Starting from Zero + Who Pays the Highest Property Taxes? + much more...

885,391 daily readers and growing! May 26, 2016 Starting from Zero Dear Reader, What if you had to start over again from scratch? Imagine that the entire network of referrals you’d spent years cultivating went away? No help from your hundreds of previous customers, your friends, your church family -- you had to begin again from ground zero. Scary, huh? Or maybe you’re just starting in the business and so you are square one. Or maybe you’ve taken a few years off to care for an aging parent and are having to begin anew. Possibly your spouse had a job transfer across the country and now you’re in a new spot and don’t have a network. Or maybe you’ve just gotten fed up with the way your real estate practice has gone and you think it’s time to start over. Believe it or not, this happens more often than you might think. And it happened recently to a friend and long-time LCM Success user, Sarah Miller. Sarah was a very successful veteran agent in Phoenix, Arizona, who recently relocated to San Diego after being gone for many years. She had to begin again with no network of friends and previous clients to draw from. She recently took a few minutes to call me and we spoke at some length about getting her website up and running and bringing in business. Sarah, because she has used our system for many years is excited about her new challenge instead of worried. Why? Because she knew that all she had to do was begin marketing her Ultimate Website in San Diego, dial in the advertising, and she’d be instantly as busy in her new market as she was in Phoenix. After we finished talking she sent me an email that I wanted to share with you. See if you think she is worried about her ability to produce business in her brand new practice. “Throughout my career as a Realtor, I’ve purchased and used a long list of programs, platforms and coaching in an effort to achieve a high-level of lead generation and improve lead conversion in my business…in fact, I’ve spent so much money on various programs over the years that my husband and I should have a couple of fully paid-off, his-and-hers Lincoln Navigators sitting in our driveway by now!! Then I found your Ultimate Website. It’s by far, the best lead generation, capture and conversion system I have EVER used in my business! It’s cost-effective, it’s easy to master and implement thanks to the superior A-Z topic-specific training that comes with it, has great support and most importantly, it consistently provides me with quick results and ROI! Thank you for all you do to provide this superior product!! Best Regards, Sarah M. Miller” Sarah, I am thankful for agents like you. Thank you not only for using my technology but also for taking a few minutes of your time to share your experience with us and your fellow agents. It means a lot to me. Many agents would never share their secrets with their fellow agents for fear of there not being enough business to go around. Fortunately, you’ve been successfully marketing long enough that you know there are plenty of real estate buyers and sellers when you know how to find them. Thank you, Sarah, and we wish you continued success as you begin to build your new practice in beautiful San Diego. Maybe somebody reading this today is like Sarah. Whether you're literally starting from scratch (in a new city or embarking on your career as a new agent), or maybe you've been struggling and you know it's time for a reboot. If you have the ability to capture new customers at will, you can reboot your career at any time in any city. It will literally change your life. I don't say all this to "sell" you on my system. I say it so that someday I'll get an email like Sarah's from you. In fact, my Ultimate Website system might not even be available in your area (it's increasingly sold out across the country). But whether you get my system or something else, having the ability to capture new customers on demand changes everything. It puts you in the driver seat. It neutralizes the chronic stress of wondering where your next deal is going to come from. It actually allows you to pick and choose who YOU want to work with, rather than begging for whatever table scraps get tossed your way. Can you even imagine? If you think I'm going to put a button at the bottom of this email to buy something you're sorely mistaken. But I would recommend you take the next step. See if it's available where you are. Check out the price to make room in your budget. And do some reading. Make sure it's right for you. Here's a button for you to check availability. It only takes about 15 seconds. Check Price and Availability As always, thanks for reading. Matt Jones Broker/President/CEO FavoriteAgent.com Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com, nationally syndicated columnist, broker, and best selling author. He has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed he and his company were "changing the way real estate is done in America."

