Real Clues

[RealClues] #335: Point2 Study

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**Do you want to make more Real Estate Dough(tm)? If so, we have a fabulous new product we're launching at Inman on July 23, 2008. See Welcome Notes for Details or visit www.RealEstateDough.com to learn how to have a barrel fun, become a master negotiator, and best of all, make more dough for your business!

New for July 16-31, 2008 at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com
(See Featured Products for detailed descriptions)
Six Tried and True Prospecting Strategies
Build Your Business on the Best
Taming Your Inner Gremlin: Eliminate Negative Self Talk
How's the Energy in Your Home? How to Create a Supportive Environment

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Table of Contents
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1. CoachingClues: How Many Pictures Should You Use to Market Your Listings?
2. Welcome Notes: Are You Ready to Become the Chief Dough Maker for Your Business?
3. Reprise: Four Strategies for Coping with a Declining Market
4. Create a Better Life: Victim or Victor--Which One Will You Be?
5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg): Stock market's up, oil prices are down, and multiple offers return to parts of California
6. Luxury Clues: Check out our post on July 23 for your first peek at Real Estate Dough(tm); Will Trump's $100 Million property end up in the dump? Tips from Italian Cooking School, Peach Pizza, and what you need to know about Chianti and other Italian wines.
7. Featured Products:
**Real Estate Dough Negotiation(tm) Frances Flynn Thorsen says, "It's way more fun than Monopoly!" Better yet, it actually builds the number one skill you need to make more dough in your business--Negotiation!
8. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching
9. Give Us Your Feedback on this Newsletter
10. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe

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1. CoachingClues: How Many Pictures Should You Use to Market Your Listings
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Are you marketing your listings with just one picture or are you marketing with twenty or more? Is it possible that too many pictures online is preventing buyers from looking at your property?

The research is clear that having only a single photo of your listings online causes web visitors to search elsewhere. The challenge is how much is enough and how much is too much? A new study from Point2Agent suggests that the more pictures you have the better it is. Jeff Turner, the CEO of RealEstateShows.com, argues that based upon attention span research, that five to nine pictures is about all the brain can handle in 30 to 60 seconds.

Point2Agent has just released a new study that measures the impact of photos in terms of marketing listings on-line. This study replicates the results of a study Point2Agent conducted in 2007. The current study examined three variables and plotted them against the number of pictures on each site:

1. Detailed views

2. Interest in terms of interaction with the listing on a website (i.e. how many times visitors viewed a virtual tour, viewed the listing on a partner site, completed a mortgage calculation for the property, etc.)

3. Leads generated

The study evaluated all Point2 listings entered into their system during the first quarter of 2008. The sample consisted of over 100,000 listings and included listings from every state in the US., every Canadian province, plus other countries worldwide. All price ranges were represented.

Results
1. Listings that lacked photos performed poorly in the study, generating little consumer response and business. Those that had one picture performed better, but not nearly as well as the sites that had 21 to 36 photos. In fact, those listings that had no picture generated 0.02 percent of the number of listing views as compared with those with 21 or more photos.

2. Compared to listings with only one photo, those with 21 or more photos generated more than triple the number of Detailed Views, more than double the amount of interest, and double the number of Leads.

3. Compared to listings with no photos, those with 21 or more photos generated more than fifty-five times the number of Detailed Views and nearly twenty-seven times the amount of Interest.

4. Comparable results were obtained when plotting these three key variables against varying numbers of photographs per listing.

5. Views, Interest, and Leads jumped 20 percent or more as the number of photos increased from 15 to 16.

The study seems to confirm that having additional photos on an agent or broker website affects the stickiness of the site, which leads to substantially higher lead conversion.

Jeff Turner, CEO of RealEstateShows.com, makes a fascinating counter argument. According to Turner, "We've spent a lot of time researching how the brain works when viewing property on line. A key point to consider is attention span. There's a reason that television commercials are 30 or 60 seconds. Rather than doing a three or four minute movie or virtual tour, we have found that that the brain can absorb about five photos in 30 seconds or nine photos in 60 seconds. If you create a video that is longer than 30 to 60 seconds and that is packed full of pictures, you will exceed the amount that the brain can absorb."

Turner uses himself as an example. When he and his wife were looking for house, his agent showed several properties they did not like. Even though they were adamant about purchasing a single family residence, the agent encouraged them to look at a duplex. After continued requests, they looked at the duplex and fell in love with it. Turner goes on to say,

"This sale would never have happened if my wife and I had been looking online. We would have never looked at the property because we would have ruled it out when we set up our search criteria. This is exactly the problem with giving web visitors more and more information. The more information you give them, the easier you are making it for them to exclude your listing from the ones they want to see. Your role in web marketing is to get them to come out and see the house--not to give them so much information that they decide not to look at your listing."

The Point2 study clearly indicates that having multiple pictures is a smart idea. Increasing them from 15 to 16 generates 20 percent more leads. On the other hand, we have no way of knowing how many buyers ruled out a specific property because they viewed it online.

What should you do? You can track your page views using Point2's system, Google Analytics, or one of the many other tracking tools on the web. Change the number of pictures and watch your results to determine what works best in your market.

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2. Welcome Notes
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Welcome to our new subscribers this week. Each week RealClues provides you with great strategies to improve both your business and your life. If you find this issue of RealClues helpful, take a moment to hit the "forward" button and send it to another friend in the business.

