Below is a very helpful article about using referrals to build your real estate business written Toby Welch that was published by REM Online.

Are you making the most of your past and present clients to get referral business? The dream of a phone ringing relentlessly with nonstop referrals can be a reality if you implement an effective referral strategy.

The 2010 Realtor Technology Survey Report by the National Association of Realtors in the U.S. shows that 88 per cent of Realtors consider referrals to be a “very important” aspect of generating leads.

Many Realtors agree that staying in touch with clients once the transaction is over is key to getting referrals. By keeping your name uppermost in people’s minds and doing so in a positive way, clients are more apt to recommend you when someone asks if they know a Realtor who will do a kick-butt job. Read the full article.

Leads from referrals have a higher conversion probability than leads received from ad calls, sign calls, or any other cold sources.  So, investing time to build a relationship can lead to future sales and referrals from your new prospects. In addition to a personal call, emails and sending newsletters, consider stopping by to personally meet your new leads in their home. Once they get to know you, they’ll find it more difficult to choose someone else to represent their interests.

Systematic follow up

A consistent follow up plan is essential to enhance the sense of personal connection through an a series of phone calls and emails follow up. It takes, on average, four to six calls for you to leave a lasting impression. Between calls and personal visits, communication through personal notes and e-mail messages are great ways to stay in touch with your prospects.

Real estate market updates, customer testimonials and letters from satisfied clients are great ways to keep in touch with your past clients and referrals. Share interesting information on your company’s activities that are deemed worthy of circulating to your list of pat clients and referrals. Treat referral leads as if they’re  already your clients by adding them to your newsletter list, and to insider mailings that share real estate news and reports from your office.

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What’s your 2012 Resolutions?

2012 is just round the corner and we all want to hit the ground running. There are signs that 2012 for the real estate business in Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley will be more challenging. With slower growth and economic uncertainties around us in BC/Canada, south of the boarder, across the pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Activity has gone down since May, 2011 and we are hoping that 2012 will come through without too much disruption to the local market, especially from China. In recent months, the property markets all across China were under tremendous stress. In many places prices had dropped 30% or more.

We should take stock of what’s happening around us and chart our New Year’s resolutions for 2012:

1. Discard what’s not working and move on

Take stock of the things that are not working and decide what works for you. Success in this business has a lot to do with how we spend our time doing the right things. If you are into social media, how your networks helping your business?

Having more face time with customers and old-school newspaper advertising are vital to our business. Print advertisements are relevant and read by home buyers and sellers. We have to be seen online and offline to be successful in our business. We cannot hope to be successful if we are “secret agents” that nobody knows us!

2. Move to a new company

Business models change with time and new ones are developed. Current 100% model works great the past 25 years and it will work well in the next 25 years. With the internet and technology, a further refinement in the business model has evolved. A “no-fee model” offered by Team 3000 Realty helps to eliminate your monthly fees all together!

3. Marketing online

More home buyers and sellers are searching for info online. Learn what online marketing is all about and subscribe to real estate blog sites like “real estate tomato”, “blood hound” “active rain”, etc. Blogging is important and should be the primary tool you should us to market yourself online.

4. Invest in new equipment

If you you have not been using a digital camera, it is time to buy one and use it to take pictures for your blog postings. Do you need a new printer or computer? Beside your smart phone, will an ipad help you on the road meeting with your prospects? Invest in the equipment you need.

5. Set realistic goals

Are your goals realistic? Draw up a business plan and work out the budgets for advertising and marketing to achieve your goals. What did you achieve in term of sales and commission earned for 2011? What are the goals you are on target, and what are those that you did not do well?

These are the 5 resolutions you can work with and if you follow through with each it will be an accomplishment.

The Internet Has A Profound Impact On The Real Estate Business

With the internet, buyers and sellers have more access to information and property listings than they ever have before.  The exposure an agent gets from the internet accelerates and shifts the public recognition of the Agent from his or her Brokerage to the the Agent. The internet helps to build the Personal Branding of an Agent.

The costs real estate agents paid to be in business

The real estate industry in Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley have around 13,000 agents. These agents are paying around $400 to $1,000 monthly admin, desk and franchise fees to their brokerages. With an average number say around $500 a month, these brokerages are collecting around $6.5 million in fees from their agents. The annual fees paid by real estate agents to their brokerages come to around $78.0 million. Find out how one company helps to put this money back into the agents pockets.

They are effectively paying RENT to their brokerages to be in business.

Real Estate For Realtors

Revolutionary new system

A totally new approach to the real estate business is now in place. A no-fee system is available through Team 3000 Realty, a Richmond based real estate brokerage.

