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You Don’t Need to be a Facebook Expert: The #1 Way to Reap the Benefits
By Tiana Baur
The Facebook community has more people in it than the population of China. The sheer amount of people on the social network make it hard to ignore – even for our industry. When compared to other small businesses, 79% of real estate businesses have Facebook accounts. Which to be honest, is a pretty surprising number if you ask us.
And yet, most are making mistakes – so much so in fact, that there many articles being published about the common social media mistakes real estate agents make. Like focusing on the amount of likes they have or treating their page like some sort of brochure.
The reality is, agents no longer need to keep trying so hard. There are certain things you can’t know without having the proper experience, but no one should expect agents to become social media gurus overnight – especially since others are spending their entire careers doing so. The new best way to take full advantage of social media is to take a step back and let the pros do it for you. Period.
The #1 way to reap the benefits of Facebook is to use tools that do the heavy lifting for you. It might sound obvious, but so many agents try to be the social media maven for their own business and end up dropping the ball or making a plethora of common mistakes that are narrated out in the articles we mentioned above. There are companies that have entire teams dedicated to helping agents get the most out of social media channels, especially Facebook. It’s time to use them. Here are our favorite tools to use right now:
1. Flipt – Predicative Real Estate Ads
Flipt connects home sellers to top real estate professionals on the web and mobile by using housing and social data. They are predictive real estate display ads to empty nesters, people moving into retirement and homeowners going through life-changing events. Flipt lets you claim your zip codes and within a few minutes launches your locally targeted campaign with their easy-to-use ad builder. Within 24 hours your ads are online, where motivated sellers click and request your information from your free Flipt landing page.
2. Advertise Your Listing – Attention Grabbing Ads in Five Minutes or Less
Advertise Your Listing allows agents who just won a listing to create a Facebook ad for said listing with ease, built directly into the Moxi Engage CRM. The best part? Agents do not need a Facebook Page to run ads. Not only that, but it sends reports directly to their clients with the click of a button. Advertise Your Listing helps agents show clients that they are willing to go the extra mile for them, and keep up with the competition by improving their marketing strategy.
3. Offrs – Get Your Own Territory
Agents want… no they need leads. At Offrs, they identify over 70% of the homes that will sell in the coming year using predictive analytics. They conduct an in-depth analysis of the data that then predicts when people will sell. This data is then presented to the agent via their “Territory.” Each agent chooses a Territory which includes details on every property or property owner, including mailing address, email, phone number, and a predictive seller score that is updated each month based on thousands of data points.
There are more and more tools coming out every day, especially when it comes to social media and Facebook ads, but it’s important to pick one that you can depend on to get the job done. We’ve carefully vetted all of these tools and can guarantee they do exactly what they promise. Using tools like these are the very best way to get what you can out of the largest social media network in the world.
Agents Using Moxi Present Enjoyed 43% More Business in 2016
43?! No way. That number may come as a shock to some, but we can prove it.
Moxi Present is an industry-leading CMA and presentation tool with a very high adoption rate. It’s a tool that allows agents to easily create seller, buyer, and open house presentations. They are MLS-connected, updated to the minute and every property can be shown with the actual driving commute time to any location. This CMA tool also allows agents to include video and other rich media right into their presentation and enables agents to create listing flyers in a snap.
We were curious what results agents were seeing from using it, so we conducted an analysis. We used Windermere Real Estate agents in Western Washington as the sample for the case study. There are roughly 2,700 Windermere agents in the Western Washington region. We looked at their agent activity for the 2016 calendar and here’s what we found:
Seller-Side Transactions 
Seller agents who used Moxi Present averaged 6.4 sales in the 2016 year, while those that didn’t only averaged 4.17 sales, meaning that seller agents using Moxi Present had 53% more listing sales.
Buyer-Side Transactions
Buyer agents that used Moxi Present averaged 5.71 sales, while those who didn’t averaged 4.30 sales, helping those that took advantage of the tool average 34% more buyer-side transactions.
Total Transactions
When adding those numbers up, that’s 12.08 sides for agents who used Moxi Present and only 8.42 for those who did not. Windermere agents who used Moxi Present enjoyed 43% MORE business in 2016! We probably don’t need to point out the fact that this is a huge change to an agent’s bottom line.
York Baur, CEO of Moxi Works said, “This is the power of Moxi Present. The agents that embrace technology and the tools their brokerages are providing them, are the ones that are winning. The numbers don’t lie.”
