Real Estate Solutions

Words that Matter

It’s not how many people that know you that counts but how many people that perceive they know you.”

(I found this quote in my notes from the 2008 NAR Convention.  I have no idea who said these words but if it was you, please let me know so I can attribute them to you.)

Seller Communications Binder

Sellers of real estate generally have one complaint when it comes to their agent - poor communication. You’ve heard the stories from sellers about how an agent listed their home and then never heard from them again. I’d like to think I do a pretty good job when it comes to keeping my sellers informed.

My secret weapon is The Seller Communication Binder. I present the one inch binder to the seller at the time I take the listing.

The binder is separated by dividers into 5 sections:

Listing Docs - This section is used for a copy of the listing and disclosures which I have 3 hole punched in advance.

Advertising - Copies of print advertising as well as hard copies of internet advertising are mailed every two weeks to the seller. (Again, 3 hole punched.)

Reports - Along with sending the advertising every two weeks, we send sellers copies of Homefeedback.com and Realtor.com reports as well as other website traffic reports.

Closing Information - Here’s where a copy of the sales contract and our “Here’s what happens next” letter goes.

Miscellaneous - This is a “catch all” place for everything else. We include information on closing customs in our county. During the listing period we mail interesting articles from the newspaper or the internet about local market conditions.

We also include a plastic sleeve that holds 20 business cards of local vendors that a seller might need, like a carpet cleaner, plumber or chimney sweep. We do use attorneys in our area at closings so we add the cards of 3 local attorneys.

I touch my sellers in other ways through email and the internet but almost without exception, sellers arrive at the closing with my secret weapon in hand.

Tech solutions – PDF to Word

ConvertPDFtoWord.net does just that. It converts PDF files to word files. Not much more to say. It’s cool. It works. Try it.

Real Estate Business Planning

This past November I spend about a week in Florida, attending the National Association of Realtors Convention. The week started with a two day meeting of the CyberProfessionals . Brian Brady refers to me as the “community organizer” of the group, a political reference which he knew would make me laugh. It did. Our meeting included guest speakers Brian, Gregg Swann and Eric Blackwell of the Bloodhound Blog, as well as Rich Jacobson and Brad Andersohn of Active Rain and Rudy Bachraty of Trulia. Following our meeting, my days in Orlando were spent attending educational sessions and numerous visits to the Trade Show. Despite my activities, I didn’t find the “next best thing”. In particular, the Trade Show was a lot of the same and some of the old, just with a new name.  I did, however, come away with a big idea as I started my business planning for 2009.

USE WHAT I’VE GOT (Better)

I have most of the best tools already on my computer or in a desk drawer or on my smart phone. I don’t need to spend a lot of money on new software, gadgets or crap I’ll never use. I just need to start using what I’ve got and using it better. Here’s what I mean. Amy Cherow in a session called “Services You Can Use in Your Business” talked about using Google Apps. Google has some pretty cool applications that they offer FREE and they are living in my (and your) computer right now.

As I started thinking about Google and what I was missing, I thought about some of the other speakers I heard and sessions I attended. I realized I have tools, like my Blackberry, where I utilize about 25% of what it offers in features. Moving on to the software and websites I own, I even have some features disabled simply because I haven’t had time to test drive them. Sad.

And now to elaborate on my big idea. I am getting to pull out a notebook and create a page for everything I own, subscribe to or have access too. I’m going to examine the features of what I’ve got and see what I’m not using that I should be using. Here’s an example: say you are using Flickr to store and organize your photos. That’s good but Flickr does a whole more than store and organize photos. One of the most magical features of Flickr is creating sets. It’s amazing how well a set does in the search engines. This isn’t a blog post about Flickr but you get the picture. (Pun intended.)

The task ahead will be time consuming but there is good news about implementing this plan. The plan comes with a much smaller price tag than in the past. I just need to “use what I’ve got” to accomplish my goals for 2009.