Carl Martens's Blog

Adding your Point2 Virtual Tour to your Realtor.com listing

Carl Martens (Zowbie Consulting) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:14:29 -0700

In order to add your Point2 Virtual Tour to your Realtor.com listing you will need to follow the steps outlined below. This will allow you to become your own virtual tour supplier to Realtor.com.

1) The first thing you will need to do is contact the Virtual Tour Team with realtor.com at 877-353-4749 or vtsupport@move.com.

2) Tell them that you are your own virtual tour provider and would like to be a partner with "Picture Path", so you can use your virtual tours for listings on realtor.com. Please note that you must have your own domain name for your Point2 website. The default website address created with your Point2 website will not work when trying to use a Point2 virtual tour on realtor.com.

3) The Virtual Tour Team from Realtor.com will ask you for some information and then they will send you an email containing the Picture Path form agreement, instructions for completing the agreement, a virtual tour guideline document, an authorization form and a rate table document outlining the costs. You will also have to give them a sample URL of your virtual tour.

4) It will take approximately 5-7 working days to process your agreement from the time your agreement is received.If you plan on using the unbranded version of your virtual tour on realtor.com then you will need to make a slight modification to the URL.

Example of unbranded tour:
http://virtualtours2go.point2homes.biz/Listing/VirtualTour.aspx?ListingID=000000&HideBranding=true

You will need to replace the "virtualtours2go.point2homes.biz" portion of the URL with your domain name.

Example of unbranded tour to use on realtor.com:
http://www.yourdomainnamehere.com/Listing/VirtualTour.aspx?ListingID=000000&HideBranding=true

5 tips for getting your listings sold

Carl Martens (Zowbie Consulting) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:13:55 -0700

We are currently in a buyers' market and many agents are complaining saying that it is tough to sell their listings. I disagree. I think this is the perfect market to be in and the perfect job is to be in real estate. Here are a few ways to get your listings sold.

1. Price right

Price your listing not where the market is currently, but where it is going to be. Overpricing a listing is like getting in credit card debt...your situation never seems to improve. If you overprice a listing you will always be chasing the market, so price it where the market WILL be. Do you want to lead the market or follow the market?

Pricing a listing right will set a tone to both agents and buyers. It will tell them that you want to sell the house rather than just show it.

Stay ahead of the market always, in this market you have to keep a close watch on what the market is doing. Just because you price a listing where the market will be today doesn't mean that's where the market will be tomorrow. Keep a watchful eye on the market.

2. Create lead generation and customer relation management (CRM) systems

It is important to have systems in place so no leads fall through the cracks and so that you are constantly making contact or "touching" your future clients. I say future clients because you need to stop thinking of them as prospects. You don't realize it, but by referring to leads as prospects you're already setting yourself up for failure. From now on refer to prospects as future clients, because after all...anyone you come into contact with should be a future client.

The key to lead generation and management is responsiveness. Respond back in the same way the lead contacted you and respond as quickly as possible, or have systems in place that will respond for you. For instance, if someone contacts you through your web site be sure that you have an auto responder in place to notify them that you received their submission and that you will soon contact them.

3. Boost your co-op commission

Remember you aren't just selling the buyer on purchasing the house...Realtors whether they will admit it or not can have an influence on a buyer. Maybe boosting the co-op commission will just get your listing into that agent's "preview" or "show" pile instead of a lower commission listing. Or maybe in the event of a buyer deciding between two houses it will help the agent see things in one house vs another that they wouldn't have otherwise seen.

I have seen this work time and time again. I've seen listings on the market for over a year and this simple tactic can lead to them closing within 30 days.

4. Stage it properly

I remember my first encounter with this concept...I thought it was silly. However, I went to a listing appointment in which the seller made the statement, "now that I have the house staged, I don't want to sell it." Funny. I use to think it was silly to stage a home to sell it, but now I won't move into a place without having a stager come out and work with me. I want to enjoy my home and not make this kind of statement when it comes time to sell.

You only have one chance to make a good first impression. I strongly recommend hiring a stager...the before and after pictures in many cases will look like two different houses.

Be sure to take high quality photos or hire a professional to do so. Remember you only have one chance to make a good first impression.

5. Get to know your neighbors

This isn't the most creative tip I have to offer, but it is a valuable one nonetheless.

Introduce yourself to the neighbors of your listing, let them know that you are listing their neighbors house and that they will see a lot of unusual movement around the house, but to not be immediately alarmed because it is probably another agent showing the house, however should they see anything suspicious call you right away to confirm if there is a showing or not. This will not only impress the neighbors, but the neighbors will rave to your sellers about you.

Reach out even further. Send postcards to all the homes in the subdivision, go door to door and get face to face. This is your chance to introduce yourself to future clients as well as an opportunity for you to get to know the community and find out if perhaps someone has a friend that would like to move into the subdivision.

Marketing tip: e-Postcard

Carl Martens (Zowbie Consulting) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:12:54 -0700

Here is a tip to gain exposure for your listing. Create a "Just Listed e-Postcards" to send out to agents. Creat a database of agents in your area grouped by their market center. Using a service called iContact distribute the e-postcard via email. iContact can generate reports so that you can track your messages and become more in tune with how effetive or uneffective your marketing is. Rather than just sending emails with text and a "copy and paste" picture create an e-Postcard. Once you have a template setup creating e-Postcards is simple!

Quality pictures will sell a listing because you only have one chance to make a good first impression, likewise quality marketing will sell a listing!

Below is an example of an e-Postcard.

e-Postcard provided by RKiHomes

TOP PRODUCER’s new “Market Builder” has finally arrived!

Carl Martens (Zowbie Consulting) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:10:30 -0700

This fully automates the repetitive mail delivery of oversized 11″ postcards to 400 clients three times per year. You choose either the neighborhood or streets to be included. You may exclude current clients' addresses. Choose from one of three sets of cards. TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc. finds the names and addresses. Thirty potential clients per week receive your branded cards with a code permitting them to get instaneous Market Snapshots from http://www.betterhomeprice.com/ . They may update their personal information which insures that you get correctly spelled names and addresses as new Leads within TOP PRODUCER. They see what is happening in their own neighborhood. All this with little effort on your part. No longer do you need to send lists to mailing companies or personally handle the mailings. (If you have an assistant, they'll probably fall in love with this program). Speaking of Market Snapshot, in a recent update, you now have the ability to customize the automated messages that gets e-mailed to clients when they subscribe to Market Snapshot. This gives you an opportunity to address both personal and local content in the first message which your potential clients receive. If you have not customized your message yet, "time is a wasting". Take a few minutes to log into Market Snapshot and review your current message.

And.... Market Snapshot no longer has a limit on the number of participating clients. Therefore, you can put as many clients as you desire on this exceptional service. Another means of keeping local market information in front of both your current and past clients.

Unfortunately, sub-prime ARM loans have caused the industry much concern. Recently the FHA has come out with the FHASecure program. FHASecure is a refinancing option that gives credit-worthy homeowners, who were making timely mortgage payments before their loans reset but are now in default, a second chance with a FHA insured loan product.

Eligible homeowners must meet the following requirements:

Have a non-FHA insured ARM that has reset;
Sufficient income to make the mortgage payment; and
A history of on-time mortgage payments before the loan reset.

Hopefully, you had no such clients, but you might be asked by others for advice. You can refer them to http://www.fha.gov/reference/ml2007/07-11ml.doc for more details.

Information provided by: Dwight Kitchens, Certified Instructor (Trainer) and Independent Agent (Salesperson)