Is Tech Savvy Agent Dead Without Chris Smith?

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

is Tech Savvy Agent dead?Last week the news hit the stands that Chris Smith, Co-Founder, of Tech Savvy Agent was jumping ship and taking on a hot new job with Inman next week.  Since then there has been quite the social buzz about what that means to the raving fans of Tech Savvy Agent that have been following us since we began back in October 2009.

“Will Tech Savvy Agent cease to exist?“

“Who will be the next Tech Savvy Agent?“

“Who the heck is Steve Pacinelli and Suzanne Roy?!“

These and other questions have been answered by Chris Smith himself, along with Max Pigman, National Speaker/Technologist and VP of Move, Inc.,

Watch this short video and then leave your thoughts and comments below.


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Top 10 Reasons You MUST Have A Real Estate Blog

August 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

Top 10 Reasons You Must have a Real Estate Blog

Lately, my favorite saying has been, “Websites are SO last year!“  And it’s SO true!   With the inception of social networking over the past few years, a real estate blog is essential to ensure you to get your expertise out there to the millions and millions of eyeballs and will help you become an authority that people know they can trust.   A blog is one way of getting information out in a conversational way without all the hype of advertising.

So why do you need a real estate blog? Here are our Top 10 Reasons:

1.  A real estate blog is your HUB of all your online presence.  It’s NOT your website!!  By linking your blog to all your online profiles and pages (such as Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, and LinkedIN) your audience has now gone from minimal to phenomenal! I could talk about this reason for weeks – maybe that will be a future post…

2.  A real estate blog containing relevant and hyper-local information which is updated regularly, will get great rankings in the search engines. When people search for a real estate agent in your area under the keyword phrases that you are using, this will get them to quickly to find you.

3.  Blogs are probably one of the easiest things for your readers (and potential clients) to subscribe to, making it automated for your readers to receive your new blog posts directly emailed to them as they are written. Get the plug-in for an RSS feed if it is not already built-in.

4.  As stated, a blog needs to have fresh content when readers go to check it out. With a self-posting blog (or scheduled blog), you can write something or post a message and have it post when you want it to in the future. This is especially handy for the holidays or while you are away at a seminar.   It will show readers that you are on top of things, consistency in your blog posts will continue and no gaps will be present in your readers updates.

5.  A real estate blog is one of the easiest things to set up and maintain.  No html or fbml coding experience is required and there are hundreds of great resource websites out there (such as our other company over at Tech Savvy Agent) to help you along the way.

6.  Do you have something that you sell that is related to your chosen profession? An e-book with tips on buying or selling a home or any number of real estate related products can be explained on your blog.  Then put it on a widget to direct them to the place where it can be purchased.

7.   Consistent posting is a necessity. When you have a real estate blog, you will get followers who will go there everyday to read what you have written. The more you post, the more people will go to see what you are talking about on any given day.

8.  You can backlink to your main website from your blog (if, of course, your blog is not your main site already), therefore, driving additional traffic to your other online lead generator too.

9.  Selling the real estate services you provide is imperative if you are going to make it in this profession.  When you construct a real estate blog, people can learn more about you, your exemplary services, why you are different from the rest, etc.,  Passion is key!

10. Your blog will basically put across the impression that you are available and can state information the consumer will find helpful in not only buying or selling a home, but information about your local community in general – such as upcoming events and attractions.  This is your opportunity to shine!

Having a real estate blog will cut the competition – as Krisstina Wise from The GoodLife Team recently (and in our opinion, accurately) stated in an interview with Chris Smith at Tech Savvy Agent, “your ROI will be evident in whether or not you will be in business in 5 years from now“.  Social networking, which most certainly includes your blog, is the new online lead capture tool.

Need more reasons?  Leave us a message and we’ll be happy to give you more!

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Facebook Fan Page For Real Estate Agents

July 14, 2010 By 5 Comments

Attention Real Estate Agents!

Looking to have professional representation on your Facebook Fan Page that makes you stand out from the crowd?  We can design custom fan pages for you with multiple links, photos, video, etc., like the ones shown below.

Interested to learn more?   Complete our form below the examples and we’ll get back in touch with you momentarily.

Mac Bloggers

Nicole Nicolay Brian Copeland Jeremy Blanton Max Pigman Jay Thompson Jack Miller Krisstina Wise Chris Smith Daniel Rothamel Michael McClure Jonathan Rivera Jeff Bernheisel Darin Persinger Facebook Link Twitter Link Youtube Link RSS Feed Link Dale Chumbley
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The Jills Custom Facebook Fan Page
The Jills Custom Facebook Fan Page
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Block Style Custom Fan Page

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5 Tips To Effective Time Management for Realtors

July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Effective time management for realtors has been an ongoing issue for many.   If you are running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, then you probably need to sit down for 5 minutes and take some notes!   The most successful business people, whether it is within the real estate industry or not, are those that manage their time effectively.

