Real Estate Marketing Blog

Real Estate Expert Interviews

What would happen if you could get rich information from Realtors just like yourself, that are succeeding online?

What if you could get inside information and insights into the way they think, deal, and operate?

What if you could see the future of online and offline real estate?

That is what we have in store for you at:
Real Estate Expert Interviews

Simply scroll down, click sign in,  put in your email address and you will get a password emailed for your entrance.

The first Interview is from a "newer agent" who averages 2-6 deals a month. All generated from his website.

Listen in as I fire off the questions you wish you could ask. And pay attention as he answers with precision and incredible wisdom.

Who is this Chicago Wiz Kid?

Find out here:
http://www.interviewswithrealestateexperts.com/

Who Is Selling All That Real Estate

Who is selling all that property?

With all the doom and gloom out there, did you know that 2006 is on pace to be the third highest transactional year.

National Association of Realtors (NAR), 2006 is on pace to be the 3rd best year in history for transaction volume. Despite flat & in some cases declining home values, property is transacting. 

So why are many agents/brokers feeling a pinch?

Because NAR says that the number of Realtors has more than doubled. There simply is less volume to go around. In an earlier post I mentioned that in California there is 1 real estate licensee for every 52 adults. Basically, that is like one agent for every other block.

Read my last post and how buyers and sellers pick an agent mostly because of personal contact.

Myth:The Internet is not a method to lesson the need for personal contact. Last I checked, it is still illegal to put a house up for sale into an online shopping cart. So if you cannot sell the house online, then what is your reason for being online?

That question often is never answered. Yet, it should be the first question one asks themselves before embarking onto a marketing campaign.

The web is indeed a way to have people opt-into your most valued offerings. Once they are into your world, then you are able to add more value and more value with the goal of personal contact for a real conversation and consultation.

Website Personality

Ever get the feeling that you website is being used for its rich information and then the buyer or seller contracts with the agent on the street?

Even though NAR research shows that 77 % of Americans used the Internet to search for homes in 2005. I wouldn't take that to mean that they bought because of their online use.The same survey also found that 8 out of 10 buyers who used the Internet to find a home, used an agent to help complete the transaction.

My question is how many of those 8 of 10 buyers bought from the agent or brokerage who provided the Internet data? My experience answers with as "not much" as you all would like. The reason is poor lead capture and follow up.

A September 2006 survey of consumers by Discover Small Business Watch found that traditional real estate agents did well with home buyers, and exceedingly well with home sellers.

I ask how can that be when we onliners are so sophisticated with our websites and technology?

Trust, Experience, and Referrals Matter Most

You are up against personal factors like trust, experience and a personal referral:

• 47 % said they would choose someone they “know and trust” over other qualities when they sell their homes.
• Experience Matters; A real estate agent’s sales record was the second-most influential factor with 16 %, while a referral was third with 11 %.

The survey shows that people selling their homes see much more value in having personal help when seeking buyers. 61 % of home sellers said they would prefer the services of an agent versus only 4 percent who said they would prefer an online service to help sell their homes.

From this I can only ask what is an online service defined as? Many traditional Realtors do have an online presence? The question is inferring a diferrence. Perhaps it is talking of the discounters like Zip, or classified ad type sites like forsalebyowner.com?

However, the survey does seem to make the suggestion that the faster you get to being human with a prospect, the faster you will create more sales. Maybe those old sales trainings that nothing happens until you are Belly to Belly have merit. Its also why I implore Realtors to use forced opt-in for their IDX VOW Real Estate sites.

This is why in my opinion a blog can help(or hurt) you. A blog can make it so your reader feels they know you and your business. It gives the reader the chance to warm up to your personality or lack thereof.

It gives the reader a chance to know how business minded you are. Or how ditzy you are. So be careful.

You might make your ole Econ Professor proud as you belt numbers and statistical analysis. All showing why the market is behaving this way or that.

But do your buyers want to buy from any of your Profs from College? Well maybe that one guy.

We all had that one Professor who seemed to break the rules of teaching. Yet, somehow we all remember his name and the way he made an important point.

Be that fun Teacher in your blog.

Otherwise, your buyer might imagine having to get into that boring Econ Teacher's car to show them property! And you are that boring teacher :-( Eee Gad!

And be careful of getting too fun. Pictures of your latest night out with the gals, or your ten cats might be a little too ditzy for most. Especially, if your clients are mostly men.

Other interesting facts:

• “People buying a home do more research online than people selling a home,” said Sastry Rachakonda, director, Discover Business Card.
• “People selling a home aren’t looking for information necessarily, they are looking for buyers, and getting them buyers is what they expect from real estate agents,” he concluded.

(This article was inspired from a piece at the Red Herring)

ERA Real Estate Feed Trulia

ERA Real Estate has agreed to feed as a test about 76,000 ERA represented property listings with Trulia Real Estate Search Engine.

