MRED Blog
REinventing MLS
Tag Archives: Real Estate
Start Turning Leads into Clients in ConnectMLS!
Posted By: Stephanie Abrams, MRED Help Desk and Tech Support Manager
Are you ready to start turning leads into clients? The Lead Capture widget in ConnectMLS makes it even easier for you to capture incoming leads from your social media accounts, website, or emails using a link or URL. You can then process that lead into a contact in your ConnectMLS client database with the click of a button. Click HERE to learn how….
A Day In The Internet!
Our Director of Special Projects, Chris Lambrou, came across this great Infographic and added an MRED twist to the end of it . . .
Google+ And Your Business Goals
BlueGlass Infographic posted by Chris Brogan . Do you think Goggle+ can help take your business goals to the next level?
5 Ways to be a Better Listener on your Website
BY: Jackie Berg, Onboard Informatics
Think for a moment about the best listener in your life. Your words bounce off of them and ricochet back in the form of carefully packaged advice – partially because they’re engaged in your cues, and partially because they knew half of the story about your neighbor’s dog always managing to go to the bathroom in your yard before you even started talking.
Now think about your favorite website for search – commercial or otherwise. Does the exchange of information follow the same flow it does in your interpersonal relationships? Can it take in your query and offer advice in the way that relates closely to the way you think? If it’s a good site, the answer is yes. If it’s a great site, it will also tailor its advice specifically to you (“Recommended because of your interest in Never Say Never by Justin Bieber…”).
Sure, the Amazons and Netflixes of the world have a ton to spend on interactive, but they also have gained household name accolades and cult followings throughout the process. Even if you start small, there are things you can do to show you are listening.
1. Show you know what’s important to their search
Real estate websites are really good at feeding information about the home, down to the smallest record detail. Without supplementary information about what’s outside the home, you’re missing one of the biggest parts of the search.
Only 4% of all buyers compromised on the quality of their neighborhood last year, versus 18% who compromised on the price of the home (according to the NAR Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers). The same is true of other quality of life aspects:
- 2 out of 3 buyers said quality of the neighborhood impacted their search
- Quality of schools and convenience to friends, family, shopping, schools, entertainment and parks also ranked highListening to your customer is almost as important as listening to your heart. Almost.
There is an arsenal of information available that can take care of this need for you fairly easily. (Onboard has been providing this information for nearly a decade if you’re looking for more specific ideas.)
2. Offer more than just a listings feed
Take a look at your site and ask yourself: what value am I adding beyond other sellers with access to an MLS feed?
Adding your local expertise, via blog or adding your unique content to the listing in a unique way can add a dash of local flavor and humanize the process.
If you don’t have time to do that for each property, are you showing home sales trends or accurate home values? For those looking to relocate, providing supplemental information in an interactive and engaging way can mean the difference between a buyer ending the conversation (going to a different site) and converting them to contact you. Even if the buyer is familiar with the area, having reliable school information and local points of interest will allow them to envision their life beyond the look and square footage of the structure.
3. Make it interactive
Third-party search sites and big aggregators offer great search experiences, but your site can compete. Building out a great, unique search experience is something that can set you apart. If you don’t have the resources for that, you can still quickly build in great tools that blend in with your brand’s site.
Speaking in relation to Onboard, we’ve done this numerous times for clients through easy plug-and-play Neighborhood Navigator and Lifestyle Search Widget tools that are colored and branded to match the client’s existing web presence. Clients can capture leads and get their time on site up without long development cycles.
4. Stop and ask yourself what you really know about your visitor
We know about what is important to overall buyers, but how deeply can characterize your website visitors? If you’re hazy, chances are, you’d benefit greatly by spending just 20 minutes a day digging into your site statistics to see where you’re hitting and where you’re missing.
Study the parts of your site where the visitor is likely to drop off and ask yourself what you can do to keep that conversation going.
We have clients who are taking an extremely proactive approach in understanding their visitors – not just for site improvement, but to price properties correctly based on search thresholds. The adage says that if you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing.
To answer this call, Onboard has developed Listings 360°Insight. Do you know how price searches for 4 bedrooms are changing over time? What about the most searched neighborhoods on your site? The future of online success is responding to the business intelligence that buyers are lobbing at you just by being on your site.
5. Give them a reason to have a second and third conversation
This is perhaps the most important part. Not just capturing leads, but compelling them to work with you, is what you do best. If your site is great, chances are they will come back. But with lengthy search processes and buyers shopping around for weeks before they contact an agent, it’s your chance to stay engaged.
If you’ve implemented the content we discussed earlier, it’s easy to stay in touch. Send them emails on value trends in their community to entice them to list. Send them reports on trends in their community or where they’ve searched. Send them updates on price changes, open houses or other relevant updates or modifications to listings they’ve saved.
As is the case for our friendships and relationships, those who show they understand us the best are the likeliest to win our trust. With such a critical process at stake, building that trust is essential.
To view the original article, visit the Onboard Informatics blog.
Could This Google Product Change the Way We Look at Real Estate?
It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but Google is said to be preparing the launch of “video sunglasses” by the end of this year. The glasses will have a mini camera in them and a transparent screen, so that the wearer can still see what’s in front of him or her. This could forever change the way that consumers look at real estate for rent and for sale.
