Karen Goodman blogs at RealEstateInfoStl.com
1) How long have you been blogging? What got you started?
Last July I switched real estate brokers from one that provided me with
all of my clients to a traditional real estate brokerage. With the
change, I knew it would be necessary for me to start marketing my
services to build my business. I wanted to do more than simply send out
announcements to my sphere of influence, and I had no desire to knock
on doors of FSBO sellers trying to convince them to work with me. From
the start, I knew I would need to set up a website. I honestly had no
idea what a blog was and how it could be used to market my services. I
had heard the term thrown around on TV newscasts, but had never read
one.
My website provider, Point 2, includes a blog that is integrated into
the website. As I learned more about blogs, I knew that it was a
perfect fit for me. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and helping people
learn about their options is important to me. I knew that writing a
blog would be a perfect opportunity to provide information to my
clients and potential clients, and to show them how I do business. I
launched my website in November, and wrote my first blog post a couple
of weeks later.
2) Do you get many leads from what you write?
I don’t have any hard numbers on how many of my clients have come from
the blog yet. I do know that several clients have commented that they
spent some time on my website and blog before they decided to use me,
and that they were impressed with what they found there. Three of my
recent home buyers found me after seeing an online ad for one of my
listings, then clicking through to my website and spending some time
there. All of them were relocating to St. Louis, and relied on the
internet to help them choose an agent.
3) What do you try to focus on? Do you write for business, or do you write because it's enjoyable?
My blog is definitely a business blog, and I’m writing it to build my
real estate business. My goal is to provide a resource for my clients
and for potential clients. I’m trying to reach the people I meet
through my other marketing efforts and those referred to me from
friends and former clients. I want to have a place that these people
can read up on real estate issues and learn about how I do business. I
hope that if they are on the fence about making a decision on who to
use for a buyer’s agent, they’ll read my posts and decide to give me a
shot.
For now, I’m not really trying to capture all the search engine
traffic. As much as I’d love to have tons of people reading my blog, I
know that my focus on real estate issues and St. Louis market
conditions will have limited appeal. But I will admit that it is fun to
check out the search terms that people are using to find my site, and
to discover that I’m number one on Yahoo’s search for ‘st louis homes for sale’.
Oh, and I do love writing. I’ve never really had an outlet before for my writing so it’s been a lot of fun.
4) What lessons have you learned from blogging?
The biggest impact blogging has had is that I am much more aware of
local market conditions. You just can’t write to a real estate blog
unless you are on top of what is happening in the market. I’ve spent a
lot of time looking at data and trends. Most agents go on their
instincts, and instincts are good, but it isn’t the same as having data
to confirm your impressions. I even wrote a post about how blogging has
made me a better agent.
And, I am working on being less wordy. I tend to get a bit long winded.
5) Any local blogs that you read that you would share with our readers?
I read a lot of national real estate blogs, but do have a few local blogs that are in my reader.
St. Louis Daily Photo Blog - (probably my favorite)
Lofts in the ‘Lou -
St. Louis Real Estate Investment & Development -
St. Louis Business Journal -
Undercurrent -
And of course, http://www.brandstorming.com.
6) Why should someone looking for a real estate agent use Karen Goodman instead of another agent?
There are a lot of great real estate agents out there, and I’m not
going to say that I’m better than all of them. One thing that sets me
apart from many agents is my belief that I should approach every client
as if they were family. Sometimes that means telling a client that they
could do better and they should keep looking, even if it means I don’t
make a sale now and end up showing them another 50 houses. Sometimes it
means encouraging a buyer to terminate a contract when we find a
serious problem on the building inspection. Other times it means that I
need to gently help a client understand that they are being unrealistic
in the pricing of their home for sale.
My clients get an agent that is not only knowledgeable about market
conditions and how to prevent contract problems, but also one that
really wants their best interests to prevail. Regardless of whether
they are spending $100,000 or $1 million, or if they are selling in an
upscale community or a small condo, I’ll treat each client as if I was
helping my best friend.
7) What is the single biggest mistake home sellers make?
So many home sellers think that they can try for an aggressive price
for a while, and they can drop their price later if need be. That might
work in a seller’s market, but not in today’s market. The problem with
that approach is that the vast majority of agent MLS listing hits occur
in the first week on the market. In fact, the highest number of hits
occur on day 0…the day it hits the market. Once an agent writes off a
house as being overpriced, they rarely come back to take another look.
A seller that starts out overpriced will end up missing the best shot
at getting an offer that is reasonable. When they later drop their
price, they’ll get a few agents to come back for another look. But any
offers that come in will almost always be lowball offers. In the end,
they’ll be worse off than if they had just started off with a fair
price.
