Blog

Home >> Blog

Sellstate Source 3.0 - Social Integration

For Day 3 of Source Week, we’re announcing another one of our exciting features. We’ve already previewed our Social Center and Video On Demand sections and we’re excited to continue the unveiling.

We all know that social media has become an integral part of business, particularly in real estate. It is more important than ever to cultivate and grow your network. While most people understand the need to embrace social media, very few people go as far as integrating it into their website.

On Friday we will be bringing you the deepest level of Social Integration to ever be featured on our websites. Sellstate Source 3.0 will be enriched with several ways to interact directly with social networks.

Comment

With this new level of social integration, you can now comment directly on Sellstate Source using Facebook, the world’s most popular social platform. There are no fields to fill out, registration processes or verifications. If you’re logged into your Facebook account, simply enter your comment on the page. Additionally, you can easily reply to others’ comments in the same manner.

We all gain by sharing, and that’s why Sellstate Source 3.0 gives you the opportunity to show how much you care by offering the ability to share to Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter from every page. Find an article helpful and want to share that your social network? Just click one (or more) of the sharing buttons found at the bottom of the content.

Register

Sellstate Source 3.0 features sections exclusive for Sellstate Real Estate Advisors. In order to access this information, you must register with the site AND have the password (ask your office manager for the password). We’ve made it easy to register. There is no need to enter your email address, make a password, or go through verification steps. Instead, simply click on one of the buttons on the right hand side corresponding to your social network of choice. Through your Facebook, Google, Twitter, or WordPress.com account, you’ll be registered in seconds.

Login

Once you’re registered for our site, you can log in using the same social network used during registration. All you have to do is click the social icon under the log in section on the right, and you will be logged in automatically. It really is that simple.

Conclusion

We have taken our social integration far beyond a basic “Like” or “Tweet”. We’ve fully integrated today’s most popular social networks into every aspect of our website. With Sellstate Source 3.0, you can Comment, Share, Register, and Login using the same social network you use every day. Sellstate Source 3.0 has also been designed with future scalability ensuring that we will be able to continue to add integration.

Read more and Comment...

Comments

Sellstate Source 3.0 - Video On Demand

Day 2 of Source Week is here and today we want to focus on learning with videos. On Friday, we will launch Sellstate Source 3.0 which will include a Video On Demand (VOD) section. Yesterday, we announced the all new Social Center that will provide our agents with all the information and strategies necessary to use social media to build their business.

For anyone unfamiliar, SellstateSource.com is our educational website where agents and managers are welcome to visit for training, support, and many other resources. It is essentially their “source” for anything real estate.

Our VOD section will focus on two main areas at launch, our social media tutorial series and screencasts. The social media section will be further broken down by network making navigation of the site extremely intuitive. The screencasts focus on core real estate education designed to increase your business in today’s market.

For your convenience, the videos from the screencast section have also been turned into a podcast series so that you may get all the information while on the go.

Our VOD section will see continuous updates and has been designed to allow for further expansion into other categories over time ensuring that Sellstate Source 3.0 remains current, relevant and adaptable to the ever changing market conditions.

Be sure to check back tomorrow as we will be unveiling another incredible feature of Sellstate Source 3.0.

Read more and Comment...

Comments

Sellstate Source 3.0 - Social Center

Welcome to Source Week! Each day this week we will be presenting a feature of the upcoming Sellstate Source 3.0 leading up to the official launch on Friday.

Today, we would like to highlight the all new Social Center. Social media is becoming increasingly important in today’s business environment. With the emergence of several major platforms it is also becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with.

The new Social Center is designed to help simplify social media into easy to follow strategies that will help you increase your business. We start by placing all of the educational/strategical information for the various social networks in an easy to navigate hub. From there you may simply choose which social network you are interested in, for example Facebook or Google Plus, and then select either one of the outstanding articles or follow along with our video series.

We break things down from beginner levels for people just starting out all the way to more specific strategies.

The Social Center will launch with articles for both Facebook and Google Plus along with a complete and comprehensive Facebook video series. This will be followed by the addition of articles for YouTube and Twitter as well as upcoming video series for Google Plus, YouTube and Twitter.

In addition to all of this information, we have grouped all of the major Sellstate feeds in one convenient location making it easy for you to follow the conversation and keep up to date on the company Facebook and Twitter feeds as well as my personal Twitter and Google Plus feeds.

Sellstate’s Social Center is the one-stop resource agents need to get connected to Sellstate and build their own business database.

