1.  Give Tips on Negotiating a Real Estate Agents Commission/fee.

2.  Write about whether you think interest rates will head…up or down? Then explain why and relate it to how it will affect them.

3.  If I were a buyer and I asked you “hey agent, should I buy a home now or later?” How would you reply? Write about how you would answer that question.

4.  Blog about the home in your area that has been on the market for very long and why that is the case.

5.  Write about an experience you had in real estate that taught you something very important about how to work with a buyer/seller.
Well there you have it. Now give your fingers some exercise and get those keyboards clinking!

AGENTS REMEMBER…

There are two ways to stay in contact with your leads.  Take advantage of both, simultaneously. Below are THE two important ways to do so.

2 Ways Follow-up On Internet Leads

1.  Automatic Email Updates - Your IDX should have this feature with optimal branding of yourself in the appropriate places.

2.  Drip Email Follow-up - This I’d say is the most important of all because internet home buyers take an average of 6 months to actually convert.  You must have a system in place where you can stay in front of their eyes without being intrusive.

Drip email systems can be found anywhere. We recommend Top Producer (because that is what we’re familiar with) but last I heard, Microsoft Outlook Express had a drip campaign feature, though I’m not 100% sure about that.

It is important to understand that if you have somebody sign up to your site there is interest. They liked what they saw and want more information, in the form of homes that match their criteria.

Agents do not rely on only one avenue of follow-up. Use the drip email for extra leverage.

Have a great day!

- House prices - Will they be going down? Up? Write about whether you think they may want to wait or why they should buy now.

- Banking System - If you want to help people understand why these economic cycles occur you can write about how the banking system functions (i.e. fractional lending and all that good stuff).

- Media Reports - Write an opinion piece about the media. Are they fanning flames? Are they under reporting? Should they?

- Write about selling a home in today’s market. What needs to be done, tips/advice, a top ten list of do’s and don’ts.

- The weeding out of agents in this market. Good or bad for the consumer? Did more agents mean commissions could be negotiated lower for the consumer? You can write about how only quality remains or will continue to remain.

You can also write about something you read in the news and then show why the article was important to the reader. And there you go…now get to blogging.

Have a good one.

The name is Cuil, pronounced “cool”. A new search engine that debuted today for the world to use and boasts they have indexed 120 billion webpages.

Created by former employees of Google the site has some features that make it stand out from Google and hope to attract a piece of their market share.

After checking it out for myself and searching things for a bit. I’ve come up with a short list of pros and cons.

Pros:

1. The lay-out - All search inquiries are displayed in with a magazine style format. It allows you to read a brief description of the page to see if you want to go read the rest. The look is very clean and easy to follow.

2. Thumbnail - For you visual people search inquiries now come with a thumbnail of the site.

3. New Search Technology - Attempts to understand more about the information on a page and the terms people use to search as opposed to Googles method of looking at quality links. In other words, their search algorithm can understand context of a page as well as concepts of search inquiries (which can be seen in the gray bar at the top of the page).

Translation: search results are more precise to what you are looking for.

4. Privacy - (best of all) They do not retain information of people’s searches. Anyone who is big on privacy rights will love this feature.

5. No Advertising - There is no advertising on the top or the sides. Of course this is for now and it’d be a good bet they’ll eventually have advertising.

Cons:

1. Thumbnail mismatch - It’s only happened a couple of times with me but sometimes the thumbnail you see may not match the page. This is a minor thing I’m sure they’ll easily tweak.

2. Pure Search - Unlike Google, there are no “Google Maps” for directions (a feature I use many times over), no button for “image search”, “Google News” and so forth.

For many people who are accustomed to Google a switch to a new SE may not be worth the time. Google has entrenched itself so deep into the our computer lives that it would be too bothersome or unfamiliar to go to another site, much like how many people would never use Mozilla over Internet Explorer.

The final verdict: Guilty of being pretty “Cuil” and useful. I will be giving it a try for a bit to see how it fares off against Google. Whether they join the long list of search engines that have fallen to Goliath Google or whether they become a competitor, it’s always nice to try something new.

Don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself!

1.  Friday, the 25th of July, had 2 banks taken over by the FDIC. One was First National Bank of Nevada and the other was First Heritage N.A. in Newport Beach.  If you work in or near the area you can talk about it as a news alert or as a way to explain to people what is going on and how it relates to real estate and them.

2.  Renting vs. Buying. You can write a topic about the pros and cons (where ever you stand). Explain how it would or wouldn’t benefit them to rent right now.

3.  Foreclosures and REOs. You can write an article on what they are, why they are here, the process, etc. You can go on many topics about these. Anywhere from “understanding REO’s” to “how to find REO’s”.

Remember posts don’t have to be pages long. What is important is that you get your point across and make sense.
Have a good one.

The book/manual was written for people who know nothing about stealth sites, blogs, and SEO. However, it does go in-depth in strategies, like linking, as well as lists of websites that are beneficial for agents to take advantage of.

We may have to make a second edition since there were lots of things we left out. Well that and the fact that some techniques may one day become obsolete…gotta keep up with the tech stuff.

Josh and I am going to brain storm some names for it. We have a couple tentative names but nothing that satisfies. That’s all from the peanut gallery.

Have a good one.

Here’s another thing can use, provide your real estate clients, or blog about.

Bankrate.com has it so that you can find your bank and see how they rate on a scale of 1 (the best) to 5 (the worst).

With all the bank news going on in the media this can be useful for some people. Enjoy! http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/ss_home.asp

So for now, if you’re drawing a blank here are some topic ideas to blog about.

- The new housing bill that may be passed by Congress. You can briefly write what it’s about and how it affects a homeowner.

- The state of real estate. You can write where real estate in your particular area stands. Sales up/down? Good/bad?

- A Community Event. Is there anything coming up in the community you work in? If so what? Make an announcement about it.

- A Common question. Have you been asked by several buyers or sellers the same question, if so write about it.

Those are a couple of things to get your mind going. Good luck and remember, if you’re going to sell yourself do it in a very subtle manner.

Have a good one!

OK that was too general so for somebody just starting out, your blog post should be about 3 paragraphs long depending on your subject matter.

There are times when you can post only a sentence, such as a question or an invitation to an open house. Here is an example, “hey everyone I’m holding an open house at hello-ville, come by, free food blah blah…”

The main thing is that you post everyday OR every other day…something…anything…everything that comes to your mind regarding real estate.

Here are a couple of blogging tips:

1. Strive for 3 paragraphs (that’s about 5 sentences per each).

2. Pretend you’re writing an email to a friend or you’re speaking directly to a client face to face.

3. If your post is about a news article, explain how it relates or affects them personally.
Have good one.

NOW is the best time to begin blogging. Not only will it pay off for you in the long term, which I’m sure many of you foresighted agents are eying, but you can also help some very weary homebuyers.

Reading the news, and stumbling, I noticed that there are many articles about home prices, the economy, foreclosures, and __(insert here)__. You know what’s missing (hint: first sentence of this article)? You know how buyers and sellers are feeling they are worried they can’t get a home or that they will not be able to sell their home; the list goes on.

If you’ve ever had the thought of blogging but have pushed it off now is the time to start. Especially since many agents are not posting. You have specialized knowledge in your brain that can help people with making a proper decision when it comes to their home needs…now go blog!