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Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
8 Targets of a 2013 Power Agent | Trulia Pro Blog
When I joined “the business” back in 2007, I realized pretty quickly that all agents aren’t created equal.
While it seems like an ugly thing to say, the truth is that there are major differences between the individuals that just hold licenses and the heavy hitters who excel in their local area or niche.
But, what are the differences? What separates the best from the rest of the pack? And, more importantly, how do the movers and shakers become the movers and shakers I affectionately like to call “power agents?”
Over the next few months, we’ll be answering these questions with special posts, downloads, trainings, and by profiling and interviewing some of the best in the business from around the country.
The goal: We want to help you turn 2013 into the year you become the power agent in your local market.
The first challenge: Where do you start?
On a recent call with one of our resident real estate experts, Tara Nicholle-Nelson and a few other industry insiders about the 2013 Path to Power we found that one thing we can all agree on is that the path to becoming a power agent starts with your focus.
Here are the eight areas you need to focus on and target to become a power agent this year:
1. Profits Prosperity
Face it. While most agents join the business for a variety of reasons, the universal goal of most real estate professionals is to profit from all of the hard work they put in.
When you’re a power agent, this goal is not just about making more dollars now. To excel in 2013, you’ll need to focus on answering two key profit questions:
- How do you keep more of the dollars you make?
- What’s your plan for growing your cash flow in the future?
2. A Bold Brand
Your brand is much more than a logo. It includes the look, feel, persona and messages that are triggered when people hear your name or see you marketing.
Tara said, “In my hometown, there’s a woman named Mary Christensen – literally every single person in town, whether or not they’re in real estate – you can say her name and they know – she sells million dollar houses in Seven Oaks. Period. Bold branding crosses platforms/media, and helps the right people call you at the right time.”
3. Intelligent Marketing
In today’s fast paced and vastly changing marketing environment there are a ton of options for promoting your business.
All agents market and advertise. Power agents focus on making sure their marketing efforts make sense.
Jumping on the latest 15-minute tool bandwagon before moving on to the next new/big marketing tool isn’t the power approach.
“Intelligent marketing involves a comprehensive marketing plan that is committed to a course of action, setup to run as automatically as possible, and is optimized around the results it is intended to drive,” according to Tara.
To help you focus and make your marketing smarter, check out these 10 Steps to a 2013 Marketing Plan that come with an interactive worksheet to help you set and measure your goals.
4. Streamlined Business Systems
One age-old agent issue is too many professionals waste time trying to function as the end-all be-all for their business.
Power agents know, while you may be an independent contractor, you don’t have to go at it alone.
True power agents treat their businesses like businesses. That means, investing in the processes and professional support teams that save you time and energy and let you focus on what you do best.
To hone in on opportunities to streamline this year, answer these key questions:
- What are the most frustrating business tasks for me?
- What am I best at in business?
- If resources were unlimited, what would I outsource?
These three answers are a great start to figuring out where you could use help the most.
5. High Close Rate
Power agents are hyper focused on getting their clients across the finish line.
That means using a mix of marketing, psychology, and stellar management skills to make sure you
- Take on clients that are serious about closing
- Work to make sure close as soon as possible, and
- Being a step ahead of the deal killers that too often siphon dollars from an agent’s pocket.
Start increasing your close rate. Check out these helpful handouts and insights to make sure your hard work has the highest ROI
- Top 10 Deal Killers and How to Avoid Them
- 6 Real Estate Niches Set to Explode in 2013
- 4 Tips to Avoid Surprises at the Closing Table
6. Credibility Trust
If you’re going to excel in a market or area of expertise, you’re going to have to be someone clients see as credible and trustworthy.
“Power agents have earned that “trusted advisor” status that ranks up there with the family lawyer or accountant,” according to Tara.
To build that trust, your expertise has to be positioned on Trulia Voices and other places your hottest prospects look for expertise and real estate answers.
To become a power agent, this year you need to identify the key places your prospects look for data when researching a transaction and be sure you have the best presence possible in those places.
7. Leadership Influence
On the path to power agent status, influence can make or break you. Agents who only focus on the next transaction, sell themselves short. Talk to any successful agent across the country and you’ll find they are active in their offices, communities, associations, and other areas.
Why? We all know we only do business with those we respect when we have a choice. With more options than ever today, you need to identify these key opportunities:
- What involvement has brought you referrals and clients in the past?
- Where are the top agents in your market volunteering or performing community service?
These two answers are sure-fire areas you should focus on this year.
8. A Recession-Proof Business
Power agents are power agents no matter what’s happening in the market. Does that mean they aren’t affected by the ebbs and flows of the market? Of course not.
But, power agents are always focused on the niches and opportunities that can sustain their business in the days and years to come.
For example: In 2008, many power agents expanded their focus to include specializing in bank owned and REO-related business to survive the downturn while focusing on the clients and neighborhoods that always brought them success.
For 2013, to start recession proofing your business you need to find out, “What type of business is always going to need be done in my market? And, how do I beat out the competition to become number one in that area?”
2013 will be the year you make it. We’re looking forward to bringing more insight and tools to help make it a success. But in the meantime, what are you doing now to set yourself up to become a local power agent this year?
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Facebook EdgeRank: Why 15% or Less of Your Status Updates are Shown to Fans | SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
-->A major development on the Facebook platform is the introduction of EdgeRank, a ranking formula that determines which posts are displayed on the News Feed of fans and friends. This algorithm filters and prioritizes the posts your fans will see and the order in which they are shown on their News Feed.
This article describes EdgeRank and how it affects your Facebook activities? Facebook had to introduce a ranking algorithm to reduce the amount of clutter displayed on people’s News Feeds.
To overcome the effects of EdgeRank, you need to understand how to create and manage the updates you post on Facebook, how to time these updates and how to engage with fans and friends using Facebook features like Likes, Share and Comments. Unless you fully embrace the concept of engagement, your status updates will simply not show up on the News Feed of your fans.
What Is EdgeRank?
EdgeRank is a Facebook algorithm that controls which status updates are displayed in each user’s News Feed. EdgeRank not only filters what posts are displayed, it also sorts and prioritizes the order in which they are shown.
To start, let’s clarify the term edge as the ranking formula itself is based on this rather esoteric term. We shall clarify its meaning in an easy-to-understand manner.
As it applies to Facebook, every interaction a user performs that produces a piece of content is known as an edge.
For example, the following user actions are in themselves known as edges:
* Posting a status update.
* Uploading a photo or video.
* Listening to a song.
* Changing the classification of a fan or friend.
* Clicking, liking, tagging, sharing, commenting and befriending people.Every one of these actions generates an edge which, depending on its EdgeRank score, may be displayed in a user’s News Feed. Looking at the actions shown in the above list, you can already see that EdgeRank monitors your engagement and this, to a large extent, determines if your status updates will be shown on the News Feed of your fans and friends.
Now, let’s examine a more scientific definition of EdgeRank.
EdgeRank is measured by the aggregation of three separate factors which, on account of the terminology used, may seem a little difficult to grasp.
Affinity (u). This essentially tracks your interaction with fans. Each action produces a different weight that measures the effort involved which, by itself, demonstrates the level of interest a user has in the content posted. Posting and commenting produces a higher score than clicking or liking. Using Facebook parlance, the affinity score is also based on how connected a user is with an action. The more you interact with a particular person, the more connected you become.
Edge Weight (w). Each edge category has a different weight (score) which determines what type of content Facebook considers valuable for posting onto the News Feed of fans and friends. Highest on their ranking is videos, photos and links. The more comments, likes or shares a post update accumulates, the higher its edge weight.
Recency (d). This factor relates to the “time decay” of status updates. As a post ages, it loses points. It is assumed that Facebook adjusts the recency score based on the time elapsed since the user last logged into Facebook and also how frequently
the user is active on Facebook.Like the Google algorithm that determines page rank, the precise equations contained in the EdgeRank algorithm are not publicly known and you can assume that the algorithm will change and evolve over time. However, the above explanations should give you a reasonable insight into the factors that determine whether particular posts will show up in your News Feed as well as those of your fans.
Finally, do not assume that you can check, measure or calculate EdgeRank because there is no general score. You can, however, measure the effects of EdgeRank by using the Facebook analytics tools to see how much engagement from other users your posts accumulate. A separate chapter in my book describes the Insights analytics feature.
How to Improve Your EdgeRank Score
If you market your brand, product or service on Facebook, you need to consider how you can best improve your EdgeRank score. The reason is simple. Unless you pay attention to EdgeRank, the majority of your fans and friends may never see your status updates.
According to the latest available research, only 6% of your fans will interact with your content (Napkin Labs)
Facebook recently claimed that only 15% on your fans will see your status updates on their newsfeed.
Acquiring Likes has, in itself, become a fairly meaningless activity although you need to reach 400 likes in order to see certain data in Insights. “The more the better” approach is not the target you want to chase. Fostering engagement with your fans should be your principal goal as this is the only way to improve your EdgeRank score.
Here’s the mindset you need to adopt when you post updates, photos or videos in Facebook:
* Don’t try to trick the EdgeRank formula to rank your content higher. Instead, create content that motivates your fans and friends to like, comment and share the content.
* Aim to create a community of followers.
* As is the case with the Calls-To-Action items you embed in sales letters and/or squeeze pages, you must TELL people what to do or they won’t do it. Clearly state what you want your fans to do. “Leave a comment below”, “Click Like if you agree”, “Click the Share button now”. Every action your fans take will improve the Affinity score of the EdgeRank algorithm and this will increase the number fans that see your post in their News Feed.
Pages Feed (November, 2012 Update)
Facebook has responded to mounting criticism from users who want to see all status updates posted by pages the have liked.
Commencing mid-November, 2012, a new menu item was added to the left-hand column of the News Feed page.
You can enable this function in order to see all status updates from pages you have liked. However, if you have a large number of Likes, you may well be overwhelmed by the amount of clutter on your News Feed.
Article by Alex Backlund. His Kindle eBook “Facebook Marketing: Your Social Media Campaigns Using Facebook’s 2012 Additions” explains in detail all the new promotional and advertising Facebook has introduced so you can better reach your target audience.Related Posts
via sitepronews.com
This is an amazing article for you to read to understand how you should be thinking about what you post if you want it to be seen!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Banks to Pay $8.5 Billion to Speed Up Housing Relief
Paul Sakuma/Associated PressProtesters rallied in June 2011 at a Bank of America building in San Jose, Calif. Housing advocates have criticized the government’s response to the housing crisis.
Federal regulators on Monday reached an $8.5 billion settlement with 10 major lenders to resolve claims of foreclosure abuses, including the use of flawed paperwork and bungled loan modifications that may have led to wrongful evictions.
The settlement, which includes the nation’s largest lenders, like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, concludes weeks of negotiations between the banks and the federal regulators, led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. It is intended to end a troubled foreclosure review of millions of loan files that was mandated by the banking regulators. Among the problems that came to light in the last several years were sloppy record-keeping and so-called robo-signing, in which foreclosures were made based on forged or unreviewed documents.
Notably, four banks — Ally Financial, HSBC, OneWest Bank and Everbank — originally part of the negotiations, didn’t sign onto the deal.
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Under the settlement, $3.3 billion in cash relief will go to borrowers who went through foreclosure in 2009 and 2010. The remaining $5.2 billion will be directed to homeowners in danger of losing their homes and will be used to reduce the amount of principal owed or the monthly payments, for example. Payments under the settlement, which covers 3.8 million households, could be as much as $125,000.
Regulators said that borrowers would be contacted regarding relief by March 31.
The pact, which was negotiated over the weekend, almost collapsed after officials from the Federal Reserve demanded that the banks pay an additional $300 million to address their part in the 2008 financial crisis, according to several people briefed on the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ramin Talaie/Getty ImagesThomas Curry, comptroller of the currency.
In the end, the Federal Reserve agreed to back down after the banks threatened to torpedo the deal altogether. By signing on to the settlement, the 10 banks can resolve the outstanding chapter in their wrangling with federal banking regulators over foreclosure-related abuses.
In February, five major mortgage servicers, all included in Monday’s settlement, agreed to pay $26 billion under a separate deal with 49 state attorneys general, the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development after allegations arose in 2010 that bank employees were hastily plowing through documents used in foreclosure proceedings without properly reviewing them for accuracy.
The latest foreclosure settlement was driven, to a large extent, by banking regulators, who decided that a mandatory review of loan files was inefficient, costly and simply not yielding relief for homeowners, the people briefed on the matter said.
The goal in scuttling the reviews, which were mandated as part of a consent order in April 2011, was to provide more immediate relief to homeowners.
The comptroller’s office and the Federal Reserve said on Monday that the settlement “provides the greatest benefit to consumers subject to unsafe and unsound mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices during the relevant period in a more timely manner than would have occurred under the review process.”
Still, some housing advocates argued that while the settlement would supplant the flawed reviews, it did not go far enough in addressing the harm suffered by homeowners. “If the reviews had been done right the first time, banks would have been on the hook to pay far more to homeowners,” said Alys Cohen, staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center.
Concerns about the effectiveness of the review process, known as the Independent Foreclosure Review, began to mount in December within the upper echelons of the comptroller’s office, according to the people with knowledge of the matter. Under the terms of the 2011 consent order, 14 banks had to hire independent consultants to analyze millions of loan records to spot any instances in which the banks might have improperly charged fees, denied loan modifications or wrongfully seized homes from borrowers current on their payments or making reduced monthly payments.
Adding to the alarm, these people said, was that the reviews were taking more than 20 hours for every file, at a cost of up to $250 an hour. Since the start of the review, the banks have spent an estimated $1.5 billion to re-examine their foreclosure paperwork. Yet despite the huge bill, the reviews were not providing any relief to borrowers or turning up meaningful instances where homes of borrowers current on their payments were seized, according to these people.
In a series of private meetings that began last month, regulators approached top bank executives to discuss the reviews. At those meetings, officials from the comptroller’s office admitted the reviews were problematic and that the agency had “miscalculated” just how much energy and resources would be required to complete the reviews, according to the people with knowledge of the negotiations.
Even though the officials acknowledged the flawed nature of the reviews, these people said, they used the loan reviews to propel a settlement with the banks. The threat, according to the people with knowledge of the negotiations, was that banks that did not sign onto the settlement would be forced to keep poring through loan files until the reviews naturally concluded.
A majority of the banks, looking to move beyond the cumbersome reviews, agreed to the settlement.
As talks heated up in the last week, regulators sent out e-mails to the consulting firms presiding over the reviews, according to two people with knowledge of the correspondence. The e-mails alerted the firms to begin dismantling the reviews.
So far, roughly 495,000 people have submitted claims for their loan files to be reviewed, far fewer than the 3.8 million loans covered under the review. The relief will be distributed to homeowners even if they did not file a claim for their loan files to be reviewed.
A version of this article appeared in print on 01/08/2013, on page B1 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Banks to Pay $8.5 Billion To Speed Up Housing Relief.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Top Five Real Estate Apps for the New Year - Tech Hottips
On January 8th, In Smart Phones & Apps, by Kim Wood
Whether you are using an iOS or Android operating system, there are many, many applications to choose from. If you’ve attended any of my iPad or mobile classes, you’ve heard my little lecture about having too many apps cluttering up your devices. Use the apps that come recommended with your phone as well as those that will save you time and/or money.
Here it is: my list of five real estate apps that I would take with me to the island:
- Evernote: I don’t use Evernote to its fullest capabilities, but I love it! The ability to create lists and stay organized while syncing to all devices cannot be beat with Evernote.
- Dropbox: Dropbox allows you to save files in the cloud and have access to them on any device on which you have Internet access.
- Magic Plan: It’s like a floorplan maker. Using photos that you shoot of rooms, Magic Plan makes a blueprint image of a floorplan for you. No need to measure and draw!
- Total: I like the Total app to keep track of room measurements and more details of a property for comparable market analysis. The application was created for real estate appraisers, but it comes in handy to track data.
- Open Home Pro- iPad: If you host open houses, this app will help you with visitor notes and follow-up.
It sure was difficult to narrow down all of the great apps out there to five, so feel free to leave your favorites in the comment section below!
via techhottips.com
Considering an E-Newsletter in 2013? - Tech Hottips
On December 27th, In eStrategies, by Linda Davis
For the past eight years, I have sent out an e-newsletter once a week. I’m pretty faithful to the task about 48 weeks out of the year. It takes some work but has paid big dividends. Over the years, my newsletter has evolved from a pretty simple e-mail to a good-looking report complete with charts and links to real estate information. Now that I have my template established, I can complete the job in less than an hour.
Constant Contact, the e-mail solution I use, provides great analytics tools, and as a result, I know how many readers open my e-mail and click on the links. I know what titles generate the best activity and which links are most often clicked. I have about a 60 percent open rate each week, which is good in the world of e-marketing. My e-mail contact list is permission-based and includes active sellers and those who are considering putting their homes on the market in the future. My e-mail newsletter is an excellent way to stay in touch.
Kim has written before about e-Marketing products and the factors you must consider when sending them. For a good comparison of products, you will find this e-mail marketing services table an excellent resource.
via techhottips.com
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