Category: For Real Estate Agents

Posts and information of interest to real estate agents.

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foxAdvantage to upload straight to realestate1.net.au portal

After great demand from users and agents, realestate1.net.au upgraded to a national search function capability in late 2010.

Along with this improved search function, new site features include improved property short-listing and bigger maps and images in property listings.

As one of Australia’s fastest growing real estate advertising websites, realestate1.net.au provide a user-friendly website with tools and information for buyers, sellers and renters. With the new features, realestate1 aims to provide an alternative real estate website for browsers designed to be simple, quick and easy to use.

As part of a recent update, users are now able to upload listings automatically to realestate1 from foxAdvantage. This improved functionality will support our many clients’ diverse marketing requirements and help them to remain market leaders.

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Start Uploading your listings to REIQ Property Search

With the launch of their new look website the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) is proud to announce the exciting addition of the REIQ Property Search. A Queensland-based listing portal featuring properties from REIQ accredited agencies.

Available at no extra charge, REIQ members need only subscribe to Property Search to begin taking advantage of this wide reaching internet presence.

After being up and running for only two months, already over 19,000 properties are advertised for sale and over 2,000 for rent.  At this rate of uptake, it looks as though the property industry has already given this particular portal a big thumbs up.

Understanding that our clients need to be able to send both wide reaching and diverse marketing, Brightfox is proud to announce that as of June 17th, 2011 our clients will have the ability to simultaneously upload their listing details to sixteen different real estate portals including REIQ Property Search at the click of a button.

Best of all for foxAdvantage users, uploading to the REIQ Portal is 100% free. There are no extra charges for uploading to additional portals.

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Places for Real Estate

If you don’t already know what Google Places is all about, it is basically Google’s attempt to provide relevant local search results to searchers based on their geographic location.

So when you search for something like “Real Estate Agent Capalaba”, Google assumes (and rightly so) that you are looking for Real Estate Agents in Capalaba.

If you do not already have your office set-up with a Google “Places” page, now is the time to do so.
Why? Well, here are three simple reasons :
•    It is free.
•    It will help people find you more easily.
•    It makes Google happy.

Why get a Google Places listing now?

Recently, Google has rolled out changes which emphasise how serious they are about the Places search and helping  users quickly finding local business results.

Places is now a search type of its own, found in the left-hand column on Google, along with other common search categories.

The current order is:

•    Everything
•    Images
•    Videos
•    Places.

What’s different about Google Pages listings?

Places Listings have far more prominence than they used to, dominating the results page.  They also provide more information than before, including an image if images were provided with the listing.
To understand the impact of this change, consider your search engine optimization efforts.  If you used to be on page one of Google for a search term that is local in nature, your business might be relegated to page two with this change.
As well, the map works differently now too.
It has been moved over to the  right-hand column above the AdWords ads and it will now scroll down the page as you do. Places is so important to Google, that the map will actually cover up those AdWords ads which are also so valuable to Google.
This says a lot about how important local business listings are to Google.

Google Places: Tips to Optimize Your Local Business Listing

  • Create a Places listing for each physical office you have.
  • Complete as much information as you can in your Places listing.
  • Make sure your business name, address and phone number is the same as you have it listed on other local listing sites.  (Google is looking for consistency)
  • Ensure you’ve listed your business in as many categories as are applicable.
  • Add links back to your main office website.
  • Add photos and videos (as appropriate)
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Tips on using Twitter for Real Estate

Have you taken the plunge & joined Twitter? Perhaps you have and you are not getting the results promised to you? Well, don’t worry – what you are experiencing is completely normal. Getting social media (including Twitter) to work for you is not an easy thing to do, so we have put together a few tips to help you.

1.    Twitter is not a competition

Do not try to get the most followers possibly in the hope that they will all be hanging off your every tweet, chomping at the bit to list or sell with you. You need to be conversational & let your follower count grow organically.

2.    Twitter is not a marketing medium.

At least not in the way you may expect it to be. It is a social medium, which means it works best when approached as a conversation.
Marketing is generally a one way conversation, where you share information about your services. Twitter needs both sharing AND listening.
Give updates and talk up your services. But also take time to respond to questions, or to join in a friendly conversation.

3.    It is not just all about your business.

When you tweet, you may be representing a brand, but you are a PERSON who is placing the tweets online. So act like a PERSON. Take the time to discuss things that are not just about your office or even industry. Share interesting stories, links or pics. They do not always need to be realestate related.

