Where will you be next Wednesday, May 23? Our own Ron McCoy and James Dingman will be attending Agent Reboot Orange County, a one-day, tech-oriented event produced by Inman News, and they would love for you to join them.

“In real estate, survival depends on doing large numbers of transactions with fewer people,” says Dingman, Help-U-Sell Real Estate’s Chief Development Officer. “Smart brokers use technology to become more efficient, freeing up time that used to be spent on marketing and administrative tasks, for more important things like making new contacts and putting more transactions together. I know of no better place to get an understanding of the tech tools available and how they function in a real estate operation than Agent Reboot.”

During the fast-paced day, presentations will last no more than 20 minutes and will cover topics ranging from video marketing to generating business on Facebook to nurturing your clients. Inman News’ Chris Smith and Katie Lance will be among the speakers, along with experts like Zillow’s Industry Outreach Manager Brad Andersohn.

Agent Reboot Orange County will take place at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, and it runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. If you’re in the area, we encourage you to attend with us. The registration fee is only $49 if you book online. Go to the official site to sign up.

If you’re not based in Southern California, there are other Agent Reboot events scheduled from now through the fall, with stops in Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; Denver; South Florida; and Honolulu, to name a few. You can see the full list of locations on the Agent Reboot site.

Tiffany Johannes of Help-U-Sell Buy Today in Charlotte, N.C.

Real estate broker and blogger Tiffany Johannes, broker-in-charge at Help-U-Sell Buy Today in Charlotte, N.C., leaves promoting her listings to her website. On her blog, she establishes her local expertise.

She has been blogging for the past few years on her Charlotte Property Hunters blog, which focuses on area events, neighborhoods and market trends. Her most recent posts covered Mother’s Day ideas in South Charlotte and median single-family home prices in the greater Charlotte area. She writes in a conversational style, and she ends each post with  an invitation for contact her. Her featured listings are displayed in the left column and at the bottom of each page.

Johannes says she tries to post to the blog once or twice a week, but it can be challenging. Her goals are to be more consistent and to have more interaction with her readers. She also aims to continue to provide useful information.

While she hasn’t gotten a client from the blog yet, she does receive positive feedback from people who could become clients in the future. She promotes her blog via online directories and her social media accounts.

For anyone who’s considering starting a blog, Johannes offers the following advice: “Even if you’re not seeing success right away, keep doing it and be consistent. [But] if you’re not consistent, don’t be afraid to get back into it after a while.”

The blog, hosted by WordPress, lists her office’s contact information and advertises a free local market analysis in exchange for the reader’s contact information.

Johannes says the Charlotte market is seeing more buyers and less inventory, down 20 percent from last year. Now in her fourth year in real estate, this is her most successful year yet and she is looking to continue to grow her business.

If you have any questions about blogging or other advice to offer, please leave a comment.

Spring has sprung strong top-two showings and a five-way tie for third place on our April top producers list.  Way to go, everyone!

1) Last month’s third-place finisher, Help-U-Sell Detwiler Realty moved to the top in April by closing 11 sides (and Karen’s branch office closed another four sides for the month).

2) Help-U-Sell Direct Savings Real Estate, out of Waynesboro, Va., first made the top three back in January and is back this month with eight closed sides.

3) Help-U-Sell Galleria Realty, in Tucson, Ariz., closed five sides to finish in a five-way tie.

3) Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties had another solid month of closings.

3) Help-U-Sell Prestige Properties, located in Chino Hills, Calif., returns to our top three.

3) Alabama’s Help-U-Sell Quad Cities is back on the list for the second time in 2012.

3) Help-U-Sell Santa Maria makes an appearance two months in a row.

[Figures as of May 1, 2012.]

If you have attended the past couple of weeks’ Tech Time Tuesdays, you’ve had a sneak peek at our new corporate website.

In case you didn’t get to see it yet, here’s a screenshot of the new homepage.

The new Help-U-Sell corporate website has a sleek look that complements the new broker sites.

The new site is dynamic and more photo-rich than text-heavy. Images rotate automatically, encouraging site visitors to click deeper into the site to read about buying or selling a home, opening a franchise and to see how much they could save by listing with a Help-U-Sell Real Estate broker. Our new web-based mobile application is also featured in the carousel of images.

Links to our Facebook and Twitter accounts are prominently displayed at the top of the homepage to make it easier for potential clients and franchisees to connect with us.

The leather-like texture in the header and footer match the new broker websites and other marketing materials we’ve recently created, and the search bar acts the same as it does on the new broker sites.

The new corporate site will be ready to launch soon. As always, we welcome your feedback. Please post it here or contact us directly.

Matt Kellam, broker/owner of Help-U-Sell Keystone Realty in Chambersburg, Penn.

Matt Kellam, broker/owner of Help-U-Sell Keystone Realty in Chambersburg, Penn., takes a two-pronged approach to serving his clients and marketing their homes: tried-and-true basics and modern technology.

He opened his office in May 2005 and has learned a lot in the years since. “The basic Help-U-Sell system works,” he says. “Don’t try to fix something that’s not broken.”

One exception: He prefers to host open houses himself in order to capture buyer leads.

Personal contact is important to Kellam. He makes a point of keeping in touch with clients, past, present and future and encourages new Help-U-Sell brokers to do the same. “Be sure to be accessible to buyers and sellers,” he says. One of the benefits of running small office is that people can reach him directly on any given day. He’s also planning to put more energy into staying connected to previous clients and centers of influence this year.

