10 tips for drumming up new business during the holidays
Realtor Notebook
By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, November 29, 2012.http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=76330468" target="_blank">Holiday party</a> image via Shutterstock." width="225" />Holiday party image via Shutterstock.
The real estate market always slows down a bit during the holiday season -- especially here in Minnesota, where we can usually expect epic cold weather and a few feet of snow.
Over the years I've had some pretty strong fourth quarters. I am always ready for business, and try to be prepared for anything. We never know who is going to be in town for the holidays or who will have a real estate emergency.
Last year I showed a home on Christmas Eve and wrote an offer on the same home on New Year's Eve. The buyers were flexible, and so was I. We were able to work it out so that the transaction did not interfere with family holiday plans.
This year the inventory of homes on the market it at an all-time low. Being in sales can be tough. It's easier when there is something to sell.
Every year there are the people who are waiting until after the first to put their homes on the market. It would be nice if I could put them on the market today, but sellers are usually resistant to the idea. It's their decision, not mine.
There are several social events on my calendar, but I treat them as work time and prepare for them accordingly.
Business really picks up after the holidays, and I think January 2013 is going to be a busy one. Unless, of course, we fall off the fiscal cliff and go into yet another recession.
The holiday season slowdown is a great time for getting organized and cleaning up from last year. It's a good time to get ready for the new year while taking advantage of social and networking opportunities. Here is a list of things that can be done in those weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day that will help drum up business and help us prepare for the new year:
1. Attend holiday social events.
2. Schedule lunches, evening drinks or coffee with as many friends, neighbors, past clients, vendors and competitors as possible.
3. Revisit this year's business plan and fix it up all nice and pretty for the next year -- complete with measurable goals, tasks and a budget.
4. Write blog posts about getting a home ready to sell, how to price a home, and how to choose a real estate agent. Link to the posts from social media accounts like Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter to generate more traffic. Cold weather usually means a decrease in foot traffic and an increase in website traffic. People start doing their homework online months before they contact an agent.
5. Read a book or two. Create and keep a reading list all year long of business books and books with ideas or practical advice.
6. Make five phone calls each day Monday through Friday during the month of December, excluding the holidays. Call friends and past clients and wish them a happy New Year. That doesn't sound like much, but it is huge.
7. Take pictures of local businesses and parks all decked out for the holidays and share them on the Internet on social networks and blogs. There is gold in those photographs, and good karma too. They start conversations, and help promote local businesses and neighborhoods.
8. Buy items for my business like computer, phones or software to take advantage of seasonal discounts and tax deductions.
9. Use any spare time to tweak online profiles, websites and blogs and get rid of accounts that are not being used. Get rid of clutter on the computer, in the cloud and around the office.
10. Walk at least a mile every day. Walking burns calories, is free, clears the mind, and relieves stress. It is also a way to get from one place to another.
I have always started each day with a to-do list, and that is especially important when business is slow. I have to stay focused so that I don't squander my time in Facebook groups discussing "raising the bar" or trying to reform NAR.
I still do the to-do list the old fashioned way -- on a piece of paper, crossing off items as I complete them.
There are several social events on my calendar, but I treat them as work time and prepare for them accordingly.
Being out and about during the holidays, or any time of the year, is good for business. Even working in public places like a local coffee shop helps.
When business is slow we can not let it slow us down.
Most of us understand that technology can help us stay in touch with people and improve communication, but nothing beats going out and meeting people face-to-face. During the holidays there are numerous opportunities to reconnect with old friends and to make new ones.
Teresa Boardman is a broker in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the St. Paul Real Estate blog.
Contact Teresa Boardman: All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
10 tips for drumming up new business during the holidays | Inman News
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Good Content vs. Technology - Tech Hottips
Becoming an expert in social media is more about sharing good content than it is about technology. Let me repeat that for those who consider themselves technology challenged: becoming an expert in social media is more about sharing good content than it is about technology!
You can be a technology wizard with a fancy blog and Facebook page, but if you are not sharing good content, all the bells and whistles in the world on your websites won’t matter. A simple basic blog, Twitter account or Facebook page with interesting information to share will attract more visitors.
Finding good content can be a challenge. How do you find it? One place in which I like to find content is Zite, an app that is advertised as “a free personalized magazine for your iPad, iPhone or Android that automatically learns what you like and gets smarter every time you use it.”
