Who's looking for you?

Everyday I get phone calls from agents that ask a wide range of questions. Some of them are easy for me to answer, some I have to do some research, and others I have to refer to someone who knows more than me about the subject. Well today I get to ask a couple of questions to you....

(1) Have you ever wondered who is viewing your profile pages? (2) Ever wonder how many people really want to know more about you and your ability to sell real estate? (3) Are you doing anything to set yourself apart from other agents?

Here are the answers that you might have thought in your mind (Not really, Nope, What are you talking about), respectively of course. The answers that you should be thinking are: (1) Heck yeah, but how do I get that info, (2) Yes, but how, and (3) I sure want to.

Perfect, now I can work with that. So here are the numbers...Last month on CBTulsa.com over 48,800 profile pages were looked at, so far this month the number is over 42,000 and we still have 2 weeks to go. Year-to-date there have been over 130,000 profile pages viewed on CBTulsa.com. Those are real numbers and they are really big.

My recommendation is to go to CBTulsa.com and go to your profile page. Do you like it? Does it tell the world what you want them to know about you and your real estate expertise? Now, go look at some other profile pages. I know, I know, but humor me, it really only takes a few minutes. Notice any differences, any SIMILARITIES to yours? The good news is you can change what you see, if you want through IQOffice. Simply login and go to "User Management", then "My Profile" on the bottom of the left menu. There will be a box that you can type in and change what you want it to say to show on your profile page. You can modify the color, size, and layout with the tools provided.

Take the positives from the profile pages you've seen and incorporate them into yours. Tell Your Story. Impress me by sending me an email with the link to it for feedback.

Good Luck and Go Get 'em!

Open Houses - It's Springtime!

Oooooooooo K L A H O M A where the rain comes at any given time. Where the clouds roll in... and keeps the sun from shinin... and the buyers stay warm cuz their inside.

Not bad if you know the tune, but now it's SPRINGTIME in Oklahoma. With Spring means OPEN HOUSES and we try to do a bang up job at Coldwell Banker Select. It is important to make sure that you enter in your Open Houses into IQOffice. You may be wondering why....well, here's why:

1. Your open houses will show up on CBTulsa.com and CBOKC.com.


2. We use this information for our Open House ads in the newspaper.


3. The open house information will be sent to ColdwellBanker.com and OpenHouse.com


4. Your open house can be searched and mapped on the mobile website.


5. The HomeFacts message will announce when the open house will be.

And... it happens automatically as long as you enter the information into IQOffice. Even if you miss the newspaper deadline, all the other things happen. Now that's efficient. So, the weather outside is nicer, warmer and maybe a little more predictable (OK, maybe not). The buyers are definitely out and more active. So it's time to start holding homes open to get more contracts. Remember, the things that you do today to generate activity will lead to closings in the future. If you do nothing today then..... well, we won't let that happen.

Mapping Your Property on CB Select Websites

Have you ever been camping and gone on a hike only to realize that 30 minutes along your trek, you don't have a clue where you are? Boy can that be unnerving. Thank goodness for the trusty Boy Scout compass, or better yet, one of those cool GPS units with the color topography maps and satellite tracking. Oh Yeah!

When it comes to mapping your properties on real estate websites, sometimes you get the feeling of being lost, and so does the public. Not anymore on CBTulsa.com or CBOKC.com As the listing agent, you can access the map loaction of your listing, through IQOffice, and set the actual location of your listing on the map so that it shows on CBTulsa.com and CBOKC.com correctly. Gotta love technology.

Here's what you do.

1. Login to IQOffice
2. Go to "Listings Management", "For Sale", then "Residential".
3. Click on the listing you want to change the map location of.
4. Click on the "Map" tab across the top.
5. Use the map to zoom in/out to find the correct location.
6. "Right Click" on the map where you want the new location to be. When you do this, the push pin will show up in the new location.
7. Click Save at the bottom of the screen.
8. Go have lunch, you've worked hard for the day.

Hope this helps. Remember, most of the time, the location will be correct. It really only comes into play if it is a new subdivision, vacant land, or a rural property.

Coldwell Banker Business Advantage Program

Did you know that I can save you 17% on your AT&T wireless bill? How about 20% off of Sprint or 16% from Verizon? Well, it's not really me....

Coldwell Banker has a "Business Advantage Program" that allows agents to save money with certain service providers. I've had a number of questions lately about how to sign up for these savings, soooooo...

Here is the info you need.

AT&T Wireless - 17% off on wireless rate plans, including the iPhone, and upto 45% off on voice/data equipment. Foundation account number is 75862 (this is the number you need to give the AT&T guy.

