Take Advantage!

This month, I pose to you a very important question.  Are you taking advantage of opportunities that are available to you?  Do you even know what those opportunities are?

My daughter started her freshman year of college at my alma mater this Fall.  My greatest desire for her is to learn about everything the university offers students, and to take full advantage of those offerings.  I often encourage REALTORS ^®  in our office to do the same.

First, educate yourself about the opportunities that are available to you.  Read the newsletters from your broker and attend the meetings so that you can learn about existing and new programs & services your office offers.

Second, decide what you want to take advantage of!  Sure, you won’t take part in every program, but make sure that you are maximizing the opportunity your broker offers. It sounds simple enough, right?

Like any good university, my alma mater has evolved and added tons of services and opportunities for its students.  My daughter is attending the same university I did, only it is a much improved version!  Any good brokerage will do the same.  Evolve, change, continue to improve, and continue to add opportunities to improve your productivity, business, and life.  Keep up with changing trends in your office, and continue to educate yourself on your brokerage offerings so you can take advantage of the opportunity in front of you!

Upcoming Training That You Don't Want to Miss

The end of the year will be here before we know it, and we have scheduled some training courses that will motivate you to finish the year strong!



1. Buffini Peak Producers 12 Week Course with Kevin Elson
-Starts Monday, September 29th.
*Week 1: Monday -Friday from 9-11
*Weeks 2-12- Thursdays from 9-11

Sign up here!

Want more details? Check out this YouTube video that explains what the course is all about!

2. "Navigating the Luxury Market and Refining Your Skill Set"

-Starts Thursday, October 9th. See image for all dates and details

Sign up here

Overload

After last weeks meeting, who else has a bit of overload? With so many new programs and offerings, where do you start?

Let's start with the new Intranet. We will be holding training classes on this, so I don't want to give away too much information. Its a lot like Facebook for Ability Plus. You can easily post, search and get answers to questions from your phone, tablet or computer. If you are like me and can't remember anything until you try to sleep, then this will definitely be a help. Forgot to ask who you talk to about your copy of the Loop? Just use the search tab to find out and it gives their email address right there too. It will keep the older posts, so it becomes a database of all things Ability Plus. The page is divided into loops. Each loop has an owner. That owner is the person that handles or knows the most about everything within that loop. If you create a post within a loop, the owner gets a notification and can quickly respond.

What in the world is a hashtag? If a topic or question is more specific than just within a loop or crosses into several different loops, you can use a hashtag (#). These are easily searchable words that can help pull up current and previous conversations. Cant remember the title of the article(s), but remember it has something to do with setting up your email on your iPhone? Try searching #iphoneemail. The intranet will search and display all the conversations that are tagged with that hashtag and pull them up.

What is that icon that looks like the wi-fi is taking a nap? Thats the subscription symbol. If you want to hear everything that is said in, or about a hashtag or loop, click that button and you will be subscribed to it. Anytime anyone uses that hashtag or posts in your subscribed loop, you will be notified. You can also subscribe to people. Want to see all the words of wit and wisdom that Jim Morgan shares? Search him and subscribe. You can also un-subscribe from any or all of your choices once you have learned or heard all you care to.

Still have more questions? We have training classes set up for September 17, 19th and 25th at the Carmel offices. We are also combining the class with Open IT hours at the other offices later in the month. Check out the Events calendar on the intranet for more info.

Quick Steps for Bringing in More Traffic to your Leadstreet Website

As everyone in this industry is well aware by now, a great majority of consumers start their home search on the internet. Having a strong online presence is one of the important factors in increasing lead generation. The concept of SEO, search engine optimization, can be a daunting and time consuming task, yet it is crucial to maintain if you want to be at the top of Google or Bing searches. 

RE/MAX agents are provided with their own websites through Leadstreet, and there are some quick steps that make SEO and bringing in traffic very easy. See below for the step by step process on editing page SEO, as well as a short video.

