Article by Tori Junipelo

When confronting the concept of real estate marketing one has to take on a new awareness. An awareness for where the world has gone, but primarily for where the world is headed. Like any other form of commerce, the thoughts behind real estate have also changed since the advent of technology that brought the Internet.

Much like the industrial revolution did in the case of mass production and transportation, the onset of computer technologies have caused a similar stir amid modern day real estate marketing. Now, this is not to say that the product of houses or rentals have gone through the process of recreation or are differently manufactured, but the way information and facts about houses and rentals are spread has undergone significant takeovers thanks to the Internet.

Many years into our past, real estate marketing functioned off several very easy conditions: tell your friends and neighbors. Or maybe taking an advertisement out in the local newspaper.

As time progressed and technology improved and the ability to print became a household regular, then the process switched to a new method. The use of flyers and postcards became the norm to circulate your company, and to let them know who was around for when they needed. It opened a conversation.

It was an exciting idea, to be able to print on your own accord rather than paying a paper. It allowed you to spread a reputation and ad space on your own. It swallowed the previous methods and reinvented them. This is similar to what the Internet then did to all those mailings.

For example, paper was immediately cut, with the cost immediately offset by the free services of electronic mail. With flyers now appropriated as web pages that could easily function with all the more web traffic. It had once taken a week for postal services to get advertisements out to mailboxes on a mass front. With email, you could reach hundreds by the second, which was mind blowing. The entire landscape was taken over, and not in a bout of hostility. Even the concept of word of mouth was digitized in customer review sections on a website. Need a good realtor? Why not read about hundreds who also did, and find out about their experiences. This was real estate marketing!

All in all, it no longer made any fiscal sense for a company to burn itself out by creating out of the way personal interaction, or by delivering flyers and mailing postcards out everywhere. The Internet, as it did for so many many companies, created a sort of virtual service station. If you don’t want to leave your house, if you don’t want to wait in line, if you are unsure of which service to take your business, no problem, the Internet will do everything for you. It encapsulated luxury.

The most intriguing aspect is that it’s not done yet. The manner of conducting business is still in flux, and it is a relatively positive one, at least in terms of real estate marketing. It has opened a door for realtors to reach a lot of people, and to reach a lot of people at once. There is no sign of changing speed anytime soon either.

Tori is a real estate consultant who specializes in real estate postcards marketing. Click here to learn more.

“I wonder how I value my home zip code.” This has been a constant thought as you direct. Well, it seems that their prayers have been answered! Home buyers are here to give a report of your home and free evaluation of your home based on sales and leases that have been made in your area. The price will be sent to your e-mail is based on recent sales and home values.

Value of my home zip code area will be more in-the-know for the price of the house and when you decide to sell or rent a house, would not be deceived into account when pricing your home so little, and get the money you deserve at home.

It is also bad if you accidentally house price was too high because it will never happen! No, not home buyers.

So when the neighbors ask how you do, you immediately say, “I value my home zip code.” And teach them to do so. The report of the House free, we give you will include evaluations your neighbor too. And the whole street! This will help you decide what the next step. Should you sell? If you hire? Or wait to see if the value of your home will continue to increase over time?

Regardless, you will not lose anything. Because we have a free service so you will not be forced to sell when you get our reports and assessments. But we’ll give you a guarantee that within 28 days, we will buy your property for what it really cost. No questions! For all this and more easily.

Simply fill out our forms and give / send it to you via e-mail within 24 hours.

We have buyers have access to recent sales and rental prices in your area or postal code rates and current trends and critical information to assess the value of your home so you do not need to “value Zoopla my house. Therefore, also more details about changes made to your home as extensions, new buildings, garages, etc, will help to give a more accurate assessment of what your home is really worth

RickThompsonTeam.com December 3rd, 2011. Chris of the Rick Thompson Team breaks down the housing market stats for Frederick Maryland by zip code. The zip codes covered are, 21701, 21702, 21703, 21704, 21754 & 21770. We cover homes for sale, bank owned homes, reo’s, short sale, pre-foreclosures, houses under contract and recent home sales. Fore more on short sales, loan mods and foreclosures visit StopFrederickForeclosure.org
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Read More Recent Real Estate Sales By Zip Code Articles

In almost every real estate investing seminar I’ve ever attended, a lot of time has been invested in teaching real estate investors and potential real estate investor on how to find good deals. Because deal-finding is so crucial to ones investing success and longevity in the real estate investing business, I recently decided to chat with a real estate investment friend and look back and see which methods have generated the most deals and the best deals for him.. In reviewing the 200 properties he has bought or flipped over the last 5 years, I was surprised to find that many of the “traditional” sources of great deals haven’t worked for him, while some less obvious methods have been great lead generators. I’d like to share with you the results of my study.

