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Real Estate Client Referrals Uses Social Media, Too!

RECR has always tried to stay on the cutting edge of lead generation. And, one avenue that has come about recently is the advent of social media and the power that it can give real estate agents in lead generation. It only makes sense that we have a presence there considering how many are tapping into that power.

And, the fascinating thing about it is the reasoning behind why it is so popular. This is one of the best examples I have ever found as to why social media exists, why it works, and why so many are turning towards it to help build their businesses!!

Into social media? Follow Clint on Twitter…and fan us on Facebook! You can also subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Slideshare.

Let me start of by saying that this is satire. And this should be read with that idea in mind. It is intended to be humorous. Nothing more. Ok?

As long as we understand one another, you can keep reading…

If not, please push ALT + F4 now.

Common Man’s Dictionary to Real Estate Advertising

1 car garage: Sure, you can drive your Ford Escort into the garage but there is no room to open the door.

Advertisement: A tool used by business to get money out of people that don’t have it for something that they don’t really need.

And much, much more: Truthfully, nothing else comes to mind. But, we can’t tell you that.

Auditor: Person that arrives after battle to finish off the wounded.

Bank: Loan shark.

Beachfront property: No hurricane insurance available at any price.

Bedroom in basement: The basement has a 1′ by 2′ window you might be able to squeeze yourself through as an alternative to burning to death in a structure fire.

Bright and sunny: No window treatments or venetian blinds are included because previous owners simply nailed Pikachu blankets to the window frames.

BRILLIANT CONCEPT: Do you really need a two-story live oak tree in your 30-foot stained-glass sky dome?

Broker: What buying a house is going to make you.

Budget: Written proof that you can’t afford the things you want.

Build sweat equity: The house is not habitable currently and unless you plan on working your hind end off to make it livable, it would be easier to bulldoze this place and live in a tent.

Cape Cod: Stylized after a 74 yr old lobster fisherman’s garage.

Cash Flow: The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

Cathedral Ceiling: You will go broke trying to heat this place. It would be easier to set fire to the couch.

Charming: Small. See also, “Tiny”. Snow White might fit, but five of the dwarfs would have to find their own place. See also “Cute,” “Enchanting,” and “Good Starter Home.”

Close to all amenities: The backyard is a shopping mall parking lot.

Close to Schools: You will spend a generous portion of your morning and evening commute stuck behind buses in just about every street you attempt to take to avoid them.

Comfortable: One coat closet larger than the “Charming” home.

Commuter’s Dream: Located at the bottom of an off-ramp right beside a truck stop.

Completely Remodeled: Not only does this statement give the company attorney a stroke, it also usually means new kitchen counter tops and a vanity sink in the bathroom.

Complete remodeling in 1992: Hurricane Andrew…’nuff said.

COMPLETELY UPDATED: At the advise of the listing agent, the seller has decided to remove the metallic gold shag carpeting from the living room and replaced the avocado colored stove.

Contemporary: The house is at least 15 years old.

Country living: Too far from anywhere to drive to work…or to shop…or get to an emergency room in time to prevent bleeding out from a paper cut.

Country in the city: A grotesquely overpriced large lot with a 2 bedroom house built before World War I that used to be on 100 acres that have been split off and sold to a Home Depot and a car dealership. Yes, there is a Starbucks in the parking lot.

Cozy: Not a single room could fit a full sized bed. And, the toilet doubles as a kitchen counter when you close the lid.

DARING DESIGN: It’s a warehouse.

Desirable neighborhood: This “charming” house is extravagantly overpriced thanks to being located next to a neighborhood where the snobs live.

Doll-house: Tiny place filled with ugly knick-knacks.

Easy Care Yard: Acres of Red or White rock used to systematically cover actual useful space.

Easy freeway access: Located right on the noisiest arterial street closest to the freeway.

Easy to heat: See “cozy”.

Efficiently designed kitchen: The kitchen is too small to fit two people at the same time and everything you need to reach is simply done so by turning around. The down side is that in order to open the stove, you have to step into the living room.

