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Why you need myAgentPHONE™ as a Real Estate professional |
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myAgentPHONE™ has everything you need to manage your calls, messages, communications, and generate brand new buyer and seller leads everyday! Whether you work as an independent Real Estate agent or you have an office of 50 Real Estate professionals that work out of various locations, myAgentPHONE™ will make you more efficient and effective. |
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My Agent Phone BlogHoliday Bargains I've been reading in the paper and online about all of the creative deals being done by home buyers, especially those of existing homes. While in Phoenix recently I saw several $15-$25K new home purchase cash back offers. You buy the home and get a nice bonus toward closing costs or putting a pool in so that you can handle the 300 degree summers (OK, only 120+/ :-). I've also been reading about several existing home buyers making offers that include everything from kitchenware, the Plasma TV, all the way up to complete home furnishing included in the already discounted (or not) offer. With the Holidays here, the market over saturated and a lot of people selling who have wanted to get out of their homes before the New Year...it doesn't hurt to recommend to your client to consider a creative incentive to include with your listing. I would ask your seller directly, "how seriously do you want to sell and are you willing to accept offers?" Then have a creative session together to come up with a few incentive options to consider. If the seller is an investor, unmotivated or simply just has the house on the market to see what they can get, chances are you're not going to get much play. On the other hand those that are in dire straights, one step from foreclosure or just want to get out of their current situation will usually work with you to meet half way or make some financial concessions that make the deal more attractive to the market. A lot of people are hanging tough on their price right now, which is probably one of the biggest reasons the market is dropping somewhat slowly. Chances are most of the people in the market are going to stand firm so don't expect that everyone will be willing to get creative. What you can do is work with your clients that are looking to buy, determine if they're looking for a home or a deal of the century then find out the sellers situation and work accordingly. You may consider approaching FSBOs on behalf of your client that is looking for the "great" deal. Just remember it’s not always a good idea to get into the habit of making unrealistic lowball offers. Fill the seller in on your clients perfect scenario and see if there will be a fit. Don’t forget, price doesn’t have to be the only terms to be negotiated. Serious sellers will hate the lowball offers, but you could make someone's day just by finding a buyer for their house and get your client a great deal at the same time. I’m sure your client would enjoy their new home with a new Plasma TV, furniture set or some other furnishings all wrapped up into the deal. If you find the right seller, your client could have a better Holiday or New Year present than they expected. Happy Holidays, myAgentPHONE.com Monday, November 27, 2006 @ 11:57 AM Expand your knowledge at Industry Trade Shows Hello Readers I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful holiday. I want to share some tid bits on the California REALTOR® EXPO 2006 in Long beach, Ca. that was put on by the California Association of Realtors® C.A.R. October 17th - 19th. myAgentPHONE was a major sponsor this year for the EXPO and I am happy to report that it was an amazing success. Not just for myAgentPHONE but also for the EXPO, the vendors and all of the attendees. The EXPO had over 12,000 REALTORS®, as well as thousands of California's key franchise execs, top producers, and movers and shakers. According to Joel Singer, Executive Vice President of C.A.R., this EXPO had a record breaking turn out. If you haven’t been to one of these events across the country, you MUST look to attend an upcoming event in your area. It is the perfect environment for educational, networking and professional development opportunities. Also a great way to learn about the latest and greatest technologies available to use in your business.. This year they had a special pre-EXPO event, Tech Tuesday, which featured a full day of comprehensive training geared toward assisting today's REALTOR® to stay on the cutting edge of real estate technology. I was one of the invited speakers for this event and my topic was "Turning Your Phone into a Lead Generation Machine." I must say, we filled the seats and rocked the house! I was thankful for the opportunity to speak on this topic. It was very evident that I was able to open many of my attendees’ eyes to how easy it really can be to sell real estate in today’s market by leveraging technology. Although not as powerful as in person, this is what I attempt to do for you with our blog. Send me an email and let me know if you would like a copy of the Power Point presentation that I used. According to many at the EXPO we had one of the most modern, hip and busy booths this year. With hip house music playing from the "Chill" station on XM radio, many people came by to just relax on our couches or dance in our booth. myAgentPHONE staff and visiting attendees had a great time! Oh and of course we signed up many new myAgentPHONE subscribers throughout the event. In fact, we were still taking orders as they were pulling up the carpets at the end of the event. Thank you C.A.R. You did a fantastic job and we can’t wait until next year! I encourage each and every one of you to find an upcoming Industry State Association Trade Show in your area and GO and expand your knowledge! Until next time, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Thursday, October 05, 2006 @ 7:37 AM Good Karma I just read another good article on Realtor.org, the site for the National Association of Realtors, check it out: Existing-Home Sales Holding At A Sustainable Pace. As I mentioned in my last posting, you want to consider your source. Well in my opinion the National Association of Realtors is a very credible industry source. Here’s my take, Yea, the market is stabilizing. Let’s look for the positives! I think there's enough negative energy out there about the housing market. Make it your mantra to pass on the good news about the market. Use your market to quote real articles and reference them so people can read them in context. Right now there are a lot of people dissing the market and using bad information or partial information to exacerbate the market stabilization. It's stabilizing but not necessarily to the dramatic extent that some are making it out to be. It's important for you to be positive, aggressive and excited about the market stabilization and the fact that business will normalize. Sure, the frenzy is over which should help excite your investors and buyers it's also a time to educate and encourage your sellers. Keeping prices stable is important to a smooth stabilization and you can help your sellers understand that loosing all their equity to get out isn't a smart business decision and should not be done unless absolutely necessary. It's time to pull out the pom-poms and start cheering folks. Keep it real and keep it positive! Now for your dose of Tech stuff I would like to point you to an excellent section of NAR's site: Center for Realtor Technology. This new section is an outstanding resource for information on Real Estate technology, tools and trends. One of my favorite things about the site is its information about the trends that have helped shape the Real Estate industry into what it is today. The site also has PowerPoint Presentations that you can take a look at information on how to make sure your business is safe and secure (including helping you with a security policy). Tools are provided to help analyze your site to make sure it's compliant. Of course you can check out the Newsletters, contact Realtor.org consultants (I'm sure at a fee), help fight listing theft and contact the NAR's Center for Realtor Technology. There's already a TON of stuff on the National Association of Realtors site and the technology section just adds another feather into their cap. It's worth taking some time to check out everything available. Even if you're not a Realtor...there's a lot of great information for buyers, sellers, investors and the general population. Until next time, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Saturday, September 23, 2006 @ 9:33 AM Don't Believe the Hype I know I've mentioned in past blogs some things you can do to help protect against the market correction like the short about Maintaining your Online Presence. One thing I forgot to bring up was to forget about believing all the "HYPE" about how badly the market is doing. Especially don't let the "hype" knock you off your focus and start to negatively affect your sales ability and work ethic! I was surfing around and found a real good blog on this topic by a great writer, Tim O'Keefe titled Guard your mind 1 and 2. It's about the "hype" of the current market and how the press is so good at finding superfluous statistics that sell papers/headlines but really aren't that bad when you dig into them. I really like Tim's approach on this and do intend to keep up with his blog and recommend you do the same. One thing I've learned is that you always need to back up your sources. While you and your clients/friends see headlines and stats about how the market has burst just keep in mind...where did these numbers come from and what are they compared to. When you hear, the number of new home sales have plummeted x% from the same period 2 or 3 years ago, remember 2-3 years ago the market was booming and probably near its peak. When you think about it, the actual growth would still be above average and in any normal market still be considered strong. When you see the headlines ask yourself...are they comparing apples to apples? Don't believe the hype, stay focused and keep up the work ethic. Until next time, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Saturday, August 26, 2006 @ 1:04 PM Realtor and Agent Efficiency Just like any business, managing your real estate or mortgage company is a matter of understanding objectives, defining a plan, setting priorities and then executing on your plan. Here are some suggestions for using technology to follow through on your business opportunities. 