@ HouseValues

New Testimonial

2008-01-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

I have been with House Values for 3 years now. During the first year the commissions I generated from HV leads were about twice what the leads cost me. Ok, but certainly not exciting. In the second year, the commisions were 10 times the cost of the leads. Now we're talking. And this past year, the commissions were 20 times the cost of my leads. WOW! House Values is now my main source of new business, and past clients make up the rest. In addition, I have been able to dramatically reduce both my advertising and mailing costs. In fact, I spend less now to generate business than I used to, and that includes the cost of my HV subscription.

The increase in my HV business demonstrates that the internet consumer is not always motivated to act quickly. Here's a prime example. In September, 2007 I had a call from a prospect who requested a CMA in March of 2005. Because the CMA was for a cottage rather than a principal residence, I was unable to locate or find a phone number for this customer. I just left him on the drip campaign for Long Term Seller followed by the Email farm campaign. When he called me, all he said was that he was ready now. No question of him even interviewing anyone else. I double ended his cottage at $450,000 in 2 days, and double ended a cottage owned by the buyer in two weeks.

This is a great system made easy with drip campaigns to help you keep in touch with past as well as future clients. Your staff in training, customer care, and accounts have been very supportive and helpful. There may not be a magtic bullet for Realtors, but for me, this is as close as it comes.

Best wishes to everyone at House Values for a fantastic 2008.

Renée Good Broker & Accredited Staging Professional

RE/MAX Orillia Realty (1996) Ltd.

A bunny visits HouseValues!

2007-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Earlier this afternoon, the HouseValues office in Kirkland had a visit from a Big Bunny! He was followed by HR staff handing out chocolate eggs and mini-carrots.

Have a great weekend everyone!

HouseValues Success, in their own words!

2007-04-05T13:55:00.001-07:00

WOW, check out these great customer audio testimonials! Just click the "play" button on the Hipcast.com bar below, and make sure your speakers are turned on.

(This is our new on-hold music at HouseValues, but was too good not to share!)

Take Your Business To The Next Level

2007-03-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

We recently completed production on a new customer video that showcases successful HouseValues customers from across the country, all talking about the three most important factors that have contributed to their success.

These agents have three things in common:

They plan. All of them think about their business long-term, and develop a business & marketing plan to help them achieve their long term professional and personal goals.

They systematize. All of these successful agents use systems to put as much of their business on autopilot as possible, freeing them to do what they enjoy most.

They innovate. Every successful agent is constantly learning, often from other successful agents, and innovating how they do business to keep their edge and continue growing.

Check out the video here.

$17,000 In His First Month With HouseValues

2007-03-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Less than a month ago subscriber Lee Gumms signed up with HouseValues. He started with only 6 Listing Leads a month, within the first 3 weeks the first lead he received closed for $440,000 bringing in a commission of $17,000…. WOW!!! Not only that but he has 2 more going to escrow for a possible total commission of $51,000 in his first 2 months. Needless to say Lee is very happy about his decision to join HouseValues.

$eeing $ucce$$

2007-03-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Five years ago Pam Phillips started to build a long term pipeline with her HouseValues system and leads. Since then, she has made more than $120,000 in commissions (averaging between 15-30 transactions a year). She depends on 50% of her business coming from HouseValues and she actively promotes other agents to join HouseValues!

2007-03-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Amy McLeod says she's doing just fine with our service but sales team lead Maureen Francisco says she's doing more than just fine. Amy depends 25% of her business through HouseValues. Last year alone, she received 10 HouseValues listings and some of those leads went onto become buyers. Amy has made more than $60,000 in commission with her HouseValues system and leads!!!

A New Week Yields A New Listing

2007-03-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

Subscriber Terri Cassesse signed up with HouseValues on Jan 17, 2007. She got her 1st listing her first week, 2nd listing the 2nd week, skipped a week and then got the 3rd and 4th the next week. She is also signing 2 more listings this weekend. That’s almost a listing a week! Terry is ecstatic with her HouseValues system and leads in addition to the wonderful HouseValues sales and service teams!

992% ROI

2007-03-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

HouseValues subscriber Helen Klopp closed 5 transactions in 2006, her first year with HouseValues and JustListed for $1,705,400 in gross sales from HouseValues and JustListed leads. One sale (the largest, at $469,900) was from a referral she received from a HouseValues lead! One of these transactions she closed in her first month! She has made $27,800 in gross commissions from HouseValues leads in 2006. All this from an investment of $2,800.00 which translates into a 992% ROI!!!

Needless to say, Helen loves the Market Leader system and is ecstatic with HouseValues!

12 Transactions

2007-03-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Subscriber Shannon Pilon has revealed herself as the HouseValues hidden success of Canada. In only a year and a half Shannon has closed 12 transactions from her HouseValues system and leads. Since January 2007 she has closed 4 deals from our leads. She has only been in Real Estate for a little more than two years but her dedication to working Market Leader and personal follow up has paid off!!

$70,000 In HouseValues Commissions

2007-03-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

HouseValues subscriber Aaron Kerper recently shared his 2006 success with Yakima customer care representative Andrew Watson. In one year Aaron made over $100,000 in commissions and between $70,000 and $80,000 came from HouseValues! Way to go Aaron!

HomePages Success

2007-03-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

Homepages subscriber Linda Burns has been with us for almost a year and the fruits of her labor are beginning to pay off! This winter she closed 2 sales in November, 1 in January and another 1 in February! That’s 4 transactions in her first year! Linda says that patience is the key, and understanding that you just have to stick with it. She says she does not know what she would do without us, and loves the success she is seeing!

Market Leader Evangelist Makes $31,750 In 6 Months

2007-03-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Sean Healy in Fountain Hills, Arizona, has been with HouseValues since September 2006 and has had the following outstanding success with his HouseValues system and leads:

First deal– received Sept 22nd, and closed Feb 23rd – resulted in a $245K sale.

Second deal– received Dec 30th, and closed Feb 8th – resulted in a $250K sale.

And yet another deal on Jan 24th, put contract on house on Feb 11th, and it’s due to close early April. Result - $445K home sale.

= $31,750 – total commission since coming on board in September 2006!!

Sean has several more leads in process, expecting to close many of these as well. He’s extremely happy and speaks very highly of Market Leader – he likes that it makes the agent accountable - it gives him the reminders and supports him in tracking and following up with all his prospects regularly. As well, he says the emails campaigns are absolutely great, along with the ability to customize them.

$25,000 In Commissions This Year

2007-03-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

Things are heating up in Illinois despite the cool weather! HouseValues subscriber Jason Bacza called in to customer care to learn about some new feature in Market Leader yesterday. Jason expressed his gratitude towards HouseValues countless times to customers care representative JanNell Hancock. He is highly impressed by his recent success as he has already made $25,000 this year off his HouseValues leads. Jason LOVES the Market Leader system and the responsiveness of the support network behind it.

“If you work the system, the system works.”

2007-02-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

When subscriber Tracie Pugh called her account executive to refer a friend to HouseValues she shared with him her great success with her HouseValues system and leads. Tracie has closed 4 deals and has 2 more in the works. One of her prospects wants to buy a $3.8 million dollar home! She loves her JustListed leads from Little Rock. “If you work the system, the system works.”

"Thanks to Market Leader .."

2007-02-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

HouseValues subscriber Wayne Ellis in the Silverdale, WA market joined the HouseValues family in August of 2006. Wayne is in the process of closing a $300,000 house from a JustListed lead. Wayne will make $7575 from that closing. He also shared he is working with several buyers. He says he gets a lot of prospects from out of state.

Wayne stated that the best part of being a HouseValues subscriber is the Market Leader system. “Thanks to Market Leader I don’t have to prospect and I can now focus on closing transactions!”

"Market Leader Rocks"

2007-02-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

JustListed subscriber Kevin Curtis says "Market Leader Rocks." He loves the follow up campaigns and the features that are available with our system. He says thanks to Market Leader, he did 24 transactions in 2006 because he put his entire sphere of influence into the system. The success he's seeing through Market Leader has helped his team be #1 in his company. In addition the has four more transactions in the works for 2007!

$120,000 in Commissions and Still Climbing

2007-02-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

HouseValues subscriber Patricia Lewis recently attended one of our seminars where she chimed in to share her success with our service. Last year she had to take a 4 month break and was in and out of the hospital. Her business partner could not keep up the load as they had too much business for just one person. She said with out Market Leader they would not have been able to keep track of all of their leads. They made $65,000 commission off our leads in spite of her health issue and this year to date have made $50,000 and that is just the tip of the iceberg!

7 Transactions In 9 Months

2007-02-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

It might be cold in Alberta, Canada but the cool weather has not stopped HouseValues subscriber Bob Macaulay from reaching his goals with his HouseValues system and leads. Bob has closed over 7 transactions in 9 months from 13 leads/month subscription. He is so busy he told his sales representative that he can’t keep up with all the business he is getting from HouseValues! – Bob made 50% more money last year than the year before because of his HouseValues service. In addition he is looking to add an assistant to help him work his leads so he can spend more time closing deals!

$24,000 In Commissions!

2007-02-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

Margie Williams – Springfield, VA is closing an $800,000 deal next week with a lead we sent her. She said she just worked the system the normal way and he turned out to be a good one.

She will be making around $24,000 in commissions on this deal which will pay her subscription out another 24 months! She really likes the system and leads!

One Month, Two Deals & Eight HouseValues Referrals

2007-02-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

One month old subscriber Connie Johns in Toledo, OH recently contacted her HouseValues sales representative Loren Dunbar to tell Lauren how happy she is. Connie is so excited about HouseValues she has become an ACTIVE PROMOTER sending in over eight referrals in only one month! Below is a fantastic excerpt from a referral email Connie sends to her peers who she feels would make great HouseValues subscribers:

“I started with the HouseValues program in early January this year. Like you I need to invest wisely what little money I have. I believe I made a good choice with House Values. My goal this year was to get my name out and keep "in their faces". HouseValues has some really neat programs within its system to do just that! I actually got a listing from a friend that had forgotten I was in real estate until they got the email drip. I got another listing because I showed them "added value" of advertising their home on an additional web site besides the ones the Danberry offers.

There are multiple forums, email campaigns, additional learning tools, databases available so it is not just about the leads. I'm finding the whole thing quite good.

I have received the leads as they were guaranteed. Please keep in mind that these are LEADS...not prospects....that is our job to turn them into prospects. Well let me tell you it's kept me hopping contacting all these people and I will be hopefully be writing my first offer for a couple that I received from House Values next week. (We’re waiting on pre-approval and as luck would have it, Monday is a banking holiday)

Am I happy with what I've gained? Do I think I've invested wisely? I figure because I work in lower end range that 2 deals will pay for my year’s investment. I'm satisfied and would urge you to sign on board.”

Self Proclaimed HouseValues Promoter

2007-02-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

JustListed subscriber Patty Manns out of Buffalo, NY will “double end” her first lead! Patty started her subscription on 1/24/07 and responded right away to her first lead. The lead was still online and the prospect called her right away at her office. She was a buyer lead however; they needed an agent to sell their home so they listed the home that same day for $144, 900 and now she is showing them homes and about to close on a home as well! Patty is also working with another lead and she has been with us less than a month. In one month’s time, she has become a self-proclaimed promoter and has already referred another agent and they are a subscriber now as well!

