The Diverse Solutions Blog

About two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to attend the 4Realz Internet marketing educational seminar as a sponsor. The event I attended was held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The venue itself is an amazing place; I fully encourage everybody who can visit to do so. In fact, the center actually plays host to many schools for field trips, and so with the excitement of children in the air, the seminar kicked off promptly at 8:30am.

The seminar itself, hosted by Dustin Luther (Rain City Guide and Move.com) and Jim Marks (Virtual Results), is currently touring the west coast with the goal of helping the agents who attend better utilize their Internet marketing dollars and efforts. The class I attended lasted until 4pm, and not a single minute felt wasted! The course covers a great deal of material including everything from social networking to ROI. Throughout the seminar, agents are educated on the importance of understanding what consumers expect, and as Jim, states “different is better.”

Additionally, the two pointed out the importance of “original content” to establish better web presence during their seminar. I completely agree with them and can assure you that having original content on your site is an incredibly important subject. As many of you know, we have a very aggressive SEO (search engine optimization) program here at Diverse Solutions, and one of the key elements in our marketing packages is custom content. Basically, the more original and unique content you have on both your website and blog, the better chance you’ll have to be recognized by search engines and subsequently rank above your competitors.

As I thought about it a bit more, I decided to create a way for agents to better take advantage of this knowledge. For the remainder of the month, we will be offering 10 pages of custom content that can be added to your web site or blog for just $500; normally, we charge $1200 for this package! All you have to do to take advantage of this offer is just let us know what topics you would like us to cover (real estate related, of course). Our professional writers will do the rest. The offer is a great opportunity for individuals who recognize the importance of Jim and Dustin’s advice as well as those who may be considering implementing a marketing strategy in the near future.

Thanks again to both Dustin and Jim. You guys gave a great presentation, and I look forward to seeing you soon in Orange County!

(Note: If you’d like to attend the Orange County educational seminar, it’s only $49 for “the most informative 4-5 hours that you will likely ever spend on real estate education.” You can register here.)

Everyone should know by now that the all-time classic car is a ‘57 Chevy. As I realized that the car has now been around for 50 years, I began to think what it must have been like 50 years ago. There was a strong sense of community, soda-pop fountains (I recommend Watson’s in Orange, CA), hula-hoops, and service stations that actually offered service. Attendants would run out to your car to check the oil, air pressure, clean the windows, and fill it up. We all know about those feel-good days which are often referred as the “bubble-gum-era,” and the ideas of that era are forever immortalized in movie’s like “American Graffiti” and “Back to the Future.”

Similarly, as the real estate industries begins to descend into rougher waters, consumers will demand more for their dollar and will expect this high level of service for the commissions paid. Today’s consumers are far more tech-savvy than ever before, and over the past several years, I’m sure that they’ve noticed that agents’ websites have began to all look alike and offer the same content. Such similarities between sites allow those consumers to more easily differentiate agents when they stand out from the crowd, and with the recent turmoil in the real estate industry, it will allow them to choose an agent which they believe will offer them a higher level of service per dollar.

Additionally, consumers are also expecting that the latest in technology be a part of that service. The “salad days” of simply putting a listing on the MLS and having it sold within days or weeks with little or no marketing are a long ways behind us. Agents who intend to stay in business and do well in today’s real estate industry must also understand and effectively use newer technologies to their benefit. For example, agents must be willing to place their listings in Craiglist along with photos, links to their listing page, links to their blog, etc. What agents should not do is put their listings into Craigslist without putting photos or any other similarly important information. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Like I was saying, consumers are more tech savvy than ever before, and agents now have more technology available to them than ever before. The key to unlocking the relationship is to provide a 1957 service experience for the consumer. Your use of technology is a reflection of you and your service. That being said your website should provide a positive experience for the consumer with interactive maps, chat, and other useful content.

The lesson here is 50 years old. Take the time and effort to provide a sincere service to the consumer in order to making their experience a beneficial one and, in turn, both you and your client will be handsomely rewarded.

