When starting your real estate website you may start with the mindset that you will cover everything about real estate in your city. This is a big goal and if there are no true competitors in your area it may be one that you can easily achieve. When there is competition online you can quickly rise to the top of the search engines when you choose to dominate a niche. In fact choosing to dominate a smaller segment online will often get you more business.

Choosing a Niche

The wonderful part about real estate is it allows you the opportunity to specialize. Many real estate agents are fearful of specialization, but in reality it will actually bring your more business. After all, you wouldn’t go to a Dr. who was a brain surgeon, foot doctor, and a dermatologist would you? No! You go to a Dr. who is a specialist because they can help you solve a specific problem because that is all they deal with on a daily basis.

Before you choose a niche, take the time to think about which aspect of real estate you are most passionate about. This may go against what others tell you in your office, but think deeply about what you really enjoy and you will be able to really dominate when you feel most strongly about a particular area of real estate.

Let your Real Estate Marketing Shine in a Niche

Dominating a niche means taking the time to absolutely master it. This may be the most difficult part because you may already be close to absolute mastery. The aspects that seem second nature to you are what people are looking for so you will have to dig deep and think back to a time before you knew anything about the niche.

For example, when you are in an area that has land, you probably know every aspect about how the land can be used, but in reality most people have no idea what they are doing when it comes to purchase raw land. For example:

• Land Use – Write about the many uses of raw land in your area. There may be some parts that are good for farming and some that would be better for development. Write about the different uses of land in the many parts of your city.
• Utilities – Some people are unaware that utilities and services may not have been provided to some parcels. Share the aspect that you can add value to a parcel by bringing utilities to it. Give them an idea of what that process is like and how you can make it easier.
• Evaluation – Land has many different inspections that traditional homes and condos. Share with your visitors how soil or wells can be tested. Let them know that they may even want their land surveyed to verify the lot lines.

Remember you are the expert, so share that expertise online. What is obvious to you is not obvious to many. When you share your expertise and your passion it will come to life in your writing.

Concentrating your writing efforts on a particular niche will not only help your visitors see that you are an expert; it will also help the search engines see that you are an expert. When you take the time to write 20+ pages, just about land then the search engines will identify you as a local expert and start sending traffic your way. It will take a bit of time, but it will be well worth your marketing efforts.

It could be argued that high-quality photography when it comes to selling real estate is perhaps the single most important element in capturing prospective buyers. The property photos you take are the first introduction of your new listing to the world. This is the visual element that captures the imagination of buyers and sends them running to contact you for a first look.

For this aspect of the property marketing mix, you’re best served to remember the old adage that “A picture is worth 1000 words!” In today’s visually stimulated and fast-paced society, this has never been truer than now.

Most people reading this will of course agree, but claim that quality photography will cost them an arm and a leg. I’m here to say that you don’t have to spend a fortune to create high quality images that will help sell your listing. Getting your listings to pop off the pages of a home search is not as hard as you might imagine. Here are a few tips on how you can start producing amazing photography for your clients.

Photography Tip #1

If you have a digital camera, learn how to use it! So many agents I talk to have expensive cameras and do nothing more than use the “auto” feature. Why spend your hard-earned money on a camera with oodles of features if you’re not going to try each one?

In dark settings, adjust the shutter speed. If you’ve got ample light (imagine picture windows on a sunny day) play around with the aperture. If you’re shooting rooms with bright colored walls, adjust the flash to point up (towards the ceiling) so you avoid a bright circle reflection appearing in the middle of your picture.

Play around with the features of your camera at home or at one of your vacant listings where you can spend some time. Take the same shot with different settings until you master the best functions to use under different conditions.

Photography Tip #2

Don’t be afraid to take a TON of photos! You never know which angle will look best until you get them back to the office.

Assuming you have arranged a time with your seller to photograph their home, make it count! The hour or two you spend taking pictures will pay off immensely when you are ready to post your listing to the MLS and your personal website. The last thing you want is to have to go back through the home because you missed something. The beauty of digital photography is that the “delete” button is only one click away.

Photography Tip #3

Use the highest resolution your camera has to offer. A common mistake often made is forgetting to change the settings on your camera to “super hi-res.”

Perhaps the fear is that it will take up too much space on their hard drive or will load slowly on your website. I can’t name a single professional photographer that shoots in anything less than 2MB per picture.

Don’t be the agent that has a camera with the capacity to save large files and not take advantage of it. Always shoot hi-res photography and lower the resolution (for loading pictures on the web) using your photo software later.

