June 26th, 2009
Real Estate Agents Will Ruin Facebook
In 1935 Australia had a problem. They had too many Cane Beetles. Some well intentioned locals came up with the idea to import toads from Hawaii to help control the beetle population. At the time it was a reasonable solution to the problem they faced at that moment. Where they failed was looking at the long term implications on introducing an invasive species into an otherwise isolated ecosystem free of natural predators. The rest of the story is a lesson to anyone looking to jump into new ventures without considering the long term implications.
Fast forward to 2009. Real estate agents are looking for new ways to reach customers and creative ways to market properties. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are achieving exponential growth. It seems only natural to hang your shingle where the people are. Here’s where agents are getting it wrong. They’re jumping into social networking with the best marketing of 1993. Social networking is different and requires a different kind of marketing. The concept behind social networking is simple: Social networking sites are an invitation only 24/7 party.
From the title of this article you may think I’m against agents using Facebook. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I think it’s an important place for an agent to represent themselves as a human being—not a salesperson.
Here are my top 6 tips for real estate agents on Facebook and other social media:
1. Respect the community. Remember that when you’re on Facebook you are at someone’s party. Would you walk into a friend’s dinner party at hand out listing flyers? No. If you did do you think you’d ever be invited back to another dinner party? No. So why are so many agents doing it on Facebook? I know Postlets.com and other site make it easy to do. That doesn’t make it right.
2. Market your kindness, expertise, and community. Social networking is about building stronger bonds with the people in your life. Do that by being your gracious, magnanimous and humorous self. People will want to be around you.
3. Start conversations. Post to Facebook at least 3 times a week. You won’t get very far as the shy wallflower in the corner. Before you post ask yourself the questions: “Does anyone care?”. Post content that starts conversations or in a way that encourages others to speak up. The people that are getting the most from Facebook are bringing the most to the conversation and rarely have a post with no comments.
4. Share. Have you recently read something that touched you or made you laugh? Share it! Do you know what’s going on in the local market? Share it! It’s easy to post a link back to articles, products or other internet content. Writing a blog? Share it!
5. Enough quizzes already. You know who you are. So far today you’ve shared your top 5 80’s bands, which Muppet you are, which golf club you’d be. Did you notice that no one is commenting on your status anymore? It’s probably because people have started hiding you. It’s easy to do, don’t give them a reason.
6. Create a business page. There is a place for marketing on Facebook and it’s called a business page. They’re easy to create and it gives you the direct link to the fans of your business. Use your personal profile to connect to the friends and family who are close to you. Don’t forget to save your profile name. They’ll go fast and will be important in the future. Did I mention they are free?
The bottom line is Facebook is fun. People go there to get away from marketing and noise. Don’t be a Cain Toad.
May 15th, 2009
The Gift and The Curse of Statistics
Last week a number of media outlets had a glowing article about how the real estate market is turning the corner as pending sales were up, dramatically, year over year. First reaction is, “that is awesome news.” On further inspection the news is still good but not to the extent I would have hoped. Question is, why is this a curse?
When you look at year over year statistics there is the assumption that the data you are analyzing has the same constraints. The reason this has come up recently with the new numbers released by the NWMLS is that constraints have changed in the way “pending” properties are reported. Last year at this time, the status pending meant that the property had likely passed its inspection and was on its way to closing. Late last year the status of “Active STI” (subject to inspection) was changed to “Pending Inspection.” While this change seems harmless, it can have a drastic affect on statistics. Now included in the pending numbers for April of 2009 are houses that still could fail their inspection and go back to active. In 2008 if a property was marked pending there was an presumption that the subject property had already passed (if applicable) its inspection and that was no longer a contingency. What this means for year over year statistics is that the pending numbers are artificially inflated because a number of the properties that are included in the pending figures could fail their inspection, reducing the total number of pending numbers for that month. But where is the gift?
The beauty of statistics is that for every way to make stats look bad, there is a way to make them look good. How can inflated statistics be a good for me as a realtor? Energy! What happened to all those fence sitters when they saw those numbers? They jumped, “maybe I’ve waited too long and missed my opportunity.” Your B buyers just became A buyers over, what could be said to be slightly skewed but true statistics. Now there are agents in the offices with smiles on their faces working diligently and we can thank that to statistics and the media.
