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The answer to: 'Why should I hire you?'

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, April 23, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heyjohngreen/2570368211/" target=blank>heyjohngreen</a>.

The other day I was trolling the Internet looking for ideas. I am still building some pages into my Web site and writing a value proposition. I need that magical page and those paragraphs that answer the all-important question: Why should I hire you?

I already have the virtual bus bench on my site that plainly states: "I am all that AND a bag of chips," but I don't think that is really a value proposition. The virtual bus bench started as a joke and then took on a life of its own. It became viral when one of my clients e-mailed it to 50 or 60 of her closest friends. more...

Making real estate portable

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, April 16, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/geishaboy500/3217701386/" target=blank>geishaboy500</a>.

My business is very portable. Last Friday, while I was in my car headed to a local coffee shop to write an offer for a buyer, I moved my business from Keller Williams, a national franchise with independently owned and operated offices all over the country, to a tiny boutique brokerage in my hometown.

As my new broker transferred my license, his tiny company grew by 33 percent with a couple of keystrokes and the $20 he had to pay the state. more...

Social media sites don't sell real estate

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, April 9, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/christajoy42/2048522252/sizes/o/">Photos o' Randomness</a>.

People need to know that social media sites don't sell real estate before they get overly excited and start setting up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, and open accounts on Flickr, join Twitter and start a blog.

None of those services sell real estate. It is really too bad because so many good agents are spending their time on the Internet these days. I can give examples of how all of these nifty Web 2.0 sites have failed me. Recently I had a prospective buyer -- we will call her "Mary" -- who had been lurking on my blog. She contacted me one day and told me that she really wants to buy a house. more...

The do-it-yourself real estate Web site

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, April 2, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/geishaboy500/100043823/"target=blank>geishaboy500</a>.

This week I got rid of my Realtor Web site. I have had the site for seven years. It gets some traffic but the origin of the traffic and business is my blog. I have been using the Web site as a kind of business card and it had some forms in it that potential clients could fill out, and they did.

It also had a page for my listings, and an Internet Data Exchange (IDX, an online data-sharing agreement among brokers) solution that I pay for separately. more...

Walls can talk

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, March 26, 2009.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tboard/3346592953/in/photostream/" target=blank>Copyright © 2009 Teresa Boardman</a>.

Houses speak to me and they always have.

They tell stories and reveal secrets. The basketball hoop on the garage says that children once played there. The tool bench says that the mister liked to fix things.

The ancient stove in the basement says that the same people lived in the home for a long time. more...

Feedback, tact and holding back

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, March 19, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pheezy/3177050973/" target=blank>pheezy</a>.

Feedback is always important to home sellers. They want to know what buyers think about their home. Is it priced right? Does it look nice? When I represent sellers I set them up so they get feedback from showings e-mailed directly to them as soon as it becomes available, and then I follow up once a week with a phone call to let them know what is going on in the local market and to discuss the showing feedback from that week.

Sellers want to know what I am doing and everything about the listing. Some agents give feedback and others don't. more...

The constant job-seekers

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, March 12, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.lumaxart.com" target=blank>lumaxart.com</a>.

It seems like everywhere I look there are social media experts, trainers, coaches and classes. It will amaze some to learn that I can even find these people outside of the real estate industry.

I belong to a local social media networking group that seems to be composed of marketing consultants, social media experts, the mainstream news media, the new news media, and people like me who are small-business owners. more...

What would Starbucks do?

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, March 5, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/ayk/3148024/" target=blank>yajico</a>.

A couple of days ago Starbucks announced a new deal: coffee and breakfast for under $4. On the newscast I watched a company official state that the new breakfast deal is designed to stimulate sales and give consumers something affordable.

Starbucks gets the recession. In the real estate industry we have an ongoing discussion about compensation. Honestly, I don't think the consumer is nearly as interested in how much we make as they are in their bottom line when they sell their home. more...

Presenting picture-perfect property photos

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, February 26, 2009.

HDR image by <a href="http://www.stpaulrealestateblog.com/.a/6a00d83451d6cf69e201116886a6f4970c-pi" target=blank>Teresa Boardman</a>.

I have more than a passing interest in photography. It is a serious hobby and a big part of my life. I take my own property shots, which is something I don't recommend for other agents unless they have more than a passing interest. Most of my clients have seen my work and they expect me to take the photos.

With my last two listings I thought I would try something different to really make the photos stand out. I used a process called high dynamic range, or HDR for short. The process involves combining three to five photos of the same scene with different light values into one photo. more...

Catching the copyright thieves

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, February 19, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/mattimattila/2660481273/" target=blank>Matti Mattila</a>.

Most adults and even children understand that it is wrong to steal. We don't take something that does not belong to us without asking permission or paying for it.

Plagiarism is theft. I find it amazing that so many real estate professionals steal. We are supposed to be held to a higher standard. Entire articles from this site are lifted and posted on blogs. The blogger usually gives attribution and links back to this site, but it is still plagiarism because so many words have been copied that they make up the majority of the post. more...

The shrinking real estate pie

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, February 12, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/2587147000/" target=blank>net_efekt</a>.

We like to fix things, but I think it is important to find out what is broken before we go about the process of fixing it. Are we trying to fix something that is unsustainable or should we be building a new real estate industry?

In my town a large Ford plant will be closing soon. The factory builds large Ford trucks and nothing else. Demand for the trucks dropped and remains at an all-time low. more...

No replacement for face time

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, February 5, 2009.

I offer my buyers a service that is kind of old-fashioned. I present all offers on homes in person. The agents in my market who know me expect it; the agents I have never worked with are caught off guard by it. The new agents don't know how to respond so I have to explain the process.

The way it works is that I meet with the listing agent and the sellers and go over the offer. more...

Beating the foreclosure scam artists

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, January 29, 2009.

Real estate professionals are not always trusted and respected by consumers. We are salespeople and it seems like we have to work extra hard with some consumers to establish trust.

The current economic crisis has given us an opportunity to establish trust with consumers, who have a huge need for education. I can read the terms they use in the search engines to find my Web sites. more...

When blogging goes too far

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, January 22, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/albyspace/528457456/" target=blank>AlbySpace</a>.

I talk to and interact with real estate bloggers from all over the country. Lately it has occurred to me that some people go too far with blogging. I don't mean posting every day -- I do that, and that is one of the things that makes my blog work. What I mean by "too far" is that some spend four to six hours a day in blog-related activities.

For some it takes hours to write a single post. Some spend much of their time doing research about blogging and interacting with other bloggers. more...

Keep safety first in real estate work

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, January 15, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/afroboof/2051550716/" target=blank>afroboof</a>.

The Internet is an interesting place. We can be anyone we want to be, and so can the people we meet online.

About a year ago I met with a prospective buyer who found me on the Internet and he turned out to be more than a little scary. He wasn't at all interested in buying real estate. He wanted to meet me because of something that he found on the Internet about me.

We met in a coffee shop where I often meet with clients and write contracts. more...

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