This just in from the Florida Realtors Association:

WASHINGTON – March 12, 2012 – Technology creates new opportunities for property professionals to reach more buyers and sellers, but it also can create more work as agents strive to maintain an active online presence.

Some real estate agents who want to avoid taking time away from their core responsibility – seeing to the needs of existing clients – find great value in virtual assistants (VAs). Assembling a team of real estate VAs allows an agent to grow a business and generate more leads while still devoting the bulk of his or her time and energy to helping customers.

A virtual assistant is usually an expert in one facet of a business and hired to perform a single task. VAs may handle marketing, design and administrative projects for an agent – including putting together virtual tours as well as print marketing materials, inputting data into the MLS, writing ad copy, posting to the agent’s social media pages, designing and improving the practitioner’s website, managing leads, working on listing presentations, and more.

There are several tasks, however, that should not be delegated to VAs, chief among them cold calling. This prospecting approach is not a comfort area for everyone, but no stand-in will be able to sell an agent’s services better than the agent can; and agents will never be able to recapture that moment to make a first impression themselves.

Equally important, most real estate VAs are not licensed to practice and, therefore, cannot legally answer certain questions that might be posed to them during a cold call.

No need to feel overwhelmed! Contact us today and we will help!

Watch as national real estate expert Steve Harney discusses what today’s buyers are thinking about during their home-buying decisions.

Last year’s post, Real Estate Marketing Ideas to Boost Your 2010 Production, has received a lot of attention in the last couple of weeks generating many phone calls and questions. Much has happened in the last year with loads of new marketing tools available and its time for an update. So here goes. This year’s list includes some tried and true favorites, as well as the latest tech and social media ideas.

2011 Real Estate Marketing Ideas

Print Marketing

1. Update business cards/stationery/marketing templates with links to your social networking sites.
2. Add QR Codes to your business cards, property flyers, newsletters and any other print material.
3. Create a neighborhood newsletter for your farm or neighborhood where you live.
4. Create business cards or postcards marketing a service or stealth website.

Listing Coordination and Marketing

1. Add to all your websites.
2. Create virtual/video tour to add to all websites.
3. Syndicate listing with use of Postlets.com (free) or similar software.
4. Enhance listing on Realtor.com with headlines, text descriptions, video, additional photos, call to action promotion.
5. Upload to Craigs List weekly.
6. Tweet with Tweetlister.com
7. Blast email your database.
8. Post on your blog.
9. Add photo album to your Facebook page.
10. Add QR codes to all print material.
11. Post a video on You Tube.

Email Marketing

1. Send high quality email birthday and anniversary cards.
2. Send weekly/monthly email newsletter.
3. Offer free online Webinar for first time buyers, tax credit, short sales, etc.
4. Email local Weekend Events tips.
5. Email local holiday events.
6. Email home maintenance tips.
7. Offer raffle or drawing with other local businesses.
8. Send local interest rate and financing news.
9. Send an invitation to your social networking profiles.
10. Ask for testimonials on your social networks.

Website/Blog

1. Use a keyword search tool and confirm your keywords and metatags are relevant.
2. Offer free IDX home search.
3. Offer free listing alerts.
4. Offer free market analysis.
5. Write about other local businesses on your blog.
6. Comment on other local blogs.
7. Create niche website or blog.
8. Add Facebook Connect to your blog.
9. Create ebook and require name and email to download.
10. Host a contest with local businesses.
11. Post to blog 2-3 times per week using relevant keywords.
12. Add links to your social networks.
13. Create and upload videos for first-time home buyers, selling a home, short sales, avoiding foreclosure.

Sphere of Influence

1. Send something of value monthly.
2. Send hand written birthday and anniversary cards.
3. Hold client appreciation event.
4. Give free pumpkins at Halloween.
5. Give pies at Thanksgiving.
6. Send Santa letters
7. Give a calendar.
8. Hold drawing to get email addresses.
9. Send monthly or quarterly market reports.
10. Call and ask for referrals quarterly.

Social Networking

1. Join Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
2. Comment on 3-5 posts daily with links to your blog or website.
3. Create Facebook page for your business with a custom Welcome page.
4. Add video testimonials to your business page.
5. Comment on local business pages.
6. Update your status daily on your Profile and Business pages.
7. Create a ‘365 Things To Do’ Facebook page with events and activities in your area.
8. Use software such as Ping.fm to post to all social networks at one time.
9. Use Twitterlocal.net to connect with local people.
10. Send birthday wishes to friends.

Networking/Education

1. Sponsor a home buyer workshop.
2. Join a local networking group.
3. Get involved in the Chamber of Commerce.
4. Join Realtor national networks.
5. Support a local charity and sponsor a fund raiser.

