Part 1 – HomeGain’s Fall 2007 Home Sale Maximizer™ Survey

What are Realtors® advising homeowners do when it comes time to sell their home?

Turns out it’s what every home seller wants to hear. First, it is not going to cost a lot to see a high ROI. Secondly, it’s not going to be extremely time consuming or challenging.

In HomeGain’s Fall 2007 Home Sale Maximizer™ Survey that included over 2,000 real estate agents across the U.S. the results were just that. The goal of the survey was to find out what real estate agents recommend to homeowners to get their home into home selling condition and maximize their return on investment (at a minimal cost).

By the way, Home Sale Maximizer is a free, online home improvement tool for home sellers. As a Realtor®, it’s a great tool to give to your clients to help them BEFORE the home sale process started.

I’m going to list the results for the top six to 10 most recommended do-it-yourself home improvements in this part 1 real estate blog post, and then reveal the top four in Part 2. Continue reading this post

No matter what industry you’re in, success in the online marketplace is determined by conversion.

Sites like Amazon and Wal-Mart measure not only how many visitors view an item, but how many place the item in their shopping carts and then actually purchase it.

Even though you aren’t selling goods on your real estate site, you should always be concerned with how well your site is converting visitors into leads.

Many of the real estate sites that we see convert visitors somewhere in the range of 3%-5%.

That’s really low.

(We regularly take an interest in our customers’ lead capture web page because if they don’t do well, they certainly won’t continue as a HomeGain subscriber.)

Some of the other real estate agents’ sites convert higher, but most fail to convince its visitors that it is worth their time to leave their contact information in exchange for a glimpse at local listings, and, therefore, fail to produce a good ROI.

You really only have a few seconds before a reader moves on!

Due to the low conversion we know some real estate agents are experiencing, we always keep our eyes open for websites that convert at much higher rates to provide as examples to agents wanting to know how they can get better their ROI.

Guess what? We just figured out how to increase the conversion rate to an amazing 15%! Continue reading this post

Firstly, I want to thank the many of you who have emailed me and thanked me for my blog entries.

I try to only write things that I feel will help you become either a better real estate agent or broker. The Internet can be a huge money pit if you don’t know how to use it properly.

Believe me; I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars perfecting what we do here at Tropical Realty in Melbourne, Florida.

Now to my main point.

I have received this question several times over the past few weeks: “What do I do with all the leads I get that have no phone numbers?”

I figure I should probably set the record straight. Each time I get the question I cringe at the thought of these real estate agents throwing their money down the drain.

My immediate reaction is always, “What do you think you should do with them?” Of course I usually say that to myself so I don’t hurt their feelings. Continue reading this post

The approximately 2,000 Realtors® who came by our booth at the 2007 National Association of Realtors® Convention & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada last week, that’s who!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the HomeGain booth! It was our busiest and most successful event ever.

We handed out TomTom™ One GPS navigation systems, $50 American Express® gas cards, remote control cars, and, of course, orange gorillas.

Everything except the gorillas fell under our theme “drive your success.”

We met Realtors® who never heard of HomeGain, and who were very excited to hear about how they can receive more traffic with BuyerLink, reach home sellers with AgentView, get 20 guaranteed home buyer leads with AIMS, and market themselves online to home buyer and home seller leads with AgentEvaluator.

It was also NAR’s largest show in history, with a record-breaking 744 exhibitors and 31,000+ attendees.

Were you at the Expo? Were you able to stop by our booth? Let us know what you thought!

What did you like and didn’t like? What sessions did you find most valuable? How was the special guest Bill Cosby and the concert with James Taylor? Continue reading this post

Seven years after sending a potential Annapolis, MD client a proposal to help him sell his home, Mona LaCovey received a call to get started with the transaction!

Here’s how the story goes:

In 2000 Mr. Chatterton started planning to sell his home. He began his search for a real estate agent online, opting to use HomeGain’s Find a Realtor® service.

Mona LaCovey responded to Mr. Chatterton with a personalized proposal outlining her services and addressing his needs and questions.

Although Mr. Chatterton decided to not sell his home then, with his retirement in 2007, he remembered Mona and called her up. Continue reading this post

A decade ago, technology had very little to do with a Realtor’s® business. Today, however, technology is essential to an agent or broker’s success.

How does one go about choosing the right technology tools?

Without over-paying for the latest trendy gadget, below is a list of 10 devices that all 21st century real estate professionals should use. Based on feedback from HomeGain agents, these devices will help increase your business’ effectiveness, efficiency and competitiveness.

Top 10 Technology Tools for REALTORS®

1. Website

Website is one of the most important marketing tools an agent can have. It’s not just a way to tell potential homebuyers and sellers who you are and what you offer, but it essential for lead generation. How so? If you set up a form on our site, most likely on your home page, the more motivated consumers will provide you with their contact information. And voila, you have a new lead. Set up auto-responder emails to thank a person for visiting your site, give your contact info, and tell them a realistic amount of time when they should expect a return call or email from you. Continue reading this post