Don’t lose clients or prospects due to lack of regular contact. We understand that your day is busy and your time valuable. If you find yourself too busy to maintain high levels of contact, let a drip email marketing system lend a helping hand. Consumers need constant reminders of who you are, what you do and what does that mean for them.
Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Ingredients:
***Dough***
2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warmed milk
2/3 cup butter
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
7 cups flour, or more if needed
***Filling***
1 cup melted butter, divided
1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1 1/2 cup raisins, optional
***Creamy Glaze***
2/3 cup melted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 tablespoons hot water, more as needed
Directions:
In a small bowl mix together warm water, yeast and sugar and set aside. In a large bowl, mix milk, 2/3 Cup sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs; stir well and add yeast mixture. Add half the flour and beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour until dough is slightly stiff (dough will be sticky). Turn out onto a well-floured board; knead 5-10 minutes. Place in well-buttered glass or plastic bowl, cover and let rise in warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 1-1 1/2 hours. When doubled, punch down dough and let rest 5 min. Roll out on floured surface into a 15×20″ rectangle.
Filling: Spread dough with 1/2 Cup melted butter. Mix together 1 1/2 Cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with walnuts and raisins, if desired.
Roll up jellyroll-fashion and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12-15 slices. Coat bottom of a 13×9 inch baking pan and a 8 inch square pan with remaining melted butter, then sprinkle with remaining sugar. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans.
How many credits do I need?
DPOR has updated the CE page. Now you can find out exactly what you need to fulfill your CE.
Head to http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/licenselookup/ and check on your requirements.
DPOR CE Credit
BBQ (the title says mostly real estate right?)
This blog is mostly about real estate and related subjects. However we all have to eat sometime right?
Today I am going to experiment with beef. It’s a grilling project, not a smoking project.
It is called “pit beef”. Basically you put a top round on the grill and seer it until medium rare. Then slice it thin. Fresh rolls and some horseradish and this should be a keeper.
Here is the beef oiled, rubbed and wrapped over night.
I plan on using my weber charcoal grill with direct and indirect methods.
I set up my kettle with a good bank of charcoal. Had to throw in some wood because I could.
Got a good char on all sides and moved it to the indirect side. Cooked until 125 (mine creeped to 135). Pulled off and let rest for 30 mins.
I hand sliced it but it would have been better on the slicer.
Served with some horsey sauce and homemade potato chips.
Pretty good!
KW New Intranet Send All Email
Keller WIlliams has implemented a new Market Center intranet. Emailing all members is pretty simple.
Free photo back up for iPhone or Android
I have posted before about drop box. This is worth repeating.
Dropbox is a free cloud storage app (You can get it here http://db.tt/Bs9CyDA). It will allow you to back up your photos from your smart phone automatically.
Don’t loose your holiday photos!!
With Camera Upload, the photos and videos you take with your camera, phone, or tablet will upload automatically to Dropbox—meaning they’ll be safely backed up and viewable anywhere.
Take advantage of Camera Upload in two ways:
- Upload wirelessly from your phone or tablet using the iOS or Android app
Turn leads into customers: lead nurturing in 3 easy steps
Matthew Collis at agbeat.com wrote an excellent simple piece on turning leads into customers.
This is true of not only the real estate business but of any business.
Follow this link to the article click here.
Once you get the leads you must convert them into clients.
Lead Generation
This is right out of the LEAD GENERATION 36:12:3 available at KW.com. Remember all of these can be downloaded for free.
Use these formulas to figure out how many people you need to include in your marketing plans.
For example, if you want to close 36 deals, and you want to keep your marketing expenses down, you might concentrate your efforts on your Mets. You might decide to aim for 3/4 of your deals to come from your Mets and 1/4 from your Haven’t Mets.
Plug these numbers into their respective formulas to get the bare minimum size of your databases:
In other words, you’ll need to market to at least 180 people you’ve met using the 8 x 8 and the 33 Touch to get
30 deals. Keep in mind that the smaller your database is, the more emphasis you need to put on prospecting. Since prospecting makes a more powerful effect, it helps to ensure the success of your marketing action plan.
To make up the remaining 6 deals from Haven’t Mets, you’ll need a consistent marketing program that reaches a minimum of 300 people. If you’re not ready to tackle a database of that size, do more prospecting so that you can boost your Mets database and spend more of your energy and money marketing to them.
Because these numbers also vary from one market to the next and from one agent to the next, it’s prudent to work from an even larger database: top-producing agents calculate the database they need to meet their goals and then work to market to a database that’s double that size.
