Use all the great tools Metrolist has to offer to create custom branded reports, informative presentations and interesting blogs with up to date statistics and reports on real estate in Colorado.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Mike Hixon from Hixon & Associates. Mike, welcome to the program, good to have you here.

Mike Hixon: Thank you.

Interviewer: We are talking about building a personal brand for realtors and the MLS and how that may all tie in and help but let's start with talking about brand and image, why is that important today for realtors?

Mike Hixon: Oh, brand and image is huge as far as establishing your brand, because everything that you send out, you want to have it branded, so down from your email to every bit of marketing literature that you send out, even to colleagues or associates as well, you know everything that's got your name on it leads people to you.

Interviewer: I tell people it should all look the same: your website, your Facebook, your Twitter, your e-mail it should all provide kind of the same service and lend some type of message and credibility.

Mike Hixon: Yes, exactly.

Interviewer: Which I imagine you do with all of your associates?

Mike Hixon: I do.

Interviewer: Some easy ways to do that, obviously we just talked about a few but if you are a realtor and you are just starting out and you say, 'What do I do about establishing a brand?", what would be the first thing you would give him?

Mike Hixon: Well you know it's interesting that you ask that because I just had a conversation with a colleague of mine, who went through a training course with me. Had I had the benefit of knowing a lot of this information upfront, it would have been huge.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mike Hixon: You know I mean the first thing you've got to do is, you've got to setup an email that tells people every time you send them something what you do, and who you are.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mike Hixon: I mean that's the first thing. And then of course you know your business relationship, how you are going to setup your office and the name of your office and how you are going to brand everything you send out, from letterhead to email.

Interviewer: I am an internet marketing guy and people always talk about that because that seems to be the wave of technology today and so forth, and a lot of people get wrapped up in it, but the bottom line is I still tell people, 'as you can do all that, this really still comes down to a relationship business', talk a little bit about that.

Mike Hixon: Big time relationship business, it is strictly relationship, you know I think I read, heard something the other day that says, "If you think you are a realtor, you are wrong, what you are is a marketer; and it's all about marketing. I mean people have to know your name, they have to see you, you have to have exposure, they have to see you somewhere and a lot of it is referral business, but you know there are a lot of folks out there that, if they see something on the internet, like YouTube or whatever that's their first point of contact and a lot of it is electronic now.

Interviewer: I hear a lot about how in the last 10 years, realtors are really breaking off into specialties, distressed property specialist, divorce specialist, whatever it may be, how important is that to incorporate into your brand?

Mike Hixon: I think it's important, I don't know that you want to just be strictly branded by one specific niche but, if you do a lot in general and your specialty is short-sales or REO, that's important to get it out specifically to your colleagues or you know other realtors in the business because a lot of times that's where I get referrals.

Interviewer: Lastly Mike, the MLS obviously is very cooperative and user-friendly for agents to help brand the agent and help talk about their personal marketing and so forth, talk about a few ways in which the MLS does that for realtors.

Mike Hixon: MLS is huge for realtors as far as getting information out to your colleagues in the business. So how do you use that as far as sorting up your listings is I think pretty important. I see so many times when you come across information that you are looking for, and it's just been skipped over, it's important information that you need, especially things that you are searching on, you know, but the more information you put in, the better off you are going to be.

Interviewer: Mike thanks.

Mike Hixon: You are welcome.

Interviewer: Appreciate you being here.

Mike Hixon: You bet. Thank you.

Learn more about How to Succeed in the Real Estate Market on Broker IPTV.

Real estate is a people business, and you need to cultivate relationships in order to generate more business through referrals. Mike Hixon offers these tips on how to find buyers.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Mike Hixon from Hixon & Associates. Mike welcome to the program.

Mike Hixon: Thank you.

Interviewer: Glad to have you here. We are talking about buyers, of course every realtor would love to know how to get more buyers, so let's go ahead and just address the question, I am an agent I would like to find more buyers, I would like to find them with financing in place and ready to purchase, I mean I guess that would be the $65,000 question, right?

Mike Hixon: Team up, yeah, yeah. That's a good question. My sources use the lenders that have had people come to them, they come to us and say, 'Hey look, I am looking to get the financing ball rolling and then I get that phone call from that lender and they say, 'Hey, we've got a buyer, they are ready to go, I have got him pre-qualified or pre-approved and they are looking for a house, keep them below this dollar amount' and we are ready to go. Another good resource is your website; not a ton of leads come from my website, but you know if you get X amount of numbers per year it certainly is worth putting your "shingle" on there.

