There are a lot of things you can do with the multi-list, however many people fail to recogize just how powerful of an application it can be. Each time they update, they pack tons of new features into it, and if you’re not aware of them or ways to increase your business productivity, taking some time to learn them and even attend an MLS class can be well worth it.

While the multiple listing service you use will vary from area to area and board to board, many rely on mlxchange, which is the one I’m the most familiar with and will give you some pointers on getting the most out of it. Even if you do not use mlxchange, there may be similar features you can try to use or suggest.

Here are Some Features of MLXCHANGE You Should Be Using If You’re Not:

1. Client Manager: While the client manager in MLXCHANGE is not as sophisticated as it could be, it does give you some great tools you can use to be more productive as an agent. You can save searches, email new listings to a client and yourself automatically through search preferences. You can also be updated on price reductions, expired listings, and more all through your email. If you’ve been ignoring the client section, take some time to practice with it and play around to see how you can use it to benefit you and your prospecting.

2. Multiple Reports: There are many pre-made reports in MLXCHANGE - client view, email view, full view, etc. If you’re reliant on using just one, take some time and see what other reports are available - they may be more suitable for giving to a customer instead of a client or vice versa. You also have the ability to create your own report and choose what information and photos are displayed if none of the pre-made reports match your criteria.

3. Mapping Services: MLXCHANGE is packed with everything from getting driving directions for planning your route from one house to the next to searching by a radius of a central point. This can really help you save time planning a route, as well as finding suitable areas to show your prospective clients.

4. Sample CMA’s and CMA Manager: When creating a CMA, I always suggest you make it yourself if possible, to help you stand out from the other agents who may have just used the CMA features in the MLS. However, it gives you some great examples and layout ideas, as well as verbiage you can use for explaining DOM and price averages.

5. The Hot Sheet: You should start getting in the habit of checking the hot sheet everyday, or even several times a day. Using the drop down menu and selected areas you work in, you can have information on expireds and price reductions within minutes.

6. Mailing List Capability: In the MLXCHANGE you have the unique ability to search for listings in any area. By going to the results page, you can actually export this data to be used in programs like Microsoft Excel and Word for making mailing labels. You can use this to target people who bought their home 5 years ago or listings that have expired but never re-listed. You can also use it to contact sellers who already have their homes for sale, but be careful you do it in a way that you are not “soliciting listings of others” since that can get you in HUGE trouble and fines.

As you can see, taking the time to learn some of these features can greatly benefit you and maximize your productivity. If you use MLXCHANGE, did you know these features exist? If you use another multiple listing service, what are some of the features you use and find make you more productive?

What I mean is try sending them a REAL box, instead of a regular old envelope or postcard like the hundreds of other agents are in your market. Everyone likes recieving packages and will open it - because they want to see what is inside.

It’s up to you what you put inside the box - it could be a short and sweet letter with your business card, or you can use something from out list of promotional ideas.

It doesn’t really matter what you put inside the box - it’s the box itself that will get attention and get people to open what you mail instead of tossing it in the trash with the rest of the junk mail. It doesn’t have to be a big box either, if you are concerned about postage costs - a small jewelry sized box in many cases will be enough.

If you’re new to the real estate business, one of the most challenging things to do is sell that first house. Once you have the first one down, several soon will follow. But just selling your first house is something many new real estate agents never do, since it can be exasperating and some people will quit before they even get to that point.

Here’s Some Tips on How to Sell Your First House in Your Real Estate Career:

1. Prospect everyday: If you are new to real estate, you don’t have a past client list to fall back on, and you don’t have very many people who even know you are in the business. Make it a point to talk to at least 5 new people everyday. Knock on doors and call anybody you can without violating the do not call laws. Make sure you also have a good SOI (Sphere of Influence List) that consists of anybody and everybody you know - friends, family, neighbors, etc, that you can use.

2. Learn how to Network: Networking with other business professionals can be a great way to get referral business. Join your chamber of commerce or local networking group, or if you can’t find one you like, contact a few business professionals in your area to see if they would be interested in starting a breakfast club that meets once a month to swap marketing strategies and business talk. Follow up with anyone you meet in between networking events through email or a quick phone call.

