The campaign was decided upon after months of in-depth research on how consumers perceive REALTORS® and the housing market in North Carolina. The major agree now is a great time and want to do so, but just don’t know how to go about in an economy as difficult as today’s. This campaign, comprised of TV, radio and web ads, will serve to solidify REALTORS® as the answer to that question. Consumers will be directed to visit: LetARealtorGuideYou.com

Here’s the TV commercial that is currently running on various networks…

Web banner ads will also be used to spread this campaign’s message… Join the cause by using the banners below on your own websites. Simply right click on each and then “Save Image As”. Original image sizes are 600 pixels wide by 74 pixels tall.

Why this campaign and how will it be funded? For a detailed background on this campaign, please Click Here.

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey

We all make mistakes sometimes, but a mistake delivered over technology can be a lasting one — even at times an “archived” one on the Internet that plays over and over again.

Maybe an embarrassing photo of you surfaced on Facebook for all of your clients to see, or you accidentally sent a document to the wrong client or hit the “reply all” button when making a snarky remark over e-mail. Such technology mishaps can certainly be damaging to your career, particularly if not resolved quickly.

In real estate, where technology is often more friend than foe, taking precaution to avoid tech blunders can be well worth the extra effort. According to a recent survey by Robert Half International, the top professional “technology etiquette sins” reported by human resource managers are being inconsiderate to others by taking calls anytime on a smartphone, venting on bad things about the workplace on social networking sites, using instant-messaging shorthand, and constantly pestering others using technology.

If you’ve committed a technology sin, the best thing to do is repent. Here are some tips from etiquette experts on how to handle the fallout from some unintentional errors that can occur over technology and, better yet, how to prevent landing yourself in a technology mishap to begin with.

Tech Mishap No. 1: Forwarding the wrong document to a client

The Oops Moment: You forwarded an important, personal document regarding a real estate transaction to the wrong client.

The Recovery: This can be a very damaging mistake, depending on the extent of the private information the document contained. Putting someone else’s private information in another’s hands, unintentional or not, can land you in professional or even legal trouble. “Your best bet is to try to appeal to the humanity of the person who received your e-mail mistakenly,” says etiquette expert Cynthia W. Lett, director of The Lett Group in Silver Spring, Md. “Explain to them that they received a personal document that was intended for another client you are working with, and that you would appreciate it if they would destroy the document immediately.” You should also notify the other client about your mistake and apologize.

Avoid This Mistake: The REALTOR® Code of Ethics says that REALTORS® have an obligation to preserve the confidential information of their clients (as defined by state law). Slow down to avoid such big blunders when sending personal documents.

Also, watch for the auto-fill feature on most e-mail programs when sending messages. Your e-mail may save your contacts; when you begin to type a name, it may automatically input the e-mail address of a client to whom it assumes you intend to send the message. Encrypt any sensitive records and files to keep them more secure when sending anything online, and make it a policy to never send highly confidential information over unsecure e-mail.

“Pay attention,” Lett says. “We do things too quickly without thinking clearly.” Before you send any e-mail, take your hands off the computer and put them in your lap for at least 20 seconds, carefully reviewing what you just wrote and who you are about to send it to, Lett advises.

Tech Mishap No. 2: An embarrassing photo of you surfaces on Facebook

The Oops Moment: That photo of you after you’d had a bit too much to drink at a holiday party or otherwise acting unprofessional may someday come back to haunt you, thanks to social media. Your friends can upload a photo and tag you, and voilà. There it is, for all your clients to see.

The Recovery: In Facebook, you can untag yourself in a photo by bringing up the offending picture on your screen and then looking for the “report/remove tag” link to get your name removed from it. This at least will remove the photo immediately from your page. However, the picture will still be on the poster’s page and possibly even surface elsewhere on the Internet. Contact the person who tagged you in the photo. Call her on the phone to make the conversation more human and urgent, Lett suggests. Ask her to remove the photo immediately. Many people who tag you in photos think you’ll appreciate it, and don’t realize you’d be hurt by it, Lett says.

