September is Realtor Safety Month, but just as every day should be a day of Thanksgiving, every month should be Realtor Safety Month. Real estate agents are in a unique position among service providers, because you so often work alone, going into unoccupied places with people you don’t know, meeting strangers in their homes, or […]
How to Manage Hundreds of Internet Buyer Leads
Agents tell me that thanks to search functions, they have hundreds of web-generated real estate buyer leads to manage. Their systems may be automatically sending those buyers information on new listings, but they feel that isn’t good enough. After all, if those buyers have been exploring several sites, it may be the same information other […]
What can you do with fifteen minutes?
What can you do with fifteen minutes? Because a day in the life of a real estate agent is often dotted with appointments, you sometimes find yourself between things, with ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes before the next commitment. When I was an agent, I found it frustrating to have those “wasted” chunks of time. […]
Choose your real estate clients wisely
If you’re a seasoned real estate agent, you probably know what I’m going to suggest – which is that you don’t have to and should not work with every possible client who comes along. If you’re just beginning your career in real estate you may be thinking “What do you mean, choose my clients! I […]
Ask before you text!
This morning my answering machine gave me a message from a prospective client telling me that he’d sent me some information. I checked my email and no – there was no information from him. So I called to let him know it hadn’t come through. Of course it hadn’t – he’d sent a text message. […]
The Power of “Thank You”
Do you say “thanks” to the people you pay to do a job? Not long ago I followed a long gripe session about how rude people are lately. How they never say “Good job” or even a simple “thanks” to their writers, graphic artists, web designers, etc. And it’s true. While some greatly-appreciated customers do say […]
Good real estate marketing messages are like conversations
Good Marketing Messages are Like Conversations You want people to read your marketing messages, right? Then let your copy be a conversation… Not a lecture, not a demand, not even a blatant advertisement. Before you sit down to write, think about the people you want to reach. Then narrow that down to just one of […]
What do you do with Internet leads?
An agent called one day to ask if I could write an auto-response letter for him to use to put people on hold when he “didn’t feel like” answering his Internet leads. Sure, I could do that, but I didn’t recommend it. After all – how many people are willing to be put on hold? […]
For real estate client contentment – communication is key
Last week Bob Stewart of Active Rain announced a new contest in which he invited members to share their process – what they do for each of their clients. He also challenged members to think about how well they communicate that process to the clients. As an example of a process that works, he related […]
An old-fashioned new idea for closing gifts
Have you ever considered giving your clients board games as a closing gift? Sounds a little crazy in this day of digital everything, but as it turns out, it’s not crazy at all. According to a segment on NBC news, in 2014 sales of board games increased 10 percent – up to 1 1/2 Billion dollars. […]