jonwashburn: Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp)

I went to Inman Connect NY this year determined to go to as many sessions as possible, gain new insights, and bring them back to the AR community. This strategy contrasted to my usual Inman experience of back-to-back deal making meetings with little time for sessions. I am sad to report that my hope of attending many of the sessions lost out to the best Inman networking experience to date! However, the good news is that all of that networking and deal making will result in some great new tools and features coming to our ActiveRain members in the future months! In fact it's Friday morning, and it's already been one week since the conference has ended and this is my first real opportunity to take a breather and write a real blog post about the experience.

I've come to savor the relationships rekindled at Brad Inman's Real Estate Connect conferences, held in San Fransisco in the summer and Manhattan in the winter. My first Inman conference was not as successful, despite my hopes; I aspired to meet with the "higher ups" to pitch the idea for ActiveRain and raise financial support. In reality, that first conference was quite the growth opportunity. I drove to San Francisco alone, and when I got there knew absolutely no one. I approached people who's name I recognized, introduced myself, and attempted to secure meetings. Needless to say, I ate every meal by myself during my three days in San Francisco and drove home just a little poorer than when I had arrived.

The first conference is the hardest to "crash", so to speak, but by the second, and certainly by the third, I found myself knowing more and more people. Now after my fourth conference I would guess that I know 1/3 of the attendants on a first name basis! 

I managed to sneak into parts of a several sessions, and here were some of my takeaways:

Charlie Young, COO of Coldwell Banker, banished the old "listings as commodity" argument with his emphasis on putting listings everywhere.

Marc Davison of 1000Watt Consulting stressed taking the temperature of the market and giving more transparency.

Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate twirled people on their heads, stating, "Consider non-business application as business applications". Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Kevin Boer discussed using outside companies for your web components, opensource software, etc, as a way to make real estate blogging and technology affordable. Why reinvent the wheel? 

Trulia announced their new motto of "when your product becomes a commodity, commoditize your business" and the launch of their new white label listing product. (I personally believe that this is perhaps one of the most important milestones in the real estate industry in the last 10 years. I will try to post more on that thought soon.)

FrontDoor made their big appearance.  They are definitely a player, and should be watched!

Pretty much every expert said that the real estate market is doing very badly, and it most likely won't recover for another couple of years (except for a few locations, such as New York city, which are booming). 

The general theme left little doubt of the impact of conventional marketing as a has-been in our current marketplace. Exemplified by Pamela Liebman, President and CEO of the Corcoran Group, her company has done away with all print advertising, except to promote open houses. If agents are hesitant, she shared, track and share where closed sales originate. The numbers will speak for themselves, and agents will switch right away!

Drew Meyers just announced that Zillow will be offering up all of their neighborhood boundary data through a Creative Commons license. From a technology provider this is pretty swanky cool news.  Don't be surprised if the new Localism redesign taps into some of this data.

I didn't apply to college mostly because I didn't like the idea of the acceptance of my admissions being outside of my control.

As a real estate agent I was limited in my success because I could not bare the disappointment of losing out when competing for a listing.

I also had a difficult time working leads because I became discouraged if my close ratio was not 100%.

I am not afraid of failure. I am afraid of not being perfect.

In some ways this fear has propelled me to succeed in areas where I might otherwise have failed. But in most cases it has held me back. I have a suspicion that many others are affected by the fear of not being perfect, and I hope that this post helps them.

I am working on being comfortable with my true self; working on accepting myself where I am at right now. Being content with who God made me to be.

Ironically I have turned to Donald Trump to help me on this journey. ;) I have bookmarked a page in Trump's book, "Think big and kick ass" that has had a surprisingly profound impact on me: 

"A truly positive mental attitude is when you are good at what you do and you are prepared for every possibility, both positive and negative. You can boost your positive mental attitude by being thoroughly prepared. You cannot expect to be successful 100 percent of the time no matter whether you are in business, finance, real estate, management, medicine, or science. If you are not prepared for a negative result, a few minor setbacks, the loss of a promotion, or a deal falling through, such an experience will cause you an unnecessary amount of confusion and doubt. Both a positive mental attitude and a good work ethic are important in creating your own luck, but you cannot rely solely on them.

