June 28, 2009 by Don Eagle
When Diane and I started this in our own neighborhood we learned what worked and what didn’t. We shifted our usual neighborhood marketing from monthly mail outs, flyers, magazine ads and newpaper ads to being the REALTORS WITHIN the neighborhood site that the whole community used every day. We found it to not only cost us much less, but to be honest it was more fun and rewarding than anything else we had ever done. And we were helping people at the same time. We felt better about ourselves than we did in a long time. (See this post from back in 2005- Our Favorite Story“)
When we brought our brand of neighborhood marketing and farming to REALTORS across the country we taught hundreds to do the same thing we did by being the REALTORS behind their neighborhood site.
As My Online Neighborhood grew over the years our one on one teaching, guidance and cheerleading became less personal and became web based since there was no way for us to give each new REALTOR Host the personal attention we used to be able to provide in the past. Many of the REALTORS we worked with personally in the beginning are still successful by being the real estate host of one of our neighborhood sites today. And they would not give it up for anything, even in this market. In fact we have been told over and over that for most it is the one thing that is helping them reach buyers in the neighborhood while others struggle to find them.
So on to the announcement.
We are forming a Network of Neighborhood REALTORS made up of those that we work with on a one to one basis, daily, weekly, monthly or whatever it takes, to help each we accept into this program become the most involved, best known and “Go To” real estate professional in their neighborhood. If they will follow all the different plans, techniques and promotions that we have done ourselves and shared with others, they will find themselves having more fun, spending far less and reaching all the buyers, all the sellers and staying in front of the residents every day that they remain the real estate host on that neighborhoods site.
But since we can not devote our attention to all and only to a few select REALTORS we are limiting it to those that we are absolutley convinced are good for their neighborhood, are determined to be the top REALTOR in their neighborhood and are willing to learn and implement what we and other REALTORS across America know work.
To show you we are completely serious about this we are willing to pay you to let us help you. Yes, we will pay the first $500 of your set up fee. Not only that, but we will give you 12 months of free service if you share your success with 2 other REALTORS and we accept them as the real estate sponsor of their neighborhood.
So how do you get this. It is simple for the right REALTORS. First, visit www.MyOnlineNeighborhood.com. Go through the site completely. Learn how everything works. And when you know all about how sponsoring your neighborhood can make a difference in how you farm and market and how you can make a impact in your community fill out the form on the site. Make sure you tell us in the comment section that you want to be considered for the NNREA (Network of Neighborhood Real Estate Agents) program. Make sure you tell us you want us to call you or another Neighborhood Consultant will call and they can not offer you this special opportunity.
Then Diane or I will call you personally. We are not going to sell you on the benefits. If you don’t know what they are or don’t believe they can help you, you will not be right for this program. In fact, you are going to have to convince us that you are. If not, we can’t help you. Again, we can only work with a handful and when they are full we can’t take any more. Of course you are welcome to sponsor any of our neighborhoods but the Network of Neighborhood Real Estate Agents Program is reserved for those that we can personally work with to make them more successful as The Neighborhood REALTOR.
So get in touch with us soon, as the slots will fill fast.
Don & Diane
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June 5, 2009 by Don Eagle
It’s funny what things you remember when you “grow up”. Back in the day, I used to love watching the Andy Griffith Show and Deputy Barney Fife. This particular episode was the one where Deputy Fife decided to try his hand at sales.
Today, I have been in real estate for over 30 years. And no matter how much it has changed, there are some core business principles that were important back when a Mustang was still a horse that work today. Ok, I’m not that old, but my kids think so.
I remember my first Broker sat me down to tell me the secret of success in real estate. He said, “Son, there are 3 things you have to do to build your real estate sales.”
“The first thing you need to do is…….Meet The People”
He went on to tell me that if I did not get out and shake hands with new people each and every day, how could I expect my sales to grow? He further explained if you know 100 people and you keep working that same hundred day after day there were only so many possible sales.
Mr. Old Timer then told me this, “Besides, you also have to give them a reason to do business with you.”
Ok, I got that. Now I was ready for the next two big secrets.
He sat back, scratched his stomach and asked if I was ready for the second secret of real estate. With my eyes big with wonder, he growled the second bit of wisdom…… “Meet the people”
Darn, I was cheated!
“Do you know the third one, Son?”
Now that I got his game I could guess the third one. “Sure,” I said with an air of exasperation. “Meet the people?”
“You got it Son. Now get going!”
I left his office feeling like he was full of hot air. But I learned in due time how wise that really was. I watched other agents, sit and wait for their phones to ring. They would come in and talk to each other, have lunch, go on home tours and do everything except “Meet the people”. So I started out with the goal of talking to 3 or 4 different people every day. Wow can I call? Who can I visit? Day after day I did this basic plan.
Guess what? All the other agents that only saw each other every day, were still only getting a sale every once in a while and I left them in the dust. I quickly became the top listing and selling agent of that entire office.
Maybe the old man had something.
Meet the people.
Oh, and what does that have to do with Barney becoming a sales agent? Find the episode and you’ll see that in his first week he had a chain of 5 sales using this very simple real estate plan.
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May 28, 2009 by Don Eagle
You’ve been duped or you have misunderstood!
It is not all about the Internet .!
For the past few years if you asked a REALTOR if they were marketing themselves, their listings or trying to reach buyers, most have the same answer, “Yep, I have 5 websites!” Or “Sure I do, I have a great REALTOR site!”
Ok, I’m going to say it. The Internet is not the all! It is not a replacement for farming, marketing yourselves, working a sphere of influence, searching for buyers where they are or becoming best known as the specialist in a neighborhood, community, small town, Church, Civic Group or in the PTA. It is only a tool to be used in each farming strategy. After all, if you asked a person with land if they were farming they would not say, “Sure, I got a hoe.” The hoe, is a tool, not the whole farming plan.
Look at the most successful REALTORS you know. Do they work hard? Do they have a full plan to reach buyers and sellers? Do they have a strategy to give buyers and sellers a reason to use them? They spent a considerable effort to be the best known REALTOR within the group or sphere of influence they decided to dominate.
You know they have. The fact they are tops is no accident. And if you read this again you will see there are 3 things that you must do to be one of those top REALTORS.
1. Work hard
2. Develop a Sphere of Influence – Find a way to reach buyers where they are (And the answer is Not the Internet -We are talking real places here- in a group, club, Church, community, neighborhood, or small town.)
3. Give buyers and sellers a reason to choose you. Get involved. Have value. Be more than a person with a license.
You need a whole strategy, not just one tool. And yes the Internet will be a part of the entire strategy. Or you could just be like 80% of REALTORS wandering around with a tool or 2 and not have any place to use them.
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, RealTalk, RealTown, e-Pro, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Tagged For Sale by Owner, marketing, neighborhood expert, neighborhood real estate farming, Neighborhood Specialist, neighborhood website, Real Estate, real estate agent, real estate farming, real estate professional, REALTOR, Social Network | Leave a Comment »
May 20, 2009 by Don Eagle
We are in the process of interviewing to put a real live person in your closest Metro area on the street working with you, the merchants and your neighborhood to turn your community site on full speed !
Here’s the deal. We will be selecting ONE Neighborhood Account Manager for each of our 200 Major Metro Areas. Their job will be to manage 30-50 neighborhoods. They will get the residents, schools, clubs, organizations, places of worship, buyers and sellers all using, interacting and taking possession of their Neighborhood WebSite….or as we are getting ready to move it to….The Neighborhood Social Network. And there you will be. The One Neighborhood REALTOR- Standing tall, smiling and greeting all as they come in and become a part of it all.
So if you know of anyone that you would proudly recommend for this very important role, have them contact us as soon as possible.
Because after we announce the BIG thing coming we will have to beat them off with a stick.
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May 16, 2009 by Don Eagle
We have been working with the folks at RealTown.com (They also teach the e-Pro course to REALTORS thru NAR and are highly repected in the industry) to put this together for 8 or 9 months. Read their news release.
Real Estate Industry’s Leading Internet Portal Partners with Neighborhood Social Networking Company
SANFORD, Fla — RealTown.com, the real estate industry’s premier internet portal, and MyOnlineNeighborhood.com, the leading provider of Neighborhood Social Networking tools for real estate professionals recently announced a marketing partnership. “We’re excited about working with MyOnlineNeighborhood.com, because we think that the services that they provide can be extremely valuable to Real Estate Professionals,” says Rich Hudson, Director of PR/Marketing at Internet Crusade.