Photography Tip #4

Invest $15 in a tripod! Most cameras, even the small, convenient types on the market have a tripod connecting feature. This becomes especially important when you begin to play around with different shutter speeds.

Even the most steady-handed can’t prevent a blurry picture when shooting in low shutter speed without a tripod. The other useful function of a tripod comes into play when using stitching software to produce your own “virtual tours.” A tripod allows you to snap pictures from the same height and angle in 360 degrees.

Photography Tip #5

If the listing warrants a professional photographer, shop around. Maybe it is a high-dollar property that you just don’t feel comfortable photographing yourself or perhaps pro photography was promised in your listing presentation. Whatever the reason, when dealing with professional photographers, I have found that pricing can vary quite a lot from one person to another.

Ask around your office for recommendations and start there. If you see a listing that shouts “buy me” in print, find out who did the work. Perhaps there is someone in your market who is just starting out but takes wonderful pictures. They are often more willing to negotiate on price for the same quality photos.

Final Thoughts…

These are just a few of the easy to practice ways you can improve the quality of your photography overnight. The final thing to remember is that lighting is the absolute key to quality photography. Unfortunately, mastering different lighting situations is something one can only learn through practice and experience.

If you’re ready to get serious about your marketing and improve your photography skills, check out these great books:

• Interior Photography by Eric Roth
• Photographing Architecture and Interiors by Julius Shulman
• The Complete Guide to Light & Lighting by Michael Freeman

It is always amazing when people get results from their advertising efforts and they are upset with the kind of people that they are working with. A client once wanted to work with REO buyers, a good thing in any market and one that is coming back into fashion quickly, and he was frustrated that every single prospect he received from his marketing efforts was looking for a property owned by a bank and wanted a discount or a “deal” as he put it.

After looking at his advertisements and his marketing message, always a requirement to have a marketing message, he was getting exactly what he advertised for. His marketing message was completely about bank owned properties and getting a deal from these banks.

So was it the prospects fault or his?

His marketing was working just fine and attracting people that matched up to the ad he had taken out. Effective marketing will attract prospects to you that are compelled by your marketing message to take action.

Before you take on a new piece of marketing to generate new real estate business one needs to determine what kind of client you would like to work for and what market you would really like to be in. A few questions that you can ask yourself are as follows:

• Do I want to work with buyers or sellers?
• Do I want to work with home owners or condo owners?
• Are investment buyers who I really want to work with?
• Do I want to work with sellers who are having trouble or sellers who are looking to move up?
• Are the buyers I want to work with first time home buyers?

The above set of questions are just a few that you need to ask yourself. You can’t be all things to all people because it costs too much money in order to accomplish that goal of being some big brand.

The narrower a niche you can select the more specialized you become and the more in demand you will be for that particular niche. Within each of the questions above continue to ask yourself how you can be an expert in one particular area of that niche. Focus on one area of town and dominate that one area before expanding. It may be tempting to drive all over town to help a person but resist that temptation and refer to another real estate agent associate of yours when it is not in your expertise. You will be rewarded for this by your clients and your real estate associates.

Whether you are starting your marketing efforts from scratch or you are just trying to improve what you feel is already working, it is inevitable that you will want help. Help can come in many varieties. You may decide that you want a coach or maybe you are a self starter and you are looking for the right real estate product to get you to the next level.

Before choosing a real estate marketing product consider taking a few steps before you get out your credit card. After all, whatever product you decide on you will be putting in some time and energy into making it work for you, so choose carefully.

Here are some items to put on your checklist to make sure the marketing product you choose is one that will take you to the next level:

1. Type of Product – Is the product a piece of software or is it an information product that will give you the steps to success?   A piece of software may be cumbersome or come with a monthly charge so check all of the details before purchasing. With an information product make sure it is specific enough to meet your goals. Will it dig deep in the particular area that you are trying to improve or is it too generic?
2. Guarantee or Refund Policy – Many products these days will offer a guarantee if you don’t find it as useful as you anticipated. Check to see how long you have to review a product before you no longer have the opportunity to get your money back. Many products these days even allow you to speak to the person who developed it for more help. Take advantage of that type of feature as many people purchase a product and never take the opportunity to schedule the bonus coaching session. This can help you to get the maximum amount of help from any product you purchase.
3. How will you learn? – Discover how you will learn more about the aspect of real estate marketing that you are trying to improve. Does the product offer video tutorials, audio lessons, and written material? Or maybe just one style of learning? When you know how you best learn new material you can choose the product that gives you the best opportunity to succeed.

