Vision Realtors

The most common question I am asked is “How is the market?” My thoughts on the market are as much a feeling as a statistical analysis. I’m of the opinion that a combination of an emotional sensitivity (how buyers and sellers are reacting) and the statistics is the only way to yield a truly tacit understanding of what is happening.

My knowledge and experience is focused on the Santa Monica and Brentwood real estate markets. While there are charts and graphs that may contradict my feelings on the subject, I can with confidence tell you that the real estate market in Santa Monica and Brentwood is– good.

Even in the midst of the economic downturn, the median condo sale price in Los Angeles is 5,000, down about 15k since 2010. The median sales price YTD in Santa Monica is 0k. North of Wilshire condos are averaging about 0 per sf with an average sales price of about 0,000 (excluding Ocean Avenue condos). These numbers are slightly down from 2010 when the average sales price was 5,000 and the price per sf was 0.

Houses in Santa Monica had a median sales price of ,550,000 in 2010. That value has dropped about 0,000 or 15% this year to ,450,000. However, one should note that a greater number of lower-end homes sold this year. I would say the drop in values is closer to 5% in Santa Monica single-family homes.

From 2007-2009 there was a more dramatic drop in values, approximately 15-30% depending on the property with an average 20% drop. So, we hope this means prices are beginning to stabilize. There are two other notable developments in the market that point towards a positive trend. Rental rates are increasing and are up about 5% over what they were last year, with a continued increase expected. This places the cost of owning a condo, very much in line with renting; even before the tax advantage one can achieve with mortgage interest and property tax deductions.

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If you consider the average days on market for Santa Monica Houses sold YTD is 50 and the average escrow period is 45 days, we have about a 5 month supply of inventory of condos and single family homes in Santa Monica: 247 homes on the market and 71 in escrow.

In Brentwood we have about a four month supply: 179 homes on the market and 68 in escrow. While not an exact science, for example one should consider that some of these homes will never sell and others will fall out of agreement, these are the types of numbers generally used to describe a healthy real estate market.

Out of the twenty-seven buyers and sellers I have represented so far this year, about half of the properties were in multiple offers. In the heyday of the market, 2003-2006, multiple offers would achieve extraordinary leaps in value. These days, half a dozen offers may yield no more than the highest offer being slightly under the asking price. Even so, a well-priced property with desirable qualities, about a third of the marketplace, will sell and have its choice of several eager suitors.

Sure, there are a plethora of insecure buyers backing out of escrows for no good reason. However, on a quality property, sincere and confident buyers have always been there to put it back into escrow and see it through closing. Today, it takes more clarity of purpose than it may have in previous markets to move forward as a buyer.  It’s almost as if there is a radio station on during the entire transaction going: “don’t buy it!”, “the world is going to end!”, “you are paying too much!” and on and on. 

In exchange for a courageous heart, the real estate market is bestowing gifts of fantastic real estate buys and interest rates under 4% (15 year fixed term). At the markets peak, a 7500sf lot North of Montana in Santa Monica, with a tear down or major fixer house on it, was selling for about 2.3 million. A very workable house on a 7600 sf lot on 15th Street in 90402 recently went into escrow somewhere in the 1.7 million dollar range. Keeping in mind that North of Montana is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in all of Los Angeles, the buyer got a good deal. 

It’s a good market for buyers. It’s a better market than most people think it is. If you are thinking about making a purchase, the next couple of years will continue to yield sound buys. Wetside Los Angeles real estate is the gold standard in real property, it would be wise not to discount it and foolish to miss out on this opportunity.

Click here for more about Westside, Santa Monica Real Estate and Brentwood Real Estate.

Simon Salloom is a Realtor Partner at Partners Trust Real Estate Brokerage in Brentwood. He lives in Santa Monica with his wife and two sons.

 

Simon Salloom

Partner

 

Search Engine Marketing is all about promoting and marketing your websites via paid advertisement or paid listing on search engines.

In order to display an ad for a particular search engine such as Google, you have to create an account with the advertising product or brand of that search engine. AdWords is Google’s advertising product that offers cost-per-click aka pay-per-click advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads. The AdWords program allows you to display your ads locally, nationally, and internationally.

