How did Andrew Duncan of Keller Williams Realty double his business within two months? By doubling his team, of course!

We are pleased to have Andrew as this month’s Agent Success Newsletter Featured Real Estate Agent.

In our exclusive call with Andrew, he tells us what it takes to build a team and make it function effectively and productively. He describes setting up different functions from customer service to transaction coordination, selecting the right management systems, and using marketing strategies like HomeGain, Craigslist and YouTube.

Listen to Andrew’s sound advice:

Highlighted Quotes From Andrew:

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The number one thing that has helped my real estate career has been reading blogs. 

Through my years in real estate, I have gotten almost no help from my colleagues or brokers. The philosophy was that we were in direct competition with each other so we could not share our ideas or expertise because it might hurt our career. Almost no agents would divulge any of their so called “secrets”. If a real estate agent would give up any of their knowledge, it was at a price.

I am so glad I discovered Web 2.0. What I learned was it is ok to share knowledge and ideas. It will not hurt me. It will help build a supportive community and it will help the real estate industry as a whole.

Here are some things I have learned by reading blogs:

• Social media, especially Twitter
• About blogging and blogging ideas
• All about video
• Virtual tour options
• Moo cards
• Marketing techniques
• Advertising
• Real estate news
• What to put on my website
• How to treat clients

 And much, much more.

My favorite real estate blogs are:

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To commence the launch of AgentView, HomeGain’s latest marketing product for real estate professionals, HomeGain had some fun and rolled out the red carpet for the folks in the Emeryville, California headquarters!

As people came down the red carpet, they were handed a pair “3-view” glasses so they could enjoy the 3-D presentation of AgentView on the big screen, and hear about the three main benefits that Realtors experience as an AgentView customer.

In line with AgentView’s key feature of showcasing agents on the Internet, Walk This Way by Aerosmith rocked the room during the unveiling.

As shown in the photo above, Security was also provided to ensure excitement levels stayed at a reasonable level and that Max didn’t return from Paris early and get out of control.

Already this week AgentView has been getting positive feedback from real estate agents, brokers, and the real estate and web 2.0 communities, including Bloodhound Blog, Sellsius Blog, Notorious R.O.B., Real Estate Radio USA and Inman News regarding the product itself as well as the customer service that supports it. Continue reading this post

I annoyed a whole lotta folks on Bloodhound Blog. I told everyone that the parents were a better demographic than the kids and the RE.net cried heresy! Apparently, Web 2.0 agents have adopted the mantra of the very demographic I suggest they target;

Never trust anyone over 30.

That’s good advice for cell phone companies. If you’re in the real estate or lending business, you might focus your marketing efforts on the cash-heavy, real estate lovin’ Baby Boomers. Now I’m not suggesting you ignore the Gen X and Millennial demographics, I’m telling you they may not be worth your hard-earned marketing dollars until 2015. Ironically, Millenials may very well Twitter through their 20s, having conversations with agents, and turn to their parents for advice when it comes time to make the big home purchase. A Boomer-focused marketing strategy then could have double-barreled results.

Those darned Boomers influence EVERYBODY, don’t they?

I say, “if you you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and it would appear that most online marketers (including Web 2.0 real estate agents) are doing the exact opposite.

I promised to talk about ways to target the Baby Boomers, in a series, and wanted to invite the HomeGain Nation to join in on the conversation before I return to the series on Bloodhound Blog. In Part Two, I reveal that there are actually TWO demographic groups among the Baby Boomer generation: one is pretty well off and one is filled with angst. You can profit from both of them but you better treat them differently. The cool part is that all Baby Boomers LOVE real estate, regardless of their sub-demographic. Continue reading this post

The problem with online marketing for real estate professionals is the reality that learning online marketing has little to do with real estate practice. Remarkablogger confirms one of real estate’s online marketing principal missions – lead generation and conversion.

If visitors don’t take actions that result in profits, you are wasting your time.
You can do all the SEO work you like, but if nothing happens when visitors show up, you did it for nothing. You can pay tons of money in advertising, and you have thrown away every penny if nobody buys anything or signs up for your newsletter. You can write comments on other blogs and work through social media to attract visitors, but if those visitors just bounce right back out of your site without doing what you want, you’re leaving money on the table.

Mastering the tricks and vagaries of effective online lead generation are beyond the scope of 99% of real estate professionals. The industry knows this, and online real estate applications have historically aimed to simplify or automate online marketing presence for agents: Continue reading this post

After the dot.com bust it appeared the initial promise of the internet was vanquished and the naysayers were right, that only geeks were using the internet and that business on the web couldn’t be conducted for profit.

So much for naysayers. The internet is now used by every bubba, grandma and you-name-it around the world. The internet is fulfilling its promise and rapidly becoming a standard tool of business, advertising and communication.

The argument is over whether real estate agents should be using the internet to conduct business. I’m sure there are successful hold-outs, and it’s probably true that many agents don’t have a comprehensive internet plan to conduct business, but it’s now pretty much a no-brainer that the internet is the place to be for real estate business.

NAR is addressing the issue, agents are getting their own websites, brokerages are putting together plans and every conference, workshop and seminar has something to say about it.

Many of us are way beyond all that and our main concern is just how best to utilize all the possibilities now that we’re in the middle of it. For those just starting, I’d suggest catching up fast by reading blogs like Bloodhound, Agent Genius and, Continue reading this post