Are you tired of having to go out on your weekly real estate agent home tour?  Does the price of gas make this seem like a waste of time and money? If you're like many agents who work out of their homes, these questions are front and center when you're thinking about IF you will join the broker tour in any given week.

Since we have several newer agents in our office, they wanted to have this experience, so we arranged to tour some of our home listings.  It was quite an outing.  

When I started thinking about the potential outside of my traditional perspective, all sorts of new ways of Marketing came to my mind. Here are some other ways to make your Home Tour a viable marketing activity which continues to reap dividends long after you've been out for several hours in your car.

On this tour, I decided to try something new myself and took my camera along.  Take a look at what I did on Facebook. 

Post your Tour Link with tinyurl to Twitter, to tell people in your local area and beyond what you've been up to.

Upload pictures of your tour and places of interest to your LinkedIn profile.  Invite people to ask questions about the places you saw and the homes you have listed.

Share more than just listing jargon...talk about the area, sites of interest and nearby attractions.

Post pictures and/or video to Flickr.com

Post pictures and/or video to Facebook.  Share your album with Friends

Make a YouTube video about the area and the homes you see.  Start a series as the local tour expert in your area.  This can be very effective if you have a speciality such as highlighting a Foreclosure Tour of your local area.

Do a Real Estate Show on your tour and then export it all over the place.  It will also index on google for all the addresses you mention.

And then of course...blog about it!

These are just a few simple suggestions on how you can take an activity like real estate touring which seems to be loosing steam and reinvigorate it with fresh perspective and imagination. 

This type of thinking not only creates ample promotion opportunities, but is a way to create true Value to your clients in the successful marketing of their home in ways that can be effective beyond the traditional norms of showcasing an area and listing.  Today's homebuyer is shopping in a million different places.  Are you engaging your buyer where they're looking?

Pictures of homes from Audu Real Estate Home Listing Tour of June 23, 2008

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

As real estate professionals begin to explore the world of the blogosphere, many will find that their presence online has been preceded by savvy 'webpreneuers' who understand the rugged terrain of Search Engine Positioning in a way that most Newbies to this virtual world do not.

Take for instance, an interesting experience that I had recently.  I was doing a training session for an agent and demonstrating the benefits which accrue to clients who utlize an agent who is involved in Social Networking.

We initiated a google search for our company listing by address.  It had been placed on real estate shows and exported to a number of different channels including Trulia.  We noted that Trulia was in the #1 position on the Google index.

Initially I was not concerned.  We upload our listings on Trulia, so I thought that in a fashion similar to oodle and other sites to which our listing were exported, there would be a link back to our site or the real estate show. This type of WIN WIN cross promotion ensures that clients are given the best information about the home from the Broker, who benefits from the FREE Listing AND provides Valuable data for Trulia and hence its' advertisers.

There were 4 entries on a search for the address of the listing so, we clicked on each of them. But, what was most disconcerting was that the Trulia link did NOT link back to our website from Google.  Instead, it took me to a page with some general information about the area including a street map and advertising.  There was NO EVIDENCE of the listing information or indication that this listing had been provided courtesy of a real estate broker. 

When, I stumbled upon this post, I understood WHY this is the case.  The discussion regarding 'NO FOLLOW TAGS' is highly enlightening. You may also want to read Trulia's explanation for their policy and decide for yourself if this ultimately assists or undermines real estate brokers.

As a blogger, listings which I post online do rank in the top search engine positions.  This is no small thing for a home owner who is hiring me to market their home to the largest possible audience.  With over 85% of potential buyers searching online first...this is very valuable online real estate. The entity which controls the information flow will in time become the defacto national MLS.  Today, in many markets, a home owner whose agent does not know how to position their home listing online will find that either it is non-existent for all practical purposes OR being used to sell advertising.

Home owners hire Realtors to not only position their homes online but to represent them.  When, our listing index on a major search engine is repurposed to suit advertisers AND stripped of the ability to link directly to the Broker who provides the information and knows the most about the property, I can't help but wonder who is really being served.  Is this truly in the best interest of the public and does this sort of 'misdirection' truly benefit the home purchasing experience for the consumer? 

