ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: You CAN Beat The Competition
- 07/13/21 06:19 AM
You can't beat Zillow.
You can't beat Trulia.
You can't beat Realtor.com.
You can't beat the big brokerages.
But you can beat them when you pick the playing field.
There ARE opportunities out there if you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competition and where YOU hold the advantage.
First, NONE of the 800 lb gorillas have the same access to your sphere of influence that you do. Past clients, friends, family, coworkers (for those of us with more than one full time job) are people you have direct access to and you already have a level of trust established. For these people, ranking on the … (19 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Make It Easy Peasy
- 07/06/21 02:22 PM
It can be tough to be a small business, with a LOT of different hats to wear in addition to executing the mandatory daily activities. The days can get pretty long and sometimes something just has to give, and that give is often online presence.
The other day our loan officer sent us a list of the bank's approved builders for the mountain area where we plan to build our next home. We've never lived there, so no builder has a reputation good or bad with us, so we're starting from scratch.
First stop? Checking out online presence for the builders on the … (17 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: ...But You Get What You Need
- 06/28/21 08:12 PM
No, you can't always get what you wantYou can't always get what you wantYou can't always get what you wantBut if you try sometime you findYou get what you need
Rolling Stones
ActiveRain is a site in transition. If you've been here a while, then to some degree you're used to that. We've had a few ownership changes over the years and sometimes the site has been less user friendly than we'd like. Curtains dropping way too frequently and the ability to the daily basics was a crap shoot.
It wasn't unusual to wonder what the blogging window would be for the day. Down … (11 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Are You Diversified Enough To Handle Market Shifts?
- 06/22/21 02:45 PM
Our real estate market is clearly tilted to sellers. Decently priced and presented, a home is under contract within 1 to 2 days and with multiple offers.
While blogging can bring both buyers and sellers, for the most part our experience has been blogging brings us far more buyers than sellers.
In a balanced market or a buyer's market that mix doesn't cause any issues, but when the pendulum shifts the net result is a lot more scrambling and a lot less return on time invested. There's very little one offer, one contract in this type of market if you're repping a buyer.
And … (17 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Is Canned Content Right For You?
- 06/14/21 06:06 PM
Every so often you'll see it happen on the blog roll. In a short span, you'll see the same title appear again and again and again and...
Yep, it must be the day Keeping Current Matters (KCM) has released a new post or two for their paid members to use. It's not plagiarism since it's bought content with full rights for use by the paying members.
But is it useful to use canned content?
And the answer is as it is with most things in life, "it depends".
It depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your blog.
It depends on your target audience.
It depends … (21 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Tossing Out Digital Breadcrumbs
- 06/08/21 11:31 AM
Sometimes someone says "I never get any business from blogging".
And maybe that's an accurate statement. Depending on topic choice and quality of posts, it's quite possible to never give a home buyer or seller a reason to contact you to be their agent.
But IMO, a lot of consumer contacts might not be blatantly obvious as being sourced from blogging, but can still be fruits of the blogging vine.
Every time you post, you're feeding Google and the other search engines with a little more information about you, where you do business, and what you know something about.
Your blog signature, the post title, … (18 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Is Your Business Portable?
- 05/25/21 04:47 PM
We've changed brokerages only once in almost 20 years of being in real estate, and it was from one RE/MAX franchise to another.
Now we're about to have our franchise name change shortly: RE/MAX Elite is being absorbed by RE/MAX Alliance.
While for the most part the change is minimal to us, it is a change for legal purposes. Every place the word "Elite" shows up, we'll have a limited time after the change to convert to "Alliance" to make sure the real estate police aren't citing us.
So that brings us to the title's point: Is your business portable?
We were taught early on … (15 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Pester/Provide, Push/Pull
- 05/18/21 08:08 AM
Day 1: Email received offering service.
Day 3: Follow up email restating service offered.
Day 5: WHY HAVEN'T YOU RESPONDED TO MY EMAILS??
The short answer, it's cold call emailing and I don't need or want the service offered, so I owe them none of my time IMO. In general, I find those type solicitations to be repeated by people with different names and supposedly different companies, yet using an almost identical solicitation.
They fall into the "pester" category for me and have zero chance of pulling business from me.
What I've found works best for our business is to provide information, in particular relevant real … (14 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: A Tale Of 3 Gas Stations
- 05/11/21 11:41 AM
Our SUV uses diesel fuel.
There are three gas stations at the intersection nearest our home.
One doesn't offer diesel fuel.
One offers diesel fuel at one set of pumps shared with semis. $3.25/gallon
One offers diesel fuel integrated with the regular gas pumps. $3.45/gallon
Which station did I choose?
Well obviously not the first one, no diesel!
The 2nd one would have saved me about $2 total, but the pump handle almost always has diesel fuel all over the handle and you're almost certain to get it on your hands when you pump. (I know this might make the farmer/mechanic types laugh...but hey, the smell of … (31 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: What Is ActiveRain?
- 05/04/21 04:04 PM
What is ActiveRain?
Is it a blogging site?
Is it a social community?
Is it a training site?
Is it a referral site?
It depends.
ActiveRain is both a what and a who.
ActiveRain is what you as a member make of it.
You can choose one purpose, all the purposes, or none.
Cruising around the Rain over a decade plus I think I've seen about every category of Rainers you can find, and there are many.
The Profilers. Hit and run, a one day visit, fill out the profile (or hire someone from Fiverr.com to do it), and never come back.
The Lurkers. They read, but almost never comment.
The Dabblers. … (14 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: "Blogging Doesn't Work"
- 04/27/21 04:58 AM
"Blogging doesn't work." says the blogger who doesn't get results.
"Blogging is dead." says the guru who has a new bright and shiny to interest you (and sell you).
Heard both statements more times than I can count over our years in the Rain, and while there might be SOME truth to each statement, there's no reason to turn in our keyboards and call it a blogging career.
To be blunt, for those that state "blogging doesn't work", more often than not it's a seat to keyboard interface error. If you make the "wrong" choices about how to blog, it's true, blogging won't work … (17 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Building Your Team With 2x4s
- 04/20/21 04:13 PM
Even if you're a solo agent, you've probably got people on your team, even if they're not on your business card or your website.
Of course we've got the support of our broker and the office staff.
We've got go to mortgage pros and home inspectors that we know will take great care of our clients. General handyman types, painters, electricians, plumbers, radon testers and mitigation system installers, landscapers, they all have a place in our referral system.
There's another part of our team that is crucial to us, and that's our go to new construction reps. For each of the major builders of … (11 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Blogging Bang For The Buck
- 04/13/21 11:03 AM
Sunday afternoon I received a call from a potential buyer asking about new construction patio homes in a certain local community. I knew he had to be looking at an older post because new construction wrapped up in The Cove about 3 years ago.
Sure enough, he was looking at an ActiveRain post from October 2011. While that post only has about 10 comments, it has 16,000+ views. The adjacent posts that are local events, a few thousand views. Another subdivision post? Over 8,000 views. A couple of featured posts? Less than 2,000 views.
And that makes sense. For the most part anything … (22 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: More Powerful Than A Generic Post
- 04/04/21 07:01 AM
"There are riches in niches".
If you've been in real estate more than a month, you've probably heard someone say something along that line. But is it just cliche, or is there some truth to it?
And while I personally believe niche posting is WAY more powerful than writing general real estate blog posts, I believe the answer can still be "it depends!".
It depends on the niche.
It depends on how well the niche meshes with your personality and skill set.
It depends on if the niche has staying power through ups and downs of the market.
A niche needs to have certain characteristics to be … (10 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Pressed For Time?
- 03/23/21 04:13 PM
I'm a professional juggler, not by job description, but by necessity.
Real estate agent.
Engineer.
Zookeeper for 6 Chihuahuas and 16 cats (and 5 beehives).
Now fold in activity here in the Rain and that hourglass is quickly running out of grains. Only so many minutes in a day and I can't make that number larger.
So I have to make some hard choices as to how I involve myself in the Rain, and that involvment has changed over the years.
What is the most productive use of my time?
There are two main audiences for potential business:
1. Consumers (who buy and sell every day in your market)
2. … (21 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: A Particular Set Of Skills
- 03/09/21 06:35 AM
Over the years I've encountered people that REALLY knew their stuff. They had particular skills that I could never master no matter how long I might try. I have no ear for music, I don't think I could slide a helicopter on its skids across a grass field and I'll never dunk a basketball without the help of a ladder.
But I have skills of a different sort, skills that they don't really tell you about needing in real estate school, but years later I consider essential to being successful as a real estate agent:
Micro and Macro Manager: The ability to … (16 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Advice, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)
- 02/23/21 01:54 PM
"...everybody's got one."
There are challenges in providing advice. We've all been there and done that.
Trying to convince a seller that a listing is overpriced?
Trying to convince a buyer to up the offer if they REALLY want to get a home?
It's a tightrope, and you've got to be able to convey a message in a way that the audience will be willing to receive it.
The seller that is overpriced but REALLY does want to sell? They're probably going to be far more receptive to what you have to say than the "testing the market" seller.
And who hasn't had a buyer more interested … (21 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Once More Into The Fray?
- 02/16/21 03:32 PM
Maybe it's a function of getting older, but I'm finding it easier to disengage from a lot of Life's turmoil. My headspace is reserved for God, family, home, friends & clients. You cross a line in those areas and we may have a tussle (in as civil a manner as I can for the circumstances), but much of what passes as a kerfuffle in real estate is just something I can't get too wound up about.
Zillow buys ShowingTime? So what? I've already got the listing agreement and if I do my job right that client isn't going anywhere no matter who … (27 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Two Tone Tuesday
- 02/02/21 10:53 AM
As I've mentioned before, we're getting closer to making a major move.
We're scouting for the right parcel of land on a mountainside to build a new home and we're in major information gathering mode.
Among our sources of insight? Facebook communities dedicated to our new location.
The first group I found was very useful. Good insight into local living conditions, and has been particularly useful during this latest snowstorm to know which streets are the hardest to navigate, less likely to get plowed quickly, etc. We'll go in eyes wide open knowing our risk of getting snowed in for a few days is … (24 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: 10 Mistakes To Avoid In The Rain
- 01/25/21 07:12 PM
ActiveRain has been a daily part of my life for over a decade, and in that time I've seen a lot of people come and go. And the reasons many go can be found in the category of easily avoidable mistakes and unfulfilled expectations.
Here's a handful of things you can do that will increase your odds of success:
1. Identify yourself, in particular answer the "where are you?" question. Your service area needs to be clear. I can't count the number of times I've seen a profile with NOTHING that identifies where they work. Fill out your profile, edit your comment header, … (33 comments)
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