How do you know when it is working?

So I have been an official realtor for well over a year now and I started in what has been termed a "down market" - meaning that inventory was not flying off the shelf in days for thousands over the asking price! Before that I worked for a 20-year agent and learned A LOT that told me I would like the business BUT that it is hard work and there is famine before the feast.

Since then I have been doing the activities (Keller Williams speak for farming, working FSBOs and Expireds, doing LOTS of open houses, sending just listeds, etc.) and it seemed like I was having some success. Well this week was a very good week!! My listing partner and I had 3 closings and added over 2 million dollars in inventory. We are now making sure that we have the hard talks about pricing right up front so that we have the best possible chance of positioning the homes to sell quickly (which now means between 3-6 months). We also are working on making sure that we have more communication with our sellers and buyers so that they do not feel left out in the cold.

I met with one of my favorite Realtors this morning who started last September after a 4 year hiatus, and she said that she felt like it was sort of working and that she hoped it would break soon. I believe it will and that if she just keeps on doing what she is doing everything will work out just fine.

I would love to know how everyone else is doing out there - if you are having success with something please let us all know so that we can just keep getting better and better!

What is your UVP?

It sounds like an alternate kind of TV station or a dreaded disease but in actuality it is what you bring to the party real estate wise (unique value proposition). I talked with an agent this week who said she didn't like to work with Expireds because she was not sure she would do anything that the first agent didn't do (i.e. put a sign in the yard and put it in the mls).

I do not have that problem! I know EXACTLY what I will do try and sell that house and I have it written down and in my listing presentation. I spend quite a bit of money BUT you do not have to bust the bank to offer your sellers good features. Here are 8 ideas under $25 or free that you can do.

1. Open houses - Offer to do an open house once a week until they say NO MORE! You can put a sign rider announcing that you will be there from 1-4 on Sunday and also walk neighborhood personal invites to all the neighbors. Make sure you have you have magnets on your car so that the neighbors know it is you sitting in there all the time. If you can't make a week, ask someone from the office to help.

2. Free listing sites - Put your listings on your company sponsored website, on www.zillow.com, www.Point2agent.com, base.google.com and anywhere else you can think of!

3. Pitch sessions - These are back! Let your sellers know you will attend EVERY pitch session available and will tell all the agent about their great listing.

4. Backs of flyers - Put all your listings on the back of your flyers in the flyer boxes. If you don't have your own "borrow" some from other agents.

5. Brokers Open House (Under $25 bucks) - Invite other agents to participate and serve something that people will like to eat. Invite LOTS of agents so that you have someone to talk to!

6. Just listed postcards - If you can not afford preprinted ones, print them out on your copier at work. If you can't afford postage for all of them walk them around to 100 or so neighbors (do NOT put them in the mailbox as that is a federal offense and I will not come and bail you out!)

7. Neighborhood newsletters - List an ad for your home for sale and give the neighbors some statistics about recent sales and some home selling tips. Mail if you have the money or start walking the neighborhood if you are short of cash.

8. The MLS - Put the maximum number of picutes in there. Say more than one sentance about the house. Think about the fact that this house will be competing with over 17,000 homes in the area and some people will not even consider the house unless there are pretty pictures to look at.

If you do something cheap that you would like to share with group please let me know!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

SEO - What the heck is that?

So as I told you, www.cometoclearwater.com is doing well on Yahoo.com (see current ranking).

That the site does well is not an accident. There are a number of things that make the site interesting to the search engine spiders - which is what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) attempts to do.

1. First it is written in HTML and is NOT a dynamic/template site. Many of you use a template site for your main site (a la mode, agent access, etc.) - this is not a bad thing but it will limit how high your site can rank. I think that having a main site is great - BUT to get good rankings you may want to have a mini site for each specialization that you might have. For example I have my main site and then www.tampabayunder200K.com and www.clearwater4salebyowner.com. These are VERY specific and made to attract a certain kind of user.

