Internet Marketing For Real Estate Agents

If you are a real estate professional, you know that the real estate market is in a, generously stated, slump. The country has a glut of homes and buyers become harder to qualify for home loans each day. If you are scratching your head trying to find a better way to put your inventory of homes on the market, you have to remember that internet marketing for real estate agents brings results.

Traditional real estate marketing has included direct mail, local newspaper advertisements and good old fashioned cold calling on the telephone. These time tested marketing strategies work fine in a bull market but how do you find new customers in a bear market? There has to be a way to draw customers from outside of your traditional marketing areas.

Drawing customers from outside of the local area may be the only way for a real estate professional to move their inventory of homes.

Random mailings are ineffective as are cold calls to out of area people. There is one way to insure that your inventory of homes is brought to the front of anyone interested in moving to your local area.

The internet provides the ideal medium to put your inventory of homes available to out of area clients. Through the availability of the web, your inventory of homes can be made available to anyone with computer access. This computer access permits prospective homeowners to view the available listings in the comfort of their own home. The listings of any realtor can be posted on the internet for a minimal cost.

The ability of the real estate agency to advertise a property on the internet will provide additional listings to the agency from sellers who wish to expand the exposure of their home to buyers.

This increased exposure will result in a quicker sale and happier customers.

The existing MLS listing form can be either reproduced on a computer or a simplified form can be created. Along with the listings photographs of the home can be included. A more "upscale" method of allowing the prospective clients to view the home is to provide a video of the home. The video can be included in the on line listing in a WAV format. Windows Media Player and most other media players can play the WAV format with ease. The inclusion of a video of the interior and exterior of the home allows the prospective client the ability to walk through the home without ever setting foot in the home.

Internet marketing for real estate agents brings results from both out of town prospects and additionally prospects that are in town. The inclusion of a description, the MLS listing and photos or a video of the property allows the prospect to view and significantly reduce their "short list" of homes that are available in the area. Internet marketing expands the customer base which provides the agency with a higher bottom line.

3 Myths About Real Estate Agents

Real Estate agents have always been the broker or "mediator" between real estate transactions but are not always used. The people that decide to go on their own to sell their home are For Sale By Owner's or FSBO's. What would cause someone to sell their home by themselves?

Money has become a very large factor in this economy. FSBO's are wanting to save every penny they can, but then again, aren't we all? Since around 80% of For Sale By Owners end up using a Real Estate Agent to sell their home, there are five myths that they will need to find truth in order to shake the fear out of using a real estate agent.

MYTH #1

Real Estate Agents Get Paid Too Much For What They Do.

This has always been a big misconception that started in 2002 when the Real Estate market took off and the stigma has lasted ever since. The truth of the matter is, the market has dropped 10 years worth of growth in the last 2 years due to our current economic state. Agents on average, made 35,000 per year in 2002 and has dropped dramatically in 2008-2010. After paying for proper marketing and the time spent showing people properties, agents DO NOT get paid too much for what they do.

MYTH #2

Real Estate Agents Are Lazy!

This sort of ties in with Myth #1 except it gets down to what a successful agent really does. They usually have a marketing budget of around 10% of their projected earnings for that year. Often times they cant afford to hire a graphic designer so they spend time making their own ads and then spending their own money on marketing their listings. They then spend an hour a day canvassing homes to prospect for more listings. Someone may call them up and want to see a home so they drop everything they are doing to run over to the home to let the prospective buyer in. They take bankers out to lunch to find out more information about the economy to let you the buyer know what to do. They are doing paperwork and responding to emails a large part of the day and all the while, worried about when their next sale is coming from. Agents want to work, and they want to work hard!

MYTH #3

Real Estate Agents Are "Sketchy" or Out For Themselves.

While it is very true that some real estate agents do care more about their well being than yours, (it is becoming more common now the the economy has fallen a bit) most real estate agents are not like this. The National Association of REALTOR's put the REALTOR Code of Ethics in place which keeps Real Estate Agents "honest". Although you will have bad seeds in every industry, be cautious and interview your real estate agent before hiring them to serve you. Ask a lot of questions and go with your intuition!