We look forward to sharing more new features of Sellstate Source 3.0 throughout the week!

Read more and Comment...

Comments

"Source Week" February 20-24, 2012!

After nearly 9 months of planning, development, and testing, Sellstate Source 3.0 will be officially launching on February 24, 2012!

To celebrate the launch of the all new Sellstate Source 3.0, we will be presenting “Source Week”, a week of exciting announcements highlighting some of the key features of our upgraded platform. Starting February 20, 2012, we will be sharing a new benefit each day leading up to the the official launch on Friday, February 24. This information will be shared on SellstateLive.com as well as social media platforms.

We look forward to you joining us for an exciting week, as we unveil our most integrated, feature-rich website to date.

How can you stay updated?

- Visit SellstateLive.com
- Subscribe to us via Email or RSS (found in the right column, under Search)
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Twitter
- Add us on Google Plus (Michael Darmanin)

Source Week Details

Updates: February 20-24, 2012
Sellstate Source 3.0 Launch: February 24, 2012

Read more and Comment...

Comments

If It Seems Too Good to Be True, Is It?

Well, you already know the answer to that question. Every day we are bombarded with email campaigns from different real estate companies promising everything from training, leads, free office space, “latest technology”, support and so on, all with no monthly fees and 100% commissions. My all time my favorite one is the “no E&O insurance” (Do you really want to be in business with no insurance?).

When I see these email solicitations I often wonder to myself, “How can that be?” Every brokerage business is exactly that, a business. These businesses have expenses including staff, rent, utilities, copier, Internet and phones just to name a few. Let’s keep in mind that the owner also hopes to make a profit.

Next time you get these solicitations ask yourself this. How can they possibly offer all this and pay the bills let alone make a profit?

I recently had a discussion on this subject with an agent and his answer to me was “so what if they don’t? Who cares? I get my commissions. If they go broke that’s their problem.”

A common misconception many agents have is that the commissions belong to them. In reality the commissions actually belong to the broker. In the event the broker “goes broke” all of his/her receivables are seized by the trustee who is obligated to pay all the creditors in order of priority. Believe it or not, the agents are at the bottom of the priority list and often receive pennies to the dollar of what they are owed if anything at all.

Naturally people are then quick to threaten lawsuits to receive their commissions, but that eagerness to sue changes with the first visit to an attorney and the demand of a retainer. Lawsuits are both lengthy and costly and ultimately if the broker has gone broke you will only be spending good money chasing after bad.

Please don’t misread what I am saying. No one is suggesting that you shouldn’t try to get the best deal for yourself. In fact we encourage you to do so. But you must be prudent in your due diligence. If the numbers don’t make any sense then either the deal is not what they are saying or you stand a chance of losing your hard earned commissions.

Think of it in these terms. Have you ever competed for a listing only to lose it to another agent who simply overpriced it or made unrealistic promises to the seller?

Always remember… If It’s too good to be true, it probably is!!!!!

Read more and Comment...

Comments

$836.43 – Average AAD Payout for December

The average AAD Payout for December was $836.43. What are you doing with your 5%? To learn more about our Agent Asset Development Program, click here.

Read more and Comment...

Comments

5 New Year’s Resolutions Every Real Estate Agent Must Have

1. Have a Positive Attitude

Your attitude will make or break you. A positive attitude will help you see opportunities and overcome obstacles. Your attitude influences all of your decisions in every aspect of your life and can give you the confidence needed to grow your business. If you don’t have the right attitude going into this year then you’ve already put yourself at a tremendous disadvantage.

2. Develop your Annual Business Action Plan

Improve your chances of success by having a plan. If you were to ask the most successful real estate agents their keys to success, nearly all of them would tell you that having a written business plan is instrumental to their results. Take some time right now to develop your Annual Business Action Plan. Your plan should cover budgeting, goal setting, action steps, marketing strategies, and more. Sellstate agents have access to an Annual Business Action Plan Development manual on SellstateSource.com.

3. Get Better Connected

Communication is essential to building and growing your business. A cell phone and email address are not enough anymore. To stay connected with as many people as possible, you need to be active on social networks (like Face book) or perhaps even write a blog. The more ways you communicate with past, current, and potential clients, the more business you will generate. It seems simple enough, but believe it or not, many real estate agents overlook this basic step. If you are new to social media, you may read more about Facebook for real estate on o ur blog.

