My Projects
Geographical farming
Part One - Initial site construction
Is high tech farming the next big use for Websites and tech in RE? Our websites has been focused on SEO/SEM conversion for the last few years and done well but there is only so much room at the top of Google for “Portland Real Estate“. As M realty expands and we focus on helping agents build their practice it has become obvious that many agents have expertise is specific geographies often down to the neighborhood level. We are now focusing on building hyper local sites that will become the hub for agents geographical farming activity.
A good example is NWportlandblog.com that focuses on NW Portland Real Estate . We planned our basic page structure focusing on three neighborhoods. Westover, Nob Hill, Willamette Heights and built landing pages. Each landing page follows a format of Main picture, picture gallery, Text blurb, and List of all active listings. The site and initial page content took approximately 30 hrs of work from wp install, planning, page building, Photo/video shoot, widget and supportive graphics creation, etc. Homequest charges $150 plus $80/month for A Thesis theme configured with IDX plugin. and $60/hr. To duplicate the NWPortland.com site would cost approximately $1,950 with $80/mo for the HQ lead management back end and hosting.
The site launched on a new domain on 03/01/10 and within 3 days was getting organic google traffic from indexed listings on the Neighborhood landing pages. The search traffic is nice but we feel the larger value will come from going out into the community, actively viewing the inventory, blogging about market activity/conditions, engaging homeowners directly, traditional marketing, Highlighting local business community, etc.
The site is up, the basic structure is complete…now is it time to go into the community. More to come on what we learn…stay tuned.
An Unconventional invitation (pg-13)
Wednesday October 7th 4:00-6:00
Come visit with us, learn how we use social media, blogging & tech.
Please RSVP - haley@m-homes.net
We work very hard everyday to build strong real estate practices and a brokerage environment that will contribute to our agents success. Blogging, social media, Homequest and technology are part of our daily lives. It has created an environment that is both informal and very focused on success. We are opening up our office to agents to experience what we do and how we approach Real Estate. Please beware the vid below contains two BAD WORDS. But we think it represents us pretty well.
Invite to M Realty (pg-13) from M Realty on Vimeo.
Blogs that work - Information, Search and Passion
Our agents blog. or more accurately they utilize Wordpress sites effectively in their practice. We are very connected with our agents activity because we develop & provide the WP sites, design and SEO. There are three primary configurations that are working for our agents, each site configuration has associated “marketing” techniques that work best. All of these can be very productive for the agent if implemented correctly.
Passion Blogs
passion blogs are the most compelling in my opinion, but not necessarily the most productive in terms of transactions. These blogs are extensions of an individuals love and passion and in a real estate context would be niche site such as modernhomes. These are very good at creating a connections with people who are passionate about the same topics. Long term organic search and return visits from subscriber build effectiveness over time.
Information Blogs-
A little less opinion and a little more information. these blogs tend to have a general topic such as Portland Relocation, Portland home auctions or Portland Market news and trends. The basic strategy is to cover the topic in a comprehensive manner with strong emphasis on SEO. These are designed as a resource and to present the agent as an authority. They require systematic content production and attention paid to analytics.
Property Search blogs
Very search centric sites with some neighborhood/condo building and possibly property niches. These sites tend to rely heavily on SEO and possibly PPC marketing campaigns. a good example would be Portland real estate. These are very good for consistent lead generation on high volume sites and staff to follow up. This requires relatively high budget for PPC and/or resources to win top organic placement for most competitive search terms. Only effective with agents that are skilled at following up with information and showing requests.
The keys to success:
1. Assessment of agents - past success, area of genuine interests, personality type, writing ability and desire.
2. Site design - style, look and feel, design elements, color pallets etc.
3. SEO - key word research, on page SEO, agent SEO training.
4. Content production - content plan/road map, blog training, accountability.
5. Traffic generation - social media, sphere marketing, organic SERP, PPC, traditional marketing.
6. Move forward - Consistent effort, keeping in the areas of strength.
The sites are providing a growing number of contacts and leads and something tangible to focus on in growing their business.
M Car - Mobile Office
Our M Car is an experiment and development project focused on taking the agent out into the field while providing tools and data connection. The car is equipped with computer, scanner, printer, GPS navigation, GPS vehicle tracking, webcam and more. We are experimenting with how to maintain a connection to all the data needed and tools to help the agent in the field. I think virtually all of the functionality in this car will eventually be available through an iPhone app. (hint hint we are working on it now)
In Action - Day One
In Action - Day Two
M The new brokerage
I always feel like such a goof when I see myself on video! But this is me. Please give me some feedback on this video. I am contemplating placing on our corporate site. Is it too long? to informal? too anything? Thanks
View the Agents
Here is our latest steps towards being the transparent brokerage. We love working on our WP/IDX map and this is maybe our favorite project ever!. We are combining RMLS listings, agent blog posts and the homes agents actually go inside to view.
How it works…
Agent geo-coded posts. All of our agents have their own custom branded WP sites and are posting about the real estate market and community on their sites (example Marisa - pdxmetroproperties.com ). We built our WPMU network to draw the posts from the agents sites into the main M Brokerage site mportlandhomes.com.