One last fun fact: over half-a-million Moxi Present presentations have been created to date. That’s a LOT of presentations. Find out more at moxiworks.com and download the case study here to see exactly what we found!
Prefer to see than read? Catch this video below.
How to Compete with Big Signing Bonuses
By Maddie Jostol
The competition is heating up in real estate. Inventory is tight, agents are competitive, and brokerages are desperately trying to recruit. With a new generation of agents in the real estate world, the way in which successful brokerages approach recruiting has taken a significant turn.
Companies, such as Compass, have huge funding and they’re using it to recruit new agents. What happens to those aggressive brokers when the value prop was a signing bonus? Making agents more productive and making their lives easier with an integrated platform in the answer. Compass is offering agents with higher commission for their first year, serious signing bonuses, and offering managers significant salary bumps. Many concerns have been raised regarding their cash burn rate and the sustainability of this model long-term. Whether or not it’s a sustainable business practice, how are other brokerages supposed to compete with these massive cash offers?
Conversations around signing bonuses, commission splits, training, and culture are getting noisy and difficult to navigate, which means creating a recruitment strategy is that much more challenging. So, what do agents really want?
Put yourself in the agent’s shoes for a minute: What makes your brokerage unique? What is the brokerage doing to prepare for a prosperous future? What tools does your brokerage provide that will ensure you’re successful?
Offering a suite of technology tools is a great way to compete with these rising signing bonuses, while simultaneously benefitting your brokerage. When you offer agents the opportunity to be more successful through intuitive, easy-to-use productivity tools, thus having greater agent productivity, everyone benefits.
Millennials are now making their mark on the real estate industry. As a generation of experienced agents retires, it’s vital for brokerages to continue recruiting, developing, and retaining new agents. It’s no secret that millennial professionals care about more than just cash. While money can be motivating, your brokerage should be making offers competitive in other ways, such as technology. Offering agents an ecosystem of technology tools that encourage productivity and success is exceedingly powerful.
The Moxi Cloud open platform is an example of brokerage technology that attracts and retains agents. Why? Because it makes agents’ lives easier and brokerages more profitable, through agent productivity. The open platform is where all of your brokerage tools and services integrate and share data, creating a flexible technology ecosystem powering your business.
Now think about the future of your brokerage. What changes will you be experiencing in the next 10 years as the industry continues to evolve? Agents want to work with a brokerage that is prepared for change, arming their team with flexible tools and services to remain successful.
Whether you’re targeting new or experienced agents, they’ll want to work with a brokerage where they can find the most success. While you may not offer a massive signing bonus, you can still be competitive in a way that benefits both sides. Technology helps us get through our everyday lives, keeping us organized, on time, and efficient. Making their lives easier will make them more productive, making your brokerage more profitable. What technology does your brokerage provide that will attract the best agents?
100 Ways to Use Moxi Insights
By Tiana Baur
Moxi Insights is a prospect tool sitting in your CRM that instantly supplies you with helpful information and prompts agents when to take action. With the help of this aggregated data, it’s easy to know when people are getting ready to sell and how to best conquer your precious sphere.
We’ve even made a list of 100 ways to use public data to better market to your sphere! Here’s a sneak peek at the first 20:
1. Send investment opportunities to investors.
2. Invite all your sports fans to a night out at the ballpark. Buy ’em a ticket, a beer and a hotdog.
3. Send all the highly-likely-to-sell people your “How to list your home” guide. Moxi Insights lets you know when someone is highly-likely-to-sell.
4. Send about to be empty nesters your “Downsizing tips from the pros” guide. Moxi Insights informs you when people are probably thinking of downsizing.
5. Send invitations to the local gallery walk night to all the art fans. Do a meetup with them. Offer to buy them a glass of vino.
6. Got a boat and a bunch of boating fans? Invite them to a meet up on the lake. Have everyone tie up together and do a barbeque on your boat.
7. Quickly and easily learn more info about the internet leads you receive.
8. Learn the interests of your client or almost-client to buy them the perfect “thank you”, “happy birthday”, or closing gift.
9. Got a bunch of literature fans? Invite ’em to a local bookstore with a cafe and offer to buy ’em coffee and a scone.
10. If anyone has a Moxi Insights badge, send an unsolicited CMA, a handwritten note, text or Facebook message them for a coffee date just to chat and catch up. Spend extra time with them – not necessarily talking about anything on the Insights report, but reconnecting with them at the perfect time.