3. Pick up Floor Time: Many agents hate floor time and will gladly give you theirs. I know one agent when he was new did floor time everyday. While you might have faster results through being proactive instead of reactive, there’s no harm in answering floor time calls 2-3 times a week. I had a floor time call that resulted in a $789,000 sale, so it IS possible to get good leads. When not on floor time, take some time listening to the more experienced agents take calls - you’ll pick up some tactics for converting those calls into appointments.

4. Go FSBO Hunting: FSBO’s are great practice, even if they don’t end up listing with you or selling their home on their own. It gets you in the habit of learning how to talk to people and follow up. It can possibly even lead to a few listing presentations. Talk with your office manager on what the most effective way to approach FSBO’s are in your area.

5. Talk to Your Office Manager: As a new agent, it’s your office manager and support staff’s job to help you be successful. In a lot of cases, they don’t make any money if you don’t make any money, so they should be more than willing to steer you in the right direction.

Starting in real estate does not usually give you instant results. However, if you do these things everyday, you should have clients within a month or two if not sooner. Stay focused, don’t give up, and that elusive first sale will come.

Today I’ve decided to round up some of the best real estate related blog posts I stumbled across this week:

10 Questions to Ask Your Prospective Home Stager: This article has a lot of great information if you have sellers who could benefit from a home stager.

Revisiting the Emerging Neighborhood: This helpful article has some great information on helping you decide if a neighborhood could be the next “big thing”.

How to Make Your Contract the Best: Michael offers some great tips on ways to make your offer appealing to sellers.

Home Selling During a Divorce: This article offers a lot of good ideas for dealing with sellers that may be struggling with a divorce.

Did you read (or write) a great article about real estate this week? Feel free to share it with me in the comments below!

I’d also like to remind everyone I am still doing FREE REAL ESTATE BLOG REVIEWS, so if you’d like a free real estate blog review for some tips on making your blog better, feel free to share that with me as well!

What to Write About on Your Real Estate Blog

1. Local Community Events: Read your local newspaper and see what’s going on around your town. Maybe there’s an art festival or free movies in the park or a food drive. ..It doesn’t matter what the event is, it will make you appear like you are involved in your community. You may even pick up a few regular readers who are not currently looking for a house - but something to do in your town. This is something you can update weekly or monthly.

2. General Real Estate How-To’s: Anything a consumer could find necessary will work - how to choose a home inspector, how to become pre-qualified for a mortgage, how much house they can afford, how to stage a home, how to winterize a property, 7 Mistakes Buyers Make, how to choose a builder…the list goes on and on.

3. Find out What People are Searching For: Go to the Free Keyword Tracker and type in the names of cities, townships, or counties near you. For this example, I typed in “Cape May”, which is a great part of New Jersey. Out pops hundreds of keyword ideas and things people are actively searching for - the Cape May Lighthouse, Cape May NJ Foreclosures, Cape May Hotels, Cape May Bed & Breakfasts, etc. etc. Not only will this make your blog the source for information in your town, but again gets you in front of people who are not currently looking for a house - but could be in a few months to a year.

4. Target Different Niches: Writing for different niches can also help you hone into your readers. Write about the “hip” local scene, the best places to retire, raising horses, townhome life, downtown living, etc. etc. in your area.

5. Cover the Local School Districts: Anyone with children will need to know school district information when moving, and many people without children will still want to be in a good school district for their property values. Cover local board meetings, a calendar of events, sports teams, and other school related activities.

6. Highlight Businesses and organizations: Your town is probably filled with various businesses and organizations - write about the library, the fire department, the grocery stores, the dry cleaner, the chamber of commerce, etc. etc. Make sure anytime you do a featured business spotlight you email a link to the company.

7. Restaurant Reviews: Everybody likes to eat (or at least needs to!) so next time you go out somewhere, write about it. Talk about their menu items, the atmosphere, the affordability. Be sure you keep your review positive - bashing the place that didn’t refill your coffee won’t get you too far.

8. Get Involved With the Sports Teams: Where I live, you live and breathe football from September to January. It’s really the only thing anybody cares about during this time of the year. Write once a week about how the team did in their games, player news, their houses, etc. etc.