Prospects to Profits

2007-02-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Erik Barthel a loyal HouseValues customer since 2002 knows working with lead generating companies is a numbers game as well as consistent follow-up. Erik currently is receiving 50 listing leads a month, and works all of them himself! In 2006, he went on 53 appointments from his HV leads, and listed 22 of them. Out of the 22 listed in 12 months, 11 of them turned into a transaction. He spent roughly $12,000 with the company last year, and in return received $36,000 from his HouseValues leads. That’s a $24,000 profit for 2006!!

Transaction #4 in only 5 months

2007-02-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

Joseph Dorr a HouseValues subscriber out of Ocala, FL has been with HouseValues since September 2006. He just got another listing for $485,000! This specific lead has yielded 2 transactions for Joseph over the past 5 months. In addition he had 2 other transactions in this time frame. That’s 4 transactions on only 5 months! Transactions with this lead and a previous lead have resulted in four transactions with HouseValues leads.

This is only the beginning for Joseph as he has a handful of other potential transactions in his pipeline from HouseValues. So far, he’s made about $19,000 in commissions from his HouseValues subscription!!

First Lead First Tranasction

2007-02-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

“I could not resist sending in this Daily Wow because it takes the cake. Ginger Alberry igned up on 1/3/2007 and completed her account set up on 1/4/2007. She is already is on the way to the 1st transaction from 1st and only prospect. The prospect is ready to spend $350,000 and will purchase ASAP. The credit for her success goes to JUSTLISTED. Hats off to you JUSTLISTED!”

How long does it take for your marketing to work?

2007-02-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

John Jantsch does a great job putting this question in perspective in his Duct Tape Marketing post earlier today.

Here's a quick excerpt:

If you are just starting out or focusing on growth then you should take the time and effort to build the necessary foundation of an ideal target client and core message of difference. Then you can put in motion an increasing series of lead generation tactics to spread that core message.

Done properly, it is likely going to take six months to a year for you to see the kind of long term momentum that you want. The kind of momentum that has people talking about you and commenting that they see you everywhere. Marketing is a living and evolving system.

If your are a business owner the message is think long term, build the system and work the system. If you are a small business coach or consultant the message is set the proper expectations with your clients.

Tip of the Day

2007-02-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

We coach agents to continuously be on the lookout for prospects to import into Market Leader. This great coaching advice paid off for Tonia Mann on a recent flight to Washington D.C. (where she was traveling to film a HouseValues video). Tonia captured two leads just by wearing her real estate name tag on the airplane. Even more powerful, her success story convinced the rest of the agents at the video shoot to do the same.

Heating Up In Honolulu

2007-02-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

Jerry Guire out of Honolulu, HI has been a HouseValues subscriber for about 7 months. Jerry called his sales rep Pat Peters yesterday raving about HouseValues as he has just secured his 1st listing for $750,000. He said that he also has 12 buyers he is communicating with that he is confident will close before the end of the year and another that is flying in to view homes in the $1,000,000 price range.

Using A Methodical Approach

2007-02-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

Judy Germain started with HouseValues at the beginning of this year with subscriptions to JustListed. She already has two sales from her buyer leads, one at $360,000 and one at $249,000 (a total of $609,000 in sales)!

To obtain these transactions, she said she’s been responding quickly, using a methodical approach, adding a lot of personal touch in her interactions with her leads, and making sure she’s available when they need her. She’s a new agent and is going to organize her entire business around Market Leader. She’s very excited!

Way to go Judy!!

$582,000 In Sales After Two Months With JustListed!

2007-02-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Mary Ortiz at Long & Foster in Chesapeake (Norfolk market) signed on with JustListed in December of 2006. Since then she has closed two deals, one for $187,000 and one for $395,000 for a grand total of $582,000 in sales! She also has a number of other prospects from us currently looking for properties.

In addition Mary is already an active HouseValues promoter! She has already sent in one referral in addition to shouting HouseValues from the roof tops in Chesapeake to all her real estate friends!

Short & Sweet

2007-02-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

What a fantastic “short but sweet” WoW from subscribers Brandon Teeples and Brian Trainor out of Fort Collins, CO. HouseValues one and only sales all star Debra Gravelle was catching up with Brandon and Brian last week only to find they have had 3 transactions in their six month anniversary with HouseValues totaling over $1.5 million in sales!

Way to get a fast start with HouseValues!!

Introducing "HouseValues Success Stories"

2007-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

At HouseValues, we are 100% focused on the success of our real estate customers. We know that the “HouseValues story” is really told by the success that individual customers are having with our products. We are changing lives, and those stories communicate the success of our company better than almost anything else.

That’s why we’re launching the HouseValues Success Stories newsletter. This bi-monthly newsletter is focused on communicating to a wide audience of “HouseValues watchers” what we’re about, and how we’re making our customers successful.

Signing up is easy! Just go to http://www.housevaluesnewsletter.com to sign up.

"The Program Flat Out Works"

2007-02-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

Richard Rawdin a HouseValues subscriber from Hampton Bay, New York literally just closed yet another listing in the Hamptons. Once he received this lead he expeditiously contacted the seller with in hours, took the listing and 3 weeks later sold it for $940,000. Richard has been with us for about 1.5 years and has done VERY well with using his Market Leader CRM system in conjunction with his HouseValues leads. “I have made a lot of money with HouseValues and the program just flat out works!”

Getting Started On The Right Foot

2007-02-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Neil Swanson a broker with Coldwell Banker of Poulsbo, WA absolutely loves his JustListed leads, MarketLeader and the fantastic service he receives from HouseValues!

As a broker, Neil believes HouseValues helps his agents get started on the right foot with business opportunities they would not otherwise have. He said HouseValues plays an essential role in his business systems and strategy.

A subscriber since May 2006, Neal has earned commission totaling $10,500 from JustListed. He is working on another $300,000 listing among three other HOT leads.

Double Coverage in Kiplinger's

2007-01-31T09:04:00.000-08:00

The March 2007 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance is on the shelves, and features a story about how home sellers can get an edge in today’s market. It has a sidebar featuring five “top sites” for buyers and sellers, two of which are HomePages.com and HouseValues.com.

Straight from the magazine:

If you want to pare down the list of neighborhoods in which you'd like to settle, HomePages.com can help you with much of the legwork. The site provides statistics on the community's median age and income, population and education, as well as information on local schools and businesses. It also shows houses that have recently sold and provides an aerial view of homes for sale.

HouseValues.com can give you an estimate of what your house is worth - a good starting point if you're looking to put your home on the market. Unlike sites that rely on public records, which are often outdated or simply inaccurate, HouseValues.com forwards your information to a real estate professional who knows your market. An emailed report estimates the value of your home and provides historical sales data for comparable homes in your area.

Never Judge A Book By It's Cover

2007-01-31T08:33:00.000-08:00

Greg Straehl, a Newport, Virginia JustListed subscriber received a lead in November named “Nobody Nobody”. The email address appeared undeliverable but it did have a phone number listed. Greg called the number and reached a Pizza joint. Most agents at this point would have returned the lead but Greg went to the Pizza joint and introduced himself and drop off his personal information.

When Greg dropped by the Pizza joint for the second time “Nobody Nobody” gave Greg his real name and as it turns out he is looking for a home and has been pre approved for a loan with Greg’s lender. In additional another employee at the Pizza joint is going through a divorce and is in need of a new place to live. This one “bogus/bad” lead is going to turn into two transactions!

Active HouseValues Promoter

2007-01-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

Joseph Baylis a HouseValues subscriber out of East Windsor NJ is an ACTIVE REFFERING PROMOTER due to the outstanding service he receives from HouseValues.

“I want to thank you very much for your superior customer service. You are positively one of the most professional people I have ever dealt with in business. If you have a supervisor I could contact, please let me know. HouseValues is extremely fortunate to have you as a representative. Thanks again for all you do. I will continue to recommend house values to everyone I know. Regards, Joe Baylis”

Slow Market (if your not a HouseValues Subscriber)

2007-01-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

Madeline Zook from Sparks, NV just closed 3 HouseValues transactions last month during a time when she says the market was unbelievably slow. She is absolutely thrilled with the program. “Finding HouseValues has been the best thing ever for my real estate career.”

Madeline considers HouseValues the “CORE” of her business which has allowed her to open her own brokerage which is a dream come true. She says the Market Leader software is phenomenal and allows her to get a lot of repeat business from clients who she would otherwise easily lose touch with.

What an outstanding example outlining the importance of filling your pipeline when the throughout the cyclical market trends!

Closed Over 6 Million In Sales

2007-01-23T13:33:00.002-08:00

“The point I am making is that the system does work. I have worked the leads from HouseValues & JustListed but I took the funnel part of my mission to a new level. HouseValues & JustListed is a total package that like farming, bring the harvest in.

I do all this because I also have a fear that the market will slow down one day. I realize that if this happens someone in my market will be making it work, why can't it be me?
I know agents in your market that are making it. They send me referrals all the time. Why is that? Don't give up! Make it fit your business. You have a great support system with everyone that is a HouseValues & JustListed member not just the coaching staff. I've been told that your city and mine have some similarities. As a former Californian you’re more than welcome to give me a call or send me an email to bounce ideas.

I have been with HouseValues & JustListed for two years and closed over 6 million in sales. Hope you'll stay to enjoy the ride.”

-Tony Martinez

4 Deals during Typically Slower Time of Year

2007-01-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

In a recent conversation with real estate agent Mark Jiorle out of Metuchen, NJ, he shared with us what a great month in business December was for him. He attributes four closed transactions total as a result of his relationship with HouseValues sellers and JustListed buyers.

For some, business may be slow during this time of year, but this has definitely not been the case for Mark!

Once Skeptical About Buying Leads, Now a True Believer

2007-01-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

An inspiring turnaround story here from 30 year real estate agent Aleta Galusha out of Holmdel, NJ about how the HouseValues system has taken her business to new levels. She shares how HouseValues' employees Joyce Juntunen and Bruce Downs, to name a few, have made it possible to be as successful as she is today.

“I joined HouseValues.com approximately 3 1/2 years ago with a bit of skepticism as I had been a Realtor ® for 30 years and thought 'buying' leads was not really necessary, but Joyce Juntunen quoted all of the NAR statistics (which were correct AND known to me) and convinced me to try it for a year.

I was rather unimpressed during that first year or two but attended HouseValues Seminars whenever you came to the NJ area. Bruce Downs gave most of those seminars and I left with at least one new idea each time.

When I implemented some of those ideas like hand delivery of the Pre-Listing Packets with the CMA in the packet, it started heating up. I got my first HV listing a year and a half ago. Then another a few months ago. Then I invested in a new subscription since my first subscription was covered back to day one and forward into the next year. Then I got an email from a prospect that I first connected with 1/4/2004! I am listing her home on 1/27/2007! Talk about drip campaigns paying off! At one of the more recent seminars that I attended, Bruce told us to automatically update CMAs which I did. She thanked me for keeping in touch with her and said it was time for her to make her move. Could it have been that updated CMA?

One thing I failed to mention is that through my first HouseValues.com listing, I was introduced to the parents of that first seller. I did a presentation to them on the marketing of their incredible mansion in one of our most prestigious areas. I didn't secure the listing the first time around, but they called me in early October to list their home in December. Details on this home are to follow on a future report.

