Agent Success
Featured Real Estate Agent of the Month
Vikas Pawa
Prudential Foothills Real Estate
Arizona
Vikas Pawa of Prudential Hills Real Estate in Tucson, Arizona, has only been in real estate for two years, but has already experienced success that some agents never come close to. We spoke with Vikas to get his take on what’s happening with the market, and how agents might be able to overcome any hurdles they are facing.
Vikas comes from a family of realtors, real estate investors and developers. So, naturally, when he was faced with a career decision, he felt it was a clear choice to get into real estate.
“Anyone just starting off in real estate can expect to work hard, and deal with new and unfamiliar situations on a regular basis. Just because you may have a website, and maybe signed up for a lead service online to help get more business (like HomeGain), doesn’t mean that you can take a back seat and let it happen. It takes work to see results.”
Vikas adds, “Too many buyers ask me how I’ll get paid for my efforts! They don’t realize that we represent them for free.”
“Online shoppers can do a lot of research on their own but they need your assistance when it comes to actually going through the procedure of buying a home,” Vikas continues. “They need information about financing, comparison prices for neighborhoods and areas, days on the market, things that only a real estate agent with experience and access to resources can get for them. Many of them already have homes or a handful of homes that they've picked out and just need someone to hold their hand through the transaction and keep them out of trouble."
"I've found that the most important thing other than being quick is to respond with a personalized proposal. My responses are not sales-oriented, but service-oriented.”
Working with both homebuyers and home sellers, 75% of Vikas’ business is SFR resale but he strives to work in as many segments of the market as possible – short sales, new construction, condos, and manufactured homes.
“The market currently seems a little confused. Prices in some neighborhoods have already declined and are seeing more activity whereas others are still overpriced. I think no one is sure what’s going to happen next so they are hesitant to jump in. That’s why it’s good to have a plan in place for how you want to do business – how are you getting your leads, how you are keeping clients, and how you get referrals.”
“I’m making it a priority to establish a steady stream of repeat business, and referrals so I won’t have to prospect or cold call. That’s where HomeGain can and does help. It’s key to get quality leads up-front so you spend your time wisely. I don’t know of any real estate agents that enjoy having to spend all their time looking for business!”
Vikas’ focus is in areas of Southern Arizona, primarily Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley, Sahuarita and Vail.
“In southern Arizona, a pressing issue is making housing more affordable. Too many people were priced out in the recent boom and I think it’s good that the market is trying to make a correction. Unfortunately, I don’t think the modest decline in prices we’ve had here is going to have enough of an impact to change anything in the near future, but maybe once wages and rents go up, buying a home will be more attractive again.”
Whether in a slow market or a strong market, Vikas seems to have the right mix of online tactics and marketing strategies. Already this year, he has closed an above average number of homes. Tucson is a competitive market, but Vikas has found his niche.
Ask HomeGain
Dear HomeGain,
I just signed up for BuyerLink and am excited about getting some good buyers. Another agent in my office mentioned I should look into tracking my results. Apparently, she tried something similar in the past but had problems getting her numbers to match up to her ad visitors. How would I do this effectively?
-- Geneva Harris
Los Angeles
Dear Geneva,
You are referring to web analytics, the study of the behavior of website behavior. Most websites have a built-in analytic tool as an administrator function. The most common type of report found in an Analytic tool is the referring URL report. This often will show how many visitors were referred to your website and from what URL. While helpful, many times this report has difficulty in recognizing visitors from shared IP addresses, whether visitors are coming from different locations within the same URL, and the difference between a unique click and unique visit.
Depending on the report you have, you may be able to attach SourceId tags to your referring URL. A SourceId tag(i.e. “?source=homegain”) would be attached to the referring URL you provide and can be more easily tracked by your own tool when you tell it what to look for. Instead of looking for www.homegain.com, your tool would search out www.homegain.com?sourceid=homegain.
