Disqus - Latest Comments for geordieromer

Re: Can Twitter Really Increase Your Real Estate Sales?

geordieromer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:21:06 -0000

Social Media can be a total waste of time.

http://www.geekestateblog.com/realtor-on-realto...

The Pareto Principle seems to be pretty strong in real estate and I would guess it's the same here. 80% of agents are using Twitter as a toy and time waster, 20% (or less) are using it as a tool to drive traffic to their website and to connect and build their Sphere of Influence.

Re: Barcamp or Bored Camp?

facebook-1366067620 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:24:00 -0000

I to have been to the same REBarCamps as Geordie, and I was on the steps outside of the Armory at the last Seattle REBarCamp having our own mini session where we talked more about an advanced level barcamp. I agree with pretty much every statement Geordie made on this topic. I can also see Pete, Jim, Jay, and Duke's point that the entire format of a REBarCamp is free form and we are able to head up our own discussions.

The problem is that the "Advanced" sessions, at least from my experience, usually end up being taught to the lowest denominator in the room (due to the number of "101" questions that bog down the hour long session). I know that's not the intent, but in being with the REBarCamp sharing spirit, we as the attendees and session leaders allow it happen.

Maybe the only way for a true "Advanced" level session to take place is to:
1) Let it be known from the start that it is an advanced level session and you need to understand these basic concepts in order to attend (hard to do because this might stymie the # of questions asked or discussion due to attendees being scared to talk - but to an extent that is the goal so it might just work)

2) Create your own "Secret" session and only allow or hand select attendees you know will bring something constructive to the conversation (I could see this working, but I could see how you might miss out on someone who you don't know adding to the conversation).

3) Create your own advanced REBarCamp that costs money to attend. Fly in the experts that would be willing to teach the advanced topics you want to learn, and hope that all of the time and work you put into it pans out and everyone learns something.

What do the people that are tired and bored of the "regular" REBarCamp experience want? Should the goal be to have an entire REBarCamp that is taught at the advanced level, or is the goal to have a certain # of advanced sessions taught at the regular REBarCamp? Hell, do we as the people that are bored even want/need/or care about the regular REBarCamp evolving to the advanced level, or should it stay the same and keep plugging along as it is to teach 101 classes to the masses? If it stays the same, I can see how it will eventually die becuase most of the attendees will eventually feel the same way as Geordie and I (well, at least to an extent).

Any other ideas on how there could be more advanced level sessions taught at REBarCamp?

Re: Barcamp or Bored Camp?

lucykelts — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:43:57 -0000

Where is Todd Carpenter when you need him.

Geordie, the two best things about ReBarCamp is that 1) there are no rules.. and 2) the organizer get to make it what he wants...

It sounds like you may need to organize the BarCamp that YOU want to see. I, for one, will be there with bells on.

With that said, the difficulty you will find is getting really high level people to come, on their own dime, and prepare discussions on their own time, for free. This absolutely limits what you can do.. Typically barcamps operate at a level JUST about the mean average of the attendees. This is good. It means MORE people are learning something.. but some are not.

Re: Barcamp or Bored Camp?

geordieromer — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:09:14 -0000

I agree that the #rebc format should allow me to control my own destiny and lead a discussion or at least host a session. (In PDX, I did lead the final session "Blogger Idol" which was neither the flop it could have been nor the success I wish it was.)

I guess I started out as an optimist and saw session titles that I thought had promise, but ended up being dumbed down - "Advanced" or "201" classes that really weren't.

I also think that some venues aren't really set up for having additional sessions. I think the empty floor at Zillow worked well as did Cube Space in PDX, but the Armory was challenging. I don't think there was more space to be had for additional sesssions, though a group of us did exit to the stairs out front for a bit.

My point is that REBC has some room to evolve. If the goal is to have a barcamp in 5 different cities every month - have fun, but count me out.

I think the best barcamp is the one where everyone present has an opportunity to both give and to receive. It seems to me like the participants have been divided between the presenters and the listeners and I don't think that's particularly fair or interesting in the long run.

Re: Win a Ubertor Website for a Buck. Part 2

geordieromer — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:55:24 -0000

Is that a Canadian buck? Sure, count me in.

Re: The Origins of Influential Real Estate Blogs

geordieromer — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:32:29 -0000

I may not belong on the "influential" (A) list, but it is fun to look back at how far we have come.

I got my start on Jan 14, 2005.

http://iciclecreekrealestate.com/2005/01/14/bra...

At the time I thought blogger was the only place you could blog. ;)

My unfortunate site name was www.leavenworthwashingtonrealestate.blogspot.com

Which eventually turned into www.myLeavenworth.com

Years later I finally made the transition to WP.

Thanks to all of the re.net who have joined me in my journey - it's been fun growing and evolving together over the years.

Re: Buying Ads on Zillow

geordieromer — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:06:38 -0000

Spencer- Thanks for your thoughts. I found Sara's recent post on the Zillow blog to be quite helpful.

http://www.zillow.com/blog/the-top-and-bottom-p...

It sounds like you are suggesting that showcase ads are a successful tool for some agents in branding in specific zipcodes. It also sounds like it can be used as a tool during a listing presentation to win over clients as part of a marketing campaign.

