Mike Andruff

by Mike Andruff, VancouverPropertyFinder.com

     We recently had our 15th customer party. We generally pick a theme, plan around the concept for several weeks in advance and then arrange enough manpower to pull it off.

     This party was planned as an Ice Cream Social at a local beach. We had roughly 60 participants. So ice cream and hot dogs for at least 60, with games and prizes to make it nice. Prizes by the way ranged from donut holes for the kids to an $1,100 travel credit with Flight Centre for one of our lucky past clients. Oh, it is extra fun if the sunshines like crazy.

     My team of four set up our trademark RE/MAX bolloon, a shade tent, a gas bar-b-que, and served four flavors of ice cream and hot dogs with onions and all the fixings. We had the egg and spoon race, the balloon between the legs race and the water balloon toss. The party really took off once the adults got tossing those water ballons. Our elapsed time from start to finish was approximately 6 hours (the party lasted two hours). The team was pretty wiped at the end. Wasn't sure if it was the sun or the nervous energy - always a part of these events.

     While we make a point of having fun, no business, inevitably two to three folks will take us aside and talk about future plans in real estate. This is a great way to promote rapport with clients and each year it becomes stronger and stronger.

     Here is a brief three minute video of the day:

By Mike Andruff - VancouverPropertyFinder.com

     As all realtors commit to their practice of real estate, they must also commit to the enhancement of the profession of real estate. This is where we engage with our local boards in our service to fellow members.

     The Westside Division of the Vancouver Lower Mainland in BC recently hosted a seminar related to changes to our local strata property legislation. While the legislation is "prescibed", which means passed but not enacted until the Regulations are approved, the pending changes are significant for the strata property ownership and most importantly future values of such properties.

     The prime change is a call for depreciation reports. This is the document which would detail all necessary upgrades and their schedule for future owners. This calls for developers of new properties to stand soundly behind the quality of their work, and for owners of older properties to have to dig deeper into their pockets to revitalize their homes. Clearly this legislation calls for higher standards for strata title ownership.

     Here is a brief video of the seminar:

by Mike Andruff, VancouverPropertyFinder.com

     On May 27^th it was not raining in Bellingham, but seminar leader Ben Kinney was raining down on his audience with hundreds of social media marketing ideas. In addition to the 300 rainmakers in attendance, sponsor hosts included: Jon Washburn, active rain; Galen Ward, Estately.com; Scott Smith, Market Leader; Spencer Rascoff, Zillow; and An Bui, DocuSign. active rainers included: Brad Andersohn, and Bob Stewart.

     A formula offered for building one's ranking went this way:

Content + viral + influence + interaction + communication

     Websites offered in the course of discussion included:

• Wordle.net (for a summation of who we are on the net)
• Wiggio.com (collaboration software)
• Goldmail.com (video email)
• Runpee.com (we were getting silly here)
• Photosynth.com (photo manager)
• Meetordie.com (meeting cost evaluator)
• Slydial.com (for avoiding conversation but getting your message thru)
• Site:www.yourwebsite.com (shows how many pages are indexed)
• Link:www.yourwebsite.com (shows links)
• hitTail.com (shows the long tail ??)
• flowtown.com (convert lead data to social media connects)
• xobni.com (cross ref. for emails)

     Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail was mentioned as suggested reading.

     facebook was addressed as the prime social media platform today. Positioning oneself to engage its massive audience  includes the use of fan pages, ads,  and FBML.

     Ben Kinney promised after the day was done, we would laugh, learn, be shocked with some of the commentary, and cry. He said we would be pumped and excited to be in real estate. Mr. Barry Long provided the humorous and uplifting talk that left us all better for being there. Barry told his story and drew analogies to the challenges we all face in life and real estate. We all left smiling.

     Here is a brief video capturing the day:

by VancouverPropertyFinder.com

At a recent event sponsored by the Westside Division of the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, staff from the Vancouver City planning staff explained the numerous changes to city bylaws that were implemented to achieve an "Eco Densification" of Vancouver. This presentation lead one realtor to quip in the question period if the City was contemplating a change in zoning description from single family zoning to triple family zoning. (Under current bylaws, one can have a basement suite within the residence ad a laneway house on the same lot.)

The following presentation was a video of the event:

by Mike Andruff - VancouverPropertyFinder.com

     Social media, SEO, HTML, widgets, page rank, are all topics we need to know about in contemporary real estate. Why?

     85% of first time buyers use the internet to source their real estate information. 67% of internet users expect a response from realtors within one hour of their enquiry. Interestingly, however, only 1-4% are prepared to buy now! The rest of them will transact in 3-24 months. Are you set up to manage a lead generating system with these characteristics? Traditional techniques are not as viable when your customer is thousands of miles away. Are you wired? Plugged in? Programmed for success?

     Mike Andruff recently attended the RE/MAX Technology workshop in Denver Co. to look for answers. The following video touches on topics addressed at the workshop: