, service, etc.  Then suddenly they disappear and work with another agent, whom they intended to the entire time.  Usually their agent is family or a friend.

I have literally had a recent client let me take them out several times, get excited about a Murrieta home, arrange to meet me to write it up, and never show up.  I didn't hear from them for 2 week and then he wanted my help again.  I don't think I could use people like that, knowing that their time is their living.  This guy is completely guilt free and he isn't alone.  I know some of that is just "real estate being real estate" but I definately see it much more frequently from online leads.

So, while I do get some business from my site - feel free to check it out www.stefanwest.com.  I often wonder how other agents feel about web leads, establishing an internet presence, etc.  I am still in the process but my site gets a decent amount of traffic.

Anyone out there with some opinions, advice, or similiar experiences?

To me it just seems that people window shop online, get you to help them and take that information and experience back to an agent that has done nothing for the client.  Anyone out there with a dominate website position over the last couple of years have a good method of lead management you care to share?

Thanks

Stefan

Handling Menifee CA Short Sales

As an update to my Halloween post, I am off to my 3rd short sale appointment in Menifee in the last 3 days.  What makes this situation so tough is that not only is the ability to sell the homes severely restricted by the banks and their processing time.  But actually sharing painful information with the client is not a joy either.

For example, this home I am visiting today is in Menifee Lakes.  It is right around the standard 3 bed, 2 bath 1500 square foot home.  There are 39 competing properties in the 4 map codes of the community.  What is worse, is many of the properties are fully banked owned or still in the hands of the owner who has enough equity.  And the average price is the mid-200s! This market is in free fall.

So, no I have to convince 4 parties on what it will take to sell this house: current owner in distress, the future buyer, bank #1, bank #2.

Since a short sale is the least desirable for other agents to show (banked owned, or traditional both much better), I will need to convince the owner to make the price aggressive to say the least.  Meanwhile with this many competing properties, the floor will continue to go down.  Can you imagine people buying in Menifee Lakes, a once premier community for $190,000 -$220,000?  That is just a scary price drop!

Menifee in particular is suffering badly right now due to an incredible over-supply of homes on the market.  There are over 500+ homes on the market in the area and unfortunately I see rougher times ahead.  The same is true for Murrieta (although Murrieta is much larger than Menifee and offers more services, etc.)

So, this interview should be interesting as I will be doing this potential client a favor but using a twelve-gauge shotgun of logic and showing him the market.  But I can't imagine it will make for a fun meeting in anyway.  However, our market is changing.  Lately, I have been hearing that agents are charging people upfront 1% or flat fees just to take on a short sale.  Anyone else seeing that?

I am writing this so people can see the activity of the short sale and also realize that while you can try to avoid showing them to clients, your clients will find them anyway.  So if you don't know how to deal with short sales, get cracking!

Its Halloween and all through the Temecula day, short sales call are coming my way!

Wow!

I didn't need any more proof that the market we are in is tough.  But this week I received three calls for short sale listings.  That seems abnormal and concerns me since we already have such a high supply of homes on the market.  

I also heard something else that surprised me. It seems that many agents are even starting to charge a flat fee to take on the listing.  I am not sure who these agents are but two people mentioned speaking with an agent, one of which wanted $2500 to take on a short sale listing.

I know a lot of agents avoid these, but I am curious about my fellow Active Rain members thoughts on the subject. I realize that short sale listings can be brutal, I am dealing with two closings right now.  But it seems wrong to me charge someone a flat fee when you can't guarantee you will close the deal prior to foreclosure.

Now add in the current and future complications of obtaining a loan.  Right now, one short sale deal I have is struggling with a 20%, Full Doc borrowor getting approved.  The bank is examining everything and have delayed the close twice now!

I just thought I would shoot this out and share my thoughts on what I am seeing. Plus, you have to like my rhyme..just kidding.  I love Halloween!

Stefan

6 Months of SEO - Where am I at now?

It has been a while since I have updated my SEO quest.  The reason I document it is perhaps my experience and ramblings will help others.

