Smartphones are a vital part of daily business for an average REALTOR®, and the National Association of REALTORS® has a great idea for pooling resources.

REpurposed Apps connects REALTORS® to a variety of apps that can be used for real estate business. These apps can be sorted by platform (iOS or Android) or categories like finance, education, or media. Download links are available for each app.

Registered users can recommend or rate apps—and registration is available for anyone with their NRDS number. Users can even share information about how they’ve used an app for real estate that wasn’t necessarily built for real estate.

One area of the site showcases members who are particularly knowledgeable—the member’s top app picks, and how he or she uses each.

Check out a video from Washington REALTORS® about the site:

Which lesser-known apps do you find most useful for your real estate business?

The RMLS™ board voted to adjust the RMLS™ default SentriLock hours earlier this year based on feedback received from subscribers after the last change. Default lockbox hours are now 8am-10pm Pacific.

Subscribers will need to take action for these default lockbox hours to be in effect. First, update your SentriCard® using the SentriCard® reader (this is not required if you’ve been keeping your card in your RAD). Then simply insert the card into each lockbox and wait until the series of beeps is finished.

We know that some of you prefer to set your own lockbox hours based on your clients’ needs or your own preferences. We’ve produced a short video about how to set your own lockbox hours:

(Our trainers say that the later steps in this video, neglecting to use the SentriCard to log in to the SentriLock website after inserting a card into the lockbox, is the most frequent mistake users make in this process.)

If you prefer written instructions, see the instructions on changing your lockbox hours in our previous post.

This post is part of MLS Insight, a series about how things work at RMLS™.

RMLS™ provides information in many ways, so no matter what your learning style or level of expertise, you can get answers to help you maximize the usefulness of RMLS™ services in your business. I am going to describe some of the ways that you can empower yourself with information online and some of the ways to interface with RMLS™ staff to get answers.

Getting Answers for Yourself Online

The desktop of RMLSweb has a wealth of information. In addition to the timely news displayed in the center, both the left and right hand sides of the desktop have information for you. Information about your personal listings, hotsheet  prospects, and RMLS™ account appears at the top left, but scrolling down brings you to a list of helpful links to other RMLS™ sites, such as our blog site (that’s where you are now) and Facebook page. You can also connect with OAR, NAR, and many other locations outside RMLSweb that might be helpful. Below the links section is a pop-up that shows all the RMLS™ contact information – phone numbers, office addresses, hours of operation, etc. The right sidebar is collapsible. If you are not currently displaying it, you will see a + in the upper right corner of your screen. Press to open the sidebar which has easy links to locations inside RMLSweb, like the spot to go to to change your email address or banner (User Preferences), and other helpful tools.

To explore all the documents RMLS™ has available, go to Toolkit on the nativation menu of RMLSweb and select “All Documents” under Forms and Documents. There is a search function where you can insert keywords or document numbers, and also a tag cloud to select all documents relevant to popular search words. By scrolling down and looking at the lower left corner, you can also find the folder structure which contains the documents (illustration at right), and you can navigate to to individual documents from the folders. Finally, there is an alphabetical list of all documents, if that is the way you like to see things. Access that document by highlighting 1000-1069 General Information Menu in the Folder list and selecting the “Forms and Documents Alphabetical Index” or by typing “indices” in the search box. Forms and Documents has e-forms for many of the documents you might need to fill out as an RMLS™ subscriber, as well as regular PDF documents.

Have you ever noticed the Help icons on various pages of RMLSweb? The example on your right is from Listing Load. By clicking for help, you can access the video tutorial “Adding a New Listing” as well as other helpful documents.

Have you ever had trouble deciphering one of the seven-character feature abbreviations? The full list of abbreviations is in Forms and Documents. Just type in the document number 1210 in the search box. However, there are easy ways to access this information right from the RMLSweb Advanced Search and Listing Load pages. At left is an example from Advanced Search. By clicking the Help link in the upper right corner of the feature selection box, the definitions for those abbreviations will appear in a pop-up box, and BRD&BTN will be defined as Board & Batten Siding. In Listing Load, hovering over the field labels will display a ? – click and the definition of the field will be shown.

Getting Help from RMLS™ Staff

By phone. In person. On chat. Via email. We are here to help you!

The pie chart at the top of this post represents the top 10 call topics handled by our fabulous Help Desk in May 2014. The top ten call topics were about half of the total calls, which span a huge range of topics, from hardware troubleshooting to the use of any RMLS™ system. Our Help Desk will do their very best to find the answers to your questions, or direct you to other sources if they can’t. Help is available toll-free from 8AM-7PM on Monday through Thursday, 8AM-5PM on Friday, and 10AM to 2PM on Saturday.

You can even ask us questions via chat, our most recently added tool! Look in the upper right hand corner anywhere in RMLSweb and click on the icon. You can choose the department you need to talk to – Help Desk, Training, Accounting, or Front Desk/Membership. The hours available generally coincide with the corporate office hours.

Visit us in person at any one of our offices in Brookings, Eugene, Florence, Hermiston, Hood River, North Bend, Portland, Roseburg, Salem, and Vancouver.  RMLS™ contact information and office hours are available on RMLScentral or can always be accessed via the RMLSweb desktop. If you want us to come to you to answer your questions, contact RMLS™ Training and we can visit your office.

Thanks for taking this brief tour highlighting some of the information available to enhance your RMLS™ experience. Next month we will talk about statistics—what does RMLS™ provide? If you have any questions you would like to have answered about how things work at RMLS™, I encourage you to post a comment to this blog.

This article is the next in our series Ruleschool, where we take a closer look at selected parts of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations.

The RMLS™ Rules and Regulations are key to maintaining accurate data on RMLSweb and a smooth-running real estate marketplace. Just like in last month’s blog post, Things the Rules Committee Wants You to Know, we’re going to take a closer look today at a couple of rules we commonly speak to subscribers about: new construction and photographs.

3.5: New Construction Listings. Listings involving new construction shall classify such construction as:

a. “NEW” – construction completed, but property has never been occupied;
b. “Under Construction” – ground broken and construction actually under way; or
c. “Proposed” – not yet under construction

When entering a new construction listing, the Year Built Description field may start with “PROPOSD” which means no construction has started. Once ground is broken and construction begins, the field will need to be changed to “UNDRCON”. If construction is completed before listing is sold, the field will need to be changed to “NEW”. These changes will accurately reflect the status of construction in a listing.

If for some reason you are not able to make the appropriate change before the listing is changed to SLD status an email will be sent to verify the status of the Year Built Description field if other than “NEW”. When you respond, we will adjust the Year Built Description field as needed.

3.7: Photographs: Listing Brokers may submit up to sixteen (16) photographs for all listings to be Published in the RMLS™ System. The photographs are to be submitted without any added text or graphics, or any alterations that misrepresent the property. At the time of publication, listing submitted to RMLS™ are required to have one (1) photograph of the exterior building view, except for bare land, which must have a photograph of the land. If the seller does not wish to have a photograph published, a Photograph Omission Form or equivalent document signed by the seller is required and must be submitted to RMLS™ within 72 hours of listing publication.

The exterior building view is to be photograph number one (1) if multiple photographs are submitted. Residential new construction is required to have a photograph, which may be of the floor plan or exterior elevation until the building is competed, at which time a photograph of the exterior building view must be added.

We receive numerous complaints when the first photograph is not the exterior building view. This photograph does not need to be only of the front of the building but can be the side or the back depending on which best highlights the features of the building. The photograph should not be of the deck or the view of the river/ocean or mountains.

When working with new construction, don’t forget to load a photograph in the first position of the completed building before changing the status of the listing to sold. If the listing has been changed to sold before a photograph was entered, you can send the photograph to RMLS™ and we will post it for you.

Check in again next month for more rules information you can use!

The Rules and Regulations Committee wants to make sure that all of our subscribers understand the RMLS™ Rules, because they are a key ingredient in accurate data and a smooth-running real estate marketplace. Our new blog series Ruleschool will periodically highlight rules, starting with the following two.

3.26 Availability for Showing. With the exception of Commercial Lease and Auction listings, all active listings shall be available for showing immediately upon entry into the RMLS™ system, excluding listings which require all offers to be made contingent on interior inspection. Listings cannot restrict showings until a future date.

There are several complaints sent in each week because the remarks say, “No showings until broker tour…” which is not acceptable based on Rule 3.26.

There are several other reasons that have been given when the listing has “No showings…” in the remarks field, but unless the listing requires all offers to be made contingent on interior inspection, the listing must be moved to WTH status if it cannot be shown.

Section 7: Showing Procedures
a. A Cooperating Broker or Appraiser may use the lockbox system access device to enter a listing whose status is Active, Bumpable, or Short Sale Pending, only in accordance to the instructions on the RMLS™ Listing Data Input Form or in accordance with the express instructions of the Listing Broker or Owner.
b. A Cooperating Broker or Appraiser may use the lockbox system access device to enter a listing whose status is other than Active, Bumpable or Short Sale Pending, only with the express permission of the Listing Broker or Owner.