Avoid This Mistake: Facebook has security features so that you can choose a setting where you must approve all tagged photos of yourself prior to them appearing on your page. You’ll get notified as soon as someone tags you and can approve or disapprove of it. From your Facebook account, visit “Privacy Settings,” click on “Edit Settings” for “How Tags Work,” and then review the settings you have in place. The security setting won’t prevent others from uploading embarrassing photos of you, but it can prevent the photo from appearing on your page for your contacts to see.

And this probably goes without saying, but try to take some caution so that embarrassing photos aren’t taken in the first place. Remember: “The photos posted of you and the comments you make on social networking sites can start to form your reputation,” Lett says. “Take steps to protect your reputation on social networking sites.”

Tech Mishap No. 3: Mistakenly hitting ‘Reply All’ to an e-mail message

The Oops Moment: You went to respond to a message with a sarcastic comment intended for only one other person’s eyes — a person with whom you may have a joking relationship. But you accidentally hit “reply all” to a company or group message. Now everyone sees your private message, and some may take offense.

The Recovery: Some people have lost their jobs over this very scenario. Get on the phone if there’s anything in your message that could potentially hurt anyone’s feelings, apologize, and try to explain yourself, Lett says. Your top priority is to concentrate on repairing the damage from the person most hurt by your message. By having a voice conversation, you share your emotion, tone of voice, and energy in apologizing much better than an impersonal e-mail apology could ever communicate.

Avoid This Mistake: Avoid using your work e-mail to send any humorous or overly personal e-mail chains. Use a private account so there’s no mix-up. Keep all of your company e-mail communications professional in tone. And before you ever press “send,” make sure your e-mail message is going to the right person.

Tech Mishap No. 4: Calling your client by the wrong name

The Oops Moment: When talking on the phone or sending an e-mail, you mistakenly call your client “Jim” when his name is really “Bob.”

The Recovery: Call your client back immediately — even if the mistake was made over e-mail. Voice-to-voice interaction on the phone makes the conversation human again, Lett says. She suggests starting the conversation jokingly as you laugh, like “Hello, Jim. I mean, Bob. You know what, you look so much like someone I know named Jim and I was just talking to him, and I had his name in my head. Please forgive me, Bob.”

Avoid This Mistake: This can be one of the worst etiquette mistakes you can make because it’s so personal, possibly more offensive than even misfiling a document, Lett says. Avoid multitasking so you can concentrate when speaking or crafting a message to your client, so that you can avoid making such mistakes while distracted.

Technology Mishap No. 5: Inconsiderate phone use

The Oops Moment: Your phone rings, and you answer it while you’re out with another client showing him homes.

The Recovery: Tell the person on the other line that you’re meeting with another client and that you will have to return her call once you’re finished. Apologize to your other client for the disruption.

Avoid This Mistake: Make it a point to not pick up the phone when you’re out with another client — if you do answer those calls, it makes the client you’re with feel like he’s unimportant to you and the client who called you feel like you’re rushing her off the phone. Let your phone go to voicemail when you’re out with another client, and set your phone to vibrate so it won’t be distracting by constantly going off. Also, try to avoid other inconsiderate phone uses: Don’t call a client back or take a call while waiting in line at Starbucks or while driving. The loud background noises may make it difficult for your clients to hear you and for you to hear them. (Tip: If you must use the phone when you’re out, use the “mute” feature on your phone whenever background noise gets too loud.) Your best bet is always to pay your clients respect by waiting until you can get to a quiet place to call them back so that you can focus on the conversation, experts suggest.

“Rudeness will tick people off faster than humiliation,” Lett says. “If you’re out with a potential client who’s looking for a house and you’re getting text messages from other clients and you stop to take care of those text messages in front of that client, you will probably not have that client by the end of the day. There’s nothing people hate more than being ignored because of technology. It sends the message that you care more about your phone than the person sitting in front of you.”

If you’re given a choice to either invest $1,000 in a two-year bank certificate of deposit or bury that money in your backyard, don’t spend too much time thinking about it, because for all practical purposes you’ll come out the same either way.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) say you’ll earn 83 cents more with the CD than burying your money, so the CD’s probably the better deal. But after you factor in the gas to get to the bank to buy your CD you’re probably better off going with the buried money and just taking advantage of inflation.