As soon as you set up an account, you can immediately create your ad and enter a list of user search queries called keywords that can trigger your ad to be shown in search engine paid listing.

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Search Engine Marketing or paid advertisement operates on a pay per click model that means you pay only for clicks not for the ad impression. The other option you have in Search Engine Marketing is cost per thousand impressions (CPM), in which you pay for thousand impressions not for any clicks on your ad.

Search Engine Marketing gives you total control to choose keywords for which you want to display your ads in search engine paid listing. That means you only get quality traffic because your ads will not be appeared for unwanted keywords.

Advertisers generally choose to advertise their website instead of optimizing their site for placement in the organic (free listing) search results.Search Engine Marketing allows you to determine when and where a listing of your site appears. You can create and AdWords account in no time and ads can run almost immediately in response to keywords that you enter.

Search Engine Marketing offers numerous advantages as follow:

•    Quick result just after set up of PPC account
•    Bid for keywords that you think is most useful
•    Provides facility to promote your product in any country, region or even local area
•    Changing of ads content anytime with no hassle
•    Modifying of Budget settings anytime
•    Bidding cost can be changed anytime
•    Create, delete and pause ads anytime
•    Display your ads in Google search network such Gmail, YouTube etc.
•    Test multiple ads for a group of keywords also known as spilt testing

Selling a property through the “For-Sale-By-Owner” style is frequently debated within the real estate world. We certainly don’t blame you for attempting to sell your home yourself, versus enlisting the help of a real estate agent. Upon first glance, it seems like a great idea to put up a for-sale sign in the front yard to see if you get any bites. You avoid the hassle of selecting a real estate agent and avoid paying out any commission. However, most of the time, the “For-Sale-by-Owner” approach is not nearly as successful as hiring a Realtor, especially in a buyer’s market like the Denver real estate market.

According to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors, home sellers are staying clear of the FSBO approach. FSBOs decreased in 2010, making up only nine percent of total home sales, versus 14 percent of home sales in 2003 and 2004. More sellers are turning to experienced real estate agents for help with selling their homes, since they are coming to the realization that it is hard to sell their own homes. FSBO sellers often struggle with pricing, marketing, and staging their properties without the help of a real estate agent.

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A large number of FSBOs are sold between friends, relatives, or neighbors, which does make sense in many cases, but if you are not doing this, consider hiring a real estate agent for several reasons:

- The Metrolist (MLS) is king. If you are listing your home yourself, you will not be able to put your property into the MLS, your area’s database of homes for sale. Only real estate agents are permitted to list homes in the MLS. This dramatically cuts down your home’s exposure to potential buyers and to their Realtors.

-FSBOs are also locked out of many powerful home listing sites, including Realtor.com.

-Many Realtors won’t show FSBOs. In addition, if you try to sell your home yourself, you miss out on the tight community of Realtors, who often homes because they know the listing agent.

-You miss out on a Realtor’s professional assistance in determining your home’s listing price, along with how to stage the home for a quick sale.

-Realtors understand the twists and turns of everything involved in a real estate transaction, including listing the home, marketing the home, negotiating with potential buyers, closing the transaction, and the list goes on!

-Potential buyers are often intimidated by FSBOs and prefer homes attached to a listing agent. They prefer to have some sort of buffer between them and the seller – someone who is able to negotiate and close the transaction.

Regardless if you want to sell your home yourself, or sell it through a real estate agent, we wish you the best of luck in selling your home. Happy home selling!

How Does Flat Fee MLS Work?

Introduction

When you are ready to sell real estate you have options, I know many of you think you have to list with a broker and pay outrageous commissions. That is not true. You can sell by owner or you can sell by owner and take advantage of Multiple listing services as well.
Let me compare the two services for you, then you decide.

What do brokers do for 6%?

They do a number of services. The most common of these is:

1. List your property on the local Multiple Listing Service

2. Review and/or write your purchase agreement.

3. Act as a transaction coordinator who follows your contract through to closing.

4. They usually set showings.

5. They will give you a sign with their number on it

6. They usually provide a lockbox

7. Most will prepare flyers, with their contact information on it.

On a 0,000 dollar property you commission would be ,000 or more.

What do flat fee brokers do?

