All Forum Posts by: Cody Gentry

Hey BP,

Long story short, I'm looking for ideas / topics that I could write about for a research paper (8-10 pages) in my Western History class. 

• Time Period: Between the year 1400 - 2016 (preferably something more current).
• Relevance: Must be relevant to the European and/or Chinese market.
• Possible Topics: Real estate housing market, finance, mortgages, market crash, market growth, etc.

I originally wanted to write about the European market crash or the effect China would have on the surrounding nations if its market were to collapse. I'm open to any and all ideas because I honestly have no idea what I can talk about for 10+ pages. Thanks in advance!

Congratulations! The hard part starts now. Be sure to start promoting yourself on social media and also work on getting your website up and running! 

So either this could go horribly wrong or start me off on the right foot. I still have a savings account from back when I was on deployment but that isn't nearly enough from what I see other agents spending on monthly advertising. If I spent $1,000 a month for six months I'd realistically only get 1 or 2 sales over that 6 month period, correct?

I've always wondered if using a credit card was a viable option to pay for advertising expenses. Some new agents, like myself, don't exactly have a particularly large amount of capital to start with so it would make sense to utilize a credit card to cover the cost. 

So hear me out, statistics show that the agents that put more money quality advertising, will generate a greater number of leads, thus, the more money they will make. 

Example: In a perfect world, lets say I put $1,000 /month on my credit card to pay for advertising. Within that month, I get 5 potential leads and 2 of those leads close in 50 days. The $1,000 I originally spent would be paid off and only incur a $25 interest charge for those 50 days.

I tried to look it up on Google but I couldn't find any results, so I came here to get others opinions before I do some hastily.

In my opinion you could probably get more leads by spending the money you would use on Zillow into funneling traffic to your personal website. If you don't have a website yet, I would suggest investing some time and money into making one. Scour the internet for ideas on what works with other agents. Google "top realtor websites" and see what comes up. If you are part of the NAR, you could utilize your own .realtor domain name, for example, www.KellyChoate.realtor and you will stand out from everyone else (.realtor information). NAR also has a partnership with Placester to give NAR members a hefty discount on there services (last time I checked it was 50% off), I'll go more in-depth more later. I'll list a few examples below to give you a general idea of what to do.

- Create a Blog: 

Setting up a good real estate blog that you can contribute relevant buyer/seller information at least once a week. Writing all of these blogs/articles may seem particularly tedious but by doing this you're giving your website plenty of content (keywords). The more content the website has, the better chance someone will stumble upon it when search Google. 

- Resources: 

Since you're new and don't have much experience it may be hard to write your own blogs. Start gathering well-written articles/guides from around the internet. Once you collect a few you like, you can post these articles on your website (so long as you give the author his/her due credit). This will also help your SEO ranking within Google. 

Create a new menu option on the website for both buyers and sellers, you can label them "Helpful Resources" or something similar in nature. This does two things, it keeps potential clients on your website longer and having a collection of well written articles helps them not spend countless hours scouring the internet to find good real estate advice. 

- Use Pinterest: 

In my opinion, Pinterest is an invaluable asset to marketing your website (you can also use it to find great articles). The main concept to using Pinterest is to drive foot traffic to your website. If you publish anything, you can "Pin It" to one of your boards. Once pinned, it has the potential to be viewed by millions of people, some of them within your area and some not even close. But in order for them to read whatever it is that you published, they have to visit your website. 

Also when you publish anything on your website you should always have those wonderful social media share buttons somewhere near the end of the article. So if others read your content and find it helpful hopefully they share it with everyone they know, creating a snowball effect of traffic to your site.

- Using Facebook Correctly: 

Facebook is still the largest social media outlet people use, thus, using it to promote yourself and your website is extremely beneficial. I won't get into the pros and cons of using a Facebook business page vs your personal profile because I haven't done enough research on it. But, if you want my opinion I would do a little bit of both.

1. Personal Profile 

Sharing helpful articles/resources that find from time to time on your personal page is great. It spreads awareness to everyone on your friends lists that you are indeed, a real estate agent. The key thing to remember is to not "blow up" peoples news feeds with real estate information. The hard truth is that not everyone is will be interested in your posts or wants to keep seeing six variations of "10 easy steps to buying a home" you keep posting every hour. The main goal for your personal profile is to generate fundamental awareness that you're an agent.