December 3rd, 2008
The Magic Real Estate Bullet
In the past month I have been doing a lot of training in my 5 offices. It has become readily apparent that agents are looking for that Magic Bullet to jumpstart their business. One of the main topics of focus, by agent request, has been on the subject of Google Analytics.
Google Analytics provides some very interesting and useful information. Most of our agents are using this product on their photo galleries. If used properly, agents can get a pulse on the market and also have information that their seller would find beneficial. One agent commented that they use the information to get sellers off the fence about price reductions, when the traffic on their gallery drops. Another great benefit is that you can see where your online marketing dollar/time is best spent.
With all the benefits that Google Analytics provides there is often one missing piece that is critical to agents, sellers and buyers getting good information from a photo gallery. PICTURES! With most of the real estate buying public starting their search on the internet, good pictures are critical. Professional photography is normally the best option for the highest quality photos. If that is out of your budget or you prefer to take property photos yourself; make sure you know how your camera works and how to get the best out of the equipment you have. You will be amazed at how much your bounce rate will drop when you have superior photos.
October 24th, 2008
Subprime Crisis in 30 Seconds
“The Power of Yes”. It is a slogan that will probably go down in history because it says so much beyond the words on paper. Here is a WaMu commercial from the archive.
Here is a photo in what is sure to be a Halloween filled with scary Wall Street themes.
October 17th, 2008
What have you done for me lately?
Disregarding the immediate fact that this is a technology centric blog, I wanted to write a post that is “getting back to basics.”
With all the technology programs out there I think that real estate agents are losing sight of the larger issues. We need to get back to basics and start doing the things that the other sales industries do. When was the last time you talked to your clients on the phone, sent them a personal email or even a letter? The answer for most agents is not recently.
In our current market people are scared, they’ve lost lots of their retirement in the stock market and the media keeps telling them that their house isn’t worth anything. As a professional in the real estate market this is your time to shine! Call your clients and have a discussion about the real estate market, maybe offer to do an impromptu CMA so they can see what their house is worth. This is not the time to sugar coat the market but to embrace it and use it to your advantage. The more honest you are with your clients the more they will respect you and likely use you again; maybe give you a referral.
In these times of economic uncertainty; you’ll always need a place to live, sleep, eat and raise your family and your clients should be reminded of that. Lets be professionals, leave the amateurs at the used car lot.
October 8th, 2008
Great Depression 2.0?
A lot has happened in the last few weeks to reshape the American (and world) financial landscape. I’m quickly learning that what I knew about banking and liquidity I learned from It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m as naive as Zuzu’s petals. The crisis we are in is not about mortgages anymore. The speculation in the real estate market over the last 10 years followed by the decline in home prices was just the match that ignited a firestorm in shadowy investment models holding trillions of dollars. Here are 3 programs EVERYONE needs to listen to to get an educated background in how we got here and where we go from here.
The first is the 60 Minutes piece from Sunday’s episode. The episode looks upsteam from the mortgage market to the problems seizing the paper markets.
The other programs we all need to listen to are from NPR’s This American Life. Another Frightening Show About the Economy (10/03/2008) explains the crisis in the paper market in a way that is easy to wrap your brain around. Giant Pool of Money (05/09/2008) starts at the beginning when the depths of this crisis were only started to appear. You’ll never look at mortgages and lenders in the same way after hearing how the industry was run over the last 10 years.
As professionals in the industry it’s important to understand this big mess because it will have lasting effects on our industry for the next decade. Then we’ll be due for the next speculative bubble to pop.
We are in a historic event right now which will be debated and studied for years to come. Some day you’ll look back on this and say “I remember where I was when the market went down 700 points”.
Final point: Right now someone is working on the next big idea.
September 23rd, 2008
2 Things Every Agent Needs
Watching agents interact with clients I believe that there are 2 things that most agents are lacking but desperately need.
1. You need a current resume: It seems so basic but when was the last time you asked an agent for their resume? For every listing and buyer appointment you should have a resume printed, ready and up to date. If I’m going to “employ” you as my agent, you’d better have the same things on hand that you would if you wanted me to give you a traditional job.
