The Smartest Things You Can Do To Grow Your Business By Julie Escobar "The smart ones ask when they don't know. And sometimes, when they do." Consider these wise words from Malcolm Forbes, a man who clearly knows a thing or two about surviving financial storms. Isn't asking what we're supposed to do when we don't know? So I asked: "What's the SMARTEST thing agents can do to build their business in today's market?" Fortunately, some of the top minds in the industry answered. Read Tips
HomesAndLand.com Website Statistics HomesAndLand.com recently upgraded the website statistics to offer advertisers more detailed information in a user-friendly format. Information on listing views not only shows you in real-time the exposure Homes & Land provides you and your inventory, but it also gives you concrete information to take back to your home sellers. Watch this short video for information on accessing and using your listing statistics. Watch Video To enlarge the video, click the lower-right corner next to the audio adjustment
"Stop Calling Our Company!" Is That the Message We're Sending? by David Knox, David Knox Productions, Inc. Phone numbers are on cards, signs, postcards flyers, websites and everything else to get the prospects to call. But what happens when we answer? It's time to develop proper telephone skills as a competitive advantage to gain business and provide superior customer service. David Knox offers real-world advice on using good phone skills to secure prospects as clients. Read Article
New Features for Digital Editions of Homes & Land Digital editions of the Homes & Land magazine, affectionately referred to as "Flippy," are available at HomesAndLand.com. New features include larger photos and listing details, search properties by price range or number of bedrooms, automatic EZTours, and the ability to zoom and print listing information. You can use "Flippy" as a prospecting tool, as a way to keep in touch with past clients, and you can email it to your home sellers to show them how you are marketing their home. They'll flip. View the latest edition online | Ask me how "Flippy" can work for you
Real Estate Outlook: Mortgage Rates and Inflation by Kenneth R. Harney, Realty Times Most of the key economic indicators for real estate continue to be at least moderately positive -- home sales are up, prices are stabilizing or up, unsold inventories are down, and even new unemployment filings are down slightly. But there's a storm cloud looming on the near horizon that everybody needs to keep an eye on: Mortgage rates have been moving up -- fast. Read Article
So-called "experts" lump all print into one category and then bluster that Print Is Dead. The facts tell a different story. It is true that newspaper readership has declined 18% since 1994*. However, the audience for magazines has increased, even during the period when the Internet became popular. From 1994 until 2008 the readership of magazines increased from 166 million to 188.9 million, a gain of 13%.**
That's because magazines deliver targeted content to a target audience. If you're interested in reaching active homebuyers and sellers, Homes & Land can help.
Sources: *Newspaper Advertising Association of America 1994 - 2007 **Mediamark Research Inteligence 1994-2008
Enormo gives international exposure to US media brand Homes & Land
Expanding further its network of alliances worldwide, 9th most-visited real estate website Enormo today announces a partnership with leading US media company, Homes & Land. The publisher, which prints 50 million magazines annually, will advertise approximately 154,000 properties on Enormo. Its brokers and agents across the United States and Canada will now be connected to 4.5 million homeseekers and investors.
“We’re delighted to be Homes & Land’s selected international channel partner, and to offer its clients a range of advertising options to bring leads from new locations”, says Enormo’s Business Development Director, Dominique Cerri.
“Homes & Land covers many vacation and resort communities that are popular with international investors,” stated Robert Wicker, Homes & Land Chief Marketing Officer. “The partnership with Enormo gives added exposure to Homes & Land’s listings in those popular tourist areas.”
Enormo currently indexes 9 million for sale and rental properties in 80 countries worldwide, and is ranked 9th most-visited real estate site in the world by independent auditors comScore. The majority of the listings Homes & Land is advertising on Enormo are family homes, with a concentration on real estate in the southeast and southwest.
Enormo CEO Yannick Laclau adds, “Current conditions make the US an interesting market for our large, committed audience looking for cross-border buys. These types of partnership are, more and more, helping to drive global real estate back towards a positive place.”
From the Publisher Here's the June issue of Marketing Minute!