If you do not have an analytic tool currently on your page to track visitors, Google Analytics may be a good solution. In their recent 2.0 release, Google included the ability to track visitors by campaign. Campaigns are useful if you are receiving visitors from several different locations within the same source (registering to receive visitors in multiple cities in BuyerLink is a good example). Within Google’s campaign tool, you can set the source (referring URL), medium (what type of advertising) and term (specific campaign) for each URL referring visitors to your site.
When you update these parameters within the campaign tools, you can better search for those visitors that match your specific criteria. This information can be daunting to comprehend sometimes, even for analytic experts! If you do have questions or would like to set up tracking for your BuyerLink program, please give your HomeGain account manager a call.
Regards,
HomeGain Agent Success Team
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HomeGain News
Two ‘Can’t Miss’ Events Happening This Month
We’ll see all you Florida agents and brokers this month at the FAR Annual Conference on August 22nd. Also, no agent will want to miss this month’s Winning Agent Call with a special guest agent from Alain Pinel!
Sign up to hear this month’s Winning Agent
Call with a surprise Realtor® from Alain Pinel
Letter from the Editor: Internet Buyers and Sellers Seek Rapid Responses
Frequently, we at HomeGain reach out to our consumers to find out why they came to us and how they like our service. We ask questions like “How satisfied were you with your entire experience?” and “How satisfied were you with the real estate agent you connected with through HomeGain?”
Our latest survey results (July 2007) are very revealing. In fact, in a poll of our AgentEvaluator sellers, 61% rated a combination of agent quality or responsiveness as most important to them.
The reality is today’s consumers live and work in an era of instant gratification. They are able to reach out and touch Realtors® and others literally around the clock through e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging and cellular phones. There are home valuation tools and video streaming available online with tons of consumer information.
You can appreciate in this environment the expectation of the consumer is they will receive a fairly quick response from an agent. Their sense is that if their business is worth something to an agent, the agent had better respond right away.
To take it a step further, the California Association of Realtors® conducted an interesting study in 2006 which compared Internet buyers and traditional buyers. And, guess what? A whopping 91% of respondents gave the reason as “always quick to respond” as to why they gave a high level of satisfaction with the real estate agent they used.
When asked “What was the typical response time you expected from your agent”, the highest category was 23% of Internet buyers who said “instantly”, and 20% who said “within 30 minutes”. That’s fast!
Ask yourself “What is my average response time?” Granted, it is a tall order to respond so quickly. “What can I do,” you ask?
One useful tip to try and “beat the clock” is to text message your prospects or clients. They will be impressed that you are tech savvy and you will more likely be the first to connect and win the sale.
Be sure to set very clear expectations about how and where to reach you, and when your buyers and sellers can expect a return contact, and how. That will help keep your customer satisfaction high and you’ll close more business as a result.
by Peggy Boehm, Director, Client Services
Licensed Real Estate Broker, CA and WA
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Awards and Recognition
HomeGain Clubs
Congratulations to HomeGain's newest Gold Club and Platinum Club members. These members represent our top performing real estate professionals nationwide.
July New Members
Agents who have closed $125,000 in gross commissions from HomeGain leads
Sandy Pearce & Jeffrey Diamond |
Barb Higgins |
Susan Stocker |
Gillian Goldrich |
Terri Sloan & Brian Burrows |
Jim and Kendra Beamish |
Agents who have closed $75,000 in gross commissions from HomeGain leads
Bernard Overbey |
Mike Barilone |
Lori & Larry Porter |
Alyse Sands |
Richard Head/Diane Head |
Beth Borson |
Sam Anderson |
Chris Harden |
Karen Snow |
Sue Nelson |
Carol Ceddia |
Patty Giarrusso |
The Mike Aguilar Team |
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Free webinars, local tradeshows and special events:
- August 23
Winning Agent Call - August 28
Source4Sellers Webinar - August 28
AgentEvaluator Webinar - August 29
BuyerLink Webinar - August 29
BuyerLink II Webinar - September 9
TAR Annual Convention Galveston, TX - November 13-16
NAR Annual Conference, HomeGain Booth #1410
Click here for more dates and times.
