Share will be added to PriceFinder’s existing Pro Package subscription service from May 15, but it is already causing a stir. One prominent industry figure is redesigning his company’s website to take full advantage of the new application.

Share allows agents, property managers, mortgage brokers and other real estate industry professionals to provide clients with free access to property data. This represents a major move away from the traditional approach, where property data suppliers charge one-off fees to casual customers for price estimates, sales histories or suburb reports.

PriceFinder already provides property industry professionals such as real estate agents with a quick and easy reference to the estimated sale price, rental price and potential yield of a property within the current market or any time in recent history. The company also provides access to a revolutionary map-searching tool, recent sales, property photos, listings and much more. Share allows PriceFinder subscribers to give their clients free access to this valuable information with just the click of a button.

PriceFinder’s Chief Operating Officer Kent Lardner is excited and proud of this new product, which he says goes a lot further than just value-adding.

“At PriceFinder we are determined to maximise our service to clients,” Mr Lardner says.

“To do this we must be constantly developing new initiatives that give those clients a marketing edge, and I am confident that Share will exceed all expectations in that respect.

“Sometimes the simplest of ideas can bring major results and I think this will be one of those stories.”

Mr Lardner is expecting a big response from the industry, with many businesses integrating the service into lead generation campaigns.

“There are so many possibilities – real estate agents can offer access to buyers, sellers and landlords, and mortgage brokers can provide detailed information with new clients. This application is limited only by imagination.”

Among those already moving to position themselves to take advantage of Share is prominent real estate professional Kevin Turner. Mr Turner is the founder of Real Estate Talk (www.realestatetalk.com.au), which was last year named as a finalist in the ‘Most Innovative Media Site’ category of the international Inman Innovator Awards.

Mr Turner also hosts a weekly radio show by the same name, which covers real estate-related issues for buyers, sellers and investors. The show airs on 2UE Sydney every Thursday from 1.30pm to 2pm, and on 4BC Brisbane from 10am to noon every Saturday, and has an estimated audience of some one million people each week.

Mr Turner already uses PriceFinder to provide data and property information for his radio show and website. He is excited about the Share tool and is in the process of redesigning his website to take full advantage of its capabilities and marketing opportunities.

“From my point of view Share will open up a huge amount of information to buyers and sellers, and is very much in line with what the internet is doing for this industry,” he says.

“Five or six years ago agents were the gatekeepers of information, but now we are dealing with very educated buyers and sellers who want their own access to that information.”

Mr Turner is particularly impressed with the PriceFinder methodology to determine price estimates, which he says is quite unique. He says using information about property enhancements, local area, proximity to major infrastructure and other factors, as well as market trends and sales histories, gives a much more comprehensive estimate.

“Buyers are much more aware of property trends and are looking for that extra information,” he explains.

“We have been looking at the Share model consistently for the past month and we have a lot of faith in it.”

Such a show of faith is immensely gratifying for Mr Lardner and his team, but he is not surprised.

“Our company has a reputation for listening to what our clients want and this is a perfect example of that,” he says.

“This will be a great way for real estate agents to build goodwill with current clients or use the service to attract new customers. The best news is that it will come at no additional cost to the existing Pro Package subscription service.

“Many companies would see this as an opportunity to increase fees, but we see it as a chance to give our existing and prospective clients an edge in a highly competitive market, without added cost burden.

“Furthermore, Share is not just for real estate sales staff,” explains Mr Lardner. “As an example, property managers can also use it to share access with a landlord who wants to review her current property and the local market. That same landlord may also be looking to expand his property portfolio, so there are some very valuable cross-promotional opportunities here.”

How Share works

A real estate agent receives a call from a prospective buyer who has viewed a property the agency has on its books. The buyer wants more detail about property trends, sales histories, price estimates and other information, before deciding whether to lodge an offer.

The agent, who is a PriceFinder subscriber, tells the client he will send them an email providing access to this information, and asks for their email details. The agent goes to his computer, logs on, clicks the Share button and enters the client’s email address.

The Share access details are emailed immediately to the client who can then enter the PriceFinder system without the need for any password or account information.

One of the key aspects of this tool is that it only allows customers access to PriceFinder for a single session. This gives the agent the opportunity to initiate further contact and maintain an ongoing dialogue.

Have you ever wished you knew how many people are opening your e-mail’s, or one better… see exactly who clicked on your links?

I used Vision6 recently to send out a price adjustment on a property, and then called every person who clicked to see ‘more information’ on the property. The response was great! Everyone knew what property I was talking about and thanked me for the call. I was touching base with people who actually cared.