Real Estate Outlook: Key Indicators Point Up by Kenneth R. Harney, RealtyTimes Each week the economic signs pointing to a recovery in the real estate market get stronger. In April, pending home sales jumped 3.2 percent, mortgage applications surged and the affordability index is continuing to hover near its all time best. Consumers are also viewing the market more positively - something potentially huge for anyone trying to sell property. Read Article
All Print is NOT the Same So-called "experts" lump all print into one category and then bluster that Print Is Dead. The facts tell a different story. It is true that newspaper readership has declined 18% since 1994*. However, the audience for magazines has increased, even during the period when the Internet became popular. From 1994 until 2008 the readership of magazines increased from 166 million to 188.9 million, a gain of 13%.** That's because magazines deliver targeted content to a target audience. If you're interested in reaching active homebuyers and sellers, contact me. Sources: *Newspaper Advertising Association of America 1994 - 2007 **Mediamark Research Intelligence 1994-2008
How Failures Are the Stepping Stones To Success by Michael Russer AKA Mr. Internet "Success is not the absence of failure. Success is what happens when you choose to move beyond failure." (Ralph Marston) If you are truly engaged and committed to what you specialize in, then the things that don't quite work out as planned are merely interesting stops along the path to success. Tips for Success
Have Enough Listings? Think Again. In many markets homes are taking longer to sell, resulting in a record amount of available inventory. Some agents are under the mistaken assumption that they don't need any more listings. The thought is that if they take more listings, they will have to invest time and money to get the listings sold, and any possible closings could be months away. Why do you need more listings? One important reason is simple mathematics, another is online lead generation. Read More
Attract Investors to Your Listings Investors are taking advantage of the current home prices and interest rates. How can you make sure they see your listings? Spotlight Ads on WallStreetJournal.com. Homes & Land advertisers can now spotlight, or feature, any listing on WSJ.com/RealEstate for only $20.00! There is no minimum listing price so you can not only upload your listing to WSJ.com but display it at the top of the search results page. Ask me how to get started today!
From the Publisher Here's the May edition of Marketing Minute. I hope you enjoy the articles!
Pricing Dialogs for Working with Sellers by David Knox, David Knox Productions, Inc. Working with sellers to price their home can be difficult. Sellers may want to price their home based on their emotions, attachment, and their investment. It could have nothing to do with what the home is actually worth or could be sold for in today's market. David Knox provides scripts to help you tactfully deal with sellers on pricing their home correctly the first time and why it's in their best interest to listen to your professional opinion. Read Scripts
Listings $750,000 Now Uploaded to the duPont REGISTRY If you work the luxury market, Homes & Land is the place to be. When you advertise with Homes & Land, your luxury listings priced $750,000 and above are automatically uploaded to duPontREGISTRY.com. This high-end site is the destination for readers of the duPont REGISTRY magazine. Each month, duPontREGISTRY.com reaches approximately 400,000 unique visitors in over 140 countries. You'll also benefit from HomesAndLand.com's high-end demographic. Over 67% of our visitors have household incomes in excess of $100,000. (Hitwise) Partnering with affluent sites like the duPont REGISTRY is one more reason why Homes & Land is your upscale marketing partner.
Grow Your Business One Lead at a Time! by Julie Escobar, Realty Times However you get your leads, unless you USE them, you tend to lose them. Our market is the perfect storm for lead loss. Why? It's simple. With reduced patience and the insistence of a higher level of service, consumers are no longer willing to wait for "good" or "good enough" responses. Here are some ways you can turn "good" responses into "excellent" communication with your prospects. Read Article
The Opportunity to Be Number One is Right Now In his recent article on TheNewYorker.com, financial columnist James Surowiecki explains how businesses that increase their advertising in a recession not only gain market share, but have the opportunity to become the industry leader. "Recessions make the strong stronger and the weak weaker, [and] create more opportunity for challengers, not less," says Surowiecki. "When everyone is advertising, it's hard to separate yourself from the pack; when ads are scarcer, the return on investment rises." It's also important to note that "benefits from recession advertising are often surprisingly long lived, with companies maintaining their gains in market share well into economic recovery." So if you're not the top agent, now is the time to brand, advertise, and become one.