When you set up Zite, you will first be asked to select the sections in your magazine. Zite will offer suggestions, but you can also enter your own ideas. I selected sections like Real Estate, Foreclosures, Interior Design, Housing and Connecticut. After reading an article in Zite, you will be asked, “did you enjoy reading this?” with “Yes” or “No” options. You also have a choice of Give me more from the author and Give me more about… Your answers will help personalize your magazine.
Once your Zite online magazine is personalized, you will have tons of ideas and links to share on your blog, on Twitter and on Facebook.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Zillow's 'social CEO' sounds off on Twitter, company's future | Inman News
Zillow's 'social CEO' sounds off on Twitter, company's future
Connect speaker profile: Spencer Rascoff
By Paul Hagey, Tuesday, November 27, 2012.Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff on stage at Real Estate Connect San Francisco.
Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has had quite a year.
Zillow signed agreements in 2012 to acquire four companies (RentJuice, Buyfolio, Mortech and Hotpads) and at the end of the third quarter had 508 full-time employees, up 54 percent from a year ago.
The nation's most-visited real estate website also boosted the number of "Premier Agent" advertising subscribers by 80 percent (to 26,703 as of Sept. 30), unleashed a free online foreclosure database, and launched its first national TV ad campaign.
To help fuel this growth, last year Zillow pulled off a $75.7 million initial public offering -- helping bring back the market for IPOs in the process. The company recently raised another $156.7 million in a secondary offering that closed Sept. 24.
Rascoff, 36, was named to Fortune Magazine's "40 hottest rising business stars under 40."
He's been called a "social CEO." He writes a blog, contributes to LinkedIn's "influencer" program, and Tweets frequently.
So more than a few industry leaders will be interested to hear what Rascoff has to say about the future, when he takes the stage as a featured speaker at Real Estate Connect New York City, which takes place Jan. 16-18 at the Grand Hyatt New York.
Rascoff says Twitter has become one of his everyday tools.
"It's where the conversation is happening," he said. "I can reach tens of thousands of people with a few key strokes." Three monitors sit on his work desk, he said -- one for "real work," another for email, and the third for Twitter.
"It's time-consuming," Rascoff said of monitoring and being active on Twitter everyday, but it's where he can see "what impressions people are promulgating about Zillow."
Spencer RascoffHis social media activity also gives consumers a window into Rascoff and Zillow. For example, in a recent LinkedIn post titled "When Being Naïve is an Advantage," Rascoff shed light on Zillow's hiring philosophy.
"Without our people, we are nothing," he wrote. "Hence we hire first and foremost for IQ, then for energy and passion, and then for culture fit." Subject matter expertise is a distant fourth, he said.
In other posts, he's discussed ideas that guide his leadership at Zillow from motivating employees to delegating work to handling compensation negotiations.
Rascoff, who was one of the company's founding execs in 2005 and became CEO in 2010, says Zillow's on a mission to empower consumers.
That led to what he considers to be the company's most innovative move in the past year -- providing foreclosure and pre-foreclosure information, including addresses and the amount of debt owed by homeowners in foreclosure, at no cost to consumers.
Rascoff said he expects the new tool to "shake up" the industry like Zillow's home value estimates or "Zestimates" did in 2006, when it was launched along with Zillow's website.
Going forward, Rascoff said, Zillow will continue to expand its business model beyond lead generation into software tools for agents.
"It's a huge focus for us," he said. Zillow's "Premier Agent" subscribers spend an average of $270 each month, according to the company's most recent quarterly report.
Providing more tools, like a customer relationship management system and Internet Data Exchange-enabled websites (both launched this year) to real estate brokers and agents will help them maximize the site as a business resource, Rascoff said, compelling them to spend more money with Zillow.
Relying on lead generation for revenue is tenuous for Zillow, Rascoff said, because many companies have come and gone who offered only that service. So to be a sustainable company, it's important that Zillow build diverse tools for real estate professionals, he said.
Along with beefing up agent tools, Rascoff said, Zillow is focusing on refining its mobile technology and growing its consumer website traffic, which it claims measures over 36 million unique visitors each month when traffic to its partner Yahoo sites are included.
"Our brand is still relatively unknown," which provides a lot of opportunity for growth, Rascoff said.
Rascoff's favorite current TV show is the Showtime spy thriller "Homeland" and he roots, avidly, for the National Football League's Miami Dolphins, he said.
Six months ago, he and his wife and three kids purchased a foreclosed-upon home -- another sign, he said, tongue-in-cheek, that the housing market has reached bottom and is on the upswing.
Spencer Rascoff will be a featured speaker at Real Estate Connect New York City, which takes place Jan. 16-18 at the Grand Hyatt New York.
Follow Real Estate Connect on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn: All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
12 Actions to Turn Your Slow Season Into a Grow Season | Trulia Pro Blog
It’s my sincerest hope that every agent reading this has just as much business – or as much down time – as they want, this time of year. But cultivating a mature understanding if the seasons and cycles of this business includes facing the truth that things often slow down when the weather grows cold and the holidays have most Americans otherwise occupied. For many agents, the next five weeks will be the most fallow season of the year.
What if, instead of leaving the soil of your business to sit fallow, you decided to grow a cover crop, so to speak, over the next five weeks? I’d like to challenge you to do just that. Here are 10 “cover crops” that you can plant, relatively simple, efficient tasks you can do – 2 per week between now and New Year’s – to replenish what’s been depleted from your business over the last twelve months and position yourself for a flourishing 2013:
1. Set your targets.
Setting targets for measurable outcomes you want to create in your business (and your life, for that matter) is one of the very first steps to achieving them. And this is not all about vision boards or magical thinking. If you marry your targets with the basics you already know about your business, you can use them to back all the way into a precise plan for reaching your goal that shows what you need to be doing every single quarter, month, week and even on a daily basis.
I suggest you sit down and write out, with precision, exactly what you want to reach in 2013. And think creatively about what buckets or categories in which you set targets. Start with the basics, and start soon, so that you can add to the list over the next few weeks as things come to mind – include some or all of the following items:
- income (gross and/or net)
- closed sales
- buyer clients/seller clients
- listing appointments
- buyer seminars taught
- vendor referrals given
- blog posts written or questions answered
- incoming lead response time frames, etc.
2. Explore new niches – and pick one to double down on.
In today’s market, if you are marketing to everyone, you’re effectively marketing to no one. Explore the possibility of finding a new niche or subgroup you can market to, whether it’s a group as simple as buyers, or taking an approach as narrow as focusing on:
- a particular neighborhood,
- a particular property type or
- a population with ties to a large university or employer.
We’ll talk in much more detail about picking a niche or building out a specialization over the next couple of weeks – but this item is a must on your ‘cover crop’ planting plan.
3. Set your marketing plan and budget.
Once you know what your targets are and have in mind any new niches you want to target in 2013, you’re in position to build out your marketing plan and budget – and to start executing it by signing up and setting up ads or other tactics to help you reach your goal.
Include approaches that have worked for you in the past and some new ones you’ve always wanted to try, but haven’t yet. Your down time is the right time to do the research, allocate budget and line things up to be ready to activate your marketing plan at the top of the new year.
4. Revisit and refresh your online profile.
Chances are good that, at some point in time, you started a Trulia profile, you know – uploading your name, your photo, the area you work in and so forth. Chances are also good that your profile is not complete or fully updated to showcase yourself and your expertise in its best light for the millions of buyers who come to Trulia every month looking for listings and for agents!
Take 5 minutes during your slow season and update your profile, maybe adding your new head shot, or specifying your specializations. Click here, polish up your profile and we’ll automatically enter you to win this Mercedes E550. (How’s that for planting some prosperity seeds??)
5. Call or check in with 1 past client every day until Christmas.
This one’s simple – call or email one former client (whichever method they prefer) every day from now until Christmas or New Year’s. Ask how they are, ask if there’s anything you can help them with, then ask for their referrals and reviews.
6. Create one new, good habit.
Most people wait until New Years to put a resolution in place and end up dropping out like everyone else. I like to get some momentum up heading into New Year’s by taking the last 30 or 45 days of the year to create at least one, single new habit.
One big source of leakage, a spot where many agents miss out on business simply because they haven’t changed their habits yet, is in responding to incoming online leads. While you’re updating your Trulia profile, make sure you update your primary e-mail address to one you actually check.
Also, get in the habit of responding to your Trulia leads inbox at least one time a day, when you check your other email. Many buyers will fill out several agents’ lead forms at a time – and the first – sometimes the only – agent to respond is the one who winds up with that lead and, eventually, that deal.
7. Refresh and stage your website to reach your target clients.
Have you ever advised a seller to go attend other open houses, then come back to their own and walk through it from the perspective of a buyer?
Now’s the time to heed your own advice, and do a virtual walk-through of your own website from the perspective of a buyer or seller who has clicked from an ad you’ve placed, from your Trulia profile or even from a referral – especially if your site has been running on autopilot for months or even years.
- How do you ‘show’?
- Is all your information current?
- Do you feel like the site represents who you are and what you want to put out into your local marketplace, to tell the people you want to work with why you are different from every other agent in town?
If your answer to any of these questions is ‘no,’ there’s no time like the present to make the power-tweaks necessary to make sure your website paints a vivid, accurate picture of what working with you is like – and that it speaks to the wants and needs of the buyers and sellers you want to work with.
8. Check your online reviews and put a review plan in place.
If you don’t have a Google Alert set up for your name, set one up – it’ll take you less than 30 seconds. That way you’ll know the moment someone posts a review of your services anywhere on the interwebs. Then, check Trulia, Yelp! and other review sites to see what, if anything, past clients have been saying about you.
If your 20th century post-closing client touches involved delivering a folder of documents, gifting them a bottle of wine and asking for referrals, the next-gen version is to deliver your clients a USB stick containing their transaction file along with a request for both referrals and online reviews (the wine still works!).
Data shows that well over 80 percent of home buyers and sellers are very happy with their agents after they close a transaction – that’s precisely the time to ask them to share their happiness by posting a positive review on Trulia and other review sites.
9. Get a new head shot or business cards.
Enough said. Okay, just one more thing: again, if you have decided to target any new niches or develop any core specializations in 2013, make sure your business cards and online profiles/personas message to these groups.
10. Refresh your listing presentation and materials.
Many of the best agents among us are still using listing presentation materials they’ve been working with, updating ad hoc, for years. Revisit yours, during the slow season: does it showcase your online marketing prowess? Does it demonstrate the strong data points that prove your expertise? Are client testimonials in the mix?
Get creative – here’s some inspiration; this agent just used an iPad app called Haiku Deck to land a $1.4 million listing with a very minimalistic deck that showcased his deep understanding of the market data and what buyers want.
11. Hire a bookkeeper + meet with a CPA.
Sound, orderly financials and the ability to predict your income and expenses are the fundamentals of a strong, growing business and a sane personal life. If you do not yet have a bookkeeper or you are still doing your own taxes, there’s no time like the end of the year to enlist one, review where your money came from and went in 2012, and set up a plan to align cash flows – in and out – with your business and life priorities in 2013.
12. Read 1 book per week.
There are some powerful business and personal development books on the market as we speak, which can reset your mindset, help you course-correct what’s not working in your business and inspire you to an unprecedented 2013. If you are truly ready to break through to a new level in 2013, consider reading one book per week through the end of the year.
Here are 12 power tactics for making the most of your time and growing your business this season. What else would you add to the list?
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Forecast for steady growth, but no boom in home sales | Inman News
Forecast for steady growth, but no boom in home sales
US real estate market still facing headwinds in 2013
By Andrea V. Brambila, Tuesday, November 20, 2012.http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=929886" target="_blank">Turtle</a> image via Shutterstock." width="225" />Turtle image via Shutterstock.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The national outlook for home sales next year looks "very good," though tight credit means housing will not see rapid growth anytime soon.
That's according to Kenneth T. Rosen, chairman of the University of California, Berkeley, Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, who spoke at the 35th Annual Real Estate & Economics Symposium hosted by the center Monday.
Interest rates at a 50-year low, job growth and low inventory mean that the housing market is recovering, Rosen said.
"It's not a boom, but it's recovering," he said.
Rosen thinks the reason housing isn't booming is because the government has responded to the economic downturn by trying to fight the wrong problem.
"The problem is not (that there is not) enough money, because the (Federal Reserve) has poured in a lot of money into the economy," Rosen said. "We have too much money out there, not too little money. The problem is loan availability."
Restrictive credit score requirements mean 40 percent of people can't get a loan, he said.
According to Ellie Mae, a provider of software to mortgage originators, borrowers approved for conventional purchase loans in October had an average FICO score of 762. The average FICO score for purchase mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration was 700.
"I think the average FICO score should be back at 650," Rosen said.
But he held little hope for improved credit availability in the near future.
"Credit is not going to get a lot looser. This administration is not pro-homeownership. They are not homeowner advocates, they are renter advocates" because their constituency is largely in urban areas, which typically have a high share of renters, Rosen said.
The FHA, whose mission is to provide homeownership opportunities for moderate-income families, particularly first-time buyers and minorities, is an exception, Rosen said.
"The FHA is doing a great job, but they're the only ones there," he said.
The FHA reported a $16.3 billion deficit last week, raising the specter that the agency will require a taxpayer bailout next year for the first time in its 78-year history.
Rosen said the shortfall was "not surprising," given the FHA's role in shoring up the housing market during the downturn. The agency expects $70 billion in future losses from loans made between 2007 and 2009.
"It's a function of history and they'll get through it," Rosen said.
On the inventory front, underwater homeowners are likely to sell as prices rise next year, increasing the number of available homes for sale, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of foreclosure data aggregator RealtyTrac, who also spoke at the symposium.
But "I don't see a flood of inventory; it'll be slowly meted out as prices come up," he said.
The role foreclosures will play will vary by state, Blomquist said.
In states where foreclosures are handled by the courts (judicial foreclosure states) foreclosures take considerably longer to process than in nonjudicial foreclosure states. For example, in New York, a judicial foreclosure state, it took an average of 1,072 days to process a foreclosure in the third quarter; in California, a nonjudicial foreclosure state, it took 335 days.
Though delayed, foreclosures are being processed in judicial foreclosure states such as Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and each has seen increasing foreclosure activity in the last nine to 10 months, Blomquist said.
"That indicates more foreclosure sales next year," he said.
But in nonjudicial foreclosure states like California, Arizona and Nevada, there'll be less foreclosure inventory to add to for-sale inventory, he said.
"If Realtors are looking for shadow inventory in those states, it's probably not very likely," he said.
Clouds on the horizon
Overall, the U.S. economy has many positives going for it right now, though there are some clouds on the horizon that could affect the housing market next year.
"We have very strong job creation. Private sector job creation is very good, (though) a little slow in summer. Auto sales are quite strong. Home sales are coming back. We have very low interest rates. Corporate profits are very high and cash balances are high," Rosen said.
Rosen said the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- a series of tax increases and spending cuts that will go into effect at the beginning of next year unless U.S. lawmakers come up with an alternative plan to reduce the federal deficit -- remains a concern. At the moment, he said, a grand bargain seems to be more likely than congressional gridlock.
Regardless, he said, the U.S. economy could face headwinds including instability, a slowdown in overseas growth, and tax increases at home.
Rosen estimates there's a 30 percent chance the U.S. economy will double-dip back into recession if any one of three events occur: we fall off the fiscal cliff, the euro collapses, or the supply of oil from the Middle East is disrupted.
Should we go over the fiscal cliff, taxes will rise for all taxpayers. These include a jump in capital gains taxes; tax rate increases in the top four brackets to 39.6 percent (from 35 percent), 36 percent (from 33 percent), 31 percent (from 28 percent), or 28 percent (from 25 percent); and 28 million more taxpayers will be subject to the alternative minimum tax (see "What happens to your taxes if we go over the fiscal cliff.)"
New Medicare taxes will kick in next year regardless for for high-income taxpayers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). Married couples with adjusted gross incomes over $250,000, and singles with AGIs over $200,000, will face a 0.9 percent increase in the current Medicare tax and a 3.8 percent tax on investment income. All taxpayers who itemize will also face more restrictive limits on deductions for medical expenses.
A payroll tax holiday that has reduced workers' share of Social Security taxes from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for the last two years is set to expire at the end of 2012. Reuters reports support for an extension of the tax holiday is growing in Congress, particularly among Democrats. The tax break has provided workers with an average of about $1,000 a year in extra cash, Reuters said.
At the state level, in California, the newly passed Proposition 30 will raise the sales tax for everyone, from 7.25 percent to 7.5 percent, and also raise income taxes for those earning more than $250,000 a year.
A deal to avoid the fiscal cliff could include limits on the mortgage interest tax deduction. Also, if the Mortgage Debt Relief Act is allowed to expire, mortgage debt forgiven in a short sale, loan modification or foreclosure could be considered taxable income next year.
"We don't know what's going to happen, but we do know taxes will be higher," Rosen said. "A lot higher or a little higher we don't know."
"It will hurt the housing market because there will be less money in the system," he said. How much it hurts depends on the tax increases themselves, which are as yet uncertain, he said.
On a global scale, the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and recession as well as economic slowdowns in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) could blunt U.S. exports and increase the trade deficit, which fell to its lowest level in nearly two years in September.
Rosen predicted the euro would not last due to a lack of homogeneity among European countries.
"One currency requires an integration level that I don't think is going to happen," Rosen said. "So, I think within several years we'll will have shadow currencies and country after country will say they don't need one currency."
That doesn't mean other eurozone policies, such as open borders, can't remain in place, he said.
As far as oil prices, Rosen noted oil and gas booms in states like North Dakota and Ohio, but said the technologies that are creating those booms, namely hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), would be exported to other countries, who would then have their own energy booms.
The result may be a $10 or $20 drop in the per barrel price of oil, though it may only be a 10-year phenomenon as supplies run out, Rosen said. Alternative energy is a better bet for the long term, he said.
For now, oil prices are still very high, he said, and "if the Middle East blows up, we could see $150 a barrel overnight," he said.
Contact Andrea V. Brambila: All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Creating a ‘WOW’ Customer Experience Every Time | RISMedia
In an industry where the average consumer does not buy a home on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis, creating a memorable experience is a must.
Producing an exceptional or ‘WOW’ experience will leave a lasting impression that your client will remember whether they purchase in three years or in ten.
Certainly not all transactions are created equal, but there are specific needs that most homebuyers share. As a real estate professional, it is more imperative than ever to impart your expertise, wisdom and compassion while guiding clients through the process.
No matter if they are purchasing for the first-time or have purchased multiple homes in the past, buying a home is a stressful event that can be positively impacted by the professional nature of the agent.
What Sets You Apart?
Your prospects want to know who you are both as a professional and on a personal level. It is important that you clearly define your unique abilities and what sets you apart from your competition.Which of the attributes below describes your personality?
-Passionate
-Determined
-Resolute
-Compassionate
-Sensitive
-Perceptive
-Adventurous
-Optimistic
-Persistent
-Charming
-Confident
-EncouragingMake a list of your top three personality traits. Now determine how those traits positively affect your clients. Turn that into a differentiating statement that can be used across all marketing channels.
Your unique qualities not only define who you are, but encompass all that your business represents. Clearly expressing these qualities will allow you to attract the right clients to your business.
What Can Your Clients Expect?
Nothing is more frustrating than unmet expectations. Setting proper expectations from the moment you meet a potential client will reduce stress and enable all parties to work together rather than struggling through the process.This includes painting a clear picture as to what the home-buying or -selling process entails from beginning to end.
Do you have a system in place to ensure that key conversations are had and that subsequent touch points happen throughout the transaction? Using a calendar or task based structure around transaction milestones will encourage consistency within your message.
Setting ground rules up front will leave little room for misunderstandings.
Are You Enthusiastic?
Do you love what you do and does it show? Clients can sense whether you are passionate about the business or simply putting in time. If you exude your love for the real estate industry, clients will be eager to connect and embrace with that energy.Enthusiasm is contagious. If your clients sense that you are excited about their future and you have offered a positive experience that fulfilled their needs, they will be willing to spread the word about your personal brand time and again.
Amy is vice president of platform development at Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate.
For more information, visit www.bhg.com.
Join RISMedia on Twitter and Facebook to connect with us and share your thoughts on this and other topics.Need blog or newsletter content or easy, stay-in-touch e-Marketing solutions? Check out REsource and Pop-a-Note!
Send us feedback
Copyright© 2012 RISMedia, The Leader in Real Estate Information Systems and Real Estate News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be republished without permission from RISMedia.
School boundary search catching on | Inman News
School boundary search catching on
Growing number of listing sites let users search for homes served by individual school
By Paul Hagey, Thursday, November 15, 2012.http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=12043852" target="_blank">Elementary school children</a> image via Shutterstock." width="225" />Elementary school children image via Shutterstock.
Carolyn Castro-Donlan needed a school in the Washington, D.C., area that would provide adequate services for her autistic fifth-grader.
Her family's experience with a Fairfax County, Va., public elementary school was bad enough that they sold their house and moved to another area with better schools.
To find their new home, the Castro-Donlan family took advantage of a relatively new option in real estate search -- the ability to search for homes for sale within a specific school's attendance boundary.
While for-sale listings often provide information about which school district a property is in, finding out the specific schools that serve a particular home often involves additional research. To choose a school first, and then search for a home online -- as the Castro-Donlan family did -- was all but impossible.
The Castro-Donlan family found an elementary school in Loudoun County, Va., that they felt would be perfect for their special-needs child. To find a home that would put them in that school's attendance zone, they used a school boundary search tool from Century 21 Redwood Realty, a brokerage serving the metro Washington, D.C., area.
