» Angie Perez Real Estate Coach

Strange Lead Management Habit

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:32 +0000

I have a strange lead management habit. What about you?

If you are a solo real estate agent (a company of one), without an admin or a lead assistant like me, it can be hard to manage all of your inbound leads, especially if your primary marketing phone number is your cell phone; and especially when you are in the field, time-blocking, prospecting, showing houses or on or a at listing appointment/negotiation/inspection/class/closing.

As you can imagine, productive real estate agents like you and me generate a ton of real estate leads, contacts, prospects and eventually clients on a daily basis.

This is the primary reason why many of the people who call me on my cell phone end up with strange names in my mobile device. Giving my leads “strange names” - which is a form of tagging for me – is my strange habit lead management habit.

When I listen to voicemails from missed callers or read text messages, again from missed texters, I usually add the individual’s name to my iPhone’s contact manager and the property address the caller inquired about in the company name field or what the caller is looking for in the notes section like 3bdrs, single family, investor, REO, cash buyer, etc. Some of my clients are: Seema 14 Jacques Street, Gina 514 Brooklawn, or Allen NY Investor.

When callers or texters make contact during a time when I am unable to service them, I have developed this property association habit – some would call it a strange habit – that helps me to remember and keep track of my inbound leads. Believe it or not though, through property association, even if I don’t call the caller back right away – which is a lead generation no no – I am able to manage my leads or piece together my lead opportunities at end of the day so that I can follow-up later.

More importantly, I take my strange lead management habit a step further. I am personally a numbers person. When my inbound leads make contact with me, I quickly add the person to MiFunnel and calculate a quick commission scenario. If the numbers look favorable, I either work the lead or refer it.

When you add leads to MiFunnel, your leads are time stamped by the date you enter your new lead into the app. One of the advantages to using MiFunnel as a miniCRM, is being able to reflect on information pertaining to monthly income, dollar volume sales, transaction or lead source trends.

For example, when I went into my commissions list today, I noticed that I have not added any leads since May 1st even though I’ve met some people I could hypothetically turn into clients. Personally, I am an agent that generates 1-2 “good” leads a day if not more from organic SEO, listing inquires from prospects surfing 3rd party syndicators sites like Trulia, Realtor.com and Zillow, and my social connections/sphere. Those are my 3 biggest lead sources and with MiFunnel business intelligence reports, I can monitor tracking my income per transaction, transaction trends, and dollar volume are some of my favorite MiFunnel features.

Some agents have asked me why should they use MiFunnel when they have other CRM systems in place like MLS, Top Producer, Wise Agent, Realty Juggler, and a slew of others. My response to them is to think of MiFunnel as a intermediary – a go between – CRM app. It’s a totally difference CRM experience altogether. MiFunnel won’t manage your touches, but it will help you to determine who to focus on since their business value is staring at you front and center on a daily basis.

My recommendation: give yourself permission to cheat on your current CRM and use MiFunnel like the way I am describing, which may in fact make you more productive. You lose nothing by vetting MiFunnel, except to gain the knowledge of the type of business potential you have in your sales funnel no matter where you go.

Winning Clients and Making Money

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:26:35 +0000

Yesterday, I went into the office “after hours,” (after 9p.m.) and came across two of our rising stars, two of our newest real estate agent hires trying to figure out the real estate sales business. Immediately, I smiled because it reminded me of me and how when I first started the business in 2005, I completely obsessed about winning clients and making money. And, therefore back in the day, I found myself working late and lurking about the office at night trying to figure it out.

In retrospect, I started my real estate career in an “easy” market, a market where lending practices were “loose” and people were naturally motivated to make a deal. My market then did not have the challenges we as real estate agents experience today like: short sales, record high foreclosures, stricter lending guidelines, declining home values, high gas prices, record high unemployment, rising health care costs, etc.

