Be a Productive Listing Agent. How?

I have written plenty of posts on how to be a good listing agent, from giving good customer service, to answering your phone when agents call (or anyone for that matter), to good signage, writing a monthly market report and more. 

I also wrote a popular post on realtor.com enhancements, are they worth the money? I would say less than 5% of the 309 comments I received on that post said realtor.com enhancements were worth the money.

Why bring that up?  I have sold 10% of the residential listings (per ccmls) that have sold in my market so far for 2009.  Only one other agent can say that (we're tied at the moment but I intend to pass that agent up this week) and I DO NOT USE realtor.com as part of my marketing efforts. 

First of all I will tell you why I do not use realtor.com, then I will tell you what hands-down has been the single biggest force in driving consumers to my website.

My renewal with realtor.com expired in mid July, so I have 6 months of stats for 2009 on what drove consumers to my website (these stats cover 1/1/09 - 7/16/09).

1. Active Rain 39.26%
2. Google 24.69%
3. Yahoo
4. FranGattiHomes
5. Trulia
6. live.com
7. PelicanBayStatePrison.net
8. realtor.com 1.23%
9. aol
10. Zillow

I bolded the free sites in the list.  Do you see realtor.com on the above list at number 8 although it IS THE ONLY ONE ON THE LIST THAT I PAY FOR (PelicanBayStatePrison.net was my website that I canned because the ROI wasn't worth it [and it came in ahead of realtor.com].) In fact, realtor.com cost more per year than my website! So, I didn't renew and I vowed to put the money I was saving toward assistance with SEO and bettering my website. 

However, please focus on the #1 factor that drives consumer's to my website, Active Rain.  Several of my listings came from clients who were researching agents on the internet and they came across my blog, read what I had to say, including my monthly market reports, that establish me as THE EXPERT in my market, and hired me to sell their home. 

Is it just enough to get a listing though, to be a great listing agent? No. You need to sell homes.  A homeowner should ask an agent, "How many homes have you sold this year," and, "What % of the sold homes this year were yours?"  Why would a seller want to list with someone who isn't selling homes?  That's a question I have asked myself frequently.

Believe it or not, not all RE agents take their job seriously, hard to believe, but there it is.

5 of the 11 homes, or 45%, that have sold so far in 2009 with a sale price of over $400,000 were my listings (I already mentioned 10% of all residential listings sold were mine). I can directly attribute 4 of those sales to my virtual tours on realestateshows (which charges a nominal yearly fee).  Most agents in my market don't do a virtual tour and for the sake of me I can't figure out why. Too much time, too much effort, what? 

Probably 50% of my listings come from my efforts on Active Rain either directly, from someone who called after reading a post, or indirectly, from a neighbor who called me after I quickly sold their neighbors listing. 

To recap -

• Active Rain is productive IF DONE RIGHT - I'm not going to go into a long dissertation on what that means.  Read ActiveBrads blog if you want to know how to properly use your AR blog. This I can tell you, if you don't plan on blogging to the best of your ability, don't do it.  Blogging can really work against you if not taken seriously. 
  
  
• Utilize free websites for posting your listings.
  
  
• Good signage has been HUGE in my success this year -  I wear my name tag everywhere and when people read my name I hear, "Wow, I see your signs everywhere around our county." Name recognition is huge. This can work against you if you're flipping people off or cussing them out when you're driving, not that I've done that.
  
  
• Do a virtual tour on all your listings- realestateshows (I'm not getting paid for this BTW) is very affordable and takes very little time to post a V.T.  Don't be lazy...just do it.
  
  
• You can fork over the $$ to realtor.com if you want to, but I'd check stats to see if it's cost effective- In this economy, who can afford to do something as costly as realtor.com if it isn't producing a return on your investment?
  
  
• Have a website - I use Top Producer (they aren't paying me either), but apparently my website is pretty awesome in their eyes, because they give my web address to agents who ask for an example of one of their sites.  I get calls every now and again from agents asking how I like the site.  I LOVE my Top Producer website.  It's VERY affordable and they have awesome tech support.  Check it out and see what you think. You can call me if you like--Fran's cell, 707-218-8162--if you would like to ask me any questions, that's what Ambassador's are for.
  
  
• Write a monthly market report -  You're just plain crazy if you are not doing this.  You are supposed to be an expert in your market.  You establish your expertise when you KNOW your market stats and there is no better way to know your stats than to do a market report.  You will dazzle your prospective listing clients with this information.  Just do it.  Stop being lazy. 

Do all these things and if you don't get more and sell more listings, call me.  I am not adverse to helping an agent in need, just don't be from my market! Just kidding...sort of. 

       

Thank you for stopping by. Your comments on this post are welcomed and appreciated.

Brought to you by Fran Gatti at  No one works harder for you!  Bus: 707-464-5400, Cell: 707-218-8162 Email: frangatti@remax.net Website: FranGattiHomes.com My Blog: Fran's Blog RCDPro®