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!