This week at Real Estate Connect, we will be launching the most exciting new real estate product to come on the market in years. The product is a lively, fun, and engaging card game called "Real Estate Dough(tm) Negotiation." It's unlike anything you have ever played before. In fact, the game is so unique that we're in the process of obtaining patents in over 100 different countries.

There are 12 different types of properties in the game, each with different values. You'll love meeting "Comfy Condo," "Big Kahuna Beach House," "McMansion Manor" and the other 9 property characters in the game. Guy Smalley's artwork is absolutely spectacular. During the game, you make referrals, do 1031 exchanges, and open and close transactions, just as you do in your real business. You also negotiate with other players to determine what how much Real Estate Dough(tm) you will receive for your exchange or referral. The cards in the game are turned face up, which means you see what other players have in their hands. This is the mechanism for promoting trading of properties, making referrals, and ultimately to win the game by collecting as much Real Estate Dough(tm) as possible. In fact, every one of our beta testers has been eager to get their hands on actual game. We already have testers in Austin who are eagerly making plans to set up a Real Estate Dough(tm) tournament to compete for being the best negotiator in town.

If you're at Real Estate Connect this week, stop by the Inman Booth. Byron will be there as our "chief dough maker" playing the game so you can see what it's like. We also have a power point available at www.RealEstateDough.com that explains how to play and gives you a sneak peek at the artwork.

Our shipment is scheduled to arrive from the printer in approximately 4 to 6 weeks. If you want to start making more dough tomorrow, don't wait--order today! http:/www.RealEstateDough.com
Your copy of Real Estate Dough(tm) will arrive in early September.

Look for more dough making ideas next week!

Bernice Ross and Byron Van Arsdale, Chief Dough Makers
www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.RossdalePress.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com, and www.TeleconferenceLine.com

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3. Reprise: Four Strategies for Coping with a Declining Market
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This article first ran in 2007. The advice in it is as good today as it was when I wrote it 14 months ago. If you want to prosper in today's tough market, this article provides you with tried and true advice that will show you how.

http://www.realestatecoach.com/articles_archive/art200707-4strategies-declining-market.html

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4. Create a Better Life: Victim or Victor--Which One Will You Be?
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This article first ran in June of 2007 when the worst of the subprime mess was beginning to hit. In spite of the difficult market, many agents are having the best year ever. What makes the difference? It's your attitude. If you're struggling with being a victim, then learn how to become victorious in today's market.

http://www.realestatecoach.com/articles_archive/art200706-victim-or-victor.html

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5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg)
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Stock market is up, the price of oil is down for the moment, multiple offers are starting to appear again in California, and the number of foreclosures has declined. If you need good news now, tune in to hear this week's Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg)

http://listenandlearnrealestate.com/news.html

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6. LuxuryClues.com
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*Check out the cover and some of the property characters from Real Estate Dough
*Tips from Italian Cooking School and American Peach Pizza
*And You Thought Gas in the U.S. Was High! Differences in American vs. European Notions of Luxury
*Is Trump's Mansion Headed for the Dump?
*Chianti wines--what to look for Barolo, Chianti Classico, Ruffini, Limoncello, and grappa

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7. Featured Products: Make More Dough in
Your Business with Win-Win Negotiations
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**The #1 skill you need to succeed in real estate is negotiation. Unfortunately, most of us only get to practice negotiation skills when we are sitting in front of a client. If you want to hone your ability to negotiate and close more transactions, order Real Estate Dough(tm) Negotiation, the fastest and most fun way to learn how to conduct win-win negotiations. The game actually simulates exactly what you do at the negotiation table when you work with clients. If you want to have fun while building the #1 skill that will put more dough in your pocket, order now-- www.RealEstateDough.com

**New at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com
Eight new audio broadcast training modules EVERY month for only $29.97 per month or $147.00 for six months. Here's what's new for July 16-31, 2008:

*Six Tried and True Prospecting Strategies
If you want six strategies that really work, check out our tips on the best strategies for prospecting expired listings, FSBOs, past clients, and door knocking. Best of all, this session gives you the BEST possible closing gift that will not only generate more business for you, it's also 100 percent deductible.

*Build Your Business on the Best
The "best" business strategy for growing your business is based upon what you do well. This session provides you with four proven coaching strategies to grow your business now.

*Taming Your Inner Gremlin: Eliminate Negative Self Talk
Often times the biggest obstacle to your success is your own negative thoughts. Edgar Allen Poe called these self destructive thoughts and urges the "imp of the perverse." Richard Carson calls this beast a "gremlin." This session shows you how to rid yourself of negative self talk while also giving you three proven strategies for "taming your gremlin."

How's the Energy in Your Home: How to Create a Supportive Environment
With all the challenges you face daily as an agent, you need a place where you can retreat from the stress and renew your energy. Different rooms in your home have different energies. This session tells you how to identify the energy in each area of your home as well as how to create your own escape from today's hectic lifestyle.

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8. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching
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Looking for a well-trained coach who knows the real estate business? Our coaching team can help you increase your production and make your dreams come true. Send an e-mail to Shane@RealEstateCoach.com and we'll help find the right coach for you.

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9. Give Us Your Feedback On This Newsletter
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We want your feedback-to share your thoughts and suggestions, please e-mail us at Shane@RealEstateCoach.com.

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10. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe
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Visit our Web site, http://www.RealEstateCoach.com to subscribe/unsubscribe to RealClues.

Copyright (c) 1996-2008, RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute RealClues as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the contributors to this newsletter is attached.

Contributors to this newsletter:
Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC, Owners, www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com; www.RossdalePress.com; and www.TeleconferenceLine.com
Shane Bowlin, REC General Manager

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