Archive for the ‘real estate marketing’ Category

Being an aficionado of history as well as business, I am somewhat fascinated with the story of the American Gold Rush of 1849 (It actually started in ’48 but let’s not split hairs.) Anyway, Gold was found in a place called Sutter’s Mill, in Coloma, California, and people came from all over the world to seek their fame and fortune there.  A lot of the folks that had gold fever literally risked life and limb crossing the country just to get a chance to find their fortunes in the small golden nuggets that they thought was there.

Click Here for Examples of Info - Products

Well, for almost 90% of the people that went to California, the gold rush was nothing more than an exercise in frustration and heartbreak.  Most of the people that went lost whatever they had because they sold everything to get there.  However, this is not to say that people didn’t make any money at all; quite a few entrepreneurs made a boat load of cash in other avenues of the gold rush.

There was one individual, in particular, that actually bought all of the shovels he could find in San Francisco.  He then ran through the streets proclaiming that there was gold near Sutter’s Mill. However, when the people went to the stores, there were no shovels because this man had bought them all and they could only get them from his store. Of course, he sold them at a premium price.   The man’s name was Sam Brannan and he was the first millionaire in San Francisco’s history.

Sell Your Own Shovels

One of my favorite motto’s is by the famous marketer, Dan Kennedy who said,

“If you are making money from only one source or direction, you should not be sleeping well at night.”

One of the best things a real estate professional can do for his or herself is create several other streams of income by turning their expertise into a marketable product.  I have personally met hundreds of people that have a particular profession by day and an information product business by night. I have met dentists, Realtors, housewives, and I even worked with a gentleman one summer that made millions of dollars selling information products.

Dan Kennedy's excellent info product book

Let’s face it, people desperately want to know what you know if you are working in a particular industry. Just to prove my point, let’s take a look at real estate forums, for example.  If you go to a popular real estate professional forum on the Internet, you will see people asking all sorts of questions that are related to real estate sales.  So, obviously there are people that are looking for answers to a problem that they are having, and if you know something that other people don’t know, they will many times pay for it.

Why Can’t They Just Get an Answer in a Forum or a Blog?

I know what you are thinking.  Why would someone buy information from me when they can find it on the Internet? There are actually three good reasons why people won’t do this.

• First of all, if you are a busy person, you don’t have time to look all over the Internet for the answers you are seeking. Yes, you could find a really popular blog or forum on the subject and ask people on there for answers to your questions, but good luck with all that!  You’ll have to ask yourself if the people you are talking to have the credibility to answer your questions properly.

• Second, you will have to wait for an answer.  Since the people aren’t getting paid to take the time to write you detailed answers and information, you are going to have to wait to get the answers you are seeking.  If they do answer, chances are that the information won’t cover everything you need to know.

• The third and final reason most people would buy information from you is that they will have all of the information they need at their fingertips, whenever they need it.  If you create a really good info-product with high quality content (more on this in three days) your customer or client will have a great resource that they can use.

I hope I have opened your eyes to a concept and idea you should consider.  I am including several links to books and courses that you might want to take a look at to explore this alternative method of making money.  Stay tuned for the next post in two more days in this series on information products, and making extra cash from your real estate business.

God Bless!

Mark Ellis

Resources:

Dan Kennedy’s Information Marketing Guide

This year, real estate sales people may notice that something new has happened in the realm of cell phones. In the realm of mobile productivity, the smartphone has emerged as a new choice among real estate professional and Realtors to get things done while on the road. This year, smartphones are giving people in the real estate industry more choices in the realm of cell phone productivity, prices as well as applications that work on these phones.

Of course the real estate industry grabbed the smartphone concept rather quickly because of the nature of the business. Real estate professionals and Realtors are on the road a lot and in different places; the smartphone can fill the bill when it comes to fulfilling their electronic communication and data needs. The real popularity of the smartphone is the fact that it is a GPS, phone, laptop and camera all rolled into one.

