Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Website - What are you missing?

So I was updating my site today to take off the Open House from DECEMBER 2ND - that is a MAJOR no no since it shows the users that come to the site that it is not current and that the webmaster (me) is not keeping up with the content.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to work on one of my sites (I currently have 3 and am working on a forth) each week for at least an hour. Some of you have asked me what kind of leads I get from my sites - over the Christmas holiday I got a buyer's lead from www.cometoclearwater.com (relocation guide request) and a FSBO lead (list my site on www.tampa4salebyowner.com) . These are very easy for me to fulfill and will hopefully help round out my 'haven't mets' leads goals for the coming year.

One thing that I noticed was that I did not have some pertinent content on my home page about second homes and vacation homes. I think that I am missing an opportunity by not having those links and generating more good search terms for the engines. I will be adding that kind of content soon as a FEATURE and see if they generate me some targeted leads.

Is anyone getting good consistent leads from their website? Don't forget to follow the path of least resistance - if you are getting a bunch of people that want to see cheap homes add affordable housing links and pages to your site. If you are getting first time home buyers add links to the area programs that offer those types of services and work with your banker to see if he has anything that can help like the loan advisor tool bar from HomeBanc.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!

Hi all! I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas...:) Santa was VERY good to me (I got the Treo PDA that is the real estate agent's best friend AND a laser printer for my office!).

I am standing right next to myself about the opportunity the coming year is going to bring and can't wait to hit the ground running with all my new toys!!!

I hope that Santa was good to you all and that your business has a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Marketing Response

I like to find out what is working for me so that I can do it some more - a revolutionary thought isn't it? BUT I also like to make sure that I am working as smart and as affordably as I can. With that in mind I have a couple of suggestions (sorry guys some of these are Keller Williams related but use your own company perks where appropriate).

I have a magic credit card! Because I do so much mailing I go through a lot of paper and mailing labels, Office Depot loves me! Anyways, Keller Williams allows you to register your credit card so that you get the highest discount possible when you check out. For example I saved over $5 on a box of 3000 labels last night - not bad.

I had a conversation with my business partner yesterday and she said "are you sending out Christmas cards?". I did not - I sent out postcards that I combined with other agents in the office to make them beautiful and cheap - then sent them out to be processed at my friend Tammy's mail marketing house - SO EASY! If you would like to find out more about our KW 12X12 program that "touches" your clients once a month shoot me an email and I will send you the flyer. Many other mail houses offer this service also (I just like my own designs better - this month we have a baby turtle!)

Newsletters on colored paper - two agents I know are working on these and have devoted between 2 and 4 hours to getting them set up in Publisher. Not a lot of time and from now on they can just drop their numbers in and send monthly updates to their targeted farm. A VERY good way to become the neighborhood authority - BUT don't count on an immediate response, pledge to do it for 6 months OR send it every other month for a year.

A formalized plan - my banker guy (Brian P from HomeBanc) is a very forward, out of the box thinker - for a banker...:) We sat down and figured out an 8 step program to target top notch realtors whose business he would like to have. So far he has had a good response - at least two real opportunities to talk with agents that were somewhat hesitant before AND it is supposedly the worst time of the year to make those contacts.

What ever you do - start today. Call more, send more notes, get on a postcard program, vow to visit 3 FSBOs every week, join another club, volunteer for a cause, do an open house (or three). There are a million reasons NOT to do anything (it might not work, it is the wrong time of the year, everyone does that, no one does that, it is too rainy today, it is a nice day no one will come) there is only one reason to do something - you have 100% more chance of being successful if you do ANYTHING than if you do nothing!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

What you feed your brain

So I am going to wax eloquent for a bit about what I listen to/read, who I have been spending time with and what has happened to my real estate business.

First off I attended a business planning clinic. At the clinic (which I did NOT want to attend because that kind of specific planning hurts my head) I learned that the amount of leads that I need to be super successful next year is not that big. Try it yourself - you may be surprised to see what it will take to meet your goals. I have a worksheet that can help - email me at taradactyl@gmail.com and I will be happy to send it to you!

Then I started listening to a Brian Tracy Success Series Book on Tape. Holy cow. Then I was told at another meeting to read Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy and finally one last person told me that Brian Tracy was inspiring. Well the universe has told me that having him playing in my ear all the time will make me a better realtor and person!!! I was wondering the other day why I don't get too upset when a contract falls apart or I have to take a listing off the MLS. It is really hard to feel sorry for yourself when Brian Tracy is talking to you or when Seth Godin is telling you all the great things you can do to market yourself or when the Millionaire Monday realtors are telling you how to make your business better. Ask Santa for an iPod and load it with inspirational people.

Finally I spent a day "Shadowing a Superstar". We had the opportunity to listen to three of my favorite speakers (Gary & Nikki Ubaldini and John Dietz) and then go on a caravan. One of my houses was part of the caravan and I may be getting a price reduction from the comments that I got.

I will not tell you that my life has changed over the course of the last couple of weeks. I am generally a very optimistic person so that is in my favor to start. BUT I have negative self talk - I tell myself that buyers are scary, I tell myself that I did not get everything I wanted to do done so I am a giant loser and that I have to work harder. BUT I did realize that if I try hard with a plan I should do better than OK and definitely better than most of my competition out there.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

It works! - Out of Town Buyers

Just a quicky to let you know that the internet does work for getting buyers in the car! I first got an email from Peter on Aug 6th, 2006. He is an investor from Canada who wants to purchase some property. It took a bunch of dinky postcards, two phone calls and setting him up on auto notify but I am taking him and a friend out today to look at a BUNCH of properties.