The last time I posted I left off about setting the foundation.  My foundation has been extremely helpful to my success and I now number very well for all my keywords.  There are plenty of keywords that are 2nd and 3rd page but I believe the majority are top 10.

Last I looked I command 3 or 4 #1 spots in Google and actually several more that I don't even know about.  I just learned about another today when I check the keywords info coming into my site.  However, while being number one is nice, I am still remaining focused on my major keyword terms.  I have scratched the top 3 spots several times and each time I have seen a definate uptick in my phone ringing.

Lately, my work has been mainly to obtain links and learn how to get GOOD links over just average junk.  It isn't easy at times but as you research getting links, you will find plenty of strategies.  There are literaly thousands of link directories.  You can supply information to companies for a link.  I have even indulged in a few authority blogs for the specific communities I am involved in.

The ironic thing is, it is easy to get weak links.  But by focusing on the links that matter the most, I help myself immensly.  The other day I was contacted by a TV show, nationwide to possible be on air for a real estate update on Riverside County.  They have seen my name come up repeatidly as an authority voice in my area, so they rang me up.  I am now getting requests for a couple of places for specific information that their readers are asking for.

These links matter because they actually lead to things.  In the event that Google really starts to dissect links in the future, my links will not only hold water, they will have additional and long term value.  When I first begin getting these links I did some directories and anything I could just to get on the internet map so to speak.  However, I stopped doing that months ago as I have learned more about it.

So my advice for this blog report  - if you have your keywords mapped out, your on-site optimization complete, and a road map to expand your webpage, you need to start working on links. Make sure to use your keywords in your anchor text of course and when creating links, try to make partnerships that matter in the long haul for you.  The Menifee CA blog I have been doing has been easy, fun and eventually will win a client for me in the future, if not more than one.

Another thing I may have forgotten to mention is tracking.  I personally don't value website stats unless I have a couple months of activity to look at. So get your stat tracking up early and make sure you put the scripts on every page on the site.  I personally use Google Analytics, Statcounter, and Hit-tail.  I haven't bothered too much with hit-tail but I wanted to give it six months of information gathering.  So start the clock ticking now!

I am also migrating my site to a new version of www.superlative.com template.  Let those guys know I sent you if you decide to give them a go :).  I am pretty nervous about this because I am doing pretty well SEO-wise, but I think this will expand my success in the long term.  So, I have them working on site conversion for me now and will also be integrating a new MLS interface in an effort to increase my returning visitor percentage and to get things moving into an Auto-drip campaign.  I am sampling different programs and will be happy to share my thoughts once I have seen the results a bit.

Yahoo continues to ditch my marketing and SEO efforts for some reason.  While I number perhaps 20 or so top 10 Google spots, Yahoo has me for only a few.  MSN on the other hand is my friend and I am thrilled to have stuck at #1 and #2 spots for my major keywords. I look forward to the day that I make a come back in Yahoo, but with Google controlling 60% of the market, I am pretty happy :).

I am getting a lot of Temecula, Menifee, Wildomar and Murrieta Real Estate Home Buyers via my website!

After putting a lot of time and effort into my website, I am starting to see a significant increase in traffic for Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar, and Menifee.  Of course these areas are my main markets and I study up on them every day so I tend to add information for local business on their sites, etc.  Lately, I have often been asked to help with community blogs, sites, articles, etc.  Which I love to do since it is yet another way to educate interested home buyers and sellers out there.

Until recently, I hadn't really seen much response from these, nor did I expect it. However, it seems like just taking the time to put together some information for these areas, things I do everyday but never really bothered to highlight, makes a difference in web rankings.  I think I better learn more about tying my blog to my website lol.

Just the other day I had two people contact me about buying foreclosures and short sales on homes.  I am getting known in the area for that type of deal because I think it often is the best price to quality ratio for new home buyers if they have the patience.  So it seems like making sure you put your experience down in some electronic format, which is very easy to do, can yield a lot of exposure. 

This new blog I was invited to help on by owner, Menifee Real Estate Blog 24/7, is a lot of fun and unlike other "copy and paste" agents on there, I enjoy just sharing with the community my ideas, experiences and market outlook.  Although he has other agents contributing, he keeps pushing ideas out to me and says my writing is more fun to read and he wishes I would do more.  So I like the feedback even if it is helpful for his blog, it is still nice to hear :).

