It's an Online World: Are You Prepared

I recently attended a broker series class at KCRAR and wanted to share some of the notes I took about current marketing trends for real estate and beyond.

http://www.secondlife.com/:  were all very busy learning how to use Facebook and Twitter, but the next thing is SecondLife, and if you are really in to Second Life you may find yourself buying and selling virtual real estate in a virtual world and selling real stuff in a virtual world.

Google Maps for Real Estate  Google is allowing people to search for real estate for sale using their mapping feature.   You can get your listings on google maps through one of the syndicating web sites out there or load them yourself into google base.  If your properties are not on this, figure out how to get them there.

Neighborhoods:  we talked about buyers wanting to live in walkable neighborhoods, where they can walk to work, shop, and play, more urban and less suburbs.

Realtors:  buyers are looking for buyers (or home sellers) who are honest, good listeners, know the market, and can explain the process, and are connected to all the answers

Websites that consumers are going to get more information

• http://www.houselogic.com/   from the National Association of Realtors
• http://www.commercialsource.com/
• http://www.incredibleagent.com/  and http://www.incredibleagents.com/
• http://www.outrageousagents.com/
• http://www.homethinking.com/
• http://www.realestateratingz.com/
• http://www.agentrank.com/
• http://www.yelp.com/
• www.ziprealty.com/

Because it is an online world, we need to keep an eye on what other people are saying about us and our companies.  There are many tools that will monitor the web and report back to you based on key words you set up.  Check these out and set up an alert on your name, your company name, & your top competitors to see what they are doing.

• Google Alerts
• StepRep
• Trackur.com
• Backtype

There was a big to do a few years ago about IDX, and allowing competitors to put all MLS listings on their sites for their customers to see.  Now it is VOW which allows

• Immediate Responsiveness with comments going directly to listing agents email / smart phone
• Lead Management
• Relationship Managment Applications
• So now for example when a Realtor list a property through the Kansas City area's MLS, properties can be immediatly syndicated out to a bunch of web sites and may will allow the viewer to comment on the listing that will get back to the listing agent to act on very quickly

For Realtors who are a member of NAR, the following are all tools you can access and the general public can also access a great amount of the information on Realtor.org:

• Information Central
• ProQuest
• Field Guides on all types of topics
• Research Statistics
• Tool Kits
• Community Outreach Programs
• PodCasts and other training

And last we talked about Brokerages needing to develop a blog policy for their agents and staff to follow, this will also be very important for investors, mortgage people, and just about any business.

• We have posted a sample Blog Policy in the Business Management Section of the MAREI Library.  go to http://www.mareinet.com/ and log in to access.