Smartphone Choices for the Real Estate Business

It is easy to get confused by the variety of choices that you will have if you are considering smartphones as a part of your tool selection as well as the applications that you can use. If contact management is important, then you should consider what kind you will need and which smartphone has the best application for that. If texting an email is important to your real estate sales, then you will have to consider which smartphone caters the best services for that.

What Kind of Applications Will You Need?

Not only will you need to consider what kinds of programs and applications that you will need for your real estate business but you must also consider the performance capabilities of your smartphone. Much like a computer, a smartphone has features you must consider like processor speed, the amount of RAM, USB connections as well as internal memory. So, it is a real good idea to learn as much about the smartphones available and what they can do for your real estate sales mission. It is always a good idea to look at the operating system of the smartphone that you are considering purchasing because the applications you may need may not work for that particular model.

You Don’t Have to Learn Everything

After you have considered and then purchased the smartphone that best suits your needs, you will then need to learn how it works as it applies to your business. Don’t get intimidated by all of the functions and applications these handsets offer; you won’t need to learn everything, just learn the applications and functions that are the most important to your real estate sales business.

The thing to remember about smartphone technology is that it is so versatile. You will be able to take pictures and videos of your real estate listings and then upload them to a website or blog. You will also be able to send pictures of properties to interested parties in full color. Learning all of the benefits of smartphone technology will benefit your real estate sales and marketing objectives, especially after you have mastered the functions of the ones you will need for your business.

Ok, so I decided to have some fun with Camtasia! (Screen capturing software for those of you outside the loop.) Gee, can’t a guy have some fun once in awhile? Anyway, I wanted to show you in a quick and fun fashion how you can get the word out about your real estate listings and services. If you are a Realtor or real estate sales person, you should really consider getting a blog and using one. In earlier posts I have shown you how to set up Wordpress and Google’s Blogger and even use them to showcase your real estate listings.

The Benefits of Blogging for Real Estate Professionals

As I have mentioned before, there are several benefits to blogging about the properties you are representing as well as your services . First of all, if you optimize your blog posts for your geographical area, you may get some local traffic to your blog that would like to see and hear more about a property. Your clients that you are representing will appreciate you more because you will have gone the extra mile for them. Also, blogs used in tandem with your email messages, post cards, letterheads, and anything else you can put the address on will help you network with the people that are interested in you or people that work in your industry. I know if I was a mortgage broker and I wanted to recommend a real estate professional, a person with a consistent and professional blog would wreak of authority and professionalism.

Another couple of reasons to have a well written and updated blog is so you can back end other services like property management or joint venture with someone that does as well as other related products and services. (Notice I said the word “related”, you don’t want to try to sell candles or fishing lures on a real estate blog.)

This video will give you some ideas on how you can use a blog to get the message out…..sort of….

As you probably know by now, I am a big advocate of real estate professional using technology to sell properties and represent clients. There can be no doubt that the Internet has changed the landscape of sales and marketing to an extent that has left its impact everywhere. With the advent of the Internet, an untold number of programs, websites, and electronic tools have emerged that have added conveniences as well as new challenges to a Realtor or sales person.

Enter the Apple iPad

One of the great tools that have come onto the market recently is the Apple iPad. The iPad actually debuted on January 27th 2010 but was originally thought up well before the Apple iPhone was. The iPad is basically a flat version of a laptop with the exception that instead of having a keyboard, it has a graphical interface or screen touch platform that it operates from. The other caveat that is significant with the iPad is that it will only run programs by apple unless you somehow modify it.

The Power of iPad for Real Estate Professionals

One of the features that real estate sales people will find very helpful, is the crystal clear and large pictures that can be shown to clients. Without opening and unfolding a laptop, you can easily show properties that you are representing and you can quickly scroll through them with a flick of your finger using the screen interface. The iPad is very light so you can easily hand it to the clients to peruse the information and pictures that you have on the different properties themselves. If you are really savvy you can actually show a video on the properties you have taken an uploaded to an online video sharing site like YouTube or Daily Motion.

