The BVAS Connection» Real Estate Technology

Rich Real Estate Agent, Poor Real Estate Agent

Megan E. Barber — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:30:53 +0000

What separates Rich Real Estate Agents from the Poor Real Estate Agents? Check out this awesome infographic and survey from Active Rain. Lots of striking information in this, definitely worth checking out.

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy.

One Year Ago I Ditched Outlook for Gmail

Megan E. Barber — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:05:38 +0000

One year ago today, I made the decision to ditch Microsoft Outlook and move everything over to Gmail. And I have never looked back!

Why did I do it? Outlook at the time was continually locking up, crashing my PC and I was completely fed up. In the back of my mind, I had always considered moving it over to Gmail but was too afraid to take the plunge because it was so different than I’m used to. Then one day, after too much frustration, I did it. And it was so much easier than I thought.

So what are the Pros for leaving Outlook for Gmail? Here are a few of the great reasons:

Easy to use! If you are used to Google and any Google apps at all, you will easily be able to find your way around Gmail.
Access to your email from anywhere. Any computer with internet, any mobile phone, Mac or PC. That means if you buy a new computer, the transition instructions are so easy: 1. Turn on computer 2. Login to Gmail.
Like I mentioned above, you can access anywhere, that means it syncs everywhere. No worrying about double entry or deleting emails you’ve already received in other locations.
If you are used to using “Folders” and rules in Outlook, then “Labels” and filters work the same way, and even better.
Your Gmail, your Docs, Calendars (which syncs everywhere too!) is accessible in one dashboard
You can pull in multiple email accounts via POP3 if you use different email addresses for different things (you are not stuck with only @gmail.com addresses). You can do up to 5 POP3 accounts for free in regular Gmail.

I’m an Android phone user which made the email switch much easier since Gmail is it’s main email app. Also, within the last few months I have switched from a PC to a MAC and it sure did make my email transition much smoother (see above).

With all this gushing about Google and how great it is, if you are so used to Outlook, Gmail can be hard to get used to at first. First, it just looks different, and the threaded conversations and overall look took some getting used to. I also had to take some extra time to set up all my filters and labels in the beginning. But once I did, it was smooth sailing from there.

* I should note that I did not move my domain’s mail hosting to Google Apps. I have a dozen or so emails associated with it, and my host is awesome so I didn’t want to rock the boat. I really wanted to keep it simple! Regular Gmail suffices for me (luckily I don’t have more than 5 POP3 accounts to pull in).

Importance of REALTOR Safety

Megan E. Barber — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:08:45 +0000

Being a real estate agent can definitely be a difficult job at times. From managing several buyer and seller clients at once, to tracking paperwork and juggling upcoming closings. But he thought that your real estate career can present you with some dangerous situations, hardly ever enters your mind. Some scary stuff in the news lately is driving home the fact that Realtor safety should become a priority.

Realtor safety concerns are nothing new. Several years ago, when I worked in the front office for a major real estate company, the company had decided to offer self defense classes to their agents which some thought was silly. Since the subject came up, my broker then told me this story:

She was working with these first-time buyers, showing them several properties on the weekends over a few weeks. One Saturday morning, she was setting up a few showing appointments for the day, and called one particular owner-occupied home where a pleasant gentleman answered. He said it was the requested appointment was fine and he would make sure to be out of the home.

Since this was the first appointment of the day, she decided to get to the property ahead of her clients to preview it herself, open up curtains, turn on lights, etc. When she unlocked and opened the door, about 10 feet in front of her was a man sitting in a chair with a shotgun in his lap, starting straight at her. She quickly apologized for disturbing him, backed away, closed the door, and got in her car. She had her clients meet her at the next property instead.

Now that scary situation turned out to be ok for my former boss, as she was unharmed. But it has stuck in her memory and has always taken extra safety measures ever since.

The news tell us that some agents have not been so lucky.

Last year, two Realtors were found murdered in separate incidents, one found shot in a vacant home he was showing, and one found in burning home.

Back in April, an Iowa Realtor was found murdered at an at a model home open house.

In July, a Tennessee agent was attacked and robbed during a showing appointment.

Just last month, an Oregon broker was targeted in his office and shot by a revenge seeking gunman.

A few weeks ago, northern Ohio agents were warned that a man was calling female agents for evening showing appointments, to possibly lure them into vacant homes and sexually assault them.

The sad list goes on.

Real estate can be a risky industry. Agents can often find themselves traveling alone, meeting with and showing properties to people that they don’t really know well or at all. There’s worries that violence against Realtors is on the rise. And it is not just women that are victimized. (check out his report)

What can you do to keep yourself safe? Though past violent incidents don’t always have a common thread, and there is no way to prevent every crime, agents should certainly take any step necessary to protect themselves.

