Courtesy of RealSupport Inc., Your Partner in Real Estate Marketing

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Phone: 847.705.1655Fax: 847.589.8989

Info@RealSupportInc.com1232 West Northwest Highway, Palatine, IL 60067

Using a Virtual Assistant

What Can a Real estate ViRtual assistant Do FoR You?You’ve signed the listing agreement and promised your client the moon when it comes to marketing the property. Now, you have to figure out how you’re going to implement all those marketing tools, have time to devote to your other clients, attend to your office business and maybe, just maybe, have a life. Sound impossible? Not if you join the growing ranks of real estate professionals who are using virtual assistants (VAs) to handle the tasks that frequently get put on the back burner. about RealsuppoRt, inC.RealSupport is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant company. Our dedication to service is what defines us. Nothing is more important to our team than our client’s satisfaction through realizing their own success as it directly relates to the service we provide to them. Located just outside Chicago, RealSupport Inc. supports many successful real estate agents all over the United States, Canada, and Virgin Islands by taking over their endless marketing efforts. Time is money, and RealSupport Inc. will save you both by assisting in all aspects of your marketing. From strategy to website design to listing coordination, transaction management, lead management and generation, logo design and more, RealSupport Inc. fuses innovation with experience to help you succeed in a competitive market. RealSupport Inc. is a team of experts known as Real Estate Virtual Assistants, dedicated to making you a Real Estate leader in your area. Blending creativity with technology, RealSupport Inc. will assist you and/or your staff in whole or in part, temporarily, or indefinitely.

Call today FoR a FRee Consultation anD to FinD out hoW We Can tRansFoRm the WaY You Do business... 847.705.1655 x201

Real estate bRanDing: Your Personal Stamp on Your Services

In the ever-changing real estate profession, personal branding has become essential for the future and livelihood of many real estate agents. Standing out amongst a sea of other agents is one of your biggest challenges, but it is also one of your biggest rewards. When potential leads go to your website, you want them to be intrigued by your business and remember you.

IDEA: Combine your company’s trusted name with your own name to create a powerful brand for yourself!

Using what you have is the essential first step. The brokerage that you work for has most likely already worked hard to establish their brand. Why not utilize their branding to help your own? This does not mean that your website screams “Coldwell Banker” or “RE/MAX.” It just means that you capitalize on the fact that your name is associated with a trusted company. In the same respect, you still need to emphasize your name first in your branding. In visual terms - your name is in big bold letters, while your brokerage is underneath you in smaller letters. Remember, you are paying for the logo; make sure you’re paying first and foremost for your brand awareness, not theirs.

Start by creating a logo! The way you create a brand is by way of your own logo. That is the first thing you must do before you go any further with your marketing. The logo is what will stay consistent throughout all of your marketing, and is what will carry out your branding through your real estate career. The logo is what will be on every postcard, every brochure, every social networking page, and every website that you create. Choose wisely when you pick the logo name. Geographical locations are often a better choice than a last name; it is much harder to build a brand from an unknown name than it is to build a brand from an already-known geographical location.

Visual cues are everything. There are endless possibilities when it comes to marketing material: postcard design, flyer design, newsletters, buyer books, pre-listing presentations, marketing presentations, real estate books, letterhead, business cards,

Real Estate Branding

Real Estate Branding

note cards, yard sign or sign riders, email blasts, web banner ads, Powerpoint presentations, CD label covers, and more. All of your marketing requires branding that will catch the eye of potential leads. Consider how many times you will use that branding. Don’t accept anything less than a stunning design to represent your brand. You should only trust a company with a good designing track record.

Make it personal: Graphic designs created solely for you are so important to branding. Once you have one, you can use it again and again, each time reminding your audience who you are. A good real estate virtual assistant can establish your personal brand with a well thought out strategy - customized to you. After all, that is what branding means.

