Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Geek Estate & Topics for Newsletter #13

The purpose of Geek Estate’s private community is two fold:

  1. Curate the most incredible and diverse membership of real estate creatives, doers, and creators in the world.
  2. Make our members wildly successful in their careers building real estate companies.

Members pay a $97 quarterly membership fee. Being a paid community means we can operate without the sales pitches and noise you’ll find in every free community. We save members time by surfacing relevant tips, news, products, strategies, etc without the need to filter through everything yourself. In short, we curate the best of real estate technology for you. For one perspective from a member, have a read through Jennifer’s interview here.

The community consists of a private Facebook group & email newsletter (note many of the longer strategy/trend thought pieces I used to write publicly are now in the newsletter), and member companies receive one promo (such as a job opportunity or product/service special offer) per quarter on this blog.

I sent out newsletter #13 on Monday, here’s the topics I touched on:

  • In person meetup #1 in NYC (which was last week!!)
  • Amazon Go
  • Blockchain / Crypto / Bitcoin

I met numerous amazing potential members last week in New York, and look forward to adding many very interesting perspectives to the community in 2018.

Geek Estate Membership

Interested in joining?

The post Geek Estate & Topics for Newsletter #13 appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.



from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/geek-estate-topics-newsletter-13/

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

The Rental Girl Puts the “Art” in “Heart”

It’s February, the month of love. So, come spend a night under the stars for this month’s installation of the NELA Art Walk Gallery Night and fall in love with some local art. After all, you can’t spell “heart” without “art.”

As we have every month since the summer, The Rental Girl will be doing its part for this local treat, which has proven to be a fun time for all: shoppers, artists, musicians, wine enthusiasts, and local revelers alike. This month’s theme is Erotic Art, and while it is all tasteful, feel free to leave the little ones at home, and make it a legitimate date night! <br><br> from theokbrowne digest http://rentinginla.com/rental-girl-puts-art-heart/<br>

Generate Winter Seller Leads Using this Data (Who Says You Can’t Sell in the Cold?)

winter seller leads - they are out thereWinter seller leads – is that a thing? Some call it the “off-season” for real estate, but successful agents know better – winter is a kick-hiney season to sell a home.

If you aren’t telling potential clients about the winter advantage – right now – you will have an off-season for the rest of winter.

The numbers don’t lie

NAR statistics tell us that fewer homes sell in winter than in spring. Their studies show that in November, home sales slide about 8 percent. In January, they slide even more – 27 percent to be exact.

These numbers make sense: fewer homes are on the market, so naturally, fewer homes sell

The media then steps in and trumpets these statistics, adding their own take on why this is so. If they told the whole truth, or a clue about the housing market in general, I have a feeling we’d have far more winter clients. You can use this data to generate winter seller leads – and even better, winter listings!

What is the whole truth?

winter sellers leads - houses sell in winter

Homes are more likely to sell in winter than at any other time of year

Not only that, they sell quicker and they sell for more money. These statistics hold, at various percentages, whether the home is in balmy San Diego, CA or snowy Washington D.C.

In fact, according to a late 2013 study, the likelihood of selling a D.C. home within six months in the winter is 67 percent, but it’s only 57 percent in summer and 60 percent in spring.

NAR does us no favors by claiming that the reason for the winter sales slump is because of January’s “cold, dark weather” across most of the country.

Sure, that may be part of the reason, but most of the slide in sales can be attributed to the media helping to form public perception that winter is a horrible month for real estate deals.

Less competition from other sellers

“Just your luck — you have to sell your home in winter, the slowest and dreariest sales season of all,” begins a column on winter selling from USA Today.

“Winter can be the toughest season to put a house on the market,” claims a writer at Fox News before he goes on to give us tips to increase our “chances of a winter sale.”

Naturally, homeowners read these news items and form an opinion that selling during winter is a stupid idea and and decide to hold out until spring.

Worse yet are the homeowners who take their homes off the market as winter approaches, aiming to re-list in spring

Sadly, by not selling during winter, they may be missing a prime opportunity to finally get the home sold and for top dollar.

Because other homeowners took the media bait, there is far less competition for those who do list and homeowners are definitely in the driver’s seat in a winter transaction.

Buyers are more motivated

What would motivate someone to buy a house in the dead of winter, especially in areas with wicked weather?

Job transfers are high on the list of reasons, so if you practice real estate in an area that receives large influxes of transferees, winter is an even better time to sell.

‘It’s true that if your home isn’t on the market in winter, the new Microsoft manager relocating from CA won’t see it and will thus buy another home,” agrees Seattle agent and broker Sam DeBord at seattlepi. com.

“But that same situation for a home seller who is on the market is magnified. Your competition is nowhere to be seen,” he continues.

“While the buyer may have had 30 homes to choose from in June, there may only be 10 homes that fit their criteria in January. If they are motivated to buy, they will choose one of those 10 homes.”

Spread the word

Do your prospective sellers know the winter real estate secret?

Late summer is the best time to let them know, but it’s never too late. With the right positioning, you can turn winter seller leads into winter solds!

Someone out there may be fence-sitting, waiting for spring – generate winter seller leads 

One of the best ways to get the word out about selling during winter is via your blog, on social media postcards or newsletter. You can also generate winter seller leads throughout the year as you speak with potential sellers.

The call to action? That depends on the time of year.

Even though they won’t be listing until winter, urge folks in spring or summer to take advantage of free “green photography”, snapping the marketing photos for the property while the sky is still blue and the trees still have their leaves.

winter seller leads - takes pictures in the summer!Even California has deciduous trees and flowering perennials that look much better then than they will in a few months.

Winter doesn’t have to be the “off season,” but it takes agents educating homeowners about the benefits of selling during the year’s final season to make that apparent.

Bust the winter selling myth and bash the media’s ill-conceived perceptions – you can generate winter sellers leads. Tell us – what’s working for you?

Learn more about getting real estate leads online!

