Brodie Stephens- Broker Associate Selling Homes in Folsom | Placerville | Pollock Pines | El Dorado Hills | Elk Grove | Roseville | Rocklin

A few weeks ago, we held our first Realty World conference of the year and the turnout was awesome, but I only wish our entire company had come because the speaker lineup was some of the best we’ve had in years, and the content couldn’t have been more important for today’s market. In particular, we were honored to have David Gibbons from Zillow come speak to us about how they operate and what their goal is within our industry. All I can say is that the conversation was lively between David and our members, and the real estate industry certainly has very mixed opinions about Zillow and what they do. However, the simple fact is, Zillow isn’t going anywhere, so how you handle the inevitable objection from your seller – “Zillow says my house is worth way more than your quoting” or this from a potential buyer – “Zillow says this house is worth way less than what your asking for it” will determine whether you close the deal. Here are two approaches you could take to overcome these objections… you decide which is best!

Approach One: Well Mr. Buyer/Seller, I have been a REALTOR for 20 years and know this market better than some Internet company from Seattle. I’m an expert in real estate, I’ve sold hundreds of homes during my career and Zillow doesn’t know anything about real estate, my market, or what this home is worth. There information is highly inaccurate, they don’t have access to my MLS, they’ve never set foot in this town, and don’t believe anything you see on that website.

Approach Two: Mr. Buyer/Seller, this is a great question you ask, in fact, here is a copy of the “Zestimate” that Zillow provides for your property so that we can review it together. In addition, I have some material that Zillow provides on their website, to help better understand what a “Zestimate” is, the accuracy of their information, and more importantly how they arrive at the valuation they provided for this particular property. BTW, Mr. Buyer/Seller, I’m glad your doing your own research and I think Zillow is a great starting point, but its important to note that Zillow is just a starting point as they state right here on their own documentation – “The Zestimate” (pronounced ZEST-ti-met, rhymes with estimate) home valuation is Zillow’s estimated market value, computed using a proprietary formula. It is not an appraisal. It is a starting point in determining a home’s value. The Zestimate is pulled from data; your real estate agent or appraiser physically inspects the home and takes special features, location, and market conditions into account. Variations in price also occur because of negotiating factors, closing costs, and timing of closing. We encourage buyers, sellers, and homeowners to supplement Zillow’s information by doing other research such as:

• Getting a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent
• Getting an appraisal from a professional appraiser
• Visiting the house (whenever possible)
• Creating your own estimate using the My Estimator home valuation tool

Personally speaking, I think the second approach will get you a lot farther, as it shows you’re an expert, because your also factoring in something that the buyer or seller did on their own and was important to them. You’re not afraid to confront the issue and more importantly, you’re not badmouthing someone, but simply “logically” overcoming an objection by using Zillow’s own documentation. This will help satisfy the buyer/seller because it’s coming from the very company that gave them the “Zestimate” to begin with, versus your own material.

Here is the link to Zillow’s documentation to help you overcome these objections in the future – http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/What-is-a-Zestimate/

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this subject as well.

I’m shocked when more companies don’t listen to what their constituents want. It doesn’t seem to be brain surgery – people want stuff that works for their lifestyle and business needs – not exactly groundbreaking… or is it?

Static website providers and real estate companies that push one-size-fits-all solutions onto agents and brokers are missing the boat, big time. When meeting with a broker/owner of a Realty World Northern California franchise, he was looking at the various themes that the franchise offers for the agents blogs. Admittedly, the franchise is already ahead of the game by offering WordPress blog websites that agents and brokers customize with content, plugins and data specific to their area, but there needed to be more. He mentioned that he does commercial real estate as well, and that most of the themes had headers or layouts that only reflect homes – often giving prospective clients the wrong idea.

So Realty World NCA listened and today rolled out an updated line of themes with new text options and customizable headers that allow the agents and brokers to upload their own images to the site. Now they can add images that are commercial, residential or specific to their geographic location such as city and town photos that can be update with a couple of clicks.

Catering to the needs of your constituents is not a hassle, it’s a must have in business. If you’re struggling with getting the most out of your website, consider asking your franchise for the support that’s needed to make the most of your major online marketing outlet.

A reminder – your website is often the first interaction that potential customers have with you, where they search for homes in the area and how they know about the community, your specialization and why YOU are the real estate professional they should choose. A static website is harder to propel up search rankings and difficult to use search fields are all turnoffs.

A URL shortener like Bit.ly will not only make your blog posts or links to other sites shorter and cleaner looking (and you can easily fit them into sites like Twitter or text message them) but the service also tracks the number of hits to that particular shortened URL. This means if you write a blog post, then shorten the URL with Bit.ly, post that link to Facebook, Twitter and email it to relevant clients, family and friends – you can track how many people you’re driving back to your site. Bit.ly will remember all of the URLs you’ve shortened and keep them in a simple, easy to use dashboard.

To recap, here are the steps to using a URL shortener to track your social media ROI:

1. Choose URL of page you want to share. A blog post, your website, a news article, etc.
   TIP: If choosing a blog post, be sure you’ve chosen the actual post you’re referencing, not the entire blog website.
2. Go to bit.ly and sign up for an account so it will remember all of your URLs so you can come back and check on clicks.
3. Paste the link you want to shorten in the shaded “Shorten with bit.ly” area 
4. Copy the shortened URL and post it to Twitter, Facebook, send via email, or however else you like.
5. Go back to bit.ly and see how many clicks you’re getting!