Category: Marketing

Identity Crisis

(April, 2013 is turning out to be the biggest month we’ve ever had at The Set Fee Blog. With 7 full days left in the month, we have already had more visitors than in any month since our inception – which was September 2010. I think it’s mostly people getting ready for the BIG DEBATE coming up in a couple of days. Along that line, Good Luck, Dan! I know you’ll be great.)

I’ve been chatting with Michael Del Rosario, a real estate broker in Cerritos, CA, about a new agent directory website he is building, Agents For Less. He’s allowing agents and brokers who offer some kind of financial incentive to buyers and sellers – whether commission discounts, flat fee, fee-for-service, limited service, etc. – to be listed in a searchable, consumer friendly database. We were talking about categories today and it was a little un-nerving. I realized we have a bit of an identity crisis in real estate, and it all revolves around ‘Full Service.’

Consumers intuitively know what ‘Full Service’ in real estate means:

  • Expertise/Consultation (preparation for sale, pricing, planning, staging)
  • Marketing (which might include MLS, Internet, Open Houses, advertising, signs, flyers, etc)
  • Representation/Negotiation (weighing offers, avoiding mistakes, anticipating next steps)
  • Transaction Processing/Problem Resolution (making sure everything is done properly, handling problems as they arise)

The problem is that almost everyone in the business – traditional percentage-based brokers, discount brokers, flat fee brokers, fee for service brokers and so on – claims to do all of those things!  The only brokers who might admit to NOT doing some of it would be self-described ‘Limited Service’ brokers or ‘MLS Only’ brokers.  With so many different kinds of brokers laying claim to  ‘Full Service,’ the term becomes meaningless . . . except that consumers don’t realize this.  In the muddled mess of real estate company marketing, they have come to believe that  ‘Full Service’ must also mean ‘Full Commission.’  >>> (and therefore, less than full commission means less than full service)<<<

Let that sink in for a moment.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  If your less-than-full-commission offering is based on a better, more efficient business model that enables you to be profitable while charging people LESS . . . then the debate is not about the level of service, it’s about how much the consumer wants to pay to sell a house.   And here’s a news flash:  s/he wants to pay as little as possible to get the job done quickly, efficiently and effectively.

If you aren’t charging a full percentage-based commission, you have to go the extra mile to make consumers understand that you actually ARE Full Service.  It’s a nagging bit of marketing that has to be undertaken if you are going to do anything different with your fee structure than what your ordinary competitors are doing.

At the same time, ‘Full Service’ will become the imaginary club your competitors will wield to beat you in the marketplace.  They will insist that you don’t provide ‘Full Service’ because you charge less . . . which taps into the consumers’ sub-conscious belief that ‘Full Service’ and ‘Full Commission’ are somehow intrinsically tied to one another.   When Suzy Sixpence from Acme Realty says, ‘Help-U-Sell?  Oh, they’re not Full Service . . . I know they’ll say they are, but they really don’t do anything for their sellers except put the sign in the yard.  Sometimes they won’t even put you in the MLS – and of course, without that, you’re not even on the market!  We all know you get what you pay for, and that’s really true when it comes to Help-U-Sell and the other discounters,’ . . . when she says that, she sometimes gets a head nodding Amen from her audience. But they are not nodding because what she’s saying about Help-U-Sell is true. They are nodding because they know there is a difference between Nordstrom and Wallmart . . . and she successfully uses that knowledge to twist perception in the real estate arena.

John Powell created the Help-U-Sell Service Comparison chart for use in Listing Consultations:Help-U-Sell Service Comparison Chart(Note: this is a generic version of the chart used only as an example in Help-U-Sell training. Don’t try to draw any conclusions from this example – it’s totally fictitious) John has used it effectively for years – in fact, it is the centerpiece of his Listing Consultation.  It graphically illustrates what his office does for sellers and compares it with what his four biggest competitors do.  And, of course, it shows that he does everything they do plus a lot more.  It neutralizes the ‘less than Full Service’ bomb quite effectively.  Trouble is:  you have to get face to face with a seller before you can use it – and if Suzy Sixpence has gotten to them first . . . .well, you may not get the opportunity.

Getting the opportunity is a function of marketing.  We spend major marketing resources getting information about what we do for sellers for a set fee out into the marketplace.  It usually takes a lot of mailbox marketing to install the message and, increasingly, a lot of SEO and Internet marketing.  Your marketing is successful when a consumer, sitting across from Suzy and hearing her spout her nonsense, experiences the natural discomfort that occurs when the crap-meter goes off!  When that happens, Suzy just looks . . . slimy.

Consumers:  when you talk to real estate brokers about level of service and fee structure, use the four bullets above to evaluate what they say.  If they don’t do something, ask why.  (There may be a good reason, i.e. newspaper advertising.  In many markets it does not produce results – defined as leads – and therefore is wasteful and ineffective.)  If the fee seems lower than what others are charging, ask how they are able to do that and still be profitable.  And ask what, if anything, you are giving up for the lower fee.

OR:  just put this all aside.  Remember that the shortest distance between point A and point B is a straight line . . . and call Help-U-Sell.  You’ll get ‘Full Service.’  You really will.  And you’ll pay much less because Help-U-Sell is a different, more efficient business model.  We can charge less and still make more because we don’t run our offices like . . . well, like Suzy runs hers.

**PS: Help-U-Sell Brokers, why not get listed on www.agentsforless.com?  It’s free and is just one more way consumers may be able to find you . . . and getting found is half the battle.

 

You’re Welcome, Realtor.com

NAR has a big ad campaign running right now touting REALTOR.com as the most accurate consumer website for housing information. They make the valid point that the big national listing aggregators (i.e. Zillow and Trulia) are, by comparison, less up-to-date and less accurate than their site. They are spending millions to get that message out. Here:

It’s a message we got, oh, more than a year ago.

Remember the big flap about listing syndication that flared up in January, 2012? There was a very vocal broker ripping his listings out of syndication to Zillow and Trulia because they did not aggressively steer consumers to the source of listing information (the listing agent). A few others followed.

We talked about it long and hard here in the SFB and decided that such a posture was self-destructive. Zillow and Trulia are where the buyers ARE. That’s just reality and it isn’t going to change any time soon. A smarter strategy is to find ways to exploit the power of these portals (by opting into their premium agent program and becoming active in garnering reviews and interacting with their network) and regard them for what they are: lead generating machines.

We also talked about how to take leads generated by the big listing aggregators and get them to drop those websites in favor of our own. In those posts we suggested the following verbiage (or something similar) when talking with consumers about this:

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.

REALTOR.com’s new multi-million dollar ad campaign makes the same point: that the aggregators’ data is flawed and that theirs is better.

I am not so arrogant that I believe our discussion here on the Set Fee Blog over a year ago had anything to do with REALTOR.com’s marketing company coming up with that strategy. Anybody who really looks at the aggregators, how they get their data, how they weigh each data source, and what the end result is, would see the flaw in their platforms, and recognize the superiority of a local broker’s IDX feed. But, just as in December, 2011, when we predicted a housing shortage a year before it arrived, we were also way ahead of the curve when it came to syndication strategies.

So what do we do with the REALTOR.com marketing campaign? Yawn. Nothing. It’s pretty irrelevant. My guess is it won’t impact consumers one iota. It ignores the one great underlying truth about consumers searching for houses online: they really don’t want to connect with a real estate salesperson. That’s why they go to Zillow: they perceive it to be one step removed from REALTOR self-promotion.

If there is something to DO, it is this: continue to remind the consumers who contact you, with whom you develop a personal rapport, that your data is THE MOST accurate and THE MOST local. Home search is, above all, a LOCAL activity. Everyone looking for a home is looking for a home somewhere. Your local MLS feed will always be better than any national aggregator, even REALTOR.com.

The Importance of Alt-Text in SEO

What a lovely revelation I’ve just had! I’ve noticed that week-in and week-out, one of the most common search phrases used to find The Set Fee Real Estate Blog has been ‘Stand Out.’ What an odd search phrase, and even odder that it leads here! And yet, it is the number one search phrase people have used in the past 30 days to find me and the number two phrase in the past year!

So this morning I decided to do a little investigation. I wanted to find out what people were looking for when they used that phrase and why they were coming to my blog. I went to Google and searched for ‘Stand Out.’ Flipping through the first three pages of results, I saw no mention of the blog . . . so how could people be coming here using that search phrase? Then I thought, maybe they’re not looking for words, maybe they’re looking for pictures! So, with ‘Stand Out’ still in the search box, I clicked ‘Images,’ and searched for pictures tagged with the phrase. I recognized the first picture in the results. I’d used it in a post last year recapping our Help-U-Sell Success Summit. I followed the link, and, sure enough, there was my post.

Mystery solved. But why did my picture bring them here? Because, when I inserted the picture into the post, I’d used ‘Alt-Text’ to describe it. Let me explain.

Google is an amazing thing. It ‘reads’ billions of words of text every moment and indexes it all, evaluates it, assigns a weight to it and then displays it in a logical, ordered fashion. Wonderful! But the Internet is made up of far more than words. Think about all the video that’s out there today! Do you know, when Google comes across a video on the Internet and detects a spoken voice track in it, it will use its own speech-to-text tools to transcribe the audio voice track into text and then scan and index the text just like it does any other written material?! (By the way, that’s an SEO tip for anyone using video on their website: pictures and music are nice, but a spoken word audio track makes your video immensely more ‘findable’)

But what does Google do with pictures? Nothing. It can’t really ‘see’ them – I mean: it knows they are there, but it has no idea what the subject of the picture is . . . . unless you tell it. And that’s where ‘Alt-Text’ comes in.

When you use a photo or other graphic on your website, blog or other Internet posting, you are usually given the option of including ‘Alt-Text.’ You use that option to describe, in words, the picture you are posting. That way, Google knows what it is and can index it along with other Internet content. In my case, I’d used a photo in my post about the Success Summit and I’d described it as ‘Stand Out From The Crowd.’ Interestingly, when anyone does an Image Search for ‘Stand Out,’ they are probably going to see my picture – and it’s good enough that they likely will follow the link . . . and, Bingo! I have a hit. Here is a bit of a screen shot of the photo in the blog post. I’ve hovered over it with my mouse in the shot (I know, you can’t see the cursor, but it’s there), which causes the ‘Alt-Text’ to appear.

Standout

Cool picture, right? But nobody would ever find it if I hadn’t described it for Google with ‘Alt-Text.’ Next time you use a photo anywhere on the Internet, you do the same!

Do You Really Need A SmartPhone?

(2 months after I wrote this post, I re-read it and realized it was not as clear as it probably should be.  Please read on if you are inclined, but I believe I did a better job with the subject HERE.)

Most of us understand so little about wireless technology (and billing) that, when it comes to our phones, we simply buy what’s hyped. We are walking around with our IPhones and Androids with unlimited calling, messaging and data, and really have no idea what that means other than it costs between $100 and $150 a month. Let’s demystify it, ok?

First, almost all phones, Smart and Un-smart, do two things: make calls and send/receive text messages. These two tasks occur over your carrier’s mobile network and may be billed per minute/number of texts or as a monthly allowance of a certain number of minutes/texts (which might be unlimited).

In addition, SmartPhones have the ability to access the Internet. To do so when you are out and about requires an additional ‘Data Plan’ from your carrier. Data plans are billed by a monthly allowance, like 1 GigaByte or 2 GB of data each month (or unlimited GB).

Today, tablets are very popular, especially with REALTORS – which makes sense: you need something to access the MLS when you are out on the road (and though your SmartPhone may do this, the screen is too small to be practical). Most carriers will let you share whatever Data Plan you have on your SmartPhone with your tablet for an additional charge. I just checked Verizon and the additional charge to share your data plan with your tablet is $10 a month. Mind you, this ‘sharing’ requires that you have a SmartPhone and a plan for it.

Now, here’s a wildcard when it comes to Data Plans. Your SmartPhone and tablet also can access the internet via wi-fi. For example, my home Internet provider is Cox and a wireless router sends the Cox wi-fi signal all over my house. I have my phone set to use wi-fi for data (or Internet access) whenever it is available. Why? Because as far as my phone bill is concerned, Internet use over wi-fi (not over the carrier’s data network) is free.

So, now let’s think about this. You need calling and messaging capabilities, no question. And if you are busy, you probably need an unlimited plan for them. That’s a given. But what about a Data Plan? How much are you actually using the Internet over your carrier’s data network (not over wi-fi)?

I just went to verizonwireless.com and found the link for ‘Analyze My Account.’ It let me look at my phone, text and data usage over the past six months. I have a plan that includes unlimited everything, so my bill is stable. When I looked at my data usage, however, I saw that I never reached 1 GB of data in a single month. Usually I hovered around half a GB. So my unlimited data plan is a little overkill, right? Right. Now, mind you, I don’t use my phone for MLS access and you probably do. That’s why you need to go to your carrier’s website and do the analysis for yourself (by the way, if you need the help, most carriers’ customer service reps will do the analysis for you over the phone).

If, like me, you discover that you are consistently using less data than you are paying for, it might be wise to change your plan to something less expensive.

And maybe you don’t need a data plan on your phone at all. Maybe you need a data plan for your tablet so you can get to the MLS anytime, anywhere. But maybe your phone only needs calling and texting capabilities.

And, just maybe you’d be wise to ditch your current small phone and big tablet and get one of the new hybrid devices, like the Samsung Note, which is, essentially, a SmartPhone with a larger screen so that you have just one device for phone/text/MLS/data instead of two.

My data usage is so low I have to ask myself, ‘Where are you using data? What for?’ On most SmartPhones, in the ‘Settings’ area, there is a button for ‘Usage’ that will show you what tasks are using the most data on your phone. For me, by far the biggest user was the Google Play Store which automatically updates the apps on my phone, most of which I don’t use. Then came Google Services – things like Internet search and Navigation, and then Facebook. And Finally, email. Take a look at that and then ask yourself: ‘Do I really need this stuff?’

Actually, a better question might be: ‘Do I really need this stuff ALL THE TIME?’ Because, if you knocked out your data plan all together, all of those items would still work over wi-fi for free! When I look at what I’m using Data for, the only thing that I probably wouldn’t be happy running only when I’m on a free wi-fi network is . . . Navigation. That’s a nice thing. But I do remember getting along fine without it not too long ago.

But consider, for example, Facebook. Do I really need to see what my ‘friends’ are ‘liking,’ instantly, in real time? Wouldn’t a morning and/or evening check-in from my home computer connected to my wi-fi network be satisfactory? Or even BETTER? Hmmmm.

I started thinking about this in January and February of this year when I was in Mexico. We all know that US wireless carrier networks are very expensive when used across the border: you really don’t want to do it. In fact, a lot of people who plan to be in another country for an extended period turn off their American cell phons entirely and purchase prepaid phones in the country they are visiting. Instead, I simply turned off the mobile network on my phone – my access to Verizon’s phone network, and also turned off Data Roaming – access to Verizon’s data network. My SmartPhone became a wi-fi only phone – which was free to operate.

Interestingly, even though access to Verizon’s networks was off, I could STILL receive and send text messages. Each text sent or received carried a small additional charge – like fifty cents or something – but it was an acceptable way to be somewhat available to folks back home. I changed my voice mail greeting to instruct people NOT to leave a message but to hang up and text me. Then, I’d call them back when I had access to a free wi-fi network using Skype to make the call. Skype, by definition, works over the Internet and doesn’t require your cell carrier’s network to function. I had to upgrade from a free Skype account to one that costs about $3 a month to do this from Mexico. (Caution: most cell carriers still charge you to make calls via Skype if you’re phone is connected to their network at the time of the call).

So with that anecdote and the preceding information, you hopefully have a better understanding of your phone, how it works, what you need and what it costs. Now, how about what’s next . . .

Like PCs and Operating Systems, SmartPhones are now so sophisticated and so fine tuned that the Next Big Thing is apt to be a bit of a yawner. Just as PC users are shrugging off the impulse to invest in new hardware and a Windows 8 Operating System, so too will SmartPhone users begin to resist the impulse to jump at the latest and greatest on their ‘Upgrade Date.’ Let’s pause for a moment to de-mystify that. Your cell carrier contract has a term, probably two years. Your ‘Upgrade Date’ is usually a few months prior to the expiration of your contract. When you take advantage of the Upgrade you have to renew your contract for another two years (or whatever the term is). That’s how your carrier keeps you. My guess is that pretty soon the ‘Upgrade’ won’t be that different from what you have in your pocket, and many of the new features will be things you won’t use. It will become easier to resist the urge to ‘Upgrade.’

I’m looking forward to my Verizon contract running out in January – and I won’t ‘Upgrade.’ I already have an HTC Rezound which is about as close to top of the line as you can get today. When my contract is up, however, I’m going to buy an unlocked Google Nexus 4 phone directly from Google for about $250. Then I’ll gravitate to whichever pay-as-you-go plan seems best at the moment: TMobile, Boost, Virgin, whichever. Don’t get me wrong: I love Verizon. Their coverage is the best and I’ve never had anything but remarkably good customer service from them. But continuing as I have for, oh, the past ten years means being held hostage by a contract and overpaying for services, many of which I don’t use. What about you?

Brian Buffini Scripts

I titled this post ‘Brian Buffini Scripts’ because that is a search term used frequently to find this blog. I think I mentioned Brian’s Scripts in a post or two, so people, trying to find a free dialogue come here searching. I could have easily called this ‘Mike Ferry Scripts,’ or ‘Tom Hopkins Scripts,’ or ‘Danielle Kennedy Scripts.’ The point is: REALTORS seem to always be searching for the magic words that will turn their business around. Somehow, we think we’re failing because we don’t have the right words. If we just had the words . . . the magic script . . .

Trust me: there is no magic in the words. You’re not failing because you have a bad script. You’re failing because you don’t know your business.

All good scripting is the same thing: packaging something that is true in a powerful way that consumers can understand. When the script master says, ‘There are three factors that influence the sale of any home: Price, Condition and Exposure,’ it is true. It’s also true when the marketeer says ‘The single most important thing we can do to make your home marketable is to price it right.’ In these examples, truth is packaged numerically: ‘Three Factors,’ and ‘Single most important thing.’ Breaking down concepts into a few key components makes them easier for consumers to grasp and remember.

You can’t package something that is essentially un-true and expect the packaging to make it believable. Telling a FSBO, ‘There is no way you will ever be able to sell your home yourself,’ would be a good example. It’s a false statement. People sell their homes themselves all the time. Telling a FSBO, ‘You may well be able to sell your home yourself in today’s market. What I’d like to do is stay in touch every few days to see how you’re doing. My hope is that, if the time comes that you need help, you’ll think of me.’ . . . well, that’s about as honest a statement as you might make. It’s so straightforward that it may be disarming. The agent who takes this tack and then follows up every few days with ideas and suggestions that might help the FSBO is going to be at the head of the pack when – somewhere around week three – the FSBO gets stood up again . . . and that becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not anti-script. I think scripts are fine, when you are learning your business. Good scripts will help you see, understand and remember the truths about selling real estate. They can be the fast track to mastery. I guess I’m a good example. My first six months in the business, I sucked. I was so bad I had serious doubts about my ability to sell real estate at all! But then, one frustrating day, I wandered down to my Board library and checked out a set of Tom Hopkins’ tapes (it was 1977). I’d drive around in my car listing to Tom reciting his scripts, thinking to myself, ‘There’s no way I’ll ever do that. It’s not me. It’s so phony!’

And then I called on a FSBO. I arrived at the door prepared, as usual, to get absolutely nowhere. But when the door opened, out of my mouth came Tom Hopkins’ words. As I talked, I could see the seller relax just a little. Then she asked a question, and another Tom Hopkins’ script came out of me. Next thing you know I had the listing. And then I got her son’s listing. And then I sold both of the houses and sold them each replacement homes! I still didn’t like Tom Hopkins’ scripts, but I sure was glad they’e found their way into my brain.

As the years went by, I learned everyone’s scripts. And I also realized that what I was doing was learning key bits of information about the home buying and selling process that I could call up whenever they were needed. I learned that, despite Tom’s near constant harangue to ‘Use the script exactly as it is written, word-for-word,’ I did best when I simply spoke the truth contained in the script. I came across as genuine and sincere . . . because I was. I was telling the truth and if felt good – to me and my clients.

So, good luck finding Brian Buffini’s scripts for free. When you do locate them learn them well, recognize the truth in them and then make them your own. And if you want some of the very best scripts and information about the home buying and selling process, get Danielle Kennedy’s book, ‘How to List and Sell Real Estate.’ It’s absolutely the best thing ever written for a real estate salesperson to read. It’s in its quadrillionth printing and was revised just last year to reflect new market realities. I’m serious: go get it.

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