4.    Keep your re-tweets interesting & useful.

If you have found the Retweet button, then keepthe things you are repeating interesting. You could retweet local news, realestate stories or even cricket scores! Make your RT’s useful information-packed tweets for your followers. If you do, your followers will retweet them too, which helps attract new followers.

5.    Stay consistent.

If you are going to start, keep your twitter activity consistent. Don’t go crazy for a day or two, then share nothing for weeks on end.
Try to space tweets out throughout the day  or week, to reach the widest possible audience and so that your followers recall who you are.

So, give it another go, but just remember that Social media is not just a short term thing. If you want this medium to help enhance your business and create profits for you, treat it like any other business tool. Stick with it and pay attention to how you use it.

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Your website is hurting you.

When is the last time you looked at your website?

I mean, really looked at it.

Not just opened a page with one of your listings, so you can get the link to send through to a potential buyer.

I speak with companies who have not touched their website since it was set up in 2004 or 2005!

It’s pretty much a given that most real estate companies, have had a website for the past few years or longer.

As you focus on the day to day activity of selling and listing, it can be easy to just take the attitude of “Oh, we have a website up and it is working, so I will leave it be.” The problem is, after a while a website, like many things in life, starts to look a bit outdated.

More importantly, your website can be hurting your business without you knowing!

You could be losing potential vendors to other local agents, simply because your website is not as nice as theirs, or because theirs has more information on it. Buyers may also not contact you, as they cannot find the listings that strike their fancy.

This is how your website can be hurting your business RIGHT NOW!

It is recommended that clients revise their websites about every three years (if not sooner).

I bet you are thinking that this sounds like a ridiculous and costly exercise.
But I can promise you that you will reap the benefits of a site revision.
To make things really clear & easy to follow, here is a list of straight forward reasons why you should look at revising or redesigning your company website.

  • A redesign can help to improve your website’s search engine optimisation
  • Believe it or not, a revamp of your online tools can actually SAVE YOU MONEY.
  • Google likes sites with new &/or regularly updated content. It ranks them higher.
  • Users expect to see location maps of properties these days. You can lose sales based on the lack of the ability to see where a property is located. This is especially important for out-of-area investors.
  • Google also prefers sites with maps in them, as the information is deemed are more usable and relevant.
  • Technology is changing so rapidly that you want to be sure your site meets the newer standards of web design and interactivity
  • Your website should be representative of your company in every way. If your website looks tired and outdated, what will prospects and vendors think about your entire organization?

Many offices tell me that they feel their website is not as important anymore, because most views of their listings occur via Property Portals sites, such as realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, etc.

Whilst it is true that the portals get exposure for your listings, your website is now more import than ever.

Your website is what potential vendors use to judge who to list with.

Your website is where buyers end up when they have done enough general looking on the portals and are at the purchasing stage.

Your website is what potential sales people judge your business on, when deciding if your organisation is the one they want to work with.

Don’t take your website lightly. Take a good long look at it today.
Scroll through all the pages.

  • Is it fresh? Is the content valid?
  • When was the last time you added something new about the company? A new photo? A press release?
  • Do your listings have multiple photos and maps?
  • Are there listing categories that you no longer sell in, still showing on the site?
  • Can users get automatic alerts about new listings?

In a tight market like the one that a lot of real estate agents are experiencing today, your website is the key to your company – as much as your sales and customer service staff are.
Treat it well and it will deliver the world to you.

Speak to a Brightfox website consultant today, and stop your site from hurting your business.


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How Google’s New Algorithm will affect your real estate website

Very recently, Google made significant changes to its search engine algorithm.
This algorithm is basically the formula that Google uses, when determining which sites should appear at the top of search results, and which ones should not.

Very few people, except for hardcore search and tech literati understand precisely how these changes were set up or exactly how they work, but the changes are pretty evident already.
The long and the short of it, is that you will need to take a good look at your website to determine if it is still “search engine friendly”.

Here are some items that now need to be understood in regards to this new Google algorithm:

