Archive for August, 2008

Finding a Solid Real Estate Assistant

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

When you are looking for a real estate assistant, there are a number of key qualities to look for:

  1. You want a real estate assistant who is organized
  2. You want a real estate assistant who understands the real estate business
  3. You want a real estate assistant who can help with marketing
  4. You want a real estate assistant who will be comfortable talking with your clients
  5. You want a real estate assistant who will be able to rise to the occasion and get the job done

In other words, when you are looking for a real estate assistant for your business, you are going to want to be sure that you’re finding someone who is solid.

Take the time to ask questions. Know what tasks your real estate assistant is going to need to be able to complete. Focus on finding someone with a great personality and who won’t require a great deal of training.

With a solid real estate assistant, you’ll find that business runs far more smoothly and that you’re able to see the advantages right away.

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Collaborating with a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

When you’re looking into working with a real estate virtual assistant, you’re going to find that there a number of key benefits that you can expect to discover – especially when you make it a point to collaborate with your VA.

The first thing that you’re going to want to be sure that you are keeping in mind is that a real estate virtual assistant is someone who works with you – not someone who works for you (which is, of course, the key to collaborating in general). When you recognize that working with a real estate virtual assistant is about working with another small business owner who will be committed to the success of your business.

The next thing you’re going to want to be sure of is that you’re looking into someone who has the experience to help you. Choosing a real estate virtual assistant to work with is something that’s going to be a matter of asking questions, a matter of doing some research, seeing what that VA has done before and making sure that you’re choosing to work with someone who knows real estate.

Simply by finding someone who you are compatible with and by working together – by collaborating with a real estate virtual assistant – you’ll find that it’s possible to grow your business.

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Sending E-mail as a Text Message To Your Cell Phone

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

If you are going out of town for the holiday weekend and need to receive your e-mails but don’t have the ability on your cell phone, it’s a simple fix.
If you are using Google’s Gmail, Google Apps, or any e-mail client just set up a forward rule to forward all e-mails that come in to your e-mail address to your cell phone number with the carriers information.
Here are some of the main carriers where the x’s are that is where your 10 digit phone number needs to go:
Alltel
xxxxxxxxxx@message.alltel.com

AT&T Wireless
xxxxxxxxxx@mmode.com

Boost Mobile
xxxxxxxxxx@myboostmobile.com

Cingular
xxxxxxxxxx@mobile.mycingular.com OR
xxxxxxxxxx@cingularme.com

Nextel
xxxxxxxxxx@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint PCS
xxxxxxxxxx@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile
xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net

Verizon
xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile USA
xxxxxxxxxx@vmobl.com

Some charges may apply from your cell phone carrier so be sure to call and ask them. Also note that you can only receive 160 characters in your text messages so if it is longer you will not get to view the whole e-mail. Ejoy your holiday weekend and this little tip!
~Kandra

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Real Estate Marketing Takes Research

Friday, August 29th, 2008

When you’re looking at the options that are available to you for real estate marketing – whether your focus is online or in print – one of the things that you’re going to want to be looking at is getting the research done and to provide your prospects with the best information possible. When you’re working with a real estate assistant, you’re going to find that you are in a position to tackle even the most challenging real estate marketing tasks.

You’ll find that the research that you need to put into marketing your real estate business will be able to be done by your real estate assistant – and that means that you are going to have more time to focus on talking with clients, showing properties and on finding great leads. When you have all of the right information and you’ve also got the right real estate assistant, you’re going to find that it’s a lot easier to get that information presented to your prospects.

The more that you are able to show sellers that you have done to sell homes, the more that prospective sellers will look to you when they need an agent. The more that you are able to tell buyers about a neighborhood, the school district that a home is in and where to find churches, grocery shopping and the nearest highways, the more that you’ll be able to attract buyers to the property.

When you’re working with the right assistant, you’ll find that you’re able to get more out of your real estate marketing campaigns and the more that you’re going to find that you are able to accomplish.

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Choose a Real Estate Assistant Whom You Can Work With

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

When you’re looking for a real estate assistant who can help you to accomplish all of the big goals that you have for your business, one of the things that you’re going to want to be sure of is that you are working with a real estate assistant whom you know you will be able to work with. Simply put, choosing the right real estate assistant is going to have a dramatic impact on what you are able to accomplish with your business.

The right real estate assistant will be someone whom you can work with:

  • You’re going to want to be sure that you’re choosing a real estate assistant whose work ethic matches your own
  • You’re going to want to be sure that, if you are hiring a real estate assistant who can help you to perform certain tasks, you’re choosing someone with the experience to do so
  • You’re going to want to know that the real estate assistant who you choose to work with is someone who can help you to reach your goals.

When you’re choosing a real estate assistant, you’re going to want to be sure that you are able to find someone who will be able to help you to reach your goals. Whether you’re looking for someone who can help you to focus on the goals that you have – someone with the experiences to pull things together.

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Create a Real Estate Listing That Sells

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

One of the most important things that you’re going to want to do when you’re in real estate and you’re working with sellers, you’re going to want to be sure that the real estate listings that you create are going to attract buyers. In other words, you’re going to want to be sure that you create real estate listings that sell.

