Thursday, July 31, 2008

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/

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

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

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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

Thursday, July 24, 2008

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

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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

Friday, July 11, 2008

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

Sunday, July 6, 2008

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

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

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