According to the company, with Smartphone applications and websites on the rise, Onboard’s new platform brings the trusted neighborhood content and property listings that it currently provides to leading national real estate websites, to the wireless market. The flexible delivery of both neighborhood content and listings is designed for mobile application and website developers to design custom apps to reach the growing mobile audience through a unique search experience.

Key features of Onboard Mobile include property listings, real-time photo Web service, community demographics, school information, home values, home sales trending, home sales transactions and local establishments. The platform is compliant with the most innovative GPS capabilities, such as the ability to show users the proximity to schools and nearby businesses while they are out touring homes.

According to the company, the Onboard Mobile Platform enables potential homebuyers to do their own research at their own pace. It is designed to give users quick and easy access to virtually any town’s profile – from population, income, housing trends and education to crime statistics, weather, churches, recreational amenities, recent home sales, local restaurants, and more.

“The use of mobile websites and applications is growing in leaps and bounds, especially in the real estate industry,” said Marc Siden, CEO of Onboard Informatics. “It has become increasingly evident to us as we hear from major clients who are focusing their marketing and lead generation strategies on building a mobile presence. Our success with mobile so far leads us to believe that the companies who integrate our content will differentiate themselves from the dozens of competitors entering this space.”

For more information, visit www.onboardinformatics.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

According to the company, the new interface and functionality of the real estate MultiChannel Campaign system was designed to combine the ease of automation with maximum control and flexibility over a marketing plan for busy professionals who are trying to connect effectively with today’s consumer. In addition to the two ways to deliver marketing collateral, the MultiChannel Campaign system takes the integration of online and offline marketing even further by allowing agents to set calendar reminders if they’d like to include a personal phone call or visit in their campaign.

Brian Wildermuth, SharperAgent’s president and co-founder believes that this unique capability will change the way Realtors and Brokerages look at their marketing plans. “Multichannel campaigns are standard marketing practice in most industries because it’s the most effective way to touch consumers and generate interest. Before now, putting a sophisticated marketing plan like this into action took a lot of time and even more money. Our MultiChannel campaign system has now put marketing’s best tools within reach of agents at any level.”

The new functionality comes paired with SharperAgent’s extensive real estate marketing library and pre-built real estate campaign templates. With over 50 professionally designed series and more than 2,500 additional marketing communication pieces available, users can find a targeted message for their contacts and use the suggested delivery methods or completely customize the campaign to fit their needs. MultiChannel campaign users will also be able to monitor their campaigns with automatically generated reports on email deliverability and open rates.

For more information, visit www.sharperagent.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Worse, some of the old ways don’t seem to work anymore. Advertising in glossy magazines, yellow pages ads, mailing out calendars and pens or notepads, working desk duty at the office—all just don’t seem to cut it like they used to. You know your own difficulty finding new clients; imagine that you are transported to a place like Wolf Creek, Colorado—a place so remote most people couldn’t find it on a map. Visitors must drive 6-12 hours to get there, so walk-ins are not a reliable way to find new clients.

It was this fear of not having enough real prospects that Poppy Borland faced when she decided to go it alone and moved into her own one-person office In May of 2008. She knew that in order to prosper, she had to be capable of prospecting most of her business because there was not enough foot traffic to her market to assure that she would always have customers.

Where Is Poppy Borland?
Borland owns Two Rivers Realty in South Fork, Colorado; a small mountain town in Southern Colorado of about 1,000 year-round residents. (The town of South Fork has been known as being in the Wolf Creek area literally forever, and people will call this area either name). The town grows to 6,000 to 7,000 in summer and 2-3,000 at Christmas or Spring Break. The 300+ sunny days per year and the sunny and cool summer weather make outdoor activities just wonderful: golfing, river activities, hunting, and riding ATVs in the summer are very popular just as snowmobiling and skiing in the winter keep the visitors coming.

“This is a mostly unknown paradise because it is far off the beaten path,” Borland told me recently. “Our visitors come from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona in the main and almost all of them drive to get here. That averages a 6-12 hour drive, so we don’t think of South Fork as a weekend kind of destination.” Combine that with the fact that the area is surrounded on three sides by the Rio Grande National Forest and you’ll begin to get the picture that Poppy Borland operates her business in a wild and remote location. This may be remote, but its remoteness makes its properties very valuable, and homes and land sell from under $100,000 to just under $2 million.

A Strategy Born of Common Sense
“I had read many articles about how the majority of home sales began online,” Borland continued, “and I wondered if that would hold true in a remote area like ours. I realized I would never know unless I got a website and tried to make it work. I figured I could get a lot more people to visit this wonderful place online than would ever drive here, and I hoped a few might be so overwhelmed by our beauty and peacefulness that they might consider buying land or a home here.”

Lacking a big advertising budget and having very little technical expertise, Borland started researching how she could supplement traffic to her site in order to always have buyers working. She decided that the Internet would be her main producer of prospects.

Then, reality set in; how could she make that happen? “I didn’t even have a website. I didn’t know anything about how to make one effective or how to make it so that buyers could find it (and me). The more I read about it, the more I became concerned that succeeding online was beyond my knowledge level and budget. I read about another agent in a town slightly larger than mine who had succeeded with the strategy I was trying to employ in an online newsletter. It turned out that she had the very same worries I had and she had decided to hire professionals to help her achieve her goals.