9. Talk About Decor: While you’re a real estate agent, and not an interior designer, there’s no harm in writing things like “10 Fresh Ways to Update Your Kitchen” or “How to Remove Wall Paper Without Banging Your Head Against the Wall”. You could also write about furniture placement, improvements that increase the value of a home, choosing laminate versus hardwood, etc. etc.

10. If All Else Fails, Enlist a Guest Poster: Is there anybody locally around you with a blog or website? If so, (and if they can write in a professional, entertaining manner), why not invite them to guest post? Let them write about their topic of expertise - whether it be pets by the local vet or an accountant with tax advice - having guest posts can be a great way to make your blog more interesting.

Hopefully these 10 ideas for what to write about on your real estate blog will give you a little inspiration on ways to interact with your readers, appeal to a broader base of people in your area, and even increase your traffic and RSS subscribers.

Viral marketing campaigns are sometimes called “word of mouth” marketing, as that is the most common way to spread it. It would work in real estate like this: You sell John and Suzy Buyer a home. John and Suzy Buyer loved the service you provided, so they tell 5 of their friends about you, each who gives you a call. These friends, also impressed by your services then go tell 5 of their friends…Pretty soon everybody knows you’re the agent to call.

In theory, it sounds pretty easy, but if you’re not getting referral leads from your past clients, chances are you are in need of a viral marketing campaign overhaul.

What are some ways you can implement a viral marketing campaign?

1. Provide exceptional service: Finding good customer service is not easy. There are thousands of agents who don’t return phone calls, ignore small details, and don’t really listen to their clients’ needs. By providing exceptional service, people will naturally be impressed and share with the people they know how great it was to work with you.

2. Join Social Networks: There are hundreds of social networking sites that can help you with your viral marketing campaign. Facebook, MySpace, Classmates, and others are just a few to get started with.

3. Give something away: People love freebies. By giving away free things or discounts, you can quickly spread recognition as people share what they’ve gotten for free.

4. Create your own buzz: In order for a viral marketing campaign to work, there needs to be some “buzz” or a reason people would talk about you or refer you to their friends and family. Actively participate in community events, create a blog that lets you build a community with commentators, and make sure you’re a part of anything deemed newsworthy.

A viral marketing campaign can be very lucrative in helping you get past clients to refer you and get others in your area talking about you and familiar with your services. Can you think of any other ways you can implement a viral marketing campaign into your real estate business plan?

Buying real estate leads has a few advantages, as well as a few disadvantages.

Here are a few things to consider before you buy real estate leads:

1. Your budget: Since real estate leads can be expensive, it helps to know ahead of time what your budget is. This will help you decide which sites to purchase real estate leads from.

2. Your ability to convert calls to clients: Not everyone is good at converting a phone call into an appointment with someone. When someone hands you a real estate lead, you better be able to get that person in front of you with an appointment, otherwise you just paid for nothing.

3. Would it be more affordable to create your own real estate leads generating website? For $5 a month and $6.99 for a domain name, you can host your own real estate website. I use 1and1.com , which is probably the cheapest you are going to find for reliability. $5 a month isn’t a lot - so if you can compete to get in the top searches on google for homes for sale in your area, it could be a less exensive, more effective way of real estate leads generation.

What’s your opinion on real estate leads? Have you had success with them or were they a nightmare? Share your real estate leads pros and cons in the comments below.

1.First, tell us a little bit about yourself and OPSEC, since I’m sure many people do not fully understand it or are even aware it exists.
My name is Chris Cox, and I’m the president of The Operations Security Professional’s Association (OSPA). I’m a fairly recent veteran and currently work in the Information Security Field.
Operations Security, or OPSEC, was originally a Military concept developed during the Vietnam War in response to the awareness that enemy forces were continually acting on advance knowledge of Military operations because they were collecting unclassified “puzzle pieces”
and compiling the bigger picture of a classified operation. OPSEC is the procedure (formally, five steps) used to protect that information.

Today, the same principles are used, but not only in the Military, but in Governments, Schools, Corporations and even in our daily life. For example, when you go on vacation, you might have a neighbor pick up your mail and newspapers, put a timer on your lights, leave a car in the driveway, etc. When you do that, you’re practicing OPSEC.