So, when I went into the office yesterday, I didn’t expect to have an impromptu coaching session, but the agents saw me come in and wanted to pick my brain. I sat with them for awhile as I waited for my client to arrive and told them about the value of three things:

Time – As agents, the one thing we offer our clients is our time and expertise in marketing, negotiations, neighborhood trends, conflict resolution, managing complex transactions, appointments, inspections, etc. . .and what our clients want from us is our complete and undivided attention when we are working for them, with them. I said to them that time is our most precious resource. I explained that we as agents have to make a commitment to spend our time wisely. There’s a time to train, a time to prospect and negotiate, a time to meet with clients, a time to preview houses, time to unwind, a time to socialize and network within the industry, a time to market, a time to reflect, a time to learn and utilize systems, a time to add and eliminate tools/technology . . .a time to prospect some more!

“To win clients consistently and to sell real estate at a high level, you have to value your time and spend it wisely.”

Having Faith, Momentum and Mind Over Matter – I didn’t really get it, until I trained with the best, until I surrounded myself with successful agents who were willing to show me the ropes and refer me clients to work with. 6 months in and back in 2005, I was just about to go referral when boom: three sales and three listings. It was then that I started to obsessed less about the WINNING part and focus more on helping others so that I might help myself. I feed my mind books, training courses and materials, and positive peer pressure to prevent myself from commiserating with other agents. I wasn’t always responsive to the training materials and I certainly didn’t leap to act and grow outside of my comfort zone, but I reminded myself to do the things that produced results for other agents.

“To make money in this business, you have build momentum and control your thoughts as much as your interactions.”

Setting Goals, Tracking Sales and Spacing Clients - In 2005, I didn’t have to keep track of my sales goals as much since sales prices were higher. 24 closings produced a more an decent income. But today, and with the recent boom in real estate sales, I warned my fellow agents that time is of the essence. In a market where we are starting to experience an inventory shortage and multiple offers, I explained to them that they have to choose their clients strategically and that in a busier market, clients will compete for their time.

This is where tracking sales, commissions, and understanding how to use spacing appropriately can come in handy. I personally projected when my closings were likely to take place and much commission I might earn from those deals. I then spaced my time out on weekends into 2-3 hour blocks of time so that I could work with 3 different clients within the same day. Saturdays and Sundays were for my time prime clients, the people who were:

A. Pre-qualifed to buy or motivated to sell and
B. Eager to move at any expense

I looked for the chase! The clients who wanted my help, chased me as often as I chased them. But, I also looked for equitable transactions. In tracking my sales, I started to see a trend in my business. As a buyer’s agent, I learned that I would spend roughly 40 hours with buyers over the course of several weeks or months (and yes years in some cases) to assist them on buying a home. 40 hours was my threshold. If I could not find them a home in that amount of time, I fired myself or referred them to another agent because the opportunity costs of continuing to work with them was simply way too high in some cases.

Lastly, and this was something that I have always found hard for me to stomach, I learned that not all clients will in fact produced equitable transactions, but some of these deals were necessary to get other referrals, other more profitable transactions. I was naive to think I could close all of my deals. Every agent has a fall through rate, right?

Anyways, my lessons where well received but somehow I know these young guns might still struggle for a bit. But its through struggle that we eventually find ourselves. I will keep my eye out on them and hopefully will one day will report that they have managed to overcome.

In the meantime, check out an iphone, ipad app called MiFunnel. When I projected my closings, I used a spreadsheet. If you are a busy agent like me, you will eventually outgrow your spreadsheet. If you are in the field and on the road a lot, I’ve developed a way to for you to utilize your a mobile device as a CRM system, one that allows you to calculate quick commissions and project your income on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

For more information on MiFunnel, visit website.

Addicted To Success Just Say No!

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:52:01 +0000

Yesterday, I was invited to a success seminar by a new Facebook friend, one who I met up with recently. I paused and thought about going to the success seminar, but the realization that attending the the event would be a distraction in disguised, hit me seconds later and I politely said no.

There are hundreds if not thousands of free seminars, webinars, opportunities daily that are laced with dubious up sells. I attended some of these programs in the past for networking purposes, assuming it was an in-person event, and to find that golden nugget, that one morsel of free information that would take my business or personal life to the next level. Notice I did not say I attended the event because I wanted the up sell, but that’s a blog post for another day.

