Real Estate Zealot

Experience you can Trust

Metro Broker Pam Adams has over 20 years of Real Estate experience in Colorado and can help any buyer or seller find just the right home. Call Pam at Adams Company - 303-898-3598 or visit PamAdamsHomes.com.

Kathy Soltero: Hi, I'm Kathy Soltero with metrobrokerstv.com, and today we are in the studio with Pam Adams, with Adams Company, Pam thank you so much for joining us today.

Pam Adams: Thank you for having me.

Kathy Soltero: You joined Metro Brokers back in 1989, after working for two large brokerage firms, why did you make the switch?

Pam Adams: Well I gained years of experience and had excellent training in those brokerage firms, but as an independent broker, I can, I make my own decisions, and that means I'm committed to my clients, in terms of offering them a specific marketing approach, and also a specific structure for the commissions that meet their needs.

Kathy Soltero: So as an independent brokerage firm, what would you say are the advantages for a realtor?

Pam Adams: Well I make my own decisions, and I'm not just a, I'm known as Pam Adams, Adams Company, not just a generic broker in a company.

Kathy Soltero: Right, do you think that made that big of a difference when you had the structure of a larger company versus being independent as yourself?

Pam Adams: Being independent makes a big difference, because being an independent, my name and my reputation is everything, and I'm committed to my clients, and to giving them the best customer service I possibly can, and making your own decisions, making your own business plan makes a big difference in that respect.

Kathy Soltero: How do you think that change has affected your clients?

Pam Adams: They know that I am the one that makes the decisions with them, I don't have to go back and ask a broker or you know ask for permission to do unique things in our marketing, or in the commission structure I offer them. So it makes a big difference because they know they are dealing directly with me, when I give them an answer, that's the answer to their situation, and our solution to selling or buying their home.

Kathy Soltero: Now you worked out of a very large Metro Brokers office...

Pam Adams: I did.

Kathy Soltero: Tell me about that.

Pam Adams: It's great, we have at least 110 brokers that work in that office.

Kathy Soltero: All independent?

Pam Adams: All independent Metro Brokers, it's a Metro Brokers Marina Square, we are all independent, we offer live telephone answering, seven days a week, 9 AM to 5 PM, so we don't have any answering services, and it's a good source of feedback for us as brokers, to be able to communicate with each other, and new ideas, new training, and be up on the latest in terms of our industry.

Kathy Soltero: How long have you been selling real estate?

Pam Adams: A long time.

Kathy Soltero: Seen a lot, right.

Pam Adams: I moved to Colorado about 25 years ago, we moved here with my father-in-law, our dog, and came to Colorado just because we wanted to, we had vacationed here like so many people do, and so I've been here 25-26 years, I've developed an awful lot of resources for my business and for my customers, so they get that advantage, if they experience.

Kathy Soltero: That's awesome. Tell us how a customer, somebody who wants to buy or sell a home can contact you?

Pam Adams: The best number really is my cell, I have it with me all the time directly, 303-898-3598, or they can reach me through my web site, at pamadamshomes.com.

Kathy Soltero: Pam, thank you so much for coming in and sharing that information with us today.

Pam Adams: Thank you for asking me Kathy, it was great.

Kathy Soltero: And for more real estate related videos like this one, be sure to tune in to metrobrokerstv.com.

Greg Howard uses The Latest Technology in Real Estate

Metro Broker, Greg Howard of Metro Real Estate Group uses the latest technology to sell real estate across the Denver and Colorado Springs metro areas and the entire front range.

Interviewer: Hi I'm Kathy Soltero with MetrobrokersTV.com, and today in the studio we have with us Greg Howard. He is with the Metro Real Estate Group. Greg, thank you so much for coming in and talking with us.

Greg: Thanks for having me.

Interviewer: Tell me first of all about where you're actually located?

Greg: Our main office is in downtown Colorado Springs at 612 North Tejon. We used to be at 625 and we just recently moved down the street, three blocks.

Interviewer: And you said you are doing a lot more of business here in the Denver Metro area.

Greg: I have, I have spent a long time living here in the South Denver area and I find that I have got more of a client base here currently than I do in the Colorado Springs market. So, even though I'm marketing to the Colorado Springs, I just have a lot going on here.

Interviewer: You drive up and down the I-25 corridor.

Greg: I do, I do. It's not so bad; I am on the North side of the Springs.

Interviewer: You use a lot of technology in your business; tell me a little bit about that.

