MOLD… HAZARD OR HYPE?

In the real estate industry, mold has become a factor that may hurt a deal. Some agents are afraid to recommend a mold inspection, the neglect of which can expose them to unforeseen liability in the future.

Everybody wants to live in a healthy home environment. Mold problems can affect the health of your client’s family and the value of their new home. Unfortunately, the subject of mold has become quite blown out of proportion over the past few years.

There are situations that can arise as a result of improper care and maintenance. The trick is learning how to deal with mold and moisture issues based on facts and not hysteria or hype. The biggest mistake you can make is to neglect to take care of a moisture intrusion or mold issue immediately and sufficiently. 

What to Look For:

As a realtor, you should take the time to perform your own inspection of the property and look for any signs of prior water damage. There are certain indicators you can look for to yourself. All mold problems stem from a moisture problem so you should check for stains around the windows and doors, look in the bathrooms for moisture stains due to leaks or floods and locate any poor caulking jobs that do not properly seal fixtures and therefore allow moisture to get into the walls or floors. Also check for any signs of moisture damage to the walls, ceilings or floors. Upon finding any such conditions, a formal inspection is recommended.

You should also look for evidence of condensation or poor ventilation. When a room is not properly ventilated, condensation can form leading to potential mold problems. Check the bathrooms to ensure that there is either an exhaust fan or a window installed. Kitchens should have an exhaust fan as well. Test any fans to ensure that they are in working condition.

Be on the lookout for leaks and if you find any ensure they are repaired as quickly as possible. You are likely to find leaks under stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers & washing machines and under kitchen and bathroom sinks. A leak in any location can lead to a mold problem if improperly handled. 

In many cases a musty smell can indicate a mold problem. The smell can be a result of a dirty HVAC filter, a prior leak or flooding which was not properly dried out, or a current situation, such as a leaky pipe in the walls. You may not be able to locate where the smell is coming from. In that case a mold inspection should definitely be recommended in order to determine the source of moisture and the extent of the situation.  

Mold problems should not create unnecessary concern or panic. One way to protect your interest and reduce concern is hire a mold inspection company that is independent from the other companies that do repair work and/or lab analysis. This removes potential for conflict of interest.

  

Remember that there is a solution to every problem and that many times that solution may be as simple as house cleaning or changing out an air filter. Don’t expose yourself to liability in the future. Find a mold inspection company that you can trust and reduce your liability. 

By Chris Wrightsman – CEO of Mold-Check Professionals. You can contact Chris at 818/951-9120

The most effective form of marketing begins with trust. By

Michael

Port

All sales start with a simple conversation. It may be a conversation between you and a potential client or customer, between one of your clients and a potential referral, or between one of your colleagues and a potential referral.

“All sales start with a simple conversation and are executed when a need is met and trust is assured.”

 

An effective sales cycle is based on turning these simple conversations into relationships of trust with your potential clients over time. We know that people buy from those they like and trust. This is never truer than for the professional service provider.

 

But as Sir Winston Churchill once said, “It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”

 

If you don’t have trust, then it doesn’t matter how well you’ve planned, what you’re offering, or whether or not you’ve created a wide variety of buying options to meet varying budgets. If a potential client doesn’t trust you, nothing else matters. They aren’t going to buy from you—period. If you think about it, this may be one of the main reasons that so many professional service providers say they hate marketing and selling. They may be trying to market and sell to people with whom they have not yet built trust.

 

If you want a perpetual stream of inspiring and life-fulfilling ideal clients clamoring for your services and products, then just remember—all sales start with a simple conversation and are executed when a need is met and trust is assured. So, where do you start? Start by using the most effective marketing strategy on the planet for the professional service provider. The always-have-something-to-invite- people-to offer.

 

Your services have a high barrier for entry. To a potential new client, your services are intangible and expensive—whether you think they are or not—especially to someone who has not used the kind of services that you offer or to those who have not had good results with their previous service providers. People usually hate to be sold, but they love to receive invitations. Don’t you?