So, where should you put your money? Andreas Rauterkus, an assistant professor of finance at the UAB School of Business, says you should buy a house.

“First-time home-buyer rates are around 3.8 percent for a 30-year mortgage, so if you can afford a $1,000 mortgage payment monthly for 30 years then you can buy a $250,000 home right now,” says Rauterkus.

Lary Cowart, an assistant professor of real estate and finance at the school, says you don’t want to wait too long, though. Because once prices start moving, it won’t take long before price changes affect the advantage of today’s low rates.

“Holding out to try and find the lowest price is not a good strategy because if the house were to go down 10 percent but the interest rate goes up 1 percent you are not gaining anything,” says Cowart. “If rates go up 1 percent, say from 4 to 5 percent, that is a 25 percent increase in the interest rate; so the mortgage payment goes up by more than 10 percent and the amount of house that can be purchased goes down by more than 10 percent. People fail to realize that and it is another little thing that will cost them big over the 30-year life of the loan.”

Of course, whether you can buy at all depends on lenders’ willingness to make a loan today to anyone except those with the best credit profile and plenty of money for a downpayment, and that’s a big question today. It makes you wonder if the reason banks aren’t lending is because they don’t have any money available because it’s all buried in the bankers’ yards.

Read the UAB press release in which the researchers talk about buying a home today.

More on lenders’ tight lending policies

More from NAR on why home ownership matters

By: Tom Shapiro, Founder & CEO of Digital Marketing NOW

You want prospects to visit your Web site and become familiar with your brand, information, and listings. The problem comes when prospects leave your site without contacting you. When they leave, they often check out the competition, forgetting about you and your brand. And the odds of being contacted by these prospects dwindle the longer they’ve been away from your site.

To be successful with digital marketing efforts, you must increase the number of “touchpoints” your brand has with prospects. When prospects spend time with your brand, you increase the chances of them hiring you for their real estate needs. Many big real estate brokerages embark on huge advertising campaigns to stay top-of-mind, but you may not have the marketing budget to constantly display your messages everywhere.

Even with a limited budget, though, you should ensure that your Web site visitors repeatedly come into contact with your brand. Focus on being exactly where your site visitors are going online at precisely the right time. The key to digital advertising success is to create highly targeted, highly timely marketing campaigns — a winning combination for an individual real estate practitioner or a brokerage of any size.

An effective way to accomplish this is through “retargeting” efforts, such as:

Site Retargeting

The most basic type of retargeting, this is an online advertising campaign configured to be displayed to those who have visited and left your site. Depending on your site and retargeting solution, you can configure the campaign to show ads to only those who did not submit an online form while on your site, ensuring that you’re effectively reaching those who “got away.” The ads appear in a multitude of online destinations based on the ad networks involved.

Let’s say a couple is interested in buying a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property. They visit and then leave your site without filling out your online contact form, and continue their Web research. Perhaps they visit their local newspaper’s Web site. If you’re running a site-retargeting campaign, your ad could appear on the newspaper’s site, reminding them about you and how you can meet their real estate needs.

Site retargeting is most effective if you segment your audience. You can show ads specifically about condominiums to someone who has visited the condo pages on your site, or display ads about apartment rentals to prospects that visited your apartment listing pages. This way, your messages are highly relevant to each person’s needs and online experiences.

Another key to success with site retargeting is to write custom ad copy that assumes the prospect has already visited your site. By offering a special incentive and a clear call to action, you can “bring them back” to you.

As with any retargeting campaign, you can set a frequency cap for the number of times prospects see your ads, and you can also designate an expiration date for the ads (e.g., “show the ads up to five times and only within seven days after they left my site”).

There are many solutions on the market, such as AdRoll.com, Retargeter.com, and FetchBack.com. The right solution depends on your goals, market, and budget.

Search Retargeting

Search retargeting is another useful mechanism for getting in front of those who have visited (and left) your Web site. With a service like Google Remarketing, you can show online display ads to those who search for your real estate keywords in Google and click on your Google AdWords ads but then leave your site. Your Google Remarketing ads appear when those site visitors then go to sites in the Google Display Network, which covers thousands of sites, including CNN.com, YouTube.com, and many others.

