How Linkedin Can Increase Your Real Estate Business

How Linkedin Can Increase Your Real Estate Business

You know the ins and outs of real estate marketing for Facebook, regularly post on visual social networks like Pinterest and YouTube and of course tweet regularly to your devoted followers on Twitter.

But LinkedIn? Do you ever make use of this professional network at all? It is an excellent real estate lead generation tool. Data from more than 5,000 companies found LinkedIn produced almost three times more leads than Twitter and Facebook. That doesn't mean you should stop using those platforms, but its high time that you made use of LinkedIn.

Real estate lead generation on this platform requires effort - much more than simply signing up for an account. We have a few real estate lead generation ideas for LinkedIn that can help you increase your business.

Make your presence count.

Once you have created an account, add in all company info. Fill in all of the information about your company on your page, as you would for any other social network.

This would include your website URL, links to other social platforms, and your bio outlining your experience in real estate and the niche areas of your specialty. Add in your past work experience and Realtor certifications.

Create a professional-looking banner image for your Company Page. Your header image should include unique information about your business.

After filling in all of the essential info to your Company Page, think of ways to improve it further and be distinct. Do anything that makes you stand out from the pack. Make your business look like the cream of the crop.

The more you project yourself as a knowledgeable, experienced, hard-working real estate agent, the more likely a prospective lead will approach you.

Utilize the Advanced Search option to connect with locals and leads.

Advanced Search, mostly used by job hunters and companies for hiring on LinkedIn, has other uses that can aid your real estate lead generation. For example, conduct background checks on current leads to scout for prospects.

Do not hesitate to send out personalized messages to people of interest. The key to earning their trust is by being genuine and honest.

Make use of the tag tool to organize your connections. Use whatever organizational system works best for you.

Join or create Groups to reach local community members.

Countless niche groups allow users with similar interests to engage with one another. Join up with real estate–related Groups that match your offerings.

Talking with others from across the country can help you gain perspective and build an online presence. For bona fide real estate leads, look for Groups that include local community members. Then conduct research to see if they meet your criteria for clients.

Interact with these users, engage with them and gauge their interest in your representation. Needless to say, subtlety is vital in these interactions. If you push too hard, you’ll squander any potential leads.

Publish and share compelling content - lots of it

Posting adequate amount of content is essential to attract leads. Blog posts link to opinion pieces, newsjacking articles, and curated pieces. It’s advantageous to find great content from other industry resources and link to them.

Once you have fine-tuned your content strategy, publish or share on your Company Page. As with all the main social channels, it’s good to demonstrate your willingness to go above and beyond to find useful information.

Add social plug-ins to drive traffic.

Use of social sharing buttons expands the impact of your content in a huge way. With the Linkedin button on your Company Page, your followers can easily share your content with their followers thereby increasing traffic to your profile and real estate website.

Use LinkedIn analytics to make decisions.

LinkedIn compiles anything and everything you do. Use the analytics tools to discover and determine the content and strategy that has helped you gain more followers. Figure out the trends and modify your real estate marketing strategies as needed. Analyze your LinkedIn metrics carefully so you can keep generating more and more real estate leads each month.

How Real Estate Marketers can Make Use of Social Media

How Real Estate Marketers can Make Use of Social Media

For the past few years, real estate professionals have overcome the real estate crisis, found creative ways including innovative uses for social media. They are increasingly using photo and videos to enhance listings, along with professional networking sites to hone their sales skills.

Real estate agents, and brokers have found unprecedented successes in lead generation, brand building and of course sales through use of front-line social platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn.

The essence of these old school veterans utilizing social media is to attract sellers that are looking to list their homes or buyers looking to buy one. Naturally, social media promoters dedicated to real estate are setting up pages on social networks that fit your company's content and audience.

Several group settings on social networks, such as LinkedIn’s group of the National Association of REALTORS, or the Real Estate Photography group on Flickr, are great places to connect and engage with specialized professionals from the real estate industry.

In the real (estate) world, listings, tours and open houses are the first steps in making a sale, and the digital world has clearly made those steps much easier.

YouTube also presents a most effective platform for sharing real estate information. Video shorts enable agents and brokerages to share local knowledge and connect with distant consumers in a whole new way.

If you are an active real estate professional, keep an eye out for ways you can showcase your local knowledge and expertise. Many experts advocate engaging your social media audience with solid industry knowledge and practical expertise, rather than bombarding users with useless and unwanted information.

Experts advise you to promote yourself, your business, and your expertise in your specific area of real estate. Do so with market commentary, statistics and generating awareness. Of course link out to your listings, because some of your visitors will definitely want to look at listings at some point or other.

You should start to see an uptick in interaction, and consequently business as you provide useful, relevant information to others. This is rewarding once an agent [or brokerage] demonstrates superior knowledge about the local area, consumers are more likely to work with them.

Once a lead is generated, there are multiple options for scheduling, and one of the helpful service is that which promises to do away with time zone mishaps, double bookings or email response delays.

Even if an occasional listing may be welcomed by your social media following, it’s highly probable that such listings might not be relevant to most people in a given social media platform. There are a lot of factors that should come together to make a listing relevant to a potential buyer, that includes pricing, size and location.