At what point does the other majors like Remax, C21, Prudential and others use engines like this? And what does it mean for the traditional MLS, and traditional print media? Time will tell.

Change is definitely blowing in the digital wind, IMHO.

Persuasion & Influence

It has been said that the same strategies of persuasion were used by Hitler that were used by King, Kennedy & Ghandi.

But it has also said that you cannot get someone to do something against their will.

But you can get someone to will themselves to do something that they would otherwise consider very very wrong.

Watch as this British Broadcaster gets normal everyday British Citizens to rob a bank truck.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2272327115482460278&q=the+heist+derren

Traffics Dirty Secret

Are you aiding and abetting in a Crime?

Sorry to be so dramatic but have you ever thought about what the search engines do as their core business?

They provide results because of the content from your website.

Have you ever told them that they could do this? Of course not. But just like a crack whore on a Saturday night we want more of what they got. Gimme some Google traffic please. And I will give you some links and more content baby. "I'll link you really good for that traffic. YEAH!" lol

But think about it. What other company could take another persons publishing's and publish it for their own profit? They are using yours and my website for their content. Heck they even cache it.

But for those precious visitors we have turned a blind eye towards any accusations of our Copyrights being Infringed.

Death of a Spider?

But now a Belgium Court is now forbidding Google from indexing Belgian newspaper content without paying each newspaper for the use of their content. Kinda fries the whole system don't it?

The ruling requires Google to remove newspaper content from its search engine database . They must also publish “in a visible and clear manner and without any commentary ....the entire intervening judgment on the home pages of ‘google.be’ and of ‘news.google.be’ .

I think this is only the beginning. So what happens when the newspapers sue Google, and then find they no longer exist in the Google database at all! Is it their Divine Right to be in the Google Index?

We will see how this logic takes shape. Many up and coming content providers are sure to face these challenges. A case in point are the new Propsmart/Trulia type engines. They are using MLS content that they may scrape, get uploaded by agents, or they possibly upload themselves.

At some point we must ask where are the feeds coming from? Who owns it?

And won't it be interesting when Google scrapes the "scrapers" and not only de-positions the Real Estate Search engines in their normal Organic results. But also takes their data for Google Base?

Clearly these engines cannot exist based on brand name alone..After millions in seed Capital, I think I just gave some Angels a devilish reminder of what can very well happen in this Wild West we call the internet.

Is Your Email Geting Thru

Report Says 65% of your HTML Email Not "Read"
Nightmare looms!

A new study conducted by Epsilon says that 65% of e-mail users have encountered image suppression, where e-mail arrives in their inboxes without graphics displayed.

E-mail box providers are increasingly blocking HTML in their efforts to fight the transmission of viruses through e-mail: AOL, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft among them.

Putting a warning out to Christmas season Retailers:

“If you’re a retailer and you’re doing all-image e-mail, you’re in for a rude awakening in Q4,” Della Penna said. “All those valuable promotional efforts you’re putting together are not going to be seen by key prospects and customers.”

However, this is applicable to Online Realtors as many like to send the pretty graphics. The key is to write teasers that get the viewer to move onto your website for a compelling offer.

There is some good news: 69% of e-mail users who have encountered image suppression said they at least sometimes activate images in statements or order forms from senders from whom they’ve bought, Epsilon’s survey determined. Also, 57% said they at least sometimes activate images in promotional e-mail from senders from whom they have bought, according to Epsilon.

SEO Training

A big part of our success has been to look outside of the Real Estate Industries' online  hype and find successful online businesses to mimick.

Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon (of Stomper Fame) have released a 2+ hours of case study interviews in 7 different niches. Even a father son team that are #1 for 'Sprint Cell Phones.' A very competitive phrase.

Real businesses with real results. All attributed to Brad and Andy's blueprint and 'little club'. Get on their early notification list on page 21.They already have 19,000 on the early opt in list.

Mark my words... many people will be 'scrambling' to make changes after they read the revealing
PDF Report that Andy & Brad have just made public.

Read it for yourself here:

http://http.vitalstreamcdn.com/smartmarketing_vitalstream_com/stompernet/helpmelearn/stompernet.pdf

Cheers,

Tim O'Keefe

Blogs Explained

Real Estate Blogs

The Cyber Society is featuring an interview they did with me on the subject of real estate blogs.

The talk goes into detail about how and why to blog. It could have gone much deeper though. A good interview if you are looking for a beginner lesson.

9.11 Part 2

Earlier I mentioned Tony Robbins. Little did I know that I would find this link to a Tony Robbins video.

If you are a tad glum over memories of this event. Or if you want some great education then this video will surely satisfy you. I haven't even watched it yet. I wanted to get it on as soon as possible for you. But I know that this guy has a way to frame events that make one see things in new ways.

What happened was Tony had a Seminar planned on 9/11/01. He decided to go on anyway and helped people change their lives.The talk is called "Negotiating Conflict: Leadership in Times of Crisis".