Real Estate Investing Advice & Information

Modern real estate agencies are faced with a fairly serious set of problems. The current economic downturn began as the market took a heavy hit, and in order to stay profitable, agencies have been looking to all possible innovations in technology and approach. Internet marketing has been extremely helpful to some agencies, as have real estate call capture systems. These are systems based on toll free numbers that provide potential buyers with information on a home while simultaneously acting as a follow up tool for agents. When call capture systems are combined with online marketing efforts, the result can be improved sales and lead generation for real estate agencies and individual agents.

The specialized nature of real estate call capture systems is a very helpful feature in all marketing, particularly efforts on the Internet. Individual extensions can be assigned to different properties, so that off of a general toll free number, a customer can dial in to get information about a variety of homes. Agents can include these specialized extensions in online property listings, so that potential buyers are able to obtain instant information with a simple phone call.

A potential buyer might request an audio tour of the home, information about the house’s size and price, or any other details that the agent wants to impart. When the call is finished, the call capture system can prompt the potential buyer to hit a certain extension to speak directly to the agent. This can be a good, non-invasive way to generate quality leads for an agent. It can also forward the most serious calls directly to an agent’s mobile phone, establishing a direct connection that’s invaluable in making sales. The agent is easily able to differentiate calls coming from online marketing efforts from other types of calls, enabling the agent to change his approach based on the caller. The call tracking features of real estate call capture allow agents to carefully control their advertising budget, putting more money into online marketing efforts that are effective and cancelling ads that aren’t working. continue reading…

Chances are you are only selling one home, so your marketing strategy must reflect that. Instinctively, most people duplicate real estate agent marketing strategies when they put their own home up for sale; but think about it. Agents have three areas of focus for their marketing; first, selling their own listings, second, they show buyers other listings on the MLS, and third, they market themselves, so they can get more listings or buyers. Their marketing is designed to work these three areas. If you have only one home to sell, your marketing must be designed specifically for that goal.

Internet Marketing

This is the tool that levels the playing field. Agents no longer are the only source for information and marketing exposure! Anyone can put up a website with photos of your home; but the key is traffic. It’s important to use a well established website with high traffic for advertising your home. Because there are literally thousands of online resources, you need to plan your marketing around one central location that will track your visitors and then point all of your other online and offline marketing to that page. Think of it as an online brochure packed full of photos and details about your property. You want to have a website that gives you a short and simple url to direct people to your specific page. Without a website address that goes right to your page, the buyer has to hunt for your ad when they get there. They will likely get distracted by someone else’s home before they find yours.

From there, advertise your “page” everywhere online and offline. Point all your marketing back to your central online website. Once people have seen your photos and read all the details, they will have a very good idea if it is what they are looking for. It pre-screens buyers for you. continue reading…

One of the most frustrating things that real estate professionals have to deal with is the fact that they can’t get their phone to ring with people who want to buy houses from them. In this article I want to show you exactly how you can use these internet marketing strategies to make that happen in your business.

Secret #1:

The first thing you need to do is realize that if your online lead generation system is setup right you can get a lot of people coming to your site & calling you in no time flat.

The problem is that most real estate agents think that people will find them in the search engines, come to their site and immediately call them and want to buy a house from them. This would work if their wasn’t thousands of agents in most cities, but we have to do what works when were in a competitive market. continue reading…

One of the best things about internet marketing is the fact that you can put all your lead generation on total autopilot so you can focus on turning your warm leads into paying clients who will buy homes with you. In this article I want to show you exactly how you can do this.

Secret #1:

You have to realize the power of good internet marketing for your real estate business. The problem with a lot of offline marketing strategies is that they are really expensive and they are not going all the time.

When you do a mail out to an area you will get a big surge in calls and sales, then it will all be over in no time flat. continue reading…