The services of a real estate professional are more important now than any time in the last 10 years. Yet, with home prices in record decline, withdrawn buyers and expanding inventories of short sales, foreclosures and owner held homes, many real estate professionals can no longer compete. By leading their neighborhood social network with promotional tools from MyOnlineNeighborhood.com, real estate professionals can establish themselves as the neighborhood real estate professional. However, this opportunity is not available for everyone, as each neighborhood social network will have only one real estate professional.
Don and Diane Eagle founded MyOnlineNeighborhood.com in 2000 as a result of their frustration with the rising costs and diminishing returns of magazine and newspaper advertising. “Why spend thousands of dollars to advertise to people all over the state, when the buyers and sellers are in your neighborhood,” says Diane. “With MyOnlineNeighborhood.com, we give the community a way to connect and to build a relationship so that when the buyers and sellers need the services of a real estate professional, you will have already established a relationship with them.” Nine years after finishing their first neighborhood site in College Park, Florida, MyOnlineNeighborhood.com has expanded to become a Neighborhood Social Network with more than 1800 neighborhood sites across the country.
“We’ve been doing ‘Social Networking’ before there was a word for it,” says Don Eagle, co-founder of MyOnlineNeighborhood.com. “We put the Neighborhood online with Video Channels, Events Calendars, Discussion Boards, Job Listings, Merchant Listings and lots more. And each site has only one Real Estate Professional in the Real Estate Channel.”
MyOnlineNeighborhood.com’s service allows real to position themselves as Neighborhood Real Estate Professionals, by providing Social Networking tools to each neighborhood. “We offer all of the tools that we can think of to the neighborhood. And then we tie those tools in with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube,” says Diane.
MyOnlineNeighborhood is different from other SEO-related marketing strategies. “Especially for smaller communities, if you need a barber or a florist, you aren’t going to type that information into google. But that same person would go to their Neighborhood’s website. And once the community starts to use the site, it takes on a life of its own. Its your community!” says Diane. “And with MyOnlineNeighborhood.com, real estate professionals promote their communities and themselves at the same time.”
RealTown.com is now promoting MyOnlineNeighborhood’s Neighborhood Social Networks on its website. If you are a real estate professional and are interested in learning more, visit MyOnlineNeighborhood.com to fill out an online application or contact Don and Diane Eagle at (800) 470-8730.
Posted in Day by Day interactions, RealTalk, RealTown, e-Pro, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Leave a Comment »
A while back we added Video Spokespeople to your neighborhoods. One for the front page to talk about what is going on in the neighborhood. (then it’s kind of like a little newscast of all the neighborhood happenings and events.
Another for the real estate section that can talk about you, what is going on with the market in your neighborhood now or even to promote a special listing.
We’ve made it as easy as pie, unless you count Mincemeat because I’ve read the recipes and it sounds hard, really hard.
Anyway, all you have to do is log in, pick an actor, write a script of up to 60 seconds, push a button and we will do the rest. That’s it. And you can change your actor and message EVERY MONTH. And for nothing…nada…not a plugged nickel…in other words—–IT’s FREE, Marie!
Tell your neighborhood- The Buyers – The Sellers- and The Residents what the Sam Hill is going on. Show off. Be the expert. Free Commercials.
One more time- Free. Every Month. Show Off. Be the Neighborhood Expert!
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, Video Examples, Video Spokesperson, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Leave a Comment »
April 5, 2009 by Don Eagle
First- Think of these little geeks in a room. Working away at this project that has been under wraps. No pressure. “We’ll let you know when we are ready” kind of chugging along…….And then they find out I’ve let the world know. OK, not the world, but if you tell enough people it could be.
You would have thought I had beat them with palm fronds. (For you guys in Minnesota or any place that the word snow does not just mean Christmas…a Palm Frond is the branch on a scrub palm bush.)
Anyway, after their eyes rolled back to the front of their heads they realized they were now on a schedule and they are busy little MON Mites. (Sounds better than geeks, doesn’t it)
Then the calls started coming in. “Do you have this neighborhood? ” How about this one?” ” What do I have to do to lock it up before someone else?”
