My first Winter Conference was two years ago in 2010.  This year will be my third and definitely not my last.

My First Year. In 2010, I really had no idea what Winter Conference was and why I should attend, but I figured it was a good excuse to get out of town, spend a day away from the office and meet some new people.  Having never attended, I didn’t know what to expect and spent the first half of the day sitting in the back of the room just taking it all in.  By lunch time, I had recognized a few faces and said hello to a few Facebook friends I had never met in real life.  By the afternoon, I was shaking hands, exchanging business cards and talking with my peers about what was working for them.  The breakout sessions offered a lot of new information on topics that interested me.  I left Prescott that year promising myself that in 2011, I would attend all three days.

My Second Year. In 2011, I felt more comfortable attending Winter Conference. I knew what to expect and knew more faces than the year before.  I had kept in contact with many of the agents from outside of my area and was looking forward to thanking them for the referrals and information they had shared with me over the past year.  I also was surprised when in the months before Winter Conference, I was approached to lead a discussion on trustee sales.  Walking the halls of the conference center in Prescott last year, I was no longer a fly on the wall that was just observing; I was part of the action.  By then I knew so many of the faces walking past me. I realized how I had been working in my own little world for so long.  The information shared over those three days was fantastic. I was able to head home and immediately put a number of items to use in my daily business.  Leaving Prescott last year, I knew this was one event I needed to attend every year.

My Third Year. This year, Winter Conference is going to be just as fantastic.  I was fortunate enough to be asked to be on the Winter Conference Planning Committee and was able to help in a small way plan what is going to happen.  As always, I am looking forward to seeing my old friends and meeting new ones, but I have come to realize it is so much more than just networking.  Walking away from Winter Conference, I am always so much more prepared for my business.  The Legislative Update from Tom Farley, AAR CEO, and Nicole LaSlavic,Vice-President – Government Affairs, keeps us informed of the critical changes affecting our industry at the state capitol.  The breakout sessions let me pick and choose the areas that I need to learn more about.  And this year, the rCRMS course that is included with the registration will put me one step closer to earning that designation.  Winter Conference really has become an event I don’t see how I could miss.

If this is your first time going to Winter Conference, let me give you a few tips.

• Don’t be shy. Talk to as many people as you can. The friends you will make are fantastic allies in your business and are great for asking questions.
• Attend everything you can fit in.  If you can only make it for one day, at least make it for that one day. But if you can attend all three, you will be blown away by the amount of things you learn.
• Go to the cocktail hours and the dinners and the lunches.  If you don’t think you are supposed to go to something, just ask.
• The regional caucuses on Friday are your chance to voice your opinion. You will learn a great deal about issues affecting the areas around you.

If you are still on the fence about going…  just go.  Try it and see what all the buzz is about.  I promise you that you will walk away being glad you did.  While there, make sure you look for me, say “hi” and introduce yourself.  I want to meet you and make sure you enjoy Winter Conference as much as I do.

We’ve covered this on the blog before, but it bears repeating. Here’s what what NAR has to say on the topic:

Tax time is nearing and once more rumors are circulating on the Internet and by email that the health care reform law enacted two years ago includes a 3.8% transfer tax on real estate starting in 2013. That rumor is not true and NAR has material available to you to explain how that 3.8% tax works. It’s a tax on a very narrow band of investment income for high-wealth households (those who earn $250,000 in a joint return or $200,000 as an individual) that could come into play on the sale of a house if the sales gain is more than $500,000 for a married couple or $250,000 for an individual. Even in the unlikely event the sales gain is more than that amount, the tax would only apply based on other considerations having to with the household’s income and tax situation. The bottom line is, the tax, which was imposed to help shore up Medicare, will only hit some portion of investment income. Video and explanatory article.  Free downloadable brochure on how the tax works. FAQ.

Just a quick note: AAROnline.com will be down intermittently on Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5 from 10:00am to 2:00pm. We apologize for the inconvenience.

An Open Letter to the AAR Family:

It is with a heavy heart that we share the passing of our friend and 2012 AAR President-elect John “Jack” Woerner with you. Jack was an agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. In addition, he was a Past President of the Green Valley/Sahuarita Association of REALTORS^® (2004), AAR Region Five Vice President (2007-2009), and 2012 AAR President-elect. Jack was to be the 2013 President of the Arizona Association of REALTORS^®.

President-elect Woerner was a friend, mentor, leader, father and husband who will be missed by so many. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Jan, and his family.

As details for his services become available, we will be sure to share them with you.