 

The Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle begins by making no-barrier-to-entry offers to potential clients. A no-barrier-to-entry offer is one that has no risk whatsoever for a potential client so that she can sample your services. I’m not talking about offering free services, which I don’t recommend, and, unfortunately, is still a common practice for many professional service providers.

 

When you’re using your core self-promotion strategies: networking, web, direct outreach, referral, writing, speaking, and keep-in-touch, rather than attempting to sell people on your services, why don’t you simply offer them an invitation that has no barrier-for-entry?

 

For example: I worked with a man who is a personal trainer and a healthy eating chef. When he joined my Book Yourself Solid 15-Week Intensive Group Learning Program, he hadn’t yet created relentless demand for his services. As you might imagine, this caused him to be anxious over what his future held.

 

After we rebuilt the foundation of his business we created his always-have-something-to- invite-people-to offer: the Fitness Fiesta for Foodies. One Sunday evening a month, he would host a party where he would teach his guests how to prepare healthful meals that help them stay fit. There were two requirements for attendance, however. He would put that month’s menu on his website and each guest was required to bring one item off the menu. Each guest was also asked to bring someone new to the event, thus creating a new audience for his work.

 

After he made his first round of invitations, he barely had to market himself. It was magical. People loved it and they loved him for doing it. And they joined his programs because of it.

 

A financial planner could do something similar either on the phone or in person. Even a simple Q&A about building wealth would do the trick. Are you beginning to get your own ideas on how this could work for you? Good! Here are some more examples that might inspire you:

 

• A Realtor® can offer weekly real estate investor tours where they fill a van or tour bus with active real estate investors and scour the neighborhood hotspots. • An Architect or Designer can offer a monthly makeover where they go to a potential or new client’s office or home, along with a small group of 10 or 15 people (it’s not bad to have a waiting list for these types of offerings), and the Architect or Designer offers new design ideas for the space that will increase the value of the property. Ask clients to bring a new friend every week. Each week or month a new location would be chosen and include a social event afterwards. • An IT professional can host a weekly webinar to demonstrate impressive technical innovations and solutions… and deal with real life questions or problems that potential clients are struggling with.

• An accountant can offer quarterly conference calls that focus on the latest in tax saving measures and better bookkeeping.

 

The value you add in your offer meets the needs and desires of the people you serve.

 

Then as you continue to build trust over time through your sales cycle and your follow up and by offering additional value and creating awareness for the services you provide, you’ll attract potential clients deeper into your sales cycle, moving them closer to your core offerings.

 

You’ll notice that the always-have-something-to-invite-people-to examples I offered above are done in a group format. There are three important reasons for this:

 

1. You’ll leverage your time so you’re connecting with as many potential clients as possible in the shortest amount of time. 2. You’ll leverage the power of communities. When you bring people together, they create far more energy and excitement than you can on your own. Your guests will also see other people interested in what you have to offer and that’s the best way to build credibility.

3. You’ll be viewed as a really cool person. Seriously. If you’re known in your marketplace as someone who brings people together, that will help you build your reputation and increase your likeability.

 

Please give away so much value that you think you’ve given too much and then give more.

I had a friend in college who, when he ordered his hero sandwiches, would say, “Put so much mayonnaise on it that you think you’ve ruined it, and then put more.” Gross, I know. I believe that he has since stopped eating his sandwiches that way and his arteries are thanking him, but adding value is not a dissimilar experience.

 

Remember, your potential clients must know what you know. They must really like you and trust that you have the solutions to their very personal, specific, and urgent problems. The single best way to do that is to invite them to experience what it’s like to be around you and the people you serve.