Take a self defense or martial arts class.
Google new prospects prior to initial meetings to sniff out anything fishy if you can.
Meet them for the first time in a public place, such as your office during business hours.
Call or text someone to let them know where you’ll be and who you’ll be with showing properties.
Use a tool such as Moby, which is a mobile app for your smartphone that can alert chosen contacts with a need for assistance and also tracks your location. And it’s FREE!

Do what you can to increase your awareness and fine tune your gut instincts. Please stay safe out there!

When Technology Lets You Down

Megan E. Barber — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:33:22 +0000

What have we been up to lately at the BVAS office? Things have been buzzing along here while running my real estate virtual assistant team and marketing projects galore. Then around the first of the month, an all out techno meltdown happened. My poor 3 year old laptop had been limping along lately, but I knew it was not long for this world. It finally overheated and went kaput.

Let us hold a moment of silence for the good old HP dv6700 laptop…

There was just a minor slowdown while waiting for my new computer to arrive, but thanks to my husband’s a backup laptop and Dropbox I was able to keep things going close to “business as usual”. Dropbox especially was a lifesaver as I was able to store the files I needed in the cloud to get them whenever the project called for it.

Now, I am a proud new owner of a MacBook Pro. I will spare you all the details on how I came to the decision to ditch PCs and go for the Mac, but I am super happy with my choice and I won’t be looking back. While I have a bit of a learning curve since I am a total Mac virgin, it helps that I have been able to keep my lifeline to Windows (via VM Ware Fusion). Because of that, I didn’t have to buy new software for absolutely everything and can still access all my same Windows based files for clients.

Having the right backup systems in place really saves a lot of stress and anxiety, and a computer crash or transition to a new machine is always a great reminder of that. I always stress that you MUST backup your computers files often because a PC crash or virus can happen at any time . Here at the BVAS office, we backup our computers to a external hard drive here, and also via the web with Carbonite. You can never have too many backup systems in place.

In other BVAS news, sew systems and service packages are in the works, so stay tuned for some upcoming announcements. As always, please join the conversation on our Facebook page, and feel free to leave a comment with your questions and request for upcoming how-to’s.

Social Media vs. Traditional Marketing – There Is No Magic Bullet

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:00:17 +0000

Old school vs. the new school. Traditional marketing methods vs. Social media marketing. Ways of the past vs. the wave of the future. Around the online real estate world, a small debate was going on about the different schools of thought on real estate marketing methods such as social media and online marketing, and the more traditional routes such as cold calling, door knocking, and direct mail.

Some have quickly taken one side over the other, dismissing the validity of the other point. The “old school” folks cheer on the statement that social media is a total waste of time. The “new school” people think the ones who deny the potential of social media are dinosaurs of the industry that should step aside. I think the the bigger picture here in this debate is that a balanced approach using both old and new methods is necessary to succeed in this market.

Is social media a complete waste of time? I don’t certainly think so. If you know me, you know that I am a big social media fan, and use things like Facebook and Twitter quite often personally and for my business. I have even signed new clients that I’ve met via social media.

Social networking can certainly have potential to be a time waster, with the virtual farms, virtual mafia, and the penchant to announce what one had for breakfast. Certainly if you spend too much of your time living on Facebook and Twitter, you are not going to get much done in general, or be able to effectively work with your clients. But if you handle your social networking activities correctly (strategically), you can get potentially attract new business through your social media engagement.

It is also necessary to have the right mindset and expectation about the potential business social media marketing can bring you. Connections that you attract through social media can take a long time for them to convert to actual business, much like other internet leads. But if you look at the bigger picture, social networks are a great tool to foster new relationships with prospects by engaging with them and repeatedly be out in front of them.

Through some of the more traditional methods of cold calling, and door knocking, most of the “old school” gurus direct agents to go through their database, sphere or lists looking for buyers and sellers that are ready to make their move RIGHT NOW. And then they’ll instruct them to cross the prospect off the list and move on the the next if the are not ready to do business in the immediate. Where this differs from social media marketing is that you are spending little time incubating those warm or cold leads, and going directly for the hot ones. While this approach may be successful for some, it is not for everyone, and even some prospects find this type of communication a total turn off (Hello Gen Y?).

Both social media marketing and more traditional prospecting methods both have their place in today’s marketing plans. Cold calling for hot leads can help you generate business that is ready to move right now, while social media marketing can help fill that pipeline of incoming leads that can eventually warm up to actual business too. I believe a balanced approach in your marketing plan is best.

There is no one marketing method that is the magic bullet. But use any combination of them with the right approach and mindset, and they will bring you new business.

What side of the debate do you stand on? Or what marketing methods have yielded the best results for you? I want to hear from you, so please comment below!

The Power of Information – New video from RISMedia

Megan E. Barber — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:42:37 +0000

RISMedia just released this fantastic new video today about the impact of social media and mobile internet on the future of real estate. It is evident that they worked hard on this. This video has some good stuff to get you thinking in case you are on the fence.