This new business system developed by Team 3000 Realty could change the industry the way how 100% commission brokerages changed the real estate business 30 years ago!

The business system from Team 3000 Realty includes the following initiatives:

• The company’s MLS® Search Portal generate leads from home buyers and sellers.
• The company offers to process real estate transactions for real estate agents across British Columbia.
• No admin, desk or Franchise fees payable by for “life-time” members.
• Opportunity to own your real estate business as a “Strategic Partner”.

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The real estate industry before 1978

The real estate brokerages were mostly national and international franchises that offer to train new agents and share 50% of the commission earned by a new agent. Agents who were in the business longer and achieving certain sales volume were paid a higher split. The top producers in the brokerage could keep up to 90% of their real estate commission.

The second wave

The 100% commission brokerages like RE/MAX (since 1978) and Sutton (since 1981) offered a much more attractive deal to the agents compared to the national franchises. The agents who left these traditional franchises were allowed to keep 100% of their commission, but they had to pay a monthly fee from $400 to $800 to be associated with Sutton and RE/MAX.

Within about 10 years, the transformation from split commission arrangement was almost complete. Today, all   national real estate franchises follow the system of the 100% brokerages. They charge a monthly fee to cover expenses for admin, desk, franchise, etc. For new agents who join them, they have to sign a contract whereby they are trained by the brokerages and they also pay 25% of their commission to the brokerages.

The third wave?

Read the next segment… the impact of internet on the real estate business and the third wave that will change how the business is done.

Note: We welcome any feedback on any info here that are deemed in-accurate and need revision. The author is a Strategic Partner of Team 300o Realty

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The real market has turned and it is not going to be business as usual. In fact it will be a lot tougher to maintain your previous years earnings. Judging from the supply of homes and the contract in sales over the past 5 months, the market could be entering a new real estate cycle. The market sentiment has changed, and if by spring next year, home sales are not improving, we could be in for a ride to the downside. Need to cut spending? Find out how.

There are many reasons for the change in market sentiment and why home buyers are staying on the sideline for now. The housing market may not do so well for the next 12 to 24 months as home prices too high to be affordable for the average Canadian families.

Are you prepared for a 30% to 50% drop in your earnings in the next 2 years? Will the housing market be as tough and sales remain at current level? Only time will tell if we are heading for a downturn.

Whatever the outcome, it is good to be prepared and explore your option as how best to work your real estate business. Team 3000 Realty has something to offer to all agents in B.C. Take a look at what we do, and if you like to have more info about us, kindly sent us an email or call James Wong at 604-721-4817 or Louie Pulice at 604-341-0006.

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How it works?

An experienced real estate agent’s primary need from his/her brokerage is getting their real estate deals processed. There are legacy costs like monthly fees agents have been paying for years to be in business as real estate agents. In recent years, there are many brokerages that are able to offer their agents “low-monthy fee or no-monthly fee” service.

As an Independent Contractor, a real estate agent operates independently and rely 100% on the commission he/she earns on successful real estate the deals done.  The monthly cost to be in business as a real estate agent can amount to thousands of dollars a year. The value of association with a brokerage increasingly are being  questioned as the money spent by an agent adds little to the well being of an agent.

Team 3000 Service

For experienced agents, paying no monthly fee make good business sense. Why allow your brokerage to debit you a few hundred dollars a month when you can stop it? The chart below illustrate your savings of $50,000 to $100,000 over 10 years as in the case of Agent A (paying $5,000 a year fee) and Agent B (paying $10,000 a year fee).

If you like to have a chat to find out more about our lifetime membership program, kindly contact James Wong at 604-721-4817 or Louie Pulice at 604-341-0006.

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MLS Protal For Greater Vancouver & Fraser Valley

Team 3000’s MLS portal is disgined for easy search for homes listed for sale on the MLS system. You can use any Search Engines (Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, or Yahoo) and type in “Team 3000″ to be followed by the city you want to search. For example “Team 3000 Burnaby“, “Team 3000 Coquitlam“, “Team 3000 Chilliwack” will take you to a page with links to MLS listings for that city.

You can locate the housing type you want to search using the left navigation bar under the City you are interested and follow the link to view homes for sale. You can narrow down your search by defining the price range using the “slider” and press “Search”. The pages that open up will pull all MLS listings for that housing type within the price range you selected.

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Team 3000’s Other Websites

You can also look for homes for sale on the MLS by by using the Team3000.ca website which displays the Google Map with the URL links to each city in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Chilliwack. The navigation tabs are designed to take you to the housing type with pre-selected price range and neighborhood.

