Mark Eibner:  Welcome to Broker IPTV.  My name is Mark Eibner and we are on official Friday afternoon skype in with Ed Kohler and Ed Kohler is with "Hay Stack In A Needle" and also the author of Technology Evangelist and Ed welcome to the show.

Ed Kohler:  Hi Mark how are you doing?

Mark Eibner:  Super, hey in the spirit of our Friday skype in, just wanted to kind of take a subject we can talk about for three to four minutes, share with our viewers today we are going to be talking about different types of searchers and could maybe you can define for our audience what do you mean by searchers.

Ed Kohler:  Okay in this case by searchers what I mean are people who are over on Google or Yahoo, who are in the real estate market in some way and it turns out that if you take a step back and you kind of think about how people are you know what they are typing in search engines, they had a lot of different phases in the buying process and I think a lot of people with their websites haven't yet created content that addresses all the different stages that someone maybe at.

Mark Eibner:  So what type of information should people have these different types of searches?

Ed Kohler:  For example a lot of real estate websites do a pretty good job of the home search process, so it's really kind of buy side what they have out there.  They tend to be a little weak sometimes on the information they provide to home sellers.  For example a home seller they are trying to figure out you know what's my home work of course that's a very important question to them, but of course they are also trying to figure out if my home is worth this you know what can I expect to get out of it if I sell it and what can I achieve on my next buy with what I have left after you know selling my home and that type of information like that depth of information for sellers is something I don't see a lot of today.

Mark Eibner:  You talk about just basic evaluation tools like a Zillow evaluation something like that?

Ed Kohler:  Yeah it can also be in the form of blog post and just helping people understand all different things involved you know when a transaction from selling one home through buying the next, you know giving people some guidance and also you are kind of demonstrating your expertise.

Mark Eibner:  Sure yeah excellent ploy actually being a little more transparent coaching people through the selling process, so they can get to the buying process, maybe area stats or zip code stats, dial stats something of that nature?

Ed Kohler:  Yeah and that's in the buying process there is also the phase of trying to figure out where in town is a good place to lay off and trying to understand you know what can I get from my money, is that something that I think is still trying to be figured out of mine, for example say someone works in a downtown of a metropolitan area and they want to spend $300,000 and they hope to have a house with a yard because they have a dog or something, so you know there maybe some compromises they need to make in terms of how far they are willing to drive and different types of neighborhoods of things that, type of information that can help guide people towards what neighborhoods or suburbs or whatever should they even be considering and so that kind of stuff they kind of get people pointing the right direction is another area where when people are what said it, you are [Inaudible] [00:03:15] about what sort of terms you might type into a search engine where you could have content that kind of addresses that.

Mark Eibner:  You bet any good sites you can name off the top of your head that agents or companies or demonstrating this type of information for different types of people in searches?

Ed Kohler:  To me the most of I see today is mostly agents who have taken ownership in neighborhoods where whatever neighborhood they happen to work or city they happen to work in, if they have created a blog where they just decided I am going to document everything I can about this and share what's going on, people stumble across those through search because blogs tend to do very well on search engines.

Mark Eibner:  You bet.

Ed Kohler:  But I haven't seen much about words tying it together where they tend to be a stand alone blog and then separate you know an IDX type website, and they are starting to be some mergers there but it's not as elegantly tied together in most cases as it could be.

Mark Eibner:  Okay so we are talking about kind of hyper localism really that's what it's coming down to?

Ed Kohler:  Yep.

Mark Eibner:  Super well once again some great information Ed on our Friday afternoon skype in; appreciate you being with us today.

Ed Kohler:  Thanks Mark.

Mark Eibner:  And we will see you next Friday and so for more great information make sure to keep your browser on Broker IPTV.

Posted in Broker IPTV's "Industry Icon", Real Estate Industry Events, Main category

Mark Eibner:  And welcome to Broker IPTV.  My name is Mark Eibner and we are having another Friday afternoon skype in with Ed Kohler, Ed Kohler is with "Haystack In a Needle" and also the author of Technology Evangelist and Ed welcome to the show.

Ed Kohler:  Hi Mark how are you doing?

Mark Eibner:  I am doing great.  Hey so keeping with the spirit of our viewers, giving some great tit bits of information in a three to four minute time span today we wanted to touch briefly on Google Analytics.  Ed maybe could tell our viewers out there Ed what is Google Analytics, where does one get it and why should we even care about it?

Ed Kohler:  Okay Google Analytics is one of the most popular web stats programs on the web today, so of course provided by Google and if you go to google.com/analytics or just Google, the term Google Analytics you will find it.  The stats program is a relatively easy thing to install, you just put a little bit of code on every page of your website and then Google will log all the visitors to your website and keep track of where they came from, what they looked at, how long you spent on your website, all kinds of things like that so its weird way to kind of keep track of what, how people are using their website and where people came from.

