5 Quick and Easy Social Media for Real Estate Tips

Big thanks to the Sereno Group Willow Glen office for hosting the social media round table today. Wanted to share a couple takeaways from the amazing panel today as well as a "5 quick steps to get started..." infographic that was shared with me.

Holly Barr

• great hyperlocal and valuable content
• Willow Glen Charm has more than 33,000 likes on her Facebook page (that's 1/2 the population of Willow Glen!)
• take-away: focus your branding on one platform and one area instead of trying to "do-it-all"

Mary Pope-Handy

• real passion: Mary is a true blogger, she's "addicted" to blogging and writing
• her suite of websites are a true example of great organic content
• take-away: create valuable and engaging content to build trust

Hadar Guibara

• clean look and design with easy navigation
• pictures, pictures pictures
• take-away: don't forget good, clean design and pictures on your websites and social media platforms

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A Better Way for Real Estate Agents to Provide Disclosure Packages Using Google Drive

In our fast-paced Silicon Valley real estate market, the time it takes to prepare, distribute, and track disclosure packages can be daunting for any top agent. It also takes time away from closing deals! So what can be done to streamline the process?

Using Google Drive for Disclosures

If you are not familiar with Google Drive, don’t worry, here’s a great interactive tour to help get up to speed on how to use Drive. You’ll want to learn how to upload documents and reference the templates that I have below.

Buyer Agent Workflow

Step 1: Requestor clicks on disclosure link located at the bottom of the MLS listing (or anywhere else the listing agent decides to place it).

Step 2: Requestor answers a few basic questions in the disclosure request form below (customizable to what information listing agent wants to know) and clicks ‘SUBMIT’.

[Here is real working example of the disclosure request form using Google forms]

Step 3: Requestor receives a message thanking them for their disclosure package request and is immediately provided with the link to access the disclosure package (link can be shared with others). 

Listing Agent Workflow

Step 1: Listing agent or assistant views the Disclosure Response Log and has full visibility of time-stamped disclosure package requests and agent contact information. This is all done automatically and real-time as the request forms are filled in.

Tip: As a listing agent, the more data you have on who, when, how many disclosures have been requested will provide a much better position to negotiate the highest price for your sellers.

That’s it! All your disclosures documents are kept in one place and synced across all devices for easy access. Then without any additional work, buyer agents retrieve disclosure documents automatically and quickly while leaving any pertinent information with you. 

Remember, be efficient or become extinct. Happy selling!

Would love your comments below on this post or feel free to contact me directly.

Things Real Estate Agents Should Not Say - #1

I am consistently amused by the words that I hear some "ethically-challenged" real estate agents say. With an industry where the barrier to entry is so low (raise the bar please!) and over 50,000 licensed agents in our MLS, it's just bound to happen that our paths cross. Since I'm getting older and I think I'm starting to forget things, I'm now committed to documenting these unbelievable (or believable, depending on how you look at it) statements that I hear from real estate agents. This is partly to poke fun at these agents for my own amusement, but even more so to hopefully raise the professional standards of real estate professionals.

Not-so-good agent: "Is there anything you can tell me about your listing in the Los Altos Hills? I'm going to show it today at 6:30pm. Not that I really care, but the buyer is going to ask me and I want to tell them something."

Seriously???

Dear Not-So-Good Agent:

1. Do your own homework. I'm not going to do it for you.
2. If you don't care, then why are we having this conversation?
3. If you don't care, then what value to your bring to your client? Would you say the same words in front of your client?

Inman Real Estate Connect 2014 Highlights and Take-Aways

Spent two-and-a-half days at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference. It was great to be invited to speak on a panel about "Great Real Estate Transactions" and to learn from so many forward thinking real estate professionals. There was a ton of info and I couldn't be in multiple places at once, but here are some highlights, take-aways and personal action items from last week's event:

Uberfication of Real Estate

This terms was thrown around a lot. A lot. With all of the disruption coming from Uber and it's mobile technology is doing to the traditional transportation and taxi industry. Or Tesla to the auto industry. Or AirBnB to the hotel industry. The list goes on and on... I was amazed about how many tech company start-ups were here pitching their ideas.