Everything’s Been Updated: Sure, they updated all the things inside the house…but the house itself has been condemned.

Executive neighborhood: Everyone’s last name in this area is Jones. And yes…you are required to keep up with them.

Extra Storage: Four coat hooks nailed on the back of the front door.

Gated Community: There is a reason it is gated…Every seen ‘District 9′???

Great Starter Home: House has 4 rooms. Two of which are additions.

Handyman Special: Forget It! You don’t have the skill required to make this home livable.

HI-TECH/CONTEMPORARY: Lots of steel shelving with little holes. You know…the kind your dad used to store tools on in the basement. There is also a lot of glass in places most people wouldn’t put it.

Wont last long!: This home hasnt sold in 374 days after two price reductions and the sellers have finally given up hope on making any money on this sale so they dropped the price another $20K.

Immaculate: Remove your shoes. Chances are the carpet is white along with the walls, furniture, cabinets, appliances, and the family pet.

In-city living: The house comes with a deadbolt lock on all windows, a bar across the door capable of stopping a battering ram…and a moat. Being outside in this neighborhood after dark will probably require an armed escort.

Institutional Investor: A active housing investor from 2006 who is now locked up in a mental institute.

Just available: The previous owner just died on the premises. That is the only way anyone would want to sell a home in this market unless they are trying to save a foreclosure. Hope you don’t believe in ghosts.

Large family room: The basement can hold a couch and a chair…which is more than can be said for the living room. Just try to keep the kids from eating the exposed insulation.

Lots of storage space: The basement is too small to be called a family room.

Low maintenance lot: No yard. The kids will have to play in the street. Or, maybe in the shopping mall parking lot.

Luxury Living: It has a Jacuzzi tub. It’s leaning against the wall of the garage. But, at least it has one.

Market Correction: The day after you buy a house.

MUCH POTENTIAL: Steer clear unless you have a lot of money and actually believe your blind dates really did have nice personalities. See “Ready to Rehab,” and “Fixer Upper.”

Must see inside: Yeah…that’s cause the outside is ugly.

MUST SEE TO BELIEVE: An absolutely accurate statement. It is hard to drive that kind of pain home through the eye without actually using a sharp instrument and a forceful thrust.

Market Correction: The term your broker/agent uses for a market crash while telling you that your house is worth 37% of what you paid for it.

Meticulously maintained in the original condition: The avocado-colored appliances are 50 years old. Minimum.

Modern: It doesn’t have a dirt floor and it is insulated with something other than beaver pelts and flour sacks.

Motivated sellers: Subtract 15% from the asking price and see if they counter.

Natural setting: Forget about planting anything because the deer will eat everything in your yard but the sagebrush and knapweed.

Near transportation: an Amtrak train goes through the backyard roughly every 15 minutes, day and night.

Neighborhood Watch: Your next door neighbor has binoculars trained on your house. Your movements are tracked and reported to the police any time you have company.

Newly remodeled kitchen: The 50-year old cabinetry and faucets have been replaced with cheap modern equivalents.

Nice Condition: Apparently “nice” means different things to different people. See also: “Lipstick on a pig”.

Nighttime Security: The street lights located on all corners of the home completely eliminate darkness 24 hours a day. Sleep is impossible.

No need to preview: Yeah, because if you did, you wouldn’t show it!

Old charmer: Herbert from Family Guy lives next door.

ONE-OF-A-KIND: Ugly as sin. The neighbors hope the place burns down so their property value goes up.

Park-like setting: There is a tree located somewhere on this block.

Partial mountain view: You can see the tip of (insert name of local mountain) if you climb the roof and stand on a chair.

Pet friendly neighborhood: Various forms of organic matter are constantly deposited in your front lawn despite the fact that you don’t own any pets.

Plenty of Parking: The stadium across the street has ACRES of parking spaces available.

Practicing Water Conservation: Yeah, the lawn is died. No one watered it. Ever. (Thank you Steve and Heather Ostrom!)

Prestigious: Expensive. Probably not worth it, either.

