We have posted another audio recording about A2STalk.com our exclusive blogging platform for franchisees.    

 "I set up my A2STalk.com account/blog, now what?"    

Dave Crumby, Erin Campbell, and Ryan Elliott discuss taking the next steps in setting up your blog. Topics include, what to write about, what not to write about, places to get good ideas for posts, and much more.  You can also get more information on my blog at  The recording is posted on the franchisee resource center under the "A2S Talk Blog Series"  section about halfway down the homepage on the resource center. The link is called "A2S Talk.com next steps audio."  The audio is in MP3 format and can be downloaded by right clicking on the the link and selecting "save  target as," and chose a location to save the file on your computer.   

 As always, if you need any assistance let me know.

Happy Blogging!  

Ok many have asked me what blogs I follow. So here is a list of my top real estate and business blogs in no particular order.

Future of Real Estate Marketing. http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/

This blog is about technology and its application to the real estate industry. The writer, Joel Burslem, is great and the blog is a great read.

1000 Watt Consulting Blog http://www.1000wattblog.com/

This blog is about web 2.0 and marketing. The focus is on the real estate industry.

Real Estate Tomato Blog. http://www.retomato.typepad.com/

Great blog about a number of topic but mostly about blogging for real estate.

Up 2 Date Real Estate http://www.up2daterealestate.com/

This is written by one of our franchisee Doug Willis in Pasadena, CA. He has done a great job with this blog. This is good example of how to blog effectively.

Blog for Author Seth Godin http://www.sethgodin.typepad.com/

Seth Godin is a great writer with many best selling books on business, marketing and customer service. The blog is great and thought provoking

4 Hour Work Week Blog. www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog

This is the blog for the best selling book The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. This blog always has great ideas on time savings and cost cutting as well as great studies.

In addition to the above I follow a news feed/ blog for our local news paper in Reno.

Final thoughts on the street corner agent. 

The last part of my conversation with Paul was about some interesting ideas he had for making contact with potential customers. For example, he buys lottery tickets every week and staples them to his business cards. He passes out the cards to people he runs into at the grocery store, bank, gas station, and yard sales, etc. He tells people "this card could be worth 25 million." If someone wins, all they have to do is buy a house from him.  As he puts it, "I figure the card has at least a week of shelf life because people need to hang on to it to see if they win!" He says it is a great conversation starter.

Speaking of yard sales,  Paul says he tries to visit yard sales whenever he has a chance.  He plasters his car with signs and graphics and even has a trailer with graphics.  He goes not only to find good deals, but to make contact with people looking to buy or sale a property.  He says many people have yard sales when they are getting ready to move. He also tries to go to as many estate sales as he can.  Great deals and many of the properties need to be sold.

Assist-2-Sell gives you a great edge when it comes to marketing. You have a great conversation piece built in with your system. "I will sell your home and save you thousands." Try the above ideas and incorporate the Assist-2-Sell advantage, I bet you have great success.

Making human contact is the key to success with both prospecting for new business and taking care of the business you have!

You have to check out http://www.docstoc.com/  What is DocStoc.com, I took this from their web site.

"docstoc is a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. Find free legal documents and free business documents."

There are PowerPoint presentations, legal documents, flyer templates, how to write a mission statement, employment applications, business plans, educational documents, and just about anything else you can think of.

The site also has a number of very good ebooks on a variety of topics.

Before you make anything from scratch, check out DocStoc.com it will save you time and money!

So I decided to take action and find out what the video below was all about and see if this guy got any business out of it.

I called him and got voice mail, his name is Paul and he works in Jacksonville.  I Figured I might not get a call back.  To my surprise he called me back with 3-4 minutes. Nice!  Ok, so I had to ask him if this was a set up. He said yes it was. He told some friends and coworkers he was going to do this and they set up the video.  He decided to post the video on youtube and it got picked up on the local evening news, the newspaper, and web sites.

He picked out a place he knew panhandlers normally would be and went out there. Apparently the panhandlers weren't happy, he was on their turf! He wound up paying them to let him use their corner.  

So the next question is why? Paul tells me the market in his area is slow as it is in many areas and he felt he had to do something different. He was tired of the same ol' marketing that did nothing for him. He wanted to get out there and make contact with potential customers. As he put it "get face to face."  This was one way to do it.

I asked what the reaction has been; he said it has been across the board. Some think he is nuts and is giving real estate a bad name. Others thought it was a great idea. He says everywhere he goes people know him as the street corner realtor, or the sign guy.  He doesn't care it got his name out there.

So did he get any business from the exercise?  He said he has made a number of contacts which turned into business. So in an indirectly he may have. As he says "most people I make contact with are not ready to buy or sell right now but they will be at some point. I want them to remember me." So who knows what kind of business he is going to get but as Paul puts it, "it is already paying off."

I have to hand it to Paul for taking a risk and trying something different. Like it or hate it, it worked for him. He shared a number of his other ideas which I will share later.

Below is a video of an agent on a street corner in Jacksonville, Fl.  Most people's first reaction is to make fun of the guy.  I have to hand it to him, he is taking action and trying to make contact with potential home buyers and sellers.  Am I recommending you do this, no.  If you are at least get a better sign!

I think he could take his energies and focus on a neighborhood that he works, talk to fsbos and expired listings, do some open houses and talk to buyers, etc. Go talk to local banks and get a relationship going with loss mitigation dept and try to pick up some REO, etc..

The bottom line is he is taking action and trying to get out there and do some business. He could bury his head in the sand and hope things get better or he could take action.

I would be interested to see if he got any business from doing this. You know what I am going to call and find out! I will let you know what I find out.

I found the quote below that's timley in todays market.  

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions
as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."

                                                                       Denis Waitley

It seems everyone one in the real estate business is busy trying to figure out who to blame for the changing markets. I could go on and on about the banks reckless lending practices, greedy investors, home owners making poor choices, government turning a blind eye, etc. 

 At this point what good does pointing the finger do?  While it may make you feel better to blame someone, it does nothing to change the current situation.  

 The time is now for all of us to accept responsabilty to change the conditions. The Real Estate business is about people always has been and always will be. People need help, direction, advice, and an expert to take control. We can change this market one short sale, foreclosure, REO, buyer, and seller at a time.  What we don't need is more people telling us who to blame. 

What can you do today to change the current condition for the better?