4. Take Advantage of Resources

Resources are all around you. One mistake that many agents make is not taking advantage of the resources that are available to them. Take a good look at what’s available to you. Do you have access to office meetings and training sessions? Is educational material available to you online? What speakers will be appearing at local venues? If you look around I’m sure that you will find a plethora of material available to you at little or no cost. Be sure to look into these offerings and leverage them to increase your business.

Sellstate members have the benefit of accessing SellstateSource.co m at their convenience and in many location around the country, attend workshops hosted by Sellstate President Neil Cresswell.

5. Manage Your Time More Effectively

Time management and balancing between work and your personal life is crucial to your success. It is equally important to realize that schedules don’t always work out as planned. When organizing your year, be sure to leave time slots available to catch up on any activities that may be falling behind.

When it comes to daily tasks, be sure to block off time for checking email, social networking, prospecting, and personal time. Email alone can eat up most of your day if you’re not careful or don’t have a plan for how to handle incoming messages.

Scheduling personal time should not be overlooked. By having time slots for you to do non work related activities, you will better be able to relax during those times knowing that everything else is being taken care of or is already scheduled to be taken care of. Many experts also believe that scheduling your vacations for the year up front help with productivity as you have something to look forward to. The other benefit to this is that we tend to be most productive in the days leading up to time away from work. By having vacations written down in advance, you will actually see your productivity increase.

There are many useful tools to help you stay organized. Google Calendar is a really easy to use, cloud-based calendar system that syncs easily with mobile devices.

Final Words

If you take these 5 steps into account when planning out your New Year, you will see tremendous improvements in your business. Good luck and may you have the best year of your life!

Read more and Comment...

Comments

Simple Techniques to Drive 1,000% More Inquiries to You

Real estate lead generation is the key to the success of a Realtor. To this day the industry recognizes that calls from “for sale” signs are the best quality leads in the business. These are the best because if a consumer is interested enough to stop their car and pick up the phone while they are out driving around looking at houses, they are a serious buyer or seller.

Now that we know who we want, the trick is how to get every buyer or seller driving by your “For Sale” sign to call you regardless of whether or not they like the home that the sign is on. Ask yourself, how would your sales increase if every serious buyer and seller who drives by one of your listings calls you? Well I cannot guarantee that everyone will call, but I sure can help increase the odds of this happening dramatically.

For starters, begin by using SMS technology that is now common in our industry. That is where you have a number on a sign rider that the consumer can text and get back information on the property. While this is a good technique, the problem with the way this is being commonly used is that if the potential client does not like your listing they will not text you for the property information.

Remember we want almost every serious buyer or seller that drives buy your listing to STOP, READ & TEXT. We can achieve this buy posting direct response titles that you will support with your direct response web site instead of the usual “For information on this property, text…” An example of a direct response title that is working fantastic today is “Text 1234 to 55555 and receive a Luxury Foreclose List”.

Guess who wants this? EVERYONE!

How about “Text 1234 to 55555 and receive FREE report ‘Can you still buy a home after a Short Sale or Foreclosure?’” This is a great lead generator for listings. There are dozens of these offers that you can make to the consumer to inspire them to stop their car and seek out the information you are offering.

When the consumer texts you, you receive their number immediately. I am sure you can put together a few Luxury Foreclosures or put some information together on the possibly of someone buying after a short sale or foreclosure. You can always call your mortgage broker and they should be able to provide you with the information you need.

Remember it is not the quality of the information that you are sending them that is important. It is all about getting the consumer to contact you. When they put up there hand and say “I am a buyer or seller”, the rest is easy. Once the contact is made, you will be able to provide them with the quality service and information that they are seeking.

Here are some other examples of titles with corresponding reports you can use or be creative and come up with your own:

Foreclosures Hot List
Things You Must Know Before Buying Waterfront Property (great for upper end buyers in your area)
Do Not Buy a Foreclosure Until You Know This

Blog

Comments

Comments

Comments

"Source Week" February 20-24, 2012!

How can you stay updated?

Source Week Details

Comments

If It Seems Too Good to Be True, Is It?

Comments

Comments

5 New Year’s Resolutions Every Real Estate Agent Must Have

1. Have a Positive Attitude

2. Develop your Annual Business Action Plan

3. Get Better Connected

4. Take Advantage of Resources

5. Manage Your Time More Effectively

Final Words

Comments

Simple Techniques to Drive 1,000% More Inquiries to You

Comments

Contact Us

LIke Us on Facebook

Search

Subscribe

Categories

Archives

Recent News

Articles by Category

Twitter

Language

Sellstate