Simply put, OPSEC is denying an adversary the information that they would want in order to collect critical information about your or your organization. OPSEC doesn’t try to replace other forms of security, but it strengthens them. The biggest way that this is done is by what’s called “thinking like the wolf”. By looking at your organization from your adversaries perspective, you can begin to see where your greatest vulnerabilities lie.

2. How does OPSEC relate to the real estate industry?
Real Estate Professionals that understand OPSEC have an advantage over their competitors for many reasons. For one, people are understandably concerned about their family’s safety and security. When a Real Estate Professional can apply they OPSEC process to their homes, they’re able to identify certain vulnerabilities that may be missed using other security methods. Knowing this, they’re able to anticipate (and potentially avoid, by explanation or repair) clients’ concerns. This skill has a potentially marketable value.

Competitive Intelligence is a close relative of OPSEC, and involves looking at the competitive climate and finding ways to excel by finding and targeting under-utilized markets.

3. What benefits would a real estate professional experience by becoming a member of OPSEC?
The biggest benefit to OSPA members is the collaborative nature of the organization. If you need security advice, guidance or hands on help, one of the members or Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) on hand will help you. For example, there are members in the physical security field, information technology/security, Law Enforcement, Military, Government, etc. It also shows clients that the Real Estate Professional has an interest and training in security.

4. What in your opinion would be some of the most prominent threats that may affect real estate professionals?
I don’t know the “climate” between Realtors, but many industries would consider competitive intelligence to be a threat (such as “stealing” customers or lucrative properties). I would also consider threats to a client (in terms of their new/potential home) to be a significant concern. OPSEC, however, also applies to marketing strategies, corporate conditions, and more.

5. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about OPSEC?
It’s true that there is a five step process that forms the “core” of OPSEC. However, one finds that when they understand the OPSEC process, it begins be be more of a mindset than a process. That’s not to say that OPSEC Practitioners are “paranoid”, but are left with a greater awareness of security.
OSPA has made great strides in bringing OPSEC to the non-government world and the international scene. Currently, we’re working with Domestic Violence Outreach Centers to provide security training for residents and staff, and also to the Schools with Children effected by Military deployment. Currently, OSPA has members in seven Countries and has fostered the first true international OPSEC cooperative programs.

Thank you so much for the interview Chris - I really appreciate you taking the time to explain OPSEC to us and share how it can relate to real estate! To learn more about OPSA, visit OpsecProfessionals.org.

We were mulling over the tax benefits of either choice when it dawned on me that many real estate agents probably don’t realize the different benefits when buying a car either. (I never had to think about it, as I owned my car before starting the business and still own it!)

Many agents probably do not even give a second thought about the different options to getting a new car, many probably do not even think of it as a business purchase! However, your car is very important in your business, and when getting a new car you can take advantage of various tax deductions.

Here is the major difference between owning and leasing your business vehicle:

Owning means you can only deduct the interest from the purchase if you finance it. The principle is not deductible. You will also have to calculate depreciation when doing your taxes.

When leasing, the entire lease payment can be deductible. (Assuming the vehicle is used primarily for business purposes).

If you’ve been looking for more ways to take deductions as a real estate agent, deciding to purchase or lease a car is an important decision. Before making any purchase or entering a lease agreement, be sure to consult with a trusted accountant to help you make the best decision. (Hey, you wouldn’t want someone to sell a house without a professional - using the services of a tax professional can be beneficial as well!)

Here are the real estate wordpress themes for your real estate blog I think you might enjoy:

Loft Real Estate Theme

This dark wordpress theme has a very modern and contemporary feel to it. Click here for demo and download.

Lux House Theme

This theme features 2 columns, beautiful header image, and is ideal for any luxury real estate specialist. Click here for demo and download.

Real Estate Black

This darker theme features an excellent header and 3 columns. Click here for demo and download.

Colonial

This real estate wordpress theme is ideal for anyone with company colors of red and blue. Click here for demo and download.

Real Estate CEO

I saved this one for last, as it is my favorite free real estate wordpress theme. Click here for demo and download.

Have a real estate wordpress theme for your real estate blog you’d like to share with us or add to the list? Tell us about it in the comments below.