Have questions about Leadstreet? Email Kelly at agentservices@abilityplus.com or Jennifer at tech@abilityplus.com

Leadstreet: SEO & Saved Search Pages

Editing/Creating SEO for your Website

1.    Login to Leadstreet, and click on the Site Builder Tab

2.     Click SEO à Pages

3.     Choose the page you would like to work on, then click Edit SEO

a.     Change the title (Ex. Lebanon Homes for Sale, Fishers Condos for Sale, etc)

b.     Add your Description and Keywords: Think like the consumer! What would they type into Google or Bing?

c.      Keywords are separated with a comma and space. The most important keywords should go at the top!

4.     Go back to Pages and click Submit SEO- this will go to Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Be sure to select the correct page from the drop down menu. You will have to put in the submission URL, which is given to you on the Submit SEO page.

How Do You Manage Your Leads?

How do you manage your leads? What are your follow up tactics? Do you have strategies in place that keep you accountable and organized? If you don't have a plan, consider checking out BoomTown.

Some Features of BoomTown:

• Customized Websites with IDX Search
• Accountability Dashboards and To-Do Lists
• Email Drip Campaigns
• Buyer and Seller Activity Tracking
• Mobile Leads Management

Click the video below to see a testimonial of REAB's Michael Patton. He discusses why he joined BoomTown and how it has improved his business.

Email Kelly at agentservices@abilityplus.com for pricing info and sign up.

Constant Contact is the best way to reach your audience.

On a recent business trip, I overheard a conversation from the folks sitting behind me on the airplane...

On a recent business trip, I overheard a conversation from the folks sitting behind me on the airplane.  The young lady was from Denmark and she had just graduated, but was taking a year off before starting college to travel around Europe.  My daughter is getting ready to start college, so I thought about how I would feel if she told me she was going to backpack through Europe for the next 12 months instead of heading off to college!  Yikes!  Well in Denmark, as in other parts of Europe, this is a very common practice.    In fact, adults taking “holiday” is accepted and embraced by many European cultures.  In the US, some adults do not make vacation a priority.  In the real estate world, I often see agents who don’t feel they have time to take vacation, or if they do, they wind up working on vacation.  I think we can and should take a clue from our European cousins and take time to stop and TRULY unplug, even if for just a few days each year.  That would mean turning off your phone and email during the day so you can really be in the moment with your friends or family.  If you are not part of a real estate team, connect with an agent that shares similar business practices, and agree to trade off watching each other’s business.  Our office offers a showing agent program where you have access to agents that are available to show homes for your clients while you are out of town.  So as the busy summer season winds down, take a moment and plan some time to recharge, renew, and reenergize!

Showing Agent Program

Summer is the busiest time of the year for a REALTOR. During those crazy months, it seems like there isn't enough time in the day to accomplish everything on your list. Luckily, there is a solution for you.  A few months ago, REAB launched the Showing Agent Program, where agents can connect with me when they are out of town, or have a scheduling conflict, and need another agent to show homes to their clients.


Set up a showing agent with these simple steps:

1. Email Kelly at agentservices@abilityplus.com with your service request.
2. Include date, time, and approx. number of homes to be shown.
3. Kelly will contact a showing agent for you and coordinate the request.



Showing Agent Program Testimonial from Tom Endicott- REAB Fishers Office
"Our business has a lot of peaks and valleys.  When we are at a peak of activity sometimes it is just impossible to physically handle all the requests we receive.  I've been using the showing agent service for a few months now and love it.  I'm looking at expanding my usage of it so I have more time to do other productive activities."


Email Kelly at agentservices@abilityplus.com for program cost and questions.

What's in your Toolbox?

Are you taking advantage of all the tools and programs that RE/MAX Ability Plus has to offer you? One of the greatest concepts that we pride ourselves in is the vast amount of tools and programs that are available to our agents.

Everyone is unique and has their own style of business, and we recognize that with the variety of tools that we offer. While the amount may seem overwhelming at times, we encourage agents to pick and choose the tools and programs that best fit their needs. Customize your toolbox with programs, technology, and tools that work best for your schedule and ways of doing business. While training classes on these programs are always available in our offices, one-on-one meetings with our Agent Services and Marketing Department can be scheduled as well.