Marisa WP Blog
M Realty corporate blog
Homes Viewed by Agents Looking at homes is vital to being a good agent connected to the inventory and market. We think seeing what the agents are looking at is a really good idea. The data is pulled from the electronic key card system then our system turns a listing viewed to an orange icon. See Marisa Swenson’s activity
Active homes for sale. the site has a direct feed from the MLS that is updated every 20 minutes. The listing are processed to ensure correct placement on our map. Agent activity is integrated into the property search so you can which agents are active in the neighborhood and can reach out to the agent directly. for example Marisa Stevens lives and works in Montavilla check out the homes for sale and see Marisa at the same time.
Vision - Strategy - Tactics
Tactics are what you employ to carry out your strategy to realize your vision. It is our vision to be a new breed of real estate brokerage that gains dominant market share nationally. We have laid out a strategy that we think has merit and are employing the tactics that follow. This post is a tactical activity.
The vision acts as a common and reliable focal point. It is what you are moving toward. the strategies can and should be somewhat mailable and the tactics or action items directly serve the strategy. One strategy that serves our vision is to dominate online property search in our market. We have multiple tactics to accomplish this and some have worked well and some have not. we may alter our tactics but the basic strategy remains in place.
Blogging and blog sites are tactical. What you write about, the emphasis you place on search vs content, the platform utilized, etc all should be part of the strategy.
A good understanding of this concept results in reliable action with enough flexibility to exploit opportunity and/or avoid disaster. It does not have to be a big elaborate plan but some real thought should go into the vision, strategy and tactics.
Become an Expert
There is a lot to learn as a real estate agent. One great way to gain expertise and keep up on what’s new is to blog. It forces you to investigate, organize and convey information to others. Start with what you know. If you work inner SE Portland, try writing a post per week on the listing activity and sales trends. You will quickly become an expert and your visitors will see it. Or write a post every time you attend a home inspection about one item that you found interesting. Sewer line issues, dry rot, roof layers, missing downspouts, fans exhausting into attic space, radon, oil tanks, the list is endless. These are issues we deal with all the time and blogging can increase the depth of your knowledge. If you do this consistently you will become an expert and people will know it!
Thank you Ron Ares… (super blogger and expert) for the post idea. May your post on party sewer lines live forever.
Setting the Appointment
You have spent the time and effort to build good traffic to your site. People like what you have to say and they are obviously interested in Real estate because they are searching for homes, saving homes and sometimes even requesting showings. Congratulations!! Now the big question…are you doing any business?
If the answer is no or not much, there is a conversion problem. The first step to conversion is identifying motivated people, the second is asking for an appointment Yet many agents I see don’t take this step. Your conditioned knee jerk reaction to someone saying “I am interested in Real Estate” should be great “Would you be open to getting together for a cup of coffee to see if we are a good fit to work together.” Or something to that effect.
Of course many times the prospect does not come right out and say “I am interested in real estate please help me”. However, if you are consistently paying attention to the communication you will see “I am interested” conveyed in many ways. The key is to listen and ask questions this is a skill and some people have it naturally and some of us have to learn it.
Listen for any sign of “I am interested in real estate” then ask “would you be open to getting together to see if we are a good fit.” That’s the simple take away message.
DO NOT follow with. great let me run back to the office and send you tons of crap about me and the market to prove to you that I am a great agent and know what I am talking about…oh and I always put my clients interest first and some shit about my personal mission statements;…oh and here is a picture of me on the top of Everest with my shaman….oh and did you know I am not like all those other agents (who are Idiots) I always call back…oh and the ten thousand other things you could say.
Just meet with them to see if you would be a good fit to work together…then take it form there.
Operation vs Innovation
This dovetails with the production vs development idea. As you look carefully at your strengths and weakness it is very important to understand whether you like to create things or run things. Would you rather design your own sandwich shop with all the fixtures and new innovative topping and toasting methods OR would you rather buy a Subway franchise and run it efficiently like a cash machine.
If you are in the wrong place it will drive you crazy. I manage an active real estate team. I meet with agents every week at M Realty to work on business planning and action items. I created the software application Homequest and the company around it. I am the lead product developer for Homequest. I am responsible for the management of the software company. I am not saying this to puff I just want to give some background on what shapes my thoughts. For our companies to thrive we must simultaneously innovate and opperate, if we don’t we will die!
It is a very large amount of work and it is a big mix of creating things and operating things. I have learned alot about myself and a lot about what must happen to create and operate while keeping an eye on the bottom line. I do not claim to have it all figured out by any stretch of the imagination. But we have real knowledge that only comes from doing.
From this base we are looking at how to create an environment that helps agents find the right mix of operating reliable systems while innovating and creating. One size does not fit all each of us have unique strengths but there are consistent methods, strategies and tactics to both create and operate.
One of the understandings that must be in place for a successful long term real estate practice is the assessment of the agents as it relates to this question of operation vs creative strength. They can both succeed at a high level but they require a different structure to be built.
BTW it is way easier to be an oppertor and succeeed in real estate than to be a creator and succeed. You have to operate well to suceed but you don’t have to innovate to succeeed. Innovation without operation accomplishes nothing. Innovation with operation can change the world.