From REALTOR® Content Resource:
Not the double whammy.
Your clients’ home being burglarized while they’re on vacation would be a total downer. If they also work from a home office, they’d probably suffer the mother of all stress headaches.
Spare clients that post-vacation pain by branding, printing, and hand delivering free info on how to do a home office security check from the REALTOR® Content Resource.
That’s not the only free, ready-to-go article at the REALTOR® Content Resource you can hand deliver (or post to Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or website; email; or add to your e-newsletter). Share all five articles in the “Keep Your Home Safe While You’re on Vacation” article package, or find others by searching the REALTOR® Content Resource by keyword or topic.
The REALTOR® Content Resource is brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. With it, you can download free home ownership content from HouseLogic to your marketing materials.
HouseLogic is a comprehensive consumer website—from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®—geared to helping home owners make smart decisions to enhance, maintain, and protect the value of their home.
Subhi J. Gharbieh
By Subhi J. Gharbieh
It is very obvious that the Internet has drastically changed the way we do business as REALTORS®. According to the 2010 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 99 percent of buyers started their home search online.
With that said, all the media that we display online can have a great say in whether a buyer will call you about viewing a listing, or not.
I recently shot my first video tour on a listing I have here in Dallas, and let me say: It was quite an experience. I learned many things that I wish I would have known before I was actually in front of a camera.
Here are 5 tips to help you shoot a successful video tour:
- Plan ahead. Make sure the weather is great on the day you record your video. You want it to be clear that you are a REALTOR® touring your listing, not a weatherman/woman out in the middle of a thunderstorm.
- Make sure the property will show well in a video. Staging the home if it is vacant will do wonders. Make sure the home is landscaped, neat, and tidy. You don’t want your viewers to catch any dirty socks on the floor while your showing the master bedroom!
- Mentally walk through the house and take notes on what you are going to say before the camera is rolling. It will make you sound a lot more professional, and people will notice it. Consult with your client. Ask them why they bought their home. Why they chose to live in the specific area. Talk about nearby parks, lakes, shopping, etc. Market the lifestyle of living in that specific area. Don’t just wing it!
- Have the video professionally edited. If you cannot do that, download a video editing software and do it yourself. There are many simple video editing programs available online and are fairly easy to use.
- Last but not least, BRAND YOURSELF! There is no point in producing a video tour if your viewers are not going to know who made the video, and who to contact to view the home if they are interested! Start a YouTube Channel and post your videos. There are also many other sites that can help you syndicate your video to the world.
Subhi J. Gharbieh is the broker owner of Gharbieh & Associates in Dallas. Connect with him at www.Gharbieh.com or on Twitter @subhig.
TG Gallaudet
By TG Gallaudet
I first became in tune with the idea to outsource around the same time 4-Hour-Workweek became a hit. I assumed that if people could outsource their entire lives, then I could outsource most of our business systems and save millions, if not billions, at the same time. Although that reality didn’t come to perfect fruition, I have learned a lot, which I’d like to share.
Every YPNer knows what I’m talking about, but a quick definition just in case: By “outsourcing,” I mean using the Internet to post jobs on websites like elance.com, odesk.com, and others to get the global workforce to bid on your projects. Projects can consist of virtually anything — from mundane data entry tasks, to designing beautiful and unique brochures, or providing full time administrative assistance. Aside from cost savings and quick turn around times (compared to using a local firm), it’s also a great way to delegate work.
Here are some personal examples:
- We just revamped our listing presentation and used a graphic designer in Peru to create powerful graphics that dramatically enhance our presentation. She turned my words into brilliant graphics, which enhance our presentation and message by roughly 1000 percent.
- Through outsourcing, we’ve updated all of our print marketing to have consistent branding across everything we publish: postcards, property fliers, business cards, note cards, and personal brochures. All are printed through online printing services.
An important point is that you must find the outsourcing person or team that best fits your needs. Work with a few different providers at first and determine which aspects of the relationship are most important to you, then focus on finding a provider with those attributes and don’t settle until you’re 100 percent satisfied. Finding the right person will produce better and quicker results over time.
