Angie Perez @NJRETODAY & @AgentKnowHow

In September of 2008, I got an email from a local marketing guru about Twitter and how the guru refused to use Twitter as a marketing tool. I had never heard of Twitter at that point. I was not even using social media or social networking sites to build up my Internet presence let alone my real estate credibility. I had a LinkedIn account and Facebook profile, but I was relatively a "no show" on the latter sites until that email.

From that unsuspecting email, I created my Twitter handle: NJrealtor1. I had absolutely no idea what would come from my use of Twitter, but I figured that one message with 140 characters, 3 times a day about things that I was doing in my business was an easy task to handle. Micro blogging seemed simple enough to do from the web or from my cell phone; it is not time consuming and it costs nothing except your desire to answer: What are you doing right now in 140 characters or less.

So, here I am, almost 696 tweets later, I find myself with over 400 followers, which in the Twitterverse, is a relatively low number, yet I find that I am absolutely satisfied with my tweet leads. Yes, I have leads from Twitter and that's the beauty of Twitter. People who follow you are generally interested in what you do, what you tweet about and as you reply (@username) or Direct Message (DM) each other, you can start to build a relationship with your followers or even the people you choose to follow. (Yes, it is true that people who follow you may also want to sell you something and fortunately, you have the option to block people who are only interested in pitching you, but more about that later).

The following are my Top 10 Tips for Practical Uses of Twitter for Real Estate Agents. These Twitter Tips have earned me clients and I have had some success worth blogging about, but please note that what works for me, may not work for you. It works for me because I am committed to tweeting. I also like sharing.

Without further ado, here are your top ten Twitter tips.

1. Create an account with a Twitter username that has something to do with real estate. I created two Twitter accounts under different names: One was under my full name: Angie_Perez and another NJrealtor1. I find that since I have the word realtor in my twitter name, I get more followers related to my industry based on my NJrealtor1 name despite the fact that I tweet about real estate topics from both accounts. With a handle like NJrealtor1, you automatically know what to expect from my tweets without having to read my bio. I believe this is the reason people choose to follow me under this username more so than under my full name.
2. Once you have your Twitter account, set up favorable settings. From the web, click on settings in the upper right hand corner after you create your account.

• Add a Photo. Realtors like you and me are notorious for being a little vain in that we brand ourselves with our face, our name and our company logo. On Twitterverse, your photo or icon is important for quick recognition from your eventual followers. Keep your image consistent and do not change or update it.
• Notices. You have three options to choose from. Do you want to receive notifications from Twitter that you have a new follower, a new DM or an email newsletter that you receive with the inside scoop. I find that an email that I have a new follower can be an interruption to my day. I would rather know when someone sends me a direct message only. (You can only receive DMs from people you follow back). As a result, I have my settings to send DMs, in one email as I receive them.
• Set Your Location To Your Market Area. You have 30 characters for your location.
• Do not select protect my tweets. You want people to follow you and sometimes when your tweets are made public on the Twitter public timeline, you might pick up a new follower or two.
• Your Bio is 160 characters: I have "Saving the Economy One House Sale at a Time." This is a good place to display your elevator pitch or to highlight your interests along with how you want people to relate to you.
• Add your homepage or blog url so that you can redirect people to your website.
• You can add a Twitter Widget to your blog or website for additional exposure.
• Find people in your sphere of influence that are tweeting. You can look for people on your AOL, Yahoo or Gmail network. Once you search for them, click on follow and as a courtesy, you can expect for them to follow you back.
• Background Use freetwitterdesigner.com to customize a background for easy recognition. If I were you, I would start tweeting first and when you are comfortable with Twitter, use freetwitterdesigner.com to differentiate yourself. Or try twitbacks.com, which will allow you to display links to your website and web addy to your other business networking or social networking profiles.