Head Cut Off - Effective Time Management for RealtorsThere are some very effective ways to manage your days and just like anything, once you have these systems in place they become second nature.  Take a look at the following five tips on how to effectively manage your time each day and see which ones you already use and those that you may want to consider adding:

1.  Make A List Each Night

Making a list of your following day’s activities not only prepares you in advance but also allows you to get started straight away the next morning.  I used to create my list of activies in the morning, however, I found that it took away time in my most productive part of the day (being the mornings).  With that being said, you may be more productive at night, but the most important thing is to create a list that is reasonable and attainable to complete each day.

2.   Keep It Quiet

Keep distractions down to an absolute minimum.  If you are anything like me, you’ll have multiple things going on at any given time and having additional distractions will significantly reduce your management of time.  By shutting down your email and turning off your phone ringer during your most productive hours of the day, you can improve your completed work load exponentially!  It may feel strange or even scary to keep everything quiet for a few hours, but it will definitely be worth it!

3.   Don’t Procrastinate – Prioritize!

Effective Time Management for Realtors - ProcrastinationWhether you want to believe it or not, getting your dry cleaning done does not take precedence over creating an action plan for your past clients!   Prioritization goes hand in hand with procrastination – it’s so easy to push items that you don’t really like doing to the end of the day (or even tomorrow), even though the priority is certinaly there.   Best thing to do is make a habit of getting those dreaded tasks done first and make them the priority and then move on from there.  At the end of the day you’ll be glad you did and probably feel like you’ve accomplished a lot more than if “it” is still on your list.

4.  Learn, learn and learn some more

By consistently picking up (and using) more tools of the trade, you will natually become more efficient in your work.  Tech Savvy Agent (our other learning resource site) is a great place to go to gain some amazing tips and information on the latest and greatest tools within the real estate industry.    TIP:  Instead of having to remember a bunch of resourceful websites to go back and read, sign up for their new information to be automatically emailed to you when they are posted through their RSS feed.

5.  Invest in technology tools

It seems like every day new techy tools are being introduced to the industry – from iphone apps to ipads – it’s a little overwhelming, right?   Think about what technology tools you currently have in place that you don’t use (or don’t help you manage your time), and which ones you believe you should get more information about?   Ask around and see what your co-workers or broker says, or post a question on your Facebook Fan Page and see what responses you get.

Making conscious decisions each day in and around these five tips will definitely assist you in becoming more effective in your time management and ultimately your success as a realtor.  Give them a try and let me know how you are doing!

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Real Estate Facebook Fan Pages – Roost’s New Social Media Application

March 5, 2010 By 6 Comments

Real Estate Facebook Fan Pages

Roost’s New Social Media Application


Just as Facebook takes a sudden turn to disallow interactive embedding of IDX applications to Real Estate Facebook Fan Pages, Roost (the well know Real Estate Technology company where last month Tech Savvy Agent was named as one of the Top 50 sites to follow) has come out with a brand new Application (app) that will essentially fill this void.

Real Estate Facebook Fan Page Social Media App

Released March 5, 2010, the beta version of this real estate facebook app allows brokers and realtors to pull listing information into a custom tab within their Fan Page through their respective local MLS, in addition to market trends graphs from Altos Research, school data from Education.com and walkability data from Walkscore.

Here’s a quick video from Roost’s Senior Director of Marketing and Social Media, Derek Overbey describing how this works and how you can add it to your Real Estate Facebook Fan Page:


Take Note – Derek mentions that this Realtor that was a tester of this beta version app has links to her BLOG and not her website in BOTH areas of the fan page application design.


Roost’s CEO, Alex Chang, stated, “we kind of had three goals for the application: 1. to help Realtors use Facebook in a productive way; 2. (to position) you on Facebook as an expert in your local market; and 3. to offer an incredibly easy-to-use application that takes no time to set up.” This application definitely does this and as a real estate virtual assistant and social networking expert, I would definitely concur.

Here’s the most amazing part of it all!

Still in its beta mode, it’s full form will be released in the coming months; the full version will include:

  • multiple listing service real estate search
  • lead generation, and
  • drip marketing tools!

    • This will be a MUST to have on your Real Estate Facebook Fan Page!  Lead Generation on Facebook is truly just around the corner!

    Until then, if a consumer wants to search listings for sale, they can click a button to see all listings and be directed to either an IDX (Internet Data Exchange) search site that the agent has hired Roost to power and host, or that agent’s blog or web site.

    I’ll be keeping a close eye on the release of the full version and will keep you posted – keep checking back or enter your email address below to get an automatic update of when it has been released.


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