Bart Wilson

Every business had them. Some of your clients are bright and get it. Others... just don't seem to have a clue.

I have my share of brokers that I consult with who have all of the best tools we can provide for them. Killer IDX. SEO Friendly website.

Here's an actual transcript of a conversation I had with a very large brokerage from one of the national real estate franchises a few weeks ago:

Hi XXXXX, this is Bart. I was calling to check in to see if you've been monitoring your leads on your IDX control panel.

No, we haven't

Here, let me show you. Go to your website and see the tiny IDX admin at the bottom of your page? Okay, good. Click that and log in using these credentials.

See these leads? Wow. You've got a few here. Five leads were posted last week, three more from two weeks ago, and look: two more leads on the 2nd of May. Has anyone called them or emailed them?

No, we haven't had time.

Okay, XXXX told me to take off the 2-way chat on your website. That's sort of counter productive or just as bad as not checking your leads on your IDX. Don't you have an agent on call for weekends?

Yes, we do.

Okay, that agent sits down sometimes at a desk and there is a computer on that desk, right?

Yes.

Okay, so if someone comes to your site, the 2-way chat is on your home page and next to every IDX search results page. This way, people feel safe being anonymous and can ask you questions. If the agent is there on weekends, and they are at the computer, when you hear the door bell sound, the agent can chat with a customer on line. The conversation can certainly turn into a lead and before you know it... they're wiring you $5,000 for a deposit on a new home.

We just don't have time to learn the new tools.

I say my good bye and I am in shock as I hang up the phone.

This is the SAME broker who complains abut the LACK of leads. I just call them and show them the leads are coming in, and by their own admission, they tell me they are too busy to learn the new tools.

This kind of Stupidity should be a crime.

The broker has page one visibility on Google. They have a hand crafted website. They have a state of the art IDX with a killer lead generator. They just continue to run their business the same way they did five years ago. They won't let me come in and sit down with their agents and teach them the basics of social networking which is now considered -- TECHNOLOGY Survival Skills.

The leads are here. They continue to come in a few every week. But because the PHONE isn't ringing, the brokerage and the agents all sing the same stupid song: The Sellers Market is leaving them high and dry.

This is pure human stupidity at it's finest. And the saddest part of all, it's totally unnecessary. Because from where I sit, this is another AllPro Realty waiting to go bankrupt (as they did in October 2008) and shut down all 20 of their Utah offices.

What is so hard about going to your website and logging into your control panel under your IDX listings and checking stats and your leads?

If REALTORS are bright enough to point, click and drag a mouse around a screen, log into the Rapattoni MLS and create a listing -- what is so friggin hard about going to your own website, clicking a link, entering in your password and then clicking a link for your LEADS?

Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn.com are new tools for REALTORS. But there is no book specifically for REALTORS to show you button to push. What to do step-by-step, where to start. But many agents saw the gun was pointing at their heads especially when they learn their broker says NO to their third commission advance.

The writing is on the wall and I'm fed up with looking at crappy websites, web pages that go nowhere when I am trying to find a home in El Paso for my friend in Florida who has $150,000 cash to put on a home and I find nothing of any value on-line. My recent rant about no intelligent life being in El Paso resulted in a few hate mails and a few interesting voice mails.

I don't believe for one minute there are 1.3 million agents in our trade membership today. But According to NAR, this is what they report. In my humble opinion, there might be 790,000 left that are active. REALTORS who are retired, or dead don't count.

Brokers today need to be involved in Thought Leadership. Brokers who stick their heads into the sand, refuse to learn the new tools, bang out these ugly me-too template websites create huge problems for the agents thatn hang their license with them. Stupidity and ignorance means you just get stuck with dozens or hundreds of agents asking you for a commission advance.

SMART Brokers invest into the new tools. SMART brokers will take a consultant and let them teach their agents how to Chirp, how to Blog, and get involved with finding where the customers are. Brokers who refuse to learn the new tools are simply standing in their own way of being successful.

