This article presupposes that you care about real estate or at least your little chunk of it. You must love to write about something to do with this industry if you want to attract the attention of people who are also interested in the subject. If you don’t care, you’ll get bored and this will reflect in your writing, which will become dull and plodding. The writing of people passionately interested in what they do shines, even beyond spelling and grammar (although these are important and I’ll address them below).
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Today, virtually every task a business does is either performed, supervised or filed on the Internet or inside your computer. That’s why it is crucial to choose effective web realtor tools, and if these are free, you can’t ask for more!
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NeighborCity Serves Up Recommended Agents by Joel Burslem at Future of Real Estate Marketing

Video Gets Real Estate Agents More Listings: WellcomeMat Report by Joseph Ferrara at Sellsius Real Estate Blog

Things you may have missed while contemplating the RPR by Brian Boero at 1000Watt Consulting

How To Manage Your Leads More Efficiently by Jeff Manson at Geek Estate Blog

You’ve done it all. You’ve succeeded in the real estate business and there’s no one that can sell more homes than yourself. Your ego is larger than life.

You’ve accomplished everything you can as a real estate agent. Now it’s time to take on a much more daunting task…becoming the broker.

Many successful real estate agents become so they can teach others how to succeed just like they have. If you’ve reached that point in your career, it’s time to build your team. Here are some great articles on building your real estate team.

How to Build an Effective Real Estate Team

Top 10 Real Estate Team Leader Best Practices

How To Build a Strong Real Estate Team

4 Tips To Building a Real Estate Team

Keys to Success in Building a Real Estate Team - Hire Talent & Effective Systems

There is a generally accepted trend online, that people will “research globally, but shop locally”. This is especially true for real estate. That’s why it is important for your website to be seen. There is also a recognizable pattern online that, most real estate customers use the first realtor they contact. As a realtor I’m sure that you have said to yourself “hey, I know those people, why did they list with that realtor instead of me”. Chances are, that is the first realtor that they came across.

Real estate online is so hot that Google is talking about creating a whole separate Google directory just for real estate. Yahoo already has a “lead buying” program just for Realtors. HomeGain is reporting a record 5.5 million visitors to their website in the first part of 2006. Many of my clients have already gone through the process of buying leads at Yahoo and other real estate “lead capture” portals. Most of these lead buying programs can be expensive to join and the leads can also be pricey. I have spoken with many Realtors all over the country that participate or, have participated in these programs. I hear good and bad things about these programs. However it is my opinion that you should spend your money on marketing your website and then all the leads that you get are yours to keep. Technology, especially the internet has forever changed the way people search for real estate and how they contact local Realtors. The National Association of Realtors 2004 survey of home buyers tells us that 71% of home buyers used the internet to start the search for their new home. That is up from 62% in 2003.
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How To: Eliminate the Guesswork from Site Design by Matthew Swanson at Geek Estate Blog

FTC Says MLS Cannot Exclude Discount Broker Listings from Feed to Public Websites by Joseph Ferrara at Sellsius Real Estate

Better Homes and Gardens takes real estate iPhone Apps beyond listings by Brian Boero at 1000Watt Consulting

Terabitz Launches New Web Platform for Brokers by Joel Burslem at Future of Real Estate Marketing

Online Real Estate Broker Redfin Adds More Recent Sales Data And Links To Blogs by Leena Rao at TechCrunch

Real Estate Marketing: Dominating a Niche Market by Mark Knowles at RIS Media

Many Realtors fail to utilize these social media profiles correctly and even though they can drive traffic to their website or blog, connect with customers and prospects, build your brand, and give status updates on Twitter, many are actually hurting themselves more than they’re helping themselves.
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If you’re not familiar with Pay Per Click marketing, you’re in for a treat. When people search for products or services online, they search by using keywords or keyword phrases. If you were to do a search on Google for “real estate” or “homes for sale”, you will see that the top spots in the search results are occupied by large nationwide real estate companies or companies that provide real estate services of some sort. These companies spend tens of thousands of dollars every month to maintain their high page rank in the search results. At first glance, you might be saying to yourself, yikes, how can my real estate website compete with that? Here’s the good news. You don’t have to! Pay Per Click Advertising can put your ad right along side the big boys. The answer is simple. You don’t want your ad for your real estate website to come up in the search results for “real estate”. That’s too broad. You need to be more specific. For example, you want your ad to be shown when someone searches “real estate in Glens Falls” or “homes for sale in Glens Falls” or “real estate listings in Glens Falls”. If you’re a Realtor in Glens Falls, that’s where you’re potential customers are looking. Your customers won’t type in “real estate” when they do their search. They will type in “real estate in Glens Falls”. The “natural” search results listings will most likely be dominated by the big companies, but guess what? Glance over to the right and you can see your ad for your real estate website right along side the big boys.
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Online real estate reality check by Tim Fagan at Future of Real Estate Marketing

New Trends in Housing by Elizabeth Johnson at Sellsus Real Estate

5 Ways Twitter Jump-Started My Business by Joshua Ferris at Geek Estate Blog

Google made a big real estate move today by Brian Boero at 1000Watt Consulting

How to Lose Clients & Alienate Colleagues by Eric Bramlett at Geek Estate

Newly licensed real estate agents all over the country face the same dilemma; life after real estate agent licensing exams.

Truth is there are more real estate agents than you can shake a stick at, but only a few fully embrace the opportunity to distinguish themselves from the others.

Simply being licensed is no longer enough and there are no guaranteed shortcuts to success. Still, there are scores of companies guaranteeing success if you buy their products.
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