Prime Location: We have already had better offers from more qualified people than you…don’t ask.

Quaint: Buy a wall paper steamer so you can get that crap off the wall without having to gut the entire place.

Ready to move in: The interior has been painted with one coat of cheap paint and the shag carpeting has been raked and shampooed.

Ready to remodel: This place is about to collapse; you will have to invest twice the asking price in remodel before you can move in. Seen the movie “The Money Pit”??

Recreation room with wet bar: Basement has been sheet-rocked, painted and has a faucet.

Reduced To Move: See also: “Walmart Rollback”

Rent With Option to Buy: We know you wont be able to qualify for crap…But, if you can make steady payments, it works for us.

Safe Neighborhood: Regardless of your attempts at privacy, your neighbors will continue to attempt to peer through the slits in your Venetian blinds. See also: “Neighborhood Watch”

Seasonal creek: There is a 4 foot wide, 6 inch deep muddy ditch that runs across the property…And it only fills up after a good rain or during spring thaw.

Secluded setting: The only thing further away from civilization is a polar ice cap. Grizzly Adams once lived here.

Show and Sell: In other words, the listing agent will be doing no marketing and the stubborn seller doesn’t want it staged.

Shows Well: The seller actually cleans the place up before you bring your buyers over.

Sophisticated: Plain. White walls with zebra print rug and furnishings. A large piece of abstract art is in the dining room and a canvas the size of a Chevy hangs on the wall covered in what appears to be pantyhose, tin foil, and computer diskettes.

Spacious: We knocked out a wall and expanded the living room into the garage.

Sprawling ranch: Inefficient floor plan that appears to have been designed by a drunk monkey.

Storybook: This house is old and the roof is not flat. See also: “Little House On The Prairie”

Stunning house: The house is not ugly…the interior, on the other hand…

Sunny corner lot: There are no trees anywhere near this property located on the corner of the two busiest streets in town.

Sunken Tub: The tub isn’t sunken…it fell through the floor. The remaining structure is only capable of holding water or a body. Not both.

Territorial view: Great view of your neighbor’s bedroom window and “private” hot tub with the glass roof. If you lean hard against the glass and look hard to the left, you can see a broken down Pontiac in the alley.

Three season sun room: Putting screen up around your front porch does not make it a “sun room”.

TLC: Tear down, Level and Condemn!! (This after a Realtor told me her country property needed just a little TLC…Upon visiting, I promptly fell through the front porch up to my knees!)

Townhouse: A 3 story walk-up on the north side that is sandwiched between two others that look exactly the same. Not only can you hear your neighbors fight, but you hear when they play music, watch TV, use the bathroom, or blink.

Tudor: A quaint two bedroom where both bedrooms are now in the attic which is not insulated.

UNIQUE CITY HOME: Used to be a warehouse.

UPPER BRACKET: No, this doesn’t include you. See also: “Executive Neighborhood” and “Prestigious”

Usable land: Vacant lot. Probably filled with broken glass, nails, large rocks, bicycle parts, and Jimmy Hoffa.

Victorian Sweetheart: Once you steam off the wallpaper, you will need to strip off 14 layers of lead-based paint.

Walking distance to (insert noun here): There is nowhere to park your car within 20 minutes of this house.

Well Below Market: We keep having to reduce the price on this shanty because nobody wants it.

Will Help Finance: Soooo….the owners know they’re asking too much. And, taking that into consideration, they are more than willing to “help” you get into this house that you can not qualify on your own.

YOU’LL LOVE IT: No. No, you wont.

Feel free to add your own in the comments!!! Id love to see them!!

Follow Clint on Twitter and make sure you go to the RECR fanpage and become a fan!! If you have any questions about RECR, please call Clint at 800-977-7058.

A day in the life of the internet…
Created by Online Education

I wrote a featured post recently about choosing your words carefully when it comes to an agent’s tag line and how to make that better. As I was writing that post, I kept thinking to myself…..Well, what about all of these listing ads??  Why not write about them as well??

