Success in Spring Creek

I really want to share this with you!  Roy Perry is our relatively new broker in Spring Creek, NV.  He joined us about 18 months ago and has done a fine job of making a dent in this mining driven community.  I noticed Roy’s name in the results for the Winter Warm-UP Contest we are running right now (he was tied for #8 in closed seller sides) and almost at the same time, he called me on the phone.

Roy is now holding 30 listings in inventory – and growing (YES!).

Many of his sellers are electing NOT to go into the MLS.

In those situations he manually inputs the listing into helpusell.com via the OMS.

This not only gives these non-MLS sellers a web presence, it also syndicates the listing out to the most popular home search portals (i.e. Trulia , Zillow, etc.).

He’s also doing virtual tours in a wonderful way.  Today most brokers take still photos of a property  and upload them to a service that turns them into a pan-and-zoom virtual tour with a music background.  That’s ok, but what Roy’s doing is probably better.  Here’s why:

Instead of still photos, he’s shooting video and uploading it to YouTube.  That, all by itself is huge.  Google loves video, especially YouTube video.  If you notice in your own search results, you usually have several text entries on the first page, then a few video links appear, followed by more text results.  Video gets preferential (first page) treatment, so if your video matches the search query you may actually leap-frog over other matches to the first page!

He also does a voice over for his videos.  I can’t tell whether he speaks while shooting or adds the track later, but this is also big.  When Google detects a voice track in a video, it actually transcribes the voice track, turning it into search fodder. So by lacing frequent references to local geography throughout the video along with phrases potential clients use when searching for real estate, Roy is increasing his attractiveness to the search Giant.  Plus, if you watch this tour, you get a good sense of what it’s like to work with Roy – and it’s a very positive impression.  It’s clear he knows what he’s talking about and I can imagine being very comfortable looking at property with him.

Here  take a look:  click the link below and then select ‘Virtual Tours’

Roy Perry’s Non-MLS Listing in Spring Creek

And then, tell me what you think?  Are you taking more Help-U-Sell Exclusives?  And are you manually entering them into OMS?  How about virtual tours?  What are you doing? And, is it working?

 

Refresher Course

  1. You are a Set Fee Real Estate Company
  2. You market TO sellers
  3. You market FOR listings because listings create opportunities for Lead Generation (Sign, Ad, Directional, Arrounds, Open House, etc)
  4. Leads drive your business – there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ or ‘dead’ lead at Help-U-Sell
  5. You realize that the way leads are handled and managed in your office is key to your success.
  6. The one skill you practice almost constantly is:  handling buyer and seller inquiries, whether on the phone or from the Internet
  7. You keep hard copies of all your buyer leads in a Buyer Pool Book.  This is the first place you go when you have a new listing.  It also feeds the buyer agents you bring in to help you take care of the business (leads) you’ve created
  8. You recognize word-of-mouth advertising – whether via Facebook, Yelp, Zillow or the old fashioned way, person-t0-person – is the most powerful form of advertising there is
  9. You build this word-of-mouth advertising by doing an excellent job, saving people money, and staying in touch
  10. Your goal is to have your client base be so delighted with the service they receive (and the savings they achieve) that they become advocates for you in the field, a word-of-mouth recommending army
  11. You believe in systems and employ them to do large numbers of transactions with just a few people
  12. You are developing an asset (your company) and you have an exit strategy in mind, even if it is decades away
  13. And, Oh yes:  you are having a whole lot of fun, too!

Congratulations!

And welcome to your life on Help-U-Sell!

Saving My Silver Bullets

  • On December 25, 2011, 6.8 million Android and iOS devices were activated.  If there was any doubt that your listing information needs to be optimized for mobile devices it should be gone by now.
  • The California Association of REALTORS unveiled a new feature on their mobile ZipForm app that allows signatures on an IPad.  Executed docs are automatically emailed to all parties as a PDF.  Cost:  $12.95 a year.  If there was any doubt that you need an Internet enabled tablet for your real estate business, it should be gone by now.
  • Sandicor, the San Diego MLS, has added a new field to their syndication feed that includes contact information on the Listing Agent.  The field is designed to be displayed prominently on 3rd party sites like Zillow and Trulia.  The move will make it easier for consumers to identify the source of the information.  Their plan is to pull the plug on any syndicator who refuses to display the new field.  They are also cutting down the number of photos they will syndicate out from the 25 they allow today.  Further, syndicated photos will carry a watermark identifying the listing agent and company.  If there was any doubt that the syndication issue is on the front burner, it should be gone by now.
  • Starting February 27, REALTOR University will start offering courses that lead to a Master of Real Estate Degree.  They’ve been approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education to award the degree.  This could be beneficial and meaningful.  I have a request in for more detail and will pass it on as I get it.
  • (ok:  this one is not real estate)  Photography has traditionally been an artistic expression on paper.  We printed photographs and when we looked at them, what we saw was reflected light coming off the paper through the ‘ink’ of the photo.  Today, photography is a digital process.  We’ve replaced the flim of the old camera with a CCD or CMOS sensosr that picks up the light coming through the lens and converts it to a digital file.  We edit and view our photos on a computer screen that does not reflect light, but rather emits it.  I think that’s a fundamental difference:  paper photos reflect light, digital photos (properly displayed on a monitor) emit light.  Yet last time I went the the San Diego Museum of Photographic Art, all I saw were paper photographs, matted and framed.  When will galleries and museums start displaying photographs in their true light-emitting format:  on digital monitors?
  • I hate to be so local, but I can’t help myself.  I’m so excited today.  As I drove to the gym this morning I counted 5 cranes in the sky above San Diego.  Six years ago there were 20.  Last year there were none.  Cranes = construction = optimism = improving confidence in our economic future and the real estate business in general.  Bravo!
  • The key to maximizing the revenue you generate in this improving market is INVENTORY.  Listings drive every aspect of your business.  It’s time to shift our attention back to Sellers, back to telling them that we are DIFFERENT, we are about SAVINGS and, of course:
    1. We Are Here
    2. People Use Us
    3. It Works, and
    4. They Save Money

Have a prosperous week-end!

REO Training!

By popular demand, we’re going to be offering Maurine Grisso’s REO Workshop starting next week.  Maurine authored and presented the program about 3 years ago and the results speak for themselves:  almost every Help-U-Sell broker who has broken into the REO market took the course.  Most of them point to Maurine’s training as the starting point in their REO journey.

We wanted to bring the program back for a couple of reasons:

  • Things have changed dramatically in 3 years.  The number of asset management players has shrunk and in cases the actual players have changed, procedures have evolved and the whole process has streamlined.
  • There is a big opportunity right now for those wanting to break into the REO segment.  A huge mass of new foreclosures sits poised and ready to enter the market.  Many of the old line players who got this business in the past are overwhelmed and/or have done such a poor job that new brokers are needed.  In some cases, policy limiting the number of REOs an individual broker can carry has created openings for more.  In short: this is NOT a closed door, there is an opportunity here, and if you want it and are willing to work for it, you can be successful.

Online classes kick off next Thursday, Feb. 16 at 10 am Pacific time.  There are four sessions, one a week at the same time, each lasting about an hour.  Completion of the course will result in a Certificate – which has been a credibility booster for those seeking this business in the past.  Cost to participate:  $0. That’s right:  it’s free.  You need only invest your time and focus.

You must register for this program and you do so by sending an email to me:  jamesdingman@helpusell.com

Right now we are at 10 reservations and we probably have room for about 4 more, so don’t hesitate too long!

Well . . . Another Word On Syndication, After All

You know, if the brokers pulling out of syndication were serious about ‘going to the source’ being in the best interest of consumers, they wouldn’t put their listings in MLS.  I mean, a dim agent from across town is just as likely to show your listing having found it on the MLS ( and having never seen it) as one who snares a lead from Trulia.

Of course, we at Help-U-Sell have long maintained that every listing does not need to go into MLS and often hold back the most salable listings so that our sellers can save the most money.  Our fee stays the same either way.  When we do have non-MLS exclusives, syndication is very important.  We can give a seller huge exposure on the Internet without going into MLS.  Of course, when that competitor agent snares a lead on our exclusive from an aggregator site, we have to tell them that the seller has not agreed to pay their commission . . . but then, that’s kinda fun, isn’t it?

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