The post Generate Winter Seller Leads Using this Data (Who Says You Can’t Sell in the Cold?) appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.



from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/blog/winter-seller-leads/

The Top 10 Real Estate Websites…what they know that you don’t

 

 


What do the top 10 real estate websites know that you don’t?

In this blog post, I’m going to break down the biggest real estate websites into bite-sized marketing take-aways for agents. We’ll start by looking at how much traffic each of these top 10 real estate websites gets. And end by examining how they get those results.

At the end of each section, I’ll wrap things up by giving you a take away to improve your real estate website.

 

Remember that:

Steel Sharpens Steel

Like we talked about in our post on ‘The Best Presidential Candidate Websites’, you need to study GREAT websites to generate more leads from your own website. So today, we’ll be looking at the top 10 real estate websites. And they are:

  1. Zillow
  2. Trulia
  3. KW
  4. Realtor
  5. Redfin
  6. Coldwell
  7. Homes.com
  8. REMAX
  9. Movot
  10. Craigslist

 

Let’s get into it…

 

Traffic Secrets

How many visitors do these sites get?

When it comes to the top 10 real estate websites, they actually get dramatically different amounts of traffic. I’ve gone ahead and charted the data from these websites as provided by Similar Web.

Here is how the visitors to these websites stack up:

top real estate websites

As you can see, Zillow has a huge lead on nearly everyone else. Zillow is getting nearly 164 million visits per month. We’ll break down exactly how they are getting this amount of traffic below.

But for now, just look at the differences between these top 10 real estate websites in terms of traffic.

It’ll help you understand how different things you do on your site improve or decrease the amount of traffic you end up getting.

The data:

  • Zillow: 164,100,000
  • Trulia: 63,200,000
  • KW: 3,000,000
  • Realtor: 56,200,000
  • Redfin: 23,700,000
  • Coldwell: 1,500,000
  • Homes.com: 16,900,000
  • REMAX: 5,800,000
  • Movoto: 6,800,000

 

Key Take Away

The top real estate websites obtain millions of visitors from your market every month. The traffic is out there. You just need to discover a way to access it.

 

 

Sources Of Traffic

Where do these people come from? And how we can reverse engineer the results?

The first thing we can learn from these massive real estate websites is where they get their traffic.

Let’s look at two different scenarios from our 120,000 visitors a month at Easy Agent Pro:

Traffic from social for a newer post

top 10 real estate websites

Traffic from Google for an older post

top 10 real estate websites

 

Do you see how the Google traffic escalates with time? And the social media traffic dies away with time?

This is a key difference in the rewards for certain types of marketing. If you focus on Google traffic, your website increases in value over time. If you focus on social media, the time you’ve spent decreases in value over time.

 

Now, let’s look at where most of these websites get their traffic from:

top 10 real estate websites

What you see here is that the majority of the traffic to these websites is not from social media or advertising…

They get their traffic from showing up in search results. And that’s really not a shock. Look at these results:

Dallas Real Estate

dallas_real_estate_-_Google_Search

San Diego Real Estate

san_diego_real_estate_-_Google_Search

Orlando Real Estate

orlando_real_estate_-_Google_Search

As you can see, Google rankings are the key to success for most of these big websites. They rely on this traffic source to maintain their advantage.

But how do they do this?

The next three points will show you how blogs, Google and Facebook play into getting this amount of traffic.

But it’s sufficient to say that you need to focus on Google and SEO to create a site that feeds you leads in the future.

Key Take Away

Social media gets you an initial traffic boost. But Google traffic sustains your site well into the future.

Do Blogs Matter?

How often do these sites publish blogs? 

The first thing we learned from these websites is that they tend to focus on Google as a traffic source. And Google loves fresh content on websites.

It’s quite telling that all of these sites publish at least 2 blog posts per week on their sites. The bigger sites even publish more than 10 posts per week.

Here is an analysis of the number of blogs published per week:

Untitled

As you can see, there is a very strong correlation between these sites publishing content and them getting traffic. The blogs act as a constant update to the website. And get a little bit of traffic from social media.

Additionally, blog posts are an excellent way to get traffic from Google keywords not related to looking at homes. For example, look at this keyword “first time home buyers guide”:

Top 10 real estate websites

The Top Real Estate Websites realize that it’s the blogs that provide the initial inertia for their Google rankings. The thing is most agents will look at this and then despair. They’ll think, “I can’t blog that much!”  And that’s fine if you can’t. You can actually purchase real estate blogs to supplement whatever you can do yourself.

Key Take Away

Blogging once per week is almost a requirement to get significant traffic from Google.

Google’s Still King

Here’s why…

What we saw above is that most of the Top 10 real estate websites get their traffic from Google.

And you may think:

“How can I compete with them in Google?”

There is actually a really easy way to compete with these big websites in Google. It’s called Keyword Stacking.

Here’s how it works:

facebook_real_estate_-_Google_Drawings

 

When it comes to keyword stacking, you have to create a bunch of pages for super small keywords first. These can be areas like new home builder communities, or small neighborhood names. You typically can target things like condos or other words that haven’t quite made their way into the mainstream.

These words are easy to get on the first page of Google.

 

 

Next, you want to work your way up the ladder.

Wondering what these pages should look like? Check out our InstaFarm pages…

 

Key Take Away

You need to target small keywords first. And then stack them on top of each other to compete with these top 10 real estate website. Done correctly, you can start to outrank some of these big sites within 6-12 months.

Ignore Facebook?

Let’s look at the Facebook pages of these major websites…

real_estate_top_real_estate_websites_-_Google_Drawings

The thing with Facebook pages is that there is terrible engagement there these days. Yes, you need a Facebook page. But it’s there mostly for your advertising budget.

These websites use Facebook as an advertising tool primarily. You can see the 16 ads Zillow is running right here.

They don’t depend on their audience to engage with them in order for their business to succeed. They rely on Google to send traffic to their website.

