I've written recently about changing thoughts about marketing properties. But I'm also rethinking how I market myself and my services. Obviously, if you've read that previous blog you know I'm not marketing myself in local print advertising! But I'm also rethinking the mailings I send out.

For years I've sent out post cards as well as other assorted mailings on a regular basis. I track where my business comes from each year and a very, very small percentage is directly trackable to mailings. Now I do get a lot of referral business from people who I mail things to. But these people also hear from me by telephone, in person and by e-mail. It's hard to believe that the most anonymous of these methods of communication, the generic postcard or letter, was responsible for the referral.

So, effectiveness is one reason to question whether to continue with physical mailings. Another is the ecological cost. I am an environmentalist and believe each of us personally is responsible for taking care of our world. I know that 99.9% of everything I mail is immediately thrown in the trash. And that's even if you really, really like me! (I don't include personal, hand-written notes in this!) The way that direct mail marketing is supposed to work is that even as you throw that card in the trash can each month, somewhere in the back of your mind you've registered that, "Yup! Julie is still a real estate agent!" Is that a good enough reason to fill up landfills? More and more, the physical mailings seem inconsistent with what I believe to be the right thing to do.

There's also a case to be made that in a market that's tough for my sellers, investing that money in marketing their properties and drawing in more buyers is better for them and thus, ultimately better for me since most of my business comes from referrals.

And, in this digital age, there are plenty of other ways to market myself. This blog is one of them. Hopefully it both markets who I am and my expertise, but also provides valuable information for the consumer. There's also my web site, drip e-mail campaigns with useful real estate information e-mailed on a monthly basis and new possibilities such as pod casts,etc.

So, give me your input on this. If you've been on my mailing list over the years, would you miss it if there were no more postcards? Would you remember me when the time came to refer a friend or neighbor even without the monthly reminders?

If you're an agent, have you wrestled with this problem? Do you worry about the spam issue? What answers have you arrived at?

I look forward to hearing your responses!

I'm always interested in why people choose their listing agent. Whether it's me or someone else who gets the business, the decision making process is of interest to me.

I had a listing appointment scheduled for one evening this week and got a call during the afternoon from the sellers cancelling the appointment. They said they'd already chosen another agent. They had originally planned to interview three agents and then choose. But they ended up making their choice after only interviewing one.

Now, if I'm the first one in and you allow me to talk you out of interviewing anyone else, good for me I guess. But definitely NOT good for you!

When I asked the sellers why they chose this agent they said "I think it was because she was just so pushy and she wore us down." That's a really interesting reason to choose an agent! Apparently this agent called them constantly asking why they were waiting to interview other agents when she was ready to go NOW!

To be fair this does show a great degree of enthusiasm and energy. And those are good qualities in a real estate agent. It may also signify desperation, a lack of confidence in their ability to compete against other agents and too much time on their hands!

Sellers should interview more than one agent because there is a lot of difference. I'll do a future blog on what questions you might want to ask in that interview.

I'd consider changing my approach to getting listings based on this feedback but high pressure tactics are pretty much foreign to my nature. I hate pushy salespeople when I'm trying to make a buying decision, especially a high dollar decision. In fact, I've told more than one they could either back off or lose any chance at my business. So, I'll probably continue to rely on my ability to present a compelling rationale using facts to explain why I'm the best agent to list your home!

If you've sold a home in the past I'd be interested in hearing how you made your decision on which agent to use. And if you're an agent are you successfully using high pressure tactics to get listings? Do you think there's any risk to establishing a working relationship that starts out on that footing?

Maybe the weather has made me cranky! But I'm going to rant a little today at my fellow agents. A pet peeve of mine is when an agent calls you for information that is in the listing or the tax records, but they're just too lazy to take the time to read!

I've had calls in the last week asking how to get into a listing. (Duh! The showing instructions say "Vacant, lockbox front door). Yesterday I had a call asking me how long my client had owned the house. (Tax records clearly indicate when posession transferred to him.)

Those are just the latest examples. There have been the agents who called for directions to the house, apparently unable to read the directions in the listing or to use Mapquest or some alternative.

Chances are these are the same agents who, if they write an offer for a potential buyer, will make a mess of it. This business requires an attention to detail that a lot of people just don't have!

With 2006 being a slower year for home sales many agents left the business. But clearly there are still plenty around who either need further education, a kick in their lazy bottoms or to find another line of work!

If you're one of the agents I'm ranting about, feel free to defend yourself here! Rebuttals are welcomed!

OK, spring is surely just around the corner and my blog posts will no doubt get cheerier as that happens. (Or the electricity will go out as a result of this ice and you'll all be spared!)

As this blog is designed for consumers, not real estate agents, I try to stay away from the navel gazing! After all, it's always too easy to focus on internal industry matters that don't matter at all to you!

However, there's something I came across today that definitely has a bearing on you as a consumer as well as on the industry and on me! This letter was released recently by the Minnesota Association of REALTORS to their agents members.

http://mnrealtor.hhpubs.com/1p_10112006/index.html

This letter makes the case that there are simply too many real estate agents. The volume of business can clearly not support that many agents. It's bad for the industry but it's also bad for the consumer.  And, since this is focused on you, the consumer, I'm going to focus there.

The average real estate agent clearly does this as a hobby.  If they do, say, an average of 3 deals per year, clearly they're not making a living at this. The problem is that a real estate transaction is an increasingly complex deal. Someone who does three deals a year is not well prepared for the bumps in the road, the inevitable obstacles that occur. Now, should you use a hobbyist as your agent and you have a deal that goes smooth as silk, you'll probably never know. But that's a pretty large risk to take with a financial transaction of this size! Three transactions in a year is less than a lot of professional agents do in a month!

It gets scarier! The amount of training required to get into real estate is woefully inadequate. Most agents have their license and do not know how to write a real estate contract! And, while they work under a supervising broker who should have the knowledge and experience to help, there's often too little supervision. And, the system usually puts the burden of asking for help on the agent. Let's face it; some people are great about asking for help as soon as they need it and some will wait until they're drowning! If it's your transaction they're drowning in, that's a problem!

And, it's a problem for me on many levels. If you have a bad experience with one of these agents, it will color what you think of my profession. And, when I work on a transaction with an inexperienced agent representing the other side, it can make my job a lot harder!

We as an industry should definitely continue to encourage people who are not serious about this to move on. We should also be working to require higher levels of education prior to entry into this profession.  But this affects your wallet too!  And the consumers should absolutely be screaming for higher standards!

I'd love to hear what you think of this Minnesota article and if you've had any experiences that reinforce what it's saying!

I spent last week at the VA Association of Realtors annual convention. The best news I heard all week is that there is a proposal working its way through the system to increase the education necessary both to get a license and to keep one. This can only benefit consumers!

In order to get a license you are currently required to take 60 hours of course work and then pass the licensing exam.  Going forward once you pass the exam, you will then have to take 30 hours of practicum prior to obtaining your license.

Right now that 60 hour course is really designed to help you pass the test. It has very little to do with the actual practice of real estate.  In fact, the vast majority of the course material is never used again! The course does not deal in things that would seem to be required to any thinking person, such as how to actually write a real estate contract! So this would be a big step in the right direction!

In addition, the proposal would raise the current requirement of 16 hours of continuing education every two years to 20 hours.  While this is certainly a step in the right direction, I would have liked to have seen this increased even further.

Now the work begins to get this approved and implemented!