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Price to Sell in Any Market

The people who told you the only thing that mattered was location, location, location: were lying, lying, lying! There is a simple solution to listings that don’t sell – price, price, price. If you want to survive in the real estate business you must know the secrets of proper pricing.

In this class you will learn to obtain and communicate statistics, calculate absorption rates, and explain the Market Analysis so that any Seller can make the best decision in this important facet of their sale.  We will clearly define the difference between the marketing presentation and the pricing presentation as well as discussing the pivotal difference between having a property IN the market as opposed to ON the market.

 Highlights:

• Why pricing and marketing presentations are separate
• Can you market a commodity?
• Pricing from both sides of your brain
• The REAL “Law of Supply and Demand”
• Absorption Rates
• Outcomes
• Consumer Obstacles

Join Rich Sands, Senior Instructor at Matthew Ferrara & Company (and former Director of Education - Coldwell Banker Colorado ), for a tutorial on pricing in today’s competitive marketplace.

Webinar Tuition: $49.99

Register today and reserve your seat now:

• July 17th: 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST
• July 30th: 4:00pm - 5:00pm EST

37 Ways to Market a Listing

It’s been said that price is the most important factor in the sale of a home. If that’s true, then why spend all that time, effort and money marketing AND why have a class called 37 Ways to Market Your Listings? Exposure. That’s right Exposure. No matter how well priced a home is, if nobody sees it, it becomes the proverbial tree in the forest that falls to the ears of no one. This class will give you 37 ideas for gaining exposure for your listings in today’s marketplace. More than that, we will discuss the importance of marketing in the listing process as well as ways to separate the marketing presentation from the pricing presentation.

Highlights of this marketing session include:

• What Sellers want!
• Your TWO presentations
• Then NEED for Exposure
• What Buyers are looking for?
• Targeted marketing techniques
• Discover Relevant marketing practices

Meet Rich Sands, Senior Instructor at Matthew Ferrara & Company and former Director of Education, Coldwell Banker Colorado as he takes you through an online marketing session to generate awareness for your listings.

Webinar Tuition: $49.99

Register today and reserve your seat now:

• July 9th: 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
• July 22nd: 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST

Let’s Not Ruin Social Networking

A month ago, I received the strangest email ever: An agent in LinkedIn blasted an email to her connections announcing her next open house. Sadly, it was little more than a cut-and-paste of the abbreviation-dumb newspaper ad she probably also ran. No photos, nor punctuation. Not even a hyperlink. More recently, a steady-stream of Facebook invitations have been arriving,  with impersonal introductions like, “If you know someone who needs a REALTOR in AnyTown, USA, send me your referrals!” Oh, sorry; I thought you wanted to be my friend. But the social networking abuse reached a tipping point yesterday: It seems some virtual tour vendor has made it “quick and easy” to mass-post your tours across multiple networks at once. Oh, goody: REALTORS are about to have no more friends. Read more

Ten Reasons why MLS is Dead Already

Once again, as REALTORS converged last week for their MidYear meetings in Washington, D.C., the forces of stability and sameness were present, coming up with last-gasp-ways to protect the tattered vestiges of Real Estate, the Last Generation. New white-papers and shiny-Powerpoint presentations proclaimed the “we-can-renovate” mentality of Gen 2.0 MLS systems struggling to enter the 3.0 version of the industry. Much like Google and Yahoo - who refuse to admit their advertising model is crumbling in the face of social networks - MLS’s are trying one last time to burnish a brand that has already worn off the chrome. What’s left underneath are the mostly rusted pieces of a structure whose time has come and gone, even if some REALTORS still believe the Comparables Book will someday make a comeback.

It’s time for the real estate industry to implode the MLS model so they can build something better suited to the next generation of real estate practices. Read more

The Other Side: How to Attract Future REALTORS

Recently we pointed out that the next generation of REALTORS will come from non-traditional sources. As brokers focus more on productivity than body-count, and the recession will ultimately teach them this business lesson. A more rational, performance-based method of building real estate companies will emerge. Traditional “Ponzi” schemes of filling the bottom with as many people with a license-and-heartbeat will fade away. It will become less frequent, not more, than inexperienced sales people will be thrown into the office mix. This positive lesson, while long awaited, will help brokers reconfigure their strategies for the future. But what about salespeople? How will they know whether it’s right for them to join a particular company? Let’s look at the other side of the recruiting question for a change.