A few lessons learned: Continue reading »
Know any true football fanatics? You know, the normally mild-mannered dudes and dudettes who’ll hurl their official autographed football through the wall if their beloved team loses in this Sunday’s Super Bowl? Help them mend their broken hearts—and their drywall—by posting the free REALTOR® Content Resource article “Repair Walls to Give Rooms a Fresh Face” to your blog, Facebook status, or Twitter feed.
That’s not the only free, ready-to-go article at the REALTOR® Content Resource that you can post online, add to your website or e-newsletter, or print as a handout. Check out the other three articles in the “The Super Bowl-Ready Home” theme, or just do an easy search of the REALTOR® Content Resource by keyword or topic.
While you’re tooling around the REALTOR® Content Resource, log in daily to enter the REALTOR® Build-Your-Business Sweepstakes, featuring a monthly drawing for an iPad and a weekly drawing for a $150 Visa gift card.
The REALTOR® Content Resource is brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. With it, you can download free home ownership content from HouseLogic to your marketing materials. HouseLogic is the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® comprehensive consumer website geared to helping home owners make smart decisions to enhance, maintain, and protect the value of their home.
Don’t miss your chance to win an iPad or $150 Visa gift card in the REALTOR® Build-Your-Business Sweepstakes. Just log into the REALTOR® Content Resource daily with your NRDS ID and submit the entry form to be eligible for the monthly drawings for an iPad and weekly drawings for a $150 Visa gift card.
While you’re there, view the just-released video that walks you through the enhancements that let you to share free home ownership articles with consumers via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail directly from the REALTOR® Content Resource.
The REALTOR® Content Resource, brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, is an exclusive member benefit that entitles you to download free home ownership content from HouseLogic to your marketing materials. Besides simple sharing of articles with your social network, the enhancements allow you to search more easily for content by themes (formerly “Collections”) or keywords.
HouseLogic is the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® comprehensive consumer Web site geared to helping home owners make smart decisions to enhance, maintain, and protect the value of their home.
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
Agents will often ask me to check out their real estate website. They want to know how it looks, do I like it and are they doing it right? I love when I get to peek into an agent’s website and get a glimpse of what is important to them. Many agents opt for a template site – and that can be okay, as long as the site has a few key elements. I like to see that the agent has some control over the site, too: content, placement, headers, page titles and link structure – but mostly content. You can have the most search engine optimized site out there but, if you content stinks, the consumer won’t stay long. Bonus for fresh content, because we know how much Google loves fresh content. Here is my “must have” list:
1. I want to see “search for homes” or something similar on the first page, right in front of me. I see so many sites that bury the home search behind pages and pages of pointless content. Consumers expect to be able to search for homes on your real estate website. Keep it front and center. Two other things that would be so great: keep your home search unencumbered. Don’t make me fill out a resume before I can see what homes are available in my desired school district. Just let me search on my own. And, secondly, please give me all the listings. Not just yours, your office or your company listings. I want them all.
2. Give me market snapshots – there are tons of cool tools that will help you do this … Altos, Top Producer, or do your own through your MLS data. I want to know what the market is doing in the area where I am buying or selling. Give me data. Continue reading »
Jessica Hickok
By Jessica Hickok
Nothing is more frustrating than when you can’t find the inspiration to update your social media statuses or knock out that blog post. I have spent many nights staring at a blank computer screen trying to search deep within myself to write something engaging for my blog readers. That’s because I’m a REALTOR®, not a writer.
But everyone says that blogging is so important for your real estate career and that it’s “so easy to do.” While I do agree with the first part of that, I believe the second part I can only partially agree with.
However, I do have some tips for finding that blogging inspiration you need:
1.) Scan your RSS feed reader headlines as if they are questions. Write your post as a response to the article you just read. This also creates great link juice for that original article you read.
2.) Flip open a magazine and scan the table of contents. Take a magazine headline and replace it with your own. For example: a magazine article reads “Computer Help 911”. Change it to “Short Sale Help 911.” Use it to write about how you are working a short sale transaction and share the tips you use to save a dying deal. Continue reading »
By G. M. Filisko, contributing writer, HouseLogic
Have you met your prospecting goals for the month? Drop in on potential clients and customers and encourage them to tackle minor but money-saving or big-impact home upgrades over Memorial Day weekend.
Show them how with the May “Weekend Warrior” bundle now available at the REALTOR® Content Resource, the new tool brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, where your NAR membership entitles you to download free homeownership content in your consumer Web site, blog, or e-newsletter.