I then decided to explore it a little further and consider other ways I could implement this system. Some of the uses I have already adapted include the following;

1. Send every new registered buyer a link to ‘the buying process’ with a link down the side to ‘tips on how to prepare your home for sale’ – as this will provide an early tip as to who’s selling.
2. Send all my database a quarterly report and again add the ‘tips on how to prepare your home for sale’ link
   In the process of allowing users to sign up to my e-newsletter automatically using the forms feature.
3. Will offer my next vendor an improved e-brochure service which allows us to track who clicks on the ‘more info’ link. Then call anyone who did not attend the open for inspection to understand why not or possible encourage them to attend the next one or discuss similar properties coming onto the market.

If you use Vision6 or similar systems what do you use them for?

• Eighty four per cent⁽¹⁾of property hunters find inspecting properties to be more stressful than visiting the Boxing Day sales.
• Fifty seven per cent⁽¹⁾ of property hunters have become so distressed by the property search that they have fought about it with their loved ones.
• New South Wales property hunters are the most stressed out in the country while South Australians are the most relaxed.⁽¹⁾

“Australia’s obsession with property hunting is stressing out the nation and impacting our relationships with loved ones, according to new research by leading Australian property portal, realestate.com.au.

The nationwide survey of over 1,000 adults⁽¹⁾ revealed 84 per cent of prospective buyers believe looking for property is more stressful than visiting the end of year Boxing Day sales. The news comes as realestate.com.au enhances their website to alleviate the pressure.

The findings reveal three-quarters (74 per cent ⁽¹⁾) of Australians find inspecting properties  stressful, with New South Wales property hunters coming in as the most stressed out state in the country.

Unsurprisingly, this added stress is having an adverse effect on wellbeing, with 57 per cent of property hunters saying they have become so distressed by the property search that they have fought about it with their loved ones.

Clinical psychologist and relationship expert Dr Timothy Sharp, also known as Dr Happy, says the findings come as no surprise to him.

“Many people underestimate the effect big decisions, such as buying or renting a property, have on our state of being and how happy we are day-to-day,” said Dr Sharp.

“The key is to reduce the stress associated with the process. In doing so, we not only make better decisions but we bring the fun back to house hunting,” he said.

Despite finding the search for their dream home stressful, it seems Aussies are addicted to the hunt. Ninety two per cent of property seekers spend over one full day per month (up to 25 hours) researching potential homes online⁽²⁾.

The research also revealed that 86 per cent⁽¹⁾ of respondents believed using online property websites like realestate.com.au could help ease the pressure felt when house hunting.

General Manager Consumer Marketing for realestate.com.au, Henry Ruiz says the site enhancements help minimise the time wasted in searching for properties, meaning house hunters can find that dream home faster.

“At realestate.com.au we know how stressful the house hunting process can be. We’ve listened to our customers and as a result we have implemented new tools on our website to streamline the search process,” said Henry.

“Some of the new tools includes enhanced search functionality, a compare feature and a myrealestate zone”, he said.

The enhanced search function enables house hunters to now search by the exact street name, suburb or address. The compare feature allows consumers to scan key attributes of each listing and eliminate the ones they don’t like, while the myrealestate zone acts like an online scrapbook allowing house hunters to save all their search activity in the one place for future reference.

KEY STATE FINDINGS⁽¹⁾:

• Seventy nine per cent of New South Wales residents claimed they get stressed when looking for property making them the most stressed out state
• Property hunters in South Australia are the least likely to get stressed with only 64 per cent claiming they have felt the pressure when looking for their dream home.
• Property hunters in Western Australia spend the most time looking for properties, spending almost nine hours a week on the search.
• Property hunters in Queensland are least likely to fight with loved ones when looking for property with only 53 per cent claiming they have come to blows.”

Even though this media release coincides with the launch of realestate.com.au’s new look site, I thought that the article could also act as a timely reminder for agents to show understanding & empathise with clients who are going through the process of buying, selling or renting because it can be an extremely stressful time for your customers.

The more you can do to relieve their level of stress the more your customers will sing your praises.

(1)    Independent online survey conducted by Longergan Research of 1,028 respondents for realestate.com.au, March 2010

(2)    Internal research conducted by realestate.com.au. Online survey of 1,200 respondents, 5-9 October 2009

The new site looks very impressive.

One of the major things I got out of the presentation was how the ‘Local Voices’ section will be adapted into the site and ways that I could possibly use it to help promote me as a local area expert more effectively.