In the future, real estate salespeople will still be independent contractors; As long as brokers and agents can milk the tax loophole, they will. Whether or not that has any impact on performance, however, is a non-argument. The best agents in the business are the best, not because of their tax status, but because they surround themselves with the right productivity environment. Entrepreneurial salespeople know that the key to their success is to make the right choice of brokerage. They want to join companies that balance teamwork structures with ample independent creativity to unleash their knowledge as workers.

Future agents will join companies who produce; not necessarily those with the most stuff. Read more

The Next Generation of Internet Leads

Months ago, we wrote that traditional internet marketing was dead. In August, 2008, MySpace outranked Yahoo for the top spot in ad displays. More people saw more pages - and advertising - on a social network than searching the “trusty” search engine. Did REALTORS take notice? Apparently not, since we’re still getting emails from agents asking “what website service” should they use.

They shouldn’t feel alone, since the story went largely unnoticed by everyone - except by us - while SEO and PPC web marketers tried to write it off as a fluke. Today, that fluke is setting the stage to knockout the traditional web-marketing rules of lead generation for the real estate industry. Read more

Socially Awkward Networking

While the vast majority of REALTORS still don’t know that social networking exists, there’s definitely a trend growing amongst “early adopters” to drive a stake in the heart of Web 2.0 world. Being first often creates a competitive advantage - such as being first to respond to a buyer’s inquiry on a property. On the other hand, being effective with social networking technology requires something that too many REALTORS still need to learn:

We don’t care that you have just listed another overpriced property! Read more

Podcast: Matthew Ferrara Talks Technology

Listen to this blog entry by clicking the play button above.
You can also click the podcast icon to listen in your default mp3 player.

Listen to Matthew Ferrara’s recent interview with the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS exploring ideas on how to use technology to cut costs, grow market share and innovate in today’s challenging real estate market. Jump start your productivity in the new year with some straightforward and easy-to-implement ideas for leveraging technology to make 2009 a great year to be in real estate.

Read more

Why IDX is a Really Bad Idea

Sometimes, you just have to learn the hard way. That seems to be the real estate industry’s preferred method of implementing technology tools - at least for the last twenty years or so. A herald comes over the hill, the masses become excited, everyone just starts doing it: And that’s when the highest risk to sound business principles usually occurs. Which is exactly where we are today with IDX - the “sharing” of listing inventory between competing brokers’ websites. It sounds like a good idea, except for one small snag:

Your million dollar website now looks awful because the data from your friendly cooperating brokers sucks.

Read more

A Difference of Six Words

What separates the great agents from the rest of the pack? Is it fancy training, an incredible manager or the latest tech tools? Why does the top 25% of the business earn an average of $200,000 in commissions, while the next 25% segment only earn $46,000 each year? Never mind the bottom half: They’d do better as Starbucks Baristas. Ask agents and they’ll tell you it’s luck, being in the right place at the right time, or even the power of statues buried upside down in the corner of the yard.

We think, however, that it only takes six words to make a huge difference in agent productivity.

Read more

Growing Your Hispanic Market

Here’s an idea that should appeal to all REALTOR entrepreneurs: Rather than waiting for a pile of money to fall from the sky, why not grow your way out of these tough times? It’s decision time now - and I don’t mean the election: Are you going to just sit there and let your company go bust? You probably don’t have enough cash to keep waiting it out - so pull your head out of the sand, shake off the panic and go do what you do best: Sell homes. Help buyers. Grow your sales.

If you don’t know where all this growth is going to come from, maybe it’s time to look at the growing Hispanic market.

Read more

What if Listings were Irrelevant?

Here’s a question that’s certain to be avoided by the real estate industry: What are you planning to do on the day that “taking a listing” becomes totally irrelevant? It’s coming, of course, and it’s not just because of a “housing recession” or any such calamity. Real estate based upon consumer needs, not actual “listings” will be the focus of the Next Generation of Real Estate.

And clearly nobody is prepared.

Read more

Bang! Internet Marketing is Dead!

It’s official. Internet marketing as you know it died today. One of the internet’s largest social network sites finally killed one of the internet’s largest search engines as the “eyeball attractor” for display ad views. Although it got little news, this mighty accomplishment may be the herald of a major shakeup for online commerce.

