Archive for January, 2011

5 Methods of Using Technology to Sell Real Estate Part 1

When you consider all of the methods to communicate with people over the Internet and ways to use it to sell a house or a piece of property, the considerations are staggering.  Consider this fact: The National Association of Realtors reported the results of a survey that showed a whopping 80% of the people that are looking to buy a piece of property today, start looking online first.  Now, that should indicate to you that if you are in the real estate business and you are not using online tools and are not “tech savvy” you may want to consider the option of giving yourself an upgrade.

So, over the course of the next 4 or 5 blog posts, I am going to share with you even more creative methods of using technology to market and sell real estate while getting those exclusive real estate leads.  Ideas that I didn’t even think about considering the fact that I’m scratching my head every day, trying to figure out how to expand this subject.

Staging a House When it is Not Staged

In this posting I’m going to show you how to stage a house over the Internet that is not staged.  In order to do this, though you will need a halfway decent graphics editing program, but bear in mind that if you are running a real estate office, you may want to consider either buying one of these programs ( which is not the best way to do this) or outsourcing this work ( the better way of doing it) . The reason why I say that outsourcing is the netter way of doing this is because, even if you buy the necessary software to do this, which is kind of expensive, you will still need to learn how to use it.  Adobe Photoshop, which is the industry leader in photo altering technology, will run you about $700, while its immediate competitor, Corel Paintshop Photo Pro will run you right around $300.   As I said earlier, you will need to take the time to outsource this work if you don’t know how to use these programs or have the time to learn them.

Once you either find someone or get the software, you can then alter a totally naked room of any house by putting furniture into the rooms that wasn’t even there.   The best scenario would be to have the rooms completely bare when you take the photographs of them originally.  This will reduce the amount of work that you will need to do.  Once you take the pictures of the rooms, it is a very simple step to add the furniture that you want from the room.

Clip art and Photography packages abound on the Internet wherein you can download or buy pictures of furniture to fill in these rooms.  However, I am all for outsourcing this work dirt cheap.  One of the best places for finding people to do this type of work is at Fiverr (www.fiverr.com) wherein you can hire just about anyone to do anything for $5.00.

In my next post, I’m going to show you how to use mobile devices to sell houses and properties

One of the hardest things to do in marketing is to keep track of all of the real estate leads that you have as well as past clients. As you have probably read on here before, keeping in touch with past clients is more profitable than actually finding new clients because these are people that have worked with you, know you, and will probably do business with you again and again. The big problem with keeping in touch with all of these people is that it is a lot of work and it requires organization, patience and a host of other factors that are important to your real estate marketing campaign.

Use an Automated System

The ideal way of keeping track of all of these people, would be to have an automated system set up in place so that when the mere press of a button you can contact these people over and over again. The reason you would want to do this is so that you can remind them that you are still in the real estate business and you can still help them with different aspects of real estate for them, their families and friends.

Get an Auto Responder

So, how can you automate a system so that you do not need to do a ton of extra work?  Well, there are a host of online auto responder services that are excellent and they can help you to organize all of these people into an e-mail system so that all you have to do to stay in contact with them is to write one e-mail letter or full-color newsletter, press a button and then send it out. If you have set up the system correctly, the names of the people that you will be staying in contact with will actually appear on the e-mail or newsletter and therefore you will be able to make sure that they are aware of the fact that you remember them and would like to do business with them again in the future.

There are several auto responders out on the market today that are just outstanding. One of them is called Aweber and it is a world-class system that is rivaled by few on the Internet. The service itself resides on the Internet, and you will not have to install any software to use it. All you have to do is get a password and access their website and Aweber ill take you through a step-by-step process of setting up your account so that you can send out automatic, beautiful e-mails and newsletters through the Internet any time that you want to send them.

To find out more about Aweber, just click on any of the advertisement that you see on this blog and you will be taken automatically to the site.

In this blog we usually talk about ways that you can gain real estate sales leads using technology.  In this posting we are going to kinda – sorta deviate away from this idea a bit and talk about a time tested method for marketing to your target real estate market.  I am speaking specifically of real estate marketing postcards and how you can use them to gain more listings and prospects.

Just a Little Deviation Away From Technology in Real Estate Marketing

Actually, we really aren’t getting away from marketing with technology aspect of selling real estate because we will still be using technology in the delivery system of the real estate postcards.  You can easily go to an online service and order post cards for your marketing campaigns.  Most of these online services will not only allow you to design your postcards using stock photography, but they will print them up in the quantity you need and then send them out to the address that you give them.  This saves you a tremendous amount of time.

However, don’t expect the printing service that you choose to write a marketing message for you.  For that task, you will either have to learn how to write the message yourself, or hire someone that is real good at it.  At any rate, you will want to have a call to action somewhere on the real estate marketing post cards so that people or potential real estate sales leads will be spurred onto to call you.

The best call to action that a real estate marketing postcard can have is something that is tangible for free;  just for getting together with you and talking about your services.  You can always get boat loads of inexpensive gifts to give to people that make an appointment with you. There are tons of online companies that gratuitous gifts that have your company’s logo and contact information on them, from pens to desk clocks.  Generally, offering a free consultation is what many real estate professionals use, but this does not work and does not have a strong enough pull for real estate leads to actually take action and meet with you.

Make Your Real Estate Marketing Postcards Unique!

