We hope that this last weekend brought your properties lots of traffic and great leads. And while leads and traffic are certainly great, there’s only so much time you can dedicate to getting to know the needs and desires of all potential homebuyers who visit your open house.

This makes follow-up a critical piece of a successful open house. In the spirit of post-National Open House Weekend, and better understanding the needs of your visitors, we put together this list of a few Dos and Don’ts for following-up after an open house.

Check them out below and feel free to add your favorites in the comments:

1. Do send a thank you note. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many agents don’t do this, or those that do admit to sending a generic thank you note with their business card. Get creative with your thank you notes!

Here’s an idea – snap a couple pictures of your open using Instagram. Using a free app like Overgram, it’s $1.99 if you want to remove Overgram’s branding, add text to your photos thanking your visitors for coming. Include property details and your contact info. It’s like a picture postcard!

2. Do follow-up with a video. After the open house is over, shoot a short video highlighting all the great things about the property for sale. Free app Videolicious allows you to create short videos highlighting the best features of your listing and the surrounding community.

Did your visitors tell you they have kids and are looking for a property with a park nearby? Consider adding a few frames highlighting the nearby park.

3. Don’t automatically add your visitors’ contact information to your email newsletter. While it may be tempting to import their contact information directly into your email newsletter distribution list and to start sharing your latest news, we recommend ASKING whether they want to receive your updates. Use your thank you note or video as a segue to ask them whether they would like you to keep in touch.

4. Don’t forget that today’s buyers are searching for homes via their mobile devices. Stay top of mind with visitors to your open house by giving them access to your custom branded mobile app. With your mobile app, homebuyers can search all available properties in their desired neighborhood and price range, and contact you when they find something they like regardless of if you’re the listing agent. For more information on our custom branded mobile apps for agents, visit: http://home.smarteragent.com/products/agent-branded-app/.

We’d love to hear how you follow-up after an open house. Please share your favorite ways in the comments below!

Download the updated ERA Mobile app today for your iPhone or Android by going to app.era.com from your mobile browser! You can also get your own branded version of the ERA app with your name and all LEADS going to you!”

Wheeling WV Home Search

Wheeling WV Home Search is a consumer and Member facing App, fully branded to Wheeling Board of REALTORS®.  Any user can search all MLS listings and property information right from their mobile device, and all leads from the Wheeling Board of REALTORS®mobile app go directly to the listing agent, generating free leads to their Members courtesy of their MLS!

“As an association we want to provide our membership with the best resources in homes for sale listings.”  ~ Glenda Gasparine RCE, Executive Officer, WBOR

As word of Wheeling Board of REALTORS®’s app continues to spread amongst Members and consumers, their mobile app usage and downloads will continue to rise.  This enhances Wheeling Board of REALTORS®’s brand recognition, provides free leads to their Members and allows for more home buyers to easily search for homes while on the go.

Member Branded Apps

And Wheeling Board of REALTORS®didn’t stop there.  They also wanted their Members to benefit from their MLS App by giving them the option to sign up for their own Member Branded app.  The Member Branded app includes the agent’s name branded in the App, all active MLS listings and all leads going directly back to them.  Brokers also have the option of getting an office branded app or a White Label app as well, so there really is a product for everyone!  Click here to learn about the Member branded app or brokers can click here to learn more about the broker app!

Smarter Agent is willing to build your branded and MLS White Label App too.  Click here to learn more about all of our products we have to offer you!

For more information, please contact Smarter Agent at 888-486-7319 or send an email to gomobile@smarteragent.com.

~ Sasha England, MLS Coordinator

In celebration of Nationwide Open House Weekend this Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21, it seems fitting that we share the exciting ways mobile is changing the way that home buyers search and visit open houses and find an agent.

We agree that advertising open houses in the classified section of the local newspaper and expecting home buyers to find you, may just be a thing of the past. With 90%, yes that’s right 9-0, of consumers starting their real estate search online according to NAR, we agree that real estate search has moved to our smartphones and tablets — online is the place to learn/share about homes for sale and open houses.

