The “NEW” 3 Most Important Words In Real Estate is the title of a recent post on Real Estate Radio USA Blog.

The “NEW” 3 Most Important Words In Real Estate is the title of a recent post on Real Estate Radio USA Blog. Location, location, location immediately comes to mind, but this is being pushed aside by the words conversion, conversion, conversion.

Barry Cunningham reminds us not to lose sight of the fact that Web2.0, Real Estate 2.0, the blogosphere, etc. is to make money and is not merely an outlet for frustrated journalists.  

It is not enough to have eyeballs reading our lastest blog post. We also need to be looking eyeball to eyeball with those folks.

Barry reminds us to know our numbers, concentrating on how many of those web visitors actually turn into buyers or sellers.

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We tend to put our efforts into generating leads and not much real effort into converting that lead into business.

We tend to put our efforts into generating leads and not much real effort into converting that lead into business that actually puts money in our pockets. We are all guilty of letting leads fall through the cracks because we are either too busy or because we really think that the drip email campaign we set up will do all the work for us. My experience as both a licensed Realtor and as a Virtual Assistant (myREassistant.com) tells me this is not the case.

When I was out in the trenches selling and had a buyer in my car or was sitting at a prospective sellers kitchen table, I would always ask, ˜Why are you in my car and not some other agents? or ˜Why am I sitting here in your kitchen and not some other agent? The answer was always the same, ˜Because you called me and no one else did.

I may have been lucky and made an appointment after 1 or 2 phone calls or it may have taken calling for 1 or 2 years. But, I never gave up. I always remembered what my first managing Broker ever told me when I asked, ˜When do you stop calling? She said, ˜When they buy, they die or tell you to stop.

I keep hearing that in this slower market we need to get back to basics. Phone calling is basics!! and it works.

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Internet buyers (not just real estate buyers) are used to instant gratification.

Glenn Houck, co-founder of LeadQual, LLC talked recently about Internet lead conversion and how important it is to respond to Internet leads quickly.

Houck explained Internet buyers (not just real estate buyers) are used to instant gratification. Information is plentiful and if the buyer doesnt get what they want from one website, they will quickly move on to another.  When completing a form, the buyer wants a response NOW, not sometime tomorrow or next week.

Buyers visit an average of 5 websites and complete 3 forms. It makes sense then, that a buyer will most likely do business with whoever responds first. If they dont hear from you immediately they forget who you are and what form they filled out. Responding within minutes is crucial.  When I was selling real estate, I used to ask buyers why they were in my car and not some other agents. The response was always¦you were the only one that called!

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