4 Tips to Update Your #MarketingPlan for 2011

1. Start telling potential clients what’s in it for them.

It’s great that you received awards, but what does that mean for your clients? For instance, instead of “Super Service Award Winner 10 Years in a Row” say, “Service—You can expect that I’ll do things for you like I did for the Jones’. They wanted a three bed, two bath home in a certain neighborhood. Unfortunately, there weren’t any for sale. So, I sent letters to each homeowner that met their criteria asking if they’d be willing to sell. Six months later, the Jones family was in their new home, in that neighborhood, in a house that was never formally on the market. Service like that garnered me the Super Service Award for 10 years in a row.” Illustrate how you’ve gone above and beyond to help your clients by telling a story. Don’t let consumers wonder what getting the “Super Service Award” means.

 

2. Put your Facebook URL anywhere you have your website.

If you have business cards, include your Facebook URL right under your website. It’s a simple tip, but one that will allow people to find you easily, connect with you, and allow you to essentially market to them over and over. This will also show prospects that you’ve incorporated social media into your business.

3. Call to action.

I know you’ve all heard this before, but do you have a call to action in your marketing material? Have you asked your prospects to contact you and do they know why they should? It can be as easy as saying, “If you’re not sure whether now is the time to buy or sell, contact me today. I will help determine the best route for you. There are many options available that you may be unaware of. Contact me today and let’s talk.”

4. You are marketing yourself.

Don’t forget your photo. I know that for a while it wasn’t in vogue to put your photo on marketing materials, but I still highly recommend it. You want people to know what you do because you want them to come to you when they’re ready to buy or sell. You might not know when they are in the market, so by making your photo and yourself available to them, and putting yourself out there, you have increased the chances that someone will contact you. Don’t forget this piece in your marketing.

 

to see the full article: http://bit.ly/e8F3fd

4 Simple Tips for Search Engine Optimization that Make a Big Difference

You may be surprised to find out that most web surfers find new sites that they visit through the popular search engines. This means that search engine optimization is definitely important to your business. Optimizing your site can bring in targeted visitors that may become customers at your website. If you want to learn how to optimize your website so you see a difference in your rankings and your website traffic, here are four simple tips that can help.

 

Tip #1 – Remember the Title Bar

The title bar is something that many people overlook when they are working on search engine optimization. You want to know what the title bar on your homepage says. Do you only have your company name or is this untitled? If so, you need to fix this area to include some of the most important keywords to your website. Make sure that the title bars change on different pages on your site as well. While you don’t want long strings of keywords, using about six words that include your keywords is a great way to make use of the title bar.

 

Tip #2 – Have Quality Content

Another important search engine optimization tip to remember is to have quality content on your website. The search engines are going to list sites first that offer great content. This means that instead of just having flashy graphics all over your website, you need to have good content. Usually having about 250 words on every page is great. If this isn’t possible, shoot to have about 100 words on the page. Make sure the content is well written as well and you should be including keywords in this content, which will be important to the search engines.

 

Tip #3 – Don’t Forget the Meta Tags

Although some people put too much importance on meta tags within search engine optimizations, meta tags are still important. There are some search engines that don’t pay attention to them, but they can still provide some help to you if you want to increase your rankings in the search engines. Make sure that applicable keywords go within these tags for the best results.

 

Tip #4 – Link Popularity

If you want to use search engine optimization to increase your rankings, link popularity is something that is becoming more and more important to the search engines. What you need is incoming links that come from other sites that are of high quality and they should be related in some way to the topic of your website as well. You may want to start link building if you don’t have a lot of links leading into your website. This can definitely begin bringing in more traffic when you have great link popularity.

 

These are just four simple tips that you can use for great search engine optimization. When used correctly they can help to increase your rankings. While they won’t do miracles, they can make a big difference, so make the effort to use these tips.

