We are a network of successful REALTORS® empowering men and women to exercise their potential as entrepreneurs and industry leaders.

We provide an environment of collaboration and positive energy focused on helping each other be more successful.

We are established career professionals who value integrity, respect for each other and continuous development. We are committed to excellence and bringing excellence out in each other.

We believe that business success brings influence, credibility and greater opportunity. More, it leads to financial security, greater independence and more quality of life choices.

We advocate involvement in the real estate industry, and in the broader community, believing that it helps us grow individually at the same time as our involvement brings about positive change.

 What We Do

We provide education, business tools and support that meet the distinct needs of women entrepreneurs.

We strive to be a career partner—a valuable resource no matter what stage of development you are at currently.

We help members meet their business goals and develop their leadership potential.

We lay aside competitive differences in favor of collaboration and camaraderie.

 The Benefits of Belonging

We are a business resource through regular membership meetings, every one of which has an educational component.

We help you acquire new skills, solve business problems and make business contacts.

We facilitate leadership development, referral opportunities and enhanced confidence as you get involved and participate.

These are just some of the reasons why you should join and become a part of the Women’s Council of REALTORS®.

Applications can be faxed to 888-943-4452  or sign up online at http://www.wcr.org/NewMember/.

 Please remember to select Bonita-Estero when signing up online.  http://www.wcrbonitaestero.com/.

What if instead of a consumer snapping a QR code to get more information on a listing they could actually snap the code, have a small browser window show that asks them for a time to schedule a showing to view the property. I am not aware of anybody doing this.

This could be very effective for an agent to arrange the showings as well. The QR code could be on the online listing, the street sign, and any publications that are printed as well. The info would automatically be sent to the sellers agent to be arranged or approved.

This seems like a much more efficient method than calling the listing agent or their company, getting access to the property and then organizing that with all of the other showings they have.

Fuel for thought.

For a practical look at this type of technology in action in the restaurant industry click here.

Courtesy of Real Trends

By knowing and understanding the effectiveness of video in the real estate space, brokerages and agents can better promote themselves and their listings. With video, real estate professionals can share information by showing, rather than telling, providing unique perspectives of their listings with hopes of garnering stronger consumer responses.

Members of RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network® (RREIN) understand the many added values that video offers. “In 2010, multiple media sources reported that video content makes up almost 50 percent of all online traffic and is projected to grow to over 60 percent by 2013. Clearly, consumers feel online video is an extremely important part of the online experience,” says LP Finn, operating officer of Coach Realtors®, located in Long Island, New York.

In August 2010, Coach Realtors® partnered with VScreen, a leading Internet video services provider within the real estate industry. The partnership provides Coach Realtors® with unique and professionally created video content that Finn and his company use to source their website, www.coachrealtors.com. “VScreen provides us with a library of hundreds of professionally made videos. These videos, updated biweekly, speak directly to the online consumer on such topics as short sales, finding the right agent or how to create a home office,” says Finn.

The brokerage places this content directly in the center of its homepage, catering to the online visitor’s thirst for video. The content provides information to the entire Coach brand, which includes 18 branch offices and more than 600 agents. Looking forward, Finn plans on producing content to match the company’s various philosophies. His projections stand as a testament to the company’s dedication to video and new media. “In 2011, we plan to begin producing our own video content to compliment our firm’s recruiting and growth strategies.”

Rod Smith, Coldwell Banker Chicora’s general director of brokerage, also a RREIN Member, believes video to be “the wave of the future for real estate.” “We have really been focusing on using video and have tried to get all of our agents to utilize it,” he says. “We jumped on the Coldwell Banker bandwagon by using the first-of-its-kind real estate channel on YouTube called ‘On Location.’ We have even purchased FlipCams for many of our offices so the agents have access to a quality camera to make videos of their listings, the area and their personal profiles.”

Having just revamped its website, www.cbchicora.com, Coldwell Banker Chicora has also added a tab to specifically showcase its videos, linking users to the brokerage’s aforementioned YouTube channel. Additionally, Smith notes that the brokerage has even had a few buyers purchase properties, sight-unseen, after viewing a video of a home they were interested in.

By making the decision to enter the world of video, your brokerage will be tapping into a dynamic and cost-effective way to market your listings and company. With its invaluable potential and limitless possibilities, video should be rapidly affecting marketing budgets and strategies everywhere.

Affirms Smith: “With 86 percent of all buyers using the Internet to begin their search for real estate, what better way is there to showcase a property than a video?” 

Courtesy of RISMedia

These potential home buyers are most likely to think it’s a good time to get off the fence—and have strong opinions about the design features their new homes will include.