Google enables you to specify sites within the Google Display Network for your ads to appear. You can also exclude sites based on your preferences. Your ad copy should be written with the knowledge that these visitors have already clicked on your Google ads, checked out your site, and gained some familiarity with your brand.

With a typical Google AdWords campaign producing conversion rates of between 2 and 10 percent, Google Remarketing empowers you to keep your brand top-of-mind for the other 90 percent to 98 percent of prospects who clicked on your Google ads.

Beyond Search Retargeting

Other search retargeting programs, such as by Simpli.fi and Chango.com, go a step further by building repeated touchpoints with prospects. Now, you can more effectively target people who have used any of the major search engines to look for real estate in your target geography, regardless of whether you’re running search ads. This type of retargeting enables you to target prospects on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, even if they haven’t been to your site or clicked on any of your ads. With Simpli.fi’s platform, your campaign can extend beyond the search engines to practically any site where a user may search for information, including CNN.com, Amazon.com, and so forth.

This type of search retargeting repeatedly gets you in front of prospects who might otherwise not know about you. Plus, you’ll reach them precisely at the time they’re looking for real estate, dramatically increasing your chances of winning their business.

Measure, Measure, Measure

With any type of retargeting campaign, track, measure, and analyze your results. Clicks and conversions are useful metrics. You can also configure special landing pages with dedicated or dynamic phone numbers. Or take the lower-tech route of simply asking prospects how they found out about you and if they saw any of your ads online. Assess your efforts to determine your campaign’s value. That way, you’ll ensure that your retargeting initiative is providing the biggest bang for the buck.

Source: REALTOR® Magazine

Real estate pros report that the weeks between now and the Super Bowl can be some of the most hectic in getting a head-start on what’s traditionally considered the busy spring buying season.

“Most good associates use the months of November and December as an opportunity to get organized for the coming spring market, which can arrive as early as January,” Gary Large, president of the New Jersey Association of REALTORS®, told The Star-Ledger.

More real estate pros reportedly recommend to their sellers to host open houses during the cooler months because they’ll face less competition. Also, they say, more serious buyers often come out during the winter months, such as corporate clients who are needing to relocate within the first quarter of the year.

“We try to encourage the sellers to pretty much get their house on the market early in January to beat the rush, because most people tend to wait until the spring,” Marilyn Bailey with Prudential New Jersey Properties in Morristown, N.J., told The Star-Ledger. “It’s a nice time of year to shop — not as many buyers are out there, so you’re not competing with other offers as much.”

Real estate pros are also using the winter months to focus on networking (such as through holiday parties that can create plenty of opportunities for meeting new clients or gaining referrals) and taking continuing-education classes to ramp up their skill sets before the spring buying season hits, agents report.

Source: “In a Down Housing Market, Real Estate Agents get a Head Start Now for a Busy Spring Season,” The Star-Ledger (New Jersey) (Dec. 25, 2011)

Why are the holidays such a good time to sell? Seventy-nine percent of the agents surveyed said that more serious buyers come out during the holidays, and 61 percent say less competition from other properties make it a great time to sell. Plus, 17 percent of agents say the cold weather is actually a benefit, making homes feel more cozy.

But online listing photos become even more crucial during the holiday season, according to the survey. Slightly more than half of agents say that the photos are more important because sellers tend to offer less open houses around the holidays, and so the online photos help buyers decide the properties to see and which ones to possibly bypass.

The biggest hurdles sellers face during the holidays, however, are keeping a home ready to show (clean and staged) as well as winter weather conditions and buyers’ vacation schedules, the Realtor.com survey found.

Source: “Survey Data Reveals Majority of Real Estate Professionals Recommend Clients List Their Homes During the Holidays,” Realtor.com (Dec. 2, 2011)

In every market analyzed, Redfin found that homes listed on Friday were 12 percent more likely to sell within 90 days. What’s more, the company found that homes listed on a Thursday or Friday sold for slightly closer to the list price: 94.4 percent compared with 93.9 percent for homes listed on a Sunday or Monday.

