Exactly one day after I went off about Social Media, look what shows up on the cover of the California REALTOR Magazine! I seem to be swimming upstream here

This Is Funny is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

I just got through with a webinar on the latest social media app – the one Zucherberg paid a billion for.  I say I ‘got through’ with it, not that I completed it.  After 32 minutes I could not find a compelling reason to invest any more time.  Oh, the presenter was good and information was . . . informative.  But I just couldn’t make the leap to understanding how this thing was going to make me any money.

Look, it’s true:   I’m old.  But I’m hip-old.  I can tech it up with the best of them.  I understand technology and use it constantly.  I get excited over the next great thing.  But there is a naked emperor in the room and I can’t believe I’m the only one who sees him!

Our industry is bombarded with ‘gurus’ touting the benefits of social media in our business.  I am not sure if any of the ‘gurus’ ever sold real estate or ever sold much, but they sure are talking and we sure are listening.  Still, I have yet to hear from anyone who can point at Facebook, Twitter, Printerest, Google+, Instagram, etc. and say without reservation that the app (all by itself) created a single new client who generated income.  I’m sure the stories are out there, but I haven’t heard them; which tells me it’s a pretty rare phenomenon.

Kirk Eisele taught me about the ‘Network Effect.’  That’s something that occurs when there are enough people in a group that the group becomes valuable.  An example would be Facebook.  A large part of their revenue stream comes from selling highly targeted pay-per-click ads.  When Facebook had just a few thousand members, the value of those ads – the value of Facebook - was minimal.  But when Facebook started talking in terms of millions of users, the ‘Network Effect’ had been achieved and each new member increased the value of Facebook as a marketing tool.  (The ‘Network Effect’ is something Facebook has all over Google +).

So, it seems to me that you’ll make money with Facebook not by having a page and posting and liking and commenting, but by tapping into Facebook’s strength – that ‘Network Effect’ – and buying pay-per-click ads aimed at homeowners in your target market.  Honestly, I think it’s one of the best marketing vehicles for real estate today.

Tammy Patzer helped me understand that, by themselves, social media platforms – heck, all electronic platforms – rarely produce adequate or consistent results. But there is a synergy that happens when you are in a dozen places online, and that synergy yields better results all around.  You have to think of it as a world wide WEB – just like a spider WEB – and the more strands to your web, the more flies you’re going to catch.  So Facebook, Twitter and Instagram aren’t the stars, they are the supporting cast.  Yet I see brokers investing time into Facebook who have done nothing to localize or optimize the star of the show:  their Help-U-Sell website.

When I got my first real estate license – you know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth – I started noticing a lot of people coming into the business looking like they were going to set the world on fire.  And sometimes they did.  But more often, they’d get bogged down on organizing their farm or researching the market or mastering the MLS . . . .in other words, doing things that looked important but kept them from doing the things that would make them productive (like going out, meeting people and asking:  wanna buy?  wanna sell?).

Today I think we have the same group passing through.  But today they’re investing all of this time in social media, thinking that somehow it’s going to make them tons of money.  It’s not.  Face Time - time spent eyeball to eyeball with people in your marketplace - is what will help you maximize your productivity and your income. Your electronic life is there to make staying in touch easier and less time consuming so that you can have MORE FACE TIME.

I love what’s happening for Ken Kopcho this year.  Since January his production is way up.  He’s having a good year.  He’s using his electronic tools, his websites, his Facebook, and even jumped on Zillow with both feet.  But when you ask him why he’s doing so much better he’ll tell you:  More Face Time.  Not more Facebook time, more Face Time.

So can we please return to common sense?  This is a people business.  When people need help with a big project – like buying or selling a home – they look for knowledgable practitioners they like and trust.  Likeability and trustworthiness are rarely established through typing and clicking.  It usually takes a handshake and a smile.

Grousing About Social Media is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

(If you’re looking for a topic, here’s your next salesmeeting)

Objections:  it’s such an adversarial word!  The salesperson presents the product and the customer objects!  Says ‘I don’t want that, because . . . ‘ and then the salesperson pulls some magic script from the recesses of his brain that suddenly makes the customer want the product!

Malarkey.

That’s not the way it works at all . . .  except in sales training seminars where we practice, drill and rehearse the script over and over again until those almost foreign words flow off the tongue like honey.

Let’s step back from that selling situation for a moment.  What is the customer saying when he or she ‘objects?’  How about:  I have a question . . . or I’m concerned . . . or I don’t think this is right for me.  Sometimes they might be asking for a little encouragement, a little nudge, some reassurance.

