Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
What was hot online in 2009?
1. Google LOVES Facebook Fan Pages. Have you set one up for your real estate business? You should – trust me on this… no one wants to see your business on your personal Facebook page. Setting up a Fan Page is a fast and fun way to share your business information, listings, real estate news, blog posts, photos and more with people who want to see what you’re up to in the real estate world. Set up your page, start posting and begin gathering fans. You should post your listings, real estate news and information from reputable sources, interesting and informative blog posts – yours or someone else’s – local blogs would be best, and post photos and videos of your listings and the areas you work in everyday. Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages and click on +Create Page to get started. You can build your page out before activating it for the Facebook universe. And this is so great – Facebook gives you some basic stats on your “fans” – click on the “Ads & Pages” icon on the lower left (next to Facebook Applications) when you are logged in to see your fan page statistics.
2. Are you taking video? Why not?!! YouTube was the second largest search engine this year. The second!!! You NEED to be shooting video right now. Good thing for you it’s so easy to do these days! Hopefully you put a Flip Video camera on your holiday wish list… the Flip cams are super easy to use and come with software that makes editing and posting online easy peasy. Also important… invest in a tripod. Please don’t make us queasy as we try to watch your listing video. In this case, practice really does make perfect. You can even practice at you own house. Play around until you feel comfortable, turn all of the lights on, speak loudly and clearly and move slower than you think you should. Shooting your video in segments is always a good idea – you can stitch the segments together while editing. Once you feel good about it, sign up for a free YouTube account and create your own channel!
3. Twitter exploded in 2009. Are you tweeting your listings and more? Twitter is a necessary evil. You should be on Twitter and tweeting three to four times a day about your business. Tweet your listings, links to all things real estate, what you are up too… Follow local people – many of the people you follow will follow you back if you seem interesting enough. Twitter can grow your online network insanely fast. Begin networking with locals that follow you on Twitter, consider attending local Tweetups in your area and take the online conversation offline at an alarming pace. Continue reading »
Jessica Hickok
By Jessica Hickok
As in every job, there are difficult tasks that you have to take on. One of the difficult tasks that we face as REALTORS® is telling a seller that their house is overpriced and that they need to make a reduction in order to get it sold. However, you can make this job easier taking the following action steps:
- Documentation. Sure, this one is easy because we’ve heard it a million times. Do your homework and show the actual market analysis and really study the comparables. Especially the U/C’s and Solds in the last six months. Know the data inside and out and then show your seller the facts on paper. It’s hard for anyone to ignore the data and the facts when they are staring them in the face.
- Don’t use the economy as an excuse. Actually, don’t use any excuse or apology when advising your seller to lower their list price. Oftentimes people feel like they need to apologize to soften the blow. You have nothing to apologize for, because it is what it is. Give the facts and stand firm in it. You didn’t create the market conditions.
- And lastly, stay in contact with your seller. Don’t let several weeks go by without being in touch with them. When you are constantly in contact updating your seller, it will be easier to ask for the price reduction. Keep in contact with your sellers via e-mail, text messages, Facebook and/or short phone calls just to say hello and give a quick update.
So swallow the frog while it is still a small tadpole. Be proactive in research, make no apologies for doing your job and keep in contact. It’s been stated that one of the big pet peeves a seller has is that their real estate practitioner doesn’t let them know what’s going on. The bottom line is that your sellers will respect you for doing your job.
Jessica Hickok, a self-proclaimed blogging- and Twittering-fanatic, is with Dizmang Properties in Springfield, Mo. Visit Jessica’s blog: www.jessicahickok.com.
Patricia Kennedy
By Patricia Kennedy
Last week, I found myself packing for the most amazing vacation I’ve taken in years, maybe ever: three weeks on the beaches of Maui with a man who makes my heart skip beats every time I look at him, and a convertible. As I was packing, it occurred to me how Type-A I have become over the last few years. I mean, look at the stuff I brought:
- Strappy sandals – check
- Bathing suits – check
- SPF 50 sunscreen – check
- Shorts and t-shirts – check
- MacBook Air (with contract writing software) – check
- Kindle – check
- iPhone – check
- Digital cameras – check
- Snorkeling equipment – check
- Battery packs and chargers for items 5 through 8 above – check
With all of these miracles of modern technology, I can be away and still be connected to my clients.
