As a real estate agent who wants to not only survive but thrive in today’s thorny real estate market, you may be asking yourself, how can I generate real estate leads in 2008?

“2008 could be a banner year for real estate agents who have built a relationship with their clients,” according to Simon Payne, president of Ready to Go Newsletters.But, how do you build relationships with clients these days? In his December 30, 2007, press release, Simon Payne recommends three relationship building activities:

Nurture their farm though regular communication. The best way to achieve this is by sending out a printed newsletter on a regular basis — at least monthly. Provide information that’s of service. Provide local market information.

While I agree with the majority of Simon Payne’s advice, I disagree with one statement he makes: “The best way to achieve this is by sending out a printed newsletter on a regular basis — at least monthly.”

I differ with Simon’s opinion because I do not think a newsletter is the best way to nurture your farm. Why not?

Newsletters are old school – most people no longer have the time to read something that long. They want short bites that are quick and easy to digest. Newsletters are expensive and time consuming to create and deliver – other forms of communication, particularly web based communications are faster, easier and less expensive.

In my opinion, the best way to communicate and build a relationship with your farm in the 2008 real estate market is through a blog.

I’m not the only real estate marketing expert who makes this recommendation. Here is a quote from one of the most recommended real estate web site developers:

Sandy Teller, president of Sizzling Studios, says:

“With a newsletter, even an e-newsletter, there’s one method of delivery: mail — whether snail mail or email. With a blog, there are three methods of delivery:

RSS feed – to be read with feed readers Email Subscription Browser – normal access just as with any web site

In addition, since blogs are interactive, visitors can add comments to posts — very Web 2.0. And they have a long shelf life because past issues are readily available by visiting the blog.”

With all that being said, I do believe there is still room for newsletters. It’s just not the best way to communicate.

When might newsletters work? When your target market (that’s your farm, past clients and your ideal real estate sales leads), is 55%2B. Many in that age range still prefer their reading in print and have more time to read a longer piece like a newsletter.

How do you determine the best way to build a relationship?

Identify your target market. Choose the form of communication based on your target market’s preferences.

When you ask yourself the question, how can I generate real estate leads in 2008, follow a piece of advice Simon Payne, president of Ready to Go Newsletters gave in his press release: “Now is the time for savvy real estate agents to invest in marketing. REALTORS® with the best relationships will prosper in 2008.”

Let me help you learn to blog to generate real estate sales leads:

By: Kathy Goughenour

Real Estate has always been when of the common ways to make money. Investing a persons money in a specific industry such as Real Estate has traditionally been one of the more long term save ways for an individual or family to build their own financial security for not only the present but the future.

Nothing has changed. In today’s world, investing in property is still a viable means to enhance a persons financial portfolio. As time moves on, people evolve and find new ways and ideas to buy and sell property or Real Estate. This opens up the topic of new and innovative ways to make money in the Real Estate industry. And, as time moves on, with today’s media of television and Internet, new ways to do this or new trends starts to appear.

During the last ten years, a popular way to buy and sell Real Estate and property is to buy a house, fix and existing problems, prep the property for resale cosmetically and then sell the house as fast as possible so not to have to pay to many mortgage payments during the time they originally bough the house and resold the house to reduce the amount of lost money between the buy and sell cycle.

Television shows have described how to do this and show examples of how to do the entire process and have even come up with some current new terms for the process of buying and selling Real Estate such Flip a house. Example of TV shows that do this are the shows Flip This House and Flip That House.

These Real Estate shows explain by example how the process can happen and give the home viewer a inside look of an average day of the process. These shows will actually show how to find a prospective property and ways to find a new property to consider for buying, fixing, repairing and selling a house for profit.

There are many books available for the process and other medias such as Television and the Internet for information of how to do this. As in any industry, learning and studying about a specific process and talking with others and basically learning as much as possible about how to do this is always a good idea.

Even though markets shift all the time for any given industry, buying and selling Real Estate is always a good industry to get involved with. So, it is always good advice to have guidance in what your doing. So, if your looking to get involved with the process of buying and selling Real Estate, you should ask others who have done it or hire a Real Estate coach or do study on the Internet, go to seminars, social groups, read as much as possible and in general, do as much as you can to learn from others who have done this before so you understand the pitfalls and mistakes a new person can make when trying a new idea to make money for themselves.

By: Richard David

Every heard someone auction, estate… Real deal it is certainly. Today more and more tools are at the disposal of sellers of real estate than ever before. One tool that has been rediscovered has been auctioning. Auctions have been around for ages now, but in recent times being used a primary mode of closing a real estate deal in a much quicker time.

It is one of the quickest ways to dispose off your house with little effort. However, there is still a lot of uncertainty about someone auction, Estate. Real deal is the property gets disposed off soon. Some of the questions that usually arise in an auction are how high is the auction fee? Will I get the price I want? There is also the question of what exactly is the value of a particular property. That would be easier if there were many houses being sold in a particular area, but if fewer houses were being sold, then determining the value of a property would become extremely difficult.

While these questions remain, Auction of real estate is a great way to dispose off property for someone who is in a great hurry. If someone is relocating or find their homes too expensive to maintain, auction is a fine way to sell their property. The Sales process in this case is significantly cut down in the case of auctions. The sales process in real estate is usually long and rather tedious.

Another advantage to sellers is the immediate settlement as most auctions demand a cash payment, eliminating a whole range of worries about financing options for the buyers. Also auctions usually get a better price than the market rate in most cases. However this might not be the truth in many cases. In many cases the buyers associate discount with Auctions i.e they would expect discounts on the actual value of real estate. This happens as Auction is still seen as a way of disposing goods at a cheaper rate. This alone can stop bidding at a rate much below the market rate.

But auction is still the best way even if the property market is down in the dumps. It can get you a great price and speedier disposal of your property. Both the buyer, as well as the seller benefits out of auctions.

Consider this, if you were to place a classified ad in the local daily, then you run the risk of getting a whole lot of calls from those who cannot be qualified as prospects. The same, with hiring a real estate agent. The Agent might get a lot of prospects, but how many will be a qualified buyer and how quick will the process happen is something that is to be pondered over.

Given all the above it is much better to auction, estate. Real value lies in speedy disposal of property and also that the cash would come in the same day. Nothing like this departure from the usual long and tedious process that is involved in the normal way of auction estate real.

By: Cassaundra Flores