It’s hardly the brick wall most sales trainers insist we must break through in order to WIN!  Remember, if your goal with your customer is to WIN, that means somebody else has to lose; and what kind of business will you be building if your goal is to make losers out of all your customers?

Your customer is your partner.  You are working together on a project – your customer’s project, be it buying or selling a home . . . or both.  You’re in the equation because of the valuable knowledge and experience you have in real estate and it’s the customer who recognizes that and pulls you in.  Winning to you has nothing to do with sales quotas, your income or anybody else losing.  It has to do with your customer achieving his or her goals.  That’s a good win.

How you respond to customer questions and concerns, however, is important and will have quite an impact on how many customers you are able to successfully serve in your career.  The best response to any concern is truth as you’ve observed it in your career, not some magical canned response.  For this reason, the most effective responses are based on research and data and/or your own experience.

In the listing consultation you are likely to encounter questions and concerns in several areas:

The sign: The sellers may not want to broadcast the fact that they are selling to the neighborhood.  Ultimately this is their choice, but you owe it to them to explain how much it will impact the marketing effort.  Knowing – really knowing – exactly what % of buyer inquiries into your office come from signs is a critical piece of information to take with you on a listing consultation.  Weighing the cost of not having a sign versus the benefit of having one  is Consultative Selling at its best and has nothing to do with breaking down an objection.  It has to do with the seller making a good choice with input from his or her advisor:  you.

The lockbox:  There could be a number of reasons why a seller might not want a lock box, so job one when this concern is voiced is to drill down a bit.  And here is a special phrase, one you will use over and over in your career:  ‘Please, help me understand. . . what is your concern with the lock box?’  ‘Help me understand,’ is a good start as is ‘Just to clarify my thinking, tell me why . . .’

It could be they have valuables and they don’t want anyone in the house unless they are there . . . in which case, the issue really isn’t the lockbox, it’s the valuables and how we can get them picked up and put away for the duration.  Maybe they’re concerned that the cat could get out or the dog could misbehave, in which case, again, it’s not about the lockbox, it’s about making appropriate arrangements for the pets while the house is on the market.  Knowing to the decimal point what percentage of your listings are sold by outside MLS brokers (who often use the lockbox) is another key bit of information you must have with you anytime you go on a Listing Consultation.  With this knowledge you can help the seller make a good decision.

The Term of the Agreement:  You ask for six months and they offer you two.  Stop for a moment.  Before you get into a tug of war over the calendar, ask yourself, ‘why would they not want to sign a six month agreement?’  It could be they are concerned about being tied up . . . but it could be something else. So first, drill down.  ‘Just so I understand . . . what is it that concerns you about the six month agreement?’

Usually this concern has to do with uncertainty.  They like you well enough and your program sounds good but they’re not quite convinced and they want an out if it doesn’t work out. If this is the case, first see if you can isolate the part of your consultation that left them uneasy:  was it your marketing program, your internet presence, your office location, the size of your staff, your track record in the neighborhood or any one of a dozen other things.  Ask:  ‘Just so I’m clear, what is it about the program that worries you?’  You may discover that there is a key bit of information you left out or that they didn’t understand and you can clear it up on the spot.

An important stat you need to have with you at the Listing Consultation is the average days on market for similar properties in the area.  Pointing out that they are offering you 60 days to do a job that, on average is taking 132 days can be powerful.

Finally, if the problem is general uncertainty, give them an out!  Get the six month agreement but amend it so that it can be cancelled with five day’s notice.  Of course you’d have conditions with that, but I’ll leave it for you to figure out what they might be.

Price:  This is a special and very important concern.  But it’s one we’ve already explored in several posts.  Go here , here, here, and here, and refresh your memory!

Commission:  This is a concern pretty much reserved for ordinary agents and brokers and they have dozens of scripts to justify their lofty fees.  But, really:  it’s the one concern you probably won’t hear as a Help-U-Sell broker.  After all, you are the low cost, set fee alternative to all of that, which is probably why the seller called you in the first place.  Still don’t be spooked if he or she asks you to cut your already low set fee.  Some people just have to ask and are then fine when the answer is no.