Greg: I do, it starts off with my website. My website, through my website you can find property searches on anything from way north of Denver all the way to the south side of Colorado Springs, a little bit into the foothills. You can find information about HUD properties. There is a lot of informational videos on there as well. So if you want to know what it takes to buy a HUD property, you can click on that and watch it as well. Other things I do with my website, all my listings get their own private websites, so that I can actually market them and people can find all the information on the house without having to look in at a piece of paper in the yard.

Interviewer: So, automatically when you take a listing and you put it into the MLS or whatever, your website just picks it up right away, and you can create a website for it or.

Greg: I create a website, but it's fairly automated. I have things that I have to enter, and then when I do all my marketing, I market that website and that website takes them directly to the information of the house, pictures, and virtual tours.

Interviewer: What kind of new technology have you really embraced with your real estate?

Greg: Getting away from flyers, that's probably the best thing that's going on right now, you've seen lots of gimmicks that agents have used, I say gimmicks, lots of tools that agents have used to capture leads or capture buyers for their listings. I use what's called the QR code or Microsoft tag on all my listings and on my flyers. If you take a smartphone you can click on that, and I can give you any information I so choose, it can take you to my website or the website of the home or to the virtual tour or can be all the disclosures for the property. So somebody can actually pull up in front of the house and take a picture with their smartphone and they can get all the information they want on the house.

Interviewer: So that works like they just take a picture of it, is that...

Greg: Well, there is actually a...

Interviewer: Is there a scan or...

Greg: Well you basically scan it; there is an app that you have to download in your phone. But it's very easy, you can even go to my website, and get that app, and you just click on it and it automatically directs you to either information or a website.

Interviewer: It sounds to me like, through your website to that, buyers or sellers could look all over the metro area.

Greg: They can, they can, there's really no place from, let's say, Boulder, all the way to the south end of Colorado Springs that they can't view homes.

Interviewer: Tell me what's your website is, so they can go, check it out.

Greg: It's really easy, it's greghowardrealtor.com.

Interviewer: That is pretty easy.

Greg: Yeah.

Interviewer: Greg any other information you want to pass onto customers, as far as how they can get a hold of you.

Greg: My cell phone is a great way to do it, it's area code 719-445-9515 and the other thing is, I am doing a lot of work in the South Denver metro area now so, I'm actually trying to focus on that, so that's just Colorado Springs.

Interviewer: Okay, very good. Greg, thank you so much for joining us again today.

Greg: Very good, it's a pleasure, thank you.

Interviewer: And for more real estate related videos like this one, be sure to tune your web browser to MetrobrokersTV.com.

Marketing and the MLS

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.

Top Tips for Finding Buyers

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

Enhance your Listing Presentations with RPR

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.

New and Improved MLS Refresh Listings System

Kevin Best, Account Manager for Metrolist describes the new changes to the refresh listings category in MLS. The new system will show more accurate statistics for MLS listings.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Kevin Best, Account Manager for Metrolist, and Kevin welcome to the show.

Kevin Best: Thanks Dan, glad to be here.

Interviewer: Well, we are talking about a very popular topic, "Refreshing Listings". Whats the whole purpose behind refreshing listings in the MLS, how will you describe it for people?

Kevin Best: Well, why you would refresh a listing is you want it to be able to be redistributed to all of the new listing searches that brokers do as well as the prospect match e-mail system that Metrolist provides for the brokers.

Interviewer: All right, and so Metrolist has made some changes now to the refresh listing functions, is that correct?

Kevin Best: That is correct. As a user you are going to see very little changes. When you refresh your listing, it's still going to be distributed the same way it is today to all of the "new search" searches being run, as well as, the prospect match e-mail system. However what will happen in the background is instead of showing withdrawn in the listing history, it will actually show refreshed. By doing that our new MLS numbers will be much more accurate as well as our withdrawn listings.

Interviewer: All right, now how does this, when somebody does this, how is it going to impact statistics?

Kevin Best: With the new listings one of the challenges in the past has been that every time I refresh the listing, I got a new MLS number and it counted as a new listing.

Interviewer: Okay.

Kevin Best: In this instance, once this product is up and running, you will no longer get the new count however it will still function as a new listing. The same on the withdrawn side, when I "refresh" it took the withdrawn listing, created a line item for withdrawn and you could never really tell how many properties were truly withdrawn off the market.

Interviewer: But it doesnt sound like it affects my search for new listings or prospects. Is that right or doesn't?

Kevin Best: It does not.

Interviewer: Okay.

Kevin Best: Everything from that function is going to be exactly the same way.

Interviewer: All right, now here is an important distinction, by refreshing we've got to emphasize that you are not necessarily affecting days on market, is that correct?

Kevin Best: That is correct. Your total days on market will continue to be calculated the same way it is today, the same way it always has been based off the original list date of the property.

