Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Demand for Housing Will Increase in 2011


by The KCM Crew on December 13, 2010

The last Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed a substantial 10.4% month-over-month increase. According to NAR the index measures:

housing contract activity. It is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops. A signed contract is not counted as a sale until the transaction closes. Modeling for the PHSI looks at the monthly relationship between existing-home sale contracts and transaction closings over the last four years.

This increase confirms a growing feeling that demand for housing has begun to increase.

Both NAR and Fannie Mae expect an increase in sales over the upcoming five quarters. Here are their projections:

Bottom Line
Sales will increase over the next several quarters. The increase will initiate a housing recovery. However, price increases will not take place until current inventory levels diminish. That could take 12-18 months.


Click Here to read the article on the KCM Blog

Creating Your 2011 Internet Marketing Plan

Posted by Krista in Internet Marketing

Statistically, something like 94% of all residential real estate sales begin online. If you have been neglecting your internet marketing strategy, perhaps it’s time to start planning your strategy to compete online this year.

Internet marketing doesn’t have to be daunting, even if you aren’t very tech-savvy. To be successful, you need three primary components:

1. A Lead Generating Website – This is the heart of your internet marketing strategy. Simply put, a lead-generating website is one that is designed to get people to contact you. Often, that means giving away content (a free report, newsletter subscription, or access to members-only content) in exchange for your visitor’s contact information. If you don’t get this right, the rest of your online marketing efforts will be wasted.

2. A Marketing Strategy – Just because you build your website doesn’t mean people will come. How will you get people to your website? Common methods include pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing on Facebook and Twitter, or advertising your website in your offline ads and postcard mailings. Whatever you choose, pick one thing and stick with it until you get it working, or you may find yourself overwhelmed with lots of work for little payoff. Once you get your strategy to work, feel free to add other marketing strategies.

3. A Follow Up Strategy – Now that you are getting people to your website and collecting their contact information, the next step is follow up. What information can you send them to follow up? Assume it will take several contacts with a prospect before they are ready to talk with you about buying or selling a home. What information will they need to be convinced that you are the best agent to help them?

As with most marketing, internet marketing is a numbers game. The more traffic you drive to your website, the more you will convert to leads, and the more business you will eventually close.

However, a good internet marketing strategy involves creating a system, not a series of isolated marketing events. Everything you do should work together. If one of the above-mentioned components is broken, your system won’t work.

You may get a lot of traffic, but if your website doesn’t get prospects to give you their contact information, your efforts are wasted. Or your website may generate many leads, but if you don’t follow up repeatedly with prospects, those leads will become cold.

Click Here to read the article on RealityBizCoach

Crush It: Going Viral for 2011 is coming! Who have you invited?

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Coaching Recording from 01/06 and 01/13

Hi Everyone,'

Here are the links to the last two weeks coaching sessions.    I hope you find them beneficial!

Jan 01/06  Kick off the year Call! http://www.box.net/shared/o45ex5ldcx

Jan 01/13 Paul Johnson and Jeremy Forcier share ideas  http://www.box.net/shared/qto00eav0e