March 27, 2009
It was announced recently that sales for existing homes “jumped unexpectedly in February by the largest amount in almost six years.” The growth estimated at 5.1% is the greatest monthly sales jump since mid 2003. The good news is sparking hope for the coming months, although caution still looms as there is still an influx of inventory.
Did your market experience the jump?
Whether it did or not, in tough times spending is tightened. Now is a good time to take a look at where your spending goes. Did you know that first time home buyers accounted for half of the transactions in the February jump? With the median age of home buyers sitting around 30, your online identity and website features are going to be the most important tools in the coming months.
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March 25, 2009
As our second installment of People in the Network Making a Difference, we interviewed Todd Fields of The Group, Inc. Real Estate. Congratulations to Todd for being the first agent nominated! As a member of The Group, Inc. who has been around since “before computers,” Todd has a lot of tips on working with customers who are not as tech savvy as you are. He talks about promoting his Individual Website, how Facebook has worked for him and how the mapping technology used has really benefited his customers. Read below for the full interview with Todd.
Name: Todd Fields
Title: Broker
Company: The Group, Inc. Real Estate
Personal Website: tfieldsweb.com
Q: How long have you been with the group?
A: 15 Years – before computers!
Q: You have long been a supporter of The Group Inc. website and Individual Agent Websites: What are your favorite features? What about them has worked for you?
A: I think we have one of the most comprehensive sites around. You can use my website or you can go to thegroupinc.com. I try to council people. I ask how did you find us? How are you looking at houses? And they usually tell me through our website. I do ask them to go and look at my personal site.
For relocation especially, we’ve got all your resources for any question you ever ask, including what is the population of every ethnicity you can name! We’ll have an answer for you somewhere on the website or a link that will take you to it. (more…)
March 19, 2009
Realtor Magazine online just posted an article that I think offers great advice. A brokerage blog is one of many solutions offered by the Enterprise Platform. We have written many posts spanning the spectrum of blogging as a social network builder and on how to localize your content. This article helps reiterate the positive influence blogging can have on your business.
The “4 Steps to a Successful Brokerage Blog” according to Realtor Magazine:
STEP 1: Pool your people. Contributing consistent, quality content is the ultimate key to any blog’s success. By creating one central blog for your brokerage, you can leverage the collective time, energy, and diverse talents of all your associates. Individually, a salesperson may simply not have the time to post regular entries. Pooling the talent of your sales staff allows them to combine their knowledge to create rich content about the markets they serve. You can help to direct and focus your team by giving specific ideas or topics for the blog. With your vision, your team can create digital archives of highly relevant and informative articles that consumers can easily access.
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March 17, 2009
Congratulations to Enterprise Network Member, Residential Properties Ltd.!
The Rhode Island brokerage has been recognized twice in the Providence Business News. Residential Properties was ranked #1 for Privately Held Real Estate Agencies in Rhode Island and the 3rd Residential Real Estate Agency for the number of residences sold in 2008. Residential Properties has 148 full-time sales professionals and sold 1,036 properties in 2008.
You can find Residential Properties online at www.residentialproperties.com.
About Residential Properties: (more…)
March 13, 2009
The annual statistics by the National Association of Realtors are out with lots of great information. Just a couple of weeks ago John Sable posted a blog “Give them what they want…Photos” and talked about the high interest in property photos. Photos were also the Number 1 Valued Website Feature according to the NAR report. Second only to property photos was detailed information about properties for sale. Both of these highly valued features are not always met by listing agents. The proof is overwhelming that consumers will still rely on an agent to complete a real estate transaction-so don’t worry your job isn’t going anywhere. However, the way you handle online leads cannot be the same as the way you handle walk in customers and qualified leads who are ready to buy.
Online listings have a delicate balance. On the one hand listings must be presented in a fashion that will get the consumer to consider contacting the listing agent and start the buying process. On the other hand, listings must provide enough information for the information gatherers that you won’t discourage them from seriously considering you or your future listings. Most consumers use the Internet to begin the home search process because they can gather infinite amounts of information and remain relatively anonymous.
Here is why you should be listing lots of photos and as much information as possible: consumers online are in the information gathering stage.
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