Carolina On My Mind

I took a trip to the State Fair yesterday. The weather could not have been better and the crowds weren't as bad as expected. I won this big ol' moose by throwing a ring around the neck of a bottle, piece of cake. We went on plenty of rides and saw sights like the eight-legged spider woman, who weren't all that weird in comparison to some of the folks you'll see at the fair. The food was good as always, I even went as far as trying the fried Snickers which was a delectable treat.

The rest of the weekend seemed to fly by. Saturday I spent watching some ECU football and it's good to see they are back to their winning ways. That evening we went to a haunted house put on by the Raleigh Jaycees. It had it's moments and was worth the admission, even someone as big & tough as me flinched a few times. After that it was off to a surprise party for my friend Chris Raynor. We had a swell time and even ended the night with a limo ride thanks to Chris' girlfriend.

So one question a lot of agents have been getting asked recently is "what are you doing to keep yourself busy?" It's a valid question, as the number of buyers and sellers is down significantly. Other than keeping my current clients as happy as can be, I've been working a million different ways to improve my business. I'll give you a look into just a few of the things I've been working on.

New Look for my Business

So I'm finally making my way out of the standard issue products everyone uses here at my office. That ranges from our company issued business cards to photography I use for marketing. I'm working on branding myself a little more, taking the focus off "Fonville Morisey" and putting it on myself. I've recruited the help of John Paredes, a graphic designer and photographer in Chapel Hill. He has created a design that looks great and I'm really excited about. With that & my new photographs he took I'm looking forward to having a new image for my business.

Building Relationships

Knowing people in the community has to be the most important part of building a referral business. Lately I have been trying to get my tail to every networking event I can. I have been building my BNI group, which has grown beyond everyone's expectations so far. You'll find me at the local Chamber leads group and every Business After Hours event they host. I am attending all the Realtor workshops, serving on our boards' membership committee and planning young Realtor events. If there is someone out there I don't know, it will only be a matter of time.

Discovering New Products

New real estate products are coming in everyday, most of them web-related. Our IT department has been great in helping me target these new sites. I have been looking into all the sites that get the most consumer traffic, creating profiles and posting my listings there. This gives me and my homes the extra exposure I can use. For example I recently joined Zillow.com, which has some great tools for me as an agent. Millions of consumers are using this site to search for real estate, and even though I find their "zestimates" to be very flawed information, it helps to put these consumers and agents like me together. Now when I sit in for a listing appointment, are you going to list with Billy Bob who advertises in the paper or an agent that will spread your listing across all the major real estate sites?

So that's just a glance at some of the things I'm doing to improve business, I can't have you knowing everything I do. Plus I need to pack my things and head up to the UNC campus soon. James Taylor is playing a free concert this evening I'm pretty excited about. Live music has to be one of my favorite things, I can't imagine life without it. It surely wouldn't be as sweet.