It Is All About Marketing

Recently I was rereading an article from Mary Ellen Podmolik1 about short-sales and why they have become such a frequent situation in this down market.
In part it all is about banks and lending companies lending their money at very risky not to say crazy situations expecting the house market never to stop growing and the bubble burst.
As we all know we ended paying for their greediness, but in part it also is the lack of effectiveness of some realtors that do not market the property of their client at their full extent.
It has been said again and again by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) that 84% of new buyers start their search on the Internet and it is obvious that a local newspaper only reaches your town for a weekend or if it is a magazine it will last on the shelves for a month. These kind of add that reach only a minor group of clients since less than 5 % according to NAR will ever open the real estate section of the newspaper. On the other hand you can place a Virtual Tour on the Internet for approximately half the cost of your newspaper weekend adds. The virtual tour will stay put for a year instead of a weekend or a month costing you less than 27 cents per day and getting for you some important issues:
•· More exposure for your money
•· More listings since you will stand out of your competition
•· And perhaps the most important a customer willing to refer you to his friends since he got top dollars for his property.
Virtual Florida Tours is a family owned company that serves Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Pine Crest, Palmetto Bay, Hallandale, Fort Lauderdale, and Hollywood cities and all of Miami Dade and Broward Counties in South West Florida. We are always striving for excellence so do not hesitate to contact us at 305 331 8960 and we will be sure to give the help you need.
Reference:
Podmolik , Mary Ellen; "A Short Sale's Long Journey"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-10-23/a-short-sales-long-journey/

New way to increase your presence at the web

Recently Virtual Florida Real Tours started offering a new Internet service to help enhance the presence at the Internet of our customers.
Recently the different providers of Real Tour Vision started offering Internet based Slide Showsthat are send to Facebook, AOL and Google, adding to this our already active presence in the Internet guaranties a bigger exposure to all our customers.
Virtual Florida Tours guaranties maximum exposure of your listings on the Internet by syndicating the Virtual Tour at More than 20 different pages like realtors.com, homes.com, craiglist just to mention some of the pages covered.
Other important issue for most of our clients is the personal attention of a cfamily company that is located in the same community that they are doing their business.
Our company offer its services in Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Pine Crest, Hollywood, Fortlauderdale and the rest of the counties of Miami Dae and Broward counties.

Increasing your website traffic

he strategy of your web site traffic generation should not be left to search engine hits alone. You need to advertise your website to make it successful. Of course search engine hits definitely are important, but getting a page one search engine ranking takes some effort.
Placing some engine strings on a site will not make your page ranking to increase. The sites that come in page one have been around for some time, their traffic patterns are high, they have various external links pointing to them and they have very high content quality.

Your webpage can come up with good content, and you can have your website age for a while. But most companies have difficulty with obtaining high traffic patterns and increasing the numbers of external links. This is what stops your web sites from getting to page one.

The companies that offer local services get very little traffic from out of their area, and local traffic is simply not enough to obtain the links and traffic needed for a page one search engine ranking. Even with the best content the search engines are looking for information that a local company's site simply lacks. Therefore your solution as a small company owner is to advertise the traffic.

Your company's site was developed with certain market goals in mind. You wanted to educate your prospects as to which services you provide and why they should p[refer your services or products over your competition. So your website is an effort to become your sales force when you are not available to sell your products or services.

You can advertise your site in your own business cards, send mail outs, and use print advertising of your company that includes information of your site. By doing this you are making it easier to your prospects to find you and increase your website traffic considerably. You can use your website and your campaign to capture email addresses offering a monthly web magazine from your web site. Then you can establish a flow up through email and this will help sell your products or services even more.
For more information on how to increase your SEO please contact Virtual Florida Tours at 305 331 8960 and we will gladly help you increase your website ranking. We also offer virtual tour services for properties and business in the areas of Miami Dade and Broward counties, covering the cities of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Pine Crest, Hallandale and Fort Lauderdale.
Reference: Aleagha, Peyman; "Why You Need to Advertise Your Real Estate Website?"; retrieved from the Internet at:
http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1586

