Here is a special holiday message from me!
May your days be merry and bright!
Happy Holidays from Megan at BVAS! {Video}
December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Rich Real Estate Agent, Poor Real Estate Agent
November 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
via activerain.com
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.
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Importance of REALTOR Safety
November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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!
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Recommended Reading {6.13.11}
June 13, 2011 By 1 Comment
There have been some great articles out there lately touching on subjects closely related to real estate, social media, and marketing. So here is my latest edition of recommended reading, things I think you should know. Enjoy!
5 Secrets to Being Successful on Twitter – This one of the best articles I’ve found explaining the nuances of Twitter and how to use it correctly for your real estate business.
5 Common Real Estate Website Myths – Debunked – A fantastic article from Geek Estate Blog. Still believe your Broker’s site is good enough?
Your Facebook Business Page is Worthless – The Future of Real Estate Marketing- Your Facebook page not living up to your expectations? You’re probably doing it wrong.
4 Tips To Maximize Your Twitter Marketing – Social Media Examiner – It is all about planning organizing and expanding.
5 Ways iCloud Will Change How Real Estate Teams Run Their Businesses – Apple’s new iCloud service will be a game changer on the consumer market. This article highlights the practical uses for your real estate business. Great news for Mac users (of which I will soon join the club), but also PC users will not be left out.
Want More Sales? Pump Up The Experience – Amp up the consumer experience for your buyers and sellers. Make sure to wow them with these tips.
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Have You Updated Your About Page Lately
March 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Take a look at the “About Me” page on your website. Have you not updated your bio within the last several years on there? Or worse, do you have canned content from your template website provider? Or worse yet, you have the phrase “This is where you put in information about yourself” in that spot?
The About page on any given website is about the first or second place a visitor clicks on when visiting a new site (on a real estate site, it’s probably 2nd to property searches). People want to know the person or people that are behind the business and what that business is really about. It is important to show who you are and still give people a reason to stay on your site and want more from you.
I recently decided to take a new approach to my own About page on my website. Before, my page was just like any professional profile or resume, stating my certifications, my past work experience and so on. It was a snooze fest. And I really didn’t think it conveyed who I was or represented me authentically. So I changed it up, re-wrote it in my own voice and added some more personal information about me outside of my business. I still kept at the end bullet points with my professional certifications and such, but now I gave a little more insight to the REAL me.
Now, I’m not saying that my new about page is the most compelling thing ever written on the planet. But I feel it is more authentic. I wrote it in my own voice, telling more of the story on how I got to be in the business I’m in, and showing the REAL person behind the business (who is a busy mommy as well as a wine lover).
Now I have mentioned before, that real estate consumers don’t really care about the agent at first, and that mostly is true. They mostly want property info and market conditions. But once they ARE ready to care about the agent they want to use, you’re about page can help to convince them that YOU are the one they can be comfortable working with.
About pages don’t have to be boring and resume like. Check out this blog with 12 of the best about pages from around the web. You can also check out this site About.me and create your own profile on there as well as get your creative wheels turning. You can check out my own About.me page here with a slightly shortened version of my bio.
I recommend you examine your own About page right now. Does it authentically represent you? Does it say who you are and give people a reason to stay and find out more. Does it tell of all of your professional experience and most updated certifications? Does it have an updated photo of you, or glamor shot of you from 25 years ago? Go look at it, re-work it and make sure it makes a great first impression.
Have a great About.me page or an about page on your site to be proud of? Leave me a comment and share it below!
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Tips For Creating Fantastic Real Estate Videos
March 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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.
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A Great Content Idea for a Local Blog – Via GeekEstate Blog
January 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Check out the great post above from geekestateblog.com about a great content idea for your real estate blog. If you’re looking for some great local community content for your real estate blog, why not create a post listing and reviewing all the various free WiFi spots in your area. This will definitely appeal to the virtual workers (like me), telecommuters, outside sales people and more who are looking for a WiFi hotspot in your community.
