Embracing the power of the internet and Social Media can seem extremely foreign to real estate agents at first, yet most real estate agents are social people and after being pointed in the right direction, many agents find it so much easier to leverage the power of Social Media to help them build their profile and increase their network of potential clients.

If you’re still a bit unsure about how to use Social Media within your real estate business and/or your wondering what the fuss is all about with Facebook, Blogging, Twitter, YouTube, etc then you may want to check out this video which demonstrates the strength of Social Media and what you might expect to see happening in the future.

Now after watching that, I know it can all feel a bit overwhelming and whilst you may be really excited to get started with embracing Social Media, there are also a number of things that agents are doing wrong and if you follow what they are doing you could find yourself in a bit of hot water.

So rather than have you fumble your way through, learning via the school of hard knocks, wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you could learn how to avoid some of the mistakes lots of agents are currently making?

Well, you’ll be pleased to know that I’m going to be conducting a very special FREE webinar about How To Avoid The Top 10 Mistakes Agents Make When Using Social Media.

The webinar runs for approx. 45 minutes and will provide you with some amazing insights into the Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media for Real Estate.

If you’d like to find out more about this important online real estate event, simply…

Click Here Now

PS: Warning… spots are strictly limited.

In a previous article, I discussed how can people trust you as their agent when they’ve never met you and how important it is to build trust online. Whilst I have personally had the pleasure to meet with and consult with John Cunningham of Cunninghams Property, I think this company profile video is a testament to years of hard work and dedication that John and his family have dedicated towards building one of the most respected independent real estate businesses in Australia.

I have always said that video is by far the most successful selling tool online and yet I am amazed at how few real estate agents use video to market themselves, their company and their listings online.

It doesn’t matter how good your skill levels are out in the field, if a potential client visits your website and you don’t provide a compelling reason for them to suggest that they consider doing  business with you then they will simply mouse click away from your business and go looking for one of your competitors.

I think this video is a great example because it shares more insight into the Cunninghams agency and the calibre of the principal John Cunningham and the quality and culture of the team of people that he has dedicated so much time and effort into establishing.

Most consumers see agents as being very similar in the marketplace, yet if you can tell a compelling authentic story about your agency within a few minutes of online video, your chances of being invited into the living rooms of sellers within your area will increase dramatically.

Then if you back up a good video introduction of your company with some other good quality content on your website and most importantly back it all up with top quality service your real estate business will flourish.

WARNING:  My recommendation about using company videos within your website also comes with a word of warning…You have to be authentic and you have to live up to the culture, beliefs and service that the client expects from the agency introduction video.

Actions will always speak louder than words and if you don’t live up to the video then you will leave yourself open to an enormous amount of online ridicule.

Cunninghams are certainly one of the agencies who are well respected within the industry and are seen to be setting the standard for a lot of the independent agencies. From what I’ve seen, John Cunningham is continuously looking to raise the bar with Cunningham’s online marketing, culture, training and customer service.

It comes as no surprise to me that they are a Finalist in the REINSW 2010 Excellence Awards for Innovation. Congratulations to all the team.

Are you using corporate videos, if so, please feel welcome to share a link to your video within the comments below and/or share your thoughts about the use of agency introduction videos.

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When you consider the stats from Best Practice which state that…

“Australian residential property sellers research their market place for, on average, 19 days prior to contacting an agent to conduct an appraisal.  The majority of this research is conducted via the internet.”

…then it stands to reason that the key to a successful career in today’s real estate marketing environment is now based significantly around an agent’s ability to build trust online.

Being able to build trust with clients has always been an important skill-set for agents because we normally start on the back foot due to the perception that we are only one step above used cars salespeople.

Every time an agent meets or speaks with a new client they generally have to focus a certain amount of their efforts on building rapport quickly and doing what they can to build likeability and trustworthiness to help overcome those pre-conceived ideas people have about real estate agents.

Over the internet, real estate agents don’t have the benefit of seeing non-verbal communication or hearing the tone in a voice. They also don’t have the luxury of being able to demonstrate some of their well rehearsed scripts & dialogues and put their negotiation skills to full use.

The nature of the internet has also changed the way agents show property. It’s now extremely rare to have clients in the car travelling around for hours at a time seeing the homes the agent decides to show them. Nowadays, most people simply meet the agent at one property at a scheduled time or they attend an Open For Inspection.

The whole demographic of client interaction has been changed forever.

What can you do about it?

I recently read this book ‘The Speed of Trust – The One Thing That Changes Everything’ and in it Steven M. R. Covey said:-

“Trust is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital.”

With the internet providing transparency and insights into the marketing framework of most agencies, your Character can be interpreted in the way you present your listings for sale and the script within your website, articles, etc.

Plus, when it comes to Competence, it has now become a lot easier for consumers to identify the IT savvy agencies over the pretenders. A real estate agencies competency or lack of competency online can have a resounding impact on their overall success.

People are now making decisions about you and your company over the web. That’s the transparent nature of the web.

Are lots of clients calling you in for an appraisal because they like what you’re doing over the internet? OR on the other hand are the vast majority of them not calling you and are you losing business to your competitors because the potential clients don’t think your online marketing is up to scratch?

Does your online marketing need to be looked at professionally, from a different point of view?

Let’s face it, you can be the greatest agent at scripts and dialogues or be the best negotiator in the business but if the potential client doesn’t like what they see about you over the internet then in the majority of circumstances you won’t even get the chance to present to them.

As the internet keeps evolving and expanding into new, exciting areas, for some the changes to the web will act like an accelerator for their business BUT for others it will act like ‘the brake’.

Is the internet working effectively for you or not? Do you get many people subscribing automatically to receive information from you or are you still manually entering in most of your customers into your database?

Are you getting called into enough market appraisals? Have you implemented an effective online lead generation strategy? Are you embracing the online world and using the power of Social Media to help build trust faster through online recommendations?

Finally, within the heading of this article, I posed the following question “How Can People Trust You As Their Agent When They’ve Never Met You?”

Please take some time to think about some answers to that question because if you can come up with a few answers to it, you’ll be well on your way to achieving some incredible success in your real estate career.

Please feel welcome to ask any questions or share your thoughts and ideas within the comments section below.

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The number of people who are using their mobile devices for browsing the internet is growing rapidly and it only looks like continuing to increase dramatically into the future.

Most CRM systems for the real estate industry now include Bulk SMS functionality and many agents are now using this service quite effectively to keep in touch with their database en masse via bulk text messaging out to their customers’ mobile device.

However, I’ve also noticed that some of the trainers and/or suppliers of CRM’s don’t seem to embrace the user functionality that now comes as almost a standard within mobile phone technology and embrace the fact that the internet is now accessible via the iPhone, Android, Smart Phones, etc.

One of the reasons why I say this is that so far within the standard SMS templates that I have seen uploaded within these systems, I haven’t come across anyone who has suggested that the SMS message should contain a website URL within the body of the text message.

This seems unusual because when you send an SMS which includes the full URL of a website, the link normally becomes hyperlinked on the mobile device which makes it very easy for people to press their finger onto the hyperlink on their screen and visit the website via the mobile internet browser within their hand-held device.

It helps to build your profile and reinforce your branding.

Doing this could not only help to drive lots more traffic to your website, but it could also help to remind the people of who you are and help keep your company branding message top of mind.

Providing a link also makes it easy for the customer to visit your site and identify who you are and maybe read more about you and your company while they are out and about.

To create a link to a URL within a text message is really easy, you simply include the website address within the body of the text.

But it’s important to note that whenever you insert a URL into an SMS make sure you insert the full website address, including the http:// or www. prefix. If you don’t then the mobile device wont identify it as a website address and won’t hyperlink the URL.

If you don’t include the full website address and the URL doesn’t become hyperlinked, the SMS recipient would then need to write down the URL and type it into their browser, which will then reduce your click-thru rate dramatically.

Use a short URL within your text message.

The only real issue with inserting a URL is the length of the domain name. Most mobile providers only allow 160 characters per SMS and the last thing you want to do is send out 2 separated text messages, because it will increase your unsubscribe rate.

Some agents will want to send people across to one of their latest listings or a property that they have just sold, but normally the website address for these listings can often be coded in such a way that the URL is actually longer than the 160 characters allowed.

So the solution is to either use a URL shortening service like TinyURL.com, bit.ly or alternatively you could insert the website address of a Property Showcase Site like the user friendly ones provided by HomeWebsites.com.au (eg. www.888AnySt.com).

To demonstrate the difference in the URL’s, here’s a live example of a property.

The URL on realestate.com.au is http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-toowong-106773148

The URL on raywhite.com is http://www.raywhite.com/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=106773148&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&header=&c=59175371&cc=au&s=qld&tm=1282795825&cu=fn-raywhite

The URL via HomeWebsites.com.au is www.18ivyst.com

So, for instance in the www.18IvySt.com example, if the agent wants to send out an SMS about the property, the web address has only 15 characters (less than 10% of the characters allowed within an SMS message) which leaves plenty of room within the SMS for the rest of the message.

Sending out an SMS about your Individual Property Websites will not only help you to drive more visitors to your listings, but it will also show prospective clients the unique way that you can now showcase their home ‘exclusively’ over the internet, which could be just the innovation that helps you to win their listing over the competition.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can easily and affordably create an individual Property Showcase Site for your clients, visit www.HomeWebsites.com.au – its where a HOME gets a WEBSITE of its own.

Note: I have included the link to the ‘Live’ example listing appearing on realestate.com.au only as a reference. I don’t recommend sending links out that direct traffic across to your listings appearing on the major portals because it can lead to sending potential clients across to your competitors listings.

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REUNCUT – www.reuncut.com – is a free daily update for agents that is packed with advice on new marketing trends and general tips on building a better and stronger business ……. and yes its FREE every day.

If you’re an agent and not currently tuning in I thought the Real Estate Mentors readers might like to watch a snapshot of some of what you might expect from our daily show.

(If you’re experiencing difficulty viewing this video click here)

This week we’ve just had John McGrath on as a Guest Mentor and he shared some terrific insights for agents who really want to succeed. We also had Robert Bevan talking on effective focus groups and lots more great interviews.

Each weekday, REUNCUT, features some fast facts from Robert Bevan as well as some of Australia and New Zealand’s leading trainers about what they are seeing and saying about the market, tips on running sales meetings that fit today’s market and loads more – all that packed into a fast paced 5 minute capsule. All this delivered FREE to your desktop, iPod or mobile device through iTunes.

On top of all this we are currently running a competition which could mean that you and a friend could both win an iPAD.

To find out more about REUNCUT and how you could win an iPad… Click Here Now

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In a recent Case Study video that I did around the marketing of an Individual Property Website, there was enough conclusive evidence provided by other agents as a result of the video to prove that agents who use HomeWebsites.com.au (where a HOME gets a WEBSITE of its own), are now using the service to achieve some incredible results for their clients and building their online profile at the same time.

Agents are not only using the websites to secure listings over their competitors but they have also been finding that the visitor traffic and the enquiries from many of the Individual Property Websites have been out performing the agent’s listings appearing on realestate.com.au.

Here is the initial Case Study video that I conducted on 22^nd August 2010…

As I mentioned in the video, the agent had 166 visits to the Individual Property Website that they built through HomeWebsites.com.au leading up to the date of the sale PLUS they’d had a further 41 visits to the website on the day that I did the video.

After filming the video I did some more investigation and discovered that as of 23/8/10 11.47am EST the stats for this property on realestate.com.au had totalled 186 visits  whereas the MyRiversidegardens.com site had a total of 208 visits.

On top of that, the agent told me that they had received more email enquiry from the Individual Property Website than they had from realestate.com.au.

In response to the video, a number of agents who have been using HomeWebsites.com.au shared their results with me via Facebook.

Stephen McCann “hey greg, 3 weeks into marketing 4gordonstreet.com and still has more hits than re.com.au. no doubt this stuff is GOLD.

David Willis “here’s just a sample of the results I achieve with homewebsites; 20 Gannet Lane, viewed 622 times 1 Avalon Road viewed 349 times 9 Rosebud Crescent viewed 228 times. I use specific methods to get the viewings up (oh, and all of these properties are now SOLD!!)”

Behind the scenes  I could see that the visitor stats to all of the Individual Property Websites were steadily climbing, but it wasn’t until I saw how the agent within the Case Study video had attached the eSignboard PLUS the fact that I knew that they hadn’t advertised the website within our local paper or in their window display, etc that I really discovered how powerful our HomeWebsites.com.au product could be for driving web traffic and enquiry to real estate agents throughout Australia and New Zealand.

As further proof of how well the HomeWebsites.com.au product can work, here’s a message that was posted on my Facebook wall on Aug 15 by Stephen McCann which lead to a few other comments including one from Sean Hart, another agent who uses our Individual Property Websites very effectively.

Stephen McCann “NEW listing, 1 week on the market, realestate.com.au 128 hits, 4gordonstreet.com 228hits.”

Sean Hart “Don’t you love the Power of HomeWebsites and these Results… Great site Steve…”

Stephen McCann “i haven’t even put the address on my sign board but will do that today and gauge results”

Whilst it is extremely pleasing to see these agents achieving such great results with our product, it would appear that there are still a lot of real estate agents who are not aware that when an agent’s listing is advertised via offline media (print media, signboards, brochures, etc) most customers go online searching for more information about that specific property via the web, and unfortunately a large percentage of the agent’s offline marketing actually helps to send lots and lots of website visitors across to the major portal sites like realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, etc.

Please note that I am definitely not advocating that you should stop uploading your listings onto the major portals. In this current marketplace (that would be real estate agency suicide).

BUT rather, you should do everything you possibly can to direct traffic to both you and your company ‘exclusively’ by using whatever tips, tricks & tools you can to by-pass as much traffic as possible away from the major portals and your competitors listings.

The major portals are packed full of your competitors listings and third party advertising which means that your company brand can get watered down in amongst the sea of hundreds of thousands of listings very easily.

HomeWebsites.com.au is an extremely powerful listing tool which has been developed to makes it really easy for agents to market their listings ‘exclusively’ over the internet.

It is extremely user friendly and very inexpensive when compared with the latest price hike of the featured listings product on realestate.com.au.

As you can see from the feedback from the agents already using the site, its already proven within the marketplace and what these agents have said is only the tip of the iceberg of how our product is currently helping lots of real estate agents create an innovative, powerful point of difference over their competition.

I can provide you with lots of different reasons why agents like you should consider using HomeWebsites.com.au to create Individual Property Websites for your clients, but instead let’s just say that the Number 1 reason for using it is that ~ ‘They Really Work.’

As one of the agents said, ‘The Proof Is In The Pudding.’

If you’d like to learn more about how the Individual Property Websites can help you win more listings then feel welcome to either post a comment below and/or go to HomeWebsites.com.au, then click the Get Started button to Create Your FREE User Account.

I hope it helps you to win lots of extra business too.

Here’s to your success.

Warm regards

Greg Vincent

http://HomeWebsites.com.au

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I recently discovered SoundCloud.com and feel that it could provide a great opportunity for agents and real estate trainers to share some of their podcasts over the web.

Doing an interview or simply recording your thoughts can provide a great way to communicate your message out to your audience via your blog. I am a big believer in the power of leveraging your content so that you do the recording once and then upload it onto the web which enables you to have other people listening to your content over & over again.

For example, here is a sample of how a podcast can be embedded into an article using SoundCloud.

This is an interview I conducted with Kevin Turner from REUNCUT about results from the Future Of Agents Commission 2010 Survey.

Greg Vincent – Future Of Agents Commission Survey 2010 – Results by Greg Vincent

Once you set up a free user account within SoundCloud you can start sharing podcasts and music and/or use their service to send audio files. People listening in can also comment on your podcasts and SoundCloud has it’s own community within their site which is designed to help you with sharing podcasts or music with your friends.

You can also measure visitor stats and easily share your podcasts via Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc and/or embed the audio player into blog posts like I have done above.

Here’s a quick video to demonstrate a bit more about how it works…

SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.

Is podcasting something you’re doing as an agent or is it still something that you’re not 100% sure about how it can work effectively for you? Interested to read others thoughts about SoundCloud and/or real estate podcasting.

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This is the question that an agent posed to me earlier today after yet another stuff up by the big boys.

I was speaking at an event yesterday where one of the agents mentioned the CommBank Property Guide iPhone App and the significant amount of data that was now being made available via realestate.com.au and RPData.

As the discussion went on, one of the agents logged on and started searching through the Comm Bank’s app. Only by fluke, another agent suggested they take a look at one of his latest listings which is going up for Auction.

The listing agent was absolutely horrified to see that the property which was uploaded onto realestate.com.au as an auction now appeared on Comm Bank’s app with an asking price displayed.

The price that was displayed on the Comm Bank app was the same price that the agent had inserted under the search price field.

Any pricing entered within the search price field has always been a hidden price whether a property goes up for auction or whether it has an asking price. These prices have never been for public viewing, or at least until now.

I was blown away when the agent showed me the listing in question on the Commbank site. I couldn’t believe that something so fundamental and basic could be breached.

I followed up with the agent again today. To REA’s credit the pricing issue for that listing has now been rectified but in typical fashion the agent was told that it’s not their fault the issue seemed to be from CommBank’s side? So who’s fault is it really?

Agents don’t have an agreement with CommBank’s Property Guide app, they have an agreement with REA Group.

Under the circumstances, should agents have the option to not make listings, etc available to Comm Bank’s app?

Is this only an isolated case? Has it happened to others? Will it happen again? Can REA Group and Comm Bank guarantee that no such issue will ever happen again?

Can you imagine what would have happened if the vendor had seen it? Who knows whether a buyer has seen it or not? Does this mean that agents have to check every listing on every site that their data is being uploaded to?

NOTE: Out of respect for the agent and the vendor trying to sell their property I have deliberately left out the specific details of the price, property, area, agent, etc because sharing that information could have a detrimental impact on the result of the property auction.

This article was originally featured on Business2.com.au

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