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More About Michael Port: Called a “marketing guru” by the Wall Street Journal, Michael Port is the guy to call when you’re tired of thinking small because he has lectured, trained, inspired, and provided coaching and consulting services to over 20,000 small business owners. He is the author of the national bestseller Book Yourself Solid, The Fastest, Easiest and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Then You Can Handle Even If You Hate Marketing and Selling. Visit http://www.BookYourselfSolid.com

Mobile broadband will let you do business on your terms — everywhere you go.

 

is the leader in Mobile Broadband technology.

 

Dramatic improvements in speed and coverage areas make mobile broadband the productivity solution for successful real estate agents. Mobile broadband gives you internet connectivity almost anywhere you go – at a clients home signing or resigning a listing, open houses or wherever you can use it to answer the question that makes a deal possible. No need to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can have high-speed connectivity built in to your notebook computer, always ready and available to make your next deal happen faster, more effectively.

In the past two years, mobile broadband (also known as cellular data service) has achieved dramatic improvements in both speed and coverage area, making it an ideal choice for a REALTOR® who wants to connect from virtually anywhere without hassle.

With Mobile broadband Agents can work wherever they are with increased flexibility. The freedom and added productivity makes Agents busy lives less hectic and potentially, more profitable.

 

What is Mobile Broadband?Mobile broadband is different from Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi provides localized wireless coverage in some cafes, airports, and hotels via hotspots. In contrast, mobile broadband is offered through digital cellular networks–making it possible to connect to the Internet or check e-mail virtually anywhere you can get a cell phone signal.

By using a built-in adapter or a PC Card, plus a monthly data service plan, your notebook computer becomes networked with the click of a button. And with new third-generation (3G) technologies, mobile broadband services can provide download speeds of 400-700 Kbps or higher, which is plenty for reading e-mail, browsing the MLS, or connecting to important documents. The connection feels fast. Offered by most major carriers, and with prices starting around $60 per month, mobile broadband quickly becomes an indispensable “must-have.”

 

A Day in the Life of Mobile Broadband Just like your cell phone service, mobile broadband is available virtually anywhere you go during your business week: • In an office conference room • At a client location • At the airport • During your commute on a bus, train or ferry • In a hotel or at a friend’s house • At a family doctor appointment • In a restaurant or café • Waiting at the mall • At a kid’s soccer game (you can always turn it off) • Where you are right now?This article was written in part while sitting in a comfortable chair in a doctor’s office waiting room. Without mobile broadband, I’d be reading six-month-old magazines.

Instead of trying to track down the person who knows the Wi-Fi password at your client’s office or trying to find and sign in to yet another Wi-Fi hotspot which can cost $10 a pop, you can connect with mobile broadband easily and bypass these aggravations with the click of a button on your notebook. So don’t go on a quest for hotspots. Instead, enjoy your morning coffee or make good use of time while waiting on a showing to start – from where you are — because connectivity comes to you. Mobile broadband eliminates the boundaries, giving you a productive environment almost anywhere you are.

 

More Productive Work Time Many agents are using single-function devices and smart phones connected through cellular data networks in order to read e-mail. While these devices are great for “e-mail triage,” the small screens and tiny keypads of these devices make creating a full response or accessing attachments difficult. By bringing broadband connectivity to your notebook computer, with its larger screen and full-size keyboard, you can read these same e-mail messages, open attachments, and craft full replies that can make the difference in solving a client’s problem or moving a sale along.

And unlike the very basic Web-based information services available on these smaller devices, you can use your desktop applications, a full Web browser, and other connected applications to work normally from virtually anywhere.

 

Built-in Benefits Most users will prefer the reliability, convenience and performance of a built-in mobile broadband modem compared to an external PC Card. Built-in cards stay out of your way and integrate with existing wireless antennas, which are usually integrated behind the notebook display screen. By building the antenna into the notebook, the risk of it getting bent or broken is minimized.In addition, when a notebook computer is purchased with a built-in card, all of the appropriate drivers and connection manager software come pre-installed. (You can purchase built-in cards from Dell for Cingular, Sprint, or Verizon Wireless mobile broadband services1 in the U.S. and for TELUS mobile broadband service in

Canada.) You just need to perform a one-time service activation and then click the “Connect” button. It’s that simple.