And our present customers- Wow- They are fired up except for one curmudgeon that just said, “Why didn’t you do this before?’
Duh, maybe for the same reason NO ONE has done this!
But anyway…it’s coming. So if you want your neighborhood to be one of the first that we add the super exciting Video Channels and tie it all into ONE BIG NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL NETWORK (on the NY Stock exchange that is OBNSN) then please let us know. We are making a list now.
Now I’ve got to get out and cut some more palm fronds.
Hey, MON Mites….Here I come.
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, Video Spokesperson, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Leave a Comment »
April 2, 2009 by Don Eagle
This is it! It is Big! Really big. We’ve been working on this for awhile now and it is going to happen soon. Now my IT staff hates that I’m letting the cat out of the bag but I can’t help it. So sit back and let me tell you all about it.
Every Neighborhood will have their own YouTube like Video experience. Think of it- The residents, students, amateur film makers, funny or creative folks that love their neighborhood- uploading their own videos to tell everyone why they love their neighborhood. Some funny, some heartwarming and sure, some will be bad. But it will be about your neighborhood.
Now think about the other 1800-2000 neighborhoods in our network doing the same thing. All trying to outdo the other neighborhoods.
Churches, Clubs, Schools, Organizations and even businesses uploading videos for their category to show off who they are.
Now think…..Promotions to the next level. Ads, signs and word of mouth telling the neighborhood that it is time to upload a video for Valentine’s Day to tell your sweetie how much you love them. Or shoot a video to tell the world how great your Mom is for a Mother’s Day Video Section. (Or a video of Dad asleep in front of the TV for Father’s Day -just kidding.) Now think of the Schools trying to show off their creativity against the other schools. This could be fun and lively! And the visits and word of mouth can be out of this world! And all in the neighborhood.
And if you don’t think everyone from each group will not be coming back time after time to get the ratings of their fav higher and higher, you may be missing the point.
But their is more!
And every time a new video is approved, or an announcement, classified or anything of importance- it it sent out to the Neighborhood MySpace page, Facebook and Twittered.
Yep- your neighborhood is going down as the ONE BIG NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL NETWORK.
We are getting it all ready. Will you be ready too? Are you ready to be the One and Only REALTOR at a place that everyone wants to be a part of?
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, Video Spokesperson, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Leave a Comment »
March 30, 2009 by Don Eagle
Now this has nothing to do with the BIG- BIG thing coming up. But let me tell you about it anyway.
Our Church need a new website. Now we aren’t a website building company, that is not what we do. But I also realized we had some things that a Church could use and no Church website company included them. Things like a place for Members to post if they had a job opening or they needed a job. Or a place to advertise if they had something to share or they had a pressing need. But even better was disussions. Why couldn’t our discussion boards be changed to allow Sunday School Classes, Youth groups and the members of the church to talk about what was important to them.
So, along with several members of our staff, we took our software and in the wee hours of the morning changed it around and gave my Church a website with all that and a Spokesperson to greet people. We also added a player for past sermons. You can see it here at www.PineRidgeFellowship.com.
So why am I telling you this? Because we have already done it and we can copy the templates to give your Church the same thing- For Free. So if you are a customer of ours and your Church would like this with their name on it, their web address and directions to fill everything out for their Church, let us know.
Now back to the neighborhood. (Your Church or place of worship is part of a neighborhood, isn’t it?) The BIG thing will be announced soon.
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, Video Spokesperson, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Leave a Comment »
March 10, 2009 by Don Eagle
Didn’t I mention this a few posts back? Today I just want you to think about it. I can’t tell you what the announcement is yet, but it will be big. BIG!
But think about a “Social Network”. Isn’t that what your neighborhood is really? Now what if your neighborhood all talked together…. From their back porches, their kitchen tables, sharing with others in the neighborhood/ Opinions, help, advice or even a joke or two. Wouldn’t that be the coolest and just fun social network anyone could belong to, their neighborhood social network?
It’s coming. (Actually most of it is already here but we are putting the final pieces together.
Oh yea, think ……FaceBook…..Twitter……YouTube……MySpace…….
YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Tagged Social Network | Leave a Comment »
March 7, 2009 by Don Eagle
Even though we have always had a section in the free classifieds for businesses to post jobs – we have moved it to the front and renamed it and made it a focal point- JOB Bank. We want everyone to tell everyone when they know of a job opportunity right in the neighborhood. And if someone needs a job- Post that too. Let others know you are looking and what you have to offer. Post your resume.
This is better than that list by a man named Craig because it is right in your neighborhood. And it is monitored and all postings are approved so no one named Candy sneaks an ad in about her very personal services (Shame on you Craig!)
And if your name is Candy, Gee I didn’t mean you.
Anyway- Let’s get out there and help the neighborhood. Free Classifieds- Free Postings- Find a Job- Offer a Job.
It can be a beautiful thing.
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February 21, 2009 by Don Eagle
Today, we are talking email. Yep, email. The thing that gets full with offers of free software, male enhancements, work from home and make a million bucks and don’t forget the chance to collect that 2.5 $$$$million dollar lottery you didn’t even know you had a ticket for.
So what is really going on is you are trying to block spam. AOL, Google, Yahoo and your ISP is doing everything they can to block spam too. And in that effort you sometimes don’t get email from a potential customer because they sent it from work. Or you were so busy hitting the delete button you missed it and deleted it with the 27 offers from King Sahimenaltor from Nigeria to give you his fortune now that he is on death’s bed.
Sometimes we don’t get your emails either. So here is what we have done. When you log into your control panel look at the top. There is a Communication Center that catches all your leads, any email that goes to you from residents, buyers, sellers and anyone that is contacting you as The Neighborhood REALTOR at their neighborhood site.
You will also send requests to us when you need help, advice or art work for our newest promotion. And we can track your communications much better. And everything you will need will be at one place.
Hope that helps. At least it’s better than a stick in the eye.
More to come. We are just getting started. In fact remember these words- VIDEO – SOCIAL NETWORK- YOUTUBE – MYSpace – Twitter.
Nuff said for today.
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February 14, 2009 by Don Eagle
Face it. The last 10 years or so have sucked for REALTORS. Every time you turned around you had to justify your existence. Why you were needed. What you were worth. After all, buyers thought they could do it all with out you. They had the Internet. Yep, the Internet. Keeper of all information for every do it yourselfer. And when they were ready to use you they wanted part of your hard earned commission.
Before buyers had access to all the information on every house for sale, they needed you. Because you had……….THE BOOK. A giant book with pictures and information on every home for sale in your MLS. THE BOOK.
And without THE BOOK a buyer could not find every home for sale. So they needed a REALTOR.
I know some of you are puffing up your chest and saying that you are more than the keeper of the information and you have value in many other ways. And for some of you that is very true. But if buyers and sellers don’t think so, it does not matter. They think we don’t have value, then we are fighting that perception, not providing a service they can not do for themselves.
But back to NOW. For the first time in maybe 10 years buyers not only need a knowledgeable professional to navigate the flood of homes for sale but THEY KNOW THEY NEED ONE.
That knowledge is powerful. They need you. They know they need you. There are buyers.
So now the question is, are you waiting for them to find you? Or are you jumping up and down, waving your arms and in their face every where they turn so that you can get them to pick you???
If not, why? Someone will? And they will be sitting at a closing table while you are sitting at a coffee table.
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February 4, 2009 by Don Eagle
In the last post we tried to point out 2 of the most important questions and answers you could ever deal with in your real estatte career. And it really did not have anything to do with www.MyOnlineNeighborhood.com. Of course we think we have a great way for you to stand out from others, but we can’t make you a great REALTOR.
But today we wanted to encourage you to get out there now. Get busy getting in front of buyers. Yes, there are less of them. But there are still buyers. And the REALTORS that we are talking to across the country are overjoyed that most other REALTORS are sitting back with a cup of Joe complaining about how bad it is. While they are moaning and groaning the wise REALTORS are eating the depressed REALTOR’S lunch.
Why? Because they are busy making sure that the remaining buyers are finding them. And they tell us because others are hiding and licking their wounds, there is very little competition. They are cleaning up!
Many report they are having the best year of their career. Less competition and buyers that need a REALTOR.
Next post we will be sharing with you why buyers need REALTORS more now than ever before.
later.