The real-life truth is that deals do not always close, you do not always land the new account, you do not always win the lawsuit, you do not always get the promotion, your patients do not always recover, and the people you deal with are not always honest. There always circumstances beyond your control. The only way to guard against having your confidence shattered is to come to grips with the stark reality that negative things can and do happen. Count on it. Be prepared for it. Realize that it is life, and that it has nothing to do with you or your abilities. Do not let it shake your self-confidence one iota!"

I guess I just need someone to tell me that it is alright to fail. 

The allure of ActiveRain is two-fold. The first, to connect, have fun, relax, and receive support. The second, to make money through business generation. This post is to teach you how to yield greater results from your business generating time on ActiveRain.

First we need to establish Rule #1: When you write for business, you are writing to persuade.

Yes, you heard me right. That is exactly what I said; You are here to sell! The end goal is for your readers to take action.

Rule #2: Writing with the end goal of persuading someone to do something is most effective when you are being genuine and transparent.

But isn't selling and being transparent an oxymoron?

No! I don't know exactly when or how it happened, but at some point our society began equating selling with lying. Sure, some people lie when they sell, but the best salespeople also have the most genuine concern for the people they are selling to.

So what exactly does persuasive writing mean?

Rule #3: Writing is persuasive when readers are willing to act on, or comment on, what you have written.

The goal is to strike a nerve with your reader. But don't strike it so hard that you lose them.

Rule #4: Your readers will only respond with as much passion as you put forward.

Don't be afraid to take a stand and be passionate about the position you are taking! Being wishy-washy is easiest way to guarantee non-action to what you are writing.

Rule #5: Write with authority.

Coming from the ultra polite and low-key Northwest, I have an inherent fear of coming across as conceited, and so I struggle with this rule. But I have realized that writing from a position of authority, and using declarative statements, is absolutely critical if I want my readers to understand exactly what I am trying to say. Humbleness does not work in business writing.

Rule #6: Make grammar secondary to getting your point across.

Since I never learned how to write using proper grammar in the first place, this rule is easy for me to follow. But for those of you "edumacated" folks out there, stop caring so much about grammar. The most important thing to consider when writing is whether or not the reader "gets it". Start off just writing what you think. Then after you get all of your thoughts on paper, go back and read out loud what you have just written. Put commas, hyphens, colons, and semi-colons, wherever necessary so that your reader has the easiest time following your ideas, allowing your message to carry the most impact.

Rule #6: Your perceived value is only as great as the information that you provide.

Nobody cares that you are a CRS, ABA, PhD, AB, MBA, or even that you are the nicest girl in the world. What they do care about is the information that you are giving them.

What about Localism?

It's true, most Localism posts are not intended to be persuasive, and they are better left that way. Keep your Localism posts informative; use them to help establish credibility for your persuasive posts.

Take home test:

Review all of your marketing material, both online and on paper, look for stuff you've written that your readers will find so valuable that they will want to save it or pass it onto others. You know you are failing as a persuasive writer if what you find instead is self-serving fluff.

This post was inspired by the book: Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Green Book of Getting Your Way

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in communicating their point of view to others.

I am extremely pleased to welcome Rich as a new member of the ActiveRain team on a full time basis! He will be taking on the role of a Community Builder.

Rich's addition to our team is very positive news for the AR community. Rich has been a member of ActiveRain since August of 2006, when the network was still only just a few months old! He has delivered very valuable and relevant blog posts, and has earned over 200k points, making him the top member in Washington state!

As a Community Builder, Rich will work very closely with Bob Stewart and Nicole Rae to support our members both on an individual basis and the community on the whole. We also look forward to him showing off some of his public speaking skills at various industry conferences and training events over the next year.

As I type this Rich is working with Bob learning how to use the "God Console" and how "not to break things"; It would be quite a PR disaster if Rich accidentally smited Lenn Harley... However, I would expect a post from him sometime today about the big news as soon as he finishes with his training.  

Please check out some of Rich's earlier posts:

Fruitology 101: "What the HECK is a Lychee?"

"Slow Down and Smell the Crabs!"

"On Being a Groupie!"

"The ActiveTrain that Could!"