If you focus on Google first and social media traffic second, you should see an exponential line of traffic growth start to appear on your real estate website.

Hopefully this analysis of the top 10 real estate websites has been helpful for you. And you’ve taken something away from it for your own website.

Want More Ideas About Real Estate Websites? Check Out These Articles:

53 Ways To Generate Real Estate Leads with 1 Secret That Will Blow Your Mind!

Real Estate Lead Generation is a MONSTER topic in online.

Yes – we know. How to generate those sweet leads is what agents want to know. “Can I do real estate lead generation online” is the question we hear at EasyAgentPRO the most.
The answer is ‘Yes’ and this post will help you get started. So, we’re going to break down a major social media lean secret at the beginning and then lay out another 52 ideas that you can use on top of those.

Real Estate is a super competitive, tough industry.

Your competition is always growing and can steal business from you if you aren’t staying on top of your game.

We’ve tried to make it easy for you to plan your marketing efforts and dominate in your community. The first step to any sort of online Lead Generation in Real Estate is having a blog or website that is setup for success.

We make that easy with our LeadSites.  These sites are setup to handle blogging, seo, social media, and more for you! They make it easy for you to manage your business and generate more leads.

Ready to unlock the power of LeadSites?

CLICK HERE for a free demo and exclusive BONUS!

generate real estate leads

HERE’S THE SUPER DUPER TOP SECRET MARKETING TECHNIQUE OF THE WEEK:

 

Generate Real Estate Leads Through LinkedIn Crawling

There is a cool feature on LinkedIn that is rarely used.

Have you ever gotten an email from LinkedIn with everyone who has viewed your profile in the past 7 days?  You probably have. These emails go out weekly to everyone who’s signed up for Linkedin.

The best part? LinkedIn has a great target demographic.

Most of the individuals on there have professional careers and are likely home buyers and sellers.

What if your name and face could go out each and every week to individuals on LinkedIn?

Well, it can! I call this “LinkedIn Crawling” What is LinkedIn crawling you ask? Well it is where my computer automatically visits 400 profiles of target customers in one day. This means 400 people a day are notified that about me.

That’s 400 people that had no idea that I existed seeing my profile and maybe even my website.

That’s powerful.

But it doesn’t stop there. About 2-4% of these individuals will reach out and connect with you! I’ve seen this number get as high as 8%. The percentage really depends on the target audience you’re facing.

How do we generate real estate leads from LinkedIn crawling?

1. You need to use Google Chrome and download the extension “LinkClump”

2. You need to setup the extension to open up links in new tabs while holding the shift key

3. Head over to a LinkedIn group that has your target audience in it.

4. Go to the members section and drag your mouse over all the links while holding shift.

5. This will open up all their profiles. Now, you just have to do 10 more pages!

generate real estate leads

 

So what? How will this help generate leads?

Well, 400 people will see your name.

You should change your profile to invite people to connect with you. Also, I’d connect with people that just look back at your profile.

Finally, suggest getting coffee with every single person that connects with you via this method.

They already know you’re a Realtor. So just show up and have coffee with them.

You’ll add so many people to your rolodex this way!

 

Want More Ways To Generate Real Estate Leads?

Sometimes we just need a little inspiration to get our marketing going.

Here at Easy Agent Pro we are always brain storming marketing ideas. This LinkedIn method will generate real estate leads amazingly for you. But maybe you aren’t THAT comfortable with LinkedIn.

That’s ok.

We’ve made a list to help you ALWAYS have ideas at your disposal. You never know when you’ll need to generate real estate leads.

Here’s a way I’m Generating $2.00 Motivated Seller Leads With YouTube

generate real estate leads for the win

 

Here are 52 Ideas to Generate Real Estate Leads:

 

 

 

  • Sit on a board of a local organization.

 

 

  • Volunteer at a big event.

 

 

  • Theme your month’s marketing promotions around big events. (Examples: Breast Cancer Awareness, Presidents Day, ect)

 

 

  • Sponsor a class at an under-funded school.

 

 

  • Organize a group of business owners and hold a fundraiser.

 

 

  • Host a silent auction at a house and give the money to charity.

 

 

  • Start a Meetup.com group.

 

 

  • Start a LinkedIn group and post original thoughts in it daily with a minimum of 300 words.

 

 

  • Start blogging daily and challenge yourself to make each post better than the previous post.

 

 

  • Buy breakfast for the local firefighters.

 

And More
  • Organize a neighborhood safety awareness program.

 

 

  • End all of your cold calls asking people what you can do for them.

 

 

  • Post flyers on the doors of every house in the neighborhood.

 

Take a Breath – Now, Here are MORE Ideas
  • Take out an ad in the local newspaper.

 

 

  • Sponsor a teacher’s lounge food party on parent-teacher night.

 

 

  • Give away post-it’s with your name on it.

 

 

  • Hand out business cards wherever you go.

 

 

  • Hand out pens as well. These actually stay with people longer

 

 

  • Host a block party for locals.

 

 

  • Figure out how much an email address and phone number is worth to you. (marketing plan) And pass out gift cards in front of Home Depot for less than that number.

 

 

  • Use Bufferapp to schedule more social media posts.

 

 

  • Hold competitions on social media.

 

 

  • Start a social media channel based around houses in the area.

 

 

  • Generate Real Estate Leads by calling past clients for referrals.

 

And More

  • Speak at local high schools during career days.

 

 

  • Speak at local elementary schools and parents will see you. This helps generate real estate leads.

 

 

  • Help any college courses related to real estate.

 

 

  • For any of the above educational related activities, try to get a link to your website from theirs.

 

 

  • Record any speaking engagements and post it on youtube.
Not Done Yet – Even MORE Ideas
  • Build up backlinks to your website until you have a DA and PA of 30. This will generate real estate leads through search engines.

 

 

  • Hire cold callers off of oDesk to do calling for you.

 

 

  • Hire graphic designers off of Upwork to freshen up your website.

