Posts

Where Are Your Clients?

Where are your real estate clients? Are they offline or online?offline and online real estate marketing

There are two very important things to think about before you start on a real estate marketing campaign.

  1. What is your brand/identity
  2. Where are your clients

Brand/Identity is a topic for another day. For now we need to figure out where your clients are in order to effectively market to them.  So, this is what you do:

The first step is to draw a line between the online and offline world. Unplug your clients from the internet and think about the offline behavior of your target audience.

Where do they go when they are out and about? Are there groups that they are part of? What associative activity brings the community together and makes them a captive audience?

Schools are the most obvious example of a community staple alongside church. What about clubhouses or community events? The top agents in my community are at every neighborhood event promoting their business. When there isn’t an event they are sponsoring garage sales or promoting their local open houses.

Let’s go back online. When your target demographic is toying with the idea of buying or selling a home, how do they do it? Do they go online? If so, how would they come across you online?

Agents who have determined that their clients are online are very clever. They have an abundance of yelp reviews that mention specific keywords that relate to their niche.

They have a website dedicated exclusively to the local HOA with their info everywhere. These agents know that online clients do research and know what they are looking for. Top agents know these clients are looking up keywords that relate to housing tracts, schools district, HOAs, and other local niche words and landmarks.

What percentage of your clients are better reached online versus offline? You must determine this and dedicate a percentage of your marketing efforts to online and offline efforts before you draw up a business plan.

 

 

 

/by

Not all 100% Commission Real Estate Brokerages Are Equal

The trend of 100% commission real estate brokerages is now well-established. Even big franchise names like REMAX and Coldwell Banker have been seen offering 100% commission. For agents comparing brokers to work with.

100 CommissionIt’s important to note that 100% commission real estate brokers can be very different.

The first important factor to understand is that 100% commission real estate brokerages almost always charge a transaction fee. In fact, 100% commission real estate is just rebranding flat fee per transaction brokers. This means you should ask what flat fees are charged by the broker.

The next important factor is that many of the 100% commission brokers charge a monthly, quarterly fee, or even an annual fee too.

Other fees that 100% commission real estate brokerages charge include a key fee, errors & omissions (also called risk management), document storage, and sign-up fees.

These are fees you should ask about when interviewing a 100% commission real estate broker.

Other questions you should ask include:

  • Are agents paid directly by escrow or does commission have to go to the broker first?
  • Is there a conference room or workplace at the office or is the company completely virtual?
  • What other benefits are agents entitled to?
  • Is there an in-house transaction coordinator?
  • What Realtor associations are they a member of?
  • What are the hours of broker support?

These are just to name a few.

Remember, there is an abundance of 100% commission real estate brokers so take your time to determine what a good fit is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/by

Listing Agents Can Insure Their Sellers

Balboa Seller ProtectionFinally, listing agents can offer coverage to protect their client. If you think about it, the seller is the most vulnerable party to a transaction. The brokers and agents are covered by their errors and omissions policy. The buyer isn’t disclosing anything, and as long as they can perform the sale they are safe. Plus, the buyer gets a one year home warranty to protect against common defects. What about the seller?

The seller is the party that is assuming most of the risk. The majority of claims are against the seller for not disclosing something or for some type of defect with the property that the buyer didn’t realize until after closing. The good thing is that there is a new insurance endorsement that extends the listing broker’s errors and omissions insurance to cover the seller against claims up to $25,000 for six months after the close of escrow – at no additional cost. This means that agents can offer the seller this protection for free, which is a huge real estate marketing advantage. Also, if the seller is really concerned they can pay $200 and have the policy extended to 1 year.

Once escrow closes, the listing agents registers the seller with the insurance company and then the seller receives a certificate at their new address. Sellers seem to be exceptionally grateful which adds to referral business. We’ve found that the insurance certificate has a more profound effect than the “thank you” card because of its lasting value.

Obviously, Balboa Real Estate offers their clients this seller protection coverage. We assume that there are other companies that offer seller protection, however, we haven’t identified them yet. If you are interested in offering your clients this seller protection or learning about our true 100% commission plan then CLICK HERE

 

/by

Real Estate Agent or Consultant?

,

We’ve all seen the real estate agents that call themselves consultants rather than agents or salespeople. The reason is blatantly obvious, and a little cheesy, but there is actually a higher Real Estate Consultantlevel and deeper meaning than these real estate consultants may have ever considered.

Let’s face it, the title “salesman” has a bad connotation. People that are in sales squeamishly change their title to something like account executive, account rep., and the sales department has been rebranded as the business development team. Real estate agents would never call themselves salespersons on a business card, and to put their title as “real estate agent” strikes some agents as cold or generic. However, “consultant” is much more elegant. It just has a ring to it that that suggests a knowledgeable advisor.