The Webinars, Mastermind calls and seminars have all contributed to my having become a believer. I'm glad I listened to Joyce Juntunen and gave this system a chance. After all, her real estate experience is vast for such a young woman... why, she began as a 4 year old attending office sales meetings and weekly caravans. She's my first daughter.”

Sincerely yours,

Aleta Galusha
CRS, Broker-Salesperson, E-Pro, Certified E-Marketing Specialist, Member of the Council of Residential Specialists, NJAR Circle of Excellence

HouseValues Relative The Next American Idol?

2007-01-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

American Idol kicked off its sixth series with an estimated 37.3 million viewers Tuesday night.

Some of you may have watched as they auditioned talented singers out of Seattle, WA. Jordan Sparks, daughter of successful HouseValues subscriber Jodi Sparks was one of the few promising singers who made it through the rigorous tryouts.

Congratulations Jordan! The HouseValues family wishes you the best and we will be cheering you on your upcoming American Idol journey!

Brand New Agent, Good Head Start

2007-01-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

Starting out as a brand new real estate agent, Amy Strong out of Flower Mound, TX was looking for a way to build relationships with prospective home buyers early on and build her pipeline. She joined JustListed three months ago and is already double ending a deal for a JustListed prospect that will be worth half a million dollars. She is also working with two other prospects that she expects to close by the end of March.

Amy follows up quickly on all leads and credits much of her success to the advice her JustListed coach gives her on how to effectively work Internet buyer leads.

Building Business from the Start Gets Results

2007-01-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of months, Carol Copelin out of Springfield, IL has closed 8-9 deals with the majority of her business coming from HouseValues. She just closed a $352,000 home and a $130,000 condo from HouseValues leads.

Carol attributes her success to being diligent about following up with all leads. She always drops off packets and if no one is home, she will leave it and then call to make sure they received the information. She spends about two hours a day making follow-up calls to everyone, even if the prospect is not looking to sell right away. This approach allows her to establish a relationship with the prospect early on in the home selling process.

2 Double-Ended Deals from 1 Lead in 5 Months

2007-01-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Carlos Gautier out of the Washington D.C. area started working with JustListed buyer leads last August and by the end of the year had already closed five transactions. Four of these deals resulted from one JustListed lead. He double-ended the transaction and consequently the buyer referred him to a relative in which he will see another double transaction.

He has a great pipeline of leads in which he manages and nurtures in Market Leader, which allows him to follow up and maintain contact with his contacts on a regular basis.

He credits much of his success to his JustListed coach who gives him advice on how to most effectively work with the Internet buyers leads he receives.

Internet leads are like microwave popcorn and Market Leader is the microwave

2007-01-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

"If you were to open this bag and look at the kernels, can you tell me which ones are going to pop and which ones are the duds or old maids? No, just like internet leads, you can not tell which ones will pop into a transaction and which ones will not. It is important to treat all leads the same.

Once you turn on your microwave do your kernels pop right away? No, the microwave warms them up then slowly one pops, then slowly another one, then more start popping. Not all of the kernels pop but you enjoy the ones that do.

The same applies with internet leads; they do not pop into transactions right away. Market Leader warms them up and after a while one turns into a transaction then another and then another etc.

Enjoy the ones that POP!"

-Brenda Hakimi
HousesValues Agent Coach

Personalized Service Yields Results

2007-01-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

“I love the drip e-mail, but really how many of us are bombarded with spam e-mail. I know I am. I follow up each and every lead from JustListed or HouseValues with a hard copy of their CMA, a card and a pen. Now they won’t forget me. They open the mail because they feel something in the envelope and now they have my card and my information on a pen. It costs 54 cents to mail but so far it’s worked. I currently only have 5 listings. Each one was from a HouseValues lead. Tweak the system if it isn’t working.

Good luck out there. Hope this helps. Have a great day.”

Lucky Lead

2007-01-12T09:40:00.000-08:00

Ginger Alberry out Moreno Valley, CA signed up to receive JustListed buyer leads at the beginning of the month with the mindset that Internet leads take time to transact. Much to her surprise, the very first lead that came to her through her JustListed pipeline is serious about purchasing a home right away.

She is actively showing homes to the prospect in the $350,000 price range and expects a transaction to happen very soon.

Smile & Say Cheese!

2007-01-10T08:51:00.000-08:00

HouseValues employees take a moment to smile for the
camera in celebration of the Yakima office's 1st year
anniversary.

Yakima HouseValues Office Celebrates 1st Year Anniversary

2007-01-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the HouseValues Yakima office opening. Congratulations are in order to the following group of talented individuals for all their hard work and dedication to our customers:

Liberty Andis
Sharon Baxter
Lorin Clark
Heather Henretig
Justin Huston
Tammy Ryan
Starla Scholl
Derek Townsend
Jennifer Townsend

In honor of this exciting day, two HouseValues employees took a moment to reflect on their first year:

“Thank you all for making today so special and the past year so enjoyable,” said HouseValues employee Elizabeth Devlin.

Fellow co-worker, Justin Huston added, “It’s symbolic how we all started in the training room one year ago and we meet today in the same place coming full circle. Good times.”

MasterMind Call Tips Lead To Transactions

2007-01-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

“We have been with HouseValues for less than a year and have been using many of the tips we received on MasterMind calls.

We only use HouseValues and have closed 2 houses and are working with several other prospects. We have a follow up system in place that makes it very beneficial for us. Some people aren't ready to do anything yet and that's fine. We will need listings a few months from now and feel had it not been for HouseValues we wouldn't have had the opportunity to work with them.

There has been no lack of leads and it's our responsibility to convince them we are the agents they need!

Pamela Rea”

11 Transactions From HouseValues

2007-01-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

“I have been with the system for 2 years.

In that time, I have had 5 HouseValues transactions and 6 from JustListed.

I am currently working with 3 new JustListed clients who are also listing their homes with me.

The system does work.

Cassandra Smith”

900% ROI From JustListed

2007-01-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

“I have been with JustListed since mid 2004.

- 2004 broke even
- 2005 $18,000 in commissions. (300+% return)
- 2006 $54,000 in commissions. (900+% return)

I am sure there are things I could have done better. I have gotten a lot of tips from reading the forum.

Steve Davis”

The Carnival comes to HouseValues

2007-01-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

After a two-week break, the Carnival of Real Estate is back! And although many of us enjoyed time with family and friends over the holiday break, the blogging continued.

The Carnival received dozens of submissions over the past two weeks, and here are some of the best:

Posts summarizing 2006, and predicting 2007, took center-stage. Joshua Dorkin discusses The 14 Coolest Real Estate Stories of 2006. Michael Simonsen from Altos Research says that 2006 represented an online real estate renaissance. Zillow's Spencer Rascoff does a great job summarizing some of the biggest stories in 2006 as well.

As for 2007? Renthusiast discusses several predictions for 2007 at Renthusiast. Joshua Dorkin discusses goal-setting for 2007 at Real Estate Investing For Real A BiggerPockets Blog.

Do those 2007 goals already intimidate you? Matt Heinz reminds us that Big Goals BeginWith Baby Steps at the Matt on Marketing blog.

Ola Edvardsson discusses how to achieve real estate marketing success this year. And Michael Price gives fantastic advice on how to be a Famous Agent in 2007.

Are you doing too much blogging, and not enough selling? Jim Cronin discusses why your broker might hate your blogging on Real Estate Tomato.

Cliff Jacobson wonders what the role of real estate agents will be in a Web 2.0 world in his WebHomeUSA blog.

Don't miss Pat Kitano's outstanding two part series on Radical Transparency.

Douglas Heddings talks about what it means when sellers remain high-demand clients in a buyer's market at True Gotham.

David Recker discusses why some home seekers still just don't get it.

Broker Bryant riffs about compensation vs. performance on ActiveRain.

Kris Berg does a great job comparing dogs to real estate agents (in a good way) on the fantastic Bloodhound Blog.

Nina at QueerCents says that small homes are about to become cool again.

And Dan Green talks about Why New Home Sales Doesn't Tell The Story posted at The Mortgage Reports Blog.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

Market Leader Success

2007-01-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

“Hello all. February 2007 will be my one year anniversary with HouseValues. At first it was a little bit frustrating, but I now have 2 people under contract for new construction and a quite of few more people who are looking at homes with me. These all came through as leads from HouseValues. This does not include clients that I place in the system on a regular basis. I have heard nothing but good things from clients once they start to receive listings and drip campaigns via email. If anyone has an issue making the monthly investments to HouseValues, I would recommend keeping Market Leader. It has been a great asset managing clients. Have a great and happy New Year.”

Ray Miller"

One Listing = 16 Condo Units!

2007-01-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

Starlena Meeks shares her amazing success story on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“I started with HouseValues JustListed in September 2006. I have received a whole bunch of duds but I also I have received a very handsome listing from JustListed. Naturally it was a surprise to me because I was expecting buyers only. The listing I received was for a 16 unit apartment building that is being converted to a condo conversion. I am selling each unit separately. The seller and my team have developed a fantastic relationship. As a result I will be receiving two more listings of two projects through this seller that is a total of 500 condo units. It's TRUE! Stay patient, and enjoy the support. Keep an above average attitude, smile all the time, positive energy will come right back to you. Say and expect it then enjoy it. Happy New Year God bless you all.”

Skeptic Turned Believer

2007-01-03T09:27:00.000-08:00

Olga Slovak had a great post on the HouseValues MasterMind fourm today about how she has turned from a skeptic to believer:

"I joined JustListed and HouseValues just a little over 3 months ago. Skeptical at first, frustrated with copy-like JustListed e-mail requests…. I got bold with my e-mail to all of "prospective" buyers ("Is there any living body behind this e-mail address?"). Just after my 30 days of membership.

I got only one answer back, and he's my first real sale completing at the end of January 2007.
MY $6500 Canadian is far more than my cost and gave me a light of hope. The system is workable and could work if people would be more serious sending those e-mails, Buyers or Sellers alike but unfortunately it's out of our control.

I'm here to stay and work my leads-after all- referrals or other sources -they all need time and patience."

Fast Response Time Wins Agent Listing

2007-01-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

We are excited to share the early success of one of our customers, Tom Rumble out of Grandville, MI. In less than two months as a HouseValues subscriber, Tom already has his first listing!

The trend continues and agents everywhere are hearing that success begins with fast response time on Internet seller leads. Tom follows up with all leads right away to make sure not to let any business slip away.

Incorporate Best Practices to Win More Business

2007-01-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

When it comes to working with Internet seller leads, Joseph Dorr out of Ocala, FL incorporates the following best practices into his business to be successful:

1) Quick response time on all leads
2) Willingness to work with prospective home sellers as needed
3) Exceptional customer service

We are happy to report that his strategy is paying off, especially with the HouseValues leads he receives. He signed up with HouseValues a little over five months ago and has already converted one lead into two transactions. Even better, he expects getting a third transaction as a result of the original lead.

Way to go Joseph!

New Years Resolution

2007-01-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

Katie Johnson shares her 2007 New Years resolution on with other subscribers on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“The HouseValues system really does work. As part of business planning, I was going through my past sales and looking at the numbers.

For 2006, I didn't work the system, and got ZERO payback. Yet, in 2005, I was much more aggressive, attended the seminars, masterminds, etc., and made $25,000 in commission from 4 leads! I guess I'll be concentrating on HouseValues and JustListed subscriptions for 2007.