I did not sign up for this #TRENDING Who Pays the Highest Property Taxes? » The average median property tax rate across the nation is 1.31 percent. That means a home owner with a home valued at $200,000, on average, pays an annual amount of $2,620 in property taxes, according Read more » Teen Charged With Stabbing Real Estate Agent » A teenager has been charged with the stabbing death of a man in New Hanover County last week. Read more » A Fresh Look at Real Estate Commissions » Mandie Sellars, a homeowner in the �Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, had the misfortune of Read more » Brooklyn Tool Shed Listed for $500k » The ad on Zillow says the property is a 'great opportunity... asking only $499,000'. Read more » Overcome Stress and Get Your Focus Back » When it all builds up Read more » New Home Sales Surge to New After-Recession High » Sales of new single-family homes climbed 16.6 percent in April, reaching the highest sales pace Read more » ECONOMY Which Candidate Is Most Likely to Help the Housing Market? » We surveyed home sellers in late January to get their take on the market. Because it�s an election year, we also asked them a few questions about the presidential campaign. About 600 people Read more » Four Real Estate Trends for 2016 » Whether you are buying, selling, or renting, there's no escaping Federal Reserve's anticipated Read more » Owners Overvaluing Their Homes » Home owners are still slightly overvaluing their homes compared to appraisers' estimates, according Read more » Homebuying Could Become Unaffordable Within Two Years » With the right economic conditions, in two years, home affordability could get close to the same Read more » Want to Help the Middle Class? Build More Houses » America�s future is happening first here, in Seattle. Just this year, Seattle technology jobs Read more » Prices and Mortgage Rates to Go Up in 2016 » The monthly mortgage payment on a home is determined by two elements: the price of the house and the Read more » TECHNOLOGY Microsoft Kills Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 » Internet Explorer has long been the bane of many Web developers� existence, but here�s some news to brighten your day: Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 are reaching �end of life� on Tuesday, meaning Read more » Choosing the Best Anti-virus Software » What to choose when you have too many options? Read more » Don't Use Email To Manage Transactions » As hackers continue to use fraudulent online messages to steal money from unsuspecting home buyers, Read more » Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize Real Estate Soon » The realization of Virtual Reality (VR) is set to have a big impact on real estate, offering buyers Read more » New Objective School Rankings for Your Real Estate Search » For young families moving to a new city one of the biggest challenges isn�t just finding a suitable Read more » 75 Tips to Improve Your Site's SEO » An online presence is crucial for most real estate professionals. While you can always post your Read more » LAW Judge Admits New Evidence in Realtor Murder Case » A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors could submit evidence obtained from the car � but not the trunk � of Arron Lewis in his murder trial, which is set to take place Read more » Cancer Patient Sues Real Estate Couple for $500k » A Surrey cancer patient who claims a couple of local real estate agents cheated her out of $500,000 Read more »

Goldman Sachs Reaches $5B Settlement Amid Toxic Bonds Controversy » Goldman Sachs said Thursday that it reached a $5 billion settlement over claims related to toxic Read more » Agent Charged With Terroristic Threats Misses Court » A Hot Springs realtor facing a terroristic threatening charge had a court date Thursday. Read more » Despite $1.2B Settlement, DOJ Still Pursuing Wells Fargo » Despite recently agreeing to a $1.2 billion settlement with the federal government to resolve claims Read more » Teen Charged With Stabbing Real Estate Agent » A teenager has been charged with the stabbing death of a man in New Hanover County last week. Read more » MARKETING Should You Be Posting Your Listings on Social Media? » Social media is a great means of marketing your real estate listings. Unfortunately, not all real estate agents make use of this as part of their marketing strategy. Is it time for you to promote your Read more » How to Host an Open House Like a Pro » Open house is that certain time wherein you are opening your home for viewing. This means that you Read more » Online Marketing Mistakes to Avoid » You know buyers are most likely to start their home search online, surveys attest to that. And, Read more » INVESTING » Read more »

HOW-TO Customers-for-life Still Eluding Many Brokerages » One of the most common goals adopted almost universally by real estate brokerages is also the industry�s most elusive one: creating customers for life. For decades, broker-owners have invested Read more » 5 Lies You've Been Told About Productivity » How being overly productive is counterproductive Read more » Make Sense of Online Advertising Metrics » The sheer amount of online marketing campaign data and website analytics is staggering. These Read more » Help Your Buyer Find the Right Compromises » Your home shoppers may have a long wish list, but when it comes to finding a home � particularly Read more » Secrets to Multiplying Your Referrals » What systems do you have in place to double your business through referrals with each transaction? Read more » 4 New Year's Resolutions Every Agent Should Make » As the year comes to an end, many people are making new year�s resolutions. For real estate agents, Read more »

This is the NewsGeni.us e-Brief, a collection of the best real estate news and advice in one place. To cancel your subscription, follow this link http://www.newsgeni.us/unsub.php?email=dsoldit.blogpost@blogger.com&s=2165.

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My Craigslist Secret + Overcome Stress and Get Your Focus Back + much more...