“It’s just too complicated for me to do it on my own,” she said in the article I read. “I’m a real estate agent, not a technical person and for me to try to achieve Internet success is just like a FSBO trying to sell a prime property: it might work, but it probably won’t.” That resonated with me and I decided to follow her lead.

I contacted the company that had made it work for her. They connected me with a really great Web designer who did fine work at a reasonable price so I could personalize my site to be what I wanted. When my site went live, I was really excited (www.wolfcreekareaproperties.com). The company that I contacted initially, CompassSearch, made that site be found by people looking at South Fork and Wolf Creek, CO real estate. Believe it or not, I sold my first Internet buyer in only two months and my commissions paid for my site, my subscription and I had plenty left over. So far in 2009 (September) I have had nine closings—six from my website. I get 700-800 unique visitors monthly, exactly double what it was even one year ago—and I am usually working with six solid buyers all the time. Five of those six buyers come from the website on average. My idea of selling this area online worked and without it, I don’t think I would have most of the clients I have today.

“Not all people who contact me close quickly,” Borland continued. “I closed on a $1 million+ property this week where the buyer contacted me on my website on August 8, 2008, a little more than two months after I contracted with my online marketing services company. It took a year, but he got a tremendous piece of property. Although that contact was made over a year ago, my online presence gets stronger and better all the time and keeps me busy with Internet buyers.”

One Benefit She Didn’t Anticipate: Her Internet Strength Gets Her More Listings, Too
One thing many agents don’t anticipate when making an Internet marketing plan is the huge benefit it brings to a listing presentation and the physical confirmation that presence gives that seller that you are the right party to list with. Here’s how Borland uses her strength online to list more: “It’s really great that Internet buyers from anywhere can find me online, and that reality has enabled me to list far more properties, as well. When doing a listing presentation, I will act like a prospective buyer and search for real estate in the area. Maybe I’ll enter “Wolf Creek CO Real Estate” or one of the hundreds of other phrases I have been found on. When my website appears at the top of the page—number one on Google [from the aforementioned search phrase]—the sellers are impressed. I then go into the back end of my website and show the sellers my website statistics, which convince them that I can bring buyers here from anywhere. Then, when they see how my website is simple and easy to use, they usually list with me.”

It Seems So Simple
Borland is so modest and unassuming that we had to convince her to share her story here: “I wonder if my experience will really be interesting to anyone,” she told me when I contacted her. “This is just a story from ‘County Life.’

Borland might not be so self-effacing about her success if she knew that 95% of all agents fail at online marketing, according to NAR. There are so many good agents out there who just can’t seem to crack the code of how to sell homes online that many have just flat given up at online marketing. “I just can’t catch any luck with that Internet thing,” so many say.

It doesn’t take luck; it takes a good plan, well executed. Make it happen for yourself and never worry about where your income is coming from again.

About the author
Mike Parker advises thousands of agents and brokers on the subject of online marketing services for Realtors. If you want to plan to succeed like Poppy Borland did or if you’d like to request a free review of your website to determine if it can be found by Internet buyers and if it is set up to be effective for you, click here and we’ll review it for you at no cost or obligation.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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According to the company, that’s not surprising to a la mode’s agent team, since TourNarrator solves one of the biggest problems in the highly mobile real estate field: Converting prospects into buyers by helping them narrow their choices down to the property they like best while touring properties. With millions of agents in the country and likely hundreds of thousands using iPhones now or in the near future, the future seems bright for TourNarrator.

The company says TourNarrator’s premise is simple yet powerful. As an agent gives a client a tour of a property, they use TourNarrator on their iPhone to take notes about standout observations their client has made. Typed or voice notes are taken along with photos of the various features the client likes, or dislikes. Afterward, TourNarrator presents all the information in an impressively organized rich PDF report, direct from the phone. This reduces confusion about which features of which properties the client likes or dislikes and helps the client make a decision more quickly.

“Agents call us every day looking for innovative ways to market themselves, differentiate their services, and get deals done faster. I’m so pleased that our first iPhone app does all those things simply and professionally,” said Dustin Moore, a la mode’s VP of Agent Sales. “It’s pretty obvious more and more real estate applications will continue to be developed for the iPhone, and I’m confident TourNarrator will stand out in the crowd, because it reduces confusion during property tours, and gets buyers committed more quickly.”

For more information, visit www.alamode.com or call 1-800-252-6633.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

ListHub, operated by Threewide Corporation, added PropertyPursuit.com to its broker controlled, MLS enabled listing distribution and management platform. As a result, ListHub’s national network of brokers and MLSs will now have the option of displaying their listings on PropertyPursuit.com. ListHub customers include more than 200 MLSs, representing about 85% of the national listing inventory, brokers and agents.

According to the company, PropertyPursuit.com gives consumers the ability to easily search for listings across the nation, and contact the listing broker or agent directly. PropertyPursuit.com features an easy-to-use property search, quick search and interactive map search, and gives brokers and agents the ability to market their listings and brand.