In any event, I have a problem. I am addicted to success. Some people might think there are more terrible things to be addicted to, but too much of any one thing is never a good thing. So, how to you deal with or manage your a success addiction?

Ask Better Questions Before You Make Decision On Where To Spend Your Time and Just Say No!

Moving forward, when I am invited to something with an up sell, I will ask myself:

Is it worth my time?
What do I want to accomplish by attending said event or what do I hope to learn?
Do I have room for it in my schedule?
Can I afford the up sell?
Do I even want to be tempted by the up sell?
Will the up sell be something that would resolve a problem in my business?
What did I learn while at the event?
How will I use it in my business?

Saying no is just as powerful as saying yes. Some of these free seminars, webinars, events are distractions in disguise and personally my time will be better spent sticking to my schedule, my proven business plan. But for someone like me, someone who is addicted to success, I use to find it hard to say no.

No was a word that I equated to a lost opportunity, failure, rejection. This is flawed thinking. I realized that now. And now I feel great about saying no, especially when I am in “the zone,” a frame of mind focused on one task, one outcome.

Moving forward, I will set aside three 20 minute sets of my day for “down time” or distraction time kind of like recess of ole. Three 20 minute sets may not be enough to satisfy my mind, body and spirit, but it’s what I can afford.

If I can kick my success addiction with simple questions, just saying no and structured time for other stuff, I am sure you can to. Besides all theory and no time for implemenation is hardly ever a good business model.

Think hard, learn hard, but implement smarter with 3 ts: time, testing, and tweaking.

Lead Capture Oh Let Me Count the Ways!

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:31:16 +0000

I’ve been working on my NJ Real Estate agent website, njretoday.com for at least 3-4 years now and it’s still not where I want it to be, but there are a few pages within my website that I absolutely love and I am about to share with you what I did on the back end and which WordPress plugins and other apps or programs I am currently utilizing to get the results I want.

I built my website on wordpress.org and it is self-hosted with bluehost. Just FYI in case you were wondering.

Just recently my business ventured into the rental market. I was adamantly against doing rentals showings and listings as if it was somehow beneath me, but then when all of the opt time calls – yes, I am an agent that likes to sit the opportunity time desk - were rental clients, how could I say no to FAST CASH?

Working the rental market, in my opinion, only makes sense, when you streamline the the per-qualification process. Of course, again I am in NJ. The rental market is traditionally secondary to residential resale, whereas if you are in a larger city, perhaps marketing and showing rentals is a primary sales activity in your market area. Either way, what I did on this web page of my website should provide you with an insight to my online lead generating methods.

The Agent Know How real estate lead generation methodology explained. All you need is a WordPress website, 2 WordPress plugins and a web form!

When I built this page (http://www.njretoday.com/rent/) on my website, I wanted it to do three things for me:

1. Inform
2. Get the potential rental clients to download the lease application and credit authorization form
3. Showcase my rental listings

Informing was the easy part. I used my ipad, recorded a video at the office, no separate mic or good lighting, but short and engaging video nonetheless. I hosted the video on YouTube and used the embed code from YouTube to bring the video back to my website.

Next, I download a WordPress plugin called table press and the rental listings that I acquired from calls or from my past investor clients, I would fill out the details of each listing within my table as they came in. The rows are linked to my IDX portion of my website so that if you click on a row within the table, you will be redirected to the listing. My IDX is set up so that after two page views, the user has to sign up or go back to the for rent page to either download the lease application for submit it online.

The submit the application online is where the magic happens. Using Jot Forms, which is a web form builder tool, I recreated my company’s lease application, only I added a few per-qualification questions of my own like:

How many people occupying the home?
Number of pets, size(s) and breed(s)?
Are you willing to pay a realty fee? Split fee? Or landlord must pay fee?
Provide two references, one from work and one personal.
Are you aware of your middle credit score? If your credit score rating is poor, please explain why?

Then Imagine this: On Craigslist, Trulia and Zillow, I would then physically enter my rental listings into all three sites. Within those ads, I would redirect people to this landing page- rent on njretoday.com - and if the client filled out all of my paperwork, that to me was a hot lead. Of course some people just wanted to see the apartment, but at the very least I would then go to my page and fill out the information as I spoke to them over the phone.

