My home is in trouble! How do I find a good agent?

Many homeowners are crying for help as they have seen their American dream decline in value coupled with the fact that many people have lost their jobs and are having trouble meeting their monthly mortgage payments. What choices do these homeowners have?  Where can they find a real estate agent who can explain the many options available to them to either stay in their home or to engage in a short sale rather than foreclose. Better yet, where can they find invaluable information relating to the many programs available to them? The answer is your Website.

Your Website is the key to providing important information that can educate homeowners. In your site you can talk about short sales and the benefits of engaging in a short sale rather than foreclosing. Talk about all the pros and cons and the steps necessary to do this.  As a service your Website can also talk about the many programs has to offer, such as the” Making Your Home Affordable Program”.

Being that many homeowners are not up to speed on the definitions of certain words relating to foreclosure or short sales, you can provide a glossary of terms like  Deed in lieu. Also give examples of how a deed in lieu is better than foreclosing.

I have seen so many homeowners looking for this type information. People will generally use Google as a means of finding resources. For these homeowners to find you and your site, you need to make sure that you have provided this content.

Try to keep you content constantly updated with new programs and resources that are available. By doing this you will find that not only are you branding yourself as source of information, you will also possibly see better search engine rankings.

RE/Advantage’s flag-ship product, “Agent Central Max” offers real estate agents and brokers with the tools necessary to maintain and update their Website.

When you log in to Agent Central Max, you can use the content editor to frequently update your services.  Again, keeping your information updated frequently, is important as it will also keep existing visitors  coming back to your Website. Agent Central Max also has a Document Manager that will allow to upload any related articles that may be useful to the consumer. If you want to add updated news and events you can enter this information in the News Manager of Agent Central Max . There are so many useful tools available in Agent Central Max that can help you achieve success as an Real Estate Agent or Broker. To learn more about Agent Central Max please contact us at 877-791-4825.

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Picking the Right Email Address

A lot of REALTORS® carry many email addresses. Most of the time, they normally use an address that is given to them or an address that they have used from an account such as AOL.

Having the proper email address for your real estate career is vital to your branding efforts. Your email address should define your business. Surprisingly, many REALTORS® don’t manage their address properly and perhaps you should re-think what address suits your marketing efforts.

I am not a REALTOR®, but in my own business as a marketing professional to REALTORS®, I also have many addresses. Many of these addresses are not used properly in my field of business.

I have listed some of the below:

• Bennie.henderson@gmail.com
• bhenderson@njaccess.com
• bhenderson@njaccess.net
• bhenderson33@aol.com
• bhenderson@gsmicro.com
• bhenderson@readvantage.com

I have learned a lot about what email addresses work best for my branding efforts. My goal is that you can control help you learn which email address will define your business.

A while ago, I used an email address was provided by an ISP years ago bhenderson@outofbusiness.com. YEP, you got it…Out of business! So, I lost my email service and also had to rebuild my contact list through another provider.

Another pitfall was that I used an address that I obtained years ago through a company that I worked at. It looked great as I had this big company name behind my email address. But when I left my company to pursue other companies… Guess what happened? YEP… You got it; I again had to rebuild my contact list.  As a REALTOR®, you may have a RE/MAX address then decide your going to move to CENTURY 21 or better yet, you may work for a Broker that sells and changes their name.

Another problem might be when you obtain an email address from one of your vendors. For example, myname@topproducer.com.  Sounds great, correct? Because even though the name is not your company name it still makes you look like a top Real Estate Producer. The pitfall is when you decide to cancel your service and now you are back to square one.

I do have 2 great email accounts that I use and have been with me since. I created a Gmail account for all my personal emails that I share with friends and family. I really like their services as well. As for my business, I found that it was best to register my own domain name so that I have total control over my business email, rather than using another email provider. In this case, bhenderson@readvantage.com was the best solution. It also defines the business that I service. If you are a new agent or even a seasoned one, I recommend using a real estate nickname.

If you are looking to register a domain name, I have had the best success with godaddy.com. As your real estate career grows you can add email addresses to the domain name that you have registered. For example:

• sales@readvantage.com
• info@readvantage.com

If you need assistance in finding the right domain name and setting up email for your business, please call us as we can suggest what may work best for you.