Best Wishes to All”

Staying on Top

2006-12-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

“I have been here since June 2006 and haven't had a HouseValues or JustListed sale yet; however, I've put all my clients information in the market leader system and it keeps me on top of email campaigns and follow-ups as well. But not only that, I've built a nice pipeline with over 20 buyers and several have already contacted me. If nothing else, this market leader system keeps me organized and in front of my people. They all tell me that I respond quickly to them. I've even put renters in it and send them buying info as well, because one day, they too will purchase. It is well worth its weight in gold and I love it, even if I didn't get leads as well! There is nothing like organization because I don't always have the time to remember what 5 people need, let alone 20! This system is powerful and I haven't even used everything it has to offer.”

- Michelle Hudson

All in the Numbers

2006-12-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

We want to congratulate Sue Breckinridge out of Lakewood, CO for getting her first listing with HouseValues. She received the seller lead in October, followed up with a CMA, and soon after won the listing!

Sue understands it’s a numbers game and the more she builds her pipeline, the more leads she will see transact. As leads come in, she puts them into Market Leader to manage them along the way. She anticipates more listings to come and for those prospects that are not ready to sell right away -- well the referral business she is getting from them in the meantime is well worth the wait.

1 Lead Turns Into 3 Transactions, 4th Deal in the Works

2006-12-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

Anne Lackey out of Norcross, GA wrote in the other day to let us know about her success. Here’s what she had to say about her experience with HouseValues:

“I have a contract for one of the HouseValues leads. No closing yet – It will be in January. This would be our 4th deal.

I have closed three transactions from one HouseValues lead -- a buyer who was getting divorced and then we ended up finding his ex-wife a home and picked up the listing of their current resident. It was with another broker who apparently didn’t let them know that he/she could find them a house. We sold the listing very quickly and found the two places to live resulting in three closings.”

Thanks for sharing Anne!

Paving the Road to Success

2006-12-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Amy Rogers out of Coon Rapids, MN started her career as a real estate agent in February 2006 and started working with Internet buyer leads right away. She closed on a home in November and is also working with a JustListed prospect who has selected Amy to list her home and help her purchase another.

She puts all of her buyer leads in Market Leader to keep in touch with them and send listing emails on a regular basis. Her contacts comment on how professional her emails look and how they appreciate all of her hard work. The beauty of it is that the emails are automatically sent for her once she enters the name in the system. She is confident she has a few more sales in the works, due to consistent communication back and forth.

Amy is definitely an agent to watch in 2007! Congratulations on an outstanding first year!

Happy Buyer, Happy Agent

2006-12-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

Catherine Miller out of Bloomington, IL signed up with JustListed to receive Internet buyer leads 2.5 months ago and is already having success. Last week she closed her first JustListed deal for $176,500, earning $5,200 in commissions.

In addition to this closing, she is actively working with two additional JustListed buyers in which she is optimistic will transact in the near future.

Now that's the spirit!

"Feeding Your Funnel"

2006-12-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

Orlando, FL HouseValues subscriber Jim Tomlinson shares his success story and advice to other members of the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“I'm not talking about the Wrigley's DoubleMint Gum Twins. I'm talking about maximizing your time making the Mini CMA deliveries.

This just happened today.

As I was out dropping off my mini CMA packets, I passed a day care center very close to one of my HouseValues prospects. So, I circled the block so I could drop by and ask about the neighborhood. I met the actual owner of the day care center who was locking up the place.
Here is what she said: "Wow, you won't believe this. I am so glad you dropped by. My husband and I were just pre-qualified for a home up to $500K and we wanted an agent that wasn't a friend or family member. We couldn't think of any...then you showed up."

I told her what I was doing in the neighborhood, and how I offer personal service. She couldn't grab pen and paper fast enough to give me ALL of her information.

She is now on an email drip campaign and listings search.

Lesson: FEED YOUR FUNNEL!”

2 Transactions, $13,947 in Commissions in 6 Months

2006-12-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

As we always say, the success of our customers is #1. And hearing about it? Well, that’s even better! Just the other day, HouseValues subscriber Jim Roehrenbeck out of Columbus, OH wrote in to let us know about the success he is having with the Internet seller leads he has been working with for the last six months.

Hear his success story in his words:

“I have been blessed. I've closed two HouseValues leads for a total commission of $13,947. I have another lead that I anticipate closing on in 2007. The Internet works.

THANKS.”

Jim Roehrenbeck
THE ROEHRENBECK GROUP

HouseValues Agent By Day - Artist By Night

2006-12-20T14:48:00.000-08:00

HouseValues subscriber John MacArthur a successful real estate agent out of Silver Spring, MD has found the time in his busy life as a Realtor to nurture his artistic vision and talent. Click here to see his amazing work!

6 Transactions 1 Year

2006-12-19T10:32:00.000-08:00

Colorado Springs, CO agent Deanne Grienier shares the fantastic success she has had with her JustListed systems on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“Hi Dean, I was a worried too when I first signed on last Feb and I've closed 6 transactions using the JustListed system. My first closing with JustListed was in May. I worked the system daily.”

Persistence Pays Off

2006-12-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

HouseValues subscriber Dean Lawthers from Kelseyville, CA celebrates his first transaction to the rest of the HosueValues MasterMind fourm community:

"I have been waiting for this day so that I could register a post and let everyone know that this program does work. This is my first post to this forum. I read a lot of the posts and follow a lot of your successes and frustrations but if I don't have anything different to say than what you are posting. As many of you have mentioned you have to slog throught the muck and mire of bad phone numbers, incorrect Email addresses, and people who just really aren't interested in working with you to get to the point where you actually get a good lead that results in a sale.

All I can say is that the system worked for me. I told myself that I would give it one year to see if the money I spent for the year was worth it. I can now say without hesitation that it does!! I just had a closing on Thursday 12-14-06 on a home that I had the buyers on. They came to me through my HouseValues subscription and it took 12 months but my patience paid off.

I have been a subscriber since January 2006 and this is my first sale but the over $6000 dollars that I made from the commission pays me almost double what I paid for my fee for this past year. Consequently I will continue to work the system by sending emails to phony addresses and trying to call incorrect numbers and waiting for responses that will most likely never come. That is the way the system works and if you work the system, the system will work for you."

Debbie Hart, Centoni Real Estate Professionals

2006-12-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

Debbie Hart with Centoni Real Estate Professionals out of Walnut Creek, CA has been a full-time real estate agent for over 30 years.

In this short video interview, she shares how the HouseValues system is helping her maintain a successful business in the East San Francisco Bay area.

Agent Offers Instant Service to Internet Buyers Leads

2006-12-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

Lamar Pittman out of Valdosta, GA has been in real estate for three years. He signed up to receive JustListed buyer leads in June 2006 and has already closed two transactions. In addition to his recent deals, he is actively showing homes to four prospective home buyers.

The secret to his success is responding to all leads immediately. Lamar believes that instant service is what the buyer wants. He maintains his short turnaround time by responding to all leads immediately. He puts all of his leads into his Market Leader contact management system to automatically follow up with them and set them up on email campaigns to receive listings and other home buyer information on a regular basis. This allows him to keep his name in front of his clients and stand apart from the competition.

Cultivating Internet Buyer Leads Takes Time

2006-12-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

Brian Burkart out of Prior Lake, MN has been a real estate agent for 13 years and joined HouseValues in June 2005. He was uncertain about seeing a return on his investment when he first signed up to receive JustListed buyer leads, but decided he would have to commit himself to working the sytem to see any type of results.

Within time he learned that cultivating Internet buyer leads takes time and after a year he started seeing results. He has closed four transactions with JustListed, earning $20,000 in commissions. He has two more deals pending that came to him through his JustListed pipeline.

System Builds Intimate Relationships with Little Effort

2006-12-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Tim Rogers shares on the MasterMind forum how his HouseValues system incubates his prospects for him so he can move in and close the deal when they are ready:

“So I'm sitting in my office this morning minding my own business when the phone rings and it is a HouseValues lead from Virginia that I completed a CMA for about two months ago. I put her on the short term seller email campaign and -Splash- today she calls and wants me to list her home in State College, PA.

The most interesting part of the conversation was her comment that we had been talking for two months about selling her home. I can assure you I never talked with her once. The drip campaign emails did all of the talking but in her mind we had been talking the entire two months. Her tone on the phone was that of someone that she was familiar with and had talked with many times.

How great is this! Now the work begins but it wouldn't have happened without HouseValues.”

Scared of Santa

2006-12-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Nothing says Happy Holidays like a photo of sweet little toddlers screaming at Santa. Just a little bit of Friday Funny Business before we go into the weekend!

"It Is Funny How Things Turn Out"

2006-12-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

The HouseValues MasterMind fourm is a hot spot for subscribers to give their success tips to other agents. JustListed subscriber David Weiner gives useful tips on how to work the system and leads:

"In response to Yolanda about phony emails, let me point out a coincidence that happen to me just yesterday. I received a JustListed request and MarketLeader let the email is a duplicate. After checking my Listbuilder, I found out the email address was different by one numeral!! Turns out I could never originally send out information from way back in April, so automatically I had just archived it and moved on. Now I get this new request with the similar email and I called the number to find out was an agent trying to locate properties in a certain price range!! As polite as I could be, I did point out this really good program is for homeowners/buyers. If she would like to participate with HouseValues or JustListed I would recommend her. So now I have $50 credit coming on a new referral, plus I have someone who is working with me on co-brokering properties.... all I can say.....funny how things happen. While it may seem like a phony email, you can check the phone number of the person, or by the address given. If all else fails simply Archive it but do not delete it....it may come back in the future as something you can write here in the MasterMind forum!!"

HouseValues Customer Care Free Falling

2006-12-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

Ryan Shipley a HouseValues customer care team lead literally will jump out of the sky for our customers. Above is a recent picture of Ryan from 13500 feet:

$840,000 in Sales Volume

2006-12-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

Real estate agent David A. Burgan out of Rotonda West, FL is having great success with Internet buyer leads. To reach online prospective home buyers, he signed up with JustListed last spring.

Within nine months, his sales volume has reached $840,000, earning $18,000 in commissions. His secret to success: Follow up with each lead as quick as possible.

The Pay Off

2006-12-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

Marvin “Butch” Henderson out of Madeira Beach, FL wasn’t entirely sure he made the right decision when he signed up to receive Internet seller leads. After attending a HouseValues seminar he realized the importance of increasing his pipeline and connecting with prospective home sellers online was just the solution for growing his business.

It’s been a year now since he joined HouseValues and his decision to continue working the leads is paying off. Marvin recently secured a $2.6 million dollar listing that will go on the market next spring.

Working the Leads, Writing Up Offers in Wenatchee

2006-12-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

Last month, we highlighted the success Erin and Blaine Davidson out of Wenatchee, WA were having in their first few weeks as real estate agents and with JustListed.

It’s been a little over a month since this dynamic-duo started their new careers and in a note sent in by Erin, it sounds like things are going very well.

In her own words, Erin explains the success she is having with JustListed so far:

“I just wanted to let you know that I am now working on writing up an offer from my SECOND JUSTLISTED LEAD!!!

The first one is a condo for about $150,000 looking to close on the 15th of December.

The second is a beautiful new construction for $410,000 looking to close in January!!!”

For Erin, it’s all about following-up and being consistent with all leads.

