Unsubscribe Me From Your New Listing Emails!

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. read more

Posted by Ryan Ward on Jul 24, 2008 under Online Marketing

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Max at Inman’s Real Estate Connect in San Francisco

Max made an appearance today at the Bloggers Connect sessions at Real Estate Connect San Francisco. As we handed out Max t-shirts and buttons, we were pleased to see him so well received!

Max-mobiles also made appearances outside the Palace Hotel.

Most people at the show recognized Max right away – there was just one passerby who confused him to be a pink bear. (Shh, don’t tell Max that!)

In the buzzing hallways we met up with several of our contributors and guest bloggers including Nicole Nicolay, Jay Thompson, Joe Ferrara, Pat Kitano and Roberta Murphy, and some of our member agents, Brian Block and Michael Lissack.

All of us HomeGainers, especially Max, are looking forward to the panel on Friday at 10am at which Louis Cammarosano will be speaking. After that will be the awards ceremony!

Click here to see what else Max has been up to.

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Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on Jul 23, 2008 under Max

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HomeGain 2008 Mid-Year Home Sales Report

Home Sales Results by MSA For AgentEvaluator Agents

It’s been tough sledding for real estate sales in most areas of the country this year, as we are in the midst of summer heat waves, firestorms in California and hurricanes in the Gulf Coast.

For our member agents who use the HomeGain AgentEvaluator program to help consumers “Find A Realtor” online, mid-year home sales results are in.

Even though real estate sales continue a downward cycle in most pockets of the country, our reports show that many real estate agents are, in fact, still closing deals and making home sales happen successfully for their clients.

Where exactly are these consumers buying and selling?

We tabulate sales closed by HomeGain buyers and sellers and report by major Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

Listed here are the top 10 cities and metropolitan areas for home buyers and home sellers where HomeGain consumers closed sales during the first half of 2008, as well as the top areas for Q2 (which we can compare to Q1 areas in my blog post earlier in the year).

New this month on the Top 10 list are previously unranked cities that moved up in Q2 are Denver-Boulder-Greeley, CO, coming in at #7, and Phoenix-Mesa, AZ, coming in at #10.

San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA and Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI, which ranked in the Top 10 for the First Quarter, fell off the list in the Second Quarter. read more

Posted by Peggy Boehm on Jul 23, 2008 under HomeGain Market Data

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HomeGain Blog School Report Card

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 read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on Jul 22, 2008 under HomeGain, Blogging and Social Networking

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