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January 25, 2009 by Don Eagle
Have you really thought of this question? How do you stand out from other REALTORS? Why would a buyer pick you over the competition? If you don’t have an answer then you are part of the 90% that make 10% of sales. The top 10% have asked and answered these 2 questions.
1. How do I get in front of the buyers?
2. Why would they pick me over the competition?
These 2 questions and the answers you have will determine your success or failure. It is really as simple as that.
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Leave a Comment »
January 7, 2009 by Don Eagle
This morning while scanning the ads in real estate jobs on Craigs List I came across this…
“Realtor if you can co operate and be flexible and work with owner you can have listing. call, do no email call *** *** **** asap.”
Is this what it’s coming to? Sellers begging Realtors to take a listing? Sure, this one is probably upside down and the process server is pounding on the door as he types his ad on CL.
But really. Where have we ever seen anything like this?
Yesterday I read a full page ad from an investor that was having 6 homes that he bought with 20% down in 2005 being foreclosed on. Nope, not because he was behind in payments. But rather because he had mortgages that came due in 3 years and time was up. Bam….foreclose rather than extend. So the bank gets part of their money back, no more mortgage on the books and add the Tarp money to cover the loss on the mortgages and they are completely liquid again.
Yes, I know it is bad. But it could be worse. The question really is what are you going to do?
Get out of real estate? Then do it.
But if you are going to stay in you are going to have to do something to get in front of the buyers that are out there now. And they are ………IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
Think about that one. The question everyone asks themselves each day is, “Where are the buyers?”
The answer again is, “IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD”.
Seems much too simple doesn’t it?
When that buyer is looking around the neighborhood they want to buy in, will they find you?
Posted in Day by Day interactions | Tagged For Sale by Owner, marketing, neighborhood expert, neighborhood real estate farming, Neighborhood Specialist, neighborhood website, Real Estate, real estate farming, real estate professional, REALTOR | Leave a Comment »
January 3, 2009 by Don Eagle
Isn’t that really the question?
It doesn’t matter whether you look at what we have to offer and chose it to change things this year. What does matter is that you do something. Anything other than sitting on your haunches and waiting for something to happen.
Every day that you wake up, you have a choice. You can either do something to find a buyer or you can wait for a buyer to find you. So let’s take the first choice, you seeking a new buyer and how one of our REALTORS finds a new way to reach buyers each and every day.
By being the only REALTOR at her community site, Lenni knew that all she had to do was to get visitors, potential buyers, to the neighborhood’s site. And when they did they would find a community site that screamed ” This is our neighborhood!” Lenni knew that when the buyers did visit they would jump over into the real estate section where they would find her, and only her, representing that neighborhood as the local real estate expert. So her job, she said, “ was to get buyers to visit the neighborhood’s site.” In fact, she said that was her total marketing effort each day instead of open houses, mail outs, newspaper ads and Land and Homes ads. That was it. Get buyers to the place they would find her within the neighborhood site.
So Lenni did something no other REALTOR could do. Lenni went to the intersection of 2 main roads leading into her community and put up a sign that said, To Find everything in your neighborhood visit :MyNeighborhood.com. Thousands of cars saw that sign that day. And visitor activity jumped way up and Lenni got 2 inquiries about home purchases and one listing appointment. Gee, that effort to reach buyers took about 30 minutes and a $7.00 sign.
Wait, that’s not what she did.
Lenni grabbed some business cards that said “Visit MyNeighborhood.com to find everything in your neighborhood!” She took those cards and visited 10 merchants. And at each store she told the owner all about the neighborhood site that the store, shop or business was already on and asked them to let their customers know about the Neighborhood’s site. And they were grateful and happy to get the word out. Several days later she recieved a call froma grateful business owner that said they had a customer in the shop that needed a REALTOR.
Ok, this is what Lenni really did. Lenni contacted FSBO’s and added them to the FSBO section as a service. (No, she wasn’t trying to help them sell it, just get them to either work for her or list with her.) She offered them a sign to put in their yard to tell buyers where they could find their home for sale on the community site. Many gladly placed it in their yard and drove buyers to the Neighborhood Site where they found….Lenni!
Wait a minute….that’s not what she did that day, she…….