Turning a Dream into Reality

2006-11-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

Gary Bredeson out of Woodbury, MN was looking for a way to take control of his income and become the CEO of his own company. He started a part-time career in real estate and joined HouseValues last spring. His business is doing well and he won his first HouseValues listing two weeks ago! Gary prides himself in offering a high level of service and treated the $279,000 listing as though it was a million dollar home. For this reason, he won the listing over several competing agents.

His goal is to become a full-time real estate agent and he believes that HouseValues is helping turn this dream into a reality.

Realtor of the Year

2006-11-28T12:43:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to HouseValues subscriber Norm Krayem for being named Connecticut Realtor of the Year by the National Association of Realtors!!!

Commissions Expected to Double in 2nd Year

2006-11-28T11:28:00.000-08:00

We want to thank our customer Drew Armbruster out of Denver, CO for taking the time to write to us and share the success he is having in real estate and as a HouseValues subscriber:

“I would like to extend my thanks to HouseValues. I signed up almost exactly one year ago and have experienced a very successful year with HouseValues. I have closed 4 deals with HouseValues and I am about to close another. My commissions have been over $20,000 and I am sure next years will double. Hopefully this will give everyone starting with HouseValues some encouragement that the program works well.

So, I would like to give HouseValues a big Thank You from Denver Colorado.”

Sincerely,

Drew Armbruster

$2,000,000 In Sales

2006-11-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

Great words of advice form a pro! Agent Steve Davis shares his success tips with other HouseValues subscribers on the MasterMind forum:

“I think it just takes time, and a lot of follow-up. It also take patience, and a since of humor. I just love getting the reply, after sending listing for months: "You can stop the listings now, we have found a house. Thanks for all your help." I am wondering, What just happened?
Despite those responses and all the no responses, etc. During this calendar year, I have managed to close 10 transactions from JustListed this year, for a total of $2,000,000. Not too bad. I am still looking for ways to improve the percentages, and I appreciate the good suggestions I get off of the forum.”

Keeping Your Holliday Pipeline Full

2006-11-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

Working the HouseValues system and leads generates activity and listings as Jill Ludwig shares on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“I just hit the 6 month mark with HouseValues. I only have HouseValues and I started with 12 leads per month. I just cut down to 6 a month. I did nothing in the beginning, but the last 2 months I have had 5 listing appointments and just landed my 3rd listing tonight. My office is really slow right now. Besides my sphere of influence (which is small) my only quality leads are HouseValues. I have even had a referral from one of the CMA requests on a drip campaign for one of her friends who is looking to buy. I have only been in the business for a year and a half and full time for the last 6 months. All the heavy hitters in my office say "you have to list to last".... So until my marketing budget picks up I think that I will stick with the HouseValues leads. Good luck!”

Excitement in South Carolina

2006-11-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

Olga Obear shares her excitement and energy on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

"Well, well, well, it does work!!! I just called Derek, my sales rep, to tell him about my first listing using the HouseValues system, and I'm placing a call to Bernard my coach as well my. I wanted to share my success with you all. It's so exciting. I just also received my first commission check from a Just Listed sale. The commission paid for my 1st year's subscription. So if you are wondering if it's worth it -- it is. Just keep plugging away and using the system and things will fall into place.”

Way to go Olga!

Organic Mentorship Role

2006-11-27T14:21:00.000-08:00

E. Hampton, CT agent Timothy Kearney is a stellar example of an experienced HouseValues subscriber taking on a mentorship role helping to educate other HouseValues subscribers on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“I don't think I do much different than everyone else. I have learned a great deal from others who have been much more successful than me here on this board and I have attempted to implement their ideas with a sprinkling of my own personality. I am very thankful that I have had such great mentorship to guide me - I have to admit that I did spend a bit of time on my prelisting packet. You have to let people know that you are: A) qualified and B) a real person. I make sure I am very "non-pressured" in my approach. Everyone gets a hard copy CMA. When I drop off a packet with the CMA I am generally dressed down and I leave the car door open and the car running when I approach the door. I just let them know that I was in the neighborhood and that I wanted to make sure they got a hard copy of their online CMA - then I leave unless they invite me in. I have had several people call me several months down the road to have me come over to list their home. It's an approach that has worked for me. Thanks and best of luck…”

"Scoop, Nurture And Wait For That Big Day to Pay"

2006-11-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

Scott Miller from the Colorado Springs market shares his amazing ROI from his JustListed subscription on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

"I've been a JustListed subscriber for a couple years now. I get 10 leads a month and the first year I closed 12 JustListed leads. Not a bad return. Last year wasn't so good but still my system paid for itself a few times over. Just last month I closed two more from my first year of leads. These long term folks actually buy if you just stay in front of them.
I just hired a new assistant and I had her call through my entire database to introduce her self. She probably turned up half a dozen prospects that are ready to start looking in person.
I am starting to ramble a little but my point is simple. Folks go online when they first get that itch and HouseValues has spent a ton of advertising dollars to grab them at that stage. My advice is to scoop them up, nurture them and just wait for that big pay day."

MasterMind Call Notes: "Tools for Success in '07": Hot Tips to a Powerful Online Presence"

2006-11-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

MasterMind Call Notes
“Tools for Success in ‘07”: Hot Tips to a Powerful Online Presence
November 8, 2006

Scott Smith: Good morning and welcome to our International Mastermind call presented by HouseValues. I am your host today — Scott Smith. I am the Vice President of the HouseValues Customer Success Team. Let’s take a moment to make a couple of announcements as we get started.

Today's Mastermind speaker has over 10 years of marketing, public relations, and business development experience. He has a wealth of knowledge in current marketing trends, high-tech tips and simple ways to reach more people in less time. Go where the people are and that’s online, he will tell you. This is a great tip from our speaker and it lays the foundation for his marketing strategies that will place you ahead of your competition.

He is an avid blogger, podcaster and YouTube user — and he finds them all as great resources to create a frenzy of positive and fresh marketing ideas around business. Our speaker today comes from the HouseValues marketing team. He is going to share with us easy and effective online marketing tips that you as a real estate agent can implement immediately to market yourself, increase your market presence and tap into some virtually unused resources proving that you are current with all real estate market trends.

Please join me in welcoming HouseValues’ Senior Director of Marketing, Matt Heinz. Matt, welcome to the call today.

Matt Heinz: Good morning, Scott. How are you?

Scott Smith: Wonderful, great introduction to you. I’d like to dive into this. We talked about the statement you said, which is go where the people are and where they’re online. This may sound like a very basic question, but what do you mean by online?

Matt Heinz: Well it’s interesting. I think maybe five years ago when we started, the meaning of being online was basically just a Web site, and that was largely true. I think if you look around today, being online is no longer just about a Web site and it’s no longer just about going and reading a Web site. There are a number of interactive tools on the Web and based on the Web that consumers are getting access to — but the interactive world also includes things like cell phones, PDAs and any number of interactive two-way devices and communication vehicles that consumers can access and request information. The online world has gotten a lot more complex, but I think, for real estate agents it’s actually created a vast new set of opportunities to get in front of consumers and capture their attention and also earn their business by leveraging some of those great tools out there.

Scott Smith: That's great. What are some of the things you can do beyond having a Web site?

Matt Heinz: Well, I think I’ll talk a little bit about Web sites in general first. When we first started doing Web sites, in the real estate industry it was good enough to just have a Web site, right? Having only something that identified who you were and that gave a little information about you is a thing of the past. Consumers are expecting far more now than a brochure or business card online; they are expecting the real estate professionals or anyone they access online to give them access to information they might not find elsewhere.

Having the right kind of information on your Web site is important, but in today’s world you need more than a Web site. We’ll spend some time talking about a number of other tools that are available to agents at this point. Some of you may have heard terms like blogging, podcasting. You know video on the internet has become a huge, a huge opportunity and something that so many consumers are paying attention to. You may have heard the term YouTube, which is one of the more popular online services for not only publishing but also accessing online video. It’s amazing to me to see not only the volume of people that are paying attention to these different mediums, but also just how easy it is to get up and rolling on some of these tools as well. I will be honest; about a year ago I did not understand blogging. I did not get it. I did not know that it was going to be as big as it is today. I was a skeptic for a long time about podcasting and online video as well, but the sheer volume of consumers paying attention to these mediums, combined with just how easy these different sites have made it to access these mediums have made me a convert. I’ve seen a number of real estate agents start to take advantage of them as well, and I look forward to sharing some of those ideas here on the call today.

Scott Smith: That's perfect. Why don’t we dive right into blogging, if you can give a little background about what blogging is, what is a blog? What does it means to blog? And probably most importantly, how can real estate agents take advantage of them?

Matt Heinz: A blog is just a Web site; it’s a Web site that has information on it that is relevant to particular group of users. The advantage of a blog is that blogs typically come with a site that lets you add content on a regular basis, frequently if you want and is also very, very easy to use. It’s no different — so blogging on your Web site is really no different than going in, writing, and sending an e-mail in Hotmail or Yahoo or even, your corporate email server today. What's great about blogs is that they are updated so frequently and because they tend to be very relevant to a particular type of topic and also because they usually are in smaller nuggets of information. Traditional journalism, traditional reporting, traditional articles on the Web so to speak have been long and researched and there is a lot of work that go into them. The benefit of blogging is it tends to be quick and informal. It tends to more be of a conversational thought than a well thought-out and well researched article.

There is an advantage for the reader, and there is obviously an advantage for the writer, as well. If you have an idea or a nugget of information and maybe it’s only a paragraph worth of information, that's a valuable blog. It's something that you made. Your readers, home buyers and sellers, prospective home buyers or sellers might be interested in that. Putting information up on your blog is just as easy as going onto a blogging service, typing an email, and posting it as your blog. It’s very, very easy to do and the more content that you’re able to get on a Web site associated with you, the more other people are going to be able to find that content, search for it on their search engines, and ultimately seek you out and ask you for their business.

Scott Smith: You talked about it being pretty straightforward and easy to do. How would I set up a blog?

Matt Heinz: There are a number of services where you can set up a blog for free. I’ve been blogging for about a year now, and I haven’t paid a dime to anyone to publish it or to have people read it. The best service I would recommend is blogger.com. We will also post on the Mastermind Forum later today some of the different resources we are talking about on the call today. At www.Blogger.com you can literally set up your own blog. It takes about 5 minutes to tell blogger.com what you want the name of your blog to be and chose a template for your blog. They also have an easy tutorial that you can take to learn how to set up your blog and get best tips. It will walk you through exactly how to start blogging; how to post an entry; and some recommendations on how frequently you might want to post. Really, it’s all up to you — how you would like it set up. It's very, very simple if you go to blogger.com and give it a shot.

I think one of the benefits of some of these tools is that there really isn't a right or a wrong way to do it. There are certainly best practices that we could go on for hours and hours about and there are certainly things that some bloggers do better than others. It’s such a new medium, I think that for the most part we’re all still discovering what works and what doesn’t work. I would encourage you to experiment, set some thing up, give it is a shot, play around with it for a little bit, start adding some content, and see if it's right for you.

