The ActiveRain Stuff You Won't Find Anywhere Else on the Web

Key look!  Up in the sky... It's a "RainCamp!" No... It's a "RainStorm!" No... It's a Spring-Meetup!?! YES!!
I was going to just  REBLOG THIS, but it's too exciting not to announce myself! :-)

" Hey Brad, where are you, I've got this really cool idea... "

IT'S TRUE!  We are having an ActiveRain Spring Meet-Up in the San Francisco Bay Area for all AR members and their guests who would like to join us.  Even if you're not from or live in the SF Bay Area, maybe you're just visiting friends or family, we'd love to have you come join us! What is a Meet-up?

ActiveRain's very own Kerrie Greenhalgh recently announced "The National AR Spring Meet-Up" Day!

The comment that I left on Kerrie's post seemed to spur up some interest and generated some calls from other AR folks who have successfully done these in the past. Kathleen Daniels, and Karen Crowson have joined in and put together what promises to be an awesome Spring Meet-up for anyone and everyone in or around the San Francisco California Bay Area. We already have folks coming from as far south as San Jose and as far north as Sacramento.

Where will it be? Here's the first clue I'll give you...

and no, this is not at my house... lol~

I'm really excited to be a part of this and want to thank these two ladies for making it happen. 

Here's the When, Where, What, Date & Time: By Karen Crowson
http://activerain.com/blogsview/3103370/bay-area-meet-up-livermore-ca

Here's a little spin on the details of the event as well: By Kathleen Daniels
http://activerain.com/blogsview/3103370/bay-area-meet-up-livermore-ca

And finally, yes... the rumor is true, I'll be bringing some surprise guest(s) and a few entertaining ideas and surprise elements specially created and designed just for this event.  The majority of the rumors you'll probably start hearing will most likely all be true... and that's all I can say right now, but I do hope that you'll come out and join us!!

The National Association of REALTORS convention and EXPO is without a doubt one of the largest and most attended real estate events of the year. This years attendance was around 24,000 according to NAR on-site sources.  My favorite part of the event is the EXPO. There are literally hundreds of vendors covering every possible product, tool, technology, and service, and this year was no exception. 

Here are just a few of my Takeaways, tips, and a Re-Cap from NAR 2011.

Tom Ferry came and hung out with us at the Zillow booth giving away and autographing what seemed like thousands of his best selling books "Life By Design!"  I finally got one for myself too, thanks Tom.  The book provides 6 essential steps to creating and delivering an extraordinary you.  The line seemed never-ending but Tom just kept smiling and signing as he met and greeted every single person that came by our booth.

Mauricio Umansky, CEO of The Agency who is also a Premier Agent on Zillow and a regular on Real House Wives of Beverly Hills, stopped by to share some of his ideas and innovations along with some BIG plans for his Real Estate future.  Mauricio couldn't help but be noticed by so many fans and friends and of course spent a great deal of time taking photos and signing autographs. Take a look at Mauricio's $55,000,000 dollar listing.

As I walked around the EXPO floor, there were hundreds of booths and vendors sharing their wares and products. The Scarf King was rocking it right along with Kathy's jewelry, just as they always do.  There were tons of mobile tech tools, plenty of website designers, MLS & IDX tools, software products, and so much tons more.

Wells Fargo and Chase looked like they had opened branch stores right there on the EXPO floor.

So this year, rather than get overwhelmed and allow myself to be morphed into one of those bobble-head dolls from information over-load, I decided to focus on my own personal overview of the entire event.  I feel fortunate that I was able to interview many of the attendees this year and visit nearly every booth.

Here are 5 important things that really stood out to me by the time I had to leave. 

These might seem simple and basic, but it's some of THE BEST fact gathering from NAR I can impart.

1. The Real estate Industry and EVERY business within it MUST BE MOBILE and MUST incorporate mobile device technology. Marketing and advertising on the mobile platform is NOT OPTIONAL anymore if you want to survive in business today. Period!