Frequent Comment Rewards Program

"My 100th Blog on ActiveRain"

Are You tired of "Half-a-Kraft?"

"Profile Pictures on ActiveRain" - When the Most Obvious is the Most Overlooked

ActiveRain becomes "ActiveRich!"

ActiveRain Addiction: "It could happen to YOU!"

"Disconnected-Rain" - Is it Just Me?

"BLOG, or Get Off the Pot!"

Turning Your ActiveRaindrops into a Tidal Wave! (A Newbie Tutorial) 

Givers and Takers among the Rain

Counterfeit Blogging - "What's in Your Blog?"

One-Way Traffic Jams on the ActiveRain Blogway

A Welcomed Reminder

These marketing ideas are for the motivated, and broke ass agent.  It is important to note that if you already are fairly successful you will probably scoff at these ideas.  That is okay, they are not for you! It is also worthwhile to mention that if you employ even a portion of the ideas with the vigor and passion required for success in real estate sales, then you will likely not need to employ these strategies for long!

(Disclaimer: I know it is very unprofessional to swear in a blog post, and I will do my best to not do it in the future. This time it just slipped out and by the time I realized that it was on paper, it was too late to take it back.  However if this explanation is not sufficient please contact Bob Stewart, ActiveRain's Director of Community Relations and Member Happiness)

 
Power of the Sticky Note

Forget about expensive listing / pre-listing packets. Compile and drive by your list of new daily expired, cancelled, off market, and FSBO listings; delivering to each of the houses a handwritten Post-It note on their door.  Write a bold statement on the note about how you can help with the home owner’s sales problem. Don’t forget to leave a name and phone number, because EVERYBODY respect the power of a sticky note, and they will call you back.

A “Talking House” can also be a Talking Car

A Talking House is a radio transmitter that broadcasts a marketing message recorded by it’s owner to a limited range of 100 yards or so. Most real estate agents use it to broadcast information about a listed property.  But this box could be much more valuable placed inside a car marked with a compelling marketing message on the outside.  “Tune to 89.9 within 100 yards of this car to learn how you can save thousands on your next home purchase".

 
Marketing HUD homes

In most markets, licensed real estate agent can easily register to become an “HUD Registered Agent”. This means that you are allowed to show and sell all HUD owned homes.  It usually also means that you are allowed to market HUD owned homes, even if it is not your listing. Having some listings to advertise is a critical step to obtaining buyers.
 

Advertise Your Listings on Craigslist 

Now that you have listings to advertise (remember the HUD homes in the last item?), put them everywhere you can.  Start with Craigslist, then use Postlets.com to syndicate your listing to tons of other top sites. 
 

Use Your Business Cards

Make it your mission to hand out 20 business cards every day. Hand it out to everyone you come in contact with. If the opportunity presents itself, like giving a card to your waiter with your bill after dinner, write a note on the back. Make in memorable.

Use the Press
Nope, just kidding.  This guerrilla marketing tactic is way overplayed and much too difficult to control.  Be consistent with the other tactics and you will likely find your way into the press.

Flip the Script 

Be nice to the outside title and mortgage reps that visit your office.  Most of your peers treat them like they carry the plague, but that is just nonsense. Next time they invite you to lunch or coffee, offer to meet them in their office.  Bring cookies or pizza for their entire office and introduce yourself. Mortgage and title people run across unrepresented buyers and sellers everyday.  Put yourself in the position to get business from them. Then return the favor and refer it right back.

Zillow Discussion Forum

Present yourself as an expert to potential buyers and sellers by participating in the Zillow Discussions forum.

Be a Zillow bird dog

“Report” every mls listing in your market to Zillow.  This may be in violation of your MLS guidelines, but I have not heard of anyone getting in trouble for it, yet.  When you report a property for sale you get your picture and a link to your profile listed on that property’s page.

Give Ice Cream at Open Houses

There is only one thing to give to people visiting your open house. A quart of ice cream! It is a little bit of a dirty trick, but it could go a long ways to selling your client's home. The ice cream limits your clients' choices to either staying at the house and eating it with you; where you can proceed to expound upon the virtues of the home, and work on establishing personal report rapport so that they will choose you as their exclusive buyers agent.  Or they can go home and put it in the fridge and think about the virtues of the home.  Either way, they won’t be looking at other houses anytime soon.