11. Save some money by taking them to a minor-league game (which are typically very fun and engaging BTW).
12. Invite them to join your team for charitable runs, walks, etc.
13. Do they have children? Get them tickets to the state fair
14. A weekend of free dog boarding at a reputable place
15. Invite car lovers to a car show/new car unveiling
16. If they’re into a healthly lifestyle, get them a free month at the local gym
17. Host an outdoor movie night for those film lovers
18. Those that enjoy international travel, get them a customized passport holder with their name on it and your logo
19. Impress your seller by incorporating information from Moxi Insights to impress your seller on how you’re going to market their home to your sphere
20. Better relate to ALL of your clients with new found information you wouldn’t necessarily know otherwise
Download the full eBook here & find out 100 ways to segment, market, and master your sphere!
The Hub is Your Communications Center
A brokerage intranet is the glue that keeps everything together and the filing cabinet that keeps it all sorted. They increase efficiency, boost productivity, reduce information overload, enable true mobility, and drive engagement.
Moxi Works Hub is the ultimate brokerage intranet. With over 1.5 million agent sessions, brokerages use it as a center for announcements, multi-media, documents; the one stop shop for all of their communications.
Search
Quickly find the agents, staff, documents, and client presentations with one search box. That’s right, through keywords, Hub is able to pull up all the relevant information from the agent’s search. No more time wasted searching for something you could find in ten seconds. Sounds like a productivity booster!
Documents library
Every document within your brokerage is organized within the hub and is searchable in one central location. Set permissions for each document, ensuring the right people see the right information and documents. This helps when you want your managers and higher-ups to have different information than your agents.
Host multi-media
Sure, it’s nice to have a place to store all of your documents, but what about your multi-media? Your videos, photos, and other brokerage collateral you’ve spent precious time on. The Hub is your communications center for it all. Have a new TV commercial coming out or an online ad campaign running? Give your agents a sneak peek inside the Hub!
Agent roster
Find contact information for every agent and staff member within your brokerage. The roster allows collaboration among agents and staff. It even makes referrals within a brokerage very simple.
Tools & services
All the tools and services your brokerage provides are found in one place. Everything from marketing to transaction management to your MLS. This is the power of the Moxi Cloud, integrating everything a brokerage needs in one place, with Single-Sign On (SSO). Provide links to tools and services that agents use every day, so they have to click around less.
Announcements
Post announcements you’d like all your agents to see or remind them of ones they’ve received in email form. Notify when upcoming events are around the corner or when their taxes are due. Your brokerage value proposition can get a lot more attractive when an agent only needs to log into one place to see it all.
Want to learn more about Moxi Works Hub? Click here and watch the video below.
Intuit Partners with MoxiWorks to Enable Agent Tax Savings
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE Moxi Works is a brokerage application development company that was founded by Seattle’s leading brokerage company, Windermere Real Estate. The software was originally developed for Windermere’s brokerage company until the company expanded the offering to include brokerages around the nation. Today, Moxi Works is a separate company that serves a brokerage base that is representative of more than 90,000 agent users. Some of their leading brokerage partners include Windermere, Long and Foster, Howard Hanna, Pacific Union, Seven Gables and many others.
Enhance Your Database to Enhance Your Engagement
Win more client listings.
Now that I have your attention, here is a simple fact: you already have everything you need to win more client listings – immediately. How you are using it, however, is the question.
The key to winning more listings lies in your current database of contacts. Seriously. Here is how to do it.
1.) Get Contacts in the CRM
Yes, you hate it, I get it. However, unless you do this you will never be able to make the magic happen (more on this later.) Collect all your notepads, napkins, people on your phone, and your pirate treasure map, and get them into your CRM.
Key contact info that matters most:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Email Address or Phone
- Address (if available)
Don’t want to do this yourself? Hire a hungry college student from the local community college then – just get them into the system (mandatory to make the magic happen.)
2.) Categorize Your Contacts
Break up your contacts into three groups over, say, over the course of a 10-year period:
- “New” Known for 0 – 3 years
- “Establish” Known for 4 – 6 years
- “Need to Verify” Known for 7+ years
Now that you have people in these buckets, chances are they likely have some things in common with one another. Some are ready to upgrade to a bigger home, downgrade their home, etc. These are good things.
