Top 5 Mortgage Questions Among Home Buyers

© 2009, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

What credit score do I need to get a mortgage loan? How much can I afford to pay each month? Do I qualify for an FHA loan? How do I get pre-approved, and which type of mortgage is right for me?

These are five of the most common mortgage questions we have received through the Home Buying Institute website, over the last six months. I know this for a fact, because I spent the last three days sifting through hundreds of emails in order to pull out these FAQs.

Today, I posted a new article over at AdviceForAgents.com that answers these five mortgage questions. And you can republish this article onto your own website or blog for free (as long as you abide by our rules for publishers).

Here's the article:
Top 5 Mortgage Questions Among Home Buyers

Here's the introductory paragraph:

"Here's what we did. We reviewed all of the questions emailed to the Home Buying Institute over the last six months. Then we made a list of the most common mortgage-related questions sent in by home buyers, and we answered them below. What's the result? A must-read article for first-time home buyers! So here they are, starting with the most common mortgage question we receive..."

If you would like to publish this article onto your own website, just click on the link above. The guidelines for publishers are right up at the top of the website, and hard to miss. This is a really helpful article that answers common mortgage questions, so it will make a great addition to your real estate website or blog.

17 Ways to Generate More Real Estate Leads Online

© 2009, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Viable leads are the lifeblood of any real estate business. They are the seeds from which new business relationships grow. They are, in essence, the key to client acquisition.

But many agents are at loss when it comes to generating real estate leads on a regular basis. Sure, they realize the importance of it. And they know they have to be proactive in order to generate new leads and grow their businesses over time. But when it comes to the actual implementation of strategies and techniques, these agents get stuck.

In this article, I've compiled a list of 17 techniques you can use to produce more real estate leads online. All of the strategies involve the use of your website, your blog, search engine optimization and other web-based elements.

And if you're really serious about this topic, you'll be glad to know that all of these items are covered in detail in my lead generation book for agents. It's the best-selling ebook in the history of this website, and you'll find out why when download your copy!

But I digress. Let's move on to the mission at hand. Here's a helpful list of techniques for producing viable real estate leads through your website or blog:

How to Produce Real Estate Website Leads

1. Clean up your website. I am constantly amazed by how unbelievably cluttered a lot of real estate websites are. What hope do you have of generating leads if people can't find anything on your site? Start this process by determining your "action paths" (next item).
2. If you want people to take a certain action on your website, you need to (A) define what that path is and (B) make the path very easy to follow. Map it out on paper. Think about the goals people have when they visit your site. Help them find their way, and they'll be more likely to stick around.
3. Assign value to every action you ask people to take. Increase the value of what you're offering. Tell people what's in it for them. The stronger the value of your offer, the more real estate leads you stand to gain. If you have nothing of value to offer people, then you're not ready to market your services -- go back to the drawing board.
4. Understand the difference between web traffic and leads. I once spoke to an agent who claimed to have over 1,000 unique visitors to his website every week. Care to guess how many inquiries he was producing from that traffic? Zero! He thought traffic was the ultimate goal, when in truth it's merely a stepping stone. Don't make this same mistake.
   
5. Use multiple strategies to produce leads through your website and/or blog. As we progress through this list, I'll offer plenty of ideas you can implement across your site. But the best strategy for real estate lead generation is a combined strategy, one that employs various techniques.
6. Experiment with FAQ programs. These are software tools that you can install onto your blog or website. It adds interactivity to your site, which increases the likelihood that people will contact you in some way. (This is explained in more detail in the lead generation manual, by the way.)
   
7. Experiment with chat programs. You have no doubt encountered a customer service chat program while surfing the web in the past. Many companies use them these days. If you have an office manager or customer service rep who's in front of a computer during business hours, you could pick up some extra real estate leads with a chat program. (This is also explained in the e-book.)
   
8. If you don't have a real estate blog already, it's time to start one. You can have a blog up and running in a couple of days, and it's a great way to encourage participation from readers. Many of the people who leave comments on your blog will be local buyers or sellers, which means they could become your next client.
9. Blog often to increase traffic to your website. This is the primary benefit of blogging programs -- they make it incredibly easy to publish new content on a regular basis. The more information you publish, the more search engine visibility you'll enjoy. This in turn will increase your web traffic and (if you use the other techniques on this list) the number of real estate leads you produce. Here are some content ideas to get you started.
10. Create landing pages to capture more real estate leads through your website. A landing page is a "stripped down" web page that presents something of value and asks for a certain action on the visitor's part. It removes all other distractions and thereby increases the likelihood of a conversion.
    
11. Increase traffic to your key pages, the ones where you have lead generation techniques in place. Make sure they're a prominent part of your main menu. Practice cross-linking across your site to send more people to your key pages. Try using callout graphics / links to direct people where you want them to go.
12. Generate more leads by improving the overall quality of your website. If you have a well-designed and neatly organized website, people will be more inclined to trust you. Trust is the first step to encouraging a response from your visitors.
    
