Eric Blackwell who is the Director of Technology for RE/MAX Properties East in Louisville, Kentucky, spoke with me yesterday from British Columbia where he is speaking at the Real Estate Web Masters Conference to other real estate professionals about SEO.

Listen to our interview about SEO:

Highlights:

J: Eric, what’s the main message that you want to get across to other real estate professionals about SEO (search engine optimization)?

E: I think there is some mystery attached to the term SEO but what it really is creating a website that Google and other search engines would want it to be. It’s a lot of hard work to build a site that has both the reputation and authority that search engines are looking for. A lot of times people think you need to trick the search engines but that’s not necessarily true.

J: Have you found that there common threads between leads and traffic that come from HomeGain, and Pay per Click, and natural search engine traffic?

E: The common thread is that there are best practices that work to effectively “convert” them to clients and then to lifetime customers. Whether you get the lead from HomeGain or other source, the lead has to come into your site and you need to be able to get them to contact you or to be able to contact them – and be able to convert those clients. The more effective you are at that, the better off you’ll be and the more profitable things will be for you.

J: What are some common traps that Realtors might fall into when trying to do SEO marketing?
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A certain “not so unknown” orange gorilla!

Max Wearable Button

Max was in high demand as he appeared at this year’s Texas REALTORS® Convention and Trade Expo. At the top of each hour Realtors® had a chance to take the loveable primate home!

That’s not the only reason it was such a big day for Max; HomeGain was selected to be the TAR Expo’s “Mystery Booth,” in which one lucky real estate agent won a cool $500 gift card courtesy of TAR® just for dropping her business card in Max’s bowl.

Plus, a Flip Ultra camcorder was up for grabs. Drum roll, please! The winner was Erica Sanchez of American Dream Realty in Texas.

We would like to thank everybody who stopped by our booth, including those sporting their chic HomeGain button (shown here). Request your free Max button.

A special thanks to Jennifer Perez and Kevin Malmgren for a terrific job at the booth. Next stop: California REALTORS® Convention and Trade Expo October 14th-16th. Hope to see all you CA agents there!

What possible reason could you have to buy a home this year? Let’s analyze the facts.

1)    Interest rates down to 5.5% - the takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have the rates tumbling. Why on earth would anyone want to pay a low interest rate like this when we could wait for double digit mortgage rates. I mean at 11% interest we would get twice the write off on our taxes wouldn’t we?

2)    $7500 tax credit for first time home buyers. You heard me right that is a tax credit – not a deduction. Of course if we wait on 11% mortgage rates we will have a pretty big deduction anyway so we may not want or need this $7500 tax CREDIT!

3)    Seller incentives are at all time highs. Sellers are almost certainly going to pay all your closing costs.  They may also be willing to throw in a refrigerator, privacy fence, and who knows what else.  But who needs all that stuff!  I would really rather pay my own closing costs and other expenses to get into a home as this makes me more independent.    Again, I can write that off on my taxes – right?

4)    Homes are at bargain prices compared to a couple of years ago! We don’t want to buy when prices are down though – do we? It is always better to buy high and sell low isn’t it?    If we bought now we might make a big profit in a few years – what would we do with all that money?

Any rational person can see that buying a home in 2008 would be a huge mistake.  Waiting a couple of years to buy a home would obviously be the wise decision.

The 2008 Texas REALTORS® Convention and Trade Expo starts tomorrow in San Antonio, TX. HomeGain will be present for the kick off of the convention, exhibiting at booth #224 all day.

Stopping by our booth gives you a chance to win a free Max—every hour! As well as a Flip Ultra camcorder to help you showcase your business online.

We are featuring our new product, AgentView, and giving free demonstrations to show all the ways that it can showcase your business as a real estate professional.

Don’t by shy and come on by! The next shows we’ll be visiting are C.A.R. in Long Beach, CA, next month, followed by NAR Expo in Orlando, FL in November. Hope to see you at one of them!

What are your thoughts on your state Realtor association’s annual expos? Are you going to yours? Continue reading this post

I had a conversation with a new client for about 20 minutes on the phone the other night and about half way through he revealed to me that he has been looking at houses for the last 6 months, but, could not understand why real estate agents would stop contacting him after showing several homes.

Three agents had the opportunity to sell this buyer a home and would have, except they did not want to show him more than 10 houses to make it happen.

Perplexed? Amazed?

Really, I’m still not sure what I feel after having this conversation, but, one thing I did know was that I was going to find him a home and close the transaction. In a time where many real estate professionals are struggling to make ends meet, I simply cannot understand the mentality that many agents have.

Maybe it’s the water that we can drink at the cooler in the office or maybe many agents are simply demoralized after looking at their shrinking bank accounts and rising credit card balances. Either way, once we get an opportunity to work with a pre-qualified buyer who will buy a home, we need to make it happen.

Maybe the difference for some agents and teams who are successful today is that they seize the opportunity when presented while others just want things to fall in their lap – unwilling to work hard enough to make a deal happen.

If I could just offer a simple recommendation in what is generally a tough real estate market: seize every opportunity presented. Do whatever it takes.

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We’re pleased to announce our 2008-2009 Advisors Group and welcome our latest member, Mike Farmer.

Over the past year, since the Advisors group was initiated, we have received invaluable insight into our real estate products. By continuing to meet with this influential group of agents and brokers, we will be further enabled to focus on bringing improved customer service as well as enhancements to our marketing solutions that we provide to other real estate professionals.

Advisors have also recognized the exclusive group as an opportunity to network with each other, brainstorm and strategize.

As the 13th member of the HomeGain Advisors Group, Mike will join the original 12 members from the 2007-2008 Advisors, which includes: Continue reading this post