As they say the timeline for internet leads is protracted and many do not pan out BUT if you are persistent and help them with their needs you may just get some business out of it!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Stop Following the Directions!!!

Even I sometimes I wish I was more like the Pilots referenced in Seth Godins blog today. According to Seth "Pilots have to get it right every time. They have to follow a myriad of procedures. They must be calm and focused and consistent, and yes, boring." Boring, but with less drama, less searching for documents that you KNOW are on your desk, less freaking out EVERY morning to find your nametag.

BUT when I do something that is different than the rest of the world I feel energized and hopeful. Thinking of a new way to do the same old thing can jump start your prospecting, marketing or even your entire business plan for next year.

An agent I was talking with yesterday said she wasn't great on the phone in the morning and she was hesitant to start an Expired campaign because she would be calling during dinner time. EVERYONE knows you have to call from 9-11. EVERYONE calls from 9-11. What if you called from 7am-9am? What if you called from 5:30pm-7:30pm? AND what if you just called whenever you had a second. Say you make 5 more calls a day than you were before - do you think you would get more business?

How about the fact that EVERYONE mails out on Thursday. I am sure that when homeowners get 3 marketing pieces at a time they are NOT doing a personal assessment to see which they like better. They are not comparing the relative merits of all three agents and making an informed decision. They are throwing them all out and grumbling about how much crap they get from realtors!!! Go nuts - mail out when you have time, mail out on Monday, mail out 3 times this month and see if you get more response because you have barraged them with info. Mail out anything - DO NOT wait for the perfect piece, spend a fortune and then save them for only your best clients.

Send out something today - I know it is Saturday during the Christmas season and you are busy. I know you are SUPPOSED to mail out on Thursday. I know you are waiting for the new year so that you can get the perfect piece together and then start a whole campaign.

Do me a favor -- stop following the directions and do something zany this week and then tell me about it!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Flyer Rant

***** WARNING - FLYER RANT COMING!!!! ******

About the flyers that I ignore - quit sending me flyers from Naples, Miami, Orlando - I am a TAMPA BAY REALTOR and I will send my referrals out if I get buyers in those areas.

"4% COMMISSION -OPEN HOUSE SAT. & SUN" Quit sending ones that say 4% Commission - New Listing - I do not have enough time in the day to read all the 6% commission ones. Where is the property and how much is it?

"COMMERCIAL LAND & BUILDING .92 ACRES" - Where IS it?!??! Location Location Location, part of the reason I stopped looking at these is that I generally found something interesting and then found out it is in Lutz - I don't even know exactly where Lutz is and I sure don't have any clients there.

"5 STAR HOME REDUCED 35K" - SO WHAT!!! - Except that it is now only $172,900, there are not that many houses in exceptional condition in that price range. Don't you think that would be interesting to an agent?

"Refer Me A Buyer Or Seller 25% Referral Fee To You" - SHE IS IN LAS VEGAS! Using the flyer concept to get referrals is great - angering half of Tampa Bay's Realtors is not!

Some suggestions:

Las Vegas Realtor - Will Pay 25% Referral Fee!
Stunning Home $173K In Pinellas Park
Comm Land+Building .92 acres - Downtown St. Pete
New Tampa Home - 4/2/2 Immaculate - 4% Comm

Doing It Right In Ybor!

So I was trying to figure out what to talk about today. When I checked my email I had 7,000 flyers that I ignored (a very small exaggeration) and one that said "Ybor City Pre-Foreclosure and Distressed Properties" which was different enough to at least open. The flyer was beautiful and well thought out with information about the properties and a link to the agent's website.

On the website was a link to Kevin's blog - only one entry but hopefully he just started!

Overall, one of the most impressive marketing packages that I have seen lately - snaps to you Kevin Stuteville in Ybor! I also am sending the MLS listings to my out of town buyer who is looking for Foreclosures in the Tampa Bay area.

Kevin's Flyer
Kevin's Website

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Monday, December 04, 2006

Internet - SEO

Many of you may not know what SEO is or why it is important to you. SEO is "Search Engine Optimization" and it is important to you because it makes your site visable and desirable to search engines. It may seem scary but in fact is mostly just common sense.

To give you an example of SEO and how it works, please visit www.tampabayunder200k.com. You will notice a couple of new things:

1. I traded out the graphic banners for html links to the request more info pages - this is because search engines cannot "read" graphics but they CAN read text AND they think that html text is the most important kind! (Tampa Bay Real Estate Experts...)

2. I also added some text at the bottom that talks about being a Clearwater, Tampa, etc. realtor which was not on the site before this. This will help the search engines index the page.

3. I also added some additonal text about affordable housing - again just to make it easier for the search engines to know what the site is about.

4. Lastly I added some new metatags (view>source) that include clearwater realtor, tampa realtor, etc.)

I then resubmitted my site to the search engines - we will see if there is any increase in leads!

Friday, December 01, 2006

Dinky and Not So Dinky Postcards

I have to say that the last two days have reminded me that sending out mail makes things happen! I got a phone call from a large 4 color high gloss postcard that I sent to the expired people and also a FSBO call from a dinky postcard.

The hard thing to judge is how much is too much (I am hoping Santa brings me postage for Christmas) and what works the best. Some recent mailings have included:

Neighborhood newsletters - sponsored by Somers Title and Homebanc, these mailers are too new for results

Large Expired Postcard - my partner and I have a comprehensive program designed and after just 3 months of mailings we are finally seeing some results. This is normal and the reason why many programs fail. DO NOT send one postcard and expect results!

Just Listed Postcards - you need to send them anyways, hit your farms, your sphere and your specialty lists like FSBOs and Expireds.

If I sent out even more would I get more leads?