Consider yourself forewarned: Everything you thought about internet marketing to-date is now old news.

Read more

More Meaningless Marketing

When I read this headline this morning, I immediately thought of that Britney Spears song, “Oops! I did it again!” Once again, another real estate company is reporting some “numbers” designed to get people - consumers, agents, Martians - to gasp. Seems like their website has generated some few millions of “leads” to their agents. You know, buyers who go on their website and ask for more information. It’s another orchestrated PR campaign to get the public to say, “Wow! That’s a lot! It must mean they are really good!”

Too bad, then, that it’s just another example of totally meaningless marketing. What’s worse: Generation X and Y know it.

Read more

The Future of Real Estate Prospecting

Here’s an idea to make any agent’s day: If you’re finally fed up with the poor results and high costs of postcard mailings, newspaper ads and cold calls, and you’ve come to the conclusion that blind mass-email marketing makes you more annoying than maybe it’s time to get LinkedIn.

Or MySpaced. Or RealTowned. Or Facebooked. Or a member of just about any of the hundred or so major social networking sites. No matter how you look at it, the opportunities just add up.

First, look at the research. No, not the online web blather: of course the social network sites are going to “claim” they are the next greatest thing to croutons (which recently replaced sliced bread as the next greatest thing). We mean the consumer research. It looks like this: Baby Boomers are quickly losing ground as the “largest” source of real estate business to the combined numbers of Gen X and Gen Y. With more than 100 million X and Y’ers still in the market - yes, they are, and going to be the driving force for the next 30-40 years - it’s time to start propsecting on their turf.

In the “olden days” prospecting for sellers and buyers meant going to the Boomers’ watering holes: television, radio, newspapers and mailboxes. Yet fully 40% of homes were sold to first-time buyers last year, and the majority fo those were Gen X and Y’ers. Who don’t read newspapers, watch television on their computers, listen to satellite radio or download commercial-free podcasts and don’t ever check their U.S. mailboxes (they receive and pay their bills online, not with stamps!).

Now, if you’re just getting around to social networking, you’re pretty late to the game - by about 3 years. That’s still par for the course for most REALTORS and technology, though, so if you do it after reading this blog post, you’ll likely be ahead of the curve for most of your competition anyway. If we really wanted to turn social networking into real estate’s next money-making frontier, however, we’d get managers to start mandating it for every agent. Yeah, pretty impossible; managers can’t even get them to show up at an office meeting.

No question about it: Social networking will be a key method for contacting future buyers and sellers. A large source of sellers in the next 5 years will be Gen X’ers who are about ready to move up. They only work within friends or vendors who are referred to them through their sphere of influence. They think all REALTOR marketing - and marketing in general - is baloney (and they are mostly right). So you’re only going to get their attention if you can leverage their sphere of influence. That means someone they know knows someone you know who can put in a good word for you. Like LinkedIn’s “Recommend Me” function. Maybe even just an email. But it’s certainly not going to be an air-brushed glam-shot on a postcard that catches their eye…

Making eye contact with Gen Y’ers is going to be even harder. That group of attention-deficit, multi-tasking, wireless networking socially shy first time buyers (and we do love them!) doesn’t pause long enough to read your e-newsletter (who gets email these days? send them an IM!) And since they’re co-dependent purchasers using Mommy and Daddy’s money (ie., Bank of Baby Boomers) you’re going to have a double-deficit to work from when creating relationships. So once again, they’ll want to get to know you - which doesn’t mean your ego-centric website of awards and typed testimonials. It means they’ll check out your “real-ness” on your social networking page, look at who’s connected to you (and do they trust them) and maybe throw a virtual martini at you. And then, maybe just then, they’ll write something on your virtual “wall” and accept a “friend connection” from you and bingo! You’re making friends in cyberspace.

Look, you don’t get to write the rules. So stop writing ads. No, you’re not going to need an avatar and some virtual dollars, or go walking through a 3-D fanstasy world to find future customers: That’s kids stuff and it’s going to remain that way as long as human beings don’t live in bubbles. But as long as the party stays online - and it’s only getting bigger - you’re going to need to work the room. No more going “to the club” to rub elbows with future customers. For the future - starting today - you’re going to have to social network online.

Now, get to it!

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