dothanhomesearch.com

By: Charles Woodall


http://www.dothanhomesearch.com

Of course this is the time when we talk about things we want to accomplish as we move forward into a new year. Making resolutions is a tradition, and far be it from me to break from tradition.

For our local Dothan area readers, here are three resolutions that all of the REALTORS at CENTURY 21 Key Realty will be making for the new year. For those real estate agents reading, this may be more of a speech from a soap box than a simple list of things you should do. Take it how you will.

1. Put the client before the commission. Every time. Without exception. Every action we take, every phone call made, every email sent, everything. We need to ask ourselves; does this serve the best interest of my client? What more can be said on this one?

2. Tell the truth. Don’t sugar coat it because you don’t want to lose the listing. Don’t bend it because your tired of showing houses to this buyer. The truth is many sellers shouldn?t to be in the market right now, and that ALL buyers need to be pre-approved BEFORE you start showing property. It is also true that right now IS a great time to buy a home, if you are looking for a primary residence where you will live for a few years. There are too many real estate agents out there that don’t tell the whole story because they are afraid of how it will effect their potential for business. They tell the seller or buyer what they think they want to hear even though it is not in the best interest of the client to do so (see #1 above).

Here are two that I like.

From Sandi Bauman

?I feel they (clients) deserve to understand the full scope of the situation. I of course respect my clients opinion, and ultimately their course of action, even if the client makes decisions contrary to what I am suggesting. My only concern is that they are properly informed prior to doing so.”

From Terry McDonald

?Their goals become my goals. Often, to reach those goals, I need to speak the truth to my buyers or sellers. Sometimes this is easy, other times, less so. Occasionally the truth is unpalatable, or worse. While difficult, my fiduciary relationship to my client requires it.?

In my opinion, this is what every real estate professional should strive for.

3. Figure out which type of real estate blogger you are going to be. (stepping onto soap box) How do you measure success in your blogging efforts? Is it traffic to your site and search engine ranking, or is it visitors converted to clients? No, the two aren?t mutually exclusive. We can achieve both. But when you sit down to write a post, if your main focus is optimizing your words for search engines, then I think you are missing the real point of this thing we call blogging.

From Jonathan Dalton

??that?s really the key the success in this thing we call real estate blogging - providing quality information while being real enough to engage someone you may never meet face to face.?

If you are a real estate blogger reading this post, I highly recommend Jonathan?s entire post. He and other real estate bloggers that have seen success from their blogging efforts (the turning visitors to clients kind), don?t use their blog as an extension of their other advertising, or their static website. It is something different; something unique; something your readers can?t get by looking at a real estate magazine or a newcomers package from the local Chamber of Commerce.

You won’t find Teresa Boardman, Jim Duncan, or Maureen Francis trying to use a keyword in every other sentence, or worrying about creating inbound links to their respective blogs. They carry on conversations with their readers, and in the process have had great search engine results and lead generation. These are the bloggers I want to emulate in 2008, and you should too. (off soap box)

What’s your resolution for 2008? Let me hear something besides losing weight, getting more exercise, or quitting a vice or two!

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