The ‘Local Voices’ site is something launched by realestate.com.au to allow anyone registered to write and respond to reviews on streets and suburbs, which is then shown on the search pages of realestate.com.au.

They have also set the site up to be somewhat like a social networking site. It seems to me that this application which will be nested in the realestate.com.au search pages will quickly become popular with new buyers and potential sellers alike.

Once in the site when analysing suburbs the site displays the ‘top local experts’. This, from what I can see and was told is based on the amount of reviews and responses to a local suburb. My aim (and at this stage I have only registered my profile and explored the site) is to become the local expert within my target areas. I plan to do the following;

• Create a professional profile on the site with contact details.
• Create a professional suburb profile (some of you may already have these) and load it to the system.
• Create an rss feed for my local suburb and respond to any reviews by others in a constructive way.
• Add any person that appears to live within the suburb as a ‘friend’.

With time (and at this stage as its new it doesn’t appear it will be too difficult) I should become the top local expert for my target suburbs. This will hopefully generate leads as local sellers start to investigate their suburb prices and local agents, and are naturally attracted to what others have said about their suburb.

I’d love to hear if anyone has already started using ‘local voices’ and the way in which they are doing so.

Think of a sales or rental department as an elite sporting team. Each member has their specialty position and skills, and as such, the coaching methods used to ensure their success should be tailored to their individual functions.

Too many principals implement training based on general sales or property management needs, where they should be focusing on individuals’ strengths and weaknesses, and the skills that these people require to excel in their specialty area.

For example, would it be beneficial for Jarryd Hayne to spend all his time training to make the big tackles and hard hit ups? Of course not, because he doesn’t play in the forward line. It would, however, be ideal to use those training methods for a front rower such as Petero Civoniceva.

Is it really a good idea to implement a standard training regime across the whole sales team? Or would it pay to take the time to identify each member’s role, and their strengths and weaknesses, and then tailor training to suit their individual needs.

The reason that players in a sporting team are chosen to represent their country is because they are the best player for that position. The winger is quick, the forwards are tough and the fullback is agile.

In a sales team, the best lister is confident and empathetic, the best seller is great at negotiating and the support staff have an eye for detail. Therefore, tailor training to enhance these skills. Make them market leaders in your area.

Consider joining strong members of your team with other strong members. Cameron Smith & Cooper Cronk are good players in their own right, but as a duo they form a force to be reckoned with. Likewise, band together a star performer with a weaker player in your team. Just as Darren Lockyer can make anyone look fantastic and inspire his team mates to perform, the weaker player will be driven to lift his game.

Another mistake some principals make is not ensuring the sales team sticks to their core market area. In a slow market, it is easy for sales staff to take on listings as business outside of their local or specialty area.

Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of the 21st century, but he would probably get slaughtered if he ‘laced up the boots’ and ran onto the rugby field. As the old adage says ‘Stick with what you know and what you do best’.

But how do you put this training into practice? By conducting a simple training needs analysis. Sit down with each member of the team and discuss with them what they think their strengths and weaknesses are and what they can do to improve. Then implement training to suit their needs.

It can be something low scale like role playing scenarios they have trouble dealing with, or specific skills based training to broaden their knowledge of their core area. With the introduction of compulsory CPD, the popularity of skills based training has decreased dramatically. But as any proactive coach will tell you, training is the key to producing great staff that get results and remain a cut above the competition.

Just as all elite athletes aspire to be the best and represent their country, does your sales staff aspire to be the best and represent you?

When connecting with Julie on LinkedIn, I happened to notice one of her recent presentations was available on SlideShare and thought I’d share some of Julie’s insights with GenYre = energy readers.

Whilst I appreciate that the SlideShare presentation isn’t anywhere near as effective as it would be with Julie presenting it, I believe that you can still gain a lot out of her presentation slides.

There are some great points that Julie shares about appearing different in your market place. She is also a big believer in using the internet more effectively to help build your profile and make the right first impression.

Julie has also included some very interesting stats about Social Media and a great insight into Dominant Buyer Motives,  plus lots more…

Young agents Eddy Piddington, Jessica Thei and Adrian Wilson are all recent REINSW Awards for Excellence winners and will share what drives them to succeed.

Come along to the Young Agents’ first event for 2010!

Thursday, 15 April 2010 at The Loft in Sydney 4.00pm – 6.00pm (includes a short panel discussion)
$35 REINSW members / $55 Non-members (cost includes drinks and canapes)

To book your seat or learn more Click Here

I’m looking forward to attending this event and catching up with many of the dynamic young agents who are part of the REINSW Young Agents Chapter.

