These days nearly every agent uses photography as a marketing tool with their listings. And as technology has gotten better, these ‘photo galleries’ have gotten better, too. Photos are a good starting point.

But according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2010 Buyer and Seller Profile, 61% percent of buyers today say that an initial, online, virtual tour is very important when determining which properties they wanted to see in person.

If buyers are telling us they want to see virtual tours – why are so many agents not taking the time to create them? It’s puzzling to me because it’s not that hard to do – and it’s such a powerful marketing tool!

I have seen literally hundreds of virtual tours over the years. They have beautiful panning photography and they sometimes have nice music as an accompaniment. But, they all feel the same to me. There’s nothing that stands out to me, nor is there anything particularly engaging about watching a basic virtual tour. There’s no engagement factor.

So, how do you create a virtual tour that really engages potential buyers? What do you need that puts your personal touch front and center and sets you apart from all of the virtual tours online today? You need a powerful, signature virtual tour.

A signature virtual tour means that you are a part of the video – welcoming viewers to the home, taking them on a tour, and then thanking them for stopping by to view your listing.

That means you, or your voice, appears 3 times:

• You appear at the beginning
• Your narration appears during the virtual tour
• You appear at the end

I’d like to show you just how powerful a great virtual tour can be when done really well. Jay Agoado, one of my EVOLVE coaching clients, really wanted to step up his marketing to attract buyers, as well as to offer a much higher level of service to his sellers. He also wanted to attract other potential sellers. So I challenged him to create his own video.  I gave him a basic plan and he ran with it. He spent some time learning how to create a signature virtual tour that includes his own personal touch. Take a look at one of Jay’s virtual tours. I’m very proud to say that he’s done a great job here. He’s relaxed, he’s professional, and his photography is well done. This is what a signature virtual tour should look like!  What is really important to understand here is that Jay not only is selling this home, he is selling himself.  That is what a great video can do for your business!!

In part two I will discuss how to get started with your own signature virtual tours.

Given the current foreclosure situation throughout our country, now, more than ever, is an opportunity for real estate professionals to unify our efforts, diversify our skill sets, and collectively serve as part of the solution.  These are extraordinary times, calling for extraordinary service, and we have an opportunity to “rise to the occasion” like never before.

To be effective in this market, it is imperative that we understand our role and are properly equipped with the kind of training, resources, guidance and support to effectively evaluate our client’s situation and successfully facilitate a short sale, when this is the best solution for both the homeowner and their lender. 
 
In a short sale, the listing agent is the “quarterback” of the transaction.  As a team of Realtors who have been “in-the-trenches” successfully facilitating short sales for quite a number of years, we found that our closing ratios dramatically increased when we became clear in understanding what we now call the “5 Keys to Short Sale Success”:

Key #1: The listing agent must know the proper step-by-step process for shorting various types of loans, as the process for shorting an FHA loan is different than the process for shorting a VA or Conventional loan. 

Key #2: The listing agent must know what documentation is required to make up a complete Short Sale Package for the lender they are working with and how to submit that package in a format that will get the lender’s attention, satisfy their requirements, and get an approval.

Key #3: The listing agent must know how the lenders calculate what they have to “net” in the short sale transaction, so that they can then effectively price the property in MLS to generate an offer that will be relatively quick, but sufficient to meet the lender’s requirements, as well as cover all of the seller’s closing costs and the broker commissions.
  
Key #4: The listing agent must know the lender’s guidelines and what terms the lender will and will not approve in a buyer’s purchase offer.

Key #5: The listing agent must know how to establish their credibility and an effective rapport with the Loss Mitigation Rep who ultimately holds the key to the short sale getting approved and closed. 

As we train and mentor other real estate professionals throughout the country, we find that they too begin to experience a dramatic increase in their short sale closing ratios once they are equipped with the right training and gain a clear understanding of these “5 Keys to Short Sale Success”.  Now is the time to diversify and get the training you need to be successful in this and any market.  As Rick Sharga recently stated, “Realtors today have a unique opportunity to begin to heal neighborhoods and communities, and get the economy back on its feet one household at a time.”

1. Knowledge, Experience, and Service

For starters, we’re among the most experienced. Two decades of actively working with hundreds of speakers and meeting planners has made us the most knowledgeable Speakers Bureau in real estate. Period.

2. The Advantage of One-Stop Shopping

Many bureaus have just a few speakers with limited topics. With Broker Agent Speakers’ Bureau, you can avoid the hassle of dealing with several different bureaus in order to satisfy all your programming requirements.

Our one-stop shopping makes it convenient for you to get exactly what you want for your entire meeting — from the opening bell to the closing farewell. We can bring you motivators, educators, and even leaders in the real estate world. Whether you are looking for headliners, keynoter speakers, seminar leaders, or breakout workshop facilitators, Broker Agent Speakers’ Bureau will fill your every need.

3. Customized Service

Our innovative approach to customized service is what makes Broker Agent Speakers’ Bureau stand out. We do all the research for you, making your job of selecting a speaker as easy and efficient as possible. Our customized service is designed to save you time, money and hassle while getting you the very best and most appropriate programs for your audience.