Here are some notable apps and tools that I'd thought might provide value to me and my clients or at least help me be more efficient (I recommend choosing only ONE and implement it):

Updater - Simplifies the way people move. Not only a change of address website, but they also continue to offer new and innovative features that fundamentally change the relocation process — making it easier and more efficient.

Tempo.AI - A smart calendar that finds everything you need to be prepared. Looks like a great Google calendar add-on (works with Exchange and iCloud too). I can't be efficient without my Google calendar, so excited to see how it works and if I find it useful. 

Contactually - helps businesses follow up with the right people, at the right time, to maximize relationship ROI.

MailLift - Increase sales with handwritten letters for sales professionals. I sent a free test letter to myself. We'll see how it works out.

FindTheBest - Interesting new way to do research better. They collect, structure, and connect all the world’s data so you have everything you need to research with confidence. One application that would help with clients that I'm work with is the school search. 

Brivity - Task management, client communication, and property advertising all-In-one system for real estate agents.

Lunch Time

Save time and money eating lunch: The founder of restaurant start-up called Sprig gave a great speech about how hand-crafted dishes sourced from the best ingredients, can be delivered to you within 15-20 minutes with three taps on your phone. Being an early adopter, ordered on my phone while listening to the talk and when we broke for lunch while all conference attendees crowded the nearby restaurants, I walked down to the lobby, met my food deliverer, and just like Uber, got my food without having to worry about paying at delivery or tipping. Cost of a meal was approximately $9-11. Not bad. We need this in Palo Alto and Los Altos.

Some interesting tips that I learned from RedFin CEO, Glenn Kelman:

• Best email open rate for clients is for agents to send on the weekends (Sat 7am)
• Make sure to have a good email subject
• RedFin agents load their calendars onto google to see who is available so a client can get access to a house right away. I started thinking how this type of agent crowd sharing can help a real estate office.
• Since adding a “Sell My Home” tab next to its home search section on its home page, Redfin has seen listing consultations jump 54 percent

Running a Social Business

Hubspot gave a great presentation called "Graduating from Social Media to Running a Social Business". Some great tips for the more seasoned social media agent:

• be USEFUL in every thing you do
• you social account needs a MISSION and bio
• be intentional about sharing blog posts of the people you care about
• source your clients and nurture valuable relationships
• 4 free tools to look at your marketing:
  • grader - marketing grade and how to improve it
  • Marketing Library
  • Hubspot Academy
  • Free trial

Day 2

was kicked off with Jared Simon, COO & Co-Founder of HotelTonight, a mobile app designed to help find last minute hotel deals bookings, shared some great keys points in terms of creating a great user experience:

• there is a societal shift towards mobile and primacy of user experience (that's why the reason an App Store rating can make or great your app, is because they are real reviews and no longer are companies trying to game the search results), so reviews are very important!
• HotelTonight only focuses on last minute same day hotel days and only on mobile devices (takeaway: specialize!)
• focus on the mobile experience - takes 4 taps & 8 sec. to book a room vs. competitor websites 40 taps & 109 sec (takeaway: I started coining the term 'be efficient or become extinct')
• ok to have bells and whistles, just keep them out of main experience, but important to dedicate a holistic experience including before or after the actual use of the app (takeaway: focus on the entire experience before, during, and after the sale)
• your suppliers <—> you <—> partners, train to solve problems and create great partnerships
• treat it holistically, there is no silver bullet to build a killer user experience
• if you care about a great user or client experience then ratings and reviews are your friend
  • creates authenticity, allows those business who really care to shine versus the business that just try to game the system in order to be found
  • humanizing the experience
  • know where you can add value and know where you can’t add value, double-down on your strengths

Big Bad Zillow

There was a brief break before Brad Inman interviewed Greg Schwartz, Chief Revenue Officer, Zillow. When they opened for Q&A, Brad reminded the audience to “be respectful but it’s an open forum”. Discussed the ‘coming soon’ option. Greg assured the audience that, "Zillow wants to be a media company, not a MLS", yet someone asked for clarification about how Zillow wanting to be a media company contradicts there most recent acquisition of Retsly. 

