To commence the launch of AgentView, HomeGain’s latest marketing product for real estate professionals, HomeGain had some fun and rolled out the red carpet for the folks in the Emeryville, California headquarters!

As people came down the red carpet, they were handed a pair “3-view” glasses so they could enjoy the 3-D presentation of AgentView on the big screen, and hear about the three main benefits that Realtors experience as an AgentView customer.

In line with AgentView’s key feature of showcasing agents on the Internet, Walk This Way by Aerosmith rocked the room during the unveiling.

As shown in the photo above, Security was also provided to ensure excitement levels stayed at a reasonable level and that Max didn’t return from Paris early and get out of control.

Already this week AgentView has been getting positive feedback from real estate agents, brokers, and the real estate and web 2.0 communities, including Bloodhound Blog, Sellsius Blog, Notorious R.O.B., Real Estate Radio USA and Inman News regarding the product itself as well as the customer service that supports it. Continue reading this post

On Wednesday, August 20, Barry Cunningham and Barry Johnson of Real Estate Radio USAspoke with Louis Cammarosano about AgentView—its key features, how it works and why it is a valuable marketing product for real estate agents who want to have a strong online presence.

Listen to the program!:

Continue reading this post

HomeGain released AgentView this evening.

AgentView provides a complete marketing solution for real estate professionals combining featured listings, agent profiles, personal blogs, blog training, local content, lead management and home valuation tools and a variety of consumer contact points.

What’s in AgentView for Realtors?

• Realtors are showcased exclusively in an advertising-free environment.
• A way for Realtors to consolidate their marketing efforts. Instead of buying ads on other home valuation sites, paying for featured listings on another website, and setting up a blog on yet another, AgentView allows Realtors to present their profiles, their listings and their blogs directly on HomeGain.com.
• Easy access to home buyers and sellers. Consumers are encouraged to contact AgentView Realtors either by email, phone, blog interaction, or to visit the agents’ websites. There are five tabs, home values, homes for sale, local information, agent profiles, agent blogs and Home Sale Maximizer™. As the user toggles through the tabbed content offerings, the agent’s photo, contact information, website link and a large email contact box are prominently featured, pictured here.
  
• Blog School training and lead management tools are included in the subscription price.
• Low starting price of $29 per ZIP code.

What’s in AgentView for Home Buyers and Sellers? Continue reading this post

HomeGain officially opened the virtual doors of the HomeGain Blogging School today. The HomeGain Blogging School will provide AgentView agents with weekly tips on how to best use their HomeGain blogs. Tuition to the HomeGain Blogging School is included in the price of a AgentView subscription.

HomeGain has retained the services of HomeGain Guest Blogger, Joseph Ferrara, of the Sellsius Real Estate Blog to become the HomeGain Blogging School’s first instructor.

Mr. Ferrara, a.k.a. the “Blog Professor”, will be reviewing the blog posts on the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network and providing constructive feedback and tips to HomeGain AgentView agents via a weekly Blog Tip Newsletter.

“For blogging to work, it needs to be done right,” said HomeGain General Manager, Louis Cammarosano. “While there are many useful seminars that teach Realtors how to utilize blogging and social media, the HomeGain Blogging School will provide weekly and often personalized instruction. We are delighted that our customers in the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network will have access to the weekly blogging wisdom of Mr. Ferrara.”

Louis Cammarosano

Continue reading this post

In this month’s Agent Success Newsletter, we featured Brian Block of the Block Real Estate Group, LLC with RE/MAX Allegiance.

A large part of a real estate agent’s success is being likable. We all prefer to work with people we like. The same applies to selecting a real estate agent.

Met in person, it’s easy to assess an agent’s personality right away. But business over the Internet may not always be so simple. Writing styles don’t always translate – it could be too dry, too silly, too short or too casual. Plus, not all agents are aware of Internet best practices. An agent might email too often, not reply fast enough or come across too short. A website might have an unclear font, unattractive colors or show too many photos.

All this speaks to the agent’s personality. It’s an interpretation of who you are and what you can do for your client.

One HomeGain agent, Brian Block, has found a mix of online marketing tools where he can efficiently and effectively show his personality, and communicate via the Internet to the degree where he can convert online prospects into clients – resulting in over 70% of his business. Continue reading this post

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