Ways to boost property value

To increase the property value there are a group of things that can be done some should be approached by the owner and others by the realtor
The owner should take care of all the aspects of the house that require their attention as painting, decorating and removing any object that is not needed from the home. If needed he/she can contact a storage space to remove extra furniture and clothes that are not used on a daily basis.:
•1. Paint the exterior
•2. Complete all needed repairs
•3. Furnish the home to sell. (contract a decorator)
•4. Upgrade front yard landscaping (try professional landscaping)
•5. Create a quick kitchen makeover
•6. Think spa, not bathroom
•7. Install soft and hard window treatments
•8. Replace carpet rather than just cleaning
•9. Don't overlook your closets
The job of the realtor is to increase the exposure of the property and help the owner keep the peace of mind of the buyer:
•1. Purchase a home warranty (peace of mind of the buyer)
•2. Contract a virtual tour of the property that must be placed in realtor.com and other websites.
•3. Make flyer that can be downloaded from the webpage and place the add in other web-pages.
When the owner and the realtor take care of all these points and the home is placed in the market at the appropriate price the house will sell in as short time as possible.
To obtain the maximum Internet exposure for your listing and to increase the SEO of your web page you may contact Virtual Florida Real Tours that is a fully authorized dealer of RTV the number 1one virtual tour provider. We serve the areas of Miami Dade and Broward counties. Do not hesitate to call us at
(305) 331 8960

A Key to Selling Homes

There are three Key Factors in Selling Real Estate
1. Fair Price
2. Location
3. EXPOSURE
Virtual Florida Tours is your best way to get your listings exposed! We are a full service dealer provider with RTV, the world largest network of virtual tour providers and an approved vendor with realtor.com. Our company is locally owned and operated virtual tour provider in Miami Dade, Florida. Our company serves Miami Dade and Broward counties, Included in this area are the cities of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Pine Crest, Palmetto Bay, Hallandale, and Fort Lauderdale.
NAR statistics recently show that about 86% of home buyers use the Internet when they begin searching for a home, and 67% of current home buyers in Florida come from outside the state. You will not be able to reach this market by using a yard sign and local advertising. In today’s market exposure has become critical and Virtual Florida Tours has a distribution list that outperforms our competition. Our Virtual Tours will show your information, ensuring to brand the online exposure you and your company need to compete in today’s challenging market. The virtual tour will have links to your personal and your company’s web site; will show your business partners as well as your phone and your email address. Therefore the prospect viewing the tour is constantly exposed to your information making it easier to contact you. Additionally to the traditional virtual tour you will find Area Information, an excellent Mortgage Calculator, and Satellite View of the property. You can also contract additional requests that include:
Professional Narration, Custom Pintable Flyers and Interactive Floor Plans
Single property websites and Panoriders
We are always striving for excellence and our real value is created by the quality of the service and support that we provide to our customers. Our main priority is your complete satisfaction and we see the success of our customers as our ultimate goal. Allow us the opportunity to serve you on your next virtual tour and you will see why our customers like Gustavo Lopez consider our company the difference between on sale and SOLD!

Gorgeous Home at South West Miami Dade

Recently Virtual Florida Tours made a virtual tour of this gorgeous home equal to none, in excellent condition. Absolutely fabulous. Formal living and dining rooms, immense kitchen with fantastic informal dining area. Updated bathrooms and kitchen. Stainless appliances. Extra large family room with beautiful stone wall and decorator's touches, overlooks a private & cozy terrace & patio with fountains. Very large inside laundry rm. Bonus rm could be den, office. You must see this home inside. Excellent neighborhood & schools.
This single Family one story Property in Dade County was Built in 1968. with 3 total bedroom(s) and 2 total full bath(s) has approximately 1813 sq. ft. Central air conditioning and Central heat
Interior features: First Floor Entry,Dishwasher, Dryer, Microwave, Refrigerator, Washer,Bedroom on Entry LevelExterior features: Exterior Lighting, Fence, Hurricane Shutters, Patio, Room For Pool,Front exposed to NorthShingle Roof the lot has aproximately 7500 sq. ft.
If you are interested in this home please contact Zizi Careaga 305-987-0211 12695 S. Dixie Hwy Miami, FL US 33156

What's working with your company in terms of establishing an Internet presence?