What Does Your Branding Say About You? Do you come across as a polished professional? Or do you look too cheap to work with sophisticated buyers and sellers? These are extremely important questions because in real estate, YOU are the product you're selling. Homes & Land's quality magazine will create the personal brand you need to succeed in the ultra-competitive real estate industry. Contact me today to improve your branding
"Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks." James Arthur Baldwin
HOMES & LAND PARTNERS WITH DUPONT REGISTRY Homes & Land advertisers gain exposure to affluent buyers
Tallahassee, FL (May 1, 2009) – Homes & Land, the affluent homebuyer’s marketplace, announced today it has signed a listing feed partnership with duPontREGISTRY.com. The agreement provides that all real estate listings priced at $750,000 and above on HomesAndLand.com will automatically be uploaded to duPontREGISTRY.com.
This high-end site, duPontREGISTRY.com, is a destination for readers of the duPont REGISTRY magazine. Each month duPontREGISTRY.com reaches approximately 400 thousand unique visitors in over 140 countries.
“Our partnership with duPontREGISTRY.com exposes our luxury listings to affluent homebuyers and investors from around the world,” says Robert Wicker, Chief Marketing Officer. “The benefit to our advertisers is substantial because the duPontREGISTRY.com does a great job of targeting wealthy homebuyers. We will continue to pursue relationships that help our advertisers market their high-end listings.”
The Homes & Land brand is visible in more than 30,000 communities across North America. Its website – HomesAndLand.com – is the number one real estate search site for affluent buyers. More than 67 percent of visitors to HomesAndLand.com have household incomes of $100,000 or more.*
The duPont REGISTRY adds to Homes & Land’s more than 20 partnerships. Homes & Land also has partnerships with WallStreetJournal.com, New York Times, HomeGain, Truilia, and Yahoo! Real Estate.
Homes & Land is a category leader in real estate media. For more than 37 years, Realtors have counted on the brand to reach active homebuyers and home sellers. In addition to its flagship publication, the company also publishes Home Guide magazine, Estates & Homes magazine and Rental Guide magazine. Homes & Land is a leading resource of real estate information through its online portal HomesAndLand.com. Log on 24-hours a day to gain insight and perspective into the home sales market. *HitWise
Check out these charts, based on independent research, which shows why you should maintain magazine spending even if you plan to reduce your ad budget:
Magazines are the most consistent medium in driving results across the purchase funnel
Magazine advertising bests TV and online advertising in boosting purchase intent
Magazines out-perform other media at influencing consumers to start an online search
Print ads rank as the #1 offline source in driving “actionable” web traffic
Video on magazine websites led all other media in driving consumer visits to a store and to a company’s website
Magazine users have grown over the past five years at a higher rate than the users of all other media except online
More 18-34 year-olds read magazines and they read more issues on average than ten years ago
On April 11th I made the 13 mile roundtrip hike to the top of Mt LeConte to deliver Homes & Land of the Smokies to the LeConte Lodge. It turned out to be a yucky day... foggy, rainy, cold, wet, you name it! Everything but pretty!!! But I was determined to deliver my magazine to the lodge so hikers and visitors would be able to find their next home here in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!
We took what I believe to be the hardest route up and down (Bull Head trail up and Rainbow Falls trail down). Mt LeConte still had snow on the ground because they had received 14 inches the week before! Most of it had melted which caused the trails to be extremely wet. Not good when you're not wearing waterproof boots! :) On the way back down, the Rainbow Falls trail was actually flooded out and we had to cross about a 10 foot section which was up to my knees! (see video below, it's right before we crossed! I wish I had shot the actual crossing!) Thankfully I have watched enough Man vs Wild to know you don't want to get your socks/shoes/clothes wet. So we took off shoes, socks, and rolled up pants to wade across the 30 something degree water. It was COLD!!! Thankfully we survived and I have a nice story to share here :)
Ok, ok... so I didn't make this trip ONLY to deliver Homes & Land. I really wanted to get some amazing photos/views from the top but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. However, I did take the magazine with me and place it at the Lodge so that my advertisers would get some great exposure at a place where they probably wouldn't get exposure any other way :) I hope they appreciate my dedication :)
Our new Rental Homes Chanel on HomesAndLand.com gives you an easy way to advertise homes for rent. With our online tools you can post rental rates and upload photos – and with six or more photos we’ll even create an EZ Tour for your property.