So I strongly encourage people to have fun with blogging.  I haven't really tried to integrate it into a SEO tool, I am working on completely re-doing my DRIP marketing stuff right now.  But this is on my to do list and in the mean time, I will just enjoy sharing my career and experience with others.

Just wanted to drop a note and say to watch out for those "once a week" type situations where you can get great exposure by offering a free and thoughtful service!

Stefan

4 Months of SEO Learning Pt. 2

I am a lazy slouch!  I keep getting involved in Real Estate stuff instead of coming back here to my blog!  There are a lot of client "time wasters" out there right now and with the market the way it is, I have to invest the time because you never know.

I will say that although I get more activity on my site and talk to more people, I also get a lot of people that really aren't serious or just want to use my expertise and probably already have an agent they plan to use.  I have often wondered about the 80%+ start looking on the internet for real estate.  I believe THAT part is true, but I wonder what percentage actually do business with an agent on the Internet.

A couple years back I got something like 7-9 deals of my website at a cost of about $200 a month in strategic PPC keywords.  The year before that, 5 deals.  Now, I am in a much more visible position on the web and while I do get good traffic, have only seen one deal so far this year.  I know the market is a big part of this but still it is disappointing.

I will say that having a good, solid, and demonstratable web identity is a wonderful selling point for listings.  It really makes the pitch much easier and other agents can't compete against that too well.

Well, last I left off was about tracking software.  For the short quick peek, I use Statcounter and I just looked today and so far I have about 170 unique visitors to my site this month and 320 page views.  I like to focus on unique visitors but I also was getting about 10 returning visitors.

As I talked about last time, getting a keyword list is paramount in my opinion.  Then, I move on to on page optimization.  I know I put a lot more work into this then was needed.  But I am optimized for many of my best keywords and I believe it has helped immensly.  I learned very quickly how to write content that encapsulates many of my keywords while having excellent flow.  This has helped me in so many ways.  There are a lot of sites that I rank underneath for a specific keyword, BUT I usually rank MUCH better than these same sites in almost all the other keywords I have selected.

I get more exposure and also, as I add links, I will eventually over take these sites I believe in their prime spots.  I believe in strongly working on my entire SEO body, not just the biceps so to speak.  I am getting hits from things I never even imagined because of good on page optimization.

Also, on page optimization has helped me learn more HTML aspects that help in articles, additional pages, clickable table design and a full fledged understanding of my website.  I strongly urge you to invest the time and create a basic model of your site that you want to work with, and then build it.

Use the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle.  I have a model that I haven't even completed yet, but work a little towards it each week.  I want to have 4 main city pages for my keywords, my main page, a referral / link directory, about me area, MLS (of course), Testimonials, and community information.

That is pretty straightfoward and with the city pages, you can work on them until they are ready and then turn them live.  I plan to do optimization for the main page first and foremost and then start working on links.  Meanwhile, as I discover things I like about a city, I just write it down and put it in my to do file.  When I work on that page, I incorporate the idea and build that page to be targeted just at THAT specific keyword. I build it to last but very simple to use.

Lately, I have been working on links and it is time I got back to my city pages and also working on links directly to these pages.  I will see how this works in the near future as the search engines start to catch up with what I am doing.  I just need to dedicate more time to it.   I have been holding off because a new template technology is available from Superlative that could be VERY helpful in SEO activity. 

That's it for today.  Basically, I am suggest that you build a fantastic keyword list and then work on your on page optimization first!  That way, your optimization will start working for you right away and teach you what you need to know so you can maximize your link strategy.  It is nice to do one thing right that can stand on its own for a bit, then the next thing.  Linking and all the other off-page stuff is hugely important but you want to have your house in order first.  Off-page stuff is a constant process and it is very tough to go back and tweak something when you are already getting good rankings.