2. You need an “Elevator Speech:” A business associate recently recommended that I read a book by Eric Albertson called “How to Open Doors with a Brilliant Elevator Speech.” In our current market, I see that agents are begging for people to ask them what they do as a “full service real estate agent.” The issue they run into is that everyone knows a real estate agent and assumes that they all provide the same service. What this book teaches you is how to combat that by instead of saying “I’m a real estate agent” to something that peaks the other persons interest and elicits a “tell me more response.” Go to http://www.succeedinginbusiness.com/marketing-doors.html, it will be the best $49 dollars you will spend this year.
September 17th, 2008
How can that flat panel TV over the mantel make you a rockstar?
Bono, Al Gore, and Steve Jobs all have something in common. They know the power of audio visual. Have you ever given a listing presentation or held an open house in a home with a giant flat panel TV over the mantel? That piece of entertainment magic leads a secret life as a computer monitor. With a simple VGA cable you can connect your lap top to most models of flat panel tvs. At your next open house you can give the visitors a multimedia experience by plugging in and turning on. Display photos of the house, neighborhood tours, comparable sales, market statistics or just bring up your favorite real estate search engine. You can turn your next listing presentation into a dynamic presentation with PowerPoint, comparable properties in real time, photos of past listings, the sky is the limit. How would you like to be the agent that has to present their CMA after that?
As with any presentation always have a Plan B incase you can’t connect or something doesn’t work as planned. Practice your presentation and bring print material as a back up. Don’t forget pop corn for the kids!
September 10th, 2008
Successful Agent Websites
Mike Rahmn and I attended an office meeting regarding office and agent websites last Monday. There were many good questions asked which is the basis for this post; Field Best Practice: Successful Agent Websites.
There seems to be a lot of not misinformation, but misconceptions of what a website is supposed to do. What the consumer is ultimately looking for with an agent website is validation that you are a professional. If you don’t have a website, the gen X consumer immediately discounts you as a professional, content or not. How people get to that website a direct function of cost; both hard dollar costs and opportunity costs. The two schools of web design are static content that provides informational needs that remain unchanged and dynamic content that is ever evolving. If you are reading this post, you are seeing a website that’s sole existence is based on dynamic content, the more Justin and I write, the more likely Agent Field Guide is going to be found on search engines like Google. Websites like Agent Field Guide are commonly referred to as a “Blog.” A good example of a static website would be the King County Website (http://www.kingcounty.gov/) where the traffic is derived by large amounts of “static” content that serves a specific purpose but remains relatively unchanged for the life of each page.
The most common misconception is that spending lots of money on a website will make you the king of web real estate. The only way to immediately compete with those websites that show up whenever you type real estate into Google is by spending lots of money. Now it’s up to the consumer to find something meaningful on your stale website. The more effective way to compete, both monetarily and philosophically, is to create a webpage with great content, that is dynamic and highly useful. You may not drive traffic to your website like you are ReMax, but you will likely find people that are genuinely interested in what you have to say. What you ultimately end up doing is “Blogging” about your activities, market and other things that relate to your business and clients.
Taking all that into account, the most important fact to remember is that you can spend $10 or $10,000 on a website. What you ultimately get out of that cost is totally up to you, but the important thing is that you have a website. The one caveat to the Blog based website is that you have to be diligent on using it, otherwise you will end up with your standard “stale” website.
September 3rd, 2008
The Person with the Most Information Wins
Going with the theme Justin identified in the previous post, my first Field Best Practice is the use and understanding of Real Estate Statistics. One of my favorite quotes is that “The person with the most information wins.” Lets put that into the context for real estate agents.
I recently heard an agent in a resource room complaining that they didn’t have any “good” statistics to give to their client. They then asked another agent “what should I do, give them to the client or not?” I’m a firm believer in that news is news; whether it is good or bad. You do both yourself and your client a disservice by not giving them all the available information.
The use of services like trendgraphix.com has opened up a completely new way to display and explain what is happening in the current market. Your client is going to be barraged by statistics in the local and national media regarding both the economy and the RE market anyway, so why not give them something that is localized for them. You may be surprised how much credibility you gain by giving them all the information available. Show them the stats that are particular to their situation; and the larger local macro economy (likely their city or county). Be ready to explain what they heard in the news and how that either applies or does not apply to them. Be the person with the most information, you’ll be surprised how often you will WIN!