For many of us in the real estate industry, this past year has been a difficult one, with stagnating housing markets and economic ups and downs. You’ve likely had to overcome many challenges this year, and are feeling grateful for having either survived or thrived in an otherwise gloomy climate. If you’re like me, you’re not only thankful for your success, but you’re now wondering how you can help those in need in your community.

As a realtor, there are many things you can do to have a positive impact on your community. You can participate in organized events such as charity golf tournaments, marathons, or fundraiser dinners. You can even start your own event like Linda Covino did in Medford, Massachusetts. She started an annual Dancing with the Realtors competition, based on the popular TV show, “Dancing with the Stars.” Dancing with the Realtors has turned out to be an entertaining and successful event that in 2007, raised over $20,000 for Habitat for Humanity. Read the rest of this entry »

Lifehacker today has a great story for Realtors although it is really pointed towards home buyers and sellers.

The article describes 10 tools, including Zillow of course, that help people get through the buying and selling of reale estate.

Here in Canada we have been looking forward to a big change in the way that the Canadian MLS site was going to be presenting listings. The changes are now live.

So what kinds of changes would be ground breaking to you? Here in Canada the MLS is now mapped with Microsoft Virtual Earth and you can now very quickly see listings on a map with a pop up pic with basic info on the property. For those that just want to see a list of properties available on the map will see a sidebar on the right with all of the listing in the window.

I am sure that we will see changes soon at the realtor.com site but at this point the Canada site is so much better than anything else that I have seen that it is hard to compare.

What do you guys think? Have you checked out the Canadian MLS site? How do you like it?

I have been talking for the last couple of years about how important and useful blogging can be for a Realtor. I am looking at going to Blog world Expo and see that there is a special day that has been set aside called ”

The Real Estate and Mortgage Conference at Blog World and New Media Expo

They really need to get a better name. Anyway this trade show There will be a seminar, booths and training, here is what they say

A full day of seminars, panels & workshops focused on the nuts & bolts of leveraging social media tools like blogs to enhance the marketing efforts of real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and anyone working within the field of real estate.

This event is taking place in Las Vegas on September 19 with the rest of the Blog World Expo taking place on September 20th and 21.

Here is a page that will tell you the top 5 reasons to go to the Realtor Blog World Expo as well as more info about it

As an avid bike rider I love to ride to work and just found an article in the Sarasota Herald that reminds me that there is one old but now incredibly important factor to think about when it comes to working with buyers and that is the bike commute for fitness fanatics and green consumers

But that does not really mean you should hop on the bike to do showings…just be aware.

With gas prices high, bicycles flying out of stores and a buyers’ market for houses, a handful of real estate agents around the country are touting the two-wheeled appeal of their listings.

Some even show houses exclusively by bike, wheeling through the neighborhood with potential buyers to show off bike lanes and bike-focused businesses and repair shops. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago, a year ago actually, I finished up my Realtor Internet Marketing Book and put it up for sale. Now times are changing of course but I as I was looking a couple of days ago I realized that the book that I had all but forgotten is still very relevant, so I have decided to start to give it away to the subscribers of my newsletter.

I have spent the last couple of days making some changes to the book, updating some info and now I believe that it is all complete. If you would like a copy of the book all you need to do is visit the Realtor Marketing book website at www.realtormarketingbook.com.

Have you forgotten what was in the book? I was reminded as well and now that I have looked more closely I realize that I should have probably broken it up in more pieces at the outset, Here are the Realtor Marketing Book chapters

Finding your target market online - You need to focus even more online to find your market then you do offline

Search engine Optimization - Get more people to your site by making sure that the search engines, including Google, know what you page is about

Blogs - Blogs, if done right, are a great way to get people to know your and get more visitors

Websites - It is time to get your website to work for you instead of just look good.

Social Networking - Social Networking is a new and exciting way of getting the word out about your site.

Autoresponders - If someone is interested in buying or selling, then you want to build the know, like, and trust that will keep them with you. That is what an autoresponder can do for you.

Promotion - There are some great ways to promote your internet presence. Lots of people want you to spend lots of money but there are many inexpensive or even FREE ways to promote yourself online.

Newsletters - Do you have a newsletter? Do you wonder why you would need an online newsletter.

Everything that I wrote I wrote from the angle of an internet marketer instead of just from my Realtor background so although you will recognize some of the terminology a lot of it may be a a bit foreign to you…this is of course fine.

Go to the Realtor Internet Marketing Book website and get the book now.