Short Sales/Foreclosures

1. Add pages to your website explaining shorts sales and foreclosures.
2. Offer a property search for foreclosures/short sales.
3. Offer free listing alerts for foreclosures/short sales.
4. Offer a free ‘how to avoid foreclosure’ seminar or webinar.
5. Direct mail to owners behind on their payments.
6. Offer free report – how to avoid foreclosure.
7. Offer free report – pros and cons of buying foreclosure.

Contact us today. Let’s put your real estate marketing plan together NOW and make 2011 your best year ever!!

A number of you have asked me about Facebook Marketplace so here’s the skinny as I know it…of course things are changing constantly!

Is Facebook Marketplace a good place to market your listings?

• Over 1 million people shop for real estate on Facebook Marketplace.

• 96% of Millenials belong to a  social network.

• 55-65 year old women are the fastest growing segment.
• If Facebook were a county is would rank 3rd in size behind China and India.

Is Facebook Marketplace free?

• There is a monthly fee.

• You can get your first month FREE!
  RE50 is the coupon code to get your first month free.
• The system offers one-stop syndication.
• Tracking effectiveness and results is available.
• Listings are also exposed to the Oodle network.
• Post and manage multiple listings at a time.
• Information is safe and secure.

Want to try it? We can help. Contact us today!

Steve Harney was voted one of real estate’s most influential leaders in 2010 by Inman News. Because of this I wanted to share Steve’s 5 Quick Tips for January 2011:

1. Realize only the GREAT agents are going to make it.

To truly be considered a great agent, we must realize good isn’t good enough any longer. We must commit to excellent service and an exceptional experience for our buyers and sellers. It is not about fancy logos or cute slogans. It is about making sure that anything that can be done to help, is done. That commitment separates us from the pack and enables us to be certain that our current customers will easily recommend us any chance they have.

2. Realize it is the MISSION, not the money.

One of the things that definitely separate ‘good’ agents from ‘great’ agents is the belief that, if we do the right things every day, success is guaranteed. Get up early, get dressed for work and then get to work. We must have faith that by doing so, the money is guaranteed. When we have that type of belief in our business, we concentrate on our mission, not the money. We can rest easily at night because we put in a good day’s work.

3. Know how to communicate points simply and effectively.

Seth Godin put it best: “That what you tell them, they will not believe. That what they tell themselves, they ALWAYS believe.”

The sales process has changed forever. Top achievers realize that it is no longer how well we ‘sell’ our proposition. Instead, it now is about educating the consumer so they can pick the proper option for themselves and their families. If we agree that educating the consumer is the key to success, we must communicate with so much more than words today. Visual depictions (graphs, charts and tables) of the information make it much easier for the consumer to comprehend. Top real estate professionals spend hours on making sure that their four presentations (listing, buyers, price adjustment and presenting the offer) are true learning experiences. They load each presentation with great graphic examples of each and every point they make.

4. Have a ‘talking point’ every day.

People are so thirsty for good, current information on the housing market. If we are the resource of that information, we will be seen as the expert in our market. Visit the KCM Blog (www.KCMblog.com) and read it every day with your morning coffee. Share the posts when appropriate.

5. Build your listing inventory.

The first few months are crucial in determining how you will finish 2011. If you owned a shoe store, you would want it to be well stocked so that every customer could find something that fits. It is no different in real estate. Make sure your real estate ‘store’ is well stocked.

PUBLIC TOILET
This is a picture of a public toilet in Houston from  outside :

Now that you’ve seen the  outside view, take a look at the  inside view…

It’s made entirely of one-way glass! No one can see you from the  outside , but when you are inside it’s like sitting in a clear glass box!

Now would you…  COULD YOU….???
————————————

NEXT — A PAINTED BATHROOM FLOOR!!!

Tenth floor of a hi-rise building………

IMAGINE YOU ARE AT A PARTY ..  AND THEN YOU HAVE TO VISIT THE BATHROOM….

You open the door….NOW, REMEMBER THE FLOOR IS JUST  A PAINTED FLOOR !

IT TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY……DOESN’T IT?

Scroll sloooooooowly .

Would this mess up your mind??? Would you
be able to walk into this bathroom???

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FINALLY!!

THIS IS A CEILING MURAL IN A SMOKER’S LOUNGE.

Facts and figures about REALTORS is from the latest research, presented by Matthew Ferrara & Company.

Watching this video may change your thinking about where you spend your real estate marketing dollar.

• Approximately 1 Million Realtors
• Average Realtor Age 54
• 51% of Realtors Have A Social Presence Online
• Average Age 1st Time Home Buyers 31
• 95% of Young Buyers Use Social Media Every Day