Once you’ve set your goals, you’re ready to work on the details of your marketing action plan. Th e three key strategies below will help you make your plan a success:
Building a successful systematic marketing action plan:
3 Key Strategies
1. Target your audience
2. Be consistent and repetitive
3. Don’t overthink it
36 × 3/4 = 30 deals from Mets
36 × 1/4 = 6 deals from Haven’t Mets
30 × 6 = 180 Mets
6 × 50 = 300 Haven’t Mets
Advertising Other Agent’s Listings on Craigslist
Question: An agent has a listing for a property. One day while searching the real estate advertisements posted on craigslist (a popular Web site featuring classified advertisements), the agent discovers the following posting for her listing: “A Stunning 2 Bedroom, 2.5 Bathroom Townhouse. Best Price in Cedar Lakes. Located on Sutler Hill Court. Call Jesse at 207-3214 to Schedule a Showing.” The listing agent is curious and calls the number. She discovers in talking with Jesse that he is another agent who placed the advertisement on craigslist in order to attract potential buyers. Is this ethical?
Answer: This question poses so many potential violations of the Code of Ethics and state licensing regulations that it is difficult to know where to start! Standard of Practice 12-4 of the Code of Ethics states “REALTORS® shall not offer for sale/lease or advertise property without authority.” That authority can only come from the seller or the listing agent. Since it was the listing agent who called Jesse about the craigslist posting, we can assume that she did not give this other agent permission to advertise her listing. If Jesse did not receive the seller’s permission to advertise the property on craigslist then this may be a breach of his ethical obligations. The Virginia Real Estate Board (VREB) Rules and Regulations also contain a similar requirement. These regulations prohibit a licensee from advertising a specific, identifiable property if she does not have the written consent of the seller (18 VAC 135-20-190 D 4).
If Jesse did receive permission from the seller then that would raise a separate question about how he was able to do so without interfering in the listing agent’s relationship with the seller. Standard of Practice 16-13 states that all dealings regarding a property listed with an agent must be conducted through that agent unless the agent or broker has given the other agent permission to contact the seller directly or the seller has initiated the conversation. It is possible that the seller contacted both the listing agent and Jesse to advertise this listing. It is also possible that the listing agent’s broker (without the agent’s knowledge) gave Jesse permission to contact the seller about advertising a property on craigslist. Neither of these situations seems likely.
Some have defended this practice by arguing that it does not harm the seller’s interest to provide additional advertising exposure. This argument misses the point, however. The seller has a right to control who can advertise the property for sale. There are a number of reasons why a seller may not wish to allow someone who does not represent her interest to be advertising the property. Therefore, we can not assume the seller would consent to another agent advertising the property for sale. The rules outlined above recognize the seller’s right to authorize other agents to advertise the property and allow for that possibility.
The problems with this listing do not end with Jesse’s unauthorized advertising. This advertisement also does not disclose the fact that the person who posted it on craigslist is a real estate licensee. Realtors® are required under Article 12 of the Code of Ethics to ensure that their professional status is clearly identifiable in any advertisement. In Virginia, this may be done by using any job title that indicates the person is a licensee. Examples would include, but are not limited to the following: salesperson, broker, agent, associate broker, Realtor® (including use of the Realtor® Logo), broker-owner, sales associate, etc. The advertisement also does not indicate what firm the agent who posted the advertisement is affiliated with. Standard of Practice 12-5 requires that a Realtor® must disclose the name of her firm when advertising a property for sale.
This is one area in which the state licensing regulations go further then the Code of Ethics. The VREB Rules and Regulations state that a licensee is required to disclose specific information in online advertisements. For notices posted on bulletin boards such as craigslist, the following four pieces of information must appear at the beginning or end of the message. 1. The licensee’s full name (as it appears on the license). A “Doing Business As” (DBA) name may be substituted for the name on the license if it has been properly registered with VREB. 2. The name of the firm with which the licensee is affiliated. 3. The city and state where the licensee’s offices are located; and 4. The jurisdiction where the person holds a license. This includes all jurisdictions where his or her license is held, not just the state in which the property is located.
The disclosure rules can vary depending on the whether the advertisement is on a Web page, email message, banner ad, etc. Agents and brokers are advised to carefully review section 18 VAC 135-20-190 C 2 (a-f) of the VREB Rules and Regulations in order to familiarize themselves with the conditions that trigger the requirements identified above.
Finally, the wording of the advertisement in this case may also lead a potential buyer to believe that it was placed by an unrepresented seller rather than a real estate licensee. A real estate agent who implies in an advertisement that the seller is a FSBO may be in violation of the state licensing regulations (18 VAC 135-20-190 D 1).
Copied directly from NVAR http://nvar.com/index.php/law-ethics/article/advertising_other_agents_listings_on_craigslist
