Yesterday was launch day for our new brand. We made our debut at Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco. We had a great press conference to kick things off. Check out the link to the video of the Webcast that featured Sherry Chris, Alex Perriello, Gayle Butler, and our very first broker, Tom Wilkins.
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Posted by Wendy Forsythe
Twas the night before launch–all the systems are in place,
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate–is ready to enter the race.
The listings were all entered–online with great care,
Just waiting for consumers–to go and find them there.
The staff are all nestled–all snug in their beds,
While visions of Inman Connect–dance in their heads.
Posted by Nicolai Kolding
On July 3rd, I proposed three floorplans for a residential sales office. I’ve taken all of the comments that followed into consideration and would like to offer up just one more plan:
There are very few people in our real estate and technology world who are recognized by their first name and “Rudy, the Social Media Guru” from Trulia is one of them. He sent me a message on Facebook a few weeks ago suggesting a visit so he could preview what we were working on at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. We spent a few hours together Tuesday. Here is a video clip of his visit…
Posted by Wendy Forsythe
Whenever I meet with a manager or broker to discuss their growth plans and objectives, I always ask what their talent attraction strategy is. I often get a blank or somewhat confused look. Most brokers and managers are former agents, and one thing we are not known for is our diligent business planning and strategizing. So, it is no surprise that we carry that trait over into our growth plans when we become managers or brokers.
Here are some questions I ask to get them thinking: Read the rest of this entry »
Some of you might know that part of our launch strategy involves Twitter. We have partnered with Joel Burslem and his team to Twitter at Inman Connect. I admit that, at first, I didn’t fully understand how Twitter worked and what the benefits were going to be. I became even more confused when suddenly a bunch of people sent me e-mails to let me know they were “following me” on Twitter. “How did that happen?” I asked myself.
When I went on the site, all of my followers had invited me to follow them, so I clicked on the “yes” button. I was following around 40 people. I knew a bunch of them, but not all. They started sending me messages saying things like “thanks for the follow.” Twitter has its own underground language, just like everything else.
Posted by Wendy Forsythe
I heard once that out of every 10 people we meet, we immediately like 2 of them, immediately dislike 2 of them, and are indifferent to the other 6. The next time you are in a room with 10 people, look around and test out this theory!
After reading a recent article on Inman News reporting the latest Hitwise Top-20 Real Estate websites for June it occurred to me that the chemistry we feel for people we meet is similar to the chemistry we feel with different websites we visit.
Have you noticed lately that weekday traffic is practically nonexistent and cars move at a snail’s pace on the weekend? Vacation season is here and commuters-turned-beachcombers are headed to the sandy shores or mountain-lake resorts for some R&R.
For many of us, planning for our summer vacation began in January. We searched Google and Yahoo for the perfect place to unwind some six months down the road. We had checklists for everything - what to do, where to eat, and what to bring. We even had a contingency plan just in case Mother Nature didn’t cooperate.
I’m curious. Why is it so easy to plan vacations yet so hard to plan our business? Somehow business planning just doesn’t seem to fit anywhere into the entrepreneurial real estate agent’s DNA. Oh yes, we set financial goals and even convert the dollar goal into units. Then we go about our merry listing and selling way, hardly thinking through the process of how we’ll get from point A to point B. Sometimes we hit the number and sometimes not. But would we hit the number more often if we planned? I believe we would.
One thing that I do every day is to make sure I am working on building relationships. Real estate is a people-intensive business and could easily be argued that we are actually the business of fostering‘relationships’, as opposed to managing‘transactions.’ As a result, the most critical activity for real estate sales associates, managers and owners alike, is to strengthen their relationships. This applies to both business and personal contacts and needs to be worked on a daily basis. Whether prospecting for buyers, sellers, hiring a top producer, or zeroing in on an M&A opportunity, effective relationship-building is the key to continued success.
Before going any further, it is important to draw a distinction between good relationship building and what is commonly referred to as ‘networking.’I would submit that networking,as it is now practiced,is a passé concept. The implications surrounding some networking techniques almost defeat the purposes for which they were designed. Terms such as ‘speed networking’ and other similarly impersonal ideas almost offend the senses. Stop and ask yourself… how can anyone build a relationship while moving at warp-speed? I always remind myself that the most important thing one person can give to another is their time and thoughtful attention. This is where quality relationships are born.
Posted by Jason Steele
In searching for a new place to live, my wife and I had a number of factors that were important to us aside from the obvious: price, taxes, lot size and beds/baths. The top three for us are schools, work commute and accessibility of public transportation.
We have children who aren’t of school age yet, but being in an area with a strong school district is important to us. So, like the web geek I am, I turned to Google to search for local school ratings sites and it pointed me to GreatSchools.net. This site is an amazing resource for comprehensive profiles with ratings for more than 120,000 schools nationwide and also includes unbiased parent reviews.
Contributors
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Sherry Chris |
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Nicolai Kolding |
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Wendy Forsythe |
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Scott Schubiger |
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Robert Albanese |
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Jason Steele |
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Kevin Doell |
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Paulette Costa |