REBarCamp Las Vegas 2012 Video Recap

This weekend I made my way out to “Sin City” to attend REBarCamp Las Vegas 2012 with good friends and mortgage brokers Scott Schang and Mark Madsen.

It was a slightly smaller group than previous REBarCamps I’ve attended, but we all agreed that some of the best discussions are had that way and that was certainly the case this time around.

Here’s a little photo/video fun recap from the day:

(If you can’t see the video, click here).

Note: I uploaded the individual photos on Flickr here.

Some of my favorites takeaways were…

• Great, professional looking design matters in real estate. If you can’t afford a full custom design solution at the moment, that’s ok. You can still do a lot with a professional theme solution (for example: AgentPress).
• When you’re shopping for an IDX, make sure it’s indexable. This way, you’re listings appear in search results.
• Put yourself in your customers shoes and write about things that are of interest to them. What are they looking to learn about the community? How can you organize the content on your site to provide the best possible search experience while answering all of their questions?
• Provided a great home search experience is about more than just slapping an IDX on your website and calling it a day. You need to organize your IDX listings and neighborhood content in a way that makes it easier and easier for site visitors to click and find what they’re looking for. Look at ShelterRealty.com and WeSellSarasota.com for great examples of IDX integration and deep-linking neighborhood pages.
• You’re serving two types of customers: those that are in the market to buy now, and those that are simply browsing but saving to buy later. You need strong Calls To Action to close on the first customer and a solid follow-up strategy to remain top of mind and close on the second customer.
• Email marketing is the single most important thing agents need to do more of to effectively follow up with new IDX leads.
• Don’t be afraid to specialize.  Focusing the subject matter of your online content to the granular level of communities, cities and even neighborhoods delivers a more valuable experience for the consumer and a higher quality lead prospect for the Agent. (via Scott Schang).
• Provide visitors to your site with multiple options for engaging with your and “opting in” to receive follow up information.  Lending ‘calls to action’ such as Find Buyer Assistance, Home Loan Approval, How Much do I Qualify For? provide valuable opportunities to generate leads from home buyers. (via Scott Schang)
• Community content, not related to real estate, is a great way to build an email marketing list for visitors to your site that are interested in local businesses, events and activities, places to eat or play and local causes and charities.  These visitors, once on your site, these visitors will often look up homes for sale, home values and local market conditions. (via Scott Schang)