What I found with blogging is that for some folks it's natural. For me — I have ideas all the time and things that I don't necessarily want to bug colleagues with. Sometimes it’s just fun to just throw it up on to a blog if for no other reason then I just want to get it out of my head. An example for a Realtor would be if the local MLS publishes data on home sales, and maybe you have a quick perspective on that you would like to share. Now, you don't necessarily need to write a full article about what you think, but if you’ve got a quick perspective on what that news means for your neighborhood and prospects that would be meaningful. Other topics that you might comment on would be if you see interest rates changing, or if you see an interesting trend in what kind of houses people are looking for. There are so many different types of content that you can put up on your blog. Blogs are so easy to publish and so accessible to other people, they can offer the kind of insight, expertise and understanding that prospects are looking for. Consumers are going to have an idea or understanding about you as a Realtor before they even meet you, before they get to know you and spend a lot of time with you; they can start to understand that you are someone who’s credible and is formative enough to represent them when they want to buy or sell a home.

Scott Smith: How would people find my blog if I created one?

Matt Heinz: There are a number of different ways. I’ve been surprised that just how often without doing any marketing on some blogs get a lot of traffic just by having relevant information. Most of the blog traffic that I’ve seen people get comes from consumers going to search engines like Google, Yahoo, or what not to search for topics that are written about in your blog. Your blog will show up in the search results if consumers are searching for things you’ve written about. That creates another, interesting way for you to think about how to write content and how to time some of your content, perhaps coinciding with the news.

If home sales are in the news, writing something on your blog about home sales is going to increase the number of people that find you via search results when they’re researching and looking up news about recent home sales. I think there are a number of other ways that you can market your Web site. We will talk about it later in the call, and we’ll talk about general Web site marketing, but I found that just by having good content on your blog and writing about things that people are interested in; they will find your blog. It’s so fast and easy and free to publish, blogging is a great way to get started, right? The best way to get started is by writing things, get something going, put some good content up there and let some of the traffic literally just start finding you.

Scott Smith: Perfect. So dos and don’ts, if I were getting into a blog as a real estate agent, and being a very busy person, you’ve mentioned this not too time-consuming. What are some good recommendations on things I should focus on and things I should maybe avoid in my blog?

Matt Heinz: I would say first of all, do try to post at least a couple times a week. If you have a blog, especially one that you start marketing more aggressively to your customers or that starts getting a lot of traffic, you don’t want to let it go a couple weeks without having a post. Does it mean you have to post multiple times every day? Some bloggers will tell you to do that. I don’t think that’s realistic for 98% of us. If you get a couple things posted a week, I think that’s fine. One of the don’ts related to that is, don’t over-think what you write about — especially if you write something short. Short blogs, short pieces of information are far more interesting for people to access, they’re far easier for people to read it and feel like they can come back to and read your information on a regular basis.

There is a really fantastic blog that I would love to read everyday. It’s actually management by baseball. It has basically taken management best practices, relating them to the baseball world. Well, every blog post is just pages and pages, it just goes on forever and it’s almost inaccessible. The best blogs out there have very short snippets of information to make them very accessible.

After the call today I will post on the Mastermind Forum what I call my blogrolls. It’s just geek term for saying, “a list of the blogs that I subscribe to and read on a regular basis.” About half of them are general marketing blogs, and the other half of them are real estate-related blogs. I’d encourage you to go take a look at that list. I think it will give you an idea of what other bloggers are doing on their blogs and how they set them up. It might give you some ideas of the kind of style you might want to take in a blog of your own. It will also give you a sense for how short and formal blog posts are and see how some of these bloggers like to cultivate an idea using their blog. They had an idea, sat down and 5 minutes later they were done. They blog because their idea can distribute quickly and easily.

Scott Smith: Great! I look forward to getting that list when you post it later today. Let’s move on to another topic. You mentioned ‘podcast.’ Can you give us a little bit of background? It sounds like a very technical term. What is it?

Matt Heinz: It’s really funny how this industry has developed. Podcasting is basically blogging with your mouth. It’s the same type of concept, the same type of content, but instead of writing it down it’s delivered in audio. As you know, this is another thing that sounds like it might be really complicated but it’s actually really quite simple. There is a company called Hipcast.com. It is a podcast creation and publishing service. I believe they charge you 8 bucks a month to set up and to publish your podcast. They make publishing so simple that you can literally pick up the phone, dial in your account number, and record your podcast right over the phone. Once you are done, it’s published.

It’s so interesting. It’s a different medium for the same type of content. I’ve been just really impressed with the volume of people that are paying attention to some of these podcasts. I think the success in part is because of the power of Apple computer and iTunes. iTunes a few months ago started publishing a podcast directory. One of the advantages of using a company like Hipcast to publish your podcasts is that they actually will syndicate your podcast to iTunes. Just a quick case in point: HouseValues started a podcast a few months ago called the “Daily Motivator.” You can actually check it out at AgentInspiration.com and I will put that up on the Forum as well so you can check it out.

Everyday we just record a quick 3- or 4-minute inspirational message for real estate agents. Sometimes it’s about marketing best practices or a great motivational story. We’ve published it through Hipcast, which puts it up on iTunes. We are averaging around 800 listeners a day, without really having done a lot of marketing, having only published it through Hipcast.com. Again, there are a lot of people out there that are starting to pay attention to and listen to these various mediums and the best part is that the publishing opportunity is very simple and either really inexpensive or free.

Scott Smith: You used an interesting phrase to describe podcasts saying, “It’s like blogging with your mouth or an audio blog,” Are there similar things that I should do? Such as have the same content on both, or should I have a variation of content?

Matt Heinz: I think there will not be an overlap between the people that are looking at a blog and those that are listening to a podcast. I think the opportunity with a podcast is that you have an opportunity to display your personality a little more on a podcast, right? You might have some of the same content, advice, and insight — but for people to be able to hear your voice, your inflection, and that you are a fun and accessible person, might make them realize that you are someone they could get along with and do business with. That goes a really long way. I think that podcasting — especially now that some of these services have made it so easy — is a great way for you to get a little of your personality out to folks before they get a chance to meet you or perhaps even before they speak to you on the phone.

Scott Smith: Perfect. You talked a little bit about promoting a Web site and things you can do to actually market your Web site. What are some easy and inexpensive ways to promote my Web site?

Matt Heinz: Well certainly, I would certainly start with things like blogging. What you can do with a blog eventually is start to link it back to sites that you have listings on, your Web capture tools, and other information. Most blog services, including Blogger.com, give you an opportunity to add Web capture tools right into your blog — which is very exciting! For many of you who either aren’t quite ready to set up a blog, but do have an existing Web sites, most of your marketing channels already exist for your Web site. If you think about all the marketing you already do — you’ve got business cards, you have an Email signature, you have ‘For Sale’ flyers, you have lawn signs, you have a number of different places where you are already marketing yourself. They may or may not have your Web address on it. Make sure that they do, along with a value proposition to entice the consumers to visit your site. For instance, offer a free home evaluation or listings.

Make sure that first and foremost, you are talking advantage of all your existing channels to promote your Web site and think hard about all the other places that you are throughout the week. Ask yourself what you’re doing to promote your Web site. If you are working at the desk of your brokerage, when people walk in — what are you doing? Is there some kind of flyer you can hand out to the folks as they walk in to promote your Web site, to promote the fact that you have listings on your Web site, or the fact that you have access to past homes — and that you have a ton of great information for people to access for free on your Web site? Definitely spend some time on this and think through your day and all the places that you go and how you can use those different channels to market your Web site. I think that’s one of the most underutilized but one of the most important and high potential channels that exist for every real estate agent today, just making better use of all those preexisting marketing channels.

Scott Smith: Thank you for that Matt. Social networking — what does social networking mean?

Matt Heinz: Ah, these goofy terms. Social networking is really all about helping people interact online. You could argue that blogging and podcasting are sort of social networking tools, they are about the author (blogger/podcaster) pushing information out to others connecting with others. One difference between the two is that with blogging, you do have the opportunity for readers to comment back to you. You have a great opportunity to capture some of their interests and insights. In the comments section you’re going to actually go and interact with some of your customers as well. You can reply back to some of their comments in the “comments section.”

When I think of social networking, I think online; I think of things like the Mastermind Forum. I’ve been at HouseValues for a while now, and I sometimes take the Mastermind Forum for granted. As a marketer, I don’t have a resource like the Mastermind Forum in my industry or among peers even in other industries to go and chat like that.

I have a network of people that I will talk to off-line. I can Email folks, et cetera, but to have a forum or a group of people with similar interests and insights sharing ideas with each other in real-time in a really dynamic two-way communication is very rare. I think the Mastermind Forum is a great example of social networking, which is just the opportunity to just connect with each other.

One of the other tools that I think a lot of people certainly use these days, and another good example of social networking in the business world, is a tool called Linked In. Linked In is essentially an online networking service to help business folks access each others network. Basically how it works is, “I’m Matt, I’ve got the people I work with and my friends and so I add them online to my network.” All of those individuals have a network as well. If I am working for new person to hire or if I am looking for someone who many works at a particular company, I can use that online network to access people who may work for or know people that are in my network. It makes me far more efficient in reaching people. All for free, all very easy to setup.

Now I would think this would be a great opportunity for real estate agents as well. You know, definitely not, it’s a fairly narrow tool so it’s not necessarily — it’s definitely not going to replace a Market Leader in any kind of content your process management system you have. But if you are able to advertise yourself as a Realtor and they have a section there where you can go and you can promote, you can put a little resume in there and you can add, you know, the kind of things that you focus on. By setting up an online network on the site like Linked In and building a network of people you’ve worked with and other colleagues, you’re going to get business back from them. You’re going to get people that are asking you questions because they are on Linked In looking for a good Realtor, asking people in their network what kind of Realtor they have. I think it’s a great way to tap into things like the social networking phenomenon to accelerate the volume of referrals that you can get from your sphere of influence, which goes well beyond just your current and past customers.

Scott Smith: It’s a great strategy for doing what I call referral by association.

Matt Heinz: Absolutely.

Scott Smith: So, one other term I’ve heard a lot talked about is syndication — and I know we think about that in the journalistic world. How would that apply to real estate?

Matt Heinz: Well, I think, the syndication essentially means that you have a piece of content and market it through one channel, and eventually it’ll go through a number of different channels to be marketed. For instance, one way to use it is the opportunity to take a real estate listing and instead of having you advertise it on a number of different channels one by one, you basically publish it through one publishing channel and it goes everywhere for you.

I think a good example of this is on the podcast side and what Hipcast does for the podcasters: The fact that I can publish a podcast through their service and they syndicate it out. They syndicate it to iTunes which is a big deal, but they also syndicate it through to a number of other podcast directories that really help get it more traffic and get it more exposure. For customers of our Showcase subscribers on homepages, we actually do listing syndication today, the home listings that you have. When you have those home listings added as featured listings in your ‘Showcase’ package, we already syndicate that out for you onto a few different Web sites including Google and a site called Oodle — which is a highly popular online classified site. We’re definitely looking at ways we can accelerate the volume of people in that publishing network as well. The idea of syndication and the promise is that it allows you to take a piece of content or something that is of value to people, like a home listing or like your podcast, and publish that once and have the publisher help you get broader advertising through a number of different publishers all automatically.

Scott Smith: It’s a perfect way for real estate agents to really use it as a tool to get more listings by being able to let a seller know the number of places I can market the listing.

Malt Heinz: Absolutely.

Scott Smith: Syndication becomes a very powerful tool when used. Okay, one other thing that seems to be very newsworthy as a marketing tip today or marketing practice today is YouTube. Can you talk about what that is?

