If you can’t use a professional to take your listing photographs, avoid these visual mistakes.  The photographs below were chosen to emphasize errors.

1. Exterior photo with distracting elements

These include cars, bicycles, trash cans, pets, children, etc. This example also has several other mistakes — it doesn’t capture the entire house exterior; the angle does not flatter the house; and trees obstruct the view. Are you selling the house or the car?

2. Subject too far away

Get as close as to can to your subject.  This common mistake can easily be corrected by cropping.  The objective is to have the image fill the frame.  Use Photoshop or any of the many free photo editing tools like Paint.net or Picnik.com. Many computers come with a basic photo editor.  Mine has Micrsoft PictureIt! and it works great.

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I am frequently asked, “Where is your office?” It’s like the location of my office means something. And to many people, it actually means a lot. It represents, in their minds, the not-so-subtle idea that you are limited to working only a short distance out from the geographical location of your desk.

And so, when asked the “magic” question, my response is always the same: “Where do you WANT it to be?”

Truth is, as a virtual agent, I do have an “office.” After all, our license has to hang somewhere for us to be legit. Although I have a great office in which to work, I’m not interested in “impressing” my clients with the size of the building or the fountain in the foyer. Instead … I meet them where THEY are.

In fact, I’ve discovered that “bringing them home to meet the parents” can raise questions you DON’T want them asking. Such as:

• “How much money does it take to run an operation like this?”
  • “Dang … this Realtor must be bankin’ BIG bucks … wonder if I can hit them up for part of their commission…?”
  • “If they have a building like this in this economy, are they in touch with reality…?”
  • “Why do I have to drive all the way over here when I live in ________?”

Virtual agents have virtual offices. In my “real” office I don’t even have a desk. Don’t want one. My “actual” desk, when meeting with clients, is any available table at the Starbucks closest to where my clients live. Or the table in their existing digs.

Here is why this is critical:

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Yesterday I was perusing online through my cell phone bill. I took note that my two teenagers ages 15 and 17 had sent and received over 10,000 text messages – in December.

The two adults in the home sent and received approximately 400 text messages this month -– mostly between the aforementioned teenaged children. Sometimes it seems like I text them more often than I talk to them.

This got me to wondering about the future of communicating in the real estate industry.

As I write this, I’m looking at an email inbox containing 5,586 messages. Lousy email management skills aside, this is an indication of how often I send and receive emails. As I look into my sent mail folder, I see that I have sent an average of 11.33 emails each day this month. These are emails sent from Continue reading this post

If you had but one item you could purchase or have someone get for you as that special gift this year, I would highly recommend the Apple iPhone. 

Now hold on a minute, I know it’s got a steep price when you add in the service contract but we are talking about a productivity tool for all you Real Estate agents and Brokers out there.  Keep the receipt and you can take the tax deduction for it when tax time comes around.

What’s so special about the iPhone?  I am going to get to that in a moment. First let me tell you if you were not aware, that the continuation of Technology into the Real Estate world and the adoption by consumers to new ways of doing business continues to accelerate even though the economy is slowing.  The adoption of MOBILITY has hit mainstream with a vengeance.

So too will your need to understand and adapt quickly or YOU WILL lose market share to those that are savvy to catch on before you do.

You already know about blogging, it’s after all the reason why you’re reading this post anyways. If you’re behind the curve on blogging, you still have time to catch up here.  With many new phones on the market this year and in the years to come, broadband access is creeping into these phones and new and faster services along with them.  Providing you with new ways to reach out and touch your prospective clients. 

How? By giving them what they want.  Making sure that your website not only has the latest in Social Networking Tools but that you make sure your data is accessible to mobile platforms like

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I love free stuff and am always thankful when I learn about it. Here are some websites that I use very often and they have helped me save time and money.

Slideshare.net

This is a presentation sharing website. You can upload just about any document or presentation and share it with others. I like to embed the presentations on my website. You can track how many times your presentation has been downloaded. It is also fun when your presentations are marked as favorites.

Google Docs

I use Google docs to store my documents online. Documents can be uploaded, saved, printed, and shared. Documents can also be converted to pdf files making them easier to send as email attachments. I got tired of certain documents being on my home computer and I needed them when I was at the office. No worries, now I just go to Google.

Picassa

Another great Google product. Upload your pictures to create slideshows. You can add text and music or voiceover. Google will also send it to Youtube.

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We are pleased to announce the launch of the HomeGain Real Estate Blog iPhone application.

The platform enables readers with iPhones to access and view HomeGain Blog articles in a customized format.

The HomeGain Blog automatically recognizes that it is being accessed by an iPhone, and delivers the iPhone interface.

No software downloads are required.

If you have an iPhone, please take a look.