If Apple Created a Mortgage Calculator…

Let’s face it, most of the mortgage calculators you find on real estate Websites are bland, utilitarian at best and offer little real insight about any particular loan.  Not being content with the status qou and having this personality defect that insists everything on a site should have a purpose and reflect professionalism, I scoured the Internet looking for the perfect loan tool, and found it.

Since a demonstration is worth a thousand screen shots, here’s a live example of it below (watch what happens when you hit “calculate” and then put your mouse over the results):

Where to Get It

You can find the code for this calculator, instructions for customizing and inserting it into your site by going to http://www.mortgagecalculatorplus.com/order.php.  Just be sure to only pay attention to the top part of the page (ignore the part about getting a rate quote widget towards the bottom).  And remember, this tool is completely free to use and generates no advertising on your site whatsoever.  Who says that elegance has to cost a lot?  Now if we could just get a new iPhone for $1.50…

DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them.  RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein.  If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.

In today’s crazy and increasingly uncertain world we have very little direct control over our circumstances.  But we have absolute control over our attitude about them.  Which do you think is the most empowering: constant worry and frustration, or being optimistic that your actions and circumstances will eventually prevail?  After all, most of our fears never materialize so think about all that wasted energy worrying about them (and frankly, worry never fixes anything).

An optimistic outlook is one where the glass is always half full and filling rapidly.  Sure there will be disappointments, but “disappointment” is just a feeling, it has no real power to hurt you unless you give in to it.  I still remember my Mom’s best intentions in telling me: “Don’t get your hopes up, otherwise you’ll be disappointed!” Now there’s a sure-fire formula for a life of mediocrity and a dulled sense of living…

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”.

Helen Keller

Can you imagine Helen Keller saying “Don’t get your hopes up.”  Sorry, moms aren’t always right and optimism, even in the toughest of times, will serve you better than any of the alternatives.

Speaking of optimism, don’t forget to register for a very special free LIVE video keynote by Dr. Terry Paulson who just wrote “The Optimism Advantage”.  He is a world-class speaker (and past President of the National Speakers Association). Just CLICK HERE to register for this extraordinary live session on April 7th from 3:00pm – 4:00pm EDT.  I guarantee your glass will be overflowing by the time he finishes :0)

Small Steps to Solve Big Problems

In their new book: “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” authors Dan & Chip Heath explore how big problems don’t always require big solutions or worse, big changes in behavior.  Big problems can often be solved by leveraging just one simple, small change in behavior.  For example, real estate companies and their agents have been struggling with how to boost online lead conversion since the inception of the commercial Internet.  They often approach this with massive training programs and/or constantly introducing even more complicated strategies (like social networking) when agents haven’t even mastered the basics of speaking the language of online consumers.

If companies and agents would use just one thing consistently, they would see their online lead conversions soar.  That one thing is what I call the Critical First Response Email script.  This is an email script engineered to be used specifically as the first response to online inquiries.  I crafted this script and have been teaching it since the 1990’s and always receive email from incredulous agents who are astounded at how well it works.  Here’s one that I just received a few days ago:

Last week I had used the email lead response script that was provided in the course.  I had been going back and forth with the prospect and finally met to show her the rental property this week.  Very nice, professional gal and we hit off very well.

She thanked me profusely for my quick replies to her emails AND said, the first email I sent to her was the reason why she trusted me!!!  It was non-threatening and she felt I totally understood where she was coming from making an internet inquiry.  It was EXACTLY as you and Michael said!!!   Amazing…

RuthAnne Salvatore, REALTOR/Broker Associate
C.R.S. Certified Residential Specialist
ERA Goodfellow Homes
203.994.4860 (Mobile)

Just One Thing…

Remember the movie “City Slickers”?  Billy Crystal’s character asks “Curly” the trail boss (played with dead-eye aplomb by Jack Palance) “What’s the secret to life?”  And Curly responds by holding up his finger and says “Just one thing…”  Well, I don’t know about the secret to life, but I sure as hell know the secret to boosting online lead conversions and it’s just one thing —consistently using the Critical First Response Script for every initial inquiry that comes your way via the Net.