885,391 daily readers and growing! May 25, 2016 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: My Secrets to Fully Exploit Craigslist for New Customers Today's Top Trending Real Estate Stories  Exclusive Webinar for NewsGeni.us Readers My Craigslist Secret Dear Reader, Over the past 18 months, I have convinced countless agents to begin to take Craigslist seriously as a source of customers. Some agents have moved their entire focus to Craigslist, while others have simply used it to supplement their other traditional online campaigns. But all of them have produced astonishing results, and they’ve done it without spending any money. Craigslist is and always has been a great place to capture tons of customers, if you know what you’re doing. However, during the past 18 months I’ve discovered that the single greatest hurdle to overcome in convincing an agent to place his first ad on Craigslist is the negative stigma. For whatever reason, Craigslist has gotten a bad name among agents. Maybe it’s the “Craigslist killers” splashed across the headlines. Maybe you talked to a colleague who ran an ad on Craigslist once and didn’t get anything except for emails from spambots. But whatever the case, you need to forget about what you’ve heard and try it yourself. The truth is, it is relatively easy to capture 2-3 inbound buyer or seller leads from Craigslist every day, but again, only if you know what you’re doing. In this article I’m going to share the easy four-step formula I use in my own practice. The beauty is that it’s easy to learn -- by the end of this article, you’ll know it inside and out -- and it’s easy to repeat again and again. Best of all, it doesn’t cost you anything. If you follow these steps, I guarantee that you’ll be working with a new customer by the end of the week, possibly 3-4 new customers. Step One is procuring the perfect listing for your ad. What!? Yes, you heard me right. The first step to fully exploiting Craigslist for lots of buyer leads is to procure a great listing. After all, we are advertising on a real estate classifieds website. You’ll get nowhere without a property to list. But this is the first place that agents go wrong. Most agents I train on this method don’t have any listings, or else have very few. But here’s the secret: you don’t need to go out and take a new listing in order to follow my Craigslist formula. In fact my formula is exactly the same for agents who have lots of listings and agents who have none. You are going to borrow a listing. What do I mean by “borrowing” a listing? The best way to explain this concept is to describe exactly what I do when creating a new Craigslist ad from scratch. Again, all of this can be done for free and in a single afternoon. I recommend that you start today. I start by picking up a recent copy of the local Homes magazine or Real Estate Book. I flip through the pages until I find a listing suitable for my ad. What I’m looking for is always the same: Maximum curb appeal in my market’s average price range. Here’s why. Curb appeal ensures that my listing on Craigslist will generate lots of clicks. Buyers are attracted to beautiful homes far more than ugly ones. Duh. But you can’t simply pick the most beautiful home in the magazine, because chances are, for the majority of buyers, it’s out of their price range. The average home price in my market is $152,000. I usually choose an attractive but modest listing that is approximately $20-30K above average because I’ll attract a higher end customer and earn a higher commission. But this home price is still affordable for a large percentage of home shoppers. I don’t pick the million dollar mansions just because they are nice. Very few people are in the market for such a property, so I would capture few if any customers. Once I’ve chosen my “mark”, I contact the listing agent. I send a quick email just like this one. In fact, you can use this as template: Hey Joe, I was looking through the homes magazine... really like your listing at 123 Elmwood and would love to sell it! I’m putting together my ads for the month and I have an open spot. Would you mind if I included 123 Elmwood? Thanks, let me know. -Matt Just like in fishing, if you want to attract the best customers, you use very specific bait. When I was a kid we would use a piece of stale bread and hang our line over the drain pipe to catch catfish. And it worked every time, but if you wanted to catch something worth eating, then you had to save up and buy a better lure. It’s the same in real estate. If you advertise bottom of the barrel listings, just because you happen to be the listing agent, then you’re going to attract bottom of the barrel customers. For that reason, I recommend my “borrowed listings” strategy even to listing agents. Look, I am the author of The Ultimate Listing Presentation, I’ve taken as many as 114 listings in a single year, I’ve never had a shortage of solid listings to advertise, and I still borrow listings in order to create the “perfect” Craigslist ad. Take your ego out of it for a minute and ask yourself, what is going to generate me the most business? Probably not that $59,000 probate listing you took as a favor to a friend. [Note: Do this now. Use my email as a template, but put your own spin on it. This approach really works and only takes a few minutes to complete. Just think, by the end of the day you could have several beautiful properties in your arsenal.] Wait, what if they say no? When I teach this practice, agents look at me like I’ve asked them to do something sneaky or unethical. But let me ask you this. What if an agent approached you with the same question? Remember your fiduciary obligation to your client. Would withholding that listing from a free source