As the economy and real estate market becomes ever-so challenging for real estate agents/brokers; finding desirous sellers is of no challenge, but finding committed and ready Buyers is of more importance right now to many RE professionals.

Buyers Who'd Like To...

There are Buyers (especially in my social circle) who want to buy the next dream home as some have the perspective that the "Get'ns Are Good" given drastic price reductions by Sellers. However, (a) what to do with their current home and (b) general unease in the ecomony...creates a Buyer Who'd Like To... where dialogue with such Buyers may consume your time and energies.

Buyers Who Have To...

Given current economic conditions, there are consumers who are relocating given career changes or relocation within their respective companies. These are Buyers Who Have To.

These are "Buyers of Circumstance"...the ones who will do their best to offload and take a loss or rent their current home...who will find 10% down (doing whatever it takes) to go with a conventional and immediate loan for the next home. They are the ones who will make sacrafices because they "must" move and feel they "must" buy. How do you find them?

Get Out There and Network

We see today with Web 2.0, real estate professionals connecting with other real estate professionals across town and across state lines. Good, as you may get "leads" of consumers relocating to your area...but let's expand the efforts.

(a) Major Local Businesses - get a list of whose in your area...

(b) HeadHunter / Placement Firms - get a list of who services your area...

(c) Military, Government Facilities - get a list of whose in your area

(d) Network with HR Professionals - Given (a), (b), (c) expand your social network with those who are in-the-know of those "moving into town". Get relationships established on a first name basis...because they can refer you to these professionals in-need of a new residence in your area.

Sites like LinkedIn can be considered an expansive "yellow pages" of such professionals, finding by keyword search like "Human Resource", by Company search, etc.

We need to expand establishing relationships within this Web 2.0 era to go beyond just those in your field...but connecting those who ride alongside (and are in close contact) with consumers you'd want to know, and conversely, for consumers to be given a personal referral, recommendation about you.

Team Double-Click® recently launched their answer to the increasing challenges of working in corporate America: the Licensed Virtual Assistant program. A Team Double-Click® Licensed Virtual Assistant is an individual who wishes to build their client base, backed by Team Double-Click’s® recognized branding and stellar reputation.

With this ground-breaking program, virtual assistants pay a flat monthly fee to be licensed by Team Double-Click®. Licensing will allow virtual assistants to use the Team Double-Click® name, brand, logo, and marketing messages to obtain their own clients rather than wait for Team Double-Click® to find clients for them. In growing their virtual assistant business, a Licensed Virtual Assistant will have the ability to perform the work themselves or to earn additional income by placing clients with Team Double-Click's® highly trained support-level virtual assistants.

I had a chance to talk to Gayle recently. The following are a few insightful excerpts from our conversation - click here for the complete interview.

Many individuals are interested in working from home, but don’t believe they can make the kind of income they make in corporate America. Why was it so important to create the Licensed Virtual Assistant program and do you believe it can be a long-term solution to the growing concerns we have with the current state of our economy?

We created the Licensed Virtual Assistant program as a viable alternative to the corporate job where individuals literally have the opportunity to make over $100k a year. The amount of money that they generate with this opportunity is completely up to them. A good analogy is to look at the Licensed Virtual Assistant program as similar to how Real Estate Agents pay a “desk fee” to build their business utilizing the reputation of the brokerage company that they work with.

In reading some of the articles that you have wrote, you have mentioned numerous times your concern for the environment. Why do you feel so strongly about this topic and how can virtual staffing help the global concerns we are all facing?

Team Double-Click® created the Licensed Virtual Assistant program as an option to grow a home-based business, in part to help the environment. Team Double-Click® believes that we all need to do our part to help the environment and those facing the daily challenges of working outside the home with the current economic landscape. We want to help as many individuals to be able to work from home and be there for their families.

Can you share why you believe that it is imperative that companies consider finding staffing solutions through a virtual channel, like Team Double-Click®?

The business landscape is ever-changing and the cost to fill a corporate position continues to rise. The average cost of an employee can be as much as 2 1/2 times their salary and includes social security, vacation/sick time, health insurance, worker’s compensation and Medicare. When hiring virtual assistants, companies do not have the costs involved with regular employees and can save thousands of dollars a year.

What are the benefits for companies to work with Team Double-Click® for their staffing needs?

With Team Double-Click®, the companies’ needs are assessed and based upon their requirements; they are matched with a highly-skilled and trained virtual assistant. Our virtual assistants use the most advanced means of communication, and the newest, most efficient and time-saving office products and work delivery, without any geographic boundaries.

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Thanks Jim and Gayle, and all the best!

In recent years there has been a big push to learn how to better and more efficiently obtain leads. Volumes of literature have been written and a myriad of software and social techniques invented. After so much effort has been exhausted to generate these leads, eventually folks realized that transforming suspects into prospects is as difficult as finding them, if not more so.

So how DO you get people off the phone and email, and through your door? One thing you must constantly be aware of is your responsiveness to your prospect's requests. Most first time home buyers are Generation Xers, 20s and 30s-somethings brought up by the "www" - a virtually immediate gratification device. There's no more waiting for the morning news, traffic, or weather reports - it's all there when they want it, at the click of a button.

Moreover, in a recent California Association of Realtors (CAR) publication entitled "Internet versus Traditional Buyer Study", 63% of traditional home buyers felt agent responsiveness to be either an "extremely important" or "very important" aspect in selecting the right RE professional. These numbers climb even higher - up to 83% - when polling internet home buyers.

