I started working with AgentView, formerly known as Source4Sellers, mid November 2006.  Since then much has changed with my business model and with AgentView.

My business grew from a fledgling concept to a full team model.  I had started the month before with HomeGain’s BuyerLink.  The traffic from BuyerLink helped build my faith in Internet marketing and build my lead database.  Even then, I knew that HomeGain was very interested in my success and building a true business partnership.

The AgentView product suite continues to develop and is now a full service ad-free solution which highlights and promotes the participating real estate agent.  When I first started with the product, the Source4Sellers solution contained an agent profile and a full CRM with built-in email campaigns.  Now AgentView is so very much more.  Some of the features include:

• Agent Profile
• Homes For Sale
• Home Values
• Agent Centric Blog
• Local Information
• Home Seller Tools

Agent Profile

The AgentView blog offers so much opportunity to help promote the area real estate agent and my Denver real estate website in an ad-free environment. This page is about the agent and their credentials.  The “Have a Real Estate Question for Brian?” is to the right of your contact information as a call to action.

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Here’s a unique co-marketing business model that combines RateWindow, the wholesale mortgage rate engine and HomeGain’s AgentView to give teams of mortgage brokers and Realtors an innovative online marketing presence. Using RateWindow and AgentView together will help position the Realtor and mortgage broker as a team solution for their local client base.

Please let me know what you think about the new marketing model.

I’ve been a fairly big proponent of open source software for some time.  For those of you not familiar with the open source movement, it’s the idea that many developers across the world, working together through peer reviews, can develop evolving, superior products. 

Open Source software are typically described as “projects,” rather than products, as there are typically many more releases/revisions than commercially driven products, and there are many more collaborators, who often contribute a small amount of their time.  Open Source projects are typically labors of love for programmers.

You probably already use some open source products.  Firefox is extremely popular, in a large part because it is open source.  The reason there are so many cool add-ons and extensions for Firefox is because the source is “open” to other developers to put together these cool tools. 

In contrast, Internet Explorer has little in the way of customization because Bill Gates et al don’t want anyone messing with their code.  The same rings true for WordPress -– lots of extensions/add-ons because it’s open source.  You’ll notice that the larger a project is, the more stable the releases, and the more customizations that are available.  Be careful of really small projects unless you like tinkering and are ready to invest some time.

One of the most attractive aspects of open source is the price: It’s free! Continue reading this post

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: Continue reading this post

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