 

 

  • Have 1000 words of original and keyword optimized (I recommend 1% KW saturation) content on every page of your website.

 

 

  • Make more pages on your website and have each page target a different neighborhood nearby you.

 

 

  • Make helpful video content about buying homes in neighborhoods you service.

 

 

  • Make sure you are easily findable on all map applications. Search for yourself on Google Maps and Mapquest.

 

 

  • Sponsor a local soccer team.

 

 

  • Sponsor a local school music program.

 

 

  • Learn a new social network. Pick a network and spend 1 hour a day on it. Always ask, how can I provide value to get value.

 

 

  • Sponsor an animal shelter. People who buy pets usually fall into a similar demographic as home owners.

 

 

  • Co-brand with another local business owner.

 

 

  • Start an email marketing campaign and do not talk about real estate. Ever. Only offer free value to your subscribers.

 

 

  • Find an icon in the real estate world and copy their marketing

 

Getting Excited Yet? Just a few MORE Ideas
  • Start a local mastermind group about marketing.

 

 

  • Place your logo on your call and include your phone number to generate real estate leads.

 

 

  • Ask for referrals at least 7 times.

 

 

  • Market to friends and family. They love you and will support you.

 

 

  • Always provide value for free to anyone that will take it.

 

 

  • Post content on your blog whenever you can.

 

 

  • Answer the phone in a professional manner.

 

 

 

Generate Real Estate Leads through any of these methods. And you will be successful.

The key is to picking one method and seeing it through until it is profitable.  It’s too easy as business owners to jump from one idea to the next. Focus is critical. Find success in one path and then build off of it during the next path.

Ready to unlock the power of LeadSites?

CLICK HERE for a free demo and exclusive BONUS!

Need More Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas? Check out these articles:

Check out these other awesome articles:

The post 53 Ways To Generate Real Estate Leads with 1 Secret That Will Blow Your Mind! appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.



from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/blog/generate-real-estate-leads/

200 Real Estate Marketing Ideas- It’s Time To Dominate

real estate marketing ideas

Real Estate Marketing Ideas are so hard to come up with when things aren’t going your way.  Maybe you’ve had a bad month. And are looking for ways to shake things up. This list will help get your juices flowing.

Don’t try to do everything on this list. Simply focus on doing what you do very well.

We’ve broken these down into “Traditional” and “Online” real estate marketing ideas. There are some sub-sections in each category as well.

 

You might also want to check out our real estate marketing toolbox.

Your marketing should never be ‘comfortable.’ Always look for ideas to grow what you are doing. Hopefully there will be a few things on this list of 200 real estate marketing ideas to spur you onward in your journey to be a better Realtor.

 

Here’s a quick video that explains how agents need to use all these real estate marketing ideas to form a better plan of attack:

 

Too often I see an agent pick up a marketing idea…take it for a test drive. And then stop.

That’s not how marketing works! Marketing works over time…with dedication to making the idea more effective.

 

These 200 marketing ideas should give you creative ways to grow your business. And unique insights for how to perform better in the long run.

 

 

Traditional Real Estate Marketing Ideas

real estate marketing ideas

Give Aways:

  1. Pop-by
    1. A great pop-by gift is a chocolate bar or a gift card. These types of random gifts gives you the ability to easily stop-by and visit someone without it being awkward.  They are a great way to nurture a new relationship.
  2. Free garage sale signs
    1. Offer free garage sale signs to neighbors in the spring.  You can even collect them back and reuse them year after year.  This will help out everyone in your neighborhood and easily get your name seen by many people.
  3. Volunteer
    1. This is a great way to meet new people. Be sure to start many conversations and talk about what you do.  The best way to utilize this strategy is to attend regularly.  Pick 1 or 2 organizations and commit to attending.
  4. Keychain tags
    1. This freebie is a fun way to keep your brand in front of many people for a low cost. Pass them out at a event you’re volunteering for or at conferences you attend.
  5. Hold Contests
    1. Contests are a great way to get information from a large swath of people. For added exposure, partner with another business in order to gain access to their customers.
  6. Enter Contests
    1. Entering contests gives you the chance to meet and talk with other business owners.  It will also give you good ideas for how to run and market your own contests.
  7. Give away freebies at open houses
    1. Be sure to thank people for visiting your open house by giving them something to remember that property.  Most people will visit multiple open houses. So make sure your freebie has your address on it.
  8. Give free bonuses for an error you’ve made
    1. Did you miss an appointment? Gift cards are a great way to apologize and show you care.
  9. Thank you gifts
    1. Thank you gifts are a good way to follow up unobtrusively with clients. This will out perform a lot of other real estate marketing ideas and help you stand out from the crowd.
  10. Luxury box at events
    1. You can invite friends and potential clients. The event provides a long time to bring up various business deals.
  11. Calendar
    1. Want to be in front of your clients all year round? Make a calendar that contains your business contact information. It’s a good idea to use pictures from you local community.
  12. Pens, Pencils, and Writing Give-Aways
    1. These simple give-aways are a must. They are very versatile and can be used in many situations.
  13. Home Makeovers Give
    1. Enter the people that give you referrals into a Room Makeover Lottery Pot.  You can set the max budget for the room makeover, and you’ll instantly have a referral program that’s different than your competitions.  You can also run a different type of contest where you award the person who has the best home makeover before and after photos with a gift card.

BONUS:

One of the best real estate marketing ideas is to have a solid, lead generating real estate website. If you haven’t seen them yet, check out LeadSites. These Realtor websites help you get more leads from EVERY marketing activity. Send out postcards? Awesome! These sites will help capture more leads from the visitors to your website.

Educational Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

real estate marketing ideas

Educational real estate marketing ideas are a great way to build your reputation in the community. It is also a good way to give back.

  1. Host Seminars
    1. Local seminars let you show off all the knowledge you’ve built up. They also are a good way to meet new people.
  2. Speak At High Schools
    1. Career days provide a good way to give back to your community.
  3. Reach out to local college programs
    1. College programs often hold career days and the local real estate courses might be interested in working together with you.
  4. Radio Show
    1. Radio shows constantly need content. If you have a good voice, you might be able to help them with a show segment.
  5. Teach
    1. Volunteer to teach anywhere. This will lead to meeting families and new contacts. You can really grow awareness of your real estate brand through consistent teaching.

Contact Grooming Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

real estate marketing ideas

Contact communication is the key to any successful real estate business. These ideas facilitate the process of following up with all your contacts.  Use these ideas to expand what you currently do marketing wise.  Make sure to integrate them into a regular program with your business.  The regularity with which we complete a marketing idea is what makes it successful.

  1. Reach Out To Contacts Daily.
  2. Business Cards.
  3. Wrap Your Car.
  4. Commission Only Sales People.
  5. Referral Program.
  6. Get Your Number In Clients Phone.
  7. Open House.
  8. Door Flyers.
  9. Door knocking.
  10. Cold calling.
  11. Make telephone calls.
  12. Holiday Postcards.
  13. Send out birthday cards.
  14. Take a client out to lunch.
  15. Throw a party for a client.
  16. Ask for referrals.
  17. Give referrals.
  18. Follow up with referrals.
  19. Follow up with clients after the sale.
  20. Keep in touch with clients that move away.
  21. Text messaging.

Advertising Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

Advertising real estate marketing ideas are less glamorous than digital ads. However, they still get your brand seen by a large number for a lower cost.

  1. Local Newspaper Event Listings.
  2. Chamber of Commerce Event Listings.
  3. Write articles for community newsletters.
  4. Write articles for business newsletters.
  5. Direct Mail-Postcards.
  6. Radio Advertising.
  7. TV Advertising.
  8. Newspaper Inserts.
  9. Free ads in shoppers.
  10. Outside signs.

Networking Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

Networking is essential to any marketing plan. Theses real estate marketing ideas focus on getting you in front of a lot of people. Be sure to have a follow up plan for after you meet them!

  1. Join Networking Groups.
  2. Meetup.com.
  3. Association Directory.
  4. Alumni Associations.
  5. Arts Associations.
  6. Industry Associations.
  7. Nonprofit Boards.
  8. Focus Groups.

Activities:

real estate marketing ideas

  1. Marketing plan
    1.  It is a good idea to quantify all marketing activities and make sure they are pulling their weight.
  2. Host a fundraising event for a local charity.
  3. Host an art show for a local school.
  4. Photography contest.
  5. Surveys For A Prize.
  6. Polls About Your Service.
  7. Add Value In Unique Ways.
  8. Collect and share testimonials.
  9. Speak at events.
  10. Write a book.
  11. Volunteer your location for meetings or special events.
  12. Fundraising.
  13. Coupons.
  14. Posters.
  15. Window/Sidewalk Signs.
  16. Displays.
  17. Balloons.
  18. Graphics on your car.
  19. Develop partnerships with other business owners.
  20. Cross promotion.
  21. Take a reporter out to lunch.
  22. Develop relationships with media.
  23. Write and send out press releases.
  24. Be an advocate for your customers.
  25. Write letters to the editor.
  26. Perfect your 30 second commercial.
  27. Give customers what they want.
  28. Focus on service.
  29. Walk your customers out of your place of business.
  30. Keep track of your customers likes/wants and notify them when you what they are looking for.
  31. Community bulletin boards.
  32. Handwritten notes.
  33. Your core story.
  34. A window display.
  35. A name tag at events.
  36. Audio-visual aids.
  37. Flip Chart.
  38. Coupons.
  39. Lead buying.
  40. Canned e-mail.
  41. Canvassing.
  42. Guarantees.
  43. A theme line.
  44. A Brand Name.
  45. Reputation Building.
  46. Co-Sponsored Business Events.
  47. Hire Cold Caller.
  48. Develop Phone Scripts.
  49. Focus on Service.
  50. Sponsor a local team.
  51. Ask people what could make the process easier.
  52. Watch your competitors.
  53. Talk to random people you bump into everyday.
  54. Start a campaign to change something.
  55. Answer your phone on the first ring.
  56. Have an after-hours answering service.
  57. Join forces with the common before and after service providers.
  58. Listen to your customers.
  59. Take a survey.
  60. Interview an expert in the community weekly.
  61. Balloons at the open house.
  62. Signup/give-away at the open house.

Online Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

real estate marketing ideas

The internet makes it very easy to market. Yet, there are so many online real estate marketing ideas that it’s hard to get a handle on everything you are supposed to do. Here is a list of many of your marketing options. Pick a few of them and get started today on improving your marketing.

Website

  1. Have A Real Estate Website
    1. Real Estate agents need a website. Even if you don’t market your site, most clients will try to find you somewhere before meeting in person.
  2. Onpage SEO
    1. This will help you get found. Look for some SEO advice in other articles on our blog.
  3. Backlinks
    1. The only way you’ll get near the 1st page of Google is to have backlinks to your website.
  4. Keyword Ratios
    1. You’ll want to have about a 1% keyword ratio on all of your webpages.
  5. Custom Images
    1. Be sure to take photos of your surrounding community. This is a great way to make your website stand out.
  6. Customer Testimonials
    1. People buy based on testimonials. Load up your website with a lot of these.
  7. Customer Testimonial Videos
    1. Youtube channels are a great way to passively introduce yourself to your clients.
  8. Blog
    1. Your blog should always contain current information. This is a great way to attract more website visitors and potential clients.
  9. Own several websites for the nearby neighborhoods
    1. You can have multiple real estate websites and make each one specialize in a different neighborhood.
  10. Curate Localized Content
    1. Localized content is a sure way to stand out online.

Email:

  1. Email Signature:
    1. A simple email signature with your phone number, email address, and website address will help clients remember where to find out more about you.
  2. Email Newsletter:
    1. Email newsletter blasts will let your get your give-away information out there quickly!
  3. CRM Autoresponders:
    1. Setup your CRM to automatically email your clients and prospective clients a certain number of days after you talk with them. This is a great way never to forget who you’ve talked with.

Advertising Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

Advertising online is a way to get more leads now. You will need some landing pages for these visitors, but that is about it.  Your game plan should be to get their contact information and then put them into a drip sequence.  Real Estate Marketing Ideas around this type of campaign focus on the various types of platforms out there for you to advertise on.

  1. Google Adwords:
    1. Google ads are a quality but expensive way to drive traffic to your website.
  2. Facebook Ads:
    1. This is a cheaper alternative to Google Ads, but it takes a little more time to setup. Checkout our guide on Facebook ads.
  3. Bing And Yahoo Ads:
    1. Bing Ads provide a nice alternative to Google Ads. The platform is less competitive and thus cheaper than Google.  Usually this advertising platform can get you clicks as low as $.15.  This is a great way to get eyes on your houses you have for sale and promote your business.  You should try these ads at least once a month for your business.
  4. Paid Ad Slot on Local Website:
    1. Local website most likely sell slots on their page. You can purchase these slots for a very low monthly cost and get awesome traffic to your website.  I’ve found websites that list ads for under $5 a month.  These type of links also can help your SEO.  Real Estate Marketing Ideas that get you qualified website traffic and build your SEO presence are rare. Take advantage of this method today.
  5. Partner with companies in other states;
    1. By partnering with a moving company in another state, you can capture potential clients before they leave their own town.
  6. Affiliates:
    1. Affiliates will drive traffic in exchange for a ‘per lead’ fee. You can set the dollar amo

      from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/cornerstone/200-real-estate-marketing-ideas/

5 Reasons to Consider Renting Office Furniture vs Buying

The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .

reasons to rent office furnitureOffice furniture is a necessary aspect for a business that leases offices space as it adds to the function and design of the overall layout. It also can be a very expensive part of it, which is why you need to thoroughly evaluate the different options and budget accordingly. Depending on the office furniture vendor that you use you may have the option to rent office furniture or buy it, however how do you know which option makes sense for your business? 

Below are 5 reasons why you might consider renting office furniture rather than buying it.

  1. If you are in a hurry and need it sooner than later – New office furniture often has long lead times. If you plan ahead then you have time to select, order, and receive it, however if you don’t have much time to wait then you may consider renting. Furniture rental companies can typically supply you with office furniture within 24 to 48 hours.
  2. When your company has unpredictable growth – Startups and new small businesses have a hard time projecting growth. What if you get a big sale you were not expecting and need to hire 50 more people? It can be difficult to account for that type of rapid hiring. Also if your business is seasonal or potentially volatile renting office furniture will allow you to deal with these fluctuating situations.
  3. You don’t have the cash – New business many times don’t have a ton of cash. If they do they may need to use that for business operations and sales growth. Buying furniture can tie up a lot of financial resources. Renting office furniture allows you to get what you want now, however without the upfront price.
  4. You have a short term lease or office sublease – Sometimes you may find an awesome office space that has a short term sublease remaining or maybe your a startup that is growing and prefers to sign a short term lease to remain flexible. Renting furniture in these situations make it easier to relocate. If you are planning on signing a lease or sublease that has less than 24 months then renting office furniture makes more business sense. 
  5. You change your brand or image often – If you are constantly changing or evolving your brand then renting furniture will give you the ability to try out different styles. Office furniture is like a car. After you buy it loses a certain percentage of its resale value. It depreciates faster than a car does also. If you want the most current up to date style then renting office furniture is your best option.

There you are! 5 reasons why renting office furniture might be better than buying office furniture. Most office rental companies make it easy to rent. You typically have a low up front deposit then you pay monthly rent costs. They will deliver and set up the furniture for you, and when you are ready to relocate they will tear it down and move. It’s a great alternative to buying and allows you to focus on your business. Just like how renting office furniture has its benefits renting Austin office space might be a better option than purchasing it. If you would like help in determining whether you should lease or buy office space give us a call at 512-861-0525

The post 5 Reasons to Consider Renting Office Furniture vs Buying appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.

Other Costs Associated with Renting Office Space

The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .

other costs to consider leasing officeSometimes when companies begin estimating their office space needs they often overlook the other costs associated with the leasing office space. Your monthly rent will be the biggest expense you incur however there are other things to consider that you will have to pay for as well. By budgeting these costs now you will avoid any surprises and and frustration later on.

Below are a few other costs to consider when leasing office space.

  1. Parking – In most cases if you are leasing office space in the suburbs parking will be free. However if a building has covered parking or offers reserved parking then you may incur additional monthly fees if you opt for those options. Additionally most downtown areas are going to charge for parking. In Austin, Tx for example parking fees average $150 to $250 per month for EACH employee. The more employees you have the more monthly costs. At the end of the day it’s important that you know how office space parking works in your city.
  2. Furniture – Every business needs furniture. The question is do you want to rent or buy furniture? Do you want to buy used, refurbished, or new furniture. How many employees do you have now and in the future? Furniture can get really expensive so it’s important that you budget accurately.
  3. Phone & Data Cabling – Depending on your deal you may get a tenant improvement allowance. Sometimes landlords will let you use any left over TI allowance to pay for phone and data cabling. Other times they will not. Regardless you need to budget for this cost as if you are paying for it yourself. If you are leasing a 2nd generation space you may be able to use the cabling that was left. However new laws require tenants to remove their wiring before they move out. So…….make sure you get an estimate on the cost of phone and data cabling.
  4. Moving costs – Are you going to move yourself? Make sure to get quotes for the cost of moving your office to the new building.

If you have any questions about leasing office space in Austin Tx feel free to give us a call.

The post Other Costs Associated with Renting Office Space appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.

Rent a Moving Truck with On the Move

It’s not “tech” per say, but one of the more creative marketing approaches I came across at Inman Connect last week was On the Move. They lease trucks covered with custom graphics, also known as driving billboards.

What’s so creative about this? If it’s just for your business, then it’s not. But what if it’s a truck “for your clients exclusive use”? (at the brokerage level). Your clients will use it on their big moving day — and YOUR CLIENTS will drive it all around town, showcasing your brand in the process.

General promo video:

Apparently this strategy is fairly wide spread, but I can’t remember having ever seen one in the Seattle area.

What do you say? Want to rent a driving billboard and loan it to your clients?

The post Rent a Moving Truck with On the Move appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.



from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/marketing-idea-rent-moving-truck-move/

How Much Does it Cost To Lease Office Space in Austin Tx?

The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .

how much it costs to lease office space in Austin txWhen renting Austin office space you typically fall into one or two of the following categories:

  1. Your headquarters is out of town and you are considering opening a satellite office in Austin
  2. You are relocating your head quarters to Austin
  3. You currently do business in Austin and need to lease space for the first time
  4. You currently do business in Austin and want to relocate your office to a different building

Regardless of your current situation one of the first questions I get is “How much does it cost to lease office space in Austin, Tx?”

Austin Commercial real estate markets change. Sometimes you have a high vacancy rate and lower lease rates and sometimes vacancy rates are low which means lease rates are higher. When starting your Austin office space search it’s important that you spend the time necessary to learn the market or hire an Austin tenant representative with experience so you can arm yourself with the information, tools, & resources that will give you the leverage needed negotiate the best deal. 

To Determine The Cost To Lease Austin Office Space Learn About

If you click on the links above you will learn a ton of valuable information. In a nut shell there are several different types of leases that differ in what the landlord is responsible for payment of vs what the tenant is responsible for paying for. It’s important that you understand each one and how they will affect your monthly rent. The same goes for how the monthly office rent is calculated. Depending on the type of lease the calculations will vary. In addition the type of space has an impact on your monthly rental costs. Class A space is going to be the nicest and most expensive while class C office space will be the oldest and least expensive.

Read the posts I put together on each of those topics. After learning then when you look at the post with the average office space lease rates in Austin then it will all make more sense.

If you have any questions feel free to call 512-861-0525

The post How Much Does it Cost To Lease Office Space in Austin Tx? appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.

5 Things That Can Affect the Cost of Your Office Space Build Out

Monday, January 29, 2018

5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever

[Note from editor: originally published on AEC Labs]

With Kodak recently announcing that it’s launching its own cryptocurrency to help protect digital photographers who sell their work on the web, we thought it would be a good time to take a deeper dive into blockchain technologies here at AEC Labs and discuss where they could have meaningful application for the construction industry in 2018 and beyond.

This is a rather long article (our longest so far here at AEC Labs!), so we’ll give you the punchline up front: the five areas where we believe that blockchain has the potential to truly disrupt the construction industry are in building information modeling (or BIM), smart contracts, the construction supply chain and schedulingpayment applications and liens, and insurance.

But before we can analyze its applications for each of these crucial areas of the AEC industry in more depth, we need to discuss some basic outlines of what a blockchain is.

How is a blockchain created and why is it so secure?

A blockchain is a continuously – and potentially infinitely – growing set of digital records, each of which is accessible to the public (or a closed group of users, as the case may be) over the internet. Think of it as a digital ledger whose entries are immutable – if any single entry in an infinite list of historical transactions is changed in any way – no matter how small the edit – every single user of the blockchain will know immediately. As new “blocks” of data are added to the chain, each user receives the new, updated version instantaneously.

The technology has its origins in the “double spending” problem for online transactions. Suppose you own some discrete amount of digital currency and want to pay your friend back for a recent dinner. Without some sort of mechanism for validating the transaction, you could essentially use that digital money to pay back your friend and then use it again for another transaction next week (or potentially an infinite number of transactions).

A centralized mechanism for validating payment to your friend would be a trusted third party (like a notary public, say, for paper transactions or the digital certificate authorities that enable https:// security.) But there are limitations – can you trust that third party to always act in your best interest in verifying the transaction? Here is where decentralization and blockchain technology comes into play.

The key to understanding blockchains is the hashing function.

A blockchain’s continuously growing set of digital records is organized into sequential “blocks.” Each block contains the transaction data (or data from a group of transactions, like purchases during a particular time period or all of the deeds to the houses in your neighborhood), a timestamp, and a “hash” that was generated by the previous block in the chain, all the way back to the “genesis block” whose data is used to generate the first hash in the chain.

The hash is the output of a cryptographic function (a mathematical process) that converts any amount of information contained in the block (the input, or in computer science terms a “string”) into an output that is the same size for all transactions that are parsed through the function. So you could potentially have an infinite amount of data that is reduced to, say, 256 random letters and numbers (if you apply the SHA256 function like most blockchains).

It’s relatively easy to run data through the function and to create the hash, but nearly impossible to recreate that data working backwards from the hash alone.

This is because changing even one character in the string – even adding a period to a sentence or flipping a single digit – will generate a completely different hash. For example, here are two hashes generated by the SHA256 hashing function run against a nearly identical sentence where the only difference is a missing period:

  • The brown fox crossed the street, 217dbd0cb5d5b92bedcbd52b35802ae403c3200410e61ffe1e23543ade73bf78
  • The brown fox crossed the street., 5b975ab4c64c313410fb39ea0dc4d7b09e893701b8dc417f3bec786e3933a080 

Once the new hash is generated, it is sent along with the data comprising the new block to the rest of the network on which the chain exists. If the network agrees that the new hash is valid (i.e. if nothing in the chain has changed, the same data will always generate the same hash for all users on the network), then the block is added to the chain. The new hash is then recognized as the latest version of the blockchain and the process repeats itself when the next new block of data is added to the chain.

This process can continue infinitely and allows many users to update the data set independently, communicate those updates securely to other parties on the network, and guarantees that each user will always have the most recent version of the data.