1) Learn to use the technology you have and determine what works for you and what does not. Just because you have or buy all of the tech "toys" doesn't mean they are helping you improve your effectiveness. If you get a new PDA or phone with all kinds of management features use it for a month and see if it is helping your income or wasting a lot of your time mastering Tetris. 2) Learn Outlook - even if you're not a huge email user, Microsoft Outlook has a LOT of business management features that can really help you run your business, you should take the time to utilize the features; a) email - if you're not a heavy email user, learn to be...if you are, use Outlook to build up your contact database and then use the mail merge feature to send custom e-mail notices to your contacts. b) calendar - time management is extremely important, especially if business is going well. You can loose far more money when things are going well and you miss an apt. than when things are average and you miss something. Use the calendar feature to stay on top of things and now you can usually synchronize it up with most PDA's, some phones and even run it web-based through some hosting companies. c) contacts - your contacts are dollars, save every single one of them. You're contacts database is probably your most important asset. Use Outlook to build up your contact database and segment it out by right clicking on your "Contacts" icon in the left navigation area...create a sub-category and save your friends, your farm contacts, potential clients, past clients, sold, in-process and other categories as refined as you please. Remember each sub-category can easily become a mail merge and you can send out e-mail, mail or use myAgentPHONE’s VoiceCast system to send a pre recorded message to a group or several groups. Need to make a conference call? myAgentPHONE also makes it very easy for you to set one up. You can patch in your clients with your lenders, escrow and title officers or any other associate that you may need to connect on a single call with just a few clicks of your mouse. 3) Put EVERYTHING in your "system." Whether you use a planner, PDA or your computer (Outlook) just get in the habit of entering everything. If you speak to someone, drive somewhere, set an appointment or learn about a new opportunity...make a note of it in your "system." You never know when you're going to have to reference the information. 4) Take 30-60 min. EVERY DAY to organize your time, thoughts, notes, plans and objectives. Chances are you probably already do most, if not all of these. If you do, fantastic, you're probably a top producer in your region or company. If you don't, or do most of these...take the time to hit each one and don't forget #4, organization is the easiest to neglect but the most important to your success. Keep up the good work, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Tuesday, August 22, 2006 @ 11:38 PM Data is King (continued) Hello readers, I have to apologize for taking so long to get part 2 of this blog to you. I've been on some RR for the summer with my kids and refused to use my computer for work. So here it is and I hope you find this information useful. Last blog I talked about the importance of data and backing up your data, as well as knowing how to format and get access to your data. So, what do you do with it now that you have it in a format you can use? Use some standard marketing and advertising tools... 1) Learn to Mail Merge - MS Outlook, Eudora and most other email programs, along with almost all sales contact managers have a feature called "Mail Merge." This tool lets you use your existing contacts in the program, or import new contacts and then create a mailing list, print it out onto letter head, envelops and whatever else you need. Learning to mail merge is extremely important because you get to know how good or bad your data really is and what formatting your data guys (or marketing team) need to do for each major mailing. If you haven't done this before...create a CSV file from your data and then go to your contact management program and use the HELP feature (or hit F1, usually that will work) and search for "mail merge" 2) Email - You can do emails almost daily with your new mail merge tool, I wouldn't recommend it but if you have customers/clients that want to hear about the latest and greatest properties/offers then mail merge and email are a Godsend. You can use your mail merge feature and actually set up your contacts into groups i.e. your farm and send out specific weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual emails to the groups. Holiday greetings are also a great way to keep yourself in front of the contacts in your farm. Make sure your clients/customers are OK with you sending them email; if they asked to be removed from your list, be sure to do it...getting "black listed" can hinder you from contacting hundreds if not thousands of your clients/customers...all because of one email. 3) Direct Mail - Now that you know how to mail merge...start doing it. Using good-old-fashion direct mail (post cards, media kits, newsletters, Birthday/Thank You cards, etc.) is a great way to brand yourself as a Realtor and build your client relationships. You can use inexpensive online sites to get full 4-color mail pieces, or go with a traditional printer which will charge you several hundred dollars more. I'd look into these two sites, they have the best rep for online printing: http://www.vistaprint.com or http://www.overnightprints.com . Now if you’re budget would allow, you should look into a company called Hobbs Herder Advertising. They are one of the top advertising agencies for Realtors. Run by founders Don Hobbs and Greg Herder, this organization really knows customer service and goes far beyond excellent personal advertising and will also teach you how to master marketing overall. 4) Voicecast - use our myAgentPHONE system to send your new mail merge an automated, recorded voice message about your latest properties or about an upcoming event by calling every phone number at once. Imagine how much effort it would take to call 200 people to tell them the same thing. With myAgentPHONE’s Voicecast You can also use the system to call purchased voice-casting lists to introduce yourself to potential clients. The great thing about voice casting is that it's "instant," and can produce tremendous results. Stay tuned for more great ways to use Voicecast. 5) Targeted product offerings - once you master the mail merge you'll realize how easy it is to reach out to your customers/clients or potential customers/clients. You can start to focus on your customers/clients needs and find products/offerings that match your clients specifically and if you have enough contact you can start to create all of the above marketing/advertising material around specific customers. Give them exactly what they want and design products/offerings that fit the exact needs of specific groups you have created. Knowing your customer and then specifically targeting your advertising can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars every month. 6) List sales - I wouldn't recommend this, unless you have a relationship with your clients that permits you to do this but some people go after new customers/clients in order to build a database of contacts and then they turn around and sell those "contact"/leads to associated vendors (movers, storage companies, etc.). If you have a close relationship with your customers, I wouldn't suggest selling their data. For the most part I believe this is a bad idea but it’s common so I figured I would list it. I'm sure you have your own ways of marketing, networking and branding but some of these can help supplement some of your existing efforts. Especially the voice casting services, if you haven't tried it before, you really need to. We (myAgentPHONE) have seen companies generate thousands of dollars of revenue in a matter of minutes by using the system. It's fast, easy and can easily be done in a professionally and tasteful fashion. Until next time, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Wednesday, August 09, 2006 @ 8:21 AM Data Is King Part 1 Hello friends, This is a two part blog since there's a lot to managing your data and then using it to make a successful business. If you've been in business for more than about 5 years, I'm sure you've had your share of experience in losing data. Whether it was something small like a customer's contact information or a whole database containing customer, financial or sales information...it's almost a given for anyone who's been around for a while. Having been through several instances of data-loss the one thing I've learned is that there is nothing that can replace a good data management process. Real Estate, Mortgage and sales businesses especially need to have a way of managing their data BEFORE they start doing business otherwise one day they will end up having a business-ending event that they may or may not be able to recover from. I can almost describe to a T the sinking feeling you get when your IT guy comes in your office first thing in the morning and says "the database crashed" or getting paged at 2am "your site is down." To this day, it's still a dreaded feeling, even though I've done a lot to ensure I don't have the problems of the past. So if you're just getting your business started or have been in business for a while and haven't had any data loss experience (yet) then here are some things to consider now before you do experience the dreaded data loss. 1st - What data are you going to store? It's always smart to save more data than less, try to find a database or software program that lets you manage your whole business in one place. This will centralize all of your data and let you manage everything from one program instead of having to open a program for sales, marketing, advertising or property management. If you don't have the luxury of one central program make sure that ALL of the programs you use are storing as much data as you can input. 2nd - How is the data stored? Make sure that you can ALWAYS export or backup your data. If a program doesn't have an export or backup feature...then move on, it's not worth investing in. Look for things like CSV or Tab Delimited File export. These are data standards and if you decide to move to another program later or if you loose all of your data for some reason, you always have a lowest common denominator to go back to (like the CSV/Tab Delimited File). 3rd - How to save the data? Hopefully the system(s) you are using saves all of your information and does a good job at it. If you find that information isn't there the next day or "disappears" often, then it's time to look for a better program. Besides the program doing it's job, you REALLY need to get in the habit (or have a daily process setup or programmed to do it for you) of a daily backup. Make sure that every day an ADDITIONAL copy of your data is being backed up, preferably NOT in the same place as your live data. Try to save on a separate hard drive, DVD, CD-ROM, remote drive, USB drive or whatever you have access to, just DON'T save to the same hard drive as your primary data. Do it daily and check it weekly to make sure it's usable and save yourself the dread of the IT guy. 4th - Be ridiculous about your data. This is your business, don't just save your data before you close the program and don't just save a backup...be ridiculous about it and take a backup home with you on CD or in a USB Hard Drive at least once a week. Yea, it's not necessary but you'll find it lets you sleep easy at night. Finally, know what kind of data you have at any moment and know how it can be used. I'm not an IT guy, and don't want to be but I know what data I have and how I can get it and use it at any moment because you NEVER know when or how you will need your information. We sign up new customers for myAgentPHONE every day and some of these people don't realize that their WHOLE customer or FARM list can be called with a professional and classy dialer product called Voicecast in just a matter of minutes but if and only if they have data in a usable format. You'll find that your business is more nimble and your ability to make money is far greater when you know your data. Your data may be contact info for potential clients in your FARM or vendors such as lenders. Or may just be notes on past and future clients. Whatever your data is for you remember, DATA IS KING! Don’t put yourself or keep yourself in a position to lose it! Next week I'm going to continue the data blog and discuss how you can use your data to make money without selling your customer data. Because data is all about being more efficient in your sales, marketing, advertising, promotions and customer retention. Until next time, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Sunday, December 31, 2006 @ 12:31 AM Small Business Phone Systems Hi All, I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on Small Business Phone Systems, several people ask me about what makes our product (www.myagentphone.com) different for the small business phone system buyer. Let's first talk about what types of phone systems are availabe, in general, then I can explain more about what the advantages of an internet-based phone system are. You can go the traditional, old-school route and call your local phone company. They'll set you up with land lines, the need to purchase several phones...that are compatible with your office phone system and charge you for the whole setup and configuration of all of the lines and hardware you'll need. Then you will have to purchase a small business phone system that provides the software or management interface to the actual phone lines. This is the system that will let you hold calls, transfer calls to other employees and do conference calls, if the system includes these features. The advantages of having a traditional, land line, small business phone system is that they are less likely to have down-time, they usually provide a good quality signal and are reliable. The other option you have is an internet-based small business phone system. Internet-based small business phone systems usually use a basic phone service (land line) as the interface for their web-based service and management tools. Internet-based small business phone systems give you the ability to manage, setup and monitor your phone system online, from anywhere in the world and can include any number of the following features: The ability to monitor live call-ins Caller ID & Call logging Predictive dialers service (specifically for the small business) Call transfering User management Live call transfers Call recording Follow me rules and setup It looks like the internet-based small business phone system is far superior just in features alone but a traditional phone system can have the same features and services, although you usually end up paying a small fortune for systems with all of these inclusions. I've purchased several phone systems in my time, including systems that cost me well over $50,000 and the one thing I have learned is that modern technology has given us some powerful tools, one of these being the small business phone system. The disadvantage to a web-based small business phone system is obviously the fact that it relies on the web. If you have a reliable web connection, or have some redundant web access through several reliable providers than this issue is moot. But if you are running a small business and need a phone system that's more reliable than your internet connection then the web-based small business phone systems are not the way to go. Small business phone software should be considered before you run out and spend thousands of dollars on a system or solution. The tradational system may be the right fit for you if you are in an unreliable-internet area. Although most of the web-based phone systems only require initial setup and only need the web to monitor real-time, inbound calls. Be sure to understand the needs of your small business phone system before you go out and buy one. Your business phone system software is your lifeline, be sure to do your homework and understand the benefits and drawbacks of all systems before you go out and buy one. My Agent Phone, for most people, is a perfect solution because it has all and usually far more, features than the traditional business phone software. One of the greatest benefits of the My Agent Phone small business phone system is the price. You get more features than my old $50,000 phone system had for about 1000 times less (per month). It's a small business phone software system with big business features and a price that's hard to beat. Check it out any time: http://www.myagentphone.com myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Lead Generation, Lead Gen SolutionsSaturday, January 20, 2007 @ 1:31 PMHello all, Lead Gen (lead generation) is a tough game in this day and age. Everyone is trying to do it, thousands of websites are built just for the purpose of generating leads. Companies are formed for the sole purpose of lead gen. The lead generation business has become huge business. Now major corporations are investing in lead generation (lead gen) companies just to keep up with their own lead generation. There's a reason lead gen is so hot these days...it works. Companies that focus on just generating leads are better able to provide call to action and attractive offers for people to "become a lead." So how can you take advantage of the Lead gen (lead generation) market without changing your whole business model. First, you have to understand your current lead generation and why people become leads in your industry. You also have to identify what your competition, or the major lead gen companies in your industry are using to generate leads. You may find that your current lead generation system is not as effective as the market standards. If this is the case you need to decide whether you bend to the market standards or whether you hire some of these 3rd party lead gen companies to sell you leads or help you generate more leads internally. You also need to identify non-traditional lead generation opportunities that may help bring in leads cost effectively without taking the focus away from your day-to-day business. One of our customers is in the Mortgage business and he found a way of using our MyAgentPhone.com system to generate a good amount of leads through non-traditional lead generation methods. Mortgage brokers are always looking for people that will or are going to buy, refinance or take a second on their home. This person realized that he could offer his Realtor friends a free 800-number with a complete Talking Property™ system, in exchange, his realtor friends let him use the call ins as mortgage leads. This may not be the way for you to generate leads but the lead gen market is huge right now which means you're going to pay top-dollar for truly good leads. It's always cheaper, more effective and easier if you can generate the leads yourself. If you have seen your lead volume drop or slow, it's time you start looking at ways to generate your own leads and make your own lead generation system that will save you money. Think outside of the box when it comes to lead gen because the major lead generation companies are all using any method they can to bring in leads to resell at top-dollar. You can read the rest of this blog for tips and tricks on how to increase your lead generation efforts through SEO, content development and general marketing efforts. Again, I would highly recommend reading this blog and any other information you can find on additional forms of lead gen to help increase your sales opportunities without having to pay top dollar to the major lead gen companies. Best wishes, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com Talking PropertiesTMChances are if you've found this blog you probably already know what a Talking PropertyTM is, but just in case here's a brief description. A Talking PropertyTM is a lead generation tool to help Realtors, mortgage brokers or other companies to generate leads through a recorded message providing complete product or service information and pricing. Normally a "Talking PropertyTM" is displayed through realtor signs on lawns, print, media or online advertising and sometimes on TV or radio. A Talking PropertyTM is an extremely powerful marketing and advertising tool, if you are using a service or provider that can monitor, track and provide caller information. The key is the potential lead generation capabilities you have with a good talking propertyTMsolution. The ideal Talking PropertyTMsolution will give you the ability to store, track and utilize the call-in user information, like their phone number (if available), name and anything else that may help you generate new leads from the Talking PropertyTM service. My Agent Phone's Talking PropertyTM solution is a unique lead generation solution because you have the ability to use a full-service talking propertyTM software while generating leads through the call number tracking, callerID information and the ability to use your My Agent Phone service to click-to-call any number. Almost every business could always use some more business; if you're not currently using a lead generation system like the talking propertyTM, then it's about time to consider it. Whether you are in the real estate business, car business or plumbing business, an 800-number providing detailed information about your services, products and pricing is always a tremendous and non-invasive lead generation solution for any small to mid-sized business. We have seen mortgage brokers and Realtors alike profit from the lead generation capabilities of the Talking PropertyTM solution by placing their 800 number on all signs, advertising and promotional material and then letting people call in without the worry of a hard-sale. All the while, leads are being generated through the Talking PropertyTM by storing the caller ID information which can then be used to call back or simply build your lead generation database. Lead generation is a big business right now, leads are expensive and good leads can be tough to find. Take the time to investigate either the MyAgentPhone or any other Talking PropertyTM solution so that you can start your lead generation through a new and innovative lead gen system. As always, best of luck and until next time, ciao myAgentPHONEdzamora@myagentphone.com Real Estate Lead GenerationSaturday, January 27, 2007 @ 8:51pmReal Estate Lead Generation is a constant, powerful and cost-effective way of running a lead business or your mortgage business. Generating Mortgage Leads is a tough business in a market saturated with lead companies, mortgage companies and lead generation companies of all sorts. There are always new and innovative ways for Real Estate Lead Generation companies to generate more leads and they're constantly looking for creative ways to generate leads in ways that have not already been tried by the rest of the mortgage or lead generation companies. Your most effective way of generating quality and cost effective leads is to first identify your target market then test and try different lead generation methods until you find the one that works best for your target product and market. Just because one Real Estate Lead Generation company has some success, doesn't mean their methods are the tride-and-true key to success. In fact, your specific product and market may demand a completely different and creative way of generating leads. Your job is to figure out how to generate leads for your company, product, market and/or industry the most cost-effective way. The web is always the best place to start because it's fast, effective and you can get initial marketing and lead generation feedback right from your website or the traffic logs for the site visitors. Real Estate Lead Generation may be a little different because there are hundreds, if not over one-hundred thousand people, sites and/or companies all trying to be the best at Real Estate Lead Generation. Each with their own method, trick or development solution that helps them generate more mortgage leads than anyone thought was possible. The Real Estate Lead Generation business has been focused on generating leads through television, radio, telephone, and of course the internet and has been very successful. Several hundred-million and billion dollar companies have been formed or invested in, with a sole purpose of generating mortgage leads for the Mortgage and mortgage lead industry. Companies are paying top dollar for these Real Estate Lead Generation services, software and solutions. Your job is not to try the existing methods that have proven effective and also test out new methods of Real Estate Lead Generation through services like the My Agent Phone Talking Property™, website development and anything else you can think of that may get you a lead cheaper than the current methods. Real Estate Lead Generation is an effective way of reducing your cost and improving your lead quality. Start saving the money you are spending on third-party Real Estate Lead Generation companies and figure out how to generate leads in-house. Throw a barbeque, party, event, dinner or whatever you can to save money on your Real Estate Lead Generation. It's all about time and money. Take the time to setup your own, effective Real Estate Lead Generation methods and save money and time going forward. Best wishes all, myAgentPHONE dzamora@myagentphone.com ROI, Return on InvestmentPurchasing advertising or buying leads can be expensive and generate both good and bad real estate leads. You can generate more leads with a call capture 800 number than you will with a conventional 800 number because people like the idea of not having to speak to anyone on the phone. With the new My Agent Phone all-you-can-eat program, there is almost nothing on the market that can compete.You can invest in per-call 800 numbers or per-minute, call capture, 800 numbers, and pay for every call or use the all-you-can-eat My Agent Phone (MAP) system. Both will reduce your cost per lead, increase your real estate lead generation and improve your potential customer interaction. AdvertisingMany real estate agents feel that advertising is an ineffective method of generating new real estate leads. Others find that advertising is an effective way of appeasing clients, generating brand recognition and generating some leads.One of the most powerful and cost effective methods of advertising without blowing your whole budget is to take advantage of the My Agent Phone (MAP) Free 24 Hour Recorded Information service. For about $50/mo. you can offer all of your customers and potential customers the ability to call a free 800 number to find out property, listing and other information for all of your listings. The Free 24 Hour Recorded Information system is also an excellent resource for new real estate lead generation. With MAP you have the ability to track every call that comes in and block non-caller ID calls, this means that every caller becomes a potential real estate lead, since you know they are looking or at least interested in property information. MyAgentPhone.com captures all of the in-bound phone numbers, time and date they called and the source of the call. This is a valuable lead generation and lead tracking system for any real estate agent. Unlike television, radio or newspaper, the My Agent Phone system lets you monitor each person that interacts with your 800 number, it gives you their phone number and name (if available), the time/date they called, how long the call transpired and also monitor which listing they are listening to. Real Estate Lead generation is obviously important to any real estate business. Just as important is the methods you use to advertise, track and obtain new real estate lead generation sources. Expired Leads are Good LeadsBe sure to monitor, track and contact any expired listings you can. An expired listing simply means that the agent of record was not able to sell the listing. This is a great real estate lead generation source with little effort.The question you will be asked is "what will you do for me, that the other agent did?" This is a great opportunity to discuss your 800 number listing features and the success you have had with past clients using this more high-tech, less invasive real estate lead generating system. Let these clients know that you will email them a weekly 800 number traffic report; detailing the number of in-bound calls; average call time and number of call ins that left messages. You can combine this with the obvious foot-traffic reports for a more informative and motivating communication and retention method. Real Estate Lead Generation is only as effective as your ability to do something with these leads. Co-Op Advertising with My Agent PhoneCo-Op advertising is where you and another business split or share the cost of an advertisng campaign in exchange for branding, leads or other mutual benefit.If your budget is already too tight then you should consider looking for some Co-Op money. Contact your mortgage partners, general contractors, furnature providers and local home stores to see if they would like to sponsor your phone, direct mail or email campaigns. Simply provide them with a piece of the campaign or an opportunity to use the incoming real estate leads generated from the campaign. Adding a small phrase like…”we also work with XYZ Mortgage” who has closed over 80+% of our listings. Or…”leave your contact information and when your listing closes you will receive a $100 gift certificate from XYZ company to use on your new home.” Co-op marketing is a great way to let others fund all or part of your real estate lead generation, all it takes is a relationship with your local industry providers. Out of Office Call ManagementIf you have been a real estate agent for some time, or are a new agent trying to get your name out there; chances are you spend very little time in the office. So how do you manage a phone system or service when you spend so little time in the office? You can just check in or call-in daily to collect your messages and hope that none where urgent, or call constantly to grab your messages.Effective real estate lead generation means finding ways to run your business, in whole, more effectively. One of the most effective ways to stay in the field while constantly being in touch with the home office and your customers is through a Follow Me Phone System. My Agent Phone offers this service; which gives you the ability to route your calls to your cell phone, home phone, car phone or instantly receive your voice mail in MP3 format to your Pocket PC or other PDA email system. Follow Me Rules for any phone system is incredibly powerful; * You’ll never miss a call because you setup where you’re going to be and where you want all of your calls to go. Through your single 800-number you will exude professionalism, always-available access and a powerful real estate lead generation tool. * Save the time of calling in to check your voicemail constantly and remove the appearance that you’re never available. * Use a single 800-number for several offices, locations or employees, providing a more consistent and professional experience for your customers and real estate lead generating efforts. * You define your Follow Me Rules & Schedule; that means you can always have your lunches free, or showing times free of a ringing phone. * The ability to control the customer experience in real-time. You can setup your Follow Me Rules to ring your phone first, then try another line, then try your partner/assistant/associate and finally go to voicemail. You have complete control over the user/customer experience. This is an extremely powerful advantage you will have over the competition in your Real Estate Lead Gen efforts. Why You Should LOVE Those FSBOsNormally real estate brokers hate to see the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) signs up and try to bombard the home owner with fliers, information and compelling arguments as to why they should change their mind and use a broker. There is usually a reason the owner has decided to list their property as FSBO, whether is be financial, personal confidence in the market or simply a dislike for the brokering industry.Whatever their reason may be, chances are the direct marketing, telephone calls and other attempts to convince them that your Real Estate services are more effective than theirs will always be up for argument but chances are, it’s just more literature for their recycle bin and added frustration at unwanted calls. You should consider looking at these FSBOs as future opportunities and try to establish a new contact with them, even if it’s not for the immediate sale. The key here is showing your business acumen and befriending them as a colleague, not as someone taking away your potential commission. Look for referrals and opportunities for their future properties. Here are some ways the My Agent Phone customers have used their 800 service and talking propertyTM feature to help with their real estate lead generation efforts: Provide them with an informational packet on selling their home (keep it to $5 or so) * Go to www.zillow.com and print out their estimated property value (if available). * Give them a list of suggestions or tips on what home improvement are most cost-effective. You can print this out; or find a better article online: http://www.usbank.com/cgi_w/cfm/personal/achieve_goals/home_improvement_tips.cfm * Provide them with safety and other FSBO information, so they know what to look out for and what to be aware of. * Include your standard media kit/presentation (along with several business cards) and be sure you have an area highlighting the advantages and successes of your Talking PropertyTM service. * Anything else you feel may help them sell their home; and help them remember you in case they decide to get a real estate agent later. * Also, be sure to include sample reports from a My Agent Phone Talking PropertyTM sample customer. Let them see the types of information you provide to all of your customers. Now that you’re in their good graces and have assured them that there is no catch. Offer them the ability to use your Talking PropertyTM feature to post on their front lawn and get weekly reports on call-ins. Let them know this isn’t something you normally do but will do this for them if they will use you if (and only if) they decide to use a real estate broker in the future. You’re not hard selling, they haven’t signed anything and you’ve provided them with valuable information. If nothing else, you build a repor with them and a relationship that may generate you business in the future. Our customers have found that this strategy has been an effective way of generating real estate leads at little cost and also has helped generate referrals and future business because they never forget the realtor that didn’t try to talk them out of FSBO and actually helped them sell and market their property. Give it a shot, it’s a great method of real estate lead generation, building new relationships and at a lower cost than some of your equally qualified (or not qualified) real estate leads that you’re paying for now. Real Estate Lead Generation with Toll Free NumberWe’ve all used a toll free number, pretty much anything with an 800, 888, 877 or 866 in front of it. It’s the free telephone call you get when you’re calling a company or service, if they have an 800 number.Toll free numbers have always been popular for companies, especially sales organizations doing direct response business. In the last decade or two they have become much more pervasive and just about all businesses have an 800 number, if not several. In fact, it has even become more-and-more popular for people to setup 800 numbers for their family and/or friends, especially if they can afford the monthly expense to help encourage their family members or friends to call from anywhere in the country, for free. Real estate agents have found that 800 numbers are increasingly more valuable as they find new and innovative ways to use the service for attracting customers, improving their customer service and providing talking propertyTM services; where people can call in and listen to a recorded message about the property without having to speak to a live sales person. My Agent Phone provides all of our customers with an 800 number that they can use with their service, we also give you the ability to setup a vanity 800 number at your leisure (for a nominal fee). Companies like 1-800-Flowers have built their whole brand around their vanity 800 number. So what are the real estate lead gen opportunities for a real estate agent with an 800 number? First professionalism, you show your customers that you are looking out for their monetary well being by saving them even a few cents for every call they make to you. With My Agent Phone you also have the ability to setup a talking propertyTM that gives anyone that calls into your number a recorded message about the property they are interested in. This is a tremendous real estate lead gen tool because it gives you the ability to attract large numbers of interested parties to a phone number that they know won’t be a hard sale. You then use the tracking information in the My Agent Phone service to monitor the callers, their phone number and if available, their name. You can create a database for future contact or run dialers against the call-ins every time you have a new listing. Toll free numbers are more pervasive almost every month, don’t get lost in the stone age offering your customers and potential customers a local number that they have to call every time they want to reach you; which may cost them money if they travel out of the area or are coming from another location. Exude professionalism, save your customers & potential customers money and start your real estate lead generation efforts right…with more leads. Real Estate Lead Gen through weekly updates messagesDo you want to keep your current/past customers more informed and attract new customers by providing valuable market information that will keep them interested and excited about new opportunities?Use your My Agent Phone system to record weekly, customer messages and "potential customer" messages and then include in all of your marketing material the potential customer phone extension so they can call in at their leisure to listen to your weekly tips, tricks and suggestions. It’s an outstanding method of keeping in touch with your potential clients and building a respect and appreciation for your services. It is also an outstanding way to keep your existing and former clients informed on the market conditions and potential investment opportunities that you may want to offer them first. Real Estate Lead Generation is about asking for the Lead, always remember to end your recordings with a simple lead request…”as always, leave a message if you are ready to buy or sell your home, or know of someone that we can provide excellent service to.” You may just generate real estate leads without any work…other than a recording. Oh, and don’t forget…you can track an monitor all of the call-ins. Home Pricing based on DemandAnother great feature of the My Agent Phone system is the ability to use it’s tracking features to define new potential markets, determine the best property listing price and obviously decide which marketing method works best for a product type or market.Simply start using you’re My Agent Phone system to monitor everything you do with your company. Track performance before and after each marketing campaign. Try not to overlap campaigns unless you are providing a different number or extension with each campaign. You will find that over time, and with each campaign you will be able to make informed decisions because you will have detailed reports showing where people are calling from (based on their area codes), what properties are hot, what marketing efforts are most effective and then you will be able to make informed real estate lead generation decisions based on real statistics you have from actual callers. You can also use all of those callers to help build new marketing efforts through predictive dialers, new recording offerings and targeted recordings based on the success of shorter or longer recordings. Start your real estate lead generation efforts on the right foot…or improve your existing real estate lead gen initiatives by tracking and building new marketing offerings with the My Agent Phone talking propertyTM, or recorded message services. Make your Business Card a Real Estate Lead GeneratorUse your business cards as a real estate lead gen system. Simply print on the back of your business cards your 800 number & 2 extensions…one for Top 10 Tips for Buyers and another for Top 10 Tips for Sellers. Use the recorded messages as a tool to generate more real estate leads. Ever y time someone calls in, you’ll know which line they called, who called, when and how to contact them (and possibly they could leave a message). You never know what kind of real estate leads you can generate through a business card, especially when you hand out a few at a time so people can give them to their friends. You’ve heard the motto, Always Be Closing. You need to be continually thinking; Always Be Generating A Lead…while you’re always closing. ?While we’re on the Business Card topic; remember with you’re My Agent Phone 800 number you only need to give out ONE number because it will route everything to you. No more Cell Phone, Home Phone, Business, Direct Line, Voicemail, Fax, Pager; it’s ALL ONE NUMBER with My Agent Phone. Yes, even faxes go to your 800 number…and then you can download them as PDF files. Simplify your telecommunication requirements, streamline your customer experience and attract more customers by providing customized recordings that let people call in, just to listen and learn. All of it traceable and with complete reporting. Real Estate Lead Generation has never been simpler or more powerful. Real Estate Lead Generation through Mortgage Brokers/AgentsGood Karma is what makes the world a better place. Here is a way for you to generate some good Karma, while generating a tremendous amount of leads, or help your mortgage brokers/associates do the same, in exchange for some good referrals.First of all, go through all of your contacts to determine anyone you know, or may be affiliated with in the mortgage industry. Give them a buzz and say "hey, I have a new way of generating a good amount of well qualified leads, let me know if you’re interested and I’ll fill you in on it; but you have to throw me any of the Real Estate leads you get out of it." Let them use your 800 number (or you pay for another one, just for them) and you’ll have complete access to the leads they are generating because you’ll get all the names and numbers. Anyone who can help you generate Real Estate Leads should be given the full pitch as to why this system is so powerful for their business (Mortgage brokers are key, since they’re in the same sector), here are the bullet points you use when you talk to them... Remember, all you have to do is get them interested enough to hop on a call with us (My Agent Phone) and we’ll close the deal. Fill them in on the following features and they’ll be sold: * did you know that about one in every three people that call in about your advertising call before 8am or after 5pm…and I bet you’re not getting that many voice messages. * I am using the My Agent Phone system which gives me 24 hour verbal and fax information, you could use this to give 24 hour mortgage tips, lending information and assurance that you can help someone. * You can setup the system with follow me rules so you never miss a call...if you want them. * You also get caller ID information from EVERY call in, so you never miss a potential lead, even if your follow me rules have you away from a phone. * Set up extensions for each advertising campaign so you can really track the effectiveness of your campaigns * Record weekly, daily or quarterly messages that you can use in your advertising and marketing efforts to educate and provide market conditions to potential buyers and sellers alike. * Get your voice messages emailed to you, or get a page any time a new message arrives. * Use the 800 number and extension on all of your advertising, marketing and promotional material, including your business cards. * Simplify everyone’s life by giving out one number which does everything (phone, fax, direct line, pager, cell phone, etc.) * Look more professional and give your potential customers/clients a toll free number, instead of making them pay for the call. * Add an "Instant Connect" link to your website; to connect immediately to you. * Record testimonial calls with the press of a button...no need to transcribe or try and write down what they’re saying while they’re on the line. * Spend more time closing deals and less time at the office trying to follow up on phone calls or check voicemail. * This is only the start...when do you want to talk with my buddy over at My Agent Phone, he can walk you through the rest and show you how powerful this really is. * Just FYI, I know a few other people are doing this..so you should get on now before this becomes as pervasive as the cell phone…when are you free? Selling the Seller; acquiring sellers in 15 minutes or lessHere’s an easy way to close almost every seller appointment you have in 15 minutes or less.Before the meeting, put together your standard packet, including what time of marketing/advertising you do for the seller. Print out a sample sign with your 800 number on it, with a temporary extension that you’re going to set up for them. Setup a temporary voice recording that fully describes their listing (as best you can before the meeting), throw in some background music for that extra flare. Print out a few sample reports from some of your better performing listings. When you get to the meeting, zip through your regular presentation, let them know that you’ve pretty much covered the same thing they’re going to hear from all the other real estate agents then… Now let me show you why I’m your best candidate, because I go way beyond what your average realtor can even come close to.” First, show them the sign your created Ask them to call the number When they call, they’ll hear the whole recording. Now have them call again and this time press your extension Explain to them that you have a cutting-edge phone system that makes sure you never miss a call because it forwards to your cell, car, home, pager and finally sends an MP3 message to your email and/or PDA. Then go over some of the other features you use to help close deals, like the call logs, the faxing services and the online “Call Me Now” feature. Then wrap it up...I’m sure you’ll have plenty of realtors present their plan to you but I’m not aware of anyone that is using this type of cutting edge technology and constant contact to ensure your property sells at the top price and as quickly as possible…here’s the agreement, what would you like to go over?” Real Estate Lead Generation Up 300%; Advertising Costs Down 40%Yea, sounds like a ridiculous headline but the reality is our customers can get this type of improved real estate lead generation traffic in a matter of days using the My Agent Phone system.Here’s how it worksFirst, take your existing ad budget, reduce your lowest performing ads by $50 per month.Now let me show you how you’re going to use that $50 to generate up to 500% more leads. Go to: http://www.MyAgentPhone.com sign up for the unlimited plan Invest a few bucks in printable yard signs, or buy some long & wide stickers to put your new 800 number on your existing signs. OK, now let’s generate a ridiculous amount of leads When you set up your phone system, be sure to record voice messages for each of your current properties and also record voice messages for your listing appointments for the coming week (these are just temporary messages until you land their listing). Here is what you need to record on the property listings: "Thank you for calling Your Company, we’re pleased to be listing this incredible property located at Address, and City. The home is currently listed at $__________ and features (fill in the listing information here" be sure to provide all of the details so they don’t feel like you’re trying to get them to call for the rest of the information). If you would like to find out more information or schedule a walk through, please leave a message now. Throw in any type of sales and marketing information you can or local information that may help improve the decision making process for those who call in. Follow me for a moment now... When was the last time you went house shopping...or shopping in general. What do you do when you’re just shopping and a salesperson comes up to you (no matter how friendly they are)? If you’re like almost everyone in the world you’ll throw out a "oh, just looking." Even though the truth is that if you find what you’re looking for, at the price you want; you would buy. Have you ever stood outside or tried to watch how many people slow down or take a flier for your properties? Much less, have you ever tried to figure out how many people seem interested but you never hear from them? How many of them simply don’t call because they don’t want the hard-sale or sales pitch at all? Let me guess, probably the vast majority of them. This is where you multiply your leads by 500-fold. Now you can use your Toll Free, 800 number to showcase all of your properties and let people find out all of the information they want without the fear of a hard sale…or a salesperson at all. My Agent Phone’s Talking PropertyTM is your answer! Now you can easily generate several times your current lead volume without scaring, interacting or even pitching all of those passers-by. That’s right, you don’t even have to try and "pitch" anything on your voice recordings, simply give them the listing information and the most friendly-sounding voice they’ve ever heard. ? You see, whether they leave you a message or not, they’re still your lead because EVERY person that calls your 800 number is recorded and, if available, their name as well. You now generate leads EVERY time someone calls your 800 number. There is no real estate lead generation tool on the market this powerful,at least not that I’m aware of.With the My Agent Phone system you don’t have to try and get people to come to the showing, aggressively pitch people over the phone or scare people away that just want information. Now EVERYONE that wants to will interact with your company, your brand and your properties. Every single time you generate a new real estate lead; now you can follow up later to find out what they are looking for and become the consultive real estate agent they’ve been waiting for. Streamline Your Real Estate Lead GenerationThere are plenty of reasons why you are losing leads every hour right now; * You are only open 8 or 9 to 5. How many people are you losing during your off hours because they don’t want to leave a message? * You use signs trying to get people to come see a listing that means they have to stop, come in and hope the open house is…open. * Your advertising is driving people to your properties, website, open house or phone number, that means they have to go somewhere, find you online and find what they are looking for, or have to call and talk to someone. * Reaching 20% of your potential market when (according to the Direct Marketing Association) over 80% of consumers would prefer recorded information instead of talking to a sales person. * Hindering the impulsive shopper.Your current real estate advertising and lead generation methods may be bringing in some traffic but think about what will happen when you remove all of the barriers for the potential real estate leads that see your information, properties, ads or promotions. That is EXACTLY what the My Agent Phone system will do for you. The amazing thing is, this is only one of the dozens of features included in you’re My Agent Phone service, and the rest can save you by drastically reducing your costs and simplifying your communication with customers, employees, partners and associates. * Auto Attendant Extension-to-extension dialing * Toll-free number PC-based call manager * Company directory Call / voicemail notification * Phone or Web-based voicemail Extension mailboxes * Receive multiple faxes Direct call-back * 3-way conference calling Fax mail * Call screening Unblock ALL callerID, even unlisted numbers * Voicemail forwarding Multi-user extensions (setup queues) * Web-based address book Web-based control panel * Multiple calls waiting Follow me rules * Caller ID / Call waiting (UNBLOCKED) Interactive hold music If you haven’t already signed up - http://www.MyAgentPhone.com888-827-0607Proper DisclosureI was reading a few blog sites today and ended up at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (www.namb.org) homepage where I found a press release on what seems to be the 'talk of the town.'"NAMB to Senate Banking Committee: Disclosure is Cure for Payment Shock" was the headline (here's the press release; https://www.namb.org/namb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=160&SnID=1340615025 The last line of the press release is the President of the NAMB, Harry Dinham, speaking to the Senate about the housing market and helping create more controls to ensure home owners are able to maintain their property. Mr. Dinham said, "We have achieved record rates of homeownership in this country," said Dinham. "It is now up to government, our industry and consumers to work together and ensure that Americans are able to hold onto the homes that they have worked so hard to purchase." I read several articles and blogs by people that weren't quite as positive about the whole Senate review but the bottom line of the Press Release and several of the blogs I've been reading was this; ONE: Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate professionals need to be forthright about everything going on in their loans and deals, no "side contracts." TWO: Home ownership is still the American dream and something that some people work very hard to achieve, once someone purchase a home there needs to be controls in place to help protect the homeowner from foreclosure because they were not made aware of 100% of the costs of their new home. Finally, the government needs to step in and be more watchful of the industry in order to ensure the sustainability of home ownership by monitoring the full-disclosure to home buyers prior to closing on a purchase. Every American that is working toward owning a home will love to hear this and can only look forward to the government's assistance in ensuring the viability of homeownership through full-disclosures. I found that those "bending the rules" and/or using "side contracts" to close a loan are the biggest opponents of any government intervention in the real estate transaction process. I'm not a big fan of the government interfering with business, in general, but hopefully with the help of the NAMB and other trade associations, a solution can be made which helps protect the new home buyer from over buying and allows more hard working residents to achieve the American Dream, owning their own home. What are your thoughts on the subject? blog me back. DZ Maintaining a Mortgage Broker PipelineThe mortgage business is all about relationships, primarily your relationship with potential homebuyers but also your relationship with real estate agents that may be able to feed you new potential homebuyers.I travel all over the U.S. these days and the more people I talk to, the more I find that relationship building is the key to most business, but is essential in the mortgage business. Here are a couple of things I've found, talking to a number of mortgage brokers, which are keeping them on the top performer's list month-after-month. They simply offer mortgage brokers or "for sale by owner" consumers the free 24-hour recorded call service. First, "FREE" sells. Putting "FREE information available 24-hours a day" on a yard sign, ad or other marketing material will get you results. If you are using the My Agent Phone system which will get the caller-id info from every call, you're getting a new lead every time someone calls in to your 800 number. FREE always attracts more traffic and gives you an opportunity to pitch, on a recorded call, to those that are on the fence or those that would have never called otherwise. With My Agent Phone you may also have the opportunity to pitch them later as well, if you decide to call all of your in-coming callers. Second, 24-hours can almost double your response rates. I can't tell you how many people I hear this from. By simply offering a 24-hour recorded message service you can see a tremendous amount of traffic and activity on every campaign. Why, because a large number of potential customers are shopping before 8am and after 5pm. Now potential customers will have every reason to find out more about a property or listing through a non-invasive, recorded message. This brings me to the last point, removing the invasive hurdle that keeps most potential customers from contacting or interacting with a potential offer. A recorded message is a huge stepping stone for anyone that is afraid or not interested enough to make the extra effort of talking to a broker or other person. Now you can interact with everyone, without scaring people away. Now that you have all this extra traffic contacting you, or interacting with you, what should you do with it? You obviously must provide what the people are looking for, give them the recorded call that they expect. Make sure you are providing the service they want and will need to know. Then you have the opportunity to educate these callers about your company, experience and you can even leave your expert opinion about which products may be best for the potential customers. Then in closing, leave them with more options to find out The Best Ways to Sell Your Home, Top 10 Home Improvements, a brief summary of the hottest mortgage products, hot properties or areas to buy & sell, etc. Give them the opportunity to spend several minutes in your phone system (which you can see in your reporting) listening to local information about the schools, industry, growth-rates, census info and any other helpful information. The longer you keep them interested and feed them with pertinent information the more they are going to trust you, look to you for information and the more you are going to be known as the source for information and mortgages. Giving away something, for nothing has proven to be a tremendous lead source and lead generating tool for a lot of mortgage brokers. Give it a shot. Oh, before I forget…this isn't just for mortgage brokers, I have heard of developers doing the exact same thing to pre-sell out developments, insurance and other service providers using the service to help generate leads and sales that they otherwise may not have attracted. Why not offer these other types of companies and industries access to your Toll Free 800 number so that they can offer the same informative and valuable information to their potential customers. The whole time, you will be collecting caller information, usage statistics (what they're listening to) and new potential customers or leads for your own business. You can then cater your offering to these newly acquired leads based on their interest in calling. There are very few marketing and advertising tools that I have heard of that can almost double (30-50%) your response rates and traffic almost overnight. If you are not using My Agent Phone now, you need to because your competition is probably already looking in to it. Best wishes, DZ Real Estate RealityI'm in Orange County, California as I'm sure I've mentioned in the past. I read, just like the rest of you all of the articles and news about all of the sub-prime mortgage companies going out of business, I see some of the fears and trepidation that is out there on the market today.Let me just start buy saying, in some areas this market correction may be real and something to watch out for. With that said, I'm in one of the biggest markets in the US and according to MSNBC and CNN a "bubble-proof" market. In Southern California, homes haven't depreciated since the early 1900's, or at least that's what I've read. First and foremost, we must be beacons of hope, consultative sales people, providing customers with the most useful and fitting property for their needs and budget. There is plenty of opportunity right now, help your customers find the fit they are looking for and assist them in getting the best offer possible. While the sub-prime mortgage industry goes through change, remember there will always be lenders and business for good and prime credit holders. Target your marketing to people with higher credit or focus your "listing" marketing to the sub-prime market and watch how many people start listing with you. Every market has it's ups and downs, this is a matter of us keeping the market strong and stable by maintaining the best prices possible for our listings and helping our buyers work the best possible opportunity while maintaining a positive approach to the market. I know several people that have their home(s) on the market, or are looking for a home right now. They're not worried about the market or concerned with the sub-prime shake-down because this is property and property appreciates over time. Those of you looking at extremely short-term investments are probably a little frightened right now but those long-term investors are in heaven right now. It's a great time to invest. Keep up the good work, DZ Damien:This is an email I received from one of our partners, Mark Priegel of www.GotOCHomes.com, I thought I'd share it with you...hope you enjoy and appreciate some of his innovative uses of our systemI wanted to let you know how much I appreciate my strategic partnership with My Agent Phone. Every property my Team is involved with gets its own 1888 Info Line number, Recording, Fax Response and Advertising using this number. Each time our one of the Realtors on our Team does an Open House they get the leads from that property for the following week. Yes, they are extremely motivated to do Open Houses we have listed. We also do marketing for properties listed by Keller Williams Agents that are out of the area. This way we are one step closer to getting the listing ourselves, we control all the open houses and leads generated from them (buyers rule now), we control the local marketing ads and websites, we get all the sign calls, and we insure that the MLS information is accurate. We have found that 90% of listings taken by out of the area agents have errors. These agents are more that happy to let us market these properties because we can respond quickly to buyers calling the 1-888 InfoLine number in front of the home now, wanting to see it now. We recently had a National Open House Event with Wachovia Bank were we advertised the 1888 InfoLine number in the ad. The Fax back feature was used to fax information on the home and how to find the home with a map. The Recording advertised the event and provided a cell phone number for additional info or a direct response right to the agent onsite. I've provided a link to the ad in the OCRegister for you to see. The property is the one on Rangoon in Mission Viejo. This resulted in a call indicating that we will be getting an offer later this week. http://www.OCRegister.com/ads/Wachovia/ The agents on my Team are introduced to the benefits of the 1888InfoLine from the beginning and encouraged to get one later when they get their own listings outside of our Team Listings. They are shown that having a sign rider on the listing sign shows the rest of the neighborhood there is an additional benefit to listing with us and we are frequently asked to explain how it works. We also can see and show these other prospects how the other agents with listings in that neighborhood don't have this advantage. We always set up individual websites on the listings with sign riders, so now we have two things people ask us about that we offer above an beyond the other agents. There are more but these are two very visible differences that no one would want to be without once they hear about our Teams advantages. During the Listing Appointment we demonstrate how these features work. Amazingly, the third item that we mention is that we are probably the only agent competing for the listing that have actually seem all of the other homes currently listed in the neighborhood. Every item we mention is converted into a benefit to the home seller who is shown how the whole technology marketing is used to sell their home first, for more, in the shortest possible time. I have given classes at Keller Williams showing how the My Agent Phone program is used and why it is so important with actual reports, properties, recordings and faxes. Agents need to see it, then see it again and then use it to see the program and how it really works. Gregg Dunham has been great in his support of us at Keller Williams and currently has some new signs for us to use in what we call our Keller Williams Premier Property Marketing Program. We probably should all meet to see how we can enhance the program further and for me to get more ideas on utilizing the program in areas I currently do not. I would be happy to support you with presentations in Keller Williams offices in our area or in calls as a reference. My most current referrals to you are the guys at Wachovia Bank that I recently did the Open House event with. Here are their names for you to contact. I have indicated that the best way to get real estate agents to work with them is to jointly market properties that they can offer an 1-888Info Line to cover. They can also go after FSBO's themselves and offer these to other agents. There is an entire strategy they can use to go after more business using your company's advantages. Slobodan Simikic, Mortgage Consultant 949-609-1378 David Schwartz, Mortgage Consultant 949-609-1362. Thank you for your continued support. You have my permission to use any or all of this testimonial at your own discretion. Sincerely, Mark Priegel www.gotochomes.com |
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