By Stephanie Andre RISMEDIA, July 12, 2007—Today, home buyers in America come in many shapes, sizes and nationalities. In fact, 33% of the U.S. population is non-Caucasian, and by 2050, that number is estimated to increase to half of the country’s entire population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau

By Maya Bailey, Ph.D.   RISMEDIA, July 11, 2007--I find that so many of my clients avoid marketing when it comes to their sphere of influence. And yet statistics show that your sphere of influence can be the greatest source of referrals. This article show you how to dig in and get the “gold.”

By Renwick Congdon RISMEDIA, July 10, 2007--What do you do the minute you go online? If you’re like 90% of Internet users, you check your e-mail. E-mail has become so ubiquitous that a study performed by the California Association of Realtors found that when given a choice, twice as many real estate customers preferred to be contacted via e-mail than by telephone.

By Bryan Feller RISMEDIA, July 9, 2007—The vast majority of sales teams today work without a plan. In a basically hit-or-miss environment, it's amazing when they actually land sales contracts. Even when a sales force is hitting quota, company management often believes that they are operating at a fraction of their potential. The bottom line is that sales is not the disciplined group of professionals that management wants them to be. Many people attribute this lack of discipline to the "sales personality," and argue that attempting to infuse order and structure into their world would surely result in failure. Management, however, understands that absence of order in the sales team is one of the highest opportunity costs in the organization

By Desiree French RISMEDIA, Oct. 27, 2007—With the proliferation of lead generation firms, particularly in the online community, brokers and agents have access to an untold number of vendors. Thus, the dilemma today is not how to obtain leads, but rather how to convert them into customers and, ultimately, closed transactions.  KnowledgeStorm, a leader in business technology search, reports experts believe the percentage of leads “falling through the cracks” ranges from 40-80%. In conjunction with the Artemis Group, a full-service Internet solutions agency, it found poor processes for handling leads and assessing their value to be a key culprit.

By Steve McCann Learning to change behavior permanently is one of the most important skills a person can develop in their life.  Without this skill, any self-improvement intention will result in failure and frustration.  All we need to do is to change the picture by investing time and energy.  RISMEDIA, July 4, 2007—Sometime back in 1995, I was invited to speak at a Real Estate Conference.  One of the other speakers on the program for that day was a high-producing Realtor and had been for a number of years.  He was the opening presenter so I got the chance to sit in on the presentation and I found it to be a memorable experience.  He was motivated and his production numbers were strong

By Lauren Rikleen RISMEDIA, July 3, 2007—The fantasy persists. We arrive at work, reflexively start our computers, and find an automatic “Out-of-Office Assistant” universally displaying the following message across the country: “The endless stream of e-mails – and the expectation that people are constantly available to read them – is leading to incalculable inefficiency and impairing the quality of life. Accordingly, if you would like to reach me, please call.” The fantasy invariably leads to the urgent recognition that we must gain control over this burgeoning behemoth. In just a few years, e-mail has evolved from a convenient way to communicate into a demanding, incessant tool that has blurred any

By Maria Patterson RISMEDIA, July 2, 2007--While agent teams are a growing contingent on the real estate playing field, understanding how successful teams operate is still a mystery to many. RISMedia's latest survey "Tracking the Challenges and Concerns of Today's Power Teams" is designed to take the pulse of this important sales force to discover their success strategies and their unique challenges. "We recognized the rising importance of agent teams in the real estate industry more than a year ago when we launched RISMedia's Power Team Report," said RISMedia President & CEO John Featherston

By Stefan Swanepoel RISMEDIA, June 29, 2007-- Google is an exceptional company in many respects and is the undisputed leader of Web 2.0. Up 36% over the past year, this week has seen new record highs for Google shares (GOOG) as the stock climbed to $530. Wall Street analysts are even predicting a median price target of $600 in the not too distant future. With every search, Google learns more about the world and what s out there. With every ad click on one of its 150,000 servers, Google adds more revenue to their $12 billion stockpile. It is unbelievable that less than a decade ago it did not even exist. No other company has ever grown so fast. In seven years since 1998, the company grew from nothing to a market capitalization of $165 billion.

By Desiree French RISMEDIA, June 28, 2007--Turmoil in the subprime mortgage market, what some call a correction or natural adjustment, has cast an air of caution over the lending industry. Gone are the go-go days of excessively layering risks, a practice that has contributed to recent spikes in defaults and foreclosures. Today, tighter credit standards are increasingly becoming the norm at a time when falling home prices, a glut of properties, and higher mortgage interest rates have already combined to dampen home sales. The confluence points to a dip in the revenue streams of mortgage lenders, including realty affiliates