Other Things a Real Estate Pro Can do with an iPad

Another innovation about the iPad is its ability for you to connect to your Multiple Listing services. You can easily scroll through the listings with just a stroke of your index finger. Just imagine how easy it would be for you to assist possible buyers as you take them from home to home using a wireless network providing that one is available. Of course that would be one of the drawbacks of the iPad touch because unlike the iPhone’s Internet connectivity, however with the iPhone, you will have charges and fees that you will have to pay.

I’m sure that in the future we will see the iPad get over the hurdle of Internet connectivity in all places that you can carry it much like the iPhone. But until then it is an amazing, high quality device that once again shows Apple’s innovation. I can also see that applications, which many of the iPad’s functions rely on will be developed sooner or later which will help the real estate professional sell properties, market themselves and gain clients through innovative technologies.

Just last week I had a real estate agent/ friend relate to me how he recently sold a home to a young couple using Twitter. He told me that while he was sitting in the house and waiting for people to come through, he would sit down, log in to his Twitter account and leave “Tweets” (short messages) about all of the people that came to see the house and what they liked about it. Apparently, someone in his Twitter network of friends read his messages, and after reading several of the descriptions he posted became interested in the property being showed. After looking at pictures from a link that was posted by the agent, the interested party showed up and the rest was history.

Applications are Taking Over!!!

Twitter, much like Facebook, is an application that uses the internet to reside on, but is not a webpage. This must be driving search engines like Google nuts, because applications can’t be indexed by them and therefore they are losing their prominence on the Internet. However, applications are becoming more of a marketing reality every day, and developing relationships on them is becoming a viable component of the marketing funnel in the lives of real estate sales persons. Having said all of that, what a sales rep needs to know is that even though this is becoming a great way to network with people and like minded businesses, it does require some work on a day- to -day basis.

Your Marketing Area is Important!

When you get your Twitter account, one of the first things Twitter will ask you is about some of your personal information. If you are going to use Twitter to help you market and sell real estate, then you should use the same personal information that you have been using on your agency’s website. You do not want to have all sorts of highly personal information on Twitter that you normally wouldn’t use for your business dealings. The key thing to remember is that if at any time you are asked by one of these social bookmarking sites about your geographical area, make sure you include the area you are mostly interested in marketing. If you are marketing properties in the northern part of the city of Dallas, TX, then you will want to make sure people know that as your area.

Your Sphere of Influence

Just as if you were starting out in real estate sales in the brick and mortar world (offline), you will want to develop an entire network of people that are in your sphere of influence. Of course, this means that you will have to exercise a certain degree of patience. As you probably know already, people will use your services and trust you far better if they know you. So, when you develop your network on Twitter, try to do two things:

1. Develop a network of people in your geographical area. When you search for friends and other business people that are related to your real estate sales on Twitter, try to use your geographical area in the search. (ex. real estate, Dallas, Tx)

2. Make sure that you take your time developing relationships in your network, remember, people will be more likely to do business with you if they know you. Also, try to stay in your own geographical marketing area.

Here is a video on how to use Twitter:

The last time I checked my Facebook account I had connected to just about two hundred people that were in some way related to my real estate marketing through technology website. I had several real estate professionals that were discussing online methods of attracting clients, a banker that wanted to let everyone know about low interest rates and a person looking for a piece of acreage. Now, I know what you are thinking, “Gee, 200 people are nothing on Facebook.” Well, you are ri9ght about that. As a matter of fact, I know some marketers that have thousands of contacts. However, I am developing a highly targeted group that is in my geographical area that will help me further my business.

Facebook is Opening New Doors

Considering the fact that real estate professionals are already plugged into networks in their communities, Facebook is opening new doors and opportunities for them to connect to people in their communities. Facebook, believe it or not, does not reside on the World Wide Web but it resides on the Internet as an application. Applications are programs that perform specific functions outside the Web and cannot be entirely crawled and indexed by Google. Applications have become really popular in the last several years because of the sophistication of cell phones that use them considerably, and now new innovations such as iPads are being released daily that extensively use applications.

