HomeGain, the first website to provide instant home prices, launched Google Street View on its instant home valuation tool this evening.

HomeGain’s instant home values tool is a part of our real estate marketing solution, AgentView.

Users can now “walk” the streets as they check home prices, or search comparative or recent home sales.

The street view maps are available in most major cities across the United States.

You can view the street view maps and connect with a local Realtor by clicking here.

Louis Cammarosano

homegain.com

The property manager will be taking on significant responsibilities with the owner’s real estate. You will be effectively handing your property over to another.  It is important to look at the contract, at a minimum it must:

1. Name all parties to the contract
2. The legal property address
3. Define the responsibilities of the manager and the owner
4. Enumerate all  fees and commissions for leasing or real estate sales.
5. Define the term of the contract
6. Both parties must sign and date the contract

Agency — What Is It? Continue reading this post

I know that most everyone looks at me as an Internet guy who is good at lead conversion. As much as that is one of my strong points, one of my favorite things I do is teach my agents about Customer Education. Over the past few months I have spent a ton of money to educate myself on new concepts I could bring to the real estate world to help my company increase our business.  

One of our biggest obstacles, and most likely one of yours, is the lack of commitment that many home buyers are making these days. When I started my search a few months ago, I had no idea what I was going to learn.

I learned how to use Customer Education in our business to help drive sales.

Usually, as Realtors, we are quick to blame everyone and everything else about why a customer didn’t end up buying a home from us. I have observed this since I got into the business in 2001.  Since then I have realized that in order to become successful in this business, in fact in any business, is to accept responsibility and learn from our errors. Over the past year our Real Estate Agents have averaged 8 new buyers per month but only sold 1 home per 8 buyers per month.  

After analyzing these numbers, I realized that the reason Buyers were not commiting was because of the lack of information or more importantly their misinformation. After all, we are all products of the media these days and if they say the Real Estate market is bad, that’s a great excuse for Realtors not to become successful.  

If the Realtors don’t believe in the market, how can the buyer believe? Continue reading this post

In this edition of HomeGain’s Winning Agent Calls, Janelle and Eric Boyenga of Intero Real Estate in Silicon Valley, California, reveal the do’s and don’ts of building a successful real estate team.

The Boyenga Team’s accomplishments include: over 12 years experience in real estate; recipients of the Intero President’s Circle, being ranked in the top 2% of Realtors in their agency since 2004; sold over $100 million dollars in home sales; named in the top 5% of Realtors in their county by San Jose Magazine; certified home staging professionals; have closed double digits in home sales with HomeGain.

Listen to this month’s featured Winning Agent Call, hosted by Peter McCullough:

Highlights:

Continue reading this post

HomeGain, the first website to provide free instant home prices celebrates its 10th Anniversary today!

On April 26, 1999 HomeGain first opened its doors in Emeryville, California.

Set forth below in its entirety is HomeGain’s first press release:

HomeGain Press Release

New Site Matches Home Sellers with Real Estate Agents While Saving Both Time and Money, Receives Endorsements From Industry’s Top Leaders

Emeryville, CA – HomeGain.com, the Internet’s first resource center created specifically for home sellers, launched today on the Web at http://www.homegain.com. It is the first among hundreds of real estate sites on the Internet to cater exclusively to the home seller market and has already been called a “revolutionary” new tool for real estate agents, brokers and home sellers alike.

The site allows home sellers – for the first time – to choose a qualified, professional real estate agent online by instantly comparing and contrasting qualifications and proposals from a number of local agents – anonymously – before choosing the right real estate agent for them. The site also includes the most extensive online real estate library available for home sellers, including thousands of articles, consumer guides and online tools.

Continue reading this post

Certain types of blog posts attract visitors and generate a lot of interest (clicks), increasing the likelihood they will be read and maybe spread across the Internet. The first type of blog post hitting the mark is the “List” post.

Five Tips For Better List Posts

1. The number 10 seems to be a popular list number  – Top 10 list. The same is apparently true for odd number lists.  Don’t ask me why.  Even a post of 1 will work – The Number 1 Reason Homes Don’t Sell.
2. Use these powerful buzzwords to further attract readers, such as: Top, Best, Easy, Fast, Cheap, Simple, Popular, Tips, Tricks, Secrets
3. Don’t neglect the negative list.  For example, 7 Big Mistakes to Avoid When Photographing a Home for Sale.
4. Appeal to curiosity.  Secrets. Tips. Tricks. People are curious to know what the experts know.
5. Bold your list items.  It helps the list items stand out.

Blogging Tip courtesy of the HomeGain Blog Professor, Joseph Ferrara. To read the full article and receive the weekly real estate blogging newsletters, sign up for AgentView and the HomeGain Blogging School.