Public Relations for Your Brokerage (Part 2 of 2)

Hopefully you joined us for our first installment of two Public Relations posts. We taught you what public relations is and why to use it. And now we'll show you HOW to develop a complete public relations campaign from start to finish.

Develop Your Media List 

• Research all of the newspapers, magazines, television and radio programs in your area. 
• Then find the name of the beat reporter for real estate in that publication (or the main editor if they don't have a real estate specific reporter).
• Now it's your turn to become the journalist! Call the publication/news outlet or use Google to find the phone and email address of each contact.

Write Your Press Release

• Using Associated Press Style, write a press release about your newsworthy event.
• Be sure to use a lead sentence which provides top-down information (all the important who, what, when, where, why in one sentence).
• Keep it brief and succinct.
• Use a bold and captivating headline.

Do Your Research

• Go to your selected news outlets' websites and determine if they have editorial calendars. If they do, see if they have a real estate issue or small business issue and record all subjects that relate to your news.
• Find out how the news outlet prefers to be contacted - phone/email/fax.
• Find similar stories in their publication and reference them in the next step, "Send Your Pitches".

Send Your Pitches

• Send an email to the contact you found, using their preference of communication and in a few short sentences explain to them why your news would be a good fit for their publication.
• Reference the section that your story would be a good fit for or list a similar story you found in the last step and mention how your news is similar and therefor appropriate.
• Attach the press release, provide your contact information and offer to send high resolution photography.

Follow Up Calls

• The last step is to make follow up calls to your contacts you send pitches to the day after or a few days after.
• Simply make sure they received your press release and see what you can do to help them with the story.

The last step will be to check in with those publications to see if they run your story. Best of luck in your public relations efforts and we hope to see you in the news soon!

How Might the United States Federal Shutdown Impact Your Business?

Executives within the United States; we want to hear from you. Since Congress has not agreed upon a Continuing Resolution, several programs, including some that include federal housing and mortgage programs, have been suspended or slowed down due to the delay in government funding. Tell us, how is this change impacting your business?

Public Relations for Your Brokerage or Business (Part 1 of 2)

Today we're starting a miniseries about what public relations is, why to use it for your business and how to make it work for you. Let's not waste anytime and get right to it...

You probably hear the term "public relations" getting thrown around the office, but what is it really? Is it marketing? Is it advertising? The answer is neither! Public relations is...

• Reputation management
• Not marketing or advertising
• Communicating your business's news to the media 
• Managing media relationships to accurately reflect a positive image of your brand in print (and now online)
• And the good news? With Realty Executives, your public relations efforts as a Broker/Owner can be absolutely FREE! We offer GrassRoots PR, a wonderful public relations tool which makes developing public relations campaigns as simple and user-friendly as possible

Now you know what public relations is but the next question is why do it?

• It communicates your expertise to a mass audience
• You will reap internal benefits as well as external benefits when you share press releases both in your office and with the media
• You can develop extensive public relations campaigns for very little (to no) money
• It creates credibility en masse
• Positions your company as experts in a series of fields

We hope you'll stay tuned for our next post on HOW to conduct your very own public relations campaign!

How Important is Privacy in the Home?

USA Today featured a story this morning about a New York City photographer whose latest work features the objects of his eavesdropping. The artist used a telephoto lense to zoom in on unsuspecting apartment dwellers who live in an upscale Manhattan apartment with a lot of windows.

The subjects are outraged at the lack of privacy, some are even suing (even though none of their faces are shown in the images).

This brought up a question for us from the real estate perspective. How important is privacy to your buyers? Living room layouts, number of bedrooms, square feet and which neighborhood, these are all a given in a real estate agent's conversation with a client, but what about privacy?

This may be a good factor to add to the initial conversation with a buyer. What role does privacy play in your home search? Would you like windows to only face areas not seen by any passerby, is it worth it if the view is spectacular? Be sure to have this discussion to determine the most ideal (and safe) setup for your client.

Click here to read the entire article.

*Photo via USAToday.com

Housing Increases Equal More Jobs

There's good news out there for some of the Western real estate markets. Three cities that are posting the strongest housing price growth are Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas which have increased 20 percent or more, year-over-year, according to RealtorMag.com.

At the same time, those three markets are also experiencing more job growth than the national average. Now the question remains, are these real estate markets improving BECAUSE of more job growth? Or is the job growth coming as the result of improved housing prices. Either way, this is positive news for the three major cities.

Here's the breakdown of job growth according to RealtorMag.com:
Phoenix - 2.4 percent
Las Vegas - 2 percent
San Francisco - 3.6 percent

Go to www.RealtyExecutives.com to check out the inventory of houses in these markets.

Homes Selling Fast in the Wild Wild West

The west is making incredible progress in the real estate industry. As it turns out, it's the fastest real estate market there is right now.

According to RealtorMag.com, below are the five fastest selling markets...

Orange County, California

• Average days on the market: 15
• Homes that sell in seven or less days: 29 percent
• Average home price increase: 27 percent to $495,000

San Diego, California

• Average days on the market: 20
• Homes that sell in seven or less days: 25 percent
• Average home price increase: 22 percent to $390,000

Sacramento, California

• Average days on the market: 12
• Homes that sell in seven or less days: 30 percent
• Average home price increase: 31 percent to $210,000

Los Angeles, California

• Average days on the market: 15
• Homes that sell in seven or less days: 29 percent
• Average home price increase: 26 percent to $307,564

Las Vegas, Nevada

• Average days on the market: 12
• Homes that sell in seven or less days: 30 percent
• Average home price increase: 35 percent to $148,500

We can't help but note that all but one of these cities exist in California. And we're also proud to mention that we have a Realty Executives office in each of these major areas. We hope to see continued improvement in California and around the United States.

Click here to read the full story.

Unique Ways to Market Your Real Estate Business

Are you getting tired of marketing your business with typical door hangers and mail flyers? A hip young real estate agent in San Francisco took to the bar scene to reach out to potential consumers, according to Inman News.

The inspired entrepreneur had beer coasters designed with his information and distributed them to the most popular bars in the area. The establishments were happy to accept the free supplies, and for just the cost of the coasters and printing, the young agent was excited to have the additional exposure.

It makes us think, there are so many untapped places that real estate agents in today's market can reach out to. The real estate agent in the article recommended branded urinal cakes... Now that may be to far but we encourage you, next time you step out of your home, to look at the world from a different perspective. From your travels to the office, to lunch or to the grocery, what interactions with day-to-day life offer you the opportunity for branded exposure in your community?

Accept the challenge, and let us know where you make your mark!

Click here to read the rest of the article.

*Photo via InmanNews.com.