How Things Have Changed! VA Then and Now

I was interviewed back in 2006 by Jerry Chautin with SCORE Sarasota. Back then I was in my 3rd year of being a Virtual Assistant specializing in online listing enhancement and online marketing for Real Estate Agents.

Last week Jerry contacted me again and asked if I would be interested in doing another interview to see how things had changed for me. WOW! Have they changed!

Social networking has taken my business from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds! And much more importantly, my client’s businesses too!

Here’s an excerpt from the write up from The Herald Tribune today:

Real Estate and related industries have suffered the most during the Great Recession. So I checked in with Suzanne Roy, who depended on real estate agents for her living when I interviewed her in 2006.

“The real estate industry has not affected me at all,” she says. “Actually, I am making 10 times the amount I used to make.”

Roy is a virtual assistant, an independent businessperson who offers administrative and Internet services to her business clients.

When I spoke to her in 2006, she specialized in providing support services to real estate sales agents who wanted to spend more time listing and selling houses.

social networkingRoy continues to work for real estate agents, but has mastered social-networking and online-technology skills that she applies to most industries.

As a result, “my business has skyrocketed,” she says. “The opportunities to connect with people has gone from a speck on the Internet to the entire world in the matter of moments.”

Roy moved from Bradenton to Stuart but the Internet permits her to have a home-based business and work with clients in any location. “My husband got a job transfer with Verizon, and being a VA, I can work from anywhere life takes us,” she says.

You can read the entire article here:

The virtual assistant: home offices for many

Article courtesy of Jerry Chautin, SCORE Volunteer

Jerry Chautin is a local volunteer business counselor with Manasota SCORE, Counselors to America’s Small Business.  You can follow him on Twitter.com/JerryChautin.

Top Producer Help – Market Snapshot in Detail – Bring on the Leads!

Top Producer Help – Market Snapshot in Detail – Bring on the Leads!

A few months back I decided to give the Facebook PPC ads a try with the Market Snapshot lead generation tool. I placed the html code within the ad and sat back and waited for the leads to roll in. It didn’t happen. I actually got barely any clicks (Facebook ad creator gives you stats including click-through rates).

So here’s what I came up with instead. A Market Snapshot in Detail landing page. The beautiful thing about this, is that you are spelling out to your prospective leads what exactly they are signing up for! In this tech age, no one truly wants to give away their email address unless they absolutely want to – this gives them that reason to do so. This Market Snapshot landing page can also be made as a blog post, a website page, a Craigslist ad, and, of course, a Facebook PPC ad.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment in the Comment Box below.


What Is Market Snapshot?



Market Snapshot shows you market trends in the area of your choosing. It charts live market activity including such data as sold homes, properties for sale, inventory counts and even days-on-market. You can’t get that information anywhere else, unless, of course, you’re a Realtor!


Below is a sneak peak to just one Market Snapshot page:



Get All Data For Homes Just Listed And Sold!


The data displayed within the Snapshot is real-time Multiple Listing Service information. The map offers several viewing options:

  • Road
  • Aerial and
  • Bird’s Eye views

where you will see listings identified by green (Active Listings) or red flags (Homes that have Sold).

By clicking the bird’s eye view of the map, you’ll see your backyard and even your neighbor’s back yard! Hover your mouse over any of the listings and a pop up box with a picture of the home will appear. Within the pop up is a link where you can click to view all the details on that particular home. The details will show the asking price, selling price, days on market, property features and comments!





Get answers to questions like,

“What Did My Neighbor’s House Sell For?”




Within your Market Snapshot report, you will also see the inventory based on the last three months (which is the default), the last thirty days or the last week! Below the d rop down list are several statistical g raphs showing asking and sold price s, asking vs. sol d prices, time on market, and inventory statistics. Some of these graphs that are included in each report are shown below.

Has The Market Stabilized?

The Snapshot shows homes that are similar in number of bedrooms and bathrooms to yours so not every home for sale or sold will appear.


Market Snapshot
Market Snapshot Market Snapshot

What Else Is Included?

Additional information is also readily available, including community and school details. If knowing how close the nearest police stations, fire stations, department and grocery stores are to the area you are interested in purchasing is important to you, you will find all this here, and more.


Market Snapshot Market Snapshot

Local school information, public and private, plus colleges and universities can also be reviewed within your Market Snapshot.


Market Snapshot

Each school is marked on the interactive map, and listed to the right you can click and gain detail for each school as shown below:


Market Snapshot Market Snapshot

All this information is just a click away!

