The weather forecast looks good for this weekend in many states, and Max the HomeGain Gorilla loves to attend barbecues! He’s searching for homes to visit as part of the HomeGain “Share The Smiles” campaign, so…

If you are a real estate agent or broker who has a Max Gorilla already, take a photo of him with you at your Memorial Weekend BBQ and email it to us so we can post to the Max Photo Gallery.

Don’t forget to include your contact info so we can credit your account with 25 Max Points!

Or upload the photo to the HomeGain Fan Page on Facebook.

If you are someone who has found a Realtor through HomeGain who helped you buy or sell a home, send us a photo of you at your home this weekend and we’ll send you a Max Gorilla!

Remember to tell us who your Realtor is, your name and city/state (maybe even a short story, too) so we can post your photo on the Share The Smiles page.

Today HomeGain emailed out its May/June 2010 newsletter for real estate agents, called “Agent Success Newsletter“.

The digital real estate newsletter included:

• Feature Story: We announced our new awards club called the “BuyerLink™ Winner Circle”, which recognizes real estate agents who are members of BuyerLink. Collectively, the six initial members to be inducted have experienced over 1,000% return on investment! Who are the 6 agents?
• Agent Question of the Month: “When I send out Buyer proposals through AgentEvaluator®, I want to include listings which might interest the home buyer. Can I do that?” Get answer
  
• Agent Quotes – Featured agent quote comes from Cheryl Talbot, Rose & Womble Realty in Virginia:
  “HomeGain has made a big difference in my business overall. I have found a great deal of satisfaction in the results. I just wish I had started sooner than I did. I believe you are the ‘Best in the Business’ as far as a lead generation program is concerned. Thank you for making a difference in my business and keep sending those great leads!“ 
  Email us your own quote. Or read more HomeGain reviews from real estate agents and brokers.
• Agent Blogging Network: In addition to the Top 5 Blog Posts (from the HomeGain Blog), this month we also started featuring Agent Blogs from AgentView agent members, who are part of the HomeGain Agent Blogging Network.
• HomeGain News: HomeGain celebrated its 11th anniversary on April 26.

AgentEvaluator® Agent Member Clubs: HomeGain added 13 real estate agent members of AgentEvaluator® across nine states into its commissions-based awards clubs.

• Agent Success Awards: We congratulated the newest AgentEvaluator Platinum Club, Gold Club and Silver Club members (11 real estate agents inducted).

Sign up here to receive HomeGain’s FREE Agent Success Newsletter

Read past real estate newsletters

In the age of technology, isn’t it nice to receive a card in the mail? It is much more memorable than receiving an email or a text message. The person who sent it took the time to write the note, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mail. It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to know someone cares about me that much.

Wouldn’t it be a nice gesture to send a thank you card to a client, business associate, or even a prospective client?

Here are some ideas:

• Thank a fellow Realtor for selling one of your listings.
• Thank a mortgage broker for a job well done.
• Thank a prospect who just signed up for IDX on your website.
• Thank a prospect that took the time to call you.
• Thank a home seller for listing with you.
• Thanks for a referral.
• Thank a potential home buyer after showing them properties.
• Thank a prospect for filling out a CMA form on your website.
• Thank a friend request on Facebook.
• Thank a prospective seller after a listing appointment.
• Thank every open house attendee.

You get the idea. Try to send out 5 cards or notes per day and see what kind of response you get. I think you will be pleased. Soon you will think of more and more fun occasions to send cards.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Dalene of Hampton’s Green Alliance in New York the other day. He had an impressive story to share in regards to Green building.

Hampton’s Green Alliance (HGA) is a non-profit organization, created to be a Green resource for Green building on the east end of Long Island. For this project they brought together a group of local sub-contractors who specialize in difference areas of Green building and came up with innovative ways to create efficiencies within the home.

Their goal? They wanted to create a house where they could answer questions previously unanswered like how much would a Green house cost, what would need to be done, what kind of energy efficiencies could be incorporated — basically what does a Green home mean?

Taking the foundation of an existing home on Long Island that had burned down, this is the story of how the community came together to rebuild it, entirely from recycled and sustainable materials, so the home would be “carbon neutral” and would have “net zero energy”, meaning the homeowners will break even after 8 years, and ultimately not pay for electricity or gas, estimated at a $230,000 savings.

Listen to the HomeGain Radio Clip (approx 10 minutes):

Visit the HomeGain Green Real Estate page.

Listen to more HomeGain Radio calls.

Eric Pakulla, a Realtor® with RE/MAX Advantage Realty in Maryland, talks about handling FSBO’s, expireds and past customers — and how having a positive attitude can have a huge impact on your business.

For Sale By Owners have been a huge part of his business over the past 10 years. He got started by taking Mike Ferry training courses, and still uses those practices today. Although 33% of his business comes from HomeGain, the remaining portion comes from FSBO’s, expireds and past customers.

He says his advice to working with FSBO’s is simple. What is it?

BONUS: During this call Eric provides a “phone script” that makes it easy to call up potential new clients!

Listen to the HomeGain Radio Clip (approx 14 minutes):

Eric Pakulla was the first real estate agent to earn one million dollars from AgentEvaluator (home buyer and seller leads) and is nearing the two million dollar mark, and has been the Nationwide HomeGain Top Performer since 2005.

Listen to more HomeGain Radio calls.

The weekend before last, (April 10-11) was National Open House weekend.  Pushed by local Realtor associations and brokerages, this was to be an all out assault meant to encourage home buyers to take advantage of current low interest rates, high inventory (in some areas) and the federal tax credits (only good for contract through the end of April).

But was it a good idea?  And did it work?

In the Washington Metropolitan area, I will go with an unequivocal no…and no.

We are fortunate to be in a market that is clearly recovering.  As an indication, lenders are giving many “close-in” DC neighborhoods the stamp of “stable” — up a notch from the previous designation of “declining”.  We have been seeing the return of multiple offers on properties that are well priced in many localities.

Artificially Producing A “Fire-sale Perception”?

So what did National Open House weekend do for us in the close-in DC Metro area?  Well, it surely made many employees at The Washington Post happy, where open house ads took up more space than we’ve seen in over a year.  The result?  A perception of a higher absorption rate that diluted the number of potential buyers going to each open house.

The “Open HouseFest” vs. The “After Party”

One of my sellers REALLY wanted me to hold his house open last weekend because he thought that his garden was looking particularly beautiful.  He owns a home in a highly desirable area of Northwest Washington, DC and the house itself has tremendous curb appeal. Continue reading this post