BRER Real Estate Marketing Blog

I rarely get sick, and I thank heaven for that.  For one thing, I don’t have time, and for another thing, I’m a terrible sick person.  The best thing anyone can do for me is to go away until I emerge from the extreme grumpiness illness causes me.

So, I was appalled last week when I seemed to have come down with the flu.  I went to see a movie over the weekend before last - saw Hancock, which was a good flick.  The person I went with got sick a day later, but I didn’t think anything of it.

Then, I got sick.  What a pain.  I figure some idiot in the movie theater should have stayed home rather than spreading germs around!

I looked in the cabinet for medicine to treat flu-type symptoms and found it - it had expired sometime in 2004.

However, I persevered and recovered.  If you need to talk to me, it’s safe now.

If you visit www.BuildRealEstateResults.com, you’ll  notice that the header includes the phrase Web-Centric Real Estate Marketing.  So, what’s that, you ask?

I did a presentation recently for the local chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), and prepared a Powerpoint presentation for the visuals.

I talked about the things that are critical to real estate professionals now.  First, a brand and USP (Unique Selling Proposition) to differentiate each agent from all the others.  Second, a logo to represent that brand.  And, third, a lead-generating real estate website.

This graphic was used to illustrate the idea of web-centric marketing:

I was rather pleased with myself, so thought I’d share the image.  If you use direct-response marketing in your direct mail and print ads, you’ll drive prospects to your website.  If you do SEO so that your site ranks for effective keywords, you’ll drive prospects to your website.  And, finally, if you use the Internet to promote listings, you’ll drive prospects to your website.

Besides the fact that if you don’t have a real estate website you’re in deep trouble, you can use a website as the central component for just about all of your marketing.

I talk to a lot of agents about identifying a niche market to go after.  Those discussions end in different ways.  Some agents immediately see the value of a niche, others really feel that narrowing their marketing focus will be detrimental.

There are a couple things I try to communicate about defining a niche:

1.  Defining a niche doesn’t mean that you eliminate all other prospects.  If you specialize in working with people who are relocating, that doesn’t mean that you won’t work with local buyers or sellers.  It just means that you don’t market to the local folks.

2.  Most (perhaps all) successful businesses define a niche.  I always tell people that one strength I bring to the table is the ability to apply good marketing principles to the real estate industry.  At times, it makes me sound like a nut, but I keep after it anyway.

Think of any business that comes to your mind and ask yourself if they have a niche.  Let’s take cleaning products, for instance.  Have you ever been unlucky enough to be watching television during the day - maybe during a bout of the flu?  Have you noticed that there are tons of commercials for cleaning products during the day? 

Could that be marketing to a niche?  There are many more women responsible for cleaning the house watching television during the day.  The cleaning product manufacturers know that men and women working outside the home may also use their products, but they don’t market to them.

Do you have a luxury magazine in your city?  We do here in Atlanta.  How many ads do you think there are in that magazine for luxury cars?  How about pickup trucks?  Sure, the pickup manufacturers know that someone with a  lot of money might buy a pickup truck.  But, they don’t market to them.

So, the next time you are thinking about a niche market, keep in mind that every human being on the planet might buy a home from you, but do you want to market to them?

No, this is not a patriotic post.  Although, I guess I am pretty patriotic.  Actually, I’m talking about the cable network called USA.  They advertise that they’re the channel for characters, and they’ve got that right! 

But, the real reason I’m thankful for the USA channel is because they brighten up summer TV.  I don’t watch a lot of television, but I do enjoy some relatively mindless entertainment after a hard day at the computer.  And on the phone. 

Summer used to be useless as far as television was concerned.  If you had a good memory, you’d go nuts with reruns.  But, on Monday, two of my favorite shows came back for their short runs.

If you haven’t seen The Closer, you might want to take a look.  The lead is a woman, but it’s not a chick show.  It’s got good story lines and great acting.  There’s only one thing I would change. 

