Here we are, half way through the year almost. Have you looked in the mirror lately?  On a daily basis I receive emails from Realtors all around the world struggling to succeed in this business.  I am a little perplexed at all the emails actually.  As soon as I ask them my first question, though, the answer is clear.

My question is usually something like, “How are you doing compared to your yearly business plan?” or “What are you doing to ensure you have implemented your business plan?”  I always get the same old answer: “Well I don’t really have a written business plan” or “Sure, I wrote my goals down, I always do…what’s an action plan?”

So what seems to be the disconnect between Realtors and running a business?

Firstly, let’s look at yourself.  Do you run your business as a business?  I had a great letter from an Agent of mine this year, it was for me to read to all my Agents.  Anna May has been in real estate for 20 years and has had many successes.  I don’t have the email handy, but I’ll paraphrase it: Continue reading this post

Home Sales Results by MSA For AgentEvaluator™ Agents

As we wrap up one of the most heated presidential campaigns in recent times this month and constituents everywhere head to the polls on November 4th, voters in towns all over America, worried about the troubled economy, have a major concern.

That is, they still need to provide a roof over their heads for their families, either as a homeowner, renter, or perhaps by residing with family.

Even as we are saturated with doom and gloom in the media and falling home prices , things do not change. Life goes on regardless of the turbulent economy and current housing crisis.

As Realtors, we are here to help serve people with that need, and our help is perhaps required more than ever in these challenging times.

There is still plenty of activity out there in the market, albeit more “tire kickers” than you’ll find in a normal, balanced market. Real estate agents tell me home buyers’ and sellers’ expectations are slowly adjusting to the market in many areas.

Listed here are the top 10 areas for both home buyers and home sellers where HomeGain consumers closed sales during the first three quarters of 2008.

Continue reading this post

Real Estate Radio USA interviewed Louis Cammarosano and me last week to find out about our latest integration—Home Sale Maximizer with AgentView.

Listen to our radio segment to find out what Louis Cammarosano and I had to say and why Home Sale Maximizer is making headlines.

On Wednesday, August 20, Barry Cunningham and Barry Johnson of Real Estate Radio USAspoke with Louis Cammarosano about AgentView—its key features, how it works and why it is a valuable marketing product for real estate agents who want to have a strong online presence.

Listen to the program!:

Continue reading this post

Most real estate agents today are inundated with emails from other agents advertising their new listings. Some days I’ll get 20-30 of these emails and another 10 or so directly to my spam folder. I wish they would all go to my spam folder because that is exactly what they are – spam.

Just for reference, let’s take a look and remember what the definition of spam is when referring to email solicitations. I’m sure they believe these to be a great use of the “new technology” known as email, but, really it’s nothing more than spam.

As agents, we already have all of these listings available for home buyers in the MLS and that does nothing to mention that buyers can find these great new listings and reduced properties simply by searching through the MLS on agent websites, broker websites, realtor.com, and all of the other 3rd party aggregator websites where buyers are searching for homes.

If I receive them, I immediately unsubscribe myself from this innovative use of spam, er, technology. The biggest reason for this is the fact that they are non-targeted to me and my market and the sheer volume makes it impractical for me to try to keep them in my mind.

Since I’m receiving so many of these emails on a daily basis, how can any agent possibly believe that I am interested in looking at this unsolicited regurgitated information from the MLS listings posted in these emails?

On listing appointments, I specifically tell my potential clients that we do not communicate with agents via spam, er, new listing emails because they are ineffective and a tool only used by agents who don’t actually understand how to effectively utilize technology to market listings to agents and directly to buyers.

Let me offer some solutions to effectively utilize some of the real new technologies to help market homes for sale rather than sending bulk messages to people who don’t need the information. Continue reading this post

HomeGain’s Blog School has been in session for 8 weeks and I have seen a great improvement in the content being produced on the real estate agent blogs. Several agents have had their posts rank on the first pages of Google for their market keywords.

Regardless of Google ranking, agents are writing useful content for buyers and sellers, content they can share with future prospects and clients. Blogging to create an archival real estate information reserve is a relatively untapped methodology. If a prospective client asks an agent a common question — what are my closing costs? — the agent need only email their blog post on closing costs.

I have encouraged bloggers to write on topics which reflect common buyer and seller concerns. They are of enduring value.

Here are a couple of examples. Mitchell Feldman in Brooklyn, who has a great conversational tone, wrote “Buyers Guide to Closing Costs in Brooklyn” and “Negotiating Tips for Sellers in Brooklyn (or anywhere else)” (love that title).

These reflect typical consumer concerns. And because of his personable writing style, the reader gets Continue reading this post