Mobile apps mean you’re a thumb click away from finding almost anything – even your next home. The other day I read an article about how mobile apps on your Smartphone can be used for buying a home (or just checking out a new neighborhood). These realty apps aren’t new and don‘t seem to be going away, but then I got to thinking: Do I really want a mobile app to choose my next home for me?

Deciding on where (and whether!) to buy a home is lot different than, say, trying to find where the best place in town to eat a hot dog is. Sure, you could use a mobile app to find out about a new neighborhood, but it doesn’t replace actually having a “real” real estate agent to show you around the neighborhood. That’s why new homes are usually sold offline and in person, with an agent who knows the area.

The benefits of a (real) real estate agent outweigh the realty app’s benefits every day of the week. A real estate professional agent can do more for you as a home buyer than an app that says “you are here.” What, you ask? Read on – here I’ve listed 6 benefits of using a real estate agent to help you buy your home:
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The designations most agents get serve one purpose, marketing. They are trying to separate themselves from the pack to get listings.

Some of the poorest quality short sale education is offered by real estate boards and governmental agencies who were caught completely off-guard by the explosion of homes needing to be short sold.

These real estate boards and agencies move slow, as most large organizations do. So, how can they stay ahead of the Short Sale curve, when they can’t even keep the addendums updated?

I find myself creating necessary forms and disclosures long before my local board comes out with one. If you do the same, be sure to run them by your broker and an attorney if necessary to ensure you stay within professional purview.

The fact that our own professional organizations seem to be slow to keep up, what would make anyone believe the short sale training offered by them would actually give agents a competitive advantage against the financial institutions?

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I’ve seen many business plans in my day. Although I’m a great advocate for planning and setting goals, I believe there is something even more important. In fact, I believe that without this critical ingredient, no great game plan or strategic goals will get you where you want to go.

It’s adaptability.

This past year is a great case in point. Our team duly met prior to the year’s beginning to lay down the tracks for the coming year’s business. Since we’ve historically focused on home listings, listings were at the heart of our discussions. We fine tuned our listing presentations and geared up to handle all the details that would come from an increase in listings.

Who knew that normal listings would go into the toilet because home sellers were afraid to compete with REOs and Short Sales?

Had we stuck with our game plan, we would have ignored the long queue of home buyers lining up at our door to cash in on record low prices, rock bottom interest rates and the first-time buyer tax credit. Our business would have slammed to a halt.

Bottom line: We quickly switched our focus and game plan. By reacting to the market and adapting, we ended up doing 2 ½ times the total business we’ve ever done in any previous year.

A great example is a football running back. The play is called in the huddle, the ball is snapped and the running back swings into motion. What if the planned hole in the line doesn’t materialize? Continue reading this post

HomeGain rolled out its November/December 2009 newsletter for Realtors, called “Agent Success Newsletter“.

The digital real estate newsletter included:

• Feature Story: Announced the results from HomeGain’s Q4 home prices survey which showed that the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit spurs home sales and stabilizes home prices. Special thanks to the Realtors and members of the press who attended the December Press Call. News coverage of the home prices survey includes: Boston Globe, Real Estate Economy Watch, UPI, Dallas Dirt, RISMedia, Inman News, Sellsius Blog, DS Magazine, Housing One Magazine, OC Metro Magazine, Staten Island Real Estate News. Read all news stories.
• Agent Question of the Month: I recently noticed the new “Agent Video” feature for my AgentEvaluator® and AgentView subscriptions and wanted to know if HomeGain has any best practices or tips for making my Intro-video? Get answer
  
• HomeGain News: Two Realtor members earn $500,000 from HomeGain; Home Improvement and Staging Survey results were released; HomeGain launches a Share the Smiles campaign for Realtors (don’t forget to send in your photos!); HomeGain moves its office to a new location in Emeryville.
• Agent Success Awards: We congratulated the newest AgentEvaluator Platinum Club, Gold Club and Silver Club members (16 real estate agents inducted).
• Customer Advocates: For October, Chris Johnson was the winner and for November, Charles Koo was recognized.
  

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Read past real estate newsletters

I’m a big believer in hiring people to take on tasks that I do not enjoy or do not excel at these days.  Of course, these days I do not sell homes because of my dedication of running my Real Estate Brokerage and belief that in order to grow a company, it wouldn’t be possible if I continued to sell homes…as much as I miss that part of the business.

Of course these days I’m also very busy with The eHomes Realty Network and helping my members.  With this said, over the past 2 years we have tried to figure out a program where a person is hired to make all follow up calls for my real estate agents.  Before I get into this, let’s take a step back for a moment.

As most of those who know me know I’m addicted to lead conversion.

I find it extremely interesting and for most, very difficult.  I have also found that by implementing consistent systems to convert leads to customers for life, we have become stronger and stronger each year.  One of the weakest links for most Agents is follow up.  Most Agents don’t have a hard time making the first phone call to their leads.  The struggle is in making the follow up phone calls and keeping up with them as your database increases.  The more leads you have in your system, the harder it is to stay on top of your leads.

My agents are no different.  They are great people but have the same flaws as most when it comes to follow up.  I decided a couple of years ago that if I am going to take lead conversion to the next level, I will need to start the Lead Conversion Administrator (LCA) position.

We started out by having one LCA and she was making the initial phone calls for 7 Agents.

Along with this, she also learned how to master Continue reading this post

Have happy clients? Share the Smiles — with HomeGain!

HomeGain has launched a new campaign for Realtor members, called Share The Smiles, in which real estate agent and broker members can send HomeGain photos of their satisfied clients for publishing on HomeGain.com.

Here’s how it works:

1. Take a photo of your clients in front of their new or sold home. Even include yourself in the photo.
2. Email one photo per client (less than 1MB each in size) up to 5 clients and we’ll post them online for the world to see!
3. Feel free to include the names of your clients (and all your contact info!) and/or a 1-3 sentence review or description for each photo.
4. As a HomeGain member, you’ll receive 25 Max Rewards Points per photo/client (totaling as high as 125 Max Points).

Yet another way HomeGain helps you promote your services — a picture says a thousand words! Submit your photos today!

About Max Rewards Points and see your account balance.