John Marlow

Part of being a good agent is knowing what is going on around you. Your clients (and potential clients) consider this when they evaluate you as an agent. With that said, what are you doing to understand the markets you do business in? If you do happen to be an agent who put in the effort to understand the market, is your sphere of influence aware of your knowledge?

At our company, we have a monthly e-newsletter that goes out to clients and friends. This newsletter contains information about current events in Chicago, as well as information about new developments and current market conditions. We feature statistics that are compiled from Chicago market data by one of the company's principals each month.

Consistent, value-added touches like this will demonstrate to your contacts that you are a truly a valuable resource for local real estate knowledge. Putting in a couple hours each month to go over your local markets will go a long way towards winning repeat business and referrals.

John Marlow
Real Living Helios Realty
www.NeighborhoodDirectoryChicago.com
www.MLSSearchChicago.com
www.RealLivingHelios.com

In Chicago it is extremely common to have a catered event to help promote the sales of units in a new development. Some parties are more extravagant than others. I went to one this winter in a giant tent with a DJ, a saxophone player, and 4 go go girls dancing on boxes. Crazy stuff. Memorable but the taste factor there is questionable. They were not professional ballerinas by any means; they were dancers and I imagine they were probably hired off an ad on craigs list. Makes you wonder where the line should be drawn. But I digress.

Gourmet food, and drinks are pretty standard for a party like this. The main idea for developers throwing this party is to get a bunch of realtors and prospective clients in one place, talking about the development. A clever device I have seen is locating the party within eyeline of a conference room where a happy new buyer is signing a contract. Staged or not, I couldnt help but smile and tip my hat to them when I saw it.

We have a development party we are helping promote in the near future so I wanted to get some ideas from fellow realtors as to what we could implement.

I pose the following question to the active rain community and eagerly await your responses -

What are some great branding gimmiks that you have seen work or think would work well to communicate branding at an event like this? It could be on an item that is given away at the end of the event that you think realtors would take with them and use (an desk clock, booties to protect the floors at open houses, etc) or perhaps environmental branding at the event (having the staff wear tee shirts with branded messages on it, balloons, banners, etc).

I promise to post pictures of our next event in a follow-up to this blog next month so thanks in advance for you responses and stay tuned...

Regards,

John Marlow
Real Living Helios Realty
http://www.heliosrentals.com/
http://www.reallivinghelios.com/

Want to stay on top of what is new and for sale in the West Loop of Chicago? You have 3 options -

1.) Search the MLS on a MLS search site like Helios MLS Search
2.) Find an agent and have them send you listings as they come on the market
3.) Visit broker announcement websites like Advantage Chicago to hear about new properties that are being promoted

Using more advanced searching tools will pay off in the long run.

Cheers,

John

http://westloopcondos.blogspot.com/

Sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference...

When you are looking for your perfect REALTOR what do you look for? Is it one who will call you on the phone all the time? Do you prefer contact through email? Do you want someone who will take you to look at places after work, or do you prefer to look at places on the weekend?

Whatever your preference is you should be able to find a realtor that matches well to your preferred style of search.

Check out this directory of quality agents by clicking HERE!

http://findchicagorealtor.blogspot.com/

The south end of Lincoln Park, toward downtown, is known as Old Town. It contains quiet tree-lined residential streets with some of Chicago's finest and most expensive homes: impressive greystones, brick townhomes; and charming row houses and tucked-away coach homes. Further north are the Wrightwood and Sheffield neighborhoods with a mix of mansions, two-flats, apartments, condos and frame homes.

West of Sheffield Avenue is the DePaul neighborhood, with stately single-family and multiple-unit housing, and original Chicago row houses with richly ornamented Victorian facades. There are also handsomely restored greystones and newer homes designed by the world's top architects.

Over the years, urban dwellers have taken churches, old schools, warehouses, stores and factory buildings and converted them into desirable condos, stores and restaurants. So, the boundaries of Lincoln Park have recently pushed farther west to create the Ranch Triangle neighborhood, an area that hugs Clybourn Avenue.

For more information about Lincoln Park please visit Lincoln Park Rentals

http://lincolnparkhomes.blogspot.com/

Of all the under-rated neighborhoods that have not really received their just recognition, River North is the most underappreciated.

Perhaps it's a combination of being overshadowed by its neighbor the Gold Coast, or maybe it's a 'tainted by association' label it has for being located next to the infamous cabrini green.

Whatever the reason, it is the hip of the hip Chicago neighborhoods for those who can afford to live there. The restaurants and night life scene is never dull. There is no shortage of art galleries. Best of all, despite its convenient proximity to the loop traffic is no problem.

http://rivernorthcondos.blogspot.com/

For those of you who have an ear tuned for web speak, you have probably heard the term "web 2.0" thrown around with increasing frequency. It seems basic enough, the newest version of the web, but what does it mean exactly?

In it's essence it is the popularization of UGC or User Generated Content in mainstream websites. It is now very commonplace for a website to engage its visitors to enter in their own opinions or to post their own media for free.

This paradigm shift has occurred for two major reasons. The first is a change in the way search engines rank websites. For instance, blogs or a website that has a blog within it will almost always be rated higher than a similar website with static content. Google, Yahoo! and others are constantly checking and rechecking websites to see which ones are generating new and useful content. The websites that update more often will receiving preferential ranking in search results.

The second factor in the trend towards UGC is marketing. More and more companies are realizing the value of advertising to consumers while they are at their computer. Demand for online advertising has increased. At the same time, the cost for hosting data online has decreased. Relative to potential online marketing revenue, it is very cheap for a website owner to host images, videos or blogs in exchange for a user who will continually come back to that site.

Both these reasons compound, and create a very strong motivating factor to change the way online companies mould their business models.

http://realestate20.blogspot.com/