Practice what you preach, right? Well, this month I’m going to practice something I preach to my clients not to do… I’m going to veer off my outline and write about something that happened to me in the last month that truly annoyed me. I believe, generally speaking, in following an outline when writing pages for your site. But I am veering off my outline because there is no better teacher than personal experience. And I want to share my experience with you in hopes that you will evaluate your own website for these common issues and mistakes.

Evaluating websites is my job. It’s what I do and have done for the last seven years of my life. I evaluate countless real estate sites every year. However, I don’t stop there. I live online. I am online an estimated 10 hours each day and visit countless non real estate related websites every day as well. I evaluate them, I scrutinize them, and some make me want to throw my monitor out the nearest window. My actual computer sits on the ground to the right… the far right… of my kicking range for good reason. My left foot wished the same was true of my computer at home a couple weeks ago.

I was getting ready to go out celebrating a special occasion with a good friend. I’d put my makeup on, straightened my straight brown hair, put on jeans, a new shirt and earrings. I was ready to go. My friend called to let me know what time he would be to my house to pick me up and asked that I find out what time the kitchen closed at the Anaheim House of Blues. I hopped online and typed in HOB.com to find their dining hours…

Tick, tock, tick, tock…

Five minutes later I had not found their dining hours and was rather annoyed that a restaurant as well known as the House of Blue’s would not have thought to put their dining hours on their website!!!

Could I have called them to find out when their kitchen closed? Sure… I could have… but guess what? I DIDN’T WANT TO! And further… I WASN’T GOING TO!

Without wasting another moment of precious time we chose another restaurant within Downtown Disney, Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, that we hoped would have their dining hours listed. And they did. So, off to The Jazz Kitchen we went to enjoy New Orleans cuisine and forget for the moment about our tasteless experience with the HOB.com website.

To those of you who are thinking, “Well, that’s not such a big deal that HOB left off their dining hours” and maybe YOU would have called them yourself to find out when their kitchen closed… the 20 year olds of today are just as picky as I am when it comes to finding information. They don’t want to pick up a phone to get an answer… they want the answer NOW… they want the answer from you ON your website. And if you don’t give them the information they are seeking they WILL find it somewhere else. Further, the 20 year olds of today are your home buyers and sellers of tomorrow.

If you want to keep their attention you better get on the ball and make sure that…

1. Your website is a complete resource for real estate in your area. Have pages about the areas you serve as well as relevant real estate related topics.
2. Your email address and other contact info are prevalently located throughout your site. List it on your homepage, your about page, and if possible, on the navigation area of your site.
3. You have contact forms throughout your site.

Okay, so you might be thinking to yourself… but I thought you just said “they don’t want to contact you”… Of course the idea is to get the people visiting your site to contact you! I’m not suggesting that your visitors will not contact you once they find the information they are seeking from your site. The idea is to make sure they don’t go to ANY OTHER WEBSITE for the information they are seeking. If they are able to find everything they need from your website they will have no need to search elsewhere and will eventually contact you when they are ready to buy or sell. Isn’t that the idea? Don’t you want to be THE source for real estate information in your area? Don’t you want to be THE REALTOR that every other agent strives to become? The way to do that is NOT to be an information hog. Don’t require that people ‘sign in’ to get to the information they seek. You will lose more visitors than you will gain. All too often agents tell me, “But the people that are serious buyers/sellers won’t mind signing a form”.

First of all… YES they do. No one wants to offer up their email address for a potential increase in spam. Further, everyone starts off as a non-serious buyer/seller. Your website is supposed to work as a bridge between yourself and potential buyers/sellers in your area. Statistics show that an increasing number of buyers research real estate for approx. 7 weeks before contacting a REALTOR. What does this mean for you?

1. Leads from your website are likely informed buyers/sellers.
2. They will waste LESS of your time than those that have not researched real estate online.
3. They will likely buy/sell more quickly than others.
4. You will do less work and get paid the same!

Of course… to actually get visitors and eventually leads… you must continually work to improve your website and its pages of content. Refer back to my blog last month where I began discussing the importance of content and look forward to my next blog where I promise to focus on a different aspect of content again.

Hi, my name is Mike. I have been an art director for almost 8 years and now, I’m your personal web designer. That’s right! I design the looks of many of the websites around here, and now I’m here to help you continue the process! So, straighten up, pay attention, and do what I do.

