Web Extras

Each month, our print newsletter Real Estate Broker’s Insider provides in-depth information and ideas to help readers grow their businesses and increase their profits.

But we often have valuable background material, additional information, or related resources that we just can’t fit in the newsletter. Listed below are a wide range of documents that add further insight and understanding to the articles in Real Estate Broker’s Insider.

These documents may be viewed and printed with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You may download a free copy by clicking on the yellow icon.

Learn more about Real Estate Broker’s Insider.

May 1, 2008

Buyer agent fee of 3% is most effective — Seattle-based discount broker Redfin looked at buyer agent commissions in its market and concluded that precisely 3 percent is the most effective bounty.

Click here to view the report.

April 15, 2008

Creativity, persistence characterize campaigns from marketing award winners — In a slowing market, many brokers and agents are taking chainsaws to their marketing budgets. But the savviest agents aren’t cutting their ad spending altogether. Instead, they’re taking a hard look at what works, and they’re getting creative about delivering their messages to consumers.

The Council of Residential Specialists (CRS) recently announced the winners of its annual marketing awards. Here’s a look at the award-winning campaigns from 2007.

Television commercials from Jeff Scislow, RE/MAX Results

Email postcard from Bruce Larson, Larson Group Real Estate

Print and billboard ads from Drena Hollingsworth, Hollingsworth Realty Group

• Have you done the Deed yet?
• There’s no place like home, billboard
• Today’s Modern Woman chooses Hollingsworth

April 1, 2008

Broker uses eye-catching cars to reel in consumers, low overhead to make money — What’s the first thing consumers notice about Bug! Realty? Its eyecatching Volkswagen Beetles, which are painted to look like red and black ladybugs.

That’s exactly what San Diego broker Kevin Seney had in mind when he launched Bug! Realty back in 2004. Seney’s business model hinges in large part on his ability to create a funky, fresh brand that will appeal to buyers and sellers from Generations X and Y.

Click here to view the Bug! Realty bug.

March 15, 2008

In a down market, savvy online strategies are a must — In his 10 tips for improved online marketing, Andrew Wetzler president of Internet marketing firm MoreVisibility recommends using search engine marketing. “Your only limits are how aggressive you want to be — and how big your budget is,” he says.

Click here to learn how Gabel Real Estate achieved a ten-fold increase in traffic to its website with search engine marketing.

Real Living calls itself the first national brand focused on women — From a logo designed to appeal to women to a friendly font on the marketing materials to a store-like feel at its offices, Real Living keeps women in mind.

Click here to see a typical reception area.

Click here to see a typical seating area.

March 1, 2008

With franchise agreement expiring, broker polls agents — who vote for independence — For 12 years, Bill Aboumrad had run RE/MAX Executive of Fremont, CA. With his five-year arrangement coming up for renewal recently, Aboumrad faced a cost-benefit analysis that’s familiar to any broker who has weighed the pros and cons of franchise affiliation.

Aboumrad decided to go independent. To help answer recruits questions about the change, the agency prepared a detailed document, which answers questions such as: How do I benefit being with an independent broker? What about losing brand recognition? How will clients and consumers benefit?

Click here to view the agency’s FAQs for recruits.

February 15, 2008

Broker offers flexible commissions and finds fees dip rather than plummet — To compete with the ‘big guys’ Mohawk Valley 1st Choice positions its downtown office as a welcome center where visitors can get free maps and free coffee.

Click here to see where home shoppers hang out.

January 15, 2008

“Real estate scientists” offer seven ways to sell more quickly and for more money — Online broker Redfin analyzed its own site along with 17 broker databases and academic studies to determine how to sell homes more quickly and for more money.

Click here to read the white paper Seven Tactics for Selling a Home A Data-Driven Approach for Home-Sellers.

January 1, 2008

Web-savvy agent attracts site visitors by the hundreds of thousands — As agents and brokers struggle to lure consumers to their websites, one agent seems to have figured out exactly how to generate leads online. Keith Byrd, a Century 21 agent in San Luis Obispo, CA, employs a sophisticated Internet strategy that’s attracting visitors by the thousands.

Click here to view a chart showing Byrd’s “Seven Pieces of an Internet Strategy.”

December 15, 2007

Home prices rising or falling? Still depends on who you ask and where you look — While the National Association of Realtors is accentuating the positive, Zillow.com, the S&P/Case-Shiller index and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight take a more pessimistic view.

Click below to view reports from the National Association of Realtors and S&P/Case-Shiller:

Median Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes for Metropolitan Areas

National Home Price Index

 

December 1, 2007

Looking for Listings? Follow these tips for farming FSBOs — With a little patience and a lot of persistence, you can turn FSBOs into a profit center says John Maloof, an agent at Century 21 Grande. In this issue of Real Estate Broker’s Insider, he offers 10 tips for success including creating a FSBO Journal. He recommends creating this document in Microsoft Excel and giving yourself places to record details about the property and seller, along with a record of the dates you’ve contacted the seller.

Click below to see two sample FSBO journals:

Standard FSBO Journal

Illustrated FSBO Journal

 

November 15, 2007

Discounters continue to take hits, leaving traditional brokers stronger — For years, the discount threat dominated discussions at industry conferences. Now, though, the discounters are hemorrhaging cash, and no longer do they loom so large. Amid a slowing market and counter-moves from traditional brokers, big holes in the discounters’ business models are becoming apparent.

Click below to view this month’s web extras:

The Foxtons’ bankruptcy filing

Realogy’s annual report