Thoughts on Real Estate Marketing…

The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 is set to expire on December 31.

That means that if your clients short sell or go into foreclosure on or after January 1, 2013, they will be liable for Federal Income Tax on all the equity they lost in the housing crash.

It’s not bad enough to lose the home – they get to owe the Feds on top of it.

Congress could extend the Act – but so far there hasn’t been any talk of it in the news.

So do warn your potential clients – the time to list as a short sale is right now. We all know that even after a buyer is found, short sales take longer to close, so there really is no time to waste.

That’s why I wrote a letter and added it to my short sale letter set – and why I’m offering it to you, free of charge.

Click the button, enter your address, and the letter will be on it’s way to you in moments.

My special Mother’s Day treat came a day early – and I almost missed it!

When my husband suggested that I go fishing with our son Chad this week-end I almost said no. It had been cold and windy all week and I didn’t relish the idea of sitting in a boat freezing for a few hours.

But… I said yes, and the gods smiled on us. The weather was warm, the breeze was light, the fish were biting, and we had a perfect day.

The day was beautiful, the scenery was exceptional, the fishing was fun, and the best part was just floating around, being with my son all day. He’s one of my favorite people in the universe.

To top off the day, last night my other son called for a nice long visit.

When I think of the moms who don’t see or even hear from their kids for weeks or months at a time, I’m so grateful that mine stay close.

I’m a very lucky mom.

And now… I’m headed out to the garden, to dig in the dirt and put seeds in the ground.

I hope you’re having just as much fun as I will!

My special Mother’s Day treat came a day early – and I almost missed it!

When my husband suggested that I go fishing with our son Chad this week-end I almost said no. It had been cold and windy all week and I didn’t relish the idea of sitting in a boat freezing for a few hours.

But… I said yes, and the gods smiled on us. The weather was warm, the breeze was light, the fish were biting, and we had a perfect day.

The lake we visited is on private land, owned by the Poirier family – one of the founding families of the town of Blanchard, Idaho. To get there, you first stop at the house and “sign in.” I was amazed to see the Poirier Museum… I didn’t know it existed. Someday I’ll go back and ask for a tour. Then as we drove past the outbuildings, I was further amazed to see ancient tractors and farm equipment. Someone was working on one of the tractors in an open shed – so I’m thinking they’re still in use.

“The Pickers” on TV would go crazy if you turned them loose here!

After passing the house, we headed into the woods. Fortunately, my son knew where he was going, because there were at least a dozen opportunities to take a wrong turn before reaching the lake.

But oh was it worth it!

When we first arrived, hundreds of geese were “talking,” setting up quite a racket.

In one case, it appeared that “a couple of the guys” were fighting over a girl. When one was triumphant and floated off with his prize, the other went in an opposite direction. And all the while “Mr. Triumphant” was honking his victory to the world.

The first hour or so on the water was pretty quiet, as we trolled down to the other end of this small lake. Then my son caught the first two fish and started to worry. “What if Mom doesn’t catch any?”

I told him to quit worrying. I was out of practice because it had been 2 or 3 years since I’d gone fishing. (Except for that trip to Spirit Lake a few weeks ago when we did freeze and didn’t even get a bite!)

He needent have worried. Before long I was catching almost as many as he did.

We threw back the small ones and lost plenty that got off the hook before they got into the boat – but still came home with enough to keep my husband in fish for breakfast for a long while.

The day was beautiful, the scenery was exceptional, the fishing was fun, and the best part was just floating around, being with my son all day. He’s one of my favorite people in the universe.

To top off the day, last night my other son called for a nice long visit.

When I think of the moms who don’t see or even hear from their kids for weeks or months at a time, I’m so grateful that mine stay close.

I’m a very lucky mom.

This week I’ve been thinking about “Coming late to the party.”

Our county and state election primary is next Tuesday and this week our mailbox has been filled with “Vote for me” ads – but a whole lot of people have already voted absentee, so those ads are simply wasted paper, ink, and postage.

It’s sad, because our news coverage here is such that I’d never even heard of a few names on that ballot. If I’d known something about those people, I might have voted for them.

But maybe not – most of the ads don’t say much beyond “I’m wonderful, pick me.” But you never know. A few did state their position on one or two issues.

What does my tale of  ” too late” political advertising have to do with real estate?

It’s just a reminder… Don’t come late to the party!

Don’t procrastinate about contacting that FSBO or Expired listing or any kind of  lead. Do it as soon as you’re aware of it.

Otherwise, those prospects may “vote” for someone else before they even know you exist.

For good ideas on how to get there first, read my weekly real estate marketing ezine for May 9.

