Trends in Smart Home Technology

When it comes to home automation and technology, it’s getting seriously exciting out there. Falling Price points for smart home equipment, and the availability of supporting mobile device apps for control and monitoring, have made much of this tech affordable for the do-it-yourselfer or homeowners of modest means. More and more homes are incorporating smart home features and equipment every day, and failure to properly highlight these features is a missed opportunity, particularly when marketing to millennials and other tech-savvy buyers.

Most Brokers probably don’t have a lot of fully equipped smart homes in inventory, but many homes may have some built in features that can be highlighted.  Even if they don’t have any, however, the wireless nature of modern smart home systems makes almost any home a candidate for some really cool and affordable tech. So the real question for brokers is: How are you using trends in smart home tech to market your homes?  Are you creating a vision of the smart home for potential buyers even when a home isn’t yet equipped? And when it has some capability are you highlighting it?

Smart Home Capabilities For That Selling Advantage

If you don’t have connections with reliable smart home or security system companies, you probably should. These systems are often integrated together and present some amazing capabilities for the homeowner.

1. Voice control: From Amazon’s Alexa to NEST, Sonos and Lutron systems, the voice-controlled home is the tech to beat. These popular fully-integrated home systems allow users to control lighting, thermostats, music systems and much more with simple, effective voice commands.
2. Aesthetic networking: Technology is as integral to modern homes as plumbing or electrical systems, yet the networking these systems require always looks like a cluttered mess – until now. Tech-savvy home buyers are choosing attractive, unobtrusive Wi-Fi routers and systems that are hidden in walls and ceilings or meld perfectly into their design aesthetic.
3. Watch Your Home – From the Beach: Remote video monitoring of your home, your babysitter, your dogs, even locking/opening your doors and turning on the A/C is all something you can now do while lying on the beach.  Affordable camera systems in your local electronics store can be easily set up, are wireless, and you can connect to them using an app on your smart device or tablet.
4. Indoor air quality monitoring: There’s nothing better than a breath of fresh, clean air – but how can you ensure that that’s what you’re getting in your home or apartment? Electronic sensors can monitor air quality for VOCs (volatile organic compounds), C0₂ levels (carbon dioxide), carbon monoxide levels and even humidity. They can also be linked to systems that then expel the unhealthy air and introduce clean, filtered air into the home.
5. Motorized window coverings: Automatic, motorized shades for windows are seeing a significant increase in interest, whether they are being used for security, privacy or just convenience. They can be set on timers to open and close at specific times of the day, and can even be integrated into your home control system.
6. Outdoor TV: Want to catch the game while you’re BBQ’ing and watching the kids in the pool? Well, an outdoor TV is the solution. Homeowners are showing significant demand for these devices which have become more affordable than ever before.

Smart Homes Are Both A Technology And A Vision

While fully equipped “Smart Homes” don’t come into your inventory every day, your ability to talk the technology, have good partners for consultation and installation, and to create the vision for clients as you walk through homes can differentiate you and help you close the sale. Smart homes are an idea whose time has come and real estate agents can use this to market homes, whether they are smart home ready or not!

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/trends-smart-home-technology/

Affiliation: Is There Really Value In Joining Forces?

The short answer is “yes”. The longer answer might be finding the right match. If you were motivated enough to get your broker’s license and start your own agency, then you probably know your way around your local market and the competition in the area. You were probably an above average earner as an agent, but decided you wanted the added reward of running your own business. You achieved your goal, but you also inherited lots of other added responsibilities from doctoring deals to making sure the trash is emptied at night. If you ever wished you had some support to get ahead of it all, you are not alone. In this day and age, where technology and marketing changes at the speed of light, it can be difficult to keep up. This is where affiliating and joining forces with a company who has already figured out systems that work and has the resources to keep up can help your brokerage go from surviving to thriving.