Interviewer: Now if I wanted to affect days on market and have it show as zero, I would have to withdraw or take the property off the market for what... 30 days?

Kevin Best: 30 days, enter it back into the system on the 31st day and your days on market will go back to zero. Listing history will show the listing history obviously but the days on market will reset to zero.

Interviewer: Okay, great function, I appreciate what you are doing.

Kevin Best: Thanks Dan.

Interviewer: Thanks.

FHA 203 (k) Renovation Loans for Fix-Up Properties

In this video from BrokerIPTV.com, renovation loan specialist Tom Yoswa from MyProspectMortgage.com discusses FHA 203 (k) loans, which can assist buyers with fix-up properties.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Tom Yoswa. He is a renovation loan specialist. How are you?

Tom Yoswa: Hi Dan. I am doing well.

Interviewer: Well we talked in a segment about what a residential loan or renovation loan specialist does, can you explain it again?

Tom Yoswa: Well, basically, I loan people money to purchase and renovate a house. You know, what I find in the market that we are in right now, there is a lot of bank foreclosures, there is a lot of HUD properties, those properties in particular, you know, a lot of them, if you show me one that doesn't need work I will show you 10 of them that probably do. So basically it enables you to take those homes, buy them and fix them all with one loan and one close.

Interviewer: And most realtors and consumers would probably know this is an FHA 203(k) loan, is that right?

Tom Yoswa: Yes.

Interviewer: Okay, yeah.

Tom Yoswa: It's basically nothing more than a regular FHA loan with the same FHA guidelines. However, there is a construction element to it and we put the money into Escrow afterwards for the repairs.

Interviewer: And traditionally what type of buyers are using this loan and what's that price point?

Tom Yoswa: Well I mean in this market right now there is a lot of first time home buyers. You know I think there are some statistics out there say you know almost 50% of all home buyers right now are first timers, which makes sense because of the market and the interest rates, etcetera. So you know, when I look at first time home buyers most of them are not buying you know $300,000 houses, they are buying $150,000 houses and you know, the large majority of those homes need some sort of work.

Interviewer: Right.

Tom Yoswa: Carpet, kitchens, bathrooms, new roofs, etcetera.

Interviewer: So a $100,000 will say what 220, 225 is pretty much the pool you are swimming in?

Tom Yoswa: I would say for the most part I mean there are other, you know, it can go higher, it can go lower, it just really depends on who the buyer is and what they are looking at.

Interviewer: And what type of repairs can they make under this program?

Tom Yoswa: Dan, you can do just about anything, you know carpet, paint, kitchens, bathrooms are usually the typical ones. People don't know you can put appliances into the loans, if it has a furnace or any of the HVAC stuff that isn't functioning, you can do that.

Interviewer: Hot water heating?

Tom Yoswa: All that stuff,...

Interviewer: Roofs?

Tom Yoswa: Roofs, you can do it, obviously anything exterior, landscaping in some situations, etcetera.

Interviewer: All right, a couple the obstacles that prevent people from buying a house. One is usually down payment, how much money do they have to put down with this loan?

Tom Yoswa: Well I mean, there is again, options there, too. I do conventional as well as FHA, it's the same guidelines as FHA and conventional. So with the 203(k) loan, it's, you know, as little as three and a half percent down.

Interviewer: Okay.

Tom Yoswa: So you know whatever the purchase plus the renovation is combined, it's three and a half per cent off of that, but there are other programs, HUD has a $100 down program if it still exists, I think it does.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Tom Yoswa: And you can use that in certain situations, so it really depends but it's as little as three and a half percent down.

Interviewer: So one of the questions I know I have been asked by buyers is can you combine the programs? I want to do the $100 down HUD program, but I need the construction financing. Can you do it?

Tom Yoswa: I have done it, just so long as it's a full-price offer.

Interviewer: Oh, it's got to be full-price offer?

Tom Yoswa: It's got to be a full-price offer. So if HUD's asking 160, you bid 156, no-go. If you bid, if it's 160, you bid 160, then yes, and then again, I am not 100% sure. I believe the program is still there.

Interviewer: It sounds good. Tom, thanks I appreciate it.

Tom Yoswa: Thank you very much, Dan.

You can reach Tom Yoswa at 303-668-4499 and at MyProspectMortgage.com online.

Search Multiple Property Listings with Metrolists Beta Search

Metrolist Account Manager, Hope Hughes, explains the new exciting features of Beta Search, an online tool to make searching for multiple properties easier.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Hope Hughes, the Account Manager from Metrolist and Hope, welcome to the show.

Hope Hughes: Thanks Dan.