The formal violations received so far in 2014 were for not following showing instructions or entering a property without permission when the status was not Active, Bumpable, or Short Sale Pending.

There are so many reasons to be careful to follow the showing instructions and the status rules! Even if the house is vacant, there can be big problems. In one case, an alarm system was activated and the home owner had to pay for a visit from the Police Department.

If the house is not vacant there could be teenage children alone, dogs, alarms systems, etc. If you are out viewing properties and you see one for sale that you don’t have on your list, use your smart phone to check the status of the listing and the showing instructions before using your key to enter the property!

Stay tuned! Later this spring, there will be more rules that will be the focus of this blog.

Did you know that SentriLock offers an app for your smartphone that allows you to access a lockbox without the use of your SentriCard® or RAD? What if we told you that your RAD doesn’t even need to be charged, nor does your SentriCard® need to be updated in order to use it?

This app is called SentriSmart™, and it is available in the Apple app store and on Google Play. You will need iOS 6 or higher on an Apple device or Android 2.2 or higher for use. As part of the RMLS™ contract with SentriLock, SentriSmart™ is available for free for RMLS™ subscribers who have key service.

SentriSmart™ is a mobile application, allowing access to a lockbox key compartment with the use of a mobile access code instead of a SentriCard®. It also provides immediate showing notifications as soon as the showing agent generates a code. SentriSmart™ will still work if your card is expired, and if your RAD doesn’t have a charge. As long as your cell phone has a signal, the SentriSmart™ app can generate a mobile access code so that you can access the key compartment of a SentriLock lockbox.

When using SentriSmart™, please be aware that a showing notification is sent to the listing agent as soon as you generate a code. If you generate a code just to see how it works, please use one of your own lockboxes to avoid falsely generating a showing notice.

RMLS™ subscribers have been raving about SentriSmart™—check out our handy guide to SentriSmart™ and get started today!

Safety should never be relegated to just one month, but September is REALTOR^® Safety Month. This year marks the 10th year of the National Association of REALTORS^® (NAR) dedicating a month to REALTOR^® safety. Every year more and more alarming (and sometimes bizarre!) stories emerge from our subscribers: robberies, creeps, and fools. Every year RMLS™ strives to give subscribers resource material to better educate and protect themselves.

Top Tips from NAR (and Me)

The following are the four most paramount tips NAR would like to pass on:

1. Have office guests sign in. At the office, use a visitor log book where potential clients fill out a customer identification form. Remember to check IDs.
2. Don’t disclose too much personal information online. Consider setting up separate personal and business accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. This will help protect your personal photos, posts, and other information from people you don’t know.
3. Familiarize yourself with the properties you’re showing. If you are showing a vacant house, walk the perimeter of the property before you or your client enter to look for signs that someone has been or is currently inside.
4. Note your escape route. When showing a property, leave the front door unlocked for a quick exit if needed. As you walk through a house, let the client enter rooms ahead of you.

And my personal favorite tips:

1. Tell people where you are going if meeting someone alone or for the first time. You can also go so far as to have a colleague call you at a certain time if you are nervous about the meeting. Mention the name of who you’re meeting and even set an estimated time of return.
2. Reasonable people will answer reasonable questions. For instance, there has been a rash of would-be buyers who are offended when asked to provide proof of funds for an all-cash transaction or who become upset if you can’t meet with them under their conditions. While it’s not always the case, dramatic reactions to seemingly benign questions or comments should raise concern.
3. Advise your sellers of the possibilities. Tell them to lock up all valuables, especially small items such as prescription bottles, checks, and jewelry. Even at a brokers’ tour with the most seasoned agent,  someone who doesn’t look suspicious who says they were in the neighborhood and saw the sign can wreak havoc and you know the rest.

Technology. Whew, What They Can Do These Days!

In our last safety post, we discussed internet resources REALTORS^® could utilize to be notified should their listings be hijacked by scam artists and posted on sites like Craigslist and even Trulia. Now you can empower yourself with applications on your mobile devices. Smartphones have become ubiquitous in the real estate industry. Safety applications go beyond just panic button capabilities these days. Some applications utilize GPS coordinates for emergency response while others offer speed dialing or automated emergency messages that go to designated numbers. As new apps become available every day, check your mobile device’s app store for the latest offers and information.