Here’s Where You Find It

If you’ve read this far then you deserve to have access to this incredibly powerful, yet simple tool.  Just go to www.FaceBook.com/OnlineDominance and click on the “Cool Tools” tab at the top (you will need to be a fan of Online Dominance to get access to this tab’s contents.)  You will be able to immediately download this script right from there.

Remember, big problems can often be solved by very small changes in behavior.  Here’s your chance to find out just how powerful this thinking really is…

If you were to make a list of all the problems affecting your life and business chances are that list would be long.  Yet, given the state of world affairs, it would pale beside the ones we are all likely to face in the near future.

The stark reality is that most of what happens to us, or is likely to happen to us is out of our direct control. Sure, there are things we all can do to mitigate the negative outcomes, but they won’t eliminate all or even most of them.

As a result, most people live in a state of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt).  They are either debilitated to the point of being paralyzed by it, or they engage in furious action thinking somehow they can thwart what they fear most.  While taking action is almost always better than doing nothing, there is still something missing here.  And that is, how we internalize and react to those things of which we have no control…

It’s not what happens to us that matters, it’s how we react to it.

W. Mitchell

The only thing we have control over really is how we react to something.  We have been given a gift that no other living being has, and that is the ability to choose.  We can choose how to react to outside circumstances in a way that empowers us rather than enslaves us, which effectively gives us a way to “bend” our own reality…

Is there something outside of you that’s troubling you? The distress you’re feeling is not from the thing itself. The distress you experience is from what you think of it and the way you feel about it. You can change that in an instant.

You can change what you fear into what you eagerly anticipate. You can change a burdensome problem into a magnificent opportunity.

Ralph Marston

So think about this the next time you see something as insurmountable or feel a sense of dread.  It just may be the best opportunity to come your way in a long, long time.

Animoto automatically produces unique video pieces from your photos, video clips and music. The lowest version of the software is free, so something worth trying out! It is available as an app for your iPhone, or to use online. When creating a video, you simply choose the song and images you want to use, and the program does the rest. This could be considered a good thing, no hassle, no updating each slide, but on the other hand you don’t have control over the slide transitions, etc. (On that note, this program really likes wacky slide transitions). View a sample real estate video here.

So, the one thing missing from this tool (at least the free version) is the control to edit the transitions, etc. Now, if you want to pay for it, you get a lot of additional features, including being unbranded and a call to action button (this version is $249/year) .

While, I’m not convinced this is the next huge tool for real estate agents, I do think it is pretty cool, and a low budget way to provide clients with tours/videos of their home.

I am convinced however, that this is where this industry is headed. I don’t think it will be long before the TourFactory.com’s and VisualTour.com’s have phone applications to make creating and posting a tour easier than ever.

If you don’t have time to worry about tours or videos, allow your Real Estate Virtual Assistant to put together a tour or video using the stills you take!

Carrie Gable of RealSupport, Inc. is our “VA Quick Tip” columnist offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, website and logo design, branding, lead generation, technical support, transaction management and more.

Contact Carrie
Visit us Online at RealSupportInc.com
Join Our LinkedIn Group
Become a Facebook Fan
Follow me on Twitter

The world of search results and relevancy is going more real-time (you can largely thank Twitter for that).  Since Google is all about providing relevant search results for a particular search, it is now striving to provide these real-time yet ephemeral results right at the top of the non-sponsored results of each search.  If you have an active Facebook Fan page focusing say on your primary neighborhoods, and fans are actively posting comments, then you are going to see more search engine traffic.  First to your Fan Page, then (by extension) to your site.  This also means that your Fan Page is likely to rank higher in the search results over all as a result.