Matt Heinz: Sure. Most of the times that I hear YouTube in the news is it’s when there is a copy of a Saturday Night Live skit that is getting a lot of traffic or some goofy ad that some teenager in their bedroom recorded. I think YouTube has such a wide audience now and many people are searching for a variety of information. I’ve found it to be a fantastic tool just to publish video content on the Web and have it get to the massive audience. Over the last few months have started to record more HouseValues videos. When we go to seminars, we take along a video camera and try to get a couple of minutes to do a quick interview of one of our agents.

We’ve actually published a number of our videos on YouTube, did some customers interviews and seminar highlights. I’ve been shocked at the kind of traffic these things are getting. Literally hundreds and hundreds of people are coming and searching for some of these videos on their own and finding them. Good example of this is an agent in Chicago (we were there at a seminar in September). We did a quick interview with him. It turned out really well and we put it up on YouTube. He called in earlier this week and said, “Funny story. I haven’t talked to my nephew in years; we lost touch over time and I wasn’t really sure where he was. He called me the other day. He is in Europe and he saw my interview video on YouTube. It had my name, brokerage, and my location so he looked me up and reconnected with me. I was so happy to be able to reconnect with him!” All of this happened because his video was on YouTube. The reach of these videos is just incredible.

Now Scott, I’m going to guess that your next question is, “What are some of the ways that real estate agents can take advantage of YouTube for themselves”? Clearly if you want to go record your own videos, you can do that, and you can put them up on YouTube. This takes some time and effort; if it’s something you are passionate about, by all means, go for it. But if you don’t want to do that, here is a quick tip of something you can do. Take the HouseValues or the Just Listed or the HomePages TV commercial, if you are a subscriber to one of the three, take the one. If you are a subscriber to multiple then take all of them. You can pull them all down from HouseValues University, and post those commercials up on YouTube. When you post something on YouTube, you can write a description of what it is; you can put in tags which are basically search terms that when people search on YouTube with those search terms, your videos will show up because they are tagged that way.

In the comments section, give a description of your business and say “Hey — if you want to know how much your home is worth, give me a call or go to my Web site.” The TV commercial will give them a sense for what the value proposition is and will help you get searched and it’s a great way to use YouTube to drive more traffic and drive more requests back to you. The URL that you use when you post it on YouTube can either be your personal URL or even better yet, it’s whatever Web site you have your Web capture links on so that you can immediately capture all of those consumer requests into the Market Leader for yourself.

Scott Smith: You are one step ahead of me, asking and answering that question Matt. A lot of good stuff here; we went through a lot of various different ideas and talked about how can feel overwhelming as well, and how to avoid that. Given what you’ve gone through, what would you recommend as a good starting point today if I want to take advantage of some of this as an agent?

Matt Heinz: We’ve talked about a lot of different things. There are a lot of different opportunities here; I would recommend everyone take a note of everything that you think you may eventually want to do. Not all of this may be right for everyone, but hopefully there are a lot of ideas here that you think might be right for your business. That said, don’t feel like you have to go and do all of them right away. That’s a quick recipe for being intimidated and not doing anything. Make a note of all of them but pick only one thing you think you might be able to commit to, and at least try it in the next week. Don’t try to just do it this afternoon because it might be intimidating, but just pick something you want to do right away and just experiment with it, play with it. If you get something started, post it on the Mastermind Forum or ask your trusted colleagues and see what they think.

I think experimenting with some of this is the best way to give it a shot. Take a look at the blogs, the good real estate marketing blogs that we will post on the Mastermind Forum later today. I will post a link to our podcast so you can listen to some of those as well. I will also post a link to the different HouseValues videos on YouTube so you can see some of those videos up there. We have posted some of the commercials as well. This way you can get a sense for how we’ve done that. Also, ask questions, continue to ask questions. It’s the best way to learn. The Mastermind Forum is a great resource for that. I am on there on a pretty regular basis now so and when we post these different resource lists and such, if you have a questions feel free to ask me as well. I think the key is picking things that you think you want to try first, something that sounds like you might be more passionate about than others and just give it a shot. Experimenting with some of these things and figuring out how we can fit into your business is really the best way to go.

Scott Smith: Thank you for all this Matt. We really appreciate you taking the time to put all this stuff on the Mastermind Forum. It’s a great way for people to implement the things you’ve talked about, and also to use you as a resource to help guide them. I look forward to actually seeing some of the postings and people pointing us to their blogs and the different videos they post on YouTube, and the various different activities they do. Thank you for taking the time on this today, Matt.

Matt Heinz: Absolutely.

Question and Answer

Question: Great call today Matt and thank you. I went to U2.com and I only got information on the band, so you might want to spell that out for people, it took me a while to figure it out.

Matt Heinz: Sure. YouTube is simply Y-O-U-T-U-B-E.COM and go check it out. You’re going to see all kind the different content up there, it's the pretty wide channel, but if you search for things like real estate, or type HouseValues in the search box you’re going to see a variety of the videos that we’ve posted. I definitely encourage you check it out and see what's up there.

Question: Got it. My question is about the blogs, how important is the name of a blog? Should it reflect in your face your real estate stuff or should be more subtle than that and could I use a blog in a Q&A format just like people who write into newspapers asking questions, could that be the primary format for it?

Matt Heinz: Absolutely. I think that is a really good question. In terms of the name of the blog, you can certainly use your name. Part of your marketing strategy is to promote your name as the brand; I think you can certainly use your name. If you set up a blog on Blogger, your URL is going to be yourname.blogspot.com. That will be the URL they give you. Now it doesn't preclude you from going out and registering a separate URL that you just redirect and point there. For instance, my personal blog is Mattonmarketing.blogspot.com, but I went out and registered MattOnMarketing.com. When people ask you where is your blog, I just tell them, “MattOnMarketing.com” it’s much cleaner. I tried to make it something that it was a little more about the content and a little less about me. When I put up the list of the marketing and real estate blogs, you'll get a sense for how different people handle this. I think people tend to lean more towards with a content side then the personal side, but I would argue in the real estate world it probably makes more sense for you to think about the right role for your brand.

Another opportunity in terms of content is that there is a wealth of content in your Market Leader. Things like your drip campaigns, the past client campaigns, all the content that HouseValues publishes on your behalf that can be your content. We get requests everyday from subscribers asking, "This a great article, can I put it on my Web site"? I’ve even had subscribers call and say “This was a great drip campaign can I submit this to my local newspaper as a short article.” The answer is always yes. We write it for you, if you want to take some of that content and either post it on your blog, you can repurpose it or use it as inspiration for your own blog. It is definitely an opportunity for you.

Scott Smith: Thanks Matt. I hope that addresses your question. By the way, I’d recommend if you could get yourself on U2.com as well that would be a great resource for lot of traffic. So, YouTube.com. Let’s go to the next question.

Question: Yes. How do I harmonize the content of my Web site versus my blog? In other words, I don't want to duplicate the content of both.

Matt Heinz: Okay, that's a good question. I would definitely link from to the other, but I think in this case there can be different content and they can be going after and capturing different users. My sense is that on most good agent Web sites, the content itself isn't updated that frequently. It tends to be more of a resource that features things like home listings, research in your neighborhood. For those of you who have taken advantage of the personal Web site that every HouseValues customer gets as part of their subscription, it's dynamically updated content. You have home listings on the Web site, recently sold homes, you have neighborhood information up there; it's all just done for you.

My sense is that the blog is going to be something that is going to be easier for you to update on a regular basis. If you are traveling, blogs are something that you can update from any Web connection anywhere just like you would access Hotmail. It's going to be an easier opportunity for you to update things. I think that your blog should have the majority of content be different than on your Web site but also tie the two together, whether it's home listings or Web capture forms, the blogger tool allows you to add these links right into your blog. Very simple to do and there are step-by-step instructions on blogger.com to do it. I would recommend not worrying as much about the direct integration yet and just getting a blog up and rolling, integrating some of the content on your primary Web site into the blog and just you know see if you can drive more traffic to your brand from new sources by starting that blog.

Scott Smith: Thank you that was a great question. Going on to the next question.

Question: Are copyrights a problem with blogging?

Matt Heinz: That's a great question. I actually get this one a lot. There is a lot of great content out there that, oftentimes if I’m reading a magazine or if I’m reading something, somewhere else that someone else has published, I get inspired and I want to go off and talk about on a blog somewhere. As long as you site the source and in many cases link off to that article somewhere, you are free to do so. I can’t think of any content or any publisher that isn't allowing that today. As long as you give them credit for the origination of the idea or give them credit for where you read it, and in some cases allow a link to your customers to go off to the article that you read originally that gave you the idea, you are free to reference anything out there.

Now what you can’t do is, just take someone else’s article and put it on your blog and say it was your article. You cannot do that. If you want to take a paragraph or two from an article and repost that on your blog, you can do that as long as you make a very clear, “I read this in this publication written by this person and here is something they said” put the paragraph or two in your blog and then you can go on and sort of give your interpretation or your analysis of it. That is perfectly acceptable.

Scott Smith: Great comments Matt about giving credit and also linking to folks and for content that you get out of Market Leader, if you repurpose any of our e-mail forms or the drip campaigns or anything, you are free to use that, as long as you are a customer of ours you are free to use that on your blog as well. We will go ahead and take the next question.

Question: I wanted to know when you go into a blog or let’s say YouTube and it is going to be advertised in other places, can you get a list of those other places, so that you can present that to a seller when you go to a listing appointment?

Matt Heinz: Great idea. There are in Hipcast.com and on YouTube. I believe they do have a resource page where they say where they do publish it out. The blogs themselves don't publish a list. Once you have blog content, certain search engines will find you. There are some fairly simple traffic monitors you can add to your blog. It’s a little more of an advance thing you have to go into the template of the blog to add it in. It’s a free service that allows you to track not only how much traffic your blog is getting, but you can also look at the referring sources. You can see which Web sites are linking to your blog, including which search engines sent traffic to your blog and what the search term was.

What I will do is for things like, the blogger and YouTube and the podcast, I will do a little homework on my end and post on the Mastermind Forum. Some of the places that I know they syndicate out to so that once you start using those, you can immediately start using those distribution channels in you marketing to your customers.

Scott Smith: Thank you Matt. We’ll go onto the next question.

Question: I was wondering on the blogs, how area specific should you be? Should you identify where you are working in real estate or whatever topic you are going to cover or should you just be very general and let the rest of it happen naturally?

Matt Heinz: I think you could do both. I think you do want to let people know the areas in which you work, it certainly lends a lot of credibility to yourself if you are able to comment on those areas. There is no one but a real estate agent that is able to really understand the ‘ins and outs’ of a neighborhood. They understand the up-to-the-minute market conditions, the fluctuation in the market. As we know, real estate is a very local business and marketing conditions on one street may be very different than what it’s like a few blocks down the road.

That’s the kind of insight that real estate agents are uniquely positioned to provide. I think that kind of advice could be really, really valuable on your blog, because no one else is going to be able to have that. Now that said, I don’t think you have to keep your entire blog content specific to your geographic farm or the area that you want to work. If there is a general trend in real estate you want to discuss, if you want to give your comments on staging for example, perfectly acceptable. If you want to talk about some of the trends in what kind of homes people are looking for these days or the fact that, you know, “Hey it appears that families are looking for smaller homes” or you want to talk about just general trends in real estate or home buying or what have you, all that is acceptable. I think that, it is valuable obviously to also talk about things going on specifically in your area, not only because that will be relevant to people in your area that are reading your blog and are interested in becoming a customer, but also because that very specific information will help you pop higher on the search engines when people search to look for that type of information.

