Archive for April, 2008

Home Staging: Is it a Service that You Offer Your Sellers?

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

From TV shows that are all about flipping properties and creating curb appeal to setting one property apart from others, home staging is something that the sellers you are working with are going to know more and more about. Because of that, shouldn’t you look into offering home staging as a service that you offer to your clients?

Plenty of real estate professionals who are interested in setting themselves apart start looking into offering home staging services, but many think that they simply don’t have the time to go in and stage all of the homes they’ve listed. If that describes your situation, there are two different things that a real estate assistant certified in home staging can do for you.

  1. A real estate assistant who is a certified home stager will be able to work with you to create a home staging how to guide that you can brand for your business.
  2. A real estate assistant who is a certified home stager can go into the homes that you’re selling and make sure that everything is “just so” before prospective buyers are able to get inside.

In either case, the thing that you will quickly discover is that it’s possible to know that your clients understand home staging and the value that it creates without having to give up your time (or move everything else in your schedule around); it’s possible to offer home staging services to the sellers that you work with without adding more chaos into your business.

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Need Help with Your Real Estate Marketing?

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

When the market in your area slows down, the need for great real estate marketing gets even stronger. After all, when your real estate marketing materials are strong, you’ll still be able to attract clients and make sales.

However, it can be difficult to look at your real estate marketing materials objectively; working with a real estate assistant can help you to get all of your real estate marketing materials organized and performing for you and for your business.

When you’re working with the right real estate assistant, marketing your business will be far simpler. You’ll be able to have Just Listed and Just Sold postcards that match the look of your web site and your blog. You’ll be able to know that the copy on your real estate marketing materials was strong and that the images and multimedia presentations that you use on your website are top notch.

When you don’t have to worry about the real estate marketing materials that you’re using – and when you’re able to know what to expect from the person that you’re working with – you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to attract buyers and sellers, to sell houses and to run (and grow) your real estate business.

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What Can a Real Estate Assistant Take On?

Monday, April 28th, 2008

When you’re looking to have a real estate assistant start to help you out around the office, chances are good that you’d like to take a much closer look at the types of jobs a real estate assistant can do.

A real estate assistant can help with the basic tasks. Whether it’s answering the phone, ensuring that postcards get to the printer and then to the post office, sending out an email reply or calling ahead to remind your clients of an appointment they have scheduled, a real estate assistant is able to take it on.

Of course, there are more involved tasks that she can do too. Looking at giving your marketing materials a makeover or interested in adding a blog to your website? Take the time to talk over those needs with the real estate assistants that you’re thinking about working with as well; you just may find that she’ll be able to help you out there as well.

In other words, regardless of the tasks that you’re looking for some help with at your real estate business, you’re likely to find that a real estate assistant can rise to the occasion and take on whatever projects you need to have done.

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Branding: What a Real Estate Assistant Can Do to Establish Your Image

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Branding is a key component of marketing. When you have a well established brand, you’ll find that getting the word out about what you do and attracting new clients becomes a whole lot easier. When you’ve worked to establish your brand, you’re going to quickly find that:

  1. When you put marketing flyers out and information sheets about the home, your logo will be prominent
  2. When a home that you’ve listed is on the market, passers by will recognize that you’ve listed the property based on your lawn signs (in terms of this, think about ReMax and the way that they’ve established a brand nationwide and the ways in which their hot air balloon is recognized)
  3. When prospective clients see your business card, they’ll see more than just a link to your website, they will also find – when they make it to your site – that your logo, color scheme and the overall “feel” of your brand stays consistent.

By establishing your brand, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to get your prospective clients thinking about what you have to offer and not just wondering about who you are. In other words, when branding is important to you and when you are able to focus on it, you’ll be able to know that you’re getting the right message out there.

And, of course, the best news is that, when you’re working with a real estate assistant, you can work with someone else who will help you to establish your brand and reach your business goals.

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What Changes When You Have the Right Real Estate Assistant?

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

When you’re thinking about bringing a real estate assistant into your real estate business – whether you work primarily with buyers or sellers or you are an investor – one of the biggest questions that you’re likely to have is a simple one: what’s going to change when I start working with a real estate assistant?

Ultimately, there are going to be some concerns. When you start working with a real estate assistant, there’s going to be that time frame during which you have to get used to working with someone else. There’s going to be an adjustment while your clients start getting used to someone else answering your phone and addressing their questions and concerns.

But the reality is that, when you brink on the right real estate assistant, more of the changes that will take place will be for the better. When you’re working with the right real estate assistant, you’ll find that your clients feel more confident about taking advantage of your services because they will feel like they’re getting more individualized attention. Your marketing campaigns will be more successful when you’re sharing the responsibility of getting the word out with someone else.

The changes that take place when you’re working with the right real estate assistant can best be summed up in the following way: when you’re working with the right real estate assistant, everything will start going a lot more smoothly than it had before.

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Working with a Real Estate Assistant Can Change Your Business

Friday, April 25th, 2008

One of the things that many people who are working in real estate quickly discover is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. That’s the biggest change that you’ll discover when you start working with a real estate assistant: you’ll be able to look at your business in a whole new way.

When you’re working with a real estate assistant, you’ll find that you’re able to approach your business differently. Rather than struggling to get everything done, you’ll be able to delegate some tasks to someone else. Rather than focusing on creating your marketing materials, showing homes and talking with all of your clients on the phone, when you’re working with a real estate assistant, you can be sure that projects are undertaken, someone else is there answering the phone and that you’re still able to get out in the field without worrying about how much else you could be doing.

One of the things that you’re going to discover very quickly when you’re working with a real estate assistant is simple: when you’re not the only one who is focusing on getting things done, a lot more gets done – and there’s a lot less stress in the process. And that’s the thing that’s going to really help you to change your business: getting rid of the stress lets you get more done, and to feel better about doing it.

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What Qualities Will You Look for in a Real Estate Assistant?

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

When you start looking into hiring a real estate assistant to help you with getting through your day to day business tasks – and, ultimately, to help you to take your business to the next level – it’s important to have a sense of which qualities you’d love your assistant to have.

Ideally, a real estate assistant should be reliable. When you are working with someone, you need to be able to feel confident that he or she is going to not just show up, but will also do a great job and get it done in a timely fashion. If you need to assign additional tasks to your real estate assistant, you need to know that he or she will be able to handle them.

Similarly, a real estate assistant should be personable. Not only should you know that you’re able to get along with your real estate assistant – even when you’re making last minute requests that mean more work for him or her – but it’s also important to know that he or she is able to get along well with your current and prospective clients.

Part of what makes a real estate assistant both reliable and personable is the confidence that he or she has. When your real estate assistant is confident, you can be sure that you’re getting the best work, that he or she will ask questions if there are any and that you will be able to count on what’s being done.

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Choosing an Effective Real Estate Assistant

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

When you’re looking for help with your real estate business, it’s important that you are able to focus on choosing the right real estate assistant for the job.

Think about it: when you choose the wrong real estate assistant, you’re likely to find yourself doing all of the same work – and trying to explain it to the person who is supposed to be helping you out along the way.

When you choose an effective real estate assistant however, you’ll find that things are a lot better. The right real estate assistant will already understand your business and what you are working to accomplish; the right real estate assistant will be able to help you to market your business, update your MLS listings and communicate well with the buyers and sellers that you’re working with – as well as your best prospects.

Working with the right real estate assistant is something that can have a dramatic impact on your business. Therefore, it’s essential to make a great decision up front. When you’re looking for a real estate assistant, look for someone who understands your goals and your vision, someone who is familiar with the tools that you use and someone whose personality meshes with your own.

When you do, you’ll quickly discover that the real estate business is – once again – something that you enjoy.

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Your Real Estate Assistant and Listing Coordination

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

One of the things that you need to be sure of as a real estate agent is that, when you add a listing to the MLS, everything is in order. The web details are accurate, the contact information is correct and that you’re doing what you can to stay on top of the process from start to finish. The challenge is that not everyone can focus on listing coordination while you are working with other buyers and sellers.

Even though listing coordination is so important in your business, there’s a risk that you’ll overlook something in the process – unless of course you know that you’re working with a real estate assistant who can stay on top of the process for you.

When you know that your real estate assistant can update listings in the MLS, that she can focus on creating the right print materials, and focus on marketing on your website and blog, you’ll be in a position in which you can focus on other parts of your business. Ultimately, that’s the reason why real estate agents do choose to work with assistants: they know that having a real estate assistant who can help them to market homes allows them to focus on other elements of their business without letting something slip through the cracks.

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Marketing Your Real Estate Business: How a Real Estate Assistant Can Help

Monday, April 21st, 2008

Marketing: it’s the thing that sets each business apart from its competition. Without marketing, your prospective clients and customers aren’t going to know who you are; without marketing, it’s going to be very difficult to attract home buyers and sellers and to show them why you’re the agent that can be there for them.

A real estate assistant can help you to market your business. Simply put, when you are working with the right real estate assistant, you won’t have to worry about taking the time to make sure that you have a consistent message; your real estate assistant can take care of that.

When your print marketing materials – your business cards, marketing flyers, print ads and buyers’ and sellers’ guides all have a consistent look, you can be sure that you are working towards establishing your brand. When your internet marketing materials and campaigns – your web site blog and banner ads – all share that message.

When your real estate assistant is working on marketing your business, what you’ll find is that you have the time to focus on helping buyers find their dream homes and helping sellers to move their home off of the market.

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