Mark Eibner:  So you say they could go to Google it's a free piece of software they can get a snip of the code and it has to be inserted on every one of their web pages in their...?

Ed Kohler:  So if you work with the web developer you could ask them to set up a Google Analytics account, in fact they may already be running one on your account for you, if you set up a blog for example you may have to just go in and paste a little bit of code into your blog's template like in the footer file for example and then that will just carry across all of your pages.  So it's really a one time thing to get things set up, it's not too bad.

Mark Eibner:  So things that will be measured I guess types of browsers people are using where they are coming from like a time on the site what about key words in the search box that got them to the site?

Ed Kohler:  Yeah Google are first I would, a lot of information about visitors to your website, so it will show you where they came from, whether its they clicked from another website, whether they typed in, your domain directly to call a direct visit or if, if someone ran a search and came over, it will also parcel the jet search turn that used to arrive at your website, so it's a lot of different ways of slicing it out, if you do any online advertising they can also break that out separately whether its Google ad words or ad over on Zillow or Trulia they can track that as well.

Mark Eibner:  So any other key metrics that people should be paying attention to specifically real estate brokers and brokerages?

Ed Kohler:  Well real estate is kind of a tricky one for online metrics in some ways because unlike e-commerce where you have really kind of high volume and a lot of transactions because you are, people are buying something that only costs you know tens of dollars or hundreds of dollars instead with real estate the transactions are very large and the lead volume is just lower because of that.  So its within Google Analytics you can track conversion, so someone fills out an online form on your website you can track that back to where that person, what they originally searched for to get to your website and that will help you figure out what sources of traffic are the ones that are most valuable for you, but short of that another way that you can kind of figure out what's working and what isn't isn't, is to look at the balance rate from different websites which is a measure of people coming to your website looking at one page and then deciding to leave.  If you happen to like say buy an ad in a local newspapers online website and you notice that the balance rate is very, very high for whatever reason the traffic is coming over its not finding really what they are expecting, so they are leaving after one page view, so that's a sign that for whatever reason its just not working, so keep that in mind.

Mark Eibner:  Well I think one thing that's unique to the Internet search world here and working in the Internet in general as far as true analytics is unlike some of our past pieces of media, television and newsprint etcetera you can truly track your results literally click by click where they came from, where they are going, how long they have been there, very unique proposition.

Ed Kohler:  And but generally one thing that, that's still missing today that will, eventually will get worked out is, its very difficult to track offline leads that your website generates.  So if someone calls you after looking at your website that's not necessarily being tied together, but if when people call you be sure to ask them you know how did you find lot about me and you know keep track of that in your CRM system.

Mark Eibner:  Great well hey once again Ed great information for the Friday skype in.

Ed Kohler:  Thanks Mark.

Mark Eibner:  I appreciate your being with us today.

Ed Kohler:  No problem.

Mark Eibner:  And for more great information about real estate marketing technology and everything else involved in the industry make sure to go to brokeriptv.com.  Thanks we will see you next Friday in our skype in.

Posted in Broker IPTV's "Industry Icon", Real Estate Industry Events, Main category

Mark Eibner:  Hello my name is Mark Eibner, welcome to Broker IPTV, another production of IPTV voice media and today once again we are with Ed Kohler and he is with "Haystack In A Needle" and also the author of Technology Evangelist and Ed welcome to the show.

Ed Kohler:  Hi Mark how are you doing today?

Mark Eibner:  I am doing great.  As usual with our Friday afternoon talk, we are kind of bring up a brief subject for our viewers out there, trying to keep our subject matter under three minutes. Today we are going to talk about or you wanted to talk about syndicating listings to sites like Trulia, Craig's list etcetera, do you think that's a good idea Ed?

Ed Kohler:  Well I think its something that lot of people are trying to figure out how to navigate these waters where I think it's a, it's a way to get some free traffic to your site, but there maybe some hidden costs or some that people need to at least understand you know as far what's the playing field of syndication today.

Mark Eibner:  What do you mean by hidden costs?

Ed Kohler:  Well for example if you know just to make sure what we understand what a syndication is first is where if you are an agent or a broker, you can push your inventory to sites like Trulia or Zillow, Craig's list in some ways.  If you do that, one of the costs can be lot of these sites have what its called a fremium service where they have a free level but then they, from there have a lot of step up levels where if you want to have your logo up here or there or exactly how the information is presented on the site some of those are, involves monthly fees to the site, so you know you have to think about that stuff before you push your content out there.

Mark Eibner:  Yeah you are telling, ListHub would be, Point2 or ListHub are two products I can think do the syndication out of MLS systems?

Ed Kohler:  Yeah those are two very popular ones along the line of programs like that another consideration is if your listing is pushed out to Trulia or some sites like that...

Mark Eibner:  Right.

