It’s been a while but we are at it again. Our next installment of People in the Network Making a Difference features Eric Rojas, Realtor at Rubloff Residential Properties. We met this inspiring agent at the Inman Conference, and wanted to share a little bit about his success. Eric Rojas is a modern marketer who understands the importance of an online presence and uses it to his advantage. Known as the Realtor on a Bike, Eric has gained national recognition online for combining his hobby and home tours. But more than a cyclist and a blogger, Eric is a highly involved Realtor at Rubloff helping the company become a leader in technology trainings. He also is a great networker with his peers and his community using these connections to build his online presence.  Read below to find out more about this innovative Realtor.

Name: Eric Rojas
Title: Realtor
Company: Rubloff Residential Properties

Eric has been with Rubloff for over two years. Previously he worked at a smaller privately owned brokerage, but as his business began to take off he began contemplating what he needed to run his business successfully.

What does Rubloff offer that has helped take your business to the next level?
Rubloff offered more professional marketing opportunities and tools for my listings. They also offer more office assistance and promote a business building atmosphere that is flexible and helps everyone to be successful. At Rubloff I focus on where I get my business, which is online. In talking with you guys at Inman I realized my next step for building my business is to address my human resources problem.  Rubloff allows me to hire team members and brand myself freely.

What do you mean “Human Resources Problem”?
Working as a Realtor is labor intensive. You are physically onsite at many properties, consulting and meeting up with people all the time. It is hard to produce and push content online and track results when you aren’t sitting at a desk. I have a blog, “The Chicago Real Estate Local” which is where I do all of my posting and it acts as my main website. I also have a Realtor profile on Rubloff’s website, a Team website, Chicago Local Group, and a few social networking profiles. What I need is to hire someone to push content to my blog, team site and Facebook profile.

Blogging is Eric’s biggest focus online; however it was an offline idea that greatly boosted his online presence. Over two years ago Eric began riding his bike to property showings and offering clients the option of driving or riding.  In last August the Associated Press did a story “Realtors peddle real estate to bike-happy clients” Eric had a couple of lines in the story and the story made it in the Sunday rounds of all the big news outlets. Linking to the story on his blog, Eric picked up some traction online. Then he created a Bike Open House Tour.

How did you come up with the idea for an open house tour on bikes?
In the Associated Press story there was an example of people in Oregon showing houses on their bikes. I also checked around online and started finding people across the country doing it.  I came up with a route for my neighborhood and started advertising for it. I asked people to register and we had set up a meeting place at a local coffee shop.

Eric did not have his own listings on the tour that he was representing. Instead he partnered with other Realtors in his neighborhood to host their open houses while he and his group would be touring the area.

Would you consider the tour a success?
Yes. In a couple of ways- most Realtors asked me ‘How many people showed up?’ which is missing the point!  Instead, I wanted to see what kind of action I could get online. I put photos up from the tour and posted on my blog that this is what I like to do and that biking a tour is an option. I started getting traction on Inman, bike friendly sites, and throughout the cycling community. So the perception of  its success and the online follow-up has been morevaluablel than “how many people showed up” that day. The blog stories, photos and links to the event live on forever on the internet.

Fellow Realtors were very happy to participate, and all of them hosted open houses which were nicely done. There were also a dozen people who registered their names and contact info with me for the tour, and who might become clients in the future. So in that sense it was a success too.

Will you continue to host biking open house tours?
Yes- I think next time I will do a condo tour to reach a larger market more likely to ride to property showings. 

For the keyword “Realtor on a Bike” Eric Rojas’ blog comes up on the first page of Google. His biking initiative has helped him gain great exposure in a niche market. Linking to his page from reliable sources, like Inman and different cycling sites is a valuable SEO tool that Eric has employed without much work. The bike tour allowed Eric to network with agents in that neighborhood, learn more about those homes, and expand his online influence to the bike-friendly & cycling community. The bigger his digital footprint the easier it is for people to find him online.

You mentioned you have a Facebook profile, has it helped your real estate business?
At Inman I learned that I need to tweak my Facebook activities a little bit. I have been missing opportunities to promote interesting real estate news. There are great ways to be fun and remind people what I do for business.  I have already had one real estate transaction as a result of a Facebook relationship. A friend of a friend who I had met in different social circles added me as a friend on Facebook.  He sent me my first Facebook email message! He was curious about selling their house and needed to talk to someone and feel it out. I talked with him and ended up selling their house for them.

Rubloff is a member of the Enterprise Network which offers technology solutions for real estate leaders. You mentioned that you have a Rebrandable website for your Chicago Local Group. Has the website been successful for your group? 
First, the site helps us look legitimate and professional. I just started the team website- I have been managing the site and still need to customize and build it up with our content. We want to put our sold listing data up, edit our bio’s, add video, neighborhood spotlights etc… personalize it. But, already it has been a success generating leads for us!  I am not sure how the site is built for SEO, but with how new it is it I am surprised that it is already coming up higher in search results. We had one person who contacted us because he searched for a specific address and our site came up first- even though we weren’t representing the property. So the Enterprise Network is doing something right- we’ve already gotten 3 leads this week calling and emailing us!

Rubloff is said to be a leader for helping their agents become technology savvy and really embracing the internet. What does Rubloff do to help agents get acquainted with all the possibilities of the internet?
We have real life Realtors, like myself, training and making the connection between online marketing and actual transactions. Rubloff is great at offering agents technology strategies and “How To’s”. They also make the technology very accessible. We have staff and sale agents teaching how to get an online presence and ask agents ‘How are you finding clients, how are they finding you?’; especially younger clients who really require an internet presence. We teach Internet marketing basics to building and implementing a business strategy.

Do you have an internet strategy?
Yes. With my blog my strategy is to network. I can’t always be out socializing face to face, so if there is something I am interested in or a group I am trying to target… I offer them blog space. I like to take photos and post about places in the neighborhood. After I have written a blog post about someone or someplace in the community I send them a link so that they can post it as well. Sometimes I come up 1st on Google when you type the name of a store or restaurant. Also, with other agents I have written about, I have come up 1st for their name!  They didn’t see that coming.

Your success is inspiring- with all this behind you, what plans do you have for your online future?
I have 2 future plans.

1. Hire a person to help with my online marketing and web site efforts- streamlining the process and syndicating to more outlets (like my Trulia blog which can be very powerful to leverage).
2. I am going to upgrade my Blackberry smart phone so that I will be able to blog more efficiently and instantly from the field.

Eric is a great example of a realtor using technology successfully. Eric’s story shows the importance and success that linking creates. It is about linking to valuable online members in his direct community as well as other communities at large. As I stated earlier- the bigger your digital footprint the easier it is to find you online.