RealLead Blog

How many Benjamins are you Spending to Sell a Listing?

This is a question we’ve been curious about here at RealLead — so we set-out to conduct some research. We found that most Realtors (on average) are spending around $750/listing – now this includes a percentage of marketing expenses, like: MLS fees, board fees, developing/printing flyers, taking quality photos, running ads, SEO, hosting open houses, [...]

4 Birds, 1 Stone…

You know about the old adage of “killing two birds with one stone” — well how about 4 birds? Now let’s substitute the word “kill” with “acquire,” “birds” with “leads” and “stone” with “RealLead strategies.” Makes more sense and is less offensive to bird lovers (like me!). Our strategy here at RealLead will actually help [...]

Why Realtors Should “Listen” to Tweets

Realtors should utilize Twitter like Google – and enter search terms to see if anyone is searching for a Realtor in their area. Better yet – you can set-up keyword alerts, so that you’ll be informed whenever someone tweets your keywords. Examples of keywords Realtors can set-up alerts for are: your name, your business name, [...]

Would Your Customers Buy this Tee-Shirt?

Ever wonder if your customers would buy the “I Love My Realtor” tee-shirt?? Ever wonder what the heck it even means to be considered an “Excellent Realtor?” We here at RealLead did wonder — so we asked! Would your customers say you meet these qualities? .Qualities that Warrant the Title: Excellent Realtor! #1. They respond [...]

5 Reasons + 10 Rules: Realtors Blogging

Okay, you can admit it – most Realtors’ relationships with their clients look much like this: Realtor helps client find property – Relationship ends. Now wouldn’t it be great if your clients stayed in touch with you long after they purchased a property with your assistance? Okay – maybe not ALL of your clients, but [...]

RealLead at the RE/MAX 2012 Spring Agent Conference

Posted by reallead on March 27th, 2012

RE/MAX of New England boasts 240 offices and close to 3000 agents. RealLead was excited to present at their 2012 Spring Agent Conference in Boston last week. We were also excited to see the other real estate tech start-ups:

“It was great to see so many innovative technologies being developed to help buyers and sellers. It’s a great time to be in real estate,” said RealLead CEO Caroline Cummings.

Presenting along side us were Joe Buczkowski, Founder and CEO of LeaseRunner.com; Michele Serro, Founder of TheABCTool.com; and Chris Drayer, CMO of Real Satisfied. Not only did the convention have great up-to-date tools to share with their Agents and Brokers, but they also had incredible inspiration speakers as well – including:

Steve Harney and Aron Ralston provided advice and motivation for everyone in attendance. Harney started his venture as a real estate agent, and grew his own real estate company to over 500 agents. After hearing his motivating story, we had the privilege of hearing the inspirational account of Mr. Ralston, who spent nearly a week pinned by a half-ton boulder and severed his own arm to survive. Documented in 127 Hours, Ralston reveals how to tap into the fundamental human experience of facing and conquering immense challenges.
We at RealLead found the convention to be inspirational and innovative, and we were honored to have been invited to speak andshare RealLead.com with their Agents and Brokers. If you don’t believe us, check out what others said at the conference!

Our CEO Speaking at Inman Connect in NYC

Posted by reallead on March 14th, 2012

How to “Speed Match” in Real Estate…

Posted by reallead on March 7th, 2012

RealLead Invited to Speak at RE/MAX of New England Conference

Posted by reallead on March 6th, 2012

**RealLead Invited to Speak as one of Today’s Tech Gurus in Real Estate**

Showcasing mobile marketing technologies at RE/MAX Spring Conference in Boston

EUGENE, ORE. – RE/MAX of New England has invited RealLead to present their one stop shop mobile marketing lead capture and analytics tools to their base of 2700 real estate agents and brokers at their Spring Conference. The conference will be held on March 21, 2012 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

RealLead, a mobile marketing and real-time lead generation company based in Eugene, Oregon, has developed tools that allow agents to connect interested buyers and renters with property owners in real-time by combining the latest mobile marketing technologies with an online lead marketplace that is MLS-specific. This powerful union allows on-the-go connections to happen through any mobile device.

