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

There are tons of media reports out there reporting on the real estate market in varying shades of mostly gray. You can’t log on to Inman News or Trulia and miss that it’s a little gloomy out there.

In fact, there are so many yard sale signs popping up on Zillow you almost can’t see the “homes for the ‘for sale’ signs”.

To their credit, Realtors® are adept at staying focused and getting the job done.

In fact, just the other day I heard from one of my long-time customers, Anthony Marguleas of Amalfi Estates in Los Angeles. Anthony deliberately surrounds himself with positive people and told me, “Business has been busy here and I just have to hustle a lot more. I am working to surround myself with positive people.”

That got me to thinking. Continue reading this post