Marketing:  Your marketing program is (and should be) largely internet, direct mail and local visibility based.  That’s what works today, but your seller may not know it.  They may still have the idea that an ad in the newspaper or in a homes magazine will sell their property.  Your job here is to educate, to show in black and white what’s happened to print media marketing in the past decade.  Start with the local newspaper.  Find out what their circulation is and compare that with your metro population.  You’ll probably find that about 20% of the households in your area get the paper.  Do they really want you to go after that small piece of the market?  And that group has expressed no particular interest in buying real estate!  They just get the paper!  Compare that with a visitor to helpusell.com or any other real estate website.  That’s a person who at least has a need!

If there are still homes magazines in your local area, pick one up.  Note the date of publication (if you can find it) and the date you got it.  Choose an impressive ad – the back cover or a two-page spread in the middle.  Go through the MLS and highlight (with a yellow highlighter, you know) every home in the ad that is sold, pending or off the market.  The results will probably be impressive – impressive enough to share with a seller who is hung up on print. (Here’s some great information about the reach of print media today)

Are you starting to get the picture?  ‘Objections’ aren’t objections at all: they are simply requests for more information.  And it is information you should have at your fingertips.  Always.  Here’s a task:  comb your memory banks.  What are the most common questions or concerns (objections) you’ve gotten from sellers and buyers in your career?  Write them down.  Now, ask yourself:  how will I respond next time I hear this?  What bit of factual data can I have at my fingertips that will help my customer make a better decision.  Then go get that information.

By the way, my intent here has been to short-circuit that old adversarial objection thinking:   the belief that, somehow, a magical, technique laden script is going to get your customer to do something he or she doesn’t feel good about.  It has not been to undermine the sound listening and explaining tools we use when working with customers.  Things like saying, ‘Tell me more’ or ‘Help me understand’ when a concern is voiced.  Things like checking back to make sure the customer understood what you just offered:  ‘Can you see how that would make a difference?’  Even using a true third party example:  ‘I worked with a couple last month who had the same concern.  We did this and they did that and now they are so happy with their decision.’  These are simply the skills of a good listener.

Effectiveness in this arena – actually, in sales in general – is largely the result of knowing your business . . . and being prepared to document what you know.  You bring great value to a transaction, and that value will be understood and underscored by your buyers and sellers if you’ll anticipate their concerns and be prepared to discuss them.

I Object! (Objection Handling Debunked) is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

Sometimes great marketing is so simple, so basic, hardly hi-tech, not even expensive.  Let me tell you what I saw today.

Early this morning I went over to the Morley Field Velodrome.  It’s a bike racing oval in San Diego’s Balboa Park – a wonderful thing where spandex clad riders tear after one another on banked curves and slanted straighaways.  Today they were having their regularly scheduled bicycle swap meet – an occasional event where local bike shops and individuals sell everything bicycle.  I’d heard about it and wanted to see for myself.

‘Get there early!’ my friend said, so there I was, in line behind about 200 others at 8:15 am.  ’What time do they open the gates?’ I asked the couple in front of me.  ’Oh, usually around 9,’ was the reply.  That’s where I woosed out.  It was chilly, I was in shorts and had nothing in particular to purchase . . . no way I was going to stand there in the cold for 45 minutes!  If I’d wanted to buy a $2,000 bike for $1,200, it would be worth it, but I was only curious.  So I left.

Pulling out of the lot I came face to face with an open house directional sign with a brilliant flourescent pink flag on top.  It’s a local independent broker I don’t really know . . . but I like the neighborhood so I figured, what the heck else am I going to do at 8:30 am on a Sunday (seeing how I’ve given up pancakes)?

So I started on my pilgrimage to the open house.  From my starting point to the property was about 2 miles.  In that distance I counted – get this – 21 directionals, each one with a bright pink fluorescent flag on top.  These were nice signs:  A-frames all in excellent shape.  As I neared the property and, I guess, the center of her target market, I started seeing bus benches with her distinctive logo – the same one that was on the directional signs. By the time I got to the house, I’d counted 7 of them.  That’s 28 impressions on only one of the routes to the house.  I have no idea how many other routes she mapped.

Of course, when I got to the house I discovered it was open from 1pm – 4pm in the afternoon, that it was overpriced (in my humble opinion) and not much to look at from outside.  The flyer box was full, tough; and interesting:  the house next door and one across the street had staked flyer boxes in the yards with a small rider sign stating ‘Coming Soon.’  It was the same agent.

How many times have we heard it?  Signs are your best marketing tool.  But how many of us go to this extent to maximize their power?  I can’t remember who it was on our regular Wednesday Power Hour call who talked about using as many as four directionals at an intersection for an open house.  I was amazed a that; but it was nothing like this!  Overpriced or not, you know that broker had traffic today, whether she ran an ad or not.  She may even have sold the property or one (or both) of the others on the block.  I think it would be a safe bet that she picked up a good buyer or two as well.