I see examples all the time of bad MLS photos. But, what is more prevelant to me is the incredible lack of decent COPY in these same listing ads.

See…One of the more routine activities of a Realtor’s job is to write copy for the ads that are used to support your listings.  Whether those be online, print, brochures, or flyers, the goal of these ads is create a positive explanation of the property that will increase the flow of traffic to that ad from interested buyers.  And, lets face it….that is the ultimate goal in this form of advertising.

However, it is fairly easy to fall into the grey area and start to make statements that aren’t necessarily true…perhaps even blatently false…and even worse, bordering on discriminatory.

Now, I know that no one actually intends to write copy that is discriminatory.  But, the fact of the matter is that some of the text used can be just that depending upon who is reading the ad.

Here are some of the reminders that I have compiled both from some of the listings I have seen and a list that I found in BrokerAgentPro:

1. Describe The Features Of The Property Remember to stick to the facts about the property.  Obviously, you can embellish a bit to make the language more fun, but don’t blow it out of proportion.  Also, don’t profile your potential buyer by focusing the ad on one specific style of buyer.  We all have some idea of what type of buyer will suit the need for the property, but isn’t every financially qualified person a potential buyer? Here are some examples of what you should say:

• Condo with exercise center and pool
• Historic home with wrap-around porch
• Qualified Senior Housing
• Located On Cul-De-Sac
• Bring your Hammer and lots of ideas!
• Extensive Remodeling including windows, new floors
• Bright and Sunny living room
• Comfortable and Spacious
• Designer colors!

Avoid phrases that focus on the buyer.  Also, consider subtle little things that might be interpreted wrong by a potential buyer:

• Empty Nester’s Paradise (Are kids welcome??)
• Great family neighborhood (Will singles be allowed??)
• Hispanic Community (Uhhhh…Do I need to elaborate??)
• Near Indian grocery (Is this the Indian part of town??)
• Perfect for a single guy (Is it not safe for a single female????)
• Bring your kids! (Uhhh….Sorry, but I dont have any….)
• Totally remodeled (Really???  EVERYTHING was redone????)
• New heat and AC (The entire system or just the unit itself???)
• New carpet! (Well, it was new last year…)
• Wonderful neighbors (Rock bands are fun neighbors!)
• Kept in perfect condition (Oh yeah??  Is that what the inspection report will tell me???)
• All new appliances (Does that include the water heater and the furnace?)

2. One thing that agents like to do in the ad copy is make descriptions of the neighborhood that the listing is located.  This is all well and good and adds a sense of the community, as well as the home itself.  Some good examples are:

• Gated neighborhood
• On golf course
• Horses allowed
• Tree-lined street
• Secluded off-street location
• Close to Shopping

Now, remember…its perfectly OK to talk about the neighborhood.  But, it is NOT OK to talk about the neighbors! Don’t use language that establishes a preference to the type of person that will fit with the local flavor.  Phrases to avoid:

• Exclusive area (Really….excluding whom???)
• Elite neighborhood (Who qualifies for this???)
• Country Club location (Are non-members allowed to buy there??)
• Surrounded by young families (So…elderly need not apply.)
• Mature area (So, you young people…you go somewhere else.)

3. Whatever you do, do not offer up assurances about what CAN be done with the property.  Not only can adding onto the existing home be more difficult that you anticipate, but the buyer could take your statement at face value and then be very disgruntled later on.  Between permits, easements, building codes, and neighborhood opposition…who knows. Anything could stop them from being able to do what YOU said could be done.  So, avoid things like:

• Un-obstructed view of the lake (From now til when???)
• Perfect for a bed and breakfast
• Add a second story and see all of downtown
• Ready for a new master bathroom
• Plenty of room for a pool (Of course, we have to move your sewer line and the underground gas line and the……)

4. Lastly, in the attempt to remain perfectly accurate, dont use brand names in generic ways…

• Jacuzzi tub (Umm, its says Whirlyride on the drain…)
• JennAire grill (Umm, the lid says Coleman…)

When it comes to marketing a home, the goal of the ad copy is to describe the features of the home and to attract quality buyers.  It is increasingly important to use accurate language.  But, more than that, it is vitally important that you do not violate anything within the COE or the Fair Housing laws. NEVER refer to the sex, racial origin, family status, or age of ANY potential buyers or current residents of a particular area.  And remember, if you direct your advertising to target a specific type of buyer, you are discriminating against other buyers that may be just as capable perhaps even more capable of buying the same property. And even more importantly, if you submit an offer from a potential buyer, and the offer is rejected, the buyer could feel that the rejection is a result of some form of bias against them based on the descriptions put in the ad.