I admit it. We have no one person named Lenni. I made her up. But we have hundreds that are Lenni’s. They are doing things every day to reach buyers that other REALTORS just can’t do. They have the community working for them. They have merchants working for them. They have FSBO’s working for them.
And they have MyOnlineNeighborhood.com working for them.
These Neighborhood REALTORS are going to change 2009, their business and their neighborhoods!
Wouldn’t you like to be a Lenni?
Posted in Day by Day interactions | Tagged For Sale by Owner, marketing, Neighborhood, neighborhood expert, neighborhood real estate farming, Neighborhood Specialist, neighborhood website, Real Estate, real estate agent, real estate farming, real estate professional, REALTOR | 2 Comments »
December 26, 2008 by Don Eagle
This happened back in 2005. But we moved it here so you will not miss it. We can’t find a better way to show you what it is all about. Please listen.
Posted in Audio stories | 3 Comments »
November 29, 2008 by Don Eagle
This week we had one of our Realtor’s put in their notice to stop being the Neighborhood expert on their community’s site. Of course we are always concerned when that happens because we truly want this to work for everyone. So we try and find out why, rather than try and talk them out of it.
We started as usual at how they have presented themselves when visitors come into the real estate section. As we normally see, no effort had been made to present themselves as a knowledgeable and successful REALTOR. We compare this to sending in a blank page when it is time to send in your ad to your real estate magazine or a display ad in the local paper. In fact it takes less time to lay it out on the site and reaches your target market more effectively day after day. Not just the day of the ad.
But it was the conversation we had with them that puzzled us the most.
They: ” I’ve decided to cut expenses this coming year.”
We: “We completely understand it is difficult this year. Are you going to leave real estate?”
They: “Oh, no.”
We: “Then may we ask what you are going to do to advertise your homes for sale this coming year?”
They: ” Advertise in the paper like everyone else.”
We: “Doesn’t one Sunday ad run over $200.00 for you?”
They: “I guess it does.”
We: “So what are you going to do to reach buyers. Especially in a market that there are less of them?’
They: ”Nothing.”
I’m not going to go on about the conversation any more than that. To do so would only point out the obvious. Without thinking it out they would have been faced with newspaper ads that cost more than being positioned as the Neighborhood REALTOR on the neighborhood site. They would not have had a way to get others to pay for it as co-sponsors or neighborhood merchants AND they had no plan to become visible to the buyers that were in the market now and be there when buyers returned.
Our dilemma when we have an exit interview such as this is that we do not try and talk them out of what they want to do. But aren’t we failing them if we don’t point out what they have not thought of?
Posted in Day by Day interactions, REALTOR, neighborhood realtor, neighborhood web site, real estate agent | Tagged For Sale by Owner, marketing, neighborhood expert, neighborhood real estate farming, Neighborhood Specialist, neighborhood website, Real Estate, real estate agent, real estate farming, real estate professional, REALTOR | 3 Comments »
November 15, 2008 by Don Eagle
This past week several amazing things happened.
No matter which candidate you supported, now that the election is over,the country is showing optimism. According to polls, over 67% of respondents are feeling that things will get better. They are more optimistic.
The same is true with the REALTORS we have talked on the phone with this week. They are ready to make a plan to change things for themselves and for others. They are tired of waiting. They want to be part of things changing.
Isn’t it about time?
The second thing we were totally surprised about was in the responses we are getting from REALTORS looking to what we have to offer and our NEW Do It Yourself Plan that allows them to get started for very little.
All, everyone that we have accepted as the sponsor of their neighborhood, decided they would rather we do all the work for them so they could get back to real estate. One even said, “Why would I do all that you do just to save a few bucks. And a few advertisers would pay the monthly fee anyway!’
You fooled us. We thought everyone would just go for the cheap, not what was best. It just goes to show that more and more are waking up and thinking things out so they can change their business this coming year.
We are excited. We hope you are too.
See you next time.
Posted in Day by Day interactions | Tagged For Sale by Owner, marketing, Neighborhood, neighborhood expert, neighborhood real estate farming, Neighborhood Specialist, neighborhood website, Real Estate, real estate agent, real estate farming, real estate professional, REALTOR | 3 Comments »
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