RISMedia’s announced its 20th Annual Power Broker Survey.
Interestingly, the total number of transactions down from 2,754,618 in 2006 to 2,322,210 in 2007. On average, real estate firms did over 1,100 less transactions in 2007 compared to 2006. Total sales volume in 2007 was down more than $100 billion, from $855,755,959,352 in ‘06 to $749,201,552,294 in ‘07.
Marketing is to a large degree about positioning. Redfin claims advantage over their competition. Their Unique Position seems to be superior savings . So they did a customer survey and found:
What are you doing to Position
I love politics. Say that word Republican and Democrat in civil company and people run for the hills. As a student of marketing that is pathetic. Hopefully, as a student of marketing most of us are open to studying the greatest marketers.
....& The Orgy of Free
I offer you two videos today on getting a free real estate blog and then follow up with a rant on Free Blogs, Websites, Social Networking and well anything....
Free.
Part I
Part II
The site mentioned is part of a course that we are about to launch called
Get a Cheap Real Estate Blog
Forgive my indulgence as I humbly link you to an article that mentions yours truely.
The piece in the Chicago Tribune Real Estate section considers the modern real estate conversation from the barbershop of yore to the modern digital blog.
Thanks to my Chicago Realtor friend David Weiss who gave me the introduction to the writer of the Chicago Tribune article.
The only downside is that I am from L.A., not San Diego as the article says. Not that Diego is a bad place to be.
Agents keep the conversation going
A billboard near the intersection of I-55 and Kingery Highway outside Willowbrook tells a lot -- by what it doesn't say -- about how the real estate business is changing. The sign, advertising Wexford Homes at Stonebridge Woods in Homer Glen, touts the Web address for the development, but offers no phone number.
If you cannot get the article you can download the real estate article here.
Well, I have been called Fred Flintstone, and now a "dinosaur mentality on steroids".
Seems Joe Zekas over at postingforleads.com has me figured as a modern day Buddy Holly trying to sing Nirvana. It seems that the internet is too sophisticated for selling. (are you tired of the metaphors already?)
Its a nice dialogue where even a self professed investor chimes in with his opinions.
I just received an email and it may be a great opportunity for you if you are a major producer and...
The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends, Inc. are asking for your assistance with an important national project. We are working with leading national real estate organizations, state and local Associations of Realtors, leading regional and local real estate brokerage firms and leading sales professional coaching and training firms to identify the leading individual real estate sales professionals and professional teams in America . Some of the qualifications are only those individuals who closed more than 75 sides or $30 million in closed sales volume should be submitted. We believe that only those sales team with more than 125 sides or $50 million in closed sales volume should be submitted. Why should you care? You have the opportunity to get your name into a national stage which can only lead to good things. The rankings are planned to appear in The Wall Street Journal, Saturday November 11, 2006, at the time of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) convention in New Orleans .
These top sales professionals will also be featured in lore Magazine in the issue to be released at the NAR convention. Should you have any questions or would like an application sent via e-mail please contact realtrends at 303-741-1000 or dstufft@realtrends.com When you fill out an ap and send it in to realtrends, please copy it to us at tim@spiderjuicetechnologies.com, and we will seriously consider interviewing and putting you on a forthcoming site soon to launch called Interview with Real Estate Experts.
What is everyone else doing? Do the Opposite!
We as people, and henceforth realtors and agents tend to be sheep. I think I have even coined us as sheople in an earlier post.
What do I mean? Well we often will follow the "wisdom of crowds" without thought of consequence. Instead of finding and then doing what the very best online marketers do. Often times we make judgements based on what the majority is doing. Unfortunately, the majority does 6 home buying or listing sides a year. The full article
Blogging, Websites, lead capture vs open MLs.
I can't tell you how many times a day I hear an agent or an "expert" espouse the virtues of the empowered consumer and that it really is a benefit to leave the MLS open VS forcing them to opt-in.
The biggest excuse is that the consumer will just move-on to another website.
Hmm. Lots of responses come to mind for that one:
"Whose fault is that?"
The MLS has systematically been given away by NAR itself and boards since the beginning of the net.
"So what"
Serious people do not mind giving away some personal information for the data they want. Blogs are growing at a blistering pace where anyone with a thought can publish. Do you want to see the future? Just go to MySpace. What a mess of disjointed and frenetic text. Remember the line, "57 Channels and nothing on?" Yah. The net is Cable TV on Steroids.
The future of the internet is paid content. People, will not mind paying for content from sources they trust, because they want the information they can trust. When you have a medium where anyone with Frontpage and some time can start a business, it makes it more time consumptive to get what you want. Thus, people do not mind giving their information.
I have driven millions of consumers to my own and my client websites. They all get a phenomenal lead conversion rate.
Real Estate Control Freaks
At the end of the day, a forced opt-in is about control.
Control over your business, your website and your future. The money is in your list of prospects that come from your blog, your website and IDX VOW websites.
Control is from you communicating your message to an opt in list. It comes from knowing the point of your real estate blog, or your realty website. In my opinion that is to gather names. Lots and lots of names. So that can talk with those names on your terms.
As Online Marketers it is crucial to understand that nature of the internet search.
By its nature of the internet searcher is to research online and buy offline.
Read that again.
By its nature of the internet searcher is to research online and buy offline.
This is evidenced by recent studies showing that 87.3% of consumers say they regularly or occasionally research products online before making a purchase in a store. This isn't real estate but human nature is human nature.
Our jobs as online home marketers is to respect that the serfer is using your data with the overt or covert intent of purchasing offline. And to jump in their path and say I have the info you wish to research, and your name and email is the minimal charge of admittance.
Here is the irony. They couldn't buy the home from you online anyway. So the purpose of the real estate website is to start a courtship that is instagated via the lead registration.
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