Ed Kohler:  If people click back to the original site, which site is it that they go back to, are they going to a Point2 version of your listing or are they going back to ListHub version of listing, maybe your board has a website and people end up there or you have your own website, do people end up there, there is a lot of different places where say Trulia could send people, so you know in most cases I think an agent or a broker is going to have the best chance of eventually closing that lead or that you know turning that visitor into a lead, if they get to them to their own website.  So its, its worth understanding how these programs are you know designed so that you are getting what you are expecting to get.

Mark Eibner:  So I think good lesson here is people should trace all their listings through these different syndication portals?

Ed Kohler:  Yeah I understand that you know if they are giving you something for free there is possibly a reason why you know there is value in them having access to your data and being able to push that data out.  So in a lot of cases they know that just a large enough percentage and doesn't even have to be very large percentage but a large enough percentage of people will be willing to upgrade to some sort of a premium service.  So if you don't upgrade of course when your listing appears in some of these other websites you may not look as good as some of your competitors you know, so you are kind of in a position where if you are going to be in Trulia or if you are going to be on Zillow you may as well look well you know because what happens if your seller goes and looks at their listing on all these websites and your listings in comparison don't look that good.

Mark Eibner:  It's a dog, no photos and the links going over to some RE/MAX office.

Ed Kohler:  Right yeah.

Mark Eibner:  What do you think the sellers expect this or sellers are even cognizant of this, syndication?

Ed Kohler:  Yeah I think its still pretty early for a lot of this stuff I think sellers do understand Craig's List today and lot of sellers will actually take their own listing and create an ad even you know without the knowledge of their agent over ran Craig's list, but Trulia and Zillow while they have been around for a while and of course very well known among real estate professionals, you know when I talk to people about sites like Trulia and Zillow who are in the industry its still a foreign concept to them, so.

Mark Eibner:  So interesting ones, I have noticed Zillow, to me Zillow is kind of dropped off the map I don't even hear about them any more.

Ed Kohler:  They don't have the buzz they had before, but they are still doing quite well I think.

Mark Eibner:  Yeah what about where do realtor listings really belong then Ed?

Ed Kohler:  Well I think you know every broker; every real estate agent needs to make up their own mind about where the listings go, everyone has their own strategies for marketing their, their businesses.  So my advice is to wherever you can put your listings make sure you look good, so be professional in whatever it is that you do, don't bite off more than you can chew.

Mark Eibner:  Yeah right keep your personal and company brand up.  Hey Ed it had been great talking with you again, syndication of listings very critical I think to any broker's success in the future appreciate your being with us today.

Ed Kohler:  Thanks Mark.

Mark Eibner:  And we will see you next Friday and for more great information make sure to keep your browser on Broker IPTV.



Posted in Technology And YOU, Main category

BrokerIPTV:  Today we are talking with Paul Mulley from Colorado Home Warranty and Paul welcome to the show.

Paul Mulley:  Well, thanks for having me.

BrokerIPTV:  Thanks for being here, Home Warranty's what are they and how do they work for those people who are unfamiliar?

Paul Mulley:  Basically Colorado Home Warranty works, when you buy a home, lot of the owners or, new owners of the home are kind of little paranoid about the condition of all the appliances, and all the systems in the house, and so I think it would kind of give them a little bit more assurance, because we do cover the hot water heater, your furnace all your systems in the house.  So, if anything does break down during that first year of coverage, it will only cost the home owner like $55 for a service call, so when you are talking $1500 worth furnace or, whatever you are talking, considerable savings.

BrokerIPTV:  Yeah, no question all right, so my hot water heater goes out and you know its 2 o'clock in the morning and what do I do, how does the process work?

Paul Mulley:  Well, don't call me at 2 o'clock in the morning.

BrokerIPTV:  Okay.

Paul Mulley:  No, but typically we do have after hours numbers as well, and so what we do is when we get the call, and within an hour we will contact a contractor to service your needs, typically if you get somebody out there within a couple of hours after the home owner first calls us, so it's we are, we do try to respond very, very quickly.

BrokerIPTV:  Okay, so he comes out, he ascertains I need a new hot water heater, and my charge to me, because I have a Colorado Home Warranty, it's a $55 service charge and that is it.

Paul Mulley:  That is correct.

Paul Mulley:  Even though typically a hot water tank is four or five, six, seven hundred dollars.

BrokerIPTV:  It sounds like a good deal.

Paul Mulley:  That is a good deal, I mean it really is, I mean the hot water heater and furnaces are the biggest two liabilities so to speak for the home owners, so if you can come with those well, we build our business quite, quite well.

BrokerIPTV:  Now, some people may be familiar with people who provide home warrantees on a national level, but you are a local company, and there is advantages to working with a local company.