Before choosing any real estate marketing product make sure to set a goal of how you would like to improve. Your goal should be measurable in terms of increase in commissions, traffic, conversions, etc and that will help you to choose the best possible product.

There are many different forms of training available online these days. With such a variety of programs online, it is essential to choose a program that will help you to best meet your goals. After all, we have all purchased programs in the hopes that they would be the “quick fix” only to have them sitting on our shelves collecting dust. We only run across those programs when we have to clean our desks or move and by that time we just throw them away.

Online real estate training can take many forms. There are programs where you can take a course completely online via video and audio and simply sit in front of your computer for a few hours to learn a new skill. There are other programs that you purchase where you can make a purchase and have the opportunity to download information and then get additional information in the mail to compliment your learning. As we all learn a bit differently there isn’t one that is the best fit for everyone so take time to decide on what will work best for you.

Here are three items to consider when you are choosing which type of online real estate training will work for you.

1. What skill are you looking to improve? – With so many training programs out there take some time to decide on the particular skill that you want to succeed at. Real Estate has so many skills that are useful there are literally training programs on almost every aspect. Everything from online marketing, listing presentations, and even buyer script courses are available online. Decide which skill can provide you with the biggest impact and then research training that can help you get that skill improved the fastest.
2. Would you like instruction? – Instruction can come in many formats. Some courses offer group meetings online line in webinar format and others offer 1 on 1 consultation time. Take some time to consider which format is best for you. The programs that offer 1 on 1 help can be more expensive (but not always) so if you want instruction look for training that gives you the opportunity to speak to an expert. This can save you hours and hours of frustration.
3. Find a Free Course to Start – There are some great free online real estate training courses out there as well, so start with one of those if your budget is tight. The courses are usually shorter than the paid version, but this can give you an idea if it is a subject that you would like to dig deeper into before you spend any money. Some of the biggest experts online offer a multitude of free courses so take time to check out a few of them.

The nice part about online real estate training is that it gives you some different options on how you can learn. You can quickly discover new techniques and methods in a matter of hours, not days, and then apply them to your business. The real trick is to find a course or instructor that you really enjoy so you can continue to learn from them and improve your skills!

When someone says to you “What is your marketing message?” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Think about that for just a minute before continuing about what you tell people. I am not talking about the people who already know you or who are referred to you. I am talking about the people who don’t know you at all. Your marketing message needs to tell them in 30 seconds or less why they should use you and no one else. Your marketing message needs to relate to them immediately or you will be like everyone else. In fact if a marketing message is powerful enough it needs to be a little scary and make you feel a little uneasy, that’s how you know it is going to work.

The most common marketing messages that real estate professionals use are the following:

* I am honest and will work hard for you
* I have been in the business 15 years
* I am part of the double gold award group
* Serving you since 1982
* Everything I touch turns to sold
* I am a tough negotiator

What do all of these marketing messages have in common? Just about anyone can say them and they don’t tell your next potential customer anything about you or more importantly what you can do for them. There isn’t a buyer or seller in the world who isn’t looking for an honest real estate agent. No one wants a dishonest person to help them so putting that as your marketing message won’t help you generate any new business and the people who like you already know you are honest.

Developing a marketing message can be one of the best things that you can ever do. Your marketing message needs to have the following:

* It can be said in 30 seconds or less
* It needs to demonstrate what your services are and what your specialize in
* It has to be related to your prospect and how using you will help them
* It cannot make you look like everyone else
* It needs to be related to a buyer or a seller but not both as they are looking for two different results

This may sound like quite a bit to accomplish in a marketing message but it most certainly can be done. Marketing messages that scare your competition or have them think that you are a little out there always work well.

A marketing message that I ran on postcards for years, and still do, was the following:

I will sell your condo in 29 days or I will sell it for FREE…Guaranteed

This marketing message may sound over the top and may sound a little crazy but it worked and generated calls from highly motivated sellers who had to sell their properties and had to do it quickly.

When you are selecting your marketing message remember to be bold and be willing to be different from everyone else.

Are you getting leads but not getting appointments? It can be one of the most frustrating problems in real estate where your marketing efforts are paying off and you are getting leads but you aren’t getting more appointments and you aren’t getting more sales.

By nature in real estate we want to be helpful. The problem is that being helpful to people who have no intention of using us can take away time from people who can’t wait to use us and want us to be successful as well.