Take the picture already!

No one wants to see a property with no pictures. NO ONE! So go grab a disposable camera, or, even better, buy a digital camera and start snapping away. Just remember, the more pictures you take, the more people are going to see them.

Turn on the lights!

Great photography starts with great lighting. I don’t care if it is high noon in the sun room, if there is a light in there… TURN IT ON. I’m serious, bring your own lighting if you have to. Well… you don’t need to go that far. But don’t be afraid to grab a couple of floor lamps from one of the other rooms. Be creative or you’ll get left in the dark.

Zoom out… more… more…

Don’t make your visitors crazy by having fifteen shots of the same room. Just take one good one. You want to get as much of the room in as possible. BACK UP, until you can’t back up anymore. Now, make sure you are zoomed out all the way. Take the shot!

Get in touch with you inner decorator

I know it’s not your house, but don’t be afraid to move things around; just move it all back when you are done. Is there a giant houseplant gobbling up your shot of the dining room? Well, set it aside. Are there throw pillows all over the living room floor? Why don’t you arrange them nicely on the sofa? Is there a big ugly car parked in front of the house? Have the owner move it out of the way long enough to get the shot. The camera may be point and shoot, but you don’t have to be.

You be the judge

Use your own good judgment. I see so many horrible listing photos on the Internet that are, frankly, counter productive. You know what people do and don’t want to see. They want to see a beautiful shot of the front of the house. They don’t want to see the same photo, again, with a fancy frame around it. They do want to see the living room. They don’t want to see a close up of the family cat, in the living room. They do want to see a clear picture. They don’t want to see a Rorschach test. You be the judge.

What not to do

For the best place to find “what not to do”, take a look at reagentinct.com’s Bad MLS Photo of the Day there are many instant classics, and some great insight into REALLY what NOT to do…

All over the web, you can read about the new generations of IDX solutions. IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is a platform that companies like us can use to provide agents and brokers with an interface that their website visitors can use to search through the MLS. The latest buzz centers around mapping IDX solutions that allow visitors to search through the MLS using a map as the central focus point. Our own mapping IDX solution, dsSearchAgent, was first released at the 2006 NAR conference in New Orleans; soon after, we signed a site-license agreement with SoCal MLS to provide our mapping IDX solution to all of their 55,000+ members and 20,000+ offices.

Recently, I had the opportunity to hold a training class at the SoCal MLS facility to talk with them about our dsSearchAgent program and gather feedback. During the class, I posed the following question to them. “How do you plan to market yourself in the fallout of a post-subprime market?” One of the brokers who was there immediately replied, saying “that is why I am here, to see what I can do.” As I thought about what he said, I realized that his statement has almost become a rebel’s cry by those who intend to stay in the business. In all, about 20% of the people had an answer; the rest were silent.

For months now, I have been speaking with agents and brokers looking for the latest in technology to help them grow their business; similarly, I’ve read the same thoughts echoed in various blogs. It has become quite clear that agents and brokers who really do care are embracing technology. Accordingly, the tech industry is reacting with great new solutions and bringing with it a whole new group of forward thinkers.

Anyway, I continued to ask the group questions. One of the questions I asked was whether or not they currently blog. Once again, the same 20% who initially gave me feedback told me that they did have a blog. An agent outside of the 20% group shared with me that she did had started a blog, but had never posted anything and couldn’t remember her password. On the other hand, one of the brokers had posted several blogs but had found it difficult to keep up on in and often found it difficult to think of things to blog about. I explained to the group that they need to be specialists within their area. As my mother use to tell me, it really is possible to be the “Jack of all trades, but king of nothing.” Too often, agents and brokers want to be everything to all and everywhere at the same time. A much better approach is to specialize in your area of expertise, which, in turn, will give you much more to blog about.

After the training class was over, I realized that I had just witnessed the famed 80-20 rule in person. 20% of the group participated in the focus group, sharing their concerns, asking questions, and giving general feedback. The other 80% sat there and curiously listened and watched as I spoke about the importance of emerging technologies and the future of real estate. I, for one, wouldn’t want to find myself in the 80% group when it comes to this kind of stuff. On one side, there’s an interest in new technologies, mapping, instant messaging, blogs, RSS feeds, and the like. On the other side, there’s just silence.