For Kellam, the personal touch leads the way in client relations, but the Internet rules when it comes to property marketing. When he started out, he followed everyone else into print advertising, soon realizing that online was where his office needed to focus. Now, he’s creating video tours to help his sellers attract buyers. Having spent 20 years in radio, he says, “multimedia doesn’t faze me.”

Kellam films each house with a Sony Cyber-shot camera and uses Windows Movie Maker to edit the video. He records the audio separately using a headset and then adds the audio track to the video. He uploads the videos on YouTube and links to them on his site under the Virtual Tours tab on the property pages. One of his recent property videos shows both the exterior and interior and gives information about recent remodeling, last year’s property taxes and room dimensions.

He’s planning to phase out static virtual tours in the near future.

How do you use video in your marketing mix?

At last year’s Broker Summit, the idea for a Help-U-Sell cookbook germinated. We have since collected recipes from offices throughout the country, from Pennsylvania to California and Minnesota to Texas. Thank you to everyone who submitted a favorite dish! The final cookbook contains almost 50 recipes in four categories: Appetizers and Side Dishes, Soups, Entrees, and Baked Goods and Desserts.

All the offices whose recipes appear in the book have their contact information in a directory toward the back of the cookbook.

It is now in the early stages of being designed. We plan to have a couple of hard copies to each office early next month. Each office will also receive an electronic version that you can have printed by a local vendor. The cover can be personalized for your office.

The cookbooks will make great housewarming gifts for buyers and sellers, thank-you gifts for testimonials or referrals, or holiday gifts for former clients. How will you use your cookbooks in your marketing plan?

Our Winter Warm-up Contest really seems to be paying off in the form of closed sides. Our top producing offices for March 2012 closed a combined total of 52 sides. The competition was fierce, too. Quite a few offices just missed the list with eight and seven sides. Great job, everyone!

1) Help-U-Sell Select Services, in Fort Myers, Fla., closed an impressive 14 sides.

2) California’s Help-U-Sell Santa Maria finished second with 11 closed sides.

3) Help-U-Sell Detwiler Realty, out of Carlisle, Penn., is part of a three-way tie for third with nine closed sides.

3) Help-U-Sell  Honolulu Properties closed seven seller sides and two buyer sides.

3) Last but not least, Help-U-Sell Keystone Realty in Chambersburg, Penn., also closed nine sides in March.

This is just the start of the spring selling season. We can’t wait to see what you all turn in for April!

[Figures as of April 3, 2012.]

The new Facebook Timeline for business pages will become mandatory on this Friday, March 30. If you haven’t set up your page for the changeover, we can help.

One of the most important and easy ways to prepare your new Timeline is by adding a cover photo. The recommended dimensions are 850 pixels by 315 pixels. We have a cover photo on our Facebook timeline that you are welcome to use until you have your own image. You can access our cover image in the download library. Open the folder named Broker Website Tools, where you’ll find another folder called New Website Artwork. The cover image is in the NewSocialMedia subfolder.

Help-U-Sell Real Estate Facebook Timeline cover image

When you are ready to select your own cover image, keep these rules and suggestions in mind.

Facebook does not allow promotional or text-based cover images. You also can’t include pricing or your website URL. Avoid stock images and try to incorporate the Help-U-Sell colors. A couple of ideas: a quality photo of your office building or an image of you and your friendly staff wearing Help-U-Sell shirts.

The new profile picture dimensions are 180 pixels by 180 pixels. You can use a logo or a photo of yourself. The key is to be consistent with your branding and be identifiable.

If you have any questions or want feedback on your Facebook cover image, please contact Kendra or Tony.

We’re about to unveil a new version of the Seller Savings Comparison chart for the broker websites. The new version will allow you to personalize the chart to show your set fee, and your sellers can enter their home’s value and calculate their potential savings.

We have some design work to complete before we recommend adding the page to your site, but here is a preview of the basic structure. In the example, the seller has entered $200,000 as his home’s value, and the broker has a set fee of $3,690 and a showing fee of $2,000.

The new Seller Savings Comparison chart will allow you to enter your office's set fee and your seller to calculate his potential savings.

You can populate the chart with your set fee and showing fee by logging into your OMS, clicking on “Setup” in the drop-down menu and selecting “website” from the submenu. You will add in your set fee and showing fee as shown in the example below.

This is where you enter your set fee and showing fee in the OMS.

If you have any questions about how to use the chart or how to fill it in with your set fee and showing fee, please contact us. The chart will be ready for you to publish soon. We will keep you updated.

Cynthia Stevens of Help-U-Sell Central Properties in Chandler, Ariz.

Cynthia Stevens has weathered her local market’s ups and downs and secured fourth place in seller-side closings in the Winter Warm-Up Contest. Her office, Help-U-Sell Central Properties in Chandler, Ariz., is growing, partially due to the market for distressed properties.

“I was fortunate enough to get hired by Fannie Mae as a listing broker for their REO properties,” says Stevens. “Overall, we are seeing fewer REOs but more short sales and also more new home sales. I think this year will be very interesting!”

Stevens says she enjoys helping people with their real estate transactions. In fact, the largest factor in her decision to purchase a Help-U-Sell office was the concept of consumer choice. “By allowing consumers to have a say in how they sell their home, they are more connected to the process,” she says.

Central Properties’ goals for 2012 are to continue to work with Fannie Mae and also to try to obtain more short sale listings. Stevens would like to increase the office’s sales by 25 percent over 2011, when the office closed 42 sides.

She advises new brokers to connect with other brokers, agents, loan officers and any other people who can provide insight into the local market. A broker should also really know his product and be able to discuss it with anyone he meets. Lastly, she advocates consistent marketing: “Let everyone know you are here!”