Listing...check. Pictures...check. Soap box...check. Ok, ok, so I've got a beef I find necessary to share here. Not that I just want to blow off steam and waste the time of my fellow AR bloggers, but because I really want your opinion. Am I being to cynical about this?

I love virtual tours on listings. I think they can show a potential buyer a lot of detail and help one get a good view and idea of property layout, size, etc. But there is one thing bothering me about some of them.

To me, a virtual tour should be just that...a tour, a guided journey, in  sequence through the property. When they are done right they look great and really add value to the listing. After all, isn't that the point of spending the time and money to include one in our marketing?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the point of this tool to provide some level of motion? Now,  I'm not saying it has to be full motion video shot by a hollywood film crew and directed by Martin Scorsese, but there are some of these "tours" that are using still photographs and simply moving them from side to side. That's not a virtual tour, it's still life with an attitude.

 

Some companies do use true full motion, shot with an actual video camera. But, I know most virtual tours use still pictures that are stitched together to create the illusion of motion. While it's not really motion, it does give you a feel for the panoramic view of the property.  Why spend the time and money to produce a virtual tour, and simply use still pictures and bounce them around the screen like a ball on steroids? The idea of a tour is to enhance, give exceptional views, and provide the viewer with the feeling they are at the property is it not? I know these still picture type "tours" are easy and cheap to create, but I think it shows in the end result.

 

I'd love to know your thoughts. Am I missing something here?

 

 

If you are anything like me, all of your business data is stored on your computer (if not, get it there!). Don't store it on an office network or other computer that you don't own.

I store everything...CMA's, pictures, correspondence, net sheets, cost sheets, marketing, just listed cards, flyers, mileage records, business expenses...everything. Now, what would happen if your computer crashed, got stolen, got a fatal virus, etc? Could you rebuild all of that data?

Well, here's a friendly tip...back up your computer on a regular basis. Do this at least once a week, but daily is better. Write it in your day planner if necessary, but do a regular backup. With the technology today, backups are easy, fast and cheap. If you have a computer with a USB port (most do), get yourself a flash drive. A flash drive is an electronic hard drive that plugs into your USB port, and are the size of a pack of gum or smaller. If you are unfamiliar with these, anybody at a computer store can help you. But, make sure you get one with enough space on it. I have one that is 8 gigabytes, and I did have to buy it online as it was impossible to find one that size at a store. I need a large capacity drive because of the immense amount of data I have. Mine cost me about $80, and it is large enough and re-usable.

If you have ever suffered a system crash and lost your data, you know how destructive it can be. I can perform a total backup in about 25 minutes, so there is no excuse for not doing it. Do yourself a favor a make this a daily habit. Your business could depend on it.

We all know how competitive this business is. We are always looking for the leg up on our competition. But when it really comes down to it, it's about service not who has the latest gadget, biggest advertisment or best looking business card.

With that said, we sometimes forget how inter-twined service and automation are. Automation does not guarantee service, and service does not guarantee technology. But, they can (and should be) a symbiotic relationship. I have a long history in the technology field. I used to write software for a living. While I have not employed any real software development into my business, I do try to automate things when and where I can. I hate doing things twice. I hate re-inventing the wheel. And, I hate my writing when I'm in a rush (and it seems this business lives on being in a rush!).

So, I have many things that I have automated. I've got a Seller's Net Sheet that does all the work for me. I simply type in the projected sales price, the owners loan balance and their interest rate, and the work is done for me. It calculates Title Insurance, Escrow Fees, you name it. There is even a signature line where the client can acknowledge receiving a copy. It literally takes me 30 seconds to create and print. And the best part...it's stored on my computer so I always have reference to it should I need to change it (not to mention that I don't have to use my handwriting).

I've done the same for a Buyer's Cost Sheet. Again, type in a few numbers and like magic...the costs are all calculated for me.

Then, I have a Property Tax Estimator that works the same way.

All of these are done in Excel. The best thing is that they look professional, always look the same, are easy to create, store, email, what have you. Of course there is a disclaimer at the bottom that states that the numbers are estimates and subject to change, etc., etc., etc. But, I have found that they are very accurate.

So, how does this tie into service? Well, not only can I produce these things quickly, consistantly, and accurately for my clients (which saves me time that I can dedicate to other aspects of their transaction), but it keeps me organized which always helps me serve my clients.

I'm always looking for something I can automate. I use these as a standard part of my files. Other things I use in an automated way are my communication logs, fax cover sheets, price trending. Basically anything that has numbers on it.

If you are interested in saving time, pull out Excel and give it a try. I'd love to know the kind of things you use to help you automate your business.

I did an Open House today, and several agents came in. One of them was rather new to the business and we got talking.

The home I had open is very nice. Nicely upgraded, well maintained, and in a very good neighborhood. What's better...it's even priced right. This one new agent remarked that he would like to have a few new listings. In my area, the listings are everywhere and things are selling very slowly. So his comment made me wonder why he didn't have a listing. We all have listings.

