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Office space and the 'floor time' continuum

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, September 24, 2008.

In some real estate offices they have "floor time": Agents sit in the office and answer phone calls from consumers who want information about for-sale homes. I think floor time is a good idea, but it may need a few tweaks.

In the Twin Cities area the bigger brokerages have closed some of their offices and combined offices to cut costs. Most agents choose offices that are close to home, but with fewer offices to choose from some will have to go further. more...

Getting back to business basics

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, September 17, 2008.

It is true. The local real estate market here in the Twin Cities has changed the last two years, as it has changed in most markets nationwide.

There are a couple of ways to be successful in today's market. One way is to work harder, and the other is to work smarter. Most of us are working harder. Buyers look at more homes before choosing one, and listings stay on the market longer and require more effort to market. more...

Staying local on the Web

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, September 10, 2008.

There are some big Web sites that consumers can use to search for homes or read blog posts written by real estate agents. They can ask questions, rate answers, rate agents, find property values and get information about specific neighborhoods.

There is a lot of user-generated content on the sites generated and donated by agents across the county who believe that the content will result in business for them. more...

Realtors not immune to foreclosure

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, September 3, 2008.

It seems that some consumers believe Realtors created the current housing mess by selling too many homes.

It isn't quite that simple, but they state that we sold too many homes for too high a price and now the buyers are stuck with homes that they can't pay for and that are declining in value. more...

Real estate leads: a long-tail tale

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, August 27, 2008.

The spam and the phone calls just keep coming from those companies that promise to put my blog on page one of Google. I am on page one, and in the number one positions for the keywords that they are trying to sell me, and it isn't as wonderful as it sounds. It makes me look smart but doesn't pay the bills. more...

Humor and other real estate superpowers

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, August 20, 2008.

Recently, I have been reading some articles written mainly by people who provide coaching to the real estate industry about the types of skills that are needed to succeed as a Realtor.

Some of the skills are soft skills like communication and negotiation. Everyone seems to agree that technical skills are a must-have and that it helps to know how to write. Some are hard skills like money management and understanding numbers. more...

Play to your strengths in slow market

By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, August 14, 2008.

A few weeks ago I was at the zoo with my nephew. He is 13, and like most 13-year-olds he still knows things that the rest of us have forgotten but at the same time he doesn't have enough experience at life to know much.

He was watching me take pictures and asking questions. I explained to him what the pictures would be used for and why I love to take them. He told me what a shame it is that I didn't get "good" at photography earlier in life. more...

The 'unbelievable' business of real estate

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, August 6, 2008.

People who are in sales are taught to be positive at all times. There is a car salesperson at the local dealership who is always positive. When asked how things are going he will say, "Great!" or "Fantastic!" If asked some specific questions, like, "Did you sell any cars this weekend?" he will give an honest answer. If car sales are up -- or down -- for the month, he will recite the numbers. I like dealing with him, and enjoy talking to him, and I trust him. I have just learned not to ask how things are going, because the answer will always be the same: "Great!" or "Fantastic!" more...

Social networks: Think outside the real estate box

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, July 30, 2008.

There was a lot of information about social networking at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference last week. Many of us who attended the conference participate in online social networks. Several speakers mentioned LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as must-haves for real estate pros.

What I find interesting about social networking among real estate pros is that there seems to be a lot of connecting with other real estate pros. There is a whole world outside of the real estate industry. I have found some of it by using TwitterLocal. With TwitterLocal I can put in my ZIP code and connect with twitter users located within a 1-to-20-mile radius. So far none that I have met are Realtors. more...

Marketing homes is all about images

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, July 23, 2008.

Being a tech-savvy, kind-of-geeky real estate agent, people seem surprised that I am not using video for property marketing or for marketing my services. There is some video on my Web sites but not very much. I prefer to use photographs for online marketing. more...

Consumers don't want to be 'captured'

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, July 16, 2008.

There are plenty of Web sites out there that have free home searches on them. Some of the sites mention "free" more than once. I have been doing some research, and I am not finding any sites where I am expected to pay money to search for homes. I wonder why so many sites use the words "free home search." Is it someone's idea of transparency? more...

My get-rich-quick scheme

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, July 9, 2008.

This is going to sound like a blatant advertisement for the Inman Real Estate Connect conference, and maybe it is but they did not ask me to write it. People who understand me know that it isn't all that easy to get me to do anything, but I digress.

There is a hidden benefit to attending Inman's Bloggers Connect and Real Estate Connect conferences that they don't advertise and I want everyone to know about. more...

A good time to buy? It depends

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

It is hard to imagine or understand, but not everyone trusts real estate agents or Realtors. According to a Harris poll, 20 percent don't trust us at all and only 7 percent trust us completely.

As an industry we shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to being trustworthy. Examples include the press releases and other information from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR is a huge trade association and exists to promote our industry. As such, NAR likes to put a positive spin on buying real estate. more...

Where's the 'wow'?

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, June 25, 2008.

My e-mail is filled with spam from vendors trying to sell me products or services for my real estate business that will make me rich. They often include testimonials from agents who use the product or service and are now rich.

The real estate companies are almost as bad. The notes come through about the training classes, often on how to use a product or service that will make us rich yet I don't see my peers taking the classes and becoming rich. The agents who were successful before they took the classes are still successful, and the agents who were not doing so well don't suddenly become superstars. more...

Consider the Internet an ally

By Teresa Boardman, Wednesday, June 18, 2008.

Last week I took a mandatory continuing education class. The instructor said something that I used to hear all the time. He was gloating over the fact that even though Minnesota consumers now have access to information about homes that were sold in the last two years, they do not have all of the information about the homes that Realtors have.

Our multiple listing service now provides listings of sold homes, and consumers can search for them on our Web sites using the same search that they use to find homes for sale. They can now see how much the home down the street sold for. more...

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