In case you hadn’t heard C21 was brave enough (in my opinion) to say that they were going to be focusing more on their online efforts than their TV. I wonder why? Finally someone came out and said what others have known for a long time. The Internet is a great place where you can accurately measure the ROI. I first found about this from our friends over at Future of Real Estate Marketing and they wrote a great post about it and provide a link to the actual interview (not sure why C21 doesn’t... 

As the new year approaches and you make plans for your online marketing efforts, one of them surely is creating more pages for your website or blog.  Your plan may be detailed, outlined weekly, or one that has a simple goal of adding “X” number of pages and posts.  One of the main problems of sticking to that plan is the actual creation of content for those pages.  The excuses for avoiding creating new website content are numerous: “I don’t have time”, “I don’t... 

For those that have seen us speak before, you know that Joe and I started our real estate brokerage in a 1 car garage in the City of Carson.  It wasn’t glamorous as it was too hot in the Summer and too cold in the Winter (for those in other states, probably not that cold ).  We had so few leads that we could count them on less than 2 hands.  It certainly was not the glamour of real estate that we envisioned, but we were free from the corporate shackles and were happy that we could work... 

It is the time of year when James and I decide to look at everything we do in our business and how we can improve things here at the Blog, our website, to those who subscribe to our e-mail list, & to our customers. We decided that we want to give more rewards to those that take the time to subscribe for more information and are regular followers of the information that we produce. I know that some might think it doesn’t take much time to subscribe, by a $20 CD, or attend a webinar but... 

As 2009 approaches, most real estate professionals have packed up their bags and are crossing their fingers for a better year that is just around the corner.  Unfortunately for that bunch, doing the same practices and hoping for a market change to save them is not going to yield any tangible results.  Change is inevitable.  Whether the new year ticks or not the market is constantly changing and the way to get new business changes.  Trying new marketing or implementing is not always easy, in... 

Are you ready to make sure that 2008 ends with a bang and not a thud? How about making sure that you close at least 1 transaction each and every month in 2009? By the way there is no silver bullet but there are proven methods for success that you can make sure to do each and every day and each and every month. Today at 1:00pm we are having Todd Bates, real estate and marketing coach, come and teach for 2 hours how to make sure you have deals closing each and every month. This seminar is today and... 

I am on the mailing list for HubSpot which tends to have some helpful information.  The title of the latest e-mail they sent was “Marketing in a Recession” and it brought to light that most often in difficult times people cut their marketing budgets.  Unfortunately cutting of your marketing budget invariably leads to disaster.  We have always been big believers in marketing, but we believe in sticking to a budget as well :).  So, why do people cut their marketing budgets?  Here... 

How has 2008 been? For most having another 6 transactions could mean the different between staying in real estate or having to get a job, probably the job we left real estate for. So how do we make sure that 2009 is different than 2008? We start by doing things a little bit differently and off with a plan for success. Plan for Success This may sound obvious but many real estate professionals start with No plan so they inadvertently plan for failure. If you don’t start off with a plan for how... 

Can anyone describe a business where you can work only the weekends, not do any advertising, and make a great living? That is exactly what some people think about real estate. Many consumers, new real estate agents, and maybe even a few experienced real estate agents think that they can do an open house on either Saturday or Sunday for 1-2 hours and make a great living with absolutely no advertising and surviving off of referrals exclusively. Depending on 1 source for leads I guarantee the number... 

Let’s face it no matter what time of year finding a way to help more people is always a good thing. The key to always having someone to help is to make sure to always have new leads are coming in. In any market there is always opportunity to be had it is just who is getting the opportunities. Where will you be in 2009? So the real question is for the rest of 2008 and for all of 2009 where do you want to be? Are you looking to grow your business, survive the business, or thrive in the business?...