That said, still protect your personal information in case your phone is stolen or compromised. Consider installing a tracking device on your phone where you can remotely access it from a computer. Device passwords should be unique and free from obvious patterns like 4-3-2-1 or 1-3-7-9 (the four corners of a key pad). Read on at REALTOR.org for a comprehensive list of safety precautions for your valuables and yourself beyond those mentioned here.

Speaking of helpful resources, NAR has an archive of safety webinars for REALTORS^® that include all they released in the last four years. Webinar topics on the archive include open house safety, online safety, office layouts, and removing dangers specific to distressed properties. This kind of information can be great to touch on either briefly at an office meeting, or NAR has a variety of full presentations available for your staff.

Trust your instincts, be aware of your surroundings, and always listen to the little voice, no matter how cliched or cynical, that says if something looks too good to be true…

Happy REALTOR^® Safety Month, and if you would like to report an incident or concern regarding safety or fraud to RMLS™, please contact me at kelly.m@rmls.com.

The following is a guest blog post by Becki Saltzman, author of the forthcoming book Arousing the Buy Curious: Real Estate Pillow Talk for Patrons and Professionals, being released in September 2013. Becki’s ideas and material are her own, and not necessarily the opinions of RMLS™ as an organization or of individual staff members.

Realty shows, economic forecasting mavens, new technology opportunists, oh my…everyone has an opinion about our delightful real estate industry. Myths are bound to develop, get repeated, and become truth-ish. Questioning and busting these truthy-isms can catapult your career. Here are some common myths that top pros love to bust—results may vary.

Myth 1: Knowing your own market is everything.

To survive as a real estate pro, it is imperative that you know the market. But now that your clients can access so much market information about you, it is no longer enough to simply know the market. You have to know and understand your business and industry. Knowing and understanding are two different things. You can know statistics inside and out and still not understand your business. For example, you can know that the market is up 6.5%, but what’s the understanding behind that? Does that mean that prices are up 6.5% this month over last month, this year over last year, or this month this year over the same month last year? Or does that mean that 6.5% more properties are sold than…when, what?

 

 

83% of top media futurists surveyed felt that a market would go up 9.3% in the future.
Courtesy of Sortafacts

Here’s some math straight out of the Arousing the Buy Curious annals.

Knowing + Telling = Turnoff
Showing + Telling = Reality show

Understanding + Telling = Getting blindsided by data

Knowing + Understanding + Showing + Telling = Real Turn-on + Data = Sold

Myth 2: All real estate is local.

This oft-repeated and catchy phrase does indeed help create a positive spin, often accurately, on bad national news. What it comes down to though, is the fact that shifts in larger markets often become shifts in local markets. If we have our heads buried too far up the ‘hood-hole that we miss national and international shifts, market changes can catch us unaware and unprepared. This sucks for our clients.

Take a gander right now at what’s happening in China. Really. Google “China” and “real estate” and “investors” and “luxury properties” and see what comes up.

Now solve this fun and snappy story problem exercise:
(So much math on this post but we got this!)

A wealthy international real estate investor walks into a showroom in New York. (Sounds like a joke, but it’s not.) He plucks down $100 million for the newly listed luxury penthouse that sits atop the CitySpire building, overlooking Central Park. Yeah, that’s the asking price inspired by international buyers producing a slew of record-breaking trophy apartment sales.

Questions:

• What does that do to the average price of New York City real estate?
• How does that affect what gets spewed in the media sphere about the luxury market?
• How might that influence high-end developers, buyers, and sellers in your market?

Tip: The good developers, buyers, and sellers, are reading and thinking about local and global happenings.

Be careful not to be too much of a local yokel. Yes, it is important to understand your local market but if you keep your head buried in your own special spot, you could be surprised by what’s really happening if you pull your head out.

Myth 3: Real estate pros are not salespeople.

Speaking in front of an audience of over 400 real estate trusted advisors, facilitators, customer service specialists, and client advocates, about 22 people raised their hands when asked how many of them sold property for a living. Strangely, however, the only way that any of these excellent real estate agents and brokers got paid was when they actually…wait for it…sold property. At 5.5% (22 out of 400) this was clearly not the 80/20 rule in full force.

I get it. Sales has such a sad stink on it that it’s no wonder it’s a four letter word starting with an S. Most MBA programs no longer even have classes on sales. But here is the truth-ish:

 

 

93% of what comes out of our lips or what is pecked and clicked involves some effort at enticing, cajoling, persuading, convincing, or influencing eardrums or eyeballs. One could call it Arousing the Buy Curious. I do.
Courtesy of Sortafacts

The art of persuasion comes easy to some. The ones who do it best know that to do it well and to reap the benefits over a long period of time requires a deep understanding of and appreciation for the best interest of the persuaded. It’s ethical, helpful, and good for both professionals and clients.