To keep up with what consumers are expecting, agents are going to have to continue to decrease their response time, and mobile technologies is their vehicle. With almost any standard PDA, an agent can use the mobile technologies available to boost his or her availability to nearly 100%. These technologies take you to the next level, from answering phone calls, responding to agent or single property website inquiries, or even browsing the MLS.

Those agents who are successful know a quick response time is part of the complex recipe to winning more listings turning their leads into clients. Have you gone mobile yet?

We had the pleasure of interviewing Roxanne Tidmore, a recent REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ (REW™) certificant and Virtual Assistant with EliteREVA, based in Cincinatti, Ohio.

Roxanne is a National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) certified Real Estate Professional Assistant (REPA) and a certified Point2Point Virtual Assistant (VA). She is able to support a number of Real Estate agent and broker activities, such as Lead Generation, New Listings coordination, Marketing, Online Transaction Management, Point2Point services, and much more.

Roxanne has completed the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ (REW™) certification recently and we asked her a few simple interview questions on her thoughts of the program.

1) What is your background?

My background, before I became a Real Estate Assistant, was working as an Executive Assistant for about 20 years. I then decided to research the Virtual Assistant industry. I chose the Real Estate Assistant niche because I have strong administrative skills and I have always had an interest in selling real estate.

2) Why did you undertake the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ (REW™) certification?

I undertook the REW™ certification because I liked the concepts offered and wanted to learn more about them through the training. Prior to hearing about their training, I had not throught of creating a seamless web presence through a series of different software programs and it interested me to see how it all would work together.

Also, I am always looking for outlets to improve my skills as a Real Estate Assistant. Webographers has classes that I could learn from and then immediately apply those skills in my services to real estate agents and brokers.

3) What are your impressions of the online experience

It was great! Big piece for me was the ability to engage and play with various products as well. Simply stated there is no other vessel that allows assistants to engage ZipForm, which is used by hundreds of thousands of Realtors, thus opening the doors to new clients and more hours.

I liked the self-paced learning which made it perfect for my situation. I was able to fit the training into my schedule and still have time to take care of my clients. Also, if you need technical assistance, you can always contact the Webographer support team. They have always been very helpful and courteous and able to solve any technical issues that I encountered.

4) How long did it take you to complete the certification?

The training took about 10 to 12 hours, spread over my spare nights and weekends.

5) What would you tell those who are considering this certification?

Do it! If you do not have real estate experience, it gives you a foundation to build your knowledge about real estate. If you have had previous training, this will definitely add to it. You really can never get enough training!

Also a big help for me was the book that accompanied the training. I would read a chapter and then take the online portion. The lessons really made more sense to me that way - I could see them in action.

REW™ contains techniques and technologies that are another series of valuable services you will be able to offer to real estate agents and brokers.

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Thanks Roxanne and all the Best!

Technology is streamlining operations, transforming neighborhoods into global communities, and enabling real estate agents to go mobile. You can now do things that practitioners could only fantasize about only 10 years ago. Mobile technology, blogging, agent and single-property websites, on-line transactions - these were mere figments of the imaginations of early adopters’ in 1989 and that of the technology speakers that were granted platforms in the 90’s.

Technology is the new segway to building your returning customer base, and customers can be realized learning the technology just as easilly as adopting them. Taking classes will motivate you and provide you with information you can utilize while you learn. Some classes afford you direct networking opportunities in person or grant you access to large online communities while others present PR opportunities that can be leveraged in your marketing efforts. Knowledge with a bonus!

Technology can save you time! Streaming your marketing process provides you with more client-facing opportunities and allows you to foster what is of the utmost importance, your client relationships. Technology enables one to more quickly interpret information and facilitate a transaction, all while providing extraordinary service and care; not only fulfilling requests made but excelling and exceeding them and others only imagined. Digital solutions will assist you in maintaining meaningful contact with past clients for years to come.

Building an ongoing referral network need not be an expensive or time consuming process if you’ve learned which technologies to deploy. With some programs, REW™ for one, you can “try before you buy”. This allows you to work with various technologies to determine whether they meet your needs, without spending your hard-earned money on trials and subscriptions you may not really want.

Many RE practitioners feel the relationships take too much time away from transactions. Utilizing technology can provide smoother transactions, from beginning to the end. This ultimately creates a better client experience and affords you the opportunity to grow client relationships into clients for life. With the stakes rising, so does the cost of customer acquisition - technology will lower that cost.

Pursuit of knowledge and becoming certified also lends itself to credibility. Of course, displaying your certifications proudly, and having the know-how to explain them is definitely important, simply demonstrating to your clients that you have the motivation to achieve for yourself will tell them volumes of what you are willing to do for them. As stated in a recent RIS Article, ”How to become a lifetime Learner” (RISMEDIA, 7/19/2007), becoming “certified” in a particular field or subject area makes you an instant expert. The more classes you take, certifications you garner, knowledge you obtain, the more trust you will engender with potential clients and your fellow Realtors. With technology rapidly changing the RE landscape, Confidence is King, whether you are a new or seasoned agent.

Provide more than your clients expect. Although the technology solutions available may be new to you, your clients may have come across it already while shopping on line. If you are one step ahead, and you can show them what's under the hood, you make a niche for yourself. Provide a complete package as a differentiating factor.

Be able to say with confidence, ”I use these client-facing technologies for each and everyone of my clients…and I exceed their expectations everytime."