3. Start Tweeting About:

• Open house dates, times and location. Include Broker's Open, then provide updates about what's happening at the open house or Broker's Open.
• Success stories of what is sold in your area by you, for how much and how long did it take.
• Provide market updates or news, including a link to where you found information that could be helpful to your followers.
• Add your blog titles and web address or urls for people to read and comment on.
• Ask questions and answer questions.
• Tell about your new listings or the type of house your new buyers are looking for.
• Tweet about the places you like in the neighborhood or upcoming events. People looking to move want to know what is there to do in town.
• Retweet content or other people's useful information to show you are reading and truly following other people.
• Talk to your followers. Use @yourfriends name and DMs when appropriate. @yourfriendsname is visible to everyone, especially if your tweets are public. DMs are visible only to the person you are directing your message to.
• Share your experiences about your products or services that you have used or intend to you.
• Ask for and give referrals.

For the full blog post, continue reading here:

http://njretoday.com/2009/08/top-10-practical-uses-of-twitter-for-real-estate-agents/trackback/

Recently, as I am looking online and on sites like Twitter, I am seeing a trend of Do-It-Yourself Loan Modification Tools and/or 3rd party representatives who charge a fee ($500-$3000) to assist homeowners in the loan modification process. I am almost certain that the number one question you (the homeowner) have on your mind is: should you trust the DIY loan modification tools or even a 3rd party to assist you in your modification?

I am going to share with you two personal stories that I think will help you answer the above question. If you are struggling financially, many mortgage companies are inclined to work with you to help you stay in your home since the cost of liquidating a property could be 1 full year of no interests payments, unpaid insurance, taxes, property maintenance once you vacate, lost of property value and then even the cost of hiring an REO agent, possibly even vandalism, winterization, attorney fees, etc, which are all expenses for a mortgage company.

First, what you should know is that I've had success helping clients modify their loans when they are one to two months behind on their payments. Let me be clear. I am not advocating that you should be late intentionally as that would be unethical. However, I've had clients that tried to modify their loan before being late and they were not successful. In fact, many went through the loan modification process albeit online and did not receive feedback or even a call back from their lender when they weren't late on their mortgage. Then, after one to two months consecutive late payments, they were given the full attention they deserved.

Second, you are well within your means to modify your loan on your own. Here are the items that you need to prepare. Please note some or all of the following items may be asked for.

1. A hardship letter with 3-5 paragrahs outlining or tells a story as to what causes you to not make payments on time. Examples might include: Lost of income from unemployment or change in job position, divorce, lost of a spouse's income from unemployment, death, health, burden of taking care of extended family unexpectedly, change in interests rate, etc.
2. Make a list of your monthly expenses: Food, clothing, car and insurance payments, telephone, credit cards, child support and/or alimony, gas or commuting expenses, entertainment and hobbies, HOA fees, taxes, mortgage, charities, tuition, medical, house maintenance, utilities and other misc expenses. If you are a small business owner, independent contractor or self-employed professional, you might need to provide a list of business expenses and/or an updated profit and lost statement.
3. Provide a copy of two of your most recent bank statements and paychecks. Some banks may even ask for your 401k, 403b account amounts.
4. Have handy your w2's or 1099s from previous two years: 2008, 2007.
5. You will need to know the approximate value of your home, which is where someone like me comes in i.e. a Realtor. Realtors in general are more than happy to provide you with what we call a free market analysis for an opportunity to be considered to be your seller's agent, assuming you do not qualify for a loan modification. It is also possible that the mortgage company may order an appraisal.
6. When you receive your first default notice (the notice that reminds you are late on your mortgage), call the 1800 number that connects you to your bank/lender/mortgage company's short sale, home retention or lost mitigation department. Ask to apply for a loan modification. Some of the information I reported above may be collected over the phone at the time of your first call and you will have to follow-up with a packet that comes to you in the mail. Expect to sign off on disclosure forms that say what you are providing is true to the best of your knowledge. Some people might be think can't I do this online as well and the answer is yes, but that depends on your lender. In fact, as I stated in the beginning of this post, I had success with clients who called as oppose to filling out the online forms.

Continue reading the full blog post on njretoday.

http://njretoday.com/2009/11/should-i-hire-a-company-to-help-me-modify-my-mortgage-loan/trackback/

Selling real estate is like waiting to popcorn to pop. Right at the moment when the client heats up and decides to buy or sell, you want to be the first person that they think about and contact.