Here’s what I am using in case you want to check out the same plugins for yourself:

For clients to download the lease application where they at least share their email address with me I use:SS Downloads – this is a good plugin if you just have one download to give. It’s not an authorization to add the client to an auto email drip campaign, so don’t abuse the emails that come in. You have to know a little bit about of short codes and have to be able to upload whatever you want to give away to your wp site – which is I think most people know how to do that. The only drawback is that it doesn’t alert you when someone downloads the giveaway, which is my case is the lease application. SO, you have to check your web site on the back-end often because it will show you what email address have requested the information.
The short code you have to use would look something like this:

[SSdownload file="filename.txt" title="title"] and the image that it generates is one like this one:

I am not married to this plugin. There might be better WordPress Plugins out there, but it gets the job done and it may still be free if you’d like to use it. I am also open to suggestions if you use something else.

To create the feature rentals listing table that you see on the web page I referenced above, I used Table Press. If you have used excel in the past, this one is easy to figure out.

For them to submit their application online, I created my web-form using jotform. You can use any form builder tool that you like. I found jot form to be the easiest for me.

Well, I hope that gets your mental juices going. If you enjoyed this blog post or have questions about web marketing, lead capture and internet lead generation, visit http://www.agentknowhow.com. Click on Free Know How tab. Until next time, keep prospecting!

P.S. Mifunnel app release is scheduled for mid to late March. For those of you with an iPhone and want an easier way to keep count and track your commissions, you’re going to love our app. Check that out at http://www.mifunnel.com and Sign Up for updates on App Release!

Ding Dong is IDX dead?

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:25:21 +0000

I am spending about $60/month with IDXBroker to be able to display listings and give my clients (or potential clients) the ability to search for homes on my agent website: New Jersey Real Estate Today! But lately I’ve been contemplating whether or not I should drop my IDX provider and service altogether. Why do you ask? Well, let’s face facts. The writing on the wall is pretty clear. We are in the wake of another technology revolution. Just this past week, Tumblr’s CEO, David Karp strongly suggested that mobile traffic to Tumblr, a short form blogging platform, may overtake desktop traffic this year. Karp said, “We’re seeing 3X the growth on mobile vs. desktop.”

The real estate industry is no stranger to change. As real estate brokers and agents alike scramble to keep up with the times, you might see a proliferation of discussions focusing on responsive web-design versus app development. Just recently in the What Should I Spend My Money On Facebook group, Nat Ferguson asked: “Is it really worth it to continue shelling out $49.99 monthly [for IDX on my personal website] to try an compete [in search]?

My comment to Nat was: “Having spent the past few months developing a b2b app (MiFunnel – real estate sales & commission tracking app), I can tell you for certain apps are the way to go, not just for search but for the right to send push notifications and to utilize a device’s native features: GPS, touch, camera, etc. I too have been questioning if IDX broker is responsive enough. I shell out $60/Mon on an IDX solution, which is a pretty modest investment. I try not to compete on search but on service. Consumers do not care about me. They care about themselves. The app that I develop for my market has to bare that in mind. For those of you who have Google Analytics installed on your website, pay attention to what people are using to access your web site and whether or not you have a high bounce rate.”

As you can see I am an advocate for both responsive web design (RWD) and mobile apps. As I watch the conversation search engine, Curaytor, to see what’s trending in today’s real estate discussions, it would not surprise me if we saw terms keywords like mobile, IDX, Web-design, responsive web design popping up in the near future. Where do you stand on this debate? Do you think IDX is dead? Will you invest in a mobile app?

Time Management Know How

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:06:05 +0000

When I have to start a conversation, an email or a text message with, “I didn’t forget about you,” I feel terrible because I know I didn’t meet my client’s expectation as to when I would deliver on my promise.

In 2013, my goal is to add time to my promises and say no to interruptions, time wasters and non-profitable business opportunities or leads. This goal, the one I set up for 2013, assumes that I know what interrupts me and what are my time wasters in my business.