This is a great video that illustrates what is coming in the future. But I don’t think social media is THE magic bullet. I have a post upcoming that talks about this more, so stay tuned!

Let me know your thoughts on the video. Leave me a comment below!

Tips For Creating Fantastic Real Estate Videos

Megan E. Barber — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:02:51 +0000

This year I am on a mission to help REALTORS use video, and use it effectively to build their business. By now, you’ve seen many agents all over the web taking matters into their own hands and creating videos for their real estate marketing. Though some will say that it should be left to the video pros to use video successfully, agents are fully able to do it themselves with the right tools and tricks in place.

Here are some tips and best practices for video success.

Make sure you have all the right tools to get you started in video. Check out my last post on that subject.
Film in a a location with good lighting, be sure that the background is not too distracting, and try to be in a place with few off-camera noises or interruptions.
If you plan on being in front of the camera for your videos, practice, practice, practice. Do lots of takes and practice being on camera to help you be more comfortable and natural while being filmed.
Practice your filming movements with camera in hand. Don’t use jerky movements or pan too quickly. And make use of a stability bar to help with smooth filming and panning.
If you are not comfortable in front of the camera, get behind the camera and perform interviews and showcase your neighborhood, businesses and events.
Try and keep informational videos short and sweet. You will lose an audience with long videos that drone on, so keep your videos to around 3 minutes long, 5 minutes max. Anything beyond that, you risk losing the interest of your audience.
When shooting home tours, make use of a wide angle lens to get better shots of interior rooms.
Include a call to action and display your phone number and the url to your website/blog at the end of your video.
Make use of your editing software and edit the raw footage of your videos, add transitions and titles with your website link.
When uploading to your YouTube channel, make good use of the description using some keywords and be sure to include links to your website or blog in it.

If you haven’t started with video for your business yet, hopefully the above tips will get you going. And as always, you can make use of a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, to help with editing your videos and broadcasting across the web.

You’re Doing it Wrong

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:27:20 +0000

Are you frustrated with not getting a steady stream of quality prospects from your real estate website? Suffering from too many visitors leaving your website and never coming back? If you are having a tough time getting new leads and visitors to sign up for your list and contact you, take a long hard look at your site. Chances are, you are probably doing it wrong.

You Are Doing It Wrong if…

1. Your site is a stale static site that does not have regularly updated content like a blog.

If you are not updating your site regularly with new content, like blogging, your site stays stale, uninteresting and totally irrelevant. And blogging doesn’t have to be strictly written articles. You can regularly post videos and pictures relevant to your market area that will provide content that people will come back to see.

2. You have pictures of palm trees and beaches all over your header and pages, but your local market is in Denver Colorado.

If your site does not reflect you and your local market, what is the point? How would anyone know if you are the local market expert when your site displays a complete disconnect?

3. You have a forced sign-up immediately just to be able to start a property search or to view IDX listings.

I know this is a common tactic to garner leads, so some may disagree with me here. But from my own experience as a consumer… when I am looking for homes and you make me sign up just to search or view them, I will bounce out of there and go where I can view homes unimpeded. It’s a personal annoyance of mine, but I know many consumers share the same experience.

4. It is too hard to find the top THREE things visitors to your site want most: Home Search, “What is my home worth”, “How is the Market”

If those top three things are not above the fold or in a most obvious place on your site for buyers and sellers to find, you are missing the mark. Your site will lose credibility with visitors right away if they have to search too hard to find the information they want the most. So they will bounce out and find it elsewhere.

5. Your website is all about you and nothing much about your local market and what your visitors want (see the top 3 items above).

Truth is, consumers don’t much care about the agents when they start their home search. When you go car shopping, do you first start by searching for the best car salesman you can find? My guess is that you don’t. The same goes for home buyers. They start searching for HOMES not for Realtors. So drop the ego and make sure your site is geared towards the consumer. Answer the question, “What’s in it for them?”.

6. You’re not offering buyers and sellers something of actual value to them for signing up for your list or updates.

Those cheesy, canned “free reports” provided by template sites don’t count. (does anybody really sign up for those?) Try something like the Market Snapshot system, a special buyers guide, offer IDX listings to their inbox, or free foreclosure lists.

7. Your site has no links or way to connect with you on social media.

Social media gives web visitors the opportunity to observe your activity, a bit of your personality, and build up that trust factor over time. And since many visitors are not usually ready right then to make contact with you, provide them links to your Facebook business page or Twitter feed for them to get to know you from a distance. This is especially appealing to Gen Y’ers since they are way more likely to reach out via Facebook than pick up the phone or send an email.