Sooner or later, Smart Agents will realize this and will take their license down and hang them with the smarter brokers. Like Broker Bob at Amazing Realty.

SMART agents wake up to fact their brokers are complete morons and they are the ones kicking the tires on new real estate marketing tools. They are on ActiveRain and learning how to go with the new flow. To those agents... I salute you as I see you climb your way to the top of the real estate food chain.

We have so many mistakes and failures out there that we can all learn from. Like Tony Robbins says, "Success and Failure Leave Clues. Be passionate about becoming successful. Discover and learn what the successful sales people are doing. Do what they do, and you will get the same, if not BETTER results than they did."

Success or Failure? You decide: According to Terry Pullan, then CEO of Pullan Communications, more than 900 REALTORS every month signed up for a $39 a month website package. The following month, he said 600 REALTORS would call and cancel.

With all of the whiners and the crappy websites and the brokers and agents that just don't get it -- the ones that refuse to learn how to Chirp on Twitter, get a page on Facebook or ask someone if they're LinkedIn... it's time for you to consider another career move.

Or, you wake up right now. Take off your rose tinted glasses and face up to the facts. Put virtual tours on your listings. Please take 5 minutes to create a corporate Facebook page and spend all of your offline marketing to tell people about your online business website.

Do these things and you might survive.

Forget about them, or ignore them and you'll soon need to start practicing how to say, "Would you like ketchup with your order, sir?"

-- Bartman

I want to scream.

Remember the movie, Network? "I'm mad as HELL and I'm NOT going to take it ANYMORE!"

I'm almost wishing I could go back to real estate sales. At least then, dumb questions and self defeating situations only came from next time home buyers when they asked WHY they couldn't put in for a new car before we closed on their new home.

A lot of REALTORS are needing a similar wake up call, because if 90% of you don't wake up soon, the top ten percent and top 1 percent of the top producers are just going to keep on laughing all the way to the bank. Because 90% of all real estate agent websites: SUCK.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. Actually more like 94% of them suck.

I've been in real estate marketing for ten years so I think I have a bit of expertise in this area. So when a friend of mine said she is moving to El Paso and since I am not licensed to sell real estate in El Paso, I thought I'd go search up a few websites in the El Paso area and give her a few recommendations.

The first website we went to was a Keller Williams McWebsite template. The one you get for free from KW Corporate. It was a complete disaster. I tried a narrow search for homes near the mountain with great photos and 360 tours. No such luck. Open houses weren't working either. Then on one page, there was a link to their new and improved crappy template -- which ALSO from KW Corporate and it looked just as awful. The broker could have done so much better if they went to TemplateMonster.com The colors, the style said nothing about El Paso, no Spanish-Mexican flavor or zest was used to make the site anything but dull.

Four other real estate websites I went to had ZERO virtual tours, either and all of them were equally unremarkable -- and I'm sure Simon Cowell from American Idol would add the word: BORING and karaoke to the reviews if here were sitting in my chair judging the poor looking websites I was staring at in disbelief.

Does anyone REALTOR in El Paso READ anything about real estate marketing but me? I am beginning to wonder if there is any intelligent life (REALTORS) doing business in El Paso? And I'm sorry if this comes across as insulting, but I'm beginning to wonder.

You show me a single REALTOR with a crappy website template in El Paso, ZERO visibility on Google, NO virtual tours and I'll show you a REALTOR who isn't making a six digit income.

FACT: Americans were watching 5 million virtual tours a day, according to a report published by the PEW Internet Research Group. And this report is four years old. My guess is maybe 5.5 million today. Maybe more.

Does anyone READ the annual Homebuyers report? People that buy homes want to SEE the virtual tour first. These too, are hard facts. Then when they are ready -- they will contact you and give you their contact information.

I went to at least ten more websites and they all look like there banged out on the same word processor. The only difference is that one site was blue, the other one was green, the others were a sandy or desert yellow. All of them had the same school information. Nothing different or remarkable about them. Since I was recording a radio commercial for one of my clients in Florida, I had to record a make believe McWebsite Agent Template Company. King Templates.