“Delta Media Group has spent the last 15 years helping drive consumer traffic and leads to our over 30,000 broker and agent website customers,” said Mike Minard, president of PropertyPursuit.com. “And now, with Property Pursuit’s new relationship with ListHub, we look forward to re-directing PropertyPursuit.com to drive traffic and leads to all brokers and agents nationwide and, soon, to a global audience of home searchers.”

“We see a lot of opportunity with our new partnership channel PropertyPursuit.com,” said Luke Glass, president of Threewide. “PropertyPursuit.com presents the ListHub network with another Internet marketing opportunity, and Threewide is committed to continually increasing the amount of listing exposure through ListHub.”

For more information, visit www.propertypursuit.com or www.listhub.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Getting to MLS 5.0 will require no less commitment, focus and effort than we have engaged thus far. While cultural evolution in our industry’s leadership ranks will, as always, provide the vision, energy and fuel to take us to the next level, technology will be the primary enabler. Bear with me while I delve a bit into some technical aspects of MLS 5.0.

MLS 5.0 envisions technology solution providers and vendors developing valuable real estate applications without being required to source the data and develop complex aggregation and data interpretation algorithms. Through the use of Open APIs that provide access to listing data, support existing authentication, and facilitate authorization, applications that leverage existing data can be built very cost-effectively, leading to a richer ecosystem of features that will benefit real estate professionals.

All PC-based platforms will support any browser resolution and will be designed to be highly usable at any resolution above 1024 x 768. Point2 weblogs indicate that fewer than 10% of users/visitors have resolutions below 1024 x 768. See www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp for more detailed Web statistics and trends.

Specific add-on modules will only be used to enhance the product and will not be required. Add-on modules, such as Flash, ActiveX or Java, could be used to enhance the end-user experience for image uploading and searching, for example.

There are no specific client-side requirements beyond having a supported Web browser, an Internet connection and any CPU (central processing unit), memory or hard drive requirements recommended by the browser’s vendor.

Ultimately, to realize the MLS 5.0 vision, we will provide support for our Open APIs to enable other vendors to offer applications that leverage the listing information. Although the APIs are open, MLS 5.0 will remain in control of authorization and policy enforcement to protect access to sensitive features and data.

The APIs will be designed to fit the needs of MLS 5.0 and will likely consist of numerous REST-based and/or SOAP-based interfaces protected by SSL and other standards-based authentication and authorization mechanisms. In addition, client SDKs (software development kit) may be provided in multiple popular languages, such as PHP, Python, Java, .NET and Ruby.

It is envisioned that numerous MLS vendors will adapt their products to work directly with MLS 5.0 via these open APIs in order to provide Realtors with a full-featured and familiar front-end. Imagine being able to choose from a multitude of CMAs or create your own application specific to your business. All the data can be stored in one database and, based on permissions, accessed, so that solutions and applications can be developed.

What does all this mean? More distribution to more destinations.

In summary, the future will be a more open environment where brokers and agents can select their “software of choice” from numerous providers.

Tell us what you think or request the full article series to date at: thefutureofmls@point2.com.

Saul Klein is CEO of InternetCrusade and Point2 Technologies Inc.

For more information, visit www.point2agent.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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“We’re always looking for ways to boost value for our customers by increasing the quality leads that we deliver to them,” says Scott Dixon, Network Communications, Inc.’s president of the real estate division. “We’re excited to be able to offer them the ability to augment their online exposure with ad campaigns they create easily and instantly – and give today’s home buyer the photos and video they seek when shopping for a new home.”

According to the company, once logged onto The Real Estate Book’s advertising management system, AMS 2.0, customers can create their own display ads by clicking on the iPromote link, and following the simple steps of building custom advertisements. They can promote any URL they wish – their personal website, company website, Facebook fan page, or their personal profile or listings on RealEstateBook.com. iPromote technology scans their Web pages for content such as images, text, audio, or video and intuitively creates professional-quality, rich-media advertising packages with five different ad sizes, in a matter of seconds.

Advertisers have complete control over where to market their listings. They can promote their listings locally, nationally or even internationally with point-and-click ease. Real-time maps and graphs show exactly how well their ads perform in different areas.

For more information, visit www.RealEstateBook.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

A great way to deliver this is through audio podcasts. With podcasting, the sky is the limit. And most importantly, it can help position you as the authority on the market in your area. If you are thinking about starting your own podcast, you may want to think about a couple of different approaches. For example, your report could focus strictly on the “numbers” of what is happening in the market for the month or the quarter. Or you could talk about a timely issue, such as the homebuyers’ tax credit. Or you could create pieces that are relevant for a longer period, such as how to buy a home during the holidays.

Relaying the information through someone’s voice is much more personal than receiving a postcard or e-mail, so hosting a podcast can be effective in not just showing that you are a knowledgeable resource, but also for building relationships and trust with clients.

For example, at Evers & Co., we have been providing comprehensive market updates and tips on buying and selling in the current Washington, D.C., region market to our clients for years.

Recently, we have taken these market updates to a new level through audio posts or podcasts. These 2- to 3-minute audio files are easily uploaded to our firm’s website and distributed via e-mail to our contacts.

