Virtual Real Estate BarCamp: Great Marketing Information and We Will Be There!

Today we are attending Virtual Real Estate BarCamp and are so excited to learn more about marketing our clients as well as other useful topics.

Some of the topics include “7 Secrets To Facebook Page Success”, “Twitter Essentials for 2010″, “15 Ways to Make Your Marketing Mobile”, “Branding Boot Camp” and “How To Leverage The Power Of Social Media In Real Estate”.  There are at least twenty other webinars as they are running four simultaneous webinars all day long, with 28 speakers.  I was glad to see one of the topics “The Value Of Adding Posterous.com To Your Online Tool Belt” since I recently blogged about Posterous.  It is assuring to see a leader in the industry confirm a social media platform that I also think is worthwhile.

Some of the speakers are very well known and I am thrilled to be able to learn from them.  You may also recognize the names. Susan Adler is a top agent in New Jersey with $50M/year in sales.  In 2009 her business was 80% ‘repeat’, ‘referral’ or ‘reputation’.  It will be interesting to hear what websites and marketing strategies she uses to maintain this!

Tara Jones is an Emmy™ award winning journalist and licensed real estate agent who co-owns Reel Productions TV.  She will discuss tools that give unlimited exposure to agent’s listings.  Drew Meyers from Zillow.com is hosting a webinar as well as Brad Inman from Inman News.  There are many others but not much time to list them all because the webinar starts in just 45minutes. (9am PST, noon EST).

The website to attend is VirtualBarCamp.com.  However if you cannot make it, we will be blogging about everything we learn.  Just visit REVATS.net often for updates!

How Does Facebook Work for Your Real Estate Business?

Facebook is incredibly popular. Everyone has heard of it. Many people have a Facebook page. And many of them are even active on it! Now that you can update it from a variety of sources, including your cell phone, the activity on Facebook is tremendous. In fact, Christmas day set a record for Facebook—it was the most visited website on the net! It even beat out Google!

What do people do on Facebook? Well, they keep up with their friends, they make new friends, they play games, they promote political and social causes, and they expand their business connections. Just about anything. Facebook is a place that people “live”.

Businesses are finding that the free advertising they get on Facebook is more effective than thousands of dollars of television or print advertising. We have long known that word-of-mouth is an effective way of getting business. Facebook is, in large part, word-of-mouth (err…hand?) marketing at its best.

Here is how it can work. Shelley goes on Facebook to knock out a few more “Mafia enemies,” and while she is there she thinks about her upcoming house hunt. She has browsed houses online quite often, but she wonders if there is a local Realtor on Facebook. So she searches for one. And sure enough, she finds one! Let’s say the Realtor’s name is Jim. Shelley becomes a fan of Jim’s business page and begins to get great updates about real estate in her area. When Shelley becomes a fan of Jim’s business, every one of her friends sees a nifty little update about her, it says something like “Shelley became a fan of Jim’s Real Estate.” Shelley’s friend Mark is also thinking of buying a house in the future. He sees Shelley’s update, and clicks on the link to Jim’s page. Mark likes what he sees, so he also becomes a fan of Jim’s page. Mark’s status is updated to reflect this, and his friend Peter sees it and clicks….well you get the idea. Once the first fans have been found, a business page can spread like wildfire!

Who are the people in your area finding when they search for Facebook business pages? If you aren’t on Facebook, then someone else is getting fans—and customers—that could be yours!

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Looking for some help getting started? The virtual assistants at REVATS are experienced “Facebookers” and enjoy setting up business pages, managing fans, posts, etc. We would love to have you become a Facebook fan of ours!

How Effective will Social Media Marketing be in 2010? – part 1

Happy New Year!  Now is the time for lists, lists, lists. There are lists highlighting everything from “worst dressed celebrity of 2009″ to “top political stories of 2009″.  People like to review the previous year, and make predictions for the new year.  Some of the most helpful studies were ones regarding social media marketing strategies.  Maybe some of these findings will help you formulate a plan on how you will use social media in 2010.  Or if you need help setting up and using these sites and platforms, please contacts REVATS and let us help!  We have a full social media marketing package to help get you started.