"The search tool allows you to back into whatever you're looking for," Castro-Donlan said.
Screen shot of Trulia's school zone attendance-based map search. All homes within the highlighted area above, activated by clicking on the school's icon on the map, are in the selected elementary school's attendance zone.
The Castro-Donlan family is currently under contract for a house that falls within the attendance zone of the school they want their child to attend. They sold their previous home in August, and are renting a home that's in the attendance boundary of the school they've chosen.
For families with school-aged children, the ability to search for homes by school attendance boundary is an obvious attraction.
Real estate marketplace Trulia has offered the capability since July. In March, national franchisor Century 21 Real Estate LLC rolled out school attendance boundary search on its national website.
Regional brokerages Estately and Redfin also offer home search by school attendance boundaries. Estately rolled out the feature last year; Redfin announced its tool in late October.
As of Nov. 1, all Realtors now have access to school boundary information through Realtors Property Resource (RPR), the national parcel-based property information database backed by the National Association of Realtors.
Trulia, Century 21, Estately, RPR and many other websites that offer school boundary search license data from Maponics LLC, a Vermont-based provider of geographic information system (GIS) data including school, neighborhood and ZIP code boundaries (Redfin says it gets data from an unnamed third party, and enhances it with input from its local real estate agents).
Screen shot of Century 21 Redwood Realty's hand-built, school attendance boundary-based home search. The outlines areas delineate the different middle school attendance zones in Loudoun County, Va. Clicking on one of the tiles will show all of the homes for sale in that school attendance boundary.
Century 21 Redwood Realty hand-built its school boundary search tool without Maponics data, using "an extremely time-intensive process," said Edward Berenbaum, principal broker and owner of the brokerage.
The tool, available for Loudoun and Arlington counties in Virginia, lets users see elementary, middle or high school attendance boundaries overlaid on a map in both counties. By clicking within one of the boundaries on the county maps, homes for sale within that school's attendance zone show up on the map.
Berenbaum said the school boundary search tool has been "wildly successful," and the brokerage has plans to expand its coverage area to include the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas.
Paul Gallagher, vice president of marketing and product development at Maponics, said Realtor.com and Zillow have licensed Maponics' school boundary data. But the portals haven't added school boundary search capabilities yet, and it's not certain if they will.
Realtor.com operator Move Inc. announced in July 2010 that it was licensing Maponics' school boundary data, and that users would soon be able to view attendance zones and district boundaries in relation to homes and apartments of interest.
Realtor.com users can currently see the distance to nearby schools from individual properties, and GreatSchools ratings for those that are public, but they cannot see school attendance zones or search for properties within them.
Zillow displays school attendance boundaries. While site users can search for homes by neighborhood, they cannot search by school attendance boundary.
(Neither Realtor.com nor Zillow would comment on if or when they might make school boundary property search available.)
Most of the Maponics data is licensed in a straightforward GIS format, Gallagher said. So, licensees develop different ways to incorporate the data into search, he said.
Maponics also has an application interface that presents the data in a more ready-made form, but that hasn't been utilized by many real estate sites yet, Gallagher said.
Maponics' school attendance zone data currently covers about 72 percent of the U.S. student population.
Sites using Maponics data allow users to find schools designated for a certain home on the home's listing page, by overlaying the school's attendance boundary on a map of area listings after a user click's on a school's icon on a map and by entering the school's name in the search bar and showing the results as a list or on a map.
School attendance information on a home's listing page on Estately.Estately and Redfin's tool also lets homebuyers set up listing alerts that notifies them via email as soon as a new listing shows up in a school attendance zone they're interested in. Users can select "instant" email alerts and Redfin users have the option of a daily email alert, as well.
"Millions of users have used our school search since we released it over a year ago," said Estately co-founder and CEO Galen Ward.
The ability to searching for homes by school attendance boundary is not just useful for families with children. A home that falls within the attendance zone of a good school may be more desirable than similar homes served by a less prestigious school, said residential home appraiser Richard Hagar of American Home Appraisals, an appraisal firm serving the Seattle area.
Hagar said he's seen similar houses on either side of a street that fall into different school attendance zones have as much as a $15,000 to $20,000 difference in appraisal price.
When appraising a home, Hagar says he tries to find comparable properties that are within the same school attendance zones, because that can have such a big effect on the home's price relative to that of others in the area.
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