7 Sources for Realtor and Real Estate Website Posts – Part 4 :: LinkedIn

August 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
linkedin for real estate website

Alright, last week we went over using Realtor.org for material on your website. This week’s source is LinkedIn Groups.  So here we go!

LinkedIn groups as a source for your real estate website

We all know how important LinkedIn is a source of professional contacts for Realtors and real estate professionals.  There may not be a better source of professional contacts.  But what about using LinkedIn for material to get follows and ranking on your website?

1. Get on groups that you are passionate about and are not real estate related

Some real estate agents make the mistake of just joining real estate groups on LinkedIn.  It is important to be in SOME real estate related groups, but “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.  You can sign up for as many as 50 groups on LinkedIn, so find a few that are NOT real estate groups and join them.

For our example today, I will tell you that I was involved with some ultra-green folks making all earthen homes in Northern Mexico.  So I love earth building and all things GREEN.  So I am signed up for the group “The Renewable Energy Network”.  Now that could have a bunch of cool stuff that home buyers or sellers could really like about real estate.

2. Read the weekly digest for some article that you can put on your real estate website

When you sign up for a bunch of groups, you need to go into the “Settings” for each group and change the default “Daily Digest”, and put “Weekly Digest”.  If you don’t do this, LinkedIn will send you more email than you could ever read.

Once you are getting the weekly digest, just look for one article a week that looks like it would be interesting to your clients and readers on your website.

linkedin for real estate website To the left is a copy of the email I got in my Inbox yesterday from LinkedIn.  As I looked at it, I think that the second article looks like something that your typical American home owner (or soon to be home owner would enjoy) Cost of Solar Panels Projected to Fall Sharply by 2013.

3. Put links back to the LinkedIn article

When you write your article and put a little twist on it from the point of view of folks in your area, just be sure to include a link back to the original LinkedIn article like this: Cost of Solar Panels Projected to Fall Sharply by 2013

You want to make sure that you cite your source.  Now for some reason when I click on the title of the LinkedIn article, I don’t get the article.  So you will want to fix that for your clients.  Try clicking here to read the article: Cost of Solar Panels Projected to Fall Sharply by 2013

One last tip.  I like to have the link open in a new window, so that my readers can quickly come back and get some more real estate stuff at my site!

4. Tell your readers to contact you for more information about the article (or real estate)

At the end or your post, be sure to include a call to action.  Before your call to action, you want to include little blurp inviting your readers to ask you any questions they may have about the article.  In this case, if you have any questions about the putting solar panels on your home or office, just shoot me an email at james @ real social pros.com.  If I don’t know the answer, I will find out for you.

This helps build your reputation as an expert and builds confidence with your readers.  “If Susan (or James) is so reputable and knowledgeable about gardening, I am sure she MUST be a great real estate agent!”

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7 Sources for Realtor and Real Estate Website Posts – Part 3

August 20, 2011 By 2 Comments
Material for realtor and real estate blog posts

Material for realtor and real estate blog postsWe covered in the first part of this series the importance of new listings for blog posts.  Then in Part 2 we discussed getting market reports from MLXchange (this is one of our most popular posts yet) .  Today we hit part 3:

How to use Realtor.org for great Real Estate Website Posts

Now the first thing we have to do is make sure that we all know the difference between Realtor.com and Realtor.org.  Realtor.com has listings for rentals and sales of residential properties.  It is mainly designed with the consumer in mind.  Realtor.org is a website designed for Realtors and other real estate professionals.

It doesn’t matter if you are a Realtor, mortgage loan officer, title company, appraiser, or other real estate professional, there is tons of good reports and articles on Realtor.org.

Start out on the home page to see videos, news, and statistics.

News Releases

I like taking a peek at the news releases for updates on the real estate market that can be used in a website post or page.  You can even setup a rss feed for these.

Realtor TV or Videos

Be sure to go to http://www.realtor.org/technology/realtortv to check out a ton of videos that you can watch to get great ideas, or just share them on you site for your clients to see.  This is a very powerful tool for driving new website leads to your site.

Research and Statistics

As Realtors and real estate professionals, one of the best things to put on a WordPress site or other site is research and statistics.  Buyers and sellers love to see these and get a quick glimpse at what is happening in the market.

Realtor.org has a whole section at http://www.realtor.org/research/research/reportsstatistics.  You can see market forecasts, economic indicators, and other reports.  Be sure to check these out on a weekly basis.

If you don’t have enough with these three sources, there are podcasts and other info you can only access with your NRDS number.  Check out all of these on realtor.org.

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WordPress for Real Estate and IDX Advanced Search Fields

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
WordPress for realtors IDXbroker advanced

WordPress for realtors IDXbroker advancedWe have had some realtors from the Las Vegas Nevada, and Florida Regional MLS area ask about setting up some advanced search field labels in their WordPress for Real Estate and IDX enabled website.

Here is some info that could be a huge help for configuring those fields.