This is the commercial I made. If this were a real company, their radio ad would sound like this.

Bank foreclosures are just as stupid. I went to some foreclosure sites and an agent offering REOs on her site. These were half baked disasters.

Apparently, banks with REO's send out a driver to do the digital drive by.

They sort of slow down and shoot just the outside of the home. The bank thinks they're doing real estate marketing and getting homes ready to sell.

Ha! Fat chance you'll sell the home with ZERO or no photos.

I'm still sitting here with a friend who's looking to buy a house in El Paso. And she could be a cash paying customer with $150,000 to pay for a home right now. Her FICO scores are 810.

I find one house for her that is $30,000 UNDER market value and near the foothills. She wants to know what the kitchen looks like. The bedroom? Nope, no photos. No such luck. Every friggin REO listing is either NO photo or the outside photo only. And the dumb REALTOR and bank want to know when these homes are going to sell.

I kept looking for more great El Paso real estate websites and did not find any.

WAKE UP CALL TO EL PASO REALTORS -- I have a client for somebody. 810 FICO Scores and she has $150,000 to spend CASH right now. She may opt for $50,000 down with a nice 15 year fixed at 5.0%. She can go VA or conventional.

Send her a few listings with some virtual tours and make sure it is in a nice, safe neighborhood in the foothills with panoramic views of El Paso. Agents without the ability to show my client a virtual tour need not waste your time.

Send your hot sheet leads to: joshua24g@yahoo.com and to the Attention of Sandra C. George. She wants to move in July.

- Bartman

The Good. The Bad and Ugly facts on a CRAPPY Choice Domain Name.

Picking a good domain name is so crucial today if you expect to make it to the top of the real estate food chain.

Pick a BAD domain name, combine this with a crappy hosting company and a website template and you have all the ingredients for a real disaster. You might as well as paint a big RED target on your back with the words: KILL ME. Because what this agent or broker did below, is no different.

Website URL: www.SantaFeRealtyInc.com

What's wrong with the website? Plenty of things. But I'll limit this to 7 items.

1.) The domain name. SantaFeRealty (is wrong for flagstaff) -- has a good relevant, natural search term for any REALTOR or broker doing business in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But the firm is offering real estate in Flagstaff, Arizona. This is pure stupidity at it's finest.

2.) Graphics do not always load when you visit the site. The server (ISP) isn't one of the big ones like Rackspace.com. Crappy servers + McWebsite template = Lousy performance.

Lousy performance + me too website template + wrong geographic terms for real estate = ZERO natural search engine visibility on Google.

Acid Text: Do a Google search for: 1.) flagstaff homes for sale 2.) flagstaff real estate

Is this Website on page one of Google? No.

3.) Navigation items go inside with relevant text links. An SEO technique called Silo-ing. This part is good, but could be better as the landing pages are not optimized enough for the relevant terms.

4.) Listings preview is weak. Why not show off several homes, or add the Quick Search Homes box here. Adding an IDX from iHomefinders here would be a killer idea. Look at this site for an example of what to do.

5.) Favorite links? Not a good idea. If you put off site links here, you are telling Google to forget about you. It's no wonder this website has a Google PageRank of 0/10. Think of offsite links on YOUR website like a bucket of water. For every offsite link you put on your home page or any high traffic page (landing page) is like taking a sharp awl and punching a hole in your bucket.

You punch one hole in the SEO bucket for every off site link you have. Now you get the idea. You do not want to EVER swap or exchange links with anyone UNTIL AFTER YOU GET ON PAGE ONE. NEVER violate that rule.

6.) Real Estate Websites link goes to the Webmaster. Bag this idea if you have one of these links on your website and IF you have ZERO page one visibility on Google right now.

If anyone thinks this is a good looking website -- then the agent needs to have their head examined, or stop postponing your annual eye exam.

The text link going TO RapidListings.com is good for them. But it does nothing for the agent's ability to get the site ranking better on Google.