Homes listed on Friday were viewed 19 percent more by buyers than homes listed on any other day of the week, according to Redfin’s study.

“Our theory is that since home buyers tend to tour homes on the weekends (Saturday and Sunday have 2.5 times more tours per day than weekdays), homes listed on Fridays are the freshest in buyers’ minds when they’re making their weekend plans,” the brokerage said in a blog post about the findings. “It also seems likely that many home buyers sort their weekend ‘must see’ lists by date listed, going to see the freshest homes first so they have the best chance of getting in on a potential good deal before other buyers. These factors put homes listed on Friday in front of more touring buyers on the weekend. More tours leads to more offers, and more offers leads to a better price and a better chance of selling.”

Sources: Daily Real Estate News & “Best Day to List Real Estate for Sale: Friday,” Inman News (October 18, 2011)

http://www.ncrealtors.org/uploads/zipFormQ&A.pdf

http://www.zipform.com/training/trainingcalendar.asp

September 2011 | By Michael Antoniak

Video is an essential component of effective real estate marketing on the Web, whether it’s to showcase the appeal of a listing or to let satisfied clients speak for you. Like it or not, producing mini-movies to promote yourself and your properties is becoming more commonplace — and in some cases, de rigueur.

It begins with some means of capturing video. Today, that capability is built into smartphones, digital cameras, and digital camcorders. Which is your best solution? That all depends on what you want from video, how involved you want to be in production, and what’s good enough for your goals — and, of course, how much you’re willing to spend on all of that.

In This Guide:

• 2011 Video Cameras
• Video Specs That Matter for Real Estate in 2011
• 2011 Video Camera Shopping Glossary
• 2011 Video Cameras: Some Core Considerations Before Buying
• 2011 Video Cameras: What Real Estate Pros Are Using
• Shop for 2011 Video Cameras by Budget

September 2011 | By Jeff McKissack

September is REALTOR® Safety Month, and I want to reintroduce you to the real estate professional’s best friend, the natural gift that helps keep you safe from harm while you go about your daily routine—your instincts.

One of the greatest mistakes I’ve seen and heard from practitioners—in more than two decades of helping people prevent violent crime—is their tendency to put their faith, trust, and sense of security in places. I have never heard of brick or mortar attacking anyone. I’ve also never heard of pavement rising up to lure a would-be victim. People, not places, commit crimes. It is not where you are but who you are around (or who is around you) that matters.

The risks are real. Most real estate agents have little if any security training and ­regularly are meeting with strangers at various times of day in vacant homes. This year alone Iowa has reported two separate attacks on real estate professionals on the job, one of them fatal. In San Diego, several practitioners have reported being assaulted by squatters while they ­inspected foreclosed properties.

Although some attacks against real estate pros are seemingly random acts of violence, premeditated attacks are more common. These are typically the more dangerous scenarios because the attackers have put thought into their approach. Commonly, these strangers are individuals who upon first glance would not seem to pose any threat. They may be well-dressed, educated, articulate, personable individuals who often weave a great story that will garner your interest as a potential prospect.

Yet, often there is something that just seems a bit out of place. For instance, maybe someone spoke of bringing his or her wonderful spouse or significant other when setting up the appointment, yet this other person does not appear at the appointment, leaving you and the prospect alone.

Or maybe the prospect insists you come take a closer look at that closet space deep inside the house or the garage with a question about possible damage. And what was it about those very personal questions he or she was asking that seemed just a bit out of place during a business meeting?

If those scenarios sound suspicious to you (or even familiar), it’s because your instincts are already engaged in the possibility of such a moment being both real and potentially dangerous. Many real estate professionals in any of these situations would probably not give it a second thought, focusing instead on the promise of potential business. But my point is that you know more than you think you know.

Take a moment to engage that second thought, to be in tune with your instincts. They can do the kind of advanced math in a millisecond that your cognitive brain may take minutes to calculate.

I’m not talking about being afraid. I’m talking about being aware and cautious so that you can avoid being lured into a dangerous situation.