Interviewer: Glad you are here. We are talking about some new searches that are now available to Metrolist customers; they are called 'Beta Searches, what are we looking at?

Hope Hughes: Well, one of the most exciting features about our Beta Search is the ability to search with multiple property types.

Interviewer: Okay so, instead of just going in and looking at condo, I can look at house and condo now, is that right?

Hope Hughes: Correct. Of the four property types, residential, condo, income and land, you can search on one, two, three or all four of those property types now.

Interviewer: All at once?

Hope Hughes: All at once.

Interviewer: Just put in the criteria, you can highlight, I guess radio button all of them?

Hope Hughes: Absolutely.

Interviewer: So Hope that sounds great. Can you tell me a little about like some of the features that are going to be displayed in the new results?

Hope Hughes: Well, the 'results field of your search will display both residential condo or whichever property types you select in your search criteria, it will also display an unlimited amount of results.

Interviewer: Oh so, you know, it will 100, 200 300, it will, will just be going page by page by page?

Hope Hughes: Yes, no limit at all on the amount of searches or on the amount of properties that you could display now with your results.

Interviewer: All right, so not that we would want to do that but...

Hope Hughes: But you could.

Interviewer: But you could, all right. So where do we find these new searches?

Hope Hughes: The searches can be found in the same place the current searches are found; either on the portal page or on the 'search drop down menu.

Interviewer: All right. Now some people dont know what a Beta Search is, what do you mean by the term 'Beta Search?

Hope Hughes: Well 'Beta is a software development term, that means its in the initial phase still of the software release. The Beta Search is available for our customers to test and see how they like it, and then of course give us their feedback and suggestions.

Interviewer: And then your developers kind of tweak it along the way and at some point it goes from a Beta Search to a permanent part.

Hope Hughes: Yes, yes.

Interviewer: Do you have a time frame roughly, you know when that all occurs, is it six months, a year, how long does that process usually take to shake out?

Hope Hughes: Well I don't know if we've determined the exact time frame on it, but we are looking for feedback.

Interviewer: Okay. So, when people want to give feedback how can a Metrolist customer leave a comment or give feedback about how the search worked?

Hope Hughes: The easiest way to do it is right through the PrimeAccess page where we can ask for customer feedback and thats right on the Prime Access top right-hand corner. The other way is to call our customer support number at (303) 850-9613 extension 1, or they can email support@metrolist.com.

Interviewer: All right we are looking forward to using those searches. Hope, thanks for being here, appreciate it.

Hope Hughes: Thank you Dan.

Metrolist Unveils New Enhanced Listing Features

Hope Hughes, Account Manager from Metrolist discusses the advantages of the new enhanced listing features available on PrimeAccess. Now you can enter more details on your listings!

Interviewer: Today we are talking with Hope Hughes, Account Manager for Metrolist. Hope, welcome to the show, thanks for being here.

Hope Hughes: Thank you, Dan.

Interviewer: We are talking about an enhanced feature of 'PrimeAccess one that I think is incredible. Actually I stumbled upon it accidentally as I was looking through some searches, but now you could put up to a thousand characters in the listing entry?

Hope Hughes: Yes, in the public remarks, broker remarks and in the driving directions.

Interviewer: All right, so in the past how many lines or how many characters could we put in the public remarks to talk about our listing?

Hope Hughes: Well previously we had 256 and thats been increased to a thousand now.

Interviewer: To a thousand which is great because I was, like I said I was looking at somebodys listing, they had a whole paragraph of remarks about the place, which I thought was cool, then I said to myself, 'how did they do that? but now I know. So why did you go in this direction?

Hope Hughes: Well a number of reasons really; the first reason is to enhance those listings. Our consumers wanted to be able to give more details about the listings and thats the way to do it so, through customer feedback, and of course the ability to put in more descriptions.

Interviewer: Yeah. How do I know when I have reached my thousand characters, does it give me a little flashing warning light or...?

Hope Hughes: If you are using our entry form, it only has a thousand characters space on it.

Interviewer: Okay.

Hope Hughes: So you will know if you are using the form. If you are entering it directly online, you will see a character counter that will display as you are entering the listing, so it will show you that on the screen.

Interviewer: Okay, so lets say I got a paragraph of description in there, Ive got broker remarks, I got public remarks and I got directions, is then all going to print out like if I send this form to my clients, are they going to see everything?

Hope Hughes: Well some of our reports we would like to keep it on a one page display, so some of them will be truncated and that will be indicated by an ellipses at the end of it to say, there is more thats been truncated.

Interviewer: Okay.

Hope Hughes: For a list of which reports are truncated and which report display the full thousand characters, you can get that at helpcenter.metrolist.com.