1. List your property on the local Multiple Listing Service for a Flat Fee, usually around 0.00  Some services charge considerably more than that. Do some research to find the best service and the best price.

2. Review and/or write your purchase agreement. This is a separate fee, usually around 9.00.

3. Act as a transaction coordinator who follows your contract through to closing. A separate fee, usually around 9.00

4. You set the showings around what is convenient for you and the buyer.

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5. You have your own sign with your phone number as contact.

6.You have a key box, and you control who has access to it.

7. You create your own flyers with your contact number or you can get free flyers from a local title company or a lender.

The great thing about the flat fee service is you can pick and choose the services you want and pay only for those you need.

What will you do with all the money you save?

If you bought all the separate services, your cost would be less than ,000.

If sold by a MLS broker and you paid a coop fee, you would still save between ,000 and ,000 thousands dollars.

Since you can still sell by owner, if you were able to find your own buyer, you would pay no coop fee. This would not be an option with the 6% listing.  You could save more than ,000 dollars. Not bad.

Benefits of using Flat Fee MLS:

1. You save time – properties usually sell faster
2. You save money – properties usually sell for top dollar
3. You maintain control – Brokers have a lot of control with 6% listings
4. You can sell by owner and owe no commission – No so with full service listings.
5. You can cancel at any time – May or may not be true with full service listings
6. You get far greater exposure to qualified buyers
7. You get thousands of Brokers with qualified buyers to help sell your house
8. You most likely will get listed on Realtor.com as well as the local MLS

What to look for in your Flat Fee broker

All flat fee brokerages are not alike and there are many scams. Some call their service MLS when in fact they are not even members of the MLS. They may not be licensed real estate agents. They take your money and put you on their web site but not on the Realtor’s MLS.

So do some investigating. Find out:

1. Do the have experience with for sale by owners?
2. Are they members of your local MLS?
3. Are they licensed Brokers in your state?
4. Do they maintain an office locally? And do they have a local phone and address?
5. Are they easily accessible by phone, fax, email and mail?
6. Avoid large franchise companies and Multilevel Marketing scams

Things you need to do as a FSBO:

1. Detach from the property.
2. Clean house and garage.
3. Learn how to stage the property
4. Research other properties in your neighborhood so you can price it right.
5. Put away all valuables while you’re on the market
6. Get flyers for your buyers

Summary

So why wouldn’t you do Flat Fee MLS instead of full service 6% commission?

There are lots of reasons people choose to go with a higher commission and I respect their choice.
I think you’d be wise to look into Flat Fee MLS services in your area first and then compare the two and make an informed decision.

Copyright © Wee Dilts   2009

Local search Orange County California gives local companies the chance to catch the attention of new customers by means of the Internet. Local search directories can be compared to print business directories, but with many extra features.

Local search Orange County California is a cost-effective Internet marketing method that can produce positive results. The course of action for submitting to listing directories is not difficult, but is definitely time-consuming since there are so many directories to upload information.  

One mistake many Orange County companies make is only publishing to the major directories such as Bing Business Portal, Yahoo Local, and Google Places. To fully capitalize with this method requires posting at as many niche directories as possible. Some of the more recognized directories include Orange County Resource Guide, Easy O.C., and Orange County Creative Directory.

The main reason for posting to multiple local search directories is to acquire a back link to the company website. Although search engines use several factors for ranking online content, the number of back links plays a significant role. When websites have high levels of inbound links it is a reflection the site is well-established and well-liked.

Orange County companies that integrate link building online techniques can boost search placement to outperform competitors and boost profit margins.

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Local listings permit registered businesses to upload their address, phone numbers, email address, website URL, and business hours. The details are used to supply site visitors driving instructions and GPS coordinates for in-car maps, along with information about close by companies.

L.A. businesses can submit photos of their product line, as well as exclusive promotions such as coupon codes and discount vouchers. This can be especially beneficial for Orange County retailers and restaurants, as well as service providers and businesses that provide B2B services.

Another advantage of local search is the majority of service provides encourage buyers to submit testimonials and reviews. Customer critiques are valuable when they’re constructive and go a long way in developing consumer trust and confidence.

On the flip side, negative testimonials can be damaging, particularly when the information is actually bogus. It’s vital to subscribe to a reputation management system to monitor what is being said across the Internet.   