Applications are Changing Demographics

The importance of using social networking sites like Facebook are becoming more important to Realtors and real estate sales professionals every day. There are several reasons for this. In a recent poll conducted by the National Association of Realtors, 87% of the people polled said that they used the Internet exclusively to perform a search for real estate. So, it would stand to reason that using online social networking sites like Facebook would be a viable method of extending your sales and marketing network.
Another reason that online networking sites like Facebook are becoming more popular to real estate professionals is because the demographics on age have changed. If you recall the glory days of MySpace pages which were not applications, but actually web pages that everyone could modify (especially kids). These pages were fun to add codes of line to the pages to allow them to play music, add pictures of friends and overall allow people to make some really crazy pages that suited them. Today, sites are more professional looking and sophisticated, gaining traffic and members from not only young people that like to chat and share things, but also a more professional group which is older.

Better Cell Phones = Better Marketing?

Lately, real estate professionals have been purchasing more sophisticated phones because of the interfaces and photographing capabilities, as well as the normal usage. With online applications like Facebook ,as well as Twitter, they can let people that they have made friends with in their geographical area know about events like open houses and conventions. The ability to connect, relate and sell properties through applications like Facebook will continue to become a part of a real estate professional’s marketing tool box. Perhaps someday in the future, the entire process of purchasing real estate will be completed on a cell phone, if it hasn’t happened already!

Here is a video that I created while taking graduate studies at Boise State:

Here is a real quick video tutorial on how to use the latest in video technology.  Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

-Mark Ellis

Focusing on a Geographical Area

If you are a real estate agent and want to start cultivating clients, one of the first things you must consider is where you want to focus your marketing efforts at. If you are in a big city it would be foolhardy to consider marketing yourself in a large area. For one thing, you only have so much money that you can spend on marketing, transportation and let’s not forget your most important and valuable asset, time. So, you definitely want to take the time to consider the area where you will place your efforts.

Another marketing and sales factor that you may want to consider is the demographics of the people that you want to represent. For example, do you want to work with people that are wealthy and have higher priced homes or would you be willing to focus on middle class people? Currently, houses that are in the $120,000 to $180,000 range in the city I live in are very hot and changing hands fairly quickly. The higher priced homes above $200,000 are in trouble, because everyone wants to sell those and move into the lower priced houses. However, the income class usually goes along with the housing anyway, so that factor will take care of itself.

Using Technology to Identify Your Marketing Area

One of the tools that you can use to identify target areas that you want to focus on, is the Website Zillow. Zillow is website that is actually a real estate database, which uses a sequence of instructions and mathematical computations to determine the prices of homes in any given geographical area. When you go to the Zillow website you simply type in an area or address that you would like to view and Zillow will give you maps that show the estimated prices of homes in that given area. Using Zillow in this manner can give a real estate professional an idea of how much properties are in any given area. It also shows other demographical information such as: property improvements, major roads, foreclosures and bank owned properties, sales made and property value appraisals.

Take Zillow with a Grain of Salt

One of the things that you need to keep in mind whenever you use an online source like Zillow, or even Wikipedia, is that you need to do more homework on your target market. Of course, being a real estate agent, you will have access to all kinds of property data by accessing the Multiple Listing Service however; a site like Zillow can give you a quick graphical interface. With Zillow, you can look over maps of your area that show fairly accurate views of an area with the estimated house prices on them. It should be noted and emphasized that a site like Zillow has had complications in the past concerning the labeling of the houses on its maps, so take it all with a grain of salt and do some extra research.

If you are just starting out as a real estate professional, you will want to take the time to consider these marketing facets and research before you launch your marketing. It always pays to do research, plan and then take action.

In this post I am going to try to give you some information that will immediately help you in your quest to build an online presence.  Most real estate agents are completely reliant on their agency’s web site.  The problem with this is that probably most of the real estate agents and professionals that are in your agency have the exact, same looking web sites.  This means that if you want to stand out from the crowd of real estate agents in your agency, it will be very hard because Google hates duplicate content.  If the site that your agency has provided for you has the same or similar content on it for each salesperson, then it will be very hard for the search engines to find you.  It is very similar to multilevel marketing opportunities that I see all over the Internet, because those companies provide cookie cutter web sites that are identical for each sales representative.