RealLead sends text and e-mail alerts to the listing agent as soon as a consumer requests property information from their mobile phone – including the consumer’s real mobile phone number, the property they are interested in, their city and state, and the marketing material that generated the lead (i.e. lawn sign, newspaper ad, magazine ad, postcard, CraigsList ad, flyer, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Agents are given up to ten mobile marketing campaigns per listing. The agent can follow-up immediately at the consumer’s point of interest in the property.

A consumer can text, scan a quick response (QR) code, or call a local number to hear an audio recording of a listing. If they text or scan the QR code, they are immediately sent to a mobile optimized property website with all of that property’s photos and details. If the consumer calls the number provided they will hear an audio recording of the listing, and also be given the option to send the property photos and details to their mobile phone.

“Response time, coupled with a measurable mobile marketing strategy, are critical to securing and selling listings in today’s real estate market,” say Caroline Cummings, RealLead’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “The real estate industry is undergoing a paradigm shift, where consumers’ want instant property information. Consumers want an agent to contact them within thirty minutes of their interest in a property, and agents want quality leads with real consumer data. RealLead helps facilitate this connection,” Cummings shared.

A 2007 study conducted by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University findings indicated that the odds of connecting with a lead increases by 100 times if called within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes. Additionally, a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2007 reported that a lead coverts 22 times more often when contact is made within 5 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes.

“We are very excited to have been invited to present RealLead at RE/MAX of New England’s spring conference in Boston. Connecting with real estate agents who are seeking the newest and most innovative real estate tools is an important component to our partnership strategy. RealLead is different from other mobile marketing tools on the market because we’re focused on helping agents and brokers win more listings and close more deals by utilizing the most comprehensive lead capture technologies, and measuring the effectiveness of their mobile marketing campaigns. Agents and broker owners receive a free mobile marketing dashboard that shows exactly which mobile technologies are being utilized the most (QR vs. texting vs. audio), as well as which marketing materials are providing the most real-time leads,” stated Cummings.

Katy Robinson, RE/MAX of New England’s event manager shared, “it’s important we invite the most innovative technology companies to speak at our conferences. We want our agents and brokers to know about how they can best help their customers buy and sell properties by utilizing tools that provide quality data. We first heard Caroline Cummings speak at the Inman Connect conference in New York City back in January, and it was apparent RealLead’s mobile marketing tools make good business sense. Their Pay-Per-Lead plan is nice because our agents can add mobile marketing to all of their listings for free. It gives them the opportunity to try-out mobile lead capture and see if they should include it in their marketing mix.”

A current RealLead customer, who is also a broker owner recently shared, “RealLead offers our office mobile with meaning, and being able to measure the impact of our mobile marketing campaigns is extremely important to the property owners we represent.”

About RealLead:

RealLead.com is a technology company headquartered in Eugene, OR, that provides mobile marketing, an MLS-specific lead marketplace, and a national network of real estate websites to residential and commercial real estate markets. The drive is to help connect interested buyers and renters with property owners in real-time. RealLead offers two mobile marketing plans which gives agents the flexibility to choose the right mobile plan for each property. The Pay-Per-Lead mobile plan is free to set-up and agents only pay when they claim or forward a lead ($0.99 – 2.99). The Unlimited Leads mobile plan is only $9.99 per month, and is great for listings that receive a lot of lead activity.