While at least eighty percent or more of today's buyers begin their search on the Web. These prospective buyers expect their agents to provide them with accurate data consistently and quickly apart from their ability to email. When an agent ignores this pool of buyers he/she will have a difficult time in the business1.
Everyone is recommending an improved presence of the agents in the Internet. Mr. Taverner says. "you are what you Web." People are going to look at websites and select an agent by what they see as their virtual brochure on the Internet"2.

All agents must remember that real estate, like most other sales positions, is a numbers game. You need to contact enough people that want what you have to offer, enough times, and you will make sales1.Exposure is the most important factor to remember when marketing your listing online. Post multiple images of your listing everywhere you can. Put them on your website, your MLS, Yahoo!, Google, etc. Any good virtual tour provider will distribute your images to the major real estate websites for you3.
To transform online traffic into foot traffic, you could announce your open houses on your virtual tour and website. Doing this will make your open houses more effective since you are driving qualified foot traffic right to your doorstep3.
Virtual Florida Tours will provide you with a complete statistics of who and from where they are viewing your tour. Knowing this will allow you to decide which are the marketing tools that are working for you increasing your return on investment.. The data obtained will allow you to show your clients what you are doing to market their home and use it in your listing presentations3.

Remember that today's customer is becoming an expert in almost every field. This false confidence on their Internet acquired knowledge, these prospects lack trust on professional services and they have a big desire to cut out the middleman. So in this times of Internet informed customers you need to offer your client more than they can easily obtain or secure on their own through the Internet4.
Also the existence of a second domain name that is related to the city or region to which you provide your service and is not so evident that it is your own website will help bring traffic to your site, This second website has to be branded for legal reasons and should contain full disclosure about the fact that the site is yours must be easy to find, but it will not be placed in the first page. You may place all your information in the contact us page5.

Reference:
•1. Nelson Nancy ; Why-do-Some-Agents-Succeed-in-any-Market-and-Others-Falter-3 ; Retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-13/viewpoints-why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-3/
•2. Tavener ,Mike; "The-Right-Tools-for-Success"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-13/the-right-tools-for-success/
•3. Roberts , Tyler;" Why Do Some Agents Succeed in Any Market and Others Falter?"; retrieved from the Internet at:, http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-06/viewpoints-why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-2/
•4. Wester , Fayette; "‘Prosumerism' and Your Business - Friend or Foe?"; Retrieved from the Internet at:http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-10/%e2%80%98prosumerism-and-your-business-friend-or-foe/
•5. Proctor, Craig; "How to Generate More Leads and Track Your Ads with Multiple Domain Names"; Retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-09-09/how-to-generate-more-leads-and-track-your-ads-with-multiple-domain-names/

Is your glass half full or half empty?

Hanley Wood has made an excellent economic study on how difficult is the situation on the real estate market; She is playing with the ghost of inflation and flagging the banner of doom. I will admit that the situation is not precisely the most favorable but when she is looking at her glass and saying that it is half empty. At the same time multiple realtors around the country are excelling in this market and even though the sales market did declined 2.6% this implied that 4,733,000 houses changed their owner in that month.

So, what are the successful real estate agents doing? They are increasing their presence in the Internet and in their farm areas. They are showing their customers that they are not only the more knowledgeable person in their market they are widening their possible clientele since they are using new techniques like virtual tours.

When a realtor uses virtual tours he/she goes one step further in the International market. Now not only the realtors and clients on their city can have an access to their listings. The use of the Internet allows everyone to reach you and your velocity on responding to your clients will ensure your share of the market.

If you are still not convinced that the glass is half full just think of this 0.01% of the houses sold in June represent 47.3 houses. My very modest opinion is that we can fight for at least one of these 47 houses with teeth and claws. To do this you need to apply all the new technologies available to increase our presence in the Internet, we also need to have automatic systems allowing us to respond to the prospects as soon as possible. You should also not forget the ranking of your page on the Internet. Increasing the SEO of your page is a must.



Reference: Wood, Hanley; "Housing Market Key Indicator Alert - Aug. 21" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1515

How can we succed in this challenging market?