One more benefit is the improved performance of built-in cards compared to external PC Cards. By placing the antenna away from the internal components of the notebook computer, where there is the most electrical interference, performance has been shown to improve by more than 45 percent in some studies.

	Mobile Broadband	Wi-Fi
Coverage Area	Measured in miles	Measured in feet
Connect From Virtually Anywhere	Yes	No (requires Wi-Fi Hotspot)
Technologies	3G (HSDPA, EVDO)	802.11b/g
Single Plan provides broad coverage	Yes	No
Service Costs	$60 per month (with voice plan), ~$80 per month (data only)	$30 per month per service, ~$10 per day for day pass

Who Carries The Data? Mobile broadband comes from the same companies that bring you cellular voice service:

• Cingular BroadbandConnect

• Sprint Mobile Broadband

• Verizon Wireless Broadband Access

• TELUS Wireless High Speed

The data service can be purchased separately, but many carriers offer a discount if you couple the plan with an existing cellular voice service. Because of this discount, most users will opt to purchase their voice and data services from the same carrier. Although the technologies are different, all services provide fast data connectivity.

Mobile Broadband Solutions from Dell

Dell offers a full selection of mobile broadband products along with customer assistance for sign-up and activation with the mobile broadband service of your choice. Whether you are purchasing a new notebook, or upgrading an existing notebook to mobile broadband, Dell has a wide variety of options, including built-in mini-cards and external ExpressCards for Cingular, Sprint and Verizon Wireless’s mobile broadband networks.Dell has the right notebook to meet your needs. Every small business notebook computer that Dell sells can be fitted with an ExpressCard and many models support the built-in mini-card. The mini-card option is currently available on the Dell Latitude D420 ultra-portable, D620, and D820 notebooks as well as the Dell Precision™ M65 model and XPS™ M1210. Because these Dell notebooks ship with low-interference wireless antennas hidden behind the display screen, your mobile broadband performance can be up to 45 percent faster3 than other options. So when configuring a notebook computer, it’s not just the processor, memory, and hard disk choices you need to consider. If you’re a busy professional, a built-in mobile broadband card can add more productive time to your week. 

For more information on mobile broadband, visit www.dell.com/mobilebroadband

For more information on Dell Real Estate technology solutions, visit Small Business 360™

Audio can add a third dimension to a web site while increasing retention and memorability.
A study conducted by Doubleclick found that adding audio to a website can increase brand awareness by 10.1%, and data recall by 59.9%. According to research by Hermann Ebbinghaus, people retain on average 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear and 50% of what they read and hear.

Your visitors will recall 50% of what they see and hear!

Most homebuyers in today’s online world are shopping from the comfort of their own home or office. As they visit your virtual open house, wouldn’t it be nice to greet them the same way you would in person at an actual open house? Think about it for a moment…if I came to your open house as a prospective buyer you’d offer me a warm greeting with important info and details on the home. You wouldn’t think of holding a flyer in front of my nose and require me to read the data.
The solution: Add audio to your website and conduct your own audio on-line tour.
Look at the audio on your website from a strategic consumer perspective: I’m Prospective Joe Home Buyer; I use the internet and view 137 homes in my target area. Do you want your listing be in the 10% remembered zone or the 50% recall zone? Then audio makes perfect strategic sense.

 

Audio is a Powerful Motivator

 

Audio is a powerful motivator and your voice can influence and persuade visitors to explore your website and therefore stay longer. Audio improves the “stickiness” of your website and creates a bond and rapport with your website visitor, which makes them feel more at ease with you and your offering. Also, it makes a great point of difference. No longer are you just another website amongst the hundreds or thousands that a prospective client may visit, but your website has a human dimension - a voice - and this assists in making your website visitor feel comfortable and your website appear more professional and trustworthy. Audio can have several uses on your website including: introducing you and why you’re the agent of choice; guiding visitors to important places on your site; walking visitors through an open house and even prompting them to complete the survey or contact form on your site.