1000 Things Real Estate Can Learn from Surfing

Matt Beall, President/Principal Broker of Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC, gave a great speech using surfing as a metaphor for real estate and the wave is like the deal...

1. Learn to Swim - the board is the only technology/tool you have in surfing- we spend so much time obsessing over our tools, but we have to be ready and capable even without your tools
2. Paddling Matters - so much in surfing is positioning, how much time we spend  maneuvering and building up to the deal, spending so much time preparing
3. When in Doubt, No Go Out - don’t sell commercial building if you're in residential real estate, so "don’t go out"
4. Don’t Leave Waves to Find Waves - like a fish swimming in the ocean looking for water, just focus on where you are, ride the waves you got
5. Waves Come in Sets, 3-5 wave sets then lull, during lull, paddle, position, prepare for next sets of waves, like deals
6. Don’t Fear Technology - evolution of the board was (and still is) a constant progression, one older group feels alienated by the new technology of others, when you're in the ocean complaining about lack of waves, you need to embrace and stop complaining about it. Find your niche and go paddle
7. Don’t Get Caught Inside - instead of catching wave, breaks on your head or bail
8. Don’t Drop In - get your own stuff (clients, content)
9. When the Water is Murky, Don’t Go Out - when you are starving, everything looks good, don't take on every deal
10. You are not Laird. Nowadays, everyone is a "luxury agent".  Pick you spots.

Art of Enchantment

Guy Kawasaki spoke about the "Art of Enchantment". It was similar talk that he had given at Sereno Session in 2013. Still laughed when he introduces his top ten format in case he sucks, we will know how long he will suck. Guy is currently consulting with an Australian graphic design company.

Here is a way to receive free copies of three of Guy Kawasaki's past books:

1. create a Canva Design
2. tweet it with #canvaconvert
3. receive free copies via @canva

Lastly, there was a 24-hour real estate brokerage website revamp. Pretty cool to see the transformation of Willis Allen website to something more contemporary, fresh, and engaging.

Some interesting changes: 

• simple search box
• simple navigation with no visible navigation bar
• tells a story 
• an interesting forward-thinking option was to have a 'Found something u like on zillow' page asking the consumer to paste the zillow results link into the search bar hence taking the traffic back from Zillow.
• Properties marketed by Willis Allen
• Has to work well on mobile 
• The website is not in competition with your competition, website is in competition with your customer and clients' time

My personal action Items:

• Sign up for Updater account to test it out and if I enjoy the experience, look into options for other people I care about to use their services
• Download the Tempo calendar system app and and use as default calendar for two weeks
• Try HomeSnap to see if it adds value to client
• Take a look at different ideas that the 2014 Inman Innovator Awards finalists and list out some great ideas like branded Starbucks cards.
• Sign up to test out Brivity for my next real estate client (received multiple recommendations)
• Reminded importance of Phone/Email/Texting sellers every day for at least the first two weeks. Over-communicate and front-load your communication.
• Define a mission for all of my social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram)
• Purchase book - Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
• Add 'Properties marketed by Alex Wang' to website

Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent - Day 2,954

8am: new construction 90-day post-move-in walk thru - builder walks thru the home to make sure that all the cabinets are working, grout/caulking is intact, no leaks, etc... I see a trend that this is commonly done by the larger, national builders but less so for the smaller local developers and builders in our area.

9:30am - office-wide meeting. These office meetings are generally very informative and useful in order to keep tabs of the market, new upcoming legal issues, mortgage rates, as well as important legal issues. That said, I haven't been to one of the meetings in a few months. In general, I think meetings suck especially if I have sign offs, inspections or are writing offers for clients. Perhaps something I need to work on to make a priority? Or perhaps not...

