Luxury Clues

Hot Tips for Handling the Shifting Real Estate Market; Mashups, Widgets, and Clicky—Is Your Website and Blog Optimized for Today’s Tech Savvy User?

In this week's RealClues, learn how to use mashups, widgets, and other important tools to make your blog and your website more effective. Here's an excerpt from the main article that you can read by subscribing to our free newsletter:

   

Many agent websites already use “mashups.” According to Wikipedia, a mashup “is a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source.” In other words, if you have multiple photos on your website, a virtual tour, and mapping, you already are using a mashup. If you lack these features, it’s important to add them to your existing site if you want to truly stand out from the competition.

   

Widgets are also important in helping you stand out from competitors. A web widget is a short chunk of “ready-to-use” HTML code that can be copied on a webpage or blog to provide a specific function. 

       

Examples include video, mortgage calculators, or streaming news data from sources such as Inman News. Widgets make your website or blog more interesting for the consumer. They also add useful functionality without having to spend extra money for special programming.

      

Optimizing your website is also critical. With the release of the iPhone, it will become increasingly important to optimize your website for iPhone users. Without optimization, your listing data appears as a tiny postage size image.

         

In our reprise this week, we are running part 4 of Hot Tips for Handling the Shifting Real Estate Market.. In Create a Better Life, you will learn how to determine whether you have internal or external anchors and how these influence how effective you will be in your sales career.

       

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Photo by Cambodia4kidsorg

Real Estate Training and Marketing Tips for Today's Realtor: Web Marketing and Short Sales

This week at RealClues, the real estate salesperson's leading source for the latest real estate training and marketing tips, we look at specific strategies for making your web marketing as easy as 1-2-3. Imagine getting a website, blog, having your listings published on over 20 different websites including Craig's List, Trulia, and a host of others, plus being on Facebook at NO charge! Best of all, it takes only ten minutes to set up. To learn more, subscribe to our complimentarty newsletter. To learn more about the service that provides all these goodies, click on this link: Free services for RealEstateCoach.com clients. Don't get caught with a website that only a cat would love.

Our reprise this week is Part 2 on techniques for working with short sales clients. Here's an excerpt:

Many areas are experiencing a serious market slow down. If prices are decreasing in your area, you may soon face the prospect of representing sellers who need a "short sale."

The term "short sale" refers to a situation where the seller lacks sufficient equity to close a transaction unless the lender takes a reduction in their loan payoff. Negotiating these is difficult. The tips below are useful in any market where sellers may owe more than their property is worth.

1. Before taking any listing, check the existing loan balances
When you take a listing, failure to check for all liens on a property is one of the most dangerous mistakes you can make. Never rely on what the seller says they owe. They may show you the balance on their first and forget to mention that they have delinquent property taxes as well as a home equity line of credit. Consequently, it's critical to check all liens on the subject property. Depending upon the laws in your area, you may be able to obtain this information from the title company. If not, there are other alternatives...

Subscribe to RealClues newsletter to keep your business up-to-date. BTW, heres' the link in case you missed Part 1.

Posted by Bernice Ross

Photo by Sage

Real Estate Training and Marketing Tips for Today's Realtor

This week at RealClues, the real estate salesperson's leading source for the latest real estate training and marketing tips, we look at what the experts from Real Estate Connect believe that the future of real estate will be like. Here's an excerpt:

I’ve always admired Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.com. Craig has a terrific sense of humor, especially when he referred to himself at this year’s Connect as “Eye candy.” Craig is an amazing model for our industry. For a man who is worth billions, he describes himself as “just the customer service guy who answers the phone.” I have every confidence that Craig takes customer service calls. At the heart of what our business should be, even in light of all the technological innovation, is being of service to those who elect to do business with us. Our business is not about just the numbers—it’s about making a difference to those who lives we touch.

To see the rest of this article, sign up for our complimentary newsletter RealClues. 

In this week's Reprise, we revisit strategies for coping with short sales. Here's an excerpt:

A "short sale" refers to a situation where the seller lacks sufficient equity to close their sale. When this occurs, the seller must contribute additional funds or ask the lender to reduce their loan amount in order to close the sale. As you might imagine, earning a full commission under these circumstances can be extraordinarily difficult. To learn more about how to navigate short sales, click here

In Creating a Better LIfe, we focus on how critical it is to stop talking and to start listening. Included are six ways to improve your listening skills.

Photo by David Sifry

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Listen & Learn: Great Real Estate News, Great Real Estate Content, Great Real Estate Insights, & Great Price

Today we are excited to launch our new Listen and Learn program for Real Estate Sales Professionals. How good would your business be if you had access to the best minds, the best real estate training tools, and the best real estate success strategies 24/7?

That’s what you’ll get every month with our power-packed audio “Listen and Learn” real estate sales and marketing training program. Just click the play button on your computer and be immediately connected 24-7 to the best audio/podcast real estate sales training program in the business. In our hard-hitting interviews, mega real estate agents reveal how they climbed the ladder to mega real estate sales success. Now you have the chance to discover their secrets and learn how you can create the same level of success in your real estate business. Best of all, this amazing program is available to you for only $19.97 per month.

Each month you will receive at least six 15 to 20 minute jam-packed real estate sales and marketing training modules that will give you the edge you need today to be on top in today’s highly competitive real estate market. Let the other agents whine about having no business—we’ll show you what to do to make your real estate business soar, regardless of what the market is doing

Have you heard of Facebook, Jaxtr, TubeMogul, or Vflyer? Upgrade to our Real Estate “Technology Success Secrets Program” and we will show you how each of these technological innovations will be changing your business. Best of all, you’ll have a huge competitive edge because most agents are completely overwhelmed by the change. We’ll show you which tools you need today to be on top tomorrow. Best of all, MOST COST NOTHING! That’s right—you can now market your business and have extraordinary exposure for pennies—not thousands of dollars. You can add the additional technology sessions for just $10.00 more per month. That’s less than a $1.00 a day for both programs! Imagine how strong your real estate sales business would be if you had access to just a fraction of the real estate sales and technology secrets this valuable program contains.

Even more importantly, agents around the country are telling me, “We’re sick and tired of how the media always misrepresents how bad everything is. Where’s the good news?” The answer is, it’s at Listen and Learn at www.RealEstateCoach.com.

My personal commitment to you is to search the industry for the stories that matter to you and then show you how to present the best information in order to overcome the negativity that seems to be everywhere right now. Each week there will be “Positive News for Positive Agents,” a quick look what’s good about today’s market, not just the doom and gloom. Better yet, we’ll show you how to turn the good news into great prospecting information to share with your clients.

Great News, Great Content, Great Insights, & Great Price—Subscribe today to be on top tomorrow!

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Six Secrets to Becoming a Real Estate Mega Producer, Five Real Estate Time Management Myths and What to Do to Avoid Them, How to Give Your Real Estate Client Strong Loan and Advice and Save $100,000 or More

Our lead article in RealClues this week, the newsletter for today's top real estate professionals, examines what would it take to double or even triple your production in the next year? Here's an excerpt: 

The old adage "If you keep doing the same thing you will keep getting the same results" is true. For example, adding 50 or 100 people to your present farm of 500 homes will produce a 10-20 percent increase in your production. Blogging with great local content, will allow you to improve your search engine placement as well as establish yourself as the neighborhood expert. Just adding activities to your business, however, is not enough. Here are six mindset secrets you will need to address if you would like to become a mega agent.

1.   Begin by completely letting go of how you think your business "should" be.  "Breaking out of the box" usually means wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch. This doesn't mean you should get rid of existing clients, but it may mean that you no longer deal with them in the ways you have in the past. Many mega-producers say they didn't hit their current level of production until they stopped working with buyers and hired a buyer's agent. Others devote 100% of their time to prospecting and have their licensed assistants handle all aspects of the transaction with the exception of the contract negotiations and/or closings.

Click here to subscribe and receive our newsletter weekly at no charge and learn the other five secrets to having a mega producer mindset.

Our Reprise this week was written in 2005 and examines how you can help your past and current clients literally save your clients money (a $100,000 or more) by helping them obtain the best loan possible or by making as little as an extra $3.33 per day in payments. Click here to learn how you can help your business by Providing Your Clients with Sound Loan Advice.

In our Create a Better Life Reprise, we're running Part 2 of Time Management strategies. This week we look at How to Dispell Five Time Management Tips that can keep you from achieving top production. If you're struggling with too much to do and not enough time in which to do it, this article is for you.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Photos by Annia 316 and L*u*z*a

When the Lender Says No; Real Estate Agent Time Management Tips;

In this week's article, we examine what to do when the lender says, "No" to your real estate buyer. This article covers how second and third mortgages can help your real estate buyers bridge the gap; strategies to help buyers who don't qualify with a seller buy-down: and challenges you need to let your self-employed clients know about. To read this article, subscribe to our RealClues newsletter--there's no charge to subscribe.

Our Reprise this week is an oldie but a goodie from 2001: Bump the Slumps provides smart real estate agents like you with seven strategies to jump start your real estate business if you are experiencing a slow down. These seven strategies are simple and because they're from 2001, they're the best of the "traditional" approach to real estate sales.

This week in "Create a Better Life," we examine how to better manage your time as a real estate agent. Here's a brief excerpt,

"Are you struggling with too much to do and not enough time to do it? Are you exhausted from working 60, 70, or 80 hours a week? Are you wishing for more time to take a vacation or just have two days in a row off? If so, making a few simple changes can have a tremendous effect on how much time you have. Cellular technology coupled with poor time management is now stealing our most private time. Most real estate professionals struggle to manage their time effectively. Emergencies crop up constantly. Each client feels he or she should have first call on our time, especially when something goes wrong. Because of this, many real estate agents put their clients' needs ahead of everything else, including their families. The question we must address is how to regain control of our time." The first step is to take the quiz on "Making Time When There Isn't Any"

Posted by Bernice Ross

Photo by Beachy

Blogging Secrets Revealed Plus Fifteen Strategies to Wage War on Real Estate's Discounters

Our main article at RealClue's this week, the complimentary newsletter for real estate agents who want the best real estate sales training in the world, provides you with some great suggestions for launching your personal blog. (Subscribe at RealClues Newsletter)

In Create a Better Life, learn five strategies that can help you make the shift from Dining on Peanut Butter Sandwiches to Sipping Champagne.

If you're tired of being hammered on your commissions, you have to read this week's Reprise in RealClues. It outlines Fifteen Strategies to Earn the Full Commissions You Deserve from my book Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters. Here are three of the 15 tips contained in this great article:

Strategy #1: Unique, Superior Forces Overcome Competitors
The critical step in overcoming the competition on any listing appointment is persuading the seller you can help them get the highest price possible for their property in the shortest amount of time. To overcome the discount objection, you must demonstrate your value in helping the seller achieve this important goal. Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters argues the best way to do this by offering superior marketing, superior service, and superior technology. To do this, your listing presentation must offer at least two or three services your competitors do not provide. Your "unique selling proposition" then becomes the services you provide that help the seller obtain the highest price possible for their property.

Strategy #2: Maximum Exposure Equals Maximum Price
In order for the seller to obtain the highest price possible for their property, they must have maximum exposure to the market place. Discounters often expose a property only through their company's web site. Limited exposure means a limited number of people will see the property. This means extended market time (and hence more carrying costs). It also means they will be less likely to receive the highest price possible for their property.

Strategy #3: Traitors Within
The most insidious of discounters is the agent in your own office who undercuts your commission while still offering the same company services you offer. To "defeat" this discounter, use a script like the one below:

"To obtain the highest price possible for your property, you need someone who is a powerful negotiator--isn't that correct? (The obvious answer is "Yes.") So if you hire an agent who can't even negotiate a full commission on their own behalf, how effective do you think they will be in negotiating the maximum price for your property?" (Shut up and wait for the seller to respond. They generally have a "deer-in-the-headlights" response to this close.)"

To read the other 12 tips, click on Fifteen Strategies to Earn the Full Commissions You Deserve.

Posted by Bernice Ross, RealEstateCoach.com

Four Strategies for Coping with a Slowing Real Estate Market

Our main article at RealClue's this week, the complimentary newsletter for real estate agents who want the best real estate sales training in the world, provides you with four great tips for coping with a declining real estate market. (Subscribe at RealClues Newsletter)

Our reprise this week is part 2 on how to sell real estate listings that don't sell. The article is called All the World's a Stage. If you want some help with using Feng Shui on your listings, check out the two chapters in Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters that discuss this approach in detail. (They're also great to help you create abundance in your own space.)

In Create a Better Life, we look at what it takes to have a perfect day. You'll be surprised at how simple it is. Perfect Day

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Help Your Clients Avoid the Mortgage Squeeze & How to Sell Listings that Don't Sell

This week at RealClues, the newsletter for RealEstateCoach.com, our main article provides great training tips on how real estate agents can survive the rapidly changing mortgage market. This is part 2 of our on-going series. If you're not one of our subscribers, there's no charge to receive this newsletter. Please register at RealClues Newsletter.

Our reprise this week first ran in 2004 and provides you with proven real estate sales training strategies that will help you sell those hard-to-move listings. This is the first of a four part series on this topic. Check out the article:  How to Sell Listings that Don't Sell or "Bury St Joseph in the back yard."

In Creating a Better Life, we focus on how to exercise your "No" muscle. Inability to say "No," can cost you business as well as your health and well being. To learn more, visit Saying "Yes" to Saying "No"

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

Navigating the Changing Mortgage Market, Time Management Part 4, and How to Provide Clients with Sound Loan Advice

This week at RealClues, the newsletter for RealEstateCoach.com, our main article looks at strategies for surviving the rapidly changing mortgage market. Lenders are getting really tough, even on A+ borrowers. This article, the first of a two part series, will show you how to avoid pitfalls due to the rapidly shifting mortgage environment.

Our reprise this week first ran in 2005 and examines why 40 year mortgage and interest only loans are a bad idea. Check out the article:  Give Your Buyers Sound Loan Advice

In Creating a Better Life, we're continuing to Part 4 on Time Management Myths. This article shares ten strategies for making your business and personal life more effective. If you're struggling with too much to do and too little time which to do it, discover how to have more time for both your business and personal life. Ten Strategies to Free Up Your Time

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com