In addition, people interested in these market updates can subscribe to an RSS feed and receive the information as it is released, through a forum such as Google Reader. Tracking the number of subscribers is beneficial because it allows podcasters to see growth in their following, which helps justify the time commitment involved with planning, recording and promoting the podcasts.

Another group many real estate professionals may wish to connect with on a regular basis is the news media. Like agents, journalists’ schedules are becoming increasingly hectic as media outlets are reducing staff and vamping up reporters’ responsibilities to include blogging, conducting online chats and promoting their stories through social media platforms like Twitter.

When in need of a reliable source for an article, journalists value responsiveness so they can meet their often tight deadlines, as well as the “quotability” of the expert. This means that the source is able to express their ideas or opinions in a clear, succinct manner that is easily understood by a consumer audience with statements that can be seamlessly incorporated into the article as quotes.

Rather than scheduling an interview or waiting for a call back, journalists who receive an informative podcast often quote directly from the audio and save time without even having to connect with the source. Also, since the journalist can listen to the podcast multiple times, there is less of a chance that the source will be misquoted.

While podcasting is a great tool that may provide real estate professionals with an “edge,” agents should be mindful of the time commitment before jumping in. It’s also important to establish the frequency of podcast recordings and to keep up in order to convey reliability to potential clients and the media. To get started, podcasting equipment is available at electronics stores like Radio Shack, and editing software is available for purchase online. It’s certainly a valuable tactic to consider for your marketing toolbox.

Donna Evers, president and broker of Evers & Co. Real Estate (www.eversco.com) in Washington, D.C., has been communicating with media and the public through monthly audiocasts for about six months. She has more than 30 years of experience in residential real estate and is a frequent resource for print, radio and television journalists who cover housing market trends in the Mid-Atlantic region.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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The new partnerships include, amongst other major organizations, Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati, Mid America Regional Information Systems, Northern Kentucky Multiple Listing Service, Pensacola Association of REALTORS, Prescott Area Association of REALTORS, and Tulare County Association of REALTORS & MLS.

According to the company, under the agreements, the partnerships will deliver Point2’s critical enterprise level automated listing syndication and traffic reporting solution to over 32,000 brokers and agents representing over 80,000 property listings, at no added cost to them. Key user benefits will include single point of data entry, which will enable brokers and agents to capitalize on their MLS listing data to selectively publish listings across Point2’s industry leading syndication and re-syndication network of nearly 40 high traffic consumer real estate search sites and search engines as well as to over 260 media websites across the nation. Access to online traffic reports will also be provided to all users, as part of the agreements.

“Organized real estate’s adoption of ‘Distribution Trumps Destination’ as an operating mantra has accelerated significantly over recent months, recognizing the benefits of publishing listings where consumers go online when they shop for real estate,” said Saul Klein, chief executive officer, Point2 Technologies Inc. “Controlled distribution of listings on popular consumer sites, enabled by the MLS or Association has also brought a very valuable new member benefit to brokers and agents, allowing them to better control their listing assets online, simplifying the online advertising process and applying significant pressure on the lead generation and resale model.”

For more information, visit www.point2agent.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

MLSCloud premiered in May 2009 as a cooperative service aimed at promoting collaboration between member real estate associations and Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) that operate public MLS websites. Since then, participation has nearly doubled from 350,000 real estate agent and broker members to 610,000. The most recent addition is the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS®, which contributed more than 5,000 MLS members to the MLSCloud family.

“We welcome the participation of the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS® in MLSCloud,” said HAR President and CEO Bob Hale. “More than half a million agents and brokers see the value in promoting real estate information and transparency on the Web that directly benefits the consumer.”

“MLSs around the country are realizing, as we did, that MLSCloud presents an ideal environment in which to easily and inexpensively build on the success of other thriving public MLS websites,” said MRIS President and CEO David Charron. “At the end of the day, that translates to more transactions.”

For more information, visit www.har.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Century 21 M&M selected the rDesk Broker Suite for features such as customized broker and agent websites, expert lead and contact management, and Action Plan Manager, just to name a few. The comprehensive Web-based suite of integrated software solutions provides brokers with online marketing and productivity tools for a competitive advantage throughout the real estate lifecycle, including acquiring leads, working with buyers and sellers on more transactions, building a strong referral network and creating customers for life. In addition, Century 21 M&M will join LPS Real Estate Group’s Real Estate & Living Media, a network that connects real estate publishers (real estate companies’ websites) to the nation’s leading advertisers while generating 24/7 revenue for the publishers.

“These are extremely challenging times for real estate professionals,” said Larry Matos, president and co-founder of Century 21 M&M. “The current challenges of today’s market will ultimately pass, however the business of real estate has changed forever, and it will continue to change. We wanted a technology partner that could combine leading-edge tools with a solid track record for innovation and that could promise to keep us ahead of the inevitable changes that face us down the road.”

For more information, visit www.lpsvcs.com or www.century21.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“This represents a major milestone in our expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, giving us access to a huge audience of buyers throughout the area,” said Al Mendoza, managing director of Intero Asia-Pacific, Intero International Franchise Services, LLC’s independent partner in the Asia-Pacific Region. “Intero was one of the first real estate companies to embrace online distribution of listings in the United States and we intend to once again lead the pack in seizing the online opportunity in Asia.”

“Interest in American property in the Asia-Pacific region has increased dramatically in the past year as Asian buyers take advantage of the weak U.S. dollar and declining housing prices. Furthermore, affluent Chinese see international property investment as a ‘wealth diversification’ play and effective channel to expatriate their large cash reserves,” said George Varvitsiotis, CEO of Asia Interactive Corp, “We are excited at the opportunity to partner with a large and growing U.S. based company who understands and recognizes the opportunity in Asia. Intero will set the trend as more U.S. based Real Estate agencies will realize the advantages of having exposure to affluent China and Asia based property investors.

For more information, visit www.interorealestate.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

The new partnerships include, amongst other major organizations, Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati, Mid America Regional Information Systems, Northern Kentucky Multiple Listing Service, Pensacola Association of REALTORS, Prescott Area Association of REALTORS, and Tulare County Association of REALTORS & MLS.

According to the company, under the agreements, the partnerships will deliver Point2’s critical enterprise level automated listing syndication and traffic reporting solution to over 32,000 brokers and agents representing over 80,000 property listings, at no added cost to them. Key user benefits will include single point of data entry, which will enable brokers and agents to capitalize on their MLS listing data to selectively publish listings across Point2’s industry leading syndication and re-syndication network of nearly 40 high traffic consumer real estate search sites and search engines as well as to over 260 media websites across the nation. Access to online traffic reports will also be provided to all users, as part of the agreements.

“Organized real estate’s adoption of ‘Distribution Trumps Destination’ as an operating mantra has accelerated significantly over recent months, recognizing the benefits of publishing listings where consumers go online when they shop for real estate,” said Saul Klein, chief executive officer, Point2 Technologies Inc. “Controlled distribution of listings on popular consumer sites, enabled by the MLS or Association has also brought a very valuable new member benefit to brokers and agents, allowing them to better control their listing assets online, simplifying the online advertising process and applying significant pressure on the lead generation and resale model.”

For more information, visit www.point2agent.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Brian Wildermuth

President, Owner

SharperAgent

www.sharperagent.com

As I travel all over the country to various real estate conferences and events, I get to learn first-hand what the new shiny object will be for the real estate industry. You know what I mean. Every year our industry becomes transfixed on a new magic bullet that is going to solve all our problems. Several years ago, it was lead generation and lead capture. Next up, it was lead conversion and management. Last year, it was online video and blogging. And let’s face it—you would have to be in full seclusion on a deserted island not to know that agents are mesmerized by social media marketing.

I recently watched a presentation on the Web with a successful online entrepreneur extolling the benefits of social media marketing. He concluded his talk saying, “If you don’t get into social media marketing, you will be gone in one year.”

Like you, I’ve heard this all before. If you don’t get a computer, you will be gone. If you don’t get online, you will be gone. Well, oddly enough, many successful agents are thriving today without securing any leads or business from the Internet. That’s not to say I don’t agree with the notions that you need to be online, that you need to be proficient with technology, and that you need to tap into social networking. I just don’t buy that success in real estate is decided by technology; quite the contrary, I believe that success in real estate will always be centered on the ability to form and maintain strong relationships with people. That’s it—end of story.

So then what should an agent do today about the latest shiny object? It is obvious to me that social media marketing presents great opportunities to secure new leads and build stronger relationships. Like open houses, purchased Internet leads, website inquiries, target or direct marketing, past clients, networking, advertising, traditional PR and many other methods of marketing, social media marketing has its place in lead generation and cultivation. And being that millions upon millions of consumers are on the Web and interfacing via Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other sites, being absent from this arena could cause you more damage than good.

My two cents? Add social media marketing to your other top three lead sources to supplement and/or enhance what is currently working for you and your business. Make sure to create a written strategy that aligns with all of your other marketing initiatives and take a class or two to help you learn the basic do’s and don’ts. With the right approach, you will be adding new leads, finding buyers and cementing your existing relationships. Most importantly, remember that the ultimate goal is a well-maintained relationship—one of mutual respect and trust. The best way to accomplish that is good old fashioned face-to-face communication.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Communication Needs

A group that largely can’t remember a time without cell phones, computers and the Internet expects instant access to information and consultation. Millennials initiate and conduct a range of official and personal business via e-mail, text messaging and social networking. They’re unlikely to prefer phone calls. Consider updating your business card and promotional materials to reflect all the ways customers can reach and get to know you, including your blog, Twitter account and Facebook profile.

Financial Situation

Although recent Gen Y college graduates tend to have more debt than their parents did at the same age, they’re not discouraged by the current challenges in the economy and aren’t too proud to wait it out under Mom and Dad’s roof. But they do show signs of interest in homeownership and real estate investment a few years earlier than Gen Xers. Some may even want your help understanding the various first-time home buyer incentives and programs, as well as alternatives to traditional single-family home purchases, such as distressed properties and condos.

