Improving Your Business

Stories, articles and advice aimed at improving your business

Smoking Damages a Property’s Value by 29 Percent

A new study by Pfizer Canada has uncovered the true cost of smoking – its monetary damages to your real estate listings! Anti-smoking campaigns typically focus on the negative health effects of tobacco, but a new study by Pfizer

What Do Owners & Renters Most Regret About their Living Arrangements?

Inevitably, there will be some aspect of one’s living arrangements to regret, but how do the regrets of owners and renters compare? It’s the most unfortunate of situations – a consumer spends the time researching a home purchase or

45 Percent of Homebuyers Choose Lender on Agent Recommendation

The agent/lender relationship is a darned important one, and a new survey highlights just how influential agents are in the creation of that relationship. The relationship between agent and lender is one of the more integral in real estate,

3 Ways the Obama Budget Could Affect Your Business

The 2014 Obama budget has been garnering plenty of attention from the press, but how could it affect your residential real estate business? Well, it’s that time of the year! Oh yes, the nation’s capitol has begun the early

The 3 Essential Truths of YouTube

Marketing on YouTube can be a valuable venture for real estate agents, but there are three essentials truths about the platform that all agents must know. YouTube is one massive Internet platform. With 800 million unique users a month

Best Strategies for Presenting and Negotiating Offers

What principles should you keep in mind when negotiating for your clients? Christine Groves of Coldwell Banker in Wheaton explains. With a busy market with multiple offers and low inventory, it is our job as agents to present our

Where Should Your Ad Dollars Go?

It’s always a tricky task, cleverly allocating where your ad dollars should go, but a new study on advertising trends offers some stern guidance. Advertising is normally one of the largest expenses that real estate agents accrue in their

Fill Your Bookshelves

When you own a bookstore, you want your shelves to be filled with good books – just like agents should always have good listings, explains Craig Witt of EXIT Realty. I want you to pretend you are in small

Sprucing Up Your Home for the Spring Real Estate Market

How do you freshen up your residence for potential buyers, with the spring homebuying season approaching? David Cieslak of Signature Staging explains. With winter officially over (on the calendar), now is a great time to open up those windows

Are Facebook’s Promoted Posts Worth the Dough?

Facebook offers businesses many marketing tools, but is its latest initiative, “promoted posts,” worth your marketing dollars? Marketing in real estate is all about utilizing different channels in unique ways, and it’s no mystery that Facebook is among the

Are There Downsides to ‘Top Producer’ Status?

The ‘Top Producer’ status is the sacred cow of real estate, but are there downsides to the distinction? The “Top Producer” label is one that quite a few real estate agents aspire to, and for good reason – you

3 Ways to Stay Focused as an Agent

Keeping your focus can be a Herculean task sometimes, but we’ve got three tips to help you lead a clear-minded, centered business. Imagine, if you will, a most common of scenarios in the real estate life: you’re browsing the

How to Avoid a Realtor’s Nightmare

It’s a Realtor’s nightmare: after closing, it becomes apparent that zoning regulations won’t let your client complete the home renovation of her dreams. The reality is, Realtors are obligated to know municipal regulations concerning real estate and stay on top

Can Real Estate Agents Create Bidding Wars?

Bidding wars are normally the ultimate sign of a hot real estate market, that demand for real estate is so stratospheric that prospective homebuyers are nearly falling over themselves with offers for the homes. Bidding wars had been in

Stand Out From Your Competition: 3 Guaranteed Ways to Get Noticed

The real estate industry is crowded; everyone these days seems to be a Realtor. So how do you differentiate yourself from other agents? How do you stand out, get people to notice you, like you and use your services?

Is Your Listing a “Pinball?”

A “pinball property,” “pinball listing” or “setup listing,” as it’s also called, can be a real estate agent’s best friend – just as long as they’re not the ones listing the property. It’s not a new term, but the

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