And if you don’t know what to do to follow up after you’ve made first contact, go to my prospecting letter page and follow the links to FSBO letters, Expired Listing letters, and any of the niche letters. Read the descriptions and gather ideas – or just get the sets you need and save time by using the words I’ve already written.

Image courtesy of Dreamstine.

Do you dream about your work? I do. And this morning I woke up dreaming that I was writing a blog post about potatoes.

To back up a minute, last night I had a conversation with my husband and neighbor about planting potatoes. I said it was worth it to avoid the chemicals in commercial potatoes, AND that the grocery store potatoes were in such terrible shape that you only get 5 pounds of peeled potatoes from a ten pound sack. They’ve got cuts, rotten spots, etc.

In this dream, I was thinking about the keywords for the post and writing things about potatoes. Then suddenly I thought “What am I doing?” This post isn’t about potatoes!

No, what it was about was customer satisfaction, customer service, and delivering what you promise. It was about consumers being able to have some faith in the quality of the merchandise they buy. Maybe even about integrity in marketing, since those bags of awful potatoes are labeled “#1.” (I don’t want to think what #2 or #3 look like.)

So, when you write a blog post (or any other content) stop and think about the “core idea” of your message.

For instance: You may be writing about a celebration coming up in your community, but what you’re really writing about is the fact that your community is a good place to live. Here you’ll find good things to do, involved citizens, etc.

Whatever your core idea, be sure to include it in your copy – and in your keywords.

Image courtesy of Dreamstine.

Wow! Some folks are really good at dumb marketing mistakes.

My inbox just presented me with a startling subject line: “Watch this video or unsubscribe from my list.”

Since I always try to be obliging, I immediately unsubscribed from his list.

That really worked well, don’t you think?

Today I received a message for my husband from the Veteran’s Administration. For weeks they’ve been sending messages demanding that he sign up for “secure messaging” so last week I finally did it.

Today’s message was a reply to the test message. I knew what it would be, but thought that “just in case” it was important, I’d better check into it.

First, the email said he had a secure message, so needed to click and go to myhealth.va and access secure messaging.

OK, got there. I don’t see anything that says secure messaging, so I’ll sign in. That’s another click.

Now, I’m in. So where is it? Hunting around, I found a little button at the top. We’ll go there now.

Oh good. It says there’s a message. But first I have to click again to see it.

I did it because it was from the VA and might have been important. (It wasn’t.) But if that had been an advertiser wanting me to go see what he had to offer, I’d have been gone after the 2nd click.

Think about that …

Although I prefer country living, with my nearest neighbor at least a quarter mile away, I do appreciate having good neighbors and knowing that we’re there for each other if need be.

And it might be fun to have someone around to do things with. But… I don’t know about sharing a garden, sharing guest bedrooms, sharing meals. This reminds me a little of communes, and makes me think of losing individuality.

For that reason, this seems a little much. What do you think of this Co-housing plan?

…or at least return messages in a timely fashion.

Reading this post by Active Rainer Stephen Strickhausen reminded me once again how so many agents destroy their own business prospects.

His story tells of a sale lost – and frustration. And he makes one very profound statement: “Signing up for a real estate career means sort of making your life more available than most.”

If you aren’t willing to do that, then you should choose a 9 to 5 job – NOT real estate sales.

While I don’t believe any agent should promise to be available 24 hours a day, agents do need to be available early, late, and on the week-ends. After all, those are the times when people with 9 to 5 jobs have available to look for or list a home. So if you won’t be available to return calls from say, 8 to 8, then have your calls forwarded to someone who will. You owe it to the buyers and sellers who are counting on you.

The fact is, real estate becomes a way of life. If you don’t want that way of life, then don’t choose it. But don’t let your buyers and sellers down by failing to return their calls and refusing to return calls to other agents. ‘

And please, don’t excuse negligence by saying “I have a life.”

Image Courtesy of Dreamstine.

A few minutes ago I received an email with the subject line: “Don’t ignore this.”

The message itself informed me that the sender had written me yesterday and I had not responded – so I had BETTER respond today.

As the old saying goes: “Three guesses about what I did, and the first two don’t count.”

I just can’t imagine what this person was thinking. That he could force me to care about whatever he wanted to promote?

The words “don’t ignore” could be properly used – as in don’t ignore the warning signs of something, But it has to be tied to a benefit to the reader – NOT a benefit to the marketer!

And perhaps this person did have something to offer that was a benefit. But he didn’t take the time to explain that. He’s one of those who sends such brief emails that you never have much of an idea what it’s about – the only thing that comes through is he wants your money.

The bottom line – before you use a subject line, stop and think about how YOU would feel if you saw it in your own in-box. Would you open and read, or simply delete?