Digital Basics Every Luxury Real Estate Agent Needs to Master & more

In this week’s real estate sales and technology news we look at the 4 Characteristics that Put the “Luxury in Today’s Luxury Real Estate Market, 55 Business Sites to Maximize Your Online Referrals, Digital Basics Every Real Estate Agent Needs to Master, 4 Technology Fails that will Kill Your Business & How To Prevent Them.

4 Characteristics that Put the “Luxury” in Today’s Luxury Real Estate Market

Photo by Chris Cloete

Business Day Online has just posted an article identifying the top characteristics of “luxury” in the luxury real estate market. Some may seem obvious while others were surprising. In the world of luxury real estate, great curb appeal is just one of many buyer requirements. Builders of today’s luxury homes are tasked with making works of art that also cater to future homeowners’ lifestyles.

Luxury is lifestyle: Strategies taken by luxury real estate professionals, like creating customized spaces with a bit of fantasy in mind, reveal how homeowners are looking for a story to share with every visitor who walks in the door. Luxury is smaller: Nick Segal, president of Los Angeles brokerage Partners Trust says, we’re seeing a move toward “de-mansionization” in the luxury market. “Vertical is the answer when you don’t have suitable lots to sprawl,” Segal said. Instead of less house, today’s high-end homes have more floors and less yard.

Luxury is local: What sells in one market isn’t necessarily considered luxury in another. “In Los Angeles, it’s all about the indoor-outdoor flow,” Segal said. “In the Northeast, I imagine they want covered, enclosed spaces that bring the outdoors in but shield you from the humidity etc.”Luxury is smarter: Across markets, there’s an increasing demand for smarter amenities. Temperature-controlled wine cellars, motion detectors, variable-speed air conditioning, car lifts and a Crestron home automation system. “You can check out the whole environment of your home from an iPad now,” said Segal.

55 Business Listing Sites to Maximize Your Online Referrals

BiggerPockets.com has been posting throughout the last month, a series about building an online presence in Real Estate. Some of their previous articles include: “How to Build a Powerful Online Presence without Paying for Ads” and “Why Online Marketing is a MUST for All Real Estate Investors”. In addition to these informative articles, Bigger Pockets has just posted a comprehensive list for 55 business listing sites to help any luxury real estate agent looking to expand their online presence. Creating a presence on profile sites is an absolute necessity. Profile sites can include: Facebook Pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and any other social media site that allows you to set up a profile.

But have you considered Citation Sites? Citation sites encompass sites such as Yelp, Manta, Yellow Pages, Google Pages etc. These sites are directly centered around businesses. Their overall goal is to put your business name online, coupled with tons of information about your business, so that people can learn more about you. Adding these sites to your online presence building toolbox can immensely help your Google ranking.

In their article, Bigger Pockets includes a great breakdown of costs comparing Online Presence to Traditional Advertising & it’s ROI for a real estate professional. They also provide a detailed formula for information to post and a game plan for setting up these profiles over the next 30 days. And last but not least, they painstakingly provided 55 FREE pages to list your business. Start building your online presence today and read more at Bigger Pockets here.

Digital Basics Every Real Estate Agent Needs to Master

As part of Homefinder.com’s Agent Makeover Sweepstakes, keynote speaker Chris Smith co-founder of Curaytor shares, in the video above, the most important steps that real estate agents need to take when building their digital brand. This video includes some of the basics but also great tips on email marketing for luxury real estate agents as well. Read more at Homefinder.com. Also as part of Homefinder’s Sweepstakes, check out their expert video series including the “Top Three Ways to Revitalize Your Real Estate Business.”

4 Technology Fails That Will Kill Your Business & How to Prevent Them

Inman just posted a great article about our reliance on iPhone calendars, free email and file storage. It details the ways all these “technological advances” can go wrong and how to prevent that in the future. Some of the software examples used include iCalendar, GoToWebinar, Dropbox and Skype. Some of the tips include creating a regular backup plan to all of your apps and devices especially your calendar on both the cloud and an external drive. You can also always screenshot whatever calendar or important information and transfer it to Evernote as a secondary solution. Read more suggestions on Calendars, VoIP, Dual Email Systems and Digital Documents here.

Clearview’s Tech Tip: Infogr.am

Along with Clearview, Tech Savvy Agent agrees that Infogr.am, a data visualization product, brings out the best in your data allowing anyone to create infographics and charts that are quick to use, fast to share and easy on the eye. Top producing real estate professionals are already leveraging this data visualization product to improve engagement with their clients and potential clients. Tristan Ahumada, a very productive realtor in Southern California uses infogr.am’s free option to distribute information to his customer database on how the real estate market is performing locally. Here is an example. To learn what is included with the free version and find out what is included with the 2 paid options, go to this link.

The free version does provide plenty of options to create “Infographics” that would blow away a typed out (black and white) communication. To learn more visit: www.infogr.am.

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