  • Faster Indexing
    Google has a new thing called “Google Caffeine”. This means there is no more “sandbox” or long waiting times, before your website can be indexed by Google. The indexing time is now down to around 15 minutes (if you have a dynamic site map submitted to Google Webmaster Tools).
    This means that unique, steady content such as news updates, blogs, etc, will take even more precedence in search engine rankings.
  • Google Analytics Data
    In a fairly controversial move, Google has suggested that they may use the analytics data of sites in their algorithm, since it provides a huge amount of information about user interaction of a web site. This makes a lot of sense, but there will be many that do not like this idea.
    This one is a pretty easy fix though, as Google Analytics is free and does not take much to add into a website.
  • Paid Links
    Buying links to push ranks up in a short period of time is a technique used by some marketers. Many of these are added for short periods of time due to the cost of purchasing them.
    Google now says that the age of links matter, so these short term link arrangements will no longer help you. They prefer stable links that have been there for a while, so work on building naturally occurring links that matter to your business.
  • Page Load Time is now important
    Very simply, the time it takes a web page to appear in your internet browser will directly affect how it ranks in Google.
    Make sure that your images and all page elements are optimized and that your sites load fast. Don’t lose rank due to slow loading images or other web elements.
  • Flash animation and Flash websites
    Flash websites and animations created in Flash, can take forever to load up. Based on the information above, this is bad news for your site ranking.  Avoid full flash websites, large animation files & splash pages. Use HTML5 where you can.

    •  

There are other changes still to come from Google. They like to rearrange things periodically just to keep the SEO experts, tech guys and online marketers on their toes.

Trying to play the game and work out how Algorithms work, can be a real waste of time. These Google Algorithm Changes, don’t really change the core message and approach of a good website though – it still is all about CONTENT.
The best thing to do is ensure the basics are covered and that you have good, solid content on your website.
This means:

  • clear information on your site, that is relevant to what your website visitors are looking for (Such as search-able listings, interactive location maps for listings, locality information, clear contact information & staff profiles for example)
  • the consistent addition of unique content (latest news, etc)
  • site promotion through syndication, aimed at generating quality back links through to your site

Brightfox is aware of these changes, and we regularly advise our clients on the best way to manage their online presence, to be the most search-engine friendly that it can be.

If  you are seeking to improve your website rankings, traffic and sales, then feel free to contact us here at Brightfox.

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Selling Property to Foreign Investors

In most markets around the world foreign investors represent a significant % of all purchasers. This is particularly the case for apartments in many markets (some countries even preclude foreigners from purchasing land alone or sometimes any form of property other than residential apartments and houses).

A recent article in Queensland (which you can find here) discusses how Asian investors are now buying more property than the British, which have traditionally been the largest foreign investors in Queensland.

So if you are a Developer or a Project marketer, how do you get your share of this market?

Here are a few ways we have successfully generated sales for our clients in the past that we would recommend you consider:

– build a multilingual website. If you are reading this Blog you probably have English as your first language but English is in fact only the 3rd most spoken language in the world (see reference here). Chinese and Spanish represent the first language of more people than English. So if you are seeking to target specific markets, you do need to consider making your site and all direct marketing material (such as emails) multi-lingual.

Also those of you considering using Babelfish (an automatic language converter) please be warned. Babelfish is not very successful at converting english into most asian languages.

– create an Agent Portal. An Agent Portal is a secure website that a network of external sales agents can login and view live availability on your Project. this can also include fully interactive building or estate animations, sales and marketing documents, floor plans and pretty much anything they need to be able to successfully sell your project. An Agent Portal should also allow online reservations, enabling you to sell property 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. This is essential if you want to do business internationally.

– email marketing. Email is a great tool for promoting your project and communicating with foreign prospects. It is low cost and if used correctly, it can be highly targeted. Consider running completely different campaigns to different countries, taking account of language and cultural differences. With the low cost of creating and executing email campaigns this should be seriously considered.

– Search Engine Optimisation. Unfortunately most websites created for a Project are still poorly optimised for search engines. This is a huge disadvantage for selling over the internet. So you need to ensure your website is SEO friendly. It is a must if you want to reach anyone other than local prospects via the Internet.

– Search Engine Marketing. Through the use of local real estate portals and major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and country specific portals such as baidu.com in China,  you can reach a very large audience. The key is ensuring your website is accessible in the website locations of choice of your target audience.

– consider developing a mobile friendly or iPad friendly website. In many merging markets the use of a mobile phone to access the Internet is far in excess of PC access. Even in markets where this isn’t the case, access to your Project via a Smart Phone or iPad ensure you essential Project data is available 24 hrs a day from any location (very helpful if you are selling property over dinner and drinks!).

These are just a few of the various solutions we have put in place for our clients marketing property around the World. Brightfox is quite unique in that we have been doing business internationally for many years, and have customers that sell property into most parts of the World. Just a few of the countries we have helped our clients target are the UAE, England, Ireland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Russia and the various countries of the former USSR, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, India, Pakistan, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA and of course Australia and New Zealand.

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How BRICI Countries are using Mobile Phones to Access the Internet

A great article on The Economist on how BRICI countries are using mobile phones. Anyone who reads this blog will know how we have being saying for years that the ‘new’ internet is smart phones, and this article demonstrates very aptly why this is the case.

