I know most of you post your listings on Zillow.com and hopefully have your profiles in the directory on the site as well (If you don't - it's easy - sign up here). Zillow is now offering the ability to add your social networking links to your profile - and the best part is they display them in a great little social networking package - see below!

This is quick and easy for you or your virtual assistant to implement as well! People are looking on these social networking sites, so why not take advantage! Simply follow the steps below:
1. Login to your Zillow.com account
2. Hover over "My Zillow" and choose "Profile"
3. Scroll down and enter your social networking information in the spaces provided under "Professional Information" - Click "Submit".
That's it! As easy as 1, 2, 3!
Don't think you have time? No problem! Need a Real Estate Virtual Assistant? Contact us today. We're a team of real estate specific Virtual Assistants and because we're in the industry working with Top Producers every day, we can help!
Jen Miller, Project and Design Coordinator
RealSupport Inc.
Phone: 847-705-1655 x202
Email: Jen@RealSupportInc.com
www.RealSupportInc.com
Our Real Estate Client Testimonials
Our Real Estate Marketing Samples
Our Virtual Assistant Team
I’m sure you all have noticed the popularity surge of real estate reality TV shows. It started with the success of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Then it really caught on when HGTV rolled out a slew of real estate shows and soon became much more Home and much less Garden.
House Hunters, What You Get for the Money, Flip This House and Moving Up. It’s pleasurable to watch other people turn fixer-uppers into contemporary living spaces or young families moving up in the world to purchase 5 bedroom, 4 bath homes in nice neighborhoods.
These shows were great to watch because they were an escape from reality. You may not be able to buy a home, but it’s fun to live vicariously through others who can. But I think there’s only so much one can take of watching an overly confident REALTOR in a show like Million Dollar Listing sell homes for 20 million dollars while some modest homes are getting foreclosed on – and their owners kicked out on the street...
Well it looks like reality TV is finally choosing to reflect the current market...
Introducing HGTV’s Real Estate Intervention. The show takes struggling sellers on a tour of other listings in the same price range and same area to see if they are pricing their home realistically compared to the competition. Your hosts are Sabrina Soto, the gentle REALTOR who is sweet as pie to the often sensitive and defeated homeowners and Mike Aubrey, the tough-looking real estate expert with a military background who takes the direct approach and tells the homeowners that it’s time to face the facts.
This show is not exactly the light-hearted fluff that we are used to with home buying shows. In fact, it’s pretty heartbreaking. Take Evelyn who lost her job 6 months ago and can no longer afford to stay in her beloved townhome in the pricey neighborhood of Georgetown in Washington, DC. She has put a lot of work into her home – and a lot of personal touches. With every comparable home that Aubrey shows her, she refuses to accept that any of them are more valuable than hers. To the audience, she seems so obviously blind to what she needs to accept. She may have updated her kitchen with a blue tile backsplash that she thought adds an upgraded finish, but Mike needs to explain to her that granite countertops and stainless steel appliances is what makes a home show well.
Or what about Rebekka who was so proud of buying her first home three years ago, at the height of the market, when she could afford the mortgage. When the rate adjusted, she found herself drowning in her interest-only loan. Now she has to sell her home, but she has no money to make updates or renovations. On top of it all, her mom has terminal cancer and she wants to get home to take care of her. She has priced her home at $259,900. She owes $240,000 in payments. When they find a comparable home in much better shape at $243,500, Aubrey must break it to her that $209,000 is about all she going to get for her home and that a short sale is the best way to go. Sitting in her small dining area, we watch her cover her head in disappointment as she takes in the depth of what Aubrey is telling her.
It can’t be easy to accept that the home that was, at one time, a great investment is now worth a fraction of its expected value. And of course it’s human nature to put high value in what you own because you know what it’s worth to you.
These people in this show are real. They’re our family, our neighbors, ourselves – accepting they can no longer afford to live in the homes where memories have been made. It’s nice to see a reality show actually reflecting reality. It’s just unfortunate that reality isn’t always pretty. But hey, it’s still VERY interesting to watch!
Real Estate Intervention: Four Stars ****
Warmest regards,

What is Google Juice?