One of the best lines that I was able to find when it came to writing ad copy — “Ignore the ambiguous meanings…Remember that YOUR REPUTATION IS AT STAKE!”

If you would like more information on Real Estate Client Referrals, please contact Clint at 800-977-7058. Or, fan us on Facebook! Or, follow Clint on Twitter!

You can barely toss a random trade magazine or scan through a blog post without there being some reference to fact that real estate agents should be embracing social media. Whether that be blogging to help market themselves or having a business page on Facebook…just about everyone everywhere is agreeing that this should happen on as many levels as can be handled.

The really funny thing is I think this phenomenon is actually hindering a fundamental issue that has plagued (and continues to plague) the real estate industry as a whole — the fundamental lack of communication between agents and clients.

This issue is no more prevalent than where I work. I deal with this very thing on a daily basis. And, the number one complaint that I get from the prospects that we send out to our member agents is that they never hear from the agent. Yet, when I go to check on the agent, I can see that they have updated Twitter 14 times during the day and have 12 new Facebook status updates and written 2 new blogs.

Really?? You told me you “didn’t have time to speak with that client” I sent you….yet, you had time to play Mafia Wars for 3 hours??

Now, before you start to judge me and my position on this matter, I understand the need for the social media profiles. I get it. I actually created the marketing position I am in at my company because of them. I understand. I don’t knock you for that.

But, to apply effort in that direction without taking the required time to speak with your clients is cyber-slashing your own wrists. Sure, you might get an additional client or two…maybe pick up a new listing thanks to that blog you wrote. Awesome.

Here’s the real deal — If you suck at follow-up communication with the clients that you already have, getting more clients isn’t going to make it any better for you. AND, if you cant follow up on the people you are working with right now because you feel the need to increase the size of your mafia or play Texas Hold’Em with your college buddies on Facebook, all you are doing is turning another good client into a real esate agent hater. Now that person is going to tell everyone they know what a schmuck you are and to never use you (probably naming your company or brand in the process).

Thus…All you are doing is making your actual job HARDER! And, you are making it harder for everyone else in your office, your company, your brand, and your general line of work.

Nice job. Those agents that are out there busting their tails really appreciate it. (Can you smell the sarcasm yet??)

One of the best things anyone ever told me with regards to sales is to do all your follow-up first. Get the hard stuff out of the way so that you have time for the fun stuff. (That is why we have dessert AFTER dinner!) Calling your mom or your beer-drinking buddies can wait. Call your clients first. Get that handled. After all, they are the ones that will be paying your commissions!

Why in the world would you want to hinder your potential income by pushing them away?? Seems counter-productive to me. Can you afford to just push away money?? Yeah, I didn’t think so…

Your clients are expecting to hear from you. Making them wait for information they requested is not smart. In fact, it’s rude. Don’t push them off. Don’t wait until the afternoon or the next day. Making them wait only causes them further frustration and builds up a level of disdain for you and your profession.

Call them. Get it over with…it will relieve them…AND it will relieve you because it has been dealt with — good or bad.

Social media is a power tool. And with great power comes great responsibility. That responsibility lies right on your shoulders. Don’t push away the things that pay your bills — your clients — because you have to get a new status update posted about your pedicure or feel the need to tweet about your football team’s shoddy performance the night before. That’s dessert. Take care of your meat and potatoes first.

If you would like more information on Real Estate Client Referrals, please contact Clint at 800-977-7058 or follow me on Twitter. If you are on Facebook, fan us up!