2. Your websites and blogs must be mobile friendly. Don't have QR Codes that link to your site from a users mobile device that land them on a standard non-mobile website that they can't view or read. (Believe it or not, this is more common than you might think) Go Look at your sites or Blogs right now and see.

3. Response time to online contacts/leads is the most critical piece of your business today.  It only takes seconds to get a lead, and it only takes minutes to lose them forever. Answer your phone whenever possible and respond to email within 2-3 minutes, even if you have to let them know you'll get back to them later.

4. There are two types of people out there, those that know you, and those that don't.  The ones that don't use Google so GET SEO!  Also use sites like Zillow, ActiveRain and others where people are researching REAL ESTATE. My father always told me to fish where the Fish are, not where I think they are or where I think they should be.

5. ALWAYS use a GOOD CRM to manage and follow-up with your contacts, prospects, and past clients. There is no way to manage your business efficiently and effectively without the most important tool of all, your CRM!!!

Lastly, don't think you need to have and use every tool, technology, app, software, etc on the web.  Don't try and be everything for everybody on every site and social network.  Find the right IDX tools and sites that help you cultivate contacts and connect with prospects. Make sure you have GREAT capturing tools in place. Constantly and consistently keep sharpening your people and conversion skills, it's an art to be mastered.

Visit http://www.narconferencelive.com for LIVE NAR Conference updates, videos, and photos etc.  Also search Twiiter.com with the hashtag #NARannual to see all the ongoing tweet streams. We'll be at NAR 2012 in Orlando Florida. We have some cool surprises in the works for next year so I hope you can be there too.

The REALTORS® Conference & Expo, Nov. 11-14, in Anaheim is coming up this week, and I'm excited and proud to welcome two special guests you’ll want to meet at our Zillow booth (#1705) at the Trade Expo.  I know many of you will be coming and I'm hoping that those of you still on the fence will go ahead and make the trip.

 On Saturday:
 
For close to 20 years, Tom Ferry has earned a peerless reputation as a top trainer, motivator speaker, author and business coach for real estate professionals.  He's also a personal friend.

Come Meet Tom at the Zillow booth on Saturday, Nov. 12, at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to sign copies of his bestselling book, “Life! By Design.”  Tom's passion for helping agents and the strategies he imparts definitely rule!

On Sunday:

Mauricio Umansky appears regularly on Bravo’s hit reality TV show, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which stars his wife, Kyle Richards.  To the real estate community, he’s known as the CEO and co-founder of The Agency, a Southern California high-end real estate brokerage.
 
Meet Mauricio and learn about his success on and off camera during an exclusive appearance at the Zillow booth, (#1705), Sunday, Nov. 13, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

There will be several of us from Zillow at the booth throughout the show to hear feedback on how we can better serve your needs. When you visit, please remember to ask us to share some tips and ideas on some new and exciting ways we can help drive buyers and sellers directly to you.

For those of you who just can't make it for whatever reason, I understand and that's why I'll be doing some "LIVE" TV Broadcasting in many areas of NAR this year.  Follow me on http://twitter.com/bradandersohn and I'll be sharing tips, tools, interviews, links to live broadcasts, coolest expo technologies, the latest updates, breaking news and more.  "It will be the next best thing to being there!"
 
Looking forward to seeing you in Anaheim!

This week is the California Association of REALTORS® (CAR) EXPO in San Jose California. 

One of the luncheon speakers this year was guest Jason Dorsey, a recognized "Gen Y" representative who spoke to the group about how Gen Y IS ready to buy.  The information Jason shared in a more than enthusiastic and exciting manner was well received by the audience but more importantly was "DEAD ON" regarding the Gen Y culture and mentality. 

If you were there, you know exactly what I'm talking about and if not... I'm sorry you missed out.

I was fortunate and able to capture a few short minutes of Jason's presentation that will give you a small dose of Jason's knowledge, humor, and accuracy of the "Generation Y" that's ready to buy. Listen closely to what he says regarding trust, tech savvy, communication, experts, and who the most trusted website is for Generation Y.  You'll love this!!