Think about it.  I saw, roughly $600 worth of directionals in my two mile drive.  They are reusable, so she’ll get much more mileage out of them than she did today.  The bus benches are about $250 a month and I saw 7 – that’s $1,750 a month, a healthy budget especially since she probably has more that I didn’t see.  But they are keeping her in that top of mind spot in her target market so that every other bit of marketing she does is that much more effective.  Best of all, it’s safe to say she had a productive Sunday afternoon . . . and what is your time worth?

Remember:  we are in a turf war.  You’re fighting for control of a little piece of real estate located between the ears of everyone who lives in your target market.  The name of this place is ‘The Best Real Estate Company To Call.’ And the company who wins it will do it with visibility and consistency.  My hat’s off to this local independent broker today:  you showed me Help-U-Sell marketing at it’s finest.  Hey – maybe we should talk…

A Marketing Lesson is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

The first thing I noticed when I went into the bathroom stall was the white card with a QR code on it, sitting on top of the toilet paper dispenser.  I picked it up.  ’Search for HOMES on the MLS, just like an agent,’ it said.  Of course I pulled out my Android phone, opened Google Goggles and clicked on the QR Code.

I was taken to an agent’s Listingbook sign up page.  It is a standard webpage Listingbook creates for each agent who registers for their program.  This one was pretty good. It had the agent’s picture and contact information, and a crisp bulleted description of Listingbook, how it works and why it is superior to other property search tools.  To the right there were input boxes for First and Last Name, Email Address and Phone (Optional).

Yes, I am in real estate.  I am intrigued by QR codes and I love Listingbook.  But I don’t think my reaction would be all that different from anyone else mildly interested in the local real estate market.  I would have completed the fill-in boxes on the spot (or on the throne as it was) to get access.  Of course, then the agent would have my contact information and as I used Listingbook to search for homes, he/she’d also be able to see what I was looking at.

Here are the lessons in this:

• Marketing. Superb!  Can you imagine a fully loaded campaign structured around the phrase, ‘Search for HOMES on the MLS, just like an agent?”  Thousands of QR codes like the one described scattered all over town, Blitz signs with the same message and code, Maybe even a mailbox campaign like the one Mike Paholke at Excel is doing for us these days.  Almost everyone interested in real estate in your target market would at least click the code to get more information and many would sign up . . . and each of them would be that much closer to being your clients.
• The power of Listingbook.  I have been on a real kick the last few weeks to get you guys (you Help-U-Sell brokers) to start selling your websites as the great search tool they are.  Because they receive information every night from the MLS, they are far more up-t0-date than, say, Zillow or Trulia.  However, if your MLS has Listingbook, it’s even better! Listingbook is not an IDX feed that happens overnight.  It’s real time.  So an active listing that goes pending at 1:15 pm will show in Listingbook as pending at 1:16pm.  The IDX feed will take a day to catch up.  More important, the only way a consumer gets a Listingbook account is through an agent and then that agent can see every listing the consumer looks at, can see at a glance when their criteria changes, when their areas change, when their searching activity picks up (usually heralding a more imminent purchase).
• QR Codes. Have you noticed?  They are everywhere.  And just as DVD marketing was all the rage 7 years ago (we were distributing DVDs because there was a good chance the consumer would view them), QR Codes are the hot ticket today.  One relating to anything of interest to the consumer is likely to produce a click . . . and clicks start the relationship process.

I know I sound like a broken record, but:  Call you MLS and ask if they have Listingbook.  If they do, decide whether you want to signup for the free account for the very moderately priced upgrade.  Then start marketing it!  Everytime anyone signs up for an account through you, you have their contact information and a basis for staying in touch.  Once you get the account take advantage of the free training offered.  There’s a lot to Listingbook and much of it is easy to miss if you don’t take a moment to get up to speed.

I can think of no better local campaign to generate leads today than the one described here.  Drive people to your Listingbook sign up page – which will be perceived as a high-value offer – where their contact information is gathered and then start building a good working relationship!

On Another Note:  I sent each of you an email today about Website Lead Generation and Operational Areas.  I didn’t want to publish that here because, frankly, I don’t want the competition to know what we’re doing.  Please check your Help-U-Sell email and look for that message, read it and make any adjustments you need to make.

QR KICK! is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

I am so pleased.  I’ve been checking Help-U-Sell office listings in Google Places and many are now claimed, edited and verified.  Thank you all.

