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Realtor Market Expert Q&A: Scarlett Green and Josh Taylor
In the spring of 2022, RPR's Broker Services Team put together a special training series for Howard Hanna agents. To receive their "RPR-Howard Hanna Market Expert" certificates, the agents were required to complete four classes on four different topics (available in an on-demand video webinar format available to them via the RPR blog). After each session, they were also asked to complete a "homework" assignment to get full credit. After four lessons and completed "homework," the agents received their certificate. They were also asked to fill out a survey, where they were asked to "Share Their Story" about their RPR training experience. In this Q&A, we speak to two RPR Howard Hanna Market Experts about their experiences taking the training, what they learned, and how they plan to apply their new RPR skills to their business. Scarlet Green Here's what Scarlet Green from Allen Tate Realtors, North Carolina had to say about the training sessions: I have been using RPR for months now and I love it!! Reasons why: 1) the more you use it, the easier and faster it becomes as the best and latest tool in real estate 2) the simplicity of RPR, user friendly 3) RPR offers so much info that you are able to choose exactly what you want/need so you may customize the reports/info for your client(s) 4) RPR offers material and info that are appropriate for both buyers and sellers! 5) Love having a mobile app that actually works! This app was well planned out and created to be user friendly. I also love that you are able to send the info the way your clients like to receive it; example, by text, email, airdrop, etc. I plan on continuing using RPR and appreciate all those who were involved in creating this. Thank you! Q. Hi Scarlett, thanks for joining us. How long have you been in real estate and what area do you specialize in? Ten years, I'm a residential agent, and I mostly work with sellers. A few buyers here and there… Q. How did you get introduced to RPR? Another agent in my office uses it. I heard that doorbell "ding," the sound effect from the reports being generated, and I wanted that! (LAUGHS) I love that doorbell chime of the notification. It's brilliant. It's the small things, you know? Then I started using it for doing comps. I love (and hate) doing comps, but RPR makes it easy. You can't go rogue, the program keeps you right on target. For clients, buying or selling a home is a milestone in life. And they trust us to watch their wallet through the process. I appreciate RPR for helping me create CMAs. Q. In the testimonial you sent us, you mentioned that RPR is simple. Can you give me an example? Sure, I was messing around in RPR last night… and I started looking into Opportunity Zones. As I started, these little prompts came up and I was able to follow along with the pink boxes. So helpful! It's a wizard/teacher to help and guide you. It helps me not waste time! Every time you get on RPR you learn something new, and the more you use it, the more knowledge you get for your clients. Q. You also mentioned the RPR app; how do you like using it? I love it. Whoever came up with it should teach other programmers how to create user friendly tech. I use it in the field all the time, because I can easily pull stuff up. I can instantly send reports and answers to my customers. I have the tech in my hands and it works every time. Tech that works makes me a huge RPR advocate! Q. We love hearing that! What else did you get from the training? Basically, I felt refreshed about navigating the comps and it gave me more confidence. I now tell other agents that I can't believe they're not using RPR. It's a whole different level of experience in real estate. Josh Taylor Josh Taylor from Howard Hanna Pennsylvania had this to say about his Market Expert training series: I'm a newer agent and still learning and growing everyday. I have really enjoyed this series as an introduction to getting more in-depth with RPR. I have used the research pieces and some of the reports already, but I have many new ideas now. I have learned how to drill down in a much better and more efficient way. I love the micro-neighborhood reports to really have that access to learning about even the smaller neighborhoods in my area. RPR helps me to present my expertise and show clients the knowledge base that I have access to in order to show my value add for them. Thank you for this learning opportunity and I look forward to learning more! Q. How long have you been practicing real estate Josh, and what area do you work in? Just over a year and a half, and I work in residential. Q. How did you get introduced to RPR? I had used it on my own a bit, and I was getting monthly emails about the training and webinars from my brokerage, NAR, etc. But I must admit, this Market Expert series was more of an incentive, the certificate was appealing. As a new agent I need help learning CMAs and RPR helps with that in a lot of ways. Q. You mentioned new ideas for using RPR, how are you doing that? So many! I didn't know about mailing labels, or how to search neighborhoods and subdivisions for specific owners. It's great for direct mailings and new listings. Drilling down into neighborhoods and uncovering the demographics, that stuff is really helpful. I like using the neighborhood search and the neighborhood reports. And the maps are great for prospecting. I've used that a few times since the training took place. Q. How does RPR help you in your business? I like that the CMA has different ways to achieve the goal to get the right pricing. Some info is outdated and you can add updates to the home using the Refine Value tool. That gives me a framework to the price, and then I can pull up really specific values and features, like a pool. The flexibility is controlled, and I get more accurate results using RPR than just my MLS. The other thing I really like is when you print something from RPR, the branding and the cleanliness of the report is important. And that it looks like it comes from me! Having my picture and my information in the reports makes it well branded. To view the original article, visit the RPR

You Might Know Less About Real Estate SEO Than You Think