The “Weekend Warrior” bundle includes tips on projects sellers can conquer in just a weekend like saving energy on water heaters. Here are just a few of the tips available now at the REALTOR® Content Resource:
Turn down the temperature. Many water heaters come from the factory with the temperature set needlessly high. For every 10 degrees sellers turn it down, they’ll save 3 percent to 5 percent on their bill, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). A setting between 120-140 degrees is plenty hot for most uses. But sellers shouldn’t go below 120 degrees, which could lead to the unsafe growth of bacteria inside the tank.
Install low-flow fixtures. One of the surest ways to cut hot water costs is to use less of it. According to ACEEE, a family of four uses 700 gallons of hot water per week. By installing low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators, which cost as little as $10-$20 each, sellers can cut hot water consumption by 25 percent to 60 percent. These devices are easy to install and will save 14,000 gallons of hot water annually, plus the energy it takes to heat it. By cutting water consumption in half, sellers will save more than $200 annually.
Demonstrate your knowledge as an expert on home value by using these tips to educate sellers about this relatively easy—but money-saving—upgrade to their home. If sellers have already made changes to their water heater, share tips on exterior lighting, inspecting and maintaining their garage, and fast gutter fixes, all of which are also part of the “Weekend Warrior” bundle.
The REALTOR® Content Resource, the new tool brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, is an exclusive, free benefit for NAR members. HouseLogic is the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® no-topic-left-uncovered consumer Web site geared to helping home owners make smart decisions to maintain, protect, and increase the value of their home.
Nobu Hata
By Nobu Hata
I was just getting used to the concept of sharing my Facebook status with folks other than my family and friends when Twitter came along a couple years back.
Then came 2009; the year of the citizen journalist; the year near-instantaneous sharing of events, pictures, and Web-links with your friends/family/clients/anyone in general became the new norm. It was the year Twitter went from being a “thing” to a verb, akin to Facebooking and Googling. It was the year Twitter broke into mainstream use, and it’s not looking back.
On deck for 2010? With the recent proclamation of Foursquare.com as the “Next Big Thing,” the broadening use of social media outlets as an initial consumer search tool, the recent additions of Twitter “tweets” and Facebook “status updates” in Google/Bing search returns and the expectation of the new-consumers’ need for immediate communiques, it’s clear: the time is now for the use of real-time, hyper-localized use of social media as a business tool.
Essentially, what you did/saw/read today isn’t as relevant anymore as what you ARE and WILL BE doing/seeing/perusing right now, and it’s that concept that will rule in 2010. Foursquare (for example) linked to Twitter and Facebook helps you share just that. So, how else will we need to address this new mind-set shift?
Empower yourself. Get to know how the newbies Foursquare and Gowalla – upstarts that are driving this new real-time/hyper localized mentality — work. Learn how they integrate with your Twitter and Facebook profiles on both your laptop and mobile phone, it’s literally as simple as starting an account. It’s the power of these updates that will rule this new social media landscape.
Real-time relevant content. Content is still king, and relevancy of that content goes hand in hand with it. Become the “Mayor,” a la Foursquare, of your open house and link it to Facebook status updates. Rave about a new listing you previewed on Twitter and Gowalla and link it to your Facebook Fan Page. Become a neighborhood specialist by touting the newest restaurant or shop by “checking in” and giving a shoutout while there — better yet, partner with that business and raise the presence of both yours and theirs online. Add a Twitter feed (perhaps one comprised strictly of new listings once active, complete with hashtags?) to your website and link it all together for SEO happiness. The development of these tools opens a world of opportunity to reach our to friends, fans, and peers in real-time.
Don’t panic. Many of the SM rules still apply: know your audience/demographic, determine the all-important type of message and frequency of broadcasting that will apply to them, then follow through. Treat it like an old-fashioned marketing campaign — seriously! — and don’t over-complicate it.
Be mindful of the noise you’re making. Unless your friends, fans, clients, and prospects like hearing about your real estate biz 24/7, (chances are, they won’t) don’t over-do it. While, there’s no better CRM tool than social-media, listening, interacting, and watching for behavior change is going to be the best way to use these tools. If not, we better start watching for the “Death Knell of SM as a Business Tool” as the next big thing in 2011.
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.
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