In the show, the lead character moved from somewhere in the South to somewhere on the West Coast, I think.  If the actress playing the lead, whose name I naturally don’t know, could do a good Southern accent, that would be fine.  However, she can’t.  If you haven’t heard a real Southern accent lately, rest assured what you hear on The Closer isn’t getting you any closer to hearing one. 

If I ruled the world, I would have written the story with the lead moving from somewhere like Ohio to the West Coast.  Then, the actress could just use her real voice.

The second show on USA Monday is another favorite, Saving Grace.  Some people I know won’t watch that show because they say that Holly Hunter (I think I got that one right) is just too raw.  My reply?  Well, that’s the whole idea.  If Grace didn’t have a bunch of problems, what would be the point in saving her? 

I also like to watch it because Hunter is not a spring chicken, and I’m fascinated by her physique.  How she has developed all those muscles in that little tiny body is a wonder.

And, then, there’s Earl.  Great guy.  Wish I had someone like him hanging around me, although I’m glad I don’t need one.  That probably sounds very strange, but you have to catch up with the show to understand.

If nothing else, just watch the first few minutes through the part where they play the theme song.  It’ll make you wanna get up and move - or maybe slither . . .

Whether you’re the buyer’s agent or the listing agent, you’re going to be involved in a negotiation for every home you sell.  Well, unless you’re a listing agent with four offers over par.  But, that type of thing isn’t happening much these days.

All of the negotiating information I can recall starts the process of negotiating after the two parties have laid out the outline of their positions.  I came across an interesting article a while back, though, that contained some excellent ideas on how to move toward the negotiation.

If you’re curious about the following issues, you should read the article.

As the Buyer’s Agent:

• Do you meet with the listing agent before presenting an offer?  If not, do you know what you could accomplish in that type of a meeting?
• Do you present your offer in person?  In many parts of the country, it’s common for the listing agent to present offers.  Do you know why that isn’t as effective, and how you could get yourself invited?
• What could you tell the listing agent and homeowner about your buyers to make the offer more appealing?
• Is it more effective to present the offer price first?

As the Listing Agent:

• How do you reply to the homeowner when they ask the following types of questions after an offer presentation:
  • We could have gotten this price ourselves - we’ll put the house back on the market
  • Can you cut your commission?
  • The offer is too low - we won’t accept it

 I think you’ll find the article interesting.  It’s on RISMedia.

Don’t look now, but your monitor might be lying to you!!  It’s an interesting situation when we’re working with someone to design a website.  What looks good to us can look awful to someone else.  And, sometimes it’s not just a difference in color preference.

Sometimes, it’s because monitors do lie from time to time.

When a new computer arrives, people are often tempted to adjust the monitor until it “looks right”.  The fact of the matter is that monitors aren’t supposed to display things that look right to you.  They’re supposed to display true colors.

So, if you want to know what your visitors see when they view your website, you’re pretty much sunk.  You have no idea how their monitor is displaying your colors.  But, if you want to get your monitor’s colors as close to true as you can, there is hope.

The best way to get true color is to purchase an amazingly expensive calibrated monitor.  You could also acquire software that will calibrate the color.  Since those two approaches are really overkill for most people, there is a third alternative.

If you do a search on the Internet for something like adjust monitor color manually, you will find a number of websites that can help you determine if you’re seeing anything close to what you’re supposed to see.

I looked at a few and found this one from Bryce-Alive.net.   The site is evidently a resource for graphic artists.  But, if you follow the link above, you’ll find a page that has several ways in which you can test your monitor to see if it’s close to true color.

If you’re like me, messing with your monitor is a heart-stopping undertaking.  So, the best advice I can offer is this:

Write down your existing monitor settings before you do anything!

Most recent monitors have contrast, brightness and color adjustments.  Give it a try.  If your monitor is far off, and you’ve written down the current settings, you can always go back to viewing the Internet world through your rose-colored glasses!

And, by the way, if you can’t see the number 45 in the image above, don’t worry about your monitor - you’re color blind!

I hope you enjoyed the 4th of July weekend.  I had a great day.  Hot dogs for dinner.  As silly as that sounds, I love hot dogs and don’t eat them often.  But a grilled hot dog with all the trimmings and pasta salad, excellent tomatoes and so forth. . .   Delightful.

