Internet Resources are My Friend

Well as much as I have resisted the idea of drip e-mails and other technology in my real estate practice, I must admit that (when used effectively) this stuff works! Here are some cool things I have discovered lately.

First of all, drip e-mails have been a tool that I just never used before. There are a number of things you can send via drip e-mail but I think the best is to have listings sent either from the MLS (if that option is available to you) or from your web site (especially you RE/MAX Northwest people!). For the last couple of weeks, I have been setting people up on automatic e-mails - even sellers. They like to see what's happening in their neighborhood too - especially when their home is on the market. I also signed up buyers who said they didn't think they wanted to move until next spring - why not? Well, today one of those buyers called and said she would really like to see a couple of homes that I sent her and she would now be willing to move in the next couple of months.

A second buyer also e-mailed me in response to a drip e-mail and has scheduled a showing for this weekend. So without lifting a finger other than to set up the auto search, two buyers have called to schedule showing appointments. They're happy with the ease of information and I am able to do a better job for them without putting any tasks on my "to do list" and hovering over the MLS to see the latest listings.

Secondly, I have finally gotten off the dime and started using postlets.com. My former Tech Crutch - Ryan Fast - introduced me to postlets in one of his classes many months ago - maybe even a year ago now. I wrote the information down at the time with every intention to race out and use it! Did I? Heck no! Well, after the conversation with my Broker last Friday I decided it was time to pull out all the stops and get to work on craigslist and other vehicles for advertising. Darn Internet - can't seem to avoid it no matter what. But www.Postlets.com was actually a lot of fun and my ads looked so cute! I found myself giggling and playing with the color schemes and all kinds of great things. It's really worth checking out. Makes your craigslist ads very professional and saves them so you don't have to re-create them in order to re-post. Also, it sends out your ads to trulia.com, googlebase and lots and lots of others too - all for free. You can't beat that. And talk about a great tool to let your sellers know what you are doing for them EVERY WEEK! Postlets will do a lot of work for you in very little time. Here is a link to one of my ads for today: http://www.postlets.com/res/1450637

Third, for those of us who are RE/MAX agents, you gotta check out LeadStreet for your contact management, drip campaigns and more. When you really get to know the power of LeadStreet, you might be amazed. Even better, they have come out with a new tool called LeadStreet Accelerator! It creates a personal web site that is fully tied into RE/MAX.com and it makes you a featured agent on RE/MAX.com - kind of like Realtor.com when you pay lots and lots of money - except that LeadStreet accelerator is only a little money. You also get a super slick tool called "Home Sale Alert" that is an auto-generated e-mail to everyone in your database that sends them the last 5 most recent sales closest to them in their neighborhood every month in a very professional looking format. Great for current, past or future clients. There are some other cool tools as well. If you are interested in it, I am happy to e-mail you some information that I received from them. I signed up today! My web site will be up on Tuesday.

Lastly, don't ever forget the power of staying in touch with your database. My business partner just prepared a "Real Estate Special Report" that we e-mailed out to his database today. He is now following up with phone calls to touch base with people directly - oh and writing notes afterward! :-) Staying in touch with your clients and offering them answers to the questions that they may be contemplating in these unique economic times is of great benefit to them and will position you as the resource for their real estate needs of all kinds. That's what we want to be right? He is getting very favorable feedback already.

So who would've thought that Internet resources would be my friend in business. Not I! If you have any other great tools that you use, please post a comment. Have a great day!