Apart from connecting with buyers and sellers and networking with your industry peers or lending expert advice, there are many more ways to utilize social media. Real estate pros should refrain from overwhelming their followers and connections with a glut of real estate listings.

How Real Estate is Shaping Up - 4 Major Trends

How Real Estate is Shaping Up - 4 Major Trends

The realty sector is adapting rapidly to the world of networking and digitization. In this age when everything and everyone are interconnected, one has to look at developments not only in the property market but those in other business segments as well.

As per the latest edition of Emerging Trends in Real Estate, put out by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the major forces that are shaping recent trends are technology, globalization, and urbanization. It's necessary to consider all these without ignoring any because adaptation is important in survival and gaining an advantage in this competitive industry.

Looking Beyond Gateway Cities

Location definitely matters when it comes to real estate decisions. 2016 has seen real estate investors’ growing confidence in the potential markets other than the mainstream 24-hour cities. There are a growing number of 18-hour cities across the United States, including the likes of Austin, Denver, San Antonio and San Diego. These potential catchments are attracting considerable amounts of capital, with investors both local and international broadening their interests within the US.

Increasing Demand for Office Space

Since 2014, the rate of employment has gone up by 3 million each year and real estate has benefited a lot from this. These gains are most evident in different metro areas, with New York, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Dallas taking the lead. Absorption of office space has been rapid in both suburban and central business district areas alike. These will continue in 2016 as entrepreneurial businesses look at making changes to their floor plans to adapt them to their specific needs.

The growing job market is shaping trends in residential options too. Surveys show that more than half of generation Y plan to live in separate single-family homes over the next five years. Access to expanding job opportunities will continue to be a major factor in the future as well. 

Affordable Housing for All

Demand is high for workforce housing as well as affordable options. Though much depends on the government and politicians, savvy real estate players will continue to determine the broader trends. This means coming up with products that target people in different income brackets with solutions such as rental, outright ownership, and rent-to-own properties.

Price Rise in Gateway Markets vs. Bargain Opportunities in Suburbs

As prices in major gateway cities continue to grow, suburbs continue to attract more investments. While baby boomers tend to prefer the suburbs, most millennials prefer the downtown areas of denser cities. The correlation between homes and jobs is the major factor that seems to be driving the growth of suburbs. Local businesses, often viewed as key to vibrant small economies continue to contribute in a big way.

The primary factors fueling the uptrend are the strengthening of broader macroeconomic performance, compression in the cap rates, increasing levels of risk tolerance and the data explosion. While this is most reflected in bigger cities like New York and San Francisco, it is now seen spreading to other cities such as Milwaukee, Nashville, Oklahoma, Philadelphia, Portland, and Austin.

Things that Top Ranked Sites on Google Have in Common

Things that Top Ranked Sites on Google Have in Common

As a search engine, Google can change a lot in a year. The best of SEO practices till then suddenly turn into death sentences for web pages that do not keep up. However, this new report from ‘Searchmetrics’ analyzes and distils the information you need to know, avoiding the hassle of keeping yourself up-to-date.

What they have analyzed are 10,000 search results encompassing the top 300,000 URLs in the top three pages of Google UK. Factors the sites had in common were collated and summarized in the study.

Big Guys (Brands) are in a different league altogether

One of the most iconic and most popular brands on Facebook, Coca-Cola has over 70 million followers. With a fan base like that, you don’t need to do a lot to encourage them to spread the word. Coke is a huge brand and a household name; it can do quite well even with a sub-par, non-optimized website.

Many other prominent brands similarly benefit from the multitude of backlinks, mentions, and social signals helping their content rise to the top. The bigger the brand, the greater the social media reach, and harder the fall when things go downhill. Anyway, people talk about it, and Google pays attention. But it doesn’t mean that they should rest on their laurels.

Which Social Signals Matter – the Most?

Google watches social signals carefully; be it Facebook likes and shares, Twitter messages or even Pinterest pins, nothing is spared on its radar. However, one not-so-surprising find is that Google +1’s are recognized the most for ranking, followed closely by Facebook. So it's time to get a Google+ account (or use it more), to take advantage.

Are Backlinks and Headings Still Important?

Keyword-rich backlinks and headers can help in search engine ranking. But all this changed in 2012 when also long page titles started affecting your site negatively.

However, word count matters more in a ranking now, as lengthier posts tend to be shared and linked to more than shorter articles. The ideal count seems to be around the 400-525 mark.

Should a Domain Name have Keywords In It?

The eternal vexing question on every marketer’s mind – should the domain name include keywords? At present, Google pays less attention to this metric than the placement of the keywords in other places, like the title, URL, or links, both internal and external. A proportionate internal linking structure is vital for spreading the invaluable optimized “link juice” uniformly.

Is Mere Quality Content Sufficient?

Quality content is still important in Google’s eyes, as are the quantum of images and strong internal links. Page load speed matters, as does the word count, in the case of backlinks. If you’re consistent with quality content, adding rich media including images and video, all the while gathering backlinks, you’re taking all the right steps in the right direction.

So move away from “keyword tricks” and lay more emphasis on quality (along with social shares and backlinks to support it). Take the above information into account and smaller players (like you), too can benefit.

The need for Inbound Marketing in Real Estate

The need for Inbound Marketing in Real Estate

You have invested considerable time, energy, and money in your website. Now it is time to get returns from your investment. Ideally, your site should be generating ample leads for you. But is it doing enough? Are you satisfied with the volume of leads you are getting? If not, why?