For this to work in your favor however, two things need to be in place regarding your Facebook Fan page:

1. Its focus needs to be relevant – a Fan page is NOT about you (at least not if you want to succeed)!  For most real estate sales professionals this means it needs to be about your particular niche and/or neighborhoods you service.
2. Fans need to be active – this means you must keep the content fresh and worthy of comment.

I truly believe that appropriately maintained social media will be the new “Google Juice” for driving Web traffic and hence most online business.  Static content, even if comprehensive, is no longer enough.  So if you are not connecting with clients and prospects this way (i.e. via an active Facebook Fan page), now is a good time to start!
* Special thanks to Brad Carroll of Dakno Marketing for this tip :0)

Unfortunately “Ignorance is bliss” is the way far too many people live their lives or go about their business.  It’s easy to see why.  It’s a way to avoid the unpleasantness that is a part of our existence here on earth.  It’s also the way to avoid taking responsibility to make things better for ourselves and those around us.

Choosing the “bliss” of ignorance is choosing to be unconscious. It also means lost opportunity, failure to see real danger and often being the cause of it…

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Seeing things for what they really are is often not a fun experience.  It is necessary however if you want to thrive in a world that is changing at light speed.  The key is to not internalize what’s happening “out there”.  Observe it, make behavioral adjustments as needed and move on.  Reality becomes painful primarily when we turn it into a story about us rather than acknowledging that it is simply “what is”.  Easier said than done, I know —which is why so many people opt for the bliss of ignorance.  BTW, if ignorance was bliss, then why aren’t there more happy people?  Something to think about…

Many of these template websites used to look unprofessional and very cookie-cutter. Everyone had the same look to their website – one photo that stretches across the header with your team’s name in big letters plonked on top.

Very few people are willing to drop the money for a custom website design that can cost anywhere between $4,000 to $25,000. In comparison, spending $20/month on a basic template site becomes very tempting after seeing those prices.

Here is where your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can step in and save the day. Your VA can work “customization magic” with most template websites. Incorporating custom designed elements and graphics is key.  Wow that potential client when they are visiting your website for the first time.  Make them think that you’ve invested thousands in your website!  Examples of custom designed elements include a banner (header) and footer.  The header and footer should be designed using pictures or graphics that will appeal to your target market. Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can choose some effective stock photos to use or even better, take your own community photos and email them to your VA!

Don’t stop there, take your affordable website customization a step further.  Your VA can create eye-catching, appealing graphics for all of your Irresistible Offers (which you always want to showcase on your home page) to emphasize them even more.  When clicked on, the graphics for your  Irresistible Offers will lead directly to the page or form with pertinent information for requesting that specific offer.

The possibilities are endless!  You CAN have a website that you’re proud of!  Here are some examples of template websites (Point2 and RealPro) that we’ve added custom elements to:

Point2 Websites With Custom Enhancements:

Click to View	Click to View
Click to View	Click to View

RealPro Systems Websites With Custom Enhancements:

Click to View

Click to View

When it comes to content, most people are not using these sites to their full potential. They often come with great tools like drip campaigns, statistics and already written content.

That doesn’t mean that you should accept all the defaults that come with the template. In fact, this is something you want to avoid at all costs. Your content must be aimed at your target market!

Your Real Estate VA can customize/re-write/tweak the content just as much as they can customize the graphics. Most agents don’t have the time to do this themselves, which is why it so often slips through the cracks, leaving consumers un-impressed by the same old buyer and seller tips.

Your VA can easily slim down or beef up the stock content, re-name the pages, write SEO’d content tailored for your market and even add in all of your social networking links. Make the site more than a marketing gimmick. Make it a resource with community pages, dining suggestions, tax credit updates, loan tutorials – whatever appeals most to YOUR ideal client. The result is a site map that fits your target market’s needs and interests as well as a website that you can guarantee no one else has.

Carrie Gable of RealSupport, Inc. is our “VA Quick Tip” columnist offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, website and logo design, branding, lead generation, technical support, transaction management and more.

Contact Carrie
Visit us Online at RealSupportInc.com
Join Our LinkedIn Group
Become a Facebook Fan
Follow me on Twitter

As Simple As 1-2-3

LogoTournament is one of the coolest online services I’ve seen in a long while.  It essentially allows you to create a contest for money (minimum prize is $250) to see who can create the logo that best fits the design, look and feel you want to capture.  And it couldn’t be easier as there are only three steps:

1. Fill out a logo questionnaire and set the prize amount – this is where you briefly describe your company and the style of logo you want by moving 12 different style sliders to help you describe precisely the look and feel of your company or service branding;
2. Designers submit their logo ideas – almost immediately, talented designers from around the world will start submitting finished logo ideas.  You can also provide additional feedback to further tweak the ones you feel are the closest to what you are looking for;
3. Select a winner and download your logo file – payment is made via Paypal or credit card.

Melinda Estridge is one of my ULTRA eTEAM members and a mega-producer with very discriminating design tastes.  She needed a logo for her new targeted Chevy Chase Living Website and was thrilled with the final design she received and how quickly and painlessly the process was completed.

LogoTournament is a form of “crowdsourcing” at its highest level.  As I’ve said for over 15 years, there is an incredible (and growing) pool of talent available to all of us for very reasonable prices and the Internet is our gateway to those resources.  If you are not using them, some of your competitors most assuredly are…

The Kindle Killer

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my Kindle –it has changed the way I read books forever.  However it was only a matter of time before someone developed an innovative new “passive” screen technology that blows the doors off Kindle’s E-ink nearly static gray-scale screen.  Qualcomm appears to be that company as they plan to launch their Mirasol e-Reader in this coming Fall.

It incorporates a revolutionary new screen technology that uses ambient light to reflect a full range of colors using the same principles that nature uses to produce breath-taking colors in a butterfly’s wings.  Because it uses no backlight to illuminate the screen it uses very little energy.  In fact, Qualcomm claims that it will use even less than Amazon’s Kindle.  In addition, this screen will show full motion video as well.  Check out the YouTube demo below…

Now imagine having your For Sale signs incorporate this kind of screen (powered by a single solar cell).  The only problem is you’d have to post an armed guard just to prevent people from stealing them :0)

Minority Report Minus Tom Cruise

Remember those cool virtual screens with floating images that Tom Cruise manipulated with special gloves?  It was all Hollywood smoke and mirrors back then.  However, the MIT professor the producers hired to come up with a futuristic computer interface for the movie has started a company called Oblong that went ahead and actually created this way of working with computers.  And they gave it a really consumer friendly name: g-Speak Spatial Operating Environment –now there’s a mouthful!  The following video can do a much better job of explaining what this is and how it works.

Some Fortune 500 companies are already using this technology and eventually it will find its way to you and me.  When it does, virtual tours will never be the same!

A Power Plant In Every Garage

If you happened to watch the 60 Minutes show this evening (2/21/10) then you witnessed what could end up being the birth of a whole new energy renaissance.  It highlighted the work of a Silicon Valley company called Bloom Energy that has figured a way to make inexpensive and compact fuel cells that work using most fossil fuels (like natural gas). During the interview, the founder of the company estimated that homeowners could have one of their fuel-cell systems installed to replace the grid for about $3,000.  That’s a whole lot less than solar and it works 24/7, day and night, rain or shine.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I got excited when “Cold Fusion” was announced in the ’80’s.  This time it’s different.  First of all, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr is behind it with about $400,000,000 in venture capital (not exactly chump change even by Silicon Valley standards).  And major companies like Google, eBay, Wall Mart, etc. have been using these systems for months to inexpensively power their operations.  Bloom Energy is planning a major unveiling of this technology to the general public this coming Wednesday (2/24/10).  This is something I wouldn’t miss.  Talk about a green-jobs boost to the economy!  This could be one of those innovations that is a game changer and help us out of the current recession.  Let’s hope anyway…