I'm curious...Brokers & Agents, have you observed this?  Do you understand its potential implications for your business?

Related Links:

Inman News has a very intelligent discussion about various angles of this important issue.

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

The more things change...the more things stay the same. When I started my professional career as a real estate agent almost 13 years ago, there were certain things we had to get permission to do when we listed a home.

These included: obtaining written consent to place a sign in the yard and a keybox on the door. The listing agreement also indicated that we had permission to market their property and advertise. There was no mention of advertising on electronic media. Nor were there disclosures required for the condition of the property or lead based paint. Index cards with listing data were still being delivered to real estate offices everyday.

Today, we have to get permission for a lot more than we did back then. Today, the seller agrees to allow us to advertise their property on electronic mediums including video and still media and other forms of media (not specifically designated) Today, the seller has an advanced electronic gadget on their door which allows remote programmed access to agents and special codes for contract workers; a system which is digitally monitored 24/7.

Yet, Home owners have given agents much greater latitude in the marketing of their homes even as the potential exposure for a home listing has increased exponentially. Herein lies an interesting issue. I wonder if such broad levels of permission are inherently in the best interest of all concerned.

Property Mapping:

Take for instance, the issue of property mapping. The google mapping system and others such as maps.live.com provide extremely realistic 3 Dimensional renditions of property in most localities within the United States. In some of these programs, the home can be manipulated on the screen and seen in detail from just about every conceivable angle. Here's my question. When a homeowner allows us to portray their home on any website, are they giving us implicit permission to display every angle and street view of their home to an unscreened populace which may contain those with malevolent intentions?

Social Media:

The same issues could be raised with regard to some forms of social media. Is it conceivable that the owner of a luxury executive home may not really intend that his home be purposely purveyed for the viewing pleaure of mostly teenagers and college students on Facebook who are largely unlikely to be part of the audience who will be able to afford to purchase his home listing?

There are so many new options exploding on to the market everyday, that right now the instinctive response is simply to try something and see if there are results. Some of this is fueled by an anxiety hidden underneath the cloak of the dreaded consequence of irrelevance if one misses the next new thing or important cue. But, we may be creating a potential minefield of unintended consequences if we are not careful to explain to our clients exactly how we intend to market their homes and YES...perhaps begin to consider asking for permission in a more specific manner. For their own protection as well as our own.

SECRET ENGAGMENTS:

Marketing a home for sale should not be a "Secret Engagement"...an exercise carried out apart from the informed consent of your client. Do you have a list which details what you will be using as a keybox and explain which websites you will be utilising and where pictures of their home will be viewable? Have you discussed the potential benefits and drawbacks of whatever marketing program you choose to employ? If you will be linking to a map...do they know how their home and neighborhood can be accessed and viewed?

Frankly, the reality is that this is no longer necessarily within our control as agents. Because listings are often exported by MLS systems through Broker Reciprocity to other channels which may mash-up the data in ways that are very different than the initial listing data, brokers may not even necessarily know everything which is done with the data they have collected from the homeowner.

RISK LADEN PROPOSITION:

Does this seem to be a risk laden process to you? May we be inadvertently giving our clients much more than they bargained for? Are Brokers taking listing information and assuming responsibility for a process which in all practical aspects they do not really control? I know this is a burning question being debated by MLS systems throughout the nation. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts and if you are doing anything to limit risk & liability with regards to your disclosures and seller acknowledgments in these areas of potential concern.

photo courtesty of: Dave-F's photostream on flickr.com

Copyright 2008 Audu Real Estate All Rights Reserved

Perhaps the most daunting task facing Multiple Listing Systems (MLS) systems and real estate boards today is issue of Relevancy. It would be misguided to assume that the search of choice for real estate transactions in the future will necessarily be the local real estate MLS. Unless significant changes are made which combine the best features of expertise and professionalism amongst MLS members with the enhancements available through technology today, the industry may find itself sidelined as the destination of choice for professional real estate information.

Today, I came across a Slideshare show by Frank Meeuwsen entitled "Nine Big Ideas of Social Media." Meeuwsen essentially details the movement from the static nature of Presentation to the vital energy engaged through Presence via the use of Social Media. In some ways, the concepts he explores are an interesting way to think about a pathway by which the fairly static medium currently employed by most MLS systems might engage the consumer and create a more dynamic process.

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Here are my thoughts on some real estate applications.

How Social Media Concepts Could Transform the Nature of MLS Search....

Social Media is About:

BEING OPEN: MLS Systems have learned this the hard way. Information is powerful when you're the acknowledged source expert and are willing to share. It is poisonous when perceived to be withheld.

RE-MIXING: MLS Systems will be challenged by their competitors to put information together for the consumer in a way that creates relevance. Sure it's great to know what's for Sale, but it's better to understand the underlying context and implications of that information. Consumers want to know whether a home is a good deal or not. Fear that they will avoid the real estate agent once they get this information is probably unfounded. When a Re-Mix works...the creator or aggregator of the content reaps the benefits. A well-designed MLS system could channel this positive cache towards the benefit of its members.

SHARING: People love to share stuff. The Internet has made this oh so easy. Why don't we take advantage of this? MLS systems could adapt to this trend by making it easy for viewers to share great listings or videos of great listings. How about enabling agents to allow the general public to share their thoughts on a listing? There's a remarkable amount of untapped connectivity hidden within the vast listing data pools residing withinmost MLS systems.

TELLING & LISTENING: Make it easy to talk. MLS systems could incorporate into the their systems options to instant message the agent, create links to agent blogs or websites, connect surfers to an agent's twitter account or download audio blog or recording about the home. MLS systems need to create more avenues for potential clients to interact and engage with agents long before it's transaction time. Social Media is about Relationships. So is selling real estate.

PLAY: Don't be so serious. Yes, real estate is about big business...but before that, it's about homes, families and individuals with diverse tastes and interests. Most MLS systems are incredibly boring places to visit if you're not looking for a specific listing right now. However, an MLS system could capture the mind of the next generation of consumers by creating a complementary site for playing the most fascinating past-time most Americans can't seem to get enough of...Buying, Selling, Fixing, Flipping & Trading Real Estate. Perhaps Second Life....real estate style! (Just kidding)

RELAXING: Goes along with play. Be less stodgy. The average consumer is much more relaxed in their approach to life. As professionals, we could take a lesson from the playbook & relax...just a tad. What about an MLS system in which the neighborhood got together virtually to share what was going on in their community?

LEARNING: Why shouldn't the largest portal of real estate listings in any given area in the United States not also be the best place to learn about homes, landscaping, titlework, re-modelling, design elements, mortgage financing etc.? And why can't this learning take place 24/7 all around the world at our MLS sites?

CO-CREATING: The best idea may be the one you haven't yet heard. If MLS systems enabled direct feed-back from consumers in real time, we might find out ways to improve and enhance the search process in a way that creates a better experience for everyone.

RAVING FANS: Created from the Sum Total & Successful Application of all of the above!

Just curious...Are there MLS systems across the country incorporating any of these elements successfully? I'd love to hear about any experiences you're willing to share. Here's the slideshare show...

Copyright 2008 Audu Real Estate All Rights Reserved

In yesterday's sermon, my pastor juxtaposed two 24 hour periods which coincidentally occur next to each other at the beginning of this week. This past Sunday was the Sanctity of Life Sunday and today is the Celebration of Martin Luther King Day which commemorates the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. who was born on January 15th. In his sermon, our pastor mentioned these two significant dates as he shared his thoughts regarding what it means to Become A Child Again...and what it means to Receive and Release the Grace of Forgiveness.

After the service, I was in conversation with a couple who were probably in their early twenties during this turbulent period in the 1960's. As they shared their experiences of what that period was like, the elderly white man fought to choke back tears. He said.."Why do people have to hate so much...Why?" Then he turned to me and asked..."So what does the Celebration of Martin Luther King Day mean to you?"

It's interesting that this sermon and this conversation was taking place just after what has been termed "The Most Segregated Hour in America." I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan which has more churches per capita than any other city in the United States. If that remarkable statment by Dr. Martin Luther King is is true, that means each week, for a couple of hours, I am in a place in which the dark cloak of religious observances obscures an even deeper darkness within the human heart. For you see, today...almost 40 years after Martin Luther gave his I Have A Dream Speech, only 7% of churches nationwide are integrated!

Grand Rapids, Michigan is home to mega churches. Mega church is a term descriptive of congregations above 2,000. In fact, some statistics indicate that mega churches are the fastest growing churches in America. Yet even these colossal structures struggle to integrate their gigantic audiences on Sunday mornings. In Grand Rapids, we also have access to Christian TV. Invariably, a quick glance at the screen reveals who is speaking by the color of the audience.

So, I've been thinking about it. What would the workplace look like if business followed the same rules that have continued to dictate the norms of church goers? What would our universities produce in the way of scholarship and academics if people of color were excluded? What would happen to our hospitals if doctors and nurses from other countries were limited to a paltry 7%? Who would clean our hotel rooms and harvest our produce if the 7% rule combined with the brown paper bag test to determine eligibility for work? And where would our military be if bravery was restricted to what you looked like instead of what you were able to do on the battlefield?

Today, in all aspects of American life, integration works because it has to. To compete on the world stage, we can't afford to negate our talent and intellectual wealth on the basis of the color of the skin. But, in the place where it counts the most...the heart, Americans still struggle. Prejudice, by the way is not an American thing...it's a human thing. It's that dark side of the human psyche that urges separation, disdain and disregard for another human being. It's the small part of i which must step on another in oder to feel significant enough. It's the cowardly side of me which fears what I do not know or understand.

And...it is a taught thing. No baby comes into the world possessing it. Children have to be socialized to absorb the fear. And then life's experiences reinforce the mistrust. I grew up abroad. Yet, I went to school with a lot of white kids. From time to time they would forget that I was a different color and talk frankly about Africans. Now, these were missionary kids. Children whose parents were on a mission from God...to save lost souls in a foreign country. In exasperation one day I said..."Don't you guys realise that you're talking about me when you say these things?" They looked at me in surprise. It was then I understood another powerful revelation about prejudice.

Prejudice is largely an unconscious evil. We have to be deeply separted from the intimacy of the human experience to blur recognition of ourselves when we encounter another human being. This poison seeps so deeply into the human soul that many of us can no longer touch it or acknowledge its control in our lives. In prejudice we entertain a deep level of absence from who we are created to be.

We may be largely unaware that our choices are determined by a perverted guidance. We may never have questioned it and so it remains largely unexamined. So, that is why, after working all day in environments in which we meet all sorts of different people, some of whom become friends...we retreat to our private domains. And none so fiercely as the cloistered ranks of Sunday Morning Church.

On Sunday evening, ABC News carried a broadcast about a small largely black church in Ohio which has determined to close it's doors once a month and go to visit it's neighbors in their churches. When Pastor Biggers was interviewed he spoke about "Closing His Doors" and "Opening His Heart." Pastor Biggers understands that prejudice is as much a black thing as it it a white thing as it is a red thing or whatever color you want to put on it. He gets it...Its a human thing.

And that's the crux of the issue...the condition of our hearts. So when my pastor spoke about forgiveness yesterday and the need to become like a child, he was absolutely right. We can never truly honor the sanctity of life and understand what Martin Luther's Dream was all about until we forgive each other from the heart. It is childlike humility and openess which allows the scars of the past to be exposed to the light and the power of forgiveness which enables us to reach out and touch our brothers and sisters without malice. And the truth is...that we must do this for ourselves. Because avoidance dehumanizes and dimishes all of us like it or not.

So, what does the Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther Kings' birthday mean to me? Well, it is a call of personal and communal affirmation. It means that once again the nation remembers its' higher calling. It is a reminder that our deepest connection is a spiritual connection which transcends all the divisions which superficially separate us. It is a stark reminder that we will know that our nation has truly begun to heal when Sunday Morning begins to look like the rest of America does during the week.

* As an additional note, An Event is being planned for June 29th, 2008 called Missions Sunday. This event is aimed at encouraging congregations of different races to visit each other. The goal is to have 1000 churches participate with their members across America .

*These pictures were forwarded to me by fellow Active Rainer Carol Smith from Toledo, Ohio. Thank You Carol. I hope this article portrays the Spirit in which you sent them.

Copyright 2008 Audu Real Estate All Rights Reserved