 

for the full article : http://bit.ly/fEeAbJ

Here is a little something funny you may love - 10 Things You’d Love to Say at Work … But Can’t

  1. I’ll try being nicer if you try being smarter
  2. I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet its hard to pronounce.
  3. I’ll pencil that in for never. Does never work for you?
  4. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.
  5. It sounds like English, but I can’t understand a word you’re saying.
  6.  Ahhh… I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again.
  7. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.
  8. I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don’t give a rip.
  9. I will always cherish the positive initial misconceptions I had about you.
  10. The fact that no one understands you doesn’t mean you are an artist.
To find the full article: http://bit.ly/eshTRz

#RealEstate Marketing and #SocialMedia

Less than a decade ago, the most popular way to search for houses on the market was through classified ads in the newspaper. Now that the popular search medium has changed over to the Internet, real estate professionals need to relearn marketing methods that will increase their sales. The best way to reach a large audience looking for real estate is through interactive and social media.

 

How Technology Can Influence Your Real Estate Marketing

Nowadays, when people want to find out information, they turn to the Internet to search for it. Potential clients are out there, but you need to figure out how to draw them in to your website.

 

Firstly, you need to update your website, since you may have outdated information. This not only adds to your professionalism, but it also keeps you from presenting false information regarding houses on the market. Once you have a site up and running, start researching and educating yourself on ways to market your products on the Internet through social media.

 

Interactive And Social Media In Real Estate Marketing

Social media refers to profiles, social networks like MySpace and Facebook, wikis and other ways to connect to people via the Internet.

 

In terms of marketing, you need to determine the kind of clients you deal with. What kind of consumers will be interested in buying the property? An apartment in a hip area might require a social networking page, or list a suburban home on your website and promote it with a blog or tools that allow visitors to refer it to a friend.

Interactive media is using content such as video, blogs and chatting to network with interested buyers and sellers. Use video instead of still photos so visitors to your web page can get a more complete view of the home. Combining video with textual content like blogging ensures that your site provides valuable real estate information in a creative and easy-to-use way.

 

Acreage Anywhere provides a global marketplace for vacant land ownership opportunities of all types. Featuring an easy-to-use vacant land search tool, streaming video tours of available communities and interactive mapping of many land developments. Easily find land for sale all over the country, whether you’re looking for ranches, rural properties, second homes or recreation properties.


Article from articlesbase.com

 

for the full article: http://bit.ly/eqDflN

3 Tools #Realtors Can Use to Increase Sales on the Web

Realtors are passionate people, especially about their relationship with customers. One of the ways that they connect with these customers today is through the use of social media, and the methods for doing so are, themselves, becoming much more varied and sophisticated.

Realtors are also dealing with much more savvy customers. Today, customers want to buy a house or refer a real estate agent to a friend on Twitter and Facebook and other platforms, and agents know they need to be there to provide an open door to customers and provide an authentic, unique experience along the way.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely already familiar with social media 101. So, what are some of the ways you can increase home sales with the latest tools? And, how can you reinvent the home buying experience in clever, innovative ways? Here are three recommendations and accompanying tools that will not only increase sales, but will enhance the overall customer experience and set you apart from the competition.

1. Use 360-Degree Panoramic Images

It’s easy to upload static, one-room images of homes without giving your customer any real knowledge of what the home actually looks like. Instead share true-to-life panoramic images of your properties.

360 Panorama, an iPhone app from Occipital,  allows you to do just that –- share rich, full images of properties that are stitched together in real-time without any photo-editing work on your part. You can easily share these images over social networks like Twitter and Facebook to give your customers a deeper glimpse into their next potential home.

The broader trend: Be a salesperson, but sell something real -- don’t just sell an idea. Easy-to-do panoramic images not only highlight the actual nature of the home, but give your customers a realistic expectation.

2. Be Transparent and Data-Driven With Charts and Graphs

Many people look online for an agent who knows the most about a given area or city. For realtors, it has become more about adding credibility while still making it easy for customers to get to and understand the information they need to make an informed, home buying decision.

