Realty World Northern California & Nevada

So, you’re probably wondering amidst all the good news about the economy spun from the dominate media culture, why the economy still feels bad? Simple answer, many in the media complex don’t run businesses and they are listening to people who don’t run businesses for their sources. What to do?

Well, if you’re like most real estate people I know; you’re working 5 times harder for less than half the income. You’re not alone either. You know where the vacant buildings, warehouses and retail stores are; you drive by them every day. Just last summer a little over two-thirds of the entire industrial capacity in the US was working and in some sort of production use. Today, that has dropped to just under 75% or about 5 points less than normal when the economy is doing well. Don’t hear that in the news to you?

What does all this mean to your income? It means you have to see and touch more people with your value proposition in person. Belly to belly. Face to face. A prospect can’t send you to the deleted file, mail filter or trash can. They have to talk with you at some point, hence your selling strategy and listening skills had better be ready and oiled for action.

What advantage will I have in this scenario? Well, most salespeople are going to be dead before they start. Meaning they are getting ready to get ready. They will never go anywhere. You know who I’m talking about too. Second, most salespeople will resist the street in favor of blast emails, wasted postage and off line gimmicks from personal promotion to refrigerator magnets. That will account for about 93% of the competition. 7% will know this and immediately shift to the street for instant prospecting and immediate results. Remember, even a call on a prospect that has to interest to purchase or sell is a worthwhile event. It tells you who’s not players; sharpens your tactical skill and presents an opportunity for seeking referrals.

Those same 7 percent will communicate not only in person, but will use that offline call time to redirect their prospect to an online resource (namely their BLOG) to keep the prospect attenuated to the needs analysis and selling points of your in person call. Similarly, to what you do in the online world.

There is no better time to wake up and smell the pavement.

Before there were tags, WordPress.com (and other blog hosing sites) only allowed categories to be used.

Categories allowed for a broad grouping of post topics, but when you wanted to describe a post in more specific terms, more categories were required. That lead to very long category lists inside the blog and very long lists in categories widgets making it harder to find what you needed a backlog of general categories stacked into posts.

Someone realized how silly this was and now have tags as well.

Tags are similar to categories, but instead of a list of words to choose from, you write them in a list (separated by commas) in the tags module of your post editing screen. They are free form words and allow you describe your post in more detail and help people narrow search results to get to relevant information faster.

For example, a post titled “Last Night At El Tapatio” might be filed under the “Dinner” category, but could have tags such as, “taco, margarita, salsa, Mariachi.” This will help people looking for information on where to get good tacos for dinner find something more specific than all of the dinner places in an area. Get it?

Since it may be a bit confusing upon first glance (especially to new bloggers),  here are some common questions and answers that may help you out:

Q: With regards to capital letters, is “Tag” the same as “tag?”
A: Yes. Capital letters do not change a tag. “Blogging” is the same as “blogging.”

Q: Is there a limit to the number of tags I can have?
A: No. You may associate as many tags with your posts as you like.

Q: Is there any advantage to using tags or categories, or both?
A: Tags will allow you to be more specific and narrow searches, so they are recommended. It cannot hurt to do both!

Q: Do I have to use tags?
A: The use of tags is entirely optional (although each post must be attached to at least one category) but they will help filter searches.

It is recommended you limit your number of categories to no more than 10. For real estate experts, good categories include “Buyers,” “Sellers,” “Community,” etc. Your tags can include identifiers that fall under these categories, like “first-time buyers,” “short sales,” or “schools.”

Categories and tags are both useful in helping your readers find posts of interest. You can think of categories as being utilitarian and tags as a more creative way of indexing your blog.

Ron Dillon
Director of Online Education
ron.dillon@rwnc.net

Logorrhea? What’s that? I know… maybe I could have picked a better title. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw it fitting. Let’s start with a clear definition:

logorrhea \law-guh-REE-uh\, noun:

1. Pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.
2. Incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility.

Example: By his own measure, he is a man of many contradictions, beginning with the fact that he is famous as a listener but suffers from “a touch of logorrhea.” He is so voluble that one wonders how his subjects get a word in edgewise.
– Mel Gussow, “Listener, Talker, Now Literary Lion: It’s Official.”, New York Times, June 17, 1997

Okay, now we’re past that and you’ll hopefully agree that is not something you want. I can tell your customers certainly don’t and are experts at avoiding it. Simply, they are in search for the perception of quality in a relationship with the agent they choose. The notion behind my approach in bringing this to you is simple… In struggling markets a habit that many salespeople develop is one of a compulsive nature to spew information, statistics and the like to consumers. It is a bad habit that can manifest itself into an appearance of personal desperation. I can think of a few time-share salespeople that have a terminal case of this!

What we are talking about is narrowing your focus in real estate; the shift from a general practitioner to that of a “specialist”. Why? Because the perception of quality will always reside in the mind of the customer; whether a buyer or seller in this case.

When you narrow your focus in your blogs, and other marketing channels you become more of a specialists than a generalist. You’ll agree that a specialist is typically perceived to know and understand more (or have higher quality) than that of a generalist. Would a cardiologist know more about the intricacies of the heart more than a practitioner of general medicine? Most people would think so. The perception is certainly true. This connotation is one of the reasons we label you a specialist in our system.

This is where the content of your blogs become very important. Potential customers interested in property in your ‘neck of the woods’ will probably be following you before you even know it. You can become a specialist and avoid catching logorrhea by providing content that narrows the focus to your market and the characteristics your market offers. If a customers asks about a community event you can certainly discuss that, however we should refrain from having your blog be the ‘official’ site of that event and remain focused to real estate related matters you actually specialize in.

Everyone may think they can tell a high-quality product or service from a low-quality one, but sometimes it is not that easy. Does a BMW have fewer mechanical difficulties than a Buick? Are you sure? Does a Cartier keep better time than a Seiko? Are you sure? Is an agent that specializes bank-owned properties know more about local property values than an agent who specializes in short-sale negotiations? Are you sure?

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net