RapidListings.com gets an incoming, relevant link for the Google search term: real estate websites So when agents go searching for a website on Google, they get to show up at the EXPENSE of you never appearing on a natural page search. This kind of predatory activity should be a crime because the last time I checked, RapidListings.com CHARGES agents $$$ for the site and the service. If it were me, I'd tell RapidListings to remove the link or pay ME for keeping it.

7.) Text Link Footers. This is way over the top. Links to the individual agents do nothing to add relevant key words for Flagstaff Real Estate, Flagstaff Homes for Sale, etc.

This website CAN BE FIXED if the REALTORS get themselves another domain. I checked this morning and several good choices are available for registration right now.

1.) FlagstaffMoves.net

2.) FlagstaffHomefinders.com

3.) FlagstaffSelect.com

If I were the owner of this website, I'd take the domain, offer it for SALE to an agent or broker in Santa Fe New Mexico, make $500 - $1,000 as the domain is Google SEO friendly if the domain points to relevant REAL ESTATE content in SANTA FE NM.

Then I'd buy one of these domains above and upload a hand coded, SEO friendly website.

More good SEO stuff by good and bad examples will be posted later in June.

- Bartman

If you hadn't noticed, the real estate market is picking up. Home sales were up over 4% in March and it looks like April is going to shed some more good news. Many REALTORS are starting to crawl out and sun themselves and are getting their blood pumping again.

This month, I received several calls from brokers needing some help (quickly) on SEO and I had to recommend Pay Per Click (PPC) to all of them. One of them was an Albuquerque broker that had a hard time understanding that the one phrase I was recommending to him would generate MORE qualified leads.

The broker is heavy with home inventory. More than 210 listings right now. 84% of the homes are priced under $320,000. I recommended the key phrase: albuquerque homes for sale and homes for sale in albuquerque, nm as the two key word phrases he should be paying for. The broker wanted qualified BUYERS looking for HOMES. So naturally, WordTracker showed these two phrases for generating solid traffic (and leads) over the other one and two word phrases.

The broker wanted to pay for generic words like: albuquerque, albuquerque vacation and several others which would have made their bill close to $3,000 a month instead of $1,200 a month (where they wanted to be).

After my having to scribble boxes and arrows on a few dozen napkins and three margaritas later, we finally agreed my strategy was sound when I opend up my laptop, and showed him the results on WordTracker.com.

As I drove home to Santa Fe, it occured to me that I had the same conversation three times this week with people who were about to spend a lot of money on Google for no good reason. So instead of going home, I went to the recording studio at the office and recorded the spoof below. (MP3 format)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Real Estate Agent?

It's like the Who Wants to Be A Millionaire Show, but I changed it up a bit. It's a three minute clip and it's very funny but it drives the point. Let me know any feedback you think of this because I am updating my SEO (audio) book with new content for 2009 including information on Google's recent algorothim changes to Site Links and Twitter how to updates, too.

- Bartman

I've never wanted to shoot anyone or blow them to smitherines in my life.

But as a former member of the Armed Services, having served in Turkey and having seen some combat action in my life, I am sort of longing to put a 47mm grenade into my M-16 just one more time and play the role of Al Pacino from the movie Scarface.

"Say hello to my little friend," and WHAM. Ka-boom. ka-powie. Whatever sound effect you like (goes here). My favorite scene from Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail,

"Oh Lord. Bless this thine hand grenade. That with it, I shalt blow thine enemy into tiny bits. In thy Mercy."

If you need a great laugh, here's the sound from the Movie. Click the link above.

Okay, back to being serious for a minute here: The ID theft Cartels are at it again and emails are now coming at us from CraigsList. It's a trap. Do Not Fall for these.

If I'm getting these deceiving emails from someone posing from CraigsListing, then so are you.