Real estate BRanding samples

If you are looking to re-vamp your branding strategy, RealSupport, Inc. has a first rate design staff that has experience with every type of real estate marketing imaginable. For more information, visit us online at http://www.realsupportinc.com, E-mail Info@RealSupportinc.com, or call us at 847-705-1655.

pRe-listing anD maRketing pResentation: Walk Into Your Listing Appointment With Complete ConfidenceWhen people sell their homes, they want to be more than confident in the agent representing them. After all, a home is a person’s biggest asset. You have to WOW the homeowner if you want them to choose you as their agent.

A football coach does not go into a game without presenting a winning game plan and an architect does not design a building without presenting a well-thought-out blueprint. Why would a real estate agent go into a listing appointment without a killer marketing presentation?

The point here is not to present them with a generic presentation that they could find by Googling “Home Selling.” You need to make this presentation as personal as possible so that they know they can only get this level of service from you.

The best part about having a Marketing Presentation is that you get to showcase the marketing efforts you’re prepared to offer them; this includes efforts such as extensive online exposure, visual tours, professional photography, home brochures, postcards, social media exposure, open house tactics and more. You have already invested a lot of time and money into these services. Take inventory of what you already do and present it in a professional manner so that your client knows what you can offer them.

We recommend a two-phased approach to your presentation:

1) Pre-Listing Presentation: This is essentially all of your services presented to them in one visually appealing package and sent to them via snail mail or e-mail prior to your face-to-face meeting. It should begin with your biography, your company statistics, your marketing team, and any other piece

IDEA: Present your potential sellers with a Marketing Presentation - “a game plan” - outlining everything you are prepared to do to sell their home.

Pre-listing & Marketing Presentation

Pre-listing & Marketing Presentation

of information you feel is necessary to introduce yourself. The next part, however, is the most important. You need to explain to them, in detail, what to expect when they list their home on the real estate market. It should include information like how to price a home, what a CMA is, and how to get their home ready for a showing. It should also include a cover letter requesting to schedule a meeting, if you don’t already have one scheduled.

The Goal: To educate the seller before you meet with them so that they are prepared. Homeowners want information; if you are the organized professional to educate them, they are more likely to trust you with their home.

2) Marketing Presentation: This presentation, meant to be presented in person, will give them a detailed view of your marketing plan for their home. This is where you’ll want to showcase your marketing tactics: your internet marketing, print marketing, and in-person marketing (open house, brokers open, etc.) It should explain, in detail, your marketing strategies, efforts, and plans for their home.

The Goal: Win over the seller by showing them how much you can offer in terms of marketing.

If you are looking for a presentation to really hook your leads, RealSupport can help. We offer an exclusive two-phased system that includes a Pre-List Presentation, “The Home Selling Success Guide” and a Marketing Presentation, “My Personalized Marketing Strategies to Sell Your Home.” Each presentation is customized to showcase your specific marketing efforts. For more information, options and pricing, visit http://www.realsupportinc.com/services/marketing.cfm, E-mail Info@RealSupportinc.com, or call 847-705-1655.

Website Design & maintenanCe: Provide A Good Resource and the SEO Will FollowThe question is no longer to get a website or not to get a website. We can safely say that most agents have a website. The problem is, most agents settle on the template website that their brokerage provides, or a cookie cutter website used time and time again. Each one comes complete with brokerage branding, canned content, and disappointing graphics. But do you really want to join the masses and settle for a sub-par website?

Remember, when it comes to real estate in today’s market, your website is everything. Your clients don’t typically find you on a billboard or a park bench, they find you by Googling “Anytown USA Real Estate Agent.” When they click through the results page, don’t you want your website to be the one site that catches their eye and actually serves as a valuable real estate resource? This is called “S.E.O.” or “Search Engine Optimization.”

Be the one real estate agent in your area to offer visitors the compelling information that they are looking for. Don’t recycle the material they can already find that was no use to them to begin with. If you are going to provide a website on real estate in your area, do it right!

Step One: Identify Your Target MarketThe way you approach your web copy, design, call to actions and irresistible offers will highly depend on who your target market is. First Time Home Buyers may evoke a more informal tone of voice, more informational content on the home buying process, and eye catching graphics. However, Luxury Home Buyers require a more formal tone of voice, compelling content that explains to them why they should choose to invest in your area, and sophisticated, high end graphics.