Top producing agents don’t sell homes like most salespeople sell products. A home is an extremely dynamic and personal product, consumers already have in mind their needs. Their preferences surpass what they will ever tell their agent.

This is where the title “consultant” rises to more than just a better sounding title and becomes the true sense of the word. Good agents deliver high quality data to their clients and educate their clients so they can rapidly make a sound decision. They don’t push homes onto people like most salespeople push products. Facilitating home sales is a matching and information game.

Top agents do have the qualities of top salespeople because both personality types are often charming, persuasive, and carry a purpose. These qualities are just used differently.

Agents sell their brand and character, then they get down to business and perform the work when contracted. Salespeople sell a product and use their brand and character as reinforcement to make the sale.

All top agents make good salespeople, but not all top salespeople make good agents.

Please CLICK HERE  learn more about joining Balboa Real Estate

 

 

 

 

 

/by

Are You Asking for Business?

Balboa Real Estate networkingI recently attended a focus group for the Irvine Company where they had a discussion on commercial rental properties. The attendees were either senior level managers or owners of businesses that rent commercial space. We all talked through moderated conversations about improving commercial spaces while our comments were recorded through a two way mirror. The reason I bring this up is because the ability to network was a recurring topic that came up as something important to these executives.  Going further, one business owner explained that he went to every business in his building and introduced himself with his business card – which actually resulted in business for him. He also mentioned that he attends all the chamber meetings and networking events like LeTip. Even though what this person does to network is not creative or innovative, he has a tremendous advantage over competition because most people don’t even make an effort to network this much. I couldn’t help but to ask myself how many real estate agents I know that network just as much as this person – and agents are in a much more competitive industry. The answer: extremely few.

 

Networking is a very plain, fundamental business concept that just about everyone knows is a good thing to do. However, it is terribly neglected. Real estate agency is a business of relationships. This means you needs massive exposure to people to form these relationships and build your network. This is one of the reasons you will see bad agents get business and good agents don’t. Top producing real estate agents know a lot of people and they ask them for business.

 

Do a self-analysis on your networking. How often are you meeting new people? What are you doing that is expanding your network base? Remember that it’s different then marketing. Marketing is usually a one-way form of communication. Networking is more engaging, mutual introductions, and an exchange of words. Ask yourself who your target demographic is and think of ways that you can meet more of them.

To learn more about our true 100% commission plan – click here

/by

The Purpose of Websites for Real Estate Marketing

Many agents have the wrong idea about the purpose of their real estate website.

There is an important distinction that must be made about websites for real estate marketing

Your website is more of a trust and credibility tool and less of a lead generation tool.

Website traffic competition for real estate websites is extremely saturated. The cost to be a contender and elbow your way in for a sliver of a market share far outweighs the return on investment in Balboa Real Estate websitealmost all cases. It’s not advised to try to compete agains massive companies like Zillow and Redfin and their crippling marketing budgets for search engine traffic.

A website for real estate marketing is one that portrays you as a professional and shows that you have your act together enough to have an attractive website. This is somewhere people go to look you up when they are doing internet searches on your name in order to verify your credibility and slowly build trust. Your website should be mentioned on your marketing materials and should be full of content that will engage your target prospects in order to build a relationship.

Don’t get me wrong, your website can be geared towards lead generation too. 

If you are determined to generate leads from your website then you would need to load tremendous amounts of ultra-refined content on your website that is geared to dominate a unique segment that isn’t already heavily saturated. However, their is a cost-benefit analysis to all this. Could the efforts and resources that are put into your website to generate leads be better spent on another form of marketing. In most cases, yes, but YMMV.

Learn About Our True 100% Commission Plan Here

 

 

/by

Real Estate Marketing in 2014

,
Unique Ways to Real Estate Marketing in 2014

Balboa Real Estate – Real Estate Marketing Techniques

In Real Estate and many other facets of life, marketing is key to get anywhere. In real estate marketing many agents walk the well beaten path. There’s nothing wrong with using real estate marketing techniques that have been tried and tested. However in an industry where there are more agents than homes to sell, you want to stand out.

In 2014, it takes more to sell a home and the following tips will help you up your real estate marketing game, sell more homes, make more commission and thrive as an agent.

Make your property stands out. An effective way to get your property noticed is to create a website. Showcase the house under good lighting. A little staging goes a long way. Put some thought into your url and make sure to include information from the MLS. Make the website the go to source for potential buyers.

Be smart about what you pay for real estate marketing. Paid advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google are performance based and you pay per click. It’s better to utilize these platforms versus others that will not give you metrics. You want to know that it’s money well spent to bring in prospective buyers and you want to see numbers that are delivering clients to you.