I can see how both might be indirectly helpful for some agents, especially those with weak branding or difficulty getting listings.

I was hoping for more traffic to my website or conversions by buyers on specific listings. As a strong listing agent, I don't have a hard time winning listing presentations, but I certainly would like to attract more buyer traffic to my listings - both online and in real life.

What dismayed me the most was that average CTR for the state are about 1/3 of the CTR that I was getting. Can I really expect that my CTR could be 10x the state average or will the law of averages catch up with me and will my CTR decrease as time goes on?

As I asked Sara:

I’m curious what kind of click through rates (CTR)the successful ads are getting and maybe more importantly, how do they each compare to state averages?

It would also be interesting to know how the zipcodes for the top performing ads perform as far as Zillow answers, # of Zillow listings, and Zestimates.

If there are no Zestimates for a zipcode do the ads perform poorly? If no one participates in Zillow answers, do the ads perform poorly?

I can see how in certain markets, with well crafted ads, Zillow Showcase ads could work. I'd love to hear about others experiences.

Re: Buying Ads on Zillow

srascoff — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:15:46 -0000

Hi Geordie,
Spencer from Zillow here,
I think you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out that the experiment length was too short to draw conclusions. That's one of the reasons we don't even sell 1-month only ads over the phone -- we really discourage it for exactly the reason you experienced. We do allow you to buy very short contracts through self-serve advertising on the website (which is what you did) but our sales reps won't sell contracts shorter than 6 months.

The key benefit of Showcase Ads are that an agent has the ability to "own" a particular territory for a long period of time. Zillow users get used to seeing the two agents who own that neighborhood over and over as they use the site. It positions the agent as the expert on that area to the Zillow user. It may not generate massive clicks in the near-term, but we believe (and our advertisers tell us) that this works. In addition, it's quite valuable in your listings presentation to point out to prospective sellers that if they want their listing to be advertised on Zillow, they need to list with you because you own that Showcase spot on every search in that zip code.

One other thing -- the performance of ads on Zillow differs dramatically based on the type of ad. Photos of agents don't perform well; photos of listings do. If advertisers worth with a sales rep rather than doing it self-serve on the web, we help them build the ad and it performs better. Sara Bonert wrote a great post on this in Active Rain which you'd find interesting: http://bit.ly/j2A1w

Anyway, sorry to have not gained your repeat business. You can't win em all.

Re: Buying Ads on Zillow

geordieromer — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:28:43 -0000

So I spent a few $ for a month to try out Zillow's Showcase Ads. I thought I would try it out for a few months, but have been so underwhelmed, I don't think I will.

I did 3 ads for the zipcode that I work - 98826.

Two ads were shown 50% of the time and 1 was shown 100% of the time.

The first ad promoted an oversupply of condos in Leavenworth. 2 clicks or .17% CTR.

The second ad promoted building lots at Kahler Glen golf course. 10 clicks, .44% CTR. (this was the 100% ad)

The third ad promoted my blog as a source of real estate data for Leavenworth. 5 clicks, .45% CTR

The state average for CTR is .12% so I really did well didn't I?

On the other hand, I only had 17 clicks. 17!

For this amount of traffic it's not even worth my time to set up the ads, much less pay for them.

As I said before, it's not so much the price but the ROI. If I ran all 3 ads for a year would I get a closed sale from these ads? Maybe.

It's so little traffic it's hard to make any sort of judgement call.

I think I'll let someone else fund the experiments from here on out.

Re: Qualify Your Prospects To Convert More Leads

geordieromer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:59:57 -0000

Scripts? Really?

I think scripts are too much about "salespeople" talking instead of agents listening.

I'm not interested in selling to people who don't want to buy a home. I'm interested in helping people solve their problems.

I worked in sales once upon a time that used scripts and for a $100 product it might be ok. I think that real estate has too many liabilities and complexities to fit into that box.

Maybe you'll say that I have scripts because I have most of the answers on the tip of my tongue, but I would disagree. Scripts are about shaping the outcome of the "discussion" so that the end result is the same every time. If you are consulting with your client and looking out for their interest and not yours, I don't think scripts entire into the equation.

Re: What the Funnel is going on around here?

geordieromer — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:27:03 -0000

Thanks for your ideas.

I think it boils down to these questions?

What is the goal of a real estate website?
How do we measure success?
How do we measure improvement?

It sounds like Carolyn thinks that increasing time on site or numbers of actions per visitor is a good metric. I certainly can't disagree.

What I do wonder is how many people are visiting my site, reading articles, searching for homes, and buying them elsewhere?

Are all my readers eventual clients with long incubation periods or am I losing some portion of them to my competition?

How would I know if I am doing a better job with my website or a worse job?

Re: Battle of the (Ad) Network Stars

Geordie Romer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:26:09 -0000

I think it goes back to content. Trulia does a better job so far on content, but Zillow isn't far off either. In my market, none of these have very good content (irrelevant statistics, small portion of the listings, poor maps, no tax data). If there isn't anything sticky for the consumer, why would an advertiser pay to be here?