If you’re not in Sydney, there’s a great event being held for Young Agents next week (Friday 19th March) by the REIV on Creating A Successful Future.

This looks like being a great event, featuring one of the GenYre = energy contributors Braden Walters.

Here are the details of that event.

In Part 2 of the book they discuss Fast Decisions…

“Fast thinking won’t get you very far unless you’re able to quickly process your thoughts and make a decision. Nothing slows down an organization more than paralysis by analysis – the inability to make even the smallest decisions quickly.”

And when reading this paragraph, it made me think of the road blocks that so many of the Gen Y real estate agents are facing each day due to committee meetings & old-school methods being used by lots of agents and the frustration some young agents are experiencing.

Whilst I’m not taking anything away from the wealth of knowledge that the Baby Boomers & Gen X agents can share with the Gen Y agents ( I’m a Gen X agent myself), but the slow uptake of real estate technology & Social Media that exists within our industry means that in many offices Gen Y agents are sent out into the field to do time consuming, ineffective hit & miss ‘old school’ prospecting to build networks.

Gen Y are the greatest networking generation ever.

As a kid growing up my friends either lived in my neighbourhood or were classmates,etc from school. Whereas, Gen Y have hundreds of friends online from all over the place. As I said before, they are the greatest networking generation ever and yet some agencies won’t even let Gen Y agents use a computer.

C’mon!! We are talking about a generation who were literally born with an email address and a mouse in their hand.

If only you could see what I’ve seen some Gen Y agents doing you would be blown away…

The leverage that some Gen Y agents are applying to real estate sales has to be seen to be believed.

They use the internet & Social Media to do a task once and then leverage marketing strategies around that task or use other marketing tools (eg. Personal Profile Video, Blogging, Facebook Fan Pages, etc).

It’s time that Baby Boomer & Gen X agents sat up and took notice of what can be done.

This year Gen Y will out-number Baby Boomers for the first time in history and for the older, more experienced agents, there will need to be a significant shift in thinking & marketing strategies to ensure that they remain relevant within their marketplace and find ways that they can deliver a more streamlined approach to help retain high performing Gen Y agents and at the same time make sure they appeal to the ever growing Gen Y customers.

When you think about it, this is the first time in history where parents have had to ask their kids how to do things. Like, how do I program my new phone, how do I do certain things on the computer, etc, etc, etc? And, this same situation is now happening within real estate agencies & other businesses throughout the world.

Bosses are recruiting to fill in the gaps for their weaknesses in technology, but in the main they aren’t seeking the knowledge required to ensure that they have a better than basic understanding of how online real estate marketing really should work.

This means that operating systems within the agency are developed around old methods which normally make things less efficient and leads to frustration from employees and customers.

I understand, for a lot of agents, learning about computers is one of the last skills sets they are interested in learning.

I’m not suggesting agents need to turn into computer geeks, but they need to get a basic understanding of why web 2.0 is important and the psychology of the internet and embrace internet marketing strategies so they can use them to leverage their time & resources more effectively.

Plus, at the same time, find ways that they can use technology to deliver a better end user experience so that customers will want to deal with that agency and/or recommend them to their friends.

It’s not enough to have your listings uploaded to the major portals, having a company website and database software. you need to understand why customers aren’t doing business with you & what you can do to build more trust over the internet and use strategies that help to convert website visitors into clients on an ongoing basis, 24/7.

I feel disappointed when I hear about good young agents leaving our industry or going out on their own simply out of frustration and a lack of vision from their leader.

I know of a number of agents who have left companies simply because they felt held back due to lack of vision from their boss and have ended up opening up an agency down the road as competitors. Which is something that is becoming easier & easier for agents to do, especially with the emergence of virtual agencies & the current National Agency Licensing regulations.If an agency wants to move forward and retain their Top Performing Gen Y agents, they really should sit down and spend time listening to some of the ideas of the Gen Y agents rather than sticking in the comfort zone of “this is how I did it when I started out in real estate so that’s the way Gen Y agents should do it too.” (Wrong)

If agents continue doing the old things they will simply frustrate the good new recruits out of the industry and end up employing a team of people who lack innovation, inspiration and will find themselves heading down the wrong track where there is only a dead end.

Gen Y’s love being part of a fast thinking business that embraces change.

Step out of your comfort zone and don’t hold your Gen Y’s back and stop killing off their enthusiasm by using those boring ‘old school’ strategies that all your competitors have all gone back to doing simply because that’s all they know.

Look for new and exciting ways. Innovate, Inspire & Embrace Change Faster.

Providing a superior service that goes beyond our competitors will see our existing clients return and will often lead to them recommending our service to others.