Another thing you have to consider when dealing with marketing with this type of vehicle is that on average, people make a decision whether or not to read or keep an advertisement sent to them within three seconds.  You have to really have a unique post card that initially arouses a person’s interest enough to make them read it.  Many of the online companies that make these types of post cards have templates that are like this.  Look, if you get a post card in the mail with a pink penguin on it that has big yellow letters on it that says “NAKED”, wouldn’t you at least look at the back of the card to read it???  So, make sure that you have a mind blowing picture with a caption that makes the prospect interested enough to read the back side of it.

To recap on how to Get Real Estate Sales Leads With Real Estate Marketing Postcards, remember to have a good free offer with something tangible, make sure there is a good call to action, and always have a compelling picture and text on the front to ensure that the prospect will read your message.

Usually, this blog covers the area of how real estate professional can sell real estate utilizing technology. Well, I guess I have been ignoring a certain segment of the market that is also involved in real estate; the mortgage professional and their industry. Yes, that’s right; we are going to talk specifically to mortgage professionals in this post, particularly professionals in the reverse mortgage industry. So, this article is going to talk about how mortgage professionals can utilize Internet technology to get prospects for reverse mortgages.

The reverse mortgage industry, as many of you already probably know, is a growing industry because of all of the baby boomers that are getting older and moving into retirement age. So, when you consider the fact that many people that still have mortgages can get a loan that is like this, it really doesn’t seem to be too daunting of a task to cultivate these folks as prospects. It would be foolhardy for any mortgage company to ignore the reverse mortgage industry and not have a focused marketing plan in place.

To get quality leads from the Internet, you need to know several different things. First of all, you need to know as much about your target market as you possibly can. You don’t want to be chasing the wrong herd of people that don’t have a need for what you or your services have to offer. If you do your research enough and it is thorough, you will at least find out that most homeowners over the age of sixty two are the target age of the prospects that you are looking for. The value of the home that the target prospect is currently living in is another factor to consider when you are looking for a good reverse mortgage lead.

Not only should the value of the house be an important factor, but also the equity that has been built into the property is an important factor as well. Also, a person that has been subject to medical bills in their older years would make a good candidate as well because they can probably use some help with finances. Some of the ways you can use the Internet or technology to help you with looking for reverse mortgage leads or prospects is by visiting a forum or blog that talks about mortgages and real estate issues. Many times, people will be looking for information or advice when considering an action or financial decision. You want to make sure that you visit the most reputable sites, because if you are going to forums that look or act unprofessional, then you will get a reputation that you, as a mortgage professional; could probably do without.

Start Your Own Reverse Mortgage Blog

One way to establish yourself as an expert in your field of expertise online is to start a blog dedicated to your profession. If you are an expert at a particular area in the field of mortgages, then you can establish an online presence for yourself. All you have to do is get a blog either with Wordpress or with Google’s Blogger (both are free platforms and services) and start writing good articles on reverse mortgages. Don’t worry about the design of the blog, like everyone else does, just grab a blog theme or set of colors and start writing.

If you really want to bump it up a notch, you can always write an e-book that you can give to people to read as well. One other thing that you can do to find good reverse mortgage leads is to go to a site that is, a lead generation firm. You can buy leads for your target market and start a direct mail campaign through the regular mail. Do not buy email leads, because you don’t ever want to run the risk of being blamed of spamming people.

As always with any marketing plans that you have, always make sure that you do your research before approaching any segment of the market. That way you will be much better prepared for other plans that you may have to implement a different strategy or segment of the market.

It is vital to know how to get real estate leads if you are going to be successful at selling properties.  As a matter of fact, the only way that you can guarantee that your real estate business will succeed is if you know how to prospect in a way which is conducive to your business goals.  It is very important to know how to keep the clients that you have and market back to them, but without your initial client base, that is going to be very hard.  It probably goes without saying, that if you want to become successful in the real estate business then knowing how to generate real estate leads is vitally important.

Most people usually go through the route of handing out business cards, advertising, attending community events, running newspaper ads, and cold calling, but without a proper system in place, your marketing plans as well as your prospecting efforts will go unrewarded.  The best system to have is an automated one wherein prospects contact you and then your system automatically collects their contact information for you.  There are several ways to do this, which is what we will be discussing in this article.

Getting Real Estate Leads Using a Call Capture System

A call capture system is a system wherein you place an advertisement talking about your listings or services and then people call you and leave you their call back number.  You can actually have the number placed on a real estate website asking the potential prospect top call and leave their information, or you can use an online service like Aweber to place an opt – in box on your website to get them to leave their contact information.

Usually, a call capture system has several features that go along with its services.  You can have your own unique 1-800 number system put into service from the company that provides these services for you and these numbers make it very easy for you to capture real estate leads with.  One of the best innovations that is included with the call capture system is what is called an “Automatic Number Identification” or “ANI”.  Basically, this system allows you to store in memory any numbers that call your number so that you will have their number to call back.  Having this system in place will also protect you from the dreaded “do not call” list because it will give you proof that the prospect initiated the contact with you.

Once a real estate agent or Realtor has the call capture system in place, they can begin to publish and use their number whenever they begin to market their business.  You should put your number on every advertisement, website, business card or any other marketing vehicle that you are using.  You ought to use the number liberally with your ads and you should display the number prominently in all of your marketing ads no matter where they appear.

Call capture systems can sometimes be rather extensive on learning how to use them; this has been just a brief overview on how to set up and use a call capture system to generate and get real estate leads for your business.  The best way to see some of these phone systems and ads that are in actual use is in the various opportunity magazines that you can find at the store. Looking at these ads will allow you to not only see how ads are set up to use this phone-marketing vehicle, but it will also let you take a look at the ad copy and call to action that is used by each business.