What group are you in?

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Robert Luna, and I’m the Director of Business Development over here at Diverse Solutions. My job is to work with the executives at MLS’s, associations, and large brokers who are interested in our dsSearchAgent IDX solution, our AgentCast websites, and all of the other products we offer. My background and experience has given me a unique perspective in the real estate software industry, and I hope that I’ll be able to share some of that knowledge with this blog’s readers now and in the future.

Earlier today, I heard a coworker telling a story about a broker in need of a company website. The broker hired somebody who is a “web developer” to create a real estate broker site. Over 3000 dollars and six months into the project, the broker was frustrated and still didn’t have a site. Sounds hard to believe, right?

Unfortunately, these stories are more common than you might think. We’ve all heard the adage that “there is no free lunch.” Well, here’s another classic: “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.” My point is that you must make some time to set up a marketing plan, and since we all know that there really is no free lunch, you will need to roll up your sleeves do some research, make a plan, and follow through.

When I started doing sales twenty years ago, I was given a copy of Zig Ziglar’s Secrets Of Closing The Sale. My manager told me that it was “the salesman’s bible,” and that if I wanted to be a professional at sales, I would need to study to develop my skills. Today, I have an entire library of sales literature and have attended more conferences and seminars than I can count. In a similar fashion, today’s real estate professional is expected to be the expert by his/her clients and have all the answers.

That being said, in order to be a real estate professional, you will need to keep up with current events and have a definite marketing plan. Following are a few tips to get you started.

Step 1 Write down you goals. What are you looking to accomplish, and how soon are you planning on accomplishing it? Once you have something down on paper, you’d be amazed at how much more motivated you will be to keep those goals.

Step 2 Define your target area. Too many Realtors® bite off more than they can chew. Instead, you need to make sure that you are an expert within your area.

Step 3 Create a marketing budget you can live with and track the results. For example, if you’re spending $1000 in print ads, and you generate ten leads, you will know that each lead cost you $100. Then, for each one of those leads, you should track your commission. By the end, you’ll have some good ideas on how to allocate your budget.

Step 4 Manage your time like your check book; after all, they’re both directly related. You should have a routine and set specific times for specific tasks. You’ll soon be surprised at how efficient you can be and how much more you can get done.

Step 5 Manage your web presence. Our AgentCast Pro website solution is exceptionally powerful and offers many “Web 2.0” features. One such feature is our dsAgentChat instant messaging technology which offers real-time chat with your website visitors. According to Stephan Swanepoel’s 2007 Trend Report, the majority of Internet real estate shoppers expect email responses within 30 minutes. With dsAgentChat, you can cut 30 minutes into mere seconds.

Step 6 Follow up on your website leads. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I have seen studies that show that up to 35% of the leads generated on an agent’s website are not followed up.

Step 7 Get social. Social networking tools such as Active Rain, Trulia Voices, Zillow Q&A, and even Facebook will help you stay fresh and relevant among many Internet users. In addition, you’ll find that more and more top producers across the nation are blogging on a regular basis, so this is something that you may want to consider getting into if are looking for a way to set yourself apart.

Step 8 Continue your education. Personal development will require you to set some time aside for training attending classes, reading, or attending seminars and conferences constantly continue to develop your skills.

Step 9 Reach out. I have met very few people who have told me that they enjoy cold-calling, and even fewer who have time set aside to do so. While it may be enjoyable to only a few, remember that everything you get out of your business is a direct result of what you put into it. Therefore, it may very well be time well spent for you to reach out and try cold-calling every once in a while.

Step 10 Network constantly. Many businesses within your area may have a constant flow of homeowners who visit their offices and / or use their services. Creating relationships with these businesses may be beneficial to you, your clients, them, and their clients, all at the same time!

What I have provided is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more ways that you can develop your knowledge and improve your marketing skills; just like everything else in life though, you’ll have to wisely commit to the decisions you make with your time and financial resources.