I asked him about this, and why he didn't have many (or any) listings. That's when he told me that he had plenty, it's just that none are selling. Hmmmm.

Since this was a Sunday afternoon, and he was at my open house, I asked him why he wasn't holding one of his listings open. "Open houses don't sell houses" he told me. While he is statistically right, my opinion is that anything I can do to increase exposure is what I will do.

I then proceeded to ask him some other questions. Basic things:

Do you have virtual tours on his listings. "No, they are too expensive."

Have you advertised them in the paper or home seller magazines? "No, that's not where the buyer's come from."

Have you farmed your area with information about your listings? "No, what does it provide to tell a neighbor about another neighbors home?"

If you've got listings, what makes you think another one will make a difference? "It's all in the numbers. The more I have, the better chance I have that one will sell." 

What have you done to market your listings? "Well, they've been in the MLS for weeks now...with pictures." 

This Q & A session went on for several minutes, and each response from him was negative. Now I was intrigued, and puzzled. I sat him down and asked him if I could be direct with him. He agreed. It was obvious to me that this gentleman didn't know what he needed to do to sell a home. It turns out that he started in this business a few years ago when the market was different. At that time, you hung a sign in the yard, drove to the office to pick up offers, drove back to the client to present, and then drove back to escrow to open! (that's tounge in cheek, but you get the idea). I then shared that while everything is moving slowly you must do everything in your power to get a listing sold. And, it's not a numbers game, it's a relationship game. I gave him a sample of all the advertising and marketing I do, which can be quite expensive, but is the cost of doing business. I told him that the market was different than when he started (which he knew), and that you must work the market you are in. He stayed and watched as I worked the clients that came into my listing. I also turned him to AR and asked him if I could share this story with the AR community. Yeah, he just didn't want his name used, which is fine.

By the time I was done, he had a new lease on things. I think this is true for a lot of us. We tend to get lured into the idea that our listings will sell if we just sit back and wait. But, this is not the case and we all know it at some deep level. It takes a lot of work, money and networking to get our job done during this slow market. Part of the truth of this business is that it takes more money to sell a home in times when we have less money to work with. Now, what was that about a rainy day?

We all know how vital disclosure is in this business. We must tell a buyer everything that we consider to be materially significant. Sometimes our industry goes too far, sometimes not far enough. It got me thinking about other industries and things they must disclose. Here are just some of the disclosures I've seen on products (yes, these are all real).

On the back label of a jar of peanuts: Warning...may contain peanuts

 

On an automobile window sun shield: Warning, remove before driving

 

On a hair dryer: Warning, do not use in the bathtub

 

On a prescription bottle of sleeping pills: Warning, may cause drowsiness

 

On the package for a magnifying glass: Warning...objects may appear larger than normal

 

On a paper cup containing coffee: Warning, contents may be hot

 

 

No doubt that disclosure is important, but how far do you take it? What may be important to one person may mean nothing to someone else. I guess that's why our contracts and disclosures expand as fast as they do, someone always has a new thing that they feel the public must be protected from. What ever happened to "caveat emptor?"  (let the buyer beware). Don't get me wrong, I think disclosure is a necessary evil, but do I really need to be told that my peanuts may contain peanuts? Or that my prescription sleep aid may cause drowsiness? Maybe we just need someone else to think for us.

These are just a few of the apparently comical things I have seen on products. No doubt they are due to previous lawsuits filed by consumers who have little common sense. The next thing you know, we'll have one on our listings...Warning, home may be for sale.

 

 

If you will notice, I titled this blog "How To Reduce Spam and Viruses", not "How To Eliminate Spam and Viruses". The only way to eliminate spam is to (get this)...never use email again. That's not an option for any of us, so our best bet is to reduce it as much as possible. Most viruses are spread through spam. So, by reducing spam, we reduce our chance of being infected. The easiest way to not become infected (and a technique I read all over) is to simply not open an email from someone we don't know. But that is simply not feasible, and I'll give you an example why.

A few years back, I was working for a large corporation in New York City. I received an email from the company President with the subject "I Love You". Now, this man was a character, and it was just like him to send an email like that, so I opened it thinking it was a funny correspondence...it wasn't. In fact, it never originated at our company, but at a hackers location somewhere in Malaysia.  It was a virus that propagated itself by reading each person's address book, and sending a copy of itself to each person in the address book. It took a matter of seconds (yes seconds) to completely bring our company's online activities down (and it took us 3 days to recover). Additionally, this email virus went around the world billions of times in a matter of minutes. A recent episode of Modern Marvels stated that in 2007, there were 2,000,000 (2 million) emails sent every minute. And of those, 70% were spam!

