HomeGain Opens Virtual Blog School

HomeGain officially opened the virtual doors of the HomeGain Blogging School today. The HomeGain Blogging School will provide Source4Sellers 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 Source4Sellers 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 Source4Sellers 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.” read more

Posted by Louis Cammarosano on May 31, 2008 under Blogging and Social Networking, Source4Sellers, Guest Bloggers

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Real Estate Prospecting: Two Sides of the Century

A few months ago, I had the amusing opportunity to slip Web 2.0 guru and HomeGain blogger Pat Kitano into a Mike Ferry Productivity School in San Diego, CA.

Pat had come down from San Francisco to explore real estate blogging workshop opportunities with a large title company, where he would introduce agents to Web 2.0 and the chance to start their own blogs.

We had lunch after the meeting and Pat, being the adventurous sort, accepted my invitation to go see what the Mike Ferry approach was all about.

We drove over to the Hilton and slipped quietly into the back of the large meeting room (with prepaid tickets). I think Pat’s jaw dropped two inches as he watched two hundred or so agents chanting Mike Ferry real estate scripts in unison—first expressing objections as a client, and then enthusiastically answering themselves as powerful agents.

Pat was stunned. He cocked his head and whispered, “Do real estate agents really say these things?”

I understood Pat’s reaction, and he could certainly express better than I his thoughts on this Mike Ferry pre-Web-one-oh success training formula (and perhaps he’ll weigh in on it). What stood out for me that afternoon, though, was the stark contrast between the two camps.

It’s so tempting to say that Kitano’s approach is Blu Ray compared to Ferry’s VHS, but there are more similarities than the Web 2.0 blogger might think.

The blogging approach to gaining clients is a universe apart from the cold-calling drills of the last century. However, the ultimate goals are the same: To make a human connection without someone clicking away or hanging up. read more

Posted by Roberta Murphy on May 30, 2008 under Blogging and Social Networking, Guest Bloggers

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HomeGain Evolves with Web 2.0

HomeGain launched its blog back in the early days of February, 2008 in part to experiment with Louis’s premise that Web 2.0, or more specifically Real Estate 2.0, doesn’t have a revenue model.

Monday’s Financial Times weighs in with an article that mirrors this problem:

Despite the slow start to money-making by Web 2.0 companies, the trend towards more social online behavior that it embodies is widely claimed by insiders to be of lasting significance.

“The capabilities that are coming with Web 2.0 are very profound,” said Devin Wenig, head of the markets division of Thomson Reuters. “The (Silicon) Valley is usually right, and it’s usually early.”

Web 2.0 may not be making money, but it is changing social online behavior.

In the four short months since the HomeGain launch, social media in its many forms—from micro-blogging Twitter to DIY social networks using read more

Posted by Pat Kitano on May 30, 2008 under Blogging and Social Networking, Guest Bloggers

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Next Guest Blogger Up To Pitch

We’d like to welcome Roberta Murphy of Villa Sotheby’s International Realty in Del Mar, CA as our newest guest blogger.

Roberta authors two blogs, Luxury Home Digest and San Diego Previews, which are also syndicated via the California Women’s Council of Realtors Blog Network.

Also an active blogger on ActiveRain, she combines her experience in real estate with her passion of journalism.

As a Realtor, Roberta was one of the very early users of HomeGain in 2000, subscribing to HomeGain’s marketing services (including exclusive ZIP codes).

Stay tuned for Roberta’s first blog post! read more

Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on May 29, 2008 under Guest Bloggers

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