Louis's Blog

In an article in February's Florida Realtor Magazine, called "Capture Leads Online", HomeGain is featured in a very positive light.

The article features the testimony of Keller Williams sales associate Andrew Duncan. Mr. Duncan, of Tampa explains how he uses HomeGain's AgentEvaluator program to generate sales.

Its an interesting read that can be found here

Note the article is in an 'online magazine" format. The link will open and if you double click on the screen you will be able to best view it.

At HomeGain, we publish a monthly agent success newsletter. January's edition is now available.  

The newsletter contains industry news,  featured agents, interviews, blog posts, and other information designed to help make real estate agents more successful.

 Click here for this month's newsletter.

 Click here for an archive of prior Agent Success Newsletters.

HomeGain is proud that we can quantify the many successes of our AgentEvaluator agents in 2008.

Many HomeGain real estate agents and brokers had successful years, despite the downturned market nationwide. We are proud to recognize these agents for their high level of accomplishment in association with HomeGain's AgentEvaluator marketing program.

In addition to highlighting the 2008 Top Performers by Region, 2008 Top Performers by State, and Rookie Agent of the Year, HomeGain recognizes agents in each region of the country that had impressive sales and are deserving of honorable mention.

Click here for lots of data and to view the Top 2008 HomeGain AgentEvaluator perfomers!

Active Rainer and HomeGain Guest blogger Carl Medford recently weighed in on the value of home staging in today's REO world:

"Although, in Shakespeare’s words, “All the world’s a stage,” in the world of theater, a play is rather hard to enact without a stage. It’s been tried over the years, but traditional theatergoers prefer a conventional stage.

And so do Homebuyers.

GREAT. Yet another blog on staging, you say. One more appeal to get sellers to pay money they don’t have to sell their home in a market that’s upside down like the Poseidon. Why bother? Haven’t we heard it all?

In the immortal words of Bullwinkle the Moose, “BUT WAIT! There’s more!”

Click here to finish. (the entire post is on the HomeGain blog)

Also check out Home Sale Maximizer, an online tool that helps determine which home improvements, including homestaging provide the best return on investment.

Last week I wrote about the problem of "Too much Twitter". It drew a lot of comments from veteran twitterites who have thousands of followers and who also follow thousands. 

But what about most of us who have too few followers? Is it possible to have too few?  Are you getting the maximum value from twitteer if you limit yourself to just a handful of people that  you know and a few others?

I have 70+followers and I follow under 50. This is all very manageable.

Its easy to have followers. You tweet and your followers either read it or don't. Hit or miss.

Its harder and perhaps a greater responsibility to follow others. If your followers are not offended by your lack of interest in or inability to read all their tweets then go ahead and at least add them to your list of those you follow.

I chose not to do so. Those that  I currently follow and whom follow me each have an average well over a thousand followers and followees. They act as a filter for me.   If something important is going on out there, chances are I won't miss it- those that I follow will pick it up. I read everything of those that I follow.

I am not sure that would be the case if I was following 1500, 2500 or any number larger than that. I would probably miss more important stuff in the mass of tweets flying by.

I suppose everyone wants to have followers, which actually makes you into a broadcaster not a conversationalist. If, however, to build a great following you have to follow those that follow you (or at least say that you will) you may end up being a broadcaster that no one listens to; or whom only your dozen or so friends listen to, which may mean you have 1000+ too many followers and followees.

@lcammarosa

@homegain

You can now follow HomeGain on Twitter. @homegain.  My personal twitter is lcammarosa

I recently twitted this:

"If everyone follows 2000 people and everyone has 2000 followers no one can follow anyone."

This observation came from speaking with Pat Kitano who has almost 9500 followers and is "following" nearly the same number.

If you have 9500 followers, like Mr. Kitano, or even 2000 followers and you make it a practice as Pat does to follow everyone who follows you, you can't keep up.  

Well, if you can't keep up, it follows (no pun intended), your followers can't either. 

So, you may have thousands of people tweeting at cross purpose. 

If everyone is similarly situated with large numbers of followers and everyone follows a number equal to their followers, then twitterites will all be broadcasting into a void of noise where despite your number of followers, you won't be heard! 

Indeed, and ironically, its possible that you will be heard by far few people if you have large numbers of followers who also follow large numbers of people.

If everyone is important then no one is.

Pat also argues that its bad form not to follow those that elect to follow you. But perhaps its bad form to follow people whom you never really follow at all because you just don't have the time to sift through thousands of tweets a day? Its like saying "let's have lunch" and not meaning it.

I would think that there are certain people on twitter who due to their popularity become broadcasters and deserve plenty of followers. These people, however, may need two accounts. One to broadcast (news out) and another to listen (news in)

Mary McKnight takes an opposite tact with her follwers-she flatly refuses to follow them all. Her stated reason is not that she doesn't have time, but rather admits, when asked why she does not follow many of her over 1000 followers-  "I don't find you interesting!" 

@lcammarosa

@homegain

HomeGain Agent View subscribers are fortunate to be enrolled in the HomeGain blogging school run by Joe Ferrara of Sellsius.

Each week Professor Ferrara emails a new lesson to the HomeGain Bloggers that are subscribed to AgentView.

Recently, we began providing free short versions of the HomeGain blogging school lessons.

To access this week's free blogging lesson "Using Links" click here.

To access prior week's blog tips, click here. 

Blogging Tip courtesy of the HomeGain Blogging School Professor, Joseph Ferrara. To read the full real estate blogging newsletter, sign up for AgentView and the HomeGain Blogging School

 A small debate is raging over on the front steps . Representatives from Zillow and Cyberhomes are arguing over whose instant home valuation tool is the most accurate.

Having been alerted to this debate by checking out the Sellsius blog on the topic, I had to jump in.

So, whose tool is the most accurate - Zillow or Cyberhomes? That question misses the point. The answer is neither Zillow nor Cyberhomes nor HomeGain.

HomeGain, the company that pioneered the concept of the instant home valuation tool takes the view that ONLY A PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCED REALTOR or a professional appraiser can provide a true valution of your home. After all, its the REALTOR that is going to sell your home not the automated valuation machine.

For this reason HomeGain states very clearly on our site, and as noted in the Charlotte Observer :"If you are planning to sell your home, you should contact a professional real estate agent to get a true value assessment"

That's why we feature REALTORS NOT ADS on our site. Our home valuation is not a "starting point" from which to sell weighwatchers ads,but an invitation to work with a real estate professional. On HomeGain consumers can review not only an instant home valuation, but also view agent profiles, listings and blogs- all in an advertising free environment.

So we'll let Zillow and Cyberhomes debate whose tool is more accurate. HomeGain will focus on connecting consumers with Realtors, not third party advertisers.

My friend Spencer Rascoff of Zillow and I  recently discussed HomeGain and Zillow.  I noted that HomeGain, not Zillow, pioneered the web based instant home valuation, despite the myth making of the Zillowites.

Spencer chided me "After all, if Homegain pioneered AVMs, then how come no one thinks of them when they think of home valuations?"

Granted Zillow, with it high octane 24/7 media engine constantly spitting out Zestimtes, Zindexes and press releases containing valuations of homes that are not and never will be for sale like the white house, IS the better known of the two.

However, in the past month the Florida Times Union, the Charlotte Observer and today the NY Times mentioned HomeGain for its instant home valuation tool.

HomeGain continues to be ranked among the top ten most visited real estate sites.

Its nice to get mentioned in the press and on the blogs, but media attention is not what HomeGain is about.

The Success of Real Estate Agents, Not Buzz is our Goal.