What are rental home listings? Homes & Land now offers advertisers a way to highlight “homes for rent” properties for consumers. For clarification, rental homes are homes listed “for rent,” and are distinct from “rental property for sale.” Therefore, you will now see two different property types: • Rental Property for Sale: This property type describes rental property that is for sale. This can be found under the “Add/Edit Listings” link. • House for Rent: This property type describes homes that are for rent. This can be found under the “Add/Edit Rental Homes” link. It is important to understand that listings with a property type of “Rental Property for Sale” will be found in the “for sale” sections of our site, while the “House for Rent” listings will be found in the “for rent” sections of our site
What are the benefits of including rental home listings on HomesAndLand.com? According to a recent article in PR Newswire, “Almost all Americans are renters at some point in their lives. Today, about one in three households - home to more than 75 million people - rent their homes, a number that is rising because of the foreclosure crisis and overall weak market for home sales.” Homes & Land is now making it easy and convenient for advertisers to market their rental homes. Editing tools make it easy to post rental rates, upload photographs and floor plans, and provide EZ Tours for each rental home offered. Advertisers benefit from increased exposure for your rental listings and the opportunity to generate additional leads.
Does Homes & Land export rental homes to partner sites? Not at this time. Going forward, we will continue to look for ways to provide additional exposure for rental homes.
Are rental home listings imported via MLS feeds? Some MLS’s do allow us to import rental homes. However, the data provided from some feeds have problems distinguishing “for sale” from “for rent” properties. We are working through issues related to rental homes on a board-by-board basis.
What were you doing 26 years ago? Were you in the real estate business? Were you alive!? :) We're proud to have been serving the real estate community of East Tennessee since our start in Sevier County in 1983. In fact, we're the only publication who still has the same name, same owners, and same great service we had when we started 26 years ago! Need someone you can count on? Turn to Homes & Land!
Did you know more offices/agents choose us than any other source? Homes & Land is the #1 choice of real estate offices/agents in East Tennessee! More offices choose to advertise with us every month than any other real estate publication. In fact, over 230 offices choose Homes & Land compared to 73 offices in our next closest competitor. Thank you for making us #1!
Homes & Land in Tennessee has been locally owned by Russ & Cheryl Haskins since our start in 1983. Through the years the Haskins have won many awards from Homes & Land for their hard work but none are greater than the honor they received from the Great Smoky Mountains Association of REALTORS® in 2003 when the board named the new addition of their building "Haskins Hall" in honor of what they've done for Sevier County.
Homes & Land is a family owned and operated business (son, Russell (blogger), daughter, Kristina Longmire, and son-in-law, Glenn Longmire). Kristina and myself have always helped with the business even when we were young doing small "paper work" tasks. As we grew older our tasks increased and now Kristina manages the office and production of the magazines while I manage the Foothills of East Tennessee and Knoxville editions and handle alot of the internet stuff! Glenn knew he was marrying into a family business so it wasn't long after he joined our family that we put him to work too. Glenn manages the Tennessee Valley edition and helps out in all aspects of the business. Joining the family team in 2005 is Russ & Cheryl's nephew, Kerry Haskins. Kerry helps out in all aspects of the business from distribution to customer service. We're all big Vols fans as you can tell! My Dad and I both graduated from UTK.
From left to right (Cheryl, Russ, Myself, Maddie & Cassie (Kerry's daughters), Kerry, Kristina and Glenn with their 2 boys Dean and Dennis.) Not pictured are Debbie (Kerry's wife) and their latest addition John Colby.
A lot has changed since our beginning! There was no internet in 1983 but we were one of the first companies to post listings online starting in 1992. Remember Prodigy? That's where we started posted listings! Dial up modems, super slow connection, and no pictures! :) Homes & Land has stayed on the cutting edge over the years with products like Homes & Land EZ Tour and Homes & Land Video.
What do you remember about 1983? I was 7 at the time and don't have the best memory :) I know my Dad was working hard in Sevier County selling ads to kick off the first issue with 12 pages of a mostly black and white magazine except for the color front cover. We'd like to hear what you remember about the real estate business back then...
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.
May 2009
"Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks."
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