There are plenty of chart making tools out there, but the one that I’ve found to be most useful is FusionCharts.

Combine this with data pulled from Zillow and Trulia APIs (or if you prefer, their widgets) and you have a deep, intelligent way to inform your customers on everything they need to know before making a purchase. Anything from the latest mortgage rates in their state to historical home prices by zip code or neighborhood.

The broader trend: Differentiate from the crowd by being known as the realtor who provides deep insights into what is, at times, a data-deluged market. By providing credibility-building information and sharing it via social networks, you’re providing a transparent view of your unique understanding and also educating your customers on everything they need to know.

3. Improve Listings With an Integrated Marketing Presence

You’re busy, and so is the marketplace. There are plenty of agents in your neighborhood today and all of them want to sell your customers a house. The problem is that none of “your” prospective customers can find out what they need to know without you. So, how can you make finding a house as easy as possible?

Create a comprehensive and easy-to-use property listings site with AgencyLogic’s PowerSites tool. PowerSites is a single property website generator that has robust property listing layouts. The trick that makes this tool stand out from the rest though is its integrated social marketing approach.

First, you create the PowerSites listing, which comes loaded with high quality photo options and a selection of professional, real estate-specific layouts. Then, your PowerSites listing is automatically added to your Facebook profile or page, depending on your preference. There are also options for video, blog and podcast integration for those of you who want to beef up the listing even more.

Hopefully, knowing about these customized and task-specific real estate tools will take your customer interactions to the next level on social networks and elsewhere online.

It’s about making the home buying experience that much easier by delivering realistic images, deep data visuals and an integrated marketing presence to customers through robust tools, while still supporting your customer in one of the most emotional and important purchases they will ever make: Buying their next home.

For the full article: http://yhoo.it/hVXAWl

Achieving personal and corporate success

Thought control

 

Ability to control your thought life is one the fundamentals of personal success. So, if you want to be successful, you must think until it hurts. Bill Newman, a distinguished Australian speaker says, "Your mind is like a muscle. It must be exercised to grow…Don’t limit your potential…One of the greatest ways to develop your mind is through reading…." You need to dedicate yourself to lifelong learning, because continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.

 

Speed and dependability

 

Another thing you need to do to achieve success is to develop a reputation for speed and dependability. Speed and dependability are the language of the 21st century prosperity. This is because you need to do whatever you have in mind fast or discard procrastination and exhibit transparency in your dealings so that people will be easily attracted to you. To succeed, you need to be prepared to climb from peak to peak; practise self-discipline in all things; unlock your inborn creativity and get around the right people.

 

Cuddling challenges

 

To become a successful person, you need to be prepared take arms against a sea of troubles, and in so doing, end them. You need to pass the persistence test. As Brian Tracy, chairman of Brian Tracy International, a training and consulting firm based in Solana Beach, California, USA, puts it, "Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. It is the absolutely indispensable quality that goes hand in hand with all great success in life."

 

Success is a series of right choices. Each day we stand at a fork in the road. When we say "Yes" to one activity, we say "No" to another. We must know what we want to achieve and then go for it with single-minded determination. The difference between average people and achievers is their perception of and response to challenges. Nothing else has the same kind of impact on people’s ability to achieve and accomplish whatever goals they have set for themselves.

 

Corporate success sustenance

 

Beyond the issue of achieving personal success is the ability to create an atmosphere for the achievement and sustenance of organisational success. What brings corporate success? Is it better leaders? Better products? Better salespeople? What about better performance management systems? Any of the above may bring some level of improvement, but research reveals that sustained top performance can be tied to one thing: how well people communicate within a company.

 

Open communication

 

Achievement and sustenance of corporate success requires open and honest communication. Dan Bobinski, president and CEO of Leadership Development, Inc., and co-author of Living Toad Free: Overcoming Resistance to Motivation says more specifically, sustained success requires a culture in which open and honest discussion occurs around even the most difficult topics. It requires focusing on the issues, not playing political games. It also requires discussing or debating the potential consequences of all the solutions on the table, not making deals to get your personal favourite approved.