Real Estate Tools to Gain Clients Online

The tools that I will talk to you about in this video will show you exactly what you will need to know in order to start marketing yourself on the Internet.   If this is too overwhelming for you, you can always hire someone like me to do the work for you.  As I have stated in earlier posts, I am very affordable and I will work with you in establishing an online presence.  However, if you want to learn some of this stuff yourself, then I will tell you exactly what you need to know and what tools you will need.

There are a few things that I think you should know about the process of marketing online.

1. Internet marketing is not easy.  It requires you to push yourself to learn new things and have patience.
2. It does require some money.  Just like any other aspect of business, you will need to buy some tools, books, domain names, and hosting plans.
3. There is a learning curve.  It takes time to learn the new software and to understand how to implement and use Internet marketing techniques.
4. It takes some time.  (Please reread #1 above).  You will need to sit down and work at this. High quality articles don’t write themselves unless you hire someone to write some of this stuff for you.
5. There are no shortcuts.  There are a lot of things that you can do to market yourself on the Internet, but none of them will make you an overnight success.  The odds of instant success happening the way Facebook took off was probably worse odds that playing a lottery.

The tools that I am showing you in this video, I have used almost every day, and have extensive experience with them.  If you have any questions about any of them, please leave a message in the comment section and I will try to get back to you, or you can contact me here: mark.ellis@insightbb.com

Resources:

Head Start HTML with CSS & XHTML – An excellent book that teaches a novice how to build web pages

Killer Web Content – Gerry McGovern’s outstanding book that tells you about the most important aspect of Internet Marketing – Content!

Dreamweaver – This is a software package that makes it very simple to build web pages and create a professional online presence.

Photoshop – Software that makes it very easy to alter photographs and add pictures to your web site.

If you are not familiar with the basics of Internet marketing then this blog post may help you considerably.  I have tried not to sell products too much from this blog, because I am trying to make sure that you learn the basics as much as you can in order to help your real estate marketing and sales profession.  Quite honestly I have products and services on this blog that I am selling because it would seem stupid for me to tell you that you can make money on here while I am not.  However, the products that I tell you about are the best in the industry, and I can make a clear statement like that because I use these products extensively.  So, if I tell you about a product or a service, then I have been using it quite a bit.

Collecting Information About Your Visitors

If you are going to do any Internet marketing for your real estate business, then you will want a method or tool to collect and aggregate email addresses.  As you begin to use some of the methods of attracting traffic or people to your blog or website you will want to collect contact information from the people that visit there.  Any entrepreneur that is worth his or her salt will tell you that maintaining a relationship with people that you influence or meet is very important to the marketing process. In the words of an entrepreneur millionaire that I know, “You list is gold!”  So, you want to collect and develop a relationship with the people that come to your site.

How to Find Real Estate Clients Using Email Auto Responders or What is That Box?

(Please look at the box on the top right hand side of this page that offers the free course.)

On your website or blog you will want a service called an auto-responder.  If you have been to any business websites at all, you have seen these devices.  They are boxes that you put your contact information in so that you can get a free report, newsletter or other goodie that is promised to you if you sign up. Most of the time, Internet entrepreneurs merely want your email address and once you give it to them, they will send you email updates as well as free reports, links to videos, etc.

An Automatic Message

The reason the program is called an auto – responder is because once you put your name and email into the box and click enter, you will get an automatic message with a link to whatever goodies the Internet marketer promised you.   Just to reinforce the concept, the auto –responder and the marketer’s primary goal and function is to collect your email address and develop a relationship with you.

In my very next blog post I am going to create a video that will show you two online services that you can use to accomplish this on your own blog or webpage.  One of the services is free and the other is a paid service that is world class and worth every penny.