"Technology has fundamentally changed how we communicate"  Jason Dorsey

Is there really a gap between "Gen Y" and YOUR generation?  Do you feel that "Gen Y" speaks a different language, dances to a different beat, or thinks differently than you or I might think?  Have you looked at the numbers, done the research, and considered some of the facts surrounding the "Y" Generation?

Once you see this, you'll realize that the tools available can and will make a difference if you decide to seize the opportunity.  Why should you care? Your future business may depend on it.

Recently I was invited to join this investing opportunity using "Groupon" buying power to purchase Real Estate.  Is this a fad, a trend, or will it become a standard in the home purchase and selling process?  I've used Groupon to make "deal" purchases for smaller material items in the past but never considered investing in purchasing real property in this manner? 

I remember hearing that someone put their home on eBay and sold it.  I was told another homeowner put an ad on Amazon, and I've seen hundreds of homes on Craigslist and other classified sites but Groupon power?  I'm curious how many others have this happening in their areas and if so, what are your thoughts? is this something you would participate in? 

Can they really do this?  Dumb question: Looks like they already are...

Would your potential clients or past clients go for an opportunity like this?  Would you?

Join us for a group buying discount & group leverage Meeting

"We have negotiated with the builder a discounted price on duplexes near Round-Rock (Austin). We are combing the group buying power to get better prices and create a rent protection concept. The duplexes' (2 units each) price is based on a group purchase."

NEW Concept: “Groupon” Purchase of Duplexes
Tue. 9/13/11 7PM - In the room & via web
RSVP for details

Investment Highlights

Regular price: $260,000 – $270,000 per duplex ($130,000-$135,000 per door)
“Groupon” price: $249,900 – $259,000 based on a minimum purchase of ten duplexes (20 doors)

Myself and others could sure use your help, advice, and feedback here.

This is happening right here in the Bay Area, just about an hour away and I'm curious what my ActiveRain friends would advise or do themselves? No need to pull punches here, give me your honest thoughts and opinions. Usually, I'm the one trying to give information and advice but this time I need yours? Thanks.

Inman News Innovator of the Year Award

Having just returned from the Inman News Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco, CA. my first instinct was to create a long post sharing all the great information and awesome take-aways I came away with this year, but then after some thought, I decided to share this with you instead, at least for now.  All the great tech stuff coming later...

On July 28th, 2011 at the Hilton Union Square Grand Ballroom, Brad Inman Founder of Inman News, Tim Smith CEO of Inman, and Chris Smith, the newly appointed Chief Evangelist for Inman announced the 2011 Innovator of the Year Award Winner.  Up until the morning of the announcement, I had no idea who the winner was going to be, but I had heard some names mentioned and was encouraged to not miss this presentation.

It was a very exciting moment to say the least, and to capture it on video was an honor.  It's the only video footage I have from the entire 3 day event.  My hat's off to the winners, and my heart and congratulations goes out to ALL the nominees from every category. There truly are no losers, everyone nominated is a winner in my opinion.

The Inman team must have a very difficult time trying to select winners beyond the "People's Choice" awards.  Shout-outs and Kudos to their entire team and staff for a fine job well done!  Thanks, and congrats to Inman on celebrating 15 years of Real Estate Connect Success.

Now, please take a moment to join me in congratulating the 2011 Inman News "Innovator of the Year" for winning a very prestigious and coveted award....drum roll please...the winner is....

Tag Galaxy is a site that lets you enter any "Tag" or "Keywords" or phrases then brings back all the related photos found that may match your search results.  At first, I didn't think much of it until I started selectively picking specific keywords and tags that brought back some really interesting and fun results.

The final search image results will always be unique but have no custom URL or embed code, so it seemed a little senseless to even post about this other than it is a pretty cool site.  However, one idea and way to use this would be to capture photos of friends, family, neighborhoods, communities, or even cities and then share them using a screen capture tool and creating a link to your desired landing page. 