Those of you who are familiar with search engine optimization may have an idea of what Google Juice is. For those who don’t, Google Juice is a slang term for “the ability to get pages to appear high in the Google search rankings.” It sounds pretty simple, right?
A few key tips will help you climb the Google Search Ladder:
Tip 1: Repeat your targeted search phrase a number of times on the website page and/or blog post:
This is so easy to do – and if you want to consistently get good rankings, you need to make a habit out of doing it, OFTEN! It is easy to do this the WRONG way, so beware, you want your text to make sense, while still peppering in your keywords/phrases. Do not overdo it! Too much of a good thing can be bad! Link those keywords and/or phrases back to relevant pages on your website.
Tip 2: Bold Keyword/Phrases: Google gives more weight to keyword/phrases that are bold.
Just like everything else in SEO, you don't want to over-do the bolding. A couple bold instances per page should be enough. If you have links between your pages about the keyword phrase then it's a good idea to bold those links.
Tip 3: Social Bookmarking for Google Juice:
Google not only looks at what is on your pages to decide your Google ranking -- incoming links are also a big part of what makes up good Google Juice. It's also not just the number of links, but how well respected the linking sites are in the Google algorithm. So, how do you quickly get good Google Juice links? Social bookmarking!
Three or four social bookmarking links can do wonders for your Google Juice and therefore, your Google ranking. If you don't use any other social bookmarking sites, one Google Juice blog suggests the following: StumbleUpon - Digg - BloggingZoom - Sphinn. You will almost instantly have good incoming links to your pages even if the post doesn't rank well with the particular social bookmarking site.
Tip 4: Crosslinking:
You can boost your Google juice by creating multiple posts about the same keyword phrase. Link keywords from one blog post to another related blog post, to your site. Link to your website from your blog, and to your blog back to your website. If done right you can multiply the effect of your good placement in Google rankings.
Summary:
Your blog is a powerful tool that can be easily used to raise the ranking of your website or blog. If you are using your blog to and raise the Google ranking for your website, do the following:
1.) Use your desired keyword(s) often and in places it makes sense.
2.) Bold those keywords and links to your site.
3.) Crosslink from your blog to your site and visa versa. Use social bookmarking to help your site along in it's Google ranking.
BONUS! Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can implement all of this for you! Your time is valuable... A Real Estate Virtual Assistant can even post to your blog 1x per week or more. Do what you do best and hire out the rest!
Best wishes!
Erica Parpan, Operations Manager
RealSupport Inc.
Phone: 847-705-1655 x201
Email: Erica@RealSupportInc.com
www.RealSupportInc.com
Our Real Estate Client Testimonials
Our Real Estate Marketing Samples
Real Estate Virtual Assistant Team
RealSupport Inc. - Providing superior Real Estate Virtual Assistant services to Real Estate professionals nationwide since 2000.
It's no secret that in today's competitive marketplace, social networking is a must. There are hundreds of social networking websites to choose from, and often times it is difficult to know which websites will benefit you the most. All in all, the facts are indeed the facts - in 2009, classified newspaper ads are not going to go nearly as far as online marketing will. Whether you want to market your business, your listings, or both, portals are available to begin your online marketing endeavor.
Ask any real estate virtual assistant - they’ll advise you to sign up NOW and start making those invaluable connections that can lead to referrals, new clients and more.
Most social networking websites are FREE. As a team of real estate virtual assistants, we always tell our clients they must have a plan when utilizing social networking. Many clients come to us and want to join Facebook (for example) just because their colleagues are on there... Unless you’re competing in a popularity contest, that is not the best plan. Your real estate virtual assistant can listen to your goals and then create an effective plan to incorporate social networking into your overall marketing plan.
Here is a list (and brief summary) of a few of the most popular social networking websites that you may want to join, based on your goals and plans:
1) Facebook - Yes, the hype is indeed true! Everyone is using Facebook...and you should be too! We've found that Facebook is not only an incredible tool for keeping in touch with friends and family, but it can also be utilized to on a professional level as well. For example, advertise your listings through a "soft sell" approach (with seller participation) that we have used for many of our clients. Another idea would be to join or create groups and/or networks to connect with other agents and potential clients. Add your blogs RSS feed to your profile and keep your "friends" up to date on your events and success stories. Recently. many of our clients are having us create a Business Page for them in effort of keeping their personal Facebook profile personal and separate from your clients and colleagues. Facebook ads are another amazing tool to get leads and VERY targeted leads.
2) ActiveRain - For any real estate professional, ActiveRain is considered the go to social networking website. With over 160,000 members, ActiveRain was designed specifically for real estate agents to create business relationships both within the industry and with the consumer. Create and maintain a blog to report on anything you want - real estate news, market reports or local events and trends - the sky is the limit! Another great feature is "Groups," which are smaller communities within the larger ActiveRain community. Join groups created by others, or start your own and get others to join - communicate with the entire real estate community about anything you want to share or are interested in obtaining more information about. Who knows, your next referral just may come from a connection you made on ActiveRain!
3) Twitter - Another website gaining plenty of ground! Within seconds of signing on to Twitter you can start following industry and technology leaders, other real estate agents and people from your local communities and target market. We’ve had some pretty awesome Twitter success stories and we can’t wait to hear yours!
4) LinkedIn - A business and professional network which is set up with a resume' profile, connecting you to others in your field, business or company, searching for employment and making deals and referrals. With more than 10 million users, it is a great place for a business person to network.
Social networking websites are here to stay. Don’t get overwhelmed by them, just have you real estate virtual assistant devise an effective plan based on your goals!
I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. Wishing you a successful and productive week!
Erica Parpan, Operations Manager
RealSupport Inc.
Phone: 847-705-1655 x201
Email: Erica@RealSupportInc.com
www.RealSupportInc.com
Our Real Estate Client Testimonials
Our Real Estate Marketing Samples
Real Estate Virtual Assistant Team
RealSupport Inc. - Providing superior Real Estate Virtual Assistant services to Real Estate professionals nationwide since 2000.
Craigslist has become a very powerful tool for many real estate professionals. We typically recommend posting your listings to Craigslist. It is also a great place to post events like Home Buyer Seminars, general ads like “Receive a FREE Market Analysis of Your Homes Value”, and even for recruiting new agents.
As Real Estate Virtual Assistants, the online marketing efforts that we implement can be pretty extensive. At RealSupport, we provide package pricing per listing for listing marketing and we are often asked to recommend the best sites for advertising our client’s listing. I’m a big believer in Craigslist (however, I do realize there are reasons it doesn’t make sense for some agents), so this site is typically part of each of my client’s listing marketing plans.
Some of our clients spend upwards of $400 for us to market their listings. We want to be certain they are getting the most bang for their marketing dollars. In search of a tool that would allow us to make sure we have the data to back-up our positive opinion about Craigslist, we have been testing a free tool call http://craigslistadtracker.com/ that can be used to track the activity of each Craigslist ad. So far we have found this tool to be easy to use, accurate, and consistent in providing us hit reports on each ad.
With that said, perhaps we find the result to be the opposite and our ads are not being viewed… before you throw out the baby with the bathwater, I recommend tweaking your ad title. On a similar note, if you are posting your ads with HTML code from some other source (like Postlets), you MUST still upload a photo. Most Craigslist users will not click on an ad that does not have a PIC (which is the notification next to the title indicating there is a picture uploaded to the ad). I did not like the way the uploaded photo looked with the attractive HTML code from Postlets, so we tricked the system and we upload a blank image… now the ad still looks nice and the ad indicates there are pictures (which of course there is because that is part of the HTML).
How it works
Why use this service?
You can’t manage what you don’t measure! Click here to create an account.
If all this sound just a little to complicated, you need a Real Estate Virtual Assistant! Let a REVA do the work for you… all you should worry about are the results, right?
Carrie Gable, President
RealSupport Inc.
Phone: 847-705-1655 x200
Email: Carrie@RealSupportInc.com
www.RealSupportInc.com
Our Real Estate Client Testimonials
Our Real Estate Marketing Samples
Our Virtual Assistant Team
RealSupport Inc. - Providing superior Real Estate Virtual Assistant services to Real Estate professionals nationwide since 2000.
ActiveRain Corp. is not responsible for the accuracy of the site's content (which is written by members of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network) and does not endorse the views of the real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and others listed here.
Powered by the ActiveRain Real Estate Network
© 2009 ActiveRain Corp. All Rights Reserved