If you have WordPress or IDXbroker on your Realtor website, and would like us to help you out with this, just fill out the form below and we will give you a free 15 minute “tune-up” on your IDX configuration.

 

 

Advanced Search Field Labels

Your MLS provides many Advanced Search fields that allow you to narrow a search to specific criteria. Navigate to Customize -> Advanced Search if you would like to customize the fields and field names that appear on your Advanced Search page. When we map the Advanced fields for an MLS, we assign standard labels that make sense for most websites. In some cases, you may want to re-name these fields to adapt to visitor feedback. This is very easy to do. Simply rename your advanced fields by clicking the Manage Column Labels link in your Advanced Search Management.

You will be taken to a list of all of the available advanced fields provided by your MLS via IDX. The Default Label column displays the field name as it displays on your IDX pages. The Custom Labelcolumn allows you to type in your own custom labels for each field and override the default labels. Simply type your new label into the Custom Label field, and save your settings.
Now view one of your IDX property detail pages to see your new field name in action!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have WordPress or IDXbroker on your Realtor website, and would like us to help you out with this, just fill out the form below and we will give you a free 15 minute “tune-up” on your IDX configuration.

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7 Sources for Realtor and Real Estate Website Posts – Part 2

August 13, 2011 By 3 Comments
real estate Market report for website or blog for realtors

real estate Market report for website or blog for realtorsWe have had a lot of folks who read the first part, about using listings, of this 7 part series entitled:

Sources for Realtor and Real Estate Website Posts

We assume that you are looking to get Google ranking, so you are using WordPress.  We also hope that you have had us do our magic and make you one of our first page of Google sites.

#2 Monthly market reports from MLXchange, MLS, or Escrow companies

Every MLS software has access to some neat historical reports that can be used by Realtors and real estate professionals for great website post ideas from Las Vegas to Orlando or even in Calgary.

For example, on MLXchange, you can do a search, then from the results screen, you will see a small button on the bottom right hand of the screen that says “statistics”.  Just click on the “statistics” button to get some cool info about your niche market.  I like sorting mine out by status, then I can show some great reports to my sellers or prospective sellers.

Print these reports out as a PDF, then you can upload them to your website or real estate blog.  Then get to your blogging screen and write down the two or three top real estate trends that you see.   For each of these trends, write-up a post about how you feel about the trend, how it will affect sellers, and how buyers are impacted by the real estate trend.

These market reports can be for your county, your city, or even your niche neighborhood.  Again using the example of “Shadow Valley”, you could put a blog post entitled “Shadow Valley Home sales July 2011 – Market Report”.  Then include the data, graphs and other information that you get.  Give your readers a teaser with a place to download the whole enchilada if they want it.

Besides the raw data, you want to include some commentaries about it.  What do the numbers mean for your clients? Are prices rising or falling? Give them a succulent summary of what is happening.

Be sure to include a nice photo at the top of your post.

These market reports are also a great tool for email lead capturing.  Just put a sign-up at the bottom of the page like we have here.  Then tell your real estate blog readers to just fill out their email address to get the report.

If you want a 60 minute training session for just $50, where we walk you through setting up these reports on your MLXchange, just click on the PayPal button below then go to my profile at tungle.me/jamescall.

 
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7 Sources for Realtor and Real Estate Website Posts – Part 1

August 2, 2011 By 3 Comments
7 Sources of Realtor and Real estate blog posts - new listings

7 Sources of Realtor and Real estate blog posts - new listingsI get a question from Realtors and other real estate professionals who are getting a new WordPress site almost everyday:

Where can I get a constant feed of ideas for quality posts on my real estate website?

I have a few things that I really like and I would recommend using a combination of these.

1. New listings are great for posts

Whenever you get a new listing be sure to include it on your website.  But don’t just put the usual boring listing information.  Put some fun, quirky information about the home that might not be found anywhere else.  You want to be sure that your descriptions and comments are using the keywords you are trying to get google page rankings from.  If you are looking for ranking in a neighborhood like “Shadow Valley”, the be sure to include the phrase “Shadow Valley” as often as you can without it getting spammy.

Be sure and include new listings from other agents.  I have actually contact me fellow agents and told them that I am going to include some information from the MLS listing, and invite your fellow agent to do a guest blog.

What? My competitor?

Absolutely.  Have them write-up a blog post and include some photos that aren’t on the MLS or a link to a video. You don’t want the agent to go on a rampage about how they are the best agent in the world, but do put a link to their website.  You will give a little free publicity to the other agent, but you will help set up YOUR site as THE source for information in your market.

How to use new listings for posts:

  • Setup a search in your MLS software, MLXchange, or IDXbroker to email you with any new listings.
  • Copy the information from the MLS listing and use the photos. (including the proper credits)
  • If it is a fellow agent, call or email and ask them if they would like to write a post for you or at least if they have other photos, videos, etc. that you could include.
  • Make sure that you get the new property on your site within a day or two of the listing becoming active.
  • Post the new information to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and any other social networking sites you use.
  • Lastly, post a comment below this article with a link back to YOUR website!

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