No one knows the real estate market better than real estate brokers and agents. Each month, Point2 produces a survey that indicates your local market direction and expectations 3, 6 and 12 months out, with specific feedback by your fellow REALTORS® to support their views, whether optimistic or pessimistic. Great advance market indicators, insight and ideas you can use to improve or alter your approach, or adjust your plans.

Be first to get this powerful information each month, free, ahead of public and media distribution, and get a chance to win a shiny new  iPad at the same time.

Just answer a few quick questions as part of the Real Estate Confidence Index survey (It only takes a minute – literally) and you are automatically subscribed to receive the survey results as soon as they are compiled. For each month that you complete the survey and provide an email address to contact you at, you are entered to win an iPad – which Point2 is giving away once every 3 months!

Complete the survey every month and your name will be entered into the drawing up to three times!  It’s that simple.

Ready, set, go! This month’s survey is only open until Monday, February 28th. Simply click the appropriate link below:

United States
Canada

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Please allow me to introduce you to Lee Hurst of Chinowth and Cohen REALTORS® in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lee has graciously shared a few tips with us he used to make Point2 IDX work for him so well.

At the forefront of Lee’s strategy was to make his website more user-friendly for searching listings.  He explains, “Approximately half of my business comes from people who have found me first through my website.”

Knowing this fact prompted Lee to make his website as interactive and informative as possible for visitors searching for listings.  He began by researching which keywords people were using to access his website.  Then, taking those keywords into consideration he tailored individual pages based on those search results.

Lee shared his thoughts on this with us.  ”The public likes information.  There are a lot of great websites out there, but the public may not stay on the site because the information they are seeking isn’t readily available.  People like to click for information, not type the information in, as much as possible.”

For this reason Lee’s custom created pages and saved IDX searches go a long way to making the process of finding listings much easier for website visitors.

Lee took those individually created custom pages a step further and integrated an easy-to-navigate menu so that visitors could locate the area they were searching for and the desired price range with just a click of the mouse.

This combination of elements has contributed to huge success experienced by Lee Hurst using Point2 IDX on his website.  Though Lee admits some work and effort is involved to make these searches available to visitors, the results speak for themselves.

If you want to take your website visitor experience to the next level, take some of Lee Hurst’s advice and put Point2 IDX to work for you!

During the month of July we ran a promotion for our Canadian members to win a free Apple iPad.  With the purchase of each Spotlight Ad for Point2Homes.com during the month of July, an entry was made into the draw for the iPad.

I’m pleased to announce that Karen Kenyon of Nanoose Bay, BC has been selected as our lucky winner.

Karen shares, “I have been very impressed with the Spotlight Ads, not only because they get your listing great exposure, but vendors love the feedback about the web views.  Spotlight Ads are the best value for your advertising dollars.”

Karen’s feedback echoes what many of our members feel when using Spotlight Ads as an integral part of their listing marketing.

Bummed out you didn’t win the iPad yourself?  Don’t be sad.  Because of the premium placement on Point2 Homes, your listings potentially received far more views than if you hadn’t used a Spotlight Ad.  You still win!

With Point2 Homes Spotlight Ads your listings appear at the forefront of millions of eyeballs, featured right front and center on one of the highest traffic consumer search sites for listings.  That exposure is a valuable boost to your listing marketing.

For more reasons why you should use Point2 Homes Spotlight Ads read this post.

Congratulations Karen on winning the Apple iPad!  I am sure you’ll have tons of fun with it and find it very useful for your real estate business.

Stay tuned for more great giveaways and promotions from Point2 in the future!

And so to our Canadian members as we near Canada Day, we’ve got something you simply can’t refuse…tons of exposure for your listings on Point2 Homes – plus a chance to win an iPad.

That’s right.  We’re giving away a free Apple iPad (16GB Wi-Fi + 3G) to one lucky Canadian member.

Are you Canadian?  Then here’s how you can make this happen:

1. Purchase a Spotlight Ad for your listing(s) on Point2 Homes.
2. Sit back, relax, and enjoy premium listing placement on Point2Homes.com for 30 days.

Meanwhile, Point2 will take every Spotlight Ad purchased during the month of July and automatically enter you into the draw for the iPad.  At the end of July, we’ll draw the name of one lucky Canadian member as winner.

Seems pretty simple, right?  Believe me, it is.  Feature your listings with a Spotlight Ad on Point2 Homes right now.  Remember, the more Spotlight Ads you get, the more entries into the draw, and the more opportunities to walk away one iPad richer.

But, “How do I buy a Spotlight Ad?” you may ask.  Simple – just follow the steps here.

Enjoy your long weekend!

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And for our American and international friends here’s some fun Canadian trivia:

Did You Know?

Most Canadians don’t actually live in igloos.  Although this summer has been cold enough so far to probably have had them.

The majority of us don’t say ‘eh’ to an exaggerated degree.  I personally say ‘hey’ a lot more than ‘eh’.  Semantics.

The beaver is probably the most hardcore of all creatures.  You do not want to get into an argument with a beaver.  You will lose.

Building a website is easy.  Getting traffic to it is not.

Do not lose hope however, as there are small adjustments and changes that you can make to not only drive traffic to your website, but also keep those people there.

1. Content is King

People go to websites for one thing: information.