Scott Smith: Thank you, Matt. Great question, hope that helps you take advantage of becoming the local expert here in Washington.

Question: Do you recommend having another Web site in addition to the personal HouseValues Web site that we have to utilize all of this or is that adequate to use this?

Matt Hines: I think the personal Web site you have from HouseValues is a fantastic tool to use as your personal Web site. When we talk to consumers about what they are looking for online, they say they want information and home listings and want to be able to easily research neighborhoods. They are pretty impressed when they find that they can get that from a local Realtor’s Web site, which is the Web site that you can get through Market Leader. There is an ‘About You’ section on that Web site that allows you to describe yourself, the areas in which you work, and some of the specifics of why people should work with you. What we found is that the ‘About You’ section is pretty adequate in terms of what consumers are looking for, in choosing an agent, they are much more impressed by the type of information they are getting from the agent.

If you want to go and try to set up a blog you can definitely set that up separately and then link back to your Web site and link back to some of the Web capture tools on that Web site. I would definitely recommend — at least from the “get go” — go to blogger.com to get something started. Start it as a separate endeavor until you get to feel comfortable with it: How you use it, what the type of content that you want put on the blog, and how frequently you want to do it. Once you are committed to keeping it up and you are happy with the kind of results of how it looks, then you can start do some integration with the Web site you get from HouseValues.

Scott Smith: I think we have one more question in here. We’ll go ahead and take that.

Question: I have been blogging since February and we’ve consistently put two or three new entries on a week. I am not getting comments from people, and I don’t know if I’m not controversial enough or not interesting enough or what is happening; I am using Blogger.com and I just wanted to see if you had any ideas?

Matt Heinz: Are you able to actually track the traffic that you’re getting to the blogs?

Question: Yes. We are not getting that much; it’s probably about 50 to 60 visits a month.

Matt Heinz: What I found is that, in general people tend to not comment. Sometimes you get a particular topic and people will comment, but I found more and more that people will read something and then move on. Comments really start to build up when you get a lot more traffic. It’s a valuable way to interact with customers and get people that you know, you can talk to. I wouldn’t worry about lack of comments at this point, especially with that kind of traffic. You know, one thing we can do is follow-up on the Mastermind Forum or for those that are interested. Once you have a blog post, there are some places you can actually publish that blog post. One place that I’ll throw out now is a site called RealEstateVoices.com.

It’s a news and information directory site specific to the real estate industry. It’s only about a month old, but it basically is a free opportunity for you to take something you have blogged and post it as a news item for other people to read and vote on it. It’s a publishing tool, but it’s also some what of a democratic process and that once people read something, you’ve written, they can vote basically to say that they like it. The more people who like it, the higher placement you are going to get on the page and the more votes — the more opportunities you are going to get votes from other people.

For those of you that are familiar with sites like this, it’s similar to a site called dig.com which is a broader service that anyone can go and post on and the most popular story “Digs” — the stories are like posts that are put up there, those are the stories that get the higher placement on the site. Definitely check out realestatevoices.com. Once you’ve posted a blog it takes about two seconds, to post it up on realestatevoices.com as well. It increases the exposure of what you are doing right away.

Scott Smith: Thank you, Matt. Looks like a couple more questions came in while you are talking. Go ahead and take the next question.

Question: When I Google your name it takes me to your blog. How do I get Google to recognize my site and input search words, for people using Google to find me?

Matt Hines: Basically just start a blog. I basically did nothing with Google other than start building my blog on Blogger. It will take a little while once you have a blog up and rolling for Google to pick it up, they’ve got more technical words here. They have, what they call spiders that go out and search the web and look for relevant content and they do that on a pretty regular basis. It won’t happen immediately; it will take maybe a week or two. The advantage of using Blogger is that blogger.com was actually acquired by Google about a year, year-and-a-half ago. The reason I typically recommend to Realtors that they use Blogger is because there is such a tight link between Blogger and Google. By using the Blogger platform you tend to get better search results for your blog on Google then you otherwise would, because they probably want to promote their own service.

When people search your name on Google once you start using your Blogger Web site, you will start showing up more often. I think consumers tend to search more for generic topics and trends rather than Realtor name especially when they don’t know a Realtor or when they don’t have a relationship yet. Certainly, once you get a blog up and rolling, having that blog linked when you search your own name is a pretty valuable and free marketing opportunity.

Scott Smith: Thank you, Matt. Thank you everyone for participating in today’s call. I hope everyone found this useful and have everyone take an opportunity to try to engage with Matt on the Mastermind Forum as well.

Matt Heinz: Absolutely.

Thanksgiving Funny Business

2006-11-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

A colorful Thanksgiving a picture every Real Estate Professional should have!

Taking Listings by Storm

2006-11-17T10:42:00.000-08:00

Timothy Kearney out of E. Hampton, CT is taking all the listings he can get as he shares on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

"I just listed my 3rd HouseValues home since September. I also received a referral from one of the ones I listed in September which resulted in another listing. Now I need to work on getting them sold. Thanks for listening (or is it reading)."

Balance and Success

2006-11-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

HouseValues system and leads have helped Landon Long balance his life while marinating momentum selling homes. He had a great post on the HouseValues MasterMind forum describing his experience:

"I started HouseValues & JustListed just over 3 months. After using other online lead generation systems I had some apprehension to paying for and joining another lead generation system. The previous systems that I used generated nothing but wasted marketing money for me. Because of my experience with the other systems, I was a bit nervous to commit to a year contract with a lead system I saw as the most expensive of them all. The first day that I signed up for HouseValues & JustListed, I received a solid lead, called them immediately, sent listings, went to their home the next day and took them for a tour that weekend. They have yet to purchase buy I stay in regular contact with them as they have serious plans to buy in early spring. I thought it was a strange stroke of luck to get a hit on my first day and continued working the system with skepticism.

Now just over 3+ months have passed and I have had a streak of good fortune. I believe that the HouseValues & JustListed system are the best lead generation system I have used. In the past 3+ months, my online lead response procedure has matured significantly; I have had an open phone dialogue with 10+ qualified leads, I call my entire database weekly, and have had daily/weekly email conversations with 15+ leads, aside from the leads on drip. I am working the system, getting notifications to my PDA, calling leads ASAP, and checking the system 3++ times a day and doing everything I can to make the system work for me. I am happy to report that 3 deals have resulted from my efforts ($375k, $499k and $550k) yielding 2.5% on each. I have no plans of slowing down, and am constantly looking for ways to improve my performance. I can now say that I am a HouseValues – JustListed Believer.

The best part for me is that I have been able to accomplish this while having a new baby boy just over 13 weeks ago. It was a challenge to learn the system, work it, have a baby and continue with my normal sphere of influence marketing, all in an abnormally slow local market. I “knock on wood” that this good fortune will continue, and that it is more a result of hard work than luck. I look to this forum for good ideas and ways to improve my personal performance, and appreciate the ideas and success stories that others have shared. I wanted to take a short moment to share this story with my fellow HouseValues & JustListed professionals; hopefully it will motivate others new to HouseValues.

Make it a great day."

Jennifer Seidelman, Vantage Point Real Estate

2006-11-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

In this less than two minute video interview, Jennifer Seidelman with Vantage Point Real Estate and HouseValues subscriber in the San Francisco area talks about the technology she uses to stand apart from the competition and be the first agent to respond to leads.

Offer In Hand

2006-11-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Jeff Fullmer a new JustListed subscriber illustrates the importance of personal follow up on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

"I received a JustListed lead 6 days ago and today I have an accepted offer IN HAND after showing her one home. All because of a follow up call.

She WAS planning on buying in March or April but now will own a home before Christmas. I followed up after sending the listings and she returned my call. I then e-mailed her two houses I saw on our city tour this week, (that I had already sent her but emphasized this time that these two looked great on the inside), we saw one of them today. Showed, submitted, and accepted.

Do your follow up calls and even send a couple listings that you have seen personally that you like. See what happens..."

Business Is Booming for Award-Winning Team

2006-11-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

It was exciting to hear about the success The Bernard Team with Coldwell Banker Bain out of Bellevue, WA is having as real estate agents and with the HouseValues system.

Within 30 days of becoming JustListed subscribers, they already had their first client. It was a family relocating from Portland, WA that needed to move right away. This was just the start of their success.

They have now been with JustListed for a little over a year and have grossed more than $172,000 in commissions from the leads alone! They shared with us that the JustListed program helped them to grow their business to the level it is today, and in a very short time. As a result, they told us they have won several national and regional awards within their first full year of real estate in which they directly attribute to JustListed.

Stellar Customer Service

2006-11-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

Below is a fantastic email from HouseValues subscriber Victoria Thees out of West Caldwell, NJ describing her experience with HouseValues customer service representative Kristin Zippro.

“Kristin: Thank you so very much for the attention to my account, the analysis and ultimately the credits you have issued. I am truly very much impressed not only with your assistance and professionalism but also with everyone that I come in contact with at HouseValues. It has been truly a pleasure dealing with you all and I hope in the very near future I'll be able to repay your kindness with success and upgrading my account with HouseValues."

Victoria Thees

Way to go Kristen!

WOWing them at NAR

2006-11-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

Our CEO Ian Morris spoke this weekend at the annual National Association of Realtors Convention & Expo in New Orleans, addressing the crowd on lead generation best practices. He was joined by Staci Dancey, a long-time successful HouseValues subscriber, as well as Alan Dalton, the president of Realtor.com.

Ian addressed the three best practices that every successful real estate agents uses - including 1) a focus on long-term planning, 2) using systems, and 3) a dedication to innovation.

Check out Ian's presentation here.

Securing a Steady Stream of Prospects

2006-11-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

Roger Allen out of Alpharetta, GA had some exciting news to share with us about his success with Internet buyer leads. In this past year, six out of the eight deals he has closed came from JustListed. He is set to close another deal next week and has two others pending. He said that while this is generally a slow time of year for agents, he has a steady stream of prospects in his pipeline.

He credits his success to the many features in his Market Leader. He benefits from the automatic follow up and checks regularly to see when people have looked at listings sent. When a listing has been viewed, he contacts the prospect right away. His quick turnaround time and consistent follow up allow him to build relationships with potential home buyers early on.

California Momentum

2006-11-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

Carol Dotson, HouseValues/JustListed subscriber shares her secret to success with her system and leads to other agents on the HouseValues MasterMind forum:

“I just had to share; I closed my first JustListed lead in August ($725K). I'm in escrow from one of their referrals ($899K), and also in escrow with another JustListed lead ($460K), this one requested listings for $0 to $50k. Many of my leads have been calling me lately and I've taken 3 others out and ready to buy. I wondered if this would ever work, but patiently kept sending listings and drip campaign.

Even my husband is now a believer!”

Internet Buyer Lead Responsive to Emails

2006-11-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

John Fitzgerald out of Chester, MD has been in contact with a couple from Florida that came to him as a JustListed buyer lead four months ago. He has been in email contact with the couple this entire time and his follow up is paying off. The couple is getting ready to put an offer on a $500,000 home!

John says the trick to winning business is to follow up with every lead with what information they provide, even if it’s just a working email address.