Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter!

Attendees at the Council of Multiple Listing Services “CMLS 2011” conference being held this week in Tucson, AZ, will have no need to remove their printed programs from their conference bags.

This intriguing question will be answered next month by a panel of industry experts at RISMedia’s 16th Annual Power Broker Forum, being held from 2:30-4 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2011, at the Anaheim Convention Center, Room 201A, Anaheim, CA, during the annual NAR Conference.

The third quarter of 2011 came to an end this past Friday and it makes you wonder; where did the time go? One thing you're not left wondering is whether mobile will remain an important part of the technological and marketing landscape moving forward.

Are you feeling confused in today's marketplace? Do you find yourself in any of these patterns? • Procrastinating • Feeling scattered • Avoiding picking up the phone? • Doing just "busy work"? If you answered yes to any of the above, chances are you are feeling "stuck" and your business is suffering. Here are some tips to get your business back on track and double your income:

One of the nation’s largest professional associations of real estate appraisers recently released a form intended to help analyze values of energy-efficient home features. ...

Statistics released by the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate (www.usc.edu/lusk) show an increase in job opportunities for young real estate professionals and reflect an improving job market for the industry. According to the USC Real Estate Employment Report, the Lusk Center received 150 industry job openings in 2011 (through August), a 25 percent increase over the same period last year. In addition, most students in the class of 2011 received more than one job offer with better pay. This year’s average total compensation package was approximately $120,000, a 15 percent increase over 2010.

Editor’s Note: Blueprint for 100 Deals or More Than $1 Million Per Year in Income: The Exact Systems and Technology to Sell 100+ Homes, Every Year—No Matter the Market, is a new book by leading real estate industry executives Alan Shafran and Rick Bengson that outlines how to build your business as well as make more money, please more customers and improve your overall quality of life, whether you are a novice or climbing the ladder in the real estate business. For the next 10 weeks, RISMedia will be running portions of each chapter every Wednesday, highlighting the in-depth information and invaluable resources the authors have compiled in this exciting, new publication. Alan Shafran sat down with RISMedia for a Q&A about the book to launch the series.

Greg Rand (@gsrand), CEO of OwnAmerica and host of Rand on Real Estate on 770 WABC, talks with a current business owner who is looking to expand on his investments and voicing his concerns about residential vs. commercial investments.

If you want your on-line video viewers to hang around for more than a few seconds, don’t waste any time getting their attention. Too often we make the mistake of spending a lot of time on flashy openings or special effects, forgetting that the attention clock is ticking.

(eM+C)—While the tough global economy has served to torpedo branding efforts at many organizations, the sometimes sticky relationship between sales teams and marketers can also torpedo a company’s lead generation efforts. If you still need more ammo to achieve your organization’s goals—aside from the tips mentioned in part one of this article—here are some additional ideas on how sales and marketing can work together to achieve revenue and client wins.

Just recently we discussed how SMS/text messaging was the old faithful of the mobile industry. While there is so much hype surrounding QR and apps (for good reason), one shouldn’t overlook the benefits that an SMS campaign can bring to the table. Perhaps CBS read that article because they have decided

(eM+C)—With the U.S. credit rating downgrade and the ensuing global market fluctuation, it’s a murky time for money. While this uncertainty will reverberate through some companies’ online marketing budgets, there are strategic actions you can take to maintain a valuable and efficient search engine marketing

A key to developing an effective marketing strategy is hearing first-hand what successful REALTORS® are doing to close more business from the Web. I recently spoke with real estate broker Shane White (www.ShaneTWhiteTeam.com) about how he has gone from 8% to over 25% in buyer-side closings and how he remains cutting-edge in a shifting market. TA: Why is having a Web strategy that is tailored to your specializations important? SW: In our marketing, we have decided to go after specific areas or niches instead of trying to cover the entire Austin, Texas area. My office is located in a small rural town, so we focus our efforts here and within the surrounding towns to generate leads.

If you find yourself wanting to be more proactive or have trouble taking action, then following these steps will give you the boost you’re looking for. Step 1. Commit to being the deliberate creator of your life. What it really comes down to is that at every moment, you have a choice of which mindset to be in. If you choose to be in the mindset of "I am the deliberate creator of my life," then you will choose to be proactive more often than not, and your business will soar.

Most professionals in the real estate industry accept that recovery will continue to be up and down from month to month—sometimes even day to day. You understand that prices and sales will likely be skipping along the bottom for the next year or two before housing is back on a steady growth track.