 

Impediments

 

In the corporate environment, success often becomes elusive because of leaders who fail to resolve conflict; aggressive personalities who wage their war of intimidation; and insecure leaders who concentrate on maintaining an artificially-inflated sense of self-worth instead of doing what is good for the company. If any of these conditions exists, logical dialogue may be replaced by all-out personality clashes or retreats accompanied by silent fuming. The despicable syndrome of official "political" positioning becomes manifest. In any case, the potential for sustenance of success will be jeopardised when open and objective dialogue is non-existent.

 

Passionate teams and example

 

A micro-manager or an overbearing leader creates an atmosphere of fear that discourages commitment and enthusiasm. However, an effective leader who motivates his or her people and addresses their challenges is easily able to build committed and loyal teams. This situation will naturally lead to sustenance of enduring corporate success. Bobinski says an example of this effective manager can be found in Kelly Palmer, general manager of the Red Lion hotel in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

 

One of three nominees for General Manager of the Year among the chain’s 54 properties, Kelly is quick to point out that it is her people who bring the success; she just hires them and works to keep them happy. "For the record, I know Kelly to be a solutions-oriented, secure individual. When problems arise as they inevitably do, Kelly doesn’t seek to place blame, she immediately solicits input on possible solutions," submits Bobinski. Kelly has built a culture among her management team in which they are free to debate their opinions without the fear of retribution or personal attacks. In the end, when a solution is decided upon, regardless of one’s original opinion, everyone subscribes to it.

 

Last words

 

Kelly’s leadership quality that has endeared her to numerous subordinates and colleagues can be said to be a model for good leadership that brings about sustained success in the corporate environment. Based on research and examples lived out in companies worldwide, if your objective is sustained corporate success, personality issues have to be set aside and replaced with focused debate about solutions. But to achieve personal success, you need to control your thought; deploy speed and dependability; and cuddle challenges.

 

for the full article : http://bit.ly/fEgxtV

3 Simple Email Marketing Tips That Will Transform Your Business

Email marketing is a proven way to reach customers and is the cornerstone of most online businesses. There’s no easier and cheaper way to contact prospects and customers than email, which makes it the ideal way to contact people for business purposes. If you implement the following three email marketing tips in your own business, you’ll get better responses.

 

1) As an email marketer, you should be sure to set up a double opt-in procedure for new subscribers, and have an “unsubscribe” button visible on all your emails. The one thing you really want to avoid as an email marketer is being called a spammer, which can happen quite easily. Single opt-in subscribers are more likely to accuse you of spamming, as they can forget that they clicked on your link to subscribe. You should also make your “unsubscribe” link easy to see, or some people will assume your email is spam. If you remember to apply these two principles for all your email marketing campaigns, you should be safe in this regard.

 

2) As you learn more about email marketing, you will find out that how well your emails and offers convert depends on many different things. The most common approach, for years, is to give away for free something that you believe people will want to have in exchange for their contact information. What you offer them all depends on your market and what they value, so you will need to do some research on that one.

 

3) We do not want to be hypocrits by suggesting we are saints and not in it for the money. Email open rates are often not good, and you need to have subject lines that get the job done, to be frank. A subject line works like any headline in that it wants to command attention and make people do one more thing - start reading. Decisions are made and the fortunes of businesses held in the sway by headlines and subject lines. Your approach is also determined by the personality of your target market.  You can also ask a question in your subject line, for which the answer lies in your email. There are tons of ways where you can get creative with your subject line, just make sure that you’re not overtly complicating things.

 

All in all, from the above article we understand how these simple tips can make a big difference to your email marketing campaign. Many new Internet marketers are unaware of the powerful benefits of effective email marketing, which is why they aren’t able to build a long term business. Once you start applying these tips in your online business, you’ll see a big boost in your sales and an increased level of trust with your mailing list.