Step Two: Outline Your GoalsThe idea is to make your website work for you, not against you. You need to ask

IDEA: Offer the public something that they can’t find anywhere else by providing compelling content on your website.

Real Estate Websites

Real Estate Websites

yourself - What do you want your visitors to get out of your website? Build your site around those goals. You can’t create a website without first creating a strategy.

This is one project where you will most likely need to rely on professional help. RealSupport not only delivers great looking websites, but we also create a strategy based on your specific target market that outlines your goals and creates specific objectives and a roadmap to achieve those objectives. You deserve an attractive lead generating website with custom written SEO’d content, irresistible offers and clear call to actions! We will work with you to exceed your expectations for what you’d expect out of a real estate website.

Real estate WeBsite samples

Visit our website for more samples: http://www.realsupportinc.com/services/web.cfm

PaulineDonnelly.com

ChevyChaseCondos.com

JudyNewton.com

StartingPointRealty.com

Real estate blogging: Connect with Your Clients and Increase Your SEOIt is so important for real estate agents to find a way to connect with their clients. Real estate is such a personal business. People will want to work with you if they like you. The more informative you can be, the more personal you can be, and the more consistently you can have a presence on the internet, the more people will feel a connection to you.

What if there was a way that you could offer information to past and potential sellers and buyers on a regular basis in an informal and conversational manner? What if this form of communication could also benefit your search engine optimization at the same time? The answer to all these questions lies in blogging.

A blog is such a great tool that too many people are intimidated by because they think they need to be technology savvy to use one. First of all, it is not nearly as intimidating as it looks; and second, it is now a common service offered by real estate virtual assistants. If you don’t have the time or knowledge to do it, a virtual assistant team like RealSupport can do it for you. Here is what you need to know to become a regular real estate blogger in no time.

Consistency is Key:If you have a blog, you must commit to it and post consistently. At the very least, you need to post at least once a week. People want to know they can count on your posts as a source of reliable, interesting and consistent information. RealSupport sticks to a specific day of the week for each client. This is a good rule of thumb to follow because it keeps your virtual assistant accountable and consistent with blogging. Even if you choose to blog for yourself, sticking to one day a week can help you develop the habit of setting aside time on that day to write. Being consistent in blogging can also subconsciously tell others that you are organized, on top of your work and reliable.

Keywords are King: The fact that a byproduct of blogging is an increase in your search engine optimization

IDEA: Become a regular blogger for the sake of your business!

Real Estate Blogging

Real Estate Blogging

only makes blogging that much better. You should approach blogging with an honest intention to educate your consumers and connect with them, but never forget that you are ultimately blogging to help your business. If you are going to blog, you have to use your keywords as much as possible. Find out what your keywords are, and write with them in mind. Anytime you can fit “Anytown, Connecticut” or “Anytown Real Estate” into the blog, do it. Then make sure to link it back to your website. Your blog should have 2-4% keyword density. Just keep thinking this one beautiful thought: For every reader who clicks on one of your links, your website goes up a little further in the search engines for being associated with that keyword.

New Listing Blog Post = Great Idea! Let your blog serve as yet another avenue to advertise your new listings. Have your virtual assistant include this step in your new listing marketing efforts. While you’re at it, you might as well announce your price reductions and boast about your solds!

Your Blog Should (Automatically) Syndicate to Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn: Yes, you should have a link to your blog on any and all social networking websites, your email signature and company website. You can even setup your blog so it auto syndicates to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With this syndication, each blog post is instantly fed to your social networking websites, exposing your friends, fans, connections and potential clients to the invaluable information you’ve just posted.

Mention Your Blog on Your Website: We recommend adding a graphical button linking to your blog on at least one page of your website. This also adds a personal touch to your website beyond your “About Me” page. It’s a great way for your clients and potential customers to get to know you. Website information can get out-dated, but your blog will always stay current as long as you are following our ideas. Some websites even allow for a live feed of your blog, so your most recent posts will show up on your home page.

