This lead me to a site called ezinearticles.com. I just happened to stumble on this site while searching for other real estate training websites.  They have a page rank of 6 out of 10 which isn’t anything to sneeze at.  This page rank is much, much higher than my current page rank and Google will pick up on this the next time the spiders go crawling for information.  They also put your article through a vetting process before they post it so make sure your content is relevant and good.  Here is the link to my article.

The key here is to have content that is similar to that on your blog but not exactly the same so Google doesn’t see it as duplicate content.  If they think it is duplicate content then it won’t count it and it won’t raise your ranking in Google search.  In addition to this, make sure you take the opportunity to have your top keywords in the article and also on your blog so you have the right audience finding you.  Do the proper SEO to maximize your exposure and it will pay dividends.

A couple of other sites that you will need to utilize to gain additional exposure and benefits for finding new real estate clients is www.Squido.com and www.hubpages.com.  Youtube is also another super high page rank site that you can use to post videos of your listings and other relevant content.  Don’t discount video as a way to drive traffic to your site.  It works amazingly well when coupled with keyword targeted content.

As always, if you would like more detail as to what I did and how I did it, please contact me.  I am happy to share!

My New Brokerage

Last time I posted, I told you that I was really going to focus on sitting open houses to get new real estate buyers.  Yesterday, I made a big change to make that easier.

I was really happy with my last broker.  I received the support I needed and always got the answers I needed when I needed them.  But there were two things that I was looking for since my return to work and now was the time to make that change.

1. I was looking for an office that was closer to my home.  I don’t go to the office that often but I found the 15 minute drive to my last broker was just too inconvenient.  I know, for some of you, your probably saying that is nothing compared to your commute but for me, I avoid the car at all costs.  I needed to pick up mail, checks, or sign paperwork every so often and I found myself holding off just because it was going to take an hour out of my day.
2. I wanted a brokerage that had agents with listings in my target area, lots of them.  I’ll get into the importance of a targeted and specific area later but this is key to my long term strategy.  The brokerage I chose has 3500 agents and many listings in my niche area.

After much thought and interviews with many different companies, these two things convinced me to switch.  Of course every brokerage has it good points and less positive points but I finally came to my decision.  I have now identified homes in the area and price range that I want to target that I will be holding open houses next week.  This will get my business going and get me in front of people that I want to talk with! (hopefully!)

Historically, every listing I had that I held an open house, I got a buyer from it.  From each listing, I usually got two sales.  One for the home I had listed and another from a new client I met through the open house.  This strategy has worked in the past and I expect it to work even better now because I have the time and the resources to commit to this real estate prospecting strategy.

Next week, I’ll outline the tools I’m using, the strategies I implement to convert walk-in’s into my clients, and a summary of how it worked.

See you then!

I have learned in the last week that when you send your emails can make all of the difference in the world.  The experts say that you should send your emails on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday around 10:30am to get the most attention and response from your prospects and newsletter subscribers.  My timing was less than impeccable when I sent the email to my contacts to have them sign up for my newsletter.  I sent it on Thursday December, 30th at 4:03 PM.  Looking back, I can see why that was just stupid.  I should have known that sending an email to people who are either already on vacation for New Year’s wouldn’t see my email until they returned to work the new Monday.  I was also competing with the other emails that they received during the same period of time so they likely have a lot of emails to wade through when they got back into the office.  My email was of a more personal nature so it certainly wouldn’t take precedence over the critical work emails that were sitting in their inbox.

Of course the non-response by some people is nothing personal but rather poor planning on my part.  With that said, here is the fruit of my labor and a few statistics for you:

127 emails sent

11 bounced emails (people I obviously hadn’t emailed in a while)

19 newsletter opt-ins = %16.4 opt-in

Analysis: Subtracting the bounced emails from the total sent gives me an opt-in rate of 16.4%.  With the timing of my email, I don’t think this is terrible but I certainly have some work to do.  I am shooting for an opt-in rate around 50% from organic traffic to my Aske Real Estate blog which is my other venue to get new subscribers.

It will take time but it will pay off in the end.   I think that the book, “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” says that your list needs to be at a minimum of 100 people.  I am going to go back and read that book again because it has some very useful information in it.

One other positive are the great emails I received back from my list.  I had many people who encouraged me, said they will refer me, and support me.  I also connected with someone looking for a rental.  Not my ideal market but it helps me to build my clientele and show that I will do a great job for people.

I am excited for next week.  Open houses are also another way I am going to build this list of contacts.  I’ll write another post about the tools I am going to use to do this effectively and creatively.

Happy hunting!

Out of necessity, I had to become very creative for my showings last week.  As I was getting ready the day before showing my new clients their top picks, I found out just how bad it is for the toner in your printers to sit idle for 6 months while tucked away in a storage unit.  As I hit the print button, the page went through just like it should have but as I picked it up, there was nothing on it.

