How One Agent Made $125,000 in June from Her Online Marketing

Commentary by Mike Parker

 RISMEDIA, August 6, 2009-There are still many in our profession lamenting the tough conditions today, and-for certain-there are many tough places and tough markets. Statistically, you’d be hard pressed to find a more depressed real estate market than San Bernardino County, California. That’s why CJ VanDerMeulen and her team are more than a ray of hope in that hurting marketplace; they are a true example of how the agent who refuses to “do the same-old, same-old” rises above the market and the economy and succeeds greatly.

 Team CJ are experts on Lake Arrowhead homes for sale. This beautiful lake in the San Bernardino Mountains about an hour from most of Southern California is surrounded by vacation homes of all price ranges, but Team CJ’s average home price is about $250,000. The area has taken a real beating during the last year and a half, and there are many sad stories we could focus on about foreclosures, families suffering, and economic disasters right here. CJ and her team, including husband Bob, daughter Kim and others at her CAPRE Partners real estate office in Lake Arrowhead refused to focus on the bad news, and so do we.

 “In 2008-a horrible year by anyone’s standards-I made over $150, 000,” CJ recently told me. “This year has been better: In June alone I made $125,000 and this will easily end up being my best income year, ever. My former broker is an inspiration: he makes over $1 million annually and I am convinced that I can get there, too.”

 Have you ever noticed that winners never sound like losers or bitter depressed people who have thrown in the towel? Or, that they are always planning to improve? Or, that they are always riding the wave of what works? In CJ’s case, she and her team ride the wave that is online marketing services for Realtors®. This former CEO and four-year Lake Arrowhead Realtor (who wanted to live in beautiful Lake Arrowhead and chose the real estate profession as the way to make that happen) is hard working, humble, yet extremely confident. As she put it: “As a retired CEO, I don’t need a broker to tell me when to work and what to do or what meeting I must attend….I push myself harder than anyone could possibly think to and I do not do well in a structured environment.

 “Our former Lake Arrowhead office was purchased by one of our most successful agents, he makes $1 million per year, and we as a group decided to terminate our franchise. Although having a known name does not hurt, none of us believe that our success had anything to do with the company name and everything to do with us as individuals. Brand name does not guarantee success…ask Circuit City, Country Wide Bank etc. We decided to give clients what they want: Better selection and faster sale of their properties. We had to make the Internet part of that strategy and with our online marketing services company’s help; we have succeeded in doing that.”

 Our strength in being found gives us total success at listing presentations

 “Now, look at my rankings on Goggle and Yahoo….typically I am either right ahead of “Big-Name Brokerage” or just below them. I ask my sellers how long it would take them to find their listing on “The Big Brokerage” website and show them how difficult it is to do so. On mine they are front page. I don’t compete with Big Name unless they are brought up. My comments are: We have half the amount of agents that Big Name has and yet do 50% of the business. We dominate lake-front sales. Your listing will be found on my personal website long before you will be found on Big Name’s and no buyer has ever said to me that they would not go into a house that was not listed by a major brand….they do not care! The seller is hiring me not a company and so are the buyers. I use my online strength to close almost all my listing presentations.”

 “I am the reason to list with CAPRE and the web is the vehicle that gets my clients exposure on the well traveled web. I tell clients that buyers have seen their home on the web long before they come to Lake Arrowhead and pick up a magazine that at time of print is already outdated and obsolete. Buyers have an appointment with me before traveling to Lake Arrowhead and all this via the web and because of my online marketing partner’s work on my behalf.”

 Hold on a minute-what is she doing online?

 In late August of 2008, CJ and Bob subscribed to CompassSearch. They sold their first home from the Internet in early September. That sale completely covered their subscription cost and then some. They had previously dabbled in pay-per-click. “We got some leads, but it was so expensive compared to what we do now that it was a relief to be able to stop buying it,” CJ said. “Not only that, but if you go to any browser and type in “Lake Arrowhead Homes for Sale,” you’ll find us right there on page one of every single major one. We get buyers from MSN, Yahoo, and others, too. Google is most important, but getting there is only step one in succeeding online, and that’s where our online marketing company really earns their money.”

 “When Brian Buckley, our account representative, told us that we would be assigned our own dedicated customer service representative and our own lead generation specialist, we were somewhat skeptical. We were promised that we’d be on page one of the major search engines, that we’d receive regular coaching and training that would improve our lead generation, that we’d never be charged anything additional no matter how many calls we made asking for help or no matter how many classes we attended. For $3,400 annually, it almost sounded too good to be true. Well, we sold a home within a week or two of subscribing, covering that complete cost. We’ve attended the courses held online for clients and Lianne, our CSR, has made a huge difference in our online success. Ninety percent of our leads come from our website, now. They are a better quality than we ever got with pay-per-click. We don’t get the sheer number of leads we did with PPC, but we don’t waste all that time chasing down the bogus ones, either: most of the leads we get from our website are real leads–good quality ones. We sell lots of homes from our Internet leads and we are setting income records in a market where so many are hurting. I believe our professionalism and quality is the biggest reason for our success, but I also believe that CompassSearch enables our success by bring buyers and sellers in the door to us. We began our online strategy around a year ago and it is paying off hugely for us-and most importantly for our assured future success-for our customers.”

 A brief word about the facts of life

 Not everyone can succeed like CJ VanDerMeulen; online marketing will not turn an incompetent salesperson into a star. Online marketing is a full immersion thing: if you won’t follow the advice of your expert service partner, you won’t succeed. If you won’t invest the time and effort to learn how to best follow up an Internet lead, and if you won’t call them back within an hour, you might be like our client who has received more than 80 leads in two months (each with a name, phone and email and many with specific comments as to what the lead wants) and sell nothing. If you won’t take the advice you pay to receive, you won’t succeed. Every online marketing services company has clients who fail, and CompassSearch does, too.

 But if, like CJ VanDerMeulen and her team, you follow advice from experts and use your expertise to sell and list homes, you will succeed. Is your average selling price around $250,000 instead of millions? Horrible market? Bad economy? No matter. Get into online marketing with the right partner and the right network and you will be thinking about your future success-instead of wondering if you’ll be bagging groceries anytime soon.

 About the Author: Mike Parker (mparker@theblackwatercg.com ) specializes in online marketing services for Realtors®. To request a free review of your online marketing and website to determine if it is set up properly to be effective click here and it will be evaluated free.

 Read more: http://rismedia.com/2009-08-05/how-one-agent-made-125000-in-june-from-her-online-marketing/#ixzz0NeGiJeMn

Posted via email from Yellow Door Media