2. Decide EXACTLY what kind of user you are trying to attract. CTC is made to attract out of town buyers and also to serve as a marketing site for potential sellers. I have a free relocation guide offer on every page - last night I got three requests and wrote a contract on a CTC buyer lead. You may be looking for sellers or for 55+ buyers or for people who park their RVs at home - no matter what type of client you want, you must be very specific in your content and your metatags to make sure that you position yourself well.

3. Last for today is metatags. These confuse many people, BUT basically they are the source code that computers use to help catagorize pages and describe your site to the search engines.

1. Title Tag - This is the bar across the top of browser window. It should include words that coincide with the content of your site. CTC's title is "Come to Clearwater - Real Estate and More for Clearwater and the surrounding communities!"

2. Description - This in my estimation is the MOST important tag of all as it is what shows up as the blub on the search engine page when users are trying to decide what link to click on! CTC's description is "Clearwater information and real estate news! Tara Jacobsen is the leading residential real estate specialist for Clearwater and the surrounding communities of Dunedin, Seminole, Safety Harbor, Palm Harbor, Largo, and Tarpon Springs. She is dedicated to helping you find you dream home. Search for the perfect home on www.cometoclearwater.com."

3. Keywords - Not as important as they once were but still helpful! These are words that you recommend that will help the search engines catagorize your site.

If you have not fallen completely asleep yet and would like to learn more, I am teaching an advanced internet marketing class this month at Keller Williams Palm Harbor. It is Friday the 23rd of February at 1pm!

Get an appointment!

This one comes from Tammy McInerney (my RE mentor!)

The only good outcome of a lead (from an open house, sign call, referral, etc.) is an appointment. WAIT!!!! Before you tell me how that won't work listen up...

1. The best appointment is one to meet face to face. Whether the lead is for a buyer or seller, set a time to get together (SOON) and go over their goals, wants and needs - and then list/find their house!
2. The second best appointment is a phone call appointment. "Would it be okay if I called you in a couple of weeks to see how you are coming on your plans?" When you actually call them it shows that you are reliable and gives you an opportunity to make a face to face appointment. If they are still hot but not ready to meet, make another phone appointment.
3. The worst appointment is to tell them that you will be sending them information from time to time and is that okay? Then send them a thank you card and put them on some kind of a "touch" program so that they don't forget you!
   

So, from now on each contact should result in an appointment (or crushing failure when they say they don't want your services...hehehhe...NEXT). Keeping this in mind helped me to stay on track and to get the next contact scheduled so I did not feel like a dufus picking up the phone and calling them. It also became something of a habit which is nice!

New Year New Focus

I am so excited to start the year out! I am using my company's model of doing the activities and letting the rest take care of itself. With that in mind I am using a lead generating model and I already have 2 - they actually came in yesterday but I am counting them!!!!

(1 Realtor.com and 1 from putting flyers on my yard signs - more about that another day...:)

Have you decided how you are going to measure success this year? I am a firm believer that if you do not measure it you cannot change it. That having been said, I am the worst at tracking expenses and will have to buckle down and start counting my dollars.

I will be back to making (almost) daily entries in the blog. If there is something that would be interesting that I haven't talked about yet please let me know - if I am focusing too much on a certain area let me know that too!

Have a great day and a very happy new year....Tara

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!

Be Specific! - Part Deux

So the holidays have slowed the blogging a bit - I will get back in the groove starting TODAY!

My friend Lori Crawford volunteered to be a "specific" guinea pig so here goes (see previous post for starting point). Lori is very social and will probably focus on lead generation and sales activities that involve a lot of talking and networking with other human beings. Also she is a total class act who presents herself very professionally, as well as bringing a broad and varied business background to real estate that will serve her clients very well! She is VERY contentious and will do her very best to make sure that her clients are satisfied with the service that she provides.

Lori has a good start on branding herself with her www.sanddollarsanddreams.com website, and she incorporates the sandollar theme throughout her marketing pieces. She has also included "commitment & loyalty" as the tagline for her logo.

So here is one possible elevator speech...

"Lori brings a strong business background to all of her real estate transactions. She uses her extensive knowledge and experience to provide the best possible service to her clients, utilizing every means necessary to help them buy or sell their dream home. Commitment & loyalty are not just words to Lori - they are the way she works!"