Well, let’s go through what I know to be my interruptions and time wasters in my real estate business, as some of my non-productivity time might be something you encounter in your business as well.

Interruptions -

Non-purposeful Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn web or mobile surfing
Push notifications or emails from the latter social networks on my cell phone – picture Pavlov’s dog, only I am the dog salivating when my phone ping, ding or dongs me when there is a new comment on my Facebook status update or a message from someone on one of the social networks that I use to connect with both clients and friends/family.
Inconsistent content marketing strategies i.e. the articles that I’ve written in the past for search engine placement/rankings do not attract the type of clients I want to connect with – DOH.

Why are these interruptions causing me heart ache in my business? Usually and I am speaking only from my experience, the interruptions that I mentioned above are taking over my day to day activities. The simple solution is to time block and create/follow my income producing routine.

At this point in my career, why would I be this critical of myself openly like this? If feel like if I have this problem, I can’t be the only agent who struggles with time management. Here’s my advice from someone who is aware of what is plaguing their business and to someone who is in the process of changing their income producing habits.

“You can’t control time! You can control yourself by simply saying NO and Yes to the Right Activities or Business Opportunities.”

No to non-profitable clients
No to responding to a checking voicemail, text, or an email message during your family, prospecting, social media, blogging, showing, time.
No to the fear that comes from making the calls you know you need to make
No to putting off what you know you should do today

AND

Yes to new client inquires from the web or phone – after all web lead expect an immediate response.
Yes to an action plan when new leads come in (add to a List, Delete, Delegate, Set a Follow-Up Appointment, etc).
Yes to negotiation conversations
Yes to daily prospecting
Yes to reviewing your marketing results
Yes to time off

Here are some tools that could help you mange your time better.

Workflowy – a more dynamic to do list. It simply feels good to cross of what you’ve accomplish.
MiFunnel Real Estate Sales and Commission Tracking App – an iphone app for tracking real estate sales, commissions and transaction details (this app releases in March). A much need app for your real time real estate sales business analytics. Easily see how many leads you generate on a daily bases; calculate quick commission scenarios.
MailChimp Account with an Auto-Responder Upgraded Account – As a agent, you need some time of list management software for email marketing. If your CRM system gets the job done, you may want to consider mail chimp for lead capture (forms) – and for segmenting your groups/lists.

How to Access MLS from the iPad

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:13:47 +0000

For many months now and quite possibly for the past year, I have been trying to figure out how to access my MLS, which utilizes MLXchange, on my iPad.

As you may already know, MLXchange is not Safari or iPad friendly. Momentarily, I have been getting by and accessing my MLS from my iPad using the following apps and workarounds.

First Workaround:

I downloaded an app called LogMeIn, which as the name suggests, it is designed to remotely access your desktop or another device to be able to operate in an windows 7 environment. On occasion, I have left my desktop at home turned on and using the LogMeIn app, I would connect to my home pc and browse my MLS on MLXchange through the app. It was a solid workaround. I was able to perform full searches and get listing reports, but I hated the experience. The screen was too small and I had difficulty navigating MLS from the LogMeIn iPad viewer. So, this was a good solution for short searches. After about 5-10 minutes of using this workaround, I would get annoyed by the experience and log off. Good temporary solution, but if you need something a little bit more permanent, you may want to try some of the other suggestions below. LogMeIn is a free app and is very useful in other ways. I suggest downloading it as a back-up and continue reading on for other workarounds.

Second Workaround:

I download an app called OnLive Desktop. This app allows me to work in a full Windows 7 environment, including being able to access Internet Explorer, which is critical when attempting to access MLXchange. The OnLive app was free to download, but if you want to operate IE, you will have to pay an additional $5.00 per month, no contract. The beauty of this app is it comes with 2 GB of secured, free cloud storage and it has the ability to create/access/edit/save changes to Word, Excel, PowerPoint® files saved within the OnLive cloud. Sweet! This is perfect for the person that has not transition to MAC products, like keynote, pages, etc and for the person that is accustomed to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Third Workaround:

Fusion MLS and Puffin. MLXchange is phasing out and moving to CoreLogic’s Fusion MLS, which is a fast, fun, and an easy to use MLS interface, an interface that emphasizes multi-tasking, agent/client collaboration, and system personalization. Puffin is a free mobile app web browser that allows flash browsing. Using Fusion’s MLS login link for my MLS (msx.fusionmls.com) and using the puffin browser, you can access most of the functions of MLXchange. The Puffin app has two versions. One version offers you a 14 day free trial of flash enable browsing and the other version is a paid version at $2.99 for unlimited lifetime flash (MLS) browsing. This one is a solid soltuion. It’s inexpensive and gets the job done. Load time and usability depends on your IPS and the actual device you are using to access the MLS.

Fourth Workaround:

Kurio. I signed up for Kurio just this past month and this web-based app allows you to search property listings, view property details including price, square footage, REALTOR® and public remarks and showing instructions. Also, it allows you to email a property flyer to your client and instantly connect with the listing agent if necessary, which is UBER important when you are on the road, with a hot buyer lead. This is by far my favorite work around, specifically for property search and access to showing instructions of listings on the road. It is by far an most expensive solution of the 4 ways to access MLS on the ipad because it has an on-going quarterly fee. I believed I paid $30 for usage until June 2013. Kurio is not a utility per say because you can not add, edit or update listings. To use the iPad as a utility to update/edit/delete listings, I find that work around number 3 listed above is best.

Dropbox Know How Top 5 Ways To Use Dropbox Responsibly

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 06:13:26 +0000

I am a big fan of Dropbox but not for the reasons that the everyday real estate agent gets excited about the online storage system. Recently, I attended TriplePlay, which is an annual, tri-state real estate convention hosted in the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, NJ.

One of the training sessions I attended for continuing education was called When Greek Meets Geek. When the Law and Social Media Collide. At this training session, my excitement for Dropbox dwindled because I realized that I was putting myself and my clients at risk by using Dropbox as a transactional or document management system, which to the speaker’s point:

“DropBox is not for the storage of contracts, disclosure forms, and other consumer data.”

Why? Two reasons:

1. As Matt Cohen, Clareity’s Chief Technologist points out in his article Don’t Make Dropbox for Real Estate a Document Management System, “Dropbox is a useful document repository for casual sharing, but it is not a document management system.” A traditional document management system allows you to control who has access to what, including providing others with the rights to change, add, edit, delete, mark up files with accountability, notes and history as to who, what, when changes where made. Dropbox doesn’t bring in the accountability that a traditional document management system provides and for this reason, it should not be used for sensitive consumer data and for involved, long sales cycles like a real estate transaction.

2. Security and Control – Clients and customers have a reasonable expectation that the documents they provide you with their sensitive data will be protected and secured. When you utilize a third party on-line storage system, like Dropbox, you place yourself and your clients at the mercy of someone else’s Terms of Service (TOS), which is subject to change. You are also subject someone else’s security protocols.

Companies like Dropbox, which is becoming a household name, often become the target of hackers, especially when agents and other business professionals tout using the service for the storage of consumer data.

Having said the above, I still love Dropbox but for other reasons. I have found several ways to utilize the service in my real estate business, responsible ways that I am about to share with you.

Top 5 Uses for Dropbox for Real Estate Agents

1. Lead Capture and Quick Responses. There are several articles that I have written on my NJ Real Estate website where within the articles I add a simple call to action and a web form for the user visiting my website to sign up for or download a free giveaway i.e. more information on topic XYZ. One article that converts daily for me is called Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure in Plain English. Within that article, I offer three type of giveaways, which are all of my giveaways are PDFs handouts that I share with my clients when I meet them face to face. When the user selects a handout they would like, I get an email telling me which one they selected, along with their phone number. When I receive the email, I then copy the user email address and use the Dropbox App on my cell phone to send the PDF the user requested. Dropbox allows me to store and respond quickly to potential clients, especially when I am in the field or on appointments.