If you are not content with the number of leads then, you are doing something wrong. Having a website in place is not merely enough. Are you looking for leads in the right places? Leverage your website and generate more leads with a tailored inbound marketing plan for real estate.

HOW TO DEPLOY INBOUND MARKETING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS

We all want to grow our business and these leads fuel our business growth. Inbound marketing is a tested and proven real estate marketing strategy. Almost every company that uses inbound marketing efficiently succeeds in increasing leads through their website. Don’t look at other channels to generate leads, inbound marketing alone is sufficient for that. Let’s take a look at ways to help increase inbound leads.

LEVERAGE SEARCH TO GENERATE TRAFFIC

It is estimated that the average agent spends around $200 on their website in a year. It is widely known that the more one spends, the more leads and profit one gains. Search traffic is of paramount importance and inbound marketing results in an increase in traffic to your site. A well-designed search strategy incorporates keywords to increase your reach through organic search. With more people visiting your website, you have that much more opportunities to convert into leads and fuel your business.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY

A social media presence is a must in any marketing plan. According to National Association of REALTORS®, more than half of real estate agents use social media. So be social, even if you are not inclined to be. Social media platforms are a great place to display your business identity and interact with your customers. One does not need a huge following to be successful, just differentiate, distinguish and promote yourself to become a trusted expert resource in your niche.

According to research, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – in that order of importance are the most effective platforms for business. Inbound marketing strategies should incorporate these social media into all aspects of your marketing plans to generate more leads.

COMMUNICATING VIA EMAILS

Your email or contact list is one of the most important marketing assets in your possession. Each and every one of your contacts can help you sell more real estate. These could be existing, or potential buyers or sellers, other agents, or anyone in a profession related to real estate. It never hurts to grow your contacts; you never know who might forward your email or refer your services. The more communication you mail out to your list, more the traffic to your site and more the business.

Have no doubt, Real estate Inbound marketing takes a lot of effort up front; there is no getting around it. Over the long-term, benefits of your inbound marketing efforts will become effective in your real estate practice and help you increase leads and how much real estate biz you can drum up. Do things differently, “Break Through the Clutter” and you are sure to outdo other real estate agents out there.

Essential Apps for Real Estate Agents

Essential Apps for Real Estate Agents

Everybody needs the best for themselves, and realtors too are not any different. That's why posts like “The Best X Apps for Real Estate Agents on the Go’ or ‘The Best Tablet Apps for Real Estate Agents’ get a lot of attention. And most of these articles are full of useful advice for professionals of all stripes, new (and better) tools are always coming out that it’s a chore keeping up.

With that in mind, these are the five essential apps every agent should have. Most of these are not your regular business apps, but rather popular utilities that can be of use to you professionally.

Buffer

 One of the veterans in this line-up, the Buffer app lets you schedule all of your social media posts on the go. You can gather interesting things to post, and add them to Buffer. It will post these in intervals, spacing them out instead of bombarding your audience all at once.

The recent addition of scheduling Pinterest posts is inexpensive and worth it. If your real estate blog has a lot of images or rich in graphics, Pinterest can be a powerful source of referral traffic.

EmergenSee

Help is just a tap away with this security app! This nifty app turns your smartphone into your personal security system. A must for agents who are always on the go and out in the field at all times. It can stream live video, audio, and GPS data to your own circle of personal contacts at the press of a button. It has even a stealth mode that lets you record discreetly as the situation warrants.

MileIQ

A mileage tracker that uses smart drive-detection technology to capture, log and compute your business runs. You just swipe one way or other to categorize personal and business trips. MileIQ gives an accurate record log of your miles that makes it easy for you to claim any deductions or reimbursements. It automatically records your mileage every time you drive, running quietly in the background. It stores data in the cloud that enables you to easily compile and export reports as needed, regardless of location.

Periscope

This popular live streaming app can also be made use of for entirely business purposes. Periscope broadcasts live video, making it handy for capturing video of listings as they hit the market and announcing any updates to your clients. Recipients can replay your Periscope broadcast for up to 24 hours, and also allows them to share your broadcasts with their contacts.

Dubsmash

By no stretch of imagination will Dubsmash make you more productive, but surely will make you laugh. The popular app makes it easy for you to lip-sync over a short clip, a popular song, a famous movie line or a variety of other phrases resulting in hilarious videos. It’s fun, silly and also very effective. Watch the likes and retweets stack up once you share your creations on social media.

Admit it, we all would like to have a little fun once in a while. All the more fun if it can be of some productive use too like gaining more followers. Right? 

Converting Your Email into Prime Real Estate Sales

Converting Your Email into Prime Real Estate Sales

For most people, buying or renting a new home is a big decision. No surprise finding a trustworthy and reliable Realtor is top of the list for most buyers. And that is why Realtors have to market themselves and their brands just as much as the properties he was trying to sell.

It’s important for Realtors, to stay connected with customers and to remind them on a regular basis of what they do and who they are. “You’ll hopefully be the first person they think of because of your consistent marketing,” saysBrandon Stewart.

When he started off, he began by creating a monthly newsletter and sending it to existing clients. He was quick to realize that he was able to approach an entirely new audience by focusing on existing customers.