A busy season lies ahead of us, but now is a great time to think about what REAB programs and tools will make you stand above the rest. Email Kelly at agentservices@abilityplus.com to set up a meeting to learn more and discuss the best options for filling your toolbox.

Be Like a Duck

Actor Michael Caine is quoted as saying, “Be like a duck.  Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”  At our most recent staff meeting, we discussed the analogy of the duck, who appears calm and serene on the surface, but is frantically paddling under the surface of the water.  The goal for our agent support team is to be like that duck, and always appear calm and available to assist our agents, regardless of how busy they are “beneath the surface”. 

To me, it calls to mind often seeing “I’m never too busy for your referrals” in agent email signatures.  While it’s fine to put that phrase on marketing materials, it may not be enough.  Putting something in writing does not make it so.  Just as it is our company policy and our team’s goal to always be available to assist agents, our team members must keep in mind what they are projecting to their customers (our agents).   Take a moment to think about the message you are sending your customers.  Are you returning calls and emails to your customer in a timely manner?  When you are face to face with them, are you present with them in the moment?  Or are you taking other calls, looking through emails on your smart phone, etc?  Trust me, your clients know you are successful, and they know that you have other clients.  It’s when you make them feel as though they are more important than anything else you have going on that you will earn their appreciation, respect, and oh yes, their referrals.  Whether you are a broker, owner, manager, staff member, or agent, as the market heats up this summer, remember to stay calm and keep paddling!

-Jennie Franklin

The US is going mobile...

...and so should you if you haven't already.

According to a recent article by CNN Money,

Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the Internet last month -- the first time that has ever happened. - NEW YORK (CNN Money)

Yep, that's right, January 2014 marked the first time ever that mobile devices accessed 55% of the total US Internet usage.  Desktops, as expected, are beginning to see themselves pushed aside and used less and less to access the Internet.  This doesn't mean they aren't still an important staple of our everyday lives.  It just means that people have adopted other means of accessing information.

Whether you realize it or not, almost every time you launch an app on your mobile device, be it smart phone, tablet, or even thermostats, you are accessing a small piece of the Internet.

So how does this pertain to you?  It's simple.  You may have a presence on the web in some fashion but are you mobile friendly?  Is your website optimized for mobile usage?  Are you signed up with services that allow users to connect via their mobile devices?  Zillow, Trulia, and so many other services are utilized out and about and offer great mobility for their end user.  As a Realtor ® it is very important for people buying or selling a home to be able to see your product and reach out to you as their agent.

But what about you as the end user?  Aren't you a customer of the Internet also?  Of course you are!  You check your email constantly.  You post to social media and hopefully engage with your customers via the same means.  What about your listings?  Are they up-to-date?  Maybe your clients are running late for an open house and you've got some time to kill.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could do all of this from the comfort of wherever you are, and without that clunky desktop or laptop?  You can!  What's the old Apple saying?  "Theres an app for that."  Lucky for you and real estate, there's just about an app for everything.  If you're ever curious, head on over to the App Store (Apple) or Google Play (Android) to find out.  You might just surprise yourself at how much easier it is to work away from the office without having to bring the office with you.

Does Google Places for Business know you even exist?

According to Google,

97% of consumers search for local businesses online. Be there when they’re looking for you with a business listing - the easiest way to show up on Google Search and Maps.

Google Places for Business is a FREE resource for every business to use as a means of getting the word out about your existence.  Chances are, you already have a Google listing but is it correct?  Can it be improved?  It would be in your best interest to go Claim it as your own and verify that you are the owner.  It's a very simple process and it's up to you what you do with it after that.  Verify basic info like hours, payment type, parking, customer base, services, key words for SEO (Search Engine Optimization Ranking).  Add pictures, videos, company website link, oversee reviews, etc.  It's FREE and it's completely tied to Google.

http://www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/index.html

And yes, of course there is an App for that.  Android (Google Play).  Apple iOS (App Store) version is currently under re-development.