The Identify Theft Cartel are dreaming up more ways to steal your identity and clean you out of every dime in your bank. Many of these emails are coming from Gangs today. Yes, Gangs now called Phishing Gangs. It's being called, "The New Street Hustle," and quite frankly, it's just scaring the living daylights out of me when I think what our world is turning into. Computer-savvy kids are being suckered into gangs like Los Vatos Locos, Avenues, Mac-10 to get your money. I guess the drive by shootings, muggings and holding liquor stores is being considered "old school."

But you don't have to become a victim of the new Hi-Tech Gangs out there by falling for crimes like these.

You can protect yourself by just simply being a Doubting Thomas. Always be Cynical.And of course, always use a PC condom for your computer when you surf the net, or check email. Hahahaha.

I mean by that is to use Norton AntiVirus. And make sure your Windows software has adequate Internet protection turned on and you have the latest security updates, too.

BEWARE: If PayPal or CraigsList or any so-called Bank or Mutual fund sends you and email and asks you to CLICK here and do ANYTHING that asks you to log in, change password or confirm your ID or bank account of phone number... trust me. It's a trap, and you will end up paying for the mistake for years to come in cleaning up the mess.

Because these Hi-Tech Gangs are like cock roaches. You can't find them all. And the police departments who would be there to help fight this kind of crime are being cut down, laid off and retired. When my Identity was stolen by a young woman two years ago, I did my own research and narrowed it down to a restaurant I frequently visited with business associates. I have my company name stamped on my credit card. So when the Waitress asked a few questions about what we all did, we thought it was completely innocent. What we did not realize is that the Waitress pocketed my Visa number, expiration date, and the back of the card's last three digits and wrote down the CVB number.

Then she quit her job and drove to California and stopped for gas at a Mustang convenience store. She could not run my card through the gas pump so she went inside and gave the clerk a sad story about her Visa card not working. And the clerk manually took the number from her
and gave her gas. This is a no-no practice at any store as it can be fraud. She got gas, some Coke and M & M's and drove off to Los Angeles.

On the way, she stopped at one of those rest stops that are are now often equipped with a wireless connection. She goes to Priceline.com and reserves a hotel room with my card. She gets a confirmation number.

She gets to Los Angeles and checks into the hotel, and only gives the reservation number to check in. I blame the Hotel for this and I am asking for everyone to tell their state Senators to scream for a change here . If Hotels HAD to ASK for ID and proof of the Visa or credit card being in their name, this would help stop a lot of ID theft and at the same time, prevent the Hotels from losing so much $$$. Because my bank just took the money right back and gave it to me. So one would think that the Hotels might lobby for this or make their own rules to follow here.

Bcause the hotel does not ask jer for the card imprint or a drivers license. Then to add insult to injury, she checks into her room, opens up her PC laptop, logs into Pizza Hut and orders two pizzas paid for by me and my Visa.

The next day, she calls and orders a LCD TV screen at a local retailer. At which time the clerk thought it was suspicious and he calls my office. Asking to verify some woman called Jennifer is my wife and she works for Voyager. I am married but my wife's name is Tanya. Not Jennifer (which was a fake name, her real name was Melissa.)

At that time its clear to me she is a fraud -- so I find out more by logging into my bank.

Then depression sets it. I have racked up thousands of dollars in charges that were never made by me. I call the Los Angeles police department, and inform them of the facts I had gathered. I get a phone call an hour later. She was a 27 year old hispanic woman, and was still in the hotel room. She was arrested on narcotics charges from an earlier arrest then booked for ID theft and she is now serving 17 years in a federal prison somewhere in California.

I was able to clean up my credit card in 30 days, and my credit score was saved this time.

Look carefully at the email on the bottom of this article. See where it says to Email them BACK? This part cannot be hidden by amateurs who son't quite know how to be a good hacker just yet.

Simply MOUSE over the link and hover there.

See the REAL email link appear?

Aha! Gotcha. Another Bozo is revealed.

This is the first in a wave of CraigsList Bozo email scams. Rule of thumb: NEVER click on the emails and NEVER do what they say. CraigsList will never ask for this kind of information from you.

Please share this blog comment with your friends and colleagues.

- bartman

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