Here are three ways affiliating can bolster your business:

• Greater Sustainability: The 2008 financial crisis was a terrible time for the real estate industry. The housing market was no longer the backbone of economic growth and investment opportunities and its failure created what many feel was a lost decade in the industry from which we are still recovering. For many brokers, the market remains volatile and inventory is now a constant challenge. In the aftermath of this period, many brokers from both groups struggled or went out of business. Weichert Franchisees on the other hand largely survived and even grew during this period.  See this video from franchisee Mark Thomas as he discusses the Weichert tools and philosophy that helped him weather the crash of 2008.
• Better Time Management:  Successful real estate brokers are generally experts at the sales process who are driven to grow the size of their business.  Running a brokerage is a massive drain on resources, money and time, and many brokers find themselves bogged down as a key producer for the brokerage, leaving little time to spend on actually growing their company. If you are an independent brokerage owner, it starts and ends with you – from recruiting agents and running marketing campaigns to managing payroll and even sitting in open houses. With no partner to share the load, you may find it impossible to get out in front of the day-to-day demands of listing and selling in order to actually move the business forward strategically. Franchising relationships can provide needed support and direction, freeing up time and resources that can be better spent on making your business a success.
• Stronger Local Identity: Many business owners fear they will lose their identity by affiliating, but this does not have to be the case. With the right partner, not only can your brokerage continue to be a reflection of you, but that identity can grow stronger because you gain so much more. You are able to offer more to your clients and more to your agents, which amplifies the brand presence you’ve already built in your market. It’s not a matter of partnering with a real estate franchise – it’s about partnering with the best real estate franchise for your brokerage.

Why Affiliate with a Real Estate Franchise? Considerations for Real Estate Brokers

In considering a real estate franchise partner, many things are important. Do I want to continue in my current business model? Am I determined to figure out my growth and marketing issues on my own? Do I believe a partnership with a recognizable national real estate brand can help me? And last, but not least, with so many options out there, who can give me the guidance I need without compromising what I’ve built and my ability to make decisions for my business? If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions, then perhaps you should be talking to Weichert. Contact us today at https://www.weichertfranchise.com/.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/affiliation-really-value-joining-forces/

The Importance of Local SEO For Your Brokerage

Local real estate brokers understand the importance of being featured in online search engines and have for many years now. What most of them don’t understand, however, is how to get there. More importantly, a pretty website doesn’t get the job done, unless people can find it when they need it. With strategic, localized Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for real estate brokerages, you can increase the odds that it is your brokerage that is found when buyers and sellers are looking for a real estate partner.

What is Local SEO?

While Search Engine Optimization is the generally used term, local SEO focuses on competing with the websites of businesses in your area. Essentially, it’s a digital version of your town’s phone book or Yellow Pages, except that it makes your business far more accessible to more people. Here’s a couple of statistics to digest:

• 97% of people use the internet when searching for a local business.
• 98% of searchers choose a business that is on page 1 of search results.
• 80% of searches overall are done on Google, followed by Bing and Yahoo. (Statista)
• 93% of mobile searches are done on Google. (Statista)
• 96% of home shoppers used the internet to search for homes. (NAR 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)

Making Local SEO Work for your Brokerage

Despite these promising statistics, it’s not enough to simply put a website online and wait for prospective homebuyers to walk through your door. This is where a solid online real estate marketing strategy comes into play, and knowing a few simple things can make a big difference in your visibility.  And the good news is that there are tons of online resources that can teach you how to do any of the items below. Or, you can hire a local expert to help do this for you.

• Claim Your Google Business Profile: If you search for “real estate agent near me”, what comes up?  Hopefully, a map listing which contains your office, but if not, you’ll want to address this right away. Your Google Maps profile must be claimed and optimized for your business by logging into your profile and getting Google to send you a postcard. Then optimize your profile with as much information as you can. This will put you on the map for local searches in your area!
• Keyword research: Keywords are essentially the phrases your customers are likely to type into Google that will likely to bring them to your business. For example, if you own a brokerage in Albany, New York, you would want to target keywords that relate to home for sale, foreclosed homes or buying a home in that town.
• Website audit and analysis: Before you implement your SEO strategy, you need to know where you stand and that means auditing your website. Analyze where your website is landing on Google for keywords you want to rank for to discover where your weak points are (ideally, you want to be on the first page of results) and set up a system to generate monthly reports to see where your strategy is delivering and where more effort is required.
• Website optimization: Once you know what your website is ranking for, you can optimize it to target areas where you are weaker or where your real target market is. Adding pages with relevant content based on your keywords, or including keywords in current website topics will help make your website more discoverable by Google. In addition to optimizing your written content, remember that images, video and other content can likewise receive the same treatment to add further authority to your ranking.
• Consistent content production: Google’s algorithms focus on active websites that are pushing out regular, up-to-date content. One great way to add this to your website is through a blog where you can post company news, exciting new listings, advice for homebuyers and so forth. By utilizing your targeted keywords in these blog posts, you’ll claim further SEO rewards. Similarly, they can be posted or linked to your different social media accounts to get more exposure and interest.

