Do You Have Time to Lose an Hour This Weekend?

It's that time of year....time to set the clock back an hour because it is Daylight Saving Time again.  If you don't remember to reset your clocks you'll be lose a precious hour all day long on Sunday.  Before you go to bed tonight change your clocks so that you won't be late all day tomorrow!!

YAY! It's Tax Day....Seriously?

By now you’ve probably completed your tax return and have it ready to mail. Your tax return can force you to take a look at the big picture.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself today:

•  Are you happy with your net income from last year? 
• Does your net income make you wonder why you worked so hard for so little?
• What was your total employee payroll tax for the year?
• Do you wonder where all of the office supplies are that you had to expense out?

If the answers to the above questions make you think twice about your business practices then let me help you!

Did you know when working with a virtual assistant you DO NOT PAY for insurance, employee taxes, worker’s compensation fees, social security and medicare tax, federal unemployment tax, work-related training, office supplies, plus more.  Because virtual assistants work as independent contractors you can deduct the amount you pay them if over $600 for the year.  It can add up to a substantial savings for you! Details  can be found in the IRS Business Expenses publication   http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf .

The bottom line – work smarter not harder in 2011.  Contact me today and find out how to go back to selling real estate and quit paying unnecessary taxes.

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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996. Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success? Contact Jeri today.

Don't Forget Your Clients!

It's important that your clients, customers, past clients and sphere of influence know that you are thinking of them and thankful for their business especially during this extremely busy time of the year.  It is easy to send them an email or postcard with a simple holiday greeting.  If you need help with this then call me - it's my specialty to make your "business partners" feel special at all times.

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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996. Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success? Contact Jeri today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996. Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success? Contact Jeri today.

Don't Forget to Thank Your Clients & Prospects

Your clients, prospects and sphere are the roots of your business.  Take advantage of this special holiday to thank them for their business.

Need help with this? Contact me today to find out how we can turn this special holiday into a great prospecting opportunity for you.
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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996. Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success? Contact Jeri today.

Are You Falling Back for Prospecting?

Have you remembered to take advantage of
this week's prospecting event?

It is time to "FALL BACK" an hour as Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday morning, November 7th at 2 AM.  This is a wonderful opportunity to touch base with your past clients, your sphere of influence, your farm area and any other contacts you need to keep in touch with.  

Need help with this?  Contact me today to find out how I can turn this annual fall event into a great prospecting opportunity for you.

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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996.  Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success?  Contact Jeri today.

It is Time to Fall Into Prospecting

Fall is here for many of us and that gives us yet another opportunity to contact our clients, our sphere of influence, our farm area or our prospects.  There are so many ways to keep in touch with people.  One effective way is to remind everyone that certain things need to be done as the seasons change.  Fall is a great time to send out a reminder on ways to prepare their homes for the winter ahead.  Use a checklist to open a dialogue with your prospects as they may call you for recommendations for a chimney sweep, someone to check their heating system or someone that can clean their gutters.  Use the time wisely to find out if they are happy with their current home situation and don’t forget to ask if they have family, friends or coworkers  that need a new home as well!

If you need a checklist, or a few ideas, then click the image to download my checklist.  If you need a more customized list for your specific area then contact me and I’ll create a list that is unique to your area.

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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996.  Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success?  Contact Jeri today.

ESSENTIAL CONTENT

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve been involved in a research project which had me viewing hundreds of real estate websites. I’m compelled to write this article based on what I saw while conducting my research. Although I didn’t keep track of the following results in a scientific manner you can get a rough idea of the problems I saw.

• Lack of relevant key words – 80% (ie: name of the town, area or major employer, the term relocation, relocate or moving to…)
• Lack of phone number on home page – 40%  (I was surprised by the number of sites that actually “hide” their phone number deep inside their site, usually on their contact page)
• Lack of office location – 50% (If I am not from your area how can I locate your office?) 
• Lack of how you can benefit the customer and/or client – 30% (I was surprised to see websites still dedicated to the attributes of the agent, the agent’s family, the agent’s hobbies, the agent’s pets, even the agent’s grandchildren. I think Facebook and LinkedIn are the proper venues for this-but more on this in another article) 
• Lack of sophisticated, dynamic, interactive websites – 65% (This observation really startled me. With all of the inexpensive template website companies today it is a shame that an agent would have a website that looks like it was designed in 1970.)

Now, why should I be bothered about these statistics? Look at today's economy. It is bad for many real estate agents and these agents are wondering how they can survive. If you are in this category then take a look at your online presence. You aren’t still in the last century are you? You can get virtually left behind if you don’t keep up!

Take a good look at your website and the content. Are you offering anything valuable to a visitor? What do your visitors consider valuable? Do you really know what your website visitors are looking for? Do you really have an idea how people search and find what they are looking for?  You’ve got to know! You aren’t spending the money on a website just to give a visitor something to fill up a few minutes of their free time, are you? No!! The ultimate goal is to generate business!

What do you need to generate business? You need a visitor that is informed about the services you offer or specialize in and is compelled to take action and contact you. This also means you need the visitor to know how to contact you. Your phone number and address needs to be in a prominent position, above the fold, on every page. Don’t make your visitors search! They didn’t come to your page to play hide and seek!

Speaking of hide and seek, can the right people find your site? If you want to attract a specific niche market then your site needs to be optimized to attract those customers you desire. If the largest employer in your area relocates a lot of executives on a regular basis and that is your desired market then make sure your site reflects that. Don’t have a site that is so general that no one can locate you when they are searching for real estate information in your area.

What you want for your website is essential content! You want content that is necessary to the visitors and that in turn will generate business for you.  If you need a website review please contact me and I'll give your site an unbiased opinion and let you know if your site is meeting the needs of your intended target. 

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Jeri Winkler, The Secret Assistant, has been working in real estate since 1996. Do you need assistance in becoming the success you know you can be or help maintaining your current success? Contact Jeri today.

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