When using search engines, we all enter in search terms for the information we want to find, whether it be movie titles, band names, or listings in a particular city.  These terms and nuggets of information will go a long way to attracting people to your site and keeping them there.

What information do your clients often ask for when speaking with you?  That content should be on your website.  What information do you ensure you give to new clients?  That content should be on your website.  What knowledge about your local area do you possess through experience?  That content should be on your website.

One of the best things you can do with your Point2 Agent website is adjust the default content you received when you first created it.  While it is great content to start out with, our content pales in comparison to the knowledge, experience, and expertise you have about your local market, its neighborhoods, its listings, and its people.

Want some assistance with ideas?  Check out the Education Sessions on editing and design strategies.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Each search engine possesses what they term “crawlers” or “spiders” whose job it is to navigate through websites and make note of the information they find.  Again, content is king – and those crawlers love the king.  They worship the king.  The more custom content you have on your site, the better.  While we don’t know the formulas those crawlers live by, we do know that they prefer fresh content that they cannot find elsewhere.  Providing your own information that is different from everyone else will help you stand out to those crawlers.

Crawlers look at things like page titles, meta information, and the domain name you purchased for your website.  Sound confusing?  Join the SEO Education Session for ways that you can get started on your SEO to drive traffic without having to pay a single dollar.

3. Linking

Ever taken a look at the list of ‘friends’ someone has on Facebook?  That feature makes visible groups of people and how they network amongst themselves.  You even receive suggestions as to people you may know through someone else, or a friend can suggest that you ‘friend’ someone.  It’s all about forming bonds with others.

Linking of websites works in the same way.  Website A provides a link to website B’s domain name, which tells the online visitors looking at A that they may also enjoy reading the information on B.  Now, if B is nice, it will also have a link telling its online visitors to check out A.  That linking and backlinking not only helps to drive traffic (sending people to another site and receiving traffic in return), but it also aids your SEO efforts .  Crawlers recognize the linking and networking that is occurring and pay particular attention to the number of people who are following those links.

As an interesting note, referral traffic from website linking accounts for over 40% of the traffic we receive on our own Education Team website.  I just created another link to our website…it’s that easy!

4. Blog

A great place to start linking between your website and others is a blog .  While a website provides consistent information, a blog can be more “this moment now” in providing information on market statistics, open houses, local attractions, etc.  It can also be a great way to quickly disseminate brief pieces of information that just don’t seem to fit in with your website (ie. roadwork construction, being out of the office for a few days, etc.).

This online web journal provides you the opportunity to not only talk more about real estate, listings, and market trends, but also about other topics that matter to you.  Have a particular hobby that you are passionate about?  Put it on your blog.  Have an opinion on that trendy new restaurant that opened last week?  Put it on your blog.

It may seem trivial and inconsequential, but remember that people go online for information.  Often the information is related to entertainment, which may account for the incredible popularity of YouTube.  Whether it is music videos, ’stupid pet tricks’, or some dude doing an AC/DC cover in his basement, it’s on YouTube.  Your blog can be business related, but it can also have an element of fun to it that showcases who you are outside of real estate.

Think of your blog as as your website’s mullet.  Business in the front, party in the back.  It’s all good.

5. Marketing

Of course, no matter how much great information you have on your website or blog, no matter how much you link to other sites, and no matter how good your SEO work is, you will not see the increase of traffic to your site if you don’t market it.

What does “market it” mean?

It means that wherever you advertise yourself, your listings, your business, your website address should be there too.  Business cards, email signatures, sign riders, bus benches, magnets, keychains, pens, listing brochures, listing presentations, mugs, shirts, hats…you get the idea.  From this point forward, wherever you would put your name, put your website address with it.  Your website is your twin.  It is the online version of yourself.

This may sound extreme, but it will make your website stand out from your competitor’s websites.  Chances are, those online visitors will form a relationship with that online version of you well before they actually meet or talk to you.  With over 80% of the real estate market going online first to look for potential houses, this trend won’t be changing anytime soon.  Learning more about online marketing strategies will be key in driving traffic to your website.

Online visitors are a lot like drivers on the road.  They know what their final destination should be, so take the streets and avenues that they feel will get them there.  The destination for online visitors is information.  They know what they want to learn or find, so look for websites that are going to provide them that information.  You can’t control where they go, but you can put up the road signs and help the search engines provide the maps to the information you provide on your site.  With any luck, those visitors will love what they see so much, they’ll stay.

So build it.  Customize it.  Blog about it.  Market it.  They will come.

Unfortunately, it looks like it is going to drop to average or below-average temperatures next week.  I’m not looking forward to winter one bit – and neither is my car!  Although, they “say” it’s supposed to be one of the warmest winters on record…my fingers are crossed!

But, like they say…”all good things must come to an end.”  With the departure of the warm weather, we also say goodbye to summer savings.  This month, we have offered some of our lowest prices ever.  Just look at these sweet deals:

Six full months of Point2 Agent Professional at 60% savings = $119.95
Six full months of Point2 Agent Premium at 50% savings = $359.95

Not to worry, it’s not over just quite yet.  You still have a few days left to take advantage of this huge discount – these special prices will be gone after September 30th.  You can upgrade right here and if you want to know exactly what you are getting, check out our features page.  This has undoubtedly been one of our biggest discounts yet, so don’t miss out!

As for summer…you will be missed!  Please try to come back sooner than you did this year!