Last week we met with Realtor® survey respondents and members of the press to discuss the results of the Q1 2010 Home Prices Survey on HomeGain Radio.

Thanks to all of the real estate agents and members of the press for their participation!

If you didn’t have a chance to attend, listen to the 30-minute real estate press call here:

News coverage of the March Home Prices Survey includes: Herald Tribune, Tampa Tribune, Baltimore Sun, San Diego Union Tribune, California Real Estate Journal, North Carolina Star, Dallas Morning News, Real Estate Channel, OC Metro Minute, Tampa Bay Online, RIS Media, DS News, Real Estate Economy Watch, United Press International, AIM Group, Inman News. Read all news stories

Listen to more press calls

On the call from HomeGain.com: Jessica Gopalakrishnan, Peter McCullough, and Louis Cammarosano

Used to be not having a net was a sign of your proficiency. Back in the day before a thousand people got killed an hour in television dramas, people looked to other means to get their “need for a buzz” satiated. Who can forget August 7, 1974, when high-wire performer Philippe Petit amazed the residents of lower Manhattan by going for a high wire stroll between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Without a net.

It’s different today. Now we watch things like this every day on TV, and, after the person falls to their death, we see close ups of the gore as CSI teams come in and prove it was actually murder, not a gust of wind that caused the latest victim’s demise. The thing that used to make these types of events so thrilling was the fact that the deed was done …

Without a net.

Nowadays, circus unions ensure that nets are in place to protect the safety of the participants. The thrill is gone because the potential of possible demise has been replaced with the theatrics of flawlessly executed maneuvers done with ever increasing degrees of difficulty, outlandish costumes or a combination of both. It’s just not the same.

There is still, however, an arena where participants still perform their death defying acts without a net. It happens every day, and it’s far more common than many realize. The arena is real estate, and the performers are …

Realtors.

A strange thing happened a few days ago. Someone tried to send me a fax. It’s not that I don’t have a fax machine. I have a really nice one, in fact. I just don’t use it anymore. There’s no need to. Continue reading this post

How effective are the different marketing options out there for you as a Realtor? What are other Realtors doing that you aren’t…but should be?

Thanks to over 1,300 real estate agents and brokers who completed the HomeGain Realtor Marketing Survey in December 2009 and March 2010, the results are in! HomeGain today announced the survey results for the top most effective marketing methods of Realtors® in a national press release today.

Top 10 Effective Marketing Strategies for Realtors*:

1. Referrals (Scored 8.7 out of a possible 10)
2. Featured Listings (4.8)
3. Email Campaigns (4.7)
4. Postcards/Mailers (4.6)
5. Blogging (4.1)
6. Online Lead Generation Services (4.0)
7. Facebook (4.0)
8. LinkedIn (3.6)
9. Outdoor Ads (3.6)
10. Print Ads (3.6)

* (Cumulative Average Scores, 1 = Least Effective /10 = Most Effective)

Referrals

On the survey Realtors indicated that they think getting referrals is the most effective strategy to acquire new clients, with a cumulative overall score of 8.7 out of a possible 10 for effectiveness. Surveyed agents indicated that they will continue to focus on referrals as their leading marketing strategy in 2010.

Featured listings (4.8 effectiveness score) and email campaigns (4.7) were considered the next most effective marketing strategies.

Social Media

The survey shows that Realtors rank YouTube (3.5), Twitter (3.3), banner ads (3.2), pay per click advertising (3.2) and MySpace (3.0) as the least effective marketing methods.

Although Realtors did not indicate Facebook as a top 5 most effective marketing method (scored at 4.9), surveyed agents indicated that they will increase their use of it in their marketing plans in 2010.

2010 Marketing Goals Continue reading this post

This week HomeGain announced in a press release that its commissions based award clubs for its AgentEvaluator® product has grown to include 900 HomeGain members. HomeGain award club members have now earned over $100 million dollars* worth of real estate commissions since 1999 when HomeGain was founded!

“We are pleased to add 15 more HomeGain members to our commissions based award clubs,” stated Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain. “In today’s market finding a quality real estate agent is a priority for many home buyers and sellers. With HomeGain’s AgentEvaluator program, consumers can find and compare Realtors® to help them with their real estate transactions.”

“HomeGain has been a great referral source for us throughout our careers,” stated Robert Gosalvez & Gary Shapiro of Intero Real Estate Services in California. “We recently became Diamond level referral agents; as a result, we’ve been going on more buyer and seller interviews. More often than not, we are successful in taking the listing once we’ve had the opportunity to interview or been selected to help the buyer, so HomeGain has played a large part in our success.”

Club members inducted since December include: Continue reading this post

Sometimes, even with experienced real estate agents and brokers, I find that they have never really studied sales.  They have never really had a system in place to help them be a better sales person.  I know, most of us say that we are not like real sales people, I agree.  However, we still must use some of the same skills that anyone successful sales person would employ.

For instance, if you don’t listen to your customer, you won’t know their needs.  If you don’t educate your customer, you might lose them to another agent.  If you don’t provide accurate answers to their questions in a timely manner, you might as well kiss them goodbye, too!

Sales, and I don’t really care what you are selling, is all about having a good solid system and understanding of what you need to do to help your customer.  If your goal is to do whatever it takes to help your customer, you are on the right track.  However, if you are ADD like me, it might be a little easier said than done.

This Thursday, Feb. 11, at 2pm Eastern, I will be holding a real estate webinar that I am opening up to Agents that are not members of The eHomes Realty Network.  I find that the lack of understanding of basic sales inhibits most Agents from succeeding.  Whether you have been in the business for 20 years or 2 weeks, this webinar will help take your business to the next level!  I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Mitch Ribak will be a presenter at HomeGain Nation Live Real Estate Forum 2010 on March 1 for the 11am session titled “Internet Lead Conversion Made Simple”.

We are pleased to announce the HomeGain AgentEvaluator® Top Performers™ of 2009.

Many HomeGain real estate agents and brokers had successful years, despite the downturn in home prices nationwide. We are proud to recognize these agents for their high level of accomplishment in association with HomeGain’s AgentEvaluator marketing program.

In addition to highlighting the 2009 Top Performers Nationwide, by Region, by State, and Rookie Agents of the Year, HomeGain recognizes agents who had impressive results and are deserving of honorable mentions. (Read the PRWeb press release)

HomeGain is proud that we can quantify the many successes of our AgentEvaluator agents in 2009. We look forward to continued success for all of our member agents in 2010.

Before announcing the Top AgentEvaluator Performers below, here are some 2009 AgentEvaluator highlights:

2009 AgentEvaluator Highlights:

• HomeGain recognizes 53 of its member real estate agents who have received Top Performer awards based on nationwide, regional and state achievements.
• Overall, in 2009 HomeGain’s top five Realtors earned an average of $146,885 in gross closed commissions from their HomeGain AgentEvaluator business and an average of 21 closed home sales (transactions).
• We now have a  total of 895 member agents in the AgentEvaluator Silver, Gold, Platinum and Million Dollar Clubs based on the following criteria:

- 2 agents are Million Dollar Club honorees, having earned over one million dollars in gross lifetime commissions from HomeGain business
- 22 agents are Diamond Club honorees, having earned over $500,000 in commissions
- 352 agents are Platinum Club honorees, having earned over $125,000 in commissions
- 282 agents are Gold Club honorees, having earned over $75,000 in commissions
- 237 agents are Silver Club honorees, having earned over $50,000 in  commissions

And the 2009 Top Performers for AgentEvaluator are…

Continue reading this post