The graph in this article shows the number of PC’s compared to smart phones and the speed of adoption. It is amazing to think that these BRICI counties will bypass the PC age. They are essentially leapfrogging straight to the smart phone age – jumping PC’s completely. It is the sole medium that hundreds of millions are increasingly using for accessing the Internet.

It is time for every company to have a ‘smart phone’ internet strategy. Give us a call if you would like to discuss how this trend is going to impact your business.

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How to Choose CRM Software for the Property Industry

When it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, there is
a multitude of products that you can choose from. There is the ‘off the
shelf’ CRM software, such as Goldmine and ACT, that you can purchase at
most computer stores and install yourself, the large CRM vendors such as
Salesforce and Microsoft CRM that you will need a dedicated IT consultant
to install and configure for you, and then you have the many software
packages written specifically for the property industry (such as we provide), all of which are
designed to meet the needs of a property business ‘out of the box’.

So with all of these choices, how do you choose the right CRM system for
you?

In this article we will look at how to ask the right questions, identify
your key requirements and, ultimately, how to choose the right CRM software
for you.

Step 1: Get a core team of people together

Implementing a CRM system is a company wide initiative. It will impact
everyone from senior management down to your receptionist, so it is
essential that you get a team of people together to not only run the
project, but also so that you have involvement in the decision making
process from each area of your business. This team will be responsible for
creating the original brief, reviewing all products and, ultimately,
selecting and implementing the CRM system.

By ensuring you have a team involved in this process, you also ensure that
you immediately have several key people in your business who have ‘buy in’
on the whole process. Change management is an issue whenever new software
is implemented in any business, and the implementation of a CRM system is
no different. These team members should represent your core agents for
change within the business and will assist with driving implementation from
the inside out.

Step 2: Identify and write down your CRM objectives

Generally the search for a CRM system starts due to an actual or perceived
failing in the business. It is essential that you clearly identify what
that failing(s) is and document it. You then need to look a little broader
within your own business to try and identify other opportunities for
improvement that can derive from the implementation of a CRM system. You
are, in effect, trying to derive the core objectives of this project. Here
are a few of the key objectives from CRM projects we have been involved
with in the past:

(a)   Improve customer service by tracking all interaction with our
customers

(b)   Capture all customer data into a central company owned database so
that it can be managed and protected (from staff change over).

(c)   Ensure every lead is captured (never lose another customer!)

(d)   Improve sales through implementing better sales management
processes.

(e)   Improve business decisions through capturing sales and marketing data
and being able to analyse this.

Step 3: Shortlist your preferred CRM vendors

The project team will probably already have a few CRM products in mind. It
is important to ensure that you genuinely consider at least 3 options. This
will ensure you are exposed to a range of features and also pricing and
support plans.

Creating your shortlist is one of the most important steps in the entire
process. So how do you know you are short listing the right products? Here
are a few questions you should consider that will take you in the right
direction:

(a) Do we have the resources to configure and extensively customise our own
CRM system?

If you elect to purchase one of the off the shelf or large US CRM vendors
products, you will need to heavily customise it to ensure it includes
property centric features. Generally this requires either having your own
IT staff inhouse or bringing together a team of external consultants to
manage this for you.

If the answer is yes, then shortlist the systems that have the ability to
be extensively customised. This will preclude many but not all ‘property
specific’ systems that generally do not have the ability to be customised
in any significant way.

If the answer is no, shortlist software systems that have been built
specifically for the property industry. They should ideally meet your needs
‘out of the box’ without any customisation.

(b) Does the software have the features to meet your identified
objectives?

You need to do a short initial review to bring down the number of systems
you will shortlist. This can be a simple analysis of the features promoted
on the CRM Vendors website or brochure and comparing this against your
objectives. Eliminate any products that clearly fall short.

Step 4: Product Reviews

In reviewing each of the shortlisted products, it is essential that you go
through the following process:

(a) Product Demonstration

Obviously you will want to get a demonstration of the software. Be careful
however that you drive at least some of the demonstration itself. Some of
the most successful CRM companies don’t necessarily provide the best CRM
software — but they certainly can sell it the best. The demonstration you
will get is probably the same as all of the preceeding demonstrations the
sales consultant will have supplied, so it should look slick and
professional. 

To ensure that you get a very good review of the product however, you need
to ensure that you are specifically shown how the software will address the
issues you have identified that are important for your business. For
example, if you run a commercial real estate business, ask to be shown how
you will manage lease reviews or perhaps how to generate reports that show
rate per sqm/sq ft returns, or if you are involved in project marketing,
ask to be shown reports that would be supplied to Developers or perhaps how
your would track project specific KPI’s.