The word most realtors are hearing recently is cahallenge. Undoubtedly there is a significant challenge in the real estate industry so realtors need to think and actimplementing out of the box ideas.
Realtors need to increase sales, generate new leads, and get know by the community where they live. agents and brokers alike are looking for diverse and unique methods. Realtors need to implement tools that allow them to connect with clients and obtaining a competitive edge above the competitors has proven positive for many. One such tool is virtual tours to help boost business.
The realtors need to understand the great difficulties that their customers are undergoing while selling or buying a home this will help create a valuable relationship.
Richard Ruff;"Why Do Some Agents Succeed in Any Market and Others Falter?"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-08-23/why-do-some-agents-succeed-in-any-market-and-others-falter-2/

A Growing Real Estate Market

In this times that all the Real Estate Agents are hearing is that the market is shrinking, there is still a certain part of the real estate market that is continuously expanding.
As health care improves the number of Americans reaching their senior years is increasing at a tremendous pace. Some of them choose to live in active retirement communities while others look at facilities that allow them the assistance needed for their needs.
According the US census there were 37.3 million people over age 65 living in the United States in 2006 that is approximately 12 % of the US population. Not forget that this number is growing exponentially and is expected to increase to around 86.7 million people by the year 2050.
This market is spread all around the country and Florida is an excellent place for retirement due to its excellent climate. To address the needs of this growing community REaltors shoulkd increase the Interenet presence of their lisitng using virtual tours to increase the possibilities of obtaining a share of this market.
To prepare Realtors to focus on this growing group of the population the National Association of Realtors created the SRES designation. Those Realtors interested in addressing the needs of Americans ages 50 and over need to understand that it is not easy for people to downsize or move from their homes, therefore to cope with the stress generated you will need a lot of patience, but on the other hand you will be rewarded with the knowledge that you helped a person to obtain a better living condition.
Based on this and the continuous need of learning to correctly serve the community it will be a good time to go back to school and obtain the SRES designation.

Prospecting in Real Estate

If you are a number person is about time that you pay attention to some NAR statistics.According to NAR over 80% of home owners work with the first real estate agent they come in contact with. 87% of home buyers start their search on the Internet and one out of twenty of these buyers are already ready to buy.
The question is simple Who do you think has the highest probability to be this first realtor in this world dominated by the Internet? Someone that has not even a webpage or the one whose presence in the Internet is such that his webpage shows in the first page of any search on your farming area. That is accomplished by increasing the SEO of your Webpage.
Based on NAR houses are sold on average every five years so you only need to stay personally in touch with around 150 prosppects to generate 30 sales a year. Remember you will need to excel in your business to be their realtor.
So how you can differentiate from your competition again by showing a good use of the Internet and the different possibilities this tool offers. You need to have a consistent use of virtual tours, panoriders, a fast response to your clients by using automatic services, and last but not least you need to keep in contact with your previous customers on a periodical basis.
If you are just starting to work as a realtor one sure way to increase your prospects is by targeting expired listings.This omes did not sell because either they were incorrectly priced or the terms were unreasonable.
Houses that are built in a bad location need to reflect this in their price. Since is very unprobable that the homeowner will list again with the previous realtor here is something you can do.After you get i contact with the expired owner ask them why they think that their house did not sell. Listen for several minutes most people just want to be heard.
Offer them your services and a detail analysis why their house did not sell, remember to get an appointment to show them this as soon as possible.
Reference: Wickman, Floyd: "I quit real estate- part 4" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1495

Reality of the Real Estate Market

Reality of the Real Estate Market (edit/delete)
After reading a recent article by Phillip Cantrell I realized that our blog should share it since some of the information in that article was extremely important and clarifies the present situation of the real estate Industry.
It is true that the number of sales went low in June it is also true that from the 120 million homes existing in the U.S. more than 33% are already paid in full, around 40 million of the remaining were bought before the year 2000 so even in a fire sale they will have a minimum of 30% equity.
On the other hand according to all the information available 94% of the houses are not behind in their payments therefore only 4 million homes are at a risk and of those only 2% are in foreclosure.
For these owners that made a bad decision the Congress is about to spend $300 billion dollars to save their houses, so despite all the talking the situation is not a s bad as some people are placing it.
One of the many ways in which Virtual Florida Tours tries to serve the community is by keeping the realtors serving the areas of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Miami, Pine Crest, Hallandale, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Miami Dade and Broward Counties informed of the real situation of the market in which they carry their business.
Reference: Cantrell, Phillip; Things I Think I Think - Real Estate in a Nutshell; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-08-05/things-i-think-i-think-real-estate-in-a-nutshell/

What Makes Your Brand Different?

