365 Real Estate Virtual Assistant

The post, The 11 Commandments of Social Media, was first written by Chris Street and then posted on eRealEstateSocial.com. I thought is to be so clever, I wanted to share it with you…

Whether you’re a creative type, a business owner or an experienced regional marketer, the proliferation of social media recently can confuse, bemuse and excite in equal measure.

It’s no longer enough to send out monthly newsletters or email campaigns to talk to potential customers – now we’re supposed to actually engage with them, talk to them, and respond to them in real-time across social media platforms.

The worst thing? You can’t escape it.

Facebook has more than 400 million users, Twitter accounts have increased by nearly 1,382% in the last 12-month period alone, whilst Technorati currently monitors more than 133 million blogs across the Internet. To survive online, social media involvement appears to be a must-have activity. Go where customers hang out.

There are, however, some basic considerations for effective social media engagement. Here’s my Top 10 Commandments for social media:

1. Thou shall not spam

Whatever you do, don’t spam your customers or target markets. They won’t appreciate a barrage of poorly-researched, irrelevant and inbox-clogging spam emails. Spamming inboxes – whether it’s company email addresses, Twitter accounts or Facebook will win zero brownie points and alienate you from any further contact. Once credibility is lost, it’s not coming back anytime soon, if ever.

Hyperlinking and acknowledging external sources on your blog makes common sense.

2. Thou shall not steal
Read more…

I understand how frustrating a real estate agent’s job can be…especially these days dealing with banks trying to get short sales through!! I am not one who passes on many jokes, but as your real estate virtual assistant, every once in awhile I will share something particularly funny.

This spoof by Mike Ferry, How to Stand out Over Other Agents in the Real Estate Industry, is one of those too funny videos, I know you will get a kick out of. Take a few minutes and laugh at our industry…

When I opened my mail today there was a nice fat package from one of my clients. I looked at it and thought “WOW, what is Clayton sending me?” As it turns out, it was 3 stacks of business cards…one stack for Realtors, one for Keller Williams Family Reunion attendees, and one for local businesses.

As Clayton’s real estate virtual assistant, I will be organizing these business cards into an Excel spreadsheet for importing into Top Producer, his Real Pro Systems website and Facebook.

Clayton has been collecting these business cards for a couple of years. Now we will put them to good use. We’ll stay in touch with these folks and possibly get a referral or two.

Do you need help managing your database and the pile of business cards you have stashed away in your desk drawer? We can help!

Having been a licensed Realtor for 17 years prior to opening my real estate Virtual Assistant business, I know most real estate agents don’t like the drudgery of shuffling paperwork, scheduling inspections and tracking down addendums. You would much rather be out working with buyers and sellers.

Well now, you don’t have to! Our Transaction Management Team will do it for you.

The following is a list of the basic services myREassistant.com provides (we are not limited to these, however):

• Brand our communication and software to your business.
• Review contract and addendums for accuracy & completion.
• Provide copy of contract and addendums to your office, clients, lender, settlement agent and co-op agent.
• Personalized contact with all parties introducing our services.
• Weekly follow-up with all parties and especially with YOU, keeping everyone informed!
• Arrange for appraiser’s access to the property and follow-up with the lender to obtain a copy of the appraisal.
• Ensure all deadlines are met.

Read more…

It is a challenge to choose a closing gift for your clients that has shelf life and is something the client will use and appreciate. A Closing CD with all of the documents from the real estate transaction, photos of the home and branding for you is the ideal solution. Here are a few examples of what your real estate virtual assistant can do for you:

Get more information on how you can get Closing CDs for your clients.

If your market is experiencing a high number of foreclosures, your clients and prospects will be interested in up-to-date real estate foreclosure statistics for your area.

As a real estate virtual assistant, I bring added value to my clients by subscribing to RealtyTrac.com which allows me to provide foreclosure information to my real estate agents free of charge. Providing this free information is a $660 value to my clients.

Foreclosure information can be used in any number of ways…market reports, blogs, videos, newsletters to name a few.

Here is how we used foreclosure statistics in Drew Hartanov’s blog.

Your real estate virtual assistant shares knowledge concerning Internet scams and other issues relevant to the real estate industry. Scammers have been targeting Craigs List rental listings for some time now. Below is a new wrinkle you need to be aware of:

Craigs List Email Scam:

Subject: Very interested in your posting

Hello,
I’m very interested in your add posted on Craig’s list, is this your add because I was looking at a few listing and I don’t know who is who. Please look and tell me if this is the one.

<http://www.newyorkjoa.com/bbs/data/accounts.craiglist.org>

Is the price right for this posting!!! because I want to buy it 100%!!!
Thanks !

Of course the verbage is a little off – it usually is, but when you read this email, the “who is who” part might make you think, “Oh no, somebody duplicated an ad on us again and now they can’t figure out which one is the real price.”

The trick is when you click on the link in this email, you think it will be your ad, but instead a screen pops up that looks JUST LIKE the official Craigslist login screen.

They are hoping you will be confused and/or curious enough to trick you into logging in to see your ad. When you do, they will get your log in and your password information.

The clue is, you need to check out the address up top – its not Craigslist. When you are looking at that fake login page, at the top it reads:
<http://newyorkjoa.com/bbs/data/accounts.craiglist.org/>

http://newyorkjoa.com/bbs/data/accounts.craiglist.org/

Craigslist has a warning now on their login screen, telling you all about this same kind of thing. (see below)

WARNING: scammers may try to steal your account by sending an official-looking email with a link to a fake Craigs List login page that looks like this page, hoping you’ll type in your username and password.

Look carefully at the web address near the top of your browser to make sure you are on the real Craigs List login page, https://accounts.craigslist.org

The safest way to login is go to the Craigs List homepage directly by typing in the web address, and then clicking on the ‘my account’ link.

We’re all Irish on St Patrick’s Day!

Did you get St. Patty’s Day greetings out to your clients? If not, let a real estate virtual assistant do it next year.

People like to know you are thinking about them even if it is only through an email they know you are probably sending to hundreds of other people. Sending holiday greetings makes folks feel special…especially if it is heartfelt with no call to action.

Be real, take the time to send a ‘thinking of you’ email or a hand written note and ‘the luck of the Irish’ will come to your real estate business.

As a real estate virtual assistant, I stay on top of new marketing techniques and share them with my clients. For example, Mr. Internet, Michael Russer, shared part of his latest coaching webinar ‘How Google’s MyMaps Can Put You Ahead of the Pack!’ on Facebook.

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.

Want help creating your maps? I’m glad to help!

This is a copy of an email that went out to my clients this morning…

“Daylight savings starts this weekend. Would you like a reminder email sent to your real estate database? See sample below…”

A real estate virtual assistant makes your life easier by suggesting marketing ideas and ways to stay in touch with your database.

Contact me anytime to talk about how a real estate virtual assistant can make your life easier.