In this Issue:

• e-Agent Discussion Forum 2.0: Additional Features In The Upcoming Weeks
• e-Agent of the Quarter: Eurydice Turk
• The Fundamentals of Selling Can Make Or Break The Sale
• What Will It Take To Bounce Back?
• About e-Agent

e-Agent Discussion Forum 2.0: Additional Features In The Upcoming Weeks                                                                                      

Users who frequent eAgent.com will be pleased to know that we’re updating the discussion branch of our website. Numerous fresh and innovative ideas will be implemented in the weeks to come, which should excite those already familiar with the forum as well as newcomers who are just beginning to explore the tool and even the users who haven’t touched it yet (yes, we know who you are).

The updated discussion forum will focus a great deal more on full social integration; networking users in a tighter, warmer, and cozier web of interaction. The first finger of this is the implementation of a “group” function, similar to the dynamic of Yahoo! and Google, giving users the ability to create small, micro-communities between themselves and others within the forum. Secondly, the private messaging function, available currently only as an afterthought, will embrace itself as its own identity. This will give users not only the ability to perform basic functions like respond to posts and message people individually, but now they will be able to select other users and send out mass messages, creating more efficiency to save time and energy.

The face and personality of the new system will also change, marching to a more inviting, customizable beat. Users will be in charge of their own profile, with the ability to manage their personal picture and friends list, making it easy to see information such as relationships between you and others, as well as your recent forum posts and messages. As for functionality, each profile will come packaged with a free area for you to post photos of potential properties for your leads, and in the future, we’re making strides towards a video upload system with the ability to post virtual tours of homes. Furthermore, a new control panel has been designed to not only assist with common, everyday tasks, but will also bring aid for current, complex tasks that you may be working on.

Look for these new features in the upcoming weeks and be sure to make use of these new tools once available at your disposal. E-Agent will notify users via e-mail once the updated discussion forum is active and running cleanly.

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e-Agent, Inc. would like to recognize Broker Associate Eurydice Turk for her outstanding sales tactics and client care, especially given the current state of the real-estate market. Eurydice has held strong alongside the company since way back in February of 2004, relentlessly trudging on and gathering leads with us for more than 4 years.

To better understand how Eurydice has created such success, e-Agent, Inc. asked her a few questions, below are her responses.

1. How has e-Agent, Inc. assisted you in the past months with your real estate business?

I’m seeing more transactions now than I have over the past 18 months, but they’re all in the first time buyer arena (new families just starting out, established households upgrading). The prices of the real-estate may be lower than what they used to be, but it seems to be working out (at least for me) since there are more leads to reel in.

I use a process called “drip marketing.” It’s a simple, but effective tactic that gets your name imprinted into the minds of your potential clients. Drip marketing is just the entire course or progression of sending out business cards, post cards, newsletters, or any other sort of literature to prospective buyers that will give you some sort of exposure to people. You can do this yourself, mailing out letters and such, or you can do it through a company with more contacts and wider-spread wings. I use “Top Producer,” for instance.

I’ve generally stayed very close to my normal path, not deviating far away from what I know and what I’m used to seems to be working for me. I focus completely, entirely, 100% on the buyers, working mainly with investors and first time home buyers.

4. What advice could you give to other agents and what are your predictions for the market in the coming 6 months?

I’m predicting that over the next six months or so, the prices of foreclosure properties are only going to climb higher while conventional sales will continue to dip lower until it’s a smaller jump from REO to conventional sale. I feel like a great deal also depends on whether work-out departments are making efforts with distressed families and whether the “crooks” in the market are unfairly permitted to continually walk away from their investment properties without consequences.

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Real estate is a market wandering around with a rain-cloud over its head. We’re all tired of hearing about the sad shape it’s in, but how many of you are reacting instead of sulking? Most likely a poor showing of hands. Well perhaps a bit of advice will brighten your day at little. We’ve got a few tips for you, taken fresh from a real situation recently handled here at e-Agent, Inc. So trust that when we preach the talk, it’s because we strut the walk. Selling is becoming more and more difficult, so to excel at such an art, you must remember your fundamentals and your customers.

#1: Let the buyer feel as if they are in control of the situation.

We should all realize this from our own personal experiences when shopping for ourselves; however, it is often overlooked when showing a home. Customers want to feel like they have control over the deal, they want to hold the sensation of pushing prices in their favor, and they want to feel as if they are guiding you, the Realtor®, in the direction they want to move toward.

#2: Have a handful of things to bargain on and know your buyer.