He saw that if he put popular content in the newsletter, people would share it. Brandon says “They share it on Facebook or pass it along to their circle, and then their contacts ask to subscribe. Every time I send out a newsletter, I’ll get new subscribers back.”

Even in a very competitive market, Brandon’s newsletters sets him apart and allow him to show off his industry expertise. With Constant Contact, Brandon was able to insert links easily to articles and include images his audience might be interested in. He was able to upload his own images and save time by sharing helpful information from other sources.

Most of his content comes from blogs or other sources, and he makes it a point to credit the original source. It saves him a lot of time because of not needing tocreate new content on a monthly basis when there are plenty of diverse and insightful blogs creating compelling content on a daily basis.

Now the emails are an important reinforcement of his brand. After almost five years of sending out his much sought-after newsletter, Brandon is known as a trustworthy expert in his field. By consistently sharing engaging newsletters, Brandon has built a loyal, growing community.

Brandon explains. “The focus of most realtors is on sales numbers and how prices have changed throughout the year. I’m able to bring content with significance that goes beyond just the numbers.”

His list started off with about 300 people and has now grown to over 2,700 subscribers. With open rates double that of the industry average, it’s clear Brandon is doing it right. He offers his subscribers something of value, while also allowing them to get to know, like, and trust him.

He gets calls from people he’s never known before. Brandon explains. “They or a friend of theirs get the newsletter, and they know I’m the person to call. It does help to establish credibility upfront.”

Brandon has the tools at his disposal to make his brand stand out, develop long-lasting customer relationships and attract new customers. When a new contact opts into his mailing list, he reaches them at a place they visit every day — their inbox.

Pinterest for Real Estate Agents

Pinterest for Real Estate Agents

Real Estate Agents are some of the best marketers in the real world. Incredibly brilliant at getting to know their clients on a person-to-person basis, connecting with the local market and getting involved with the community.

But they are not very good at doing the same on social media. Admit it! Is it because social media scares you? You only need to think of social on-line like the way you do in the real world!

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, provide a way to reach out to and connect with your local clients and groups, boosting your real estate marketing efforts. Such social interactions can build confidence and widen your network through friends of friends. But how?

Here we’ll have an overview of Pinterest and how real estate agents can make use of the popular platform for marketing. This social site is all about connecting through images. Pinterest provides an amazing avenue to show off the visuals of your listings. As a Realtor, your listings mostly get sold by appealing to visual emotions, right? That's why Pinterest is perfect for you.

On Pinterest, you set up boards and pin images, engage through liking, commenting and re-pinning. A Realtor who does Pinterest very well has a Board for his/her listings, shares personal likings, sports and hobbies, tips, inspirational quotes and more. Market yourself as a trustworthy, real and caring real estate agent.

1. Promote the area of your listings. Create a board about your neighborhood, the amenities, businesses, shops and services available in your locality.

2. Have a Board specifically for your listings and make sure to follow the 80/20 rule. Make sure the listings Board is among your first four. This makes it easier for your listings to get spotted.

3. Show who you are as a person. Set up Boards about your lifestyle and hobbies. Post some of your best snaps if you are an outdoorsman or photography enthusiast. If you play tennis - post about clubs and courts in your locale.

4. Set up boards on Home Decor and Improvement. Appeal to the inner designers in your prospective customers and show off beautiful photos of amazing interiors. Share tips and link to useful and productive sites.

5. Like with Twitter (and Facebook), use hashtags to connect with your market and extend your reach beyond just your followers. Use hashtags that are relevant to your niche and your community. These tags can be geography, listing or image specific.

6. Use contests, sweepstakes or even special offers to generate excitement and gain more engagement that will ultimately result in more clients.

7. Expand your social reach by getting your Pinterest updates on a Pinterest Tab on your Facebook Page. Cross-Promote with a Facebook Pinterest Tab.

Try out a few of the marketing tips above, remember to engage your clients, and use social on-line like in the real world. There are lots of ways to promote real estate through social media.

How and Why Real Estate Agents Need to Utilise LinkedIn

How and Why Real Estate Agents Need to Utilise LinkedIn

In general, Real Estate professionals do not make much use of the professional audience on LinkedIn when compared to other social media platforms. Those who take advantage of the professional network to garner business are few and far between. However, with more than 187 million members across 200 countries, its high time that we give this a thought.

 Benefit That LinkedIn Can Offer Your Business.

 •    A recent study found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate, almost three times higher than both Twitter and Facebook combined! Given that a person approaches LinkedIn mostly with a business-focused mindset, it isn’t surprising that business related content performs better there as compared to other social platforms.

 •    LinkedIn users tend to have a relatively high average household income making it a more lucrative platform for large purchases. So it is good to be around when they are ready to do that.

 •    The power of LinkedIn lies in the ability to research, locate, connect and engage all in one location. It is a social network focused on enhancing business that works best by working hand in hand with your offline marketing efforts.

 Ways to be Effective on LinkedIn

 Make your Profile Informative and Comprehensive

 Make sure your profile has details of your experience, and it clearly conveys your strength or specialty. Ensure buyers and sellers can find what they need to know about you easily. Remember, potential customers often conduct extensive research online, on you and your business much before they ever connect with you in person.