Now, here comes the magic.
3.) Hit the Button: The Moxi Insights Button
Yes, there is a catch, but a worthy one. To see the magic, you need the wand – enter Moxi Insights.
Moxi Insights helps you to win more client listings by showing you 30+ indicators that can signal a person’s likeliness to list.
I can see the eye roll now (I am secretly watching you) and the exasperated reaction… I know, it is like I am Billy Mays trying to tell you about the ShamWow. However, here’s the difference: Moxi Insights really does works.
Some of the potential listing indicators we include for determining client readiness:
- Family demographics like number of children and their ages
- Educational history
- Personal interest categories such as vehicles, charitable work, sports, fashion
- Financial health and stability
Clients Want Trust in an Agent
Fact: 70% of consumers want to work with and do repeat business with the first agent they meet future. If you can connect on a personal level with those clients and others like them, the probability of you winning their listing(s) increase exponentially. Knowing what matters to clients, who they are, and relatability is key to earning their trust.
Become a More Effective Marketer and Grow Client Relations
Moxi Insights can be leveraged in a variety of ways for you to show marketing savvy and grow relationships with clients. Here are five examples of how to become a more effective real estate marketer and grow cleitn relations that you can try using in your own market.
1.) The Birthday
If you have a Moxi Insights subscription, you have instant access to a contact’s birth date. Send them a birthday greeting, say, a $25 gift card for Loop & Tie to have them pick from a range of client-gifting options to remember their special day. Simple acts like this are both personalized and memorable. Well played, you.
2.) The Investor
With Moxi Insights, one of the things you can get client exposure into is financial stability. Insights can help you to identify contacts (or five) that have some promising indicators of pursuing rental or investment properties. Send these folks relevant information about properties in their area that appear to be in line with their financial portfolios. Keeping top-of-mind is crucial and shows sincerity.
3.) The Tailgate
Football season is right around the corner! Use Moxi Insights to find all the sports fans in your database and throw a Week 1 tailgate or BBQ to usher in the return of the football season. Not only does this give you a chance to connect with people you already know, but it also gives you a chance to meet friends of your clients (aka new leads). Make it an open invite and network with new folks during the festivities.
4.) Time to Upgrade
Maybe you sold Bob (we will call him Bob) and his wife their first starter home several years ago. A cute couple like that, chances are good their family has grown, and they might be in the market to upgrade. Moxi Insights incorporates countless ways to show that Bob is ready for that new house:
- Number of children in the house hold
- Estimate ranges
- A new baby on the way
Public records data and in-product badges help you to easily see that, yes, Bob is indeed ready to upgrade to a new home. Now you can cater your listing presentation for relevant homes ahead of engaging with Bob. Now, not only do you show personal interest, but you also look sophisticated and in-tune with their needs.
5.) The Downgrade
Now, let’s take a look at Debby. You sold Debby a home 10+ years ago. At the time, Debby had two teenagers heading off to college. Moxi Insights can show you where those kids are now. With the kids out of the nest, Debby and her husband are ready for the next chapter: retirement and a downgrade. Another opportunity to get ahead of the competition and flex your client prowess.
Are you ready to start winning more listings and beat out the competition? Click here to learn more about Moxi Insights.
MoxiWorks Adds Intuit’s QuickBooks Self-Employed to Cloud Open Platform
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE Moxi Works has added Intuit’s QuickBooks® Self-Employed, a partner in the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) REALTOR Benefits® Program, to its Moxi Cloud open platform, the company recently announced.
What the Top Real Estate Brokerages Know That You Don’t
Here’s the deal: 65% of the Real Trends top brokerages know one big idea and they’re acting on it. Which means, if you’re not in that 65% – chances are you’re doing something wrong or you’re going to quickly fall behind. With brokerage dollars shrinking and agent adoption of technology tools at all-time lows, what are the most productive brokerages in the industry doing better than everyone else?
The one big idea
The top brokerages are consolidating technology tools and focusing on increasing agent productivity, while getting industry leading CMA and CRM tools. And, they’re doing it by having visibility into their business at the brokerage level.
How?
These top brokerages are using the only true open platform in the industry. Not sure what that means quite yet? You’ll find out below. The point is, those not future-proofing their brokerages with open platforms are not going to exist on the top Real Trends list for many more years.
Take advantage
Picture this. Your brokerage: Being differentiated from competitors. Increasing technology adoption. Improving recruiting and retention. And a major productivity rise. All this, just by employing a system that provides best-in-class tools and services you already know and love, and swapping out tools that are no longer performing. Plus, agent adoption rates well over 80% and up to a 43% increase with seller-side and buyer-side transactions.
This is what an open platform can give you. All your data in one place. Your agent roster, property data from your MLS, brokerage assets, brokerage data, consumer data, agent CRM contacts, and an API that allows any tools you want to plug in and play nicely with all the rest of your tools and everything we just mentioned. This is what our Moxi Cloud open platform looks like for reference:
Why now?
Technology is becoming more segmented for agents and evolving at warped speed. That and brokerage dollars are shrinking, the talent pool for recruiting is getting tighter, and creating business efficiencies are more critical now than ever. If there’s a time to get your brokerage ducks in a row, it’s now. Because eventually, it’ll be too late. If you embrace it now, the future of your brokerage will be much, much smoother.
Find out more about Moxi Works and open platforms here. Don’t feel like exploring? Watch the video below.
No Data Exchange? No More Brokerage.
By Tiana Baur
Data is the currency you will need in order to exist in the very, very near future. The real estate industry won’t be able to stick their heads in the sand on this one, especially since the majority of industries are already embracing data with open arms. Brokerage data is quickly becoming the soul of the brokerage business that keeps its heart beating and its legs moving.
Why this is happening
The thing many don’t realize, is that data isn’t just a list of numbers. Data is what integration is literally made of. Data = integration. Ever wonder how you could log in to your brokerage’s intranet and have everything you need right there? The answer: Data.
Everything is moving to the cloud. Data gets stored and managed in the cloud. Much of it gets stored and managed by Amazon Web Services. Their data saw revenues soar to over $12.2B in 2016. Salesforce, another data management platform, generated $6.67B in fiscal 2016 revenue. Last quarter, Microsoft’s commercial cloud business exceeded a $10B annual run rate. The company is still projecting this number to hit $20B by 2018.
Data is taking over the world and brokerages have no choice but to hop on the bandwagon. The future of the brokerage depends on how they manage their data.
The ecosystem
Data is useless if it doesn’t work flawlessly together and isn’t stored in a shared environment. Picture your brokerage data like an ecosystem. Remember those miniature ecosystems built in a plastic bottle that every generation has to make in their elementary science class?
An ecosystem is a collection of complimentary applications all working together, sharing data, that make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Any computer you’ve ever used in the modern age has its own ecosystem. Whether it’s that Epson printer you’re using or the many applications you go through in a day like Skype, QuickBooks, or Adobe, everything works together as soon as you install it. If you don’t like an application, you delete it and get another one. It’s as simple as that.
Our open platform is where your brokerage apps get their data. The three core data sources of a brokerage data exchange are:
- Property data
- Brokerage and agent data
- Consumer data
How to cope
Whether you’re climbing 29,035 feet up Mt. Everest, the tallest point on earth, or looking to grow your brokerage – preparation is key. A solid data exchange plan isn’t something that can happen for a brokerage overnight, unless they choose to get advice and help from the experts.
For instance, many might say that a brokerage platform only needs to have those three data points working seamlessly together. But that’s just not true. When it comes to a truly open platform, they should also have integration with the cloud environment with Microsoft and Google and an open API allowing other technologies to integrate. API is what allows the integration to happen.
Moral of the story: educate yourself, so you can future-proof your brokerage today for what’s to come.
Looking to the future
This isn’t meant to scare brokerages, it’s meant to warn them. While many things in the future are uncertain and we can’t know for sure exactly what will happen and when, we do know that data will be the star of that show. Whether it’s Amazon, Netflix, or the brokerage down the street, businesses will survive and thrive with the data they have and the way they each choose to use it. The conqueror of data will be the conqueror of business and vice versa.
Our entire existence at Moxi Works is built on the goal to make brokerages more profitable by making their agents more productive. Agent recruiting and retention will always exist and while it does, we’ll exist to make it easier for the brokerage to do just that. If this all sounds super overwhelming and you have a slight headache, it’s probably time to pick up the phone and call someone that can advise you and simplify this major step to provide your brokerage with a solid future. Hint: Moxi Works is chalk full of advisors.