Google MLS Map Search

This is another way to look for info using the Team 3000 websites.  You can click on the Google Listing Search button, then select the city, follow by the housing type, price range, and No. bedrooms and  bathrooms then  press the “Search” button. The homes meeting the criteria you selected will pop up and you can visually locate where these homes are located in the city. Details on each listing can be viewed by clicking on the “More Information” button.

I hope the above info are helpful to you looking for homes for sale around the lower mainland of Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Chilliwack.

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Ways To Improve Your Page Rank

One of the best ways to drive traffic and attract customers to your website is to improve your Google page rank. Search Engine Optimization(SEO) strategy helps to increase your site’s exposure. Google uses automated programs to scan the web regularly and rank websites according to a number of factors. Some of the things that factor into your site’s page rank.

1). Links from other sites.

Google spiders tallies sites and count the number of links a site has pointing to it from unrelated sites. More higher ranking sites linked to your site will result in Google giving more weight to your site.

2). Internal links.

A site that is well-organized and easy to navigate with links to other pages on your site help Google spiders to rank your site. Google recommends that your site has a site map for better indexing by Google.

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3). Meta tags.

Meta tags are hidden HTML directions for Web browsers or search engines. They include such important items as the title page, description of the site and keywords describing theh site content.

4). Keywords.

These are words or phrases that users might type into search engines to look for information. Make sure your content contains those words or phrases and include them in your meta tag information. Certain density and repetition of the keywords and phrases on a page is important for Google’s robots to index your page.

Optimizing your site according to these guidelines should help your page ranks. Google claims, however, that its uses more than 100 factors to determine page ranking.

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What e-mail systems to use?

There are many E-mail marketing systems you can use to stay in contact with your home owners. While Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc are useful to communicate with your client base by emails, but a more robust email system may be appropriate for newsletters, and auto-responder mailings that can send out a series of pre-programmed follow-up emails.

We, at Team 3000 Realty uses AWeber, a popular email marketing system that is easy to use. A Weber helps small businesses automate email follow-up and email newsletter delivery. There are over 74,000 businesses and users who use the AWeber Email Marketing system.  You can learn more about AWeber here.

Aweber helps to:

• Boost your website’s traffic
• Turn passive visitors into active subscribers
• Convert more sales
• Precise subscriber tracking and targeting
• Customer support

Team 3000’s email opt-in for REALTORS® to learn more about “Internet Marketing For Realtor” can be viewed here.

Click the button to the left to view video tutorials

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Are REALTORS® really independent?

Let’s take a look at the definition of an “independent contractor” as applied to a REALTOR® in Canada:
A REALTOR® working as an independent contractor is a natural person, business, or corporation that provides real estate services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement. A REALTOR® works as and when required, during which time he or she is subject to the Law of Agency.

A REALTOR® is paid according to the commission specified on a multiple listing contract, or if there is no contract, the fee is negotiated with the home buyer or seller. A REALTOR®  is licensed and regulated by the Real Estate Council in each respective provinces, and works through a Real Estate Brokerage, which they themselves own, or through an umbrella company.

Costs of Association

The costs incurred by a REALTOR® include desk/admin/tech/franchise fee that is paid monthly to the Brokerage which may be from $200 to over $700 a month. All licensed Realtors are members of the Real Estate Boards where they operate, and pay additional fees like real estate board fee, errors & omission  insurance, etc.

Each time when a REALTOR® makes a deal, his or her Brokerage charges a deal fee from $225 to $300. Deal fee covers the administrative costs incurred by the Brokerage to handle the real estate transaction in the back office. This includes handling of trust deposits, accounting, communication with real estate lawyers, taxation etc.

Team 3000 “Deal Clearance Service”

Team 3000 Realty Ltd, a Real Estate Brokerage in Richmond now offers to handle all BC REALTORS®’ real estate deals for a fee of  $300 to process a real estate deal. Team 3000’s life-time members do not pay any monthly admin/desk/tech/franchise fees. The cost to join as a life-time member is a one-time payment of $1,000.

Team 3000’s Deal Clearance Service is available to all BC REALTORS®. As the company do not charge any monthly admin/desk/franchise fees, the money saved by REALTORS who joined Team 3000 can be used for other marketing expenditures.

Team 3000 is offering FREE business card and signs for Realtors who are joining the Deal Clearance Program. For more information, you can contact Louie Pulice at 778-279-3000 or James Wong at 604-721-4817.

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