Most real estate home pages will allow visitors to perform a property search, obtain school and town information, so what makes your brand different has to be in the quality of your customer service.
Try to make a little survey about the value of your brand in the community you can even video tape it and I publish their answers.
Despite there are multiple applications that can help your associates the most important asset you can teach them through your leadership is the importance of hard work and discipline to serve the needs of our clients and customers.
There are multiple applications out there but most of them will not help the associate as much as a virtual tour (that gives them a real statistic information on how many times it is visited and from where) to be able to have realistic price conversations with their sellers.
Your agents should deploy a real price strategy, they need to be able to do a very well substantiated mortgage portability and a good client risk mitigation protocol.
Reference: Einbinder, Scott; "The Courage of Leadership - What Real Estate Requires"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-07-30/the-courage-of-leadership-what-real-estate-requires/

Ideas on: How to Excel in a Slow Market?

Once you review all the recomendations of different realtor coaches and especially those of bob Corcoran you will realize that if you want to succed in a slow market you will need to do some adjustments.
you need to make your prospect understand that you are way ahead of those that only work on real estate when things are going well. Make emphasis on your experience and quality of your service. For example all the information from the national real estate association let you know that around 87% of the new buyers start their search for a new home on the Internet. So you need to address the current marketing conditions offering your sellers a virtual tour of their home, you could include a panorider that show a panoramic view of the interior of the house and is associated with a webpage that uses the address of the house as its URL (this will increase dramatically the number of hits to your virtual tour).
By showing your prospects that you are totally committed to your profession and that your personal goal is to sell their house.
You need to explain your client the market conditions and why setting the right price is the only way to generate the interest of the buyers and therefore you will receive more offers allowing you to sell at a better price.
Since the market is slow you need to look for houses that are in top notch shape since those are the ones that will sell faster.
Use your time wisely. Do not run around without a specific task.
Reference: Corcoran, Bob; "How to Flourish in a Slow Market"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1465

How to Make the Marketing Process an Agreable Experience?

I was reading an article from Maya Bailey and she recommends 5 steps of the law of attraction to make marketing an agreeable and profitable activity.
1. Remember you are giving a valuable service when you market yourself.
2. Since there is no one else like you. You need to start viewing what are your strengths and for that you can ask for testimonials from satisfied clients. The more you see why these clients like the easier it will be for you to irradiate out a positive attitude.
3. If the possible customers do not know who you are or where to reach you? Your real estate business is going down the drains. You need to increase your visibility as much as you can especially in a slow market.
4. You always must offer something to your clients. You need to be exited about the quality of the service you are providing. Then people will like to hear from you. According to Dr. Maya whatever you give comes back to you multiplied.
5. In stead of presenting yourself with your name and company name start with a question asking the person about the stress most people have when buying and selling... Wait for the answer of your customer and then. Explain to hem that you are a specialist on handling all the aspects of the deals related on how to sell and buy houses since you are a realtor® with X_ Real Estate Company.
Now you got them involved so it is your time to explain how you can help them include all you do that differentiate you from the different competitors: you make interactive virtual tours of their homes that will be placed in the most visited portals of the Internet and you create a webpage for their home with a panorider that will reduce the number of prospects visiting their house since only those that really like it will be visiting the house, etc.
Reference: Bailey, Maya: "5 Easy Steps to Real Estate Marketing" retrieved from the Internet at:
http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1464