According to eMarketer, the number of people who use Twitter has increased by over 200% over the last two years, and 2010 shows a predicted increase of another 44%.  According to their study, an estimated 26 million adults will be using Twitter in 2010.  I recently blogged about the effectiveness of Twitter.  I was a ‘hesitant convert’ and didn’t necessarily understand all the hype. That is until I started using Twitter.  If you do not use it, you must!

Email may be the first form of online marketing, but it is still an effective form according to Bizreport.com.  They predict more integration between email and social ad platforms.  A good example of this integration is Posterous.com which I blogged about earlier.  Bizreport.com also released a study that 40% of email marketers plan to increase their email marketing budgets in 2010.  Another study on this same site concluded “email remained the most popular media among marketers for use next year (56.8% “realistically” plan to use it), social media isn’t far behind. Over half (56.3%) “realistically” plan to include it in future marketing plans.”

Ad-ology.com wrote the “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010” and this states lead generation is the biggest benefit of social networking.  Small businesses rated Facebook as the most beneficial site.  The forecast continued to say awareness of social media is high but nearly one-half of respondents wished they knew more about how to use it.

If you are one of the people that need help utilizing these sites, please consider using REVATS.  There are a variety of packages available to get you started with social networking.

Check back to read more on recently conducted studies on internet marketing.

A New Social Media Platform That Makes it Easy to Blog and Increases SEO!

I’m always on the lookout for new ideas, websites or tricks to help market my clients, or market myself.  While scanning various articles that have accrued over the holidays in my Google Reader, I came across a few that sound interesting and ones I plan to check out.  It’s a constant battle to obtain and remain on the first page of Google so any new ideas are welcomed.  Today I will highlight Posterous.com.

Posterous is a new social media platform where you can post anything from text to videos to pictures.   But you post these by sending an email. Pictures can even be sent via a cell phone. This sounds like it could potentially save precious time.  As one reviewer states, “It’s also the ideal solution for sharing content that’s too long to tweet yet too short to blog post.”

Posterous also autoposts to all other social media sites you use.  You simply email your content and it will automatically update your blogs and sites such as Facebook, Xanga, WordPress, Blogger and more.  You can also publish your content on your website by setting up your Posterous account on your own URL, which could be a sub-domain on your website.  And because posting videos and pictures is so easy, you will share more and more content therefore increasing your presence in online search results.

Posterous is easily customizable as well, and has plenty of themes to choose from.  If you know CSS/HTML however, you can build your own theme. Google analytics is built in and Itunes podcasts work automatically.

This seems like a really innovative site worth checking out.  To set it up, you simply email Posterous at post@posterous.com with your first blog post, or pictures, and your account is automatically set up. So easy! I’m going to try it now.

12 Days of Virtual Assistance

This poem is from VANetworking’s site, written by YvonneW. Its adorable and I wanted to share it with our clients and future clients.

12 Days of Virtual Assistance

On the first day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
an SEO ready website

On the second day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the third day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the fourth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the fifth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the sixth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the seventh day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
seven research projects
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the eighth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
eight formatted reports
seven research projects
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the ninth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
nine transcribed audios
eight formatted reports
seven research projects
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the tenth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
ten new client info packs
nine transcribed audios
eight formatted reports
seven research projects
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the eleventh day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
eleven article submissions
ten new client info packs
nine transcribed audios
eight formatted reports
seven research projects
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

On the twelfth day after the holiday my VA prepared for me:
twelve months of bookkeeping
eleven article submissions
ten new client info packs
nine transcribed audios
eight formatted reports
seven research projects
six months of blog posts
five social media campaigns
four booked speaking gigs
three personalized databases
two ghostwritten articles
and an SEO ready website

Remember, the virtual assistants at REVATS can do all this and more for you! Add to it 13 listings, 14 new leads processed, and 15 updates to TopProducer 8i! What a way to get your real estate business rolling!!