My Google calendar is the what I use to run my schedule. I have a calendar for my schedule. My wife's schedule. Our kids schedules. Each of my escrows has a calendar. Birthdays. It's all in one place in the cloud and syncs on multiple devices. Today schedule looks rather open in terms of not many in-person appointments, however looking back at the day, once I was in the car, I never really left the computer or phone.

A quick summary of some of my 112 phone calls today:

• conversation about negotation strategy with multiple trustees in three separate states

• one of my agents called to give me an update on showing progress for a client looking for Woodside acreage

• received disclosures packages for a Cupertino and a Sunnyvale listing which a buyer stopped by over the weekend and has interest in

• fielded 11 calls about my Hickory Way listing in Strawberry Park area of West San Jose and then spoke with sellers via Skype to discuss negotation strategies for this upcoming week

• spoke with buyers in contract on charming Burlingame Village Park home and discussing possible repair negotations

• negotation of offer submitted by a doctor client of mine who works at Kaiser Permanente (the doctor loan program is one of the few loan programs that will provide borrowers with private mortgage insurance (PMI))

• one particular client has been complaining about not having good communication with me. I called him and left a message for him to call me back. No answer or response yet.

• Sent referral of a termite inspector that I recommend to a friend

• updated client on escrow closing timeline for Campbell listing

• Skyped with client looking to sell their San Mateo / Hillsborough home and purchase in Palo Alto

• called client after speaking to discuss problems with newly installed sod turning brown 

• got last minute call from client wanted to see home that just hit the market in downtown Palo Alto

• spoke to contractor about possible "flip" opportunities coming to the market

• spoke to seller about remodeling status of new 2/2 Burlingame Park condo listing coming to market

At the end of the day, looking at my Evernote to-do list and noticed that it was relatively untouched. *sigh*. Reminder for the day: jot down the 2-3 three most important things to complete today and do them first. It will give you a sense of accomplishment and not give you the feeling of thinking, "What did I do all day?"

Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent - Day 2,952

This Saturdy was one of those half work/half home days. It's possible (but not easy) to turn completely "off", but today was not one of those days. 

Started the morning contacting someone interested in selling their family's home in San Mateo and relocating to the Palo Alto area. Played a little phone/email/text tag, but we were able to connect and schedule a tentative meeting for Tuesday. I know there are some agents that think that they must pick up every phone call otherwise they will lose business. I'm not one of those agents. Our business is hard enough as it is with just returning phone calls! If someone is not willing to wait for me to call them back at a more appropriate time, then what value do I have as an agent? Chopped liver is all that I would be. What's your value?

A past client emailed me inquiring about selling her rental property. Had a nice 5 minute conversation with her and given that the she just renewed the tenant's lease for another year, might be better to shoot for going on the market next year. We can definitely sell the tenant occupied property now, but selling a property with a tenant inside versus a property that is vacant and staged is a huge difference. One thing that I was amused about was she said, "Alex, you are expensive, but I know you are worth it." :)

Got a text message last minute from a client asking me to hold off on moving forward on a negotiation strategy that we agreed upon yesterday. Hmmm... it's ok to hold off, but I need to know why in order to better position ourselves in the negotiation. Communication is one of the most important factors of a good client/agent relationship. Without that, you will be toast!

11:15am - annual memorial service for a close friend that passed about 8 years ago. I decided to take my 3-year-old son with me so I can share with him about my experience and have some good one-on-one time. They don't give you a parenting manual when you have kids. How do you expain life & death to a kid?

Finally finished up the late morning just in time to head out to a friend/client's (is there a difference anymore?) daughter's birthday party at Ponderosa Park. It's hard to balance which kid's birthday parties to go to when there are multiple occasions in one day, but when the people are 'cool beans' and good people, you want to do everything you can to be present. Brought the whole family there and we had a blast. Wrestling with eleven kids in the jumpy house, shooting water guns, cotton candy, great BBQ, arts and crafts, this was one of the best 4-year-old birthday parties I've been too. I was the biggest kid there.

Dropped the family off at home and headed to the local Los Altos German bakery for a couple of nice half liter glasses of German pilsner, do a little emails, writing, work, and then pick up some pastries to head home for dinner with the family.