 

For the full article : http://bit.ly/dQ89lo

 

7 Important Questions To Ask Yourself Before The Year Ends as a #realtor

It's December again and the year is coming to an end! How do you feel? Excited? Eager to see what's in store for the new year?

In this article, here are 7 powerful questions to ask yourself as you close off your year. Allocate at least 30 minutes with yourself and use that time to earnestly answer these questions. This will be one of the most important exercises you've ever done. Here they are:

  1. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with 2010?
    This gives you a quick snapshot of how satisfied you are with this year. 10 is the highest, and 0 is the lowest. Interestingly, this number can give you a lot of insights.
  2. Why did you score that way?
    For the score you gave yourself in Q1, why did you assign that? I believe it's more important to understand the underlying drivers of the situation, rather than harp on the assessment itself. For example, if you gave yourself a score of 3/10, why did you give a 3? Is it because you feel that you neglected your relationships and health in pursuit of your work? Is it because you didn't go all the way in achieving your goals? Write them down.
  3. What are your biggest accomplishments this year?
    Accomplishments here refer to any results you are proud of. It can include business achievements, career, relationships, health & fitness, and more.
    For some people this question can be confronting, especially if they have been living on auto-pilot. Yet it's extremely important because it makes us take a cold, hard look at how we've been spending our time. Did we put it to good use? Have we been working on our Quadrant 2 tasks? It helps us sieve out the unimportant and zoom down to what matters.
    When I first asked myself this question years ago, I had trouble coming up with meaningful answers. It made me realize that the bulk of my achievements that year were for my employer, whereas I had done nothing for myself. It gave me a wake up call, and from there I became a person on a mission. I became in tune with my personal dreams in life, and I was singly focused on bringing them to life. I knew in my heart of hearts that I want to help others grow and be their best selves, so I worked in that direction. In less than a year I had shed away my previous job and was pursuing my dream. By the next year, I had already turned it into a real, full time career. This year is my 2nd year and it's my best performing year yet. This happened because this question made me conscious of what I wanted to achieve in my life.
  4. What are the biggest lessons you learned this year?
    Out of all the things that happened this year, what are the biggest things you've learned?
    In life, we have countless experiences, and there are things to be learned in every experience. We can either let these incidences pass us by, or we can stop to understand, internalize them, and draw lessons from these experiences. When we do that, we literally become wiser than we were before. We can then use these important lessons and apply them to new situations we face.
    Since 2006, I took to the habit of writing annual reflections. Writing them down helps us to stack our lessons through time, so we can build upon our wisdom, rather than relearn the same things. This way, we can advance our growth much faster.
  5. What are your biggest goals that you want to achieve next year?
    Alternatively:
    * "How can you make next year your best year ever?"
    * "If it's now Dec 31 of next year, what do you want to see in your life?" Then, set these as your goals.
    What does it take to make you feel a 10/10 satisfaction level at the end of next year? What goals do you want to have achieved? What dreams do you want to see fulfilled? Write these goals down and set them as your key goals for the next year.
  6. What new habits do you want to cultivate?
    Successful goal achievement comes from having the right habits. What new habits do you want to cultivate? The most popular ones for me every new year include meditating, exercising, waking early, sleeping early, drinking plenty of water a day and more. When you practice positive habits, you naturally become a better person.
  7. What are your immediate next steps to achieve them?
    It's not just about writing, but about doing. Now that you have written your intentions for the new year, what are the immediate next steps you've to take to achieve them? What do you have to do to get the ball rolling? Write down specific dates to the actions.

Here's an important tip - get started right away. Get a head start even and do them before the New Year comes! You'll feel ahead of everyone. Do that for your life and you'll immediately see the positive difference it brings.