Sample Lead Capture Form

2. Sharing of non-sensitive data like photos, floor plans, rental requirements, etc.

3. Easily save emails or training materials and be able to access them anywhere from the web or from your mobile device. If you are like me, you might be signed up for educational newsletters and other real estate training email lists. And if you are like me, you may not have the time to read all of your emails when they come in. SendToDropBox.com is a app that allows you to create pdfs or text files of your email messages by creating a secret email address associated with your Dropbox account. All of the files or emails that you send to this SendToDropbox email address are saved in Dropbox account in a folder called attachments. This allows you to delete the email off your pc or phone, but keep a copy of it for yourself for personal use later.

4. Video Storage. This usage is perfect for someone like me who has a hefty list of relocation/investor clients. In some cases, when I preview homes, I record video of the property and comment on the condition of the home. These file sizes are often to large to email but I can save them in my Dropbox and send the link to my client for later viewing.

5. Responsible Sharing – Don’t clog your client’s inbox. Use cloud storage and folders for listing sheets. There are some agents that absolutely want to go paperless, but listing sheets and property details or listing sheets remain a fixture in real estate sales. So, store your showing/listing reports somewhere you and your clients can have easier access to in case you want hard copies without clogging your or your client’s inbox.

SpeakPipe and Real Estate A Match Made in Heaven

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:41:35 +0000

Have you heard of a new marketing tool called SpikePipe? How about have you visited a website recently that allowed you to leave a voicemail right from within your web browser? If you haven’t had that experience yet, don’t worry. It’s already here! What you are about to see a demonstration new marketing tool that allows you to add a call to action button called “send a voicemail” to your website. This in turn gives your web visitors the option of leaving you a voicemail upon visiting your website and within seconds.Personally, I know I don’t have to tell how important it is to give both buyers of sellers of the Internet generation different ways to communicate and connect with you. I daresay that good real estate agents and Realtors alike have to be ”jacked-in” in different ways if they truly want to be accessible to buyers and sellers and successful in this business.

Are you jacked in?

SpikePipe is simply another output that gives the consumer more options on how to connect with you. Your job from there is to follow-up when the messages come in.

Here’s a demonstration on how to use this new marketing tool and insert how SpikePipe it into your website.

8 Tips on How to Get More Mileage Out of Your Elevator Pitch

Angie Perez Real Estate Coach — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:40:46 +0000

What is an elevator pitch?

8 Tips Elevator Pitch

Tip 1: Practice your delivery. Sometimes it’s not so much what you say or how you say it. Wrong! Delivery and keywords matters.
Tip 2: Insert keywords into your delivery. You obviously want people to remember you and associate you with something, someone, or what you do. Inserting keywords can be advantageous and problematic at the same time. Some people might have preconceived notions about what you do and why. SO, …
Tip 3: Answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how question naturally. You have 15-30 seconds to make a good first impression. Be sure to smile, make eye contact and shake hands if appropriate. That’s how I define naturally.
Tip 4: Ask for something specific at the end of your delivery like a referral, assuming the setting is conducive for that type of up-sell within the first meeting.
Tip 5: Re-purpose your elevator pitch. Different settings, albeit a business networking meeting or in an actual elevator, might call for a different type of delivery.
Tip 6: Bring plenty of business cards, hand them out and collect them. This is the one time I will praise QR codes. Your business card should have an easy way for others to add you to their smart phone device and vice versa. Yes, you want to make it easy for other people, potential clients, contacts, to follow up with you and vice versa.
Tip 7: As you are hearing other people’s elevator pitches, take mental, hand-written, mobile notes, especially if you are in a setting like a business networking meeting where multiple people are introducing themselves in a round robin system.
Tip 8. Connect and follow-up. Send an email same day or next day after the meeting and ask for a little bit of face time to get to know each other and each others’ business(es). Face-time can take place over Skype or in person, your mobile device. Be creative!

Absolutely DO NOT:
Add someone to an email newsletter without their permission.
Call or text message during non-business hours.

Do
Connect with them via social media and networking website sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) with a quick, short message reminder on how you met.
Hire and spend. There are times that I pay for services that I don’t necessarily need – this is odd ball advice- I know, but if being supportive of someone else’s business can invite support to what I do, I am happy to invest wisely.