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Have you often avoided making those dreaded cold calls? Do you dream of how much better your business could be but just can’t bring yourself to pick up the phone? You’re not alone. In the 15+ years that I have specialized in coaching real estate agents, I have noticed the same avoidant patterns in each of my clients. This article gives you five tips to make it easier.

Listing a property with a blurry property profile photo or, even worse, no photo, is like having a blurry or abstract image as your profile picture on a social media platform or Internet advertising campaign. It is not appealing and, therefore, no one wants to click for more information.

Today’s real estate and mortgage markets require new skills to succeed. There are fewer qualified buyers, shrinking mortgage options, more regulations and tougher competition. For real estate professionals in particular, three emerging barriers stand in the way

“Agents must continually be sharpening their skills in order to be more current and knowledgeable than their competitors,” says Tracy Hutton, President of Century 21 Scheetz. In the following interview, RISMedia Columnist Barbara Pronin talks with Hutton and Mick Scheetz,

If you’re a new agent just getting started in the real estate industry, the following elements are crucial as you set yourself up to hit the ground running. 1. Secure your own domain name. It’s important to have a domain name that you can use with your company-provided site or a site of your own. Domain names allow you to start branding from the beginning so that you have a solid foundation in place from the get-go. 2. Make sure you have a stand-alone website that can easily grow with you. Ask your Web provider if you can add unlimited pages, photos, videos, social media elements and even your own links and PDFs. This allows you to have a solid foundation in place even if you end up switching companies down the road.

REALTOR.com® Business Beat—Give yourself a competitive edge this year with a 2012 listing presentation that shows why, where and how you market your listings online.

With more and more consumers relying on mobile devices for local information, real estate professionals can no longer ignore this increasingly important channel when marketing properties. To help extend its customers’ reach to homebuyers on the go,

The industry’s leading residential real estate firms are quickly responding to RISMedia’s 24th Annual Power Broker Survey, reporting strong numbers for 2011 despite a challenging economic landscape. As the preeminent ranking of the industry’s top residential real estate brokerages, RISMedia’s Power Broker Survey is responsible for revealing real estate’s “who’s who.” Brokers must complete the survey by February 24, 2012 in order to be considered for inclusion in RISMedia’s 24th Annual Power Broker Report, a preview of which appears in the April issue of Real Estate magazine.

As an independent real estate firm or agent we often don’t have resources (time and money) to research market trends and analyze consumer behavior. So what do we do? I recently read Crash Boom, By Greg Rand (great book—lots of awesome real estate principals)

Unfortunately, the first two orders many new salespeople receive are, "Get out and stay out!" It is only natural for your prospect to procrastinate when asked to make a decision involving money. As a general rule, people are hesitant to commit

A traveler attempting to book a plane ticket by phone became frustrated after choosing from a menu of endless options then waiting on hold for 20 minutes before eventually being transferred twice, the second time to a dial tone.

Setting yourself apart from your competition is becoming increasingly difficult. The emergence of social media into the business world has created platforms where constant, ongoing contact is possible. As a result of this desire to be in constant contact, many agents and brokers have struggled with what constitutes valuable content. What do we post, tweet and send? If you think about it, the idea that your friends and acquaintances are sincerely interested in an up-to-the-minute play-by-play of your daily activities is somewhat absurd. This confusion in the marketplace creates real opportunities for leaders to emerge. When I say leaders, I mean thought leaders, market leaders, industry leaders and even neighborhood leaders.

While more and more consumers are turning to their smartphones for information, brokers and REALTORS® everywhere are adapting in order to properly serve their mobile, forward-thinking clientele. The latest trend in the world of mobile marketing is not only dominating the mobile world, but also changing the way agents are promoting their listings and printing their signage. Over the last couple of years, QR codes, short for quick response codes, have been popping up almost everywhere you look. Advertisements in magazines and newspapers, posters, billboards, and even real estate for-sale signs have all been sporting these small, square codes.

When most business owners think about creating a brand for their businesses, they immediately think about logos or brainstorm amusing taglines. Yet, effective branding goes much deeper than this.

In my years of experience with coaching clients to maximize their success, I have created powerful tips to help accelerate progress. The first of these is to get clear on exactly what "success" means to you. I can't tell you how many agents I have worked with who have a general idea that they want to be successful but they don't really know where they want to be professionally 12 months from now.