4 months of SEO Learning - What has it done for me, what did I learn? Pt. 1

Well, I started working more diligently on my website (www.stefanwest.com) over the last four months.  My goal was to learn SEO a bit and start investing more time in my website, thereby reducing my dependance on PPC (Pay per click) keyword marketing.

I started this process because I saw my PPC getting more expensive per click every month but less clicks coming in.  I was literally paying more and getting less which was very frustrating.  I expanded my keywords, researched long-tail (cool concept btw) and started to work on my page.  If I could get traffic for free, even if it cost me money in short term, money I was spending on PPC.

So, I tracked my traffic to my site at around 10 people a day.  Which isn't much but I am in Real Estate not affliate sales :). On a good month, I was getting about 300 visitors to my site a month. Anyway, I also reduced all my keywords down in Pay per click and spent some money on software to start tracking and learning with.

I then researched the heck out of all my keywords and started building a focus list (perhaps a future blog here).  This was a massive help.  I had done this before BUT with PPC you can focus on anything while with organic your website has to drive the placement.  Thus, keyword identification is very important, especially if you use a template website like I do.  I eventually worked out a few main keyword phrases to target as my 1st tier and expanded a 2nd tier of keywords which were valueable variations of the main ones.  This created quite a list to work with which was fantastic in helping me re-organize my site. I did this by researching search traffic patterns using the old Overture keyword traffic tool.

Meanwhile, I was reading up and learning about SEO and every source of information kept pounding me about getting links.  I understand that SEO is about links but I wanted to set a foundation.  So I worked on website optimization so I could learn it and really set the ground for good search engine results.  I used the phrases I identified and worked them into text, pages, etc.  I didn't do anything too spammy because it wasn't needed.  The keyword phrase research had given me a great place to draw from that wasn't over the top redundant. In fact, it helped me so much in placement in less common areas.

Anyway, once I optimized my site I felt good about learning how to do it, understanding most of it, and of course really putting some time in to learn how to affect these changes on my template site.  It wasn't hard, I just never really bothered before and doing this was invaluable since now I am snugg as a bug working on my site.  What is even better is the way I chose to do it was more time intensive than a lot of the SEO experts suggest but ideal for Real Estate. 

BTW, I am sick of hearing people call me up and offer to get me top 3 spot placement for some good sounding real estate phrase that in reality is not targeted by people and easy to obtain.  The other day, some SEO company called to say they could get me the top 1-2 spot for a keyword phrase for $800 and then $30 a month to maintence it.  The phrase got maybe 70-90 searches a month and was a 3rd tier keyword on my list.  With my new understerdaning I realized I could do it myself probably in a couple days of work but honestly didn't value the phrase - so I never bothered. (Fast forward to now - I just checked it and I am #2 and #7 on Google, #1 and #2 on MSN, and lost in the shuffle on Yahoo at #15. This is for a phrase I don't even track.  I am going to add it right now to my great keyword tracking software lol - Done!)  I got this result from good optimization and keyword targeting!

The minute the search engines saw my site after optimization I saw a bump in activity.  The visits had gone down but within a week, I was getting around 3-5 new organic (search engine-non paid) visits a day.  That meant my efforts, completely free of charge were bringing in an at least a extra couple of people a day.  While pay per click was going through the roof at over $2+ a click! That is when I realized that I really needed better tracking of placement, visits, etc.  The statcounter package provide by my website company was great, but I needed a better.

Guess what?  Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) is free and wonderful.  Also Google Webmaster tools is great and free as well.  You can even link Analytics to your Adword account.  I also used http://www.hittail.com/ to start tracking long tail keywords just for an additional reference point.  I am just letting hittail build information for me so I can use it in the future for now.  My initial work was pretty solid and hittail has confirmed that.  I have also added Google to the majority of my webpages so I can see traffic patterns. This was so easy to do and yet yields invaluable information.  It is a great feeling to wake up each morning to a new lead or at least see a result from your work! I use my keyword tracking software everyday just to keep current and doesn't interfere at all in my daily workings.  But it sures gives me a boost when I move up!

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I have a lot to put on the blog but will need to do it in parts.  I apoligize, but I would rather share as much as possible that others may find usuable than cut it short.  I will post more in a couple days.