of advertising be upholding that obligation? I can honestly say that in 10 years my request has never been turned down. Most agents are thrilled that I’m helping them move their listings. But of course I’m fully prepared for the possibility that one day the listing agent will decline my request. So what. There’s an entire book full of beautiful listings. Why would one “no” stop you? Step Two is creating the perfect ad. Writing a great ad shouldn’t take a lot of time and doesn’t require years of copywriting experience. In fact, when it comes to real estate listings the best ads say very little. Plus, I’m about to share the exact ad formula that I use to write all of my ads. If you follow this formula, creating a new ad from scratch should only take about ten minutes. Previously I have only shared this ad-writing formula with Ultimate Website users, but I believe this is a skill that any agent can learn very quickly and that all agents need. So here goes. Here is an actual ad that I posted on my local Craigslist: This ad alone brought in over fifteen new customers per month. (And that was just one ad. I typically recommend that you run at least five to ten simultaneously.) Here’s the simple formula I followed to create this ad:   MY CRAIGSLIST AD FORMULA A. Write a short, plain description of the home in the title. In my example, I give the bedrooms and the neighborhood. B. Identify five selling features of the home. Study my example above and use it as a template. Selling features could include a pool or any special amenities, recent additions or upgrades, or the location. Limit yourself to only the top five selling features. The ad shouldn’t outlast your visitor’s attention span. C. DO NOT INCLUDE THE PRICE. This is the most important step of the formula. Many agents see this as heresy, but remember, our goal is to maximize curiosity, not maximize the information. D. In a large font, add a footer that tells your visitor where they can get more information about the property. I recommend that you use my footer exactly. It is professional, no-pressure, highly tested, and it works.   Yes, that’s my entire formula. Go ahead and write your ad now. You might still be waiting to receive permission from the listing agent, but I can almost guarantee that you’ll get it. And on the off chance that he says no, you’ve only wasted about 10 minutes and it’s good practice. Don’t put it off. Do it now, and you’ll see how incredibly easy writing a great ad should be. But wait, I don’t have a website or a property hotline or a text messaging service, so how can I write an ad? Don’t worry, this problem is completely normal and I address it in step three. Step Three is lead capture. You’ve written the perfect ad. You are now holding the attention of an interested buyer who, statistically speaking, will be making a purchase within the next 90 days. How are you going to turn him into a client? The answer is you need some form of effective lead capture. Obviously I use my Ultimate Website, and you can get your own (it’s relatively inexpensive). My Ultimate Website includes three separate forms of lead capture, and I believe that they are each essential to your advertising. Customers have widely disparate preferences when it comes to searching for homes online. A few will prefer to make a quick phone call (these will result in the warmest leads). Some will be mobile and prefer to send a text for more information. The majority will prefer to continue their search on your website, so it’s necessary to have lead capture technology there as well. I strongly recommend all three. And you can get all of these technologies separately for a few hundred dollars a month. It’s more important to me that you have these technologies than whether you get them from me. However, I recommend that you at least take a look at my Ultimate Website because it’s available at a fraction of what it would cost you to buy them separately from other companies. Anyway, that brings us to step four. Step 4 is the easiest. Sit back and wait for the customers to come to you. I expect to capture about one customer per ad that I place, so I recommend placing more than one at a time. Craigslist will allow you to renew the ad to the top of the listings every 48 hours. So if you post five ads and renew them each fifteen times per month, that’s approximately 75 customers every month -- without spending a dime in advertising and very little time maintaining your ads. Not bad. That’s my entire approach. If you complete these four steps you can be guaranteed that you are exploiting your local Craigslist for all its worth. The best part is, because very few agents know what they are doing on Craigslist, there are lots of customers and very little competition among agents. Today because I believe that many of my readers will finally understand and identify with my philosophy, I’m offering you a unique promotion. Not only am I going to extend my already low price of 58% off, but I am going to sweeten the deal even more! Buy my Ultimate Website system today and you’ll get a fantastic looking, state-of-the-art website complete with an integrated WordPress auto-blog and our unrivaled LCM lead capture technology along with all the free training you need to help you get up and running. Awesome! Not familiar with my Ultimate Website? Check it out here: http://guerillarealty.com Get My Ultimate Website Now » As always, thanks for reading. Matt Jones Broker/President/CEO FavoriteAgent.com Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com, nationally syndicated columnist, broker, and best selling author. He has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed he and his company were "changing the way real estate is done in America."