Here's the results I got back when using the tag: ActiveRain

If you're like me, the next question you might be asking yourself is, "Am I in that collage somewhere?" Haha~ Click on it, type in ActiveRain as your tag search then wander around the globe and take a peek for yourself?  You'll at least have fun looking and there might even be a few surprises.

You can zoom in, zoom out, roll and turn the globe, open the photos and read the descriptions and more.  I put together this quick little video sample showing what it would look like if you search your city using tag or keywords.  I used San Francisco in this sample.  Check it out, you may find other creative ways to use the tag galaxy for your photo capturing experience.  Enjoy!

I must get 5-7 invitations a week to a variety of different webinars.  They usually cover some really great topics. Though many seem interesting and useful, I find myself having to prioritize my day, (just like you) and in many cases miss many if not most webinars that come my way.  What is the real value of a webinar anyway?  Last week I was able to jump on a webinar and let me tell you, it changed the way I perceive and now do webinars. 

You'll never get spammed with an email invitation from me to any webinars I host.  I'm confident you'll never walk away from any session feeling that it sucked! Every webinar and guest I bring you will do at least three things:

• Share valuable and useful information that can be used and applied to you and your business immediately.
   
  
• Provide you with knowledge of a topic and give you information that would otherwise cost you $$$ to learn.
  

• Deliver real people in the industry who are out there living and practicing what they preach successfully.

So before you decide whether or not to attend this weeks webinars with these guests, ask yourself this question?  Is it worth my time and effort to listen to either of these speakers and presenters knowing that their experiences and knowledge could put thousands of dollars into my pocket and enrich my life beyond what I could creatively imagine?  It's now up to you to decide. 

These two guys are not easy to get, nor will they waste your time or theirs, period.

Gary Gold is a no nonsense practicing and successful Real Estate agent and Broker out of the Southern California area and is making his fortune and living in Real Estate. (READ THIS) How is he doing this?  What tools does he use?  How much is he making and what are the costs?  Can you sell Real Estate at this pace and volume and still have a life with balance and happiness?  Is it stressful, is it easy, is it worth it?  It's questions like these that you can ask Gary yourself when you join him this Wednesday? I promise, it won't suck.

"Gary has been seen on CBS Evening News, Access Hollywood and other prime time shows."

Stefan Swanepoel needs no introduction but I'm giving him one anyway. Stefan travels all around the Country speaking to thousands of Industry professionals regularly about business practices and achieving a quality life.  He's spent a great deal of time out in the Serengeti of Africa and the Serengeti of Real Estate. He's an author, a sought after speaker and presenter, publishes the infamous RETrends, and has just released his newest book, Surviving Your Serengeti. You don't want to miss this Thursday. Trust me, it will be "WILD" and it won't suck!

"Stefan's new book is #2 USA Today, #2 Amazon.com, and #2 Barnes and Noble. #4 The New York Times."

No matter what you are doing this week, I would make every effort to jump on these sessions and listen to what both these gentleman have to say and share. There is no sales pitch, there is no cost to you, and contrary to popular belief that there IS NO FREE LUNCH, the information, tools, and experience these guys will share will make more than just a difference in your business, there's a good chance they might change your life.

These are webinars that won't suck!   :-)

While it was with every intention I planned on sharing this presentation at the RainStorm this past weekend, somehow my final decision to do so was influenced by the environment, the ambiance, and the folks I was fortunate to be surrounded by at the Ultra Heat Lounge in Anaheim.  There was a great line-up of speakers and topics, but at the end when it was my turn to present, I felt moved to share something a bit different.

So for those of you who came to "RainStorm" to hear the presentation about "Building Blocks for Better Blogs" and didn't get to, I decided to share it here instead, where there is likely to be less distraction and excitement from all the real life and in person social networking that was taking place in the nite-club style environment.  To those of you who couldn't or didn't make it, it was a great turn out and spectacular event.