At 32% of the population of home-buying age—generally defined as those who are at least 30 years old, the Gen X population cohort isn’t the largest, but it’s the most mobile, said presenter Mollie Carmichael, principal of John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif. “They are in full force with their careers and they need to accommodate growing families,” she said.

In sharp contrast, even though they constitute 41% of prospective home buyers, Baby Boomers continue to wait for the market to improve, and their decisions to delay retirement also delay their decisions to downsize into a smaller home, Carmichael said.

Most of the 10,000 buyers and potential buyers in 27 metro areas that the consulting company surveyed were optimistic about a new home purchase, with between 85% and 89% saying that it was a good time to buy a home. Only 13% said they thought home prices would continue to fall, further evidence that it’s “not all about price,” she said. “They want something compelling, from a design or personalization standpoint,” said Carmichael.

In addition, though the average home size is shrinking, a majority of prospective buyers said they would like a bigger home than the one they have. “These are first-time buyers or younger families looking for more room to grow,” she said.

Seventy percent said that they were willing to pay $5,000 more for a green home, but those responding to the survey said that they expected new homes to already have many green technology features. They also said they would pay a premium for dark wood cabinets, a separate tub and shower and a fireplace in the living room, and more preferred a great room over formal spaces.

And while community amenities are important to Gen X buyers, 46% said they prefer a home in a large-lot, suburban development, versus the 21% looking for a traditional or “walkable” neighborhood.

Webinar panelist Heather McCune, director of marketing at Bassenian/Lagoni Architects in Newport Beach, Calif., also emphasized that design will be important in generating sales in the emerging marketplace. “The notion of ‘build it and they will come’ no longer works. Design matters,” she said.

McCune said buyers are looking for homes with a connection between indoor and outdoor spaces, even in colder climates, to create the perception of greater home size, even if the space is only usable for part of the year. They also want more storage, an open floor plan and flexibility in the garage.

“While Gen X numbers are smaller than the birth cohorts before and after them, their numbers have been enlarged by steady immigration,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Gen X may wait longer than their predecessors to establish their own household or buy a home because of the recent recession impacts, but the trends are still likely to occur as they have for past generations.”

This webinar was one in a four part series entitled New Horizons: Setting a Course for Success in the New Market. The series was sponsored by Simonton Windows and ThermaTru.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org.

Last week I spoke to a group of about 70 mortgage bankers with Western Bancorp on what I would do if I were them to increase their business and be more successful at what they do. I went over a list of activities I would do if I were them, but first I started off by talking about why people start their own businesses, like being a mortgage banker. I stated it is typically because of the freedom and the unlimited earning potential and they all agreed.

Unfortunately, freedom can also cost unlimited losses as well. What so many small business owners forget to understand is we have the freedom to set our schedule instead of having someone else set it for us, however, in order to be successful we still need to set some kind of a schedule. One which includes all of the activities we need to do to accomplish our goals, and then we need to live by it. It is our road map to success. No schedule leads to no business. A schedule filled with productive activities leads to a lot of business! It is simple to do, but unfortunately it is also simple not to do. Bottom line is, no matter how good your intentions are, if it is not in your schedule it is not going to happen, no matter how bad you want it.

When I meet with people one on one about their business, the first question I always ask is to let me see their schedule. It is amazing to me how many people either do not have a schedule at all or if they do it is completely blank. Both of those options are a train wreck waiting to happen!

We can’t just have it in our heads. Our minds are meant for creating ideas not storing them. We need to take the time to create our success plan, whatever it is and outline the things we need to do to accomplish it, then put those things in our schedule and stick with it day in day out … forever. Now, that is not to say we cannot make some adjustments along the way and modify our schedules to become more efficient, but we have to follow our directions/road map to success and that road map is our schedule. Way too many people spend the majority of their day thinking about what they need to do instead of doing what they need to do. I know it sounds so simple, but it is amazing how most people don’t have a detailed schedule with all of the things in it they need to do to accomplish their goals.

Look at your goals as your destination on a trip halfway around the world to a beautiful and remote place you have never been to before and look at your schedule as your map/directions to get there. Could you imagine traveling half way around the world to a place you have never been and doing it without detailed directions and a plan? Of course not, we know we would get lost and never make it. Well the same thing applies with our goals and our schedule. We have never been where our goals are so we better have a detailed plan and schedule on how to get there and the discipline to follow it every day or we will never make it.

Remember as you set your schedule to keep your F-5 in mind and make sure you put time in to focus on all of them every week. What is your F-5 you ask? FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDS, FITNESS, AND FINANCE.