Necessity and adversity has certainly helped me to find a way to save money in the future.  I am always looking for ways to use technology to my advantage.  Saving time, money, and setting myself apart from the competition is very important and I am always looking for ways to utilize the latest and greatest for my benefit.  Sometimes the old way of doing things still remains the way to go but I think this time, I found something that will stick.

Here is what I am now doing to prepare for and execute my showings:

Hardware: iPad (iPhone or other smartphone with evernote)

Software: Evernote

Process: I go into my local MLS and pull up all of the listings that I am going to show.  I put them in order of showings from the first to last and then click print.  Instead of actually printing the listings to paper, I select the option to print to PDF.  Here is where Evernote comes in.  On my Mac, I have Evernote installed so I have the option to print to Evernote PDF.  I select that option and it automatically sends it to the Evernote program.  The reason I don’t send the listings to myself in an email is that I can’t see the private (realtor relevant) notes with the email option.  I can only see them via the print function.  This is the beauty of the PDF.  The system can’t tell the difference!  Once I send the listings to Evernote, I take a quick moment to create a folder for my client so that every time I create this process for the same client, the folder already exists and I stay organized.

OK, here is the important part.  You must make sure that you have the Evernote app on your iPad (or other smartphone that can run Evernote) and make certain to hit the sync button.  Once you do that, the file should be on your mobile device and you are ready to go.  Being extremely aware that technology can sometimes fail you, I make sure that I can see the document I need with my data connection turned off.  I really like to make sure I have what I need!

One last thing.  I create a short Excel document with a summary of the listings that I am showing for the day.  The information I include in this file is the MLS #, address, and price.  Sometimes I include what type of sale it is, i.e. short sale, lender owned, or the ever popular standard sale.  I do this mostly for quick access to the address and quick information about the next home we are going to see.

The downside:

The only negative that I have found so far is that if your list of homes is really long, say 15 homes or more, it can take a few extra seconds to scroll down to the bottom of the page where the last home is.  That is why I created the summary page I can reference for the easy questions.  I believe this is a small price to pay and it hasn’t negatively impacted my clients experience.

The upside:

Cost reduction – In just two showings with my new clients, I have saved at least 70 pieces of paper and toner with just two showings.  Not to mention that I am much more organized before and during my showings.  Gone are the days of flipping through multiple pieces of paper and wondering what I did with that page with the home we viewed three homes back.

How can you utilize facebook for new clients

Things are progressing nicely since I started selling real estate again after my six month hiatus.   I have contacted a few people and let them know what I am doing and my commitment to great service.   Yesterday, I decided to start looking at facebook as a source of leads for my real estate prospecting.   Here is my process and thoughts on how to use it without being “that guy” who just spams everyone on his facebook page for business and referals.

I have had a personal facebook page where I can keep up on my friends and family and they can do the same with me. When I started really utilizing the internet for marketing my real estate services, I consulted a highly revered internet marketer about how to proceed. His name is Robert Stanley and he made some good recommendations.

1.  Use your personal page for personal contact.   It is recommended that you don’t mix business with this page too much so you don’t come across as that person who is always looking for business from your personal contacts.   People are sensitive to this as no one likes to be sold too, especially when they are on facebook for fun and contact with their friends and family.

2.  That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have some passive selling on your personal facebook page.   You can certainly reference your job and career on your personal page.  Be sure to have your job title and contact information along with your real estate website link on this page. Before I left on my trip, I actually sold a home to someone who saw my real estate information on my facebook page.   They were out of state clients who needed a good and recommended agent where they wanted to live.

3.  So how do you use facebook as a real estate agent?   Create a facebook page specifically for your real estate business. Utilize it to the fullest and know the best keywords for your specific target market.  For some time now, facebook has allowed you to have a specific address such as www.facebook.com/arcadiarealtor so that people can find your site directly.   This is important because it can help with keyword searches and ranking in google. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions about this.  I am happy to share what I know.

Yesterday, I went through some of my contacts on facebook and decided to contact one specific person.   They are someone who I think could be a great referral source for the market that I want to target.  This is specific and targeted so that I can acheive the results I am looking for.  I didn’t ask him for business in my message, rather I asked him for a lunch meeting.   Feel free to ask for their referrals in your message but know your audience. Once again, no one likes to be sold to but most people are happy to help you out.   I am going to take him out to lunch and spend time with him to know what is going on in his life. I need to earn his trust and the right to earn his and his friends business.   The conversation will naturally turn to what I am doing and then I will be able to communicate what I want to ask him.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

As I said in my post yesterday, I was going to start with my sphere of influence. That is exactly what I did but it came from face to face contact. Simply talking with people I know and talking with them about what I am doing was enough for them to say that they needed assistance in finding their next home. I cannot stress enough the importance of being able to accurately communicate what you offer a potential client.

It was as simple as communicating my commitment to my business and my clients that helped me to gain their trust. It is important when you communicate to your prospects that they are comfortable with your story, your plan, and your abilities as an agent so they will trust you and utilize your services.

My next steps to beef up my story is to ask past clients for testimonials. I have past clients who had a great experience from my services so I will be sure to tap into my past hard work. If you are just starting as a new real estate agent then you can talk to people you worked with at your past job. Simply ask them to write a testimonial about your work ethic and service that you provided them. Even if it isn’t related to selling homes, a reference to your integrity and abilities will speak volumes to what you bring to the table.

If you are a new agent looking for new real estate clients, then you need to make sure that you have 15 to 30 second elevator pitch so people know exactly what you offer. If you have experience as a real estate agent, then you can leverage your past experiences and deals to help convey why they should choose you as their next real estate agent. Be sure to pick relevant examples to your audience.

So, get your elevator pitch together, practice it, and be ready to share it with those you meet. Let me know how it goes! I love to hear how new real estate agents get new clients. As always, feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Some of you know that my wife and I have been traveling the world. Twenty months ago, we decided that before we have kids, we needed to see the world. So we started planning and saving money and eventually the time came for us to leave. six months later we are back and we will never be the same. eighteen countries, 6 months, countless trains, planes, and of course automobiles. It was the adventure of a lifetime. I must say, without my real estate business, we would not have had the money to do it. Working 5 – 15 hours per week provided approximately $24,000 to fund the trip. I was even making money while I was gone that was paramount to getting two certifications in Scuba diving which is now a huge passion of mine. Real estate has been good to me and it has given my family a great opportunity to experience life to the fullest!

The start of this blog is because of the success I had at real estate while working another full time job. I want to share with other agents the tools and processes that I used working minimal hours per week to make what a lot of people make working full time. I worked 8-5 for another company and was left with early mornings, nights, and weekends to work on real estate which is common for many agents, especially new agents. I worked 5 – 15 hours per week on average selling homes. But I found a way to maximize my time, effort, and profits without sacrificing my commitment to my day job. I am a firm believer in fulfilling that commitment and not taking away from the employer that paid me for my work during the day.

So, where does that leave me now? Well, I feel like I am starting over with my real estate business. Of course this was a planned path but I don’t know if I realized that I would feel like I am at ground zero again. This is the perfect test for my past experience and to see how quickly and successfully I can restart my business. In other words, I am going to be my own guinea pig. I will document and blog about the process I will go through to rebuild my business and earn a living full time as a Realtor.

Where do I begin? I will start with the most basic and fundamental process, contacting and utilizing my sphere of influence. Your sphere of influence are the people you already know and have regular contact with. The good thing is I still have my contacts and the same sphere of influence I had before I left. My wife faithfully wrote a blog about our adventures that kept people appraised of our adventure and most said “we felt like we were there with you”. I hope that is what you experience here on seanaske.com. I am going to document my path back to success and I know it will come. It is about discipline and following the process. Of course, I don’t have it all figured out and I’m not perfect but you will see that during this process. I will share my success AND my failures. What works for me and what doesn’t. I encourage you to comment and add to the conversation.

Today it begins! I will be sending an email to all of my contacts to let them know that I am back in business and that I am asking them for their business or for referals of those they know. People are buying homes and I want to be their Realtor. Now, I just have to get in front of them!

See you in December!

Here is another cool piece of technology that you can incorporate into your real estate business. Ustream is an application for the PC, Mac, or the iPhone. It allows you to stream live or recorded video to a channel that you can use as a portal for your clients.

This is brand new for the iPhone but my intention is to be able to show properties and neighborhoods to my out of town clients so that they can have a live virtual walk through. I am also investigating how you can use this to move myself up in the ranks on Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines.
This is still a work in progress and there will be some kinks to work out but I am really excited about this. Once I have a bit more research and experience under my belt, I’ll report back on my findings and share it with you.

Here is my channel so we can see how it looks on a webpage:

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Stay tuned, more to come!

As I put together my real estate training program, I am going over some of the biggest barriers I have personally encountered when it came to my success.

I remember the fear I had when a seller agreed to a listing presentation. Questions flooded my mind like, what am I going to present? What is my marketing plan? And how do I set myself apart from the competition? Even if I knew the answers to these, the question remained, how do I effectivley communicate my services and expertise?

Having the answers to these questions along with a plan and the proper tools to present my services is key to winning more listings.

So here is my question to you. What is your greatest need to win more listings? What areas do you feel you need to master to take your real estate business to the next level?

Feel free to respond via the comment area or via email. We can learn from one another and help each other have a great 2010!