Lifestyle Goals

Millennials have grown up busy balancing school, sports, hobbies and more, and they’re keeping the same pace through college and into the workforce. They want to do it all and have a talent for maintaining a balance. But they need proximity on their side. They’re drawn to communities that are close to work, home, the gym and their favorite hangouts and activities. Keep track of real estate in urban centers and planned communities so that you can guide this group to the most affordable and convenient options for their circumstances.

Reach out to the confident, social and technologically savvy Millennials on their terms, and your referral network—along with your annual sales volume—could grow exponentially over the next decade or more.

Margaret Kelly, CRB, is chief executive officer of RE/MAX International, Inc.

For more information, visit www.remax.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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Did you see the article in another e-newsletter last week in which two “successful” social media real estate agents were profiled: one who had never sold a home from her four hours a day efforts and another who had sold one from his two hours a day efforts (oh, but they both have thousands of people following them?).

You are being told that in order to succeed online you must continue to employ esoteric and obscure social networking sites, in addition to Twitter, Facebook, etc. After all, who can ignore the Twitter nation of 250 million members? You must participate. (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain reporting that the vast majority of Twitterers make one tweet and never come back).

Well, as I have been telling you for three years now, that is hogwash. Social media is a sinkhole that absorbs time, effort and money that could better be spent on finding listings and selling houses. Social media is the new blogging. It too will peak, then decline with one very large exception: affinity group business communication.

Affinity group business communication is where groups of like-minded business professionals in an industry utilize a resource to stay in touch with each other. Unfortunately, it is my belief that such social networking won’t last or really take off between sellers of real estate and people looking to purchase it.

Why social media won’t be a long-term selling tool for real estate
In February 2008, I tried to explain why advertising and social networking don’t complement each other. My friend, Michael Krisa (“That Interview Guy”) explained it to me like this: “Advertising in social network sites is like this: You and I are in my newly renovated kitchen having a coffee. You ask me who did the work and I gladly refer the contractor because I am pleased with the job he did. As I’m writing down his name and number, there is a flash of light and the sickening sound of breaking glass as Home Depot throws a brick through my window promoting their own renovation team…ads on social network sites are just as welcome as that brick…and equally as annoying.”

I have seen nothing—either in theory or in results—that has changed my mind. The two concepts are not compatible for what real estate professionals are selling. While those with huge sums of money to spend on mass advertising may disagree, my position comes from the frame of reference of the professional agent: someone whose time is money, and whose time cannot be wasted without deleteriously affecting their livelihood.

It is the function of techies to push new technology upon us
I’m no slouch when it comes to IT. I’m no programmer, but I’m relatively in the know about all phases of the Internet and personal computing. When it comes to marketing, I understand it as well as anyone. My efforts in these columns are to advance marketing.

Techies, on the other hand, love to wax rhapsodic about “the next big thing.” They write about things outside the experience of agents, regular folks and non-techies because that is their life. By telling us all we must utilize a particular technology, they make themselves more valuable and more influential. By offering new courses on the latest thing, they extract yet more money out of an already reeling agent base.

Trust me, folks, a course on how to social network isn’t going to sell that next property for you. Neither is a tweet or a placement on your Facebook page. Sure, “everybody’s doing it” but don’t you toss that lame reasoning out when your high school kid told you the same thing trying to justify (insert unjustifiable thing, here)?

Lemmings rarely are top salespeople, and those who do not understand the one great truth about selling houses in the digital age will never succeed at doing so.

The one great truth about selling houses in the digital age
You must put the Internet to work for you. An estimated 880 million people search Google for a real estate related thing each month. They search Google—not Twitter, not Facebook or whatever the newest and hippest social site is these days.

The home-buying audience may be hip, but most are concerned. They want access, value and service from their agent. No matter how “hip” they are, they want a professional who knows more than they do about real estate; to guide them and to help them. They play on Twitter, they social network on Facebook, they buy homes from the Internet.

Want to sell houses online?
An advanced degree in techie is not required. Three things are required:
Internet buyers must be able to find you when they search for homes online;
You must attract between 5 and 15% of these buyers to sign in and ask you for more information; you must follow up properly (not with auto-responders) and promptly; NAR says 50% of agents call an internet lead within 54 hours and the other 50% never call them. That may be in part due to the poor quality of many of these purported “leads” but regardless: 54 hours doesn’t cut it. Under one hour cuts it.

Don’t be stampeded into feeling like you are disconnected
One of the oldest techniques in the world to promote a cure is to create a sickness. Lacking an interest or skills in social networking will not affect your selling real estate. Lacking an Internet presence will greatly affect that ability and having one will bring you success you can’t now imagine.

If you could talk with agents who sell 10, 20, 50 or more homes from their websites annually, they’d tell you this: response time is far more important than any other factor in responding to a lead. They’d also tell you that the quality of leads is the single biggest factor in selling homes to Internet buyers. If you aren’t getting leads from your website, or you are getting the old “corporate junk leads” and are so frustrated with them that you have mentally kissed them off, re-read the paragraph above this one. Do that and you will succeed.

The rest of this social networking stuff is fine for becoming and making friends. I don’t know about you, but most agents don’t go into real estate to make friends, they do it to sell homes and make a good living. Put your efforts where the results are, not into what today’s techie says you need to do to stay au courant. Techies don’t sell houses. You do.

Mike Parker advises thousands of agents and brokers on the subject of online marketing services for realtors. If you want to learn more about how to succeed at selling homes to Internet buyers or to request a free review of your website to determine if it can be found by internet buyers and if it is set up to be effective for you, click here and we’ll review it for you at no cost or obligation.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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The luxury property real estate market is a highly specialized, competitive market that requires Realtors to utilize innovative marketing techniques to showcase their client’s properties. Multimillion dollar properties are not the average property listing and just placing the listing on the local MLS is not the ideal strategy to present to a luxury listing client. 

What’s the difference? When designed properly, blogs bring life to the property since they are much more search engine friendly than a typical property website, this is key when marketing luxury property. Today’s sellers expect a worldwide marketing budget and exposure in every domicile. The challenge is that many sellers expect their agent to pay for advertising in worldwide publications, which can put even a very successful agent in the red very quickly. Not to mention that most ultra luxury properties take time to sell. The key is to maximize exposure and develop a hub on the Internet with a very organic and highly “indexable” 1parkplace luxury blog solution so that the search engines become our best friend. 

What does this mean for luxury home sellers when choosing their marketing agent? Be extremely choosy. Remember, as a seller, the allure of print publications is visually pleasing, however, remember that 96% of all home shoppers start on the Internet. Pick the agent with the best Internet marketing plan and largest social network of luxury agents and clients. 

Using social media networking to market luxury or unique property listings is being utilized by a select few of the real estate industry. Jerry Simonson, a luxury home seller in Coronado, California set his sights on selecting an agent with the most comprehensive Internet marketing plan to find a buyer for his $14 million dollar Coronado luxury estate now named “La Bella De Coronado”. 

Simonson selected Jan Clements of Prudential California Realty in Coronado, California (www.coronadorealestatehomes.com). “After interviewing many agents, I selected Jan because of her vast knowledge of Coronado luxury real estate as well as her dedication to stretch the envelope in marketing my luxury Coronado property” says Simonson. 

Clements initially embarked on the typical luxury marketing channels to get the property exposure (i.e. property website, MLS, luxury print advertising), however, it became apparent that the market has really slowed down for properties at that price level and she needed to implement a larger reach, but not go bankrupt in the process. 

The solution – an innovative marketing strategy utilizing a combination of a 1parkplace luxury property blog and a social media marketing campaign that allows her to network this unique property to 1,000’s of fine home real estate marketing specialists around the world. 

Clements commissioned a blog site from 1parkplace to showcase her exclusive Coronado luxury property. She also engaged her seller into the process and as the seller, Simonson got to practically design this site to showcase his very special Coronado luxury home for sale, working directly with the 1parkplace blog design team. 

Starting with giving this fine Coronado luxury property a very special name, ”La Bella De Coronado,” then registering a keyword-rich domain www.coronadoluxuryrealestate.com, six weeks later, Clements is ready to market this luxury Coronado property around the world via the internet, Facebook, e-mail and more. What’s critical is the back end reporting built into the 1parkplace blog platform that provides details on what marketing is working, and want is not. 

Now “La Bella De Coronado”, a luxury resort by the sea with beautiful, expansive views of San Diego’s bay can get its story out in a way that cannot be communicated in a few paragraphs. 

In an arguably more challenging scenario, Jim Dalzell and his team of luxury marketing experts at Prudential California Realty in Rancho Santa Fe, California (www.dalzellgroup.com), secured a $32 million, stunningly beautiful Caribbean luxury estate listing named “Presidio Del Mar, “ located in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands by presenting a multi-faceted, Internet marketing strategy. 

While being over 3,000 miles away, this team of luxury marketing experts, together with 1parkplace, assembled a comprehensive marketing plan that relied heavily on a solid luxury blog platform, Internet marketing and persistent email campaigns to top luxury agents. “We had to make a strong commitment to networking and Internet, especially since the Caribbean MLS and market reach is so limited around the world,” says Dalzell. 

They too had a very methodical seller who interviewed agents from different parts of the U.S. and Caribbean, yet the seller, Rob Blakeney selected the Dalzell team because of their unique marketing plan and experience with selling ultra luxury real estate, even knowing that they were clearly across the U.S. The Dalzell’s partnered with a local Caribbean showing agent and then went to work on implementing their worldwide marketing plan. 

Starting with this luxury real estate blog site, www.caribbeanluxuryhomesandvillas.com, where the Dalzell team can showcase the photos about “Presidio Del Mar” and then adding the photos from their visit to describe the absolute stunning location, thus educating those who may not know about the area, about the history and many exciting activities to enjoy nearby this fine Caribbean luxury estate. 

International luxury listings present a unique challenge to Realtors. One of them being the capability to seamlessly market the luxury property worldwide. Using the Internet, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter and Active Rain, pointing to their luxury real estate blog site (www.caribbeanluxuryhomesandvillas.com), the Dalzell team has implemented a global strategy that incorporates social networking and search engine optimization (SEO) to reach luxury marketing agents and home buyers around the world. 

