Are Location-Based Services in Real Estate All Hype or The Next Big Thing? (Part 2)

Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by Josh Ferris.

Last week we posted Part I of our interview with Ryan Neu, Real Estate Executive at SCVNGR and Garrett Nelson, Director of Media at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Executive in Washington. Read the rest of our interview with them below including how they use these services in their businesses and how they expect [...]

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Are Location-Based Services in Real Estate All Hype or The Next Big Thing? (Part 1)

Posted on 23. Aug, 2010 by Josh Ferris.

Location-based services are what’s hot in social networking right now and for good reason. By using a simple app on your smartphone you can share where you are and what you’re up to with others in your network (updates can be automatically sent to your Facebook and Twitter accounts) which fosters more frequent communication and [...]

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3 Real Estate Website Tips That Will Dramatically Increase Your Leads

Posted on 04. Aug, 2010 by Josh Ferris.

Are you leaving money on the table? Agents and brokers around the world spend days and thousands of dollars per year on their websites and don’t reap the full benefits because they overlook these three real estate website tips: 1. Quick search on your homepage – When you visit both Google and Yahoo! what is [...]

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Enhanced BHGRE iPhone App

Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by Neville Soares.

We’re never content to rest on our reputations at BHGRE, and so I’m excited to tell you that we released an enhanced version of our iPhone App, the Home Selection Assistant. After listening to our users and leveraging the best that the iPhone platform has to offer, we have added four new features to the [...]

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The Week Before Inman

Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by Wendy Forsythe.

This is the third ‘week before’ Inman Connect that the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate team has prepared for.The 2008 week before Inman was also the week before the official launch of the brand, and the week before welcoming our first franchisee to the network. That was a week I will never forget. I don’t [...]

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Practice What You Preach

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

We tell our agents the number one thing they must do to get more business is prospect, prospect, and then prospect some more.

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Tax Credit Extension or Not

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by Wendy Forsythe.

We prospect diligently to find qualified buyers. We work with them tireless to find the perfect home. We negotiate expertly on their behalf to get an accepted offer. But then the real work begins these days. As we try to hold it all together and actually get to a successful closing. NAR estimates that as [...]

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Week in Review: Things We Liked from the Week That Was

Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Sherry Chris.

Even with a whirlwind of news this week – from General McChrystal’s departure to the longest tennis match in the history of Wimbledon – real estate remained a major focus. Sales of new single-family homes were down 32.7 percent to a record low. Sales of previously owned homes, although up 19.2 year over year, fell 2.2 percent. Rounding it out, mortgage applications dropped to their lowest level since 1997. All of these [...]

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Operational and Compensational Implications of Reducing Office Size

Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Robert Albanese.

As is true with everything in business, the issue of reducing office size cannot be viewed in a vacuum. If you decide that reducing office size is an important initiative for your company, first consider all operational attributes that are impacted by changes to the physical plant. Keep in mind that both business and culture [...]

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What’s in Your Toolbox?

Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

Several years ago I was asked to participate in a Habitat for Humanity project. It was a day when only women were to work on a home that was being built for a single mother in Hartford, CT, and I was proud to participate.

I participated with several agents from my office and upon arrival we were met by the local builder who provided each of us with a carpenter’s apron, a hammer, nails, a tape measure and our assignments. Mine was to hammer floor boards. The builder barked out instructions, demonstrated with a few swings of his hammer and left me to my work which I took on with feverish excitement.

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The Love Triangle Between Broker, Agent and Consumer

Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 by Wendy Forsythe.

I often find myself in conversations about the dynamics between real estate agents, brokerage owners/managers and the consumer. Frequently I’m asked to debate whether our industry should be consumer centric, broker centric or agent centric. I love a good debate, but picking sides on this issue is a no win proposition. Picking a side would imply [...]

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