@Eric #42 - It’s not a good way to measure large broker vs small broker (come back Monday to read what I think)

@Jim #43 - thanks for your participation, but please be less spammy with your next comment and drop the second paragraph.

@Holly #44 - you are thinking along the same lines I am. (my next post will address this issue on Monday)

Jim Grapes is a Realtor and represents homebuyers looking for homes for sale in Spokane, Washington. Before his career selling Spokane real estate he served in the US Navy as a Supply Officer on many ships and stations around the globe.

I look at this metric all the time and I have a simple formula (for my simple mind) to evaluate the value of the brand. Every year I look at every transaction and evaluate the source of the business. If the brand causes one transaction per year, and I were to allocate 100% of the earnings for that transaction as having paid all the royalties for the whole year, where would I stand? If the brand brings any additional transaction, my payback on the royalties far exceeds the royalty I pay. So far, over the past 6 years, the ERA brand is responsible for 3-5 transactions per year that we would not have received otherwise. I will say that Linda and I utilize ERA’s unique selling proposition and the tools better than most agents in the system. At the margin, 3-5 transactions per year for us, is a life changing number and ample reason to stay the course. That being said, we have always maintained our CRM system apart from the in house tools, and we always strive to be top producing agents in our little shop. Good for us, good for the broker.

Now from what I understand, Localism is being designed to really focus down on the local communities. I too am concerned how restaurant reviews and the such are going to drive buyers and sellers who are ready, willing and able to purchase or sell now. BUT….in real estate, everybody is a potential buyer, seller, renter, at some point. So I guess even if they are driven to Localism by “Joe’s Pool Hall’s 8 Ball Tournament” they may see something or someone they like and come back when they are ready to buy, sell or rent.

My biggest concern, that I touched on earlier, is how the editor(s) are going to pick and choose what articles are relevant for Localism. Will they realize that a post I write about dealing with a short sale is actually information that a Seller will be interested in? Or will they be more interested in listings, market reports, community news etc.? Those things, with the exception of market reports, have no value to a potential seller. Sellers want to know what I do and how I do it. They’re not interested in listings in the least bit.

Now having said all of that. I have been a member on AR since the beginning. There were only about 600 members when I joined. The AR guys have built trust with me. I have seen how they listen and make changes when warranted. They are excellent at taking AR where it needs to go and I have no doubt that they will do the same for Localism.

Realty Executives was founded by agents for agents. Each one of us pays a share of the office overhead and in exchange gets to keep 100% of our commissions.

I believe we all pay 10 bucks a month for some sort of national advertising program. Personally I would rather have the 10 bucks to take to happy hour but it’s not a life changing sum each month like some franchise fees are.

We’re all free to operate our business as we see fit.

We don’t have sales meetings, up desks, or any that traditional stuff.

I like my current setup and I wouldn’t change unless someone had something better and I can’t imagine what that would be

I’ve tried posting on a few “events” and they have pretty much bombed in terms of the overall number of reads.

We now focus on local real estate and often discuss provincial and national real estate stories. We also post on economic stories (job growth, wage growth, migration, etc.) but they are pretty much always tied to the real estate market in some way. People who are interested in the economy are usually interested in the real estate market and we’re happy to have them around, even if they’re not in the market right now.

I do think that there is probably some good potential in covering “neighborhoods” and “what’s available in this community” but I can see it being terribly time consuming.

You know I follow the tutelage of Mary McKnight and one of the things she always says is to keep your local posts about real estate..NOT about current events and such. Point being we don’t want to be ansering questions about what time the parade starts.

In as far as hyperlocal blogging, what’s everybody think? Should the current events be involved or should it be just about real estate.

My feeling is I want to attract buyers, that’s my demo…If I post about the girl scout troop brownie drive is the buyer going to matter?

Interesting conundrum. I once wrote about a restaurant that has all you can eat crab legs and I get a lot of traffic for people searching all you can eat crab legs but they don’t search properties or look to buy…they just want the restaurant info.

So why is localism pushing the whole community thing when it really does not do anything for real estate..or so it seems.

What do you guys think? (Notice the inquisitive, non-accusatory, really want to know something positioning of this comment ..:)

Barry, The magazine comparison is spot on. In my opinion, a blog needs to have an over all theme if you want folks to come back. I have read some folks who are very good writers but their articles are all over board. I want to know what to expect when I click on. I also agree that many bloggers on AR are using it to talk amongst themselves, including me, on occassion. My goal on AR has always been to help my peers in their business. That’s what I enjoy doing. BUT….most of my posts are geared towards my peers AND the consumer. Even my posts about “justifying our commission” are kept public for a reason. I want the consumer to see how I interact with my peers while at the same time seeing how I conduct my business.

@Franchises- I think it boils down to what works for you…One thing that helps our agents in our brokerage (RE/MAX) is that the name still carries a national wallop. How do I know?

I rank #1 for most of the major terms in Louisville (city real estate, city homes, city homes for sale, city remax etc…etc..)

city remax is our second most popular search term and city st remax is #7…so basically we are eating other peoples’ lunch with the search engines and that brings us buyers.

That having been said, I do understand the trend to BRAND YOURSELF and go it out there as a broker. I think that may in fact be because many of the franchises are not offering as much as they could to their brokers and agents…

IMO, blog content , like that of a magazine, needs to be tailored towards your expected audience. Those who read Sports Illustrated may not necessarily be the same who read Good Housekeeping.

A good blogger has to know or at a minimum needs to try and learn who their audience is. What I find too often on AR is that too many of the bloggers there feel their audience is each other. I had one AR blogger email me and was ticked off to the point of anger becasue she said we did not know that AR was for networking with each other. When I told her she wasn’t my audience, she freaked.

I remember that happening here to a small degree as well. I take great care in crafting the posts on our real estate blog to laser target those clientele that I am seeking to reach.

Rich Great Post, and I will point out that AR, by virtue of being home to a huge group of people experimenting with Blogs has to have more bad ones then any other single place - and since many of the really good ones seem to go on to wordpress or typepad blogs, its impossible to really know the extent of the positive impact AR has had on this part of the industry, but there should be no question that it has been substantial.