Website: www.reallead.com

Twitter: @RealLeadNews

Facebook: www.facebook.com/RealLead

About RE/MAX of New England:

Since its inception in 1985, RE/MAX of New England has grown to over 220 offices and 2700 sales associates throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, providing residential and commercial real estate. RE/MAX is proud to help raise millions of dollars and support charitable organizations like, Susan G. Komen For the Cure and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Website: www.remax-newengland.com

Twitter: @REMAXNE

Facebook: www.facebook.com/remaxne

Blog: remax-newengland.com

CONTACTS:

Caroline Cummings

CEO | RealLead.com

541-505-9826 | office

877-737-3255 | toll free

PO Box 11048

Eugene, OR 97440

info@reallead.com

Katy Robinson

RE/MAX of New England

Events Manager

(508) 655 – 9400 | office

8 Strathmore Road

Natick, MA 01760

KRobinson@remax-newengland.com

###

Generate Real Leads via CraigsList

Posted by reallead on February 29th, 2012

If you advertise your listings in CraigsList it’s very easy (and FREE) to add RealLead’s mobile marketing codes and increase your chances of generating real leads:

Sample CraigsList ad with mobile marketing…

How to add free mobile marketing to your CraigsList ads:

Sign up for RealLead at: www.reallead.com – it’s free to add mobile marketing to all of your listings!

After signing up, you’ll want to make sure you’ve created a CraigsList campaign on your ‘Campaign Set-up’ page (found from your Account page – top right). While on the Campaign Set-up page, enable one of the available campaign spots and name it CraigsList. Save the campaign, and go back to your Properties page. Click the ‘Marketing‘ button for each property that you are advertising in CraigsList. Scroll down to find the codes for the CraigsList campaign, “copy” [highlight and CTRL C (PC) or CMD C (Mac)] the mobile content (like seen below):

Text (541) 854-0100 and type 334
or call to hear an audio recording of property

When a consumer utilizes these mobile codes, you will immediately receive a text alert informing you that “New Real Lead: 123 Mian Street from your CraigsList campaign.” The alert will also include a link to CLAIM, FORWARD or DECLINE the lead (sell it in our Lead Marketplace – we share 10% revenue credits back with you).

We recommend only including one or two property photos in the CraigsList ad to entice consumers to want to see more.

How 5 minutes can change your life…

Posted by reallead on February 28th, 2012

More and more REALTORS® are recognizing the value of having a mobile marketing strategy to help them win more listings and close more deals. Being able to respond to a consumer at their point of interest in a property can make all the difference in connecting with that consumer and converting them into a lead. Below are some astounding statistics – from extremely reputable sources – about how response time is critical to doing business today:

The odds of connecting with a lead when you respond within 5 minutes increases by 100x then if you responded in 30 minutes.

The odds of converting a lead if you contact them within 1 hour of their interest is 7x more likely than if you contacted them an additional hour later – and 60x more likely than if you contacted them 24 hours later.

Research from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) conducted in February 2010, showed that 89% of consumers indicated response time is very important when choosing their agent.

So what’s your mobile strategy for connecting with potential customers?

Visit RealLead.com to add mobile marketing to all of your listings for Free!

What’s all the Tweeting About?

Posted by reallead on January 19th, 2012

As the CEO of RealLead, I was excited to get the opportunity to share our free mobile marketing tools on stage at the Inman Connect conference last week in New York City. It was great to hear so many Agents and Brokers talk about the need for having a mobile marketing strategy in order to reach today’s consumers. If you missed the conference below is our 5 minute demo – and below that are some of the great Tweets about our technology. Thanks for the great support! We’re excited to offer a top quality mobile marketing tool to allow Agents and Brokers to generate more qualified leads in real-time! Follow is on Twitter: twitter.com/realleadnews

Comparing Mobile Phone Lead Gen Tools

Posted by reallead on January 4th, 2012

For the real estate industry, it’s imperative to have a mobile marketing solution for generating real-time leads for your listings. Below is a chart that compares the current mobile phone technologies that allow you to generate leads – including when the technology was first used, consumer usage, consumer adoption, and whether or not it’s hit a tipping point in the market.

One of the things we do here at RealLead is track mobile marketing trends. For example, QR codes are all the rage right now, but we know they will soon become obsolete, or morph into something that provides more ROI to the businesses using them. SnapTags may begin to gain market share, or augmented reality – if that’s the case, we’ll modify our mobile marketing tools to meet the consumer adoption needs happening in the market. So you can sell listings, while we help you generate real-time leads…

Comparing Mobile Lead Gen Tools

if you find any other data – please post it here so I can update this content. Thank you!