For the original article : http://bit.ly/gy4Ct9

Keeping Your Clients Focused

One thing I learned very early on in the real estate business is that you never know what the day is going to bring you. I’ve found this to be particularly true when I’m on the job with real estate investors helping them scope out the right investment. You may walk in on an unsuspecting college student in a smoky apartment or see an old lady’s taxidermied cat perched on the davenport (both of which have actually happened to me).

 

Pittsburgh, where I live and work, is a 250-year-old city in the midst of a major overhaul. All over the area, dilapidated neighborhoods are getting a facelift and former slums are becoming the coolest parts of town. It’s very exciting to be a part of, and I like to think I’m playing a small role in bringing a great city back to its former glory by selling people the merits of urban living. That said, there are definitely some wacky situations I never in a million years would have thought I’d find myself in. I know I’m not the only person going through this, and I thought sharing some of my stories would help others realize they aren’t alone in this crazy business!

 

Before I get into my first story, there are a couple things you should know about me: First, I’ve always done whatever I can to keep up with the boys. I have two older brothers and I always thought that if they can do it, then I should be able to as well! Second, I’m a total girly-girl. I think this combo is what contributes to my success with investors. One of my clients told me when I showed up one morning to show him a foreclosure on the edge of a rough neighborhood: “Kat, you’re the only person I know who can maneuver a gutted house in a pencil skirt and heels.”

 

One of the most far-out experiences of my real estate career happened a few years ago. I was showing an old church in Pittsburgh’s South Side, a community that was once the heart of the steel mill district and is now an ultra-hip spot. When the city’s population declined, many churches all over Pittsburgh shut down. Some have already been converted to breweries, condos, and other developments. There are still several old churches for sale in the South Side area, but this particular one is in a prime location and is part of an upscale condo development. There were four buildings on the church property: the church itself, a rectory, a nunnery, and a school. The old school and rectory had already been converted into luxury units. The church was originally slated to be torn down and replaced by townhomes, but when sales stalled the developers changed their minds and decided to sell it separately. I had three new real estate investor clients interested in it, so I arranged to meet them all there at once.

 

It was the middle of January and it was cold and snowing. Fortunately, I’d dressed sensibly and was wearing riding boots and long johns under my dress pants. I’d never worked with any of these developers before and I wanted to impress them. But it didn’t get off to the best start, as I fumbled with the padlock in front of an audience of tough guys. I finally got the doors open, and we stepped into a little piece of Pittsburgh history. I’d been in churches that had already been redeveloped but I’d never been in one that had been gutted and left to rot. I was excited to see what was behind those doors.

 

Walking into a cold, deserted church can be awe inspiring. There are many beautiful, old churches in Pittsburgh but this one was simple, cold, and stark. All the pews and the altar and been ripped out. The space was about 900 square feet of emptiness. The stained glass had all been destroyed and plywood now filled the windows. The only vestige of the church’s former life were the words “Come to Me All Ye Who Labor” written across an arched wall above where the altar had been, which was fitting given that this had been a working man’s church. I could totally envision weathered immigrant mill workers kneeling there on the one day a week they had off.

 

We explored for a while and tried to figure out how to convert the space into either apartments or a single-family home. There was nothing really left in the church but we could see where the choir room had been and where the confessional was. After we explored the choir loft and the main floor, it was time to head to the basement. I was recently telling this story to a friend and he asked me why I would ever go down there. “You have to explore the basement to know what’s going on with a property and what you can do with it,” I told him.

 

So down I went, a former sorority girl from the University of Michigan, following three clients down the rickety steps of an unlighted, century-old church basement. I always try to act tough, but I have to admit that I was a little freaked out. I’d been in tons of dirty, old, unfinished basements but not a church with a dirt foundation and no lights! Thankfully, with a flashlight in hand, I had come prepared. This impressed my clients, as only one of them had brought one.

 

As we headed down into the main portion of the basement, you could see it was filled with debris. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I heard the guy who was leading the way exclaim, “Oh my God!” But he definitely wasn’t expressing any religious sentiment. I shined my flashlight across the space and couldn’t believe my eyes. “Wow,” was all I could muster.

