This month, we’ve got another Giveaway for you! Some of the leading vendors in real estate technology are participating — including VirtualTourCafe. We'll tell you all about VirtualTourCafe here, but there are other gifts to explore. Click here to see your options.

VirtualTourCafe’s Gift
Specifically for agents – a 1-year unlimited VirtualTourCafe subscription.

About VirtualTourCafe
VirtualTourCafe offers Do-It-Yourself or We-Do-It-For-You Virtual Tours, e-Flyers and YouTube-Style Video. Create a virtual tour in 15 minutes! Includes QR Codes, Mobile Tours, floor plans, narration, Tour Themes and much, much more...

"Real Estate Marketing Just Got Easier!"

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Tagged: Virtual Tour

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RING RING goes the cell phone.

(Well, actually the phone ringtone is “The Eyes of Texas”, but it feels silly to type, “‘The eyes of Texas are upon you‘ goes the cell phone”…)

“Hi, I’m calling about your listing at blah blah blah.”

“Well, that’s not our listing, but let me look it up real quick for you.”

“It’s your listing, it’s on your web site…”

“Our site has all the homes listed for sale in Phoenix, hang on just a second…” (We’ve been there, done this before.)

“While you are looking it up, can you tell me what “Owner Agent” means in the listing?”

“Sure, that means the seller is a licensed real estate agent. In Arizona that is required to be disclosed up front. OK, I have the listing information up now, how can I help you?”

“I just want to talk to the[...]

Tagged: Agent

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This month, we’ve got another Giveaway for you! Some of the leading vendors in real estate technology are participating — including RealSatisfied. We'll tell you all about RealSatisfied here, but there are other gifts to explore. Click here to see your options.

RealSatisfied’s Gift
RealSatisfied is giving away a free, 1-year office subscription (for one physical address).

About RealSatisfied
RealSatisfied helps real estate brokers and agents manage their reputation. This simple tool allows real estate pros to:

•  Listen to customers
• Manage, coach, and reward team members for their good work
• Receive customer feedback
• Gain a testimonial for every transaction
• Build strong customer relationships
• Create customer advocates

Client feedback from RealSatisfied is gained through surveys. Each RealSatisfied account holder has access to all surveys, although team leaders can manage which team members have access to which surveys.  The surveys themselves, sent[...]

Tagged: Agent Ratings

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We have a terrific video from Maya Paveza for your today!

Tagged: Social Media

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In their last whitepaper, the rental experts at RentJuice shared their tips for starting a rental division. In their most recent whitepaper, they explain how to write better rental listings. We’ll share 3 of their top tips here; for the full scoop, you can download the whitepaper.

Tip #1: Share as much information as possible.

The more information you’re able to include in your listing, the more likely people are to follow-up. Of course, not all information is created equal – some facts are more important than others. For instance, you want to be sure to include:

• The price (not a deceptively low price or a price range; the REAL price)
• The "laundry list" of features. That means all the features that you do have, and the important ones that you don't. It's the best way to prevent wasting their time and your own.
• Amenities such as washer and dryer, air conditioning, pool, parking, etc.
• Tagged: Online Marketing

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Without fail, every time I teach or speak, someone asks for my advice on starting a blog. Often times more than one person is interested in my take on the subject. My answer evolves about once a quarter, and most experienced bloggers disagree with my opinion.

Many agents leave meetings, conferences or one on one’s excited about blogging. However, when they start to explore the world of blogging, they get overwhelmed. There are so many options and choices to make:

• Where should you host your site?
• If you’re self-hosting, which service should you go with?
• Which theme/template is the best? There are a million free options and thousands of premium ones.
• Should I hire someone to design it?

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Tagged: Blogging

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Last week, we published part one of this excellent post by Christopher Leo of Leading Agent. The article deals with the 3 features EVERY agent should have on their website. Part one covered the first feature: interactivity. Today, Christopher will share the second and third features with us.

2) Get Hyper-Local
Another common problem we see with REALTORS'® websites is that they are not tailored to their specific marketplace. If your website is deemed by potential clients as "not pertinent to their marketplace," they are going to immediately leave your site and move on to another one that suits their needs. You do not want this.

One easy way to avoid this problem is with the use of Neighborhood Guides. Neighborhood guides can be a fantastic way to demonstrate your marketplace knowledge, and keep people on your website, investigating areas they may be interested in moving to. Even more, you can make them interactive. Many of the sites we design for agents include things like interactive neighborhood maps that are tied to MLS maps with listings, school maps, walk score maps, etc.[...]