Today’s real estate consumers want to search properties and find open houses online. Gone are the days of printing listings from the MLS and having home buyers shuffle through stacks of paper to decide which homes they are interested in seeing.

As we prepare to celebrate National Open House Weekend, we ask you to imagine this…..

Your potential clients use a custom mobile app to search listings in their preferred neighborhoods. Once they’ve found a list of properties, they filter that list to see which ones will be “open” when they plan to walk or drive through a neighborhood. Now imagine their excitement when they use their phone or tablet’s native mapping features to get turn-by-turn directions to the potential home of their dreams. Sounds pretty cool, huh?

Think it sounds futuristic, or too good to be true? It’s not. With the Smarter Agent mobile app, custom branded to you and your brokerage, your clients can use mobile to navigate the entire process of searching for their dream home. And since it’s custom branded with your name and contact information, you stay at the top of mind as they conduct their search.

Good luck with your open houses on National Open House Weekend and check back and let us know how it goes.

- The Team at Smarter Agent

Joe Pitts, V.P. MLS

Company:

Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®

Phone: 864.672.4657

Fax: 864.672.3223

www.ggar.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS® launches Mobile Real Estate App. 

Search All Local Homes for Sale on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Tablet devices.

Greenville, South Carolina – April 11, 2013 – Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®, a leading MLS with coverage area in Greenville, South Carolina, announced the launch of their mobile app, Greater Greenville SC Mobile Real Estate, that works on all major mobile devices and is available to download for free from all major apps stores, including iTunes, Android,  and Blackberry. The public can download the app to their phone or tablet device to view all homes for sale or rent in the Greenville, South Carolina area.

Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®’s mobile app uses Smarter Agent’s patented GPS technology, to locate the user and display listings in the immediate area. Users can also search by address, city or zip code to see property details for all homes for sale or rent in a specified area, including price, square footage, estimated mortgage, taxes, features, maps, pictures and more. The “Refine Search” feature lets users select a price range, property type and the number of beds and baths to help them find just what they’re looking for.  If a user has questions or wants a tour of a property, the “Contact” feature within the app connects the user to the respective listing agent by phone or email.

Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS® partnered with Smarter Agent, the leader in mobile real estate app development, to be able to offer clients and prospects a mobile house-hunting app available across all carriers and on all major mobile devices such as iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and tablets.

“The new Smarter Agent app for GGAR provides the consumer with the latest mobile technology available to quickly and efficiently locate properties in the Greater Greenville marketplace using their mobile devices. The ability to quickly pinpoint properties within close proximity to your GPS enabled device provides cutting edge technology that consumers and our members demand and enables the consumer with immediate access to our members regarding properties of which they may desire more information.” Joe Pitts, V.P. MLS for Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®

Consumers can text GGAR to 87778 to send Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®’s mobile app to their mobile device, go to m.ggar.com to download the mobile real estate search, or simple visit their app store and search for Greater Greenville SC Mobile Real Estate.

About Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®

The Greenville Board was organized June 25, 1925, with eighteen charter members.  Official membership as of January, 2013 was 1700 members and 400 Firms.

The Multiple Listing Service was organized June 1, 1959, with 32 charter member firms. Membership as of January 2013 was 2000 members and over 442 firms. The MLS currently provides the latest real estate technologies including mobile access to MLS information for our membership. In addition, the Association and MLS provides consumer access to the latest Listings and Firm/Agent contact rosters to for the Greater Greenville market via the GGAR.com website and mobile applications for Computer/Smart Phone/and Tablet devices.

The Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS® and The Multiple Listing Service of Greenville, SC are located at 50 Airpark court, Greenville, SC 29607

ABOUT SMARTER AGENT
Smarter Agent is a mobile application pioneer that has created the first scalable mobile cascading Platform as a Service (PaaS) that enables widespread content distribution to consumers through native and HTML.5 apps. Smarter Agent powers more top downloaded real estate app store titles in the Android, iPhone and Blackberry marketplaces than any other in the real estate vertical. This includes the #1 and #2 downloaded and rated large franchisor apps, the most highly downloaded and rated independent brokerage office app and many of the top downloaded Multiple Listing Service (MLS) apps. The integration of SMS/text messaging, QR codes and intra-application features enhance discovery and viral distribution via social media and traditional channels.

Smarter Agent was there for the big launch and helped train their Members on how the new MLS app worked and how it would benefit them and their business.  Their Members were thrilled with the new app and couldn’t wait to take advantage of this great new real estate search tool while out with their clients looking at real estate.

RealtyWEB.Net Mobile Real Estate

RealtyWEB.Net Mobile Real Estate is a consumer and Member facing App, fully branded to RealtyWEB.Net.  Any user can search all MLS listings and property information right from their mobile device, and all leads from the RealtyWEB.Net mobile app go directly to the listing agent, generating free leads to their Members courtesy of their MLS!

“It’s has always been our goal to provide our members and their potential customers access to the most comprehensive and accurate real estate information available in Northeast Florida.  Partnering with Smarter Agent gave us that perfect blend… quicker communications and up-to-date data in a mobile tool.”

Ron Stephan, CEO RealtyWEB.Net/MMTinfo

As word of RealtyWEB.Net’s app continues to spread amongst Members and consumers, their mobile app usage and downloads will continue to rise.  This enhances RealtyWEB.Net’s brand recognition, provides free leads to their Members and allows for more home buyers to easily search for homes while on the go.

Member Branded Apps

And RealtyWEB.Net didn’t stop there.  They also wanted their Members to benefit from their MLS App by giving them the option to sign up for their own Member Branded app.  The Member Branded app includes the agent’s name branded in the App, all active MLS listings and all leads going directly back to them, regardless of the listing agent.  Brokers also have the option of getting an office branded app or a White Label app as well, so there really is a product for everyone!  Click here to learn more.

You can also watch our new Member Branded App video by clicking here!

Smarter Agent is willing to build your branded and MLS White Label App too.

For more information, please contact Smarter Agent at 888-486-7319 or send an email to gomobile@smarteragent.com.

-Sasha England, MLS Coordinator

During one morning, I had the opportunity to hear the Executive Keynote presented by Richard Smith, Chairman and CEO of Realogy. Mr. Smith began by saying that he often gets questions from agent and brokers about the state of the economy, the political scene, etc. and how they influence the real estate market. He very strongly said, although it’s important as a realtor to be knowledgeable about these things, “don’t worry about things you can’t influence”, and focus on what you can.

Following that statement, the first thing he said that an agent should be focused on and should be influencing is their knowledge of mobile technology. Word for word, he said that

“If agents are not thoroughly competent in mobile applications, they have very little chance of success in this business. They are critical to success today for real estate agent.”

It’s amazing to see the progression of how mobile technology has been discussed eachyear. A few years ago, smartphones and apps were just a nifty tool to have and use for your business. It was something that made you stand out from the crowd. Now, fast forward to today, and we are at a point where this technology has become a vital part of the real estate business.

I am happy to say that a lot of agents we are meeting this year are already taking Mr. Smith’s message to heart and already putting a strong focus on mobile technology in their business. Last year, at IBC 2012, I spent a lot of time helping agents download the ERA Real Estate app onto their phone. This year, every agent who I met at our booth already had it on their phone! That was great to see and it allowed me to focus on telling them about the great branded agent and broker apps that can help them take the ERA app to the next level by getting all the leads from this great top rated app.

In closing I want to leave you with these statement from Mr. Smith; “Agents, get fully confident in mobile. It’s critical for your success. Get smart. And get smart fast!”

~ Phil Tomasello