The Multiple Listing Service. The MLS is essentially a catalog of all the properties listed for sale by brokers. Needless to say, some of them are good deals for investors, and some aren’t. Sometimes there is a great foreclosure in there, sometimes not. The trick is to ferret out which properties have motivated sellers without making offers on all of them. I’ve honed this skill through years of translating agent lingo like, “Handyman’s special” (looks bad, smells bad, has at least one major system that doesn’t function), “needs TLC” (ugly, but not smelly, and everything works). What you’re going to find is a lot of cost, markup and competition has set the price. As an investor, you really want to find ways around the ‘traditional real estate sales’ databases if at all possible.

Properties listed in the MLS are for sale. To anyone, including the real estate investor. This may seem pretty profound, but some of the other methods touted as great ways to find deals involve locating owners, then finding out if they want to sell. Properties in the MLS also have the advantage that all of the information about the property is pretty much laid out for you – a major time saver. For the average real estate investor, time really is money. And, with the sophisticated, computerized access available to your agent, it’s a matter of a few keystrokes to view all of the properties that are handyman’s specials, or bank-owned, or in estate, or priced under a certain dollar figure – whatever youd like to concentrate on. The disadvantage is that if you’re after foreclosures, you may not find the deals here.

Another reason that the MLS has worked so well is that generally the market for really ugly properties is where real estate investors may want to be, otherwise the deals for good real estate investing values just won’t be there. Coincidentally, these are the same properties that most agents prefer not to spend a lot of time with. In many cases, they’re downright cooperative – particularly when I’m offering all cash and a quick closing.

Direct mail to real estate agents? At one point, we did a mail out to 1,200 agent names from the Board of Realtors and generated a 3-part mailing to send to every agent in town. For the real estate investor, this might seem like a respectable idea, however there are drawbacks.

The theme of this campaign was this: if you, Mr. Agent, have a property listed that fits a specific real estate investment criteria, I’ll make an offer and you get to keep the entire commission. Out rolled a brilliant campaign -all posted first class, incidentally – and in numbered the telephone calls. All 9 of them. Thats correct. The workweek after the 1st letters got out, we got 9 calls. We had already produced offers on 3 of the houses; 2 were out of our price range; and two were overpriced listings soon to expire. Not a beneficial take for the average real estate investor seeking to realise a living with real estate investment .

The succeeding mailing gave even more answers – about 16 replys – all basically in the same classes. The final mail out, a postal card, encountered no notice at all. Basically, we consumed close to $1700 on a campaign that gave nothing for our real estate investing concern.

I still guess that this idea has some merit, but if performed again, we would make some substatial shifts. Initially, we’ll target only the 350 or so brokers who name the kinds of real estate investment properties we would purchase. Then, we would do a better job of composing the marketing collateral, underlining how the broker and his seller could gain from doing work with our real estate investment business. Finally, we would make the campaign a continuous one throughout the next twelve months, trying out dissimilar letters for reception and sending the best to the same real estate agents over and over. And lastly, to personalise the campaign by following up with a telephone call to the 30 or so preferred candidates. Target marketing our real esatate investing marketing attempts.

Ads in the Yellow Pages. For half dozen years, we have featured an ad in the “real estate” section of the Yellow Pages. Each calendar year, the ad has possessed some variation of the phrasing, “We purchase homes – all cash. This advertising only yields 3-4 calls a calendar month, but for some grounds the caliber of the telephone calls is better than those that are produced by whatever other means we have ever practiced. The sellers incline to be incited, cooperative, and bear unlisted houses. All of these items are precisely what the real estate investor is wanting in investment properties.

What is great is that you get to look at with these ads once a calendar year, then leave em. While they usually are pricy – 1000s per 12 month time period – the telephone company will regularly charge you every month for the price. In addition, as one of the very few ads in the telephone directory that promises to buy investment properties, You have not got alot of competition. This works out, but getting connected with people that own the houses in hand: banks, any mortgage company that possesses (and does not want) foreclosures, key real estate agents, any one that recognises the market and recognises you embody the real esate investor that understands the marketplace. Both cases, you succeed. Yellow pages, you pay for the leads, the word of mouth, time is payment for the great real estate investing leads.

