Category Archives: Lead Acquisition

I was impressed and inspired by watching this video of Ben Kinney speak about lead generation and creating sales. Paraphrasing Ben, he says that if you aren’t successful as a real estate agent .. You – Aren’t Saying the Right Things … or You Aren’t Saying Them Enough … or You Don’t Have Enough People to Say Them To I was really struck by the simplicity of this idea and agree that if you are talking about lead generation or creating sales from buyers, it … Read More »

In many markets the online classified site Craigslist.org gets insane amounts of traffic. Many real estate agents have attempted to take advantage of this by repeatedly posting ineffective ads and conclude it’s not a reliable source of website traffic or lead generation for them. Heck, I was even one of these agents for most of 2010. You see I was posting ads nearly every day but the only responses I ever got were spam. How can that be? I was using professional looking HTML templates, … Read More »

MY WIFE WILL VIOLENTLY PROTEST, but is building and marketing a successful site not unlike half of the pain and time of a full term pregnancy?  It starts with euphoria (not always well thought out), it starts growing on you, it becomes a reality, you eagerly wait for any spark of life, you look at it every morning and evening, then… there it is…*gasps*..a very young offspring that needs further care, diaper-changing and baby talk. (I had client share her life story just before signing … Read More »

I answered a question on Quora tonight, and thought this audience would appreciate my take on the situation. The question is from someone I don’t know and references a Groupon deal that was run by a Chicago brokerage. You can see the original article here.  (Personal note: I used to hold an Illinois broker’s license and I know Dream Town very well.  They are an innovative company and were tough to recruit against when I was living in Chicago.) The question on Quora: Will Groupon … Read More »

Effective use of QR codes in your marketplace will make you look like a tech-savvy, industry-leading rock star.  Ineffective use, will make you look like a fool. You only need to understand one principal to direct your QR strategy.  Your end-user, or lead, is using a mobile device.  It is paramount the content you deliver, be mobile format friendly.  Relevancy is a nice bonus. For many agents, this means a single property website solution offered by an online vendor.  A simple, mobile-friendly landing page with … Read More »

I’m starting to hear more and more people in the real estate industry talk and ask questions about Zopim, a company specializing in integrated live chat software for use on websites. Who’s using it, and is it generating leads for you?

My buddy Darin posted a great reminder regarding the importance of taking care of your home turf (aka your backyard) when it comes to sphere building. Go read it. Sphere building is something I’ve spent a lot, and I mean a lot, of time thinking about. Similar to most real estate agents, sphere building is something I spend a lot of time on. Darin is right; the focus of sphere building should be primarily about maintaining existing relationships and allowing your network to grow organically. … Read More »

Zillow’s closing stock price went ‘down’ to $33.20,  almost $14 to what they wanted. They got a cool $70 million for it, $20 million more than what they were hoping.  Not bad for a real estate related IPO. By now, everyone is chimed in with how excited Wall St. is with internet stocks, specifically those that are leading the ‘social’ bandwagon; starting with Google’s failed $6 billion offer to Groupon, LinkedIn’s warm reception and Facebooks’s massive valuation — are you kidding me, $100 billion?! No, … Read More »

Successful Realtors / Brokers tend to lean towards building an offline cash flow portfolio — rental homes, residential flipping or even dabble in commercial real estate. Wild idea: how about allocating two closings worth of cash for an online asset? Real estate investing will always be my first love. I grew up watching my father buying, renovating, leasing and flipping 25-20 homes; I’ve owned a couple of my own the past 5 years. But lately I’ve diversified to online assets. I couldn’t resist the 15-20% … Read More »

My parents are both real estate agents in Lafayette, CA.  Citing my own usage of the Yelp, as well as my typical “why not be on every site you can be?” stance, about a year ago I encouraged them to create a local business profile on the local search site.  They sure are glad they took five minutes to do so, this past week they just closed their first transaction from a lead that originated at Yelp.  Not a bad ROI considering it’s free. My … Read More »