Oftentimes, you encounter a client that you immediately connect with; they have "good" credit; the means and a sense of urgency to buy or sell, but since this is the biggest, financial decision most people ever make, they (potential and future clients) need time to get it right.

Time is a manageable and sometimes predictable variable Realtors can use to fill their pipeline with great clients.

One of the programs that I use to remain in constant contact with current and past clients, current prospects, and even my centers of influence is Constant Contact, which is a popular entry-level, web-based service for the creation, distribution and management of email newsletters.

Constant Contact is optimized for non-techies who want a fast email promotions. Over 90,000 small businesses, associations, non-profit organizations and Realtors are said to be utilizing their online service. If you are familiar with any word processing program, you can easily use constant contact for your email marketing campaigns.

Constant Contact provides easy-to-use tools for developing attractive email newsletters, managing email lists, and handling distribution issues (compliance with spam laws, bounces, unsubscribes and filters). It also provides tracking tools and reports for evaluating results.

Such a powerful tool is free for 60 days and basic membership is merely $15 per month; it's free for small business owners with less than 50 contacts.

Even still, for $15 a month compare to hundreds if not thousands of dollars that one might spend in direct mail or some other form of advertising, you get the most bang for your buck.

Because since email marketing is so cost effective, you should know that people are swamped with email promotions. The trick for realtors is to create very specific groups or contact types; send the contact what they want to hear and what they are interested in (generally this includes autoemails of property listings) and try to keep emails short and sweet.

If you've been in the business for more than a year, it is likely that you have a website with some great content. You've paid monthly for professional writers to generate this content for you. One of the ways to you service your existing clientele and get traffic to your site is to provide emails of one topic, one paragraph, and a link to your site so that your contact knows where to get more information.

For tips like the one above, visit BizIntros.com TONIGHT, June 23rd 9p.m. EST for a Live Chat discussion on Constant Contact and email campaigns. Click on Live Chat on the upper right hand corner, next to instant messager,and bookmark; wait for the chat manager to pop up and select the room called Marketing techniques.

I am a Master Salesperson. As Such, I am always guided to say and do the things that contribute to my success. Each day, I walk and talk like the master salesperson that I am. . .This is part of an affirmation that I learned from my Sweathogs training, which was an intense 9 week brain brusier, group real estate training conducted by Ed Escobar. I am, all of a sudden, busier than I could have imagined just two weeks into the new year.

I spent at least a year networking and finally the referrals are coming in, which is a great supplement to my daily prospecting activities.

I thought that since this is my first blog entry, I would divulge some of my secrets that might you help in your real estate business. Of course, what works for me, may not work for you. So, be patient. Try, tweak, rinse and repeat.

1. I have a commanding web presence. I have two website working for me with lead capturing systems in place so that I can meet both buyers and sellers. $200 per month or $2400 for the year, ROI $10,000-$20,000.

2. I work open houses. I hold as many as I can for an opportunity to meet people (I've sold two of my own open houses myself and the trick is to PRICE IT RIGHT i.e. creating value so that buyers can pull the trigger).

3. I cold call a neighborhood only when I have something positive to say.

4. I work FSBO leads. After contacting 3 Fsbo's, maybe 1-2 listing presentations later, I can convert one listing into business (Call FSBOs and Expireds-1 hour per your business day). you have to have the inventory to get the business. Listings are still the name of the gave. I have a personal goal. I am not be able to sell the listing. This happens only when the seller decides to not price it right or not sell in general. I am fortunate to close one buyer lead from each listing I've ever had. So, you have to have the inventory.

5. When I work as a buyer's agent, I conduct a buyer's consultation and ask the hard questions. I want to know how much money my clients have to make the deal happen. I might not need to know specifics, but I find out enough so that I get them into a house that makes them a successful homeower.

I know what you are thinking writing about now. How simple? Yes, I keep things simple. There's so much other there to make life complicated, why add to the mix? I uncomplicate things so that people know what to expect from me.

For an sample of the Sweathogs Training, visit my Biz Networking site called BizIntros.com. Join for free and listen to a sample of Ed Escobar. I encourage you to buy additional CDs from his site and even attend one or more of his training sessions. It's simply that GOOD!