Two Real Estate Industry Predictions for 2012

Posted by reallead on December 30th, 2011

It’s that time of year when people start making predictions about what’s to come in the year ahead. The real estate market is no different – we all want to know what lies ahead for home owners, buyers, sellers, realtors, banks, investors, mortgage companies, and real estate technology…

We’ve scoured the Web and below are the two themes based on overall market behavior and trends. One is about properties, and the other is about technology…

#1: Ubiquity of Real Estate Owned (REO) Properties: Several people are predicting that the large inventory of distressed properties will continue to plague the real estate market longer than anticipated. According to the RealEstateInsiderNews.com site – “The number of homes repossessed by lenders in the first half of this year dropped 30 percent compared to the same period in 2010. But foreclosure processing delays — with lenders taking longer to take action against delinquent borrowers — is stalling the housing recovery.” Therefore, an estimated 1 million foreclosure-related notices for defaults, auctions, and home repossessions that should be filed by lenders this year will be pushed back until next year, according to the latest report by RealtyTrac.

There are several benefits to buying REO properties. Examples include:

All liens against the property are removed once it becomes an REO, and taxes are paid.
The bank or lending institution that owns the property will often offer financing with better deals than they would offer on traditional properties.
Lenders and banks do not like holding REOs on the books, and try to get rid of these as quickly as possible.

Click here to read other benefits listed by The Bigger Pockets Blog.

#2: Mobile Solutions Become Essential for Realtors: We have seen an unprecedented growth of mobile technologies this past year, and it’s only projected to continue growing. Consumers today utilize their mobile phones to research, shop, connect, share, and much more! It has fast become our main mode of connection – especially when we consumers want immediate information.

According to NAR (National Association of Realtors), in 2011, smartphones made up the majority of all US cell phone purchases. Ginger Wilcox, head of industry training at Trulia, says that “mobile solutions for real estate pros will be essential to help agents connect with mobile consumers.”

Actually, technology competence in general will become the norm in the real estate industry. We’re already hearing stories about how consumers don’t want to work with a real estate agent who doesn’t understand mobile marketing, web marketing or the need for sharing all property information upfront. It’s actually a great time to be a Realtor – you have access to so many amazing technologies that help you win more listings, close more deals, communicate more effectively, and position yourself as tech-savvy.

We also recommend following Stefan Swanepoel on Twitter, New York Times best selling author. He’s also a business, leadership & motivational speaker, as well as a real estate trends strategist. He’s created a great Twitter list of the “The Most Influential People Online in Real Estate.”

[photo source: http://kimcurranrealtor.wordpress.com]

Free Signup for Mobile Leads – For Real…

Posted by reallead on December 21st, 2011

Today is an important day here at RealLead – we’ve officially moved from Private Beta into Live Beta. Any of the users listed below can sign-up for RealLead, and activate properties with unique mobile codes for FREE! Yeehaw! This means you can:

Sign-up – for free!
Activate all of your listings with Pay-Per-Lead mobile plan – for free!
Set-up multiple mobile marketing campaigns – for free!
Track where you leads are coming from on your personal Dashboard – for free!

Are you?

A Realtor®?
A Broker Owner?
A Commercial Property Owner?
A Property Manager?
Selling or Renting a Property (FSBO, FRBO)?

If so – then you’re eligible for RealLead’s mobile marketing tools. We’ve made it easy for you add mobile marketing to your properties – so give us a try – it’s:

Free to sign-up
No contracts
No hidden fees
No risk

You can try before you buy – isn’t that fantastic!

We offer two mobile marketing plans:

PAY-PER-LEAD: Free to set-up, only pay for the leads you want to claim. The leads are either $0.99, $1.99 or $2.99 each (depending on the level of data we collect from the consumer on your behalf).
UNLIMITED LEADS: If you have a property getting a lot of traffic/activity, you may want to upgrade that listing to Unlimited Leads and only pay one low monthly fee of $9.99 – and you’ll get to claim all leads.

Watch video below to see an Overview of RealLead: