Fall is here and for many of us, that means less activity in the market – so what can we do to keep the leads and sales flowing? Focusing on what works with all of the noise that bombards our senses on a daily basis becomes more difficult when leads slow down. How we handle ourselves right now plays a role in our business next year as well as the remainder of this one.

The keys to finishing the year strong with momentum to start the new year, in my opinion, are to focus and to get back to basics. Start by setting aside a few minutes early each day to lay out what you need to do and what you need to accomplish. Focus on those items. Setting aside this time each day helps to slow everything down and makes each task more manageable. This will give you the ability to handle your goals easier. Next, and most important, is going back to basics. You know – what is proven to work.

When the market slows, we tend to be reactionary rather than purposeful. This leads us to try new ways to drum up business, but it often wastes are time and leads us down a path that isn’t as successful as some things that we already know work and it takes away the precious time we needed to use on what we know works.

Continue reading this post

Many real estate agents complain about online consumers creating leads which contain bad information, leads which cannot be pursued, a.k.a. “bogus leads”.

This is no doubt the case a large percentage of the time. However, it seems that recognizing a “good” lead has become clouded by the expectation that online leads are all “bogus”. By this, I mean that, in many cases, when an agent receives a new internet lead, they already feel that it is not worth the effort to follow up.

Is this simply a case of recognizing what constitutes a good lead? How much consumer information is needed for a lead to be considered “good”? In our estimation and in keeping with online consumers’ behavior, only minimal information is required or should be demanded or expected. Most online consumers do not want to work hard to get to where they want to go.

Whether this is accessing the MLS on your website or requesting assistance with their current real estate situation, most consumers do not want to be forced to divulge too much information until they feel comfortable doing so. If you come away with the consumer’s name and a valid email address through the consumer’s first experience with you or your web site, that is all you really need to get started turning them into a “good” prospect. Continue reading this post

I’ve been online tonight reading a lot of different views on Internet Leads.  I keep hearing and reading the same complaint.  “Internet leads are no good because I don’t want to chase the business.”  “They are never serious buyers.”   “I would rather work on referrals and networking”.

It’s interesting because in some ways, not much as changed since I got into Real Estate back in 2001.  I was told then by everyone, don’t waste your money or time on Internet Leads.  As I look back, all of those real estate agents who told me that either never had more than a half dozen sales per year, or are no longer in business today.

So let’s talk for a minute about what they call “chasing the Internet Lead”.

Firstly, chasing and prospecting can be interchanged.  If you are going to make money in this business, you need to understand that prospecting is a major part of this business, at least for those who are successful.  I recently attended a seminar in Las Vegas that had 4,200 Agents attending.  I had talked to probably 50 Agents that sell between 50 and 150 homes per year.  They all had one thing in common: they all prospect daily.  Therefore, they are successful because of the amount of prospecting they do on a daily basis.

So what does this have to do with Internet Leads? Continue reading this post

It’s been almost 6 months since we started our Lead Conversion Administrator (LCA) program. So much has happened and I continue on the quest to increase our lead conversion.  I won’t do lead conversion stats for another few weeks, but I thought our results so far are very notable.  So far this year we have closed about 175 properties with 15 more set to close this month.  On top of that we have around 20 or so short sales contracts waiting to close too. We know that doesn’t mean anything though.  Right now we are 19.1% ahead of last year which keeps in line with my goal of 20% growth per year.

With all this said, it’s still interesting with the struggle we have with keeping Agents in work mode.  Yes, the market has been tough.

However, as I try to explain to my Agents, it’s only tough if you are trying to sell listings.  Since 90% of our sales come from buyers, my Agents need not worry about how bad the market is, but how they can help their customers.  We are blessed to have over 38,000 leads in our system and a software product, our 100MPH Marketing software, that allows us to seek out only the most active leads with potential to buy.  I have been analyzing my numbers on a regular basis.  I know, no surprise to those who know me.  It still comes down to having the right agents.  I have 21 Agents right now.  Of those Agents, 12 never sold a home prior to coming to my office and are all on track to have at least 20 sales this year.

Continue reading this post

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

HomeGain did an awesome job this past Monday with their full day of training for 100 customers (HomeGain Nation 2010).  If you were lucky enough to be there, you enjoyed over 8 hours of great information on a variety of subjects, but most of all, on how to use the HomeGain products to best increase your business.

I had the privilege of speaking about the BuyerLink product.  Well actually, my talk was more about how to capture a lead and how to create the leads you capture into customers for life.

I covered Landing Pages and how to create the best landing page to capture the most leads.  I discussed our 100MPH marketing system which helps you turn leads into customers.  I also talked about different aspects of creating traffic.  And what I believe to be most important, we had a great conversation with everyone about making phone calls, how important they are and what to talk about during your first phone calls.

When I got home I realized, based on some emails I received and based on the conversations I had with so many after I spoke, that many of you might have questions after you went home and decided to try to implement some of what we discussed.  After all, it was a lot of information in a very short period of time.

With that said, on Wednesday this week, March 10, at 2pm Eastern, I am going to hold a webinar on lead capture and conversion.  We will talk about creating your landing pages  and then discuss lead conversion.

If you were not at the HomeGain event, this would be a good opportunity to learn some great tips on how to accomplish the above categories.  After all, Lead Capture and Conversion are the most important aspects of real estate Internet marketing.

I look forward to helping you take your Internet program to the next level!