Interviewer: Okay, so we just got to see which report will...show all of them and which one will not?

Hope Hughes: Yes.

Interviewer: Okay. But a standard broker showing sheet probably is going to be kept to one page, correct?

Hope Hughes: Yes.

Interviewer: All right, now here is the big question which I want to know which is, most of us know that those public remarks gets syndicated out to the internet, and they go on Zillow, they go on Trulia and Cyberhomes and so forth, the question is if you use the full one thousand characters will that go out to those other internet portals?

Hope Hughes: Okay. We send out all one thousand characters to everyone that we syndicate to, so all of our public sites and our IDX sites. So for example, our public site www.recolorado.com, they will be displaying all thousand characters and already are. Now the IDX site that depends on the IDX vendor, we will be sending it out and most of them will be displaying it but maybe not all, so you will want to check with your particular IDX provider.

Interviewer: So we dont know if its Zillow or Trulia or somebody like that will accept all thousand characters or they are going to shorten that up?

Hope Hughes: Its going to depend on that carrier.

Interviewer: Okay, so we will have to check with them individually?

Hope Hughes: Yes.

Interviewer: Got it. I think its great, I am glad you did it. Good information, thanks for being here, appreciate it.

Hope Hughes: Thanks for having me Dan.

How To Succeed in the Denver Real Estate Market

John Skrabec of Live Urban Real Estate discusses how to use your strong points to market your real estate business.

Interviewer: Today we are talking with John Skrabec, broker-owner of Live Urban Real Estate in Denver, Colorado. How are you?

John Skrabec: Good Dan, how are you?

Interviewer: Good thanks. Today we are going to talk a little bit about things you need to do or how to succeed in Denver real estate and Im sure everybody says, "Well, whats that one thing?" I dont know if there is, I mean, ever one thing.

John Skrabec: Yeah, I dont think there is either.

Interviewer: But what would be your top?

John Skrabec: For me, be different. I just think that there is, there are so many brokers in the Denver Metro market, most of them blend in with one another, frankly and I think that if you can be different and start crafting an image and a brand around a unique selling proposition, a unique personality, thats where you have to start.

Interviewer: Like, go to all your showings on horseback and...

John Skrabec: Well if you want to take it that far, I suppose, but...

Interviewer: Yeah.

John Skrabec: ...I think its more about telling a story, crafting a personality, an image that you can then translate into all your marketing efforts, whether thats online, whether its a print collateral, advertising, newspaper advertising, we even do some radio, all those kind of things, and you start kind of crafting that image. I think the biggest mistake brokers make is that they see brokers doing certain things and they copy and mimic that...

Interviewer: Yeah.

John Skrabec: ...its the worst thing you could do, because you just get lost in the crowd.

Interviewer: You know, I talk about that all the time, I say be true to yourself, dont try to put yourself in a box and do something that does not come naturally to you, for instance, me Im an online guy, I spend all my time online, thats where I build my business, thats what I do. I am never going to be a door-knocker type of guy, but that doesnt mean thats not going to work for someone else.

John Skrabec: Absolutely. No, what works for you, be true to yourself and I think thats a great way to put it.

Interviewer: Sphere of influence, I mean obviously this term has been around since the dawn of real estate.

John Skrabec: Sure.

Interviewer: Who do you know? Who is in your group? Who is in your circle? How do you market to them best?

John Skrabec: Well I think it depends on who it is and how you are going to talk to them. Everybody has probably a market that social media is going to work for them. So you have your Facebook and your Twitter followers, and youre talking to them and engaging them on that level, maybe blogging, an e-mail or newsletters to a certain extent. But then you have kind of the non-techie people that maybe a printed newsletter works better, one-on-one, phone calls, meeting people one-on-one, having coffee, connecting with your sphere that way, I dont think you could put all your eggs in one basket in that sense, and it kind of comes down to integrated marketing, using a multitude of marketing tactics in many different ways to connect to different parts of your audience.

Interviewer: Alright, lets say youve got your brand, lets say youve got your sphere of influence, how do you go about crafting that message?

John Skrabec: Well, I think really understanding who your target market is, and then starting to mimic their style and the kind of the words they use and the phrases they use, and understanding that, I think thats really being, being able to be changeable and nimble to be flexible and being a good listener frankly, to hear what they are saying, whats important to them and then starting to mimic that stuff back. And thats possible to do certainly one-on-one, you could also do it online using technology and you know quickly changing information on your website thats more relevant to your target market, because youre starting to understand what their needs are.

Interviewer: John, thanks, great information, I appreciate you being here.

John Skrabec: Thanks a lot Dan.