Don’t have a website? Or do you have a website but the website never results in business? Some agents rely on the company website and see no need in having a website of their own nor do they see the need in spending time and money on their personal website to make it productive. This attitude may result in them missing out on additional customers.

According to the National Association of Realtors ® 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Florida Report buyers who used the internet indicated that when searching for a home they used agent websites and company websites nearly the same. 46% of all buyers responded that they use a company website in their home search and 45% of all buyers surveyed reported using an agent website.

What are the advantages to a home buyer in using an agent website when searching for a home? Agent sites tend to be more local in nature and include more that just homes for sale. Buyers can find addresses and detailed information on the community including schools, shopping, and government offices. They can receive a wealth of information about buying a home, financing, inspections and related issues dealing with the home buying process. Buyers can receive all of this and also have the ability to search for homes on the agent site.

If the same amounts of buyers are looking to agent sites as a source for home buying information as there are looking at company sites, shouldn’t you be looking at your personal site a little closer too?

If you are not advertising in your local newspaper, you may be missing an opportunity to meet buyers and sellers in your area.  Those who believe that the newspaper’s day has come and gone may want to take a peek at research recently completed by Scarborough Research.  According to the report 171 million U.S adults, read a newspaper during the past week.  The research included those adults who read a newspaper in print or online.

A real estate agent should have a balanced marketing plan that includes all the various forms of advertising media available in their area.  Local newspapers, especially the print version, may not be the prime source of news and information but newspapers still draw eyes and these eyes are potential buyers and sellers.  Advertising a listing in your local paper often provides double exposure, those who pick up the paper from their local newsstand or front porch and those who real the local paper online.

You may want to try running a new listings or weekend open house ad that is prominently displayed in the real estate section of the newspaper.  You should definitely consider enhancing your listings as they appear in the paper’s online version.  If you agree a real estate agents main job is in meeting people, being where 171 million are in one week is not a bad idea.

If you are an agent who thrives on multitasking during the day to get your tasks completed you may be interested in reading what a Stanford University study revealed about multitasking. 

Real estate agents who spend time online Facebooking, Tweeting, searching for property, preparing market analysis and watching a funny YouTube video all at the same time may be surprised to find that according to the survey; “people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time…”

Ours is a fast paced business that requires us to have a handle on many different tasks during the course of the day.  Perhaps as the study suggests, we would be better off if we handled these tasks one at a time, giving them our complete attention.

One of the ’secrets’ to real estate sales success is becoming known as the expert Realtor for a certain area, property style, financing, or specialty.  Successful agents are often identified by the buying and selling public for something they do well.  Examples of this are those real estate agents who are known as:

• The new buyer agent.  This agent’s name pops up when someone is looking for an agent who understands the concerns, fears, and anxiety a new home buyer faces and is able to ease the buyers concerns. 
• The condo specialist.  The agent who is referred to as the condo specialist understand the condo lifestyle, the monthly costs involved with owning a condo, the condo associations role, the deed restrictions and they are familiar with the many different amenities and features offered by local condo communities to the buyers benefit.
• The land agent.  The land agent is familiar with zoning, construction requirements, easements, surveys, perk tests, and can direct potential buyers and sellers to the correct authorities to obtain information specific to them.

As an agent you can also become known as the expert for; your neighborhood, HUD homes, short sales, REO property, FHA financing and on and on.  Not building a brand, specialty or niche will result in you only picking up the real estate deal scraps left behind by those who control the majority of the market.

8 annoying things real estate agents say.

1. Telling me how long they have been in the business, especially when the length of time they have been an agent has no bearing on what we are discussing.
2. The real estate market is unbelievable.  Whoever came up with that as a response when asked about the market during tough times should never have anything they say believed again.
3. You need to get your buyer/seller under control.  What would you like me to do, spank them or make then go sit in a corner?
4. Buyers are liars.  No, you are just terrible at qualifying.
5. List to last.  We just experienced record breaking inventory levels and a lot of Realtors did not last.
6. How low will your seller go?  I hope you are asking about their limbo skills.
7. It is ok, we do this all the time.  Uh huh, that makes me feel better.
8. This home won’t last.  I usually read this in MLS comments of a home that has been on the market for 1500 days.

Make plans now to attend one of the upcoming training seminars dealing with changes involved with selling property and information about HUD M&M and FDIC.  There are two sessions listed on the NHMS site”

• November 18 and 19, 2009 in Jacksonville, Florida
• December 9 and 10, 2009 in Los Angeles, California

Please visit the NHMS site for more details.

You are sitting across the table from a home owner who is going to be listing their home and the home owner asks you to show them your marketing plan.  Are you prepared for this request?  Do you have a written market plan?  Does it work?  If you do not have a marketing plan you should start building one now. 