To put that into perspective, consider the following:

That would be 735,840,000,000 spam emails per year (that's 735 billion), or 23,334 per second. If each spam email was the thickness of a piece of paper, a years worth of spam would be 11613.6 miles high (that's the distance from Los Angeles to New York 5 times). At 60 miles per hour, it would take 193 hours (or 8 straight days) just to drive past each spam message generated last year. And, as the Internet gets more popular, we can expect this number to go up, and up, and UP!

Clearly, we need to protect ourselves from this repulsive threat. Here's how you can help yourself. First, give your email address out only to people that need to know it. Yes, give it to clients, put it on your marketing pieces, etc. But never, and I mean NEVER put it online unless absolutely necessary. Some places, such as the MLS, require our email address (at least the board I belong to does), so completely eliminating online email addresses is impossible. But, I restrict it to that. I use a phony email address if I must. When I register software, buy things online, or use other online products or services, I am quite often asked for an email address. Some times this is just so the company can contact me with "special offers" (read SPAM) later on. However, many times they send me a confirmation code or other vital piece of information that I must retrieve, so I can't just type in a non-existent email address. In these cases, I use a dummy email that can be created on Yahoo, gMail, or other free service. I keep an email account just for such times that I need it, but something I don't otherwise check and would have no reason to open emails sent to that address. I know, simply by definition, that any email sent there is spam, and potentially dangerous. Every so often, I delete every message there (without opening them) just to keep the account clean for the times I need it. The Internet contains spiders (programs that automatically search the web) to strip email addresses off online documents. So, if your email address is out there, it will be found, and you will receive ads for online prescription drugs, porn, you name it. If you must put your email address in a document, disquise it. How? Simple. Let's say your email address is MyEmail@FreeService.com. You can put that online as "My Email @ Free Service.com" and instruct the reader to remove the spaces when using it. That way, the Internet spiders and creapy crawlers can't automate it, but the reader can still use it.

The message here is simple...create a dummy email to give out and use online (read for spam creators). Use your business email for just that...business reasons.

When you create flyers or other marketing materials for your listings, do you include the price of the home? There are several schools of thought on this, and everyone has their opinion. Allow me to give you mine, and I'd love to hear yours as well and the reasons you believe as you do.

I support putting the price on my flyers. Many agents say "if you omit the price, it will give the prospect a reason to call." While that may be true, I also believe that it can annoy the consumer, as they are not stupid, and know why the price is being left off. There are far better things I can do to get the consumer to call me. And, with the plethora of information online, it's not hard for the buyer to find the price anyway. I believe ommiting information is annoying (maybe because that's how I feel when I'm in the consumer's shoes).

I have produced material both ways, and don't find that the quantity of calls (and certainly not the quality of them) goes up when the price is not there.

What do you think?

 

Okay, I'm new to this "Group" thing, but think it's a great tool. I've created a new group that is all about "Open Houses". What do you do before, during, and after an open house to make it successful. Do you have a funny story? Do you need help figuring out what to do or say during an open house? What are your pet peaves about them?

If it involves an open house, please post it here. The address of the group is:

http://activerain.com/groups/OpenHouses

 

Thanks to Donald Bradbury, REALTOR Bucks County PA for the PhotoBucket idea. It's a great tool.
11776 Mt. Sterling Ct, Rancho Cucamonga, Ca
Listed at $395,000
Do you want it all? Start with the location...above the 210 freeway in the desired Vintage Highlands. Next, the beautiful front planter with lighted landscaping with sego palms draws you in and welcomes you. Through the double door entry you'll find newer carpet (Nov 2007), granite counters in the kitchen and all bathrooms, gorgeous brick fireplace with oak mantel, recessed lighting, indoor laundry, six panel doors, sliding shutter doors, mirrored Master wardrobe and tiled Master tub/shower. The kitchen features a large window box overlooking the secluded back yard. Out back, you will enjoy the fountain and spa and the utmost in privacy. Even the refrigerator, washer, and dryer are included! This 3 bedroom 2.5 bath home has had immaculate care and needs nothing except a new owner. Shorten your search and put this home first on your list.

These two terms are often used interchangeably. But, they have significantly different meanings.

American Heritage Dictionary defines Marketing as:

"The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer"

Whereas Advertising is defined as:

"To announce or praise (a product, service, etc.) in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use it"

I once had an economics teacher that to used to harp on the difference between these two terms. So what? Who cares? When we speak, don't we inherently understand what the other party is trying to communicate to us? Well, yes and no. I will admit, I'm a bit of an "English Police". I hate it when someone butchers the language verbally or in print, so keep that in mind as you read this post. But my feelings are this...if you misuse the language, it can make you appear uneducated. If you appear uneducated, it can diminish the trust between you and your client. So, it's my goal to always speak and write in a manner that makes me sound the best.

Let's not confuse these two terms when talking to our client or in producing promotional products for our business. In Real Estate we market ourselves or our services, but we advertise our listings.