Attention Agents, you need to combat this memory loss! Again, these past clients are your best source for referrals and repeat business, so you must keep in touch. It is super important to have a Post Closing follow up plan. One place that I like to direct my clients to use is The Personal Marketing Co and their ProPower client follow up program. It is what I like to call, “Post-closing follow up made easy”.

The plans from TPMCo include a 5 year follow up option full of postcards and magazines that will be mailed to your clients. One nice touch the program includes: In the first week your happy new home owners will receive a set of labels with their new address as well as a photo “keepsake” of the new home with a thank you message from you. And following that will be a series of postcards and magazines over the next 5 years (23 touches in all). All you have to do is enter your clients in the system, and they are taken care of without a second thought. All this is offered for $25 per enrollment.

Using something like this, along with your online marketing and social media efforts will help keep that front of mind awareness. Hitting them on all fronts will help ensure that your past clients will not suffer from amnesia later when someones asks them for a recommended REALTOR to help buy or sell a home.

You can reach The Personal Marketing Co at 800.458.8245 or online at www.TPMCO.com

Disclaimer: Megan Barber, The BVAS Connection, and Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions is in not an affiliate, not an employee, or not in any way a representative of The Personal Marketing Company. We received no kickbacks or money to promote them. We just like their product/service and thought it a good resource. Please do your due diligence before purchasing or using any product.

via activerain.com

Are you available to your clients 24/7/365? Have you tried but burned out? Balance in business and life is a good thing. I run into this in my own business. I’ve had past clients think that because their business is 24/7, mine should be too. No thanks! It really is a good idea to set regular business hours and to set good boundries with your clients.
This is a great post on this from Active Rain. Now go read it!

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous

All you have to do is submit a video that is 3 minutes or less, explaining why you should get an all-expenses paid trip to NARdiGras 2010, NAR’s annual conference and expo happening November 5-8. Looks like a fun contest and a pretty great prize as well. A few years ago I attended the NAR Conference & Expo in Vegas, had a blast, and met all sorts of industry greats.

Winner of the contest receives, full conference registration, round-trip airfare, hotel room for 3 nights, and $300 gift card for expenses. The winner’s video will also be displayed on the REALTORS® Conference & Expo home page.

Video submission deadline is August 15th, and the voting for the finalist happens August 23rd – September 13th. So get creative, show off you awesome video skills, plead your case, and be sure to include the phrase “NARdiGras 2010, the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in New Orleans.”

For more information on the contest and guidelines, check it out here.

Good Luck!

via michaelhyatt.com

I know in real estate you run into the “high-maintenance” client probably more often than most businesses. Today I stumbled upon this great post via Twitter – Three Reasons You Can’t Afford That High Maintenance Client. It is a fantastic read and something you should really take to heart. As bad as you think you “need” the money and take on any listing that comes your way no matter how hard headed the seller is on that way-too-high price, it ends up costing more of your time, sanity and money in the end. Click on the above link below the photo and check it out.

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

via agentgenius.com

Excellent post coming straight out of Agent Genius that you must check out. Re-evaluate what is going on in your business model, your life, etc, then Fix it or Fire it and move on! AG rocks!

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

Just wanted to wish one and all a Happy New Year! Welcome 2010!

2009 was a great year full of fun, milestones, and good things. The most exciting happening of 2009 was the birth of my son. And though last year saw a soft economy that slowed business a bit, I didn’t let that get me down.

Now I am gearing up for a fantastic 2010. Bring it on!!

If you want to ditch the desk and go completely mobile, here are the necessary tools to do so. This is a great post from Clint Miller on Active Rain. Follow him on Twitter too – http://twitter.com/therealclint

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

Well a client of mind found a free online showing feedback solution solution recently, we tried it out, and it is working great. So today I wanted to share this great tool to help you get your showing feedback results in an easy and automatic fashion. And best of all is that it’s FREE! The program is www.ShowingFeedback.com, and my agent client and I had recently stumbled upon it when looking for cost effective online showing feedback solutions.

ShowingFeedback.com allows you to track the feedback on your listings by creating and sending short surveys to agents that show your listings, and then give access to your sellers to review the reports and comments that have been left by the agents.

To use is, you simply enter your listings and seller’s information into the system, and when there is a new showing, add the showing agent’s information and a showing feedback survey is sent. The feedback survey will be sent automatically up to 3 times until the showing agent responds. When they do respond, they you AND your seller will receive email notification of the showing feedback that was just left. It is that simple.

So far in using it the past few weeks we have seen about a 90% response rate from the showing agents and we are very impressed. And of course, the sellers really appreciate getting direct email notification of their showing activity and feedback.

And did I mention that this was free? So go give it a try, you have nothing to lose!

Still wondering what a Virtual Assistant can do to help keep you from burning the candle at both ends. Here are 10 things a VA can do to help:

1. Listing Coordination – You just received a signed listing agreement with a client, and now it is time to deliver on your marketing promises, all of which can be very time consuming. Your VA can handle everything from the moment you sign the contract. This can include entering the data into the MLS, creating flyers, creating and mailing “Just Listed” postcards, arrange print advertising, publish to personal website, Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, track showing feedback and much more. All you have to do is send the pictures and the info, and your VA can do the rest.
2. Contact Management – Making sure you stay in touch with your database, keeping them up to date, and keeping track of appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, etc, can be a daunting task. Let your VA manage your contact management, by using such CRM’s as Top Producer or the Wise Agent. The VA will keep your database up to date, make sure action plans and campaigns are being applied appropriately, set up your reminders for events and appointments.
3. Internet Lead Management – Receiving lots of leads from your websites or blogs? Let your VA help you manage your lead intake. They can import them into your CRM, make sure follow-up and drip campaigns are going off without a hitch, and help you stay in touch to convert those leads into clients.
4. Website Maintenance – Have several websites, but never have time to update listings or add fresh content? Let your VA maintain your real estate websites by making sure they are optimized for search engines, make sure your listings are updated, and that you have fresh relevant content for your visitors. Most VAs even have the ability to customize and design your sites to set them apart from the rest of the competition.
5. Listing Presentation Preparation – Want to impress potential seller clients? Your VA can create a professional listing presentation for you that will clearly outline your marketing plan and selling process for your sellers, in digital or print format. It can be customized to the the house you aim to list, to really knock their socks off!
6. Transaction Coordination – From the moment you get a sales contract, things can go from zero to crazy in an instant. Your VA can manage your transaction from contact to close and you can rest easy. They will manage all the documents and signatures, schedule inspections, handle the appointments and be main point of contact for your transactions.
7. Custom Marketing Materials Design – Want your flyers, postcards, and presentations to have a professional look, but have no idea of how to make them that way? Hire a VA to custom design your marketing materials with your branding scheme. It help you put your best foot forward and set you above the rest.
8. FSBO & Expired Prospecting – Want to tap into the FSBO and Expired markets? FSBO and Expired prospecting takes some special attention that your VA is well equipped to handle. By the use of certain programs, your VA will be able to harvest the FSBO and Expired leads, start the campaigns, send the letters & emails, etc. With the help of your VA, you will show those prospects that you are the one that can successfully list their homes.
9. Social Networking Assistance – So you have a profile on Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, ActiveRain, LinkedIn, or other popular social networks, but you can’t keep up with the friend requests and updates. Let your VA screen and manage your friend requests, make sure your latest blog entries get posted, post listing information, and make sure you get “out there” in the social networking world.
10. Marketing Planning – No idea on how to focus your marketing efforts or any idea on what to budget for? Your VA can strategize with you to come up with long term marketing plans with many different options to make sure you get enough “touches” and stay in front of your clients, contacts, and farm.

Now if any of the above options sound like something you would like to unload from your busy schedule, than you should consider delegating these kinds of tasks to a Real Estate Virtual Assistant.

Tip #1: Take care of clutter in baby steps Got piles and piles of paperwork or mail cluttering your desk, your floor, your car, your kitchen counters?  Don’t fret!  It may seem very overwhelming at first, but it does not have to be. It didn’t get there all at once, and it doesn’t have to be taken care of all at once. Take care of it in baby steps by focusing on one pile in one area for 15 minutes at a time each day. Set a timer for 15 minutes and start going through your piles, throwing out what is not needed and filing (in your labeled file folders of course) the papers you need to keep. When your time is up, stop what you are doing, making sure you can mark where you left off, and come back to it the next day for 15 minutes. Any new mail or papers that come to you in this time, automatically file away as you get them. Do this for 21 days (it takes 21 days to make something a habit right?) and see where this takes you. Little by little you will purge and file all the cluttering paperwork you have laying about and before you know it, you have trained yourself into being nearly organized!

© Megan E. Barber, Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the "behind-the-scenes" work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.