10 Effective Ways to Build a Profitable Business in a Lousy Market

Seattle. San Francisco. Pittsburgh. Rochester. Memphis. Oakland. Birmingham.

What do these seven towns share in common? If you said they’re all predicted to post gains in average home price, then you are correct.

What accounts for these predictions? For places like San Francisco, a roaring comeback is expected because much of the cities inventory will have been sold.

For a city like Rochester a come back is likely since it hasn’t been burdened by toxic mortgages, has a unemployment rate below the national average and has a healthy stock of good-paying jobs.

If you’re a real estate agent in one of these cities, your future looks bright.

But what if you don’t live in one of these comeback cities? What if you live in a city that looks to suffer even more foreclosure losses?

Well, one way to approach this problem is simply to attack it at it’s source: Go after pre-foreclosures. That’s good advice.

But there’s also another way to boost your production this year: Systematically employ the 10 most effective marketing strategies for real estate agents [based upon Homegain’s survey]:

Need a Damn Good Referral System to Save Your Career? Think about it: what’s it worth to you to find and nurture a handful–say, I don’t know, 100–clients who love you to death? Referrals

Stage the Home to Attract New Buyers Want a couple of easy tips to help you make a home look attractive to a buyer? Then you’re at the right place. Featured Listings

Nine Things That Make Email Effective Despite the endless talk about social media–Twitter or Facebook, for example–-emails are still the workhorse of online prospecting. Email Campaigns

Postcards: Why Your Adverting Never Works The reason your advertising doesn’t work–whether it’s a billboard or email newsletter or postcard mailing–is simple. Postcards/Mailers

How a Cocky CEO of GE Can Make You a Better Blogger How can Jack help you in blogging? Easy. Figure out what market you can enter where you are guaranteed to be #1 or #2. Blogging

Gimpy Website? 5 Techniques to Create a Killer One Okay. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you’re a real estate agent, you probably have a website. The question is, is it any good? Hm.

Why I Use Twitter [It’s for the Cocktails, Stupid!] But let’s get one thing straight: I don’t have any delusions on what Twitter can accomplish. So what can you hope to get out of Twitter? Good question. Social Media

Social Media Matters: Selling Houses During Hard Times Second only to over-priced home, no internet marketing strategy is the biggest reason homes don’t sell. Here’s how to change that. Social Media

How to Make Emotion Your Most Potent Weapon Why is emotion so important to your advertising? In the end, every decision–to list, to sell, to buy, to call–boils down to how a decision makes a person feel. Let me explain. Outdoor Ads

Cheatsheet on How to Make Your Ads Stick in People’ Mind How do you create ideas that are sticky? You use these six principles found in the book Made to Stick. Print Ads

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