Interviewer: Yeah. You know at the end of the day whether you are going to farm a neighborhood or you're going to do an e-mail farming system, whatever it's going to be this really boils down to a relationship business, talk a little bit about that.

Mike Hixon: Relationship is what it's all about; I mean referrals are huge for me, there's a magazine that does some surveys that go out every year and for the second year in a row, I'm proud to say that I will be in that magazine, that comes directly from your clientele, so the relationship you build with your clientele, they are telling other people and if you don't do a good job they are telling a lot more people.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mike Hixon: But thank goodness to the folks that I've dealt with, have spread my name around and referrals is huge. So that's how you take care of your business.

Interviewer: Obviously in the last several years there has been far more sellers than there have been buyers, I mean everybody's a little short on the buyer end. And maybe people, agents say I have got a lot of listings but I'd really like some more buyers. Any tips that you can give them to kind of balance that equation out a little bit?

Mike Hixon: Cloning! That's how..haha. How do you get those buyers? Well you know, it comes back to, you know back in the good old days you just really had to hit those prospect lists, you know you got to call people up and say, "Hey I've got a great house, do you know of anybody?' There is a prospect list that comes out that Metro List provides you've got to call every single one of them. And just remind them, 'hey if you haven't seen it yet, I got a new listing on the market and it sounds like it meets the criteria for your buyer'.

Interviewer: Obviously everybody's looking for those buyers and you have to figure out a way to kind of set yourself apart, how do you do that in today's economy and business?

Mike Hixon: I just think exposure is the key.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mike Hixon: I mean you've got to get your name out there.

Interviewer: I tell people you just can't have enough conversations.

Mike Hixon: No.

Interviewer: I mean when you're sitting getting your haircut and the gal or guy that's cutting your hair, ask him, where do you live? Do you rent? Do you buy? Are you in the market for buying? I happen to be a realtor, how about your family, what's your family doing for a house...?

Mike Hixon: That's right.

Interviewer: I start a conversation with the grocery store clerk, you know.

Mike Hixon: I was just going to say, I was wearing my pin the other day in the grocery store line and happened to be on the phone...

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mike Hixon: And the conversation came up, I said, "Sure! Here's my card, give me a call".

Interviewer: Absolutely, that's how it goes.

Mike Hixon: That's exposure, yeah.

Interviewer: Mike thanks, good information, appreciate it.

Mike Hixon: All right, thank you.

Find out more about How to Follow up with Business Contacts on BrokerIPTV.

photo credit: Greenbelt Alliance

Scott Webber, owner of Fuller Sotheby's International Realty talks about the Denver area market and how Fuller Sotheby represents quality homes and provides excellence in real estate.

Today we are talking with Scott Webber, owner of Fuller Sotheby's International Realty here in Denver, welcome to the show.

Scott Webber: Thanks Dan, good to be here again.

Interviewer: Glad you're here, two years ago you had just bought Fuller Towne & Country Properties and I'm sure you heard a lot of people say, "Wow! That guy bought a firm at an interesting time."

Scott Webber: Well no doubt, the timing was suspicious and coincidental.

Interviewer: Right.

Scott Webber: But you know when you have been at this business for 35 years and you're committing for another 20 years, what's a little blip in the market?

Interviewer: There is bound to be a few.

Scott Webber: Yeah, you know when it's a long term commitment you know these are just the up and downs in the business and you are prepared to deal with whatever market comes at you.

Interviewer: Well let's talk about that, how has it been over the last two years? Can you give us a quick assessment of where you are at and where the market is at, at this time?

Scott Webber: Well, you know the market is definitely recovering, I mean we are clearly seeing listing inventories getting smaller...we are seeing more buyers in the market. So the balance between the supply and the demand is, is definitely improving. We've seen more sales in the luxury segment so far this year, than we saw all of last year.

Interviewer: Talk about the luxury market, obviously Fuller Sotheby's has been well entrenched in there and that's been a difficult market over the last two years both for buyers and sellers in all the ways. You said it's getting better... the outlook is that it will continue to improve? Some people are concerned about a double dip, what do you think?

Scott Webber: I don't think this double dip rumor is anything worth worrying about.

Interviewer: Sure.

