 I'll be on the Monday Morning Radio Show 11/5/12 when Keith Robinson (VP of Better Homes & Gardens) will interview me about how the heck I brand myself, how you can too & more importantly why that matters in real estate! Should be fun (It's always fun talking about myself! giggle)
Title: “Cementing Your Brand in a Web 2.0 World” Date: Monday, November 5, 2012 Times: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST Reserve your seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/256281410 Hunky Aussie Realtor Peddles His Listing In Nothing but a Speedo & a Mic! I'll Take it...& Him!9/30/2012 Upbeat sexy Australian (that's redundant!) realtor Kieren Gray frolics around his property he is selling. Bright, attractive & well-built...and the house ain't 1/2 bad either! LOL. The choice of speedo is questionable but he's young & cute so he is exonerated. I tried this strategy once, and a letch at the open house asked me "Is the house for sale? Or you?" I retorted, "Both! But you can't afford me!" 
 After blogging about her and talking about her on radio, you'd think I'd be sick of Elle. But no, I'm her biggest fan! My Huffington Post article finally came out today about Elle, the "scorned" Oregon woman selling her house after her hubby ditched her for a 22 year old yoga gal. It's a lesson us real estate professionals need to learn! Read Truth in advertising...It works! Peace out!
The rich lady who owns this $35M mansion in Malibu went all out to get her listing noticed! She hired a Hollywood crew to produce this gorgeous movie trailer...but will it sell her house? The video apparently is being only sent to specific potential buyers on gift-wrapped ipads! Wow! I'd love to be on that shortlist. Make Easy Business Cards -- powered by ehow  LA Times reports: "The Los Angeles Police Department is warning real estate agents not to use images of properties taken from unmanned aircraft" Is there anything a realtor won't do to showcase a listing!? LOL. Look, aerial shots are great, but the Federal Aviation rules are there for a reason. No aerial shot is worth endangering the friendly skies!
Here are some (hopefully legally obtained) aerial shots of our fav celebs like Mariah, Streisand, & Britney Real phone conversation with clueless listing agent
Herman: Hi, I'm calling about listing on *&^@& St. Is there anything wrong with the property? Agent: It's gorgeous! Herman: How come there are no photos? Agent: Didn't you read the pretty description I wrote? Herman: (rolls eyes) Um, a picture is worth a 1000 words. I feel so sorry for his clients! People are visual creatures. If your house is for sale, make sure you have TONS of pics. It's like online dating, you are more likely to click on the guy with attractive photos and sparse bio, than a guy with no pix and long flowery bio (TMI or over compensation). Let's face it. No pix implies fugly! Case in point: Notice how boring this blog post is without any images?!  Direct Shopping Network TV Hosts Brook Roberts & Tara Gray have launched a new magazine called Show Stopper! With already over 300,000 subscribers, I'm so flattered my friend Tara (former Miss Alabama!) asked me to pen a column about home & design. See page 14-15 here. Got a question for me? Post in comments & it just might be next month's topic!
 I blogged last September about my friend Adam's company ClearHouse which offers un-biased pre-inspections. I'm a huge advocate of knowing the condition of a property upfront. It can save a deal from painful surprises & tense negotiations mid-transaction!
In 5 months, ClearHouse was not only written up on AGbeat.com ("ClearHouse adds transparency to home inspections, improves process"), but made their top 60 Genius Brands to Watch in 2012. And now they have just given a clean crisp make-over to their website with new videos and FAQ! Check it out. Kudos!  With winter slowly melting away, eHow asked me to do a quick vlog for sellers who are prepping their homes for the traditional high season in real estate: Spring & Summer! De-clutter, de-personalize, stage & match your decor with your house style. Good luck! Decorating to Sell Your Home -- powered by ehow Check out my cousins handcrafted custom made shirt company Shirtlisted. Yes, that's me in the video. (...and of course the screen shot youtube uses is a crotch shot! D'oh!) Great job cuz! I love my 2 shirts. Always get complimented at open houses when I wear them. I've been in the vlogging game for a few years now, so I often get asked by realtors how to videoblog. Sold Magazine incidentally had me do an exclusive clip for their readers about this very topic. Here some quick easy tips. Don't miss the last one. It's the most important, and most hilarious, tip! According to the National Association of Realtor's latest info from Oct 2011, there are 1,024,669 Realtors in the United States. Seems like a substantial number but let's not kid ourselves folks! A lot of these peeps are part timers. And many of these are older agents trying to catch up to real estate in 2012. (Average age of a realtor is 56, while the average home buyer is 31.) It's often quoted amongst us real estate professionals that 80% of the business is done by 20% of the agents. If you happen to be that 20%, then good for you. You may skip this video! But if you are just eking out a living in real estate, you wanna promote yourself differently in 2012. Ditch those cheesy calendars & tacky magnets. I've never heard of a seller who decided to list their house with an agent because they found her name on a Safeway shopping cart (aka "cartvertising"...yes, it's a real thing!). Watch my new video for eHow for some promotion suggestions. It's a new year, try something new! Stop moonlighting at other jobs to make ends meet. Commit to going full force hocking homes! I know you can do it! Have a prosperous exciting 2012! How to Promote Yourself as a Real Estate Agent -- powered by ehow There are special considerations when selling a condo! When you are hocking your goodies out there, a lot of it is preparation (H). Watch my latest video for eHow.com. How to Sell My Condominium -- powered by ehow  My NYC friend Rebecca just snapped this hilarious pic for me. I just can't stop giggling!
What do you guys think of agents who do this? Egomaniacs? Or savvy marketers? I've videoblogged about this before but STILL I walk into open homes and am flabbergasted by what the Realtor is wearing! One gal had on nothing more than 2 band-aids held together by some string, and mini-skirt so short it might as well have been a belt. Seriously, how do you politely ask "Are you hockin' homes or hockin' hooters!?" If clients can't tell whether the house or you is for sale, you're in big trouble. Here is my new video for eHow.com on how real estate agents ought to dress. (However, if you are selling a house to Hugh Hefner, then go for the daisy dukes & halter tops. Know your clientele!) How to Dress to Sell a Home -- powered by ehow I caught this Agent Genius post entitled "Shocking British Mockumentary – comedy, art, or just plain offensive?" I think it is all the above. Love it! It's like the real estate version of "The Office." This UK Brokerage produces videos starring their own agents. It's probably not for everyone (slightly NSFW at end) and the British humor is sure to be lost on some, but it is certainly memorable. I'm unclear whether this is going to procure more biz for them, but hey, it certainly makes a great reality show pitch! Cheerio!  I saw an ad for Pumpkin Spice Latte, so you know it's official. Autumn is here! As we dive into Q4, one of the most commonly asked questions I get is "Should I list my house in the winter, or wait til spring?" Some agents think it is suicide to list in the winter because many buyers have checked out. Vacation, holidays, and money gets diverted to gift shopping instead of house shopping. For the most part, the market does slow down a bit this time of year, but sometimes that can work to a seller's advantage. In fact, some of my most productive quarters have been Q4. Watch why in this vintage clip! I think I need a slice of pumpkin pie to go along with my pumpkin spice latte. Yum!  SOLD Magazine features Hermanity in an article by Samantha McLean called Video Marketing: Herman Chan Makes it Simple. If you happen to be in Australia, pick up a copy for me. (And while you're at it, pick me up an Aussie man too!)
Australia has churned out many break out real estate videos. Who can forget the salacious video vixens used to hock property? Or Chris Gilmour's glossy high production videos that help him sell/list a property every 26 hours? Our friends down under certainly have a flair for the visual! It certainly helps that these women are centerfolds incarnate and that Chris Gilmour is a walking Ken Doll! Eye candy never hurts. I'm not as pretty as these folks. Honestly, if I did video down there, I would be totally hit by the ugly stick. Nevertheless, I can't wait to go back there again. Someone send me an invite!  This may ruffle some feathers in realtor circles, but hey, that's never stopped me before! How many times have you heard an agent proclaim to much fanfare that they are an Area Specialist? When I hear that, I can't help but roll my eyes. Read why in my latest column for Agent Genius Local expertise is good, right? There is something to be said about local knowledge, but honestly folks, isn’t the term “Area Specialist” just a marketing angle for some agents? These self-anointed neighborhood experts brand themselves out the wazoo to their farm. To drum up business, they talk up how they know this zip code like the back of their hand, how they know every nook & cranny within a five block radius, how they are the go-to agent for all the locals, blah blah blah. They live, breath & reproduce in that neighborhood! OK, I get it. For some agents, that is their hook, which is fine and dandy. Everyone’s got their schtick. But, how many times have you seen a self-dubbed “Area Specialist” get riled up for you taking a listing in “their” farm? They get possessive about anyone stepping onto “their” turf. (Excuse me, I don’t see your name on street sign!) And yet despite their PR about the importance of working with an Area Specialist, they’ll snap up a listing across town without batting an eyelash. It just comes off to me as a sales gimmick, a mere marketing ploy. Because if they practiced what they preached, then they wouldn’t take that listing outside their area. You can’t have it both ways, folks! The inherent problem Ergo, that’s the inherent problem with labeling yourself an “Area Specialist.” You convince a buyer to work with you because you know the area the best. But what if their search ends up in a neighborhood clear across town? Your cred is shot. Based on your logic, they should no longer work with you. Are you really going to give up the last six months of work you put in? Doubt it. On the listing side, I don’t know a single Area Specialist who’d turn down a million dollar property because it is outside their geographic bubble (all of a sudden they aren’t an “Area Specialist,” they’re a “Luxury Specialist”). My point is that agents who flagrantly label themselves as Area Specialists run the danger of painting themselves into a corner. They end up looking like hypocrites the second they do business outside their area. Am I wrong? If you can stomach anymore, my other articles for Agent Genius can be found here. Enjoy! |
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