Years ago I perfected the method that I am about to share with you that will get you more appointments. I will warn you though that it takes practice to get it right but once you do you will find all your leads are great and your appointments will increase by 100% or more.

Book More Appointments Quickly

In order to book more appointments you have to follow what I call the “No Answer Method” and what it boils down to is this:   “Never Answer Any Questions Only Ask Questions”   This may be the point in the article that you would like to leave but I challenge you to stay with me on see how this can literally change your real estate career forever and how this can be the greatest real estate script that you have ever learned.

Asking Questions Let’s You Find Out Who is Serious and Who Isn’t

Have you ever had a buyer or a seller that you just got tired of and they just kept wasting your time asking questions but they never took action? When a buyer or seller asks questions they may or may not ever need your help. The best way to find out who needs help today, tomorrow, or in the future is to ask them questions. When you go to the doctor he asks you questions, lots of them, before you get to ask yours. With every single lead, even calls from your own listing, try only asking questions.

If they ask you, “what is the price?” tell them you have to look it up and then begin asking them questions. When you do this you immediately take control of the conversation and you can literally find out anything you would like about the prospect. Those who don’t answer your questions aren’t going to be great customers for you.

I always get asked “Isn’t it rude not to answer their question?” My direct answer is NO. Your time is valuable and I need you to believe that. Before you answer a single question of theirs make sure that you ask at least 3-4 questions and you have already asked them to come in to your office to meet with you. I have one of my clients who books appointments in 3 minutes or less and he never answers a single question and his clients love him big time.

So before you answer a series of questions from someone you don’t know make sure that you find out who they are and ask them to come into your office.

No one can deny that we live in a fast paced, many times impersonal world. Texting, chatting, and social network sites have taken over as the norm for communication and socialization and even expected. Many would say that we have turned away from the heart of society and that we now live in a rational world. However, this is not true. What drives us is still emotions. Emotions drive our behavior; the world is driven by emotions more than ever.

For proof, look at our entertainment business. They are forever trying to keep up with consumers expectations in the thirst for extreme entertainment and the thrill of an emotional rollercoaster ride. It’s not an easy task these days and have lifted the bar to high levels. This is easily noted in face paced, action movies that demand your attention just to keep up. They incorporate unbelievable action scenes (yet believable), amazing cinematography, good acting, love scenes, scary scenes, and comic relief. Even the best love stories, though slower pace than action, draw upon all your senses to arouse your interest. No doubt, consumers love the play on emotions.

Drawing on your customers emotion is vital to a successful marketing campaign. If this important attribute is lacking, your money and time is wasted. Not good! In this economy every dollar spent needs a huge return. Consumers needs and wants may start with a rational thought, but if you want attention in the market, it’s emotion that sells. You must capture the mind and heart and then find strategies that make buying decisions emotionally driven by removing the rational questions that may turn customers away.

The profit of color and imaging.
How important is color? Consider these powerful facts from various marketing studies:
· Color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.
· Color improves readership as much as 40 percent.
· Color accelerates learning from 55 to 78 percent.
· Color increases comprehension by 73 percent.
· Color ads are read up to 42 percent more than similar ads in black and white.
· Color can be up to 85 percent of the reason people decide to buy.

It’s very important to know which emotions will trigger your target audience to buy your product or service. To accomplish this goal takes a combination of attributes. Images and colors are the quickest way to draw a consumer in. In our quick paced society, you have three seconds max to make people pause and notice you. Seldom is that accomplished with words only. Another study found these interesting facts:

92% Believe color presents an image of impressive quality

90% Feel color can assist in attracting new customers

90% Believe customers remember presentations and documents better when color is used

83% Believe color makes them appear more successful

81% Think color gives them a competitive edge

76% Believe that the use of color makes their business appear larger to clients
Whether a person knows it or not, a certain color will trigger a certain response. If you want their response to reach out to you, know your colors and their related response.

Lastly, you need emotionally responsive words. They are important, but should never stand alone. There are words that generate an emotional response. Applying emotionally responsive words to your marketing products will increase your sales, but should never be taken out of content. Keep in mind industry specific information that applies to your products/services, and make sure your offerings fall in line with your industry. Failure to do that will destroy your credibility and reduce the trust you are trying to build.

Your marketing efforts are the first or last that a consumer knows of you. Make it good and make it memorable. Here’s to your success.