One conversation that I had with an agent before heading home stood out to me. As agents, I can be very judgemental of others. It's an ego-business and that ego, or rather my ego, can be rather hard to control. The conversation about my North Los Altos listing went a little something like this:

Me: "Yes, we have a lot of interest in the home and currently have offers on the house, though the agents are not local (full well knowing that I was speaking to a Los Altos agent and I was implying that the agents are not aware of the customary practices in our market and therefore the agents and their offers may need some coaching/guidance), so if your clients are interested, would love to work with you."

Agent: "They are not local? Are you a local agent?"

Me: [immediate reaction is to put this agent "in check" and talk about how much real estate I have sold and how dare she make this type of comment, do you know who you are talking to?? ... blah blah blah] Ummm... I live in Los Altos.

Agent: "Oh, OK. I guess that means your local too."

I think sometimes, as real estate professionals, that our egos get in the way of doing what's best for the cleint and the industry. Anyway, I hope her client does write an offer. She said, it was an "all cash offer". That's great, the other two offers are all cash too. :)

Communication stats:

48 calls

9 voicemails

34 emails

15 text messages

3 website inquiries

2 referrals

Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate AGENT - Day 2,951

7:31 am: received a random call from someone saying that they noticed that my office hours were posted as opening at 7:30 am (have no idea where that would be) and they were at my office looking for me. Beware of the non-scheduled-drop-in-out-of-nowhere prospective clients… I usually tread very lightly here. 

Dropped kids off at a bilingual Mandarin/English program using my wife’s car.  I strongly recommend the programs during the summer time for kids. My car was still in the shop, so dropped my wife’s car back at home and then hopped on a Uber (7 min. wait) to my office in downtown Palo Alto. (Trip Time: 17:11 / Miles: 5.17 / Cost with 25% summer discount: $12.68)

10:10am: meeting with media team to discuss new Instagram 15-second video campaign and aerial drone photography for upcoming listing in Saratoga Hills. Definitely bleeding edge technology. Must continue to innovate. Otherwise, I’m no different than any other agent. Complacency leads to extinction. Think what happened to the dinosaurs.

Walked to a nearby cafe (I love downtown Palo Alto) to get a quick bite to eat before having my car dropped off just in time for me to head to Emerald Hills to meet a serial entrepreneur looking to downsize. Beautiful home. Well thought-out floor plan with quality upgrades and amazing views. Was a good first meeting and looking forward to connecting with the seller first thing next week to follow up.

3:33pm: drove down to Miramonte area of Mountain View to meet with a general contractor and buyer who is purchasing a duplex. Went over scope of work and discussed next steps in terms of remodeling and repairs to be done once escrow is closed and rental strategy. Creating value through your experience is your client's largest asset.

Spent rest of work day until dinner working on confirming that two properties were able to close escrow as scheduled today. My listing in Mount Carmel Redwood City closed, however not till the afternoon, so seller’s funds would not be available until Monday. Gave the sellers a call to let them know that. Better to update sellers constantly than reacting to clients calling you saying, "What's going on?". This was a great listing. With a decent remodeling budget, we were able to upgrade the home, market it, and negotiate a great price all within the expected timeline. Our return-on-investment was close to 400%. Other listing in Campbell however was unable to record on time due to a delay in receiving documentation from the lender and therefore scheduled to close on Monday. Nothing is for sure or definite in real estate and quite often we just need to ‘roll with it’. Setting expectation and thorough communication with the client is VERY important. Needless to say, today these two clients were on my speed dial all day.

Enjoyed a nice family dinner at home with bride and kids. After dinner, took my daughter to Planet Granite (best rock gym on the West Coast?) with me for some indoor rock climbing. Her first time climbing indoors and she was initially timid and afraid but quickly overcame that fear and by the end of the night, she had climbed 7 times with the highest climb being a 5.6. It was very impressive. Good times.

Looking over communication stats for the day:
- 57 phone calls
- 9 voicemails
- 19 text conversations
- 45 emails

11:24pm: Lastly, working on submitted an offer for a client. My assistants are off this weekend. So need to draft offer package myself. TGIF. Time to get to work.


