About Saint Clair County, IL

This week we've been talking a bit about calls to action you might use to turn casual visitors into active prospects. One of the most obvious calls to actions is a plain old "Contact Me" page on your website. Many times you might have linked to this throughout the site, but in any case you want a site visitor to be able to find this page right away when he or she visit your site. Putting the information in tiny type at the bottom of the page does not do the trick. Especially these days, when many wonderful online companies are virtually impossible to contact in person (i.e., Amazon.com), having your contact information as a top level navigational bar is very important. After all, do you want people to look at your pretty website or sell them a house?

In this internet age, people still like to communicate in different ways. Your contact page should give them that option. The means list a phone, maybe a cell phone, fax, and email address - even if you are putting that information on the top of a form where you are asking them for information. If you have an online chat option, list it there, even if you have repeated it throughout your site. By the way, if you have an online form for your visitors to fill out, make sure you respond quickly.

If your company is big enough to have different departments with different phone number, list them on your contact page. That same goes for email addresses. If you have 20 agents in your office, you don't want a long list on the page, but if want to direct email for Buyers, Sellers, Closings, etc. to the property place, listing a few is helpful. People feel more secure if they feel assured their correspondence is being directed to the right person or department.

Make sure you include your address, perhaps along with a link to directions to your business. Maybe this seems simplistic but including your location helps customers realize that you are right in their neighborhood. Even if you are part of a franchise, your address will distinguish you from your sister companies. This hardly seems like rocket science yet the address is hard to find on many sites.

These days, it is often possible to have your web leads feed right into your database. Make your sure to set up the form so it will be easy for information to land up in the right field while being customer friendly. For example, if you want your leads entered as "Ms. Margo Smith" (3 field), then have three boxes in your contact form. There will always be some visitors who don't want to reveal their identity so they will write "TUWXYZ" or "Margo" or "Minnie Mouse," (usually not in the right box!) but most visitors will comply.

Your webform should be simple, with a minimum of instructions, survey questions, or other things t o distract the visitor. It might include disclaimer that your will not sell or misuse the information. Of course, if you have some to send those who reply- i.e., Reply now for a free report on Selling Your Home High When the Market's Low - repeat the offer here.

Moving website visitors to buyers is what it's all about! Take a look at your website to make sure your contact page is easily accessible and inviting for visitors to fill out!

Commitment: I will start looking at my website to make sure it does its job.

Your job description does not include "encyclopedia." Even if you are a local area expert, intimately familiar with the properties in your town, you probably do not know how many bedrooms the home at 10764 Adams St. has or know the exact dimensions of the lot at 52 Morrison Ave. without looking it up.

If you handle a lot of property or do a lot of advertising, you or your staff could spend considerable time fielding information calls about property details.

Here is a case where Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology can be a big help to you. By dialing a hotline number, interested buyers can learn about properties of interest. When they want to talk in detail about a couple, they can press a key to get through to the operator. This technology can also be used make automated calls to real estate prospects to dispense information about mortgages rates, property availability, .or special programs. The IVR will, of course, have a strong call to action associated with it. You can be on the job collecting leads even when the office is closed.

Customers may sometimes be frustrated with automated home systems but an IVR can also give them access to property information 24/7 - a convenience in line with people who are suddenly struck with a house Jones at 3 am after driving around earlier in the day.

IVR technology is a perfect example both of how you can orchestrate work without having to do it all yourself and how you can incorporate technology into your business. It can give you a competitive edge that is worth trying.

The good(sort of), the bad and the ugly.

The drop from the 3^rd quarter 2007-2008 was at -9%. From 2008-2009 it is - 10%. So consistency seems to be the key here (good...sort of). What this also shows is that the continued slow down. in the O'Fallon Real Estate market is not quite over(bad). In the last quarter of 2008, 76 homes closed. If one were to use the data above we could expect somewhere in the range of 62 homes closing in the 4^th quarter of 2009(ugly). Right now in O'Fallon there are 60 homes under contract. If this number is expanded to include those with a contingency contract the number climbs to 68. Currenlty there are 246 homes for sale.

The wild card is how many folks will purchase and close before the tax credit runs out at the end of November. The National Association of Realtors projects that between 1.8-2 million first time home buyers will take advantage of the credit. That comes out to about 350,000 home sales nationwide as a result.

We are currently in the window where a buyer could still go under contract and get a home closed in time but that window will be closing shortly for most buyers. For more info on the tax credit click here. Short sales continue to rise, these are very attractive to home buyers however the time needed to get many of these to closing may be prohibitive to take advantage of the credit in time.

Some things speak for themselves. Or do they? If that were the case, everyone would vote the sameafter a candidate lists his assets. In fact, politics, and political candidates, generate great differences of opinion among people who hear the same thing or read the same thing listed on a campaign flyer.

Around a political campaign, campaign strategists endeavor to change popular thinking about their candidate. Part of their efforts are to convert the opposed; there comes a point where they focus on winning the undecided.

Keeping that in mind, no TV ad, no print ad, no photocopied flyer omits the desired call to action: Vote for ________, your best choice for __________. Insert the name, insert the cause.

In real estate advertising, the point is the same. Unless you are doing public service advertising, if you are promoting yourself or your company, remember to include a call to action in your communications. You want to involve the reader or viewer to take an action that will result in their becoming your client!

You may be good, with the best reputation in town, but you still need to ask potential clients for their business.

Give me a call! Visit my website! Visit my open house! Fill out my contact form!

Make a commitment: I will include a call to action in my communications.

If I were a betting man, I'd say that the homeowners tax credit will be extended. That doesn't mean it will happen, of course, but the tax credit is hardly the only reason to buy a home. Interest rates on conventional loans are available starting at less than 5%. That is certainly a long lasting incentive for qualified home buyers. Add that to that the income tax advantages and the general life-enhancing benefits of having a place of your own, home ownership remains a good choice for many.

While the concept of homeownership sometimes sells itself, real estate agents still are salespersons. It is trendy to portray ourselves as "real estate consultants" and such, but we still must still sell ourselves and the properties we represent. Sometimes, we even need to sell the benefits of homeownership to a wavering potential buyer.

We need to be able to nimbly move from one benefit to another when dealing with buyers, regardless of credits, interest rates, or whatever subsequent new thing is further incentive to buy.

Make a commitment: I will keep finding a fresh approach to working with clients.