Instead of doing my usual educational post, I figured I would tell you a quick story that is the reason I stayed in Real Estate.

When I lost my Internet Company in 2000 after the big bubble burst, I was offered several jobs from Radio groups to handle their national Internet efforts.  They were pretty high paying jobs all over $200k per year.  However, after talking with my girlfriend, now my wife, I realized that I just didn’t want to spend every day of  the month traveling.  I had just done that for the past several years and I was beat!

A friend of my better half was in Real Estate and she kept telling me I should get into Real Estate.  It’s a lot of work but with my personality I would do great…so she told me.  Continue reading this post

HomeGain rolled out the July/August issue of its Agent Success Newsletter.

The digital real estate newsletter included:

Feature Story:

“AgentEvaluator® Consumer Survey Results — How to Get Consumers to Select You as Their Agent”

We surveyed over 14,000 online home buyers and sellers who  came through AgentEvaluator® in the last year -– some who closed with a HomeGain agent and some who did not choose a HomeGain agent.

We’ve identified 5 ways from the results to help agents increase their success with converting prospects into clients! Read complete survey findings.

Question of the Month:

” I noticed the new Max Points in my HomeGain account recently. Is there something extra I need to do to get points? Do you keep track of them for me? Also, what can I redeem my points for?”

Special HomeGain Radio Interview with REALTOR Virginia Cheezum:

As an AgentEvaluator Diamond Club member with over nine years of experience with the program, Virginia shares some of the valuable information that has helped put her into the top .1% of all HomeGain agents.

News: Continue reading this post

Content Building Blocks

The first month of your real estate blog’s life is the most important.

What you do during the first month can affect the way Google will see your blog for the next year, so it is extremely important to build hyper local, keyword rich content in a structured and cohesive way.

The following are tips to building your first month’s worth of blog content.

Plan to post between 3-5 times a week.

Write “About Me” on Day 1. This includes:

• Your past experiences
• Your Team (if applicable)
• Reviews
• Boast posts: This is my favorite way to let you boast about your talents while couching it in an example and expert advice.  As a Realtor, you have the unique ability to solve problems most people feel are overwhelming.
• Talk about your past experiences. People like to know that not only do you understand their problem, but that you have solved the very same problem for other clients. Example marketing helps you to establish your position as an expert and problem solver while also emotionally connecting with potential clients that share a similar problem.

On day 2, select another topic. Work your way down the list on each of the sections and by the end you will have a full blog of hyper local real estate content that WILL get you found on the search engines.

Think writing real estate blog content is like pulling teeth? Continue reading this post

We have polled home buyers and sellers once again and we’re sharing the results in order to help our AgentEvaluator® agent members better meet the needs of prospects.

We sent our survey to more than 14,000 home buyers and sellers who came through AgentEvaluator in the last year -– some who closed with a HomeGain agent and some who did not choose a HomeGain agent.

5 Useful takeaways from the survey that all AgentEvaluator members should read:

1. Consumer Feedback on agents is one of the top things homebuyers and sellers are looking for when they use AgentEvaluator.

• Takeaway: If you don’t have consumer feedback (reviews to say what a great job you’ve done as a Realtor) entered in your profile, get some entered today. To upload reviews, go to the Consumer Feedback section of your Proposal Templates page.

2. Most of the consumers who worked with a HomeGain agent chose that agent because of their personal response.

• Takeaway: As shown in both this year’s and last year’s survey, personalization has consistently been the most important reason consumers select HomeGain agents. If you ARE NOT personalizing EACH proposal to address the specific situation of the prospect you’re responding to, you should start today.

3. Most consumers expect to receive their proposals within 1 to 3 days. Continue reading this post

Congratulations to the 17 real estate agents who have earned half a million dollars or more in gross lifetime commissions from HomeGain leads through the AgentEvaluator® marketing program!

We are pleased to recognize these agents for their tremendous success by inducting them into HomeGain’s new Diamond Club.

Diamond Club inductees include (listed alphabetically by last name):

• Jeffrey Bastress, Startpoint Realty in Massachusetts
• Virginia Cheezum, RE/MAX Allegiance in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. areas
• Les Davis, Realty Executives Metro One in Missouri
• Dorothy and David Eiglarsh, The Eiglarsh Team in Florida
• Sheryl Goble, Realty Executives Premiere in Illinois
• Howard Gordon, Broward Brokers Realty Corporation in Florida
• Doug Goss, RE/MAX Real Estate Services in California
• Sharon Kunz, RE/MAX Greater Atlanta in Georgia
• Joseph Niece, Joe Niece Team at RE/MAX Results in Minnesota
• Brenda Porter, Porter and Associates in Nevada
• Barbara Tidwell, Keller Williams Realty in Texas

I spoke with Realtor® Virginia Cheezum, who said: “I am delighted to receive this recognition! I’ve been with HomeGain for many years and it’s become a critical piece of my business. I continue to be impressed and delighted with the quality of leads you provide. You do a magnificent job and provide a valued service.”

Howard Gordon also commented: “I have found HomeGain to be an exceptionally successful way to reach qualified, serious sellers who are seeking to meet with the best real estate professionals they can find. The leads are of high quality and high motivation to list I highly recommend HomeGain to agents wanting more listings.”

In the press release announcing HomeGain’s New Diamond Club members, HomeGain General Manager Louis Cammarosano stated “Unlike the anecdotal evidence of the success of our competitors’ marketing solutions, HomeGain offers concrete proof that our programs result in closed business and in many cases lots of it.”

Over a dozen other real estate agents are quickly approaching the $500k mark. Continue reading this post

I mastermind with agents from my area on a regular basis and a question came up in discussions with this mastermind group of top agents in Tampa, Florida, that I thought would be a great blog topic.

So, when do you know it’s time to add a full-time assistant to your business?

I was asked this question and the first response I could think of was: “When you can afford it”. I’ve learned in the last year, as our business has more than doubled, that if I hadn’t taken the plunge to hire my assistant, I’d still be in the same place I was last year.

Looking back a year ago when we decided to build a team, hire staff and add agents, I realize there were some tell tale signs it was time for us to get “people leverage” and help to take our business to the level we wanted to.

We were very productive and profitable (I sold $7 million that year and was “lean” on expenses) but we had lofty goals and knew there is no way I could keep up with it all myself.

Ultimately, I knew if I wanted to sell more real estate, I would need someone to handle the paperwork, admin tasks, transaction management, appointment setting, photo taking, lock box hanging, and all of the other tasks that can take us away from our lofty sales goals.

However, you have to have enough income or savings to be able to afford it for a few months. It’s always a risk because you could hire the wrong person, lose money, disappoint clients, etc. Continue reading this post