Time, Skills and Expert Execution Add Up to Optimal SEO for Real Estate Brokers

In this day and age, digital real estate marketing is key to being found where consumers are searching. However, it’s one more thing that Brokers’ need to stay on top of, along with sales, recruiting, marketing and running a business. When you are going it alone, it’s tough to keep up. That is where a partner like Weichert can be truly valuable. Contact us today at https://www.weichertfranchise.com/ to see what we can do for your business.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/importance-local-seo-brokerage/

Don’t Let Your Brokerage Get Caught In “The Shiny Penny Syndrome”

There’s one thing for certain about the real estate industry–there is no shortage of gadgets, downloads, software tools, or marketing services targeted to brokerages. And as a broker, it’s easy to get distracted – you’re afraid you’ll be left behind if you don’t take advantage of the latest and greatest thing out there. At Weichert®, we call this “The Shiny Penny Syndrome”.

Essentially, this occurs when a company jumps to chase a shiny, new opportunity, service or product instead of focusing on mastering the basics of running a business. Often, these products and services offer to make your lives easier by saving time, helping to maximize efficiency, effectively marketing your brokerage, getting more listings or even helping your business survive the latest economic crisis.

It’s important to learn to navigate this minefield, if you are a broker looking to grow in a challenging housing market. There are so many shiny pennies out there that it’s easy to end up jumping from one promising new real estate tool or marketing idea to the next in an increasingly rapid and costly cycle, while the core elements of the business like how to recruit, write an effective business plan, maximize agent production and monitor key performance indicators get less attention than they deserve.

These shiny pennies are marketed so well and with such urgency that brokers often forget to ask pivotal questions like “How will it fit in with my current business goals?”, “What real results will it bring?”, “Where will I go for support?” and “What operational changes will be required in order to actually get the benefits of the product?”. Most Brokers know they must adapt and innovate to stay current and effective in an ever changing landscape.  The real challenge is knowing how to balance innovation with the basic activities and systems needed to run a successful brokerage and build a business.

Innovation With Purpose

A key to successful innovation is to focus on the benefits to your core customer and core operations, rather than innovating for multiple seemingly attractive, trendy options. Important questions to ask when considering a new product, technology or marketing service include:

• Will this help me achieve the business goals I’ve set for myself this year?
• Will this help me or my agents better service and communicate with our customers?
• Will its use enhance the credibility of my brokerage or my agents?
• How can I measure the effectiveness of this investment in 3 months, 6 months, a year?
• Am I committed to doing the work and training necessary to use the tool or process effectively and consistently?

Strategic growth through planned and proven marketing for brokers

One of the things an affiliation with a credible Real Estate Franchise Company can provide is a guide who can steer you to the best of real estate innovations while keeping your business plan on track. The Weichert System gives you proven, productive systems, technology and activities to implement for nearly every aspect of your real estate business, including real estate marketing, selling systems, recruiting, a lead system and business management. With comprehensive training, ongoing support and expert coaching from our real estate professionals and a parent company with first-hand brokerage experience, you’ll feel relieved knowing you have people in your corner. You’ll never have to go it alone again. Our support staff will work with you to map out a road to growth.

At Weichert, we’ve already paved a road for success. All you have to do is take it. Visit us today at https://www.weichertfranchise.com.

Originally posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/real-estate-broker-marketing/dont-let-brokerage-get-caught-shiny-penny-syndrome/