If you didn’t know Jack personally, you missed a special opportunity to connect with a kind and honorable soul.

Sincerely,

Holly Mabery, 2012 AAR President
On Behalf of the AAR Board of Directors and Staff

AAR’s email issues were resolved Wednesday evening at 5:10 pm local time by our excellent tech staff.

Our domain host now attributes the issue to a problem with their DNS (dynamic name server) service. DNS is the “Internet address book” which allows traffic to flow using domain names instead of IP addresses. Thanks to all who called and alerted us of this problem.

AAR has not been receiving email since 10:00am today (Wednesday, 1/11).  The problem is due to a corrupted Internet domain mail (MX) record hosted at one of our vendors. Our website, www.aaronline.com, is currently functioning. Rather than moving our domain records to another vendor, we are going to wait overnight to see if MyDomain corrects the email issue. Unfortunately, shifting the full domain record would result in 24-48 hour interruptions in service to almost all AAR Internet services, which is something we want to avoid. We apologize for any inconvenience and will continue to closely monitor this situation.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Crashmaster007

This is part four in a four-part series.  See parts one (property management), two (REOs and short sales) and three (improper drafting of documents & advertising issues).

Here is an important risk management issue for brokers and managers: How do you handle agent-to-agent conflicts that arise? You do not want them going throughout the office unresolved.  I am sure you have all seen instances where an agent with an issue starts going around an office trying to garner support or sympathy for “their side” of the conflict.  In-fighting can destroy office morale when left unattended.

Sometimes the only solution is to ask one of the offending agents to leave, or both, but that is probably the worst case scenario.  A good risk management option for a brokerage would be to check your office policies and procedures and try to shore up areas of behavior issues before they begin.

AAR has received many complaints related to in-house referrals.  An agent claims the broker did not want to intercede between the agents disputing the referral or make a decision on the referral for them, and the agent starts seeking outside sources to help them decide what to do next.  Again, it would be good practice to look through your polices on referrals or establish a policy to include verbiage such as, “All referrals between agents must be in writing, acknowledged by both parties, and the dollar amount or percent clearly described.”  The broker or office manager then has a policy to use regarding the referral, thereby eliminating the need for a controversial decision that could be challenged.

One final risk reduction point for brokers and managers: Agents often call AAR with questions that should really be addressed by the agent’s broker or office manager.  When the agent is asked whether or not they have spoken to their broker or manager, the agent responds no.  When it is suggested that the agent contact their broker or office manager, all manner of excuses are offered relative to a broker or manager’s availability, managers not having the knowledge, the agent not understanding when or who to contact at the brokerage, etc.  Implementing communication policies regarding the chain of command in your offices is something that should be researched in every office.  For example, if an agent has a question, who do they go to first: a mentor, the office manager, the broker?  At what point should contact with the broker be made and what form does the contact take?

BY JACK COTTON, CRS, CRB

The real estate business is a relationship business. This statement is never truer than it is in the luxury end of the market. High-net-worth individuals like to be with others who are like themselves and want to deal with people they know or are known by someone they know.

Depending on who you listen to, there are those who tell you that the concept of geographic “farming” in real estate is over; it’s dead; it’s for the losers of the business.

I don’t subscribe to this extreme position, but I do believe that we need to elevate the process of finding luxury clients to be more on the level of “gardening.” Farming is a hot tractor tilling hundreds, if not thousands, of dusty, manure-laden acres.

Gardening takes place in a smaller area, it is more precise, and there is rarely a tractor involved.

Gardening is so effective because the decision to buy or sell high-end real estate often is impulsive.  A high-end owner of real estate will wake up in the morning, look out the window and wonder what the view of the mountains or water are like from another angle.  That afternoon the call goes out, the house goes on the market and the search begins for a home half a mile away.

This concept of musical houses is why it is critical for you to use gardening to be “top of mind” with high-net-worth owners of real estate in your desired market area.

Select a small, defined geographic area in where you want to dominate the market.

Gardening this geographic area based on an organized plan of action can yield results because people of means like to be around people like themselves. Gardening geographically, therefore, can yield results as high-net-worth individuals are given the opportunity to “hand pick” their neighbors. In addition, a neighbor will often purchase adjacent property for added privacy or for a family member.

How do we garden? Again it is like farming, but on a smaller, more elegant scale:

Mailings: Mailings should be consistent, planned about a year in advance and reflect the quality of the service and product that you are representing.  The services, of course, are you, and the product is the high-end real estate you represent. 