You’re always going to have a few things you simply can’t change about the sale, so before you go into the ring, think of a few things you’re willing to heavily bargain over. Knowing the customer can prove to be an extreme advantage here. Perhaps your buyer is desperate to find a new home but simply doesn’t have the cash to afford such a purchase. Showing him an older home and offering to throw in a deep cleaning throughout the house can bump up the price slightly, but it will make the spirits of your buyer soar because it’s what he’s looking for – he didn’t want a new house because of the age; he wanted a home that felt like a clean slate.

#3: Know the area, know the home, know everything you can.

Knowledge is power. To be a great Realtor® you need to know as much as you can about a house; not only about the structure and land surrounding it, but about the culture of the area, the local supermarkets and shopping malls, and anything else relevant to the sale. Battles are won based on knowing the territory and using it as an advantage. Knowing everything about the area surrounding the homes you show may be the deciding factor in the sale. Not knowing is not an option; people hate asking a question and getting “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you on that” as a response.

There’s no sense in crying over spilt milk, and there’s no point in stressing over things you can’t change. Remembering real-estate the way it used to be won’t help anything, you need to adjust to the conditions and focus in order to succeed. If that means reverting back to the fundamentals of selling, so be it.

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Where did this start? Why is this all happening? There was such an intense real estate boom no more than five years ago that rocketed the industry up like a firework in the night sky. Gleaming in all its beauty, a slew of those who noticed the bang jumped on the bandwagon to fortune, only to sit there now, waiting for the next burst of light among the stars. But stuck staring at nothing but dullness and simmering with the nostalgic scent of smoke from what used-to-be isn’t going to get you anywhere.

People are chained to their homes because they owe more on the mortgage than the market value of the structure itself, an impossibly frustrating situation. Because of this, and the dreary state of the beast, banks are forced to foreclose on homes because people simply can’t pay the gobs of money owed. Furthermore, the astounding flippers, who set out fixing up dilapidated houses for jaw-dropping profits, have been slammed with multiple mortgage payments on homes that aren’t going to sell, despite their back-breaking efforts, blood, sweat, and tears they are losing their investments as well. What’s worse, it’s gotten into people’s heads, clouding the fact that it’s such a buyer’s haven right now. Nobody wants to make that first move that could put the industry back on track; it’s become a psychological problem almost as much as an economic problem.

That magical, surreal boom shot off with such majestic, screaming excitement that it seems it was only time before it came crashing down with an apathetic, churning, gut-wrenching thud, matching the initial glory in opposing pain. With all this in mind, what’s it going to take to spring back in the positive direction?

A well-known fact in modern society is that “money makes the world go ‘round.” So perhaps shedding some light on a couple little known tax benefits in the housing market will help some folks save some coin and escape from their sticky situation.

When you finally scrape together enough cash to buy your own home, you’ll find that a majority of the expenses you’ll encounter purchasing a home aren’t tax deductible, but there is one that’s worth noting. Your entire mortgage payment is tax deductible, meaning if you’re monthly mortgage payment is $1,000, you can write off $12,000 per year on your taxes. You can’t do that with your rent payments, now can you? A simple way to keep some cash in your pocket.

That’s just pocket change though, this one will add up quick. If you’ve owned and occupied your principal residence for at least two of the past five years, you (and your spouse) can earn up to a whopping $500,000 on the sale of your home and pay absolutely zero federal income tax on your revenue. It’s half that amount if you’re single. The best part is that you can do this as often as every couple years for the rest of your life. There are a few gimmicks worth noting and some super-fine print you may want to scour before making this a profession, but generally speaking, it’s just untouchable cash; no rules and zero restrictions.

Want more literature? Check out the full story at: http://new.realtor.com/Basics/Buy/ClosePossess/TaxBenefits.asp

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e-Agent, Inc. was founded by real estate brokers and agents to combine the efficiency of Internet technology with the one-to-one professional contact that is a hallmark and necessary component of the industry. The company's suite of products and services allows real estate professionals to maximize the potential of online marketing without having to take time away from the business of helping their clients buy and sell homes. e-Agent’s value proposition to real estate agents is based on low cost, low maintenance, high value services, while it ultimately also benefits consumers by facilitating the process of finding an e-Agent to assist with their home buying needs. For more information, please contact us at sales@e-agent.biz or 866.324.3687. If you haven’t already checked out the new design of the e-Agent Website, please do so and let us know your feedback, we would love to hear it. Look for more new and useful features to the e-Agent webpage in the coming months.