Paul Mulley:  Well, we believe so and that is kind of why we did this, did so well for last ten years.  A lot of your national companies, you call the 800 number and you will get tied up in the phone maize, and they will call you back a day or two later.  I think some [Inaudible][00:02:04] heat you know, and so in the middle of January in the snow storm you want somebody out there immediately, so we provide ourselves in trying to respond a bit quicker you know.

BrokerIPTV:  Well, I know from experience from working with you in the past, you guys have personal contact and you have a local call center, so I think that is important.

Paul Mulley:  I think we should try to personalize our service you know to most of the real estate market, and so I think they enjoy that, and it works out well for both parties, because we try to make the agent look like a hero, so if somebody calls the agent and says hey my hot waters heater is down, who do we call you know agent calls me and he goes hey you want my business next week, you better fix it for right now, but that I mean it's not like that, but we do cover it very, very quickly.

BrokerIPTV:  All right, people naturally would be concerned with the contractors that are working on their house or replacing, how do you go about selecting your vendor?

Paul Mulley:  Most of them, we do get from the real estate community, so like when we talk to the agents, we say okay who is your good [Inaudible][00:03:00] guy or, who do you really have had a good response with the plumbing person you know, so we really rely on our clientele to provide us with the better trades people, and that works out pretty well.

BrokerIPTV:  And you have had a long relationship with many of these people.

Paul Mulley:  Ten years now we have been in business and you know Colorado Home warrantees so, we are working on a second decade so you know.

BrokerIPTV:  That is great, Paul good information thanks for being with us.

Paul Mulley:  Thank you appreciated, thanks for the time.

BrokerIPTV:  Appreciated.

Paul Mulley:  Take care.

Posted in Home Selling Services, Main category

BrokerIPTV:  Today we are talking with David Douglas, a board member for [Inaudible][00:00:03] and an agent with Keller Williams, David welcome.

David Douglas:  Thank you very much, thank you for having me.

BrokerIPTV:  In the previous segment we were talking about social media and marketing, and I want to talk more about marketing right now, and specifically E-mail, because I would say that the majority of the real estate world is fully engaged in E-mail, whether it's transactions, talking with their buyers and sellers, but E-mail marketing is that still alive and well?

David Douglas:  I think E-mail marketing is definitely still alive, I think it's on the way out eventually.  I think eventually no one is going to be doing it, because people want to get information back, people want to go out there and sent request information, they don't necessarily want to, you blast them everyday, but I think somewhere in the next five to ten years E-mail marketing could potentially be dead for the masses.

BrokerIPTV:  So, Outlook is never closed on my computer, but you could foresee a day where my Facebook page is never closed.

David Douglas:  Correct, I think Facebook would definitely be one that would be open along with Twitter, Outlook is definitely always going to be something that we love and we enjoy, I don't think Outlook is going anywhere, because we need it to manage our lives.

BrokerIPTV:  Yeah no question about that.  How about some advanced features these days with E-mail campaigns?

David Douglas:  Okay.  Most agents think Outlook is nothing more than E-mail calendar and you're to do list and your contacts.  They think they are all separate, in the reality they really do all integrate together using categories, categories is huge and most people never get into categories, and that is part of the E-mail marketing and getting stuck out to your clients, because if I get a free four day pass to get or free four passes to go to skiing or to go golfing, I am going to send it out to my [Inaudible][00:01:48] or to my golfers or my skiers that way I am targeting just them.  The other thing is people don't use the contact linking on that, in other words you have a buyer, a seller, a lender all involved in the contract, I will make sure I put them all into my contacts, and I link them all together that way if I ever go back to you and my buyer, I say who all was involved with this transaction right here.

BrokerIPTV:  May be one of the things you could teach everybody is, when to use the reply all and when not to use the reply all?

David Douglas:  Oh my goodness, you know the number of the agents that have called me up and said "You know what David, I made a booboo, I have said, I have replied back to some people, and I should not have said what I said, is there anyway to get it back."  Really no way to get it back, what you had sent say goodbye, but one of the things that I have told people in the past I said you know what, use rows, set up a row in your outlook to differ sending E-mails for two minutes, that way if you hit send and if you get to do that attachment or you send that E-mail accidentally and you realize you replied to all, you can stop it right then and there.

BrokerIPTV:  All right, so may be one of the final recommendations we can give people when it comes to E-mail and Outlook and so forth is, get a class, is that right?

David Douglas:  Yes and [Inaudible][00:03:02] Denver board of realtors, I have got a three week class, three hours a day like we will do it like on a Wednesday for three hours straight, and we will do it for three weeks just to get people started on Outlook from beginning to end, that is the biggest thing is to get a class, and to hire someone who knows what they are doing to help them along.

BrokerIPTV:  David thanks, I love it.

David Douglas:  Thank you very much.

BrokerIPTV:  Appreciated.

David Douglas:  All right.

Posted in Traditional Marketing, Main category