When reviewing your shortlisted systems, try and rank each on a scale of 1
to 5 in being able to meet your identified objectives.

(b) Consider how user friendly the software is

The number 1 reason that your CRM project will fail will be because your
staff do not use it, and the number 1 reason they will not use it is
because it is not user friendly. It is essential therefore that you choose
a CRM system that is easy to use.

(c) Consider implementation time

The less upfront customisation your system requires the more quickly the
implementation process can be completed. Ask your CRM vendor how long the
implementation will take and what factors may increase or decrease the
amount of time needed.

(d) Consider product development

You need to analyse and understand the CRM vendors vision for their own
product. How will they be developing it over time? Is it going to be
enhanced into the future or are they going to replace it with another
system? Can you have input into feature enhancements in the future?

When you purchase a CRM system you are not just purchasing a product you
implement today, but you are also selecting a CRM vendor that you hope to
do business with over the coming 3 to 5 years. Your investment needs to
grow over time, and the only way this is possible is if the CRM vendor
continues to improve the product. It is essential therefore that you select
a product with a clear upgrade path for the future.
 

(e) Evaluate technical support

You need to know that you will receive support for the ongoing use of your
CRM system. Here are a few questions to ask regarding support:

* Do you have a SLA (service level agreement) with customers?

* What hours does your support desk operate?

* Do you have user manuals, answers to frequently asked questions, online
training video’s and other self-help resources?

* What charges or service plans are involved?

(f) Cost Analysis

Last, but not least, you need to consider costs. Obviously you want the
very best CRM system for your business but costs are always an issue. Look
at the total cost of ownership for each CRM system. This should cover all
upfront and ongoing costs over the timeframe that you believe you will keep
your CRM system. Generally this would be a 3 to 5 year period.

Step 5: References

You should ask your preferred CRM vendor for some references. If they are
as good as they tell you they are, they should be able to point you towards
a number of similar businesses that are using their product that you can
talk to.

Step 6: Try and get a Fixed Price Quote

Unfortunately the IT industry doesn’t have a great reputation for being
able to deliver projects on time and on budget. Good CRM vendors have a lot
of experience in successfully delivering CRM projects, and the good ones
will have enough confidence in their product and skills to provide a fixed
price quote in most instances.

Summary

Choosing the right CRM system for your business is not an easy process. It
needs to be done methodically and with careful planning, as it is a
decision that will impact on your business for the next 3 to 5 years.

Brightfox Plug!

Did you know that Brightfox is one of the world's leading providers of CRM software and
online marketing solutions for the property industry. We have a suite of
software applications to suit individual agents, small, medium and large
agencies, multi-office agencies, property developers, investment networks
and retirement village developers and managers. We would welcome the
opportunity to show you how we can help your business, so please do not
hesitate to contact us.
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In property networking is a fundamental key to success

Many real estate offices work in conjunction with the same businesses over and over again, so why not take advantage of this and use it as a way to market your business to new or different markets?

Everyone at some point is going to look at buying or renting a property so, rather than market to the same people over and over again, using joint ventures promotion with local businesses is a way to reach people who may not normally come knocking on your door.

A joint venture doesn’t have to be a big marketing agreement or event between businesses, it can be as simple as contacting the businesses who work in and around your area and agreeing to include details of their business in your weekly or monthly newsletter in exchange for them doing the same or similar. By doing this you are gaining access to an entirely new database of contacts and potential customers.

Some types of businesses you may consider entering into a joint venture promotional agreement with might be mortgage brokers, insurance agents, financial planners, accountants, solicitors, property inspectors, interior designers and other complimentary local businesses.

All of these people should be marketing to their database of clients and contacts on a regular basis in one way or another so it won’t be any extra effort for them to include some information about your business with this.

Some examples of ways you could promote yourself through other businesses might be:

  1. Agreeing to write an article each month to be included in their monthly newsletter.  You might include an interesting story on one of your current properties or a profile on a different agent each month.  Make it interesting and a little out of the ordinary so that it captures people’s interest; you could include a short interview with one of your agent’s where they answer questions about themselves and why they are in the real estate business.
  2. Getting them to reference your website on their site and include some information about your business and how you work with them.
  3. Putting signs and brochures in their office.
  4. An interview with you to be published in their newsletter or on their website on a topical market issue.

 These are just a few ideas of how you could use other businesses to help you market to new contacts.  In exchange for this you would do the same for them so it is a win-win situation for everyone and is also a low cost way for you both to market your businesses.