Coming Soon To RealEstateShows.com!

We’ve had syndication on our upgrade list for some time and we’re now ready to let everyone know about it. Many of our clients have told us we should add an easy way to push listing information to more sites than just Realtor.com, Homes.com and the MLS.

We agree. We want to be your resource for promoting and distributing real estate listings. When this update is complete, getting your listings out to sites like Google Base, Edgeio, Trulia, Oodle, Craigslist and more, will be as simple as pressing a button. And Shows of all types will be able to be broadcast via RSS feed as well.

When released, each Show you designate will have its own web page. We are still designing the page templates and ironing out the code, but we hope to have these new features launched in the next 60-90 days.

Stay tuned. We’re excited this. We hope you are too.

Dave Morehead understands the true meaning of Memorial Day. A few days ago, after reading about our Memorial Day idea, Dave shared with me a couple of short, but powerful emails.

Jeff, Thank you for sharing your idea. Thought you might like to see what I did last night using your idea. Thanks for allowing me to finally be able to come to terms with that whole nightmare of what so many of us, both as Vets and as a nation, went through. Dave.
[A Tribute To My Best Friend]

I see a lot of Shows. So it takes a lot to make me tear up. Dave’s Show made me well up with tears. So, I asked Dave for permission to share his Show and his story with everyone on Memorial Day. Dave agreed it would be an appropriate way to honor the memory of his best friend, Chuckie Davenport.

I met Chuckie through a friend of mine when I was about sixteen years old.

It’s hard to imagine how you can have so many memories of someone from so many years ago. I guess one reason was that we had so much in common.

Cruisin up & down Las Olas blvd. on Ft. Lauderdale beach on a warm July night, “checkin” out the girls.

Climbing the gate to one of the mansions right on the beach, then having the scare of our lives as we were frantically trying to beat a path back over the fence when two Doberman Pincers came chasing after us. We didn’t know anyone lived there, we thought the place was haunted.

Going camping up around Lake Okeechobee… shootin’ off firecrackers at 2:00 a.m.

Going fishing at the drop of a hat. The time he almost shot me by accident when we were target shooting at Snake Creek. He didn’t offer an apology. I can still hear his voice when he said, “Man, you gotta get the safety fixed on this thing”

He was the kind of guy that could go up and plant a kiss on any girl he had never seen before… and get away with it.

Ironically, our paths crossed when I had just gotten out of Army training in Feb. ’68 and was on leave just prior to being sent to Germany and he was on leave the same time before being sent to Vietnam. One of the last things I remember was him saying: “I gotta go get my picture taken tomorrow, I guess my mom wants a picture of me in case something happens over there”…

Chuckie was killed 24 days after arriving in Vietnam.

Dave, this Memorial Day I am thankful for you. And I am thankful for all of those, like Chuckie, who placed themselves in harms way and paid the ultimate price for the freedoms I often take for granted.

As you may know, I work as a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Advantage in beautiful Hurricane, WV. (Got to get my plug in there!) One of my coworkers is a wonderful agent named Bonnie Bowles. Bonnie has been in this business for decades and knows real estate up one side and down the other.

Technology is another story.

Recently, Bonnie bought a laptop. She’s determined to conquer this “tech stuff”. Yesterday she took my advice and signed up for the RealEstateShows.com free trial. I started walking her through the steps of making a show, and when I had to leave I directed her to the RealEstateShows.com tutorials.

While working with Bonnie, she said something that gave me an A-ha! moment. I showed her the “Sold” tab on her Shows and mentioned that it looks good to have some Solds in there for potential clients to see.

Bonnie, being a veteran agent, said she needed to make up Shows of her previous sales.

WOW. Since I “discovered” RealEstateShows.com pretty early in my real estate career, I hadn’t even thought of that. Bonnie has loads of sales under her belt, and she needs practice creating Shows.

Chances are you might have sold some houses before you found RealEstateShows.com, too. If so, why not make up some Shows of homes you’ve already sold? While you might not be marketing those particular homes anymore, you ARE marketing yourself. Make a Show as usual, then while in Manage, click the box to the right for Sold.

A long list of Solds sends a powerful message to someone looking for a real estate agent online. It shows your experience and your expertise. It lets people know that you’ve been through this before, many times, and tells potential clients that you will be able to help them as well. A long list of Solds can help establish a certain amount of trust before you’ve ever even met your new client.

Don’t be shy. Dig out those old photos (or snag them off your MLS if you’ve deleted them! Just make sure they’re nice and big.) and show off your accomplishments!

As independent contractors, we have to do a lot of our own advertising. We not only spread our names everywhere we can online, but then we also advertise in the local house guides, newspapers and sometimes on TV. We mail out postcards and letters. We hand out cards everywhere we go.

We’re practically screaming, “Look at me! Look at me!”

And still, you run into Uncle Chuck at the grocery store and learn that your cousin just listed his house with someone else. *Sigh*

Our friends and families are just as skilled as everyone else at ignoring advertising. It’s not their fault, they’ve been conditioned into it just like the rest of us. So how do you remind people you’re in business without beating them over the head with it?

My solution is “stealth advertising.” Send them stuff that they don’t even realize is advertising. Send them something they’ll enjoy for what it is.

The best I’ve found for this is RealEstateShows.com.

The internet makes it quick and easy to keep in touch, and everyone loves pictures. The next time you have pictures to share, make them up into a Show on RealEstateShows.com! In 60 seconds, you’ve shared the highlights of the event, focused attention on the details you found to be important and even had a nice soundtrack to set the mood! There are more pictures available and even video — and you didn’t take up any space in their inbox. Aren’t you thoughtful?

Oh, and remember, each time you send out your shows, there’s that reminder! Your professional branding is all right there, with links to your website and other homes.

Busy people appreciate that it takes just 60 seconds to see the best part, and if they want to come back for more all the extra pictures and video will be there waiting for them. It’s like getting a quick visit in the middle of a hectic day. Make them happy they checked their email!

Keep in touch with your family and friends, share your pictures and memories with them. Like it says at the top of this blog, “Listings are only part of the story.” Let ‘em know you’re thinking of them by keeping in touch, and have that subtle reminder right there, just in case it slipped their mind.

One more thing — when you send out all those postcards and so on, your costs add up each time. With your RealEstateShows.com subscription, you’ve already paid for all the shows you’ll make this year! Go make more!!

Use your RealEstateShows.com account to celebrate a graduation.

Everyone loves a little attention. Why not use RealEstateShows.com to congratulate a recent graduate? Take pictures at the graduation and send them a link to the Show. They’ll appreciate it. And, more than likely, they’ll forward to their friends as well.

Snap a few photos and make a graduate’s day. It’s not going to cost you one extra penny and they don’t have to know how easy it was!