But wait. This picture is out of focus!
So often, real estate practitioners try to get away to recharge and refresh, only to make themselves crazy by trying not to lose a single deal while they are away. So, why even bother to take the trip?
Before I left, I decided that this trip would be different. I called all of my clients to let them know I’d be gone, and that a trusted colleague was on call to cover any real estate emergency that might arise. And guess what? Most of them were headed out of town as well!
I will be checking my e-mail a couple of times a day and answering my phone when it rings — on the iPhone in the convertible. But by and large, I’ve been able to disconnect temporarily from my Washington, D.C. real estate practice. And I am really fortunate to have two highly professional colleagues watching out for me.
And, of course, it’s much easier knowing that Mother Nature dumped a couple of feet of snow on my market area, thereby diminishing any desire any of my clients might have to go look at property!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the gorgeous beaches of Maui!
Patricia Kennedy is an associate broker with Evers & Company Real Estate.Visit Pat’s blog: www.housepat.activerain.com.
Brian Copeland
By Brian Copeland
Thousands of REALTORS® are making the choice, consciously and unconsciously, to add Lady Gaga, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Jimmy Buffett to their business plans. In fact, Americans as a whole are consuming ringback tones as a personal and business medium to the tune of over $235 million in 2009 (BMI).
I don’t want to assume that everyone knows the term “ringback;” so, quickly, it’s what you hear when you are calling someone’s phone. Usually it’s a popular song and shouldn’t be confused with a “ringtone” which is what you hear when your phone rings.
Ringbacks can either be a great connection point with a consumer/another agent or a kiss of death for your business. If you want to personalize your phone this way in your business, move forth with caution. I personally love ringbacks; so, please don’t hear me be all “yuck, yuck, unprofessional.”
© J0hnb0y | Dreamstime.com
Pros:
1. You can really connect well with a demographic with the correct choice. If you have a specific niche market, ringbacks can screen the correct demographic you want to reach.
2. Ringbacks can place the caller in a better mood or relax them prior to your conversation. When I’ve used ringbacks, DAILY I answered the phone and the caller was literally singing along. After brief laughter, they always complimented my song choice, and we had a good 30 second chat about that commonality.
3. They set a fun tone. REALTORS® often get bum wraps as overly serious, negotiating freaks. As you’re getting that call from your cooperating agent on a deal, it may just put them in the mood you need them to be in.
Cons:
1. You may isolate a clientele. I was calling a service provider recently, and he had “Margaritaville” on his ringback. I immediately thought, “Me and this guy are not going to gel.” I hung up and chose another service provider. Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
Hashtags are everywhere on the Web right now.
During last week’s RE BarCamp Atlantic City and the Triple Play 2009 REALTOR® Convention and Trade Expo, anyone in attendance could follow along and get messages via the virtual map created by the #REBCAC and #TP09 hashtags. Attendees, presenters, and vendors were using these hashtags when posting information, photos, and videos online so that even those who were not in attendance could follow along. The #TP09 hashtag offered (and continues to offer) a view inside the conference — with bits of info from those tweeting about their class, sharing photos from the different events and video from the convention floor, or just offering up their PowerPoint slide deck for the benefit of the group. As the old saying goes… information is everywhere, you just need to know where to look.
Hashtags are a beautiful thing. So, what exactly are they?
Well, if you blog, you tag your post with certain words that identify what your post is all about. Hashtags work in much the same way. When you tweet about something, you can use a hashtag to tie your update to others that share the same tag. For example, if I were to tweet something the presenter said in my Triple Play class that I thought was truly great and must be shared – I could use the #TP09 hashtag to tie my single tweet to those of all the other Triple Play folks.
Not on Twitter? Not a problem! Go to http://search.twitter.com/ to see the posts and get an idea of what you missed. The hashtag also allows me to tag my photos and videos from the event when I upload them to my photo and video sites.
Hashtags can be used for any topic. Find out what hashtags are trending at http://hashtags.org/.
Most of you are familiar with tagging from your social networking on Facebook, where you can be tagged in a photo, video or note. This tag works in much the same way, the person tagging you is associating you with the post.
You can also geo-tag a post — adding geographical information to your update, photo or video. Geo-tagging shows the location of your post. In late November, Twitter enabled geo-location functionality – go to Settings, then on the Account tab, click on the “Enable Geo-tagging.” This will only work with third-party applications and not on twitter.com itself.
So, can’t make it to the next big real estate conference or RE BarCamp? Just follow the tags! You will be amazed at what you can learn.
Stefanie Hahn is the education director for Coldwell Banker Hearthside, REALTORS® in Willow Grove, Pa. Visit her Web site: www.StefanieHahn.com.
Nobu Hata
By Nobu Hata
It’s amazing how far one SPAMer or MLMer can get just by friending a couple people on Facebook. We Facebook users glance at friend invites blindly accepting those with one or two commonalities, notably a common friend.
There was someone on my friends list who I will call “Kevin.”
Dear Kevin,
We’re “friends” right? – And for that I commend you. It was an annoyance once realized, I hid your posts, ignored your request for me to join your group. I chose to keep you around to study your use of social media mostly to be sure that it was the wrong way to do it. That’s what “friends” are for, right?
But you hit up my wife on FB Kevin, asking how she was affiliated with “Minnesota Real Estate” just because she had become a fan of a real estate page of my peers. Then I found you had managed to befriend an actual friend of mine by scooping him up from my personal fan page. (He has no idea who you are, thought you were a friend of mine!) I fear that you’re doing that to EVERYONE on these pages and that isn’t acceptable to me, nor any of the folks running these pages.
You see, the term “friend” is loosely used nowadays with the widespread use of social media, but just because we have a couple common “friends” doesn’t mean they’re any “friend” of yours. What you did, trolling real estate fan pages and reaching out for some semblance of commonality with fellow “fans” in an effort to convert them to leads for your real estate scheme, is akin to SPAM. And using other practitioners’ legitimate, organically grown fan pages and pilfering their fans as a vehicle for your prospecting without permission is just plain wrong.
So in an effort to steer you back on track, I’ve got some pointers:
Keep in mind that you’re not allowed to sell any thing or services on personal pages, check out Facebook’s policy on personal pages for yourself. Start yourself a fan page to legitimately sell your real estate pyramid scheme. Drive people there through Twitter.
As you’re trolling Facebook looking for – ahem – prospects, please feel free to use other incorrectly used personal pages as a tool. You know which pages I mean: those with the posed-mug-shot as an avatar with the term “Real Estate guru” being used in every other sentence. Those guys will, most likely, have the same social media business practice as you do – ta da! – commonality.
Once you find a page to pilfer, do the decent thing and ask the page’s owner for permission to do so. Permission-based sales extends to other sales people too you know. How novel. Take my fan page for instance: If asked, I would’ve told you to take a long walk off a short pier before I’d ever let you or anyone solicit any of my fans, clients, or in this case family. Most practitioners would agree. You were able to wrangle an actual real-life friend of mine thinking you and I were real-life friends, that’ll end today.
As you find a prospect, take 5 minutes to read their wall. Believe me, those willing to accept your sales approach will say so in the information provided there. Take another 5 minutes to take it in, listening, as it were. That’s what you do in social media. If what they “say” doesn’t jive with your approach, don’t friend that person.
Really, I would ask that you drastically rethink what you’re doing. I don’t want you and I to get involved in any potentially sticky representation issues. Plus practices like this are the reason why many see social media and sales is akin to SPAM and sales, so please stop ruining this for those of us trying to do the former, ok? I would ask you over for a beer to chat about this, but I don’t think we’re that close. Right?
Sincerely,
Nobu
Nobu Hata is a sales associate for Edina Realty in Minneapolis, and a founding member of the Minneapolis YPN group, the YoPros. Visit his Web site at www.nobuhata.com.
Jeremy Williams
By Jeremy Williams
You work hard to add content to your blog so why not allow all that great content to be shared to the masses. Two of the biggest social media platforms right now are Facebook and Twitter. Millions have chosen to get connected whether socially or for business networking purposes. Sharing your blog with Facebook and Twitter users is easy with just some simple html.
First you will want to create jpg buttons containing the following text: Share on Facebook, retweet, and tweet this. You will want to save these buttons on a site like Flickr or Photobucket so that the image will have an http reference. Once you have the buttons created you can copy and paste them into your blog. For this exercise you can reference my blog at www.activerain.com/blogs/williams4yourhome.
Now you will need to make the buttons in your blog a link to carry out the specific actions. Here is the html for each action that allows content to be shared with Facebook and Twitter users.
Share on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=”link of blog post to be shared”
Retweet – http://twitter.com/home?status=RT%”link of blog post to Retweet”
tweet this – http://twitter.com/home?status=”link of blog post to tweet”
Allowing your blog content to be easily shared among Facebook and Twitter users is a powerful way to reach the masses. The more informative or interesting the blog post, the more likely people that read will share it among their Facebook friends and Twitter groups. Gain exposure through this viral means of social media marketing. More exposure allows for opportunities to develop relationships, which can lead to developing potential home buying and home selling clients. Start sharing…
Jeremy Williams of Keller Williams Realty NE in Kingwood, Texas specializes in the residential real estate market of Kingwood, Atascocita, and Humble, Texas. Visit his Web site at www.williams4yourhome.com.
Brian Copeland
By Brian Copeland
Dear Santa,
When I was 4 years old, I asked for an Easy Bake Oven. You brought me some Garanimal outfits. When I was 8, you obliged my request for a Glo Worm with that cowboy comforter set my brother wanted.
Each year, you have threatened me that if I wasn’t good, I wouldn’t get my gift. When I did exactly as you said, I didn’t get what I wanted. Dude, what are you? Some kind of kids’ terrorist?
Now, I’m in my 30s and feel like I can take up for myself; so, here’s what my people and I want for 2010, BUDDY!
1. Appraisal Coupon Book: I bust my tail to make sure I’m pricing these homes correctly, then my value is questioned, making me look like an idiot. Just make me a coupon book of 30 to 60 coupons that I can give to the bank that says, “Trust me. It’s worth what I advised my clients to price it.”
2. A Seller Brain-Altering Device: The hour I spent explaining pricing and market to my evening listing appointment peeps could have been spent watching “Glee,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” or “The Office.” After talking ‘til I was blue in the face about the importance of price, they still wanted to price in 2006’s sellers market with that most-dreaded statement: “But our house is special and different from all those others.” If the device could be iPhone compatible or at least have a USB plug, that would make it very convenient to alter their brains a bit more easily.
3. Anthony Gilardi and Kim Myles In A Box: A 24-hour handyman and home designer from HGTV at my constant disposal would make my job SO much easier this year. Knock them off of HGTV and bring them to my office in Nashville.
4. Food and Lodging for Anthony and Kim: Ooops…I’m not feeding and housing them, by the way.
5. An E-mail/Phone Call Solicitation Crystal Ball: I spend at least 30 minutes a day on the phone or e-mail with someone promising to “Make me #1 on Google,” “Bring me #1 placement on magical website” or “Get my fancy calendar and postcard into more consumers mailboxes.” This crystal ball should screen those calls and only connect me to the real deals that will make me $52 bazillion dollars over the next 12 months.
6. World Peace: Sandra Bullock in “Miss Congeniality” proved that if you ask for this, no matter how bad circumstances get, you still win. If you can’t bring me world peace, then at least get that one agent who keeps shooting me 50 percent off offers to pick up a few REALTOR® designations and learn how to peacefully, win-win negotiate.
Santa, thanks for understanding. I know the economy has been tough and times have changed. The days of me giving my client what I think they want and need are over; so, the days of you giving ME what you think I need and want have also ended. See you in a few days.
– Brian
(From left) Garanimal outfit, Santa, and brother who got the cowboy comforter set.
P.S. If I had an Easy Bake oven, I’d have a way to bake you some cookies. I see organic rice cakes in your future, Big Guy.
Brian Copeland is a REALTOR® in Nashville, Tennessee. You can check out his websites at nashvilleandbeyond.com and brian-copeland.com.
By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor
Three exceptionally talented and highly involved YPN chapters were in the running for 2009 Chapter of the Year: Houston, Missouri, and Minneapolis. All three took on creative planning to grow membership and provided constructive networking and educational opportunities for young real estate professionals.
(From left) YoPro members Erin Sullivan Milburn, Karen Tobler, Nobu Hata, Kimberly Koehler, and Kelly O'Neil celebrate as Minneapolis is awarded YPN Chapter of the Year.
In the end, the Minneapolis YoPros took home the title to become the first-ever YPN Chapter of the Year. The group was presented with the Chapter of the Year trophy during the YPN event at the 2009 NAR Conference and Expo in San Diego on Nov. 13.
“When it came down to deciding who should win the YPN Chapter of the Year Award, it was a very difficult decision,” said YPN Manager Rob Reuter. “The Minneapolis YoPros were already a well-established chapter and showed how far a YPN chapter can really go.”
The YoPros began meeting in mid-2008 and were formally inducted as a YPN chapter with NAR in February 2009.
One of the most notable initiatives the YoPros have developed is their signature “Squaretable Meetings.” Described as “speed dating meets roundtable discussions,” the events consist of individual table presentations led by a real estate practitioner or industry professional who share their expertise to a small group of attendees. After 20 minutes, the group moves on to the next table of their choice, with topics ranging from technology to alternative financing, social media to governmental/legislative issues, and more.
“Strong communications and monthly YPN events and meetings are two big reasons for the success of the YoPros,” Reuter said. “They are even in the process of creating a YPN designation through their board.”
Nobu Hata, ePro, is a sales associate for Edina Realty in Minneapolis and a founding member of the YoPros. He is collaborating on the creation of the YoPros’ YPN designation. “We feel with the advent of new media and empowered consumers into our brick and mortar business, there are new policies, plus old-school practices, that need to be introduced and reinforced to help us be better advocates for our clients,” Hata said.
The group is putting together a curriculum of designation classes involving technology, ethics, fair housing, and best-practices. They hope to have the designation approved by this summer.
“What impressed me the most about them was their structure and their out-of-the-box thinking,” said Shannon Williams King, chair of the national YPN Advisory Board. “They have taken it beyond networking and social hours to provide educational opportunities for young real estate professionals. I’m excited for them.”
Hata, who was present during the Chapter of the Year announcement in San Diego, said he was in shock when the YoPros received the award. “What Missouri and Houston had done — what their members have been involved with — I thought had been significant,” Hata said. “I like to think that this award is shared amongst our three chapters, we’re all doing our part for the betterment of the industry.”
For newly-formed YPN chapters just getting their footing, Hata said that membership is key to success, and not to give up because YPN prospects are out there.
“What we’re doing — injecting new life into our industry — is slowly but surely shaping the way our industry works,” said Hata. “We finally have a voice; let’s use it.”
The Young Professionals Network (YPN) is a great place to connect with other real estate industry professionals. By getting involved or starting your own local chapter, you’ll create a bridge to many industry tools, resources, and networking events. For more information, or to download a chapter application, visit www.realtor.org/ypn.
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
I’ve heard it said that …
… “Life is all about who you know.”
But, I believe there is something even more important.
Who Knows You?
That’s right… who knows you is far more important than who you know. This may be one of the most valuable benefits of social media and quite possibly the one area that most people are missing. Social media is your opportunity to build and expand your brand awareness, but you don’t do this by friending just anyone that will accept your friend request.
Social Media isn’t a competition, there is no award given out to the one with the most friends and fans.
Too many people focus on the wrong things like, adding friends/fans and relentlessly broadcasting their message down the consumer’s throat.
If you are doing a good job being you, being authentic and being relevant, people will want to add you as a friend to expand their network! In other words, they will want to know you! Brooke did a great job with her recent post “Being Business Effective via Social Networking” when she explained the need to:
- Make yourself worth following
- Respond to your friends, fans, and followers
- Give to receive
Who Knows You?
Let’s think about this for a moment. We all love getting referrals and who gives us referrals? That’s right, people who know us give us referrals.
Here is a good article about using social media effectively to manage your online reputation. Social media can help you increase the number of people who know you. The more people who know you the greater your business will be.
Spend your time being relevant, adding value to others, leaving people and situations better than they were when you met them — and people will know you.
Drew Burks has built a brokerage in San Diego, Dream Design Realty, with a unique twist on an old business model. His Web site is devoted to helping real estate pros succeed with technology: www.WebRealEstateTools.com.
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