 

Apparently when the demolition crew gutted the church they threw everything from the sanctuary in the basement. Consequently, nearly the entire space was filled with shattered stone statues of religious icons. The four of us stood there frozen for a second. It was completely dark except for the beams of two flashlights, and all we could see was the dust from the dirt floor, statues of the Virgin Mary with the babe ripped from her arms, a headless Jesus, and similarly “massacred” Biblical figures. The men were standing there with their jaws dropped saying things like, “Look, the Wise Men!” It was quite a scene: Standing in a dark basement filled with shattered religious statuary, I felt like I was on the set of a horror film.

 

We were all completely distracted by the old church relics. The guys started wandering around but they weren’t looking at the building at all. They were exploring to see what other crazy remnants of the church’s past life were down there. Meanwhile, I was standing there petrified — I wanted to get the heck out of there. I pulled myself together, thinking, Ok, I have to snap out of it. I have to be a professional. Let’s see what we need to see and get out of here.

 

I pointed to the wall facing the street and told the potential buyers that the city had already approved curb cuts for five driveways on the site. Since the floor was dirt, it would be fairly easy to dig down a little bit and install underground parking to service apartments. This brought the buyers back to the business at hand, and we proceeded to have a discussion about the potential cost of the parking project. We took a few more minutes to find where the sewer lines came in. It’s crucial to know that when figuring out where and how to place bathrooms in the building. All the while I remained calm, cool, and collected. The investors saw what they needed to see to make an informed decision, and I knew I wouldn’t have to go back down there with them.

 

Ultimately, none of the developers bought the building. One group wanted to convert it to apartments but they decided it would be too expensive to create surrounding parking spaces and put in a second floor. The other developer wanted to make it a single-family home but churches are tough because of all the “dead” space in the rafters. Also, it didn’t really have enough architectural character to be a stunning luxury conversion.

 

While the developers didn’t buy that property, they were all impressed with my fearless exploration of the church that day. All of them have bought and sold other properties through me since then. The church is still sitting empty today. I often pass by it and remember the time I faced my fears, kept my focus, and made my way through uncertain surroundings. It may not have paid off that day, but it certainly has in the long run.

#Realtors Prospecting Expired Listings

If you are a REALTOR, a great source of earnings are expired MLS listings. Prospecting these expired listings may be as mild as sending the possessor of the house an expired listing letter, or as blatant as physically knocking on the door. Regardless of how you prospect your consumer, understanding their frame of reference are usually paramount to your success.

 

After making contact with your prospect, it is necessary to understand that they may possibly still be motivated to sell the home, but might feel that they have been burned by the REALTOR listing process. Expired MLS listing prospects may need to be re-educated on the sales process and their expectations modified to realize good results.

 

For these customers, expired listing letters may not be as helpful as more direct forms of marketing. Even though these script are low cost and might be sent out in mass, they regularly are received much later than the prospect’s window of opportunity. Often a expired mls listing prospects receive many offers from different REALTORS and typically sign with their first contact. In consequence, the prospect may perhaps receive the expired listing letter well after they have already signed with a extra real estate agent.

 

For REALTORS that use expired listings as a supply of business a extra useful methodology may perhaps be to employ listing lead services such as the RedX (Real Estate Data Exchange) or LeadSenders to gain access to the leads in real time. Most thriving REALTORS use these types of tools to capture leads and get listings ahead of their competitors. By means of these services, the real estate professional utilizes a first mover advantage to seize the listing before the competition. These tools provide real estate agents with a significant advantage over their competition.

 

Statistically speaking, an expired listing lead will re-list their estate with the first agent that makes contact. Once again, this indicates that expired listing letters may not be the most useful method in which to prospect mls listing leads. Truthfully, the maxim that the early bird gets the worm applies to these scenarios, and the thriving REALTOR have got to alter their lead generation approach accordingly.

 

for the full article: http://bit.ly/fZxCyx