There are some great ideas regarding map useage, how maps can be personalized to your market, how they can be integrated into your website to drive traffic, the seo benefits and much more. And how to have a real estate virtual assistant create maps for you.
Many real estate professionals focus the majority of their time generating leads and servicing current clients and are excellent at it, but drop the ball when it comes to staying in touch with clients after the sale. As your real estate virtual assistant can create and implement an ‘After the Sale’ stay in touch campaign so you stay top of mind consciousness with your closed (I hate saying ‘past clients’) clients.
Management of this plan is best done in your contact management software and might include staying in touch with the following activities:
New home Congratulations card
Monthly online newsletter
Quarterly referral reminder card
Birthday cards to the whole family
Home Anniversary card
Daylight Savings reminder
Holiday greetings
Quarterly phone call
Annual appreciation event
Halloween pumpkins
Thanksgiving pies
Discounts from local vendors
Mother’s Day flower
Father’s Day gift certificate
If your listing coordination consists of direct marketing, you can have your real estate virtual assistant custom design ‘Just Listed and Just Sold Postcards‘ to market your listings or use template designs for the many online companies offering this service. ExpressCopy.com, QuantumMail.com, and ColorForRealEstate.com are among the most popular.
Some of your contact management and Internet flyer software include templates for your convenience.
One of the first questions to ask yourself is, “Who is my target market?” Do you want to market to homes surrounding your listing, prospecting for more listings? Or are you targeting buyers and want to mail to a move-up neighborhood or apartment complex.
You will get a much better return on your investment if you or your real estate virtual assistant follow-up your postcard mailing with a phone call!
Let’s continue our discussion of Listing Coordination. Yesterday we talked about using Postlets for your Internet flyers. There is another product you will want to consider to having your real estate virtual assistant use when marketing your listings on the Internet…Vflyer.com.
Vflyer has a free version, but you can only have 5 active flyers. Even though there is a cost, it has some great features.
1. It contains a slide show and a link to your real estate website on the first page of a multi-page flyer. Below are examples from a flyer I created for Teri Isner:
Many of your real estate companies post your listings to Trulia, Backpage, GoogleBase, FrontPage and Zillow and other real estate websites. Usually these postings link back to company websites and pages. One of the benefits to having your real estate virtual assistant create your own Internet flyers with a product such as Postlets.com is it markets you instead of your company.
Postlets is free, but there are some limitations with the free account. Ads run down the right side of the flyer and you can only upload 6 photos. Here is an example of one of Scott Darling’s flyers:
One features I really like on Postlets is the ‘walkability score’ from WalkScore.com. This score indicates how easy it is to walk in the neighborhood and shows what establishments are within walking distance of the house.
Many real estate agents that I know either hate writing descriptions for their properties or don’t have the time to put much thought into it. Guess what? You don’t have to! Your real estate virtual assistant can do this for you with photos and basic information about the property.
We handle Listing Coordination for Mike Manosky in Huntsville. Mike sends us the MLS sheet, photos and a check list he completes when taking the listing. Mike had compliments form a Craigs List prospect from this property description we wrote for him:
Paradise is here and you have arrived. Come take a look inside this amazing ranch with your own private oasis. The one of a kind floor plan makes for enjoyable family living and easy entertaining. From the moment you enter into the tiled foyer you will see that this specially designed home has something for everyone. Step down into the great room with wood floors, gas fireplace and a wall of windows that brings the lovely outdoors in.
An awesome designer kitchen features wood floors, vaulted ceilings, smooth top range, dazzling window, and an abundance of cabinet space. A beautiful gas fireplace adds ambience to both the sitting area and the great room. In addition to the formal dining room, there is a charming eat-in kitchen area with two picture windows. Need a place to call your own? Check out the sitting room, perfect for a home office as the view is endless. The master suite boasts an 11 foot trey ceiling, dual vanities, walk-in closet, whirlpool tub and separate shower. The additional bedrooms are sized perfectly for guests or a growing family. Relax on your covered patio and enjoy your retreat’s lush landscaping. Summertime is a blast with the inviting super-sized pool with waterfall. The tree-lined property has no neighbors behind and is fenced for extra privacy. Come on out today and start living in paradise!
Getting back to Listing Coordination, your real estate virtual assistant can enhance your listings on Realtor.com.
Do you know you can add a scrolling Headline that rotates between two messages? A great place to promote your real estate website.
You are not limited to just the photo uploaded by your MLS and can add up to 23 photos.
There is also a Custom Message Box. Here you can talk about the home buyer tax credit, a service your offer, free reports and anything you can think of. How about a link to your blog with local events and happenings?
Idea #3 is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant can help promote your events, seminars, webinars, You Tube videos or anything else that needs promoting through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs.
My friend Tim Burrell is a Realtor from Raleigh NC and Palos Verdes CA, as well as a real estate trainer. He is offering an invaluable free webinar on February 25 about how to negotiate short sales to a successful close. Below is how I have promoted Tim on my various networks:
Tim contacted me this me this week about an upcoming training for real estate professionals and their assistants whose job it is to close short sales. We all know how challenging short sales can be! Tim’s training is invaluable to any Team member or Real Estate Virtual Assistant who is in the trenches getting short sales to closing!
I have known Tim Burrell for years and he is the consummate professional and a fun person to learn from. Read what Tim has to sayand take advantage of his FREE Seminar…you will be glad you did!!
“It took me seventeen years to learn the best way to do short sales. I have been teaching Realtors how to do short sales, which is like teaching donkeys to fly. You can launch them with high amounts of energy, but they do not stay with it for very long unless you give them lots of support. Most Realtors do not like the persistence, detail and repetitive work that it takes to negotiate a short sale with a bank, because most of them do not have a C personality type.
So, I am concentrating on teaching how to negotiate with the bank, mainly for the team members and Real Estate Virtual Assistants. The Realtors can do the Realtor part of it i.e. get the listing and get an offer. The team does the part that makes the difference: getting it approved. The negotiating techniques I teach have enabled me to get all but one of my short sales approved.
The Realtors need to learn this also, because they are responsible for the whole transaction. However, their team members or Real Estate Virtual Assistants take to it better than they do.
If you are interested, go to www.ShortSaleNegotiatingSpecialist.com to register for a free webinar February 25th at 3 pm eastern time, and bring your team members and assistants. After all, it takes the same amount of time to negotiate a short sale that does not get approved by the bank as it does to negotiate one that is approved… and the ones that are approved pay much better.”
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Listing Coordination is a popular task to outsource to a Real Estate Virtual Assistant. Many real estate companys input your listings into the Multiple Listing Service for your, but if not your VA can do it. It is tedious work and something most real estate professionals I know hate doing it themselves!!