But, how are we to know what specific areas of our service need to be improved?

Well, in order to improve our processes, we need to analyse how they are currently received by our market. This data will enable us to pin-point where to focus the most attention immediately and improve strategies and create a system to ensure our service is delivered easily, effectively and in a timely fashion.

What do they expect, want and what would exceed their expectations?

In order to be a successful agent we should track customers’ perceptions of our performance to discover our strengths, weakness and ensure that we are delivering beyond their expectations.

There are many ways to do this, including making it easy for customers to make a complaint or suggestion, or even conducting a mystery shopping exercise. The main method I suggest for tracking performance is via the use of a Customer Service Survey.

When compiling a survey for your customers, remember to keep it short, relevant and easy to understand. More information about creating an effective survey can be found at All Business. Plus, here’s a great survey that I came across the other day ~ City of Ryde’s ‘Customer Service Survey’ .

Innovation and Implementation

Customer service surveys can provide some amazing insights into what you are doing right & what areas need to be improved upon. After receiving feedback on the quality of your work, strategies should be developed to overcome any limitations.

For instance, one of the customer surveys I did revealed that one of my customers felt that I had an impersonal approach to customers & yet prior to doing the survey I had no idea that some of my customers had felt this way about me at all. It was a bitter pill to swallow at the time, but now I’m a better agent for it.

I’m currently in the process of  implementing a system for customer relationship management so I can design a better daily approach to my workflow and communicate more effectively with my customers. I currently use Box & Dice’s BOOM, a Customer Relationship Management System. I now input every person I come into contact with into this system, and document any communication that is made. This allows me to refer to my past notes on a client and remember our last few conversations.

Another issue was my constant follow up. I discovered this was due to a lack of valuable information being provided, resulting in a negative relationship. My solution to this is a Quarterly Report, which includes facts about what’s happening within their suburb such as statistics, sold homes and more.

If you’d like a copy of this Quarterly Report please feel welcome to email me at chris.shepherd@rwfm.com.au and I’ll send you out the latest version.

Within the CRM, I have also set up specific campaign trails such as Hot, Warm or Cold seller trails so that the BOOM system reminds me of what communication I need to make, at the appropriate time.

While I encountered these two problems, there are many others and it is important to develop a solution specific to the weakness.

What to do?

Given the financial and time costs involved in getting new clients, it is important to fix our current systems and maintain a healthy relationship with our existing clients. By so doing, it is only a matter of time before lots of extra business is generated via ongoing referrasl.

Using client surveys, complaint/comment systems or even mystery shoppers can establish weak points within an agent’s current systems, which can then be enhanced for a much better customer experience. Plus, you’ll get a much better appreciation of what your clients needs & expectations really are, so you can deliver what they want and more.

Once these issues are highlighted then they simply shouldn’t be ignored by brushing them under the carpet. Find a solution and then take the necessary actions required to ensure that your customer service is implemented on an ongoing basis, you’ll very quickly generate lots of ‘raving fans’ and a fantastic reputation within your service area.

I’d be interested to hear if other agents have used Customer Service Surveys and what sort of response they’ve had? Or maybe what’s been the most enlightening question they’ve asked in their survey?

Late last year I was given the opportunity to come down to Ray White NSW in Sydney and find out what would be involved in the role of Chief Auctioneer. I have since decided to take up this opportunity and I’m living in Sydney and loving it but on this trip I was just getting the lay of the land and talking to people.

One day I was on an office visit with the CEO of Ray White Corporate NSW, Stephen Nell. It was late afternoon, about 5:30, and the Principal offered us a beer and we of course accepted. Three beers were put on the table – a Carlton Cold, a Tooheys New and a Corona. I was given the option to pick first and straight away I picked the Corona as it is my favourite beer and was the best on offer by far. The CEO was amazed and pointed out, not in a rude way, how times had changed and that there is no respecting your elders. He said that if the situation had been reversed he never would have picked the Corona.

I thought about this for a millisecond and took a very quick sip of the Corona so neither Stephen nor the Principal could have it.

Now, the whole point to this story is that as a generation, we do respect our elders a great deal. We know that we can learn a lot from them. However, this does not mean we are going to let them have our favourite beer or stop us speaking up when we think something is wrong. Although they have the experience, we can often offer a fresh perspective on things and we should never underestimate the value of that.

In my opinion I think it is really important to know exactly what it is you want in business and life and if you go for it you will be amazed how many times you will get it. At the end of the day I know what it is I want and where I am going and, when a choice of beers is in front of me, I will always take the Corona.