Building Blocks for a Better Blog

Tips and Take-Away Overview

1. Make your Blog title, description, and URL Count.  Be descriptive, direct, and short as possible.
2. K.I.S.S. - Keeping It Simple Sells - Less really can be more in many cases.
3. Be There. Allow Questions, Chat, and Live interaction.  This is the best way to Capture contacts.
4. Content is always king. Give the greatest value possible to your readers and audience. Period.
5. Make sure you have some form of contact capture or what is the point of Blogging for Business.
6. Use a good CRM or contact mgmt program. To rely on your memory alone will cost you business.
7. Implement Inter-active value-added tools and widgets that update themselves and deliver content.
8. You're a consumer, so when building your Blog for Business, ask yourself what works best on you.
9. Some ideas and tools to provide a consumer that might be interested in buying or selling include:
    
     (Various Samples of FREE widgets, tools, and content to consider)
     a. Demographics and Local Real Estate data and information
     b. All the newest listings in the neighborhood or community
     c. Share the most expensive homes allowing your audience to dream
     d. Provide all the recently sold homes keeping it real for your buyers and sellers
     e. Give them tools to compare stats and areas, after-all they're going to live there
     f.  Let your readers search your area for "All homes for sale"
     g. Let them search other areas too so they don't leave your Blog to do so
     h. Using home value estimation tools will create digital handshakes and opportunity
     i. A virtual walk through the neighborhood with a "walk-score" makes an impression
     j. Providing Loan and payment data with the ability to compare is valuable and useful
     k. Provide a stream or feed of live and local news and your Blog will really kick butt

There's a sample Blog you can review at SFBayAreaBlog.com if you'd like to try these tools live and see how they work.  You can create and do the same here on ActiveRain, Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous, etc.  The best part is that everything I've shared here is FREE and easy to do if you have the resources and knowledge.  Now you have the knowledge, and you'll always have me as a resource. :-)

Footnote:
My presentation at RainStorm was very short and simple.  All things are simply tools and a means to an end. Social media, the Internet, mobile technology, almost everything in your life online and off are just tools to help you cultivate and create relationships and build rapport and trust with people.  The greatest and most memorable moments in your life are built on emotions, passions, and connections. You can always use tools with people, but never use people as tools.

Nobody cares about your local Real estate market like you do! Lets also not forget about the others who own, rent, buy, sell, borrow, work, play, eat, sleep, and are considering living there too?  When a home becomes available for sale on your street in YourCity, YS. aren't you often more interested in the sales price than you are actually buying your neighbors house? Maybe, maybe not? 

Providing local real estate information in your area is a great addition to the variety of content your blog or website should deliver.  According to the views below, there's many that like viewing market reports.

Making Real Estate Market information available to your hyper-local readers and visitors is very valuable.

Have you considered using some of these market-share stats, graphs and reports on your newsletters, email campaigns, and blog posts etc?  Here's some great information and tools you can use to add to your content that may generate you more traffic, local consumer interest, and hopefully some additional business as the local expert.

Here's just a few links using San Francisco as an example:  It's all free for you to use.

• Property Data Listings, Rentals, Open Houses etc. - http://www.zillow.com/homes/san-francisco,-ca_rb

• San Francisco Overview - http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco/r_20330

• Home Prices and Values - http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco-home-value/r_20330

• San Francisco Demographics - http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco-people/r_20330
  

• San Francisco Photos and Images - http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco-photos/r_20330

• Schools in San Francisco - http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco-schools/r_20330

• Homes in San Francisco - http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-San-Francisco-homes/r_20330

• Get Real Estate Market Reports - http://www.zillow.com/local-info

Here's an example of a market graph you can embed into your site that updates on its own.

US Median Sale Price vs Areas of Your Choice

Explore other Area Home Values - FREE Interactive chart

Check out some of the graphs, charts, data, and information you can easily find and use to provide additional value to your site and visitors.  Most are download-able and easy to share via your favorite social media sites too.  There are also many different widgets and webtools available that will make it easy to get and give "live" real-time information and updates you can publish on your site or blog. The SFBayAreaBlog is an example I setup you can demo.

Just wanted to share this with you in case you're in search of more clients in 2011. Enjoy~

  Photo Credit - Courtesy of wmchu