Some of the more popular reputation management services include: Reputation.com, DefendMyName.com, and LocationMonitor.com. These kinds of services monitor consumer reviews, ratings, and mentions and supply companies with reports that include direct links to negative information.

The way to achieve success with local search Orange County California is to put together a strategic marketing plan. Most business owners find it beneficial to hire an online media marketing consultant or outsource the project to a marketing company. Businesses that decide to tackle the project on their own ought to start by making a list of major and niche directories and reviewing the policies and procedures for each.

The second phase consists of composing SEO content and publishing company details, images, and special promotions to each directory. Once the information is publicized it is essential to examine for accuracy. Published listings ought to be examined every week to make certain data hasn’t been changed, removed, or hi-jacked.

Hi-jacked, or stolen local search listings can cost O.C. businesses money. In essence, online hackers rob publicized information and reroute to a competitor’s website. Although this isn’t a daily occurrence, it can be financially damaging if it does. As the saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Don’t skip the step of examining local search publications regularly.

More than likely the biggest barrier of local search Orange County California is acquiring time to find appropriate directories, upload information, monitor results, and verify listings every week. One option is to contract out this project to an online marketing company acquainted with the region. This will free up time and let owners focus on other facets of business operations.

Of all the areas of Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization is the most misunderstood, and potentially the most important to your marketing efforts. There are millions upon millions of pages of web content out there — you can work hard, build a great site, and then be totally lost in the shuffle. SEO is important. It’s also a very complex process that requires patience, careful planning and a long-term approach.

If you’re just getting started with:

Selecting an SEO firm

Trying to start a search engine campaign on your own

Reviewing your current SEO efforts

…read on. This article should provide you with a high-level review of the SEO process, dispel a few SEO myths, and help you understand legitimate optimization strategies.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, defies easy definition. But here’s a short version:

Search Engine Optimization
Using keyword analysis and other legitimate practices to gain the highest possible search engine and directory rankings, under a given key phrase, for a given URL.

Every SEO professional in the world just cringed, so I’ll break this definition down a bit and hopefully prevent a hail of angry e-mails:

Keyword Analysis is the process of mining keyword search data to find the best balance between the keywords you need and the best potential search niche. More on this later.

Search Engine means an automated search engine. ‘Search Engines’ include Google, AlltheWeb.com, Yahoo (powered by Google plus their own directory information), AOL Search, Ask Jeeves and MSN Search. A search engine obtains its results from ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ — small programs that come to your web site read it in much the same way you would: By reading the content on a page, and then moving from page to page via links. A directory, on the other hand, is built at least in part by human beings reading sites and other information and deciding where each site fits into the directory structure. Yahoo’s directory area and Open Directory are both examples of directories.

Ranking is the numeric rank reflecting your position in the results list when someone performs a search on a particular set of keywords.

Highest Possible means getting as close to number one as you can. Sometimes you just can’t get that number one spot. Maybe someone else has a 400-page web site solely dedicated to the key phrase for which you’re attempting to optimize. Or maybe they’re paying a fortune in advertising. That’s life, sometimes…

Key Phrase is the keyword or set of keywords someone types into the little ‘search’ field in Google or Alta Vista or any other search engine.

A URL is the address of one page on your site. Most search engines display keyword search results and provide a link directly to the page most relevant to those results, rather than your home page. It’s very, very important to keep that in mind when you build and optimize your site.

Legitimate Practices is a pet peeve of mine. A true search engine optimization campaign will not use practices such as page or content cloaking, redirects, or lists of links (so-called ‘link farms’) but relies on good coding practices, well-written content, steady link popularity work and site features that will be every bit as valuable for site visitors as for search engine ranking. Anything less is a short-term fix that will likely reduce your rankings more often than increase them.

So, the long version of the definition would be:

Search Engine Optimization
Using keyword analysis, good coding practices, well-written copy, link popularity analysis and careful site organization to move a web page as close to the number one search results position as possible for a given key phrase, in both search engines and directories.

Hey, that’s not so bad after all. But how do you get started? First, you separate reality from myth…

SEO Urban Legends

There are quite a few SEO myths out there. Here are my favorites:

The Keywords META Tag Matters. Mostly wrong. Only Inktomi pays any attention to the keywords meta tag. You should do something basic, but don’t bother putting in keywords that aren’t supported by your page content.