13. Put your phone number in a prominent location on every page. Hint -- mot people will look for it in the upper-right section of your header. This is where phone numbers usually occur on business websites. This simple technique has been proven, time and time again, to increase the number of leads and inquiries.
14. Why not launch a second website, blog or web forum? If you're still struggling with the first site, keep your focus on that. But if you already have a successful web presence that produces traffic and leads, why not duplicate that success? It won't cost you much, aside from your time and energy. And it could potentially double your lead-generation and client-acquisition rates.
15. Use your website in conjunction with offline events, such as home buying seminars and other educational events. You might even experiment with online "webinars" using a software product like GoToMeeting. Of course, you'll need decent levels of site traffic to get people to sign up, which is the key to success with all of these techniques.
    
16. Partner with local mortgage brokers, home appraisers and others in related fields. When used properly, cross-marketing can be an effective tool for business growth. And you can take this technique onto your website as well, by creating a separate "pitch" page for each professional in your network. Of course, they would do the same for you.
    
17. Come up with the next "big idea" in real estate lead generation. This list represents things I've done in the past, for my own websites and those of my clients. Often, however, the best ideas are the new ones -- the techniques nobody has ever tried before. So put on your thinking cap and come up with your own unique strategy for attracting clients online.
    

Top 10 Lead Generation Techniques - Explained

If you found this list helpful, and you'd like to learn more about the various ways to generate real estate leads online, you should download a copy of this e-book. You can get a copy today and start putting it to use tomorrow.



In this book, I've outlined the strategies that have worked best for me on the Home Buying Institute website, and also on the website of past clients. In other words, it's like a "greatest hits" collection of lead generation techniques.

9 Ways to Increase Web Traffic in 2009

© 2009, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Anyone with a business website can benefit from an increase in web traffic, and that obviously includes real estate websites. Increasing your traffic makes all the other aspects of Internet marketing a lot easier.

With more traffic, you'll be able to...

• Increase your visibility within your market area
• Generate more leads from your website
• Enjoy more feedback from your web visitors
• Make your website more profitable overall
• Grow your business by tapping an infinite audience

In other words, when you increase your web traffic you make your entire Internet marketing program more successful. I think we can all agree on this so far. The question is, how do you get more website visitors? What kind of marketing techniques can you use to drive more traffic to your site?

This is where a lot of people get stuck, and it's often the result of vague articles and "tutorials" published online. These articles stress the importance of increasing web traffic, but they don't offer any specific tips for doing it. So in this blog post, I'd like to give you a list of specific techniques you can use to increase your web traffic consistently over time.

But first, a couple of key points:

Point #1 -- Website traffic is not the ultimate goal of your Internet marketing program. It's a good first step, but there are more steps to follow. To benefit from your web traffic you must find a way to capitalize on it. For real estate websites, this usually means generating leads and inquiries.

Point #2 -- Not all of the ideas on this list will apply to your business, your audience and your marketing goals. So you'll have to experiment with the strategies you feel are most applicable to your situation. But with so many ideas on one page, you're bound to find something that works for you.

Ideas for Web Traffic

With those disclaimers out of the way, let's jump right into the list. I've mined all of the articles and e-books I've written in the past to come up with a list of proven strategies. I hope you find it useful in your web marketing efforts.

1. Do a thorough round of keyword research to identify topics and phrases with the potential to drive web traffic, and then make sure you're covering them on your site. If you need to, add pages of content to cover all of your key phrases.
2. If you're not already blogging, start a blog and publish content through it on a regular basis. This is a great way to implement the topics you identified in the previous tip.
   
3. Add new content to your blog as often as possible. The more keyword-rich content you have on your site, the more search traffic you can earn. Here are some content ideas to help you update your blog on a regular basis. And speaking of blogging for traffic ...
   
4. Follow the news and blog about hot topics on your website. Nothing drives Internet search patterns like the media and current events. You'll get a lot more traffic from search engines if you do this on a regular basis.
5. Create your own real estate maps with listings, open houses and other events. You can use Google Maps to do this, and it's easier than you think. I've created a real estate mashup guide to help you get started. This will keep visitors coming back, and it will also make them more inclined to recommend your site to others.
6. By adding useful resources to your site (like the map idea above), you are also making your website more link worthy. When other bloggers and webmasters link to your site, it will boost your search engine rankings. And that means even more web traffic over time.
7. When you make noteworthy additions to your website, you can also distribute an optimized press release online. If you do it right, this can help you increase web traffic and search engine visibility at the same time. Just make sure you have something newsworthy to say before using this strategy.
8. Experiment with pay-per-click marketing with programs such a Google AdWords. You could put your sponsored listing at the top of Google for certain key phrases, and you could have it there immediately (depending on how much you bid). Just be sure to do some research into AdWords marketing before using this strategy. It's a good way to increase web traffic, but it can also be a money-loser if you don't know what you're doing.
9. Download your copy of Top Ten Agent and learn how to increase your search engine optimization with proven SEO techniques.
   

