In early January, Jeff Shore and I began an ambitious project to survey nearly 300 new home sales and marketing leaders about what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s really happening in the marketplace. This in-depth survey asked leaders specific questions about topics including negotiating frequency, salesperson turnover, social media use, and online leads. Because of [...]

In case you missed it, I had the opportunity to guest post for Jeff Shore’s newsletter a couple weeks ago. If you’re not already subscribed to Jeff’s weekly newsletter, you should be. Click to read my thoughts on Why People are Ignoring Your Emails. Thanks.

Consider the phrase, “social media.” The “media” part refers to the content, the social content – the conversation. Sales is conversation with a purpose. I recently had the pleasure of spending some time with Matthew Shadbolt of The Corcoran Group after coaxing him to Baltimore to speak at SMC SalesCamp. Those of you that know, [...]

Just like every market is different, every builder is different. This means how best to judge a successful campaign or online initiative will be different for every builder. Despite my best efforts to convince builders to compete against themselves when determining their success, most builders still ask, “So how am I doing compared to other [...]

Its no secret I’m a big fan of what opportunities the mobile web presents for home builders. What I didn’t quite expect was a recent wake-up call on how closely email marketing is linked to mobile. We recently sent out an email promotion for an apartment management client. The day after the email went out [...]

Over the years I’ve written down a number of opinions about the mobile Internet and home builders.  In 2008, I wrote Homebuilder Mobile Marketing with Google discussing the impact Google’s Android platform would have on mobile usage (now with the greatest market share). In 2009, I wrote about how Foursquare would impact mobile real estate marketing. [...]

It’s no secret the impact that Facebook is having on consumer behavior. In fact, in recent months, Facebook has risen into the top 5 referring sources of traffic for some of our clients’ websites. Despite this impact, many builders are still somewhat skeptical of Facebook’s role in the buying process, and I can sort of [...]

The first goal of any marketing effort is to gain someone’s attention. We can argue about whether or not this means the goal is to interupt someone, but no matter the direction, the goal is always to do something unique enough to get noticed, and then be heard. Let me be clear – stock photography [...]

I’m not normally one for drama, but I’m not sure the message is really reaching the industry. In the past I’ve written about home builder mobile marketing and how to use Foursquare for real estate. Thankfully, a group called Mobile Future has put together a great “Did You Know?” type video with some sobering stats [...]

Generally speaking, most builders, salespeople, and real estate brokers I speak with agree that the last thing the Internet needs is another home search directory. Each time a new directory is introduced, it creates a new burden for the builder (focus, monitoring, plus a new SEO competitor). Ask a consumer if the Internet needs another [...]