Search Engines can read Flash, images and video. Sorry, and Ford isn’t selling a flying car yet, either. Search engines can read one thing: Text. Anything else, while perfectly legitimate as a design tool, will not help your ranking. And relying too heavily on Flash or images may reduce your site’s visibility. Google is one partial exception — they can read some links in Flash, but still have very limited ability to read Flash content.

Mirroring my site in multiple locations will improve ranking. Actually, just the opposite. Duplication of content will generally have no effect or, worse, reduce your ranking in major search engines. Most search engines now have rules against this form of ‘spam’ and may reduce your ranking or ban your site altogether.

‘Doorway’ pages improve ranking. Pages that have lots of keywords but then quickly redirect to the main site will not help you in major search engines, such as Google. And, if someone catches you and reports you to Google or the other search engine, you may be banned altogether. A ‘landing’ or ‘bridge’ page, though, that’s designed to be as useful for users as for search engines, and does not redirect the user, can help by providing keyword-rich content that’s genuinely worthwhile.

Firms promising to get me #1 rankings in 10,000 search engines for .95 can help. I alternate between tooth-grinding and hysterical laughter when I see these ads. First, there aren’t 10,000 search engines. Actually, there are probably 10-20 you should really worry about. Getting listed in the other thousand or so is largely a waste of time. Second, no one can guarantee any ranking in any search engine for a specific keyword. Period. And finally, the price is less than half the cost to get an express submission in a single directory (Yahoo). Chances are anyone trying to get you to spend the .95 is operating a ‘link farm’ where they list dozens, or hundreds, of sites. While they won’t hurt your ranking, they won’t help, either. To learn more about how to choose an SEO firm, check out Google’s article: http://www.google.com/intl/mr/webmasters/seo.html.

Firms charging me more money and guaranteeing a #1 ranking on Google can help. This is the latest SEO scam. I can get you a number one ranking on Google, too, as long as I get to pick the keyword or can get you ranked under a fairly unique company name. But no one, and I mean no one can guarantee a #1 rank under a specific keyword. Even Google says so.

Forget the myths — if an offer seems too good to be true, it is. The truth is that search engines are now almost savvy enough to read your pages like a human being would, so anything that will drive away a typical site visitor will also probably reduce your ranking. Things that will increase your search engine ranking include:

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Well-written content

Good, clean HTML code

Useful, relevant TITLE tags

Useful, relevant DESCRIPTION tags

Relevant, appropriate links from other web sites

There are some basic steps that, well executed, will do more to increase your page rank than an ocean of snake oil.

The SEO Campaign Process

A typical SEO campaign starts with keyword analysis, and then emphasizes insuring your site doesn’t impede search engine bots and follows up with ongoing link and traffic analysis. If you like pretty pictures, here’s one:

 What’s a Bot?
A ‘bot’ is a program used by a search engine to read the content of your site into a directory. I mentioned this briefly in ‘What is Search Engine Optimization?’ above. Keep up, now….

Step 1: Keyword Analysis. Ah, keywords. If you say the right word enough times on your site, you’ll get that coveted #1 spot, right? Wrong. Choosing the right keywords starts with you making a list of the keywords or phrases under which you’d like to be found, and typically ends up somewhere completely different. Typically, selecting the best keywords is a four-step process:

List the keywords and phrases under which you’d like to be found.

Find out whether anyone searches on those keywords, and whether they’re searching for relevant items.

Find out how many other sites are struggling for rankings under those keywords.

Pick keywords with the same meaning but a better search-to-competition ratio.

Maybe I want to rank #1 under ‘Search Engine Optimization’. Guess what? There are 686,000 other URLs in Google trying for that spot. Hmmm. But wait! Under ‘Seattle Search Engine Optimization’ there are only 19,000. So, I targeted that key phrase, instead. And guess what? We got a #3 ranking.

Don’t forget about relevance, either. If you want a high ranking under ‘tires’, you’re going to have your work cut out for you. And in the end you’ll likely end up getting found for ‘bicycle tires’, ‘automobile tires’, ‘spare tires’ and who knows what else. Is it worth it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But you have to do your homework to find out.

