289 Real Estate Site

Many real estate agents begin and sometimes sadly end their careers without a plan. And as the saying goes, failing to plan is as good as planning to fail.

Sure, some do the usual and expected things to cultivate new business, like mailing letters and post cards to friends and relatives, phoning acquaintances, and giving out business cards to any and everybody they meet.

Heck, some are courageous enough to “cold call” prospects, the most
dreaded of all tasks! And while all of these activities are good things to do, they don’t necessarily translate into new business opportunities – now or later!

And while these may be good strategies you need more. But instead of working harder why not work smarter?

The most successful Realtors and Real Estate Agents have “lead
generating systems.” Some Farm Expired Listings for huge profits.

A good listing system can:

jump start new or average real estate sales career; bring in real estate listings on a regular basis; week after week
generate prospective buyers and sellers; give you marketing exposure in months rather than years; and position you to know the best real estate investment buys

Personally, I love Expired Listing Systems and their laser beam like focus on warm, responsive sellers. Sellers that are typically still Realtor friendly, eager to sell and will do what it takes to get their properties sold.

Owners of expired listings are motivated for many reasons; double mortgages, vacant properties, terrible tenants, recently married and combining households, recently divorced and liquidating real estate assets, and on and on.

Plus, they have gone through a listing cycle and may be anxious to get on with their lives. But, as you know, or will soon learn, all listings aren’t worth having.

As for me, I initially listed every property that I could; vacant land, single family homes, condo’s, triplexes, mobile home parks, mobile homes, homes in top notch condition, fixer uppers, whatever.

And I got to feeling pretty darn good (and just a little smug) as my listing portfolio grew to more listings than I could manage.

So, I first hired a part time clerk/assistant to help me market my listings, then took on a newly licensed salesperson as a partner and split the listing fees 50/50. Pretty soon my listing system was humming and I was averaging 1-2 listings a week.

I then had an army of agents working for me day and night, as almost all of my listings were in the Multiple Listing System. Working to get me paid, even when I was chaperoning field trips, getting a haircut, or just taking a day off!

That’s what a good real estate listing system can do for you!

So, if you don’t have a good listing system you should get one. After all, if real estate listings are the lifeblood of the industry then how successful can you be without them?

Lanard Perry is the author of “Farming Expired Listings – Your Personal Guide To Listing Success.” Visit his website at http://www.farmingexpiredlistings.com for more real estate sales and marketing ideas.

You might say their owners love them, but since this article is
about advertising, that’s not the answer.

The truth is, both houses that need new owners and dogs who
need new homes share the “boring ad syndrome.”

Think about it. Most house ads don’t tell you a thing that
creates desire or excitement to see the house. Dog adoption
ads are the same.

House ad: “3 br, 2 ba, 5 A. family room, deck, 1800 s.f.”

Dog ad: “6 mo. Shep X male.”

Both ads are “supposed” to make readers pick up the phone
and ask for more information. But what is there about those
ads to even provoke curiosity? Not much.

If you’re advertising on the internet or in a flyer you
produce, there’s no excuse for this brevity. You have the
opportunity to paint as many word pictures as there are
features to describe.

Your house ad can begin with something enticing such as
“River rock fireplace dominates the family room…” and then
go on to describe the cathedral ceilings, plush carpeting,
redwood decks, etc. in terms that paint pictures in your
reader’s minds.

Your dog ad can do the same. How about: “Buster loves to
cuddle cats and chase frisbees! Only 6 months old, he already
knows “sit and come” and is housebroken.” Then go on with
his other fine features. You can even pull some heart-strings
by telling how he came to be up for adoption.

But what if you must advertise in the classifieds and thus
have very little space?

Describe the most desirable feature and let potential buyers
call to learn about the vital statistics. Perhaps it’s the
fireplace, or the many windows that bring the outdoors in.
Maybe it’s a huge deck overlooking the river. It could be
a luxurious master suite. Whatever it is, stress it. And
don’t worry if that feature won’t appeal to everyone. You
only need one buyer!

In the case of our fictional dog, describe his best personality
trait. Let people picture themselves enjoying that dog.

Houses and dogs aren’t the only items for sale that suffer
from boring ads. And now that I’ve mentioned it, I’ll bet
you’ll see plenty of them every time you pick up a newspaper.

Make sure the ads YOU write don’t suffer from the same
affliction. Next time you write an ad – for a car, a couch,
a cat, or a kid’s snowsuit – start by painting a mental
picture that makes people want to know more.

Get tips and marketing info weekly. Sign up for my free real estate marketing ezine: Real Estate Help. Just send a blank e-mail to realestatehelp@getresponse.com and as soon as you confirm your subscription you’ll have instant access to my special report on ad writing.

