Archive for Sam Chapman
This guest post written by Lake Travis waterfront homes specialist, Sam Chapman.
Need Photos?
Many real estate agents building web pages or writing blog posts use photos. Some “borrow” photos from other websites either not understanding copyright laws or just completely blowing off intellectual property rights. This is not only wrong, it is theft. So where does a real estate agent go for photos if they don’t have any of their own that will work for a web page or blog post?
One excellent resource is Wikimedia Commons . Wikimedia Commons is a site that applies Creative Commons rules that allow people to use various media files in legal ways. Creative Commons defines various licensing options ranging from full copyright to public domain. The creator of a file, whether it is an graphic image, photo, video, or a sound clip, can post the file at Wikimedia Commons and tell potential users how the file can legally be used.
Many images are from various sources like some government agencies that may not be subject to copyright laws and that may place the images in the public domain. A photographer can release all claim to a photo by declaring that it in the public domain. Aside from public domain, there are various levels of licensing and each image or file at Wikimedia Commons will have a description telling people how a file may be used.
So if you need a photo and want to make sure you are using it legally, go to Wikimedia Commons and enter a term in the search box. Click on a photo that is returned that you like and read the conditions under which it may be used. You will find a database of almost 7 million files there.
This guest post was written by Lake Travis Real Estate Agent,
Sam Chapman.
I taught a regular class called Finding and Showing Homes for a long time. My goal was to give practical and useful advice to new real estate agents.
As part of the class, I talked about the things that real estate agents should keep in their cars. Keep in mind that this is specific to the area I work in, which is a combination of urban and rural areas, with much of the area also being very hilly.
Having said that, any real estate agent reading this should pick something up from it – it’s a great reminder for all of us.
Things a REALTOR® Should Always Have in the Car
- A Flashlight With Charged Batteries – How many times will you walk into a home and see lights out in a closet, garage, crawl space or attic?
- Insect Repellant – You may not need it often, but you can be a hero if you run into an area with a lot of mosquitoes!
- Cold Water Bottles In An Ice Chest – Texas isn’t the only part of the country that gets hot, and a refreshing bottle of cold water can make an impression on hot and thirsty clients.
- Rough Terrain Footwear – How about sneakers or boots? I don’t know how many times I have met an agent at a property only to find out that the landscaping was not in and the ground was muddy. Or how about when you need to walk a lot that has tall grass on it or is on rocky terrain? Remember Austin being hilly? It’s pretty difficult for a woman wearing heels to walk down a steep driveway.
- Maps – GPS is great, but there is no substitute for getting a map out and showing people where you are going or where you have been. Maps are also great for showing people a home’s proximity to shopping, medical care, schools and other things that are important to them. By the way, have an extra so you can give it to your clients.
- A Measuring Tape – I showed homes to one couple who always had to measure the dining room to make sure a certain piece of furniture would fit. You may be surprised how many people will do this or something similar.
- A Camera With Charged Batteries – Photos online might be good, and buyers may have a camera in a phone, but being able to take photos of anything that needs to be remembered is a great thing. And it gives you a great reason to follow up the same day.
- Whatever Opens The Lockbox – Sure it seems obvious, but whether it is a D Key, An ActiveKey, Smartphone or another device, make sure you have it and that it is fully charged.
- A Charger For Your Phone – If you have a phone that uses GPS or other applications, you probably know that these can drain a battery faster than normal. Don’t let yourself run the risk of having a dead phone.
What would you add to this list?
Insider Insight: Internet Safety Tips
· CommentsThis guest post was written by Sam Chapman, an Austin real estate agent,
who has lived in the Austin-Lake Travis area since 1987.
This post has nothing to do with Austin real estate, but it has everything to do with Internet use habits, safety and your future.
Facebook and other social networking sites can be awesome, but did you know you could be placing yourself at risk? If you are not careful with your privacy settings, with what you post or if you add people as friends without knowing them, you could be setting yourself up for trouble.
Imagine posting that you are about to spend 5 days in beautiful Hawaii. Cool. Your friends will be jealous and everyone will be looking forward to seeing photos that you will post when you get back. Imagine coming back from Hawaii and finding that your house had been burglarized. How could this happen? Someone shady was lurking on Facebook and saw your post. The crooks found out where you live and hit the house when you were gone.
