Janine Gregor, MSM

One of the services I offer as a real estate virtual assistant is blogging and article marketing. It is a valuable resource that is in great demand in our virtual industry as more clients understand the potential for good SEO. As article marketing increases online presence it also helps to classify the agent as an industry expert. Additionally, articles can reap a ‘better bang for the buck' as they can be repurposed into blog entries, newsletters and press releases. Strategically placed, and slightly edited, one article can have many lives.

I recently had a very intuitive consultation call with a potential real estate investment client who was interested in blogging and article marketing. The agent asked an interesting question, "How do you create topics for articles [when the virtual assistant is not familiar with the client's industry and market]?"

I have been asked this question on previous occasions by other virtual assistants as well, so I created a client questionnaire for VAs, which is available for download on my website. (It is also a great tool for agents who choose to write their own articles.) [Click on the star icon.]

Ideally, a virtual assistant partners with a client on an ongoing basis to develop a relationship where communication between the parties is maintained regularly. If the opportunity for a good partnership develops, the best way to write good articles for a client is to be privy to their business happenings. This occurs only through good, two-way communication. It is not unusual for a client to ask a question or share a piece of information with me, which can easily be turned into an article. Consequently, I'll often reply with, "This can become a good blogging topic". So good topics can be realized from everyday email communication. Stay alert for those tidbits of information. They can be easily overlooked.

Another means to develop good article topics is to ask the client to check his Sent Box. What kind of questions is the client answering to his own buyers and sellers? Whatever information the client's customers are asking certainly makes for great article topics. Give the readers what they want to know... they are asking for answers so give them more of what they are actually asking.

If you should contract with a VA, send him/her the urls to online newsletters which are relative to your business. I often subscribe to the same blogs, newsletters and ezines my clients read. This is another means to find great ideas for articles and blogs. One long-term real estate client regularly sends me Realtor.org articles from which I have been able to construct good pieces. Keep them in a folder in your favorites entitled, ‘Blogging Topics'.

I often find subject matter on other people's blogs which I send to my clients requesting that he respond with a brief reply. Sometimes the answers to these topics are a few lines which I can expand upon, while others are complete responses which I can post in varying blogs or article marketing sites with little or no editing.

A long forgotten source for good article topics is the local public library. I will often visit the library and sit down with several magazines and publications related to my client's businesses. I jot down the publication name and look it up online when I return to my office. Ask the librarian for other sources such as newsletters and flyers which are not available online. There are many regional real estate publications I can pick up at the library which contain articles relative to real estate in other areas of the country. The librarian is another valuable tool for good research...and, the librarian's services are free! I never met a librarian not willing to go out of their way for any request I might have.

If a virtual assistant is not familiar with a client's industry, demographics and market, there are other numerous means to learn about your business. Asking good questions, creating Google Alerts with keyword relative to the client's business and keeping abreast of the agent's services are other important options to good article marketing as a virtual assistant. Download the Questionnaire for Virtual Assistants to Ask Their Clients Regarding Article Writing and Blog Ideas for more options.

Janine Gregor
Real Estate Virtual Assistant
www.YourVirtualWizard.com

Here's another great safety tip article for agents as featured from this article in Realtor Magazine, September 18, 2009.

When you're showing an empty property, you can take these simple steps to empower yourself against attack or theft.

• Be sure to use the lockbox property-key procedure that has been established to improve real estate agent safety. A reliable, secure lockbox system ensures that keys don't fall into the wrong hands.
  
• Preview the property and don't go into a neighborhood that you perceive as unsafe. Be familiar with the area so you know the location of the nearest police station. Drive there immediately if you feel you are in danger.
  
• Try and call the office once an hour to let people know where you are.
  
• At the beginning of the showing, mention to the client that you have another appointment to show the house within a short time.
  
• Prepare a scenario so that you can leave, or encourage someone who makes you uncomfortable to leave. Examples: Your cell phone or beeper went off and you have to call your office, you left some important information in your car, or another agent with buyers is on his way.
  
• In showing a property, always leave the front door unlocked for a quick exit while you and the client are inside. As you enter each room, stand near the door.
  
• It is better to not display purses while at a property. Lock your purse in the car trunk before you arrive. Carry only non-valuable business items (except for your cell phone), and do not wear expensive jewelry or watches, or appear to be carrying large sums of money.
  
• Park at the curb in front of the property rather than in the driveway. You will attract much more attention running and screaming to the curb area. It is much easier to escape in your vehicle if you don't have to back out of a driveway. Besides, parked in a driveway, another vehicle could purposefully or accidentally trap you.

(Sources: Louisiana REALTORS^® Association; Washington Real Estate
Safety Council; City of Albuquerque, N.M.; Nevada County Association of REALTORS^®; City of Mesa, Ariz.)

Every month I receive a newsletter from a local real estate agent who sends stats on sales of homes in the area. I live in the gulf coast of Florida where foreclosures are a-plenty and the market is still really struggling to hang on. When I see these fairly dismal stats month-after-month, I wonder how effective this type of news really is. If I was not in a position to have to sell my home, I would look at these stats and hold off until I saw some notable improvement. I can only believe other folks like me are thinking the same thing.

Rather than just hand out news which is expected to be 'bad' during this down time, I would suggest that this agent offer up some positive news along side the gloomy such as, "How to sell a home during a down economy" or "How you can rent your foreclosed home for free".

I've worked with agents who buy these statistic-generated autoresponder canned newsletters and I believe they are doing an injustice to the public they serve. Of course, it takes time to write a newsletter (or hire someone like me to do the job) which is much more relevant to their market but this is what sets he/she apart from those who buy the canned text.

Now is the time to step up the pertinent marketing options available! Make information relevant, postive and personal. I find that lately I've been contracted to simply work on the canned text on an increasingly greater level and I do not know why.

Janine Gregor

This is an interesting article from Realtor Magazine, September 16, 2009

If you're like most real estate practitioners, you put a great deal of thought and effort into your marketing materials, including advertisements, signs and business cards. You want to make every dollar count-but how much consideration do you give to the safety afforded by these communications? How much information are you giving the public that many people go to great lengths to keep private?

Here are some very important steps that you should take to ensure your marketing pieces are both smart and safe:

• All of your marketing materials should be polished and professional. Don't use alluring or provocative photography in advertising, on the Web or on your business cards. There are many documented cases of criminals actually circling photographs of their would-be victims in newspaper advertisements. These victims were targeted because of their appearance in the photograph.

• Limit the amount of personal information you share. Don't use your full name with middle name or initial. Use your office address rather than your home address-or list no address at all. Giving out too much of the wrong information can make you a target.

• Concentrate on your professional proficiency rather than personal information in newspapers, resumes and business cards.

• Be careful how much personal information you give verbally as well. Getting to know your client does not need to include personal information about your children, where you live and who you live with.

• All agents in your office should use only their first initial and last name on their "For Sale" signs to conceal gender and prevent anyone other than a personal acquaintance or current client asking for you by name.
  
  Sources: Washington Real Estate Safety Council; Louisiana REALTORS^®Association; Nevada County Association of REALTORS^®
  
  Safety Week is Sept. 13-19. For an array of tips, articles, and widgets, visit the REALTOR^® Safety Web site at REALTOR.org/Safety.
  
  

After recently receiving a slew of what are known as ‘Nigerian 419 Scam' emails in my inbox recently, I asked myself, ‘Who are these people who do this? And who are the people who respond to these fraudulent emails?" Poking around the ‘net, I found an in-depth Washington Post article, by Karin Brulliard which answered my questions, prompting a commentary here.

Ms. Brulliard interviewed a Nigerian man named Banjo for the article. Banjo explains how much more difficult it has been during tough economic times to bilk naïve Americans of their monies. "We are working harder. The financial crisis is not making it easy for them over there," said Banjo, 24, speaking about Americans, whose trust he has won and whose money he has fleeced, via his Dell laptop. "They don't have money. And the money they don't have, we want."

Banjo is a polite young man in a button-down shirt, and he is the sort of guy on the other end of that block-lettered missive requesting your "URGENT ASSISTANCE" in transferring millions of dollars. He is the sort who made Nigeria infamous for cyberscams, which experts say are increasing in these tough times.

U.S. authorities say Americans -- the easiest prey, according to Nigerian scammers -- lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year to cybercrimes, including a scheme known as the Nigerian 419 fraud, named for a section of the Nigerian criminal code. Now financially squeezed, Americans succumb even more easily to offers of riches, experts say."

The article goes on to explain how the scams began in the 1980's "...from news reports about corrupt politicians funneling oil proceeds to foreign bank accounts." Sometimes the scams take advantage of lonely hearts while others promise viable work-from-home riches for simply depositing funds from overseas into personal bank accounts. The recipient then wires the money into other overseas accounts. The original, fraudulent checks never clear so the recipient is responsible for the final cash outlay.

Brulliard describes that other scams take advantage of naïve respondents who are typically lonely Americans who believe that if they send upfront fees for plane fare to fake women they will come to America to meet their suitors. Of course, the "ladies" with whom the American has been corresponding is someone like Banjo on the other end of the email thread. "She" has missed her plane 3 times, prompting the American to send more money.

Further research shows that the The Nigerian scam has infiltrated real estate using free sites such as Craigslist. Copying current and legitimate ‘for sale by owner' ads and photos, scammers create new ads to advertise low purchase prices enticing investors to send in down payments for properties sight unseen. When buyers show up at the properties to take possession, they find that the transaction is not legitimate.

Of course it all boils down to the naïve individual who feels they can purchase real estate at bargain basement prices. In this time of falling real estate values with buyers not wishing to hire a real estate professional (and pay for commissions), scammers are finding it much easier to dupe vulnerable buyers.

Janine Gregor
Real Estate Virtual Assistant
www.YourVirtualWizard.com