Importance of Measuring Your Return on Investment

When organizations want to measure their success they have to rely on their return on investment (ROI). A successful organization is capable of measure the leverage and demonstrates the contribution of their marketing strategies and how they affect the bottom line of the company.
You need to measure:
•1. What is the amount invested in the specific marketing campaign?
•2. What amount is the return?
•3. How many customers were gained?
•4. What share and penetration does the company has on the market?
•5. Which points of the marketing campaign worked and which didn't?
Any marketing plan needs to be balanced to help your organization measuring the contributions of the marketing plan. When you are able to place the plan into a larger context and link it to the asset growth of your company you can validate if the plan is a valuable or profitable opportunity for your business.
If you are not able to show if the marketing's plan ROI is positive you can be repeating systematically the same mistake again and again until you go bankruptcy. This has to be done with all your marketing as advertisement.
Does your investment in magazine adds bring you back the return you are expecting?
Is your webpage PRS at least a 2?
Can customers find you without typing the URL of your company?
Are you using Virtual Tours and placing them in the major Internet portals?
You need to be able to do this or you will be throwing away your money.
Reference: The Gonzalez Group; "What's Your MROI? 5 Ways to Find Out"; http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-07-16/whats-your-mroi-5-ways-to-find-out/

Excel in Customer Satisfaction

In order to excel in customer satisfaction you need to be able to solve little nuances. Once a customer of Virtual Florida Tours wanted to have an unified reference link (URL) attached to the virtual tour of his listing. He selected the full address of his listing for the URL but after that he decided that when he was giving it through the telephone it was extremely long. So he called our customer service and we provided the new URL at no cost for him. The next day we had a very nice referral letter of his experience with our services.
Whenever a problem occurs you need to have a set of policies that are able to solve these difficulties this will bring new customers to your business since a satisfied customer will tell an average of 5 people about the good experience. On the other hand if you mishandle a problem the dissatisfied customer cannot stop telling how bad was their experience and based on statistics of customer service satisfaction between 10 - and 13% will inform up to 20 people about their bad experience!
When you are able to have the policies that solve those little difficulties that will always occur due to our work with imperfect human beings you gain the loyalty of that customer and they become 8 times more loyal to your company than customers that never have had a problem.
Customers expect that everything will go smoothly. But when there is any difficulty the customer emotions are being hit and the worse they go the more people they tell.
Whenever you find a problem you need to establish the guidelines and policies to guide the actions of all your employees all the way through the transaction and make your business to excel wining their loyalty. Remember we are in a business that requires our customers repeated business and also their referrals...
When shopping for virtual tours in Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Miami City, and all of Miami Dade and Broward counties do not hesitate to call your local virtual tour provider at (305) 331 8960 or contact us through the Internet at: http://www.virtualfloridarealtours.com
Reference: Geroux, Sandy; "Creating the WOW for Customers " retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1444

The Need of Virtual Tours

I was reading an article of Mr. Verl Workman he is a very respected Real Estate coach, and he was making emphasis on the importance of including virtual tours in all of their listings. He admitted that virtual tours have evolved and now they are faster and clearer, and that the statistics prove that they decrease the days that the listings stay on the market.
In the first place you will list more properties when you demonstrate your online marketing strategy in the listing presentation, you should include that you use professional photography and that your virtual tours are distributed on a wide array of the nation's top search sites for real estate.
From a buyers stand point the realtor association of real estate admits that between 70-80% of all customers are going online and a huge number will not see your listings because they are lacking a professional virtual tour. The studies are showing that those listings with more visual content are viewed more than twice as often and tend to sell quicker than properties that do not have them.
He emphatically recommends professional virtual tours of every house no matter how good or bad it looks. You need to get the word out that the property is on the market and for that you will need the help of a professional virtual tour provider
If you are thinking that the property does not photograph well it is time to ask yourself will you show the property offline? If you answer yes to that question it is obvious that you should show it online, and the best way to do so is by using a professional virtual tour provider.
He recommended to use a professional virtual tour in all the listings, and after some of his realtors following this recommendation have come to the conclusion that customers that request to visit these less than perfect homes are already aware of the imperfections so they are more qualified to become buyers.
You will be saving your valuable time to show a home that the customer has not visually prequalified. You will also pick more clients in this slow market since the clients will recognize that you go the extra mile to help them sell their properties. Since you can show the statistics of the online viewers it will be easier when you need to negotiate a price reduction or a less than full price offers.
He recommends that every property should have a virtual tour, since it is a small investment that will help you gain more listings and sell more properties. This will also help you in the marketing process since your virtual tour provider can help you increase your presence on the Internet.
Remember for all your virtual tours needs at Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Miami, and all of Miami Dade and Broward Counties contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or through the Internet at http://www.virtualfloridarealtours.com
Reference: Workman Verl; ‘Which Properties Need Virtual Tours?" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1447

Are You Expanding Your Company?

Most people think that if their company is not growing it is because it is going out of business. Undoubtedly a steady growth is essential to the life line of any company, so to grow a healthy business needs everyday essentials.
Companies can grow by merger or recruiting and both methods have their own downfalls.
In merging you need to be able to maintain the personnel that was hired in the company working and producing at a pace that compensate for the big payment you are incurring when you buy a business. Recruiting will require extra space, equipment and staff.
Companies can go bankrupt because they tried to grow too fast. If your cost precedes your increase in production your ability to pay your costs can carry down into bankruptcy. On the other hand if you wait too long to acquire all the resources needed for the expansion the effect of recruiting personnel will be lost.
The bottom line is that whatever is the way you are looking to make your company grow you will need enough capital to be able to endure expansion costs.
When you purchase another company risks that the personnel Independent contractors) in the newly acquired company leave, as a result of this situation you were throwing away your money. To try mitigating this the buyer should include conditions in the purchase agreement that protects him/her from personnel moving out of the company or diminish productivity of the business.
If you try to grow by recruiting unless your company starts with a strong core of productive agents, it might never grow.
As always the situation will be affected by the quality of advertising, That includes the ranking of their web page, if the new company uses already a virtual tour provider that allows yor business to show its listings with the qualkity require to attract prospects. Also the conditions of the market, the competition, and all the company related conditions from leadership, to training will be affecting your expansion. It is wise to seek counsel before taking any decision.
The fastest and costliest way of expansion is to acquire a established business. Many buyers do not have access to the cash needed for the acquisition, or the costs of maintaining the new business running.
Remember that if you have any needs of virtual tours in Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Dade or Broward counties Virtual Florida Tours is your best selection. Please contact us at (305) 331 8960 or through the internet at http://www.virtualfloridaraltours.com
Reference: Barlow, George; "What to Consider When Developing a Plan for Growth and Expansion"; retrieved from the Internet at: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-07-10/what-to-consider-when-developing-a-plan-for-growth-and-expansion

Succeding in Today's Real Estate Business

Residential real estate professionals need to get back to the basics of your business or you will certainly lose your customer base. The industry is dealing with the continuing impact of subprime and mortgage liquidity problems in the housing market.
Some realtors complain of the conditions of the market, but if their home is priced right, buyers will buy. You need to inform your buyers that our local market is simply phenomenal because prices are down and interest rates are historically low.
The realtor needs to research the market so he could list the house just one hair below the competition. You will need to go back to the basics-from sending out ‘Just Listed' and ‘Just Sold' postcards to holding buyer seminars and staying in touch with former clients and prospects. It is important to increase your visibility in your community and your marketplace. Knock on doors; reintroduce yourself. Do not forget to place in the contract an agreement with the seller that if the property is not sold in a certain time span, the listing price will be revisited for a possible reduction you need to be aggressive and realistic in pricing homes for sale. In this market is a good idea to target market your prospecting to homeowners who have to sell for whatever reason, such as deaths, divorces, company relocations and downsizing.
The simple solution to the actual situation in the marketplace is to spend your time increasing the number of your listing inventory. You need to spend 100 percent of your time focused on getting your product in front of the consumer
Even though the according to NAR 87% of buyers are starting their search in the Internet , only 5% of them is ready to buy in that moment. So as a realtor you need to educate your customers on the realities of the local marketplace. Also if you get a prospect to contact you through the Internet it is important that they receive immediate response. You can have an automated system in place or a personal assistant for customer follow-up a Blackberry can help also these are critical components to establishing and maintaining a good relationship with both clients and prospects.
Get yourself consider as the expert in your local marketplace, the easiest way to do this is by offering current housing data to the local media.
Most real estate companies are obtaining good results by using virtual tours and sending the tours and slide shows of properties on discs, using panoriders (this are riders with a panoramic tour of the property and a URL containing the address of the property that is attached to the virtual tour) thereby creating detailed exposure of the property for their prospects. This gives them more information than sending the standard photos and listing data.
You need to change your approach to fit today's changing marketplace. Do something different to rebuild your productivity or you may find yourself doing something different tomorrow to make a living.
Right now there are some signs indicating that Miami's real estate housing market is showing some signs of recovery. If you check you will see fewer foreclosure signs, that home prices are stabilizing and less time required for listings to sell. Maybe the most important of all is that the media is becoming more positive.
for any of your virtual tours needs in Miami Beach, Miami Dade or Broward counties remember to contact Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or www.virtualfloridaraltours.com.

Reference: Monte Helme; "Say ‘Yes' to Results - A Dozen Ways to Say ‘No' to Negativity"; retrieved from realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com

Your Most Powerful Tool

As a professional you do not have any tool more powerful that your mind. You need to think with clarity before acting, by doing this you will move upward and onward more rapidly in your career.

The best way is to think in your benefits as well as the benefits of the company of which you are part. To achieve this in a personal term is to increase your earning ability. In other words you need to apply the needed mental, emotional and physical energies toward getting the needed results for yourself and your company.
You should try to increase your overall effectiveness and contribution in all the areas of your life, especially and most important in your work.
Increase everything that you are doing that yield the maximum financial return. Also think in those activities that give you the greatest value and achieve the most satisfaction and increase them as much as possible.
As a realtor what are you doing to differentiate yourself from other professionals and make yourself more marketable. Are you using the Intenet in a valuable way? Are you giving the seller/buyer a service that other professionals in your area are not providing?
Have your company stablished a plan of action that separates your's from other companies offering similar services? Do you offfer virtual tours that will allow possible buyers from other states or countries to "visit " your listing without the need of personally coming to see it? Do you have a stablished folow up plan that will allow you to give drip information to possible clients?
Rememeber you can always count on your virtual tour provider for advice in how to make your listings more effectively presented to your prospects. If you have any virtual tour need in Miami Beac, Miami Dade or Broward Counties? Please call Virtual Florida Tours at (305) 331 8960 or contact us through the Internet at http:www.virtualfloridarealtours.com and remember that we strive for excellence.
Reference: Tracy, Brian; "Strategic Thinking", Broker Agent News E-Letter - Updated for Sept. 19, 2007

How to increase your presence on the Internet?

Blogging is a useful thing in SEO, but 90% of blogs fail for the most elemental of reasons: Most people fall back into a pattern where they start failing to keep it posted frequently, which actually gets the agent PENALIZED by the search engines, because the content is not kept fresh. If you want a blog and you are not willing to invest the time required for this task, there is a company named Real Estate Blog Sites. They will run it for you and keep it current for under $100 a month. (Parker, 2008)
If you want to capture your clients make a habit of doing these two things: Use persuasive words that "hook" their interest, and include a well-defined call to action in every piece. You should:
Know who you are writing for and keep their preferences in mind as you write each word.
Put your message in terms of "you" rather than "I" or "we." People don't care about what "we" offer; they care about how your product or service can make their lives better.
Make it clear what your readers should do, think, or believe as a result of reading the information you present.
State your intention as a command—known as a "call to action." It can be as simple as "Call Today" or "Order It Now." (Saunders, 2008)
How much money you spend annually on marketing whose results are unaccounted for. Monies spent on classified newspaper ads, phone books, brochures, flyers, magazines, direct mail, bus benches, TV/Radio, pens, hats, jackets, shirts, Internet, billboards, logos, slogos, and blogs. STOP IT! Stop spending money without monitoring and evaluating the results of every marketing dollar you've spent and are going to spend!
In comparison with a newspaper ad that cost you around 200 dollars for a weekend a virtual tour give you exposure on the Internet for a whole year at a cost of pennies a day.
Also since we are dealers of Real Tour Vision and its proprietary system you can evaluate the hit statistics of the tour by webpage and in this way you can show your customer how effective is your advertisement.
References
1. Parker, Michael, What every agent needs to know about blogging, social networking, RSS feeds and SEO, Broker Agent News Feb 2008
2. Saunders, Karen, Capture clients with words that hook and graphics that kick, Broker Agent News, 2008

Our tours are reachig even farther

We are proud to announce you that our tours can reach around 25 new sites including Zillow.com.
Clickin the linkbelow to see an example:
http://www.postlets.com/res/450899
We can also provide you with the information necessary to embed this into your webpage,or to other places that will accept this like ebay.
Also you can get a minipostlets