Please complete the form below to obtain your personalized report now.


Live Website Optimization! Join the Free Website Grader Webinar today!

Live Website Optimization!  Join the Free Website Grader Webinar today!

Ever wonder how well your website is doing when it comes to your SEO efforts?   Join this webinar at 1:00 EST, today, March 25th, which is geared toward anyone wanting to learn the practical aspects of growing a successful business in an easy-to-understand format.   Best of all, there is no technical experience required!


Real Estate Virtual Assistant‘s Website Grade is:


The Website Grade for www.vawork.com!

Website Grader is a great tool that I would highly recommend visiting right now, plus bookmarking for future use. A free SEO tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website, Website Grader is a great resource for keeping track of how well your efforts are working for you and in turn how your website should be working for you. It provides a score that incorporates aspects such as website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some great tips on how your website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

Here’s some examples of the type of information Website Grader will provide you when grading your website:

Real Estate Virtual Assistant Website Grader

Real Estate Virtual Assistant Website Grader

Real Estate Virtual Assistant Website Grader

So if you have 45 minutes free this afternoon, please attend the webinar they will be hosting – you’ll be glad you did! Website Grader Webinar – Sign Up Here




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Real Estate Virtual Assistant’s Top 10 Blog Must-Haves

Real Estate Virtual Assistant’s Top 10 Blog Must-Haves

If you have spent a few minutes talking to me or reading my blog, you’ll have learned by now that my promotion is not in the website, but in the blog. I probably talk about the importance and significance of a blog versus a website a half dozen times a day with new and potential clients – I just can’t stress it enough – put your efforts in and around your blog and you’ll have AMAZING results!

Here’s this Real Estate Virtual Assistant‘s Top 10 Blog Must Haves:

  1. Listings & Property Search IDX (YES!  You Can have your IDX on your Blog!)
  2. Interactive Maps of Recent Listings/Sold Properties (YES!  You can have maps and/or automatically updated listings of active and sold listings on your Blog!)
  3. Market Reports (your Blog is great place to promote your Top Producer Market Snapshot program)
  4. Multiple Property Photos (YES!  You can promote your properties on your blog!)
  5. Detailed Community and School information
  6. Videos (get your cam out and get up close and personal with your prospects!)
  7. Lead Capture and Contact Forms (YES!  Do you have RSS feeds?  Then you can easily gain leads from each and every blog post you create!  Contact Forms are a snap with the cformsII plugin)
  8. Automatic lead follow-up (another great plugin is Comment Relish – leave a comment below and see what happens in your inbox!)
  9. Agent contact information on each and every page
  10. Integration of all social networking pieces (get your links to your linkedin, twitter, facebook, plaxo, activerain, etc., added into your blog so that when you post on your blog site, the information is automatically updated everywhere else!

What are you waiting for?  I know, I know, you don’t know how to write, you don’t want to write, you don’t have time to write, you simply just hate writing!  Am I right?!   Don’t let that affect your online marketing and powerful online presence – there are answers and I’ll be happy to share them with you – try out #8 and let’s talk!

Facebook Page vs. Profile? Things that make you say “Hmmmm”

Facebook Page vs. Profile?

Facebook Page vs ProfileDoes this question make you say, “Hmmmm“, scratch your head, turn and move on to the next task on your endless list? You’re a business professional, right? So, why do you want to understand? Do you really need to? Wouldn’t your time be better spent on selling? So many questions!

I know that everyone of the clients I come into contact with, whether they are Realtors, lawyers or life coaches, want to understand social networking – to a certain extent. And so you should, or you’ll be left behind the rest of the world wondering what happened! But, to be proficient at utilizing these websites (such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) is not what you are in business for, and is not what you should be spending your days (and nights) trying to figure out.

As a virtual assistant since 2001, the core of my business has been built being ever-present online, which in turn has thrust me into the depths of staying on top of the social networking waves of change. We would say, I’m an avid surfer! With the hands-on experience and direct results I have witnessed over the years, from keeping both myself and my clients in the forefront of our future buyer’s computer screens, I am able to proficiently provide a how-to approach and/or a get it done social networking package to you.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other high-traffic social networking websites or how I can make them work for you (with very little time invested by you), please complete the form below and I’ll be in touch with you shortly.

Virtual Assistance is one of the fastest growing home-based businesses in the U.S. and for good reason – we save you time, money and things that make you say “Hmmmm”!

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  2. (valid email required)
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  4. Which Social Networking sites do you currently have for your business?
 

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