When you’re working with a real estate assistant, you’re going to find that you are able to get more out of each real estate listing that you create:

  • Your real estate listings will be able to benefit from better photos
  • Your real estate listings will show up online
  • Your real estate listings will be able to be published in print publications
  • You can be sure that your real estate listings contain all of the right information

Just simple steps and assurances that will enable you to be sure that your real estate listings stand out – or, more appropriately, to be sure that your real estate listings have the right details and that you’re able to attract the right prospective buyers.

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Real Estate Marketing: Making Information Accessible

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

If you read the earlier post about challenges with an ebook from Lulu.com, you probably have a sense of just how frustrating it can be to a customer or a client when they are receiving only part of the information. While you don’t charge your prospects for your real estate marketing materials, there’s a little bit of the same urgency: you need to be sure that when you send out real estate marketing materials, the information that your clients and prospects are looking for will be available to them.

Simply put, it doesn’t make sense to include photos of a property on an info sheet and to neglect to add the address of the home that is for sale. Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to not include contact information on your web site or to forget to put your web site and blog addresses on your business cards or letterhead.

When you’re working with the right real estate assistant, you’re going to find that your real estate marketing materials can be checked out to make sure that the information that your clients and prospects are going to need will be accessible to them – regardless of which focus your real estate marketing has.

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LuLu Buyer Beware!

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Friday morning I was up early and knew I was going to go sit in the High School auditorium while my child wandered through the classrooms touring her new school and getting her new books for the year. I decided to purchase some downloadable books on Lulu to take with me to read while I was waiting.

I downloaded 3 informational type books from Lulu and printed them off and away we went. I sat down and started reading the books that I had put into a binder before leaving and much to my surprise the books had a ton of hyperlinks in them. Most of them were links to go get the information that SHOULD have been in the book. I read what I could and then thought I would put it away and wait until I got back to my computer to read the entire book and click the words that contained the hyperlinks. I had a chance to sit down this afternoon to look at some of the books (they are in a PDF format) and the links were all in blue, however I couldn’t click them.. they were non clickable links in a PDF document.

I thought maybe I need to upgrade my software.. I updated my PDF reader to see if that made a difference.. NOPE still didn’t work.

Off to call Lulu! What, no phone number? Okay looks like they have a live chat. I got on live chat with a rep and they told me to use Firefox to download the documents and see if that made a difference. I downloaded it using FF and still didn’t work.

I asked them to refund my money which then they told me they couldn’t refund my money because the documents have already been downloaded.

Now.. ONE of these books is only 9 pages long has a staggering 69 links! That is over 7 links a page that I am supposed to click on and check out what the author is talking about and can’t! The books are useless! I explained this to the support rep who then started sending me Lulu’s member agreement policy through the chat window-
“Support: Please note that Lulu is not a publisher, but instead provides users with tools to publish their own content. Because Lulu is not a publisher, we do not review work published through our site.
Support: Lulu accepts no responsibility for the quality of the content (including misspelled words, grammatical errors, etc.), its formatting, design or overall appearance. We provide a creator-controlled publishing tool, so the author approves the visual presentation and content of each item. Our staff does not monitor or check individual content prior to publication through our web site.”

Bottom Line is.. make sure you check the member agreement policy before you buy anything from anyone. I am waiting to hear back from Lulu regarding resolving the issue and will keep you all abreast at what happens.

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Real Estate Marketing: Breaking Through on the Web

Monday, August 25th, 2008

When it comes to real estate marketing, one of the most important points to consider is whether or not you’re going to be able to break through and attract the right audience when you take your business to the web. What you will find when you are working with a real estate virtual assistant is that you’re working with someone who has already needed to establish an online reputation; because of this, you’re likely to find that the right real estate VA can take your web marketing to the next level.

Real estate marketing needs to be done online for the simple reason that more and more buyers turn to the web to explore their options before making any sort of decision about whether or not the time is right to act. When you have a real estate virtual assistant who is helping you to connect with an online audience, you’re going to find that it’s important to look at the community that you’re in, the real estate market that you are working with and that you are able to provide the information that buyers and sellers are going to be looking for – information about what separates you from the others and information about your business and the communities that you work in.

When you work with a real estate VA who can help with your online real estate marketing, you’re going to find that the process is much simpler than you may think that it is. If you’re looking for help with your real estate market, be in touch today!

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Finding the Right Real Estate Assistant

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Finding the right real estate assistant isn’t something that needs to be insanely challenging or a frustrating experience; the reality is that, provided you know what you are looking for and you are looking in the right place, choosing a real estate assistant who you will be able to work well with is a relatively simple process.

If you want to be sure that you are finding the right real estate assistant, you’re going to want to:

  • take into consideration that the assistant who is best for meeting your needs may not be someone who comes into your office
  • look at the tasks that you are hoping your real estate assistant will be able to complete for you
  • understand which tools and software programs you’re going to want your real estate assistant to be familiar with using
  • focused on finding someone who can get the job done well and someone who can get the job done without a great deal of coaching and explanation from you

By taking the time to look at what you are looking for in a real estate assistant and by making an effort to find someone who will be a great match, you’ll find that it’s easy to come into the process with a distinct advantage.

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