Scott Webber: I mean, I think people are just gaining more confidence in the overall economy all the time and we are, we are definitely seeing that in the way people are spending today, you know people are definitely much more liberal in their spending and so the luxury segment has picked way up, we are having way more showings, way more contracts, in fact multiple offers.

Interviewer: For disclosure, obviously I work in the luxury market, I have a lot of luxury listings. One of the things that I run up against and I'm sure you hear a lot of as being owner of the company is, Fuller Sotheby's wouldn't be interested in selling my home, mine is not a luxury home.

Scott Webber: Yeah clearly, our program is oriented towards the segment of the market that is maybe $500,000 or above, but really our brand is more about the quality factor than it is about the luxury segment. You know we're really just an organization with a brand and with a philosophy that's oriented around the concept of quality, and just really doing things with excellence. And so every one of our clients benefits from that commitment and that philosophy regardless of the price point. Last year, we sold a property for $50,000, and we also had the highest sale in the market at $9.2 million. So you know, we are selling everything in-between, and we take as much pride in selling the property that's on the lower average sales price range as we do in the luxury segment.

Interviewer: I tell people all the time that, you know, yes we sell million dollar homes, and if yours is not a million dollar home, don't worry, you'll just get the million dollar service.

Scott Webber: That's exactly right, that's exactly right.

Interviewer: Yeah, all right, what's left on the horizon, what do we have to look forward to where is the market heading?

Scott Webber: Well, I think we're just going to see continual improvement you know we are really fortunate in Denver, you know Denver you know there is, there is immigration into Denver, there is a lot of companies moving here, there's you know there's, there's growth, there is, Denver is very fortunate and, and so I see the Denver market you know itself you know getting stronger, I see the national marketplace getting stronger, I think that you know that the future is bright, very bright.

Interviewer: Yeah, people still want to live in Denver.

Scott Webber: Absolutely. It's a good place to be.

Interviewer: Thanks for being here.

Scott Webber: Thank you Dan, good to be here.

Justin Knoll, President of the Denver Board of Realtors talks about the ongoing merger discussions.

The Denver Board of Realtors, Jefferson County Association of Realtors and the North Metro Denver Realtor Association are discussing a merger to have greater strength, greater numbers and a greater voice.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Justin Knoll, President of the Denver Board of Realtors and Justin welcome to the show.

Justin Knoll: Glad to be here, thanks for having me.

Interviewer: Thanks, well you are obviously in the news a lot, all of us REALTORS® have been hearing discussions about the Denver Board merging with one or more associations and I guess it's common knowledge now that the Jefferson County Association of Realtors, North Metro and Denver Board are going to merge and come together.

Justin Knoll: Well that's the talks that we're having right now and there is no secret in the past that we have had these discussions with all of the associations throughout the Denver Metro area, but the Denver Board is pleased to be in discussions with Jefferson County Association of Realtors and the North Metro Denver Realtor Association. If this does go through and we do have a unification go through, it would represent 5000 members and would be the largest local association in the state of Colorado.

Interviewer: Well that would be exciting for you know everybody involved, and I guess the next question from somebody watching is well how soon will this happen?

Justin Knoll: Certainly, there is a lot to happen, there is a lot of things that can be in the mix here, but we hopefully bring something by the end of the year, would be our hope.

Interviewer: Okay and then as a member of Denver Board like myself or somebody who is in North Metro they are saying to themselves, okay if we all merge that means we can all kind of participate in everyone's events, is that right?

Justin Knoll: Sure, we want to maintain the culture of each association and make sure that we actually mesh these things. One thing that technology has done for our community here and for Denver in general is really shrunk the size of what we do, no longer are there neighborhood specific things going on. It's easy for us to jump in the car and be in one of these associations or another in matter of time, of no time and really we want to have that congruence here, that meshing of culture. So yes, we would like to do that and collaborate with information and resources.

Interviewer: And you know for the REALTOR® out there that's the primary benefit for them right now.

Justin Knoll: I believe so, as so much is changing in our world, so much technology is changing, we have to have a greater voice when it comes to political things and by having a merger like this go through, it really does give us greater strength, greater numbers, a greater voice to do those things, to explore opportunities that maybe we hadn't been able to do in the past. So for the members, yes I think it would be very much a value added benefit.

Interviewer: And I imagine, on your side of the coin, by doing this, you are going to improve efficiency, lower cost, provide more services, am I right?

Justin Knoll: Absolutely, I mean redundancy is always an issue when you have competition. So we'd like to do that, but we'd also like to be more forward thinking, not just stopping the bleeding but how do we progress quicker. So many things are thrown at us all the time and we want to be able to not just adapt and change, but to be progressive and to change with them, and then offer the members things that maybe their company can't do anymore, which we are seeing where everybody is somewhat hunkering down and contracting if you will.

Interviewer: I imagine you've got your executive board, and they have their executive boards and you got to figure out who is going to be kind of calling all of the shots that type of thing right.

Justin Knoll: Yes absolutely, that's part of the process is figuring out leadership from here and who is in, and where strengths really lie. One of the things in this process has been finding out where strengths do lie and how do we call upon those to make sure that we are put in the best position.

Interviewer: Final two questions, you know members are probably saying, okay where can I get more information and can I participate in the discussion?

Justin Knoll: Absolutely, we really want our membership feedback in this, and that's one of the things we're going to be doing coming up is really engaging the members and being proactive about what, what would this mean to you, what would you want from an association that's now this big and this combined. We do want that feedback; you could always contact anybody in leadership at any of the associations. We will be reaching out with focus groups and all such things, but for information you can always hit our websites at denverrealtors.org and the North Metro Association and the Jefferson County Association their websites will also have that information.

Interviewer: Justin, I wish you much luck in getting this together, it's a big job.

Justin Knoll: Absolutely. Thank you very much.

The Realtors Property Resource is a valuable real estate tool that gives you in-depth property knowledge to enhance your listing presentations. There is even a new mobile app to let you log-in from your smart phone!

Interviewer: Today we are talking with David Barber from Re/Max Unlimited, and the topic is RPR. First of all David, welcome to the show.

David Barber: Thank you Dan, it's nice to be here.

Interviewer: Lot of agents don't know what RPR is or what those initials stand for, so let's start there.

David Barber: Okay RPR is the Realtors Property Resource. This is an ambitious project started by the National Association of Realtors and their end goal is to catalog 157 million parcels of property in the United States. It's been in existence for a little over 24 months and is becoming alive in a lot of markets and being a very valuable tool.

Interviewer: And obviously they are partnering with your local MLS is which is where they are getting a lot of the data I assume.

David Barber: What they are doing is consolidating data in this area from Metrolist, and also from a lot of public records. So, in the past, when you used to spend a lot of time going to different public sites to gather information, their goal is to have it all in one location.

Interviewer: Yeah I think that's what I like best about it, when I've used it, I can see the data that's coming from your local MLS and then it gives me a side by side comparison about the data that's coming from the public records so you can see if it kind of jives.

David Barber: Exactly, and it is based on what's called the realtor evaluation model, where companies like Zillow and Trulia are using an automated evaluation model that are basically just granting public record data. This allows us as realtors to personalize the information we know about the market place whether that property backs to a busy street or has an enhancement that makes it a little more valuable.

Interviewer: Well as a realtor, if I don't know about it, what can I do on RPR that I can't do on say my local MLS?

David Barber: Well it's, if you think of it as a CMA on steroids. You've got a lot more detailed graphing, you have overlays or maps that you can do a lot more in-depth research. As a realtor, and this is a realtor-only benefit, you do need to have a NRDS number to log in and it gives you tools to enhance your listing presentation that a normal CMA doesn't offer.

Interviewer: Yeah, one of the cool things I thought was just the amount of data that they have on distressed properties. Obviously that's very big with consumers today, they want to know about foreclosure, short sales; people that may be in a distress situation and this is pretty well detailed and laid out there.

David Barber: Exactly, one of the other enhancements is that it gives you some visibility in what's going on in the world outside of our market. So if you have a relocation client, you can take a look at their property, see what they have and what it's worth in their market to kind of help them understand what it's going to be like in our market.

Interviewer: That's where, like the California buyer that comes out here, wants to know about the postage size.

David Barber: Absolutely.

Interviewer: Wow! It's right.

David Barber: Exactly.

Interviewer: All right, they are adding new tools to RPR all the time. You mentioned that they added some more two weeks ago, is that right?

David Barber: Yeah most recently, they've added some new mapping products, you can check flood zones, you can overlay price changes. They've also put in a mobile application, once you are set up and registered on the main RPR site you can log in from your smart phone.

Interviewer: I think I'll do that. David thanks great information.

David Barber: Thanks Dan.