For those whom the art is less natural, there is a science to the art of ethical persuasive communication. It is backed by cool lab experiments, regression analyses, and all kinds of other sexy mind science. The first step is coming to terms with being what you are hired to do: sell.

If you don’t agree (many won’t and I still love you), leave a comment.

Myth 4: It is best to analyze our business by our successes.

Analyzing successes feels so good that it just feels right. It’s a form of…well, never mind. Even our clients like to hear about our successes because that makes them feel smart choosing successful us. Thinking about our failures in a private, non-judgmental and analytical way over a period of market dips and swings can help us maintain the protagonist role in the story of our lives and truly be smarter about our business…and better at it.

Time is often the thumb on the scale of our real estate successes. Remember how proud we were to win the bidding wars of 2006? Remember how sheepish we were about the result of those very same battles in 2010? Remember how great we felt about winning a similar war…yesterday?

Here’s where a bit of sexy mind science creeps in. We have biases. This, unfortunately and embarrassingly (at least for me), is scientifically proven. Here are two biggies:

The Self-Serving Bias: We grab credit for our successes and give away credit for our failures. We attribute our successes to our personal characteristics like our strong work ethic and our superior intellect. We attribute our failures to things beyond our control like poor market conditions, unreasonable clients, and uncooperative cooperating agents.

The Above Average Effect: We categorize ourselves as above average. (But we really are, right?) Frankly, I don’t like to think about earning the job of holding down the sad end of the bell curve.

The scary thing about being wrong is that it so often feels eerily similar to being right. Challenging ourselves to pretend that everything we have done right might have actually be done wrong is just as valuable as the addiction to challenging ourselves that everything we might have done wrong was actually done right. The difference is that it’s hard to know when wrong is the answer…until it’s too obvious to ignore and it doesn’t feel…right.

Set aside all of the contracts that you wrote last year and that did not close. Some will be easy evidence of great successes (e.g., your client wisely backed out of what was not a good deal for them). Some will be easy evidence of real failures (e.g., you should have known how to help your client address aggressive repair requests). Make a spreadsheet that requires you to write three ways you could have avoided a sale fail, even if it wasn’t your fault.

Myth 5: The market is predictable.

Predicting markets is a huge industry. The outcomes of neuroscientific studies, the future of space exploration, and even the analysis of derivatives is not something that many people believe they thoroughly understand. At least I don’t. Real estate is another story. We all get it at least a little bit. That’s why real estate ranks number two or three as the most favorite cocktail party topics. The proliferation of real estate porn only perpetuates the popularity of the topic.

We can debate the pros and cons of sharing or hoarding real estate information at a later date (and we will, stay tuned) because the future of our industry will hinge on our ability to figure this out but, for now, let’s assume that the access to this real estate porn is a net positive. Now, if you know that markets are mostly only predictable in the fact that they always fluctuate, you can keep this to yourself. Let your clients play with this porn and predict what they think that it means. Don’t worry about correcting your clients, as their predictions will be right or wrong as any group of expert analysts. If you extract their predictions along with their short and longer-germ goals and help them steer clear of acting on their predictions when it doesn’t mesh with their goals, you know that you are their best salesperson ever. If you do so without them feeling like you dismissed their predictions, they will know it.

The speed with which market predictors will delete their YouTube predicting videos when they are wrong will be faster than network news will cut away from a wardrobe malfunction. There is no need to say “I told you so” because no one will believe you anyway.

 

 

It’s 87% better to be a surfer in a tsunami than a weatherman on the beach. 91% of the world’s smartest people can figure out how this quote applies to shifting markets.
Courtesy of Sortafacts

Beside every real estate market result lays the useless carcass of yesterday’s market prediction. The only thing that is predictable is that markets fluctuate and you need to be as ready for the market flaccidity as you are for when the market Viagra kicks in…and wears off.

Busting myths in our industry can be snappy fun. It can also give us a huge advantage and head start over those that embrace the myths long after the truth is revealed.

RMLS™ subscribers: here’s a special exclusive offer to get the official (pre-released) audio recording of Becki’s upcoming book, Arousing the Buy Curious: Real Estate Pillow Talk for Patrons and Professionals! Click the link and use the secret saving code: RMLS.

This is a blog post by RMLS™ Data Accuracy Liaison Vallerie Bush (at left). Vallerie is a 15-year veteran of RMLS™, including over a decade working with RMLS™ Rules and Data Accuracy.

Do you know the difference between ER and EA?

There are a number of terms used in RMLSweb listings that are rather technical and may seem confusing. The following is a list of some commonly used terminology and their meanings which will help you when entering or viewing a listing:

Exclusive Right to Sell (ER):  This is one of the options in the “List Type” field. The seller gives the Listing Broker the exclusive right to sell their property for a specified period of time and authorizes the Listing Broker to cooperate with and compensate other RMLS™ brokers, with no exceptions.

Exclusive Agency (EA):  The exclusive agency listing also authorizes the Listing Broker, as exclusive agent, to offer cooperation and compensation on blanket unilateral bases to other RMLS™ brokers, but the seller reserves the right to sell the property without paying a commission, if the buyer is not obtained by the listing agent or their advertising and marketing efforts. You must select EA in the “List Type” field if an Exclusive Agency agreement exists.

Dual or Variable Rate Commission Agreement:  This is an  arrangement in which the total commission paid by the seller is variable and dependent on who brings in the buyer.  For example, the commission offered by the seller may be different should the property be sold by the listing broker, than if the listing is sold by a cooperating broker.  You must enter a YES in the “Total Comm. Differs” field of your listing if an agreement exists.

Owner:  The term “Owner” can represent: 1. the person or persons who have legal ownership of the property; 2. their authorized agent; or 3. someone with the legal right to sell the property. However, the RMLS™ definition of the term owner does not include a person or persons who merely has the right to purchase the property, but does not yet own it. The owner’s name is required to be entered in the listing under “Owner” field unless an Owner Name Omission Form or similar document is submitted to RMLS™.

If you have any questions, contact us at rules@rmls.com or at (503) 236-7657.

This is a guest blog post by Joanne McCall, a publicist and strategist who frequently works with REALTORS®.

It is no big trick for anyone in real estate to stand up anymore. Never in the history of humankind has it been so easy to build a platform and put yourself out there.

The trick is, how are you going to stand out?!

It is a busy, noisy, crowded world with far too many people just copying one another because they don’t know what to do. They know they need to do something, so they copy others. It’s pretty hard to be unique under those conditions, and being different is exactly what’s needed. But how?

What if you had a plan? What if you had a direction? What if you knew how you want to come across and what your important key messages are? What if you tapped into current trends, your knowledge, and in addition to that you had the confidence that you can use these new technologies to market yourself and your business in a way that gets results? Wow! You would be hot!

There is one trend happening now that is not going to go away. Are you ready for this?

It’s video.

Video is king (and queen) now.

And because this is the wave of the present and future, I am going to give you some media polishing secrets that will help you get noticed through your videos.

1. Get to the Point. Don’t take time to lay the groundwork. Don’t try to warm things up and eventually get to what it is you want to say. And whatever you do, don’t start your videos with “Hi, my name is…” Start with the hook. Start with the climax of your message, and then fill in the gaps.

2. Get to the Point Quickly.
You may think I made the point above, but the truth is, this is so fundamental that it is worth saying again. Get to the point and make it quick. No one is going to take the time to figure out your message.

3. Create and Use Soundbites.
Soundbites are quick little phrases that easily explain a concept. I heard an interview not long ago—the guest was a relationship expert and she was making a point about finding the “perfect” person to marry or get involved with. She said, “perfection=pure fiction.” That is a soundbite, and a memorable one at that. Here I am sharing it months after actually hearing it. So when it comes to your real estate business, come up with some quips and then practice them so they roll off your tongue. You can pepper these into your videos for much added interest!

4. Know Your Market And Who You’re Talking To.
I find far too often that many people have a problem zeroing in on a target market because they’re afraid of leaving someone out. The best advise is to pick a market and speak directly to them. You can expand out later, but initially, start with your key clients or customers. Otherwise, you may find yourself waiting, and waiting, and waiting to get those videos done.

Want to know more about using video in your marketing and looking great doing it? Join me and host Becki Saltzman, author of the upcoming book Arousing the Buy Curious: Real Estate Pillow Talk for Patrons and Professionals, for “Media Polishing for Real Estate Agents,” a free webinar on Tuesday, June 25th at 4:00pm Pacific. Learn how to develop content and make it compelling and fascinating to your potential clients and customers. Learn to create fantastic videos for more sales, more media, and more mojo! Click the link above for a complimentary ticket to this webinar.