Parents, you need to know what your kids are doing online on sites like Facebook. Make them add you as a friend so you can see what they are posting. Not that you are going to hang out and read everything they post, but an occasional check would be very wise.
Make sure you know who can see what. To check or change your Privacy Settings, log in to Facebook and look for the Account tab at the upper right part of the page. Click on Account and find Privacy Settings. Click that, then Profile Information and make whatever changes you need to make. Go back to Privacy Settings and click Contact Information. Again, make any changes you feel are necessary. Do the same for other Privacy Settings and you’re done.
Teenagers, college students and people new to the work force need to be careful about what they post. Believe it or not, employers visit sites like Facebook. Do you want a future employers seeing a post about what you did at a party or about skipping classes to go to the lake? Also be careful about photos you or your friends post. If you see one that is particularly unflattering, ask to have it removed.
Also, beware of any post or private message from a “friend” who is in distress. People can hack users identities and post about having been mugged while out of town and needing money. This is actually more common than you might think. How do hackers steal someone’s Facebook identity? Probably through a phishing email. This is a great reason not to have one password for multiple online accounts.
There are other Facebook threats as well. If you see something that looks suspicious, take a careful look at it.
From Kathleen: Interestingly enough, I just got this article in a newsletter from my Spam block vendor. Kinda scary.
How to Find Hidden Testimonials
· CommentsThis guest post was written by Sam Chapman, who hosts a website where you can
search Austin homes. Sam has lived in the Austin-Lake Travis area since 1987.
Do you need testimonials for your real estate website? If you do, you may already have some that you didn’t think about.
Are you a member of LinkedIn? In case you are not familiar with it, LinkedIn is a social networking site for business professionals. If you are a member, you may have already had people recommend you.
Many LinkedIn members ask for recommendations and some are just offered. They are usually exchanged – I recommend you and you recommend me. LinkedIn recommendations are usually very good because they usually come from people who have worked with you and who know you well enough to write intelligently and accurately.
You don’t need testimonials just from people you have helped buy or sell real estate. Recommendations that you turn into testimonials on your real estate website can add a lot of depth about you, and can help people understand more about you on a little deeper level. Here is one about me:
- “I first met Sam when he was hired as a Kinko’s store manager in San Antonio. Through the years I watched as his career progressed from Branch Manager to Regional Operations Manager to Kinko’s Partner. Sam is intelligent, resourceful and dedicated. He has tremendous integrity and whoever has the opportunity to utilize his services will not be disappointed.” –September 25, 2007 Phil Schlageter, Board of Directors , Kinko’s, Inc.
See what I mean? It doesn’t just have to be about real estate.
This guest post was written by Sam Chapman, a Lake Travis real estate agent,
who has lived in the Austin-Lake Travis area since 1987.
People talk all the time about the number of inbound links to a site being important to a website’s Search Engine ranking. And, I’ve found that the quality of the site pointing a link to you is huge. Here are two examples.
The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M is one of the most respected real estate information websites on the planet. They send out a weekly e-newsletter, and recently held a “a vote-for-your-favorite-real-estate-blog contest”. My blog made the top 10.
A link to my blog, using appropriate anchor text, was on a PR 4 page from this site that has tons of respect from Google. That one link had enough juice to get my blog on page 1 of Google for the term real estate blog. Not Austin real estate blog, but just real estate blog. It is difficult to get links from exceptionally well respected sites, but if you can, the result can be huge.
On another note, I am a writer for the Austin Post, a relatively new online newspaper. It is very local, has lots of posts, and a Page Rank of 4 after just 90 days. It has risen to be quite an authority site for Austin. I think the sandbox effect wore off after 90 days and link juice kicked in.
After writing for this online newspaper, my website went from ranking around 13-15 on Google, to number 6 on Google for the term Austin real estate. I have linked sparingly in writing for the Post, but I do include a link back to my home search page in the author bio.
This shows the power of links from a non-real estate, but city-specific, website.
Looks like finding opportunities for establishing powerful real estate or geographically-related links to your real estate website is worth the effort!