When it comes to successfully selling real estate, it is imperative that you bestow an image of experience, trust and professionalism to your potential clients. To acquire these things from your clientele, the best thing you can do is give them everything they want with regards to details and information, when they want it. While this can be difficult to do entirely on your own (especially with a large client base), you will learn how to provide your clients with the personal attention they want without being there.

In today’s real estate market, people are not just interested in reading text or looking at photos; they want the complete picture of the house. From opening the cabinet doors to turning on the various water features, potential buyers want a more complete experience while they shop for real estate. Unfortunately, walking potential buyers through the same house multiple times not only impacts your time, but it also impacts the money you spend on gas to travel to and from the property.

To solve this problem, real estate professionals are turning to video tours. By creating a video tour of the property, not only can they show potential buyers all of the features they are interested in from a hands-on perspective, but it also allows buyers to gather the information they want on the property at any moment without utilizing your time. It’s a win-win situation.

Establishing this win-win situation has had positive effects on the end results of selling properties. Not only have real estate professionals been able to sell properties above asking price, but some have even said that their video tours were the direct result of a property being sold in the first place. With reasons like these, it’s no wonder why more real estate professionals are now using video tours in their overall marketing plan.

Creating video tours in conjunction with posting them on authority real estate video sites not only allows you to give potential buyers what they want, but it also lets you maximize your marketing efforts by focusing on highly targeted prospects. It also gives you more control on the marketing message you want to distribute to potential buyers. Unlike text and photos where people usually skim and skip around, potential buyers will follow your marketing message from start to finish if it is in video format since they won’t know what they might miss.

For the time and effort it may take to start making video tours, chances are it will pay off much better for you in the long run. Whether it’s in the form of time, money, or acquiring new leads, giving potential buyers video tours helps establish your credibility and reputation.

There are many acts offensive to English grammar, but there are several that seem particularly prevalent in real estate listings and on pages. The following is by no means the definitive list of the most common sins, but it does enumerate those which I have most often seen in my online travels.

Random Plurals:

Most English possessives require the apostrophe: “The agent’s listing is terrible.” “The house’s sagging roof can hopefully be overlooked with some extra adjectives in the listing.” At no time does a plural require an apostrophe. “The houses are empty.” “The agents are restless.” Every time you misuse an apostrophe, Fate kills a baby ferret.

It’s/Its:

The rule about possessives in English does not hold for “it”.
“Its” is the possessive: “The house I’m trying to sell has a dead body in its basement.”
“It’s” is a contraction for “it is”: This house? It’s pretty nice, but I much prefer the haunted mansion over the way.”

They’re/Their/There:

“They’re” is a contraction for “they are”. “They’re a fine bunch of agents, aren’t they?”
“Their” is the possessive case of multiple nouns: “Their house will never sell for that amount.”
“There” refers to a location. “I would have to sell my Star Wars collection to afford the house over there.”

And all together now: “They’re looking at that house over there with their agent.”

You’re/Your:

“Your” refers that which belongs to someone: “Your listing”, “Your horrible grammar”.
“You’re” is a contraction of “you are”: “You’re showing how many houses today?”

Avoid dangling modifiers: “Covered in vermin-infested rats, home buyers stayed away from the condemned property.” Of course, the home buyers could be covered with vermin-infested rats, but it’s not as likely as rats overrunning a house destined for the wrecking ball.

Don’t Capitalize Everything! Capitals Don’t Make Your Listing Look More Exciting! The Same Goes For Exclamation Marks!!!!! They Aren’t The Magic Lead Magnets Or The Client Quicker-Picker-Upper!!!!! They Make Your Listing Look Like A Cheap Money Grab!

The same goes for no capitals. It becomes hard to tell where one sentence ends and another begins, especially if your usage of punctuation becomes nonexistent or sloppy punctuation that is sloppy or absent makes listings and pages hard to read in the extreme because the eye has a hard time following sentences without clear starting and stopping points. At this point let me also mention the advisability of paragraphs paragraphs are important because they break up the text into easily readable sections which allows the viewer to assimilate and digest information much faster. Without these important aspects of grammar your listing or property web page will not gather as many views and interest as it could.

A healthy respect for grammar can greatly improve the appearance and usability of your listings and web pages. If your strengths do not lie with Merriam-Webster, consider a good spell check and grammar check system. However, do not rely on this to the exclusion of all else. You should read things through before posting them. Or, get someone whose strengths do lie with the English lexicon.

Being aware and concerned about how your words conduct themselves definitely makes a difference. Proper grammar is something that subtly tells your prospective clients that you are professional and pay attention to detail. It makes your pages look good and you look good.