The RealSupport Team can determine the best way to advertise your blog to allow for maximum exposure. For more information about how a virtual assistant can blog for you, visit http://www.realsupportinc.com/services/ marketing.cfm, E-mail Info@RealSupportinc.com or call 847-705-1655.

maRketing eFFoRts: Creating A Foolproof System For Your ListingsReal Estate is no longer the physically intensive labor that it used to be. Why? Because three quarters of anybody’s real estate search is now done on the internet. This means that when you list a property on the market - entering it into the Multiple Listing Service is only the tip of the iceberg. There are tens of thousands of other marketing websites that you need to take advantage of if you want your listings to show up on the real estate radar.

RealSupport has based their entire services around one core concept - the checklist. There are so many steps to marketing a home on and off the internet. From services, to websites, to print marketing, to social networking - the only way to take advantage of all of them and still stay organized is by creating a checklist.

Take Inventory:Take inventory of all of the marketing efforts that you offer to your clients and compile them in a list.

Create Instruction:Once you have done that, you will need to create step by step instructions of how to use each site. The result: your checklist. Not only does it serve as an informative tool, it also serves as a printed document of every marketing effort you offer to your clients. Hand this tool off to your virtual assistant to ensure that they cover every site that you wish your listings to be on and advertise them to your specifications.

Listing Prep:Every new listing checklist should begin with photo prep. Whether you have a professional photographer or you take the photographs yourself, you will need pictures to market your listing on any website. RealSupport offers a photo enhancement service as part of their listing marketing. We use Photoshop to crop, lighten, or adjust your photos for use on all websites before we begin. If you choose to hand your marketing off to a virtual assistant, you will also need to provide them with property features and the seller email before they begin.

IDEA: Have your Virtual Assistant create a checklist for your marketing procedure for a seamless way to list your properties!

Listing Marketing Efforts

Listing Marketing Efforts

Review and Approve:Here is the part where you get to sit back and relax while your virtual assistant inputs your listings into all of your requested sites. RealSupport sends our clients the final product in an email complete with links and PDF attachments of everything we have done for them.

Show It Off To Your Sellers:In a similar matter that you reviewed the marketing efforts, now it is time to send the results to your sellers. Nothing impresses a seller more than an email showcasing every website and printed material that you have created for their property. Once again, you can create your own Seller Email, or you can depend on your Virtual Assistant to send them a nicely packaged e-mail that is sure to WOW them.

Real estate listing maRketing

RealSupport offers our clients package pricing for different types of listing marketing. We work with you and your budget to find what we should include in your listing package. Each and every time you take on a new listing, you will pay us the same amount for our marketing efforts. Whether your listing luxury estates, foreclosures, rentals, commercial properties and/or residential homes - RealSupport can create a customized package that fits your needs. Has this piqued your interest? Browse our website at http://www.realsupportinc.com/ for more information, or E-mail Info@RealSupportinc.com or call us at 847-705-1655.

Print Marketing Materials

selleR RepoRting: Keep Your Sellers Informed and HappyA homeowner is always a little, if not a lot, anxious to know the progress of their home’s sale. If you’ve followed everything we’ve told you so far, you have made promises of marketing their home to thousands of consumers on the internet. After you have gained their business, the last thing you want them to think is that you have forgotten about them.

The best way to keep them in the loop and remind them that you are working hard for them? Seller Reporting.

RealSupport offers a service we call Seller Reporting. We simply gather the hits your client’s listings have received on various websites, and then send them e-mail summaries every week, 2 weeks, or every month. It’s a small gesture that lets them know that you are still thinking about them. It also shows them concrete evidence that their homes are being viewed by dozens, hundreds, or thousands of consumers on a regular basis.

Real Estate Website ReportsHit reports, listing traffic, tour reviews - whatever they may call it, most real estate websites feature a record of how many times your homes are viewed on their site and the sites your listings are syndicated to. Websites like Zillow.com, Realtor.com, VisualTour.com, and ShowingFeedback.com all have great reporting statistics that come free with the service. They are typically very user friendly, and if you have trouble figuring them out, you can always depend on the customer help center for further instruction. If you don’t have the time or the patience, your virtual assistant should be able to handle all of your seller reporting for you. Each website is a little different. Some offer the option to download a PDF, while others offer a link with a graph that shows the viewing rate of each home. Many sites even offer automatic scheduling that eliminates the middle man - you just need to add your personal message, the seller’s email address, and how often you want the report sent out.