Calling: The method of calling that has returned the greatest results for me is to call first with a very brief explanation of a mailing, usually a survey, they are about to receive and ask them to keep an eye out for it.

Events: ”By invitation only” property previews are a great way to meet people in your garden. You can join forces with a high-end retailer to enhance your event.

A master gardener would never till, plant, water and feed and then expect a beautiful floral display by the weekend. You might be surprised, however, at how fast results can come from real estate gardening.

Jack Cotton, CRS, CRB, has worked continually in the real estate company he started in his college dormitory room 37 years ago. Over the years, Jack has been involved in most of the record breaking luxury residential sales on Cape Cod, either directly or as coach to the agent involved. His books, Selling Luxury Homes: 12 Secrets Luxury Home Buyers Know and 12 Secrets Luxury Home Sellers Know  hit the Amazon bestseller list at the same time in October of 2011. Connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user (and AAR blog contributor) Bill Risser

The 2011 National Association of REALTORS® Conference and Expo was held in Anaheim, CA this year; a good time as usual. Anaheim is an excellent place for large events, and I know more than one person took advantage of the fact that it was right next to Disneyland! As is true every year, my favorite part is walking / talking with other attendees. Whether it’s your friends from other companies, online networking contacts you hardly get face time with, or vendor reps that you’ve never met, the face-to-face (F2F) interactions make this event worth going.

Theme Show

Each year I try to identify a single theme – some common string that runs through the booths, classes and hallway conversations. In my opinion, this was a continuation from last year. It’s no surprise that mobile is once again the front runner. People are still learning how to use their mobile devices in more useful ways. In fact, mobile devices have multiplied; bring on the tablets!

Tablets and Phones

Saturday morning I attended a session on using tablets and mobile devices in real estate. Amy Chorew and Ginger Wilcox lead the discussion in front of a jam-packed room. The room held hundreds and was bursting at the seems. Ginger started by painting a picture of the 2011 home buyer.

They pull up in front of a home for sale and pull out their iPad or smart phone. If they can’t see interior pictures within five minutes, they are frustrated. Five minutes is a LONG time to sit in front of a house waiting for more information.

I get it. I also get that some agents don’t know how to make “mobile friendly” information. It’s hard enough to keep up with the desktop web, let alone the mobile web. Ginger continued by addressing the question she gets asked the most.

Do I Need an App?

No, REALTORS® do not need an app. However, you should make sure that your website is mobile friendly. Do you know what your site looks like on a mobile device? I hope you’ve tried to check it out on your smart phone, BlackBerry* or iPad.

Visit howtogomo.com for tips on having a mobile-friendly site and to see what your site looks like on an Android.

Shiny App Syndrome

Ginger and Amy went through their list of handy apps. They both referenced the fact they have shiny app syndrome and have been know to download apps that never get used. For the sake of time, they filtered their apps list to the handy ones for real estate agents.

You’ve probably heard of the big ones like Dropbox, Skype, Twitter and Facebook. Here are some of the ones they mentioned that are lesser known:

• Expensify – track expenses, take pictures of receipts
• Milebug – track your mileage via GPS
• Magic Plan – build a floor plan from photos (iPhone only)
• My Measures – get dimensions of an object by taking a picture

Walking the Expo

As I mentioned before, no new trend stood out this year. Mobile advertising is still here – although there weren’t as many billboard-sized QR codes. Paperless file management is still being perfected by several different technology companies. Leads for purchase are everywhere. Banks are continuing their “but wait, we’re friendly” campaigns. All in all, nothing jumped out with the WOW factor. I did notice the foot massage booth stepped it up by adding a body shaker. I’ll spare you the ridiculous video.

FB 2 F2F

The next morning included peer-to-peer sessions. I chose Dale Chumbley’s Facebook talk. Dale is Facebook famous for starting the “365 Things to Do in [insert your city]” page trend and engaging his audience in creatively simple ways. After listening to his presentation, it’s no wonder he gets 50% of his business from social networking. Feel free to borrow:

“Crazy Things I See When Showing Homes!”

See something crazy when out with clients? Snap a photo and upload it to Facebook. This is a creative way to remind your friends that you are a REALTOR® that can help them buy a house too. Much better than using the line, “I’m a REALTOR® that can help you buy a house.” This picture is classic.

“What Is It?”

Do you like using photo distortion apps on your phone? Dale will modify a picture and ask his friends to guess what it is. I think it’s a fun way to keep people engaged. Can you identify this one without reading the comments?

Happy Birthday Videos

Have you ever wished a friend a happy birthday by writing on their FB wall? Yes. Were you 1 of 100? Yes. So… what are you going to do to stand out? Dale turns on the web cam and wishes his friends a happy birthday via video. As long as you have a web cam, it’s simple to post a video message within Facebook. Try it. If you don’t like watching yourself on video – don’t! Just post the message and continue on with your day. Start doing this today before it becomes the norm.

Even though Dale networks online better than you and I, his overall goal is still to meet people offline – a.k.a. in the real world. Facebook is a great way to communicate, but getting F2F is much better for business.

I like to stress the importance / significance of face time because so often I get wrapped up in all the techno-tools that I forget to mention what a lot of these tools are actually trying to accomplish: make our lives easier, make our businesses more productive or improve our relationships with others.

All in all, it was a great conference / expo. Thanks for reading!

 *Okay, okay. BlackBerry phones are smart phones too.

Yep.  I wrote that headline.  ”The Fallacy of Facebook Business Pages.”  Of course, I’m talking about pages created by REALTORS®.  In my opinion, 99% of them need to be deleted.  I’ve been saying that for nearly a year.  Finally, there is some support for my viewpoint. Chris Smith of InmanNext.com wrote the following post last month: You Need To Delete Your Facebook Business Pages Immediately.  It’s a quick read, so check it out.

When fan pages were first introduced, I admit I was firmly aboard the bandwagon.  I helped agents create pages.  Like every other instructor doing workshops, seminars and webinars, I touted the page as the place to do business on Facebook.  The messages went something like this:

Keep all your “business-y” stuff away from your profile and get it onto your page!

Drive people to your page to click “fan” or “like” so they can see the awesome content you post on your page!

Forget your typical website and simply use your Facebook page as your online presence!

Yes, I actually heard speakers (plural) promote that last one.  Use your page as your website.  Yikes.  I hope no one listened.

I will admit there have been some successful Facebook Pages in the real estate space.  Dale Chumbley’s “365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA” is the gold standard.  With over 16,000 likes, Dale has generated business from this page.  He has also spawned a host of “365” strategies.  Some have worked; most have not.  The key to Dale’s success was the extra-ordinary effort he put into his page.  He did not miss a single day, even if it meant dashing back to a hotel room at a conference so he could get his post online.  Do you have the ability to put the time, energy and effort into this strategy?  For most, the answer is no.  For any page strategy to reach this level of success, it requires a near Herculean effort.

So, does this mean Facebook is not an effective tool for agents?  Absolutely not.

I ask every group I present to this question: “Is your business about building relationships?”  The near unanimous response is a resounding YES!  (For a contrarian view on this point, check out this post.)

Let’s examine Facebook pages using the assumption that real estate is a relationship-based business.  First, an astounding statistic about pages:

94% of people that click like on a page never go back to that page.

Why?  Because they assume that the act of clicking like will result in new content posted to that page appearing in their Newsfeed.  Does it?  If the page is McDonalds, with over 11,000,000 likes, it most certainly will. If the page is the typical real estate page with say,  72 likes, it won’t. Or if it does, it will be so far down the Newsfeed, the scroll wheel on your mouse will burst into flames from the friction of trying to get to the post.  From research I’ve read, a page needs in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 5,000 likes, and each post on the page needs multiple comments, shares and likes for Facebook’s algorithm to place it high enough in the Newsfeed of the “likers” to be seen.  I have clicked “like” on nearly 100 local real estate business pages, and I have yet to see a post appear in my Newsfeed. And yes, my settings are properly configured.

To be fair, I have seen a post or two from a real estate business page appear high in my Newsfeed.  This only happens if I switch to “Most Recent” in my feed, and the page owner just happened to post in the minutes prior to me signing in to Facebook.  This is actually just dumb luck, and last time I checked, luck is not really a marketing strategy.

So, keeping our assumption about real estate and relationships in place, how do we use Facebook effectively?

By using Facebook as it was meant to be used.  By using it to create, maintain and grow relationships.  How is this done?  By strategically building custom friend lists that allow us to filter the incoming noise and target the outgoing message.  I have a couple of tutorials that walk you through the process.  It is not difficult, and once in place, you can spend as little as 15 minutes a day implementing a relationship-building strategy that revolves around your clients — past, present and future.

I am not suggesting you post listings on your profile.  I am also not suggesting you tout your successes and your awards on your profile.  I am simply saying use Facebook for the purpose Mark Zuckerberg intended it for:  creating, maintaining and growing relationships.

Stay tuned for a  follow-up post on the effective use of lists on Facebook.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…