Bottom line: Audio adds life; it increases the engagement factor; it adds another dimension to a two dimensional medium. Audio helps differentiate you from the competition. The goal is to engage clients where they are—in the comfort of their home or office exploring your website.

Next Steps: Learn More about the impact of adding audio by visiting the leaders in free standing web sites devoted entirely to selling one property. Visit them at www.listingdomains.com.

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To receive a special YRI reader discount use *Promo Code: InsiderNews

Do your listings have their own website? Get a complete property website for only $55. Click here now for more information.

Technology is great when you have concrete strategies for putting it to work for maximum results. AVM technology can help you generate leads, create value for your clients and prospects while saving you valuable time and headaches. In this article we will share three street tested, step-by-step strategies for making AVM technology your most powerful business building tool.

 

What is AVM Technology?

The simple answer to this question: it’s like CMA only faster and easier. AVM gives you the ability to pull property values based on scientific methods in seconds with just a property address. You can literally create a customized, market value presentation in 60 seconds complete with your picture and contact information. Because of the speed, flexibility and ease-of-use, you can leverage AVM in ways you’d never think of using CMA. Here are three street-tested strategies for your implementation:

AVM technology can help you generate leads, create value for your clients and prospects while saving you valuable time and headaches.

AVM Leverage Strategy #1: Help your website bring you more business.

In the world of internet marketing the axiom, “Less is More” holds true when generating interest and leads. The less information a person needs to provide and the easier it is to do business with you, the higher your response rates.

 

Consider: when you’re on a web site and find something of interest, you’re much more inclined to opt-in, sign-up or try-before-you-buy if you input your name and email address vs. providing your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, credit card number, blood type and life history. The first example is easy, fast and perceived as relatively safe. The later takes time and is perceived as overly invasive.

 

Let’s now consider your web site from this “Less is More” perspective: Many agents offer “FREE” home valuations on their web sites. However, a prospect is required to fill in the address, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet, along with all their personal information so the agent can get back in touch. The hit ratio? Relatively low.

 

Now try this: Set-up your website to require a simple street address and minimal contact data and you’ll increase you response rates. WHY? It’s easy for the prospect to do business with you and they feel safe. Use the address data to generate a custom AVM home valuation report that can be emailed in pdf format in under two minutes.

 

That’s leverage, creates value and opens more doors because of your expertise.

 

AVM Leverage Strategy #2: Touch Your Database with Value.

Have home values changed in your area? Looking for a way to make a value-added contact with past clients or your current target market? Then generate personalized, custom home valuation flyers using individual addresses. Try this: Pick Ten of your former clients and run an AVM report with their home data. Print out the report and send it via snail mail or email the pdf flyer. You’ll put your name in front of former clients while offering information they will find interesting and valuable. Time needed: ten to fifteen minutes if you’re slow.

 

You can apply the same strategy to individual homes in your farm area. A professional flyer with their unique home value and your contact information will build a positive impression. And, I’m willing to bet you’ll be the only one doing this…what a perfect way to differentiate yourself from all the other agents vying for attention.

 

AVM Leverage Strategy #3: Never be Nervous to Sell Outside Your Area Again!

 

You know your neighborhood—the prices, comps, values. However, travel outside your area of expertise and the value game gets harder. But not with AVM technology! If you have access to a computer and a home address, you can pull home valuations from across the country in minutes. You can be the expert and speak with authority from any city in the

U.S. when you leverage AVM technology.

 

Are you working with relocation clients? Here’s the perfect solution for finding home values in San Diego, New York City or Bald Knob,

Arkansas. Custom Pdf flyers with your personal contact information can be sent anywhere in the world in a matter of moments.

 

Technology continues to transform the world of real estate sales and AVM is one of those technologies that will soon be one of your most effective business building tools.

 

Interested in giving AVM a test-drive and applying the strategies in this article? Visit: www.AgentAVM.com/yri for a FREE trial. It will transform the way you do business.

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AgentAVM is the leader in helping real estate sales professionals leverage AVM Technology. Visit their website: www.AgentAVM.com/yri for a FREE test-drive and discover how AVM technology can help you grow your business.

 

AVM technology can help you generate leads, create value for your clients and prospects while saving you valuable time and headaches.

 

The CMA and AVM have come together in the form of AgentAVM. These hybrid reports are customized and delivered with a personal touch. For a FREE Trial click here.

Saying “Thank You” is an age-old way to show appreciation, develop rapport and grow more repeat and referral business. Now, discover strategies to help leverage Your “Thank You” efforts.

Every agent knows they should say “thank you” for referrals and the opportunity to work with clients. Yet some thank-you strategies have more WOW! factor than others. Leveraging every thank-you opportunity is smart business and the right thing to do.

 

To find out how to add more WOW! to my thank-you opportunities, I turned to Shaun Kulesza, President & CEO of Just Because Baskets, based in

Littleton, CO. Since 1999, Shaun and his team have been helping agents create custom baskets for just about any occasion including saying: “thanks.” Shaun’s experience and perspective will serve every agent.

 

Tip 1: Think Strategic. The goal is to create a WOW! impression as often as possible with as many people as possible. Not every occasion will require a custom basket with a personal and corporate logo but you want to be looking for opportunities to extend a sincere “thanks,” including: closing gifts, thank you for referrals, relationship building to your core group of supporters and for those folks who go above and beyond the call of duty on your behalf.

 

The goal is to create a WOW! impression as often as possible with as many people as possible.

Also, think seasonally. Whom do you need to touch, acknowledge or reinforce at various times of the year? Don’t overlook the opportunity to make a WOW! impression early in the buying season.

 

Tip 2: Think Leverage. Every agent wants to get the most bang-for-the-buck when it comes to their marketing efforts. Since saying “Thank you” is the right thing to do and a good marketing tool, be on the hunt for leverage opportunities.
Shaun offers the following ideas: 1. Personalizing the “thank you” to the likes and tastes of the individual recipient. It just makes since that the WOW! factor is increased when people see that you took the time and the interest to select a gift especially for them and their tastes.
2. Think “consume now, enjoy later”. Immediate gratification is high on everyone’s list so include items they can enjoy immediately but also include thank you items that will remind them of you over time. (Remember, the gift is something that is important to them.)
3. Make sure your name and company logo is prominently displayed. You want to make it easy for people to get in contact with you for their next sale, purchase or to send you a referral. 4. Speaking of referrals, Shaun recommends sending a Thank You for the referral immediately whether it results in a sale or not. Why? Because a referral is the highest compliment an agent can receive and it’s smart and strategic to “prime the referral pump.”
5. Think Timing. They are called “closing gifts” but the actual closing is perhaps the worst time to give a thank you…if you’re looking for ways to enhance the WOW! factor. Listen to Shaun explain why waiting is a better strategy.

Tip 3: Think Sincerity. It probably goes without saying and should be Tip #1 but be 100% sincere. People can spot a phony from 220 yards away. Being sincere should be easy because who isn’t excited about a sale or a hot referral?

 

Shaun was gracious to offer our readers a special Just Because Baskets 15% discount on their first custom basket order. To explore the many possibilities visit: Just Because Baskets.

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Shaun Kulesza, is the President & CEO of Just Because Baskets, based in

Littleton, CO. They specialize is providing customized baskets for all occasions and help real estate agents add the WOW! Factor to their marketing efforts. For more information and to receive your first time buyer 15% discount visit: http://www.justbecausebaskets.com or call 303-948-1200.