 

Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent - Day 2,950

A lot on my mind recently. Reflection is a word that comes to mind. I think you do this more when you are older and more mature? :) So, I'm just going to start writing.

Woke up late today and wasn’t able to find the time to spend some time centering myself with scripture or some positive affirmations. (Note to self: when I don't spend time in the morning to just be silent, I find myself being more quick tempered and impatient). Quickly jumped on the phone with some out-of-state sellers to discuss negotiation strategy on their North Los Altos property. Motivation is key. Motivated sellers. Motivated buyers. Motivated agents. Without motivation, real estate is like drudgery. With motivation, you can create happy buyers, happy sellers, and wonderful real estate experiences.

At 10am, headed over to Lyfe Kitchen (Frittata and coffee is the way to go) with a few good men looking to develop a website for leadership training material. Time flies when the entrepreneur in me starts thinking of different business ideas and quickly two and a half hours later, it was time to go.

I was having some work done on my car, so it was being picked up at the office. Met the rep picking up my car, had a quick conversation about what an innovative car company Tesla is, and then got picked up to head up to Burlingame for inspections on an off-market home that my first-time home buyer clients were in contract on.

Great little cul-de-sac neighborhood in a very desirable area of Burlingame. Appraisal and chimney inspection had just been completed before my arrival and property and termite inspectors have arrived early. Timing is good. Met clients at the property and they were able to get verbal assessments of the house directly from the inspectors. This is very important. Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s important that buyers hear from the inspectors directly on their findings of the house. House has really good bones and excited to get the clients in next month.

Had two sellers also signing off at escrow today and placing my new West San Jose Strawberry Park listing on the market at the same time as well. Still trying to figure out how to be in four places at once. When someone can figure that out, let me know. Spoke to each client over the phone to discuss next steps and any concerns. A dispute between my clients and a general contractor reminded me that good help is really hard to find. Consistent good help is even harder. Summer time must be peak season for contractors. I have to wait two months just to get a painter, that I helped jumpstart his business many years ago, to help me paint a house. The contractor rolodex is always changing.

My assistant dropped me off at a Peet’s Coffee near my house and I worked on Inbox Zero. Then perambulated home. Drove to pick up some food for dinner (and subsequently fielded a call from a potential seller who spend 10 minutes letting me know why he selected the another agent to sell their house rather than me. Constructive criticism is hard to take but it builds character. Always ask for feedback. It was hard for me to hold my tongue especially when the seller says, "She has 20 years of experience". Time (years) in the real estate business pulls little weight. I know some agents that have been in the business longer than I have been alive yet have sold no more than ten homes in their career. Do I sound defensive or pissed? I probably am... but it'll pass. Building character...)

After dinner, time for the family to go to Summer Jazz Series at Stanford Shopping Center. Every Thursday at 6pm. Come early for seats. Kids brought their new camping chairs, chilled out to watch listen to some great jazz music before heading back home. Passed out for about 5 minutes. It was great.

Got home, kissed my bride and kids good night, and then headed to the office for an eight-thirty to introduce a friend, who was looking to sell his home in Central Richmond, to a San Francisco real estate agent that I recommended. By the time everything was wrapped up, it was 10:30pm. Back home. Hug my bride. Glass of wine. Journal. Good night.
 

Santa Clara Country Real Estate Market Update - First quarter 2014

Here's our second update for the San Clara County real estate market for the first quarter of 2014. This single family home comparison is organized by school district with API score, including the median price, average $/sf, average days on market, and changes from the first quarter in 2013 and 2007.

Hope this provides some helpful insight to you as a buyer or seller. (Click images to enlarge)

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San Mateo County Real Estate Market Update - First Quarter 2014

Here's an update on the San Mateo County real estate market for the first quarter of 2014. This single family home comparison is organized by school district with API score, including the median price, average $/sf, average days on market, and changes from the first quarter in 2013 and 2007.

Hope this provides some helpful insight as a buyer or seller.  

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