IDEA: Show your sellers that you’re working hard for them by keeping them in the loop with listing reports (at no cost to you!)

Seller Reporting

Seller Reporting

Create Your Own Tracking DeviceJust because the website does not have a tracking device, does not mean that you cannot find a way to track your listings. For example, the website Craigslist does not have a tracking system, but a site called www.CraigslistAdTracker.com has found a way to install a tracking device on your Craigslist ads. This can get a little more technical, so it may be a better task for your Virtual Assistant. But just know that for almost every website that has a restriction, there is another website that has created a tool to resolve it - and often at no cost to you.

Make it AppealingThe first step is to take inventory of all of your marketing sites, which ones offer reports, and which ones you will need to create your own report. The next step is to put it all together in an appealing package. List out the reports in an e-mail to your sellers along with some commentary about the success of these particular websites. Include links and attach PDFs. End with a sign off paragraph of how you are staying on top of their listings and will continue to work hard for them. Send the report on a weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly basis. For as long as some listings can stay on the market, you will be surprised how far an e-mail can go to remind your seller that you are still working hard for them.

If you’re curious about RealSupport’s Seller Reporting services, visit http://www.realsupportinc.com/services/marketing.cfm, E-mail Info@RealSupportinc.com or call 847-705-1655.

soCial netWoRking: Connect With Your Clients on A Whole New Level One of the cardinal rules of growing and maintaining any business is through networking. That is why current business owners are lucky to be at the peak of a networking phenomenon that allows us to connect with people, on a huge scale, from one place - the internet. Social Networking is the new media wave that may have originally been intended for young audiences, but it is now available to audiences everywhere with no limit. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are helping businesses make connections and build relationships at an incredible speed. This new informal way of reaching out to your community is a marketing strategy that you, as a real estate agent, cannot afford to ignore.

4 Steps to Social Networking for Real Estate Agents:

1) Strategize: To figure out what you want to get out of social networking, you first must create a strategy based on your goals. Ask yourself these questions before you dive into social media:

· Who is your target market?· What is your geographic location?· What are your time constraints? · What is the tone of voice you like to use with your clients and SOI?· What do you hope to accomplish out of your social networking efforts?· Does social networking make sense for your business?

2) Implement: After you’ve determined your strategy, choose the appropriate social medium, set up your account and populate it with your important contact information and key words. The following are the major social media players:

· Facebook Business Page - Facebook.com· Twitter.com· LinkedIn.com· Flickr.com· Yelp.com

IDEA: Use Social Networking to connect with your community and stay in touch with past clients in an informal and approachable manner!

Social Networking

Social Networking

3) Connect: This is where it all comes together. The purpose of social networking is to connect. Once you have set up your account, you will need to populate your profile with followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook. Don’t be afraid to contact potential leads, past clients, and other agents to ask them to “Follow you” or “Like You.” Capitalize on the old adage “six degrees of separation.” Connecting with one person will connect you to another and another - inevitably leading you to your next home buyer or seller.

4) Maintain: Your social networking means nothing unless you maintain it. If you want your social media to be effective, you need to put in the time. This is where it is best to hire a virtual assistant to do the upkeep. Because this can be a very time consuming process, it becomes difficult for even the best intentioned REALTOR® to keep an updated profile and news feed. Think about your Facebook Fan Page or your Twitter account as the website you always wanted. You have full control over what information you communicate and how often you communicate it – but the site itself is free and you don’t need to be a computer whiz to make changes and updates.

Now the question is what do you maintain it with? Here are some proven thoughts and ideas to Tweet or Post that will keep people coming back to your social network:· Real estate news and articles· Market updates· Quotes· Local news and events based on your geographical location · New Listings or Just Solds

Has social networking piqued your interest? Check out RealSupport’s website for more information and samples on social networking for REALTORS®.http://www.realsupportinc.com/services/social_networking.cfm