Now:  do you want to see one that’s really done right?  Check out Tiffany and Sonny Bulaj’s listing for Help-U-Sell Hometown in York, PA.  Notice the photos!  The $1,000 offer!  The Testimonial!  Wow!  Here’s the link:

Help-U-Sell Hometown.

Google Places Update is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

A couple of years ago we talked with our team about claiming their businesses and editing the information on Google Places.  Earlier this week I decided to check up and see who had actually done this.  I’m sorry to report that I looked at almost 20 brokers’ pages before I found one that had been claimed, edited and verified.

This is important.  It’s a FREE online listing for your business.  It’s there already . . . it’s just that the content is only what Google was able to glean from your most basic information.  If you will Claim, Edit and Verify your information – plus spice it up with some photos and even a video – this listing will actually help people find you online.

Let’s do an experiment:  go to www.google.com and search for your city and State and the word ‘REALTORS’.  I just did it for Honolulu, Hi, and here’s what I got:

Of course the first few listings are paid, but right after that – where the listings relate to the map on the right – all of that information comes straight from Google Places.  The same thing happens when you do a similar search on Google Maps:

Taking charge of this is very easy, but I want to show you what your place probably looks like today:

You can see there is lots of space to strut your stuff in print, photos and even video (I know so many of you are putting together short intro videos for your websites – why not let them do double duty?

Taking charge is very simple:  just go to www.google.com/places and click on the ‘Get Started’ button on the right side of the screen.  If you need help, there is great documentation here.

Now there is one quirk in all of this:  Google recommends you use Chrome, Firefox or Safari to update your profile.  They warn that using Internet Explorer may produce unpredictable results.  If you are an IE person, I think I’d try it anyway and see what happens.  If the result is unacceptable, they you can download a free version of Chrome and do a re-do.  The important thing is to JUST DO IT . . . because I’m going to be checking to see who has and who hasn’t verified their listings!

Claiming Your Business on Google Places is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

Nick Taylor from Zillow spoke to the Help-U-Sell team at our Success Summit last November.  He brought a wealth of good information, not only about Zillow but also about online marketing in general.  In the four months since I’ve heard from several brokers who have increased their lead generation success using what they learned.  Nick just revised that presentation and posted it online.  It’s still a presentation – and would be best with a presenter (Nick), but the slides are full of good information if you simply read them.  Here it is:

Nick Taylor’s Online Marketing Presentation

Building and Managing Your Online Presence is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

On today’s Power Hour Web Conference, I asked all Help-U-Sell brokers to do a little analysis.  I asked them to see just how accurate the big real estate aggregation sites (Trulia, Zillow, et al) are in their local marketplaces.  I asked that they search for homes for sale in a reasonable, manageable price range in their own Zip Code on, say, Zillow  and then to compare those results with the same search done on the MLS.  This is the same experiment the broker mentioned in my last post did – the one where she found 159 bad or questionable listings out of the 220 her search turned up on the aggregator site.  But I’m asking Help-U-Sell people to go one step further:  identify which listings on the aggregator site are not in MLS and then find out why.  Are they duplicates?  Old sold listings that have not been purged?  Are they FSBOs or broker listings not on MLS?  It’s probably an hour’s worth of effort but I think it will pay big dividends.

See, the aggregators are getting slammed right now for having bad or stale data.  It is my belief that the housing information available on your own Help-U-Sell website with an IDX feed from the local MLS is far more up to date and accurate than anything a national site could offer.  What I want to do is document that – locally, office by office.  We can then start talking with consumers about this and (hopefully) switch them off the national sites (where they are vulnerable to any agent)  and on to our own.

Please, Help-U-Sell Brokers: Get Busy!  Do this book work and share your results with me.  And if you’d like a little inspiration, check out this article from today’s Inman News

Please Do The Analysis! is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog

Yesterday, Kendra Gemma sent me a link to an article in the San Diego Union Tribune about the real estate syndication flap.  That, in itself, is pretty amazing:  Kendra, who is in Sarasota, is sending me a link to an article in my hometown newspaper!  (Here is a link to the article)

The piece was a rehashing of the syndication battle but focused on one of the underlying truths about the big aggregator sites (Trulia, Zillow, Et. Al.):  their data is littered with errors and inaccuracies.  It’s easy to see why:  Zillow, for example, receives real estate listing data feeds from dozens of sources.  Your Help-U-Sell listing may get to Zillow via your MLS, your ListHub account, Help-U-Sell, personal input, and on and on.  Zillow has an algorhythm that kicks in when it spots duplicate listings and grants priority to feeds they deem most reliable, but it has to recognize the listings in question as duplicates first.  So there are duplicates on Zillow.  And status changes are often mishandled by agents and/or syndicators, so there is the potential for many homes listed as ‘For Sale’ on Zillow actually being sold and closed.