Tagged: Website Design

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How much do you value your reputation online? Most agents would say they greatly value their reputation, but what can Real Estate Pros do when a bad review is posted of your service?

It’s a common trend, that people are more likely to post bad reviews when they are unhappy with the service/product  they were provided. The same goes for Real Estate Professionals. If you do a great job, people will refer you, but will they go out of their way to Yelp about you? Probably not. On the flip side, what if they were upset with your service. Do you think they might post bad reviews on every site they can find? Maybe.

Online reputation management is a serious business that can make or break an agent or  firm.  Now the question is, what can you do to maximize your profile online and minimize bad reviews? A new product by Homes.com just may be able to help. It’s called Search Impact, and it has a proven, three-step process to maximizing your visibility online while[...]

Tagged: Agent Ratings Online Marketing

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Agent ratings are becoming increasingly important for real estate professionals, particularly given the realities of our online world. If you’re ready to get started in this important area, we have a Friday Freebie for you – a 30-day free trial of RealSatisfied.

30-Day Free Trial of RealSatisfied
If you’re looking for a tool to manage your reputation, you’ll want to consider this 30-day free trial from RealSatisfied. There's no commitment, no long-term contracts, and you can cancel at anytime!

To start the trial, no credit card is needed. At the end of your free trial a credit card will be need to be added to the account to continue the service (we'll email the account owner 5 days before the trial ends as a reminder).

If you like, you may also add a credit card to your account at any time during the trial period.

To register for the 30-day trial, click here.

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Tagged: Agent Ratings

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Ricardo Bueno shares this article on the Diverse Solutions blog.

Unfortunately, people do judge a book by it’s cover. That means, that people are making a decision on whether they like you or not, whether they trust you or not, within the first 30 seconds to a minute of landing on your website.

Can I find the information I’m looking for?

Does this site look trustworthy?

Is the information presented here reliable?

Those are all of the questions racing through the consumers mind when they land on your website. Fortunately for you, you can influence whether they stay on your site long enough to engage with your content and make a decision as to whether they’d like to work with you or not.

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Tagged: Blogging

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The nice folks at REALTOR.com shared this infographic with us:

Here’s an infographic that shows exactly how real consumers used search sites in 2011:

*Data sourced from National Association of REALTORS 2011 Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Click onto the next page for a link to the full-sized infographic.

Tagged: Property Search Portal

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Do you have a website for your real estate practice? You most certainly do, right? But do you REALLY have a website?

What do I mean by this? Simple. What I mean is: is your website an interactive destination that gives clients and perspective clients a reason to come back again and again? Does your site have lots of useful content that search engines will index? OR, is your site nothing more than an "online brochure" that includes MLS Search?

When we have a new, perspective client drop into our office, or schedule a webinar for a consultation, we're finding that, more often than not, REALTORS® simply have a glorified "online brochure" and NOT a proper Real Estate website.

"What could be wrong with simply giving the general public information about yourself, and an easy to use MLS search," you ask? Technically nothing. But, the truth is that a website such as that offers nothing unique that will make you stand out from the rest of the crowd and certainly gives nothing to a prospect that they can't easily find on one of hundreds of[...]

Tagged: Website Design

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The REALTORS® who are most successful in today’s real estate  industry have a strategic plan that guides their efforts. In the post by Tricia Andreassen, What Every New Agent Needs Right Out the Gate, she itemizes a must do list for the REALTORS® new to the business that offers good information. I added my two cents worth to Tricia’s list.

1) Secure Your Domain. The REALTORS® who follow a plan will purchase a series of domain names that are identified in the geographic areas they plan to serve. There is a strategy with determining what domains will be used. The REALTORS® who first establish a well defined strategy will follow a road map to success.

2) Make sure you have a web site that can grow with you. The REALTORS® who follow their strategic plan realize a community neighborhood oriented site will appeal to buyers, sellers and, in today’s real estate market, renters as well.

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Tagged: Advice

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Building a career in sales requires as much sowing as harvesting. Yet too many sales techniques focus only on finding the “ripe and ready” deals today, with little planning for the future. Do you want a quick deal, or do you want a career?

Why do most salespeople wash out of their industries so quickly? For example, about 60% of new real estate agents don’t make it past the year and a half mark; nearly 90% never make it past five years. Some people blame the commission-only structure of most sales positions, yet the top producers in any industry seem to make that structure work just fine. Others blame the low barrier to entry, attracting people with little or no background in being their own boss or running their own business – yet every office has a manager and every industry association offers a plethora of sales courses.

Yet the fact remains, most salespeople simply don’t[...]

Tagged: Advice

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