Merry Christmas!

What Child is This? from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

Ho Ho Ho!

Foreclosure Alternatives Program will Hopefully Speed Up Short Sales Process

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) Program is a recent supplement to the Making Homes Affordable Program that was implemented earlier this year.  HAFA was released November 30, 2009 and provides additional options to avoid foreclosures plus also offers incentives to borrowers and investors who utilize a short sale or deed-in-lieu.

This plan goes into effect April 5, 2010 and ends December 31, 2012.  Borrowers who have mortgages through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, as well as those held by 14 mortgage servicers, including the five largest fall under these new guidelines.  The plan also provides incentives to borrowers.  If you complete a short sale you will be released from all mortgage debt and receive $1,500 in moving expenses.  The plan allows the borrower to obtain a pre-approval for short sale conditions before their home is put on the market.  Currently, servicers will not discuss acceptable terms until an purchase contract has been received.

HAFA has also streamlined the documents used during a short sale.  One standard set of documents will minimize the complexity of short sales and the time it takes to complete a short sale.  Caps have also been set for payments to subordinate lien holders (second mortgages). Previously these mortgage companies wanted large payments to release their claim, thus blocking a successful short sale.  Another change is that lenders will now have only 10 days to approve or reject a short sale once a complete package is presented.

There are many more changes that you can read about in the Home Affordable Foreclosures Alternatives guidelines.  REVATS has helped real estate agents with marketing and closing short sales. If you would like help in this process, please contact us.

Home Buyers Tax Credit Explained- Short & Simple

Last week Congress extended the tax credit that was set to expire November 30th.   The tax credit of up to $8,000 is for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence. The extension also authorized a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified repeat home buyers.

This video explains the credit in a way we all can understand.

The New American Homeowners – Fannie Mae?

I recently read an  ActiveRain blog that stated:

Fannie Mae is gobbling up most of the homes that are being sold at sheriff sale here in Las Vegas. They normally purchase the property and then hand it over to a real estate brokerage to manage it. In some cases they do not evict the home owner – instead they send out a form letter asking if there is a renter in the home and if they renter wants to keep on renting they have the option to do so.  I have seen this form letter about ten times this past week.

Normally when a home goes into default, the owner is presented with a Notice of Sale, and the property is sold on the steps of the courthouse where the property is located.  At the sale, the property is auctioned in public with an opening bid equal to the outstanding loan balance, interest accrued, and any additional fees. If there are no bids higher than the opening bid, the property will be purchased by the lender. Most times the lender will contract a real estate agent to sell the home, also known as an REO or bank owned home.

Another real estate agent in Vegas stated Fannie seems to have interest in the appliance industry as well.  After a recent appraisal of a home he represents the buyer for, he wrote

Appraisal conditions required a few repairs like a window, toilet leak, and a working range.  We went back to the seller letting them know that the buyer will buy the range from a big box company like Sears and have it installed by them ASAP.  Fannie Mae would have nothing of it.  They sent a list of appliances to choose from and said that my buyer needs to get one of those.

Is Frannie the owner or insurer of these properties and ‘sitting’ on them until the properties are worth more? Or are they investing in foreclosed homes owned by other banks? The government owns the loans, the banks and now the houses.  And using TARP money to help buy back their assets at a very cheap price. Where does this leave the homeowner? The one that I thought was supposed to benefit from the stimulus.

Unique Global Estates recently sent their newsletter stating foreclosures were now advantageous to the banks and posted Indymac Bank’s shared loss agreement.  An excellent question was asked in their recent blog,

…millions of American homeowners are being forced out of their homes through foreclosure, only to have the banks put them up for auction for pennies on the dollar. Why weren’t these homeowners offered the same opportunity?