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10 Ideas For Real Estate Video – Part IV
September 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today brings you two more video content ideas in part 4 of my series,10 Ideas For Real Estate Video. Catch up on previous installments: part one, part two and part three here.
7. Hello, My name is… (a.k.a. Personal Intro Video)
Seeing only someone’s written word can make it hard to get an idea of their total personality. But seeing someone on video, you get a face and a voice to the name. So great way to introduce yourself web visitors, blog readers, and viewers is by doing a personal intro video. The video can show you, sitting at your desk or some other fabulous location, telling the viewer about yourself, your company, how you work, and whatever else you want people to know about you. You can be creative and and have clips clips showing you at work, in your favorite neighborhood, and maybe show people what you like to do when you don’t have your real estate hat on.
Show your personality in the video and keep it fun. But avoid making it like a cheesy 80′s infomercial. Also, try to keep your video down to 3-5 minutes. Most people love to talk about themselves but have a tendency to go on too long.
8. Share Market Stats, and Real Estate News
Make informative videos sharing the latest real estate news and your interpretation of local market trends to let your audience know what is going on in their market. Share your opinions on the latest market trends affecting buyers and sellers in your area. Giving your visitors and prospects this useful real estate info they are looking for helps showcase your knowledge of the market and strengthens your position as a trusted expert. This can also be a consistent source of video content as there is often breaking news in the real estate world, and market trends and statistics are ever changing.
The fifth and final installment of this series is coming up, so stay tuned. Want to share your personal intro video, or have more ideas for real estate video? I want know about it! Just leave me a comment below.
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Put property listings in a lot of places | Inman News
July 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
via inman.com
It’s quite obvious. The more places your listings show up, the more exposure your listings get. And when partnering with a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, it is our job to make sure your listings get posted everywhere without you having to think about it.
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Online Dominance & A Fantastic Facebook Trick
April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Image of Michael Russer
After attending the awesome VREBC last week, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite speakers from it, Michael Russer. When I first started out as a Real Estate Virtual Assistant over 5 years ago, I was introduced through the REVA Network to Michael Russer and his fantastic classes and webinars. Also known as “Mr. Internet”, Michael has been speaking and coaching real estate pros for years on using the internet for their real estate business. He is also one of the biggest cheerleaders of the Virtual Assistant industry, which is another reason why I am a big fan of his.
Michael’s extensive list of accomplishments and books written can be found right here. His latest program, Online Dominance, includes a fantastic Mentoring program for agents that contains his high-energy group coaching calls, as well as the highly valuable CLICKS to CLOSES™ and ePRODUCTIVITY™ courses. This is one program where a few of my real estate friends are participants, and they all are raving fans.
The main reason I am posting this is to highlight a fantastic lead follow up resource that he shares and how he goes about sharing it with the use of his Facbook fan page. The resource Michael shares is the ingenious “Critical First Response Email Script”. It is a simple email sent to internet consumers after their initial inquiry. It is crafted in a way that is no pressure, “non-salesy”, and invites consumers to open a dialogue when they are ready to.
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
How do you get this fantastic email script? Well, you must become a fan of the Online Dominance Facebook page in order to get to the download link. This Facebook tactic demonstrates a great way to generate new fans (or leads) to your Facbook fan page by enticing users to get something of value from you that they want or need. This simple trick is something you can do with your own fan page by creating a tab that only fans can access and use that tab to share valuable links, or special downloads for your fans. Then just watch your fan numbers grow.
I highly recommend that you check out Michael Russer
- Online Dominance – www.OnlineDominance.com
- The Mr. Internet News Real Estate Blog
- Online Dominance Facebook Page
Looking to spruce up your own Facebook fan page and add valuable links and information for your fans? Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can help you! Contact us today for an assessment of your real estate and social media support needs. and if your not already, come on over to Facebook and be a fan!
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