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2009:Year In Review. What A Great Year!

From our team at RE/Advantage, we would like to send everyone our warmest wishes for a happy holiday and prosperous and healthy New Year.

It has been a wonderful year. In 2009, our team has seen a strong demand by REALTORS® needing assistance to attract buyers and sellers on the Internet as the housing market is starting to gain steam through many parts of the country.

We have developed many new relationships with REALTORS® throughout the country. It has also been quite a learning experience with the development of so many applications to help us market ourselves on the Internet. Helping real estate boards, brokers and agents develop their marketing presence is our main focus.

REALTOR® Triple Play – In December we attended the REALTOR® Triple Play Expo in Atlantic City, NJ.  What we did this year was to focus our exhibit on Social Networking.  To prove Social Networking works we used various resources to expand our sphere of influence while at the show.  Here is what we did:

• We Blogged daily
• We Vlogged daily and posted our video’s on YouTube as well as our Blog
• We setup a live streaming video feed at the show so people could visit us via the Internet
• We Tweeted throughout the day with announcements and updates
• We tied all of this together on our Company Facebook Page

The result was even more than we expected.  We got tons of online people viewing our live video stream and our Twitter followers increased by 20%.  We also saw our blog stats double for the 3 days.  Why?  Well it is simple, we targeted all of our content to REALTORS® and posted them in places where we knew REALTORS would be.  Since we had content that a Real Estate Professional would be interested in we built a following in 3 days.  We are still seeing the residuals even today.

Also this past year, our team made many new enhancements to our products like AC Max and our IDX solutions.

• IDX 3.0 upgrade
  • Unified MLS searching
  • Single point mapping (where available)
  • SMS alerts to agent
  • SMS Text to the consumer
  • Filtering search results by virtual tours or by displaying only new listings
  • Enhanced exposure to display your listings first
  • Enhanced photo gallery
  • New enhanced look that will  support multiple color styles
  • Customizable URL Function
  • On the fly search criteria
  • Listing Statistics
  • Can be custom deployed
  • Listing comparisons
  • Share/Save listing information on social networks
  • Mortgage calculator
• Our New AC Max Solutions
  • Advanced management control
    • New improved office roster functionality
    • Document management functionality
    • Listing alert and portfolio management
    • Easy-to-use content management system
    • Many new themes for our-semi custom sites

NJMLS Website: One noteworthy project was the re-design of the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service’s public website (njmls.com).  RE/Advantage was chosen to completely re-write the entire website including the User Interface (UI),  HTML and listing search.  This was a large project and the new public website is packed with new and enhanced features such as;     improved searching, Quick Search,  on-the-page Refine Searching, re-designed Email Alerts,  and mapping capabilities. Throughout the site, the latest design technologies were used such as AJAX and jQuery, which allowed us to include some very consumer-friendly elements, such as smart type-ahead text boxes and fresh, dynamic page layouts.

In 2010 we look to focus our efforts on the development of products and services geared to the ever-growing popularity of social networking and blogging. Our goal is to make your marketing efforts fun and exciting. Our staff will keep you on the cutting-edge of technology and will make you stand out in front the competition.  Hint-Hint — we are going to be doing a lot with Social Networking and are developing blogs specifically for the Real Estate market. Watch out for some great stuff with Facebook too.

As we develop and enhance our products, such as AC Max, Blogging, and the use of various social networking tools, we will be releasing the information to everyone. Please also visit our blog page and follow us on twitter and Facebook as we will share many helpful hints and suggestions that will be useful to all REALTORS®.

We also welcome your comments, suggestions and valuable input as it will only help our team provide the best possible solutions to help you succeed.

Best Wishes From  Bennie, Mark, Scot, Joe, Megan and the rest of our team at RE/Advantage.

RE/Advantage – As experts in Real Estate web site design and Smart Internet tools for the REALTOR®, we understand what makes Internet technology work for you and your visitors. We have been developing IDX Solutions, Websites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997.   We have solutions for the Agent, Broker, Enterprise, Board Office and MLS’s all custom designed for the Real Estate industry.

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Social Networking Update By Bennie Henderson

As a Web site developer and marketing professional, I teach REALTORS® how to effectively market themselves on the Internet. It was only a few years ago when all you needed was a picture of yourself, a short bio and link to your listings. The times have changed a bit since then. You now need to enhance your web presence by integrating Social Networking as part of your marketing plan. I often refer to this as the solar system approach. Think of your main web site as the sun. You need to create the little social networking sites like stars or planets that will revolve around your site and drive traffic to it. You will create new relationships as well as maintain contact with past clients and also build a referral base with REALTORS® throughout the world.. I have received calls from agents, and brokers thanking me as they have not only enhanced their search engine rankings, but have also received referrals and leads. Recently a REALTOR® in Florida, referred a $2.1 listing as a result of her presence on Facebook.

Below are some of the most popular social Media applications being used:

o        Facebook, with over 150 million active users in its promotional material, provides a forum to post photos and videos, write longer pieces such as a recent trend of listing “25 random things about me,” and create and support causes and groups.

o        Twitter is essentially a shorthand version of Facebook, allowing entries of up to 140 characters, which are often used to post links to other Web sites of interest.

o        LinkedIn is a professional networking site, where people can build up networks of work-related connections and write recommendations for colleagues looking for employment.

o        Slideshare is great way to post presentations and documents.

o        Flickr allows you to create photo galleries and tag each photo.

o        WordPress is an outstanding way of sharing your thoughts and shows your clients that you are tech-savvy.

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The Art of Blogging

The Art of Blogging

Today blogging is becoming an art form, melding sensible conversation and technical savvy to increase your sphere of influence to your potential prospect base.

When you write a blog you are really looking into reaching a diverse base including; new prospects and the search engines.  Sometimes it can be difficult to create a post that encompasses both.

Every month in my SEO seminars I speak of the concept of knowing your audience.  Before you can even begin to blog you need to know exactly who you are writing for.  I frequently speak about the concept of community.  As an Agent this is probably your most biggest allie.

Long Tail Keyword Terms

I also always introduce a term called “Long Tail Search Terms”.  Look at it like this – Short tail search terms are things like real estate, open houses, or even New Jersey Homes.  These terms on the surface seems like the holy grail, but in reality are extremely difficult to obtain and generally do not produce a good results.  This is mostly due to the fact people searching on these terms are generally in the beginning of the the consumers research cycle.  By contrast, long tail key terms are phrases that are much more precise such as Bergenfield New Jersey Split Level Homes.  As you can see you can have literally dozens of long tail key terms per community and believe or not many people do not take the time to blog about each of them.  Sure it takes time but then again nothing worth while is life is usually easy.  These terms are generally used by consumers in the later stages of the buying cycle.

Blog Titles

The right title is very important in your blog.  As I spoke about in my first paragraph targeting the community or neighborhood works best, such as “Luxury Homes in Alpine, New Jersey”.  Most consumers will search by a community or town/state when they looking for real estate.

Repeat your title as the first line of your blog and bold it.

Luxury Homes in Alpine, New Jersey is one of the most sort after spots in the Eastern seaboard.  Alpine, New Jersey has become a mecca of multi-million dollar homes and is only a short drive to Manhattan.

Placing your key word title “first” helps the engine determine the importance of your phrase and bolding it helps your readers.  This is often referred to as keyword prominence.  In general, a keyword that appears closer to the top of the page or area will be more relevant.   The first sentence in your post is often the phrase that is in the title of your search results so it will also help the consumer to know exactly what your post is about.

Keywords in you post

You also want to make sure you repeat your keyword phrase 3-4 times throughout your post.  This is most often referred to as Keyword Frequency and  is how often a keyword appears on the page or in an area on the page. In general, the more times a keyword appears on the page, the more relevant it will be to that search.  Different search engines use different algorithms to determine frequency.  3-4 times is more or less an average that I feel works well.  You can research into for example what the optimum frequency for Google might be and tailor a post that way as well.

Tagging

You also want to tag your post with related phrases that consumers might also be interested in such as Alpine New Jersey Open Houses.

The Finishing Touches

Lastly you want to include images and/or video’s in your post.  These not only add some depth to your post but video’s are fast becoming another avenue to increase your sphere of influence.  Don’t forget to add relevant alt tags and link to relevant content when you can.

Blogging in this fashion is a good way to produce some well thought out posts that appeal not only your readers but also the search engines as well.

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