I did not sign up for this #TRENDING Overcome Stress and Get Your Focus Back » When it all builds up Read more » Teen Charged With Stabbing Real Estate Agent » A teenager has been charged with the stabbing death of a man in New Hanover County last week. Read more » A Fresh Look at Real Estate Commissions » Mandie Sellars, a homeowner in the �Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, had the misfortune of Read more » Brooklyn Tool Shed Listed for $500k » The ad on Zillow says the property is a 'great opportunity... asking only $499,000'. Read more » Who Pays the Highest Property Taxes? » The average median property tax rate across the nation is 1.31 percent. That means a home owner with Read more » ECONOMY Owners Overvaluing Their Homes » Home owners are still slightly overvaluing their homes compared to appraisers' estimates, according to the latest Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index. In December, average appraised values were Read more » Four Real Estate Trends for 2016 » Whether you are buying, selling, or renting, there's no escaping Federal Reserve's anticipated Read more » Homebuying Could Become Unaffordable Within Two Years » With the right economic conditions, in two years, home affordability could get close to the same Read more » Which Candidate Is Most Likely to Help the Housing Market? » We surveyed home sellers in late January to get their take on the market. Because it�s an election Read more » Want to Help the Middle Class? Build More Houses » America�s future is happening first here, in Seattle. Just this year, Seattle technology jobs Read more » Prices and Mortgage Rates to Go Up in 2016 » The monthly mortgage payment on a home is determined by two elements: the price of the house and the Read more » TECHNOLOGY Choosing the Best Anti-virus Software » What to choose when you have too many options? Read more » Microsoft Kills Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 » Internet Explorer has long been the bane of many Web developers� existence, but here�s some news to Read more » Don't Use Email To Manage Transactions » As hackers continue to use fraudulent online messages to steal money from unsuspecting home buyers, Read more » Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize Real Estate Soon » The realization of Virtual Reality (VR) is set to have a big impact on real estate, offering buyers Read more » New Objective School Rankings for Your Real Estate Search » For young families moving to a new city one of the biggest challenges isn�t just finding a suitable Read more » LAW Cancer Patient Sues Real Estate Couple for $500k » A Surrey cancer patient who claims a couple of local real estate agents cheated her out of $500,000 has launched a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court seeking to get her money back as well as compensation Read more » Judge Admits New Evidence in Realtor Murder Case » A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors could submit evidence obtained Read more » Goldman Sachs Reaches $5B Settlement Amid Toxic Bonds Controversy » Goldman Sachs said Thursday that it reached a $5 billion settlement over claims related to toxic Read more » Agent Charged With Terroristic Threats Misses Court » A Hot Springs realtor facing a terroristic threatening charge had a court date Thursday. Read more » Despite $1.2B Settlement, DOJ Still Pursuing Wells Fargo » Despite recently agreeing to a $1.2 billion settlement with the federal government to resolve claims Read more » Teen Charged With Stabbing Real Estate Agent » A teenager has been charged with the stabbing death of a man in New Hanover County last week. Read more » MARKETING Should You Be Posting Your Listings on Social Media? » Social media is a great means of marketing your real estate listings. Unfortunately, not all real estate agents make use of this as part of their marketing strategy. Is it time for you to promote your Read more » How to Host an Open House Like a Pro » Open house is that certain time wherein you are opening your home for viewing. This means that you Read more » Online Marketing Mistakes to Avoid » You know buyers are most likely to start their home search online, surveys attest to that. And, Read more » INVESTING Selling in the Winter Works to an Investor's Advantage » When it comes to buying or selling a home, conventional wisdom dictates that winter is lousy timing. You can't show or see a home at its best when the weather is crummy. Read more » Best Investment of 2016? Global Real Estate » According to Forbes, 2016 will likely have equities flat to negative. There are many factors Read more » HOW-TO Secrets to Multiplying Your Referrals » What systems do you have in place to double your business through referrals with each transaction? Top real estate agents implement great procedures to plant seeds for business referrals from the very Read more » 5 Lies You've Been Told About Productivity » How being overly productive is counterproductive Read more » Customers-for-life Still Eluding Many Brokerages » One of the most common goals adopted almost universally by real estate brokerages is also the Read more » Make Sense of Online Advertising Metrics » The sheer amount of online marketing campaign data and website analytics is staggering. These Read more » Help Your Buyer Find the Right Compromises » Your home shoppers may have a long wish list, but when it comes to finding a home � particularly Read more » 4 New Year's Resolutions Every Agent Should Make » As the year comes to an end, many people are making new year�s resolutions. For real estate agents, Read more »

This is the NewsGeni.us e-Brief, a collection of the best real estate news and advice in one place. To cancel your subscription, follow this link http://www.newsgeni.us/unsub.php?email=dsoldit.blogpost@blogger.com&s=2164.

©2016 NewsGeni.us, 212 Northstone Pl, Fayetteville, NC 28314. All rights reserved.