SPRINT - Besides Sprint's 20% off and Nextel's 15% off your monthly rate plan - recieve flat rate pricing off eligible devices like the TREO 755P or BlackBerry 8703e.

Nextel Corp ID: NREAL_CWB_ZZZ

SPRINT Root ID: 0618844865

Verizon - 16% off monthly voice access plans and 25% off eligible accessories. Click Here to sign up for the discounts.

Just trying to help out in being smarter with how we do business.

Profile Page on ColdwellBanker.com

Did you know that you can have a profile page on ColdwellBanker.com? Yep, that's right. For right now, Coldwell Banker has opened up their profile pages through CBWorks so our agents can create profile pages. Pretty nice of them, I'd say.


Here's what you do. Go to http://cbworks.coldwellbanker.com/ and login. If you don't know what your login is, then you follow these steps. On the CBWorks login page, it will say "First Time Users, Click here for Access". CLICK THERE. It will ask you for your email address. This will be your company email address. The CBWorks system will then email you your password for the system. Follow the steps in the email to get logged in to the system.


Once you get logged into CBWorks, you will see your name on the left. Click on your name, this will take you to the ColdwellBanker.com/secure site where you enter your profile information. On the left hand side, click on "Profile" and then on "Edit Profile".


There are some requirements that you have to have in your profile in order for it to show up. (1) You must click on "Media" and upload your photo. (2) You must have 4 bullet points combined about you in "General", "Credentials", or "Qualifications" area. The rest you can put in what you want. If there is any information that is wrong that you can't change, send Linda Morrison an email at lmorrison@cbtulsa.com (She's going to love me for that one).

Once your profile is setup, it takes about 24hours to be active on the site. Check back the next day and let me know if you have any issues.

HomeFacts Messages

When I think about the things that I am REALLY good at, a few things come to mind. Of course, I am the only one that thinks I am really good at some of those things (well maybe I have my wife convinced on a few of them). For example, I used to be a snow ski racer in middle school and high school. When I talk to someone about skiing and they interkect their opinion, I listen intently to see if what they say makes sense. I also try to get some sort of "qualifier" from them about their level of experience. You see, I still learn a lot about skiing from people who are REALLY good at it, but no so much from those that aren't. Pretty simple concept huh?

So, who knows more about selling your listings? The Seller? Their Friends and/or Family? OR YOU, their Professional REALTOR? That's right, it's YOU! You know what is going on in the market (we help with that one), what tools are available and that work, who and where to market properties and what to say and do to properly market a property. Coldwell Banker Select helps with a lot of this with the best tools and marketing in the business, but it is still up to YOU to absorb the information about the market that we share, learn something everyday about how to better yourself and skills, implement the tools that are available to you, and execute your plan for marketing your listings.

One of the cool things you can do is record your own message on our HomeFacts system for each of your properties. This is not only a place to give out some basic information about your listing, but have you thought about promoting yourself, your website (possibly your Mobile site - see previous post), your other listings that may be similar, etc... Get creative with it. When someone calls, you have a "Captured" audience (literally). Get your message across and give them some sort of action item.

If you come up with a great message, send me an email at bsheppard@cbtulsa.com with the HomeFacts number so I can check it out. Who knows, I may even go to your website, if you promote it.

Mobile Websites just for YOU!

Did you know that when you subscribe to HomeFacts you get a personalized website that has a full MLS search? Did you know that every listing that is pulled up on your website shows YOU as the contact agent? That's right, it looks like you have 6,659 listings that are ALL YOURS!

Even cooler than that is the Mobile website that you get. It's the same website address, for me it's http://bsheppard.cbtulsa.com/. Yours will be different, but if you type this in the address bar of your computer, it will pull up your personalized website. If you type this in the address bar of your smartphone, it will automatically pull up your Mobile website. Try it, it's pretty cool.

Your Mobile site allows you or anyone to pull up a property by entering in the MLS#, HomeFacts #, or even the street address and it will pull up that property. This works great if you are out showing properties and drive by a home for sale that wasn't on your list. You can pull it up by typing in the property address and look and all the information and photos. If you really want to maximize your Mobile site, then give the site address to your buyers and they can drive around and look up homes they like by the address and get all the information, even photos, without calling another company's listing agent. Now that's REALLY cool.

If you don't subscribe to HomeFacts and want to be able to use a Mobile site, go to http://www.cbtulsa.com/ on your phone and give that a whirl. Once you're hooked, it's addictive.

Side Note: I use the http://www.cbtulsa.com/ mobile site to look up the contact information for another agent in our company. My iPhone allows me to pull up the person quickly, tap on their phone number and PRESTO, I get to talk to them.