Then, there were the fireworks.  For the past couple years, I could watch them from my driveway.  But, it is amazing how fast trees grow, and I was afraid our view would be blocked, so we walked down to the corner to make sure we had a clear view.

As usual, we were early and the fireworks were late.  So, we sat in those foldup camp chairs and watched the activity.  We were sitting at the edge of a neighborhood street, and we complained about the cars going too fast trying to get even closer to the fireworks display.  But, then there was no light from the cars, and no streetlights.  But, lots of people joining us in the street. 

It was fascinating watching the shimmery figures of people in the dark.  They seemed to suddenly appear from nowhere, flickered in the dark as they walked along - then either disappeared as magically as they had appeared, or planted themselves in what they thought was the best viewing position.

Then, the fireworks started.  We were right - our seats were perfect.  We watched in awe as shapes and streaks exploded in the sky.  Sometimes I jumped when the explosion of light was particularly loud.  I’m glad that there were a lot of my favorites - the ones that end up looking like a brilliant weeping willow tree, curving out of the sky and sparkling toward the ground.

The finale filled the sky with light, sound, and a regal salute to our freedom.  I’ve seen fireworks many times, but each time is different.  And, each time I’m grateful for America, and for the grand serendipity that resulted in my being born here.

Blogging seems like a fairly safe activity.  You’re working hard to provide information that your readers will find useful.  And, after all, you’re writing a real estate blog - how much trouble could you get into doing that?

Since there have been two major lawsuits recently, it seems like a good time to mention the problems that you can get into, even with a friendly little real estate blog. 

If you look at the suits like the one involving a Florida agent, you’ll see that something written by an educated, savvy REALTOR® turned into a $25 Million lawsuit.  I imagine that the agent wrote the post without having any idea that it would start a lawsuit!

So, this might be a good time to think about how you write your blog posts.  There’s a great list of things to think about on an Inman article.  If you don’t want to read the entire thing, scroll down to the bottom where the list is.

Falling home prices is not good news.  The good news is that most markets have less chance of prices declining in the next two years according to PMI Mortgage Insurance Company.  You may remember the earlier post here that identified PMI as a good place to get a broad view of what the market is doing.

According to an article in Inman News, PMI’s analysis indicates that the risk of declining home prices fell during the 1st quarter in 326 of the metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that PMI tracks.  A total of 381 MSAs are tracked, so that translates into improvement in 86% of those areas.

As you might expect, price declines are more likely to happen in those areas where prices increased the most when the market was hot.  PMI estimates that there is a 40+% chance that prices will fall in 16 of the largest 50 MSAs.  You can review the chart and see that those areas are mostly in Foreida and California.  I’m surprised that Detroit isn’t on the list.

But, the good news for Detroit is that Michigan was one of the states, along with Ohio and Indiana, where new foreclosure rates actually declined.

If you want more information, visit the Inman article or follow the links in the earlier post on PMI.

If you’ve got a listing in a market that isn’t very energetic, you and your seller know how frustrating it can be - the house is shown - prospects come and go - but no offers are made.

It’s true that nothing happens until somebody sells something.  And, you can’t sell something unless you at least have the opportunity to start negotiating.

RISMedia published an interesting article in their best practices series that describes a unique way to get those negotiations going.  To me, the article describes an approach that exemplifies true out-of-the-box thinking.

The idea comes from Todd Walters, an Atlanta agent with RE/MAX.  You can read about his outstanding accomplishments and his idea at the RISMedia article.

In summary, Todd has been successful with what he calls a “reverse offer”.  He and his team have their sellers sign a purchase-and-sell agreement when the house is listed.  Then, every potential buyer who sees the house receives an offer from the listing agent and seller within days of their viewing the home.

The article also addresses the thought that immediately came to my mind.  Wouldn’t a reverse offer result in the potential buyer making an extremely low offer?  Could be, but if the worse thing that happens is that a tough negotiation results. . .  How bad can that be?

Have you ever tried this approach?  Do you think it would work for you?