(Note, this tip works better in the summer.)

Pull a Mike Ferry

It seems that Mike Ferry believes that cold calling is the only way to market.  Although he might be doing his creative thinking from inside a little box, cold calling does work and it is free.  Just don’t get caught calling numbers on the Do Not Call registry.  That will cost you.

Participate in the Trulia Voices Q&A. Buyers and sellers frequent the site. Sure there are more agents than potential clients, but if you put the effort in and provide top quality and personality rich questions, you are sure to snag a client sometime.

Offer a 50% Referral Fee

No question that if I was broke I would take referrals at a 50% fee all day long. Just make sure to let the real estate world know about your decision.
 

Blog About Your Community

Perhaps the most powerful and cheap way to make your way to the top of the search engines and earn loads of business is to start a hyper-local blog and write about a neighborhood. The key is you got to be very specific. For example a Seattle agent may choose to specialize in the Queen Anne community and could register QueenAnneSeattle.com.  Include as many pictures, and videos as possible.

*If you can get the cooperation (and written permission) of other agents in your market, blog about their listings. If you are having trouble getting their permission up front; visit the house and write about the listing first, then show them what you wrote. Once they see that it is a positive review then they will be more likely to give you their permission.  Sure it is a little extra work up front, and they could say "no", but even if only one half of the agents give permission it is still more than worth it.  You will likely be the only agent in your market blogging about listings. This is a huge advantage!

1000watt Blog

The is the blog of the new real estate consulting team of Marc Davison and Brian Boero.  Both bring a deep knowledge, and a fresh, often on the edge commentary of the industry. To me they seem to specialize in branding and the real estate brokerage/agent.

4realz.net

4realz is Dustin Luther's recently resuscitated industry commentary blog. If you're looking for information on how to build a powerful blog presence, Dustin is the guy to turn to and 4realz is the blog to read. 

 
BusinessWeek Online - Hot Property

The most newsy of all the blogs I am suggesting on this list.  Sometimes borderline "bubble blog", and not very well trafficked, but it does have a unique perspective and I enjoy reading it.

FutureofRealEstateMarketing

A blog hosted by Joel Burslem. I think this used to be an independent blog Joel wrote on the side, now I believe it has been rolled into the Inman Group. You can always count on Joel for relevant and insightful commentary on the most recent real estate tech news. 

GeekEstate

A group blogger headed up by Drew Meyers and Zillow. Lots of great contributors on the roster, but not really too many posts that it gets overwhelming. Truthfully it just barely made the list, but it is still a newer blog and is constantly getting better.

 
Inman Blog

Another group blog.  Real estate tech news is it's focus, but it does have it's share of personal interest type posts. Solid blog.
 

RedfinBlog

The company that the real estate industry loves to hate. It is no secret that the management team at Redfin is a little light in the real estate experience department, but what they lack in experience they make up for that with passion, brains, and pizazz. They come to the real estate game with a blank slate, and with no preconceived notions of what cannot be done they are trying the impossible, and so far they have achieved a few impossible feats. Plus it is fun to watch them blow through their $20m+- in venture capital. 

Seth Godin's Blog

Marketing guru. If you only read one blog, read this one!

 
Transparent Real Estate

This is a real estate technology blog authored by Domus Consulting group co-founder Pat Kitano. Pat's insight into the real estate 2.0 space is usually spot on. He seems to have a knack of figuring insider stuff out way before anyone else does.  

Zillow Blog

Booo, Zillow "the agent's antichrist". Right? Maybe. Love em or hate em, you gotta watch what they are doing. Like Redfin, they too have an abundant amount of money, a ridiculously talented team, and an anything is possible perspective that is only available to real estate rookies. Did I mention the same management team was perhaps single handedly responsible for dis-intermediating the travel industry?   

The SEO experts are still figuring out what exactly is happening and what the implications are, but it appears that Google is adjusting it's algorithm in favor of fresh content at the expense of longer tenured static pages with large amount of incoming links.

Hopefully this change will be beneficial to the AR community.

Here are some links for a more detailed analysis of the situation:

Google Operating System

Mashable

Techcrunch

WebMetricsGuru