Data Mining and Keywords
If you’re doing a campaign for a large site, you may end up testing and comparing thousands of keywords and phrases. Having a good data-mining tool (even Excel will do) on hand is important when you’re doing keyword analysis. We use S-Plus, by Insightful Software. It’s saved our lives, and clicker fingers, several times.

There are several tools that help you research the number of searches and competitors for keywords. Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) is a good one — don’t depend on their results from Overture, though, unless you’re specifically preparing an Overture campaign. Metacrawler’s MetaSpy tool is worth a look, too. Ideally, look at results from a few different sources.

Keyword analysis is the hardest part of a campaign, in number-crunching terms. It requires a lot of work and may not tell you what you want to hear. But in my experience it’s critical to a successful campaign.

Step 2: Search Engine Readiness. Almost every web site we review has one or more problems that will prevent search engine bots from properly reading all content. Typical showstoppers include:

An all-Flash or all-images home page

A home page that automatically redirects to another page

Pop-up ads (does anyone really read these things?)

A site full of pages with fewer than 400 words on a page

Broken links

Navigation that is generated by JavaScript

No TITLE or DESCRIPTION tags

A major step in any SEO campaign is making sure that the site will present the friendliest profile to search engines. Happily, the investment in optimizing will also pay off in a faster, more universally compatible site.

Step 3. Content and Site Preparation. You’ve done your research: You know which keywords match your message, and your site’s HTML code is one big search engine welcome mat. Now it’s time to make sure that your site contains those keywords. This is where I most often see folks get confused — should you rewrite your web content to emphasize keywords? Yes, but with extreme caution. Should you make small, appropriate changes? Yes. Here are my guidelines for content preparation.

Don’t write for keywords (much). This almost always leads to stilted, hard-to-read prose. Writing keyword-rich content that really works for users is an art form. Be careful.

Do a little careful editing. If you use the word ‘car’ but ‘auto’ is the keyword you need, chances are you can do a few replacements without marring your carefully crafted copy.

Spend time on the titles and description tags. Make sure every page in your site has a unique, relevant TITLE and DESCRIPTION tag.

Never use an automatic page generator. Tools like WebPosition Gold offer to generate optimized pages for you. Don’t. They tend to hurt your ranking as much as help, and they generate ugly, ugly pages.

Write more stuff. More content is almost always better. If your site is just missing a specific keyword or phrase, but you think it’s important, then your potential customers probably do too. By adding a few more pages, or a white paper, or some other content focusing on those absent keywords, you’ll likely help visitors and improve your keyword ranking at the same time. And, the more text-rich your site is, the better the odds that you’ll catch longer, stranger but really important key phrases that you can’t anticipate.

Step 4. Link Analysis. Quite a few major search engines (Google, most importantly) weigh your ‘link popularity’ when ranking your site. A more accurate term, though, is ‘link analysis’, because these engines don’t just count up the number of links to your site. They look for links near and containing relevant text. So a page full of links, one of which happens to be yours, won’t help very much. But a link from a related site, near a short paragraph that contains relevant keywords, will probably give you a boost. Having keywords in the link itself is even better. A quick example:

http://www.portentinteractive.com doesn’t help much.

For search engine optimization, visit http://www.portentinteractive.com is much better.

For search engine optimization, visit Portent Interactive where ‘search engine optimization’ is the link to Portent, is the absolute best case.

There are a few ways to build your link popularity:

Contact sites that relate to yours and request a link exchange. This works really well, but obviously takes a long time.

Syndicate your content. If you can provide an easy way for interested webmasters to link directly to relevant stories on your site, you provide an instant link popularity boost, and get your message out to boot.

Start an affiliate program. If you sell a product, consider setting up an affiliate sales program.

Google’s ‘One Site, One Vote’ Rule
Google awards a lot less weight to a link to your site if that link is on a page with lots of other links. That’s why so-called ‘link farming’ doesn’t work. Ideally, you want a link to your site from a page that includes relevant content and not that many other outgoing links.

Step 5. Submit your site. Many search engines, Google included, allow you to submit your site for free. Generally you can submit your home page and let the search engine crawl the rest of your site. Some directories and engines offer paid ‘express’ services, and some, like Teoma, require that you pay for URL submission. Which engines you choose depends on your budget and campaign.