Advertised FSBOs? Properties For Sale By Owner,
a.k.a. FSBOs, are a preferent means for a number of real estate investors. For us, on the other hand, have never bought a holding from an owner who promoted his property for sale rather than ringing me. Sounds like a deal for the budding Real Esatate Investor who purchases homes for a living right?

We have found various issues with straining to purchase FSBOs. The 1st is that many are not actually for sale. Some FSBOs are just “trying out the market to ascertain what variety of offers he’ll acquire. Other FSBO sellers are very moved to sell, but do not list because they need to keep all of the money from the sale. They do not wish to pay a commission – but they do not desire to receive a lower price, either. And sometimes a seller opts to try to sell their holding by themselves because they owe too much to bear a 5%-7% commission, even if he sells it at full price. For the real estate investor, obviously there is no economic value here.

If you are purchasing expensive properties creatively, these sellers are ripe for the variety of answer you propose. A majority of real estate investors schemes is to buy ugly real estate cheaply and for immediate payment, and you just do not witness this type of deal in advertized FSBOs.

fFiers to Targeted Neighborhoods: Last calendar year, we delivered 14,000 double-sided “We buy real estate” circulars published. We employed an individual to set this flyer in the threshold of every single, two, or multi family residence they saw in the prospective region. Every three calendar weeks or so, 5,000 approximately of these flyers were delivered, and the reply from qualified sellers was first-class. For a price of less than $500, we gained 3 deals that clearred over $8,000. For a new region for the experienced real estate investor or just examining a dissimilar way to ‘farm’ the real estate investment outlooks in a given area, this is very good and popular way to find out if there are any sound real estate investment deals to capture.

Billboards in the same neighborhood? Here is a object lesson in messing up a beneficial thing: hot on the heels of our massively successful circular campaign, I settled to spring for 4 large billboards in the same vicinity. The trouble was that my marketing budget is only so large, and purchasing the billboards signified stopping the fliers. Still, I envisioned that the billboards would get more attention anyway, so I handed over the $1,800 and acquired…

No response.. Nothing……

The Point? Keep with What does work. This is the number one rule of obtaining good real estate investment properties.
.
Employing only one lead source at a time. In my experience, it is best to use at least a few dissimilar techniques of lining up deals at the same time: preferably 2 youve practiced before with some results, plus 1 that you are screening. Which takes us to:

Not understanding which of your deal-finding techniques are producing, and which are not. If you are going to expend money on fliers or ads or phone pole signs or whatever, it is very significant that you give attention to which methods are getting good leads, and which are not.. For any real estate investing occupation, and business in general, one needs to monitor and try out the outcomes of a marketing campaign. If you are not tracking your lead sources to expose which are producing leads and which you should give up, youre wasting away time and money that could be set to use giving you deals.

By now we know that 80% or more of all home buyers search the Internet before they ever contact an agent. We don’t see statistics on how many sellers search the Internet looking for an agent, but we can assume that quite a few are here.

But where on the Internet are they finding you? Is it your own website that brings them, and if so, how did they get to your website?

Your own website is the one place you can track easily. You can set up a different autoresponder campaign on each page of your site – and you’ll know instantly how many people came to you from each of those pages.

You can also create different landing pages for people who come from different social media sites. If you’re writing Localism posts on Active Rain you can invite readers to opt in for a special report you’ve set up on one page, while your contacts from LinkedIn, Facebook, and other sites can be directed to different pages.

Once at your site, your autoresponder can capture the names while they deliver the promised reports. Since they’ve opted in to hear from you, you can follow up with a drip campaign designed just for that segment of your audience. Autoresponders are not expensive, and they’re not difficult to use. Get Response and Aweber both allow you to set up an almost unlimited number of autoresponders.

Then, the reporting features let you see how many people opened your message, and how many clicked on your links.

Since we don’t know how many sellers use the Internet and you don’t want to miss the 20% or so of buyers who are looking in other places,, you do need to use other media in addition to the web. On a given day you may be running an ad in a newspaper, a homes magazine, and on the radio. How will you know if those ads are working? You can’t ask people to bring in a coupon for “cents off” a house!

For these people, you simply need to remember to ask how they found you. And then write it down. Keep track of where your customers and clients are coming from.

Once you’ve seen what works, stop spending money on what doesn’t work. This can be difficult, because none of us want to “miss something.” I well remember how hard it was to finally say “no” to placing an ad in a homes magazine. We knew it wasn’t getting results, but since everyone else in town advertised there, we were afraid that if we weren’t there people might think we’d gone out of business.

But they didn’t. The only result was that we kept the $400 per month to use for other things.

So keep track – and then focus your marketing efforts in the places that bring you results.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she’ll be happy to put together an entire package – from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent’s phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers prewritten letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO’s, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what’s included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com

Have you read a real estate purchase and sale agreement lately? They contain pages and pages of blanks to be filled in with the details of a home purchase.

The purchase price is just the first detail.

Next are the terms under which you will be paid that price, beginning with how the buyer is going to come up with the money. The most beautiful terms to any seller’s eyes are, of course, “All cash at closing” with no lender involved. But only a handful of home buyers have the cash to simply write you a check and buy your home.

Most home buyers will be getting a loan, and since the sale is contingent on that loan, you need to look at how much they’re putting down and what kind of loan they’re going after. Talk with your listing agent about the requirements of the loan your buyers want to use. Your home may qualify for that loan, or it may not.

And, your buyers may or may not qualify. Ask to see the pre-approval for their home loan before taking your home off the market.

Next are contingencies. If your buyer makes an offer contingent upon the sale of their home, you or your agent need to do some research and find out how close they are to closing on that home. I’ve seen buyers offer with such a contingency when they had yet to put their own home on the market.

Another scary contingency is one based on receipt of a “Settlement.” I’ve seen people dream for years about what they’ll do when they finally get that settlement. Often it simply isn’t going to happen. Ask for documentation from a reliable source – such as their attorney.

“Contingent upon a home inspection” is a common phrase in a purchase agreement, and it is generally followed by a dollar amount that the seller will spend to correct repairs that the home inspector finds. Talk this over with your agent and decide how much you’re willing to give, because some home buyers will really try to take advantage of this one.

Most homes do have some minor problems, and most home buyers are willing to overlook them or fix them after the purchase. But some, if given free access to your checkbook, will demand that you do everything from replacing a window that’s lost its air lock to installing a new water heater because of its age, to tearing out a sidewalk and replacing it because the home inspector saw a crack.

Closing and possession dates could also be important to you. Some home buyers will ask for early possession – which is always a bad idea. What happens if for some reason the sale doesn’t close? You have a non-paying tenant in your house and you could have a devil of a time getting them out.

But if your situation is such that you want to sell your home but you aren’t quite ready to move out, an offer that allows you to stay a month or two past closing could be better for you than another offer for a few thousand more dollars.

Seller concessions are another item that affects the bottom line when selling a house.

Once you’ve read and understood the entire offer, you or your agent should tally all the numbers and see exactly how many dollars you’ll net once all factors are considered. If you’re looking at more than one offer you may find that one with a lower price at the top of the page actually brings you a higher net at the bottom of the page.

Look beyond the purchase price of your home – understand the bottom line.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she’ll be happy to put together an entire package – from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent’s phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers pre-written letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO’s, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what’s included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com

When you get a real estate license and hang it with a broker, one of the first things the broker will tell you is to contact your sphere of influence. It’s the first step in real estate marketing for individual agents.

You may never have heard that term before, so you might say “Who?”

Well, of course you know by now that your sphere of influence includes all the people you know in any capacity. Maybe even some you don’t really know – such as your Mom’s friends and your children’s playmates’ parents.

Your job is to let them all know that you’re now a real estate agent and that, of course, you’d like their business.

So what are you going to say? You certainly don’t want to sound like you’re begging, but if you don’t tell them you can help and they hire some darn stranger you really are going to feel like kicking yourself.

So make an announcement – much the same as you would announce your marriage or the birth of a child. Simply share your happy news with your friends.

You can include the reasons why you chose this career – reasons that will, of course, show your dedication to and fascination with all things real estate. You can also offer your services as their “information source” about the local market.

You can mention the hours you’ve spent viewing homes and studying the listings and sales in order to prepare for your new career. The idea, of course, is to convey the feeling that you’ve been out there learning all you can about your market and you know the latest information.

I like the phrase “You now have a friend in real estate” – used to convey the idea that they no longer have to take a chance with a stranger who may or may not know the market well and who may or may not be reliable.

If you want to make it short and sweet, use the greeting card format. This works well because the shape will entice people to open it. Make it convey your excitement as you embark on your new career, and emphasize the fact that they can call on you any time for information. You could say “You now have a friend in real estate. So whether you need to buy or sell or just want information about the market, call me!”

Be sure to include your business card in the envelope!

Once you’ve sent your initial announcement, I believe you should send a monthly, or at least quarterly, newsletter. They may forget about your announcement, so you need to keep reminding them. When you use the non-aggressive approach of simply conveying information, they will welcome your messages and they will see that you are becoming “the” expert in your chosen niche. You could call it “stealth” real estate marketing.

Your newsletter should include a short promo about your services, but more about market conditions and things going on in the neighborhood. You can even include buying or selling tips, or announcements about upcoming events.

Just make sure it’s a topic of interest to the majority of homeowners and would-be homeowners. Do include information about your new listings, and make sure your listing clients are on your mailing list!

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she’ll be happy to put together an entire package – from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent’s phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers pre-written letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO’s, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what’s included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com

There is no such word as difficult if you are a real estate lead generator and you would like to be successful. But that does not mean that you need to be very good. All you need to do is learn the different attributes that you need to possess.

1. Make a list of your contacts and target contacts. Be keen in targeting your contact. You should learn how to network and make friends. Friends and the friends of your friends can be your future clients. Do not forget to get their contact information for your future reference.

2. The success of your career will depend on your character. To be able to communicate with your customers effectively, you will need to have a personality that will attract your customers. You should build your own identity since you are not the only lead generator in the world. Your individuality will make the difference and will help you widen your network.

3. Master the art of prospecting. As the cliché goes, "Practice makes perfect.” Do not waste any time and spend every hour in prospecting your clients. Mastering your field will generate a wider market and better sales.

4. Once you have gathered your target clients, do not just stop there. Put yourself in action. Strategize and think of ways on how you can do sales with them. There are a lot of options for you to advertise. You may do contact like meeting with them personally. You can use the Internet by putting on your own website. You may also send e-mail, postal mail or banners and leaflets to expand your network.

5. Always make a follow-up. Always remember that follow-up is a form of great customer service. This will make them feel valued and they will not forget you for that. This is one good way to earn and retain your customers.

6. Always assess yourself. Make a daily evaluation of your activities. This will help you in assessing which strategies were effective or not. If one strategy was not effective, then you will be able to think of other strategies that will be more effective for you.

7. When something did not go well, do not lose hope. If a prospect customer did not find you effective and turned you down, then go to your next target. Do not be disheartened easily since that is really part of the job. One strategy may not be effective to one but may be convincing to another. Trial and error is just a part of the game!

With the high technology today, even small businesses go with the flow for better performance and easier jobs. In real estate, agents and companies buy real estate lead generation software to make their jobs easier and save time in acquiring their leads.

Real estate lead generation software are also found to be effective in generating revenue even for small time businesses. These softwares are updated with the fast trend of technology and most of the time they are Internet based.

You will be assured that you get to the right clients and they will be able to get to you too. The software should also allow you to be in control of the data you need. You will be able to gather leads, profile and segment features so that only those who will respond can benefit from other features.

You will also be able to target the areas that you prefer. Which means, all information that will be generated is all according to your preferences. With the software, you will have the option to market your real estate business in various options like e-mail, postal mail and even into fax.

Whenever you use the real estate lead generation software, you will right away be delivered with the lists of new addresses for your future references where you will be able to sort them out and distribute them according to your profiles. You will also be informed right away if a prospect customer responded.

When buying lead generation software, there are a few things that you need to consider. Remember that the software should only allow a minimal manual effort. The system should run automatically when in use. It should also be able to provide names and detailed contact information right away especially from those who showed interest in the service. The results that will be given to you should be predictable enough that would help you in generating more revenue and leads.

In choosing the perfect software, always keep in mind how it will satisfy all your needs for the business. If your main purpose is to acquire more leads, then the software should be able to do that for you. Make sure that you search the Internet for details regarding your prospect software. You may also try comparing prices and you may want to read reviews from those who have tried the products. Always keep in mind that a real estate lead generation software should be able to help you and not to burden you.

[tags]leads generation, leads generation software, real estate leads generation, real estate business[/tags]