HomeGain Launches the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network

Back in February, Brian Brady famously asked whether real estate agents should use HomeGain or blog.

We can file that one under no longer relevant questions.

Starting today, HomeGain real estate agents can now use HomeGain to blog!

Early this morning we launched a free consumer-facing blogging service for our hundreds of AgentView customers.

The free, bundled Agent Blogs form a part of the HomeGain Blog and are also accessible through HomeGain’s free instant home valuation tool and from HomeGain.com.

HomeGain AgentView agents Profiles and Blogs are featured exclusively in an ad-free environment.

Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain, said of the announcement, “The Case Against Blogging has been settled out of court. We have learned through our own efforts that blogging can be a useful marketing tool.”

“Since the success of our agent customers is HomeGain’s mission, we wish to provide them with blogs of their own to supplement the visitors, phone calls, emails and leads that we send them,” Louis continued. “The Agent Blogs offer AgentView real estate agents yet another contact point with potential home buyers and sellers and further lessens the reliance on the lead form as a way of attracting potential prospects.”

Max, the (sub) human face of HomeGain is on a safari holiday in the Volcano National Park in Rwanda visiting distant relatives.

“After what happened when we announced Agent Profiles,” continued Cammarosano, “we decided to play it safe. On the advice of Max’s personal veterinarian, Dr. Wolliz, we arranged to interrupt Max’s motor tour and to send him out of the country. We intend to notify Max of the creation of the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network when he returns, but only while under the observation of Dr. Wolliz.”

In the coming months we will be adding syndicated content to supplement our real estate agents’ blogging efforts.

Real estate professionals interested in joining the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network can claim their Agent Blog by clicking on the “Get Max Results” image to the right under “Product Spotlight”. Continue reading this post

Not! Does anyone want my advice on blogging? Ok, good, I’ll give you some advice: start by writing. It’s always best to start your blog by writing something.

Now you might ask—write about what?

And that would be a good question. Well, if you are a real estate agent you might want to write about real estate. That’s my first two pieces of advice—write, and write about real estate.

Seriously, if you are just starting or thinking about starting, there are a few things that might help. I will assume you’re an agent writing to consumers, and I will assume you’re not an experienced writer—otherwise you wouldn’t need my great advice. I write on several blogs, some related to the real estate industry and some related to consumers, but writing to consumers is the business end of blogging and it’s the main usefulness to you as an agent.

What are blogs good for?

They are good for informing consumers about your local market, about the real estate process in general, about market trends, about your services, about neighborhoods and listings and about how all this ties together.

You might want to develop a list of topics, such as: Continue reading this post

No real change in my posture. I still believe that national mortgage rates have room to go lower in the next 30-90 days but I’m advising clients who are closing in less than 17 days to lock. All others can float.

Mortgage-backed securities traders have “baked in” a .25% rate cut from the Fed when they meet tomorrow. If Bernanke doesn’t cut, mortgage rates will jump quickly. This week is filled with economic data.

If the data are reported weaker than the estimates, we could see lower mortgage rates in the next week. The risk of that not happening, in this volatile market, is real so I’m sticking to the recommendation of locking your loans if you are closing before May 15.

Countrywide Financial reported a big loss from foreclosures while MasterCard reported huge profits. While MasterCard doesn’t actually issue the cards (they just make money from transactions), it shows that people are walking away from their mortgages and using credit cards more frequently. Continue reading this post

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Listen in as Louis Cammarosano of HomeGain and Barry Cunningham and Barry Johnson of Real Estate Radio USA, discuss the pros and cons of real estate topics, including lead generation and blogging.

Louis points out the value of working with HomeGain and the new tools and marketing programs that are helping agents in a challenging market.

He also gives the story of the HomeGain gorilla, Max.

Listen to the radio segment! Continue reading this post

Since internet buyers (IB) do most of their home searching and researching BEFORE calling an agent, they are more efficient buyers who won’t take up a lot of your time and resources.

Realtor studies show they are also more satisfied with their agents and overwhelmingly say they would use the same agent in the future.

The Efficient Buyer Saves Resources

Here are some interesting comparisons:

• IB spend 2.2 weeks, on average, with their agent before buying, while the non-internet buyer (so called traditional buyer) spent 7.1 weeks with their agents.
• IB previewed 6.7 homes while the traditional buyer previewed a whopping 15.4
• 81% of IB stay with the first agent they choose to contact

In addition: Continue reading this post