The Google glasses are the concept of Co-Founder Sergey Brin, and are said to be one of his highest priority projects. Not much is being said of the glasses, because Google has kept the details of them top-secret in their ultra-secretive Silicon Valley experimental lab, known as Google Lab X, but there are rumors that they are almost ready to be launched. Here is what is being said of them.
The glasses themselves will look cool, like a pair of Oakley sunglasses. They will have a built-in camera that can record as the user is walking down the street, viewing a home, or having a conversation. They are also said to have a viewing screen built into the transparent lenses for the user to view. They will also be able to tap into other Google resources, such as Google maps, which is great for a person who is using them in unfamiliar places, such as on vacation or viewing a bunch of homes in a new neighborhood. From a real estate perspective, this could be a game changer. Can you imagine using them while looking at ten houses in a day, then downloading the footage to your computer to show your friends and family? You could get their opinion on which property they like best. This can also be great for home inspectors, who can use them on an inspection and then share the footage with the buyer to show them the potential hazards of a problem they found. Also, if only one spouse can view homes on a particular day, they can record the footage to show their partner. They can then decide on which homes they like best, if any. The glasses are said to be priced at anywhere from $250 to $600 a pair. As great as this sounds, there are concerns.
Many people worry that their conversations might be recorded without them knowing it. Google is no stranger to privacy issues, so many activists have already made this point loud and clear. Supposedly, there will be an indicator on the glasses that lets the public know when they are recording. If so, that should be able to solve that problem.
So will Google’s glasses be the next big thing? Or will they be an overpriced, awkward looking pair of glasses? Only time will tell, but what has come out so far looks very promising.
To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.
Real estate professionals should take a couple of minutes and read this very interesting take on how to influence people into utilizing your services. What do you think of this advice?
By: Tinu Abayomi-Paul/AG Beat
Two simple yet tricky steps to influence people
Every business wants people to do something – buy this, try this, tell people about this. There are two steps to getting people to do what you want them to do, but they can be tricky to execute.
Getting people to do what we want them to do
Whether it’s in social media, marketing or closing a sale, we all need to get people to do stuff. And after years of being confounded, way before I started my current two businesses, I figured out that like most people, I was making things too complicated.
There is one, and only one, way to get people to do things for you. Every other way there is obeys this underlying strategy. I invite you to think about every single time you’ve ever needed to get someone to do something after reading this, and I challenge you to find some other method.
You can use this method for getting people to share your content.
You can use it to get people at your site to subscribe to your newsletter.
When you follow up with them, you can use it to get them to buy.
One way, two steps, many challenges
There’s only one way. It has two steps:
1- Be in a position to ask them to do something.
2- Ask them to do that thing.
Here’s the rub. That looks fairly easy and straightforward. And to be fair, the second part very much is. But that first part? It’s a doozy.
Because it means that before you need something, you need to be in the position to ask. Which often means getting into that position before you really need something. And that’ll mean having a sincere interest in other people, and consistently showing that connection matters to you, whether it’s a light peer dalliance or a strong, deep friendship.
It also means you have to know who the people are before you ever know them personally, where they hang out, what their needs are, and who can address them, even if it’s not you.
How to overcome the challenges
I’ll give you an example: let’s say you’re having a sale, and you want it to be in all the publications read by the people you want to reach. With poor advance planning, your only resort will be to advertise in that publication, if you have the money, and flat out beg people who run those publications to pay attention to your story.
And by beg, I mean ask nicely, make it as little work as possible (more than a press release, folks), and do your research.
You could make your job so much easier, and more successful with a little foresight. The instant you know what kind of start-up you’ll have or business you’ll start, before you ever make your first dime, start to get to know people in the same field.
Pay attention when companies that seem like they should be competitors partner up on things. Start frequenting spots where customers you want to have are spending time online. Be there. Offer to help a little.
You don’t have to give away your services for free to start gaining a minor kinship with the people you want to serve through your business.
A deeper connection, a more meaningful identity
Already have a business but haven’t started this process? Start right now. Get to know your audience as deeply as you can. Because people care about other people, not some company with stuff to sell them.
You want to be “that lady who helped me ________, so I didn’t have to _______.” You don’t want to be “the owner of SomeCrap LLC”.
This may seem like time poorly invested at first. Not everyone you cater to is the person you’ll get something back from – and it will seem like a labor of love, and nothing more.
Until that day you want to fund that Kickstarter project with a $50,000 goal. And people you didn’t even know were paying attention to you will say “that’s that guy who ________. That’s guy’s awesome. I trust him with my money, and bet those T-shirts will be SWEET. Here’s my money.”
Reaching that goal legitimately
And they’ll tell their friends. And you’ll reach your goal. Because you won’t have to come to them with the energy of “I know I just met you but do this because I’m desperate. Take a gamble that I’m good for it.”
You’ll be able to run the vibe of “you know me. You signed up to my list. I don’t bother you too often or send you a bunch of spam. I know what you’re interested in because I share those interests. I think we can help each other.”
I want to give that guy my money and I’m not even gonna wait for him to ask me.
Non-evil manipulation
Because that’s the other great thing about being a position to ask. Some people will give to you before you ask. It’s almost like manipulation without the evil part.
(Yes, manipulation is a form of asking. Asking by twisting emotions or making it seem like the other person has no choice? Still counts You’re just being a jerk about it.)
No matter where you are in this process of getting people to do stuff for you when the time is right, get in the habit now, of doing for other people what they want done for them. It’ll eventually be your turn, and the payoff, for whatever reason, is in proportion to your level of sincerity.
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