 What they find is either going to create a strong impression or put doubts in their mind. It is only logical that people need to be reassured about your ability and experience to handle what could be the biggest deal of their lives.

 Host and Share Engaging Content

 Take inspiration from the best in the field. The top real estate agents and firms on LinkedIn all post engaging content — links to blog posts, news articles, opinion pieces, etc. On social channels, it’s ideal to show your audience you’re not of a closed mindset and are willing to go to great lengths to find information that can be of help to them.

 Utilize Your Real World Connections

 With a professional and engaging profile in place, it is time to take advantage of your connections. Widen your network by reaching out to your peers, existing clients and professional contacts that you already work with. Make use of LinkedIn’s referral system and it’s Recommendations function.

 While requesting or soliciting referrals, be sure to convey clearly what you need. That makes it easier for the author and also increases your chances of receiving a recommendation.

 Measuring and Improving your Efforts

 Anything and everything you do on LinkedIn is recorded and compiled into data. The site’s analytics tools can be used to collate and determine the content that helped you gain. Figure out the trends and modify your marketing strategy on the platform as needed.

 As in the real world, it is important to define your potential audience and set up a suitable strategy to find and engage them on LinkedIn. Examine your LinkedIn metrics carefully just as you do with Ad related Analytics, to consistently generate more and more real estate business.

 With even Google listing LinkedIn as a prominent trusted source in it's search results, its a no-brainer to take advantage of this professional platform.

Hiring a Marketing Agency vs. Doing it Yourself / In-House?

A lot of brokers do not believe marketing is necessary, especially those who are in commercial real estate. Yet, everyone needs logos, websites, email marketing, property set ups, SEO, brochures, billboards, business cards, and print advertising. Right? 

You have two options: you can pretend it’s not happening, keep playing it old school, and keep thinking that marketing is a waste of money. Or, you can approach Marketing as an investment.

I am amazed to still see how poorly real estate brokerages are marketing themselves and their listings, and in particular, commercial brokerages. This is definitely not going to cut it anymore. Real Estate has always been a laggard in adopting new technology, making brokerages with strong brand recognition very rare unless they are multimillion-dollar companies (Compass, Douglas Elliman, CBRE). 

So where does this leave all the small and medium real estate brokerages? Struggling. I see too many cheap logos done with Word and PowerPoint, terrible newsletters both in terms of look and content, and outdated websites that are not very user-friendly. Does this sound like you? Do not worry, it's understandable. When do you get the time to take care of your marketing when, as a broker, you never have enough hours during the day?

Time is Money.

Branding, mailers, logos, videos, letterhead, business cards, email marketing, newsletters, Facebook ads, slogans, print ads, and press releases - the list goes on and on. It’s a lot of stuff to know, understand, and maintain. And I bet you already have all of this on your to-do list.

If you are in the same situation as many real estate agents and brokers, you cannot afford a traditional real estate advertising agency. It is too expensive and too time consuming. When do you have the time to interview 5 or 6 of them just to know which one to hire, and then after that manage and supervise the work? So you probably end up doing most of these petty tasks yourself or internally. Unless you have an extravagant marketing payroll with a full-time team, your brand is not performing and generating more revenue (read: finding new clients, keeping current ones and closing fast enough).

Your Time is Valuable.

Of course, you can try to do it yourself (maybe). But for that, not only do you have to spend time learning new programs and software, but also need to spend several hours actually creating and designing the image or graphic. The time you spend prospecting, calling, following up with contacts, and working with active clients is all value-added time. It drops revenue straight to the bottom line. So make sure you consider the cost and the value of your time when determining whether or not to do something by yourself.

For instance, let’s say that you are on a quest to create a new web banner and hired somebody to do the job for $300. It probably would have taken you 15-20 hours to produce a marginal result. At a cost of $300, that means those 15-20 hours of your time would have been worth $15/hour. But isn’t your time worth WAY more than $15 an hour?

It only makes sense to hire an expert when you need help with marketing. 
It saves you time and consequently money. Think of the cost benefit before you sink your valuable time doing something that you could delegate to professionals.

Top 5 Apps for Real Estate Brokers

Top 5 Apps for Real Estate Brokers

These days it seems everyone in the world is obsessed with their smartphones. Mine never leaves my hand even as I run around the bustling streets of New York City. There’s a reason for that (and it’s not just because I enjoy browsing my notifications on the Facebook app). Aside from checking my text messages, my iPhone houses my life. I have apps to help me invest wisely, alert me when my train is running behind, tell me if there’s traffic and even an app that monitors my daily water consumption! If apps can help me run my personal life all the more smoothly, than their magic should work on my professional life (I’m a broker) as well, right? Here’s what I came up with.

1.       Falcon - Property and Building Owner Data

Falkon is the leading platform to discover properties and the people behind them. They provide detailed property reports, owner contact information, and additional real estate data to thousands of members and businesses around the world. Literally walk down the street and have access to a

2. Zillow

One of the most comprehensive real estate apps for iPhone. It uses your iPhone’s GPS to find out more information about the houses around you. Great way to find homes to buy or rent.

3. Roomscan Pro

This Roomscan app is designed to draw floor plans for you, by simply holding your phone up against each wall. As you tap the wall, you will see it appear on your screen, now move to the next wall and repeat. Continue until you are back where you started. The makers of the app claim that Roomscan is accurate to within half a foot. If you need to be more accurate, Roomscan Pro has an option allowing REALTORS® to manually add their your own measurements, doors and windows.

4. DealCalc

A free Commercial Real Estate deal term calculator for tenant reps and brokers. You can even share deal terms calculations via email.

5. SignEasy

In 3 easy steps, SignEasy helps you to sign documents such as NDAs, real estate contracts, lease agreements, sales invoices, purchase orders, financial agreements, loan documents, expense reports, consent forms, job offers, permission slips, invoices, work orders and almost anything.

With a mere click, you can request a signature on a document by adding the email addresses of the recipients. After initiating the request, the document moves to ‘Pending’ status and you can view the status of the document anytime.The recipient receives an email link to sign the document. Once it’s signed, the next party is notified to sign. What a great way to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and save us all time!

6. Scannable

If you use Evernote, you’re going to appreciate this app! Scannable is the newest app from Evernote, and makes saving and sharing scans easy. Just aim the camera, and Scannable immediately identifies business cards, receipts, and other paper items it’s pointed at. The app automatically detects the document edges and then captures it. In regards to the business card scanning, I really like the additional photo and LinkedIn details that it added to the contact records. For now this app is only available for iPhone and iPad, although and Android version is rumored to be in the works.

7. RPR Mobile

It wouldn’t be a complete list without RPR Mobile. You never know when you are going to get that next property question. RPR Mobile delivers the data and reporting found on the RPR website, directly to your phone. Using RPR Mobile, REALTORS can use their location to search both on and off market properties, while also uncovering mortgage, historical and distressed data, flood zones, school info and more. Then easily create one of 5 different property and neighborhood reports, each branded with your photo, logo and contact information. As a REALTOR, there is no cost to use RPR, the system is 100% covered by your NAR member dues.

8. Videolicious

This app makes quality video creation easy. Give Videolicious a try by first recording yourself talking into the camera. Then add any photos or videos over the top as b-roll. Next add music and cinematic filters to your photos and video footage. The completed videos can be saved, emailed and shared via social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

9. CamScanner

CamScanner enables you to scan documents directly from your mobile device – and makes them look like real scans! You can scan documents into a clear, sharp image/PDF to email, fax, print or save to a cloud. Instead of rushing to the office to send out documents, you can now get this done on the go, which is essential when you’re running around town showing properties.

10. Adobe Fill & Sign

Fill and sign any form via your cell! You can even snap a picture of a paper form to fill out. Instantly turn digital files or paper documents into forms you can fill, sign and send electronically. No print or faxing (does anyone actually fax anymore?) needed. You can import files from your favorite cloud storage provider, tap or enter text or check marks in form fields and fill forms faster with reusable text from your autofill collection.

How to Create Great Real Estate Newsletters

You’ve heard that real estate agents/companies should have their own newsletter to remind their clients that they are around, appear like an industry leader or a local expert, and to get referrals. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting leads, and your competition is already doing it. We are not here to convince you to send out newsletters. We’re here to help you decide what to put in them, and how.  Creating a real estate newsletter doesn’t have to be difficult. Here’s what to do:

1. Appearance: capture their attention

Templates are becoming so much better that you don’t need to be a designer to put a very nice looking newsletter together. I would particularly recommend that residential agents send regular email blasts to their database. There are many attractive real estate newsletter templates already created, and various email marketing services offering ready-made newsletter themes, so don’t let fear or laziness stop you. You don’t have to be an artist to put together something nice. The platform I prefer is Mail Chimp because I find it very easy to use for non-tech savvy individuals.

2. Content: bring value to their life

Well, well, well. It’s not just about the look, or it would be too easy. With your newsletters, the whole point of you sending them is to stay at the front of yourclients’ minds. But don’t be “that person” that sends new home listing emails to individuals who have just bought a home, that just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a bit different for investment properties, but most commercial brokers have their company send out their email blast. In any case, good content marketing is meant to help, not sell, and engage your reader through interesting topics.

•    40% Tips for your target audience: whether you are sending information about how to stage a property, what type of insurance your buyers should get, or a blog post about condos versus co-ops, make sure this is the most important part of your e-blast. Free and relevant advice.

•    20% Real Estate News/Trends: What’s going on in your market right now?

•    20% Promotional: your new listings

3. Strong subject lines

If no one is even opening your newsletter, what’s the point?  Make sure to put a very attractive or witty subject line. You have very little time to convince your audience to open your email. So make it count. If you’re not much of a writer, hire someone to do it for you. Again, I am not saying everyone should manage their newsletters or any marketing platforms by themselves. I’m just suggesting that real estate brokers and agents should focus on what they do best: closing deals - and leave the marketing to the marketers.

4. Frequency: stay consistent

The frequency will depend on your goals and your current situation. Your goal matters! Focus is key when running your real estate newsletter. If you are a broker with a lot of new listings, you will probably want to send a weekly email blast. If you are a new agent, a bi-weekly or monthly should be enough. Make sure always to send it within the same period of time. Consistency is crucial in your marketing effort.

5. Test and Track!

Make changes based on what has worked in the past. Make sure to track results, otherwise, what’s the point, and how will you determine your ROI? It’s all about response: email replies, telephone response, website traffic, opening rate, clicks, etc. Again, I wouldn’t expect you to do it all by yourself, but these are important metrics to track so you can see if your email campaigns have been efficient or need improvement. Don’t look at ineffective emails as failures, though, as the information that no one clicked through, (or opened or read), can also offer you important feedback.  A particular email message means you can turn your attention to other subject matters to integrate into your campaigns. Remember that testing is a part of marketing, and over time, if you test enough, you’ll find the magic email mix for your campaigns.

Developing appealing real estate newsletters that produce high email open rates takes time and effort. You can either buckle up and go for it or hire a team of professionals to help you. Make sure to relay your marketing goals, set deadlines and have a reporting system in place. It’s all about the results!

5 Real Estate Marketing Ideas The Pros Use

5 Real Estate Marketing Ideas The Pros Use

There is no “one size fits all” in marketing. Marketing depends on your goals. Whether you are a commercial broker selling office buildings or a residential agent renting luxury penthouses, the way you want to be perceived by your clientele will vary. Your tone, your style, and your content need to be relevant to your target audience. Below are the essential marketing tools we believe a real estate agent/broker should have.

1. Real Estate Website: Brand yourself as a marketing machine

Brand yourself. Let clients find you online. Not only will it help you look professional, but it also shows your marketing capabilities. If you know how to brand yourself, it means you know how to market your listings as well. You can also showcase your recent closings and show your personality. Your website is your online resume. It is easy to put in place and is one of the first things I would do as a real estate professional.

2. LinkedIn Account: Rank on the first page of Google

LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful SEO tool and a great professional social media platform. Translation: You will pop up first on Google search via LinkedIn and look like a pro. It is a free resource that I find is often underutilized by agents. If you’re not much of a writer, hire someone to do it for you. A nice biography with all your credentials can only make you look more legit.

3. Email Newsletter: Stay in their minds; get referrals

Again, you don’t have to do it yourself. Newsletters are time-consuming, and you want to send relevant content to your audience. Hire someone to do it for you: Pick some topics, the frequency, and a design-and-feel for your email blasts, and that’s it. To do an excellent newsletter, you need to know your clients well. What do they want to read about? Newsletters are great for staying at the top of their minds. Consistency is king. It’s better to pick a lower frequency with quality content than to annoy with weekly emails having “meh” content.

4. Blog: Brand yourself as an authority

Whether you are in residential or commercial, you will want to appear as an authority in your field. Not only can your blog help you with search optimization, but it will also brand you as an expert. And we know that real estate is all about trust (and referrals!). Once again, you don’t have to do it yourself; hire someone to manage your blog for you.

5. Headshot: Professional photograph

Yes, it should be common sense, but it still looks as though it is not. I am amazed to see what the brokers I am working with are using: outdated headshots taken in the 90s or selfies taken with their iPhones. I think the worst is old photos: When you meet your real estate agent and discover that he/she is ten years older than the picture he/she has online, it’s just plain deceiving. Be genuine, and show your true colors!

Overall, if you’re not going to keep up with your marketing platforms and just keep a ghost blog, for instance, or send inconsistent newsletters once in a while, don’t do it. Marketing is all about frequency and consistency. Sometimes, less is better. Also, remember that you don’t have to do it yourself; you have plenty of resources to assist you with your marketing. Focus on closing deals, and let professional marketers handle your brand.  

4 Excellent Reasons to Redesign Your Real Estate Website

So you have the best team of brokers, and you just feel that marketing is “Meh.” You’ve built your site in 2012, 2013, and well, you think it’s good enough because marketing is just fluff. Or is it… Well, business owners are experts in their field but not website experts. And that’s why 95% of small businesses have outdated websites. A lot of small and medium brokerages either don’t think about their website much, or don’t realize that it’s outdated.  Here are some ways to know whether it’s time to revamp your site.

1. Your site looks outdated.

Websites have drastically changed over the last few years. Web design is leaning towards clearer, more minimalistic layouts and of course towards great user experience. Just a few years ago, you had to hire an ad agency to design a very simple website for $5,000. But those days are over, and real estate companies now have access to much more affordable solutions. It comes as no surprise, as studies have shown, that customers have more trust and are willing to spend more with businesses offering better-designed websites. 

2. Your site is not mobile friendly.

Your website looked great on a desktop five years ago, when you built it, but looks just odd on a mobile today. That’s okay. A website is a constant work in progress and has to evolve along with the company. Even if you did a great job just a few years ago, updating and improving your online presence is an absolute necessity. Most people are going to visit your website from a mobile, and you want to make a best first impression as possible. Responsive design is a new technology that makes your website work flawlessly on all devices by automatically adjusting to each device. 

 3. It’s hard to update

You need to be able to do these things without wasting money by hiring a web company to do it for you. So, either you are lucky and have an admin, or an office manager that knows how to use your old Wordpress template, or an IT guy who is kind enough to add your recent closings, or new listings to your website. However most likely, you don’t update your site often; your recent transactions are not up to date, your “team” section has brokers who no longer work for your company, and there is still that typo you hate on the home page. Most modern website builders have tools that make updating your site easy. I love Squarespace because of their beautiful design and their user-friendly experience for non-tech users.

4. Your competitors changed their site.

I know. You don’t need to give your site an overhaul every time one of your competitors changes theirs. But having said that, if they make substantial changes, improving their look and rankings, it also means they are pushing you down in searches. If you spend some time on a competitor’s site and realize “Wow it’s sexy” (= “they’re much more appealing than we are”), it’s time to roll-up your sleeves and get busy. It’s time to get cracking on a new design.

5 Reasons Why Real Estate Agents should have their Own Website

5 Reasons Why Real Estate Agents Should Have Their Own Website

1.    Helps to Create a Recognizable Brand

You work in a competitive field, which makes it especially important to create a clear brand image. Ideally, you want your name and logo to instantly conjure up certain images and associations in the minds of potential clients. A website can help present and reinforce your brand image to the world, so that visitors recognize what makes you different without having to do too much thinking.

2.    Works to Shift the Focus onto You and Away from Your Company

If you are a partner at a real estate firm or one of many agents, you are probably listed on the company website, but with so much information on one site, clients won’t even navigate to your bio. Creating an independent website that focuses solely on you, your skills and your accomplishments will allow you to enjoy the spotlight and let clients get a better feel for who you are and what you can offer.

3.    Helps Create Optimized Pages

In the world of online marketing and search engines, no one is flipping through the phone book to find services anymore. They type search terms into their favorite search engine and scan through the first 10 or so results that appear. If you are not showing up on the first page of results, there is a slim chance that people are even coming across your website. Launching a personal website can help you to publish SEO friendly content that will improve search engine rankings and increase organic traffic, which translates into more clients and more sales.

4.    Help Establish Yourself as a Trusted Resource and Industry Authority

Clients want to work with true professionals who know the industry and can help them close deals. Without a strong internet presence, it is almost impossible to establish your credibility. In most cases, your personal website is your chance to make a great first impression. You want to get their attention while also providing truly helpful information and resources. The more clients see you as a trustworthy expert, they more likely they are to want you on their side locating properties and negotiating deals.

5.    Makes You Appear More Accessible

Even if you do have the freedom to only work with exclusive clientele, it is still important to appear accessible and willing to network and be contacted. While you may end up sorting through inquiry emails and phone calls, your personal website can act as the perfect gateway to establishing important connections and generating meaningful leads. The beauty is that you can choose how people are able to contact you. Perhaps you simply direct them to an email address. That is more than enough to create the impression that you are open to being contacted and discussing partnerships.

5 Reasons why you should hire a professional photographer for your listings

You have one chance to impress: a few seconds to grab a buyer’s attention. Do iPhone photos or those you take with a point-and-shoot camera make optimum use of those valuable seconds? That’s right. And here is why you should hire a pro.

First Impressions are everything

When moving back to New York, browsing through StreetEasy, Zillow and Trulia websites, I was surprised to see how terrible some of the photos of apartments were. Blurry, dark, shot from weird angles, and sometimes there were no photos at all.

In 2016, shouldn’t decent photography be a basic standard when listing a property?

In today’s visual and digital driven-market, most prospects begin their search with a quick glance at an image on a website. First impressions are everything, even more so in real estate. Why jeopardize your first impression and connection with a potential client? This is your first contact with your prospect: make it count.

Your smartphone just doesn’t do the trick

Sure, smartphone technology is always improving and those cameras can be pretty great—but they are nothing in comparison to a well-lit professionally angled shot by a photographer (and the touch-ups). You’re working in an aggressive and competitive industry: you want to stand out from the crowd.

You are your listing

As you are what you eat, what you do and what you wear, as a real estate agent you are also how you brand your listing. You can tell a lot about the agent and the listing by the quality of the photos.

So if you put low resolutions images or just bad photos, what does it say about you? That either you don’t have the time or that you don’t care. And would you work with an agent who just doesn’t care or doesn’t have the time for you?  In the end, properties with stellar photos will always make you look good.

Be real

Prospects spend much more time looking at properties with great photos.  

They quickly skip over listings that have poor photos or overly edited photos (don’t try to make things look better than they really are). For residential sales for instance, buyers want to see if they can picture themselves living there. The photos tell the story of a home. 

Quality photography is not a luxury: it is a necessity. You want to peak interest; you want to receive a call for prospects that are actually interested and ready to buy. Don’t waste their time or yours.

Professionally photographed properties sell for more money.

According to a recent study co-published by real estate consultancy and research firm REAL Trends and Virtuance, real estate agents who always use professional third-party photographers earn twice as much gross commission income as agents who never use professional third-party photographers. Well, we’re pretty sure it’s not only thanks to the professional photos. However, online listing photos are a critical factor in the selling price, how quickly it sells, and whether it sells at all. Remember that 93% of homebuyers start their search on the Internet and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Conclusion

Consumers demand a visually appealing online presence. A fundamental shift is happening in the real estate industry and professional photos are playing a key part in the selling process.

Professional photos make a very measurable difference in how quickly a house sells and how much it sells for. While the income relation to good pictures also has to do with the agent being a professional versus just a part timer, great pictures mean you'll get more value. Terrible ones can mean more days on the market, bad branding for you, a troublesome transaction and less commission. Save time, energy and close for more by hiring a professional photographer.

We hope this post helped you in some way. Message us if you are on the fence. We’ll give you honest advice.