Lori's goal may look like this...

"To build her real estate practice utilizing her personal and professional contacts to facilitate new business. To work with affluent clients who want to buy or sell high end homes in the Trinity area."

So basically Lori's day should start and end with an assessment to see if she had done things to increase the likelihood of meeting her goals. Did she send dinky postcards to her Trinity farm. Did she go to the Country Club for dinner and network with people who will be buying and selling homes in her target area. Has she previewed all the homes in Trinity? She has already joined the Rotary for Trinity - has she invited any of the members out to lunch?

Any of those things increase the likelihood that someone will notice that she is a realtor in the Trinity area and that is what her main goal is for the very near future!

It works!

So I had a great real estate day yesterday! Took another listing, had a buyers appointment, had another couple ask to preview that house also AND had another out of town buyer pre-qualify with my preferred lender (Brian and Kelly at HomeBanc).

How do days like these come about you ask? Well, the first buyer came as referral from an agent in my office. He was out of town and knew that there was a good chance that either my listing partner or I would be in the office and working at real estate. I know that sounds strange, but many agents do not work at real estate as if it is a regular job with regular hours, or they do not come into the office where there is a chance for opportunity. Putting yourself in the money stream helps!

The second buyer came because I was there. Show up, run out when another agent wants to give you a referral, do open houses, attend brokers opens, go to training, just do it!

The listing came because of FSBOs. I like the FSBOs, they are a nice bunch of people who think that they can sell a house. I am having a hard time selling houses and I do a ton of marketing and work at it from 5:30 AM to 9:00 PM most days, so I am sure that they are somewhat frustrated trying to go it alone. It was definitely a drawn out process, I went and looked up when I first talked with my client, May 2nd - first contact, November 13 - listing. This is not a fast process and this lady has received a TON of dinky postcards and other materials from me over that time. When it came time to pick an agent who else was she going to call but me?

Oh - the last buyer came from personal contact - my Father In Law is one of his best friends. I know - talking with humans directly works too!

Lead Generation Mondays - The Best Day of the Week!

“Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.” Henry Ford

I think that today is the day that I will generate all the good things that will happen to me later this week. I will be sending out thank-you notes from this weekend's open houses, mailing my dinky postcards, sending out brochures and also designing a new neighborhood newsletter that I will be working on with my favorite Title Company (Somers Title - Joyce and Diana are the absolute best!).

I will be ordering new materials for some marketing clients, getting more neat notepads from VistaPrint (ridiculously expensive but discounted to try) and also sitting down with my partner to go over our "Hot Prospects" and todos for the week.

As I sit and sticky-sticky the stamps and labels, I think about all the good things that will come from doing the activities to bring in clients (and advertise my listings at the same time!!!). Even if you hate doing lead generation, do it today like it will bring in business later this week and see if it isn't a little easier and more fun!

Real Estate Marketing Pro

Lead Generation - Do it! ***Update***

So I was leaving a listing appointment last night and I got a call from a FSBO who said he would like me to come and preview his property. Not a listing appointment but definitely the next best thing. AND it this opportunity came from dinky postcards that I sent out on Monday during lead generation - I love when this stuff works!!!!...:) Tara

Lead Generation - Do it!

So this weekend I got a lead on a buyer from an article I wrote and a lead on a seller from www.tampa4salebyowner.com I will not be working either of these BUT will refer them out and and MAY make some money from them. That is much better than not having those opportunities.

I think that it is easy to forget that there is a direct correlation between how much prospecting and lead generating we do and HOW MANY LEADS WE GET! As anyone who has ever taken one of my classes knows - you have 100% more chance of getting a lead if you do ANYTHING instead of doing nothing.

Mondays are typically slow days for me (not many appointments) - so I spend them following up on leads from the weekend, adding to and mailing out to my FSBO and Expired lists, and in general contacting people who might like to buy or sell real estate from me.

I like to lead generate so this is one of my favorite days of the week - (sick I know) but I just feel like each thing I do COULD return me a new client!

RealEstateMarketingPro