So there you them, nine ways to increase your website traffic for online success. Actually, each of these ideas will naturally lead you into other techniques for traffic generation. So you could use these ideas every day for the next year and never run out of ammunition. Good luck with your Internet marketing.

12 Ways to Find More Real Estate Clients in a Slow Market

© 2009, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Times are tough for most real estate agents these days. Slow markets and a general lack of clients have driven some agents out of the industry completely.

But then there's always that one guy or gal in every market who seems to whether the storm with ease, attracting more real estate clients while other agents come up empty. How do these agents do it? Well, they probably cast a wider marketing net for one thing. Smart agents realize the importance of diversity, when it comes to marketing. There are dozens of ways to find more real estate clients in your city or town, and the more channels you use the better.

Nobody can tell you how to run your real estate marketing program. You must find your own way, based on your own strengths and weaknesses, your specific marketing goals, and your personal preferences. But it always helps to have ideas to ponder, and that's what this blog post is all about. Below, I've made a list of ways you might be able to find more real estate clients in your market.

Ways to Find Real Estate Clients

Not every idea on this list will be right for you. How you promote your business will depend on what you're trying to accomplish. But with so many marketing and networking ideas in one place, there's bound to be something worth trying.

1. Conduct a home buying seminar for first-time buyers in your town. Now is a great time for this kind of strategy, because first-timers are apprehensive about the real estate process. Who better to talk them through it than you? It's also a great way to get clients
   
2. If you don't already have a Facebook account, set one up as a way to connect with old friends and colleagues. I've spoke to more than one agent who gets an occasional real estate client through their Facebook connections.
3. You can also experiment with some of the other networking websites. Here are some that have a business focus: LinkedIn.com, gibLink.com, Ryze.com and Spoke.com.
4. Start a blog, if you don't have one already. You can install a blog onto your existing website in less than an hour, and it's a great way to publish new content on a regular basis. This new content will help you pull in more traffic via search engines, and that could mean more real estate clients as well.
5. Keep a handful of business cards on you at all times. You could encounter a potential client when you least expect it. Imagine you're standing in line at a coffee shop and you overhear two people talking about the real estate market. One says she want to buy a home soon. There's nothing wrong with saying, "Excuse me. I couldn't help but overhear..." And then you offer a business card and go along your way.
6. Does your car advertise your services? If not, you might want to consider a magnetic sign. A lady who lives up the street from me drives around with her sign on her car, and I know two people personally who have contacted her for help selling their homes. Her magnetic door sign is generating real estate clients from the neighborhood, and it's not costing her anything extra.
7. Have you experimented with door hangers / flyers? I never put much stock into this before, as a marketing technique. But in the neighborhood where I've lived the last four years, there's an agent who puts her real estate newsletter on my door twice a month. It doesn't have the usual stock content and fluff -- it has real market data, recent home sales, local real estate news, etc. She is the only agent doing this, and as a result I hear her name mentioned by my neighbor's all the time. They say things like, "Did you see the Jenny report this month?" She's like the unofficial neighborhood agent for this whole area, and I'm sure she gets a steady stream of real estate clients from sellers in the area.
8. Networking with local bankers and mortgage brokers is always a good way to get more real estate clients in your town, especially if they're not already partnering with an agent. It's a mutual marketing technique that has a long history of positive results.
9. Does your local chamber of commerce have monthly meetings or social events? My wife used to attend these events all the time, on behalf of the bank where she worked. She said it was a networking extravaganza, and that there was always a real estate agent or two in the crowd. I'm sure those agents were getting clients from it, or they wouldn't have been coming back each month.
10. Have you considered expanding your services to include collateral area, such as home staging for sellers? This full-service approach is a popular trend among real estate companies right now. One of my former clients (a Dallas brokerage) had a lot of success with this. They paid a professional home stager to give an in-home consultation to their home-selling clients, and it set them apart from most of their competitors.
    
11. Real estate PR is always a smart (but often overlooked) strategy for agent marketing. Local news outlets are always looking for insight from the field, especially in times like this. For example, you could contribute to a newspaper article about how it's a great time for qualified buyers to purchase a home right now, despite reluctance many consumers are feeling. You've probably seen agents in your local newspaper before, or even on television. Why not let it be you next time? It's a surefire way to get more real estate clients -- and it doesn't cost anything but time and effort.
12. Many agents claim that referrals are their biggest source of new business. This comes from treating clients right during the relationship and, more importantly, helping them succeed with the sale or purchase of the home. When you add to this an effective follow-up program after the sale, such as birthday cards, you have another source of clients.
    

Hopefully, this list of marketing and networking ideas has caused those little synapses to start firing in your brain. What kind of ideas can you come up with? What motivates you toward action? Which marketing techniques do you get excited about? Those are the ones worth pursuing.

Attracting more real estate clients is not a "one-size-fits-all" concept. There is no right or wrong way to start the process. You have to experiment with different strategies and find something that works for you.