Postcard Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

Real estate agents should find effective tools that can help them in marketing their real estate properties. Postcard marketing is the strategy that real estate agents should employ in their business. Postcard marketing is the versatile marketing program that requires small budget but generates strong positive response rates. Let’s have a look at few at postcard marketing ideas for real estate agents:

Testimonials

Postcard marketing campaign can highlight the client success. Gather the information, report, pictures of people who have succeeded in finding their dream homes through your real estate service. Such people can encourage more people to try out your service. Your postcard will also encourage people to contact you who want to buy a new home.

Employ postcard for website marketing

Postcards even effectively generate high website traffic to your homepage. Capture a screen shot of your web site and list down URL and print it on your postcards. Then distribute postcards to your target audience. This way your target clients will visit your website regularly to know more about your special offers, home listing or may sign up for a mailing list.

Unique designs and message

Make sure that your postcard design and message appeal your target market. Your postcard should be inspiring so that people who want to sell or buy new house can contact you.

Offer something different

Several real estate agencies offer free consultation services to their clients. But you need to think about the special services that you can provide your prospective clients. For instance, downloadable buying and selling guideline for different types real estate properties, offer them weekly updates for real estate transactions according to the needs of specific client. This way you can dramatically boost your real estate business.

Thus, real estate agents should be creative in designing their postcard marketing campaigns. Real estate clients need trustable agent for their real-estate property dealing. Your postcard will show them that you are trustworthy. You can recommend them to visit your website where they can see former client’s reviews about your service. Update your website on a regular basis. Even update your target audience by sending postcards periodically. Your customers need your support and encouragement. So, if you design your postcard according to above mentioned guidelines we guarantee at the end of the day you will surely realize that postcards are really very cost effective and powerful marketing strategy indeed. Try it, its worth!

Benefits of Hiring Real Estate Agents

If you are planning of selling or buying your property, then you must consider the very basic thing in the real estate process, which is getting the services of real estate agents. You can get a great deal of help from a real estate agent in home sales from advising to closing a sale. There are some very well known companies with international presence such as Coldwell banker that offer quality services in all areas of real estate.

However, with vast amount of information available on the net or taking help of marketing practices , some people are of the opinion that that they can smoothly complete the process of purchasing and selling a house by themselves, without taking any help from the professional real estate agents. if you are also  have any doubts, discussed here are the major benefits of using real estate agents for home sales and buying purposes that might encourage you to hire real estate agents:

Real estate agents possess both the experience and education required for performing well in the field of real estate.

Thus, you need not to know everything about real estate and you can let all the works be handled by the professionals. Taking services of professionals such as Coldwell banker work will make it quite easier for you to find the best deals. Also, you can focus your attention in other areas of your busy life. Besides, they all cost about the same. Just make sure you hire the right kinds of real estate agents.

You need to be very careful in the matters of home sales and purchase because there are all kinds of players in the market. Good and trustworthy real estate agents such as coldwell banker can safeguard you against the builder's agents and put off them from creeping around and dogging your footsteps. If you're a seller, an agent can filter phone calls from those interfering chaser that try to lure buyers to make an offer right away.

Real estate agents also offer a great deal of help to clients in deciding for themselves. It is also not true that they finalize the prices for the sellers and buyers; rather they help them in reaching at the right choices. For example, a selling agent provides a buyer with all the details such as vested interest, supply, and conditions. Then they will ask the buyer to select a price and then move ahead to next step of making negotiations. They also let you know the market conditions that are important factors in your decision-making. Matters such as average per square foot cost of other homes, average sales prices, list-to-sold other, among others are important things and must be taken into consideration before you make any firm decisions.

The good real estate agents are the ones that possess the skills of negotiating well. Unlike the buyers and sellers, they can keep themselves away from the emotional aspect of the home sales process. That is what makes them good at their work. They are trained professionals and present their client's case in the best possible manner. They also make sure that all the clients' confidential information is kept safe and never be disclosed. Another important characteristic of good real estate agents and companies such as well known coldwell banker is that they enjoy a good reputation.