Step 6. Review, Revise, and Keep Going. Think you’re done? Wrong — search engine optimization is an ongoing project. At least once per month, review your rankings, site traffic reports and link popularity and tweak your site as necessary. The tools you need to measure results are:

Site traffic reports. Any web hosting company should provide you with a web site traffic report, and almost all of the reporting tools in use today provide a ‘referrals from search engines’ section. Take a look at this section for a good measure of campaign results.

Link counts. Use the link: command on Google (see above) to determine your link popularity.

Your keyword list. Search on the relevant search engines to see if your ranking has improved.

Your brain. You have to interpret what you see, and decide whether changes are warranted. There’s no hard and fast rule for this, and no magic formula. Sorry about that…

So now you’ll get instant results, right? Well, not quite…

A Word About Expectations

Search engine optimization can take time. Even Google only refreshes its entire index once a month, so don’t expect instant results.

If your first registration run doesn’t generate increased rankings within a month or two, don’t panic. Look at your site traffic and search on the keywords you chose. Make sure that the search engine you’re checking actually includes your site, too — most likely the bots just haven’t gotten around to ‘crawling’ your site.

Still stumped? Find a professional. Sure, we cost money. But you may have missed something about your site that’s preventing a good keyword rank, and a second set of eyes can help.

A Solid Marketing Strategy

Obviously, Search Engine Optimization is a big job. But nothing can send more traffic to your site, for lower per-click cost. If you follow the basic steps, and keep at it, you will definitely get results. What’s really, really important is to make sure you don’t award too much weight to one step (such as link popularity) at the expense of the others. A well-rounded campaign will provide solid, long-term results.

What about pay per click?
Pay-per-click services, such as Overture and Google Adwords, are very different animals. If you’ve done your keyword analysis you’re halfway there, but there are other tasks. I’ve not talked about them in this article because, well, they need an article of their own. Check back soon…

Everyone has a different opinion about Realtor advertising strategies and how you should market your real estate services. Most experts tell you to make yourself (your brand) unique and different compared to your competition.  But what they don’t tell you is that you should never, ever compete on “price” alone if you want to be a top producing Realtor.  It’ll put you out of business faster than you got into it!

Some real estate agents think that if they brand themselves as the “discount Realtor”, in their Realtor advertising, that they’ll get more and more business and increase their income.  False; don’t get caught up in this myth.

You can give cash back to buyers and discounts to listing clients until the cows come home but guess what?  There will always be another Realtor out there who will undercut you on price, always!  Even when it comes down to a client deciding between two great “discount Realtors”, the client’s final decision is based on everything but price, 99% of the time.  

When it comes to Realtor advertising, think about this…..

If a client has a choice between two “discount Realtors” who are within a couple of dollars of each other, unless that client is super sensitive to price, they’re going to base their decision on the relationship they have with each Realtor; how they “feel” about them.  How they “feel” comes down to the brand and how well that brand has been marketed to them.

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You don’t believe me that price is a stupid point to compete on in your Realtor advertising?  How about this….

What is one of the most plentiful, free resources we have in the USA?  Water.  

How many different bottled water companies are there?  About a “bazillion”, right?  Just look in the grocery store aisle and see all the different shapes, styles, colors and names of these bottles of water.  Consumers choose to buy something that’s otherwise free just because a company throws it in a bottle and puts a story behind it.  

People are buying that bottled water’s “brand”, not the water itself.  They believe the story, the brand, which the company is selling the bottled water with.  People could get this stuff for free but they choose to spend their hard earned income on it because of how it makes them “feel”.  

And to top it off, just about all the bottled water companies are selling their water for the same price. They’re not making sales because it’s cheap; it’s stinkin’ expensive to buy bottled water!  They’re making sales because of the story, the brand, which they’re marketing it with.

That’s exactly what you need to do in your Realtor advertising! Realtors like us are a dime a dozen.  Sure, some of us are more experienced than others but consumers don’t buy that unless we sell it to them as our brand in our Realtor advertising and marketing.  

Even the real estate start-up superstar, Redfin.com, markets their brand as “highest in customer satisfaction”, even though their entire business model is based on giving buyers a rebate of 50% of their commission on every deal.  Redfin’s business model is about price, yet they are purposely not branding themselves as that.  This is exactly how intentional you need to be with your Realtor advertising.

