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Processing delays have taken their toll on first-time home buyer interest in short sales, which now account for more than one of every six house sales, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. First-time home buyer purchases of short sales dropped to 39.7 percent of short sale transactions in August. That represented a three-month slide and was the lowest level for first-time home buyers ever recorded by the HousingPulse survey.

(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.

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.

If the housing market were human, it would look like it just wrestled a few alligators after running an obstacle course through a snake pit. The market is beaten and bruised, but still emerging from the recession, which is why Greg Rand, a real estate veteran and author of Crash Boom! from Career Press, wants people to know about five new trends that could help them beat the housing blues. "The market is made up of buyers and sellers," Rand says. "It's just people who are trying to figure out how to buy low and sell high. The secret to making sure your real estate doesn't turn into a money pit is to watch the trends so you can predict where the prices will rise and where they won't."

Mortgage lenders across the country have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years. From helping homeowners avoid foreclosure to showing buyers some of the best bargains in decades, lenders have sought to keep customer service levels high through it all. At Citi, we’re reengineering the way we serve our customers in many ways. Here are just a few: Better Communication: As a real estate professional, you know how communication builds trust. We’re rethinking how we communicate in order to create a better customer experience.

Yes, there is magic in positive thinking! In aviation, the word attitude means the angle at which the plane meets the wind, whether the wings are level with the horizon, and whether it is climbing or descending. The pilot who fails to take responsibility for the attitude of his aircraft is in serious trouble. And likewise, any person who has not taken charge of his or her own beliefs and attitudes runs a similar risk. The key to cultivating and maintaining a positive mental attitude is to take control of your thinking and avoid negative minded people. It's a challenging task to develop a calm, focused mind, but well worth the effort.

It’s certainly a tense time in business. The uncertain economy has many business leaders constantly poring over the financials, crunching the budget, and nixing every possible unnecessary expense. Unfortunately, says Dave Anderson, financial problems aren’t the only ones your company might be facing. He asks if you’ve recently taken a good hard look at the character of your company. “When you really think about it, many of the transgressions we see in business today, from CEO scandals to terrible customer service, boil down to a lack of solid character,” says Anderson, author of How to Run Your Business by THE BOOK—Revised and Expanded: A Biblical Blueprint to Bless Your Business.

Hopefully, by now we all can agree that social media has given consumers the most powerful voice they have ever had. And it’s universally accepted that word of mouth has always been considered the very best form of advertising. Since Facebook’s “Like” button was introduced in the spring of 2010, users can now show their approval of others’ photos, articles, ideas, discoveries, videos, products and services with just one simple click. In fact, it is estimated that Facebook’s “Like” button now gets more than one billion clicks per day!

The media world has changed in a very fundamental way in the past five years. In the old paradigm, the gatekeepers held the keys to the kingdom. Publishers and editors in print, program directors in radio, and producers on television got to decide what the rest of us read, listened to and watched. There was a bottleneck on information in media, and unless you had great contacts, or got very lucky, you were going to be ignored.

Former LPS Senior Executives Jay Gaskill, Prem Luthra, Mike Kovar and John Hensley announced the completion of a management buyout of select business lines and operations from LPS’ Real Estate Group to launch Real Estate Digital (RED). The aforementioned executives will continue in their roles leading the newly formed company. Moving forward, the team believes RED will bring the industry the best of both worlds: unmatched expertise and resources combined with an entrepreneurial ability to adapt and innovate.

Several years ago, when I was managing an insurance office, I was interviewing a perspective sales rep who I felt had great potential as an agent. Throughout the interviewing process she was articulate, impeccably dressed and demonstrated excellent people skills; I was convinced that I had found a real superstar. Shortly after she was hired, my new agent invited me to attend her son's high school football game. When the referee called a questionable foul on her son, my superstar jumped to her feet and let loose with a flurry of curse words that would make a sailor blush. Everyone, literally within shouting distance, was as shocked as I was to hear such profanity come out of her mouth.

"Visualize your success" is something we hear a lot of these days. However, we don't always know how to make our visualizations powerful enough so that they become a reality. Myth: "I'll believe it when I see it." Fact: "You'll see it when you believe it." The first step in any visualization process is to believe that you can have it. As an example, let's consider success in your real estate career.

As the economy struggled in the late 2000s, the real estate industry took a severe hit to its profitability. As a result, real estate companies and brokerages were affected immensely, with 70% of offices in North America rumored to be unprofitable. This was primarily caused by the depreciation of housing values and the stark increase in foreclosures and short sales. Real estate companies are having difficulty adapting to the on-going structural shift in the real estate market – previous tools, approaches and methods are becoming ineffective and obsolete. Profitability is not an organic process, and companies have to budget and set reasonable goals for themselves and their agents.

Most real estate professionals find hiring assistants challenging. There is a process, however, that increases the odds of hiring the best possible candidate. Step 1: Job Profile – Skills and Style You are destined to hire badly unless you are clear on the job profile. That is, the skills that will be required and personal style that is best suited for the job.