If you have been in the business for any length of time and have sold several of your listings, then writing down your market plan will be easy, you will simply write down what has worked.  If you are new to the business you may want to speak with your Broker or one or two of the top producing agents in your office in order to get some ideas on what you should put in your marketing plan. 

I would suggest your marketing plan include:

• Internet marketing.  How will you promote the seller’s house across the web?  Will you use social media marketing or blogging to advertise the home, or promote the home on your personal website? Does your Company have a visible website that generates buyer leads?  Do you list your property on the online version of your local paper?
• Direct agent contact.  Your marketing plan should include promoting the owner’s house to other real estate agents.  Does your office caravan new listings?  Will you be holding Broker opens? Will the top agents in your market place receive a virtual tour of the house?  A flyer?  Will you personally call those agents in your area who have had success selling homes similar in price, size and location of your home.

These are two elements that might make up your marketing plan.  It is up to you to decide what works best in your market and then make sure you incorporate those into your plan.  Having a well thought out written marketing plan will separate you from your competition.

2010 will offer extraordinary opportunities for real estate agents to succeed like never before! Many agents have sold more houses this year than were sold during 2008 and with low prices continuing to draw in buyers and investors 2010 should exceed 2009!  As a business owner you should be making preparations now that will enable you to enjoy the same success that other top producers are realizing.

With this in mind I would  encourage everyone who has not been satisfied with their closed business to seriously consider enrolling in an industry related course or take some additional training offered by your board or office or pick up a DVD from an industry leader. You will pick up something new or have information refreshed in your mind with each course, training or DVD you attend or watch.   This will result in additional transactions, more money and a new level of success for you!

You are tweeting, posting on Facebook daily, blogging and commenting on other blogs and you have been optimizing your website. So how do you know if your efforts are working?

You are closing business.

Yes I understand that you are communicating with vast amounts of people, building relationships and adding to your center of influence, but the real test, the proof will show up in your bank account.

If you are spending the time and energy online for business, good business dictates that you be paid for your efforts. Have you listed a property, sold a house, or received a referral from an online source? Congratulations! Your efforts are paying off. Or do you spend many hours a day online with nothing to show but a lot of new friends? It’s time to seriously reevaluate your online business plan.

At the end of the day your online success is not measured by the amount of people you know, or the number of people you follow or the number of people who visit your website or blog. From a business standpoint your success is measured by the dollars earned.

In order to change your results you will need to change your approach. You should consider:

· Spending less time engaging other real estate agents and more time finding people in your area to get to know by listening, commenting and discussing topics that are important to them.
· Changing your message. Are you spending the majority of your time discussing with others ways to build a better mousetrap? The buying or selling real estate customer are more concerned with local area information, home prices, and available inventory than they are about fixing NAR.
· Asking for business. I know, you were told social networking is like a cocktail party and you would never walk up to someone and hound them about business. Instead of a cocktail party, you may want to think of your social marketing efforts as attending a chamber of commerce or business networking lunch. You can still enjoy good light-hearted conversation but when the time is right, you should never be afraid of telling people who you are and what you do.

If the Internet and social marketing are one of the tools you are using to generate business, then it better being doing just that.

This was the advice given during a recent sales meeting by agents who are achieving a level of success this year above what their counterparts are experiencing.  So what does this mean?  I believe it includes the following.

Listen

• What is their motivation for buying/selling?
• What is the time frame they expect this to happen?
• What have they heard about current market conditions and how does this influence their thought process?
• What has been their experience with buying/selling a home in the past?  What did they like? Dislike?
• What don’t they want to hear?
• Who makes the decision?  Who do they need to consult with before signing a contract?
• Why did they contact you or decide to use your services?

Give the customer what they want

• As a buyer they want the best value available.
• As a seller they want the most money in the fastest amount of time.
• They want your patience and understanding when they are nervous, confused, or seeking more information.
• They want to know up front what buying a house will cost them or how much they can expect to receive from selling their home.
• They expect you to update them continuously during the transaction.
• They expect you to be more concerned with their complete satisfaction than you are about getting paid.
• They want you to speak politely and professional to them even when they are upset or tense.

Ask yourself, if you are successfully meeting people but not closing transactions are you failing to listen or provide the customer what they want?  There are steps you can take to improve your listening and customer service skills.

•  Shadow an agent in your office who is doing well and pay close attention to their manner and style when discussing real estate with a potential customer. 
• Ask your manager of another agent to listen and observe you when you are on floor, at an open house of in front of a customer.  Then ask them to give you an honest review of how you did and have them include helpful critique and suggestions.

The customer will tell you what it is they want in order to work with you; you just need to hear them.