Primary and secondary keywords used to hold all the power in SEO. Search engine giants like Google indexed websites based on the frequency of particular words and phrases, assuming their content would be most relevant to related search queries. To game the system, all real estate agents had to do was keyword-stuff their content and then watch its ranking improve. But those were the old days. Real estate SEO has changed. Today, keywords are still important, but many additional factors are coming into play for how agents rank on search engines, especially on the coveted first page of Google. Why your real estate SEO should focus on Google Google is more than a household name. The brand is a verb. We say "Google it" instead of "search for it." And consumers don't just talk the talk either—their collective actions prove their love of using Google over other search engines like Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Google holds around 90% of search engine market share in the US. The next-highest is Bing at a paltry 6.5%. If you're focused on anything, it needs to be Google. Google also spends countless hours and dollars to learn more about consumer behavior and what actually makes for relevant (and quality) content. And they put these findings into the algorithm that determines how agents are ranked. In 2016, Google rearranged where ads are shown to make way for the Google business profile listing on the right side. A Google business profile listing is essentially a business profile—for restaurants and real estate agents alike—that will prominently appear whenever it's relevant to the search query. This strategic move, while helpful for consumers, allows Google to prioritize its own product. Google will place a GMB listing on the right side if it's relevant to the query. But when there are multiple GMB listings for Google to choose from, you can bet that it'll select a listing that consumers will want to read and click through. That is, a GMB with complete information that's well-managed and frequently updated. So, why'd Google make this change to how agents rank on its platform? Well, in short, the company is trying to suddenly nudge business towards using its products. It's what's good for Google and its bottom line. Making your GMB attractive to Google Google is forthcoming about what it wants from businesses: Providing and updating business information in Google business profiles can help your business's local ranking on Google and enhance your presence in Search and Maps. Essentially, in years prior, SEO was a bit of a guessing game. Now, with these changes, Google is giving its users a clear, no-questions-about-it path towards optimization and high search rankings. There's no more gaming the system. Not only should you fill out every field in your GMB listing, but you also need to regularly maintain it by posting content, adding photos, answering questions, soliciting reviews each month, and responding to every new review (even negative comments). Reviews signal to Google that your business is reputable. Just one review can increase a GMB listing's views by 71%, which means that Google is prioritizing these listings over those without reviews. At Homesnap, we publish and manage thousands of GMB listings for real estate agents across the country. When we look at the activity on these listings, it's clear that they add enormous value to agents' businesses. On average, we see 300% more views, clicks, and actions on GMB listings that have at least one new review in the last 90 days. This is the new world of SEO. But it's also a better world. GMB listings give consumers much more information about you and your real estate expertise instead of just seeing a snippet of text from your website, buried under other search results. It's like a souped-up digital business card. To view the original article, visit the Homesnap

4 Ways to Dominate Your Market
You're ready to own your market, stay ahead of your competitors, and become a top-producing real estate team dominating the local market share. If the goal is clear, the road to achieving that goal can be hard to imagine... until these essential tips come into the picture. Let's look at fresh and timely strategies that your real estate team can leverage to help you climb to the top of your market. 1. Leverage technology in the right ways Not all technology adoption may be the right choice for your business. Nowadays, there is so much PropTech out there — but what your team needs is the right tech tools. As a best practice, you should strive to leverage technology in the right ways that create tangible and trackable value. Think automated nurture marketing, eAlerts, and the generation of meaningful insights. On the other hand, you might want to rethink the deployment of technology in areas that could negatively impact the experience that your clients have when engaging with your business. For example, speed-to-lead is crucial, but no one wants to talk to bots. Instead, it's ideal to have real humans who are seasoned marketing experts communicating with your precious customers. Being specific about what, how, and when you are using your technology can help you retain a people-centric, value-driven real estate brand culture. 2. Build an accountability process Pop quiz! Are you and your team actually achieving what you set out to do? Are there areas of your workflow that fall through the cracks? Are you measuring your progress towards concrete production goals? If you answered these questions and realized that you're not capitalizing on a clear, goal-oriented strategy, it's a sign that you need an accountability process. All of the top entrepreneurs have accountability practices. Accountability is all about blending the big picture and the immediate moment to create consistent progress toward a goal. Accountability begins with setting realistic and achievable goals. Then, that larger goal is broken down into all of the smaller phases and steps that need to be taken in order to achieve that larger goal. Let's say it's your goal to close on 20 transactions in a year. That means your team should be closing five deals per quarter. To close those five deals, you will need to be working a certain number of leads to ensure that five of them will convert in the future. Become more accountable and efficient by mapping out the actions your real estate business needs to take, helping guide your day-in-day-out workflow strategy. Pro Tip: Leveraging the right tech can actually help your team become more accountable. If you have a back-end team portal that is customized to your unique transaction workflow, it can be much easier to keep tabs on what tasks have gotten done, who's responsible, and what has been overlooked. For example: if your team sends out a closing gift to clients at the end of every transaction, you need to ensure that the gift is being planned and ordered ahead of time. If this is programmed into your project management portal, the reminder is automatically there. You can tag the team member in charge, they can fulfill the task, and voila! Never miss another gifting opportunity again. #3. Set consistent life and work routines Maintaining a strong work-life balance can help you stay motivated, boost creativity, and increase productivity. You're much more likely to succeed if you're feeling uplifted, secure, and are prioritizing your wellness. When you're unorganized and not taking care of yourself, you're likely to spend more time working but ultimately getting less done. An effective way to improve your workflow is to create a consistent daily routine. Make time to take care of yourself and your work tasks, helping you fall into the rhythms of a strong daily groove. Pro Tip: Everyone is unique, so the optimum work and life schedule will naturally vary from person to person. Take time to look in and find the process that works best for you. Encourage your team to do the same. #4. Prospect, prospect, prospect If you want to beat the competition, one of the most important things that you need to be doing is getting serious about your prospecting. To boost your market share and access new opportunities, you need to be consistent about reaching out to leads. Investing in your lead generation capacity can help you build up your lead and client database, fueling your sales funnel and allowing you to dominate your market. To view the original article, visit the BoomTown