And I’d love to help you succeed. Call me at 208-448-1479 or write:
writer@marte-cliff.com

Yours for success,

Marte Cliff
www.marte-cliff.com

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter with many more tips to share. Visit her at http:\marte-cliff.com and sign up for a free monthly advertising ezine. Marte also offers a no-obligation critique of your present advertising.

The marketing power of sex appeal is not a new concept. It is no coincidence that sex innuendo and the ubiquitous use of the erotic and exotic has been used for several years in commerce and trade, from the so-called satiric pornography of Calvin Klein ads to the muscle men and women hawking Evian water, to the sensual allure used in graphic and advertising design in music, art, film, packaging, and publishing. Artistic flare and technological innovation are unquestionably the basis of the recent partnership of Dolce & Gabbana with Motorola for the marketing of one-thousand gold Motorola RAZR V3i phones, and the marketing itself is based on the tenets and principles of Evolutionary Economics.

Evolutionary Economics theorize that change is based on repetition of technology and routines. If in fact change occurs constantly in the economy, then a mechanism is in act that replicates the Darwinian sequences of evolution that provide selection, generate variation and establish self-replication – a process that is otherwise known as ‘progress’. The theory postulates that markets act as the major selection vehicles. The variety of competing firms is both in their products and practices that are matched against markets. Both products and practices are determined by routines that firms use: standardized patterns of actions implemented constantly. By imitating these routines, firms propagate them and thus establish inheritance of successful practices.

The link between sex appeal and marketing is established by one of the tenets of Evolutionary Economics, in that consumers love novelties and, what’s more, can create novelties. Evolutionary Economics does not view consumers as mere passive recipients of goods and services but, rather, active producers as well. The reason is that at the basis of production and consumption there is human imagination and desire for novelty. Furthermore, when people actually ‘own’ novelties in the form of goods they set about to convince others that the possession of such novelties shows that they have achieved a higher status, and that if others were clever enough to do what they did or to possess the same things that they have, then the others too could achieve high status and enjoy all the good things that come from it, including the best sex (if a male) or the highest economic security (if a female) that they could possibly desire. As Aristotle Onassis once said “The only point in being rich is to have as much sex as you want with as many beautiful women as you want”.

As unorthodox and bizarre as this particular business concept may sound, it has revealed itself to be deadly effective in commerce and trade. Taken as individual goods, high-fashion couture and cellular phone have absolutely nothing in common and, on the other hand, if Motorola itself were to set about selling gold cellular phones the marketing would likely be a catastrophic flop. But by combining Motorola’s technology with Dolce & Gabbana’s fashionable sex appeal and artistic exotic innuendo, the match is perfect. This concept is about to enter finance and real estate as well. Think about it carefully: the home is the place where the two genders meet, it is the perfect status symbol and the purchase and sale of a home is the quintessential novelty for the Seller (the producer) and the Buyer (the consumer). A question, therefore, arises as to how Sellers can improve the odds by enhancing home marketing through sex appeal. The answer lies in making homes as much comfortable (for the men) and reassuring (for the women) as possible.

Architectural styles of new constructions are changing already, with the ever increasing round looks of exteriors reminiscent of feminine sensuality and the use of glazed windows and conspicuous steel beams – male machismo at its best, while on the inside, comfort and reassurance are perhaps best signified by the increasing use of home elevators. The bathroom is certainly one of the most frequently-used rooms in the house, and just a few subtle changes in color can make the difference between a cold, sterile environment and a warm, welcoming one. The same effect of intimacy can be expanded throughout the home by painting a few rooms, hang no-sew window treatments an even by merely adding throw pillows here and there, or new bed linens. The skillful blend of colors, woods and design elements promotes feminine harmony, warmth and balance with char green, sand, white, red, black, dark brown and all colors of nature at the top of the line and, if contemplating a hardwood floor, mahogany is the wood of choice since it enriches the environment rendering a sense of abundance, and slate flooring and polished concrete walls help create a natural masculine feeling, especially if combined and contrasted with the glacial looks of stainless steel appliances.

It does not take much in terms of money invested to create the link with sex appeal, which is the stimulant to emotional engagement. And since real estate selling is, ultimately, based entirely on emotions the Seller that can find the way to use emotional leverage through intimacy by tapping and enhancing the source or sources of home sex appeal will benefit immensely from one of the best marketing tools ever, the efficiency of which has been proven over and over by major marketing establishments throughout the world.

Luigi Frascati

Luigi Frascati is a Real Estate Agent based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics and maintains a weblog entitled the Real Estate Chronicle at http://wwwrealestatechronicle.blogspot.com where you can find the full collection of his articles. Luigi is associated with the Sutton Group, the largest real estate organization in Canada, and is based with Sutton-Centre Realty in Burnaby, BC.

Luigi is very proud to be an EzineArticles Platinum Expert Author. Your rating at the footer of this Article is very much appreciated. Thank you.