8. There’s no clear call to action on your site.

If you don’t have clear consistent calls to action to tell your users what you want them to do with the information you provide them, you’re doing it wrong. Tell them to call or email you for more info. Tell them to leave you a comment about their own experiences or questions. Tell them to sign up on your form to receive market reports on recent solds in the area.

9. You have no contact forms on your site for visitors to actually contact you when they are ready.

Only having your phone number or links to email you may be hurting your site’s ability to capture leads. Having no (or very few) contact forms on your site, you’re not making it easy for visitors. It can be especially difficult for those who primarily use a web based email client like gmail or they happen to be at work. In fact, it is important to have some sort of contact form on every page. Make it easy on your users to contact you!

10. You say you are different from the rest, yet you are using a templated website that looks identical to 50,000 other agents’ sites.

Using a template site that is provided to you by your broker or from from some other web vendor, does you no favors. Those template sites hardly reflect your local market or your own brand and you can get easily lost in the shuffle. How can you stand out from the rest if your site looks exactly the same as the next guy and does nothing to set you apart.

If you took a good look at your site and saw that your are doing one, all or any combination of the above, it is probably time for a new approach. Your website should be your hub, your engine for delivering exactly what consumers want when they search for real estate info. If you are not making it easy, not making it all about them, you are losing them. Stop doing it wrong.

Consider utilizing a Real Estate Virtual Assistant to help you do it right.

Seen other ways people are doing it wrong? Have any questions on how to do it right? We want to hear from you! Leave us a comment below and let us know.

The World is Obsessed With Facebook – video

Megan E. Barber — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:32:42 +0000

Check out this fun video inspired by the onlineschools.org infographic about the latest Facebook stats.

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Tools You Need to Build Your Business with Video

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:28:19 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Building your real estate business with video is nothing new. Last year, real estate coaches and consultants had merely introduced video as a great option that you should consider to start incorporating into your real estate business. Now in 2011, video has become a NECESSARY tool for building your real estate business online. With YouTube being the 2nd most popular search engine in the world (2nd to Google), people are consuming video content online day in and day out. And let’s face it, pictures and video capture attention a little better as most people would rather watch a video than read big long articles and posts.

So as part of my Getting Down to Basics series, if you have yet to get started with video and want to know how, here I will share with you the tools you need to get started with creating videos.

Tools You Need to Get Started

Camera – First you need a camera to capture your videos. A hand-held camcorder can do the trick, or even your smartphone with video camera can work. You can find great deals for them on Amazon, or on Kodak. My recommendations:
- Flip Video – Offers 3 different HD handheld camcorders, with fun colors and design options. I personally use the HD Ultra.
- Kodak Playtouch – A new version of Kodak’s handheld camera came out (formerly the Zi8) and has gained much popularity since it came out. Unlike the flip, it has the option to use an external microphone, which allows you to capture video in slightly noisy places and still be heard clearly.
- iPhone, Motorola DroidX, etc. – Most all of the latest smartphones include decent cameras that can be enhanced with some simple accessories.
Tripod- The Tripod is your friend! Even if you have the most steady hand, the tripod will really help improve the quality of your videos while helping you create them from a steady, level surface. You can find very simple, portable tripods to ones with fancy features. Start your search at Amazon.
- Another option is a Stabilizer Bar. If you are touring a home with your camera, these really help with the quality of your videos by helping reduce the side to side twist in your videos. Check out the one on HDhat.com.
Wide Angle Lens – A wide angle lens is especially important when you are filming home tours with your camera. The regular view of a camcorder can be limited and can be hard to show a room, especiall from a doorway. A wide angle lens gives you a much better view of the entire room. You can find some great wide angle lens options that can magnetically attach to your camera model (or phone) via Amazon, or check out these awesome snap-on cases from HDhat.com that are made for the Kodak PlayTouch or the iPhone4.
Editing Software – You might not get every video perfect in one take. So most likely, your raw video footage will need some editing, some title additions, etc. There are many editing options out there and you don’t need to be a total pro to use most of them.
- Most computers will come with easy-to-use video and movie creation software installed right on, like Windows Movie Maker for PCs and iMovie for Macs.
- For more robust video editing options, you can try something like Camtasia or what I personally use, Pinnacle Studio.
YouTube Channel – Not only is it valuable to put your videos on your blog or website, it is absolutely necessary that you have a YouTube channel. As mentioned above, YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine and uploading them to YouTube will help gain exposure for them as well as add additional promotion and embedding opportunities on your social networks and blogs. Your YouTube channel background can also be customized to go with your personal branding. (And if you don’t know how, your Virtual Assistant can definitely help with this)

So there are the essential tools you need to get started with using video for your real estate marketing. If you have any questions tools you need for real estate videos, or have some favorite tools of your own, we would love to hear about it. Please leave us a comment below and let us know about it!

Next up, I will be going over some tips and and best practices for creating and using video to build your business.