It is our honor to serve you. The BASB Team

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The decisions that Real Estate Agents make about their business today and this week, shape the next several months.

There is one basic decision.  Get active, get busy.  Or be passive.

Getting busy ensures both a strong finish to 2011 and a strong start to 2012.  Being passive risks a weak finish to 2011 which means suffering low income and a slow start to 2012.

Get busy following up on your leads, prospecting, marketing, blogging, networking, communicating with people.

What you communicate and how you communicate it is important.

Communicate the opportunities in the market, low rates, soft prices, and the fact that this will not last forever.  When it changes, and it will; just a 1% rise in interest rates can mean having to buy less house in a less desirable neighborhood.

And communicate it positively.

When an Agent communicates the difficulties in the market with a discouraged tone of voice then the message to the listener is that this Agent lacks confidence in the market and their ability to succeed within it.  Some Agents say to me, “But Rich, I don’t have confidence in the market or my ability to succeed in it.”

I say to them, “Then get another job.  Or better yet, let’s talk so you can realize that there is tremendous opportunity for the people who are able to buy in this market or sell and buy in this market.  It’s scary.  It’s difficult.  It’s frustrating.  And those that succeed through this market will be the most successful, extraordinarily successful as we eventually emerge from it. And we will.”

When an Agent communicates positively with confidence, the listener notices.  It haunts them.  It sticks with them.  It spreads your reputation as the person to go to and refer to get the job done even in this challenging market.

Be honest.  It’s not easy.  And be confident.  If it can be done, you find a way to do it.  And you are constantly looking for the opportunities.

Official Pages: Official pages are an important Facebook tool for the real estate professional. Setting up an official page is a little like setting up a public website for your business within Facebook. Official pages look very similar to profiles in that they have a wall, and tabs, just like profiles do.  However, official pages are a very different marketing tool than profiles are, and the Facebook terms of service are different for official pages than they are for profiles.

The first significant difference is that official pages are designed to be for commercial use (in other words, it is not a terms of service violation to post real estate listings on your page). You must be the authorized representative of the business in order to create a Facebook page (most real estate agents are independent contractors and therefore the authorized representative of their real estate practice so this criteria isn’t a problem). If Facebook deems you to not be the authorized representative of your page, your page can be reclassified as a “Community” page and you will be stripped of your administrator access.

Facebook official pages are also different from profiles in that they are totally public – people can see the content on your official page without having to be connected to it (whereas your profile requires acceptance by both parties to view the full profile). On pages, visitors can choose to “like” a page and this is not “approved” by page administrators. Once they like the page, they are connected to it. By liking your page, a visitor has become a fan of your page and given you permission to market to them in their news feed.

There are no privacy settings can be applied to pages and pages are indexed by search engines. This is a great benefit to the pages product as page administrators can benefit from the SEO, or search engine optimization, that results from their page being indexed.

Pages also allow for a centralized brand voice. Since you can have multiple administrators, this feature allows for each of the administrators to post on behalf of the brand, vs, as themselves. None of the other Facebook marketing tools has this functionality.

Places Pages: Places pages are very similar to official pages. From a functional and marketing perspective, Places pages are identical to official pages except for two differences:

1. Places pages are for businesses that have a physical office address.

2. Places pages allow business owners to offer “Facebook Deals”.

Facebook Deals: Having a Facebook places page allows you to offer Facebook Deals to people who visit your physical location. You can offer a coupon to Facebook users who check into your location on their cell phone in order to encourage check-ins and repeat business, and gain visibility in Facebook when those check-ins and deals are publicized to the users news feed.

For real estate offices, or Realtors who have a physical office location, Facebook places pages is a marketing product to investigate. Having a Facebook places page allows for Facebook users to find out where your office is located, your business hours, and other relevant items about your business. It also allows for Facebook users to “check-in” when they are at your location using the geo-location tagging functionality on many cell phones. When they check in, their check in at your place is posted on their wall which can increase the visibility of your business.

Community Pages: Community pages are pages people go to share their interest in the topic of the page. Much like an official page, Facebook users “like” community pages as well. Other ways to connect to community pages include providing “likes and interests” in your personal profile (you’ll notice a link to likes and interests that you add to the info tab of your personal profile – often that goes to a community page). A key difference between community pages and official pages is that community pages aren’t tied to an official entity just a topic of interest. There is no administrator of a community page. The page is administered by the “community” of people who “like” it.

From a marketer’s standpoint, the lack of administrator control is the key difference between community pages and official/places pages. As a Facebook marketer, what you should know about community pages is that your goal is to not get demoted from an “Official page” to a “Community page”. This can happen if you violate the terms of service of an official page…mainly, you aren’t the authorized representative of the page you created. If you are unable to prove to Facebook that you are the authorized representative of your page (they have a form and a process), then you can be stripped of your administrator privileges and your page will be “managed by the community”. Community pages should generally be avoided as part of a Facebook marketing plan as a result.