Congratulations to the latest winners from recent HomeGain surveys!

As a way to thank Realtors for their time for completing our surveys, they were entered into a drawing to receive a complimentary copy of Florida real estate broker Mitch Ribak’s book, 100MPH Marketing for Real Estate.

The winners include:

• David Miles – Miles Properties, Inc., Georgia
• Don Carey (“I got the book. Loved it!”) – Keller Williams Realty, Louisiana
• Jeanette Jones – Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., New Jersey
• Sue Boyle – RE/MAX Checkmate Inc., Tennessee
• Carylon Dopp – Security Pacific Real Estate, California
• Rufus Hutchinson – Keller Williams Realty – SouthPark, North Carolina
• Jeri Bingham – Prudential Utah Elite, Utah

A big thank you to all of the real estate agents and brokers who participated in our survey.

Stay tuned for the complete results of the Q2 2010 Home Prices Survey (and new winners)!

Yesterday we heard from Florida real estate broker Mitch Ribak about his high lead conversion. By “lead” we are referring to people who register on a website, and the “lead conversion” is how many of those registered who turn into closed sales.

Take this quick poll to find out where you fall in with other Realtors!

[polldaddy poll="3291115"]

It’s been an interesting first 5 months in Brevard County Florida.  Arguably we have one of the worst Real Estate markets in the country.  Our prices came down from $275k average at our peak in 2005 to $117k average currently.  The good news is that we seemed to have leveled for about a year and days on the market are averaging 90-120 days for most homes with 30-60 days for homes priced correctly.

Many consumers have been burned by a short sale or two and have decided to stay away from them.  We like that!  We also been able to increase our home sales price to $144k this year by better understanding our buyers and our leads.

Like I said, it’s been an interesting first 5 months.  We are on track to beat our numbers from last year by at least 20% maybe more.  We are closing 30-46 homes per month which is up from our average last year of 28 closings.  It’s very exciting. 

So what can I attribute our continued growth each year?  Two things, Buyerlink and lead conversion.

BuyerLink is a no-brainer since I capture twice as many leads at half the cost of what I was paying with Google and Yahoo!.  Once you do capture the lead, you have to be able to do something with it.  The key to lead conversion is systems.  Because BuyerLink produces so many leads, you need to be sure to have a solid conversion system including listings, drip campaigns and most importantly phone call follow up.

If you don’t have a system in place, not only do you not get the return you are looking to get, you can waste a ton of money!

I could spend hours going over most of this stuff, but the reality is, converting leads is just not that hard.  Half of it is attitude.  Continue reading this post

Today HomeGain announced that it has integrated a comprehensive suite of home buyer and seller tools into its AgentView platform.

Read full PRWeb press release

After getting a home’s value, looking at local Realtors, and looking at suggested home improvements, visitors can then readily access the following real estate calculators all in one convenient platform on HomeGain.com:

Max, the HomeGain gorilla, reviews the newly integrated Buyer Tools tab.

• Stay Put or Trade Up Calculator
• Improve or Move Calculator
• Home Sale Proceeds Calculator
• Capital Gains Calculator
• Private Mortgage Insurance Calculator

Additional tools that were integrated for people looking to get started buying or selling a home include:

• New Home Wish List
• Buyer Agent Interview Worksheet
• Seller Agent Interview Worksheet
• Real Estate Library
• Real Estate Glossary

The HomeGain AgentView platform also features local information, HomeGain’s home

Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain, stated:

“This integration provides consumers with a comprehensive set of tools to help guide them through the home buying and selling process – as well as providing easy access to HomeGain member real estate agents and brokers who can provide additional assistance.”