2. Business Page

This is a much more versatile platform when it comes to marketing. The business page is your meat and potatoes, everyone that likes your page will obviously have at least some interest to the content you post. The options your business page offers is endless. You can create/add customs tabs for things like reviews, your Agent Profile, IDX integration so people can view your listings, or even have integrated forms to offer free CMAs. Business pages even have a call-to-action button near your name which can be used to redirect people to your website, setup appointments, download an app you may have created, or simply just send you a message.

- Business Card Marketing:

You should always include your website on the front or back of your business card, along with a good non-generic call to action. Notice how I said non-generic? This is just my 2 cents, but the agents that use generic slogans/phrases on all of there marketing material remind me of a used car salesman. They put zero effort into branding themselves as a professional agent and every person who sees it will think the same thing. They will either pass them up for blending in with the crowd or come to the conclusion that if he/she puts this little effort into promoting themselves, how much effort will they put into helping me? This may be a tad extreme but that is the way I perceive it.

- Graphic Design: 

Using graphics to promote yourself, articles, your website is key to attracting the attention of others. When promoting your website/articles on social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest having a good lead picture stands out from the rest of the clutter. You don't need to be a savvy graphic designer either, web-based graphic studios like Canva and Pixlr make it extremely easy to make all of your own marketing material, and the best part is they are both free to use. Another good option for beginning/intermediate designers is Paint.net. It's a free program very similar to Photoshop but it doesn't have pre-made layouts like the other two I mentioned.

- Placester: 

If you're a current member of the NAR, Placester offers a substantial discount  to any of its members. Using them does have many advantages for agents who use their website designs. They have a few pre-made designs that you can customize and tweak to your liking. Not everyone knows how to build a website from scratch, nor do I wish anyone to go out and try. I do consider myself a mild perfectionist and from my personal experience, it took me forever to make something and in the end, it wasn't even remotely acceptable to even consider promoting it. 

To give you an idea of what they provide, the NAR plan includes IDX integration, a compatible mobile ready version of your site, a personal blog, lead capture, custom branding, and advanced MLS search are just a few of the features they have. Placester does cost money, but for a solid, easy to create website that looks professional i'm willing to spend the money. Everything you put your name on should be blatantly transparent, and imply that you're a real estate professional. Put just as much thought and effort into making your website as you did your business cards. 

- Conclusion:

As with everything on the internet, these are just my opinions so take it with a grain of salt. I apologize for the length of this post I know some will have difficulty reading it entirely. I just wanted to share this information with you so you can keep it in the back of your head. If you need any help or have any other questions please feel free to email me or send me a message. Good luck!

There are calculators out there that basically do all the work for you. As long as you can input the correct data into the right formulas, you should be just fine. If you decide that you don't want to use them and do it the old fashion way, you would perfectly fine with just understanding the common principles behind basic algebra.

Investors/Agents aren't like accountants. We don't need to be extremely proficient in math to be successful, we just need to understand the formulas and the numbers that go in them :)

CompuCram is only a tool to help you study for the exam, it's not a means to replace the credit hours your state requires. I just looked it up though, for California the $59 covers both the national and state exam topics. In my opinion, that $59 (I paid $79 for Ohio) has saved me countless extra hours trying to decipher what's all in the book. In Ohio at least our licensee exams are all computerized, so if you have test anxiety, it helps you practice being in that state-of-mind and relieves you of some of that undue stress. I'm not saying it's the best program out there, but because it was the only one I've tried. So you can say i'm a little biased on it lol.

I was going through some of the profiles on here and noticed that quite a few people have some type of professional headshot of themselves done, so it got me thinking. 

1. In your opinion, Is it worth it?
2. Do you use a professional headshot for social media? (facebook, etc)
3. If you did get pictures taken, how much did it cost you?

Thanks for the help!

Unfortunately the classes don't really teach you much about being an actual real estate agent. They more or less focus on the fundamentals, their main objective is to give you the very basic information you'll need to start studying to pass the exam. If the school you're attending doesn't offer some type of study program, i'd suggest looking into buying one. They are relatively inexpensive ($40-$90) but they give you an enormous advantage when it comes to studying and helping you pass the examination. Most of the good ones have certain features like simulated exams, pre-assessments, flash cards, etc.

If you need a recommendation, CompuCram is a really good program. It has all the bells and whistles, and for your state (CA?) it runs about $59. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.

Good luck!

Congratulations on getting to the next step. I'm getting ready for my exam as well. What has helped me tremendously is a test program called "CompuCram". It has practice tests for dozens of different categories, flash cards for definitions, and it keeps track of your scores so you can see how you are progressing. It costs a bit of money, but it is well worth it in my opinion.