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Have you tried Google’s Wonder Wheel?

The next time you run a search on Google:

1. Choose the “Show Options” link located just below the Google search box.

2. A side panel of useful sorting options displays.

3. If you choose Wonder Wheel from the “Standard View” category, a wheel display of relevant search terms displays. By simply clicking on one of the search terms will display a new sub-wheel of relevant search terms and so on and so on. It provides a more intuitive graphical display and makes the task of narrowing down your search results a little easier. It’s also a fantastic way to research relevant and related key words for website and Blog article Search Engine Optimization. Kudos to my friend Scott for sharing this cool insight.

Real Estate Rock Stars need the right tools

 Rock Stars need the right tools so I thought it might be helpful if I shared some resources I use when making decisions on what to buy.

The 2009 Realtor® Tech Survey’s top three tools that respondents plan on purchasing or replacing in the next year are: Smart Phone (42%), Laptop (34%), Digital Camera (26%).

These three tools have almost become necessity in our business today. Here’s a list of some of the top online review sites for all 3 products to assist everyone in making intelligent and well informed purchases.

Laptops and Notebooks

More Laptop and Notebook Reviews

 

Digital and Video Cameras

 More even Ipods

*A special note for our online lead generation clients. Lead gen clients are be best served by getting a Blackberry as opposed to any other smart phone including an Iphone…Call me for further explanation on why this is so vital to conversion.

Updating your Technology?

The three tools a Realtor® needs, in fact are as necessary as breath itself, are a smartphone, laptop and a digital camera.  Ok, so maybe not as life-giving necessary as breath itself, but these tools go a looong way to making our job a lot easier, more efficient, and fun.

If you are getting ready to purchase for the first time or upgrade any of these items, be sure to check out the following sites for making an informed decision.  Sometimes the kind of technology can hinder or enhance your efficiency and real estate systems.  For example, here at theRockStarAgent.com we are rocking the BlackBerry smartphones for the instant email, and are split 2-1 on the laptops: PC to MacBook Pro.

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The New Real Estate

theRockStarAgent.com was born as a result of doing real estate differently.  We found that the systems and processes that we used were not only unique to our marketplace, but to the industry at large.  When the local real estate market declined, and many licensees decided to parachute out, we had our best years ever.

Don’t Get Caught Napping

One thing that we know about life in general and real estate specifically, is that change is constant.  In real estate, change can be alarmingly fast.  For agents not keeping pace with the drastic and swift changes to our industry, it almost appears as though the industry is lethargic. Slow to change.  Yet, there are agents that are on the cutting edge of the change and using it to their advantage.

Developing an edge in today’s market requires REALTORS to have a user friendly website with IDX listings available.  Practitioners need to be proficient in Blogging, social media, search engine marketing, and how to work with the e-consumer once they contact you. Using savvy marketing techniques may generate leads for agents, however with no skills in permission marketing and inbound marketing, you will be lost. Nearly 90% of the home buyers are searching homes on the Internet prior to ever contacting an agent. Are they finding you, when they go to Google, Yahoo or MSN?

Mike Bowler has a great post on the change that we are currently undergoing.  And he’s right…

Those agents that see, educate themselves and take advantage of their new knowledge will be well set when the market turns.  This business has always been about the buyer or the seller.  Now, with information at their fingertips, consumers are in the drivers seat when it comes to choosing the agent to represent them.

Will they choose the agent that presents all of their listing information online, holds “office hours” when they can be reached via instant messaging or webinar and is easily accessible via the ‘net or phone?  Or will they choose that agent that “forces” them to contact the agent for the address, number of bedrooms or square footage of a property?

The Light at the End of the Tunnel Does Not Need to be a Train

With information so easily found, and so free on the internet, here are a few simple steps to help you become the resource your future clients so desperately need:

• Be sure that you are visible on the internet
  • start a blog, get involved in social networks, fill out your own Google Profile, do something that the search engines will see when someone searches for you as an agent.
• On your website, be sure to have a user friendly IDX search solution
  • Consider creating web pages dedicated to your marketplace’s neighborhoods: photos, general description, a map, etc.
• On your website, be sure to have information about your marketplace
  • take your site to the next level by doing some business reviews or restaurant reviews
    • business owners will love the exposure, and your readers will begin to see you as an area resource

These are just a few ideas to implement, but there are many more you can put into place to be found on the internet and show yourself to be the real estate resource that your future clients should be contacting.

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