BuySideRealty.com is a perfect example of the competition trying to out-price Redfin.  Instead of giving only 50% of a rebate to buyers, they decided to give a 75% rebate.  

So how’d they do?  Terrible.

They couldn’t get any traction and ended up merging with another company.  They were able to out-price the competition but couldn’t last for any length of time.  Redfin’s “brand” was too strong!

Hopefully you understand how competing on price in your Realtor advertising is a recipe for disaster.  At best, you’ll earn a living for a little while before you’re beat out by your competition.  Instead, define your brand, what you stand for, and market that in all your Realtor advertising.  That’s what’ll make you a top producing Realtor earning the big bucks!

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Lots of changes have occurred with the creation of the world-wide-web. This really isn’t that surprising to most people anymore. The way we interact with others, how we conduct business, and even how we watch TV and movies has been altered. Did you know that the real estate industry has changed as a consequence of the world-wide-web as well?

You might already know that you can do a lot of your housing search on the internet now. Also, you can actually hire a real estate agent that way and deal with them primarily by means of internet communication, something most people were not aware of. Get to know the concept of e-PRO Realtors.

A training course endorsed by the National Association of Realtors is what all e-PRO-certified Realtors must have successfully finished. This program teaches Realtors the right ways to help their clients with their real estate search, solely through online methods. This means learning how to use websites, email and other internet tools. Your e-PRO Realtor can guide you through online tours of houses in which you’re interested also.

Cost is one of the best things in hiring an e-PRO Realtor since they are not as costly as conventional real estate agents. There is also the additional benefit of security and privacy. When considering their new home options, Realtors with e-PRO certification understand that their clients want the maximum amount of privacy. While returning a client’s email quickly is an e-PRO Realtor’s goal, they will never send spam mail or bother a client unnecessarily.

How can you know whether a Realtor has this certification? Every one of these Realtors will have an “e-PRO” logo or certification title following their name in all online listings. You will likely find this bit of information helpful during your search for a good real estate broker online. Since e-PRO Realtors are more likely to have access to the online tools you want, as well, you really can’t go wrong in choosing one to be your real estate broker and help you on your next housing search.

If you are a realtor who is interested in marketing yourself online, then you know that this is not as easy as it sounds. When it comes to realtor marketing, there are many options available and it is difficult to know which ones will be most successful. Realtor advertising is a very broad category and there are many different ways that realtors can go about marketing themselves. If you are interested in learning more about marketing for retailers, then you have come to the right place. This article will tell you about some of the different realtor advertising techniques that are commonly used.

One of the most common realtor marketing strategies that is used is simply using the internet to get your name out there. In any given metropolitan area there are probably hundreds of realtors, if not more. Many people find a realtor by asking friends or relatives for recommendations, but other people find realtors by searching online. Having a well-designed website that is optimized for search engines is an excellent way to draw people who are looking for leads for realtors. If you do design a website or have someone do it for you make sure that it is optimized for keywords that are relevant to your area. For example, if you are a realtor in Denver, you will want your website optimized for Denver realtor, realtor in Denver and any other relevant phrases. This makes your website more likely to draw in people who are actually looking for leads for realtors.

In addition to using the internet to get your name out there, you can also use it to increase awareness. For all of the people who search for a realtor online there are just as many who search for a house online. Designing a website that enables you to feature different houses that are up for sale is a great way to customize marketing for realtors and what you need in order to grow your business. If you do decide to list houses for sale online make sure that you include good pictures of the best features of the houses and contact information for people who are interested in learning more.

When realtors marketing themselves have already created a website that is designed to draw in visitors, the challenge then becomes to convert them into paying customers. For most people, purchasing a house is a once in a lifetime situation. This means that your business will often be built from referrals. In other words, you need to make a great impression on your current clients in order to help bring in future clients.

In order to increase the number of new clients that you get, there are a few things that your website must do. It must communicate to people that you are trustworthy, and that you care about them personally. To do this it is helpful to put contact information in a prominent place on your website and feature testimonials from actual customers that you have helped in the past. This will enable realtors marketing themselves to most effectively grow their clientele.