Tom Tognoli, founder, COO, VP and managing officer of Intero Saratoga, Intero

There’s been a lot of debate since the dawn of social media about best practices for selling on these platforms. When it first became widespread, a lot of practitioners started putting any and all listings on Facebook and may have even seen some success from that approach. But in the age where we’re sold to in almost every area of our life, people don’t want to be sold to through an application that’s supposed to be a list of their “friends.” The key is how you use it with your listings.

We’ve been talking on Twitter (hope you’re following us @realtormag) this morning about whether you should clog your clients’ Facebook stream with your listings. I cover technology for the magazine and from what I’ve read, heard at conferences, and seen from sales associates, the quick answer is no. Here’s a short list of tips for promoting your business on social networks.

■Facebook should be a place to develop the brand of you. This is a network where you can share, for example, your love of the islands off the coast of New England and put photos from your trips there. If a potential client shares that same love, this is how you build affinity with them — through mutual interests. You should share the places you like to go, the people you love to see, and your passions, and this will help to make your clients feel more connected to you. By building this connection, when they do need a real estate pro, they will likely call you. It will also broadcast that you’re an authentic person.

■You should share that you are a practitioner in the field. However, if you put too many listings out onto your clients’ wall or feed, I promise you they will click the hide button on your posts or they might just unfriend or unfollow you. Nobody wants to be sold to constantly, especially if they aren’t even interested in buying a house at the time. Instead, make posts that talk about your activities, e.g., “It’s a great Friday, made even better by the fact that I just sold a house on Smith Lane.”

■If you really want your listings on Facebook, buy Facebook ads. I’ve heard about great results from practitioners who are using this as an ad channel because it targets the ads to the demographics you want. I know of a New York brokerage that had great results selling lofts because they aimed their advertising at young, single males in investment banking and law.

At Home With Diversity®:

One America

Earn an NAR and HUD Designation
Learn to be comfortable with people from other cultures

Instructor: Chuck Bonamer, CRB, GRI
Monday, April 25, 2011
9:00AM-4:00PM

Course Credit: This One-Day Course counts for six (6) Continuing Education Credits

NAR Certification
CRS, WCR and CIPS elective credits

Early Bird Registration on or before April 2, 2011,

NABOR/WCR Members Rate: $45.00 Non-Members Rate: $55.00

Registration after April 2, 2011 – NABOR/WCR Member: $55.00  Non-member: $65.00

NABOR Conference Center
1455 Pine Ridge Road
Naples, Florida 34109

Click Here for PDF Document Mail or Fax Registration
OR
Register Online Here

IF YOU HAVE NOT RENEWED YET – THIS IS THE MONTH TO DO IT!!! WWW.WCR.ORGWHO DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU DO BUSINESS WITH THAT YOU KNOW WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS NATIONAL NETWORKING, REFERRAL & EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION?

AFFILIATES – WHAT REALTOR OFFERS YOU BUSINESS THAT HAS GENERATED FEES/INCOME TO YOU THAT YOU COULD STEP UP AND HELP WITH THEIR 1ST MEMBERSHIP ANNUAL DUES. IF YOU PAID ½ OF THEIR MEMBERSHIP, I BELIEVE THEY WOULD JOIN AND ENHANCE THEIR REAL ESTATE CAREER. MORE BUSINESS FOR THEM MEANS MORE BUSINESS FOR YOU!!

EVERY ONE – BRING ONE!!! PLEASE CONSIDER, WE DO NEED YOUR HELP. THEY CAN JOIN DIRECTLY AT WWW.WCR.ORG – IF THEY JOIN ONLINE, IT IS LESS PAPERWORK FOR THEM.

At the February Business Luncheon (February 11, 2011), David Michael DiMartino will be available before 11:30 a.m. and after 1 p.m. to take your professional portrait!

PLEASE CONTACT DAVID DIRECTLY TO SCHEDULE YOUR SESSION!
Home: 239-947-0746
Cell: 239-913-7097

Price: $125.00 Plus Tax

This package is offered at a special discounted rate and includes:

• Choice of various back drops
• Two quality high-resolution digital images (one color, one black & white) for business cards brochures, press releases, ads, etc.
• Two quality low-resolution digital images (one color, one black & white) intended for web use
• Instant previewing of your selection
• Special attention to Portrait retouching includes softening facial lines, removing stray hairs, blemishes, brightening teeth and eyes
• One CD containing your selected finished Portrait files
• Full copyright permission for unlimited use

Nancy has a very serious blood disease called Primary Myelofibrosis and it is very aggressive.  It is not leukemia but just as acute and a donor must be found! 

If you would like to find out more about helping Nancy or another patient like her please see the link below to the National Marrow Donor Program. The process is easy and there is no cost to the donor.
 
Joining the registry:
http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.html?src=tabjoin