One San Diego broker did a test last month.  She went ‘one of the popular real estate search sites’ (unnamed) and did a search for houses in her Scripps Ranch Zip Code:  92131. She then did the same search in her MLS and compared the results.

There were 220+ results on the search site.

• 54 were not for sale on the MLS

• 46 were condos, although she limited her search to houses.

• 24 had sold. One dated back more than a year.

• 17 were contingent.

• 10 were in escrow.

• 8 were expired, canceled or withdrawn.

If you do the arithmetic, there were problems with 159 of the 220 results!  The article mentioned that this particular broker has a problem with syndication in general, and I have no idea whether or not that played into the results, BUT I think you’d be wise to do your own search and comparison for your area.  And, please, when you do:  share the results with me!

(Before we go any further let me remind you that I LIKE Zillow.  They took an opportunity on which the REALTOR community turned its back and quickly became the home search tool of choice for consumers.  Bravo.  Now they kick off leads like crazy to brokers who are sharp enough to pay their price.  Instead of moaning about how wrong that whole scenario is, I think it’s wiser to recognize that at this moment in time, Zillow is a lead generating titan, and to find ways to tap into that flow of potential buyers and sellers. )

Here is a lesson in packaging.  I found it  not in the article, but in the comments to it:

Mark and Karla Stuart, Prudential California Realty:  We were so frustrated with the innacuracies created by all of the different IDX sites, including Trulia and Zillow, we created our own….exclusively for San Diego County. It is 100% accurate, and doesn’t waste our client’s time with “Pending” and “Sold” listings, and is updated overnight, every night. Our goal was to be 100% accurate with regards to what is coming from the realtor’s database, the MLS. Though expensive, it has served our customers quite well. http://www.freesandiegosearch.com

Wow!  Their website sounds like a dream come true!  No inaccuracies!  Just as up-to-date as the local MLS!  You can’t beat that! And you know what?  It’s the same IDX feed you have you your website. The feed you have on your Help-U-Sell site comes straight from the MLS, every night, and is as accurate as the MLS is at that moment in time.

It’s time to start working on how we communicate this to potential buyers.  It has to be done quickly and elegantly during the first meeting.  Something like:

Agent:  How long have you been looking?

Buyer:  Oh, a few weeks, I guess.

Agent:  You found me on Zillow, is that how you’ve doing your searches?

Buyer:  Yes.

Agent:  It is very easy to use, I know. . . but have you noticed how many homes on there are not really for sale?

Buyer:  Well, now that you mention it . . .

Agent:  They have a real challenge there; it’s because they’re trying to do a local job on a world-wide platform.  They get housing information from so many sources it even confuses them!  Listen, how about letting me give you access to the local MLS – without all the data from Boston and St. Louis and Puerto Rico gumming up the works!  You’ll have the most accurate and best information on houses for sale today in this market?

Buyer:  You can do that?

Agent:  Sure.  I just need an email address and phone number and I can set you up with a buyer’s account  on my website.  You can search to your heart’s content, save listings, even set up email alerts when new properties that meet your needs come on the market.  Plus, any time you have a question or want to see something, I’m just a click away.

Buyer:  Sounds pretty good.

It’s the same basic pitch the Listingbook folks use.  Of course, their feed is real-time, not once a day, and they have ways of tracking buyer behavior on their site that are very powerful.  But the same concept applies:  The most popular home search tool buyers have is loaded with bad data.  You can give potential buyers a better search tool without the inaccuracies.  I’m suggesting you set a registration threshhold on your website – use either option:  3 searches and then register or register to get detailed information.  When you use your dialogue and sign up a new buyer, you go into OMS, create a buyer account for them, and communicate it back to them via email.  By doing it this way (as opposed to having them do it themselves), you’re giving them something of value.  And since the perception of Value is a key consideration when choosing a real estate professional,  it could be the start of a wonderful working relationship!

(If you haven’t read our discussion about syndication, you can access it by following these links: Syndication Storm, Syndication Update, The Final Word on Syndication and Another Word on Syndication.

The Flaw In Zillow’s Strength: Your Competitive Advantage is a post from: The Set Fee Real Estate Blog