Create buzz on your listed property by offering agents incentives. For the most part, no one turns down a free lunch. Offer a small monetary bonus to agents that brings your property a buyer within a certain time. This will not only drive more interest to you listing but will can help you sell the home in a faster timeframe.

Live by a real estate marketing technique of marketing and advertising that multiplies itself and not necessarily pays for itself. Keep all business cards and network with other agents. Send a postcard to past clients. Ask for referrals and keep in touch with agents and clients alike. Spend a little on postcards and Christmas cards to multiply your client base when you get those referrals.

Get on the social media train. One of the biggest social media platform of 2014 is Instagram. You can take photos of your properties, filter it and share it with your clients, other agents in your network. The best part of Instagram is that it’s an easy and fast way to market your listing and getting it out for people to see.

Join Balboa Real Estate. Benefit from one of the best 100 percent commission program in the industry.

Click here to read more about how to take off with Instagram for your real estate business.

/by

Real Estate – Be in Business for Yourself

,
Be in business for yourself.

Be in business for yourself.

So you’re interested in selling homes and making a career for yourself in real estate. Sounds pretty easy right? It is if you know the right way to navigate this saturated industry. The key topic that people seem to forget with real estate is that you’re essentially working for yourself, not the brokerage nor the broker. You’re in business with yourself and if you want to succeed you’re going to do all it takes to market yourself and your business to turn this job into a career.

To succeed in your real estate business, you need to first formulate a business strategy. How many homes do you intend to sell in a year? When will you be ready to handle commercial property sales? Should you get a broker’s license after a few years in the real estate industry? These are some questions that you should be asking yourself as not only a real estate agent but also a business owner. Be mindful of your finances. Set aside a budget for marketing and advertising expenses. It’s good to set aside funds to invest back into your business to ensure that you can grow and thrive.

Secondly, you need to define what kind of business you will be conducting. It’s better to specialize in a location and type of property sale (residential, commercial, rental real estate), then to stretch yourself thin. In the real estate business, defining what your company is about and having a niche market is crucial to your success and longevity.

Another important aspect to consider when in business for yourself is that you always need to continue educating yourself and keeping up to date with new technology to assist your real estate business. In real estate there’s a lot of paperwork involved; make it easy for yourself and your clients by going green and keeping your transaction paperless. Streamline the way you do your transactions by using electronic signature technology. Be in the real estate loop by signing up for newsletters. Continuously search for new articles about the real estate industry, if there are changes to any real estate forms, make sure your know about it.

The last aspect to never forget when doing real estate and owning your own business is that you need to be accessible to your clients and your agents if you’re a broker. Having accessibility,  and a good phone plan will help towards your success in real estate.

Join Balboa Real Estate if you’re ready to start a career where you are your own boss. Work with us to keep 100 percent of your commission and grow your real estate business.

Click here to read more about marketing strategies.

/by

Is 100 Percent Commission Really 100%?

,


100 commission real estate100 percent comission, but is it really? Avoid additional and hidden fees with Balboa Real Estate.

Real Estate firms have adopted to the trend of offering agents 100 percent commission but through research of competing agencies in California there seems to be few that truly stand by their 100 percent commission tagline.

100 percent commission serves as a motivational strategy to keep agents and brokers engaged because this ideally works to ensures that the agents get the most out of their hard work. However, many of the leading firms in California have other fees that agents, new and seasoned, should be aware of. There is usually a start-up fee, a key charge for using the office, plans requiring monthly or quarterly fees and payments for E&O. Many firms will charge you unneccesary fees going towards benefits that are rarely used by agents. Don’t be fooled by firms stating 100 percent commission. The list of additional fees seems never ending and not even near the 100 percent commission mark once everything is calculated.

At Balboa Real Estate we won’t ask you to pay for services you don’t need or services that should be provided without additional costs. We believe that you should keep all of the commission that you earn and we are a firm that wants to make sure our agents are taken care of. There is a reason why Balboa Real Estate is one of the few true firms that stick as close to the essence of 100 percent commission as possible. Balboa Real Estate wants you to keep as much of the commission at possible and avoid charging our agents all the hidden fees that many other real estate firms charge. Our 100 percent commission plan is as simple, easy and the best in the industry!

Contact us to join and get the 100 percent commission you work hard to earn!

/by

The Secret to Automating Content for Your Real Estate Blog

A blog on your real estate website is essential for adding the quality marketing content we always talk about.

 

This video reveals a secret tip to use for automatically generating content for you blog.

Here are the instructions:

Remember that original targeted content is best.

Put targeted words into Google Alerts and have them e-mailed to you daily.

When you receive relevant articles from Alerts, read them and then type a brief summary and introduction followed by the article link.

Do not copy and paste the article as duplicate content is bad.

Contact me with any questions.

info@BalboaTeam.com | 100% Commission Real Estate | 949.891.1094

 

 

/by