The following are three key steps every luxury property marketing specialist should know and follow in order to gain the best results in luxury property marketing: 

Step 1 – Create the blog site - Dedicated to the property in a way that it brings life to the luxury property by capturing every feature and detail. By using a blog platform, every feature can have its own set of photos and a story in the form of a highly “indexable” search engine friendly “blog post.” This is ideal for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Especially with a luxury property, you typically have much more information and photos and as the site comes to life, the more content the better the results. 

Step 2 – Social networking – While step one will provide an awesome place to go, step two will help get people there. The expectation being that the luxury listing will appeal to another luxury property specialist who has an interested client or, better yet, the client directly. Armed with this information, the luxury property specialist must assemble a comprehensive email list of luxury agents around the world. This is not an easy task, however, do it once and it will last forever. This is a difficult list to buy. There are networks already active such as RISMedia’s Top 5 In Real Estate, and many of the franchises such as Windermere, Prudential and Sotheby’s that provide their associates e-mail lists to luxury agents. Now a new and novel strategy is to research agents on the Internet and interestingly, Facebook now has tremendous reach into those agents who are marketing luxury property. By dedicating an hour a day, a viral friend network of hundreds and perhaps thousands of marketing agents around the world can be built. 

Step 3 – Measurement & follow-up – While the absolute method of realizing results is a successful closing, there are steps along the way that have to be monitored to maximize effectiveness. Having detailed tracking on visitors to the site and using email management technology that tracks the clicks to the site, provides a prospect list to effectively follow-up with. This is where the phone and personal email interaction kicks in. 

Contact 1parkplace at team@1parkplace.com or call 888-425-2300 

About Steve Hundley – CEO of 1parkplace, Inc.
Steve’s passion is to develop the most cutting edge internet marketing and technology solutions for America’s top REALTORS and brokers. He founded 1parkplace in 1995 after a 10 year successful real estate career listing and selling homes in the Silicon Valley of California. 1parkplace is an industry leading Internet Marketing technology solutions provider that develops custom lead generation, contact management, website and BLOG systems for maximum sales results. Steve is also recognized as an industry educator and recently formed the 1parkplace University where he has hosted exclusive training events delivered by top industry veterans such as Tom Ferry, Steve Rodgers and Allan Dalton. As an innovator, Steve constantly strives to blaze new trails and his company continues to grow at record pace. 

For more information, visit www.1parkplace.com. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

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If you haven’t already, then start by simply requesting your friends and colleagues join you on your social media sites of choice (examples include Facebook and LinkedIn). You can then chat and tweet with your groups as you like, but it is important to note that while you want them to know who you are and what you do, constant direct selling is not recommended. 

Be patient—you will gain business by building a relationship with these contacts on a more personal level. They will recommend you and refer you to their contacts in time, and the business that comes from it will be golden because people trust friends, not corporations. Remember, never place potentially embarrassing pictures or comments online. 

You can create profiles on local search engines like YELP.com, which, along with Facebook, MySpace and others, offers smartphone applications, making it fast and easy for potential customers to find you. These applications often offer better matching results and no browser is necessary. 

The major point of social media and search engines is to be found. It’s your challenge to think through your business, brand and services and to present yourself in a strategic fashion on a consistent basis. Then maintaining sufficient activity levels on these sites will afford you higher rankings in related searches. This social media activity will help stack the results in your favor. 

Chris Kaucnik is marketing director for Home Warranty of America, Inc. 

For more information, visit www.hwahomewarranty.com. 

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“This innovative and engaging rich media solution enhances and completes the consumer’s search for a home. Virtual Viewing provides the right amount of content consumers now demand; it’s visually engaging, supplying realistic perspectives of the home and surroundings; and most importantly, it connects the consumer to our real estate agents,” states Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain.com. 

According to the company, HomeGain agent members can now link their CyberCity 3D models to their property listings directly from their AgentView product. Agents simply enter the 3D model URL in their HomeGain account for that listing and a “View in 3D” button will automatically appear on HomeGain’s Search Results and Listing Detail pages linking the Google Earth API 3D model to the listing. 

“Online real estate search trends are changing. Consumers want accurate information, relevant content, website innovation, and a great consumer experience,” observes Jackie Murphy, director of product management for CyberCity 3D. “Our goal is to expand our 3D product road map to include additional innovative marketing tools and ground-breaking technologies.” 

For more information, visit www.homegain.com. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

QuantumDigital has been working closely with real estate professionals for over 20 years. The company is focused on truly understanding the needs of the industry, educating brokers and agents on best practices, and developing marketing tools that offer results. Specializing in streamlining direct marketing campaigns, QuantumDigital’s real estate lead-generation marketing programs combine targeted, data-driven direct mail, email marketing and on-demand print collateral with new technology so agents can be more effective with their local prospecting and marketing efforts and ultimately get more leads. 

“QuantumDigital is taking real estate marketing to a new level,” said Eric Cosway, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of QuantumDigital. “With our services for direct mail, printing and email still tried and true, we’re rolling out new products, tools, tips and trends to help real estate professionals stay focused on what they do best, while we handle the marketing aspects of their business.” 

Conference attendees can visit QuantumDigital at booth #1941 to find out how real estate brokers and agents are already generating leads and realizing true profit. 

For more information, visit www.quantumdigital.com. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.