It also solves for the original “double spending” problem by ensuring that the data in each block was only the subject of one transaction (i.e. it can’t be changed or modified without the network’s knowledge as this would change the hash).

Now that we have a general understanding of how a  blockchain functions, what is a cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency transactions are all recorded on a public, decentralized ledger (i.e. a blockchain). At a very basic level, when Alice wants to send 5 Bitcoins to Bob, an algorithm confirms that Alice has 5 Bitcoins to send (by analyzing every transaction that has ever occurred in Bitcoin, all of which are listed in the ledger). If she does, then the transaction is added to what will be the next block in the ledger. Bitcoin “miners” (essentially other computers on the network) try and work out the first group of digits to the correct hash that will successfully add the block to the chain.

Once successful (this process takes about 10 minutes), the miner is rewarded with a fixed number of Bitcoins in his or her account (the number decreases over time as more Bitcoins are mined – the last one will be mined sometime in 2140 at the current rate), along with a small processing fee.

In this way, because there are a fixed number of them (21 million) Bitcoins are distributed into the global financial system somewhat randomly (unlike a central bank, say, printing paper currency.)

(This is admittedly a highly simplistic description of how Bitcoin functions – I suggest watching the video embedded below, which I thought was the best of what I found online describing how it works.)

So, with all of that background, how can this technology possibly impact the construction industry?

With most contractors and subcontractors still preparing lien waivers and payment applications by hand, how can blockchain technology or even a cryptocurrency realistically have any effect on improving the industry’s productivity and efficiency?

The possibilities are actually endless, and really only limited by your imagination. But here is our list of the top 5 ways that AEC Labs believes that blockchain technology could improve the construction industry sooner than you think.

  1. Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The applications for blockchain to improve the reliability and security of BIM (building information modeling) tools could be dramatic, particularly as more projects use increasingly sophisticated BIM models. What happens if there is an error in the model or if something – or someone – changes a component without communicating that change to the rest of the project team?

Blockchain tools could log infinite amounts of data about a particular component of a BIM model and ensure that it cannot be changed – but if it is, communicate who made the change instantaneously. There would be no confusion over ownership if there is an issue. And the security offered by blockchain would provide more comfort to parties who are leery of horror stories from BIM-related claims on construction jobs.

  1. Supply Chains & Construction Schedules

One reason why increasing efficiency and productivity in the construction sector has been so difficult is that supply chains to construct buildings and infrastructure assets are highly fragmented. Materials may be sourced in one part of the world, specified by a designer in another, and then requested and installed by a subcontractor at the direction of a construction manager.

This, of course, creates layers of transaction costs and compounds the inefficiencies that continue to plague the AEC industry. But blockchain technology has the potential to drastically streamline the construction industry’s supply chain (and those for any number of other industries, too).

For example, at the moment a piece of equipment or pallet of materials are delivered to a job site, the transfer of title or digital cash could automatically trigger a linked obligation upstream – say for the supplier to ship the next pallet or for the next item on the project schedule’s critical path to be initiated.  These obligations would take place automatically, coded into the “smart” contracts that constitute this particularly kind of blockchain.

  1. “Smart” Contracts

Underpinning any blockchain-powered supply chain or construction schedule would be “smart” contracts. These contracts could use blockchain technology to actually enforce the obligations that are set forth in what we would consider to be a traditional contract.

For example, imagine a construction world where the obligations in every form industry contract – AIA, DBIA, ConsensusDocs – exist on a blockchain-powered platform instead of today’s clunky traditional, mostly paper contract documents.

Each obligation in the contract could be digitally added to a blockchain and then tied to automatic outcomes (like payment of digital currency, the imposition of digital liquidated damages,  the release of digital retainage, or even the transfer of title to any kind of asset) once the software validates that the triggering condition is satisfied.

There is no gray area or middle ground or room for disputes because either the condition was satisfied, or it wasn’t; the computer network controls all possible outcomes, which exist in a limited universe of possibilities that are coded directly from the contract.

Complex blockchain construction contracts might be deep into the future. But for two-party, straightforward form agreements, blockchain technology offers the potential for a streamlined, efficient way of improving how construction contracts are selected and administered.

  1. Payments (including payment applications, liens, and lien rights)

Similarly, payment obligations and receipts could all be tracked in a blockchain ledger. If a contractor satisfies the digital conditions for payment, the software will automatically make a payment and, in return, instantaneously return a waiver of lien or any other digital document that is required by the contract.

Perhaps liens and lien rights will change too – with blockchain technology, every transaction will be tracked, recorded, and distributed over the blockchain so there will be no dispute over, say, misappropriated trust funds, pay-when-paid  or pay-if-paid obligations, and whether payment milestones have been satisfied.

Regardless, removing paper processes like time-consuming payment applications will increase productivity, help projects proceed more quickly, and reduce costs. Already we’ve seen fintech and contech startups like New Orleans-based Zlien attacking the fragmented, segmented nature of the construction supply chain. Blockchain technology is the logical next step in that evolution.

  1. Insurance

Blockchain technology has the potential to dramatically change the way insurance policies are written. For example, there has already been discussion of “temporal” insurance policies that would only be in place while, say, while you’re driving your car or performing construction work on a project site.

This would decrease the cost to you and – coupled with Internet of Things technologies that could inform the blockchain about conditions as they exist in the real world – weather, for example – increase the efficiency of markets generally.

For the AEC industry, the applications could be similar. Intelligent wrap-up policies could know exactly who was on the site – and when – and structure rates and apportion liability based on what actually happened in the field without the need for litigation.

If you’re still with us, what do you think of our list? Did we miss any areas where you think that blockchain and cryptocurrency technology could change the way the AEC industry does business?

[Note from editor: originally published on AEC Labs]

The post 5 Ways That Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technology Could Change the Construction Industry Forever appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.



from theokbrowne digest http://geekestateblog.com/5-ways-blockchain-cryptocurrency-technology-change-construction-industry-forever/